*Poof*

“Hahh hahhh haaah” My lord that was run and a half!

Slowly regaining my breath as I stand back up, to think that was only a minute run…and where are those monkeys? Are they coming after us?

…

..

.

Huh doesn’t seem like they come to the beach.

“Come let’s get some more” Wait a second Nightbird, don’t tell me you want to go back in there? That place is full of mad monkeys who like tossing pebbles at 70 hp a hit!

Lucky I only got hit twice or I would’ve died!

“Give me a few minutes, those rocks hurt”

He nods and kneels, arrow pointed towards the trees.

Finally regaining my hit points, I gesture for him to lead.

Once again crouching through the jungle, we slowly look for nuts that have fallen on the ground.

“What are those monkeys?” I whisper to him as my eyes graze across the ground.

“Stronger than us”

“How do you know?” I’m actually curious what the Npc’s use instead of levels to determine strength.

He stops and turns his hooded face towards me. What was that blue glimmer coming from his eyes?

“You’re weaker than me” ...So they can tell by looks? Magic?

“Ouuuahahahah” Monkey!

Stopping in our tracks, we begin searching the treelines slowly. Ah over on the left, dangling like a fool by the tail, by itself.

“Shoot it?” I whisper

He shakes his head silently.

Why not?

“Ah ah ah” another one! Guess there won’t be any by themselves then.

Well I guess the only thing we can do now is back off…but before that

NAME: Monkey [lvl 30]

???

How the heck are we supposed to kill that?

“Shoot it and run” I urge him, to which he responds with silence.

Seemingly giving in to whatever thoughts he has, he raises his bow, draws and fires

-32

And that just pissed it and oh look a few dozen friends. RUN

Instead of throwing stones as usual, the things jump down and start chasing us from the ground, as it’s personal now.

…

“Seems like it’s quite a bit stronger than me” Nightbird shakes is hooded head, letting small waterfalls of sand to flow out.

“Alright, if we’re going to be surviving, I need to know what you can do” Information gathering!

“…” He takes down his hood

*Ding*

Nightbird has decided to trust you. Some information will be revealed on his character sheet.

NAME: Nightbird [lvl25], Half-elf male

Hp:

520/520

Attack:

140-168

Stats:

Strength, Agility, Dexterity, Mana, Endurance, Luck, Vitality, Stamina, Darkness, Perception

Defence:

31

Skills:

Point blank shot, Far shot, Triple shot, Arrow Split, Arrow Stab, Critical shot, Piercing shot, Clout, Bow Garotte, Impale, Block, Dodge

Relationship:

10

…

..

.

Apparently he’s actually talking to me in the background probably telling me the npc version of what he does…but oh my Aiag he has all 10 stats filled! And quite a few combat skills though I can’t imagine that’s it. As a level 25 he’s definitely got much higher level skills than me and probably more titles too looking at that insanely high damage and health. And he’s a half-elf!

He’s definitely an exeptional Npc(from what I’ve seen)…especially as he’s got a positive relationship with me!

Though it does seem that all npc’s will waste about half their stats with normal ones…hmm there’s got to be a way to stop that happening.

Maybe someday I’ll figure it out, but right now, to use his awesome powers to help collect food.

*grumble*

“Ah, thanks for telling me, have the nut” I bet he’s more hungry than me anyway.

He takes it, and produces a second nut, cracking one with the other in a clenched fist.

“What can you do?” He finally asks after swallowing the what looks like a walnut.

Erm how do I tell him what I can do since he can’t see the system?

“I’m about a third as strong as you and I’ve only got close combat experience” That sounds about right?

He nods slowly. I guess this is why something like an adventurer mark is used; to determine people’s strength based off that.

Back into the jungle, come on, we need at least another nut or we’ll definitely starve.

Luck is definitely with me today as I spot one not too far away.

“OOAH AH AH AH” QUICK GRAB IT AND RUN!

-73

-71

Ow!

No more stones hit as Nightbird covers me with his lean yet muscular frame.

Ok we’ve got one more nut!

This one also goes to Nightbird, and with a quick look at his hp, it indeed rises just like a pc’s. that’s good.

“Let’s go”

“Wait” I place a hand on his shoulder, stopping him waltzing back into that monkey infested jungle. “We’re just going to get hungrier if we continue going for a single nut” My satiety is getting low enough to prevent recovery and I’m guessing the other people out here are getting hungry, even if all they’re doing is sleeping.

“Not much else we can do”

“We can hunt a monkey” It’s the best way honestly.

