Summoned Again?

Chapter 33: The Next Encounter

We approached the outskirts of the next village and the cat woman in front slowed down and held a paw hand out to stop us. She waved us to the side of the road as we crept into the trees.

Meow. She whispered and looked at the one still holding my hand. Mrow, meow merow?

Mrow. She nodded and the other one turned and crept off into the underbrush. I immediately cast the Search spell and it only covered the closest part of the village and the part of the forest I was in. I watched the cat woman's now green dot creep up to the treeline. She stayed there and waited as a red dot moved along the treeline, then the two dots banged into each other a couple times. A moment later, the green dot and the red dot came over to us.

Meowrow. The cat woman said and tossed another wrapped being at our feet. Meow, mew meow...

I tuned her out, since I couldn't understand her anyway and knelt as I let go of the paw hand I held. I pulled down the hood and started to unwrap the face.

Meow! The one that held my hand said and put a paw hand on mine. Mrow.

I have to look and see. I said and unwrapped the face. My Auto-identifier didn't show me anything, which was really odd, considering how powerful it was, which meant whatever this thing was had immunity to the spell effect or they automatically countered the spell. If they did either of those things, then trying to find anything out about them was going to be very difficult.

When I finished removing the scarf, I sat back on my heels. It was a raccoon. It had the deep set eyes, the built in black criminal mask on the face, and the black nose on a short muzzle. I quickly checked it for things and found thieves tools, rope, a small dagger, a little bit of money and a shiny round ruby that was about an inch across.

Of course humanoid raccoons are thieves and can't be identified. I whispered and almost laughed.

Hiss, meow. The one beside me said and her claws slid out as she knelt to reach for the throat.

Wait. I said and put an armored hand on hers to stop her. I don't know if we have to kill him.

Meow? She looked at me. Mrow meow, hiss.

Okay, hissing is bad. I said and looked down at the thing. I regret killing all those cat people, even though it had to be done. I grabbed the cloak of the raccoon creature and stood up with it. It was only about four feet tall, about the same as the rats, so I easily walked with it out onto the road.

The four cat women hissed and followed me. They looked defensive and I held a hand out for the one that had taken my hand earlier.

Mrow meow. She said and took my hand, then the other three walked behind us.

I walked towards the village and cast the search spell as soon as I crossed into the outer part of the village. The whole thing popped up and I saw that there were a lot more red dots than there were in the cat village. Almost double, in fact. I kept walking and held the unconscious raccoon in front of me. A few of them noticed and let out shaking mutters and took off at a run.

This wasn't the impression that I wanted to give. I thought as word quickly spread and the other raccoons... at least, I assumed it was other raccoons... gathered in the center of town to wait for us.

The cat women with me kept emitting a low hiss as they were easily outnumbered by all the enemies around us. I had a different opinion about it, actually. The Search spell gave red dots the default for people unknown and assumed hostile. It wasn't until I rescued the cat women that they changed to green, even if one of them was flickering red occasionally. That just meant she was on the fence about trusting me, so I had to do something to fix that.

I activated my armor's Amplify ability and spoke. Greetings! I come bearing no ill towards you and yours. I held up the unconscious raccoon and hisses and growls responded to me. It's all right. I said in a soothing tone and cast Minor Healing on him.

He woke up immediately and I put him down. He took off running and disappeared into the crowd.

See? I held my hands up and showed no weapons. I didn't hurt him and...

Almost as one, they all hunkered down and growled.

Dammit. I said and took out my sword, activated both the sword and my armor's enchantments, then hugged the four female cats close. Severing Blades. I touched the sword to my armor and repeated the same attack. Thousands of six inch long swords formed around us in a circle and shot out instantly.

MROW! The female cats yelled loudly as one, then they heard all of the raccoons die.

I let the cats go and looked around. All of the red dots around us were gone. The village was now devoid of all occupants from a single attack.

____

You have defeated a group of Crassidens (174) as a Level 26 combatant without any fighting abilities or points assigned to skills or stats.

Experience Earned: 865 (x174) (150,510)

Multiple Kill Bonus: 500 for 10 (5,000); 1,000 for 20 (20,000); 1,500 for 30 (45,000); 2,000 for 40 (80,000); 2,500 for 50 (125,000); 3,000 for 60 (180,000); 3,500 for 70 (245,000); 4,000 for 80 (320,000); 4,500 for 90 (405,000); 5,000 for 100 (500,000); 6,000 for 110,120,130,140,150,160,170 (5,880,000)

Grand total: 7,955,510 Experience Points

____

Total Levels gained: 38

Stat Points available for distribution: 380 + 260 unspent = 640

Skills unlocked: 0 (none are locked)

Skill points available: 140 + 130 unspent = 270

____

I stood there, completely stunned. Jesus fucking Christ! I thought in shock and couldn't comprehend gaining so may levels so easily. The stacking bonuses were actually reduced, I assumed because I was a much higher level than the first time it happened at level one, and it was still a massive amount. It was even giving me totals now for each one. Just for fun, I identified myself.

