Chapter 77: Not so different

I remember how there used to be a bunch of cats that kept wandering into the orphanage, and how all the children there would feed them the leftovers and play with them, all the children except for me of course. The cats would always run away as soon as they saw me approach. It always made me so jealous to see everyone have fun without me... maybe that's why even now I still keep trying to touch the ears of every cat I meet.

Karin is staring at me as I emerge from the lava, she doesn't seem surprised to see that I'm fine. Alright, let's approach her slowly so that she doesn't get scared.

But for some reason, everyone is staring at me weirdly, some of them look like they're trying to look away but they can't. Karin looks down at her chest for a moment, then back at me with a shocked expression.

"I lost!" She lost? What did she lose at?

"Xania, what do you think she's talking about?"

I turn to Xania for help, but she's also staring at me with wide-open eyes and takes a step back when I look at her.

"They're even bigger than I thought..."

"Eh!?"

Wait, could it be that the reason everyone is staring at me... Uh... I thought that the dark rectangles were enough to cover me, but apparently, I was wrong. Now I suddenly feel embarrassed.

"G-give me a moment!"

I guess I still don't understand social norms well enough, I thought that as long as my chest and crotch were hidden it would be fine. That catgirl is not covered much more, so why is she alright and not me?

'Black wall'

After hiding myself from view I grab a new dress from my storage. There are a lot of these that Arana gave me, I wonder if she was expecting my clothes to be destroyed all the time.

And now that I'm looking at my clothes I just remembered that there was one thing I found out that I could do to make the cats panic a bit less...

I remove the black walls and go near Karin again.

"Alright, as I was saying, I'm trying to get these people out of the castle. I'm your ally."

"Mmm, is that true? For some reason, you do not seem as evil as before..."

I knew that putting on a mask would be a good idea, simply not being able to see my scary face is enough to improve her opinion of me a little bit. This girl is very simple-minded, isn't she?

"Then let us leave this place now that we can, your father is waiting outside and he's worried for you."

"My father? Did you kidnyap him too?"

"I didn't! I didn't kidnap anyone!"

"Intruders!" At that moment I hear someone yell from one of the doors and I see a group of rock demons armed with muskets rushing in. I guess that should not be surprising, we've been here making a ton of noise...

"Enemies!"

Karin wastes no time and reaches the demons with a single leap. She sure seems eager to get into fights.

The demons open fire on her. My battle analysis skill is telling me that there's something unusual about their projectiles, I think that they have some skill to increase the power of their shots.

And yet, they have no effect at all on the cat beastkin. She's incredibly durable, if that had been me I'm sure that at the very least it would have pierced my skin.

"NY-HA!

"AAAH!"

"Stay away!"

Her fighting style is... not a fighting style at all. She's just grabbing her opponents and tossing them around, it's kind of amazing seeing all the rock demons flying in all directions.

Should I help her? It certainly doesn't look like she needs help, but I need to show that I'm on her side.

Oh, I don't think that I'll even make it in time to do anything, let's try something else. When I see the last demon fly over my head I jump to catch him mid-flight.

"Nya? What are you doing? Are you not his boss?"

"That's what I'm trying to show you. Hey you! Have we ever met before?"

He looks at me confused. "Eh? I don't know, I can't see your face."

"Oh, sorry." I take my mask off, and his eyes open wide when he sees my face "This girl thinks that I'm your boss. Is that true?"

The demon seems to think about it for a moment. I don't know why, this is not a difficult question. "I... uh... Yes! You are!"

"See? As I told you I'm not... wait, WHAT!?"

"I'll do whatever you want! Please spare me!"

"No, that's not what I-"

"I knew it! You are the bad guy!"

"Nonono, this guy is just confused after being sent flying like that!"

"You're lying! Everyone always tries to trick me just because my wisdom is low..."

"I'm not lying, and my wisdom is also low, you know."

"That cannyot be, my dad told me that if someone has low wisdom they must be a good person."

