After being Reincarnated as a Cat Girl, I Somehow obtained a Unique Subclass

the Start of Something New

The next morning, Zatiel left early and returned as the girls were getting dressed. She went to the desk and retrieved her enchantment materials from her pocket dimension, including a brand new bottle of magic ink. Claire was curious and asked.

“What are you doing, Zatiel?”

“I'm going to engrave your gear with enchantment magic. We need gemstones for greater enchantments or better, but I can engrave basic ones on just about anything. Give me your staff, right quick.”

Claire handed her staff over and watched, as Zatiel began writing runes on it. She engraved impact, durability, self-repair, and lesser mana regeneration onto the staff and handed it back to Claire. Zatiel waved Vanessa over and said.

“Van, I'm enchanting your equipment next. Hand me each item one at a time, starting with your armor.”

Vanessa did as she was instructed, starting with her leather vest. Zatiel enchanted all the armor with durability, self-repair, and magical resistances. She enchanted the blades with sharpness, durability, and self repair; while she settled with durability, self-repair, and lesser mana regeneration on the bow. The last step was to enchant her new sabre with sharpness, durability, and self-repair.

She sheathed her sword again and spoke happily, “Good, now your equipment is almost as good as mine.”

Val replied in awe, “Thanks, boss.”

Claire was speechless, but hugged her far too tightly for comfort. Zatiel managed to free herself and gave the human a look of endearment. She spoke carefully.

“Listen, I'm just protecting my investments. Let's go eat, I want to go back to the forest today. My funds are running lower than I'm comfortable with.”

Claire followed her downstairs and spoke with a hint of regret, “I'm sorry we've been such a burden.

“Don't worry about it. I'm sure you'll pull your weight now that you're stronger.”

Van hurried after them and added, “Of course, I promise we will prove our worth. I won't let you regret this.”

The girls ate breakfast together and left the city afterwards. Out of the south gate and down the road towards the forest. They made camp by the river again around noon, and Zatiel taught the girls how to set up the new tent she bought.

They finished with the tent before long, and she addressed her party with a smile, “Alright, there isn't much daylight left so I think we should go hunting and scout the forest. We can avoid monsters and start our adventure in the morning.”

The girls quickly equipped their weapons and made for the forest. The three slowly explored the dense forest wary of monsters, but they did not spot any. Before long, the group reached the goblin settlement and found it still appeared vacant. Upon further study, the three discovered a well beaten path that led deeper into the woods and followed it.

Vanessa spotted an adolescent boar and skillfully shot it in the side. The creature charged them, and Zatiel stepped in front of Van drawing a spear. She carefully aimed her spear at the boar’s neck and pinned it to the ground with a solid thrust. The creature struggled and slowly died, as she held it in place and spoke happily.

“Good work, Van. We will feast tomorrow night.”

“I’ve never had boar before,” added Claire with excitement in her voice.

“Me neither,” replied Van with a proud expression.

“Help me get it into my dimension box.”

Zatiel removed her spear with a jerk and set it down, before she cast dimension box and walked around the creature to its hind legs. Vanessa grabbed it by the front legs, and the two struggled to toss the corpse into the portal. The portal closed, and Zatiel retrieved her spear.

The kitten considered, ‘We should probably turn back now, the sun won’t be out much longer.’ She shook off the feeling and continued to lead the party deeper into the forest along the beaten path, as she concluded, ‘We can’t turn back without knowing where to start tomorrow.’ They walked until the sun started to set and the path became hard to make out, before Claire voiced concern.

“Lady Zatiel, it’s getting dark - we should return to camp soon.”

Zatiel paused and felt a strange sensation creep into her chest, as she replied, “Not yet - there’s something up ahead, I can feel it. I want to check it out before we head back. You two stay here and cast a light spell.”

Claire looked wary, but nodded and lifted her staff to create a small light floating in the air above her. As light spread around the small group, Zatiel sprinted down the path ahead. In the distance she caught sight of a fire and continued until she could make out several small figures - goblins sitting around the flame. Nearby was a stone wall cracked and crumbling with time, but she avoided the goblins and carefully exited the forest.

The kitten quietly walked along the dilapidated wall until she came to a section lying in rubble. She looked inside and noticed the ruins went on for quite a distance. She spotted several more campfires, after climbing the wall. She guessed that these were the ruins of some ancient fortress and turned back. Moments later, she reached her party and told them what she found, as they made their way back to camp.

Once they reached camp, the three ate some jerky around the campfire, before they turned in for the night. In the morning, they ate some oatmeal and left the camp behind. The trek back through the forest was uneventful, but Zatiel spoke as they drew closer to the ruins.

“Alright, these ruins are on a whole different level than we’ve experienced before. Just guessing from the number of fires I saw last night, we’re probably facing over two-hundred goblins. We need to stay in formation and conserve our strength. This will be a long battle, so don’t use magic on the small ones - save mana for the big ones and healing.”

Claire nodded, and Van replied, “Ofcourse, what sort of formation should we take?”

“I’ll take the frontline by myself, behind me will be Vanessa, while Claire will take up the rear. Vanessa, save your arrows for anything that gets past me and protect Claire at all costs. Claire, you should use fire wall to restrict the goblin’s movements and fire sphere to take down big foes, but use it sparingly so you can heal us if we get injured. I’m going to be moving fast, so keep up with me. If I get too far ahead, then the goblins can divide us and it will all fall apart. Call out to me if I’m leaving you or enemies flank us.”

The girls’ faces hardened as she finished. Zatiel smiled with pride, before she knelt and clasped her hands together. Closing her eyes, she spoke a prayer.

“Goddess Elissa, thank you for blessing this journey. We now set off to conquer these ruins. Please watch over us and bless our endeavor.”

She stood and drew a spear from her shield, as she turned and started towards the ruins. She cast physical enhancements on the elf and herself, as she sprinted out of the treeline towards the goblin lookouts. The first of five goblins by the gate quickly fell beneath her spear, and she bashed another with her shield in the same motion. The remaining three leapt at her, as she stepped backwards.

She caught a shortsword on her shield and thrust her spear into another amidst the chaos. She heard the sound of a horn and glanced up to see three archers on top of the wall, one held a curved bone horn. The others took aim at her, and she threw her spear.

She knelt and ducked behind her shield, as arrows were loosed. Looking past her shield, she noticed the archers on the wall were struck by arrows. Her shield was pounded by the nearby goblins, before she pushed up from the ground behind it and drew her sword. The kitten gritted her teeth and wildly slashed, managing to cut two opponents down.

She bashed the last goblin with her shield, sending it to the ground. She stabbed it and left her sword in its chest, before she drew another spear from her shield. ‘I’m not good enough with my sword yet,’ she thought, ‘oh no.’ Her eyes widened at the sight, as a horde of goblins rushed towards her from the other side of the gate.

Pointing her shield at the horde, she began multicasting dark bolts. Spheres of black magic fired rapidly from her shield, as she let them loose at the goblin’s front line. The goblins struck, slowed and stumbled; falling to the ground, their comrades charged over them.