https://laogbib.wordpress.com/deadliest-blade-of-grass/ch-5-painful-lessons/

Slightly better formatting at above link. But still, enjoy!

--

-- POV ??? –

Looks like he’s scrambling for help, haha. His one saving grace title is gone, poof, just like that in a day. Tomorrow he’ll definitely die, or hopefully get discouraged enough that he’ll just live as a regular blade of grass until he dies during winter.

…

Looks like the sun is starting to rise, and nothing has changed yet. I can’t wait till that bunny over on the other side of the glade sees this tasty morsel hya hya hya.

…

Huh. He must have bought the camouflage skill, he looks exactly like a rare mana weed in full bloom. The red spots are usually signs of mana that has been concentrated, and the gray coloring on the edges make the grass look sharp. I don’t think that bunny will hop over here and munch on this thing as usually a stronger animal will sense it first…..

BUT, that imbecile didn’t think of one thing when he chose that plant to be camouflaged as. It is rare for a reason. Creatures on this planet crave mana, as it can help them grow stronger and evolve into other species. Normally the weed is extremely soft to the touch with a fake sharp edge, and larger animals would eat it at first sight.

There’s a greedy owl nearby that’s been looking at the grass intently. It must be able to tell that this isn’t any ordinary grass or mana weed. I wonder what it’s thinking?

-- POV owl –

Hoot – hoot.

The last two days something changed in the glade that I look over. It has provided me with tasty food for my whole life, and I’ll fight anything that tries to take over my glade, or change it unnecessarily.

It started yesterday, when a small blade of grass started growing leaves like crazy. It had only one when I dozed off, and when I woke again during the evening there were many more leaves than before. It must be some sort of variant grass, or maybe it evolved. I’ve never seen it happen before to a plant, but who knows.

Whatever it is, I hope it attracts more tasty critters for me to eat so that I can live an even easier life.

Hoooooot.

I guess I was right, it must have evolved! It looks exactly like a mana weed, oh how tasty those are. The temptation is great to run over there and eat it, however something seems slightly amiss. Mana weeds usually are formed where mana is dense, and they emit mana as well. But I haven’t felt a disturbance in the mana anywhere near that bunch of grass. And those sharp edges, those are weird. I want to go taste it, but I also know that it may be dangerous, especially during the day. Those dreaded wyverns are kings in the air when there is light. I may be small to them; however, they may just kill me to show dominance if I carelessly fly over the glade right now.

For now, I will wait, and hopefully it survives until night.

Hoot – hoot.

-- POV ??? –

Sigh, it didn’t go for the bait. It’s ruffling it’s feathers ruefully as it closes its eyes. Damn bird.

…

So it’s official, the bunny is also avoiding it. It walked up to it and sniffed the air, then walked away. It must have realized there isn’t any mana in the grass and huffed off.

After the rabbit turned away, I noticed that the grass seemed to twitch. And twitch again. To anyone else they would think that it was the wind, but these were sudden, writhing motions. What’s going on?

Let’s zoom in more……. There!

….

…

Oh god, this is terrible. I actually feel bad for this poor bloke. I didn’t want him broken when he was sent back, maybe a single mastication by that rabbit might have killed him, his memories would have been wiped, and all would be well. But this….. this is terrible.

There are tiny, white moving spots on his leaf blades, that stop for a second, then move on. They’re aphids, a super tiny bug that eats certain types of plants. I guess there’s another reason why that weed is so rare, if a plant doesn’t eat it, the bugs will. But what’s worse is that even with him not having mana, the colors keep attracting more and more of the bugs to him. He’s being eaten alive by hundreds of tiny bites all over him.

…

Well, there’s always a silver lining! If he does come back, he won’t resist having his memories taken away this time. Pain’ll do that do ya.

Please come back to me soon, so that your suffering will end.

-- Grass POV –

Aaaaaaaarrrrrrrggggggghhhhhhhhhh!!!!!?????

I don’t care if I die anymore, reflection off, please just make this stop……

sniff….. sob…..

Someone, please help…

-- Beetle POV –

Hungry. Want bugs. Where bugs. Nice smell. Hurt plant, go to. Mana weed, bugs there. Yum.

“Munch munch munch”

Yumm. Good spot. Lay eggs here. “Munch”

-- Grass POV –

The pain is lessening. I feel as if each leaf is getting cleansed, and something is doing it for me.

Ah. Shit it still hurts! It feels like I have holes all over my body, how am I still alive? Stupid plant vitality. I’m sure as heck I would’ve bled and died after the first hundred bites I took, but with my cell walls as a plant my bleeding was much less than an animal. Shit, I must be a mess.

Now that the bugs are gone, I can try healing myself, or at least stop the current loss of life I’m feeling. Ok, focus that energy that I feel inside towards the damaged areas…… It seems to be stopping the drain, but very slowly. Maybe if I imagine the cells near that area first closing their cell walls….. slowing the movement of water to areas of low pressure…. That sped things up a lot. I’m no longer losing health quickly, but I still feel really damaged. For filling in the holes, the cells need to divide and reattach lost nutrient pathways…… It’s working, but it feels really slow. I can set it on auto now somehow, must have unlocked an ability.

Rank: C Passive: Heals small wounds over time, stops bleeding. Plant specific: whole new limbs can be regrown, but it may take years.

But it still feels like it could use an increase in speed. Let’s overload the areas with my energy reserves and see if there’s a way to make this even better.

Rank: B Passive: Heals wounds over time, stops bleeding. Plant specific: whole new limbs can be grown, but it may take years. Active: Increasing available energy to damaged areas greatly increase regeneration speed.

Score! It’s going much faster now! I ended up learning a lot today, but I really should be more careful. Why the hell were so many bugs attracted to me?

Ewwwwwwww, what is that bug doing now, it’s laying something gross on me. Oh, are those eggs? Yes! Those might help me, I better protect them as if my life depended on it, which it might in the future! These can be my first minions! Now how to tame them……..