( Lily) >

Lily’s Karma was at -100. She wasn’t afraid to do extremely vile and evil things towards other people for her goal. It doesn’t matter if she jeopardizes the party’s survival. As long as she and Stardust remain alive at the end, everyone else was seen as a pawn in her chess game.

Luna has prepared lunches for the advance party that should last them the entire day. When Luna wasn’t looking, Lily slipped in the tiniest poisonous needles in all of her lunches. She was planning for the entire advance party to be defeated from the start and hope Rainbow’s NPC core gets destroyed.

The advance party was going to head out for 3 hours before coming back. Before they went, the support people gave them cheers.

Rainbow ran over to hug Stardust and kissed him on the cheeks, “ I will be back my master, we will bring you great results!”

( Lily) >

Lily was still smiling at everyone as to not let her inner thoughts out.

Marla hugged everyone, and Remi gave a cold shoulder to everyone.

Violet also hugged and kissed Stardust on his other cheeks.

( Violet) >

Violet was only loving Stardust for practical purposes!

( Lily) >

The advance party had finally set off to conquer Desert Area 2.

Lily was half-faking her violent cough of blood to get Stardust’s love and affection. He ran over her to heal her and she clung to him. “ Stardust your cheeks are dirty, let me wipe them for you!”

She grabbed a clean rabbit pelt and wiped his cheeks to get rid of traces of the other girl’s love for him.

“ My sickness is getting worse, can you please stay with me the entire day?” said Lily.

“ Yeah I will let you rest on my back the entire day,” said Stardust.

Lily beamed in happiness at being on his back for the entire day! A special knapsack was made to carry Lily in so Stardust could still use his hands freely.

> ( Stardust)

Lily was on Stardust’s back as he worked to create the tent. It wasn’t something the party needed because everyone was okay with sleeping on a blanket at night and they were also a nomadic group. Why didn’t the party create the tent earlier for Lily? Well, it was because the party kept using the excess animal pelts to wipe their ass clean. Also because Lily told everyone to not worry about her and to discard the tent idea. But as her condition pretended to get worse, the tent was going to be made for her every time they moved.

Stardust, Luna, and Queen were all working together as they helped make the tent. Luna was sewing animal pelts together into a large blanket that can serve as the roof and walls of the tent. Stardust bundled up a bunch of wooden branches and tied them up to create a strong pillar to support the tent. Queen was helping them fetch materials and helped Stardust set up the base support of the tent. The bundled-stick pillar was firmly planted into the ground at 4 corners. The 4 top corners and bottom corners were connected with the wooden branches to form a 3d rectangle. They draped over the animal pelt blanket to create the roof and wall of the tents. They tied down the walls at the bottom of the sides to prevent it from getting blown away from the wind exposing the undersides.

They rejoiced at their newest creation of having Shelter! The first mobile tent since they were still a nomadic party. So it will have to be taken down and rebuilt every time they move. They will finally not have sand blowing in their faces anymore, and can remain cooler inside the tent! It was quite large as it can fit 4 people standing inside comfortably.

The 4 of them were resting inside the tent with Lily having the most priority. She was given royal treatment as she laid on the soft animal pelt blanket while being protected from the menacing sun.

“ Finally a luxurious tent for me,” beamed Queen. “ I hated sleeping outside like a barbarian.”

“ Those nighttime bugs won’t ever crawl on me ever again!” beamed Luna. “ We should have made this much sooner!”

“ We could have if someone didn’t keep wasting animal pelts on their ass,” said Queen.

“ You wasted more than me!” retorted Luna.

“ It’s alright everyone,” comforted Lily. “ The 4 fighter-class NPCs can easily hunt down more animals to get more animal pelts for everyone. We have plenty enough to wipe our asses with too.”

Although it was true that they have an excess of animal pelts from overhunting. They wasted so many animal pelts on wiping their ass after taking a shit! If there was a clean-freak ranking among the party, it would look something like this

Luna > Queen > Rainbow > Violet > Marla > Remi > Lily > Stardust

Stardust is last because well he’s perfectly okay with using sand to wipe his ass if he really needs to. He will endure any hardship including the need to clean his ass. Luna does force him to keep a clean ass though.

