As I was walking back to the hideout with hands full of fruits, poisoned flowers, and more long branches for spears I chose to stop near the traps and see if some of them got triggered, and to my surprise one of them indeed did.
“Holy crap I haven't seen one of you guys in ages.” I murmured to myself as I inspected the bunny that was in the trap.
***
-Horned White Bun Lv3-
Health: 14/14
Mana: 2/2
Stamina: 2/10
***
“Look at you jumping all trying to escape, well not today you won’t!” I smiled evilly as my roots slowly went for it and I used the *Wood Puppet* skill on the bunny instead of killing it as I had other plans for it. I dragged the bunny into our hideout with all the loot I collected today.
I gave the bunny a small jab with the paralyzing spear so it won’t struggle too much but, it was still a little bit hard to control with the *Wood Puppet* skill.
But its struggles were not even close to how hard it was to move the big boar as the weight difference between the two was not even close, don’t get me wrong it was quite big for a bunny but its weight was between five to ten kilo only while the boar weighed what? Around sixty.
“Monsters are built differently.” I mumbled as if I knew how normal animals actually looked.
As I took it over the pit trap in my hideout entrance I almost fell in it again, I really started to hate it even though it saved me once already. “Bridge, I need to build a stupid bridge…” I mumbled to myself angrily as I brought the bunny to an open area around the tree and dug out an empty pit there.
It was around two meters deep and one meter wide, as the level of my *Dig* skill was quite high. It became really easy to dig soft soil even though it used more mana, with a small touch I could make a pit almost anywhere.
“Well you will be my experimental bunny, I still have some skills and things to test on you.” I looked at him with a big smile through the wolf's eyes, as I saw it shaking in the corner of the pit I made.
After leaving the bunny in the hole I had other things to deal with, first I walked outside with my axe as I needed to build a door and some kind of bridge or something for my pit of death that I almost fell into three times already. I blamed gravity and the weird *Clutz* title I got a long time ago but we all know who was really at fault.
“It's the Kobolds' fault, if not for them I wouldn't need to make the gotdamn pit but no those bastards ruined everything.” I completely averted the blame from myself as I was a perfect being with zero problems at least in my mind.
As it was already getting late I wasn’t afraid that the Kobolds would attack because it would be suicide to walk back to their base at night. So I didn’t worry about meeting any of them as I went to get wood from small trees in the area.
“As they learned that they can’t get me in my hideout I am sure they will only use ambush tactics, although it doesn’t mean that they wouldn’t try to attack the hideout once more, but for a few days it should be safe.” I said to myself as I grew bigger hands with the *Grow* skill and started to chop small trees.
As I continued chopping, a lovely message popped up in front of my eyes.
*Lesser Axe Mastery Lv1*
“Yey now it will be a lot easier for me to cut wood.” I was happy as it was really hard to cut wood, it wasn’t like in the movies where a person can cut a tree with an easy peasy lemon squeezy, but to my surprise, the message didn’t stop.
*Lesser Axe Mastery Lv1, Lesser Sword Mastery Lv1, Lesser Spear Mastery Lv1, Lesser Hand To Hand Combat Lv2 Combined into Lesser Weapon Mastery Lv1*
“Eh?” I opened my status window to check what was going on only to see some of my skills disappear and instead of it, I got only one.
***
*Self Awareness Status*
-Visavil Bush Lv5-
Experience: 93/105
Rarity: Uncommon
Health: 7/15
Mana: 5/49
Stamina:3/13
Health regen: -0.35/week (-2) + (0.4)
Mana regen: 0.9/hour (-3)
Stamina regen: 0.6/hour (-1.4) + (0.33)
Race: Berry Bush
Damage Resistances:
Slash: 15, Blunt: 34, Piercing: 36, Cold: 20, Heat: 15, Fire: 8
Dark: 88, Light: 45, Mind: 132, Soul: #%($
Status: Intelligent(Unique), Withering(Strong), Symbiosis
Skills:
*Magic Perception Lv5* *Self Awareness Lv4* *Calm Mind Lv6* *Inspect Lv6* *Rage Lv1* *Killing Intent Lv3* *Pain Resistance Lv2* *Mana Manipulating Lv2* *Wood Element Control Lv4* *Dig Lv5* *Stealth Lv5* *Detection Lv4* *Lifesteal Lv2* *Poison Resistance Lv1* *Item Crafting Lv2* *Stamina Storage Lv2* *Throwing Lv3* *Grow Lv4* *Increase Mana Regeneration Lv2* *Thorns Lv2* *Falling Damage Resistance Lv1* *Roll Lv1* *Fruits Production Lv1* *Mana Storage Lv2* *Overtake Lv2* *Mind Wave Lv1* *Evil Lv1* *Digging Lv1* *Lingua Language Lv4* *Forced Absorption Lv2* *Soul Link Lv2* *First Aid Lv2* *Wooden Puppet Lv2* *Taunt Lv2* *Focus Time Lv1* *Lesser Weapon Mastery Lv1*
Titles:
*Clutz* *Novice Trapper* *Guardian* *Pyromaniac*
***
“Hey, what the hell this is not fair where did all four of my skills go?” I knew that most likely those skills weren’t lost and I got a better skill instead, but at the same time, it was a lot nicer to just see my skill window fill up with as many skills as possible. I inspected the new skill just to be sure.
