Kurt had figured out a way to turn his water fists into water boots, and they acted like spring steps, allowing him to travel much faster, but his cornering using the technique wasn't very good. It however allowed him to move over the old Wasteland, he was going to have to start calling it something else soon, as it wasn't looking too much like a wasteland anymore, from one place to another quickly. He also found out it gave an added benefit of being able to dry himself off in an instant, in other words he didn't need a towel after taking a bath, he could just bring it into a water fist, and fling it off, and he could do the same with His clothes with a bit more effort. So his actual shoes and socks didn't get wet when using his water boots, which Kurt was grateful for.
Kurt started exploring with the most obvious spots, the patches that started growing quickly. In the second one he found an outcrop of stones that simmered, took a few and marked it on his map. Kurt wasn't some geology major, so he was more grabbing anything that looked useful.
He had gotten a notebook, and some rope, and made a makeshift press for plant life, but tying a knot tight over it. He also had a few bags for fruits and berries. There seemed to be the start of wildlife as well, he saw a small rodent and a bird, and something ran quickly into a hole in the ground.
The reality was Kurt was probably going to come back with a lot of worthless stuff, and probably miss a bunch of valuable stuff. He simply didn't know enough about what the markets were.
The other side, which is generally what most people called the other side of the gate on Earth, but technically it was called Terra, which was just another name for Earth at one time, but now there was a distinction. It had another name, Layla had told him it once, but it was in a language Kurt didn't understand how to actually speak. He did everyone a kindness, not to even attempt to pronounce it after. She also said it wasn't necessarily the name everyone in the whole world used anyway, apparently Faye has slight telepathy which allows them to communicate very easily with other species, as well as adapt to new languages quicker. Something about how Faye are progenitors of nature, Layla seemed to have a whole different perspective on most things, one that wasn't grounded in physics.
Luckily this was just the first outing, to see what was there if anything. A lot of the time the knowledge of where not to go, what not to do can be more valuable that what to do, because in Kurt's experience plans often didn't work.
The whole area was in some sort of growth spurt, Kurt was almost visually seeing grassland form around him. Kurt was actually enjoying himself, I mean from a line cook to running around, and not just running but leaping around a new area. Kurt could get used to the feeling. The powers he had received made him feel light, yet strong. If he could make enough money, the loss of his job would be the least of his concerns, in fact it sort of already was. He had a feeling that some of the things he had found were going to bear fruit, maybe even the fruit itself.
Having figured out he could move the water fist to his feet to make the water book. Kurt could imagine one day a full water armor. He could feel his technique was getting better with practice, it still took a lot of time to switch between his hands and feet. But it definitely seemed like eventually at the minimum he could have a moveable shield around his body. He felt that he had to get down how to switch between the feet and the hands.
Some of the problem was the reverse nature of the boots and gloves. The gloves gave a hard exterior and allowed his hands to compress the water, allowing his hand to survive much harder hits, recover from those hits faster, which gave a harder blow. The boot on the other hand worked more like spring, meaning a hard interior that pushed him up, with a compression, and release outside of him. As Kurt could with a bit of effort already extend the water fist to cover the outside of his forearm. Kurt knew it was getting strong too, he could feel it. It just wasn't growing all that fast.
Since the growth spurt was happening in a patchwork fashion and he was finding some gems and ore outcroppings. It meant he was getting that practice for the boots from traveling from patch to patch. And the fists for knocking the gems out of the ground. It wasn't combat, but who wants to be learning the extent of your power during a fight? Kurt was hoping he wasn't going to see anything like that Copy cat for a long time.
He had decided to travel on one side of the canyon today, then check out the other side at another time. It wasn't like he couldn't cross it, it would just be a pain to do, and wouldn't give much benefit. This means he had actually ended up traveling far down the canyon, the patch work growth had basically stopped. Kurt had wanted to see how far it extended, which was much further than he expected. On the other side of the canyon he noticed something different, it was like a tiny forest. Definitely did not seem like it was a part of whatever Layla did. It would have to be something he'd have to check out.
But looking at the tiny forest he got a little shiver, it felt odd, and misplaced. He also barely noticed it, like he had to stare directly at it, it somehow disappeared in his peripheral vision. He also had a little trouble figuring out how far it was from the canyon. It didn't seem right. A tiny forest in wasteland.
Kurt realized he had all the time in the world to check it out, so there was no hurry. It was about time to start heading back. This would be much faster as Kurt wasn't expecting to make as many stops to collect anything. He also wanted to test how fast he could get at full power. And apparently it was much faster than he could control, it wasn't getting to speed that was the problem, and the water boots helped a lot to not get tripped on small things, but it only went so far. The problem was slowing down and turning, and seeing what was in front of him at that speed. And Kurt had fallen right on his face, ran right into a boulder a couple times before he decided to take it a little slower.
He did however realize he really could launch off, either forward or up, if he concentrated on his boot he could easily jump up a two storey building. And he had a long jump, the boot also gave him the ability to give himself a soft landing (as long as he landed on his feet), he still had to hop a few times if he went too high, and leaping forward gave him all that momentum, to he could stop but the landing would be rougher, and he could fall over because it. But that was at full power, like a sprint versus a jog. Kurt had never been much of an acrobat, but when he got some time he was thinking about some flips and handsprings, he just wanted softer ground to land on before all that. It seemed like it would be fun.
Even though Kurt was a young man in his prime, the power flowing through him just gave him the energy to want to just go out and run and move, like he was some toddler on a sugar rush. But he had gotten back to the Ivy Pillar, which had more Ivy then when he left. And found Sara and Layla talking in the same room over the waterfall, which had seemed to grow a bit but not very drastically.
But it was time to talk about spoils, Kurt hoped that Sara got a lot of information of what they could sell. It's not like there is a gate everywhere, something had to be valuable.