Catnip, or rather Catnip’s severed head tumbling down with an avalanche of rocky debris, finally hit the bottom of the valley after several minutes of falling down the slope. The drop was quite long, but it was pretty sloped, Catnip’s head bouncing around as they fell. They died once during this from head trauma when they stopped being dead for a second due to regeneration. It was questionable that Catnip could even be alive for a bit as just a head, but health points didn’t always operate on logic. 

 

As the dust started to settle, swirling mist disturbed by the fall revealing a dark undergrowth briefly, Catnip let themself have some hope that people could have survived that fall. Having died on repeat at this point, they weren’t entirely clear on how much normal people could actually take, but they were pretty sure theoretically since it was a slope and not a sheer drop someone could be brought along with all the rubble and survive unconscious, just like, buried under several feet of debris. Plus this was a fantasy world, people should be more durable here right?

 

Mostly Catnip just didn’t want to consider the idea that their first friends in this world truly died. 

 

Catnip was about to open their mouth to call and see if anyone else was up, before deciding better of it upon gazing into the swirling fog. They couldn’t confirm anything, but the fog gave them an unsettling feeling, and they got the sense that perhaps making loud noises wasn’t the best idea. The problem was, they would kind of have to make some noise to dig people out of all the rubble, but that was a problem for later. Right now, they needed to deal with the fact that they couldn’t dig out anyone from rubble as just a head. 

 

Could their entire body regenerate just from the head? Her regeneration at this point was fast enough that supposedly it would take a few minutes for her to return to full health with how much HP they currently had. Ugh.. pronouns. Still wasn't a real she. 

 

But logically where the hell would Catnip get all the mass to regenerate from just a head? Presumably it could, but it still felt rather unreal. What if they instead ended up as just a head with full health somehow? Fortunately, while they were debating this question, they were able to vaguely glance down and see that their neck was seemingly healing downward, presumably to rebuild their shoulders and body. Good. Logic is for the weak. 

 

Catnip still didn’t want to think about people being possibly dead while they regenerated, so they decided to do something actually useful for once in their life. They unsuppressed their notifications and read all that they had gained.

 

DING!

Congratulations! You died x 7

Undying Lvl 18/100!

Pain resistance lvl 25/100!

Claw slash lvl 23/300!

Mana manipulation lvl 20/250!

Very Weak Body Enforcement lvl 11/200!

Feline Instincts lvl 31/200!

Congratulations, you unlocked the General Skill Blood Magic[Rank 0]

Blood magic lvl 2/250!

Congratulations, you unlocked the General Skill Poison Resistance[Rank 0]

Poison resistance lvl 43/200!

Congratulations, you unlocked the Class Blood Mage[Rank 0]

Feline Fighter to lvl 17/200! Extra experience rewarded for fighting opponents with much higher levels!

Congratulations, you have earned the title Human Shield!

 

It actually hurt a bit to receive so many notifications at once. Catnip was tempted to suppress notifications altogether and just look at their status when they needed to. They were glad it seemed they didn't get the notification for killing anyone, even indirectly, as rough as that had been they still didn’t want to be a killer. Screw conforming to the standards of the world they’d been sent to, modern morality FTW. 

 

Catnip wasn’t sure how to feel about the Human Shield title being gained for their actions in that battle, but that was basically what they did the whole time they guessed. They looked at it real quick. 

 

Human Shield:

• In a life or death battle, you’ve put yourself between the enemy and your allies time and time again, ignoring your own well being. You’re not a hero yet, but you are a human shield that vaguely keeps people safer. 
• Temporary 25% increase in speed, density and health when you’re shielding someone else. Being slightly faster to move into the way and then slightly harder to cut and kill makes you a better shield. Maybe next time you’ll get the life saver title instead of that of the human shield.  

 

They inspected the new class and skill that actually looked like something they could use. This was the first real magic they figured out how to use on their own, and they were kind of excited, even if it was a bit morbid. 

