I started to scramble up the jacket, trying to climb out of my master’s makeshift pouch. In the meantime, Julie continued:
“Damn, if only I had my magic artifact to summon a stone golem! Maybe then we’d be able to fight off the pack. Only I gave up that shiny orange card when the bad men were searching us. Could you give me a knife or a spear? Anything is better than fighting monsters bare-handed.
I finally managed to climb my way out of my master’s jacket and stuck my face out, greedily gulped down fresh air. You could have washed your damn coat and jacket before sticking me down your front, Sergeant! Your clothes stink after that long night and all that running! I nearly died. Woah!
The picture that appeared before my eyes made me instantly forget about my not entirely pleasant minutes under the jacket. Ten pairs of eyes far off in the darkness gleamed red, and the deadly lights were approaching fast.
Damn! My Magic Points hadn’t fully restored after I slowed and weakened Badass. I had enough magic for one beast, if that. In the meantime, my master was doing something strange. In spite of the coming danger, he’d crouched down and was rooting around in his backpack!
“Where is it… It was right here… Gotcha! Julie, can you use this?”
Sergeant stood up, showing his young companion a shiny blue card. What was it? I studied the strange item with interest.
Level 33 Snowstorm artifact (single-use)
Requires 18 or greater Intellect.
Wow! I don’t know where my master might have gotten such a trinket, but that single-use artifact really could help us out, hide us from the pack tracking us, maybe even kill the night beasts. If only I knew how the thing worked.
ATTENTION! Luck check failed.
Uh-oh! That was an accident. I didn’t mean to activate the card at all. I was just looking at the interesting item and touching it with my paw. My ears flattened in fear and I climbed back under the jacket, because something unimaginable was happening around us — the whistling wind was deafening. Sharp hailstones hit me in the snout. White clouds quickly hove in from all sides in sharp contrast to the night sky. Already hidden, I heard Julie’s frightened cry:
“Take me by the hand! The wind is carrying me away! Ahhhhhh!”
Your character is now level three!
Reward: three skill points (total available: six) and one mutation point (total available: two).
I don’t know what happened outside for the next half an hour, since I was practically deaf from the roaring wind (the Radar Ear skill isn’t always useful, it turns out), and the frost pierced right through my thick fur and Sergeant’s jacket. Even my increased resistance to cold, still active since my dinner in the Chimeric Cougar’s cave, was no help. My hitpoints still slowly leaked away. It wasn’t serious — one or two damage a minute — but it didn’t bode well either. My owner got it bad too — he nearly dropped dead from the cold. He’d given his sweater and warm shirt to Julie in her vulnerable state. The humans wandered through the snowstorm, unable to see their way and losing all their energy. From their broken phrases, all I learned was that we had to get as far away from the chase as possible for the night beasts to lose the scent.
To avoid wasting time during the snowstorm, I tried to close my mind to what was happening and studied the options for skills. I could add three more useful survival skills, and I had to use that chance. Most of all, my kitten’s critically low Magic Points — just nine at level three — annoyed me, and I was looking for ways to improve it. The Mysticism skill caught my eye. It increased mana amount and regeneration speed by 1% for each skill level. I had to take it!
Level one Mysticism skill learned!
4 of 6 possible character skills at level 3 chosen.
Potential class removed: Troublemaker.
Potential class added: Spontaneous Mage.
The maximum amount of Magic Points didn’t change and was still a humble nine points. That was no surprise — a one-percent increase was too insignificant, and the game didn’t seem to use fractions. But I hoped that the effect would be more tangible as I leveled up; the more I advanced, the stronger it would be. I also saw the option to upgrade the Mysticism skill by investing a mutation point. Interesting, interesting…
Possible mutation: Absorb Sacrifice (costs 3 mutation points, use requires preparation and tools).
Partially or fully refill your Magic Points by sacrificing a living victim on a stationary or portable altar. The effect depends on the level of the victim sacrificed.
