Chapter 14 – Deep story
From the frying pan into the fire, “Well shit, that explain the stamina problem…” It was morning so I could look everywhere inside the trench, I was not that far from the exit but I knew that to get there will be not an easy task.
“At least no monsters will come to eat me…” Looking at the bright side at the moment was all I could do, “It looks like that if I am rooted in, it sustains my stamina but I don’t think that will be for long, so I should get out of here fast as possible.”
I looked at the ray lights that were coming from afar, as I started to use my dig skill to slowly make my way to the exit. I used my dig skill so many times, but all I could make was two small holes in the direction of the exit.
“This won’t do, this won’t do at all.” I looked at this path it was just a few meters away, but for me to get there would be the same as to climb a huge mountain, and at this speed most likely I won’t able to do it.
“No, it’s alright, if I continue to use the dig skill it will level up and it be easier for me to get out of here.” I tried my best to hold myself together and concentrate on my task, I knew if I would lose all hope surely I wouldn’t survive.
“But still I should do my best and make a smaller path, even if I need to break branches and torn through my leaves.” Smaller path mean that I will get out from this hole faster, and to get from this hole faster mean that my chances would increase.
So with that plan in mind, I continued to dig. Thank god that I didn’t have a front side, I changed my view to the exit and at the same time made two small hands from my branches to there as well, there were barely any room for them but I needed them to dig.
Even though I changed my front to another direction, I didn’t find it unpleasant or distracting at all, it gave a little weird feeling as if you forgot how to use your hand for a short while, but nothing more than that.
So my digging continued, a faint light surrounded my hands every time I used the dig skill, and with it every time a small stone fell down deeper into the trench. Currently, I wasn’t on the ground because I was stuck one-meter in the air from it, so I didn’t need to be bothered with the stone debris.
After another, hour or so of digging the holes got bigger and now I could move my hands a little to the sides, but sadly I couldn’t call that a great achievement. What more disturbed me is that my mana was almost depleted. “If this continue like that, it will take me at least a week till I get out of here, *Self Awareness*.”
-Ontopary bush Lv5-
Experience: 11/45
Rarity: Common
Health: 2/7
Mana: 1/17
Stamina: 1/4
Status: Unique-Intelligent, Shadow Mark
“Damn this mark it still here… I am out of mana as well, I guess it’s time for a rest, *Magic Perception*.” I deactivated my magic perception skill and returned to the world of darkness to recover my mana, “Interesting when will my mana regeneration would be higher than the cost of the magic perception skill, if the stupid self awareness skill would tell me that information from the get-go, I wouldn’t need to guess…” I still lacked in information about my stats, but I knew that in the end, I would get it.
Currently, I was in my small dark world but even here I had few things to do, I needed to inspect the names of those monsters that I encountered yesterday. I specify inspected them when fleeing and remembered their names, now that I am safe I could inspect them without worry.
“Now that I think about it, it’s the first time I saw a monster’s level higher than ten.” The levels in this world were little weird, I met a huge crocodile that was level five, I met a weaker and smaller lizard that was level eight, and those huge monsters were the first one that exceeds the tenth.
It didn’t puzzled me for long, at any rate I would find the answer in the future, so I continued with my plan and inspected the monsters names. “Inspect *Mountain Lord*, inspect *Shadow Predator*.” Because I had time to spare, I started with the desert and then went to the main meal.
*”Inspect” leveled up to Lv4*
*Mountain Lord* – The monster is at peak of the low tier and sometimes could be even considered as middle tier, the monster habitat is mostly in the mountains. Most of the times these monsters are sitting at the top of the food chain of the low tier without many competition. The monster is really territorial and will attack anything that enters its domain.
“Yes the skill raised, but that surprising the explanation is not bad this time, from now the inspect should be even more accurate, but now that I think about it, it only explained its habitats and nothing else…”
*Shadow Predator* – A peak of the low tier monster, at higher levels considered as the beginning of a middle tier. The monster is really intelligent, but what makes this monster so scary is not its intelligence or strength, it’s their weird behavior. The monster marks their prey with a special mark that can’t be removed easily, with it the location of the prey will be always known to the monster. The monster will do almost everything to kill its prey, sometimes the monsters will even protect the prey from danger just to get the kill on it later on, not only that the monster could even give few advantages for the prey on its hunt for no apparent reason, the monster will not stop the hunt until one side wins.
