“Shoot it,” the soldier commanded. The bowstring hummed as the archer let loose.

Time slowed as Sepeti found himself stuck staring down his death in the form of an arrow. It wriggled as it flew, bending back and forth as it traced a shallow arc through the air.

New Skill Acquired!

|Time Dilation|

The message blocked his view of the flexing arrow. His muscles tensed as panic spread through him, locking his joints. His mind was screaming for him to roll, to jump, to do something other than standing around and accepting his impending doom. But his body, the frail little thing, refused to react.

A black mass flowed in front of him. If his skill hadn’t been active he would have missed the motion. It was the blocky creature, smoothly stepping in the way of the arrow.

Time resumed its normal march as the arrow snapped in half upon impacting the monster's hardened body.

“Shadow beast! Retreat!” the loud soldier screamed, already a step ahead of his compatriots. In their hurry they dropped their weapons, leaving them clattering loudly behind as they ran as fast as their legs could carry them.

“Speaker, ” the blocky creature said as it turned its square head on him. It spoke curtly as if it were reluctantly wasting words on him. It kept itself positioned between him and the mouth of the cave, tail swishing back and forth as its slitted eyes moved between him and the backs of the retreating humans. “It is dangerous.”

Sepeti grunted as he stepped back, giving himself room to breathe as he peered around the blocky beast. Light flooded the mouth of the cave making it impossible to see out into the grassy clearing. He wasn’t sure how long he’d been out but it hadn’t felt like he’d been sleeping all that long. Not that he’d been aware of having slept, what with the idiot God draining the poor host body’s reserves when he had possessed it.

“What time is it?” he asked the creature. It appeared to be chewing something as it took its sweet time formulating an answer.

“Morning,” it replied as it turned away from him. Its cold demeanor was refreshing. At least he didn’t have to worry about engaging in long, drawn-out conversations with it. The fewer words used, the better.

“So I was only out for some hours,” Sepeti snorted as he tried to orient himself.

“No. A whole day,” the blocky monster said, flank still turned to him. Its shadowy outline reminded him of a bison mixed with a large lizard. An odd mist seemed to flow off of its body and it reminded him of dry ice making fog. He couldn’t help but feel impressed, it was a pretty cool effect.

“Retreat,” the creature said as it turned and began walking back into the cave. “Or go out and die. Your choice.”

Sepeti watched it walk back to the line of shadowy monsters that he’d passed through earlier. He had to admit that he actually kind of liked the bison-lizard. Maybe it was of a kindred spirit, a kindred shut-in.

Sepeti thought about retrieving the weapons. Maybe he could pull some skills out of the weapons. But what use could they be, he’d never used such unwieldy weapons in his previous life so he had little experience with them. He made a mental note to pick them up.

As he approached the entrance, he heard the sounds of humans at work. Voices calling for materials, hammers banging against stakes, footsteps rushing back and forth. He wanted to know how many there were. He needed to know because his gut told him that the monsters had no real concept of force sizes. Maybe the dragon did but he didn’t want to count on that mopey little coward.

He inched forward, squinting against the brightness of the morning sun as he tried to see. It took a few seconds but his vision eventually adjusted. He was able to see that a camp had sprung up at the edge of the clearing, backed up against the wall of shrubs and bushes. He hadn’t noticed before but the clearing was huge. His fatigued brain had been much too tired to take note of the sheer size of the area leading up to the cave.

The tents of the camp were arrayed in a semi-circle around a much larger pavilion-style tent. That was definitely their command center, or at least that’s what Sepeti thought. He hadn’t had to deal with medieval-style encampments in his previous life, what with all the damned Machina constantly flooding barren ruins. But, by his best guess, this world - or at the very least, this corner of the world - was stuck somewhere in a Middle Ages era.

The soldiers rushed back and forth as they continued to set camp. They all wore the same uniforms as the trio from before but he didn’t see any who were dressed like the scouting party he’d first encountered. Every soldier wore a blue and orange leather haubergeon, he thought that’s what they were called. The orange was bright and gaudy, it made Sepeti want to gag.

A quick count, and some math because he got distracted and lost count, told him that they were dealing with - at the very least - 150 human soldiers. He was sure he had missed a few and that some were probably out on patrols and scouting the area. A whole company had trudged through the densely toxic forest just to wipe out a bunch of shadow monsters. Were they really that dangerous?

