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

by Atamanov, Michael

  In the meantime, Sergeant took the she-wolf’s advice and rubbed his arms, face and neck with the green juice from the leaf. It sure did help — the gnawing gnats disappeared as if by magic. The human noticeably took heart and looked at the Huntress as she tried to somehow reattach the scraps of leather skirt to her hips.

  “Give me your skirt. I’ll try to sew it,” the man said, throwing away another unfinished birdcall and taking out a solid steel needle and strong nylon thread. “I’m close to level six in Item Crafting. It’ll help me level up…”

  * * *

  Since I had some spare time, I set about spending my kitten’s free points. I’d reached level ten in the night, but kept getting distracted from distributing my points. Last night was my own fault, I admit it — I fell asleep on the watchtower roof, bathing in the heat of the firewall and the warm breeze gently tickling my fur. Before then, by training Stealth and Curse Magic on the night beasts, I’d reached character level nine and, as I’d been planning for a while, I spent seven mutation points to get the Transparency ability, just like Julie. After that I considered my mission for that night complete and started snoozing.

  My awakening was unpleasant, but effective — some predatory beast swooped down out of the night sky and grabbed me in its talons! Pain, confusion, no idea what was going on. My health bar was at half and falling rapidly. By the time I came to my senses, I was already flying high above the river island in the clutches of the winged beast — a level 16 Flesh-Eating Bat!

  I had no plans to give up without a fight. I spent all my mana casting spells to weaken and infect my deadly enemy. I bit and scratched, twisted and turned, trying to free myself from its clutches. Even when the beast bit its teeth into my chest and started to tear at my flesh, still soaring ever higher, I didn’t give up. Bleeding, I clung to life. With the last of my strength, I sank my sharp teeth into the bat, making it bleed. Level ten and full Health recovery saved me at the last moment. My Stamina and Mana recovered too. The battle went on! Another Weaken, another and another — I could see that my enemy’s strength was far from limitless. Its broad wing-beats were getting slower, uneven. My strategy bore fruit; at a certain point, the bat ran out of Stamina Points!

  We crashed at breakneck speed into the oxbow lake, still enmeshed in our tangle of teeth and claws. We could have both ended there, since my kitten and the big bat were just as bad as each other at swimming. Rescue came from an unexpected source. The water seethed. Prehistoric teeth emerged mere inches from my head and Katy snapped her jaws shut with a grin and happily gulped down the rare winged prey. Since I looked like an ally to them, Tick-Tock the creeping crocodile carefully took me by the scruff in his teeth and delivered me to the bank. I had no idea a twelve-foot monster could have such a delicate touch!

  All the same, I nearly drowned and barely escaped further bleeding. I emerged a wet cat, tired and bloodied, with my left ear near torn off. And still limping. I had just enough strength left to crawl to the workshop window and crash down in the straw next to the sleeping ‘knight’ Sergeant and Julie. I remember nothing more… In any case, I was in no fit state to spend my points. On top of that, when I reached level ten I got two more skills to choose from, so now that I had a spare minute, it was worth thinking about what I wanted my character to be like. Alright, what do we have..?

  Whiskers. Kitten. Male. Sergeant’s pet

  Class: Hexxer, level 10.

  Character stats:

  Strength 8 (-30% damage dealt in close combat)

  Agility 18 (+20% movement speed, +20% reaction speed, +20% action accuracy)

  ** Due to an injury, Agility is temporarily reduced to 16, bonuses received from Agility stat reduced

  Intellect 21 * Your extremely high Intellect for a creature of the ‘cat’ species gives your character special abilities

  Perception 17 (+15% range to vision, hearing, sense of smell)

  Physique 15 No effect

  Luck Modifier -2 * Your extremely low Luck gives your character special abilities

  Character stats:

  Health Points: 127 / 127

  Stamina Points: 254 / 254

  Magic Points: 33 / 33

  Carrying capacity: 2.2 lbs * Inventory unavailable

  Mutagens used: 1 (7 points spent)

  Fame: 0

  Character skills:

  Hand-to-Hand Combat 5

  Curse Magic 12

  Radar Ear 8

  Mysticism 7

  Stealth 10 * Translucency ability

  Soothe 10

  Attention! 6 of 10 possible skills at level 10 chosen

  Attention! 27 unspent skill points available

  Attention! 2 mutation points available

  Most of all, I needed to think about new skills. Although I was already pretty much decided on two of them: Dodge and Transformation Magic. Dodge was too tempting — my kitten had already had to battle multiple dangerous beasts in hand-to-hand combat and taken horribly painful beatings and bites from them. Both times my life had hung by a hair. My Whiskers had too few hit points to exchange blows, and it would be nice to reduce the damage he took in combat. And since I already had decent Agility, which would increase by two points when my injury healed, then I should take advantage of that by dodging my enemies’ strikes.

