Chapter 88: Territory

/Welcome back everyone to this dumpster fire of a book. We have once again gathered to complain about life as a whole, because quite frankly, there's a whole fucking lot to complain about. Now, last time in this shitty system I ranted about the shit it keeps from us, but this time, I wanna talk about what we're actually fucking told.

Because let me tell you, this Skill we get is a fucking sham. Seriously. It tells you a lot about Skills, except most of what it says is basic info you could have inferred from the name, and when it adds something special, you don't even know what that extra bit is, and it sure as fuck won't tell you. And then the bastard also gets snarky when you ask!

Seriously, I've appraised plants before thinking they might be poisonous, and straight goes "it's a plant". I fucking know that much, I wanted to know info about the plant! Seriously, what a garbage Skill.

Even talking about other parts though. There is simply no indication of how the system is supposed to function. You have to think of something to activate it. Alright, now imagine that there is some sort of concept, maybe something like a flea market where other users can put their items up for auction, that none of us have ever thought about. Would we know about it? Nope.

The system seriously just tells us to use our imagination instead of actually having proper supporting infrastructure to explain it. At this point, might be quick descriptions written by some annoyed guy whenever we pull up the menu.

We're told our stats, sure, but what do those mean. Does strength apply universally to all muscles or only to some? Does it increase the weight we can lift linearly or exponentially? Yeah, we know our strength score, definitely, but does that tell us fucking anything? No! Same for all the other stats.

And on fucking top of that, the same goes for our Skills. We can see their levels, but clearly that isn't all that matters. I've seen people skyrocket Skills to certain levels if they have similar ones, and then hit a bottleneck. Does that fit in very well with the concept of just mastery? Can you get Skill mastery before even acquiring a Skill? We know the Skill's level, but what does it fucking mean dude?

Seriously. Even the information we are given by this piece of trash is inaccurate at best, and flat out unusable at worst. Pisses me off. See you bastards next week when I find another annoying bit about this. Don't croak./

Issue 9 of "This System Sucks!" by an anonymous author.

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Mercury felt quite a bit better about himself after all of that, honestly. Not that he was feeling horrible before, but in general it was just... freeing to feel more progress. Lately it was like he had been stagnating, so hopefully he'd finally be able to move forward some more with this.

Trying to return to the present, the cat pushed his thought aside and focused on where the hell he was. He'd definitely run quite a bit when he got excited before, and already put a good amount of distance between himself and Unbar. Maybe he should have bought himself a map? Ah, too late to worry about it now, he'd just explore.

For about half a day, Mercury followed the road, if he could call it one. It wasn't travelled very much, only the occasional carriage or patrol passing by, and most people ignored him. One time some girl started trying to convince her mom to adopt him, which led our hero to make a very hasty retreat. Still, even with that event the journey was rather boring. There wasn't anyone he could chat with, so he had to otherwise keep his thoughts occupied, and what better way to do so than practice some magic?

With that thought in mind, the leyfal split his mind in two. One zeyj focused on the road, while the other, the one that had developed 32 ystirs, was practicing the ability to manipulate mana. In the end, both of them were part of him, so there was no need to worry about one developing any faster. Everything that happened was still part of what Mercury experienced.

And so, Mercury walked along for a while. When he was hungry or thirsty, he would simply take some of the rations he'd packed back at the mansions out. There was enough to sustain him for a good week or two, and he wasn't planning to travel for that long. Eventually he'd find a place to settle for a while, and hunt some of the animals in there. Until then, he'd just continue travelling.

The days passed one by one, as Mercury continued walking. Unbar had disappeared behind a hill quite some time ago, and he had randomly chosen his paths when the road forked. Occasionally he'd check which direction he was going with , and by now he was apparently heading east.

After some time, Mercury found a couple small villages, but he didn't stay very long, only buying some more rations for a couple dims total. Nothing too grand, just enough to keep him going outside the walls. One of them had a gloryhall there, and he spent a night, but even then he didn't do any commissions or something the like.

Instead, Mercury continued travelling. First a page passed, then a second, and after a whole five pages he finally found something suitable. He had been finding many small forests and rivers, but never anything big and unexplored. You know, the kind of stuff that would be represented by a thick cluster of trees on any large map, and where you wouldn't really be able to buy any proper layout, because it wasn't well travelled.

He had been going northeast for a good while, and eventually found a suitable large forest, one with trees that seemed to reach for the sky. They looked a little like redwood, but their tones were much earthier. With the canopies so high up, and the trees not sporting a whole lot of leaves, there was also plenty of sunlight to promote a healthy underbrush, and the entire forest floor was covered in grasses, ferns, mosses and the like.