Lily is 2nd last because she wants to project her image as the party's most selfless member and wants to save the party’s resources as much as possible. She secretly wants to be clean though. Although her bestie Luna does ask Rainbow and Violet to help wipe her ass from time to time. ( Lily) >

Remi is 3rd last because as a person of the night and an assassin. She knows that when assassinating her target, she will need to endure the unsanitary areas or use the local scent to effectively hide herself. She may have to kill people in a smelly garbage-infested alleyway way after all.

Marla was the 4th last because well she’s not as grossed out at bodily fluids as the others.

Violet was the 4th clean freak because being clean is hygienic and will stop the spread of illnesses. She does her best to use the animal pelt as effectively as possible, to not waste them. Also, she realized it could be used for other things like clothes, blankets, and tents.

The 3rd clean freak Rainbow believed she must be clean for her master Stardust. She doesn’t want to assault anyone with her nasty smell. She must remain as pure as possible so that the others don’t think of her as dirty.

2nd most clean freak was Queen. She does somewhat waste more animal pelt than needed on her ass. She believed that she deserved to be clean and want a more luxurious life.

Finally, Luna was the biggest clean freak of them all. She will not hesitate to use 3 fresh new animal pelt to wipe her ass extra clean. She truly hated being dirty than anyone else. Because she wastes the most animal pelts on her ass, she volunteers the most time in making the animal pelts in the first place.

“ Rest well Lily, even though you told us to not waste resources on this tent. We can’t bear to see you in pain any longer,” said Stardust.

“ Thank you so much,” said Lily. “ I promise to repay everyone’s effort 100 fold when I get a healthier body!”

Meanwhile in Desert Area 2...

The advance party had encountered their first foe and it was the 3 times bigger desert rabbits. There were 30 of them grazing on the overgrown desert grass.

The muscle head Marla and Rainbow charged at them. Immediately, the desert rabbits kicked the ground beneath them to create a sand storm to blind their pursuers and partially obscure themselves in the smoke as they fled in all directions. Marla was somewhat blinded from the mini sandstorm and was about to clobber one of the rabbits but it immediately changed direction to avoid her attack. Rainbow was also struggling to kill these bigger rabbits as they were using tactics not seen before. When Rainbow was about to slash a lone rabbit, another rabbit headbutted her arm to make her miss before running in the smoke to hide with the others.

Remi and Violet charged after their front liners to pick off any stray rabbits with their ranged attacks. However, they were struggling to find their targets as the rabbits kept supporting one another with their mini-sand storm. These rabbits weren’t abandoning each other like the weaker ones in desert area 1. Remi was trying to shoot her needles at the rabbits but they kept bouncing around in all directions and kept kicking up an even bigger sandstorm to further blind her. The rabbits were pretty aggressive as they headbutted the ranger attackers before running away. Some of the rabbits were acting as decoys for the others to sneakily attack them.

Unfortunately in this chaotic ordeal, all the rabbits fled together with their lives and the advance party returned empty-handed. The party didn’t suffer much damage but only shame at losing against rabbits.

Marla was frustrated, “ I can’t believe it… we lost against mere desert rabbits? These weaklings were able to escape me?”

“ So these rabbits are smarter and can use group tactics to survive,” said Violet. “ But it’s strange. Stardust and Freya were able to kill the foxes here even though the foxes ganged upon them. Are the rabbits better than the foxes here?”

“ Maybe those foxes were just idiots?” wondered Remi.

The answer to Violet’s question was going to be answered soon as a group of 8 foxes surrounded them.

The 4 party members got into a battle stance. The foxes charged at them from all directions but were mercilessly slaughtered. Marla was able to cleave the foxes in half with her bone dagger and raw strength. Rainbow’s dual-blade bone daggers slashed against 2 foxes at the same time. Remi’s needle shot against their eyes and body, blinding and poisoning them to death. Violet’s poisonous arrows were able to hit all their targets as well.

“ Awww yeah we did it!” beamed Marla. “ Stardust will be so proud of us!”

“ Indeed, we have proven ourselves worthy for master Stardust,” agreed Rainbow.

“ Something doesn’t feel right,” said Violet. “ There has to be a reason why these foxes are doing these idiotic suicidal attacks.”

“ Everyone stay alert! We are surrounded!” shouted Remi.

