“What is going on?!!!” I looked around as all the light vanished in front of me as we descended into the devil cat's shadow. Even though I couldn’t see anything it still felt as if we were moving.
“Is this an escape skill?” I guessed, not knowing if to be happy or sad that I escaped from the young elf Fortis, as now I needed to deal with this cunning cat all alone.
I took a big breath of imaginary air and took advantage of the calm situation while we were inside the shadow of the devil cat and started to think of an escape plan, but first I needed to know what I was dealing with.
“*Self Awareness* and *inspect* devil cat.”
***
*Self Awareness Status*
-Visavil Bush Lv3-
Experience: 56/60
Rarity: Uncommon
Health: 1/13
Mana: 22/44
Stamina: 1/11
***
-Shadow Predator Lv12-
Health: 25/69 (-22)
Mana: 2/37 (-13)
Stamina: 7/15 (-7)
Status: Shadow Aura, Curse Of Darkness, Weakened(Medium), Bleeding(weak)
***
“Not sure if me surviving each time with one hp is a miracle or I am just stupidly lucky…” I looked at my status and said but then when I looked at the devil cat status I was surprised.
“Wait, weren't you stronger? And what are those weird subtractions around its health, mana, and stamina?” I remembered the devil cat's health to be close to a hundred and mana above fifty but now it decreased even though it leveled up once, so without much thought, I inspected those subtractions.
***
*Temporary stat debuff* - Stats can be temporarily debuffed by poison or curse, or even sickness.
***
“You are cursed? And a lot weaker than you should be… This is good, this is great! I still have a chance even though I am a lot weaker than you and I am in your mouth this is the best position for me HAHAHA!” I started to laugh like a maniac as I could see a chance for my survival. It was a big gamble as I didn’t know if I could succeed but it was not like I had another choice so I just did what I had to do.
“*Inspect* Curse of darkness.” I inspected its curse as I wanted to know where he got it from but it left me surprised.
***
*Curse of darkness* - Curse of the deity of darkness.
***
“What, that's it?” I asked myself, confused.
“Wait, there are gods in this world? *Inspect* deity of darkness.”
*Inspect Failed*
“*Sigh* What more to expect from this stupid skill…” I sighed with disappointment as I gave up on using the skill for now as I had better things to do.
“I guess that this stupid cat doesn’t see me as a threat and won’t try to damage me till we get out of its shadow or maybe even the village, the only reason it doesn't just finish me right now is because of my thorns that are sticking right into its throat.” I speculated and thought my situation through.
“So I need to act immediately as soon as we leave its shadow or even better I need to act now.” I took my last imaginary breath and started to act, first I slowly started to move my roots deeper into the wounds that opened because of the thorns.
I did my best not to do it too fast so it would alert him, but of course, that wouldn’t be possible. I started to feel his muscles tense up and his jaws close a little bit, but I still didn’t stop.
While doing that I moved all the branches and roots that I grew using the *Grow* skill under its teeth and did my best to tie them around its teeth so that he won’t be able to spit me out. The devil cat struggled by clenching its teeth and trying to bite me but because of the thorns that were still stabbing into its gums and throat he immediately stopped.
But I knew that soon this would change as the darkness around us started to recede and soon we would leave its shadow and then it would do its all to kill me and just like foretold before I could even blink we appeared in an alleyway, very close to the main village gates.
Just as we appeared the devil cat tried to spit me out, but to its surprise not only it didn’t succeed, it even felt terrible pain, as if he was trying to pull all of its teeth and mouth out. He shook his head left and right and even tried to bite me, but I immediately used the second part of my plan, I used the *Life Steal* skill.
Its eyes immediately sharpened as it felt its health draining away from it, and it even released an angry growl.
“How do you like me now?!” I shouted as the hot feeling of life was going through my roots into my body, some of my branches fixing themselves with crackling sounds. After the feeling receded I inspected it and looked at my status too.
