I didn’t fail the test. I just found 100 ways to do it wrong. –Benjamin Franklin

Probably the worst way to let anyone know you have STD's.

In order to hold onto any scrap of sanity I pretended I still had, I filled my mind with random animal facts and scooped up Annie, laying her on a comfy looking sofa.

Her ears look so soft...

FOR EVERY HUMAN IN THE WORLD, THERE ARE A MILLION ANTS.

And her tail is moving so cutely as she sleeps...

TARANTULAS CAN GO TWO YEARS WITHOUT FOOD.

I wanna put bows in her hair...

UGH. FUCK IT

It was a side of me I was reluctant to let surface as it was the only part of me I was really ashamed of. The one thing that could have made me a real social outcast was my closet catgirl fetish.

I swear if she says "nya" even once, I'm out.

I distracted myself from the softly breathing bait curled up in her coat by getting the real cat some food. If he died of starvation after I performed spontaneous surgery on him, I would bring his soul back in a monster's body and kill him all over again.

Though that did give me an idea, I didn't really want to think of soul experiments at the moment. There was far too much going on at once.

While in the kitchen, I could get a better look at what exactly had gone down. And my first look had pretty much confirmed it.

Annie had prepared a surprising amount of cat food and blood mix judging by the number of empty pouches on the floor. Then for whatever reason, she had eaten the entire batch and then become a cat girl.

It couldn't have been the cat food that turned her, could it?

I sniffed the bowl but it didn't give me any clues. It only smelled of cat food. I tried Trackers Sense instead. I was still following the smell of decay and through the rising vapours, I saw a hint... a barely visible smudge of red.

So there was Seamus's DNA in the mix. Even a little bit.

I guessed the vampire blood acted as a catalyst that added the monster or animal DNA to whoever consumed it. With vampire being the default and others available to add.

My immediate thought was to grant myself wings. It wouldn't be too hard to hunt a bird and he a feather or something to give me the ability to fly.

But then the darker side of the evolution coin showed its ugly face. What if the evolution didn't give me what I wanted from it? What if I got a beak and feathers?

I shuddered at the mental imagery that formed. I would wait until I found something close enough to human that there was as low a chance as possible for failure.

A harpy, maybe.

But I cleaned up the mess in the meantime and found a pouch of food that Annie hadn't helped herself to. Shivering at the still dropping temperature, I prepared an easy to consume meal for the recovering cat. I even found a pack of strong antibiotics that I powdered and mixed in with the cold soup. The little guy was probably still fighting the infection internally and could use all the help I could give.

While I may have just been looking to gain another achievement or skill by bringing the animal back from the dead, I wanted to have something similar to a monster that wasn't hostile so I could watch its soul. Seamus would likely be better off after this injury when he recovered which would only benefit me.

As I passed by Annie on the sofa, I noticed she had curled up and tried to tuck her exposed limbs under the coat. It was adorable in its own sense and I threw my own coat over her as I couldn't find a blanket to put over her and was reluctant to move her from that spot.

Back upstairs, I gently lifted the sleeping Seamus off of the ruined towels and rolled his body in a blanket to make sure he didn't freeze overnight. Sighing at the efforts I had to go through for this fragile pet, I carried him up to the top floor with the bowel of food and laid him at the foot of the double bed with the food next to him within reach.

The bed looked comfortable and I had to remind myself I wasn't actually tired before I could Leave the room.

And so I found myself in the hall, my hot breath making a cloud in front of me, and at a total loss of what to do.

I shivered. I was glad the coat was keeping me mostly warm, but it was for someone bigger than me. The loose material allowed air to pass through as I moved and after the stressful surgery I had just performed, it was cooling me down faster than I would have liked.

I guessed it was maybe 9 at night, way earlier than I would normally sleep. So in terms of what I could do, I was severely limited again. While I could mess with mana or try to train my aura, my spectral potential raised its head again.

But I had no corpses to absorb and barely any essence to play with.

As I probably needed it the most, it focused on my mana.

I sat in Annie's back garden, in a meditative state. I wasn't even an hour into meditation and I had already levelled it to 6. At level 5, I had gained a 5% increase in my health regen and had almost figured out what Mana was, using my very bored brain.

The clue was what I had been told in the first-day welcome message and that I had heard about mana cores.

Mana was just another form of energy that we previously couldn't identify, but now could. And while we had mana cores, we absorbed this energy and made it our own.

