Chapter 3: Immortality, Discoveries, and the Creeping Wilds

Day 2

The sea breeze brushed against my skin-

Wait, hasn't this already happened before?

I opened my eyes, this time laying on my back as the sun rose over the same forest as before. Wisps of smoke rose into the morning sky, bits of rotten flesh and bones, as well as a handful of arrows and even a carrot, of all things, lying at the source of the smoke. And-

"The fuck?" I muttered, looking at the blood trail leading to a misshapen patch of beach, my things scattered next to the disturbance (which was very bloody, from what I could see on the ground), and a few bloody arrows lying flat on the ground. Where I was.

I stood up quickly, scanning the surrounding area for any other undead monsters, but I saw nothing. Since there were certainly a lot more around me when I died than zero…

"Do they burn in the sun?" I asked nobody in particular, while grabbing my things. The shovel was still intact, despite the damage it both took and dealt. When I pulled it from the sand, the blood on it began to burn away, leaving the shovel itself intact. Huh. Theory confirmed.

I looked over my body for damage, somehow forgetting to do that earlier, and noticed that not only did I have zero wounds or tears in my clothing, I wasn't even the slightest bit hungry anymore. After some reviewing of my combat performance mentally, I did get hungry again while I was wounded, and the pain seemed to have dulled as I became hungrier.

"So, I can reshape, create, and destroy matter to arbitrary extents, I have a pocket dimension for storage, my hunger seems to literally affect my health somehow, and," I muttered, pausing to look over at the bloodied sand. "I don't reincarnate into another world or the void when I die, but simply re-appear elsewhere completely intact. I'm liking the implications of this less and less…"

Rationally speaking, this should be the result of the Cycle of Reincarnation, if Being X is to be believed. However, not only is he an untrustworthy source, but I've been kicked out, without even a two week's notice. So the rules of reincarnation no longer apply in this sense. Which means that, apparently, Hell gives you extremely fucked up powers that can bend reality, with nonsensical caveats and exceptions.

So, typical Being X, then.

Wandering over to my axe, which was now on its side after the skull it was in turned to ash, I picked it up and continued my performance self-review. Only, what, thirteen shambling corpses eliminated, excluding whatever that mystery explosion was? Not good enough, again ignoring that sudden bomb. Actually, if this Hell, then Being X is still prone to screwing with me. Apparently in more direct means now.

Like random explosions in the middle of a fighting retreat.

Not like that's new for the bastard.

Armed with knowledge of how messed up this new world is, I had explored the forest and found a few undead hiding beneath the trees, as apparently shade protects them from the sun. A swift kick back into the light, and they burn.

Beyond dispatching some of the last undead, I had gathered some more wood and discovered that there is a limit to how much I can cram into the same space, which is apparently sixty-four cubic meters (in this case at least). A new spear lies on my back, I made some repairs to the wooden tools I still have, and since I clearly need better materials, I decided to make that pickaxe after all.

After that, I moved on to explore the rest of the forest, and discovered something that wasn't a monster, but was just as surprising.

A herd of domesticated pigs. Not wild boars, no, these were completely docile, bright pink pigs happily eating without a care for predators at all. Yet, they were also completely ambivalent to me.

Easy enough source of food.

While I don't think there was anyone who could've qualified as their owners, if there was, they either died to the monsters like I did, or are incompetents who can't even make sure their livestock is well-protected. Either way, I was justified in my slaughter of them.

Which makes me realize something else: I have zero means of cooking them. Sure, I can put them in my pocket dimension (definitely need a name for that), but I have no idea if they'll rot or not. Things definitely do rot in this world, as evidenced by the undead that ambushed me last night.

So, that brings me to my next order of business: Finding a method for cooking food. Which likely means I need some form of rock to make a fire. Flint, right?

This region seems to have no shortage of small caves and cave entrances that could go down for… who knows how long, actually. I decided to pick one of the nearest shallower ones at random, one that was barely underneath a hill. I was met with some stone, of which type I could not easily tell- for all I know, it's some kind of common stone that exists everywhere in this world, and some veins immediately jutting out from the cave's walls.

I was most surprised by the vein of coal that somehow poked out from the side of the cave, and how it felt very solid for what should be a rather dusty mineral, though my hands were still covered in a black soot after I felt it.

Nonetheless, it was fuel, and I needed it.

I raised the pickaxe into my hand, and swung it down onto the brittle coal.

Clackk!

The sound of wood on stones filled the small cave, an honestly rather irritating noise.

Clackk!

