I stare at Yamato, processing her request.
Find her husband. A Japanese isekai victim who might be thousands of years old. Or dead. Or who-knows-where.
That's... that's a BIG ask.
But looking at her expression—so hopeful, so desperate, so LONELY—I can't say no.
"I'll do it," I say. "I'll find him. I promise."
Yamato's face LIGHTS UP.
"Thank you! Thank you so much! I—"
"But first," I interrupt. "I need to ask you something."
"Anything!"
"How do you... not starve? You've been down here for thousands of years and nothing can get anywhere near you. What do you EAT?"
Yamato blinks. Like the question never occurred to her.
"Oh. The tubers."
The WHAT.
"The... the TUBERS?! The purified balls of mana?! The ones that almost KILLED me?!"
"Yes? They're quite nutritious."
SHE EATS THE DEATH BALLS?!
"HOW?! I tried to swallow one and it started eating ME from the inside out!"
Yamato tilts her head.
"You swallowed it whole?"
"...yes?"
"Well, there's your problem."
She reaches out—her hand and plucks a tuber from the floor of the barrier.
The glowing purple crystal pulses with condensed mana.
"You have to bite it. Take small pieces."
"I don't have TEETH!"
"Oh. Right. Jellyfish." She looks genuinely apologetic. "Well, for beings WITH teeth, you bite off chunks and absorb them slowly. It's called Mana Osmosis."
Mana Osmosis?
"If you have more mana in your body than the chunk you're consuming, your mana will naturally absorb and integrate the foreign mana. Like... osmosis. Hence the name."
She demonstrates, biting off a tiny piece of the tuber.
[Yamato: MP 500,000→800,100]
FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND?! HER MP IS FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND?!
"See? Simple. But if you try to swallow a whole tuber with only—" she glances at me, "—28,000 MP? The tuber's concentrated mana would overwhelm your system and kill you. It will unironically be the one to eat you"
So I almost killed myself because I GULPED instead of SIPPED.
Classic Yuki mistake.
"Well, I can't bite them anyway. No teeth. So I guess I'm stuck with regular hunting."
"That's unfortunate. These tubers are quite filling."
She finishes the piece she was eating.
"One tuber can sustain me for about a decade."
A DECADE?!
We drift in comfortable silence for a moment.
Then I remember something.
"You know, in my world—my original world—there were these things called light novels. Stories. Fiction. About people getting transported to other worlds. Isekai stories."
Yamato leans forward, interested.
"Like what happened to you and my husband?"
"Exactly! There are HUNDREDS of them. Different premises, different powers, different worlds. But the core concept is the same: normal person dies or gets summoned, ends up in a fantasy world with magic and monsters."
"Fascinating. Are they accurate to what actually happened to you?"
"Shockingly yes. Like, SCARY accurate. Evolution systems, skill trees, dungeon diving, leveling up. Even the truck thing is a running joke in the genre!"
"Your world had stories about this happening?"
"Yeah! Some of the most popular ones are about people reincarnating as monsters. Slimes, spiders, dragons..... even a vending machine."
"Jellyfish too?"
"...not that I know of, actually. I might be the first."
Yamato giggles.
"You're a pioneer!"
We talk for hours. I tell her about streaming. About gaming. About the internet and technology.
She listens with RAPT attention, asking questions about everything.
"So people would watch you play these games? For entertainment?"
"Yeah! I had like twenty thousand people who'd watch me regularly. It was fun. Until..."
"Until?"
"Until it wasn't. There was this creep who'd..... Lets just call it Harass me."
"That sounds terrible."
"It was. That's why I became a shut-in. Stopped streaming. Stopped going to school."
Yamato is quiet for a moment.
Then:
"When I get out of here... I want to be a streamer too."
WHAT.
"You... you want to STREAM?"
"It sounds fun! Talking to people! Sharing experiences! Having a community!"
Her eyes are SPARKLING.
"I've been alone for so long. The idea of having thousands of people to talk to sounds WONDERFUL!"
An apocalypse-class Leviathan. Wants to be a streamer.
This world is INSANE.
