Back at the ruined fishing village, the fighting was not going well for the catkin I’d left behind. But the first thing that caught my attention when I merged my mind with that of my nameless undead minion was how calm and relaxing it was to be merged with an undead mind. Wow, so this is what it’s like to have an empathy score of 0, I thought to myself as I dodged away from a clumsy kobold’s swing. Everything felt so clear; nothing mattered, death was an eternal absolute, all things died in the end. I was simply serving the will of the universe by bringing death to all things that lived. I was constrained only by the meaningless orders imposed by a summoner who would also, in time, die. Thus, the simple perfection of entropy and death was the only truth in the universe, everything else was just noise.

What had I been thinking about before I’d immersed myself into the sea of mental tranquility that was my Death Wasp’s mind?

Something about wanting XP, I thought hazily, no that seemed silly. XP was just the manifestation of energy absorbed by killing living things. It too was just a meaningless side effect of the true glory that was simply fulfilling the mandate of death.

I found a gap in the kobold’s desperate attack patterns and stabbed skillfully. I stung a kobold with our stinger and watched it contort in pain as acid and a withering curse ate away at its flesh.

You have stabbed a kobold (Brot) for 12 points of damage. Your acid has inflicted 21 additional points of damage. You have inflicted the status condition “Acidic Blood” on your target. Acidic Blood deals 1 hp damage per five seconds for 1 minute and causes extreme pain. You have inflicted “Withering Curse” on your target, all physical stats reduced by 1. Losing 1 constitution reduces Kobold’s (Brot) max and current hp reduced by 15.

Not bad, I thought to myself, but I turned off the damage notifications again. Honestly, all the blue screens were annoying. Gradually I started regaining my sense of self as I struggled against the Death Wasp’s mind. It helped to think about my own emotions, I was annoyed and angry. I was angry at these dumb doggos. Annoyed that I still wasn’t level ten. But there was something else adding to my annoyance, something I was trying not to admit to myself.

To distract myself, I stabbed the kobold again. Why did the names show up on some kobolds and not others I wondered? This Brot kobold scream’s turned into a low gurgle of agony as the acid and curse consumed the last of his health. The system detected that you didn’t want to know the names of the kobolds you killed, the Death Wasp’s mind told me, so it switched that setting off, but now you’re inside my body, I have the setting on because it amuses me to know that they think such things matter in the scale of eternity, but all such things are meaningless as death engulfs all.

You have slain a kobold (Brot), the target is lower level than you, XP gain reduced.

Still not enough to level, I thought to myself in frustration. I disabled the system setting that informed me of names. My Death Wasp could be as goth and emo as it wanted to be, but I didn’t have time for that. I’m a nihilistic amoral undead servant of death, not an edgy teenager, my Death Wasp protested, but I ignored it.

Really, all I wanted to know is if I leveled or not and that other thing... I tried to check my party screen, to see if Jason and Katrina were still alive, but found I couldn’t access it. It seemed that the Death Wasp was not considered part of the party. Apparently, the system didn’t like it when you tried to add new members to a party while your party was actively fighting, so my wasp had been excluded. How strangely picky, I thought to myself, is the system trying to prevent exploits of some sort? Nevermind, not my concern. What I was concerned about, despite my efforts not to be concerned about it, was if my servant, her annoying cub, and the rest of the human kittens were still alive.

Why are we so far away from the catkin? I wondered.

The male one tried to roast me, the Death Wasp responded, so I decided that the best way to follow your orders was to hunt down the kobolds hiding in the forest. I suspect they were placed here to ambush any catkin who attempted to flee, my minion informed me.

I flew up high, so I could see what Jason and Katrina were up to. As I had said earlier, they weren’t doing so well.

