Welcome to another gamer fic. The difference is that I'm co-authoring with @Malbutorius, so...
Two Cats play Together
- Thread starter Yuki no Yue
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1.1
- Location
- Italy
Welcome to another gamer fic. The difference is that I'm co-authoring with @Malbutorius, so thank you! Enjoy.
1.1
My first memory was of waking up, cold, damp, body leaning against a warm yet shaking figure. Her smell was soft, comforting, she cleaned my damp fur with her tongue, she was tensing, mewling in pain. My legs were shaky, and weak, a spark of light pushed into my limbs and I stood, barely, and opened my eyes. The place I was in was dark, and shrouded, large rectangles and squares formed in the shadows as dim light poured through clear walls that were being battered by hard rain, and then I looked upon her.
My mother had a rich, black fur coat, and the most beautiful pair of blue eyes I had seen. Looking down at myself I saw bright white fur on my paws and I wondered why I was different from her. I saw her tense then, and soon I saw her give birth to another.
Time went on, and as rain pelted the roof of the dark place and the cold seeped in, my mother gave birth to more and more of my kin, each an every one of them having fur as dark as the shadows surrounding us, and eyes closed tight as if in fear of the darkness. My mother grew weaker and weaker as she gave birth, and soon she was nothing but a shaking mess as the last of my kin was born. She was cold.
And soon, she was gone.
My kin mewled and groaned, hungry and scared.
I did not understand why such appeared before me, but I understood what it meant. They were mewling pathetically, they were weak, helpless, perhaps it would be better to ignore them.
I turned to the squares and rectangles surrounding us, and tilted my head in thought before approaching them. I smelled something sweet, one had been open slightly, and with a spark into my limbs I was able to pry it open. Sweet circles existed within, and a cautious bite lead me to realize I couldn't chew them, as my mouth was empty of teeth. I was annoyed, and then I felt a not spark burn in my chest.
I felt that it would solve my personal problem, and the ember ignited. Pain shot through my mouth for a moment, I mewled in pain as teeth tore their way through my mouth and I felt stronger, immediately I tore into the sweet smelling circle and it's juices and meat filled me.
It took only a few moments to fill myself, I didn't even finish a single one before I felt full. Giving a light burp, I felt tired and sleepy, turning to my kin they still huddled around my Mother's form.
They couldn't eat what I ate, how could I help them consume something themselves? A second ember sparked.
I Ignited the ember, and feasted more upon the pears. I was stuffed, far more than I needed, but I knew what I had to do to save my kin.
-----------------------
I wasn't sure of when I got aware of my situation, but, still, I was napping on the grass.
The rain was coming down in a deluge of water, almost like a shower up to their maximum setting, and even with the protection afforded by the tree and its foliage, I was still getting wet. And I didn't like that. not even one bit. Plus, the cold wind wasn't helping. I scooted closer to the trunk of the tree, a funny feeling in my leg that passed when I settled down again.
That's when a blue screen popped up.
?
...........
What?
But no matter how much I was trying to shake my head or blink, the screen stayed there. So I gave the hallucination that it wanted and thought [next].
Again, the hallucination was polite, at least. I thought thatI knew howw everything worked, I didn't know for sure. So an explanation is always welcome.
Ok, so far good.
And this is pretty obvious.
Makes sense.
Duh.
That's... was kind of new. I could infer that the titles would be harder to gain, if you could equip two at once. Well, four. Wait. Could titles have a negative effect on me or the world around me? Whatever it means? Maybe something like the Illusion barriers in the manwhua?
Woa. Holy information discharge. At least I don't have to puzzle out what every stats does. And with the confirmation that magic exist, I know what my build will be. I could feel a smirk coming over my face, before I continued reading.
Makes sense. I don't like it, but makes sense.
Good to know. This means more customization. No bonus for being a certain class, I guess, but it's something I can live with. Now onward.
Another deluge on information, rather similar to the deluge of water that is in the park, actually. now that I stop and think about it, why am I in the park while it's raining? And why I don't have an umbrella? Also, I have the worse case of pin-and-needles I ever experienced.
Whatever, let's think about this later. Now, let's see if all of this really works or I am victim of a really realistic hallucination: [Status].
Level 1, ok, it makes sense. I just started after all. Race: cat, I wonder what....
Wait. Rewind a bit.
I must've read it wrong. Race is...
Ah.
I looked down to my right hand, which was a paw, to my legs, which were paws and to my tail, which was swishing and flicking in annoyance.
After a second, my yowling of anger rose in the air, contrasting with the thunder for rage.
*********
Not long has passed since I fed my kin, light was now streaming through the clear parts of the walls, brighter light, much brighter. I saw a great sphere on the other side that hurt to look at surrounded by blue.
Once my kin had been fed I played with them, I moved faster and was stronger than them, so it was simple. They stumbled with new and weak legs as I watched over them.
Suddenly, I heard clacking sounds in the distance. I stopped playing for a moment and wandered off towards one of the walls and listened closely. Some kind of hard feet, from some kind of giant from how loudly they walked. I heard a faint jingling sound as it got right next to the wall, and then the sound of the jingling impacts the ground and I hear a sharp aggressive sound.
"Shit." I understood, vaguely, that it was a curse, that it was angry at it fumbled with the jingling sound. My ear flicked for a moment before realizing that it was trying to get in. I had to hide.
With fear in my mind I flashed across the room, rushing over to my kin, I started mewling at them but they didn't seem to respond. My eye twitched in annoyance before glancing around, a part of the wall was broken, with many small seams across it of a different material. Rushing over to it, I tilt my head trying to figure out how to gain access.
I almost ignited the ember in my heart before I paused, would I be able to get my kin out with me? I couldn't tell, but it was the only option that leapt to mind. I ignited the ember-
The world folded out in front on me, my vision blurring for a moment as the world spun around me, and then it ended as soon as it began. I felt the power in my heart, I would be able to do it, not by much, but I could use it all the same. I glanced back at my kin and rushed to them, grabbing one by the scruff of the neck I dragged it behind me, it's mewling struggle was frustrating, it may not be strong but it was just as large as I. A spark of power ignited in my muscles, and I finally managed to drag it behind me to the crack in the wall, I pulled on the space between the wall's folds and pushed my kin through, causing a light echoy thump as it impacts the floor of the strange small corridor beyond. It was difficult, but I could cut through the short distance to save my kin.
I repeated the act with each of my kin, the door had opened near the end and the giant was focusing on something else, it's large eyes skimming across some flat object in it's hands. I gave one last gaze across the chamber, not seeing any more of my kin and glancing inside through the cracks in the wall, I saw my kin inside, and stepped inside myself the last of my inner power vanishing as I did so.
They wandered about the small space, bumping and rubbing against each other, meanwhile I watched the giant for several minutes.
That's when I saw one of my kin out there, having just stepped out from behind one of the rectangular shapes. The creature paused as it saw my kin, and muttered something to itself.
"I wonder how you got here little fella- oh." It said, curiosity in it's tone and then sadness as it saw our mother, it looked down at the last sibling I left behind and lowered itself.
"I guess someone'll just have to take care of ya, huh?" It says, a sort of feeling of warmth through it's tone despite my lack of recognition at the words, it lowered it's hand and I felt foolishness as my kin rubbed against it, as if it was itself kin. The being made some sort of rumbling sound, a feeling of humor coming from it as it gently picks up my kin.
My body shook as I saw it leave with my kin, it would be the last time I ever saw them, I just knew it. Through the doorway I saw the being pull some small rectangle out of it's leg somehow, make some gestures on it's surface, and began speaking into it.
"Yeah, I just checked storage and I found a dead cat and a lost kitten, we're gonna need some clean up... I think I'm going to keep it after I take it to the vet, should be good." It says, the words lost on me even though I could feel their implications.
All I could do was move on, and try to keep the rest of my kin safe.
I tasted something bitter in my mouth.
------------------
It took a bit of time for me to stop my furious yells... yowls. Still, I was now a bit more warm than before, so I guess that my anger wasn't totally useless. Well, not that it helped much. I was still cold.
What the hell, let's check the Status tab again.
Mmmhhhhh....
What does that Racial Perks do?
Useful. Possibly problematic if I tried something and it didn't, but useful. The others?
This is, to quote Fanfiction Clockblocker, BULLSHIT. INT halved? Fuck, I need to remove this perk ASAP: Lucky me for the Title...
Now that I think about it, what does the title do?
Not as good as I hoped, not as bad as I feared. At least they give me something back.
Whatever, I need to trudge on. It's too soon to fall into the pit of despair.
This is.... supremely unhelpful. To me, it sounds a lot like the expression 'giving him enough rope to hang themselves'. Still, possible treasures.
Let's get to see what Perks I have access, it's better.
Well, they all seems interesting. I wonder what they do...
Let's check!
Taken. Instantly. but... let's check the others, before finalizing my selection, yes?
No other explanation. Mhhh, I'm going to guess some kind of potion or something like that. Doubt it would be a Ursula copy. Not as a cat.
This sounds like fun. A mean kind of fun, but fun nevertheless. I wonder if i can emulate Milo Murphy...
Still, let's see what the others do.
This is big. And I like it.
Useful. Potentially problematic, especially because they didn't explain how we survive. But definetely useful.
And this is good, as well. And I don't know what to choose. Damn. Well, first of all, I need to remove that damn malus. So, my points will go...
Done. Now that I raised my WIS a bit, let's hope I can make an easier choice.
**************
After what happened to my...
Anyways, I took my kin as far away from there as I could get them. Following through the narrow corridors, using my new... Squeezing? Skipping? Stepping? Stepping, definitely stepping power, we stepped through a blockage and found ourselves in a bright room with only too walls, the ceiling seemed so far up that I couldn't see it.
Was there no ceiling? I glanced up looking at the large ball of light up above, so far above and painful to look at.
After a few moments of thought I saw the white fluffy things crawling across the ceiling, they seemed really far away though. And the ceiling was so blue. It was beautiful. I felt like there was something on the tip of my tongue to describe it, squeezing my face in concentration I took a few moments to figure it out before letting out a quiet mew. Sky, I thought, and took a moment to realize that my thought didn't sound like my words. I felt something odd as I thought about it, why did I think my words and my voice would sound the same?
Then I noticed one of my kin trying to unintentionally sneak off and dropped the odd thoughts to get them someplace safe first before continuing these thoughts-
ting
I froze as my ear twitched at the odd sound, I searched for the odd almost mocking sound.
ting ting
Jumping up onto a square and onto another, slanted green hard square I search the area for the odd, beguiling sound.
ting ting ting
There was a small hole, rectangular, it's clear parts cracked and one part broken open, a single sparkling light emanated from it that kept making those tingling noises. Jumping down I prowled over to it and tried to figure out what it was, the tingling light was just... Floating there. I batted at it with a paw, trying to grab it only for it to vanish in a series of quieting tingle noises.
I felt an intense urge to dive in immediately, and the only thing that stopped me was the thought of my kind. Turning back, I saw them trying to wander. I darted over quickly, moving them to a dull brown light box, nudging them inside to try and keep them from moving where I won't be able to find them before heading for the Dungeon.
-------------------
Ok, after a long time of reflection and introspection (less than two minutes, in other words), i finalized my choice in Perks.
As much as I was tempted to keep one point for the future, I also looked at my stats. That 2 in STR and 3 in VIT didn't fill me with confidence. So, utility was the name of the game.
Now, let's be clear: I always favour a magic build over a magicless one, but that doesn't mean that I cannot see the benefits from other kind of skills. And, in the end, my choice were oriented to survivality.
So, first thing first, I took [Omnivore].
And doubled over in pain, my stomach trying to eat itself, a silent meowl of agony escaping my little mouth, little fangs reshaping a bit. Then, as abruptly as it started, it ended.
And I felt better. Hungry, but better.
'Let's hope that it doesn't happen again' and I chose the next perk: [Black Cat Prowling].
A veil of darkness washed over me and, once it was done, I could see (from my paw) that I wasn't spotted anymore. Now I was pure black, form the tip of my nose to the tip of my tail. Very elegant, if I say so.
The last perk... was where I had more problems. I really wanted [Closets and Corners], but I didn't know how costly was the skill and, currently, MP were my most useful resource. [Nine Lives] was a lifesaver, literally, but it was also more useful if I bought it later on. Risky, but more useful. this let [13'th kit of a 13'th kit], which sounded pretty interesting and [All Cats are Grey in the Dark], which looked like a stealth option.
In the end I went with [All Cats are Grey in the Dark], mainly for the long term benefits. This said, it was the moment to see how the skills worked.
Good to know? So specializing would be more useful than generalizing. Good to know.
Now, what Skills do i possess?
Wow. At higher level this thing would be awesome. Shame that it cannot stack. Still, this will be useful, especially against larger opponents. Or dogs.
*shiver*
Let's see what the other skill does...
Good choice. It helps a lot. I just need to see how much my MP Regen is. If I recall correctly is hald my WIS, so around 7.5 MP per minute. Not bad. could be better, but I'm just starting, so...
Whatever. I waited already too much. I need to go on and find something to eat, shelter and some EXP. Onwards! Ignoring the pouring rain.
Gulp.
1.1
My first memory was of waking up, cold, damp, body leaning against a warm yet shaking figure. Her smell was soft, comforting, she cleaned my damp fur with her tongue, she was tensing, mewling in pain. My legs were shaky, and weak, a spark of light pushed into my limbs and I stood, barely, and opened my eyes. The place I was in was dark, and shrouded, large rectangles and squares formed in the shadows as dim light poured through clear walls that were being battered by hard rain, and then I looked upon her.
My mother had a rich, black fur coat, and the most beautiful pair of blue eyes I had seen. Looking down at myself I saw bright white fur on my paws and I wondered why I was different from her. I saw her tense then, and soon I saw her give birth to another.
Time went on, and as rain pelted the roof of the dark place and the cold seeped in, my mother gave birth to more and more of my kin, each an every one of them having fur as dark as the shadows surrounding us, and eyes closed tight as if in fear of the darkness. My mother grew weaker and weaker as she gave birth, and soon she was nothing but a shaking mess as the last of my kin was born. She was cold.
And soon, she was gone.
My kin mewled and groaned, hungry and scared.
I did not understand why such appeared before me, but I understood what it meant. They were mewling pathetically, they were weak, helpless, perhaps it would be better to ignore them.
I turned to the squares and rectangles surrounding us, and tilted my head in thought before approaching them. I smelled something sweet, one had been open slightly, and with a spark into my limbs I was able to pry it open. Sweet circles existed within, and a cautious bite lead me to realize I couldn't chew them, as my mouth was empty of teeth. I was annoyed, and then I felt a not spark burn in my chest.
I felt that it would solve my personal problem, and the ember ignited. Pain shot through my mouth for a moment, I mewled in pain as teeth tore their way through my mouth and I felt stronger, immediately I tore into the sweet smelling circle and it's juices and meat filled me.
It took only a few moments to fill myself, I didn't even finish a single one before I felt full. Giving a light burp, I felt tired and sleepy, turning to my kin they still huddled around my Mother's form.
They couldn't eat what I ate, how could I help them consume something themselves? A second ember sparked.
I Ignited the ember, and feasted more upon the pears. I was stuffed, far more than I needed, but I knew what I had to do to save my kin.
-----------------------
I wasn't sure of when I got aware of my situation, but, still, I was napping on the grass.
The rain was coming down in a deluge of water, almost like a shower up to their maximum setting, and even with the protection afforded by the tree and its foliage, I was still getting wet. And I didn't like that. not even one bit. Plus, the cold wind wasn't helping. I scooted closer to the trunk of the tree, a funny feeling in my leg that passed when I settled down again.
That's when a blue screen popped up.
?
...........
What?
But no matter how much I was trying to shake my head or blink, the screen stayed there. So I gave the hallucination that it wanted and thought [next].
Again, the hallucination was polite, at least. I thought thatI knew howw everything worked, I didn't know for sure. So an explanation is always welcome.
Ok, so far good.
And this is pretty obvious.
Makes sense.
Duh.
That's... was kind of new. I could infer that the titles would be harder to gain, if you could equip two at once. Well, four. Wait. Could titles have a negative effect on me or the world around me? Whatever it means? Maybe something like the Illusion barriers in the manwhua?
Woa. Holy information discharge. At least I don't have to puzzle out what every stats does. And with the confirmation that magic exist, I know what my build will be. I could feel a smirk coming over my face, before I continued reading.
Makes sense. I don't like it, but makes sense.
Good to know. This means more customization. No bonus for being a certain class, I guess, but it's something I can live with. Now onward.
Another deluge on information, rather similar to the deluge of water that is in the park, actually. now that I stop and think about it, why am I in the park while it's raining? And why I don't have an umbrella? Also, I have the worse case of pin-and-needles I ever experienced.
Whatever, let's think about this later. Now, let's see if all of this really works or I am victim of a really realistic hallucination: [Status].
Level 1, ok, it makes sense. I just started after all. Race: cat, I wonder what....
Wait. Rewind a bit.
I must've read it wrong. Race is...
Ah.
I looked down to my right hand, which was a paw, to my legs, which were paws and to my tail, which was swishing and flicking in annoyance.
After a second, my yowling of anger rose in the air, contrasting with the thunder for rage.
*********
Not long has passed since I fed my kin, light was now streaming through the clear parts of the walls, brighter light, much brighter. I saw a great sphere on the other side that hurt to look at surrounded by blue.
Once my kin had been fed I played with them, I moved faster and was stronger than them, so it was simple. They stumbled with new and weak legs as I watched over them.
Suddenly, I heard clacking sounds in the distance. I stopped playing for a moment and wandered off towards one of the walls and listened closely. Some kind of hard feet, from some kind of giant from how loudly they walked. I heard a faint jingling sound as it got right next to the wall, and then the sound of the jingling impacts the ground and I hear a sharp aggressive sound.
"Shit." I understood, vaguely, that it was a curse, that it was angry at it fumbled with the jingling sound. My ear flicked for a moment before realizing that it was trying to get in. I had to hide.
With fear in my mind I flashed across the room, rushing over to my kin, I started mewling at them but they didn't seem to respond. My eye twitched in annoyance before glancing around, a part of the wall was broken, with many small seams across it of a different material. Rushing over to it, I tilt my head trying to figure out how to gain access.
