Name: Gosh Species: Faux kat (Stage I) Level: 19 (11%) Innate Abilities: Poison (slow death) Ink Glands, Stretchable Titanium Shell, Night Vision Eyes, Retractable Titanium Claws, Camouflage Pigment Acquired Skills: Spit level 4, Dash level 4, Constrict level 3, Swim level 2, Cook level 4, Whack level 4, Scratch level 4, Twist level 4, Endure level 5, Vaulting Pierce level 1, Hide level 4, Chop level 5, Construction level 4, Dismantle level 3, Snatch level 4, Dodge level 4, Danger Sense level 1, Fishing level 2, Block level 3, Concentrate level 2, Roll level 1, Tackle level 0

So, right now, I'm eating grill fish dipped in blood soup, while taking a casual look at my updated status.

A lot of skills leveled up. Honestly, at this point, the number of skills is getting to be too much for me to keep track of the levels of each one. Other than the ones that I've been notified of for having reached level 5, I'm not sure when most of the others leveled up.

I know that cook, that skill that's been so hard to raise after the initial few levels, leveled up to 4 just now, when I created this new dish using the blood I drained from those 3 assailants' corpses. Can't waste the good stuff.

As for the assailants' meat, I'm still a little reluctant to eat the meat of intelligent species... Maybe one day, when my human memories get ireparably more distant, but not today. For now, I just leave them aside to make them fertilizer for Sara, who I discovered some time ago, gets exp just by sucking nutrients out of the soil, and whatever is buried into the soil, though not nearly as much exp as when we directly kill monsters.

Grind Grind ...Gulp.

After using my drill tongue to grind the bloody grilled meat and bones in my mouth into paste, I swallow.

Vaulting Pierce, I just got today, and it went up to 1. Danger Sense, I got a good while ago, but only just leveled up to 1. Clearly, despite being the same grade, danger sense is harder to level up. I don't know why it's like that. I can only assume that even within the same grade, different skills have different experience bars.

Having tested these green skills in battle and felt their effectiveness, I really want more.

Fusion however, seems to depend on compatibility. I can't just fuse whatever skills I want. ...Though, danger sense just popped out of nowhere that night when I was being attacked by crazy apes, proving that these green skills can still show up on their own in dire moments, moments that I don't want to end up in too often.

Let's see...

Among my skills, which pairs look like they can be fused.

Grind Grind ...Gulp.

Having eaten one, I reach for another grilled fish.

Maybe dash and dodge. It seems like they can fuse together once they both reach level 5 to make something like Dash Dodge, to produce a faster dash-like dodge.

Or maybe constrict and twist. They both require me to wrap my tentacles around my opponent. One chokes and the other twists to break bones and stuff. ...Nevermind. It's hard to imagine how those two can fuse. A Choking Twist? Makes little sense. You don't need to twist to choke someone, and you don't need to choke to twist something.

This requires more thought.

Maybe scratch and chop. They're both skills that cut into things, except from different angles.

Or my two new skills, roll and tackle. That could form... a rolling tackle? I imagine it. Spinning and spinning and then slamming into my opponent with my titanium head... Even if that does work, I don't think I want it...

...

... ...

Time passes. One day, then another.

A treehouse had been rebuilt, much smaller than before, resting above Sara's trunk. Inside is some food, a few tools, and a pair of cocoons quietly nestled in a corner, a silent pair of siliwors sleeping inside them whilst undergoing series of mutations.

Now, the treehouse is shaking.

More precisely, it is Sara that is shaking, with a strained expression on her wooden face, similar to the strained expression a human would make when they are having trouble pulling out a turnip stuck in the ground. As for why I'm comparing it to the process of pulling out a turnip, it's because I just don't have a better analogy.

I am below, on land, cheering her on.

"Meow. Meow! Meow! (Come on Sara. You can do it! Lift those roots!)"

One by one, tree roots of different lengths and thicknesses were pulled out of the soil, lifting clumps and chunks of soil out of the ground. Soon enough, all of Sara's roots were pulled out and above ground, causing the facis arbor to have a tired and uncomfortable expression on her face.

"Meow. Meow! (It ain't over yet. Pick yourself up and lets up and let's move!)"

Not once, but twice, have intelligent creatures attacked them in this place, and both times have been dangerous, especially the last. To Gosh, it was obvious that this place and their existences have been exposed. In that case, instead of waiting for stronger and stronger opponents to appear and try to kill them, he decided to leave himself, to search for a safer place.

He was unwilling to leave Sara, Number 1, and Number 2 behind, wanting to take them with him.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Thus, following Gosh's directions, with continued difficulty, Sara continues doing actions that a tree shouldn't do. Using her roots, she pushes her heavy trunk and branches, plus the little treehouse above her, up.

"Meow. Meow... (That's it. One step at a time...)"

Hesitantly and carefully, Sara lifts one out of many roots and then moves it forward. Then the next, and the next. At what can only be compared to a snail's pace, and with an unsteady form, the facis arbor, for the first time in its life, walked. It went out of the spot it was born and grew up in, past the fence, and out of the clearing, leaving behind the only scenery it ever knew, feeling a mix of nervousness, discontent, and helplessness against her master.

...

... ...

Along the path we went, not that we actually planned a path, as we roamed in a random direction, many small monsters were startled by Sara, the big and moving tree, and ran away.

Of course, not all the monsters were so cowardly. Some bigger and stronger ones just stood there, watching us as we passed, or outright ignoring us. Others, whether strong or weak, came to attack us.

"Meow!"

"Clack! Clack!"

A small group of ugly, red, 6 eyed ants for example. They're not big, but they look ferocious.

With a shout, I step forth and hack the first ant that came with the long, curved steel dagger I looted off of that birdwoman days before. The weapon's blade easily broke through its rock-hard carapace and hacked into the bug flesh beneath, killing it in one blow.

