If I ate him I could probably find out how long the event is.
I'm butchering the hare, poorly, probably, just trying to get the fur off. I manage to shatter the horn when I try to use it as a handle for leverage, and apparently it makes the venom inside the horn from a little gland in the base. And it doesn't affect me. Still immune to your bullshit!
-Whoo!- I raise my forelimbs in a victory pose, wings mostly open in triumph before going back to work.
Could probably find out the locations of the "best" spots.
I cook some of the meat, put some of it on the drying racks after banking most of the produce that's ready, jarring the stuff that turned to candy, and then work on making more paste, cakes, dumpling soups, and stews. Against my better taste I set a pot of shiver thorn to boil, throwing in some tea leaves, hoping I'll make a minty tea. Lemony would be better.
-Citrus,- I mumble to myself.
Maybe he has spreadsheet memory like Silent Howl?
It's weird how much I'm enjoying cooking when I don't have to go shopping, worry about money, cooking temps, and more. Just fucking will and a void space. Boom. It's actually kinda relaxing, -- and tastey, -- knowing that even if I'm hungry I'll always have food. Tastey food that I made, even if it's not always filling. Good shit.
Earth hare cakes, veg cakes, earth hare dumpling soup, not enough earth hare to make more stuff. I wonder if I can reproduce it from soul sucking it even though I didn't actually eat it eat it. Yet. Does it have to be raw for me to know it? Can I make --. I can definitely make hell bananas, evil ice cream, and lava flowers. Pretty sure I already did and nearly burned down a forest I'd made. Oh~... In the world powered by big emperor energy. Now I'm reduced to big bug energy. Little catastrophe energy.
-I can haz devour the world, ooh-whoo?- I snark, savoring some rabbit cake.
I clean up the kitchen, clean up myself, go back and make a proper bed for the dirty rat bastard, leave him on a mat on the floor next to the bed, make an even better bed in the room I sleep in, then head back out to the not bald mountains in search of most stuff to hunt.
Fuck! I forgot I needed proof of the --. No, I still have the hide in my bank, butchered to fuck, but still there. Was gonna work on making leather. Hope I didn't need the horn intact. So... Save the bodies for turning in, then eat later. Why's this sound familiar? Food's prepped, I don't feel peckish, what with eating, and then I'm trotting around the 'sploded Earth Hare burrow.
I have no idea how my reflexes were that good. I remember thinking my reflexes were good, but then I got bunny bounced. True, I wasn't expecting to have to fight, but I wasn't expecting it to attack the kid either. I know I joked that my combat was food oriented, -- I kill so's I can eat, -- but I'm pretty sure I did some epic shit without being hungry. So was that Silent Howl or do I have bug reflexes I keep neglecting? I move away from the hole in search of other hunters, aiming for the cave nearby. If they pick me up I can practice the soul suck so I can know whether my reflexes are shit or if I'm even more of a trap as a bug than a hunan.
I can see that there's a bunch of stuff strewn across the entrance, but I don't know if it's traps, warnings, barriers, or world scarring. I wander through, some of the strands and lines break, there's no fireworks, and no one comes out of the darkness to gloat, so I guess I'm good? Until someone scoops me up. They were sitting against the wall in that damn dark armor. There's no light to glint off their chain link, and they didn't make any noise, even when they moved around. Their hands and head are covered with dark cloth, but the quiet thing is more impressive.
"Hey, brat," my yoinker breathes, somehow speaking below a whisper. "Your master was looking for you." Lady Lord is not my master. "Is this where you got off to?"
This person is barely bigger than I am, but they've got the most obnoxiously large hands and feet. What. Da. Fuq. They're holding me more with their large hand than their twiggy arm, and they're so quiet as they move through the cave tunnel all clompy and lanky and silent. I wonder if I need skin to skin contact and they oblige by taking the glove off of their free hand so they can get their hands into my silk, idly scratching my back. Feels kinda nice.
Confident. He's small and he knows the value of it. He doesn't have a complex about his height or lack of it. He's found the utility in his stature and his only complaint is that his hands, while dextrous, are too large for fine work, and his feet make it harder for him to take advantage of his small frame. And he can crush anything that fits in his palm. Which is currently my torso. Neat.
