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CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Juba

If someone asked me to imagine a human with six limbs, I would either imagine that villain who has four arms in the movie that they fight for the fate of the Earth or a bizarre humanlike creature with four legs instead.

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I used one full Earth week to train my skills and get stamina and mana recovery skills. Although I get one per cent of the skill's experience as normal experience whenever I level it up, I realized waiting until I am higher level before I sacrifice experience to raise my skills up to my level would be detrimental. The rarity of a skill determines how much experience is needed to level it up. But when I am using the [Leveler] skill, it considers them all equal. Since I am currently level eighteen, all my basic skills have ranked up to intermediate level eighteen. My appraisal skill is advanced level two now.

Although skills that are levelled up normally give experience to the user, skills levelled up by the [Leveler] skill don't. During this week, I passed all the untasty animals I killed to the level twenty-seven cheetah.

I only slept an hour every twenty-four hours because I am superhuman now.

My intermediate [Rabbit Kick] can now fall very big trees.

I realized after kicking down my first tree victim that they too have experience and level up. But trying to level up by destroying trees is a fool's errand since the experience they give is insignificant.

I am currently left with only ten stamina potions. But I got a [Stamina Recovery] skill so all is good. I also got a [Mana Recovery] skill. Before I sacrificed experience for levelling up my skills, I had a small knife with me that I would use to cut myself every now and then so that my [Regeneration] skill would level up faster. At intermediate class, all my skills give me a minimum of one point four times the stat that they are related to.

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I think I am ready to beat the cheetah that I have been fattening up all this time. I am currently better than him in everything but speed and durability. Luckily, I have a skill that gives me a speed boost which I can use for one hundred and sixteen seconds based on the quantity of mana I currently have. It also has [Hasten] which can boost its speed by up to one point six times for ninety seconds. I have outgrown my first dummy armour and my first dummy sword was turned into a chewing stick. My second dummy armour gives me plus eight hundred durability and two hundred speed. I also learned [Physical Reinforcement] magic which will give me an additional twenty percent boost to all of my physical attributes so I think I am set. I could have waited until I reached its level but I want to train myself by fighting enemies who are on par with me or stronger. If I don't train for that now and I get ambushed in the future, I'll have myself to blame.

I put on my second dummy armour and sword. The armor is similar in appearance to Kuma but the sword looks different from Xebec. I'll go find a water source and other sources of food when I am done killing the cheetah. I have currently used about one per cent of the food items in my first spacial ring because of my training and gaining the regeneration skill and I don't wanna wait until fifty per cent before I find other sources.

When I got to the cheetah, I shouted; "It's time for us to fight." After hearing me, it walked slowly to me and instead of fighting, it crouched down and started to make itself comfy while purring. I thought we both understood we were just postponing our fight. Does it not want to fight anymore?

{What's going on here, Ansah?}.

"I think you should check its titles, Master."

I checked its titles and I couldn't believe what I saw. It was now known as 'Rox's Familiar'. I fed it its young. I don't know if they are actually related but I am feeling sorry now. The only reason I kept on feeding it was to make it grow fat and sluggish by the time we fought. But having a very fast mount will be very helpful.

"Hey cheetah, do you want to serve me?". I went close, crouched down in front of the cheetah and asked.

"Meow". The cheetah meowed to say yes and tried to lick me. I initially tried to avoid it but I allowed it to lick my hand in the end. I wasn't afraid of it biting me because the moment an individual accepts to serve me, they can not betray me.

"Master, the system has designated the cheetah as your divine beast and given it a Ninth-tier system. Also, how would you like to name it?"

I looked at the cheetah and said; "Juba... I'll call you Juba. Do you like it?". There wasn't any special meaning behind me naming it that way. It was the first name that popped up in my mind.

"Yes, Master. ". Did it just speak? No, its mouth didn't move. But, since I don't want to make a fool out of myself, I'll first ask Ansah.

{Ansah, do Cheetahs on this planet speak?}

"Apart from the one in front of you, no other can."

{Is it because of the ninth tier system?}.

"Yes, Master. The Ninth Tier System increased all of its base stats including intelligence and gave it the [Telepathic Speech] skill which allows powerful beasts whose vocal cords do not allow speech to speak."

{Thanks.} Now that I know Juba is intelligent, I don't know if I should hide the fact that I wanted to kill it from it. It probably now understands that so hiding it may be detrimental. He can't betray me but having resentments may let him not serve me properly.

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"Juba, I am sorry, but I initially wanted to kill you. Now, that you have grown intelligent, I hope you forget about the past and the fact that the first feast I gave you was another cheetah's meet. Yes, I'm sorry. It ambushed me, so I killed it. Since I deemed its meat less tasty that's why I passed it to you. Also, I thought you came for revenge when I heard your roar.". I think I went too far when I let it eat its young.

" I can not blame you. I also came to hunt you since you looked delicious. The moment something blocked me from biting your neck, I realized although you may seem weak, you are powerful. I did see the skin you mounted but I couldn't make the connection because I wasn't intelligent enough at that time. But, although it was within your rights to do whatever you wanted I think you went too far. I am a loner but I do not like the fact that I ate my kind. Yet, I think I would be dead if we fought so thank you for allowing me to live and giving me this system that has made me intelligent." She has taken it better than I thought.