Sepeti groaned, rubbing his temples. A part of him still wanted to go out and appeal to the humans to take him in. In Sepeti’s mind, that part was most definitely the weak little host body’s remaining will. The pragmatist in him knew that he’d only get strung up as a monster. So far, humanities score in his eyes was 0/2. The scouting party hadn’t been too bad but he was pretty sure that his escort, the woman who had been tailing him, had been ordered to kill him. He was banking on the fact that they belonged to another country or kingdom or fiefdom, whatever the hell the locals called them.

Then there was the fact that he was nearly killed by a clueless trio who had attacked practically on sight. So, humans were currently a hard pass for him.

His only real choice, and the choice that he was currently being railroaded into making, was to ally with the monsters and see how things play out.

Stupid Gods and their stupid non-choice choices.

He quickly sent Boba and Journal a curse each, using the choicest one he could think of.

As he turned back into the cave he noticed that the dragon had finally slunk out of its dark room. It stood with the line of monsters, glistening metallically even in the slight gloom of the caves long entrance.

“Speaker,” it rumbled. He could tell it was trying to sound dignified. What a fake little dragon.

“What?” he answered sharply, walking as quickly as his hobble would allow.

The dragon flinched at his tone.

“May we have a word? In private, please.”

It sounded so pitiful. Sepeti couldn’t express his dissatisfaction with the cowardly dragon. He was disappointed that the first one he met just had to be the worst representation of what was, in his opinion, the coolest creature in existence.

“Whatever,” he said as he walked through the line of monsters. Again, they backed away from him and gave him an invisible buffer area. At least they were smart enough to do this.

“Why are you all standing there? Shouldn’t you be preparing for an attack or something?” he asked over his shoulder, not bothering to look back at the shadowy beasts. Damned simpletons, just standing around waiting to be attacked in a single file line.

The dragon’s claws clicked with each step as it walked behind him. He ignored, choosing to focus on each painful step. Anything was better than acknowledging a disappointment’s existence.

The giant snake and the mammoth appeared before him as he walked. They looked like they wanted to approach him but something warded them off. Maybe the dragon was doing something useful for once.

Once in the dank room, he squinted as he tried to find his walking stick. He’d forgotten to grab the weapons but that was of little consequence, they probably wouldn’t have been very useful anyway. He found his stick leaning against a far wall and quickly scooped it up. Then he turned to the dragon, who had quietly waddled in behind him, and pointed the end of his stick at it.

“What you wanna talk about?” He kept his voice cold and hard. He was tired of playing the fool.

“You aren’t from around here, are you?” The dragon’s deep voice rumbled through the room but he could tell that it had been busy thinking of how to phrase the question. For the first time, he realized that the dragon actually sounded like a child. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, he just got the feeling that this dragon wasn’t as grown as it projected itself to be.

“No.”

“I mean,” the dragon sounded nervous as it lowered its voice. “You aren’t from here, right?”

“I already said no.” Sepeti sneered as he answered the mewling beast. “Get to the point. Ask your questions straightforward or don’t ask me shit.”

“You’re an Offworlder, aren’t you? This isn’t your first world?” The dragon was definitely a child. Sepeti’s gut said so and he trusted very few things more than he trusted his gut.

“Yeah, I’m not from this rinky-dink little world. What of it?”

The dragon seemed to brighten as it flashed a smile. It was, frankly, disconcerting seeing a metallic dragon smiling since the action just didn’t seem to fit its face. But it was still nice to see. Even Sepeti couldn’t be curmudgeonly about a genuine smile.

“So we are alike! I knew it! I’m not from here too. I’m from a pla--”

“Earth, right? Or someplace like that? Yeah, I’m not from there either. I’m from somewhere else, you wouldn’t know it if I told you.” Sepeti had to cut the dragon off. He just had to. Because he knew where this was going. The dragon wasn’t the first displaced denizen he’d met, not by a long shot. And every single one of them talked way too much.

The dragon’s smile faded as its head began to droop again.

Sepeti sighed as he contemplated his next step. He didn’t want to get too chummy with another Offworlder, Otherworlder, whatever. They probably had their own grand quests to attend to and he wanted absolutely nothing to do with helping someone else out. He’d been a side character before and had done all he could to avoid being one again.

“Look, I’ll share some pointers with you later. But I think we need to figure out what to do about the humans before we start getting cozy and reminiscing about old stuff. Get me?”

The dragon nodded, eyes still downcast.

