"How can— how can you?" asked Jed, his tongue refusing to work.
Several other people in the crowd surged forward wanting to know how it might be possible. A few wanted to know if they could resurrect lost loved ones.
"Please! Please, try to remain calm," said Father Harrison.
It took quite a while for people to calm down. Scott had to explain to them that the good father, now a high-priest instead of a basic one, was simply not powerful enough at his current level to do more than resurrect someone whose body was not within thirty feet of the statue. Each day that someone had been deceased would require additional use of the resurrection power.
At present, Father Harrison could only cast the spell once per week. He would need to increase his level and choose to upgrade that divine boon, instead of choosing other spells. Anyone who had been dead for longer than a day could not be resurrected at the moment. If anyone was resurrected, Father Harrison would not be able to do it again for an entire week.
Still, the possibility that it could be done at all was a great boost to the morale of the survivors. Scott did not have the heart to tell them that the main reason he granted Father Harrison that divine boon was because he could not self-resurrect using items or spells. Father Harrison was the closest thing to a sudden death insurance policy that Scott had at the moment.
There were also other things to reveal. The statue of their champion could completely cure any disease or heal any wound. Though that effect only worked during the first three hours of dawn. It also produced a constant protection from evil effect up to one hundred feet away, and could be used as a safe fallback point in case the undead made it into town.
Once they calmed down, Scott told them what it would take to provide even greater effects for the little band of survivors. Basically, he needed to give them jobs. A job only required him to expend EXP if it was highly specialized, such as the priest job. A new priest would cost him one hundred EXP, and he could assign them one of two powers. They could have the protection from evil ability, or they could have a basic healing spell. He could assign basic jobs such as farmer, hunter, militia, and several others for free. He worked with the people and helped them choose jobs that they wanted.
"The town will produce Town EXP that I can use to develop it, based on how hard you all work. Now that you all have jobs, just doing those jobs will earn you small amounts of EXP. Over time you'll gain a level and become better at what you do," said Scott.
Several people asked questions and he answered them as best he could. He did not know everything, but he also did not want to lower their morale. For the first time in a while, these people were truly looking forward to the future. It was like a massive burden was now lifted from their shoulders.
"Alright. We're good to go. We have our two priests now," said Scott. Surprisingly, Smug Guy had found religion. Scott assigned him the healing ability, which was what the man wanted. He would work with the hunter's group as a healer and backup fighter.
There was no restriction on combat weapons for priests, but Scott opted to pay ten extra EXP during the man's class change so that he would be able to cast his basic heal five times per day at the expense of not being able to learn skills related to firearms.
Smug Guy had no problem with the idea of sticking to close combat weapons. At some point he would be able to use holy magic to heal the injured and to slay the zombies in large groups. That made him feel a lot safer than a gun. Who in their right mind would sacrifice the town medic if a choice needed to be made?
He would have to earn his way into becoming a high-priest, however. Unlike Father Harrison, he would require twenty-two thousand EXP to achieve that class upgrade. There was something to be said for a lifetime of experience and the true faith it inspired, apparently.
Scott made Jed the militia captain, just an appointment and not a class change. He promised him that he would upgrade him to a commander officially once the town had earned enough EXP, or he had three thousand points to spare. A militia commander would provide physical boosts to the militiamen under his command simply by being within the town's walls.
Most jobs had at least one upgrade, but there was no point in trying to upgrade too quickly. There were only twenty people. They needed to learn and develop their own abilities over time. The town EXP would grow as their own knowledge and life experience grew. Once a month, it would appear in the menu screen attached to the statue. That would be the time that Scott could use it, sort of like monthly taxes or donations.
What did Scott get for spending so much of his EXP? Well, outside of the possibility of being resurrected if someone dragged his dead body back to this statue, there were also the services. He claimed a few of the unfinished buildings in town. They would become his personal areas for use in this world.
