10.03.2023
It is I, the Absolute Madman and I'm back with another dose of Stranded! I was pretty sure that I had today's chapter pretty much figured out already, but I was mistaken! Just like that time I thought there might actually be some chemistry between me and my friend but she was just being nice and my sociopathic ass misread the room. Fuckin' society, I tell you...
Well, a part of the society I might be able to tolerate is the comments!:
Drax152 - So I boot up Webnovel to see what it's all about and on the main page all I saw was 'System this' and 'System that'! I get it, it's a great trope and I really want to write one, but come on, that's just blatant overrepresentation! I guess I gotta head on over and introduce a little anarchy. *hands loaded revolver to bedridden patient* Abolish the establish order and everything becomes chaos. And the thing about chaos? It's fair.
n1ght4ury20 - No biggie man! Even if you don't comment I'm happy to know that you continue to read!
EndriRigs - Shhh... We don't talk about the other children yet.
deathdog08 - The epilogue will definitely include the scene of their return, but I'll probably have some Linkin Park playing in the background and leave it at a comical cliffhanger with everyone just dying of shock at Izuku coming back with a harem and kids.
SonsofChar - Understatement of the century bruv. You've got no idea how much shit I got for this fucken slip up! Still, it was thanks to all that shit that I was able to correct it with random bullshit, so whilst incredibly annoying I can appreciate the effort.
Nevarus - Do I look like a guy with a harem? Or someone who respects women? I'm just pulling ya leg with the latter. You should respect those that respect you and completely dunk on everybody else.
Exiled Soul Nomad - Well, I'm not exactly tracking the anime releases unless I'm bored or find a super cool clip on YT so it probably just flew under my radar!
And now, the chapter!:
Farming without the proper tools was no easy feat, but it was better than starving. There was always the option of hunting, but there were no signs of there even being any animals in the area besides the occasional howling and hunting predators did sound pretty dangerous even now that Momo had her Tek Carbine. Yes, Izuku already had a kill to his name, but that was in adrenaline-fueled self-defense. He wasn't so sure whether or not he'd be able to be the one trying to kill something. Not to mention that killing an animal was the easy part, trying to process it properly, removing the innards, the skin, elbow deep in with blood all over on the other hand sounded like pure nightmare fuel.
Fishing would be a much less gruesome alternative to proper hunting, but neither group had even seen a fish throughout their stay, so this was also off the table.
Farming it was then and Izuku was more than eager to try his hand at yet another profession. So far he was already a forager, a miner, a builder, a scout, a woodcutter and a few others that he's already forgotten about, but this really seemed like a great endeavor.
If you chop down a tree, you get the wood immediately. If you swing a pickaxe at an ore vein, you get the ore immediately. If you pluck a berry from a bush, you get the berry immediately. If you sow crops however, you gotta wait a while to reap the profits. All in all it might be a very welcome change in pace.
He still wished they had some proper tools though.
Shuusa would probably be able to make them, but she was still recovering and readjusting to the new environment so Izuku wasn't very keen on relying on her abilities unless it was absolutely necessary.
This forced them to use what they had on hand already so Izuku picked up his trusty Salvaged Icepick and proceeded to swing it into the dirt. Thankfully it was unbelievably sturdy and showed absolutely no signs of wear and tear even after extensive use, so Izuku was sure it can take this unexpected abuse without any issues.
Izuku's first task was to loosen the soil up and get rid of the surface layer of grass and weeds to prepare a proper seedbed for their eventual crops. It wasn't that hard, but the awkward working position coupled with the use of an improper tool definitely took a toll on his back.
Once a small patch of land was prepared Shiozaki got to work on sowing the seeds that they had, whilst Izuku continued hacking away.
He was a bit confused as to why they couldn't just sow all they had in a single plot but Shiozaki was quick to share her substantial knowledge on the subject and point out all the risks of doing so.
It was all new to him, but Shiozaki's explanation was very clear and he managed to see the logic behind their actions by the time she was done. Getting all of their crops wiped out by a pest or a blight definitely sounded like a catastrophe and stunting their growth by oversaturating the ground with seeds should also be avoided, so Izuku decided to trust in her knowledge and carry out his assignments to the best of his ability.
He had to admit though, farming wasn't as easy as it might sound. Although in this case it wasn't exactly the activity itself that was the cause of his struggle, rather it was who he was accompanying at the moment.
Whenever Shiozaki crouched to inspect the soil or bend to take a closer look at something that looked suspiciously like a weed Izuku couldn't stop himself from sneaking a peak at her impressive figure and he hated himself for it.