“How old are you?” Sepeti asked out of the blue. He would have to give up some of his privacy in order to get things moving.

“Thirteen when I died,” the dragon said, still moping. “But this body is supposed to be two hundred years old. Technically, I’m still a child even as a dragon.”

“Damn,” Sepeti said, unsure how to continue. He wasn’t good at talking with children. He’d been one himself, obviously, but he couldn’t remember what it was like. It had been such a long time ago. “How long you been here?”

The dragon-child scratched its snout with a long claw as it thought. “About a year, I think. Not too sure, the Nifa don’t really have any concept of timekeeping because they’re all shadow beings. I’ve tried to teach them bu--”

“Kid, you talk too much,” Sepeti said. Sure, he felt bad for the dragon. It probably just wanted to talk to someone who would understand where they were coming from. But that someone wasn’t going to be him. “Do any of the monsters know what’s up with you?”

“No,” it said, shaking its head slowly. “How am I supposed to tell any of them that? I’ve been having a hard enough time as it is just keeping them in line.”

Sepeti let out a long sigh, raking his fingers across his face. Why did he always have to get involved in stupid stuff? At least this time he knew who exactly to blame. He subconsciously added Boba to his hit list. Two spaces, two gods, quite the lofty hitlist.

“All right. That’s good. Don’t tell anyone else, ever. Even if you have a feeling that they might be like us, you ignore it and don’t reveal it to ‘em.”

“Why?”

“Too dangerous. Just trust me, ok? This is my number one advice, don’t trust any other Otherworlders, ever. They’ll accidentally pull you into their grand quest and you’ll be stuck as a side character.”

“Ok,” the dragon answered meekly. He felt bad for the kid. He really did, being so young and being thrust into such a shitty situation.

“Which God brought you over? Was it Boba’s dumbass?”

The dragon flinched at the blasphemy. “No, it was Milque.”

Sepeti frowned at the name. Another stupid name. These God’s really had no naming sense. What the hell was wrong with them?

“Then how are you a monster?”

“I,” the dragon began timidly, averting its gaze further. “I asked to be a dragon.”

“Huh, didn’t know that was an option,” Sepeti mused. “So you got transferred over to Boba and took up his religion?”

The dragon sheepishly nodded. Saying anything about a dragon could be ‘sheepish’ felt very odd.

“Thirteen,” Sepeti scoffed as righteous anger flared in him. Thirteen and forced into another world by some idiot ‘God.’ He added Milque to his list, angrily turning the name over in his head so he wouldn’t forget it. What a stupid ass name.

“Well, I’m fourteen now,” the dragon corrected him quietly.

“That’s good,” Sepeti said absently, still thinking about the ass whooping he was going to give the ‘God’s’ once he ascended. This time he was definitely going to achieve apotheosis and kick all their asses, one after the other.

“Does that mean you have a status too?” he asked as he opened his own.

Character Screen

Name:

[Sepeti]

Level:

6

Class:

-

*General learning speed x100

Title:

Dual Contractee, Unhomed, Speaker of Boba

Very little had changed. He’d gained a level, probably from killing the scout the other day, and earned another stupid title but the status showed little else. The only thing that continued to grow was his skill list. He’d eventually sort through that, maybe after it got a lot bigger.

“Yes,” the dragon answered as it motioned upward with its head. “As far as I know, every being on this planet has access to the character screens. Even the Nifa have them and most of them aren’t even actually alive.”

“Huh,” Sepeti hummed as he waved his screen away. “That’s good to know. So we don’t have to worry about them dying?”

“They won’t actually die. The most that’ll happen to them is dissipation, they’ll disappear for a few days then reform where they fell.”

Sepeti found this interesting. In his mind, all he heard was that he currently had access to a zealous, devout, immortal group of monsters who could return after a cooldown period. He wanted to be annoyed with Boba just for the sake of it but he had to give it to the God, the idiot knew how to pick his monster groups.

“So, Mr. Speaker, since we’ve been talking for a bit. Can I ask your name? And what level you are?”

“First,” Sepeti said, rolling his eyes as he settled himself into a sitting position. He was uncomfortable but that was just the usual. “Just call me Sepeti. None of that mister stuff and definitely don’t call me Speaker. And I’m level six right now.”

“Ok. And that’s pronounced Seh-BEH-tee, right?” the dragon asked, nodding as it sounded his name out.

