The cat that was sunning himself on a large rock looked a bit darker in colour than the ones they’d already met while following the brook. Different.

Juvenile River Ocelot

Level 5

Health: 135

Mind: 60

Endurance: 75

Aether: 0

“Watch out. This one looks much stronger,” Jonathan called.

Jonas spotted the difference.

“It’s not identified as a minion or anything. I think the Labyrinth is providing a kind of help there.”

“Must be that minions are weaker than normal cats,” Ira said.

“They’re also called ‘younger’, while this one’s a ‘juvenile’. It’s older, and that probably means he’s much more resistant and stronger. This time, the fight may last a bit longer. Remember, I can heal whatever wounds it causes if needed. Now that I can check what the Labyrinth thinks about your health,” Guss added.

Laura surprised the team again by giving her opinion on the outcome.

“It probably won’t be necessary. Even with the bigger health, Ira’s not going to take that many wounds during the fight.”

Ira smiled.

“Thanks for the confidence!”

By now, they had a routine. Chainmail-clad Ira moved to the front, while the rest of the team spread a few paces behind him. As soon as the cat noticed the intruders, he scrambled on its feet, seemingly hesitating. Then he jumped down from his rock and started running toward the six.

The team’s Defender moved to intercept the cat, slashing with his short sword. The cat managed to avoid most of the strike and clawed at Ira’s legs, who winced immediately.

“This one hits harder. Those claws are nastier, I can feel them already.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll raise your health back once you get another significant hit,” Guss reassured him.

The rest of the group started to punch, jab and smash the cat. With double the health of the small ones, this time it was taking more than a few instants to make a dent in his health total. Everyone focused on the cat, while Jonas tried everything to figure out how to gain at least one of his Aetherist skills.

Since he wasn’t that focused on the fight, he was the one who spotted the second incoming feline from the side. That one was slightly bigger. Jonas immediately understood it to be the more dangerous of the two despite its lower level number. For one, it had higher health than anyone in the team. Obviously, the veteran moniker on its descriptor acted as a kind of opposite to the minion one.

Unmated River Ocelot

Level 4 veteran

Health: 252

Mind: 112

Endurance: 136

Aether: 0

“Watch out! Another one!” he warned.

While pointing out the new threat, Jonas also felt some odd pressure building. As the cat bounded over the brook, a small ball of fire came out of his pointed finger, hurling toward the cat.

Skill unlocked: Flame Bolt (unranked)

Flame Bolt

Aether/Offense

Rank 0: Deals 50% of INT in fire damage to a target (10 fire dmg). Costs 1 aether/damage.

The newer cat yowled and jumped on Jonas before the rest of the group realized they had a double fight on their hands. The slicing claws went through the edges of his jacket, raking his arm.

Unmated River Ocelot claws for 15 damage (no defence)

“Bollocks! This one’s a lot hardier!” he immediately yelled.

Ira turned and spotted the new enemy. He immediately abandoned the cat he had been fighting and came over to Jonas, slashing at the larger feline. He immediately used his Repel to push the cat away and place himself in front of Jonas, blocking the way.

“Keep smashing the first cat! He’s already weakened enough!” Ira ordered the rest.

The second cat tried to go around Ira to get at Jonas, but the Defender slashed again with his right hand while trying to get hold of the cat with his left. The chain glove proved effective at grabbing the cat’s paw, which finally switched his prey to turn his attention to Ira.

Skill unlocked: Hold (unranked)

Hold

Personal/Defence

Rank 0: Redirects a base attack aimed at a different target. Requires a free hand. Costs 1 endurance/dmg deflected.

Meanwhile, the original cat tried to get back to the annoying biped that had enraged him, but the 4 other members of the group didn’t stop attacking. Before the cat could reach Ira again, he fell to the ground unmoving.

“Help me on the big one now,” Ira ordered immediately.

Unmated River Ocelot

Level 4 veteran

Health: 201

Mind: 112

Endurance: 101

Aether: 0

Guss immediately started healing back Jonas to his full health vital level and Jonas felt the furrows on his arm vanish, then the Mender switched his attention to Ira. Meanwhile, the team had assumed its usual position around the beast, and started unloading hits on the veteran target.