All I could really do was try not to think about if I was breathing anything in. Having coal as fuel would simply be too good to pass up, compared to wood at least.

CLACKK!

The stone surrounding the coal shattered, leaving me a few lumps of coal and no- Wait.

"What is this?" I wondered out loud, staring at the two glowing orbs of… Mana. This is mana. Yet not mana I'm familiar with, outside of… Actually, in that ambush I faced, I felt this before. When I slaughtered those other monsters during the day, I felt this mana too, I just never noticed it. What happened to that mana? Probably fizzled out.

I reached out towards the orbs that were slowly creeping towards me, curious as to what exactly this form of mana was. Then, they picked up speed.

I jerked my hand away, but by then the orbs were rapidly approaching, an-

A wave of calm washed over me, and I felt just a little bit more alive than before. Somewhere, in the back of mind, I remembered this feeling too. The mana didn't fizzle out… it went inside of me. Became a part of me.

Eins.

…One? I felt like that thought was a little forced, and no matter how much I tried to ignore or push it out, I couldn't. It was always there, reminding me of something. But what?

Snapping back to reality, I finished diving into the rest of the vein, and wiped some sweat from my brow. If I had known mining was this difficult, I wouldn't have done it. Or if it wasn't worth it. But in this case, it was.

Back while I was re-constructing my tools, I noticed a construction method using a single stick and a lump of coal or charcoal, which somehow makes four entire torches. Not only that, but it was pre-lit. I didn't even need to use the table that I somehow managed to stuff into my hand, and then my pocket.

Turns out, making something palm-sized keeps it palm-sized, so I could fit things into my actual pockets without using my pocket… inventory. Yes, inventory's a good word.

Back to the task at hand, I took one of the spare sticks I had made with my tools and a lump of coal out of my inventory, mentally placing them in the construction grid built into my mind. Before I knew it, four torches (in the same space at the same time, as that totally makes logical sense) were in my hand, lighting up the cave around me.

My time in that cave expanded once I realized the potential value of having solid stone tools instead of wooden mock-ups that were likely just available for some reason or another, since there had to be a reason behind someone making wooden versions of tools. Then again, there was a former lack of spears in my construction ability's… encyclopedia? Whatever that strange factor that lets me know exactly what grid configuration does what.

So, I spent the next few hours replacing all of my tools with proper stone ones, and even getting a sword and a hoe, just in case, obviously. I had also remembered what configuration made, for lack of a better description, a portable campfire.

The smell of campfire-cooked pork filled the small cave by nightfall, and I took the first cut carefully. Somehow, the meat hadn't lost any of its freshness from sitting in my inventory all day, so it likely hadn't lost any of the flavor.

Hopefully, this world hasn't been cursed with Imperial "rations." I doubt even Being X would subject someone to that level of cruelty.

Once the pork cuts were finished, I removed them from the logs that were somehow not burning, despite the flame in between the small stack of them. I elected not to think about how the logs were not only a different size somehow, but that there were four of them when I used three to make the campfire.

Carefully, I bit into the meat, expecting something similar to the sausages of my second life…

…and met true bliss.

Perfectly savory, perfectly cooked, and immensely satisfying. I didn't even flip it over to cook evenly, yet it cooked all the way through equally regardless. Not only that, it was much more filling than what I could ever remember having in my second life entirely.

And I made it at a campfire. A reality-defying campfire, since I didn't even need to keep the flames fed.

Does it even bother me at this point? I wouldn't be surprised if that giant spider suddenly-

Wait. There wasn't a spider there earlier.

And they certainly aren't that big, I thought, taking out my new stone spear and quickly shoving the rest of my meal into my mouth.

Dammit, the rest of it was amazing as well!

From the dim light of the campfire, the giant spider on the wall of the cave stared at me with several red eyes. Glimmering hairs stood on a brownish-black body, and the mandibles seemed wet with… saliva? Do spiders salivate?

The thing began to move, scampering towards me with, in all likelihood, murderous intent. Another monster, and the first insect I've seen in this world. The slick, jagged mandibles opened wide as it lunged at me.

My enhanced reflexes let me spear the beast's mouth, the exoskeleton breaking apart as the sharp stone broke through it and dug inside the guts of the thing.

Seizing the advantage, I pushed the spear down towards the ground, impaling the spider further and pinning it to the ground, though it wasn't as necessary as I thought it would be. The greenish-yellow orbs spewed out from the wound, racing up the spear and into my hand-

Zwei.

