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

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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.

(A few hours later)

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.