A pack of 12 large desert wolves had surrounded them. The wolves and foxes do not get along with each other. In fact, the wolves often coerced any foxes they find into being their vanguard. It was either that or death for the foxes. Since the wolves can easily outrun and overpower the foxes, they had no choice. This way, the wolves will be able to judge their enemy’s abilities while they observe the fighting to see if it’s worth fighting for. Although sometimes the foxes were successful and were able to enjoy a partial meal from their kills.

The desert wolves snarled at them to make them lose their will to fight but none of the NPCs were afraid. Remi and Violet attacked them but they were too far away and were agile enough to dodge their needle shots. Eventually, after the wolves stare them down for 10 minutes, left as they didn’t want to risk dying from their poisonous attacks.

“ I see so the foxes are simply the sacrificial pawns for the wolves,” said Violet. “ Desert Area 2 is proving tough already.”

“ Hmm, so Stardust never saw the wolves because the oversized desert tiger showed up,” said Rainbow. “

The advance party ventured further to find more animals to hunt or anything useful to them. They eventually came across an area with bushes that had berries on them. There weren't many berries on each of the bushes but it was still a potential food source. Everyone had only eaten meat so far and having some plant food would be nice. But they weren’t going to be idiots with all 4 of them eating it right away.

Violet volunteered herself to be the poison tester as she ate the berries, “ wow these are sweet and a little watery.” She kept on eating more and more of them. If she died from this, Marla would carry her NPC core into her backpack and they would run back to the camp.

“ Violet,” said Remi. “ Shouldn’t you only try 1 berry first to see if you will survive until the next day?”

“ If these berries were truly poisonous, then dying faster would be better and these are quite good. I want to make sure they are edible so we can help Lily grow stronger with more nutritious food,” explained Violet. “ Also I wonder if these berries would be good for your skin.”

The other 3 girls perked up to Violet when she said it would be good for your skin.

A few other desert rabbits could be seen at the distance also eating the berries. These berries are a favorite to the rabbits. The bushes mainly utilized the rabbits to help spread their seeds all over the desert with their droppings. However, since these girls have been taught to shit behind a cactus monster, courtesy of Stardust. The cactus monster’s roots will destroy those berry seeds before they have a chance to sprout and steal their precious resources.

The 3 girls were talking loudly amongst themselves to distract the rabbits as Remi stealthily made her way towards them. Although the rabbits would normally run away at the first sign of danger, the berries were just too good!

The terrible thing about these berries is they would make the rabbits fall asleep after 30 minutes of digesting them. It doesn’t affect humans or NPCs though. The reason for that is because they want the rabbits to die. Even if most of the rabbit gets eaten by their predators, rabbit blood and guts would drench the ground, providing more nutrients for the seeds to grow in.

Remi ambushed one of the rabbits with 3 needle shots to the head, killing it almost instantly. The other rabbits panicked and started kicking up their dust storm to hide and run away. Remi was able to kill a few more rabbits because they were sleepy from the berries.

The party ran over to her and celebrated her 3 kills. The rabbits didn’t run very far before all of them fell asleep. When they saw that, the party quickly killed all of the rabbits and pocketed most of their biomass into their backpacks. They also pocketed a backpack full of berries as well.

Violet quickly thought that “ the rabbits most likely fell asleep because of the berries. But why wasn’t I affected?” She ate even more berries to see if it would make her sleepy yet she felt nothing.

“ Why would the berries even do such a thing to the rabbits?” asked Marla.

Remi wondered, “ maybe so the berry seeds in their stomachs can use the dead rabbit corpse as nutrients to grow?”

“ Well only way to know is to bring a rabbit corpse back and plant it close to the camp,” said Rainbow. “ I want those berries to make my skin better!”

“ Hahahaha Rainbow,” laughed Marla. “ Violet is only saying that to make us all jealous of her... But having nicer skin would be good!”

( Violet) >

“ Hmm if the berries do make the rabbits sleepy, then we can use them as baits for the rabbits,” said Remi. “ Another easy source of food and materials found.”

While the girls were running back to the camp to report their experiences and new knowledge. A giant centipede swarm was running after them, sensing the food in their backpack. The girls threw out 3 dead rabbit corpses for them and the swarm stopped chasing after them. They ran as far away as possible before stopping for a break.

The girls were hungry and decided to all enjoy their poisoned lunch together before running back to the camp.

