We ended up waiting for the kobold village to finish burning down for various reasons. The first is that Jason and I needed ten minutes to recharge our mana. Jason had described briefly what had happened on his side of the battle at the front gate where he’d finished many, but not all, of the wounded kobold villagers who were trying to escape.

“I can’t believe you let the level 10’s escape, they were worth so much exp!” I typed angrily.

“How was that my fault, you’re the one that scared them witless, they wouldn’t stop running away, and I had to stay near my mom to guard her as more panicked kobolds kept coming out.” Jason retorted, “You should have softened them up.”

It was true, the kobold warriors hadn’t been hit by the first wave of exploding bugs as they’d been outside of the crowd when I’d made my dramatic entrance. They also reached the village gate before my second wave of bugs could, by virtue of cutting through the crowd of their weaker brethren. They had rushed past Jason with only mild burns.

It was possible that they would eventually recover from the fear effect and maybe gather a few hunting packs to come after us. Well, that didn't scare me, after all I could always out run any kobold, so I was in no danger. Also, if they did it would be a chance for more exp.

The second reason we needed a little time was that the children I’d rescued needed a little calming down after I’d scared them. Katrina spent a while talking to them softly, giving them hugs and trying to convince them that I was a nice cat called Onyx, rather than the terrifying Tinter they’d heard the kobolds call me. It was the girl I’d saved from the bonfire who first found the courage to actually thank me, bowing to me formally and saying: “Thank you Onyx, I owe you my life.”

I nodded absentmindedly at the girl and continued to ignore her. She made me uncomfortable because she reminded me of the unwelcome emotion her near death had provoked in me. After that, the rest of the children thanked me too, to which I also had much the same reaction; a brief nod and then haughty disregard. I was too busy grooming to pay them much attention. It’s hard to wash out your fur when you get covered in blood. The children watched me groom myself, enthralled by my antics for some reason. It was creepy.

The third reason we waited is because Katrina sensed something magic near the center of the town that I’d missed. She apparently had a sense magic skill. “It feels like a spirit coin,” Katrina explained, “Probably a dog coin. Onyx might need one, he doesn’t have the dog blessing.”

So we were waiting for a present for me? I was intrigued.

“We could really use some money, remember? Everything we owned other than my fishing tool and the clothes on our backs is gone. We should sell the dog coin, not give it to Onyx.” Jason replied angrily.

I ignored Jason’s pettiness and instead brought the bow I’d found out of storage.

“Oh! You found my bow. Thank you so much.” Katrina picked up the bow to examine it, then set it down briefly so she could give me a quick hug, smooshing me against her oversized bosom, then setting me down again.

I didn’t know how to react to that, honestly. My first human had done something similar when I was a younger dumber cat, and I’d not much liked it. I didn’t much like it when Katrina did it either. But I chose to simply pretend it hadn’t happened at all and continued grooming myself rather than adknowledge the embarrassing thing that had just happened to me. Jason was giving me a bit of a stink eye afterwards, so the silver lining was that I’d managed to annoy him without actually doing anything.

Unfortunately Katrina’s display meant some of the bravest of the younger children thought they could do the same, and I resisted by dodging their clumsy grapple attempts. They seemed to think that this was a game of some sort, as soon the youngest among them were all giggling and chasing after me as I ran circles around them at leisurely twenty miles an hour.

I was briefly tempted to just hit them with my intimidate skill again and send them fleeing, but avoiding them was actually sort of entertaining in its own way, like playing with kittens who wanted to catch my tail. I entertained myself by squeezing between their legs or reversing course at the last possible second, anything so they just barely missed me. There was no way I’d actually let them catch me of course.

The older children were a little too traumatized to want to join in the activity. It wasn’t my intimidate that was to blame, but rather they were simply old enough to understand that their family and loved ones had died. They watched me play with the younger kids and it distracted them from their loss for a little while.

The girl who I’d rescued from the bonfire, called Anna, looked like she wanted to join in the fun of chasing me around, but her feet had been burnt a bit, and Katrina had sacrificed the section of cloth over her belly to make some makeshift bandages. She could walk, but it hurt.

Katrina threw me a glance, “Could you carry Anne in your storage?” She asked. I zoomed ahead of the pack of children chasing me long enough to nod in agreement.

“We’ve both been stored away, it doesn’t hurt or anything. It’s like a blink of an eye, and suddenly you are somewhere else.” Katrina was explaining to Anne, worried that she might be scared.

Anne shook her head, “Not scared. I want to walk because it’s not fair if only I get carried by Onyx.”

After a bit, the fire died down enough for Katrina to venture into the still smoldering town, to search for the spirit coin.

“You’re never going to store me away.” Jason muttered, “It sounds undignified.” But he said it softly so the rest of the kids couldn’t hear him. I heard him though, and of course that was a challenge, so in the middle of being chased by the young ones, I veered suddenly and rubbed against Jason’s leg before he could react, and stuffed him into my storage against his will.

Or at least I tried to. Jason actually didn’t disappear, which surprised me.

You have attempted to store an alert, higher level target that is resisting your ability. Attempt failed.

It turns out my storage ability can be resisted if my target meets four criteria. They had to know of my ability, not want me to use it on them, be aware of my presence, and be higher level than me. That is what the system whispered to me alongside that brief announcement. It wasn’t really additional information so much as a clarification of what the message meant, but I was starting to be more aware of the system’s hidden whispers.

