I woke up, at home, lying on my bed. “Man, I feel like I had the weirdest dream.” I said to myself, as I slowly stumbled to the kitchen and made myself a sandwich with some coffee.
Normally that is how every morning starts for me, but today something was bugging me, something was missing something important, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.
After taking a few bites of my sandwich, I suddenly opened my eyes and stood up in shock, as my coffee mug and my sandwich fell onto the floor. I mumbled to myself something, and just a second after that the surroundings started to shift and shatter, and everything went back to being pitch black.
In fear, I said to myself, “Where am I? Why is it so dark? I remember that I was at my home eating breakfast ugh… It was so hazy, was it a dream?“ I tried to look around but only darkness was present.
“Hello darkness my old friend…” I mumbled to myself.
Yep, that’s the only thing that I could see, and not only that I couldn’t even feel anything at all.
Recalling the voice and the self awareness status that I saw yesterday, I said to myself, “What’s going on, did the universe have mercy on my soul and kill me on the spot? No, surely it wants me to suffer a little more.”
I waited a few minutes in a haze but nothing happened, I couldn’t see even a single ray of light, with the thoughts of what happened before I mumbled. “If that really wasn’t a dream… Maybe if I do that status thingy again I can understand what’s going on, or at least I will be able to confirm that all that was really a dream and this is the afterlife or I am actually stuck in a closet in a psych ward.”
“Please be the psych ward please be the psych ward…” After saying those words to myself a few times, I hoped for failure as I said. ”*Self Awareness*.” Just as I finished that sentence my head got filled with information again and a window appeared in my mind.
***
*Self Awareness Status*
-Ontopary Bush Lv1-
Rarity: Common
Health: 4/4
Mana: 12/12
Stamina: 3/3
Race: Berry Bush
Status: Intelligent(Unique)
Skills:
*Magic Perception Lv1* *Self Awareness Lv1* *Calm Mind Lv1*
Titles:
*Clutz*
***
“Ugh god dammit it wasn’t a dream and I am still a bush,*Sigh* well at least it worked. I guess this stupid nightmare will not end so easily, or more correctly to say it’s only the beginning.” I could only *sigh* as I knew that I was still in deep shit.
“For now, I need to check my status…” After a few minutes of examining my status, I thought, “If I remember correctly my mana was a little empty but now it’s full. I guess it’s because I slept, but I wouldn’t really call it sleeping, I just blacked out. Wait, do plants even sleep?…” I asked myself a weird question not knowing if I will ever get an answer to it.
But in the end, I chose not to think about it too much and looked at my skills. “Looks like the *Calm Mind* skill has been added to the skill list, wait I don’t remember getting the *Magic Perception* skill.” Seeing that I had a hunch of what happened I said the next two words, “*Magic Perception*…” As I focused on the skill.
And just like that with a blinding flash of light, the colors of the world came back to me one after another, it gave me the same feeling as turning on the lights in the middle of the night.
“A mighty blinding light it is.” I smirked with my nonexisting eyes, and after looking at that beautiful scenery yet again I said. “So it wasn’t a dream… Looks like I ran out of mana and because of that I fainted?” I asked myself unsure.
“It's already morning so I slept for quite a long time… I guess the *Magic Perception* skill helped me to see, and hear the world around me and even feel my surroundings.” I mumbled to myself as I felt the wind on my leaves, it still gave me a weird creepy feeling.
“Well, I can’t move and there is not really any part of my body that can move, does it mean I am bound to see only this view for my entire life? NO! What happens if some animal comes and tries to chew on me, will I only be able to look and scream in horror inside my mind…” I imagined myself being eaten by some hungry deer in horror.
”But first I must see for myself the state of my body, I still don’t believe it even if this stupid voice tells me that I am a plant!” I tried to focus on the thought of *Magic Perception* and tried to look around, to my surprise my view moved. I was really happy that I almost cried, even though I couldn’t.
Like a newborn child I looked around with excitement and forgot my original goal, I understood that I was on a cliff. That explained why I could see so far away into the distance, and behind me, there was a huge tree that almost pierced the sky, its leaves were golden, and they even shined like real gold in the sunlight.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
The tree blocked most of my view, it was beautiful but I hoped it would move a little and give me some space to see what was behind my back, not like I really had a back, but still for now I choose to call it my back.
On my right there was another bush that looked kinda ugly, “Hope I don’t look like this…” I murmured to myself as I continued to look around as I looked down the cliff.
“Looks like the fall is quite long, if anyone were unlucky to slip on a banana peel here they will surely die, but that should be the last of my worries. I can see some movement down there as well, wolves maybe? Or as in another world, dragons? Who knows.” I guessed randomly, but the movement was too far, so it didn’t bother me at all.
“Now that I think about it I don’t have eyeballs but I can see, surely then I can somehow move my view and see myself?” I tried to focus and change the perspective of my view, and make my body enter my sight, after a few attempts I succeeded!
By the looks of it I could change the source of my sight to every part of my body, from the start of my branches to the edge of my leaves, and yes my worst fear came true, I really was a bush and one that I saw before.
