“Nggnhhhhh!” I said as I made that last pushup and then collapsed into a heaving pile on the ground as the system window jumped in front of me.
‘Arm day’ achievement unlocked!
+1 Skill point
“Fuh…Finally…” I gasped out.
Arm day - Do a total of 500 pushups. [COMPLETE]
Leg day - Do a total of 500 squats. [COMPLETE]
I’d been working on these since day one – well, day two – so it was nice to finally get these two achievements. Sure, two measly skill points didn’t seem like that much nowadays, but every little bit counted. If I ever actually decided to go ahead with the Limit Break, I would need all the help I could get.
Once I caught my breath and my arms and legs felt a bit less like jelly, I sat up, and wiped the sweat off by brow.
I glanced over my skill list once more and double-checked the numbers just to make sure before nodding to myself and fishing out – hah! Get it? – the piece of shark meat I’d left soaking in my bucket filled with water to get the nasty taste out of it.
Because from what Blouterest had told me last night, sharks urinated through their skin, meaning that it soaked through their entire body. Freaking gross.
Obviously, I had no idea if shark meat looted from a dungeon would have the same problem, but I didn’t want to take my chances.
As for why I was about to eat that instead of my infinite pizza, well…
Appraisal said nothing about the meat having some kind of protection from going bad like the tentacle, and I wasn’t one to waste food.
So shark meat for breakfast it was.
After I’d woken up, I’d gathered some branches into a pile and fenced them in with some rocks I’d found around – again, Blouterest advised me on how to do this properly – to make a campfire. Then just a bit of Ether to ignite it, a random stick to skewer the shark meat, and I let it roast.
“Mmm… Not gonna lie, it smells pretty good…” I mumbled.
RetconRanger: I wonder what it tastes like.
SpoOo0oOon: it looks delicious!
bloopbooper: bloooop! (っ˘ڡ˘ς)
SpoOo0oOon: you deserve some good food finally
uptonMIKE: this is so relaxing
“Yeah me too. Thanks, Spoon.” I smiled. “Mmm, yeah. It’s nice to just sit around and roast some shark meat after yesterday.”
I was in my ‘off-stream’ mode at the moment. Sure, I couldn’t help the fact that I was always streaming, but that didn’t mean I had to constantly be in my ‘entertaining Vcuber’ mode. I would burn out.
Even just the fact that I couldn’t really escape the camera nowadays had me constantly stressed. So I’d come to the executive decision to mostly ignore chat and do my own thing in the mornings before ‘starting the stream’.
As for the shark meat? Well, it tasted like a tender and fishy chicken. Not bad, to be honest. I just wished I had something to go with it. Any kind of sauce, bread, or even some fruit.
My trees had grown, but hadn’t reached the stage at which they would bear fruit yet, unfortunately.
trelipideliberitation: so what’s the plan?
“Not sure yet,” I said between bites. “I haven’t looked at the results of the poll yet. I wanna do it when I start the stream.”
trelipideliberitation: when are you starting?
“In a bit. Just lemme finish my breakfast…”
Maybe the piece I’d roasted was a bit too big. I did have the body of a small child, after all… Ugh.
I had grown since I’d first hatched from the egg though. After over a week of accelerated growth, it was starting to become pretty noticeable, actually.
Damn.
It didn’t feel like a week. It felt like I’d been in this world for ages already. Was that also the effect of the accelerated growth? My perception of time? Or was it just because those few days were full of action and adrenaline?
Still. That was just a week. How long would it take me to get back to Earth…? (And I would get back to Earth.) By the time I did, would I forget things? Would I forget how it was like to be me? The previous me? Would I forget the life of a trans Vcuber who’d run from their shitty family, living in a crappy apartment, streaming to a small audience every night?
Even worse, would something make me forget? If mental attacks existed, who was to say that something couldn’t erase my memories?
…Would the Limit Break try to do that?
It was kind of in the name. Breaking.
