Timothy PoV:

Everyone had been shocked awake after the first gunshot, the initial minutes afterward had been hectic, to say the least. Max had been running around cursing about not receiving any spells he could use, which admittedly was justified from his explanations.

Since the gunshot had woken up Max and Vera, they had been arguing about what to do.

Max was, in Timothy’s humble opinion way too excited about this situation. Which had resulted in both the proper grown-ups deciding to ignore him for the most part.

“The trees, maybe?” Vera asked. It wasn’t the first time she had made that recommendation. Timothy was hesitant. This was a fantasy world and there was no telling what might lurk up there. He had postulated before that sucles might be able to climb which would end up reducing the groups fighting capabilities even further, which they couldn’t afford.

“I think the mountains. That way we get to fight downwards,” came Max’s recommendation again.

Timothy sighed. It is not the worst idea, but it was also neglecting so many factors, that it wasn’t worth bothering counting them.

“Who knows what lives in the mountains. Just as we would get to fight downwards against sucles, something else might fight us from up top too. Staying here is the best option for now. We can handle those things, if the rate keeps up, we should be able to make it through the night well enough,” he responded.

He actually wasn’t quite sure about that. The monsters had been appearing more and more frequently, and he had no idea if nightfall or darkness had any measurable effect on monsters. His nephew had played a block-stacking game that had those rules, but they were a bit silly and unrealistic, to be rules of a real place.

“I don’t understand your insistence on staying here. You yourself postulated that gunshots might even draw those sucles. I vote we move somewhere else,” Vera said. “You have what, forty shots left? That’s enough for a few more hours and we don’t know when they are going to disappear.”

Timothy scanned the environment once again; he had thought to hear another scuttling. It took him a bit to locate the shuffling grass but once he did, he took aim, no longer paying attention to the other’s squabbling.

“Yeah, just because they appeared in the evening doesn’t mean they will suddenly vanish as day falls. We need to arm ourselves and need to get into a good position. If we can get a few longer sticks, we can sharpen…”

Max’s argument was interrupted by an explosion of the muzzle.

Your group has slain [Sucle][Lvl. 3]. Your group has slain a monster above your combined level, no group penalty applied. 7 Experience Points gained.

Timothy Evans: {Ranger} Level 0. Current Progress 53/100 XP

Timothy acknowledged the window for a second before paying attention to the other again. They had previously determined that they seemed to gain the same amount of “Experience” through fighting as each other, though Vera had a head start after being rewarded with extra experience for treating Max earlier. They were declared as a group, though no one knew exactly how that happened.

“Warn us, please. The rate this is going I’ll be deaf tomorrow,” Max huffed. He was right of course; Tim should be more considerate.

He wanted to join their conversation again when a pair of sucles approached from the mountains this time. He hadn’t been timing it, but it felt as though the rate of appearances was growing slightly, and those were here exceptionally quick.

“We could really use a rogue, or a tank right now,“ Max sighed glancing at the two approaching sucles. “I’m heading up a tree. We should at least see if they can climb ‘em. Not waste ammunition like that. Let’s go!”

“I’m with him,” Vera chimed in.

Tim could accept when he was beaten, and they weren’t particularly wrong. Testing stuff wasn’t bad, he just wished the circumstances were safer. One after the other climbed into the tree being helped by the others.

“Watch out, I’m gonna shoot,” he warned this time. Two quick triggers later there were two more dead sucles on the ground and two bullets less in his magazine.

Your group has slain [Sucle][Lvl. 4]. Your group has slain a monster above your combined level, no group penalty applied. 9 Experience Points gained.

Your group has slain [Sucle][Lvl. 3]. Your group has slain a monster above your combined level, no group penalty applied. 7 Experience Points gained.

Timothy Evans: {Ranger} Level 0. Current Progress 69/100 XP

Last one in the clip, he noted before heaving himself up to the others.

***

Nik PoV:

He had wanted to run, wanted to bolt. Their faces were just that ugly. The hairy anteater trunk with a fang inside was unpleasant to look at and quite spooky.

But they were also level three for the most part. A few level twos and a single level one were in a slowly growing mass of monsters behind him. He hadn’t engaged them, instead of hoping to lose the monsters before getting to the people.

Now it was apparent that that wasn’t going to happen. It wasn’t that they were fast, just plenty.

He put down the clay container, his giant potion if you would.

He had enough tact to realize that ambushing people trailed by monsters would be poor form at bet. Even worse if you couldn’t explain yourself.