Really? That sounds like something that he must have told her just to make her feel better, but I might be able to take advantage of it. I let the stone demon go and he runs away without looking back, then, I take the appraisal stone from my storage to show Karin my status.

"See? Only 4."

"Nya! It's true! So you must be nyace after all." I'm not sure if trusting people because of such a reason is a good thing, but I'll take what I can get. "I'll show you mine too!"

Karin grabs my appraisal stone and allows me to see what it shows.

Name: Karin

Race: Cat beastkin

Class: Brawler

Level: 304

Stats

Strength: 1116

Speed: 901

Magic: 0

Dexterity: 304

Toughness: 1043

Wisdom: 3

Magic

Light: 0 (Rank 0)

Fire: 0 (Rank 0)

Water: 0 (Rank 0)

Earth: 0 (Rank 0)

Wind: 0 (Rank 0)

Dark: 0 (Rank 0)

Skills

Brawler skills: 18 (Rank 10)

Steel skin

Air jump

Advanced eating

Magic resistance

Advanced sleeping

Safe recklessness

Tracking

Intimidate

Titles

Airhead

Living disaster

Shameless

Bronze explorer

Master brawler

Wisdom 3... it's nice to finally meet someone with less wisdom than me, but from what I know of her, the fact that we are only a single point away feels a bit concerning...

How can her magic be 0? Is it even possible to have 0 in a stat? She also has two main elements, earth, and fire. That's very rare, It's a pity that she cannot use any magic at all.

So living disaster is an actual title? What does it mean?

Living disaster

Someone who fights recklessly and unintentionally causes large amounts of destruction during her battles.

Grants the Safe Recklessness skill

Safe recklessness

During battle, reduces the chances of unrelated bystanders being hurt accidentally to almost nothing, but drastically increases the chances of causing material damages.

Oh, if that works each time she's not trying to hurt someone it would explain why she was not surprised about the lava not hurting me, it didn't seem like she sent me there intentionally after all. I guess that it's a good thing that someone like her has a skill like that.

"Eh!? What are you doing!?"

While I was distracted by her status, Karin got behind me and started touching my ears.

"Sorry, I could not resist, they are so pointy..."

What kind of reason is that? Even if someone's ears look interesting, touching them without permission is just rude... wait...

I guess that this girl and I really are a lot more similar than I thought.

...

"Uh? Ara?" All of a sudden, I feel a faint trace of magic that reminds me of Arana, but she's not here. What was that?

Looking in the direction I sensed that magic from, I see a new demon that seems to have arrived right now. That guy is huge, he's even taller than me, and he's wearing a heavy-looking black armor that makes him seem even bigger.

Those horns and red skin remind me of something... Ah! I know! He reminds me of Vilde. I bet that they are both the same race of demons, whatever that might be. Who could this be?

"Luna..." Xania approaches me, she looks scared.

"Is something wrong?"

She puts one hand on my shoulder and points to the demon staring at us from the door.

"That's... that's Kalroth."

"Really? That guy?"

That's surprising, I was not expecting the big bad to just show up so nonchalantly. That said, I don't really feel that he's very strong... I think that's just because I cannot avoid comparing him to Vilde, but that's just unfair, I don't believe that many people would feel strong next to him. It would not be wise to underestimate him.

And why do I feel Arana's magic on him? To be more specific... I think that's the same magic I felt from the spiders she summons. It's small but it's there. When Longleg told me earlier where Kalroth was, could it be that he was actually tracking that? And is Arana able to track it too?

"Hey, who's that guy?" Karin asks, tilting her head to the side.

"It seems like that's the real boss of the bad guys."

"Really? I finally found him!"

"No, wait!" She doesn't wait and leaps straight at him.

This girl really is too reckless for her own good...

forli

Also, if I'm not mistaken this is the first time I've shown the status of anyone other than Luna. This story is really just barely a LitRPG isn't it.