“It needs to be alone” The catch since the monkeys like little hordes of a few dozen.

Sitting down with a stick in hand, I begin drawing an outline of a plan

…

..

.

Nope I’ve got nothing.

“Why don’t we go round the beach?” The thought suddenly pops into my blank head. I mean we could find something along the beach right?

It stretches a distance both ways before turning corners in the far distances.

“Not possible” immediately shut down.

“Why not?”

He points towards a large rock in the nestled in the distance sand. “That is a crab”

…Right?

“Much stronger than the monkeys” Well that’s that plan out the window…or is it?

Draw the circle, give some blood, “ADVOCABIT IMPDICITUR”

“Master, whadya want?” Jerry is here!

“See that rock over there, how hot can you get it?”

“Are you stupid? It’s a rock, I can’t heat that” I see

“Follow me quietly then” I turn towards the jungle, guess I hope plan B works.

Entering the copse of ferns and trees once more, we look out for monkeys, stopping when we spot one scratching it’s behind non-chalantly.

Turning to my little imp, I gesture for him to run to the left, and make noise. I think he understands but just to be sure I whisper the commands in his ear.

“COME YOU MONKEY SCUM PFHHHHFHFHT” Jerry starts running through the underbrush none too fast but very loud.

The howling of monkeys rises and the once still trees burst to life with dozens of the things swinging out from above and chasing after the little imp.

“Shoot” I whisper to Nightbird as he quickly stands up and fires an arrow into a monkey for a good 30 damage

“WAOAAH” It’s coming for us! And so is a friend.

Both hit the ground and start bounding towards us.

“I’ll deal with the other, just kill the first one” I say that but this monkey will probably kill me within seconds if I don’t do anything

Dab. Dab dab dab dab dab.

…

..

.

It’s stopped, looking extremely confused. Aha! Charming distraction works!

Ah it’s coming again, quick continue dabathon.

“AUWHhuuuu” what was that?

“RUN” Nightbird shouts out, breaking the both mine and my distracted monkey’s concentration.

At least it’s agroed to him which is better than me as I’m about 2 metres from it.

-142 AHHHH

It swipes me on it’s way past, I don’t like monkeys anymore!

Luckily that’s the only time it attacks me as it’s too busy getting peppered with arrows and within half a minute of running, it falls down dead with a dozen arrows in it.

Picking it up on the way, it’s heavy!

*ding* oh Jerry’s dead

But I manage to bring it all the way to the beach, arrows and all without more monkeys.

Wohoo! We didn’t get just one monkey, but a whole 2 for 1 deal!

Covered in his own blood, Nightbird plops down on the sand, breathing heavily.

At least his hp is going up from 112 so that’s good.

“What was that?” He asks me curiously from the floor

“Something that both of us will forever forget about and never mention” Last thing I want is such a horrible tradition to become part of this world too. Though in hindsight it did save my life.

To think I can passively activate charming distraction…or maybe it’s because I thought of the skill? More experimentation required for that.

With no further discussion on the dabs that did not happen, Nightbird crawls over to a monkey and begins skinning it with his knife.

Once I’m full hp, I skirt the edges of the jungle and grab some dead leaves and sticks.

Piling those up into a nice bundle, I ask Nightbird for the blade so I can train my skinning. He gives it without much resistance, probably since he’s a little tired from multiple days of this already.

…

Well they’ve been skinned alright, although butchered is probably a more correct statement.

I also slice up the meat and pile it on the skin, ok good we’ve got some sort of food now.

Meanwhile the fire has been started by one Nightbird and it’s going surprisingly decently, he’s got some bushcraft skills alright.

Stabbing the meat on a stick and roasting it over the fire raises my cooking by a level and the cooked monkey apparently gives me +1 agility for 30 minutes. Sweet!

“Meat” WOAH.

Jumping from my seat in the sand, I see one large orc sitting up, face covered by a thick leather chestpiece and immediately turning our way.

“Uhhhh why does my head huuuuuuurt” Someone else is awake too! It’s the little gnome…Trish?

Sure enough it’s the little female gnome whining as quietly as she can while holding her head in her arms. Seriously the hangover is hitting now? Just how much did you drink?

“Good Evening you two, come get some food” I call out to the two of them, and both faces turn towards me, one pair of piggy alert eyes staring me down while the other pair is unfocused and not really with us yet.

“Wateeer” She whines in her own little world.

The orc stands up and takes out a small waterskin and gives it to the little gnome.

