《Tales of a killer flower》 1 Prologue: Happy death day! Ding. The sound of the bell ringing as the door opened drew my attention away from the magazine I was reading. Looking up I saw a couple teenagers wearing thick coats and wearing beanies entering the gas station. Not sure why they chose to wear such thick coats today. It was the middle of June in Houston for crying out loud! They were just begging the sun to cook them alive wearing those things but as the old saying goes to each their own. Even if it was crazy. "Hey dumbass. Eyes up here." A deep voice growled out drawing his attention to the teen who was addressing. I froze in fear upon seeing the pistol in the man''s hand. Once he saw my expression, he tossed a backpack onto the counter and gestured towards the cash register. "Empty out the cash register and put the money in the bag or I''ll blow your goddamn brains out." He ordered me. I dumbly nodded and obediently open the cash register and start stuffing the money inside into the bag. Glancing back up I saw the guy''s friend holding his own pistol while watching the outside of the gas station while nervously fiddling with the gun in his hand. The one who was currently had his gun trained on me looked over to where I was looking at and frowned. "Stop looking at him and focus on the money. Now!" He reprimanded tightening his grip on the pistol. "Hey just calm down man. Here just take the money and leave me alone please!" I quavered. Judge me all you want but I''d like to see you act brave when there was a gun shoved into your face. Before the robber could say anything back to him the sound of sirens pierced the air. Hearing this the man at watching the door shot a worried glance over at his partner. "Shit man that''s the cops!" he sputtered. "Damn it you called the cops didn''t you!?" The one holding the gun accused me while waving the gun threateningly with a crazed look in his eyes. "No! I swear I didn''t!" "Don''t you lie to me! It had to be you! I know it!" The robber raged. His eyes bloodshot eyes were now darting around nervously with his face being a volatile mixture of confusion rage and fear. "Fuck man we have to get out of here! The cops will be here any minute!" The other one yelled. "Fuck!" Shouted the one holding the gun on me before pulling the trigger. A pop sounded out as my chest suddenly got numb and cold. Looking down at my chest I saw blood blooming outwards on my shirt like a flower. Four more pops soon followed, and more small blood flowers began growing from a chest. My knees grew weak as I staggered backwards before collapsing on my back gasping for breath. "Why the hell did you shoot him!? We are so screwed now! We''re going to go to prison! I''ll get stuck in a prison cell with some murderer and get harassed every day! Oh fuck. Fuck!" One of the robbers rambled. "Just shut up! We have the money lets just get out of here!" The other yelled back. Shortly after the bell on the door dinged as the two left the gas station. Was this how I was going to die? Killed in a gas station robbery. I haven''t even graduated high school yet. Breathing started to get harder as it felt like my lungs were filling up with water and the edges of my vision were beginning to blur. "Someone call a paramedic! We have injured over here!" A feminine voice commanded. Then a blurred face loomed over me. With how blurry my vision was I could barely make out any distinguishing features other than the fact that the person had tanned skin and black hair. "Don''t worry buddy everything will be alright now. Just don''t give up on me ok?" She consoled. But it was too late. Already my vision was growing dark before my consciousness faded into the abyss. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. 2 Chapter 1: Why am I a flower!? Everything was pitch black. I couldn''t hear anything either. It was just nothingness. Mind-numbing nothingness. Was this what a person in a coma experienced? Nothingness. The last thing I remembered was getting shot before everything went black. Is this the afterlife? Limbo perhaps? Whatever it was I didn''t like it. I''m not sure how long exactly I''ve been in here. It''s felt like days but for all, I knew it could have only been hours. There wasn''t any way to tell time other than counting to myself and I sure as hell wasn''t desperate enough to start counting endlessly. Soon maybe. Just not yet. Thankfully a voice broke the silence like a ray of light through a hurricane. [Congratulations Joe you have died.] ¡­.. I take back all of my gratitude. Death is not something you congratulate someone on! [You have been reincarnated into a suitable host body selected by the system in the world of Lorif. Every decision from now shall affect your odds of survival. As a bonus, you have been rewarded one skill point and one mutation point to use as you see fit. Due to your current host''s senses you have also been provided several default choices to use.] Whassat? Points? What is this an RPG game!? If it weren''t for the fact that I can''t hear or see anything and have already been shot five times I''d think that you were playing some type of cruel prank on me. So, I''m dead this mysterious disembodied voice says. Yeah, disembodied voices should always be trusted! NOT! What the hell is going on damn it!? Why can''t I see or hear anything!? All that answered my furious demands for answers was silence. So much for that approach. Let''s think about this logically. This voice thingy said something about a system a new world and points. Sounds like a system novel to me. So, I suppose the approach I should go with is opening my stat menu. Oh, cruel disembodied voice open my stat menu! [ Name: Joe Level: 1 XP: 00/10 Species: Monster cave rose Intelligence (An accumulation of your knowledge): 25 Will (A measure of one''s own grit and mental strength): 15 Strength (This measures your level of physical strength): 10 Toughness (Measures your ability to absorb damage): 6 Agility (These stat measures one''s ability to react to things and speed): 5 Perception (This measures how well one can perceive threats in their surroundings and aim): 0 Endurance (Measures how much stamina and pain one can handle): 15 Charisma (A measure of how well you can manipulate others through dialog): 7 HP (A measure of your own health): 15/15 MP (A measure of one''s mana capacity): 5/5] ¡­.. What the hell. That actually worked? Wow. Just wow. But what the hell is up with this!? Why am I a monster when I was a human!? And a rose no less! A flower! And the only high stats are is intelligence and will power! Not to mention one of my stats are a straight-up zero. Fine. I can deal with these low stats using the points to get some good stuff. Hey Alfred. Mind if I call you Alfred? I''ll just call you Alfred. Alfred pull up the skill points and mutation points. [Current skills: Universal plant language (Common) level 1; Thorny defense (Common) level 1; Photosynthesis (Common) level 1 Available skills: Basic mana sense (Uncommon); Drowsy pollen (Common); Tunnel compass (Common) Current mutable biology: Petals (Default) level 1; Stem (Default)Thorns (Default) level 1; Roots (Default) level 1; leaf (Default) level 1; thorny teeth (Default) level 1 Available mutations: Enhanced root strength (Common); Toxic thorns (Common weak)] Well, that''s handy. Looks like Alfred gave me an uncommon skill to purchase. Well, my inner gamer tells me to get the uncommon skill! However, there is still the mutations to choose from¡­ Think Joe. Thorns with a toxin even if weak would be immensely useful in defending yourself but why would it have a choice like enhanced root strength. Perhaps I can use my roots to walk? Maybe? Mind as well purchase it on the off chance that is how it works. Give me mana sense and enhanced root strength Alfred! Gaah! Why the heck does it burn!? As soon as I said that though an intense burning pain rose up from the lower part of my body. But blessedly the pain faded away within a few seconds of it beginning. Alfred why did that hurt so much!? Explain it to me! Do you really hate me so!?! Alfred the system, however, remained silent refusing to answer my questions. I see how it is. Whatever for now let''s use this mana sense skill! WOAH!! With the pain taking place in what I assumed was my roots I didn''t notice the change in my surroundings. I was now able to "see" the vague outlines of my surroundings. It was a bit blurry, but it looked as if I was inside some sort of cave. Now, why would a delightful monster rose be in a cave I wonder? Perhaps I''m in a dungeon of some sort. Or I''m some sort of cave rose. I suppose it doesn''t matter What does matter however is taking stock of my surroundings. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Looking around it seemed I wasn''t the only flower as there were several dozen other roses with red petals surrounding me with their roots buried into the cave floor. Most of them had green stems and thorns but a few had thorns with light red tips. My guess is that those guys probably have the toxic thorn mutation. It did say it was a common mutation after all. That wasn''t all though as there were dim green clumps of light on the walls and ceilings of the cave tunnel illuminating the place with a dim green glow. A munching sound attracted my attention. With this mana sense, I was able to "see" in every direction at the same time making it rather convenient. However, what I saw would have made me break out into a cold sweat if I was able to sweat. There was a colossal beast that resembled a bison with four large menacing horns sticking out from around its head. I must have only gone up to its knee with how large it was. And most terrifying of all was that the monster was eating the other roses. The thorns that the roses wielded seemed to do nothing to discourage the creature and even those that had toxic thorns were munched down effortlessly without succeeding in harming it even the smallest amounts. All at once a flood of pheromones bombarded me practically screaming one thing. Danger. Most of the roses could only tremble as they waited their turn to be devoured by the bison like beast. However, a few were tugging their roots out from the ground and beginning to drag themselves away from the beast to escape doom. Wait don''t I have an enhanced root strength mutation? I must seize this chance to escape while I still can! I began to tense my roots and pull laboring to pull them out of the firm grasp the stone and dirt below me had. All the while the rose eating monster got closer at an agonizingly slow pace taking its time in eating the hapless roses. The roses who were being ground down into easily digestible mush screamed through the pheromones they released only heightening my fear and frustration. Then with one last mighty tug, my roots tore free from the dirt sending my body careening over onto its side. I was free at last! Now that I was able to see my roots, I could tell that they weren''t very impressive being rather thin and scraggly. Not something you''d think of when I have a mutation named enhanced root strength, but roots were never meant to be used as limbs in the first place. Using my roots, I clawed at the dirt dragging myself along the ground towards the opposite direction that the walking death machine came from. The monster was only a few flowers away from me and I had a clear look into the inside of its mouth and the beast''s teeth grinding the monster plants into a green paste. It was horrifying. The other roses, however, were broadcasting a new message other than the danger and pained death screams. Help. They were begging for help as I crawled away like a coward. Steeling my heart, I ignored them as I continued to flee. They were just flowers I told myself. Not actual people. They couldn''t feel pain. But the screams of the roses who were devoured alive said otherwise. After several minutes of dragging myself down the tunnel, I finally stopped to rest. Strangely enough, my roots were aching from overexertion. Looks like even as a flower I''ll be dealing with pain. But that was too close. The powerlessness I felt when that monster was gorging itself on the other roses and making its way towards me. If I had even been five seconds slower in getting free and I would have been chewed up and consumed like the rest of the flowers. That was even more terrifying than having a gun pointed at you. At least with the gun, you wouldn''t be grounded down and eaten alive. The impending doom made my blood run cold. Err well my plant juices. But now I needed to find a way to hide in a safe place, so I don''t get eaten while I rest. Do plants actually sleep in the first place? I guess I''ll find out soon anyways. After a bit of searching, I decided on burying my roots into the side of a wall two or so at a time before hauling myself up and burying another set into the cave wall and removed the previous ones and repeated. With this method of climbing, I managed to make it to the ceiling albeit with some difficulty. Now I should be out of reach of animals like that bison like thing. Actually, why the heck would something like that even be in a cave system? I could understand if it was something like rats or centipedes but bison monsters? Now that''s just unusual. There are a lot of unusual things in my current situation though. I''m a frickin rose that walks around on its roots for crying out loud. That alone is crazy. Now I need to figure out what to do for food. I''m a plant so you''d think I''d just require sunlight and I even have a photosynthesis skill, but I spotted a thorny teeth mutation in my biology. If I have teeth that must mean I eat stuff like an animal would, right? Problem is I don''t know what I could actually eat. I''m just a rose who''s only means of attack was thorns, teeth (that I have yet to locate), and roots if I had to resort to slapping my enemies with them. Not that it would be of much use. So, my options were fairly limited. Not to mention the only things I''ve seen so far was the giant monster that I couldn''t ever hope to kill that. And I wasn''t that inclined to kill the roses since I am able to hear their screams of pain when they''re harmed. I''m not that cruel. But there were other roses and I''m hoping that our kind isn''t bottom of the food chain since we can eat stuff. So, for now, I''ll just wait up here on top of the ceiling for something weak enough that I can probably kill. Once something like that comes along, I''ll decide what to do then. I miss my phone already... 3 Chapter 2: Learning the system I''ve been waiting for forever and a half! Who knew that just hanging around on a ceiling would be so mentally straining? Despite the fact that I felt like falling asleep I couldn''t sleep. So, I guess I answered the question of whether or not plants do sleep, I guess. While waiting very few creatures passed through this tunnel. Worse yet they all looked like far too big of fish for me to handle. There was a scorpion that was many times my size, a group of three rats three times as large as me as well as what looked like a giant monitor lizard larger than even the bison monster I saw. This was beginning to confirm my suspicion that flowers like myself were just mob trash that even goblins can scoff at. Which raised another problem. How the heck was I supposed to get myself a meal if everything else was far stronger than I am? I can barely manage to drag myself to safety! But it wasn''t all that bad. I was able to use this time to get to know my new body just a tad bit better. For instance, I found where my teeth are. Ends up my petals open up and on the inside of the innermost petals are dozens of small knife-like teeth. I bet it makes me look like some type of horror flower monster. Or maybe just like a certain space venus fly trap in a little shop. I also have found that I can manipulate the leaves on my stem to roll up to make them smaller allowing me to display my thorns better. I haven''t found any new ways to attack stuff yet but there must still be some- Wait what''s that? There was a small patch of brown that looked like it moved on the cave wall. After a few moments of focusing my mana sense on it and getting no reaction, I decided it was just nothing. But then it moved again a few inches! There''s something camouflaged over there and whatever it is it''s even smaller than me! Dinner here I come! Using my roots, I began to make my way towards the moving brown spot on the cave wall. As I drew closer, I noticed that it had six thin insect-like legs coming out of it. It seems my little friend is some type of bug. The bug never moved as I approached most likely depending on its camouflage to stay hidden from me. So, I decided the best way to get close to the bug without it scurrying off was to crawl by it while pretending it is not there. Not the most exciting of tactics but I''m ridiculously slow when using my roots to climb upside down. I''d be genuinely shocked if this bug couldn''t outwalk me. As I closed in on the bug, I was able to make out its physical features. The bug was only around a fifth of my height and twice as long as it was tall. Its back was made up of several segmented plates that were all colored a mottled mixture of browns and greys. Just as I was about to walk past the small insect my petals unfolded to reveal the teeth that lining the four innermost petals and darted my head forward wrapping the four petals around the bug before it even realized what was happening. Within moments, however, it began fighting back as it bit back with weak mandibles at the soft flesh of my petals. However, I began to apply force to the carapace of my prey and my teeth tore through the chitinous material with relative ease. [Pebble mite slain.] [2 XP gained.] [New species killed. Additional skill point rewarded. Basic monster entry unlocked.] [Skill point earned.] [1 point of mana absorbed.] [Compatible monster core detected. Assimilate for one mutation point?] Woah. That was a lot I just earned from killing one tiny bug. But obviously, give me that monster core! The monster core which was in my mouth with the corpse of the pebble mite turned into a faint white wisp that was drawn into my body before disappearing. [Monster core successfully absorbed. One mutation point gained.] Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. I began to climb my way back up to the ceiling while considering my options. It seems that killing creatures gives me XP, skill points and absorbing monster cores gives me mutation points when absorbed. Not to mention the extra skill point and monster entry that''s unlocked when I kill a new species. Pretty handy. But all those goodies were gained from just killing one small weakling. What amount of rewards would I have gotten for killing one of those enormous scorpions or that bison? Probably a ridiculous amount. That meant if the rest of those monsters also had this system thing going on with them, they''d most likely gain strength at a ridiculous rate and therefore making it even more important that I avoid picking a fight with them. For now, though its time to spend my recently acquired wealth and check out the monster entry. [Pebble mite (Tier 0 lifeform): A common and weak monster found in the higher cave systems. They''ll typically rely on natural camouflage to avoid predators and ambushes to take down weak prey.] Handy to know. I''ll need to watch out for these suckers, but on the plus side, they''ll be good for hunting while I get stronger. [Current skills: Universal plant language (Common) level 1; Thorny defense (Common) level 1; Photosynthesis (Common) level 1; basic mana sense (Uncommon) level 1 Available skills: Drowsy pollen (Common); Tunnel sense (Common); Climbing (New common); Stealth (New common) Current mutations: Petals level 1; Stem level 1; Thorns level 1; leaf level 1; thorny teeth level 1; Enhanced root strength level 1 Available mutations: Toxic thorn (Common weak) Chainsaw teeth (New common)] Hmmm. It looks like I have some new options. Based on the options I can surmise that unlocking new options directly correlates with what actions I take. The stealth is a must-have skill and climbing might be useful since that''s the main way I have been traveling. But chainsaw teeth sounds rather gruesome. The fact that it''s a common mutation though means my fellow flowers most likely use it. And between a weak toxin in my thorns and the potential of being able to deal out similar grievous wounds that a chainsaw can inflict then I''d say the chainsaw teeth are the best choice. As soon as I confirmed my choice an irritating burn started to heat up my inner petals causing me to shake my head vigorously. This hurts way too much! Owowowowow!! This is absolutely terrible!! After several seconds of spasming, the pain finally settled down while I drooped limply from the ceiling. I suppose that mutating your biology within moments wouldn''t exactly be painless. Now that my biology a tingling feeling was sent through my body as the basic knowledge on sneaking and making my climbing more efficient trickled into my mind. As opposed to the pain of the mutations learning skills is faintly disturbing with the system basically messing with your mind and all. But either way now that I upgraded myself its time to start moving. I continued stealthily climbing along with the ceiling away from the place I originally started out at. This time unlike earlier I could already detect the improvements that the climbing skill made as it helped me find better areas to stick my roots to dig them easier and gain a better hold of the ceiling. It wasn''t that much but the difference in my climbing speeds rocketed as I climbed slightly faster than I was able to before. Opening up my petals to test out these new chainsaw teeth I found I was able to wiggle them back and forth which created a rather terrifying image with how many teeth I had in my mouth. But with this, my damage output has increased a bit. The next thing I should focus on is improving my roots. They serve as my main mode of transportation and they weren''t very strong right now. That''s something I definitely needed to change. I want to be able to run circles around my would-be predators all day while taking nips at them with my fang-filled mouth. While walking I made sure to check my status and just like I thought my mana went up to 6. While it''s great that my mana count went up but that means that magic-using monsters might not be as uncommon as I''d prefer. Up ahead though I could spot what looked like a large hole in the ground blocking off the way forward for those who walk on the floor. Not for me, however, I can climb right over it! While walking over the hole I stopped briefly to examine it. I knew the hole was big but it''s seriously big. The tunnel itself was wide enough to accommodate two bison monsters standing side by side (however big that is) and this hole covered the whole area and could comfortably fit those two bison beasts. Not only that but it was deep. Deep enough that the hole gave way to darkness with the exception of the occasional glowing fungus dotting the walls. And then the walls of the hole were also noteworthy. They were smooth. Way too smooth. Up till now the walls, ceiling, and even the floor of the caves have been bumpily filled with cracks random soft dirt parts and had random stalagmites and stalactites. This hole had none of those things. There wasn''t even a sign of any visible cracks. The only things that I knew of that were smooth like this were things constructed by humans. Did this mean that there were humans here? Maybe. But this world has magic and monsters which means it wasn''t far fetched to think that some type of monster made it. Whatever made it I was sure I didn''t want to meet it. Even if they were humans, I couldn''t say for sure they wouldn''t kill me because I was a monster. I had a monster core for crying out loud! I mind as well be dropping money when I die with loot like that. If I was ever able to communicate with people and be able to safely assimilate into society, I''d seriously consider it, but for now survival time. Humans might not even be an existing species after all and that''s why I was reincarnated as a flower. I continued past the tunnel not wanting to stick around and find out if whatever made that hole in the ground would come back. As I plodded along, I found that the tunnel was gradually getting wider and side tunnels that were much smaller than the one they connected to became more and more numerous. Perhaps the weaker monsters were inside of the smaller tunnels to avoid larger more powerful monsters like the bison creature and the giant scorpion I saw which were based on my memory too large to fit into those tunnels. After some consideration, I decided it would be best to go into one of those smaller tunnels. I am after all one of the weakest creatures I''ve seen in this cave system so far. 4 Level up! There they were. My prey the pitiful pebble mite. There were five of them all huddled up together and have been staying abnormally still for ten minutes already. I knew that insects sometimes enter a state of torpor which is basically they''re version of sleep, so this was probably the best time to strike. However, there was the small problem that there were five of them and one of me. Sure, I am one of the most badass and smartest flowers you know but even I have my limits. These little critters I found shortly after entering one of the smaller tunnels which basically confirmed my theory that the smaller tunnels are where the weaker monsters live. Which basically means its where I''ll be living and hunting in for the time being. Creeping forward towards the pebble mites which were perched on a small ledge on the tunnel wall I slowly opened up my petals revealing the horror show worthy teeth that lay in wait inside. I hung from the ceiling of the cave and took a moment to compose myself before lunging forward wrapping up one of the pebble mites inside my petals and shredding it to bloody scraps in a second with an audible crunching sound emanating from inside my petals. [Pebble mite slain. 2 XP gained. One skill point awarded.] [Monster core absorbed. One mutation point awarded. One MP absorbed.] [Stealth level 1 has reached level 2] By the time the pebble mites body disappeared wherever they disappeared the other mites were stirring as they shook off the state of torpor they were in before. The two pebble mites closest to me clicked their mandibles together threateningly as they lunged forward to tear into my stem. Before they landed their attacks, I managed to engulf one of the two attacking mite monsters and the ring of notifications played in my err mind. The other one however landed on me hooking its clawed legs onto my body as it began to gnaw on my stem. But then I slammed it into the ceiling impaling it with several thorns which it was just barely avoiding before. The other two mites had begun retreating desperate to avoid death. [Climbing level 1 has reached level 2] Muhahaha! Looks like your luck has run out mite scum! You shall be my dinner whether you like it or not! Before rushing after the two retreating mites I took the time to eat the one I just killed getting another mutation point and mana in the process. I then began rushing forward after the pebble mites slightly faster than before with the leveled-up climbing skill. These mites were indeed as fast as I thought easily keeping several mite''s worth of distance between me and them, but alas that was just not fast enough. By now they had climbed onto the ceiling offering a somewhat level (but upside down) playing field to chase them on. Taking advantage of this I stretched my stem forward barely reaching forward far enough that I was able to snatch up the slower mite of the two and started right away on dismembering it with my chainsaw teeth. The sound of its brethren being eaten seemed to be a terrifying sound to it as it started to zig and zag in a desperate attempt to lose me. But it wasn''t enough as I soon closed in on it and engulfed it just like I did its fellows. [Level 2 available. Any XP gained from now on will be stockpiled for after the level up.] Now that I''ve devoured some mites and am able to evolve let''s go find somewhere to keep my head down. I''m not quite sure if this system like the novels I''ve read knocks you out during the evolution process, but I didn''t want to take any risks. After some searching, I found myself my own smaller tunnel within a small tunnel and use my roots handy ability of being able to break through the softer parts of the cave to barricade myself in with a mixture of dirt and stones on either side of the tunnel. Now that I''m effectively cut off from any potential pebble mites seeking revenge for me killing their buddies lets check my status page. [Level: 1 (level 2 available) XP: 10/10 Intelligence: 25 Will: 15 Strength: 10 Toughness: 6 Agility: 5 Perception: 8 Endurance: 15 Charisma: 7 HP: 10/15 MP: 10/10] Are you shitting me!? I only got hit by the mite once and it took 1/3 of my HP! Looks like I''m a glass cannon thanks to damnable low toughness stat. Anyways I''d like to level up now Alfred. [Level 2 reached. 10 stat points available for use to increase stats. A bonus .5 stat points is available for every point in the intelligence stat. HP will be increased by 5 points every level.] [Hidden achievement unlocked: Smarty pants. Description: Tier-0 monsters with an intelligence of 10 or higher receive the bonus option of enhancing the monster core to a Tier-1 monster core becoming an honorary Tier-1 monster (Only in name) and receive a 100% increase in experience bonuses for killing a new monster species and a 25% bonus for killing enemies.] .... I''m experiencing a mixture of happiness and sadness right now. This whole time I haven''t been even a Tier-1 monster whatever that means. But Tier-0. The 0 is already enough to tell me that I''m one of the weakest monsters in this place. I already knew that, but this hit the final nail in. No use sulking over this. I''m certainly going to take advantage of the bonus skill points to buff myself up to a more respectable level. Let''s be smart about this. I can go two routes. I can put all my skill points into intelligence which means I put myself at risk since I''m still my pitifully weak self but in return get a total of 33 stat points the next level. A high-risk high reward all or nothing play. Or I could put some points into my human intellect and into my other stats to toughen myself up¡­. Tough decision. While I would like to become more powerful, I probably wouldn''t increase in my capabilities all that much with the mere total 22 of points worth increase. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Well I''ll be putting all of my points into intelligence. That would raise my intelligence stat considerably. And with the 25% increase in experience points gain for every monster kill I''ll be able to level up much faster than before. Hopefully I''ll be able to level up soon after this. As soon as I confirmed the stat allocation a new announcement popped up. [Otherworlder bonus- Perks (Perks add an additional bonus effect. One perk will be available every 5 levels. With the exception of the level 1 perk which serves as an introduction perk.): Quick learner (Requirement intelligence 10): 5% increase in XP gained Regrowth (Requirement lose 1/3 of your HP at once): 1% of HP regenerated every second. Can be upgraded twice. Level 2 increases it to 2% HP/s Messy eater (Spec into mouth-based attacks that maim, mutilate, and otherwise cause messy damage): All mouth-based attacks cause a bleed of strength times level divided by 5.] Huh. Reminds me of a post-apocalyptic videogame I loved to play. I like it, but the fact that it''s a bonus for otherworlders intrigues me. By otherworlders does it mean reincarnated people like me? If so then does that mean they''re from earth like me or some other planet? Forget it. I can''t answer these questions, so I mind as well just move on to finishing up my evolution. All three perks can provide a massive boost to my overall build. With the HP regen I''d be able to recover from attacks from others. The messy eater however would allow me to kill things much quicker and possibly hit above my weight grade. The quick learner perk though would help me level up quicker. Tough decision. I hate the idea of staying the glass cannon build I am but let''s face it I''m not even a glass cannon. I''m just a glass toothpick if anything. So, I''ll be going with messy eater. That way I can be qualified for the glass cannon role. I''ll just increase my toughness at the next level. The moment I made by decision everything went black. 5 Testing out the new features Ugh. My heads pounding. Is this what it feels like to level up and evolve? I thought it would be a great feeling becoming stronger and all that. Instead it feels like someone took a mallet and hit me over the head a dozen times. Is this what people with a bad hangover feel like after a night of drinking? Terrible. Why would they subject themselves to such torture? Never mind the insanity. Let''s check out my stats! [Level: 2 XP: 00/20 Species: Monster cave rose Perks: Messy eater Intelligence: 47 Will: 15 Strength: 10 Toughness: 6 Agility: 5 Perception: 8 Endurance: 15 Charisma: 7 HP: 20/20 MP: 10/10] I knew what to expect when I opened this but actually seeing it is a bit depressing. The only notable increase in my fighting capabilities would be the five extra HP and the messy eater perk. Chin up Joe! It may be depressing now but its all for more bang for my buck later on in life! But its nice to know that level ups will heal me up back to full HP. Very convenient. And best of all I wasn''t eaten in my sleep! Speaking of which how long did I sleep? I should eventually try getting a clock or something to measure the time later on. Now that I finished looking at my stat board, I closed it and started digging my way out of the tunnel I barricaded myself in. When I looked around, I spotted a strange bright slug slithering along the floor in front of me. Tiny slow slug¡­ Bright colors¡­ Probably poisonous. I''ll choose to avoid the rookie mistake and eat that. I''m not interested in getting killed from eating a slug. I then began making my way onto the ceiling and searching for some prey to hunt. Surprisingly enough I didn''t need to go very far before I encountered something. In the tunnel there were several dozen of the pebble mites all gathered. If one might could shave off 5 HP with one attack, then I''d have to be suicidal to attack that many mites. Which I wasn''t. The only reason I didn''t start running the opposite direction was because they were busy fighting another opponent just as numerous as them. Ants. Dozens of them. They were easily two times as large as the mites with some being as large as three times their size. Even the smallest of the ants had mandibles large enough to cleave me in half. These ants were a fiery red and many of them had their own individual features. Not enough to allow for one to notice individual differences but enough to realize there were differences present. Some had larger meaner mandibles than others, some had deadly looking claws, while others had larger antennas than their brethren. Further confirmation that the other monsters had access to the same leveling system as him. The mites were fighting the ants fiercely as they used groups of three or four to swarm and tear apart individual ants within moments showcasing their formidable attack capabilities. Some of the mites had deadly spikes and larger mandibles which allowed them to deal out much more damage than normal allowing for some battles to be ended swifter than others. However, in the face of the larger stronger and more numerous ants their struggle was all for naught. The ants kept attacking in complete eerie silence as opposed to the mites vigorous chirping and would shatter the carapaces of the mites with a single bite. While the ants and mites were busy attacking them, I took advantage of m stealth skill to close in on the mites from behind. So, distracted they were with the war against the ants that I was able to grab and tore apart one of the mites that were lagging behind without the others noticing me. [Pebble mite slain. 2 XP gained. 1 skill point rewarded. 1 MP absorbed. 1 mutation point absorbed.] I continued to run along the edge of the mites attacking them killing three more mites in the process before the others noticed me and began to attack me. Instead of letting them land any bites on me however I let go of my grip on the ceiling dropping down onto the floor with a light thump. The mites frustrated at my escape chirped aggressively before returning to fight their battle against the ants. When I checked my HP, I was relieved to see that it didn''t drop. Seems just like regular flowers I''m not hugely affected by short falls because of my light weight. Just as I was stood myself up, I was greeted by a pair of mandibles opening up in my face. Bending myself backwards till the petals of my face(?) touched the ground I narrowly avoided the powerful mandibles that slammed closed at the spot I was just at a moment ago. Righting myself I jumped backwards and put a bit of distance between me and my attacker. It was one of the red ants that were fighting the mites. It seemed the bug was alone but even one of these things had a high enough damage output to end me in one bite. The red ant clacked its mandibles threateningly as it took a step forward. Both of us stood still staring each other down as we waited for each other to make the first move. After a full five seconds of staring each other down the ant''s patience finally wore thin and it threw itself forward mandibles splayed open to tear me into veggie pulp. Taking advantage of my thinner and more flexible body I bent my stem again to the right just barely avoiding the ants attack as it flew over me. As soon as it passed, I turned and twisted my body and slammed my fang filled mouth onto its thorax tearing dozens of small gouges that began to bleed profusely. The ant swerved around chomping its mandibles angrily as it attempted to ward me off. I backed up and opened up my mouth and waved my petals around attempting to intimidate the ant into retreating. Unfortunately, the ant was unaffected by my display and instead started to viciously snap its mandibles at my roots shearing several of them off causing pain to light up like a light bulb in those roots. I used two of my larger roots to wrap around the jaw of the ant and attempt to hold the mandibles open and engulfed the top of its head with my petals and started shredding its head. Almost immediately the wounds on the ant started gushing as its blood flowed free covering me and it in the clear liquids. [Young Scarlet ant (Tier-0 creature) slain. Scarlet ant basic entry unlocked. 2 skill point earned. 5 XP collected. 2 mutation points. 2 MP absorbed. Additional skill point earned for new creature kill.] With the ant now dead I tore off its head and started running back down the tunnel in the direction I arrived from munching the head down as I went. That was dangerous. Really dangerous! But I won! I killed an ant and won! Sure, ants are more of a cannon fodder type species and I lost a significant chunk of my HP (Probably around 8 or 10) but I still won and got a healthy sum of XP in the process! And it was a tier-0 monster! Take that damn higher tiers! Looks like being a flower has its benefits with all the ways that I could bend myself to avoid my enemies'' attacks. Once I got far enough from the insect battle, I climbed up onto the ceiling and planted myself to open up my skills and mutations to select some new stuff and start upgrading others. [Current skills: Universal plant language (Common) level 1; Thorny defense (Common) level 1; Photosynthesis (Common) level 1; basic mana sense (Uncommon) level 1; Stealth (Common) level 2; Climbing (Common) level 2 Available skills: Drowsy pollen (Common); Tunnel sense (Common); Feather fall (New common) Available skill points: 11 Current mutations: Petals level 1; Stem level 1; Thorns level 1; leaf level 1; thorny teeth level 1; Enhanced root strength level 1 Available mutations: Toxic thorn (Common weak); Serrated thorns (Common) Available mutation points: 10] Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Hmmm. Only two new things. But I have 10 points for both things. Looks like I can finally splurge a bit and use these points to toughen myself up. I''ll take the drowsy pollen, tunnel sense, and feather fall skills. I can somewhat guess their purposes and if they are what I think they are they''ll be useful to have. Next I''ll spend my mutation points to get toxic thorns and serrated thorns. That way I''ll have the beginnings of a good defense against my enemies. Man, if only messy eater worked for my thorns. Then I''d be able to do massive damage with them. Now let''s see here. Alfred can you tell me how many points it costs to level up an existing skill and mutations? [To level up a skill/mutation from level 1 costs 2 skill/mutation points. From level 2 to 3 it will cost 3 points. Then from 3 to 4 it will cost 4 points. Maximum is level 5, and the skill can be upgraded for 5 points. Then the cost of the skill upgrade price will be doubled.] Seriously? Then that means to get to level 5 for a single skill or mutation it will cost me 14 points. How ruthless. Let''s see here. Should I minimax into one attribute or start generalizing? For my mutations I think I''ll speck into my thorny teeth and enhanced roots so that I can keep mobile and dish out damage like a speedy glass cannon. So, level 3 for the both of them. As for skills I''ll go with 5 points to drowsy pollen and 5 points to basic mana sense. The mana sense has served me rather well allowing me to vaguely see my surroundings. Maybe not in the high definition detail of a human but good enough to dodge attacks and such. As for drowsy pollen who doesn''t like putting their enemies to sleep and attacking them while they''re helpless? I''ll save the extra skill point for something nice later. GUUUUAGAGAGA!! When I confirmed my selection, my brain was immediately bombarded by the pins and needle feeling bearing down on my mind as it learned new skills and the agonizing burn of my body mutating. Alone either of these things but both of these two combined had my body trembling and randomly spasming and I began to repeatedly slam my face into the cave ceiling above in my muddled minded desperate attempt to clear my head of this torture. By the time it faded away I was left with a dull throbbing pain in my petals from my earlier outburst of bashing my head. Whoever made this system I swear I''m going to give you a piece of my mind for this. Now that I was done upgrading myself though I can test out my new features. Using my roots, I began to climb across the ceiling by impaling my roots into the soft spots and cracks of the ceiling and found my roots slid into them with relative ease. Before it was a rather difficult process which ended up making my roots sore after prolonged usage. Now though it was practically a painless process! However, I still couldn''t climb on the parts that had more solid stone. A pity but I suppose as a simple rose I wouldn''t be able to break stone after only two-level ups to my roots. Next I opened up my petal jaws to take a look at my teeth. I have to admit its still disturbing how this mana sense skill lets me look into my mouth without me even needing my eyes. No idea how it works but still handy. What I saw nearly gave me a heart attack as it looked like some messed up eldritch horror like monster was trying to eat me. Calm down Joey boy. That''s only your mouth! Nothing to be afraid of! ¡­.. The fact that this disturbing messed up mouth was my own only made it worse. Anyways with the upgraded mana sense skill I could actually see things (Like my mouth¡­) in much better quality. There were now two more inner petals along with the previous four petals who had teeth on them. They were a bright red color and had perhaps hundreds of small serrated thorns covered in a clear goo and bits of flesh and chitin from the bugs I killed. Brutal. But on the Brightside, it seemed my thorn upgrades applied to the ones in my mouth. Which sort of makes sense as they were just thorns serving the same purpose as teeth, but with the insect gore that covered them they looked disturbing. I could only shiver at what it would look like if it had been a person I had eaten instead. I wonder how much XP I''d get for a person¡­ Get ahold of yourself Joe! Don''t let the monster body affect your mind! You are still human and should not consider what it would be like if you had eaten a person. This entire monster thing was getting to me. I should just distract myself with some exploring. Yeah that''s what we''ll do next. Test out the tunnel sense skill with some exploration! 