Chương 24: Tail

MY TAIL! You FUCKING BITCH! I immediately turn around and start savaging the sharkman. I barely even think, letting Cat-Like Reflexes handle my dodging as I jump all around the shark man, tearing him to shreds with my claws. The other two try to help, but they don't fare any better. After no more than a minute, all three are dead, and I am still tearing the first one into a bloody mess. I cut his stomach open and find my tail within.

It's covered in blood and slime and even though it was only in there for a minute, it looks half dissolved from the stomach acid. I glance back at my now naked rear. There's almost nothing left of what used to be feline perfection. A bloody stump not more than a centimeter or two long. I am going to find every seafoodman in existence and eradicate them.

"Genocide" won't be a strong enough word for what I'm about to do. Those bastards have turned me into a tailless cat. That's worse than if they had shaved me! [Calm down.] Calm down? You want me to calm down?! You think I can be calm like this? I look ridiculous! This would be like if they took your blue! Can you imagine if you were just clear instead? That's what it's like! [It'll grow back] I'm not a lizard. [And you're not an ordinary cat either. With your Resilience so high, there's no such thing as a permanent injury.] … Wait, really? [Yes. Didn't you notice that you've already stopped bleeding? Also, don't you remember your Calorie Burner Trait that's included with Gluttony?] Vaguely. How does that work again? [Calorie Burner (Stage 3): When injured or exhausted, you will heal faster at the expense of Satiety. Current Satiety: 85618571%] Oh, right! So I won't be a tailless cat! That's great! [Yes. So you can calm down. It'll probably be fully healed in just a few days. And even if none of that was true, you would still fully heal the next time you evolve.] Hmm, yes. I am calm now. I'm still going to kill all the seafoodmen though. If I wasn't so special and awesome, I would be a true tailless cat now, and that would be unacceptable. Their attempts to mutilate me only failed because they underestimated me. They must pay for their sins. [… Well, good luck with that then, I guess. I'm rooting for you.] That sounds sarcastic.

[It's not. If you do that, you'll level enough to evolve, and then I get to play with new System features, so I am genuinely rooting for your efforts to be successful.] Oh. Well, thanks. I glance back at my tail and see that the end is already healed over. I guess this isn't the end of the world. I look down at the sharkman who is now barely recognizable as a sharkman. Completely deserved. That's what you get for eating my tail, you bastard.

I take him into my Stomach, then start collecting the others, but when I get to the third octodude, I finally reach the limit of Stomach of the Glutton. I have finally eaten too much. I didn't think it was possible. I hope it gets bigger next time I evolve.

"Blergh!" I finish gathering the rest of the seafoodmen, leaving behind some of the basic fishmen. Sorry, my food! It's not that you taste bad, it's just that these guys taste better! Then, I run back toward where I killed the jellywomen and take a big bite out of the squishy head. It tastes like… nothing. I take a bite out of an arm. It also tastes like nothing. After a few seconds, I brave a piece of tentacle hair. It tastes like pain. Apparently those tentacles are full of little barbs.

Probably poison too, but I don't feel anything. I'm pretty sure I have a poison resistance Trait. That's disappointing. The jellywomen aren't inedible, but they don't taste good either. There's no point in hunting them down. Not for food, at least. I still take these two into my Stomach, just so that I have them, but I don't think I'll be seeking them out much in the future. A firm D tier seafood. Well, at least now I know.

And now that I've eaten, I can finally look at all those Annoying Blue Boxes that I've been ignoring. Most of them are kill notifications, but it looks like I've also leveled up, which is nice.

[Gluttonous Feral Fiery Spatial Devourer Thief House Cat, 8 → 10] [+32 Power, +44 Finesse, +40 Resilience, +28 Memory, +28 Willpower, +28 Sensitivity] [Beginner Mana Vivitect, 4 → 7] [+12 Power, +12 Finesse, +12 Resilience, +72 Memory, +72 Willpower, +60 Sensitivity] Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. Royal Status Window! [Name: Yona] [Age: 0] [Species: Gluttonous Feral Fiery Spatial Devourer Thief House Cat. Tier: 1. Level: 10.] [Class: Beginner Mana Vivitect. Tier: 1. Level: 7.] [Profession: Locked] [Titles: Second Lifer, System Breaker] [Traits: Cat-like Reflexes, Gluttony, Spatial Affinity, Nimble, Fire Affinity] [Stats] [Power: 460 (+210)] [Finesse: 661 (+299)] [Resilience: 564 (+256)] [Memory: 830 (+374)] [Willpower: 848 (+382)] [Sensitivity: 762 (+344)] [Skills: Slice (Upgrade available), Stomach of the Glutton, Bite of the Glutton, Snatch of the Glutton, Blink, Ember, External Mana Manipulation - Anatomical Constructs of the Glutton, Meditate of the Glutton, Anatomical Blueprint, Phantom Limb Control, Anchor Point] Wow, my stats are really big.

