Deadworld Isekai

Like a lot of people, Matt thought of beehives as a kind of living honey factory and of honey as some kind of human food. He didn't really think of what the bees might need, whether it be honey or pollen. Since the Ape-iary bees were a sort of screwed up normal bees, that lack of thoughtfulness extended to them too.

Because of that, he had never considered that the little apes might be starving to mana death the same way he had been. As the first patch of victory garden that Matt had planted came into full bloom, he watched the Ape-iary's activity level pick up quite a bit. Then, as the rest of the hedge of victory flowers around his entire plot of land bloomed, they went absolutely ape shit. There was a period where every cubic foot of air that Matt passed had an ape bee aloft in it.

And then things changed, thanks to a part of the Ape-iary's description that Matt had long since forgotten.

Ape-iary

Plants need pollen transport to reproduce. These customized little guys are overpowered in that task. One Ape-iary will automatically populate your first ten agricultural units, and further pollinator apes will naturally spread from that stock.

They also produce honey. Are you brave enough to try it?

The apes were a bizarre enough bonus and the expansion of his property had enough fanfare and hooplah all by itself that Matt hadn’t even noticed when the apes hadn’t spread out to the promised ten agricultural units. Having never even realizing that something was amiss, he also never questioned why the apes stayed confined to the test garden. But once the flowers had been around long enough, there were suddenly nine more Ape-iaries, each loaded out with honey.

—

Ding!

Mana Deficiency Status: Abated.

Your diet has improved and sustained that improved level long enough for your body’s mana production facilities to restabilize. This marks the end of the mana deficiency condition, for the most part, though you would be well advised to consider that even healed wounds can sometimes easily re-open.

Effect: All skills disabled by mana deficiency reinstated at 100% efficacy, all stats restored.

Back from the brink

Do you know how much longer it would have taken you to die from the whole mana deficiency thing? Five hours. Just five more stupid hours. Where did you even get those plants? The bees make some sort of stupid sense, with Barry stretching the limits of a dozen rules at the perfect time. But those seeds shouldn’t exist. There was nothing left of this planet. I checked. Once I figure out where Barry got them, there’s going to be hell to pay.

You know the worst part about this? Your stupid eating skill is still broken. Not in a way that kills you, but apparently the rules still demand I upgrade it, and there’s nothing to upgrade. Why can't you just go quietly into the night? These tokens cost a fortune.

Reward: Gaian Modular Kitchen Token, Consumption Skill XP Token. +100 Class XP

This Magic Moment

You’ve faced and survived your first encounter with magic.

So yeah, did this whole wizard assassin thing backfire on your old friend, the system instance? Sure, you can see it that way. It’s not like I can issue you a “burn down all your beehives then kill the demon lord” quest. You’d never finish it. If only there was someone motivated in the exact other direction, I could ask. Oh, yeah, there is.

Rewards: Survivor’s Combat +1 LV, Rub Some Dirt On it +1 LV, +200 Class XP

“So what’d you get? Is the system playing fair?” Lucy asked.

“I don’t know what I was supposed to get, but it looks like the system instance didn’t have much room to screw around here. It’s some pretty good stuff,” Matt said.

Matt let her know about the skill updates and level-up. Having his primary combat skill and his survivability skill both go up at the same time was a big deal. Because Matt was responsible for tanking all the damage and killing all the monsters that a whole team would normally face, being able to take a few more hits or fight off a swarm of monsters was a big deal. He didn’t like how thin the line between life and death was for him without the ability to spread damage, tank, and survival responsibilities out over several party members. But it was what it was, and these notifications meant a pretty big boost in his survivability.

“There’s also this.” Matt held up the Skill Upgrade Token. “It upgrades Eat Anything!, or at least it’s supposed to. I’m not sure what happens if I use it right now, with the skill itself messed up.”

“It might fix it, right?”

“It might, or I might burn it for nothing. Or I might explode. I don’t think I actually want to explode anymore this week, honestly.”

“Counterpoint: You're always about to explode. And this seems like a good way to screw up the system’s plans. It doesn’t want you to have Eat Anything!, right? This seems like a good deal to get the skill back on his dime.”

Matt shook his head. “Before, I would have agreed with you. But something about how the system talks about that skill makes me think he didn’t have anything to do with it. Think about it. If the system could take away skills at any time, why not take away my combat skill? Or my defense skill? Why not mess up my movement skill during the chase with the ape?”

“The rules?”

“Probably. But if he’s not doing it, then who is? Barry said it was an outside force, and I’d hate to think he was lying to us. I originally thought it might be someone the system was hiring in the same way it’s hiring these assassins, but it just… I dunno. It feels different.”

“Different?”

“Just in my gut. This doesn’t feel like a system thing. But I’m not sure. Which means this token,“ Matt twirled the coin between two of his fingers, “Could be anything. It could be a lifesaver, or a trap, or instant death if I used it right now.”

“So you are keeping it in reserve?”

“For now. To be safe.”

