Grumblingly accepting that I couldn’t convince the system to give me an actual answer, I decided to put both of my free stat points into intelligence because I already had a lot of wisdom.

And also, because I doubted that charisma would help me in any way, shape, or form.

There may be a hot dryad or 2 around here that are into hot stray souls, but I’ve not seen them, so they are not real.

Anyways, after putting my points into intelligence, my mana counter looked like this.

Mana Points: 21/43

And in the short time I was arguing with a literal brick wall that is the system, I had gained another mana point which reminded me that I really, and I mean it, really need to experiment with wisdom to figure out how much it regenerates. But at least I knew how much 1 intelligence or vitality gave in hp and mp.

It’s 10.

Both of them give 10 of their respective stats.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out.

But that also makes me wonder, why do the critters I’ve taken control of have decibels of stat points instead of full ones? Do stat points grow as a creature grows? And if stats are related to growth or the size of a being, couldn’t I just graft together corpses of a thousand animals and become god?

Or is there another reason for those decibels existing?

Hmm… I really lack a lot of knowledge about this world and the system in general which is fair seeing that I’ve only been here for a day or 2 but, I really need to start experimenting with stuff to find out more about this world, magic, and the system in general… but how will I go about doing that?

Now, to say that I am no scientists will probably surprise no one, and if it does… why?

Anyways, so what I mean to say is… I have absolutely no clue how to go about researching things other than the basics a middle schooler would know like making a hypothesis and stuff so, to say that I am vastly under prepared to research stuff in a fantasy world without anyone else’s help would be… vastly overestimating my capabilities.

So, I am going to start from zero and try to not die in the process… hopefully… I can actually die once or twice for all I care; I just need to prepare an extra body or 2 if I plan on dying…

So, to start from absolute zero, I first need a hypothesis which I already kinda have because I already compared this world to some of the fantasy worlds where everything is made of mana, and with that I mean everything, the air, the trees, the earth, the water, etc., everything is made of mana, no exceptions!

So, I should be able to test that out really soon!

…Though I will need to actually increase my skill ranks to do that… so, just find a safe place and no life improving my skills for a day or 2 to get them to level up?

Hmm… maybe not. Because ,while I’ve had fun living in this world and exploring it so far, I don’t know if I have the will to lock my self up in a dungeon to pull an all-nighter and just… repeat a single action over and over again in the hopes that I am able to gain insight into a skill and improve it… but that is actually something to do in all those sleepless nights I’ll be having in the future so… a big maybe?

But, for now, I want to first find a safe place where I don’t have to worry about getting jumped by an angry cat, and can store corpses in so I can use them later when needed, then I need to explore the forest and put markings around so I don’t get lost, then I need to make a mental note of the animals living around my safe house at the least, and only then will I be able to actually start experimenting with stuff… after getting some exp and levels too! Can’t forget that.

I wonder though, are there any dungeons in this forest? I mean, there has to be, right?! Dungeons are the backbone of any fantasy setting and they’ve basically become a necessity instead of the exception for fantasy! So, if the real fantasy world doesn’t have dungeons, I might actually fucking lose it!

…But, at the same time, I really doubt I’ll find one soon… maybe in a few weeks if I am lucky because, to no one’s surprise, forest happen to be kinda big, and I really doubt I am going to cover a big portion of this forest, maybe if I stay here for a few years, but I really hope I am in shape to wander the world before then because I really don’t want to have come to a fantasy world, just to sit still and live a quiet life. I mean… how boring would that be? Maybe if I was old in my previous but I wasn’t so, that’s a no go for me!

Shaking off my thoughts, I looked around me just to see the hatchlings starting to disappear into the earth and the forest and when I looked in the direction of the rabbit carcass, the only thing I could see was a skeleton covered in dirtied fur, which was really disgusting and kinda terrifying when I remembered I was inside that rabbit a few hours ago, but my fear quickly transformed into determination because I definitely was not letting myself actually be eaten like that!

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… Well, not while I occupy a corpse I actually care about at least…

“Now to find a place where I can be safe in…” while I doubted, I’d be really safe anywhere inside of a forest but, not letting those thoughts get the better of me, I started thinking of something to search for that would be relatively safe inside a forest.

A cave? Bears or something like them probably exist so, no.

Underground? I don’t really want to deal with a colony of super bugs anytime soon… so, no.

Trees? For all I know, trees are actually sentient and there is a yakuza of them led by a dryad or a tree ent that would be more than willing to gut me alive so, no.

Inside a river, a lake, or any other large bodies of water? Fuck no! Have you ever seen what lives in the deep ocean!? I don’t want to bother with mini-magically attuned cthulhus that, for some reason, live in lakes inside forests. Am I being un-necessarily paranoid? Maybe, but you don’t know that they don’t exists, so shut up.