With a nod to himself, Mercury fused his minds into one again. Travelling had also given him quite a bit of practice when it came to his zeyjs, and he was now able to maintain them for much longer than before. Ten minutes were no issue, and he could go for quite a bit more with some strain. Of course, he'd rather avoid backlash as severe as what he'd previously gone through, so for now he decided to only strain himself some, and not an extreme amount.

Focusing his thoughts again, Mercury looked forward as he headed into the forest. There weren't really any paths for him to follow here, so instead, Mercury just headed in blindly, walking through the trees. There was a lot of space to maneuver on the ground, since the trees kept quite a bit of distance from each other, but Mercury couldn't really find very many critters on the ground.

Still, using his sense of smell, he could pick up a couple trails, most of which were very slight and ended at the trunks of the trees. When he tried to follow them any further, they would have him walk upwards, and Mercury could see a couple funny looking nests up in the higher branches. Most of them looked like what birds would use, but they also had some leaves in there for cushioning, so there were probably small mammals living in at least a couple of them as well.

Taking note of it in his mind, Mercury continued on. He still had enough rations to get him through a day or two, then he'd really have to start hunting for his own food, and it was good to know where his meals were hiding. So, he took note of any nests he saw, thinking that if it wasn't some kind of mouse-like thing, he'd still be able to drag even small birds to the floor with . Ghost hands, baby.

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With his source of food probably secure enough, the leyfal continued his journey to search for another necessity of life: water. He'd need to find a river if he really wanted to gather some experience here. To find it, Mercury once again used his increased sense of smell, trying to find any place where multiple different smells converged. Bit by bit, he made his way through the jungle, trying to avoid most plants that looked spiky or dangerous, and slowly made his way towards where he thought a river might be.

Thanks to the decently longer legs he had gotten through evolution, Mercury could see pretty well through the underbrush while still remaining largely hidden. Using that to his advantage, he had soon found a small river, originating from a small, clear lake. There were quite a couple of animals around it too, a family of elks and a handful of boars, all drinking without hesitation. A good indicator that the water was clean.

A little further down the river, he could see what looked like otters enjoying the sunshine. But then he saw it. Behind the small lake, a little further away in the bushes, he saw a cat. A big one, one that he had seen many times on TV back on earth. It was a bobcat, or at least something like it.

Straining his eyes, Mercury tried to make out as much as possible about it. The thing was taller than him, maybe about one and a half times his size. It licked its snout while watching the other animals, perhaps planning an evil attack to disrupt the temporary truce of the herbivores at the lake. Immediately, Mercury felt his pupils narrow as he noticed a fierce instinct bubble up under his skin. His hair stood up, making him look larger than he was, and he felt the eyes of the bobcat now fall onto him.

The reaction was instant. Its lips pulled back to reveal its fangs as its back arched to appear bigger, ears laying flat on the side of its head. Mercury could feel his body reply in a very similar manner. There was now competition over the prey, and before hunting could commence, a rival would need to be eliminated or chased away. Both of them understood this, and Mercury threw any intent of diplomacy out the window.

Slowly but very surely, he and the other cat began to walk. Not straight towards each other, in fear of attracting the attention of the other animals, but instead to the side, slowly circling around the lake but towards each other. There was an outcropping of rock at the back of the water anyways, and so the two of them decided to meet behind there, and once face to face with the other beast, Mercury hissed, his intent clear.

Immediately, the bobcat responded in kind, and Mercury understood very clearly what it said. This was its territory, and Mercury needed to leave, now. The leyfal snarled back, saying that he would go where he pleased, and claim whatever territory he wanted. It came naturally to him, almost as though he had always been able to communicate like this, perhaps in some way his cat-brain did influence his knowledge.

Still, the bobcat didn't back down, slowly snarling and biting at the air as it took a step towards Mercury. For a moment he was tempted to step back, but the feeling faded more than quickly as his rationality fought back. His willpower was far too great to let himself be intimidated by some feeble looking bitch.

Then again, upon closer inspection he could see that it wasn't quite an ordinary bobcat he was facing. Its fur seemed hard and spiky, its skin beneath like tough leather, and when it snapped at the air, he thought he could see a second row of serrated teeth. But still, the mopaaw didn't back down, instead deciding to take a step forward and hiss, raising a paw with his claws out.

For a moment, the tension in the air was thick, and neither cat moved even a hair. But then, the moment faded, and by instinct, Mercury knew it was fucking go time. Without hesitation he lunged at the other feline, slamming into its heavier body and scratching away without hesitation. Within a flash, the tow had combined into a ball of pure fury, full of screeches and scratches, until after only a couple of seconds, the tow came apart again.

