《A Real Life》 Prologue: Unforeseen circumstance *Yawn* ¡°Welp, that was a nice dream.¡± He blinked a few times at the white cellar, while trying to get the drowsiness out of his head. Only then he did notice a slightly difference. Trying to look around while raised up slowly, he was in a strange unknown place, with nothing around him, literally nothing. He tried to recall how did he come here, but no answer came to his mind. Only then, he realised, something was off. Why the hell that the sky looks so white? Sometimes earlier. ¡°Is Tim coming with you on this trip?¡± ¡°Yes, he is.¡± ¡°Well, isn¡¯t that nice. At least you have someone to talk with.¡± ¡°Dad, you talk like I have no friend other than him as a friend.¡± He muttered. ¡°But you don¡¯t, do you?¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°Whatever, have a nice trip.¡± His father smiled and told him. ¡°Thanks, Dad. See you again soon!¡± He said aloud while attempted to pull the luggage out of his door. That day was just exactly like any day in his (boring) normal life, except that he had a chance to go on a school trip in another country. Heh, this should be an interesting week, I¡¯m so bored of life already. The true is, in class, he wasn¡¯t any kind of brilliant, or energetic student who was being loved and respected by friends and teachers, it was usually the opposite, which was most people don¡¯t gave him a damn. Therefore, day after day, he would find school was so boring¡­ I wish my life would take a turn, I don¡¯t care wherever, just make I feel alive. That was what he often wished for. If only he knows what awaits him ahead¡­ Actually, he did have a group of friends. Pretty small if you compare to the whole class, but enough to keep him from boredom when he wasn''t using his phone. Turn out, they were all came early for nearly an hour before the check in procedure. Lucky for him, since he came early too. ¡°Hey guys, came so soon for the plane?¡± ¡°The early bird gets the seat, you know? Since our class was around 90 people, came around this time is better than get clustered later on.¡± Roy told him, while stretched his arms up. The guy looked like he was here for eternity already. ¡°Well, consider I got a seat between two old men last time, I gotta pick a seat near the girls this time.¡± Illyes said, with a somewhat disgusted face when he recalled about the event last year. He looked really funny when being sandwiched between two teachers, who were snoring on the plane for almost three hours last time, though. ¡°Haha, true enough. Still, we need to wait nearly a full hour for the others, kinda a bit too long. Do you guys bring anything fun to play? I¡¯m kind of bored out of my mind right now¡­¡± A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. He trailed off, tempting to switch out his phone in the middle of the talk. Nothing fun on his phone either, but he can read light novels online anytime when he has Wi-Fi, so it¡¯s convenient when he¡¯s bored, and that means most of the times in the day. They ended up chatting idly until the others came, and went off in different directions in the shopping section after the check in (i.e. running amok). And no, if you were wondering, he didn¡¯t have any girlfriends yet, or any kind of the sorts. He always felt somewhat when awkward when a girl came into a radius of 2 meters with him as a center, and tried to get somewhere else as soon as possible. The conversation he could keep them with interest is about 1 minute, therefore, no gf. However, there was a girl inside his class, the smartest one of the bunch, she wasn¡¯t that pretty, but he liked her, or respected her, at least. Still can¡¯t hold a conversation with the girl, though. A few hours later, he was on the plane flying overseas. Since he can¡¯t get the Wi-Fi on the plane, it was just sooooo boring. Couldn¡¯t sleep, he stared at the clouds out of the window, into the blue-ish of the wide sky. Rolling his phone between his fingers, he thought about his purpose of life. At the end, he couldn¡¯t find one, like something he wants to be, or somewhere he wants to go, there isn¡¯t anything like that. Man, I wish I was born in another century, where I can be a bit more useful¡­ Suddenly, while he was still in his train of thought, a small ray of light flashed by his window. Actually, the airplane was engulfed whole in the white pillar of light, or at least that was what he saw. The plane went creak here and there, like somebody was trying to bend it. All the passengers, include him, were shocked and didn¡¯t know what to do. And then, it started to lose the height, as in the free-fall style. Red lights popped up above his head. Somebody was screaming with a high pitch voice, and soon he joined in after some seconds later. And then, everything went white.
PREVIOUS CHAPTERBack to Main PageNEXT CHAPTER
Chapter 1: Wake up Chapter 1: Wake up ¡°Muh, this place is certainly big, or perhaps, it is endless?¡± He arrived with that conclusion after roaming around the white dimension for a large amount of time, he didn¡¯t know how much, but lost his interest in counting after 600s. To say ¡°roaming¡± but not ¡°walking¡± or ¡°running¡±, he had a reason for it. After he woke up for a while, he realized that he no longer had a limb, hair, or anything relate to a human body anymore. No, he had a form of a spirit, or so he thought, which was close to a tadpole made from light keep floating mid-air of nowhere. Am I dead from the crash of the plane? Then, is this heaven or hell? No matter how you look at it, I should have some friends or other people accompany me, shouldn¡¯t I? Or my luck is too high that I am the only casualty? A lot of questions were circling around his brain, or in this case, his core of energy. And there is the problem with the place. He had been trying to float to somewhere else, left then right, up then down, for who knows how long, but it was fruitless. ¡°Aa, this is so bored. I know I wished for something new to happen in my life, but I don¡¯t think it gonna be worse. Geez, isn¡¯t this should be around the time that I should be reincarnated in another world, or forcefully summoned by the king or something already?¡± He said aloud to no one, somehow he could still use his voice despite of not having a mouth. Now became both bored and frustrated, he wanted to go to sleep again, since it would help him to kill time in this absolutely useless world. However, since he wasn¡¯t have a need to sleep as he didn¡¯t have a human body anymore, no sleep for him. While he was still struggling with it, suddenly you heard a deep voice nearby: ¡°Hey you, over there.¡± He rolled his white mass of a body around, and faced to a man in his strange suit, sitting on a throne that appeared out of nowhere, maybe made from rare materials such as gold and silver. The man had a look of an old grandfather, and with his white long beard covered almost half of his face, he guessed the man was about 80s at least. With the experience accumulated from many different novels and manga, he knew how to deal with these kind of situations. ¡°Dear Elder, how can I be at your service?¡± He bowed down, or at least try to with his new form, talked in a humble voice. (The best line he could think at the moment, since he had almost not a single grain of experience to talk with normal people.) ¡°Hohoho, a polite boy at least. Not like the other bunch, so noisily right the moment when they woke up.¡± The others? That mean there are other people here, too? Still, he didn¡¯t want to annoy the man front of him, so he didn¡¯t dare to ask. ¡°Very well, I was late for a bit while getting the information out of your body, sorry about that. Boy, you should have many questions to ask at the moment, right? With your good attitude, I¡¯ll answer you three questions, choose wisely. By the way, I¡¯m not your elder or your creator, just a lowly servant of the gods.¡± He quickly think about the questions in his mind, and sorted out the three questions that were bothered him most. After a few minutes, he slowly said to the man who sat opposite him: ¡°Then Sir, my first question is, where is this place, and how did I come here?¡± He chose a complex question, so he could actually ask more than three questions. Although, he knew he shouldn¡¯t push his luck so far. The other man twitched his lip a bit up, as he already knew the young boy¡¯s intention, but still answered. ¡°This whole place, in your language, is called as the Infinite Hall, and I and you are merely inside one of the room. The reason why you are here is, just like you, the middle and minor gods after watching many systems of life for millennium, and can¡¯t interfere them due to the one of the Grand Rules, all have become bored. That¡¯s where you come in, my dear boy, to be one of entertainments for these gods. You, who wished to change your life by living in another planet and die in an accident, has fulfilled one of the conditions to come here.¡± The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. So I die after all, sorry mom and dad, your disappointed kid can¡¯t come back to repay the debt I owe you¡­ He tried to keep his emotions inside, and asked the man for the second question: ¡°Sir, you mentioned to the others before, may I ask, beside me, is there anyone alive from the incident which involved me?¡± ¡°Hmm, sorry boy, the others which I mentioned didn¡¯t include any from your plane. They came from all different places in different worlds, and at many different times in the total timelines. However, who I didn¡¯t know about, doesn¡¯t mean they are dead. After all, I am only one of the servants of the gods, they may choose the participants with different conditions than mine. Although, I say the chance a person comes from your plane will be slim. And just in case I forgot to mention later, every servant can pick 5 different souls, you are the last from the people I picked.¡± The man finished his speak, now looked upon the young man. ¡°Now boy, which is your last question?¡± He sighed, trying to consume all the information at once. ¡°Sir, my last question is, as in your speak, we will be compete in some kind of games for the entertainment of the gods, so what will the game be?¡± The man grinned, and then answer the boy: ¡°That, you must find the answer by yourself¡­¡± He waved his hand to the place behind the boy, and the boy turned around. What he saw is what they can describe as the staircase to heaven, a light modern stair made from gold itself, had slowly being formed in front of his eyes. He stared at the stair for a while because of the shock from the beauty in the design, and also the way how it was appear from nowhere. ¡°Come forward boy, explore! Your new life now start, become the best of the new world!¡± Now remembered about the older man, the boy turned around too ask him, but he was no longer sat over there. He turned back to the stair, breathed in a deep one, then step forward determinedly without a worry on the stair. No longer his past awkward self, he began a new life without any rule, or anything hold him back¡­ Let get the reincarnate done quickly, and then I will train when I still young, and become one of the Seven Powers!" Or so he thought. ¡°Welcome to the New Life, please state your username.¡± What the hell? ______________________________________________________________________________ The older man stepped into a large room, which a long fully seated table was stationed in the center, grinned to the other. He then threw his fake beard aside, pulled a chair out then sat down heavily. ¡°That one is the last of the participants, right? Now ladies and gentlemen, let the game begin!¡±
PREVIOUS CHAPTERBack to Main PageNEXT CHAPTER
Chapter 2: The Game Chapter 2: The game. ¡°Welcome to the New Life, please state your username.¡± What the hell? Why is this sound like the virtual reality route? When I saw the stair, I was consciously decide that the game that guy was talking about was reincarnation, but why virtual game? Confusedly, he went toward to the source of the voice. This place was much different to the Infinite Hall, at least, instead of the white theme everywhere, this place was something you can call as a high-tech building. Sparks were flashing through the electrical cables on the top of the dorm, pure energy run along the wall of the room, while pipes blew the water gas through their mouth. I got the feeling that all of these are for show only, since these technology don¡¯t really go well altogether. That was what he really thinking right then, although he admitted that this room look very cool, indeed. Now, approaching the ball of light in the middle of the room, which he guessed as another spirit, he try to communicate with it with a slightly confused voice. ¡°Sorry, I didn¡¯t really understand what are you talking about, can you give me a short explain about it?¡± ¡°Affirmative. As you has been informed before, you are participated in the game, which served as the entertainment, for the gods. Each of the gods participated in this event will pick 5 different souls as their chosen ones, and from the events that the chosen participants commit in this new world, the change of the order in the gods would also be happened as well. The ranking will not only based on the levels or the achievements, the factor such as doing good or bad deeds or other relevant information will also lead to the change. The new world, Arstarth, will start in 12 hours from now, with all the participants start at level 1. Deaths will be permanent, except using other methods to raise back the dead which can be obtained in secret areas, classes, or as rewards from the quests, but of course to thin out the opponents, they will be very rare. However, to ensure the game won¡¯t end any time soon, within the first 6 months, no permanent death will occur and the dead can be revive at the church for a sum of money. Any other question?¡± The gods seemed to be understand his fear of being PvP right when the game start, they had covered basic rules nicely done. In fact, the spirit didn¡¯t say anything really detailed about the game, but to him, explore the game by oneself is much more fun than reading the wiki. Scratched his head for a bit, he told the spirit. ¡°Nothing importantly at the moment, but can you show me how to get a new body in this world? Since I guess no one will play in their spirit states, they can¡¯t do any harm to the other at all, so it must be somehow I can get a new body, right?¡± The white mass of light bobbled up and down, looked like a nod. ¡°Exactly what you said, in this new world, you can pick a new body. There are a few basic races, and like most of the RPG games, hidden races. The hidden races would be unlocked in the games after some certain conditions, and you can change the race later on, but all your stats and levels will be reset back to level 1. As for now, you can pick human, beastmen, orcs, undeads, elves, and dwarfs¡± A window show up in front of his face:
RaceDescription
HumanThe most versatile race compare to the other race, and also is the majority of Arstarth. Race bonuses: none Race penalties: none
BeastmenThe hybrid between a human and an animal, they often live in the big forests lie all around Arstarth. Race bonuses and penalties: Depend on the sub-species of the race
Elves The ancient race of world, they only live in the deep of the old forest of Arstarth. They are known as either the best healer, mage or assassin. Sub-species: High Elves Race bonuses: + 1 bonus Intelligence/ level Higher Affinity to Fire and Light Wood Elves Race bonuses: + 1 bonus Wisdom / level Higher Affinity to Water, Earth and Wind. Dark Elves Race bonuses: + 1 Agility/ level Higher Affinity to Wind, Darkness. Race penalties: Suffering a penalty of 10% Vitality, Endurance and Stamina
UndeadThe dark force of the Demon Continent, known by the terror they strike onto the enemy. Race bonuses and penalties: Depend on each sub-speicies of the race Higher Affinity to Darkness
OrcsThe barbarian creatures of the Southern Continent. High Strength and Vitality, they are also known with their courage to rush into enemy lines fearlessly. Race bonuses: + 1 bonus Vitality, Strength or Stamina randomly/ level, + 1 bonus Endurance/ 1 levels Race penalties: Suffered a 30% in Wisdom and Intelligence.
