Zombie watched over the sleeping Cranberry, sitting by her bedside and holding her hand through the whole night.

During that time he heard a lot of different things coming from downstairs.

The villagers were trying to lower their voices but sometimes one of them would break the silence with an angry remark, feeding Zombie enough information to piece together most of the picture.

First of all, most of the villagers who lost their fingers during the 'talk' with Cranberry, got the hell away from the inn and possibly even from the village, to wait in the woods until the red-haired girl will leave for good.

But not everyone.

There were those who wanted revenge and they were the ones who stayed or returned to discuss.

Burning down the inn came up more than a few times, and Zombie found it rather amusing since his master was completely fireproof anyway, and he imagined that the sight of Cranberry coming out of flames would most definitely make all those idiots defecate from fear.

Then there were those who suggested killing the girl in her sleep but we're rejected mostly due to the fact that Cranberry and Zombie weren't the only adventurers in the village

...and of course, whether weak villagers could even defeat an adventurer - not to even mention Cranberry being protected by Zombie to boot - in the first place, was a whole separate topic.

The blue undead was just staring at the floor, his eyes glowing reddishly as he was memorizing the life signatures of each person that expressed their evil intention towards his master.

Zombie still remembered that sleep was important for the living and that his master would instantly wake up as soon as he would let go of her hand, so he couldn't leave her side to deal with the angry mob.

But he made sure to memorize them all.

Every single one of them.

The way their lifeforce pulsate, how it swims throughout their bodies...

An example needs to be given.

And he will certainly deliver on that front.

Zombie smiled lightly and turned back to his sleeping master.

Cranberry's way of sleeping was rather funny.

The blankets were piled on top of her like a mound of dirt and only one hand, holding onto Zombie's left hand, was sticking out from underneath.

It was as if Cranberry has made herself a burrow to hide in.

Funnily enough, when she slept like that it meant that she was completely relaxed.

Even with her monstrous strength, being tangled in blankets like that meant that she wouldn't be able to react to a sudden attack as fast as she would if she slept 'normally'.

The red-haired girl was sleeping in such way only when she was holding Zombie's hand.

Actually, Zombie found it really amusing that the red-haired girl was able to relax like that in an unfamiliar bed in potentially hostile territory.

But it seems like she had no trouble resting after all.

Still, holding her hand like that had its demerits.

Mainly, the blue undead couldn't practice drawing and painting, and that was his main hobby to indulge in the past several years.

So instead he ended up practicing using every skill that didn't require him to move around.

Cranberry being buried in the blankets, besides being incredibly cute in Zombie's opinion, had the benefit of shielding her from the light created by the blue undead activating his skills.

As for the villagers plotting their revenge, they've given up in the end and left the inn without actually doing anything.

Now Zombie and Cranberry were the only ones inside.

The blue undead remembered about the elusive bodyguard that his master mentioned, and decided to look around whether or not he could spot a person that would meet the qualifications necessary for that.

Considering who they were protecting, they had to be at least at the same level or stronger than Cranberry.

Or at least that what Zombie had figured out.

But no matter how hard he looked for a strong life signature, the strongest ones after Cranberry were only the Dandelions...

...and Zombie was pretty convinced that none of them is secretly a bodyguard.

That bodyguard might have some skill that could possibly hide or change his life signature, but that was something that Zombie didn't account for.

Instead, he came to a conclusion that after the system reset, the world setting was changed so that Cranberry simply didn't have a bodyguard anymore.

He wasn't completely wrong, but he also wasn't completely right on that assumption...

When the blue undead finally gave up the search, he realized that one of the rewards mentioned something about a free skill, and not only Cranberry received one, he did too!

Still, up until now, Zombie could never access the commands as the player characters did.

After all, he was a monster.

He racked his brain trying to remember what command Cranberry used when she was picking the skills.

"...graough...!" (...ah, of course, system, show skill list...!)"

He groaned in the smallest voice he could, to not wake up his master.

Actually, he had little hope it would work, monsters were growing stronger faster than humans and advanced their skills faster than humans but couldn't use many of the system's benefits.

/Skill list

Choose one of skill as a reward:

But once again the system showed that Zombie is more special than other beasts, and simply showed exactly what the blue undead asked for.

The list was surprisingly long but most of the entries didn't look good for Zombie at all.

He hoped for a taming skill, since it would be perfect to pair up with his beastmaster affinity, but sadly that one wasn't available.

"...graough...? (...is any of those any good...?)"

Zombie complained.

But then a second to last skill got his attention.

"Graough...? (Ooh...? That looks interesting...?)"

He grunted and his eyes glittered.

Envenom (level 1)

Envenom - to coat in or fill something with poison.

That was certainly a skill that would complement his soul devouring venom and the Venomancer title.

"Graough. (System.) Graough. (I choose envenom.)

/Servant receives a skill

Envenom (level 1)

/A skill is resonating with a title

/Title upgrade

Venomancer (level 3)

/Servant's skill upgrade

Envenom (level 1) »»» Envenom (level 5 [max]

"...graough...! (...that went better than expected...?!)"

Zombie growled in shock and grinned.

He glanced at his high heels and the grin became much much wider.

"...Graough...! (...now, that makes things even easier...!)

He chuckled happily and looked at the life signatures of all the villagers who had the guts to plot against his master - the villagers who were foolish enough to be sleeping peacefully in their homes instead of running away as far as they could.

The next day would certainly prove to be... interesting...

...

It would turn out like that, but not in a way that Zombie was envisioning...