6 I just wanna run GAAAAAAAAH!!! I''m so bored. I''ve been wandering for what''s felt like hours in these tunnels without encountering a single thing. Why!? This is supposed to be monster-infested cave territory! Where are my bags of XP!? The only silver lining is that my tunnel sense skill is working quite well and has kept me from getting lost so far. That and I''ve managed to figure out a bit more about this system thing. It seems that with my skills there are two ways to go about leveling them up. The sow and steady cheapskate way and the fast and splurging way. The first is where you slowly level them up through usage and save your skill points for purchasing new skills in the process. Then there''s the splurging way where you just spend skill points to level up your skills faster but then you run out of them really quick. I''m not sure why someone would design a system like this since it seems like it wouldn''t be worthwhile to have two different ways of doing the same thing. It''s counterintuitive. I think that''s the right word for it. I''m not sure I never was good at my language arts class. Now there''s been a few interesting things I have also noticed on my journey. Now, what might that be you ask? Signs of battle I say. Every once in awhile I''ll find small gashes on the walls, floors, and ceiling as if a fight took place. The scary thing is that despite this there weren''t any corpses or any signs of a battle taking place other than those gashes and the occasional few drops of sticky clear bug blood. ¡­. Wait I''ve been talking to myself this whole time. Am I going crazy!? Is the isolation getting to me!? It hasn''t even been a single day yet!... I think. I''m not even sure how long it has been. So much for my sense of time. Must''ve been lost when I was moved into the body of a flower. Anyways back to the important stuff. I''ve been trying to search around for something to kill to get to my level up because I''m not that far from it but unfortunately, I haven''t found any and that''s probably thanks to whatever''s been making all those gashes. I had a hunch that it might have been those ants. I wasn''t sure if they were capable of making gashes in walls, but I knew that there were species of ants like army ants which were so ravenous that they''d devour everything in the areas before moving on. Something suspiciously similar to what was happening here. And if that was the case it only solidified my belief that I needed to earn more XP for a level up before things got too crazy for me to handle. So, I continued my hunt for prey. It was a long while later when I finally found my first monster. And it was not something I was sure I could handle. It was a rat. A lone rat that had what seemed to be bony bumps sticking out of its spine, lower jaw, and out of the side of all of its ankles. Almost like it was trying to pretend it was an ankylosaurus. This rat was injured though with its entire left flank coated in a congealed layer of dark red blood. It was also wheezing and limping forward towards my end of the tunnel. Turning around I prepared to run away from the approaching rat before hesitating. Yeah, this rat was easily two or three times my size but it''s the only monster I''ve seen in a while. There was no guarantee I''d find another before whatever''s been eating all the other monsters gets me. Not only that but this monster was wounded and looked like it was on its last leg. It was having trouble breathing and walking for crying out loud! Am I seriously threatened by that!? Yes. Yes, I am. But I had to face reality. This was perhaps my only chance at getting enough XP to level up. Steeling my mind, I turned around and looked at the approaching monster rat. I''ve been using my stealth skill the entire time I was mentally debating fighting this gargantuan thing. So, it hasn''t caught on to my presence yet. This rat even wounded was undoubtedly stronger than me, but I still had a few advantages like my messy eater perk and the drowsy pollen skill. With the two of those and it being wounded, I should be able to defeat it. I hope. I kept absolutely still on the top of the cave ceiling not allowing even a single leaf to tremble in my desperation to remain hidden. When the rat finally made it under me, I struck falling from the ceiling and then it hit me. I instinctively twisted my body in a way to lessen the force my landing would have upon me and slammed into the shoulder of the rat barely avoiding the bumps on its spine. The rat didn''t even flinch when I landed, and I wasn''t that affected either. It really was convenient being a flower when falling. Before it had a chance to react, I opened up my petals and buried my teeth into its already wounded side and started using my chainsaw teeth to shred it. Skin, fur, flesh. It didn''t matter what it was anything my teeth encountered tore it to bloody ribbons. The rat squealed in pain and vigorously shook itself throwing me off of it. Standing myself back up I faced it ready to continue the fight. The oversized rodent, however, was staggering with a shocking amount of blood pouring from its wound. What was more surprising is that instead of pain and fear for its life-dominating its eyes all that was there was pure unfiltered rage. I think I pissed him off. "SCREEEEEE!" Yup. I pissed it off. Opening up my petals I shot out a small cloud into the rat''s face and it started sneezing. Hey, stop sneezing! That''s my drowsy pollen you disrespectful ball of reviling fur! Not sneezy pollen! The rat began to wobble a bit as blood loss and my drowsy pollens began to have an effect on it. Just not enough of one. The rat charged forward jaws snapping and claws swinging wildly as it attempted to tear me apart. But its movements were slowed by the severe wounds and drowsy pollen allowing me to bend and twist my body in a series of crazy manners narrowly dodging the larger monsters'' attacks. I kept taking steps back with my roots trying to get some distance between us, but the rat refused to allow me my personal space as it took a step closer for every step I took back. Finally having enough of this damnable rat onslaught, I waited till it finished one of its swipes before diving forward before it had the chance to attack again and buried my mouth into its neck. I then began to chainsaw my way through its stringy flesh and a large amount of blood-soaked my petals. The rat reared up onto its legs shaking its legs and grabbing me by my stem and pulling me as it attempted to dislodge me from its throat. This however made it worse as its flesh tore apart from the force of its pull and my toxic thorns stabbed at its paws. The rat made one last gurgle before it collapsed. Right on top of me. [Armored rat slain (Tier-0 monster). 3 skill points awarded. New species killed 1 additional skill point earned. A total of 5 XP earned. Monster core absorbed. 3 mutation points earned. 3 mana absorbed.] Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. While I am currently uncomfortably squished underneath this behemoth of a rat, I''m rather satisfied with the amount of XP I managed to get from this fella. Even if he was wounded it wasn''t exactly easy killing him when I''m just a glass cannon build. I started to wiggle myself out from under the rat and after several tries and getting my thorns stuck on the rat''s hair and flesh, I managed to get myself out. Now that I killed him and have enough XP to level up again, I should take the moment to chow down on this guy before heading out somewhere to rest and level up. With that in mind, I began to gorge myself on the flesh of the rat and after several petal-fulls, I felt full. Now finished with my meal I went out in search of a good spot to make safe for me. Before I could get very far, I heard the light tapping of something walking coming from the way I came. Curiously I turned to look that way despite no longer needing to turn to look at stuff. Force of habit from my human days I suppose. But back to the taps. They were growing loud. In the few seconds I was musing to myself the taps increased to a loud thumping that echoed in the empty tunnels. I started to mentally squint towards the other side of the tunnel as I began to see movement along the edges of my vision. It looked like a big blob¡­ A big moving red blob that was getting closer¡­ Ah¡­ Fuck I''m doomed. The red blob that I was seeing became clearer within moments and I could see now that they were ants. Tens of dozens of them at just the edge alone. Worst of all instead of marching on just the bottom along the floor they were climbing on every available bit of space in the tunnel covering it in a layer of red emotionless ants. So thick were their numbers that they started resorting to walking along on top of each other turning what started out as a swarm of ants into what looked like a red moving living tsunami of mandibles and black compound eyes. The moment they spotted the corpse of the armored rat I killed their speed picked up and they doggy piled it and tore it apart (I kid you not) in seconds. That was more than enough to tell me my earlier assumption was right. Leveling up could wait. Right now, I need to make like a tree and leaf! Like ten minutes ago! As I started sprinting down the tunnel like a six-legged devil (Which is sort of true) was on my tail I heard a deafening chorus of clacking mandibles and the thumping of hundreds of insect legs as the ant tsunami started to chase me. Oh, fuck! Oh, fuck! Oh, fuck! I''m doomed this time! No coming back to life this time! No escape! How do I escape!? Barricade myself in a tunnel and run? No, no ants dig faster than me. I wouldn''t buy much time with that. If anything, that would waste time. I can''t climb anywhere since ants can also climb. Even if I was several levels higher there''s too many of them for me to kill. Damn it why the hell are these ants so OP!? Go chase some other poor flower you bastards! I turned my head around running and shot off the last drowsy pollen left in the tank before continuing my sprint. It probably wouldn''t buy me much time but at this point every second counts. After nearly a minute of running (I counted. I counted in an attempt of distracting myself from my fear. It failed.) I arrived at an opening in the tunnel I purposefully avoided in my exploration due to it being a larger place. This time however I practically threw myself into there. I found myself in a large opening in the cave tunnels. This room looked big and had several bison monsters (Bastard flower killers!) a dozen scorpions as well as numerous rats. I didn''t pay them any mind nor the details of the cave as I ran. Several of the monsters in the room had their hungry eyes drawn to me when I ran in but when a few seconds later hundreds of ants started to pour out of the way I came they promptly joined me in running in fear. It seems like even the bison monsters don''t want to tangle with hundreds of ants. Can''t blame them. With me being stuck in front of the various monsters leading my very own multispecies stampede we were all forced up one of the larger tunnels. Despite it being large enough to fit several bison beasts it was still cramped for all the dozens of monsters. As our stampede continued to run, we picked up new members along the way as the ran ahead of us not wanting to be trampled to death by us while we ran in fear of being eaten alive by the ants swarming behind us. Based off of the occasional pained roar and screech the ants were catching up and picking us off one by one. This seriously felt like some messed up horror with how we were being chased by death incarnate helpless to do anything except for run to prolong our seemingly inevitable deaths. Already I was beginning to tire and slow. Which was the last thing I wanted in this situation. But as if I had my very own dues ex Machina helping me, I saw a small pinprick of daylight up ahead. It was faint but it was there. And where there was daylight there was the surface. Spurred on by the sight of freedom I forced my exhausted roots to speed up as I raced towards the exit passing up the monsters in front of me as my body swelled up with energy. Towards my freedom! Towards the beautiful sun! It seemed I wasn''t the only one excited at the prospect of getting out to the surface as all the other monsters whether they were exhausted or full of energy sped in their eagerness to survive. With their extra speed and me keeping just barely ahead of them we managed to pull away from the ants putting a good amount of distance between us. Take that six-legged killing machines! Just as the exit was, I sight however I was it by a mixture of confusing emotions at what I saw. Confusion. Happiness. Nervousness. Shyness. (Yes, A rose feeling shy. Deal with it.) Fear. There were five humans in chainmail armor wielding swords, spears, and axes. One of which had a wood staff. The human''s expressions were filled with terror at the sight of the monster stampede barreling towards them. Instead of standing their ground to fend off the hoard of monsters like some suicidal idiots they turned and ran out of the cave entrance as they faded into shadows in the light. Then the light was starting to be blocked off as a thick wood gate was being used to block off the entrance to the cave. Trying to leave us to be eaten in here you bastards!? I shall not allow this! Not that I have the power to stop it. But my big friends here do! I jumped onto one of the bison monster''s legs and climbed up onto its back. The gate was imposing with it being made of entire whole trees but in the face of the tens of dozens of monsters with me riding a bison monster flanked by bison monsters in the lead were not cowed. More specifically the bison monsters weren''t cowed! The bisons lowered their heads pointing their horns towards the gate and slammed into it at full speed. Unlike how I expected it to hold against their assault it broke into pieces that barely stayed together under the combined attack of several bison beasts. But that didn''t remain so for long as the monsters behind us slammed into the bison''s nearly causing me to fall off of the one, I was riding. The gate wasn''t so lucky as it collapsed outwards under the full strength of dozens of monsters. I and the other monsters flooded out of the cave the glare of the light blinding me temporarily before my mana sense got adjusted to my new environment. Where I found myself was what looked like a small town. There was a couple dozen people wearing armor and wielding weapons who were staring at them in disbelief. But it wasn''t them where my attention was drawn to. Children. Women. Elderly. There were many defenseless people present. Both monster and man froze for the briefest of moments staring at each other before an enraged scream pierced the air. As if it was the starting bell the armed peoples faces twisted in hate and they charged towards the monsters with their fierce battle cries assaulting my hearing. (Still not sure how my hearing works. Much less my sight.) The monsters also roared their own battle cries as they plunged forward to tear apart the humans while the defenseless started to flee (Why the hell would they do that? We still have the ants to worry about!). I, on the other hand, hadn''t forgotten about the looming threat like the rest of the idiotic monsters and continued to run away with terrified screams and fearful roars echoing behind me as the ants joined the fray and tore apart anything that moved. I was once again running like a coward from the conflict. But this time I wasn''t leaving behind flowers to die. I was leaving behind actual people to die. 7 A change in perspective Ant monsters are a numerous and diverse species. They vary in size from as small as 5 inches long to a foot long. Despite this, they are one of the biggest threats to kingdoms from small to large. The smallest of ant colonies numbered in the hundreds and most were at least numbered in the tens of thousands. Colonies numbering in the hundreds of thousands can consume small kingdoms and larger ones can be threatened by ant colonies numbering in the millions. Because of this and how quickly ants can grow from a few thousand to a few hundred thousand in mere months every kingdom employs their own anti-ant military branches on a monthly basis to prevent potential antpocalypses. Despite these attempts, dozens of kingdoms and empires have been consumed by the ravenous appetites of the ants. -Excerpt from the monster encyclopedia written by Xander freerider ~~~~~~~~ "I''m so booooored! Why don''t any monsters come!? It''s getting boring." Lora whined. "Ever heard of the saying careful what you wish for? Besides its good things are peaceful. Just means things will be safer for the town." Rick said to her shooting her a stern glare. This made Lora blush in shame at the mention of the town''s safety. "Hey, go easy on her old man. I agree keeping the town safe is important, but the occasional monster isn''t a bad thing." I defended her and Lora shot me a grateful smile. The aging guard sighed with a faint smile on his face. "Sure, Jake. Sure." He relented. The three of us were guards of the small town of Riveroak. Rick''s been a guard here for over twenty years and was in his late 40''s. Lora has barely joined a couple weeks ago but with her being a mage it made things a lot easier. There were also the Royer brothers but those two don''t speak much but have been serving along with me for the past five years. "Do you hear that?" One of the Royer brothers asked out of character. This got the attention of the three of us more talkative guards. I strained my hearing as I tried to listen for what he heard. It didn''t take long as I heard the stamping of feet echoing down from the tunnel we were guarding. And the sound was growing. "That doesn''t sound good¡­." I murmured and Lora nodded silently as she tightened her grip on her staff. It seemed she was getting nervous. Not that I was doing any better. I was gripping the hilt of the sword with so much force that my knuckles were white. Down the tunnel, the source of the sound revealed itself as a stampede of dozens of different types of monsters rushed towards them with a¡­. Is that a flower in the lead¡­.? "You happy now Lora!? You have your monsters!" Rick growled out as he unsheathed his battle-ax. "Yeah, um no. Not at all. We can''t handle this. Let''s get out of here and get some reinforcements!" She replied with a fear-stricken expression on her face. The two of their bantering was enough to snap my attention away from what I thought was a rose monster leading the monsters and follow after my fellow guards as we rushed out of the tunnel. I went to the gate with the Royer brothers and started to close the gate. The last sight I saw inside the cave before we closed it was that same flower-hopping onto one of the monsters and riding it¡­ What is that creature¡­? Shaking my head clear of the questions swirling around in my head I went along with the others to warn the other people. "MONSTER STAMPEDE INCOMING! ANY ABLED PERSON GRAB YOUR WEAPONS AND GET READY TO FIGHT! EVERYONE ELSE RUN!" Rick bellowed as we exited the dungeon entrance. Everyone else froze shocked at the thought of a monster stampede taking place. It was not the time of year for a monster stampede to take place. Just as he finished shouting the warning though the monsters burst out of the dungeon and stopped in their tracks at the sight of the dozens of armed guards and adventurers and citizens. There was a short moment of silence between both groups. "KILLL THEEEEM!!!" A random voice shouted in a rage-filled voice and as if it was the spark for the fuse both sides yelled and roared as we charged each other. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the rose again sprinting away from the battle with the top half of its stem swinging behind it. Before my eyes could track it any farther an armored rat leaped at me with its claws outstretched. With a single swing of my sword, I bisected it before joining the other people in cutting our way through the monsters. Even children knew that for some unknown reason those monsters are driven by an instinct to kill sentient surface species like humans even to the point that they''d disregard their own survival. So, it was no surprise that these monsters reacted like this when faced with the village, but that was the exact reason I was confused about why the rose continued to run away. But I didn''t have time to continue thinking it over as the monsters continued to attack relentlessly. There were dozens of the monsters but against the combined efforts of us human warriors we cut straight through them like a hot knife would through butter. But then an ominous clacking started echoing from the dungeon entrance. This clacking made the monsters freeze I, terror, as they slowly turned to look at the cave. This odd reaction made even the guards and adventurers turn to look at what was coming from the tunnel. Then an enormous red tidal wave of ants started flowing from the dungeon and dived forward in near-complete silence clacking their mandibles in synchrony while they marched. The first few monsters who were met by the ants were swarmed and shredded in seconds without having a chance to fight back. With the bigger looming threat any monster who didn''t run were forced to fight alongside us to survive. This was impossible. There were no colonies for three levels in this area but yet here there was evidence of an existing colony. The ants were small. Really small. But they were numerous. With every swing of my sword I took out several of them but yet they just kept coming. Out of the corner of my eyes, I could see one of the Royer brothers getting swarmed as he screamed while his brother was desperately tearing the ants off with his hand''s tears pouring out of his eyes. All he accomplished, however, was allowing the ants to swarm him. Now both of them were being covered in a blanket of living red. The brothers realizing that their deaths were all but inevitable embraced each other one last time as they were torn to bits. There were similar scenes everywhere you looked with monsters desperately clawing at the ants eating them and people being eaten alive. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Children being carried by their mothers as they were eaten alive as they ran. Fathers and sons trying to buy them time by fighting the ants with rusty farm tools and broomsticks only to get killed in seconds without accomplishing anything. Blood. Screams. There were now fires rising from several houses. This was hell. This was absolute hell. That flower was the only monster who kept running because it probably realized what was chasing them. Burning pain in my legs woke me from my shocked stupor and I promptly started kicking and smashing the ants who were beginning to climb up my legs. Looking around I tried to search for the other two guards I was serving with. Everywhere I looked I only saw mounds of red ants as they devour everything in sight. Even now more ants were pouring out of the cave. "Jake! Over here!" A deep gravelly-voiced called out to me. When I turned around, I saw Rick waving over at me and Lora blasting fire spells at the approaching ants. Without a moment''s hesitation I ran over to them and Lora stopped her spell bombardment just long enough to allow me to group up with them before returning to barbequing the insect swarm. "What should we do?" I asked. "Simple. We run." Rick replied. I stared aghast at the man I knew ever since I was a child. "But the people! They''re-" "THEY''RE ALL DEAD!" The older guard roared causing me to flinch back in a mixture of fear and surprise. Seeing my reaction Rick''s stony face relaxed and he placed a hand on my shoulder. "Look kid its too late. Anyone alive is already dead. Right now, we need to focus on ourselves and get out of here. Ok?" He told me with a reassuring tone. I glanced over to Lora whose face was warped in wide-eyed terror almost unconsciously casting her spells every time the ants drew close. I then glanced over to the ants. There were only a few people left and even they have already had ants crawling all over them as their agonized screams pierced the air. There weren''t even any corpses or torn bits of carnage. The ants were so thorough I didn''t even have any time to get a glimpse at the innards of the fallen. Finally, I turned my head back to Rick and nodded my head I agreement. Seeing my reluctant agreement to what he said he finally relaxed a bit more before tapping Lora''s shoulder causing her to jump slightly in surprise. "Come on you two. Time for us to haul ass." Rick said before sprinting away with Lora hurrying after him. I didn''t run yet though as I shot a remorseful glimpse at the village. It was a small place with only a couple hundred residents. The previous screams of the people were now all gone with only the ant''s mandibles clacking and the few fires that crackled remaining as the only sources of sound. I was born in this village and raised in it for 19 long years. And now it along with nearly everyone I knew and cared for was all gone. I turned and ran with tears starting to gather and drip from my eyes. Everything gone in five short minutes¡­. 8 A short stroll There exists a strange branch of the monster species. That branch is the plant monster subspecies. While they are not the oddest, they are still a mystery. A branch of more often than not moving carnivorous plants who will relentless hunt down their prey. More often than not plant type monsters have a variety of abilities that their bestial cousins are not privy too at much lower levels. Some of which being regenerative abilities, extra limbs, and biology that is not natural to their branch. Its for things like this that plant monsters are ranked in the top five most dangerous types of monsters to face. That''s not to say that all of them are dangerous formidable beings of destruction. Take for example the cave rose. Weak, pathetic, slow, dumb. Its only benefit is that they are numerous. If it weren''t for this, they''d have all but died out. Where they come from none are sure. Although there are reports of evolved high tier rose monsters that can take on tier 3 and 4 monsters, but these are mostly waved off as rumors. -Excerpt from the monster encyclopedia written by Xander freerider ~~~~~~~~~ Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. I can say for certain my mindset has changed. A lot at that. The entire ant swarm and the village of people that died has had a big impact on me. I was the one leading those monsters. I was the one who led the ants to the village which resulted in countless innocent lives being lost. Sure, you can argue I didn''t know what would happen or that it was there in the first place, but it doesn''t change the fact that it happened. Nothing can. The screams of people being torn apart by monsters and their deaths was a wake-up call. This was a real world where people can die. Yeah, I knew it already but it''s like some sort of thing that hangs in the back of your head before WHAM! It slaps you in your face before you have a chance to realize it''s there. But enough wallowing in self-pity and hate. I have a world to survive and I intend to thrive it. I was now on the surface world. Its strange. I''m not even sure how long I was down underground but it was apparently long enough for the forest to like an alien world to me. I just saw a butterfly ago and nearly attacked it before I realized it was harmless. Looks like despite my short time in the caves my habits from there have been ingrained into me. It''s been quite a while since I ran from the village and I am pretty sure that I''m far enough away to stop running. At least, I hope. Oddly enough I wasn''t deadbeat tired like I was when leaving the cave tunnels. In fact, if anything I''m buzzing with energy. I have a hunch that it has to do with my photosynthesis skill. I am a plant after all and this strange energy filling me up only appeared once I was above ground. Its sort of nice actually. If I had this energy down in the caves, I could have been able to fight that rat even if it wasn''t wounded. My speed has increased, and I think even my strength may have increased. When I checked out my stats I found that all my physical stats had a (+1) symbol next to their numbers. Seems that this photosynthesis skill really did give some nice on perks. ¡­.. WHY WAS I BORN IN A FUCKING DARK CAVE THEN!?! THIS IS A RIP OFF ALFRED! YOU HEAR ME!? A RIP OFF!! Huff. Huff. Huff. After a few moments to metaphorically catch my breath I straightened up my sagging stem and started to explore the new area I was in. My tunnel sense was all but useless now that I was no longer in them. Up here above ground everything was open wide spaces. With an actual sky and clouds. Can''t say I didn''t miss it despite me never being an outdoor person in my previous life. Now then from what I could see the local trees looked to be oak trees. Interesting. Too bad I didn''t know enough tree biology (Treeology?) to figure out anything about my current environment from just that. But its not just that but it seemed even up here I was considered a light weight since a deer (An actual regular normal animal!) casually walked by me like I was below its threat threshold. In all honesty though I probably was. Deer are fast. Way too fast for me. What was important right now was hunting for XP. That still is THE most important resource to me. Now I was hesitant to kill Bambi. Mostly because Bambi probably doesn''t have much XP being a weak deer and all. What I wanted to kill is some monsters. Delicious monsters! ... Damn it. My mind is slowly but surely becoming warped by this new form and life of mine. I suppose its not abnormal¡­ I think? Never mind that. Let''s get hunting! With that I began exploring the woods for some goodies to snack upon and a new place to rest. Unlike in the caves this forest was rather colorful and kept distracting me with the various beautiful insects and wildlife. Curse you diabolical forest! An entrancing place forests are after isolation in drab caves. How cunning¡­ But that''s not to say that I haven''t been lounging around doing nothing. I''ve been taking notes in my mental notebook on the fauna and flora and I must say they don''t seem so normal upon second glance. For one there were frogs. But no, they weren''t normal frogs despite being as large as regular frogs! They had teeth. Tiny razor like teeth (Didn''t seem to be interested in eating me though. I''m somewhat insulted by that.). Then there were the acorns that were on the forest floor. THEY HAD LEGS!!! I kid you not they had legs (Why do I talk to myself so much?). These four small spindly legs extending from the little branch at the top which they were using to walk away from the tree to an empty spot in the sunlight before digging a hole and burying themselves in it. Not all of them made it. In fact, most of them were being eaten by the frogs I mentioned earlier. Maybe that means the trees and the frogs are all monsters¡­ What if this entire forest is one big monster¡­? Nah that''s impossible! Nothing gets that big. But if its true that many of the things here are indeed monsters doesn''t that mean I''m going to have an easy time? These tiny frogs wouldn''t stand a chance against me! Although I''m hesitant to eat the acorns because one I hate nuts. Two I don''t want giant tree to squish lil ol me. For now, I''ll act on this assumption being true. There is more life up here in general, so it isn''t too unrealistic for it to be like that. I then went searching around for a home. If I want to be as efficient as possible a good base will be needed. Meaning a place to rest close enough to an area where animals would gather for me to be able to easily hunt. You know what that means Alfred! We''re finding a water hole! Muhahahaha! I will be the deadly croc that will kill all who come to drink that sweet cool water. Except I''m a flower. And I live on the land not in the water. ¡­. I really don''t suit the crocodile build well, I guess. With a new goal in mind to make my levelling more efficient I started my search. I was never an outdoor person and as such never picked up any survival skills whatsoever. This especially showed itself with my searching. I had no idea what signs to look for when it came to locating bodies of water. Especially relatively still ones like ponds. At least with a river I could listen for it. And so, I was forced to wander aimlessly in the hopes of randomly stumbling upon one due to dumb luck. But my luck stat was never very high. Wait I don''t even have a luck stat. Ah shit. I''m never going to find water. As I walked, I gazed around measuring myself up compared to everything else. Back at the village I was able to discover I wasn''t really that big. If measurements were the same as back on earth, I''d be around 8 or so inches. Pretty depressing being that short. I''m not even a foot tall. But that also revealed the terror of those ants since that would mean they''d be around the size of chihuahuas. How the heck did humanity not get overrun with ants and go extinct I''ll probably never know. (Small time skip) FINALLY! I have found water! Not that I was in dire need of it, but I have already covered why it was important. And it seemed my earlier conjecture was right. There seemed to be some form of non-aggression pact at the pond that the animals gathered at since there were several different species gathered. There were wolves with what looked like dark green and dark brown stripes oddly enough. Then there were deer like the one I saw earlier. However, it seemed I overlooked one detail. They had tusks that protruded several inches in front of their mouths. And to put the frosting on the cake there were rabbits with small antlers which ended in three sharpened prongs. Yikes. But this was even better for me! This way I''ll be able to take stock of the local wildlife and choose my prey. Things are all going according to plan. All that''s left is a place to rest. That would be slightly harder since there were no tunnels, I can conveniently block off up here in the surface. Trees weren''t a viable option since there''s probably saber squirrels or something. Not to mention monster birds. I''m not all that good of a digger either so I can''t make a den. Maybe I should find a rabbit den and take it? No there''d be too many for me to handle. I suppose I''ll need to search for that too¡­ Later though for now its time to watch the animals a bit. See what sort of wildlife the surface world has. 9 The search for a base Monsters. What are they and where do they come from? Well, it depends on what type of monster you''re talking about. But since you probably picked this book because it''s a monster encyclopedia, we''ll assume you''re not talking about the figurative monster and talking about the literal monster. For the first question, we researchers and philosophers have a general idea about what they are. Monsters are any sort of entity both organic and inorganic that have a monster core. Where monsters come from however is a complete mystery. Not surprising to me considering we hardly know where we ourselves come from. If we don''t even know where our own species come from how could we ever hope to know where others come from? Especially something as mysterious as the monster species. Now on to the next question. What exactly is a monster core? I could spin the foolish idea of the religious belief with it being a seed of evil or the gift of the gods/God for us to earn by slaying monsters, but I am not one of those gullible fools. And I for one am not afraid to call them out on it and tell you, dear reader, the truth. We. Don''t. Know. That''s right. One of the biggest fundamental things used for differentiating monsters from regular animals we have no clue about. Well, that''s not exactly true. We know it has the ability to store mana. But that''s about it. Very mysterious is it not? The secrets of both monster core and monsters themselves are ever-elusive despite the centuries man and other species have tried to discover them. Welcome to the monster encyclopedia where I, Xander freerider, will guide you on the path of learning what you need to know about monsters. At least as much as I can through ink and paper. -Excerpt of the introduction page of the monster encyclopedia written by Xander freerider ~~~~~~~~~ Alright, it be time for the great expedition! Well not that great of an expedition really. I am only going to travel for a short distance after all. I''ve chosen to start my journey during the day when the sun was out to ensure that the boost from my photosynthesis skill can play a part. It is a very valuable skill that I can''t disregard after all. I began wandering in a random direction without a general idea of what I was looking for. I don''t have good wilderness knowledge to depend on and even if I did me being a flower and all would change how that knowledge would be applied to me. I was just hoping that I''d recognize it when I see it. The forest as always was bustling with life. No matter which way I looked I was able to find some signs of life. A glance to the left offers me a tusked deer. A look to the right offers me a jackalope rabbit thingy. A look above provides me the sight of a¡­. What the absolute fuck is that thing!? Just above me, only a couple dozen meters were what looked like some giant winged lizard. I only had a moment to glance at it before it flew past, but its scales were a drab brown and had two wings extending from where its arms would be. It still had legs that looked rather short on it not even being a third of the length its wings were. The most terrifying thing though was that it must have been easily fifteen feet long from snout to the tip of its long tail. How the heck was there such a huge thing flying around!? Screw it I want to go back to my nice simple tunnels! I didn''t have to deal with wyvern dragon thingies there! For once I''m happy I''m small. I probably wouldn''t even be worth considering eating for something as monstrous as that, but I wonder what tier that thing was. The armored rat I killed was a tier-2 which means something like that flying oversized lizard must be a tier-3 or 4 right? No matter. I just need to keep an eye on the sky from now on. While I walked, I decided to take a closer look at the forest as a whole. Maybe describe it to Alfred despite him being an automated system. As I have stated previously the forest seemed to be comprised of mostly what looked to be oak trees but there were what seemed to be birch trees and pine trees. At least I believe those are what they called. Man, why Isn''t there some sort of guidebook to the forest available in the system? In fact, why isn''t there a system store? But I digress. Heh. Digress. I sound like a fancy scholar saying that word. Professor. Rose! I like. Wait the forest! Now then the ground. The ground had a nice comfy layer of grasses. Maybe it''s normal but the grass was rather soft. It seemed unusual to me but at the same time a nice aspect of the place. If I could sleep normally, I''d seriously consider stopping to lay down and take a nap. Alas, I am doomed to never rest like a human ever again. There were also bushes with small red berries growing on them. Another thing I possibly won''t experience again. Eating fruit pie. Man, now I want a cherry pie¡­ Ah, that looks like an interesting place. In the midst of my inner scholarly monologue on the forest, I happened to wander upon some sort of grove. I think its a grove? Anyways if it was one it was a strange one at that. There were various tree species all gathered in a circle. A perfect circle no less! The odds of simple trees growing in that shape I''m guessing are astronomically low. But I was reincarnated as a walking monster flower that can eat people. So, I can''t really talk when it comes to things like this. In the center of the circle of trees was another circle. This one being formed by a ring of mushrooms. What''s up with this spot and stuff growing in circles? That''s not normal at all. I walked over into the circle of trees and started to inspect the area. It seemed that there weren''t animals who dared to come into this area. Not even the birds I''ve seen perched on the branches of the trees that made up the circle. And other than the exception of the fungus ring everything inside the trees ring was only grass and that grass was short. Not cut short like with how people mow their laws. More like they never grew past a certain point. Yet another oddity from this spot. The grass is supposed to be a plant that grows really quickly but for it to stop growing at just an inch or so tall is strange. I''m starting to get the heebbie jeebbies being in here. Why am I suddenly getting all superstitious on myself!? Sure, I''ve been reincarnated and all that strange jazz but there was no being that declared themselves GOD! Only a disembodied voice that declared themselves a system. {You''re a strange one, aren''t you?} Why yes, I am- Wait! Who said that!? I demanded swinging my head around in all directions trying to spot who spoke. {I did. Behind you.} The voice responded with traces of amusement in her voice. When I looked behind myself, however, I found no person standing there. Only an old oak tree. Wait¡­. A tree? I vaguely recalled that I had a skill called universal plant communication. Does that mean that the tree was talking to me¡­? {Yup. The old oak tree is talking to you. Although I''d prefer the name, Amelia.} What the absolute hecking heckidy heckers! Are you reading my mind!? I could have sworn that I wasn''t using my plant communication skill! {You''re unconsciously using it every time you speak. It''s rather funny to watch.} Hey, don''t you make fun of me! I''m the most badass wittiest and dangerous rose alive! Respect is what I am due! {A cave rose dangerous? While I admit you are far more intelligent than I thought a cave rose could be capable of your species are nowhere near dangerous. And of the few to have become dangerous they are far more fearsome than you. So, I suggest you drop the tough guy act.