Lament of the Slave

Chapter 143: Wildcat

It was time. Last check.

Ride of Ancestors

Active I (Deviant - 30%)

Whether man or beast, all are born with instincts built on ancestral experience. However, the scope of this deep memory from which your instincts can draw is much broader than that of others. With them, you can gauge the strength of your adversaries, let them guide your steps in battle, dominance, and love, or simply let them find your way through life.

As cryptic as ever. No matter how many times I read the description, I found no clue to skills secrets. Either it would gently guide me in my steps, or I would fall entirely under the control of my beast side, driven by my urges and instincts. I preferred the former, obviously.

One other glaring thing struck me as I finished my healthy dinner and stood to face the young mossbear again. I realized how stupid it was to try the skill right now. After the skill activation, I could get overwhelmed and become easy prey for the young beast. It wasn't hard to imagine the result.

Bam! K.O. in the first few steps. Fastest round ever.

Really stupid of me not to try it with rabbits, or better yet, during training with Deckard. Now I was about to pay the price for my hesitation and putting off the issue. To avoid going into the fight completely blind, I took a deep breath and activated [Ride of Ancestors] as I went to take my place.

At first, nothing happened. I took two steps without feeling any change, and it made me anxious. Did I do something wrong? Did the skill require a different approach to use? I thought I'd already mastered the gimmick, and I didn't need to shout the skill's name out loud.

But before I could embarrass myself by doing so, my gaze fell on the young mossbear, and everything changed.

[Mossbear: lvl ???]

Well, not everything. The part the system showed me stayed the same, but what the instincts were telling me was...simply unbelievable. So far, I have been able to guess roughly how strong the beast or human was. My best estimate was in the hundreds, though. Like with this mossbear I was facing, I knew it was close to three hundred, but that was it.

Now I could confidently say that the beast was between 290 and 300. It didn't seem to make that much difference, huh? Wrong!

If I had to put it into words, it would be like looking at a system assessment through a fog. So far, the question marks have been very fuzzy, but the fog had thinned with [Ride of Ancestors], and I could read them more clearly. Or, to stick with the fog reference, it was like looking for a house or a road you lost in bad weather. It had to be there somewhere behind that veil of mist. You were sure of it. That's how it's been for me so far. Now, thanks to [Ride of Ancestors], I was closer and saw my destination's outlines.

Silly analogy, I know.

Anyway, still extraordinary for a level one skill.

And that was not all. The same was true of the beast's mood. It became more apparent to me how much it enjoyed this game we played and how frustrated it felt about not being able to finish me off.

Oddly enough, when I looked at Deckard, the same thing happened. His laid-back attitude was more than evident at first glance, and true to his appearance, he was carefree to a degree. However, underneath that shell of lightheartedness was worry. About what? My instincts didn't go that deep.

Pipsqueak was fun to take a look at. The little squirrel wanted to explore and find treasures. I could only assume more nuts.

And then there was the ancient beast. The mother mossbear was too much, even for my skill-enhanced instincts. As always, when I laid eyes on her, I was struck with an overwhelming sense of regard and the feeling of being at her mercy. She was simply a magnificent creature.