And that was really the crux of the issue for me. Why I was so reluctant to go ahead with it. Despite all the crappy things I’d gone through in my life, I didn’t just want to forget everything. It was an essential part of who I was.
The system had already messed with my mind, and running out of Intra really screwed with my head, but neither left permanent damage.
Even if it took a skill slot and a fair amount of points, part of me wanted to get Rend and Mind Shield before I took on the Limit break.
Just to be safe.
“Alright!” I clapped my hands and stood up. I’d finished the big chunk of roasted shark meat, washed my hands, and was ready to start the stream now.
As always, I summoned John and had him face a random tree. I stuck out my hands into the frame and counted down from seven before I made him turn to me.
“Goooood mooorning, my precious little Aquamarines! It’s me! Aoto Nana, your favorite dungeon conqueror!” I exclaimed with a wide grin. “As you might know, I beat my first dungeon yesterday! If you missed it, you can watch the stream history! The final fight was an ordeal, I tell you!”
I winced, just remembering the damn shark.
“But anyway! Now, we have a dilemma! You see, the dungeon just kind of shut down and kicked me out after I beat it! Apparently, it’s resetting right now and it’s going to take two whole days to finish! So, what now? Well, I have a handful of options, actually! And in fact, I made a poll last night so that you guys could help me decide! If you haven’t voted yet, make sure to do so, because I’ll be closing the poll in a few minutes!”
With that, I walked over to my backpack and reached into it to pull out the main loot I’d gotten from the shark yesterday – the shark hoodie and the handcannon.
“Now, while you guys do that, there’s a couple of things on the agenda! First, I wanted to test out my awesome new loot I got from the final boss!” I frowned at the hoodie. “Well, mostly the gun. The hoodie is for later.”
I put the hoodie back inside and held the handcannon in both hands.
It was fairly heavy, actually, but not too big of a deal to aim and fire with it.
“So this thing apparently eats up a lot of Ether, so I’m gonna have to be careful not to knock myself out and then have it bounce back into my unmoving body or something. That would be a really dumb way to go.”
I mentally poked it to see where and how it wanted me to feed it Ether and once I figured it out, I lifted it up, pointed it at a random tree – away from my growing fruit trees – and slowly pushed down the trigger.
Just as I’d expected, a glowing ball of electrified plasma began to grow in front of the cannon’s muzzle and I felt my Ether drain away at an alarming rate.
Before it could drain me completely dry, I released the trigger, the gun made a pwoof sound, and the plasma ball slowly sailed forward through the air in the tree’s direction.
Even as I fell on my back from the surprisingly strong recoil, I made John slowly turn to keep the ball in his point of view.
“Oof! Ugh, I forgot just how much the shark recoiled when he fired it,” I mumbled as I stood up.
In the meantime, the ball finally reached the tree trunk.
The moment the ball hit the bark, the entire freaking tree was suddenly on fire and spewing out orange smoke in all directions.
My eyes went wide and my jaw dropped at this outrageous destructive power.
I didn’t have much time to marvel at it, though, because the plasma ball had bounced off the tree and into the grass, where it created even more fire, and then bounced off to head somewhere upwards.
I quickly scrambled forward to catch it before it flew off into the stratosphere, pressed the trigger on my handcannon once more, but this time, I reversed the flow of the Ether, and just as I captured the plasma ball between the metal rods sticking out of the handcannon, the ball began to get smaller and I felt my own Ether rise.
Once the plasma ball was completely gone, I put down the handcannon, raised my gloved hand, and began hosing down all the fire before the entire freaking forest burned down.
“Oh, come on!”
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
It was reasonably effective, but some spots high up in the trees were still impossible to reach.
So instead, I fired off a bubble into the branches and watched as it popped and flooded the canopy the moment some of the flames licked it.
A few bubbles later, the fire was all gone and the only traces of it were the black husk of a tree the plasma ball had hit head on.
I stared at it as the nasty smell of charcoal wafted past my nose. John came closer to look at the carnage and silently stared as well before both of us turned to each other.
