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

by Atamanov, Michael

  “He sleeps,” Shelly confirmed.

  “We need to try and confine the giga-komodo in this state, without letting it curl back into a ball. So that it’s face is visible and I can feed it,” I told the veichs, explaining what help I wanted — for them to beat a few solid stakes deep into the ground on either side of the huge reptile, then tie its legs and tail to them.

  The hunters understood and rushed to work. They made ropes from vines, started cutting the stakes. I climbed onto the armored back of the sleeping overgrown reptile to throw an extra rope across it and tie the creature tight. But then… the giga-komodo suddenly woke up! And galloped off, running straight ahead without a care for where it went!

  Riding skill increased to level four!

  Taming skill increased to level twenty-one!

  I couldn’t control the fear-crazed beast. All I could do was keep my death grip on the uncomfortable and slippery bony growths on its back, just try to hold on. But the most amazing thing was that the taming bar had begun to steadily fill up! This beast could be tamed just by riding it!

  When the Hunters ran in to help me with their throwing spears, I shouted for them to back off. I wasn’t doing anything in particular myself, allowing myself only to spend a hundred and twenty Stamina Points on one Calming Touch. I didn’t know if that helped or not, but it didn’t seem to change the taming progress. The giga-komodo first ran to the river. First I even thought for a moment that he’d go into the water. But no; the reptile veered off at the last second and crashed along the bank, then span around and galloped the other way, back to the other curled-up lizards. Then he kept just repeating the circuit…

  Around fifteen minutes passed and my Riding skill leveled up twice before the fully tamed giga-komodo stopped stock-still not so far from the spot where I first mounted it. I risked jumping down off the reptile and even fed my new pet with some herbs I picked. The beast ate some herbs, turned its nose up at others. The ones it liked the most were blue flowers that looked like little bells. Well, I’d keep that in mind. I returned to the Hunters with my obedient reptile in tow.

  “Now the next one,” I pointed at the level 14 gray-green giga-komodo. “Only this time we do it different. No stakes, but I need strong rope to make a harness and reins. And a lot of these herbs and a few chunks of meat.”

  Yeah, I wanted to try out meat too — in my world, komodo dragons were predators, and the tamed beast’s sharp fang-like front teeth told me that it was adapted to bite into flesh. After quickly putting the male out with the sleep potion, I didn’t tie him up, but fashioned him a kind of harness so I could hold on a little easier. It was a good thing I did! The new ‘steed’ was much faster and more nervous. He kept trying to throw me off his back and would jump randomly, alternating with trying to buck me off. It took me forty minutes to tame him. And the giga-komodo took me who knows where. It was another half hour before I found the way back to where Shelly and the other Hunters were waiting.

  The giga-komodos didn’t seem all that far apart in level; eight and fourteen. But the difficulty and time it took to tame them, not to mention the effort, was almost three times greater. So I looked at the final beast curled up into a ball with great doubt. It was a large and beautiful emerald-black male. Level 40…

  Level 52 Hunter Ugmai Orshi-Ur offers you a trade: your pet, level 8 giga-komodo (female, nameless) and your pet, level 14 giga-komodo (male, nameless) in exchange for an iron dagger, ten pieces of meat, a skein of rope and a potion (strong sleep potion, 35 doses).

  Uhm… I didn’t get it. What was this? Shelly translated a growl from her uncle:

  “The masterrrs of the meadow are herrre. We arrre being chased out. Also, the storrrm is about to begin. The veichs arrre leaving. The thirrrd and best giga-komodo is yours, Serrrgeant. As was agrrreed.”

  The sky was already two thirds covered in black storm clouds and gusts of wind bent the trees. Frequent flashes of lightning lit up the darkened horizon. The heavens looked ready to open. It was clear I wouldn’t have time to train the third giga-komodo. I might not even be able to tame such a large and strong bull at all. But then what was I to do? Agree to less, refuse the trade deal and keep one of the two smaller ones?

