I looked to the right and I looked to the left, but no matter what direction I looked I could only see the cliff continue. At that moment I understood that I didn’t get off the mountain, but just got a little lower in altitude.

As I stood there and was thinking if I should find a way down, or try to go left or right, but then a strong and scary explosion came from the forest. The forest trembled and small little birds and bats woke up and flew in all directions.

I turned back around to look at the forest, I had a bad feeling about this huge explosion. Just as I turned around I could hear a mighty dying screech of a beast. The explosion came from the direction of the fight between the demonic beasts, so I knew that one of them lost, but I didn’t know which one it was.

I didn’t think for long and checked my status to see if the shadow mark disappeared, but my luck was on the bad side as it was still there.

“Damn it, the devil cat is still alive or this curse can’t be removed by its death, but most likely it's the first one.” I wasn’t one hundred percent sure if I was correct, but I didn’t need to speculate anymore because I could feel that disgusting scary feeling locked at me once more.

Just as the feeling came back, I moved immediately to the left of the cliff and continued my late-night jog. The way near the cliff was barely visible, because there were no trees around the area, even though I was illuminating light, it was too weak, so only the moonlight was lighting my way.

I looked down at any possible moment, to see if there was something that could help me get down from the cliff, but to my disappointment there was nothing. I was looking for small bodies of water, or some trees to cushion my fall, but for some reason, there weren't even a single bush in the area and no ponds or rivers either.

Then I tried to see if there were some small rocky paths that I could take to get down or even some kind of plants like vines that could grow at this kind of a cliff, but this plan was a dead end too.

The feeling of being chased got only stronger and stronger by the minute and panic started to fill my mind, with it my brain started to create a survival plan.

“I could use this cliff to my advantage, like the last time with the bug.” I remembered the first time that I engaged in a battle, of course, it was more like a one-sided assault, where I got in one lucky slap and won but still, it was a battle I won.

I pondered for a moment and said as I ran, “Maybe the devil cat will even die from the fall, but how should I push it down, surely a slap won’t do the job this time...” I asked the correct question, there was no way that I could push the cat off the cliff, even if I used all my body, so I needed an outside helping hand.

I looked around to see if there was anything that could help me with my cause, but sadly I didn’t have the time for that. A roar came from not that far away, I moved my view to the back just for a second without decreasing my speed, and there I saw a bloody panther running at me at full speed.

I was running in the darkness, and trying my best not to trip on the cracks. My brain was working to its best, but no matter what all I could do right now is run. At this moment I was even thinking about jumping down the cliff, that way I would at least have a small chance of surviving.

But knowing that there will be nothing to lessen my fall and that I have barely any health, it meant that it was almost impossible overall.

“I should just grow wings and fly away.” I said in my mind jokingly in a panic because I knew that I was fucked, who I was kidding there was no way I could survive that fall, and no skill would help me in doing that.

So I chose to wait for the cat to attack me, and at that moment I would turn my branches into spikes and stop abruptly. If I am lucky my spikes will wound its eyes and because of the momentum of the cat it surely will damage. It wouldn’t be the best solution, and most likely it won't do what I want, but it was all I could do for now and it was better than dying without a fight.

I was getting ready for the devil cat to come closer, so I chose to concentrate all of my hearing only on the cat. Slowly I could hear it approach more and more till it was nearby, I could already hear the cat's low growl coming from its open mouth. Just as I was getting ready to use my “hedgehog skill”, everything became black.

“What? No no no no no...“ I was sure that I was losing consciousness again, but to my surprise, I could feel that I was getting squished and that I was falling? I moved my view a little to the right and found my branches and leaves scratching two walls from each side. I was inside a narrow trench.

I fell really fast only a few moments passed and I already fell ten meters down, but after that, my speed started to slow down, as my shape of a round bush started to turn into a pancake. I fell down almost all the way to the ground. It was really dark inside this trench, there was only one light source and it was coming from me.

“Did I fall down?” I looked up and asked a stupid question, far up above I could see a silhouette of a scary cat looking into the trench and after it, a huge roar of a panther could be heard, as it removed its two yellow eyes from me and then disappeared into the night.

I felt really weird, it felt as if I couldn’t breathe. I examined my body and found that currently, my width was barely ten centimeters.

“I turned into a goddamn pancake.” It felt weird and strange, but I knew that it wasn’t dangerous so it didn’t really bother me too much, I checked my status just to be sure.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

***

-Ontopary Bush Lv5-

Experience: 11/45

Rarity: Common

Health: 2/7

Mana: 3/17

Stamina: 1/4

Status: Intelligent(Unique), Shadow Mark

***

“I got only one damage from the fall, I am almost out of juice and the stupid mark is still present.“ I said with a concerned voice. Firstly I looked around again inside the trench to check if I was really safe. The space inside the trench was small for any monster to enter, even a small bunny will find it really difficult.