***
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*Lesser Weapon Mastery* - Jack of all trades master of none, those who have this skill usually can’t choose what to focus on or are just really committed to the craft of weapon mastery, small increase in strength for all skills that are listed together in this skill.
Current Weapon Mastery Skills:
*Lesser Axe Mastery Lv1*
*Lesser Sword Mastery Lv1*
*Lesser Spear Mastery Lv1*
*Lesser Hand To Hand Combat Lv2*
***
“First of all screw you inspect skill, I am not indecisive, it is just better to know a lot of different types of weapons skills in this forest instead of focusing on one, and second of all you see my hands as weapons? Thanks, I guess…” I muttered to myself as I continued to cut trees, I found out that I was cutting at a little different angle for some reason, and at the same time, the axe went deeper inside the tree.
“I feel like living in a world without skills would be so boring and lame.” I said as I saw the results from just a few hits.
I continued to cut the trees until I cut around ten of them, with the new skill it was a lot easier than before. I looked at the sky and saw that the sun was already nowhere to be seen, “I need to get back fast.” I said to myself as I started to drag back the last tree.
I came back to the hideout gate and swiftly brought all of the trees to the hideout. I chose to cut them down inside instead of waiting for the next day. I did as before removing the leaves and branches and leaving only clean stalks. From six of the trees, I built a door, while leaving the other four to make a simple bridge to the trap.
“Here we go.” I added a door to the cold room that I barely used, “Took me a while but now it can keep food preserved for longer.” I murmured to myself as I continued with my other tasks.
First I went and made some drying racks for some of the fruits that I gathered. I thought of drying Mungo fruits too but they were too juicy, I doubted they could even get dry. So I placed some of the other smaller fruits on it to dry, I didn’t really like them but food is food and I didn’t complain.
After that, I made some grilled mushrooms and ate them with some Mungo fruits filling the wolf's belly completely before calling it a night and going to rest.
*****
I slept well as usual and woke up in the morning. I woke up a lot more energized than I usually did, looking gently at the sunlight that was coming in from the broken cliffside. I could only feel happy that I found this cave.
As every morning I check my status window to jump with joy as my *Withering* status got weaker.
***
*Self Awareness Status*
-Visavil Bush Lv5-
Experience: 93/105
Rarity: Uncommon
Health: 7/15
Mana: 31/49
Stamina: 10/13
Health regen: 0.65/week (-1) + (0.4)
Mana regen: 2.9/hour (-1.5)
Stamina regen: 1.3/hour (-0.7) + (0.33)
Status: Intelligent(Unique), Withering(Medium), Symbiosis
***
“Yes yes yes!” I jumped around happily as it not only meant that I stopped losing health it even meant that my mana and stamina regeneration increased by a lot.
“Now come to me Kobolds I want to see how you can handle me now!” I shouted as I stood in a heroic pose, imagining how I would kick their asses before getting back to reality as I heard a small squick.
I looked at the hole where the rabbit I caught yesterday was staying, “Oh right, I guess it is time now to test some of my skills.” I mumbled as I came closer to the hole.
I saw the bunny shake in fear as it saw my face. “Sorry bunny but your fears are valid.” I said to it as I send a *Mind Wave* skill at it.
It was the skill that was really effective in the world of darkness that I could enter with the *Overtake*, but outside of it it was almost useless. I tried it on some lizard monster when it was passing me long ago, it just looked confused to the sides for a moment before continuing on its way.