Interesting ability, to fully restore my mana in a critical situation, only not for a kitten. I couldn’t lug a portable altar around with weak little legs and no inventory, nor could I quickly kill anyone with my terrible penalty to damage.
Possible mutation: Blood Shield (costs 5 mutation points).
Completely restores Magic Points by spending half of max Health Points.
Uhm… Thirty-two hitpoints into nine mana. Didn’t seem like the best exchange rate. But maybe that was just for now, and later the ratio would get better? Anyway, in some situations extra mana could really come in handy, could even save my life. I’d need to keep that option in mind. In the meantime, I only had two mutation points to spend, which clearly wasn’t enough.
I kept looking at the other skills and even found a few interesting ones (Stealth again, for example), but decided not to take anything for now. The elemental violence had ended anyway. I could climb out of my hideaway. The snowstorm ended sharply as if we’d left the area of effect of an ice spell. It suddenly got warmer. And, no less important, the sun peeked out from behind the mountains. The night of terrors was over. I looked around. It looked like the humans had gone through the mountain pass and were already descending into the valley. I saw a green forest and hills, heard the murmur of streams.
Sergeant called a halt and dropped his pack, lit a fire and suspended a kettle over it to boil water. By some miracle surviving the whirlwind of snow, Julie sat by the fire completely exhausted, warming her hands. Both humans sat silent. I took advantage and jumped onto some stones. I felt the desire to stretch my legs and take a stroll, see the surroundings. The girl grabbed me instantly.
“He’s so cute! What’s your kitty called, Sergeant?”
“Nothing yet,” my owner answered somewhat indifferently while pouring some rice into the boiling water. “Answers to Furball and Dumbass, or anything else, for that matter. But you can name him, if you want.
Now I tensed and even trembled in fear. My fate was being decided. I really didn’t want to get some nickname like Douchebag or Dumbo for the rest of my days. Julie unceremoniously turned me over, belly up, and inspected me.
“He really is a boy like it says in the description… I’ll just call him Whiskers,” the little girl said. The rice-stirrer nodded.
ATTENTION! Your character description has changed!
You are now: Whiskers. Kitten. Male. Sergeant’s pet.
Ugh. They could have just not named me. I would have got Whiskers by default at level five anyway. Although it wasn’t the worst option, I thought. Something like Leopold or Limper would have been a lot worse. So now I was Whiskers. Nobody would have believed that a day ago!
In the meantime, Julia examined my fur carefully, blowing on it and even petting it with her delicate fingers. She told Sergeant I had no fleas and my fur was clean so I didn’t need a wash. Thank you very much, young lady.
Mixing the rice with a spoon, the man deftly opened a can with a knife and poured the contents into the bubbling pot. It smelled delicious. I realized with surprise that the spiny rat from the Chimeric Cougar hadn’t lasted me long. My Whiskers was already starving. The half-depleted Hunger bar also showed that my kitten was rapidly losing satiety points, and he needed to eat at least four times a day. Well, I’d just have to get used to that diet.
I whined weakly, hinting at the giants that kittens needed food too. Fortunately, the humans understood and left me a little meat in a can. Praise the heavens! How little a man c
ould need to be happy! I mean, a kitten.
“He’s purring!” Julie said in awe, her generous hand adding more meat to my can. “Adorable! I’ve thought about your offer, Sergeant. I’ve decided to go with you. A bad man couldn’t have such a wonderful kitten. And that means you’re good and kind and I need to stick with you!
Chapter 8 [Sergeant]
Along a Stream
“TAKE THIS. You’ll have a good weapon!” I proudly handed Julie the spear.
No longer a primitive improvisation knocked together on Badass’s knee, but a fearsome weapon. It had taken almost an hour of time, a ton of nerves and a piece of steel wire to attach the well sharpened and serrated head into a lengthwise cut in a solid branch stripped of bark. What I’d made was a kind of hybrid between a light spear and a harpoon, perfect for a short and not very strong girl.