"You have taken it better than I thought."

"When I was given the system, I was told I couldn't disobey you. And I have no intention to go against you in the beginning. Frankly, I'd rather get into your good graces than be petty. After all, I am under your mercy. Even if you order me to kill myself, I don't think I can go against it. Can I ask something of you Master?" This girl is smart. Perhaps, the only reason she was able to grow to this point was because of her wits.

"You can ask.".

"I'll follow your orders and do whatever you ask me to do but please, do not ask me to kill my kind. I can't stand it. If you want, I'll see if I can convince them."

"Okay. I'll let you if we meet some of your kin." I didn't think my first mount would be a pink cheetah, but such is life. Things don't always go the way you want. Lemme compare his stats and mine and see the difference between a ninth-tier system and a Seed system:

Name: Juba.

Race: Supreme Guardian Cheetah.

Level: 18. (Level suppressed)

Health Points(HP) = 222620.

Mana Points (MP) = 35886.

Strength (ST) = 23118.

Speed (S) = 1198.7.

Durability (D) = 9419.

Stamina (E) = 39387.

Skills = [Advanced Hasten], [Advanced Intimidation Aura], [Advanced Killer Bite][Telepathic Speech], and [Intermediate Paws of Death]

First and foremost, she doesn't seem any weaker than the level twenty-seven I was going to fight.

Secondly, I couldn't level up and yay! I got a skill that makes me speak without opening my mouth and another that makes my paw attacks deadly while I don't have paws. I guess I'll use the [Advanced Hasten] to augment my [Wind Haste]. [Advanced Intimidation Aura] may come in handy. It multiplies the user's power by three and uses it to put pressure on the target.

Now let's compare her stats with the level twenty-seven cheetah:

Name: ????.

Race: Ko Pink Cheetah.

Level: 27.

Health Points(HP) = 235325.

Mana Points (MP) = 37924

Strength (ST) = 24438.

Speed (S) = 1267.1

Durability (D) = 9956.

Stamina (E) = 41634.

As I said, not much higher. But... Comparing with mine, it seems she has made up her mind to always beat me in speed.

Here are my current stats:

Name: Rox Ben Nide.

Race: Supreme Divine Seed.

Level: 18.

Health Points(HP) = 247355.

Mana Points (MP) = 53086.

Strength (ST) = 24736.

Speed (S) = 425.3.

Durability (D) = 5708.

Stamina (E) = 68498.

Compared to her, I am a slug but it isn't bad since she is going to be the one taking me places. I jumped on her and asked; "Juba, do you know where the strong ones in the forest are?"

"Yes, Master. Knowing that and avoiding them is the only reason I am still alive. There is the Monkey King Kaiser in the west, My grandfather who is known as The Blitzing Fang in the east, The Great Alpha Wolf in the east of the east, The Giant Crocodile of The Lake and The Proud Lion of The South. For the north, I do not and dare not venture there. Every cheetah I saw venture there never returned. All the ones I just talked about are at least, twice as strong as I am. The Giant Crocodile of The Lake almost got me one time, when I went there to drink. Luckily, it was too slow to catch me on land, so I was able to run away. There may be others that I don't know of too.".

"I thought you said you weren't that intelligent in the past. How did you get to know all their names? And who even gave them their names?" As I was talking to Juba, she was slowly walking me through the forest.

"I could instinctively know what the system was telling me without knowing how to read the text. I only now analyzed my memories and found those out and I only mentioned their titles and not their names."

"That's great. Let's go and check just how powerful the powerful ones here are."

"Master, they'll kill us if we get too close."

"Don't worry, I'll lift and run away with you when there is trouble."

"Master, am I not faster than you?"

"You will know just how fast I am if there is danger. But I am not stupid enough to get too close. I'll just appraise them from afar. By the way, you don't have appraisal skill, so how were you able to discern their titles?

"Through instinct and the fact that they weren't hiding them in the first place." So if you don't hide your titles, they are visible to all? I should take my time and check all of my titles and the benefits they give me. But first, {Ansah, hide all my titles.}

"I have done so already, Master." {Good job.}

"Can you show me around? I wanted to find sources of food and water."

"Yes, Master. Shall we go to the river then? There is a herd of rabbits there. They are very delicious. But their leader is very strong so it can kick you to death if you don't take care.".

"I'll save them for the future. I currently have twenty-five rabbits in store."

"So you are the one who destroyed the weak warren?"

"Yes. Is that the reason why you were roaring that day?"

"Yes, Master. That herd was the weakest around so we've been picking them one by one. But we always make sure not to overhunt them. Finding out someone had burnt their habitat down got me furious.".

"It was the best way for me to grow faster at the time. And I also found their meat delicious so I couldn't help but kill and store them all for myself."

Juba stopped, glanced forward into the distance and said; "Master, there is a commotion ahead."

" I sensed it too." Both my [Prey sense] and my [Sense Predator] which has evolved into [Predator Sense] are reacting. Whatever is ahead hunts and get hunted. "Find a safe place where we can observe what is going on ahead.".

When we found a nice spot, I looked down from the hill we were standing on and saw four-legged humans running through the forest.