A Cat and His Human (League of Losers Book #1): LitRPG Series

by Atamanov, Michael

  Firstly, why was he so sure that the magnetic poles in this new world were the same as on our mother Earth? An old compass from Earth could lie shamelessly here. Secondly, so-called AXE (even if he was telling the truth) had pointed east from a completely different point, and it wasn’t clear at all that moving east from Sergeant’s respawn point would get us to the same place. And thirdly, we were in the mountains; magnetic anomalies were a risk. Iron deposits could throw off the compass. Full confidence in a compass up here in the mountains meant overconfidence.

  And fourthly… I stuck my snout out of the jacket and looked around. Couldn’t he see?! Dawn was breaking over there! Not in the direction we were going at all! Uhm… what was this?

  Sergeant’s behavior really had changed. The man stopped suddenly, then walked in another direction and crouched down, examining some fresh tracks in the snow. The trail stretched down the mountain slope to the east. The right east, not the east we were walking toward before.

  “I recognize these boots…” the man said thoughtfully, then took out his axe. “Time to pay your dues, Badass! Yeah, this Tracking skill is just the trick! I’ll take it!”

  So a fight was on the cards. Like a bloodhound scenting prey, Sergeant forgot his fatigue and hunger and ran along the trail of tracks, axe in hand. I climbed out of his jacket and back up onto his shoulder — soon I’d get my first chance to try my skills as a Hexxer. My human needed help, after all. We couldn’t let Sergeant get his second death in his first night in the new world!

  Chapter 6 [Sergeant]

  Vengeance for Misdeeds

  LUCK! SWEET LADY LUCK! Providence itself must have been on my side, to show me the way to that traitorous killer’s tracks in this endless world, and in the dark of night. Only slightly marred by a light snowfall. That meant Badass passed by here only seven to ten minutes ago.

  Tracking skill increased to level two!

  Eagle Eye skill increased to level four!

  Your character is now level two!

  Reward: three skill points and one mutation point.

  Great! Level two! I opened Sergeant’s stats and checked the changes. Hit points went up from 132 to 144. My maximum Stamina points increased from 187 to 204, although now the current amount was below a hundred — my character was getting noticeably tired from wandering the deep snow in the cold night. I was out of breath. Better rest up a little before I run into that dangerous killer. I’d already discovered that waving my heavy axe cost energy, so I needed to make sure I wasn’t helpless when the time came.

  I switched from a fast pace to an ordinary one. Badass’s trail stood out perfectly. He didn’t try to cover his tracks, just walked in a straight line without any loops to confuse the trail. The night and strengthening snowfall wouldn’t steal him away from me. Wait! I stopped sharply, listened. Hearing things? Or did a scream just drift up from somewhere at the foot of the slope before cutting off sharply? I stood ten seconds, but heard nothing else suspicious and continued my pursuit.

  Suddenly, I saw Badass behind a turn in the tracks that wove whimsically between the rocks. First I saw the bright light of a torch in the night, and then made out the person carrying it. My killer, with the torch in his left hand, wandered tiredly along the mountain slope, avoiding snowy boulders and leaning on an improvised spear made of a long straight branch and a steel rod tied to the end of it with strips of cloth. Badass was at level two as well, like me. I sharply upped my pace, closing the distance.

  Choose the learnable skill Sprinter?

  I waved it away — it might be a useful skill, but I had other things to think about! Just thirty yards separated me and my killer. Badass must have heard me trampling through the snow. He turned, looked into the black. And saw me!

  The bandit instantly threw his torch into the night, turned and ran. I ran after him as fast as I could. But try as I might, I couldn’t close the distance of twenty paces between us. What the hell? I was a young man with an athletic build; he was a forty-year-old man who had obviously seen hard times, weakened by alcohol and unhealthy living. All the same, our running speeds were identical! Impossible as it would have been on Earth, right now we were on an equal footing. Damn game rules! All I could do was hope that Badass would run out of energy before me.