“ Rainbow!” shouted Marla as Rainbow fell to the ground writhing in pain. She ran forward to hold her up but saw that the others were dying from the poison as well.

Marla felt her body burning hot and then a pain all over her body. They were all dying from the poison.

( Marla ) >

Rainbow fell dead from the poison first, her body disappeared and an NPC core dropped on the ground. Then Remi and Violet joined her soon after.

Unlike the other 3, Marla had [ Poison Resistance LVL 1] and was able to live out longer than the others. However, the poison was still extremely potent and was wrecking heavy damages on her body. Marla took the 3 NPC cores into her backpack and used all her remaining strength to throw them as far deep into the safe area as possible with her skill - [ Weapon Throw LVL 5].

( Marla) >

A swarm of poisonous giant centipedes came rushing forward, sensing easy prey for an easy meal. Normally 1 of them alone won’t be much of a threat as they can easily kill it before it reaches them. However, since this area was much tougher and there were a lot of enemies. The desert centipedes knew that teaming up in the hundreds would guarantee them a chance of killing their prey despite losing countless of their members. They were able to reproduce and make more centipedes with the prey’s dead body so the tradeoff was worth it.

They sense the bountiful rabbit meat to eat and the dying Marla. The giant centipedes would gladly devour both of them! Although Marla’s body would disappear upon dying.

30 minutes before the 4 girls had their lunch. Stardust grew increasingly worried about the advance party even though it had only been 1.5 hours. He ran into the tent and placed Lily on his back.

“ Stardust! What’s the matter?”

“ We are going to check on the advance party, I am extremely worried about them,” said Stardust as he grabbed some animal biomass to carry with him in his backpack for healing.

“ Don’t worry about them. You know how strong Marla is right? I’m sure they will be fine. You have given them your guidance and teachings,” affirmed Lily.

“ Master Stardust, don’t go running off with Lily. She’s quite frail and weak and needs to rest inside the tent,” demanded Luna.

“ I’m sorry!” said Stardust. “ Queen I’m counting on you.”

He knew that it was pointless to argue with Luna and ran towards Desert Area 2 with Lily on his back.

“ Come back here! You will get Lily killed!” shouted Luna as Queen held her back.

“ Chill Luna, he’s not doing any fighting, he'll run away at the first sight of danger,” explained Queen.

“ Queen… why the hell are you supporting him on this?” questioned Luna.

“ Hehehe that’s a secret,” smirked Queen.

Lily was still trying to convince Stardust to go back to the camp but Stardust’s trauma of losing Freya and instincts to save his NPCs was stronger.

Stardust arrived in the nick of time as he saw the dying Marla, “ MARLA!” The giant centipede swarm was closing onto her as she was doing her best to resist the poison on the ground.

He dropped Lily to the ground quite roughly but he used healing biomass on her so Lily wasn’t hurt as much. He ran as fast as he could to Marla and healed her with the remaining biomass he carried on him as she was getting bitten by the centipedes. Stardust also used his [ Ultimate Revival LVL 10] and further used his former corpse to further heal Marla. She knew what he was doing and immediately grabbed onto the little Stardust, and ran towards the backpack with the 3 NPC core, and picked it up. Before picking up Lily and running towards the camp.

Meanwhile, the centipedes enjoy the incredible fresh loot!

If Stardust had never come in time, all 4 of them could be killed as the centipedes may destroy the NPCs' cores.

They were quiet as Marla carried them off to the camp.

( Lily ) >

“ What the heck? Is that Stardust?” said Luna. “ He’s smaller now! Wait where is everyone?”

Queen said, “ As promised, you will make me the party leader right? Stardust?”

“ Rainbow, Remi, and Violet were killed by a traitor in the party. Someone poisoned our lunches,” said Marla with determination to find the culprit.

The mood went dark and gloomy for everyone.

“ It wasn't me!” shouted Luna. “ I would never have done such a thing! I bet it was Queen!”

“ You dirty bitch!” roared Queen. “ No way in hell would I poison my capable party members to do all the hard work for me… I bet it was you Luna!”

The two of them glared at each other as they kept blaming each other. Marla could only frown.

