The list of blue boxes that greeted me was… exhaustive. I didn’t even try to read through all the different kill notifications, there were hundreds of them, a long list that I simply let scroll by, barely reading it. It looked like the vast majority were mentioning rats, spiders or various bugs, though I wasn’t certain I wanted to know just how big a spider or bug had to become to actually be considered something the system assigned a level to. It was a rather disturbing idea, a bug with the same “worth” or however the system assigned levels, as a normal, basic human. There were so many things implied with that idea, and the idea of levels in general, that I felt a headache, just trying to make a list of them. And so, the whole idea of investigating the system was put onto the same mental list that held all my various magic-research projects while the system was confined to a game. The list of ‘Shit to be dealt with later’.

But other than countless kill notifications, there were a few interesting ones. Namely, four level-ups, bringing me to a wonderful level fourteen, likely cementing my position as the strongest former human around. Skill-wise, I gained two points in all three Rune Masteries, bringing them to twelve for Darkness and Ice, and to eight for Blood, a single point in Ice Magic, bringing it to ten and a rather massive three points in Astral Meditation. Maybe those three points were due to a trait I regained, namely the Combat Meditation trait. It had been one I had on Mundus but most of the time, I had used it in the background with a secondary mental process, while my primary mental process was controlling my body. Wonderfully useful stuff, increasing my Astral Power regeneration by a great deal.

Looking over to Silva, I noticed that she had a little extra blood around her maw, looking quite proud and pleased with herself.

“You protected me, didn’t you, girl?” I asked her, fluffing her fur when she bounded over to me. “Such a good girl, aren’t you, the best,” I muttered, happily delivering the cuddles she was so obviously interested in.

“This was quite the fight, as amusing as that sounds,” I grinned, pushing my body up from the ground, a little woozy from the exhausting mental work I had done the entire time. There always was a bit of amusement when I realised just how hard and physically exhausting it could be, to sit in the same spot for hours and not really move at all. My body felt like I had put it through the wringer, similar to some of the more intense sessions with Mrs Wu.

Thinking of her, I paused for a moment, a trickle of guilt running through my body. I had been so focused on myself that I had neglected the people I should have cared about, those who I considered friends. Friendships could only be maintained by regular contact, Mother had taught me that, and a real friend would offer help if their friends needed it. That had been another of her lessons. And now, in a situation where I could likely provide help in a way nobody else could, I had focused on my own desires, my own goals, not even bothering to think about my friends.

“Shit,” I softly cursed, the sensation running through my body thoroughly unpleasant. Guilt, just as Mother had described it to me, an unpleasant pressure in my chest, gnawing at my heart. I didn’t like that sensation, not one bit, but considering the time and that there most certainly weren’t any busses running at the time, there was little I could do to get to them this night. No, I would have to make the trip towards their gym the next night, maybe interspersed with another magical massacre, targetting another section of the sewers.

Killing huge quantities of vermin would likely be the best way for me to level, simply because quantity had a quality of its own. It wouldn’t last forever, at some point, I would have to seek out higher levelled enemies. Or find a way to make my strength known, so any beast trying to increase its strength would come for me, trying to take me down, donating its existence to the Jade Empowering Fund.

But no, such an act would bring with it more troubles than it was worth, especially given that I was ignoring the question of how to spread such a challenge. It wasn’t like I could post on a forum that people should come to some place for a fight, there simply wasn’t any communication I knew about.

Hell, with the way technology and everything had malfunctioned during the change, I was pretty sure the highest communication tech around would be two cans on a string, outside of some magical shenanigans. Maybe there were some people out there who could use some form of magical construct to communicate, possibly something similar to the scrying constructs I had used on Mundus, or the inspiration for them, the Water Mirror.

Alas, it didn’t really matter. I certainly wasn’t able to construct something like that so whether or not some specialised class out there had some sort of toy, it didn’t matter to me. I had other priorities, things that I wanted to accomplish.

Silva and I kept slowly walking through the dark streets, my speed limited by my fatigue and when I noticed a Shattered, I simply looked down at Silva, quietly telling her to get it. It was a complete reversal of our usual tactic, which had me strike from the shadows, more often than not ending the fight within moments but Silva needed to train as well. She had protected me well while I was concentrating but our fights would only get harder in the future. She gained EXP alongside me, but when it came to skill levels, or whatever equivalent she might have, were earned individually.

I remained in the shadows, watching Silva bound towards the Shattered, gaining quite a bit of momentum over a short distance. The Shattered noticed her, though I had a feeling it had detected the massive canine incredibly late, especially considering that Silva wasn’t even trying to be stealthy. It tried to brace for impact when she jumped up, both of her paws impacting against the Shattered’s chest, while her maw went for the throat. The bracing wasn’t enough and the Shattered was completely bowled over, though it managed to block the maw with an arm, only that the arm didn’t last long.

A quick shake of Silva’s head and the arm was broken, another, and the lower part of the arm was ripped off and spat out, nothing more but a piece of flesh and bone. It gave the Shattered the time to strike at Silva, pushing her off its body, but that only meant she had some more space to move, getting away from the flailing legs and the single remaining arm.

I noticed that the fight had attracted attention, a single cat sneaking up on the two battling foes, clearly sticking to the shadows. I wasn’t about to strike at it first, but I was mentally ready, my Frozen Shuttle floating just above my shoulder and Overflow at the cusp of activating. If the cat made a suspicious move towards my canine friend, I would protect Silva’s back.

Silva, in the meantime, was still trying to get at the Shattered’s throat, to separate its head from the shoulders only that even with a broken and torn arm, the Shattered had managed to block yet another attack. This time, she didn’t try to rip the rest of the arm off but instead dragged the Shattered trying to turn it onto its belly, so she could break its spine.

Just as she was about to achieve her goal, the cat started to move, pouncing towards Silva in an impressive display of stealth and agility. The cat was roughly double the size of a normal housecat, so maybe half Silva’s size, but its pounce seemed to easily cover eight metres, far more than I had initially expected. It didn’t help the cat, maybe the pounce was even harmful as its pounce would only work while concealed with its impressive stealth. Otherwise, the pounce was just putting it on a predictable trajectory that almost screamed for someone to strike it out of the air. The problem was, that stealth was accomplished by quite a bit of magic, Darkness and Shadows concealing her presence, just like my own presence was concealed. Darkness and Shadows I could easily see through.

Before the pouncing cat made contact with Silva, who had noticed the attack and was trying to dodge, a silvery line pierced through the cat, trailing frozen dust in its wake. The cat started to falter mid-air, the impact enough to thoroughly disrupt its trajectory, letting it flop a few metres away from Silva. Silva, on the other hand, focused back on her prey, trusting me to deal with the attacking cat. There was little more to be done about it, the cat was already bleeding, the Frozen Shuttle had ripped a deep wound through its chest and from the looks of it, the cat wasn’t about to get back up.

I kept an eye on it while Silva finished off the Shattered, before sending the cat off to wherever cats go after their death. Likely hell, because everyone knows that only good dogs go to heaven if there was such a place.

Either way, both enemies were dealt with, allowing Sivla and I to continue on our path. Only now, we both considered everything feline a valid target.