Orchid went over to the dead dire rat. The poison was going to be an issue, she wasn't sure if she could cook the poison out even if she cleaned it with a fire. Still... There was some use to the rat corpse itself. It wasn't much, but Orchid could possibly made some sort of loincloth from it. "Alright. Just give me a second..." Finding that sharp rock she nailed the rat with, she began to skin the creature. It was familiar; she did this to rabbits a lot. If she was a normal sized girl and this was a normal sized rat, this thing wouldn't even be able to make a napkin. But thanks to her small size and the rat's huge size, sure enough she had enough hide for something. She had no idea how to tan, but she figured that boiling it ought to make it tougher, if shrink. She vaguely remembered reading that out of an old book back in her normal life.

Thinking about her old life, Orchid looked to the lizard. She imagined that unlike most lizards, she was unique since she could talk. Orchid wouldn't know since she's only ever met one, but surely she wasn't the only person from her world here. She wasn't all that special when she was alive; why wouldn't there be others? "I don't think I can eat this meat. You can have it. But let me collect it's bones and stuff, maybe I can use that for something." As Orchid used her stone to cut the rat meat, she tried to collect the bones too. Sure enough they were small; she doubt that could be used to make anything sturdy. But maybe if she could get the right stuff together, she could make a bow or a slingshot. Not that she knew how, but anything was better than throwing rocks and hoping for the best.

Orchid's hands were wet and bloody from the rat's blood. Now reduced to a small pile of meat and organs, she wrapped the skin around her waist, using the rat's own bones as pins. "Let's try to find another one, maybe bigger. And maybe some plants too. Anything I can use as string or rope." As she looked around, Orchid wondered if there was any good rocks around here she could try something extra funny with. It had to be a large rock; one that she might be able to stick at the end of her stick. Make a stone hammer of sorts.

@Rune_Alchemist

@Jobst

Well. That had been a bit easier than Asteria thought it would be. So, their Mother’s attack must really have been effective, because the lizard had been taken by surprise both by Asteria’s sister, who charged it from the front, and Asteria, who managed to bite into its neck from behind it. The lizard tried shaking Asteria off, but she could feel how weak it was, and held tightly on with determination, until the fight and life seeped out from the enemy via blood loss and partial suffocation. The young dark grey dire rat took the opportunity to guzzle down the fresh and freely flowing blood, sating her thirst and hunger in one go. When she finished, Asteria hopped down from the lizard’s corpse. She saw the way its head pointed to the clutch of its eggs and noticed that part of its snout had been gouged out, most likely by Mother’s initial attack. Speaking of Mother…she was still lying in a corner, her panting breaths indicating that she was still alive.

Asteria redirected her gaze back to the eggs. Maybe it would have been considered cruel in her previous lifetime, but they were too dangerous to leave be. She didn’t know when they would hatch, if they even could without their mother around, but the chance of the multitude of small lizards getting out and attacking them in a swarm wasn’t something she was willing to risk, regardless of whether they could use their paralyzing poison as new-borns or not. With that in mind, Asteria poked through an egg's shell with her teeth and lapped up the predominantly liquid contents. The embryo was a bit more substantial but almost equivalently soft and just as palatable. She didn’t feel regretful or guilty about eating what could essentially be another being, not that she expected to what with just having killed one, but it didn’t even feel strange to consume it. She devoured another, then carefully picked up one between her teeth and tongue and clumsily held another in a paw, then rather awkwardly and slowly walked on her remaining free appendages towards her mother and deposited the food in front of her. She licked at her snout, then stepped back to give her space. Mother would probably be fine soon enough and then she could go feed on the adult lizard’s corpse. Asteria blinked as she considered the act of altruism she had just done. How odd. It was most likely some kind of ingrained need to reciprocate Mother’s efforts to bear her and take care of her.

That done, she returned her gaze back to the lizard’s corpse, considering. Her sister-ally was in her periphery, but now that their act of co-operation was done, they might not do anything further together. If she knew she could and how, Asteria would suggest further collaboration, but she didn’t. Maybe if they simply decided to stick together, they could reap the benefits…? Though, as far as Asteria was concerned, she wanted to explore the cave outside this chamber a bit. Knowing she had a safe room which still had plenty of leftovers as an additional benefit just made the idea of going out and seeing about even more appealing. Once her sibling had finished with her own meal, Asteria approached her, cocked her head enquiringly, lifted a paw and made a vague gesture at the chamber’s exit. She tested her vocal cords in a string of squeaks and chatters, doing her best to convey the idea of “Out? Explore?”

@Lucius Cypher@Zeroth- Hunting with Orchid

---

Before she could reply to Orchid about the rat, a screen suddenly popped up similar to when she had earned that 'Charisma' skill.

LEVEL UP!

Your experiences have culminated into new power. You have earned Skill Points to be distributed as you please.