—

Two weeks was a long time without dungeon access. So Matt and Lucy worked hard on what they called property prep, doing as much as they could to prepare the property to be unpleasant if Leel was to visit while they were away. The upshot of having literally nothing to do was that they got an awful lot done, but boredom was still a big factor for both.

Museum trips were now mostly pointless, but they did a few anyway, gathering some seed and accidentally locking more exciting parts of the exhibitions into their memory. A week and a half in, they were bored enough to decide to take a trip to do something they hadn’t done in a while. They were going to look for buried treasure.

Usually, the dowsing rod was a bit annoying. It would find anything that was irregular compared to the surrounding soil, which was a nightmare if you actually had to find something specific. In the past, they had mostly turned up little pieces of the Gaian mystery metal, which usually wasn't worth the time investment. Now, it was great. There was always a small chance they would dig up something special, and if nothing else, it was an opportunity for Matt to level his digging skill and his normal human non-skill by just sprinting from place to place like a maniac and digging furiously whenever the dowsing rod signalled them to.

Over the course of the two days they set aside for it, they unearthed dozens of little pieces of Gaian metal, a few shaped like mechanical parts but most just fragments of something that had long since been blown apart. Given the durability of the metal, they speculated on what could have actually applied enough force to do that.

It wasn’t until nearly the end of their journey that they hit pay dirt.

"How big do you think it is, Matt?”

“No way to tell. It’s bigger than the shards we’ve been pulling, but probably smaller than the shovel, I guess?”

“You guess?! Matt, I can’t hold the dowsing rod. I just can’t. I’m going to need you to calibrate better.”

“It’s as big as it is. That’s all I can tell you. Besides, if you wait just a second, I’ll have it out.”

Between all the digging at home and time in the garden, Matt’s digging skill had picked up a few levels. It didn’t get any new magical capabilities, but both the percentage rate of the “critical hit” digging effect and his overall speed had gone up substantially. Lucy claimed that when Matt dug it was like now like watching a boring gardening video sped up, and without a clear third-party view of himself, Matt had no way of disproving that.

In a few more seconds, Matt's shovel clinked on something solid, and Matt pulled out his magic multitool’s spade mode to do the detail work. In moments, he had uncovered the top of the object, revealing a small 3” dome of the mystery metal.

“Oh, please, please be what I think you are,” Matt begged the lump of metal before shoving the spade deep in the dirt beside it to pry it loose.

“Wait, what do you think it is?”

“When I was back on Earth, I ordered this thing online.” Matt was now hovering his hand over the spade, afraid to find out that he was wrong about what the object might be. “A giant ball bearing. A giant STEEL ball bearing.”

“And?”

“And what? It’s was a 3' piece of perfectly round, mirrored steel, Lucy.

Lucy looked confused. “So?”

“So? It’s awesome. It weighs way more than an object that size should. You could roll it around. It was awesome.”

“Is this… is this just like, a guy thing? Because this is going entirely over my head.”

“It’s possible. Anyway, the only problem with it was that when it came from the factory, it was perfect, but then it would get scratched and tarnished, all that. But this is the weird Gaian metal stuff. It just doesn’t get scratched or tarnished. It would be perfect forever.”

“So you could have been looking for a sword, or… like, a tool or something. If you were excited about that, I’d get it. But this? This is what you want? A useless round metal object?”

“You aren’t going to discourage me. Round metal objects are rad. You can’t convince me otherwise.” Gathering his bravery, Matt popped his hand down on the spade, dislodging the object. It was about 3–4 inches wide and very dusty with soil. But most importantly to Matt, it rolled.

“Oh, hell yes.”

Lucy rolled her eyes. “Great. Let’s get home. You can enshrine your weird ball in the shack.”

“Not a chance.” Matt was already furiously washing the ball with water and a rag. “This is going in my pack. I’m keeping it with me always.”

—

“Matt, I have a whole library of Earth references and nothing for what these past two weeks have been. It wasn’t a staycation because we worked. It wasn’t a vacation because we didn’t really go anywhere. There’s just no word for sitting around your house preparing to get murdered by a wizard between doing random treasure hunts.”

After a quick trip home to pick some vegetables and top off a well-rinsed bag with disgusting ape honey, Matt and Lucy had headed out for the nearest appropriate dungeon, something not quite on the level of the ant dungeon, but close. They hadn’t decided whether or not to continue on with the mana-generator purchasing quest yet, but after actually getting stronger from the ant dungeon, their way forward seemed clear.

“Oh, sure there is,” Matt said, “You just aren’t being creative enough.”

“Screw you, I’m not. You do better.”

“These last two weeks,” Matt said, flourishing his arm, “Have been a filler episode. There’s still baddies, you don’t really get much stronger, but it’s a chance to unwind after all the intense stuff, and just enjoy who you are.”

“That doesn’t…” Lucy stopped. “Dammit, that’s what it is, isn’t it.”

“Yup. After all, what is Gaia but one giant, oceanless beach?”

“I hate you.”