Deadworld Isekai

Before the battle, Matt realized that he had a serious problem with his traps.

The Clownrats were wary enough of anything new that they were now avoiding anything even a little bit weird to them, including objects that Matt had only bumped into or shuffled around. They weren’t going to trip on any trap with a visible trigger.

He could hide the triggers, but the Clownrats mostly kept to the path with small deviations. Hell, he couldn't discern any visible pattern to the rats when they avoided his traps. They'd go left, right, jump, back. In every direction but onto the trap.

From how the dungeon described them, it was entirely possible that these Clownrats were basically programs with some if-then conditional lines of code. For all he knew, he might wait a thousand years without them varying from their current pattern.

Even worse, setting up a trap in the brush where they couldn’t see it essentially meant also setting a trap where he couldn’t see it. Not only would they be unlikely to trigger it, but…

There’s a good chance I’d trigger it myself.

And with that thought, Matt's survival instincts began to go crazy.

—

Matt’s feet looked like chewed up steak. The rat had been so angry that Matt began to seriously doubt his theory that the beasts might be programmed simulations. He didn't know a lot about AI, but it was hard to imagine an AI program that got as angry as the mother rat had. It was biting his feet out of pure spite. By the time Matt got to the tripwire for his hidden whip trap, he was pretty sure that the thing had severed some of his toes.

But he got to the trigger. When he set up the trap, the idea was to get behind the tripwire somehow and bait the animal into it. Barring that, he could activate it himself, but he had been worried about not being low enough to save himself from getting impaled. That ended up not being a worry. He couldn't have stood, even if he wanted to.

Since he was only setting up one trap, Matt had gone a little overboard. He had combined as many of his previous attempts together as he could, which resulted in a much sturdier trigger that would take more to set off. More importantly, the lethal portion of the trap ended up being about four times as substantial as any other trap he had set up so far. When the time came to arm it, he could barely bend the whole thing back.

The practical upshot of this is that when the trap hit the Clownrat mother, it hit it hard. Two of the stakes went completely through its torso, and the last one ripped across its face so hard, it damn near detached the clown nose. The branch hardly slowed down either. The rat ended up being flung off the spikes, landing several feet from Matt. It laid still, barely breathing and clearly dying.

Matt wasn’t in much better shape. His legs had taken several deep, powerful bites. His feet had sustained much more serious damage. Blood poured out of his wounds and he was starting to feel lightheaded.

It looked like not all 1 HP states were created equal. Before, vitality had easily closed the simple wounds around his body. This time, it was having trouble dealing with his mangled feet. After several seconds, it became pretty clear that the wounds were going to win the race. He wasn’t going to make it.

As his field of vision dimmed, Matt focused on the Clownrat mother, watching its breathing dwindle to nothing.

Come on, you asshole. Die. At least I can watch you melt away before I go.

Just before his vision faded to black, the rat finally started dissolving away. He lost consciousness immediately after.

—

Ding!

Matt woke up. That was a shock. He was more surprised to find he was fine and laying in the dungeon's grassy fields. All the damage from his battle was gone, even the tears and rips in his clothes. He looked the same as when he had first entered the dungeon. Referencing his notifications spread some light on why.

Dungeon Objective Complete!

You exterminated the Clownrat packs, and the forest is back in ecological balance. Congratulations! You may leave the dungeon whenever you wish.

Rewards: Dungeon Prizes

Exit dungeon now? Y/N

Saved by the bell

That was close. Having sustained wounds you couldn’t recover from and without any healing resources, you managed to complete your dungeon objective. You were brought back by the dungeon’s automatic post-mission healing function. That’s about as close as you can cut it.

Reward: Random Skill Improvement, +1 VIT, +5 Class EXP

Random skill selection: [Eat Anything!] promoted to LV2.

Solo Dungeon

You have completed a dungeon meant for a party by yourself. This probably wasn’t a good thing to try, but it’s still a hard thing to do and deserves a reward.

Reward +1 VIT, +5 Class EXP

Over Your Head

You completed a dungeon designed for a much higher level. We can only guess you don’t pay very close attention. We'll do our best to help.

Reward: Unskippable Dungeon Level Notification, +1 PER

Never saw it coming

You have killed an opponent that had a superior perception with an attack they completely failed to notice. Taking advantage of their blind spot means a reduction in your own.

Reward: +1 PER

It might have been Matt’s imagination, but it seemed like the system was getting snarkier over time. The announcements were barely veiled criticisms of him tempting fate, even though “barely surviving” was what his class required for advancement. And it wasn't as if the system was completely unaware of that, since his rewards seemed to be tailored to satisfying the survive-what-you-shouldn't nature of his class. Two points in both VIT and PER were big all on their own, and he wasn't even counting his skill advancement. If the system was mad at him for taking risks, at least it didn't skimp on the payout.

