Fuaaah~ Good morning. I'm stretching in my Cat form while I hear some sort of commotion in the near distance. Looking around the room, it seems that the Village Chief has already woken and has actually left his hut. This is unprecedented. I know it's only my third day on this world, but I have never witnessed Village Chief being over 20 Metres distance from his hut. It's like he's a spirit attached to the mortal coil boundary of this hut. He's probably just old and is half in retirement, or is trying to make himself readily available by being consistently where his Villagers can expect him incase of emergency. But still… There's no way he would go and leave the hut, right? That commotion I can still hear is probably the cause, right? Okay. I [Shapeshift] to return to my Human form before dressing myself. I think I'm going to get a new outfit soon, but this is fine for now.

I decided to leave my 2 buckets of Candy back in the hut. They know not to mess with it. I ensure that my Fish is straddled into my lab coat as if it's actually a trench coat. I carry them on the inside of my lab coat, as if they're weapons to pull out at any given time. It's my equivalent of a fridge. Cats don't actually need to cook their Fish, you know? I can eat it whenever. I just prefer it cooked. Moving on~ I exit the hut and to my shock, I see a gigantic Scarecrow monster laying waste to the Village. It seems to be made of the same straw as the huts, which was gathered in the small Prairies near the Village.

Cloaked Goblins are screaming and running around in every direction, attempting to escape the wrath of the Scarecrow. It might be mad at them for stealing all of its straw? I can't help but emit a slight giggle. This is no laughing matter. People are dying, god dammit! The Scarecrow is whipping its long straw arms indiscriminately, crushing the huts and thrashing the Goblins. There are some hunkier looking Goblins like the [Cloaked Hunk #1] and [Cloaked Hunk #2] who usually guard the Village Chief hut attempting to face it head on. They honestly don't look like they're winning the battle, by any means. Are the Goblins weak or is this Scarecrow simply too strong? Its face is honestly terrifying. It has a twisted and angry face with an empty set of eyes and mouth. Where there should be lips and maybe eyes, there is instead a radiating purple glow coming out; which looks like flames. It's frightening.

Looking at the monster like this, as it devastates the Village... I noticed him. My only friend in this world, bravely using his Goblin Shaman powers to resurrect the fallen Goblins so that they may continue the hopeless fight. They're outmatched, yet he holds on, spending all of his MP to stave it off long enough for the Villagers to escape. I'm heartbroken. He's too kind! He doesn't seem to have any offensive capability against this foe, but he has the supportive powers to make sure the fight goes on; even if they can't win it. After focusing on the Scarecrow, I notice a small net icon pop up. Focusing deeper on it, [Clansmen Capture Low Success Rate, convince the Monster to join you in order to raise Success Rate] popped up. Woah. Hold on! The Scarecrow is classified as a Halloween Clan monster?! I have a low chance of success if I attempt to capture it as is. I need to convince it? What, with words? Ahem! Okay... I grabbed my Broom, and activated [Flying Broom] to approach the Scarecrow. I'll need to be extremely pretentious and confident if I'm going to fool this Scarecrow into recognizing me as its Master.

"In the name of the Halloween Cat, I- Nero order you to stop this violence at once!" [Nero] said as he removed his straw hat, throwing it into the distance to reveal the black Cat ears hiding underneath before continuing. The Scarecrow stopped, and looked up. The Goblins all stopped, and looked up as well.

"Lower your stalks and bow before I, the one True Halloween Cat! Heed my call, as one of my Clansmen and represent the Halloween Clan to the best of your abilities. From this day forth, fight for me!" [Nero]

I can feel the tension in the Village, as only 3 Goblins here even know who I am. Let alone, a Cat trying to order that monstrosity around... It's a laughable situation. However, be that as it may; I glare again at the small net icon and find [Clansmen Capture Medium Success Rate, show the Monster your strength in order to raise Success Rate] popped up. Haah? It changed the advice given in order to raise the Success Rate. However, I actually have no strength to show... So I'll take my chances. Thanks.

"Clansmen Capture!" [Nero] called while raising his Lantern to face the Scarecrow. Immediately after, a bright Purple Glow emitted from the Lantern and reached out to the Scarecrow. The light rapidly engulfed the Scarecrow, and after a few short seconds... It returned back into the Lantern along with the Scarecrow which seemingly vanished into thin air.

Afterwards, a pop up notification came stating [Clansmen Capture Success! Scarecrow T4x1 Gained]. Immediately after, a menu displayed and showed me the stats for the Scarecrow. It's like I have a list of all the monsters that I capture. Handy. Checking over the Scarecrow, I looked over the stats.

Name: Unnamed Monster

Race: Scarecrow (Halloween)

Class: Berserker

Tier: 4

MP: 20/200

P. DEF: 40

M. DEF: 20

STR: 80

INT: 8

DEX: 4

LUK: 4

AGI: 12

Titles:

[Prairie Horror], [Halloween Clansmen]

Abilities Learned:

[Stalk Thrash], [Strengthened Grass], [Return to Halloween]

Woah, hold up. He has no HP? His STR is nothing to scoff at. What's with that low current MP though? Was he about to die before I captured him? I guess now that he's my monster, it's my responsibility to recover his MP... Especially seeing as how he does not possess HP at all. He literally only needs MP. I'm thinking that the Halloween Clansmen title is only his because I captured him, but Return to Halloween? Ah~ A popup! Lovely. [Return to Halloween: Returns the Monster to Lantern]. Okay. Cool. Does this mean that me using the [Hallowed Gate] will actually just place me inside of my Lantern? I'm confused.

