Though it has been about two weeks, can I really say this was power-leveling?

Kaden watched the bubbles of his most recent ranbi victim stop flowing to the surface, slowly slipping his grasses down and slowly wringing its neck. His killing process was very simple - Nugget would weaken any large ranbi while he would grab the weak or smaller ones, hoist them into the fold, and submerge their heads. He'd wait until they ran out of oxygen, which took about a minute, and then ensnare their necks. This may have seemed like overkill but the protagonist had learned quite quickly it was necessary; ranbi were masters at playing dead, it seemed. It actually seemed possible that this might have been his natural habitat, as their instincts to play dead only connected with drowning.

But in reality, a ranbi would run out of oxygen only to be able to recover as long as they didn't stay submerged for more than an additional thirty seconds. This could be longer depending on the size or age or level... but overall, they didn't last much longer than that. The best and most humane way to put them down, as he learned, was to tighten his hold around their necks once the oxygen ran out; this allowed him to squeeze them far tighter and not waste too much energy trying to fight their oxygen-filled muscles. He wasn't particularly strong but even when concussed the larger ranbi had left him drained when he did it improperly.

For two whole weeks now, he had been killing ranbi; and in that time, he had reached level nine. It wasn't anything to raise his nose to but his growths had continued being nothing more than the same; lots of small increases with his MP and Intellect being the main components to jump. Nugget's level had only reached eight; he was only ahead because most of the kills were done solely by Kaden, whilst Nugget's aid came into play only for larger or more difficult ones. Not that the lazy hatchling minded much; it was content to sit around and watch. Staring the entire time. It wasn't an ideal way to grow up but the god wouldn't have given Kaden the egg if he wasn't fine with this. Unless Kaden or that grey fucker weren't living up to their ends of this reincarnation story.

Now, come on you little bastard. Let's hear you-

The ranbi kicked and its neck popped so loud that even submerged Kaden heard it. But it didn't surprise him nearly as much hearing the familiar sound he had heard a few days ago.

Level Up!

Special Class Benchmark: Forced Evolution is now in effect.

Evolution Choice(s): Barripatch Hinderbush

Due to lack of additional options, proceeding with Forced Evolution.

Wait, Forced Evolution? What- does this mean I'm going to get stronger? What's a Hinderbush? Is it a monster? Anything is better than this stupid grass! Come on and-

Kaden was interrupted as his camera went dark. He saw nothing... but felt everything. It was like his body suddenly went through the most painful growth spurt yet; like your fingers growing and your muscles developing all in an instant. But when his vision returned, he saw the latter part of his evolution. It wasn't like in some settings or games where it had some sort of special effect; instead of being flashy, the grasses at the core of his patch grew thicker and wound tightly together into a harder form. Thorns clacked and linked, melting and merging into a thin layer that reinforced and tightened the fibers. They dried and shifted into wood... and from there, the grasses began pushing upward and outward. In seconds, the core and tallest of his grass grew out and wide... until it formed a strange, dead bush.

W-wait... A-All I did was grow into a bush with grass?! What the fuck!? Gods, why are-

The bush abruptly snapped and cracked, its branching sticks of gold erupting out and giving way to clusters of big, prickly leaves spattered with fragments of its gold inlaid between their stems. Flowers that looked more like chunks of ore burst from its splendor next, each one blossoming into palm-filling "fruits" of iron.

Evolution Complete!

Race has now changed from Barripatch Thorn Grass to Barripatch Hinderbush!

Skill Map unlocked.

Skill Codex unlocked.

Acquired Nature, Basic Affinity Skill.

Level 10

Maximum HP: 28 -> 50

Maximum MP: 75 -> 100

Maximum SP: 30 -> 50

STR: 9 -> 15

DEX: 10 -> 15

CON: 9 -> 15

CHA: 9 -> 15

INT: 65 -> 100

RES: 19 -> 25

LCK: 2 -> 5

The sea of information from this level-up nearly overwhelmed Kaden, even before the final part of his transformation. The brief anger and frustration at unavoidable pain paled in comparison to his awe and unease. Evolution had done a lot more than provide a simple level-up; most of his stats had risen by at least five levels worth of improvements. Compared to Nugget's HP, Kaden had jumped to half the total the little guy had, whilst he had been about a quarter of it moments before.

