Dante felt the pain flood his mind before any of his other senses woke up. At first he thought the wounds had carried over to real life, though upon looking at the skies and finding two square suns Dante realized he was still in Broken Realms.

That's freaky.

He didn’t bother moving. The thick layer of leaves stacked on top of mud and tied with twigs might have been the only things keeping his body together.

Sai’s head popped right above Dante, blocking the sun. “Good afternoon, sleeping beauty.”

“Good afternoon green goblin,” Dante wasn’t sure why he said that. Calling a goblin “green” was redundant, but it felt right to say.

Sai frowned. He tilted his head to the sides, poking Dante's cheeks with his index finger. “You alrighty there? You seem a bit woozy.”

Do I look alright? Dante twisted his head to check his surroundings. They were back at their respawn point. Considering his recent experiences, Dante had an inkling that he was going to be extremely familiar with this spot. “Where did the rest of the peeps go?”

“Hunting, fighting, looting.”

“How did Pistil fare?” Dante didn’t doubt they killed the bear he was fighting, but he was worried about Pistil adjusting. Working with Kristina could be a bit…much sometimes.

“Fine,” Sai said, plopping back to the ground. A bunch of twigs, threads, wooden spears, claws, bones, and teeth were sprawled around him. It looked like he was trying to put it all together. “Give me a rough estimation of your health.”

“I’ll be up and running in twenty. How long was I out for?”

“Half an hour since you passed out. At the rate your wounds closed I would say you’ll need around an hour and a half for a full recovery. Your high Constitution is seriously doing you favors here.”

That was nice. Stuff like this usually put him in bed for a few weeks at least. Being an orc wasn’t a bad idea after all.

“Don’t worry, we got more important matters to get to,” Sai said with excitement. “We got a bunch of teeth, claws, bones, eyes, tongues, and one piece of fur we can convert into something useful.”

But all I got were two fights… Knowing his most useful feature was being a punching bag didn’t stop Dante from being frustrated. The monsters went down just as quickly, but still. Getting beaten up wasn’t fun.

“Cheer up, kid. You heard Kristina. She wants to understand the game mechanics before coming up with a plan. Knowing her they’ll only come back when they’re all just as beat up as you.”

“Gee, I feel so much better now,” Dante said, sitting up. The pain was there, but Sai was right. All his cuts closed. He tore the leaves off and rubbed the mud from his skin and was pleasantly surprised to see his bones had regenerated as well. Holy shit this body is amazing.

“I know right? Spread the misery around!” Sai said, not noticing, or more likely, not caring it was sarcasm. He tossed away all his little tinkers into his inventory. “More importantly, check out what I conjured while you were napping.

Raccoon Bone Spear

Body: F Rank Raccon Bone

Spear-Point: F Rank Sloth Claw

Offensive Power: 3

Durability: 4

Sloth Bone Spear

Weapon Rank: F

Body: F Rank Sloth Bone

Spear-Point: F Rank Sloth Claw

Offensive Power: 3

Durability: 4

At the cost of -30% Durability Sloth Bone Spear has gained the ability to bend.

Replacing the random assortments of monster parts were weapons made of monster parts.

From the description that popped in Dante’s head, two parts were needed to make a spear—the Body and the Spear-Point. The average rank of the monster parts used probably determined the weapon rank. Offensive Power was likely sharpness, and Durability was how sturdy it was.

“Where did you get the hammer though?” A normal campfire probably produced enough temperature for the bone to soften, but a hammer with a somewhat flat surface was needed to meld the bone and claw together. In response Sai summoned a small bone with a flattened end. It was a hammer made of entirely of bone. “Okay, and how did you make that?”

“A stone and enough fire.”

“That—”

Sai shook his head. “I know, all of this looks too good, but this is game, remember? My intentions and having a basic understanding of the mechanisms is enough to make it.”

“Argh, feels like I missed a lot.”

“Not much, honestly. I didn’t have time to sell my services to those with less dexterity than I,” Sai said, bowing. “Permission to—”

“Con people? Yeah, go ahead. Leave me the raccon spear while you’re at it.”

Sai’s smile froze. He grasped Dante’s shoulder’s with surprising strength. “Dante, my boy, my man. You’re finally going to use…a weapon? Have you finally realized that punching bears is not an efficient tactic?”

“Uh…no, not exactly. This is my apology for punching Pistil.” He hadn’t forgotten about that. Misunderstandings and mistakes happen, sure, but he still had to make up for them.

Sai noticeably deflated. He looked like he was about to say something, though when he saw Dante’s smile he thought better of it. He stood up and walked towards a nearby group, stopping every once in a while to glare back at Dante.

Hmm, that’s odd. There were a large number of orcs laying around the camp. Most of them had gruesome injuries. Some were even missing limbs, though from the way they acted it didn't hurt as much as it looked. Thankfully the system was generous with its pain reduction. Still, why would anyone put themselves through this?

