My arms were jelly as I grit my teeth and forced myself to do one more pushup. With my stamina all exhausted, I fell back down, breathing heavily.

“How… How many was that…?” I asked between the breaths.

JamieWasTaken3: 21

trelipideliberitation: 21!

I groaned.

“There’s no way I can get that stupid skill point before I starve to death…” I mumbled.

I was between a rock and a hard place. I could either risk it and try eating the green stuff without appraising it first, or I could try going into the dungeon again in hopes of getting a food drop, knowing that my inexperience might get me killed.

“This sucks…” I said as I got up again after catching my breath.

I glanced at a nearby bush, thought about my options for a minute, and then finally made an executive decision.

I let out a sigh and very reluctantly walked over to a nearby bush, before reaching out and plucking a leaf out of it.

I did not expect the small burst of orange smoke that came out of both the leaf and the branch from the point where I separated them.

I yelped in surprise and dropped the leaf as I jumped back.

JamieWasTaken3: wtf?!

bloopbooper: bloop?!

I stared as more smoke seeped out and dispersed in the air before the trickle gradually slowed down and stopped, leaving behind a completely innocent leaf and a bush.

I stared at it.

“...Chat. Something tells me these are not normal plants either,” I said, deadpan. “I don’t know if I wanna eat leaves filled with toxic fumes… No scratch that, I know I don’t wanna do that.”

trelipideliberitation: but what if it’s delicious

JamieWasTaken3: yea I dunno

Jeofffff: eh so green sludge is better?

I groaned again.

“I don’t know! Dammit, I wish I’d gotten appraisal instead of heat vision now…” I let out a pathetic whine as my stomach grumbled again.

This was getting me nowhere. As much as I wanted to first make sure it was all safe, stressing out about everything didn’t accomplish anything. Everything was risky, but I would be damned if I just didn’t even try anything and let myself starve to death.

So I plucked another leaf from the bush. Just like before, the orange fumes seeped out of it but I didn’t drop it this time. Instead, I carefully reached out with my other hand to carefully wave my hand through the fumes.

It didn’t feel like much of anything, but weirdly enough, rather than my hand blocking the smoke, it almost seemed to absorb it.

I retracted my hand and looked at it. It didn’t look any more orange than before and I didn’t feel any different.

“...Chat, why does everything about this world have to be so weird?”

Irid123: it’s pretty unique though

JamieWasTaken3: do you have tree powers now?

trelipideliberitation: why not? lol

PrestoFive55: you’re absorbing it?

I rolled my eyes, but quickly checked my status regardless to confirm that nothing had changed.

“No, I don’t think I have tree powers.” I sighed as the leaf I was still holding ejected the last bits of the smoke. I eyed it for a few more seconds before shrugging and putting it in my mouth.

It tasted like… well, a random bush leaf. Bitter, hard to chew, and overall just unpleasant. Really, what else had I expected?

I swallowed with a grimace and part of me expected to see the quest completed pop-up, but unfortunately, that didn’t happen.

“I don’t think that was very nutritious… ” I shook my head. “Well, test number two then…”

JamieWasTaken3: wtf dont do it

trelipideliberitation: you’re not gonna do what I think you are right?

There was another small pond of the green slime right beside the dungeon, so luckily, I didn’t have to backtrack at all to get to some.

Once again, I knelt by it and scooped up a handful, ignoring the chat going crazy.

“Look, chat. It’s either this or go back into the dungeon and fight weird zombies! And I suck at fighting!”

It still smelled awfully sweet.

“Here goes nothing…”

I licked a bit of it.

It was as sweet as its scent.

I waited for a few seconds, but I neither felt like I was dying nor was there a quest completed pop-up.

Of course, it could still have delayed side effects, but I couldn’t afford to wait around an arbitrary amount of time while my death clock ticked down every second.

So, despite my better judgment, I leaned in and actually slurped some of it.

It… actually tasted pretty good. Fruity and sweet.

Still no pop-up or sudden heart attack or what have you, but… I did feel oddly refreshed. Like drinking coffee, but with instant effects. Not only that, but the tiredness from all those pushups vanished as well.

Well then…

SpoOo0oOon: was it safe?

JamieWasTaken3: whats it taste like?

PrestoFive55: wow that’s gross

I shrugged.

“Tastes a bit like fruit jelly. But more liquid and I have no idea what fruit.” I hummed. “Also, I think that theory about the potion being this stuff but refined might be true. I feel more energized now!”

