I hide in the tree for a few seconds, trying to figure out what’s going on. Those Karkinoids, whatever they are, just appeared there, but now they’re not really doing anything. I thought they were after me, but I don’t think they know where I am. Was it a lucky teleport, or something else? It’s very weird.

  [ That’s called spawning. They just spawned in. It wasn’t targeted. It’s randomized within the region. They just happened to appear next to you. ]

  Spawned? Like in video games?

  [ Yes ]

  Oh. So they’re not after me. That means I can hunt them! Let’s see what these guys actually are.

  I jump from tree to tree until the three karkinoids are in view, and then I gasp. They’re crabmen! They’ve got pincers and everything! I love crab! That’s my second favorite seafood! They don’t even look that strong either!

  [ Karkinoid, Tier 1, lvl 1 ]

  [ Karkinoid, Tier 1, lvl 1 ]

  [ Karkinoid, Tier 1, lvl 1 ]

  Yeah, they’re weaker than me. Free food!

  I immediately jump over to a tree above them, and drop down on the nearest ones. Unlike the octodudes and the big fish dude, they don’t seem to have very good senses, and none of them notice me until it’s too late. I hit the first one with a Quadruple Slice? and fall to the ground, ready to get the others.

  However, rather than ripping him to shreds, it just leaves some cuts on his skin. Well, not skin. It looks like he’s got a full exoskeleton. I definitely cracked it but I didn’t cut all the way through, and he seems to be relatively unharmed.

  All three of them turn to me and make weird hissy clicking noises with their mouth, then move forward to attack! I Blink backward away from them… and then realize I didn’t need to. They’re slow. Comically slow.

  Also, Blink worked with my mana arms! Neat.

  I jump forward and do a double Slice with my right paw and right arm on the leg of the nearest crabman, then jump back. He tries to grab me with his pincer, but he doesn’t even come close to hitting me. Unfortunately, my Slices once again don’t do much to him.

  These crabmen must have all their stats focused in Resilience, and absolutely none in Finesse. And since my Finesse is good, I’m just way faster than them. That makes them not really dangerous to me, but it also makes it a little difficult to fight. I could keep Slicing, and I’d break through eventually, but this encounter has highlighted a minor weakness of mine: I can’t break through tough defenses.

  Slice is great for cutting into softer things like skin or wood. It’s less good for rocks and hard shells. The big fish dude doesn’t have a hard shell, but he does have scales, and his stats are all higher then mine, meaning his Resilience probably is too. If I want to kill him, then I need to be able to break through enemies with high Resilience, and that means I need an attack that can do that.

  I dodge back a few steps as the crabmen get too close.

  To crack a shell, something big and strong like a rock would be best… but I don’t have anything like that. I’m a cat, and my stats are geared toward Finesse and magic, not Power. So, instead of getting something strong and hard like a rock, I should just focus on what I already do and upgrade Slice. Abby, you said I could get a Spatial Slice if I upgrade it again, right?

  [ It’s likely ]

  And if I have that upgrade, I’ll be able to cut through stronger shells like this?

  [ Absolutely. Spatial attacks are the bane of all physical defenses ]

  Excellent! Then I just need to figure out how to get Slice from its current Middle Proficiency to Peak so I can upgrade it. So, Consistency, Accuracy, Versatility. I’m pretty consistent already, I think. And pretty accurate. Well, I’m not sure actually, since I usually just use all four claws for maximum damage. I guess it’s time for a test.

  I retract all but one claw and aim another slice right at crack in the knee joint of the nearest crabman. My aim is slightly off though, and I end up just cutting into the shell right above the crack. I guess my accuracy isn’t quite as good as I thought. No time like the present to practice though!

  I continue jumping around the crabmen and doing single-claw Slices at various targets. I get pretty good with my right paw, then switch over to my left and do the same. By the time I’m finished, all three crabmen no longer have legs. Unlike the octodudes, these guys only have the four limbs. Two legs, and two arms with pincers, so without those legs, they’re handicapped. I don’t stop there though.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  I keep practicing Slice, using each and every one of my claws until I have near-perfect accuracy with all of them. Well, maybe not “near-perfect,” but it’s good enough to get Slice to Late Proficiency at least. Once that upgrade happens, I dispatch the crabs, and to my surprise, it nets me both a Species level and two Class levels.

  [ Gluttonous Feral Fiery Spatial Devourer Thief House Cat, 6 → 7 ]

  [ +16 Power, +22 Finesse, +20 Resilience, +14 Memory, +14 Willpower, +14 Sensitivity ]

  [ Beginner Mana Vivitect, 1 → 3 ]

  [ +8 Power, +8 Finesse, +8 Resilience, +48 Memory, +48 Willpower, +40 Sensitivity ]

  I wasn’t expecting that Species level, but heck yeah! Gimme those stats! One step closer to killing the fish dude!

  And now, it’s time for my favorite part. Eating!

  The crabs are kind of in pieces, so I Snatch one of the severed legs to bring it over to myself, then take a bite from the white meat poking out of the shell. It tastes good… but not as good as I was hoping. I think I know why. Crab isn’t meant to be eaten raw. It needs to be cooked.

