It’s inconvenient to not have a name for my ability…so I’ve taken the liberty of calling it [Collector] for the time being.

Apparently…collecting items in the Collection Box is supposed to make me stronger. Though, it seems I can only get the enhancement bonus once when I get a new item. I don’t get the bonus again if I throw several of the same item in the box.

Once I get a bonus, even if I take the item out of the Collection Box and let it go, the bonus I get will remain the same. This means that if I find someone who has a rare item or something and put it in the Collection Box, I can return it before they notice.

Well, it’s nice to find out what ability I was reincarnated with. It’s a really good one!

It’s time to get serious about getting food and water…It’s too late to panic when you’re unable to move.

I want to wander around and look for food, but if I move around clumsily, the chances of encountering a demon like the “Chief” that I met earlier will increase…

By the way, is that really a demon? I’m not sure if they are really demons or if they’re just a small fry in this world that doesn’t make any sense. Either way, if they target me, I’m dead for sure, so it doesn’t make a difference in the end….

There is a risk of encountering one, but if I don’t move, nothing will happen. Standing still because I’m scared isn’t going to change anything.

“Mya!”

I start walking with high spirits.

As I walk, I keep a watchful eye on my surroundings. On the way, I placed a stone that was lying in the grass in the Collection Box.

“[Stone Lv.1]

Category: Material

Size: Small

Rarity: F

Quantity: 1/30”

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

I’m one point stronger now. Even if it’s only a little bit… 

More importantly, the number of items in my possession shows one, right? Right now, there are two branches, or “Wood Lv.1” in the Collection Box. If the number of items is still one, then that means “Quantity” is the limit for each item, not a grand total.

Thank goodness…Thirty items being the total number that I can have in my Collection Box isn’t enough.

Maybe I can only stock up to a hundred types…and if I can check the capacity limit of the Collection Box, I would like to check it…but only after I’ve found a safe place to try it out.

I’m only worried about the immediate future right now. I need to find food and water…

While paying close attention to my surroundings, I wander around the forest for about fifteen minutes and finally find a small stream.

“Mya!”

I completely lost my composure and shouted, “Water!!”, but what actually came out of my mouth was just the cry of a cute kitten.

The crystal-clear water was weaving through the gaps between the trees.

The stream was too small and shallow for my old body to dive into, but in this body it seems larger and more grand than the Milky Way.

Is it okay to drink it? Let’s just say it is okay. I’m thirsty from all the walking I’ve done, so even if it is a little dangerous…I’ll just close my eyes and go for it.

Well, it’s probably okay, the water is clear.

I drink water by plunging my face into it.

Gasp!  It’s cold and so good!! I live for this!

Oh, no! My face is all wet and gross?! What the hell? It’s so irritating how uncomfortable it is!!

Is this the reason that cats don’t like baths!?

I shook my face rapidly to get rid of the water.

Huh, I didn’t know there were pitfalls like this…it’s tough being in a cat’s body…

Oh yeah! Can I put the water in my Collection Box? I’d be very grateful if I could carry it around with me. Does it have to be solid first?

I plunge my paws into the water to see.

The water around my paws disappears and the stream stops flowing for a moment.

“[Water Lv.3]

Category: Material

Size: Medium

Rarity: F

Quantity: 1/30”

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

Oh, I was able to throw it in.

From the amount that vanished from the stream, I’d say about ten liters counts as one item.

I don’t know how the liquid is managed in the Collection Box, but…I do know that it probably isn’t carefully placed in some kind of bottle or plastic container.

Anyway…

The water is level three.

What kind of standard or criteria did it meet to be level three? Impurities, spring water, soft water, hard water…I don’t really know what part gives its level rating at all.

I guess we’ll leave what we don’t know aside for now.

All I know now is that the water is drinkable. YES!

It doesn’t matter how much water you have if you can’t replenish it. Let’s take the maximum I can store.

It took about three minutes to get all thirty slots filled.

