A huge long jaw emerged from the water and flew at me with speed. A cold chill crossed my entire body, if that jaw took a bite from me nothing nothing would be left. But for my surprise the jaw changed its direction and bite into the carcass of the snake, and dragged it into the pond.

“Ahh… I still needed that… But at least it wasn’t me.” I was little shocked, but even so I didn’t let the chance pass by and inspected the crocodile as it backed off into the pond.

-Small Lacus Crocodile Lv5-

Health: 49/55

Mana: 6/9

Stamina: 15/22

I glanced at its stats and shouted to myself “Holy crap! I better not try to deal with something like this in the near future, Inspect *Small Lacus Crocodile*.”

*Small Lacus Crocodile* – Low tier monster that mostly can be found inside ponds. The monster can get to the size of two and a half meters. Even though the monster is relatively small its jaw power should not be underestimated.

“Calling this crocodile small is scary at best and terrifying at worst, if that small I don’t want to see a huge monster in my lifetime and how the hell it’s still low tier monster?” I was terrified of the tough of a huge mountains running after me, with a “small” additive in their name.

After the inspection of the crocodile I cursed the detection skill for its failure, “Stupid useless crap why did I even bothered using you…” But after a while I calmed down and started to think rationally. “Guess that stronger monsters can hide themselves, that even the detection skill can’t locate them.”

I ran back to the cave, even though the snake was stolen from me, I still had three other snakes as a spare. I picked another dead snake and left the cave with it. The sun was still high in the sky, so I still had some time to spare before the night. After all my level ups my mana raised by a lot, so I didn’t had to worry about it depleting so easily.

This time I chose not to come close to any ponds and even in the future to keep my distance from them. For the next few hours I just walked around the forest and inspected the flora I found, for anything useful.

“Inspect *Mushrooms*.”

*Parvus mushrooms* – Grows in small groups between five to sixteen, the mushrooms are edible, mostly used in soups.

“That useful, but not for me what about that one.” I looked at a dark brown cap mushroom, that gave me a interesting feeling. “Inspect *mushroom*.”

*Robur mushroom* – A dark brown mushroom, the mushroom strong and solid. Mostly used in alchemy but sometimes used in rare dishes.

“Alchemy that a skill that I should think about getting, but I probably need to get the correct equipment for it, that won’t be possible in the close time *sigh*.” I knew that my hardship just began, but I still couldn’t stop thinking about the possibilities of this magical world.

I picked the dark brown mushroom and place into one of my branches. I made the branch go around the mushroom and hold it for me, even if still couldn’t use it maybe in the future I would find somehow to consume it.

“That really convenient I don’t need to hold items I can just stick them inside me… It would be more useful if I just had an inventory.” But I knew that it would not be so easy for me to get something so useful, if that even existed at all in this world at all.

With that tough in mind I continued on my walk, founding blue flowers, red fruits, black stones and yellow Quni flower. Of course I inspected all those items and they were the only one that could be useful for me.

*Mens flower* – A blue flower that helps the mind to settle, mostly used in magicians potions.

“Helps the mind to settle? I guess it helps with mana regeneration, so it should be useful for me… maybe.”

*Mungo tree* – A green leafed tree that have round leaves, this tree grows the Mungo fruits those fruits are high in nutritious.

*Mungo fruit* – Red fruit that is high in nutritious, grows on the Mungo tree attract low tier monsters.

The red fruit called the mungo fruit. It was really hard for me to cut them down from the tree, but it was really easy after I used my wood element control on fruits. “Barely usable for now.” I already knew that I could use the wood element control skill on other trees. Sadly before I barely could move few leaves, but now when the level of the skill raised to three I could break the weak branches that held the fruits.

I picked up the fruits and placed them with the other items. I wasn’t afraid of the fruit to lure monsters, my berries already did that from the beginning, and now I have the snakes as a way to deal with that effect.

*Gravis Stone* – Solid stone from the gravis material, the material is quite heavy for its size but could be easily broken, mostly found near rivers.

First I really thought that those stones were useless, but later I discovered if you hit those stones on one another a spark could be seen coming from them, with those stones I could make a fire. Most likely it won’t be that useful for me or even could be dangerous, but it can be used against other monsters so it would be better to have.

