“The mountains. They’re hollow.”

The three of us—me, Reed, and DeGalle—stared into a hole near the mountain’s base, all while researchers and drillers worked at their boulders more frantically than before.

Apparently the person originally drilling it had only gone so far as to make a hole twice as deep as all the others. Only after the results and the panic they brought on had a larger team sawed out what we were seeing: a massive chasm, big and echoey enough that inside you could hear a pin drop. And if you looked up, the ceiling was a chasm too.

Even Reed didn’t feel like arguing with this destruction. She and I listened with worried faces (and tail).

“As you can see,” a campsite person noted, “the edges have been crushed into poledust.” Sticking their arm way in, they dragged their fingers along the sloping lower edge, pulled it up, and showed off the sand. It had come off in a layer so thick that it dripped. “But underneath that layer, it’s just solid rock again.”

“And how many mountains is this affecting?” DeGalle demanded to know.

“Well, we’ve only tested the one,” they said, and gestured up to the tallest of the spires. “Shall we test mo—”

“Test more.”

DeGalle fiddled with the toothpick. “That’s no ambient magic. Someone’s making this happen.”

“W-we have to go,” Reed blurted out. “This is too much for us.”

I meowed curiously at her, wanting to ask, What’s up? Are you scared?!

But then I thought better of it. More likely she just wanted to get out of here before we got tied up in their…situation. And before anyone suspected us of the wrongdoing.

It was clear, though, that no one was exactly paying the two of us much attention, not even the guards.

While I was still wondering how things would play out in the camp, it was probably gonna be more of the same: drilling more holes, and seeing vast pits. This investigation wouldn’t end today!

—Woah, speaking of investigating.

I kept forgetting about the notification from way back, the one my goddess herself was apparently angry that I’d been neglecting. Then again, short of suffering direct celestial wrath, cats are gonna be self-directed and stubborn to the best of our ability. Just speaking in general. And Sierra had yet to kick me in the face or anything. Just metaphorically, in the heart.

Still. Map.

image [https://jmassat.com/wp-content/Catgirl%20System/Map/Map78-1.png]image [https://jmassat.com/wp-content/Catgirl%20System/Map/Map78-2.png]

Current Location: The Kaugs (S.A5)

Sub-Location: DeGalle’s Camp

If this Treasure turned out to be the cause of the hollow mountains, then…then maybe by not getting it sooner, I was the cause of this stuff! However indirect!

But I wasn’t gonna beat myself up over it, not right now. I was in action mode, wide-eyed, starting to scan the area to try and pinpoint the Treasure out in the world. No sign of it yet. Meanwhile, Reed was talking to a guard, evidently trying to see herself out without giving the preoccupied DeGalle a chance to incriminate her.

Uh, Map, can you…zoom in any closer in on that?

image [https://jmassat.com/wp-content/Catgirl%20System/Map/Map78-3.png]

Closer?

image [https://jmassat.com/wp-content/Catgirl%20System/Map/Map78-4.png]

Closer but stop doing nothing but making it blurry, please?

Error: “but stop doing nothing but making it blurry, please” is an Invalid Request.

For crying out loud! Okay, zoom, enhance.

image [https://jmassat.com/wp-content/Catgirl%20System/Map/Map78-5.png]

Ah, here was something handier. Maybe.

For most scenarios restricted to a single Map square, my Map didn’t provide detail worth a darn. It showed me, the Treasure, and no other living entities. But it did at least present some general environmental features. Crudely drawn mountains stood in a ring around me, and the tallest one in real life, fittingly, looked tallest on the Map! I mean, none of it was to scale, but at least that helped me confirm I really was closest to the tallest of the spires.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Critically, the Treasure was just a few mountains away from the campsite. And it wasn’t on a peak…and I couldn’t see a hollow.

Zoom, enhance?

Zoom limit reached.

Detail limit reached.

Then this would have to do.

Reed was starting to leave the camp—hurry out. I followed her for a few moments as she power-walked, saying, “This is gonna be a mess, isn’t it… I wish I could—”

“Meow,” I said gently. At the same time, I not-so-gently jabbed her in the shin.

“Agh!” She hissed in pain. Oops, that was…way harder than I intended. Leveling Up so much threatened to give me monster strength, and I’d have to learn back. But later! I could apologize and do all that later!

But at least Reed stopped as I gestured. With my paw, I traced a path in the air: go straight ahead, but then curve around the outside of the mountain ring a little. I needed to find that Treasure.

She nodded, breath heavy already. My heart was starting to pump. She broke into a trot and so did I, and instead of going back between the guards, we veered over toward some hefty boulders. I was surprised by how quickly Reed wrangled herself through even the close-packed rocks. Maybe she’d learned from the journey here!

