NOVEL NEXT Chapter 3 – Addicted to Strawberries?
I didn't know what happened but the creepy crawlies had gone into a frenzy after their strawberry leftovers were all eaten up.
I wonder if my berries have addictive properties. There's only one way to find out!
I had saved up quite a bit of energy and nutrients recently thanks to all those kind sacrifices. Three strawberries coming right up.
And what did I sense? Those crawlies were all huddling near where the strawberries were growing. They were literally guarding them with their lives on the line and in plain sight of any passing predators.
Oh? Maybe I should spare a few predators so I could get more food. Words of mouth really was the best way to advertise products.
I felt like I was a owner of some illegal drug making company. Whatever the case, there was nothing wrong with me. I was just trying to survive in this harsh world.
Maybe being a plant isn't that bad!? No, no, no... I need to think bigger! Dream bigger! Live bigger!
The strawberries really worked wonders. My visitor counter had increased exponentially. This also had to do with the number of flowers I had which had since increased to fifteen. They weren't regularly flowers, sure, and most of them couldn't turn into strawberries, sure, but they were the reason why I could grow so well. Food was important! I literally had stored away more nutrients than I knew what to do with.
Bah, I'll grow more strawberries! The business is sure booming these days. Ehehehe...
Whatever was happily feasting on my strawberries were my customers, forever and ever until the day they became fertilizers. My experiment was truly outrageously successful! There was just one odd thing I couldn't understand. Some of the crawlies were willingly sacrificing themselves into my flowers. Their behaviour defied what I believed were possible for mere insects. Did they possibly know that I needed lots of nutrients and energies to grow strawberries?
I had tried to keep a constant supply of strawberries but they just kept demanding more, or so I assumed based on their behaviors. Some of them even tried to pollinate the flowers only to fail miserably.
The pollinators that only went to the flowers were unaffected but I didn't know why they kept coming back. Was it the nectars?
Whatever the case, keep coming! Why complain about free food?
Over time the population of that creepy crawlies nest dwindled. It wasn't because of the predators but rather they kept sacrificing themselves until I couldn't produce enough strawberries. Right, their entire nest became addicts. Was it part of my plan? Well, I didn't plan anything. Plants couldn't do that therefore I claimed innocence.
Things had been pretty crazy recently. Furry critters had been visiting and making contacts with me. I didn't dislike them but some of them were quite forceful with me, tearing my leaves off with the strawberries. For those, I cursed them and hoped they died from food poisoning or something. Whether they actually died, I didn't know but what I did know was that my levels were shooting up.
[Level 20 Plant;
Species: Notorious Strawberry Plant (mutated);
Traits: Bewitching, Devious, Rapid Growth;
Abilities: Absorption;
Description: A highly toxic species of strawberry plant that lures preys to their
demise using their flowers and berries.]
Yay! Won't you look at that, a new trait! Hmm... I wonder if it just allows me to grow faster?
I honestly don't fully understand what these traits did. My guess was that they altered my body in ways as described. For example, "alluring" allowed me to produce addictive substances to help me attract more preys. As for "devious", maybe it allowed me to be poisonous?
Anyway, the other day, I was able to figure out what absorption did, or at least partially. Some worms had crawled into my domain underground and made contact with my roots. Just by contact, I felt an excessive flow of life energy into me, more than the usual I received from the earth. Other than that, the ability was useless unless I could get my roots to touch more living things.
The carcasses were mostly cleaned up by those creepy crawlies. Aside from strawberries, they ate anything. In a sense, I kind of needed them to stay alive but I had no way to curb their addictions. Addiction was a path of destruction.
I wonder how big I am now?
I grew large enough that the creepy crawlies' nest was smaller than even a single leaf of mine. I thought to myself how one day I would be able to feast on bigger preys. The issue was the lack of reference.
Finally, after who knew how long had passed, my next evolution option came! Again, I was given two options:
[Notorious Strawberry Bush (mutated)] or [Strawberry Imp (lesser)].
The first option seemed too plain to me. The second option was very intriguing to say the least. I wasn't sure what it meant to be an imp but that at least wasn't a plant of some type.
I made up my mind. Imp it is. You got to be bold to move forward!
[Level 1 Fey Plant;
Species: Strawberry Imp (lesser);
Traits: Bewitching, Devious, Rapid Growth, Cloning;
Abilities: Absorption, Charm;
Description: A dangerous fey plant that lures in their prey before leeching all of their life forces.]