Unspent Skill Points:
5

Current Skills:
Stun Fang (1.0)
Poison Spit (1.5)
Overwork I (1.0)
Alchemy I (1.6)
Charisma I (1.0)
<UNUSABLE> Muffle (0.5) <UNUSABLE>
<UNUSABLE> Crafting (0.3) <UNUSABLE>
<UNUSABLE> Alert (0.3) <UNUSABLE>
<UNUSABLE> Venom Shot (0.3) <UNUSABLE>

Level...up? Wasn't that something used in video games? Ash looked at the screen in front of her, grimacing as she realized the implications of that. She had never even touched the things in her life - too focused on work and other things. It...couldn't be too hard to adjust to something like this, could it? It was clear the world didn't function as it did on earth, so she'd just need to learn everything. Skill points, though?

"Ah...thanks." Ash replied. Might as well eat as much as she could so the food wouldn't go to waste. Not having arms to carry things in was becoming more and more annoying, wasn't it? As Orchid skinned the rat, Ash gorged herself on the meat she could get her claws on. Skills, eh? This seemed like an easy system for anyone with a brain to be able to cheat. Muffle, Crafting, Alert, and Venom shot seemed like the ones she should invest in. The ones she couldn't use yet, but if her assumptions about each skill point spent only added '.1' to the skill, then the only one she'd be able to learn is muffle.

Hmm, she didn't want to spend Skill Points unless she had too, it seemed. If she could learn things simply by doing them, then why would someone waste skill points on it? The names of these skills itself was a huge indication to what she could do with them, and she was fairly certain 'muffle' was related to some sort of silencing effect on something. Alert probably had something to do with Awareness, and crafting was well, related to crafting things likely. The only one that possibly interested her right now, was Venom Shot but she couldn't learn it. Hmm, she could level up Alchemy and Poison Spit too...but they would both become better in time.

Did she have to use them? She wasn't really familiar enough with games to understand how they all worked. However...'Unspent Skillpoints' likely meant she didn't have to use them here. Maybe she could save them until the next 'Level Up'? Or was there a way to use them later? Something she'd think about before going to bed.

"Hmm...? Plants?" Ash had been lost in thought like she usually got when distracted with something. She had eaten almost half the rat by herself it seemed and hadn't really been listening to Orchid. "Rope? Oh, rope. Right. Ahem...the only plants I know of are the green herbs growing by the pond, but I wouldn't recommend using them as rope. I could be wrong because I haven't messed with them myself, but I think they may have healing properties if I can make a few mildly educated guesses." Ash backed away from the pile of meat from the rat, tasting the air with her lizard senses again and seeing if she could pick up any other dire Rat in the area. "It's getting late, so we should hurry before all the animals scurry off into their nests."

---

"AH JEEZ!" Digbie fell backwards as he looked up at the new arrival of the lizard that just lobbed poison at the Wisp that was trying to kill the group. It caught him by surprise, but he wasn't gonna let it kill him too! He brought up his club in defense as he stared at the creature, but he quickly brought it down as he raised his voice to speak, walking towards the hole he entered the cave in whilst he did so. "I don't suppose you're from Earth as well, lizard friend?" It would explain why the lizard didn't try to kill Mourningstar with the attack as well as that other pixie.

On the other hand, Digbie pulled Jacob into the more open area as he brought his spike over his shoulder, channeling as much strength as he could into a hit before swinging the spike directly into the cavern wall, but he stopped suddenly when he realized something. Jacob wasn't there. Looking around hastily, Digbie located the Pixie in a deeper part of the cave. Digbie spoke towards the Pixie as he held his spike tightly in his hands. "Y'alright, Pixieboi?"

---

@Zeroth
Thanks to some random wisp hovering outside his hideaway, making strange noises, Jason was unable to fall asleep.

Since the number of mana crystals in the cave was dwindling, he was rather against the idea of just going out and killing it with [Stone Shot I], in order to avoid wasting precious mana.

Instead, Jason figured he might as well be productive if he wasn't going to sleep. Picking up one of his ammunition stones, he readied [Stone Shot I], and like before, searched for a similar resonance in the earth around him. Once he again picked up the position of the strange object, he went to work 'mining' like he had earlier when he had assistance from Rain.

Without the help of the acid, the task was much harder this time around. So in order to be as efficient as possible, Jason would keep 'mining' with all his might until he was exhausted, and then search the earth for resonances while he recovered his strength, before continuing to mine. The repetition of this process was truly grueling, but nevertheless, he intended to finally uncover what he'd worked so hard to reach.

@Zeroth
Not wanting to spend the whole night worrying about the dwindling resources Danny pulled one of the herbs out with Lesser Force and ate it, careful to leave the seeds. He wondered how he could plant them, but unfortunately the only two ways he could think off involved his last remaining mana point.

Since he didn't want to make a journey to the crystals and back again he simply placed the seeds on the grounds, in hopes that either they would still be there the next day or that some other monster would plant them. As for the wisp himself he flew close to the cave wall looking for an empty hole to sleep in.

