Chapter 6

Chapter 6 – Freedom

At morning, when the sun could barely be seen above the horizon, a small bush was moving weirdly on a cliff, of course it was me. I was doing my *morning practice* and with it pulling few of my roots out of the ground. “The roots are only about one and a half meters, there shouldn’t be a problem to get them all out fast.” But I still wanted to wait a little, jumping into the unknown without a plan was still scary.

“Yesterday even after moving a lot, I still had some mana to spare. I guess even if I move with all of my body for a few hours, it should not deplete my mana completely.” After my yesterday activities I somewhat knew what was the wood element control skill consumption rate and for my surprise it was pretty low. If I leveled up more few levels, it would be possible to move without a rest for few days.

“Before I start I should check my status, *Self Awareness*.”

-Ontopary bush Lv3-

Experience: 13/30
Health: 3/6
Mana: 12/12
Stamina: 4/4

“Hmm health didn’t change, my mana returned to full and I didn’t get any new skills, though that’s isn’t a surprise.” As I saw that my health didn’t raised I was little worried, if I get attacked again the chances for my survival will plummet, so I should find a way to restore it as fast as possible.

After more few minutes standing idly I said with determination “I guess it’s time…” I looked at the few roots that was still embedded into the ground. And just like that without much thinking I pulled them all out in one go, like removing a plaster from one’s body. Even though I didn’t know if I would even live after pulling the roots, I just had no other way around, if I don’t do it most likely another monster will come and I die.

So I pulled them all out, as I pulled them I tried to tie them to a shape that resembles legs, I didn’t want to be a land octopus so that was the only solution. As my new legs were formed into a crude shape, I stumbled a little to the sides, it wasn’t really easy to hold balance, but slowly I got the hang of it.

“I did it, I am free and still alive!” I jumped as I said that, feeling free for the first time after being stuck for days, in the same place was just amazing. “Now I can go anywhere I want… What should I do? Find people?… I can’t speak, and more likely they will think that I am a monster and try to kill me.”

Being stuck inside the body of a plant was really troublesome, but I didn’t let it get me down. “For now I should just find a shelter, or at least a safe location to stay, the other problems I leave for the future me to deal with.” That was the correct thing to do, at least it was the only thing that came to my mind at that moment, I just need to find a safe place for myself for now.

I started to walk to the direction of the golden tree, my steps were sloppy and unnatural, but it wasn’t a surprise. I still couldn’t learn the correct balance of my small body. As I was getting closer to the tree my heart was full with curiosity, I always wanted to know what was behind this huge golden tree. I slowly approached its side and I could see a forest that closely resembled the forest that was down the cliff.

“Not a surprise, but it still gives a weird feeling seeing all this colored trees from up close.” I looked around the trees and then my eyes stumbled on a stone tablet that was inside the golden tree. It was exactly behind the tree, as if the tree grown out of it. “What’s that?” I said with a curious look and came toward it.

When I came close to it, I could see what it was, it was a gravestone. “Oh looks like the tree was growing just behind a grave.” I came even closer to it and tried to look it up, the gravestone was made from a really good material. You could see that it was old but really sturdy, it should stay here for another few decades without a problem.

I tried to read what was written on the gravestone but with no avail. “I didn’t expect much, there no way I could know the language of the people of this world.” A thought of desecrating the grave and digging out the corpse crossed my mind. I wanted to check if there could be anything useful on it, or at least to be sure that this a grave belongs to a human being and not some kind of creature.

But even tough I wanted to know more about this world, I chose not to go through that route, I didn’t know it then but if I had dug the grave most likely I would have died, I cupped my hands showed my respect to the grave and moved on my way.

The forest was vast and the ground wasn’t even, most of the time few small ravines could be seen here and there. The flora was flourishing inside the forest, the grass was quite tall, some flowers, berry bushes and mushrooms could be seen from time to time, most of the time there were just fruitless bushes and tall grass at the way though.

When I was slowly moving through the forest, I stumbled upon lots of plants and mushrooms. “Currently I don’t have a mouth, so I don’t really care about this plants. But it can be useful in the future, if I inspect them and raising my inspect skill it should not do me any harm.” So with that reason I was inspecting all the interesting plants I could find, as I was moving through the forest.

*Quni flower* – A yellow flower, mostly used for medicine.

“Medicine which kind of medicine? Antidote, mana potion or health potion? Inspect *medicine*” My knowledge of not existing alchemy kicked in.

*Medicine* – A cocktail/potion made from plants or other restoring ingredients, that can help the body to restore to its original state.

“I didn’t expect much…” My frustration with the inspect skill was yet again on the rise.