“Hello my brother, I didn’t mean to call you ugly before!” I joked to the bush that was on my right but of course, I didn’t get any response before shaking my head and examining myself once more.
My body looked like a regular thick berry bush around a meter tall and there were small red berries on top of my branches, horror slowly started to fill my mind. “Not good, not good at all… not only I am a useless plant but I have berries as well, this means that I will attract insects and birds and if that huge bird came and took a bite from me nothing will be left…”
*Magic Perception leveled up to Lv2*
“This mysterious voice again, looks like I really reincarnated into an RPG pseudo-world, what can be better? If I had a real body!” Normally people would be happy to transfer to another world, be a hero, try to save the princess etc, but I knew those dreams and hopes were naive and sad, and after confirming my looks my opinion only grew stronger.
”So if I am correct there is still a chance for me to get out of this mess, but how the hell can I get legs and hands? Maybe I can reincarnate again? Yes, the only thing I need right now is another three lightning strikes. Agh, no thanks, I will think about something else, but first, if I want to get out of this mess, I need to learn about my body stats and my skills.”
After hours of trying to move my body, playing with my perspective, or trying to use any kind of magic, like a fireball, electricity, or even wind control to no avail I could only sigh with defeat.
“*Sigh* Yep, looks like it’s no use, I lack information. I need to know how my skills work, and how I get them. Is there a limit to the numbers? Can I use magic? Even though I didn’t succeed in the first place, maybe I just don’t know the words for the spells, or maybe it’s not possible at all for me.” I said dejectedly but then my spirits returned as I remembered that I had a *Magic Perception* skill.
“Surely it should be possible, I have *Magic Perception* skill so there should be magic in this world, so maybe even a bush like me can learn magic, and then I will rule the world as its emperor!”
“Muhahaha.” I laugh to myself, as I imagined a bush with an emperor crown, cape and scepter stuck on its leaves sitting on a throne.
“At least I still got my great sense of humor, but really I need to do something right now, let’s check my status again maybe I can learn something from it, *Self Awareness*”.
***
*Self Awareness Status*
-Ontopary Bush Lv1-
Rarity: Common
Health: 4/4
Mana: 7/13
Stamina: 3/3
Race: Berry Bush
Status: Intelligent(Unique)
Skills:
*Magic Perception Lv2* *Self Awareness Lv1* *Calm Mind Lv1*
Titles:
*Clutz*
***
“I really want to know what this title means, and get some explanation about my skills, ah I have nothing to lose… For now, let’s try everything! Explain Title…. What is Title… Nothing, let's try this then, what is Magic Perception… Looks like it won’t turn off be saying it in a sentence without the need to use it, I really didn’t check if I can turn it off and on again. *Magic Perception*!”
Everything turned pitch black. “It seems to work as needed *Magic Perception*.” I turned it back on again. “It uses mana but it drains it really slowly, I guess I should still have time till my mana is exhausted, I should check if I regain mana by just waiting as well, but wait didn’t my max mana rise by one?”
“Looks like the stats can rise even if I don’t level up, that’s good to know but what raised it, my skill usage or the skill level up? Still too little information, for now, I just hope that nothing will come and eat me before I find a way to move. Even if I turn into a tumbleweed and fly with the wind, it’s better than being eaten by some kind of a cow.” I imagined a cow running after me while I was dragged by the wind. “FLY, FLY YOU FOOL!!!”.
I returned back to reality, “Tell me about Title… not smart enough to explain I see. Search title? I guess there is no connection to the internet in this world as well. How do I get the title?...” After an hour of trial and error. “Inspect Title… YES, YES I CAN FEEL IT, IT’S!… My stupidity it's overwhelming… Fuck nothing works!” I cursed as no matter what I did nothing worked.
I tried everything from asking the voice to praying to the voice or even calling it mom, but nothing helped.
“Maybe I am doing something wrong, maybe it will work the same way as the *Magic Perception* skill. What was it again I need to focus on the skill? I guess I just focus on the *Clutz* title and try to understand it.” Just a few moments later it happened.
*Skill learned “Inspect”*
***
*Clutz Title* – given to those who, making fools of themselves for no apparent reason, one of the few most embarrassing and useless titles.
Effect: a small chance added for people to not take you seriously, no matter what you say.
***
“Thank you great mysterious voice for hearing my prayers!” I almost started to cry. ”Wait, didn't I say the name of the skill already? Why didn’t it work before? Looks like the skill system is not connected to keywords and more to the understanding of the skill itself I guess?” I asked myself with confusion as I still had no clue how everything worked.
“System, keywords, why do those words feel so familiar?” I brushed that question aside as I had more important stuff that needed my attention.
“But man, this title is a useless one indeed. I got it so easily, surely at least half of the world already has it. Does it say that it's embarrassing? At least…” I wanted to say something but suddenly everything started to blur.
“I feel funny...” I mumbled and as I finished that sentence, everything went pitch black and I dozed off once more.