“You are unexpectedly cruel, nyan… Now I feel pity for that black one, nyan” Midnight made a wry smile after hopping out from Oscar’s shadow.

“Ah, wait a minute. I’m still concentrating.”

Oscar was sitting inside a flute tree’s trunk. His figure was surrounded by wooden walls on four sides, it was weird enough that he could enter an enclosed place with no entrance like this. Both of his hands were placed on the ground while his eyes were shut tight.

A flow of faint green light could be seen running from his arms into the soil. It was his concentrated mana that he had sent through the fungal colonies toward the mountain of goblin corpses.

“Fuu…, finally finished raising all of them into zombies. And thank you Midnight, I couldn’t do this if you didn’t offer to help me. You are a good girl.”

Oscar opened his eyes and gently stroke the black cat that approached to rub her face on his chest.

“And don’t forget my reward, nyan. I’m looking forward to it!”

“Sure, after this mess is over. But for now, let me rest for a bit. My head hurts so much after using [Growth acceleration] and [Treant creation] consecutively. I might stumble somewhere if I go out right now.”

Luna watched Midnight clinging to Oscar from the side. Her red eyes were dull with jealousy and depression. Deep in her heart, she also wanted to help him, but she was powerless. Even if she was already transformed into a crystal rabbit, her skills still showed no sign of waking up.

Mu... I also want to become useful like that, she thought, I wonder when my skills awake, what kind of power it will be? It would be good if I can get a cool skill. B-But what if it isn’t and end up becoming something useless? Aaaah! This is bad, really bad!

She unconsciously tapped her hindfoot on the floor as she became nervous while thinking about her future power. During this short journey, Midnight had told her several things regarding a monster’s life.

Midnight had lived for years and was more knowledgeable than anyone else in this forest. She had seen hundreds if not thousands of monsters in her life. And for a monster, the first skills it got determined what kind of power it would develop in the future.

For Midnight, a shadow cat, she got [Shadow dive] as her first skill which developed into [Shadow dweller] and [Shadow manipulation] afterward. And now, the skills related to dealing with shadows had become the Midnight’s trademark.

As for crystal rabbits, [Haste], [Air jump], and [Head butt] seemed to commonly appear as their first skill.

[Haste] sounds like a good skill for escaping, but how can it be useful to master? No no no, it must be the worst idea if I run away while everyone is fighting! And [Air jump] is even worse! Why should I bother jumping into the air if master can ask birds for help?

The rate on which her foot tapped the floor hastened as she used her brain.

Ahhh! The only good skill is [Headbutt]! Yes, if I get that skill, I will headbutt anyone who comes close to master. And if my horn grows longer, it must be a deadly blow!

She stood on two feet and raised her front paws to touch her small horn. There, her red eyes met Midnight’s golden eyes.

Midnight was still sitting on Oscar’s lap while sweeping her tail left and right. She gave Luna a bewitching smile before her face nonchalantly rubbed on Oscar’s chest.

While doing so, her eyes still looked at Luna as if to say, “Don’t you want to come, nyan? If you don’t come, then I will play with master alone, nyan. When master is tired, you can nyan-nyan with him as much as you like, nyan~”

*K-Kyu!*

Not wanting to be left alone, Luna also hopped on Oscar’s lap and tried to find herself a place to lie down.

“Ah, Luna, you are also a good good girl~ here. Come, give me a hug~”

He put her onto his shoulder and rubbed his cheek on her fluffy fur.

“Ahh, this softness! You know, Luna, your fluffy fur just relieved my headache.”

*Kun~*

He lowered her and held her in his arm a moment later. Luna turned toward Midnight and gave her a victorious smile. In return, Midnight rolled her eyes for failing her teasing prank.

“Now, I think it’s a good time to rescue Lunus. The goblins must be busy dealing with the mushroom zombies. So, there’s no better opportunity than this.”

He stood up and walked toward an inner wall of the tree where it slowly opened into a big entrance. Sunlight bathed him as he walked outside the tree trunk.

“Thank you for sheltering us. Your trunk is really wide and nice. Oh, and also thank you for the help earlier. You guys had helped me so much.” he said, slightly bowed toward the flute tree.

