Reborn as a Cat: Who Needs Elixirs, I’ve Got Cat Punches for Days!
Chapter 1: Unarmed level 1
Punch punch punch punch punch. A 3 foot tall cat with human-like posture punches a log over and over, his eyes intense and nearly crazed. In his ears, unheard to anyone else comes a pinging sound with every strike of paw on wood. Ping ping ping ping. In his mind glowing text floats up continuously like a video game notification, mismatched entirely with his ancient, humble clothes.
[You earned 1 exp in Unarmed.]
[You earned 1 exp in Unarmed.]
[You earned 1 exp in Unarmed.]
… Impacts of fist to wood echoes throughout the rundown courtyard, bouncing off dilapidated mud walls. Sudden silence. On the 100th strike:
“Woohoo!!!” The cat bounces in excitement.
[You earned 1 exp in Unarmed and reached level 1. Max Life +10. Energy +20]
[You learned Front Kick from leveling.]
[Front Kick: Rank 1, “Attack a target with a strong kick to knock them away.”, light damage and the target is sent 10 meters away, costs 12 energy.]
(Yesss!!! And a new ability too! Awes-) The man cat falls flat on his face. (Urgh, wh-why do I feel so awful?) The man cat focuses on himself, in his mind’s eye he sees a portrait of his own cat face along with several bars and his name, Nyanthony. (Eh! The red bar is at 10/20? The blue bar is 0/20. The yellow bar is still 0/0. If we do the math, then the red bar went from 10 to 20 and is my Life? Urgh, is my life being cut in half why I’m feeling so bad? What kind of stingy level up doesn’t come with a healing to max…)
Nyanthony drags himself to the log he uses as a makeshift training dummy and sits against it to rest. (I gained Unarmed 0 from first punching this log and felt fine, I wish the senior brothers warned me about level 1 kicking my ass on arrival.) Nyanthony catches his breath. (I guess this is probably some kind of hazing thing? Well, I missed out on that in college, I guess that karma decided to catch up to me in this life.) As Nyanthony rests he starts feeling a strange warm sensation in his chest, like drinking a hot cocoa on a frigid winter day.
He quickly brings up his status bars again:
[Nyanthony- Life 11/20, ??? 0/0, Energy 1/20]
(This feeling, is this that Energy thing the level up told me about? It feels nice but what is it for? Oh! What if its like mana! Can I be a mage in this life??) Nyanthony smiles loosely, drunk on the fantasy of shooting lightning from his fingers and saving the martial arts hall from a bandit raid with but a twitch of his tail to summon fire from the heavens.
“Trainee Cat! I don’t hear wood getting pounded out there!” A gray black wolf standing like a man and dressed in clean but slightly worn martial clothing steps out from the side room of the courtyard. “Or have you already succeeded in channeling qi into your body like a once in an era genius?” The gray black wolf snickers a bit. Nyanthony looks over and focuses on him.
[Louis Pines- Life 100, ??? 25/25. Energy 80]
“Uh, maybe?” Nyanthony answered. “I felt a warm feeling around my heart and-”
“What.” Louis flashes over in an instant. “Let me see…” He places his wolf paw on Nyanthony’s head. A wave of energy washes down Nyanthony’s head, it feels different from his own energy, like static electricity from rubbing a balloon all over your head, but flowing down though out his body. “No way, you weren’t just bragging! It’s not a lot, but you’ve really grasped a bit of Qi. Though…”
“Louis, is there something wrong with my Qi?” Nyanthony gasps.
“Senior Brother Louis,” Senior Brother Louis corrects. “Not everyone in the martial world is as magnanimous as me, so make sure to get seniority right.” Louis stick his nose up pridefully, then remembers the question. “Ahem, your Qi is fine, maybe a bit generic feeling but the placement is strange. Usually Qi pools in the center a bit under the navel… We can ask Master Walrus once she returns from the poetry gathering in town.”
“Should I uh, be worried?” Louis shoots him a look. “Senior Brother Louis.” Nyanthony adds.
Senior Brother Louis’ expression softens again, “Does it hurt anywhere?”
“Not right now, though when Unarmed leveled up, I felt like I ran into a wall.”
“Leveled up?” Louis cocked his head to the side at an angle.
“Like, when I got the energy?”
“Ah, when you broke through to Qi Refining and entered the Martial Way.” Louis nods, confident in his assumption. “Usually people feel very good after breaking through, like someone who has been scrunched up in a closet being able to stretch out again. Hmm considering how quickly you broke through…”
“Eh, did I level-er did I break through faster than normal?`”
-Whack- Nyanthony crouches down and rubs his head where Luis struck him.