I tried to move my body or even change my position, but I discovered that I was completely stuck. No matter what I did, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t do anything at all. But because of that, I knew one thing for sure, this trench wasn’t dangerous at least for now.

After confirming that I am stuck I wanted to cry, “Dammit, DAMMIT ALL! Why am I so weak, why can’t I be stronger than those monsters outside, why do I need to run away in fear for my life all the goddamn time?” I was thinking about all that happened till now, about all the mistakes I did, about all my reckless actions.

“When I got the snakes I thought that nothing could touch me, but look at me now, chased by demons, and now I am stuck between two walls.” I was all over the place at that time, thinking that the stupid snakes would protect me forever and that nothing could touch me in the forest.

“I was too reckless and now I am paying the price. I don’t know if that panther will find a way down, but if it does I am doomed.” I didn’t know how to remove the shadow mark from my body, or I didn’t know if the panther would come after me again, and because of that a new fear slowly started to accumulate inside my heart, but with it, something new was born as well.

“From this day onward I won’t be so reckless, and I will get stronger so strong that no one will be able to chase me around.” A small desire of achieving strength was born inside my heart as well. I remember those days, that lame excuse of a desire, just to get stronger it was weak and pathetic at best.

Those days I would never think what hardships I would need to go through in the future, but how could I even imagine that, I was just too naive. I didn’t even venture out into the world, I knew nothing about it at all, I was just a frog inside a well looking at the sky and thinking that I saw it all.

“Yes power I need more power, I should level up as fast as possible, get stronger skills, and beat the shit out of anyone that stands in my way.” Leveling up was one of the ways to get stronger in games so in this world that should have been the case too, but of course, I needed more than that.

I still could feel the scary feeling from the shadow mark, but I knew if the panther tried to get to me right now it would not succeed, so with a tired voice I said, “But for now I should go and sleep.”

My current location was safe, I was tired and wanted to rest. I tried to move my roots from their shape and insert them into the walls, but to my surprise, I found out that the walls were really strong and solid, so I had to use my *Dig* skill to do the job, it was my first time that I failed to root myself, and it took me by surprise.

I used close to ten dig skills only to enter only half of my roots, “Those walls are really strong.” I said to myself and continued to work on the other half of the roots, and after more than ten tries I succeeded.

“Looks like I will be stuck here for really long.” Currently, my location in the trench was really deep, and because I could barely see in it, I didn't really know where I was located.

So I estimated that my location is five to six meters from the edge and I was correct, but I will only be able to confirm it in the morning. Without further ado, I deactivated my magic perception skill.

I was so tired and exhausted that I didn’t care about anything else. I knew that I was safe and that was the most important thing for me at the moment, so I just fell asleep instantly.

The time passed and it was already morning, this time around I slept longer than usual. Maybe it was because of the crazy chase or maybe because of another reason. I woke up and activated my magic perception skill, with it I found myself still stuck between the walls.

“Oh right, I am here...” I said when I looked at the small cracks on the rocky wall that was in front of me, the creepy feeling that was yesterday vanished without a trace, so not thinking about it much, I continued with my morning routine and checked my status. Sadly it didn’t change that much, there were no new skills or even one new point of experience.

“Even after all that I got through, I got nothing…” Of course, I was a little disappointed.

“I should have got some kind of running skill at least, but no I guess it's because of this stupid body.” In the future I learned about a thing called body skill affinity, different body types can get different skills, and they can get them faster, slower, or even not at all. But for now, I could only speculate about this.

***

-Ontopary Bush Lv5-

Experience: 11/45

Rarity: Common

Health: 2/7

Mana: 17/17

Stamina: 1/4

Status: Intelligent(Unique), Shadow Mark

***

“This is bad… What's wrong with my stamina? It didn't rise at all…” I said with fear and confusion.

”Is it because of the mark? But there was no explanation for something like that in the inspection.” I was baffled, nothing like that ever happened to me before, I ran over my status again and even inspected the *Shadow Mark*, but the results were the same, I found nothing.

“If my stamina gets to zero doesn't that mean that I will die? No no no this can’t be.” I mumbled thinking about the cause, just yesterday I wanted to get stronger, but now I could die even before getting the chance. A weird idea came into my mind, and with it, I looked at the wall and inspected it.

***

*Dried Stone* - Dried stone is one of the few strongest natural stones, from the non-mana group. The stone is almost always found dried and got its name because of this weird property, even after rain the stone will be found dry as if the water on it disappears into the void.