12 The search for a village

Instincts. We've all known them as something every animal has. But what about monsters? The unnatural monsters that by all rights should not be capable of existing and doing the things they do. Does that mean they'd lack the natural instincts due to the abnormality their existence is? Or are they made with their own abnormal instincts? We know very little about their habits and motives.

Even an avid monster researcher such as my self who has gone on tens of dozens of expeditions deep into monster territory to find out more about what makes them tick has uncovered very little. But what has been found has made massive changes to how monsters are viewed. Sometimes for the better. Other times for the worst. One such example is their seemingly unnatural drive to kill surface dwellers like humans, elves, and dwargons.

When faced with other monsters stronger than them the monster species will more often than not choose to flee but it was the exact opposite when faced with surface dwellers. They will throw themselves relentlessly at them in an attempt to kill them even at the risk of their own lives. Like clockwork, they'll even disregard the dangers posed to their own lives from even other monsters in the goal of killing surface dwellers. Many religious organizations use this as a reason to demonize the monsters who dwell above us.

But I have found several reasons to disregard that ignorant line of thought. For example, there are several monster species that do not have these suicidal tendencies to such an extreme extent. Some examples are roaches, ants, and termites. All of which can and sometimes will ignore humans and retreat for strategic purposes and unlike others will not drop their quarrels with other monsters to fight humans. In fact, despite multiple religious organization's fervent denials, we have found that many times ants invade the surface they will chase stampedes of monsters to the surface to use as cannon fodder. Then while surface dwellers are fighting those monsters, they will attack both groups with significantly less resistance. Yet another anomaly in monster behavior.