“Not bad. Yeah, that’s how you say it. Guess you ain’t just a dumb kid.”

“I’m not,” the dragon said bashfully. “I like to think I’m pretty smart.”

“I’d ask for your name but I’ll probably forget it. So I’ll just call you Kid until further notice.”

“I guess,” Kid answered, sounding mopey again.

“So, if my guess is right, you don’t like fighting humans because you used to be one, right?” Sepeti asked, flailing his walking stick about like he was sword fighting. Long conversations usually led to him doing some weird stuff. He felt a smidge of compassion for Kid so he soldiered on even as the conversation overstayed its welcome.

“Yup,” Kid nodded. “If we can parley with them or something, maybe we don’t have to fight them.”

“Parley? Where the hell did you pick up that stupid word from? Are you a pirate?”

Despite the darkness of the room, Sepeti noticed as the dragon blushed, burying its face in its large metallic claws.

“You were a real nerd back on your planet, weren’t you?”

The dragon nodded through its claws, huffing through its large nostrils.

“Well, nothing wrong with being a nerd. I knew a few back in my day. What level are you?”

“Twenty,” Kid answered, face still covered.

“Hey,” Sepeti snapped his fingers. “I get that you’re embarrassed and stuff, but you gotta look people in the eye when you’re talking to ‘em. If you don’t, you’ll miss important tells.”

Kid slowly removed their claws from their face and sat up. They let out a few breaths, puffing their cheeks a few times before their calm facade settled.

“That’s better. I know you’re still a kid on the inside, but you got a lot of growing up to do. These worlds ain’t easy. If you’re too soft you’ll get turned out real quick.”

“You said ‘worlds.’ How many others are there?” Kid asked as they tried to project a dragonly grace.

“A lot. A whole helluva lot.” Sepeti shuddered as he thought about some of the visions he’d suffered through before being stuffed in his current vessel. “Anyway, you’re level twenty. What are the highest leveled monsters, other than you?”

“There’s Old-One, the shadow serpent, they’re level fifteen. Then there’s Mudmoon, the mammoth, he’s also level fifteen. And there’s Still-young, the rhinolisk, he’s level 14.”

“So,” Sepeti scratched his head as he compartmentalized the levels. He didn’t bother with the names, he’d probably forget them. “Is that high leveled or low leveled?”

“I honestly don’t know,” Kid said. “I was already level twenty when I got here. I haven’t done any leveling because I don’t know how. I figure I gotta kill other things but… I just can’t bring myself to do it.”

Sepeti was pretty sure there were multiple ways to earn levels. But that was a discussion for another time. This conversation was running way too long for his liking. He was already feeling the tinges of interactional fatigue, Sepeti-penned ailment, poking at the edges of his brain.

He pushed himself up onto his feet, knees clicking as he stood.

“All right, do you have any good skills I can mooch off of you?”

“What do you mean?” Kid turned their head quizzically.

“I can learn skills just by seeing them or experiencing them. You got anything good I can use? Maybe an analysis skill? I’m gonna need that to come up with a plan to get us out of this fight.”

“I have |Analyze|,” the dragon said as it appeared to scroll through its screen. “But I don’t think it works properly.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because every time I use it on you I can’t see anything. Everything comes out in a jumbled mess and changes every time I try to pull your screen up.”

Sepeti sighed. He was pretty sure this wasn’t Boba’s doing. This had to be something from Journal. Not that it was enough to make him feel any modicum of appreciation towards the dead God.

“Try it on me one more time. Maybe then I can mooch it.”

Kid stared at him intently. It blinked. Then a message appeared.

New Skill Acquired!

|Analyze: Incomplete|

Sepeti immediately used the skill, activating it wordlessly.

Character Screen

Name:

[-------] Kid

Level:

20

Class:

---------

*Dragon, natural Apex Predator, growth accelerated x50

Title:

Young Metal Dragon, {Harbinger of The End}

He shivered as he read the dragon’s titles. If he wasn’t careful, he was definitely going to get sucked into their grand quest. He needed to distance himself as quickly as possible.

The dragon shuddered.

“What was that? What are you doing?”

“Testing,” Sepeti mumbled as he hobbled closer to the dragon. “What’s your title?”

“Young Metal Dragon, why?”

Sepeti grumbled, sighing as he eyed the highly questionable title.

“Nothing, nothing.”

As he continued his studies, not that there was much to study, one of the shadow monsters burst into the room.

“The humans are on the move!”