*Hooooomph!*

A woodwind-like note came from the tree as wind flowed into its trunk and exited through fist-sized holes on its body.

Lunus had learned from Midnight that it was actually very rare for a monster to become frenzy and mindless. As the result, he had used his [Treant creation] to turn flute trees and fruit trees around this place into treants and had them help him distract the goblins.

Flute trees had their core hollow, thus made them a huge woodwind instrument. The flute treants inhaled from their trunk and pumped the pressured air through their burrows, making a woodwind-like sound.

“...But those sounds were too loud, nyan. Not even the goblins, they also hurt my ears, nyan.”

*Weeeee…*

“Shhh, Midnight, it would hurt them if you say that, don’t you think? It’s their first time doing something like this anyway, so shouldn’t we just leave it be bygone?”

“...If master say so, nyan. But next time, you should help me plug my ears, nyan. I don’t want to hear it again.”

*Weeeee…*

Since using the flute treant’s sounds to distract the goblins turned out to cause damage to both party, Oscar had turned the fruit trees around this place into treants and had them throw their fruits instead.

And since the number of fruits might not be enough to distract the goblins for long, he had gone out of his way to use [Growth acceleration] to grow more fruits on the trees. As the result, Gogin had been barraged by unending fruit projectiles until Gugaga zombie was completely prepared

“And don’t forget me, nyan. If it wasn’t for me delivering the mushroom to the corpses, it would be dangerous for master, nyan.”

Midnight’s [Shadow dweller] was an advanced version of [Shadow dive] that Gogin had used. With this skill, the current Gogin wouldn’t notice her if he didn’t sharpen his senses to the highest point. And that was impossible during all the chaotic events.

“You know, nyan, that goblin was about to turn tail and run inside its shadow, nyan. But I happened to see it just in time, nyan. Else, he must find me in the shadow, nyan.”

“Ah, I saw you sent the goblin flying away. You are really really amazing, Midnight. I didn’t think that [Shadow bullet] spell that you taught me would be that strong.”

(Author note: Here, I need to change the past chapters a bit. Midnight had both skills and magics regarding shadow. She helped Oscar to unlock [Shadow dive] skill and taught him some human spell.)

“A cute girl like me must learn how to protect herself, nyan~”

During the time where Midnight went out to delivery the mushroom to the corpse mountain, Oscar didn’t only hide inside the tree. He had used his [Share perception] to oversee the events through birds’ eyes and fungal colonies. He had prepared to order the treants to help her out in the case that she was caught by the goblins.

In the first place he didn’t want to send her out alone and just hide inside the tree trunk, but his position required high concentration and his [Shadow dive] also wasn’t good enough to hide himself from the goblins’ eyes, so that couldn’t be helped.

“Speaking about that, what actually is that mushroom, nyan? Just how could it turn out to be a zombie, nyan?”

“Oh, you mean the zombie mushroom? It was fortunate that I can make it work on the goblin corpses.”

A zombie mushroom was a parasitic fungus that could take control of its prey’s body. Normally it could grow only on small insects like ants and crickets, but through Oscar’s [Growth acceleration] and [Treant creation], he could expand its size to turn the goblins into walking corpses.

“The only problem is its low intelligent… The zombies turn out to be simple-minded and can only follow simple commands. Well, that’s not a big problem anyway.”

“The biggest problems are those blades and the ability that turned the black goblin into a mist, nyan.”

“Yes, those are dangerous.”

“But it didn’t look like the zombies are affected by the blade, nyan. Isn’t it weird?”

“Oh, it’s because mushrooms can grow in any direction, unlike a normal plant that can only grow from its buds. The black mist seems to prevent the mushrooms to grow on their cut surface, but they can extend their body from other sides to heal itself anyway.”

“So the only problem is that skill, nyan… We can’t catch it if it can vanish like a mist, nyan.”

Oscar let out a sigh and extended his vine to coil around a tree branch.

“That’s true, but right now we should quickly find Lunus first.”

Midnight dove into his shadow as his figure flew into the air together with Luna in his free arm. His vision blurred as the figures of trees passed by his side. However, through his [Mind link] and [Share perception], he watched a single black goblin danced with a scimitar in its hand among a swarm of mushroom zombies while its friends were shredded into pieces.