Within the deep dark

Chapter 9-The other side

Izuku face paled at the realisation. His body needed water, without water for three days meant he was done, and the experience wouldn't be a good one. But his glow berry farm wouldn't be enough to supply his body with enough water as he couldn't stock them up due to its quick deteriorating rate. Plus, he needed the glow berries to keep his body full. In other words, Izuku needed to head out from the safety of his shack and search for either another crate that contain cans of water, or a sustainable water source.

Izuku's breathing slowly quickens. The memories of footsteps over damp moss with the light splashes of water droplets, the vociferous roaring from behind from, the tramping from behind that shook the mossy stone ground, the ear-piercing shrieks that scream and echo around him, and the strong blast from behind. At this point, Izuku was shaking in fear, sweating buckets, and curled up into a ball.

'It's nothing,' Izuku thought, trying to comfort himself, ' maybe another day?' I don't need it now.'

But Izuku knew that lying to himself would do no good. He can delay it all he wants to but the thirst would eventually catch up, and he'll pay the price for it. Like a wise quote he read or heard somewhere, "Don't push things till tomorrow, for all you know there might not be tomorrow."

Izuku took a deep breath and stood up, shaking his head.

'I can't let myself down anymore. I have to take things into my own hands.' thought Izuku to himself, no longer muttering out loud, 'If I don't have enough water, I'll just have to go find some.'

Izuku begin to pack his bag, which consisted of four empty cans and many freshly picked glow berries. He places the blood-stained leather bag into the pocket of his pants, in case things went horribly south. And he places the gas mask over his face and tightens it in case the moss could spread air-bond.

'I went right the first time I went looking for water,' thought Izuku, now outside the safety of his hut, ' this time, I'll venture left.'

And with a decision in mind and a goal made, Izuku begins to carefully transverse the mossy terrain into the darkness, in search of water.

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*pap*

A single glowing berry silently lands on the mossy ground. Izuku looks around, he doesn't know how far he has traveled. But he sure knows he is getting thirstier and is running low on glow berries to leave behind a trail.

The moss grew much closer to the walls of the cave on the left side, several meters away from the rough and steep walls of the cave. There were several seaweeds too, but Izuku had decided to take a risk. By simply creeping silently up directly to the weird leaf-like plants, and giving them a quick thug without making any noise. The plants would be pulled from the ground completely. They would just make a pitiful cry but that was it. An extremely sensitive plant that could warn dangerous villains about someone's presence could just be taken down that easily. So Izuku would occasionally creep up towards those who had grown unsettlingly near the edge.

'If I do find a sustainable water source here, I'll need a safe pathway towards there. Getting rid of the plants would make traveling much safer in case I'm running away from something thought Izuku.

Izuku didn't know how far he was but he could tell by the cave's walls were possibly moving closer. Why he could see the outlines of the castle-like structure ahead in the darkness.

'Maybe I could access and explore the building from here.'

But Izuku carried on forward. And soon, he could see something new far ahead, roughly about 50 meters ahead, were the shadowy outlines of stalactites and stalagmites.