When did my bottom three stats get so high? [When you leveled up your Class. It gives a lot of those stats.] Huh. Interesting. And what's that I see at the bottom? Slice has an upgrade available? Don't mind if I do! Upgrade Slice! [Upgrades available for Slice Skill:] [Greater Slice: Make thinner, preciser cuts] [Fiery Slice: Make a thin, precise cut and burn the target at the same time] [Spatial Slice: Make thin, precise cuts using the power of Space! Cuts made with Spatial Slice partially negate physical defenses] [Slice of the Glutton: Make thin, precise cuts on edible targets. Compatible with other Gluttony Skills and Traits] [Slash: Make deep, long cuts] [Rend: Make messy, imprecise tears] Well, Greater Slice, Slash, and Rend are all out immediately because they sound boring. What's up with Rend too? Isn't that a downgrade? [It's much stronger, and wounds made by Rend are more difficult to heal. It's actually a very powerful combat skill with a strong upgrade path] Huh. Well I guess it's un-out then. For now. Fiery Slice is probably the next one out. Wouldn't that make it weaker? That would just cauterize the wound. … and Rend is back out. It might be strong, but it's too boring. Spatial Slice and Slice of the Glutton both seem much more interesting. Which now leaves me with a tough choice…. Abby, which one is better? [They both have their merits, but in my opinion, you should choose Spatial Slice] Okay.

I choose Spatial Slice! [Slice has been upgraded to Spatial Slice!] [Make thin, precise cuts using the power of Space! Cuts made with Spatial Slice partially negate physical defenses. Proficiency: Early. Includes: Scratch, Slice] [Are you not even going to ask why I recommended it?] You're the System expert. If you say it's good, it's good. [… I'm flattered, but I really wanted to explain, so I'm going to do it anyway. Slice of the Glutton is definitely powerful, and would continue to get more so as you evolve, but it would also indicate the end of the Skill's evolution path. That wasn't a problem with External Mana Manipulation because the Glutton option more or less took you where you wanted to go in the long run. Plus, if you did want to specialize later, you could always just do it manually. However, with Slice, adding Spatial properties to it is much more useful in the long run than tying it to Gluttony right now. Spatial Skills are rare and powerful, and ignoring physical defenses will help you overcome your greatest weakness, which is your relatively low Power.] Makes sense. Alright, well, that was fun, but I'm going to take a nap. My tail hurts. [You should-] Yeah, yeah, I'm not an idiot, I'm going somewhere safer. I run the opposite direction of the village a little ways, then find a tree with a nice, cozy nook between branches and settle into a comfy position. My tail stump is already starting to regrow.

Hopefully it's back in the morning. Goodnight Abby. When morning came, Skarn's subordinates still had yet to locate the Dungeon Core. They had scoured both land and sea, yet couldn't find any sign of it. Skarn planned to send them out again the following night, but if that failed, that left him with one of two options: either there was a hidden cave system somewhere that the Dungeon Core had spawned in, or something else had taken it.

It could have been a bird flying off with something shiny, but Skarn had a nasty feeling it had something to do with the cat. Unfortunately, dealing with the cat would have to wait until nightfall. On top of all his subordinates needing sleep, he had more pressing matters to deal with. Or rather, one pressing matter. Flarn. She still had not said a word to him.

He was certain that she understood him, as he knew that the System granted Named Monsters that weren't Disaster type the ability to speak, but she had not deigned to speak to him. He had done his best to make her feel comfortable. He gave her the best room. He showed her the small palace he had his subordinates building for him underwater. He even gave her some of the best cuts of human meat he had. She had eaten the meat at least, but still didn't seem particularly impressed with him.

"Please just tell me what you want," he sighed as she ignored his advances for what felt like the hundredth time.

"... I want to be alone," she said. Skarn's jaw dropped, and then he immediately felt foolish. Of course she wanted to be alone. She was a Hermit type named! He had been a fool for sticking by her side like this.

"Of course, of course," he said.

"Just let me know if you ever need anything else."

"Mmm." Skarn left her to be alone in the underwater cave and immediately gave an order for the other -oids to avoid the area. It was a bit difficult, considering her cave was at the very center of the territory, but it would have to do. Elated that he had finally made progress with Flarn, Skarn felt fully energized as he swam back to the shore. Ordinarily, this would have been when he went to sleep, but he wasn't feeling tired, and he had a few things he wanted to check.

First was that there was a squadron of tier 2 monsters who had gone missing up the coast. He assumed it was the cat, but he hadn't thought that it would be capable of taking out an entire squadron on its own. He needed to investigate. Second, the area where it had slaughtered many of the tierless and weaker tier 1s had not been searched as thoroughly as the rest of the area. He wanted to check both places before sleeping, hoping to find at least something useful before he retired for the day.

He started up the coast. He found blood and traces of battle, as well as an odd pile of lightly nibbled Ichthyoids. The missing corpses of the 2nd tiers tracked with the cat's history, but the odd appearance of the Ichthyoids was new. They had clearly been killed by the cat's claws, so Skarn could only assume the cat had learned a new trick. He focused his senses on his surroundings, trying to check if the cat was still nearby, but while he caught its scent, it was hours old, meaning it was long gone.

There was no way he could catch up. Disappointed, he turned to head toward the part of the territory where all the weaker subordinates had died. While he moved, he kept his mana sense peeled for any sign of the Dungeon Core. The tierless and tier 1 subordinates were great in number, but their senses, especially on land, were lacking, so it was possible that they had just overlooked something. Unfortunately, he found nothing during his journey, and reached the location of the slaughter even further disappointed.

There, he found more bloodstains, but again, no bodies. He scoured the area for any signs of the Dungeon Core, but found nothing. The energy he felt as he left the water was entirely gone, and he turned to head back to the water for the day when he suddenly heard a rustling in the distance. The cat! he thought happily. He immediately went toward it, hoping he would finally be able to get rid of the thorn in his side, but when he pressed through the foliage, he was met by a sight that was most definitely not a cat.

[Human, lvl??]