***
*Self Awareness Status*
-Visavil Bush Lv3-
Experience: 56/60
Rarity: Uncommon
Health: 3/13
Mana: 17/44
Stamina: 1/11
***
-Shadow Predator Lv12-
Health: 23/69 (-22)
Mana: 2/37 (-13)
Stamina: 7/15 (-7)
***
“Only two health, I expected this.” As I remember the life steal would take a small part of health from the enemy and would give me but the ratios were different from monster to monster, as for this one it was one to one.
The devil cat growled once more and bit into me with its full force *Clank*, as he did that I used my life steal skill again. It immediately regretted its decision as it started to whine from pain as the thrones thrust into the soft parts of his mouth.
It tried to open its mouth and use its claw to get me out but I used the roots and branches around its teeth to close it back down, even though I couldn’t keep it completely closed for long it was enough for me to do some more damage with my thorns.
The devil cat opened its mouth again with full force this time and slashed me with its claw damaging itself and me in the process, but at the same time releasing most of the branches that were holding its teeth from the right side.
My health became dangerously low around one health, so I used life steal once more which returned me back to three health. You must be asking why I haven’t used all of my mana on the *Life Steal* skill all at once?
It's all because I didn’t believe that the devil cat had a skill like *Inspect* so it couldn’t know how much more mana or health I have, so it will be on its toes in fear that I have more.
It was a dangerous game but I needed to wait and try my best to get more time for an opportunity to win otherwise the cat would surely kill me, and just like on cue two elf guards heard the commotion from the alleyway and ran to check it out.
“There is still a monster here!” Shouted one of them for reinforcement, as they pointed their spears at the devil cat.
The devil cat growled at them and bolted to the main street, the guards ran after it but even though the devil cat was full of wounds, it still could run faster than them.
“What a monster.” I whispered with surprise at its tenaciousness, as it continued to run.
In just a few seconds we had already reached the gate where another three guards stood, they didn’t expect to see a monster running at them from inside the village, so only one of them had time to react and throw a spear at the devil cat. But it just barely grazed it leaving a bloody scratch on its back, as I was inside the devil cat’s mouth I could feel it tense up from the pain.
The devil cat continued to run away from the village, into the illuminated forest while the guards stood still and didn't chase after it as they didn’t have any reason to do so, their priority was to defend the village and not hunt some monster that wasn’t their problem anymore.
And of course, I didn’t expect them to save me either. I doubted that they even noticed me being stuck in the devil cat's mouth, and even if they did they wouldn’t risk their life for me, a pet at best and another monster at worst.
Maybe if it was Luna she would have run after me but not them, right now I was completely alone against the devil cat and this time nobody else will come to save me.
I looked back at the broken village gates feeling a little bit sad as most likely it will be the last time I will be seeing this village, as even surviving still was in the air as my gamble still didn’t show me any concrete results.
“Now that Fortis wants me dead I won’t be able to come back here, but why did he suddenly attack me? He did call me evil was it because of the *Evil* core skill? That's such a bullshit reason though.” I shook my head gently as I felt wronged.
“I will miss you Luna and I even miss those horrible kids too.” I felt like crying even though I couldn’t as I thought about the people that were precious to me, even though I didn’t know them for long they still found a place in my heart.
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“But I won’t miss you, Ray. Wait, is he even alive? Meh doubt that this cockroach could be killed so easily by this devil cat.” There was no place for Ray in my heart though, he could go and die.
Before I noticed I already couldn’t see the village walls, and the devil cat's pace was getting slower and slower.
“Looks like your wounds are getting to you.” I said with a gentle smile, I expected something like this, as the devil cat had a bizarre body. There were many wounds on it but it barely bled, my guess was that it was because of another skill.
“Holy crap how many skills does your body have? Are you a reincarnated person too? Or did all those monsters that I met before were just nobodies?” I threw out random speculations.
“But looks like that even you reaching your limits,*Self Awareness* and *Inspect* stupid cat.”
