“Mmm...”

The first thing I notice when I open my eyes is a strange looking ceiling. Like I am in some kind of catacombs or something.

“Where… am… I?”

I slowly get up an look around. I remember having a headache for some reason and collapsing but now I feel somewhat refreshed. Well until I notice how eerie the place around me really is…

Is this some kind of prank? … Wait I died didn’t I? Don’t tell me it is one of those cases where they take you for dead and bury you and you end up waking up… That would really suck… Speaking of which despite it being so dark I am able to see the details pretty well...odd…

* ROOOOOAAAAAAAAAR *

* rumble * * rumble * * rumble *

Ugh! I quickly grab the sides of my head to cover my ears from the terrifying roar from the far distance only to find that it is not helping at all. Why?! I am covering my ears so it should help reduce the ringing noise… MY EARS! WHERE IN THE WORLD ARE MY EARS! MY EARS ARE MISSING!

Ok, calm down… deep breath... stay calm... Think logically, my ears can’t possible be missing because then I would not hear any noise at all. So in worst case, just my outer ears are missing and not the ears themselves...though somehow that doesn’t make me feel much better…

I slowly feel the side of my head as I subconsciously move my hands upwards. I suddenly feel a warm soft fluffy sensation, but at same time feel rather ticklish...Quickly, I realize there is something sitting on my head and I start to panic, as I try to discern what it is by trying to shake it off. That is when I realize that there is something long sneaking right behind me…

“S-Snake!”

I quickly rush down the stone hallway to distance myself from the snake, while at same time swerving my head left and right trying to shake whatever it is on my head. As I turn around, I notice the snake is literally on my tail! At this rate I am not going to get away from that white snake. I steel my courage and smack the snake with my hand.

“Ouch!”

Due to the sudden pain I quickly jump and duck for the floor, I turn around to try to see if I could fend off that white snake only to notice it missing with no hint of it in sight. In its stead I see an odd blue box.

You have taken 1 damage

…

Okaaay… I am dreaming ri..ght? This is no time to be in denial… Breath in and out slowly… Lets quickly take in the facts. I know that I died when that meteor hit… And since I am feeling pain, I can’t just shrug it off as a dream… Don’t tell me it is like one of those ridiculous scenarios where I get reincarnated in a different world of swords and magic and get a whole breakdown when I say or think of the word “Status”… hahahaha

Status

Name

Shiro

Race

Ɓęåśŧķĩŋ - Ċāť

Class

Level

Gender

Female

Status

[Čơƞƒűşëď]

Beastkin - Cat

1

Age

12 years

Free Points

0

Hunger

100/100

HP

249 / 250 (0.12/m)

STR

12

INT

10

MP

10 / 10 (0.01/m)

AGI

15

WIS

8

Stamina

48 / 50 (0.6/m)

VIT

12

MNT

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

20

Mental

38 / 70 (0.2/m)

DEX

13

LUK

100

Skills

[LP] English

5

[RA] Smell Sense

1

[RP] Night Vision

2

Ha… ha… * sigh *

I guess I can look at the bright side… I think I figured out why my ears are missing and the identity of that “White snake”… I turn around to look at my back and see a wiggling fluffy tail. Yup that confirms it!

Setting aside my urge to grab the tail, I quickly confirm that I am in a safe spot and begin reviewing my “Status Screen”. A few minutes later, I pretty much got the gist of it.

To summarize what I learned, as far as attributes go:

[STR] gives you more muscle strength which also helps improve your endurance a bit

[AGI] improves your speed and reflexes plus flexibility

[VIT] helps improve your defense, increases regeneration of [Stamina] while at same time reducing its consumption. It also helps with overall endurance and HP regeneration.

[DEX] helps you with accuracy and control

[INT] improves your mana regeneration and allows you to solve problems faster

[WIS] reduces the mana consumption of spells and helps with memory

[MNT] helps reduce consumption of [Mental] and helps you resist psychological attacks

[LUK] is a bit odd in that it helps you slightly push probability in your favor. You can’t normally raise this attribute though.

Now there is also consumable stats as well:

[HP] is your life points, when you reach 0, you are dead.

[MP] is how much mana you have and is used for casting spells and other various uses. If MP reaches below 10%, it will put a strain on [Mental]

[Stamina] is how much short term strength you have. Every action consumes stamina, more so with skills. If your Stamina reaches 0, you will not be able to move at all.