Evolution in this world is completely busted... i-isn't it? I mean, I hate that I'm still a plant and all, but... holy hell. I was easily killing ranbi before but now... h-how strong are my moves in comparison? At this point, it'd be easy to think I could beat almost a hundred of the smaller ones with ease. Even the big ones probably wouldn't even need Nugget to beat anymore!

But now... it was time to investigate what all of this meant. The Map skill was probably straight forward, but the Codex bit and the Basic Affinity were probably something more. More than likely, they would give him answers to more about the fundamental nature of this world!

Map

True to its name, the Personal Map Skill grants the user the ability to see a top-down representation of the area. The help menu indicates that the skill can evolve and augment with other skills, but at its most basic form it isn't too great; Kaden can see himself and his party members, as well as any terrain he has previously been to in one massive map. Very few details are marked and the map is comparable to early generation RPG games; really only useful for a general idea of where you are and guiding off of obvious or massive landmarks.

Codex

Although it might sound odd to some, Codex is a skill synonymous to Journals or Encyclopedia; a way to store and access information one has learned about the world.

But the Personal Codex Skill is somewhat far better than that; it reveals its own menus, allowing Kaden to sort through game-like archives of information. Untold question marks line the side and only a handful of categories - Fauna, Flora, Magic, and Region - currently revealed. The depth of the Codex also stores all current Help hints at the back, allowing Kaden to hastily review any Help notice without having to navigate windows. Neat!

Nature, Basic Affinity

Though it calls itself a skill, this is honestly a lot more like a title to Kaden. However, maybe there are more acute differences between a Title and a Skill; Skills can be chained into actions, while Titles can modify far more.

A Personal skill, Nature, Basic Affinity is simple: it grants the person who owns it a reduction of costs and an increase of potency to any Nature Magic-using spell or skill. Given how insanely fast his intellect growth was, it makes sense that he picked something up. In terms of practicality he only had one spell that this worked with: Growth. So now he likely could grow better and stave off the increase in cost that will assuredly come at some point. A good pick-up for a plant!

What he gained skill-wise was almost just as nice and useful as the stat gain! Kaden felt a little less like garbage now that he could actually do more than destroy the lives of ranbi. For once he could do something he enjoyed: reading. But the sheer amount of knowledge that he now had was certainly impressive; his Codex had already logged entries for the ranbi, Nugget, and his own races. The ranbi were all listed alongside their level ranges, with their habits and preferred attack patterns he had been studying all displayed beneath each one's page.

Weakness to Water magic... maybe that's why they built up that resistance to drowning? I guess they are small and can't swim well. Either that or they turn into flaming rabbits later on. Gods help me if they do! Nugget's page... though... is empty?

The only information the Codex had on Nugget was its image and name. It was true that he knew very little at all about it... but stranger still was that Nugget's egg was beside its image. And its level range was from one to five.

Wait, Nugget hatched at level five? That'd mean Nugget was born naturally ahead of the ranbi. That might mean that egg-based creatures may have advantages over live-birth ones, right? Maybe that applies to certain plants. Or... maybe humans, too? But to think that Nugget was technically already level five when I hatched it... I had just thought it rose through levels faster. Maybe that's why its level has been rising slower; does Nugget have some sort of natural headstart but requires more experience to grow?

All of these questions seemed like good ones to get answers for but none were really achievable without extreme conditions. He had been here for two weeks but hadn't seen a pregnant ranbi even once; capturing and taming two so that he could test whether or not they could breed would take an immense amount of time already, but it wasn't like he knew how long they'd take to have a litter of bunnies. In reality, he had a much more pressing matter to cover with his own codex entries. The Barripatch entry was so far the only thing under Flora... but it also repeated itself under Region. Reading into his own species was important firstly so, for now, he looked into the Thorn Grass and Hinderbush's page. He didn't really learn anything new about the Thorn Grass - except mentions to Barripatch being plastered all over it - but the information on the Hinderbush made him stop dead in his tracks.