Hmmm… hmmm… yup, I have no idea what to fucking do!

“Ugh… for fucks sake man, I am just going to start on my epic quest for… whatever, and I can’t even start that because if I am not careful in my literal first step, I am probably going to die… what a fucki-“ but as I was saying that, I heard skittering sounds to my side and when I turned around, I just saw a mama bug making her way to the river side.

“Ahhh… I really need to chill off, not like they would attack one of their own, right? I mean, they joined forces to protect their young, so wouldn’t they also do everything to defend each other too… wait a second…” and at that moment, a massive lightbulb appeared above my head, and I had eureka moment!

If these bugs are communal creatures, and defend each other, couldn’t I just abuse them for safety?

I mean all I need to do is just stay here and if I see any predators just make a lot of vibrations to draw the attention of others, and then let them take care of it!

I am a genius! Genius I say!!!

…Well, I’d be a real genius if there wasn’t a tiny problem with this plan… there isn’t really a place to make my research in, and there is also a tinier problem that is the fact that these dumb fucks live next to a river for some reason. So, if I were to live here, I’d have to constantly worry about predatory animals that came here to take a sip deciding to take some grub too! And I’d also have to worry about them eating any corpses I might want to store for later too!

So, maybe I won’t live with the bugs, but the security in numbers that comes from living in a pack, or swarm in the case of the bugs, is something that I shouldn’t totally ignore too… so, why not do 2 things at once?

I can have my own private base that I do research in and store carcasses in that is also close to a pack or a swarm of animals! And if the pack is ever in a bad situation, or my body becomes a bit too rotten, I’d just bounce onto another pack, or just find another corpse belonging to a member of the same pack!

…But I should be careful about which packs I join in because a pack of animals that has a human in it will be superior to a one that doesn’t have a human in it… well, I may be over estimating my worth… but, I am talking about literal wild beasts, so no one can get offended or argue with me, so, whatever I say is the truth. No questions asked!

But now, I need to find animals that makes packs that either won’t realize I am a puppeteer controlling the corpses of their dead friends, or, for some reason, just won’t care about it… so, no wolves, or any species other species that has good familial relations with their pack members and that could literally sniff me out, and no… I’d like to say intelligent monsters like goblins, but I don’t know if they even exist and nor do I know if they would care that they have an undead amongst their mists.

So, I need to find a new species of animals that I’ve never heard of before like these bugs or…

“Find one that just wouldn’t have the time to realize I was an undead…” I mean, if they don’t see my rotting body, or I hide it carefully, or if they are a wandering species and just don’t really care about one or 2 oddities in one of the members of their flock, I might just get away with masquerading as one of their own… but, wouldn’t something like a herd of deer move around too much for me to be able to also have a private base of operations that I regularly commute to?

Wait, what am I talking about? Any corpse I get won’t last for longer than a few days, I don’t have to worry about that too much…

So, let me once more say what I need to do.

Firstly, I need to decide on a central base of operations, which will probably be a hole in the ground or a cave, that has a few permanent packs living around it or it has flocks/herds of animals coming and going around it.

Secondly, I need to infiltrate a herd, pack, flock, or whatever of a group of animals, and to do that I need a corpse that is not too rotten, so I will either have to steal it from a predator, or kill it myself… which, hopefully, won’t result in my demise… it very well might tho…

Thirdly, after infiltrating a group of animals, I need to use their numbers for my protection and also do research on magic and try to improve my skills.

And finally, I need to bounce off before my body rots too much and find a new group to infiltrate or, find a new corpse belonging to the same group.

But if I go the route of killing my targets, I need to be careful of not fucking up the natural order too much, otherwise I may, unintentionally, fuck a group so much that their group might face extinction. And I really, really don’t want to try and keep a pack of animals alive for a few months because I got too greedy. And we all know when people get too greedy and mess up the natural order of animals. If you don’t, look up Yellowstone wolves or something, I don’t know!

“But where to find a nice central location where I can set up a main base…” as I started thinking about how I can find a central location, I let the sounds of the forest flood my ears, listening to them to calm myself and think more carefully.

The swaying of the trees, the chirping of the birds, the soft flow of the river… the river?

Turning my eyes on the river, I could see the last of the mama bugs burying itself back underground, but remembering what I saw before I came to the place of these bugs, the deer, the rabbits, the hog, and after calling on some common sense, I knew where my base of operations would be.

“It needs to be near a source of water!

… Well, not this one because I don’t want to bother with bugs for the next millennia.”