} ¡­. Ok, you have a point there. So umm how do I control this plant communication skill? {Just focus a bit on not broadcasting your thoughts. Right now, it''s only sending vague pheromones but with my higher communication, I can distinguish what your saying. My sisters, on the other hand, aren''t able to. So, if you''d actually send out your pheromones with some intent so they can understand what''s being said that would be nice.} Wow ok. Wait let me get my thoughts straight. I''m talking to a tree and all the other trees are probably her sisters¡­ Ok, let''s get control over my skill! My body went still as I focused on my skill. Surprisingly enough I found it easy to seize control over now that I was actually consciously trying to. It''s like a light switch and I was turning it on now. {Ummm. How''s this?} {It speaks!} You weren''t lying sister. This cave rose can actually speak.} {Maybe we should keep it as a pet? You rarely see a species as dumb as this one actually be capable of speech.} As soon as I spoke a torrent of pheromones slammed into me as they were translated into speech I could understand. And I did not like what I heard. {I wonder if we''d be able to get a special title for killing it?} {Now now it''s a rarity. You don''t waste such things like that sister.} {¡­. I HAVE A NAME DAMN IT! I''M NOT SOME EXOTIC ANIMAL FOR YOUR ENJOYMENT YOU BUNCH OF FIREWOOD!} A chorus of gasps was the response my outburst got. I noticed that quite a few of the tree''s branches were trembling. Whether from rage or fear I''m pretty sure it was rage. They did speak casually about killing which meant they were most likely stronger than me. Not a good idea to piss of stronger monsters but hey I got angry ok? You can forgive me disembodied Alfred? Right? {A mere cave rose dares to insult us! Just for that, I should burn you into a crisp flower!} Ouch. It looks like I did make them angry. One of the pine trees branches were shaking up a flurry as the voice spoke. I''m guessing that''s the one that was talking. {Compose yourselves, everyone. It''s a guest so we as the owners of this home should be polite, not rude. Now then little rose. What would you like to ask us?} The feminine voice that first spoke to me stuck up for me when all the other trees were fuming with anger. It looks like I may just live through this after all¡­. Wait. These trees are the first err things I''ve talked to since I died. I''m not sure whether to be happy I finally have someone who can talk to me or pity myself for being happy about talking to trees¡­ Next thing you know I''ll become a tree-hugging hippie! Not that I can hug without arms. Maybe my roots? Focus Joe! You finally found someone to answer your questions! Take advantage of it. Knowledge is power! Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. 10 Questions, negotiations, and warnings {Well first off what the heck are you?} I asked the oak tree in front of me. {We are hamadryads. And you have coincidentally wandered into our territory. So, what brings you to our humble land?} {Well I was just looking for a safe place to rest between my hunts to level up and exploration.} {You? A cave flower hunting monsters? You have to be pulling my roots! Everyone knows that cave roses are only fit to be sustenance for the strong!} A birch dryad (Their names too long to be convenient for me. I''m shortening it!) jeered as her branches shook with amusement. Hey, wait since when was I able to distinguish between their pheromones and who was talking¡­ [Universal plant communication has reached level 2.] Oh. That''s useful. {I''ll have you know I''ve killed many mites, an ant, and an armored rat in my times!} I informed her while puffing my petals with pride. {Your lying! Flower monsters aren''t strong enough to take on ants much less rats!} A pine tree objected as several branches twisted towards me and jabbed in the air towards me to emphasize her point. Before I could retort however the first dryad, I talked to came to my defense. {You say that but ten minutes you would have claimed cave roses aren''t even capable of basic communication and yet here a cave rose stands engaging in conversation with you.} Amelia defended. {I''m sorry for my sister''s rudeness. If you wish, you could rest here between hunts. Very few creatures dare to wander into here and those who would rarely try.} She offered. I had to admit it wasn''t such a bad deal if what she said was true. But that was a big if. With all capital letters. Although when I think about it I haven''t found any places to rest so far and if very few things dare to come here then that means I won''t have to worry about a random rabbit hopping along and biting off my head. And I don''t exactly sleep in the first place so these dryads couldn''t attack me in my sleep. {There is a condition though. A sort of¡­ protection fee.} Amelia added before I could think too long about her offer. The words protection fee caught my attention like bananas would donkey kong (He is obsessed with bananas, right?). It reminded me of the thugs who would ''protect'' you for a small fee. Downright blackmail those thugs were doing. So, my defenses were raised up 200% at the mention of the term. Amelia didn''t notice me put up my guard (Not that my flowery body shows many signs of my guard being up.) and continued to talk. {You see unlike you we are rooted to the very spot we stand now and are not at the level requirement and skill requirements to be able to detach an avatar form from our main body like dryads of myth do. So, we make a deal with the weaker wildlife to defend them from stronger beings while they are here in return for them bringing prey to us.} She informed me. {If that''s the case how did you last this long?} {We typically use fruits and seeds that grow on our branches to lure in birds to feed on. But that method is too slow to be effective enough for us to do more than just survive. You noticed the ring of mushrooms over there right? That''s where the night pixies sleep. They don''t typically come out during the day like their namesake.} Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. I took a moment to mull this over while looking at both the dryads and the mushroom ring at the same time (Thank you mana sense!). Her explanation certainly makes sense. And with my dire need for a safe place to fall back to after my hunts and when I get caught up with something, I can''t handle this makes her offer particularly appealing. But that wasn''t a good reason to trust her. She is most likely capable of lying after all. That too isn''t a reason to reject her offer though. For now, I''ll take advantage of her offer and at the earliest sign of trouble, I''ll skedaddle right out of here. {Alright I''ll accept your offer, Amelia. I''m going to go on a little expedition for now though.} I told her before rushing away from the grove of dryads before any of them could say anything. Once I believed I was far enough away I finally relaxed. Man, that was tense. Note to self don''t hang out with dryads too much. They are not playful at all like some mythology depicts them. Heck, the nicest one just demanded me rent for sticking around while the rest were rather stuck up!... Well, I can''t really blame them. If I was in their position, I''d look down upon the one who was a flower like this. It''s a pathetically weak body after all! But that won''t be true for long! I Joe Johnson will become the strongest flower of them all! I shall be the one who can lounge around being lazy because nothing in the forest can harm me! Yes, that''s a good goal to have. A realistic one at that! Probably. I have a human mind for crying out loud! Why couldn''t I do it!? Anyways right now I need to kill something, and I already know what I want to kill. The frogs. They looked easy enough to kill. My drowsy pollen might actually be enough to put them to sleep with how small they are! And with all the bonuses I get for killing something new it''s definitely worth trying. It didn''t take me long to find one. They seemed to be rather common in this forest. Probably because they reproduce quickly or something. Actually, how do monsters reproduce in this world¡­? A question for another time. I crept up on the oblivious frog from behind and before it could notice one of my roots flew forward and pinned it to the ground. It immediately began making panicked croaks as it struggled to escape my grip. But it was a futile effort as my superior size and strength allowed me to easily keep it down. The tiny frog was a dull dark green color with a yellowish-white stomach. It also had those tiny fangs that gave away the fact that it was no normal frog. It was disturbing to see a frog with teeth. Very disturbing. And for that crime, I shall execute you sir frog! And with that declaration, I gulped up the frog in one bite and shredded it into my fertilizer. [Fanged frog slain. Basic monster entry unlocked. 2 XP gained. Smartypants achievement adds an additional 3 XP awarded. 1 skill point earned. 1 MP absorbed. 1 mutation point absorbed.] [Fanged frog: A Tier-0 surface monster that preys upon other Tier-0 monsters. They are very cowardly when facing stronger monsters and serve as food for most other monsters.] Ohoho! Very nice! I''m rather happy with this smarty pants achievement I have. Very satisfied indeed. [Warning XP past level up requirement. The system recommends level up before XP crosses 30 soon or severe consequences will be inflicted upon the host.] Oh, crud I forgot all about my level up with all that happened with the ant swarm and all. But severe consequences? That doesn''t sound good. It looks like I''ll need to hold off my exploring a bit longer to level up. But that means I''ll need to go back to the dryads¡­ Let''s hope that Amelia will have calmed them down by now. I don''t really have any other safer alternatives for places to level up after all. Sigh. The difficulties of being a lil innocent flower in a monster-filled world. 11 The worst system There are countless entrances to the dungeons below us. Even a small country will have hundreds of them. And with the abundance of unique resources that they offer cities towns and even villages will be built around the entrance. Of course, this all depends on the size of the entrance and what lives there. Cities, for example, are built around entrances large enough to fit a small army inside standing side by side. Or allow a large high tier monster to emerge. Because of this, there will be a defense that fits the scale of the danger. Cities usually have their monster subjugation corps keep a small army of thousands on hand at the entrance at all times. Towns will have a large militia of hundreds ready for battle. Villages, however, will only have a few dozen strong militia to guard the entrance. All this is in accordance with the scale of danger the dungeon entrance poses to the populace. -Excerpt from the monster encyclopedia written by Xander freerider Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. ~~~~~~~~ On my way back to the dryad''s territory I caught a couple more fanged frogs. Why? Because it''s the start of me paying rent of course! They will be watching over me while I level up and I''d rather start getting on their good side with these frogs. That and Its, my way of apologizing to them for my outburst when I insulted them. I''m not sure why but strangely enough ever since I ended up in this world, I''ve been more emotional, and my mind has become rather easily distracted. It''s a bit concerning since it could lead to me dying one of these over a stupid reason like calling a tree firewood. Perhaps something happened to my mind during the process of having my soul/mind/memories/fluctlight whatever you wanted to all it transported to a new body in an entirely new world. It would make sense. After all, it''s the transference of your entire ego. It would be rather shocking if there were no side effects. It took me several times longer to get back to the dryad''s grove when I was carrying the three fanged frogs. They struggled the entire way and while they were weak when you had to concentrate on walking and holding all three of them with the roots you usually used as feet it gets a bit complicated. Another thing I''m surprised about. Why was it only this hard? I use over half a dozen roots to walk and have countless other smaller roots branching off from those ones. And yet I''m able to walk rather naturally without having to adjust to my new limbs. The mysteries that''s been happening to me are numerous and confusing. Not to mention the ones that surround me. But now the time for my inner musings on this world is over for the day. At least until I level up but first its time for giving my prize to the dryads and level up. When I walked into the grove there was a visible reaction as several of the tree''s branches shook briefly. I suppose they still have some reluctance towards being hospitable towards a prideful flower such as myself. Amelia, however, responded much kindlier as she¡­. Wait did she actually just wave to me with a branch? Seriously are they really trees with how they can bend those branches of theirs? {Back so soon? I see you have brought several of the fanged frogs. Pesky things they are always eating the seedlings.} {Yeah, I''m back Amelia. I brought these frogs as the first serving of my¡­ "rent" to you guys. I''m going to be leveling up soon so I can''t continue my hunting.} {You''re already leveling up? What level are you?} A high pitched (No idea how this pheromone communication told me the pitch of voices¡­ Must be an advanced skill) asked me. It was a birch tree who spoke this time. {Level 2. I''ll be level 3 after this.} {Your level is that low? Since you had the intelligence to talk to us in comprehensible language, I assumed you were at least level 10.} The birch tree exclaimed in surprise. {Whys that?} I had an idea why she (I''m pretty sure it''s a she since she sounds like one and dryads in fantasy are usually female) was surprised but I wanted to know anyways just in case there was something I didn''t know about. {Usually, cave roses only speck into their physical capabilities and their thorns. Only a few ever-put points into their intelligence and that''s at least level 10 at the very earliest. That''s why it is surprising that your so intelligent despite being such a low level.} Amelia intervened explaining it to me. {I see. Well, here you go. I''m going to go level up now.} I replied while offering the frogs to the dryads. Amelia''s branches stretched over and snatched up the three fanged frogs who promptly croaked in fear at the sight of such a massive tree grabbing them. Sorry, little fellas, it''s you or me. And I''d prefer staying alive. With that, I went near the mushroom circle before planting my roots to keep myself up and opened my stat page. Before reading over what I had I glanced at the mushroom circle one last time. Amelia said that there were fairies there, but it really didn''t look like there were any. Maybe she''s only pulling my roots. Best get back to leveling up I suppose. [Level: 2 XP: 23/20 Species: Monster cave rose Perks: Messy eater Intelligence: 47 Will: 15 Strength: 10 Toughness: 6 Agility: 5 Perception: 8 Endurance: 15 Charisma: 7 HP: 20/20 MP: 18/18] [10 stat points available for use. 23 additional stat points available for usage. 5 points of HP will be added to your health pool.] Yes! 33 stat points all for my usage! I''ll put 3 points into my intelligence so that way next time I get 35 points. As for the rest of the points that will take some thinking. I should probably put 10 points into agility and then 10 into toughness. That way I can fix my glass cannon problem. Become I don''t know a dirt cannon? Next, I''ll put 10 points into perception. Being able to spot my enemies before they spot me is very appealing. It''ll give me the ability to use some ambush tactics more often. [Skill points and mutation points detected. The system advises using them now before evolution.] Well¡­ The system isn''t wrong about the idea of using the stat points now. Wait. Perhaps if I do it now right before my level up, I''ll be able to sleep through the pain!? Yes! Bring up my stats! I shall defeat you pain and uncomfortable tingly feeling! [Current skills: Universal plant language (Common) level 2; Thorny defense (Common) level 1; Photosynthesis (Common) level 1; basic mana sense (Uncommon) level 3; Stealth (Common) level 2; Climbing (Common) level 2; drowsy pollen (Common) level 3; Feather fall (Common) level 1; Tunnel sense (Common) level 1 Available skills: No skills available. Complete requirements to unlock skills. Available skill points: 6 Current mutations: Petals level 1; Stem level 1; Thorns level 1; leaf level 1; thorny teeth level 1; Enhanced root strength level 1; Toxic thorns (Common weak) level 1; Serrated thorns (Common) level 1 Available mutations: Thorn vines (Uncommon) Available mutation points: 4] Huh¡­. No skills? How do I unlock them if I don''t even know what the requirements are!? Jeez, this system was poorly designed. Whatever. I still have goodies to upgrade first. I''ll level up photosynthesis to level three. The physical buff it gives when in the presence of sunlight really is handy and with the bonus, it gives me my enhanced physical capabilities will possibly be enough to take on more powerful prey. Now that I did my skills lets do mutation goodies. At least this one had a mutation but what''s thorn vines? Maybe I get some vines with thorns covering them? That would be nice. Let''s get it and upgrade it to level 2. Then I can go ahead and test it when done with my lev- GAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!! WHAT THE FUCKING HELL ALFRED!?! I''M ON FIIIIIREE! MY PLAN! WHY ISN''T IT WORKING!? YOU CHEATED ME AGAIN YOU BASTARD SYSTEM! SYSTEMS ARE SUPPOSED TO HELP NOT HURT! The burn was greater than before as every bit of my body felt like it was being incinerated from the inside out. The pain was most intense in my petals and leaves. Not only that my mind had that pins and needle feeling once again. This time though it was like the disturb meter was ranked up from 4 all the way to 11. Was this a punishment for trying to skirt my way around this process by using the level up? No idea but It hurt like hell! YOU ARE THE WORST SYSTEM EVER! After that one last pained mental screaming my awareness began to fade until my mind sunk into the deep abyss lurking in my head. 12 The search for a village Instincts. We''ve all known them as something every animal has. But what about monsters? The unnatural monsters that by all rights should not be capable of existing and doing the things they do. Does that mean they''d lack the natural instincts due to the abnormality their existence is? Or are they made with their own abnormal instincts? We know very little about their habits and motives. Even an avid monster researcher such as my self who has gone on tens of dozens of expeditions deep into monster territory to find out more about what makes them tick has uncovered very little. But what has been found has made massive changes to how monsters are viewed. Sometimes for the better. Other times for the worst. One such example is their seemingly unnatural drive to kill surface dwellers like humans, elves, and dwargons. When faced with other monsters stronger than them the monster species will more often than not choose to flee but it was the exact opposite when faced with surface dwellers. They will throw themselves relentlessly at them in an attempt to kill them even at the risk of their own lives. Like clockwork, they''ll even disregard the dangers posed to their own lives from even other monsters in the goal of killing surface dwellers. Many religious organizations use this as a reason to demonize the monsters who dwell above us. But I have found several reasons to disregard that ignorant line of thought. For example, there are several monster species that do not have these suicidal tendencies to such an extreme extent. Some examples are roaches, ants, and termites. All of which can and sometimes will ignore humans and retreat for strategic purposes and unlike others will not drop their quarrels with other monsters to fight humans. In fact, despite multiple religious organization''s fervent denials, we have found that many times ants invade the surface they will chase stampedes of monsters to the surface to use as cannon fodder. Then while surface dwellers are fighting those monsters, they will attack both groups with significantly less resistance. Yet another anomaly in monster behavior. -Excerpt from the monster encyclopedia written by Xander freerider. ~~~~~~~~~ Ugggh. My level up hangover is even worse than last time. Why is it that every time it hurts? This is discrimination I say! Discrimination against poor people trapped in monster bodies! Objection! It''s unjust and unconstitutional! Enough mental games though. Let''s test out my vines! I really hope its something to let me actually hold stuff and perhaps start using tools. Just imagine me using a mighty greatsword to lop off the heads of dragons! ¡­. Alright I know that''s unlikely, but a flower can dream, right? Before I could remove my roots from the dirt the now-familiar scent of Amelia (Why did that sound weird¡­?) interrupted my thoughts. {Why were you trembling and convulsing earlier? Did something go wrong with your level up?} Her voice/pheromones were tinged with what felt like genuine concern. {No. That usually happens whenever I upgrade my mutations and skills.} {That''s odd¡­. That doesn''t happen when any of us level up¡­} Wait¡­ Does that mean my file for discrimination was correct!? Damn you, Alfred, the system! Damn you! {Is that so? How long was I out?} {Only a few minutes.} It seems like the amount of time I was passed out was a lot shorter than I had assumed. {Alright. I''m going to go exploring now.} Without waiting for a reply, I rushed out of the grove in search of something. What that something I had no idea. I just wanted to discover something new. A new monster species to kill? No there were plenty around as is. A base? I have the dryad''s grove for that. Although a backup one may be useful. Maybe a human village? ¡­.. I can''t exactly say that I haven''t been affected by not being human and no human contact for an extended period of time. But talking to the dryads even if briefly helped with that. But that''s not to say I don''t want to try getting along with humans. Its something I really want to do. So yes! Today''s mission is to find a human village! Now let''s see which direction to go¡­ I didn''t really remember from which direction I came from but that wasn''t going to discourage me. With my newly upgraded perception skill, I could spot my enemies before they spot me. I should start using my sneak skill more often. It''s not like I''m easy to find without using it though. I''m rather small and if you don''t know what you''re looking for a person or monster could easily look over me. Especially now that I''m on the surface world amongst all the vegetation that it offers. This makes me question why Alfred put me in the subterranean world those other monsters dwelled in. But there were plenty of things about it that didn''t make sense about it like why monsters similar to bison were down there. But that doesn''t matter. Not now not yet. Besides, I believe I''ve gotten a sufficient distance away from the grove to test out my new thorn vines without worrying about them spotting me. They may be hospitable but that doesn''t mean they can be trusted. Oddly enough I didn''t have any vines growing on me right now so I couldn''t say for sure whether or not the mutation glitched and failed. The system was a system after all. Was it really impossible for it to fail sometimes? The moment I thought about extending some vines though the most unexpected of things happened. Instead of something like new vine limbs extending themselves or energy vines manifesting themselves all my several dozen thorns on my body extended forward revealing that each was actually the sharp tip to a vine that was hidden inside my body. ¡­. This is fucking AWESOME! I started swinging my vines wildly and I was pleasantly surprised that my control over them was to such a degree that even with my wild flailing they didn''t get tangled up. Actually, they reacted almost on their own twisting and turning this way and that way at the last moment to avoid tangling. Each vine looked to be around a centimeter thick and was bright green in color. Oh, and have I mentioned that they look awesome!? They weren''t what I was expecting but I certainly wasn''t disappointed with them. With this, I could just stab dozens of them forward to stab my enemies like tiny mini spears. The thornado! Muhahaha! I wonder how far do they extend? When I reached them all out to their full length, they shocked me by showing that they could reach an entire foot ahead of me. This was only level one!? This is frickin awesome! With this, I could easily fight my enemies outside of their reach and with my boost in my agility, I was fairly confident in keeping my enemies from tearing them apart. And to add the cherry on top with my serrated thorns and weak toxic thorns I could inflict even more damage. Move aside thorn filled eldritch horror mouth! The vines are the new sheriff in town! The entire time I was testing out my vines I had been walking in a random direction I chose. Nothing eventful happened but that was alright with me. Why would I want it to be eventful when that usually involves something trying to get me killed? Not that I didn''t need to kill stuff to get the XP needed to level up but sometimes you had to take a minute and relax from the mindless killing that leveling up involves. You''d just turn into some mindless killing machine if you didn''t. While there were no video games, TV, or books to read the calm of the forest was more than enough for me. Especially the amazing power I felt from the sun. I had checked earlier and found that my bonus to things like strength, agility, and perception got a 3-point increase to them. That was a huge boost since it would help me with fighting longer, spotting enemies, becoming faster, and not to mention being stronger in general. The only real negative is that I was basically a glass cannon still with my toughness and HP still being relatively low while everything else was relatively higher. But that would be fixed next time I leveled up. Wait¡­ I SEE SMOKE! SMOKE MEANS PEOPLE! HAHAHAHA! Maybe my luck isn''t so bad after all. That or the village at the cave entrance was more important than I imagined and other villages were built nearby. That''s an interesting thought. But for now, it''s time to go scout! I scurried forward towards the column of smoke rising above the tree line. It only took a couple moments of running for me to arrive at the edge of the forests. Up ahead I could see a very small village. There were only a couple dozen huts and the only real form of defense it had were small spike walls encircling the village. While they weren''t very impressive, I had to admit the sharpened tips on them looked rather menacing. I haven''t spotted many large monsters that could smash through that barricade without getting hurt so maybe it was all they realistically needed to defend themselves? That is if the ants don''t come here next. There were people in view. Most of them were adults but there were children and as few elderlies as well. It seemed they were having some sort of communal celebration around some bonfire with the kids running around playing while the adults cooked food and enjoyed themselves. I was tempted to rush over and attempt some form of basic communication, but I knew that was a terrible idea. I''m a monster for crying out loud. Yes, a dashing handsome flower monster but still a monster. Even if I managed to convince them not to kill them the men of the village would probably kill me for wooing all the woman with my charm! But there was something I could do! And that''s to enter spy mode! Muhahaha! Hear me out on this Alfred. I''m a flower you see. So long as I didn''t display my thorn lined mouth and run around waving my new vines you wouldn''t be able to tell me apart from a normal rose! And while I must say a rose isn''t the most inconspicuous of flowers it''s still rather average and I shouldn''t stand out too much. The worst that could happen was getting plucked by someone with the intent to plant me in their garden. And even then, I had the drowsy pollen skill which I could use as a last-ditch non-lethal measure to escape. There are risks to this mission, but it must be done. I am severely lacking in information and while I could question the dryads, they''re just a bunch of trees stuck in one spot. I can''t imagine they''d have that much worldly knowledge other than what the system gives them. That''s why a human village would be perfect. People means communication. Which means information. Which means Joe gets knowledge. And knowledge is power. This Alfred is what''s called being smart and taking risks that have a high enough reward to outweigh them. You should learn to weigh risk and reward to and not inflict pain on a cash cow like an otherworlder such as myself. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. 13 Languages are confusing Let''s talk about something other than the monsters themselves for a change. Dungeons. What are dungeons and why is it all the strongest monsters usually are found there? We have a vague idea on what dungeons are, but we have no idea as to why they are so important to the monsters. Dungeons are the locations that monsters spawn at. Everyone knows of the ever-present and famed subterranean dungeon which spans the entirety of our humble planet. We have no idea how far down it goes. I myself have only gone three levels down and considering that each level is around 10 miles into the ground that is an insane depth. But that''s not the only dungeon in existence. There are tens of dozens of types of dungeons. That''s right types. There are forests dungeons that are formed entirely from plant life like trees that spawn forest-based monsters and underwater dungeons and even entire floating islands that are in actuality just dungeons. I know it sounds hard to believe but that''s the truth. I went their myself to confirm it and research it and I must say that the most amazing sights in the world are not the capital of gold in the empire. Not the great unstoppable naval fleet of the isles. Nor is it the fear-inspiring armies of the dread lords. It''s the dungeons. Each and every dungeon is its own unique ecosystem with its own monster types, and more are discovered every year in these dungeons! Some of them are as small as a wagon but on the inside contain entire large-scale environments of varying types. Others are so large that they encompass entire swaths of other continents. This my friends is why I believe dungeons are the most beautiful and terrifying things in the world. -Excerpt from the monster encyclopedia by Xander freerider ~~~~~~~~ Easy there. Slowly. Slowly. STOP! ..... Ok good. Keep going. I''m currently sneaking my way to the human village for the procurement of information on the world in general and so far, no humans have spotted me. Not that there were any on the outside of the spiked walls which were pointed towards the forest, but one can never be too safe. I have to say this makes me feel like some type of James bond spy. Agent flower power? Nah sounds like a little girl. But I must say for a village smackdab in the middle of a forest filled with monster bunnies and frogs these people are rather lax. Maybe it''s precisely that they only have to deal with rabbits and frogs instead of the giant scorpions and rats underground is the reason they''re so lax? That didn''t matter to me though. What did matter was information and now my chance finally was here! I had managed to make it all the way to the edges of the people''s little celebration undetected. As one might be able to figure out having the other persons day to day view be several feet above you most of the time really helps with sneaking around. The two closest people was a balding man who looked to be in his late 40''s dressed in a simple tunic and pants. The other person was a woman in her early 20''s who had a simple blue dress on. The two of them looked somewhat similar in terms of hair color (What little hair the man had left) and were rather friendly with each other. If I had to guess they were either I a relationship or were family. Let''s vote family. I planted myself not too far from them to make myself blend in better and leaned slightly forward to listen to them. (1) "Jak bylo v pr¨¢ci?" The man said to the young women. (2) "Bylo to dobr¨¦. D¨§ti se dnes chovaly slu?n¨§." The lady replied with a smile. ¡­.. What the hell am I listening to!? Russian!? [New language encountered. Czech translation skill is available now. Cost 1 skill point.] Ah, so that''s what the language is. What the hell!? Why did it have to be a foreign language!? This world really doesn''t pull the punches when throwing me into disadvantageous situation after disadvantageous situation. Good thing there was a translation skill available. After purchasing it I listened to see if there was any difference in what the gibberish heard coming out of the two people''s mouths. (3) "To r¨¢d sly?¨ªm. Jsem si jisty, ?e u? sis to uv¨§domil, ale na?tvan¨¦ d¨§ti jsou jedna z nejhor?¨ªch v¨§c¨ª, kterou ?lov¨§k m??e za?¨ªt." Well, there wasn''t a change in the gibberish that poured from the man''s mouth. But this time a slight tingle could be felt in the back of my mind and I was able to roughly gauge what he was saying. Nothing as good as specific words just the general idea. And that idea was that he was happy about something and that some other certain thing was bad. This skill is already earning its keep right from the get-go. Yeah right! Come on Alfred! You could have at least translated a few keywords! Well, at least I was able to get a general idea of what he said. That in itself was an improvement from knowing nothing. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Just as I was preparing to move to retreat back the forest, I heard a child giggle in glee and saw a child''s hand reaching forward for me. Before I knew it, their hands tightened around my stem and with one swift tug pulled me out of the ground. I had thought they would be stabbed by my thorns, but I was surprised to see they had thick leather gloves on which my thorns weren''t able to stab through. Fuck. Go play with sticks, not with flowers child! (4) "Mami, pod¨ªvej! Kr¨¢sn¨¢ kv¨§tina!" The little girl exclaimed in a voice filled with innocent delight while running over to an adult woman by the bonfire. The woman who I assumed was her mother turned to see what her daughter found. (5) "To je kr¨¢sn¨¢ kv¨§tina! Chce?, aby to m¨¢ma dala do v¨¢zy ve tv¨¦m pokoji?" Oh man, now I''m really hating this failure of a translation skill. I can''t tell what the mother is saying, but based on the little girls'' vigorous nodding and ecstatic smile it must have been something she liked. To think there''d be a day in which I''d be held hostage by a little girl. Rather embarrassing but I can use this as a chance to investigate their village further without having to worry about sneaking around! Thank you, child. I will remember this taxi service you have done for me. The mother led the way to a small cottage nearby. The house was rather humble and rustic and was designed like the log houses you often see in the 17th-century settlements in those old pictures of that age. When they brought me inside the mom went and grabbed a wooden vase and poured some water from a bucket into it and placed it on a small round table before gesturing to her daughter. (6) "Tady m¨¢?. Maminka si te? jde promluvit s ostatn¨ªmi dosp¨§lymi. Chovej se slu?n¨§." The mom said in a stern voice. (7) "Ano, Mami!" The girl replied. Once her mother left she brought me over to the wood vase and placed me inside of it. (8) "P¨§stuj silnou kv¨§tinku." She whispered to me before running off to do what kids do. Now that I was alone I let myself sag into the vase I was placed into. That was close but I not only know they speak in a whole other language, got a translation skill, but now I managed to infiltrate one of their houses even if by accident. This will help me gain some insight into how far along they are in terms of technology and what the average person most likely has available to them. I took my time examining my surroundings. The place was quaint I''ll give it that. For one the table I was set upon looked like it was only just barely large enough for two people to sit at hinting at the two of them living alone. That theory was further reinforced when I spotted a single bed tucked away in the corner of the room large enough to fit both the girl and her mother. There was also a little fireplace that had a pot hanging inside of it. That''s probably where they''d usually cook at. The only other thing of note was a small dresser where their clothes most likely were stored at. I wasn''t sure quite what I expected but this certainly wasn''t it. Its barebones empty. Stripped of anything exciting except for the bare necessities. It is rather depressing. When thinking of it that way I''m the most colorful thing in this entire cabin. Which was a sad considering I''m what people of this world would call a killer monster. But it''s not my problem. My roots are full dealing with surviving in my day to day life. If they want to live better they''d have to do something about it themselves. Besides they seemed happy enough from what I saw. Now I knew that they weren''t very advanced. At least in terms of construction. And I never saw any primitive guns. The closest thing to a self-defense weapon was a cleaver sticking out of a cutting board near the fireplace. Anyways there was no longer anything worth sticking around for. But was that really the case? I had to admit my roots felt rather nice soaking in the water like this. Perhaps I''ll stick around here for the day and sneak out at night. Yeah. Besides listening in on them talking could help level up my translation skill without doing any actual work to get skill points. Sounds like an easy win to me! (Short time skip towards the night) .... They were still partying. Whatever the good news was it certainly must have been great because it must have been the middle of the night by now! Worse yet the owners of the house haven''t stopped by once for a chat so I haven''t had any chances to level up my translation skill yet. Which was something I couldn''t stand for! Not now not ever! I''m going out on an expedition. I can come back here anytime to find some information once I have my translation skill up at a higher level. It wasn''t going anywhere after all. Using my vine thorns I pulled myself out of the vase and used my stealth skill to sneak out of the house. If it was easy mode to sneak past these people before then this was baby mode with how easy it was. They really need to be more on their toes. Not all flower monsters are smart enough to realize fighting a village of humans would turn out bad. Before I go looking to level up there was a certain something I wanted to do. I needed to gather some supplies and build my own house! Yes I know I am a flower and shouldn''t need a house but I''m a human in my heart and I very much enjoy having a roof in my head. I''m not a very outdoorsy type of person so having a little shack of my own would be nice. And it''s not a far fetched idea to make one since I now have these hand dandy vines of mine! I soon was back into the forest and walked back to the dryads grove collecting sticks along the way. I needed a hut big enough for me so I gathered sticks that were around a few centimeters in diameter and a foot long. If they were too long I''d just cut them down to size. Too thick? Shave off the excess. My thorns are truly multi-purpose! By the time I made it back, I managed to collect a bundle of over twenty sticks. A good haul I must say. But the travel was slower without the sun to fuel me with the abundance of strength that I had grown so used to. When I arrived at the grove though I was treated to a sight that was reminiscent of the fourth of July fireworks. Just without the banging. There were dozens of bright multicolored light flying about in the grove. 14 Fairies and huts oh my They came as an unending tide of green. A moving forest that refused to be stopped. The forces of the surface world banded together to face the threat. Going so far as to enlist the aid of the relentless swarm. They were not the only forces at play. There were many powerful individuals hailing from faraway lands out of reach of us surface dwellers. There was the infection that took any its filthy claws could ahold of. This war despite how brief it was scarred our homelands for generations to come. In the end, there were no winners amongst any of the factions. Only the defeated now broken and battered from the long strenuous wars that were waged. And the worst part was that this war. This war was only the beginning. -Excerpt unknown. Writer unknown. Date unknown. ~~~~~~~~ You know at first the fairies and whatnot were rather endearing but now they''re just getting on my nerves. {Flower girl open your mouth again! Open it} One of the petite fairies demanded while trying to force open my mouth. For the past ten minutes, I wasn''t able to start on my house because they''ve been bothering me ever since they discovered there was a new creature hanging around. It was even worse when they first discovered my thorn filled mouth. Normally you''d expect these little guys who are only 5 inches tall to be terrified at the sight of a mouth like mine. But instead, they''ve been pestering me to show them over and over again. I could quite easily swallow their heads slow and kill them in an instant and yet they still want to see it. Which was both annoying and mildly disturbing since they all looked like miniature 10-year-olds. It was very disconcerting seeing such childish-looking humanoids delighted at a terror-inducing mouth like mine. But there was one good thing I got out of this. I''ve finally seen my first sentient humanoid who wasn''t human, and I must say they look alien compared to any ethnicity I''ve ever seen back on earth. Yes, they were small, but their skin color stood out. They had a dark blue skin color and had bioluminescent patterns up their arms, legs, and back. As well as a bit on their cheeks and with some the bridge of their nose as well. Just like a butterfly they all had unique patterns on them which made it very easy to differentiate them. And to add to that they had 7-inch long paper-thin clear knife-like wings that shimmered (The color was grey) slightly with some sort of energy. Instead of flapping them to fly they just held them pointing backwards and floated around. Probably some type of racial ability or magic that they get. It seems with the exception of the mites and frogs everything else gets nice boosts to their species, in general. {For the 50th time no and I''m not a girl. Now go away.} Ah yes, Have I mentioned that they somehow have some fancy magic allowing them to translate the universal pheromone speech so that they can talk back (Not that they are affected by the irritation in my pheromones). In fact, that''s how they were talking to me right now. How it works I have no idea. All I know is that I am now extremely envious of magic. The closest thing I have to it is basic mana sense and even that pales in comparison to what they are doing. {Whyyy!?} She wined now pouting and completely ignoring my comment on not being a girl. {Because I said so and I have a house to build.