Hmm. What should I do now?
I might be healthy again, but if things stayed like this, I was going to die anyway.
First, I needed water. Then food. After that, a place to sleep. Those were the basics of survival.
I wanted to head out in search of water, but the trees were a massive obstacle. Well, I probably could move, but they were so dense that I couldn't see anything in the distance. Plus, they were huge. I could see trees with trunks over a meter wide all over the place. To make matters worse, everywhere looked exactly the same.
The spot where I currently stood was open for some reason, but even so, I couldn't see very far. If I just started walking, I’d likely get lost. Then again, getting lost would just mean I couldn't find my way back here, so it wasn't like I had much to lose...
Still, there was no point in worrying about it. Water was the priority. If I didn't find some, I was a dead man. I decided to trust my ears. Was there the sound of running water anywhere nearby?
...Nothing.
All I could hear was the eerie whistling of the wind and the cries of some very dangerous-sounding beasts. Those cries sounded like screams, actually. Which meant there were predators out there hunting them.
Deep breath.
I took a single step forward and immediately felt a strange sensation. It was the way my feet hit the ground.
The open clearing I’d been standing in until now had normal soil—the kind I was used to. But here, where the trees grew thick, the ground was hard. And I don’t just mean firm; I mean rock-hard. It felt like walking on a single, massive slab of stone.
It was honestly impressive that trees with such thick roots and tall grass could grow in a place like this. The sheer tenacity of the local plant life was something to behold. However, this hard ground was a problem. I didn't know how much stamina my rejuvenated body actually had, but if I had to walk on this surface forever, I’d eventually wreck my feet. You can't underestimate how much a hard surface wears you down.
And that raised another question. Was I really supposed to farm in this rock-hard earth? Maybe the ground was only like this in the forest and would be fine elsewhere.
...Well, only one way to find out.
I readied the Universal Farming Tool in its Hoe form and swung it down.
Thwip.
The blade bit into the ground with shocking ease, sinking in deep. I pulled it out and swung again.
Thwip. Thwip. Thwip...
The ground was being tilled effortlessly. Wow. This was actually kind of fun.
Thwip, thwip, thwip, thwip, thwip— Ah.
I thought I’d messed up. Carried away by the rhythm, I’d swung the hoe down right onto a thick tree root. I braced for the shock to travel up my arms, but there was nothing. Instead, the sensation remained that same light thwip.
I looked down to see that the root had been tilled right along with the earth. The spot where the blade hit had turned into something like sawdust. No, was it soil? It looked like rich fertilizer.
I kept swinging the hoe. The thick roots were completely assimilated into the ground, leaving behind nothing but soft, tilled earth.
Amazing. And I wasn't even tired. In fact, I felt surprisingly fresh.
Wait. Was it possible that as long as I was using the Universal Farming Tool, I wouldn't get exhausted? As expected of a gift from God.
A flash of inspiration hit me. If I moved while tilling the path ahead of me, would I be able to travel without getting tired at all?
...I tried it. It worked exactly as I’d hoped.
Thank you, God. Since there was no food or water at the starting point, I’d started to think you were just tossing me out to fend for myself, but you really did think this through.
I offered up another prayer of thanks and kept swinging the hoe. Regardless, I still needed to find a source of drinking water.
Since I was tilling as I went, my pace was slow. At first, I thought a narrow path would be enough, but the tool flattened the ground so well—and chewed through trees and roots so easily—that I decided to clear a five-meter-wide path just to keep a decent line of sight.
Because of that, I hadn't even covered fifty meters in an hour. This might be bad. I didn't know what time it was, but what was I going to do once the sun went down? Maybe I shouldn't have obsessed over the view just because I wasn't getting tired.
No, no, visibility was vital. Something could jump out of the forest at any moment.
Hmm...
God, help me!
...Actually, relying on others right off the bat was a bad habit.
I looked at the Universal Farming Tool in my hand. Right now, it was a Hoe. Its effect turned whatever I tilled into soil. Come to think of it, he did say it could take other forms.
