Ooh, I have a new skill I can buy. It is a good one too. I can definitely see it being useful in the future. I moved back away from everyone else and removed my clothes. It is time to test out my new White Tailed Fox form. “Hey Russell I am going to change. I gained a new form from the fight with the little White Tailed Foxes. Don’t attack me!”
“Sure thing Elise.” Russell called back. I allowed myself a grin before I pulled up my Transform Screen and looked at my new entry. White Tailed Fox: Small Canine with heat resistance. Found in warm places with trees. Conditions Met: Kill a White Tailed Fox. Rarity: C. I selected the form and felt the now familiar pain and pressure wash over me. Soon everything was huge. I am slightly larger than my Kitsune form, but not by much. I grab my clothes in my mouth, it is hard, I have a very small mouth and my teeth are really sharp. I am going to have holes in my clothes when I change back. I take a look at my new status and see what I look like in this new form. I am a small fox, with a short long body that is covered with jet black fur except one white ear and my fluffy white tail. My eyes are two different colors. One is a very pale white and the other is black. The overall effect is very cool, and I do look good. As always my pendant is hanging around my neck on a thin silver chain. It is looser than the one that appears in my Kitsune form, but tighter than the one that appears in my German Shepherd Form. It looks like some kind of loose collar with the pendant no longer looking like a big circle and is now a small in a small tear drop shape.
Name: Elise
Age: 25
Mind: 70/90
Str: 7 Spd: 18 Int: 29 Res: 18 Def: 3
Race: White Tailed Fox
Sex: Female
Gender: Female
Level: 19
Gift: Shapeshifter
Titles: 6
Reborn, Touched by Darvin, Shapeshifter, Trial participant, Usurper (Wooly Claw), Hunter (Red Ear Territory)
Abilities: 5
Analyze: Rare. Allows one to view the status of themselves and others. Level 3. Exp (2/150) points to next level 60
Transform (Canine/ Human (Elise)): Transform from Canine Form back to Human Elise. Level 4. Cost 20 Mind. Rare. Exp (15/100) points to next level 80
Keen hearing: Increase sense of hearing. Rare. Level 3. Exp. (85/ 300). Points to next level 15
Keen smell: Increase sense of smell. Rare. Level 3. Exp (85/300). Points to next level 15.
Bite (small): Small damage from biting. Does damage equal to Str stat. Common. Level 2. Exp (50/75). Points to next level 10
Skills: 9
Analyze: Rare. Level 3. Exp (2/150) points to next level 60
Determination: Difficult tasks become easier when one never gives up. Boost to Str, Spd, Int, or Res depending on what one is trying to do. Unusual: Level 2 (50/200) Points to next level 100
Herbology: Enhances knowledge of and collection skills of plant life. Common: Level 2. (30/90) Points to next level 40
Hunting: Enhances tracking skills, supplements knife skills, supplements bow skills and gives the user heighted danger sense. Unusual: Level 3 (60/150) Points to next level 90
Transform (Canine/ Human (Elise)):Level 4 Cost 20 Mind. Rare. Exp (15/100) points to next level 80
Scavenger: Allows one to use items, objects and corpses around them to greater advantage. Unusual: Level 4. (12/150) Points to next level 60
Zoology: Enhances one’s knowledge of creatures, ability to communicate with creatures and more success with raising creatures. Rare: Level 3 (10/ 200) Points to next level 150
Keen hearing: Rare. Level 1. Exp. (85/ 100). Points to next level 5
Keen smell: Rare. Level 1. Exp (85/100). Points to next level 5.