} As soon as I said that the ten fairies (Ten harassing tiny devil monsters) all lined up in front of me and puffed up their cheeks as they pouted. They were cranking up the cute pout factor by 250%. They are the weirdest things I''ve met. Even the dryads are rather tame compared to these girls'' shenanigans. {You know that if it hasn''t worked the past ten minutes it''s not going to work now right?} The lead fairy who had floral markings on her cheeks and what looked like glowing vine tattoos running up and down her arms and legs crossed said arms and huffed. {Just one more look, please? If you let us, we''ll be your friends!} She finally offered her eyes wide with hope. These fairies are a bizarre mix of innocent and horror enthusiasts and I''m not sure how I feel about it. Finally, though I relented and spread my petals revealing the dozens of serrated thorns within. Many of which still had dried blood from the frog I killed not too long ago. Seeing this several of the fairies made delighted shrieks and squeals as they crowded around to get a closer look. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. I''m starting to get concerned that these fairies are some type of monster that brutally tortures their prey. I better be wrong about this or I''m going to have to question my present questioning. Before they could invade my personal bubble any further I slammed my petals shut and sprinted away with my branches in tow. {There''s your look! Bye!} {Awww! That wasn''t fair!} {Yeah!} {That was too short!} Leaving behind the protesting fairies I arrived at the spot I was planning to build my mini hut. And that spot was only a few feet from Amelia. She''s been rather kind so I figured it would be best to camp out not too far from her since she''s probably the safest person err monster to be around. {I see you''ve met the night fairies. Charming are they not?} {Yeah. That''s one way to describe them.} My reply had traces of bitterness laced in it and Amelia giggled at my response. {What''s so funny?} {Oh nothing. Just being reminded of the times when all the other dryads were children. They were always up to some type of trouble despite being rooted to one place.} {You''re older than them?} {Yes. By a couple years.} She answered my question. {So what are you planning to do with those sticks?} {I''m going to build myself a house.} {A house?} {A house.} I unconsciously nodded my head when I answered her. I began using my thorn vines to dig holes into the ground and stab sticks into them. {That''s an odd decision. But you are an odd flower, so I suppose it suits you.} I chose not to reply to that and continued placing the sticks until I had the walls all set up. Three walls with an outline left on one side pointing out of the grove for a doorway. I made sure to carve the top part of the branches away to allow for there to be notches in them for the branches that will be the roof to slip into and be held together. A bit like the little wooden log sets that I used to play with when I was a kid. Once I placed the branches on top and finished my roof, I took a step back to examine my handy work. And I have to say it was absolute shit! Don''t get me wrong I did what I could in the short span of time I had but that didn''t change the fact that it looked rather basic. Which it was. It couldn''t even qualify as a doggy house with all the gaps between the branches that would allow for the weather to get in. But it was a start. I could build off of this to eventually make myself a decent enough house that I could lounge around in it comfortably. If only I thought to take the wooden vase. I would have been able to use the water I found a day or so ago to fill it up and then use it as my own flower furniture. Yes, the great flower hut will be built! But now that I had built this I mind as well start gathering supplies to improve it. I wanted to hunt during the daytime when I had the greatest advantage against any would-be predators and since it wouldn''t be daytime for a while improving my hut seemed like a worthwhile thing to do. I only had vines with no actual grips on them and had to resort to wrapping them around objects to manipulate the environment. Not exactly as refined and effective as opposable thumbs so I had to keep that limitation in mind when designing this hut. Moss. I could use moss as a sort of organic tiling for the house. It''s basic but its something at least. I rushed to the lake and after a bit of searching found large clumps of moss here and there. I tore as much out of the ground intact as I could before rushing back and stacking it by the hut. I did this several more times before I thought I had enough. I then stacked the moss in a flat layer on the roof covering up the cracks. Then I began stuffing the other bits of moss into the gaps of the walls to cover those up. I, of course, made sure the green-faced outwards to be more pleasant on the eyes. I then took a few steps back to take in my creation. It didn''t improve by much, but it did improve. {¡­. You are the weirdest flower I''ve ever met.} Amelia''s voice said spoiling my mood. Of course, a tree who''s always been a monster wouldn''t understand. 15 Frog genocides and tusked deer brawls Evolution. What exactly is this? In layman''s terms, it''s the process in which a monster grows stronger. While we have our classes, they have their tiers. Where we use only skills, they mutate AND have skills. This gives them a massive advantage over us in terms of raw capabilities. Hence why we usually recommend hunters to hunt monsters in teams of three at the very least. Although teams of five are best. We also have reason to suspect that they to have titles like us that can be used to give them an even greater advantage over us. This is all made even worse with their easily being several hundred monsters for every hunter. Had it not been for the fact that we can produce weapons and formulate strategies they''d have long since wiped out all of the sentient surface dwellers. But back to the important thing. We don''t know whether this is true since we have no way to confirm it, but we believe that monsters gain XP from killing other lifeforms which they use to then level themselves up. Based on the disappearance of the monster cores of monsters killed by other monsters we have reason to believe that they absorb the mana inside of it along with the core. For what purposes we can not be sure. It can range from as something as extraordinary as expanding their mana capacity to something as simple as using it as energy for evolution. -Excerpt from the monster encyclopedia by Xander freerider Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. ~~~~~~~~ FINALLY, DAY TIME! THE POWER! I CAN FEEL IT FLOWING THROUGH MY VEIIIINS! It was addicting though. I absolutely had to level up my photosynthesis skill further because it felt like a drug with the increased stats it gives me. And we all know what day time means. Hunting time! I''m going to power level my way to level 5 for those sweet sweet perks! This means today the fanged frogs will be experiencing a small genocide. I didn''t bother with chatting with any of the dryads before I departed into the rest of the forest and thankfully it seemed those fairies weren''t daytime monsters (Are they even monsters?). Otherwise, I''d have had to deal with them on my way out. Which would have been less than satisfactory. And as expected of something with as large of a population as the fanged frogs it didn''t take long to find a large group of them. There were easily 17 of them within reach of this one spot which was a bit terrifying because it meant they were probably second only to the ants in regards of numbers. I''m surprised the environment hasn''t been having trouble with these guys. Well if it was at a level, I couldn''t notice then it wouldn''t have to worry now that I''m here. And if it wasn''t well then, I don''t really care, and I''ll still do what I''ll be doing. Coiling up the vines inside of me I shot them out towards the fanged frogs succeeding in hitting 13 of the 17 killing over half of them instantly while the rest quickly died from blood loss. The four I missed hopped away in fear of getting killed. I ignored them choosing to pay attention to the rewards for killing the other frogs. [Fanged frog (Tier-0) slain: 1 skill point awarded. I MP absorbed. 1 mutation point earned. 2.5 XP gained. Multiplied by 13.] [Total skill points: 13 Total MP: 13 Total mutations points: 13 Total XP: 32] Holy mackerels! That''s a ton of XP! That means I should only need 8 XP to be able to level up. Maybe stock up a bit more XP along the way to get a bit farther along. These thorn vines are really convenient for getting large amounts of XP at once. Especially when combined with the smarty-pants effect. Time for the next hunt! Wait. I should also get some live frogs for the dryads. .... .... That can wait! My own levels are way more important! Level five! Perks! Stat points! Here I come for your heads! With those words, I rushed off to my next killing ground while munching on a couple frogs leaving behind the rest for the scavengers. Within a couple minutes a crowd of over twenty frogs came to the area the corpses were to feast on the remains. In a flash, though several dozen vines lashed out slaughtering 24 of the frogs while the others started to flee. You fools didn''t actually think I''d abandon all these corpses, did you? Little did you know it was a trap all along! And with this Alfred sing the notes I want to hear! [Fanged frog (Tier-0) slain: 1 skill point awarded. I MP absorbed. 1 mutation point earned. 2.5 XP gained. Multiplied by 24.] [Total skill points: 24 Total MP: 24 Total mutations points: 24 Total XP: 60] [Level up available. Immediate level up advised.] YESSSSSSS! I have another level up! Now to bring back some living frogs and actually leave behind the mountain of corpses and level up. Then slam into the fold again. It didn''t take long for me to catch some frogs and return with them to the grove. After thanking me Amelia promptly took them to do who knows what. Meanwhile, I busied myself with leveling myself up. All my stats were pretty good, and I got a solid 35 points for my stats. So, I promptly spent 10 on strength, then 10 on agility and 10 on charisma just in case. To follow up with that I placed 5 points into my Toughness. I chose not to spend my skill points because I wanted to save them up to level up more skills to level 3 at the same time. Totally not procrastinating the pain and the tingly feeling! After a level-up nap that was shorter than the last one (I made sure to ask Amelia how long it lasted.) I went to hunt something I''ve been having my eyes on for a while that I wasn''t confident enough to face before a level up. And that was the deer with tusks. I still had some PTSD from that one bison monster I first met. Now I''m paranoid that every herbivore is secretly some horror monster in disguise. It didn''t take me long to locate one of the damned deer for my hunt. Wait when did I start thinking of them as something to be damned? I guess this entire plant thing is warping my mind more than I thought it would¡­ Mildly concerning but can be ignored for now. Now back to that damned deer¡­ I quickly darted forward while launching five of my vines all at once. With my upgraded agility, my ability to manipulate them increased dramatically and I put that into practice while I intertwined them into a thicker more powerful vine and wrapped it around the back-right leg of the deer and dug all five thorns into it. The deer let out a pained groan and looked back towards me with a hateful glare. I guess monster deer don''t scare easily¡­ It just makes it easier for me to attack it. I fired off four more vines that buried the thorns into the monsters hide and used it to pull me forward onto its back. The deer probably realizing it wouldn''t be good for it if I got onto its back immediately took action as it started running despite the thorns in its leg with me flying behind it barely holding on with all the vines I had buried into its flesh. It zigged that way and zagged that way in its attempts to dislodge me. Occasionally slamming me into the occasional bush or tree. I was forced to extend a fair chunk of my vines to wrap myself in order to avoid losing too much HP. Accursed deer! I will have your heart! Or your antlers! Or tusks! I don''t know which one yet! Damn the number of choices along with you to oblivion! I started to reel my vines back in pulling me ever so closer to the deer and lowering the risk of getting hit by the various obstacles of the forest drastically. The deer wasn''t ignorant of this as I had hoped and stopped in its tracks and crouched down letting my momentum sling me forward and loosen my grip on its legs and back. My other vines managed to hold but that only succeeded in me getting an unpleasant shock of pain in my vines before I was pulled back and slammed into the deer''s side. I then dropped to the ground as my vines briefly weakened from the pain. The deer then took a few steps and stood over me with a mocking twinkle in its eyes. Right as it raised a hoof to stomp me to death ten vies blasted forward all at once with five of them impaling its throat and the other five wrapping around its snout and rapidly pulling me towards its face with my thorn filled mouth splayed open awaiting the tender flesh of the deer. The beast reeled back in pain hooves flailing in its desperate and inaccurate attempt to harm me. By now it was already too late as I reached its throat and Woah! The thorns in my mouth subconsciously extended on their own vines and began wrapping themselves around the throat of the monster impaling and suffocating its as they pulled my mouth around it and with the remaining thorns started to saw my way through its hide, and skin with relative ease before reaching the veins, arteries, and muscles and shredded them with ease. The deer was now staggering as blood poured out of its throat. And now after so many stabs, the weak poison was beginning to show an effect s its legs grew weaker. It finally collapsed to the side as its muscles lost the strength they had before from one debilitating attack after another being piled onto the same spot. All of which made worse as it was still struggling to gasp for air as its own blood poured down into its lungs drowning it in its own blood. Soon though its suffering was put to an end. [Tusked deer slain. Tier-1 basic monster entry unlocked. 2 skill point earned. 2 MP absorbed. 2 mutation points earned. New creature killed 1 skill point added. 11 XP awarded.] Muhahaha! Who''s the flower! I am! It looks like I had mouth tentacles too! Now I can pull smaller prey directly into my mouth¡­ How awe- Ahem. Terrifying! I''ve got a lot of nice stuff from this, but the only problem now was what to do with the body? It was probably way too big to fit into me¡­ Whatever I can figure that out after reading me that monster entry. [Tusked deer: A common surface monster that many villagers will hunt. Known for being weak and cowardly and will flee from most other monsters of the forests it lives in.] ¡­.. The system is calling me weak indirectly, isn''t it? 16 A look at "average" monsters Mutations. What they are is a fascinating thing. The first sightings of this was when hunters began to notice that older monsters had different unique features from stronger teeth to entire extra sets of limbs. This was even more pronounced in older specimens. This for a short period of time caused a panic even amongst the gargantuan empires of the world as they all thought that the monsters were evolving. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Not exactly wrong but they more of mistook it as a sign of every monster becoming even more powerful as a whole than they already were. Nonetheless through the hard work of monster''s researchers like myself of that age, they managed to discover they in fact only grew stronger on an individual level through killing others. This discovery calmed the nations and people in general and solidified the foundation for all future monster researchers as nations across the world discovered their importance. That''s why I think of mutations as a positive thing instead of something negative, unlike most people. While it means they have yet another thing to give them an advantage over us it means that it will promote conflict amongst their ranks forever keeping them divided and weakened as a whole. And it helped my own current job in the long run so that''s a nice bonus! But back to the main topic. As I have stated previously mutations allows a monster to strengthen themselves through making their existing biology stronger in some way. But it is not limited to just that. You may have noticed me mentioning some monsters having whole extra sets of arms. It has been found that through mutations they can add entire new organs to their biology to strengthen their strongpoints further or cover their weak points. Truly an envious capability the monsters have. -Excerpt from the monster encyclopedia by Xander freerider ~~~~~~~~ I shall use this sucker as bait! Or so I had planned until it all went awry and instead of an army of frogs coming for the corpse a pack of three wolves came to chow down. And not ordinary wolves. They were easily twice as large as normal wolves and had a pair of fangs extending down from their upper jaws like sabers! They were way too big, and fierce-looking for me to comfortably take on. Not only that but there were three of them! Even if there was only one, I still wouldn''t attack but three is pushing it way too far. Thankfully I was in a bush with my stealth skill activated and managed to avoid their attention. Too busy stuffing themselves with my hard-earned kill! [Stealth level 2 has reached level 3] There a testament to my ability to hide from the darned things! Anyways I suppose I''ll try killing more frogs and maybe a few rabbits before heading back to the grove and handing over some live prey to Amelia. Maybe chat with one of the other dryads while I''m at it considering my boosted charisma skill. Just in case the wolves were still wary of their surroundings I made sure to keep my body low to the ground and sneak away from their area. After a few minutes of sneaking, I was pretty sure I was enough to be able to walk about normally. Now I needed to start hunting me some wabbit! I decided to try something new for my hunting strategy. Something more Tarzan styled. Rabbits are very fast animals and ground dwellers so what if I was hunting it from above like a hawk? Wouldn''t that give me an advantage over it? Especially with the use of stealth. With this idea in mind, I climbed up into a tree and went out on its branches and jumped off. When I did that, I fired off three vines that buried themselves into the tough wood of a branch not that far away and swung to the next and repeated this. With each thorn stabbed into the wood a dull thunk sounded out reducing my stealth capabilities, but hopefully with my new vantage point and my rapidly building up speed from the swings I''d be able to balance that out. Actually, this is pretty fun! Is this what ziplines feel like? The wind rushing through my petals and leaves making them dance in the wind. The wind whistling in my- Oh I don''t have ears. Just mana sense. Damn it! In the midst of enjoying the feeling of swinging through the tree''s like a man spider, I spotted a jackalope looking rabbit a couple dozen meters ahead. Dinner time! On my next swing instead of using two or three vines, I used a total of eight of them and used them to stop my swinging. Once done with that I used those along with eight more vines to grab hold of various branches and used two vines to pull me backwards to stretch my other vines. Yes, I was going to do the famed living slingshot attack! Let''s see how you deal with this rabbit! Releasing the back two vines my body shot forward and released the other vines as I accelerated forward towards the rabbit. As one could expect of a rabbit the twinge of my vines as I fired myself forward was detected but by the time it noticed it was too late and I was right on top of it thorn filled mouth wide open to swallow its head whole. I can only imagine how terrifying its last moments were only seeing a maw filled with teeth in its last moments. I crashed into it with my mouth engulfing its head and getting to work at tearing it up into more manageable shredded bits. [Jackalope slain. Basic monster entry unlocked. 1 skill point earned. Additional skill points added. 1 mutation point earned. 5 total XP earned.] ¡­. Wow. Just wow. I guess the slingshot attack was super effective! I wonder if I could have one shot killed the deer with this strategy¡­ But now its time to catch a few frogs and kill a few others then return to base and level up! Maybe I can increase my intelligence stat further? I can''t wait! A lengthy amount of time later after eating the rabbit, catching frogs, killing 13 other frogs and giving a wide birth to the wolves I saw earlier, and I finally made it back to the grove. As usual, I went to Amelia and offered her the frogs before going to my hut to level up. I had no idea if those frogs were actually giving a worthwhile amount of XP and such, but free kills are free kills. [Level up Y/N] Yes! [Level: 3 XP: 70/70 Species: Monster cave rose Perks: Messy eater Intelligence: 50 Will: 15 Strength: 20 Toughness: 21 Agility: 25 Perception: 18 Endurance: 15 Charisma: 17 HP: 30/30 MP: 65/65] [10 stat points available for use. 25 additional stat points available for usage. 5 points of HP will be added to your health pool. Intelligence cap reached until level 10.] Wait I reached the maximum intelligence? Are you kidding me!? My extra points! Whatever I''ll just pump points into other things. 20 into agility will help me a lot with my slingshot and attacking enemies faster than they can react so let''s go with that. 10 into endurance should be able to help me handle myself better if I ever get stuck in any long fights. Something I''d rather avoid but there''s no telling what type of fights I could end up in. 3 into charisma means I''ll be able to smooth talk people and finally 2 into perception. That way everything balanced and even. I have to say though mana has really reached a high level. Maybe I have some magic-related skills now? Open skill/mutation menu. [Current skills: Universal plant language (Common) level 2; Thorny defense (Common) level 1; Photosynthesis (Common) level 3; basic mana sense (Uncommon) level 3; Stealth (Common) level 3; Climbing (Common) level 2; drowsy pollen (Common) level 3; Feather fall (Common) level 1; Tunnel sense (Common) level 1; Czech translation skill (Common) level 1 Available skills: MP to HP convertor (Common. Every 5 MP converts into 1 HP. Every level up lowers MP cost by one.) Available skill points: 38 Current mutations: Petals level 1; Stem level 1; Thorn''s level 1; leaf level 1; thorny teeth level 3; Enhanced root strength level 3; Toxic thorns (Common weak) level 1; Serrated thorns (Common) level 1; Thorn vines (Uncommon) level 1; Chainsaw teeth(Common) level 1 Available mutations: No available mutations. Available mutation points: 38] Wait a skill to convert MP to HP!? That would basically be regeneration to me! Sure, with my current mana that would only be 13 HP but that''s an entire chunk of my health pool healed then! Automatic yes to that! Next, let''s upgrade some stuff. First, I''ll upgrade the convertor from level 1 to level 3 Which would increase the amount I can regenerate even more health! Then next to upgrade must be the Czech skill so 5 points gone and it''s level 3! 27 points to go. Photosynthesis to level 5 then! [Skill reached level 5. Upgrade available. Enhanced photosynthesis is available. All of the previous benefits remain with the addition of 0.5% HP healed every second. Each level increases it by 0.5% but the costs are now doubled.] Well, this is interesting. Black-hearted way of selling me skill points but still interesting. I only have 18 more skill points, so I''ll choose it then save the rest to fully upgrade something else another time. But now that I know skills can be upgraded can my biology? Now I wonder what upgrades I can get¡­ You know what let''s use this as a chance to experiment a bit. 14 points will go to my leaves to see what I can get for upgrading it all the way. [Mutation reached level 5. Upgrades available. Razor leaf makes leaves as sharp as a sharpened iron blade. Iron leaf allows for leaves to become as strong as iron for increased defense.] Now, this is a pickle! I like the increased number of attacks with the razor leaves, but I''d like something to defend myself with more than yet another thing to attack with. My thorns have proven to be more than enough with the enemies I''m already taking on and there''s no guarantee I won''t meet something faster than me. In which case, something to defend myself with would be nice. Not that I wouldn''t lose HP from blunt force attacks, but I have to have some defense. Next another 14 shall be spent upgrading my thorns to level 5 for another upgrade. [Mutation has reached level 5. Upgrade available. Iron thorns. Absorbs a high amount of iron into the thorns effectively making them as strong as iron.] Totally worthwhile for fighting opponents with tough defenses. So far, the only things I have fought so far that actually had some worthwhile armor were the mites and ants. Both of which didn''t seem to have as good of defenses against something like say the giant scorpion I saw in the tunnels. I have no idea if there is something like that up here on the surface world but I''m not taking any chances. With that, I have only 10 mutation points. I''ll go ahead and save those for later. I want to upgrade my vines all the way next time to see what''s available for them. Now cue the pai- BLAAAAGAGAAAA!! THE NEEDLES ARE KNIVES AND THERE FIRE ARE ANTS NOW!! WHY DID IT CHANGE!? A few moments of flopping around with vines flailing around later and I went unconscious. Whether it was from the pain of skill/mutation upgrades or the level up even I cannot say. (A few minutes earlier Amelia''s point of view) The amusing flower was back. Like all the other times he brought back fanged frogs. But this time he brought over 8 of them. Only 16 points worth of XP, skill points, and mutation points. Only a drop in the bucket in the amount I needed these days. But still, it was nice having him getting them on an almost daily bases. Sadly, he didn''t choose to talk with me. I have my sisters to talk to, but this little flower is much more amusing to chat with. He did strange things like build the same things as humans and say funny things to himself without noticing. That was the very reason I didn''t allow one of my sisters to kill him when he was approaching the grove. He said odd but amusing things. I brought the frogs down towards where my roots were and let them drag the frogs beneath the ground to be consumed by me. [Fanged frog slain. 16 XP earned. 8 skill points earned. 8 mutation points earned.] Drawn by the crazed flailing of the flower I noticed he now had thorn-tipped vines flailing all around him as his body quivered in pain. I was sure he didn''t have those last time I saw him do this. He must have gotten a mutation for that. I haven''t seen many flowers with those vines so it must be an uncommon one. Still, the fact that he felt pain whenever he leveled up was strange, but it was just another quirk of his she found amusement. Living with the same people for years without a break from them did get tiring after all and he was a refreshing change of pace. Speaking of levels though I have not checked my own for quite a while. I suppose I''ll do that now. [Level: 50 (Tier 2) XP: 12,360/12,760 Species: Oak hamadryad. Intelligence: 280 Will: 155 Strength: 325 Toughness: 515 Agility: 33 Perception: 214 Endurance: 468 Charisma: 127 HP: 250/250 MP: 1250/1250] I was one bit closer to a level up at least. Then once I get to level 100, I''ll finally be stronger than the average hamadryad. And at level 150 I''ll finally be able to unlock my ability to create a secondary body. Then I will finally be able to overpower the humans on my own. Looking over to the flower who had now gone still I couldn''t help but think about how he like the tier 0-1 monsters were below average but yet here he was on a daily bases getting a bit stronger as he tried to claw his way past the strength barrier between him and what monsters consider "average". Whether he knew it or not. Despite knowing better, I inwardly hoped he would be able to breakthrough. He was a funny flower. Far funnier than any monster she had met other than the fairies. 17 I hate whoever invented red flags [Shout outs for finding references to games, anime, light novels, songs, etc: Lorus03 for spotting the fluctlight from SAO] Let''s see here. We have yet to discuss what tiers actually are. Let me break it down into three different levels of danger. The first level that we shall call harmful is where the tier 0 and 1 monsters belong. These creatures are hardly a threat to trained dungeon delvers and soldiers. In fact, even the common villager can exterminate these fellows. If they have the courage and a weapon that is. Now the second level we''ll be calling hazardous is where we will put average and above average monsters in. In essence tier 2 and 3 monsters. Once a monster reaches this stage, they become the type of threat only those trained to hunt monsters can face. These monsters have levels of strength that overshadows normal animals like grizzlies. So much in fact that they can face off against an entire groups of hunters. Hence why very few hunt alone and the guilds advise hunters to fight in groups of three to five strong. Not only this but this level of danger shows the first divergent monsters. Divergent monsters are those who are anomalies straying away from the typical norm of their evolution. Some straying so far, they change their species and achieve a strength level only heard of amongst the weakest of higher danger levels. Now the final level of danger we will cover is the disaster rank. The monsters here are tier 4 and 5 monsters. You can think of these guys as the mini-bosses and bosses of dungeons. But unlike what the stories would lead you to believe one of these monsters is an actual disaster if they appear on the surface. The tier 4 monsters have stats in the 4 digits and tier 5 monsters is where things get really scary. They have the necessary power that would easily allow them to wipe out entire towns if left unchecked. This makes even one of these monsters a match for dozens of skilled adventurers and soldiers. That''s why so few teams dare to take on a boss monster all on their lonesome. Adventurers typically prefer to team up with four or five other teams to face these monsters and overwhelm them with numbers, tactics, and ingenuity. With this in mind, you should now have a basic grasp on how dangerous monsters are. Now as for if there is an actual tier above 5 no one can really say for sure. Those types of monsters only exist in myth. Although we still have yet to fully explore every dungeon. Especially the largest subterranean one spanning the world. So, who knows? -Excerpt from the monster encyclopedia by Xander freerider ~~~~~~~~ (The commander POV) "Have the troops finished pushing back the ants?" "Yes, commander. We''re in the clear for hunter and trading operations to begin again in this area. However, we''ve made a discovery that the ant swarm was only a hunting party sent out by the real swarm." A soldier in full black steel plate with an ant head with X dead eyes emblem on the chest plate. I looked towards the cave entrance frowning. If that was really only a hunting party, then the swarm itself likely numbered into the tens of thousands. That''s a serious threat to the kingdom. One I couldn''t let exist. Unfortunately, they lacked the supplies to be able to launch an expedition deep enough into the dungeon to be able to reach the swarm. And even if they did, they only numbered a few hundred and already lost countless soldiers to the hunting party. If they tried taking on a swarm like that they''d be wiped out. There was no option but to guard the dungeon entrance against any ant hunting parties until a messenger can get reinforcements for an actual expedition into the dungeon. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "You mentioned that hunter and trading operations are ready to begin again. Has anyone started any yet?" "As a matter of fact, yes. There''s recently been two trading caravans passing through the area as well as a hunter party who said they''d be hunting hamadryads that some villagers reported in the area." The soldier answered. "Hmm. I see. We''ll be staying here to guard the entrance of the dungeon. Send a messenger to headquarters for a request for an expeditionary force. Tell them there''s a possible swarm numbering in the tens of thousands." I commanded him before returning back to my tent. There''d be a big battle coming that will keep the anti-hoard monster division busy for quite a while. But I doubt that anything would be able to threaten the kingdom during this time. ~~~~~~~~ (Joe''s POV) Haaaah¡­. I have a hate-love relationship with getting stronger¡­ A hate-love relationship indeed. Leveling up is like a fickle lover who will backstab you and cut all your tendons with a serrated knife without any notice! What a cruel cruel reality this fact is. Alas, I must bear with it for the sake of power¡­. On a brighter note now I''m sure I''m becoming a decently strong monster (A/N poor poor MC¡­) with all these extra abilities and stat increases! I mean I''m in the double digits for crying out loud! But nevertheless, I believe that with my newly upgraded translation skill I should be able to decipher important information from the villagers over at the village not too far from here. So, my plan is to go on a quick hunt to get some tasty XP and then head on over to actually gather information this time. I only got a translation skill last time and didn''t even bring the vase. Maybe this time around I should take it with me for furniture¡­? I''ll put that under consideration. Maybe I should get Amelia a jackalope on the way back. I''m getting more and more confident in my strength and my most recent upgrades might allow me to actually wrangle one to the ground if I hit it with a few drowsy pollens. I should level that up a bit. It would make hunting easier. More things to add to my list, I guess. With that, I started heading out to the village for information gathering. I don''t usually take much time to truly appreciate my surroundings. Especially in my previous life. I wasn''t one for outdoors stuff but now in this life, I''m literally spending all of my time in a forest without even a bed to lay on! Not that I sleep but that''s beside the point. Now that I''m out here I decided to take my time going to the village. It''s not exactly as if there''s any impending doom, right? I should go stargazing or smell the flowers¡­ Well, maybe not that last one. The other flowers might think I''m a pervert if I do that. They might just eat me if they''re insulted enough! If they can be insulted. Probably not if other flowers are as dumb as the dryads would lead me to believe they are. Huh. That''s odd. I haven''t seen a single monster yet¡­ I mean the violence up here on the surface is probably much lower without things like giant scorpions and ant swarms but still, there''s never been a time when I haven''t seen a single monster during my time here in the forest. I''ll need to ask Amelia about this when I get back from my espionage mission. I have a bad feeling about this silence. Like the old quote the calm before the storm. Other than that, though the forest was as pleasant and serene as always. "Je to m¨ªsto, kde vesni?an¨¦ ?ekli, ?e dryads bude?" (A/N: Is this where the villagers said the dryads would be?) What the!? That was a human voice! And my translation skill was able to actually decipher the meaning behind several of the words this time! That''s much better! But what are they doing around here? I''m a bit of distance away from the dryad''s grove which is good, but they mentioned something about villagers and dryads. I''m not sure I like the sound of this¡­ I activated my stealth skill and hid in the underbrush and started creeping along towards the source of the sound. When I arrived, I found there were three adventurers dressed in light gambeson armor. Two of them were male in their late teens while the other one was a female who looked to be in her early teens. One of the boys and the girl had matching colors of light grey and white edges hound emblems on their armor. The other just had a simple brown color for his armor without any fancy emblems to adorn it. "Ne, ty idiote! P?¨ª?ery jsou d¨¢l ne? tohle, pamatuje?? Pro? jsme toho bl¨¢zna museli tahat s sebou?" (A/N: No, you idiot! The monsters are farther away than this, remember? Why the hell did we have to drag this fool along?) The girl spoke in a harsh tone shooting a glare towards the man in brown. The person she scolded looked away with an embarrassed look on his face as his shoulders sagged down in what I can only assume to be shame. I heard the words monsters, fool, and something being farther away. Looks like I was right to not like the sound of this. If what I believed to be true was true, then it means that the villagers might have hired adventurers to kill the dryads who are so graciously giving me shelter. Don''t they have an ant outbreak to handle back at that one town!? Or did they already take care of them? Doesn''t matter. Either way, it doesn''t change the fact that I need to at least warn them that the adventurers are coming. With that, I turned around and started to run as quietly as I could to warn the others of the approaching adventurers. I know humans and if they sent so few people that either means those guys are idiots, confident in their skills, or just the scouts. And based off of none of them having anything more than a short sword and daggers I''m more inclined to believe they''re the scouts. Which means more hunters are coming for us. It looks like I spoke too soon about impending doom and raised a red flag. What a rookie mistake to make in a world resembling an isekai novel. Damn whoever invented red flags! 18 Warnings and deer grinding Everyone has heard of swarm monsters and how they are the natural enemy of civilization itself, but has anyone given any thought as to what swarm monsters are and why they would be the enemy to civilization? If you''re like the common everyday person your answer to that question was probably no. Which is completely alright! Even adventurers whose job is literally to hunt monsters more often than not have no idea of what the answer would be! That''s why monster researchers like myself exist. To be the ones to do the hard work in researching the monsters to answer these very questions. So, lets first go over the common swarm species that threaten society. The first and most well known of course are the ants. How can you talk about swarm creatures and not talk about them when they are THE most common type and the most common cause of civilizations collapsing to monsters? Now ants as everyone knows come in many forms with various abilities, specialties, and environments. Because of this, it can be extremely difficult to form a general plan for pushing back invasions these bugs start. Paired up with their endless hunger for more territory and rapid reproduction rates and you can see why they''re such a big problem. Next, are the less well known but still troublesome swarm species known as bees. While not as diverse as the ants they still have a number of different species and have the capability to fly on top of that. This allows them to cover massive amounts of territory in a single day which is part of why they are such a danger. When they attack another swarm species or a civilization, they strike fast, hard, and deep. A term that one ancient general coined a blitzkrieg invasion. A fitting name I must say considering the definition. The next type is less numerous but much more individually powerful species known as wasps. They have all the physical capabilities of ants and bees but multiplied by ten. This level of combat prowess makes it difficult to combat them since they fight in groups like us. Thankfully where bees and ants can number in the thousands at the very least the wasps only will number in the hundreds with thousand large hives being a rare exception. These three species types are the most common threats amongst the swarm monsters and through their coordination, power, and sheer numbers they can overwhelm small kingdoms and even empires quite easily so long as they are left alone long enough. There have even been several dozen occasions when one of these species appeared in a dungeon as a rare spawn and ended up taking over the dungeon and wiping out other monsters to the point of which the only monsters left are only them. Truly swarm species are one of the biggest threats to civilization and possibly life itself as a whole. -Excerpt from the monster encyclopedia by Xander freerider. ~~~~~~~~ Faster! Faster! I must get back before the adventurers make it! And on the way, I must go on a killing spree and level up as quickly as possible! These adventurers are a big problem and if they kill the dryads, I''ll lose the safest place for me to rest in the whole forest! Not to mention they might just kill the fairies if they discover them¡­ No, don''t think about it! Focus on the task at hand! Sprinting through the forest at full speed I didn''t pay any mind to things like bushes and stones in my way using my thorn vines to cut through the bushes ahead of me and launch myself any stone to tall for me to run over. The ruckus I was making understandably caught the attention of small-time opportunistic monsters like the fanged frogs and the occasional jackalope. None of which survived long to launch an attack at me. Well, the jackalope was able to attack once before two dozen thorns pierced its innards and shredded it. With this killing spree I did along the way I managed to kill 12 fanged frogs and a single jackalope before I finally arrived at the dryad''s grove. With my thorns still dripping fresh blood from the killing I did, I made my way towards Amelia. {Amelia, we have a problem! A big big problem!} I exclaimed with panic lacing my pheromones. The panic was evidently enough to catch the attention of the other dryads who usually didn''t interact with me as they shook their branches lightly showing that I had their attention as well. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. {What''s wrong? Did something happen while you went out?} Her pheromones tone was still calmed and composed unlike my own. Not that it would remain that way for very long with the bad news I brought. {Hunters. I found three human hunter scouts in the forests and they''re looking for a grove of dryads. This grove of dryads! They must have more perhaps several teams of hunters that will be coming to kill everyone here!} {I see. Then we must fight. And when we defeat the hunters, we''ll be stronger afterwards from the points we gain from the battle.} Amelia replied to me in a calm and composed tone. That was not the reaction I had been expecting. Fear? Maybe. Denial? Possibly. Complete unflustered calmness though? Not really. {You''re not concerned¡­?} {Why would I be? I''m a monster. Even if I''m rooted in one place it''s in my sap to fight and kill. Be it man or monster they''re all the same to me.