DwarfsThe people who live underground anywhere near a mine, they are known for high craftmanship and the ability to endure a lots of damage. Race bonuses: +1 Endurance or Vitality/ level, Higher Affinity to Earth Race penalties: Suffered a 10% penalty in Agility
RandomRandomly pick a species, can be changed up to 3 times. The first time grants +10 points to random stats, the second time + 5 points to random stats, the third time grants no bonus to any stats. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.Note: Some hidden species can only obtained through this option. Race bonuses and penalties: Depend on the race got picked.
He ran his index finger through the list, discovering that he could see his appearance when he clicked on the name of the race. He poked the human choice, only to see his exact body in the old world stare back to him. Dark hair, slightly tall, wearing a black coat. Yup, no doubt it was him. So that what the old man meant to get information out of my body He realized, they had made a perfect copy of himself inside the game. The other species also showed how would he look in the race, with his old body somehow mixing the genes of these species. That make he thought about the probabilities of what he can be in this new world. Personally, I think I should pick human, since most of the MCs who pick human became heroes or emperors. But against, maybe there will be many people who also choose this choice, then I will just be no one again. No Human then. Now he was thinking about the random options, it might be the best option for him. Hidden species aside, the bonus points weren''t anything to sneeze at, they are like two whole level bonus already. The only problem was, his luck was never really shined for even once in his short life back at Earth. At games, when his friends often opened high value items, he opened scraps... But since the option offered 3 times to change, he was tempting to choose it. Decided a while of thinking, he told the spirit. "I want to choose the Random option." A new screen appeared.
Random
???????
STOPReroll
He counted to 3, then slammed the Stop button. The middle line which was spinning between the name slowly came to a stop, with two words:
RaceDescription
Forest RatmanThe small people who live in the caves, rarely go out except for hunting. Know no honor, they are fear for their cunning and ruthlessness. They are also uglier than an orc, too. Race bonuses: +1 Intelligence or Agility/ lever [b} Race penalties:[/b] Suffered a 30% in Charisma, thus lower intimacy to other people. Due to their cunning tricks, merchant won''t put up a fair price, ever. -15% in Vitality and Endurance
Right when the image of himself in a Forest Ratman popped up, he had already made up his mind. Even with 10 bonus points, there was no way he gonna pick this. Besides the downside were too high, even if he succeed as a hero, he would be known as the ugliest hero of the century, which he wanted to avoid, certainly. Pushed the reroll button, he wished for something better.
RaceDescription
Decayed Zombie The newly dead people raised by Necromancers. Not much to say about them, beside they are poisonous and stink. Race bonus: Poisonous: - 1 hp/ second to anything nearby (including people - will be increase base on level) Higher Regeneration Attracting Monster Race penalties: Lower intimacy to living creatures - 30% Agility, Intelligent and wisdom Ugly, too
"I couldn''t believe in my luck, too. First a Ratman, now a Decayed Zombie? Wasn''t this too harsh? Or was it the destiny for me to be ugly in this new world ? If only my luck was higher, sigh... I would trade everything please, the next time, please don''t give me anything ugly, gimme luck, gods!" He was trembling when he pushed the reroll button for the 3rd time, also was the last time he can did this... "Shine, my luck, shine!" The middle line slowly came to stop, once again. His eyes were glued to the screen.
RaceDescription
Black catPeople believe that black cat bring luck, and how luckily, you are one now! Praise your luck! Race bonus: + 1 Agility/ level Higher intimacy to other people, due to their believe Increase Luck by 20 Race penalties: Being loved by monster (as you look like a good food) -30% in Strength, Defense, Vitality and Endurance P/s: Now you are cute, happy?
Aa, high luck, isn''t this what I wished for? Goddamit....
PREVIOUS CHAPTERBack to Main PageNEXT CHAPTER
Chapter 3: New Game - Start! Okay, okay. Black cat don''t sound that bad... And at least, high luck and high intimacy will boost my level up easier. He thought like that in his head, trying to be optimistic, ignoring the -30% of half the stats and the sarcasm of the window status. Well, everything could be worse if he was picked some other trash races instead of a beastmen species, as that Decayed Zombie. He shrugged as he recalled about the foul creature that he almost became one, afraid that he would suicide as soon as he start in the game. "Let check this cat out then, I hope the penalty wasn''t that severely. Character Status!" A familiar blue window popped up immediately:
Status Window
Name:???Alignment:None
Level:1Class:None
Race:Beastman - Black CatGender:Male
Titles
none
Fame:0Infamy:0
Basic Status
Health:14/ 14Health Regen:1% / Sec
Mana:10/10Mana Regen:1% / Sec
Stamina:30/30Stamina Regen:1.5% / Sec
Strength:4Agility:12
Vitality:4Endurance5
Intelligence:12Wisdom:9
Leadership:0Luck:31
Attack:1-2Defense:1
Elemental Resistances
Fire:0%Water:0%
Wind:0%Earth:0%
Light:0%Darkness:0%
Abilities
???
First time note: Stats of your character will be based on your old body back on Earth, with 10 in each stat is the average of an adult human.
He felt like he want to strangle himself by his very own hand. Why, you ask? Other than his race bonus in Agility, the other physical stats were extremely pitiful. And if he calculated it right, even without the penalty, these stats were much lower than an average person. He didn''t bother to train his body back when he was alive, since it was boring, or so he thought. Scratching his head again, he poked at the abilities screen, but all he got was the ??? mark, indicated that he didn''t unlock it yet. For now, his future seemed to be gray, with no ablility yet and these shameful stats. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. "Haha, it''s no use crying over spilled milk. Whatever goes, then." With a dejected feeling, he asked the spirit to change him into the new body. The spirit bobbled up and down again, then twirled round and round around him. Then slowly, a pillar of light descended from the top of the building, landed lightly on top of the boy. At first, the light was faint, but in a short amount of time, it gradually became brighter, and started to spread heat on the area where it came in contacted with. The young man''s body felt like it was on fire, burned and then got stabbed many times, but he tried to bottle up his scream. The light went away quickly as it came, but the feeling hasn''t left him just yet. Tired, exhausted, pained, itchy, hot,... these statuses affected him all at once. Breathing heavily, he tried to lift his new body up, but it took him nearly ten minutes just to push one of his legs against the ground. Finally, after he managed to sit up right, he started to checking his body out. "Cat ears, check. Paws, check. Long tail, check. Yep, this is certainly parts of a cat body. One problem though, why my race was shown as Beastman, but I look more like a beast than a man?" Truth to be told, his body right now is the body of a real cat.. Not even kidding. Why can''t I get Lion instead of a cat back then? It would look much badass than a black cat, and should have higher strength than this tiny little body. Waving his tail around, he began to jump around inside the building. He used to own five cats back at his house, so he knew many benefits to be a cat, beside extremely high agility (i.e. he tried to catch the cats every once in a while by surprise for fun, but they just out run him every damn time), they also have quick reaction time and absolute hearing to pick up the tiniest sound. And so, he practiced high jumps, sprinting, rolling, leaping, dancing,... etc etc, to get the hang of becoming a cat. With his new body, he felt like he was weightless, basically flying through the hall. Even at first he didn''t have any confidence with a "cute" cat body, now he was having a great fun toying with it. The cat even jumped on the spirit to try, and surprisingly, he didn''t pass through it. Actually, he was bounced into another direction. Found a new game, he then proceeded to jump directly on the spirit head, like a trampoline. The spirit didn''t seem to pay any mind, instead it also bounced up and down to push the cat as high as he can be. I can''t remember the last time I had this much fun with physical works, this feels so good! After some basic moves, he copy-cat the soldiers training in a TV series on the discovery channel he has seen when he was still alive in the other world, and incidentally found a small pool of water nearby when crawling around. He was never a good swimmer, but in this body, he found some confidences that he could swim easily. And so, our silly cat stepped back for a few steps, then sprinted toward the water pool diving head first. The result? He didn''t measure the depth of the pool, and knocked his head onto the floor two feet under the water. Went into a daze, he couldn''t swim, or even thinking straight. His lung gasped for air, the cat struggled to get to the surface of the water, but to no avail. Understood the cat was sinking, the light spirit floated to the pool with a fishing net it found somewhere around, and fished the black wet cat out. Seeing that the cat was still black out, it began to jump on the cat''s belly, made the cat puffed the water out like a spring fountain. After played around for another while, the spirit showed him another blue window:
System notice
The New World will start in one minute, are you ready to connect?
