...

"Urgh..."

I grunted in pain as my consciousness came back.

My body ached a bit and I felt a sharp pain on the side of my head.

"What the...?"

When I opened my eyes I noticed that I was currently laying on the floor of a very dark place.

The only source of light I could perceive in this place came from the end of the hole I seemed to have fallen off.

Thought it seemed that I had fallen from a pretty high distance, How the heck did i managed to survive to such a fall?

It should be at least 300 meters of distance between the surface and this place...

As I tried to move, I felt a sharp pain travel across my entire body.

"Argh! What the hell?!"

I fell to the floor once again, grunting at the residual pain I got after trying to move.

Seems like I didn't fall completely unscathed.

I checked my status to see the current condition of my body.

-Aspen (Aeron)  [Human: 99,999%] [Divine being: 0,001%] Age: 19+(19)   -Status: [Shattered bones: (Immobilized until Hp fully regenerates)] [Hp:168/200] [Mana: 33/40]

Oh sh*t...

Looks like it was a pretty bad fall.

Whatever saved me from dying, was not completely flawless.

I must have been unconscious for at least a few hours, and if my HP still hasn't regenerated, then it could mean that after falling I must have ended up pretty injured.

And now it seemed like I had to wait until my HP fully recovers...

Sigh...

If i'm not wrong then this should take at least two more hours to fully regenerate.

It looks like I have no other option but to look at the complete darkness for two hours straight until I can finally move.

...

 

---

*Yawn*

It should be ready anytime now...

Just one more HP...

"Urgh?!"

Suddenly I felt a very strange sensation run through my entire body.

It was like thousands of little worms were traveling across every part of my body.

My limbs moved in strange directions while making weird noises, this continued happening for a bit until they finally returned to a normal shape.

When I tried moving this time, I didn't feel pain. Instead, I felt completely refreshed, as all the previous pain I was feeling disappeared like it was never there.

As i was still unable to see a thing, I took out a torch from my inventory.

When the fire illuminated my surroundings, I noticed something astonished me a lot.

The walls were made of...

Wood?

Not wood planks but natural wood...

Like this place was...

A tree?

...

Oh, sh*t... I fell through a living tree.

That's some real luck I got there...

Probably the hole in which i fell was connected to this tree...

I got up and glanced at my surroundings.

I actually didn't know how to get out of here.

Maybe I could try climbing to the top of the tree using y swords to stick to the walls. However, I don't know if it will be as easy as the movies made it look...

In the worst case i could die because of the fall...

Yeah, I don't think it will be a good idea.

And also... there was another tunnel behind me that went horizontally.

It was also part of the tree, so I was kinda excited to see what was inside this place.

Unlike the game, this place didn't have any platforms that helped to climb or to descend in this place.

It also seemed that this place was still not discovered by any civilization, as it seemed pretty abandoned.

Heck, there was even a lot of spider webs on every corner of this place.

So I wondered, could it be that there is an actual chest inside this place like in the game?

I clenched my fists in anticipation to discovering a real treasure chest in this world.

Even if I knew it was very improbable to find a chest in the middle of nowhere, I was still expecting some kind of treasure.

So I started exploring the small path behind me.

Not before drinking a Danger sense potion and a Night owl potion, just in case there were hidden traps or monsters inside this tree.

...

 

---

*Creack*

The sound of me breaking dried branches on the floor while walking echoed inside this narrow tunnel.

I continued walking for some minutes, and Holy macaroni this place was absolutely enormous.

Just thinking about how this living tree could look on the surface made me feel shivers.

As I continued through this path, I noticed that this tunnel was becoming narrower the more profound I went inside it, it also seemed that the vegetation was increasing as well with every meter I walked ahead.

The vegetation increased so much that at some point it ended covering the entire path ahead.

I had to use my sword to cut through it to continue advancing through the path.

It was then...

The tunnel finally stopped, and I reached the end of it.

I entered a small room made entirely with wood, the vines from around seemed to blend with the walls and some small flowers were starting to bloom through the floor.

When I inspected the whole room, I noticed that it looked really different from the treasure room in a living tree on the game.

It looked more like an ancient ruin hidden deep underground.

There was no chair and table...

And there was no chest.

However...

There was a certain object in the center of the room, almost enveloped entirely by the plants and vines around it, that seemed to be protecting it from any kind of danger.

A long staff made completely of wood that had a small nest on top of it.

A finch staff?

If I remember correctly, this item allowed you to summon a small bird to fight for you.

I walked towards the staff and then cut the vines that were gripping around it with my sword.

When the Finch staff was freed, I grabbed it, and then I tried to inspect it stats.

However, when i was about to do it, I felt a sudden shock run through my whole body.

"Ugh!"

I fell to my knees, and started convulsing on the floor.

It was like a lot of electricity was passing continuously through my body, However, it was not something painful but certainly not a great experience.

After some minutes it finally ended.

When my body recovered from the shock I heard something inside my head.

It was a notification from my system...

"What happened...?"

When I looked at it, My mind stopped working.

 

...

Why did this skill suddenly unlock...?

When I saw it for the first time, I just thought that I probably needed some special condition to unlock it, and after that I kept ignoring it until now.

Could it be that it unlocked because I touched the flinch staff...?

I rapidly checked my abilities.

I glanced at the ability with an astonished look.

"This is..."

Currently, I was having a lot of encountered feelings for this new skill. For one side, i was feeling euphoric and excited that I found something that will make me stronger and will help me survive.

However, by the other side... I was feeling doubtful and had complex feelings towards it, after all it came from the same goddess I badmouthed when I was about to die...

Was she worried that I could die too easily or...

Sigh...

I just shrugged, thinking about it now won't make any difference to my current situation, so I just ignored that fact and then turned to look at the stats of the Finch staff again.

 

 

I've heard about the summoning magic in this world, however, it seems that only the other races have summoners in their ranks.

Be it because all knowledge about the other kinds of magic was stolen or destroyed from our country, humans just had a few kinds of magic at their disposal.

Summoning magic for example, was mentioned in a few books at the library, however, any knowledge about how to learn it was erased from books and history.

And everything that mentioned it never said something about needing a staff to summon any being, so I assume that this staff had something that differences it from normal summoning magic.

"Let's see what can this do..."

I injected my magic in the staff, and some seconds after that i felt something materialize on top of my head.

When I was about to move my hand to touch whatever appeared up there, I heard a small chirp.

Seconds after that, a small white bird flew in front of me.

* Chirp! Chirp!*

"Well, aren't you the cutest thing around here?" I said while i extended my arm for it to stand.

I really liked animals in my previous life, I had a few dogs and cats, however I never had a bird.

So it was a new experience for me.

*Chirp*

I left the room and walked across the tunnel to go back at my starting point

The small bird flew around me for a while, until it ended up getting tired and decided to rest on top of my head. When I saw that I just petted it gently with a small smile on my face.

Should I give him a name?

However, before I could start pondering about it, I arrived at the place where I fell

I glanced upwards and saw the day of light illuminating the entrance to this place...

However, I was currently standing 300 meters below it, and if I wanted to reach it I could have to climb somehow the walls of this tree...

Now then...

I petted the small bird on top of my head.

"How should i leave this place...?"

 

---