For the next five minutes, I witnessed something distinctly not composting. I don't know why this ability is called Compost but all the Creeper Thorn did was squeeze the ranbi dry. Being in my own body for a few seconds confirmed that, too; it just felt like I was trying to squeeze it completely away.

But like a diamond beneath pressure, the corpse definitely underwent changes. From my ghostly perspective or from my manifested view, the ranbi's body started to glow at around the three-minute mark when it had been almost completely pressed to a halting point. Its physical form turned liquid-like yet consistent, a deep glowing blue light that cascaded toward a central point for the remaining two minutes. At the fifth minute, I finally regained control just as that blue light seeped into the tightly-wound vines and leaves.

Nutrition increased by 1.

Manifested Form's Nutrition is now 1/5.

The notification didn't reflect on my sheet; there wasn't any new Nutrition mark to track my value so I guess for now I would just have to memorize the amount I have. I still had a lot of time and since I wanted to rest, I figured I'd spend it trying to max it out.

So I set-out to clean-up our inner sanctum. I let the ranbi keep their corpse bunkers for now but focused on cleaning up some of the closest bodies that didn't act as deterrence or as adequately as the farther out barrier lines. Hitting full nutrition was a trivial matter, but I also used this as a chance to determine what works and doesn't work for Composting.

Firstly: a body has to be in a mostly whole condition to compost. A missing ear or a few holes didn't stop Compost from working, yet a missing limb or significant damage like a huge collection of holes in the body... well, those didn't work. It was a bit annoying since I'd really wanted to deal with the most gruesomely killed of the ranbi first, but it was still helpful to deal with a lot of the awful bodies.

But around twenty-five minutes later after learning to Compost, my Nutritional Value hit 5/5... and nothing happened. It just made the pop-up about having a full nutritional value and closed. It was confusing but at first, I thought it might just be a means to maintain my manifested form. After all, it's a plant... but I don't know a terrible ton about the Creeper Thorn. The idea of it consuming bodies didn't make much sense from its prior description, yet here I was chowing down on all the deceased ranbi. No matter how I shook it, this seemed vaguely like the worst part of an isekai; the part that left me asking a lot more questions than I was getting answers for.

So then I thought: what if the part about being chaotic means that Creeper Thorn acts differently between each one?

I mean, think about it: I learned Thorntwist only after growing to a certain length, yet there were spiky Creeper Thorn shorter than me. That alone made us appear quite different. Sure, it's a trap and not a living Creeper Thorn... but they're still part of the same species of plant. Unlike me, they were able to be dried and extract thorns that were akin to barbed wire while mine focused mana to make a magical attack.

If you analyse it slowly and over the course of twenty-hours, I'm sure you might come to the same conclusion.

So... what would happen if I ate more than what I could?

Warning

You are attempting to Compost while your Nutrition Value is at its maximum. Excess Nutrition is converted into Experience at a rate of 10% of the value earned.

Example: If you consume a value of 10 Nutrition, you will gain 1 Experience point.

I finally found out how to get experience.

Now, admittedly, it was possible I had already been earning experience before this point. Despite the possibility of that, however, I had never had a manner to track or determine how much that was. Yet at the moment I finished reading my warning notice, I finally had the means to determine how much experience I could earn. If I composted a total of ten ranbi, I could earn a single experience point. Like all reincarnated world-hoppers with a clear goal, it's obvious what I'd do next.

It was time to clean up my dead fantasy-rabbit problem.

[Quests]://Survive_Day_One You're alone with traps and surrounded by danger. Most people would give up hope.

Survive for 24 hours.

(0:08:22 Remaining)

Bonus Condition: Defeat 5 enemies personally or with allies. Completed!

Secret Condition: Achieve Evolution for 1 or more dungeon creatures.

I spent more than two hours devouring bodies and all I can say is that I officially hate being a plant. Or a plant-style creature. Whatever you'd describe the Creeper Thorn as, that's what I hate. The feeling of ranbi bodies cold and stiffly compressing on me slipped by just enough times that I am firmly concerned I will have nightmares related to this first day for the rest of my new life. Er... if I sleep, that is.