"Meow." (I''m ready.) And so, just like the time when he was on the airplane, the light engulfed the room, once again. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author''s note: Sorry for the delay, I was so busy with the big table [th_093.gif]
PREVIOUS CHAPTERBack to Main Page NEXT CHAPTER
Chapter 4: A New Day After a long time, he didn''t know exactly how long but, when he came to his sense, he somehow knew the world was already changed. Where am I? Why am I here again? Half-awake, he didn''t bother to open his eyes just yet, and tried to play death while using his senses to check the surrounding. He could felt the warm wind of the summer, the itchy of the grasses poking near his ribs, and from not faraway, the sounds of many birds chirping to each others, and finally, the familiar smell of a countryside that he had went through with many summers. After a while, saw that no one attacked him yet, the cat calmed down and recalled the events that happened to him recently. "Okay, now we need to recap everything at once. Let''s see... The plane fell out of the sky. Everyone die. I die. Got another chance. Old man. Light Spirit. Cat. That''s should be all of them, I guess. Now, this is the new world that they mentioned about?" He opened his eyes, only to close it half a second later, the sun on the sky was so bright that it directly burn his eyes. Slowly rose up from where he was lying, the cat stood up with his rear legs, lightly brushed the grasses stuck on his fur away and looked around. It seemed that he was teleported to a large field of weeds and the other small plants with no one nearby, only a few cow-like animals chewing their lunches nearby. Now that he looked at the surrounding, he saw a blue note was floating next to him, and a small pocket lying on the ground.
One-time Notice
To open status window, use the command "Status".
To view an item''s stats, use the command "Inspect"
There was only these two lines on the note, no instruction or anything else to help him in the beginning, Didn''t think deeply about it, the black cat opened his status window: "Meow." (Status) Nothing happened. "Meow?" Still nothing. Okay, now that''s weird. I clearly said status, why is nothing happen? Or maybe ... He thought inside his head. Status.
Status Window
Name:???Alignment:True Neutral
Level:1Class:None
Race:Beastman - Black CatGender:Male
Titles
none
Fame:0Infamy:0
Basic Status
Health:14/ 14Health Regen:1% / Sec
Mana:10/10Mana Regen:1% / Sec
Stamina:30/30Stamina Regen:1.5% / Sec
Strength:4Agility:12
Vitality:4Endurance5
Intelligence:12Wisdom:9
Leadership:0Luck:31
Attack:8-9Defense:1
Elemental Resistances
Fire:0%Water:0%
Wind:0%Earth:0%
Light:0%Darkness:0%
Abilities
???
Alright, that''s more convenient than to shout status every time I want the thing open then. Dismissed the note and the window away with a swipe of his paw, the cat changed his attention to the small pouch. Pushed his right hand into the pouch with a thoughtful face, he tried to pull all of its contents out. It turned out, the pouch wasn''t small at all, as he found 10 M.R.E packets inside, plus a shirt inside. Couldn''t touch anything else, he poked his head inside too see. However, it wasn''t like a big pouch from his point of view, it was like he was looking through a tent''s ceiling instead. Get out of the pouch, he looked back at the items. Might as well as check their stats. Inspect!
Meal, Refuse to Exit
Type:Healing itemDurability:14/15
Quality:Common
A packet of food and water that can be used any time out of combat. Will be spoiled if stay under sunlight for too long. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.+ 50 health + 30% Satiety + 30 mana P/s: As the name stated, have fun with the call of nature.
Crude shirt
Type:Defense itemDurability:10/10
Quality:Basic
A worn out shirt made by a novice a long time ago. May as well as call it as rags. +1 defense
Even if it was rags or not, 1 defense will actually boost his defense up by 100%, so he quickly equipped it. The strange thing is, the shirt was too big for him in the beginning, but after a few seconds, it reduced its size so he can actually fit inside. Maybe it was a game mechanic, as he recalled an item in any games can still get equipped by anyone without worrying about size. And the 10 M.R.E were a good start, 50 health is basically a triple of his health right now, if he ignored the P/s thingy. Put everything back to the pouch, he tied it around his waist. Since he didn''t have a map, he then had two choices to pick where to go, either to the forest he saw from afar, or go to the some lines of smokes from a town, if he guessed it right. Due to his instinct, he should probably go to the forest to gain some extra experiences first. While thinking like that, he happily skipped to the direction of the green trees. Only to be chased out 5 minutes after. The first step he put into the forest, he saw all kind of color eyes stared back to him. Using the cat advantage, he climbed up the nearest tree right away to scan the situation. Despite the bright sunshine right outside the forest, this place''s atmosphere is completely different, as if he went to an another dimension already. It was very dark, the tree were old and extreme high, but he felt that animals, or rather monsters, were watching him.
Location Status
Name:North Alysium Forest
Level Suggestion:5-15
An old forest lie to the north of Alysium town
Level 5-15? A bit too high for me at the moment, guess I will just come back later. He jumped down the tree then turned back the direction of the town instead. However, as he just went about three steps forward, he heard *crack crack* sounds as if someone steps on dead leaves behind them. Felt a chill run across his back, the cat peaked around, then sprinted forward with full speed without thinking twice. All he saw behind him was a large bear creature, with a mouth full of teeth ready to chomp him down. S-Status!
Monster status:
Name: Big Bad Bear
Status:Hungry
A big normal bear resides in the North Asyium Forest, however, he is hungry and will chase his prey (you) until one of you is gone away from the surface of Arstarth.
The description is too long, that just means he will hunt me until I''m dead! Even with high agility growth, with level 1 and the pitiful health, he couldn''t stand a chance against that bear against one-on-one combat. The bear didn''t give up after they were already out of the forest, and his speed wasn''t that slow against the cat, either. After fifteen minutes, the cat started to feel tired and lost his speed steadily. He got to think of a plan soon enough, or he would become a munching toy for the bear. Well, I got one plan, but the risk is too high. If I make one mistake, I will be dead.. Oh, whatever, I''ll be dead if I don''t do anything anyway. With that, the cat who was running suddenly put up a halt and put his left leg out on the bear''s track. Couldn''t stop that quickly, the bear tripped on the cat (the whole cat, not only its leg) and rolled a head for a small distance. Still, the cat lost 4 health due to being tripped on. Hurriedly, he unequipped his shirt and dashed to the bear who were having troubles getting up. "Meoww!" (Take this!) He quickly tied two pair of limbs of the bear up together, using the shirt as the rope. Get the rope through here, a knot there and everything together. Yep, I''m a genius." "Nyahahahahaha..." The bear laid down the ground silently, glared at the cat. Gleefully in his victory, he poked his claws at the head of the bear, danced around it, then jump on its body. Who''s your daddy big bear, who''s your daddy? "...hahahahaeeeeek!" The bear forcefully tore down the shirt (aka rags) and snatched the cat who was dancing on his body. Being caught off guard, the cat squirmed around in the bear hands for a while, up and down, hoping for his luck be put into use, but no such luck. Tried to make a best smiling face to the bear, he said. "Meeooww, meoww?" (Forgive me, please?) The bear grinned back to him. Big Bad Bear was a gentleman too, so it agreed. He forgave the cat, after beat it into a pulp and took five of its M.R.E away.
PREVIOUS CHAPTERBack to Main Page NEXT CHAPTER
Chapter 5: Alysium Lying under the bright sky, the cat gazed lazily into the bright sky. It was so nice to lie on the green grass, listen to the harmony of birds while resting after a hard day of work. Yep, it was so nice... As if!
Status
Health:1/14Mana:10/10
Cripple Under cripple effect, your agility decreases by 70%, strength and defense drop by 50%. The status will stay until your body gets the treatment.
Paralysis Under paralysis, you will be stun for: 9 minutes 42 seconds. You can''t do anything under this status.
Sun stroke Under Sun stroke effect, your health recovery rate will drop by 80%. The status will stay until you find a shelter to rest.
With all of those statuses being applied after the fight, he couldn''t move an inch from where the bear threw him like a baseball. That goddamn bear too, after agreed that it wouldn''t kill him after being bribed, literally it didn''t kill him out right, but let a bloody mess behind when happily skipped back to the forest. Still, don''t know if it was lucky or not, the place he was thrown to was the outskirt of the town he was heading to earlier, therefore he wouldn''t become monster food anytime soon. In short, even with those statuses, the cat wasn''t bothered that much at all. In fact, he was happy that he was still alive, and have a free trip to the village without encounter any kind of monster. Nah, the only problem was, he was itching in his back. However, with the stun effect, he felt like a living hell. "Guh, grrrlll" Really, he wanted to die right now and then, to skip the fate worse than death. He couldn''t even bite his tongue, and tried to enjoy the sun shine wouldn''t work either. If he could cry, he would do that right now.... Woaaaa, sniff, woaa Cried in his mind wouldn''t work either. Looked at the status stun ran out, he counted second by second. The moment when one of the status disappear, he frantically scratched his back on the ground, ignored his wounds were throbbing. Satisfied after a while, he pulled himself up and slowly crept toward the town. His health was recovered by 6 during the time he was stunned, and since he wanted to save his last MREs, he didn''t use them. Although, he was pretty hungry right then, so he tried to find some NPCs to get some food, His speed was very slow, so it was hard just to get close to the town center. Although it just one of the starting town, Alysium was a big and bustle town with people walking back and forth all the time. Actually, when he checked their status, he got all kind of names such as Red, CalmingStorm, DaKiller, Weed,... though he doubted the last one was the original. That was weird, since if he recalled it right, the old man said all the participants are chosen by gods and their servants, so how many servants there were? Or maybe, these people were all NPCs that the gods send in as fillers for the game? They sure had too much time on their hand to custom every single person... Anyway, since he was hungry, he decided to use the advantage of "cute" cat to beg people for food. Self-esteem? Whazzat? If you are broke, hungry, crippled and is in a shell of an animal, throw that aside right away. Free food is free food, no question asked. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. The cat slowly walked steadily to a group of people, rubbed his head against a adventurer who was talking with his group. tried to be innocent as he could be. That female adventure looked down to see what was going on, and spot a small creature stared up expectantly. "Meoww~" "Ew, what''s a dirty cat! Getaway from me!" Wait, what? "It spilled blood to my trouser!" "Maybe that cat has some kind of diseases, throw it away!" Okay okay, no need to make a big fuss. I''ll just move away from you guys, cheapskates. Turned his head away from them, he waved his tail for a bit then went the other way. "Ladies, I''ll save you from that bloody monster!" Who the heck is a bloody monster?! Glared back to the newcomer, he showed his teeth out to make a threat. Even as a cat, he still had some self-esteems left, or so he wanted to believe. However, that idiot over there already ran behind that bloody cat, ignored its threat. Swung his leg down the cat''s "rear armor", he sent it flying across the long street. "Nice kick!" "Thank you, it''s just my duty to protect beautiful ladies just like you."