The arrival of a new lizard who also appeared to be from Earth changed the game quite a bit. They now had a full party, healer, status effecter, magic attacker, and physical attacker. All they needed was a tank and they would be set! But for now, Mourningstar needed to unite these monsters together so they could get strong enough to get the fuck out of here. She floated down to the group and coughed lightly to get their attention. "I'm guessing you listened in on all of us. That's good, now I don't have to explain this a second time. But just in case, let's go over the tldr of my speech. I am Mourningstar, I was chosen by the Demon Lord to represent him as a general. You were all chosen by the Demon Lord as well, meaning we are all special. Some more than others. Anyways, I propose we all unite our resources together under my leadership to get strong enough to fight our way out of this cave. Sound good? Cool. You can all get started on introducing yourselves to each other now, I have some important experiments to perform." With that Mourningstar wandered away from the group and towards the corpse of the Wisp on the ground, floating close to it to try something out. Oh wait, one last thing. "Make sure to scream if another enemy comes by so I know to come over!" Perfect.

"Alright let's see if this works." Mourningstar squinted her eyes as she attempted to Observe the corpse, discerning any details she could from the lifeless body. Mainly whether it was edible or not, that was important. After trying to Observe the corpse, she moved onto her next experiment. Focusing her mana as best as she could, she tried to make a weapon out of her mana, something along the lines of the blunt club that Digbie now used.

After only a few uses of Minor Heal Jacob could feel the pain in his head subside and at the same time a ringing noise that he hadn’t even noticed was there disappeared. With a sigh of relief he let his arms fall to his sides, glad that he could now think straight again. Unfortunately it was unclear if his efforts had made any difference at all or if the migraine had simply been short lived; whatever the case, the experience was enough to deter him from trying anything like that again for the time being.

"Y'alright, Pixieboi?"

Looking up, Jacob could see the head of a Goblin sticking out of the crevice above. “Yeah… I’m okay.” Picking himself up, Jacob took a moment to make sure that this was actually the case; he still felt a little lightheaded and his stomach wasn’t entirely settled, but the pain at least seemed to be completely gone. Reaching out to the cluster of crystals beside him he broke off another small piece and absorbed it to restore the mana he had used and then broke off a few more pieces to take with him, leaving a rather diminished looking crystal behind.

You have used a Mana Crystal. MP is fully restored.
3 Mana Crystals have been added to your Inventory.

Flapping his wings Jacob ascended back to the crevice and stepped inside. Once there he found both Digbie and Mourningstar alongside a new arrival, a lizard, who presumably was a friend given how nobody seemed to be trying to kill each other? Catching the tail end of the Wisp’s speech, Jacob went over to the wall of the crevice and slid down into a seated position at its base. At the mention of introductions, Jacob realised he had forgotten to give his name before.

“Oh, you can call me… Oberon… I guess. If we’re using fake names.”

Mourningstar seemed to be trying to do something with the body of another Wisp on the ground, probably the one she had been fighting earlier. After a few moments of staring she then began to try and do… something with mana. Jacob watched closely, trying to figure out what exactly the Wisp was trying to do; was it some kind of spell he hadn’t seen before? Somehow he didn’t think it was. Up until now he had only seen Wisps fire small magical bolts at things, so he was kind of curious to see what, if anything, else they could do.

“Hey, what are you trying to do?”

@floodtalon@Gardevoiran@CriticalHit@Zeroth

Overcoming the feral trance she head previously succumbed to, Mei found herself flooded by feelings of relief and disbelief as she stared at the lifeless fanged lizard corpse. She was surprised that despite her recklessness, not only did she remain unscathed, but victorious as well. Mei was well aware that she was only as successful as she was because of both her mother and sister. Indeed, there was power in numbers. Given her current condition, it was the best choice for Mei follow. Without them, she probably would have been feasted on by some other creature by now.

Before partaking of the meal her body had been longing for, Mei turned towards her mother and slowly approached her. Mei was uncertain of how she was doing; if her death was inevitable, Mei was more than prepared to hasten it as an act of kindness. It was the least she could do given how her mother had raised and protected her during her first few days of life. Fortunately, this wasn't the case. Although deep, her breathing was stable. Aside from a few twitching muscles, her body has calmed down. In her attempt to comfort her, Mei softly brushed her face against her mother.

As Mei's sister had taken her place catering to their mother's needs, she took the opportunity to finally satiate her hunger. In front of her a nest of leathery lizard eggs were ripe for the picking, but although profusely salivating, Mei couldn't find it in her to just dive in and eat. However, it wasn't because of her conscious telling her otherwise or any overwhelming feelings of guilt. It was because of the mother lizard that was lying just beside the best of eggs; it was bothering her. Although becoming paler by the second, Mei approached the reptile from behind and attacked the helpless body, gnashing her teeth around its neck, worsening the wound her sister had given it. It may have cruel and disrespectful in a way, but if the opportunity presented itself, Mei didn't want to take any chances. It was always in her nature to do so.

Covered in blood, she helped herself to a lizard egg, quickly guzzling down the contents before proceeding to another. As much as she enjoyed the milk from her mother, the hearty and savory flavor that came from the eggs was exactlty what her body was looking for. Later on, Mei's attention was redirected towards her sister. She wasnt sure, but in between the squeaks and the chatters, Mei could've sworn she had heard an actual human voice. Whether or not it was her mind playing tricks on her, the message her sister wanted to convey had come through. With a nod and a few squeaks of her own, she agreed to her sister's plan. Mei wanted to remain as inconspicuous as possible for now; the last thing she needed was for her kin to think of her as some sort of outsider or anomaly.