-Excerpt from the monster encyclopedia written by Xander freerider.

~~~~~~~~~

Ugggh. My level up hangover is even worse than last time. Why is it that every time it hurts? This is discrimination I say! Discrimination against poor people trapped in monster bodies! Objection! It's unjust and unconstitutional! Enough mental games though. Let's test out my vines! I really hope its something to let me actually hold stuff and perhaps start using tools. Just imagine me using a mighty greatsword to lop off the heads of dragons!

….

Alright I know that's unlikely, but a flower can dream, right? Before I could remove my roots from the dirt the now-familiar scent of Amelia (Why did that sound weird…?) interrupted my thoughts.

{Why were you trembling and convulsing earlier? Did something go wrong with your level up?}

Her voice/pheromones were tinged with what felt like genuine concern.

{No. That usually happens whenever I upgrade my mutations and skills.}

{That's odd…. That doesn't happen when any of us level up…}

Wait… Does that mean my file for discrimination was correct!? Damn you, Alfred, the system! Damn you!

{Is that so? How long was I out?}

{Only a few minutes.}

It seems like the amount of time I was passed out was a lot shorter than I had assumed.

{Alright. I'm going to go exploring now.}

Without waiting for a reply, I rushed out of the grove in search of something. What that something I had no idea. I just wanted to discover something new. A new monster species to kill? No there were plenty around as is. A base? I have the dryad's grove for that. Although a backup one may be useful. Maybe a human village?

…..

I can't exactly say that I haven't been affected by not being human and no human contact for an extended period of time. But talking to the dryads even if briefly helped with that. But that's not to say I don't want to try getting along with humans. Its something I really want to do. So yes! Today's mission is to find a human village! Now let's see which direction to go…

I didn't really remember from which direction I came from but that wasn't going to discourage me. With my newly upgraded perception skill, I could spot my enemies before they spot me. I should start using my sneak skill more often. It's not like I'm easy to find without using it though. I'm rather small and if you don't know what you're looking for a person or monster could easily look over me. Especially now that I'm on the surface world amongst all the vegetation that it offers. This makes me question why Alfred put me in the subterranean world those other monsters dwelled in.

But there were plenty of things about it that didn't make sense about it like why monsters similar to bison were down there. But that doesn't matter. Not now not yet. Besides, I believe I've gotten a sufficient distance away from the grove to test out my new thorn vines without worrying about them spotting me. They may be hospitable but that doesn't mean they can be trusted.

Oddly enough I didn't have any vines growing on me right now so I couldn't say for sure whether or not the mutation glitched and failed. The system was a system after all. Was it really impossible for it to fail sometimes? The moment I thought about extending some vines though the most unexpected of things happened. Instead of something like new vine limbs extending themselves or energy vines manifesting themselves all my several dozen thorns on my body extended forward revealing that each was actually the sharp tip to a vine that was hidden inside my body.

….

This is fucking AWESOME! I started swinging my vines wildly and I was pleasantly surprised that my control over them was to such a degree that even with my wild flailing they didn't get tangled up. Actually, they reacted almost on their own twisting and turning this way and that way at the last moment to avoid tangling. Each vine looked to be around a centimeter thick and was bright green in color. Oh, and have I mentioned that they look awesome!?

They weren't what I was expecting but I certainly wasn't disappointed with them. With this, I could just stab dozens of them forward to stab my enemies like tiny mini spears. The thornado! Muhahaha! I wonder how far do they extend? When I reached them all out to their full length, they shocked me by showing that they could reach an entire foot ahead of me. This was only level one!? This is frickin awesome! With this, I could easily fight my enemies outside of their reach and with my boost in my agility, I was fairly confident in keeping my enemies from tearing them apart.

And to add the cherry on top with my serrated thorns and weak toxic thorns I could inflict even more damage. Move aside thorn filled eldritch horror mouth! The vines are the new sheriff in town!

The entire time I was testing out my vines I had been walking in a random direction I chose. Nothing eventful happened but that was alright with me. Why would I want it to be eventful when that usually involves something trying to get me killed? Not that I didn't need to kill stuff to get the XP needed to level up but sometimes you had to take a minute and relax from the mindless killing that leveling up involves. You'd just turn into some mindless killing machine if you didn't. While there were no video games, TV, or books to read the calm of the forest was more than enough for me.

Especially the amazing power I felt from the sun. I had checked earlier and found that my bonus to things like strength, agility, and perception got a 3-point increase to them. That was a huge boost since it would help me with fighting longer, spotting enemies, becoming faster, and not to mention being stronger in general. The only real negative is that I was basically a glass cannon still with my toughness and HP still being relatively low while everything else was relatively higher. But that would be fixed next time I leveled up.

Wait… I SEE SMOKE! SMOKE MEANS PEOPLE! HAHAHAHA! Maybe my luck isn't so bad after all. That or the village at the cave entrance was more important than I imagined and other villages were built nearby. That's an interesting thought. But for now, it's time to go scout!

I scurried forward towards the column of smoke rising above the tree line. It only took a couple moments of running for me to arrive at the edge of the forests. Up ahead I could see a very small village. There were only a couple dozen huts and the only real form of defense it had were small spike walls encircling the village. While they weren't very impressive, I had to admit the sharpened tips on them looked rather menacing. I haven't spotted many large monsters that could smash through that barricade without getting hurt so maybe it was all they realistically needed to defend themselves? That is if the ants don't come here next.

There were people in view. Most of them were adults but there were children and as few elderlies as well. It seemed they were having some sort of communal celebration around some bonfire with the kids running around playing while the adults cooked food and enjoyed themselves. I was tempted to rush over and attempt some form of basic communication, but I knew that was a terrible idea. I'm a monster for crying out loud. Yes, a dashing handsome flower monster but still a monster. Even if I managed to convince them not to kill them the men of the village would probably kill me for wooing all the woman with my charm!

But there was something I could do! And that's to enter spy mode! Muhahaha! Hear me out on this Alfred. I'm a flower you see. So long as I didn't display my thorn lined mouth and run around waving my new vines you wouldn't be able to tell me apart from a normal rose! And while I must say a rose isn't the most inconspicuous of flowers it's still rather average and I shouldn't stand out too much. The worst that could happen was getting plucked by someone with the intent to plant me in their garden. And even then, I had the drowsy pollen skill which I could use as a last-ditch non-lethal measure to escape.

There are risks to this mission, but it must be done. I am severely lacking in information and while I could question the dryads, they're just a bunch of trees stuck in one spot. I can't imagine they'd have that much worldly knowledge other than what the system gives them. That's why a human village would be perfect. People means communication. Which means information. Which means Joe gets knowledge. And knowledge is power. This Alfred is what's called being smart and taking risks that have a high enough reward to outweigh them. You should learn to weigh risk and reward to and not inflict pain on a cash cow like an otherworlder such as myself.

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