After a total of twenty-nine ranbi, my clearing was remarkably clearer than it had been. The darkness of the night was still just as dark as it had been when the sunset... but for the first time, the overcast clouds above broke. That was nice. Number thirty was still composting but I got my first real look at the skies above Kave.

Brogdar has three moons. Or at least three that I could see. All of them seem to be different sizes and arcing in an almost triangular pattern through the sky. I'm not sure how they float like that but it might be that this world's magic or laws of science are different, since they should logically be crashing and ending all life on this planet if they didn't have something odd about them. But more jaw-dropping if you ask me wasn't their physics-defying show or the questions it made me ask for the four or five ranbi I composted while the sky was clear.

It was the fact that each of the moons are a different color: blue, red, and grey.

Sound familiar? Because it should. I'm pretty damn certain that those moons represent the three gods that I had to choose between.

Not that I have proof. I'm sure I'll get proof, though.

That aside, the final compost is just about to finish. The quest ending with or without the secret challenge achieved doesn't really bug me anymore. I'm just glad I know how to gain experience at this point.

Yet despite my acceptance, destiny wrote a different goal than what I was happy with. Number thirty was the cliche mark. That blue juicy nutrition absorbed and I heard a familiar ding and saw a notification flicker into view.

Experience Cap Reached Current Experience: 3

Maximum Experience: 3

... Yeah, you noticed it too?

... Sorry, it's just that I feel it's very important to make sure you understand what that pop-up meant. In the entire course of basically twenty-four hours, I hadn't earned even a single experience point until I began composting enemies. Even after getting kills personally or with my traps, I didn't earn even one point.

Anger at the system boiled my blood or sap or whatever hotter than lava at the very notion that I completely wasted my time. All that effort was basically fucking worthless in the eyes of the system.

Until those thirty ranbi I killed got eaten, that is. That was when it finally mattered, right, Grey Man?

Urgh. But this isn't getting to the part that you all expected from a moment ago. The bit about how I achieved the secret challenge about evolution and all that.

[Notification]

Manifested Form's experience has maxed out.

Would you like to evolve?

[Yes] | [No]

I selected that Yes hastily since my timer was getting tremendously lower by the moment. For a brief instant, I saw three options appear... but an all-too-familiar notification burst into view to bar me from seeing any of them.

Due to user's destiny seed, first evolution of Manifested Form has been selected.

Assigning evolved race...

Granting new ability: Experience Scope...

Beginning Evolution Process. Reverting to Freeform.

I got booted from my Creeper Thorn and thrown down the stony steps into my dungeon. I might not have a normal body but it was extremely disorienting to tumble down the steps and crash at the bottom. Rather than gripe, I clambered around in the darkness and hurried back up the stairway to watch the process.

The Creeper Thorn that I'd been controlling for effectively a day bunched up extremely tight, clasping and pulling its lengths. Beeps warned me of draining mana and stamina as it spammed spells, growing itself out until there was nothing left... before the plant exploded.

And no, I don't mean it like blew into pieces without any flair. I mean it exploded. Fire and shrapnel-thorns spattered out over the area and woke up both Bomber and Ivy. The latter darted for the grassy circle's edge whilst Bomber kept tucked tight to the bunker as thorns speared into the fleshy barrier. Both were luckily unharmed but my traps were set on fire, as well as some of the various bodies littering the clearing. If we hadn't spent all day clearing space while we killed our aggressive neighbors, we might have caused a massive grassland fire... but in this situation, it helped clean up the sparse-left bodies. Later, I would just have to recreate the traps. Nothing I can do about them burning down since, you know, I was a ghost and my only body had just blown up like a bomb.

Except... well... from the center of the explosion where the dirt had been burned pitch-black, there was something. A good description might have been an egg if it wasn't for the fact it looked like a leafless Creeper Thorn's vine.