“Thanks for the high definition explanation this time inspect skill…” After getting the explanation on the shadow predator, few of my weird questions were answered. “This monster is just insane…”
What kind of madman will danger his life just to protect something that will be killed by him later on, sadly looks like I met exactly that kind of madman, a madman that will not stop be anything to kill me, and not only that it doing it for fun.
No I understood that there were monsters that haunted me for food as the stupid bug, for self-defense as the snakes, or because it was in their territory as the bear, but for fun or maybe even for no reason at all, that really placed me in my place, I would never imagine meeting something like that in this forest.
I was sitting there speechless for over an hour recalling all that happened yesterday, thinking about what will happen if I leave this place alive, the inspect skill said it itself the hunt won’t stop till one of us will die.
But all this story was just illogical for me, there wouldn’t be someone that will do something for free, there should be a reason, there should be some gain, but after removing all the needs that surely didn’t seem logical at all.
“That’s fine, that’s fine I can deal with it I will find a way, but for now I just need to focus on getting the hell out of here, *Self Awareness*.” I checked my status to see how much mana I recovered till now, but it just made me little disappointed, “Just three, I was here for just little more than two hours, so my mana recovery rate has increased by a bit, but this is not enough.” At this rate it will really take me days till I get out of here, but what could I do than wait.
I waited around another eight hours to fill my mana till the end, after that I activated my magic perception skill again. Just as I activated the skill, the creepy disgusting feeling of something looking at me returned yet again.
“Ah, looks like this curse really only works at night.” My speculations were correct again, the “curse” could locate me at night, but I didn’t really care about it too much because I was already ready for this, without much care, I continued my digging.
After making enough room for my body, I couldn’t reach that far with my hands, so I needed to relocate my body forward a little. With my digging, I barely made room for it, because I did my best to not to dig deep and just to dig forward, that way even if it will be really uncomfortable for me, it will assist me to get out of here faster.
I released my roots from the wall, moved my body forward and rooted myself again, just by inserting my roots into the wall alone took at least thirty dig skill usages, but I had no other way just to do it again and again till I get out.
I tried my best to not move my body too much, I didn’t really know what kind of movements consumed my stamina, so when I was not embedded into the wall I was extremely careful. Even when I wasn’t embedded into the walls I still tried my best to minimize my movement.
And so I dug and dug, few hours have passed and my mana was empty again, but this time I just went to sleep. This time around I woke up early in the morning, I knew that because my leaves weren’t shining and I barely could see the light from the sun.
I checked my status my stamina was still one, but for my surprise all of my mana was full, “That’s weird, I went to sleep late at night and now it’s early in the morning, so not even seven hours should have passed, why is my mana full again?” It was great news for me that my mana restored that fast, but the problem was that I didn’t know why.
“Was it because I was sleeping if so I found a great way to restore my mana faster.” And with that thought in mind, I continued my excavation. After I dug for half an hour a pleasant surprise sounded inside my head.
*”Dig” leveled up to Lv3*
“Yes!” I screamed with joy and checked the difference in the power of the skill, it was much more easy to remove the rocks out of my way but not by much, that still was enough for now. “If I level the skill once or twice getting out of here would be piece of cake.”
And just like that two days have passed, I would wake up early at morning with full mana, I would deplete it and go back to sleep, then I would wake up again at night, and continue my work with the creepy feeling still surrounding me.
At those two days, nothing special have happened except one thing, I found out that when I am sleeping my mana regeneration really have increased. But weirdly when I sleep at night it increases by much more than I does at day. I wasn’t exactly sure why that happened, but I guessed it was something to do with the flora of the forest at night.
After working those three days my progress wasn’t bad, “I moved almost three meters forward. Surely soon the dig skill will level up again and it will be even more easier for me to get out of this hole.” As if my cries were heard by an angel, I could hear the mighty voice inside my head again.
*”Dig” leveled up to Lv4*
“I knew it.” I started to dig even more faster than before, this time around the skill effect raised by a lot more than before, “If my calculation is correct I will get out of here in a day and a half.” I laughed with a wide smile on my imaginary face, I was happy at last to get out of this jail and start my mission of finding strength.
But my joy wasn’t for long, a weird feeling crossed through my whole body, a feeling I never felt before. Just a moment later all I could do is look at myself with shock because all the berries on my body started to whether one after another. “NO, NO, STOP, STOP!” I screamed because I knew that my stamina hit the bottom, barely a few seconds later all the berries on my body turned into black small dots and after them, the leaves around them started to wither as well.
Fun fact: I don’t need it, I don’t need it, I don’t need it… I NEED IT!!!
One Of Many - Web Novel 