Stardust said, “ Enough everyone, I will first revive Rainbow with the remaining biomass here. Marla and Rainbow will hunt for more biomass to revive Remi and Violet before discussing the traitor. Luna and Queen please watch over Lily for me.”

“ Obviously! She’s my bestie!” said Lily.

“ No way I’m hanging out with the traitor,” said Queen. “I’m staying by your side, Stardust.”

Nobody wanted to talk to each other anymore. Luna quickly went over to take Lily inside the tent to rest her frail body. Queen didn't trust anyone but Stardust so she remained by his side. Rainbow was revived and together with Marla went hunting down more animals for their biomass.

When it was time for dinner. Everyone was carefully watching Luna as she cooked to make sure there wasn’t anything poisonous added. Stardust was the first to eat the food with everyone soon joining after.

Before night fell, they collected enough biomass to revive Remi. Remi stayed awake the entire night along with Marla and Rainbow to make sure the traitor couldn’t do anything sneaky at night.

Only Luna and Lily slept in the tent at night and Stardust was keeping guard on the tent’s entrance with Queen sleeping close to him. Queen was deeply afraid of the traitor and could only trust Stardust.

The next day, the 3 of them set off to hunt down more biomass to revive Violet.

When Violet was revived. The atmosphere of the group didn’t improve at all and tensions were still high. Even though an NPC revival should normally be a joyous event.

Stardust said, “ Everyone please calm down, I know that everyone’s become uneasy that there was a traitor in this party. However, I know who it is. I want you all to know to not despise her as I reveal her name.”

All the NPCs eagerly awaited what their master had to say. They all knew that Stardust would be the last person to betray them as he was their master and he created them. They know he wasn’t a twisted dark individual but someone who fully respects their autonomy and personalities.

“ There is something I haven’t told any of you, not even the first NPC Freya. But there is a special value called ‘Karma’ that I can see in all of you. It’s a number between -100 and 100. With -100 being extreme evil and 100 being a saint. Another number that I can see on all of you is your loyalty factor. It ranges from -100% to 100%. With -100% being she will betray me and 100% being she will be loyal to me.

All of you here have a positive loyalty % towards me but 2 of you girls have a negative karma value.”

The girls looked around at each other to figure out who had the negative karma value. They all believed Queen did. Violet and Remi did have their suspicion on Lily. However, Marla and Rainbow didn’t want to doubt Lily. Luna believed that Queen did it despite having no proof.

***** NPC Karma Table *****

Lily: -100 ( Extreme Evil)

Queen -10 ( Neutral Evil)

Remi: 0 ( Neutral)

Violet : 12 ( Neutral Good)

Marla: 63 ( Good)

Luna: 77 ( Strong Good)

Rainbow: 98 ( Extreme Good)

***** End *****

NPCs with similar karma values are more likely to get along and become friends.

“ But I will only say one of them because her negative karma value is quite unreal. It’s Lily because she has -100 karma...”

“ It cannot be me!” said Lily. “ I would never do something to betray everyone! I only want what's best for the party. Please believe in me, Stardust. You know that I’m a perfectly innocent and kind girl.”

Stardust added, “ Lily… another proof is that you were trying to convince me to turn back as I ran towards them…”

“...........it’s because I have complete faith in them! It’s not me Stardust….please believe in me,” cried Lily.

“ I knew it,” said Queen. “ After Rainbow and Violet kissed his cheeks, Lily immediately wiped them away with an animal pelt. I thought it was strange and didn’t say anything about it.”

“ I was only wiping away the dirt on his face,” said Lily.

( Lily) >

“ It can’t be my bestie!” shouted Luna. “ You expect me to believe a weak and frail girl would do something so evil? Stardust please tell me you’re wrong! Maybe some strong animal or cactus secretly poisoned them without anyone noticing?”

“ Just admit it Lily,” said Violet. “ Your karma value is at -100. You want to marry Stardust and have him for yourself right? You were trying to get rid of me and Rainbow right?”

“ Master Stardust, let me kill Lily,” said Remi. “ Nobody else needs to get their hands dirty at killing the traitor.”

“ No stop everyone!” cried Luna, “ Marla, Rainbow please convince them that they are wrong!”

“ As much as I would love to believe in Lily,” said Marla. “ Master Stardust is right. Lily is the culprit.”

