10.A Thirst Named Moon

Shunken Canopy,

The sun was merciless.

Its blazing heat poured down over the dense jungle known as the Shunken Canopy, the very forest that wrapped itself around Human Base #12072008 like a green, suffocating belt. Kai had already made two full circles around the forest, eyes scanning desperately for his brother.

[You can check map of the area WHERE Moon and Kai are-https://i.ibb.co/pvfLL1tv/IMG-20250628-154453-179.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/pvfLL1tv/IMG-20250628-154453-179.jpg]

But Moon was nowhere to be found.

Kai, just like Moon earlier, wore a leaf-made cloth around his waist. His body ached with exhaustion, muscles tight and sore. He was panting now, mouth dry, throat burning from thirst.

He paused, sitting under the shade of a tall tree. The air offered no comfort, only the scent of leaves and sweat. His skin shimmered from the heat, his chest rising and falling rapidly.

He had considered it—drinking the blood of an essence creature.

He had no water. No streams. No lakes.

> "What if I kill a weak beast and drink its blood?"

But logic kicked in fast.

> "Blood is salty... It'll only make dehydration worse."

He clicked his tongue and rested his head back against the bark.

His body throbbed with fatigue.

His mind? Only one word echoed: "Moon."

He didn't want to think about how he got here, or who brought him. But he was sure of one thing – this wasn't Ruok's doing.

Ruok was a strong fighter, sure, but he wasn't powerful enough to create an entire twisted dimension like that. No one from a planetary level should've had that kind of strength and power .

> "There's no way out of this dimension yet," he thought bitterly. "To even open a portal back, we need at least 10 rookie essence points each. And we only have around 5 rookie essence points⁹ as much as i remeber ."

To make matters more frustrating, Kai had noticed something else.

Whenever he tried to open his system screen—to check his stats, to understand the strange new strength he was feeling—all he got was the same message:

[ System Updating... Please Wait ]

> "What kind of update takes this long? And why now?"

He felt stronger. No doubt about that. But as far as he knew, essence stats could only grow by absorbing essence points, and you could only get those by killing creatures.

But they had been either dead or unconscious for an entire month. So how?

He shook his head, pushing the thought aside. "I'll figure it out later."

For now, he needed rest.

He climbed a nearby tree and nestled himself between thick branches, where he'd be hidden from predators and still get some air. It wasn't comfortable, but it was safer than the forest floor.

---

Evening

The sun was beginning to set. Kai woke up with a dry cough, his lips even more cracked now. His tongue felt like sandpaper.

"Damn it... I need water. Now."

His mind raced through survival tactics. Then he remembered something: a jungle trick.

He quickly began searching the forest floor and found two flat stones, roughly the same size. He then looked for a fallen tree trunk to place between them.

Eventually, he spotted a thick, mossy trunk and walked over, wrapping his arms around it. He dug his feet into the ground and heaved with all his strength.

His muscles burned, tendons stretched.

> "C'mon... move!"

His face turned a lighter shade of crimson

He gritted his teeth and roared as he pulled again.

The power he used... if measured, it could've crushed the cryo rhino beast to powder which Almost took Moon and Kai's life at that moment .

With one last yank, the tree finally gave way and crashed to the ground.

"Tch... Finally."

He placed the tree trunk between the two stones and started punching the stone with full might .

It took time, effort, and patience. But finally, drop by drop, water began to seep out from the trunk.

He had already made leaf-bowls beneath the setup, and slowly, the water began to collect.

> "It worked..."

His knuckles were bruised, red from the pounding. But he didn't bleed.

He looked at the half-filled leaf bowl.

The water was muddy brown, bitter in smell. But he didn't care.

> "Beggar can't be a chooser," he muttered, then gulped it down in one go.

Although a clever person would first like to boil it but Kai can't wait ,he doesn't have any patience left for that shit.

It was slightly bitter, but to him, it tasted better than the best wine.

He wiped his mouth, leaned back, and let out a relieved sigh.

But the night wasn't going to be forgiving.

The forest was getting colder.

Kai gathered dry leaves and twigs, built a small pit, and began rubbing stones to create a spark.

It took him several frustrating attempts.

> "Damn, why is this so hard, i never knew using stone for creating fire is this frustrating ?!"

After a continuous attempt

Finally, a tiny flame appeared. He carefully fed it until the fire grew strong.

To signal Moon, if he was anywhere nearby, he made sure the smoke rose high.

He sat by the fire, warming himself. On a stick above the flame, he placed two small, bizarre frog-like creatures he'd killed earlier.

He watched as their pale skin slowly darkened, crackled.

While the meat cooked, he tried once again to open his system.

[ System Updating... Please Wait ]

> "Still updating? How long is this going to take...? I've never even heard of systems needing updates..."

He sighed in irritation.

Finally, he reached for the frog meat—but just before he could grab it, he froze.

A footstep.

Soft. Deliberate.

He immediately perked up.

> "Moon?"

He turned around, hopeful.

But as they say...

> Reality is often disappointing.

This wasn't Moon , it's some random squad

A squad of 5 people .

---

To be continued...