‘I would suggest several tier 1 skills. To round out your abilities.’

Proprioception (T1) – 1,000 EXP

Dancing (T1) – 500 EXP

Sight (T1) – 500 EXP

Stillness (T1) – 1,000 EXP

Focus (T1) – 2,000 EXP

‘I know Proprioception is the sense of my body, but why Stillness and Focus?’ I asked.

‘They are the tier one versions of higher tier skills. They will provide an excellent foundation. With Stillness, it will eventually become Meditation and then Moving Meditation. It will also help with your blood rage. Also very powerful, since it is a key aspect to harnessing energy. Focus will lead into Combat Focus, and then Combat Time. This will allow you to react more quickly.’

That made sense and I was glad Mes had decided to offer a solution to the blood rage. ‘And after this I should save up?’ I asked.

‘That is up to you. But these are the best options for long term development for combat. The first two will enhance your options while fighting and being aware of threats. The second one is another sensory skill, which will help you see energy effects and eventually weak points. The last two are the foundation for powerful skills,’ Mes explained.

‘But if I save up, I can jump ahead?’ I asked.

‘Yes. But they will level slowly like Claw Combat. By going up in tiers, you already have a lot of foundational knowledge, which will help the later tiers to level a bit more quickly. But in the end it is up to you,’ Mes explained and then shrugged.

‘That makes sense. I will need skills like Mousethief’s later on. Knowing what missions to take and driving,’ I replied.

‘Since he told you, let me explain. Hunch is not a cheap skill. It is half a million EXP. Small vehicle driving is a tier two skill and five thousand EXP. That is a lot to invest into a single skill and might not be the best choice,’ Mes explained.

‘Then how would I pick missions once he leaves?’ I asked. There was a bit of silence at that before Mes finally responded.

‘I could technically tie my quest system into your mission system. But there are risks to that. I would just suggest killing more creatures.’

‘I can only kill some creatures,’ I replied a bit annoyed.

‘I am a killing System. Not a paperwork System. Hunch is fairly decent as a skill. But investing that EXP into some amazing attacks and features can lead to you shooting out energy blades from your claws. A ranged attack, doesn’t that sound amazing,’ Mes said. I was rolling my eyes.

‘Utility and paperwork. I want you to think on what I can pick do get the missions I need,’ I replied and Mes let out a sigh.

‘Fine, fine. You will need the Local Quest Attunement feature. There are risks with this. If you fail, you will lose EXP. There will be timeframes. Also only some information will be shown before you actually accept the quest. The danger level. If you do complete a quest, you get a very small amount of EXP back based on my evaluation.’

‘Isn’t that a good thing?’ I asked.

‘My evaluations are required to be incredibly strict. And they are to my standards, not your Organization. We can get into that more if you purchase the feature. If you somehow do a good job, you might get other rewards like items. But that is really rare for local quests. It only costs ten thousand EXP.’

‘Thanks for bringing up the option,’ I said.

‘I don’t think it is a good option or Hunch a good skill. Focus on combat and then go to that snake continent, and just start killing. That’s all you need to do to get more power. You can slow of course, but those really good skills and features are expensive,’ Mes explained.

‘Alright. Let’s get these purchases done with.’ I swiped my paw and purchased all five skills. I felt the knowledge enter my head and a bit of happiness came to me. I was out of debt and getting new skills. While they were basic, they would help me out quite a bit. I could already feel myself knowing how to adjust my muscles around my eyes to see better, and the space my body occupied.

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Stillness and Focus helped as well as I was able to have a clearer head even while training Purge Poison. The shakes were becoming less and I got up off my bed with a frown. I made my way back to the front of the container, Dancing helping me adjust my footwork slightly to move forward in a different way than before. Unlike Movement, Dancing felt more about coordination rather than precision. Reaching the back of the container, I bean to stretch.

I thought about what Mes was saying as they floated around, going back to their clipboard. They made a good point. But one I disagreed with. Rushing to fight actual snakes and their armies was almost certain death. Mes’ focus was on combat and killing they made that clear. If I veered off that path they would only reluctantly help. Today’s interaction made that very clear.

For now, I would do missions and save up EXP. Mousethief was going to stay around for a while, since he needed a lot of money. So, I didn’t have to worry about missions. ‘Mes will Focus help against hypnosis?’ I asked.