Jason was holding his own against a trio of kobold warriors, level 10’s, whirling his ridiculous harpoon like a baton he kept them at bay. With a sudden reversal and quick footwork, he abruptly lunged and stabbed one of the warriors, the barbs of his harpoon forcing a gaping cross-shaped wound on his enemy, then he retracted the barbs, pulled the spear out, and turned to parry the other two kobolds. But despite incapacitating one kobold, two more pressed forward, from the ring of kobolds that surrounded them. I could tell that Jason had some sort of passive fisherman related ability with anything that could be considered a fishing tool, because how he moved that odd weapon broke physics. Changing directions with no regards to inertia, he shifted the heavy spear’s trajectory from defense to attack and back again without throwing his small frame off balance. But, he was nearly out of mana so his more powerful pyromancer abilities were no longer available to him, aside from brief bursts as his mana slowly regenerated.

Katrina was pressed up against Jason’s back, she was covering his rear with only the knife she’d borrowed from him, and she was faring less well. Although it was clear that Katrina was both stronger and faster than Jason, she was forced to fight mostly defensively. With no abilities she could use, using a weapon with such short reach, she was focused mostly on guarding the tiny sliver of health left to her by countering any attempt made to approach her. The only reason she was still alive was that her enemies were also only using knives.

I flew in to attack the kobolds facing Katrina, stabbing one before he could react. For some reason, when the withering curse was applied, as a side effect I got a whisper of information on the victim’s original stat scores. This warrior kobold had a constitution of 9 before I withered him to 8. Losing that point of constitution meant he had 18 fewer max and current hp, going from 172 to 164. Then I also did 33 more damage split between piercing and acid damage, for a total of 51 damage. Both the wither and the acidic blood effects were stacking, so If the kobold was typical of his kind, and I averaged 50 hp per blow, I would need four strikes to kill each warrior kobold, or three if I was willing to wait out a minute for the acid damage over time effects. Overall, I was pleased with the deadliness of my new minion, but there were a lot of kobold warriors surrounding the catkin duo. Where had they all come from, I wondered briefly, had another kobold village sent them, or had the dire doggo brought her own minions separate from those of her litter daddy?

Dispassionately, I watched the kobold scream in agony as he turned to face me, in too much pain to attack accurately, but still able to swing his stone knife wildly to try to keep me away. I couldn’t simply rush in and deliver three more blows in quick succession. This is going to take too long, I realized.

The kobolds were trying to wear the catkin duo down, and it was working. More kobolds were waiting nearby to surround Jason and Katrina and pull the wounded kobolds out of reach. I watched as two more kobolds dragged away the one Jason had crippled. I sensed more than saw, more kobolds creeping around to surround me as well, hoping to strike at my vulnerable wings.

“That bug is back!” Jason exclaimed with alarm.

“It’s attacking the kobolds,” Katrina pointed out, “and it’s undead, so it must be Onyx’s pet.” Katrina pulled up the party screen. “Onyx is reading at 12% health and status “asleep” but still alive… did he find a hidey-hole to escape that dire wolf?”

“Oh, well, I guess I shouldn’t have wasted my mana trying to fry the bug last time,” Jason grunted, delivering a fatal blow gut wound to one of the encircling kobolds who drew too near. “It would still have been better if he hadn’t run away, but a scary wasp thing is better than nothing I suppose,” he added grudgingly.

“He’s level 9! Do you think he actually killed that wolf? That’s incredible!” Katrina gushed. “Must have been too hurt to make it back here though.”

“Pfft, that doesn’t sound likely. Maybe the bastard just got lucky and burnt some other village for easy exp.” Jason dismissed the possibility that I could have won against that dire doggo.

Jason yanked on the string to pull the harpooned and bleeding kobold out of reach of the ones trying in their own crude way to bandage up the wounded. “Not going to save this one,” Jason muttered as he put a foot on the weakly gasping kobold and yanked out the barbed harpoon without bothering to retract the barbs. “This one dies.”

Katrina frowned as she heard the agonizing gurgling scream of the disemboweled kobold. “Jason, stop playing with your enemies.” Katrina rebuked softly, “Kill them fast and focus on the next one. Sadism just slows you down.”