Finally turning around and taking a stand had taken overcoming so much, much more than he had been comfortable with at the moment. Each and every single monster encounter had been compartmentalized, each bad thing that happened since waking up somewhere else had been ignored.

Now it would start all over again. What he was doing wasn’t healthy in the long run but it allowed him to function. Once he allowed his panic to take control it could take weeks of therapeutic guidance to get ahold of his emotions.

For what it was worth, he thought to have grown as a person and mentally in those last days… weeks – time was hazy.

As he began swinging the hammer, and its - for combat impractically - short handle his mood quickly shifted.

He engaged the newcomer first. A level one creature from up front, where he was running towards. He dashed towards it, only boosted a slight bit by running, and brought his hammer down.

The creature stopped moving at the very same second and the system chimed, announcing the passing of a sucle.

Where the monsters were coming from was an enigma. He had encountered maybe ten distinct monsters in the forest at all. Now there were just as many previously unseen ones around him.

As he began using [Lesser Hammer Strike] he began doing the same to the level twos and threes. He had completely forgotten about using skills in combat – or maybe it had been suppressed. He remembered with the first hit though.

The two level fours were harder to gauge but in the end, it mattered little, [Running] and [Stealthy Movement] supplied enough little functionality and great speed for the monster to struggle to keep up. Once he toggled [Haste] the group of monsters was dispatched in less than ten seconds.

Gasping Nik came to a halt, eleven critters of varying levels covering the ground.

All had happened too fast. Too easy.

His combat log was too long, too unwieldy for him to properly pay attention. He was already in the process of dismissing it when it shifted, collecting the total and compressing it into a few lines.

11x [Sucles][Lvl. 1-4] have been slain.

18 Experience gained.

Nik Thems: {Smith} Level 9. Current Progress 618/900 XP

That’s new. He grinned.

Oddly enough, he felt good. Sure, hitting the little sucles felt a little weird, especially bending down to do so, but his mind was fresh, his body blooming under the effects of the adrenalin coursing through his body.

Maybe he should have taken some martial arts classes to deal with some of his issues – it had just seemed a little extreme back then.

This right now had worked great, loosening his spirit and mind.

Glancing at his vitals he frowned. Almost a 60% decrease in his Stamina over the entirety of his run and subsequent fight. His mana was in a better place, at around three hundred and ten. A roughly 30 percent decrease.

He took a large glub of berry mush from the clay pot and focused a bit. His digestive tract wasn’t a fan of encountering two types of berries at once, or maybe it was the related skill. When he paid attention, he could just barely add mana absorption to the stamina absorption. Maybe at a tenth of the efficiency.

His frown vanished quickly. His skills were strong, so their cost was justified. Especially the combination of [Haste] and [Lesser Hammer Strike]. His eyes glanced over the particular region he had rampaged in moments before. A level two sucle lay there on the ground with a hole through its torso.

Kinda gross to be honest, he looked at his hammer and his right hand. Definitely gross. Guess I need to scrub myself tonight.

Another shot brought him back to reality.

With [Tracking] pointing him in the right direction he swiftly moved through the trees once again. This time only driven by the passive effect of [Running], his stealth skill obfuscating him against the background.

As he kept moving his worry grew – the last gunshot had been a few minutes ago – and spurted him to move with a greater speed once again. Whatever had made those monsters appear might have caused something more dangerous to appear. Finding corpses instead of people was not an option, he would prefer a bad first impression.

He rushed through the forest, still being mindful of vitals until he reached a familiar clearing – well remotely familiar. Where there had once been a large boulder the size of a couple houses on a small hill was now… nothing.

Confusion guided him up the hill to further investigate.

Cresting the hill left him just as confused as before. The boulder was not there anymore. Instead, there was a hole of just a bit less depth than his own height.

He walked around the clearing, momentarily forgetting to be careful only using [Stealthy Movements] but not caring really when his musings got interrupted.

“Did you see that? I thought I saw something move over there,” said an unknown voice to the side of the clearing.

English? They speak English here. He stopped, baffled, for just a moment. At least they are still alive.

What did they see, he turned around worried that another monster was approaching? Looking around increased his confusion.

He couldn’t spot anybody. Neither people nor…

“Look at the hill, it was there again just now. It looks like a silhouette,” the voice insisted

Oh, they have spotted me, he realized belatedly. Having found where the sound came from.

They must have good stealth skills for me to not see them, he came to realize as he scanned the region the voice had originated from. Then he saw three sucles, patiently sitting below a tree.

So should I just drop being stealthy? He deemed it worth a try, maybe he could be helpful.

