Catgirl System

Boughs waved in the wind high above a stone path. A cluster of deep-red berries tumbled from a branch, hit the stone, and splattered across it, thanks to my clumsy paw.

I’d climbed to the top of a tree just above the stone, and now that the tree was curving at a dangerous-feeling angle, I held on for my life. Literally: my HP was below 10 percent, and while the two squirrels who’d just fought me on those stones had lost interest and scampered away, what if it was a feint? What if they came back?

I could’ve just run off, but instead…I really wanted to read that path.

Seeing it from up high, though, revealed that it wasn’t a path after all! It was just a super-big stone. The letters across its cracking surface, choked with grass and dirt, spelled out a message that felt like a challenge. The harder I looked, the less they would stand still.

But I kept staring anyway, daring the letters to freeze.

 After a while, some of them did.

… …A… C……A…

… …A… … … …A…

… … …T… …A…A… …A… .

…TA… TA… .

Uh…some of the arcane human knowledge lodged within me said that the letters I was seeing represented building blocks of the word “cat.”

But why? Why even?!

And it didn’t even make any complete words! Was I supposed to guess the rest of them? Was Sierra—sacred holy goddess of nekomata—toying with me? Was she the host of the worst session of Wheel of Fortune in the galaxy?

…Well, maybe I could take a stab at the last two words.

I stared hard at them for about ten more seconds, and that helped me gauge how many letters were left to be guessed.

_ T A _ _

T A _ _ .

Nnnrgh…my stubborn streak wouldn’t let me leave this alone.

What words even had TA in them? Okay, let’s cycle through them. Bta…cta…dta…

—I shook my head to shoo the thoughts away. I had a whole day of exploring ahead of me. I could use my time better by roaming.

Or by healing a little bit, since I’d gotten that Catnap skill just before I Evolved.

I yawned, backtracked down the tree to a more stable branch, quickly scanned the area for big immediate threats, then took a much-needed nap.

Quest: Decipher the Path-Sized Stone
Progress: 0% (0/15 Words)

***

EXP: 89% (1330/1500)

HP: 57% (131/230)
SP: 43% (80/185)

I woke up with 50% more HP than I’d gone to sleep with. And feeling far from perfect, but I’d had decent days at lower health in my former life.

I slinked down my tree. There at the roots, scurrying cluelessly past me, was a boll weevil. With one paw and a puff of dust, I smashed it.

EXP: 89% (1335/1500)

Then I squinted, sniffed it, thought of my empty stomach, and…ate it.

Eeeugh. At least it didn’t seem poisonous.

I emerged from this patch of trees, pointed myself due south, and just ran.

Low hills stretched before me, speckled with bushes and berries and birds, undulating like the waves of a river. The afternoon sun, shining above thin corkscrewy clouds, was crisp across my back as I ran. I felt as one with the rhythm of every movement, in a way I never had with the bustle of the city or even with the calm of the Earthbound woods.

Maybe that was because I was starting to feel like a part of this ecosystem.

And that was weird, wasn’t it? I was some hybrid being out of touch with both sides, away from my birthplace, and recently having rolled, in utter shame and disappointment, away from the one person I could call a companion.

But I was also having genuine fun.

And I liked running.

It was just that simple. At least in this moment it was simple.

A new window winked past my vision:

Quest: Explore the Vencian Wood
Progress: 17% (5/30)

And the next Map square glittered before me.

The hills were leveling out into a vast plain dotted with clumps of trees—and with ponds. At first I thought those small ponds were big chunks of slate, but the closer I came, the more I saw, in their reflections, white cloud trails and bluish-lavender sky. No wonder herds of goats were clustered around them.

I thought I could see rabbits, too, poking their heads out of burrows, bounding free. A handful of birds arced through the sky, their wings like blades chopping the sun.

Treasure Detected!
Check your Map for the location.

I’d finally gotten to the point where I didn’t need to stop, or even pause, to check out my Map. I could do it on the fly, like an experienced driver with a GPS that also inexplicably blotted out nine-tenths of their vision. Gimme the Map.

Current Location: ??? (S.A3)

According to my data, the Treasure was almost right in front of me? Great! Better than great!

According to my eyes, it was—in a pond.

With big startled eyes, I stopped a few nudges short of the pond’s edge and hoped the goats at the other end wouldn’t realize how taken-by-surprise I was. A few of them had nasty horns. Mostly, though. they just looked dull and slack-jawed.

I looked at them. They looked at me. One of them mewled. Together they went on drinking.

Phew. Back to the water, then—certainly one of my worst enemies. I sneezed, an aftereffect of yesterday’s rain and a harbinger of troubles to come.

Tentatively, with the tip of my paw, I swished the water.

No, I didn’t even swish it. I just poked it.

The surface rippled, blue and smooth. I craned my neck. The watering hole was just clear enough for me to see them: long, gorgeous red-and-white fish among the pond grass, swimming in tangles. Koi?

I looked like a goat—my mouth was hanging open.

Treasure could wait. I remembered the horrific boll weevil “meal” I’d just had, the undulating hill-like waves of my tortured stomach. I flexed my claws.

I snapped at the water with my jaws open wide—and on the first try, I caught one!

Ouch, ow! The koi thrashed wildly, slapping me with their back fin and their head uncountable times per second!

HP: 41% (95/230)

Guard!

My entire body got that odd wiggly feeling, fortifying itself. The fish slapped me a few more good times, but nothing I couldn’t take.

HP: 35% (80/230)

Considering how powerful this koi was and how close I was to Leveling Up, I felt secure in doing what I was about to do.

Swipe!

I forked the fish with five charged-up claws. That put a stop to it. Then I hunkered down to eat my catch, wondering if the goats were jealous of my unique feline digestive tract.

Level Up!

Righteous!

Lv. 10 → Lv. 11
EXP: 15% (241/1650)

HP: 100% (258/258)
SP: 100% (203/203)

ATK: 41
INT: 26
DEF: 30 (+1!)
WIS: 19
SPD: 37 (+1!)

Yay, more Stats! But also: aw, more vague concerns bubbling up to the surface! I’d noticed that on every Level-Up, I got precisely two bonus Stats from my training, and they were never both in the same Stat. Had that meant that when I got a lump sum of Experience from a Quest—like the one I finished over at that chapel—I got zero bonus upgrades?

How much would this matter? Well, possibly not at all. It all depended on whether I had a maximum Level, or whether I’d ever even reach that Level.

Levels sure were mysterious, huh?

…Help Desk Levels.

Levels are a System’s primary means of augmenting the power of its Users. The higher one’s Level, the higher their—

Oops okay I already knew that, let’s skip down to the relevant stuff.

The Level Cap for each individual is determined by sysadmin. The sysadmin of this System is Sierra, the Goddess of Nekomata. (She is currently unavailable, though she appreciates cards and flowers.)

I appreciate cards and flowers too, Sierra. Too bad I never get any.

New Skill!

Slash: Attack with supercharged claws. Short activation period, but high chance for critical.

I…whuh?

This sounded decent, especially since it seemed to let me attack with two paws instead of one, but… “high chance for critical”? I didn’t know what that meant…

I flexed my jaws. Poor jaws. Poor teeth. They didn’t have any cool moves, but a stronger bite would be so useful for catching fish.

I cleaned the bones of my lunch and brushed them aside. The koi had been a good meal, but not quite filling. I’d need another, and maybe another on top of that. And I might as well get one more for the road.

With one front paw in the air, I scooched as close as I could to the watering hole’s edge and…

Slashed.