I have Nine Lives

Chapter 13: First mission

Felix looked down at the ground and his face straightened up as he started walking away from the place where he first met Sahee, he was leaving behind the memories of her saving him along with those that he made at the village.

He thought that it was childish, they didn't even know each other that well, who cared if they were from the same tribe? After all, they didn't know each other that well, even though what he had done wasn't right, he just couldn't find any other justification for abandoning her besides his fear of that sensation.

Felix sighed as he didn't talk with the other lion guards, he left them at the village while he went back to the capital of the lion tribe, he avoided the other tribes as there was no need to visit them anymore, they wouldn't be happy from a sudden visit from him anyways.

Felix reached the capital in 3 days without any hitches, there he directly went to the guards building and tried to meet with Landers, fortunately for him Landers was there and he met with him in his office.

Landers looked at Felix's body and nodded his head, he could feel that he was more decisive than before, he wasn't sure what changed him but it was good quality for a scout that had to make split-second decisions if he was ever found out.

Landers looked through some papers on his desk and found what he was looking for after a few seconds of paper ruffling, he decided to tell him the contents of the paper directly:

"You are assigned the trade route between the tiger tribe and the cheetah tribe, you have to intercept their messengers if you can, and if you can't do that you have to report whatever happened if you are found out, this is both a reconnaissance and assassination mission and you will be rewarded nicely if you complete it, anyway, this is your first mission and we have to give you a Hex communication stone, remember that the communication stone won't work unless you are around 100 kilometers away from the capital or another Hex communication stone."

Landers stuffed the small blue Hex communication stone inside one of the pockets of Felix's leather vest and then told him he was ready to go, Felix wasn't sure where he was supposed to go so he asked for something to help him and Landers used one of the scrolls that Lucian used before, but instead of learning the language, he learned about the map of the Tarot continent, the tiger tribe trade route was quite far away from the lion tribe almost 1500 kilometers away, it would take him around half a month at full speed to reach it.

Felix saluted and left, while the world was full of tribes they were all thrown around and gathered in specific locations that agreed with their needs, while Felix was traveling the 150,000 kilometers he didn't meet many new tribes, he met a few poorer cat tribes here and there, some from the dog tribe, the koala tribe, and the kangaroo tribe, there were also different variations of the snake tribe, but the snake tribe was quite ruptured because of internal problems.

Felix fought along the way and ate his fill of bodies to the point that he gained another life meaning he now sat at 5 lives, but this didn't make him happy at all, another life meant another torturous experience if he slipped, but he didn't want to know whatever would happen if he fell into the light, he didn't get a good feeling from that light.

Felix reached the trade route after a long while of traveling and fighting, there were quite a few rogue members of the previous tribes that he met that tried to attack or kill him due to their grudges with the lion tribe, even though his leather vest had the lion tribe's symbol on it, it was a double-edged blade.

Fortunately, Felix didn't have to worry about anyone else as he fought his way through those rogue members, he could play as he wanted, retreat if he was overwhelmed, or go in quickly for the kill if he found an opening.

The travel route was between the nearby mountains and the plains, the cheetah tribe lived a few tens of kilometers nearby and used the mountain pass to their advantage to trade with the tiger tribe, there were a few tree's scattered here and there along the mountain pass so Felix jumped into one and used his stealth technique.

He watched below for any sudden movements and after a short while he saw a cheetah making it's way up the mountain pass, it's speed was blinding but Felix could calculate where it would go using his instincts.

The cheetah was focused on sending the thing that was tied to his back so he wasn't aware much of his surroundings, he also went through this route countless times without any incident popping up so he was pretty confident in his ability to send the package to the tiger tribe unscathed.

The cheetah was almost out of the mountain pass when suddenly Felix dropped down from the tree at a high speed, immediately the cheetah could hear the sound of wind being slashed from above him, he looked up only to see nothing he scratched his ear only to feel blood.

The cheetah eyes widened only to feel a splitting headache then blacking out, Felix's claws retracted back into his paws as he looked at the body of the cheetah, his mouth started watering again, this was one of the strongest opponents he felled and it was done so easily as well, if the cheetah was more aware of his surroundings and didn't stop for that split second he would have been able to dodge and retaliate, meaning there was a high chance for Felix to lose a life here, after all, the cheetah's body was stronger and faster than Felix's.

