Deadworld Isekai

“What in the hell are you doing?”

The guardian's voice rang out behind Matt. He waited a few moments to make sure that nothing was happening before walking back to the plinth and rechecking his options. Unfortunately, the items were the same as before and there wasn't a new special option. Disappointed, he shook his head and willed his acceptance of the dowsing rod reward.

“I was trying something. Let me take a look at the rewards first,” Matt replied.

“Good because if you're gonna go bonkers, I want a heads-up.”

Matt smiled. That was the guardian he knew. He walked around the site of the battle, collecting the system's drops that he had neglected up to that point. The trap spikes were in an oblong canvas bag and were a pleasant surprise. They were made from some relatively heavy and durable-feeling material that Matt suspected was probably some kind of steel alloy. Each of them were roughly eight inches long with needle-like tips. At first glance, Matt was sure that they wouldn't have much problem sticking into normal, non-armored enemies.

Better yet, the metal allowed for a better design. The spike's shafts were flared upwards every inch or so. That made them hard to grip, but also meant that they would be hard to dislodge once they hit. Taking them out would also tear out the surrounding flesh.

The non-business end was the best part. It was notched to make lashing them to objects easier, with well-placed holes to thread the rope through. Compared to the wood stakes that he had been using so far was like the difference between a compact car and a Ferrari. He couldn't wait to use them to ruin someone's day.

The multi-tool was much more confusing to figure out. At first, it looked like a solid block of metal. Matt tapped it experimentally and tried to pry it apart with his hands. Nothing happened.

“Hey, guardian, what's the deal here? Is the system calling this brick a multi-tool to be funny?”

“Sigh, the trick is, Matt, that you have to be smarter than the tool.”

“Guardian…”

“Fine, fine. You have to actually think of what you want to do with it. Think about driving one of your tent stakes in.”

As soon as Matt focused his attention on a tent stake, the block shifted into a sort of undersized mallet. With different prompts, it turned into a screwdriver, a small saw, and even a pair of scissors. It was literal magic. Beyond his canteen and the water stone, this was further proof that Gaia was different from Earth. But when he thought about a drill, the multi-tool failed to morph to the new shape.

“It won't turn into a drill?”

“Why do you always ask so much of everything? It has its limit. You weren't expecting to have automated or complex tools, right? For the stuff that you do, even a chisel is a big deal.”

Matt would have loved a drill, but the guardian wasn't wrong. The saw and hammer that the multi-tool could form were already plenty. After using a survival knife for everything in the past few weeks, this was a huge upgrade. It would make a lot of stuff easier, even if it didn’t help much in an actual fight.

By comparison, the dowsing rod was much less interesting to play with. It was a short cylinder of some unknown, crystal-like material. It wasn't supposed to activate until treasure was nearby. There wasn't much more to look at. He didn't love the fact that he had to hold the rods in both hands for them to work, but his continued survival was dependent on being able to effectively scavenge. Any tool that helped with that was a big deal.

“Will this do anything in a dungeon, guardian?”

“Maybe. From what I can see, it will help you find something in a dungeon if there’s something weird for it to find.”

“But since I can’t carry stuff out…”

“Right. Even if you found something cool, it’s going to stay here. It’s possible for dungeons to have secrets, but my system knowledge tells me that kind of stuff is usually in a bonus dungeon.”

“Extra challenge for extra rewards?”

“Yup. If you want to have a chance at fighting TWO Bonecats, feel free to look around.”

“I think I’ll be fine for now, thanks.”

As with the last dungeon, all of Matt’s gear had been repaired when he finished the dungeon objective. He started packing his stuff when something the guardian had said twigged his interest.

“Hey, you know something about this dowsing rod, and you said ‘from what you could see of it’. That’s not system knowledge?”

“Nope. You know, not every single thing I know is from the system. I'm a bit like these dungeons. They customize themselves to the world that they're in. Different world, different reward. I'm guessing that in a culture that doesn't care about hidden treasure, you wouldn't see things like that dowsing rod. The system doesn't track differences like that.”

“Wait. Why do you know so much about this?”

“Part of the guardian package, of course. As far as the system is concerned, I'm here to tell you stuff about things. So I sort of have an identify skill. I can't change anything, but I can see what they mean.”

“I see… good to know.,” Matt wasn't used to such a nice guardian.

With all the stuff packed, he walked to the plinth and prepared to leave the dungeon.

