Catheroes Read online

  Catheroes: A LitRPG Bundle

  By A. J. Chaudhury

  (Bundle contains Catmaster Online and The Goat King’s Wives Online)

  Copyright © 2019 Akhoy Jyoti Chaudhury

  All rights reserved

  This is a work of fiction. All characters and events are either a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to real people or events is entirely coincidental.

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  Before you read…

  Catmaster Online and The Goat King’s Wives Online both take place in the game world of Arun. Catmaster deals with the adventures of Kitty while Goat King’s deals with the adventures of Timmy, Kitty’s son. Catmaster Online was written during a time when I was sick and being lost in Kitty’s adventures helped me deal with my illness. The Goat King’s Wives Online was written during a rather depressing phase of my life when things weren’t quite going the way I wanted them to and the book was a ray of hope for me.

  I hope you enjoy both the books as much as I enjoyed writing them.

  Catmaster Online

  Chapter 1

  We moved deeper into the tunnel. It was so dark that despite the fact that we were cats we struggled to see properly. A human would have probably lost his way a long time ago.

  “Why are you so tense, Meow?” I asked, observing that Meow looked quite pale. Usually there was a sparkle in his eyes, which was missing. Whenever we went on any quest together he would be quite excited, but today he looked like a dead cat walking.

  “It’s nothing,” Meow muttered back.

  I nodded. I hoped he would get over it himself. My main focus at the moment should be the quest. I had to save my master at all costs.

  As we moved further, I noticed that after a particular point, I suddenly started becoming more afraid, my heart beating faster. I felt there was something wrong. Well, what else could be expected from a tunnel that belonged to the red Dogmen?

  I cast Spell Seeker, and a message popped up in my vision.

  Spell Detected!

  The area you are in has been bewitched with the Fear Charm.

  The main purpose of this spell is to make you fearful and nervous.

  So I was right, I thought as I dismissed the message window.

  “There is a fear charm over this place,” I told Meow. The latter however just let out a grunt.

  “Get Human Hands ,” I told him. “I have a feeling we’d need them soon. Our paws won’t do.”

  Meow nodded again. He was so… unlike Meow today. Yes, this was a much more serious quest than the others we had been to in the past, but still it was making me uneasy to see that he was so grim. The toes of Meow’s paws elongated, and the shape of his paws became like the hands of a human, except they still remained hairy. He pulled out his sword from its sheath. I myself cast Human Hands on my paws.

  You have selected Human Hands.

  The shape of your paws will become like the hands of a human.

  You will lose 5 mana every ten minutes for as long you continue with the spell.

  I pulled out my sword. I liked its touch. It brought me considerable comfort.

  We turned a corner and I let out a gasp as I saw that the tunnel ended.

  “But this couldn’t be possible,” I said, confused. I had been expecting the vile Dogmen to show up, not the sudden end of a tunnel!

  “You said you were sure that this was the tunnel,” I said to Meow. The latter looked away from me.

  Enough.

  I slapped Meow.

  “What’s wrong with you today?”

  “There is nothing wrong with him,” a voice suddenly boomed in the tunnel. It’s owner invisible. From what it seemed, the voice could have belonged to the tunnel itself.

  I looked at Meow’s face, searching for answers. But he totally avoided my eyes, looking down.

  “I want an answer to this, Meow,” I demanded to him.

  Meow backed away.

  Suddenly many figures materialised in the tunnel.

  Dogmen.

  Their bodies were like that of humans, while their heads were dog-like. They also had tails. Most of them carried swords, but there was one Dogman that wore a turban and carried a staff – a wizard. To his staff was attached the skull of a cat.

  “Meow, help me!” I cried. I threw myself at four dogmen as they neared us, swinging my sword madly. My aim was always the vital parts of their bodies. Within seconds, they lay limp on the ground.

  Done, I stole a glance at Meow and was devastated to see that he was standing still in a corner. None of the Dogmen were trying to harm him either. I put two and two together and realised that I had been betrayed. My heart pained for I had really trusted Meow and regarded him as a friend.

  Perhaps I was weak in the moment and one of the Dogmen took the opportunity to stab my back. I fell to my knees.

  You have been stabbed!

  You receive -125 health!

  I gritted my teeth and stood up as my back flared with pain.

  I let out a great cry and put my sword into the stomach of the Dogman that had stabbed me.

  Just then, I felt the sharp edge of a sword sink into my shoulder.

  You have received a cut!

  You receive -75 health!

  “This is interesting!” I heard the wizard laugh.

  I needed to get out of this situation, even though it could mean that Meow might die. I had to use the Blast. It was a spell for only the direst circumstance, and this was a dire one for sure. It would deplete all my mana, and even reduce my own health, but there was no other way.

  I pulled my arms together and closed my eyes.

  “Activate Blast,” I muttered in a tense breath.

