With most of the witch's town's fauna dead, I went through the secret passage to hunt in the temple above. Powerful monsters inhabited the area, but their height would prevent them from getting in the wall cracks and holes, while a nimble cat like me could navigate them with ease. The first monster I met was a large undead flesh golem that didn't even notice my presence though I didn't use stealth. I even took the opportunity to hit him with my claws, if he died in the next hour I would get a small amount of bonus experience. The rest of the old decrepit corridors were crawwling with lesser undeads like roaming zombies or skeletons faking their death to attract looters. Most of the monsters didn't even react when I grazed them in hope of getting experience from their eventual demise. The others weren't fast enough and couldn't reach me once I hid in narrow holes

Sadly, none of them died, there were no intruders to kill them and the only monster that could prey on them were the grim devourers that I slaughtered on my way in. The only way I had to find more experience was to stalk the rats that pullulated everywhere when undeads expired. The corpses would die from "old age", meaning they would run out of mana and become simple piles of rotten flesh. It took some time but an entire body could feed several rats for days, sometimes weeks. The rodents made a home of any hole they found. I easily found a lone one, it was bigger than the others but still smaller compared to me. I silently approached, waiting for the right moment. When he turned his back on me, I pounced with full power.

Critical hit! Your target suffer 53 sharp damage. Your target has bleeding(major)

A lethal blow !

Wait 53 damage and it's not dead?

The rat shrieked in pain and spun around to face me. It started clawing at random, like a mindless brute. I retreated to avoid the assault but still got grazed a bit.

You have been grazed -9hp, your wounds are infected, poison(minor) added, Blood rage(plague) added, Rotten blood(plague) added

That's bad news, the poison isn't that potent and the rotten blood plague only reduce regeneration, but the blood rage could make me lose control and fight inefficiently. I needed to quickly end this fight. From the looks of it my opponent had lost most of it's hp I just needed to finish him. I could just stealth and wait for it to die from hemorrhage, but i wasn't sure it was enough. I lowered my back and head, tension ran through my back legs and I pounced once more.

Your oponent blocked. Your target suffer 23 sharp damage.

The rat used it's front claws as a shield to prevent me from hitting it's head. The blow didn't seem to be enought though and the problems kept pilling up.

Your oponent is now in berserk state! Offense is greatly increased but defense is lowered and focus is reduced.

Seems like i wasn't the only one affected by the blood rage, the rat jumped on me with a foaming mouth. A quick sidestep took me out of the way and he crashed on the ground like a furry boulder.

And it didn't rose up.

Your oponent died from bleeding.

Congratulations, you are now a lvl 12 Black cat STR +3 END +2 VIT +3 AGI +5 DEX +4 PER +3 INT +1 LCK +2

The difference in experience with the critters from before made a clear point, this rat was above my league, I was lucky I got surprise and predator's advantage on my side. I dind't lose that much hp in the battle but i'm pretty sure that if I were to take a full hit, the damage and bad statuses would spell my doom. That made a clear point, everything in these caves was dangerous, even small animals. As I started to think about a better strategy for my next hunt, I started chewing on the dead rat.

That was my biggest mistake since becoming a witch's beast. My weak plague eater skill couldn't do a thing.

You have been infected by undead necrosis(cursed plague)

I looked at my status in a panic.

Undead necrosis(cursed plague) : A curse that take the form of a disease slowly turning it's host into an undead, additionally hp regeneration and positives effects of food are disabled. Can't be cured, needs to be dispeled.

That is bad, this is the curse responsible for most of the wild undead presence in the world. It turns corpses into undeads in less than an hour but can also infect the living and zombify them, far slower than dead ones, but still. Removing the curse would have been a breeze for the old me, but now I have nothing to dispel it. Juging by the speed at wich my body is rotting, I have 4 to 5 days before I turn into an undead. There is now way I can level up and gain a skill to heal myself in that time. Which means that I need to find someone that has one.

Adventurers rarely come to this place, the area is remote, the dungeon dangerous and the rewards lacking. Overall one would be far better of going into easier and more accesible dungeons. But it's my only chance, I need to find someone competent and nice enough to heal a passing cat. My chances are low, really low. A priest would be a godsent.

Wait. . .

I met one on my way here, a missionary with three crusaders, said something about purifying the old temple. The crusaders were obviously wary of a shady guy like me but the priest didn't seem to care. He would be my best chance at surviving this curse. But considering his goal he would be in the temple's shrine, at the other side of the place. I have to get here. As fast as I can.