James was stunned, speechless. And more importantly, he was confused. He thought he was dead. There was nothing he could have done to defend himself.

And yet, the cat that lay dormant for so long that he had almost forgotten about it had saved his life.

He didn’t have time to sit around being shocked though, the tiger wasn’t dead yet.

The cat was furiously clawing at the tiger. It climbed on the tiger’s back and was slashing and biting as hard as it could.

James noticed that the cat was no weakling, but the tiger was too strong to be taken down by it alone. He had to jump in, not only for his sake, but for the cat's sake too.

James took advantage of the cat distracting the tiger and tried preparing a Razorice Saw again, as quickly as he could. But now both of his hands were gravely injured, so he had to cast with his feet again.

But as soon as he started conjuring the ice, the tiger went into a frenzy.

It wouldn’t let itself be distracted by a cat while James prepared his lethal move. The intelligent tiger realized that if it let James complete this spell, it would die.

The tiger couldn’t directly attack the cat since it was positioned firmly on its back. So it decided to slam its own body on the floor in order to crush the cat.

The cat that was attacking mercilessly wouldn’t have been able to dodge in time. Noticing this, James immediately abandoned his Razorice Saw and leapt towards the cat, assisted by SARM.

He infused an extra amount of mana into his SARM spell, which pushed him forward at an even greater speed than usual.

Even though his hands were mangled, he forced himself to move them, and he managed to grab the cat. But now the tiger’s body was about to crush the both of them.

Luckily, the spell he had prepared for exactly these kinds of sticky situations was off cooldown already. James used Blink, which teleported him and the cat several feet away.

James then heard a deafening roar, followed by a thud so heavy that the ground was shaking. But it didn’t come from the tiger he was fighting.

Helios had finally finished off his own tiger!

Helios didn’t wait a second, he valiantly launched himself at the other tiger. He threw his sword ahead of him, which embedded itself into the already injured tiger that James had been fighting.

As Helios was slashing and bashing the tiger, James sprung into action as well. For a third time, he attempted to cast the damn Razorice Saw.

But with Helios keeping the tiger busy, he was finally able to complete it this time.

James threw the Saw with as much force as he could muster, while keeping it under control so it wouldn’t hit Helios.

The Saw was a quite inconvenient spell to cast, in combat no enemy would give you the time you need to create it. But it made up for that in power. While the tiger’s defenses were great, it was already injured. Not even it could resist the might of the Saw.

The dungeon core they fought before took the form of a crystal. It had only one powerful attack and was fairly immobile, in exchange for a stupid amount of health and defense. The Saw wouldn’t have been able to do much back then.

But against such an opponent, no matter how high the tiger’s defenses were, they couldn't compare to the crystal. The Saw was the perfect weapon. Additionally, the levels James had gained improved the power of his spells, thus the Saw was an even more effective weapon in this fight.

As if James was taking revenge for the times its fangs had gone through him like butter, the Saw sliced through the tiger’s flesh just as smoothly. Seemingly an unstoppable force, it didn’t pause at all, cleanly going through the tiger, slicing off the its head. The saw was so powerful that it kept flying, hitting the wall. It was barely stopped even by the sturdy walls, having penetrated several inches into the wall.

And with that, the fight was over.

Perhaps if James had managed to cast the Razorice Saw from the very start, this all could’ve been over much sooner.

Even though they technically won the fight, this was a failure for James. Helios had to intervene so James could win. He needed another way to take enemies down. Without Helios to tank for him, no foe would be stupid enough to let him cast this. He had been too reliant on his friends.

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But it was a good lesson for James. It was probably his closest fight yet, which made him see his own limits. The information was invaluable, being so close to death, so desperate to survive and win but still unable to do anything no matter how hard you pushed yourself - that was an invaluable lesson.

James could literally feel the comprehension washing over him. His mind felt like it ... clicked. Something just felt right, like it finally made sense. The spells he designed, the simulations he saw in his mind were now a lot closer to reality. When he closed his eyes, he could see things and experiment, adjust his spells as if it were an accurate computer program.

[Due to your innate qualities, such as your personality, your attitudes, your unique approach to studying and skill crafting, your introspections and overactive use of your imagination - your [ Jack of all trades, master of none] skill and [Skill crafting] have evolved into a new skill]

[Skill unlocked: Arcane simulation]

As ecstatic as James for the new skill which could be a real game changer, the adrenaline was starting to wear off.