} That actually makes sense¡­ She said she''s a few years old. I took that as just a few years of being alive, but what it actually meant was a few years of killing just to survive another day till the point of which other monsters weren''t willing to pick a fight with her and her sisters. More proof of the fact that I haven''t completely lost my human way of thinking. Not that it will be of much use in a fight against human hunters¡­. Or will it¡­? {Alright I''m going to go out and start some hunting to get a level up. I''ll help fight back against the humans.} I told her. {Thank you for your help. Good luck little rose.} I turned to run back to the woods when a branch stretched out and tapped my head. {But before you go what''s your name?} I hesitated thinking about why she''d want to know my name. To track me down? Not possible. Unlike with people, a name won''t help you much when tracking down a monster. To know what to carve on my gravestone if/when I die? I don''t think monsters do graves. She''d probably just eat my corpse or something. In the end, though I guess it wouldn''t hurt to tell her my name. {My name''s Joe. Joe Johnson.} {Be careful then Joe Johnson. Be careful.} Maybe it was just my imagination but based on the tone of her pheromones it almost sounded like she was smiling. Well more smell than anything I guess considering we talk through pheromones. What does a smile smell like though I have absolutely no idea. It was only a faint sensation that I felt. Shaking my petals slightly to clear my head I went to start some level grinding. Hopefully with this being a real-world situation and being able to literally feel the blood of my foes coating my thorns will make it not so mind-numbing to do level grinding. I know for a fact it was absolutely unbearable to do so back when I was human and playing videogames. After checking my XP, I found I had 35/110 XP stocked up. It looks like I should hunt down a few tusked deer if I want to gain as much XP as possible for a creature of my level. That or kill some wolves but I''m not so dumb as to try and do something as crazy unless I absolutely had to. Which I didn''t since the attack likely wouldn''t begin until the hunters found the location of the dryads then prepared themselves to fight. People like being prepared when it comes to fighting wars so I guess I figured that hunters would be the same in that regard. I went out and started my search for a tusked deer. So far, they''ve been rather common in the forest and I still shouldn''t be too close to the hunters. So, it shouldn''t take too long for me to find one. Before going further, I decided to use 4 of the remaining 8 skill points to level up stealth from level 3 to level 4. With this, I''ll be able to be stealthier and possibly get a few good hits in against the deer I''m hunting. Which considering my messy eater perk can very well be the finisher hits depending on how many times I bite them. With it, my attacks will do an additional 12 points of damage to their health. It shouldn''t be too unrealistic to kill a deer in a few bites in the right places. Just like I had thought I soon found a tusked deer to kill. It was currently eating some red berries from a bush near a tree. This provided me the perfect opportunity for me to get a good ambush on it. I climbed up onto a nearby tree and navigated the branches between the tree it was grazing under and the ones I climbed up. Using them I climbed over to a spot above the deer. During the whole time, I was completely silent thanks to my stealth skill and managed to prevent the tusked deer from sensing my presence. Ten of my thorn-tipped tentacles slowly slid from my body the thorns glittering dangerously with the dried blood from my previous kills. I then dropped down from the branch mouth wide open and landed onto the deer''s neck sinking my thorny teeth into it and the thorn vines I had out. My chainsaw teeth activated shredding through the monster''s flesh with ease as the toxins inside of them were injected continuously into its body. My vines wrapped themselves around the animal''s neck and buried their thorns into its soft neck. The deer stood up onto its hind legs bellowing in pain as it began shaking its head vigorously in an attempt to dislodge me. But that only made things worse as it made my teeth scrape through it while sawing at it causing more blood to flow from its wound and soak its fur. It staggered around slamming into a tree trunk with a thud before sliding to the ground its chest heaving as it breathed in ragged weak breaths. With one final bite, I sawed down to its spinal cord and tore it apart. [Tusked deer slain. 6 XP earned. 2 MP absorbed. 2 skill points earned. 2 mutation points earned.] There we go. That was rather messy but, in the end, it was unable to stand against my sneak attack. Actually, that was surprisingly easy. It should be an entire tier above me but yet it was helpless against my chain of attacks on that one spot. I suppose that means tiers aren''t everything. Which in turn means that it''s a possibility I could¡­. disable one or two humans in the fight ahead. With that, I went out to target my next prey after munching a bit on the deer''s corpse. Over the course of the next five hours, I killed 12 more tusked deer before returning to the dryad''s grove for my level up. By now the scouts would have found the grove and returned to their comrades to prepare. Considering we plants get a boost during the day they''d likely attack during the night when we''re at our weakest. But unlike they''d think I would be their worst nightmare during the night when the human senses were at its weakest. Especially with the help of my stealth skills. {Did you have a good hunt?} Amelia asked me as soon as I arrived. [Yes, I did. I''m ready for the next level up. Let''s hope it''s enough to let me partake in the defense of the grove.} {Just do what you can. We dryads will be enough to handle the frail humans.} One of the other dryads replied in place of their sister. Foolish thinking but at least she''s confident. But I was once human and knew just how crafty they are. I''m pretty sure even with my own human intellect I won''t be able to change the tide of battle. But I can at least be a painful thorn in their side and get a few of them taken out of the fight by the dryads. Time to level up though. [Level up? Y/N] Yes. [Level: 4 XP: 110/110 Species: Monster cave rose Perks: Messy eater Intelligence: 50 Will: 15 Strength: 20 Toughness: 21 Agility: 45 Perception: 20 Endurance: 25 Charisma: 20 HP: 35/35 MP: 102/102] [10 stat points available for use. 25 additional stat points available for usage. 5 points of HP will be added to your health pool.] Let''s see here. I''ll need to speck into the stealthy glass cannon build further unfortunately if I want to be able to handle the armor the hunters will have. So that means 20 points into strength will be able to double the amount of damage my perk allows me to dish out. And putting 5 points into my endurance should let me run around a bit longer. Finally I''ll put 10 points into my will. I''ve been ignoring it for too long and I''m starting to get worried that its leaving a gap in my defenses. With that its time to level up skill and mutations. [Current skills: Universal plant language (Common) level 2; Thorny defense (Common) level 1; Enhanced photosynthesis (Uncommon) level 1; basic mana sense (Uncommon) level 3; Stealth (Common) level 4; Climbing (Common) level 2; drowsy pollen (Common) level 3; Feather fall (Common) level 1; Tunnel sense (Common) level 1; Czech translation skill (Common) level 3; MP to HP convertor (Common) level 3 Available skills: No available skills. Available skill points: 22 Current mutations: Petals level 1; Stem level 1; Iron thorn''s level 1; Iron leaf level 1; thorny teeth level 3; Enhanced root strength level 3; Toxic thorns (Common weak) level 1; Serrated thorns (Common) level 1; Thorn vines (Uncommon) level 1; Chainsaw teeth (Common) level 1 Available mutations: No available mutations. Available mutation points: 28] Now, this is where things will really matter. I''ll need to strengthen my strong points so that I''ll be able to inflict actual damage against the hunters. First skills. I''ll need to capitalize on my senses to try and get an advantage against the hunters. This means I''ll have to spend 12 skill points on mana sense to raise it to level 5 for an upgrade. [Basic mana sense has reached level 5. Intermediate mana sense is available. Allows the user to sense everything 5 meters around it with increased precision even in lowlight conditions.] And that''s going to be a must-have. One more skill point spent to get me that skill. Since there''s not much I can upgrade that will be useful for the upcoming battle I''ll save the rest of my skill points. Next would be mutations. And what better to spend 14 points on than the mutation that makes my thorns toxic? [Toxic thorn (Weak) has reached level 5. Toxic thorn (Potent) available. Causes toxin HP loss of hosts level by endurance divided by 5.] Well, I''ll spend another mutation point on it but now I''m wondering if I should have spent more points on endurance earlier. Oh well, there''s always the next level. If I survive the hunters that is. Next 9 points will be spent on my thorny teeth mutation to upgrade them. [Thorny teeth (Common) has reached level 5. Iron thorny teeth (Common) is available. Thorny teeth are now as durable as iron. Iron thorn mutation already in effect. Resolving¡­. Resolving¡­. Steel thorny teeth (Uncommon) now available. Increases the durability of thorny teeth to that of steel.} And one more point to purchase the upgraded version. Now here comes my favorite part. Perks!! [Otherworlder bonus- Perks (Perks add an additional bonus effect. One perk will be available every 5 levels: Quick learner (Requirement intelligence 10): 5% increase in XP gained Regrowth (Requirement lose 1/3 of your HP at once): 1% of HP regenerated every second. Can be upgraded twice. Level 2 increases it to 2% HP/s Hmmm¡­. No new available perks? That sucks. Actually, wait I declare that this is downright unfair! I''m about to go fight adventurers! Human adventurers and you don''t give me more combat orientated perks!? Your evil Alfred¡­. Evil. But never mind that. I mind as well choose regrowth since it might save my life. Can''t ever have too many ways to recover your health, right? I can already imagine how frustrated people will be when trying to kill me. Just regenerating from every single attack, they use. Huehuehue. I''ll be the undying flower! Now for the upgrade pains¡­ SCREEEEW THIS PAA- wait. There''s no pa- My body went limp as I went unconscious. 19 The enemy arrives War. War always changes. There are those who claim it never changes, but is that really true? There was a time war only happened over resources, but then wars began to be waged over territory. Then religion. Beliefs. How people rule themselves. The reasons for war changed over time. Which in turn changed war itself. Then there was the way that war was fought that changed with time. First wars were waged with sticks. Then bows and spears. Next thing you know cold weapons like swords were being used along with armor. New strategies were made that changed how people fought. Weapons that allowed one man to kill dozes were invented further changing war. The number of people changed too. From a couple hundred at most, it grew to involve thousands of people. Then tens of thousands. Next hundreds of thousands. All the way up till it impacted billions of people. War always changes. Even now it changes. And that will hold true until war no longer exists. Which is something that''s unlikely to ever happen. For things like a Utopia are a fool''s tale. War is fought by all things. You can''t make an ant give up its instincts to propagate just like you can''t convince sentient species to put down their weapons and to seek an everlasting peace. There will be no end to war. It will only grow bigger. Bigger. And bigger. Until it consumes all. -Excerpt from unknown from The War Engine System. ~~~~~~~~ I am awake! Well, I''ve been awake for the past five minutes marveling over the fact that there was no horrible pain from when I leveled up skills and mutations. Did reaching level 5 do something to me? Did I lose part of my humanity or something!? I didn''t know for certain but whenever I tried to remember what it was like to have hands and walk on two legs, I found that I couldn''t recall the feeling of it. This was alarming since pre level up I was able to remember it somewhat clearly. Maybe with every level up my mind''s senses got further and further away from being human? Does that mean my own morals will also start being affected from now on? Would I eventually lose my humanity and become a full-on monster in spirit from now on? I can''t say for certain whether or not that''s a possibility, but even if it was, I can take comfort in the fact that I could still maintain some semblance of intelligence based on Amelia and her sisters as my case examples. Speaking of which I wonder how Amelia got her name? Did the other dryads have names? And how did they get names? Mine was from when I was a human but them. I don''t think they are like me. Something I should ask later. For now, though preparations were needed. It seemed that unlike my previous level ups instead of the time I was unconscious getting shorter it grew longer. The day was already fading into night and I have no doubt the adventurers were making their way over here to take advantage of the lack of sunlight providing us extra strength. I have no idea which direction the humans would come from so I couldn''t exactly lay traps as I''d prefer, but the thing I could do is find some nice hiding places and get used to my new upgraded mana sense to prepare for my stealth attacks. Yes, I will be the great guerilla rose that shall carve terror into their hearts! ¡­.. Wow, that was a dark thought for someone like me. Maybe my new form really was having an impact on my personality? Right now, I wasn''t the only one busying themselves. With my mana senses lowlight capabilities, I was able to spot the shadow fairies swarming above their fairy ring. There looked to be easily 50-80 of them at the very least! And even the dryads were getting serious. All of them were testing their branches bending and twisting themselves this way and that way. I suppose they were waking up their branches since from what I''ve seen they don''t use most of them. {I''m going to go hide for an ambush.} I said to Amelia while walking by her. {Stay safe Joe. You''re not a strong monster so don''t try to bite more than you can chew. My sisters and I will do the heavy lifting.} {I''ll be sure to keep that in mind.} It''s a bit embarrassing to have her state that she and her sisters would do the heavy lifting. I''m supposed to be a man and be able to at least help do a fair amount of the work! Wait, would they even be counted as women when they''re all monsters!? I suppose gender norms don''t transfer over to monsters. Wait. What gender am I even? Do plants have genders!? Whatever. Best not to think about something you''re unlikely to get answers to. There is a battle to wage and I will earn me some sweet sweet XP from it! I went and climbed up a tree bordering the grove and hid myself in the foliage. Now all I had to do was keep an eye out for the adventurers and ambush them when I get the chance. Here''s to me not dying oh dear system of mine! ~~~~~~~~ Its been a few hours since nightfall. My upgrades were already proving their worth. Had it not been for the upgrade to my mana sense I''m sure everything would have been pitch black to me. The rustle of leaves drew my attention towards the ground, and I got my first close look at a human. At least it looked human. They had gambeson armor with a similar pattern as two of the scouts from yesterday with the light grey color and hound emblem on them. This one though also had iron shoulder pads, gauntlets, and a heater shield bearing the hound emblem on it. Her weapon was a longsword held in one hand. She had an iron helmet that only left her face open to view. Her hair was either cut short or tucked into her helmet since I couldn''t see it. But something about her didn''t seem¡­ human. She was lithe and had a delicate chin. Her skin was also very pale. Paler than I''d ever seen on most people. Not an ugly pale either, but the type that made a person''s skin look beautiful. and in stark contrast to her pale her eyes were a vibrant green. She wasn''t the only one approaching the grove though. The scouts I saw during the day were present along with seven other people. Three of them stuck out to me because they all had gambeson armor with the same uniform look as the two scouts and the pretty lady with the sword. My guess is that they''ve had enough experience as a team that they eventually decided to have their own uniform to make their team more eye-catching. Which they certainly were! One of their members, a male who looked to be in his late 30''s, had a large round shield like that the Vikings used along with a one-handed war ax. I won''t bother going over the rest since there''s so many of them. But the others weren''t so impressive as them. They had various weapons and armor and weren''t matching at all. Possibly even a newbie team. But they were still a threat I couldn''t turn a blind eye to. Instead of attacking right away I decided to let them pass me that way I could attack them from their blind spots. The last person to pass by me ended up being the so-called fool of a scout from when I first discovered the adventurer''s presence. Perfect since they had no helmet on allowing me to see their short glossy black hair clearly. Your hair shall soon lose that glossiness foolish human! With that final mental comment, I dropped from my branch whilst launching a couple dozen of my vines to wrap around his mouth and throat to silence them. Before he had the chance to struggle, I dug the thorns from all of my vines into his throat opening up a large hole in his throat from which blood gushed out like a raging crimson river eliciting a pained grunt from the scout. To further pile on the damage I dug my thorny teeth into the spot and shredded it further with my chainsaw teeth before scurrying back to my hiding spot in the trees. The moment he was released from my grasp he raised up his hands to his throat to stem the bleeding and opened his mouth in a silent scream. He then collapsed to the ground without any further resistance. It seems I wrecked his throat far more than I thought if he wasn''t even able to scream. [Human scout slain. 3 XP gained. Additional 3 XP awarded. Scout role entry unlocked. 2 skill points earned. 2 mutation points earned.] ¡­.. The hunt is so on now. ~~~~~~~~ (Esmeraldas POV) A thud of a body hitting the ground behind her alerted her to possible danger. When she turned around heater shield raised, and sword held in front of her at the ready she saw a body at the back of the group. One of the hunters from the other team went to check the body''s identity. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "Its Falcor. Looks like something tore open his throat." He told us. "The hell? He was alive just a minute ago. How''d something tear his throat out in that time without us noticing?" One of her teammates Rorker exclaimed in disbelief. Esmeraldas couldn''t blame him for his disbelief. She could hardly believe it herself. With her elven senses, she should be only topped by a ranger class in detection capabilities. And they had a ranger in their group. "Rumelia did you detect anything?" She asked their ranger. "Nothing. My senses aren''t as good at nighttime and if it''s something that doesn''t generate body heat my thermal vision will be useless. We are fighting hamadryads so I wouldn''t be surprised if they had some type of plant monster helping them. My skills aren''t well suited to detecting plant-type monsters." Her voice was laced with frustration when she replied. "¡­. Let''s keep moving, we have a mission to complete. But make sure to keep an eye out for whatever did that. We can''t risk any more deaths before we even arrive where the dryads are at. I don''t want my team to be made a fool of in front of the other teams." Esmeralda declared. "But Falcors body! We can''t just leave it out here to rot!" One of the rookies protested only to be silenced by a withering glare from her vibrant green eyes. "The mission comes first. We''ll come for his belongings later when we have a chance." She told them. She could tell that they were disgruntled by this but all that mattered right now was the mission. Stopping for the body would mean exposing themselves to any traps the monster that did this may have prepared. Not only that if they didn''t arrive at the dryad''s territory at the right time, but they could also put the other teams in a dangerous situation. Something that she wouldn''t allow. The group began to continue towards the grove the scouts found during the day. They would soon arrive at the grove. Unfortunately, their teams had no mages, unlike the others which would mean they''d be forced to engage the dryads in a melee. A very disadvantageous fight for her side. The most they''d be able to do with their tiers and skills is lop off branches to weaken the dryads defense. But they''d win. She was sure of it. 20 Ze second kill! Insect type monsters are one of the more difficult species to combat. While they will run away to preserve their lives, they generally are a ruthless and emotionless monster species and will often out-compete mammal and avian monsters. This is because when it comes down to it, they''re developed specifically for killing. Even normal insects share this common trait and wield a diverse set of biological weapons for their use. With monster insects, this is more pronounce and as such, they are more prone to diversity from tier-1 and up. This makes it difficult for beginner adventurers to form effective strategies to combat them and resulted in many rookie teams being wiped out. This is why senior adventurers dubbed them rookie slaughterers. An apt name considering that''s exactly what they do. However, the senior adventurers can fall victim to the insects all the same. This is why the insects are feared just as much as plant type monsters with only a few other monster types being more notorious than them. -Excerpt from the monster encyclopedia by Xander freerider ~~~~~~~~ I''m no fool. At least that''s what I like to think. I have done plenty of foolish things in life. Everyone has no matter how wise they are. It''s one of the things that anyone does at some point in their lives. I could have tried talking down the people who killed me. Maybe I''d still be alive then. Perhaps I should have tried to help the people at the village escape. Maybe more people would have survived. If I just dragged along one of my fellow flowers at the very start of this whole messy excuse of a second life I wouldn''t have had to go through this alone. But I can''t change any of that. I just had to make sure I became wiser as I went on. Because while intelligence is great there''s a difference between intelligence and wisdom. Why am I self-monologuing about all of this though? Because I refuse to be cocky about killing a human and press the attack! He was only worth 3 XP! That means he''s most likely on the same level as a tier-0 monster. Albeit most likely rated higher since he''s worth an entire point of XP more. Which is even worse! That means if any of these bastard humans are the human equivalent of a tier-1 they''d also be rated higher! Which means they''d tough as hell for a flower to kill! This Alfred is what it means to pick your fucking battles! I''ll start doing goddamn hit and runs on them once they fight the others at the grove! I mean there''s not too many of them, right? And it looks like there are no mages which make it all the easier! The humans I was talking about were moving forward to the grove. I must say I am impressed by the fact that they didn''t panic when their comrade got killed by me! If I were them, I''d have pissed my pants. Maybe they are just more used to death than I am? Either way, they''ve bunched up and were far more wary of their surroundings. And when I say wary, I mean it. Their heads have been looking this way and that way and the adventurers without uniform jumped at every small sound they heard. I''d find it hilarious if it weren''t for the fact that they wanted to destroy the place I''ve made my home for the past few days. Maybe attacking and killing them was out of the question for now but that didn''t mean I''d call off my guerilla warfare operation. I still had plenty I could do to weaken them. I quietly snuck my way through the branches above them and grabbed a few loose nuts while I was at it. Using my vines, I threw them into some bushes not too far from the left side of the group. The nuts must have hit a rock or something because when they landed a series of taps resounded in the forest. The noise they made was amplified in the silence of the forest catching the attention of the group. Even green eyes (The human with the heater shield and longsword) hesitated and looked over to the source of the sound. It seems she''s not as infallible as she''d like the others to think. Perfect. She whispered a series of inaudible commands to her followers and she and the rest of the adventurers began to surround the bush with their weapons held out at the ready. Once their encirclement of the bush was completed forward green eyes struck out with her sword cleaving the bush in half while the others all attack at the same time smashing, slashing, and in general wrecking the poor plant. Just as they did though I who cleverly snuck above them blasted off five of my drowsy pollens hitting the entire group because of their close proximity to each other. The pollen took effect right away as the adventurers descended into a coughing fit as their lungs futilely labored to expel the pollen. I hurriedly scurried away from my position to watch the effects. Already several of the adventurers without uniform armor were beginning to stagger as the drowsy pollen started to affect their mind and body. However, the ones without uniform surprised me with the fact that other than the coughing they showed no outward signs of them being affected by the pollen. I mean what the hell!? By now drowsy pollen should be level 3 and therefore should be more than capable of knocking out an armored rat, but these guys aren''t even affected!? Maybe it''s just because of common media typically depicting humans as physically inferior to everything else but I didn''t expect them to handle my drowsy pollen skill so well. I definitely underestimated them. But at the very least a good chunk of them was off their game now. Every bit helps. Green eyes didn''t like that she was tricked though. After barking out some angry commands she led the others towards the grove. This time however it seemed that those who weren''t of her team were reluctant to continue after my surprise attack. Suddenly one of the reluctant adventurers stopped and shouted at the rest. "U? toho m¨¢m dost! Byli jsme napadeni dvakr¨¢t! A p?esto jsme nebyli schopni s t¨ªm nic ud¨§lat! Upsal jsem se, ?e budu zab¨ªjet dry¨¢dy. Nenechat se zab¨ªt, ani? bych m¨§l ?anci se br¨¢nit. Vr¨¢t¨ªm se s v¨¢mi nebo bez v¨¢s." (A/N: I''ve had enough of this! We''ve already been attacked twice now! And yet we''ve been unable to do anything about it! I signed up to kill dryads. Not to be killed without having a chance to defend myself. I''m going back with or without you guys.) Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. The man bellowed angrily. From what little I could understand he was going to try turning back. Which was good news for me since it meant easy pickings if he went alone and fewer people to attack the grove. When the man looked towards his teammates, he found them avoiding meeting his gaze. The hunter scoffed and turned around and started walking away. The others all just looked back in silence as he left them before the leader cleared her throat and started to lead them again. Divide and conquer really does work! Instead of following after the group I decided to go after the man who parted from the group. Once the others weren''t in sight of him anymore, I leaped out of my cover in the trees towards the back of his neck aiming to get a quick kill on him like the last person. Just as I was bout to land, he whipped his body around with a dagger in his right hand and a snarl on his face. However, it was too late by then and I landed on his face and began wrapping my vines around his face and tearing at it with my thorns. With a furious roar, the monster hunter grabbed me by my stem ignoring the thorns that buried themselves in his face and started pulling me off with a level of strength that I never had to deal with before. The man brought his knife up intending to cut me off by my stem and I started to panic. I diverted most of my vines to wrap around his wrist and fought with him trying to keep the knife away from my body. But with that, the hunter was beginning to pull me off further from his face. I realized that this was my one chance to take him out otherwise he''d be able to escape to the others and they''d know what to expect when it comes to defending against me. Something I couldn''t allow since that would mean my main and only advantage would be gone and I''d most likely die on my next attack. If I didn''t die now that is. This was do or die. I reached out with my roots and forced them into the man''s mouth. Grabbing and tearing at anything I could get a grip on. My roots tore up his tongue, pulled out teeth, and ripped holes in his cheeks. I targeted his nose as will burying my roots deep into his nasal cavities. The adventurer now had tears pouring out of his eyes and was emitting high pitched screams while his strength grew and struggled with me to tear me away from his face. But then just as a loud crack emitted from his nose and my roots met a soft squishy flesh deep in the recesses of his head the adventurer''s body went limp. He then fell to his knees before falling flat on his face with me under him. Oww¡­. I once again overestimated myself¡­ This guy was one of the ones hit hard by my drowsy pollen and yet he was still able to nearly overpower me¡­. But- [Human warrior slain. 7.5 XP gained. Additional 1.5 XP earned from the smarty-pants effect. Warrior role entry unlocked. 3 skill points earned. 3 mutation points earned.] Ah, that makes it worth it. Now to catch up with the rest of the hunters. 21 Grove defense 1 ! {A/N: Important announcements in the authors note!} Glory. Money. Fame. Women. Family. There''s a lot of reasons people become adventurers. But there is one fact that doesn''t change. Most people even those who have the money to afford guards die. Being an adventurer is harder than being a soldier and because of that, the average soldier is weaker than the average adventurer. The reason for this is that monsters even the average ones are a more formidable foe on the chaos of the battlefield than the average human or demi-human soldier will ever be. In the first years of the guild opening and accepting people who can fight we had a casualty rate of 7/10 people for the first two months of active duty. Because of this, the guild decided to make an entrance exam in which one would be trained to handle the rigors of being an adventurer. Those that failed this exam wouldn''t be allowed into the guild unless they took it again and passed. After the implementation of this exam, deaths went down as low as 5/10 and the average adventurer became superior to the average foot soldier. While it made the chances of survival for an adventurer higher it also raises the chances of them developing psychological disorders by a significant amount. Especially with the higher survival rate. But this is all for the sake of pushing back the smaller bunches of monsters the military doesn''t handle, and for the benefits, the victor gains in the process. -Excerpt from pocket guide to being an adventurer by Johnna Firehoof ~~~~~~~~ (Adventurer Lorner POV) His screams just wouldn''t end! He was a fool to have thought it was a good idea to run off on his own when only the weakest amongst them died and getting hit by that dust stuff. But it didn''t matter now that he went and got himself killed. It just means I get a nice and juicy bonus for when this mission is complete. His screams. They stopped. Must mean that he''s dead. It''s a pity. He was someone who passed the exam in the same group as me. Just barely though. He was always the weakest in mind of those who passed. Now though he at least no longer had to continue fighting monsters with his weak will. Looking around I can tell most of the others weren''t too phased by his death. Especially the more seasoned adventurers. Which makes sense. There''s a lot of death in our line of work and our comrades would quite often die in horrific ways. Sometimes right in front of our eyes. But it would all be worth it. The money from jobs like this will help my family. My beautiful wife and daughter. I just got married a bit over a year ago and our daughter was born just a month ago. I had to take up the sword to make enough money to prevent our home from being taken away from us by that lecherous noble of the territory we lived in. Just wait. Papa will be home soon to protect you. Now that I think about it didn''t that guy who just died have an unborn daughter back home¡­? "Everyone prepare yourself! We''ve arrived! The other teams have mages that will attack the dryads. So, it will be our job to prevent the dryads from attack the mages!" Esmeralda announced to the others pulling me from my thoughts. That was dangerous. I can''t afford to get lost in my thoughts out on the mission. Looking up ahead I could see the grove where the dryads live. They were all arranged in a circle of a dozen different types of trees. Some were pine trees, others birch trees. But the two biggest trees were an oak tree that towered over the rest and a maple tree in a close second. Those two must be the oldest two trees of the grove and by extension the strongest. Inside the circle of trees was a small circle of mushrooms. Fairies? No, it couldn''t be. Dryads are extremely territorial and wouldn''t allow fairies in their territory. At least that''s what the manual says. Already I could see the other team coming into view. They both had six members. Two members of both teams were mages for a total of four mages. Not as many as I''d like for a mission like this but at least there were plenty of other people to take a hit for me. I tightened my grip around the handle of my sword. This would be a bloody fight. But I''d survive it. Just like every other battle. ~~~~~~~~ (Joe''s POV) Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Damn, they already arrived at the grove. If only I was able to take out a couple more of them before they arrived. Oh well, beggars can''t be choosers. I''m still surprised they didn''t lose much morale despite my ambushes on them. They must have balls of steel and a mind of iron. That will certainly make them tough to fight head-on. Wait. I see another two groups arriving! Why!? I killed that last dude to prevent leakage of my capabilities to the guild! With this many people, all gathered it''ll be even tougher to prevent the guild from catching wind of what I am capable of. Wait. Four of those adventurers have staffs and staves instead of typical swords and stuff¡­. Don''t tell me. They are the infamous mages!! Why couldn''t I be reincarnated in a world where it''s difficult to learn magic!? Now I had to deal with four mages who can probably shoot fireballs! Or even worse weedkiller spells! This unwelcome invasion was getting more and more complicated as time goes on. And I don''t like it one bit! The adventurers were beginning to form up with several people equipped with large tower shields in the front row. As soon as they were within reach Amelia''s branches whipped forward crashing into the shields sending over half of the adventurers lying while the other half were pushed back several feet. Upon seeing this two of the mages pointed their staffs at their allies and began to chant. As soon as they began chanting large glowing white runes began to manifest themselves in front of the mages. Following this, the runes turned into a white mist and covered the adventurers on the front lines before being absorbed by said adventurers. The adventurers let out a hearty battle cry and pushed forward shields up and met Amelia''s and the other dryads'' branches head-on. This time however the branches would only succeed in pushing them several inches at a time. The other adventurers took advantage of the defender''s effort to hack and slash at the branches chipping away their health to slowly weaken them. Upon seeing the success of the support spell, the other two mages began chanting, but instead of glowing white runes, smaller orangish-red runes manifested and fireballs came rocketing out of them. Said fireballs crashed into several trees including the birch tree which promptly caught fire as it ate away her leaves and smaller branches. She began to broadcast with her pheromones the pain and rage she was feeling as she and the couple other trees who were hit by the fireballs desperately beat their branches against the ground to put out the flames. But it was too late many of the smaller branches and their bark was already charred black as the flames continued to eat away at them. I need to intervene and quick! Dashing for while activating my stealth skill I kept myself low to the ground to minimize the chances of anyone spotting me. To make doubly sure I circled around to approach from the mages back. There were a couple adventurers placed around the mages to guard them, but I''ll just need to get through them or a few well-placed thorns. As I came within range the mages who have yet to notice me were firing a second volley of fireballs were completely defenseless with the warrior adventurers being in front of them facing the larger threats rather than being behind them where there was thought to be no foes. Big mistake on their part! I released a dozen of my vines and allowed them to slither up the legs of the mages under their protective clothing. Following this, I used my thorns to slash their Achilles tendon (Turns out its named after some greek dude and without it, people can''t walk! And people say biology is useless!) bringing out various pained and confused yelps as they collapsed face-first having lost their ability to stand. By the time the adventurers noticed my presence I already was on top of one of the mage''s face and revving up the teeth and tearing apart his throat before he had a chance to resist. [Human mage slain. Total of 9 XP earned. Mage role entry unlocked to read. 3 skill points and 3 mutation points collected. 50 MP absorbed.] Ha! So much delicious MP! I leaped to the side just as a mace crashed into the place, I was just at caving in the skull of the corpse I was standing on. The two warrior adventurers were both looming over me. The other one launched the attack swiping downwards with his sword just barely missing shaving off several petals in the process. With the two adventurers now flanking me I did the best possible option for a flower that''s about to get smashed or slashed. I ran. I ran on my roots as fast as they could take me at first the adventurers were about to give a chase, but I noticed they hesitated when looking at the mages who were now crippled and using healing spells to stop their bleeding. With them choosing to protect over attack I successfully halted the spell bombardment. Take that ya dang mages! Always hated how overpowered mages got in videogames but now I''m the anti-mage! Aha! Just as I had hoped the moment the mages stopped launching fireballs the tides of battle shifted in our favor. The adventurers who were previously defending against the branches were now starting to lose members without the buff spells provided by a mage and it was brutal. Every once in a while one of the attacking adventurers who got a bit too daring in their attacks would get swatted and end up soaring in the sky before finally landing on the ground as a deformed bloody human pancake. And now even the fairies were finally beginning to emerge to assist in the fight! The entirety of the fairy swarm was gathering around the mages and. Oh god. Oh god! It''s terrifying! The fairies which looked like little adorable children last I saw them showed an entirely new side as they opened their mouths impossibly wide revealing two rows of razor teeth (my mana vision has improved significantly, and I regret that now)! The fairies swarmed the two adventurers who chased me away from the crippled mages ad started to slip under their armor and attack any unprotected spot. My attack methods were brutal, but this was on a whole other level. They literally CHEWED their way INSIDE of the adventurers before EATING their way back out! This went beyond cruel and unusual. Far beyond it. This. This has got to be the strangest and most brutal battle I have ever seen. Time to cause some more chaos¡­. 22 Grove defense 2 ! There are various biological abilities utilized by the plant monsters to increase their lethality levels. Yes, they get buffs from sunlight and sometimes can regenerate quite rapidly but their offensive capabilities are also outstanding when compared to more drab monster types like the mammals. For example, there is a multitude of species who will use various forms of acid as a main or support weapon in killing prey. Whether it is through restrictive acid, explosive acid, or just acid used to slowly eat away at prey while trapped inside of them you can be sure of one thing. Plants will find some of the most brutal ways to kill people. Other than that, you will see them use venoms, poisons, toxic fumes. Sometimes there are even plants who grow organic traps and servants to do their bidding. Not to mention the plethora of parasitic plants. That''s why I always suggest having a team of mages on standby when dealing with plant monsters. They can be one of the more unpredictable types of monsters. In fact, every year new subspecies of plants are discovered as well as entirely new base species. Just one anomaly can knock an experienced team off their game because of these factors. Remember hunters. Proceed with caution when facing plant monsters lest you end up as their fertilizer. -Excerpt from the pocket guide to being an adventurer by Johnna Firehoof ~~~~~~~~ Just as I was about to dash back into to take advantage of the chaos the fairies were creating; I saw a glowing red rune flicker into existence in front of one of the crippled mages. And it was pointed right at the fairies! They were still all over one of the still-living adventurers! That mage couldn''t be crazy enough to attack one of their own could they!? I didn''t have time to answer my own question as a stream of flames erupted from the rune dousing not only the fairies but two of the adventurers in the process. The entire terrible scene was completed by the maniacal laughter coming from the mage as she roasted those unfortunate enough to get caught in the flames. Even from here I could hear the pained screams of the fairies and the howling of the burning humans. All with the putrid smell of burning flesh and hair to accompany it creating a uniquely terrifying scene. It was at the time I was within chainsaw distance and leaped onto the mages head and started gouging out their eyes and tearing up their throat with my thorn vines in a blind rage. [Human mage apprentice slain. A total of 9 XP earned. 