Jericho the Bard A VRMMORPG Story - 25 She called me Cute...

Purai walked over to Ken.

(What does she need still?) Ken frowned slightly. He was getting rather familiar with the lynx muzzle thanks to the game system’s help.

The healer grabbed a hair from the fur that was poking through his armor.

(Ow.) Ken snarled.

“Relax.” Purai patted his head. “Your curses will be broken soon. Princess, could you bring Lux over to me? He has the final ingredient I need.”

“Sure!” She picked up the small lynx and carried him over.

Purai pulled out an empty needled syringe. “Don’t be afraid, I just need a little bit of your blood.”

(Brother Ken, what is that scary thing? What does she want?) Lux, who did not understand human speech, was panicking.

Ken let out another mew/sigh. (She needs a small bit of your blood. Apparently it will help her cure my curses. It makes sense considering I took them from you.)

Lux instantly relaxed. (Oh, then she can take it if it will help you.)

Seeing the lynx relax Purai stuck the needle and extracted a small bit of blood. “Thank you, Princess.”

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The dancer nodded back and put Lux back on the ground.

The healer unstopped the bottle and placed the hair and blood inside. She stopped the small container again and drew a circle with strange patterns on the table.

“What are you doing now?” Princess inquired curiously.

“Infusing the mixture with magic so it can have a stronger effect;” she replied focusing her MP into the symbol. The symbol started to glow and infuse light into the once milky liquid. It became a clean golden-brown mixture.

Jericho and Ken watched from a distance.

The light faded. “It’s done!” Purai looked over the mixture’s details. She sighed in relief. “This blood purification injection should work great.” She changed the needle on her syringe and had it suck up the concoction. She handed it over to Jericho. “Just inject this into Ken. It should get rid of his curses, I hope. While I want to see everyone’s happy faces, I’ve got to go. See you tomorrow night! Thanks again for agreeing to help me!”

“See you then.” Jericho replied as he looked at the information of the item in his hand.

[Potent magical blood purification serum: Inject into the bloodstream to use. A strange mystical concoction created by Purai. While it contains some questionable ingredients it will remove curses and other harmful effects, affecting the body of ‘Ken’, 5/10 Adept strength and below. Injection into living things other than ‘Ken’ is not advised.]

“Well, it looks like you won’t be cursed much longer.” Jericho approached with the injection.

Ken hated shots. He wasn’t deathly afraid of them but he still didn’t like them. The pre-teen closed his eyes and felt the prick of the needle. A calming feeling flowed through him as he heard the sounds of a lot of notifications.

[You have been injected with a Human Blooded-Lynx’s blood purification serum. Your blood is being purified.]

Lynx and human blood have been detected in you. Lynx blood has been enhanced, strengthened, perfected, and stabilized.] [Human blood has been adapted and stabilized to accommodate the stronger bloodline.] [Lynx-Human blood has stabilized.] [Your race and skills have been updated.]

[Curse- Cursed Touch has been purified and removed.] [Curse- Evil Aura has been purified and removed.][Curse- Cursed Form has been purified and removed.] [Curse- Unholy Corruption has been purified and removed.] [Curse- Cursed Skills has been purified and removed.] [Curse- Monsterfication has been purified and removed.] [You are no longer affected by curses. The Curse skill line has been removed.] [You are no longer cursed; your race has been updated.]

Ken felt his equipment return to his inventory as his body shrunk. He opened his eyes to see an enhanced view of the world. He looked up to see everyone towering over him. He fell forward landing on his new forepaws.

(Ken is like me!) Lux shouted happily as he pounced the boy.

The hunter, unfamiliar with the body was pinned easily. After a short tussle it dawned on him that he was a lynx. (I may have to reset my character now.) He mumbled as he struggled to move. He was upset at the idea since he worked hard to get where he was.

“Ah Ken you are so cute!” Princess picked up her friend, who was in the middle of a play fight, and started scratching behind his ears.

Jericho let out a light laugh he failed to suppress.

Princess smiled and pulled out her last grilled fish and placed it in front of Ken. She knew her friend would sometimes stress eat.

Ken stared at the fish. (I’m an animal. How am I supposed to hold a bow and act cool now?) He snagged the fish and hopped out of princesses arms to hide behind a tree. (Cute. Not awesome or epic but cute.) He cried to himself quietly.

(No fair! I want one too!) Lux called out chasing after Ken.

{Jericho, remember when you became a water elemental? If you didn’t have the Gemini lilies you would have respawned and a new elemental spirit would have been born from your death. If Ken has truly become an animal, the same thing would have happened to him.} Glaw reminded the bard.

Jericho called out to Ken using Speak with Spirits since Ken had said he knew that skill. {Last night what did we have for dinner?}

Ken was angrily munching on the grilled fish, sharing it with Lux, and thinking it tasted strangely better than normal. He poked his head up. {Why the random question? It was a type of curry.}

Jericho nodded. {Your character hasn’t been overwritten by an NPC. It means that you should be fine.}

{Wait what?} Ken asked with his mouth full.

(Brother Ken! Tussle with me!) Lux shouted and leaped at the boy once again.

Ken was rapidly getting more familiar with the feline body thanks to the game mechanics. He started fighting back.

Princess laughed as she watched the two small lynx kittens fighting each other playfully. “You seem to be quite enjoying yourself.”

(Lux stop!) Ken snarled. (I was only defending myself.) He tried justifying to Princess.

The other lynx obeyed. (Are you not having fun brother Ken?)

