The following day, the moment Darian woke up, all the robots were already working. The moment Darian went outside the house, the sun was already high in the sky.
"Oh, morning, Master Darian!" The first one to greet Darian after he woke up was Pax, which felt like he was waiting for Darian to go outside the house so he could actually do something.
"Morning, Pax," answered Darian, still a bit tired. Pax had some fruit in his hand and offered it to Darian, it was the same fruit that Darian had eaten the night before while talking with Pax.
"Ceres is currently harvesting other fruit, soon you'll be able to eat more than this," said Pax, while Darian, in front of him, bit the fruit.
"So? How did you decide to call this fruit?" asked Darian while looking over the fruit, which had a strong yellow color. "Ceres decided to call it Corange, because it reminds him of both corn and an orange." Darian looked at him with a dead-eyed expression.
'Corange? Really? …well, not that I could have named it in a better way…' he thought as he snapped back to reality and returned to his usual expression.
"By the way…" said Darian as he started to walk around. He soon noticed Ceres and how he was preparing the soil for other plants. "Were you able to discover if the tiger that was killed yesterday can be eaten?" asked Darian as he stopped to see Ceres working.
Pax first smirked and then laughed softly. "Eheh, you'll see it during the next meal, Master."
Darian looked over at Pax with an amused expression. "By the way, I think that now I'll start to work… I need to call Aegis so he can come with me."
"What do you need to gather, Master?" asked Pax, following Darian from behind. Darian was currently headed toward the starship, in which there was a button that could be used to call Aegis.
"Remember the crystalline flowers that I found yesterday? I want to take more of them, yesterday I only found two of them…" said Darian. The moment they entered the starship, he noticed the five buttons for the robots and clicked the one for Aegis.
"Oh, right, Sonar didn't tell you yesterday, these types of flowers are really common in the caves. He was able to gather multiple of them, they should be somewhere in the starship," said Pax.
"Oh, so Sonar has already found a cave?" asked Darian.
"Exactly. It isn't far from here, he was lucky to find one this close. He can go and return in less than ten minutes," answered Pax.
"Perfect, then I'll check on them later. If these flowers grow both in the caves and outside, they must have some differences." The moment Darian finished speaking, Aegis reached the starship. "Mr. Thorne, did you call for me?" he asked with a serious expression.
"Yes, I need you to come with me… I don't want things to go like yesterday…" said Darian. Aegis immediately nodded and started to follow him. "I don't know when we will get back, Pax, but in any case, wait for me here, alright?" Darian said to the Pax next to him.
"Don't worry, Darian, it is my duty to wait for you here," said Pax as he watched Darian and Aegis walk away.
Darian didn't take the same route as yesterday, in that place, he wasn't able to find many crystalline flowers, so he decided to go somewhere else.
"By the way, Aegis, you've explored around, right?" asked Darian. Aegis, behind him, nodded his head. "Exactly, Sir Thorne, if you have any questions, feel free to ask."
"What was the tiger from yesterday? Is that a predator of this planet?" asked Darian.
"Exactly. I have been able to tame some of them, thanks to the help of Mason, we're currently building a ranch in which we will put them."
"Do you want to create a sort of safe place for me to walk?"
"Exactly. We will try to push all the dangerous animals away, at least along a small route, so that you can go there every time you want without any problem. Do you like this idea, Sir Thorne?" Darian thought about it for a bit before answering.
"But isn't that going to damage these animals directly?" he asked, worried that if these animals didn't have their usual habitat, they might die.
"It won't be a problem. Once Ceres has finished harvesting the plants near your house, he will help us create a forest really similar to this one in the ranch, so they can live there and they will barely be able to tell the difference," answered Aegis.
Around Darian and Aegis, there were mainly trees, but the forest became different. It suddenly became denser, the trees weren't big and tall anymore, but smaller, though the thickness wasn't even comparable. They were so dense, in fact, that Darian had to change direction because it was impossible for both him and Aegis to pass through them.
"Aegis, have you already been in this biome?" asked Darian, looking around when he suddenly spotted what looked to be a sort of rabbit, but the ears were much longer than usual. Its color was black, the same as the rabbits on Earth. The rabbit was eating some grass and it didn't seem like it had spotted the humans yet.
"Sir Thorne, that creature is not dangerous. It is one of the most harmless creatures on this planet, and we have already hunted some of them, the meat is going to be really good," whispered Aegis, leaning next to Darian, who was looking at the creature with curious eyes.
"Then we don't need to hunt it, too, right? If we already have some of its meat, it won't be a problem," said Darian, who didn't lower his voice. The rabbit heard them, it didn't even turn around, it simply began to jump away. Now Darian realized that this creature wasn't really similar to the rabbits on Earth. Before, he couldn't see it, but now it was clear: this creature had much smaller paws.
"Exactly. As I was about to answer you, I have already explored this biome; if you want to find something, I can bring you there," said Aegis. Darian immediately answered happily, "I'm searching for some flowers that look like a crystal…" Aegis immediately understood what he was talking about.
"Oh, I have seen some of them both inside and outside a cave not far from here. Come on, follow me." Aegis began to lead the way while Darian, remaining close, followed from behind.