 

Blood magic[Rank 0] Lvl 2/250

• Blood magic. By infusing your blood with mana and forcing it to move, you’ve achieved the simplest of blood magics. In a rather unique way too. Typically blood mages learn from someone else how to do a basic blood ritual, and earn it that way, but you just forgot about that and went directly to willing your blood into action. Then again you were already able to will your dead body to move due to the Undying boon granted to you as an otherworlder, so moving blood isn’t really that much of an extension of that ability. 
• Greater control with greater level. Freeform application up to you, unlocks the ability to learn Blood Magic spells. 
• Don’t be put off by its bad reputation or the fact that bathing in blood is an ideal way to increase your comprehension of the element. It’s mostly unearned. Mostly. 

 

Blood Mage[Rank 0]:

• A starter class for those who pursue the path of blood. Versatile, capable of body enforcement, blood weaponry, and healing to a minor degree. Your body naturally recovers blood 5x faster to compensate for the amount of blood you will be losing on a daily basis just to use your magic. Only 90% of blood mages end up cultists or psychopathic murderers, so it’s fine. You’ll be fine. 
• If the other party consents you can temporarily control another’s blood. If someone’s blood has been spilled and they’re no longer there, you can manipulate it regardless of consent. 
• 3 mana, 1 strength, 2 speed, and 3 health per level. 2 free stat points. 

 

While it was slightly concerning that the system itself confirmed that almost all blood mages end up as murderers or cultists, the class still seemed like a good option for Catnip. It was magic, it had decent stats, and it was varied and sort of fit with their current fight style. It also had incredible compatibility with Undying, there would be plenty of Catnips blood to manipulate in a lot of situations likely, especially with the classes' increased blood recovery. It was interesting that it didn’t just allow you to manipulate any blood, but they guessed that made sense, otherwise it would be pretty easy to just will someone’s blood out of their body and immediately kill them. It was still a good starting mage class for them, and Flora would certainly like it. If she was still alive….

 

Shaking off the thought, the unfortunate protagonist of this story equipped the class in their second class slot and viewed the skills the class skills available.

 

Minor Blood Manipulation[Rank 0]:

• Blood manipulation, more fluid control and greater comprehension of the element. 25% less mana is used when manipulating blood, increasing with levels. 
• The start of the path towards either gaining true comprehension and control over lifeblood or the descent into blood addled madness. Try not to manipulate the blood of the old ones or something and create incomprehensible horrors. 

Minor Blood Trump[Rank 0]:

• For the cost of mana and willpower, you may briefly be able to use someone's or something’s blood without their consent. The blood must be visible and outside of the victim's body. You can barely do anything though. For now… HAHAHAHAHA!
• Can be defended against with the right protective magic or skills. 

Minor Blood Ritualism[Rank 0]:

• You gain instinctive knowledge of basic blood rituals. Strengthening, healing, summoning very weak demonic beings. Unable to make permanent changes, but buffs can last up to a week with enough blood, magic and setup time. 
• Practiced by many religions, Blood Ritualism is society’s earliest form of magical bodily modification. Some claim saying “Blood for the Blood god,” while doing a ritual can improve its efficiency, but it's fairly dubious whether it actually works. The phrase is only confirmed to improve rituals using pigs blood. 

 

All of the skills seemed good and were likely the start in a given direction of blood magic. Catnip bet you could eventually reach something like True Blood Control via ranking up Minor Blood Manipulation a lot, and have something similar happen for the other two as well. 

 

Minor Blood Trump somewhat disturbed Catnip however. Something about manipulating others' blood, plus the likely higher levels that would eventually allow manipulating it inside the body, was kind of disturbing. They decided to skip on it. 

 

Minor Blood Ritualism seemed really cool and opened up a route towards what sounded like some really interesting and atypical stuff, but it took time one didn’t often have to set up with. It would presumably be pretty great at higher ranks, the current inability to make permanent changes hinting that you eventually would be able to, but it seemed like a long term thing that required practice and study. Catnip wondered if you could also just do some blood rituals without the skill at all, the skill after all just granted knowledge on how to do them.

