By stretching out I can feel the Hamnskifte going away, which is a pretty odd sensation to say the least. This leaves me with a situation I hadn’t really experienced as a Mossling.

I feel hungry.

This could be attributed to the fact that Mosslings, much like my teenage self, survive only on sunlight, water and the oppressive stress of incoming death. I’m also thirsty, but a good piece of meat could probably quench that as well.

Though, I do need to be careful not to drink too much blood. Or any, really. Becoming hypomanic by drinking blood is, all things considered, a bad move in a forest where almost everything could kill me. That means I probably need to find a stream of water sooner or later. But, first of all, food.

I stick my nose in the air and give a sniff. Sniff sniff sniff. Smells like resin and wood. But it also smells like sweat and fur. But it isn’t coming from below, exactly, no, more so…

I turn my nose towards where the smell is coming from.

-That tree over there.

In fact, if I squint my eyes at that tree, I can only barely see some movement. It looks almost like the bark is twitching, but I can smell that this isn’t the case.

I move towards it. Yup, that’s a squirrel. It seems to be stuffing something inside a hole in the tree. Knowing squirrels, approaching it would probably not be too easy. Those damn rodents are scared of their own shadows, so my best bet would be to either find some other prey or to sneak up on it somehow.

...I choose the latter.

Going down on the forest floor is not a good idea though. Now that the fox knows that I’m here, it’ll be ready the next time I try anything. But now that I have arms, legs and even a tail, I should have no problem getting over to that tree specifically.

Except that the trees are so damn far apart. Considering that I’m around the size of the squirrel, I reckon there are about two or three meters between each tree. I should be able to jump that gap, right? If a squirrel can do it, so can I. I think.

Well, there’s only one way to know.

I inch around the stem of the tree I’m on right now, going around until I’m parallel to the tree I’m heading towards. Going by my chosen path, I should only have to jump between four trees before getting to that one. So I just need to jump.

If I fail, there’s a four-meter drop or so.

I shake my head. No time to think about that.

I flex my legs and ready my arms. Putting my all into it, I leap.

For a few seconds, I just hang in the air, until I finally crash into the lower stem of the tree. I begin gliding down. To keep my placement, I stab my fingernails into the bark but find that they are blunt instruments. With no other choice, I wrap my arms around the tree. When that isn’t enough either, I do the same with my legs and, finally, even my tail.

Racial Skill Tail has reached Lv.2

With that final boost, I’m able to still my descent. My stomach still got all torn up though.

At least I made it, I guess. I’m two meters from the ground, so if I don’t want to crash to the ground with the next leap, I’ve got to climb a bit.

I take a look at my hand. My nails, although long, are blunt. Not sharp. The hell is this shit? How am I supposed to climb with these bowling-pin fingers?

Grumbling, I reach up my hand and begin climbing.

For the next leap, I was ready with both arms and legs, so I was able to catch myself before I descended too far. And with this one, it seemed my wish for better nails was answered.

Normal Skill Claws Lv.1 gained

Yeah, there we go!

Though, as might be expected, it hardly does anything. My nails are still mostly blunt, though they seem slightly harder than before. At least my tail feels slightly more useful.

Like so, I leap from tree to tree, eventually getting the hang of it so that I don’t slip down at all.

The problem here would be that the closer I get to the squirrel, the more conspicuous my jumping gets. Soon enough, it’s bound to notice me. If that happens it can easily run away.

...Sure, if it runs away, I can just eat the nuts and stuff it has stockpiled in that tree, but eating nuts doesn’t give me any experience. I don’t want to survive, I want to improve.

And so, I sneak.

With a final leap, I jump onto the squirrel’s tree.

Since I am a very small creature, the tree doesn’t shake or anything, but it’s clear by the squirrel’s body language that it has grown suspicious.

In a move so quick and precise that it surprises even myself, I hunch down into a ball on the tree, digging my nails into the wood as far as it can go.

Hamnskifte.

I can’t exactly tell how well it’s working, but going by how the squirrel looks straight at me and then keeps looking around, it’s obvious that it hasn’t seen me. But its suspicions have been aroused.

Racial Skill Hamnskifte has reached Lv.2

Moving slowly, I cancel the Hamnskifte and creep up the side of the log.

The squirrel sticks its nose in the air and I crouch down into Hamnskifte again.

Once it turns away once more, I cancel the skill and move again.

Racial Skill Hamnskifte has reached Lv.3

I’m now close enough to the squirrel for the smell of hair and sweat and stress to be almost overpowering.

Red Squirrel(E-)

Stage: Adult Health: 26/26

State: Suspicious, Scared

It turns its head suspiciously and I again crouch down into Hamnskifte. But I’m close now. If I jumped, I could catch it - should it not dodge.

It turns to me and sniffs the air. Its eyes widen and it leaps back.

What? Why would it-,

Unwilling to let it escape, I cancel the Hamnskifte and jump after it, my arms stretched and hands raised. It deftly dodges my attack and leaps over to a nearby tree. I could just let it go and stay to eat its leftover food, but I’ve made a commitment here. I jump after it.

It begins climbing down the tree at a frightening speed and I make the split-second decision that falling is faster and climbing.

Midair, I begin to spin, eventually crashing tail-first into the squirrel. Since we’re around the same size, my tail-strike doesn’t kill it instantly, but it does make the both of us crash to the ground in a cascade of tangled limbs and tails. Knowing that its main strategy here is to escape, I grab a firm hold of its arm before wrapping my legs and tail tightly around its midsection.

With such a grip, I have no problem moving my hands over to take a choking hold of its fragile neck.

Normal Skill Choke has reached Lv.4

After a while, the squirrel stops moving.

133 Exp gained

Level up!

You have reached Level 2

Level up!

You have reached Level 3

Racial Skill Tail has reached Lv.3

Level up!

You have reached Level 4