- 3 health
Didn''t know about the conversation behind him, the black cat was soaring the sky. There were white birds flying next to him, they had surprised looks on their face to see a cat could fly that high. The cat was waving his right paw to the bird, maybe to say hello, or it could also be a goodbye. "Nyaaaaaa!" The cat felt from the sky, luckily his destination was a soft bush of leaves right below. It still hurt, though.
- 2 health
His health was plunged down to one for the second time of the day. Seriously, the "lucky" and "cute" cat in the description didn''t match with him at all. Crawled his way out of the leaves, he laid down to the grasses, once again. Still, he had more fun in the last few hours than the life on Earth, so he didn''t complain at all. Sighing, he pulled his self up, then realized he was laying next to another girl. Afraid for another kick, he curled his body around, waiting for the pain to come. After for five seconds, he didn''t feel any pain, so he looked up to see the girl''s face. She was a small girl, about 13 at her best, estimated height was about one fifty centimeters. She looked a bit painful at the cat, though. "Poor little kitty, are you hurt?"
PREVIOUS CHAPTERBack to Main Page NEXT CHAPTER
Chapter 6: Companion --- ???''s perspective --- "Poor little cat, are you hurt?" Heard these words, the cat froze his body up. His eyes seemed to be fixed at the little girl''s face, as like he was experiencing something different about her from the other people, which put him into a shock state. Feared that the cat would ran away if she made sudden moves, she slowly bent down, reached out her hand. The black cat jerked his body back a little, but somehow, he stepped on his tail and fell back behind. I need to calm him down, or else he will run away! The girl realized the situation as so. Slightly pull the cat(''s tail) back to her, she began to pet him. The cat squirmed a little, trying to run away, but she gently hold him down and started to pet him. However, despite all of her attempts, the cat still frantically struggled. Thinking for a bit while still hugging the cat, she decided to put him into to sleep to heal him later. With that in mind, she put a hand on his head, then recited a spell. It was quite effective, as the black cat just fought back weakly, and slowly descended into a sleep. --- Holy Cat''s perspective --- He knew he should felt thankful if someone was trying to help him, but he felt agitated. That tiny girl over there had to call him "poor" and "little" instead! He opened his eyes wide, stared the girl to the core of her soul, hoping her will be scared and go away. While still staring at the girl, he muttered in his head "Inspect."
Status Window
Name:AliceAlignment:Chaotic Neutral
Level:???Class:Cryomancer
Race:HumanGender:Female
Titles
[Arsonist] [Wanted] [Animal butcher] [Master of Disguise] [???]
As he read to the "Cryomancer" part, only then he noticed the costume the girl was wearing. Nah, not a mage robe like traditional magician, she was wearing a white short gown inside a blue blazer jacket, it went quite well with her bluish bed hair. Still kept his stare on the girl, he checked the other part of the status window. With her job, it was a bit strange to get the [Arsonist] and [Wanted] titles, as ice shouldn''t burn down things. As he trailed his eyes to the [Animal Butcher] title, all his angers were gone like a wind. Dangerous! What does this woman have in her mind right now!? When her eyes were fixed to him, he got the chill in his back. Right then, he was imagining about a big hot pot of soup, with potatoes, carrots, broth and rare ingredients, filling the air with delicious smell, the fire was flickering like dancing, and a beautiful girl with her content face swirling the bot around then around. Only then, a black cat tail floated on the surface of the pot, like an evidence for a life had existed on the surface of Arstarth not long ago. I don''t wanna die! Or at least, not as being butchered then become an ingredient! As that evil woman reached out her hand, he unconsciously shifted his body backward, only to step on his tail and fell down. Tried to get up quickly, he turned his head 180 degrees, ready to run to live for another day. However, with a villainous smile on her face, she pulled his tail backward while he (tried to) root his claws on the ground. "Don''t worry, little cat. I won''t hurt you~~" No. No no no no no no noooooo!!! He screamed like crazy, but all the sounds he made were "meow"-s. Saw the little resistances he can put up with all his might, the crazy woman seemed to have the decision of put him out of commission once and for all, Pulled the pitiful cat down in her laps, she strangled the cat up, while kept hitting on his head repeatedly again and again. Calm down, calm down me. I need to concentrate the strength and agility to my legs, then I can hop out and run away with the top speed right away. Ready to do what he thought, he jumped out of the woman hand quickly. Ran away for some distance, he turned back to the evil woman, stuck his tongue out, then turned forward and disappear inside the village, never met the cat meat lover again. Or at least, that was what he imagined. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. Right middle of his jump, a wall of blue ice suddenly materialized before him. Without any mean of braking in the air, he planted his face to the ice, then slipped down to the ground. Even no health point had been lost, that was hurt! Used his left paw to rub his nose which was connected to the wall not long ago, he forgot about the existence of the butcher behind him, Biggest mistake of his life until then. Once again, a certain cat was being pulled back, only this time the cat had his paw covered his face in shame. "Frost Crystallize." The soft voice once again sounded in his ears, he looked down his body in horror. Ice started to form up half of his lower body, immobile him immediately. "So she wants to save me for later!" Squirmed weakly, he couldn''t get out from her hug. The last thing he saw before blacked out was a devilish smile of a crazy girl. ---------------------- ---- Mummy Cat''s POV ---- Slowly opened his eyes, all he could see was a white ceiling. Great, did I just descend to the Grand Hall once again? I haven''t even lived for a full day yet... He sighed, used his front paw to scratch his head. Wait, paw? So in the next life I still a cat? Stared thoughtfully into his paws, he realized his body was fully covered with bandages from head to toes. With a quick scanning, he opened his status window.
Status
Health:14/14 Mana:10/10
Stamina:30/30Satiety:70%
Unn, why did she heal me up? Was there any ulterior motive behind this? Got up from his fluffy bed, he realized it was night time already. He was in a small room with various random stuffs laying around without in any order, a small bed (more like a upgraded pillow) and a big bed not long from his place. Crawling across the room silently, he jumped on the bed to see who was it, only to see the young girl who caught him earlier. She was in a light blue pajama, slept soundlessly while clutching her blanket, with a peaceful face. Thought back to the situation that afternoon, he might be a bit paranoid about the title, forgot that she was still a little girl who was like thirteen years old. Right then, he had two options. To escape right now through the window, or to stay back with the girl until tomorrow so that he could find a way to explain with her. While the latter sounds more logical, he couldn''t risk the chance of being eaten before he could wake up in the morning. After a while, he came up with a conclusion: He would write a letter to explain to her, and then leave after that soon. With that solution, I can solve the misunderstanding, thanks her and also sorry for my rude behaviors earlier. Perfect idea! However, as always, his luck decided to toy with him again. Just when he started to move, his tail was pulled back once again. Just what did my tail do that she hate it so much? The girl hugged the cat tightly next to her chests, he could even heard her heart''s beat. "Mommy, I missed you..." He heard her mumble silently. A girl who separated from her parents this early, I wonder if she was an NPC, or a chosen one like me? Didn''t want to wake her up, he stopped squirming around and just rest there to wait until morning. There were two things he was certain for now, he should help this kid a bit to repay her kindness, and he shouldn''t disclose his identity for now, just in case the girl was on another team. ------------------ Author''s note: Finished this at nearly 0 AM, so I''ll fix the grammar tomorrow, sorry for that :imdead:
PREVIOUS CHAPTERBack to Main PageNEXT CHAPTER
Chapter 7: Moving on. "Alice, don''t cry. I''m still breathing here, you know ... Listen, little Alice. Even if my body will be withered someday, I''ll always be watching you from behind and pray the best for you. Therefore, don''t cry anymore..." Alice, 10 years old, was crying helplessly while hugging her father''s arm. Her father was young, around 30 years old, he kept on smiling even he was in deep pain, patted his daughter, tried to wake her mood up. Not a long time ago, her father was still a head doctor in a large hospital, an outstanding person who being loved and respected by many people, both partners and patients since he always smiled to the others. Not only success in work, he was also the kindest father to his little daughter at home. Little Alice loved him very much, and liked to follow him anywhere. He was the number one in her eyes, the inspiration for her to become a doctor, just like her father. "Daddy, d-don''t go... Don''t *sniff* Don''t leave me behind!" *sniff* "Alice, listen to your father. Everybody will need to go away one day... Don''t cry, my little angel.,, Promise me one thing, kay?" *sniff* "Y-yes?" "Try ... to keep your smile on ... in any ... situations. It is ... a powerful medicine ... hope, love, joy, and to keep ... sadness away. Stay strong... okay?" "I will, Dad. *hic* I will!" "Maria ... I left her for you... inheritance.. please help her ... at least until she grows up... " "I will, please rest assure." "I think ... I''ll need... to leave soon." *put his hand on Alice''s head* "Goodbye Alice... I''ll see you back someday..." Gathered herself up, she smiled to her father. "S-see you again, father.." He also grinned back. The only thing he regretted was that he couldn''t see his little girl grow up, but he knew that she would be fine. After all, she was his daughter. Staring into nothingness, his conscious was slowly swallowed by the darkness. "Dad!!" ----------------------- Alice, 15 years old, grown up into a fine girl, inside. However, her appearance was still like a elementary students who was on the older end, no matter how she exercised or kept a diet menu, her body won''t developed at all. Since the time her father gone away, the life was much harder for her and her mother. Despite the inheritance, the fees added up quickly, and after a few years, they were completely gone. Her mother accept various jobs in one day, worked from early morning till late night, sometimes she slept only 2 hours in two days, but the payment was just barely enough to keep her daughter to study at a faraway boarding school. Since Alice knew her mother was working hard, she kept on studying diligently, and earned a scholarship to decrease the school fees down by 80%. On the school, she was known for an intelligent student who never complained or being lazy. She was smiling all the time, gaining the favors from her teachers and friends. Life went on, it was already the time she was graduated from the secondary school. Being the student of the year, her future was shining brilliantly ahead. Once again, fate decided to make a twist out of her life. That night after the graduated ceremony, she received a call. Her mother was passed away due to illness, she hided everything about her disease so Alice could concentrate on her studying. Next morning, Alice was already packed up her luggage to go and see her mother the last time. The weather that day was gloomy dark, it looked like a storm will come soon. Pulled her luggage on the train groggily, she looked for a seat on a packed carriage. Looking out of the window, dark thoughts surrounding her mind. "Why everything is always wrong to me?" "Why did I even try to do my best, when there is no one left to praise me?" "I''m tired of smiling every day, nobody understood the real me. Actually, I''m getting tired this world.." There were shouting and running sounds behind her somewhere, but she didn''t pay any mind. Suddenly, the trains deviated from the rail and started spinning around. Alice was flung out of her seat and rolled around in the carriage. She heard some snaps in her body, but didn''t feel any pain, the only thing she felt that she was sleepy... The last thing she saw before went to sleep, was a pillar of light surrounded her body... ------------------------------------------------ The sun had went high up, but some certain person was still in their dream world. Lazily crawled in the blanket, Alice didn''t want to get up from her warm bed. Ten more minutes... After what like one hour later, finally a hand rose out of the blanket. Still feeling sleepy, she stepped out of the bed. The first thing which came to her mind was the black cat she picked up in the town''s outskirt. Stepped to the cat''s bed she made yesterday, the creature was nowhere to be found. Doing a quick logical analysis, empty bed + open window = she just lost a cat. But, I just bandaged (mummify) him for hours and fed him, he just ran away? What an energetic cat... Shrugged off, she went to do personal hygiene, then put some meat out of her inventory to make breakfast. Since she want to save some coppers, she always cook food by herself. Grabbed a piece of rabbit meat and put it on the frying pan, she burned the food up quickly. However, there was a slightly strange thing, she heard some kind a cat''s moaning somewhere in the house. Put the pan down, she started searching around. "Maybe the cat still stuck somewhere inside the house? If it like that, where can he be then?" Not in the closet, or the bathroom either. Also the under the bed was crossed out, and she tried to dig the house all around, but still, she couldn''t found the cat. Frustratingly. she sat down the bad once again. "Vreeeooow!" Caught off guard, the girl flew forward to the difference of the sound. Tried to breath normally, she picked her staff up and poked the blanket a few times. After confirmed there was no dangerous, she flipped the blanket open, only to find a flattened-looking cat, who was hugging a newly flattened tail, glared at her with accusing eyes. "So you climbed on my bed last night, right? Do you miss me that much, little cute cat?" She didn''t consider the cat''s feeling, nor its injuries at all, immediately swooped him up and squeezed him tight. The cat looked like it gonna ran anytime soon, even after he hugged her all night, now he still pretended like nothing. While thinking along those lines, Alice automatically pet the cat down, but then the cat stop squirming at once. Sniffing something out of the air. the cat used a front paw to point in a vague direction. "Meow?" Tilted her head to the side in the confusion, she turned around to see what the cat was pointing at. As it turned out, a pillar of smoke had formed on a particular object while the smell of carbon dioxide floating around the room. "My breakfast!" Quickly threw the cat aside, Alice sprinted to the burning pan. "Water Ball!" That was close, I almost burn the house again! Felt a chill in her head, she picked out the contents of the pan out. Almost everything closed to meat were gone, the thing she had right then was basically a lump of charcoal. Since it will be a waste if she threw it away, beside she couldn''t cook anything to substitute since the pan was burned and now had a hole in the middle. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. Separated the meat into two dishes, she turned around again and looked at the cat who managed to sit up right on the bed. With a charming smile, she brought one of the dish (the bigger one) front of the cat. "Your share. Eat it up before we go outside!" ------------------------------------------------ Flattened-tail cat''s POV After a night of being crushed under a somewhere-around-forty kilograms body, he couldn''t sleep anymore, therefore he turned on grumpy mode today. That inconsiderate kid dare to squeeze him around after sat on his poor tail, and now she asked HIM to finish that black lump of CHARCOAL that she couldn''t consume it alone! He switched his eyes between the dish and the girl who stared at him expectantly, then used his paw to push the dish to her. There is no way I can consume this.