Killed stage 1 level 5 Rey-aes. Gain 43 Exp.

Ignoring their comrade's death, the other ants climb over its corpse and bite at me.

Backing away, I dodge. Then I stab again. The tip of the dagger plunges in between the red ant's 6 eyes, killing it instantly. Another ant, I whack away with a tentacle.

Killed stage 1 level 3 Rey-aes. Gain 26 Exp.

3 in a row, coming up next. I dash into and tackle the middle one, knocking it back. Then, to deal with the two at my sides, I stab one and strike another, stunning it before I pull the dagger out of its companion and plunge the dagger into it.

Killed stage 1 level 2 Rey-aes. Gain 17 Exp.

Really, monsters of this level aren't even a challenge anymore. They barely bring any progress to my exp bar.

Soon, the entire group of ants were killed, and we moved on.

Facing off against weak aggressors like that, made me think about how far I've gotten compared to when I first arrived in this world.

I got stronger. The muscles inside my soft titanium shell feel more dense, even though I can't see it from above the shell.

My body got significantly bigger. That probably has nothing to do with my level, and is thanks to my not skipping meals and growing up naturally.

Battle seems to come instinctively to me now. I no longer freeze up in front of nor fear aggressors, and no longer hesitate to kill, no matter how I feel about it after the deed.

Compared to my ordinary self from my last life, I feel very different, more free, unrestrained, and more confident. It's hard to believe it's only been a few months. Those suffocating shackles of human society seem to be breaking off of my soul.

If it weren't for my one shortened arm, I'd feel this life experience was perfect.

...

Sara is very slow. Also, she gets tired very quickly. Not surprising since she's never walk before. Can't expect a toddler who just learned how to stand to walk a marathon.

At nighttime, she turns still and unenergetic, reinserting her roots into local soil.

I watch the blue moon, among the stars, in the darkness. The sun's not out at this time. I don't know if Sara is one of those plants that can absorb moonlight for photosynthesis, so I don't push her at night.

Like this, our journey took a long time. Thanks to that, I think we're starting to get lost. But that doesn't matter. A place hard for me to trace should also be hard to our unknown enemies to trace too... I think.

Tree-gnawing birds came. We fended them off. My vaulting pierce turned out very effective in shooting them out of the air, by letting me jump to heights past my original limitations, though the result of using green skills on low level monsters is bloody overkill.

A large overgrown centipede came, dripping what's clearly poison, a bubbling tar-like substance, from its gruesome maw. Twas a challenge. The thing knew how to avoid a stab to its head. It required some tough grappling and plenty of underhanded stabs to finally put it down. Thankfully, an unwritten trait of my body is that it has high poison resistance, a thing I bet most monsters that can spit poison has, preventing me from being affected by its splattering black blood.

...

... ...

Weeks passed.

The walking was really tough for Sara. Evidence is how her Walk skill leveled up from nothing to level 5 during this time.

Name: Sara Species: Facis Arbor (Stage II) Level: 35 (86%) Innate Abilities: Photosynthesis, Nutrient Absorbing Roots, Flexible Wood, Spirit Vision Acquired Skills: Whack level 9, Endure level 8, Poke level 2, Lift level 5 (+), Construction level 3, Throw level 0, Trip level 0, Smash level 1, Walk level 5 (+)

Notifications didn't pop up for my pets' skills reaching level 5, nor for when their skills can be fused. But a (+) icon does show up in their status screens. Focusing on the (+), I find

Your pet, Sara's skills, Lift and Walk, are deemed compatible. Do you wish to combine them into the higher ranked skill, Power Walk?

Power walk?

An image comes to mind, from my old life, of middle-aged mothers, aunties, and house husbands, walking in a group with good form, backs straight, their arms and legs swinging in fast and wide motions.

I then imagine Sara doing the same exercise.

"...Meow? (...Yes?)" With an awkward look on my face, I allow the combination.

After that, the strain on Sara as she walked on her roots seemed to decrease a little, while her steps have become more steady. And she didn't have to swing her branches in wide motions to do it. It seems the power walks in Aberna aren't the same as the power walks on Earth.

We eventually stop after we finally walked a distance that I felt was safe enough for us to settle down.

Now, what we need is a spot that is actually suitable to live in. A place similar to that clearing that we had before would be good.

"Meow. Meow. (Sara, stay here. I'll go look around.)" Leaving Sara behind, I go out to scout, having spotted a direction in the forest where more light shines through the leaves of the bigger non-monster trees. The place beyond possibly has monsters, or worse yet, some intelligent species like the ko-os.

...

From afar, it looks like a village, ...or not. It looks bigger. A town?

Have I ever mentioned I don't have good farsight?

After being reborn in this body, I can see things close by just fine. Things at mid range also okay. But things far away, are all blurry.

That's why I did not notice until I reached mid range.

"Meow..." I narrow my faux kat eyes in hostile caution. Those houses... their architectural structure looks like those damned apes, the ko-os'. Did I accidentally get lost and wander towards the ko-o village? Or since it's bigger, is it a different settlement? A ko-o town?

Just as I was about to turn around and leave, not wanting trouble before I'm ready, a blurry silhouette enters my range of view.

...It's small, and quadrupedal, not shaped like a ko-o.

It seems it has noticed me too, as it shifts its round head my way. The shape of that head... looks kind of familiar, especially the two triangles poking out topsides.

Then, the silhouette stands up on its short legs and waddles closer. Its appearance becomes clearer.

My eyes widen in shock. No way...

The opposite party raises its short paw and waves in cheerful manner.

"Meow~!"

"Meow~!" I cry back, tears threatening to well up in my eyes.

Animal instincts or whatever, something tells me, I finally reunited with my family.