Whirling around, Jaeger drew his pistol and fired in a heartbeat, firing at where the voice had come from. All that was left was a floating cheshire grin and a bullet hole in the yurt behind it.
“Mrrw, mrrw, mrrw. That's no way to treat your patron. I just wanted to congratulate you on a job well done, a most satisfying hunt.” The floating grin said.
“You risked my life, and made my hunt more difficult than necessary.”
“No, I made it more interesting and entertaining. That was our deal, you provide the entertainment and I provide the knowledge. I gave you my knowledge, and here you were trying to deny me my entertainment.”
“I had a plan…”
“Yes, and I let it play out. I let you use your little cat's paw of a hobgoblin to poison all those raiders because deception is entertaining. I did not let you slay the orc while he slept because that is boring.”
“Entertainment is secondary to collecting the bounty, I don't fight unnecessary battles. I'm not a knight or a duelist, I'm a bounty hunter.”
“Then you better learn new things, we made a deal. You entertain me and I teach you.”
“I can't just learn new things; it took me years to get where I am. My style is all about finishing a fight as quickly as possible, not making a show of it.”
Mischief's mouth moved and slowly the rest of the cat appeared, filling out its shape in a most disturbing way before settling on the ground.
“Boring. I know you are an Outworlder, even without seeing your status I recognize the smell. You have much to learn about your new existence, skills can be learned here in a matter of days. So before you complain any more, check your status. I offer this knowledge because I know your reaction will be entertaining enough.”
Jaeger's eyes narrowed, but he checked his status anyway.
Congratulations on leveling up
LEVEL UP
Name
Jaeger 'The Hunter' Darkblade
Class
Bounty Hunter, Warlock
Adventurers Rank
Novice
Level
7 = 12
Health Points
230 = 440
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Magic Points
180 = 370
Physical
23 = 52
Mental
18 = 40
Social
15 = 25
Luck
17 = 50
Reputation
Adventuring Outworlder
As if opening his status was the sign, he felt changes rushing through his body. Unlike the powder, this was a pure euphoric feeling, a rush of pure energy and power. His status had closed during the moments of this process and as he came back to himself he stretched his body. A new found strength ran through him. He hopped a few times, did a few squats and threw a few punches. Everything was better than before.
“Ah, I remember my first level up.”
“Level up?”
“Yes, your body has absorbed enough battle energy to level up.”
“Battle energy?”
“Mrrw. I'll keep this short, battle energy is simply the energy generated in battle. Fighting the orc generated energy, and being the only survivor at the end, you got all of it. You also gained some energy by deciding to poison those raiders, but since you didn't conceive the plan or carry it out, you gained a smaller amount. Two more questions and I'm done.”
“Do I only level up from battle?”
“No. Classes earn levels by doing their jobs, a Knight needs a lord, a quest, or an oath, a Baker needs to bake, and a Drug Dealer needs to sell drugs. You earn money by hunting for bounties, fighting, and negotiating contracts. One left.”
“Someone told me that Ventress can evolve, what is that and will that happen to me?”
“A compound question, finding loopholes in my words, I knew I chose the right one with you.” The cat jumped off the ground and sat on its belly at Jaeger's eye level. “Your horse, like all monsters, will evolve after either gaining enough energy or having a lucky encounter; like a horse god blessing her, finding a qilin bloodline, eating enough sentient creatures, maybe you sin enough and she becomes a bicorn. Honestly, horses have a surprising amount of lucky encounters they can have.”
Running a paw through his fur, the cat turned upside down and looked Jaeger over from top to bottom.
“You, on the other hand, seem completely vanilla human. Plain cream. Boring. Unless something interesting happens to you, you'll live and die as a human. Your class will evolve, though; I'll tell you that for free. Level up enough and it'll happen. Now that's all my questions, plus one extra, I'm going to retire to our horse. Hurry up with your head taking and plundering, I'd like to leave this area.”
“Wait, what about these stats? Physical, mental, social, how do they factor into anything?”
“Well, that's the better question, but you've used up all my answers for now. So here's a riddle instead: Topped with fire, powered by magic, this person has your answers as they have most knowledge, gleaming intelligence easily led astray by new discoveries, simply make yours the most interesting and then noblesse oblige.”
With that, Mischief disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving Jaeger alone in the camp. Angrily muttering to himself, he took a moment to absorb the information he'd received. It was a lot to take in, battle energy, evolutions. In Beseria, he'd been skilled and strong, but that had taken years of training and fighting. Here, after just one battle, a deadly one to be fair, he'd felt his strength change by almost half. That, more than anything else, finally cemented the fact that he was in a new world. Taking cats, giant green men clad in seamless all-metal and all the other weirdness was just exotic; he'd heard tales of lands far south of Beseria with talking birds and he'd seen knights in full plate, so nothing he'd seen was too much. But this, and he flexed his hand, this was proof that he was somewhere else.
“No time for introspection. I'd better take care of my loot and bounty before that damn cat does something to make me more entertaining.”
With that, the hunter turned back to Crusher's body and pulled his axe free. He grabbed the handle and struggled to pull it free, planting one foot on the orc's chest as he tried again. With a crack he fell backwards, the shaft of his axe in his hands, the head broken. He shook his head sadly, the axe had been with him throughout his time in the army and had saved his life many times; hopefully he could salvage this part at least. He tied the axe handle to his waist and walked over to the choppa.