Felix's eyes lighted up as he cut the strings that tied the package to the cheetah's body and then went ahead to feast.

The blood in his mouth was ever so familiar but also different, he could feel the tender bones crunching and breaking under his strong teeth, the smell of the cheetah's heart was ever so tempting as he took a big bite out of it, his stomach was bulging and recovering by the second as he ate the being that was way bigger than him.

He could feel his muscles strengthening, his bones hardening, his vision clearing up along with his ears hearing even better than before, his current body evolution was happening live as he continued to eat from the cheetah's body.

He ignored the package that sat nearby as he continued to dig in ravenously into the cheetah's body, he was like a starved animal that hadn't eaten for weeks maybe months, but he ate some rations earlier, it was unknown what was making Felix so hungry and primitive when it came to the bodies of those that he killed.

Maybe it was the Hex energy that he was lacking and the world was forcing his body to make it up for it someway, maybe it was his instincts churning up in him as they were scattered and reconstructed in his brain after the travel to the new world, this was a dog eat dog world per se.

The body of the cheetah quickly disappeared under Felix's eating habits, Felix seemingly woke up from a trance as he looked down at the dried blood on the ground, it took him more time than he thought to eat the whole body, after all, the cheetah was big and even though he also became bigger after his last evolution he couldn't control himself when it came to eating so time passed quite quickly without him realizing.

He looked at the package right of him and he became curious, what would the cheetah tribe trade with the tiger tribe?

He wasn't sure why but the package had holes in it, but it wasn't his job to look into the package, his job was to deliver it back to the lion tribe.

He somehow put the package on his back and tied it with the remainders of the strings he cut then he started to run back, he did his job and it was now time go back and get his rewards, he wasn't even sure why he was doing this, he had no one in the lion tribe that he cared about nor anything like that, Sahee was dead and Lucian was hating him, but that didn't mean he couldn't make any new friends, he just a felt a little hollow after everything that happened.

With the increase of his speed after he ate the whole cheetah, he got back to the lion tribe in half the time and sent the package directly to Landers.

Landers opened the package with Felix watching, the package was a strange black rock that was seemingly breathing, Landers's eyes widened for a few seconds before he started laughing and said:

"You have done a great job, Felix, a very great job, your rewards will be doubled and you will be promoted directly to the next military rank of sergeant, you will be excused for now as I will have to talk something with my lieutenant, go and enjoy the capital."

Landers threw him a bag that landed on his back and Felix realized it might be some type of currency that he could use, the bag was pretty heavy which meant he got a lot of things that he could buy.

Felix wasn't sure what to say so he left Landers.

Landers then invited a youth around 23 years old inside his office and talked a bit with him about the contents of Felix's mission, then he gave him the black rock and told him to send it directly to the blacksmith of the capital along with his regards, he also sent him to report to the shaman of the tribe so he would go and work with the blacksmith.

Landers sighed as he watched his lieutenant leave and muttered:

"Dark Hex ore, the tiger tribe really found the vein, it seems we will have to advance the war date, we can't let them excavate more or they would be able to quickly make use of it and if that happened."

Landers shuddered as he thought about it before he left his office, he had his own things to do.

Felix looked around the capital, it was quite lively with food stalls around along with merchants who sold their wares, the animal's tribes weren't much different than humans besides that they weren't that scientifically advanced, but they had something that made up for it, Hex energy!

The hex energy created countless wonders that replaced science in this world, it wasn't that they created trains that worked on Hex energy but they had their way of transport, which was quite expensive and only those of higher rank in the lion tribe could use, Felix saw a few lion tribesmen flying in a what looked to be a hot air balloon, but it was way quicker than one and also way easier to maneuver, it didn't have a high battle capability but it was quicker than running around on foot.

Felix decided to enjoy the capital for some time before he was summoned back to do missions, who knows, he might even be able to find someone that he could befriend, after all, he felt quite lonely by himself, he also needed to get himself a place where he could live.

And it didn't take him that much time to find someone that he could interact with, it was a young lion tribesman that joined the military not long ago, the moment he saw Felix he quickly ran towards him and asked:

"Might this cat brother answer me a few questions?"

This was interesting considering the innate pride of the lion tribe would make them unable to act like this, Felix was interested in this lion-mans character and decided to answer him.