I wished I could’ve had eyes in the sky to watch what the mud dragons were doing when I cannonballed deep into their huge pond.
Sure, maybe they had been rampaging just as fiercely as they had been when I was up above the surface. But it was funnier to imagine that the moment I’d disappeared, they all went “phew, she’s totally dead now”…or did the exact opposite, thinking “holy crap, where’d she go?!”
Turning the whole place over for what might’ve been their equivalent of an especially pesky ant.
While my Leap from the bottom of the lowest trench hadn’t brought me all the way up to dry land, it did send me careening into a mud dragon’s body. It could’ve been a tail, a neck, or a limb. Didn’t really matter—I just latched on and got ready to spring off. 136 SP wasn’t much, but it was definitely enough to Leap again.
It turned out I didn’t have to, because the thing was a limb and it went kicking up into the sky.
This was the first time I’d seen one of these dragons raise a front foot, and I assumed it meant they were furious. The intensifying hisses and beginnings of fresh roars were another sign.
As I clung to the scaly kneecap and looked out at the crowd, I realized something…
I still need a whole claw from one of these creatures!
(Eighty-five percent of a claw, but, uh, that wasn’t any better.)
I almost sighed aloud. While I did hate the idea of doing this, I hated the idea of leaving without a cantrip that could save my life and the lives of others more. So as the dragon’s limb completely left the mud, I inched down from the kneecap and used the last of my SP—almost the very last—on another Skill.
Slash.
And carved my claws into that toe with as much viciousness and vengeance as I could muster.
A mud dragon launched a volley of wind at me. I just shut my mud-encrusted eyes and weathered it—not paying attention to my HP, only knowing it was low. I didn’t care. I just sliced and sliced until my wrists wanted to burn away. My plan was just to finish carving and then get to safety.
I finished the grisly business. Then I flung the spoils as far away as I could in a single crack of my neck. Then I flung myself away. This got us both to the shore, and that was enough.
With a Treasure in my Inventory and a more dubious, lizard-toe-shaped treasure in my mouth, I sprinted away, and all the while, the less exhausted part of me was laughing.
Victory!
As I got myself to a bit of land that seemed to not have too many little crawling spiders, I finally took a seat. That Victory message was good to see, but the fact that it didn’t come with details was really a pity. I mean, did the dragons feels affronted? Were they proud ‘til the end, barely willing to acknowledge cat superiority?
Well, whatever. I drew first blood on a bunch of dragons! Now I got to gnaw on a toe half the size of my body. And I, um, also got to quench my thirst using the vein. It’s more practical than drinking from a Water Spell, and I forgot to bring a canteen.
Then—since my eyes could confirm there was a totally intact claw on this digit without me needing to cycle it through my Inventory—that thing went in the Meat Locker.
Pit Dragon (Toe, Partial) Flavor Profile: Chickeny
Tip: The meat in pit dragons’ extremities is more tender than that of the body, but also less juicy. Baste often.
Oh, hey, I could actually share these tips with my friends in the cabin now. Not that they would wanna share this specific half-eaten toe with me.
Now, what kinds of gains had I gotten from my latest Level Up…and what kind of Treasure was floating around in my Inventory?
Level Up!
Lv. 22 → Lv. 23 EXP: 16% (552/3450)
HP 100% (653/653) SP 100% (630/630)
ATK 123 (+1!)
INT 73 (+1!)
DEF 85
WIS 80 (+1!)
SPD 101 (+1!)
Amazing! Although with my Defense both fairly low and fairly un-upgraded, I had to wonder: did getting directly crunched by enormous and merciless jaws that had nearly killed me seriously not counted as training my Defense?
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
Ah well. Considering how much I preferred speeding around to…defending around, it made sense that my raw Defense and HP would be lower-priority.
In my Inventory was…
Lovely Hairpin This fine ornament was worn by high society in the 68th century. Resembling a holly branch complete with glass berries and gold-lined leaves, it represents purity and victory.
Um…wow.
I’d long since stopped having high expectations for the Treasure I found. They were just as often swords of destiny as they were weird antique trash—and it wasn’t like the sword of destiny was helping right now.
But this? One of my friends might like to wear it.
Or maybe I might wear it.
The thought startled me.
But it’s true! Come on, I’m wearing human clothes right this minute!
Or…I would be but they’re locked in an interdimensional space until I change forms. But you get my point—or I get my point!
That idea was oddly compelling. I had to at least try it on. Something about the description reminded me of the bubble tree with the winey berries. Even if it was supposed to represent holly, the fact that it was lined with gold…
First, though, I had to get out of these literal piles of mud and clean myself up.
***
image [https://jmassat.com/wp-content/Catgirl%20System/Map/Map99-1.png]
image [https://jmassat.com/wp-content/Catgirl%20System/Map/Map99-2.png]
Quest: Explore the Vencian Wood Progress: 47% (14/30)
Current Location: ??? (S.F3)
The only thing I liked less than a field of mud was a field of bog.