I had that mana force skill, but it used up far too much mana to just play with, so I left it to theory mainly and slowly spun the ambient mana that was in my hands.

As I concentrated further, I spun the mana faster and faster until I held a small tornado in each hand.

Spell learnt: Wind Manipulation

It might be useful In the future but was useless to me now. I needed heat. I needed fire.

I instead envisioned what happened to energy through combustion. It only transferred from chemical energy to light, heat and sound energy.

I tried to solidify the mana in my hand but ran out of mana before I could achieve anything monumental. I managed to level up Mana Force to level 3 through my experiments though. While the control increased in theory, I could barely feel the difference.

Now that my mana was exhausted, I could work with my stamina until it regenerated. While I didn't have many skills I could level through consistent use and none that I particularly wanted to, I decided to train my strength. It was my most prominent feature and would keep me alive the longest.

Figuring that basic fitness factored into my overall body's wellbeing and that I could grind it out by doing more vigorous exercise, I immediately recalled as many of the more difficult exercises and got started. My stamina rapidly decreased as I strained myself so I took regular breaks to eat and drink, trying more foods for their effects.

Sweet drinks gave a short by high stamina boost, with carb-heavy foods providing a lesser regen rate for longer. Protein foods and meats gave no bonus, but they were very filling.

For hours, I pushed myself to my limits earning a handful of skills I deemed mostly useless due to the tiny bonuses.

Skill learnt: Arm strength (D)

Progressively overloading stress on arm muscles is 0.1% easier.

Skill learnt: Leg Strength (D)

Progressively overloading stress on leg muscles is 0.1% easier.

Skill learnt: Torso Strength (D)

Progressively overloading stress on torso muscles is 0.1% easier.

The bonus in ease increased by another 0.1% every level for each skill.

Though I had levelled them all up past 5, none gave me any bonus stats. Maybe something else would happen at level 10? I didn't know, but what I did know was that Basic Fitness was benefiting the most from my efforts. Despite the fact that I felt no stronger after hours of constantly exercising, my basic fitness had levelled up to 9. I got the unallocated point each level and at level five, I got four instead of one. That gave me 8 unallocated points.

Initially, I wanted to put them all into luck considering how lucky some of my findings had been. But while taking a break, I actually read up on what Basic fitness was. Apparently, it gave me another kind of stat when the skill evolved. Considering the effort required to raise the skill level, it wasn't unreasonable to assume the first evolution would be at level 10. If I was right, then I would save up the unallocated points for later consideration.

After the hours that exhausted me, I collapsed half-naked on the bed in what I assumed was a siblings room. I didn't take any time to admire the decor, I just rolled myself in the blankets and fell asleep.

For the first time, I woke gently. The light of the sun through the cloud barrier was just enough to rouse me, and I blinked myself awake with nothing immediately wrong with me.

The first breath through my nose alerted me to a pretty big problem. I smelt. Really bad.

The first thing to do today?

Shower.

It was so bad that I couldn't stand to stay curled up in the warm covers. They were sticky against my skin too. The night full of exercise and sweat combined with old blood was causing me to become generally sticky.

So with a slight but obviously displeased groan, I got up and shuffled to the bathroom.

There was a clock on the wall that told me it was already almost midday. I shrugged, remembering I had no immediate priorities.

As expected, the shower was icy cold, and after jumping in and out several times with varying degrees of suds, I got clean.

My clothes were a lost cause and I used a long brush to poke them into a corner.

They can't hurt anyone anymore.

Drying myself off, I remembered the other occupants of the house with a start and quickly wrapped a towel around my waist.

I practically ran up the stairs, deeming Seamus a more immediate issue.

He hadn't moved from that place as expected, but at least I could see most of the food I had left his was eaten.

As I unrolled him from the towel though, I noticed with dread that he was cold to the touch. My arms went limp and I stroked his cold head slowly, trying to decide how I would break it to Annie.

But against every expectation, I felt a squirming in my hands.

I looked down with surprise and Seamus seemed to be rather happily pawing at my hand with his one free leg.

I activated Life Seeker, ignoring the fact the cost-less glasses were in my bag.

And while he had a soul in his body, there was no sign of life.

"What are you?"

He mewed back at me quietly and I analysed him, wondering how his status would look.

Seamus Decker (undead cat):

Level: 1

Hp: 31/31

Mp: 20/20

Weirdly, his level had reset to one despite the large increase in his mana and smaller one in his health.

