“What the hell is that thing?” Rick asked, discomfort clear in his face.
Matheus felt weirdly calm by his comment. It was nice having some reassurance he wasn’t going crazy.
Flying hat with fairy wings - Level: 11
You’ve ever wondered what would happen if you locked a fairy alone with a hat for days? Wonder no more!
Health: 15/15, Mana: 8/8
Don’t wear it. Seriously. Keep it far away from your head.
“That is ridiculous,” Rick muttered, tightening his grip on his sword. “It’s just a hat with wings.”
“Fairy wings,” Matheus answered. He guessed it shouldn’t surprise him that monsters could be inanimate objects. His first fight had been against a living toy, after all.
“Don’t underestimate it. It probably knows some dangerous magic,” Matheus said, thinking of their next move.
8 of mana was no joke. He wasn’t comfortable fighting against something that could cast spells he knew nothing of.
Besides, he had a total of zero hats on his skull collection. He would be fighting without any boost.
He had assigned those last SP to speed and synergy. Unfortunately, getting to level 10 hadn’t increased the quantity he received, and he could only increase 2 points for each.
“What do you think?” Rick whispered.
Suddenly a loud ping echoed, and the hat started flying to their direction.
“Damnit. Get ready.” Captain was still on his hood, but now that the monster had seen them, there was no guarantee it wouldn’t go after Captain if he was alone on the ground.
Actually, could it really see anything? Matheus saw no eyes. If not for the fairy wings, this creature would be indistinguishable from a normal wide-brimmed hat.
The hat flew to them, circling in the air like a vulture waiting to strike. When it got close enough, it dove to their direction, its edges becoming dangerously sharp. They ducked and slashed back, their blades cutting air as the hat swerved and got away. Matheus tried splashing the hat, only for it to change directions and dodge effortlessly.
It kept spinning and lunging to their heads, while they tried to hit it back with their blades. The hat was too fast for them, though, and their reach too short. Matheus wasn’t even able to test his new attack.
It was time to change strategies.
When the hat attacked again, Matheus clapped as hard as he could, throwing the hat away with a strong wind.
The monster only flew back a few meters, but soon recovered and started surrounding them. It didn’t look hurt or confused, only annoyed. Rick looked more affected by the clap than the hat did.
That had been a complete waste of an attack. Now he had fewer options. He needed to get the hat closer, somehow.
The hat, however, didn’t approach them back and instead flew higher, until it stopped a few meters above their heads.. A bright light flashed under the hat and a rabbit with very sharp teeth was launched from it.
“Damnit,” Matheus said, getting ready to slash at the creature.
Before he could do anything, though, Captain jumped from his shoulder straight to the flying rabbit.
One animal scratched and bit another on a confusion of fur and claws. Matheus moved to help, but the hat was faster and was attacking him again.
He threw himself to the ground and slashed blindly, trying to keep it away from him.
With relief, he saw Rick kicking the Rabbit from Captain. His familiar didn’t look much hurt, thanks to the Gods.
The hat folded itself in fury. It started emanating a strong glow, much brighter than before, and an explosion of rabbits started coming from inside it.
They all jumped into Matheus direction at once.
Well, that only gave him more possible targets.
Charging his knife, he stabbed the closest rabbit and watched in awe as electricity jumped from one animal to another. They all fell, squirming and spasming.
Matheus smiled with satisfaction. Now that was an effective attack.
The hat didn’t give him time to rejoice, though. It kept flying around him, trying to cut him on its flight. Matheus moved from one side to another, trying to slash back or hit it with a bubble ball.
The hat was too fast. It didn’t matter what he did, it was avoiding all his attacks. Thankfully it was now out of mana, having spent it all summoning all those rabbits at once. Still, they were at a stalemate.
For fuck’s sake, a knife is a terrible weapon to fight against a flying hat.
Matheus ran to the nearest tree, the hat after him. When he was about to reach it, he jumped to its trunk and with a fluid motion, used it as leverage to propel himself again, jumping back at the hat and slashing it before it could pivot.
He managed to hurt it, making it fly erratically and low as it escaped.
As it passed near Rick, he sank his sword right on the brim, sticking it to the ground.
“Bubble Ball!” Said Matheus, finally splashing the creature’s wings.
The fashion accessory tried desperately to escape, flapping violently from one side to another. Rick held to his sword, not letting the monster flee.