I almost ignited the ember in my heart before I paused, would I be able to get my kin out with me? I couldn't tell, but it was the only option that leapt to mind. I ignited the ember-
The world folded out in front on me, my vision blurring for a moment as the world spun around me, and then it ended as soon as it began. I felt the power in my heart, I would be able to do it, not by much, but I could use it all the same. I glanced back at my kin and rushed to them, grabbing one by the scruff of the neck I dragged it behind me, it's mewling struggle was frustrating, it may not be strong but it was just as large as I. A spark of power ignited in my muscles, and I finally managed to drag it behind me to the crack in the wall, I pulled on the space between the wall's folds and pushed my kin through, causing a light echoy thump as it impacts the floor of the strange small corridor beyond. It was difficult, but I could cut through the short distance to save my kin.
I repeated the act with each of my kin, the door had opened near the end and the giant was focusing on something else, it's large eyes skimming across some flat object in it's hands. I gave one last gaze across the chamber, not seeing any more of my kin and glancing inside through the cracks in the wall, I saw my kin inside, and stepped inside myself the last of my inner power vanishing as I did so.
They wandered about the small space, bumping and rubbing against each other, meanwhile I watched the giant for several minutes.
That's when I saw one of my kin out there, having just stepped out from behind one of the rectangular shapes. The creature paused as it saw my kin, and muttered something to itself.
"I wonder how you got here little fella- oh." It said, curiosity in it's tone and then sadness as it saw our mother, it looked down at the last sibling I left behind and lowered itself.
"I guess someone'll just have to take care of ya, huh?" It says, a sort of feeling of warmth through it's tone despite my lack of recognition at the words, it lowered it's hand and I felt foolishness as my kin rubbed against it, as if it was itself kin. The being made some sort of rumbling sound, a feeling of humor coming from it as it gently picks up my kin.
My body shook as I saw it leave with my kin, it would be the last time I ever saw them, I just knew it. Through the doorway I saw the being pull some small rectangle out of it's leg somehow, make some gestures on it's surface, and began speaking into it.
"Yeah, I just checked storage and I found a dead cat and a lost kitten, we're gonna need some clean up... I think I'm going to keep it after I take it to the vet, should be good." It says, the words lost on me even though I could feel their implications.
All I could do was move on, and try to keep the rest of my kin safe.
I tasted something bitter in my mouth.
------------------
It took a bit of time for me to stop my furious yells... yowls. Still, I was now a bit more warm than before, so I guess that my anger wasn't totally useless. Well, not that it helped much. I was still cold.
What the hell, let's check the Status tab again.
Mmmhhhhh....
What does that Racial Perks do?
Useful. Possibly problematic if I tried something and it didn't, but useful. The others?
This is, to quote Fanfiction Clockblocker, BULLSHIT. INT halved? Fuck, I need to remove this perk ASAP: Lucky me for the Title...
Now that I think about it, what does the title do?
Not as good as I hoped, not as bad as I feared. At least they give me something back.
Whatever, I need to trudge on. It's too soon to fall into the pit of despair.
This is.... supremely unhelpful. To me, it sounds a lot like the expression 'giving him enough rope to hang themselves'. Still, possible treasures.
Let's get to see what Perks I have access, it's better.
Well, they all seems interesting. I wonder what they do...
Let's check!
Taken. Instantly. but... let's check the others, before finalizing my selection, yes?
No other explanation. Mhhh, I'm going to guess some kind of potion or something like that. Doubt it would be a Ursula copy. Not as a cat.
This sounds like fun. A mean kind of fun, but fun nevertheless. I wonder if i can emulate Milo Murphy...
Still, let's see what the others do.
This is big. And I like it.
Useful. Potentially problematic, especially because they didn't explain how we survive. But definetely useful.
And this is good, as well. And I don't know what to choose. Damn. Well, first of all, I need to remove that damn malus. So, my points will go...
Done. Now that I raised my WIS a bit, let's hope I can make an easier choice.
**************
After what happened to my...
Anyways, I took my kin as far away from there as I could get them. Following through the narrow corridors, using my new... Squeezing? Skipping? Stepping? Stepping, definitely stepping power, we stepped through a blockage and found ourselves in a bright room with only too walls, the ceiling seemed so far up that I couldn't see it.
Was there no ceiling? I glanced up looking at the large ball of light up above, so far above and painful to look at.
After a few moments of thought I saw the white fluffy things crawling across the ceiling, they seemed really far away though. And the ceiling was so blue. It was beautiful. I felt like there was something on the tip of my tongue to describe it, squeezing my face in concentration I took a few moments to figure it out before letting out a quiet mew. Sky, I thought, and took a moment to realize that my thought didn't sound like my words. I felt something odd as I thought about it, why did I think my words and my voice would sound the same?
Then I noticed one of my kin trying to unintentionally sneak off and dropped the odd thoughts to get them someplace safe first before continuing these thoughts-
ting
I froze as my ear twitched at the odd sound, I searched for the odd almost mocking sound.
ting ting
Jumping up onto a square and onto another, slanted green hard square I search the area for the odd, beguiling sound.
ting ting ting
There was a small hole, rectangular, it's clear parts cracked and one part broken open, a single sparkling light emanated from it that kept making those tingling noises. Jumping down I prowled over to it and tried to figure out what it was, the tingling light was just... Floating there. I batted at it with a paw, trying to grab it only for it to vanish in a series of quieting tingle noises.
I felt an intense urge to dive in immediately, and the only thing that stopped me was the thought of my kind. Turning back, I saw them trying to wander. I darted over quickly, moving them to a dull brown light box, nudging them inside to try and keep them from moving where I won't be able to find them before heading for the Dungeon.
-------------------
Ok, after a long time of reflection and introspection (less than two minutes, in other words), i finalized my choice in Perks.
As much as I was tempted to keep one point for the future, I also looked at my stats. That 2 in STR and 3 in VIT didn't fill me with confidence. So, utility was the name of the game.
Now, let's be clear: I always favour a magic build over a magicless one, but that doesn't mean that I cannot see the benefits from other kind of skills. And, in the end, my choice were oriented to survivality.
So, first thing first, I took [Omnivore].
And doubled over in pain, my stomach trying to eat itself, a silent meowl of agony escaping my little mouth, little fangs reshaping a bit. Then, as abruptly as it started, it ended.
And I felt better. Hungry, but better.
'Let's hope that it doesn't happen again' and I chose the next perk: [Black Cat Prowling].
A veil of darkness washed over me and, once it was done, I could see (from my paw) that I wasn't spotted anymore. Now I was pure black, form the tip of my nose to the tip of my tail. Very elegant, if I say so.
The last perk... was where I had more problems. I really wanted [Closets and Corners], but I didn't know how costly was the skill and, currently, MP were my most useful resource. [Nine Lives] was a lifesaver, literally, but it was also more useful if I bought it later on. Risky, but more useful. this let [13'th kit of a 13'th kit], which sounded pretty interesting and [All Cats are Grey in the Dark], which looked like a stealth option.
In the end I went with [All Cats are Grey in the Dark], mainly for the long term benefits. This said, it was the moment to see how the skills worked.
Good to know? So specializing would be more useful than generalizing. Good to know.
Now, what Skills do i possess?
Wow. At higher level this thing would be awesome. Shame that it cannot stack. Still, this will be useful, especially against larger opponents. Or dogs.
*shiver*
Let's see what the other skill does...
Good choice. It helps a lot. I just need to see how much my MP Regen is. If I recall correctly is hald my WIS, so around 7.5 MP per minute. Not bad. could be better, but I'm just starting, so...
Whatever. I waited already too much. I need to go on and find something to eat, shelter and some EXP. Onwards! Ignoring the pouring rain.
Gulp.
Last edited:
The Froggy Ninja
The Blade Will Never Die
This looks really interesting. I wonder if the two cats will meet. I can sort of imagine that even if they can understand each other BlueCat will be very annoyed at RedCat's How To Cat perk.
1.2
- Location
- Italy
1.2
I followed the sparkles through the clear piece of wall, shining fragments handing to the sides as I jump down. A brief flash of pain going through my legs when I impact the ground, but I soon shrug off the pain and move on. The room was large and dark, the only light streaming in through small pieces of clear wall near the ceiling. I feel a sharp stinging sensation when I step forwards, my paw pumping into a broken fragment of clear wall on the ground. Hissing I pull myself away, and see a drop of red fall out of my paw for a moment, staining the clear piece of wall.
-5 HP
I suppress the feeling of fright as I push onward, trying to avoid other pieces of clear wall as I follow the sparks of light, dimly lighting the way and forming a faint trail though the room. The lights lead me to a hole in the wall, not that large, but large enough to give me plenty of room. Dipping my head, I push my way into the darkness as my eyes quickly adjust.
Entering Abandoned Dungeon
I feel a tug from inside my belly as I dive into the darkness, only to find myself in a dimly lit corridor, touching the floor I note a rough texture and nearly flinch as something sharp from the hard brown floor pokes into my paw. Scowling, I grit my teeth and move on. After turning a few corners I crouch low when I hear a faint skittering noise around a corner. Approaching slowly, I poke the corner of my head around, and see a tiny grey creature grooming itself turned away from me, symbols floated over its head.
Simple Mouse (Easy Prey)
Licking my chops idly, I slowly approach, stalking forwards. I take a step, it's ear twitches. I take a step, it licks it's paw and rubs its face. I take a step, it starts sniffing the air.
I leap.
Meat and bone crunch in my jaws, quickly making short work of my first kill. An odd tingling sensation fills my mouth for a moment as the meat and bone fizzles away, leaving me with nothing. I growl, the only thing left of my kill a small yellowish thing underneath my paws.
Rare Drop: Tiny piece of cheese
I bat the annoying thing aside, frustrated at the lack of meat from my prey. I pause a moment before leaving, it was still food regardless of my annoyance, but I didn't feel like stopping my hunt already. I picked it up in my mouth and, feeling an odd sensation within myself that I previously felt tugged on when I took a step through the narrow space, the tiny yellow thing vanishes.
Curious, I felt within the space I found inside of myself again, it was completely empty aside from the small yellow- no, I felt a word from it. Cheese? I suppose that's what it is.
Brushing the thought from my mind I turn back to my hunt, being able to get a large amount of food and easily bring it back to my kin would be a great boon.
Hunting from there was easy, simple. The prey rarely managed to notice and escape me, the process repeated a few times. Normally picking up the corpse of the prey, now known as Mice to me by my inner self, and rarely finding cheese.
Ornery Mouse (Prey)
This Mouse felt different than the others before, where the others were white and inattentive, this one was brown and focused. I took my time, waited for it to look the other way before stalking closer to it. I pounce-
The mouse dodges to the side at the last moment and I feel small teeth bite into the side of my face, blood spilling and blinding my left eye, I push myself away and refocus on the frustrating creature. It seemed to take a defiant stance as we circled each other, it wasn't much larger than the previous prey, but it seemed to be far. More. Clever.
It was faster than me, I doubted I'd be able to properly hit it easily-
It darted at me, claws lashing out I swipe at it only for it to slide underneath my strike and bite a tear into the underside of a limb. Growling in frustration and anger, I jump away with a burst of strength and will to Step further. Attacking it straight on wasn't going to work, it was more skilled than me, I needed to deceive it.
It stood there, almost seething in pride at the pain it caused me, I tensed to pounce tricking the mouse into taking a leap to the side right into my trap. I threw the corpse of one of it's kin at it, knocking it prone and stunning it for the spare moment I needed to leap onto it and crush it's spine.
I bared my fangs and moaned at the pleasure of my triumph, no mere prey would ever get the best of me. I feel my wounds, and feel an inner sense of my health spring to mind.
-25 Total health lost from fight
I gleefully feast on the flesh of my conquered prey.
---
I disregarded the (menacing, ominous, doom-instilled) quest pop-up, accepting it, and boldly starting to walk.
Just in time to receive a downpour of rain on me, soaking me through my fur and chilling me, making me shiver. I shook my whole body, trying to get the water out of it as a reflex, but, seeing as I was still under the rain, it did very little.
So, sad and with my ears and tails drooping, I started walking towards... somewhere.
I didn't exactly have any kind of direction, now that I thought about this.
And a quick check around me didn't show anything particularly useful, except for the silhouette of building in the distance. They were visible all around me (well, for what I could see), so I guessed (hoped) that this was a park and not some kind of more dangerous place like... oh, I don't know... the Savannah.
This said, if this was a park, it should have a kiosk or a bar or something like that. As far as I could remember, they are usually located in the center of the park, so...
Well, the building to my left looks a bit more near than the one on my right and, if I turn around the tree... Yeah, they are really nearer than the others. So I need to go to my right and straight on, in a kind of diagonal line.
I couldn't see anyone, but that didn't mean that someone wasn't away, so it was a time as good as any to try my new spell.
I almost giggled (well, for how much a cat can giggle) at the idea of magic. I can remember that I wanted it for all my life back there and now that I had it, I would become the BEST MAGE EVER!!
....... After I return human. Or maybe not. Need to think about it.
Still, onward.
"[Mimeticat]"
A wave of something painted over me and I became a bit transparent, my colors mixing with the background.
With a glance to my MP, I could see that the activation cost was the same as the ongoing cost, so I had... 107.5 MP remaining. Ok, so it uses fractions. Good to know.
I stepped back, under the heavy rain, and I started walking towards my chosen direction.
*********************
The glowing sphere in the sky I'd come to think of as the 'sun' had lowered and risen once more, I'd gotten my kin into the underground hole near the dungeon. They were fed, and I had plenty of extra food so hunting would be pointless, if fun. I opened my inner space and browsed through it, trying to understand the pieces I found within. Bit's of prey's meat, bones, pieces of cheese and some oddly shaped fruit called mushrooms I found and a hairball I coughed up shortly after grooming myself for the first time. I plucked some of each out of my inner space and placed them in the round container I had in front of me and glanced to the side back at the shape that had opened earlier that I brushed to the side rather than dismissing.
Potion Making 101: You have found a total of five potion ingredients, and as such your training may begin. The creation of a potion is nothing so simple as chemistry, but rather a combination of ideals, platonic connections formed between conceptual aspects of materials and belief. This is by far the broadest description of potion making, but with the right ingredients one can make practically anything.
I glanced back at the ingredients I'd placed in the container. What connected them together? The prey's parts were from weak creatures, and my hairball was something that forced me to stop and gag for almost a minute. I remove the mushroom and cheese from the container before continuing to read the shape again.
Once you have selected your ingredients, you should add some water and bring it to heat, of course while traditional and the easiest method, it's not the only form. Alternative methods can cause it to take alternative forms, such as pills. As you lack a method of traditional crafting, we have selected you to learn pill crafting.
I continued reading the instructions as I crushed, mashed, and pressed with my paws. Kneading and rolling, turning and balling. Adding spit to help it to mix. The process went on for only a few collections of heartbeats, and soon I found myself with a simple smooth brown colored ball small enough to fit in the palm of my paw.
Minor Poison Pill: Causes weakness, indigestion, and minor damage over time to any that consume it. Potent enough to kill a large rat.
I smiled to myself at the sheer power I held, it'd be hard to force it down an opponents throat. But to trick them? It could work. Next I looked back at my ingredients and chose the meat, cheese, and mushroom. All were edible, of course, and perhaps I could get something out of it. After repeating the process as before, a small reddish pill formed.
Minor Sustenance Pill: Causes minor immediate healing, provides moderate sustenance, and minor healing over time.
I sniffed it, the red pill was scentless. I wasn't sure on the exact numbers of how much it did, as they seemed to appear whenever I took harm, but regardless. It would certainly be useful.
---
One step and I hit the puddle in the middle of the dirt road that I didn't even notice before. So now I was wet and muddy in my right paw.
I glared at it, before shaking away the mud as much as I could, before glaring at the puddle and moving laterally. Then started walking again.
Still, the fact that there was a path was a good thing. It told me that I was more or less right on my idea that this was a park. And the road was going in the direction I assumed was the center of the park. More or less.
Still better than traipsing into the grass.
Even if it was muddy.
I stayed on the border of the path, away from the center of it, where the water was collecting, and started walking, this time seriously, with a vengeance.
The water was cold and I was cold and miserable and a wave of sadness hit me from nowhere and I...
And I continued walking. I couldn't let this whole situation hit me until I was safe, warm and fed. And not only for the Quest, but for the whole fact that I was risking to die, here. Again.
After just being reborn-slash-reincarnated.
And...oh, it's that a tree?
Nope. A shrub. But it's big enough that I can squeeze under it. Hoping that there isn't something dangerous like... I don't know, shards of glass, a needle, a dog or something like that.
Yeesh, I got dark very fast.
Still, I managed to squish myself under it, getting a bit of reprieve from the rain, and stopped [Mimeticat].
Checking my Mp, it revealed that I was walking for five minutes and I still had...
Ok, so I could wait for two minutes and recover everything I lost. It seemed like a good idea. This way I could, maybe, get a bit of warm again.
Well, I should probably remove all this water from myself.
Sigh.
Let's just hope that I don't have too much mud in my fur.
I started grooming myself, a bit surprised that I didn't really taste anything except water. And a bit of mud, but it seemed like I had no gag reflex, so it wasn't that much of a problem.
Still, it was work of two minutes, so I was clean(er) and my MP were back to full.
What?
---
The sun had fallen and risen six more times, I had spent that time hunting the prey within the dungeon and keeping my kin safe. I had learned how to better fight the clever prey, feinting one way and striking another, they acted purely on reflex rather than intellect. They were not durable enough to learn from their mistakes. After each fight with them, I was usually forced to take one of my red pills, that I had made a decent collection of.
I had made it deeper within the dungeon than I ever had before, and I saw something strange. A large torn open hole in the floor around a corner, and a grey creature as large as myself. It's fur ratty and it's large teeth gleaming harshly.
Common Rat (Risky Prey)
I hesitated for a moment, the first time I encountered the brown mouse it had caused great pain and difficulty. Perhaps I should turn back, become stronger before charging at such a creature that could very well be my equal. I was half way to leaving before I hesitated yet again, could I really call myself a cat if I ran from prey? I couldn't allow such a creature to get the best of me simply due to its mere presence.
I charged, the creature turning to me moments before I impacted it, my head impacting its chest as my teeth dig into it's wiry flesh, it squeaks in both surprise and pain before I feel it's claws dig into my sides, lifting me op bodily before throwing me aside. My body impacting the wall. Pain blossoms in my side for a moment before I get my balance enough to leap to the side, predicting a charge.
My expectation paid off as I saw the creature ram into the wall, stunning it for a moment so I could get my balance again. Planting my paws down firmly, I glare at the creature to dare it to charge at me. It leaps forwards as I dive below it, my back and neck twisting to clamp my teeth onto the base of its tail, severing it.
