"I'm sorry, but that mental image is just too adorable to… huh…?"
"...."
The giant apologized with a laugh but then stumbled on his words at the sight of the maid's face, crimson red from embarrassment, making it look like the monstrous servant's imagination was right on point.
"I didn't mean any offense, Miss Adrianna. But, you know what? If you keep up at this, then with your ability Background Character, you might end up becoming a shadow eminence of this world~!"
Zane hurreidly changed the subject while turning away, not to cause the girl to feel any more embarrassment.
"I… I do not understand what you mean, Mister Zane. I do not have any skills involving shadows?"
The maid breathed out, welcoming the efforts of the giant to make amends, and tilted her head at the unfamiliar term.
"Hmm? Oh, no, no. Shadow eminence is the general term used for a background character that is secretly incredibly powerful but escapes the attention by blending into the general public. When the heroes fail, it's that eminence role to step in and save them and the day. Usually, that is. They can be the bad guys, too."
"...is that so…?"
Zane explained with a smile, making Adrianna lower her head and mutter with an intrigued expression.
The pair arrived at the clearing in the trees, an area visibly separating the different sections of the forest.
"Yoo~! Good work out there, you two~!"
They were greeted by Melinda's happy voice as the gold-haired girl waved at them from her seat next to what looked like giant pile of logs.
After the wave, Melinda looked down at the struggling Forest Mother, a dwarf Ent with an almost completely human shape with few differences except being composed of wood, where the thin branches grew out of its body, spouting leaves that made it look like the creature was wearing clothes.
This particular Forest Mother, serving as Melinda's seat, was in particularly bad shape with her body twisted, tied up into a knot, and shaped into a stump-like structure with her head ending up in between the gold-haired girl's ankles.
"We're almost done here. Summon another one~!"
"GUO-GHIIIIIIIIIII!"
Melinda smirked and lightly tapped the Forest Mothrer's cheek covered in smooth bark, causing the infuriated monster to let out an ear-piercing shriek that carried in every direction.
"GRAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAGH!"
"!!!"
"!!!"
The roar that sounded in response, was much louder and more powerful than any of the previous ones, making Zane flinch and drop the Wild Oak Ent's legs to turn in its direction, as well as making Adrianna jump right to her feet, ready to either jump away from or at the approaching threat.
*BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM*
And approaching it was! With the earth shaking in rapid succession, suggesting that whatever was coming wasn't a slow-moving Oak but something in a full-on sprint.
And since the trembling it was causing was getting more powerful, it was beelining it towards the trio!
"Oho~! She finally pulled in the roaming boss~! Perfect~"
"The WHAT?!"
Melinda chuckled, kicking up her feet in excitement, making Adrianna call out in panic.
*****
"GOHII-GHI-GHOOII!"
The Forest Mother let out a shrieking laughter, relishing the anxiety she sensed from the giant and the girl in frilly fabric, but the gold-haired human seated on her back didn't seem to care at all.
"Hmhm~"
Instead, that girl merely hummed, leaning to the side, scooping a handful of mud, and raising it to her side.
"Mister Zane! What's coming here?!"
The human in frilly clothes called out in distress.
"In this biome, it can only be Forest Guardian, Red Cedar Ent! It's most likely between level 65 to 80! But depending on its age, it can also be around level 100...!"
"GHI-HIII~!"
The equally distressed voice of the giant made the Forest Mother even more excited.
She felt their unease.
She could taste their fear!
"GRAOOOOOAAAOAAAAAOOOOGH!"
"!!!"
"!!!"
The next moment, her savior emerged from between the immobile trees.
A hulking 170-foot-tall giant with all the strength of regular Ents but with none of their weakness!
With the power to withstand flames and regenerate its allies as well as the forest around him, the brilliant brownish-red pinnacle of plant-type monsters in that part of the continent!
The protector of the natural order!
The unstoppable force of…!"
"Ei~!"
*KA-BOOOOOOOOOOOOM*
"GHII-GHII…! ...ghi-…?"
The Forest Mother was in the middle of triumphant laughter when the gold-haired human flicked her wrist, sending the handful of wet soil flying - and the head of the Forest Guardian got torn apart into millions of splinters by the explosion of muddy steam.
The headless Red Cedar Ent tripped and fell, digging into the ground and plowing through it, creating a massive trench, until he finally stopped mere feet in front of the speechless Forest Mother.
She could only stare in disbelief at the exposed brilliant bloody-gold-sap-leaking wood flesh of her savior that wasn't able to fulfill his role anymore, with the place he died being right at the feet of the gold-haired human.
*****
"See? I figured out that if I use something soft and moist enough as a projectile, it will disintegrate against the target! And I even decreased the shockwave to an acceptable level!"
Melinda turned her head towards her jaw-dropped servants and boasted while shaking off the excess mud from her hand, showcasing that she once again improved the control over her strength, not causing the muddy droplets to damage the already destroyed surroundings before wiping it clean with a handkerchief.
"That said and done. I believe we now have enough ent wood and ent sap. We can move on to other targets. Hoi~!"
*thunk*
The gold-haired girl stood up from her seat and then casually reached down, embedding her index finger right in the middle of the Forest Mother's forehead.
"Sho~!"
*CRACK*
"...ghh…"
Melinda then cheered out, twisting her finger, causing the monster-turned-seat to split perfectly in half after letting one final grunt and falling apart.
"If it's still the same as the flavor text in the game, the heart of Forest Mother will prevent the Ents' sap from coagulating within their bodies, so we can return for those later."
Melinda added, grabbing both halves of the dead monster and tossing them onto an impressive, almost-castle-sized pile of something that turned out to not be logs but a ridiculous amount of Ent corpses.
"Zane, be a dear and put the one you and Adi hunted and this one here on the pile, too~ Now then, where should we…"
The noble girl nodded at her still speechless servants and took out a rough map that she received from the timid Catherine.
"...I have leveled up three times just now…"
"It was twice for me… That the amount of experience points from boss monsters is just different…"
The maid blurted out, unable to keep her eyes away from the fallen Forest Guardian, and the human but inhuman slender gaint sighed back.
"Mister Zane… I don't believe that our lady will ever be in need of a shadow eminence to step in and help her…"
Adrianna added, gulping down her saliva and finally managing to breathe out properly after the scare.
"Don't get discouraged, Miss Adrianna. You never know…"
Zane responded encouragingly, although truth be told, he himself didn't sound as if he believed in what he was saying - especially with his shaken gaze focused on the concentrating Melinda.