Chapter 20: Swamp Lurkers and Trade
Ryan had been trekking towards the misty swamp for a few hours, and "soggy" was definitely becoming the word of the day.
The ground squelched under his boots with every step, the air was thick enough to swim in, and everything smelled like damp socks and regret.
He was starting to think that maybe the "Submerged Precursor Waystation" was just a fancy name for a very old, very leaky garden shed.
He was also getting tired. Fighting four Anomalies and a mind-controlling ghost, then hiking through a swamp, was surprisingly exhausting.
He finally found a relatively dry-ish patch of ground, a little hummock of earth rising a few feet above the murky water, sheltered by a clump of gnarled, moss-covered trees.
"This looks like a five-star resort compared to everything else around here," he muttered, shrugging off his pack [which mostly contained his ration brick and a few interesting rocks he couldn’t resist picking up].
First things first: safety. He didn’t want any swamp lurkers inviting themselves to dinner while he was trying to have his own. He remembered the Bioluminescent Spores he’d extracted from that glowy moss Boulder had stepped on.
He mentally sprinkled them around the edge of his little hummock.
A faint, gentle golden light shimmered into existence, pushing back the gloom and making the area feel a tiny bit less like the set of a horror movie.
It wasn’t a force field, but at least he’d be able to see if anything with too many teeth tried to sneak up on him.
Next: food. He pulled out his "Pioneer’s Rations." The dense brick still looked about as appetizing as a lump of dried mud.