Plant a Seed (3)

A faint clicking sound echoed through SOL's inner chamber. Azihiro turned his head sharply, startled by the sudden mechanical whir. A panel unlatched and slid open from the wall opposite his sleeping pod, revealing a newly unlocked compartment.

The air hissed, and a faint golden light spilled from the chamber beyond. He stood, cautious but intrigued, and stepped inside.

[Welcome to the Greenhouse.]

A new interface hovered in the air above the chamber floor. SOL's voice resonated calmly, but the words it displayed made his chest tighten.

[Planting Area: 100 square meters.]

[Status: Locked – Soil Required.]

Azihiro looked around. The chamber was empty, just a floor of gray alloy divided neatly into sections with embedded grid lines. No soil. No moisture. Nothing but cold, unwelcoming space.

Another message appeared.

[To unlock planting rights, fertile soil must be filled and rugged by the user.]

I have the soil… he thought. But rugged? What does that mean?

Another line appeared.

[Soil Ban Active. To lift the planting restriction, required activation minerals must be integrated.]

Minerals… from where? He scrolled through the data, and finally, the answer emerged.

[Required Material: Nutrient Ore, consumed and refined by Mimo beasts.]

Azihiro froze. Mimos.

He remembered the bodies, cold, curled in a heap of snow. And the scan SOL had displayed that day.

[Abilities: Dig and Mine Ores. Diet: Special energy-containing Ores.]

That must have been the reason the Mimos were important. Their bodies held traces of those rare minerals, the exact compounds needed to activate the soil and unlock the ban in the greenhouse. But he had only stumbled across their corpses. To find more, he needed a living colony.

Another map node popped up.

[Known Mimo Habitat: Crater 012-V.]

His breath caught. A volcano. But I must be luckier this time since SOL released a map.

The hologram of the location was displayed in great detail. Massive. Layered in scarlet and black, glowing from within. Smoke plumed from the center like an angry wound in the land. What a dangerous place...

[Crater Status: Highly Active. High Seismic and Thermal Activity Detected.]

Azihiro's fingers trembled slightly as he touched the map. The crater was a long journey south, across an unstable stretch of Rifientin's surface. It was a death trap by any calculation, but he had no choice.

If I want to grow anything… I have to go there.

He spent the next day preparing. SOL offered him a reinforced suit, its internal system regulated body temperature and reduced stamina drain, but it couldn't protect him from lava or rockslides. He packed a nutrient potion, water, and a sample container designed to hold Mimo ore.

At dawn, he left the safety of the SOL house and stepped into the cold gray light. The landscape changed the farther he traveled. Snow turned to dust. The air became heavier. Heat radiated from the ground in odd waves.

His breath came quicker, even through the suit's filtration system. After hours of navigating through cracked plains and narrow ridges, he reached the edge of Crater 012-V. The world beyond the ridge looked like it had been set on fire and frozen in time.

Molten veins burned deep inside the land, illuminating the jagged crater floor. Massive boulders of obsidian lay scattered like broken teeth. Red mist hovered like breath over the mouth of the volcano, thick with heat and mineral dust.

He activated his boots' stability mode and began to descend. Every step was a battle. The ground shifted under his weight, and waves of heat buffeted him like invisible fists. There were no stable paths, just crumbling ledges and brittle ridges scorched black by past eruptions.

But worse than the heat was the silence. There were no birds, no wind, not even the sound of boiling lava. Just the occasional groan of rock and a deep, pulsing vibration that seemed to come from the planet's core itself. Halfway down the slope, he saw the first signs.

Tracks.

Wide, clawed impressions in the scorched stone, deep enough to collect dust. Azihiro knelt beside one and examined it. Still fresh. There were more, leading deeper into the crater, weaving between vents and ash piles. He followed them. Eventually, tucked beneath an overhanging ledge near the molten pit, he found them, Mimos.

Dozens of them, huddled around a glowing fissure in the crater wall. They were larger than he remembered. Scales dark and glimmering with embedded crystal. Their claws scraped at the rock, pulling out chunks of luminous ore and devouring them like sugar stones.

Incredible… he thought, mesmerized. He needed the ore, but he couldn't just barge in. Mimos were territorial. If he startled them, he'd be torn apart before he could blink. He needed one ore chunk, just one, digested and expelled. Not from a living Mimo, but from a nesting site.

He waited. Patiently. Hidden behind a large shard of obsidian.

An hour passed.

Then, at last, one of the smaller Mimos scurried away from the group and climbed into a narrow crevice. It dug quickly, its claws striking sparks, and when it emerged, Azihiro saw it leave something behind. A pale, glowing mass. The ore.

He moved fast, silent. He retrieved it and stowed it in the container. The mineral sizzled slightly against the containment walls, but it held. Then he ran. Not because the Mimos noticed. He was careful, but because the volcano didn't like guests. The ground trembled.

A warning...

By the time he reached the upper ridge again, the crater shook with a low rumble. Smoke rose in thick plumes. Azihiro didn't look back. He kept moving until he was clear of the danger zone.

Hours later, exhausted, aching, and nearly fainting from heat exposure, he returned to SOL. He placed the ore in the analyzer.

[Compound Identified. Activation Protocol Initiated.]

The soil ban was lifted. The greenhouse room buzzed to life. He hauled the soil he'd collected by hand. It was a brutal process. The nutrient-rich soil was heavier than expected, and SOL provided no automation.

[The soil must be placed by the user to bind the energy signature.]

His back screamed from the strain. Every movement felt like lifting a stone. But he kept going bucket by bucket, pile by pile, until the entire 100-square-meter chamber was filled. Then came the rugged process.

He had to kneel, dig shallow furrows, break apart clumps, and spread the mineral compound evenly. His hands, even through gloves, grew raw. His knees were bruised from crawling. He had to stop often, gasping for air, staring at the blinking messages urging him forward.

[80% complete.]

[91% complete.]

[97% complete.]

And finally...

[Greenhouse Soil Status: Activated.]

The floor glowed faintly. A warm hum filled the chamber. Azihiro collapsed beside a freshly tilled plot. His muscles trembled. His lips were dry. But he smiled.

He had done it.

I will live well!