So I slurped up some more slime, sarcastically thinking to myself that my life had really gone off rails if I was happily doing something so gross.

“Still no pop-up, though! What’s up with that? Does it not count as food? I already feel a bit better!”

JamieWasTaken3: fake food

GonguuH: did the day counter increase?

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RetconRanger: Maybe it’s like drinking an energy drink to satiate hunger. So… not very effective.

I hummed as I idly checked the quest to confirm that nothing had changed.

I sighed.

“I think Ranger’s right. It temporarily gives me some energy, but it’s not really food…” I pursed my lips and looked back at the damn dungeon. “I guess I have to go try the dungeon again regardless…”

I stared for a bit, trying to find an excuse not to go back there. Besides my cowardice, though, there wasn’t any. I was officially out of options and nothing out here would satiate my hunger. Dungeon loot was my only bet.

I huffed, stood up, took a deep breath…

“Alright, fine! I’ll try the dungeon again! Because if I have to die on my second day of being isekai’d, I might as well go down in a blaze of glory!”

SpoOo0oOon: but it’s dangerous

JamieWasTaken3: yooo I believe in you!

trelipideliberitation: yolooooo

JamieWasTaken3: go kick zombie ass!

GonguuH: you should get used to using the sword first

I pulled out my sword – which was still glowing, huh– and gave it a few swings through the empty air.

“Yeah, you’re right. I was just being an idiot! I gotta train first!”

Despite all the stress, and pressure, and life or death situations, part of me had still felt like this was some kind of game. And in most video games, when you got a new weapon, you didn’t have to practice using it. That, obviously, didn’t apply to real life. And this was real life, as much as I liked to pretend otherwise.

But if this was real life, then that meant I would never see my sister and my friends… I would never get to eat pizza or play video games… I would never–

Alright, stop. Let’s just think of this as a highly realistic video game for now.

I skipped over to a nearby bush and swung at it, cutting a few leaves off, causing it to release the orange smoke again.

“Do you guys have any tips for actually using a sword…? I feel like I’m just waving it around.”

SunOfABeach: make every swing count

GonguuH: focus on dodging first and hitting your enemy second

GonguuH: it’s not really a win if you get injured too

SunOfABeach: keep your enemies far enough that they can’t hit you but you can hit them

SunOfABeach: sidestep their attacks rather than backing up

I hummed as I read the various tips and tried to apply them against the poor bush. Obviously, since the bush didn’t counter-attack or even move, it wasn’t the greatest of practice dummies.

It felt only marginally silly. But hey, I was still a Vcuber, being silly was part of my job.

“I’m missing some montage music, chat. Can one of the upgrades do that…?” I quickly checked but unfortunately, I didn’t see an option for background music. Lame.

But then again, if I had the option, I would probably play something in the background all the time, and then I would probably get distracted by it while in a dungeon and get killed or something.

I spent a good hour trying to get used to swinging my sword while jumping around and keeping aware of my surroundings. I also tried cutting a trunk of a tree because I naively thought I could cut it in one swing like in video games.

I couldn’t. I just made a dent in it. More importantly, though, as soon as I pried my sword out of it, the orange smoke began flooding out of it. There was a lot more of it than when I cut the bush.

“So I guess the plants here are powered by the orange smoke,” I concluded.

JamieWasTaken3: FAKE TREES

trelipideliberitation: wtf even is it

JamieWasTaken3: EVERYTHING IS FAKE

Once again, I waved my hand through the smoke gushing out of the tree. Unlike with the bushes, I did actually feel something when my hand absorbed the smoke. A very subtle tingly feeling in my muscles.

I looked at my hand again and it looked the same as ever. It just felt… stronger? Filled with energy? It was actually very similar to the green sludge, just concentrated in my hand.

“Huh… Maybe the smoke is similar to the slime…?” I mused.

I couldn’t wait to get appraisal and figure it all out. Assuming I could use appraisal on the smoke, at least.

For now, I stopped my wild sword swinging and moved on to practicing my fire breath in a relatively plant-free area. I did not want a repeat of what had happened earlier in the dungeon. I had been lucky nothing had jumped me while I’d been incapacitated.

As it turned out, there was some kind of cooldown for the skill. I could sort of feel when it was safe to use it and when I tried to use it sooner, my throat muscles would cramp and I would start choking.

Luckily, I could use smaller fire breaths in succession instead of one large one before the pseudo-cooldown kicked in.