The Barripatch Hinderbush

An evolution of Grey Stickman's invasive grasses, the Hinderbush is often seen when a Thorn Grass survives for a few days and is allowed to feed on nearby creatures or plants. A tough bush replaces its centermost grass, forming of solid gold and sprouting Iron Pods. These pods initially will be dormant and merely add to its defensive power, but as the Hinderbush grows in strength and continues consuming wildlife it may begin to activate these in its unique Machina-spell Blast Pod. These act as a natural catalyst similar to a Mage staff, allowing the Hinderbush to cast outside of its element categories.

Known Element Weakness: Fire

Machina spell? There's an element of magic called Machina? Then... would that be the opposite or parallel of Nature? Maybe I'm not so unlucky getting this as my evolution, but... what gives? The Hinderbush normally reveals itself in a few DAYS? I barely even survived two weeks before I acquired it. Is it because I was sharing the experience with Nugget or-... no... it must be because my enemies were all underleveled as I tried advancing higher. A level five enemy might be good for experience at level five, but maybe when I hit six, it made its value only a fraction of its prior value. Every time I fought enemies stronger than me, they helped accelerate my growth... or if I fought a sheer number that it was effectively that. But now I'm fighting only a vast majority of enemies I can easily sweep away. Experience might be based not only on Level and number of foes... but also on the difficulty of the fight itself.

Hopefully, he would acquire more information soon on how Experience worked. But he sidelined that thought and continued on into Magic.

Magic

A similar concept to Stamina, Magic is a unique source of abilities that draws upon one's Mana. Mana is naturally generated within the body but may also accumulate in the environment, allowing different forms of casters to originate. All magic can be cast so long as the user knows its incantation name, but if they lack the Intellect for its base minimum it will prove impossible to learn or cast. This can be resolved, however, through the use of a catalyst: these include items like a staff, object, or body artwork depicting or written in the incantation of a spell. Natural catalysts - such as a magic horn or eye - also exist.

All magic can be categorized into a basic group of Core Elements while each of these is paired. More elements are known to exist, yet information on them can only be truly utilized upon discovery. However, all these elements are born and originate from one of the eight. In order of power from weakest to strongest, the pairs are:

• Wind and Earth; though weak, these elements have the most diverse level of utility in the basic category of magic. It can be as simple as flying or shaping, but these elements are what formed the basis of the world.

• Fire and Water; as the byproduct of Wind and Earth creating the world, Fire and Water are stronger but lack the same level of control and utility of the prior elements. Instead, these elements are thought to evoke change; masters of shaping or harnessing power stem from these elements clashing or working in tandem.

• Nature and Machina; from fire and water came nature. In its void, came machina. The earth was shaped by flame to form great mountains of metal while water brought life to shores. Although these elements are the third strongest in the world, their magic is rare; as an abstract form of magic it serves quite difficult to learn yet can grant powers to shape the very environment of the world itself.

• Life and Death; these are the strongest of natural elements but are believed to be some of the hardest to master. As nature started to grow, life nestled in its bosom. As it flourished, Machina was used to cause death. Healers and necromancy alike originated as a form to try and combat the harshness of the prior elements and their clashing, bringing balance and ensuring no more elements formed.

Magic, to put it simply... was a lot more complex in this world. The elements had all spawned each other, with each pair growing stronger than the last yet harder to learn and control. That meant someone who could heal was immensely rare in this world, while those who could bring back the dead even more so. As an isekai protagonist, his placement at the second-best pairing wasn't awful. Having an affinity for Nature meant that Kaden was already ahead of the curve as far as he was concerned. But there were things in all this that pointed to questions he wanted answers for. It mentioned he could harness Machina spells and that his species was favored by Grey Stickman. That definitely described the thing he saw but to actually think the strange deity's name was Grey Stickman was a tad goofy.

But if he was a favored species, maybe there was more he needed to know. Kaden still had one more category left; the Region one. The Great Planes of Kave were there, of course, but a quick glance revealed little to nothing; just that it was a massive grassland. It was likely he would discover more by ear than by Codex.

But there was another option there too: Barripatch Islands.

Well, it's not like I can find out that I'm a fuck-evil waste of garbage at this point. If I'm favored by a god, it can't be all that bad. I mean, unless he's a hated god... then maybe it'd be bad. But now that I have evolved and need to discover more about myself... I need to look. After this, I decide my next move. Whether or not I stay here and try to keep farming or venture off, it all relies on whatever I find in there.

Time to figure out what my place in the world is supposed to be.