“Umamusume…” Utarou said as he held the jaw of a very confused horse.
“Uh, Sir Utarou, is everything alright?” Joelson asked.
“Uma… Musume…” Utarou repeated, nodding slowly.
“Horse… Daughter…?” Joelson repeated, slowly.
“Yes… Yes… Tell me, do animals have skills in the same way as you or I?” Utarou asked seriously.
“Uhh, no?” Joelson said, stepping back from Utarou awkwardly.
Most of the knights in Utarou’s employ had never heard him speak, all they knew was a Blessed Being from another world with immortality.
They also had only ever known him as someone who was extremely depressed.
Ever since Hope had arrived in the fort he’d changed into an entirely different person, it was quite intimidating really.
The only people who quite understood the change in attitude was Henrek and Hope, whom Utarou had been very blatantly giving special treatment to.
As the Lord of this fortress he was well within his right to do this, but it was a notable shift in the status quo.
“Explain to me how you breed these horses, you’re the horse master here right?” Uratou continued.
“I don’t do any breeding, I just keep them healthy, and it’s just a skill, look.” Joelson sighed, opening his menu to show Utarou.
Joelson had invested in a standard set of skills for a knight, increased endurance, improved strength and quicker recovery.
These were only Tier 1 skills, stemming directly from Joelson’s legacy skill of ‘Bonus XP’, a common legacy skill for minor nobility like Joelson. As Tier 1 skills, they provided minor bonuses, increased endurance was a flat 5% increase, improved strength was 10% and quicker recovery was a meager 2% increase.
However as Joelson was the horse master, he’d also invested into the tier 2 skill of “Animal Skill Check”, which necessitated Joelson to invest in the pre-requistite skills of “Improved Perception” and “Animal Handling”
“Go on then, show me the horse's skills then.” Utarou demanded, pointing to the horse he’d been fondling earlier.
“It doesn’t work like that.” Joelson sighed as he patted the confused horse gently, causing a familiar looking skills menu to appear.
“Wait a minute.” Utarou muttered as he opened up his own Skill tree.
Since he was a blessed being, he only had one large circle with his Blessed Being Skill “Perfect Immortality."
The horse only had one large circle as well, with the Animal Skill “Tamed Horse, Destrier.”
“Why does my skill tree look the same as the horses?” Utarou asked suspiciously. Joelson shrugged.
“Dunno, but animals all look like this. Just a skill that describes their species and breed, no options to level up.” Joelson explained.
“Do monsters look the same as well?”
“Nah, opposite actually. They have no legacy skills and only upgrade. So y’know, the older a monster is, the more powerful it is.” Joelson explained.
“So that means… a monster girl would have a large skill tree and a legacy skill, a true combination of a human and monster…” Utarou nodded.
“Right… sure.” Joelson sighed as he saw Henrek walking past the stables with Hope clinging onto him still.
“How come Henrek gets all of the luck? A promotion and a woman hanging off of him with his own private quarters?” Joelson thought jealously, having conveniently forgotten his prior behaviour that might make Hope somewhat hesitant to be near him.
“Hope you don’t have to follow me everywhere…” Henrek groaned as he pushed the thin woman off of him.
“Oh I’m sorry, please don’t hate me…” Hope apologised suddenly, quickly taking several steps back from Henrek. Henrek flinched as she ran off back to her room.
Technically it was both of their rooms, but Henrek wasn’t exactly comfortable with sharing a bed with this woman he’d met, though he also wasn’t exactly willing to trust the degenerates that King Oldsman sent to Mountain Keep, so he’d been standing guard at the door.
“I… Hope no look just….” Henrek began, but saw Utarou quickly approach.
“Oh God damnit.” Henrek groaned, Utarou approaching Hope who was now cornered by Utarou, shivering slightly as Utarou began asking questions.
“Hope! How have you been? Are you comfortable? Have you been leveling up?” Utarou asked in rapid succession, Hope flinching as he stepped a little too close to her.
“Yes master.” Hope muttered softly.
“Heh, no we’ll save that for later generations. Just call me Utarou! Let’s see that skill tree!” Utarou demanded. Hope visibly shook as she opened up her inventory, Henrek quickly moving in and pulling Utarou back slightly.
“Utarou, sir, you’re scaring her.” Henrek said sternly.
“I am? My my that won’t do! Henrek thank you my good man, I must prevent this generational trauma.” Utarou declared.
“How the hell am I supposed to deal with this? Hope is not in a position to decline anything Utarou might ask of her. So far he’s been reasonable albeit strange, but who knows what he’ll do next? With how she’s been relying on me I don’t think she’d be able to stand up for herself either, uarghh mama what do I do?” Henrek thought with a sigh, looking up to see Utarou taking several steps back from Hope.
“Is here good?” Utarou asked, Hope slightly shaking her head.
“Here?!” Utarou shouted as he took several more paces back, Hope shaking her head.
“HERE?!” Utarou asked as he practically ran backwards, tripping on a wall that was supposed to stop anyone from falling down the hill. Utarou slipped and fell as Hope and Henrek ran towards the stony wall, seeing Utarou pull himself out of the thick snow.
“HOW ABOUT HERE?!” Utarou shouted again, Hope letting out a soft laugh and nodding.
“You did that on purpose didn’t you?” Henrek asked with a bemused smirk.
“Who knows.” Hope shrugged, her large yellow eyes looking away from both Henrek and Utarou.
“Maybe she’s more in control than I thought…” Henrek thought as Hope opened up her skills menu.
Despite her unique Legacy Skill “Cat Eyes”, most of her available tier 1 skills were what Henrek expected. Simple buffs and resistances.
However there was a unique Tier 1 skill.
“Superior Night Vision.”
It provided a simple boost to her pre-existing night vision, and of course this was the beginning of the skill branch that Utarou was most interested in.
Since arriving at the Mountain Keep, Utarou had made sure she was being well fed, which was providing her body the opportunity to heal and actually absorb XP from her actions, which primarily consisted of sewing herself a properly fitting winter outfit for the mountains at the moment.
Thanks to this she’d been able to unlock a Tier 2 Skill in the short time she’d been in the mountain keep.
“Cat-like Reflexes.”
“Good good! Looks-” Utarou shouted up, being interrupted by Hope suddenly throwing a snow ball just behind his head, causing the snow fox that was about to try and have a go at Utarou to run off.
“BOOM! Look at that! What’s next on that tree! I can’t read from here!” Utarou shouted up, causing Hope to laugh slightly, looking up to Henrek, who rolled his eyes and read out the skills Hope now had access to.
“Tier 2, Feline Acrobactics and Cat-” Henrek stopped as he read the second skill.
“Well?!” Utarou shouted.
“This is probably a bad idea.” Henrek thought as he took a deep breath.
“Catish Hearing.” Henrek mumbled.
Utarou collapsed to his knees in a praying pose.
“Thank you Kami Sama.” Utarou declared solemnly.
Perhaps it’d only take one generation to create this world's first true cat girl.