Bite (small): Common. Level 1. Exp (50/75). Points to next level 5
Skills not yet obtained:
Cooking: Enhances one’s ability to cook. Common: Points to obtain 10
Woodcraft: Enhances one’s ability to work and shape wood. Common: Points to obtain 20
Metalworking: Enhances one’s ability to work and shape metal. Common: Points to obtain 20
Mineralogy: Enhances knowledge of and collection skills of minerals. Common: Points to obtain 15
Farming: Enhances ability to grow crops and raise animals. Common: Points to obtain 15
Crafting: Enhances one’s skills in creating weapons, armor, cookware, flasks, and other objects. Common: Points to obtain 40
Alchemy: Enhances one’s understanding of poisons, magic, illnesses, wounds, and the creations of potions, antidotes and other tonics. Unusual: Points to obtain 25
First Aid: Enhances one’s knowledge of injuries, assessment of injuries and ability to treat them. Unusual: Points to obtain 30
Magic Support: Increase speed of spell casting. Unusual: Points to obtain 10
Mental Enhancement: Increases the power of magic and mental skills by 5 percent. Unusual. Points to obtain 30
Skill points:
10
Huh, so no new skill for this form. I am going to have to level this form to level two to see if I can get a new cool skill. The completionist in me wants to level up all of my forms. They level up faster than I do. I managed to get both my German Shepherd and Kitsune Forms to level seven, my German Shepherd form is almost level eight. I hope that I get something cool at level ten since I did not get anything for reaching level five. I was more than a little bit disappointed by that. I don’t have a meter that shows how many levels I can get for my forms before it caps out or even if it has a cap. I drag my clothes, with their new holes and head back to the makeshift camp where Russell and our wounded guests are waiting. Anise and Pettran startled a bit when I trotted, very elegantly and with great dignity, with my clothes into the camp. My one very fluffy white tail held high. My new form is not as cute as my Kitsune Form, but I am still pretty damn cute. I wonder if I can get Russell to pet me again. Anise looks like she would be good at petting as well. I might test those waters, slowly climb into her lap and see if she will scratch my ears. Man, I hope that my ears are as sensitive as they are in my Kitsune Form. For some reason Russell is a bit more hesitant to scratch my ears in my German Shepherd Form. It might be because I am fairly large and my teeth are long and sharp and my bark is not a cute yip, but a loud deep scary bark. I might maybe be able to see why he would give my Kitsune Form some special treatment. I made my way to Russell with my clothes in my mouth and dropped them by my pack. Russell reached down and folded my clothes next to the pack. “You planning to change back to human soon? Or should I put your clothes in the pack?” I thought about it for a few seconds. Do I want to stay in my new form, I can always change to a larger form. I don’t need to be Human for a while. I placed one small paw on the pack and pointed my noise at the pile of the clothes. Russell nodded and picked up my clothes and stuck it into the pack. “I failed to notice before, probably because they were attacking my feet and trying to kill us, but White Tailed Foxes are really cute. Are they all that cute? Or is it just Elise?” Anise asked as she finished wrapping her feet. Now that I have my enhanced senses I can tell that Anise smells like some kind of flower and soot. I wonder if it has something to do with Alchemy. I can smell Pettran as well, he smells like some kind of biting acid and some kind of bitter plant. I can also smell that they have not bathed for a few days, one of the biggest downsides of having such a powerful sense of smell is how bad people smell. Body odor is terrible, they smell like sweat and unwashed bodies, it is sour and strong. I do not think that that will get any better with time, but I do remain hopeful.
I turn, with great dignity, to Anise and wave my very fluffy white tail at her. She smiled and waggled her fingers at me. “Do you mind if I pet you? I might never have a chance to scratch a White Tailed Fox.” I climbed into her lap slowly and with great dignity. Once I was standing on her thighs I lowered myself down and sat with a straight back and my head held high. Anise does not have the same gift for scratching that Russell has. He had hit the spot on the first try, but it took Anise a few minutes for her fingers to find a spot right behind my ears. Once she did though, I would have purred if I was a cat. Thankfully I am a canine and no one knows just how much I enjoy the feeling. My eyes did not go lidded, I kept them open like normal, nope no squinty eyed trances at all. We sat like that for several minutes. Russell had the food almost ready. The smell of perfectly cooked meat and vegetables teased the air around us. My mouth was not watering at all. It was a localized rain shower, not drool, that made the cloth around Anise’s knees wet. Even the grumpy Pettran who had finished cleaning and bandaging his feet was sniffing the air in appreciation. Anise waited for me to jump off her lap, the woman had manners, before she leaned over to look over at Russell and his campfire. It was impossible to see what he had in the pan. I know that he is cooking the other White Tailed Foxes that we killed, but I don’t know what he has mixed in with the meat. He has something wrapped in leaves and resting on hot stones that cover one corner of the fire. “I know what he is cooking, but I don’t understand how it could possibly smell do darned good.” Anise sighed, looking over at Pettran who nodded a bit reluctantly. “My cooking skill is pretty high, I can make a meal out of most ingredients.” Russell offered as he turned something over in the pan. It smelled like the meat and the sizzling sound that accompanied the move made my mouth water, just a little. It is almost a Pavlovian reaction at this point. Man can cook.
