The group split up again after that, but this time it was on far more amicable terms. Rittan even managed to leverage his re-discovered communication skills to enlist Kalter in his quest to deforest the general area. Ladybug, no longer set to guard him, wandered off to follow them, no doubt hoping they’d be venturing back into the forest.

“August,” Haiko said before he could manage to do more than turn around. “May I speak with you for a moment?”

He turned back as she reseated herself on the stump she’d been using to operate the [Kick-Wheel]. There was a little hole dug in the ground beside it, one filled with water that they’d funnelled in from the shoreline. August couldn’t quite hear anything in her voice or tone, but the context of her calling him back was enough for him to realise he’d tread on her toes to some degree.

“The surprising success of your intervention aside,” Haiko said, wetting her hands. “I think we can both admit that wasn’t exactly a delicate solution to the problem.”

Acknowledging his success while also pointing out how weak his strategy had really been. It was about as nonconfrontational as someone could make a complaint sound while still making certain it carried the message across—the familiarity of her approach set him on edge. If he’d been mimicking Eric, then Haiko had somehow managed to reach across worlds and channel Alice.

“It wasn’t, but Kalter isn’t the delicate type,” August said, doing his best to let it roll off him. “If I’d come at this in a more gentle way, then she would have run right on over me.”

Haiko threw a lump of clay down on the top plate, and it impacted with a wet thump.

“Yes, she would have, but it’s worth keeping in mind that Kalter doesn’t exist in a vacuum,” Haiko said, unaware of the uncomfortable mixture building inside of him. “As it happens, I’ve known her for a very long time, and I was having some success in reaching her.”

It was just as backhanded as every other argument he’d had back home, and his mind was quick to throw up all the points where she was strongest. For one, he hadn’t even considered that she might have been working to bridge the gap or that the solution didn’t have to come from him. He didn’t know these people, their relationships, or how they functioned—he’d just reached in and tried to force everything into the shape he’d wanted. His effort to shallowly emulate his friend’s hit-or-miss approach felt stupid in hindsight.

“If a similar situation were to occur in the future,” Haiko said, reaching down with two of her arms to spin the wheel instead of her foot. “You might consider my presence first.”

There was a sharp sting of humiliation there, at having overweighed his own importance, of putting actual effort into it, and then more still at that effort being noticed by someone else.

“Point taken,” August managed, keeping his voice as level as he could make it.

Haiko must have noticed something because she turned around to watch him as he left. He kept his gaze locked ahead of him as he crossed the shore back towards his previous location. Some shame welled up in him as he considered how she would view his departure—had she concluded that she’d managed to get under his skin or that he was running away? He took some solace in the fact that she’d never heard of an Alice from Earth and that she couldn’t ever derive the reason for why.

August forced the mess of negative thoughts down as best he could and was met with limited success. He dropped down in front of the unfinished furnace and then dug his fingernails into his leg to chase away the last of the self-disgust. He set about adding another layer to the furnace, feeling like every move he made was leaking more and more of his internal state out for everyone else to see.

The third layer went up, even though he was pretty sure it was too early to start it, and he was forced to use more sticks as a temporary scaffolding on both the internal and outer walls. He was wary of the effectiveness of it, knowing that the sticks on the inside would burn away long before the clay had dried.

A series of cracks broke up the cloying silence as Kalter and Rittan downed a pair of trees fifty-odd meters down from the camp. His internal tally put that at five trees in total, they were quickly approaching the dozen needed for the minimum number to complete the undercover area. An audible splash caught his ear, but he kept his gaze on the fire in front of him rather than chance looking towards Haiko.

Neptune has reached level 5

Without much choice, he risked it but found her already looking out the water, where a section of the lake was frothing. Neptune emerged from the water, splitting it as he surged forward towards the shore, a lumpy mass of white dangling out of his jaws. He splashed his way out, slowing as he left the water behind. The corpse of the smaller [Mitikos] dangling about as Neptune swung his head about on his approach—August got up and met him halfway.

“You’re working hard, buddy,” August said, running a hand over his head. “Is this dinner?”

Neptune dropped the dead monster at his feet and then clacked its jaws in response. August used [Assign Role] to bring up the menu, curious about what it might have unlocked since he last checked.

Striker

Defender

Evader

Guardian

Hunter

A lot, apparently, and it brought with it some much-needed context for how those roles were actually unlocked. Neptune only had one method of attacking, and that was melee—combat for the monster involved hitting things and getting hit. Defender was clearly unlocked by blocking a set number of attacks, while Evader had to be avoiding them. Guardian had only been unlocked by those who’d been set to bodyguard for a long period of time—or else Rittan would have unlocked it already. Hunter, on the other hand, he’d already pretty much figured out; killing monsters.

Neptune has unlocked the Defender Role

Neptune has learned Block

Neptune has unlocked the Evader Role

Neptune has learned Burst

Neptune has unlocked the Guardian Role

Neptune has learned Kinetic Bubble

Neptune has unlocked the Hunter Role

Neptune has learned Hunt

August clicked on [Striker] just to check if anything had changed and was surprised at what he found.

Striker(Lv2)

Proficiency – 270/1100

“How are you levelling that up?” August murmured, still scratching the monster. “Is it just being in combat? Or something more specific, like hitting things or fighting in melee?”

Neptune clacked his jaws at the words, and August hummed. The amount of exp needed to level it up had increased by one hundred points—much like his own level did, but what did this level up actually do? Was it increasing the damage he could do? It’s not like there was a good method to accurately test out how hard Neptune could hit or to track whether it was his overall level or the level of [Striker] that contributed to it.

Maybe he could try blocking hits or hitting something for long enough to unlock the two roles for himself—not today, though, because the daylight was just about gone. Fortuitous timing, all things considered, he wondered if Neptune had got into a fight now on purpose or if it was just a coincidence.

“You’ve got a good internal clock going, huh?” August said, poking him on the underbelly. “Tell me the truth—your sense of time just revolves around meal time, doesn’t it?”

Neptune turned its head and took a playful nip at his fingers, and August laughed at the sudden attack.

“Sorry, sorry,” August smiled, giving it a final pat on the head. “The shores of our budding community remain safe under your watchful gaze—we’re in your debt, Neptune.”

Neptune butted into his leg before spinning about and ambling back towards the water. August watched him go; whether these monsters could truly understand or not, they did seem to have a real grasp on what was being said.

They understood detailed instructions without being trained, and they even had some level of social awareness—at least to understand when they were being teased. Either by tone or visual cues, whatever metric it ended up being, it was a disturbingly high level of insight for any animal to have, and that made him wonder.