Great, just when I was thinking I’d be relieved to move on.
The air was still and rank, and the awful smell of the stagnant water combined with the awful smell of the dirt still clumping all over my body (which, just to remind you, had been refreshed by my escape from the mud dragons) to create—you guessed it—a combinatorially awful smell.
Humans seem to believe that animals don't mind the smell of dirt or grime at all. That's not true. Well, uh, in some cases it is true. But it's contextual! I only want mud in context!
A whiff of mud in a place I'm decently familiar with can tell me a lot about the creatures that've been in it. On Earth I could smell some ransacked garbage and determine how many cats had been in it, how old they were, and whether any of them were pregnant—just a lot of TMI stuff like that. Information I didn't need to know except for very specific, mostly territorial reasons.
Meanwhile, a whiff of mud in a place like the Vencian Wood, wacky wonderland, could tell me that maybe something scaly lived there, and probably some were male while others were female. It could tell me that yes, birds frequently soared above the mud, and yes, fish frequently swam within it and swished it around. Did I really need odors in order to know this? Did anyone? No.
For most of my life, I had been both nauseated and intrigued by smells and the signals they gave. The ratio was like ten percent nauseated, ninety percent intrigued. Now, though—now that I'd been slightly human—that ratio was tipping the other way. The smell was becoming less and less tolerable.
As I edged along a green-coated pond, I wondered, Am I losing a part of myself?
…And then I followed up, If I am, is that bad?
A dog, I guessed, wouldn't be able to stand losing their fascination with smell. But a cat…
A cat who'd never been particularly social, particularly competitive, or a particularly great hunter, she, at least, could do without it.
I stood at the pond's edge and pondered.
Should I move on, or should I…dunk?
I didn’t have to ask me twice. I shot into the water, swishing and rolling to and fro like a dog on the family floor.
When I rose, I was no longer covered in crusting mud. Instead I was covered in unidentifiable green.
I felt like one single germ.
And now I couldn’t tell which was worse. It was late in the day, almost evening, and the idea of going out on a less-than-high note made me feel grumpy.
…Ooh, a rock kinda shaped like a bowl! Why wasn’t this called a Treasure?
Not far from the water was a moss-topped boulder about as large as me. I slapped some of the debris out from the middle of it and, satisfied with the shape at a glance, I climbed in and snuggled a little.
Yes, good. This would work. Sometimes baths are a necessary evil.
I stepped out. Then I used one of my precious Spells. I know, I know, Bayce would be unhappy. I would be unhappy! Was this not a valid use case for a Water Spell? Would she want me to run around being…green?!
So there in the bowl, I activated a Water Spell with no particular direction. It was like combining a water balloon with a bomb.
Smells of salt and cucumber accentuated the downright brutal explosion of water directly in my face that, in hindsight, I totally should have seen coming. On the other hand, if I’d released the water upwards and let it fall, I would’ve instead been mercilessly daggered by about fifty percent of it, at higher speed. Neither of these were good.
“Meaow!” I glubbed as the burst hit my face. It filled the bowl in an instant—and then most of it splashed out. But about a third stayed in, and eventually stopped shaking back and forth.
Yay! The Water Spell had produced a genuine bath! And now I could scrub off all the green mess along with the more frustrating mud. My ears felt blessed. Also, a whole lot of dragon blood came out from under my claws.
If this helped me conclude anything about the Spell, it was that it contained more water than I’d expected. Maybe twice as much water as a Fire Spell held fire, Maybe to compensate for how much stronger and more versatile fire tended to be in combat. Yeah, maybe water sucked as an element. It didn’t really click with me.
Why would Reed and Chora even entertain the idea that I’m a water kind of gal? I thought as I slinked out of the bath, sparklingly clean and radiantly cold.
Well, with the coast clear, I Morphed—and immediately Morphed back, because that split-second feeling of my clothes enwettening was unnerving. Ugh. I’d try on the hairpin a bit later. For now, I shuffled stuff around in my burlap sack. Now every Spell but Water was in easy access—served Water right.
Inventory: 10/10 Nature Spell x2
Debug Blade
Minor Heal x5
Book of Sister’s Shadow
Burlap Sack
High Gravity Spell x2
Ice Spell x2
Earth Spell x3
Low Gravity Spell x5
Attraction Spell x4
Everything was in kind of a nasty order, but I couldn’t really help that. Not without sullying my mood with…eugh…even more persnickety inventory management.
All that was settled—enough. Now I wanted to focus on three things:
1. Getting dry.
2. Getting to wherever these flytraps were that Bayce needed.
3. Getting up close and personal with a real “sparring partner.” Some animal who was a match for me, not too strong, not too weak. (Those dragons were just way too strong.)
…Okay, maybe I had a fourth thing. I was also curious about that little map the Queen had left in her diary, and hating the fact that she hadn’t connected it to anything that resembled my own Map. Where the heck in the Vencian Wood was it? Was it far east? Well, you couldn’t get much further east than this bog, now, could you?
All in due time, I told myself, and east I went.