As Matt opened his system interface to look into the changes to [Eat Anything!], he was momentarily distracted by an entirely new tab labeled Pending Dungeon Rewards. Putting his curiosity regarding the skill level up aside for a moment, he mentally prompted the tab to open.

Dungeon Reward Selection!

You have completed a dungeon objective and the reward is a prize from the following list:

Assassin’s Dagger: You wait in the darkness, only to spring out and rain death down on your enemies. The assassin’s dagger is a thin, sharp weapon designed for striking vital points and killing foes in a single hit.

That was pretty good, but it wasn’t like Matt didn’t already have a knife. A better knife didn’t solve any of his larger problems. Matt continued on.

Reinforced Survivor’s Garb (1 piece): Bridging the gap from clothing to armor, the reinforced survivor’s garb protects while still allowing a full range of motion. The full set represents a substantial increase in protection compared to the basic survivor’s garb.

Like the dagger, this was nice but wouldn’t do much to help him with his immediate concerns. He would take this over the knife. For now, he set it off to the side to look at his final option.

Repair Stone (LV1)

Every adventurer needs to repair their equipment for dents and holes. The repair stone will fix any mundane and lightly enchanted equipment, bringing a worn weapon to peak condition or repairing equipment from the [broken] condition.

Great, Matt thought. Really useful, thanks.

The dungeon had already repaired everything he was wearing, and the only other piece of his gear that had any wear on it was his rope. Maybe if he picked up something broken somewhere else he could fix that, but he hadn’t seen anything resembling equipment in the outside world.

The water stone!

Matt had no idea what “lightly enchanted” meant. Hell, he had no idea what “equipment” covered. Assuming he could fix the water stone, he might just be able to take it with him. Again, a gamble. But it was the only thing on the reward list that stood a chance of actually helping him live.

A golf-ball-sized round rock immediately materialized in the air in front of him and fell to the ground. Matt put it into his pack and jumped over to his status screen.

Matt Perison
Level 2 Survivor
Class XP: 12/15

HP: 45
MP: N/A
STAM: 30

STR 5
DEX 9
PER 7
VIT 9
WIS 7
INT 5

Class Skills: Survivor’s Instincts (LV1), Survivor's Combat (LV1), Eat Anything (LV2)

Unlike other attributes, it was immediately clear what Perception did. He could see further, better, and faster. That last was something he noticed when the repair stone fell to the ground. He was able to track it visually the whole way to the ground with no special effort, as if it was an object someone tossed you while trying to make it easy to catch. When fighting the Clownrats, the extra dexterity also came in handy. He was faster and more competent. But when the rats tried to bite him, Matt had trouble seeing the strike well enough to get out of the way. He hoped perception would help with that, and was glad he didn’t have to gamble with his assignable stat points to find out if it did.

It was a shame that the dungeon completion didn’t give EXP, he’d probably get some extra stat points out of the level up. Still, he was much closer to level 3. There was just one last thing to examine, and for once, it was just how he had hoped it would be.

—

Eat Anything! - LV2

Eat anything allows you to eat things a normal person couldn’t. At the second level, this means getting more nutrition out of food and being able to digest some otherwise inedible foods. Tree bark steak, here we come!

Matt had some seriously low blood sugar by the time he found some more berries. Before, the system had indicated they might be poisonous but wouldn’t give up any actual calories. At that point, it was right. But now, Matt was willing to gamble that the level 2 [Eat Anything!] would change that. Cautiously, he put one in his mouth and chewed it.

Despite looking deliciously red and being a simulated relic, the berry’s flavor was mellow well past the point of tasting overripe, and verging on spoiled. Matt was hungry enough that he barely tasted anything. He swallowed the berry as soon as it was chewed enough that he wouldn’t choke.

Ding!

Poison Roulette

You have consumed a poisonous food source. Luckily, the poison either wasn’t strong enough to hurt you or you negated it somehow. Keep trying, though! Something will kill you eventually!

Rewards: None

Matt was convinced: the system was definitely getting snarkier. This was the most sarcastic it had seemed yet. He had survived the berry, and it wasn’t a repeatable achievement, so it wasn’t exactly meaningful information for him. The only reason to give him the achievement was to give him grief.

Ding!

Meta-Metabolizing

You have eaten fake food and somehow got real nourishment out of it. This is only a small, small fraction of what real food might give you, but it’s something. Keep going. Growing boys need their nourishment.

Reward: +1 STR

Matt was elated. Beyond elated. He had never appreciated how easy it was to get food on Earth, at least in the part he was from. The longest he had ever gone without a meal before was probably a day, when he was busy or stressed or just flat-out forgot. He didn’t have a great sense of how long he had been on Gaia, but it had to have been longer than a day. Food was all he could think about at this point.

Matt wasn’t sure if he could eat an infinite amount of pretend dungeon-hologram berries, but he was ready to try.