A tree. Not a real one, of course, but the hologram of a 2D tree appeared on the screen that the command spawned. It was a wide tree with five horizontal lines separating the different parts of it in sections, and on one side there was a single word for each section while on the other the number zero could be seen.

“From bottom up there is ‘Root,’ ‘Surface,’ ‘Foundation,’ ‘Trunk,’ ‘Crown,’ and at the top ‘Fruit.’” I mumble.

“It’s easy to guess that those are the ‘grades’ mentioned in the other screens, but what is the point of dividing them like this?” I ask myself.

“...System, what’s the difference between grades?”

[Frequently Asked Question #11 was heard.]

[Most common answer is: “Root-Grade skills are only obtained from birth. Surface-Grade skills are only obtainable from outside sources. Foundation-Grade skills can only be obtained by one's own effort. Trunk-Grade skills are born from Foundation-Grade and Surface-Grade skills. Crown-Grade and Fruit-Grade skills are obtained through certain conditions.”]

“That’s interesting. I wonder what those ‘outside sources’ are,” I say, anticipating a response from the system.

Though nothing came of it.

“Well, since waiting and thinking does nothing for me, I guess I will... wait. Can I see more details with this skill tree?” I ask, to no avail.

“If only I had hands to try to touch the screen...” I sigh.

After waiting for the screen to dissolve by itself, I called out the last command, however, as lackluster as it may sound, it was practically empty. Nothing but a completely white screen with my species written at the center and nothing else.

“It’s time to move,” I say.

...But how?

“Core serpent, it may or may not be a species that I’ve heard of before, regardless it is still a snake. Snakes are known to slither through things to move,” I say. “How does slithering work though? If a human tried to imitate a snake, it’d just look like an awkward tied person using his legs to attempt to crawl in a zigzag without using their hands.”

“Since I’m a snake now, I should have some sort of self-made lube or maybe a lower body that allows me to easily slither away. Should I just push myself forward and just see how it goes?”

First, I check how much of my body I can move. My head and the ‘neck,’ aka the area closest to my head, were easily controllable as if I was controlling a human neck. The rest of the body was hardly controllable, much like trying to twist a human torso without having any flexibility, save for the tip of my tail, which is also easy to control.

Maybe it was because I was focused on the screens up until now, but I can feel the dirt and the dry leaves below my body as I try to move.

I lower my head until it touches the ground and try imitating the snakes that I used to see in videos. I push myself forward with my chin and follow up with my neck, then I somehow feel the muscles of my belly contort, in a comfortable way, and it helps me keep on pushing, and pushing, until I have moved a good distance.

“Gosh, this feels nicer than I expected from a crawl,” I say.

After practicing this movement for a bit I start feeling a little more confident in myself.

“I’m so good at being a snake already,” I say. “I might even be able to climb trees already!”

Disregarding any safety I head towards the nearest one and latch onto the smallest root sticking out of the ground at the foot of the tree. Using my head and neck to keep track of the path the rest of my body should move I slowly climb up from the root to the bottom of the tree.

“Wait, this is... a little...”

No matter how many times I tried to latch and slide on the trunk, my body just kept on slipping away and falling to the ground.

“Why does it feel so hard to grasp?” I ask myself. “Show me its profile.”

 

Name: (Unnamed) Class: Plant Species: Miui Tree Growth(Stage): 39 Years(Sapling) Skills: Growth (Passive) | Grade: Foundation Photosynthesis (Active) | Grade: Trunk

 

“There’s nothing off about it though?”

After a few more tries I accept defeat against the Miui Tree and try another, only to fail again.

“Okay, maaybe I’m not that ready yet,” I say.

Suddenly a gust of wind hits the area I’m at, blowing leaves away and quickly cooling my body.

“Brr, oh man it’s actually quite cold here,” I start looking around for a place to use as shelter. And while doing so I also notice that I’m hungry.

“I can’t believe I haven’t seen a single insect this whole time!”

Crossing a few brushes and sliding through the foliage on the ground for a while yields me no results, I mean, unless feeling thirsty counts as a result. In which case, I am parched.

“Uuugh,“ I stop moving to catch a breath. “I wonder if there’s any water source nearby... is it even safe to drink water out in the woods?”

*Drip* *Drip*

“Hm?”

I raise my head a little.

*Drip* *Drip*

“Is that... the sound of droplets falling?” I lower my voice to focus on the sound.

*Drip*

“...! From the right?” I start slithering towards that direction.

I slowly travel across the open area, I head into a thick and multi-layered bush, which feels like a miniature forest of its own. At least for someone of my size. Then after a while, I find myself in another but smaller open area, surrounded only by trees and uneven ground.

“Then what was...!”

Looking to one side I find the source of the dripping sounds, it was a plant. A bud, if I had to be exact. It had grown by the foot of a thin tree and was letting drops of water fall onto the earth in front of it.

“What a strange sight,” I point out, “that tree looks so malnourished in comparison to the others around.”

As I approach the wetland that surrounds the plant an even stranger thought crosses my mind.

“Where is that water coming from?”

Having crawled through several dried leaves and bushes did give me a single and most obvious insight about this place, and that is...

“It hasn't rained recently,” I affirm. “There’s no way that that small plant has kept THAT much water from a rain so long ago that everywhere else is already dried. Show me its profile.”

[There is no target in sight.]

“Uh, what?”

“What do you mean by—”

*Crack*

Before I can question the system, a small but easily perceptible noise comes from the ground. First it’s a few snapping sounds, then I feel the earth moving, and finally, with a slow digging, a pointy twig jumps from the earth aiming for my head.

“Uwaah!” I throw my neck muscle to the side and the nearby parts follow along by instinct, including my head of course.

“What in the blazes was that!?” After taking a bit of distance I keep staring at the twig. It seems to slowly lose its hardness and softens up to the point that it looks more like a thin rope that moves by itself, or maybe like a pointy snake tail.

The softened twig slowly pulls itself back to the earth but the hole it made remains as proof that I didn’t just imagine that attack.

“Was that thing trying to kill me...?” I quickly realize the dangerous situation I’m in. “First I get smashed by something and now I almost get stabbed, both in the same night? Maybe my luck really is zero.”

Joking around doesn’t really help me relax so I take even more distance from that hole and, after taking a short breath, I start checking the profiles of everything around to find a clue as to what attacked me.

“Whew,” I exhale, “this spot feels like a naturally made trap, and it all goes back, round trip, to the one thing I couldn’t use the command on. That plant bud.”

It did take me a little thinking but I realize that maybe this plant isn’t just that.

“Let’s see, show me their profile.”

*Ping*