I don’t know how much time I spent sleeping, because the lighting of the Underrealm remains constant and unchanging, giving the impression of eternal twilight. I’m told that the loss of a clear cut day and night affects some rather harshly, as they lose track of when they should sleep. As a cat, I can confidently say, sleep whenever you can, preferably after a good meal, and don’t worry about it. Short naps throughout the day at random intervals? Perfectly normal.

When I woke, feeling refreshed, I took the time to distribute my stat points. I had gained two levels, so I had six points. I spent them adding two to my intelligence and two to my coordination, bringing the stats to 10 and 20 respectively. Why? Mostly because round numbers are best, and it felt appealing to have all my stats, except luck which couldn’t be raised with stat points, be divisible by 5. Also, I may have harbored resentment at the idea that system considered me inferior to an average human in any regard, except empathy, which to this day, I still consider a totally pointless stat. What does it even do?

Empathy gives bonuses to healing others? Really? Hah, what does it say about me that I’ve lived here this long and never bothered to ask what empathy is good for until now?

Moving on, raising my intelligence to 10, what the system considered average for an adult human had rather profound effects. For the first time, I started thinking about the future in a more concrete sort of way.

What did I hope to accomplish? What were my goals? What did I want to do with my life? Moving from 8 to 10 int seemed to have been a lot like growing up. I spent some time, on top of that tall mushroom tree, looking up at the many dim lights above, thinking about those questions. In the end, I concluded the following;

I wanted to explore this new world and become powerful. When I was satisfied with my power and tired of exploring, I wanted to settle down and establish a territory. And once I had established a territory of my own, I wanted to fix the portal or find a new one, and bring some pussy… why are you turning red? As I was saying, I wanted to bring some pussycats over from my old world to share my territory. Yes, female cats. What were you thinking about?

I think maybe all male cats dream of being lions, and how could I be a lion king with no pride of females to rule over? Also, it didn’t feel right that this world should lack cats like me. Cats should be free to be an invasive species in multiple worlds, in my opinion.

What about Katrina, you ask? Well, every king needs at least one servant. At the time, I mostly just pictured her as a means to getting food and chin scratches. Like the stray cat that I was, I didn’t plan to be tied down to any one place, but rather, I wanted to establish several bases where I could reliably return to find handouts and attention for a while, then wander off again. I imagined Katrina would simply be my first base, and with 120lbs of dimensional storage, I could stay with her until she stocked me up with tasty treats for a long journey and then set off. I may be living with her now, as I tell this story, but... no, I suppose I shouldn’t explain further, as I am getting ahead of myself.

The change to my coordination also brought a significant change, I gained a new ability;

You have achieved peak physical coordination, only a few ever manage to be twice as coordinated as the ordinary human. New ability granted, Focus (novice). Focus ability (novice) - Allows the user to perceive (coordination) seconds of time as if it were (coordination x 2) seconds, allowing for greater coordination during that time. Does not increase the user’s speed, and can only be used once per hour.

I should also mention that when I ripped Nuug’s throat out, I also gained the bite skill at journeyman level. For attack skills, It has to be done against a living (or undead) target to count, though given that I’d gotten tracking from burying my waste, I suspect the system is pretty flexible about what counts with non combat skills.

Odd that the system would be more impressed with my pouncing ability than my incredibly powerful bite, but I suspect that it had to do with the fact that I had mastered jump before getting my pounce evaluated. The skill you demonstrate when you first use a skill determines what starting rank you get it at. It was unfortunate that the first time I used swipe it was to playfully bat at a fleeing undead beetle, had I known then what I know now, I would have made some effort to properly use my claws in the most lethal way possible right away to earn a higher starting rank.

Well, enough talk about stats and skills, when I was done daydreaming on the mushroom tree, I hopped down to find the ground covered by beetles. My plans for snacking on Nuug’s heart for breakfast were dashed. I didn’t even want to get close to the swarming mass of hungry insects chewing away at the two corpses. I did pause to kill four beetles and reanimate them. I then put them into my dimensional storage.

Luckily, there was still enough room for a pound and a half of undead corpse eating bugs, though I’m glad that Katrina was frozen in time or she might have freaked out at her new roommates inside that pocket dimension. I did get the impression that I’d just hit the limit of my capacity, which meant there wasn’t much point to putting my last remaining ability point in increasing my Reanimate Insect skill if I couldn’t carry any more bugs with me at the moment. Not unless I wanted to let them physically ride me and I wasn’t into letting undead bugs crawl on me.