I guess he really is an undead.

What on earth is up with everyone changing species?

I put Seamus down and he limped back to the almost empty food bowl to finish it. I could see that through the sewed up wound, lumps of bone were growing where his leg and tail had been.

Must be some trait of being a zombie.

"Nephthys, can you tell me anything about why he became undead?"

I figured it was most likely a fruitless effort as Nephthys didn't seem to want to act as my own private encyclopedia.

I can't tell you about the requirements to evolve, you have to figure that out yourself. But I can tell you that you might want to stop using your manipulation skill on souls you aren't going to reap.

Ah. So if I touch their soul, they can be revived? Or they just will? That seems woefully overpowered.

While I doubted I was along the right lines, at least I knew there wasn't some random curse that would turn living creatures into the living dead.

And so with one feline dealt with, I descended to the other who would be inexplicably harder to sort out.

Once I reached the ground floor, I put Seamus down, and he started to limp around a little then settled by the front door.

"No. Not until you get used to being a zombie."

As if he understood me, he slowly left the door and limped back upstairs. I shook my head in disbelief. There was no way he was smart enough to understand me. Especially since he was effectively dead. A creature of magic I was sure.

My good mood hit a roadblock when I entered the living room and Annie was absent from the couch she had slept on.

"Oh fuck. ANNIE!?"

In my panic, I had yelled, forgetting the situation I was in. I immediately refocused an activated Trackers Sense. Sure enough, there was a light but definite set of footprints leading towards the back of the house.

I followed them through the surprisingly deep house to the back door. The back room of Annie's house was a large glass conservatory filled with white furniture, a stark contrast to the front of the house.

Through the far glass panels, I could see the small garden that was so filled with greenery that I couldn't see the bordering fences.

And sitting peacefully in the middle of the garden on top of a metallic black table, sat Annie, in the lotus pose. I could make out her feline tail waving slowly behind her and her ears twitch slightly in response to something I couldn't hear.

I cringed as she had probably heard my outburst and taken to ignore it. Then I laughed at myself. It was typical I would even pretend to be embarrassed at such a thing regarding the situation.

I left her to her meditation but as I passed through the kitchen, something caught my eye that presented a very lucrative prank opportunity.

I entered the back garden as quietly as I could, using Silent Step and opening the door as slowly as possible.

With a shit eating grin on my face, I held up the bag of cat treats and shook it gently. Just as I had hoped, the rustle of the biscuits caused Annie to react.

She opened one eye and I looked at me blankly, then rushed towards me, surprising me enough that both my hands came up to try and protect my face.

But that wasn't her target.

With my eyes shut and half covered, I felt the snacks being ripped from my hand, and the towel pulled from my waist.

I reacted far too slowly and the door slammed shut behind me with a residual locking sound before I could even bring my hands down to cover my crotch.

I lost my composure for a second, and through the glass, Annie smiled back at me with as much playful malice as I had held moments ago. Then she walked away slowly, tossing the occasional treat into her mouth. She thought she had won this childish rivalry. But she didn't know who she was dealing with.

I couldn't safely break any of the glass as I was just begging to get glass somewhere I didn't want it. So I came up with something much harder to pull off. I closed my eyes to help myself focus and activated Spectral Infusion on my hand. It was an untested method, but I had faith it would work.

My hand passed through the wood of the food with no resistance, and I let the tips of my fingers solidify just enough on the other end of the door to turn the key.

I pulled my arm back immediately, noticing the sweat that had formed on me in seconds. I pulled the door open and calmly walked up to the top floor, where Annie's parents would have slept.

Annie herself tried to ambush me at the top of the first set of stairs, but I was already learning of her weaknesses and made no effort to hide my nudity.

She wisely jumped back as soon as she saw my composure and just swore at me from behind the door of her sibling's room. So I smiled, relishing the ease of the final blow.

In the top room, I rummaged through the dressers and wardrobe until I was dressed in a well-fitting and comfortable, albeit slightly more gothic state of wear than I was used to.

Seriously, what even is this place?

I even had the choice of grabbing one of a selection of steampunk styles hats. Unsurprisingly, none appealed to me. But I did complete my attire with a long duffel coat that looked like it was straight from the trenches.

In a full body mirror, I smirked at how much I looked like a legitimate reaper now. My still-wet hair I slicked back. It highlighted the dead neutral expression I held.

Good.