3 skill points and 3 mutation points collected. 50 MP absorbed.] By the time I was finished venting my rage she was already dead. But it was too late. The damage had already been done. Looking back to where the fairies I could see dozens of burnt husks of their bodies littering the ground. There was thankfully a couple dozen fairies who were still flittering about having barely escaped the fire but that was only a fraction of their original numbers. While I was busy looking at the charred remains of the fairies but then a mage behind took advantage of my distraction to summon up a fire rune and blasted a ball of fire towards me. "Chc¨ªpni, ty tr¨¢vo!" They snarled while the ball of fire hurtled towards me. (Translation: Die you weed!) I dove to the side as the fireball flew past scorching off several roots as it barely missed my main body. Despite only burning off a few of my roots the parts that weren''t burned to the point of having no functioning nerve cells were lit up with pain that ate away at my mind. I barely managed to keep from blacking out thanks to those points I put int my will my last level up. It looks like I was right to level that stat after all! I launched myself towards the mage with dozen of my vines lashing out in retaliation quickly killing the mage with dozens of slashes to the throats and face. While I was busy with killing the mage, I was on the fairies were swarming the last couple of mages and tearing them apart like with the previous adventurers. However, they were taking it much slower and a far more painful process. I can''t blame them for doing so. [Human mage apprentice slain. A total of 9 XP earned. 3 skill points and 3 mutation points collected. 50 MP absorbed.] Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Now there are only the adventurers without magic to deal with. Maybe there''s a chance we can clear them all up without leaving any survivors after all¡­. ~~~~~~~~ (Esmeralda''s POV) Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Everything has been going wrong since the beginning! First, it took longer than it should have for the scouts to locate the dryads. Then we were ambushed by that monster. And now these dryads were working with fairies!! And then there''s that flower. Between that flower and the fairies, our entire mage squad was wiped out. Without the mages defeating the dryads is a pipe dream. One of the branches took advantage of my inner panic and whipped forward colliding with my shield throwing me backwards. My grip on my sword loosened and the sword went flying out of my reach "Shit! Captain! Are you alright!?" One of the greyhounds cried out while rushing over and crouched over me with their shield raised up to defend against several stray branches. He then offered a hand to pull me up which I promptly accepted. "Never mind me! The mages have been taken out! We need to get out of here before we''re overwhelmed!" "Yes, sir!" The greyhound was about to yell for a retreat before I put my hand on his shoulder and stopped him. "Don''t announce it. Go around and discreetly tell our teammates. We''ll need to use these rookies to buy us some time, so the monsters don''t follow us." I whispered to him. Ignoring the abhorred look on his face I went over to where my sword was and picked it up. Looking back to where the mages were at, I could see the fairies killing two mages while that flower was hacking away at another mage. Looking back to the frontlines against the dryads I could see one of the unlucky rookies getting picked up and wrapped up in branches by a maple tree before being squished into a bloody paste. I knew it was a bad idea to use a bunch of rookies as cannon fodder. One by one my team was told the plan to retreat and the signal to leave. I waited while making sure to stay in the center of the group of adventurers and kept an eye on the flower. It was no normal monster. Of that I was certain. And if it was what I thought it was I had to get back to the guild and let the guild master know. It must be nipped while it was still a low tier monster. The flower was sprinting towards the back of the adventurers with the fairies flittering alongside it. Two of the rookie adventurers armed with swords sprinted up to meet them with one of them swinging their blade downwards towards the flower. I saw it in action earlier and knew the foolish boy wouldn''t be able to hit the flower, but it shocked me as it effortlessly slid to the side of the blade while launching four of its vines that impaled themselves on the rookie''s hand. The boy yelped in pain instinctively jerking his hand away as the thorns tore up the tendons and muscles in it crippling it. The fairies were busy chewing into the other adventurer who screamed and flailed around desperately swatting at his body to squish the fairies. A futile attempt with how agile the fairies were when compared to humans. I didn''t bother with watching the end of the fight and calmly strode away from the fight. This was the best chance we''d get to escape the monsters. Even if they finished off all the adventurers here and chased after us a few of us would be able to escape. Glancing back, I could see several of my teammates following me while the others were distracted. It seems we lost most of our members fighting that oak and maple team. But it seems that the plan to use my silent departure as the signal was a good idea since the rookies didn''t have the breathing space to pay any mind to what we were doing. I looked back one last time at the monsters. This was not good. Plant species will sometimes work together but for multiple different species of different tiers to work together is a rare and often disastrous occurrence. And that flower. If it is one of the elite variants¡­ This was bad. With that final negative thought, I ran into the forest with the few remaining members of my team to escape. 24 The chase scene! Monsters have different species and subspecies. We adventurers, however, have classes. You are most likely wondering what classes are. In all odds, you have most likely had experience with them in the past. There are common classes like a farmer but through training, you can unlock the ability to switch classes to another one. When it comes to classes, the increase in rank based on how skilled you are in your class expertise. There are however other options other than class switches. Class fusion. When you unlock a new class, you can choose to fuse it with your current one which lowers the overall boost to both classes'' expertise but allows you to become more well-rounded. Examples of this can be found everywhere even in common villages with roles like warrior farmers or in guilds with merchant mages. A specialist class will always be stronger than a fusion class in the area it specializes in, but on the other hand, fusion classes will be more versatile than specialist classes. And it is through the proper tactical use of specialist and fusion classes you as an adventurer will be able to succeed at your missions. Make sure to choose your class wisely adventurer. Think about more than just what you''d like but what you would work best as. -Excerpt from how to be an adventurer for dummies by Johnna Firehoof ~~~~~~~~ Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Damn it!! Why the hell do people have to be so fucking fast!? Why!? Why couldn''t they all just be a bunch of lazy couch potatoes so I can actually catch up! Just an hour ago I managed to finally get within sight of the runaway adventurers. But like the dumbass I am, I was being noisy while swinging and that blond girl heard me and started running. And naturally, the others started running too! I swear for how high my intelligence stat is I don''t make very wise decisions¡­ Maybe it doesn''t affect how wise I am. That''s probably it. But still, its strange thing is that the rest of them didn''t even show any signs of hearing me when the blondie did. That doesn''t matter. Right now, I was stuck chasing after the adventurers who were despite all their equipment remarkably fast! Humans probably have a very low toughness stat and comparatively higher strength and agility stat. Which was both good and bad or me. The good is that it isn''t that hard to inflict lethal damage upon them. The bad is that even now as I speak, they''re furthering the distance between us! In just the last minute alone the gap went from 20 feet to 30 feet! (That''s 6 meters to 9 meters for our non-American readers!) The only reason that they haven''t gotten further is that my own agility isn''t exactly low and the speed from swinging for such a long time built up my speed to a level I couldn''t achieve if I had been using my own strength alone. Even now my tendrils were beginning to tire showing that yet another stat of mine was inferior to the humans. Except for the blondie. She seems to be tiring a bit but she''s still managing to keep up with the others. At this rate, they''d getaway! I need to think of something quickly before the distance becomes too large to cover. I got it! The Joe slingshot! Perfect for crossing distances in a short amount of time. It''ll put extra strain on some of my already fatigued vines that I''ve been using but it''ll get the job done. Probably. Using two of my vines I grabbed a sturdy branch in front of me and another two behind me. Once secured I pulled myself backward building up the potential energy in my front vines and aimed myself ahead of the adventurers to consider their own speed. Once my vines were pulled to their limit, I let my grip on the branches behind me and the potential energy in my vines slung me forward. At the very last moment, I let go of the branches which were previously in front of me and flew above the ground towards the adventurers. My body produced a faint whistling noise and the blonde girl turned around just in time to see me slam into the back of one of the adventurers who were lagging, knocking them down with a loud oof. Thankfully by using my iron leaves and my vines wrapping around my body, I managed to avoid taking more than a few points of damage from the impact. Taking advantage of the hunter''s dazed state I drove several of my thorn-tipped vines into the back of the man''s neck piercing his spinal cord instantly killing him. [Human warrior slain. 7.5 XP gained. 3 skill points earned. 3 mutation points earned.] I paid the notification no heed as I dashed forward towards the blonde girl with my bloodied vines reaching out to wrap around her legs. Before I could, however, one of her comrades stepped in front of me with a shield in hand and blocked my vines. At the same time, another member stepped forward and slashed the vines I lashed out within half causing pain to flare up where they were cut. But that wasn''t the end of their counterattack. In the short time that the two others confronted me, the blonde adventurer went around her comrades and swung her sword towards the base of my stem. The tip of the sword emitted a whistling sound as it sped towards me. I dimly realized that it was too fast. I wouldn''t be able to dodge it. The world around me seemed to slow to a crawl. Almost like everything was given a debuff on their speed that they became as fast as molasses. Myself included. Was this the zone that sports athletes talked about? It doesn''t matter. I need to figure out how to survive this, and since it seems only my view on the world sped up and not my actual speed the sword was still outpacing me. All the other humans didn''t have nearly as much speed in their attacks as this girl did. And it was only a few seconds ago that she was being defended against my attack before she was attacking me back. She must be the leader and a high level. I''ll need to keep an eye on her. But my best chance of defense would be to wrap myself in my vines then cover myself further with my iron leaves. That way the vines could provide a cushion against blunt force damage and the iron leaves could deal with the sword itself. The odds of success aren''t high, but it was the best option. I could probably alternate between vines then leaves to further strengthen the defense. All this thinking took place in the span of a fraction of a second as all my vines and leaves leaped into action piling up around the area the sword was going to land at. And land it did when I was halfway through my layered defenses. The sword cleaved through several layers of my vines and crushed several more of my iron leaves effortlessly before my defenses finally succeeded in stopping it from getting any further. Just as the blade was on the cusp of reaching my stem. But even then, the power of the blow sent my body flying into the underbrush where I crashed through several various bushes before they slowed my speed enough that my impact onto the ground wasn''t immediately lethal. Even so, I was paralyzed with pain. Rather than a sword, it felt like I was run over by a truck! What''s up with that absurd attack power that girl had!? She was scrawnier than her other two buddies who attacked me, yet she was easily several times faster and stronger! I couldn''t just lay around here moaning about the pain I''m in. It''s the bison incident all over again. If I don''t get out of here quickly then they might just decide to come after me while I''m weak. I reached out with my roots and vines and started dragging myself deeper into the forest away from the adventurers. My stem felt like it was about to fall apart, and I wasn''t too confident in whether I''d be able to stand up normally. As much as I hate it, I''ll have to drag myself. While disgraceful it beats getting turned into plant mulch by that monster of a swordsman. I dragged myself up into a nearby tree to get a view on the adventurers. And I was pleasantly surprised to see that they weren''t coming after me! Instead, they were hurriedly looting their dead comrade''s body before rushing off to escape. Talk about loyalty issues. But that''s good for me. It means that my life isn''t in danger of being snuffed out by that. I should heal up. First, though let''s look at the extent of the damage dealt to my HP! [HP: 1/40] ¡­. That girl is a fucking monster. 25 Disturbing hobbies Do you find comfort in twisting life into this¡­ Abomination? Is this war. No, this genocide what you''ve aimed for all these countless decades of hard work sharpening your craft? Look around you. Look at the countless dead you''ve left in you''re path. The many family members who grieve the loss of mothers, fathers, sons, and daughters. You were once such a good person. But now you are nothing but a monster. A monster who cares for nothing but himself who''ll cut down anyone who gets in their way. The type of monster we had once worked together to defeat. But now I must bathe my blade in your blood to save the innocents from your wrath. -Excerpt from unknown by unknown ~~~~~~~~ Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. (Night pixie/fairy Joseline POV) "Hmph take that stupid human! You killed our sisters so its only right this is your fate!" I exclaimed and kicked the dead eyes of the adventurer collapsed on the ground in front of me. "Hey! Be careful with the goods! We still need to harvest the human you know. So, get back to work! The human won''t just scalp himself!" One of my elder sisters scolded me shooting a glare with puffed up cheeks. "Sorry! I''ll get started!" My anger now began to subside after being lectured by my senior sister allowing me to calm my mind to focus on the task at hand. Taking out a small knife with a blade made from a thorn I begin cutting away at the adventurer''s scalp. The knife was too small to be used as a proper weapon, but it was good enough for dismantling people like this. Glancing around I could see that my siblings were far ahead of me. Some of them were already beginning to clean the scalps to use for dresses and skirts. Others were collecting teeth to be used for chairs. The dryads were also busy. The larger dryads hardly took any damage with only a couple of them like the birch being burnt to a heavy degree. But in the end, none of the dryads died this time. The birch was close to it. So much for dryad superiority. If it weren''t for us fairies and that flower, they would have all probably died! Maybe we could convince them to lower the fee for staying here¡­? Before I knew it, I had already finished scalping most of the human skull. Holding it up I examined the light brown hair attached to the skin and smiled beaming with satisfaction. This color would make for a nice blanket. {Amelia!!} The telltale pheromones of the flower spread throughout the grove announcing his presence to all within the grove. Over my short life, I''ve learned that if your nose is strong enough; you''d be able to smell the subtle differences in the pheromones monster plants give off that differentiates the individual. Amelia, for instance, had pheromones that had a warm earthy scent. While the flower had the faintest hint of flowery fragrance. But the strongest scent in his was a peculiar scent that I''d never smelled before. A thick acrid smell (Oil is the smell). I didn''t like it all. It brought a strong foreboding feeling wherever it went. Diverting my attention back to the flower I tuned back in just in time to pick up on the familiar scent of Amelia''s pheromones. {Did you manage to kill the humans who ran away?} {No, I didn''t. Nearly got killed by one of them. I see you all managed to finish off the re- What the hell are the fairies doing?} I tilted my head to the side watching Joe curiously. I still had the bloody scalp in my hands and my arms were covered in blood "We''re harvesting materials for clothing!" One of my sisters chirped happily with a blood-soaked dress made from human skin and cartilage. {¡­ You know what I am not even going to pry any further than this. Enough crazy stuff has happened for one night.} The flower finally said with obvious exasperation. I blinked my eyes in confusion at his reaction ad looked down at the scalp in my hand. It surely couldn''t be that he was upset at seeing me scalping the human, could it? No way! It''s perfectly normal to violate the corpses of humans! Back to cutting up the humans then! (A few hours later in Joe''s POV) Nightmarish scenes. Almost dying. Murdering people in cold blood. This night was¡­ eventful. By the time I returned to the grove the fairies had already butchered nearly half of the people. They really were monsters without morals. But I suppose I was the same since I killed a fair number of people without hesitation. Just more proof that whatever happened to my mind after reaching level 6 had a greater effect than I had believed on my mind. If it was just shaving away at my morality it obviously didn''t get all of it yet. Shortly after deciding to not question the fairies¡­ questionable hobby I managed to convince them to give me the bodies of those they didn''t butcher yet. With the massive cut in their numbers, they didn''t exactly need all the human skin and such. With Amelia''s permission been spending my time burying the bodies in shallow graves inside of the grove. She along with the fairies repeatedly pestered me about why I was doing this but every time my answer was that it was something I had to do. After saying so enough times, they eventually left me alone. Which wasn''t exactly a lie. It was respect for the dead. I was once a human and it was at least common decency to give them a burial. Even if it wasn''t the type they deserved. It was the least I could do after killing them in such brutal ways. Especially that one dude I killed by shoving my roots up his nose. He wasn''t easy to drag back. But after a long and strenuous journey and lots of digging, I finally buried the bodies. But now I have another bigger problem. The adventurers managed to get away which means they''ll most likely go tell the local guild about our presence. While the fairies and I could run away just fine that isn''t necessarily true for the dryads. This was a problem. A very big one. One could say that I could just abandon them, but they were the first things to not try to kill me on sight. I couldn''t help but get attached to them. For now, though I''ll start upgrading my skills and such. [Current skills: Universal plant language (Common) level 2; Thorny defense (Common) level 1; Enhanced photosynthesis (Uncommon) level 1; Enhanced mana sense level 1; Stealth (Common) level 4; Climbing (Common) level 2; drowsy pollen (Common) level 3; Feather fall (Common) level 1; Tunnel sense (Common) level 1; Czech translation skill (Common) level 3; MP to HP convertor (Common) level 3 Available skills: Requirements met for having at least 100 MP and witnessing magic at use. Following magic spells unlocked for purchase. Fireball (Common weak spell that costs 10 MP to cast. 5 damage per hit.); Minor heal (Common weak spell that heals for 1 HP for every 5 MP used) Available skill points: 25 Current mutations: Petals level 1; Stem level 1; Iron thorn''s level 1; Iron leaf level 1; Steel thorny teeth level 1; Enhanced root strength level 3; Toxic thorns (Common weak) level 1; Serrated thorns (Common) level 1; Thorn vines (Uncommon) level 1; Chainsaw teeth (Common) level 1 Available mutations: No available mutations. Available mutation points: 32] It''s a bit satisfying to see a large number of skills, but quality over quantity is more important. But I can''t help but wonder what upgrading my petals will do? I''ll put a couple levels into it to find out. Which means I''ll need to say goodbye to 5 points. [Petals level 1 -> Petals level 3. Petals now can expand from the average 2 inches to 6 inches at will.] Woah. Wait. I can make my mouth grow giant like those horror monsters you see in mangas and movies!? Fuck that might be more terrifying than the fairies! That might be worth speaking into. Now, what''s next? Stems. Stem for sure after what happened with blondie. I only have 27 points left so 14 points can be comfortably spent to bring it up to level 4. [Stem level 1 -> Stem level 5. Stem upgrade available. Iron stem available: Increases stem durability to that of iron.] 12 more points to go. And what better to spend them on than my thorn vines? Its all thanks to them I''m able to take on enemies which I''d normally be helpless against! Which just goes to show that it is most certainly one of the more versatile mutations in my arsenal. [Thorn vines level 1 -> Thorn vines level 4. Total length of vines increases by 1 foot (1/3 of a meter) with every level up. Total length of vines 5 feet.] Good good. Upgrading seems to be progressing quite well. Best of all my mind only feels slightly fuzzy. How nice. But now it''s time to handle my skills. Let''s see what we have available¡­ Oh? OH!? OOOOH!?!?! I CAN GET FUCKING BADASS MAGIC!?! Who cares if it is weak! With this, I will be a magic flower!! Calm down. Focus on upgrading current skills and those! I can use 11 points can bring drowsy pollen to level 5. And another 5 points to level up thorny defense twice. Now with some valuable low-level stuff ready for upgrades, we will purchase magic! I already have the MP to HP converter, so I''ll only get the fireball spell. Then I''ll upgrade it twice with 5 points to reach level 3! [Drowsy pollen level 3 -> Drowsy pollen level 5. Upgrade available. Numbing pollen level 1: Causes those afflicted to become drowsy and their senses dull making reactions slower. Thorny defense level 1 -> Thorny defense level 3 Fireball level 1 -> Fireball level 3] Hohoho! Just you wait adventurers! By the time you come back, you''ll be facing a whole new type of enemy¡­ 26 Magic Tests and Wolf Hunts Part 1 Magic is probably one of the biggest advantages humanity has against monster kind. Lower level monsters generally even if they have a surplus of mana will only be able to cast low-level spells. This is all thanks to their low intelligence. Humans on the other hand generally have a high intelligence stat that allows us to progress faster than monsters when it comes to using magic. Some monsters have the intelligence to use magic, however. This list includes things like dryads, dragons, goblinoids, etc. But generally, these monsters are only able to use low-level spells for the most part or uncommon and capable of using mid-level spells. The common human after killing monsters enough has enough skill points and mana to get a magic skill right away. But the real edge humanity has is that their base intelligent stat is high enough that it meets the requirements for mid-level magic while the common monster appears to not have a high enough stat to unlock that level of magic. Just another reason religious organizations proclaiming humanity to be the chosen species. -Excerpt from the monster encyclopedia by Xander sage ~~~~~~~~ So magic. I''m starting to regret my choice of magic. I should have taken the healing one because I could have healed up the others even if a little bit. But no, I chose fireballs! FIRE! BALLS! I am a plant. I am still very flammable. And yet I chose fire magic as my first magic. There has to be a limit to just how dumb of choices I can make. Sure, you could say that it was the human in me thinking because nearly everyone sees fire magic as a awesome magic to have! But yet despite living as a flower for an undeterminable amount of time and experiencing firsthand just the night before that fire was the bane of my life, I still chose it. But the choice has been made. I''ll just need to find a way to become fire resistant! But first I need to come up with a plan to avoid getting killed again by these adventurers. And hopefully, save a few of my new buddies in the process! Although now that I think about it trying to get a bunch of trees out of harm''s way will be a bit difficult¡­ But I''ll need to figure something out soon. Since there''s only a small village nearby I''m hoping that the closest guild base is a day or two of away at the very least. Maybe a week if I''m lucky! Which means I have some time before any counterattack comes for my petals. I could be a productive member of the monster species and focus on level ups. Maybe try and wreck the nearby village. But that''s not going to by my aim for right now. Right now, I''ll be testing out my new ill-chosen spell. But for that, I need targets to practice on. And what better than my longtime friend the fanged frogs? After getting a good idea of how to use the skill I can consider trying to kill one of those wolves I spotted awhile back. It''ll surely be worth a decent number of points. With this vague plan in mind, I set out to find me some frogs. Some slimy disgusting frogs. Like I expected it didn''t take me very long to find a small group of four fanged frogs. With my stealth skill, I was able to get within a good 5 feet of them. The frogs were currently eating what looked like to be the carcass of a squirrel or rabbit. Blissfully unaware of their impending doom¡­ How sad it is. How sad¡­ But good for me! Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. There''s a strange thing that I''ve noticed about skills and mutations alike. Even though sometimes I add entirely new parts to my own body like the thorn vines I somehow instinctively know how to use them. As if something programmed how to use these various skills and body parts as soon as I get them. And that was no different with the fireball skill. I could practically feel what felt like another mind racing through various thoughts as various dim glowing red lines manifested themselves in front of me and began twisting themselves into a circle with a diamond shape set in the center of it. All of this took place in less than a second before a ping pong sized fireball rocketed out of the diamond and crashed into one of the fanged frogs. This incited a pained yelp from the frog as its skin was scorched by the fire. After a short moment of squirming the frog went still. [Fanged frog slain. 2 XP earned. 2 MP collected. 1 skill point and 1 mutation point added.] The other frogs upon seeing their fellow die in such an agonizing manner promptly started to hop for their lives. However, it was far too late for them to hope for such an easy escape! My subconscious once again started cranking out another fireball spell as my vines darted towards the frogs. Two of the frogs were impaled in the chest and leg respectively while the third one had a fireball slam into its back. [3 fanged frogs slain. Total of 6 XP, 6 MP, 3 skill points, 3 mutation points added.] I must say it was easier than I thought it would be to use magic. From the way novels usually describe it magic always seemed like a difficult thing to use. But it did feel like another mind was doing all the heavy lifting¡­ Maybe it''s my subconscious? Whatever it is I have to say it''s rather convenient. But the magic itself is rather disappointing. But what did I expect from something that could only deal 5 points of damage? But this isn''t the end of the testing yet! I shall continue my tests to see what my spells limits are! (A few hours later¡­) ~~~~~~ I spent a good 100 points on killing frogs and managed to kill 12 frogs. And my discoveries were sufficient enough to have a good grasp over the spell along with magic in general. For one I couldn''t shoot more than one fireball at a time and there was no cool downtime for this level of the spell. But the biggest thing is that mana seems to have a regeneration rate of 0.4% of the total mana per second. 1 point of mana a second. Not a bad regeneration rate, but I would like to collect more mana to make the entire thing more efficient. Even with the mana from the frogs I''ve recently killed added I only have enough for 28 fireballs. While I was at killing frogs, I tested out my numbing pollen on a couple of frogs. The results were rather encouraging with both subject''s movement capabilities decreasing by a significant amount. If I were to make an uneducated guess it seemed their reaction times were easily 40% slower. Not an impressive amount but now that I know a bit more I can go after my next prey. The wolves. Between the new absurd length of my vines and the range of my fireballs, as well as my upgraded pollen I should be capable of taking on one of the wolves. And with the wolves being about as large as the ones on earth it means they''re a lot larger than me. This provides me with the perfect chance to test out how much of an increase my brutalizing chainsaw teeth capabilities are. Yes¡­ Today is the day I become the wolf slayer! 27 Bears and Wolves Oh My! Wolf Hunts Part 2 When I first set out on my mission to become the wolf slayer, I thought it wouldn''t be too difficult to find a wolf. But nothing is ever that easy for an honest and hardworking flower like me. Thanks to some sort of inner biological clock I was able to somehow have a decent vague sense of time. Sort of like how plants are adapted to be able to sense how much time passes. Thanks to that I was able to tell that after an hour of searching I came up empty petal. But eventually, I managed to find a pack of three wolves that seemed to be tracking something. I couldn''t tell what that was with my lack of tracking capabilities. But either way, I wasn''t willing to attack three alert wolves who are in the middle of the hunt. In fact, I was following them from over twenty feet away because of my unwillingness to attack that many unknown enemies at once. It seemed it only took a good ten or so minutes for them to find what they were looking for, however. All three wolves stopped and started growling at a large dark grey boulder that looked to be 10 feet in height. This world doesn''t have golems, does it? Why else would the wolves be growling at a rock of all things? Best to stay back and watch to see how this plays out¡­. Soon after the wolves started growling the boulder started to shift and a deep guttural growl that was felt more than heard emanated from the boulder filling me with an ominous feeling. Instead of backing off like I would have the wolves only became more determined and started snarling and snapping at the boulder. This appeared to have an effect on the large rock as it started to move and then stand to¡­. Is that a bear!? What I previously thought was a mere boulder was, in fact, a bear that when it stood on its hind legs rose to a height of over 20 feet. What had appeared to be stone was, in fact, the bears fur which now bristled with anger making it look like some sort of demonic combination of bear and porcupine. The massive beasts'' small eyes glared at the much smaller wolves in annoyance and it released a much more powerful roar that caused the leaves along my stem to tremble from the force. The wolves now seeing how truly terrifying their opponent really was whimpered in fear obviously regretful of their choice to anger such a monster. It was far too late for regrets now though. One moment the monster bear was roaring then the next it was in front of the wolves and already crushing one of the wolf''s bodies underneath its paws in an astonishing display of speed. The wolves yelped and turned to run upon seeing one of their brethren killed before they even had a chance to react. The bear swiped forward with a single paw that reached out 5 feet without stretching out its arm to its full length and sent the wolf flying several dozen feet into a nearby tree. The wolf''s body slammed into a tree with a sickening crunch. Instead of proceeding to kill the other wolf which was running it went back to its former spot and curled up. I was hiding in a bush a bit of distance away from the confrontation and trembling in a mix of awe and fear at the bear''s display of power. So much so I didn''t do anything other than tremble fearfully as the last surviving wolf sped past me. I may be a daring flower but even I''m not dumb enough to try and kill something near that monster! After waiting and watching the bear disguised as a boulder stay still for a couple minutes, I decided that it was safe enough to try and leave. Using my stealth skill, I kept as low to the ground as possible and crept away slowly. Once I was sure that I was in the clear I started running as fast as my many roots could take me from the bear zone. Now that I was sure I''m far enough away from the bear I shall take advantage of the bear''s fight to kill the lone wolf. I might never get an opportunity as good as this! A lone scared wolf ripe for the taking! Hue hue hue. Wasteful bear! Letting prey ripe for the taking slip away! It took a good deal of swinging around in the trees but soon I found the wolf who was currently trembling and whimpering in some bushes. I couldn''t blame the poor fella. That bear is scarier than even the time I almost got eaten by a bison monster. Don''t worry little wolf. I''ll put you out of your misery. I formed my fire rune and launched three fireballs towards the wolf succeeding in landing two of three of the attacks singing its fur and skin. The wolf let out a surprised yelp before snarling and looking up above its fangs bared. But then I launched another fireball which slammed into the wolf''s snout causing it to flinch back and whimper in pain. With the wolf now in pain and dazed I dropped from my perch and land on the wolf''s neck. My many thin vines then began to reach out and wrap around the canine''s snout to restrain it. While my vines busied themselves with that, I opened my petals and buried my thorns into my furry foes neck and started to shred through fur and flesh alike with my chainsaw teeth. The wolf growled and snarled as it shook its head side to side vigorously in a vain attempt at shaking me loose. The grip strength of many vines working in tandem proved to be strong enough to prevent me from being sent flying. So far, my potshots dazed it and my vines are proving to be very powerful but with how physically superior the wolf was compared to me I was barely hanging on as is. It was time to put the pollinator plan into motion. Pulling myself up the wolfs I blasted several consecutive rounds of numbing pollen up its snout for maximum effect. Right away the wolf started sneezing up a fit while shaking its head trying to remove the pollen. But with each passing second its movements became slightly slower. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Seizing the newfound weakness of the wolf my vines slithered into its mouth, up its nose, as well as started to stab into its eyes. I ripped and tore at anywhere my vines could get that. Going so far as to use several vines to start tearing into the inside its ears. All the while the wolf was going ballistic howling in pain and desperately tearing off at any vine its claws could reach. But despite the fierce struggle it soon collapsed dead with numerous wounds littering its face and neck alike. [Common wolf slain. Tier-1 basic monster entry unlocked. 2 skill points, 2 mutation points earned, and 2 MP absorbed. 11 XP total earned. 1 additional skill point earned.] It was a tough battle and I lost easily a dozen of my vines in the midst of it. But in the end, I am the hunter! And I prey upon the lone and weak! Now to carry on my exploration for prey¡­ 28 Time To Catch Up There are various types of crops grown by farmers. The most profitable however is the mana weed. The mana weed is a type of plant that only grows in areas with an abundance of mana like areas near dungeon entrances. This crop can be boiled down into a digestible compound which refuels MP. Its exactly for this reason that they are highly profitable. But monsters absorb mana from the very beginnings of their life which means that less mana goes to these crops and as a result, the quality of the crops falls as does the amount they sell for. Because of that larger monsters of tier 2 are typically seen as the biggest danger to small farming villages because of the mana they absorb. Excerpt from Botany for Idiots by Xenna freerider ~~~~~~~~ (Ellie POV) "What do you mean the adventurers ran away!?" The angry shouts of an adult drew my attention away from my dolls to the source of the yelling. Upon turning around I saw the village elder glowering at one of the grownups who work with the vegetables in the field. Which made for a comedic sight with him being around as tall as most 8-year-old children. "Elder we really should go inside to talk about this." The farmer warned the village elder while glancing around anxiously. "Fine. Follow me, lad." The elder growled before speed walking to his hut for their talk. With my curiosity piqued by the secrecy and the grownup mentioning the adventurers I tiptoed my way over to the hut when they went inside, intent on listening in on them. But before I could hear anything, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I spun around panicked that one of the grownups spotted me only to find the most horrific sight in the world in front of me! It was the annoying brat Rolan who always bothers me. He was around my age but was completely immature and a troublemaker to boot. His hair was carrot red, and he had freckles generously tossed onto his cheeks. "Ugh, what do you want?" I asked with a healthy dose of annoyance dripping from my words. "Nothin. Whatcha lookin at?" He replied unphased by my ire. Worse yet it seemed it went right over his based off the pure unfiltered curiosity in those big doe-eyed eyes of his. "The grownups are talking about the adventurers! Now pipe down so I can listen in on them!" I quickly answered the little boy nodded with a serious look in his eyes. I strained my ears to hear the conversation the elder was having with the grownup farmer. "So, what exactly did you mean by the adventurers ran away?" The wrinkled grownup questioned. "I was out in the field when I saw a few of the adventurers running out of the forest with a lot of wounds. It looked like they were running from something." "What? After they brought so many people they got beaten!? I hope the next group they send will be able to take care of those dryads¡­" "But the crops! If we don''t get rid of those dryads soon then their seedlings will take all the nutrients from our crops and we''ll be forced to starve. And we just had the celebratory feast, so our reserves are low!" "I know! The adventurers will complete the job soon. Besides if we didn''t announce the adventurers coming to kill the monsters and have the feast, we would have had people taking up arms to attack the damn things. And we both know what would happen if they did that." "Yeah, I know¡­ I''m just anxious right now." "We both are. Go back to the fields and do what you can for now." With that, the younger adult started for the door to go back to work. I turned around and scrambled towards a nearby bush yanking Rolan by his collar behind me. We just barely managed to get ourselves hidden before the grownup exited the house and started walking towards the fields. Ellie didn''t totally understand what the grownups were talking about, but she was sure that it wasn''t anything good. "Um. So when we gonna make some mud pies?" Roland asked while picking his nose. Looking back at him Ellie couldn''t help but facepalm and sigh while shaking her head. There''s always one of them¡­ ~~~~~~~~ (Joe''s POV) I AM THE MIGHTIEST FLOWER!! I have done it! I am at level 9! My stats are higher than ever! I killed so many frogs, and deer but I have done it! It''s a bloody path leveling up¡­ 45 deer and 133 frogs to be specific! But all of it for a good reason. Getting stronger so I can avoid death! It took 3 or so days to kill that many and the cumulative amount of health I lost over the past few days from facing off against so many deers. Actually ever since my genocidal campaign against the frogs, I''ve started to see fewer and fewer frogs¡­ And I even got a title! A mean one but a title! [Frog genocider: kill over 150 frogs. Tier 0 and tier 1 frog monsters will now flee from your very presence. Tier 2 frog monsters will now be wary of you.] Wait. Doesn''t that mean I''ll have a tougher time grinding off frogs now? Are you serious!? No! My broken level grinding has come to an end! Why must you do this to me oh unbenevolent system! Well, the intelligence stat seemed like it was broken too but that ended up having a cap. This is probably just the system''s way of punishing people who grind on one mob-like me. But on the other hand, I have a few hundred points for skills and mutations! Now I understand that they are basically low tier trash right now and only useful because I have a human mind to strategize with, and only ever faced low tier trash even when against humans, but I can''t help but be excited! I mean in discussions for useless magic you''ll see the dumbest of magic get made into a deadly and oftentimes terrifying thing! I''ve been doing the same thing and now I''ll be able to push it even further! Not to mention I''ll be getting to another perk after my next level up¡­ But that will have to wait. Now I need to figure out an actual plan to deal with the adventurer''s retaliation. The past few days have given me plenty of time to weigh my options. First of all, I can just choose to run away and abandon the dryads to avoid the danger of facing off adventurers. Or I can risk my own stem to fight along with them to defeat the adventurers. The problem is that it would be a never-ending cycle. Every time we beat them back they''d just return with more people that are stronger. That''s just how it works. But I want to fight the adventurers. Not entirely because I feel indebted to the dryads. I feel a tad bit indebted to them but I paid