"I'll make you regret this," Mercury said, his skin full of small scratches and a bite mark on his leg. The bobcat hissed in response, slowly approaching him again, but the slight pain was enough to make Mercury think clearly. He wasn't just driven by instinct, using only his body to fight. If he did that, he'd clearly lose against someone bigger and stronger than him. After all, he had just entered a new tier a little while ago, while the bobcat was probably on that level for much longer.

But in exchange, his Skills were most likely higher due to diligent practice. As the other feline approached him, Mercury cracked a slight smile. "Fuck you," he said, and with all the might his mind could muster, he slammed into the furry bitch. The weight wasn't great enough to immediately press it to the floor, its level wasn't yet high enough for that, but honestly, just adding a lot more weight onto the thing's back was quite enough for this fight to end quickly.

Within another moment, Mercury had split his mind in two, one of them keeping the going, while the other gathered power and pulsed it through his entire body, flooding his mana veins, and spreading his stamina to wherever it was needed. Lastly, he took a deep breath, feeling all of the strength now coursing through him. He could keep this up for maybe ten minutes, probably a little shorter, but this was a fight that would not need that long to finish.

As soon as the bobcat had taken another step, Mercury lunged, his speed far greater than before. With still helping him out, he soon had toppled the bobcat and thrown it onto its side, quickly digging his fangs into the thing's shoulder. He couldn't quite reach the neck and just snapped at what he could find, digging his teeth in as much as he could. Then, when it was trying to shake him off, Mercury knew it was distracted and even let go.

There was no more need to keep clinging to the thing after all. He had injured its leg, and made it angry. The adrenaline would help it, but it couldn't run forever. The bobcat knew it too, and wanted to lunge at its enemy, when it saw a bag appear next to him out of thin air. For a moment, it thought that was strange, until from within said bag, a sharp rock came flying out.

With the agility of a feline, it quickly ducked beneath the first one, yet the second struck its other front leg in the knee, splattering blood as the cat let out a yowl. "Got you," Mercury whispered to himself as he panted, and continued to activate throw on many rocks. After only a couple more tosses, the wild cat was too exhausted to dodge and it instead whimpered, causing Mercury to hesitate.

Somewhere in the back of his mind he knew that battles over territory should not go this far, and he stopped the paw he had laid on another stone. Then, he sighed. While the bobcat was still lying on the ground, Mercury went about his business and collected the stones again, putting them back into his pack. The wild feline he had just fought soon stopped its wincing and watched him curiously while licking its wounds clean.

Once he was done collecting his ammo, Mercury simply put the pack into his inventory again, and returned to his previous competitor. By now, most of the animals had left the watering hole, the only ones left were the elks, who showed no interest in the struggle of two creatures who were now hurt.

There was still some tension between them, that much Mercury could feel, but the bobcat was not in any position to fight, so it simply had to submit for now. No doubt it would fight him again once it healed, but Mercury didn't worry about that too much for now. Instead, he meowed at his enemy, attempting to propose a truce. He didn't yet know enough about the forest, and he was unsure if he could afford constant fight about his territory.

For a couple moments, the bobcat eyed him, shaking itself to get rid of some dust, then eyeing him again. After a little while, it let out a low rumbling, and Mercury could tell it was fine not fighting. It didn't have much choice either, but Mercury wasn't quite done with his interrogation yet. Once again he let out a sound, pretty much asking if it had cubs. had told him that his enemy was female.

The bobcat's hairs began to stand on end and its eyes narrowed, but as it stared as Mercury and let out a quiet hiss, it became clear he wasn't intent on hurting her cubs. Then, after another moment, she affirmed it. Two of them, in fact.

Mercury nodded again. Now it made more sense why she was already out hunting when night hadn't even fallen yet. She was probably gonna try getting one of the otters a little further down, to have some food for the cubs in case they didn't manage to catch anything today by themselves. No, wait, they were probably quite near, to watch their mother.

After a moment of thought, Mercury decided to offer up some of his rations. He didn't feel a need to keep a grudge here, and instead quickly opened up his inventory, placing some leaf-wrapped meat down in front of his previous enemy. With that, he left.

Maybe that was stupid, but Mercury didn't think so. The bobcat wouldn't be a bitch about her territory towards him anymore, and he had found a place to consistently get water. Now the only thing he needed was to hunt small mammals, or even big ones if he wanted to. After all, there probably wasn't much that could really threaten him in a regular forest, especially this close to the outskirts. If he went deeper, perhaps there would be some scarier wildlife there, but for now he just wanted to establish some room for himself.

With that in mind, Mercury went about setting himself up a camp.