I watched as the Cat-lady, Redline, left the cavern. Still shaken over how she almost just killed me earlier, I'd barely even moved from the spot after she took my offering when she tossed a blade in the spot I'd been. If I had been frozen there any longer...I didn't want to think about how close I came to dying again. 

It looks like befriending her was going to be a lot harder than I thought it was going to be.

Thanks voice, you're being astoundingly useless. 

I decided that simply following her was probably the best for now since she likely would remember the way to the entrance and since I was born here I didn't know the way out. I wouldn't have even known what to do if there was more than one fork in the path and no draft or light coming from the entrance...granted my sense of smell was much better than it had been I had no idea how good it actually was compared to my previous life's being that of a human's. 

I've never really thought about my previous life have I...

...well, thinking about it now isn't going to chance anything. I'll just come back to having an internal crisis later. 

I watched Redline leave through the tunnels silent as a rock while I calmed myself down enough to follow. Now would probably be a good time to distribute my points and see how close I could come to evening out the odds if I had to fight her, and run because I would definitely be running. 

But I didn't want to be alone...

Maybe it was this body's age, but I didn't like the idea of traveling around in a new world alone and without any idea of what to do next or where to go. First, lets look at what changes when I use my points: 

I seem to have 336 points to use: 140 from my first jump to level 12 and the extra 30 points from  John's soul, plus the other 130 points and the extra 36 from Damien's, and the evolution seems to have given me another 30 points. 

I put one point into each stat area and was surprised to see that I couldn't actually put any into magic. It was just a grayed out area of Question-marks and I had no idea why. It also seemed to cause my Mana stat to be dash marks, same for the stamina, but I could put points into Dexterity...

Anyways here's what I found: one point into Constitution equals 20 health, one free point equals three strength, and putting a point into Dexterity just increases it by a point. I didn't feel any different so maybe it wouldn't be a help towards much, or I had to use larger incriments to actually feel a change? 

What do they each do anyways: 

(Constitution - The measure of one's health in mind and body. Should one's health reach 0 they may not necessarily die, but would be in dire need of medical assistance and rest).
(Warning: Straining oneself after Health reaches 0 will have detrimental effects on the soul, slowing recovery time and potentially making any such injuries into permanent detriments).  

Alright. It's good to know that...I looked back towards the two humans I killed, I'm glad I did it when they were weak, otherwise I really might've had problems. They seemed like the type to try and push past their 'limits' to strike back at the cost of anything else...maybe me sucking out their souls helped me avoid that outcome actually. 

(Strength - The measure of one's Defensive and Offensive prowess. Points put into strength will go more towards offence or defensive capabilities depending on class, race, and distribution of other stats). 
(Warning: Strength does not have a measure for the mind, the measure for how strong one's mind is correlates to how strong one's soul is. Should one's soul be injured or destroyed, so shall the mind suffer in return). 

Interesting. So everyone has hidden defensive and offensive stat points under strength.
The note about the mind was a little unsettling though, I hope that I don't run into anyone with power over the mind or soul anytime soon. 

(Magic - The measure of one's magical offence and defense. Correlates to how much Mana a being has in accordance) 
(Warning: Trying to increase one's Magic of Mana capabilities through artificial means in a permanent measure is detrimental to the body, mind, and soul. Should one continue to increase their strength prematurely they will reach a threashold and cease to exist). 

That was foreboding...and scary. Did such means exist, I always imagined potions and magically enhanced foods would be cool to see, but did such things that permanently increased attributes even exist? 

(Dexterity - The measure of how fit one's body is: correlates to how long a being may fight or exert themselves. Too low Dexterity in comparison to other attributes may increase risk of being unable to dodge or throw attacks, too high and one's body may end up unable to react to stimuli in a reasonable manner). 
(Note: Should a being focus on their Dexterity they must make sure it is never twice over their second highest attribute).

So instead of having Strength measure the ability of one's body Dexterity is the determining attribute of agility, speed, and everything else in terms of stability. But how was I supposed to determine what was needed here if I couldn't see how much it actually amounted to stamina-wise? 

...just one of the many things to figure out later...

Now lets see what the last two are:

Mana: The measure of how much mana a being can hold
Stamina: The measure of how long a being can exert themselves for.
(Warning: Overusing one's Mana or Stamina will in turn start draining Health. Should a being overexert all three resources they will experience pain like nothing they've ever encountered before...)

Simple. I wasn't expecting that. Or the fact that a person could burn Health in place of either should they over exert themselves. 

Alright so what should I do then...wait, was there a way to just look at a window for attributes instead of the whole...

Personal level: 1/50
Health: 2020/2020
Constitution: 101
Strength: 103
Magic: ?????
Dexterity: 101
Mana: --/--
Stamina: --/--
Free Points 333

Oh, cool! I didn't have to stare at a giant list of everything under the sun when I didn't want to! Though seeing Strength increase 3 points for only 1 free point is certainly going to get confusing...hopefully it doesn't lead me to making a mistake later on...Alright, I'll just put another 99 in each and the rest of it into Dexterity so I can move easier. 

Personal level: 1/50
Health: 4000/4000
Constitution: 200
Strength: 400
Magic: ?????
Dexterity: 234
Mana: --/--
Stamina: --/--
Free Points 0

Immediately after distributing my points I felt like I was hit by a truck, metaphorically speaking... Everything hurt. My body started to burn like I was in an oven and my mind was split by the axe of a sudden headache. I took a step forwards and immediately my body crumbled under me, but unfortunately, I couldn't pass out. My body was stuck in a state of constantly being on the verge of passing out and re-energizing suddenly and it was killing me. I wanted to scream, but I couldn't even open my mouth to do so.