*Armi mushroom* – Green mushroom, looks poisonous.

“Looks? So is it or is it not poisonous?” My trust with the skill was plummeting further and further with each inspect.

*Elcy moss* – Green color, grows behind rocks.

“Ah, I am getting tired of this shit…” When I said that I turned around and remembered that I didn’t inspected the golden tree that was behind me. “I didn’t see any other trees like that one, surely it’s kinda rare I should return to inspect it again… I am an idiot I could inspected the grave as well, ah but it’s too late now…” I turned back and continued walking forward. On my way I inspected more few trees and plants, but the information was still to vague so it didn’t really matter.

As I moved deeper and deeper to the forest I saw my brother, it was a Ontopary bush the same kind as me. I came closer to it, poked it with my hand and asked “Are you alive?” But it didn’t respond to my question. “Hm shame, I didn’t mind to have some company, even if it was a plant it’s better than nothing, I guess I am a special case of intellectual Ontopary bush.” But just in case I inspected it.

The inspection result was the same as last time, not even small new piece of information. But what bothered me is that it didn’t showed me its status, it only showed its information about its family. “So the system sees me as a monster, but sees the other plants just as normal plants, so it does not even bother to show me their states, how lovely.”

I didn’t care anymore with that bush and continued on my way. After walking another half an hour I saw the first animal it was a bunny. It looked like a normal white bunny with red eyes but on its head there were two small horns they give him a cute but weird look. “I should be careful for now lets inspect it. Inspect *bunny*.”

-Horned White Bun-

Health: 18/18
Mana: 3/3
Stamina: 9/12

“Holy crap it has so much hp… there no way I can win against that, I better sneak around it or I will be in a lot of trouble.” I changed my direction and tried to sneak around it, for my luck it didn’t notice me at all.

*Skill learned “Stealth”*

“Yes now I can be an assassin, I still should inspect it for good sake. Inspect *Stealth*” I knew what the stealth skill should represent, but I still wanted to inspect it just to be sure.

*Stealth Lv1*- Let the user avoid being discovered by other living creatures.

“Figures… I should level up this skill a little more, it will increase my chance of surviving in this forest.” Having it would be really useful, if I find a really strong opponent that I can’t beat I can just go around it. The stealth skill should be a common genuine skill to all monsters, even though I still wasn’t one hundred percent sure if the other monsters had skills or not, but I needed to be vigilant so I just accepted it as a fact.

I noticed that most of the time I was walking downwards from a hill, the slope of the hill wasn’t so high, but walking at this rough terrain with my small body wasn’t an easy task at all, after getting of the vast hill, I stopping near two big rocks that were surrounded by trees and took a small rest to check my status.

-Ontopary bush Lv3-

Experience: 13/30
Health: 3/6
Mana: 8/12
Stamina: 2/4

I slowly checked my status and mumbled to myself “Looks like I get experience only from killing monsters and not by getting for skills or walking around, ah my health still didn’t raised at all, at least my mana pool didn’t decreased be much after all this walking, wait why is my stamina is lower that before…”

At that moment I face palmed myself “I am an idiot, of course my stamina will decrease over time I need water source and food… Wait I am a plant so all I need to do is embed myself into the ground and my body should replenishing my stamina be itself.” I was so focused on getting around, that I almost forgot how plants even live.

After finding a suitable place with sunshine near the two rocks, I just stood there and looked at the ground. “So how do I do it then? Should I dig the ground first, or just try to insert my roots by force? …Whatever.” With little thinking, I just released my roots from the their shapes and forced them into the ground.

It gave me a feeling as if I inserted my legs into a cold and water. It was much more easy than I thought it would be and that made me happy. As I finished planting myself up, I got a new skill.

*Skill learned “Dig”*

“Oh lucky, Inspect *Dig*.” Not thinking about it twice I just inspected it.

*Dig Lv1* – With this skill the user can easily dig through the soil, the skill uses mana as its source, at higher levels the user could dig through tougher substances more easily as well.

“Hmm, that’s interesting the explanation is little different from all of the other skills, uses mana as a source? Stamina should be more suitable for this skill, maybe because I can move only with mana this skill changed to fit my needs…“ I was little more at ease knowing that the skills will change for me and I won’t be concerned not getting skills that I can’t use because of my stupid body..

“Currently this skill not that useful, but I can see that it have a potential for greater good, so I should level it up as well.” Being able to dig through the ground could get me out of few pinches in my new life, so I should level up this skill for future use. With that in mind, I closed my magic perception skill and waited for my mana and stamina to replenish.

---

Fun fact: Planting myself up sounds weird.

Previous Chapter                      Next Chapter