The night passed really fast as if I didn't even sleep, like every morning I activated my perception skill and checked my status.

***

-Ontopary Bush Lv5-

Experience: 11/45

Rarity: Common

Health: 2/7

Mana: 17/17

Stamina: 2/4

***

“My stamina got down by two I guess it's because of the weird stretching activities that I was doing for the last few days.” I knew that two stamina was enough for me to move for hours so it didn’t bother me at all, even so, today's walk to the forest had only two meanings to me.

The first one is to replenish my stamina and the second one is to make sure that the devil cat is really not around. I still was concerned that he was hiding in the area somewhere and of course, if that was true I would be in a world of trouble. But after surveying the area for three days I was almost sure that its lair is not located here.

I waited a few hours till the sun got a little higher in the sky. I didn’t really know when the cat would return to its lair, and even though I was almost sure that it returned at night I didn’t want to take the risk.

Time slowly passed and it was already nearly noon, I flew out of the tunnel as a rocket and went straight to the forest. I wanted to leave this trench for a long time, so even though I really feared the devil cat, that fear couldn’t slow me down. But in reality, my speed wasn’t that fast, and from the side, it looked as if a weird midget wearing a bad disguise of a green bush was slowly approaching the forest.

The ground slowly started to change in color as I approached the forest and went further away from the cliff, from grayish brown to green, the colors changed. The closer I got the greener it became with grass, bushes and small trees started to pop up as well, a nice feeling started to fill my heart as if I returned home.

All the way into the forest I used my *Detection* skill to the best of my abilities, of course, the range wasn’t that good, so I tried to find the monsters with my eyes as well. I stopped near the beginning of the forest not so far away from the cliff, the distance was probably one hundred and fifty meters or so.

Without thinking much about it I rooted myself into the ground and started slowly to revolve my view around like a turret, to see if any monsters were approaching me. An hour passed and then another half, I dug myself out of the ground and went back into my tunnel. Yes, you heard me right I went back to the lifeless trench, no matter how much I hated that place it still protected me from the outside world.

I returned to the cliff without a problem and went deep into my tunnel. “Good I replenished my stamina to the fullest, now I can be a little more at ease.” I sighed a sigh of relief because I knew that my life was not in immediate danger from starvation and I could relax once more.

The activity that I did that day wasn’t the last, I wanted to make this place a little more comfortable for myself, so I started to dig out the left wall and make a small area for me to sleep in. It took me more than two hundred dig skill usage till the hole was big enough for me to barely fit inside.

I went inside it and said, “Ah! At last! I can stretch a little and not be a pancake while I sleep.” Being inside the trench was really uncomfortable, it was the same as if someone would be stuck in a small box like a sardine not able to move his body left or right, so having just a little more space to move made so much difference.

For now, I went to sleep to restore my mana because later on, I wanted to start to train some combat skills. I woke up after a few hours and it was almost night, but my leaves still didn't glow.

“Hmm, now that I can train, what kind of skills should I try to get?” I had lots of time to think over these few days, about what kind of skills I can get but nothing special came to my mind.

I remembered my old experience of me trying to get new skills, “I tried getting other element control skills or some kind of magic skills, but with no avail maybe I should try to get some combat skills like boxing?” Try to imagine a meter-long boxing bush coming at you, scary right?

“I did a great job with the snakes last time, so I should have potential.” I looked over to the wall that was directly in front of my “resting area” and just started to hit it with my fists. It wasn’t my greatest idea, but if I didn't get a new boxing skill at least I would get a level in wood element control.

“I should still be careful about my stamina, I don’t know how much this kind of movement will consume it.” I said while puffing and huffing in my head.

The hits at the wall weren't that strong, so I didn't feel any pain or any discomfort from hitting the wall, that way I knew that I didn’t get any damage from this training.

Hours passed and the night already approached, with it the haunting feeling came as well, I just flinched for a second and without much care continued my training. From this training, my stamina started to drain a lot faster than when I was digging. I stopped the exercise when my stamina decreased to two. I just wanted to be careful and not hit rock bottom again, this time I knew that there would be no second miracle like before.

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“I didn’t get a new skill...” I was a little disappointed, “I shouldn’t get down, Rome wasn't built in a day.” I said proudly as I tried to puff my chest, but it only made my leaves stand up a bit for a little.

Now that I finished my training I had nothing much to do so I looked at the walls of my resting area and said, “I guess I will start making this place more suitable to be my temporary home.”

I was planning to stay at this place till I dealt with the annoying devil cat or at least made the mark vanish, but I knew it would take me some time, so all I could do at the moment is to make this place a little bit more comfortable. I had a few ideas of finding a more suitable place to stay, but for now, I chose to leave all those plans for the future me.

“Good luck future me!” I murmured to myself as I continued to dig out my resting area more and more until I was completely fitted inside.