He would be able to upgrade them so that he would have a workshop for his future engineering attempts, a house for his personal needs, and a few other things he might like. Plus, one percent of all Town EXP would automatically be converted into the sort of EXP he could personally use.
If the town grew, he could gain a lot of EXP simply by stopping by once per month. Even if it did not, he would still eventually get his initial investment back. At one percent of twenty people's efforts it would take a long while, but the possibilities were there.
He did wonder why he could not make someone a mage, or some sort of ninja, however. The priest job seemed to be the only magical profession allowed. As with most things, he chalked it up to an arbitrary game system, or something that needed to be unlocked.
As the day wore on, Scott eventually brought out the items that were stored in his storage closet. Thankfully, they did not disappear. Scott gave one of the pistols to Jed, and told him that he would bring more later. At the very least, he wanted to bring enough for the militia and hunters. The ammunition was far from unlimited, but easy enough to buy. So, they would all soon have weapons that would be a decent upgrade from the gear that they had to work with currently.
The medical supplies were an even better gift. The trauma packs were basically a first aid kit on steroids. They included simple things like gauze, but they also carried nine doses of nano-tech medical sprays that could heal surface wounds and cleanse simple status effects. They were only able to help with moderate wounds, or lesser injuries, but that alone was an amazing gift during the apocalypse. Nothing in the world compared to it in the slightest.
He kept all of the grenades, however. He did not want to risk coming back to find that some numb nut decided to play around with them and ended up freezing someone else's grandma, or something. Giving them sci-fi weapons that they actually understood as weapons was as far as he would go at the moment. The grenades would require a bit more trial and error. The guns were the simplest ones available. The just required the safety to be off, and a trigger to be pulled.
It was quite a while before someone finally got around to mentioning something to Scott that actually bore mentioning earlier. He looked at Jed in surprise. "The cat's sick?"
"Yeah, she just collapsed earlier and refused to do anything but make weird little sighing noises," he told Scott.
Samantha was still chatting with various people. As Scott's companion, they wanted to know more about him, and to be honest many people wanted to know more about her. The men were especially interested until she knocked the teeth out of one middle aged man's mouth. Things became more civilized after that, and the statue's healing power was tested in the process.
He left her where she was and headed off to check on his fluffy little savior. Kitty had been moved into the shoe store, the only place she did not sigh constantly. Scott went in to see her, and the moment he said, "Hey, cat," a loud rrowl echoed through the room. The sound of what he would swear was a woman crying came from the cat.
Scott moved closer and knelt down next to her. "Kitty, what's wrong?"
A sniffling sound was her response, just before she pawed at the air a little and rolled over. Unce
rtain what to do, Scott reached out and lightly rubbed her belly. "Hey, are you sick?"
She meowed once more then curled up into a little ball. Scott kept rubbing her, but she refused to do anything but cry and meow.
He picked her up as gently as he could, and held her. "Is there something I can do?"
Kitty sighed once more then casually bit him on the arm. It was not a hard bite. There was no pain and she did not pierce the flesh at all.
"Why bite me?" asked Scott while he stroked her back. "I'm worried about you, you know?"
The cat looked up at him then sniffled. Her eyes widened a little then she looked away. Kitty made a weird snorting noise, as if to say that she did not believe him.
"Hey, don't be that way. As soon as I heard that you were sick, I came to see you," said Scott softly.
She made another strange noise, one similar to an annoyed woman murmuring her disbelief. Her tail swished a little, however.
Thinking that he might be able to make her feel better, he lifted her up and blew a raspberry on her furry tummy. The cat's eyes widened and she started to squirm. "Nyao, nyao, nyao!"
"Who's a pretty kitty?" exclaimed Scott. He blew a raspberry on her tummy. "Who's my pretty kitty!"
"Nyao!" she wailed, her tail lashing in the process.
"Kitty! Kitty" he blew another raspberry on her belly. "Kitty! Kitty!"
