The Meeting

"Otto?" William called out from atop a hill, "Otto! C'mon meet Li Mei-wan and Klaus something - I really honestly cannot pronounce it. And then there's also Li Mei-wan's sister that we found in the time it took you to get here, Li Hai-rong."

There were two girls with semi-long brown hair, blackish eyes. They were of different heights, as Mei-wan was the shorter one. Adrian was up there too.

"My name is Klaus Weib," Klaus scowled, "Weib, not something. Stop messing around with my name, Lindberg." William tossed him an unamused face as he continued beating the other's name into mere remnants of what it was supposed to be.

Otto noticed that William had a thinned out accent that didn't affect his sound. Even though Klaus' grammar was flawless, his pronunciation dragged letters further than they were supposed to go*.

"Your name is spelled weird, so I'll call it whatever I want," William replied curtly, "Anyways, that the broad?" Elizabeth stared at William, he stared back.

"No way." William gave Elizabeth a shit-eating grin as he continued, "Milly Mills."

"You, you're the one who jump-scared me when we were on y'know Earth," Elizabeth stated, hurt as she pointed her finger accusingly at William. Otto shrugged and nodded, "He's the worst person in the whole wide fucking world to be together with." William scowled similarly to Klaus as he heard the peck at his pride.

"I'm a fantastic camper," He argued, "It's getting late, there's nothing to eat, so you'll need me for the time being. Besides, you're stupid enough to get poisoned by a leaf." Elizabeth huffed.

"Camping with you would be worse than camping with an exotic cat that lived in a fancy-schmancy house all its life," William retaliated.

"You picked up a fucking spider and put it in my sleeping bag once," Elizabeth bickered, "And then you said that it was the 'call of the wild'. I'm sure spiders don't go into people's sleeping bags in the middle of fall."

"You don't know spiders," William argued, "It was harmless, you didn't di-"

"I will hit you two if you keep on arguing," Mei-wan scolded William, "Stop bickering like kids and get on with it. The moon is almost out and we don't know what happens at night nor do we have food." Ater snorted and pulled at Otto's leg so he could be lifted up. Otto was compliant with that, although he gave him an annoyed glance.

"No good shit comes at night," Ater laughed, "It's like a hydro-powered tool. You all are the pipes that need to be pushed and the system will push water, or monsters towards you to get you all the run. They need to clear the area before the surrounding areas are affected negatively." Everyone was silent as they turned to look at Ater.

"What do you mean?" Klaus asked, accent weighing heavy, "What do you mean by 'hydro-powered tool'? And what comes out at night." Hai-rong's eyes flashed an innocent blue and Otto took a peek into her stats.

"Stop hiding stuff from us dammit, it took us long enough to whatever it was William was planning out of his mouth," Hai-rong said.

[Player #1373 Li Hairong

Level 1

HP: 1000

M: 700

S: 200

AG: 500

DEX: 650

RR: 150HP/min

Skills: Lie Detector, Mana Ball, Elemental Transfer, Reconstructed Mana Ball

Class: Mage]

"At night or precisely nine pm, monsters will start to draft out from random areas in the main forest. The safe place is the village, obviously, but that's blocked by the ugly monster over somewhere there," Ater raised a paw towards where the monster was, "And that thing's a horrifying piece of work. But I admit, it's better to deal with smaller level 0 monsters to level up before heading to the big boy. He's really scary." Ater grinned.

"So, you mean," Hai-rong started, "We should spend one night to level up and then go fight the monster over there?" Ater gave a vigorous shake of his head.

"Then we should get ready. Is there any food?" Mei-wan asked.

"Unless you have a purifying skill, nope," Ater continued grinning until Otto pinched him, "Ow, shit, what the hell?" Mei-wan said something too quick to catch to Hai-rong, who nodded back in agreement.

Adrian stood off to the side, slightly awkward with his lumbering mannerisms, although he was in no way large, just awkward, "Anyway, Otto aren't you supposed to send them a request or something?"

"A what?" Otto replied, "Do you mean like for the party? How d'you do that?" Ater rolled his eyes at Otto before he prodded him with a furry, but slightly matted paw.

"You press party, then you add people. Or you could just stand around and talk to them, but I doubt anyone would like that," Ater needled Otto, "Sometimes I regret becoming your familiar 'cause you're so fucking stupid."