I opt not to eat him, and not just because he can kill me with a death twitch. He's cool, not just pretending to be, not just overly confident. It's rather refreshing. I return my focus to my surroundings to see we're squeezing through a crack in a wall into a small room with a big boy. How the fuck did this absolute unit of cut beef make it into this area? He's not a body builders, he's just very broad and very muscular, and flexing. On purpose or that's just the way he's built?
I listen as they breathe talk, I wandered in, I'm someone's pet, is there proof that they're not sharing my eyes, what do I do, I am very fluffy, but I'm not squishy, that would be best, and then I'm passed over so the hulking brute can get his pets, too. I'm confused by how the exchange has gone from is that a security threat to me being cuddled by a giant. Pretty sure him burying his face in my fur counts as skin contact. Glad I groom so much.
He's happy and embarrassed. He likes cute things, but he's a biggun so he can't get work if people know, but the little 'un knows, and the little doesn't care. And they're bros, not lovers. A moment of solidarity shared over a floof before they go back to work, just a quick break.
Small and stealthy bows off, slipping back out the crack and leaving me with Big Boy who's afraid he'll be found with me and happy that I've been dumped on him. While I'm glad they're not going to kill me and try to turn me in as a trophy, I kinda need to go out and hunt. I don't wanna kill him, killing dicks is rewarded and he doesn't seem very dickish, but I don't know his life. I give a quick buck, just to test the waters, and his mood plummets. He gets in another quick cuddle then sets me down towards the crack. I, in turn, plop down and comb my silk back out. It's not knotted or tangled, but it is mussed.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
He does a muted little dance, bending, squatting, reaching, eventually reaching low enough to give me a couple of quick pets, then goes back to looking solemn. I've no idea how long it takes for me to groom, and I do at least know I can check the Smorgas-Board, -- I don't, -- but it occurs to me that I could maybe check the Post Board to see if the Hunt is on it.
Me. Stomach. Post Board screen with its windows in windows, but is it under incomplete or available? There's an event window, and --. Yep. There's a hunt, a put down the bandits, and both give you Karma from the Golden Sun Empire Council. With a mention to the Golden empress. Council run empire with a figurehead. Got it. Same as the last one. Neat.
Focus, me! Hunt! I pop the window open to see that it was supposed to start tomorrow, started today, is supposed to last a week, reduced to three days, and the area after that time is reserved. So someone bribed the dude at the table and reserved 3 days at the end to hunt unimpeded? Yeah, big boss who out hunts everyone pays for the biggest fucking handicap. Probably gonna try to use retainers over the age of 30. It seems I've got people to eat, 'cause, so far, this place has been a washout.
There's a blast of sound.
[Piercing Successful]
[Successful Uses 3/100]
[Qi -150]
[Karma -10]
[Current Condensed Qi: 1831774/23765728]
[Current Qi: 237552/957945100]
[Current Karma: 95062912/107275977]
[Max Will: 9,579,451]
[Mortal Wallet: 10E,27K,180P,154R,179Da,155De,105k]
[Spirit Wallet: 0Dr,0Ph,0Th,1199Di,126Co,10506St]
I flinch, punching myself in the face with the back of my leg when I flinch from my flinch, the first flinch stabbing my leg into the ground. Luckily I didn't cut anything of mine off. Should have checked before I said anything, but a quick check shows that I'm still good. Shouting. No, someone's talking really fucking loudly. After all the breathing talk it's like someone triggering a bullhorn in the cave for no reason. I'm very annoyed that they're getting closer. Hopefully they pass by and STF Up.
I stare in blank irritation as they squeeze directly into the crevice, dressed in the right uniform, and still shout. In the tiny room. They kick me and I scream at them. The fact that they don't flinch is offensive. Unless they're deaf? In which case I'm the asshole, and they should not have been brought here. That's not discrimination, this is a hunting trip. Unless he's bait?
I look around to check the mood and see people frowning, faces tight, chins tucked in. Did he shit himself? Did this dude get poisoned and is just dying obnoxiously? What is happening? He grabs me, roughly, and he doesn't smell like shit, but he's so obnoxious. When he laughs, calls me a camp pet, then says he's going to kill me so I'm not a distraction, I figure out that he's just a shitty person. He grips one of my rear legs, snaps it, tearing his gloves on my exoskeleton under all the fluff, and I've got my full contact.
