The Others

"Hai-rong!" Mei-wan yelled as she ran forward to grab her sister from Adrian and Otto. The other three members of Strawberry Pudding had easily gotten to the village as Ater showed the barrier, even bringing them there.

The village wasn't far off, only a hill or so far. Otto couldn't see any red dots so far, just green and blue ones. The blues ones seemed to be mixing together as they were huddled, too close to see individual ones at times, "Hai-rong, don't do anything as stupid as that!"

"It wasn't stupid," Hai-rong argued, still out of breath, "Besides, we're all safe, except Ater." Just as she said that a head popped out of the forest. Ater wasn't running, walking rather leisurely towards the group. He was in his human form, strolling and grinning nothing chased him.

Just as he said, he'd be fine because he was under the assumption of being apart of the system. The group slowly collected themselves to wait for Ater, William and Elizabeth sprawled out on the grass arms laid out in laziness and relief.

"I told you I'd be fine," Ater plopped on the ground, "I'm a system error, but it's not like they can tell. They are mistakes after all." Otto sighed as he sat on the ground, under the rising sun, "It's been about a day."

"I wanna sleep," Elizabeth said, "Been running and hustling and jogging and walking and doing everything for too long." William bit back at her, reminding her of her nap caused by her inconsiderate stubbornness.

"You already took a nap," Hai-rong beat William to it, "Although Otto managed to get you up and he really didn't have to." Elizabeth scowled, "How much of Jack's party do you think is left?"

"They're probably all dead," Ater replied, "Unless of course the person who did it left." Ater turned back into a cat and jumped on Elizabeth, "Get up, we need to get going. Some of you are injured and the village should be able to get something to help." Otto opened his stats to peer inside.

[Player #1001: Otto Bettering

Level 1

HP: 50/500

M: 45/100

S: 50

AG: 150

DEX: 200

RR: 10HP/min

Skills: Eye of the Devil, Two Shots, Twin Teleportation

Class: Twin Hitter]

"Yeah, let's get up," Otto helped William up and checked the area around himself, the village was a good ten minutes away on foot, it was far in terms of going there currently, but they couldn't wait too long. Everyone slowly trudged through the landscape, there wasn't much to see.

It looked like a normal road if not for the fact that it wasn't paved with concrete. A light brown road of dirt with some track marks on it. No other paths or different methods to where people could go, completely unmarked.

The path was devoid of monsters and the trees were distanced. It was a plain field, "Are we supposed to just walk on this one path in this one direction?" William asked, "I don't have a personal map so I'm not sure as to where I'm supposed to go." Otto pointed vaguely alongside the road, finger-pointing towards where he could see the village. There were groups upon groups of people there.

"There are a lot of people over there," Otto replied, "So I'm guessing they must have a reason to go there." There was no main quest assigned to them, no mission or event as if the system itself knew that players would have to try to find some civilization to live.

"Why can't we see the village now compared to before?" Mei-wan asked, she was still huddled close to Hai-rong, never straying too far. There wasn't much of an answer that Otto could think of, other than the possibility that the village was up on a hill and the elevation in the begging area was higher than where they were now. But that seemed, at the moment, strange because Otto was sure they were running in a straight line on flat ground.

"It's because we were on higher ground than before," William replied before Otto could make up his mind, "If the village was on a hill, and we were on a hill, we'd see it from afar, but now because we're on lower ground, we can't see the village. It highly depends on where we are, but it's possible in our moment of panic we didn't know if we were heading down or up."

Everyone seemed to agree with his theory, except Otto, who merely nodded, unwilling to argue with the rest. He didn't want to argue with the issue, but he was sure that during the short period that he was running, he didn't head down.

"Then that means we might have to climb a hill?" Mei-wan asked, concerned, "Does Adrian and Hai-rong even have the health to do that?" Adrian and Hai-rong nodded, Hai-rong was tired, but more so due to mana usage than health. Her eyes were a little droopy, but she was recovering slowly, "But Hai-rong can barely walk."

"We can't stay much longer out in this weather, regardless if it's cold or not," Klaus replied, "Otto's bleeding and we all might need to see someone about our feet." Mei-wan held back a comment as she fussed over Hai-rong's walking abilities.

The hill wasn't tall and Otto wasn't bleeding too much, it was a nick or two or three. Ater walked unconcernedly as he wandered slightly forward compared to the group, tail swishing around as his eyes slurred over the landscape.

"We should get to the village soon," Otto agreed, "We need food and water as well, not to mention better clothes if they have some. There's simply to more supplies here." Mei-wan made a sound of complaint near the back of her throat before complying, albeit grudgingly.

In all truth, she didn't trust Otto or Ater but knew that she had to listen as they were the only two people who could lead them anywhere, Ater being more knowledgeable and Otto somehow having a map, "There also seems to be some mass over there."

The group waddled their way through the path, edging alongside the grass as they took a few detours. The village was on a hill, but it wasn't as steep or high as anticipated - Something that Otto expected and something that the others could not understand.