Burned Rabbit Meat
Type:Healing itemDurability:1/10
Quality:Extremely Poor
This charcoal used to be the fried rabbit meat not a long time ago. Despite the bad look, this is still edible (to an extent). However, cautious (and antidote) is required just in case. Being made by a novice who never made a good food properly (lol).
Effect:+30% Satiety Has 20% percents of chance that you will stuck in the toilet for a whole day
Shook his head side by side, he indicate that he''d rather skip the breakfast than stuck in the bathroom. However: "Come on, I''m your friend. And friends are supposed to share the weight together, you know?" The girl pushed the dish back to him. Even you said that, why don''t you eat it first? The dish was pushed back again. "Meo" (Nope) The girl seemed to be thoughtful, then she suddenly smiled mischievously. She picked the cat up to her lap, then squeezed the cat''s tail. "Vraaooww - *gulp*" Shoved a mouthful of charcoal into the cat''s mouth while he was complaining, the girl smiled once again. Lucky for the cat, he didn''t get to be sick of the food. Although, his eyes blanked out and looked into a far distance. Decided not to take a chance, Alice dumped the rest of the contents into the trash bin. Cheater! He was annoyed seriously with this girl. If he hadn''t made a resolve last night, he would have gone away right back then. Nonetheless, he wanted to stick around with the girl to see where this route would lead him to. ----------------------------------------- After the horrible breakfast, the duo went outside to purchase various stuffs before go outside to level up, Although, it was actually one went shopping while squeezing the other in one''s arms. They didn''t buy anything much to mention about, a few herbs and apples, while the cat managed to persuade Alice to buy a while board for him. She wondered what the cat would do with it, but she didn''t ask and just gave him as an apologize for the morning. "Hey Alice, would you mind to help me with something?" "Miss Lelia, how can I help you today?" The seller, named Lelia or that''s what Alice called her, was a girl in her twenties. She was a beauty in the town, and people liked to keep her company every once in a while. With that appearance, I think she could be a model if she wanted. Shame that she was an Alchemy NPC though. "Well, I said that you can call me Lelia earlier. By the way, I need some Silver Grass to make some potions later, but I''m kind of busy right now. Can you help me to collect at least 20 of them?" "I think I should be able to, Mi.. Lelia. Just a little question though, where can I find these grass? They don''t sound like ones I see grew around the town.." "They are growing at a small cave in the North Alysium Forest, you can find it if you walked on the main trail of the forest, then when you see a lone rock stayed at a clearing, you turn to the left and go straight forward. There are a group of wolfs deep inside the cave, but as long as you don''t venture too far in the cave, you should be fine. I will give you 5 vials of Basic Healing Potion. And if you manage to subjugate the wolfs somehow, I''ll give you additional rewards! Are these conditions fine with you?" Alice didn''t hesitate about the details, she said with a cheerful tone. "Deal, I will get them right away. See you later!" Dang, North Alysium Forest again? My level isn''t sufficient for that place yet, I should stick around the outskirt befo..?! "Come on kitty, lets beat those dogs up! We are about to running out of food, and I''m sick with rabbit meats all the time already!" With that, she scooped the cat up again as he was trying to dive away into the crowd, then walk quickly to the familiar forest nearby.
Quest window:
Quest name:Grasses CollectingDifficulty: F
Description:Get at least 20 Silver Grass inside the cave in North Alysium Forest.
Reward: 5 vials of Basic Health potion. Increasing intimacy with Lelia.
Quest name:Subjugate the wolfsDifficulty:F++
Description:Clean every single wolfs inside the cave. 11/11 left
Reward: ??? Increasing contribution with Alysium town
Failure:Decrease intimacy with Lelia.
========================================================================= Author''s note: Sorry for late release, I''m studying for the EoY exams in 1 weeks, so a bit busy here and there. I will try to keep the story around 1 chap/ 2 days though. Chapter 8: Hunting time! Author''s note: #1: After read quite a lot of light novels, I realized that my characters seem to be too shallow for the story. Hereby, I''m very sorry for this and I will try to change the style of writing in the next chapters. #2: I''ve nerfed the forest''s level suggestion down by a bit since it would be illogical for a level 1 basically useless cat to fight against somewhat level 20 wolf who can tear off his head in one swipe. Other than that, enjoy the story and please tell me if anything should be change about the series. ----------------------------------------------
Asylium''s outskirt Day 03, 09:25:44 Pvt. "Black" 1st Assault Division, Neutral Mercenary Corps. Tutorial.
"Listen up, little kitty. As I''ve helped you before, you should do something to help me in return, right?" Who is the little kitty here?! Even though he thought like that, the other part was true so he could only slowly nodded to the girl as he confirmed it. "Good. Then tell me, what is the most important thing in combat that you need?" Being thoughtful for a while, he then quickly pulled his board out of the pouch. Grabbed a piece of coal that he kept since the morning, he began to draw something on the board. He could have used words instead, yes, but he didn''t want Alice to know that he is smart (more than her, or so he thought). Happily doodled for about a minute, he held up the white board once again, which now had a potion-looking objects on it. He didn''t forget to add some more bubbles inside the potions so they would look more real. "Good thinking. Supplies are one of the necessities that are always required on the battlefield. Without supplies, you won''t be able to fight against the enemies, and you won''t survive long enough for reinforcements, if the is one in the first place." Someone clearly plays too much FPS here. Held out some herbs in both of her hands, she said to the cat. "This green pointy leaf is Lara leaf, use for curing bad status up till level 10, which include weak poison, sleep, paralyze or charm." The last word she spoke with a slightly different tone. "Believe me, charm is nasty. Better stay away from it. And the grass here is the Lesser Silver Grass one, which is more common than Silver Grass, but they can''t be refined into potions due to bad quality." Clapped her hand together, she continued with serious face. "However, supplies aren''t the only thing you need if you want to keep your dear life. The most important thing is you need to have a strong heart to rush into the enemies without fear, to strike the panic into them. This is the basic tactic on the battlefield, surprise is an advantage that guarantee to flip the side of a battle." So basically you meant rushing in without any tactical plan?! "Other than that, keep your senses open at all time. We don''t need an ambush to be killed in one pitch of sound, since our level is a bit low compare to this location." The cat had figured out earlier that, if you aren''t in a party or be friend with someone, you can''t read some details from people. Even if you are, detailed information will still be hide if that person wished to. While he was being carried around, he had checked her level and surprised that she was only level 8, despite already had a class. Therefore, it should be one of these three conclusions: Either that you can learn to be a class at a level lower than 8, may be level 5, or you can pick a class at any time you want, or you will need to fulfill some conditions to unlock a class. Since he was a casual gamer, his logical was leaning toward the third options. Nevertheless, it was too soon to give out a concrete conclusion right now, thus he could only played his role as a normal cat by then. "Ahem!" Alice slightly coughed once to get his attention, "That''s it for the shortened theoretical lesson, we don''t have much time since I wanna go back earlier than 6 p.m today. I''ll give you 3 Lara Leaf and 3 Lesser Silver Grass, try not to use that in one go. That''s all I need to say, now we should start moving." I''ve played games much longer than you, missy. Let''s see who is the MVP instead. The cat thought that while sneering secretly. ----------------------------------------- Somewhere else, "Ange. are you sure this is the place?" A dark hair boy asked his fellow companion that simple question. He had a black broadsword on his back, and was using the binocular to look around at the surrounding. The place they were standing on was a cliff of a high snow mountain. The cold wind was cutting through their skins, not to mention the snow was falling hard as ice on their head. Saw no sight of the destination, he was annoyed and turned around to ask his friend again. "Ange, there is nothing look like the Lion Valley around here! Heck, I don''t even see how can a lion can live in this kind of weather..." "B-But there must be some kind of Snow Lions around here! I''m sure of it! The instruction indicated to this place as the destination after all!" A green hair elvish girl shouted back to him, her left hand waved the map around. While being taller than the boy, she sounded extremely childish and tried to protect her theory. " You kept saying about the Snow Lions all the way till here! Have you ever seen one before, you idiot?" "Idiot!? Hey, I know that I''m a tiny bit slow, but I''m not stupid! For your information, I have never seen one before, but since the instruction pointed here, there must be some, right?" With a hopeful tone, the girl pointed at a location on her map. "Gimme that." As he forceful snatched the parchment out of the girl''s hand, he carefully skimmed through the details. Searched for any related information on the page, he looked up to the elf. "Do you know how to read a map?" What do you see me as, a kid!? "Of course I know how to do it! Here, let me show you." Straightened the map out, she said while pointing on several points on the drawing. "We started from here, our starting town! Then we only need to walk down about 3 days worth." She traced her finger to another location. "From here to here, how could I make a mistake when it was that easy?" Asked with a somewhat trembling voice, the boy asked the girl again: "Then how do you know where is "down"?" Looked at the boy beside her like he had gone mad, the elf explained. "What''s with that strange question? While you opened a map, it''s a common sense that you put the south upward, so we need to go to the north if we want to go dow... Wait, what''s with your face?" The boy, who was trembling heavily and having a hand on his face, slowly dropped his hand aside. With a clearly full face of despair expression toward the elf, he walked step by step to where she stood. "Hey, what''s with that expression, is there anything wrong with your head? ... And why are you looking with that murderous gaze?! Stop right there, mister. I meant it.... Stop where you are! And don''t pull that big sword out to scare me, it won''t have any effe..." *Swooosh* "That was dangerous! I''m not kidding, don''t *swoosh* try to *chop* slice me! Help, anybody help! There is a crazy *swipe* killer right here! Heeeeelp!!!" The scene of a running elf and a furious human chasing after her can be seen clearly by every animals inhabitant inside the area. -----------------------------------------------
North Asylium Forest Day 03, 10:31:58
The green scenery once again entered the view of a certain prideful cat who was being put into a bag with only his eyes peeked out (at least he wasn''t being hugged any more). The girl stopped on the way to collect some herbs a little bit, and she would casually told him various stuffs once in a few minutes that he didn''t really care about. Just for fun, he would "meow" once in a while to role play a normal cat.