The Goblins are all staring at me with their mouths hanging open. Oops~ You guys were all content with fighting for your lives, but I swooped in and cancelled the problem... Huh? My bad. You were probably going to win, now that I think about it when seeing ScareZerker's MP. So~rrry~

"...Just what happened, Nero?" [Village Chief]

"I woke up and noticed the battle, and on further inspection... I noticed that Scarecrow monsters would also suit my needs. I must apologize, but I took the liberty of capturing your enemy. He's mine now, so I must ask that you forgive and forget. He won't be causing any more trouble for you now." [Nero] exclaimed, and while the Goblins mostly seemed upset... After looking at the current state of the Village, they were also visibly relieved that the battle was over.

I went back with the Village Chief to the hut, and had to explain just what my Class was while we were cooking our breakfast. It's no use trying to hide it from him now, as he's literally seen it in action. I could probably bare to continue hiding it from the general public, though. At the very most, a dozen Goblins saw me. I don't know the other Goblins, I probably shouldn't go flashing around my gate to them. I explained it rather briefly, saying that I can capture certain types of monsters and have them fight for me. I also explained that the Candy was necessary for me to heal the monsters. The topic settled down after that, and he seemed to be pondering to himself.

[A/N: This Novel is hosted 100% for free on both WebNovel and RoyalRoad. All of the Chapters are free, and will forever be made free. If you are not reading on either of the aforementioned platforms, then you are supporting a scrapper that saw fit to steal free work. Please stop, and support the original author with your views and comments. Thank you for any support that you lend]

So, I took the chance of silence while we cooked to overlook my Scarecrows status while I chomped down some Candy. Yep, as long as my MP is full when I eat Candy... It will regenerate the MP of my Scarecrow. It seems like each small piece of Candy is worth 4 MP. It took about half of a bucket for me to fully recover the Scarecrow. Maybe my Candy is of low quality? If I do the math, each bucket holds around 90 pieces of candy. Each bucket can be estimated to amount about 360 MP. This means that I can essentially heal my Scarecrow fully twice every day. It's not nearly enough if I'm going to have a lot of monsters. Is the Scarecrow too strong, or do I need better Candy?

If I think about it, this Candy is genuinely free. It costs nothing to manifest it, but I can only do it once per day. It's a godsend as I have no idea how else I would be attaining Candy right about now in this third-world situation known as the Lost Kingdom. On that frame of mind, where else would I even be able to attain Candy? I can imagine that the Human Kingdom would probably have Candy Makers, but what about the other areas? What exactly makes something classified to be Candy, and what would make one type of Candy more impacting on MP regenerated as opposed to another type of Candy? Is it perhaps... Sugar? For now, we'll work with the assumption that the more sugar used to create the Candy, the more valuable it is. Seeing as how my Candy is created out of thin air, it probably doesn't have very much sugar. Yeah.

Now that I have a Broom, a Lantern, and even a Monster... I find it to be an even more desirable time for me to set out on my journey. I'm now in search of the Candy Man! You know, the one on Dreary Lane? Yeah, Mr Scarecrow and I are heading on a journey across the chocolate sea, riding on giant goo-ie gumdrops. We'll then need to climb the candy cane trees on the Island of sweets until we reach the top of the whipped cream peaks. There, and only there... will we gain a glance at the city of GingerBread Men! They strangely all live in GingerBread houses, even though they're all made of Ginger Bread themselves! It's freaking scary! There's also this Witch who likes to lure children into her oven, to turn them into giant gummy bears; so we'll need to be extra weary of that! I'm a Cat, but I'm also a child in this form, you see! Ahhh~ How I wish this fantasy world we lived in had a Candy Kingdom.

Actually, it might. I currently don't have information on distant Kingdoms or locales, just the ones near me. Even then, I have an odd lack of knowledge on the Lost Kingdom itself. It's because everything here is viable to change, as oftentimes a Kingdom will send in a subjugation squad to clear out an area in attempts at potentially claiming some land in the Lost Kingdom. This means that groups of monsters living here often migrate to different areas of the Kingdom. It can't be helped. As things are now, if even the Goblin Chief cant gain accurate data regarding just where all of the other settlements in the Lost Kingdom are, then no one can.

I may be getting ahead of myself here, but this Goblin Chief is just way too high spec. Maybe his knowledge is actually all passed down through generations, but this Village is actually kind of big. It's undeveloped, sure. Be that as it may, there are probably about 500~1000 Goblins living here. Most of them appear to be very small or frail, but there are others who seem absolutely hunky in comparison. Maybe they Evolved or something? My Scarecrow is 'Tier 4', so he's probably a 4th Evolution type of Scarecrow. It wouldn't be strange to think that Goblins can have Tiers as well. If that's the case, then the Goblin Chief is undoubtedly at least Tier 3. Seeing as how I can only ascertain two clear Tiers among the Villagers, and how the Village Chief is clearly different from the others; it only makes sense. He's at least Tier 3. I wonder why I don't have a Tier? Is it because I'm an exclusive race?