There was a small thin rickety staircase that led up the hill to the stone and brick houses that were neatly aligned. There was no extra house or strange-looking building as if everything was made to fit exactly where they were. The stairs seemed to crack, although the group was on a hill and there were some remnants of lanterns.

"Is there something under the stairs?" Elizabeth asked, "It seems to creak." William stomped his foot onto the wooden planks and watch in fascination as they rattled, only to reveal nothing. Elizabeth looked hesitantly into a small crack, everything looked dark, "Could be a storage closet." She poked the ground, wet dirt climbed onto her finger, "Nope, just normal dirt."

"What did you think it would be? Blood? Bones? Brains?" William asked, snidely, "It's a hill Milly Mills, not some ancient burial site." Elizabeth scowled at William before she turned away to poke the hole in the stair again, "At most, it's going to be some boring village filled with shops where we talk to people and learn about their circumstances."

"It could be a village meant for farming," Klaus reasoned, "They need fertile dirt, I believe. Dirt with a lot of nutrients. It's interesting to see how people here farm, seeing that they have skills."

"It's neither," Ater interrupted, "It's a mining town."

...* (The following conversation and rest of the chapter is supposed to be in Japanese, imagine it is)

"There are exactly 27 people in here, Ito-san," Sakura Go said, gravely. They were trapped by two surrounding circling cliffs that were looking to collapse at any time. Keitaro Ito, the oldest in the group sighed and hitting the rocky wall.

The only means of escape was swimming through waters infested with who knows what and although they had come to simply collect some harmless grass, they had fallen into their current predicament.

No one had a helpful skill or class skill that could help them, although they had one of each of the eleven classes. The village that had asked them to collect the grass failed to mention how the mountains moved.

"We can't stay here for long, we'll have to swim," Keitaro bit his bottom lip, "Those who can't swim will have to be carried by someone who can." Several people peaked up at that, they didn't want to carry others, "At the same time, we should prioritize those with healing abilities in case someone gets hurt so we can have a constant stream of healing."

"Wait, why do we have to help those who can't swim? It's not our problem if they don't know how," One of the members of the party Shi Min* argued, they were the strongest of the six parties among the larger group.

Some weren't in a party, but eventually joined them and some chose to stay alone. The terms of being in a party disturbed most people, who sometimes didn't even understand each other, although most were split into Korean and Japanese. There was only one small party of Europeans and they didn't even completely understand each other.

"It's better for everybody if we stick together," The lone Korean who knew the basics of Japanese translated everything Keitaro said, "We can't risk people dying so easily, especially when there weren't a lot of people who made it in the first place."

That left a nasty feeling with everyone.

There were 27 people, originally 30, except a European and two of their most useful fighters died, "We don't know how some of our skills work, so we don't know if someone might cause us all to die. Nakamura-kun and Watanabe-chan were the only ones with skills that were self-explanatory."

"Like 'Wrath'?" Yurio Tachibana* grinned, "I think mine is self-explanatory, 'Water Mind Movement'. Makes people feel calm and relaxed." There were some murmurs of agreement, "The cliff is shaking, we should really make up our minds."

A little boy in the corner started crying, warbling something in German. No one knew what he was saying, but Tachibana sighed and walked over to him. It was his job, a job that everyone immediately accepted. It wasn't because he spoke German or because he broke the language barrier, it was merely his perceptive nature and skill that built him his position.

"Err, Kyung-kun," The Korean translator's ears perked up as he listened to Keitaro, "Kyung-kun, can you explain to everyone that we're swimming." The Korean nodded and spoke in rapid Korean, getting his point across easily as some people appeared uneasy, "And that anyone who cannot swim will be carried. Sorry, forgot that bit." Jung-hoon Kyung laughed and patted Keitaro on the back.

"Nothing wrong," He said in broken Japanese, "Hard time." Keitaro nodded slowly, comprehending the meaning. The cliffs dropped some pebbles again, reminding them of their predicament. They had to leave or else the rocks would fall. It appeared as if Yurio's ability worked a little too well.

"I'm sorry, but we have to go right now," Keitaro pointed at the cliffs, "Yurio-kun is doing his job too well." From the corner, Yurio gave everyone a thumbs up as the little boy stopped sniffling, a trace of a smile on his face. No one understood any German, no one knew what he was saying. He was small and worrisome.

"It is fine," He smiled and turned to tell everyone the added part, "We leave now?". Keitaro nodded and jumped into the freezing water with others, some grabbing someone who couldn't swim. The water was cold and their clothes were soaked.

The water was difficult to navigate, being completely pristine on the outside, but murky on the inside. The water was slimy, or they imagined it. A ping.

[You have angered the slime king Langsam's sleep. The water will become polluted with slime.]

"Ah, Langsam, " The crying boy from earlier tried to pull the swimmer's arm, "LANGSAM!" He tried to call out, but the water was too thick and it was entering their ears. The water was too thick and it was entering their heads. Everything was clogging up, the slime entered their mouths, through their throat, and into their lungs, "La... ng... sam."

...

"Wait, "Otto stared to the left, "... 27 people just died."