Logically, I should return back to the snowy town. It made sense, I was to half health and I found out how dangerous the place was. What I should do was to return back there and ask Galu and his parents for help to level up safely.

But when I thought about it, I felt really reluctant to return. I had 405/1000 EXP. It was so far from levelling up, yet so close. Now that I already put in so much effort to come here, it felt wrong to just leave.

I made up my mind. I'd explore just a bit more, but if I levelled up or got more hurt, I would quickly retreat!

[It's known as the sunken cost fallacy.]

What?

[Nothing.]

Radio being weird again...

With caution, I drove further into the flourishing grove. A cow was grazing, but it decided to back away slowly after it saw the frozen blood on my bumper.

"Whoa, the plants here smell great." Sheepy said. "Open up!"

I let it out. It was good for the sheep to be ready to protect me if anything bad happened anyway.

Sheepy began eating the blue-green grass, full of gusto. Was it really that good? It can't be worse than eating bushes, right?

Hey, can I get poisoned, Tablet?

I really should have asked that earlier but I guess better late than never.

[No. How does a machine get poisoned?]

Okay, that's good to know.

I gingerly picked a bunch of it. It looked, very... juicy? I took a bite. It was crunchy but didn't have much taste.

Well, it was definitely better than the bushes. Didn't make me want to empty my stomach at any rate. I threw out the useless bushes and starting stuffing tons of grass into my inventory, many little bugs scurrying out. I tried squishing one but didn't get any EXP. Oh well.

Sheep watched, somewhat speechless.

I took a look around for something I could fight but didn't really see any. I did see some weird round fruit up a tree though, so I decided to float one of the lower hanging ones into my mouth. Hmm, it was nice and... sweet?

Wait, I thought it was sweet, in the language of this world! I did know the words for taste, but I didn't actually know what tastes tasted like what because I never had food until I was in this world. But I thought of the taste in the language here, which was then translated into English in my mind again!

So Tablet's deciphering could help me understand English words I never actually knew what they meant. That was a pretty strange thought. Neat?

In any case, I wanted more. The fruits were hanging high up, so I couldn't reach them with my telekinesis. I decided to bump the tree with just a little force. I really shouldn't take damage from a slight bump with 7 DEF, I hope?

I didn't bump hard enough for the tree to even shake, so I bumped it harder. This time, about a dozen fruits rained down. Since I wasn't taking damage, I decided to hit it even harder. The fruit rained down and made clanking sounds on my roof.

Sheepy got curious, so it walked over and tried one.

"Bahhh! Disgusting!" it spat.

Well, more for me. I began bumping more fruit trees.

Just as I was about to crash into another tree, a girl suddenly materialised. She was in a dress made of flowers and leaves and her hair looked like very thin vines. A dryad? I guess I shouldn't be surprised to see one in this world.

"Please don't bump into my tree! Oh, and not my friends either," she said. "I'll help you pick the fruits, so don't do that, okay?"

"Sorry! I didn't know!" Radio said.

"Hmm? Didn't know what?" the dryad tilted her head.

Didn't know there were dryads in the trees...

"Nothing..."

I really should be feeling guilty, but honestly, having someone help me pick the fruits was very convenient. Haha, at this rate, I'll never have to eat crappy grass or bushes ever again!

Hundreds of fruits littered the ground. She was very good at this! Was she part monkey or something?

As I was stuffing all the fruits she threw off the trees, the dryad screamed.

"Ahhh! Rootworm!"

A root covered in little root legs suddenly leapt off the tree the dryad was on. It was one of those crazy illusion root centipede things! Before it could even start running, I quickly grabbed it with telekinesis. The monster immediately vanished and I couldn't feel it in my grasp anymore, but my telekinesis couldn't close up, so I knew I had it!

I pressed it to the ground and ran over it with a wheel.

[+689 EXP]

[Level up! +2 Stat Points. HP refilled.]

Oh, thank god! I didn't know why it gave so much EXP, but I wasn't questioning it.

I felt so relieved as my dents patched up and stopped aching. The bloodstains on my bumper suddenly disappeared. Huh, I didn't notice I had a 'cleaning service' after levelling up.

DEF.

[DEF 7 -> 9]

Looking down, I realised I had crushed the 'head' of the monster. Green goopy sap was flowing out of it, so I decided to taste some of it. Urgh... so bitter and metallic. Nope. I decided to put it into my inventory anyway. Maybe it had some uses?

On the branches of the tree, there was the shrivelled up corpse of the deer I hit earlier, dripping blood into the grass. I didn't see it earlier from the centipede's influence.

"Oh, thank the gods! You got rid of that dreadful thing! To think there'd be one of those monsters here of all places..."

The dryad got off the tree, mumbling. Just as she was about to climb onto another tree, I told Radio to stop her.

"There's no need anymore! We have enough fruit!"

I didn't really want to stay here any longer now that I levelled up. And I already had like, what, a thousand fruits? Who knew if how much more trouble I would get into if I continued to stay.

"Bye, remember to plant the seeds!" the dryad said.

I quickly drove off, using the map to find my way back. A mouth suddenly shot out of the ground, nearly bitting me. Another flytrap! See? Trouble!

I activated Engine Burst and drove away even faster.