After a while it stopped, but I remained there motionless. Trying to restrain the whimpers as unending phantom's of pain coursed through my entire being. I am never doing that again...I should've realized that putting hundreds of points into everything at once would be an extremely big change, especially for strength as that seemed to be the most effected by the increase in points. 

Never again. I am never experiencing that again. Small Increments...maybe fifty at a time, except for strength, that would have to be less...maybe twenty increments or so then... 

The voice didn't even have a warning against using so many points at once either!  

What good are you if you aren't trying to help with even the little things?!!

(Warning: Increasing a stat more than fifty points at a time in extremely dangerous and should only done when in dire need or peril). 
(Note: A being during their first twenty levels is consistently advised against using too many points at one time by an elder of their race.)
(Title (Reckless) gained)

...Well fuck you too.

Stupid voice. I wondered if there was a way of muting it...

...no dice. 

I slowly got up and looked in the direction the cat-lady had disappeared and after a few moments of getting used to the changes in my body I started to follow. 

---------------------------

Turns out this cave was much, much larger than I imagined it was. The only way I knew that this was still the direction the car-lady had gone was because I could still smell her scent and after at least ten minutes of running--from which I'd decided upon after ten minutes of stalking around and hiding pointlessly--I reached her. There were several branching tunnels and several areas where I swear it was a down-to-go-up moment, but they passed just as quickly and I was left confused as to how I felt even higher up then I was before. 

I wondered if decompression sicknesses were a thing here? 

I found her walking through the tunnels checking the various things in her bag. It seemed like she was trying to find something but it was stuck at the bottom of the bag...I hated when that happened to me. Finally, after stopping and just upending the entire thing onto the floor, she found what she wanted. It looked like a sort of glowing blue cube and after it glowed for a second another feminine voice resounded from it, bouncing of the walls of the cave. 

"Hey Red, I'm kind of in the middle of something." They hummed and Red's tail lashed behind her unamused. 

"Hey Foxy. I'm in a bit of a hard spot right now and you're the only one of the group that won't laugh at me." 

"Well that's your own fault for going on job without telling Pops. You know how he gets, especially with you..." 

"Yeah I know, but I want to prove to him that I'm capable of doing my own things...that I don't need to be coddled and watched constantly like a kitten." 

"Oh, but you are a kitten, kitten. Our kitten." Foxy cooed. 

"Ugh, please don't." Red sighed, looking up at the ceiling in frustration. 

"Sooo, what happened?" The other voice sounded amused, slightly distracted. 

"I took a contract hoping to get more money for the guild and it turned out to be a bust." 

"You didn't take the--" 

"I did" Red's ears drooped and her tail fell still. 

"Ohoho you're going to be in so much trouble little kitten." "I know..."

"Pops is going to hand you your tail on a silver..." 

"I said I know!" She nearly threw the cube at a wall but stopped and instead dug her claws into her pads in frustration. "I need your help." 

"You need my help?" The other lady sounded surprised, as if a platter of their favorite dish just landed on their lap. "My help..."

"Yes." Redline sulked. Walking slower now at the realization of something. 

"You know what I want right?" The possessive aura I could feel just from the device alone was enough to make me want to skitter away with everything I had. "Ohoho. I'm going to have so much fun. Hey hun, it seems I'm going to have to cut this short." 

"Huh?" A confused, male voice came from the device. Then there was a bubbly gurgling sound and Redline covered the device with both hands, flattening her ears against her head for a moment. 

When she uncovered the communication device again she hesitantly asked, "You weren't just..." 

"I was. So what? It's not like you haven't heard it before?" Foxy remarked and Redline just sighed, cringing away from the cube and looking like she wanted to throw it far, far away. 

"Do you have to be doing that every time I call you?!" She hissed and that got a chuckle from the other end. 

"I'm not messing with a client every time you call...you just seem to call when I'm just getting to the good part for most of them..." She added, "Maybe I should bring you one of these times. Maybe you'll loosen up..." The device was thrown like a lightning bolt across the tunnel, crashing into a wall on the far end of the cave with a loud boom. 

I looked at the cat-lady slightly confused and slightly awed at her power. I was near her stats now, and the idea of being able to do something like that on purpose excited me to no end. 

But I still had yet to actually make contact yet...maybe nearer to the entrance? 

---------------------

Turns out I wasn't able to gather enough courage to actually approach her again after that, and even after the light of daylight signaled the exit to this cave I still wasn't able to do anything other than just follow behind her silently. 

{Skill Level Increased: (Stealth Lv.6)} 

That made me yelp aloud and flee further from the cat-lady. 

Stupid voice and it's stupid surprises. 

All the tension and stress that I was feeling from the reveal that the cat-lady was actually an assassin that was probably much stronger than myself, and having to stay quiet and follow at a distance made just that one notification too much for me to handle. I had no-where to hide this time...I looked around the cave trying to find something but all around us were walls. 

"Who's there?" Redline called pulling out her bow again and I shivered, "I know you've been following me this entire time, and since you haven't attacked me yet I'm willing to give you a chance. Come out now and I won't turn this entire cave into rubble and leave you here to die." 

Comeoncomeoncomeon. If there was anytime to do it, it would be now. Turn off. Turn Off. Turn off...huh? 

Why was there a giant protrusion attached to my face?