Jarckal’s voice answered Dante. Money, Dante, money. It’s why life functions.

Remembering what he said left a sour taste in Dante’s mouth. That belief was the core of Jarckal’s entire being.

Whatever.

Dante reached for the spear, though before he grasped it a husk landed right in front of him, striking the spear out of his reach.

Dante lept into the air with his hands up and ready.

Kristina, Skan, and Pistil entered camp. All of them looked like they were in pretty dire conditions, with cuts and bruises all over. Pistil carried half of his broken spear while the others didn’t have theirs. Dante hadn't seen Skan place anything in his inventory, making him doubt that was safely tucked away.

“Do not touch it!” Kristina yelled.

Dante looked back at the spear. “Did Sai make a hidden bomb again?”

Kristina dashed passed him, picking up the spear and whacking his head with it. “Unless you’re planning on using a weapon for the rest of time immemorial, do not carry a weapon!”

“Ow! But why?”

“Why do you think?”

“Oh that’s smart, Pistil said. “It might change things.”

“I’m sorry?” Was Dante the only clueless one around here?

He looked at Skan for help but all Dante got from him was a thumbs up and an even more cryptic message. “Choose path. Do not deviate from said Path.”

“Oh, okay, I understand now. All of you are jerks,” Dante said, giving up.

"I mean you're not wrong about that, but," Kristina said, pridefully for some reason, “When you level up you get to choose a skill-based on actions and temperament, right? Well, it turns out there are rarities. Some are objectively better than others."

“I was just going to hold the thing, not fuck it,” Dante said.

“How many people do you think are dumb enough to fight unarmed? To never, ever, once hold a weapon in their hands?”

“Not many, I suppose,” Dante said quietly. He was regrettably beginning to see her logic.

“Exactly. We don’t know for sure, but it might help. The point is if you do incredible things, you get incredible skills. If you're being stupid, you might as well be rewarded for it!”

Would picking up a spear for a few moments really mess things that much? I mean the chances of that are so lo—oh right. This was Kristina. Of course she was going to account for it.

“That means rushing to level up will put you back if you grind mindlessly. This means we actually have a good chance at winning the Guild Wars. Funnel strategies won’t work well,” Kristina said.

Dante didn’t bother asking her what any of that meant. He turned towards Pistil for help. In the absence of Sai he did well to take over explaining Kristina’s jargon.

“Funnel strategies is when a group of people focuses solely on getting a single person all the experience and rewards. Imagine going against 5 people that were spoon-fed everything-- If Kristina’s right and the game does punish that behavior, then enormous guilds won’t rule supreme as they always do.”

“Thank you, Pistil, for being a normal human being,” Dante said, genuinely happy Pistil stuck around. “And how did you guys figure this out?”

“Check Skan’s level,” Kristina said, then quickly added with an unnecessarily deep sigh, “Look at him and desire to see his level.”

Skan: Level 2

“Oh cool, he leveled up,” Dante said. He did complete the scenario, so it made sense he got a large boost of experience. “What skill did you get, Skan?”

Kristina glared at him. Before another scolding came his way Skan showed them the skill he got. “I guess he doesn’t mind,” she said, pursing her lips.

Rare Spear Keeper

Increase the offensive and defensive power of your spear by 40%.

Completing a Rank C scenario has added the Underdog bonus to Rare Spear Keeper:

Underdog: Increase this skill’s effeteness by 25% for each level your enemy has over you for a maximum of 100%.

The table appeared in his head. “Hey, that’s like Kong Fu master’s using sticks against swords!” Dante said. It was a neat skill.

“I don’t think that’s what Kong Fu is best known for,” Pistil said, laughing.

“No, Dante’s right,” Kristina said slowly.

“R-Really? I was pretty sure…I mean I guess they did use weapons…”

“Not that, silly,” she said, chuckling. Her serious demeanor faded as a creepy grin took over. “Dante just says things sometimes, it doesn’t matter if it's true or not. No, these effects are ridiculously strong, and it’s only a rare. His spear will be unbreakable.”

“Really?” Dante said, doubtful. “If that’s the case then how come none of you got your weapons?” Their battered appearance didn’t scream victory.

Kristina’s jolly face turned upside down. “While we were hunting for a boar, a second one joined in."

That’s not too bad. Just Dante, Pistil, and Skan were able to take down one without any weapons or taking much damage. With Kristina replacing Dante and Skan’s new spear to the mixture, things should have gone things easier.

“That’s one a level 2 Sloth dropped on top one of the boars.”

“Oh damn, I see no—”

“You don’t! You don’t see shit!” she yelled, shaking Dante. “Fine, I thought. They started fighting themselves. I can make this work. But that’s what a rank E level 2 Jaguar joined in! Why Dante? Why? What could I possibly do there?”