  I spend the next ten minutes running around and gathering the driest sticks I can find to make a fire. I light it with Ember, but apparently, that skill is too strong to be used for just lighting fires, and it sends all my sticks flying everywhere. After gathering them back up again, I just manually set some of my mana on fire to get it going.

  After stoking the flames a bit and getting them nice and hot, I then grab a few longer, straighter sticks and start using Slice to sharpen them. This is a test of all three of the upgrade criteria, and I end up ruining a few sticks in the process, but in the end, I have a few decently sharp sticks. I Slice open the crab legs and extract the meat with my mana hands and stab it with my sticks, then hold them over the fire. Then, I wait.

  While this wait is infuriatingly tedious, I have to admit, it was kind of satisfying getting all of that ready. Plus, it was also good for my Skills. Slice didn’t reach Peak Proficiency, but Phantom Limb Control and Anchor Point both went up to Middle Proficiency. My mana arms are now much more dextrous than before, and I have a third anchor point, so I can have both of my mana arms active, and have a third something attached to me. That third something is what I decide to work on while I wait for the crab to cook.

  Most of the crabmen are in my Stomach right now, but I left a pincer out so I can study and replicate it. It takes a little while, since it’s something unfamiliar, and I end up taking a food break, since the crab legs finish cooking, but soon, I have a mostly functional mana crab pincer. I can grab stuff with it, at least. I’m still unfamiliar with it, so it’s a bit clumsy, but I’m able to get some decent experimentation in.

  The crab pincer has a much stronger grabbing force than my mana hands. It also tends to break those things when I squeeze too hard. Unfortunately, it’s not compatible with Bite. Even though it is arguably a bite and not a grab, and it even kind of has teeth, it still doesn’t work. It also works with Slice, but not as well as my modified mana hands or my claws. Basically, the only thing it’s really good for right now is squeezing things really hard, which I don’t have much use for at the moment. I can see how it might be useful later though if I’m fighting and need to hold something down or catch a sword attack or whatever.

  I mess around with anchoring it too. I start with my chest, but it’s a little awkward having it hanging there, even if it maximizes my reach. In the end, I settle on just anchoring it on my back right between my mana arms and having it hang forward like a weird scorpion tail.

  With my curiosity sated there, I move on to my next mana construct: a tentacle. I summon one from my Stomach and nibble on it while I study and recreate it. As I work on both of these constructs, I gain a bit of a new appreciation for Emma. It fills in a lot of the gaps that my observation doesn’t catch, and somehow seems to apply the properties of the actual body parts to my constructs. For example, the crab claw was much harder and more durable than my normal mana constructs, and this tentacle is much squishier and more flexible.

  The tentacle is significantly more difficult to control than anything I’ve made so far. The crab claw at least had joints that made sense, so I could orient my brain around them, but the tentacle is just long and floppy and completely unintuitive and has no notable features for me to center my mind on. I don’t understand how it works. Even after practicing all the way until sunset, I can still barely use it. I can kind of fling it at things, and once it’s kind of wrapped around, I can squeeze, but I was hoping it would be fully prehensile. It’s sad, but I guess that’s the limit of what I can do right now.

  I’d like to now find a seagull to copy wings from, but with the sun setting, I’ve got more important things to do, like hunting. I don’t bother to put out my fire, since it’s already dying down, and there’s no dry wood around it, and instead just run back toward the village. I pick a perch above it that gives me a pretty good view down and wait for patrol groups to be sent out. And then I wait. And wait a bit longer. And then wait some more.

  Where are they?! I can see them down there, running around and practicing with their swords! Why are they all staying there? Come to me, my meals!

  [ Maybe you should try calling out to them out loud. That would be more effective ]

  Do you think I’m an idiot? That would just get all of them chasing me, and that won’t help. I need just a few of them to be out and unsuspecting. I need to practice my Quadruple Slice?!

  [ They might not come out at all then. Leader type Named monsters tend to be intelligent. Perhaps he is keeping his subordinates from going out specifically to prevent you from doing that ]

  Nah, that’s ridiculous. That would be too smart. I am the only smart monster.

  Another hour passes, and not a single seafoodman leaves the village.

  Abby, I think you might be right. This sucks. How am I supposed to level up now?

  [ You could leave the area and find a Dungeon or something to level up in ]

  A Dungeon?

  [ An extradimensional space where monsters and treasures spawn regularly. Humans and other humanoids tend to settle around them due to the resources they provide. If you live near a Dungeon, you can have a steady supply of monster parts, leveling opportunities, and even magical items. ]

  Woah, cool. Maybe in the future. For now, I’m gonna stay here. They’ve gotta leave the village at some point, right?

  [ Eventually. In the meantime, I guess you could hunt fresh spawns like the karkinoids. It won’t be consistent or lucrative, but it will at least let you get a little bit of experience while you wait. ]

  Yeah, good idea.

  [ Also, I can’t believe you didn’t check earlier, but External Mana Manipulation - Anatomical Constructs reached Peak Proficiency. You can upgrade it now ]

  Oh, no way! Alright, upgrade Emma!

  [ The System doesn’t recognize that nickname. You need to use the full name ]

  Ugh, fine. Upgrade External Mana Manipulation - Anatomical Constructs!