Chapter 4: Steve, use !

Finally, the evening came again. Steve slowly regained consciousness, blinking and stretching his way out of the land of dreams. His sleep had been surprisingly deep, actually. He was just about ready to have breakfast and head to wo-

Oh. He was still a kitten. So that wasn't a dream, huh? Whelp. Fuck him I guess. Still beats not waking up at all. That was a subtle metaphor for death, in case anyone didn't pick up on it.

Now, time to check his status. While his chest did still hurt a bit, it was definitely manageable by now. Maybe they had actually cracked before… hopefully there weren't any lasting effects for that. Status?

Status:

|Unnamed|

Lv.: 4 -> 5

Species: Common Mopaaw

Titles:

Hp: 14/17

Mp: 15/15

Sp: 16/25

Strength: 6 -> 8

Vitality: 7 -> 8

Dexterity: 10

Agility: 14

Intelligence: 7

Wisdom: 6

Willpower: 3 -> 5

Luck: 8

Ability points: 11

Skill points: 450

Gold: 203

Once again, he was very happy with his newest level. Seeing his saved up points increase was a very good sign. If he ever found himself in trouble, it just gave him that extra layer of security. Unlike his Skill points, which he certainly wanted to spend some of, now!

As soon as he thought of it, the Skill shop popped open, a long list of Skills and their prices neatly arranged atop each other. Though as of now, he was really only interested in two abilities: ranged combat abilities or offensive traps he could place. That was all. Something like telekinesis or spider thread. Those did, in fact, both exist, and unfortunately, they also cost 3 000 Skill points each.

Well, shit. The only ranged ability he could find that he could afford and probably somewhat use was . 300 Skill points for the ability to throw something. It wasn’t very cheap, but then again, throwing things was a very powerful ability…

But of course, before buying it from the shop, he tried to earn it. For a full. Fucking. Hour. Unfortunately, apparently him scooping up rocks and tossing them with his paws did not qualify as throwing things, not even with the grace period. At the end, he relented, deciding to just buy it with his points. After all, throwing was still what made humans the dominant species back on Earth, being versatile and powerful.

[Acquired the skill from the Skill shop.]

Well. It was still better than nothing. At the very least he would be able to deal some damage from a distance. Now to check it specifically. !

[Throw: A Skill allowing the user to throw objects they are in physical contact with. Object velocity and maximum weight depend on Skill level and Strength stat of the user. Consumes Sp depending on weight of the object. A throwing motion is advised, but not required. Objects may be launched through simple physical contact. Initial upward and forward momentum will be supplied by additional Sp expense.]

Huh. That was interesting. Was the Skill altered just for him, or was it like this for everyone? And how exactly would it work, now?

Taking some time for a large yawn and a long stretch in the evening sun, he stepped out from his log, ignoring the dull ache in his ribs. Tentatively, he tapped his paw against a chip of bark on the floor, reaching out to the strange sensation he knew related to his Skills. !

For half a moment, nothing happened, until the piece of bark made its way out from under his paw, levitated into the air at the height of his face, and then launched forward. Each burst of motion was accompanied by a slight feeling of drain on him, almost as though he was doing the lifting. It felt strange, like he was a battery except for something he was actually doing.

Given that he’d just thrown a piece of bark, rocks would probably fly a bit slower. But the way the Skill worked? He could make use of that, very good use of that, even. It was nearly perfect as a starting Skill, before things escalated.

If he needed to mimic a Skill’s effects in order to acquire the Skill, then it also made a lot of sense why he didn’t get it from trying to throw things by himself. He hadn’t exactly done what the Skill does after all.

With the Skill bought, he supposed it might be time to gather some ammo, namely rocks, but then his stomach intervened. He quickly finished snacking on the mouse he’d put aside yesterday, and took the venom out from his inventory, carefully depositing it on the ground. He’d need the slot for rocks, this time.

Using itself, he transported the rocks to his base, where he stacked them. After a while he had finally produced a fairly big hill of rocks - from a cat's perspective of course. And so, for the first step he would have to check his Status.

Hp: 15/17

Mp: 15/15

Sp: 11/25

It seems that in the time he had spent collecting rocks his Hp had regenerated a little further, though his Sp had actually decreased. Well, then again, he did use to transport his armada of rocks, so it really only made sense. Whelp, with this pile of pebbles here, there was really only one thing left to do, so he placed his paw on one of them about a meter from the log itself and issued his command.

Immediately, the rock was slung towards the tree trunk. It was flying faster than he’d expected, and smacked against the wood with a thump, bouncing off a little. But the reinforcements held. There was only a small dent from the impact. Steve grinned at that. His work was paying off.