I disagreed with Katrina’s view. With a quick feint, I managed to stab another kobold facing Katrina. The agonized scream of the kobold whose blood filled with acid as his flesh withered away unnaturally, was quite invigorating. I was finding my groove as a Death Wasp, and part of the reason I was able to adapt so quickly was simply that I enjoyed the way they squirmed when I plunged my 10 inch, cursed, acidic stinger into their soft flesh. It was quite an exquisite experience, really. Sadism was a great motivation tool. Honestly, playing with your prey was the national pastime of cats. What good was slaughtering doggos if you didn't enjoy doing it?

“Mom, I didn’t become a pyromancer because I cared about delivering painless deaths.” Jason countered with a snort, ably sidestepping an enraged kobold who was trying to avenge the gruesome death of his littermate. “I became a pyromancer because it’s fun to fry, and no one likes getting fried. It keeps them at bay when they think getting close means this might happen to them.” Jason unleashed a short burst of fire with his left hand to incapacitate the would-be avenger while he tossed his harpoon at one of the more distant kobolds.

When the harpoon landed, Jason yanked the harpoon back, reeling the kobold into close range, then retracting the barbs, he pulled the spear out and stabbed the wounded kobold twice more in quick succession. The burnt kobold had fallen to the ground and was trying to crawl away, but without even a glance, Jason kicked him into the path of another charging kobold.

The two kobolds, one healthy the other barely alive and covered in burns, smashed together in a comedic pile of limbs that provided a brief obstacle to attackers, slowing them down as more and more gathered.

Watching Jason fight made me reevaluate my opinion of him upwards somewhat. He was fluid and dynamic, using his mana sparingly to supplement his mastery of his custom spear harpoon weapon. He seemed to be fighting without a care in the world. I admired the feline grace of his combat style and the callous disregard for his opponents on display.

Katrina continued to struggle, however, despite my best efforts to help. She was exhausted, and could not burn mana for stamina. A knife was not her preferred weapon, and she’d gone soft in the sixteen years since she retired from the army. I imagined the excess weight of her chest was something she regretted as her breathing grew more and more ragged, not that she had much choice about it, I suppose. I stabbed a kobold even as another broke past me and managed to deliver a deep thrust to Katrina’s gut.

“Ugh.” She groaned, reeling back to press against Jason’s back. “That was it, 10hp left, and I’m bleeding out. It looks like this is the end for me.”

The kobold who’d stabbed Katrina looked inordinately proud of himself as he stood by and leered, choosing not to finish her off knowing that he knew she’d die anyway. I guess Kobolds were sadistic too. There was a lot of that going around, I thought to myself as I managed to land a particularly vicious stab to the gloating kobold’s eye. My stinger delivered a critical hit that killed him as the acid poured directly into the doggo’s brain.

You have reached level 10! You have gained 3 ability points and 3 stat points. You can now choose a 2nd job!

A blow caught me on the back, luckily I’d fluttered upwards as I yanked my stinger out, allowing my wings to escape harm. But the blow still managed to smash my abdomen, leaving my vital stinger attached to a badly cracked hollow shell that could break off with my next stab. The damage had weakened the structural integrity of my exoskeleton around the waist.

“Mom! No! Hold on, I’ll get you over to the kids, they can bandage you while I hold the rest of these bastards at bay!” Jason yelled, half turning to wrap an arm over his dying mother as he took a knife blow of his own on the other arm. He grunted but ignored the pain to stab at another kobold still tearfully holding on to his mother with his unwounded arm.

“Jason, fight your way free. Maybe the kobolds will take the kids hostage again, and you and Onyx can rescue them later. Or, they might all chase you, and the kids can run away too. I was always just slowing you down… not just now, but your whole life. I’m so sorry I didn’t encourage you in your chosen path as I should have. I was tired of all the killing, but I shouldn’t have tried to discourage you… if you must avenge me, just remember to keep safe, and not let hate consume you.” She coughed a gout of blood.

“Mother!” Jason sobbed, leaning over her, “I’ll kill them all here or die trying!” he promised, drawing a frown from Katrina as he immediately disregarded her advice.