“...So, anyway. This thing is gonna be very useful if I ever run into any plant monsters and such,” I confidently declared, ignoring my little accident.
trelipideliberitation: poor tree, rest in peace o7
bloopbooper: b-bloop (·口·)
uptonMIKE: wow that could have ended very badly
“Best part is that I barely even feel it! Reabsorbing that ball restored most of my Ether! It’s great!” I cheerily said, continuing to ignore the fact that I’d almost committed suicide via forest fire.
There was a moment of silence.
“Ahem. Anyway, that was one thing. Another thing I wanted to do was to spend my skill points. Of course, we already more or less decided what I’m gonna be spending them on, so let’s go through with it, shall we?”
Truth be told, I was still a bit leery of the whole ‘merging an object with my soul’ thing, but I figured it couldn’t be too bad if it was a tier one skill that presumably any human could get.
Purchase the skill [Soulbound Item] for 2 skill points?
Y/N
‘Soulbound item’ skill unlocked!
Purchase the [Soulbound Item] skill upgrade [Blacksmith] for 5 skill points?
Y/N
‘Blacksmith’ skill upgrade unlocked!
Purchase the skill [Armsmaster] for 8 skill points?
Y/N
‘Armsmaster’ skill unlocked!
Purchase the [Armsmaster] skill upgrade [Ultimate Fusion] for 15 skill points?
Y/N
‘Ultimate Fusion’ skill upgrade unlocked!
“Aaand there we go. Now… There was something I wanted to test. See, Craftsman should still be on cooldown and I shouldn’t be able to equip it just yet, but Armsmaster had absorbed Craftsman, so can I equip it? Let’s test it!”
Replace [Fire Breath] with [Armsmaster]?
Note: [Fire Breath] will not be re-equipable for 24 hours.
Y/N
“I can! Nice! Perfect! That means that we don’t need to wait! We can go right to the final thing on the agenda before we close the poll!”
Replace [Flameguard] with [Soulbound Item]?
Note: [Flameguard] will not be re-equipable for 24 hours.
Y/N
“Alright! Wow, this feels weird to be without any fire skills at all… Anyway! Soulbound item! It’s something I’ve been eyeing for quite some time. The Blacksmith upgrade specifically will let me cram dozens of items into one! The plan is to create the ultimate gear!” I explained once more. “But right now, I don’t have enough points to get Dual Wield, so I have to decide which item I want to bind to my soul. And, well. The obvious choice is a weapon, right? But actually, I thought about it and… I think the best choice is actually armor. My clothes, to be specific.”
I walked back to my backpack, couched down, and pulled out the hoodie once again.
“You see, I realized that while I frequently use several different weapons during fights, there’s one thing that’s always a constant! That’s right, my clothes! You can’t change clothes mid-fight! And more importantly, because now I won’t have the privilege of healing myself using fire, I need another way to defend myself! Thus, ultimate armor comes first!”
I pulled out the swimsuit out as well.
“But it’s not gonna be just armor! It’s going to have all sorts of functions!”
I placed the clothing on the grass and then pulled out the inflatable swimming sleeves as well.
“Teleportation, mid-air floating, better swimming… And I bet that if I raid another dungeon, I’ll find a bunch more clothes and armors to merge into it! And if all the defensive bonuses stack, then I won’t even need to heal ever again!” I finished explaining my plan with a grin. “I’ll become the ultimate tank!”
RetconRanger: That’s a solid plan.
SpoOo0oOon: I like it!
bloopbooper: boop!✧ദ്ദി( ˶^ᗜ^˶ )
Of course, it probably wouldn’t work out the way I thought it would. After all, these were just common tier two human skills. I very much doubted that an infinite defense exploit existed this early on.
This also wasn’t a game, even if I liked to think in video game terms.