Rainbow was flustered, “ I think… we should spare Lily. I’m sure she won’t ever betray the party ever again. Stardust will make sure of it!”

“ Nooooooo! Please Stardust believe in me! I’m a pure-hearted good, there is no way for me to do such an evil act,” cried Lily.

Remi was preparing her poisonous needle to kill her. Rainbow and Luna were defending her with their body.

“ Stardust I believe it is wise to get rid of her as she may try to kill us again,” said Violet.

“ I see so this is how everyone feels about Lily…” said Stardust as he looked towards Lily. She was still pleading her tears in her eyes to believe in her. “ Lily, I want you to know that it’s okay to have a karma value of -100. I don’t mind you doing evil things against my enemies. But attacking allies is something you should never do….

If you promise me that you will never attack any of my loyal NPCs again. We will welcome you with open arms.”

“... it’s not me…” said Lily as she looked towards the ground, still denying the truth.

Stardust placed her on his back and together they went somewhere private. Everyone was alarmed at what he was doing but told them, “ relax everyone, I and Lily are just going to have a private conversation. We will be back soon.”

Stardust carried Lily to a private place where the others wouldn’t be able to eavesdrop on them.

“ Do you need to talk to me in private Lily?” asked Stardust.

“... Only for you that I will show you my true colors,” said Lily. “ Yes it was me who poisoned them. I do not feel any remorse for that. Stardust if you promise me that I will be your only wife… then I promise you that I will never attack any of your NPCs ever again.”

“ I see…, “ said Stardust. “ That’s a bit of a problem as I sort of was thinking of having the harem life.”

“ If you choose the harem life… then kill me and forget everything about me. Let everyone remember me as a pure-hearted and kind girl. Otherwise, if you let me live… I will actively scheme to get rid of your harem members.”

> ( Stardust)

( Lily) >

“ Please don’t say such a sad thing Lily,” said Stardust. “ I…”

“ It’s alright, just kill me and make another NPC. You can always create more NPCs better suited to you and kill off all the NPCs that aren’t up to your standards. Like you said my karma is -100. The truth is… I really hated pretending to be a kind and pure-hearted girl to everyone. I’m a very sociopathic and psychotic woman you know. I can never get along with anyone in our party.”

“ Then to make things fairer for everyone Lily… let me ask if anyone else has any desires to marry me. If none of them wants to marry me…. Then I will marry only you.”

“ YES PLEASE MARRY ME ONLY!”

Stardust walked back to the party with Lily in the knapsack on his back.

“ If anyone else is interested in marrying me, please raise your hand,” said Stardust.

Only Rainbow and Violet raised their hand. The other girls weren’t surprised at them.

“ Please tell me what you will do if I don’t marry you,” asked Stardust.

“ Master Stardust, I Rainbow belongs only to you. If you desire to marry me, I would gladly do so. If you don’t want to marry me, I will happily accept that,” declared Rainbow.

“ Likewise with Rainbow, “ said Violet. “ I do admit that I wanted to marry you so I can become a more influential person in the party. But I only have good intentions as I want what is best for the party. I don’t have any problem with you choosing not to marry me either. I will accept your decision.”

> ( Stardust)

“ I see…. Then my decision will be final and I won’t ever change my mind about it. I will only marry Lily. She promised-”

“ HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA I DID IT!” laughed Lily before coughing up blood. Stardust healed her before she continued, “ Everyone I am truly sorry for betraying the party by poisoning the advance party. But since Stardust promised to marry me only. I will promise everyone that I will never betray the NPCs ever again. Nor will I ever do anything to hurt them. Unless you betray Stardust first, then I will hurt you.”

“ Lily!” Luna ran over to try and hug her but Lily only pushed her away.

“ I hated being your bestie Luna, get out of my face,” said Lily.

The surprised 180 in her personality had shocked Luna as she slowly backed away… Since Lily was no longer pretending to be a pure-hearted girl, she felt free to remain true to herself.

Despite Lily’s hostile actions, Rainbow still went and hugged Lily, “ hehehehe looks like we are both super loyal to Stardust.”

( Lily) >

Violet wanted to counter-argue against Stardust but refrained from doing so as she knew Stardust already made up his mind about it.

Everyone but Queen, Remi, and Violet felt satisfied at the conclusion.

( Violet) >

( Remi) >

( Queen) >