I bounce twice as I land on the ground from the leaping clash, the rat collapsed on the ground in a rigor of agony and anger, I get up in time to leap at it, my fangs gripping around it's throat and digging in as my claws cling to it's torso. It's claws try to tear me off and I feel a sharp pain blossom in my shoulder as it bites hard, I feel my limb go limp, the only thing holding it in place on it's back being my claws.
We struggle for a few moments before I start to feel the creature underneath me still, it's lungs being filled with blood and it's muscles waning. With a final effort, I tear the creatures throat out as it finally dies. Grasping at the creatures dead snout I tear it's fangs from my shoulder and collapse away from it into the rapidly forming pool of blood.
-65 HP Lost From Battle
Thank you floating words, I was sure I wouldn't be able to tell how close to death I was. I tear into a red pill and I start to feel feeling in my limb back and the tear in my shoulder start to close. I try to stand only to fall into the pool of blood again, growling in frustration at my shaking and weak leg, I bite into another red pill to try and get it working again. I feel a cracking sensation in my shoulder as I feel it slot back into place, a large scar forming on my shoulder.
Scarring Injury Acquired, Maximum HP reduced by 10 until naturally healed or stronger medicine is used.
I glare at the corpse of the creature that caused this severe of an injury, struggling to stand I stop as in the corner of my eye I see a small glint where the severed tail of the rat fell. Slowly, tiredly, I walk over to it and try to examine my new treasure.
Rat Leather Whip
A weapon used by thieves and brigands in the great city Realm, a city so large and so vast that one could spend their entire life traveling through it without ever seeing its edge. This whip is formed from countless rat tails torn off of the bodies of rats sewn together, and is known for being a reliable tool.
I tilted my head at the long, tail like weapon. It was many times my body length, and somehow I doubted I'd be able to use it properly without a lot of practice. Regardless, I placed it into my inner space, and turned to gather the bones and meat from the rat once more, before pausing for a moment. I could feel another ember inside my heart, unclaimed and ready to burn, and five more sparks circling it, ready to spread throughout my body at a moments notice.
Standing above a powerful creature, my fur soaked in both mine and its blood, with power surging through my veins. Perhaps, this is what it means to be content.
---
[Grooming]? What the hell does [Grooming] do?
Well, there is a skill page for this, so...
Whoa.
That's a really good skill. Yeah, it's just starting, but still is a really good skill. Yet, I need to move.
The bush didn't change and food didn't exactly spring from nothing, so I still needed to find food, shelter, water and, if I managed to find the time, to explore the park. But seeing how big it was....
No, don't get down now. It would almost like signing your death. And it would make my fur dirty again.
Which is the worse problem, really.
I wriggled under the branches, only waiting for a second to see if everything was quiet and, not seeing anyone, I pushed myself under the deluge of rain outside and started walking on the border of the path again. The rain wasn't gentler than before, that was for sure.
I walked on the short grass, not willing to mud myself again, trying even to run for a bit, finding it easier on the less squishy lawn than the packed earth path.
Yet, I managed to keep my current pace only for five minutes or so, before I had to stop. Not because I was tired or anything, just that I slipped on something shiny, slick and yellow.
It was an almost empty bag of chips.
Beyond the fact that caused me almost to faceplant, I was starting to feel a bit hungry and, if my ears were good as they seemed, there still were some chips inside. It was the moment to test the efficiency of the Omnivore perk.
Reaching the food inside the bag was somewhat more difficult, with the opening closed by the water and mud. Still, I had claws for a reason. And so, after a minute of trying to rip the packaging to shreds, I reached the chips inside.
They were a bit stale, a bit soggy and with too much oil. They almost made me gag at the first taste, but I was starting to get hungry and I needed the food.
So I ate.
The rain was still soaking my fur, but the warmth in my belly was making me feel sleepy all the same.
Now, I knew, at least academically, that sleeping while cold wasn't the smartest idea ever, main reason because of possible hypothermia. So I started walking/running soon after concluding my meal of stale chips.
Grass almost flattened to the ground by the strength of the water, I was trying to see if my new form came with new senses, like an augmented sense of smell or something like that, but the rain was making it all but impossible to understand, seeing as the only smells in the air were grass, mud and water.
Not a good mix.
Still, I didn't had too much time to dwell on this: a little concrete building appeared from in between a couple of trees, looking pretty dry.
Well, as dry as it could be.
I startled a bit, stopping for a second, trying to remove the water from my eyes with my paw and then checking if it was an hallucination. Nope, it was true.
Putting up a burst of speed, I ran towards the possible shelter.
Running under the rain wasn't a good idea. It made my tiny lungs heave for the lack of oxygen and the fact that my VIT and STR were really low didn't help. One. Bit.
I had to stop after ten minutes, more or less, shivering from the cold and the hunger. Yeah, I had eaten not too much time ago, but it wasn't exactly a lucullian feast, os I had already used most of the, admittedly low, energies the chips gave me.
I stopped Mimeticat and the feeling of my mana starting to return to me was really good, like fresh water in a desert or something poetic-like that.
"Caw."
I froze, before sloooooowwwwly turning towards the sound. A particularly thin crow was watching me from a few meters away. He looked hungry.
And I was a rather small kitten.
...Oh, I didn't like where this was going.
"Caw."
The harbinger of my maybe doom hopped towards me, staring with his beady, black eyes, while I was trying to think on a way to survive this situation. Maybe it was a bit strange of me to jump to the conclusion of the crow attacking me, but after waking up in a cat body I wasn't exactly feeling charitable towards the universe.
I was right in thinking it.
The corvid flapped his wings twice, before jumping towards me and trying to peck my neck. It was only a stroke of luck that I managed to avoid it, jumping to the side.
He didn't exactly give me time to counterattack or nothing, but with the time he took to rise in the air, I managed to do something that saved my life.
"[Bad Days Ahead]!"
The spell ate my MP like it was nobody's business, sending me down to 70 MP. My eyes shined and shimmered in black and purple, before a dark aura manifested around the bird and he plummeted down like a stone, dead.
Wait, what?
I approached slowly, pushing it with my paw a couple of time, the corpse rocketing a bit but unmoving.
Yep, dead as a doornail.
How did my spell do that? I was pretty sure that it only lowered a stat and...
Unless...
The VIT stat. If that is reduced to 0...
I got lucky.
And, even with the hunger I was feeling, I really didn't want to eat the crow. But leaving it here looked a lot like a waste and I hate wasting food. Still...
Maybe I should check if I have an inventory?
I followed the sparkles through the clear piece of wall, shining fragments handing to the sides as I jump down. A brief flash of pain going through my legs when I impact the ground, but I soon shrug off the pain and move on. The room was large and dark, the only light streaming in through small pieces of clear wall near the ceiling. I feel a sharp stinging sensation when I step forwards, my paw pumping into a broken fragment of clear wall on the ground. Hissing I pull myself away, and see a drop of red fall out of my paw for a moment, staining the clear piece of wall.
-5 HP
I suppress the feeling of fright as I push onward, trying to avoid other pieces of clear wall as I follow the sparks of light, dimly lighting the way and forming a faint trail though the room. The lights lead me to a hole in the wall, not that large, but large enough to give me plenty of room. Dipping my head, I push my way into the darkness as my eyes quickly adjust.
Entering Abandoned Dungeon
I feel a tug from inside my belly as I dive into the darkness, only to find myself in a dimly lit corridor, touching the floor I note a rough texture and nearly flinch as something sharp from the hard brown floor pokes into my paw. Scowling, I grit my teeth and move on. After turning a few corners I crouch low when I hear a faint skittering noise around a corner. Approaching slowly, I poke the corner of my head around, and see a tiny grey creature grooming itself turned away from me, symbols floated over its head.
Simple Mouse (Easy Prey)
Licking my chops idly, I slowly approach, stalking forwards. I take a step, it's ear twitches. I take a step, it licks it's paw and rubs its face. I take a step, it starts sniffing the air.
I leap.
Meat and bone crunch in my jaws, quickly making short work of my first kill. An odd tingling sensation fills my mouth for a moment as the meat and bone fizzles away, leaving me with nothing. I growl, the only thing left of my kill a small yellowish thing underneath my paws.
Rare Drop: Tiny piece of cheese
I bat the annoying thing aside, frustrated at the lack of meat from my prey. I pause a moment before leaving, it was still food regardless of my annoyance, but I didn't feel like stopping my hunt already. I picked it up in my mouth and, feeling an odd sensation within myself that I previously felt tugged on when I took a step through the narrow space, the tiny yellow thing vanishes.
Curious, I felt within the space I found inside of myself again, it was completely empty aside from the small yellow- no, I felt a word from it. Cheese? I suppose that's what it is.
Brushing the thought from my mind I turn back to my hunt, being able to get a large amount of food and easily bring it back to my kin would be a great boon.
Hunting from there was easy, simple. The prey rarely managed to notice and escape me, the process repeated a few times. Normally picking up the corpse of the prey, now known as Mice to me by my inner self, and rarely finding cheese.
Ornery Mouse (Prey)
This Mouse felt different than the others before, where the others were white and inattentive, this one was brown and focused. I took my time, waited for it to look the other way before stalking closer to it. I pounce-
The mouse dodges to the side at the last moment and I feel small teeth bite into the side of my face, blood spilling and blinding my left eye, I push myself away and refocus on the frustrating creature. It seemed to take a defiant stance as we circled each other, it wasn't much larger than the previous prey, but it seemed to be far. More. Clever.
It was faster than me, I doubted I'd be able to properly hit it easily-
It darted at me, claws lashing out I swipe at it only for it to slide underneath my strike and bite a tear into the underside of a limb. Growling in frustration and anger, I jump away with a burst of strength and will to Step further. Attacking it straight on wasn't going to work, it was more skilled than me, I needed to deceive it.
It stood there, almost seething in pride at the pain it caused me, I tensed to pounce tricking the mouse into taking a leap to the side right into my trap. I threw the corpse of one of it's kin at it, knocking it prone and stunning it for the spare moment I needed to leap onto it and crush it's spine.
I bared my fangs and moaned at the pleasure of my triumph, no mere prey would ever get the best of me. I feel my wounds, and feel an inner sense of my health spring to mind.
-25 Total health lost from fight
I gleefully feast on the flesh of my conquered prey.
---
I disregarded the (menacing, ominous, doom-instilled) quest pop-up, accepting it, and boldly starting to walk.
Just in time to receive a downpour of rain on me, soaking me through my fur and chilling me, making me shiver. I shook my whole body, trying to get the water out of it as a reflex, but, seeing as I was still under the rain, it did very little.
So, sad and with my ears and tails drooping, I started walking towards... somewhere.
I didn't exactly have any kind of direction, now that I thought about this.
And a quick check around me didn't show anything particularly useful, except for the silhouette of building in the distance. They were visible all around me (well, for what I could see), so I guessed (hoped) that this was a park and not some kind of more dangerous place like... oh, I don't know... the Savannah.
This said, if this was a park, it should have a kiosk or a bar or something like that. As far as I could remember, they are usually located in the center of the park, so...
Well, the building to my left looks a bit more near than the one on my right and, if I turn around the tree... Yeah, they are really nearer than the others. So I need to go to my right and straight on, in a kind of diagonal line.
I couldn't see anyone, but that didn't mean that someone wasn't away, so it was a time as good as any to try my new spell.
I almost giggled (well, for how much a cat can giggle) at the idea of magic. I can remember that I wanted it for all my life back there and now that I had it, I would become the BEST MAGE EVER!!
....... After I return human. Or maybe not. Need to think about it.
Still, onward.
"[Mimeticat]"
A wave of something painted over me and I became a bit transparent, my colors mixing with the background.
With a glance to my MP, I could see that the activation cost was the same as the ongoing cost, so I had... 107.5 MP remaining. Ok, so it uses fractions. Good to know.
I stepped back, under the heavy rain, and I started walking towards my chosen direction.
*********************
The glowing sphere in the sky I'd come to think of as the 'sun' had lowered and risen once more, I'd gotten my kin into the underground hole near the dungeon. They were fed, and I had plenty of extra food so hunting would be pointless, if fun. I opened my inner space and browsed through it, trying to understand the pieces I found within. Bit's of prey's meat, bones, pieces of cheese and some oddly shaped fruit called mushrooms I found and a hairball I coughed up shortly after grooming myself for the first time. I plucked some of each out of my inner space and placed them in the round container I had in front of me and glanced to the side back at the shape that had opened earlier that I brushed to the side rather than dismissing.
Potion Making 101: You have found a total of five potion ingredients, and as such your training may begin. The creation of a potion is nothing so simple as chemistry, but rather a combination of ideals, platonic connections formed between conceptual aspects of materials and belief. This is by far the broadest description of potion making, but with the right ingredients one can make practically anything.
I glanced back at the ingredients I'd placed in the container. What connected them together? The prey's parts were from weak creatures, and my hairball was something that forced me to stop and gag for almost a minute. I remove the mushroom and cheese from the container before continuing to read the shape again.
Once you have selected your ingredients, you should add some water and bring it to heat, of course while traditional and the easiest method, it's not the only form. Alternative methods can cause it to take alternative forms, such as pills. As you lack a method of traditional crafting, we have selected you to learn pill crafting.
I continued reading the instructions as I crushed, mashed, and pressed with my paws. Kneading and rolling, turning and balling. Adding spit to help it to mix. The process went on for only a few collections of heartbeats, and soon I found myself with a simple smooth brown colored ball small enough to fit in the palm of my paw.
Minor Poison Pill: Causes weakness, indigestion, and minor damage over time to any that consume it. Potent enough to kill a large rat.
I smiled to myself at the sheer power I held, it'd be hard to force it down an opponents throat. But to trick them? It could work. Next I looked back at my ingredients and chose the meat, cheese, and mushroom. All were edible, of course, and perhaps I could get something out of it. After repeating the process as before, a small reddish pill formed.
Minor Sustenance Pill: Causes minor immediate healing, provides moderate sustenance, and minor healing over time.
I sniffed it, the red pill was scentless. I wasn't sure on the exact numbers of how much it did, as they seemed to appear whenever I took harm, but regardless. It would certainly be useful.
---
One step and I hit the puddle in the middle of the dirt road that I didn't even notice before. So now I was wet and muddy in my right paw.
I glared at it, before shaking away the mud as much as I could, before glaring at the puddle and moving laterally. Then started walking again.
Still, the fact that there was a path was a good thing. It told me that I was more or less right on my idea that this was a park. And the road was going in the direction I assumed was the center of the park. More or less.
Still better than traipsing into the grass.
Even if it was muddy.
I stayed on the border of the path, away from the center of it, where the water was collecting, and started walking, this time seriously, with a vengeance.
The water was cold and I was cold and miserable and a wave of sadness hit me from nowhere and I...
And I continued walking. I couldn't let this whole situation hit me until I was safe, warm and fed. And not only for the Quest, but for the whole fact that I was risking to die, here. Again.
After just being reborn-slash-reincarnated.
And...oh, it's that a tree?
Nope. A shrub. But it's big enough that I can squeeze under it. Hoping that there isn't something dangerous like... I don't know, shards of glass, a needle, a dog or something like that.
Yeesh, I got dark very fast.
Still, I managed to squish myself under it, getting a bit of reprieve from the rain, and stopped [Mimeticat].
Checking my Mp, it revealed that I was walking for five minutes and I still had...
Ok, so I could wait for two minutes and recover everything I lost. It seemed like a good idea. This way I could, maybe, get a bit of warm again.
Well, I should probably remove all this water from myself.
Sigh.
Let's just hope that I don't have too much mud in my fur.
I started grooming myself, a bit surprised that I didn't really taste anything except water. And a bit of mud, but it seemed like I had no gag reflex, so it wasn't that much of a problem.
Still, it was work of two minutes, so I was clean(er) and my MP were back to full.
What?
---
The sun had fallen and risen six more times, I had spent that time hunting the prey within the dungeon and keeping my kin safe. I had learned how to better fight the clever prey, feinting one way and striking another, they acted purely on reflex rather than intellect. They were not durable enough to learn from their mistakes. After each fight with them, I was usually forced to take one of my red pills, that I had made a decent collection of.
I had made it deeper within the dungeon than I ever had before, and I saw something strange. A large torn open hole in the floor around a corner, and a grey creature as large as myself. It's fur ratty and it's large teeth gleaming harshly.
Common Rat (Risky Prey)
I hesitated for a moment, the first time I encountered the brown mouse it had caused great pain and difficulty. Perhaps I should turn back, become stronger before charging at such a creature that could very well be my equal. I was half way to leaving before I hesitated yet again, could I really call myself a cat if I ran from prey? I couldn't allow such a creature to get the best of me simply due to its mere presence.
I charged, the creature turning to me moments before I impacted it, my head impacting its chest as my teeth dig into it's wiry flesh, it squeaks in both surprise and pain before I feel it's claws dig into my sides, lifting me op bodily before throwing me aside. My body impacting the wall. Pain blossoms in my side for a moment before I get my balance enough to leap to the side, predicting a charge.
My expectation paid off as I saw the creature ram into the wall, stunning it for a moment so I could get my balance again. Planting my paws down firmly, I glare at the creature to dare it to charge at me. It leaps forwards as I dive below it, my back and neck twisting to clamp my teeth onto the base of its tail, severing it.
I bounce twice as I land on the ground from the leaping clash, the rat collapsed on the ground in a rigor of agony and anger, I get up in time to leap at it, my fangs gripping around it's throat and digging in as my claws cling to it's torso. It's claws try to tear me off and I feel a sharp pain blossom in my shoulder as it bites hard, I feel my limb go limp, the only thing holding it in place on it's back being my claws.
We struggle for a few moments before I start to feel the creature underneath me still, it's lungs being filled with blood and it's muscles waning. With a final effort, I tear the creatures throat out as it finally dies. Grasping at the creatures dead snout I tear it's fangs from my shoulder and collapse away from it into the rapidly forming pool of blood.
-65 HP Lost From Battle
Thank you floating words, I was sure I wouldn't be able to tell how close to death I was. I tear into a red pill and I start to feel feeling in my limb back and the tear in my shoulder start to close. I try to stand only to fall into the pool of blood again, growling in frustration at my shaking and weak leg, I bite into another red pill to try and get it working again. I feel a cracking sensation in my shoulder as I feel it slot back into place, a large scar forming on my shoulder.
