I felt a strange warm liquid stick to my bumper. It was quite unpleasant.

But when I looked, there was nothing on me. What was going on? The flytrap monster continued scuttling away.

Then, out of the corner of my sight, I saw the deers staring at me. Almost all of them. I started to feel nervous.

Their horns began to glow brighter, orbs of light growing bigger. Oh my goodness, why were they aiming magic missiles at me?

I quickly took off with Engine Burst, but several still managed to hit me.

[-2 -2 -2 -2]

"What's happening?" Sheepy sounded alarmed.

The deers! They're attacking me for some reason!

"The heck did you do to piss them off?"

I don't know!

"Open up!"

[-2 -2]

I'm not letting you run away!

"Idiot, I'm going out to fight them!"

Wait, it was trying to be helpful for once? I felt a bit doubtful, but with my HP as low as 29, now was not the time.

As the deer chased, preparing the next barrage, Sheepy jumped out.

"Baaaaaaaa!"

Not the most fearsome battlecry.

With a crazed look in its eyes, Sheepy charged over with its nasty horns and rammed through the entire crowd! About six deers were caught up in it and were knocked to the ground.

Holy crap! I knew with 14 STR, it should be able to do some damage, but to think it could fight so well...

Several deers readied their antlers to block Sheepy's next charge, with a few others hopping behind and casting some kind of barrier around the deers up front. Even further at the back, some prepared magic missiles.

In just an instant, they reacted and formed some kind of battle formation! I began to get worried. Was Sheepy really going to be able to take them down?

Without hesitation, the ram charged again. The magic barriers were instantly broken, the deer crying out in alarm as Sheepy ran over even more deer. Nevermind.

Before long, most of the deer had run away, with four lying on the ground. To think I'd be saved by Sheepy of all 'people'...

I couldn't tell if they were unconscious or dead, but Sheepy viciously stomped on their heads. I felt horrified, but I told myself they were heartless monsters anyway. They even tried to kill me when I tried to help that deer!

[Sheepy has levelled up!]

[+2 Stat Points.]

[Tamer level up!]

[MAG 1 -> 2]

[MP 10 -> 20]

"Ahahahaha! I am so strong now!" the sheep laughed manically.

Oh, so Tablet was finally letting Sheepy choose? I floated Tablet over to it. The Tamer class also finally levelled up, which was nice, but I was disappointed. Shouldn't it give another pet slot or something?

"Huh? So you were messing with my... 'stats' all along? What the hell?"

Don't ask me about that, Tablet put all your stats into strength, not me.

After a bit of argument, Tablet taught Sheepy for a bit on what stats did what. It decided to put both points into MAG after some contemplation.

[MAG 2 -> 4]

[MP 50 -> 70]

"Hey, can I change my class to mage or something?" Sheepy asked.

Wait, what?

[No. You cannot change your class.]

"Damn it! Those deer... so cool. I don't want to be a gardener anymore!"

[Suck it up.]

Listening to Tablet talking down to Sheepy, I tried to suppress this strange feeling of satisfaction that came out of nowhere. I really shouldn't, but something them arguing made me very happy.

(Tablet was speechless.)

I guess I should collect the dead deer. As I stuffed them into my inventory, I felt a strange sense of vertigo all of a sudden. The invisible liquid stuck to my bumper suddenly appeared. Blood. I didn't understand. Why couldn't I see it earlier?

I drove over back to the grove teeming with plantlife. There, where I thought I crashed into the flytrap the second time was a patch of blood and fragments of broken antlers on the ground; the snow was dyed crimson red. I didn't understand what was going on.

...

Suddenly, I got a crazy idea. What if something used magic to make some kind of illusion? Maybe there was no flytrap all along and what I was attacking was one of the deer? I suddenly thought of a crazy scenario where one of the deers was jealous of that deer and used illusion magic to make me see a flytrap attack it! Then I was framed! That was not something nice to think about.

But then when I looked around, I did see a few fragments of the trap's shell, some footprints and the hole it was hiding in.

What. So there was really a flytrap?

Okay, apparently this was beyond me.

[Detective work requires intelligence.]

Tsk, Tablet at it again.

Oh? Then you tell me what happened.

[I'm not easily riled up.]

Hmph. I bet Tablet didn't even know and was just trying to annoy me.

[You asked for it.]

[The 'root centipede' is able to cast illusions. When the deer was swallowed by the flytrap, none of the deer noticed it. That was why they replied to you in that way.]

[After you struck the flytrap the first time, it spat out the deer and started running away. The second time, affected by the illusion, you hit the deer it spat out. That was why you didn't take damage, as flesh is softer than shell. The other deer saw you attacking it and were enraged.]

[Does this clear it up?]

Oh...

"Tablet! You're cheating, aren't you? We were affected by the illusion, but I bet it didn't work on you at all, so you saw everything as it was!" Radio said unhappily.

Ah! That had to be it!

Tablet, you dirty cheater!

[I would have figured it out anyway.]

Liar!

[Say whatever you want.]

Radio decided to start singing Song of Encouragement. It was quite pleasant and made me a little less upset.

Thanks, Radio.

"Haha..."

So in the end, it turned out the deers were innocent, not heartless and cruel. I felt slightly guilty. I decided to take out the bodies of the four and bury them. Ironically, it was in the pit where the flytrap hopped out from, but I really didn't have the ability to dig a proper hole, so I had to make do.