The cat did not like that. He yowled again in anger and wailed a flurry of slashes on Ira.

Unmated River Ocelot flurries for 28 damage (-0, defence rating 4)

Despite the attack’s savagery, the cat’s visible health was dropping now slightly faster than Ira’s, as he got slashed, hammered and stabbed. With a few preventive heals on Guss’s part, the outcome of the fight was pretty much not in doubt.

2 River Ocelots: 669XP/6 contributors = 112XP

“That was a bit intense,” Jonas said once the last cat died.

“We survived without a problem,” Jonathan shrugged.

“Thanks to Guss,” Laura added.

“At least you won’t complain that you haven’t got magic yet,” Ira said lightly.

“That one was… a bit weird,” Jonas confessed.

He turned to Guss.

“Is that how your cousin worked out magic?”

“Don’t think so. I mean, he was trained by experienced Professionals. We’re making this as we go. But now, you can do magic. We’re all real Professionals at last.”

Laura had stepped in and turned the cats’ bodies, who hadn’t started to decompose yet. Each corpse was atop its usual piece of gear.

Leather Weapon Holder

Waist

Basic equipment

Requires: Level 1

Provides: +1 defence rating

Aetheric Simple Burlap Headband

Head

Common equipment

Requires: Level 1

Provides: +5 aether

“Sounds… like better equipment,” she noted, frowning at the “requires” mention which was new to them.

“The cats were harder as well,” Ira acknowledged.

“And the amount of XP was a lot more,” Alton added.

“Does the Labyrinth matches the reward to the type of creature you’re facing?” Jonas mused.

“Reward?” Ira asked.

“Looks like. We get that experience, and we get some items. Looks like rewards to me,” Jonas replied.

“So the next question now is: who gets which?” Laura asked.

Jonas thought quickly.

“Belt is simple, we only have three people with weapons, and Ira’s probably better off with more metal armour rather than leather if he keeps being attacked.”

Spotting Laura’s dubious look at the very large belt, he quickly decided not to press the issue.

“Alton? Think you can slip your knife in it?”

“Looks like there’s a buckle for that. Probably.”

Jonas moved to the next item.

“The headband looks like something useful for aether users. That’s… me and Guss, pretty much. But I think Guss’s ability to heal us back is more important than me now firing fireballs.”

“Sounds good to me.” “Yes.” “Good.”

They looked as the cats started to decompose as usual and stared at the unexpected leftovers, helpfully described by the Labyrinth.

Feline raw meat

-

Basic food

Requires: none

Provides: cooking component

“Well, that answers the question about how to get food for later. We can kill some beasts for it.”

“Do bigger cats means they’re large enough for the meat to be left over?”

“You get the starter equipment appearing under each corpse, but stuff like that is… inside the body?”

Alton snorted.

“Makes sense. The flesh is inside, not outside.”

“Do we have to eat cats?” Laura frowned, looking disgusted.

“There’s not much choice, for now, I think,” Alton replied.

“Let’s keep going,” Jonas said.

Laura Charlotte Harvey

Health: 183/183

Mind: 182/182

Endurance: 196/196

Aether: 181/181

Effective level: 1

Level 1 Breaker

Experience: 237/909

Strength: 20

Dexterity: 20

Agility: 17

Constitution: 18

Stamina: 19

Wisdom: 19

Focus: 18

Presence: 17

Fortitude: 18

Intellect: 18

Defence rating: 1

10% faster levelling

Milestones: Adjustment II

Skills: Smash (rank 0), Batter (rank 0)

Equipment: Refurbished Breaking Hammer, Flimsy Leather Gripping Gloves

Breaker

(tier 1)

Required: 18 STR

Provides:

+3 health/+6 endurance/+2 mind/+1 aether per level

+1 Milestone per 15 levels

Breaker Milestone: +3 STR, +2 FOC, +1 FOR, +1 DEX, +1 AGI, 5% blunt damage

Skillset: Physical / Offense