“I guess it’s like I have a fuel gauge for it that automatically fills up, but when I try to use it with an empty gauge, I choke…”

GonguuH: that’s probably what Ether is

JamieWasTaken3: yea you ran out of ether thats why you choke

Jeofffff: so Ether recharges really fast then?

I nodded. “Hmm, I guess so?”

I continued to experiment, using the fire breath in various ways, and noticed the energy from before slowly fading. Even as I got more and more tired, I kept practicing the skill, trying all the different ways I could shape and aim it.

But then, as I let out one last fire breath, instead of feeling the familiar ‘cooldown’ kick in, I suddenly felt like I got hit by a tsunami. My muscles all shuddered, my head spun, my vision got blurry, and I collapsed into a heap.

My entire body shook and I felt sluggish. It was even worse than back in the dungeon.

Fuck fuck fuck!

I couldn’t move. I could barely twitch my fingers.

Needless to say, I began panicking even as chat began to fuss over me. Somehow, despite my vision being blurry, I could still read chat perfectly.

SpoOo0oOon: Nana!

JamieWasTaken3: oh fuck you overdid it

Irid123: uh that’s not good

I couldn’t respond, though. I just lay there, my body twitching, my mind going into overdrive trying to figure out how to fix this.

If I could, I would probably be hyperventilating and flinging my limbs around. As it stood, all I could manage were shallow breaths and small twitches of muscles.

It was terrifying, this kind of loss of control.

Luckily, even though nothing I tried to do helped, it eventually stopped on its own. It took a while – it was hard to tell how long exactly – but the sudden paralysis eventually faded and I could somewhat move again.

“Ffff–iiighterplane…” I slurred out, my throat muscles still apparently not working properly. “What… even… was ‘hat…” I said between shuddering breaths.

Jeofffff: I think THAT was you running out of Ether

GonguuH: I think you have a big Ether battery and a small one

JamieWasTaken3: too much smoke

GonguuH: the small one quickly recharges from the big one

GonguuH: fire breath uses the small one

JamieWasTaken3: oh yea that makes sense

GonguuH: and you just emptied your big battery

I blinked a few times.

“That… makes sense, yeah.” I sighed as I attempted to get up on my shaky limbs. “So… be careful not to run out completely or… that happens. Got it.”

I was really lucky there were no animals around to chomp on me while I’d lain there. Still, I never wanted to experience that again. I really needed to be careful with how much I used the fire breath… and probably any other future skill that used Ether.

I briefly glanced around and found out that it was getting dark again. It caught me off guard again, but this time, I didn’t panic. Since no monsters had come to get me last night, there probably wouldn’t be anything this night either.

Hell, did I even need a shelter? If there was literally nothing except for weird smoke plants and dungeons as far as the eye could see…

I groaned and plopped back down.

“Welp, might as well just sleep wherever, right? I don’t get cold, and it’s not like I’m gonna find a more comfortable place to sleep.”

PrestoFive55: already?

“Yeah… It’s not like I can do much else, right? I’m just gonna knock myself out if I keep practicing. Screw that.” I shook my head. “And I’m definitely not gonna try and take on the dungeon now when I’m all tired.”

JamieWasTaken3: hey maybe try to eat more goop?

GonguuH: that’s true, maybe it recharges Ether

I blinked… and then slowly got up again.

“That’s a good idea, actually… Yeah, you know what? That energizing effect is probably my Ether being recharged!”

I dragged myself over to the slime lake despite my protesting muscles, scooped up some of it, and drank it.

I instantly felt better, the vague void inside me filling with energy again. My instincts were telling me that I was good to go, as far as breathing fire was concerned.

So just to test it, I looked up, in a direction where no trees were, and breathed a little flare of fire. As expected, I felt the pseudo-cooldown settle in as always, but the emptiness quickly filled in again and I was free to use the skill once more.

“Okay! Yeah! I got it! This stuff is like… Ether recharge potion!” Then I remembered the vial still in my pocket and pulled it out. “And this thing is a refined version!” I concluded with a grin.

It felt good to finally figure out something in all the weirdness of this world.

Obviously, I still had many questions about everything. Like, why were those sludge lakes even around? Where did they come from? Could I refine it into the viscous potion myself somehow? Could–

My stomach growled.

“Ugh… It doesn’t help with my hunger, though… Dammit.” I glanced back at the dungeon and eyed it for a moment.

I no longer felt sleepy, I had my energy drink in case of emergency, and I’d practiced using my sword and fire breath a decent amount.

Sure, it was getting late but…

“Alright chat. Change of plans. It’s dungeon time again! This time for real!”