Now I won’t have to worry about water for a while…unless the water goes bad in the Collection Box…

Now, what should I do?

If I move along the stream I won’t have to worry about getting lost, which is good, but I don’t know if I should head upstream or downstream….Hmm.

I guess downstream.

It may connect to a big river somewhere, and even if it doesn’t, the water will probably flow into a lake or the ocean. If not, it’ll probably flow to a human village or a road somewhere.

I don’t think I can live in a human village as a cat, but at least it is safer than being in a forest with demons roaming around. Besides, a town would definitely be better for finding food.

Let’s look for food, towns and gather items. That’s what we’ll do.

I trot along in my small body following the stream.

Now, I should find some food.

I scavenge around, but there isn’t anything that I can eat. There should be at least some nuts somewhere.

As I walk along, my feet get caught in the mud and I fall.

“Ahhh!”

I’m slipping and sliding around…Ouch, that hurts!

It’s so muddy near the water’s edge.

I hatefully slapped the mud—then I thought of something.

Wood. Stones. Water.

All the things in the Collection Box are not special. All things that exist are made of matter. That means that I can collect other things as items, doesn’t it?

For example—this mud.

“[Earth Lv.2]

Category: Materials

Size: Medium

Rarity: F

Quantity: 1/30”

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

Oh, I was able to after all.

This time, I collect some of the dry soil a little further away.

”[Earth Lv.1]

Category: Material

Size: Medium

Rarity: F

Quantity: 2/30”

Earth levels are higher in muddy conditions… I really don’t understand the leveling criteria.

Whatever. If mud has a higher level, why don’t I keep some of it? It could be useful or something.

I’ll stock about ten for now.

I also decided to put some grass that was growing nearby in the Collection Box

“[Wild Grass Lv.1]

Category: Material

Size: Small

Rarity: F

Quantity: 1/30”

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

Okay, good.

Shouldn’t trees and grasses be sorted by type? Would pine trees, chestnut trees and grasses be if they were vegetables?

It’s a mystery…

I continued to walk while I wonder about it in my mind, tilting my head.

Later, I found a flower and tried to collect it, but it was processed as Lv.2 wild grass. Are flowers supposed to be treated the same as grass? Maybe it’s because of it isn’t rare enough or even because I can’t recognize the type of flower…

Anyway, it seems my idea of collecting a bunch of different grass and flowers to strengthen my abilities was isn’t going to work out…

“Mee…”

I let out a sigh.

I look up in the sky and think, “Oh God, why are you testing me?”…and I suddenly see a red fruit!

That’s an apple, isn’t it!?

I was so excited that I made no attempt to pronounce it well.

Yes, I’m excited. This is an apple, you know!? It’s an apple!

The fruit is small even though it was ripe and red, probably because enough sun wasn’t getting through or a lack of nutrients in the soil.

It doesn’t matter, though! Food is food, whether it has a bad color or it’s small. It’s still a decent food that I can eat!

Okay, let’s get it!! We have to! We have no choice!

After taking three motivated steps, I approach the trunk of the tree.

This tree…

There are no other apple trees around, are there? I wonder if this tree just happened to sprout here from a seed carried by a bird or some other animal.

Actually…I can see a couple more apples towards the top, but…that seems to be all.

Now, let’s go get them.

I step back a bit and—jump!!

“Myah!!”

I jump with all my spirit and might!

But—I couldn’t even reach the first branch.

Damnit!  Effect: Even though it’s slight, my jump is definitely higher thanks to the five physical ability boosts I’ve gotten…

I tried one more time, but I still couldn’t reach it.

If I could reach it with a couple of inches, it’s worth trying, but since it’s almost a foot higher, there’s nothing I can do about it…

Is this the two-step jumping thing that you see in cat videos where I hook my claws on the trunk? No, I don’t think I can use that technique at all.

What should I do then, give up? No, no, no, if I miss this, I don’t know when I’ll come across another thing to eat, so I should definitely get this.

