“Thornelius,” Colby whispered. “I’m going to need you to trust me.”

  The Thornwolf tilted its bushy head even further, staring up at him.

  “I want you to pretend to attack the Daisy Cow herd. Can you do that?”

  Thornlelisus barked and gave him one big sticky lick across his cheek. Without hesitation, the Thornwolf jumped out of the bush that they were hiding in and charged straight at the Daisy Bull, barking and growling.

  The previously slow-moving Daisy Bull let out a grunt of bright yellow pollen. The clueless Daisy Cows, basking in the warmth of the sun, let out frantic puffs of pollen. They uprooted themselves from the ground, stampeding in every direction.

  The Daisy Bull dragged its root-legs against the ground, lowered its head and charged straight towards Thornelius, its roots pounding against the soil.

  Thornelius dodged the charge with ease, dashing around the Daisy Bull in circles before sprinting off towards the Daisy Cows. He barked his head off, pretending to attack the herd just like what Colby wanted.

  As Thornelius and the Daisy Bull growled at each other, attempting to scare each other off, a thought came into Colby's mind.

  A way to possibly get as much Daisy Cow milk as possible while also subduing the Daisy Bull.

  As Thornelius got the attention of the Daisy Cow and Daisy Bull, Colby was putting on the final touches of his plan.

  Four balls of mozzarella appeared in his hand, sufficiently sticky after being roasted under Stove’s flames. He plucked the leaves from the bush he was hiding in and plastered them all over the sticky mozzarella balls, leaving a small exposed patch of extra sticky deliciousness.

  The Daisy Bull had caught up with Thornelius, who was still barking like crazy. Just before it could buck its head, digging those horned petals into his new friend, Colby jumped out of the bushes.

  “Don’t worry, Daisy Bull! I am here to save you!”

  Thornelius turned and skidded to a stop, accidentally avoiding the Daisy Bull’s charge. He tilted his head, looking at him with a look of bushy confusion.

  The Daisy Bull crashed into a tree, horned petals sinking deep within the bark. It pulled out its ring of pain and snapped its head toward the potential threat, letting out another grunt of angry yellow pollen.

  After seeing the Daisy Bull almost hurt Thornelius, a flash of inspiration blitzed through his mind.

  Closing one of his eyes, he honed in on his Core. Using Curd-Cutter to ‘cut the fluff’, he moulded the resultant [Cheese Pillow] into the shape of a [Cheese Glove]. The excess [Hard as Cheese] leftovers were shoved into The Cheesestastic Fridge, a problem for future him.

  Shoving his creation into Smart Waiter, it materialised over his right hand.

  Congratulations! [Cheese Glove] has reached Level 2!

  Congratulations! [Cheese Pillow] has reached level 4!

  Thank you! Thank You! Thank You! Oh, thank Gouda. Now his [Cheese Pillow] [Cheese Glove] would be even softer. Still, a pang of guilt wreaked havoc through his heart. Maybe he shouldn’t have listened to that flash of inspiration. But he was too lost in the cheese to come up with a better idea.

  Charging toward Thornelius, he wound his arm back and swung. He punched Thornelius as gently as possible—which wasn’t very hard given his lack of Elaine-like muscles—but still strong enough that it looked believable.

  “Sorry, boy. I’ll make it up to you,” he whispered.

  Thornelius tumbled to the ground barely a foot away from him. He whimpered, a look of betrayal sprouting across his face.

  Oh, my sweet boy. I’m so sorry.

  All of the other Daisy Cows had stopped their mad charge, turning around to watch the commotion for some reason—must be a short attention span from either their plant or bovine half.

  Colby slammed his chest in an attempt to pretend to taunt Thornelius. Discreetly, he stuck a singular piece of sticky mozzarella on his shirt.

  Thronelius noticed it, sticking out his tongue and panting, dripping sticky, slobbery sap all over the ground. To Colby, it just looked like Thornlius was excited to finally get to eat more cheese. To the Daisy Bull and Daisy Cow, it looked like the beast had gone feral, ready to tear him apart limb from limb.

  Thornelius charged and tackled him to the ground, digging his maw into that delicious piece of bushy mozzarella stuck on his shirt.

  Colby screamed, flailing his arms about.

  In between his panicked yells, he whispered an apology to Thornelius. The Thornwolf was too busy eating his special mozzarella to even notice it. Or maybe he did, but just didn’t care now that he got his treat.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  That was the power of cheese.

  To the Daisy Cow and Daisy Bull, it looked like Colby was being viciously mawed by a crazed Thornwolf. And that was exactly what he wanted.

  The Daisy Bull grunted out another cloud of pollen, scraping its roots across the ground as it prepared to charge. Colby spotted it. In another act of false valour, he held out his hand and shook his head, signalling to the bull not to proceed.

  The Daisy Bull, thankfully, understood his message. Though still cautious, it huffed and began to circle them, waiting for an opportunity to strike.

  Colby continued to pretend to struggle against Thornelius, writhing and twisting under his new pet's surprisingly strong grip. When Thornelius went for his face, ready to give him many numerous licks of affection, Colby acted again.

  Channelling the practice of swiping disgusting vegetables that polluted his cheese off his plate and onto his sister's, he sneakily stuffed two more mozzarella balls into Thornelius’s mouth. With his hands gripping the Thornwolf’s head, he pretended to wrestle with the beast, feigning a desperate struggle to stop his face from being chewed off.