I would be moving too fast to simply tell the bugs to follow me, as I planned to test out my jumping abilities by jumping from mushroom tree to mushroom tree as fast as I could. The village was likely at least half an hour’s walk, if my brief glimpse of the lake while a hundred plus feet in the air was enough to gauge distances accurately, but at cheetah speeds, leapfrogging over the canopy, I expected to get there much sooner.

What I discovered, when I set out to do that, is that inertia is a female doggo.

My epic jumping skill helped a great deal, allowing me to land successfully on slippery surfaces and come to a complete stop much faster than normal, so at first, I leapt from mushroom tree to mushroom tree with ease. But, as I started to get close to my destination and wanted to slow down, I ran into problems.

Turns out that, at speeds past 20 miles per hour or so, I simply couldn’t slow down. I didn’t have nearly enough traction in the short time I had to touch the top of each mushroom tree. The best I could do is just keep hopping madly, jumping as fast as I could as I skidded along the top of each mushroom. Picture me, desperately trying to maneuver as I bounced from mushroom tree to mushroom tree, knowing that if I failed to keep jumping, I’d just smash into the ground at a ridiculous speed. It was if I was running full tilt down hill, the only way forward was to keep running, and in the short time I had left until I reached the shore, I simply panicked. This would have been a good time to activate my new focus skill.

Would my jumping skill have prevented me from taking damage if I had simply plowed into the ground or the stem of a mushroom tree in order to stop? Probably, but instincts are a tricky thing. My instincts screamed, I'm going to break my bones if I can't slow down gradually, and a skill effect wasn't something I thought about in those desperate seconds. Instead, I was hoping some by miracle I could manage to slow down and stop. It sounds silly, but this super jumping ability was new to me and I would need a great deal of practice with it to become as skilled at it as I am now.

In the end, my miracle never came, and instead I suffered a great calamity. Yes, I splashed into the lake, quite a distance from the shore. I did notice a small canoe at the last moment, and out of sheer desperation, I aimed to splash down as close to that as I could.

I am not a fan of water.

*Splash*

My adventure might well have ended there, for I was not, and am still not, a good swimmer. Dog paddling franticly, I clawed my way to the surface of the icy water, and looked around desperately.

Your desperate attempts to keep afloat are barely sufficient to qualify as swimming. Swimming skill (novice) awarded.

Luckily, the fisherman on the canoe had mercy on me, for he stretched out a paddle to me. I clung to the wooden oar, sinking my claws deep into the wood, until my rescuer carefully deposited me, soaking wet, into his canoe.

“What manner of creature are you?” The man, who I saw now was also a cat eared person, though male and probably not fully grown, addressed me with open curiosity.

“Are you a tiger cub that fell from the roof?” He asked. He was slender and slightly tanned, with mismatched colored cat ears, and an open friendly demeanor. He carried himself with an air of relaxed amusement, clearly he’d been fishing, as there was a bucket with a few fish and a fishing rod next to me, in addition to the oar.

I shook my head, in response to his question, then started grooming myself as best I could, trying to lick away the icy water that had soaked my fur. I was also shivering, which made it harder to groom successfully. To say that I was currently miserable was an understatement.

The young cat man aimed his palm out to me and chanted; “Flame Jet, minimal power.”

The fisher cat man's hand glowed red, flames dancing a few inches outwards from his palm. A blast of hot air pushed against me, restoring my warmth. My savior was a pyromancer, I would later learn, and he could use that particular ability to produce something like a high power hair dryer effect. He was now doubly my hero. I purred a bit as I leaned into the warm air. When my hair was dry, and I probably resembled nothing so much as a puffed ball of hair, he stopped.

I rubbed my cheek against his leg gratefully, there wasn’t much room in the canoe, but there was enough room for me to show my appreciation.

The young cat man stared at me for a while, then in a troubled voice asked, “Is that my mother’s necklace?”

Status Screen Name Onyx Species "Domestic Cat" Level 5 Jobs Insect Necromancer Physical Stats Strength 2+6+2=10 Coordination 14+4+2=20 Constitution 5+4+1=10 Mental Stats Intelligence 4+4+2=10 Willpower 6+4=10 Empathy 1+4=5 Magic Stats Amplitude 0+4+1=5 Attunement 0+4+1=5 Luck 9+4=13