"Oh hey! Loot!"
Alrik's declaration came with the kind of joy usually reserved for claw machines and limited-time gacha banners.
Erynne wasn’t surprised. She might not be a serious gamer, but even in her short history with fantasy RPGs, she knew one universal truth: loot was sacred. Watching Alrik stream over the years had only confirmed it. He could be in the middle of a fiery deathtrap, low on health, and still detour for a glowing item drop. If there was a loot table, they were going to check it.
He dropped to his knees in the grass, already digging through the remnants of the dissolved Sporefang Boar, which had politely left behind a neat little pile of glowing items.
"Wait, seriously?" Erynne leaned in, blinking at the array. "That thing was like a mid-level boss. Why did it drop a picnic?"
Before them lay:
- One Chunk of Spicy Boar Meat
- A Scorched Hide
- A Sporecap Mushroom
- A Violet-Tier Magic Crystal
"Okay, so we split this, right?" Alrik asked, already reaching for the meat.
"Split it where? Do we even have pockets?"
Alrik blinked. Then pulled up his status screen. "Inventory: ten item slots," he muttered. "That’s it? Ten? And look—it says I have to pay fifty Gald to unlock more."
Erynne flicked her hand to open her own. "Oh. Huh. I have Spatial Storage."
She tapped the skill. A soft chime sounded, and a window popped up: Storage: Unlimited. Organized by Type. Auto-Sorting Enabled.
Alrik stared at her like she'd just betrayed the sacred sibling pact.
"You got the premium account."
"I didn’t choose this!"
"This is what I get for putting all my stat points into Strength for years. The universe mocks me."
She bit her lip, trying not to smile. "We can co-own it. You ID the loot, I store it."
"Like a party stash?"
"Exactly. But if you try to craft something with the glowing mushroom and it explodes, I’m not reviving you."
"I wasn’t going to eat it," he said, eyeing it thoughtfully. "But it might be alchemy-grade. Or fetch a good price. Or mutate into something useful. I'm just saying, waste not, want not."
They spent a few more minutes examining the items and tossing them into Erynne's seemingly bottomless storage. She had to admit, the system was satisfying. Every item she tapped shimmered and vanished with a soft pop like a soap bubble being filed away.
Finally, the adrenaline faded.
Erynne yawned.
She rubbed her eyes. "I was in bed with my cats..."
Then she froze.
"Wait. My cats. Trouble, Mischief, Storm—who's feeding them?!"
Alrik's eyes widened. "Oh no. Choom!"
They both whipped their hands out and pulled up their status screens in a panic.
Erynne's heart pounded. Her cats had been fine just minutes ago—or what felt like minutes ago—curled up on her bed like nothing in the world could touch them. Now she was in another world entirely. What if time passed differently here? What if they were alone and hungry? The thought twisted in her stomach worse than the boar had.
"Wait," Alrik said, tapping something. "I've got something labeled 'Summon.' Should I...?"
"Yes! Try it!"
He activated it.
A glowing circle appeared on the grass, and with a soft pop, a brown tabby with white socks materialized in front of them, meowing loudly.
"Choom!" Alrik dropped to his knees. The cat trotted forward like he'd just been momentarily inconvenienced.
But Choom shimmered faintly, like he'd been dusted in stardust.
A tiny status screen hovered beside him:
[Choom – Feline Familiar]
Level: 3 Class: Support/Scout Skills: Sonic Meow, Nap Aura, Detect Fish
"He's... powered up?" Alrik asked.
Choom meowed in response, louder than necessary.
"Okay," Erynne said, heart pounding. "If you have Summon..."
She scanned her screen—and there it was.
She activated it.
Three glowing lights appeared in a triangle around her, and with a soft, synchronized poof, three cats stepped out: Trouble, a sleek gray tabby, and Mischief and Storm, the brown, long-haired sisters.
They each stretched like they’d just woken up from a nap. Erynne felt her chest tighten with relief. For the first time since they’d landed in this strange place, something familiar had returned to her—and it felt like a piece of home had followed her across the worlds.
"Trouble! Mischief! Storm!" Erynne scooped one up, tears in her eyes. "You guys made it."
Their own status panels appeared:
[Trouble – Feline Familiar]
Level: 2 Class: Agile Striker Skills: Pounce, Shadowstep, Judgmental Stare
[Mischief – Feline Familiar]
Level: 2 Class: Tinkerer Skills: Disassemble, Distract, Purr Generator
[Storm – Feline Familiar]
Level: 2 Class: Elementalist (Lightning) Skills: Mist Veil, Static Fur, Mood Swing
"Okay," Erynne exhaled, cradling Trouble. "Crisis averted."
Alrik gave her a look. "You're telling me you get three cats and three summons?"
She smirked. "Guess being a cat lady has perks."
Choom made a noise of protest, and Alrik scratched his chin. Erynne watched him, a faint smile tugging at her lips. For all his snark and bravado, she could see the relief in his eyes. If Choom was here—and not just here, but apparently ready to evolve into some kind of cosmic sidekick—maybe this whole situation wasn’t entirely awful. Weird. Terrifying. But not awful.
They spent a few more minutes making sure everyone was clean, present, and accounted for. Then Erynne tapped her screen and unsummoned her trio with a shimmer of sparkles. Alrik followed suit, Choom vanishing with a dramatic meow.
"Okay," Alrik said. "Let's find somewhere to crash. Preferably somewhere with a door."
"And no more monsters."
"No promises."
They picked a direction at random, half-guided by a distant breeze and the vague hope that the glowing mushrooms wouldn’t follow. Erynne’s slippers made soft shuff-shuff sounds in the grass, and her pajama pants were already picking up burrs.
After maybe twenty minutes of walking, Alrik stopped and pointed.
"There. Up ahead. Do you see that?"
Through the trees, a flicker of torchlight revealed a handful of squat wooden shacks clustered around a central fire pit. Shapes moved between them—tall, upright silhouettes, but something about their ears, their tails...
"People?" Erynne whispered.
"...I think so?"
They crouched behind a bush and squinted.
"Is that guy part wolf?"
A tall figure walked past the fire, unmistakably human in appearance except for the wolf-like ears perched atop his head and a bushy tail that swayed as he moved, both twitching at every sound.
Alrik exhaled slowly. "Okay. So maybe this is a monster village."
"Or," Erynne whispered, "maybe the monsters are just people."
They exchanged a glance.
Then Alrik stood up.
"Welp. Only one way to find out."
Erynne groaned. "Please don’t say that every time we do something reckless."
He grinned over his shoulder. "No promises. There might be cat girls."
TO BE CONTINUED...