Why mess around so long, you ask? Sounds like a ten-minute job? I thought so too, at first. Only when I started working did I realize that I was missing a skill: level 1 Weapon Crafting, or at least level 4 Item Crafting, or level 7 Mechanic. Without one of these, the game world wouldn’t let me make anything more complex than a stone axe or sticks scorched on the fire.
I chose Item Crafting, although of course I was tempted to go for the more specialized and easier to obtain Weapon Crafting route. What changed my mind was the thought that I’d need a lot more than just weapons to survive in this new world! Making a primitive fishing rod, as I soon realized, also required the special skills Fishing or Item Crafting. Even building a shelter any more complex than a pile of branches required the Construction, Architect or Item Crafting skills. How could I get that many skill slots?! I was trying to waste as few as possible by choosing a single skill for all of the above. Then I had to work a while ninety minutes to level up my chosen skill. First I made the simplest bow, then a set of primitive arrows for it.
The Item Crafting skill leveled up painfully slowly. Maybe making arrows with stone tips wasn’t the most effective way to learn it, or maybe I was missing something in the game rules. It really did seem like the game hints were too short and vague, didn’t give precise descriptions of skills, items or stats. Maybe my Sergeant’s intellect was too low? Nah, bullshit! Must have been that the game was new. It wasn’t all polished and clear to noobs yet.
Be that as it may, it took an hour and a half just to get to level three in Item Crafting. Not wanting to waste the rest of the day doing onerous and boring work only to meet the darkness ill-prepared for the cold, in the end I gave up. I still had free skill points! Now was the time to use them! I invested just one single point for now, preferring to save the other five for a rainy day. Like with most RPG games, I suspected it got harder and harder to level up as you make progress, and the points you earn come in handy more later.
Item Crafting skill increased to level four!
Potential class removed: Soldier.
Potential class added: Craftsman.
I had no plans at all to spend my saved-up mutation points yet. The recruiter in the old-fashioned suit spoke of limitless possibilities, breathing underwater, even wings. I’d already checked the game manual and seen that such fundamental changes to my character really were possible in this new world. Although it required preparation, a high enough skill and character level, a bunch of rare ingredients, and most of all, it cost a ridiculous amount of mutation points. I could get just wings on my back for seventy mutation points. Only without the Flight skill, high Strength and Agility, an expanded ribcage, lighter bones and plenty of other changes, the wings would only be decorative.
It wasn’t that I was really planning on growing wings, although I have to admit, I’ve always dreamed of flying like a bird. I just didn’t want to waste the four mutation points I had at the very start of the game on garbage. For example, I turned down Venomous Touch, a modification for my Hand-to-Hand Combat skill, which cost exactly four mutation points.
The work on the light spear turned out tiresome too — polishing wood and sharpening a blade, and especially notching it to make it serrated, cost Stamina points. The game went so far as to suggest I should take the Zeal skill, which would let me save energy while crafting and reduce the crafting time of anything I’d made once. I refused; no need to waste all six skill slots right out of the gate.
The sun rose and even started to roast us a little. It felt as late as ten o’clock in the morning by the time I was done. Yeah, it took a long time to make, but it was worth it! Perfect for hitting little fish in the stream. Though I hadn’t yet seen even so much as a tiny minnow in the ice-cold water here right next to the snowy hills, I really hoped some life would show up in it. I was also only a tiny way away from level four — the progress bar already looked full, but was missing a mere few experience points.
Julie slept while I worked. I didn’t wake the girl up. I could tell the previous day and two sleepless nights had been tough for her. She badly needed that four hours of rest. But now it was time to move on. Julie practiced working her spear a little, puncturing a rotting tree trunk. We drank some hot tea just before we set off, filled up the thermos. I poured water over the fire and buried the coals and unburnt wood with wet sand, hiding the traces of our camp. Couldn’t be too careful in a dangerous, unexplored world.
Your character is now level four!