Skill aquired
Skill name:Acting
Level:1Progress5.04%
Description: Pick up an act that can deceive people so beautifully that they won''t know your true nature. If being practiced to maximum effects, even your parents won''t recognize you.
A non-combat skill? This one looks pretty nice, but the problem is, how can I act anything beside a normal cat? Meh, it would be much better if I have the shape of a human instead. Closed his window sneakily, he didn''t want Alice wonder why a normal cat can scroll the air like it was something touchable. She didn''t pay any mind and still was playing with her staff, really, what a simple girl. "Here we are, at the battlefield site." Still role playing a captain, eh? "Private, prepare to dispatch. Remember, eliminate any hostiles in the area without thinking a second thought. It''s us, or them."
Mission Update: Eliminate all hostiles in sight in the area (and recover the materials)
Don''t encourage that girl, status window! As they arrived at the forest, Alice put the cat down the road and pulled out her staff, prepare for whatever would come next. Since they still walked on the main stone road, they didn''t meet any strong monsters and animals in particular. Even then, the cat still felt like someone was watching them, like a certain bear that he met before. However, since he was traveling with another person, he felt a little better about the situation compared to the last time. "Hey kitty, look what I found!" Turned around to check on the kid, the cat found her hugging a level 1 brown squirrel in her hands. Looked like she found it on the side of the road, and now he had a substitute to be squished instead. Smiled ear to ear, the cat cheerfully continued to walk without a care. "Who''s cute little squirrel?" *poking poking* "He''s soft, and look at these long teeth! I bet it will feel good if I touch this spot.. Owie!" The squirrel after being poked for a while, became enraged and decided to take a bit out of one of Alice''s finger, "Catch him and beat him up, kitty!" The cat immediately pulled out his board and draw a quick message: ¡¥\_(¥Ä)_/¡¥ Serve your right, you animal bully. "Meanie! I would just do it myself then." Holding her short staff toward the escaping squirrel, she said with a small voice: "Frost Crystalize." The squirrel suddenly stopped with a hard break that it fell face first forward. Scarily stared at its feet had enclosed in the ice, it tried to crawled forward, but to no avail. The ice slowly engulfed the squirrel bit by bit, after a few seconds all left behind was a small statue of ice. "Now then, shall we continue the quest?" Alice went by the cat and picked him up again, while the black cat still looked at the ice squirrel. Not like he was scared, but instead he kinda wanted to have an ice cream. "Why are you standing there? The wolves won''t kill themselves, you know." Reluctantly removed his feet off the spot, he turned back and resumed the walking (trailing behind Alice, since she walked much faster than before). The girl wasn''t in her best mood, he concluded, since there were several ice squirrel statues on the way he went. By the way, his levels gone up by four, even when he didn''t do a thing... Maybe he can reach level 8 with this speed, such a beautiful life of a leech. Played around with his character points while still walking, he decided to tried his mmorpg style when he was back on Earth. It was one of the unique way to play, but since this style require a lots of luck, he couldn''t reach the top of the leaderboard in any of these games. However, since his luck was the dominated attribute right now, maybe he could play like that. However, he also didn''t have a suitable weapon right now to test it, so no go for now. So I will put 7 points here, 2 points over there, 1 here and 2 p... Oouf! This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. He slammed his face into Alice, didn''t notice that she had stopped for a while ago. "Ah, there you are. I was wondering where you disappear to." Said the girl who ran straight ahead without a care to her little companion. "Meow." "Alright, now we can either go in silently and drop them one by one, or use full force to clear them all in one sweep. Your call."
Battle option:
1, Going in sneaky beaky like. 2, Rush, hack and slash. 3, Run away like a boss.
Option 3 is out of question, I''m not the type who go all the way to the entrance then turned back. Besides, we can''t actually "die" here in the first 6 months, so why need running? Between the two remaining, the first one seems better, since I can understand the enemy beforehand. Option 1 that is. Held his index finger up, he indicated his choice to the girl. The thing he wondered is, why a human would listening to an animal instead of her own thought? "Going quietly then, try not to make any sounds" Alice whispered to the cat, even when there wasn''t anything nearby. The cave was relatively deep inside, but it wasn''t as dark as he thought. There was some gaps here and there on the ceiling of the cave, made observing a whole deal easier. On the other hand, if they stepped in the light, they would be spot immediately. He liked the air over here, damp and slightly wet with the smell of the old moss grew inside the cave. It was better than walking outside in the heat of the middle summer. There were some small blue mushrooms around, he wondered if he can eat them or not.
Arcane Mushroom
Type:Healing itemDurability:1/1
Quality:?
A small mushroom. ??? ???
His "Status"''s skill level was a little low to check on the mushroom just yet, but he still pocketed a few of them just in case he would hungry anytime soon. "Shhhh" Alice put a finger up front of her pink lips. Followed her gaze, he could see 3 black wolfs busy chewing their prey (a deer, not a person, thank god) a few steps ahead of them.
Monster status:
Name: Black Wolf
Level:7
Status:[/tds][td2] Eating [/td3]
Just a common wolf It is stupid, however Its bites hurt, a lots.
Level 7, above him three levels and below Alice''s one, last time she said that. Since they are busying with the meal, they can launch a surprise attack on them. Pulled the dagger Alice gave him before out, he prepared to jump in whenever Alice decided to. This girl, she already formed two small ice shards span in her hand, aiming at the wolves'' heads. The second the shard left her hand, he dashed out of their hiding place. The wolves who were being sniped in the head were dead instantly, with the critical hit, flanking and backstab statuses happened at the same time. The cat swung his dagger to another wolf''s next, but with his low strength, the wolf didn''t quite dead yet.
-38! CRITICAL HIT! -8 Backstab!
The wolf was surprised by the sudden attack, but it still could howled to alert its friends. The howl echoed between the cave''s walls, and was answered by several howls back right away. So much for going in silently. Spun his dagger in his right hand, he stabbed the wolf''s throat once more time.
-36! CRITICAL HIT! +13% Exp.
Seven wolves left. His health and mana hadn''t lost even one point, so he guessed that he could still win without the surprise element for now. Four more wolves rushed in to replace their deceased friends'' places. Alice stepped inside the battlefield, casting an Ice Wall to stop them on the track, resulted in two of them got stunned by hitting their faces on the wall. One of the other wolves jumped on the cat, hit him with a swipe. Held the dagger forward to block the damage, the cat still flew backward, slammed himself on a cave wall.
-21 hp
One hit and my health drop by two third! I need to avoid that next time or else one crit and I would be gone like a wind! Quickly chewing a grass, his health rose by 15 hp. Not much, but that would keep him going for a while. Stood back up, he dashed to the wolf once again. The wolf was determined to give him another swipe, but he ducked beneath his claw to avoid the attack, then jumped aside as the wolf tried to bite him. Slice the wolf on the side, he succeed in reducing the wolf''s health by 17 health. Not to lose a second, the wolf jumped on him this time. Kicked the surface under his feet, the black cat pulled back just in time to avoid a body slam. Used the dagger as a level, he plugged the short dagger down and slingshot his body toward the wolf. Put out his claws as his natural weapons, he quickly slashed on the wolf''s head.
-14 -13 -16 -10 -17 +13% Exp.
Finished the wolf with a jab to the eyes, he stepped on the wolf proudly. Then, he remembered about Alice and turned to the left to check on her. The number of wolfs in her field by then was four, however, one became a frozen statue, while other three were attacking on her. The little witch didn''t have time to prepare her spells, she was clubbed the wolves using her wooden staff, but looked like she was going to be overrun in any second now. Since he hardly defeated a single wolf by himself, he doubted he could help her somehow with the little dagger. Then, he smiled. It''s time for my secret weapon. Pulled out his whiteboard he persuaded Alice to buy it for him, he already had this idea since the beginning. "Arghhhh!" (Lion Roar!)
Skill Notice
[td2]Skill name:[tr]
You have succeed in making an unique skill!
Lion Roar
Level:1Exp:15%Using an extremely loud sound to distract and stun the enemies. Can cause ear bleeding, and can friendly fire sometimes. +50% to stun enemies up to 3 levels above the user. (5 seconds) +30% to cause bleeding (2hp/ sec for 10 seconds)
Using his sharp claws, he scratched the backside of the board skillfully (as skillful as a cat can be). A loud "Screeee" sound echoed between the walls, left two wolves in a daze whereas the last one was bleeding out. Took the chance immediately, Alice clubbed the bled out wolf to death in two hits, while the cat closed his distance with the wolves. Take this! Drove the dagger onto a wolf''s back, he was aiming for another backstab bonus. Still, the wolf regained his consciousness in time and twisted his body out of the harm way. Slashed back with its claws, it aimed for the cat''s head. With his impulse, the cat couldn''t stop to avoid the attack completely, he tried to parry the claw instead. "Clang!" The wolf''s claw impacted on his short dagger, stroke out a white spark between them. With the cat''s low strength, he couldn''t hold it tightly and the dagger was flung out of his reach. Damn it! Without the short dagger, his damage output was downed by almost 30%, and he couldn''t aim for critical body parts such as neck without the thing. In such moments, he was somewhat relief that he still had his claws to fight against the enemies. Rolled back a few steps to avoid another claw, he noticed that even with a parried attack, a partial damage was still transferred to him. Chewing another glass (the taste was kind of bitter, he didn''t really like to use this), his health immediately jumped back to 80%. With only one grass left, he would need to be careful or else. Glared back to the growling wolf, he began to think how to attack it efficiently. He couldn''t use his dagger for now, neither his board, since he would need a few seconds to prepare the self-made skill again, and who can surely said that the wolf would wait for him to do it? No, he wouldn''t dream about that. Impatiently growled, the wolf didn''t want to wait for its opponent anymore. Sank his knees down for a little bit, he used the elastic force to ran up and ready to pounce on the cat. For the unarmed cat''s side, he felt like he couldn''t dodge this pounce, it was too fast for him. There was nothing to lose, he quickly pulled the board outside and sprinted to the running wolf. With full force, he flung the board. "Aorrg!" Eat this! He slipped. His right foot stuck in a single small trench on the ground. The board, however, flew straight to the pouncing wolf''s head. With a surprised hit on its face, the wolf was going in a daze and missed its target by a hair''s breadth. Even with his painful leg, he wouldn''t drop this opportunity. Chance! Curled his hand into a fist, he used all his strength to punch the soul out of the wolf!