Think about it…I still have my human wisdom even if I can’t do anything with my physical ability.

What if I use a long stick or something to knock it down…That’s no good because I can’t manipulate a stick well in this body.

I could throw something at it…No, that’s a useless idea—I can’t throw anything in a cat’s body!

I can’t throw things with my paws, but I do have the Collection Box! I could try to give it momentum when I bring something out…

Let me try it out.

I select a stone from a list of items.

I take the stone and…what’s this? It’s like it’s about to shoot out…

The stone launches out of the empty space with a huge amount of force and hits the trunk of the apple tree with a loud bang.

Oh, whoa? That feels good, doesn’t it? I think I can do it with a little practice.

Aside from my lack of skill, the stone is too small. I can’t knock the apple down unless it is a little larger and heavier.

I looked around a bit and collected four reasonably sized stones.

After practicing for about five minutes—

“Mee-mee!”

With a whoosh of air, the stone flies out.

That’s a good throw. It’s not quite as fast as a baseball player’s fastball…but it’s about as fast as the average human can throw.

Alright, I think this item throwing technique shall be called Slingshot!!…Yeah, that’s what it is, right? I should find out more about it.

I’m going to try it out.

I shoot stones from right underneath the apple tree like a fireworks display.

“Meeee!”

I hit the branch the apple is hanging from and it snaps.

Yes!!! I’m awesome!! I might have a knack for this!

…Well, the fault I can find with this mission is that the apple and the stone that I’d launched were now falling towards me.

“Myaa!!”

I manage to avoid it with my cat-like agility.

Aaah! It’s dangerous! That was really close!

Putting the apple aside, if the stone had hit me, my little kitten body would’ve died instantly. Even though I’m the one who threw the stone!

Whatever. For the time being, I’m able to get the food I need.

…Huh? Can cats even eat fruit? I think I remember that cat’s can’t have oranges, but are apples okay?

I think it is okay…maybe. Cat’s aren’t supposed to eat a lot of fruit bad to begin with…?

Ah, shit! I should’ve had a cat, I’d know better.

…There’s no point in regretting that now.

I’ll try to eat it anyway.

I try to take a small bite. The nectar flows from the gaps between my shallowly pierced teeth…But it’s not very sweet, is it? Is it that the apple isn’t sweet, or maybe…a cat’s taste buds aren’t sensitive to sweetness?

The juice soaks into my empty stomach and it’s delicious!…Though, I can’t take a bite because my jaw isn’t strong enough…

I guess I should crush it a little.

I should pull my mouth off of it and put it in the Collection Box.

“[Leftovers Lv.1]
Category: Materials

Size: Small

Rarity: F

Quantity: 1/30”

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

Leftovers….

Is it because I put my teeth in it? Even if the shape isn’t lost, does it still count as leftovers once it’s been touched?

Well, I’ll get back to that later. It’s time to eat.

I slam the apple against the tree trunk with Slingshot.

The fruit crumbles and the sweet nectar splashes everywhere, wetting the ground.

I eat the small pieces of apple all over the ground.

As a human, I feel really uncomfortable eating something off the ground. I guess I can’t really say that since I’m not a human anymore, I’m a cat.

Munch munch

Regardless of the sweetness, the color of the fruit is beautiful and the texture is crisp just like the apples I know. 

I think it’s a bit unnatural for an apple in another world to be exactly the same…but, I’m a bit relieved that it is the same.

My stomach was nice and full after eating about three pieces.

The only good thing about having such a small body is it doesn’t need as much food.

I put the rest of the pieces together and tossed them into the Collection Box.

Okay! I feel better after filling my stomach.

I throw stones and knock the other two apples out of the tree.

“[Apple Lv.1]

Category: Material

Size: Small

Rarity: F

Quantity: 2/30”

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

Now, I’ve got some food.

It’s not good for my health to only eat fruit every day, so I’ll have to keep looking for something better.