To have clothes that would act as a deterrent on their own was useful. Considering how I had expended myself already today, I didn't want to go too far for any reason.

I couldn't afford to mess up again.

I knocked on the door I saw Annie dive into but there wasn't an immediate response.

"Annie. We need to plan our next steps. And I'm not going to plan for you, so I need you present. Meet me in the living room in five. I'll make us some food."

Way more than five minutes later, I emerged from the kitchen with a plate of hot food in each hand. The mix of gas appliances that still worked and rather a large volume of canned and non-perishable food allowed me to make a strange but very edible mix.

Unsurprisingly, Annie was in the living room, waiting for me while looking not entertained.

"That smells horrible."

"Yeah? Well, I'm no Gordon Ramsay. Besides, this is better for you than the cat food."

She blushed a little. Maybe she was actually more embarrassed by her cravings for cat food than I had thought.

"Well... thanks. And thanks for saving Seamus too. I know he's... undead... But you gave him that. So thank you."

She took the plate from my hand and dug in.

"I do want to ask about what happened last night."

She managed to answer with a full mouth and without looking up from the food she was practically shoving into her mouth.

"What do you want to know?"

"Why the hell you ate the mix you made."

She paused, a mess of sticky rice and meat around her mouth. She swallowed and sheepishly answered. I was grateful that she was being honest.

"With the blood in it, and it was meaty... it smelled so good. And I just wanted to taste it. Then I couldn't stop. And... I passed out. And then I woke up like this. Do you have any idea why this happened?"

She indicated her ears and tail which twitched or swayed respectively.

"Some. But nothing concrete. Species changing is, either way, easier than I thought, or... I don't know. You got really lucky?"

"Mmmm... I don't feel lucky. Everything is so loud. And bright. Combining cat and vampire senses sucks."

I chuckled then dug in. I was truthfully starving, and while my plate alone held enough piled food to feed a normal family of four, I managed to finish it with ease. As did Annie. Then she, in true feline fashion, began to clean herself with her tongue. it was just her hands at first, but she then pushed her damp hand behind her ear to clean the harder to reach areas.

I watched, transfixed. She caught me staring then threw her empty plate at my head.

I dodged it at the last second, but that only infuriated her more and she threw her fork at me too.

It bounced painfully off my forehead. Not enough to damage me at all, but it still stung.

"Hey. Stop. Please."

"Don't stare then, you creep."

I could admit it would have looked really weird from her perspective. I understood where she was coming from.

"No deal."

What the fuck did I just say?

It just slipped out.

She looked at me with pure disgust. I really was a creep in her eyes. The only reason she wasn't outright attacking me was probably that she felt like she owed me.

That's... going to take a while to rectify.

"Ok... sorry. I didn't really mean it. Let's just figure out what to do next."

Though she did it somewhat reproachfully, Annie sat down again and laid out her own plans and guesses.

"So I want to meet up with my friends. I know they're alive and guessing the exit they went by, they've gone to or at least stops at Mays house. She lives in the north-west district."

"So she's rich?"

"Very."

It was always fun to imagine the way wealth was distributed in our city. It was a rough circle of buildings divided into nine fairly distinct districts. The educational district was in the direct centre and the housing districts radiated outwards from it.

Each one was named after a bearing direction and could be drawn roughly as a wedge on a map. The north-west district was by far the richest, with its neighbouring districts a tier lower. I lived in the West district. That and the north district were roughly upper-middle class. We were currently in the south-west district which was a fairly middle class, much like the north-east district.

Of the remaining three districts, the east was the shopping district, filled with assorted shops and industrial parks.

Next to that in the east district was one massive park, called Eastline Park. As there was almost no money in that's tea, it was the poorest district. But the final, Southernmost district was a relative wasteland of more industrial parks and office buildings dotted with areas of poor housing. People rarely went there unless they worked there.

It was a large city, and well organised for its size, but it was hardly the most progressive place, nor was it a cultural hub. A less than decent starting area as far as I could see. The monsters were spawning at levels far higher than the humans, and the environment was not suited for combat.

"I'm sorry, what were you saying?"

Annie had kept explaining something about her friends but I had lost focus as soon as I started mentally mapping the surrounding area. It was actually invaluably useful to know what surrounded me at any time.

Annie sighed but repeated what she had said as a much shorter version.

"I said I'm only assuming that they're at Mays. She has the biggest house and it's exactly where you would make a fort."

"So... you think they're still going to be there even if we don't leave today?"