Matheus got close enough to slash at it until the hat stopped moving, lacerated.
You’ve leveled up!
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Captain has leveled up!
Scratch has reached level 4!
Parkour has reached level 2!
Slash has reached level 4!
“Yes, I’ve leveled up again,” Rick said, laughing.
Matheus analyzed him, and for his astonishment, the guy was already level 8!
He was probably getting a share of all the monsters Matheus had killed so far. They were in a party, after all. Still, he was already two times stronger from when Matheus first met him.
Well, maybe not really two times. He still only had one skill and that would never change.
But he’d helped on this last fight. The guy wasn’t completely useless, just mostly. Maybe 80% utterly trash, and 20% of potential.
To be honest, Matheus would’ve accepted worse odds. You can't be demanding when the world has never offered you much.
And if he was being really honest, he didn’t hate the guy. Sure, he was annoying, but he still treated him better than almost everyone had in his first life.
Matheus got the flying hat and stored it into his inventory. Another specimen for his collection.
He debated beheading the rabbits. He would be able to fill a full spot on his inventory with that many. But what would be the point? He'd already managed to defeat them easily. Cutting the heads was too much work for a pointless advantage.
Now, where should he allocate his points this time? It felt stupid increasing his Synergy, Density or Energy when they weren’t helping him at all, but everything pointed to at least something happening when he managed to get them to 5.
He was tired of all those blocked and unavailable abilities. It made him feel like he was still in the tutorial phase.
Fuck it. Synergy again until it upgraded or unlocked or whatever it would happen this time. Then the same with Density, and so on, until all his stats and skills were past level 5.
Matheus started speaking the command out loud, then stopped himself. He didn’t want another thing to explain to Rick. Fortunately, the system worked just fine with him only thinking about what he wanted.
Matheus had been pleasantly surprised at how much Captain was able to handle himself. He’d been pumping his agility stat ever since they’d first bonded, but he wasn’t expecting him to jump at enemies so fast. The cat's attack power was still poor, though, and his health wasn’t very big. Soon he would have to start distributing his points better.
“You did great, Captain,” he said while petting his familiar.
Soon they were on their way again, advancing and checking the area regularly.
“Where did you distribute your points?” Matheus asked Rick distractedly.
“Distribute my points? What do you mean?” Rick said with a confused expression.
“Yeah, you know. Strength, speed, intelligence… what did you increase?”
He snorted. “I got 2 extra points for speed. But I didn’t pick it. If I could have chosen, I’d have gone for strength.
“Never mind. I misspoke,” Matheus said quickly. So common people couldn’t control how their stats were allocated? Or was Rick just dumb? It could be either, really.
If it was true, they had an enormous disadvantage. Was he different because he was a champion? If so, that partly explained why the other hunters didn't seem to level up as fast as he did.
In a way, it made sense. This was supposed to be his training or something, right? Only the preparation before the real contest. Then, how did those other humans fit it? Was he in some sort of parallel reality? Or another world?
He wondered when he would finally start getting some answers.
“Are we getting close? I’ve never been to those parts before,” Rick commented while they walked.
“We should be almost there,” Matheus answered. He checked his map, and saw with satisfaction how much information was available for him. Only a small part still had the fog, representing the areas he still hadn’t explored.
It took them only a few more minutes to arrive at a glade, surrounded by small hills and with half a dozen cave entrances.
Sitting in front of it, there was a turtle with a straw hat, waiting with eyes closed and arms crossed. It was two times the size of Matheus.
Cave Guardian - Level: 15
Really protective of his caves.
Health: 24/24, Mana: 0/0
Has an extremely durable shell. Good luck trying to break it.
“Do you think we should engage?” Rick asked, a small tremble in his voice.
“No, not yet. I need to replenish more mana. And I want to formulate an attack plan first.”
“Of course. Tell me what you want me to do, and I’ll do it.”
Rick seemed to be trying to impress him. Was he trying to prove he could be useful? Maybe he was worried Matheus would kick him off the party if they failed.
Would he?
Rick had been helping, but being realistic, soon Matheus wouldn’t be able to justify sharing part of his experience to a guy that did little more than distract his enemies for him.
Decisions for another time. For now, Rick was doing his part.
“I think it’s time to go back to some old tricks. C’mon, help me find a big enough boulder.”