Mei stood beside her sister and gestured with her head that she was ready to continue to explore the cave.

@SilverPaw@Zeroth

Ardur The Pixie

Taking A Chance >>>> poking the Bear /// week 2 // Dusk?

“Rattle skull eh? I wonder why they call you that?” Ardur asked as he continued to cling to the stone. He hoped the shield he cast on himself earlier was still working just in case. The goblin below him took out his stone weapon and swung it around proclaiming what he was. “We both know that it would be a mistake for me to show myself as you are very strong, and I am not.”

The cave was beginning to grow dark, and he knew this ruffian wouldn’t stick around forever. “I’ll make this short. I have a question for you.” The pixie could barely see the goblin now as it moved out of view slightly. “If you are the biggest and baddest here. Why do you stay? You won’t grow stronger if you stay here. You will never truly be mighty if you stay in this place. So why stay?” another short pause Ardur didn’t exactly wish to telegraph his position. “Are you afraid? Are you a coward? To hide in fear against whatever might be stronger than you outside?”

Ardur knew he was poking the bear now, but he was curious to know if this beast had a sense of pride that could be manipulated. “There’s a storm coming, Skull. When it comes, you have a choice. You can run and hide from the winds and rain or try to stay and whether the storm. But you will find that your numbers will continue to diminish the longer you stay here.” A vague idle threat but again he was wondering what the response would be.

@Zeroth

Huh, guess I'm a pretty good shot. Ryuu thought to himself as he watched the former aggressor plummet to the ground whilst it writhed in pain from his venom. He'd honestly not expected his surprise attack to work out so well, it seemed that he was lucky today. The goblin of the group stood ready with what looked like a makeshift stone club, thankfully lowering it and asking Ryuu if he was from Earth as well.

"You would be right goblin, I am also from Earth. Why would I have jumped in and helped if I was just another lizard?"

Looking the greenskin before him over, Ryuu noted that he looked rather... unequipped and young. Not that he was much better though... He did recall though, when he had made his choice of rebirth goblins was amongst the births available to him. Add in the fact that this goblin seemed to have memories or at least knowledge of Earth and Ryuu was certain that this greenskin was also reincarnated by the Demon King. Another lost soul... I wonder what his story was? The lizard wondered as the wisp from moments ago caught his attention. Turning himself to face the glowing ball of light, Ryuu listened as they introduced themselves.

As "Mourningstar" gave her summarized speech, Ryuu noticed a few things that struck him as odd. First of all she claimed to be one of the Demon King's generals, whcih he highly doubted that a mere wisp was. Usually that role was saved for horrific Archfiends or a ludicrously powerful beast, at least from his experiences with the genre. Not only that, but she immediately proposed that she lead them and left before he could even interject! Combine that with the fact that she called herself Mourningstar lead Ryuu to one natural conclusion. She's a total chuunibyou, off in her own world... Left speechless, Ryuu's thoughts drifted back to his allies from earlier. Could Ash and Rain possibly be from Earth as well? The pair of them did seem to carry themselves with a certain degree of personality and individuality that was utterly absent in the other lizards he'd observed. He needed to inquire when they decided to reconvene later, the goblins hunting party was likely still searching for them, so he'd stick around with Mourningstar's little squad for a while. Maybe they could go hunt something, as hunger was starting to make itself known once more in the lizard's mind.

The pixie introduced himself as "Oberon", it seemed that Mourningstar's whole group was in on this whole extravagant alias thing. Thinking about it, he may have been foolish in giving out his real name to his Lizard compatriots earlier. This was a fantasy world after all, and more often than not true names held power in these settings. He'd not repeat his mistake twice! Lest these others gain some form of power over him. Besides, if he were to stay with their eccentric group, who was he to break their little tradition?

"Ah yes, a name would be useful... I am Orochi. Pleasure to meet you Oberon."

He followed the pixies' gaze to their supposed 'leader' toying with the corpse of the wisp he'd slain. Ryuu wondered, were wisps edible? They certainly didn't look like the most substantial of portions... Though watching as the other Wisp attempted something the lizard could not recognize, it reminded Ryuu that he had a skill of his own he'd not attempted to put to use yet. Apparently he was able to imbue items and things with the power of spells he knew via writing, though in his reptilian form writing may be easier said than done. Glancing at his claws he wondered if he could make them work as his utensil of choice? Only problem was he didn't exactly know any spells at the moment, and as such his skill was kind of... useless. Attempting to write with his claws in some nearby dirt, the lizard called out to the others.

"So then, now that we're all nice and introduced, what's first on the agenda? I wouldn't be opposed to doing some hunting right about now."

