Chapter --6 What is mana?_Pathetic Plant

“Uwaaaa!”

『Evolution Complete』

I have eyes! I can see! Screw you everlasting darkness! Oh wait- why is the moon and stars out? Wait what- there’s two moons. Interesting.

I looked around curiously. It might have been nighttime but I could see everything clearly, including the corpse of some animal lying on the ground.

Oh, it’s probably the creature that was trying to eat me.

I moved over to it to get a better look. It had the head of a deer and a body similar to a boars, and it was covered in pale brown fur. White foam existed around its mouth, and its eyes were glazed over. I leaned back away from the corpse, it was not a pretty sight.

Speaking of, what do I look like? Thinking that I looked down at my body, and quickly found two oddities. The first one is that rose petals grew on my body, the second one is the lack of a certain genital inbetween my legs.

I… am a woman… Well, I was kind of expecting that when I saw the word dryad. It’s still odd to not have anything between my legs though.

Different parts of my body were different shades of green, and rose petals decorated my wrists, ankles, chest, legs and neck. I appeared to have a body close to a small girl. I reached my hands up, and found out my hands had vine sprouts on the underside of them.

I tilted my head and looked at my feet. It would appear that the underside of my feet has a similar thing. Testing it out I could manipulate the vines with a huge range. When I extended them fully they were three meters in length. How the hell did I store them in my arms? Oh- I can also make them grow thorns as well. The ones on my feet were more like roots and I could extend them about a meter into the ground to absorb nutrients.

Speaking of which, what was on my head? I reached my hands up and patted what appeared to be rose petals instead of hair. Well I am a plant person.

Now then, I have been breathing for a while, but I think I can mostly breath through my skin and be fine. But I do have a mouth.

“Hello.”

Saying a word of greeting I grinned and laughed. My voice was that of a young and cute girls but so what? I can talk as well! Wait how do I know the people of this world use the same language as I do?

Umu… If I find a book I will have to translate it.

Speaking of which, Status!

『Jexal Quart

Species: Small Weak Rose Dryad

Class: Poison Dryad

LV: 0/20 [Exp: 0/120]

Health: 72/72

⦗Unique Abilities⦘

⟪Metamorphose⟫

⦗Class Abilities⦘

⟪Concentrate⟫ ⟪Expand Perception⟫ ⟪Infect⟫ ⟪Greater Poison⟫

⦗Advanced Species Abilities⦘

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

⟪Gather Nutrients⟫ ⟪Advanced Growth⟫ ⟪Charm⟫ ⟪Bloom⟫ ⟪Purify⟫ ⟪Greater Gather Light⟫ ⟪Greater Gather Water⟫ ⟪Dryad’s Influence⟫ ⟪Seduct⟫ ⟪Weak Plant Modification⟫ ⟪Vine Whips⟫

⟬Titles⟭

⦉Worldfarer⦊ ⦉Infector⦊ ⦉Tiny Conqueror⦊ ⦉Dryad⦊』

OOoo! My status increased by alot! Although I do require a lot more exp now to level up… I also gained a bunch of new skills. Greater Gather Light and Greater Gather Water seem to just be more powerful version of Gather Light and Gather Water. Dryad’s Influence… what exactly is that? I would imagine it has something to do with the space around me. Seduct… I’m going to leave that skill alone. I might be a girl now, but I have no interest in men. Weak Plant Modification, would that be like what I did to the plants around me when I was a blade of grass?

Ufufufu… Look how far I have come since then! Well leaving my elation and sense of achievement aside… what do I do next? I should probably explore, however it is quite possible- no, of utmost certainty that monsters exist in this world. Also there is the possibility of encountering other people as well. I do not know the treatment of dryads in this world, for all I know they could be classified as monsters.

Also, is there magic in this world? I would assume so since I have been gathering increased amounts of light, but that didn’t give the feel of using mana. Umu, does mana even exist?

Well, I will need more forms of attacking other than my whips, so it might be best to try.

So far I have created all my skills out of mental concentration, why couldn’t I do the same for mana?

Let’s see… If I remember correctly I thought of doing something similar when I first came to this world as a blade of grass, however that was without mana, and I only gained the Gather Light ability at the time.

So let’s see, assuming mana exists, how would it exist?

I sat down with my legs crossed and pondered it. What is my idea of mana? Flow of blood is definitely an option… wait, as a plant do I even have blood? I felt my chest for a heart beat, and found one, but extremely faint. I wasn’t even sure if it was a heart beat. Wait if it isn’t then how am I breathing? Hmm, I believe I heard something about insects breathing through their skin, but I don’t remember if they had hearts or not.

Well, beside that the other way to think of mana would be as a pool of energy inside the body, aka a mana pool or MP. Mana might also possibly exist simply as ‘mental energy’, but I felt that it wasn’t the case otherwise I would have gotten tired as a piece of grass- wait can plants even get tired? The only time I have slept in this world is when I evolved. Speaking of do I need to sleep as a dryad?

Uth, the questions keep piling up. Alright, ignore other questions and focus on mana.

How would one sense mana? Would it be floating in the air? Flowing through the earth? Would it naturally be created in living things? If it was the latter then I should already have a mana pool, however nothing in my status indicated that.

Well, there is no harm in trying to collect mana from the air, even if it doesn’t actually exist.

I put my hands together and straightened my back with my legs crossed, as if meditating.

Mythical power that flows through the air; collect in my body and strengthen me!

Focusing on imagined the flow of mana in the air changing and flowing into my body, collecting in a pool that connected to my body.

Collect, collect, collect, collect…

… Gather in my body as a pool of energy, and become my strength!

*ping *ping *ping

Suddenly I could sense something in the air, filling it, although faintly. I also felt it flowing into my body and collecting in a pool or a well.

I opened my eyes and looked around, I could see a faint ‘pressure’ or presence in the air. So it worked?

Status!