A huge long jaw emerged from the water and flew at me with speed. A cold chill crossed my entire body, if that jaw took a bite from me nothing would be left. But to my surprise, the jaw changed its direction and bit into the carcass of the snake, as it returned back into the pond.
“Ahh... I still needed that… But at least it wasn’t me.” I was a little shocked, but even so, I didn’t let the chance pass by and inspected the crocodile as it backed off into the pond.
***
-Small Lacus Crocodile Lv5-
Health: 49/55
Mana: 6/9
Stamina: 15/22
***
I glanced at its stats and shouted to myself, “Holy crap! I better not try to deal with something like this in the near future, Inspect *Small Lacus Crocodile*.”
***
*Small Lacus Crocodile* - A low-tier monster that mostly can be found inside ponds. The monster can get to the size of three and a half meters. Even though the monster is relatively small its jaw power should not be underestimated.
***
“Calling this crocodile small is scary at best and terrifying at worst, if that small I don’t want to see a huge monster in my lifetime and how the hell is it still a low-tier monster?” I was terrified of the thought of a huge mountain running after me, with a “small” additive in its name.
After the inspection of the crocodile, I cursed the detection skill for its failure, “Stupid useless crap why did I even bother using you…” But after a while, I calmed down and started to think rationally. “Guess that stronger monsters can hide that even the detection skill can’t locate them.”
I ran back to the cave, even though the snake was stolen from me, I still had three other snakes as a spare. I picked another dead snake and left the cave with it.
The sun was still high in the sky, so I still had some time to spare before the night. After all my level ups my mana increased by a lot, so I didn’t have to worry about it depleting so easily.
This time I chose not to come close to any ponds and even in the future to keep my distance from them. For the next few hours, I just walked around the forest and inspected the flora I found, for anything useful.
“Inspect *Mushrooms*.”
***
*Parvus mushrooms* - Grows in small groups between five to sixteen, the mushrooms are edible, and mostly used in soups.
***
“That's useful, but not for me. What about that one?” I looked at a dark brown cap mushroom, which gave me an interesting feeling. “Inspect *mushroom*.”
***
*Robur mushroom* - A dark brown mushroom, the mushroom is strong and solid. Mostly used in alchemy but is sometimes used in rare dishes.
***
“Alchemy that a skill that I should think about getting, but I probably need to get the correct equipment for it, that won’t be possible in the close time *sigh*.” I knew that my hardship just began, but I still couldn’t stop thinking about the possibilities of this magical world.
I picked the dark brown mushroom and placed it into one of my branches. I made the branch go around the mushroom and hold it for me, even if I still couldn't use it. Maybe in the future, I would find some way to consume it.
“That's really convenient. I don't need to hold items, I can just stick them inside me… It would be more useful if I just had an inventory.” But I knew that it would not be so easy for me to get something so useful if that even existed at all in this world at all.
With that thought in mind, I continued on my walk, finding blue flowers, red fruits, black stones, and a yellow Quni flower as well. Of course, I inspected all those items and they were the only ones that could be useful for me.
***
*Menes flower* - A blue flower that helps the mind to settle, mostly used in magical potions.
Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
***
“Helps the mind to settle? I guess it helps with mana regeneration, so it should be useful for me as well… But we return back to the same problem of how to eat it...” I could only shake my head as I continued inspecting other things.
***
*Mungo tree* - A green-leafed tree that has round leaves, this tree grows Mungo fruits. Those fruits are high in nutrients.
*Mungo fruit* - Red fruit that is high in nutrients, grows on the Mungo tree and attracts low-tier monsters.
***
It was really hard for me to cut those fruits down from the tree, but it was really easy after I used my *Wood Element Control* on fruits. “Barely usable for now.”
I already knew that I could use the skill on other trees. Sadly before I barely could move a few leaves, but now when the level of the skill is raised to three I could break the weak branches that held the fruits.
I picked up the fruits and placed them with the other items. I wasn’t afraid of the fruit to lure monsters, my berries already did that from the beginning, and I had the snakes to counter that effect.
***
*Gravis Stone* - Solid stone from the Gravis material, the material is quite heavy for its size but could be easily broken, and mostly found near rivers.