I’d never been proud of anyone else before, but suddenly I had an idea of what it meant to be proud of a friend—and with my eager eyes, I urged her on.

As we circled over toward the west, we also circled into the shadows of the highest Kaugs, and a few boulders that jutted sideways like cliff rock. Splotches of shadows hid us. We began to see our breath. Mid-stride, she swapped out her coat for something a little heavier, with furlike cotton around the collar, and yet I could tell it wasn’t quite heavy enough.

She spoke between deep breaths. “I trust you, completely, and I’ll be—we’ll be fine—I’m sorry I didn’t get you any—get you any coat…”

I could have smirked. As long as I wasn’t losing HP over it, as long as I wasn’t freezing to the bone, I could weather this.

For a few minutes, anyway.

We hurried to the site of the Treasure, and I stopped dead.

Checking the Map told me I was nail-bitingly close. When I looked up, I indeed saw nothing—a gap revealing sun and sky. Kaug spindles seemed to rise upward and outward, radiating from me.

I needed to tunnel. I was close to snow.

It went up in flurries as I paved tracks through, filling myself with the confidence of a jackrabbit, headed for the Treasure. Then I only had to squirm my way through a crevice—it seemed to be leading to a hollow—

“Wait!”

I wish I could, Reed. You’ll have to wait or bust in.

Map!!

image [https://jmassat.com/wp-content/Catgirl%20System/Map/Map78-6.png]

Note: Your Player Marker is currently blocking a Treasure.

Straining my bones through a hole between clustered rocks, I struggled, blinked, and emerged. I fell an inch or two into total darkness, tore through it with my piercing eyes. My feet landed on soft snow, and I looked out on more snow, slates of ice, and dirt. So much dirt, and on the walls of this hole, they crawled upward, packed in close with rocks.

Several cats could fit in here—and almost live comfortably. Sniffing, I detected all manner of animal smells, as if many passed through here but few stayed.

Actually, there was a kind of underlying smell, a little acid, that took me off guard. It seemed familiar, but I couldn’t tell for the life of me whether it was the smell of certain wet leaves after rain, or bark, or mulch.

I could zoom no further on my Map. Apparently, my Taipha Marker remained directly on top of it. So the Treasure was right next to me? Or above? Below?

I swung my head around, saw nothing. Dimly I heard Reed calling for me outside, and I sent back a loud but gentle meow. At least, I hoped she’d perceive it as gentle. Reed couldn’t even fit down here without squatting.

Something hit the dirt. Two Fire Spells, dropped down from where Reed was. I picked them up, bringing my count to five—and this alone could be very good help if things got deadly.

I preferred not to start a cave-in before even attempting to dig downward. So go down I did, scraping through the mulch. This was extremely hard, fatiguing work. Not surprising, since it was, after all, ninety percent rocks, but tinged with sadness because I’d been hoping my raw strength would be enough to just blow through! Instead, I was scratching out dust.

Hm. Well, I didn’t have Skills and full SP for nothing. And I still had three Attack Ups on me, so I didn’t mind using one.

ATK 108 (+50%)

Now: Slash!

It ate through rock, actually shattering it. I could not have been happier with this result.

That’s a lie. If it’d been a critical, and sent searing blood up through my limb in a glorious feedback jolt, that would’ve been spectacular. What I got was still cool, especially as it melted, then sizzled snow around me.

Underneath the rock was a small, curved, sandy hollow. But the sand was silver, and somehow I knew it wanted to crawl toward the south. Importantly, underneath it sat the item.

The book. One of the ones Sierra’d had, that she’d wanted to show me for her mysterious goddess reasons. The massive one that resembled marble. Good thing I was about to get a cantrip for reading, because these illegible things were about to drive me up a wall.

Maybe it was a diary—on its edge, keeping together a slender chain, was a lock.

I slipped it into my Inventory.

I couldn’t. I forgot I had all five slots taken…and two were so situational they were admittedly garbage. Darnit. Well, no problem, I’d just push it over to Reed and she’d take it!

As I thought up the plan, a startling change swept through the hollow.

Pustules rose from the dirt.

There was no other way to describe them. Round and solid clumps thrust themselves up from the spots of mulch. What little light reached down here made them glisten like so many worms.

Ew. Ew. I wasn’t squeamish, but something about this combination of the slick and the unknown was making my stomach start to seize. In fact, my instinct was to back away—without having grabbed anything.

But I wasn’t gonna do that. Instantly I swatted the book, started pawing it up out of the depression. I had a mission to fulfill, and it was going to be a quick, easy—

The pustules exploded. And I knew I was wrong, they were living beings. A swarm of krigries converged on me, out to claim their book.