The dawn was over and the first light of the day came. Golden light was spread onto the scenery, casting and stretching the shadows of the trees long on the grassy ground.

It was said that light could eliminate and purify the dark; however, in reality, long, sharp, and dark shadows like these could be born only when a bright light came. One could also say that light was the origin of darkness.

Below the dark shadow of a tree appeared a big entrance to its hollow trunk. Vines were grown and entangled together, blocking the sunlight to reach the darkness inside.

Suddenly, a white hand pushed its way out and casted the vines aside. The golden sunlight bathed the face behind the wall of vines in gold, except for his black small antlers.

“Lunus! Lunus! Where are you?,” Oscar shouted, calling Lunus’ name while searching for him.

The rabbits also helped searching inside the bushes, behind the trees, and underneath the rocks. However, they got not even a single clue regarding the whereabouts of Lunus.

“Just how and when did he leave without us noticing? Did he leave when we were all asleep?,” Oscar pondered.

“That’s right, nyan. He left in the middle of the last night, nyan,” an unknown sweet voice came out of the void.

“I see. I see. Ah, maybe he just went out searching for foods since I had lost all of my fruits and herbs.”

Oscar didn’t notice that someone was talking to him since he was racking his brain and losing deep in his thought. He even thought that the voice was his own subconscious voice.

“That’s not it, nyan. He was so scary, nyan. It was like he was going to kill someone, nyan.”

“Don’t tell me he was planning to go dealing with the green warts alone!? Wait, whose voice was that?”

Snapping out from his deep thought, Oscar looked around searching for the source of the mysterious voice. No one was around there, not even other animals.

Then, Oscar’s gaze suddenly caught the strange behaviors of the rabbits. They gathered around a tree and stared at its branch above.

He shifted his line of sight onto the branches and saw a black cat lying there brushing its tail on the tree branch. It narrowed its slanted eyes and stared straight at him.

“I’m merely a normal cat who appears to pass by, nyan. So, don’t mind me, nyan,” it teased him before licking its paw.

“As if a normal cat can speak like that! Tell me how do you know that Lunus had left!”

Yes, the cat wasn’t talking to him via his [Mind link]. Rather, she used her own voice to speak.

“Hiya, don’t give a scary face like I am a culprit here, nyan, since I was only sleeping here while that weird guy came out from the tree trunk, nyan. At first, I even thought he was a scary undead, nyan. He looked just like a skull with tentacles.”

“That must be him! Where did he go? I must quickly follow him before he goes too far.”

“It’s that way, nyan,” the black cat pointed her paw toward a direction, “But it was hours ago and he was super fast, nyan. It’s impossible for you to catch up to him, let alone tracking his trails, nyan. How about you letting this sis-”

Not listening to the cat’s warning, Oscar placed his palm on the ground and used his [Mind link] to contact the trees in that direction via his fungal communication network.

The cat’s eyes opened wide in astonishment before she narrowed them back down, staring unblinkingly at the boy.

Heh, this might be more interesting than I expected, she thought.

However, the outcome didn’t please him as he wished it to be. Not a single clue of Lunus could be heard from the trees in that direction. He gave a fierce glare at the black cat while thinking that he must be tricked as he tried to ask the trees on other sides.

Still, no matter in which direction he asked or how further away he sent his message to, there is no one having even a single clue about Lunus.

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What is happening exactly, he thought.

A white rabbit sensed depression and nervousness in his eyes as it slowly approached him, jumped onto his shoulder, and patted his head.

“Do you want to comfort me again?... Thanks. You are so kind”

He realized that it was always this white rabbit that noticed his feeling and came to comfort him before the other ones followed it.

Thinking that asking the trees for help is futile, Oscar gave up and decided to find another way. But before that, he must clear his messy mind from this nervousness first.

He sat down under a tree shade and fed the rabbits his moonlight berries where the rabbits ate them from his palm.

“Are these really that delicious?,” he wondered, “Come to think of it, I still didn’t have breakfast and all my fruits are offered to the spirits.”

He tossed a few duplets into his mouth and chewed. It’s sweet and bitter, but the taste was mild and the juice was sticky. The only good point was its sweet, honey-like aroma.

“Well, at least it’s not the worst,” he thought, tossing a few more berries into his mouth.

A flash of idea run across his mind as he suddenly stood up, sending the white rabbit on his shoulder rolling onto the ground.

“That’s it. If I just connect to the fungal colonies with a stronger link like what I did to these vines, then maybe…”

He suddenly stopped his mumbling and racked his brain searching for the possibility.

The white rabbit recovered from the ground and tilted its head sideways. A “?” sign appeared on its head. The other rabbits quickly followed after.

“...There is no other way to confirm it except trying.”

He placed his hand on the ground once again and sent his sensation to the fungal colonies on the ground. He focused his concentration as his sensation grew stronger and stronger, further and further. He imagined that the fungus was a part of his body. Their colonies were his external nerves.

Soon after a weird sensation approached as information flooded into his head. It started from feeling presences on the ground. He felt the location of each tree around him. Then he felt the locations of the rabbits.

Further away, he could grasp the location of several more existences. Trees, animals, even insects were felt as if they were walking on his palm.

It was a weird and painful sensation. It was like being itchy, but he couldn’t help but only stay still and concentrate. When a huge beast stomped on the ground, he would feel pain from being stepped on.

Right then, Oscar was concentrating his [Mind link] beyond its original limit which became another skill entirely called [Share perception] which he and Lunus used to extend their perception to the vines. And on top of that, he used it on the largest possible target, the fungal colonies that covered the entire forest.

After minutes of the painful experience, he finally got the location of who he was searching for.

“Finally…, that must be him. Hiding in an underground cavity like that… No wonder why no one had found him,” he groaned, looking painful, “However, how could he go that far in a single night? I must quickly follow after him to not be left behind.”

Oscar decided to set out immediately to make up for the huge gap between them.

However, he couldn’t bring all of the rabbits together with him if he chose to use a faster traveling method.

“I’m sorry, but I must leave you guys here,” he apologized placing a huge pile of moonlight berries grew from his vines inside the tree trunk.

The hollow trunk of this flute tree was the safest spot around here. It was hard to be spotted and the entrance was still covered with the vines from Lunus. Only small animals like a rabbit can push its way in and out.

“I’m going to a meet with Lunus and help him fight against the green warts, so you guys shouldn’t follow me. Instead, this place is rather safe so you all should be found here. When everything is over, I will come and get you guys.”

After making a promise with the rabbits, he turned on his heel and slung from tree to tree using his extended vines.

His heart was straightened to fight the monsters whenever he saw them with whatever he could think of; however, he didn't notice the existence of a white fluffy lump that was holding onto his back and a small black tail that grew out from his shadow.

<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>

Skill Encyclopedia: [Share perception]

Type: branch skill

[Share perception] is a skill derived from [Authority of a forest god] skill. It is a skill further developed from [Mind link] which linked the mind of the skill holder and his subject together.

[Share perception] works by letting the skill holder and his subject who was already connected with [Mind link] to share their 5 senses: touching, hearing, tasting, smelling, and sighting.

This skill was uncommon and useful. It’s said that someone with an authority of a king can also acquire this after several hundreds of years, but it appears to be just a myth since no “king” alive has shown this skill around these days.

The condition to acquire this skill is to concentrate on making a link connection in [Mind link] and successfully in extending one’s perception on to his subject first. The difficult part is, normally it is almost impossible to start from using this skill on a subject with strong will since the subject’ will can interfere with the link connection.

However, in Oscar’s case, he had once concentrated on connecting to the fungus with low intelligence and will. That made him easily acquire this skill