She gave up being sick, or pissed, or whatever it was that she was at the moment, and turned quickly toward Scott. Kitty licked him on the side of the face then rubbed her cheek against him.
He rubbed his nose against hers then started in on the ridiculous baby talk that people speak when they're chatting with their pets. "Whoshur boo, whosur boo-boo."
Kitty made a cute sounding noise that sounded suspiciously like a happy girl giggling. She licked his chin and whisked her tail from side to side.
"Feeling better, Kitty?" asked Scott lightly.
The cat rrowled in a noncommittal manner. She was playing it cool. Her tail, however, continued to whisk from side-to-side. There was a hint of playfulness, but also of tension in her movements. She'd not forgiven him, yet. It was obvious.
She nuzzled his cheek briefly then snuffled his neck. Having taken the time to actually sniff him properly, she noticed a strange aroma. "Merrowl?" asked the cat in a curious tone. What was that scent that she was smelling against his skin?
The tinkling of a store bell alerted them to the presence of someone else entering the room. Samantha stopped short and stared at the odd image of Scott snuggling a cat.
Kitty ignored the newcomer for the most part. She was busy trying to discern something. However, as the blond haired woman drew closer, a certain scent caught Kitty's attention. She sniffed at the air then made a curious little merrowl sound.
Samantha smiled at Scott. He smiled at her. The cat's eyes widened and she looked from one to the other then sniffed the air once more. Suddenly, she pushed away from Scott with her forepaws and unleashed a loud feminine gasp. If a cat could look scandalized, that would be the expression on Kitty's face at that moment. Suddenly, the cat cried out in an angry feminine tone, "What was all that pretty kitty talk? You sex fiend!"
Scott stared openly at the cat. Samantha looked to the cat, her eyes wide, and then to Scott. Kitty, for her part, breathed in an out heavily and made angrily little huffing noises. The nerve of this guy!
Chapter 4
"I can't believe it!" cried Kitty, "I pined for you, and you were out with this... this—" The cat looked Samantha up and down for a moment. "Well, she is pretty," said the cat briefly after tilting her head to the side.
Her demeanor changed rapidly, however. "Still, it's shameless to make me wait while you do unspeakable erotic things with another woman!"
Scott blinked twice. "Are... What?" He stared at the cat in his arms. Whether it was because she had spoken, or because of the words that she had spoken, he was uncertain. However, he was thoroughly confused by the situation.
Kitty pushed at him some more then growled a little. "After all the things we've done together, the times we've had!"
Samantha's eyebrows rose upward and she turned to look at Scott. "I didn't know you were that kind of guy."
He glanced at her then shook his head slowly. "Would you believe me if I told you that it's not what you think?"
Kitty hissed and squirmed in him arms. "You lecher! You thief of hearts! How dare you!"
Scott sighed loudly then looked back down at the cat. He scratched her behind one of her ears. "Forgive me?"
Kitty's eyes closed and she giggled in her cattish way. "Oh, meow."
He turned toward Samantha, while still gently scratching behind Kitty's ear. "Samantha, this is Katherine VI Kittania."
The cat's eyes shot open. "You know my name!"
"Sure. I don't know anything else about you, but I found out that much," said Scott.
The cat leaned forward and sniffed at him. "You smell sort of human, but what sort?" She leaned her head to the side then poked his chest with her paw. "What's your deal?"
"You're asking me about my deal?" Scott asked the cat with an incredulous expression on his face. "You're a talking cat who makes red robed mecha pilots flee in terror."
"That's nothing. Rrowl," said Kitty, "You're the weird one."
Samantha listened carefully while the other two oddities in the room began to argue back and forth. The topic? Which of them was the more bizarre. Eventually, she had enough of their bickering and said, "You're both weird." She then looked at Kitty. "What's your deal, cat?"
