Chương 33: Solo Mission - Ben (1)

An ominous purple glow swallowed him whole once he stood in the middle of the portal. It was fresh portal mana. The stuff used to transport people to different planets. And here was Ben Oxley, ready to be transported to a planet that had never been explored before. According to Cayman, not a single Hopper had ever stepped foot on the planet Ben was about to go to.

Nothing was known about it, apart from the fact that it had three missions; Ben would be the first person ever to step foot onto the planet, which made him extremely ecstatic, excited and elated. And a bit nervous as well. He was going to write his name into the Hopper history books by exploring and claiming this planet, but that would only be possible after he completed the missions. The missions on the planet he was going to were still a complete enigma.

Ben hated the fact that most of his home planet, Planet Earth, had been discovered. Aside from his life as a school bully, Ben sometimes dreamed of exploring places that had not been discovered yet, and since most of Earth had already been explored by other people, he thought that he was never going to accomplish this dream. But here he was, ready to explore a planet that nobody had ever stepped foot on. Here he was, Ben Oxley, the first man to ever walk on the soon-to-be 'Planet 503'.

That was if Ben could even claim the planet. Deep down, Ben still had worries about whether he could actually complete the missions and claim the planet since no Hopper had dared to even hop to it. He wondered and worried about the difficulty of the three missions, and whether he would have to end up having to defeat a legendary-level boss like back at Planet 501. If he ever had to do that, and if that was the reason why the planet was left undiscovered, he would truly be toast.

Being on stage 4 of the Bali system wasn't something to show off - Ben was still at the lowest level of the skill user world, and his skills were still at the lowest level of the skill user system. But would Cayman really send Ben to a place with a boss he wasn't capable of defeating? The chances of that ever happening were very slim. So in theory, Ben had nothing to worry about, since he had the impression that Cayman was the kind of person to want to prioritise Ben's safety.

Once he could see the signs of a portal room appearing in his blurred vision, Ben told himself that he was ready to leave the portal and complete his missions. He told himself to wipe away the feelings of nervousness inside him, and also to be confident and to not give up. Soon, he could see it clearly. In front of him was the portal room of Planet 503. It was just like any other portal room; it was surrounded by torches which provided minimal light to the room and both the walls and the floor were made of stone.

Unfortunately for him, there was no ready-made ladder leading up the surface; this planet had never been explored by other Hoppers after all. That meant scouring the perimeter for a ladder that somebody else had made was futile. Unfortunately, since there was no pre-made ladder in the portal room, he would have to dig his way up to the surface, which meant he would have to do manual labour. Ben had a fairly athletic body, although he didn't have muscles as defined as Theo's.

He told himself that he would be fine, and that no problems would arise when digging up to the surface. Luckily, prior to the excursion, Ben had stuffed his inventory with materials to help him build his way up to the surface, which ruled out possibly the biggest problem that he would face. He reached into his inventory, grabbed the materials he needed to build a ladder, as well as the pickaxe he had kept which he had used to dig his way to the surface of Planet 501, and began to dig. Clack! Clack! Clack!

Thankfully, during the dig, Ben wore a construction hat, and as a result, loose rocks didn't damage his head at all. Clack! Clack! Clack! Little pebbles hit Ben's construction hat and bounced off, landing on the stone floor of the portal room.

"Better not step on those when I come back," Ben said to himself. In Ben's opinion, this was the hardest part of being a Hopper. When exploring planets that had not been previously explored, building the ladder up to the surface was the worst. Because of this, being a Hopper demanded physical strength and the ability to do manual labour. Why couldn't the portal be on the surface? Why did it have to be at least a hundred feet underground? Those were questions Ben was never going to get the answer to.

Heck, maybe even Cayman didn't have the answers to those questions, and he had explored over 500 planets in his life as a Hopper.

"Ow," Ben complained.

"My back hurts!" But there was nobody in the vicinity to answer his complaints.

"I'm gonna end up with no stamina left and arms that ache like mad when I defeat the mana beasts!" Ben yelled. That's right, he thought. There was nobody on this planet with him, so he could yell as much as he wanted. He could even voluntarily break his vocal cords after completing the missions because he had earned a ton of mana crystals and was rich.

However, at the same time, yelling for help when nobody could hear you was futile; you would have no strength left in you to yell for help when somebody appears in the distance. At least you could talk to yourself and spill all your inner thoughts aloud without being called abnormal when there is nobody around you.

"Screw this," Ben said with sweat dripping down his body from his forehead.

"I'm gonna have to use a skill, am I?" Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. Ben didn't have as much muscle as Theo, and although he was fairly athletic, he wasn't the most athletic person in the world, unlike Theo or Daniel De Souza. So he was bound to end up struggling at some point. It didn't take him long for him to decide to use his skill. [Skill, 'Enhanced Strength (basic)', has been activated.] Clang! Clang! Clang!

"This is much better!" Ben shouted.

"I can dig faster using this skill!" His digging speed had increased drastically after deploying his skill. Clang! Clang! Clang!

"Faster!" Ben hollered while he was digging.

"Don't think about being tired. Just dig! Dig until you feel like dying, and dig some more! Once this is over, the real fun begins!" And just as fast as he was digging, Ben built the ladder. He didn't want to waste any time, since he knew that he was never going to get that time back. Life was finite after all.

"Just dig!" Clang! Clang! Clang! Eventually, a heap of dirt fell onto Ben's construction hat and onto the floor of the portal room, and he almost swallowed a wave of dust and dirt. He had done it. He had reached the surface. Ben finished building the ladder hastily and climbed onto the surface. The ladder wasn't of good quality, since Ben didn't have Cayman, Ellie or Theo's help, but it should last the whole duration of his excursion, even though it looked like it was going to fall apart at any minute.