When I was choosing my race, it said that Halloween Cats are exclusive, and that only one 'True Halloween Cat' may be present in a world at any given time. I'm capable of producing offspring and if I die, one of them will be promoted to 'True Halloween Cat'. This means that because I became the True Halloween Cat as soon as I was reincarnated, there are no other Halloween Cats currently alive in this world. While that's the case, I wonder why Halloween Cats can only be born into this one world? Seeing as how this is the only world that they can exist in, and how there are no other Halloween Cats even in this world currently... I'm beginning to feel quite lonely.

Perhaps my offspring can indeed produce their own offspring, but because of the bloodline being forced into thinning out over the ages... due to a lack of non-familial potential spouses, then my offspring would eventually lose the right to be called as Halloween Cats, becoming some kind of descendant? If that's the case, then I'm actually glad that there are no other Halloween Cats. That would just mean that the previous Halloween Cat had children who committed the taboo of incest. Yes. It's okay to be the only one of your race. It's fine. I'll just need to make friends among the other Cat races, or ignore my Cat heritage entirely. What am I even thinking? I'm not actually a Cat... Am I?

Back to reality~ I totally burnt my Fish. It's fine, I have plenty. Seriously. Cloaked Hunk #2 seems to be mocking me about being in such a daze. He's saying that I have no skill at cooking. It's not my fault. I had things to think about, Karen. THINGS! Cloaked Hunk #2 wound up cooking my breakfast for me because he's incessant and I have little energy to spare him. He's honestly been somewhat rude to me since day one, and I think it's just his thing. I don't need to be nice, either. I'm friends with the Village Chief, and I'm leaving soon anyways, so there!

"So I've decided that today, I will go about Fishing to prepare food for my journey. After that, I'll return here to grab my Candy and will set off on my adventure towards the Demon Kingdom. I want to see what I can do about snagging me some Skeletons if at all possible, and I want to do it before any insane conflict arises between here and there." [Nero] laid it all flat out for the Village Chief to hear.

"Ahhh... I see, that's probably a good idea. Thinking about your skills, I think you should have no problem with gaining a force of Skeletons from the Demon Kingdom. Keep an eye out for Vampires while you're at it, I'm sure that you can find some there if anywhere! Also make sure that you return to our humble Village whenever you need to, you are more than welcome here." [Village Chief] proudly stated as if happy about being able to give reliable information and a place to stay for a friend in need.

"I'll do my best! If things go well, I'll probably head over to the Beastkin Kingdom in search of some Werewolves. I'll definitely drop by at that time, so if you never see me again... I died in the Demon Kingdom." [Nero] said quite frankly.

"It's good to have a plan, you'll do well to keep it to yourself when travelling in the Demon Kingdom. You never know who might be listening around there." [Village Chief] warned.

"Thank you for the advice, I'll be sure to keep it in mind. Now then, I'm off to gather some Fish before I begin my journey. Wish me luck~ I'll be back later to see you off formally when I grab my Candy." [Nero] said while waving goodbye.

"Good luck on the catch!" [Village Chief] waved back casually.

"See ya!" [Cloaked Hunk #1]

"Tsk." [Cloaked Hunk #2]

After arriving at the River, I happily began scouring the water. Things are finally looking up! I have a Monster, a Mount, a Weapon, and enough Candy to heal my Monster from practical death 3 times! I can't wait to meet some cool, boney Skeletons. I wonder if they'll have armor. Armor would be cool.

I kept Fishing until the sun was beginning to set. I had caught a record breaking 14 Small Fish and 3 Medium Fish. Two of the Medium Fish were pink while the other was that yellow and grey combination type that I found on my first day. It's a good haul~ While making my way back, I decided to pull out my trusty Broom and fly it back to the Village. Activating [Flying Broom], I lift off into the air at a pace probably equal to me sprinting and made it back to the Village in about 10 minutes.

Arriving at the Village Chief hut safely, I grabbed my Candy and began to bid my farewells. It might seem strange for me to be leaving at sunset, but my Scarecrow has a a catch to it now that I have captured it. The effects of being one of my Clansmen means that I can only summon him during the night if I wish to not spend outrageous amounts of MP. Due to that, It's genuinely more safe to travel at night and sleep during the day. I was able to ignore that aspect of my race before I had a monster to fight with, but now that I have one and am going on an adventure; it can't be helped. Moreover, I can't afford to heal this guy too many times. I need to be frugal about when I summon him.

Bidding the Goblin Chief farewell alongside his two trusty Cloaked Hunks... I feel like I may have saw a tear in Cloaked Hunk #2's eyes. I'm definitely incorrect. Anyways, I immediately grabbed my Broom and like that; I disappeared into the sunset. My direction? South. Directly into the hell known as the Demon Kingdom.