I open my eyes to see a room of white. Floating in front of me was what seemed to be a pretty young woman.
'Hm. I kinda wish it was a guy.'
When my mental wish did not come into existence, I frowned slightly. Since the beauty wasn't going away, I decided to study her.
She was taller than me, which didn't mean much considering I was only 16, and short for my age anyway. If I had to guess from her proportions though, I'd say she was eighteen or nineteen.
Her hair was green. If I hadn't been in bed at the time, I would have thought it strange, but considering where I was, green hair was relatively normal.
Same thing went for the eyes. Unlike the hair, which was a dark forest green, the girl's eyes were a softer, pastel pink. With her slightly tanned skin, she looked a bit like a woodland fairy. Her mouth even had a pretty shape to it. 'Oh wait, her mouth is moving. Is she saying something?'
"Are you listening? I asked you if you wanted to begin creating your character... three times already!" Her face had a slight pout on it.
Creating my character, huh?
"Sorry," I said aloud, a polite smile on my face. "Please begin."
For some reason the girl's cheeks blushed as she waved her hand. However, the blood force trauma was pushed from my mind when the chamber became filled with dozens of figures. Each one bore a striking resemblance to... well, me.
There was a human, and a few that seemed to be elves with their pointed ears. There were large, furry animals, and a random flower... Weird.
Seeing my face, the girl smiled gently. "You can just name whatever race you want to be, and I'll describe its attributes for you. Take your time, because you won't be able to reroll."
"Reroll?" I echoed.
"Is this your first MMORPG?"
Studying her doubtful gaze, I weighed my responses in my mind, before sighing in defeat.
"Yes, it's true I've never done this before. Will you please help me?" Here, my naturally soft voice worked to my advantage as the girl's motherly instincts kicked in upon seeing my 'little girl' act.
"Well in other games, when you die you'll recreate your character. However, in Second Life, you'll just lose a level. However, this means that once you make your character, here and now, you won't be able to make it again. So you'll have to be careful about the decisions you make, okay Mei-mei?" The term of endearment widened my smile a bit, and I decided to play along by replying,
"Yes, Jie-jie!"
"Right, so would you like me to recommend a few races that might fit you?"
"Yes, please."
With a wave of her hand, she made all but five forms disappear.
"Humans are the most well-rounded. Their physique isn't as good as a beastman's, but it's higher than an elf. On the other hand, their agility can't conpare to and elf's, but it's higher than that of a beastman. Do you follow?" I quickly nodded my head, and she continued. "Then the elves. Light and Dark elves are basically the same, with high agility stats. However, the Dark elf has a slightly lower agility in favor of a higher strength.
"Next are the angel and demon. Both are suited for roles in magic. Demons are good as mages, and Angels make great priests.
"Finally, we have this wind spirit. Extremely high speed and strength stats, but low physique.
"So which of these are your favorites? We can narrow it down a bit at a time."
"Actually," I interrupted. "Can I see what the 'beastman' class looks like?"
"Well... okay. Do you want to see just the standard, or the subclasses as well?"
"All of them, please."
That said, she waved her arm again, and I was not disappointed.
"This one please," I said immediately.
"Really? Are you sure? What about the angel-"
"It doesn't have wings, though, so it can't be an angel, right?"
"True, but... Ah, fine."
Having won the argument, I turned to the character I'd chosen.
The wildcat-based girl stared at me with a glint of mischief in her eyes. Speaking of those eyes...
"Can I change the eye color?" I called over my shoulder.
"You can change a good deal, including eye and hair/fur color, height, shape, and some other stuff."
"Okay... the eyes, have them be a light green... aqua, a light aqua- there! And the fur... can the body fur be thinner? About a quarter inch... perfect, and a pale peach color please. The hair, have it be more reddish than brown... and a bit darker. Perfect!" Stepping back, I observed my masterpiece.
She was a bit shorter than me. Her skin was covered with a light sheen of fur, but it was barely noticeable due to its color. Her eyes were a bright bluish green, with vertical slits for pupils. Her long auburn hair fell down her back and over her shoulders, down to her knees. Peeking up from the head, a pair of cat ears could be seen. The red locks concealed some of her body, but of what I could see...
"Can you make it more flat?" I suggested.
"Flat?" Jie-jie stared blankly until she noticed my hands, gesturing to the place on my own body. "O-oh! But for someone of your height, so developed, so cute too, eek!" Her embarrassed face hid behind her hands, so I had no choice but to go right up to her.
"Jie-jie, a chest this size looks out of place on a smaller form. Besides, it will only get in the way, right?"
"... Right."
After much of this type of cajoling, I managed to make my chest as flat as a board. The whole way through, the older girl was complaining about how I should have tried to look cuter... oh well.
"Well, what do you want to be called, then?" A defeated older girl asked me from where she slumped dejectedly.
"Hm... how about Gataki?"
"Gataki?"
"Greek for kitten."
"Sounds fine, then! Which continent do you want to be born on? The continents are named East, West, North, South, and Central."
"How about West?" I internally smirk at my choice.
"Okay! That's it then. If you see me around, my IGN is Peony! Give me a shout, okay?"
