Chapter 3 - Friends and fights
None of the books that Delmer gave me said anything about how to actually use magic and were almost impossible to understand.
I was just about to see if he knew anything about it or had other books when a girls walked to the bookshelf beside me. She had a robe and a large wooden stick like may of the mages in the field outside the city except more tattered. She was also looking at books that seemed to be about magic, so since she was closer I decided to ask her instead.
[Hi, are you a magician?]
Unlike the old man she noticed right away that I was the one talking, but thats not to say she reacted any better.
“Eh?” was the first reaction as usual and then, after seeing me, she started to rapidly mumble along the lines of, “A cat? It looks cool. Why are there books in front of it? Was it reading? Wait, it just talked didn't it. Wow as expected of a fantasy game.” and so on.
After a few moments she seemed to realize what she was doing and stopped abruptly.
“Ah! Sorry about that. What were you saying?”
[ I asked if you were a magician.]
“Ah! Yes! I'm a magician. A sorcerer.”
[Great! Teach me magic.]
“Eh?”
[You see I was reading these books about magic, but they don't say anything about actually using it.]
“Oh? But that's what's so good about magic in 「 」. You just feel the mana and then … oh. Maybe you don't have any magic aptitude.”
[No I have two. I had points left over so I picked nature and ethereal aptitudes.]
“Hmm. I see, in that case you should just … wait. Points? Picked? You're not an NPC?”
[What's an NPC?]
“That … no, never mind. If you have an aptitude then you just feel your mana and will it outside. To make it do something specific require practice and better control, but some effects usually appear as soon as you direct it outside.”
[But how to you feel mana?]
“Hmm. I did it by imagining that there is something flowing around in you, kind of like trying to listen to your blood moving in the veins. Once you have felt it once, you can always feel it. Come to think of it. Aren't you already using magic to talk to me? Just focus on that.”
[Oh yeah. The screen did say that telepathy used mana didn't it.]
So I tried to feel the mana like the girl said while she started to mumble something about screens, NPCs and no beast option for users.
After a few tries and failures I was about to ask the girl for advice when suddenly something kind of shifted in me. It happened right when I tried to talk and once I noticed it I could suddenly feel a whole river of cracking and revitalizing energy flow through me.
[ I did it! Wow this feels cool.]
“Seriously? It took me almost half an hour …”
[Yeah. But I don't think I should force it outside though.]
“Eh? Why? You can't do magic unless you direct it out of your body. Even body strengthening works by reinforcing it from the outside.”
[Hmm. I don't know. I just feel that it's better if I don't do it.]
“But what abou––”
“SEIRYE! How long are you going to stay there! We're going!” someone was shouting from the front door.
“Ah! Sorry I … I have to go now. See you around!” and off she went.
I should probably get going myself. These books are giving me a headache. Maybe I'll go hunt one of those rabbits.
•••
As I was walking towards the grassy field with rabbits I tried to feel my mana again. This time I could do it right away and look at it as it twisted and turned in a slow but constant motion. The refreshing feeling wasn't so strong this time, but it was still there.
After some consideration I tried to move it around. I still feel that it is better to not try to draw it out, but it should be fine to move it inside the body. At first I couldn't do it, but after a while there was a little change in the motions and by the time I reached the gate I could kind of shift the whole flow a little.
When I got to the field I decided to stop messing with it and concentrated on finding my next meal.
After a short walk I saw a lone rabbit. I quickly started to circle it without actually approaching. Once I was downwind of it I started to go directly to it and made sure to keep as low as possible. I silently weaved between the taller grass tufts and slowly approached.
This is how you hunt. Patently, purposefully, and ever so silently. Thinking and planning, not running around randomly. Come to think of it, most of the successful human groups did work together and chased the rabbits to corners, so I guess the humans aren't completely ignorant to the matter, but they still lack finesse. By the time the rabbit started to suspect something I was two jumps away and ready to pounce. So I did.
