Chapter Thirty-Five - Curiosity Chose the Cat

It was a good thing that Sharp was a heavy sleeper, because otherwise she might have heard me pacing the room as I scanned through the list of options I had.

It hadn't truly struck me at the time, but Sharp's level five perk for Anima was... strong, wasn't it? Summoning a knowledgeable expert in the form of a living animal with their own growth ability? That wasn't anything to scoff at as far as powers went.

I supposed it was possible that Sharp had just found the best possible option, but Sharp wasn't that sharp in the head. She probably picked out the skill that had the highest chance to give her something small and cuddly to squish.

A list of options sat before me. There were more past that, greyed out. Those had prerequisites that I didn't meet and would likely not meet for some time, and so I didn't focus on them. Instead, I observed the list before me.

Abyssal Curiosity

Illusory Kitty Cat Clones

Purr of Tranquility

Can Has Cheezburger?

Infinite Batting

Purr-fect Healing

Cat Nap Resurrection

Karmic Scratch

Quantum Cat

Cat's Paw Impact

Meme Material

Shadowstep Pounce

Eternal Curiosity

Moonlight Slink

Spirit of the Cat God

Feral Spirit Bond

Nine Lives

Stray Cat Strut

Feline Frenzy

Nightmare Visions

Time-Crinkle Pounce

Furry Forcefield

Pawsitively Purrfect

Unfathomable Grace

Hiss of Terror

Paw of Infinite Mischief

Voidstep Blink

Hunter's Mark

Paw of Unyielding

Wallrunning Paws

Thirty options.

Just on a whim, I opened three of the first ones.

Abyssal Curiosity

Opens a rift into the curious dimension next door where lost things are found. Caution, however, is due, as not all that is lost wishes to be found, and curiosity has killed several cats.

Cat Nap Resurrection

Taking a nap heals all wounds and all ills.

Cat's Paw Impact

Give 'em the old one-two smack! Your paws are capable of delivering blows of immense strength. Topple (small) buildings and kill even the largest prey with just a few smacks!

"What the hell?" I muttered to myself. These were all incredibly potent abilities. Any one of these could turn a normal person into a threat. The first had some terrifying implications and I was definitely far too risk-averse to even tempt it, but it had some powerful potential utility. Having instant full healing on tap? That was obscenely powerful, and the impact skill seemed like the kind of thing that would immediately turn me into a real danger.

The rest of the skills were no less disgustingly powerful.

Karmic Scratch

Your scratches do more than hurt the body, they tilt the karmic scale. The crueller your foe has been to catkind, the worse their luck and the greater their ailments.

A luck-manipulation ability? That was obscene. The very best killings were the ones where a target died to what seemed like sheer ill luck and coincidence, and this looked like something that could ruin anyone's life.

Hiss of Terror

A terrifying hiss that causes enemies to flee or become paralyzed with fear.

No specified duration. Could I scare a person to death? Would additional hissing add to the effect? Comparing this to other abilities suggested that yes, it was exactly that broken.

Spirit of the Cat God

Once per day, channel the power of the Cat Eidolon, doubling all stats temporarily and making you immune to damage while the effect lasts.

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I shook my head in exasperated amazement.

Sharp hadn't picked the strongest skill available in Anima, she'd definitely picked the one that would give her a furry friend! The idiot!

There were even more that were broken.

Eternal Curiosity

Grants the ability to instantly unlock, decipher, or bypass any magical or physical barrier, fueled by your innate curiosity.

Purr of Tranquility

When the cat purrs, nearby allies receive regeneration, reduced anxiety, and temporary immunity to mind-affecting abilities and spells.

Quantum Cat

Can be in two places at once, creating a duplicate that can act independently for a brief period.

I almost wanted to wail. These abilities were so stupidly strong. I had expected... I didn't know, something mildly useful. A small perk like better night vision, or a slight increase in agility. These were just an order of magnitude more than that.

Almost all of them were, in any case.

Can Has Cheezeburger?

Can has! Summon Cheezeburger.

That one disturbed me. On several levels. Why was Cheezeburger a proper noun? Was it a... person?

I wasn't picking that one to satisfy my curiosity.

I continued to pace the room. I had to make a choice here. These were too good to pass up, though... there were still options that were greyed out.

Purr of the Cosmos

Your purr soothes all living beings within your dimensional area. Time pauses for all but you. Peace abounds.

Requirement: Appease an angry god. Purr for a year without pause. Bring peace to a living world.

"What the fuck," I muttered.

Voidwalker's Nine Lives

Live again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again. Be immune to harmful detection. Move freely as only a cat can.

Requirement: Give up all of your lives. Have the Abyss stare back. Spend an eternity in the void.

There were so many implications there that I was not ready to dig into. A lot of the greyed-out perks required some wild things. A thousand kills? A perfectly even karmic balance? A mastery of elemental magic?

Things that I wasn't sure I could achieve with any ease, though some were more probable than others. Did my previous kills count retroactively?

Honestly, if these perks and the little bit of information they gave was accurate, then this was a treasure trove. Sure, it was small tidbits, but it was the kind of knowledge that researchers could spend years studying to obtain, or which was simply outside of mortal means of accessing.

I'd have to be an idiot of the highest order to reveal that I had access to even this much, but if a method arose to obfuscate my identity while also confirming the veracity of my knowledge, then a small fortune awaited.

That was a whole issue for another time, however.

I spent the next hour reading through every one of the options I had. A lot of these weren't... reliable, as powerful as they might be.

I narrowed the list down to five options. These weren't necessarily the strongest, but they felt like the most reasonable. Things that would have daily utility and which didn't have very narrow fields of application. Sure, killing things dead was nice, but I could do that already. One didn't need mystical powers when Samuel Colt's legacy was still available.

Cat Nap Resurrection

Taking a nap heals all wounds and all ills.

Paw of Infinite Mischief

Swipe away a creature's items and tuck them into a pocket space for later.

Nine Lives

You have nine lives. Regain one every month.

Purr of Tranquility

When the cat purrs, nearby allies receive regeneration, reduced anxiety, and temporary immunity to mind-affecting abilities and spells.

Voidstep Blink

Phase through objects and walls as long as you remain unperceived. One moment there, and a blink later, not.

The nap power seemed to just be a powerful survivability tool. Healing of any sort was, but that seemed particularly useful and was what I was leaning towards. It was a little mundane, but not something so easily overlooked.

Nine Lives was stupidly broken as well. That was immortality, of a sort. Though the lack of more descriptions made me question its full utility.

The other three were more potent abilities in some ways. Voidstep would depend a lot on whether cameras counted as perception. Purr of Tranquility was more something I might use on Sharp to keep her hale and healthy, and Paws of Mischief...

I didn't know how that one worked, but I really wanted to try it.

I was an assassin, not a thief, but... there was a certain bit of overlap in skills there.

Ah, but making a final choice now might be unwise. Sharp had a similar system, and there was no immediate hurry. I could be patient for a morning, discuss things with her, then pick my perk.

I sat on Sharp's chest and poked at her cheeks with my very cold paws.

At first she didn't do much but make faces. Then she started to twist and turn, but it was morning already, and while this was a few minutes before she'd normally wake up... well, she had her eight hours already, and besides, this was perfectly normal cat-like behaviour.

One could say that I was just grinding out my next five levels to get a second perk.

"Queeenie, what are you doing?" Sharp asked.

"Wake up. We need to talk, and I'm hungry."

Yup, just grinding those levels.

***