Book 1: Chapter 47

Equeter Pioneer Broadcast Central Arnold, the host of the main Pioneer broadcast from the planet of Equeter, grins as he watches the screen and exclaims, “Now that’s how you fight smart!” Everything that’s happened ever since Equeter’s latest World Selection to choose this set of Pioneers has been an incredible boon to the planet of Equeter. And the vast majority of that is all because of this one Pioneer who was chosen. The Bloodliner, Aqua Fallen. “Aqua is a wonderful representative of our beloved planet!” Arnold declares while crossing his arms. “We couldn’t have asked for a better selection result this time around!” Arnold continues to pile on the praise while making sure to mention that she’s from Equeter every single time he does. Even as she begins to head back towards the bug’s domain again now that their queen is dead. She’s like the light of Equeter. Our best chance to rise from the bottom ranks of being a Class V world. The host of the show can’t help but smile at that thought before briefly changing the screen as she moves to show a different Pioneer. Another one from Equeter that is doing decently well at the very least. “Have you all heard? Apparently Equeter’s two most well-known Pioneers will be doing a collab song together soon!” Arnold declares while spreading both his arms out to his sides as the screen shows Jack while he leaves the house he’s made for a bit to go collect more monster parts. The man having been using them to help reinforce his house for a good time now. “And it will be a music video! Make sure to check it out on Alcast and other streaming services when it releases! You won’t want to miss it!” Aqua “He’s doing what?” I ask while tilting my head, clearly showing my confusion. [He’s working hard to advertise your broadcast and jobs.] [Yep! That’s all he’s been talking about today! Just going from one Pioneer to another and mentioning anything he can related to you!] [It’s getting slightly repetitive, but since it’s about you I’m fine with it.] [Anything related to our adorable Aqua is great!] I’m not adorable. Anyways, I shrug and say, “No idea why he’s doing that. My best guess is because it helps Equeter if I do well, so he’s pushing for my success since it’ll push for Equeter’s success.” Either that or Rhett hired him behind the scenes. But I doubt that. Rhett wouldn’t use such a backwards world for something like that. And regardless of the fact that I come from Equeter myself, even I believe it’s a backwards world. It’s Class V for a reason. The atmosphere is polluted a decent bit, it is almost always snowing year round all across the planet, and the only good resources Equeter has are mines. Since it is a mining planet and all. The chat begins going on about their own theories, but I ignore them as I continue moving towards the adamantium cave. Having to push my way through bug corpses just to get through the artificial tunnel, which is now far larger than it used to be. That’s fine though. And when I arrive at the adamantium cavern, I find it rather empty. With the exception of a lot of crushed bugs. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. I ignore the corpses as I slowly swim through the cavern just searching for anything that could be of interest to me. But I don’t find anything at all in the cavern. Other than bug corpses and adamantium, that is. And there aren’t any other tunnels connected to the cavern either. It’s just a cavern full of adamantium that these bugs no doubt made their home for the food. I take in a deep breath before letting it out again. Okay. I only have one more place to search in here. Then I’m out of places to train. Which means I’m either stuck trying to mine some more to find another cavern to hunt in, or trying to test my luck going outside. That rigal a while back was around level forty, so it’s about twelve or so levels above me. Probably around ten after I clear out whatever is in the other cavern. Hmm... I purse my lips for a moment before deciding that I may actually have a chance. Not to kill any of the monsters out there, but to make it through them. To swim upwards and get to a higher elevation in the water where there are fewer monsters. Speaking of mining... I glance at the adamantium in the cavern. Hmm. Am I strong enough to mine that with my bare hands? My pickaxe would break if it tried mining that. I stare at it for several more seconds before an idea comes to me. So I quickly leave the cavern and head back to my home cavern. Then I grab one of the scythe pincers attached to the bug queen’s body and rip it off using my foot to stabilize it since I’m currently missing an arm. And without another glance at the corpse, I casually swim through back towards the adamantium cave again where I swing the scythe as a pickaxe instead. And it works perfectly well. Nice. Since they were eating adamantium with their scythes, those very scythes had to work as a pickaxe for the adamantium. It was a very straightforward conclusion and kind of hard to miss. Now I can take this with me and either sell it or have someone make armor out of it when I find civilization. And there should be civilization somewhere on the planet, otherwise the System wouldn’t have initialized it. The only question is whether said civilization is in the water or out of it. Considering that only about thirteen percent of the world is land, it’s more likely that there are underwater cities. But it’s also highly likely that there will be land cities too. After all, they had to have started somewhere. And humans don’t breathe underwater. I continue mining. Okay, humans don’t naturally breathe underwater. Not without a Bloodline like mine. Although some might not even consider Bloodliners human. Especially one with two Bloodlines. I think the official classification was that they’re less human the higher their level? Which makes sense since a lot of traits change their biology. Like my hearts. I glance down at my torso as I think about my hearts. Then I focus on mining some more. Pointedly ignoring the people mentioning that stupid hashtag in the chat. Not even just mentioning it actually. They’re spamming it. That hashtag is all I can see. Damnit. I should just act like they don’t exist. Right. With that in mind, I continue mining until I clear out several veins of the adamantium. Enough I think for a set of armor. Probably. Maybe more. I don’t actually know. Regardless, I finally make my way back home for the night. With my new scythe in tow, because this thing will probably make for a better weapon than my actual weapon. The level ten trident. Even if this scythe obviously doesn’t have a handle to hold it by. So it will probably hurt to wield it. But that’s fine. I do need to practice fighting with a scythe for a bit though. But it’s still leagues better than fighting with a trident that can’t pierce anything. Anyway, after arriving home, I quickly open my Sponsorship System menu before searching for something I forgot thanks to my injuries over the past few days. That being the dungeon item scanner that I couldn’t get until level twenty-five. And lo and behold, someone has sponsored it. Without any requirements too. Looks like it’s actually that very host who was flooding me with compliments for no reason. Nice. After accepting the sponsorship, I go ahead and find the scanner appearing in front of me in the form of a very small handheld device with a blue circle at the end of it. And after trying to figure out how to use it for a few minutes and eventually ending up relying on the chat to explain it, I manage to scan the bracelet. Fortunately for me, it looks like the bracelet is in fact safe to use. It’s some sort of berserk power. When you twist one of the beads on the bracelet that is securely held in place, a berserk skill activates that lasts for one minute. Drastically increasing your strength during that time. Now, how much ‘drastically’ means, I’m not sure. The chat says not to expect too much though. Probably around a thirty or forty percent increase in strength during that time. But at the same time, my vision will go red, and I’ll be a lot more sensitive during this berserk state. A trade off, but it could definitely be useful. And with that dealt with, my broadcast ends and I change out of my armor to sleep for the night.