After sorting through all the rewards from this commission, Lynn lay down on his bed, relaxed.
This battle had yielded an incredible harvest.
Although the appearance of the Psionic Corpse had made things incredibly perilous, the final outcome turned out to be a blessing in disguise for Lynn.
Not only had he easily activated the ranked monster bloodline of the skeleton race, but he had also obtained his first Tier 2 monster bloodline.
He was drawing closer and closer to becoming a class-holder.
Gradually, lying on the soft bed and breathing in the fresh scent of lavender, Master Lynn, who had been busy all day, drifted off to sleep without realizing it.
...
When Lynn opened his eyes again, the room was already bathed in bright, clear moonlight.
There were no lights on, but the room was still quite bright to Lynn.
The window he had closed before showering had been blown open by the autumn wind at some point, and it was through this opening that the moonlight had slipped inside.
Tonight's moonlight seemed exceptionally bright.
The moonlight cast a soothing blue hue over the entire room, making the newly awakened Lynn feel a bit lazy.
After meditating for a short while and feeling the abundant mana within him, Lynn finally shook off his sleepiness and perked up.
Walking to the window, he leaned halfway out and looked up at the cloudless sky.
The moon was perfectly round, and the moonlight was incredibly beautiful.
Calculating the days, if he were still in his previous life, it would probably be right around the Mid-Autumn Festival.
No wonder the moon was so full.
It brought a wave of nostalgia to his heart.
But before Lynn could fully indulge in his sentimentality,
Lupa, who had been waiting by the kitchen door, spotted him and called out loudly,
“Lynn, what are you doing?”
The Moonflower Inn was structured like a courtyard with a central opening, and Lynn's second-floor room happened to be directly opposite and above the first-floor kitchen.
That was why Lupa had spotted Lynn leaning out of his window at a single glance.
“Nothing,” Lynn replied in a low voice to the wolf-girl waiting by the kitchen door, then turned around and headed downstairs.
Walking up to Lupa, Lynn asked, “How is Aurora's cooking coming along?”
Lupa shook her head. “I don't know, but the clatter of the kitchen utensils is getting quieter. It should be done soon.”
As she spoke, Lupa's tail wagged gently.
Seeing how she was practically pressed against the door, she was clearly impatient to taste the delicious Moon Fungus Cake.
Lynn found a spot and sat down against the stone steps, gazing up at the moon.
Even in this different world, the moon didn't look any different from the one in his previous life.
But beneath this moon, it was an entirely different world.
Lupa sat down next to Lynn, hugging her knees, and copied him by looking up at the moon.
It was very white and very round, but there didn't seem to be anything special about it.
Lupa tilted her head and looked at Lynn in confusion.
“Lynn, why do you keep staring at the moon? Is there fungus cake up there too?”
Lynn burst out laughing.
“How could there be fungus cake on the moon? All you think about is eating.”
The two sat side by side, very close but not quite touching, quietly gazing at the same moon.
Lynn spoke again,
“But I've heard that there actually is—”
The wolf-girl's ears twitched twice, and her attention instantly locked onto his words.
Thud—
Before he could finish his sentence, the wooden door behind them was pushed open.
“Why are you two sitting out here? Didn't I tell you to wait in your rooms? Are you really that impatient?”
Turning around, they saw Aurora standing behind them, holding a covered platter.
Bathed in the moonlight, the elf wore a playful smile that left Lynn momentarily dazed, as if he had stumbled upon a freshwater nymph from Greek mythology resting beneath a laurel tree.
“Is the Moon Fungus Cake ready?”
Needless to say, Lupa's nose twitched; she had already caught a whiff of the covered delicacy.
“Yay! Time for fungus cake!”
The young wolf-girl bounced up, took Aurora's arm, and led her toward the inn's front courtyard.
Lynn shook his head and got up to follow them.
The separated front hall was a small courtyard spanning about a hundred square meters.
Aurora had used thin hazel branches to prop up trellises in the courtyard, which were covered in her self-cultivated Eluchiri—known as Moon-Dome Bramble among humans, named for how its flowers resembled a dome arched over by moonlight when in bloom.
With autumn's arrival, these Moon-Dome Brambles seemed to have the intention of blooming again, though much more subtly this time.
Whenever the autumn wind swept through, rustling the leaves, it brought a dew-like coolness to the trio, along with a faint, pleasantly bitter herbal fragrance.
Aurora placed the platter on a round table, and the three of them sat around it.
“There was plenty of glowing mushrooms and moon dust fungus this time, so I used almost all of it.”
With that, Aurora lifted the cover off the platter.
A white light shone from the platter, brightening the small courtyard by several degrees.
Lupa's jaw dropped at the sight.
Lynn was also slightly taken aback.
Was this... glowing food?
No, the white light didn't actually originate from the platter itself.
Rather, it was as if the moonlight filtering through the trellis was being drawn down and gathered on the platter.
Aurora nodded in satisfaction. “It seems my skills haven't gotten rusty.”
Sitting in the middle of the plate was a miniature moon.
Lupa rubbed her eyes, thinking her vision was playing tricks on her.
But no matter how she looked at it, the thing in the center of the plate did not resemble food.
Aurora smiled. “Doesn't it look just like a moon?”
“If the chef's skills are good enough, they can combine the magic of the moon dust fungus with the luminescent substances of the glowing mushrooms during the cooking process, allowing them to float above the fungus cake to form a glowing disc. Under the moonlight, it looks no different from the moon itself.”
Sure enough, when a gust of wind blew past, the moonlit shadow floating above the cake swayed gently.
Lynn looked closer and saw that a large piece of fungus cake had been neatly sliced into eight symmetrical pieces.
In terms of appearance, the fungus cake looked like a cross between a cake and a mooncake.
Aurora pointed at the cake. “I made eight pieces in total. However, one piece is usually the limit for ordinary people. Even for mage apprentices, it's best not to eat more than two, or you might get addicted~”
Having said that, Aurora looked at Lynn, clearly waiting to see how he would distribute them.
Hmm... It felt a bit like cutting a birthday cake when he was a kid.
Lynn hesitated. “Can this kind of cake be preserved?”
“Yes, the outer crust of the fungus cake locks in the flavor. Even if stored for a long time, it will retain its original effects.”
Aurora's answer made Lynn breathe a sigh of relief.
It was good that it could be preserved.
He planned to send a few pieces to Mentor Gray and Betty.
Both of them had helped him a lot recently, and now that he had a chance to repay them, Lynn naturally wouldn't miss it.
“Let's eat first!”
Lynn used the iron fork Aurora handed him to serve each of them a piece of fungus cake first.
Lupa had been waiting for this. Ignoring the fork handed to her, she took a direct bite out of the cake, accidentally getting a bit of powdered sugar on the tip of her nose.
As Lupa's canine teeth bit through the soft crust of the cake, the sweet aroma locked inside rushed out.
First came the scent of powdered sugar and cream, closely followed by the unique fragrance of the glowing mushrooms—free of the earthy smell of ordinary mushrooms, it carried a subtle aroma reminiscent of roasted nuts and night-blooming flowers.
Gulp—
Watching Lupa eat, Lynn couldn't help but feel his mouth water as well.
Rate on N.U.
