Level Up!

But I couldn’t enjoy it.

Just as I’d slain the last of a line of those dependable purple beetles—the minute I’d gotten that long-awaited box—destiny had slapped me in the face.

Here came the wolf.

I sprang into a bush. Thank goodness for my sense of smell, which picked up a hint of something odd. Since I was new to these woods, my brain called it "off-brand dog." That was all I needed. That put me on alert.

But it was my whiskers that helped me choose the best direction to charge in. I honestly never relied too much on those bristly things, but they could clue me in to subtle shifts in the air if I focused on them. Tell me what direction a gentle wind was blowing, or which door in a room had opened.

Hopefully this wolf had come to pick on a squirrel or something, because I was nowhere near ready to take them on. Not even at full HP and SP.

Huddled in the brush, I looked out with eyes that, by the grace of Sierra, would not choose this moment to start twinkling.

I couldn’t see much. The animal was little more than a four-footed blur, and yet I could glean a lot of info from it. One end was the head, a three-pointed star at the end of a thin body. The way they moved, the constant hum of their growl, their canine smell, and that timberwolf-gray fur were unmistakable.

The only odd thing was how thin that body was. Scrawny. Closer up, it might even have been bony.

Good for me. That meant the wolf was weak, right?

Yes and no. Wolves don’t just hunt willy-nilly. They’re smart, they’re strategic, they plan. All hunters in the wilderness are. If they weren’t, they’d have been survival-of-the-fittest’d out of existence.

So the wolves who are infamous for attacking innocent humans where they live—those are the desperate ones. The ones who are starving, sick, or both.

And desperation makes them brutal.

Combine that with the fact that a Vencian wolf would have Skills to augment their strength…

Slow moments passed. My breath came and went in long, muffled hisses.

The Vencian wolf was plodding and sniffing around. I could sense—not with my body, but with my instincts—that the other forest creatures around us were just as afraid to get in this wolf’s way as I was.

Then I heard a startling, thundercrack bark. And a searing bolt of pure magic power passed across my hiding place’s leaves.

Shrieks followed, then sounds of chipping wood, and then an explosion of flame.

Oh. Crap.

So the wolves could start fires. Lovely.

I bolted. As much as I wanted to get a clearer look at the destruction the wolf had just wrought, I wanted to take advantage of this pandemonium—now, while prey was still screaming and burning. Now, while I heard the blazing tree thrash and crunch to the ground.

Now, while a howl was the only thing chasing me.

***

When I took shelter for the night at the very base of the mountain, it was with an unshakeable sense of paranoia. I couldn’t prove that the wolf was after me. I couldn’t prove that the wolf wasn’t. My body wanted me to stay poised. My spirit wanted anything else.

A human couldn’t possibly have taken shelter below the rocky overhang I was currently sprawled out under, partly because of the uncomfortable moss around the edges and partly because it was way too small. But I did it, and my legs relished the chance to rest. They also reveled in the regained strength. How about those Stats? Maybe those would help take my mind off of things…or at least remind me that I could survive things, potentially?

A howl sounded in the distance, and this time I knew the voice was all too familiar.

Sigh… Think of it like lightning: the further the howl, the more certain I’ll be that the wolf is someone else’s problem.

Anyway. My “Level Up!” box had long since dismissed itself, but the Stat gains remained.

Taipha
Orange Tabby
Lv. 6
EXP: 0% (2/900)

HP: 100% (125/125)
SP: 100% (100/100)

ATK: 17
INT: 9
DEF: 13
WIS: 8
SPD: 14

I remembered dimly that my Intelligence and Wisdom had gone up. I didn’t know how to feel about the Intelligence part. I mean, it might’ve been doing something good for my problem-solving abilities, but I didn’t seem to have any Skills that relied on it. Was getting smarter supposed to limber up my Leaping leg muscles? Somehow I doubted it.

The Help Desk said:

Intelligence is the mental counterpart of Attack; one strengthens the mind as the other strengthens the body. Also like Attack, it increases the power and effectiveness of several Skills. The higher a user’s Intelligence Stat, the more effective all Skills not involving the use of their body will be.

Intelligence is intimately tied to logic, deductive reasoning, and problem-solving.

Uh, I figured that verified what I’d been thinking. Intelligence was no help, and it didn’t even increase my SP. Just to get my money’s worth, I read on.

Ways to train Intelligence include:

Studying mathematics
Testing hypotheses
Learning by trial and error
Intellectual banter
Collecting knowledge of human history and culture
Solving brainteasers

Hm…when it was all spelled out like that, raising Intelligence suddenly sounded harder and weirder than raising Wisdom. And the System just wouldn’t stop nudging me toward human stuff, would it? What’s next, “Ways to train Attack include lifting at the gym”?

My stomach called, and it began to feel sick.

I de-Inventorized the wood duck corpse, and the smoky aftereffects brightened the overhang for one scary, intolerable moment. Then the smoke left.

Nope, no way to hide this smell from prying noses. But I hoped I was far enough, and attentive enough, that it wouldn’t matter.

Hey, speaking of smoke, here came a fresh trail of it over the tree line.

To find this overhang, I’d combed the mountain’s base for a while. Really, the combing was more like sniping: trees and cover were spotty right around the mountain, so scanning it for possible caves or crevices I could use had been Plan A. Plan B—get up close and look for free caves or burrows that I hadn’t seen through the patches of foliage—I hadn’t had to resort to.

Now I wished for several things…but first and foremost, I wished for a higher view and a good, warm, duck-cooking fire. How was this forest so cold at night, even in the summer?

But I did get a slightly cheerful sight. Right in front of my nose.

First one, then two, then a cluster of lazy fireflies bobbing around me.

They seemed to have come out of nowhere. Here I was contemplating a night spent in total darkness—or interrupted by wolf-flames. But I had brilliant company.

As I chewed the last of my duck, feeling equally tired and ravenous, I gazed up, feeling my eyelids grow heavy at the wonder of their pulsing lights and delicate buzz…

Nah, just kidding. I swatted any suckers that dared to get close with all the strength I had.

I mean, they had the gall to fly near my nose. Like they didn’t know what Level I was.

“Mraow! Meeow!”

Fireflies sped out of reach, out of view, turned out their lights. After a minute, they went flickering off into the distance. But not all of them. A few had been smacked away, and three had even crunched to the ground. I had the evidence right in front of me…though with them landing in the dirty nasty moss, and tasting like bugs, I didn’t dare to eat them.

And I realized with a start that in my excitement, I’d crawled halfway out of my little campsite.

…This wasn’t good, was it? And the visibility wasn’t even the issue. My heart was racing even from that pathetic stint of excitement. I should’ve been sleeping and conserving my energy, right?

No. I was tired, but not sleepy—ready to pull an all-nighter. My body had passed that threshold, flipped that switch, with me scarcely aware of the change as it happened.

Using the full glory of my full HP and SP bars along with my enhanced Wisdom Stat, I delved into my spirit and discovered that…it was poised. To beat up a wolf.

It was possible. A crazed lone wolf could plan, but I could plan better. I probably knew their capabilities better than they knew mine. Cats might’ve been living in the Vencian Wood, but never a cat like me.

No way was I sleeping tonight.

At least to give the wolf another look, get a better idea of who I was messing with, and run back to safety and refreshing sleep. At least to tire myself out!

First a mysterious wolf, and then onward to a mysterious Reed!

Message from Sierra, the Goddess of Nekomata

There we go! That’s the kind of foolhardiness I can get behind!