  The kitten sitting on my shoulder dug its claws into my jacket and started squeaking, apparently scared by this crazy chase in the night, risking tripping over snow-covered stones and flying head over heels. Suddenly, Badass began to slow! No doubt about it, my enemy was slowing down! Yes! He must have run out of energy! I had less than twenty points of Stamina left myself — not bad, enough for two strikes with the axe. Still not stopping, I rushed to close the distance.

  Damn! That bastard convict threw his spear at me! I saw it too late in the darkness, couldn’t dodge. Pain lanced through my right shoulder as the thrown weapon landed.

  27 damage taken (32 piercing damage minus 5 from armor)

  Choose the learnable skill Dodge?

  My health bar was down fifteen percent. I was lucky the steel bar serving as a spearhead wasn’t sharpened. It hadn’t pierced through my jacket. I’d have a hell of a bruise, but that was nothing! The regeneration from my high Physique would fix me up in a matter of half an hour. I didn’t waste my chance. As I finally reached my enemy, I buried my axe in Badass’s head.

  Hand-to-Hand Combat skill increased to level two!

  Your character is now level three!

  Reward: three skill points and one mutation point.

  Phew. Just barely enough energy! I crouched down in the snow next to the bloody corpse of my slain foe. My hands shook. I listened to my feelings. It was the first time I’d killed a man. I had no regrets whatsoever; Badass chose this fate himself when he betrayed me and bludgeoned me to death. This was payback.

  A little calmer, I leaned over the bloody body, planning to search for loot. And gasped in fear; three paces away from me, I saw a girl kneeling down next to the corpse! That cocky bitch must have been trying to steal my loot!

  Julia Sinitsyna. Human. Female. Suggested class: Scout. Level 5.

  The girl looked only twelve or thirteen. She wore a denim suit and trainers, but it was her translucency that surprised me the most. Was she a living person at all, or a ghost? Or was it the effect of some skill? The girl realized she’d been seen, jumped back in fear and ran off into the darkness. I lost her from view almost immediately and just stared into the darkness in surprise. What the hell was that?!

  I checked the loot from Badass; the same nails and two-pound bag of sugar I dropped. There were a few chunks of raw meat in his inventory. I didn’t like to think where he might have gotten them. Shame those good boots didn’t drop.

  I didn’t bother taking the meat of unknown origin, but I did pick up and examine the improvised spear that the convict had thrown at me. Careless work, frankly, but the idea was good. Just needed a stronger and longer haft, a more securely attached spearhead sharpened with a grinder. I decided to take the weapon.

  With my enemy and the loot dealt with, now it was time to check the skills on offer from the game system. Sprinter , as I learned from the game hints, gave +1% movement speed for each level of the skill. Why not? That would help me avoid another situation in which I couldn’t catch up to an enemy. I’ll take it!

  Level one Sprinter skill learned.

  4 of 6 possible character skills at level 3 chosen.

  Now for Dodge. The system’s description of the skill was unclear. I couldn’t figure out exactly what it increased. It just spoke generally about a heightened chance to avoid strikes, traps, other dangers. Perception and Agility were listed as the stats that influenced the skill’s chances of success. And although I had no concerns about the second stat — 18 Agility was apparently a lot for a character of my level, — my 12 Perception bothered me. In the end I decided not to take Dodge; with my low Perception, I’d only see a trap after it got too late to dodge it. Time to slow down with picking up skills anyway
— I’d only just started playing, and was almost at the skill limit already.

  I rested, restored my energy, looked around. While pursuing Badass, I’d gotten off-track. Now I needed to figure out which way to go. The compass indicated that directly east was the closest mountain peak. That seemed strange — I doubted there was a convenient pass across the mountain range there. Anyway, for some reason dawn was breaking elsewhere entirely — the northwest, judging by the compass. Strange. In the end I went in a third direction — down the snowy slope. It was too cold and windy up here. My Sergeant was already starting to freeze in spite of his good thermal clothing.

  I traveled maybe a quarter mile in my chosen direction, descending ever lower and finding myself in a forest, the snow now rare. Suddenly, that girl Julia appeared again out of the darkness and blocked my path.