  Level one Dodge skill learned.

  Level one Transformation Magic skill learned.

  Why such a strange choice of a new magic type, you ask? Why not the alluring Elemental Magic? I did complain, after all, that my arsenal didn’t include any deadly direct damage spells, and Elemental Magic had plenty of those. It had the richest choice of means of destruction. But on the other hand, a kitten that threw fireballs or ice shots would kind of attract attention. My human nature would immediately be revealed, which I didn’t want for now. Illusion Magic or Healing Magic? Also promising paths, of course, but nonetheless I settled on Transformation Magic, which would let me take on the form of other creatures for a short time.

  Transform into Beetle. Transform into Fish. Transform into Snake.

  And that was just at skill level one. Sure, the transformation time was limited to thirty seconds for now, and the transformation itself drank mana like it loved the taste, but it still sounded fun, right? And what possibilities would I uncover further down that path? There was another reason for the choice, maybe even the main reason; I hoped to one day advance far enough in Transformation Magic to use it to somehow take on human form.

  I picked up another skill based on the recent experience of taming a creeping crocodile for the veichs. As it turned out then, my Soothe ability worked well on creatures caught in traps, quickly calming them down and making them less anxious and aggressive. Sergeant and I worked great as a team — my master took advantage of the animals’ calm to touch them and make sure they felt safe, then tame them. Only the trouble was that activating Soothe quickly depleted my Stamina Points. I had barely enough for the creeping crocodile.

  And that meant I needed to find a skill that would increase my total Stamina and its recovery speed. The game did have such a skill, and it was called Tireless. It increased maximum Stamina and its regeneration speed by 1% for each skill level.

  Level one Tireless skill learned.

  I didn’t have time to pick up the last of the available skills, or to think of how to spend my free points — veich Hunters came to the stream and told us that they’d caught three giga-komodos, and it was time for Sergeant to show his skills.

  Chapter 18 [Sergeant]

  Riding

  I SHOULD HAVE PAID more attention when the wolves started using the words ‘faraway forest.’ At least I should have asked: how far away exactly? This treacherous path, drowning here and there in grass or pine needles, stretched around two and a half miles through the ‘nearby’ forest, crossing streams and dodging around impassable deadfalls. I ran as fast as I could, but it was still obvious that I was seriously slowing down the werewolves. On the flat sections, all the veichs, including
Shelly, dropped down to all fours and ran as fast as a small car. I couldn’t do that. And I had my backpack on. Even with most of my things in the workshop, it was still heavy.

  Sprinter skill increased to level six!

  My second skill level up in this exhausting run… I gained a little speed, but that didn’t change the situation much. The werewolves could move at least twice as fast as a man. They also never seemed to get tired. They could run like that for miles without stopping. For me, my heart was about ready to explode already. Even in the army, there were only a couple of times when we went on long-distance cross-country runs over uneven terrain in full equipment. And that wasn’t in the scorching heat.

  Enough. I can’t take this! My Stamina points ran out. I switched to walking, then just stopped, asked for a break.

  “Shelly, tell the others I need a rest. Let’s make a stop!”

  The answer from the Hunter group’s leader came almost instantly. My long-tailed companion translated:

  “Dangerous to stop here. This is terrritorrry of Mirrre Mistrrress. You stop, you die! We must at least crrross valley floorrr and climb to big bluff on otherrr side. Can rrrest there.”