@Zeroth@King Cosmos@floodtalon@Gardevoiran

---

---

Her sister nodded. Her ratty squeaking seemed to convey agreement. Odd. As Asteria led them the way they had come into the chamber, back through the burrow and out into the wider cave proper, she considered this issue. Her Mother had never “spoken” or at the very least, Asteria didn’t remember recognizing any of her sounds as holding meaning the same way language would. But her sister had understood her. Was that simply because they were both Dire rats? Even if the other rats had lower intelligence than her previous human identity provided her, they were still the same species. But perhaps there was such a thing as a monster tongue with which she could not only convey ideas to other Dire rats, regardless of whether they would comprehend the complexity of what she might say to them, but also communicate with the other monsters. It was a shame she hadn’t tried to do so with the lizard, but it hadn’t exactly given any opportunity to do so. Perhaps she would simply make more of an effort to try speaking properly with her sister…

As for the cave itself, it offered several opportunities. There was a very distant light, which Asteria assumed led to the cave’s exit, but the light from there was small and steadily disappearing as the night time progressed. Somewhat closer was a fire, but the numerous goblins she could see around it were an obvious sign of danger. Goblins were surely the most dangerous predators of the cave, for they could use tools and therefore advance in a way the rest of them couldn’t, not yet. That fire was to be avoided for now. There were a scant few bluish crystals here and there and Asteria had the impression that there had been more before, but she couldn’t be entirely sure as she hadn’t paid much attention to them when her survival had been her focus. Well, her survival still was her focus. But now, she also wanted to know more about this world.

Asteria intended to head towards the lake, but as it so happened, she passed a certain crystal cluster, in front of which was a male Dire rat. He stared at the crystals intently and Asteria found his behaviour peculiar indeed. He also smelled familiar, but she wasn’t certain whether he was also a sibling of hers or not. She looked from her sister towards the male rat and back again. Asteria observed him with as much intent as he used to stare at the crystals. Was he…a mentally unsound example of their species? Or did his purposeful inspection of a foreign object indicate a higher than average intelligence as far as Dire rats were concerned? Asteria was a bit regretful right now that she had not tried ascertaining what the regular Dire rats were capable of, which she supposed she could have done by observing her siblings while they were all in the nest. However, she could still rely on her sister and this strange male Dire rat to provide her with some basic information. Once she ascertained the male was done with whatever he had been doing, Asteria approached, hoping her sister would recognize her desire to socialize with him and would follow her cue. Carefully and with purpose, she tried sounding out “Sib…Sibling?” She looked from her sister towards the unknown male. Her question was obviously intended for the male Dire rat, but Asteria wondered if either of the rats would understand the verbal communication she had attempted.

@Searat@Jobst

---

"Man, everyone here has a cool name!" Digbie commented as he began digging in another place, heading towards the heavy tremors he sensed earlier with his abilities. "I've only ever had one name, and it was Digbie Yondir. How'd you all get such cool names?!" Digbie asked as he put his club to the side and began to dig at the dirt and stones of the wall, using what rocks he could grab and hold easily to dig with. Man, he wished his name was cool.

Speaking of nice rocks, Digbie ran back over to the Curved Rock he threw earlier to grab it. It's unique shape would be an invaluable tool for digging out this cave. Almost seemed like a unique item. Thank gosh he didn't forget about it initially!

The goblin overheard Orochi mention something about hunting. "What's there to hunt in this cave?" Digbie had eaten what he could find and get, but even he was actually a little confused about what there was to really hunt in this cave. Of course, there was the occasional rat, the lizards that were charred by that one goblin with the fire obsession, moss, it was a smörgåsbord of stuff all the time, none of it good. It was all mediocre at best, really. It'd been a while since Digbie had something he really liked, with sauce and such. The goblin was actually his own size into the cave when he looked back at the group. "Yeah... I guess eatin' somethin' would be a good idea." Digbie's stomach growled softly as he finished his statement, the goblin grabbing his club as soon as he stepped out of the cave. He wasn't leaving that glorious thing behind!

Exploring Near Crystals and Cave Walls
@SilverPaw@Jobst@Bishop@Searat@Duthguy

---

As the two female rats finished off their meal, before they left the lizard nest their Mother finally seemed to shake off the result of the mother lizard's poison. She too joined in the feast, quickly slurping up the contents of several eggs with gusto. With their bellies sated and their mother safe, the rats departed to explore the rest of the cave. Watching them curiously, nose twitching, their mother followed a few paces behind. She seemed to be observing them, and let them lead the way without interference, though she kept an eye out for danger.

You now have an Ally! Mother Rat has joined your party!

They soon came across Edward, though they didn't yet know his name, staring intently at the Mana Crystals on the wall. As the male rat watched the Crystals, he couldn't really divine anything about them aside from the fact that they didn't seem to be any kind of metal or mineral that he knew of, and they glowed all on their own for some reason. But as three of his own kind approached him--possibly his own relatives--he would find their scents in his nose and what little sound they made on their tiny paws in his ears. Who were they, and what did they want?

And that same question would likely apply to and for the two Wisps that came floating closer to the group of rats. As Lorek looked for crystals that the Goblins or other monsters hadn't already taken, he came upon the same cluster that Edward was staring at. He arrived at around the same time as the rats did, but he was floating a couple of feet above them and nearer to the wall. The Dire Rats might not end up being a threat to him, and if he knew that they didn't have any magic of their own he might realize that they probably wouldn't care if he took or used the crystals. Meanwhile, however, Danny was floating along the same rock face, looking for a crack in the wall where he could take shelter away from the reach of most other monsters. He would soon see the odd, black-tinted Wisp coming from the other direction, as well as the four Dire Rats down below, one of whom was a fair bit bigger than the others.