The creature didn't know what hit it. Rather disappointing really. I had hoped to have a little chase, but I guess they are too used to the clumsy humans.
I was just about to dig in when the creature suddenly turned to specs of light and disappeared.
Oh yeah. They did that didn't they. How boring.
I mean I'm not really the type to play with food, at least not too much, but seriously. First the hunt turns out too easy, and then you don't even get to keep your kill. At least it left some meat behind. I should see if there are any mice in the city, or fish. Yeah fish would be good I wonder if they live around here somewhere I'd like to try hunting them sometime. (remember she is city cat, never seen live fish)
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
You have earned 3 EXP.
Hmm? EXP? What's that? Is it food?
Unfortunately the screens don't answer. I look around myself, but other than the pice of meat from the rabbit there was nothing new.
I wonder if I should ask somebody. I don't really feel like it though.
I decided that the rabbits were far too boring to continue hunting them, so I headed back towards the city. As I was about to reach the gate, I saw someone familiar. It was the magician girl. I think she was called Seirey? No something else. Was it Seirye?
So I started to go towards her. I could ask about the EXP thing and I had nothing more interesting planned anyway. You never know she might even know about some more interesting or at least better tasting prey.
She was not alone, there were five people around her. Three guys, two girls. They all had really flashy clothes and seemed very loud for some reason.
As I was nearing them I heard how they were complaining about the rabbits, I silently agreed with them at first, but then I realized that they thought it was too hard not too easy.
One of them seemed to be arguing with Seirye about leaving the neighborhood or something and by the time I reached them I had heard enough to decide to just ignore the whole group.
I walked up to Seirye and said, [Hi, lets go somewhere more quiet shall we?]
“Ah! The cat from the library.”
[ I'm Nori.]
“Oh right. I'm Seirye. Nice to meet y––”
“Seirye, what is that? Don't tell me you got yourself a pet.”
“Ah, no. this is––”
“What ever. It doesn't matter anyway. Get rid of it. We were in the middle of something.”
“No, but I …”
[Hey can we go already? These guys are annoying and I wanted to ask about this screen that ––]
“What did you say!?”
After that things got a little troublesome. You see I had already decided to ignore them, but this seemed to aggravate them for some reason. If a cat ignores you then, unless it is in your territory you ignore it right back. But it seems that humans react differently, because I'm sure that this is not his territory and he tried to kick me. I suppose that he could have felt threatened about his claim on Seirye, but we are from different species and both female, so I really don't see what his problem is.
Anyway, I managed to dodge his kick and even retaliated with a nice swipe with my claws, but from there things went downhill. One of the other humans managed to hit me hard enough to make me stop moving for a moment. That's all they needed to get a hold of me. I clawed and hissed at them, but they didn't let go. The lead guy was about to hit me, his fist almost to my face, when it happened.
For the first time in this pace I felt danger, wanted to escape. Then the fist was on me and the want turned into a need. And something in me reacted. I felt a slight shift and suddenly I could get out of their grip, go around the hands holding me. THROUGH them.
For a moment it was like I had turned into countless specs of black and blue dust. And then I was behind them, in my normal, catlike appearance, except that my tail seemed to fade into smoke, and the streaks seemed to glow with a light blue light that seemed to move and fluctuate at random.
Congratulations! You have awakened as a magical beast!By momentarily changing your nature, you have unlocked new aspects of your race.
Trait
+5 to all stats
Due to your actions you have acquired an ability.
Ability
When in smoke form:
500% speed
0% attack
invulnerable to physical attack
able to move through non-magical objects
________________________
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So in the end it fits together with the previous chapter pretty well (I'll probably put them together at some point) and I didn't get to the logout after all.
It also turn out that it is almost impossible for me to write "bad guy" dialogue, (at least in a way that is even remotely believable) so I dodged most of that.
Anyway, hope you enjoyed!