In the morning, when the sun could barely be seen above the horizon, a small bush was moving weirdly on a cliff, of course, it was me. I was doing my *morning exercise* and with it pulling a few of my roots out of the ground.
“The roots are only about one and a half meters, there shouldn’t be a problem to get them all out fast.” But I still wanted to wait for a little, jumping into the unknown without a plan was still scary.
“Yesterday even after moving a lot, I still had some mana to spare. I guess even if I move with all of my body for a few hours, it should not deplete my mana completely.” After yesterday's activities, I somewhat knew what the *Wood Element Control* skill consumption rate was and to my surprise, it was pretty low. If I leveled up a few more levels, it would be possible to move without rest for a few days.
“*Self Awareness*.” I said as I wanted to check my status.
***
-Ontopary Bush Lv3-
Experience: 13/30
Health: 3/6
Mana: 12/12
Stamina: 4/4
***
“Hmm health didn’t change, my mana returned to full and I didn’t get any new skills, though that's not a surprise.” As I saw that my health didn’t improve, I was a little worried.
“If I get attacked again the chances for my survival won’t be too high, so I should find a way to restore my health as soon as possible.” A few ideas popped into my mind like healing fruits or potions but I didn’t have a mouth.
“How could I even eat them?” I asked myself before looking around.
“Hmm, I feel like… Something is missing?” I mumbled to myself and then it dawned on me, the bush that was a few meters away from me was gone, or more pierce to say it was eaten as I still could see some of its roots poking out of the ground where it was.
“Brother no!!!” I looked in horror at the teeth marks on the broken stem that was still barely visible. I didn’t really see this bush as my brother but it still shook me a little inside as it could have been me.
Little did I know that the bug that was eating me actually saved me by eating most of my berries and leaving me almost naked which meant I wasn’t such an attractive snack to whoever ate that bush.
“I guess this place isn’t safe at all!” I shouted as I started to pull the few last roots that were still in the ground out as soon as possible. Even though I didn’t know if I would even live after pulling all the roots, I just had no other way around it. If I don’t do it, most likely another monster will come and my fate wouldn’t be any different from my brother bush.
So I pulled them all out, and as I pulled them I tried to tie them to a shape that resembles legs, I didn’t want to be a land octopus so that was the only solution. As my new legs were formed into a crude shape, I stumbled a little to the sides, it wasn't really easy to hold a balance, but slowly I got the hang of it.
“I did it, I am free and still alive!” I jumped as I said that, feeling free for the first time after being stuck for days, in the same place was just amazing. “Now I can go anywhere I want… What should I do? Find people?... I can’t speak, and more likely they will think that I am a monster and try to kill me.”
Being stuck inside the body of a plant was really troublesome, but I didn’t let it get me down. “For now I should just find a shelter, or at least a safe location to stay, the other problems I leave for the future me to deal with.” That was the correct thing to do, at least it was the only thing that came to my mind at that moment, I just need to find a safe place for myself for now.
I started to walk in the direction of the golden tree and gave a last glance to the cliff where I was for the last few days as I didn’t know when I would see it once more.
My steps were sloppy and unnatural, but it wasn’t a surprise as I still couldn’t learn the correct balance of my small body. I was getting closer to the tree and my heart was full of curiosity.
I always wanted to know what was behind this huge golden tree. I slowly approached its side and I could see a forest that closely resembled the forest that was down the cliff.
“Not a surprise, but it still gives a weird feeling seeing all these colored trees from up close.” I looked around the trees and then my eyes stumbled on a stone tablet that was inside the golden tree. It was exactly behind the tree as if the tree had grown out of it.
“What's that?” I said with a curious look and came toward it, when I came closer to it, I could see that it was a gravestone.
“Oh looks like the tree was growing just behind a grave.” I came even closer to it and tried to look it up, the gravestone was made from really good material. You could see that it was old but really sturdy, it should be able to stay here for another few decades without a problem.
I tried to read what was written on the gravestone but to no avail. “I didn’t expect much, there was no way I could know the language of the people of this world.” The thought of desecrating the grave and digging out the corpse crossed my mind as I wanted to check if there could be anything useful in it. Or at least to be sure that this grave belongs to a human being and not some kind of creature with ten heads.
But even though I wanted to know more about this world, I chose not to go through that route. I didn’t know it then but if I had dug the grave most likely I would have died on that spot, I cupped my hands, showed my respects to the grave, and moved on my way.
The forest was vast and the ground wasn’t even, most of the time few small ravines could be seen here and there. The flora was flourishing inside the forest, the grass was quite tall, and some flowers, berry bushes, and mushrooms could be seen from time to time, most of the time there were just fruitless bushes and tall grass on the way through.
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When I was slowly moving through the forest, I stumbled upon lots of plants and mushrooms. “Currently I don’t have a mouth, so I don’t really care about these plants, but it can be useful in the future, if I inspect them and raise my *Inspect* skill level it should not do me any harm.” So for that reason, I was inspecting all the interesting plants I could find, as I was moving through the forest.
*Quni flower* - A yellow flower, mostly used for medicine.
“Medicine, which kind of medicine? Antidote, mana potion, or health potion? Inspect *medicine*.” My knowledge of not existing alchemy kicked in.
