Sorry for the late updates, I spent a good amount of time re-designing the future plot points of the story. Enjoy!

Wordpress link: Ch-10

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-- POV Grass –

Fwaaaaaaaa, another great nap. Let’s see how long it’s been this time. I feel buff as fuck, especially as that sun comes over the horizon once again. Ahhhhhhhh, that struggle over life and death was worth it!

Name:---Age:8 DaysGender:♂/♀Level:3Class:Plant SageRace:Bermuda GrassHP:3/3Mana:0/0Growth Points:120Growth Rate:0.75 pts/hourStrength:1Vitality:4Agility:1Intelligence:117Roots:7 (+0.1 pts/hour)Leaves:7Titles:[td colspan="3"] [Destined to Die], [Reincarnator], [Martyr], [Boundless], [Late Bloomer], [One of Many], [Eaten Alive], [Cannibal], [Kin-Slayer] [/td]

Abilities:[td colspan="3"], , , , , , , , [/td]

Oh yea, I did get two new titles.

[Kin-Slayer]Rank: F[td colspan="2"]From killing your own relatives. Disappears if forgiven by religion leader you are a part of. Passive: Royalty’s and Dynasty's trust in your actions has been diminished. [/td]

[Cannibal]Rank: F[td colspan="2"]Due to dining upon your own kind. Disappears if species changes. Passive: Your species will feel disturbed around you. [/td]

Oh shit. It's good I learned of this early. If I evolve, or I reach my final form, I do NOT want the [Cannibal] title. Even though I'm a scientist-grass-man, I was originally human. I'm a social creature, the only reason I haven't given up is because every day I'm almost dying, it's giving me an excuse to live. It's distracting me from my situation. If people who I consider my species doesn’t talk with me, I might just become a demon lord or something, who knows. Eh, probably not. But I wouldn't be very kind to people at least!

The [Cannibal] title will hopefully stop the other grass from attacking me, if they can attack me. Thankfully the titles don't affect me much right now, but I guess I'll try and not kill my own species (after I evolve of course. Or change enough that I'm considered another species. Not really sure how that works).

My point bank is pretty full at 120, I should work on protection instead of attack. If I attack the grass again, I'll need a lot more points than I have now. I'm guessing that with my [Cannibal] title, and the fact that I did just completely annihilate a member that some tried to save, put them on the defensive. They're all probably linking together now, pooling their resources to defend against my assimilation attack. Even though each only has a small amount of energy, linked together I can imagine there being a lot of energy there. I don't even know how wide this area is, I could be back on the old Texas grass plains that spanned for hundreds of miles or in a small glade on a hill. I'm hoping for the second, otherwise I'm boned from the beginning.

I would still like a mana-sensing ability, or something similar so that I could see and verify my surrounding, but that's a no go right now. No matter how much I think about sensing mana, I'm not given any options to do so. And from my cursory examination from the plant I've taken over, there's no difference at all. I'm starting to think it's something about my species that is causing this whole problem. Grass must be the bottom of the bottom of the evolutionary totem pole.

Thankfully the plant assimilation title didn't lie to me. It seems I suffered 8 points of bug damage on my main body, and only one point on my extended body. I can expect the loss rate to be linear for each grass I take over, but I still feel like 1 point for a grass bundle is way too much. I can think of two causes: One, the titles still have some effect, or Two, since I attract all of the insects, it's suffering collateral damage. I really want my eggs to hatch and defend me. It's almost time, typical insect eggs either hatch by today or up to 16 days after they were deposited.

Thinking of that, I need to build a home for them somehow, of keep them attracted to forming a mutualistic or a commensality relationship with me. I can definitely attract them when I become damaged, but the problem is it won't help for if there is a bug swarm, and they might become desensitized to my chemical screams if I take this much damage each day. What to do?

From what I know ants would be the easiest to tame, as I could provide them living space and bugs, while they kill plants around me and most small herbivores are dissuaded from eating me.

FFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKK

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-- POV Rabbit –

'Munch Munch'

This grass looked tastier than the other grass. I wanted to taste it. It's not any different than the other grass.

'Munch Munch'

-- POV Grass –

Ouch, that hurt. I passed out from the pain. Separating the pleasure side of my thinking process reduced my tolerance for pain. Wonder what's the damage? Oh, lost 4 leaves. Ouch. Vitality down to 2, HP down to 2/3, and leaves down to 3. Let's fix that, jettison the lost leaf stems, and regrow 4 more, there! Ok, so my growth points now are 170, and by tomorrow morning should be up to 188. Man, I gotta be careful, or level up multitasking so that I can work on three things at once. One passes out if there's pain, one has orgasmic pleasure, and one works. Perfect! I'll try it out tomorrow.

Back to the bugs! I don't think the leaf with the bugs eggs were eaten, thank goodness. I feel like if I had mana this would be easier, but beggars can't be choosers. All I have left is to actually think of something to work. I could turn back on my reflectivity to the weird purple spots to attract ALL the bugs, but that loses my [One of Many] title, and I'm pretty sure I have a trauma about that. I can't even begin to change my colors back to that specific color. Zzzzzzzz.

I could maybe feed them some sap/sweet juice, but I'm not the biggest fan of doing that at this stage. I'm not sure what other kind of bugs that I might attract. Maybe, just maybe, it could work though. If I excrete a juice randomly, like a casino, I should be able to make the bugs addicts using some chemicals from earth. Caffeine or nicotine, maybe throw in a mild form of meth, and I'll have potent drug addicts. As they come looking for the drugs, they will naturally clean off my plant from bugs to both protect their drug source as well as just because they get hungry. I'll become the center of their world! I have to be careful though, don't want to overdose them, or make them resistant to the drug, so maybe meth would be a bad idea. I'll stick with the classics that enslaved the human world then.

I'm sure I don't need the drugs now, as bugs can become addicted to just sugar and the random timings, but they won't be as loyal to me. Plus, in the future it might become handy. Maybe I could train some goblins in the future, or gremlins or something to become my loyal minions.

I just thought of an AMAZING idea, but that will have to wait for a long time from now. Oh goodness, is it juicy though!!!!!!! I hope it will work. These bugs will be a test bed.

I don't want to flood them with drugs now, but I need to be ready. Thankfully I have very good senses of things that are touching me, so I should be able to tell when they hatch. It should be soon. I better get ready. Let's see what things I can buy right now. To humor myself I'll ask the system too what I should be able to do, other than the chemicals I want to do.

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Genetic Mutation – Drug Compounding (1000)

Gives the ability to create various drugs. Reduces the cost of chemical creations to 50%. Combines with Genetic mutation, decreasing cost to a minimum of 10%.

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Genetic Mutation – Caffeine Creation* (100)

Gives the ability to create caffeine.

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Genetic Mutation – Nicotine Creation* (100)

Gives the ability to create nicotine.

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Genetic Mutation – Controlled Sap Release (15)

Gives the ability to release sap at command.

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Genetic Mutation –Sap Release (5)

Passively emit sap from your body.

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Oh, interesting, I actually have a choice to make. If I want to invest in the future, the choice is clear, however the initial investment is just as big as the potential rewards. If I need a quick fix, I should just choose the Caffeine and Nicotine additions. But, I think I'm going to be greedy today. At most I have 8 days to generate enough points, let's do this!

By tomorrow morning I should have about 188 points, and each day I gain 84 through leaves and 18 through roots, losing 9 a day. So I generate 93 points a day, (1065 – 188)/8 days = 110 points a day. Damn, so close. That means I'm gonna have to alter my growth plans now. I have 3 leaves on my main body, and 4 on my external body. That means 4 leaves each should be fine. That increases my growth rate by another 12 points a day, bringing me up to 105 points a day. I'll try 5 on each though, and see if I lose my [One of Many] title. That brings me up by another 24 points a day, totaling 129 points a day! That should give me a surplus by the end of the week of 152, a reasonable surplus. Ok let's do this!