Chapter 11

[Skill unlocked: Silent Movement(1)

Guides placement of limbs and suppresses noise made by movement.

Stamina usage: conditional, low-high]

As the message appeared, I felt the familiar feeling of stamina suffusing my limbs, and I let the Skill take hold, this would help immensely in my next task. My instincts were still fully focused on the small group of rodents ahead, and I was just about half-way across the stable. As I crept forward, I noticed my new Skill doing its work, guiding my footsteps and making my footsteps completely silent. It did not help overly much, though, it was dark, the horse manure overpowered most other smells, and the smooth stone floor made for silent ground. Oh well, I would take anything I got, and if nothing else I would probably level the Skill a bit. How did that work anyway?

I shook my head slightly to clear my thoughts, this was not the time for random musing. My instincts were telling me that I was now close enough to rush the rodents, so I settled myself into a ready position and waited for an opportunity to strike. After a short moment, one of the rodents ran past a bit closer than the rest and I launched myself without hesitation towards it. The rodents noticed me immediately and began to scatter, squeaking loudly as they went.

As I reached my target I realized that I was using this as an opportunity to train my Skills, and hastily activated Claw Swipe and lunged towards my quarry. The slight hesitation together with my lack of experience cost me and I only barely managed to nick the small creature’s leg before it scrambled through a small gap in one of the stalls.

“Damn it,” I tried to vocalize, but remembered too late that my jaw could not form the sounds, instead letting out an odd-sounding meowl.

As I sat down to calm my now frantically beating heart, I noticed something shiny on the floor and leaned down to inspect it. It smelled faintly metallic, and I quickly realized what it was. Blood. I had managed to score a slight wound on the rodent, making it bleed in the process. I had almost killed something… That was… My mind had been so focused on the hunt that I had completely forgotten what I was actually doing.

I settled back and started grooming myself in order to calm my thoughts so I could think.

‘First things first, I need to find a way to rein in my instincts, I almost killed something just then and I had no control over it. Secondly, disregarding the loss of control, I also don’t know if I have the stomach to kill something, even if it’s just a rat or something. Third, how do these damn Skills work in terms of leveling up? In a lot of these systems, you have to actively kill stuff to get xp and such. Though I got Silent Movement without killing something, and Emma had Skills, I think, so there have to be at least some Skills that don’t require killing. Hmm… Let’s try something’

I stood up and walked over to one of the broad structural beams that were set regularly along the stalls. The vertical wooden surface would make for a good target for my testing. After setting myself in a good position, I activated Claw Swipe and attacked the beam. My swipes were still guided by the subconscious instructions the Skill gave me, but it felt slightly fuzzy, as if someone was trying to help me, but didn’t really know what they were helping with.

‘Hm, maybe I need to be a bit more specific?’.

I readied another swipe at the beam and tried to imagine creating vertical marks in the wood as I did. This time, the guidance from the Skill felt a lot more clear, and I managed to score five slight rends in the wood. As the Skill finished, the odd pressure I felt whenever I used a Skill seemed to stay a little longer than usual and I realized it matched the pressure I felt as I got Silent Movement. Feeling giddy at this new development, I activated the Skill again, creating a rough grid by slashing horizontally over the vertical gouges, the pressure staying just a little bit longer than last time.

As I activated the Skill for the fourth time, however, I felt a slight resistance together with the pressure. After completing the Skill I felt a lot more tired than I was before. Quickly realizing what was happening, I opened my status screen.

[Stamina: low

Conditions:

Winded]

[Winded

Heavy Stamina usage has left you winded.

The cost of Stamina based actions increased.

Stamina regeneration while resting slightly increased.]

Damn, I should have guessed there was a limit. This did give me time to think over the other two problems I was facing while I rested though.

‘Now, I seem to have a better handle on my instincts by just getting more used to it, so I’ll shelve that for now. Next up, then, is the question of how I should handle the possibility that I might kill something, either through necessity or by getting strung along by my instincts again. Hmm…’ Settling back into grooming myself again, I thought over the problem for a while.

‘Well, I guess in I just have to work on my focus and hope I don’t get into a situation where I have to kill. Maybe I should start meditating?’ I concluded.

Having settled my mind, I checked my status again and saw that while my Stamina was still listed as low, the Winded condition had disappeared. After a moment of thought, I gave a mental shrug, ‘I want to know what happens if my Stamina gets really low anyway…’

I set myself up next to the beam and activated Claw Swipe again. The resistance was much stronger this time, and I could feel my entire body sagging slightly as the tiredness that came was much stronger than before.

However, I was quickly distracted by the feeling of pressure building instead of dissipating as it usually did. After a short moment of build-up, I was rewarded for my efforts:

[Skill Claw Swipe(I) has leveled up!

Claw Swipe(1) level 2

Slightly decreased Stamina cost

Slightly increased Skill effectiveness]

I did a fist-pump and let out a cheerful meow, completely ignoring the consternated stare from the horse in the stall next to me. My cheer fell quickly as the tiredness caught up, though, and my mood did not improve as I checked my status.

[Condition: Overexerted

You have used too much Stamina too quickly, leaving your body in a state of tiredness.

Cost of Stamina based actions greatly increased.]

‘Well, I guess that is the end of this adventure,’ I thought and started walking back towards the outside, ‘I don’t even get any stamina regeneration from resting this time... Note to self: don’t overexert yourself.’

As I pushed myself under the gap, I froze as I suddenly realized something, ‘Wait, how am I going to get back up to Emma’s room now!?’