From the frying pan into the fire, “Well shit, that explains the stamina problem...” It was morning so I could look everywhere inside the trench. I was not that far from the exit but I knew that getting there would not be an easy task.

“At least no monsters will come to eat me...” Looking at the bright side at the moment was all I could do.

“It looks like that if I am rooted in, it sustains my stamina but I don’t think that will be for long, so I should get out of here as fast as possible.”

I looked at the ray lights that were coming from afar, as I started to use the *Dig* skill to slowly make my way to the exit. I used it so many times, but all I could do with it was two small holes in the direction of the exit.

“This won’t do, this won’t do at all.” I looked at this path, it was just a few meters away, but for me to get there would be the same as climbing a huge mountain, and at this speed most likely I won't be able to do it.

“No, it's alright, if I continue to use the *Dig* skill will level up and it will be easier for me to get out of here.” I tried my best to hold myself together and concentrate on the task in front of me. I knew if I lost all hope that the chances for my survival would become close to nil.

“But still I should do my best and make a smaller path, even if I need to break branches and tear through my leaves.” A smaller path meant that I would get out of this hole faster, and to get from this hole faster meant that my chances would increase.

So with that plan in mind, I continued to dig. Thank god that I didn’t have a front side, so all I needed to do was to change my view to the exit and at the same time made two small hands from my branches there as well. There was barely any room for them but it felt weird to only use my roots to dig.

Even though I changed my front to another direction, I didn’t find it unpleasant or distracting at all, it gave me a little weird feeling as if I forgot how to use my hand for a short while, but nothing more than that.

So my digging continued, a faint light surrounded my hands every time I used the *Dig* skill, and with it every time a small stone fell down deeper into the trench. Currently, I wasn’t on the ground because I was stuck around one meter above the ground, so I didn’t need to be bothered with the stone debris as they fell down deeper into the trench.

After another hour or so of digging the holes got bigger and now I could move my hands a little to the sides, but sadly I couldn’t call that a great achievement. What more disturbed me is that my mana was almost depleted. “If this continues like that, it will take me at least a week till I get out of here, *Self Awareness*.”

***

-Ontopary Bush Lv5-

Experience: 11/45

Rarity: Common

Health: 2/7

Mana: 1/17

Stamina: 1/4

Status: Intelligent(Unique), Shadow Mark

***

“Damn this mark! It is still there... I am out of mana as well, I guess it's time for a rest, *Magic Perception*.” I deactivated my magic perception skill and returned to the world of darkness to recover my mana.

“Interesting when my mana regeneration would be higher than the cost of the *Magic Perception* skill, if the stupid *Self Awareness* skill would tell me that information from the get-go, I wouldn’t need to guess...” I still lacked information about my body and how everything operated in this world, but I knew that in the end, I would understand it one way or another.

Currently, I was in my small dark world but even here I had few things to do, I needed to inspect the names of those monsters that I encountered yesterday. I inspected them when fleeing and remembered their names, now that I am safe I could inspect them without worry.

“Now that I think about it, it's the first time I saw a monster's level higher than ten.” The levels in this world were a little weird, I met a huge crocodile that was level five, I met a weaker and smaller lizard that was level eight, and those huge monsters were the first ones that exceeds the tenth.

It didn’t puzzle me for long, at any rate, I would find the answer in the future, so I continued with my plan and inspected the names of the monsters. “Inspect *Mountain Lord*, inspect *Shadow Predator*.” Because I had time to spare, I started with the dessert and then went to the main meal.

*”Inspect” leveled up to Lv4*

***

*Mountain Lord* - The monster is at the peak of the low tier and sometimes could be even considered as middle tier, the monster's habitat is mostly in the mountains. Most of the time these monsters are sitting at the top of the food chain of the low tier without much competition. The monster is really territorial and will attack anything that enters its domain.

***

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“Yes the skill was raised, but surprisingly the explanation is not bad this time, from now the *Inspect* skill should be even more accurate, but now that I think about it, it only explained its habitats and nothing else...”

“And I noticed it before but the *Inspect* skill is a little bit weird… How can I inspect something that isn’t even near me…” I thought to myself but in the end, chose just to accept it as a weird gimmick of this world.

***

*Shadow Predator* - A peak of the low-tier monster, at higher levels considered as the beginning of a middle tier. The monster is really intelligent, but what makes this monster so scary is not its intelligence or strength but its weird behavior.

The monster marks its prey with a special mark that can’t be removed easily, with it the location of the prey will always be known to the monster. The monster will do almost everything to kill its prey, sometimes the monster will even protect the prey from danger just to get the kill on it later on. Not only that the monster could even give a few advantages to the prey on its hunt for no apparent reason, but the monster also will not stop the hunt until one side wins.