With that, the cat-girl named Gataki, and I became one, and we fell. Down, down we fell.
Hm… How very interesting. I'll need to watch you as well...
I opened my eyes once more. This time, I found myself lying down. Getting up, I looked around me. I seemed to be in a small village.
"System!" Someone from my left shouted this out, so I thought I'd copy him with my own murmur.
Surprised, I leapt back when a large panel popped out in front of me.
Name: Gataki | Gender: Female
Level: 1 | Race: Cat | Class: None | Reputation: 0 | Health: 60 | Mana: 20 | Unspent skill points: 0 | Strength: 7 | Physique: 5 | Agility: 10 | Intelligence: 10 | Willpower: 6 | Wisdom: 2
Charisma: 8 | Luck: Unknown
Abilities: None
Wow, okay this is weird. Is this based off of real-life ability? That would have explained my dismal Wisdom… Anyway, after viewing my statistics, I realized that my race was simply "Cat," and not "Beast." Or Beastman. Interesting.
Selecting the X in the upper right-hand corner, I closed the menu.
Before I could explore the small pouch hanging at my waist, I felt something tap my shoulder.
"Hey there, miss. Can you help me?" It took me a full ten seconds to respond to the guy's words.
"No," I replied. I didn't really bother with tact since- well, you know. I brushed his hand off and walked away in a random direction.
I found my way into what seems to be a back alley. I opened my pouch, and it took all of my 6 Willpower points to not laugh at the ridiculousness of its contents.
What I mean is, the interior of the pouch had a grid-like pattern. In a few of the squares, there were items there. Somehow, they were perfectly aligned, as if unaffected by any jostling that came with walking.
Ah, but wait. This is a 'game', right? I laugh aloud for no real reason while putting on the shirt and skirt armor I'd found in the inventory. The third item I took out as well, playing with it in my hands.
"Ah, there you are. I thought I'd lost you." I turn my head slightly, and I see the guy from earlier. Hm, was his hair always that neon green? And speaking of hair, he was a human. So far, I'd only seen beast-people like myself.
"It'll only take a minute." His hair really annoyed me. It was coming closer, and the color hurt my eyes.
"I'm looking for someone. She might look a bit like me, probably playing as a dark elf..." Hm… If I could just-
In an instant, I'd grabbed the guy's head, and used my dagger to give him a haircut.
"Much better," I said, nodding in approval. Now, there was much less brightness around the head, and I could get a good look at his face.
He was older than I thought he'd be, about twenty years old. To most girls he'd be considered good-looking, but me? Eh, I'm not a good judge of that. His eyes were a light brown, making me feel like I was looking at a tree.
"You know, you look better when your face isn't covered, Greenie," I comment. Greenie seems a bit taken aback at my response, and settles on staring at me blankly. I roll my eyes at his open-mouthed expression before taking my leave.
"See ya later, Greenie-shu shu!"
A few later, I'm outside of town. In the field ahead of me, there seem to be several dozen monsters of some kind.
A bit hesitantly, I walk closer. The monsters around me… look like they belong on a piece of toast.
One of said creatures slithers up to me. I say slither because it doesn't have feet, or hands, or any appendages. Really, it's a moving… thing. I'll call it a Thing. The Thing was red, and it seemed to have something floating inside of it. Experimentally, I poked it with my dagger.
Attack successful, Man-eating Jelly HP -5
Wow, it really did belong on toast…
I didn't have much time to look for a 'Man-eating Butter', as the Jelly suddenly leapt at me, taking a bite of my leg.
Attack successful, Gataki HP -2
Laughing at the difference in numbers, I proceeded to finish off the Jelly with repetitive stabs.
Man-eating Jelly has died, Gataki's experience has increased to 10/20, Gataki has learned a new ability: Chop
Wow, it dropped some coins! And… and empty jar? Looking at the remains of the Jelly monster, I got an idea. Quickly, I opened the jar, and scooped it through the Jelly. Grinning, I closed the jar, and made my way toward a small valley, where a few hundred monsters were roaming around, minding there own business.
"Now, where are you, you Man-eating Butters?"
Attack successful… Attack successful… Attack successful
Gataki has reached Level 2… 3… 4… 5…
Gataki has learned a new ability: Continuous Attack
Wow, I've got a lot of Jelly now! And, some more clothes, too! Not to mention, all the money I've made! At least I think this is money… How much are copper, silver, and gold coins worth? Well, if a copper is a U.S. dollar, silver is ten dollars, and gold is a hundred… then I still can't count how much I have! How long have I been out here anyway? It's definitely been a few hours.
Looking through the stuff that came out of the Jellies, I equipped a tunic and leggings, which increased my defense by a combined 10 points, and a pair of fingerless gloves that increased magical resistance by 2. I had some boots in my inventory, but I opted to go barefoot instead. My favorite was a longer knife, with an attack power of 7.
I continued walking, and ate on the way. The mantous that I'd found in the pouch tasted pretty good with Jelly jam smeared over them. While I walked, I ran into more, tougher Jellies. Actually, I understood the ranking pretty well.