“Did you just try to stuff me into storage?” Jason asked, outraged. And of course the person who resists also gets a helpful system message informing them that I’d tried.

Jason briefly joined in the chase, drawing a cheer from the younger children who watched as he charged after me at his much higher max speed. Of course, I was still faster than Jason too, so I ran circles around him as well, though I had to work harder to do so.

I think the fact that I let myself get chased around without hurting anyone made the children relax a bit about me. If I was truly as terrible as the kobolds thought I was, surely I would have killed anyone who dared try to grab my tail. Maybe that is why Jason chased me, to help calm the children down. Or maybe he just wasn’t as grown up as he liked to pretend he was.

Katrina managed to find the silver coin and bring it back. Katrina’s return had put an end to our game of chase. Jason tried to pretend he’d never been involved at all by becoming very engrossed in polishing his harpoon. The rest of the children were curious to see what treasure she’d brought back. The coin was actually something I’d seen before. I had an identical coin in storage already. I popped out my own silver coin with the picture of a dog on it.

“Oh you already have one. Ah, that’s good then, you don’t mind if we sell this one?”

I shook my head. I had looted the treasure chest and hadn’t mentioned it. My greedy little heart wasn’t sure I wanted to share and I was certain Jason would ask for me to “split the loot with the party” or some such nonsense. But I was curious about what the “spirit coins” actually did. I stored my own dog coin away.

“What are they for?” I typed.

“There are thirteen gods in this world, one for each of the tribes, plus a god of man who acts as a mediator.” Katrina explained, “Each one offers spirit coins to their followers, the members of their chosen species. Well, except for the Church of Man who just gives their coins out in exchange for donations, since there’s no “tribe of man”. For those of us of the Tiger Tribe, when we turn ten years old we are given a spirit coin and allowed to use it. But anyone can use a tiger coin at a Great Tiger Shrine to receive the title “Blessed by the Tiger” if they have the tiger coin.” Katrina explained.

“That means people can steal or trade for the coins of other deities. When a person who has used a spirit coin dies, the spirit coin will reappear, like so.” Katrina held up the coin she’d found, “Jason and I have both previously killed holders of a dog coin and taken their coins. This coin is from the chieftain you killed. He must have made the pilgrimage to a Dog Shrine to get “Blessed by the Dog”.”

I nodded. The thirteen coins I’d found must have come from the dead guy in the cave I arrived at, I realized. He had had all thirteen blessings, most likely. Was there some connection between having all the blessings and the portal that brought me here? I was tempted to find out. Although, did I want to be “Blessed by the Dog”? It sounded like what would happen if a doggo peed on your shoes.

“What happens if you collect all thirteen spirit coins and use them all to get all thirteen titles?” I asked.

“I don’t know.” Katrina said with a shrug. “Each title gives stats, it varies by blessing, but they all give at least 1 point of attunement. That attunement is very useful, since everyone except dragons, starts with 0 attunement and amplitude. But, I think something more happens if you get them all.”

Jason snorted. “That never happens. The dragon coin in particular is almost impossible to get unless you happen to be a dragon. Some of the other coins are pretty rare. Some tribes are very isolationist and never get into fights, like the rabbits. But the hardest thing would be to get to all thirteen shrines. You’d have to travel the world into each tribal territory. And many tribes aren’t friendly with the cat tribe. The dragons won’t let anyone in without first defeating the Tower of Trials. We’ve captured a dog shrine a few centuries ago, and they’ve captured a tiger shrine, so we can use each other’s coins. And there's a shrine of man in every major city, so most felines and canines can eventually get those three titles. But all thirteen? No way.”

And just like that I had a new long term goal. I wanted to get all thirteen titles, partly to see what would happen, mostly for the stats, but also as a way to spite Jason. I pulled out my collection of spirit coins to show Jason, and was rewarded when his eyes bulged a bit in shock and filled with obvious envy. He couldn’t even find the words to ask me how I’d found them all.

I had gotten better at popping things out of my inventory where I wanted them to go, so I had laid out the coins on the ground with a single wave of my paw, like a magician laying out a spread of cards. Then I quickly stored them away again, tapping the semicircle of coins one at a time in quick succession. I thought to myself that as fun as it was to tease Jason, I should definitely be more careful about showing them off like that. Someone might want to kill me to try to get them. I should try to be smarter and not take unnecessary risks.

With that thought in mind, I decided to spend 3 attribute points into raising my intelligence by one. I planned to get my intelligence to 13 so I’d start getting 3 ability points per level instead of 2. I still had 3 attribute points and 4 ability points left to spend, but I held on to them thinking I would test out my new ability first. I didn’t want to test it while the children were watching, as it might freak them out again.

After that, we all started walking back to the other burnt village, the fishing village that had been the home of all these cat eared humans. The place where Jason had left the fish. I was already feeling hungry, so to hurry the young ones along, I took to putting the stragglers into my inventory, zooming forward a few hundred yards, then popping them out, then zooming back to the end of the line. Since Anne had decided to walk as well, though very slowly, I ended up moving her forward more times than anyone else.

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Status Screen HP (max) 176 MP (max) 80 Name Onyx Species "Alley Cat" Level 7 Jobs Insect Necro. Physical Stats Strength 2+2+8=12 Coordination 14+2+6=22 Constitution 5+1+5=11 Mental Stats Intelligence 4+3+4=11 Willpower 6+4=10 Empathy 1+4=5 Magic Stats Amplitude 0+1+4=5 Attunement 0+1+4=5 Luck 9+4=13