“So! My clothes, my Vcuber garb, is gonna be my first Soulbound Item.” I narrowed my eyes at John and made a shooing motion. “Turn around, John! I don’t know what will happen when I do it. What if the clothes just disappear for a moment? Don’t wanna have an accident on camera!”
trelipideliberitation: I thought there’s a censor?
“Well yeah, there should be a censor. But would you trust it?”
trelipideliberitation: eh fair enough
John turned around and I closed my eyes while placing hands on my torso. A bit of mental poking around and I found the switch like always. This one was a bit different though. It was very… rigid. Very mechanical, unlike the fluid and adjustable skills like Fire Breath and Flameguard.
Use Soulbind Item on Vcuber garb?
Warning: This cannot be undone!
Y/N
Huh. Alright then.
Confirm!
There was a little stutter and then the feeling of something cold touching and merging with my very being.
My eyes opened wide as the process finished and I stared at the clothes I was wearing.
I… What.
It felt like… Like the clothes were now… me? Or a part of me?
What the hell had I just done?
John turned back at me while I continued to stare at the… at the part of me that was shaped like clothes.
Oh god, I was going insane already.
I quickly shook my head and proceeded to ignore the alien feeling.
“Alright then! That went without a hitch!” I lied. “Now it’s time for the cool part!”
I grabbed the shark hoodie, stoutly ignoring the odd feeling, and held it in front of the camera.
“For those who don’t know, this was the loot from the final boss along with the handcannon.” I briefly glanced at the tree-shaped piece of charcoal still letting out smoke. “So you can imagine that it’s very good! And it is! It has a bunch of defense bonuses, an offensive bonus to water attacks and metallic weapons, and it also lets me teleport when I’m underwater! All in all, great stuff! I can only imagine how much defense I’ll be getting when I merge these two together!”
I gripped the hoodie and concentrated on activating Fusion.
It took a bit of effort on my part and I also felt a lot of my own Ether drain, but eventually, the hoodie finally turned into a big blob of orange energy with hints of glitchy purple energy, as well as a few wisps of green fluttering about.
Was the green Intra? Why was there Intra? Was it because of the whole ‘helping me be better with weapons’?
Well, it didn’t matter.
Just as I was used to, I shoved all of that energy inside the clothes I was already wearing and watched as they merged into each other with a flash of light.
Once it was over, I glanced at John’s screen and couldn’t help but grin.
My normal clothes gained a hoodie and some decorative fins around the sleeves and back. Surprisingly enough, the shoes now also had some fins around them.
Oh god, the fins were part of me as well now–
…
Anyway, I still wasn’t quite sure why the system considered the entire getup a single item, but hey, I wasn’t going to complain.
It looked cool and cute. The perfect combo. There were zero things wrong with it.
bloopbooper: blooop! (๑˃́ꇴ˂̀๑)
SpoOo0oOon: you look adorable!
I grinned in delight and spun around for the camera.
“There we go! Awesome, isn’t it? Let’s see how functional it is too!”
I reached into the backpack again to grab my naginata. The moment I brought it out though, I stopped and frowned at it.
It had been a cool weapon before, for sure, but I was still ultimately a beginner and could only go off of what Sun in chat told me. But now… Now when I looked at it, I suddenly had all sorts of ideas on how to use this thing properly.
What was…
Oh, right. Armsmaster made me better at weapons I’d made myself. I had no idea this thing would count.
Well, no complaining from me!
I grinned, raised the thing up, spun it in the air, and then pointed it at the burnt tree.
“Guess what, chat! This thing counts as a weapon I made myself for Armsmaster!” I said before jumping forward and slashing at the tree.
The naginata easily sliced through the charred wood and it crumpled to the ground, leaving behind a cloud of dust.
I backed away to avoid a sneezing fit and went for a different tree instead.
I wasn’t confident in my ability to slice the trunk itself, so I went for its branches instead. It felt effortless as I chopped off branch after branch as the cut spots leaked the familiar orange smoke all over.
I couldn’t help but laugh triumphantly.