[[If you're interacting with each other, you don't have to wait for my updates to post as long as it doesn't get spammy. Collab if you'd like, or if you're not interested at all just react as necessary and tell me what other actions you'd like to take in a post.]]

---

Unknown Location [[Possibly near Mourningstar, Digbie, Oberon, and Orochi? Or Rain and Jason?]]
@Kazemitsu

Skill Gain: Magic Resistance I!
Magic damage from lower level spells is reduced, regardless of its element. Whenever you gain Elemental Resistances, their threshold will be used first before Magic Resistance is activated. Obtaining at least one level of all Elemental Resistances will cause Skill Synergy and automatically increase Magic Resistance by one rank.

Į̨ͯͯͪ͗͟͏̩̙̺͓̗͇̭͔͙͎̞͉̭͎̻̰͈Ņ̨̩͓̟͍͖̰̜̣̻̲͈͎̭̏͊̃̇̽̉̈̐ͮ̿ͣ̅ͮ̊̊͡V̴̶̘̫̦̠̥̗̠̓͗ͫ̏ͥ̏ͮ̓̊ͥ̀̉ͪͦ͘͞A̢̨̫͕̪̲̒ͪ͐̒̎ͣ͋̐ͤ͞͞L̶̶̘̙̞̠͇͍̹̬̗̱̫̭̘͊̏̍͋͑̅͋͆̈͊͐̏͋̆I͚̫̻͔̜̙̫̰̖̬̍̇̆ͯ͆̆̌̈̄͊ͭ̑͌̓ͯͭ̀̀̚̚D̛̬̼̘̦̞̟͍̭̻̰̮̰̹̦̪̝ͯ̔ͬ̔ͯͬ̇ͦ́̓ͨ́͞͝͞ ̸̎ͫ̈́͆̉̐͐͒ͤ̅̄ͯ̓ͣͤ̍̓͌̚҉̜̗̥̞̫̞̪̪̳̭̲Ć̸̡̨̨͖͈̯̞̝̮̱̹̪̲͎ͩ̆ͯ̋͊͗̂ͫ̃̓̓̔̈͟O̵̟̘̩̖͎͓͉̩̭̯̪̤̺̞̬ͯͣ͗͗̕M̅̒ͣ͒̈́̒ͮ̐҉̭͉͔̗͖̬͙̪̖͝M̡̡͓̞̱̲̻̠̜̖̫̹͇̤͉͗͌ͬ̄̇ͫ̐͑̅͆͌̌̈́͜ͅͅA̷̧̼̯̰ͫ͋ͤ̓ͮ͋̒̂ͮ́̕ͅN̷͎̦͈̙͔̳͚̮̗̥̘͚̩̙̼͒͂̂̌ͬ̒̏̂̽͊̾̉͗́͡D̢̡͕̫̭̼̱̱̄̾ͩ̒̉͞

As Asura attempted to call up some sort of menu like he had seen in his games, a sudden screeching like static on a TV turned up too loud combined with feedback on a microphone combined with dial-up internet, and a rippling pain throughout Asura’s entire being, or “mind,” considering he didn’t have a separate head or brain.

Consuming the two Healing Herbs helped him feel better, but from the dull pains all over his membrane he could tell he wasn’t at Full HP yet either. And that Pierce Resistance Skill hadn’t popped up either, despite being at a full rank instead of a decimal...

---

The Hole in the Wall

---

Just as Rain was getting comfy in her hiding spot and thought she might start to rest for the night, a strange series of sounds came to her as muffled noises and slight vibrations through the wall. Was that the same slime she had helped earlier, digging away again towards whatever it was he had found?

Indeed it was. As Jason continued his efforts, a sudden notice interrupted him.

You have learned a new Skill!

Skill Gain: Tremor Sense I
You can feel vibrations through the earth within a 30 foot radius or so around you, whether they be footsteps, tunneling creatures, etc. You have already learned through your previous experimentation that you can also produce these vibrations to a very limited degree.

And just like that, he suddenly had a more complete picture of his surroundings. As in monochrome he saw the vibration traveling outward from his body, and when it entered the solid black earth, distinct shapes and lines and layers became shades of gray...and then, he saw it. An open chamber in the rock, evidenced by all the gray around it and then nothing but solid black in a roughly circular shape. With this information his digging became more efficient, now that he knew where to go.

He suddenly broke through the last bit of dirt, showering himself in dust and soil, and found himself facing something brand new.

On this side of the chamber, he could see that blue veins of something--like the Mana Crystals, but a bit smoother, as if it were some sort of actual ore rather than just the crystalline clusters--ran across the rocks in chaotic, vein-like circuits. And where they converged, a crystal roughly two or three times the size of a normal Mana Crystal sprouted from the earth. It looked harder, too, more stable, with many facets like a cut gemstone. It also seemed...deeper. It was only about a foot or so in diameter, but when you looked through one of its many surfaces it seemed like you were looking into a deep tank of water, growing darker and darker until it became pitch black. Also, unlike the mana crystals, this one was a deep emerald green.

But there was one more thing Jason saw as he looked through the crystal. The rocks on the other side, of course.