  I felt a wave of utter power leave my body, as the cracking sound of an explosion almost made me deaf.

  You have been injured!

  You receive -150 health

  Oops! You can no longer continue with Human Hands as you lack sufficient mana!

  The clang of my sword falling onto the floor reached my ears, as my paws could no longer grip it. Only now did I dare to open my eyes. They went wide when maniacal laughter reached my ears.

  I looked around in my shock.

  Most of the Dogmen were standing and others were in the process of getting onto their feet. The wizard was the guy that was laughing. The clothes of the Dogmen had been torn with the intensity of my blast. But none of them had died, when all of them should have. Even Meow was on his feet, a look of great regret on his face.

  “You really thought that would work, did you?” the wizard laughed. “In some other place it might have, but this tunnel is a special place, you see… Grab the idiot!” he commanded his minions. The Dogmen immediately grabbed me. I could do absolutely nothing. I was powerless. I had zero mana and just a few hits could kill me so low my health was.

  “Now, do your job, Meow,” the wizard said. A glowing dagger materialised in his hand and he threw it to Meow.

  Meow grabbed the glowing dagger and approached me. All the while he didn’t look at my eyes. When he reached me, he didn’t wait for long. A tear rolling down his face, he buried the dagger into my heart. The world swirled as a message popped up in my vision.

  You have died!

  ***

  Chapter 2

  I opened my eyes.

  I could see the sky above me, and there were trees surrounding the edges of my vision. The sunlight fell on my face and I liked its feel for it was quite warm and soothing. I relished the sun for a while, lying on a relatively hard surface which I didn’t mind. Suddenly, there was a noise like “Ding!’ and in m
y the middle of my vision there appeared a translucent rectangular box and in my peripheral vision there appeared health, mana and stamina bars besides a couple of small icons. One of the icons was the symbol of a cat’s face, while the other icon simply was a red button with a white dot in the centre.

  You have been reborn.

  You retain 1% of your memory.

  You retain language skills.

  You retain your bag.

  You retain basic knife.

  The box disappeared and then another one appeared in its place as I sat up straight, observing that I was in a glade of some sort.

  Unfortunately you met your end while playing the game earlier. Do not worry, for success comes to those who persist! It’s a wide world out there. Go and conquer it!

  The box disappeared.

  I could recall some flashes of memory. I was in the midst of countless dogs and then everything went to black. Had the dogs killed me? Or had I died of some other cause? I didn’t know. While I was acutely aware of the fact that I was in a game world of some kind I didn’t really recall what the rules of the world were, or how one played the game.

  My body was aching, as though I had been in the same position for a very long while. I stretched. It felt good. I yawned and purred, and licked my paws.

  I was atop a rock, which explained why my body was aching.

  And just then, the rock came alive and moved!

  Immediately I jumped from it and landed on the grass below, my heart at my ears. I saw that it wasn’t a rock in the first place. It was a turtle of a great size and I had been lying on its back so far!

  The great turtle opened its eyes slowly, as though it was quite drowsy.

  “Hello,” the turtle said in the aged voice of a male, “I am Goruk. I hope you recall me?”

  Perhaps he saw my blank expression, and he said,

  “Ah, I see you died. You probably don’t remember me. Well, I am here to tell you a few things about the world of Arun.” The turtle closed his eyes and remained so for quite a while so that I wondered if he had fallen asleep. I let out a cough.

  “Can you tell me about who I was in my past life in this world?” I asked, hoping he would open his eyes. I eagerly waited, and then I let out a sigh as he finally parted his eyelids again.

  “Wh… what did you say?”

  I repeated my question.

  With much effort the turtle shook his head.

  “Unfortunately no, that is not possible. I am not allowed to tell you about your past life.”

  The turtle closed his eyes again, so that my heart sank. I let out another cough.

  “Hello?”

  The turtle began to snore. This was getting irritating. I grimaced, approached him, and then lightly slapped his face. His eyelids parted just a bit before closing again. A quest box appeared in my vision.

  New Quest available!

  Goruk is too sleepy to talk with you, O little one.

  There is a magical lake a short distance from here. Fetch water from there and sprinkle it on Goruk’s face so that he awakes!

  Wow, I thought to myself. But I accepted the quest anyway.

  Now where should the lake be? I couldn’t just go wandering hoping that it would appear in front of me, could I? Plus, what if I got lost in the woods?

  My eyes fell on the trees. Some of them were quite tall. I could climb one of them and take a good look at the surrounding woods. As I sprinted towards one particular tree, I became aware of the presence of a light weight on my back. I craned my head and saw that it was a black bag. I reckoned it was something that every player in this game world received.

  I climbed the tree. It was not easy. But when I reached the top-most branch of the tree, I experienced a rush of adrenaline, my heart drumming. It was like I was at the top of the world. I definitely was at the top of the forest for sure.