All my leaves and branches gently pressed on the walls. ”This is much better than before.” I moved more to the center of the hole and rooted myself in place, after that, I just went to sleep till morning.

Morning came and I woke up quite early, after checking my status, as usual, I continued digging the hole even more, this time my leaves and branches didn’t even touch the walls when I finished. Then I went to restore my mana till noon.

I popped a branch out of the tunnel and transferred my view to it. I looked around and used my detection skill a few times, but no monsters were seen or auras detected, so I just jumped out of the tunnel and stumbled in the direction of the forest.

I did exactly as the last time, rooted myself into a sunny area, and looked around for monsters, but this time after finishing replenishing my stamina I didn’t return to my tunnel. I wanted to scout the area a little and started to prepare for my great plan number two.

I didn’t go too deep into the forest, currently, I knew that I was hurt and could be killed easily, but I didn’t have any berries on me, so I should not attract any monsters and it needed to be done for me to survive.

I went deeper into the forest while using my detection skill and stealth skill to the best of my abilities, slowly the number of bushes and trees increased around me. I saw lots of trees and plants that I saw before, but this time I didn’t dare to pick them up because they would only be a burden for me right now.

Looking around for a little while, I found what I was looking for, it was a huge old broken tree that was laying on the side. I approached it and said, “Time to gather some resources.“ With force and the help of my *Wood Element Control*, I broke a few branches from the dried tree.

The branches weren't that big, each one of them close to a meter, they were more like sticks than branches. I removed the dried-up leaves and the twigs from them and made them a little lighter, then I took them back to the cave.

It wasn’t so easy for me to walk with them, I had only six of those sticks but it was already my limit. “Why am I so weak? I want to be much stronger, maybe in the future I will gain more muscles.” I jokingly said when walking to the tunnel.

I looked at the entrance of the tunnel that was half a meter high and asked myself a question I didn’t think of before, “Where should I put the sticks?” I knew that if I placed them inside the trench they would fall deeper and it would be really hard to get them out of there, but leaving them outside was not the best idea either.

“Who knows maybe the devil cat will use them as toothpicks...” I said with a suspicious look, but then I facepalmed myself and said, “I can just place them vertically.” After that without thinking too much I climbed back into the tunnel, it was always hard to squeeze into the tunnel but with the new sticks, it was even harder.

The sticks made scratching sounds with the walls as I slowly moved deeper and deeper inside, I stopped near my resting place and started to pile up the sticks vertically behind the entrance to the hole. I placed them at the back of the trench so they wouldn't block my path as I left and entered the trench.

Without thinking too much I started to dig through my resting area even deeper, after I leveled my *Dig* skill to level four the digging was much more smoother, but it felt kinda new and weird. Before the level-up, no matter how much mana I tried to use with the skill it always would take the same amount, but now I could somehow control the input, even though it was really limited.

That gave me a general idea that some of the skills have an advanced threshold and currently the *Dig* skill started to cross that threshold, so in the next level I should get even more control over the skill, with that thought in my mind I started to drool a little.

After all, I dug here almost for a whole week, and because of that I slowly started to enjoy it, and thinking about getting better at it made me excited a little bit. I felt that my mana was getting low again so I stopped digging, “This should do for now.” I said with a smirk on my imaginary face and went to restore my mana.

After I woke up it was already night, the creepy feeling came back as usual but without much care, I continued hitting the fall as a practice, and when my stamina decreased again I went to sleep. The next day on my trip to the forest, I took three sticks from the dried-up tree and after that, I looked for a few Gravis stones. Luckily I didn’t need to look for long, I found a few of them near a dried-up creek.

“Lucky.” I said with a smile, as I picked up four of the stones and placed them on my leaves as my branches twisted around them.

Holding one of the stones an idea came into my head, “Now that my *Inspect* skill raised a level it should tell me more about, the rock right?” With that idea in mind, I inspected the stone, but I was only disappointed by the results.

***

*Gravis Stone* - Solid stone from the Gravis material, the stones are black with minuscule silver lines on it, the material is quite heavy for its size but could be easily broken, mostly found near rivers.

***

“It only added a color to the explanation...” I mumbled to myself as I awkwardly left to the direction of the tunnel. I climbed into the tunnel with difficulty, “I should make some kinds of stairs here. It's annoying for me to struggle to enter my own tunnel.” I started to think about this place as my home and if it's my tunnel at least it should be more comfortable for me.

I got back to my resting room, piled my sticks, and placed the rocks deeper into the room, that way they wouldn’t fall into the trench. But before placing the last stone, I took it and smashed it into the wall that was inside the resting area, the debris scattered around but didn't fall into the trench.

I picked up one of the sharp pieces before picking up one of the sticks from the back and I started to slowly sharpen the stick, “Soon, soon I will get stronger.” A cold glint flashed in my imaginary eyes, as I made the stick into a spear.