Ben wasn't expecting anything on this planet. However, there was one thing that he didn't consider which struck him dead in the heart.

"W-W-Why is it so c-c-cold?" Ben said. All of a sudden, he began to shiver. It was impossible to stop trembling. All of his body parts, including his arms, legs, fingers, you name it, were all shaking uncontrollably as if he had been possessed by a demon.

"H-H-Holy s-s-shit," Ben said while shivering. He could clearly see his breaths in front of him which were puffs of white smoke; it was evocative of someone smoking.

"T-T-This is gonna be one l-long d-d-day." The one thing that Ben didn't consider was the temperature. He thought that the planet he would be exploring would have the same temperature and weather conditions compared to back on Earth. And on the day he left Earth, it had been extremely warm, which meant that all Ben needed to wear was a t-shirt and joggers. That did not suit the weather he was dealing with on Planet 503. He didn't pack a coat or even a jacket.

He expected that it would be nice and warm on Planet 503, and he took it for granted. But that was not the case. He had made a dire mistake. A mistake that could cost him dearly. Apart from the fact that it was as cold as Antarctica or even colder on the planet Ben was on, there was nothing else that was special about the planet. He was looking at a flat, barren land which was reminiscent of the terrain on Planet 501; there were no mountains or even small hills.

However, u nlike on Planet 501, there were some signs of vegetation on Planet 503, although the grass Ben had been standing on was jet-black, not green. And that was it. Ben then looked up. There were no signs of sunlight anywhere; there was only a layer of grey clouds above him. It looked like it was about to snow.

"I-I-I'm so screwed," Ben said, defeated.

"I-I-I'm gonna get f-f-frostbite, a-am I?" Could his healing skill cure frostbite, or at least help him avoid frostbite? Ben didn't want to stretch his skills to the limit and find out. After all, all of his skills were only at the basic level, and suffering from frostbite meant permanently losing vital limbs. The priority was to find warmth and to do something to stop him from shivering uncontrollably. Who knows what would happen if Ben caught a cold on a different planet?

There would be nothing to help him, not even medication or support from another person. Ben could end up dying from hypothermia.

"Don't think about that just yet." Ben shook away all of his negative thoughts.

"There should be something in my inventory that can keep me warm." Ben looked at his inventory. However, there was nothing he could use that could keep him warm. He sighed. He regretted not packing a coat or a jacket or anything with long sleeves.

"Maybe I will have to use the portal room as my base camp," Ben muttered.

"But that would mean continuously climbing up and down that ladder, and it doesn't look sturdy." Looking defeated, Ben laid down some of the materials that he had used to build the ladder and placed them next to the hole he had just dug. Then he placed down several torches.

"The only thing left to do now is explore this planet," Ben said, managing to not stutter. He began to walk away from his home camp. There was nothing available to help him tell the time, and he had no idea how long he had left until the sun went down. He didn't even know if the sun would go down. After all, on Antarctica, there was a period of time when the sun would never set for months on end. It was impossible to tell when there was a barrier of clouds right above him. Ben walked. And he walked. And he walked.

"This is boring," he wailed.

"There's literally nothing on this planet." That was true. The planet Ben was on might be even more monotonous and dull compared to Planet 501, which was just a rocky desert. On Planet 503, all Ben could see was grass, grass and more grass. A species of grass that could not even be found on Earth. A species of grass that didn't freeze even in the extreme cold. Ben was bored. So, to ease the boredom, he opened his profile.

Name: Ben Oxley Age: 17 Height: 5'7" Level: Basic (stage 4, 10/2000 XP) Main skill: Enhanced Strength Other skills: Teleportation (basic), Recovery (basic), Healing (basic) Traits: Strength: 40 Agility: 20 Stamina: 25 Intelligence: 10 Locked????? Locked????? Hopper status: Status: Active Planets explored: 3 (including home planet) Planets claimed: 0"Intelligence?" Ben thought out loud.

"When the hell would I need intelligence in a fight? Maybe to outsmart the opponent? But aren't all mana beasts dumb?" He couldn't think of any need for intelligence.

"And what the hell is my H-H-Hopper status?" Ben had so many questions about his profile that he couldn't get the answer to on this planet. He decided that when he returned back to Planet Earth, he would bombard Cayman with as many questions as he could think of on the spot. Although he was walking, he couldn't stop shivering. So he walked back to the hole he had dug up and sat down on the black grass. Surprisingly, it was comfortable, but it was ice-cold, like the rest of this planet.

If it ever snowed on this planet, then people might think that Ben was a lone soldier walking deep into Antarctica. He literally couldn't believe that he had been sweating just half an hour ago when he was building the ladder. Sweat didn't need to exist on this planet with extremely cold temperatures. To try and ease the pain of being too cold, Ben decided to run laps around the hole. At that point, he wanted sweat to flow down his back and down his face. He wanted to have a shower in his own sweat.

"I just want to get warmer!" Ben shouted. He had run ten full laps around his home base, but he wasn't getting any warmer.

"Damn this t-shirt I'm wearing!" he bellowed.

"I should've brought a jacket or a coat!" His hands were about to feel numb. After running another five laps around the home base, he couldn't feel his toes anymore.

"I'm gonna have to climb back down into the portal room," Ben muttered.

"Hopefully the ladder doesn't break." However, before Ben could start descending the ladder down into the portal room, he received a system message.

"What's this?" It was a system message telling him that he had a mission to complete. Normally, if it were any other mission, Ben would be ecstatic and extremely eager to complete it. But the mission displayed on the system window in front of him was enough for him to want to quit the excursion early. You have a new mission! Mission 1/3: survive the blizzard"Shit," Ben cursed.

"Why did it have to be this planet?" And sure enough, right when Ben finished his mini rant, little droplets of snow began to fall from the sky.