Scarring Injury Acquired, Maximum HP reduced by 10 until naturally healed or stronger medicine is used.
I glare at the corpse of the creature that caused this severe of an injury, struggling to stand I stop as in the corner of my eye I see a small glint where the severed tail of the rat fell. Slowly, tiredly, I walk over to it and try to examine my new treasure.
Rat Leather Whip
A weapon used by thieves and brigands in the great city Realm, a city so large and so vast that one could spend their entire life traveling through it without ever seeing its edge. This whip is formed from countless rat tails torn off of the bodies of rats sewn together, and is known for being a reliable tool.
I tilted my head at the long, tail like weapon. It was many times my body length, and somehow I doubted I'd be able to use it properly without a lot of practice. Regardless, I placed it into my inner space, and turned to gather the bones and meat from the rat once more, before pausing for a moment. I could feel another ember inside my heart, unclaimed and ready to burn, and five more sparks circling it, ready to spread throughout my body at a moments notice.
Standing above a powerful creature, my fur soaked in both mine and its blood, with power surging through my veins. Perhaps, this is what it means to be content.
---
[Grooming]? What the hell does [Grooming] do?
Well, there is a skill page for this, so...
Whoa.
That's a really good skill. Yeah, it's just starting, but still is a really good skill. Yet, I need to move.
The bush didn't change and food didn't exactly spring from nothing, so I still needed to find food, shelter, water and, if I managed to find the time, to explore the park. But seeing how big it was....
No, don't get down now. It would almost like signing your death. And it would make my fur dirty again.
Which is the worse problem, really.
I wriggled under the branches, only waiting for a second to see if everything was quiet and, not seeing anyone, I pushed myself under the deluge of rain outside and started walking on the border of the path again. The rain wasn't gentler than before, that was for sure.
I walked on the short grass, not willing to mud myself again, trying even to run for a bit, finding it easier on the less squishy lawn than the packed earth path.
Yet, I managed to keep my current pace only for five minutes or so, before I had to stop. Not because I was tired or anything, just that I slipped on something shiny, slick and yellow.
It was an almost empty bag of chips.
Beyond the fact that caused me almost to faceplant, I was starting to feel a bit hungry and, if my ears were good as they seemed, there still were some chips inside. It was the moment to test the efficiency of the Omnivore perk.
Reaching the food inside the bag was somewhat more difficult, with the opening closed by the water and mud. Still, I had claws for a reason. And so, after a minute of trying to rip the packaging to shreds, I reached the chips inside.
They were a bit stale, a bit soggy and with too much oil. They almost made me gag at the first taste, but I was starting to get hungry and I needed the food.
So I ate.
The rain was still soaking my fur, but the warmth in my belly was making me feel sleepy all the same.
Now, I knew, at least academically, that sleeping while cold wasn't the smartest idea ever, main reason because of possible hypothermia. So I started walking/running soon after concluding my meal of stale chips.
Grass almost flattened to the ground by the strength of the water, I was trying to see if my new form came with new senses, like an augmented sense of smell or something like that, but the rain was making it all but impossible to understand, seeing as the only smells in the air were grass, mud and water.
Not a good mix.
Still, I didn't had too much time to dwell on this: a little concrete building appeared from in between a couple of trees, looking pretty dry.
Well, as dry as it could be.
I startled a bit, stopping for a second, trying to remove the water from my eyes with my paw and then checking if it was an hallucination. Nope, it was true.
Putting up a burst of speed, I ran towards the possible shelter.
Running under the rain wasn't a good idea. It made my tiny lungs heave for the lack of oxygen and the fact that my VIT and STR were really low didn't help. One. Bit.
I had to stop after ten minutes, more or less, shivering from the cold and the hunger. Yeah, I had eaten not too much time ago, but it wasn't exactly a lucullian feast, os I had already used most of the, admittedly low, energies the chips gave me.
I stopped Mimeticat and the feeling of my mana starting to return to me was really good, like fresh water in a desert or something poetic-like that.
"Caw."
I froze, before sloooooowwwwly turning towards the sound. A particularly thin crow was watching me from a few meters away. He looked hungry.
And I was a rather small kitten.
...Oh, I didn't like where this was going.
"Caw."
The harbinger of my maybe doom hopped towards me, staring with his beady, black eyes, while I was trying to think on a way to survive this situation. Maybe it was a bit strange of me to jump to the conclusion of the crow attacking me, but after waking up in a cat body I wasn't exactly feeling charitable towards the universe.
I was right in thinking it.
The corvid flapped his wings twice, before jumping towards me and trying to peck my neck. It was only a stroke of luck that I managed to avoid it, jumping to the side.
He didn't exactly give me time to counterattack or nothing, but with the time he took to rise in the air, I managed to do something that saved my life.
"[Bad Days Ahead]!"
The spell ate my MP like it was nobody's business, sending me down to 70 MP. My eyes shined and shimmered in black and purple, before a dark aura manifested around the bird and he plummeted down like a stone, dead.
Wait, what?
I approached slowly, pushing it with my paw a couple of time, the corpse rocketing a bit but unmoving.
Yep, dead as a doornail.
How did my spell do that? I was pretty sure that it only lowered a stat and...
Unless...
The VIT stat. If that is reduced to 0...
I got lucky.
And, even with the hunger I was feeling, I really didn't want to eat the crow. But leaving it here looked a lot like a waste and I hate wasting food. Still...
Maybe I should check if I have an inventory?
- Location
- Italy
Yeah, it's max/current
- Location
- Actually pretty lost
You should probably either change it to Max\Current or Current/Max then, since your current health is almost always less than or equal to your max health. The convention is for lower health to mean the "fraction" gets smaller instead of bigger, since the alternative is the lower your current health is, the larger the fraction reads as.
It's a pretty neat story though, and I'm interested to see where you take it.
- Location
- Italy
Thanks for your comment. I would change, but my keyboard only have the slash in that direction, so
Malbutorius
C'est le bien qui fait mal
Worst case scenario you can use the on screen keyboard.Thanks for your comment. I would change, but my keyboard only have the slash in that direction, so
- Location
- Italy
Malbutorius
C'est le bien qui fait mal
Weird, I figured it was a standard feature on PC. It should be in accessibility options.The what?
- Location
- Italy
I'll see if I can find it.
FancyMolasses
Schnoz Enthusiast
- Location
- Nowhere interesting
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I'm really excited for more of this! I like that there are two perspectives and that they're already going in pretty different directions, build wise. Also cats are fun, and it'll be fun to see them grow in power from small kittens to towering forces of feline fury!
- Location
- Italy
Malbutorius
C'est le bien qui fait mal
Must be a difference in background then, the lighter red is a bit too sharp for me and doesn't feel remotely subtle.
Malbutorius
C'est le bien qui fait mal
Mostly that I enjoyed the softer tone more, honestly.
1.3
- Location
- Italy
1.3
I was tired from the battle, and so I returned to my home.
My kin rushed to greet me, they had been starting to grow more excitable and active recently. When I first brought them here I had cleaned up the pieces of clear wall into my inner space, a word floating to my mind when I did so declaring them as "Glass". I was tired, but playing with my kin who were innocent of either bloodshed or battle helped me to relax.
After a short play session and a nap in the Sun's light, I drew the Rat Leather Whip from my inner space. It felt like something I could use, something like my teeth and claws, but separate from me.
I felt odd foreign thoughts at holding it in my mouth, a distant memory of a wordless tune half finished floating through my mind as I tried to flick at at a glass bottle I had stood on end. The whip flopped down on the floor, and frustration grew in my mind. I knew it was supposed to do something, but I felt like there was some part of the process I was clearly missing.
I tried for some time to get it to work, eventually making it flop hard enough to knock the bottle over, more by incident than intention.
I supposed I would learn the process over some time, for now I shall take a break and make some more pills. Now that I have some stray bottles, I might be able to try my paw at potion making.
I paused for a moment in thought, I held an unlit ember in my mind, yet I felt no pressing need to ignite it. I tried to pull the flames I could ignite it with to the surface, yet after a few brief moments of bubbling effort I released my grip on it and allowed it to rest within me again. I'll come back to it, later.
I turned towards the sparks within my heart, the beast had been fast and strong, had I been more vulnerable the wounds it acted upon me would have surely slew me, I would have to think carefully upon it.
**************
Well, I did manage to kill a crow thanks to sheer dumb luck. I guess that my black fur isn't only for showing off,uh? Still, I was really hungry.
Really, really hungry…
*Five minutes later...*
I hate my life.
I left what remained of the carcass behind me and I started walking again towards the middle point of the park, desperately hoping that there was something and not simply… the center of the park.
I wonder how much EXP I need to reached the next level…
Apparently killing a single, malnourished crow wasn't enough to reach the next level, especially if you did it by sheer luck…
Which, actually, made a lot of sense.
Whatever, time to go on.
I was almost there, I could practically see the building, white walls with a blue roof, flanked by a couple of trees. My pacing accelerated, wanting to reach that shelter before something else happened and I couldn't wait to complete, at least partially, my quest.
I didn't even care about the bonus reward.
I know, I know, the powergamer in me is shuddering in horror, too. But this was about my life and, until I could be sure that I would resurrect, respawn or something like that, I wasn't going to take any risk.
Deal with it,
Yet, the safety of the kiosk was approaching and no other crows or murderous birds were approaching me in the hope of a quick lunch, so I was counting myself lucky.
And, finally, finally, I got out of the frigid rain, the wet concrete hard under my paws. And colder than the grass, but, when I huddled myself near the door, it was much more dry, so...fifty/fifty.
Still, the quest didn't trigger. I probably was missing something.
Let's see, it said shelter, food and water. I found two, so it only miss the water. I could try to lap some of the rainwater in the puddles around here, but I was pretty sure that would end with me ill, so thanks but no thanks.
Maybe I can manage to enter the kiosk and steal a bottle of water?
Well, let's see: there is that stack of chair and tables to the side, to prevent them from getting wet; the ledge of the windows is wood, a bit old; and, to conclude, from there I could reach the roof with a well timed jump.
If I don't fall to my death.
Well, it's not like I have more appealing choices.
Sub-quest?
*********************
The whip flops onto the ground. My eye twitches, I try again. The Whip flops onto the ground again.
I've gotten to the point where I'm able to move the whole of the thing in the general direction I am for, but not strongly enough to change it. Quite simply, it's too heavy, too large, and too cumbersome to use properly.
I could push some of the sparks I held within me into my muscles, strengthening them and harding my body, I could put them into my tail to make my form more flexible to get it to move more properly.
I had been hunting more recently, such matters of lesser prey wasn't worth the effort of detailing.
I paused my training for the day, I didn't need anymore pills, my attempts to make a potion in an empty bottle failed due to a lack of fire. I jumped to the small hole in the wall, Stepping midway to reach it and pull myself up. It was sunny today, and I felt the desire to rest in the sun. I had a route to the roof of the building I lived underneath, a jump to a dumpster and then a jump with a Step to an angled part of the roof. The black roof was old and worn, and absorbed sunlight and heat greatly.
Lying on it was pleasant, my white fur contrasting nicely with the roof.
I took the time to focus within myself, feeling the sparks and ember.
Out of all my inner forces, my… I suppose "Whiskers" are my strongest aspect, I can feel it's connection to my senses and the flow of my inner energy allowing me to Step. Next was my "Tail" and "Heart", although I felt that the former was hardly touched, as if it could be improved greatly and rapidly. I could sense sparks that had been invested before into my Heart, making me more enduring, while my Tail affected my motion and ability to move. Next were my "Claws", I had improved them before to get into the juicy fruit that I first consumed, concerning my strength and overall power.
Lastly, was something I couldn't quite place. It didn't have to do with my senses, nor my physical abilities, so I was uncertain as to what it was. However I could sort of… Feel it stemming towards the depths of my inner energy rather than the flow. I felt that improving it would be difficult however, very difficult. Perhaps it was my… Pool? No, that's not the right term.
I changed the topic, thinking about the whip, how the most I could make it do was cause it to flop around, I lacked the ability to move it properly. I closed my eyes and basked in the sunlight for a few moments, before nodding to myself and investing a few sparks into my Tail. Immediately I felt my body loosen up, as if I was incapable of movement before, experimentally, I jump off onto the dumpster and land much smoother than I expected, before I would have had to Step down to it to not get hurt. I just felt so much more, and I still maintained a portion of my Sparks remaining.
Once I was inside again, I tried to use the Whip once more, this time instead of holding it in my jaw, I wrap the base of it around my tail, following an unsung instinct. And then, as if it was so very simple, I hear a light crack and a bottle is knocked over, a crack in the glass appearing.
I bare my teeth in a predatory grin, I was going to slaughter that rat next time we met.
-------
Potentially fatal if I don't pay attention, but that is par for the course. This said, I can decide to replace or to add, uh?
Mmmhhhh…..
Replace.
Yes.
I wiggled my tail and prepared to jump. Let's see… that looks unstable, that it's too far, that one…
It was the perfect spot: wedged between two other chairs, but partially open. And I thought I could see a way to climb from that. Okay.
Aaaaaand jump!
I majestically flailed through the air and landed with an impressive belly flop on the chair, almost sliding down and falling to the cold unforgiving concrete under it.
"Note to self: try to familiarize yourself with jumping before trying again. Ow."
Yet, I was on the chair, so I called it a success. Now, to climb up before everything fall down and squish my kitten self. I need to go slowly and carefully.
Creeeak….
On the other paw, there are advantages to doing things with alacrity. Like not becoming a pizza.
I jumped from the whole stack of chairs towards the window, the pile crumbling to the floor with a crash loud enough to make my jaw vibrate, while I was scrabbling madly against the wood of the window frame, trying to find purchase on it with my claws.
I don't know if I was lucky or some kind of cat deity was watching over me (are you there Bastet?), but I managed to stop my untimely death by falling and actually getting up there. My measly strength wouldn't have been enough, if it wasn't for the boost from my desperation.
Still, I was now on the window frame and I was looking straight into it.
Well, into my reflection.
I am an handsome fellow, I must admit. Okay, more adorable than anything else.
Eh, I'll take it.
Now, let's see…. This frame is old, the paint is chipped and i should be able to climb it. BUT it is pretty narrow, so I need to be really careful about it. Mhhh… right or left? Analyzing the paint, either one seems good, but…
I focused, studying them.
And I hit the jackpot.
***********************
Crack
A single strike, and the previously annoying brown mouse was struck down immediately, the leather of the whip curling around my tail as if it was an extension of the limb as I pulled it back, it dragged upon the floor as I moved, an annoyance that was tolerable with the power the weapon granted.
Turning a corner, my eyes narrowed as soon as the Rat came into view. I began to growl, remembering the pain it gave me previously. It turned and saw me, a mistake on my part, had I controlled my rage better I would have gotten a few strikes in unhindered. The beast charged at me, rather than mirroring it's movements I dart to the side, bringing my tail to bear and building force to whip the tail held weapon around, tearing across the creatures face with a mighty crack.
It was stunned for a few moments, a long enough time for my greatly increased speed to move in and tear at it's throat, killing it almost casually in comparison to the previous battle.
I stared down at it, it's body fading out when I didn't start to immediately feast upon it, it felt so very disappointing that something that had once nearly slew me was now no more than petty prey. I glanced towards the dark pit, the entrance to the second floor. Retrieving a few teeth and long stretches of meat from the fading corpse into my inner space, I turn towards the hole and confidently dive in.
The walls that had previously been rigid and hard had given way to a much more textured, dirt material, insects crawling along through it. Nothing notable. The halls were larger fortunately, better allowing me to bring my whip to bear.
I hear chittering from around a nearby corner and turned, entering a crouching stance.
The creature was large, brown fur and many legs, it's body was oddly shaped, with a large rear end and a small torso.
I thought back to the Rat for a moment, it had gone down from being Risky to not having such. Of course, I didn't have a weapon when I first fought the rat.
I immediately dart to the side, the spider darting forwards rapidly, thankfully my previous focus on agility paid off as I proved to be faster than it. It's fangs glistened threateningly with a sheen of wetness, I didn't want to know what was within those fangs.
It had already gotten too close to bring the whip to bear properly, it was fast and aggressive. I prepared a Step to make enough room for myself, my tail already making the motion to strike, seemingly missing entirely before my Step moves me into the perfect position for the attack to connect, tearing off one of the spider's limbs. I waited to do the process again, dodge, and Step into an attack. The spider however, did something surprising, it immediately retreated.
I was surprised for a few moments, long enough that I didn't think to give chase until it was already gone and by then it could have lead me into a trap. I glanced down at it's severed limb as it faded into nothing, leaving behind a piece of a hard material that my inner space dubbed 'Chitin'.
I scowled after where the spider had retreated, an escaped prey was a stain upon my pride that I would be forced to bear until I found it again and killed it.
I turned around and headed down another corridor, seeing a small group of rats, I grinned and charged.
---------
Well, that… was really unhelpful. Well, it's passive and it doesn't actually cost anything, so it's not like I can moan about it. So I'll simply… continue like I was doing.
That works.
Now, returning to the right or left dilemma… Let's see….
The right one seems… weird. The scratches on that look deeper than the others. Almost like something hit it regularly… oh!
The proverbial lightbulb lighted up over my head and I checked the window. Yep. the handle hit the right side everytime it was opened with too much strength, making more damage. That means that the wood should be softer and easier to penetrate with my claws.
Honestly, if I could, I would try and buff myself, but I don't know anything on how to do it and experimenting with CURSE magic while on a precarious position like the one I am now doesn't look exactly appealing. Still, it seems a good idea, so I'm gonna shelve it or later. When I'm not at risk of falling to my death.
Now, take position, wiggle to adjust aaaaand… JUMP!
"Mraaaaaow!"
I unleashed my warcry during my jump, reaching the exact point I aimed for, burying my claws in the wood. Yep, softer.
From that it was easier to climb than what I thought, even if I had to pause a couple of times to recover my breath.
Easier than I thought didn't mean that it was easy, sadly.
Yet, I managed to reach the roof without falling to my death and that filled me with DETERMINATION!
...Let's not go that route.
Now, there should be a skylight somewhere around here….
I examined the hole in the floor near the corpse of the beastly rat I slew, after a body length's distance into the hole it was utterly enshrouded in darkness. I felt a chill down my spine at the idea of entering it, I had nearly been slain by the beast that I had just fought. It would be foolish to go after it so soon afterwards.
I was tired from the battle, and so I returned to my home.