Reward: three skill points (total available: eight) and one mutation point (total available: five).
Potential class removed: Grunt.
Potential class added: Tracker.
Funny that the first three classes the game presented to me, Thug, Grunt and Soldier, had already changed to an entirely new set: Tracker, Craftsman and Watchman, although I’d only spent half a day in the new world. What next? What game class would it stop on? I couldn’t know, but for some reason I could tell this wasn’t the end. Me, a Craftsman? Fat chance. I’d die of boredom if I had to sit at home and craft things all day. And being a Watchman or a Tracker seemed strange with my low Perception.
“AAHHHH! Snakes!”
My traveling companion screamed and pointed to something in the water. We’d found our first locals — two yellow snake heads stuck out of the water at once. Although… they were one creature! It was a snake with two heads that converged into a single six-foot body!
☠ Level 35 Two-headed Whipsnake.
The skull symbol next to the creature’s description and the alarming orange color of the nameplate put me on guard, to say the least. Fortunately, the snake paid us no attention. Even my companion’s hysterical scream didn’t bother the reptile. All the same, we gave the creature a wide berth before returning to the water’s edge and continuing along the stream bank.
Further along, we began to see snakes regularly in the stream and its shallow pools; usually ordinary ones, but plenty with two heads. None of them were as high level as the first; they were between level two and six, and the creatures’ descriptions were the most ordinary gray. Soon other streams began to flow into ours, and in little more than an hour, we were ambling along the bank of a broad and torrential mountain stream. Midday approached. The sun burned indiscriminately and without mercy. Heaven for the snakes, sunbathing on the rocks in droves. Dozens of them, if not hundreds.
Julie was almost always the first to notice a snake in the river or on the bank. Nonetheless, in spite of my low Perception, I was the first one to spot a danger of another type. Descending along the stones toward a small blue pool, I saw a beaten path disappearing into the forest. Next to the bank was a rough shelter of sticks and bark. Beneath it, snake skins and the bodies of small fish hung drying on thick threads of wire, already gutted and cleaned. Some smoke rising from behind a neighboring hill also drew my attention.
Tempting to think it a cause for celebration — we’d found humanity! And there was fish in this new world after all. I didn’t bring my fishing tackle in vain! But something put me on edge; in the wet ground, I saw a myriad of tracks from clawed feet. This was the dwelling of some tall, bipedal creature w
ith long claws on its back legs.
Tracking skill increased to level three!
Eagle Eye skill increased to level five!
I immediately remembered AXE’s words about the village of man-eating werewolves beyond the snowy pass. That treacherous cutthroat wasn’t exactly trustworthy, but still, it made sense to scout out the unknown settlement. I looked around and pointed out a big cliff to Julie. It came right up to the shore of a mountain lake, right next to a small and loud waterfall.
“I’ll climb up and take a look around from up there. You hold the cat and guard my backpack!
The girl nodded silently, picked up our furry friend. I set off for the cliff, unraveling my rope along the way and looking for a way up. If I could throw a loop over that gnarled and dried-up tree about a third of the way up the cliff, then after that there was a convenient crack in the stone as if made specially for me. On the fourth attempt, the loop caught on a branch of the gnarled old tree and I began to ascend. I got to about seven yards above the ground, when suddenly…
Luck check failed!
The tree branch broke with a disgusting crack and I fell back-first right into the mountain stream! Agony lanced through my left side as it hit a stone jutting out of the water. My vision even dimmed from the pain. I must have chipped or even broken a bone. But far worse, the stream’s rapids were dragging me right to the waterfall! I resisted, tried to swim against the current, although I don’t think I had much chance with my injured left arm. At the same time, I seemed to instantly forget years of training in the school swimming pool. Instead of a confident crawl or breaststroke, all I could do was flounder helplessly. The current got even stronger. Now I was flying downstream, and the waterfall’s roar drowned out my desperate shouts.
A Cat and His Human (League of Losers Book #1): LitRPG Series Page 7