After John checked the area, making sure there weren’t any shamblers drawn by the ruckus, he had Xanhilt feed the girl their leftover fish. They sat together with the girl across from them. The boys watched her wolf down the meal and nearly choke on a bone.

“Yo, slow down, or you’ll kill yourself that way,” John said.

“To die with food isn’t too bad,” she said.

Man, this girl is grim. John frowned. But I got someone else over here who’s acting out.

John gave Xanhilt a sidelong glance. The saurian was obviously annoyed. He really did want to eat the girl, which made John shiver a little. All of Xanhilt’s mentionings about carnivores and his warrior mother started to have more weight.

Shifting uneasily, John looked at the girl again as she licked over her fingers. She was a wild thing. Her clothing was similar to theirs, but all ripped up at places. Though, he probably looked the same since he was shirtless and covered in shambler and forest gunk.

I can use a shower. He would’ve washed up at the creek if it wasn’t for the jesting shamblers. Oh, well.

“So, I’m John.” He gestured toward himself before motioning over to the saurian. “That’s Xanhilt. What’s your name?”

“The girl with no name,” she said.

“Is she doing one of those human things?” Xanhilt asked, sounding exasperated.

“What human thing?” John raised an eyebrow.

“Sarcasm.”

“No sarcasm,” the girl said. “I’m telling the truth. I’m the girl with no name.”

John grimaced, having a hard time understanding that. First, he tried to reason she lived her life without a name, so she referred to herself as such. But then he considered the conviction in her voice when she called herself the girl with no name.

“Now I got to know,” John said carefully. “How did you get a name like that?”

“Someone told me if I tell you I’m supposed to kill you,” she said.

Xanhilt tensed up.

John waved him down to relax. When the saurian eyed the gesture suspiciously, John realized he wasn’t too familiar with that form of language. “Relax, man.”

“Fine,” Xanhilt grumbled.

“The person who told me if I tell you I’m supposed to kill you is from the old world.” The girl cocked her head to the side, her long raven hair swishing. It was all frazzled up from the lack of maintenance, but it still had some elegance to it. “I guess I can do whatever I want now.”

John nodded slowly. It was apparent to him that this girl had a seriously messed up past. Maybe it wasn’t his business to dig into that. Curiosity killed the cat and all that.

“Can I call you Noname?” John asked.

She moved her head up and down, tossing her hair about. “Noname works.” She pointed at them selectively. “John. Xanax.”

“Xanhilt,” the saurian hissed.

“Yeah, that.” She looked over to John. “Your kindness is rare. It’s also exploitable. It could get you killed.”

John flinched at the sound of that. Xanhilt gave him a should’ve-let-me-eat-her look.

“Are you planning to exploit my kindness?” John asked, feeling tense. His dad had told him to never let his kindness be a weakness, but it was hard to tell what was right or wrong when trying to help people. Was giving aid to Xanhilt at the tower a weakness? Was feeding this girl a weakness? He had no idea. He was just doing what felt right.

Noname moved her head side to side as if the subject was worth deep consideration. “I’m definitely going to exploit you.”

Xanhilt gave John a more urgent let-me-eat-her look.

John was still unsure. The way Noname said that sounded strange. “What do you mean by exploit?”

“I’m going to follow you and eat your food,” she said. “I’m going to take advantage of your good nature. Or I’ll die.”

“Okay, hold on, why does it have to be that extreme?” John asked. “And I’m not exactly a charity here. What if we end up fighting monsters? What will you do then?”

“I’ll die because I don’t know what else to do,” she said. “And if you fight, I’ll fight, too. Since I’m going to exploit your kindness, I have to protect you to keep exploiting you.”

Xanhilt quirked his head. “Doesn’t that mean you’re willing to work with us?”

“It means you can exploit me, too,” she said. “Even if I die, you can exploit me. That’s how things work. All I ask is to not hurt me too much while I’m alive.”