“No interrupting your seniors. Some of them would do much worse than just hitting you.” Luis sticks his nose upward again, proud of his timely reminder. “Yeah you’re pretty fast but considering the pain you felt on breakthrough and the misplaced Qi, you probably have some sort of special constitution.” Louis notices Nyanthony’s expression suddenly fall. He grasps Nyanthony’s head with his paw and gives it an affectionate ruffle, entirely forgetting the prior strike. “Don’t worry too much. If it was anything real bad, Master Walrus wouldn’t have taken you as a student! I’ll let Master know. You keep up the good work.” With a whoosh, the gray black wolf disappears over the courtyard wall.
(Sigh, back to it I guess.) Nyanthony checks his own status bar again. (Oh! Life’s back at 15 and energy’s at 5 now. I’m feeling a bit better too. I guess they both regenerate about 1 per minute? I guess I’ll keep punching until they get b- right! Level 1 unlocked a new ability! Front Kick?)
[Front Kick: Rank 1, “Attack a target with a strong kick to knock them away.”, light damage and the target is sent 10 meters away, costs 12 energy.]
(Comparing to my first ability...)
[Punch: Rank 1, “A basic attack with your limbs.”, minimal damage, generate 1 energy.]
(Wait, that’s new. Punch didn’t used to generate energy. Is it because I didn’t have any energy to regenerate. Thank goodness I don’t have to wait 12 minutes just to use Front Kick again. How do I use Front Kick though? With Punch I just hit things. So…) He gives the log a light kick.
[You earned 1 exp in Unarmed.]
The log doesn’t move. (Eh? Did it not work? But I still got exp for it… Punch does say to hit things with ‘a limb’ so even kicks count as a Punch? But to activate Front Kick… maybe I need to hit it harder?) Nyanthony winds back his leg and gives a swift strong kick…
[You earned 1 exp in Unarmed.]
Nope, nothing new. (Oh right, my energy isn’t enough to trigger it, I only have… 6 Energy now. Easy enough fix though!) With a glint in his eyes Nyanthony gives the log a flurry of cat punches.
[You earned 1 exp in Unarmed.] x 24
(Two dozen cat punches should be more than enough!) He checks his Energy again, it is stuck on 20/20. (Nuts, I guess I can’t generate past Max Energy, at least with Punch and probably natural regeneration? Now, for the main event!) Nyanthony winds back his foot again and gives the log another full effort kick. Whoosh, the log splinters on the kick and flies back into courtyard wall! The section of courtyard wall crumbles into a heap.
[You earned 10 exp in Unarmed.]
[You defeated Log; earned 10 exp in Unarmed and 10 exp in Construct Expertise.]
“Wooh-urgh” Nyanthony flops to the floor, feeling drained with just under half his energy bar left at 8. (Ugh, the inside of my chest feels cold and empty…)
“Apprentice Cat! Is everything alright?” A white wolf standing like a man and dressed in ancient martial robes bursts through the doors of the opposite side hall from where the gray black wolf exited. “I heard a crashing noise and- Holy Shit! The wall!!”
“Senior Brother Wolf I- eugh…” Nyanthony wilts a bit.
“Hush,” the white wolf rests his hand on the cat’s head. “It’s clear you’ve fallen to whatever nefarious foe has dared to besmirch our martial hall. Stay here and rest while I hunt them down!” The man wolf leaps over the wall lighter than a feather and swift as a diving hawk.
(This is awful, I guess losing energy feels way worse than just starting out without any?) Nyanthony smacks his face to help with the sudden lethargy.
(If I punch a bunch I’ll be better again. No log left though. Maybe if I just Punch the ground?) Nyanthony bats the ground. He feels the familiar feint warmth in his chest surge ever so slightly and continues batting it.
[You earned 1 exp in Unarmed.] x 8
(Phew, much better. Wait, what was that from breaking the log??? ‘You defeated Log and earned 10 exp in Unarmed and Construct Expertise?’ What’s Construct Expertise? Does that mean I can learn to make things like puppets or golems or something?? I’ve got to get more logs!) Nyanthony springs up to race towards the market, but stops at the door. (Hmm… but leaving the martial hall unsupervised sounds kind of neglecty… wouldn’t want Master Walrus to get angry at me on my first day. Tomorrow, for sure! Until then…) A familiar glint appears in Nyanthony’s eyes. The sound of cat paw hitting bare ground echoes through the empty courtyard.