“By the way,” the guardian kept her tone nonchalant, “you never told me what the deal was when you tried to be a plinth-wizard?”

“Hmm, I think I'll let you know later. Maybe we can trade information.”

“Listen, dumbass. I just GAVE you a bunch of informa…”

And then they were out.

—

It wasn't particularly late in Matt's day-night cycle, and they weren't in a great place to stop. So they started walking. By the time they hit a relatively flat and clear piece of ground in the mountain, all the adrenaline of the day caught up with him. He probably could press on, but didn't see much point.

It’s not like I have an appointment to get to or anything.

For the first time in a long time, Matt opted to set up the entire camp, tent and all. His new tool made things a lot easier. Pounding in stakes with a hammer was much less awkward than trying to do the same thing with the butt-end of his survivor's knife. He then dragged some rocks to sit on and tried to convince the guardian to make another illusory fire.

“No, definitely not. Not while you're holding secrets on me for some weird reason,” the guardian said.

“You know, we could probably work out a trade. I'll put my secret up for your fire, and one other thing.”

“Ok? What?”

“I want to know why you were crying the other night.”

That shut down the conversation. Matt let her stew on it while he relaxed on his rock. She had been bouncing up and down, trying to pry his secret out of him during the walk down the mountain. Honestly, Matt didn't know why this was so important to her, but it was the only non-slave-command leverage he had on her. So far, he had used the commands for things that he needed to know and were relevant to him surviving. The last thing he wanted to do was use the same power to force her to talk about something personal. That felt several steps scummier than what he had already done. So he waited.

It had been a long day, and he was tired. Right before he nodded off, she broke the silence.

“I wasn't always here, you know. But I was here before you were.”

“Yeah, you told me that. The system dropped you off beforehand to learn about the planet, but there was nothing much to learn,” Matt said.

“Well, that would have been a mistake. Dropping someone off, having them spend six months trying to pick up information on a world that's mostly underground, and forgetting that they can't dig. Shitty mistake right?” the guardian's eyes turned red.

“When it could have just checked on the world? Yes. And six months is a long time to wait. I'm sorry.”

“It's not just that,” the guardian's voice almost broke, “the six months I mentioned is a standard period of time. Sometimes, if it's a really big or a really weird world, it might be a year.”

“How long were you here for?” Matt was starting to get concerned.

He didn’t know what answer was coming, but he was beginning to suspect that he wasn’t going to like it. The guardian picked that moment to break down crying, a real one. Not muffled or hidden, but messy, ugly crying.

“Five years.”

—

The system guardian was, for some reason, designed to look like a little girl. It might have been to make her non-threatening, or to ensure that there was no chance of romantic entanglements. Matt didn't realize that the system had actually gone deeper with the little girl concept. He thought of her as an adult, one that was prickly and could give as good as she got.

But he was wrong. She was tough because she had to get through five years alone. She was mean because he was the reason why this all happened. And she wanted him dead because that was the only way to escape from this nightmare of a planet. If he died, she might get out. It was as simple as that.

He couldn't even comfort her. Words, minus saying that he'd starve himself to death, meant nothing in the face of the fact that she was here because of him, however unintentional it might be. He couldn't even hug her or let her know that he was present. She never seemed more human than in that moment. In fact, the system gave her some human traits, including the possibility of crying herself to sleep. She was upset enough that she forgot about the information he owed her.

He let her sleep. He'd tell her in the morning.

—

The next day, Matt packed up camp while the guardian did her best to pretend like nothing had happened. Between single word questions and replies, they decided that their best bet was to walk back to the ruins that Matt had seen while traveling to the guardian. If they didn't find anything, they could continue to the dungeons. Matt was down to just several days worth of food and hoped that there was more on the way. So far, the dungeons had not been great sources of sustenance.

It wasn't until they had been walking for half a day before the guardian remembered what she was owed. Running in front of him, she demanded for him to hold up his end of the bargain.

“Oh, that?” Matt said, “It wasn't even that big of a deal. I was just trying to see if I could get something to happen with my Gaia Authority.”

He kept walking but felt like an asshole for cheating her. She had told him her secrets, while he only had a boring piece of information to offer. He half expected her to whine and demand a new secret. Instead, she went oddly quiet. He turned around to check on her and saw that she was planted in place, mouth hanging open. It was surprisingly childish.

Suddenly, she snapped back to reality and immediately started yelling.

“Your fucking WHAT?”