Ken mew/sighed and came close to the other kitten. (I am but I need to figure out what is going on with me first and it is best not to tussle in front of Princess. So please wait.) He whispered.

(Okay, I will wait.)

The lynx, Ken, pulled up his status and started reading it. (My race is Human-blooded Lynx, isn’t that similar to Lux’s race? I can use lynx items regardless of form? Wait, form?) He continued scanning. (There are three forms listed.) He pulled them up.

[Animal form (N/A) (Current) *Monster tier based upon the Animal (predator) skill line and skills; (Current tier 1, Lynx Kitten): This is your race’s base form. While in this form you are considered an animal. While in this form you are considered an in-game creature and are subject to the same rules. The game will assist you in becoming familiar with this form however it will be up to you to obtain the necessary proficiency.]

[Human form 5/10 Master: -Normally this skill does not unlock until a human blooded creature becomes a tier 2 beast. As a former human, you have a lot of experience being human and the skill has become unlocked prematurely. Due to your extensive experience being human, the skill has been set to a significantly higher rank. – A human-blooded creature can transform into a human form. They can only maintain that form for so long each day. (Current: 13 hours/day. Each tier upgrade will increase the timer by 4 hours.) Timer resets at midnight. While in human form, you can speak and act like humans do. Note that some lynx traits will be present while in human form and an astute person may realize your true identity. These traits will become less noticeable the higher the skill level. You can assume more lynx traits if desired and can choose which traits they are. If you do not make a choice, they will be assigned to the ‘most human’ looking appearance. Stats are based on the assigned stat allocation per level as normal.]

[Monster form 0/10 Beginner: A human blooded creature can transform into a beast with mild humanoid traits. (A type of hybrid creature) you will stand on your hind legs and your forepaws will become clawed hands. This form can only maintained for so long each day. (Current 1 hour/day. Each increase in Tier will increase the timer by 1 hour.) Timer resets at midnight. While in monster form, you will be considered a hostile target to most other creatures. While in monster form you have your animal or human stats (whichever total is higher) while in a humanoid enough body to use most human skills and animal enough to use most animal skills. You are considered an in-game creature and are subject to the same rules.]

[Both Human Form and Monster Form belong to the skill line Blood Transformation and will not have an effect on your monster tier.]

(So for 14 hours a day, I can be something other than an animal? I mean, having an animal transformation was in my list of goals for my ranger idea. I have it, but backwards I guess. At least with school I’m only in game 15 hours a day during most weekdays so I can treat it like the ability I really wanted. I really need to boost those timers up somehow for when I play on the weekends. If I am reading this right, Lux should get these skills once he returns to being a tier 2 creature.)

Lux pawed the ground impatiently.

Ken got into a sulkier position. (But just now, she called me cute. That must be the first thing that gets changed.) He muttered as he kept looking through his skills. (Activate human form.)

He felt his body grow and the fur recede. His equipment re-equipped as he was standing on two legs again. He looked over himself. “That’s better, the cuteness is gone.” He spoke as he noticed his sight seemed to be enhanced still.

(Aww, Ken why did you have to become human again? I wanted to play more!) Lux replied.

Ken softly smiled. “It looks like I can maintain this for 13 hours. And the timer resets at midnight. It isn’t ideal, but at least it is better than the curses. If it is like this, I won’t have to reset my character. But these parts about being an in-game creature and being subject to their rules is a bit concerning.” He spoke aloud.

Glaw emerged from Jericho.

“Hi Mr. water elemental.” Princess greeted.

{Where did you come from?} Ken asked.

Jericho laughed. “He has been hiding inside me this entire time.”

Glaw gave a nod. {Ken, right? Being considered an ‘in-game’ creature as you put it does indeed have some troublesome rules. Most of them are combat related though. If you become engaged in combat with someone who has an undying soul like you, unless you have specific monster skills, you cannot escape from combat. Also, aggro or aggression rules apply which makes fights against a large amount of mortals troublesome. However, there are a lot of benefits to being an in-game creature.}

{Benefits?} The pre-teen inquired.

{Indeed. But I will leave them up to you to find out. Besides, aren’t you already familiar with your new body despite only being it for a few minutes?}

Ken thought for a minute and realized it took him almost no time at all to adapt to the feline body. {You’re right, but why tell me this?}

{I am letting you know that there are benefits and detriments so you can make your own choice as to whether it is valuable to you or not.}

Ken half smiled. {Thanks.}

Jericho nodded. “We have to wait until tomorrow evening until Purai gets back. How about tonight and tomorrow evening you come over again and we can continue live dance lessons?”

Ken looked down. “I’m not sure.”

Jericho coughed and walked over to the boy. “Dancing will help get your mind off of things and I know Moira’s opinion of you would get better if you did.”

The pre-teen hesitated for a bit longer. “I’ll come over. We have a few hours before dinner time. What should we do Meow?”

[You have spent 13 hours in your human form today. Reverting back to your animal form.]

(What?!) Ken exclaimed. (That was only a couple of minutes!)

(Yay! Brother Ken is normal again!) The lynx face rubbed his brother.

Princess tilted her head as she looked at her uncomfortable friend. (It’s just after 1:00. Maybe your skill was counting the time before we met Purai?)

Jericho came over and plucked the two kittens by the scruffs of their necks. “You two look identical to me. It might be a bit of a problem.”

Ken and Lux dangled awkwardly.

“I know how we can fix that!” Princess grinned. “But we need to go back to town and get some supplies.”