I ate my food from a small bowl that Russell placed on the ground for me. Russell ate from one of the small plates, Pettran using the other plate and Anise using the other small bowl. They ate using their fingers. We do not have enough utensils for everyone to use them. Russell ever the gentleman had decided that if there wasn’t enough for everyone to use them then no one would be using them. The food tasted so good. I almost ate in White Tailed Fox form, but decided that it would be too close to cannibalism and made a quick change to my Kitsune Form before digging into my food. The meat was cooked to perfection, it almost melted in my mouth, it was covered with a gravy made from the juices of the meat and some starch from the vegetable that he cooked with the meat. He had added some kind of root vegetable that looked like a pale spiky potato, it was what he wrapped in the large blue leaves and cooked on the hot stones, to the meat. It still had a crunch to it but fell apart in my mouth with very little effort and mixed with the meat and gravy very well.
We ate in companionable silence until all the food in the pan over the fire was gone. Once our dishes were clean and the fire fully smothered, Pettran rose to his feet and tested his sore feet before beginning to patrol the small campsite. Anise handed off her bowl to Russell and let out a small squeal and made grabby hands at me. “Oh, Elise what kind of animal is that? It is so cute, so, so very cute!” I waved all my tails at her and pawed at the ground, showing off how cute my little paws are. “That is a Kitsune. Her fur is really soft in that form.” Russell sighed, putting away the dishes into his pack and for once not making cubes out of the animal fat. Probably because it all went into the gravy that we ate with the meat.
I climbed into Anise’s lap and we watched as Russell and Pettran pulled up camp and watched for any hungry animal that might have been attracted to the smell of cooking food. I kept my eyes open as Anise scratched my ears and played with my tails. If it comes to a fight I want to be able to attack on a moment’s notice. My fire will save the day and look great doing it. Just after Russell finished packing everything away Pettran let out a low hissing noise and jabbed his spear at one of the trees. A feline hiss came from the tree and a yowl of rage echoed around the small clearing. Hungry, Hungry, Eat, Eat. Kill, Kill. My Zoology skill was kicking in with my Language Translation skill letting me know that whatever these feline creatures are they are hungry and want to kill us. That makes killing them much easier. No guilt here. I jumped out of Anise’s lap, there was a slight tug as one of my tails got caught in her hand. She let go before it could become painful so it did not even slow me down as I hit the ground and dashed toward the sounds of fighting. Russell had already thrown up some Illusions of cooked food and small helpless baby Rhabbits on the ground to lure out several of the felines in one spot. They are small felines with dark brown and green fur that make them hard to see against the background of the trees. A quick Analyze as I run tells me what it is that we are facing. They are called Rocer Raiders and at least one of them is level 24. So many of the creatures and animals in this world are at such high levels. Is it easier for animals to level up than it is for the humans and other races? It is something to ponder later when I am not going to kill some kitties. Wow, bad choice of words. Now I see some poor helpless house cats. No, no. Not house cats, dangerous vicious creatures that want to eat me and everyone else here. I wait until there are four Rocer Raiders reaching the illusion of food and Rhabbits before I let out one of my Fire Foxes. I had to time it just right, Russell’s illusions will not hold up to being jumped on. They are not solid. As soon as the first Raider went through the first illusion and stopped in confusion, my FireFox reached them. The first Raider lit up and vanished into a blaze of light. The other three were not as close, but close enough that they all caught fire. The screams and hisses of pain filled the air as they tried to roll around to put the flames out. Russell rushed in and with his quick movements he slashed the throats of all the three screaming creatures in only a few seconds. I ignored the dings in my head and turned and watched for anymore enemies, Pettran had killed three Raiders on his own.
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