Kitty tilted her head sideways then pushed herself free of Scott's arms. She landed on the floor via a delicate backflip. Afterward, she raised one paw and pointed it at Samantha. "Since when do comfort women speak to their betters in such a manner?"
"Comfort—" Samantha's eyes narrowed, "Did you just call me a—"
"Whore?" Kitty tilted her head to the side. "Of course. What else would someone like him need with a human woman?"
"The hell you did, you bitch!" Samantha rushed in and launched a hard kick toward the snobby cat. Kitty easily lunged out of the way. The blond woman tried to give chase, but her foot suddenly slipped. Her well-toned posterior slammed into the floor with all the grace and delicacy of a drunken elephant in a cramped discount store.
A smug laugh wafted through the air as Kitty took up a position opposite of the fallen woman. "Oh? Did the poor slattern fall and hurt her overdeveloped money maker?"
Samantha made two decidedly dangerous fists then growled angrily at the little monster. She quickly rose to her feet and ran in once more.
Scott watched as the two enraged females fought a decidedly disturbing battle. Samantha moved with an angry sort of grace, but every time that she attacked Kitty she fell on her ass without the cat so much as touching her. It was the most bizarre thing that he had seen so far, and he had seen a few fairly bizarre things.
The blond bombshell slammed her fists down onto the floor and snarled, "How are you doing that?"
"Doing what?" asked the cat, her eyes wide in an attempt to feign innocence.
Since the moment led to a chance to stop the fight, Scott finally spoke up. "Look. I don't like to get between two people disagreeing, but could you two just stop?"
Samantha glared at him. "You heard what that little bitch said to me!"
"Bitch, am I?" asked the cat curiously. Her tail lashed dangerously from one side to the other.
Scott got between them physically, before they could start fighting again. "Stop."
"Get out of the way, Scott," said Samantha in a dangerous tone of voice.
"Yes, do let the busty trollop fall on her ass a few more times," said the cat. She then tilted her head to the side and flashed her fangs. "It builds character."
"Why, you!" snarled Samantha. Scott hurled his arms around her and kept her from attacking the cat.
"Get off me!" snapped the blond woman before she started to kick at him. Eventually, she maneuver
ed him into a position to break his hold and flip him onto his back.
Samantha rushed toward the cat, but the moment she came within striking range her foot hit the head of an unseen nail. She fell forward rapidly and slammed heavily into the floor.
Kitty hopped up onto a nearby counter and wrapped her tail around her body. "Goodness, how clumsy."
Scott rose up from the floor and sighed. Neither of these crazy females were going to pay him any mind. There was only one option. While they continued to scream and fight, he walked over to what looked to be a supply closet. At least, he hoped it was similar in size to one.
The blond bounty hunter tried throwing a boot at the cat, but to her surprise the expertly thrown shoe went veering wildly off to the side just before it should have hit the mysterious Kitty. Several more shoes and boots were sent the cat's way, but each of them simply missed.
"Oh, what bad luck. Missed every time," said Kitty. She flashed a fanged cat smile. "Those breasts of yours must be throwing off your aim."
Samantha growled. "Why are you obsessed with my tits? You mention them every chance you get."
"I like milk," said Kitty with a strangely human shrug of her feline shoulders.
Blond eyebrows rose up briefly in confusion, but then they pressed downward in annoyance. "You keep testing me..."
"You'll just keep failing if I do, honey," said Kitty in a sassy manner. She then cut one paw through the air in a decisive gesture.
Before Samantha could start her next attack, Scott got between them once more. "So, this is going to stop right now."
"Just get out of the way," said Samantha, annoyed at his interference.
"Yes, Scott. This is between the overdeveloped hussy, and I," said Kitty.
He held up one hand, and in the process he revealed one of the few hand grenades that he had stored and just now retrieved. "This is already armed. I'll drop it if you attack me. I'll drop it if you keep fighting on your own, as well."
Galactic Fist of Legend: Volume 2 Page 6