“Hey, Noname, can you sit right there for a minute,” John said, standing up. He grabbed Xanhilt by the armpit and lifted him. “Be right back.”

They moved away until John felt they were out of earshot. “She’s got some issues.”

“Is she psychopathic?”

“What does that mean for you?”

“When one is divergent of mind compared to the majority,” Xanhilt said.

“I don’t know if she’s psycho, but she definitely gives off the vibe that she’s been through some rough patches in her life.” John shifted uncomfortably. “She’s the type of person my mom would want to help.”

Xanhilt stared at him, his tongue flicking at the air. “I don’t know if I can bring myself to like her.”

“I know.”

“And if she proves to be unstable, she can be a liability for us.”

“I know, I know.”

“This is worrisome, John,” Xanhilt said. “But I will not force you to deny her your kindness. I’ll be extra vigilant on my end.”

“I’m not a big dummy here,” John said. “It’s just she has a weird view of things. At the very least, she says she’ll fight.”

“She seems too puny for such a thing,” Xanhilt said.

“Well, that puny girl got the drop on you, didn’t she?” John grinned.

Xanhilt lowered his head and looked away, embarrassed.

“Sorry, just joking with you, man.”

“Yes, of course.”

They returned to the spot where they left Noname. Her gray eyes ogled them, before settling on John specifically. Her gaze pierced through him. She seemed like a young, innocent kid to him. He couldn’t imagine what her life had been prior.

“We’ve decided you can hang with us,” John said.

“I knew you would let me,” she said. “The exploit has begun.”

“How old are you anyway?” John asked.

She flashed ten fingers before altering them to eight. She was eighteen years old, the same as him.

“I’m eighteen years as well,” Xanhilt said.

“Huh,” John said. “Eighteen over here, too. I guess eighteen is the age the game wants for its heroes.”

“We’re adults now,” Noname said. “And adulting is just another death. A spiritual one.”

“You’re a quirky girl, Noname,” John said, shaking his head.

“Strange, really,” Xanhilt added.

“I’ve never talked with people freely like this before without aiming to kill them,” she said. “Am I doing it wrong?”

“Uh.” John struggled to find the right words. “We’ll work on it, okay?”

“So, you’re not going to kill me for doing it wrong,” she said. “You are very kind.”

After Noname ate another piece of leftover fish, they got back to the journey. Having a new addition was a little weird at first, at least for the first half-hour, but then John started to get used to Noname’s presence. She was a curiosity for him. The girl was his age, but she acted way younger and without much good sense.

“Pat, pat,” she said, patting Xanhilt on the head.

“What are you doing?” Xanhilt asked.

“Patting you,” she said. “I’ve always wanted a pet lizard. A big one, too.”

Xanhilt hissed. “I’m not a pet. And I’m not a lizard. I’m a saurian.”

“Oh, well, anyway.” She kept patting him.

It exasperated Xanhilt at first, but he didn’t outright stop her. John felt a little tense since the saurian didn’t like the new addition to their group, but an uneasy peace was holding for now.

In the meanwhile, John asked Noname some questions to get more of her profile. It helped past the time.

It turned out she was level 11 and had been here for two days. The tutorial ended for her this morning when she reached Rank 2. She had been killing monsters when they attacked her in the open, but sometimes she would maneuver around them stealthily. She would climb the trees and sleep on a branch.

John found that it was remarkable she could sleep up there without the fear of rolling into a fall.

She also mentioned she didn’t select her weapon art yet. Though, John found it weird that she could hold the cursed cleaver with no issues. In fact, she had it on her right now. She held it in one hand.

“How are you doing that?” Xanhilt asked, pointing at the knife.

Noname shrugged. “It’s only pain. It doesn’t kill me, so it’s okay. But if it does kill me, I guess that’ll suck.”

“Then maybe you should just let it go,” John said.

“Hm. I need a weapon. But I don’t want my pain to make you uncomfortable. I’ll do something about it then.”

Noname dropped the cleaver. She started to strip out of her tunic.