My kin rushed to greet me, they had been starting to grow more excitable and active recently. When I first brought them here I had cleaned up the pieces of clear wall into my inner space, a word floating to my mind when I did so declaring them as "Glass". I was tired, but playing with my kin who were innocent of either bloodshed or battle helped me to relax.
After a short play session and a nap in the Sun's light, I drew the Rat Leather Whip from my inner space. It felt like something I could use, something like my teeth and claws, but separate from me.
I felt odd foreign thoughts at holding it in my mouth, a distant memory of a wordless tune half finished floating through my mind as I tried to flick at at a glass bottle I had stood on end. The whip flopped down on the floor, and frustration grew in my mind. I knew it was supposed to do something, but I felt like there was some part of the process I was clearly missing.
I tried for some time to get it to work, eventually making it flop hard enough to knock the bottle over, more by incident than intention.
I supposed I would learn the process over some time, for now I shall take a break and make some more pills. Now that I have some stray bottles, I might be able to try my paw at potion making.
I paused for a moment in thought, I held an unlit ember in my mind, yet I felt no pressing need to ignite it. I tried to pull the flames I could ignite it with to the surface, yet after a few brief moments of bubbling effort I released my grip on it and allowed it to rest within me again. I'll come back to it, later.
I turned towards the sparks within my heart, the beast had been fast and strong, had I been more vulnerable the wounds it acted upon me would have surely slew me, I would have to think carefully upon it.
**************
Well, I did manage to kill a crow thanks to sheer dumb luck. I guess that my black fur isn't only for showing off,uh? Still, I was really hungry.
Really, really hungry…
*Five minutes later...*
I hate my life.
I left what remained of the carcass behind me and I started walking again towards the middle point of the park, desperately hoping that there was something and not simply… the center of the park.
I wonder how much EXP I need to reached the next level…
Uh. Okay, then.
Apparently killing a single, malnourished crow wasn't enough to reach the next level, especially if you did it by sheer luck…
Which, actually, made a lot of sense.
Whatever, time to go on.
I was almost there, I could practically see the building, white walls with a blue roof, flanked by a couple of trees. My pacing accelerated, wanting to reach that shelter before something else happened and I couldn't wait to complete, at least partially, my quest.
I didn't even care about the bonus reward.
I know, I know, the powergamer in me is shuddering in horror, too. But this was about my life and, until I could be sure that I would resurrect, respawn or something like that, I wasn't going to take any risk.
Deal with it,
Yet, the safety of the kiosk was approaching and no other crows or murderous birds were approaching me in the hope of a quick lunch, so I was counting myself lucky.
And, finally, finally, I got out of the frigid rain, the wet concrete hard under my paws. And colder than the grass, but, when I huddled myself near the door, it was much more dry, so...fifty/fifty.
Still, the quest didn't trigger. I probably was missing something.
Let's see, it said shelter, food and water. I found two, so it only miss the water. I could try to lap some of the rainwater in the puddles around here, but I was pretty sure that would end with me ill, so thanks but no thanks.
Maybe I can manage to enter the kiosk and steal a bottle of water?
Well, let's see: there is that stack of chair and tables to the side, to prevent them from getting wet; the ledge of the windows is wood, a bit old; and, to conclude, from there I could reach the roof with a well timed jump.
If I don't fall to my death.
Well, it's not like I have more appealing choices.
Sub-quest?
*********************
The whip flops onto the ground. My eye twitches, I try again. The Whip flops onto the ground again.
I've gotten to the point where I'm able to move the whole of the thing in the general direction I am for, but not strongly enough to change it. Quite simply, it's too heavy, too large, and too cumbersome to use properly.
I could push some of the sparks I held within me into my muscles, strengthening them and harding my body, I could put them into my tail to make my form more flexible to get it to move more properly.
I had been hunting more recently, such matters of lesser prey wasn't worth the effort of detailing.
I paused my training for the day, I didn't need anymore pills, my attempts to make a potion in an empty bottle failed due to a lack of fire. I jumped to the small hole in the wall, Stepping midway to reach it and pull myself up. It was sunny today, and I felt the desire to rest in the sun. I had a route to the roof of the building I lived underneath, a jump to a dumpster and then a jump with a Step to an angled part of the roof. The black roof was old and worn, and absorbed sunlight and heat greatly.
Lying on it was pleasant, my white fur contrasting nicely with the roof.
I took the time to focus within myself, feeling the sparks and ember.
Out of all my inner forces, my… I suppose "Whiskers" are my strongest aspect, I can feel it's connection to my senses and the flow of my inner energy allowing me to Step. Next was my "Tail" and "Heart", although I felt that the former was hardly touched, as if it could be improved greatly and rapidly. I could sense sparks that had been invested before into my Heart, making me more enduring, while my Tail affected my motion and ability to move. Next were my "Claws", I had improved them before to get into the juicy fruit that I first consumed, concerning my strength and overall power.
Lastly, was something I couldn't quite place. It didn't have to do with my senses, nor my physical abilities, so I was uncertain as to what it was. However I could sort of… Feel it stemming towards the depths of my inner energy rather than the flow. I felt that improving it would be difficult however, very difficult. Perhaps it was my… Pool? No, that's not the right term.
I changed the topic, thinking about the whip, how the most I could make it do was cause it to flop around, I lacked the ability to move it properly. I closed my eyes and basked in the sunlight for a few moments, before nodding to myself and investing a few sparks into my Tail. Immediately I felt my body loosen up, as if I was incapable of movement before, experimentally, I jump off onto the dumpster and land much smoother than I expected, before I would have had to Step down to it to not get hurt. I just felt so much more, and I still maintained a portion of my Sparks remaining.
Once I was inside again, I tried to use the Whip once more, this time instead of holding it in my jaw, I wrap the base of it around my tail, following an unsung instinct. And then, as if it was so very simple, I hear a light crack and a bottle is knocked over, a crack in the glass appearing.
I bare my teeth in a predatory grin, I was going to slaughter that rat next time we met.
-------
I… don't think I ever heard of a game with a feature like this. Still, it looks interesting.
Potentially fatal if I don't pay attention, but that is par for the course. This said, I can decide to replace or to add, uh?
Mmmhhhh…..
Replace.
Yes.
Well,that was easy. Now, let's see...
I wiggled my tail and prepared to jump. Let's see… that looks unstable, that it's too far, that one…
It was the perfect spot: wedged between two other chairs, but partially open. And I thought I could see a way to climb from that. Okay.
Aaaaaand jump!
I majestically flailed through the air and landed with an impressive belly flop on the chair, almost sliding down and falling to the cold unforgiving concrete under it.
"Note to self: try to familiarize yourself with jumping before trying again. Ow."
Yet, I was on the chair, so I called it a success. Now, to climb up before everything fall down and squish my kitten self. I need to go slowly and carefully.
Creeeak….
On the other paw, there are advantages to doing things with alacrity. Like not becoming a pizza.
I jumped from the whole stack of chairs towards the window, the pile crumbling to the floor with a crash loud enough to make my jaw vibrate, while I was scrabbling madly against the wood of the window frame, trying to find purchase on it with my claws.
I don't know if I was lucky or some kind of cat deity was watching over me (are you there Bastet?), but I managed to stop my untimely death by falling and actually getting up there. My measly strength wouldn't have been enough, if it wasn't for the boost from my desperation.
Still, I was now on the window frame and I was looking straight into it.
Well, into my reflection.
I am an handsome fellow, I must admit. Okay, more adorable than anything else.
Eh, I'll take it.
Now, let's see…. This frame is old, the paint is chipped and i should be able to climb it. BUT it is pretty narrow, so I need to be really careful about it. Mhhh… right or left? Analyzing the paint, either one seems good, but…
I focused, studying them.
And I hit the jackpot.
What?
***********************
Crack
A single strike, and the previously annoying brown mouse was struck down immediately, the leather of the whip curling around my tail as if it was an extension of the limb as I pulled it back, it dragged upon the floor as I moved, an annoyance that was tolerable with the power the weapon granted.
Turning a corner, my eyes narrowed as soon as the Rat came into view. I began to growl, remembering the pain it gave me previously. It turned and saw me, a mistake on my part, had I controlled my rage better I would have gotten a few strikes in unhindered. The beast charged at me, rather than mirroring it's movements I dart to the side, bringing my tail to bear and building force to whip the tail held weapon around, tearing across the creatures face with a mighty crack.
It was stunned for a few moments, a long enough time for my greatly increased speed to move in and tear at it's throat, killing it almost casually in comparison to the previous battle.
I stared down at it, it's body fading out when I didn't start to immediately feast upon it, it felt so very disappointing that something that had once nearly slew me was now no more than petty prey. I glanced towards the dark pit, the entrance to the second floor. Retrieving a few teeth and long stretches of meat from the fading corpse into my inner space, I turn towards the hole and confidently dive in.
The walls that had previously been rigid and hard had given way to a much more textured, dirt material, insects crawling along through it. Nothing notable. The halls were larger fortunately, better allowing me to bring my whip to bear.
I hear chittering from around a nearby corner and turned, entering a crouching stance.
The creature was large, brown fur and many legs, it's body was oddly shaped, with a large rear end and a small torso.
I thought back to the Rat for a moment, it had gone down from being Risky to not having such. Of course, I didn't have a weapon when I first fought the rat.
I immediately dart to the side, the spider darting forwards rapidly, thankfully my previous focus on agility paid off as I proved to be faster than it. It's fangs glistened threateningly with a sheen of wetness, I didn't want to know what was within those fangs.
It had already gotten too close to bring the whip to bear properly, it was fast and aggressive. I prepared a Step to make enough room for myself, my tail already making the motion to strike, seemingly missing entirely before my Step moves me into the perfect position for the attack to connect, tearing off one of the spider's limbs. I waited to do the process again, dodge, and Step into an attack. The spider however, did something surprising, it immediately retreated.
I was surprised for a few moments, long enough that I didn't think to give chase until it was already gone and by then it could have lead me into a trap. I glanced down at it's severed limb as it faded into nothing, leaving behind a piece of a hard material that my inner space dubbed 'Chitin'.
I scowled after where the spider had retreated, an escaped prey was a stain upon my pride that I would be forced to bear until I found it again and killed it.
I turned around and headed down another corridor, seeing a small group of rats, I grinned and charged.
---------
Well, that… was really unhelpful. Well, it's passive and it doesn't actually cost anything, so it's not like I can moan about it. So I'll simply… continue like I was doing.
That works.
Now, returning to the right or left dilemma… Let's see….
The right one seems… weird. The scratches on that look deeper than the others. Almost like something hit it regularly… oh!
The proverbial lightbulb lighted up over my head and I checked the window. Yep. the handle hit the right side everytime it was opened with too much strength, making more damage. That means that the wood should be softer and easier to penetrate with my claws.
Honestly, if I could, I would try and buff myself, but I don't know anything on how to do it and experimenting with CURSE magic while on a precarious position like the one I am now doesn't look exactly appealing. Still, it seems a good idea, so I'm gonna shelve it or later. When I'm not at risk of falling to my death.
Now, take position, wiggle to adjust aaaaand… JUMP!
"Mraaaaaow!"
I unleashed my warcry during my jump, reaching the exact point I aimed for, burying my claws in the wood. Yep, softer.
From that it was easier to climb than what I thought, even if I had to pause a couple of times to recover my breath.
Easier than I thought didn't mean that it was easy, sadly.
Yet, I managed to reach the roof without falling to my death and that filled me with DETERMINATION!
...Let's not go that route.
Now, there should be a skylight somewhere around here….
1.4
- Location
- Italy
1.4
I let out a deep, satisfied sigh, I was bathed in blood from the dozen or so rats I had slain, to the point my fur was practically died red. I had felt my power surge from the slaughter, to the point where it had further increased and more sparks had grown within my heart.
I felt for my inner power, my Steps having drained it greatly, almost to the point it was empty. I found myself a clean patch of ground among the gore, and laid myself down to rest for a moment. I tugged on the sparks of light within myself, directing them before hesitating. Whisker's would help me recover my inner power, but wouldn't having more endurance greatly aid in it? It would increase slowly, but a part of myself knew it would do more than merely expand my pool of inner power.
Tentatively, I pushed a few sparks into this unknown. I almost felt my thoughts click then, I could feel my pool grow, and I realized what it truly was. This was the aspect that governed my ability to interact with the world through my inner power, it was my Will.
I almost laughed to myself, while the aspect of my Will improved my pool, I felt like my Whisker's tingled at it's improvement. I was curious as to how they interacted, and I felt my Ember surge at the feeling.
I felt something odd about these, the first would allow me to get back into combat more, the second would allow me to keep fighting for longer, and the third… Creating pills already ate up enough of my time, and I simply didn't have the resources to properly make potions, so that was out. For the final one I almost dismissed it, but then I hesitated. I recalled the effectiveness of pill creation, how even though it took time and effort to perform I managed to create something that saved my life multiple times.
So without an ounce of hesitation, I grasped Witchcrafting with my Ember, and ignited it.
I was struck my inspiration, as I looked down upon myself. My claws gleamed for a moment, as I pushed my remaining sparks into my Heart and returned to my home after gathering nearby materials.
------------------
Ok, so, the roof. It was concrete, obviously. And, seeing as it had been raining for the past hours (or whatever long it was, I wouldn't know) and it was pretty slick with rainwater and...whatever they used to cover the roof of buildings to make it waterproof.
Yet, I wasn't slipping. Thanks to my being a cat, I was able to keep my balance and tiptoe towards the skylight on the other side of the building, on the opposite side of the door. Maybe the storage room or something like that?
Still, it was closed. Not bolted shut, but the latch was there and latched shut.
Now, how do I enter? The quest was clear, I had to enter, find food and water and shelter. And there had to be a way to complete the quest, unless ti wouldn't appear… I think.
So, let's see… if I can unlatch it someway?
No, it's on the other side of the window. If I had the Closets and Corners perk i could bypass the problem entirely, but… mhhhh, it's useless to cry on the spilt milk.
This said, let's see… I need a way to: a) open the window; or, b) bypass the window entirely.
I could break the glass, but how? It looks pretty sturdy, at least judging by the border… reinforced glass or however it's called, so not an option. The frame, on the other hand, it's not that, but it still looks pretty solid...
Mhhh… there is no lock to pick. And I don't have a way to pick lock, too, so it's a moot point.
It remains the magic option.
Now, let's see… hiding would be useless right now, so it remains Curse Magic.
Only problem is, my current spell is only [Bad Days Ahead] and, if I remember correctly, it only targets creatures. Well, let's check.
Well, it says target, not creature, but have serious doubts that it works on the window. What kind of stats have a window?
All the same, it's not like I have any other idea, do I?
"[Bad Days Ahead!]" 115/95
The purple aura of magic coruscated around me, before discharging towards the window and doing… something. Not sure what, but something.
"So I need to..what? Try to jump on it until it opens?"
…..
I feel so Sylvester in this moment…
I pawed at the window, trying to see if there were another way to open it before resorting to the big guns, without any effect, before walking on it, slowly testing the field. It looked like it was pretty solid, even when my full weight was on it.
Not that it was that much of a weight true…
Mhhh…
I jumped, slightly.
Nothing.
Again, I jumped. Then jumped. And jumped, again and again and again…
Until, three minutes later, I was out of breath and the window didn't budge of an inch. I was tired, drenched in water and I'd slipped twice on the slick glass.
I glared at the window.
DEX reduced.
Whut?
Analyze.
Wait. There were a shimmer in the corner of my eye, near the latch. I peeked, getting as near as I could, trying to see what was that shimmering around it.
Then it clicked.
It was what my spell had influenced.
Apparently, reducing the Dexterity of a window meant that the latch got stuck.
I could hear the crickets over the rain, making me feel stupid.
Well, whatever. Let's try again.
"[Bad Days Ahead!]" 115/95
The aura of purple manifested, my eyes shined and then the whole window shimmered purple.
"Now, let's see if I can manage to Analyze the thing again."
I focused, studying the whole window, before the result flashed in front of my eyes.
STR reduced.
Good.
Now, let's try again to open the window.
I gingerly walked on it, before starting to jump again.
After two jumps, it started to groan. Then it moved a bit.
With renewed vigor and with a kitty grin on my face, I kept on my jumping, wanting to enter in this damned…
Wait a sec.
I was jumping on the window to enter the kiosk. The window on the roof. And I didn't have any way to control the fall afterward.
Whoops.
The window shuddered, then groaned. Then it opened under me, sending me tumbling down.
*******************
The process was long, painful, and difficult. I had eaten almost a dozen healing pills over the process and imbued all of my mana several times, but I had done it. I chomped down on a last pill, regrowing lost skin slowly. The creation was almost like a triangle, round like a cone and coming to a soft tip. The brim was wide, and the leather was soft. Now that it lied before me, finally complete my fae mood slowly dissipated, and I winced in pain from what I'd done.
I grinned in bitter satisfaction, I knew this had to be made, but I could barely control myself when I began it's creation.
Wearing it upon my brow, I felt a sense of completion.
And then it sank over my eyes as it was built for a full grown cat, not a kitten.
I grumbled to myself as I yanked it back up, eventually finding a position where it fit but didn't drop over my eyes before heading back into the dungeon.
------------------------
The number was floating in front of my eyes, the whole thing pretty much self explanatory.
I was two point of distance from my death.
I laid on a pallet of something, not sure if they were plastic water bottles or sodas or something else, the only thing I knew it was the fact that they were hard and, while not pointy, they ended with some sort of cap.
I laid broken over the plastic cover, my legs broken, one of my front leg backwards, while the other was straight in front of my face. I could literally lick it, if I tried.
Meanwhile, my blood was oozing out of my tiny body, bringing my life out of it.
Well, that's it.
I tried. I failed.
I should've tried another way.
I wa feeling pretty woozy. Must be the bloodloss.
Speaking of blood...
There is a spot of blood on my paw.
I don't like having my hand dirty and, now that I'm a cat, I hate it even more. Well, I can reach it, so…
I started, slowly, licking the blood on my fur, before smoothing it out as best as I could, cleaning between the claws and removing as much as the dirt as I could.
It was hard, though. If only I could move the legs a bit…
Ohh, that feels good.
My tail flicked a bit. Wasn't it broken?
I could move again? But my legs were…
Wait. I was grooming myself.
I was Grooming myself.
With renewed enthusiasm, I poured as much energy as I could into the skill, feeling the mana move through my body and getting out of my tongue, to seep back into my body.
It was pretty strange.
Oh, good. But…
I watched my right foreleg. Or better, I inclined my head towards that direction.