"Then I'll help you," I say. "I'll get you out of here. We'll find your husband. And then I'll teach you how to stream.... Once we figure out how."
Yamato beams.
"Really?!"
"Really. I promise."
"But... how will you get me out? The seal is unbreakable. I've tried for thousands of years."
I think.
The seal keeps HER in. But it lets other things pass through. I got in, after all.
What if...
"What if I kill you?"
Yamato blinks.
"Excuse me?"
"You said you don't truly die, right? You just become an essence. What if I kill you, take your essence, store it in my Stomach Inventory, and carry you OUT of the dungeon?"
"..."
"That's... actually brilliant. Where did you get that idea?"
"Lets just say, I had a little inspiration from a light novel"
"But there's one problem."
"What?"
"There's no way a jellyfish can kill me."
I grin. Metaphorically. Jellyfish don't have mouths for grinning.
"Try me."
[Necrotic Poison Sting activated x20]
All my tentacles latch onto Yamato's small human form, pumping venom directly into her.
"That tickles."
TICKLES?!
[Yamato: No damage taken]
[Resistance: Apocalypse class entities are naturally immune to standard venom]
"Okay. Okay. That's fine. I have MORE venom."
[Necrotic Poison Sting activated - MAXIMUM OUTPUT]
I pour EVERYTHING into it. All my tentacles. All my venom production. Constantly. Continuously.
"This is... slightly uncomfortable?"
SLIGHTLY?!
I've been stinging her for ten minutes straight and she's not even HURT!
"You know, this was a fun idea, but I don't think—"
"HOLD ON. I'M NOT DONE."
I pull up the Skill Shop.
[Current Skill Points: 32]
Time to go SHOPPING.
[Skill Shop - Filter: Venom]
[Available Venom Skills: 19]
I start buying. Everything. All of it.
[Hemotoxic Venom Lv.1 - Cost: 3 SP]
[Neurotoxic Venom Lv.1 - Cost: 3 SP]
[Cytotoxic Venom Lv.1 - Cost: 4 SP]
[Myotoxic Venom Lv.1 - Cost: 4 SP]
[Cardiotoxic Venom Lv.1 - Cost: 5 SP]
[Skill Points: 32→13]
Now to level them up.
[Hemotoxic Venom Lv.1→10: Cost 54 SP]
I don't have 54 points!
Wait. I can merge them first, THEN level up the merged skill!
[Combine all venom skills?]
*So I think I forgot to give an explanation as to why she can do that, well.... She can. The system auto combines similar skills to prevent repetition and to give the writer (ME) less work trying to remember all of them.*
[YES!]
[Skills Combined: Compound Venom Lv.1]
[Effect: Combines all venom properties into single toxin.]
Good. Now level it up.
[Compound Venom Lv.1→2: Cost 2 SP]
[Compound Venom Lv.2→3: Cost 3 SP]
[Compound Venom Lv.3→4: Cost 4 SP]
[Compound Venom Lv.4→5: Cost 5 SP]
[Skill Points: 13→0]
Maxed out. Let's see if—
[EVOLUTION DETECTED]
[Compound Venom Lv.5 + Necrotic Poison Sting Lv.7 = LEGENDARY SKILL SYNTHESIS]
LEGENDARY?!
[New Skill Created: Serqet Lv.1 (Legendary)]
[Named after the Egyptian goddess of venom and healing]
[Effect: Complete mastery over poison synthesis. Grants ability to create custom venoms with specific attributes. Provides comprehensive knowledge of all toxin types. Multiplies venom potency by 10x. Can stack multiple venom effects. Legendary skills have no level cap.]
[Knowledge Transfer in progress...]
My consciousness FLOODS with information.
Toxins. Venoms. Poisons. Chemical compounds. Biological effects. Cellular breakdown. Nervous system disruption. Cardiovascular collapse.
EVERYTHING.
I know EVERYTHING about poison now!
And I can CREATE them. CUSTOM venoms. Tailored to specific targets.
Like... apocalypse-class Leviathans?
