"Raven, come on, we're gonna be late for school!" Fiona giggly yelled back at me.
"Since when have you ever been interested in being on time Fi?" I asked with a sideways glance at the bubbly girl beside me.
"Since Joey Fisher joined our class, now come on." She said, dragging me across the street.
"Hoooonnnnk!!"
Time seemed to slow down as I watched the truck head straight towards us. I knew at that moment that I could jump away or push Fi away but not both. That wasn't a difficult decision to make as I pushed my friend away and waited for the inevitable pain.
After a couple of tense moments of nothing, I opened my eyes to an old lady staring at me from a table with papers all around us.
"Um… hello?" I asked in a somewhat timid and confused voice.
"Ms. Smith you died and will be reincarnated into a different world with your memories intact, which is odd, but that's above my paygrade. Any questions?"
"Wait, I died?!" I shouted, the timid tone gone and replaced with confusion, anger, and concern.
"Yes you died saying your friend, very noble, and you will be rewarded for that in your next life. I wish you luck on your next journey." She said with a bored voice, before pushing a button on her desk. Before I could say anything there was another flash of light and I found myself in a dark cave, at least I think it was a cave. I tried to stand up only to fall back down sitting on my tail as I fell. 'Wait...tail!!'
Sure enough right behind me was a snow whitetail. What, the fuck. I looked down and I had white paws and white fur. 'What is going on?!' Suddenly a smooth male voice started talking in my head while a blue screen popped up in front of my face.
|Initialising System|
|System has bonded with the host. Opening Status|
Status
|Name: Raven Smith|
|Race: Steel Leopard Cub| "Wait, Leopard?? MOSIS YOU SICK TWISTED BASTARD! How am I supposed to help my host!? I was designed for a human host you asshole. 'Sigh' Whatever, here is the rest of your status," the slightly depressed voice said before the blue screen appeared once more.
|Bloodline: Steel Leopard 100%|
|Mutation: Nanite Infused|
|Classification: D+
|Level 1 Exp 0/100|
|HP 20 MP 20|
|Attributes|
|Str 8|
|Agi 5|
|Con 10|
|Int 4|
|Chr 5|
|Luck 6|
Skills
|Night Vision 1/10|
|Stealth 1/10|
|Bite 1/10|
|Slash 1/10|
|Metal Control 1/100|
|Nanite regeneration at 100%|
|Inventory: Beginners package|
Shop
|locked|
I did what any sane person would do after waking up as an animal and then hearing voices in my head, I passed out.
Alex (pov)
'Fucking Mosis and his fucking wheel of fate bullshit, fuck.' I ranted inside my head. While she slept I started listing through the skills and abilities I would be able to modify for my host so we both wouldn't die. I paused at that thought, damn, Mosis was right. I already think of myself as her program, geez, I hope she is a cool person to hang with. Oh, she's waking up.
Raven (Pov)
"Uhhh, my head." When I opened my eyes the blue screen popped back up and a male voice started talking again.
|Hello Raven, I am an advanced combat system named Alex, designed for human or humanoid use. However, because of a chance in fate, fucking Mosis bullshit, we are stuck together so I will try and keep you alive to the best of my abilities. Unlike normal systems, that you may or may not have heard of. I designed myself as a nanite hivemind which gives me the ability to heal you as well as feel your pain. We are of one body now, which means you will be able to control my, no, your nanites when you get stronger. Unfortunately, this will probably be the last time I will be able to talk to you formally. As it is a breach of article 5 paragraph: 2 in system conduct with its user. Now, I will be giving you quests for you to get stronger some may make sense others might not but it is all to ensure our survival. Just think status and your stats will appear in front of you. It was nice meeting you.|
Wait, Alex, I still have questions! No one answered. I guess it wasn't a dream, I really did reincarnate with a system, although this is different from what I read in novels. Well, may as well try this, status.
Status
|Name: Raven Smith|
|Race: Steel Leopard Cub|
|Mutation Nanite Infused|
|Bloodline Steel Leopard 100%|
|Classification D+|
|Level 1 Exp 0/100|
|HP 20 MP 20|
|Attributes|
|Str 8|
|Agi 5|
|Con 10|
|Int 4|
|Chr 5|
|Luck 6|
Skills
|Night Vision 1/10|
|Stealth 1/10|
|Bite 1/10|
|Slash 1/10|
|Metal Control 1/100|
|Nanite Control 1/100|
|Nanite regeneration at 100%|
|Skill Points 0|
Inventory
|1/100|
Beginners package
Shop
|locked|
|Race information: Steel leopards are a rare variant of the earth leopard. They are hunted for their soft fur coats that can deflect swords and spears.|
I really am a leopard cub, and I have a nanite hivemind in me, damn.
|New Quest Available: Learn to walk|
|Reward: 10 exp|
|Time Limit 00:09:59|
|Yes/No|
Mentally I selected yes and then started to stand up on all fours. Come on Raven, when you were a baby you were crawling on all fours this is the same thing! A couple of minutes later I was carefully stumbling around the cave.
|Congratulations|
|10 Exp Gained|
|New Skill Gained: Walk|
|New Quest Available: Find something to eat|
|Reward: dependant on host|
After I gained the skill, Walk, I could actually walk like I'd been doing it my whole life. So I started to head towards a light near the end of the cave, or what I assumed to be the end of the cave. As I got nearer to it I gasped in surprise. It wasn't the exit to the cave, but rather an entrance to a giant cave with a thriving ecosystem. When I looked up instead of the sun there was glowing moss covering the roof providing light for the cave. All I could see were white trees with ruby red leaves littering the forest floor. It was beautiful. Remembering that I had a quest to finish I slowly entered the forest. I'm really glad my dad taught me how to hunt in my previous life, at least I have the basics. Be quiet and patient, and like a leopard, every step I took was as light as a feather. Then I saw a little rabbit, or what looked like a rabbit. It had slick black fur and small barbs going down its back. I wish I knew what it was, wait, wasn't there a beginner's package in my inventory. As soon as I thought the word it popped up.
|Inventory 1/100|
|Beginners Package|
|Open? Y/N|
Yes please, I was giddy in anticipation.
|Skill Gained: Inspect 1/10|
|Inspect allows you to see the name, race, and traits of anything you see.|
|Talent Gained: Absorb 1/?|
|Absorb: Because the system was designed for humans which you are not, the system has created a new "talent" that allows you to absorb traits of animals you kill and feast upon.|
|5x lottery tickets, Bloodlust combat knife (unavailable at this time,) 3x canteen of water.|
Holy shit, I was kind of expecting the inspect skill, every system that I've ever read about has it but that talent, thank you, Alex. I'll use the lotto tickets when I find a place to sleep. I looked back at the rabbit.
|Shadow Rabbit, Mutated|
|Level 3|
|Classification E|
|HP 30|
|MP 30|
|Skills ???|
|Talents ???|
Ok so it's 2 levels above me, so what? I'm a predator, here we go. I slowly stalked the rabbit and when I was about a meter away I pounced. My claws ripped into my prey without hesitation, killing it in seconds. I guess my latent feline instincts kicked in because I slowly started to drag its body towards a tree which I proceeded to climb up and then devour the rabbit. Suddenly my status popped up.
|Congratulations|
|+20 Exp|
|+100 Exp for killing something 2 levels above you|
|+100 Gold|
|+ 1 shadow rabbit pelt|
|Talent Absorb has activated, pick 1 trait to absorb: hop, shadow affinity, barbs, heightened hearing, Bloodline Moon Rabbit 0.01%|
|Congratulations, you are now level 2, +5 SP|