With the fight over, Lunaris rushed towards him, now able to focus solely on healing the injuries.

Meanwhile, Helios set up a formation to protect them in case any other monsters tried sneaking up on them.

“Drink this as well.” Lunaris handed him a potion, and then began healing his hands.

The healing James was receiving during the fight was minor to what Lunaris was applying now.

But one thing James had forgotten was how Helios had mentioned that regrowing a limb was an incredibly painful process.

Without the intensity of combat to distract him, James was able to fully feel what Helios meant.

Even though his hands hadn’t been completely cut off, they still had huge holes in them. The flesh was now beginning to grow back, the holes closing. The regrowth of flesh was so painful as the nerves were regenerating, that James howled and roared almost as loud as the tigers that were just killed.

To distract him from the pain, Helios tried talking to him.

“So, what’s with the cat?”

James was unable to answer, the pain being so severe. But after a few seconds, he started regaining his composure. He was able to ignore all the pain during combat, why shouldn’t he able to do it now?

“It saved me –“ James tried to talk, but he started screaming instead. For some reason, the pain was unbearable. It shouldn’t be that much worse than literally having a fang stab through your hands. Maybe it wasn't just the nerves growing back, but maybe now that he was out of combat, the cumulative pain that he had suppressed was coming back to haunt him. Even though James knew it was probably mostly psychological, it didn’t make it any easier to bear.

“Just breathe, in and out, take slow and deep breaths. It’s ok, it’ll soon be over.” Lunaris told him gently and dotingly. Seeing her friend in such pain was tough, but the healing process was going very well.

James did as Lunaris told him, and slowly he was able to slightly calm down. He also recalled Helios's lessons about tolerating pain. If he could apply those lessons here and successfully tolerate the regrowth of nerves, pain during combat wouldn't be a factor anymore.

Helios tried to initiate conversation once gain, to distract him.

“You were saying the cat saved you?”

“Yes, I’d be dead if not for this little thing jumping out and pushing the tiger away.” James said affectionately, now that he was tolerating the pain a bit better.

During the frantic fight, so many things were happening that James didn’t manage to even take a good look at the cat. But now, the cat flew on top of his chest, purring loudly.

It was at this moment that he realized why he chose this cat. As soon as he saw it, back when he was browsing the Aetherweb in order to buy a pet, he felt a connection, a spark. But he didn’t know why at the time.

But now, with the cat sitting on his chest, he thought it was absolutely insane that he didn’t realize it from the very first moment.

This cat was identical to the cat he had back on Earth!

Perhaps it was the reincarnation muddling his memories a little bit, but he hadn’t recognized it right away.

His parents and his cat were the only things he missed from Earth. If he had the power, he would reach through time and space, scanning across an unknown number of universes over an unknown number of years, just to reunite with them.

And now, he was face to face with the spitting image of his beloved cat.

He knew not to get too excited, it would be impossible for this to be his cat. Out of the billions of universes one could reincarnate in, what were the chances for it to be here?

He didn’t know why this cat looked just like the cat he once had on Earth, but he was happy nonetheless.

A tear slowly rolled down his face. Even the mind-numbing pain of regrowing flesh that made him scream like a madman didn’t make him tear up. But seeing a living reminder of his cherished pet was more than he could handle.

As he was watching the cat, it dissolved into sparks of light and flowed into his arm, forming a tattoo again.

“If it was strong enough to push away and fight the tiger, that means you accidentally stumbled upon a quite formidable pet!” Helios said with a bright smile.

“But the greater the pet, the more energy it needs, that must be why it lay dormant for so long. As you’re still a relatively low level in the grand scheme of things, you’re not able to feed it enough energy. So it must’ve used up all its stored up energy to save you just now. So if you want to see it again soon, you’ll need to level up a whole lot!” Lunaris said cheerfully, trying to motivate James even further, as well as console him.

James then told his friends about how this cat was identical to the one he had back on Earth. Seeing James so passionate and affectionate while talking about his cat, Helios and Lunaris couldn’t help but tear up a bit as well.

But they didn’t have the luxury to sit around and chat. Danger could strike at any moment.

Helios and Lunaris began placing down yet another formation. They couldn’t move on deeper inside the prison yet. They had to recover for a short while. But that required additional safety measures.

Lunaris pulled out a golden crystal, placing it in the middle of the formation.

“With this, we should be safe for a while.”