There! Back to... mostly normal!

As far as isekai protagonists went, Kaden felt quite proud following his victory against the four ranbi. His level-up had been acquired through hard work, after all; the only downside was realizing his perfectly spherical overgrowth was now uneven. Rather than a circular grown arrangement of barripatch, he was now a slightly lumpy group that was at its thickest six feet. Before facing the ranbi, he had been three feet; using growth during the fight and then two more times to mend the damage to one of his flanks in the last hour, he had grown considerably large. It felt like all those years, mastering his domain and modding sandbox games like Sword & Shave: Tanner's Pores.

The only difference was that it had almost cost his life!

How can all those protagonists be so happy and bounce back from near-death experiences!? I almost died on my first quest! These damn ranbi... I'll need a proper plan...

With the terrain, his plan was effectively to imitate his prior battle experience; let the ranbi invade and utilize either multiple Earthy Grasps or a Growth to disrupt them. Both spells were a good match for his anatomy and leveling up meant he'd be able to choke the life out of the little rabbit-looking bastards all the more easily. If it weren't for his pathetic strength and dexterity, it wouldn't be a stretch of his imagination to think of what kind of damage he could inflict with his body. Each stalk of his barripatch was more comparable to a vine than grass, while his thorns had eviscerated the ranbi the longer they were stuck in his hold. It seemed like a simple solution that he'd not only need to level-up but try to learn more spells.

However, Kaden had no idea if it was possible to acquire new spells through natural learning; the help menu had mentioned learning or leveling but even in some of the most freedom-focused games, the only way to acquire magic was from the right NPC. There was plenty of isekai that utilized different methods of learning, too, which only teetered him into unease; some of them learned through the application of their prior knowledge but many others required divine intervention. And as far as he was concerned, all three of the gods who oversaw his reincarnation were complete trash as far as godly beings went. Neither of the three had given him advice or even taught him a drop of knowledge about this world!

Stupid bastards...

Kaden's attention turned to the corpses... and it really struck him the gravity of his situation. Not only would he need to learn about this world on his own, but he also had to adapt quickly.

Now that I'm a plant... wouldn't these bodies make good fertilizer?

Although the striped ranbi was stronger, it was simple enough moving its body; both plain-eared ranbi and stripe-eared weighed the same, letting him drag them along within his body. Although it was rather gruesome, he could simply pile them up around the egg; their bodies could act as a cushion until they broke down. It wasn't as if he could smell anything - thankfully - while in his new plant body. It was seemingly the only sensory talent he lacked. For now, he'd focus on amassing any attacking ranbi for future fertilization and continue training his new body's innermost grasses. While the outside tussled and fended off ranbi, the inner section could work out! He had all this protein- er... nutrients, so it only made sense to keep himself busy. Spending so much time alone in his own little world had prepared him as much as educated him; keeping yourself occupied with even minor tasks keeps your mind from losing its wit. In his situation, Kaden couldn't afford to lose anything in his head. He wasn't an engineer but years of survival games gave him a better leg up if this place wasn't evolved. Retaining even video game knowledge would give him some level of advantage... hopefully.

Alright, ranbi! Come at me! I'm going to defeat each and every one of you!

Kaden shook small groups of grass - albeit not without the wind rustling and testing his still pathetic strength - defiantly toward the heavens without a care in the world. But the gods weren't ready to give him a chance to rest yet; his camera circled about and settled on another gathering group of ranbi. Although they were all a bunch of plain-eared, they would serve as the perfect test dummies.

Time to commence Operation Ranbi Strangle and perfect how to face them, no matter their number!

Fuck... finally! Growth!

Kaden finished mending the damage from the fifth attack of the morning, watching the last bit of damage vanish while the final ranbi's neck snapped in his grip. He had spent two days farming the ranbi for experience, yet learned nothing. Level three and four had provided similar growth as the second level, yet it wasn't until now that he hit level five and felt a true sense of joy.

It only took him three days of being in this new world but he finally reached the beginner's peak of level five!

Level Up!

Skill Vice unlocked.

Acquired Stamina.

Acquired Ranbi Wrangler title. Level 5

Maximum HP: 23 -> 24

Maximum MP: 45 -> 50

Maximum SP: 0 -> 10

STR: 4 -> 5

DEX: 5 -> 6

CON: 4 -> 5

CHA: 4 -> 5

INT: 25 -> 30

RES: 13 -> 14

LCK: 1 -> 2

Wait... stamina is in this world? I mean, I guess it makes sense... but I don't exactly get exhausted; why did I have zero before? Start!

The menu leapt forth and sure enough, he confirmed the arrival of the new stat. Stamina, or SP, provided a helpful explanation.

Stamina

Unlike natural stamina, the Stamina statistic is more like an alternate mana bar; a star athlete from Earth would always have 0, as we lack the ability to utilize Skills. However, for those like Kaden who have learned skills, there are some who can tap into this alternate source of power who are comparable to cultivation heroes!