*Squick* The bunny squicked a little bit as it placed both of its paws on its head.
“Hmm as I thought the smaller the monster the more effective the skill is. That lizard was quite big so it didn’t work on him but this bunny let's see how much it can handle it.
I started to send *Mind Wave* skill after skill at the bunny not stopping at all, I didn’t try something like this in the past as this skill consumed quite a bit of mana around half a mana point each time while having almost no results.
“At first I wanted to send just a few but now that most of my mana regeneration is back, don’t blame me for not holding back.” I send mind wave after mind wave at the bunny seeing it holding its head stronger and stronger as it began to squeak in pain, only to stop moving completely after around thirty *Mind Wave* skills, I inspected it to find out a weird status on it.
***
-Horned White Bun Lv3-
Health: 11/14
Mana: 0/2
Stamina: 5/10
Status: Mind Collapse(Extreme), Vegetable State(Permanent)
*Mind Collapse* - Dangerous state where the user's mind can completely be destroyed, usually can happen because of a few reasons: Overusing the user's mana while its mana pool is completely empty, or getting directly attacked by spirit-type monsters. Strong damage done to the mind isn’t reversible with normal means only rare artifacts or legendary elixirs can heal severe damage like that.
***
I looked at the bunny speechless thinking to myself, “Fuck…” As I did something really bad to it and didn’t even understand that.
I moved my roots to it so I can take it out of its misery and used the *Life Steal* on it a few times, healing myself almost completely in the process. I chose not to steal its lifeforce with the wolf as its regeneration was miles away from mine, my guess is that it was something to do with living creatures vs plants and trees.
“This is kinda weird as I saw a few young trees randomly pop out here in there when they weren’t there a day or two ago, but look at me I grow so slow that it's laughable.” I could only shake my head left and right as I still couldn't comprehend this cursed forest at all.
“Well, I guess I am having rabbit meat for dinner.” I said to myself as I took the bunny from the hole and started to remove its blood skin and uneatable organs, using a crude knife I had.
I left the meat and edible organs dry at a drying rack for some time as I would cook them before I go to sleep and drop them into the cold room, where they still should be edible for a few more days.
At the same time, I was drying the bunny pelt on another wooden rack I made, as I wanted to add it to my sleeping spot where the pelt of the boar was already located.
“Maybe I should try to make a pillow out of it.” I thought to myself as I looked at the pelt, but in the end chose not to as it was a little bit too small because the cuts I made with the knife were too crude, which made the usable parts of the pelt even smaller.
“Damn it, I need a better butchering knife.” I mumbled to myself as I finished tying up the pelt to the rack before leaving the hideout for another run through the traps, which I wasn't surprised to find empty and not triggered.
“It's that damn squirrel again…” I mumbled to myself angrily as I imagined myself choking the little bastard, but in the end, I could only shake my head as I knew what kind of army was behind him.
“Our relationship isn't the best but at least they didn’t try to kill me…” I shrugged a little as I remembered the army that was chasing me before returning back to the hideout to add the bridge to the pitfall trap.
It wasn’t something too hard to do, I just dug up two holes one left and the second right above the pitfall. One of the holes was a lot deeper than the second one and in it, I added the four tied-up poles of wood that I made yesterday.
It was a lot easier to remove the rocks I dug with the wolfs *Earth Control* skill instead of my roots, and when used together with the *Dig* skill even the hardest rocks felt like tofu.
“Man this is amazing, I hope I get a skill like that too in the future or it will be such a waste.” I mumbled to myself as I finished digging the holes for the bridge. Now came the harder part shoving the bridge inside the holes as those bridge poles were too long.
“I guess I just break the walls in front a little bit and fix them back with the wolf *Earth Control*.” And so I did, like with the ceiling it was quite easy to do, although the walls became a little bit more brittle. I didn't care as I needed it just to look like a normal wall and not be strong as one.
“Good, now I can pull out the bridge using my roots, while everyone else wouldn’t be able to do so.” To get to the bridge you need a terribly long and slim arms and only one person came to my mind that could do that and he loved to wear suits while not having a face.
“Was he even real…” I mumbled to myself as I didn’t know if I imagined that kind of person or if I really knew him in my past life, but in the end, I just shrugged as I continued with my day and my day just started.