"Yes. But why wouldn't we?"

Mentally, I cracked my knuckles. It was time for us to spar with our RPG knowledge. I at least assumed she had some knowledge on such games. She hasn't seemed to fazed by the monsters or her own transforming body. But that might have just been due to some mental deficiency similar to mine.

"We have been offered a sanctuary where we can grind to our heart's content. Is there anything you wanted to do with your skills that you couldn't because of some time limit?"

"I guess. I kinda want to do some magic study."

"Good. And I want to study yours and Seamus' souls. So let's hold off of leaving for a bit. We know we can cook and clean ourselves here. Or do you really want to leave?"

Annie was thoughtful for a moment. I would probably be as conflicted in her position too. For all we knew, her friends may or may not be safe and we had no idea the kind of strength we would need to not only reach them but possibly rescue them.

"We should stay. I need to practice and hone my vampire and cat sides."

"Wonderful. But first of all, do you happen to have any phone chargers?"

"What do you mean? The powers out."

"I mean the batteries that you can charge a phone from."

"Oh. sure. I think my dad has some upstairs. I'll grab you them in a bit."

I was actually excited at the prospect of having my phone back. Though some of the best parts about it were gone forever with the WiFi and mobile networks, my music would remain.

The day passed like a montage from a sports promotion. As soon as I had finished eating, we leapt into motion and then I immediately stopped again. My targeted skills weren't really ones I needed to be overly physical to train.

But I spent hours watching both Seamus and Annie. Throughout the day, the lack of limb was affecting the cat, less and less. I found out fairly quickly that it was because a fully functional limb of white bone was forming from the stump.

By the end of the day, I was exhausted despite doing very little actual exercise. My mind was whirring with the details I had scribbled down from observations. And I had a headache from wearing the glasses all day.

I had attempted to use soul read on Seamus. But it didn't tell me anything I didn't already know.

Weak monster soul (Feline)

Essence capacity: 50

My real breakthrough was when I used it on Annie.

Powerful human soul: [BOUND] (Soul of the hero)

Essence capacity: 250

Attribute: 1% skill gain

I watched her soul as she worked through her day. It was in constant motion and I managed to get a full 3D image of it in my mind. But no matter how clearly I could see it and imagine it, it was near impossible to describe to her.

"So most souls are just an amorphous grey blob of a liquid-like material. But as they define their souls through reason, it becomes a more solid shape. I don't know how mine looks, but probably no much. You, on the other hand... I mean, I saw another powerful soul before I found you. It became more cubic, and the colour changed too. Yours is... more angular and becoming more white. I guess it's becoming like the head of a bladed mace? And it's surrounded by bands of blue chain."

"Are they to do with the fact my soul is bound to my body?"

"I don't think so. They were already there, but looser. They wrapped around the soul but also kinda radiated out of it. Now it's like the chains are orbiting the main body of the soul. But as far as I know, they are still an important part of it."

"Do you think you can break them?"

"I wouldn't know. And I don't want to try. I honestly know fuck all about these souls. I'm no expert."

"Hmm. Fine. But don't become some reclusive mad scientist that kidnaps strangers."

"I see no reason to change my habits so drastically."

I finished with a grin so she knew I was kidding, and she giggled lightly in response. I had to look away before I went mad at the sight, and she just looked at me puzzled afterwards.

"Ok. So I'm going to get dinner on. Is a pile of random food still ok with you?"

"Sure. I'm going to start packing a bag then."

"Find me one too ok?"

"You're not just taking all my dad's clothes. Okay?"

"Sure. But I'll fill it with food."

"Fine."

Annie dismissed me informally with a wave of her claws. I left for the kitchen, idly cooking as I watched the sky darken slowly.

Skill learnt: Cooking (D)

A brief smile was all I gave the skill. I didn't need it and I didn't really want to grind it, but it might stop me from poisoning myself in the future. The only reason I cooked was for sustenance, not fun. Sad? Maybe. But I still ate well.

One satisfying meal, an awkward "goodnight", and a promise for an early morning later, I lay awake in Annie's parent's bed.

I wasn't even wide awake. The mental strain of my soul research alone was exhausting.

But I was wondering why I was doing what I was doing.

You wanted to be alone, didn't you?

You wanted to not let anyone hold you back.

Why do you keep bringing people in?

The swirling thoughts consumed me until I fell into a troubled sleep half-tied up in the blankets.