See, red (strawberry) Jellies were the weakest type of Jelly. They had the lowest health, attack, defense, etc. Also, they were each about half the size of my head.
Orange (flavor) Jellies were a bit stronger, a bit bigger, and a bit more delicious. They were slightly bigger than basketballs.
Yellow (lemon) ones came next. These were twice as large as oranges, and came up to my thighs.
Finally, green (lime) Jellies. I'd only seen one so far, and it was nowhere near as cute as the little red ones. The green thing came up to my shoulders, and made me lose half my HP.
I guessed there were higher-level ones, right? Still, I hoped to not meet them.
After the encounter with the green Jelly, I figured it would be best to not fight for a bit. Looking around, I spotted a tree with strong branches.
Gataki has learned a new ability: Scale
That was the message I got after climbing up the tree.
Now that I think of it, what are these 'abilities' anyway?
Abilities
Continuous Attack: Ability Level 4, Attack +5 each time player attacks consecutively
Scale: Ability Level 1, increases Agility when moving vertically
What kind of ability is that? Still, it was pretty amusing that it was an ability-
My attention shifted quickly when I realized there was something big and blue coming my way. It was a blue Jelly! I stood up on the branch, and waited for the Jelly to pass under me.
Attack successful, Blue Man-eating Jelly HP -20
Gataki has learned a new ability: Ground Pound
Only after attacking did I realize the mistake it was to leave the safety of the tree. The reason being? The blue blob was taller than me! Staring up into those giant, black eyes… I turned tail and ran.
For its size, the thing was fast. I'm not sure exactly what it was doing to propel its gigantic mass forward, but I could hear behind me, the steady thump, thump, thump of its progress. And from the sound of it, it was catching up.
Ahead of me, I saw a tall tree. With a burst of speed, I used Scale to climb the tree with ease. From my perch in the tree, I took a minute to catch my breath.
Maybe something I picked up earlier will help me? I quickly dug through my pouch.
Cap +5 Defense? Nah. Shirt with +10 Defense, -5 Agility? No way! …These might work!
I pulled the twin daggers from the pouch. They had +10 attack each, and were the high-level weapons that had dropped from that green Jelly.
I fastened the daggers to my waist, and readied myself. 3… 2… 1… Banzai!
Ground Pound Successful, Blue Man-eating Jelly HP -25
Not stopping, I used the rebound off of the landing to cartwheel to a safe distance.
Gataki has learned a new ability: Gymnastics
Huh. I waited for the Blue Jelly to make his move. See, there was a thing I noticed about the Jellies. It didn't really affect the smaller ones, but for a big blue here? The fact they take a minute to turn around might work to my advantage.
When the Jelly jumped, I dived forward. Unsheathing my daggers, I began slashing at the… what seemed to be the unguarded backside of the Jelly.
Attack successful... Atttack successful…
With a grunt of effort, I stabbed both daggers in at the same time.
Crittical Hit, Blue Man-eating Jelly HP -100
Blue Man-eating Jelly has died, Gataki's experience has increased to XXX/XXXX
Gazing down at the dead blue carcass, I felt something rising, deep from the pit of my stomach. As if something inside was trying to get out-
Rrrrrr!
And that would be my hunger. I'd spent a good amount of time defeating this Jelly, and I was hungry. I licked my lips as I anticipated the blueberry jam I'd have to eat for the time being.
"Hey, that was a nice performance!"
I whirled around at the applause coming from a nearby tree. A figure jumped down, and approached me.
"Hello, I'm Scarlet, a warrior, level 15. You displayed some pretty good fighting just a minute ago. Do you want to train together?" Like her name suggested, the woman was a redhead. Her long, flaming hair seemed to wave in a non-existent wind.
"Sure," I said carelessly. "I'm Gataki, a, um, cat, and hold on- System!" I checked my stats. "I'm level 19," I finish. For some reason, the woman's blue eyes narrowed dangerously.
"You mean that you… you've been playing long enough to make it this far from the newbie villages, but you haven't even got a job?"
"Um… I guess so?" I was backing away a bit, now. "Is that bad?"
"Bad?! Of course it's bad! You'll need a job's benefits to take on higher-level mobs! Come! We're going back to your village! Tomorrow, we'll train, but today, you need a job!" With that, Scarlet grabbed my hand, and began dragging me away.
Hi, I'm PMG! I love Half Prince, and I'm definitely going to write this fanfiction!
Gataki: That's what you said about the Pokemon fanfictions. And the Legend of Zelda fanfictions. And the Naruto, My Little Pony, and Minecraft fanfictions. And all of the crossover fanfictions including all of the fandoms I just mentioned.
Shut up! You weren't even around back then!
Gataki: Aren't you supposed to do a disclaimer?
Oh, right. Ahem. I don't own Half Prince, because if I did, Lolidragon wouldn't have ended up with Yang Ming. Just putting it out there, those two do not make a good couple. Anyway, I don't own! Any likeness to real people… Well, I only right about people with problems, so if any of the characters resemble you in some way, please see a psychiatrist, okay?
Gataki: This is why no one reads your stories.
Goodbye!