I guess that explains why I have so little; my dexterity and constitution are far from great compared to intellect. I guess that means intellect is also unconnected to our natural intelligence, though. I mean, I don't feel any smarter, but looking at my intellect you'd think I've grown three times as intelligent or knowledgeable than when I arrived.

But learning a new skill certainly had inspired some level of fascination; as weak as he was, it wasn't like he expected much from using Vice. He back-tabbed from his Stat menu and looked at the new one: Class & Titles. He'd been able to see what class he was but he wasn't able to really figure out much about Evolver, due to the nature of how ineffective he was with the Help option and with how the Stat menu offered very little explanation for even explaining his abnormal intellect.

Class Explanation

While he had access to his class before, it wasn't until now that Kaden was able to find out more about classes. Much like fantasy tradition upholds, there are many other classes that one can switch to and take on. Not only that, but each class allows someone to gain up to 100 Levels before maxing out and allowing a Class Evolution.

However, unfortunately for Kaden, he can't swap due to only having one Class unlocked: Evolver.

Evolvers are combatants that are prioritized on evolving themselves, as the name implies. Most common in animals, creatures, and transient beings, Evolvers allow someone who lacks the ability to use another Class to continue growing until they either acquire one or meet the minimum requirements for one they already have. The true reason for its lack of popularity and use stems from an unstable source of Skills and Magic, which ultimately lead to completely sporadic and branching growth patterns for anyone who uses the class. Not only that, but no one has ever raised Evolver to 100 due to how long it can take to level up; instead, most users die from a lack of flexibility or convert to another Class with their sufficiently-raised statistics giving them the ability to get a leg-up over other Classes.

Titles Explanation

A new menu but not a new concept, Titles are the staple of isekai and MMOs alike! More similar to the prior than the latter, Titles allow someone to experience things and gain minor buffs or advantages from the title. In Kaden's case, his title wasn't too impressive... but it helps answer his desire for a better method of fighting ranbi.

Ranbi Wrangler - When grappling or in close-range combat with the Ranbi Species, regenerate 1 HP per minute.

... Wait, they're actually called ranbi? That's got to be due to it being my isekai world, right?

This was at least some decent news; Kaden now knew his Class was almost as awful as his reincarnation's species. The sooner he evolved using Evolver, the sooner he could ditch it and find something better! It sounds like a manga hero's class - hell, it even mentions transient beings - but it also mentioned that it was used by animals! It actually made sense why the ranbi were so similar now; their evolution was due to also being the same Class as him!

I can't believe those gods are so lazy... they actually made me comparable to fauna! I know I'm not a hero or whatever but... come on, even mortals deserve better treatment. I wasn't a great guy in my past life but surely I deserve better than being a weed getting hounded by rabbits his whole life.

His body had grown to around fifteen feet in diameter now but Kaden felt smaller and more insignificant by the moment. It was no wonder the grey stick god gave him an easy quest; the ranbi corpses encircling the egg had taken nearly his entire focus to get. There had to have been at least thirty of the little shits littered around inside him; just saying with the mental image was like spitting on his prior life as a human. Kaden felt like every moment of enduring this for an egg he knew nothing about might as well have been hell; the true punishment for squandering not only his life but ruining the lives of his family. It was all a way to exact retribution for how he treated his grandmother and her work to support him.

Kaden was a failure in the last life and was only considerably better here.

The thoughts and emotions sank deeper and ruined his good mood. He didn't want to test out his new Skill anymore. Kaden set to arranging the bodies in their little grotesque fort around the egg, setting them three ranbi high and two ranbi thick. The rest he just sorta left where they were; he couldn't just feed his innermost section, after all. Besides, his roots being connected meant things could be broken down on the outer fringe of the barripatch and it'd still reach him. Yet as he resolved himself and raised his camera, a section of the ranbi pile flopped over.

... Really? Really?

Kaden groaned, grabbing the three that had rolled their way off before settling them back into place. But the instant they were nice and secure, the opposite side fell. He hunched his mental brow and zoomed in, slowly raising the ranbi up. It wasn't the work of some sort of new world beetles or death squirms; yet he couldn't figure out why they were collapsing.

If anything, them being stacked two thick means it should be more stable... right? I mean, three high isn't that bad when they're weighted into one another. I can't figure out-

And then he saw it; the egg within the pile shook, thunking over another section.

Y-You little bastard! You think it's funny!? You're not even born yet! You're a hundred years too early to mess with the likes of me, if not at least a many decades!

Kaden set them up only for them to get knocked over again. As if inspecting his intent, the little egg had come to life solely for rocking around and ruining his orderly attempt to keep it safe. It wasn't as if it shocked him too much that it was doing this; he'd seen enough anime to know this was normal for an isekai story. If anything, it actually helped him forget about how lowly he was; the patch of angry thorny grass actually had something to do that wasn't killing ranbi. It kept it up all the way through the hour and well into the day; in fact, it carried on so long that the low-falling sun meant he'd get a chance to relax for the entire night! The ranbi had never attacked him at night, instead choosing to stay in their burrows or hellish hideaways. Kaden wasn't sure what the real reason was but for now, he was happy.

Because once the egg hatched, he'd be on his way to completing one of his isekai quests!