A long time later, Hector's priority was to leave this desert, but things weren't that simple like that. He had traveled 2 kilometers—a considerable distance—yet all he could see was sand stretching endlessly to the horizon.
Fortunately, just as he was nearing exhaustion from thirst, he finally stumbled upon a small oasis.
This small oasis-like all others that he had already seen in the movies. Of course, There was a tiny lake in this place, it could solve his urgent matter.
"Luckily, this place isn't an illusion," he muttered after drinking deeply from the lake. The feeling became very good, he stood up and began observing his surroundings.
According to the movies he had watched, most oases were illusions caused by the light of the sun reflex.
Yet, he quickly saw his failure: the sun had already set. At this moment, it was impossible for this place to be anything related to an illusion.
Hector slowly glanced at the surface of the lake and in a short time, he became surprised.
"Wow… my face is rather handsome,"
"Probably, I shouldn't doubt these eyes, Although sometimes it confuses me between day and night," he said, admiring his reflection.
A perfect face with flawless white skin stared back at him. His blue eyes were stunning, like something straight out of an anime. Naturally, his short hair was blue as well.
Moreover, His body was also pretty thin, but it didn't matter. He was very young, his body would grow so much.
"Indeed, all humans in this world must be beautiful. Hypothetically, if I keep this face at my old world, I'll marry countless girls," Hector mused, a smug smile spreading across his lips as he constantly touched his face.
For a moment, he became so lost in admiration that he forgot where he was.
Suddenly, a massive force crashed into him.
Bang!
A sharp, terrible pain crashed through his back, contorting his face into a grimace. It was like one thing sharp shot him.
By inertia, He lost his balance and toppled into the lake with a loud splash.
Pum!
"It hurts," Hector thought as he struggled to move his body from the lake's water, which was beginning to swallow him. However, his whole efforts were futile.
His body became increasingly unresponsive, refusing to obey his commands.
"Fuck! This must be some kind of nerve poison. It's paralyzing me," he cursed inwardly. desperately trying to move his hand toward his pack to retrieve the herb he had taken from the factory earlier. But his limbs remained completely motionless.
Diagnosing poisoning was an easy task for him. Basically, he was a doctor, but he wasn't God. After all, a human still has its limits.
He didn't expect the poison to take effect so quickly. Surely, the beasts in this world weren't like the snakes in his world.
With each passing second, his movements became harder and more labored, the poison spreading through his system while the force of the water pulled him deeper.
Despite his struggle, every effort seemed useless—until finally, through sheer willpower, he managed to grasp the herb and shove it into his mouth.
Even so, his danger was far from over.
In the distance, a beast gradually came into his vision, its ominous silhouette sharpening with each passing moment.
It was rather small, nearly like a dog. Yet, its head was like a horse with a sharp, tiny horn growing from its forehead.
Now, it was partly like a monster or a chimera.
"Monster? It has already attacked me."
Hector panicked and tried to grab his knife from his pack swiftly, getting into a fighting stance. Yet, there was one major issue.
"Quickly!" he cursed angrily, but his body still didn't respond. The effect of the grass wasn't as quick as he had expected.
More precisely, in this urgent situation, everything felt as if it was happening very slowly.
Or rather, it meant that the poison in his body was the culprit.
After a few seconds, he began to realize something strange.
The monster was swimming toward him slowly, as if it considered him an easy prey, not in a hurry.
"It seems it hasn't yet realized that I'm recovering from the poison's effects," he thought, eyeing the monster cautiously.
The monster was certainly very confident in the poison's potency. And that confidence made sense — If he had not been taken to the grass from the factory, his death would have been decided by either the monster or this lake.
However, not everything would go as the monster thought. And, this was an opportunity Hector had to seize tightly.
"The perk of these eyes is truly amazing. That monster probably can't see me clearly," Hector thought, relaxing his body to allow the grass's effect to spread through his veins as quickly as possible.
Additionally, he needed to kill the monster in one strike, as he had been underwater for about 40 seconds—a pretty long time without breathing.
Fighting the monster in this underwater environment would only lead to his quicker death.
So, he waited for the monster to swim toward him.
With every passing second, Hector focused his concentration, and the monster's form became clearer.
It was horrifyingly ugly; its horse-like head seemed disproportionately large compared to its muscular torso, which resembled that of an adult Pitbull dog.
Slowly, it opened its maw, revealing sharp teeth, just 2 meters away from Hector, ready to swallow him whole.
"Stupid ugly dog. You will regret eating me."
Hector looked directly at the monster's eyes but didn't blink.
He tried to move sparingly to avoid any doubt of the monster before this time came.
Finally, the monster was about a hand's distance from him.
"Right now!"
Hector wasn't a bit hesitant, swiftly moving the knife to crash at its right eye. Not yet, he continued to twist the knife in the other direction.
The monster was surprised by Hector's strike, yet it didn't do anything except groan in countless pain. It managed to use its maw, biting Hector's hand that was gripping the knife to escape from Hector. However, its maw completely didn't move.
So, according to the monster's instinct, when its weapon became useless, it immediately struggled to swim from Hector.
Of course, Hector would never let that thing happen if this was a normal situation.
Because he no longer had time, he stayed under the lake for quite a long while, so he could only let the ugly dog swim from the lake. Yet, it wasn't a big matter.
After all, everything happened as well as he expected.
He knew that the monster had very thick muscles. Moreover, his knife was quite short, so it was impossible to break through that muscle cover.
However, If he had chosen its eyes, the result would have been different. It was likely that he could cause it significant damage. However, Negatively, the monster might become enraged and attack him uncontrollably.
He couldn't kill it in one strike with just a shabby knife, so he needed a different approach. Finally, he decided to sever the nexus of the nerves in its skull. At that moment, his knife was lodged in its right eye, and he twisted it.
Although he had never performed surgery on a horse's head, he assumed it was similar to a human's anatomy.
And he succeeded. The nerve transmitting signals from the brain to the jawbone muscles was severed
Its only weapon would become useless. Not only that, but it would soon die after he did it. The site he cut off was also a position where many branches of veins converged. Before long, it would certainly lose consciousness because its brain wouldn't receive enough blood.
Hector quickly swam out from under the lake before he ran out of air. However, he was now much calmer compared to when he first dove in.
A few seconds later, he gradually neared the lake's surface.
In this favorable moment, he smiled lightly, finally feeling some relaxation.
"Stupid dog, I'll definitely eat you!"