___

Name: Damon

Race: Human (Enhanced)

Class: Devourer (unused - Level 64)

Job: Pawn

___

I wonder why it doesn't add my last name? I asked myself as I tried to come to grips with gaining 64 levels in a single day and only from two encounters. It had taken me years on the last world to get this high and I worked my ass off to do it. This was... this was... absolutely ridiculous. I thought, then I had a bad thought. A very, very bad thought.

I wanted to find another village before I assigned any points, just to see if I could keep the bonuses going. I started doing the math in my head and stopped my smile before I figured out that I would only need three or four more large groups like this to get me to level 99, assuming that was the top of the level cap. It had been on the last world and I was using that as a guide. If it wasn't the cap, then I was going to keep my points unspent, just in case.

While I stood there, the four cat women walked around and looted the bodies. They treated them roughly and I did my best to not shout at them. I also didn't really think there were a lot of skills that I could absorb from a thief class, since I already had the skills from the last party I had been a part of. It had been a sub-class for the man and he was Level 70 at the time of his death. His skills were also maxed with his points, so I was sure I couldn't improve them.

Maybe I really should have stayed and talked to the goddess. I thought as the cat women brought me over the loot. I chuckled as they handed over a hundred packs of thieves tools, nearly four hundred small and normal daggers, piles of what I assumed was money, and to my surprise, lots of magical belts that granted bonuses to thieving skills and sneaking.

I took everything and held out a set of daggers, a belt, and a handful of money to the one that had taken my hand.

Meow? She asked and I held them close.

You can have these. I said and put everything in her hands.

Mrow. She said and put the belt on. She purred a little and then put the daggers into spots on the belt, then took the money. Merow meow.

I hope that's thank you. I said and held the same thing out to the next cat woman. She hesitated for only a moment, didn't speak, and then did the same thing. I did it for the other two and the one that was flickering between green and red blinked less frequently. I took out one of the swords the cat people had and the four of them took a step back.

It's all right. I said and turned the sword around and held the hilt out towards the first cat. You can have this, too. I wanted to see their faces, just so I could confirm if they were fully cat people like the tiger had been; but, I decided that now was not the time to ask one of them to remove their face covering.

She reached out and carefully took hold of the hilt. Meow?

I let the sword go and showed her how to hook it to her belt. It's yours now. I touched the hilt and then touched the spot just below her neck at the top of her sternum. It's yours.

Merow? She asked.

Yeah, I'm probably confusing you. I'm sorry. I said and thought about trying to touch her face through the scarf she had over it. I handed a sword out to the next cat woman and she didn't hesitate at all as she took it and hooked it to her belt. The next one did the same and the last one held it in her hand. Her green dot went red as she seriously thought attacking me was a good idea.

Go ahead. I said and held my hands up and away from her. I won't stop you if you want to leave.

Grrrr. The one who had held my hand growled.

Hiss. The other two said.

The last one let out something like a sigh and hooked the sword to her belt and her icon went green.

I smiled at her, even though she couldn't see it through the full helm I wore. I stepped close to her and slowly put my hands on the sides of her face. Thank you. I said and she didn't pull away. I rubbed my hands up and down a little as a test and she purred.

Meow! The one that had held my hand before exclaimed.

Aww, do you feel left out? I asked and did the same to her. She purred and I chuckled as the other two stepped close. I did each of them and the four of them were lightly purring when I was done.

I think I better collect the bodies anyway, just to get them out of the way. I said and waved my hand to make all of the ones within ten feet of us disappear. The cats jumped slightly, then they purred louder. Just give me a minute. I said and ran around the middle of the village as I stored them all.

Meeroow. The one who had held my hand said, almost sexily.

I was pretty sure I was putting my own interpretation onto her speech, though. It's getting late, so maybe we should look for a nice bed.

Mrow? She asked.

Bed. I said and put my hands into a pray gesture, put it beside my head, then mimed laying down.

The four cat women just stared at me.

Okay, I suck at charades. I said and held a hand out to her. She took it and I led her over to the biggest structure. Inside were several large rooms that were filled with... well, everything. The raccoons weren't thieves that didn't steal anything, apparently.

I led her into one of the rooms that had a big bed. I did the same sleeping mime motion and pointed to the bed. She started purring immediately and climbed onto the bed. She assumed the proper position for what she thought I wanted. She was on her hands and knees and she wiggled her ass at me as her purring increased. I heard several scraping sounds and turned to look as the other three cat women carried extra bedding and things into the room, set it up around the other bed, then laid down to watch.

Well, damn. I thought and wondered what the hell I was going to do.