  I didn’t know who the Marsh Mistress was. I was also in no hurry to find out. So, having regained only a few Stamina Points, I gritted my teeth and ran on. My boots untied in the black mud. My lungs burned from the acrid swamp mist. My tiredness brought colorful circles dancing before my eyes. I remember pushing our way through a bush that smelled medicinal. But I have only the vaguest recollection of climbing the steep stone cliff after the veichs. I nearly fainted and fell off the cliff, but the veichs caught me and dragged me up to the high bluff. As soon as Shelly told me we could rest there, I just fell to the stone, empty.

  “Look, Serrrgeant,” the furry Huntress drew my attention, pointing a paw at the valley floor we’d left not long before with its sucking mud.

  I turned, froze solid. What the..!? Among the thick cover of cattails twice as high as a man, there walked a gigantic creature bristling with legs and spikes — a massive overgrown mix of scorpion and spider. A true elephant on eight chitinous legs. The monster was only twenty paces from our viewing platform.

  ☠ Marsh Mistress. Cruel Arachnoscorp. Level 88 female.

  The bright red name and skull symbol before it made it clear that this was a beast best avoided. I could also tell by the werewolves quietly cowering in fear behind rocks that the Marsh Mistress was far too close to our cover, and nothing prevented her from scrambling up our cliff and eating her fill. Fortunately, the monster didn’t see us. She continued down her path through the waving red-green sea of cattails, its shores lost in the swamp mist.

  “Therrre is an island of ancient rrruins somewhere in this marsh,” Shelly said, as the Marsh Mistress departed and disappeared in the smoky mist. “A shining arrrtifact for summoning a Cruel Arrrachnoscorp appears on the altarrr after everrry storrrm. A young Hunterrr from village of Orrrshi-Urrr once got hold of one. Shaman keeps it now. But all attempts by otherrr veichs to rrrepeat same feat end in death. Marsh Mistress and her children prrrotect rrruins fierrrcely.”

  The senior Hunter in the group growled something and Shelly translated.

  “We rrrun on. We are halfway. We must make stop beforrre farrraway forrrest. To pick berrrry and tasty rrroots as gift for chimerrric monkeys that live in forrrest. So they let us through their terrrritorrry.”

  Huh… I wondered, had Washington and the other human Hunters from Pan’s Landing tried to communicate with the monkeys? Or had they just stumbled into another creature’s territory and then got all surprised when the forest beasts pursued them?

  We climbed higher up a crumbling slope, then ran again. I saw the ‘faraway’ forest now from afar — a solid wall of ancient tall trees, mostly pine. Fifty paces from the edge of the woods, our group stopped. Without a word, all the veichs split into groups and started plucking at the bushes growing in the meadow, picking red berries and bundles of leaves that looked like wild garlic, pulling them out by their roots. I didn’t just sit there. I started gathering a donation for the forest dwellers, and put what I found on a big flat stone like the others did. Although I did put a handful of berries and some wild garlic in my backpack — we could check it out back at Pan’s Landing. Maybe it was edible for humans.

  Eagle Eye skill increased to level seven!

  I saw the chimeric monkey myself, without any nudging from Shelly. A large female with low-hanging teats and thick brown fur watched us closely, carefully peeking out from behind the trunks of gigantic trees and running from cover to cover. It was definitely a monkey. Something like a large gorilla. Only the creature also had a long scaly tail at its back, ending in a thick barbed nub. One hit on the head with that would kill a human. Peering into the dark forest, now I spotted a second chimeric monkey, then a third… there was so many!

  The veich Hunters apparently felt they’d collected enough. The group leader lifted a horn rolled up from tree bark to his lips. He blew into it three times and waited for an answer.

  Then a gigantic black male with an important air about him sauntered out of the forest. He was nine feet tall and must have weighed near nine hundred pounds. His dangerous tail was twelve feet long and ended in a spiked flail bristling with a multitude of sharp and bony blades two hands long.

  Chimeric Monkey. Level 54 Male.

  Apparently, this was the new chief that took over after the last one was killed. Casting a frowning eye on each of the veichs in our group in turn, he stopped by Shelly and grinned, showing mighty yellow teeth. The chimeric monkeys must have had some funny story related to the luckless huntress. I’d have to ask her about it later.