I dropped the small chest of coins on a kobold that was about to deliver a backstab on Jason, stunning the runty doggo. Then I headbutted Katrina and put her back into my storage. She was such a drama queen. Really, why did they keep forgetting I could do that?

Jason looked shocked at his suddenly empty arms, then stared up at me. “You can use your pet bug to store things?”

I bobbed up and down as a way of saying “yes”.

Jason straightened up and glared at the kobolds. “That was the last time your kind will ever hurt her, and the last time any of you will ever hurt anyone.” He promised menacingly. Jason’s intimidating skill was at the journeyman level but charged by the genuine threat in his tone, it caused the cowardly kobolds to drawback for a second, buying us a bit of breathing room.

“I don’t see any way to win this,” Jason muttered softly. He was right, there were too many, and my own body was damaged, I would soon be disarmed. But... perhaps there was a way to arm myself in a different meaning of the word.

I glanced at Jason. If I armed myself in the manner of a bomb, I could well take out all the kobolds, but I’d probably kill Jason too. He had multiple small wounds and was probably between half and two-thirds health as it was, and I wasn't even sure how much damage I'd do. I needed to communicate my intentions without being able to type them out on party chat.

“Is that our village’s treasure? When were you going to tell us about that?” Jason asked angrily, pointing at the treasure chest I’d used to save his life.

I sighed inwardly, maybe saving Jason wasn’t really all that important. He was an ungrateful bastard, I'd not have dropped those coins if I could fit both them and Katrina at once.

But there was a way could tell Jason my plan. Luckily for Jason, I had already pretty much decided I wanted this job anyway. With a thought, I instructed the system to give me the Psion job.

You have picked the Psion job. The Psion is a common choice among intelligent animals who can’t speak, as the starting ability is telepathy, an ability that allows you to communicate with other intelligent life. At higher ranks, telepathy can also be used to read minds and uncover secrets but can be resisted by certain skills, abilities, high willpower, or certain enchantments. Psion can also unlock psionic blast, telekinesis, ESP, and various other abilities as they level.

“Jason, I’m going to explode this bug,” I told him telepathically, as I dumped 6 of my 7 ability points into raising my Insect Bomb ability to master level. “You need to run for cover.”

Jason’s eyes got wide, but then he nodded without asking any questions. The kobolds were all eagerly drawing near, sensing an easy victory now that Katrina had vanished and my Death Wasp’s exoskeleton was visibly damaged.

Jason searched around for a segment of ruined village wall sturdy and intact enough to shield him from the blast. He noticed a boat out on the lake, “Onyx, a boat is coming. I hope that’s good news.” He muttered, then chuckled. “Either way, keep my mother safe, find her a healer, and everything will be fine, all right?”

“Still waiting on you running,” I told Jason, annoyed by the unnecessary talking. Even when I stored Katrina away, humans just kept chatting.

As the kobolds drew in for the kill, Jason suddenly pole-vaulted over them. Using his spear for leverage, he flew over their heads. “See you all in hell,” he taunted them as he ran for cover.

Surprised, the kobolds wasted a few precious seconds gawking at the suddenly running Jason, leaving me alone in their midst, as he cleared precious distance. Just as the first Kobold yelled and prepared himself to chase after Jason, I used 40 mana to explode a bug ten times larger than any I’d detonated before.

The Death Wasp’s last thoughts to me were, “It is an honor to die so more can die with me.”

I mentally saluted my disposable minion, even as I gave a mental snort. You’ll never see me willing to sacrifice myself to save others, I thought to myself as I activated the ability.

Then everything went dark as my mind was slammed back into my sleeping body. I only had a brief moment to notice the status screen before my mind followed my body’s lead and drifted into unconsciousness.

You have dealt an average of 200 damage to 11 kobold warriors, killing them! You have gained two levels! You are now at level twelve! You have gained a new ability, telekinesis (novice)!

The explosion rained shrapnel and acid everywhere, leaving a sizzling crater of battered, cursed, half-melted corpses that continued to wither and dissolve even after death. I didn’t actually get a chance to see that, but I can tell you what the aftermath looks like, based on further experience with that particular weapon.