  I glanced at the black sky again, at the level forty emerald-black giga-komodo rolled up into a ball, at the Hunters awaiting my answer. I picked up the ginger kitten, put it on my shoulder. Then I put all twelve free skill points into Riding, leveling the skill up to nineteen, and… accepted the contract.

  “Shelly, give the last one a sleeping potion! Then you’ll help me fasten on the harness. You’re going to get up on the reptile’s back in front of me and tie yourself on real tight. This is going to be a long ride!

  Chapter 19 [Kitten]

  Ruins on the Marsh

  A LIGHTNING BOLT striking the lone tree growing in the field just twenty paces from our armored steed both blinded me and deafened my sensitive ears. In spite of the driving rain, the tree instantly flashed up into a bright torch, frightening the already nervous giga-komodo, which was shivering at every shadow. The steed, uncontrollable and careering along without particular care for direction, lost all traces of sanity after the lightning strike. It sharply spun in place and galloped into the darkness of the sleepy forest.

  Holy shit! That armored moron must have been blinded by the nearby flash. Or maybe the genes for intelligence skipped a generation in its family. Whatever the reason, it ran face-first into the trunk of a centuries-old tree. I flew from Sergeant’s shoulder and just barely managed to sink my claws into Shelly sitting in front of him, whose rope kept her tied into the saddle. Sergeant didn’t escape unscathed; he was holding his arm and wincing as if he’d sprained or strained his wrist. The only words in my master’s long rant that could be repeated in polite company were the prepositions. Even Shelly covered her ears in embarrassment; some of these words she must be hearing for the first time, but she guessed their meaning from the context. Clever girl.

  Our stunned giga-komodo lay on the wet ground, his legs splayed in different directions. A minute passed, then another, but the giant still wasn’t rising, just fluttering its eyelids and lazily chewing thin air.

  “Don’t climb off!” Sergeant warned his sweat-soaked companion, who for some reason had started untying herself. “He’s about to wak… oh, shit!”

  The giga-komodo shot to its feet in the blink of an eye, defecated loudly and most malodorously, then launched himself away and continued his insane chase, going deeper and deeper into the ancient forest with its deadfalls, sharp fallen branches and other dangers lurking for the steed and its riders. I preferred to jump back to Sergeant and climb into my master’s jacket — sure, it was stuffy and stank of human sweat, but I’d be out of the rain and wouldn’t get swept off by some branch.

  I could only guess what was going on outside by the pained cries and fragmented shouts from the big humans. Seemed like Shelly’s face was getting scratched by branches, and the human told her to lower her head down to the giga-komodo’s back. Then he regretted that a couple of minutes later, when the next branch smacked him in the face instead.

  “Good way to lose an eye… OW! (unprintable swearwords) There’s a pile of fallen trees ahead! Where’s this crazy armadillo taking us?”

  Judging by the crash and bang that followed, the giga-komodo failed to even notice the obstacle. It crashed through the treefall at speed, launching the heavy fallen trunks into the air. A roar of displeasure behind us told me that some huge predator had been using the treefall as a storm shelter. The enraged giant didn’t pursue the disturber of its peace, however, and the roar quickly faded behind us, drowned out by the noise of the rain.

  “Seventeen percent tamed,” Sergeant said.

  Shelly didn’t seem to understand, but I howled in helpless desperation. We’d been galloping through a thunderstorm on this scaly moron for forty minutes now, and the taming bar was only at seventeen percent?! No. No way. I activated Soothe again. I’d turned it on bef
ore now, but it burned my Stamina Points too fast. I also got an idea; using my Weaken spell on the mount as we tamed it. Although… that turned out to be a bad idea! The beast turned aggressive! It fell on its side and seemed to be trying to crush its arrogant riders under its massive weight.

  “What wrong with it?!” Shelly shouted in fear.

  “I don’t know. The taming progress is down to eleven percent too. I’ll give him a Calming Touch,” the human promised, and the giga-komodo stopped trying to roll around on the ground. The armored beast stood, defecated loudly again and then continued its mad run under the driving rain.

