Chapter 6

So how to you go about fighting something at least six times your size?

I'm obviously no match for it in strength and after that chase, I'm seriously starting to doubt my superiority in speed as well.

The next best thing after basic stats would of course be skill. The right technique can make use of an enemy's strength and potentially even make their speed work against them.

Two problems. One. I'm very new to this body. Two. Other than some basic principles, I don't know any martial arts.

Well, if direct fighting won't work, then I'll have to try poison and trickery, but again. Problems.

There is not much I can do to trick the bear into letting me pass. I can't communicate with it in any meaningful ways, and I already tried and failed to to distract it with things like throwing rocks in bushes for example.

Poison could work I suppose. I have eaten some poisonous or venomous stuff so I should be able to produce some. The problem is, that I have no way of administering it. My nails may be sharp, but I doubt I could even pierce the it's skin with all that thick fur, at least not without dying in the process. The only way that poison could work is if I could make it into a gas. And I don't know how to do that.

Damn it. I there really no way to beat this thing. There should be plenty of animals that are smaller than their prey right? Wait, animal? Come to think of it. I'm a plant aren't I. Maybe I can do something after all … hmm, yes. This could work … it's extremely risky though. I only get one chance and if I screw up I'm dead. Still, if don't do something I'm dead anyway, so lets do it.

So with my resolve set, I moved my tail outside my hiding place and started to grow roots.

****

For the past five hours I have been steadily advancing my roots. I'm absorbing nutrients from the ground above me, but that's not my main purpose. No there is only a few cm of humus above the rocks and the nutrients there are unlikely to keep me alive for more than a day or so. It's one of the many flaws this bod of mine has right now. Plants are not used to spending energy on moving so I require almost constant nourishment. Either from food or my now empty reserves. No the reason I'm growing roots is for ensnaring the bear.

I'm gonna grow a web of roots, covered with spiderwebs and glue and spread it the bear. I have the clue from before and I was interested in spiders anyway and already know how to make the web. I'm also also going to release a lot of CO2 while doing it. Unless there is a lot of wind that is going to help make the bear waker and confused.

The only reason any of this can work is because the bear is laying still in one place. And the reason this is so risky, is because growing enough roots to even mildly inconvenience the bear is going to consume all of my stamina. This is also why I'm not going to run as soon as I have enough roots to hamper the bear. I just wouldn't have enough energy to move. In fact the only that I know of where I can get enough nutrients to restore my stamina is the bear.

****

It's a success!

It took almost nine hours, but when the bear finally noticed the roost and started to struggle, I had enough of them to withstand it. It was actually really close for a while there. The beast almost broke free, but thankfully the CO2 had weakened it to the point where after a good 10 min of struggling it didn't have the energy to do much more than breathe, and soon after it fell unconscious.

Surprisingly it took another hour, before I got the notification of a level up. When I did however, it appeared four times, so in the end I was quite happy with the sequence of events.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

I do wonder why that bear started to chase me in the first place, but unfortunately I have no way of knowing that, so for now it's just gonna have to remain a mystery.

****

I ended up spending the better part of a week in that hole. Mostly I was just recuperating, but I also tried to make myself more energy efficient. It didn't really work all that well, but I think I improved a little bit. I also put two points into intelligence. I thought that it might help me think of a way to improve, but it didn't really do much. After some testing I found out that my memory improved a bit and I think I can process things faster and more clearly, but like all the other stats it doesn't actually make me smarter.

By the end of the week the bear was mostly consumed. Or to be more precise I had taken everything that I wanted. Thanks to the almost airtight cocoon the body actually looked mostly healthy from the outside. I briefly considered taking the fur, but I had no need for clothes and didn't have anything to put in a bag or on a belt. Besides, I didn't know how to skin anything anyway, especially without a knife.

So, when my stamina was finally full I climbed out of the hole and set on my way once more.

I had to take a bit of a detour around the ravine, but after two days I reached the other side and a day after that I saw the river again.

For a couple of weeks I continued the same as before, until one day around noon I found a road.

I was ecstatic. The road was small and overgrown, but it was clearly not an animal trail and after some looking around I even found some footprints. My tracking skill wasn't all that great, but I estimated them to be a week old at the longest.

Now which way to I go. All roads lead somewhere, but I'd prefer the shorter route.

After some deliberation I decided to continue alongside the river and head southward.

****

It's early morning, almost six weeks after the incident with the bear.

I'm standing on a small hill at the edge of the forest, looking at the rising sun, the river flowing through the endless grasslands, and at the sunlit rooftops that peak through the mist hanging over the distant city.

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Hey, so I have some good news and some bad news.

The good news is that I started a new fiction called The Adventures of Nori

The bad news is that i got a new idea for a story and couldn't resist writing it (see above) so I'm not in the mood to write this one ...

Basically I'm putting the story on a hold. This is mostly because I don't know what to fill the chapters with. Starting a new ficton and liking it better than this one may have helped things along, but the main problem is that I have a clear idea where the story is going. This may not seem to be much of a problem, but put it together with (for me) a very typical story and lots of timeskips to set the pace, and you have got yourself a glorified summary of events. It is very hard to make a summary work as a book.

Now fear not, this does not mean that I am dropping this (probably). All it takes for me to continue is to flip my notebook, I'm just saying that I'm going to focus of the new fiction and put Kaizen out of my mind for now.

In a few weeks I'll probably open my notebook on the wrong side, fall in love with the story and start writing new chapters.

Anyway, for now:

"That's all folks!"