***
*Self Awareness Status*
-Visavil Bush Lv3-
Experience: 56/60
Rarity: Uncommon
Health: 2/13
Mana: 7/44
Stamina: 1/11
***
-Shadow Predator Lv12-
Health: 14/69 (-22)
Mana: 2/37 (-13)
Stamina: 5/15 (-7)
***
“From all the thrashing around life, stealing skills, and spear to the back you only lost nine health damn you're resilient, but don’t worry it's almost all over.” Just as I said that I saw the devil cat run straight into a jagged rock with his mouth open.
“Shit *Life Steal*!” I shouted in panic as I saw a sharp edge of a rock scrap by me removing a good chunk of my branches but at the same time breaking one of the canines of the devil cats.
*Roar!* It roared in pain as blood filled its mouth.
I checked my status only to find that I am on my last health point again, but this time I am out of mana to use life steal.
“Is this your last struggle?” I asked the devil cat.
*Growl!* To my surprise it growled at me as if it heard my words.
“Growl as much as you like, as it doesn’t matter as you already lost.” The devil cat opened its mouth once more and came closer to the jagged rock and struck at it with its head, but just when it was a few centimeters away from it its head suddenly stopped.
Its body started to shake erratically as if it was hit by electricity, it started to release weird groans of pain and even started to whimper.
“What's wrong? Is it painful? Do you feel uncomfortable while someone is trying to steal control of your body?” I shouted with an evil grin because the one that was doing all of this was me.
From the moment that the devil cat tried to devour me every single moment I was trying to use the *Overtake* skill on it, but to my surprise, it didn’t work. From my last experience while using this skill I speculated that the few reasons for that are that the devil cat wasn’t damaged enough or that my roots weren’t spread enough through its body.
Or maybe the devil cat's level was too high and I couldn't even steal its body. I hoped that it was the first reason so I took this gamble.
So that is exactly what I was trying to do, spread my roots through the devil cat vessels, and at the same, I stalled for time waiting for the wounds on the devil cat to exhaust it and to slowly make it weaker and weaker for me to take control.
As time passed I got more and more confident as I started to feel what the cat felt, and then I even started to share its senses of sight, and just a moment away as it tried to hit me a second time over the rock I took its full body's control.
I wanted to wait a little bit longer just to be sure but now I just didn’t have a choice, and luckily for me the *Overtake* skill worked.
*Thumb!* The devil cat fell to the floor as I still didn’t know how to control its body and to say the truth it was most likely an overkill for me who has almost no experience in using the *Overtake* skill to capture this monster, but it's not like I had another way.
“I am lucky that you looked down on me you stupid cat, if you had blasted me with the spell you blasted Fortis and had just escaped you would have won but now this is my victory!” I declared to myself and then grinned.
“And for the moment you were waiting for ladies and gentlemen *Self Awareness*!” I shouted as I imagined myself as a talk show host holding a microphone while all the cameras were pointing at me.