Ah I remember now, they’re together. At least I know interspecies relationships is a thing in this world.

*Gulp* I hear Nightbird suppressing what remaining saliva he has. Has he not had any water yet? I just supposed he used everybody’s supplies up but now…

Did he not go through any of the bags of the people here?

“Mooooore” The orc just gives her a small shake of his head to which her whining gets louder.

Standing up I head over to Curry and pilfer through his bags.

He’s sleeping so I’m sure he won’t mind if the currently awake use it.

Lots of books, more books, and aha there’s the waterskin, still full too.

Heading back over to Nightbird I hand him the waterskin.

“Here, we can get him water later” I respond to Nightbird’s inactivity with the newly given waterskin. He’s surprisingly thoughtful with other’s property.

*Gulpgulpgulp* seems like he’s accepted it, or just given into thirst.

As far as I’m concerned he’s the most powerful of us right now so can’t let him die from something like dehydration.

Though he doesn’t finish it off, rather heads over to Trish and offers it to her.

“Thank you” she takes it and gulps all of it down, greedy little thing. “Who are you?” She finally notices that it’s not her orc giving her water.

“You may not remember but we met yesterday in the Dirty Duck” I slide into the conversation

“…Dirty Duck?...oh are you…”

“Joat” I help her out

“Yes you” she looks back at the orc “What happened Kruush?”

“We all got drunk, very very drunk” I answer for him since he’s busy thinking.

“Drunk? But I don’t…I remember now, I had some bitter stuff then that delicious Treeroot wine?” Surprised she remembers that “And then what happened?” Well she forgot early gee she’s as lightweight as my memory serves me.

“Honestly, little idea except that we all got drunk, took some strange substance which made us meet an angel and devil and ende-”

“YOU MET THEM TOO?” She recoils painfully from her own shout, well she learnt that lesson the hard way.

Kruush also raises an eyebrow at me.

“It wasn’t a dream and everything they said is true”

“Heretical lies, there are no other gods than Aiag, all others are pretenders” I mean she is technically right since the rest of them are all demi-gods, I think.

“What did they tell you?”

“Pah, I did not listen to those lying abominations. They tried to twist their way into my mind but I do not believe anyone other than Aiag oversees our world”

“So you expect Aiag alone to handle everything”

“He is omnipotent, of course he can do everything on his own. These lying beings come from other planes and try to force us under their will” So she believes all dieties come from other planes and are basically just demons? “Only the elements and Arcanus are trustworthy and direct subordinates of Aiag” I guess that’s how magic is still a thing? And does this explain why I’ve been given the ability to learn arcane and divine magic? Different types for the dieties?

Also, Angel and Devil almost definitely control the element dieties and Arcanus.

“Anyways, why did it take so long for you to wake up?” no point trying to tell her the truth

“They held me prisoner, showing me lies and calling it history. Only after I spat on them did they let me go” Wow I mean Nightbird was involuntary, you’re just mean. Also it took you quite some time to spit on them…

“And how about you Kruush?” He was there too I’m guessing.

He simply shrugs. Well that’s useful.

“Well since both of you just woke up, I’m going to give you a rundown of our situation: We’re on a beach on some random island somewhere. I have no idea how we got here, all I know is there is a horde of monkeys in the jungle just off the beach and we’ve got no water”

…

..

.

“Any questions?” Looking at their two shocked faces, I suppose there should be some cropping up.

“What are you cooking?” She points at our barbaceuing meat.

“Monkey, we were able to kill two and bring them. Would you like some?”

“Ew no, I don’t eat meat” A vegetarian I see.

“I see, then do you have your own food?”

“Kruush?” She looks expectantly at him, and he just shakes his head.

“Well then, let us go forage some fruits” She unsteadily stands up, tiny frame supported by the muscular orc’s.

“The jungle is crowded with monkeys”

“Don’t worry, Kruush can take care of them” She starts stumbling off, still holding her head.

“He’s stronger than us and the monkeys” Nightbird confirms from behind me, face hidden by his hood once more, didn’t even notice when that happened.

“So I guess we can sit and eat then?” I would go after them but if Kruush is stronger than the monkeys they shouldn’t have any problem with them, or with running back either.

Sitting down by the campfire, Nightbird squeezes the blood into his own waterskin. Better than nothing I guess.

The coppery taste at least washes down the bitter meat. Not the worst meal I’ve ever had but far from the best. Though it does do the important of feeding both of us.