Two now. What's the point with this? Is it some kind of… internal mana counters? If it is, it isn't working. I still can't do more than a simple mental enhancement, which is still useful enough.

I removed the spear from the monster, and looked out towards the cave entrance. Night had fallen, the moon's glow drifting in along with a faint fog. Well, I had my dinner already, so getting a move on now would be advisable-

Oh you've got to be fucking kidding me, I thought, There's more?!

A shambling corpse of a zombie stumbled into the cave, followed by the rattling steps of one of those skeleton archers (why do they all have bows?!) close after it. The hollow eyes of the undead stared at me, and the two shifted their non-existent posture to face me.

"Can I even catch a break for once?"

Turns out, I cannot.

My wooden spear I had made before I truly entered the stone age slammed into the hips of yet another skeletal archer, ripping the legs out from below it and sending the archer straight to the ground. The monster wasn't eliminated, somehow still keeping its upper half together, but the next zombie's body crushed it after I cleaved off the monster's head with my sword.

It had been a few hours, yet still the horde kept coming through. The last time I was attacked like this, I had run out of mana much sooner, but now I felt that I still had a useful amount of mana to last me through the night. Still not enough reserves, or control, now that I think about it, to run more than the mental enhancement, but enough to last through the rest of the night.

Another spider had come in and tried to literally get the drop on me from above, but I had speared it when it did that. Right now, however, I was facing a zombie wearing an old piece of armor, scratched and damaged but still intact enough to make my assaults skid off the armor. Though it only covered a small portion of his body, and it did not include his head or lower body. A weakness I could exploit.

I feinted a strike at the zombie, swinging around to the left side of it to get at the flanks. The undead could barely even realize I tricked it before I swung at the back of its neck, decapitating it just above the collar of the armor.

It fell to the ground, and I let out a sigh.

"Is there any more of-" I cut myself off, twisting around to the cave entrance to see…

A strange mass of plant matter stood in the entrance, trying to creep towards me. Some form of a frowning face was on its head, completely pitch black. Once it saw me, however, it started running, making a sound I-

"FUCK!" I shouted, diving away as the thing exploded with mana. My legs felt ripped apart, debris tearing into the skin and muscles. However, I managed to avoid the last fate I had. Pain surged through my body still, pinning my legs in agony and forcing a short scream out of my mouth, despite my attempt to suppress it.

Blood spilled out onto the ground as I tried to stand up, instead only managing to sit up against the cave wall to ready myself for the monsters. Seeing no immediate threats in the cave, I looked down at my wounds.

I saw exactly what I expected to see. Gashes and cuts throughout my feet, calves, and a little bit of my thighs. Tattered clothes, though at least the boots were somewhat fine, and- Wait a minute.

I leaned in closer, blinking just in case I had just hallucinated something, since that's still a theory about this body. The wounds… aren't bleeding anymore. I hadn't even tried a medical formula yet, and I doubted I could've unconsciously done so with how difficult it is to manage basic spells, so…

Grumble grumble…

"Why am I suddenly so hungry- Oh!" I said, something finally clicking into place. This nonsense world already has illogical rules, so why do I regenerate my wounds extremely quickly? Well, why not! Another illogical way that humanity functions in this world, so it's only logical to conclude that my healing (and my metabolism) are now quickened when I get injured.

"...Good thing I cooked those other pork cuts." I said, getting up and wandering over to the campfire once my legs weren't in complete agony anymore. Even though they were still cooking all this time, the pork (I suppose they're close enough to pork chops) was just as perfectly cooked as before.

"Little bit crunchier, but still," I paused, taking a moment to swallow, "Almost too distracting with taste…"

I looked down at my legs, watching as the wounds vanished along with my hunger. While I ate, I glanced back at the cave entrance to watch for any other monsters. So far, I've seen zombies, skeletal archers, oversized spiders, and walking… suicide bomber plants? That must've been what killed me last time, I hadn't even heard the thing approaching before I saw it. A shame, I couldn't eliminate it for ruining my only good pair of clothes-

"WHAT THE FUCK?" I spat out, flinging a bite of meat out of my mouth into the flames in shock. My clothes were repairing themselves, like my wounds had. There are some things in this world that simply don't make any sense, and this is one of those things! Regenerating clothes!? Though, I suppose that explains them coming back after I had… died. Wait, why did I just come back completely fine after I died?

Now that I think about it, wouldn't it have made more sense to go back to the void? It feels like it's both the right thing to happen… yet also somehow that this form of reincarnation is the right way of things.