"Press party and then what?" Otto asked miffed, "I was considered as average by most of the people I met too Ater."

"Your stupidity level is so high it's managed to mask itself. Happens."

"You don't need to add us into a party," Klaus grumbled, "We'll be staying around each other for an unprecedented amount of time so it'll come eventually. Now stop talking to the cat and help us pick what to do." Otto nodded stupidly before accidentally peering into his stats.

[Player #1715 Klaus Weib

Level 1

HP: 1500

M: 100

S: 250

AG: 700

DEX: 500

RR: 100HP/min

Skills: Wild Card, Straight Shot, Impalement, Loop

Class: Spearman]

"Spearman?" Otto asked, eying his stats, "What's a Spearman?" Klaus, a little bit stunned, pulled out a shining rod with a pointy arrow-like tip at the top. It had a slight blue-like glow to it as it shone in the setting sun. It looked unused, untattered, and most importantly, new. Like a toy found in a department store, but real.

"It looks unused."

"Because it is," Klaus replied, curtly, "I haven't had a need to use it because I met Jack's large gathering before I met anything else." He turned around to talk to Mei-wan about something in petty whispers that were just too soft to hear. Just too soft. Otto looked around and saw a hint of the large lumbering statue of a monster, the monster.

It had a red mark.

It could not be any more stressed that the monster had a red mark. A turn of the head, a step, even a tiny hop around an area led to the red spot glowing in all its glory as it glared at Otto - As if daring him to come. And he would, just with more people.

"What time is it even?" Hai-rong asked, "It looks like it's getting late." Ater tsked and muttered something incoherent as Otto nudged for him to answer because he was sure he knew, if not then at least he knew something useful to the topic.

"If you know, please tell us."

"I don't know because I'm at level 1," Ater replied, tone stone-cold, "I'm right now also a player, just a slightly more knowledgeable, better one. I don't have a weapon of course, but I mean, I'm an endless source of information and entertainment so I don't have any clue as to why you would assume I know the time."

"Because," Elizabeth and William chirped in, "You're an endless source of information and entertainment!" They parroted as Ater growled at them, it was a cute growl. Everything about Ater was cute except his potty mouth and a shitty attitude.

"But seriously though, what time is it? It's getting dark but nothing is happening." Mei-wan replied, the sun still weakly shining in the air. There was a tenseness in the group, a soft feeling of bubbling worry as the sun continued on its insistent path of falling.

"I could make a sundial, but it doesn't work at night because there's no sun," Mei-wan stared at the sky, frustrated.

"There are no clocks, how will we be able to tell time without any tools to help with it?" Ater snorted at Hai-rong's continuance of Mei-wan's point, "Will there be clocks with the villagers behind the monster over there? Or no? How primitive is this soci-?" Adrian butted in before Hai-rong could finish the thought, something she didn't appreciate.

"We are not supposed to know," Adrian said, "Someone must have time-telling skill but none of us have it. It won't help sitting 'round here waiting for things to happen. We need move. We need to move." Adrian added the last bit quickly, catching himself on the mistake.

"Cat said that monsters come at night, then monsters come at night. What can we do about it?" Adrian picked at his fingers, fighting.

"Fight," Klaus stated with plain finesse, "There is nothing else to do but fight. But some of us aren't experienced fighters like others. I carry a spear, it doesn't mean I can fight with one. It's not as convenient as a gun. You have to poke things." William laughed at Klaus.

"You mean you've never been in a tussle?" William laughed and laughed, "I knew it, you're in for some prissy crime right? Like, I don't know, avoiding paying your tax if that's still a thing. Or even just being straight out drunk outside while being goddamn indecent." Ater laughed along as Klaus swung the pole around in a pathetic attempt to threaten the other. Swing, swish, and stab, the spear went straight into the ground smooth.

"Strength stat," Ater mumbled nonsensically, "'S makes you stronger than before so please pay mind when you touch anything. 'Course, unless you want to hurt him." Klaus clenched and unclenched his fist as he pulled the spear out, its end dislodging the ground as easily as sliding down a slide.

"See? On a normal circumstance, your weak arms will simply ruin themselves trying to pull it out."