From what he knew about her, Shiozaki was a very humble and modest woman who never flaunted her beauty despite being quite attractive. He was pretty sure that she's never revealed as much skin as she was doing right now, though it's not like she had a say in this matter at the moment. They had to make do with what they had and Izuku understood that. He was also sure that Shiozaki understood that as well.
"So why the hell does she look so good in those clothes?!" Izuku panicked.
Shiozaki, just like almost all of the girls, had foregone the skirt that she wore once she was transported to this world the moment they got some different articles of clothing. It just so happened that the aforementioned articles were quite suited to the warmth of the local climate. Shorts and thin, short-sleeved shirts was all they had and it was enough, until now of course.
Thankfully neither Kendo, Tokage nor Kodai minded him being in the camp and he dared to believe that they were actually fond of having him as an additional set of strong arms to do the heavy lifting, but Shiozaki was definitely cautious around him. It wasn't a dislike or anything, but if Izuku had to guess it was probably due to how much skin she was showing off at the moment. He tried to be respectful and refrain from having his eyes wander towards her, but it's become way harder now that they'd spent a couple of days preparing the fields. As such he's caught himself staring a couple of times, though thankfully his gaze seemed to go unnoticed so far, but that only made him more ashamed of the fact that his eyes gravitated towards her body of their own accord.
She was really attractive and the clothes really hugged her figure quite snugly so her surprisingly alluring assets were easy to see, but that didn't give him the right to stare at her so openly! He only wished that he'd be able to get a hold of this habit before Shiozaki catches him red handed, as that would seriously sour his relation not only with her but the other girls as well and introduce a kind of awkwardness that he'd rather not have to deal with.
All he had to do was minimize the amount of time he spent looking at her juicy thighs and maximize the amount of time he spent actually tilling the soil. No biggie.
It took them almost four entire days and a couple of close calls but they were eventually able to prepare the seedbeds and sow all the seeds that they had on hand, meaning that now was the time to play the waiting game. They couldn't sit by idly however, as the seeds needed to be regularly watered as there was absolutely no rain at all, not even morning dew really!
Thankfully they had a watering can, one that Izuku also didn't remember packing and one that Shuusa swore she did not create. Kinda sus, but he'd let it slide. The watering can wasn't perfect however as it lacked the usual shower head-like nozzle. It didn't seem like that big of a deal to Izuku at first, but Shiozaki was quick to explain to him that if they were to oversaturate the ground with too much water, then the carefully prepared seedbeds would turn into mud and the seeds themselves might rot.
Momo immediately offered to forge the missing piece but was swiftly and painfully reminded that her beloved hellforge was not accessible at this moment and probably not as hellish as it once was. Her heartbroken and dejected expression made Izuku feel really bad, but it's not like he could do anything about the hellforge. What are the chances of their current base also being set up on top of an active volcano anyways? At least Kyouka was there to console their girlfriend.
With no other choice, Izuku turned to his daughter, who was eager to do something besides lazing around all day. He made sure to explicitly say however that she was to make the most simplistic nozzle ever and to not go overboard with the choice of material. It could've been a slight overreaction on his part, but it turned out to be well justified when he heard Shu mutter something about plastic. He was no expert but polymers seemed way more complex than simple metals so he was right to specify exactly what he wanted.
With the missing piece obtained, Izuku and Shiozaki were free to water the crops.
Izuku may have done the bulk of the work on this project, but he was honestly sure that Shiozaki contributed way more to it than him. Just thinking about all the little things which she knew and that he had no idea about was enough to cement that statement.
"Your knowledge about plants is really amazing." Izuku complimented his accomplice one day. "We wouldn't have gotten anywhere if it wasn't for your expertise."
"And my expertise would have been for nothing if it wasn't for your hard work." Shiozaki spoke gently with a smile, definitely happy with the compliment, but unwilling to take all the glory. "I may know a lot about growing and caring for flowers which is nowhere near as physically demanding as growing actual crops."
"Well, I guess that makes sense." Izuku responded with a smile of his own as he filled up the watering can. "How come you know all of this anyhow? I doubt it's all because of your Quirk."
That question seemed to spark something within Shiozaki as her entire demeanor seemed to shift from her usual soft-spoken self to something much more enthusiastic.