If the me from just a week ago saw me now…
“Alright, chat! Warrior Nana is here! And if there are monsters I can’t stab for whatever reason, I still have my mega guns!” I stalked back to the backpack with a satisfied smile and grabbed my trusty bucket on the way. I let it store the water the shark meat had been in and instead brought out some life ooze just to restore my Ether.
Once I felt full again, I picked up the lily bikini.
“Now then… This was the whole point of getting these skills. Fusing more than just two objects. Let’s see what happens then!”
Once again, I used Fusion on the swimsuit. This time was much easier – perhaps because it was a lower level item than the hoodie? – and then quickly turned into a mass of orange energy. I proceeded to push it against my Soulbound clothing to finish the Fusion, but it resisted.
I frowned in concern.
The resistance wasn’t as unyielding as when I’d first tried to merge a third item together, so I kept pushing. It took extra Ether, but eventually, the swimsuit merged with my clothes with a flash and I was left with the odd sensation of being part Lilies now.
I blinked and then sniffed my sleeves.
They smelled like lilies. But it also felt like I was sniffing myself.
God. Fucking–
“Well, it worked!” I interrupted myself before I could spiral again. “But the bad news is that it cost extra Ether to do that.” I grunted. “And I guess that’s the catch, huh? The more I fuse into it, the more extra Ether it costs? Let’s try it one more time…”
I picked up the swimming sleeves and went through the same process of turning them into pure Ether and Fusing them with my outfit.
It took a lot of Ether to successfully merge them this time. Enough that I was kind of gasping for breath by the end.
It was tiring enough that I could ignore the feeling of becoming another partial inanimate object.
“O-Okay… Yeah, this is going to be a problem, chat. I guess I should only merge in high quality items for the best results, because I can’t do this infinitely, no matter what the description says…”
It was a bit of a letdown, but it also explained how this wasn’t in fact an infinite stat exploit.
“Well, that sucks. But it’s fine! I just have to get more Ether to merge more items! And more importantly, once I get a few more points, I can bind another item to my soul–” Oh, god, should I really do that? “–and then I can get an ultimate weapon as well! Probably one of my melee weapons. Although I’m curious about what would happen if I combined both of my guns… Hmm, food for thought…”
Then I took a deep breath, doing my best to keep ignoring the whole soul issue, and let out a sigh.
“Now. That’s enough stalling. I gave you lot plenty of time to vote, so let’s have a look at those results now!”
Poll: ‘What should I do now?’
Run the water park dungeon again: 5.41% (21 512)
Try the spaceship dungeon again: 19.78%(78 687)
Build a home: 23.00% (91 523)
Explore the world more: 29.80% (118 577)
Limit Break: 22.01% (87 561)
Close poll
Inwardly, I let out a sigh of relief that the damn Limit Break didn’t win. Then a moment later, my brain registered the sheer numbers.
How many people had voted for this? How in the… Okay, sure. Maybe I should stop getting surprised because those numbers get higher with every poll. Not to mention, I’d actually let this one run overnight, so…
“The results are in, everyone! Looks like mindless wandering won!” I announced to a mix of disappointment and excitement from chat.
“Now, don’t be sad! This was just the poll for what to do now. Nobody ever said I would never do the options later, you know?”
RetconRanger: So, you are planning on doing the Limit break?
“...Maybe. Later. Not right now. When I’m ready and out of other options, yeah,” I finally admitted.
RetconRanger: I’m sure it won’t be that bad.
RetconRanger: It’s just the first one out of three, right?
I grimaced.
“I have no idea, but whatever! No Limit Break now! It’s time to finally explore this world. This time without the looming threat of starvation!”
I put away all of my stuff into the backpack, took one last look at my growing fruit trees – I was pretty sure they would be fine even if I left – and then turned around and began walking.
“Alright, chat! We can go in any direction, but first, I wanna make a quick stop somewhere.” I smiled. “Let’s go back to the cave where I was reborn!”
> Part 1 - Acclimation: END