With a smile, he turned back to his pile of rocks. If his home was holding up well enough, he could probably wait a little while with reinforcing it further. Instead, he would be doing some target practice against the regular trees around his little base. With some effort, he shifted the pile in between two thick trees, so he could throw them back and forth. He also carved a target into each of them.

After thinking on it a little, he also wanted to reinforce the trees, so that he didn’t accidentally fell one after a while. Some of the rocks were fairly sharp. He traced the first rune without relying on the Skill very much. He’d memorized the rune by now, and could carve it himself, with the Skill only really necessary for the magic infusion. After carving two of them, one into each tree, he decided to check his Status to see his Sp.

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Sp 12/25

He’d only regenerated a single point, but it was to be expected, given that he’d moved all the rocks and carved some runes it was actually better than expected. For now, Steve set about throwing rocks until he couldn’t anymore, then meditating and carving runes until he had some stamina back.

He repeated this process for a few hours. By the end of it, he had carved six more runes, three in each tree and gotten , as well as to Level 3. By now he could actually throw the rocks quite well, he guessed about eight meters or so.

And even though he was panting at the end of the day, he had stuck to his regime and kept throwing rocks. In his old life, he was sure he’d paint a surreal picture, a little cat levitating and launching rocks. But he shook off the thought quickly, feeling himself highly motivated by his growling stomach.

Thinking about that, he hadn’t yet tested how effective rocks were against mice. He could only think of one way to find out…

So, with a rock in his inventory, he searched for one. Luckily, their number seemed to increase every day, and it was only a few minutes before he saw one scurrying along the ground. He waited until it sniffed the air before he threw his rock at it. And, according to the dead mouse he then ate, rock didn't just beat scissors.

Just like that Steve went to bed in his log. With a full stomach and a rock in his inventory.

When he woke up the next night, the weather had changed for the first time. Outside of his comfortably dry log, the grass was more than moist, with a silver sheet of mist floating in the air, growing thicker the further he looked. When he listened closely, he could faintly hear a handful of tiny raindrops falling. He tried checking the sky, but with the dense fog he couldn't make a guess on how the rain would develop at all. Inwardly, Steve sighed.

Sure, he enjoyed rain occasionally, but he wasn't a fan of getting soaked, especially when every bit of his cat-part screamed at him to run the hell away from the evil liquid coming from above. In shorter words, he really, really didn't want to go hunting that day. Sadly, his stomach didn't exactly leave him much of a choice, as it immediately grumbled when Steve considered not going out. He sighed once more, far longer this time.

He decided to, in fact, go hunting after all. Yet, his plans were foiled as he stepped out his log. Through the quiet pattering of the rain, he could hear heavy footsteps and someone panting. But the steps didn’t seem to be from any animal he’d seen yet, with how they were falling. No double taps or anything, instead, they seemed very bipedal.

Focusing more, Steve stared into the fog, trying to see if it was a human or something else. He couldn’t know what species this world had, after all. The sounds were quiet, forcing him to poke out even further from the log, ignoring the bits of water that splashed on his head.

Just as he did so, a deafening roar shook the forest, marking the end of his short scouting mission as he retreated back into his log. Something was out there, and it was both bigger than him, and very displeased.

After the roar he could also discern a second set of footsteps, these ones actually louder and far heavier than the first one. They also came from something with four legs. Well, the roar he had heard also wasn't exactly humanoid. A few more seconds later, he suddenly heard something hit against his log, followed by a human yell and a wet splash. Looks like someone just fell over his house. Didn't they know kicking someone else's house was rude? Jeez.

For a moment there, Steve was pouting, but he soon lost his chances to continue doing so, when he heard another roar and something big, breathing heavily, somewhere close. Okay. Seems like some dumb fucking idiot decided to piss off a bear and was chased here. They then fell over and landed square on the ground and were now being approached by it. Great job, dearest human. 10/10 work. Incredible. Congrats, really. That must have been an impressively dumb series of decisions.

Another sigh from Steve followed when he heard the slow footsteps and the growling of the bear. This was a dilemma now. He really didn't wanna go outside, since it was raining and the human probably deserved to fall on its face a little, but he also couldn't just let them lie there… would he be able to outrun the bear? Maybe he could climb on a tree? No, weren’t bears excellent climbers? Ah, fuck!

At a moment's notice Steve stepped outside, the rain now pattering onto his fur. For a second he looked at the carefully approaching bear, the view of the human blocked by its massive figure. It was just as he thought, that was the same black bear he saw drinking at the pond. Was it really worth it to make enemies of that thing for someone he didn't even know?

Ugh, he already had a migraine. If he thought any longer his head might burst, so he simply ran over to his pile of rocks and activated on about ten of them as quickly as he could, all of them shooting forward and hitting the bear's sides and ass.