for their protection in frogs. The reason why I want to fight is to get a bit more XP quicker. The humans give higher XP than a monster of an equal tier. So I could level up quicker if I kill them. And I have the dryads to draw their agro with them being the bigger threat. It won''t draw away all the heat but most of it at the very least. No pain no gain. But with that, it''s time for the next big thing. Upgrading stats! [Current skills: Universal plant language level 2 Thorny defense level 3 Enhanced photosynthesis level 1 Enhanced mana sense level 1 Stealth level 4 Climbing level 2 numbing pollen level 1 Feather fall level 1 Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Tunnel sense level 1 Czech translation skill level 3 MP to HP convertor level 3 Fireball level 3 Available skills: No available skills. Available skill points: 246 Current mutations: Petals level 3 Stem level 1 Iron thorn''s level 1 Iron leaf level 1 Steel thorny teeth level 1 Enhanced root strength level 3 Toxic thorns level 1 Serrated thorns level 1 Thorn vines level 4 Chainsaw teeth level 1 Available mutations: No available mutations. Available mutation points: 244] Wow. Stockpiling really was the right choice! And the stats look rather clean to boot. I can only imagine what higher tier monsters would be getting for points¡­ But I digress. Lately, I haven''t been able to get a single new skill or mutation so I''ll be using as many points as possible to hopefully unlock some requirements for new ones. (A/N: Due to the number of skills being mass upgraded this chapter I will just list the upgrades one after another without any internal dialogue from Joe. This will only rarely happen if a lot is being upgraded.) [Fireball lvl 3 -> 5. Error. Tier requirement unmet. Please wait until the tier requirement is met. MP to HP convertor lvl 3 -> 5. Error. Tier requirements are unmet for upgraded version. Universal plant communication lvl 2 -> 5. Tier requirements unmet. Please wait for requirements to be met. Thorny defense lvl 3 -> 5. No available upgrades developed. Please wait for the next update. Enhanced photosynthesis lvl 1 -> lvl 5. Tier requirements are not met. Enhanced mana sense lvl 1 -> lvl 5. Tier requirement unmet. Stealth lvl 4 -> 5. Special upgrades are locked until tier requirement is met. Climbing lvl 2 -> 5. No available upgrades. Feather fall lvl 1 -> 5. No upgrades available. Tunnel sense lvl 1 -> 5. Tunnel mapping available. Purchased. Tunnel mapping lvl 1 -> 5. No available upgrades. Numbing pollen lvl 1 -> 5. The tier requirement has not been met. Czech translation skill lvl 3 -> lvl 5. Minor heal purchased. Lvl 1 -> lvl 5. Tier requirements for upgrade have yet to be met.] Yup this is good. Very good. By going the mind-numbing grinding route all of my skills are now maxed out. But tier requirements? I''m a tier 0! Well, an honorary tier 1 but that''s only in name. Which doesn''t really help. Did whoever made the system just get lazy for the description of the achievement and threw something random in? Probably. Now with my Czech translation skill maxed out I should be able to understand their language without any problems! Not to mention healing is now a part of my skill set! But anyways on to my next task! [Petals lvl 3 -> 5. Max expansion of the petals is now up to 10 inches. Special unlock available. Error. Tier requirements are not met. Iron stem lvl 1 -> 5. Tier requirements are not met. Iron thorns lvl 1 -> 5 Tier requirements have not been met. Iron leaf lvl 1 -> 5. Get to a higher tier. Steel thorny teeth lvl 1 -> 5. You are too low of a tier for the next upgrade. Enhanced roots lvl 3 -> 5 Toxic thorns lvl 1 -> 5. Tier requirements are unmet as of now. Serrated thorns lvl 1 -> 5 Thorn vines lvl 1 -> 5. Iron thorn vines available. Increases vines durability to that of iron. Purchased Iron thorn vines lvl 1 -> 5. Tier requirements have not been met yet. Chainsaw teeth lvl 1 -> 5. Tier requirements are unmet.] This grinding really is effective! At this rate, I''ll be creme of the crop for tier 0 monsters! The prodigal monster! All because of gamer grinding. But I''ve already spent three days on this grinding and now I have no idea if the adventurers will be arriving soon. Even if they aren''t preparing will be something I need to do. I obviously couldn''t prepare much on my own but there is a certain group of humanoids with opposable thumbs who could potentially help me. That''s right I''m talking about the one and only depraved fairies! Sure they may be small but other than me they are the only mobile allied monsters who can manipulate the world around them. They won''t be able to do too much with their size but what they can do will just be that much less I have to do. 30 Scouts!! Artifacts. There are various types for various purposes, all ranging from being a mere unbelievably comfortable chair to powerful weapons of death. But with that said, none of them have been able to be reverse engineered due to the complexity of the very materials they''re made of. And that goes without even mentioning the design of the artifacts themselves. The origins of these artifacts are entirely unknown, but there is no limit to the many speculations on this topic. Some say they are from other worlds. Others think artifacts are gifts from the systems, and the wildest theories claim they were made by ancient monster civilizations. -Memoirs of a Wrathful World by Workson Pikesons ~~~~~~~~~ (3 days later Amelia''s POV) It''s already been 3 days since they started making spikes out of various traps. No matter how many times I asked him, the flower would never say anything more than "It''s to teach the humans of this world the terrors of guerilla warfare." I''ve never heard of this guerilla warfare, but from how confident his pheromones seemed it''s probably something impressive. That wasn''t the only thing they made. Joe taught the fairies how to make strange sticks which they''d use to dig with. It looked like it was made with a sturdy stick small enough for them to comfortably carry and two to three flat teeth from humans strapped to one end. This, along with an assortment of other tools, were used to construct the sticks and various other things by the dozen. While they were at it, they enlisted our help in digging shallow holes within our reach in and out of the grove. I''m not sure what exactly Joe is planning to do, but whatever it is, I am thankful for it. The humans were most likely going to come back like he thought. And when they do, they will come back in numbers. A long time ago, humans who were much weaker than the "adventurers" we faced, fought me back when even the second oldest of us was little more than a sapling. I alone, barely managed to fight off the half dozen humans, but then a few days more a couple dozen of the humans returned with their sticks tipped with metal spikes and blades. Needless to say, I won at the cost of receiving several serious wounds. They thankfully weren''t very determined to kill me and retreated after a fourth of their forces were killed. Turning my attention to the burned birch tree, I couldn''t stifle the hate I felt towards myself for not being able to protect her. There was a time when I didn''t care for my siblings. A time I had no siblings. But when my first sibling, the maple tree came about, I watched her grow. Sometimes not helping her when she got caught up in conflict with the local monsters. Other times stepping in whenever she drew the ire of something out of her depth. I told myself I was only doing it because it would be bothersome to let those lowly beasts do what they wished in my territory. Then because I told myself it would be lonely without her company. But I knew the real reason. I just didn''t want to admit it. I thought it would make me weak. But I was wrong. It made me strong. Stronger than I could ever be when I was alone and selfish. I nurtured her, taught her how to survive. We laughed and killed together. And when the rest of our family began to sprout, we began to take care of them as well. For so long we stayed together and took care of each other as a family. I nurtured every dryad in this grove. But I still wasn''t able to protect them from the humans. But this time. This time I would. No matter the cost. ~~~~~~~~~ (Joe''s POV) "Spider Flower! Spider Flower! Does whatever a Spider Flower does! Can he swing from a web? No he can''t, he''s a flower. Look out! He is the Spider Flower!" I sang while swinging on tree branches with my vines on my patrol of the edge of the forest. I''ve been at this for the last few hours. We set up as many traps as we could and all we could do now was wait for any adventurers to show up. If our human foes didn''t show up then great! We still had all the traps set up to fend off any bastard dumb enough to try and enter this part of the forest. But if they did come after us, our traps would be able to injure them in substantial numbers. My trap warfare isn''t about killing enemies. No, it''s much more nefarious than that! These traps are designed to maim people, forcing others to take care of them which means even more people are unavailable for the actual fighting! Worse yet through slathering various¡­substances on spikes! I can promote infection and blood poisoning in the bodies of the victims to kill them in the long run. All without actually confronting the enemy. Well that''s only if the enemy actually cares about their fallen comrades. Monsters who don''t really work together won''t stop for their brethren, and swarm monsters like those bastard ants will only throw bodies at the problem. I wonder what happened to those ants? But I digress. This conflict with the adventurers is like the war between Vietnam and the US. The US, which is the adventurers in this case, are overwhelmingly superior in numbers, equipment, and training in general. Meanwhile, us monsters and our loose alliance are the guerilla fighters who basically are pretty much fucked in any serious fight head to head. That is if we don''t whittle them down. Even a guild of determined adventurers will give up after enough of them are sent back home crippled or in various stages of sicknesses! Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Hm? What''s that I see in the distance? It looks like¡­ It looks like a wagon being pulled by a cross between a cow and a lizard. And walking around it is what looks to be¡­ ADVENTURERS!! A LOT OF THEM!! There were around 30-40 adventurers walking around the cart with who knows what in the wagon to supply them. And they are heading directly towards our little corner of the forest! I have to get back to the others! I knew we''d be facing a lot of adventurers but just the thought of how many mages that must be amongst them is quite frankly, terrifying. And to make it worse, there are a scary number of adventurers with so much armor stacked on them, that they looked like walking tanks. This is going to be both the most dangerous, but possibly the most rewarding, battle I''ll ever take part in. Why the hell was I reborn as a monster? 31 Gorilla war!! (Fairy Joselines POV) "We have incoming! We have incoming! Adventurers inbound!" The pheromones of Joe the Rose broadcasted as he ran into the grove. Once he was sure he had their attention, he reversed directions and ran back off into the forest. I looked over to my sister next to me who was currently knitting a blanket out of human hair. "Looks like you should finish that knitting later," I said to her, "Yup." Came her casual reply. With that, I stood up from the stone I was sitting on and picked up an acorn cup (the top part of the acorn that looks like a bowl) and placed it upon my head. Using two straps made from sinew, I fastened the acorn cup tightly to my head as a helmet. Then I went with my sisters and started putting on sleeves for our limbs made from various small vines and leaves. Along with that, came a covering for our torso and helmet. For some strange reason, Joe insisted we make these. He kept calling them ghillie suits, and that they''re a must-have for stealth operations. I have no idea where he keeps getting these crazy ideas, but I have to admit that these ''ghillie suits,'' as he called them, are certainly good for blending into the foliage. But I have bigger things than ghillie suits to worry about. And that is seeing just how well these traps of Joe''s work against the adventurers. With that I grabbed several bone spears as long as I am tall while my mana flowed through my wings and my flight skill activated, allowing me to gracefully fly up into the air and zip into the forest. The rest of my sisters did the same as we scattered into the forest. It didn''t take long for me to find the adventurers. They were at the edge of the forest and looked to be preparing to enter the forest. Joe said all we had to do was keep our distance and let them suffer the wrath of the traps until he started the attack. From there, the rest of the plan would come into play. And we did just that. We waited. And waited. And waited. This is starting to get boring. I was following the humans from above in the foliage as they walked through the forest. It would be alright if the adventurers were walking at a normal pace but they were all taking their time. Looking around the area for any sign of us fairies no doubt. Too bad for them we now have these ghillie suits to keep us hidden. While I was amongst the branches and leaves of the trees I was nigh invisible to them unless they had special detection skills. And with how they were all creeping towards the grove right below us, they obviously didn''t. Now when will tho- "GAAAH!!" A shrill scream of pain pierced the air. Looking towards the front of the group, I spotted a human girl holding her leg as two nearby adventurers ran over to her. The first victim of many. ~~~~~~~~ (Joe''s POV) I watched from the treetops as the adventurer continued to scream while holding her leg. When the other two people who responded reached over, they began to search for the source of her pain. I couldn''t see it clearly from where I was positioned, but I didn''t need to be there to know what they''d find. They''d find dozens of thin but sturdy inverted spikes buried several inches into her ankle, with grime covering the spikes. Just thinking about it makes me sick. I may have copied and made a smaller version of the trap, but whoever invented this inverted trap is most certainly a diabolical mastermind. Even if you manage to get out of the trap without getting more injuries, you''d still need to deal with infection from the grime. And if they don''t have any convenient healing magic that can purge infections they''ll be inflicted with, they will be in for quite the painful experience. "Keep an eye out, everyone! It looks like there are traps in this forest!" One of the adventurers trying to help their wounded ally shouted to the others. "Traps? Why the hell would fairies and dryads be using traps?" One person asked. "No idea. Maybe it''s that flower that made the traps?" Another voice piped up. This spurred on an onslaught of questions and conjectures about the traps. Perfect. They''re starting to question what they''ve been told. Information is key in any conflict, but what if everything you''ve been told ended up being wrong? Now to strike before they can recover from the confusion of traps. My fireball glyph manifested itself and fired off a fireball that slammed into the chest of the adventurer who shouted the warning, sending him careening onto his back with a surprised yelp. The leather chest armor now was smoldering and blackened from my attack. Nowhere near enough to be considered lethal, but it sure as hell is a good way to start off our battle! Just after the signal for the attack hit the adventurer, dozens of bone spears started pelting those who are lightly armored. Most of them just bounced off of the thicker parts of the armor but those who were unfortunate enough to be targeted by the more accurate fairies had small spears embedded into cheeks, necks, and the occasional eye or two. And with the arrival of the bone spears came the pained cries from the unlucky people. "What the hell is attacking us!?" "I can''t see the enemy! Where are they!?" "They''re in the trees! In the tre- GAAAH!" I watched as the adventurer I just shot in the face with a fireball collapse to the ground screaming. And bullseye! I fired several more fireballs at the adventurers who were scurrying for cover. The only ones who didn''t bother to dive for cover were the half dozen or so adventurers in heavy plate armor. Any spears that happened to be aimed at them only bounced off of them like a rubber bullet would a tank. Maybe bone spears won''t be enough to do any harm to them, but cranking up the heat will! I started launching fireballs at one of the armored warriors, with each consecutive hit heating up the armor just a bit further. After the fireballs began pelting the tin man, he began to sprint back out of the forest. As he ran away, I redirected my fire pelting at the other armored adventurers. They were trying to defend anyone with bows and magic capabilities as they fired off arrows, while the mages used their magic to blindly hurl several inch long steel spikes into the treetops. Useless, of course, but at least they had enough sense not to start a forest fire. But soon enough, with the inside of their armor gradually heating up, the adventurers were forced to flee before they were cooked alive in their own armor. Upon seeing many of their ranks starting to run from the battle, the other adventurers began to retreat as well. First, it was little more than a trickle with only one or two of those with weaker wills running, but as our hidden onslaught began to chip away at their will, those who were left began to run in greater numbers. Soon enough, even the two who were trying to help the one person who got caught in one of the traps were forced to run away, leaving behind the trapped person. "HEY, YOU BASTARDS! DON''T LEAVE ME GOD DAMN IT! GET BACK HERE!" She screeched as the others left her behind. Now to deal with her. Unfortunately for her, she wouldn''t be killed. Instead, a much more terrible fate awaits her. One that will require hitting her with several doses of numbing pollen. But all in all, this has been a huge victory for our forces. The adventurers have been driven off without any casualties. Even though we didn''t manage to kill any of them, it''s still okay! They''re in all likelihood still shaken up, and by the time they muster up the courage to brave our trap ridden forest again, we''ll have more terrifying things in store for them. Now to set up the next trap¡­ Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Fuck. She won''t stop screaming. Time to knock her out before whatever counts as ears for me goes deaf. Sorry about this, but you made it personal. 32 Rude Awakening! Redone (Jaylene POV captured adventurer) Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Since when could monsters make traps!? And since when could they set up ambushes at that! We were told that we were going to exterminate a possible monster lord and its followers. That they were nothing out of the ordinary other than an unusual flower. But instead, my legs fucking stuck in a trap with a dozen spikes buried into my ankle, and the other adventurers left me to die. Without any warning, a flower dropped down in front of me. The flower didn''t do anything as it laid there, eerily still. Was it the monster flower we were told about? Is this just another trick by the monsters!? I don''t know anymore! The pain from the spikes is blurring my mind. I slowly reached for the knife in my sheath. Even if this was a trap, I''d be damned if I''d go down without a fight! As soon as my fingers wrapped around the reassuring leather of the knife handle, I whipped it out and sent a desperate slash at the prone flower. At the last minute though, the flower was propelled upwards by several vines and wrapped around my wrist with its body, stabbing its thorns into me. My blade managed to hit several vines, but it failed to cut through them. The flower then turned its petals towards them, and they opened up and grew in size. They revealed a horrific sight of dozens upon dozens of razor-sharp thorns lining the inside of the petals. Then suddenly, a sweet scent filled my nose and I started to get light-headed. My muscles began to slacken and I could dimly feel my knife slip out of my hand and fall to the ground with a dull thud. The sweet scent began to get stronger and I began to slowly lose control over my body. I then collapsed as I lost feeling in my limbs. The flower released its hold over my arm, walked over to my face, and lowered its petals closer to me. Dread began to overwhelm me as my chest constricted with fear. Is this how it ends? Getting mauled to death by a flower? No! I can''t let it end here! I refuse to let it end like this! Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. I tried, with all the remaining strength I had in my arm, to move it. To do something. Anything! My arm failed me though as it only twitched a bit in response. All the while, the flowery sweet smell grew stronger. I blinked once. Twice. Thrice. And then, after one final look at the eldritch horror of that flowers open mouth was all I had before I blacked out. (Joe''s POV) This is getting out of hand. We''ve already managed to push back three more attacks the adventurers made over the past day. It was starting to get dark and they still launched one last attack before setting up camp. Worse yet, with each attack, our ambushes caused less panic and our traps injured fewer people. We still managed to get a good 7 or 8 people with traps and another 2 with spears and fireballs. At least now at night, we can take a rest. But we can''t allow the adventurers to rest. That would be too kind of me to let them recover. This is guerilla warfare and in guerilla warfare, you must strike at any possible weak point the enemy may have! We will be sticking with the spears I had them make, but this time I gave them some tips on areas to strike at if you want to kill a person. So this time around we should have more confirmed kills. And just in case I also helped them make simple bows and equipped a fourth of them with said bows just in case. And just to make sure things go well, I''ll be going with them. If this night raid is going to be successful, I''ll need to oversee it personally. Besides, my strange plant anatomy makes it so I don''t actually need to sleep. So I might as well take advantage of that to constantly harass the adventurers. They need sleep after all! And sleep is for the weak anyway. Which means they are weak! Well if you go by gamer logic that is. But now I should really start leading my guerilla troops into battle. Man, this feels pretty cool, being able to lead the fairies like a general and all. And I''ll be the best damn general of them all. I wanna be the very best that no general ever was! Gotta beat them all! "Alright troops, form up! We''re heading out." I called out to the fairies resting in the trees. Upon hearing my orders, twenty fairies fluttered up into the air, chattering excitedly. I inwardly sighed and started swinging through the trees towards the edge of the forest. With the flock (Would it be a flock? Swarm? Murder?) at my back, I was more than ready to cause some restless terror for the human adventurers. It didn''t take long for us to reach the edge of the forest, and there they were. Several campfires were lit up around the wagon the adventurers arrived with and were currently resting. Of course, they weren''t so naive to have no lookouts. Hell, they didn''t have only one, but five, lookouts awake. One on top of the wagon, and one on each side of the wagon allowing them to keep an eye out on every side around them. Not a bad idea on their part. Certainly better planning than most protagonists and characters in multiple shows, animes, movies, games, media in general. But would that save them? NO! I am the motherfucking boss flower and ain''t no one messing with me. Nuff said! "Alright troops. Wait for my signal to attack. Then sneak into the tents and kill the adventurers as quietly as you can. But remember not to get yourself killed!" I barked out to the fairies. "Joe-" One of the fairies started to talk. "General." I interrupted. "General Joe. What exactly is the signal?" She asked me. "My dear Watson I will call you all via pheromones like I am now," I answered her confidently. Just as she opened her mouth to ask another question I held up a vine to silence her. "Don''t question it. Just follow orders. You''ll see why soon enough," I told her. With that said, I dropped down from the tree and began making my way towards the camp silently with my stealth skill. In order to let me blend in better with the green grass, I used my vines to wrap around my flower petals, effectively covering up the red from sight. This way I''ll be able to properly sneak up on the adventurers. And soon, my idea was proven correct as I managed to get within five feet of one of the lookouts. The closer I got to the lookout the slower I was forced to move. By now I was forced to move at a snail''s pace and circle around the adventurer to avoid the light from the campfire he was sitting near. But it was all worth it as I managed to get behind him without being spotted. As I crawled towards him the lookout stretched his arms and yawned. Don''t worry, I''ll soon put you to sleep, dear human. I opened up my petals and began releasing my numbing pollen towards the adventurer. I made sure it was only in minuscule doses so that the rate at which he''d get tired would be slow enough that he shouldn''t be suspicious until it''s too late. It may be slow going but this method is the best way to put down these adventurers without causing too much ruckus. By the time the adventurer body began to visibly slacken 5 minutes had already passed. Now is the time to strike! I leapt onto the adventurers back as my vines extended and began to wrap around his neck and tighten. Using my thorns I gouged open his arteries and managed to stifle the pained groan by blocking his airway. His body then slumped forward, still. [Human swordsman slain. 9 XP collected. 3 mutation points added. 3 skill points earned.] One down four to go. ~~~~~~~~ (30 minutes later¡­.) Done! It took a while, but by using the same method I used on the first lookout, I managed to kill the rest. There were, of course, a couple of close calls here and there, but all in all, I was successful in my mission. The downside is that, between using my numbing pollen on these five bastards and that last person, I''m now out of pollen stuff! But hey, that''s why I have the fairies. Speaking of which, it''s time to call them in. "All units move in! Remember, this is a stealth mission, so stay quiet!" I broadcasted on my pheromones to the fairies. I watched as the fairies began to close in on the camp silently. Thankfully, they were able to turn off the glowing vine patterns that mark the fairy''s bodies. So at the very least, they won''t have a neon bullseye on their back. With this, there should be nothing to keep us from slaughtering everyone in their sleep! Wait. What''s that? There''s movement in one of the tents¡­ Why is there movement from one of the tents!? I did everything silently though!! This is metagaming, damn it! Hacking! You better just be one of those people who toss in their slee- "WAKE UP!! THERE''S A PLANT MONSTER IN THE CAMP!!" An adventurer shouted while running out of the tent with their staff in hand. The adventurer was a man and had various animal pelts for armor, and their staff had green vines and leaves entwining it. Their head swerved side to side in search of something, until their eyes landed on me. And creepily enough, they were glowing with bright green. "There you are, you pesky weed!" They growled as they raised their staff and blasted a green ball of energy at me. I dove to the side, barely avoiding the ball of energy as it rocketed past me and into the sky. I watched in horror as the surrounding tents began to show signs of movement in them as the weirdo mages shouting woke them up. How did he know I was here? Could he detect my pheromones with some sort of skill? It doesn''t matter now! The adventurers were waking up and the ambush failed! Now I can only roll with the punches and escape from the camp while causing some chaos! I began launching fireballs at the druid looking mage while looking at the direction the fairies were in. Out of the darkness, dozens of arrows flew towards the adventurers getting out of the tents. The still groggy people haven''t managed to get any armor on yet and were defenseless against the bone shards. Various cries of pain erupted from the adventurers as their skin was pierced by the arrows. It seems that at the very least the fairies were smart enough to keep their distance and bombarded the humans from the relative safety of darkness. This druid man, on the other hand, is probably crazy. He''s told the other adventurers to stay back and let him handle me, and instead of blasting some more of those fancy green lights, he whipped out some pine cones. Then he started throwing them at me. I''ll say that again, do to my own disbelief of reality. Throwing. Pine cones. At me. I used my vines and kept batting away the pine cones. Most of them landed behind me, and the mage didn''t learn his lesson and kept throwing them at me. Looking at the other adventurers give us plenty of room despite the chaos from the fairies'' hidden attacks only made me question reality further. Is this really the real world? It couldn''t be if they considered throwing fucking pine cones at killer flowers as a valid attack strategy. The mage abruptly stopped throwing pine cones as he grinned and started cackling. Is he starting to lose his mind? Well, I wouldn''t be surprised considering the fact that he used pine cones as his weapon of choice against me. CRACK! ¡­ Ok. I''ll bite. What in the nine flowery hells was that? I know I have a 360 viewpoint so the crack I heard must have come from one of the pine cones hidden behind the others that were thrown. From in between the scales of the pine cones dozens of barbed tendrils slid out. Soon after, the same began to happen to the rest of the pine cones as they all began to stand up on their tendrils. Ok. What the fuck is going!? 35 The Scout Regiment! Gaaah! I hate monsters with viiiines! Well, not me of course. I''m great. But the pine cones, on the other hand, aren''t. I swear, these things aren''t just mindless hounds for the humans. They''re learning and strategizing! The pine cones on the ground constantly pick up anything they can throw and start hurling it at me. Then the pine cones swinging after me would use the opportunity to close the distance between us and harass me with their barbed vines. Why are they coordinating!? How are they coordinating!? I don''t sense any pheromones in the air so it can''t be that! But then that means they''re using another means to communicate. Now''s not the time to worry about that Joe! Gotta focus on getting to the grove, not on figuring out how these pine cones work. At least not yet anyway. Every so often, I''d use a few of my vines to snap smaller branches and throw them down at the pine cones below me. Why exactly I did that, was just to spite them. I had absolutely no way to actually harm them anyways. So I could at least make them angry. There! The grove was just up ahead! I sped up my swinging as I propelled myself forward. I threw my body into the grove and landed on my vines. "Amelia! Fucking pine cones!" I screamed as I started running deeper into the grove. The pine cones sprinted in behind me. One of the lead pine cones leaped forward after me. Just as it was about to land on me, a massive branch as thick as a man''s waist landed directly on top of it. It didn''t stop there as it swept towards the rest of the pine cones, sending them flying. They landed just outside of the grove, and before they had any time to recover several branches from another dryad landed on them, crushing them into tiny bits. "Yesss! They''re finally dead!" I joyously exclaimed. I did a little victory dance in celebration of my hated enemies'' demise. Well, the best victory dance I could manage with roots for legs. I''m sure it looked like an absolute shit dance to others but they can suck on my roots. It''s not like the majority of people are good dancers! But I digress. The bastard pine cones are finally dead! "You''re welcome." A voice interrupted my thoughts. I recognized that the voice, or rather pheromones, belonged to the one and only Amelia. "Oh um thanks," I mumbled while turning away from her. Fuck! Damn this 360 vision! I can''t even look away when I get embarrassed. Alfred, I''d like to file a complaint about your mana senses. It clearly is defective. "So where exactly did those¡­ Pineyeons come from?" Amelia asked me. So that was their name¡­ Dumb, just like them! Anyways, it seemed she wasn''t the only one interested in their origin. How did I know? I could practically feel the gazes of the other dryads burning into me! It''s making my petals tingle and I do not like that at all. "All I know is some weirdo mage started throwing them at me. Next thing I know, the bastards were whipping out their own vines and shrugging off anything I threw at them. And I''ll have you know, its fucking terrifying to be defenseless like that! And what type of mad idiot makes killer pine cones!? PINE CONES!!" I raged, emphasizing my anger by flailing my vines around like some sort of demented spaghetti monster that was angry over not getting any sauce. "Well, you are still a weakling. I''m honestly surprised you''ve managed to kill the humans. You just need to keep leveling up!" Amelia rushed to comfort me. Meanwhile, a couple of the other dryads snickered. They dare to find comedic relief in my suffering!? Dryads really are an audacious bunch! Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "Well nevermind that. We have bigger problems than my own unbridled rage. If that druid man had these Pineyeons up his sleeve, who knows what else he has. Heck, I wouldn''t be surprised if they started using more of those things as minesweepers. Which means they''ll be attacking the grove soon." I announced to the others. "Don''t worry! We have this handled! So, what do we do?" Chimed in one of the fairies. "Umm¡­ Any ideas Amelia..?" "I don''t. You''re the one taking the lead, aren''t you?" She replied with a hint of amusement. Fuck. When did I become the official leader? Well, I guess I did set up the entire trap defense and such, but my ambush failed. But I guess that just means this time I have to succeed! For XP! For pride! And most importantly, so I can figure out what the hell is going on with my god damn life! Well fuck. What the hell should I even do to prepare for the adventurers? I''m not even sure when they''ll be attacking! If they''ll be attacking at all! Or if they have reinforcements with more tamed monsters to attack us with. Fucking hell, man. Why the hell would there be adventurers using monsters to fight!? I hate summoners and the like for reasons like this! It makes life so much harder! That''s it! There are way too many unknowns to make a proper strategy! It''s time to form the Fairy Scout Regiment! Let''s hope none of them get eaten. "Listen up monsters and mobsters! I need three teams of three fairy volunteers! Those who volunteer shall be sent to spy on the enemy forces and bring back any valuable intel they can gather. Once this objective is completed, they must relay the information back to me. Any questions?" I announced to the others. "Oh! Oh! Oh!" One of the fairies, Joseline I think, immediately raised their hand and flew up and down in the air. I guess the flying version of hopping? Anyways, I looked around for someone a bit more¡­ mature to call upon. "Come oon! Pick me! Pick me! Piick meeee!!" She begged. Haah. I''m really going to have to call her, aren''t I? "So what exactly would count as valuable information?" She inquired, tilting her head slightly to the right. That¡­ that is actually a good question. Not at all what I would have expected from someone with her childish demeanor. "Number of enemies, any possible reinforcements. Whether or not they have more monsters working under them. Anything that seems out of the ordinary. I''ll leave it up to the groups to decide what seems weird since I''m not able to be there." I answered her question. "Oh! Also, do we get a bigger share of the loot if we volunteer!?" She added quickly. Fucking hell man. I mean from an economical standpoint that makes sense, but our very existence is at stake here! Why would you be concerned about that!? "Sure sure. All volunteers come forward." I gave an exasperated answer in return. Now time to sort through the volunteers and see if I can fortify the place a bit more... 36 Plans Mess Up Alright. I just sent the scout fairies out to keep tabs on the enemy just ten or so minutes ago. With them doing that, I can start planning on how the hell I''ll defend the grove. Not an easy feat to solve with our limited resources. If I just had some handy dandy magic or a god damn cheat system, I''d actually be able to win pretty easily against them. Suddenly, a screaming ball of glowing light zipped into the grove. "Joe! We have trouble! Lots of it!" The ball of light shouted. Wait. That''s not a ball of light! That''s Joseline! Why the hell do these fairies always look like god damn balls of light from a distance!? "Calm down, Joseline. Just tell me what this trouble is." The moment I said this though, she gasped, staring at me in absolute shock. "He knows my name!" She squealed while dancing around in the air happily. "Joseline. Focus." "Ah! There''s a lot of adventurers heading this way! And they''re using those pine cone things to find your traps!" "WAIT WHAT!?" The adventurers actually did use those pine cone bastard pine cones like a minesweeper!? Why!? WHY!? Gaah! We''re totally fucked now! We''ve barely been back for ten minutes and they''re already pressing for a counterattack! What to do!? What to do!? "Umm. Joe? Are you alright..?" Joseline asked while reaching out a hesitant hand. It was only then that I realized the entire time I had been panicking mentally, I was trembling while eerily silent. Shit. I must look terrified right now. That or horrifying. I''m not sure which is worse. "Don''t worry. Just. Well¡­ Gather everyone! We need to prepare for battle! A big one." I told her before walking off. She did a mock salute before flying off. Aw geez. What the hell will I even do!? I''m not prepared at all for this sort of thing! I''m not a god damn war general! Ok, keep calm Joe. What would Winston Churchill do in a situation like this? Well, I don''t know! I''m not the great Winston Churchill, now am I!? But you know what I am though! The Terrible Joe! And the Terrible Joe says fuck it! If those adventurers want a fight, then a fight they shall have! ~~~~~~~~~ (A few minutes later¡­ Joes POV) There''s the bloody bastards! Striding through the forest all cocky like they own it! Well, they''re actually slowly walking through the forest with half of them keeping a watchful gaze on the treetops. Seems they''re now a bit concerned about us attacking them from above this time around. I have to admit, their formation this time around isn''t half bad. At least, that''s what my unprofessional opinion is. I''m no war strategist after all. The adventurers themselves were spread out with a couple of feet between each of them. Probably to avoid getting arrows and fireballs poured on a large clump of them. Which sucks since that would have made it even better target practice for me. The druid looked to be in the middle with a couple of adventurers in plate armor and wielding shields nearby him. Probably to protect him from any attacks. And then there are the god damn pine cones. There looked to be around a dozen of them leading from the front. They all had their vines stretched out in front of them to locate any of my spike traps. Every time they found one, they would raise several vines in the air to let them know before moving on. Of course, they removed the camouflage from the trap so the adventurers would be able to see it. Why are they so good at their job? You''re probably wondering where me and the fairies though, aren''t you Alfred? Not that you don''t already know since you were there, but I''ll enlighten you anyways! You might have been grabbing a bite to eat while it went down, after all! You see, Alfred, I rounded up half of the fairies and took to the treetops to see if we could soften the enemy up a bit before they reached the grove. The other half had to stay with the dryads and help protect them. This left me with a bit over a dozen fairies at my disposal. Not much but in guerilla warfare, it''s less about numbers and more about good tactics to fuck with your enemies head. I think. That''s probably not it since I actually don''t know a whole lot about it. But even if this was actually proper guerilla warfare, I haven''t been able to do it for very long so I don''t think the effects have taken enough of a toll on them. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. This won''t be an easy fight. For now, hit and runs will probably be our only real option if we want to do any damage and still be ALIVE afterward. Now then. Time to give the signal for the hit and runs. And THIS time, I''m not going to use my pheromones because of that god damn druid! And that signal is simple! So simple even an idiot can understand it! Two fireballs fired at the druid for guerilla warfare, and three to run the hell away. I made sure to remind them multiple times that only counts for the start of the battle, just in case. My fireball glyph once again lit up in preparation to fire. Just as I was about to fire though, the druid looked in my direction. The moment his green eyes landed on me, his face lit up with a maniacal grin. It was only then that my fireball launched at him. He held his staff in both hands and BAM! He swatted the fireball aside sending it flying into the forest. The second fireball followed shortly behind. Using the bottom of his staff, he knocked the fireball up into the sky. All with that shit-eating grin on his face. The druid then pointed his staff at me and fired off three bolts of green energy at once! I leapt up deeper into the trees, out of the path of the energy bolts, and prepared myself to launch more fireballs. Just as I was thinking it was safe, the energy bolts turned back towards me! What the fuck!? Using my vines, I slung myself through the branches to get clear of the energy bolts path. However, just like before, the energy bolts turned and came flying back after me. Are these fucking tracking magic bolts!? This is major hacking bullshit, right here! I rushed around the treetops while blasting fireballs at the energy bolts in hopes of making them blow up before they hit me. Much to my dissatisfaction, the energy bolts were able to twist out of the way of both branch and fireball alike. I think I might just have to sacrifice a few more limbs to get out of this mess. Fuck it. I''m not about to die just yet! I lashed out with several of my vines towards the energy bolts. Surprisingly enough instead of curving around them, the energy bolts zoned in on them and blasted them to bits. A few more vines now destroyed! But at the very least, now I know the magic, while advanced, isn''t advanced enough to pick out the individual parts of a target. But seriously. At this rate, I''ll run out of vines to use against my enemies! Now onto helping my fairies in this battle! Oh. Oh fuck. This. This isn''t good at all. 1 Awakening Ugh. My head. It feels like it''s about to explode! Is this what a hangover feels like? If so I pity the poor bastards who get drunk out of their minds. Why? Because it''s simply hellish! But I''ve got bigger problems to worry about. Where the hell am I and what the heck is going on? I can''t see anything! Not even the slightest bit of light anywhere. Just darkness. Not middle of the night darkness but an unending sea of black. I squinted my eyes trying to get a glimpse of even the faintest of outlines in my surroundings to no avail. For some reason, I can''t see a damn thing. This isn''t good. This really isn''t good. Am I going blind? That couldn''t be it, right? That better not be it! I still have a hell of a lot of things to see in the world! Hell, I haven''t even properly looked at a proper sunset but now that the threat of blindness is looming on the horizon I want to see one before going blind! Hold up and get ahold of yourself you dumbass. There has to be some logical explanation that''s better than being blind. Like being kidnapped! Well, that''s not exactly better but it''s still an explanation. And therefore my point still stands! Just barely. Now let''s see what I can feel out¡­ That''s strange. Very strange. I can''t feel my arms. Now that I think about it I also can''t feel my legs. Haha. This is bad. Very bad. Why can''t I feel my legs!? Help! I need help! Wait. I''m speaking but I don''t hear my voice. I can''t speak!? This situation is getting worse with every passing minute! [INTEGRATION IN PROCESS] The hells that mean? What integration!? [INTEGRATION COMPLETE] [BOOT UP COMMENCING] Ok, this is getting a bit weird now! You''re weirdness disembodied voice please stop talking gibberish! [BOOT UP COMPLETE] Just as I was about to continue my protests against this jibberish I noticed a change in the surroundings. I could see. I COULD SEE! In a very strange way at that. Now I could see that I was outside. Where exactly I couldn''t tell since all I could see were splotches of colors thrown randomly around the place. A lot of green all around me. Some brown there. Sprinkles of brighter colors like red, and yellow. All in all, a very disorientating sight to behold. But on the bright side, I can see again! Just in a very messed up way. Wait. Does this mean my eyes are damaged!? GAAAH! This can''t be! My beloved 20/20 vision! How did this even happen!? [ERRORS DETECTED BEGINNING RECALIBRATION] This again? What the hell is this thing blabbering about? [ERRORS RESOLVED] Once these errors were resolved the colors in my vision slowly became clearer until I could make out general shapes. ¡­ Wonderful. I got upgraded to being able to see shapes instead of blobs color! I am sooo thankful! I''m practically bleeding pure grateful ichor right now! Haah... Well, since I can more or less see maybe I can finally see where I am? Now that I was able to see again I decided it would be best to take a look around. But with a quick look around I discovered I was no longer in Kansas. No matter which direction I was looking at I saw only gargantuan trees and lush greenery. It looks just like it does in the pictures. I''m in the middle of a rainforest. A fucking rainforest! This wasn''t supposed to be in my vacation plan. But other than the absurd amount of plant life there wasn''t much else to see. And as one would think there was absolutely no sign of civilization. This is bad. Very very bad. So bad that I can''t overstate how bad it is. The rainforest is filled with things that want to kill me! What if I''m in an Australian rainforest!? Do they even have rainforests? Nevermind that. I just need to stay calm and find a way out of this green hell. Huh. That''s strange. I can''t move my legs. Why can''t I move my legs? It feels like they''re stuck... I decided to take a look down to see if my legs were stuck in something. But instead of seeing my jean-clad legs, I saw a thin green line. ¡­ What should I even say to this? I mean really what should I even say? This isn''t something that happens every day, and things that don''t happen every day deserve a unique response. Ok. I''ll just ask a question. It''s a lot easier. WHERE THE ABSOLUTE GOD OF FUCKS ARE MY LEGS!? Wait. My arms! Do I still have my arms!? I began looking at the areas where my arms would be only to see that there were no arms. My. Arms. Are Fucking. GONE! How the hell does someone even handle something like that!? Wait. I looked at both sides at the same time. I shouldn''t be able to do that. Can I? No, I can''t! Wait a moment. Then why can I see the trees, grass, and sky at the same time? Oh god. I''VE GROWN EXTRA EYEBALLS! [STATUS MENU OPENING] Wha- [Species: Carnivorous Flowerbud (Rainforest variant) Level: 1 Name: Unknown MP: 0 Skill points: 1 Trait points: 1] The hell? A stat menu? How the hell am I even able to see it so clearly? It looks as if it''s floating in the air in front of me, how strange... And while we''re asking questions why the heck does it not have my name there!? That''s just plain disrespectful! I have a name just so you know! It''s! Its¡­ My name is¡­ Why can''t I remember my name? What''s my name!? I can''t remember my name! Calm down. Just- just calm down. I''m sure it''ll come back to me! I just have to focus on the here and now. That and find my way to a town or something. But back to this¡­ stat menu. Maybe it''s just a drug-induced hallucination or something but between that the strange disembodied voice, and the fact that my body isn''t exactly what it used to be¡­ Things are definitely strange. Lets just put it that way. It seems that I''m a carnivorous rosebud of all things. Now I''d be inclined to disagree with this but my umm body says otherwise. So maybe there is an inkling of truth to whatever this menu is telling me. But with that said I''ve got no god damn idea what a carnivorous rosebud is! Am I supposed to run around and eat poor little bunnies!? And then there are these points. Skills, and traits. All very reminiscent of an RPG. I''ll need to figure out what I can do with those. Well enough thinking about this stat menu. I haven''t gotten anything productive done just thinking about it anyways. So... How the hell do I walk? 2 Freedom at last!` There have been a few complications with exploring this whole new world. The main one is that I''ve been having some difficulties moving. And by that, I don''t mean I can''t move. For whatever reason, plant biology, or at least what counts as plant biology in this world allows for plants to actually move and walk. I know this mainly because for the past couple hours I''ve watched various flours and ferns occasionally pop out of the ground and wander off to who knows where. Let me clarify a bit. They quite literally popped out of the ground and walked off on their fucking roots. This world''s plants get to use their fucking roots as legs! The roots on these plants are ridiculously thick too! Thicker than one would think at least. Either way plants in this world are seriously weird. I''m a bit concerned about seeing what animals this world has... But I digress! Now given what I saw I obviously tried to walk and¡­ and failed. To put it simply I had very little feeling in my legs and even now an hour later I was only just barely beginning to get feeling back in my roots. The feeling was reminiscent of that pins and needles feeling you get when a part of your body falls asleep. All in all strange. Just not as strange as these circumstances. But on the bright side nothings tried to eat me yet. So I''ve been pretty lucky so far. I can''t say why these other flowers and ferns haven''t tried to eat me despite the current state of things, but none of them have attacked each other yet either. Maybe there''s some sort of beneficial relationship their in or there''s some sort of unspoken rule? Either way- Wait. I can feel something in my roots¡­ Could it be? Mayhaps I''ll be able to join the other shrubbery and walk again!? No! Calm down you can''t let your emotions get the best of you! Even the smallest of letdowns when your stranded all alone in unknown land can be detrimental to your survival! Keep calm and analytical¡­ Calm and analytical I say! Wowzers! This feeling... At first, it was only a slight tremble. Then a wiggle, and soon my roots were starting to pull themselves free from the confines of the earth! Yes! Yes! Freedom at last! With a few more tugs I managed to free my roots. And now I was finally able to see my roots err hideous roots? Bits of brown which I''ll assume is dirt still clung to thick lines of white, but a bit of shaking was able to fix that. Even after seeing the various other flowers and their strangely thick roots I was still unprepared to see my own roots. Instead of a tangled mess of a few thick roots and dozens of smaller roots, there were only a dozen thicker roots. I can''t really say how big they were considering I have no idea how big of a flower I am, but I can say that they''re around as thick as my own stem. But enough ogling these roots of mine! Now that I''m finally free of that dirt prison I can finally explore the area! Maybe even find a trail or something to find my way back to a village or something? I know I probably can''t really do much even if I make it to a village considering my situation, but I''ll cross that bridge once I get to it. What''s important right now is that I find some hint of civilization. Now I don''t really know all that much about rainforests and even if I did this is a world with walking plants. I can''t expect everything to be the same here. But this, of course, means I need a plan! But considering my lack of experience when it comes to planning and my current situation I shall just walk in one direction until I''m somewhere new and call that the plan. It''s not much of a plan but it''s something! As per usual the various flowers were going about their day wandering around on roots with a similar structure as my own. The entire scene of plants walking was surreal, to say the least. Like that small but strong feeling of something off. But if you were to substitute the plants with people and the rainforest with a mall then this place would just be like any other busy mall. Just with you know. With plants. Thankfully for me, the other plants didn''t pay me any mind when I stood up. With a quick glance at my roots, I was able to tell right away that walking would be a tad bit difficult for me. Keep it together, you''ve got this! Sure you have more root leg thingies than a spider, but it''s only walking! How hard can it really be? I slowly lifted up a single root and took a step forward with it before repeating it again with another root. So far so good. I continued to take one small step at a time as I gradually became more accustomed to my new way of walking. Soon enough I began to speed up once I got used to my odd way of walking. Alright, this will work! It is working! Ha! Haha! Look at me learning how to walk in a whole new body instantly! You''re a fucking genius! Fuck yeah- Oh, shit! Just as my confidence reached its peak one just one of my roots moved just a bit slower and ended up tangling with the next root in line. Which in turn tangled the next root! This quickly resulted in my roots knotting themselves up and sending me crashing to the ground with a barely audible thud. I slowly picked myself up from the ground while shaking off the clumps of dirt that stuck to my stem. The part of my stem which hit the ground stung a tad bit which seems ridiculous. Aren''t plants supposed to be a tough bunch? So why does this hurt so much!? Whatever just means that it''ll be a bit harder to walk than I thought. Walking attempt two! Once again I took a tentative step forward as I started to walk. This time around I decided to take it slow to avoid the little accident I had last time. And it worked! I wasn''t tripping while walking! Sure I was going slower than before but I was still making progress, which is all that matters. With that issue done and over with it''s time to explore this forest for a way out. And hopefully not die in the process! 3 Close Encounter Hup two three four five six! Hup two three four five six! Hup two three four five six! Wow, it really does help to scream numbers while walking! Especially when you have a ridiculous number of limbs. Despite the fact that the terrain isn''t exactly the best fit for marching, I''ve made do despite this. And I haven''t found even one noteworthy thing as of yet! Rainforests are truly large and not very interesting! But that only makes them even more difficult to navigate. Which is hard enough without tripping over your own feet every five minutes. Which gets old very quick! But other than that my exploration has been pretty uneventful. I can''t say exactly how long its been since I departed from the area I started off in, but it must''ve at least been an hour if not more. Walking for so long was beginning to get to me though. My roots stung every time I moved as they became sore. Maybe plants have less stamina than a person does? That or my roots just aren''t used to walking. It might just be the latter rather than the former. I know people like to say rainforests are a lively place, but now that I''m in one that doesn''t seem to be the case. Actually now that I think about it this forests been quiet to an almost suspicious amount¡­ Aren''t these places supposed to have a ton of creepy icky crawlies, birds, and frogs? The only things I''ve actually seen so far are plants! And even then its been a little while since I''ve seen another plant walking¡­ A sudden chill ran down my back as my leaves became uncomfortably itchy. I slowed down while looking around at the underbrush for any signs of some life. Any life at all, but was only met with eerily still greenery. Something wasn''t right. If I wasn''t sure of it before I was now. White noise filled the ear in the absence of any other sounds, and a thick foreboding sense of dread weighed down the air. Heck, this foreboding shit was more suffocating than being the third wheel when your two best friends started to have a thing together. And that is seriously suffocating! Not that I speak from experience. Enough being a paranoid idiot. I should really get to somewhere safe right now. Well, as safe as one can be in the wilderness. I''m not sure how safe that can be but hopefully, it''s relatively safe. I marched my way as quickly as I could while keeping a close eye on my surroundings. Well as close as I could with how fucked up my eyesight is. Thanks to my excellent sense of humor I''ve been able to stave off some of that dread from earlier. So I shouldn''t be panicking any time soon! I hear bad things happen when a person panics and I don''t want to be one of the idiots who panics and gets themselves killed! Now let''s just hope I''ll find somewhere safe soon- Crack Wait. What was that? I slowed down while looking behind me to where the source of the sound came from as the feeling of dread returned and pressed down on my stem. Slow thudding footsteps broke the silence and grew closer with every passing moment. Oh fuck. Oh fuck. This sounds bad. I''m getting boss battle horror vibes and I do not like that! I need to hide now! I am not about to get killed because I didn''t realize something dangerous was coming towards me! Looking around I spotted a particularly large tree root that partially jutted out of the ground, and yeeted I repeat yeeted myself over it. I then tucked my petal covered head down and hopefully out of sight just as the sound of bushes being rustled and crushed marked the arrival of something. A low growl that seemed to vibrate the very air ranged out in the empty forest, followed up by gruff sniffing. The footsteps of the creature thudded closer to my hiding spot. Thud Thud Thud But then it ceased abruptly. Silence. Not a sound could be heard for what felt like an eternity. Not even the sound of an animal breathing almost as if whatever creature was on the other side of my hiding spot just disappeared. And then a low pitched growl shook the innards of my body once more causing me to unconsciously freeze as the claws of terror scratched at the edges of my sanity. The stomps started up again this time slowly growing quieter. Soon deafening silence once again overtook the forest now that the beast seemed to be gone. Despite the silence and the sound of it leaving I didn''t dare move even slightly. I continued to stay like this for the next few minutes. SQUAWK! What the absolute fuck was that!!! I jumped while spinning around trying to find the source of the sound, ready to flee at the first sign of danger. When nothing leaped out to kill me I stood there for several moments processing what just happened. It was just a bird. It was just a fucking bird. Are you fucking kidding me!? I just had a near-death experience and you squawked at the worst possible moment you pellet brained living ball of feathers! Hoo. Haa. Calm yourself. Calm yourself. No need to get angry at a bird you can''t see. There are much bigger problems to worry about. More specifically whatever the fuck that monster is! I mean seriously! The sound of those footsteps was crazy! And the growls. They shook me! I''ve been fucking shooked! Literally! How the hell does that even happen!? But the crisis has been avoided! This time. But now I have to worry about possible giant murder monsters. Oh god, what if it comes back!? I need to find somewhere safe just in case then! Even if it''s gone now there''s no telling whether or not it will be back¡­ and next time I might not be so lucky. Alright, we have our first proper goal for today! Find somewhere safe. It should be simple enough, right? It has to be! Now that I had an actual goal I started walking in the opposite direction of the monster, intent on avoiding it like the fucking virus. Right away I noticed a change in my walking. It was easier to walk. The difficulty of walking on so many limbs was only slightly easier but even that little bit had a dramatic effect! It seems that scare did something useful after all! Not that I''d want to put myself through it again just to walk a bit easier. I mean don''t get me wrong I''m not stumbling nearly as much as I did before, which is nice. But I could have died back there! Nevertheless, it''s nice to actually be able to walk like I''m not having a seizure every couple minutes. This time around I was being a bit more cautious of my surroundings just in case there was another creature out there I had to worry about. And this time I was definitely paying a lot more attention to the ambient noises in this jungle! Before when that thing was near there was absolutely no noise. But now that it was gone there were birds tweeting in the distance and frogs croaking. All in all the forest was ridiculously loud! It''s a bit crazy that I never actually noticed everything go quiet until it was nearly too late. Maybe I''m just not as perceptive as I''d like to say I am. I''ll make sure to not make that mistake again! Now that I think about it I don''t actually know what that creature even looked like and what it could do. That''ll certainly make it more difficult to find someplace safe from it when I don''t even know what can and can''t stop it¡­ And with my eyesight just finding a place will be difficult! But my life is on the line so it''s not like I have a choice. Well onwards to find safe haven! Hopefully, before it gets dark. The night would make my already poor vision far worse. 5 Creepy crawlies! Damn it. This is not good. I''ve been looking for shelter for hours and I still haven''t found any! No caves, no conveniently shaped tree roots. Nothing! Whats a plant to do when they can''t find shelter? Seriously what should I even do!? I''m not about to risk sleeping in the open! All the worst things come out at night and I do not want to see what horrors come out in this place. But with that said I still need to find some form of shelter or I will be forced to stay out in the open during the night¡­ I suppose I could try climbing a tree to find some safety up there? But I''m not sure if I can actually climb with my flimsy roots. I have slowly gotten more control of my roots but even now sometimes they don''t move the way I want them. Or I accidentally move three roots in different directions when I only wanted to move one root in one direction. These are trying times. Very trying times indeed. With that said there may be another option which is more¡­ feasible with my current resources. It''ll just be a bit more nerve-wracking and extremely dangerous. Scratch that nerve-wracking part. It will be testing just how strong my willpower truly is! The plan relies mainly on one thing. The fact that I''m a plant and with the exception of my flower bud of unknown color, I''m sure I don''t look too different from the other plants here. At least when it comes to color. So maybe if I hide in some really dense foliage and keep my bud tucked away I could avoid getting stomped, eaten, and otherwise killed. I have heard plants can be really tough to kill but I don''t want to test that theory out. I need a name for these two plans¡­ plan big tree and plan veggie camo. Man, I''m bad at coming up with names, but it''s calming to do something other than fret over the possibility of brutal death at the hands of who knows what. Like I said. Calming. Anyways I think I''ll go with the veggie plan. And since I''m in a rainforest I''m sure I''ll be able to find a suitable place to hide in. I mean I??m in a fucking rainforest for crying out loud! Everywhere I look there''s green! Now, where can I hide¡­ Oh! That spot looks like a dandy spot to hide! I walked over and hopped into a particularly dense spot of undergrowth. I nestled into the vegetation to make sure I was comfortable before taking a look around. Nothing particularly strange popped out to me in my surroundings, but in the end, my eyesight isn''t very reliable so I''d still need to be on my toes. Or I guess roots in this case. Now time to wait this night out and find out whether or not plants sleep! ¡­ Come on I''m waiting! Can I please sleep? Maybe? Dang. And I thought for sure I could sleep- Just as I was finishing my sentence everything blacked out. ~~~~~~~~ Woah! What the fuck just happened? Did I just black out¡­? I don''t remember falling asleep like that in my past life... Not that I remember much at all. But now I know plants do sleep! But there''s even better news than that. I''M STILL ALIVE! Hahaha! Another day, another chance to escape this green hell! But first, let''s take a look at myself for any injuries. Gotta stay in tip-top shape after all! A quick look at my stem and roots confirmed that nothing seemed to be out of place and I was fit as a fiddle! With that over with I then snuck a lookout of the dense vegetation for any danger. And nothing! Nothing but a picturesque view of walking shrubbery and the green backdrop of the forest. How perfect! For a foreign monster-filled forest that is. A faint pain rose up in my body distracting me from the view in front of me. Hm? Could it be? Am I actually hungry!? I thought plants ate light and oxygen for food! So why am I hungry? Well, I guess plants here can move around and some plants do eat bugs¡­ So it does make sense if I do eat stuff. The question is what do I eat? Now that''s an excellent question! A question which raises some interesting points! I mean why would plants even need to move at all? Especially with how slow I am. Maybe I eat slugs? Those things are slow. Gross looking too but this is a survival situation¡­ Enough thinking! This is the real world man, you can''t just space out and think on every little thing! Gotta search for any possible food no matter how unappealing it looks! ¡­ But first a little hype me up. You got this flower guy! You have got this survival thing handled! Ain''t nothing gonna keep you from surviving! Woo hoo! I feel so much better now. With my confidence meter restored I slowly crept out of the plants and started searching around for any non-plant creatures. I didn''t have to look long as I soon stumbled upon a strange beetle¡­? It wasn''t that big and looked to be the size of any old average rock I came across. Not only that but it was jet black and looked fairly ordinary if not for one thing. It had glowing dots on its back¡­ Three glowing cyan dots on both sides of its carapace. But it wasn''t that simple. Every once in awhile a glowing tentacle would slither out of the dot and poke the dirt around the beetle before retreating back inside it! This beetle has glowing dots and tentacles and that alone is already freaking me out. While this¡­ thing is a bug I don''t think it''s safe to eat¡­ Maybe it''s poisonous or something? Or worse those tentacles are like jellyfish tentacles! Jellybeetles. As if those things weren''t freaky enough! Well, beetles off the menu tonight! Let''s see what other¡­ delicacies I can find. Now that I was actively looking for bugs and the likes I was starting to notice that these Jellybeetles were actually pretty common. Just a quick glance around offered up a couple dozen of the disturbing little critters. I can''t believe I never noticed this before! This is starting to become a pattern. I guess that means I''m not very perceptive. THat''s not good, especially in a survival situation. Well, at least I''m starting to become more aware of my surroundings. As the saying goes better late than never! That is how it went, right? While my head was stuck in the clouds I finally spotted what I was looking for! A slug. A disgusting slimy slug! This creature just like the beetle at first glance looked pretty average with its slimy dark orange body. But it soon revealed a far more reviling side to its already disgusting nature. The slugs mouth gaped open revealing tentacles sliding out and licking the plants in front of it. As it did this the parts of the plant that was licked began to shrivel and dry up in mere moments! This is getting ridiculous! Tentacle beetles slug mouth tentacles that dehydrate plants! I didn''t think slugs even had mouths until now! What am I even supposed to eat when this forest has such ridiculous things wandering around? I mean these bugs are smaller than me! And why are the first two creepy crawlies I come across armed with tentacles! Whatever depraved tentacle loving god made this horrid place should go and see a doctor. This is some fucked up shit man. Fucked up! Maybe I''m better off eating other plants¡­ Would it be cannibalism if I ate another plant? I mean vines suck out the nutrients in trees all the time like plant vampires. So why can''t I? It would be easier than eating the freakish bugs in this place. Or maybe I''m looking for the wrong prey? Maybe I should be after the mammals¡­ Now that I think about it how do I eat? That''s a really good question. A question I do not have the answer to. One I probably should have answered before trying to find something to eat. Being a plant is surprisingly difficult¡­ Looks like the search must begin anew! New game plan. First, figure out how I eat then figure out what I eat! Then eat and face this new day head-on! Nothing can go wrong with a plan as basic and flexible as this. Nothing! 6 Onwards! For Food! If I''m going to be looking for ways to eat, and what I can eat I''ll need a lead. And what better than the good old monkey see monkey do strategy? That''s right! Just like any good student, I shall copy what my fellow flowers do! It''s a foolproof strategy. And what better name than operation ghost for such a task? I mean I am basically stalking another flower. But stalking is a harsh word so I''ll just call it ghosting to make it child friendly. Now I just need to find a flower that looks like me to follow. I mean can''t be sure if different types of flowers eat different things, so this is the safest choice. And so I began to search around for my kin to start operation ghost. The forest being the huge green blob it is didn''t help my search much though. The only reason I was able to tell objects apart in the first place was that I still had some semblance of depth perception. It was a far cry from what I had as a human, but even so, it''s enough to do the job. So I now have myself a specific target to search for which means I''d need to be more attentive to my surroundings. Much more than I was before. Mistakes were made last time. Many mistakes. I started to walk through the grass receiving tingles from the grass whenever my roots touched it. Jellybeetles, slugs, and a variety of other alien and familiar-looking insects were crawling around searching for who knows what. And occasionally one of the jellybeetles would get into a small scuffle with one of the other bugs. One such conflict was happening right in front of me. A jellybeetle was facing what looked like an earwig with pincers waving its tentacles threateningly. The earwig clacked its pincers and waved its tail pincer above it while emitting a hiss. I didn''t bother sticking around to see which of the two would win and continued to walk past them. As interesting as it was I did have more pressing issues than some death battle between two bugs. I have a stomach to fill! Besides this place is crawling with bugs everywhere you look! I can always just watch another one later or something. After another minute or two of wandering, I managed to spot some movement up ahead. From over where I was at it looked like a massive green blob writhing and squirming. Taking a moment to gather up my resolve I decided to approach the blob to see what it actually was. As I got closer My vision gradually cleared and revealed the color blob to actually just be a gathering of plants! Excellent! I''ve finally found a potential lead! If I had a mouth I''d be grinning in glee right now! Alright, enough diddle dallying gotta find me a flower. Once I rushed up to the plant gathering I found a number of plants around for me to see. The majority of them were made up of what looked to be bushes and flowers. There were a couple of plants here and there which I couldn''t immediately recognize. One such plant looked like a cross between a pate and leaf that seemed to hover across the ground. Like I said not immediately recognizable. But back to the flowers. Out of the dozen or so I could see only three-fourths of them actually had flower buds still. The remaining having fully bloomed petals of various primary colors. But the ones with flower buds were the ones I was currently after. With my targets now in sight, all I need to do is choose one and follow it till it leads me to some scrumptious food to ease my aching stomach! After deciding upon one of the flower buds I began to follow it from a good distance. Social distancing is important in new worlds after all! Despite having my target chosen and in my sight I soon found out it was much more difficult to keep an eye on it than I had thought. This flower just like me had milky white roots but the grass in this area was particularly tall and hid the roots away from with the exception of the occasional flash of white. This left only the rest of the body to keep an eye on. Both the flower bud and stem were pale green and occasionally faded into the slightly darker green background of the forest. Between that and the apparent superior control, it had over its roots made it far faster than me. I was going as quickly as I could without stumbling over my roots and the damned flower still looked like it wasn''t even trying to outpace me! Why is it that this flower gets to move so much faster than me!? Looks like I still have a lot of practice to do before I can walk normally in this body¡­ But despite these setbacks after several minutes of trailing it I still managed to keep the flower in sight! So all hope was not lost yet. But the longer we walked the easier it was to see my target. Actually now that I think about it everything in my vision was starting to become a lot more clear¡­ Hmm¡­ Maybe it''s just my bad vision acting up again but isn''t the ground starting to rise? Yeah, we''re going up! Oh man, I wonder what we''re going after if we need to go up to find it? Well, that''s if the other flower is going after prey. But I guess this is explora- wait what''s that? Out of the corner of my vision, I spotted a strangely bright area on the ground. Almost as if the entire area was glowing! Now curious I began to turn to take a look at it before spotting another glowing spot on the ground. I twisted and turned myself to look all around me spotting the occasional patch of light. What is this¡­ Wait, the other flower! I need to catch up with them! I whipped myself around fervently looking for my green-skinned brethren. It didn''t take long for me to spot them a good couple dozen flower lengths ahead of me passing through a patch of light. I hurriedly stumbled after it intent on not being left behind. As we began to slowly ascend and the ground became steeper I noticed there were fewer and fewer insects around. Not only that but there were small gaps in the ground here and there. With some being barely wide enough to fit my thinnest root in and others wider than I am tall. This is certainly strange! Fewer bugs, small lit-up areas, and crevices in the ground. Maybe this forest isn''t what I thought it was..? Either way, I''ve gone too far to stop now! For I must survive no matter the cost! Turning my attention back to what was in front of me I saw far more lit up areas than before. Not only that but they were far brighter than before¡­ In fact, it''s starting to look more like rays of light shining down on the ground¡­ Does that mean this entire time I was underground? But there''s grass down here! Grass can''t grow without sunlight, right? Instead of continuing my inner monologue, I decided to just follow the other flower silently and wait till we reach our destination before making any conclusions. I was more than a bit curious about where the light was coming from and there really wasn''t much to do on this walk. So, in the end, I decided to take a look upwards to see what I found. There wasn''t much other than a huge expanse of darkness with countless holes where rays of light shone in from. But there was an odd thing with how there were hundreds of tree trunks extending to that darkness before eventually disappearing from sight. Well, it''s certainly interesting to know that I was underground or something along those lines. But that only raises more questions. Such as what the surface is like if there''s this much plant life down here. And why the hell is there a forest down underground to begin with? And why do those tree trunks extend all the way up there? So many questions and no answers. A sudden pang of hunger hit me inciting a displeased shiver from my leaves. Ugh. Let''s hope that damn flower actually leads me to some food¡­ ~~~~~~~~ Ten to fifteen minutes later Light! So much fucking light! What the hell is this!? What type of nonsense is this forest!? 7 Revelations Above me, dozens of what looked to be tree branches wove around each other, forming a massive net of branches. The bizarre thing was the size of the branches. The branches looked to be hundreds of times thicker than the forest trunks I found back where I woke up. And those tree trunks were a dozen times my size! And crazier yet is that the net of branches above me loomed far above me. Which begs the question what type of plant grows branches that big!? I thought I was underground! Where the hell am I if I''m not underground!? I have so many questions right now. The sheer insanity of this plant is off the charts! And why would a tree grow so large? And that''s without asking why it would have such a ludicrous amount of branches they form a net! Focus, man, focus! You''re not here to sightsee! Right now you''re here to eat. Even if this minor shock dampened my hunger a bit¡­ [DING!] [The minimum requirement of surviving 29 hours has been filled] [First daily mission being issued] [Daily mission: Find food] [Reward: 25XP and 1 free trait] Wait, what? Missions? This seems awfully similar to a video game¡­ Between the anxiety from sleeping in the open and that monster, I forgot all about this system thing! But hey, I''m searching for food anyway so this should be a simple mission to complete, right? And I get some cool rewards while I''m at it! So this mission should be worthwhile. I glanced back at the other flower as it continued walking, unaware of the system''s notifications. Casting one last glance at the branches overhead before trudging along after the plant. After a few minutes of walking when the other flower stopped in its tracks and stood ramrod straight. My root raised itself to step forward before I hesitated and retracted the root, now wary of the strange behavior the flower showed. Why did it stop? Is there something dangerous nearby? Or perhaps it''s been deceiving me all along and was planning to eat me! I mean I don''t know how intelligent these plants are so it is possible. Especially when you consider the insanity, I''ve witnessed. The flowers bud silently slid open and several tendrils tipped with round green balls slid out and swayed in the air. These tendrils continued their slow swaying before sliding back into the bud. The bud then closed, and the flower started walking again to the right without acknowledging my presence. ¡­ What the fuck was that? It''s one surprise after another in this forest! At this rate, I''ll become desensitized to the world and not become surprised by anything anymore. Wait. Perhaps I can open my bud and also use those weird vines? I should test that later. But I have other goals to complete. I shook myself free from my thoughts and scurried after the other flower. After an hour of walking, I spotted what might be the goal of this journey. What appeared to be a gigantic grey blob was up ahead with smaller green blobs swarming around it. By now I knew that the color blobs was just my distorted vision coming into play but judging by the size of that blob that thing is huge. Now that the goal was in sight, I decided I didn''t need to follow the other flower any longer. I promptly rushed forward to investigate this unfamiliar creature. But lo-and-behold, just as I picked up speed, the other flower finally acknowledged my presence and started running too! And when that flower ran, it made what I thought was a decent sprint look like a half-assed jog. Within a few seconds, the distance of us nearly tripled! Stop! Wait for me my green-skinned brethren! I just wanted to eat! How''s that flower running so much faster than me! This is discrimination against reincarnators! Damn it. It''s already fading into a blob. The slow and lonely way it is. I slowed down, resigned to my fate as the slowest flower there ever was, and took my time. Based on the size of that blob, it''ll be gone by the time I arrive. Hmm¡­ I''m finally able to see this thing more clearly and damn that''s one big boy! Or girl. Even with the crazy things I was seeing before numbing my shook senses, this is still surprising! It was an animal. Of that I was certain. What type I wasn''t able to tell with my poor eyesight and viewpoint. Its skin was as expected grey. A light grey if we''re getting specific here. The size of the carcass was over a hundred times my size and crawling with various plants. The part of the body I could see was its stomach, but that was torn wide open exposing its ribs and inner organs. From what I could see, this absolute behemoth resembled a whale. The whale-like creature looked like it had flippers. Two large wing-like flippers towards one end and a second pair of flippers a third of the size of the others on the opposite end. Its tail looked strange, though. Its sides of the outer tail looked thinner while the center part was a lot thicker and more powerful looking. Like an eel''s tail except on its side instead of being right-side up. But how did this massive creature end up here in a rainforest? This thing looks like it should belong in the oceans, swimming to its hearts'' content. And last I checked, I didn''t spot any bodies of water big enough to fit something this big! It''s only my second day here and I''m only finding more and more questions instead of answers. Bah enough of this hypothetical thinking! More finding out how to food less of everything else? Now, where did that other flower go? It should be eating by now. Looking around, I spotted the flower from early standing halfway up on the monster''s corpse with its bud open again and tendrils waving about. The tendrils were patting the giant''s carcass as if it was searching for something. Soon enough the vines touched the exposed inner flesh and promptly retracted back into the bud. Instead of closing up the bud as I had expected it to, the green petals expanded to nearly double its size! The petals then tore a small chunk of flesh from the carcass and closed back up with the bulb now several times larger than it was before. From the angle, I was looking at the back of the pedals. So I wasn''t sure if it had teeth or not. But that''s an answer I''d rather avoid. Ah¡­ well, fuck. That is not what I had expected! Do flowers work like this here? I''m not sure flowers work like this. Even in a different world, why would they evolve to eat like this!? I mean there are Venus flytraps but they don''t search for corpses to eat. Wait, I will have to eat like that too, aren''t I? I''m not looking forward to eating raw meat but I also need to eat¡­ And I want to complete that mission... I may not know what I''m able to do with a trait, but I''m sure there will be a use for it. I stepped up to the corpse and started walking up one of the larger flippers like a ramp. The skin felt strange under my roots. It felt almost like hardened dry leather, but something was off. I couldn''t tell what, but my mind was too preoccupied with getting food to care. I wasn''t the only one who walked on the flipper. It forced me to navigate my way through the gathering of plants until I forced my way closer to the open wound. But how do I open my flower bud? Hmm¡­ Maybe if I concentrate on opening it? I focused on my bud and imagine it sliding open like the other flower. For the first few seconds, nothing happened, but then a sudden chill hit me and I felt something moving. I redoubled my efforts as my leave trembled with exertion. The chill rapidly grew before it faded away. I think I succeeded¡­ I could already sense a massive difference from before. But not just being able to feel my tendrils and the inside of my bud. No, I could smell now! I never realized that I wasn''t able to smell anything this entire time, but now that my bulbs open I can smell everything. The iron stench of blood, unfamiliar scents coming from the other plants practically screaming out their hunger at me. Was that what the flower I was following doing with those tendrils? I think it is, but dang. Wouldn''t that mean my sense of smell is like a shark? Now that is phenomenal! Wait, I''m getting off track again! I need to munch on this giant flesh. Here goes nothing¡­ With some hesitation, I engulfed a sizable chunk of the flesh and stood there waiting for something to happen. [Meal time! Mission completed. Rewards pending....] [Ding! Rewards have successfully been transferred. Next mission in 46 hours.] And that''s a score for the flower team! I should get off of this carcass and out of the way of these plants. They may have been passive so far, but I don''t want to take too many risks. Once I''m a safe distance away and in a somewhat safe area, I''ll take a peek at my rewards.