 

So ultimately, despite it being sort of boring, Minor Blood Manipulation was their best bet. It was a good starting point really, plenty of other things couldn’t be done with blood magic if you couldn’t even manipulate blood well. 

 

Assigning some of their free stats, dumping most into Mana and a couple into speed, Catnip finally took a look at their new and improved status. By this point they were only missing their feet regeneration wise, which was kind of amazing, they appreciated the focus on stats letting them forget about the pain, dubious safety of their friends, and the twisting fog that they swore they could hear a faint pulsing tone from occasionally, combined with the occasional rustle in the undergrowth it hid. 

 

Name: Catnip

Species: Catkin

Gender: cracking egg?? 

Sex: Female

Titles: Otherworlder, Death Defying, Human Shield.

Class: Feline Fighter[Rank 0] lvl 17/200

Class skills - Feline Instincts lvl 31/200

2nd Class: Blood Mage[Rank 0] lvl 0/200

Class skills - Blood Manipulation lvl 1/200

General Skills:

Identify lvl 19/350

Undying lvl 18/100

Pain Resistance lvl 25/100 

Poison Resistance lvl 43/200

Throwing lvl 15/150

Punching lvl 8/150

Claw Slash lvl 23/300

Very Weak Body Enforcement lvl 11/200

Mana Manipulation lvl 20/250

Blood Magic lvl 2/250

Stats:

Health: 30/32

Mana: 36/36

Strength: 29

Speed: 36

Mana regeneration: 3.6 per minute

Health regeneration: 18 per minute

Unspent Stat points: 0

Available classes:

Thrower[Rank 0]

Brawler[Rank 0]

Feline Fighter[Rank 0] in use

Student[Rank 0]

Blood Mage[Rank0] in use

 

Nice. For some reason one of their eyes and their chest still hurt like hell though. Maybe that’s what prevented their health from being full despite there being plenty of time for their body to fully regenerate at this point.

 

Oh wait shit.

 

They reached up and ripped out the bolt that was still in their eye, and ripped out the other bolt in their chest. Oopsie. Hopefully that was all good now. The pain hardly registered with the sheer amount of it they’d been in recently. 

 

To be honest Catnip had very little context for this stuff. Stats were great and all, but it was hard to know how it directly translated to someone’s fighting ability. Crunchy numbers were fun, but sometimes they felt like a crutch for the universe to base power levels around or something. Catnip still appreciated the ability to gain power from seemingly nothing via stat systems, so perhaps they shouldn’t be so judgemental and meta. 

 

Alright, enough stalling. Catnip’s feet were definitely regenerated by now, if their health being almost full when they checked their status meant anything. Time to face reality, and the possibility of everyone being dead. 

 

Catnip tried to be very careful as they curled up a little and started to rise onto their feet, making sure to stand on the more stable stones of the landslide. Even so, the sound of rocks shifting still pealed out into the mist far louder than they wished it did. Catnip stopped, and stared into the shifting mists again, once again catching sight of the wild undergrowth and listening for any changes. 

 

It had been evening when the whole attack had begun, near the end of the day. Which really didn’t help the atmosphere right now. In some ways, it was amazing how the rocky and pretty desolate slopes they witnessed in their travels were instead replaced by luscious and thick forest, reminiscent of a cloud forest. If Catnip was on Earth, this would be the kind of nature they would find joy in, a secret sanctuary in the mists and dark far from the ails of civilization and society. 

 

This wasn’t Earth at all though, and all they knew about this forest sandwiched far below the tall mountain peaks was that apparently it had been easier to build a road literally over the mountains and ward it instead of trying to pass through a much lower area like here. In other words, the thick undergrowth and the rustles from within held possibly more danger than they had faced in this world yet. 