***
*Self Awareness Status*
-Visavil Bush Lv3-
Experience: 56/60
Rarity: Uncommon
Health: 1/13
Mana: 2/44
Stamina: 1/11
Health regen: 1.25/week
Mana regen: 3.9/hour
Stamina regen: 1.67/hour
Race: Berry Bush
Status: Intelligent(Unique), Shadow Mark, Symbiosis
Skills:
*Magic Perception Lv4(Active)* *Self Awareness Lv3* *Calm Mind Lv6* *Inspect Lv5* *Rage Lv1* *Killing Intent Lv2* *Pain Resistance Lv2* *Mana Manipulating Lv2* *Wood Element Control Lv4* *Dig Lv4* *Stealth Lv4* *Detection Lv3* *Lifesteal Lv2* *Poison Resistance Lv1* *Item Crafting Lv2* *Stamina Storage Lv2* *Throwing Lv3* *Lesser Hand To Hand Combat Lv2* *Grow Lv3* *Increase Mana Regeneration Lv1* *Lesser Spear Mastery Lv1* *Thorns Lv1* *Falling Damage Resistance Lv1* *Roll Lv1* *Fruits Production Lv1* *Mana Storage Lv2* *Overtake Lv1* *Mind Wave Lv1* *Evil Lv1* *Digging Lv1* *Lingua Language Lv4* *Forced Absorption Lv2* *Lesser Sword Mastery Lv1* *Soul Link Lv1*
Titles:
*Clutz* *Novice Trapper* *Guardian*
***
-Shadow Predator Lv12-
Health: 13/69 (-22)
Mana: 2/37 (-13)
Stamina: 5/15 (-7)
Race: Shadow Panther
Status: Shadow aura, Curse of darkness, Weakened(Strong), Bleeding(Medium), Symbiosis
Skills:
*Consume Lv5(Sealed)* *Adrenaline Rush Lv5(Sealed)* *Bleeding Resistance Lv4* *Mana Manipulating Lv4(Sealed)* *Hard Claw Lv6(Sealed)* *Pain Resistance Lv3* *Stealth Lv7* *Detection Lv5* *Poison Resistance Lv2* *Falling Damage Resistance Lv2* *Killing Intent Lv5* *Shadow Blast Lv8(Sealed)* *Night Vision Lv6* *Shadow Aura Lv3(Sealed)* *Fast Sleep Lv2* *Cold Resistance Lv4* *Shadow Dive Lv2(Sealed)* *Shadow Mirage Lv3(Sealed)* *Iron Stomach Lv4* *Health Regnaration Lv2* *Shadow Clone Lv3(Sealed)*
***
“Holy crap you have a lot of skills and all of them are quite high in level, but most of them are sealed.” I looked through the skills looking for something special, I was looking for the skill with the devil cat used against me to leave a shadow mark, but for some reason, I couldn’t find it.
“God damn it, I knew that the stupid pig had too few skills for a reason, some of them must have been hidden. Now, how the hell will I find that skill?” I asked myself in frustration as I really wanted to know the stupid reason for this devil cat chasing after me and I had a hunch that the skill that left the shadow mark on me would give me the answer.
I thought for a moment and started to try to inspect the devil cat but it just gave the normal description that it gave last time but a little bit more detailed as my inspection skill did level up a few times from our first meeting. But I didn’t give up and continued to look for an answer and then it hit me the shadow mark status itself now that I can feel it from the devil cat too but it was the other way around.
Instead of feeling eyes on me, it felt as if someone was calling for me, for some reason it disgusted me. It felt as if someone was gently whispering something sweet into my ears but at the same time that sweet thing was asking me to kill and it wanted me to kill the annoying bush that was inside of my own mouth.
I almost bit down on instinct with the devil cat jaws, but thankfully I caught myself just in time before that happened. I felt cold sweat going down my back or more correctly to say the back of the panther as its body now was mine.
“Phew, that was scary… Now that I think of it, can I inspect this feeling?” I asked myself not sure about the answer as I closed my eyes and tried to concentrate on the feeling that exuded from the devil cat and with it I murmured “*Inspect*.”
*Skill discovered “*Hunt Of Darkness Lv5*”*
***
*Hunt Of Darkness* - The deity of darkness $A*%z& blessed you with her own unique skill. After finding a target the host will have a calling to kill the target if succeeded the host will receive a further blessing.
As the target will be chosen, restrictions will be added to the hunting of the target such as killing the target in a specific way, not using specific skills while hunting it, or waiting some time before killing it. Penalties will be given in the shape of a curse if the target hasn't died in the given time window, and can stay permanent if the target dies not in the desired way.
*Target* - Visavil Bush
*Must not die before day* - 3
*Must die after day* - 10
*Days passed from the start of the Hunt* - 17 - Penalty will be given as the desired time passes, they will get stronger and stronger after a while until the target perches and the hunt ends or the host's death.