“Uh, what are you doing?” John asked, turning away to respect her modesty a little.

“Making things better,” she said.

She ripped up the tunic using the cleaver. She wrapped a strip around the handle, knotting it tightly with expert dexterity, before wrapping the end of the improvised flail around her hand.

She whirled it around, making a heavy chopping sound before hurling it at a nearby tree trunk. Thunk! She yanked it back, moving to the side as the blade clattered across the ground near her feet.

“Better?” she asked.

“Yeah, that’s better,” John said.

“That’ll cost you more of your kindness toward me,” she said.

John sighed. It was nice to see another human, yeah, but he could really do with someone more normal.

Xanhilt studied them both. “Do humans prefer to go bare-chested?”

“Noname,” John said, keeping his eyes averted. “Got enough scraps to cover up?”

“Oh, yeah.” She wrapped the leftover rags around her chest. “Did you look? If you did, you owe me more kindness.”

“I didn’t look.”

“Darn,” she said. “I’ll find other ways to exploit you.”

They came across a few forest shamblers that were around lvl 10. Even though John knew he was stronger than them now, he was still a little cautious. He was opting to maneuver around them, but Noname started gesturing at herself. She pointed at the forest shamblers blocking their path.

John nodded for her to take a swing.

Half a minute later, three shamblers laid headless. John’s eyes were wide open after watching Noname deal with them with speed and deadliness that was unbecoming of a short girl. She didn’t use any extra magic from what John could see. She’d wielded the roped knife like a pro and hacked away at the shambler’s necks multiple times until they fell.

“Is this the power of human females?” Xanhilt asked.

“I think she’s a special case,” John said as they met up with Noname.

She was already looting the corpses. He wanted to ask about her blessing and magic cores. He was also very curious about how she was able to fight like that without a weapon art. The only way would be to have a fighter’s background from the old world.

“What⁠—”

“Assassin,” she said, presenting her loot to Xanhilt. “I was an assassin. I can tell you now since I don’t have to kill you for telling you.”

John hesitated on what to say next as the saurian took the loot carefully. Xanhilt seemed to find the girl more curious now, his annoyance fading. John found himself in a more difficult spot. What was he supposed to say to someone who was supposed to be like him but was obviously way different than anything he’d seen in the old world?

Before something came to mind, John heard voices coming from the distance. They sounded like actual people. The others heard the same, turning toward the calls of people. John listened harder, barely making out the sound of someone yelling out in a way that didn’t sound like pure terror. It sounded like a rescue party of some sort.

Hope bloomed inside of John’s chest. He smiled at the others. “I think this nightmare’s coming to an end at last.”

Xanhilt blinked at him. “But the [Inner Compass] points that way.” The saurian directed a finger down the trail they were following, away from the shouts of a rescue party.

John faltered slightly, feeling the same pull of the [Inner Compass]. “Well, they could be people who are searching for us off the beaten path. It’ll be way better linking up with them and having them get us to safety.”

“Mmm,” Noname hummed. “Mmm. Mmm.”

“What’s up?” John asked.

“We should go look,” she said. “But we have to be careful since it’s a trap.”

“How do you know?” Xanhilt asked.

“Dunno.” She shrugged. “But I just feel that it’s a trap. We’ll see.”

John hoped she was wrong.

The girl with no name, Lvl 11

Race: Outerhuman, Rank 2

Weapon Art:

Blessing: Cape of Bladed Shadows, Rank 2

Total AP: 137

Resilience: 6

Endurance: 20

Strength: 6

Agility: 66

Perception: 15

Poise: 7

Intellect: 10

Soul: 7

Unspent AP: 0

Talents: [Unwavering Spirit, Rank 1], [Identify, Rank 2], [Urmatia Linguistics, Rank 1], [Inner Compass, Rank 1].

WA Skills:

Magic Cores: [Limited Clairvoyance, MCP 9], [Brightlight Orb, MCP 2].

Available MCP: 0

...