  * * *

  I was wiped out. At some point I fell asleep. No wonder, really. All the jolting, the constant bumps and impacts, were torture to my senses. My Stamina Points ran out. I was also actively spending them on Soothe — both on the reptile to calm it down and on Sergeant and Shelly to speed up their health and stamina regeneration. I don’t know how long I slept. Probably a while, three hours at least, since all my stats fully recovered.

  Carefully poking my nose out of the human’s jacket, I tried to look around. The giga-komodo looked tired. It was barely trudging along, but still stubbornly wandering through the night. Shelly slept calmly, breathing quietly. Sergeant held the sleeping wolf-girl up with one arm. My master’s head kept dipping from fatigue. He kept his eyelids open with difficulty.

  I activated Soothe again to support my human and increase his Stamina restoration speed. At the same time, I kept trying to look around. Where were we? It wasn’t raining anymore. But it was dark. I couldn’t see a damn thing. Even my kitten’s night vision bonuses didn’t help. It was like everything around was in a fog. Although… it smelled of swamp and reeds. And that strange smoke around us… Were we in that marsh where we’d seen the huge overgrown spider-scorpion? A stone column appeared out of the mist and slowly floated by us, confirming my suspicions. On it were some half-worn carved drawings and letters.

  Choose the learnable skill Bookworm for your character?

  Oh? So I could get some kind of useful knowledge out of these ancient drawings?! At the sight of the stone column, the big oaf of a human perked up too. He woke his companion. Shelly rubbed her sleepy eyes and looked around.

  “Oh, no… Anything but this… We arrre on the island in the middle of the marrrsh! Serrrgeant, we must get out of here now!”

  “Sure, but how? Feels like only stubbornness is keeping our giga-komodo upright. Do we just abandon this dinotard and run? Seems a shame — we’ve spent so many hours trying to tame it! The progress bar is already at seventy-one percent. Although…”

  The human suddenly untied the rope keeping him on, then asked Shelly to pass him some of the herbs that the veich hunters had collected. Jumping down decisively from the giga-komodo, Sergeant ran a little ahead holding a bunch of herbs, then stopped in front of the slowly wandering beast.

  The giga-komodo stopped, confused. It was as if its tiny brain (somehow I had no doubt that this big dumb animal must have a very small brain indeed) was trying to figure out what to do next — roll up into a ball or run away. While the giga-komodo stood in indecision, the human shoved the handful of herbs into its half-open mouth. The beast automatically closed its jaws and… started chewing!

  “He’s just hungry!” Sergeant said, continuing to feed the emboldened reptile as it stood, now eagerly waiting for the next handful and the next. “And he’s taming fast. A little more and… Done!”

  It was true. The creature was now showing as allied to me, and the reptile’s info had changed:

  Dinotard. Giga-komodo. Level 40 Male. Sergeant’s pet.

  “Dinotard..?” Shelly repeated in surprise. My master blushed, scratched the back of his head. “I guess the system decided to use that as a name since I used it a minute ago,” he muttered.

  In the meantime, the new pet decided to stay true to its nickname. Instead of tearing out of the swamp as quick as it could, it just… curled up into a ball! Come on! How dumb could you get?! I listened to a fresh tirade from Sergeant, angry that we now had to wait for the huge beast to rest, sleep and unfurl. That might take a while. The human told the girl to untie herself and climb off.

  The Huntress started to untie the knots on the rope, when suddenly… The Marsh Mistress appeared from the dark mist, silent and majestic. Sergeant screamed in fear, warning Shelly of the danger, and ran as fast as he could to the ruins peeking out of the mist. He tripped on something, fell, rolled out of it and ran on. I couldn’t hold on to my master’s shoulder at his breakneck pace. I fell to the ground. Then I saw with my own eyes as Shelly cut the knots with her knife, disentangled herself from the giga-komodo, jumped off… but too late. The massive spider-like creature grabbed the veich straight out of the air with two of its front arms and drew her to its huge maw. I covered my eyes in horror, expecting the Marsh Mistress to gulp down the morsel it had captured. But no — the creepy arachnoscorp began to release sticky webbing from glands on its belly, winding its prey up inside it just like the spiders on Earth. A mere half a minute later, the furry girl was bound tight within a white cocoon in the Marsh Mistress’s grip. She hung the cocoon off the top of the stone column and turned to the giga-komodo, paying no attention to the tiny kitten. She rolled the bony ball over once or twice with her huge legs, examined it, even tried to bite into it with her mandibles, but then lost interest in the impenetrable reptile and ran after the fleeing human.