***
At first, I really thought that those stones were useless, but later I discovered if you hit those stones on one another a spark could be seen coming from them, and with those stones, I could make a fire. Most likely it won’t be that useful for me or even could be dangerous, but it can be used against other monsters so it would be better to have.
And of course the Quni flower, the flower that I brok… I mean, that the snake destroyed. I took all those items and placed them on my branches and continued on my way. Currently, I was walking awkwardly with lots of items popping out of my leaves.
Walking with all those items on my branches was really uncomfortable, “Maybe I should find something that could hold some of those items.” The thought of finding some kind of bag crossed my mind, but I was in the middle of a forest. Where could a bag pop out from?
Walking a little more around I found a tree near a pond that had long vines on it. The tree was leaning toward the pond, its long vines touching the water. As I approached the tree droplets of water could be seen falling from its leaves.
Even though I said that I will keep my distance from the ponds, I still need this tree for something, so I slowly surveyed the surroundings from monsters. After finding no one I broke one of the Gravis Stones that I had and took a sharp piece, with it I started to cut down a few vines. I inspected the tree to see if there was anything else useful from it.
***
*Crying Ivy Tree* - A tree with long vines growing out of it, the tree is called Crying Ivy because water droplets are forming on top of its leaves and falling from time to time.
***
“Just a normal tree.” I turned around and continued to search for more useful items. After walking a little more, I found a tree with huge leaves. I said with joy, “Exactly what I was looking for.” And gathered a few leaves from it. I inspected the tree after doing so, but it wasn’t special at all so I didn’t even bother to remember its name.
I collected a few sticks from the ground and looked for strong tree bark. After finding all the components I started to combine them together. After using the bark as the base, the branches as the support, the leaves as the main material, and the vines to tie it all together I made a rough green bag.
*Skill learned “Crafting”*
As I got the new skill I inspected it immediately.
*Crafting* - Helps the user craft faster, craft better items and succeed in crafting difficult items increases.
“Yes, success!” I jumped with joy. “I thought that there should be a skill like this, now I can create all that I need.” The idea of getting an ability that helps me to create items filled me with warm hope.
With that, I took all the items that were held by my branches and placed them inside the bag. After that, I placed the bag on myself, but it wasn’t comfortable at all. So with little thinking I just ate the bag, I mean placed it between the leaves and branches inside me. Now that all the items were inside the bag and the weight wasn’t spread around, it wasn’t that bad at all.
“Hmm I should make a door to the cave from sticks and bark as well, I don’t want some kind of monster entering the cave.” While thinking about all that amazing stuff that I could craft, I went back to the cave.
The sun was already setting down and when I saw that I rushed to the cave. When I arrived near the cave the sun just settled and slowly the forest could be seen lighting up with colors. “I came just in the nick of time.” I said without much worry and went to the cave entrance.
But when I got near the cave entrance I just stood there without moving. Looking at the entrance with a face of disbelief, I just stared and mumbled, “No no no...”
What I saw at the cave entrance were huge claw marks on all the walls. I walked outside the cave lots of times so I could remember how it looked and there were never been marks like these here before.
After seeing those marks only one reasonable explanation could be made, something crawled into the cave. I used the detection skill to check if the creature was still inside and sadly I could feel a presence coming from inside the cave.
I really just froze there. I had no idea what to do, from those marks I can tell that his creature is not weak at all, and I was almost sure that it wasn’t friendly as well. So I could only stand there like a statue in shock and disbelief.
Fear slowly started to accumulate inside me, before today I still thought that I could somehow hide in the forest as a bush at night. But after today I could confirm it, it would be a suicide.
After walking today I found out that almost all the trees that had fruits or bushes that had berries were severely damaged or withering. As well from time to time I could find roots here and there, most likely from other plants that were forcefully ripped out from the ground and eaten.
So surviving the night inside the forest was a throw of the dice, but now the only safe space that I knew became the residence of a monster, and I couldn’t do anything about it. My brain was working at its full capacity and trying to find a solution, but nothing could get into my head.
And as I was standing there thinking about what to do, a strong growl came from behind. I turned around slowly and saw a huge dark body emerging from the shadows. A big dark panther emerged and stared right at me. I started to tremble and said with fear, “Hey kitty kitty, you don’t want to hurt me, right?” The huge cat roared and took a leaping stance.