  Then the chief came to me, loomed over me fearsomely, studied this human oddity. Although… I was wrong. It wasn’t me that interested the strong male. It was the ginger kitten sitting on my shoulder. The chimeric monkey slowly stretched out an arm and carefully, as if fearing a burn, poked my pet. Whiskers hissed in displeasure. The gorilla looked surprised and suddenly fell to his back, rolling on the ground and emitting strange broken laughter. Whiskers had somehow amused the fearsome beast.

  “Monkeys like yourrr kitten. This good sign. We can go,” Shelly translated the group leader’s growl.

  The breakneck pace continued. Through dark wilderness, tripping over the sharp branches of fallen trees and pressing through narrow passes overgrown with cobwebs. Across glades overgrown with unfamiliar mushrooms in the middle of an ancient forest. Along the leaning trunk of a stooping wooden titan, then across its hundred-yard-long crooked branches. We jumped from branch to branch, and, as a separate bonus not for the faint of heart — jumped from a forty-five-foot high cliff across a deep ravine into some thick springy bushes on the opposite slope… I have no idea how I survived that half hour… I made it to character level nine, but that wasn’t much consolation for all the bruises and frayed nerves…

  Sprinter skill increased to level seven!

  Your character is now level nine!

  Reward: three skill points (total available: twelve) and one mutation point (total available: four).

  Finally, we made it across the ‘faraway’ forest and arrived at the spot. The big field to which the Hunters had brought me stretched out from the woods to a broad river — maybe the same one that flowed by Pan’s Landing, although I wasn’t sure. There were all kinds of wild grasses here, with sprays of bright flowers, countless fluttering butterflies and big speckled insects. A beautiful place. My sister Julie would have liked it.

  But I was more interested in the three massive armored reptiles curled up into balls in front of us. Bony, spiky spheres about six feet in diameter. I didn’t know what moron had called the creatures ‘giga-komodos.’ These overgrown lizards didn’t look much like komodo dragons at all. They were more like armadillos or huge pangolins, creatures that could curl up and leave only scaled armor exposed.

  Veich Hunters wandered around the giga-komodos, Shelly’s uncle among
them. They were scaring the reptiles with loud roars and occasionally poking sharp spears through the cracks in their bony armor, inflicting pain on the creatures to keep them curled up. Not very humane. I’d hoped the beasts had been chased into a trap and couldn’t get out, not just curled up in a ball, ready at any moment to haul ass away from their hunter torturers. But it did explain the speed at which the veichs caught the giga-komodos. And I was so surprised that they’d managed it so quickly…

  “You took yourrr time,” Shelly translated her uncle’s displeased growl. “Serrrgeant, you must hurrrry. A storrrm apprrroaches,” the Huntress turned and pointed to a barely noticeable dark cloud on the horizon. “And this is not our land. The veichs of the Un-Talavi trrribe could show up any time and ask us to leave.”

  Took our time, wow… It seemed Ugmai had an unjustifiably high opinion of humanity’s ability to traverse rough terrain. I didn’t bother objecting. I approached the nearest giga-komodo. The kitten jumped off my shoulder and wandered among the gigantic creatures with interest.

  How could I tame these frightened giants? What did they even eat? Maybe herbs or flowers… That would explain why they spent all their time in this green meadow with its lush vegetation. I had no doubt that I could find the right food. But how to calm and feed such a huge reptile? I strongly suspected that if the veichs stopped prodding with their needles of pain, the giga-komodos would unfurl and run as fast as they could away from their torturers. Still, while they were rolled up, I saw no way to feed them. Their mouths were inside the ball of bone. I guess we’d have to uncurl them after all. But first…

  “Shelly said that veichs can make a concoction from red villus mushrooms that can weaken and even knock out strong creatures.”

  My companion translated the phrase. Her uncle’s brow knitted in a frown. Apparently, the mushroom-based sleeping potion was a secret of his people, so the Hunter didn’t approve of his niece blabbing it to another species. Nonetheless, Ugmai untied some pouches on his leather bag and offered me an envelope made of a broad tree leaf folded over. Inside was a dark purple ointment that smelled vile. At my command, Shelly wiped the poisonous mixture on her throwing darts, and the girl and I approached the closest giga-komodo, a level 8 female. She was the smallest and lowest in level of all three, so I decided to test out the weakening effect on her. Ten shots through the cracks between the plates of bony armor and the giga-komodo unfurled, stretched out on the ground.