“Mee”

I took a deep breath to calm myself down, then looked around.

There aren’t any monsters in sight, are there?

Ha～a…That was really scary!!!

What the hell was that thing!? Are monsters like that in this world!? Are you kidding me! There’s no way I can survive in a world that’s this dangerous!

I don’t even know if I could survive in a human body here, much less a cat. As a kitten, it’s not just the demon, I don’t have a chance at all!

No, this isn’t a good time to lament right now, what should I do…?

…There’s nothing to be done about this. No matter how painful or scary it is, if I don’t want to die, I’ll have to survive it somehow.

Okay, so what exactly should I do…

I can’t even beat a rabbit in this body, and no matter how hard I try, I would never be able to beat that demon.

Should I run away and hide? Either way, there’s a limit to how long I can do that. As a kitten, my enemies aren’t just large enemies. Even snakes, birds and even insects can prey on me.

I need power.

I need the strength to defend myself as soon as possible!!

I can’t take this lying down…wait! If the conversation with the reincarnation staff is true, he said he gave me some kind of power to help, right?

Let’s just try a few things.

I hit a tree. It just made my paws hurt.

I jumped. I guess I don’t have enough leg strength because I only went up half a foot.

Tried to run. Now I’m tired.

I chirped. I am so scared something might come to get me because of my voice.

After all that, the only outcome is I’m even more hungry than I was before.

This isn’t good…

What? Could it be that the reincarnation staff forgot to give me my power? I…already want to cry…

“Miyaah”

I can no longer stand up due to hunger and despair.

This isn’t good at all… Shouldn’t I just give up? It may be more realistic to live off of what’s already here instead of relying on some unidentified power, but I can’t even carry anything with my body like this…

I’ll take a break…The moment I sat down, I touched a branch near my feet.

I suddenly felt something “open” in my body.

“What is this?” I thought, then the branch was suddenly gone.

“[Wood Lv. 1]

Category: Materials

Size: Small

Rarity: F

Quantity: 1/30”

Huh? What’s happening?

When I close my eyes, there are all these odd characters appearing. It’s like a display is on the back of my eyelids.

Umm…? What does this mean?

Ignoring my lack of comprehension, more letters typed out.

“Condition has been met: <<Collect one item in the ‘Materials’ category>> The following categories have been unlocked.

Category: Weapons

Category: Armor

Category: Accessories

You will now be able to collect items from the unlocked categories.”

Using collection? Is this now possible?

More typing continues.

“Bonus to physical abilities has been added due to the collection of new items (Effect: minor)”

The log stopped typing after that, and even if I waited for a while, the letters wouldn’t show up anymore.

Hmm? I wonder what this means?

To test things out, I try to touch another branch nearby.

The branch disappears in a flash.

Then the typing starts back up again.

“[Wood Lv. 1]

Category: Materials

Size: Small

Rarity: F

Quantity: 2/30”

Could this…be the ability that the reincarnation staff gave me?

It’s the ability to collect items…not store them, right?

Hmm…If so, this ability is the only way for me to survive here as a cat. First, I’ll have to understand what it does before I can really start.

I wonder if the items are stored somewhere. If so, then would I be able to take them out?

As I was thinking this, the image of the branch that just disappeared showed up in my mind. I try to move it out of my mind like I have some kind of cursor. Suddenly…

“Myaa!”

The branch suddenly fell out in front of me.

I was so surprised I squealed with a cute voice…

“[Wood Lv. 1]

Category: Materials

Size: Small

Rarity: F

Quantity: 1/30”

The log typed out.

The number of items in my possession decreased, so that means I’m able to take them out. I tried to do it again.

A second branch falls on top of the first one.

“Collection box is now empty”

Collection box? Is this like item storage in games? I’m not sure if this box is inside me or some other dimension…Well, I think it is best not to think about it. I think this is beyond common sense so getting an answer would be impossible…

I touch the branch.

Nothing happens.

When I touch it again with the intention of “putting it in the collection box”, the item disappears…No, it is stored.

I see. I can turn it on and off consciously depending on whether or not I want to collect whatever I’m touching.

The log that types when you put an item in is the detailed status of that item, right?

Wood…? It’s just written as the material for wood, not a specific type of wood? Is it because it’s a branch? What if I try a trunk or something, would it be any different? What’s with the level notation next to the name? Does it go up if I train it? No, there isn’t a way to train wood.

The category is probably the classification in the item box.
Size…is just the size of the item.

Rarity…rarity? Probably rarity in the normal sense. If a branch is F, then F is probably the lowest rating. I’m pretty sure A would be the top rating or something like that.

The total items is the limit to the number of items I can have. I’d love it if there was no limit to the number of items I can collect…No, even in dungeon RPGs it’s normal to have around thirty items in your inventory…This is important, so I’ll play with it later.

There was a thing that stuck out to me the most.

I scroll back in the log in my head a bit.

The log from when the first branch was put in the collection box.

“Bonus to physical abilities has been added due to the collection of new items (Effect: minor)”

That’s it.

If you take this literally, it means that my ability has increased slightly, but…I don’t feel powered up at all. It says the effect is minor…If there were a status display or something, it would probably be a +1 or +2.

But…if it says “collection of new items”, doesn’t that mean that every time I put a new item in the collection box, I’ll get a bonus to my physical abilities? 

If this is the case, isn’t that still a big deal!? Even if the number added is only one or two with each item,  after one or two hundred times I could have beast-like strength!

This means that if I keep collecting items…holy shit…I can become the strongest even in the body of a cat!?

…Well, right now I can’t even beat a rabbit…