The black giant stopped for a moment. It paused, then slowly turned its head towards the disturbance while gnashing its teeth and growling. And just then, another rock smacked it square in the teeth, chipping one of its fangs. The bear didn't take even a second to roar out in anger at the kitten who dared throw those things at him, and immediately and stupidly charged at it.

Steve himself simply dodged behind a tree, leading to the musclebrain bashing its head against it. That would have worked usually, but this time it was unlucky. The tree shook, but didn’t break. Perhaps it usually should have shattered against the bear’s weight, but there was a deciding factor. Runes.

After shaking its head the bear roared out again, this time even louder and angrier as its eyes darted around again and looked for the kitten. It found Steve a little in the distance, seeing him dart away as soon as it set its eyes on him. Of course, it chased after him without hesitation.

Steve, on the other hand, was scared shitless. He never thought the bastard would be strong enough to break a tree. He literally got lucky to have picked the right one, or it might have fallen on him. Then he got lucky again with it confusing the bear. He wasn't gonna take any more chances, so he went far enough away as to where he could barely see the thing and waited for it to notice him before he started running.

He immediately darted off at full speed. There was no fucking way that thing was slower than him, absolutely no chance at all. That thing needed to take one step for every five of his. He didn't have the luxury to even think about stopping for a damn second. Even if his Agility was higher, his total speed might be slower.

There wasn’t even time to look behind himself as he darted between the trees, taking the most difficult curves he could manage, and not even thinking about stopping. He was already panting heavily when he heard the menacing roar behind him again. It wasn't far. Not far at all. A few steps maybe. Had their distance… shrunk? He’d already activated too!

Steve's eyes widened in fear as he yelled out for his Status. He thought very, very desperately about allocating 10 points to Agility. Many times over, until he finally heard a ding and was greeted by a small box.

Agility 14 -> 24

In a moment, his speed increased explosively, so much so that he almost lost balance from his brain not keeping up. For just a moment, he staggered, then stumbled. He saw the ground rushing closer to his face when time slowed down to a crawl. If he fell here, he would die immediately. End of story, just like that.

He… he didn't want that. He didn't like that thought at all. And with that moment's resolution, Steve kicked the ground as hard as he could, flinging himself into the air and forward. And when he landed, he had regained his balance.

He dashed forward then, nearly twice the speed of before, rushing ahead so quickly he kicked up more than enough mud behind him. With the first step he could practically feel the bear behind him being stunned. With the second, his anxiety fell a little. By the third step he knew he was faster than the bear and from the fourth onward, their distance rapidly increased. The black giant could only watch as that small thing it thought was insignificant outran it and disappeared into the fog.

Steve didn't stop running then. His blood was rushing in his ears, his heart pumping louder than it ever had before as he squeezed out every ounce of strength he had. Even when he had left the bear behind him, his anxiety didn't disappear. He thought he could still hear the steps behind him, thought he was still on the verge of death, thought there was no way he could escape-

Until his Sp ran out just a little further ahead and his run forcefully came to a stop, ending in the ground coming closer to his face once more. This time, there was no more kicking off, and his face really kissed the earth for a short moment, before he toppled over, sliding and rolling his way a few more steps forward.

His panicked breathing didn't stop. He painfully pushed himself up again, but his bruised legs gave in as he crumpled to the floor again. Was this it? He squeezed his eyes shut then and tensed up every muscle he had in full anticipation of the pain of death. But then, it didn't come.

As he waited on, seconds turned into minutes. His breathing slowed a little as the panic subsided. It was slowly sinking in. He’d escaped. He’d managed to shake off that huge, scary thing that made him shiver even now.

Then, the pain finally set in and Steve winced. He had taken a hard fall, and the wet dirt specked with splinters and rocks had not been gentle on him. His fur had been torn out in some places and he had more scratches and bruises than he cared to count. In addition, he now felt his legs shake terribly from overusing them.

Shit, and all of this for someone he didn't even know and probably wouldn't see again. Ugh, damn. He really was too nice a person for his own good. He even felt his cat half screaming at him.

He would do it again in a heartbeat though. When he thought about that, it sunk in. He had a shot to lead a better life. Even if it was a bit miserable, he’d bear with it, as long as he could be proud of himself, then.

But not long after, Steve found him shaken from his reverie as another wave of pain shook his body. Right, for now he needed to know how bad things were. Status.

Hp: 5/17

Mp: 15/15

Sp: 0/25

Damn it, with his Hp this low it would definitely take more than a day to heal. Fuck. He needed to get to a safe spot to rest, he couldn't just fall asleep in the middle of the forest. He had to patiently endure until he had at least one singular Sp and could walk back to his log. At least he thought so when slow steps gently approached him. Then, when a pair of distinctly human, and very dirty hands reached out to him, his sight blurred and his consciousness faded away.