  The forest extended almost indefinitely in all directions. In the far distance I could see the outlines of mountains and hills. I also spotted the lake. It was around five hundred metres to the north, its water gleaming in the sunlight.

  I climbed down from the tree, and sparing a last look at the sleeping turtle, I raced toward the north. I memorized the shapes of some of the trees in my mind as I moved along so that I would be able to return easily. The forest was teeming with all kinds of sounds. The birds were chirping high above trees and there were insects jumping around. My stomach grumbled. I would have to catch and eat something soon.

  In a relatively short while I reached the lake. Only then did I recall something. How the hell was I going to take the water with me to Goruk? I went and stood at the edge of the lake and observed my reflection on the water. I was a white cat with patches of black spread around my body.

  Then I observed the reflection of my bag, and an idea came to me. Would it be possible to carry the water in my bag?

  I removed the bag and opened it. I dipped it under water, so that in a matter of seconds a good amount of the liquid had entered the bag. One thing I noticed was that the bag never became full, no matter how much water I let into it.

  I slung the bag over my shoulder and was quite pleased and surprised at the same time to find that the weight of the bag had barely increased. Without a doubt the bag would be coming quite in handy in the future to me.

  I returned to the glade. I noticed that the stamina bar in my vision had gone down by a bit. I was also panting now.

  I opened my bag and let the water out on Goruk’s head that was so much smaller than his body.

  I let out a gasp as a large quantity of water came out, and together with it a knife came out from the bag as well and the hilt of the knife hit Goruk’s eye.

  “What on Arun!” Goruk cried as his eyes snapped open. I had let so much water out from the bag that the whole area surrounding the turtle was wet. I was so struck by Goruk’s anger that I slipped and fell.

  Congratulations!

  You have completed the quest!

  Unfortunately, you have also angered Goruk and now you must face his wrath!

  Congratulations, eh?

  “How dare you do that to me?” Goruk yelled. He stamped his foot in his anger.

  “I- I am sorry,” I stuttered, “I was just trying to wake you up.”

  “Look, there are other ways to wake others instead of hitting them in the eye,” he said, a scowl hanging to the wrinkles on his face.

  “Please, that was a mistake. You said you would tell me about this world,” I said as I climbed back to my feet.

  “Forget it,” Goruk said. “I am not going to tell you anything. Find it on your own.”

  Those words hurt. After giving my best to wake him up, this was what the reward was? I stared at him for a moment, and then a tear rolled down the side of my nose. Goruk observed me. His expression softened considerably.

  “Why are you crying, o little one?” Goruk asked, much more tenderly.

  Another tear. I sniffled. The world of Arun was a rough world. I told myself to be stronger, but I just failed at holding back my tears.

  “I am sorry, o little one,” Goruk said, moving closer to me. He gave me the fallen knife by picking it up with his beak. “I will tell you everything about the world of Arun. Please forgive my bad temper.”

  Just then a pop up appeared in my vision.

  Congratulations!

  You have unlocked the spell ‘Cute Charm’!

  Make a sad face in front of certain individuals and win their favour!

  Damn, I thought, partly thankful and partly shocked. I wiped my face with the back of my paw.

  I nodded at Goruk, as I let him drop the knife inside my bag. He began.

  “The world of Arun is a very ancient game world,” Goruk said. “You, o little one, are from a different world called Earth. Most of the other people that you would meet here are also from other worlds. But many of them have forgotten that truth, as a result of which some of the game mechanics have stopped applying on them. For example, when a player dies for
the first time they respawn with just one percent of their memory of the previous life in the game world and also in the real world. If they fail to recover their memory in the second life itself, then it gets considerably harder to regain their memories in their subsequent lives in Arun. Eventually they stop respawning altogether and instead take rebirth in Arun through wombs or eggs of the original inhabitants of Arun and also of other players that forgot about the true nature of this world. Such players also are stripped of a bag, and their ability to see the stats of others is also taken away from them.

  “I am one of the few that are the original inhabitants of Arun. Old turtles like me live at different locations in this world and we are here to give directions to new players and also to those players that die and respawn.”

  “Is there any way I can regain my full memory?” I asked.

  “Alas, there is no definite way. But it’s not impossible. It would totally depend on the kind of decisions you make from now on. If you make decisions that were similar to what you made in your last life in this world, then ultimately you will stumble upon something from your past life and your memory shall come back to you. Doesn’t matter in which direction you travel and what kind of people you meet. Ultimately you will wind up in a place which you visited during your last life.

  “The important thing about this world is that you must continuously try to keep levelling up. It’s how you get stronger and more powerful in this world. The higher the level the more advantages you have over others, but that shouldn’t mean that you disregard someone of a lower level than you. No, no, that would be quite a crime and will lead to your downfall.”