More surprising was the fact the egg burst and let out a shrill clanking; the sound of pieces of metal sparking and crashing off one another as a trunk-like wooden base burst up around four feet high. All the metallic racket came from new, astoundingly sharpened metal thorns that meshed perfectly with its wooden surface. Thorns of gold, tipped with iron or silver, each about as long as the top of a thumb dotted every inch or two of the hardened material like natural defensive growths.

The bundled vines at its base that it had sprouted from raced upward around it, snaking out and twisting together to form thin, wiry branches. The furthest lengths of it were still vine-like and its base even split, the wood cracking open and more vines racing out to form something very familiar to people like us.

Feet. It was toeless, featureless feet. Although they didn't have toes, the vine material of it bent and shifted to balance it.

My old Creeper Thorn had transformed in roughly a minute into what could only be surmised as some sort of... walking bush or shrub. It wasn't too big or overtly dense, yet it was vaguely human in just enough of a way that it rekindled hope for a non-plantlike lifestyle in this new life of mine.

Congratulations! Manifested Form has evolved from Creeper Thorn into Deviant Evolutionary Creeper. [Notification]: Quest Update

You're alone with traps and surrounded by danger. Most people would give up hope.

Survive for 24 hours.

(0:09 Remaining)

Bonus Condition: Defeat 5 enemies personally or with allies. Completed!

Secret Condition: Achieve Evolution for 1 or more dungeon creatures. Completed!

Secret Condition Met! The user is rewarded for their efforts! + Unlocked examining [Summons] under [Kaden]

+ Evolution Stage is set to 1/2

+ 4 Mana Generated Daily

+ 4 to Trap Limit

Leveling up is expressly my new favorite, bombastic procedure in this new world. I had 10 total trap slots, generated a total of eight mana per day, and I could even access the stat screens for Bomber and Ivy.

And seconds later, the big message dinged across my screen.

[Quests]://Survive_Day_One Quest Completed

You're alone with traps and surrounded by danger. Most people would give up hope.

Survive for 24 hours.

Bonus Condition: Defeat 5 enemies personally or with allies. Completed!

Secret Condition: Achieve Evolution for 1 or more dungeon creatures. Completed!

Reward: Dungeon Master's Accommodations

1x Mana Bonfire

All of those pop-ups had slowed down and for the first time in a good ten minutes or so, I collected myself and tried to calmly figure out what these rewards were. There wasn't anything in my inventory nor in the surrounding clearing, so the obvious choice was to go below ground and into my underground chamber.

And boy, even if I hadn't earned experience, I had earned a helluva blessing.

For starters: the Mana Bonfire. It was nestled at the center of the modest-sized room and almost reached the ceiling. Unlike a normal bonfire, the logs or lumber were large white crystals that pulsed and thumped harmoniously. Blue snow-like energy radiated up their length but the warmth given off by the bonfire made my new shrub-state quite pleased. It had been uncomfortably devoid of any weather impact in the hole beyond the lack of sunlight making it chilly, yet now it was like having a perfectly regulated heater.

Suffice to say, the bonfire helped me finally take in the blessings of this hole in the middle of a field. It wasn't the only new addition though; a floor-set handsewn futon was tucked in the corner with a stone table carved out from the wall with a matching stone seat. It was appropriately sized for me; rather than my manifested form, I released the shrub and easily sat down. The Creeper would have had trouble climbing into the seat yet it handily adjusts up or down with the floor whenever I draw near. I could relax and enjoy my solitude here... perhaps even use this place for nighttime thinking or experimenting. Of course, I didn't have the ability to grab anything in my freeform but that wouldn't stop me.

Right now, though, the biggest blessing was the futon. A normal bed would be nice but I'll admit that I was just happy to find a way to relax. Underground in my dungeon, I made a discovery to make full use of it. Down here, I could let my Manifested Form sit in the corner and actually spread my legs like a human again.

Not that I'm spreading my legs at all. After an entire day, all I want is to sleep! Tomorrow, I had new goals... and a lot of new rewards to test out, use, and explore with.

Watch out, Grey Man. Kaden River isn't going to lose in this isekai experience even if you punish me with barrier after barrier! Soon, I'll master surviving in Kave and then rule over Brogdar!