I have Nine Lives

Chapter 37: Mission complete

Felix's surroundings started to light up as he woke up, his fat body was getting rolled on the road just like a barrel by Lindo, seeing him wake up made Lindo stop rolling him and ask him:

"Finally woke up huh? Get on your feet so I don't have to roll you anymore, you are very heavy!"

Felix got up on his feet and started walking normally as his size started to reduce itself with time, by the time they were halfway to their destination Felix had finally digested all of the Hex energy he gained from eating the black bears.

His body undergone a different transformation as some of his fat was burned and transformed into muscle, his body was still looking a little bit chubby, but under all of his fur strong muscle started to appear.

Felix's height didn't increase more, he was still the size of an average dog he jumped on Lindo's shoulder the moment he regained his normal size only for Lindo to almost fall to the ground due to the unexpected weight.

It seemed that while he regained his size his weight increased exponentially.

Lindo got up from the ground and told Felix that maybe he should start walking on his own from now on, at least until he grew a little bit stronger so he could handle Felix's new weight.

Thus Felix had to walk on his own for the remainder of their journey.

Felix was still rather lazy as it was in his personality so he didn't really like it, as time passed and their surroundings changed they have arrived at the village that was promised for the Tigers.

The Tigers were happy, they had finished the fish that Felix stole for them quite a while ago but fortunately as they left the unhabitable area of the mountain food was easier to find so they could hunt and find some wild berries or other such things so they didn't die of hunger.

The village was pretty simple, the buildings were made of hay and rocks here and there, the rock buildings were of course of higher quality compared to the hay ones, they were sturdier and due to the savanna climate, they were very good to sleep in both at night and day.

Felix and Lindo left them alone to familiarize themselves with the buildings as they left towards the capital of the lion tribe, the other three were supposed to guard them while Felix and Lindo would report the success of their mission. Considering the strength difference between them they decided against commenting.

Felix and Lindo arrived at the capital then found the mission reporting mission, Lindo and Felix entered it then reported the success of their mission, they had to wait for their reward to be distributed as a messenger scout would go to the village to verify their claims.

Felix decided to leave to get some training done and asked Lindo for a spar, Lindo of course accepted without a second thought, Catro told them that sparring with each other was the best way to improve in their current situations and Lindo was a person that liked to improve himself.

They found an unused training field and went at it there, their fight was different as Felix's physique improved.

Lindo was getting pushed back as he felt that Felix's strength increased by quite a bit, also when he hit Felix he could feel some resistance coming from his body, he felt it was strange, did his body improve so much after eating the black bear meat? It was a normal thing but cats wouldn't generally have such big improvements from consuming meat, could Felix's physique be different compared to others?

Lindo found something new about his friend today as he almost got his ass handed to himself as he fought Felix, even with his killing intent detection skill he could barely dodge the attacks, Felix was innately faster than him and now that he fixed his problems of being weaker and less sturdy than him, it made Lindo be in a bad situation.

Lindo could only dodge and counterattack, but he couldn't attack to put himself in a worse position or he would surely lose.

A slash to his left wrist was dodged, blocking wouldn't do good for him now, Felix's claws could now dig into his skin quite easily, that meant they could even sever his bones right now!

Felix didn't hold back any of his newfound strength as he used it fully against his friend, he wanted to see what kind of improvements his body went through after he ate so much black bear meat. It seemed that his weaknesses got fixed but his killing intent detection and masking didn't get any improvement as he fought, but Lindo did get better at fighting him with time, it seemed he was getting used to his newfound strength and endurance, he was also seeming to start using Catro's fighting style as he attacked the same point on Felix's body!

Felix started to get sloppy as the fight continued, he had to defend the points that got hit too many times, and considering he didn't learn killing intent detection he still had to think to dodge his attacks, as he gained intelligence Felix's instincts started to get a little bit dulled with time, he started to rely more on his new intelligence rather than trusting his instincts, sometimes his instincts were telling him things that his brain was contradicting.

Felix's attacks were getting more concentrated as he fought Lindo but he still didn't get to grasp killing intent detection after the fight was over, Lindo was breathing roughly and so was Felix, the fight was close as time passed but Felix won in the end. Clapping could be heard around them as Landers arrived, he had a big smile on his face as he said:

"You both got a little bit stronger after this successful mission, it makes me happy, it will increase your chances of coming back when you will have to go to the ten-year intercontinental fight."

Lindo nodded at Landers, he knew about the intercontinental fight but Felix didn't, so Landers explained to him:

"The intercontinental fight is just as its name says, it's a fight between the inhabitants of the 4 continents, our Tarot continent is considered to be in the middle regarding strength, the other three continents are the Balton continent, The Sparron Continent and the Haron Continent."

Felix found the continents to be similar-sounding but he didn't put any thought to them, he didn't really care about their names.

"This is a fight meant to strengthen the relationships between continents but also see how the younger generation of the continents is faring if they became weaker there is a chance that in the future there would be an invasion for that continent, our Tarot continent also had been invaded a few times, our lion tribe originally came from the Balton continent from what the shaman told me when I was young."

Lindo nodded this was new information for him as well, he actually didn't know that their tribe was originally from the Balton continent.

Landers then left them to their training, he was here to train as well but he had his own training area that was specially made for captain level individuals and above.

Felix watched him leave before he heard Lindo's stomach start growling, Lindo scratched the back of his head as he said:

"Let's get some food?"

Felix nodded and they left for a restaurant where they filled their bellies, Felix left for his usual inn to rest as Lindo promised that they would spar more tomorrow.

Felix started to sleep on the fluffy bed of the inn as he woke up only to find himself back in the mindscape, he felt no disturbance in it that meant he already took care of all of the wild souls that weren't fully absorbed by him.

A voice could be heard going around the mindscape, it was the god! It didn't take him much time to contact him again:

"Ah finally a better connection, damn this mortal's weak soul."

"Oh you weren't supposed to hear that but whatever, in the upcoming 10-year fight you should do your best to kill and eat as many people as you can, this is my advice for you, the other gods are quite bored right now and they will do something regarding the four continents soon, this is some information every god gives to his chosen, don't think you are special!"

The voice disappeared after the message was sent, Felix was left there alone to ponder the words, what could the gods do when they were bored? Something important that was for sure, after all, one god could give him the ability to revive countless times as long as he had energy, what would a bunch of gods do to entertain themselves?

Felix will find out soon enough as the 10-year intercontinental fight was getting close, Landers didn't say when but his words indicated that it would happen soon, up till then he had to do his best to grow stronger, Felix didn't like what was happening around him but there was no way for him to control his life, he was already dancing in the palm of the god which gave him his ability, all he could do was react to what was happening around him.

Felix looked at the darkness around him, he felt rather secure in his own mental space but it was quite boring to look at endless darkness, maybe he could do something about it?