"Are you... okay? You've been very still for—"
[Serqet activated]
[Custom Venom: glyphosate+ pyrethroids + neonicotinoids+ Chlorpyrifos+ Cardio toxic venom]
[Designed specifically to harm Anguilliformes]
[Potency: 10,000% of base venom]
Every single tentacle lights up with POWER.
Not my normal purple-ish venom.
This is DARK. Almost black. Pulsing with malevolent energy.
I sting.
All twenty tentacles. Simultaneously. Directly into Yamato's human form.
"Oh. OH. That's—"
Her eyes go WIDE.
[Yamato: Taking damage - 1000 HP/second]
[HP: 500,000→499,000→498,000]
"Holy Shiit!!"
IT'S WORKING?
I keep pumping. More venom. MORE.
[Serqet: Synthesizing enhanced formula...]
[Anti-Levahithan Toxin v2.0: Complete]
The venom turns DARKER. Almost void-black.
[Yamato: Taking damage - 5,000 HP/second]
[HP: 490,000→485,000→480,000]
Yamato SCREAMS.
Not in pain. In SHOCK.
"WHAT IS THIS?! WHAT DID YOU DO?!"
"I LEVELED UP MY BUILD!"
[Serqet: Synthesizing enhanced formula...]
[Anti- Levahithan Toxin v3.0: Complete]
[Potency: 100,000% of base venom]
The venom is pure BLACK now. Like liquid void.
[Yamato: Taking damage - 10,000 HP/second]
[HP: 470,000→460,000→450,000]
Yamato is THRASHING now. Her human form flickering. Destabilizing.
"IT HURTS! IT ACTUALLY HURTS! I HAVEN'T FELT PAIN IN MILLENNIA!"
"DO YOU WANT ME TO STOP?!"
"NO! KEEP GOING! IF YOU STOP NOW I'LL HEAL INSTANTLY!"
She's ENCOURAGING me to kill her?!
[Yamato: Regenerating - 8,000 HP/second]
She IS healing! My venom is barely keeping ahead!
I need MORE POWER!
[Serqet Lv.1→Lv.2]
[Legendary skills level up through use and mastery]
[New potency: 200,000% base venom]
[Yamato: Taking damage - 20,000 HP/second]
[HP: 440,000→420,000→400,000]
This is WORKING. Slowly. But working.
"THAT'S IT! KEEP GOING! DON'T STOP!"
Hours pass.
HOURS.
I'm pumping venom continuously. Non-stop. My MP is draining but my passive absorption from the algae keeps me going.
[Serqet Lv.2→Lv.3]
[Potency: 500,000% base venom]
[Yamato: Taking damage - 50,000 HP/second]
[HP: 250,000→200,000→150,000]
Yamato's human form is MELTING. Dissolving.
Her true form is starting to show through—scales, serpentine features.
"ALMOST THERE! JUST A LITTLE MORE!"
[Serqet Lv.3→Lv.4]
[Potency: 1,000,000% base venom]
ONE MILLION PERCENT?!
[Yamato: Taking damage - 100,000 HP/second]
[HP: 100,000→50,000→10,000→0]
Yamato's form EXPLODES into light.
Her body dissolves completely.
And in its place—
A sphere. Glowing white-blue. Pulsing with IMMENSE power.
[Yamato's Essence: Exposed]
[Level: 200+]
[Warning: DO NOT TOUCH]
But I don't need to touch it.
[Stomach Inventory activated]
The essence gets SUCKED into my storage.
[Stomach Inventory: Yamato's Essence stored]
[Mass increased: +ERROR OVERFLOW]
[Warning: Essence mass too great to calculate]
[You will feel VERY heavy]
I'm sinking. Fast.
[Current Mass: x ]
But it's IN. It's STORED.
"Well done!"
Yamato's voice. In my HEAD.
[Telepathic connection maintained through essence bond]
"That was the most pain I've felt in god knows how long! It was WONDERFUL!"
"You're... HAPPY I killed you?!"
"You freed me from my prison! Now we can leave together!"
Right. Now I just need to get out of the dungeon.
While carrying the weight of a LITERAL NATURAL DISASTER in my stomach.
This should be easy.
Definitely easy.
...