  “Don’t go that way, Sergeant! A pack of man-eating wolves lives in the bushes down there. I already died there once.”

  I had no reason to trust this stranger. I’d trusted once, and one betrayal was enough for me. Still, I stopped. I saw no danger for now, just barely made out some big black spots in the distance, joining together into a single dark area; must be the same bushes the girl was talking about. But ignoring her warning would be stupid too. So I took advantage of the break and asked the girl who she was, why was she following me?

  “I died yesterday,” Julia answered calmly, lowering her eyes. “Mom and I got into an accident. We were driving home in the rain. A truck swerved into our lane, came at us head-on… Mom screamed, let go of the wheel, tried to cover herself with her hands and… it was like time stopped. A white light appeared. The truck froze just a few feet from us. I even saw the driver’s terrified face. Some strange voice said… said I was about to die. It offered to take me to another world. I agreed, of course. A second later I was in the train car. But mom wasn’t there…”

  Julia started shaking, sobbing. Tears rolled down her face. It didn’t seem to be death itself that upset the girl. It was the fact that she was all alone in this vast world that terrified and pained her.

  “I searched the whole train car, but didn’t find mom. Then we arrived. Everyone got out. They started searching us, loading us into carts. That’s when it all happened — someone screamed that it was a trap, that we were being enslaved. A fight broke out. I didn’t even know who was fighting who. Then AXE, I think that was his name, raised his machine gun and just started firing into the crowd. I was standing off to the side of the fight, but I still took a bullet to my belly and fell. One of the slavers leaned over me, looked at my wound and finished me off with a pike to the heart.”

  Ugh. What a story. Looked like I was right to be wary of that welcoming committee of ours. Turned out they really were slavers. And my acquaintance Margarita, along with all the other passengers on the night train, fell right into their clutches. Julia cried again, wiped her tears on the sleeve of her denim jacket.

  “Did you swim as a fish?” I asked with a grin, trying to distract the girl from her sad thoughts.

  I’d been pretty surprised myself by the strange mini-game I had to play after my first death, as a fish swimming in a stream full of dangers.

  “Yeah. I died straight away, of course — a seagull ate me after three seconds. But the second time I got two mutation points.

  I laughed and told her that exactly the same happened to me. A quick death from a seagull after three-four seconds, but then my fish survived a little longer, collecting two colorful orbs among the seaweed — mutation points. Only I didn’t spend them yet — I didn’t know how to use them.

  Uhm. Was it my imagination, or was my kitten listening as Julia and I spoke about our first deaths? He stuck his head out of my jacket and pricked up his ears, catching every word and looking as if he understood. When Julia noticed the furry kitten, her face lit up. She even came a step closer as if she wanted to stroke the little furball, but changed her mind at the last second, stepped back to a safe distance. Then she continued:

  “I came back to life in the woods. I was really lucky that I managed to hide in a tree before AXE’s thugs started combing the forest. They were looking for people who respawned. They tied them up and took them away. Nobody resisted after the bad men killed them once already. I climbed a tree, hid there and took the Stealth ability. That saved me. Then I sat in the branches until morning, afraid to come down. The slavers were long gone, but below me there was… I don’t even know what it was,” Julia shrugged nervously as if from unpleasant memories. “Then I spent a long time walking after dawn. I didn’t know where to go. I climbed up a hill and could see a green forest far away. But I didn’t want to go too far on my own. I overheard the bad men saying that there’d be another train in the night. And I… I wanted…”

  Julia couldn’t finish, burst into tears again. But I knew what she wasn’t saying — the girl hoped her mom would arrive in this new world, even a day late. I didn’t want to upset her, but I knew she’d never greet her mom as she stepped off that train — the woman must have rejected the recruiter’s offer when she died, or maybe she was never given the chance to resurrect in this new world.

  “Are you hungry?” I changed the subject. The little girl nodded rapidly.

