Jericho lowered the box. "Ken, help me with the items for a bit and then hop in."
Ken put the excess loot that Jericho couldn't carry into his inventory. {When we log back in, we should clear out the random loot from your inventory. It will help.}
The two felines jumped back into the box.
"Sure thing." Jericho sent a message to Princess. [Dinner and dance lessons in 45 minutes. Finish up your project and log off.]
Ken started looking over MExp's descriptions in detail and started carefully assigning things. {If I assign points to claw, bite, and tracking I can get them up from 3/10 to 5/10. I'll have 30 MExp left. If I assign it to monster form it will go up to 2/10 making spending less time on four legs more achievable. I didn't even have the option to put any into Human form. Master skills must be really hard to improve}.
{Ready?} Jericho asked.
The Bard and hunter logged off.
45 minutes later…
Moria swallowed her food. "What did the two of you end up doing while I crafted things?"
Ken slumped. Today had already been a very embarrassing day for him. His 'cool' image had been totally ruined and he didn't want to make it worse by having to tell her he hunted for rats and enjoyed it.
Reading the mood, Jericho smiled. "Ken, Lux, and I trained some of our skills. We didn't want to level up without you and thought it would be best."
The girl smiled. "Oh, then is that something you can keep doing for a bit longer?"
Jericho frowned. "What are you making that is taking so long?"
"It is more than one thing and it's a secret." She replied. "Besides, I'm having a lot of fun making things. We can adventure more after I finish making the things I want to make."
"Fine."
Ken grimaced as he finished his food.
Jericho smiled. "Well Ken, are you up for more skill grinding?"
The boy nodded. "Yeah."
The adult picked up the dishes and put them in the sink.
"Shall we resume where we left off?" Moira asked.
Jericho retrieved his instruments and the two 12 year olds started dancing.
"Ken, your reflexes are getting better." The girl exclaimed happily.
The teen chuckled. "Thanks. Alex would say that it is something related to the natural benefits of gaming and some sort fancy explanation."
Moira laughed as she spun. "True, he would say something like that. He knows a lot about technology."
The bleached haired youth smiled.
The girl smiled back. "At this rate you should be able to perform a simple swing dance with me in game in a week. Assuming you are standing on two legs." She teased.
***
On the walk home the two males talked once more.
"Thanks for the save back there. I didn't want to tell her that I had a competition on who could kill the most rodents with Lux." Ken sighed. "I'm also glad that my sighing didn't sound like a sad kitten tonight."
Jericho chuckled. "You aren't the only male to lose their cool image in front of Moira since the game started. I understand that desire to hide the 'uncool' part of yourself. Trust me; right now she thinks you are one of the coolest guys in her life right now."
"Really? Even after today, cute fluffy paws and all, she still thinks I'm cool?"
"Yes she does. You wanting to dance with her has made her extremely happy and boosted your coolness by a lot. Of course, she will tease you forever about being an adorable kitten and will probably find ways to bring it up or embarrass you further, so get used to it. Since you said the patch will take some time to complete, you want to come over and dance some more during the patch time tomorrow instead of the evening?"
"Sure, it will give me something to do."
"I was curious Ken, how were you able to adapt to being a cat so quickly?"
"The game's system has been helping a lot. It is part of the skill. I know you learned a lot of your skills in game by bringing your real life skills into the game world, but have you learned any from the system?"
"I have."
"Then did you notice how the knowledge and basic experiences of how to use the skill seemed to just be taught to you?"
"So it is the same thing then?"
"Yep, it is the same technology they use at school. But a good portion of my current skill is the all the extra practice I got while wrestling with Lux."
They arrived back at Ken's house.
"Thanks to the MExp my main skills are now at 5/10. I didn't know it was so OP."
Jericho raised an eyebrow. "MExp is OP? Explain."
"Normally I would have had to repeat what I did with such perfect grinding conditions the last three hours again to reach where I am at, but because of the MExp I will probably reach Adept sooner than expected. It is way overpowered. Unless someone is extremely skilled, getting 3 skills from the start of beginner to adept in less than a day is extremely crazy."
Jericho nodded. "Well at least I know why Shiarra was saying that my skills were growing really fast. But MExp is what creatures usually use to level up. It only seems overpowered to us because we use it to invest into skills."
"That still doesn't change the fact that it is overpowered."
"If you noticed, it can only be used to raise monster and directly related skills so it can't help you improve most of your normal skills."
"That is true."
"It isn't something you can accumulate for higher grade skills; and also, could a wild monster set up the same conditions we did?"