“So why do you hide your face?” even when eating he decides to hide it. I actually count myself lucky that I got to see it once with how reserved he seems.

“…”

…..

….

…

..

.

He takes down his hood, revealing the pointed ears, ruggedly human face and ocean blue eyes. “I’m a half-elf, an abomination according to humans and elves. I too was orphaned, raised by a human woman until she was killed for caring about me. I was too young to remember much, not even her name but I remembered she was kind, even protecting me as she got stabbed. I wear the hood because everyone I meet without it either calls someone to kill me or tries to do so themselves”

Well no wonder he’s got a positive relationship with me: because I haven’t tried to kill him yet. Also that and the fact that we’ve both had a shitty start to our lives.

…

..

.

The conversation completely died…

“I think everyone’s just jealous of your good looks” I chuckle “Right, up to go hunt another monkey?”

*ding*

Your relationship with Nightbird has improved dramatically

“Ye-”

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH” WHAT IN THE HELL WAS THAT?”

Scrambling to my feet, I bring my fists up in expectation of something horrifying to come out of the jungle.

…

..

.

“Well that’s one way to wake me up” SirStripy!?

Whipping round to see the zebra-beastman rubbing his ears, he’s awake! Seems like everyone’s waking up today.

“SirStripy, stay here, hydrate and feed yourself. We’ll be back in five”

He nods and I quickly start towards the jungle, spotting Nightbird already flitting into the ferns.

Sneaking through the jungle with as much care as I can, I can only hear and see monkeys who are cackling like always.

Nightbird puts a hand out and points his thumb back to the beach. There’s no way we’re getting through the quickly growing hordes of monkeys to find out whether that scream really was Trish…

-71 ow not again!

…

*poof*

Ptuhptuh eugh sand in my mouth again.

“Quite an entrance my good fellow, Pardons for the re-introduction but I am Derek and I don’t believe I remember your name” A thick hand offers me help, which I do take thank you very much.

The helper in question is Derek as he stated, and er what do I remember about him? He’s a lawyer? Yeah he is and he gave me a business card, or three if I’m correct.

Slicked back black hair, a winning grin and even suit-like clothing and a massive metal-bound tome nestled under his right arm. What is that?

“Well met again, how was your talk with Angel and Devil” The winning grin gets larger

“Of much interest, it seems like I must re-collect all my cards and re-craft them. For I may not dis-label my diety as a god, no that is very unbecoming of me” That’s 2 out of 5 who actually talked to them, or maybe 3 but Kruush didn’t say anything… “I take it you had a good conversation?”

“I learnt a few interesting truths about the world” he nods to that.

Hmm I guess he was more receptive to them since he worshipped someone? Er where’s that card…ah Pholtus. I wonder why he wasn’t burned as a heretic?

“You must be wondering why I haven’t been burned as a heretic” Spot on “That’s because…no one really reads my cards or listens to me and when they do I end up having to skip town” So a fugitive of sorts.

“So it wasn’t just a figment of my imagination” SirStripy joins in on the conversation “They’re very interesting beings did you know?”

“I take it you also talked to them?”

“At length, mostly to Angel though, since he was a chivalrous man with an exceptionally horrible duty”

“Did you get a tome?” I’m interested to see whether I’m special or if they throw them like there’s no tomorrow.

“Angel’s tome. Ah that reminds me” he starts looking for a stick, another imp to the mix?

“And what about you?” Surely an npc can be given tomes too right?

“I declined, since this is my book of prayer. Though I did get Devil’s blessing”

Isn’t he telling strangers way too much? How high is his relationship with us?

“Why are you telling us so much? We are strangers you know”

“I remember a fantastic night, well what I do remember and we are on a deserted island as far as I can tell so nothing but harm will come from secrets” That is a fair point, but stranger danger. “Plus SirStripy is a valiant man and you are his friend, thus you are trustworthy”

“And Nightbird?”

“Who?” He looks around to see the one person he didn’t notice, twiddling his bow. “Ah, the quiet one who talks about his horse. We’re all in this together so let us work together”

Well this man is definitely way too trusting but alright, another Npc with positive relationship. Today is starting out good.

“Speaking of all in this together, the Gnome and Orc couple kind of went into the forest…”

“…oh” the gears slowly turn in their head. “Did you..?”

“Find anything? No, but that’s because there’s a horde of monkeys in there and we need all the strength we can get”

“Then to find our only female companion and her lover”

“Filly’s female” I hear Nightbird mumble under his breath as he passes me, taking point into the jungle.