*Difficulty* - Easy
Restriction: Must die from physical contact, use of skills is forbidden. Must be killed by the host.
Success Reward: Small Shard of Darkness.
Failure Penalty: Curse of darkness for half a year.
***
“What kind of weird skill is this?” I looked at this confused, not only was the name of the deity gibberish, the contents of the skill looked more like a contract from the devil that was made just for fun.
“Is this the reason why the devil cat was so obsessed with killing me, this skill from a deity?” I asked myself, still unsure, but without much thought, I inspected the reward.
***
*Shard of darkness* - A crystal that holds the essence of darkness, a rare material that can be used for alchemy for creating potions of stealth or item crafting for creating equipment for rogues or assassins. As well can be used for nurturing the bodies of creatures of the darkness element, dangerous if ingested by creatures that can’t digest it as they will most likely die.
***
“So it was getting steroids from this skill, but on the other hand if it failed a mission the penalties would be quite horrible, and worse if it doesn’t finish or fail a mission the curse gets stronger until it cripples it. This skill is more of a curse than a blessing.” I tried to deduct some information from what I got, but I didn’t see this skill as favorable.
“If this mission difficulty was easy and interesting what kind of rewards higher level missions would give?” I asked myself, but as I was checking the skills and thinking to myself about the situation I didn’t notice that the panther raised its head and was about to bite me once more, completely discarding what would happen to all those thorns that filled his mouth.
“Oh shit, I forgot you are still alive!” I came back to myself when I heard some branches cracking as the panther tried to bite and I immediately took back control over the mouth muscles and struggled to leave my mouth open.
I slowly started to feel that I was slowly losing control, I looked at the jagged rock that the panther tried to use to kill me and chose to bite it instead. I got shoved deeper into the beast's mouth but I was still fine, the pain and disgusting feeling of teeth biting something hard as a rock sent shivers down my spine.
“Fuck!” I wasn’t surprised that I didn’t level up the *Pain Resistance* skill so high, as the pain of branches breaking and the pain of teeth breaking is incomparable.
“You little shit you don’t know when to give up!” I shouted as I closed my eyes and concentrated on the roots that were going through the devil's cat's body.
A few moments passed and I appeared in a dark world and in front of me was the soul of the devil cat, it was bigger than me and shrouded by black flames.
I looked at it surprised not sure if I will be able to win against it as I did against the boar with was my last victim and was ready to prepare to use the *Mind Wave* skill. But just as I was worried if it would really work I found out the devil cat started to shake from fear as it slowly started to shrink itself as if a little kitten in front of a huge dog.
“Oh and now you are scared? You stupid cat! Ha ha ha!” I laughed like a maniac.
“It's about time for you to understand your position, you pathetic worm, now that you are in my world I can kill you with a flip of a finger!” I continued to boast around, cursing and making fun of the cat for a while removing all the frustration that had piled up because of this stupid cat.
“You know how afraid I was of you, I barely could sleep at night! You pathetic shit!” But as I continued to curse the devil cat I noticed something weird, from the start the devil cat never even looked me in the eyes. It was always looking just a little bit above me, or better to say it was always looking behind me.
For some reason, I found it very unsettling as I started to feel a weird feeling coming from behind me. I slowly started to turn around to see what was so important behind that the devil cat and even my instincts were trying to tell me, and just as I turned the next words left my mouth, “WHAT THE FU#*& SA*%$P%TT^G #R@II&K(UU*JJ$QN~L{WV /HM|EE(U^T $P%I&N@G# J*KK{VV/WL~H =OOMMQ…
…^T $P%I The birds were singing and the warm sun was gently shining upon me. I was standing in the middle of the forest with my roots in the ground. Most of my branches and leaves were broken and crumbled, and every part of my body was bloodied. Of course, it wasn’t my blood but the devil's cat’s, but it was still unsettling.
I looked around confused and asked myself, “Where am I? What… Am I doing here?”
The -END-