  Thornelius graciously accepted the bushy balls, chewing and slurping them down with all the manners one would expect from a recently domesticated wild monster—still no idea how he had managed to accomplish that.

  To the Daisy Cows and bull, it looked like Colby was bravely holding back the Thornwolf from mowing down his face.

  Yes, his plan was working—probably.

  Now, for the finishing touch.

  As he continued to scream, pretending to be in a life-or-death battle with the Thornwolf, he whispered a message into Thornelius’s ears.

  “If you run away, I’ll give you one more ball.”

  Thornelius understood his words. With a lot of faux effort, he managed to push the Thornwolf off of him. Colby scrambled up to his feet, wiping the sappy slobber from the bottom of his chin as he hunched low, panting, eyes locked on Thornelius.

  “Now go! He shouted, swinging his arms around to make himself look bigger.

  Thronelius barked, it was brighter and happier than the deep and menacing, ‘I will get you back for this one day, human’ that he was hoping for. Luckily, the Daisy Cows and Daisy Bull fell for it.

  Thornelius jumped into a nearby bush and ran away, though he knew that the Thornwolf was simply hiding inside of it.

  Still panting, he grabbed his shoulder, pretending that it was injured as he limped his way over to the Daisy Bull.

  The monster puffed out another jet of pollen from its flowery nostrils, eyeing his every move.

  A few steps away from reaching the Daisy Bull, Colby intentionally bucked his leg. He collapsed onto his knees, panting while looking up at the creature.

  Wheezing, he said, “Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

  The Daisy Bull puffed out even more pollen as it walked forward, gently nudging his cheek with its face and thankfully not the ring of horns.

  “Yes, I’m fine. Though some milk would be nice,” he said, coughing and pointing at his throat.

  The Daisy Bull grunted towards the Daisy Cows. A few from the herd approached them, bending down and offering their petals to him.

  “For me? Are you sure?” Colby asked, making sure his voice was extra raspy.

  Another puff of pollen didn’t tell him much. What did, was the Daisy Bull, reaching forward using its mouth to pluck a single milk petal and offering it to Colby.

  “Oh, thank you. Thank you,” he said, quickly holding out his hand in front of him. The petal quickly lost its shape, melting into a white liquid. He brought it to his lips and slurped down on the drink. It tasted like… well, milk—with a hint of floral sweetness that would elevate his mozzarella.

  “Do you mind if I have a bit more?” Colby asked, pulling out a glass bottle from his Inventory.

  The Daisy Bull grunted out more puffs of pollen before plucking a petal from a Daisy Cow and releasing it over the bottle’s opening. As the petal fell, it lost its shape, melting into milk that splashed the bottom of the bottle. Colby swirled it around in his hand, watching the white liquid slosh around, just in case they were giving him something other than milk.

  He brought out more empty bottles from his Inventory. With the help of the Daisy Bull, he managed to fill up far more than he had expected. This should last him for a while, unless he went on a manic cheesemaking spree again—like when he tried to make mozzarella using Skate Goat milk.

  “Oh, thank you,” Colby said. “Please be safe. Next time, I might not be here to save you.”

  Inside his Core, he opened the door to his Inventory and used Curd-Cutter ‘cut the weight’ off the bottles of milk before transferring them into The Cheesetastic Fridge.

  As he stood up, this time, his legs were actually wobbly from all of the extra weight. The strain eased bit by bit as each bottle had its weight reduced.

  Grabbing an arm and hobbling, he waved goodbye to the herd before disappearing into the forest. Still pretending to limp, he marched deeper into the woods, looking behind every so often. When he was certain that the coast was clear, he let go of his arm, shook out his ‘injured’ leg and stretched his back.

  Mission success.

  “Thornelius,” he called out. “Are you there?”

  He heard a bark and turned around. The Thornwolf jumped out of a bush, tackling Colby to the ground. He licked him, coating him in sticky slobber.

  “Stop, boy. Stop.”

  The Thornwolf listened, moving back away from Colby as it did one circle before sitting down, panting and showing off its tongue again.

  “Here,” he said, giving Thornelius the final leaf-coated mozzarella ball.

  The Thornwolf chomped down on it, downing it in less than a second.

  It was a good thing Thornelius could actually listen to his instructions; if not, he would’ve been a real thorn in his side.

  Now that the first of his ingredients had been gathered, he could move on to the second. It was something less straightforward than milk. He needed citric acid. Good news, he didn’t need a lot of it. Bad news, it wasn’t as simple as milking a Daisy Cow.

  Currently, the closest monster that produced it was a LeMonkey. They weren’t the highest quality, nor was it what he normally used, but citric acid was citric acid, and he couldn’t complain.

  Colby and Thornelius continued deeper into the forest, eyes trained up towards the branches searching for any signs of a LeMonkey. What he should’ve been doing was looking at the ground.

  He slipped, the whole world tilting upwards, before his back crashed onto a pile of fallen leaves.

  Above him, numerous streaks of yellow flashed through the treetops.

  Thornelius barked nonstop.

  Finally, they stopped moving.

  It was the LeMonkeys. A lot of LeMonkeys.

  And oh, Gouda. They had baguettes pointed at him.