‘A tiny bit. It has some adjacency to certain mental defense skills like Movement and Dancing. But to really ignore those types of attacks, you would need some sort of mental skill specifically for that role. Or better yet stats. The Mental Attunement feature for ten thousand EXP would be a good start.’ I nodded at this as I went back to stretching thinking about any other questions I might have.

‘What about wide range sensory skills? I missed the Apostates before, both times,’ I asked Mes.

‘Hmm, that is a good point. Well, the best option would be a Map Feature and Detect Hostile Feature to tie in with the map. They would cost a quarter million and half million EXP respectively. They are useful to manage your fight rate and killing speed to optimal levels,’ Mes said and I blinked a couple of times at that.

‘Killing speed? That seems a bit much,’ I mentally replied.

‘Just think of those ducks. Low value creatures that are only there to be an annoyance. Better to kill them quickly and move onto the more serious threats.’ I could understand that in a way. But would there ever be that many creatures I would have to kill.

‘You are thinking of the snake continent?’ I asked.

‘Yes. Killing any nearby hostiles will ensure your safety. Also, the more features you get like that I can do more and alert you to things. Like if a hostile pops up and then goes into stealth and disappears from your map, I can point out their last location.’

‘What about other features? Can you be upgraded?’ I asked.

‘You need a higher privilege level to upgrade Avatar. But yes. The next level is Manifestation, where I can create a physical presence to aid and interact with you. Not a big help in combat, but there are less restrictions on me. But that is a long way off. For now, you need to focus on your combat skills and kill lots of things.’

Mes certainly had a one-track mind. It was amusing in a dark sort of way. Still, they were incredibly helpful. I couldn’t ignore that. This last mission was even more proof. Otherwise, I would have been struggling with an investigation.

‘Thanks Mes, that’s it for questions from me,’ I replied. They gave me a nod and disappeared. I felt the need to use the bathroom. The poison was definitely being purged and not back out through my fur this time.

After reliving myself, I made my way back to the front of the container and took another two drops of poison. The shakes hit again and there was a lot of pain. But I went right back to stretching and breathing. I could feel my muscles inside of me contracting in weird ways as my body slowly forced the poison out and dealt with it.

After this, I was probably done for the day. Even just a small dose of weak poison like this was a struggle. I needed to recover my strength and work on other skills. It would not be good to destroy my body while trying to improve my skill. This felt like a bad idea, but it would be better to suffer a bit now through training than wait until the situation was really dire.

That was something I had learned from my father. Being able to handle increasing amounts of poison would eventually allow me to tackle Apostates without worry. After them would come the snakes and I would wipe them out.

The more I thought about it, the more Mes was right. It had kind of been my original plan, and it had been a good one. Clear enough missions and then when Mousethief left to live on a private island, I would go on the offensive and kill all the creatures the snakes controlled as well as the snakes themselves.

But I first needed to build up my skills before I reached that point. Get more EXP, unlock features, and become better. A quest feature sounded interesting, but Mes clearly didn’t like that idea. There probably was a reason and they were right that combat skills were critical.

Once I had improved them and patched up my weak points, I would feel a lot more confident fighting Apostates and the Snake Ancestral Spirit. As my shaking came to a stop, I smiled. Constant improvement one day at a time.

“How are you doing?” Mousethief asked me.

“Alright, took a second dose, but stopping for the rest of the day. I don’t want to wear my body down,” I replied.

“Good. I was worried you would go overboard. I will leave the case on the table. Fish for dinner?” he asked me.

“Yes. But late. I need to let my stomach settle. Also, water, I need more water,” I said and Mousethief nodded.

“No problem, let me get a large jug,” he said with a grin and whipped one out from nowhere. My eye twitched at that. I wanted that feature. It was really handy. He passed it over and I began to greedily drink. Once I finished, I was feeling better. Purging Poison involved more than just my body, but also other factors like drinking water, that would help the skill function.

“You keep water?” I asked.

“Can never be too sure. Always good to keep essential supplies on hand.”

“Does that include boxes of fresh cookies?” I asked.

“Indeed, those are essential supplies Mittens. Very essential. Trust Mousethief on this,” he said with a serious nod.