"My parents own a flower shop, so I was surrounded by flowers right from the start and it was pretty much impossible not to develop a green thumb!" She explained with excitement clearly audible in her voice. "Besides, it was a great bonding exercise, so we used to spend entire days just tending to the garden. I tried cultivating some flowers on my balcony at the dorms, but it's not the same. I have to admit that working on this project was great fun." Shiozaki revealed with the widest smile he's ever seen, it wasn't a grin, but it was very bright and joyful.
"I'm happy for you then." Izuku said with a smile of his own, honored to be witness to this side of her that only a select few had probably seen.
This small interaction was enough for Izuku to cast out the improper thoughts he may or may not have had about Shiozaki out of his head for some time. As it turns out she could be very enthusiastic when talking about things she was passionate about and he could definitely respect that quality. Learning a bit about her was also a fun bonus.
Neither of the two were sure how long they'd have to wait for the crops to show any signs of growing, but the accelerated growth seemed to affect the seeds that they'd sown too!
It took around a week, but during their morning inspection Izuku and Shiozaki were able to spot some greens pierce the ground at last. With the fruits - or vegetables - of their labor now apparent, the mood of everyone in the base improved by a lot. It was way too soon to deduce whether or not they were actually growing something edible, but their hopes were high, so the pessimistic options were currently glossed over in favor of their more hopeful alternatives.
Another week passed and it was at that moment that something quite bizarre became apparent. As it turns out they were growing a variety of stuff. And it's not like there were different kinds of seeds in the bag. If that were the case then they'd get a whole bunch of various plants growing in all of their seedbeds, but that was not the case.
The plants were perfectly separated and even neatly organized! They still weren't sure what exactly it was that they were growing, but now that they had some variety, the chances of actually growing something edible were even higher now!
Which was great news since they were really cutting it close with their foraging operations, but they weren't all that concerned about it now that their crops were growing in front of their very eyes.
Things were looking quite great all things considered.
The waiting game was actually way more fun than anyone could've expected. It was probably due to the fact that they had no idea what they were actually waiting for, so that element of surprise could be what was causing the neuron activation.
They had a total of six seedbeds, with every seedbed eventually turning out to be populated by a different plant.
Two of those were easy to categorize but still impossible to definitely name. That's if they were even growing plants from Earth. Still, Shiozaki was pretty sure that they managed to get two different cereal plants from the seeds they got, so they had something to look forward to. Finally getting to eat something that had to be baked or cooked first sounded like an excellent change from the berries that they were so used to by now.
Another pair of seedbeds were occupied by some root crops which were impossible to analyze without interrupting their growth, so everyone was in agreement that they should just wait and see what it is once they get around to harvesting.
The plants in the last two seedbeds - fell. Literally. At first Shiozaki was suspecting that maybe they were meant to spread out on the ground, but a stray comment from Tokage made her rethink everything and thus Izuku was recruited to create trellis for the climbing plants to cling onto.
Getting such a variety of plants from a single bag of identical seeds was very strange, but it's still far from being the strangest thing to happen in the past year. Very far from it actually. And since this was also a very welcome turn of events, no one even tried to find an explanation to it. They simply acknowledged it and moved on.
Over the course of the next few weeks Shiozaki and Momo were able to finally identify a few of their crops.
The root crops were still a mystery, though they were suspected to be carrots and potatoes on the basis of intuition. The cereal plants turned out to be corn and wheat whilst the climbing vines would soon bear grapes and… cucumbers. No one was harmed but a lot of people were confused upon that particular discovery.
Another strange thing was that the plants all seemed to start maturing around the same time despite normally having varied growing periods. It made things easier for them so, once again, they decided to take it in stride and ignore it for the sake of retaining their sanity.
Having all of their crops mature at the same time meant that they could harvest them all at once and reseed the seedbeds immediately after, ensuring that they'd have a stable source of food for the future as the forest around their base was quite barren already. Sure it'd grow back fully in a week or two, but most likely won't be exploited unless they had nothing else to do or were in need of food.
In the end it took around four weeks for their crops to fully mature and be deemed by Shiozaki as harvestable so harvest them they did!
Or at least they would if they had proper fucking tools! Welp, Salvaged Icepick and the detachable spear tip from Izuku's Tek Spear really came in clutch as digging out potatoes with their bare hands didn't sound fun at all!.
Wheat and corn are introduced so that we can eventually get to baking, potatoes, cucumbers and carrots are completely random and the grapes... will have their use in the future. Just you wait.
I was really tempted to put the legendary 'what is long, hard and has 'cum' in it?' joke, but I managed to keep myself from doing it. That's some self-control right there.
Alright, I'm bouncing now so have a great day and I'll catch y'all in the next update!