[Mental] is one I am not too familiar with from my experience with games. But from my understanding based on the information display about it, any form of thinking or mental stress has an impact on consumption of [Mental]. My Mental is at 38 probably due to all the headaches I had and the confusion state. Casting spells and some skills also reduce Mental. Mental hitting 0 means going unconscious.

My race is Beastkin, more specifically a Catkin variant. In terms of level up. It seems that you need to raise your race class to level 10 before you can get a basic job based class. And level 25 if you want a combat based class. Each class gets their own bonuses from leveling up. In my case I get the following:

Sentient Creature - +1 in all unlocked attributes +1 free attribute +20 HP +10 Stamina +10 Mental

Beastkin - +2 STR +2 VIT +1 AGI

Catkin - +2 AGI +1 DEX

Every 10 levels, a new class skill opens up as well.

Unfortunately, I did not get too much information as far as skills go, such as how to acquire or trains skills. And me doing a few punches in mid-air did not seem to grant me any skill in punching. The markers on the skills seem to represent as follows:

[LP] Language Passive

[RP] Racial Passive

[RA] Racial Active

This has me seriously worried about a possible language barrier... I doubt people speak english here now do they? Possible god who reincarnated me, where is my language cheat skill?

* sigh *… I guess I’ll have to go out to find out..

I currently have 2 actual skills, one is my [Night Vision] racial passive which improves my visibility in the darkness by 200%, which explains why I can see so well despite being so dark here. My other skill is a racial active skill called [Smell Sense]. It helps increase my sense of smell by 100% at the consumption of 0.1/s [Mental]. Of course there is a risk of higher [Mental] consumption in case of it is being used in areas with high odor.

With all that out of the way it leaves me with one last concern about my “Status Window”. What in the world is up with my Age, Race and Status? Has my confusion somehow caused it to weird out on me or something? Or is it because I was 12 when I died but since I have a new body my age is now in limbo? Same for my race which should have been human but now I am a Catkin?

While I would love to spend the entire day thinking about all the possibilities, I need to come to terms with reality and prioritize! I have been preparing for adventuring my entire life despite how short it may have been. The first priority should be to secure food and a safe place to stay. And this place looks to have neither.

“Storage!”

“Open Storage!”

“Inventory!”

“Item Box!”

“Open Sesame?”

* sigh * As I figured… I have no convenient storage magic cheat either. Which means I have no food or any other survival gear. My only weapon is my teeth and claws, and I don’t even have a skill to help assist those at all! And I am under no delusion, if god is too stingy to give me a storage cheat, he certainly did not make my claws and teeth indestructible. So if they break, I am so doomed that it ain’t funny!

Oh by the way, I am pretty sure that it is a god who reincarnated me or something along those lines because it simply makes no sense that I am suddenly a 12 year old in the middle of some sort of catacombs. And considering that I am wearing virtually no gear and level 1, it pretty much rules out the awakened memories scenario. So putting two and two together, that is the only logical conclusion I could come up with so far.

Well anyways… enough distracting myself, I need to find myself out of here ASAP! After that, I can decide on what to do. Since the direction I came from is a dead end, I so far only have 1 way to go. Which in itself is a blessing, because if this place is one of those dungeon like places and I chose to go deeper in, I’ll be totally screwed…

Since I have decided on what to do, I proceed to go down the only hallway I see. As I move through the hallway, I notice a bunch of exotic creatures, from giant toads to lizards. This so screams dungeon to me, but I am still not 100% sure. My biggest confusion is they don’t seem to be attacking me or even paying attention to me at all for some reason. So either god gave me some concealment cheat or maybe, just maybe they are herbivores that just happen to fill up this place?

I can of course try attacking one to test that theory, but I am not that stupid. I know in most games and literature you read the protagonist goes “Opportunity for easy XP~!” and comes up with some ingenious surprise attack to get them by surprise. But in my opinion, half of them are crazy! You only live once! I understand that in this world I might have to fight to survive, but there is a time and a place for everything, and this is no time for a clueless suicide. If they are going to ignore me, better for me. Once I get out of this place and get some information, then I’ll consider the easy safe way to power level. Maybe that is why god did not give me any cheats, he probably only gives them to those with a few screws loose and willing to entertaining them, in comparison, I am just plain old boring, sorry.