“I come in peace,” the familiar phrase calming him a little. After just a moment, he decided to forgo the formal version of what he planned to say and keep it light instead. “Can I help you somehow?”

“Nik is that you? What the fuck are you doing here?” came the familiar voice of Nik’s college dormmate. The sudden influx of both relief and dread that accompanied the voice was overwhelming. Until relief of no longer being alone overwhelmed the sorrow he felt for his friend, who was just as stuck as him now.

“I could ask you the same Max, the fuck you doin here?” He couldn’t remember when his face had hurt the last time from genuine smiling such a large smile, but it would do so today for the first time in a long time.

“Were assaulted by some weird cat thingy and then suddenly appeared here. Got some leveling stuff as well. I’m a mage now – though probably the most useless mage out there. Not a single spell to my name,” the usual annoyance from Max’s self-deprecation absent, he began chuckling.

“Hey watch out, One of those things is coming for you,” yelled a female voice from the tree.

“Oh crap. Those are some spooky things watch out Nik. They can’t get into trees so maybe find one you can climb?”

Nik wanted to scoff at the comment but thought better off it.

“Thanks for the heads-up. I’ll take care of it,” he simply said.

He turned [Haste] on and began running at the creature at full speed. Before it could even react to his presence, he bashed his hammer down, amplified by two skills.

Three swings later he stood under the occupied tree.

“Does it say zero experience gained for you guys as well?” Max asked.

“Yes. That is certainly a way to take care of the situation. Would you mind filling us in on how you just did that?” asked the unidentified man.

“Sure, but why don’t you come down so we can speak on eye level. Feels weird being the one that is not in the trees,” Nik responded.

To his surprise, Max hugged him after he had climbed down.

“Being bald isn’t really your style,” he whispered into his ear and tried to tickle Nik’s scalp. The unknown man meanwhile was helping a woman. And the odd group of people that had stranded here.

After introductions were made and the story of how they had ended up here, there were some questions. They ended up deciding that following Nik to where he was currently living would be the best option, they were looking for a bit of stability and he could offer that.

“Wait, you are saying you got a menu box at home… on earth I mean? And you got to choose? That’s unfair. I would have loved to get a mage class instead of getting smith assigned,” said Nik after having listened to Max’s story.

On their way each of the newcomers explained a bit about their classes until they reached the stream, conversation had been quite interesting, and eye-opening. As Vera retold how she had gotten her class.

“For me, it said ‘testing parameters’, that is until I began taking care of Max who had passed out for some inexplicable reason. I’ve also gained a skill called [Lesser Stabilization] and [Medical Intuition] and am higher leveled than the other two in my class from treating Max,” Vera finished explaining.

“That sounds super useful. Now you just need a tank and you’re a full adventurer party,” Nik answered cheerily. Talking to people again felt… good.

Vera didn’t respond, only smiled a smile that didn’t reach her eyes.

“Niklas, I hope you don’t mind me asking, but how did you get to level twenty so quickly? What has made us level up as far as we have, has been quite extraordinary and we will not be able to replicate it,” inquired Timothy.

“How do you know,”

“Don’t you have the skill, [Identify] I mean?”

“Ohh, good point.”

Human [Lvl. 4] - male

So that was interesting. I would be interesting what it would say for non binaries.

Human [Lvl. 4] - female

He turned to Max last.

Human [Lvl. 4] - male

Something was off here. Nik distinctly remembered to have leveled six times when he arrived wherever they were.

“You get a bunch over time by just doing the odd stuff. I have for example recently done something that is called gaining mana pores, that is also the reason why I’m baldheaded,” he threw a mock-serious glance towards Max and winked.

“No way. NO WAY I’m going bald,” Max yelled.

“Ey, keep it down,” Timothy chastised.

“Either way,” Max whispered under the continued stare from Timothy. “How did you do the weird being harder to spot thing earlier?”

“Oh, this?”

Nik turned on [Stealthy Movement] and began focusing on his arms, spending way too much mana to try and recreate invisibility.

“Hmm, yeah. Your outlines are super blurry right now. It is really odd.

“What? I’m not invisible?”

“Noooo? Just blurred on the edges. A bit like the pixelation-privacy effect really. Just not with pixels.”

He scratched his head confused.

Could it be directional invisibility? He shifted his perspective leaned down towards his legs and tried to refocus the effect, his mana almost empty from just a very short activation.

“Wooooh, what are you doing now? This is trippy!”

Damn, and here I thought I’d gotten proper invisibility down.