***

“Thanks for the high-definition explanation this time inspect skill...” After getting the explanation on the shadow predator, a few of my weird questions were answered.

“This monster is just insane...”

What kind of madman will risk his life just to protect something that will be killed by him later on, sadly looks like I met exactly that kind of madman, a madman that will not stop being anything to kill me, and not only that it is doing it for fun.

No, I understood that there were monsters that haunted me for food as the stupid bug, for self-defense as the snakes, or because it was in their territory as the bear. But for fun or maybe even for no reason at all, that really placed me in my place. I would never imagine meeting something like that in this forest.

I was sitting there speechless for over an hour recalling all that happened yesterday, thinking about what will happen if I leave this place alive, the *Inspect* skill said that the hunt won’t stop till one of us dies.

But all this story was just illogical to me, there wouldn’t be someone that will do something for free, there should be a reason, and there should be some gain, but after removing all the needs that surely didn't seem logical at all.

“That's fine, that's fine I can deal with it I will find a way, but for now I just need to focus on getting the hell out of this trench, *Self Awareness*.” I checked my status to see how much mana I recovered till now, but it just made me a little bit disappointed.

“Just three, I was here for just a little more than two hours, so my mana recovery rate has increased by a bit, but this is not enough.” At this rate it will really take me days till I get out of here, but what could I do than wait?

I waited around another eight hours to fill my mana till the end, after that I activated my *Magic Perception* skill again. Just as I activated the skill, the creepy disgusting feeling of something looking at me returned yet again.

“Ah, looks like this curse really only works at night.” My speculations were correct again, the “curse” could locate me at night, but I didn’t really care about it too much because I was already ready for this. Without much care, I continued with my digging.

After making enough room for my body, I couldn’t reach that far with my hands, so I needed to relocate my body forward a little. With my digging, I barely made room for myself, because I did my best not to dig to the sides and just to dig forward. Sacrificing my comfort and continuing forward while still being squeezed by the walls around me, it wasn’t comfortable but it would assist me to get out of here faster.

I released my roots from the wall, moved my body forward, and rooted myself again, just inserting my roots into the wall alone took at least thirty dig skill usages, but I had no other way just to do it again and again till I get out.

I tried my best to not move my body too much, I didn’t really know what kind of movements consumed my stamina, so when I was not embedded into the wall I was extremely careful. Even when I wasn’t embedded in the walls I still tried my best to minimize my movement.

And so I dug and dug, a few hours passed and my mana was empty again, but this time I just went to sleep. This time around I woke up early in the morning, I knew that because my leaves weren’t shining and I barely could see the light from the sun.

I checked my status to find out that my stamina was still one, but to my surprise all of my mana was full.

“That's weird, I went to sleep late at night and now it's early in the morning, so not even seven hours should have passed, why is my mana full again?” It was great news that my mana restored that fast, but the problem was that I didn’t know why.

“Was it because I was sleeping? If so, I found a great way to restore my mana faster.” And with that thought in mind, I continued my excavation. After I dug for half an hour a pleasant surprise sounded inside my head.

*”Dig” leveled up to Lv3*

“Yes!” I screamed with joy and checked the difference in the power of the skill, it was much easier to remove the rocks out of my way but not by much, that still was enough for now.

“If I level the skill once or twice, getting out of here would be a piece of cake.” I shouted to myself in delight.

And just like that two days have passed, I would wake up early in the morning with full mana, I would deplete it and go back to sleep, then I would wake up again at night, and continue my work with the creepy feeling still surrounding me.

During those two days, nothing special happened except one thing, I found out that when I am sleeping my mana regeneration really has increased. But weirdly when I sleep at night it increases by much more than it did during the day. I wasn’t exactly sure why that happened, but I guessed it was something to do with the illuminating flora of the forest at night.

After working those three days my progress wasn’t bad, “I moved almost three meters forward. Surely soon the *Dig* skill will level up again and it will be even easier for me to get out of this hole.” As if my cries were heard by an angel in the heavens, I could hear the mighty voice inside my head once more.

*”Dig” leveled up to Lv4*

“I knew it!” I shouted and started to dig even faster than before. This time around the skill effect was raised by a lot more than before.

“If my calculation is correct I will get out of here in a day and a half.” I laughed with a wide smile on my imaginary face. I was happy at last to get out of this jail and start my mission of finding strength.

But my joy wasn’t for long, a weird feeling crossed through my whole body, a feeling I never felt before. Just a moment later all I could do was look at myself in shock because all the berries on my body started to wither one after another.

“NO, NO, STOP, STOP!” I screamed because I knew that my stamina hit the bottom, barely a few seconds later all the berries on my body turned into black small dots and after them, the leaves around them started to wither as well.