"I'm curious but what do mages use?" Mei-rong asked, "You're a mage, sis, c'mon tell us. My sword is just a plain-looking sword anyways." Hai-rong pulled a look as she took out a small swirling ball within a glass case. She gently threw the case in the air as invisible flaps on the sides opened to make mock wings and light blue tassels of light shone through.

"It helps focus the mana," Hai-rong explains, "If I didn't have it, all my attacks would be suicidal." The small swirling ball glowed light red as she shot something at the tree, setting it on fire. Adrian poked it on its side before hissing away at the sudden pain, "Don't touch it." Hai-rong muttered.

"Friggan cool," Elizabeth exclaimed, "Say, what kind of stuff can you do with it? Can you only use fire? Or can you use stuff like water and boil everyone to death or something?" William intercepted and answered the question.

"She has a skill called Elemental Transfer," William flicked a blade of grass with a small blade that stuck out of the edge of his grey shirt, "Basically, she can transfer her ball thing from fire to whatever, so if she wanted to first ground you she could crush you under a rock and then slice you using the air, and finally, hopefully, she will then boil you with water in the pot and fire under."

"W-what?" Hai-rong stuttered, "No one's is boiling anyone. Besides, isn't it kind of dark?" Everyone looked around, the sun was setting, but there were still some fragments of light scattering. Otto stared as he saw tiny little purple dots appear around the edges of the Midway Plains. Nothing seemed to come out of it as it just remained there, a purple dot.

"The sun's still up?"

"Persistent," Ater nodded, "He's feeling a bit sorry today I guess." Finally, finally, the area around them turned dark as Hai-rong changed her small ball into pure bluish light. it illuminated the area around them as they looked around.

The area around them was lit for only a few meters beyond their spot and everything else was in complete darkness if not for the moon which laughed down at their predicament. Otto's sight drastically changed as suddenly it was submerged in green as everything was lighted up, every rock and path.

"Where are all the monsters?" Klaus asked Ater accusingly, "It's getting chilly too." Ater jerked his head up at that, eyes gleaming. He smiled and jumped off from where ever he was, slowly morphing back into a person as everyone stared at him in astonishment. His black hair flicking around and his yellow eyes blinked.

"The monsters are... actually I don't know," Ater peeked at Otto, "Otto should know though. He has a skill for it, I just don't think he knows how to use it. Dumb idiot." Ater rubbed the side of his cheek before looking around, arms at his hips and he suddenly pointed in a direction.

"There should be a larger concentration of monsters near where Jack's group was. Groups that aren't in a party are more so easily found. Monsters have a sense that tracks individuals, a party, however, blocks this by having one overall tracker. It's a benefit."

"Then we need to get in Strawberry Pudding party," Adrian answered, "It will keep us... safe from... monștri." Mei-wan nodded and looked over to Klaus, who was still staring at Ater. Ater looked up at the stars and narrowed his eyes as if looking for something.

"If you're even lost, the stars in Sileo," Ater muttered, "We're about a couple kilometres away from a place I know. It won't be long until a portal finds us if we keep staying here. Monsters will assume we're dead. Let's go to the Inanis Cave."

"The what?" William asked before Hai-rong, "Inenes Cave?"

Ater stared at William like dirt and ignored his question, "Hey, we're not going anywhere just because you say so." Klaus nodded in agreement as he lingered near where William and Hai-rong were.

"We can't leave on the get-go," Mei-wan reasoned, "I say we find this place together with Ater in the front or let Ater go there first and have Otto check."

Otto blinked.

"You're the weirdest here. What is this 'Eyes of the Devil' skill? William told us about it, how he couldn't even view anything previous to when you spoke to him. It's weird how you're so quiet although it has been made very clear by Ater, himself, that you probably have a fucking map inside of you," Mei-wan hissed.

"Ater is my familiar, I trust him out of emergency, if you don't you don't," Otto said, curt, unbending, "I don't care if you trust him or if you don't. He's the only source of help we have in this situation. I don't particularly care if you join or not, it doesn't affect me as there are exactly 1000 people in this area, with maybe 800 left at this point. The Midway Plains aren't large, they have borders, I can find more people. As you said I have map a map that can literally tell where people and monsters are."

Everyone stared at him, realization dawning on them as they looked at their most useful asset; Otto and Ater.

Sharks surrounding them.