MATTER. SOLID. MINERAL. ROCK. STONE. IGNEOUS. GRANITE. LAYER. WALL. EARTH.

Č͌ͯͩRͨ̉̊ͮ̂̑̿͏͉͕̺̺̩Ů̹͚̠͕̀S͕̠͇ͅṮ̺̼͚̻̪̘͂ͣ̑̊̉.̷͐͐́̌̄ ͫͨ̾̃ M̨̻̰̦͉̲ͪ̈́̅̉̋À͍͊Ñ̨̤̜̘͎̖͔̖͕̇͋T̴͓̲̑̌̍̓̃̆̾̋L̢̫̰̝̬̖̗̪̼̓ͬ̀E̛͕͚̒͊͢͝.̜͖̹͚̳͍ͯͬ͐̎̌ ̛̈́҉͏̮̙͉̤̺T̡̗̮̿͑̂̏͢Ė̹̭̭̾͌̊ͣ̀̕͢C̟̤̟̻͈̠̎̉͝T̩̥̆̎ͩ̅ͥ̍͐͒͟O̸͎̟͉̯̫ͣ͆͋͝N̶̖̠̗̬̤̥͙̩̓ͭ̆͊͂́͟I̶͂͒̐ͩ͆͝͏̩̩͇͔C̦̪͖̼̪ͫ̍̏͑ͧ̍͜ ̷̧̬̻̞̬̦̣̲͛̈́͛̋̈̚͝P̵̷̨͙̫͎̀͗ͅĻ͍̭̿ͮA̱̯̫̼͔ͨ̏ͯ̕T͎͓̻͔̯̺̼̻̈ͥ̔ͨ̌̄ͥͮ͘E̡̞̪̪̳̾̿̌ͤ̈́ͬ́́.̶̬̖̟̫̻͖̞͔̉͛͆ͮͥͪ̀ͅ

̢̡̤͚̻̪̗̜̪͎̿͐̎ͪ̕ Cͣ̓́͆̂ͣ̈́̆̇̂̈́͒̕҉̴̡̰̻͚̦͚̝͈̤̣Ơ̶̢͇͎̜͎͚̐ͬͪͩͬ̑̀͋ͫͦ̇̿̃̏̈́ͪͥN̴̞͇̙͓̩̱͇͍̰̳̣̻̲ͣͫ̀͋͟͜Ţ̞̺͇̰̗̝̯ͫ̎͌̅̓̀͢I̤̫̖͔̼͚̗͙̥̞̫͉̞ͬ̃͐͗ͧͪͨ̂̿ͫ͗͢͠Ņ̨̲͓̰̬͎̠̯͔̰̤͈̯̒ͦ̒ͣ͂ͣ̀͜Ë̷̸̢̹͖̫̰̦̳͎̫̞͈͇́̍̀̐͂̆́͝N̒̇̄̏̉̂ͮ̇͏̸̴̢͓̬̝̪̳͢T̛͎̞̗̖͚̩͎̙̪̳̙ͥͩ͛ͤͥ̆ͨͫ͒̐͋̍͂̓͗ͨ͆͠ͅ.̂̋ͥ̍̂ͣͦ̋͡͏̵̨̼͓͕̝̯̠͓͇̠̹̣ ̴̠̫̜͖̺͍̳̥̲̘̾̏͋̓̏͒̈̀͠W̸̝̗̠͖̗̗̞̮̪̹̞͓̱̭̠̣͒̌ͨO͎̝̗͕̪̭̗̘̬̘̗̱͔͑ͯ̿̊̀̎̑̽̉̾̑͌̌́̚͡͞R̡̢̥̬̼̮̬̳̯͙̤̜ͤͣ͌͑ͥ͝L̢̢̦̥͔̗̯͍̿́̎͊̾̕͢D̢̡̨̖̻̼̗͕͒̏̀̔͆ͣ̂̍̊̃̒̊͑͗̂.̨̧̂͗̅͋̽̓ͤ̓͗́̓̄ͮ̊ͯ͏̡͏̟͙̰̠̝̳͔̠̤̗̟͕̤̤̦̖̦̘ ̸̵̦̯̫̲͉̖̽̄̽̇̊̑͛͛ͬͯͪ̀ͬ͗̀́͝P̸̴̧̢̜̻̤̻̬̳̭͚͚̦̖̟̠̲̪ͦͫͯ̐̾͊̉ͦ͗͝Ļ̶͓̙̬̗͈̙̣͋ͭ̈́ͣ̽ͫ̔̂ͨͣ̋ͬ͂͐͜͢A̸̸͎̠͈̰̭̅̆͊ͮ̔ͯ̔̊͆̓̿ͮ̇͂̔ͯ͒̓̀̚N̡͕̥̬̺̘̻͕͇ͪ̇ͯ̎̆̓ͦͪ͌̉͆ͥ̒ͯͪ̇̃͘͝ͅḘ̵̢̘̣̹̟͉̩̘̯̙͕̻̺̗ͣ̊̑ͫͣ̈ͯ͒͊͋͗ͬͪ͐̎̚͘Tͫ̓̋ͯ̀̿ͮ͆ͮ̿̓̃̈ͥ̋ͥ͂҉̸͏̵̯̪͇͉͜.̢̛̲̞̥̩͚̹̼ͪ̿̋̊̎ͤ̈͑̂̇̾́ͭ̋̉̔̕͞ ͓̣̣͚̱̘̘̭̲̬̱̬͖̜̖͉͉̜́ͨ͌́ͯ̒͠