It was still turned backwards, but my tail was splitted into pieces, so… Maybe it would return to its own place if I healed enough? But I didn't know that and there was the possibility of it to remain in the way it was right now if I healed while it was in that position, so…
This was going to hurt a lot. A lots lot.
I braced my left paw on the plastic cover under me, turned my legs until they were in a more appropriate position and then I took a deep breath, before gritting my teeth and jerking upwards.
AAAAAHHHHH-
Hurts. A lot.
It was white pain, so hot that I remained under it for a minute or more. My right frontleg dangled uselessly, matted with blood. It was completely shattered, I must've landed on it first.
Thank Bastet that I didn't land on my head.
Now, let's hope that I can heal it right. First of all, checking how much health I have still.
Oh. Well then, better start to work.
I slowly started licking my damage paw, hesitantly and with careful, tiny licks, the barest contact needed for it to work. Then it started to work, my mana slowly sapping away and my health starting to replenish.
And full. I was again at full health and, thanks to Bastet, my right paw was working again, as well as before the fall. Yuppie!
Now, I have a quest to complete.
From where I start?
Well, first of all I needed food and water, so I should go and search the front of the kiosk, see if there were easily accessible food and water.
I gingerly walked towards the door of the storage room (and yes, it was a storage room), finding it open by some miracle of luck.
I thanked Bastet once again, before ramming against it with all my strength, however low it was. It seemed that it was well maintained enough to open without much problems. Good.
The front area wasn't nothing particularly special: a square room, a couple of small round tables, the counter, two refrigerator with the glass door, one for sodas and water, the other for alcoholic. Mostly beer.
On the side there was a metal rack, filled with bags of chips, various kind of them. Food found.
I walked to it, grabbing one of the bags with my teeth and pulled with all my strength, dislodging one of them and landing on my tail, which wasn't pleasurable. At all.
Still, with my prize well in my… mouth… I dragged it back towards the storage room. The reason why I didn't try to take a water bottle wa easy: the refrigerator doors were almost assuredly vacuum sealed, needing more strength and a better grip that I could exercitate on them right now. On the other hand, where I landed, there were a lot of bottles ready for the taking, the only thing that blocked them from me was the flimsy plastic cover.
I was so near to concluding the Quest that I could basically taste it.
Victory tasted sweet.
Well, not really. Victory mostly tasted like spicy hot chips, but it doesn't really roll of the tongue like the other saying, so…
Now that I ate something, I was feeling pretty full. Still, the spicy food made me awfully thirsty. And look! Water bottles!
Now, how to open them without hands?
Firstly, let's ignore the blood that still cover the plastic. Second, slice the plastic with my claws. After that, jump on top of them, balance yourself on the outermost water bottle and push with your strength.
Repeat as needed, until one bottle is dislodged and its motion make all the bottles in that corner fall, bringing you down with it.
Ouch.
Third, wait for the room to stop spinning.
After that, it only need to claw open a part and…
Okay, unexpected problem: the plastic of the bottles is harder that the packaging, so I cannot claw it open so easily. Mmhhhh…
"[Bad Days Ahead!]" 115/30
The purple aura envelope it, before disappearing. I tried to analyze it, trying to see if there where any changes…
There. The plastic looks old. Worn away.
I checked again and, yes, its VIT is reduced. Now, where to cut….
There, in the larger part over the narrower one. Carefully, with one claws, I start to slowly grind away at the plastic, hitting the same spot over and over again, until water start to trickle out.
Perfect.
And this water taste like victory, too.
*******************
Returning to the second floor didn't take long, I felt as if most of the mice avoided me, and the rats were simple enough to slay, I felt as if my movements were getting smoother over time.
Eventually, I came across a massive chamber, several times larger than the one I was born in, great pillars of web reaching up into blackness. Amongst the ceiling there were vast spider webs, and what looked like a dark shape above.
Spider Mother (Beast)
I turned around to escape, but the tunnel I entered through was rapidly, supernaturally covered in webs.
I glanced behind me and saw the vicious creature lower itself down from its web, it was bloated and fat, climbing down on a singular web coming from it. I noticed then, that among the pillars were piles of eggs, now bursting open.
Infant Spider Swarm (Hazard)
There were dozens of them. My only saving grace from the swarms were that they seemed to prefer to surround me, to attempt to block me in rather than to cover me and kill me.
I gazed up at the beast, it was several times my size, it's body standing on long legs, towering over me. I would need to be five times my height to even reach it's belly.
The circle of spiders surrounded me, giving me a small circle to maneuver.
I heard the clicking of jaws, I gazed up and barely dodged out of the way of a large spider easily my size.
Abnormal Brown Recluse (Risky Prey)
I struck it immediately, attempting to strike hard and fast to kill it immediately. A sudden fear surges through my mind as I throw myself to the side, a massive claw piercing where I had stood, the great Beast towering over me was just as much attempting to kill me as the smaller Recluse in front of me. I needed to remain alert or else I'd die fast.
I turned back to the Prey and struck at it with my whip, managing to tear off a limb and knocking it back, it falls into the swarm and is rapidly consumed by it's own kin. I suppress an expression of disgust, as another massive claw shoots down at me.
It attempts to tear it's claws out of the ground, but I realize they're stuck, seeing my chance I bite into them and attempt to damage them, I feel it's chitin crack underneath my teeth, before it retracts. The swarm around me starts to circle in, getting closer and closer, my heart hammered as they approached, the skittering hoard of tiny teeth and claws hungry to devour and consume-
I see another empty patch, emptied by their approach to me, I leap over them and take a Step to reach further. When I land there, the great beast turns to look at me once more, and I hear more skittering from above as I dodge another brown recluse, I immediately strike at it, but then realize my mistake when I hear another skittering sound from above as I feel a piercing agony in my shoulder. I manage to tear the massive spider off and dodge out of the way of a giant claw, causing the beast to penetrate one of her own kin. My blood turns to fire as I try to consume a healing pill, cracking it in my mouth as I leap to the side, barely evading the other spider's leap as it falls into the hoard, rapidly getting consumed.
I gaze up at the beast, barely managing to roll away as another claw comes screeching down, allowing me to tear at it, I strike at it with my whip several times as it remains stuck in the ground finally managing to tear it off. The great beast screeches in an unholy agony as it falls before me, it's face now level with me as I immediately tear at it's face with my whip. After several strikes one of it's six eyes burst, it lets out another screech and forces itself to stand as the spider hoard starts to circle in once more.
I recognize a pattern, and a predatory grin splits my face as I take another leap and Step to another circle in the hoard.
Soon, after many repetitions of this pattern, I stood upon it's overturned form and tore into it's belly, finally killing the beast.
I felt a great surge of might within me, an unexpected success over a beastly foe. And as the hoard of spiders dissipated, escaping after the death of their dear mother, I devoured this beastly prey. Until my jaws clicked on a small green orb.
I felt an odd connection between it and my hat, as if they spoke to each other. Taking off my hat for a moment, I pick up the gem and touch it to my hat, causing it to take on a different appearance, as if it was covered in web, small pieces of web like cloth coming off the back, and even a few small spiders that felt harmless crawling along it.
I took what other resources I could from the Spider Mother, tearing at it's oddly green flesh and placing it into my inner space. I felt a great supply of Sparks and another Ember burning within me, but I would wait to fulfill them. Until I see what else this place has in store for me.
Jumping off of the Spider Mother, I look around and see what appears to be a large pit, broken open my the beast's collapse. Broken ground, beneath I can see running water and an immediate gut wrenching stench coming from below. I almost turned back, but then I have a sudden feeling of intuition, a feeling of creeping doom every step I take away from it.
I turn around and approach the pit, and, without hesitation, I leapt down.
----------------------
After the drink, I laid there, thinking.
I had a shelter. I had a source of food and of water, at least for a bit. I was inside the kiosk without a way to get out of it, granted, but I could simply wait for the workers to come and open it.
Then, what was I missing?
Nothing. I wasn't missing anything.
Well, that was pretty good, I'll say. Now I can resolve this stat problem. Also the perk. I'm thinking of Closets and Corners, but I could need the perk point to remove the [How to Cat]...
But first, Inventory!
Excellent.
I looked at the mountain of water bottles and assorted foodstuff. Then back at the explanation.
Then a malicious grin spreaded on my kitty face.
*A few minutes later…*
Aaaaand done!
I looted enough bottles to last me for a while, together with more food. Lucky me that it wasn't a weight-based system!
Now, with that settled, let's get to the important part of the day: the points and subsequent removing of both title and perk.
Well, let's see what happens.
So, first, four points to INT. The last point… VIT or STR? I could put it into DEX, but for now…. VIT.
Yeah, okay, finalized.
Then I heard a triumphant bell.
Let's hope that nothing bad happens.
……
No explanation?
Right, I need to check it.
All of my body simply stiffened, like I was getting electrified. My fur poofed out, turning me into a ball of black fluff.
I didn't appreciate the insult to my dignity.
Still, forgive, forget and all that rot, right?
Now, on the perks.
Okay, I know what the first three can do. But the other two are new. Well, let's check.
Tempting. Very tempting.
What's the other?
Also very tempting.
Still, I have already decided which one I would take, so…
Ah, sweet sweet teleportation.
Let's check the specific.
Well well well….
I like it. I like it very much.
Oh, right. I have other five pints to spend…
I could put everything in my INT and WIS, but it doesn't looks like it's a good idea. I know that specialization is useful, but now it's not the moment. I'm too squishy and fragile to think like that this soon.
So, let's shore my weakness.
First, two points to INT, to bring it to a rounded 10. One point to VIT, because more HP is good. Then, I'll split the remaining two points to STR and DEX, so that next level I can bring them both up to 5 and 10, respectively.
It was refreshing seeing the number go up like that. It was making me more sure about my survival.
Now, what should I do?
A shining of yellow to the corner of my eye answered me.
It looked like fireflies or a shower of sparks, dancing over a… something… in the corner. Well, looking wouldn't hurt anyone, would it? Plus, they were almost hypnotic, the way they danced around and over the opening…
When did the pavement open? It was circular, looking like an entrance to the sewer, but it was more of a slope than a straight up fall. Maybe I could…
Whoops.
I slided down, my poorly placed paw slipping inside and the treacherous, slippery slide making it impossible to recover my balance in time, making me fall headfirst down the sewer.
I landed with a soft thump of fluff and padded feet, my head spinning a bit. Well, at least the myth about cat landing on their feet was true.
Oh, so this was a dungeon.
It didn't look that bad, except for the smell… and the ominous atmosphere… and the menacing squeaks behind me…
[Sewer Rat. Level 7]
Oh.
Well, then…
It was a rat. It was a rat bigger than me, with black, filth encrusted fur and red eyes, with big teeth and scars and an hungry look and…
I turned tail and ran. Faster than I ever ran in my short (re-)life. The squeak behind me were a sign that the rat was in pursuit.
I ran faster.
Until I stopped running, impacting into something bigger than me and soft. And…. white?
I let out a deep, satisfied sigh, I was bathed in blood from the dozen or so rats I had slain, to the point my fur was practically died red. I had felt my power surge from the slaughter, to the point where it had further increased and more sparks had grown within my heart.
I felt for my inner power, my Steps having drained it greatly, almost to the point it was empty. I found myself a clean patch of ground among the gore, and laid myself down to rest for a moment. I tugged on the sparks of light within myself, directing them before hesitating. Whisker's would help me recover my inner power, but wouldn't having more endurance greatly aid in it? It would increase slowly, but a part of myself knew it would do more than merely expand my pool of inner power.
Tentatively, I pushed a few sparks into this unknown. I almost felt my thoughts click then, I could feel my pool grow, and I realized what it truly was. This was the aspect that governed my ability to interact with the world through my inner power, it was my Will.
I almost laughed to myself, while the aspect of my Will improved my pool, I felt like my Whisker's tingled at it's improvement. I was curious as to how they interacted, and I felt my Ember surge at the feeling.
I felt something odd about these, the first would allow me to get back into combat more, the second would allow me to keep fighting for longer, and the third… Creating pills already ate up enough of my time, and I simply didn't have the resources to properly make potions, so that was out. For the final one I almost dismissed it, but then I hesitated. I recalled the effectiveness of pill creation, how even though it took time and effort to perform I managed to create something that saved my life multiple times.
So without an ounce of hesitation, I grasped Witchcrafting with my Ember, and ignited it.
I was struck my inspiration, as I looked down upon myself. My claws gleamed for a moment, as I pushed my remaining sparks into my Heart and returned to my home after gathering nearby materials.
------------------
Ok, so, the roof. It was concrete, obviously. And, seeing as it had been raining for the past hours (or whatever long it was, I wouldn't know) and it was pretty slick with rainwater and...whatever they used to cover the roof of buildings to make it waterproof.
Yet, I wasn't slipping. Thanks to my being a cat, I was able to keep my balance and tiptoe towards the skylight on the other side of the building, on the opposite side of the door. Maybe the storage room or something like that?
Still, it was closed. Not bolted shut, but the latch was there and latched shut.
Now, how do I enter? The quest was clear, I had to enter, find food and water and shelter. And there had to be a way to complete the quest, unless ti wouldn't appear… I think.
So, let's see… if I can unlatch it someway?
No, it's on the other side of the window. If I had the Closets and Corners perk i could bypass the problem entirely, but… mhhhh, it's useless to cry on the spilt milk.
This said, let's see… I need a way to: a) open the window; or, b) bypass the window entirely.
I could break the glass, but how? It looks pretty sturdy, at least judging by the border… reinforced glass or however it's called, so not an option. The frame, on the other hand, it's not that, but it still looks pretty solid...
Mhhh… there is no lock to pick. And I don't have a way to pick lock, too, so it's a moot point.
It remains the magic option.
Now, let's see… hiding would be useless right now, so it remains Curse Magic.
Only problem is, my current spell is only [Bad Days Ahead] and, if I remember correctly, it only targets creatures. Well, let's check.
Well, it says target, not creature, but have serious doubts that it works on the window. What kind of stats have a window?
All the same, it's not like I have any other idea, do I?
"[Bad Days Ahead!]" 115/95
The purple aura of magic coruscated around me, before discharging towards the window and doing… something. Not sure what, but something.
"So I need to..what? Try to jump on it until it opens?"
…..
I feel so Sylvester in this moment…
I pawed at the window, trying to see if there were another way to open it before resorting to the big guns, without any effect, before walking on it, slowly testing the field. It looked like it was pretty solid, even when my full weight was on it.
Not that it was that much of a weight true…
Mhhh…
I jumped, slightly.
Nothing.
Again, I jumped. Then jumped. And jumped, again and again and again…
Until, three minutes later, I was out of breath and the window didn't budge of an inch. I was tired, drenched in water and I'd slipped twice on the slick glass.
I glared at the window.
DEX reduced.
Whut?
Analyze.
Wait. There were a shimmer in the corner of my eye, near the latch. I peeked, getting as near as I could, trying to see what was that shimmering around it.
Then it clicked.
It was what my spell had influenced.
Apparently, reducing the Dexterity of a window meant that the latch got stuck.
I could hear the crickets over the rain, making me feel stupid.
Well, whatever. Let's try again.
"[Bad Days Ahead!]" 115/95
The aura of purple manifested, my eyes shined and then the whole window shimmered purple.
"Now, let's see if I can manage to Analyze the thing again."
I focused, studying the whole window, before the result flashed in front of my eyes.
STR reduced.
Good.
Now, let's try again to open the window.
I gingerly walked on it, before starting to jump again.
After two jumps, it started to groan. Then it moved a bit.
With renewed vigor and with a kitty grin on my face, I kept on my jumping, wanting to enter in this damned…
Wait a sec.
I was jumping on the window to enter the kiosk. The window on the roof. And I didn't have any way to control the fall afterward.
Whoops.
The window shuddered, then groaned. Then it opened under me, sending me tumbling down.
*******************
The process was long, painful, and difficult. I had eaten almost a dozen healing pills over the process and imbued all of my mana several times, but I had done it. I chomped down on a last pill, regrowing lost skin slowly. The creation was almost like a triangle, round like a cone and coming to a soft tip. The brim was wide, and the leather was soft. Now that it lied before me, finally complete my fae mood slowly dissipated, and I winced in pain from what I'd done.
I grinned in bitter satisfaction, I knew this had to be made, but I could barely control myself when I began it's creation.
Wearing it upon my brow, I felt a sense of completion.
And then it sank over my eyes as it was built for a full grown cat, not a kitten.
I grumbled to myself as I yanked it back up, eventually finding a position where it fit but didn't drop over my eyes before heading back into the dungeon.
------------------------
The number was floating in front of my eyes, the whole thing pretty much self explanatory.
I was two point of distance from my death.
I laid on a pallet of something, not sure if they were plastic water bottles or sodas or something else, the only thing I knew it was the fact that they were hard and, while not pointy, they ended with some sort of cap.
I laid broken over the plastic cover, my legs broken, one of my front leg backwards, while the other was straight in front of my face. I could literally lick it, if I tried.
Meanwhile, my blood was oozing out of my tiny body, bringing my life out of it.
Well, that's it.
I tried. I failed.
I should've tried another way.
I wa feeling pretty woozy. Must be the bloodloss.
Speaking of blood...
There is a spot of blood on my paw.
I don't like having my hand dirty and, now that I'm a cat, I hate it even more. Well, I can reach it, so…
I started, slowly, licking the blood on my fur, before smoothing it out as best as I could, cleaning between the claws and removing as much as the dirt as I could.
It was hard, though. If only I could move the legs a bit…
Ohh, that feels good.
My tail flicked a bit. Wasn't it broken?
I could move again? But my legs were…
Wait. I was grooming myself.
I was Grooming myself.
With renewed enthusiasm, I poured as much energy as I could into the skill, feeling the mana move through my body and getting out of my tongue, to seep back into my body.
It was pretty strange.
Oh, good. But…
I watched my right foreleg. Or better, I inclined my head towards that direction.
It was still turned backwards, but my tail was splitted into pieces, so… Maybe it would return to its own place if I healed enough? But I didn't know that and there was the possibility of it to remain in the way it was right now if I healed while it was in that position, so…
This was going to hurt a lot. A lots lot.
I braced my left paw on the plastic cover under me, turned my legs until they were in a more appropriate position and then I took a deep breath, before gritting my teeth and jerking upwards.
AAAAAHHHHH-
Hurts. A lot.
It was white pain, so hot that I remained under it for a minute or more. My right frontleg dangled uselessly, matted with blood. It was completely shattered, I must've landed on it first.