After two minutes of walking, Aegis brought him to a small cave that was full of flowers, both outside and inside.
"There are so many of them!!" Darian immediately rushed to take as many flowers as he could. Aegis walked closer slowly.
Darian began to take the flowers outside when suddenly a big roar came from inside the cave. Darian, caught by surprise, fell on his butt, and Aegis immediately put himself in front of Darian.
"Don't worry, Sir Thorne; I've got this." Aegis grabbed a flower from the ground when suddenly a creature from the cave came out. It looked like a bear, but its body was smaller. It had two paws, but no legs; the bottom half of its body was similar to that of a snake. Even though the creature wasn't standing on two feet, it was extremely tall, at least seven feet.
On its paws were extremely long claws. The moment the creature came out of the cave, it roared again and looked at Darian with a mad expression in its eyes. Before it could actually run toward the human, Aegis had already removed the stem from the flower and, moving extremely fast, removed all the petals, too. What remained in his hand was a beautiful blue gem.
Aegis immediately threw the gem inside the cave, and the creature, amazed by the sight of the stone, immediately rushed toward it, disappearing inside. Darian breathed heavily, confused.
"What just happened…?" he asked, confused.
"That creature is extremely attracted to luminous objects. I suggest you always carry some of the gems from inside the flowers so you can send them away without risking your life," said Aegis. Darian was able to calm himself and went back to picking flowers.
"But I haven't seen them around like the tiger, do they only live in caves?" asked Darian. Aegis grabbed a small flower and nodded. "Exactly. From what I have been able to study, they live in these small caves where these types of flowers grow. From what Sonar has told me, they can't be found very deep, so you just need to avoid these types of caves," Aegis explained. Darian, with a flower in his hand, got up and looked directly into the dark cave. "So they choose these spots because of the flowers?"
"From what I was able to understand, yeah, still, I need to study them more." With that, Darian gathered flowers from both inside and outside the cave and returned to the rocket.
They spent the whole morning and half of the afternoon exploring. By the moment they returned to the rocket, it was almost dinner time, and because Darian had skipped lunch, he was starving.
"Oh, hey, guys! You're back!" Currently, at the base, all the robots had returned with what they had discovered, and all of them were charging, while Pax remained awake, waiting for Darian.
"Yes, Pax, I've finally taken enough flowers to study them. I guess I'll go and do that now."
"If it is alright with you, I'm going to recharge now," said Aegis. Darian nodded his head. "You can go, don't worry." Aegis returned to the rocket to charge and shut down.
These robots had a very long battery life, it would be almost impossible for them to run out in ten years, but they needed to preserve energy, or else it would deplete faster. Pax was the only one with the strongest battery so that he could remain awake longer in case Darian needed help.
"I guess you must be starving. Do you want to eat something, Darian?" asked Pax. Darian nodded his head. "I'll study these flowers now; call me whenever it is ready." Pax nodded, and Darian shut himself in the rocket, with the rest of the ship turned off behind him, he began studying the flower.
This flower was entirely blue and was as hard as a gem. Even the stem, usually the most fragile part, was hard enough that even if you threw it on the ground, it wouldn't shatter. Hidden between the petals was a gem. Darian hadn't noticed it before, but the moment Aegis had removed the gem from inside one, the flower lost its color and turned to ash. Now that Darian removed everything from one of the flowers, the exact same thing happened.
But this only happened with the flowers found inside the caves. The ones taken by Sonar from the deepest caves would turn into ash almost immediately. The ones inside the cave found by Darian weren't as weak as those, but would still turn to ash if Darian touched them too hard. However, the ones from outside the cave, the ones that could receive light rays, did not disintegrate.
"Mhmm, I think it might be thanks to the light that these flowers are stronger… but the interesting thing is this gem…" Darian analyzed the gem. He couldn't find an explanation for why it gave life and power to the flower, especially because, no matter where you found the flower, as long as the gem was inside, it had the same resistance.
"It seems that this gem is giving life to the flower…" Darian analyzed the weird gem to see if it generated electricity, and it was exactly as he thought. He attached the gem to a small clock with some wires, and the clock turned on.
"Mhmm, such a small gem contains this much energy?" Darian left the gem there because he heard Pax calling for him. He wanted to see what would happen once the gem ran out of energy. The moment he came out, he saw Pax in front of the campfire with the tiger meat perfectly cooked.
"Come on, Darian, come and eat this beautiful meat." While Darian was studying the plant, he completely forgot that he was hungry, and now that he realized it, he was starving because he hadn't eaten all day.
"Pax, the next time I go outside, remind me that I need to bring something to eat." With that, Darian immediately took a bite of the meat. It felt amazing; it was very similar to beef but had a lot of fat, like pork.
"And so, what are you going to call this type of flower, Darian?" asked Pax. Darian had talked for so long about the flower he had been studying that he didn't realize how late it was.
"I think that… Cryscharge is a good name for the flower. It captures both the fact that it is similar to a crystal and that it provides energy."
Darian kept explaining his discoveries to Pax all night, he was excited to see what would happen tomorrow, whether the gem would discharge itself or keep going.