CC5 ~ 29!

~ 29 ~

Joe was mentally drained after such an interesting day. He went to ‘his’ room and dropped onto the bed, abruptly launching himself off as the blanket gave a furious yowl and his Exquisite Shell flickered.

Exquisite Shell: 2345/2346.

Health: 1,504/1,574

There was a tiny *slap* as his shadow materialized and hit something, pulling Joe’s attention to a small animal that was hissing at him. “A cat? Why is there a cat in here?”

His mind flashed back to the cat that the Elves had impaled. After peering closer, Joe determined the cat wasn’t the one he had saved earlier. “What breed of cat are you… what I saw earlier was a Birman; you… I have no idea. Query?”

Query succeeded! What a waste of getting an answer from what is essentially a god-like figure, but sure. He’s in a good mood today. This cat is an ‘Abyssinian’ breed. According to information publicly available to humans, it is one of the oldest known breeds and is recognizable by its distinctive features.

Skill increase: Query (Novice III). You can use this once a day. It is a powerful tool. Why are you not? -Tatum.

The message made Joe remember a few other powerful one-a-day skills he had, and he swallowed hard as he realized that he had gone this whole time without increasing his lore skills every day. He kept his eyes on the cat, then glimpsed the scratches on his arms. “How did you get through my shield?”

Combat log:

Joe startles Unknown.

Unknown counter-attacks and deals 1 physical damage, 69 true damage.

His eyebrow lifted, and he stepped away from the cat, which started to calm down. “True damage? Now I have to watch out for true damage? What in the world are you? Who let you in?”

The cat didn’t speak—which was actually surprising in a magical world like this—and simply stared at him, as if telling him to figure it out on his own. Seeing that it wasn’t coming after him beyond that first strike, Joe started dealing with other pressing matters. The first order of business was to boost his lore skill and get back to using his beneficial abilities. “Knowledge, Smithing Lore!”

Skill increase: Smithing Lore (Beginner III).

Information on materials and alloys flowed into his mind, stopping sharply after three seconds. Joe held his head as the influx and rapid mana usage created the expected headache. The cat observed all of this calmly, and Joe glared at it. “You know, a dog would care if someone were in pain.”

Not getting a response, Joe decided that he needed to see someone friendly. “Mate, come on out!”

The coffee elemental bubbled into existence on his arm, steaming happily. Joe held out a hand, willing the shadops to… “An~n~nd I forgot that I can’t make cups out of shadows anymore. It’s been almost two months; why is that still my go-to?”

Joe searched through his ring and pulled out a small teacup, grimacing as he noted a large chip in it. “How did I break this?”

Everything was harder before coffee. Joe had Mate make a small but potent cup of espresso and took a long minute to savor it. He motioned at the cat with the broken cup. “Want some coffee, cat?”

Mate then noticed the cat as well. It bubbled and steamed, and the cat hissed. Mate hissed like a kettle, then vanished into Joe’s sleeve once more. Joe stood and slowly backed away from the cat, “What are you, really? I don’t trust anything that my coffee doesn’t.”

At that moment, the letter that Joe had gotten earlier in the day somehow ‘fell out’ of his ring. That had never happened before… and shouldn’t have been able to happen. A spatial device was a sealed space. There had to be some shenanigans afoot. Trying to keep an eye on the cat, Joe opened the letter and read over the information, a frown growing on his face the entire time.

To whom it may concern,

As thanks for your self-sacrificial gesture of saving me, I have applied to have you honored by our royal family. What I did not expect was that you have proven yourself worthy of an audience from the Queen herself. Please prepare yourself, as she will be arriving shortly. I recommend having a feast prepared, and a place of honor for her Majesty to take her ease.

My deepest thanks are yours, for saving me from the thoughtless Elves that made an attempt on my life.

Your biggest fan, Cindy Clawford.

“The Queen?” Joe looked up at the cat, who was currently sitting in a regal pose on his bed. “You’re a Queen? Of what? Cindy Claw… nope. Nope. What’s going on?”

The cat released a light sigh and jumped off the bed toward him. Between one breath and another, the small animal shifted into a small person, roughly the size and height of a nine-year-old human. “We are Queen CleoCatra, and we will forgive this impurrtinence only because we saw you unseal the letter; we understand that you could not have expected our arrival. We suppose that one of the risks of being a hidden race… is that no one knows who or what we are. Joe, we are here at the behest of one of our subjects, a celebrity among us, to judge you for rewards.”

“I really have no interest in-” Joe was cut off by a sharp gesture from the tiny woman, who looked very human, if you ignored that her ears were faintly furry and her hands extended claws when she was upset.

“It is not up to you if we decide to reward you or not,” CleoCatra hissed at him. “You have saved one of our people, and now ask for no reward? You have met our people before, and they even assisted you to make an intelligent choice that impacts you today. Why do you dislike us so much that you would happily reduce our Karmic Luck to such a degree?”

“Wait, you know what Karmic Luck does?” Joe almost took a step forward, but a lazy slash from a clawed hand forced him back a step.

“There are few things we have no knowledge of. We took the day to follow you and study your struggles, and we have decided upon helping you in what you lack most. Therefore, we will take steps to rectify this weakness on your behalf.” CleoCatra’s eyes shone a deep blue and held a surprising depth of wisdom. “You may ask your questions.”

“I…” Joe was surprised to find that he had numerous questions. “You said you were a hidden race? What does that mean? Also, are you speaking about yourself using the royal ‘we’, or is there a group of stray cats following me around?”

Reputation with Occutatum has increased by 500! Congratulations on finding a hidden race! Current reputation: 4,042. Reputation rank: Ally.

“I speak for my people as a whole.” Cleo stated directly, if somewhat snippily. Joe decided not to call her people ‘strays’ again. “We refused to enter the war between sentient beings. We will not be a Unified, nor a Shattered, race. This has benefits, as well as certain… downsides; the main one being that all the others in the conflict see us as weak for our neutrality. We are not welcome in most populations, if they find my people among them. Hence, we are loath to leave our best forms and take on the appearance of others.”

“Why did you refuse to enter the fight?” The question seemed to jump from his mouth on its own.

CleoCatra took it in stride, letting out a yawn that exposed too many sharp teeth for her to be mistaken as a human. “Too much effort. None of our people want to create or go to war. Why should we, when others willingly become our servants as soon as we appear?”

Joe nodded at this explanation, since it was well known that becoming a pet to another group meant that your progress would stop, for one reason or another. “If you don’t mind me asking… what are your people called?”

“We…” CleoCatra posed proudly, “are the Nyanderthals!”

Keeping himself from laughing was a harder challenge than fighting the Zombie Dwarves in the landfill had been. Joe managed to only cough and wipe his watering eyes. “I… thank you for your offer of help. Oh, you mentioned that I had met your people before?”

“Once. You were looking for inspiration and found some of our people playing in their human forms. You joined in, and they offered you some chalk in thanks for your participation.” CleoCatra saw that Joe didn’t remember, but she didn’t seem to mind. “You likely mistook them for children, if that helps.”

“Not… no, not really. Sorry.” Joe decided to get to the point he was most interested in. “You said that you found what I ‘lack most’ and were going to help me? What exactly did you mean by that?”

“Well, human that has been blessed by the gods from your first moment here…” CleoCatra’s eyes flashed alarmingly. “We find that what you lack most is the ability to properly deal with, and learn from, failure. So, we have come here to save you by forcing the issue. You can thank us later.”