When one thinks of reincarnation, there are a lot of different versions a person could think of. There’s the Hindu reincarnation known as samsara. The more modern isekai which originates from japan. Whether that’s the version where you’re a human or a monster, it varies. There really are a lot of options when it comes to reincarnation. Not just with the type of reincarnation but the possible millions, maybe even hundreds of millions of things you could become.

And I ended up reborn as a flower. Bottom of the food chain. Primary producer. The thing that’s eaten by prey. I couldn’t even end up as something that could reliably stay alive like a tree. Was I really that bad in my previous life? I don’t have the answer to that. While I ended up reincarnating, I only reincarnated with the general knowledge of my world. My personal memories are missing. Gone.

Is this what it felt like to have amnesia? But all that’s not important now. At least not at the moment. I have far bigger worries right now. Namely, my survival in this new life. What was that thing every survival expert said was the most important things to have? Food, water, shelter? Being a flower takes care of the first two and the third I can’t do anything about… Well, I suppose that’s a decent start considering the cards life has dealt me. So checking out my surroundings should be the next step, I guess?

Thankfully, I do still have the gift of sight despite my new form. However my surroundings are lackluster. Typically, people in my situation end up in a lot of places. Caves, dungeons, forests, a small village. And it seems I’m in a forest. I couldn’t say what type exactly, but it doesn’t seem to be the particularly exciting kind. All around me are tall grasses, nearly as tall as I am, blocking out my view of my surroundings. Above those however towered thin trees draped in numerous small vines. The tops of the trees flared out in a shape reminiscent of an umbrella.

My surroundings have little to offer information wise, but it doesn’t seem like a very dangerous place. But time will only tell if that’s the case. Back to my checklist. Basic necessities? Mostly done. Get a lay of the land? Can’t really see all that much, but I did what I could. What should I do next? That’s right, a system! Unless I’m one of the less unfortunate people, I should have a system. At least if this is that type of world. It hasn’t announced itself, so I’ll just have to keep thinking keywords until something happens.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Menu! Um, skillboard! Err, how about status!

[Species- Brandlethorn Rose (Seedling)

Level- 0

Traits-

Rapid growth (Species trait)

Life leech (Species trait)

Thorns (Species trait)

Parasitic touch (Species trait)

Gene stealer (Species trait)

Skills-

Mana leech (Species skill)]

There we go! Let’s see what we have here… Brandlethorn rose…? Well, I guess I know what specific type of flower I am now. But traits? I have a lot of them, but they all seem rather simple, and some of them are a bit worrying. Life leech? Parasitic touch? Gene stealer? Those don’t seem like something a flower should have. For the most part they’re self-explanatory, but I’ll need to test them out to see everything they can do. But the real treat is my one skill. Mana leech. This confirms there’s magic, so I’m definitely in a fantasy world.

[Three Long-grass absorbed!]

[Level up! Brandlethorn Rose(seedling) is now level 1]

A chorus of notifications flickered to life on my screen as a dull throbbing pain in my head appeared out of nowhere. Slowly the edges of my vision opened up and revealed my surroundings, as if I had been squinting this entire time. And I could see myself. But from a very different perspective than before. If pressed to explain it the only way, I’d explain it as a third person POV. And not just from one perspective, but from several angles at once. All while looking through my original first person POV. Slowly my headache faded away, leaving me with my new strange situation.

I guess I figured out how to level up? A look at the source of my new viewpoint confirmed my suspicions. Somehow I absorbed some of the grass clumps around me, and now it was a part of me. Was this the work of the gene stealer trait? Or maybe it was the parasitic touch trait? By looking at the ends of my roots, I decided it was probably the work of the latter trait. The tips of my roots were entwined with the base of the long grass and fused with it. Looks like I might not be at the bottom of the food chain after all.

But now that I absorbed the grass, I noticed another interesting thing. There was a slight tingling in my roots at the base of several other clumps of grass. That same tingling was present in my other roots until I absorbed the grass they were attaching themselves to. It was like a noise in the air you never notice until it’s gone. Except in my case it was the feeling of absorbing a foreign plant? Isn’t that supposed to be a villain’s ability, like a certain sci-fi plague with giant killer space rings? Man, don’t tell me I’m going to have a weed killer hero after me now…

But with this, I finally had a way to do something about my future! Heck, with this even if I was eaten by a random herbivore I might not die! Which is a definite plus. Dying twice isn’t on my to do list after all. Crossing it off once was more than enough for me. Now I need to plan my next steps… Not that there’s not much to plan in the first place. I only really have one option, and that’s to grow and absorb more plants.