For example... a Saw.
I shifted the Universal Farming Tool into its Saw form and pressed it against a nearby tree. Wait, no. You don't use a saw to fell a tree. A saw is for processing lumber. To cut down a tree, you need an Axe.
I changed the tool into an Axe and took a swing at a nearby trunk. It sliced through the wood like a knife through warm tofu.
Whoa...
And unlike the Hoe, the wood stayed as wood. As I watched the tree fall, a thought occurred to me. Maybe my priority shouldn't be searching for water, but rather mastering the use of this Universal Farming Tool.
For instance...
I pressed the tool, now in the form of a Drill, against the trunk of a massive tree that must have been over ten meters wide. The drill whirred and bored right into the wood. In less than five minutes, I’d carved out a space with a one-meter entrance, two-meter ceilings, and about sixteen square meters of floor space.
The interior was a bit rough and splintery, so I changed the tool into a File and smoothed it down. A single pass of the file leveled the surface perfectly. It looked like a giant squirrel’s nest, but after I cleared out the wood chips, I had a place to sleep.
Next, water.
I changed the Universal Farming Tool into a Shovel and started digging into the ground. I wasn't going to look for a river; I was going to dig a well. Normally, finding a river would be way less work, but things were different for me and my tool.
I could dig through this rock-hard ground like it was nothing. I dug and dug, heading straight down.
...Once I hit about five meters, I realized I couldn't get the dirt out of the hole anymore. Also, I realized I had no way to get myself out. I’d need to dig at a slope to make an exit.
Wait, wait. A vertical hole... what about the oxygen? Oh crap, was I going to suffocate?
I panicked and dug a diagonal tunnel upward to make my escape. That was a learning experience.
Next, I tried digging while keeping airflow in mind. I stuck to diagonal tunnels and occasionally poked air holes to the surface to ensure I had oxygen. As long as the air was moving, it should be fine. It looked nothing like the "well" I had in my head, but as long as I kept going down, it would work.
At an estimated depth of ten meters, I hit water.
Yes! Just as planned. Furthermore, because the ground was so hard, the water didn't just seep in through the walls. It flowed out from a crack like a spring, slowly filling the bottom of the hole.
The only question was whether it was drinkable. Well, I didn't have much of a choice. For now, I decided not to drink it immediately and let it sit for a while. Between the tool's effects and the fact that the water was still muddy from the digging, I could afford to wait.
So, I had a place to sleep and a likely source of water. That just left food. Should I go after whatever made those sounds in the forest? Impossible. I’d never been hunting in my life.
Besides, the sun was already starting to set.
...Dammit! I forgot about fire!
How was I supposed to start one? Rubbing sticks together? I was an amateur; there was no way I’d get that to work.
Could the tool become... a lamp? A light? A flashlight?
...No. It didn't change.
The Universal Farming Tool could become almost anything, regardless of whether it was strictly for "farming." I mean, most people wouldn't call a drill or a file a farming tool, but it worked. It had even become Scissors and a Spoon.
However, when I tried to imagine a chainsaw to cut wood, it failed. Engines and electric weed whackers didn't work either. Mechanical things seemed to be off-limits. Based on that, I guessed that as long as the tool didn't have too many complex parts, it was okay.
So, what's a simple tool that makes fire?
...A Magnifying Glass!
Success! I could start a fire with this—as long as the sun was still up.
...
I eventually gave up on a few things and crawled into the tree hollow I’d made for shelter. I decided to spend the time until sunrise using the tool in its Knife form to craft some small items.
For now: a cup, a plate, and a tray. Also a knife, a fork, and some chopsticks. I used the wood from the tree I’d felled earlier as material.
Just as I’d suspected, as long as I was using the Universal Farming Tool, I didn't feel thirsty, hungry, or even sleepy. Since I didn't have a fire yet, I worked by the light of the moon.
This really was another world, wasn't it?
There were two moons hanging in the sky.