Thank Bastet that I didn't land on my head.
Now, let's hope that I can heal it right. First of all, checking how much health I have still.
Oh. Well then, better start to work.
I slowly started licking my damage paw, hesitantly and with careful, tiny licks, the barest contact needed for it to work. Then it started to work, my mana slowly sapping away and my health starting to replenish.
And full. I was again at full health and, thanks to Bastet, my right paw was working again, as well as before the fall. Yuppie!
Now, I have a quest to complete.
From where I start?
Well, first of all I needed food and water, so I should go and search the front of the kiosk, see if there were easily accessible food and water.
I gingerly walked towards the door of the storage room (and yes, it was a storage room), finding it open by some miracle of luck.
I thanked Bastet once again, before ramming against it with all my strength, however low it was. It seemed that it was well maintained enough to open without much problems. Good.
The front area wasn't nothing particularly special: a square room, a couple of small round tables, the counter, two refrigerator with the glass door, one for sodas and water, the other for alcoholic. Mostly beer.
On the side there was a metal rack, filled with bags of chips, various kind of them. Food found.
I walked to it, grabbing one of the bags with my teeth and pulled with all my strength, dislodging one of them and landing on my tail, which wasn't pleasurable. At all.
Still, with my prize well in my… mouth… I dragged it back towards the storage room. The reason why I didn't try to take a water bottle wa easy: the refrigerator doors were almost assuredly vacuum sealed, needing more strength and a better grip that I could exercitate on them right now. On the other hand, where I landed, there were a lot of bottles ready for the taking, the only thing that blocked them from me was the flimsy plastic cover.
I was so near to concluding the Quest that I could basically taste it.
Victory tasted sweet.
Well, not really. Victory mostly tasted like spicy hot chips, but it doesn't really roll of the tongue like the other saying, so…
Now that I ate something, I was feeling pretty full. Still, the spicy food made me awfully thirsty. And look! Water bottles!
Now, how to open them without hands?
Firstly, let's ignore the blood that still cover the plastic. Second, slice the plastic with my claws. After that, jump on top of them, balance yourself on the outermost water bottle and push with your strength.
Repeat as needed, until one bottle is dislodged and its motion make all the bottles in that corner fall, bringing you down with it.
Ouch.
Third, wait for the room to stop spinning.
After that, it only need to claw open a part and…
Okay, unexpected problem: the plastic of the bottles is harder that the packaging, so I cannot claw it open so easily. Mmhhhh…
"[Bad Days Ahead!]" 115/30
The purple aura envelope it, before disappearing. I tried to analyze it, trying to see if there where any changes…
There. The plastic looks old. Worn away.
I checked again and, yes, its VIT is reduced. Now, where to cut….
There, in the larger part over the narrower one. Carefully, with one claws, I start to slowly grind away at the plastic, hitting the same spot over and over again, until water start to trickle out.
Perfect.
And this water taste like victory, too.
*******************
Returning to the second floor didn't take long, I felt as if most of the mice avoided me, and the rats were simple enough to slay, I felt as if my movements were getting smoother over time.
Eventually, I came across a massive chamber, several times larger than the one I was born in, great pillars of web reaching up into blackness. Amongst the ceiling there were vast spider webs, and what looked like a dark shape above.
Spider Mother (Beast)
I turned around to escape, but the tunnel I entered through was rapidly, supernaturally covered in webs.
I glanced behind me and saw the vicious creature lower itself down from its web, it was bloated and fat, climbing down on a singular web coming from it. I noticed then, that among the pillars were piles of eggs, now bursting open.
Infant Spider Swarm (Hazard)
There were dozens of them. My only saving grace from the swarms were that they seemed to prefer to surround me, to attempt to block me in rather than to cover me and kill me.
I gazed up at the beast, it was several times my size, it's body standing on long legs, towering over me. I would need to be five times my height to even reach it's belly.
The circle of spiders surrounded me, giving me a small circle to maneuver.
I heard the clicking of jaws, I gazed up and barely dodged out of the way of a large spider easily my size.
Abnormal Brown Recluse (Risky Prey)
I struck it immediately, attempting to strike hard and fast to kill it immediately. A sudden fear surges through my mind as I throw myself to the side, a massive claw piercing where I had stood, the great Beast towering over me was just as much attempting to kill me as the smaller Recluse in front of me. I needed to remain alert or else I'd die fast.
I turned back to the Prey and struck at it with my whip, managing to tear off a limb and knocking it back, it falls into the swarm and is rapidly consumed by it's own kin. I suppress an expression of disgust, as another massive claw shoots down at me.
It attempts to tear it's claws out of the ground, but I realize they're stuck, seeing my chance I bite into them and attempt to damage them, I feel it's chitin crack underneath my teeth, before it retracts. The swarm around me starts to circle in, getting closer and closer, my heart hammered as they approached, the skittering hoard of tiny teeth and claws hungry to devour and consume-
I see another empty patch, emptied by their approach to me, I leap over them and take a Step to reach further. When I land there, the great beast turns to look at me once more, and I hear more skittering from above as I dodge another brown recluse, I immediately strike at it, but then realize my mistake when I hear another skittering sound from above as I feel a piercing agony in my shoulder. I manage to tear the massive spider off and dodge out of the way of a giant claw, causing the beast to penetrate one of her own kin. My blood turns to fire as I try to consume a healing pill, cracking it in my mouth as I leap to the side, barely evading the other spider's leap as it falls into the hoard, rapidly getting consumed.
I gaze up at the beast, barely managing to roll away as another claw comes screeching down, allowing me to tear at it, I strike at it with my whip several times as it remains stuck in the ground finally managing to tear it off. The great beast screeches in an unholy agony as it falls before me, it's face now level with me as I immediately tear at it's face with my whip. After several strikes one of it's six eyes burst, it lets out another screech and forces itself to stand as the spider hoard starts to circle in once more.
I recognize a pattern, and a predatory grin splits my face as I take another leap and Step to another circle in the hoard.
Soon, after many repetitions of this pattern, I stood upon it's overturned form and tore into it's belly, finally killing the beast.
I felt a great surge of might within me, an unexpected success over a beastly foe. And as the hoard of spiders dissipated, escaping after the death of their dear mother, I devoured this beastly prey. Until my jaws clicked on a small green orb.
I felt an odd connection between it and my hat, as if they spoke to each other. Taking off my hat for a moment, I pick up the gem and touch it to my hat, causing it to take on a different appearance, as if it was covered in web, small pieces of web like cloth coming off the back, and even a few small spiders that felt harmless crawling along it.
I took what other resources I could from the Spider Mother, tearing at it's oddly green flesh and placing it into my inner space. I felt a great supply of Sparks and another Ember burning within me, but I would wait to fulfill them. Until I see what else this place has in store for me.
Jumping off of the Spider Mother, I look around and see what appears to be a large pit, broken open my the beast's collapse. Broken ground, beneath I can see running water and an immediate gut wrenching stench coming from below. I almost turned back, but then I have a sudden feeling of intuition, a feeling of creeping doom every step I take away from it.
I turn around and approach the pit, and, without hesitation, I leapt down.
----------------------
After the drink, I laid there, thinking.
I had a shelter. I had a source of food and of water, at least for a bit. I was inside the kiosk without a way to get out of it, granted, but I could simply wait for the workers to come and open it.
Then, what was I missing?
Nothing. I wasn't missing anything.
Well, that was pretty good, I'll say. Now I can resolve this stat problem. Also the perk. I'm thinking of Closets and Corners, but I could need the perk point to remove the [How to Cat]...
But first, Inventory!
Excellent.
I looked at the mountain of water bottles and assorted foodstuff. Then back at the explanation.
Then a malicious grin spreaded on my kitty face.
*A few minutes later…*
Aaaaand done!
I looted enough bottles to last me for a while, together with more food. Lucky me that it wasn't a weight-based system!
Now, with that settled, let's get to the important part of the day: the points and subsequent removing of both title and perk.
Well, let's see what happens.
So, first, four points to INT. The last point… VIT or STR? I could put it into DEX, but for now…. VIT.
Yeah, okay, finalized.
Then I heard a triumphant bell.
Let's hope that nothing bad happens.
……
No explanation?
Right, I need to check it.
All of my body simply stiffened, like I was getting electrified. My fur poofed out, turning me into a ball of black fluff.
I didn't appreciate the insult to my dignity.
Still, forgive, forget and all that rot, right?
Now, on the perks.
Okay, I know what the first three can do. But the other two are new. Well, let's check.
Tempting. Very tempting.
What's the other?
Also very tempting.
Still, I have already decided which one I would take, so…
Ah, sweet sweet teleportation.
Let's check the specific.
Well well well….
I like it. I like it very much.
Oh, right. I have other five pints to spend…
I could put everything in my INT and WIS, but it doesn't looks like it's a good idea. I know that specialization is useful, but now it's not the moment. I'm too squishy and fragile to think like that this soon.
So, let's shore my weakness.
First, two points to INT, to bring it to a rounded 10. One point to VIT, because more HP is good. Then, I'll split the remaining two points to STR and DEX, so that next level I can bring them both up to 5 and 10, respectively.
It was refreshing seeing the number go up like that. It was making me more sure about my survival.
Now, what should I do?
A shining of yellow to the corner of my eye answered me.
It looked like fireflies or a shower of sparks, dancing over a… something… in the corner. Well, looking wouldn't hurt anyone, would it? Plus, they were almost hypnotic, the way they danced around and over the opening…
When did the pavement open? It was circular, looking like an entrance to the sewer, but it was more of a slope than a straight up fall. Maybe I could…
Whoops.
I slided down, my poorly placed paw slipping inside and the treacherous, slippery slide making it impossible to recover my balance in time, making me fall headfirst down the sewer.
I landed with a soft thump of fluff and padded feet, my head spinning a bit. Well, at least the myth about cat landing on their feet was true.
Oh, so this was a dungeon.
It didn't look that bad, except for the smell… and the ominous atmosphere… and the menacing squeaks behind me…
[Sewer Rat. Level 7]
Oh.
Well, then…
It was a rat. It was a rat bigger than me, with black, filth encrusted fur and red eyes, with big teeth and scars and an hungry look and…
I turned tail and ran. Faster than I ever ran in my short (re-)life. The squeak behind me were a sign that the rat was in pursuit.
I ran faster.
Until I stopped running, impacting into something bigger than me and soft. And…. white?
Truck-Sama
An adventure awaits...
- Location
- USA
interesting seeing a character start as an animal. Also maybe change the red text to a lighter color, it is a little hard to read against the grayish background of the sight
1.5
- Location
- Italy
1.5
I didn't have the time to take in the whole situation before the squeaking of the sewer rat echoed in the tunnels and prompted me to start running again.
The white cat, which I wasn't sure what was doing here, followed me.
I only managed to steal a quick look during my escape.
And promptly tripped in my own paws. Because what Analyze revealed was…
[Albino Alchemist, The Gamer, Level ?]
This, of course, was kind of opposite of my objective to escape the sewer rat. Which was almost oN ME!
-------------------------------------------------------
Unlike the last time I encountered a great beast, I recognized the large arena for what it was. An inescapable death trap home to a vicious monster, I was uncertain of what would be within as I had not entered it. I was sure that the only way out would be my death, or it's death. So I had prepared, returned to my home, prepared a wide array of pills and begun working on a fetish for elemental binding.
I was gathering sewer moss when I heard running, a small hoard of Sewer rats ran past in a nearby tunnel following after a small black cat. I paused for a moment, eyes furrowing as it ran past. With a few rapid Steps I chased the rats, and then with a swift turn I Step in front of the small kitten, tensing slightly as it impacted my chest. It immediately attempted to run past me, my mouth surged downwards and grabbed it's smaller frame by the back of the neck and Stepped far behind the small hoard of rats, dragging the smaller kit with me. With a swift tug and pull I swing the kit onto my back, and immediately darted away from the formidable rodents.
******************************************************
Then, the rat wasn't on me anymore.
With the pretty distinctive sensation of space magic curling around me and moving from point A to point B without actually stepping in the space between it, I wasn't pursued by the rat anymore.
I glanced behind me and the other cat and gulped.
Correction: from the swarm of rats.
On the other hand, the albino Alchemist - aka the other Gamer, and I didn't even knew that there were more than one. And, what's more, why was their Title in red? - had me dangling from his? her? their mouth, before tossing me on their back and bolting away way faster than I could.
On the other hand, this gave me the time to count the rats that were now turning around in confusion, unsure on where their prey went.
At least until the last straggler of the swarm turned towards me - us - and, with a screech of fury, they started running behind us.
In my state of being, the only thing that I could do was to trust the other cat gamer - hoping their intention wasn't to sacrifice me to some horror beyond the stars - and start spamming Bad Days Ahead to the rats, hoping to at least inconvenience some of them
---------------------------------------------------
An instinctive glance behind me at the following rodents, I noticed that, fortunately, only one had begun pursuit.
They weren't truly dangerous due to their power, if anything one on one I could easily handle them due to their slow speed.
The real difficulty was that they almost always swarmed on mass.
Other rodents had begun following me, but this one seemed to be slightly different from the others, faster and smarter. Not nearly as fast or as intelligent as myself, but I doubted I could lose it easily without further Steps.
Reaching into my inner space with a thought, my whip appears, the handle wrapped around my tail and the bulk of its length rapidly appearing in a shower of twinkling light, with a flick I snap it's tip across the rat's face, hard enough to likely kill it due to it's vulnerable position.
The rodents were cowardly by nature as soon as they encountered a dangerous opponent, so regardless, it would be discouraged greatly. I pull the whip back into my inner space and refocus on finding an exit, I could escape the rest of the rodents.
*****************************************
A whip. Wielded with their tail. Sure, why not.
It's not like it was stranger than the rest of the thing that happened..wow, it was only twenty-four hours ago? When they say that your life can change in the span of a single day, they weren't kidding.
Still, the hit was a One Hit KO, judging by the way that rat simply fell down with his skull split open. I really hope that at least avbit of XP went to me. But I wasn't holding my breath.
On more pressing matters, it looked like the rest of the swarm was starting to slow down, evidently unsure if keeping hunting us or not.
That gave mean idea.
The Gamer under me managed to use [Cutting Corners] on me, too, so it stand to reason that, at least as long as we are in contact, I could extend one of my spells to them.
I called up my mana and shaped the spell "[Mimeticat]"
------------------------------------------------------------------
I glanced up as the kitten riding my back mewed something with a bit of weight to it out, and then started to look a vaguely blurry brownish white that seemed to be shifting constantly with the rapidly changing background of the Sewer wall and blending in slightly with my fur.
I wasn't certain what it was trying to do.
Perhaps it thought it could spread it's spell to me as I did to it?
Strange, I had not thought I'd encounter kin that would be as capable as myself in that way.
Glancing upwards I saw a sewer grate, and with a leap and a step I teleport to the other side of it before quickly dashing into a nearby alley to get out of the rain.
*************************************************
It didn't work.
Either I needed a different spell or this needed to be of a higher level. Also, note to myself: learn some damn damage magic!
Ok, ok. The rat didn't take my sort-of-disappearance very well and stopped following us.
Well, them. Must've been the whip.
This said, the jump and the teleport they made made me almost lose my grip, only managing by miracle to remain on their back.
My mimetic spell failed outright, I was too out of it thanks to the fast changes to keep it active.
At least I managed to read the notice that signaled that we were out of the dungeon before we stopped in an alley, the grey overcast sky over us only letting the barest hint of light.
It's either evening or near it.
------------------------------------------------------------
I feel tense for a moment, glancing around for any immediate danger, when I don't notice any and I still feel the kitten's weight on my back.
There was a knocked over empty trash can, aluminum.
I stepped inside for a moment of brief safety as I reach back and put down the kitten, and immediately instinctively groom it.
It's roughly the same age as myself, although it's half my height, likely because it had less Heart or Claw when it was maturing.
I check it over for injuries, and sort through my inner space mentally to find some nutrition or healing pills when I feel a mental bump while sorting through it.
As if my inner space touched another, while I groom it, I experimentally push a single nutrition pill into the other space I can't properly see, I feel a brief moment of resistance as if it stuck partially through it.
Almost like pressing food to lips, you can't force it down, you can only hold it up to see if they'll bite.
*********************************************************
The inside of an empty trashcan weren't exactly glamorous, but, hey, I'll take it over the rain.
This said, the grooming wasn't... well, it's not like it was unwelcome or nothing, it was just a bit... strange.
On the other hand, I just got out of a sewer, so... yeah. It saves me the chore do it myself.
The stranger thing, however, was when something hit my something - specifically my inventory - and a notice popped up,asking me if I wanted to accept the object.
I hit yes and a pill named 'Nutrition Pill' had appeared near the food I stored in there.
I glanced at the Albino cat that was still grooming me, before turning my attention towards the pill and trying to use the Analyze skill. Apparently it was a collection of nutrients with a mild HP and MP regenerative effect. Nice.
I got it out of the inventory and bit it down, eating it in two quick bites.
--------------------------------------------------------
I glanced at the kitten as it ate the pill I had pushed into the other space, perhaps it truly was kin, in a way that my other siblings weren't.
It could weave the Inner Power I could, it had an Inner Space as my own, it's scent is different but it's soul is so much like my own.
My ear twitches in thought, and I realize I wasn't wearing my hat. I must have pulled it inside myself when I had been running for the kitten.
I kind of stare at my kin for a few moments, feeling for it's aura like I do many others.
Feline Soul Refiner [Vulnerable Ally]
A different feeling, not prey, but kin. A softer soul of a different hue, but alike myself.
The name felt familiar, as if it was something within myself, perhaps a reflection.
I glanced outside of the can, I should get back to my home. It wasn't far from here, and the Titans weren't everywhere.
Each of them had the same feeling as the Spider Mother, but they were rarely hostile and I didn't wish to provoke them. My hat drew their attention when I last encountered one.
I started to walk out before, once I step outside I pause and glance back.
I trusted them to keep themselves safe better than my birth kin, but I should still keep an eye on them.
****************************************************
Wait, why are they go away? They are literally the only other similar existence to me that I saw - not counting for the fact that I was here, wherever here was, for less than a day - and they saved my life.
I couldn't let them go without at least a thank you or something.
It was too big of a debt "Wait!"
-------------------------------------------------------------
It's mewl sounded panicked but with more weight behind it than my birth kin, I furrowed my eyes in thought, perhaps they had though I was abandoning them?