If my clothes weren't so comfortable (somehow), I'd be a little bit more pissed about having my old uniform be self-repairing. Regardless, I finished my meal and looked over at the grisly scene near the cave's entrance, watching as the bodies began to rapidly decay.

Unlike the ashy smoke of the monsters that burned before I woke up from dying again, this smoke was entirely wispy and pitch black, and made me feel… unease. Which I shook away, instead focusing on what was left over.

Some bones lie scattered on the ground, from the skeletal archers, along with some arrows and an incredibly old bow. Some piles of rotten flesh as well, and a… carrot? Where did that come from? From the spider carcasses, piles of silky string lay on the floor, and from that one zombie with the armor… Oh, the armor remained. Everything else? Gone.

I got up, noting how much easier it was with my legs healed, if a little tender-feeling, and walked over to the things left over. Obviously, ignoring the bits, it seemed to all have a use. Since it was useful, and I have a literal pocket dimension for storage, I decided to grab all of that instead.

The bow was old, but it wasn't rotting away like some of the others I'd seen, and the skeletons had some arrows that weren't present on them before they shattered into hundreds of (now missing) pieces. About five in total. The carrot seemed safe enough, the string was, as I expected, made of spider silk, but the most interesting piece was the armor.

I expected it to be an uncomfortable fit. And yet, it felt like it fit me well enough for what it was. The armor piece itself was more like several plates of iro- No, this is absolutely steel. Not some primitive ironworking. Several plates of steel, connected by straps that made the plates cover things decently well, at least with the chest, shoulders, and most of the forearm.

The front plate was horizontally bisected in an upwards pointing v-shape, with the chest plate on top of the abdominal plate (similar to Roman segmentata, if my war college memory serves me right, though there's quite a few less plates than I think there were), allowing for freedom of movement between the chest and abdomen, and split off at about the sternum and ending shortly after along the collarbones, where the back plate began.

The back plate was bisected in about the same way, however the top end of the back went over the collar and roughly met the front plate with only a little gap. A small collar rose up around the neck, making a semi-complete circle that cuts off where the front plate begins, providing neck protection, though not enough, clearly. Connecting the two pieces were two wide, thick leather straps on either side of my neck, and four more on the sides, providing protection to the weakest sections of the armor.

The pauldrons were similarly simple, with one plate of it extending out from the side of the back plate and extending out to the full top length of my shoulder, and on the sides it curved inwards, though honestly it was a rather sharp angle still. The second part of the pauldron began just behind the end of the first part, covering the parts of the shoulder that it missed. They seem to have been joined together with straps on the inside, and placed on some sort of leather shoulder… brace? Sleeve? Whatever it was, which provided the armpit protection.

The "gauntlets" were more like bracers, with a long plate of steel on the top part and a shorter plate on the bottom, covering half of my forearm from the wrist-up, while still allowing for full mobility of the wrist. There was a small plate on the hand, and my hand itself fit inside a cloth fingerless glove with some tiny plates bent around the top half of each finger bone, excluding the very last one. That one covered the end of my fingertips instead.

Two things stand out to me about this armor. One, whoever designed it clearly had mobility in mind. Two, there has to be some sort of magical effect on this, because when I tightened it to fit, the armor seemed to mold to exactly fit me, including the gloves, pauldrons, and… the chestplate. Great, more things to question for all Eternity.

"...Why does that feel so wrong?"

I stepped out of the cave as the sun rose, having packed up my impromptu encampment and scowling when the campfire turned into two lumps of charcoal instead of being the portable campfire I thought it was. Just ignore it, there's more irrational things in this world you've already encountered.

The ashy smoke from the monsters burning rose from the tr- Shit, that's a lot of smoke. How many monsters were there? -before vanishing into thin air.

I looked out towards the sunrise, and a strange thought passed through my mind.

My men would've liked to see this sunrise…

"We cannot keep this up. The Villagers, they.. They've found some courage after all! And they became armed and armored, and they had several more golems at this village, and.. My lord, there's a stranger leading them here. I don't know how else to say it, she's… a monster. She ripped through our men with ease, and rallied those cowards into a frenzy I've never seen before! And I don't think she's like either of our kind. She has some kind of strength I've never seen before, abilities ripped from tales of the Lost Ones themselves! And the strangest thing?

"She has hair. Genuine, golden blonde hair. I'm telling you now, because I won't be around much longer, but she's not like us or them. She's-"

-Unfinished note from an unknown Illager Raid Captain to an unknown Illager Lord.

Approximately 5th to 20th Year of the S.E.