Fighting smackdab within a flock of enemies is something only a fool would do.

After being reincarnated though, I've been getting a better idea about the durability of my soft titanium shell. While it is not as hard as pure titanium, impacts can still pass through it, and its surface can still be scratch, it is very durable.

At the very least, I have never once bled despite all the fights I got into after coming to this world.

So, I can put some confidence in it, right?

And that's what I did.

With these wood gnawing birds gnawing at me multiple at a time, one on my torso, one on my head, and another one or two on my tentacles, I try to always keep at least one pair of tentacles free to strangle my opponents to death.

Like that, I killed another 3 wood gnawing birds before getting restrained all over, lifted into the air with all my tentacles in between their sawing beaks. Painfully itching feelings come from all over.

If this isn't a lynching, what is?

"Meow. ...Meow! (I didn't want to do this. But you forced me!)"

I stretch open my small mouth to a width half my head.

My drill tongue shoots out like a spear or a whip, or a spearhead attached to a whip, piercing through the torso of a wood gnawing bird and carrying away a chunk of meat with it. The bloody taste of uncooked raw meat makes contact with the taste receptors of my tongue.

It's disgusting, even more so than burnt fish.

I struggle desperately, using brute strength to force my tentacles to attack the remaining wood gnawing birds with them still gnawing on me. I even use my tadpole tail to strike them.

Somehow, I manage to tear some off and break another.

As soon as I pulled off the one gnawing on my head, I spat poison ink into its face and threw it away.

I kill 2 more while still being hung in midair by a wood gnawing bird, before it drops me to the ground and flies away.

After all that, my level went up by 2, and I gained some acquired skills.

Name: Gosh Species: Faux kat (Stage I) Level: 9 (51%) Innate Abilities: Poison Ink Glands, Stretchable Titanium Shell, Night Vision Eyes, Retractable Titanium Claws, Camouflage Pigment Acquired Skills: Spit level 1, Dash level 1, Constrict level 3, Swim level 0, Cook level 0, Whack level 1, Scratch level 2, Leap level 0, Twist level 2, Endure level 1, Pierce level 0

So refreshed was I by my taking of revenge that I had the leisure to check my status and give a thumbs-up to the face tree while I stood among a splatter of bird corpses.

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With the tip of a tentacle curled up and a claw out in place of a thumb, I stood on my hind legs (tentacles) and smiled at the face tree, horrific-looking scratches all over the surface of my gray soft titanium shell.

The wood gnawing birds that were attacking the face tree also left after the few left alive after attacking me had fled.

So now, we're just left with the 2 of us here, fake cat and face tree, looking at each other, one relieved and the other one wary.

Taking a better look, I see that the face tree's face is feminine, similar to a female human's, though it has neither eyeballs nor tongue.

"Meow Meow Meow. (I helped you. Now can I build a house on you?)" I say, revealing my primary aim, the all too necessary shelter.

Building a house and living on a monster tree will surely be much safer than sleeping in the wild. It'll be like having your own guard and alarm. Since the face tree does not seem to eat meat (it has no teeth and no stomach), I do not have to worry about it harming me.

There is no reply. The face tree stares blankly at me.

Did it not understand? Or can it not speak?

I walk over, around the face tree's side and to its back, extending my claws slightly, I climb up the bark of the face tree until I rest atop one of the larger branches.

Before I can get comfortable though, the face tree grabs me with another of its thinner branches and drops me off of its body, neither gently nor roughly. Then it looks down on me with its blank face.

"...Meow! (You ingrate!)"

But I don't sense any hostility, so matters should still be negotiable.

I look around at the corpses of the wood gnawing birds.

I'm tired from the fight. I want to rest.

But if I leave raw meat out in the open, they will rot.

Thus, I decide to cook the chicken, I mean, wood gnawing bird.

Plucking feathers, removing smelly innards, cutting off bird heads and hard talons, peeling off the bird skins, etc.

I set up another fire a little further away from the face tree so that I do not scare it. Trees should be scared of fire, right?

Then I cook enough chicken wood gnawing birds for today's lunch and dinner.

As for the several other carcasses that I don't have enough stomach to eat today, and don't have a refrigerator to store, I plan to bury them under the face tree, to use them as fertilizer for my future home.

I use the leaves to wrap the chicken and also stuffed in some unidentified but safe-looking fruits I found in bushes or trees nearby.

I cook them.

I unwrap them.

I blow off the hot steam.

Extending my drill tongue, I eat.

This dish... tastes weird.

It's better than my previously burnt fish... but weird, like a mix of disharmonious flavors had melded into the slightly charred yet still tender bird meat.

I probably should have taste-tested those fruits before I stuffed them into the poultry. But adding extra ingredients into my cooking does seem to be the right move to improving it.

As proof of that, my cooking level went up by 1.

Eventually, night fell.

The face tree did not let me sleep on top of it, but it does let me sleep on the ground against it.

On top of a makeshift bed of leaves, I lean on a side of the face tree as I fall asleep.

My 2nd night in this new world went peaceful and undisturbed.

Excerpt from Aberna's Cyclopedia of Monster:

Facis Arbor - a stage 2 monster tree. An ordinary tree has a small chance of transforming into one of these by being fertilized by the corpse of an intelligent species. The face it gains will bear a slight resemblance to that corpse's. The personality of the monster tree will also resemble the corpse's personality from its lifetime, capable of being either peaceful or menacing. The resemblance is why some people think that monster trees are people reborn, and why many of the deceased in this world are buried under trees.