I turn my torso more towards them, so that I'm halfway facing them to focus on them.
***************************************************
They didn't look like they understood me.
I didn't know how to communicate with them in any other way and I was pretty sure that I couldn't communicate the way the other cats did.
So I did something that probably wouldn't work, but I couldn't think of anything else.
Mana surged, I impressed on it the feeling of communication and talked again.
"Wait, please!"
----------------------------------------------------------
I felt a sudden feeling of weight on my inner power for a moment, but a different part.
Closer to my Inner Space but not all the way, a different section of my self that sparked to life from the interaction.
A spark, and then a mental window appeared inside my mind, similar to but different from when I wished to Ignite my Embers.
I pause for a few moments, realizing that I could impress feelings and thoughts into it.
The kitten was... Asking me to wait? What did it want me to wait for? I could feel my mind form an impression on the mental image.
*************************************************************
Red again. Why? But what shocked me more was...
A chat window. Obviously.
What else could it be? Of course it would be a chat window.
Still better than nothing. Even if the string of question marks didn't fill me with confidence, it was something that I could understand and answer to.
So I did.
I was hoping. I could only do that
-----------------------------------------------------------------
I mostly felt the emotional impressions from the words appearing in my mind, I simply had a hole in my knowledge as to the specifics. But I picked out some definite, uncertainty, gratitude, and finally curiosity as to similarity.
I lacked the words to respond as they did, but I tried my best with a series of impressions.
I was uncertain if they felt it the same way. He? The emotions in it's words felt masculine, despite having never felt the feeling before.
******************************************************
I... wasn't sure on how to answer this. Emoji.
The other Gamer was... wait. Let's analyze things a bit better.
I focused a bit and... yeah, they looked like a cat.
Not a human turned cat. Just a cat.
And I mean more than the simple physical aspect. I mean the whole behaviour and, well, the lack of written communication.
This meant that they were either a cat with Gamer power or the Human inside had adapted to a cat life better than me.
Or, maybe, that they got reincarnated with less memories? I couldn't say.
Still, I had to answer something.
-----------------------------------------------------------
I felt an impression of familiarity and certainty from them, then a sense of curiosity to... Something I couldn't identify.
I tilted my head as I sat down, trying to understand what they mean.
Perhaps if I... I closed my eyes for a moment, to focus on my inner power.
Perhaps I could push an impression of myself, the energy that I feel onto it, I could share certain aspects?
I recalled their title, Feline Soul Refiner.
Perhaps there was something similar within myself?
I felt within myself, looked among my embers, at my sparks, my aspects. I knew it was familiar, but I couldn't find it amongst them.
Then I tried looking at it all at once, and I was suddenly struck by inspiration.
I pushed that feeling into the film of the shared window we spoke through.
**************************************************
Soul Refiner? What does it means?
I mean, the soul part is... no, no, wait. I need to think for a second.
Ok, Soul Refiner. What does it means? Well, the first part is pretty obvious, it involve the soul of someone.
The second part is less obvious, but still pretty intuitive. TO refine is to make something of a lesser quality to a better quality. So, making a lesser soul to a better soul? Or...
Wait.
Wow, do I feel stupid now.
They means that they are Gamers like me. That is what Soul Refiner means.
Well, at least we reached something. I hastily sent something back
I kind of saw them stop for a second in confusion, before they turned again. Then, another message appeared in the chat window.
I was a bit stumped. What did it...
Oh! Follow me.
Yeah, sure. I mean, it's not like I had something better to do. Or somewhere else to be.
Well, maybe in an empty field trying to create some attack magic, but that's for later.
I walked just behind them and sent something else back, because I was tired of wondering if they were male or female.
She stopped for a moment, before making a strange noise that I couldn't interpret, due to the difference between the human body and a cat body. It was something similar to a chuff and a sneeze…
It was a chuckle. I pouted.
Female, then. Ok.
Well, beyond that, I wondered where we were going.
The alley simply opened in other alleys and, soon, I was completely lost.
Well, no, I would be able to retrace my steps and return back towards the main road, but I really wanted to know where we were going.
So, instead of doing the whole subterfuge thing, I asked.
She stopped, clearly confused, before she seemed to focus on something and her answer appeared in my chat window. Good. At least I will know where we are...
...aaaaand she answered with an image.
Wich, okay, it makes sense for it to be possible, but it didn't actually help.
The image was of the building, without any kind of street sign or landmark around. I just had to trust her and follow.
Still, another thing that I wanted to know was...
She seemed to glance up at the nearby buildings, as if judging the distance between them before sending back a symbol.
A... square? What did it means? Like a plaza?A cross? A street? I sent back a single question mark
She chuffed in annoyance, and didn't respond afterwards. Passively examining the surroundings.
I simply looked around. Her not answering made me a bit unsure if trying to continue the conversation was a good idea. So, I decided to keep my mouth shut and follow her.
Hoping the whole sacrificing to eldritch beings beyond the stars was really out of the table.
She took me around buildings, walking almost always in several alleys, always avoiding humans and other, bigger, forms of life.
Which it was pretty okay with me, at least for now, but I was starting to get a bit tired. Especially when our destination resulted being an old warehouse a block away from our starting point.
Wait, a block?
Oh, fudge.
I didn't have the time to take in the whole situation before the squeaking of the sewer rat echoed in the tunnels and prompted me to start running again.
The white cat, which I wasn't sure what was doing here, followed me.
I only managed to steal a quick look during my escape.
And promptly tripped in my own paws. Because what Analyze revealed was…
[Albino Alchemist, The Gamer, Level ?]
This, of course, was kind of opposite of my objective to escape the sewer rat. Which was almost oN ME!
-------------------------------------------------------
Unlike the last time I encountered a great beast, I recognized the large arena for what it was. An inescapable death trap home to a vicious monster, I was uncertain of what would be within as I had not entered it. I was sure that the only way out would be my death, or it's death. So I had prepared, returned to my home, prepared a wide array of pills and begun working on a fetish for elemental binding.
I was gathering sewer moss when I heard running, a small hoard of Sewer rats ran past in a nearby tunnel following after a small black cat. I paused for a moment, eyes furrowing as it ran past. With a few rapid Steps I chased the rats, and then with a swift turn I Step in front of the small kitten, tensing slightly as it impacted my chest. It immediately attempted to run past me, my mouth surged downwards and grabbed it's smaller frame by the back of the neck and Stepped far behind the small hoard of rats, dragging the smaller kit with me. With a swift tug and pull I swing the kit onto my back, and immediately darted away from the formidable rodents.
******************************************************
Then, the rat wasn't on me anymore.
With the pretty distinctive sensation of space magic curling around me and moving from point A to point B without actually stepping in the space between it, I wasn't pursued by the rat anymore.
I glanced behind me and the other cat and gulped.
Correction: from the swarm of rats.
On the other hand, the albino Alchemist - aka the other Gamer, and I didn't even knew that there were more than one. And, what's more, why was their Title in red? - had me dangling from his? her? their mouth, before tossing me on their back and bolting away way faster than I could.
On the other hand, this gave me the time to count the rats that were now turning around in confusion, unsure on where their prey went.
At least until the last straggler of the swarm turned towards me - us - and, with a screech of fury, they started running behind us.
In my state of being, the only thing that I could do was to trust the other cat gamer - hoping their intention wasn't to sacrifice me to some horror beyond the stars - and start spamming Bad Days Ahead to the rats, hoping to at least inconvenience some of them
---------------------------------------------------
An instinctive glance behind me at the following rodents, I noticed that, fortunately, only one had begun pursuit.
They weren't truly dangerous due to their power, if anything one on one I could easily handle them due to their slow speed.
The real difficulty was that they almost always swarmed on mass.
Other rodents had begun following me, but this one seemed to be slightly different from the others, faster and smarter. Not nearly as fast or as intelligent as myself, but I doubted I could lose it easily without further Steps.
Reaching into my inner space with a thought, my whip appears, the handle wrapped around my tail and the bulk of its length rapidly appearing in a shower of twinkling light, with a flick I snap it's tip across the rat's face, hard enough to likely kill it due to it's vulnerable position.
The rodents were cowardly by nature as soon as they encountered a dangerous opponent, so regardless, it would be discouraged greatly. I pull the whip back into my inner space and refocus on finding an exit, I could escape the rest of the rodents.
*****************************************
A whip. Wielded with their tail. Sure, why not.
It's not like it was stranger than the rest of the thing that happened..wow, it was only twenty-four hours ago? When they say that your life can change in the span of a single day, they weren't kidding.
Still, the hit was a One Hit KO, judging by the way that rat simply fell down with his skull split open. I really hope that at least avbit of XP went to me. But I wasn't holding my breath.
On more pressing matters, it looked like the rest of the swarm was starting to slow down, evidently unsure if keeping hunting us or not.
That gave mean idea.
The Gamer under me managed to use [Cutting Corners] on me, too, so it stand to reason that, at least as long as we are in contact, I could extend one of my spells to them.
I called up my mana and shaped the spell "[Mimeticat]"
------------------------------------------------------------------
I glanced up as the kitten riding my back mewed something with a bit of weight to it out, and then started to look a vaguely blurry brownish white that seemed to be shifting constantly with the rapidly changing background of the Sewer wall and blending in slightly with my fur.
I wasn't certain what it was trying to do.
Perhaps it thought it could spread it's spell to me as I did to it?
Strange, I had not thought I'd encounter kin that would be as capable as myself in that way.
Glancing upwards I saw a sewer grate, and with a leap and a step I teleport to the other side of it before quickly dashing into a nearby alley to get out of the rain.
*************************************************
It didn't work.
Either I needed a different spell or this needed to be of a higher level. Also, note to myself: learn some damn damage magic!
Ok, ok. The rat didn't take my sort-of-disappearance very well and stopped following us.
Well, them. Must've been the whip.
This said, the jump and the teleport they made made me almost lose my grip, only managing by miracle to remain on their back.
My mimetic spell failed outright, I was too out of it thanks to the fast changes to keep it active.
At least I managed to read the notice that signaled that we were out of the dungeon before we stopped in an alley, the grey overcast sky over us only letting the barest hint of light.
It's either evening or near it.
------------------------------------------------------------
I feel tense for a moment, glancing around for any immediate danger, when I don't notice any and I still feel the kitten's weight on my back.
There was a knocked over empty trash can, aluminum.
I stepped inside for a moment of brief safety as I reach back and put down the kitten, and immediately instinctively groom it.
It's roughly the same age as myself, although it's half my height, likely because it had less Heart or Claw when it was maturing.
I check it over for injuries, and sort through my inner space mentally to find some nutrition or healing pills when I feel a mental bump while sorting through it.
As if my inner space touched another, while I groom it, I experimentally push a single nutrition pill into the other space I can't properly see, I feel a brief moment of resistance as if it stuck partially through it.
Almost like pressing food to lips, you can't force it down, you can only hold it up to see if they'll bite.
*********************************************************
The inside of an empty trashcan weren't exactly glamorous, but, hey, I'll take it over the rain.
This said, the grooming wasn't... well, it's not like it was unwelcome or nothing, it was just a bit... strange.
On the other hand, I just got out of a sewer, so... yeah. It saves me the chore do it myself.
The stranger thing, however, was when something hit my something - specifically my inventory - and a notice popped up,asking me if I wanted to accept the object.
I hit yes and a pill named 'Nutrition Pill' had appeared near the food I stored in there.
I glanced at the Albino cat that was still grooming me, before turning my attention towards the pill and trying to use the Analyze skill. Apparently it was a collection of nutrients with a mild HP and MP regenerative effect. Nice.
I got it out of the inventory and bit it down, eating it in two quick bites.
--------------------------------------------------------
I glanced at the kitten as it ate the pill I had pushed into the other space, perhaps it truly was kin, in a way that my other siblings weren't.
It could weave the Inner Power I could, it had an Inner Space as my own, it's scent is different but it's soul is so much like my own.
My ear twitches in thought, and I realize I wasn't wearing my hat. I must have pulled it inside myself when I had been running for the kitten.
I kind of stare at my kin for a few moments, feeling for it's aura like I do many others.
Feline Soul Refiner [Vulnerable Ally]
A different feeling, not prey, but kin. A softer soul of a different hue, but alike myself.
The name felt familiar, as if it was something within myself, perhaps a reflection.
I glanced outside of the can, I should get back to my home. It wasn't far from here, and the Titans weren't everywhere.
Each of them had the same feeling as the Spider Mother, but they were rarely hostile and I didn't wish to provoke them. My hat drew their attention when I last encountered one.
I started to walk out before, once I step outside I pause and glance back.
I trusted them to keep themselves safe better than my birth kin, but I should still keep an eye on them.
****************************************************
Wait, why are they go away? They are literally the only other similar existence to me that I saw - not counting for the fact that I was here, wherever here was, for less than a day - and they saved my life.
I couldn't let them go without at least a thank you or something.
It was too big of a debt "Wait!"
-------------------------------------------------------------
It's mewl sounded panicked but with more weight behind it than my birth kin, I furrowed my eyes in thought, perhaps they had though I was abandoning them?
I turn my torso more towards them, so that I'm halfway facing them to focus on them.
***************************************************
They didn't look like they understood me.
I didn't know how to communicate with them in any other way and I was pretty sure that I couldn't communicate the way the other cats did.
So I did something that probably wouldn't work, but I couldn't think of anything else.
Mana surged, I impressed on it the feeling of communication and talked again.
"Wait, please!"
----------------------------------------------------------
I felt a sudden feeling of weight on my inner power for a moment, but a different part.
Closer to my Inner Space but not all the way, a different section of my self that sparked to life from the interaction.
A spark, and then a mental window appeared inside my mind, similar to but different from when I wished to Ignite my Embers.
I pause for a few moments, realizing that I could impress feelings and thoughts into it.
The kitten was... Asking me to wait? What did it want me to wait for? I could feel my mind form an impression on the mental image.
*************************************************************
Red again. Why? But what shocked me more was...
A chat window. Obviously.
What else could it be? Of course it would be a chat window.
Still better than nothing. Even if the string of question marks didn't fill me with confidence, it was something that I could understand and answer to.
So I did.
I was hoping. I could only do that
-----------------------------------------------------------------
I mostly felt the emotional impressions from the words appearing in my mind, I simply had a hole in my knowledge as to the specifics. But I picked out some definite, uncertainty, gratitude, and finally curiosity as to similarity.
I lacked the words to respond as they did, but I tried my best with a series of impressions.
A feeling of familiar love
And an impression of familiarity but uncertainty
I was uncertain if they felt it the same way. He? The emotions in it's words felt masculine, despite having never felt the feeling before.
******************************************************
I... wasn't sure on how to answer this. Emoji.
The other Gamer was... wait. Let's analyze things a bit better.
I focused a bit and... yeah, they looked like a cat.
Not a human turned cat. Just a cat.
And I mean more than the simple physical aspect. I mean the whole behaviour and, well, the lack of written communication.
This meant that they were either a cat with Gamer power or the Human inside had adapted to a cat life better than me.
Or, maybe, that they got reincarnated with less memories? I couldn't say.
Still, I had to answer something.
-----------------------------------------------------------
I felt an impression of familiarity and certainty from them, then a sense of curiosity to... Something I couldn't identify.
I tilted my head as I sat down, trying to understand what they mean.
Perhaps if I... I closed my eyes for a moment, to focus on my inner power.
Perhaps I could push an impression of myself, the energy that I feel onto it, I could share certain aspects?
I recalled their title, Feline Soul Refiner.
Perhaps there was something similar within myself?
I felt within myself, looked among my embers, at my sparks, my aspects. I knew it was familiar, but I couldn't find it amongst them.
Then I tried looking at it all at once, and I was suddenly struck by inspiration.
I pushed that feeling into the film of the shared window we spoke through.
**************************************************
Soul Refiner? What does it means?
I mean, the soul part is... no, no, wait. I need to think for a second.
Ok, Soul Refiner. What does it means? Well, the first part is pretty obvious, it involve the soul of someone.
The second part is less obvious, but still pretty intuitive. TO refine is to make something of a lesser quality to a better quality. So, making a lesser soul to a better soul? Or...
Wait.
Wow, do I feel stupid now.
They means that they are Gamers like me. That is what Soul Refiner means.
Well, at least we reached something. I hastily sent something back
I kind of saw them stop for a second in confusion, before they turned again. Then, another message appeared in the chat window.
I was a bit stumped. What did it...
Oh! Follow me.
Yeah, sure. I mean, it's not like I had something better to do. Or somewhere else to be.
Well, maybe in an empty field trying to create some attack magic, but that's for later.
I walked just behind them and sent something else back, because I was tired of wondering if they were male or female.
She stopped for a moment, before making a strange noise that I couldn't interpret, due to the difference between the human body and a cat body. It was something similar to a chuff and a sneeze…
It was a chuckle. I pouted.
Female, then. Ok.
Well, beyond that, I wondered where we were going.
The alley simply opened in other alleys and, soon, I was completely lost.
Well, no, I would be able to retrace my steps and return back towards the main road, but I really wanted to know where we were going.
So, instead of doing the whole subterfuge thing, I asked.
She stopped, clearly confused, before she seemed to focus on something and her answer appeared in my chat window. Good. At least I will know where we are...
...aaaaand she answered with an image.
Wich, okay, it makes sense for it to be possible, but it didn't actually help.
The image was of the building, without any kind of street sign or landmark around. I just had to trust her and follow.
Still, another thing that I wanted to know was...
She seemed to glance up at the nearby buildings, as if judging the distance between them before sending back a symbol.
A... square? What did it means? Like a plaza?A cross? A street? I sent back a single question mark
She chuffed in annoyance, and didn't respond afterwards. Passively examining the surroundings.
I simply looked around. Her not answering made me a bit unsure if trying to continue the conversation was a good idea. So, I decided to keep my mouth shut and follow her.
Hoping the whole sacrificing to eldritch beings beyond the stars was really out of the table.
She took me around buildings, walking almost always in several alleys, always avoiding humans and other, bigger, forms of life.
Which it was pretty okay with me, at least for now, but I was starting to get a bit tired. Especially when our destination resulted being an old warehouse a block away from our starting point.
Wait, a block?
Oh, fudge.
Last edited:
Malbutorius
C'est le bien qui fait mal
And formatting errors fixed.
Whoops, normally it's SB that eats the formatting!
Whoops, normally it's SB that eats the formatting!
The Froggy Ninja
The Blade Will Never Die
*Mentally Advanced Pinkie voice* Yes please.