-30! Your right arm is broken! This injury won''t be heal by herb and potion. -15 self-damage. +13% Exp.
Owiiee, that''s hurt... Hugged his right arm with a piercing pain ran through his body, he sat back down to take a breath. Like what the status said, he ate one of the leaf to try, but the only thing that go away (partially) was his pain. He could still moved his hand, but the pain would came back to him. "Look out!" Turned his head around just to see a wolf ready to chew his head out, he shuddered. The cat forgot that the fight was still going on! No way to run anymore, the cat accepted his fate and closed his eyes, ready for the incoming pain. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- #3: Sorry for the long wait! I was stuck on some real life problems, and got this delayed more than I estimated. By the way, when I came back, I got a new 0.5 stars rating for the story without any comment :| . It''s good that somebody reviewed this story, even the rating was somewhat bad, but it let me know that I need to improve the story. Therefore, I would try best to write better ^^. If anyone like to review, please put down some words so I need to know what to improve! Best regards, Hane. Chapter 9: A box inside a box Things like "I closed my eyes and wait for the pain to come, but after a few seconds, I didn''t feel anything." are absolutely miracles, but they can be found in any novels out there, you know? Therefore, I decided to change things a bit... --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Look out!" Alice shouted to get the cat''s attention, but he was too slow to move on the spot, while the wolf was going to bite him at any second now. Pushed her own wolf aside with her staff, she scraped up the last mana drops she had been saving for emergency situations and aim her hand between the two animals. "Ice Bolts!" Immediately, two small shards made of ice had left her right hand, and flew straight to the other wolf, pierced through its heart out. However, with the kinetic motion was already in effect, the wolf didn''t stop dead on the track but managed to land on the curled up cat. Not gave her a chance to think about her little companion, the wolf bite her on her left arm which was extending out just after she finished casting. Endured the agony, she took a hold on the wolf''s teeth firmly, while flung the staff into the wolf''s eyes using the momentum to generate the force. Howling in pain, the wolf released her hand and took a few steps back. Immediately close her distance to the wolf, Alice gave the wolf a few good bashes until it completely gave out. Ignored her pain for now, she ran to the cat''s last known location to get a check on him. "Kitty, are you okay?!" No answer for some seconds, she had readied to lift the wolf up to dig the cat out, using her normal arm with the staff. Luckily, the wolf body began to move, and a small black cat crawled out slowly under it (more like wiggled wiggled). Gave out an unhappily face, he pulled up his board with some strange symbols on it, as she could decipher it as:
/^#$@&%*!?
Though Alice didn''t know what the cat was trying to say, he looked okay, mostly. Felt like she just unburdened a large weight on her mind, she sat down and tended for the wounds. There were various cuts and scratches on her small body. most of them already healed up during the fight, but one of her arm now was completely unusable. That wasn''t a big matter though, since it wasn''t her dominant arm anyway. The cat dusted himself up from the ground, slowly hobbled towards Alice. Without the strength of his right forefeet, it was such a hassle to move around. However, since they already finished the wolf horde, he no longer need to worry about fighting anymore and just pretended to be hurt to have a reason to be lazy. After a while it took them to bandage themselves up and rested, the duo finally started to explore deeper into the inner of the cave. Despite being a deep cave, there weren''t any insects or animals inside beside the carcasses of the wolves at the front. The moisture sure was a nice touch though, that and the fresh air helped the cat partially forgot about the smell of blood and sweats he just endured not a long time ago. That wasn''t the only surprise, after about half an hour they ventured and explored around (no treasure chests were found that day), they found an exit to the other side. Exposed to the bright sunlight once again, he squinted his eyes up as an ineffective way of protection. There was another circular piece of forest on this side of the mountain, not large as the one outside, but the size still large enough to cover a small park for children back at his old world. "Hey, isn''t this like a box inside a box inside another box? Then is inside this forest here should be another smaller forest?" Alice asked no one in particular, or maybe to ask herself. She had received this kind of gift once before, and got only disappointment in the end after all. Tilted his head to the right, the cat was deep in thinking again. The forest ahead of him was quite, different from the one outside, the trees in this place were all tangled up with each other, created a ring barrier surrounding with a main trail in, which seemed to be the only way, then the grasses they need should be in the center of the forest. However, there was a chance to encounter ambush as well, consider it was the only way to enter the tree barrier. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. Pulled out the piece of charcoal, he drew a small mouse trap to indicate his thoughts to the girl, who looked like she was ready to walk in right away. "Hmm, there is actually that risk, however, didn''t we clear all the wolves outside already? What kind of monster can be hiding inside after these dogs blocking the way here?" Shaking his head, he also didn''t know anything more than the girl. If there was anything inside, it would be stronger than the wolves outside quite a bit, or the amount of them were outnumbered. Either case, it wouldn''t end well if they rush in rashly without any preparation. Erased everything he had on the board, he replaced them with the wings-like and the question mark and presented to to the girl. "Naw, I can''t fly. What do you think, an ice specialized mage can fly around and bombard the enemy from the sky? Nope, my level isn''t that high yet." She said that blankly with a shrug, shut down one of the choices he could make. Blasting through the forest wouldn''t be a good idea either, since they would announce the presences to the party inside anyway. Digging a tunnel would take weeks, and there was nothing warranted where they would end up underground without any sightline. Maybe, if he sat on one of the icicle and flew into the forest.... "How about you go scouting ahead and I follow after a safe distance? That way, we can have some leeway before encounter something dangerous." Alice crouched down and poked her finger at the cat. "You know, since you are small and all, I think you won''t be spot that easily." Well, that was an option too. Brushed the finger that kept poking his cheek aside, (Alice replied to this with an "Eh~") he signaled the girl to stay wherever she was, and slowly strolled (read as crawled) into the heart of the forest. Just to make sure, he also hid into a green bush to camouflage himself to any unknown threats could be around. Step by step, he walked close enough to the trail, but tried not to be too obvious. Still, even when he tried to stop and observed ahead of him, there isn''t any movements whatsoever, or suspicious sounds, only the sound of leaves vibrates together through the summer wind... This is so weird. Not mentioned to something big as monster, where have all the small animals inside the forest gone off to? Maybe this forest is safe, he thought so. He was ready to went back to where the blue hair girl was, but when he turned around, he was surprised to see a row of green bushes laid behind him. Turn on his caution mode, he moved a few steps ahead to check, and glanced back only to saw the distance between his and the other bushes hadn''t increase at all. Now that he knew, there were several unidentified creatures tailed him since a while ago. It was suspicious, but since they hadn''t attacked him yet, maybe they weren''t any dangerous creatures. Thinking like that, he swiftly turned around. Couldn''t caught up with his sudden movement, the bushes bumped into each other while the first one behind him flew out the two white rabbits. As to replied to his stare, they just made smile-like faces, and then jumped back to their bush. Feeling annoyed, he went back personally to check all the bushes in the row. The result was, besides the first two rabbits, there were squirrels, wild cats, a family of birds, racoons and several small animals he didn''t see anywhere before. As he went to the last two bushes, he had completely put down his guard and only curious to see which creatures were left in the bushes. The one which he stood front of right now, was an anomaly bush right there. This one was visually larger than the others, the size of it should be bigger than an adult back in his former world. Maybe a deer, or a bunch of animals inside this one, he guessed. Climbed up on top of the bush, he used his paws to sweep the leaves aside, revealed a patch of brown skin under. The creature pop his head up out of the bush, locked its eyes to the small cat''s eyes, and smiled. "Boo!" It said so. The creature was the bear he had met not a long time ago. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- AN: Finally I can touch the pc :p. Was gone back the countryside for the whole summer, now I''m back for business. Unedited version, I will proofread it later probably. Chapter 10: Minutes before fight. "Boo!" The bear said that with a smile. Such simple word, nothing scary. Yep, just like the line of a normal stuffed bear you can buy in the children''s store, the kind that says "mama" when being poked at. He wouldn''t lie, if he didn''t see the owner of the voice before, he would think the creature in front of him was being harmless and all. Well, if only he didn''t know about the bear. The cat was baffled and confused, how should he react to the bear right then? Maybe "Hey, long time no see, how are you these days?" in the cat language? He didn''t think it would work, though. While the cat was stunning, the bear was clueless as well. He didn''t know where he was wrong or something, since the cat''s no longer seemed to be in this world. Maybe he could help the cat to refocus his mind... "Mew meowie ..." (Hey, how are...) "ROARRRRR" "WEEEeeeEEhh" Being scared out of his wits, the cat dived down his bush immediately and start running straight on the other way. All the other bushes seeing one ran ahead of them, and a (looking like) angry bear behind them, they started to run in every possible directions. Looked at all of his friends ran away, the bear still clueless at what was going on. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Is he still behind me? Woah... Not looking back, the cat sprinted straight ahead. jumped over gaps and rocks, dodged one tree after another, but he could still feel presences behind him. Two, maybe three, he didn''t know for sure, but they had tailed him since the moment he ran away. They kept on running and running, for at least ten minutes already, the cat began to run out of his breaths, as he never bother to practice sports in his past life. The dazzling light shined on his eyes, as the trees were clearer in this part of the forest, he could see a field about one minute ahead of him, with the main reason he came here, Silver Grasses. The problem was, before the grasses and the field, there was another obstacle on the way: A big wolf. Well, let he rephrased that, this one is bigger than the bear, red like a flame, and snored bigger than the sound of trees being felled. Stopped to a halt, he leaned his body next to a nearby tree and peeked at the wolf. So it is exit the bear, enter the big goddangit wolf, eh? Still breathing harshly, the cat observed the wolf while thought that he was forgetting something. Heard the rustling sounds of leaves being stepped on behind him, he turned back and see what was the cause. And then it hit him. Actually, and then they hit him. Out of the first bushes were the two rabbits again, with the same smiles again, just that this time they landed on him instead. The second bushes flew out a small girl with a white ribbon on her hair, a panic look could be seen on her face and the place she was going to land on was also the cat. Saw the flying human bomb incoming, the rabbits quickly rolled out in time, but the cat wasn''t so lucky. "Owiieee" "Gurruuu" One hit her head on the ground, and one being splatted to near death again. Although he must admitted, the wolf was more fluffy than the girl on top of him right now. "Found you, katty!" Squeezed the unlucky cat into a hug, Alice pet him like he was an ordinary cat. Wiggled his body to get back to the ground again, the cat was half curious why this girl was here, since she volunteered to wait back then. Notice his sight was locked on her, she brushed her hair aside from her eyes, and explained. "I''m bored." Well, what could he expect from a child with a head like her. "There was nothing to play back there, so I just stayed back then for a bit then started following you. I also met these twos on the way" She paused as she brought up the smiling rabbits, who were rolling next to her, to the cat''s eyes lever. One waved its small hand to him, while the other one cheerfully bite on Alice''s hand, but she didn''t seem to mind. "And then we found a line of bushes walking ahead of us, they looked fun, so we decided to join up!" One track mind. The cat rolled his eyes, and turned his back to check on the red wolf. It was still sleeping soundly, fortunately. Open his inventory to recheck, he still got one grass left for healing, some mushrooms, a few herbs for magic regen, and a broken dagger. His injury was better than before for a bit, his right forearm was still sore, but he could move around freely without too much inconveniences. Let''s check the status then.