And of course the Quni flower, the flower that I brok… I mean, the snake destroyed. I took all those items and placed them on my branches and continued on my way. Currently I was walking awkwardly with lots of items popping out of my leaves.

Walking with all those items on my branches was really uncomfortable, “Maybe I should find something that could hold some of those items.” The thought of finding some kind of a bag crossed my mind, but I was in middle of a forest where could a bag pop out from.

Walking a little more around I found a tree near a pond that had long vines on it. The tree was leaning to the pond, its long vines were touching the water. As I approached the tree droplets of water could be seen falling from its leaves.

Even though I said that I will keep my distance from the ponds I still need this tree for something so, I slowly surveyed the surroundings from monsters. After finding no one I broke a one of the Gravis Stone that I had and took a sharp piece, with it I started to cut down few vines. I inspected the tree to see if there was anything else useful from it.

*Crying Ivy Tree* – A tree with long vines growing out of it, the tree called Crying Ivy because water droplets are forming on top of its leaves and falling from time to time.

“Just a normal tree.” I turned around and continued to search for more useful items after walking a little more, I found a tree with a huge leaves. I said with joy, “Exactly what I was looking for.” And gathered few leaves from it. I inspected the tree after doing so, but it wasn’t special at all so I didn’t even bother to remember its name.

I collected few sticks from the ground and looked for a strong tree bark. After finding all the components I started to combine them together. After using the bark as the base the branches as the support, the leaves as the main material and the vines to tie it all together I made a rough green bag.

*Skill learned “Crafting”*

As I got the new skill I inspected it immediately.

*Crafting Lv1* – Helps the user craft faster, craft better items and succeed in crafting of difficult items increase.

“Yes success!” I jumped with joy. “I tough that there should be a skill like this, now I can create all what I need.” The idea of getting an ability that helps me to create items, filled me with warm hope.

With that I took all the items that were holed by my branches and placed them inside the bag. After that I placed the bag on myself, but it wasn’t comfortable at all. So with little thinking I just ate the bag, I mean placed it between the leaves and branches inside me. Now that all the items were inside the bag and the weight was spread around, it wasn’t that bad at all.

“Hmm I should make a door to the cave from sticks and bark as well, I don’t want some kind of monster entering the cave.” While thinking about all those amazing stuff that I could craft, I went back to the cave.

The sun was already setting down, when I saw that I rushed to the cave. When I arrived near the cave the sun just settled and slowly the forest could be seen lighting up with colors. “I came just in the nick of time.” I said without much worry and went to the cave entrance.

But when I got near the cave entrance I just stood there without moving. Looking at the cave entrance with a face of disbelief, I just stared and mumbled “No no no…” What I saw at the cave entrance were huge claw marks on all the walls. I walked outside from the cave lots of times so I could remember how it looked like and there were never marks like those.

After seeing those marks only one reasonable explanation could be made, something crawled into the cave. I used the detection skill to check if the creature was still inside and sadly I could feel a presence coming from inside the cave.

I really just froze there I had no idea what to do, from those marks I can tell that his creature is not weak at all, and I was almost sure that it wasn’t friendly as well. So I could only stand there like a statue in shock and disbelief.

Fear slowly started to accumulate inside me, before today I still tough that I could somehow hide in the forest as a bush at night. But after today I could confirm it, it would be a suicide.

After walking today I found out that almost all the trees that had fruits or bushes that had berries, were severely damaged or withering. As well from time to time I could find roots here and there, most likely from other plants that was forcefully ripped out from the ground and eaten.

So surviving the night inside the forest wasn’t the best idea, but now inside my cave some kind of monster resided, and I couldn’t do anything about it. My brain was working at its full capacity and trying to find a solution, but nothing could get into my head.

And as I was standing there thinking what to do, a strong growl came from behind. I turned around slowly and saw a huge dark body emerging from the shadows. A big dark panther emerged and stared right at me. I started to tremble and said with fear, “Hey kitty kitty, you don’t want to hurt me, right?” The huge cat roared and took a leaping stance.