[Feeding Successful]
[Successful Uses 51/100]
[Qi +1000]
[Karma +10]
[Current Condensed Qi: 1831774/23765730]
[Current Qi: 238552/957945100]
[Current Karma: 95062922/107275977]
[Max Will: 9,579,451]
[Mortal Wallet: 10E,27K,180P,154R,179Da,155De,105k]
[Spirit Wallet: 0Dr,0Ph,0Th,1199Di,126Co,10506St]
His grip loosens, stumbling with a look of confusion, but he doesn't drop me. Impressive, asshole, wanna go again?
[Feeding Successful]
[Successful Uses 52/100]
[Qi +1000]
[Karma +10]
[Current Condensed Qi: 1831774/23765733]
[Current Qi: 239552/957945100]
[Current Karma: 95062932/107275977]
[Max Will: 9,579,451]
[Mortal Wallet: 10E,27K,180P,154R,179Da,155De,105k]
[Spirit Wallet: 0Dr,0Ph,0Th,1199Di,126Co,10506St]
He slowly collapses, dropping to one knee, hand outstretched, face calm and confused, like he heard something and is trying to pinpoint it. He doesn't look at all concerned, but I'm growing concerned. Two hits and he's still alive? What is he? I reach forward, rear leg healed, forelegs cradling his face so he has to look at me. To focus on me. And he. Is. Struggling.
-*Who are you?*- I ask, reaching for the him that is him.
The common man with the common skill set in his clan. Disposable. Powerless. Sent somewhere no one can counter him he easily ranks up and makes it everyone else's problem. He has a job to do, but he was having too much fun. He wasn't a bad person, and he definitely became a shitty person. All it took was a little bit of power.
He falls to the ground, heart still, and I know about the Blossom Centipede, a clan built around insects and poisons, a sister clan of Silent Howl's Death Blossom Spider Clan. In time I will learn his name, right now I don't care. I start eating his face, slowly reinforcing my forelegs, the combing edge sharpening and lengthening as I cut into his head. And no one stops me.
-*Anyone else want to attack the bank bug for fun?*- I ask while scooping the assholes brain out of the area formerly known as his face and banking all of him. -*Yes, I'm fluffy. True, I don't move much. No, that doesn't mean you can bully me. Questions?*-
"You can talk?" Big Boi breathes at me.
-*I've been able to send indiscriminately since I could fly,*- I groom myself, digesting the entry requirements for Blossom Centipede Clan.
They actually have a lot of intelligent-ish bugs as members. I can trade my scales for a shit ton of reputation right off the bat. Cool.
"Were you here to steal our secrets?" Big Boi, you poor sweetheart.
-*I'm here to participate in the hunt. People just keep picking me up. Not sure if it's something I developed what with the being inactive thing,*- I ramble. It's not not true. Yay, subterfuge?
"What did you do?" someone breathes from the back of the group that still hasn't passed Big Boi's security test, whatever that may be. He's bodyguarding something.
-*I am a bank bug. I have a void. He's part of it now.*- That doesn't feel as badass as I hoped it would sound. Need to work on it but they look suitably shaken. -*That's enough excitement for me. Get your pets in. I plan on catching something to make this entire event not a complete waste of time.*-
I move towards the exit and Big Boi swoops in from behind me, gives me a quick cuddle squeeze, then holds me out for the next person. Small and Silent comes out of nowhere, -- it looks like he was literally hiding behind someone's leg, -- reaches up and grabs me, giving me a quick pat before tucking me under his arm. He coolly waves for people to stop clogging the crevice, -- the entry crevice, not any of my crevices. Phrasing! -- and one brave soul reaches out to touch my silk, then quickly retracts their hand. From then on it's open season, with a barrage of pets, pokes, and tugs, Small and Stealthy slapping the hands of the worst offenders, and I'm pretty sure he's breaking their bones. Neat.
Once we're outside of the crevice and back in the tunnel he plops me on the ground then kneels so we're nearly eye level when I stand. Pointing back towards the entrance he tells me that's the way out, and my best bet might be to hunt for hares, since I don't seem like much of a fighter. Pointing the other way he informs me that the Shaded Caverns are a maze of tunnels and caves connected beneath the entire area, and that some of the stronger groups, and stone lions, flint tigers, and mist dragons, were hiding there. I can go that way if I want to win or die. He gives me one final head rub then heads back to the entrance.
I knew I shouldn't eat him. He's good people. I nod to myself, turn, and trot deeper into the caverns, freeze, then go into my void to prepare. I need to make sure I'm focused other wise I'm going to get wrecked.