Chapter 4: Blood

[Ability]
HP: 2/28
MP: 28/28
Attack Power: 0
Magic Power: 10
Defense Power: 39
Magic Resistance: 39
Agility: 0

★ (Anonymous) Seed LV10 (Can evolve)
0 years old

[Skill]
[Perception LV6]
[Blood Absorption LV7]
[Freeze Blocking LV1]
[Inferno Stigma]

[Trait]
[Michel’s Cheer]

Level 10? Can evolve? I didn’t get that feeling at all.

The other world novels I’d read were all full of exaggerated descriptions.

A splendid light that enveloped your entire body every time you leveled up, a powerful force that penetrated your entire being…

In Shadow Symphony, the characters had leveled up in a flashy manner, emitting a blue light.

However, the growth I actually experienced was different.

What I felt while absorbing Drake’s blood was simply… a feeling of being alive.

Every time the newly grown roots sucked up nutrients, it felt like they were getting a little stronger, and the stems were getting a little longer.

That was all.

There were no flashy effects, no sudden explosions of power.

It was just quiet, natural growth.

That must have been leveling up, right?

I actually liked this simple sense of realism.

The flashy productions in games and novels might have been nothing more than illusions to satisfy human fantasy.

“Yes, this isn’t a world modeled after a game… It might actually be the opposite.

Things like status windows and levels would naturally exist in another world.

However, the way they were visualized was probably expressed differently in each game.

The unrealistic setting where everything is restored by leveling up even when stamina runs out, or the flashy effects that explode every time you grow…

Those were definitely exaggerated descriptions in games and novels.

I believe that.

I wasn’t some piece of data!

‘Huh! What the heck is game data!

It was a reincarnation in another world!”

I realized the truth of this other world thanks to leveling up.

‘No, then if you become a sprout, that’s evolution?”

The status window that would tell me that I had sprouted and “evolved” was vivid in my mind.

Just like leveling up, evolution probably would just be a normal natural process.

“No! Evolution can cause cataclysms! This is another world!”

Anyway, I was right.

I continued to check the status window anxiously and found something strange.

“Mikel’s… cheering…?”

[Mikel’s Cheer] – The benevolent God of Light, Mikel, cheers you on.

“Huh, when did this happen!?”

I prayed and checked the status window from time to time, but I didn’t remember gaining this trait.

“Oh! When I almost froze to death! Was it when the status window was making a lot of noise!?”

That seemed right.

I thought I understood why my ice resistance had increased so quickly.

“Benevolent God of Light, Mikel! I will never speak informally to you again! Thank you so much!

I will definitely grow into a good plant!”

I vowed to myself that I would never harbor disrespectful thoughts again.

I looked at the explanation of Mikel’s Cheer once again.

Huh…? Heart…?

It might sound like a funny sentence, but I really liked that heart.

It seemed to convey the warmth of love to me, who had been reincarnated as a seed and was exhausted in loneliness.

And to a being called God.

“Could it be, Frost Drake too!?”

It might have been a stretch to say that the God of Light had thrown that terrible lump of blood, but to me, who had already become a devout follower of Mikel, this was also God’s grace and favor.

‘Ah… Mikel, Drake was you too.”

There was nothing that could stop me from receiving Mikel’s cheer.

It’s time to slowly go up to the surface now!

The sprout finally broke through the surface and appeared.

The moment it first came out, a flood of sensations came rushing in.

Underground, new and unimaginable sensations poured through my entire body.

Blood Child – Blood child’s description.

I saw it for nothing.

It must be a blood sprout.

It doesn’t change even after evolving, and its level is the same.

As expected, this is another world.

If it were in a game, its level would have been reset.

And its abilities, except for agility, were unified to 60.

Thanks to the movable roots, its attack power, which had been 0 until now, has increased, and I didn’t know that other abilities would increase this much.

Is evolution really different?

And its HP of 26, which had decreased, did not recover.

As expected, this is another world.

Finally, its skills.

Since it’s in a labyrinth, photosynthesis would be useless, but I really liked the poison and root protrusion that seemed like excellent attack and defense methods.

This must also be the grace of Master Mikel.

I offered a prayer of thanks with a devout heart.

If an adventurer saw it, they would say that it was a skill that any plant monster would naturally have.

After finishing my prayer, I finally looked around.

Since all directions were open, my detection range had expanded significantly.

The ground was the same, but thanks to the sprouts that had emerged above, I could see everything around me as if I had eyes in all directions.

At the end of my vision, a long, mirror-like, smooth blue ice wall stretched out.

Deeply varying cracks ran throughout the wall, and cold air seeped through the gaps like fog.

I was inside a huge cavity surrounded by this beautiful yet eerie ice wall.

“Wow.”

Along with the corpse of a Frost Drake.

✰✰ Frost Drake LV77

I wanted to ignore the disgusting lump, but when I saw the Proten ore, I remembered the description that appeared in the status window.

Suppressing the rising feeling of disgust, I stared at the corpse, demanding information about the Frost Drake.

“Ugh… This is disgusting. What’s the status window doing!? When is it going to open!”

As if in response to those words, the status window appeared.

☆☆ Frost Drake LV77 – Frost Drake: Danger level A.

A drake that lives in the lower levels of the Sia Kalt Ice Cave.

As a subspecies of dragon, it uses powerful ice breath and physical attacks.

The moment you touch the ice breath, your entire body rapidly freezes.

The scales become high-quality equipment material with the ice attribute.

I asked for information, but the information that the danger level was A-class and the scales were equipment material felt uncomfortable because they were so human-centered.

It was as if it was a phrase that would be shown to users playing the game, not me.

I had finally convinced myself that this was another world, but it seemed like I had become game data again.

“Hmm… no, let’s not think too deeply about it.”

Even in another world, the status window would be seen by ordinary humans, so it would be natural.

It says monster in the game, but here it’s a monster.

Now that I think about it, there wasn’t any danger to begin with.

I quickly rationalized and analyzed the new information.

Since I couldn’t escape if I met a plant, there was only one thing that was important to me.

“Ugh… am I on the lower level right now…?”

Usually, the deeper you go in a labyrinth, the more powerful monsters, or rather, monsters, inhabit it.

If this was the lower level and it was teeming with monsters like Drake…

‘No! That was something Mikel-sama gave me!’

I was clearly on the upper level, so it had to be a gift from Mikel-sama.

No matter how great the Labyrinth was, I thought that if it was on the upper level, it was something worth doing.

“Boom.”

“Boom.”

“Boom.”

Small, thin black roots rose above the ground and stabbed the disgusting Drake’s corpse.

The Drake’s remaining blood was all frozen and could not be absorbed, but it was training for battles with monsters that I would encounter someday.

The level of the Root Protrusion LV2 skill has increased.

That’s right!

“Boom.”

The speed at which the roots rose became slightly faster.

It wasn’t a dramatic change, but if they reached level 10, they would evolve into a stronger skill.

“But why isn’t anyone coming here?”

Then, I suddenly felt something.

“Huh? This is…?”

☆☆ Snow Hyena LV31

☆☆ Snow Hyena LV28

“Hic!”

Because I was thinking useless thoughts, strange creatures came into view at the end of my detection range.

✰✰✰ Snow Hyena LV33