I continue to cautiously walk in the tunnel for what feels like 2 hours, while briefly using my [Smell Sense] skill every 5 minutes or so just in case. I finally end up in what seems to be a big room, and my [Smell Sense] is telling me there is a creature in this room that is significantly different than the ones I met in the hallway. Unfortunately even with my improved [Night Vision], I can’t really make out what the creature is due to how large this room is. It also seems the creature’s skin color is black which isn’t helping me any. At best, I can tell the creature is sleeping. Though my [Night Vision] does help me see is the glistening dagger that is lying not too far on a nearby pedestal.

Which puts me in my first dilemma since coming here. What do I do? I obviously can’t turn back since its a dead end. So my only option is to sneak past this creature who I am hoping is also a herbivore. Come on [LUK] I am counting on you to make it a herbivore! Pretty please with a cherry on top... With my futile plea out of the way I start considering my other option, to grab that dagger on the way out. The worst possible scenario is if this place is a boss room or if I have some sort of conceal on and the moment I grab that dagger I am forced to engage in combat with whatever that is which seems to be at least 5X bigger than me!

I can of course leave the dagger there, but if I do that who knows what kind of things may show up. And if this giant creature does end up attacking me, my odds would probably be better with a dagger regardless of how futile it is. * sigh * I guess this is where the saying goes “You only die twice” or since I am now a Catkin is that nine times? Dear god, please make my cheat that I have 9 lives! Though somehow I have a feeling that even that might not be enough.

Coming to a conclusion, I decide to make the final judgment on whether or not I should go for the dagger once I get closer to the pedestal. Which is closer to both the exit and the mysterious sleeping creature. Maybe if I get closer, I can make a more sound judgment if I should take the risk or not. With my heart beating like mad drums, I slowly and steadily tip-toe closer to the pedestal. Within about a minute, I get close enough to the pedestal to touch the dagger. And for better or worse, I can now make out the giant sleeping creature…

Eeeeekk!!!!

What is lying in front, a few meters away from me is a GIANT PANTHER! I quickly cover my mouth with both hands to prevent myself from squealing in terror! Dear god, please tell me in your world giant panthers are herbivores? Right? Right? Or at the very least friendly to fellow felines like Catkin maybe? A girl can only dream… * sigh *

Now is the moment of truth, do I go for the dagger or not? I do a bit of soul searching and decide to go with the most ridiculous option possible. Go with my instincts. Now I know what I said about not taking stupid risks, and denouncing those less than sane protagonists that needlessly throw their lives into the fire like moths. But truth be told, I don’t think I have much choice here. No matter how you look at it, this is a dungeon, and this is either a mini-boss or a boss of some sort. Why else would a giant panther be just lying there next to a dagger on a pedestal. And if that is the case, then there is a possibility that beyond this room the monsters are going to be aggressive. If I can get my hands on a decent weapon from a sleeping boss regardless how low the odds its better than trying to wrestle a weapon out of a non-sleeping monster.

With my mind made up, I decide to go for the dagger. Just this once I will be that idiot protagonist, but never again… are you happy god? And then when I grab the dagger, I will sneak up on the panther and murder it in its sleep...NOT! I might be doing something relatively crazy, but I am not that stupid. If I did that I’d be dead faster than I could cry uncle. It would literally make me into mince meat in one strike. Grab dagger and run, end of story!

I slowly reach for the dagger with my right hand, with every inch it feels like my heart is beating faster and faster. With what felt like hours, though lasted only a few seconds, I finally place my hand on the dagger. Looking at the monster, it seems like it is still casually enjoying its sleep without a hint of waking up. With a slight sigh of relief, I raise the dagger slowly towards myself. At that moment I hear loud snort. With trembling eyes, I slowly take a look as my face turns pale white as my hair! Because in front of me I notice the giant panther moving. OMG! I AM GOING TO DIE! Again…

The giant panther started to move around as I stood there frozen solid. Inside my head I am contemplating whether I should not move, hide, or just make a run for it? Though due to my immense fear I could not move even if I wanted to. The panther continued to move little by little and then much to my bewilderment stopped again to sleep. IT WAS FREAKIN’ REPOSITIONING ITSELF IN ITS SLEEP! ARGH! DAMN YOU! I LIKE LOST 5 OUT OF MY 9 LIVES ON THAT ONE!

Okay, I need to keep it together… I should just be glad he did not wake up, be thankful for that at least. With the dagger in hand, I continue to slowly but steadily make my way out of the room. Once I made it out of the room, I collapsed on the floor breathing heavily. I think my [Mental] went down by half just from that alone! At this rate, my hair is going to turn white from all this stress… oh... wait…

Due to overcoming a large mental hurdle: +1 MNT

Argh...thanks but no thanks!