Status Window
Name:KattyAlignment:Neutral Good
Level:6Class:None
Race:Beastman - Black CatGender:Male
Titles
none
Fame:0Infamy:0
Basic Status
Health:22/22Health Regen:1% / Sec
Mana:10/10Mana Regen:1% / Sec
Stamina:30/30Stamina Regen:1.5% / Sec
Strength:15Agility:22
Vitality:12Endurance13
Intelligence:20Wisdom:14
Leadership:0Luck:46
Attack:18-21Defense:3
Elemental Resistances
Fire:0%Water:0%
Wind:0%Earth:0%
Light:0%Darkness:0%
Abilities
???
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. His luck growth was truly exceptional compared to the rest of the stats, while health and defense were crappy as hell. He got a bonus of 6 damage out of the broken dagger, so his true damage was just around ten, which was actually half of his health. Notice a small blinking icon at a corner of the status, he clicked it.
Perk aquired!
One-time Notice
Every 20 levels, you can get one support perk and one combat perk from the random 5 perks available for each. For the beginner, you can get one at level 5 and one at level 20. (which means the next perk comes at level 30)
Support Perk
NameDescription
Quick feetGain a 5% increase in movement outside combat.
PitifulIncrease intimacy with normal people Decrease intimacy with nobles.
TranslatorAllow the user to use one language fluently.
MinimizeLower your hitbox by 5% Also make you smaller for the same percentage.
Sweet toothEating candy now provide a smal bonus in effect.
Combat perks
NameDescription
OpportunistMini-crits now counts as crits
BerserkerIncrease damage and speed attack at low health Decrease accuracy and agility at low health
Lone wolfIncrease 10% of damage while soloing.
Flame retardantLower fire damage received while surrounded by flame. Decrease wisdom and inteligent.
PeashooterLower damage, increase attack speed.
Free perks! Although many of them came with set back, he had never complained about free things before. However, looked as useful as they can be, some of them weren''t compatible with him. In the support column, he didn''t need to be smaller than he already was, and he didn''t want to eat candies all day long, so Sweet tooth and Minimize were out of questions. Pitiful also out, since he didn''t anyone to look down on him. Between Translator and Quick feet, he thought that Translator was more useful for him than the other, since he could blend in dark places to hide easily with his body, while let him talk with his party member was a good advantage. Same deal with Combat Perk, Lone Wolf was good for solo, but since he was stuck with the three idiots for now, the bonus wouldn''t help much, especially with his nonexistent damage. Berserker, Peashooter and Flame retardant all had too much disadvantages, which left him with Opportunist. Although he didn''t know what was the difference between mini-crit and crit, but bigger crit should be suitable with his build. Clicked at the options, he sat there and waited for the changes to happen. And he waited. And waited. For an entire five minutes, nothing happened, besides the three idiots behind him playful biting each other. Where was the light that suppose to drop on me while I obtained new powers? The cat asked himself that question, but none the answer came. Giving up, he returned to what he had been doing, to observe the oversleeping wolf on the field. However, when he peeked over the rock, the red creature was no longer there. Worried, he turned back and asked the little cryomancer. "Hey Alice, where did the wolf ... go!?" Chapter 11: Ticket to home. "Hey hey, what are you doing, setting a campfire when we are going stealth?" Behind him, the girl had been setting up a fire with a small cooking pot while he was testing the new system, and now she was throwing vegetables and something look like tree roots into it. "It was already past noon, so of course I''m hungry! Hurry and help me chop the carrots." Alice pouted and pointed the ladle at the cat, making demand on him. However, even she was hungry, can she eat the MREs silently? If the wolf discover them, they would be in big trouble, as in send back to the village by the life express. "Can you leave it till later? We aren''t on the camping trip, what if the wolf come over here?" "I don''t care. I won''t move an inch before I got my lunch." "Pretty please?" "Nope. Look at the red wolf, it went off to hunt for its meal already. You can''t find with an empty stomach, yes? Come over here, the soup is almost boiled already." To prepare a big meal before fighting almost next to their opponent, the cat doesn''t really understand how her brain really work. Although, she did have a point, regaining a bit of their strengths before the fight wasn''t bad idea. Sighing, he walked off next to the fire, and began to toss several pieces of chopped carrots into the pot. This time, the blue hair girl''s product wasn''t bad as last time, in contradiction, it made a sweet smell, which made him thought of the cooked potato soup with pork ribs back at home. This thing shouldn''t be bad, he thought, as the girl happily swirled the ladle around. Pulling two dried coconut-half from her bag out, she drawed the soup evenly for each of them. Look like his guess was correct, his share contained several pieces of potatoes, carrots, roots which he didn''t know the name, and meat. "Here you go, it was a bit hot, so don''t drink it all at once." I''m not a kid, the dark cat wanted to retaliate, but since she went out of her way to cook for him, he stopped before the words left his lips. Bring his "bowl" to the eyes, the warm yellow mixed with a few pieces of red carrot flicked up and down the surface with a rhythm, and the brown piece of meat at the corner of the bowl, everything made his mouth full of saliva. Borrowed a spoon from Alice, he tried to taste the soup. A warm delicious substance flowed down his throat, with the perfect boiled small cutted meats, he realised that he was damn hungry, as he had eaten nothing but coals and herbs since the morning. Putting aside the lack of spices aside, his only regret right now was not having a bigger mouth. "It was good, wasn''t it?" asked Alice with a beaming face, she had finished her share already. Just who talked about don''t gulp it all at once a few minutes ago... At least she didn''t stuffed her face in the bowl already. " A few vegetables with some rabbit meats can always make a good meal, my grandmother taught me that." Swaying side to side, she puffed her board chest up proudly. Although, there was a wrong word here that made him nearly choked. "Excuse me, what is this meat again?" "Rabbit meats. R-A-B-B-I-T. What, you are allergic to rabbit?" The cat''s mouth was hanging open. Rabbits, as not in these friendly rabbits right? As he recalled her title again, he suddenly wanted to run. There was no chance he''d risked his neck for someone''s hunger. "Fufufufu, look at your face. Nah, they are right here, I''m not that inhumane, you know." Pretend to puff her cheeks out, she lifted the pile of vegetables up, and voila, there they are, innocently gnawing on the carrots and cabbages. As he breathed out heavily in relief, he recalled something was missing. "Then whose meats are these?" "Wolf meats, I collected some of them when you were resting back then. Only a wolf and we have the meat for one week, if it doesn''t spoil." Rotating a scalpel in her hand, Alice made the stabbing and cutting motions. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. The gear finally clicked in its place. So that''s the reason she got the "Animal butcher" title. She cut out any animals after slaying them, for rationing. In a way, that''s handy. In another way, that''s scary. Mental note, don''t stay around Alice when she is hungry. Quickly finished what''s left of the soup, he asked Alice for some waters to cleaning , " ''cause you can summon them", which she replied as "you want your hand stucks on the ice? Sure, go ahead." Luckily, she stocked on some water, so he didn''t need to try the suggestion. Also, it was convenient for them, the wolf after finished the hunting, went back to the old place and slept there again. Wondering the wolf previous life was a pig or not, the four of them (the rabbits rode in Alice''s hood) snuck round about the big creature, using the universal stealth device, the box bushes. If they can avoid the wolf, who looked like at least double their levels, and get to collect the herbs as soon as possible, that would be the best course of action. This time, he ensured that there wasn''t any extra bush behind them. ============ In process of sneaking =============== They didn''t really need to disguised as the bushes, as it seemed. The wolf was sleeping still, it even snored like the sound of thunder strikes. Even when they walked right by him to get to the targeted area, the wolf didn''t move his tail by an inch. Felt like an idiot for making too much cautions, the cat shut his mouth and didn''t mention anything about it. The other three still behaved like their normal selves. albeit they tried to make less noises (and failed completely at it). The field which was seen from afar, actually only contained a small batch of Silver Grass mixed up with the other plants and weeds, all of which they didn''t know the names of. If one of them pick the Alchemist related class, they might knew that some of them were good ingredients for the other quests too, but since that wasn''t the case, they only picked what was assigned (they as in the cat and the girl, the rabbits were playing tags around). Although, the number of true Silver Grass was a bit too few, they were still able to pick a handful of them, plus several mana regening herbs that the cat had already forgotten the name, with a bunch of lesser grass. Also, just to be on the safe side, they only chose the high quality grass among them, as Alice happened to have the Appraiser skill on level two. As the sun came down the horizon, their works here were finished. They had carefully gathered 24 good quality Silver Grasses, 31 lesser quality one for self-sustained, and some of The Herb, as the cat decided to shorten the name down, since he would forget it at any times. Now they only need to reach home quickly, before the night was fully drawn out. The red wolf was still snoring there peacefully as if nothing happened. Could it be, they could avoid it this easily with his high luck stats? The black cat didn''t know it for sure, but his code was never look into a gift horse''s mouth, so the sooner he could get out of there, the better his day would be. Tip toed around the red wolf, who didn''t react at all, the cat passed without any trouble. The rabbits also hopped over the wolf effortlessly, however he questioned himself if it was necessary to jumped over the wolf''s head instead of moving around him. With only the girl left, they could all went home without any worries, right? And the day would end without any scratch on him beside the cracked hand, wouldn''t it? Well, not today. Of all the way she could pass, the blue hair girl decided to pass over at the end of the wolf''s rear end. And it would went unnoticed, if the wolf didn''t choose the moment Alice jumped over to turn his body around, conveniently placed his tail under her predicted landing place. Looked like he would get a first class airline ticket back to the village today as well.