“R-Run?” As awesome as that sound, Dante wouldn’t have wanted to be the meat shield for that fight.

“We did, Dante, we did,” she said, banging her head on Dante’s chest. “It ate the boar instead of us."

Dante wrapped his hands around her, cradling her as she whimpered. “It’s alright, we’ll get it next time.” She might have been melodramatic but her frustration was clear. A perfectionist did not enjoy losing.

“Ate Nog’s spear, too,” Skan said, showing his empty palms. “I liked Nog spear.”

Pistil lowered his head at that. “S-Sorry about. Thanks again,”

“I liked Nog spear,” Skan said, patting Pistil on the back with enough force to send him a few steps forward. “But I like Pistil more.”

“Damn, that was smooth,” Kristina said. The poor guy was even more embarrassed. “How are your injuries, Dante?” She poked his ribs, nodding when she touched the regenerated ribs.

“They don’t hurt much. My high constitution is doing me wonders.”

“Really, that’s great,” she said, stepping to the side and slapping his back.

Dante jumped forward with a whelp. He was too surprised to keep it in. He turned around, scratching the back of his head while laughing as naturally as he could. “Okay, so it hurts a weeny bit.” The raccoon's claws had gone deep into his body. The wound might have closed but it still felt like mush.

Kristina glared at him with folded arms. It wasn’t anger that weighed down on her face—it was guilt. It was so typical of her that it made Dante sick. Anything that ever went wrong was somehow always her fault. She wouldn’t allow Dante any of the responsibility.

“Pain teaches,” Skan said. He sat down cross-legged with his hands on his thighs, causing everyone else to follow suit. They sat in a circle, waiting for him to go on, but all he did was smile.

I guess that’s it. Maybe it wasn’t that complicated. He just had to be so strong that Kristina would let him take more on. No, I’ll force her to. She won’t be able to blame herself if everyone did great.

“Sai is up to his usual mischief, I assume?” Kristina said, ending the peaceful quiet. “We’ll have to see what information he got for us. We’ll begin the grind then. For now,” she turned towards Pistil, and Skan, though her sight lingered on Pistil. “As you may have guessed, me, Dante, and Sai are planning on competing in the Guild Wars. The prize money will be split evenly among all members of the guild we make.”

Hearing that made dampened Dante's mood. Having a prize money wasn’t bad—Jarckal being right was bad.

“You may hunt with us,” she continued, “but I will warn you that you’ll be replaced once we find someone more promising.”

Dante frowned. “I don’t agree with that.” What type of guild would they be if that’s how they treated other people? Tossing people way was Jarckal’s style, not Dante’s.

“It’s nothing personal, Dante. If you want to win the Guild Wars and keep you know who as your pet.”

“That last part was uncalled for,” Dante said, clenching his teeth. She wasn’t a fan of having Sai be the prize, but how else was Dante supposed to free him? “Does that mean you’ll replace me if a better jock comes along?”

“Of course not,” she replied instantly. “I know where you live. Can’t betray me unless you wanna die, hon.”

Dance facepalmed. He didn’t know how to respond to that, especially when he couldn’t figure out how serious she was.

Laughter on his side brought him out of his despair. Surprisingly, it was Pistil. “Sorry, sorry, it’s just one moment you guys are hugging and the next you’re at each other’s throats. No, I understand. This isn’t a charity. I will do my best to fulfill my part, Miss Steins.”

“Good will. Good soldier,” Skan said with an approving smile.

“Glad we sorted that out!” Kristina said, clapping her hands before Dante could say anything. She summoned the spear she had taken from him and tossed it to Pistil. “You’re gonna need this.”

“I think its better for you to have it,” Pistil said, shaking his head. “I’ll help Dante distract the monsters with the wooden one.”

“Don’t worry, Sai’s got another one coming for me.” She turned to Dante with an infuriating grin. “Happy, boss?”

Dante resisted the urge to pull on her cheeks. He still didn’t like the cut-throat mentality, but if Skan and Pistil were fine with it Dante could hardly complain.

Well, just another reason to prove myself, I guess. “So what now, general?”

“Now?” Kristina said, her widening grin making Dante feel unsafe. “Now we train. Get used to these bodies. Once we are healed, we’ll spar.”

Well, that didn’t sound ba—oh. Kristina’s gleeful face did not budge as she maintained hard eye contact with him in a body that was just as, if not more, powerful than Dante.

Oh, he thought again, recalling all the different shenanigans he’d pulled on her. She never was able to get back at him with her adorable, bite size body. Dante smiled back, swallowing his tears.

It can’t be that bad, can it? A moment ago she was fretting about his injuries. A different part of Dante grimly wondered why she was checking if Dante could spar, not because she was worried.

No, I need to have faith in my frie—