 

That wasn’t to mention the low pulsing tone that still continued to permeate the mist. They weren’t sure what it was, perhaps it was entirely innocent, but they didn’t like it. It was creepy, and alien. But… Catnip couldn’t afford to be all that slow and careful right now. If Catnip left the survivors buried beneath the rubble unconscious for too long, it might not be long until there were no survivors left. So, after the grinding from the stones shifting didn’t attract anything out of the mists for now, they got moving regardless of the safety of the situation.

 

First Catnip wanted to try to find Flora due to her proximity to them before the fall. And because they really wanted her to not be dead. Quietly and carefully, they crept along the debris to where they estimated Flora might be buried, and started digging. The rocks scratched harshly against Catnip’s hands, drawing blood, and their muscles burned the more they dug, some larger chunks being quite heavy, but their regeneration took care of it and they kept going. Still… they weren’t finding anything or anyone. 

 

Catnip eventually noticed that if they focused with their magic, they could still feel the specks of blood that had left their body and scattered on the rocks. They tried manipulating it a bit and succeeded. Yeah, shocking, blood mage manipulating blood everyone. But they had an idea. They might not be able to manipulate the blood of others without consent, but could they sense it if they really tried?

 

Focusing on the feeling of the taste of the mana that lived within their blood, feeling a bit odd as they heard the pulse of their own blood in their ears, Catnip gradually pushed mana into their Minor Blood Manipulation, willing it to focus on mapping the blood present in their surroundings rather than moving it. It was tough going, at first refusing to let them perceive blood any further than a few feet away from them, but at some point they felt an unseen snap and were able to push their senses further. Could they use this as a sort of 360 living creature detection technique in a fight at some point? Who knows. The forest pulsed eerily behind them, but nothing disturbed their work.

 

Just when the battered and broken otherworlder was about to give up, they saw it. On the edge of their range, specks of blood scattered several yards deep. And a second later, they were able to feel the faint pulse of blood within a living body. Two living bodies to be exact, almost right next to each other. And also a clearly beheaded body, probably theirs, a little bit to the side. They were kind of naked right now, so maybe they could take some clothes from that. Even if they did have a massive hole in them…

 

Suddenly Catnip almost collapsed in fatigue, losing sight of them. Their mana… it was entirely depleted just from that small act of pushing their magic to do something it wasn’t quite intended for. But it was okay. Their mana regen was alright, and Catnip wasn’t going to forget where they saw the bodies. This time, they dug with purpose, their claws coming out to a better grip on the rocks, leading to more scraping sounds but faster progress. They first encountered their own beheaded body, and spent a good moment trying to pull on the clothes from it. Fortunately the hole in its chest didn’t expose their boobs or anything, the arrow having pierced just below them, but they still needed a replacement at some point. Although they weren’t sure where they hell they’d get one in the middle of nowhere. Catnip pulled the robe part of the outfit around themself more, it having survived with less major damage, only taking some from debris from the explosions. The blood splattered all over the ruined outfit added character to it really, if you looked at it charitably. 

 

Now that they weren’t naked, they went back to digging. Probably shouldn’t have gotten distracted when the others' lives were on the line but it probably would be fine. They hoped. 

 

A familiar arm emerged from the pile and they felt an immense sense of relief, reaching down to hold Flora’s warm but limp hand. She was bleeding from scrapes all over and clearly unconscious, but not badly injured. Something had broken her fall perhaps, it didn’t matter, they were grateful for it. The lone girl hugged the mages body to them close and almost broke down sobbing. But they still had work to do. 

 

Setting the unconscious Flora down beside them, they gradually worked to uncover the other body. A man, lying with an ax and with an intense look about him, his head bald. A man with his arm crushed by a rock but most significantly, a barely healing wound at his throat that she recognized, that she had made herself. He was still breathing. And as Catnip moved to lift the rest of the stones off of him, still not wanting anyone’s death, he opened his eyes and stared directly at Catnip. 

 

“Uhh… hi?”