***
*Medicine* - A cocktail/potion made from plants or other restoring ingredients, that can help the body to restore to its original state.
***
“I didn’t expect much...” My frustration with the *Inspect* skill was yet again on the rise.
*Armi mushroom* - Green mushroom that looks poisonous.
“Looks? So is it or is it not poisonous?” My trust in the skill was plummeting further and further with each inspection.
*Elcy moss* - Green color, grows behind rocks can sometimes show the direction to the north.
“Ah, I am getting tired of this shit...” I mumbled to myself as my foot can sometimes show the direction to the north too, but the main question was, “When? And how?”.
I mumbled angrily before I turned around and remembered that I didn’t inspect the golden tree that was behind me from close up.
“I didn’t see any other trees like that one, surely it's kinda rare I should return to inspect it again… I am an idiot. I could have inspected the grave as well. Ah but it’s too late now...” I turned back and continued walking forward as I was already too far down the mountain. Going back would take me too long and surely for no reason at all.
As I continued on my way I inspected a few trees and plants, but the information was still too vague so it didn’t really matter. I moved deeper and deeper into the forest where I saw another brother of mine.
It was an Ontopary bush, just like the last one I saw. I came closer to it, poked it with my hand, and asked “Are you alive?” But it didn’t respond to my question.
“Hm shame, I didn’t mind having some company, even if it was a plant it's better than nothing, I guess I am a special case of intellectual Ontopary bush.” But just in case I inspected it.
The inspection result was the same as last time, not even a small new piece of information but what bothered me is that it didn’t show me its status, it only showed information about its family.
“So the system sees me as something like a monster, but sees the other plants just as normal plants or material, so it does not even bother to show me their status. Hmm, interesting.” After thinking to myself I stopped caring for the bush anymore and continued on my way.
After walking another half an hour I saw the first animal, it was a bunny. It looked like a normal white bunny with red eyes but on its head, there were two small horns that gave him a cute but weird look. “I should be careful for now, let's inspect it and keep my distance from it. *Inspect* *bunny*.”
***
-Horned White Bun-
Health: 18/18
Mana: 3/3
Stamina: 9/12
***
“Holy crap it has so much hp… there is no way I can win against that, I better sneak around it or I will be in a lot of trouble.” I changed my direction and tried to sneak around it, and I was lucky as it didn’t notice me at all.
*Skill learned “Stealth”*
“Yes now I can be an assassin, I still should inspect it for good sake. Inspect *Stealth*” I knew what the stealth skill should represent, but I still wanted to inspect it just to be sure.
***
*Stealth* - Let the user avoid being discovered by other living creatures.
***
“The sky is blue and the grass is green... I should level up this skill a little more. It should give me more information on things and will increase my chance of surviving in this forest, at least I hope it would...”
“Having more accurate information on things would be really useful, if I find a really strong opponent that I can’t beat I can just go around it.” The stealth skill should be a common genuine skill to all monsters, even though I still wasn’t one hundred percent sure if the other monsters had skills or not, but I needed to be vigilant so I just accepted it as a fact.
I noticed that most of the time I was walking downwards from a hill, the slope of the hill wasn’t so high, but walking on this rough terrain with my small body wasn’t an easy task at all. After getting off this huge hill, I stopped near two big rocks that were surrounded by trees and took a small rest to check my status.
***
-Ontopary Bush Lv3-
Experience: 13/30
Health: 3/6
Mana: 8/12
Stamina: 2/4
***
I slowly checked my status as I mumbled to myself, “Looks like I get experience only from killing monsters and not by getting skills or walking around. Ah, my health still hasn't risen at all, at least my mana didn’t decrease by much after all this walking, wait why is my stamina lower than before...”
At that moment I facepalmed myself, “I am an idiot, of course, my stamina will decrease over time. I need water and nutritions… Wait, I am a plant so all I need to do is embed myself into the ground and my body should replenish my stamina by itself.” I was so focused on getting around, that I almost forgot how plants even live.
After finding a suitable place with sunshine near the two rocks, I just stood there and looked at the ground.
“So how do I do it then? Should I dig the ground first, or just try to insert my roots by force? ...Whatever.” With little thinking, I just released my roots from their shapes and forced them into the ground.
It gave me a feeling as if I inserted my legs into cold sand, it was much easier than I thought it would be and that made me happy. As I finished planting myself up, I got a new skill.
*Skill learned “Dig”*
“Oh lucky, Inspect *Dig*.” Not thinking about it twice, I just inspected it.
***
*Dig* - With this skill the user can easily dig through the soil, the skill uses mana as its source, and at higher levels, the user could dig through tougher substances more easily as well.
***
“Hmm, that's interesting, the explanation is a little different from all of the other skills, uses mana as a source? Stamina should be more suitable for this skill, maybe because I can move only with mana this skill changed to fit my needs...“ I was a little more at ease knowing that the skills will change for me and I won’t be concerned about not getting skills that I can’t use because of my stupid body.
“Currently this skill is not that useful, but I can see that it has a potential for the greater good, so I should level it up as well.” Being able to dig through the ground could get me out of a few pinches in my new life, so I thought of leveling up this skill for future use. With that in mind, I closed my magic perception skill and waited for my mana and stamina to replenish.