"No. They would probably have a much harder time finding so much fodder without getting hunted themselves. Which brings up the question, what will happen when I upgrade to adept?"
"You will probably grow a tier, gain a few more animal skills and look more like an adult lynx. Why do you ask?"
"Don't the farmers think we are domestic cats? How do we explain my sudden growth?"
"I'll talk to the farmers to make sure you won't have too much trouble. By the way what did Lux do with his MExp? He got some too right?
"Yeah, He put a lot of it into his paw fishing skill, raising it up to 7/10 Adept before using the rest to raise his level a bit since he is behind me. He will probably take a while longer to get back to his former status considering how much he loves fish. I am curious though, how do you know so much about MExp? I thought you were a gaming noob."
Jericho laughed. "Since I know you in person I can share the secret. However, this stays between you, me, and Moira until I tell you otherwise."
"I can keep it a secret."
Jericho smiled. "I'm a water elemental like the one you met earlier."
"Really? Then how come I have never seen you in that form? We have adventured together quite a bit. Is your human form skill higher then master?"
Jericho shook his head. "I don't have a 'human form' skill. I have an ability known as Form Shift and it doesn't have a ranking. Yours is a skill?"
"Yeah, it is. Thankfully it is already a Master ranked skill otherwise the amount of time I could spend as a human would be significantly less. Why do you ask?"
"Let's try an experiment later. I have a music skill that targets and improves a specific skill I know about. I wonder what would happen If I used that while focusing on your human form ability."
"Alright. Do you have an idea why it is different for you? I mean they are both types of shapeshifting."
"If I had to guess, Glaw would probably say something like it is because yours comes from your character's blood while mine comes from a change in the soul or something fancy like that."
"I guess that makes sense. I'm a bit jealous you can transform when you want and don't have a timer like me. Well, I should go inside so I can log in."
"Oh, Ken, one last question; what do you want to do about Purai?" He asked.
"I'll forgive her. She warned us she wasn't confident and I asked her to do so anyways. It wasn't her fault for thinking I was a lynx. Moira was right. Her mistake became a happy little accident. Don't tell Moira, but I really like playing as an animal. Hunting and wrestling like that are thrilling. It isn't something I could do much as an archer."
Jericho shook his head. "Sorry, I wasn't clear with what I meant to ask. Do you plan on being human around Purai?"
"Why do you ask?"
"Purai currently thinks you are an NPC creature. I know you saw how easily her emotions seemed to be affected."
"Ah, I think I understand why you are asking now. If I appear as a healthy and happy lynx, her confidence will be boosted but I won't be able to use my archery or human skills until after she leaves. If I appeared as a human, she would probably apologize profusely and feel disheartened again."
"Right; that is the risk. It is highly possible I have misjudged her but I'm usually a pretty good judge of character. Right now, Purai seems fragile. While lying is problematic, sometimes the truth is best spoken when a person has become stronger."
Ken frowned. "I don't want to be a kitten when I see her next. Let's log in and boost me up to tier 2 since we have the time and Moira sounds like she will be distracted for a while. We can tell Purai about her mistake later. I don't want to have to deal with apologies that seem like it is the end of the world. It will make helping her get past the satyrs much harder. But I have a different idea that may work out better."
"Sounds good, we can sell things and resume where we left off. I'll see you in game my four legged friend."
"Shut it."
***
They logged into the game.
Princess continued to hole herself up in the crafting room to work on her 'secret project'.
Jericho sold the excess loot he and Ken had before carried the box back over to the farmers. "Hello again!" He called out.
The farmer looked up. "Ah, it is the cat man. Are your cats already feeling rambunctious again already?"
"Indeed, but that is because of something important I didn't tell you last time."
"Oh?" The farmer asked.
"These cats are actually lynxes. The reason they are better hunters than your domestic cats is because these are wild animals my sister and I have tamed."
Realization hit the farmer. "No wonder. Well, same deal as last time. I'll reward you based on the number of kills these two get."
Jericho nodded. "Thank you. But I have a favor to ask."
"Shoot."
"The one with the green collar may grow before they are done hunting. Can you help make sure he isn't attacked by other adventurers?"
"Sure, as long as he doesn't try to attack us we can do that."
"Thank you." He dumped the kittens out of the box. {Same deal as last time, I will give the winner my last grilled fish. However the competition between you two will end when Ken grows to tier 2 or Princess says she is done whichever comes first. If she isn't done by the time you rank up, keep hunting.}
Ken translated for Lux and the battle began anew.
Jericho pulled out his piano and once again continued to practice and refine that playful duet and extended its length.
© J Eranoth