  I’ll say. A day in a winter forest, and in that light jacket! I took out a slab of chocolate and some cookies, offered them to the girl. For some reason she tensed, jumped back, clearly ready to fight if I took so much as a step toward her. She was afraid of me. No need to scare her any more; I spread a cloth on the ground, put the food on it and stepped away.

  I suggested she wait while I collected some firewood and got some tea brewed, but the starving little girl started wolfing down the food dry. I took the folded curtains from the train car out of my backpack, offered it to Julia to stuff underneath her light jacket. Not much, but a little extra help against the cold. I put the cloth on the ground and walked away again.

  “After the second death, you’ll be in a wolf pack,” my new companion shared after picking up my gift and warming up. “You’ll need to chase the deer. I got three mutation points. With the ones I got for leveling up, I got up to seven! I put them all into Stealth to strengthen the skill and be even harder to see. Then it got a lot easier to survive. Later I saw torchlight on a nearby hill and ran that way.”

  That explained her unexpected appearance next to me, and the girl’s translucency. Right now, Julia looked perfectly normal. Either she could control the transparency, switch it on/off, or the mutation effect didn’t last long. I offered more cookies, but she refused. My new acquaintance was sated. Time to decide what to do next.

  “I’m planning to go through the eastern pass and find somewhere warmer,” I said, sharing my plans honestly. “If you want, we can go together!”

  The little girl didn’t rush to agree. She clearly had doubts. Which was no wonder — she must have seen me split Badass’s skull. She feared me, thought me dangerous. Strange that Julie had decided to approach at all after that sight. Poor thing must have been completely desperate from hunger and cold. I could be the only person she’d seen for the last who knew how many hours.

  “I’m not always dangerous,” I said in a calm tone. “What you saw between me and Badass was fair payback. That bastard killed and robbed me as soon as we arrived in this new world. I wanted to get even with him for stabbing me in the back and killing me.”

  The girl didn’t answer, just sat up straighter, nervously looking somewhere into the darkness. I turned in the same direction. For a long time I couldn’t see what had caught the girl’s eye. Then, suddenly, I saw flickering shadows far below us. And they were getting closer!

  “Wolves?” I asked, picking up my axe just in case.

  “No, not wolves,” Julie answered, paling in fear. “Much worse! Night beasts! They were the ones that wouldn’t let me come down the tree all night. Run!”

  Chapter 7 [Kitten]

  Night Beasts

  “IDIOTS! WHAT ARE you doing?! Why run o
ut of the forest!?” I wailed at the top of my kitten lungs, trying to reach the consciousness of the panicking humans. “Climb up a tree while there’s still time! Julie said the night beasts can’t climb trees!”

  My whine was heard, but not understood. Sergeant unceremoniously grabbed my tiny body in his giant hand and pushed me back down into his jacket, afraid to lose his pet as he ran in the night. Shame I didn’t have time to jump off my master and climb up a tree myself. I was just about to. Even without that Daredevil skill, which would have let me easily climb trees even with my injured back leg, I still would have taken my chances to survive on my own than with these too dumb-asses. But now I had to share the fate of these two less than perspicacious humans as they tried to escape on their own two legs against the far faster four legs of the monsters of the night.

  “There’s nowhere to hide up ahead,” I heard Julie’s muffled voice through the thick fabric of the jacket. “It’s just a snowy slope. We shouldn’t have run from the woods!”

  “You said run!” Sergeant growled and stopped suddenly. “There’s no point in me running, I’ll just waste Stamina. I need that to wave my axe. You run, save yourself! Use your Stealth ability and your transparency! I’ll hold off the monsters as long as I can!”

  A correct and noble gesture from Sergeant. I meowed in approval. There was no reason for both to die, especially since it would have been the girl’s third death in two days. But judging by the crunching of the snow, Julie stopped too.

  Radar Ear skill increased to level four!

  “No! I’m staying with you, Sergeant! I’m afraid I’ll lose you and be all alone in this dangerous world again! Let’s agree that we’ll meet up again over there after we revive,” she said. From my position inside the jacket, I couldn’t see where the girl pointed, and that was important — I needed to not lose these guys too!