  I stood frozen in fear. I think my in-built ability Little Furball saved me — ‘creatures of large and very large sizes ignore you.’ That was great. But what was I meant to do now? I listened, hearing bony legs skittering across the stones, expecting every second to see a notification of my master’s death. But no. Sergeant was still alive.

  Radar Ear skill increased to level nine!

  I had no idea where to look for Sergeant now. There was no point in staying with Dinotard, still curled up into a ball. I hobbled toward the stone column — I needed to see if I could somehow help Shelly out of her predicament.

  The game system suggested that I take the Bookworm skill again. This time I didn’t reject it right away, but stopped to think. What if the incomprehensible writing in ruins like these was the only way for my kitten to learn new skills? What if I was wasting an opportunity to get stronger?

  It pained me to spend my last possible skill slot, but I decided it was worth a try.

  Level one Bookworm skill learned!

  Now let’s see how this new skill can help… I carefully examined the arcane carven symbols and drawings on the old column. Most of the characters were faded and impossible to make out. I saw scenes of strange creatures reminiscent of octopuses bowing down to a huge eight-legged creature. There was even a well-preserved scene of living creatures being sacrificed on an altar. They looked a lot like veichs. Strange lettering snaked around that scene on the stone. And it… vibrated! I felt as if it was trying to draw me in.

  New ability obtained — Transformation Magic: Transform into Arachnoscorp!

  Transformation Magic skill increased to level two!

  Bookworm skill increased to level two!

  It worked! I was very proud of myself and decided to try out my new skill at once. Alright, Transform into Arachnoscorp! Uhm…

  The world changed, looking as if made up of little pieces. I grew a little taller. I also noticed that my mana bar was empty. Minus thirty-three Magic Points — that was all I got. And a timer had begun, counting down in seconds: 24, 23, 22… I had so little time! Quick, up the vertical column to save Shelly! One of my back legs wouldn’t listen and dragged behind instead, but I paid no attention. The main thing was not to think too hard about how I was controlling twice my usual number of legs at all. But I already had some related experience; as a kitten, I could freely wave my tail around, but as soon as I thought about how I was doing it, my kitten just stood helplessly and froze, unable to move its tail or extend its claws or twitch its whiskers.

  Faster up the
vertical column! Time was running out! Now I was at the cocooned girl. My arachnid instincts told me that the prey inside was alive, in a deep venom-induced sleep. She would stay fresh for a long time. Subconsciously, I began to drool — my arachnid nature told me I was hungry and that now was the time to feed, suck out the nutritious juices from this pre-wrapped morsel. I chased away the thoughts with difficulty.

  Holding onto the column with my six front legs, I used my sharp claws to cut through the cocoon of webbing so that Shelly could breathe easier. I wanted to carefully lower the girl down, but my time was almost up. I had only a few seconds left, so I just cut the web that the cocoon was hanging off. I hoped the Huntress’s landing wasn’t too hard.

  Transformation Magic skill increased to level three!

  Mysticism skill increased to level ten!

  Your character is now level eleven!

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

  The world changed again. I turned back into a tiny ginger kitten, now sitting at the top of a thirty-foot stone column. Uhm… How was I supposed to get back down? As it happened, I could see Sergeant from up there. My master, crouched down and constantly looking around, was approaching the column, but for some reason from the opposite direction, not from where he ran away from the Marsh Mistress. Stopping next to Shelly’s cocoon, the human felt the pulse at her neck and shook his companion.