Jason suddenly felt as if the entire rock wall was pressing down on him from all sides, crushing him to the density of a neutron star, and at the same time something was ripping apart his mind in every direction, pulling at him until his sense of self threatened to stop existing. It was like opening your eyes right after waking up, and having a bright light thrust into your face before you could adjust. At the same time it was like being in a room with a thousand people all carrying on different conversations and all at different pitches and volumes. At the same time it was like listening to a TV on static that had been turned up to loud and a microphone on a feedback loop and dial-up internet. Ą̹̜̼͆͗̂ͭ͂t̴ͣ̓̀̉ͨ ͬͩ̾͆ͤͣ̂͏͓̠̣͉̝ͅṱ̿́ͨ̂ḩ̠̟̳͓͋ͤͪ͋̒ͪe̫̠͕͘ ̤̠̫̼̏̐̂ͪ͆͝ͅs̟̟̜̝̯̯̑̅̔̾͡aͧͨ̊͒̇̓̊m͚͇̍e͎͚͓̯̖͉̋̾̑̚ͅ ̯̲͊̋͛ͬͥ͟t͇̠͚̂͆͛̒̈ĩ͉̫̝̼̟̮͂ͦͧ̀m̺̳͇̠ͪ̒͋͢ͅe̴̘̾ ͖̻͙̭̖̏̊ͧͩḯ̏̚͏̩t̰̙̞̪̫̲ͅ ͈̗̰̯̻̖̒͊͗̄͗͌̋w͕̗̘̗̪͉̰̾ͮ̒̈̉̾a͕̲̘̜͇͡s̘̆ͩ̏ͤͪͣ́ ͈̬̥͕ͭ.......

It finally stopped, though Jason found himself somewhat puddled upon the ground as if he had been unconscious.

Now, what to do with this..."treasure?"

---

On the Hunt
@Rune_Alchemist@Lucius Cypher

---

As Orchid skinned, dissected, and then made use of the Dire Rat, she was soon left with a few notable items.

1 Raw Dire Rat Hide in Inventory. This Item may rot if not preserved.
2 Dire Rat Fangs in Inventory. This Item can not be used as a weapon by itself due to the size difference.
4 Dire Rat Bones in Inventory. This Item is a Material.

Eating the poisoned meat, meanwhile, did not seem to affect Ash in any negative way. She felt some stamina returning, though also now that she had a full belly her instincts told her it might be a good idea to find a place to rest. For the moment though, there was still time to help Orchid find something for herself.

[[Please continue in your collaboration post and consult with me as necessary, thanks!]]

---

The First True Party!?
@King Cosmos@CriticalHit@Gardevoiran@floodtalon

---

As Mourningstar tried to analyze the corpse of the Wisp, she got a definite result--just perhaps not quite what she was hoping for.

You used Magic Analysis I!
Magic Analysis I had its effectiveness reduced by 50%. This is a Monster.

Wisps are magically oriented monsters. This Wisp possesses three Spells.

As she tried to shape her mana, she could tell that there was definitely potential here, but as it was she just couldn't seem to get the shapes to remain stable. Maybe she needed more practice, or to pour more mana into it. But to do that would require more crystals, which seemed to be getting scarce.

Oberon approached her as she practiced, curious about what she was doing. His results were similar to Mourningstar's own experiment, but perhaps slightly more useful as he stayed and watched her until the end of her tests.

You used Magic Analysis I!
Magic Analysis has had its effectiveness reduced by 75%. This is a Monster using Magic.

Wisps are magically oriented monsters. This Wisp possesses three spells and one magic oriented skill. This Wisp possesses the magically oriented skill Magic Analysis at Rank I. This Wisp is attempting to cast ????? Mana (Unknown Skill).

Meanwhile as Ryuu, or now Orochi, tried to use his Scribe skill, he had much less success. Or none at all, rather.

You have no Spells to Scribe.

Digbie too, made use of some of his skills, but these were not the capital S skills of this world, merely his own abilities at digging. By the time he had finished he had worked out quite the tunnel into the wall, enlarging the already somewhat enlarged crevice into something that could have easily been used as a sort of shelter. It was only walled in on two sides, but if he bothered to shore up the dirt he had been digging out into a ramparts of sorts around it, he might have just made a little base camp for his party. Or at least a hole they could sleep in.

[[If you're interacting with each other, you don't have to wait for my updates to post as long as it doesn't get spammy. Collab if you'd like, or if you're not interested at all just react as necessary and tell me what other actions you'd like to take in a post.]]

---

A Pixie to the Bonfire
@ReusableSword

---

"Dey calls me dat, cause when I grabs ya by da head I makes ya skull rattle!" boomed the boss as Ardur continued to flit about stealthily--however, the much bigger monster now seemed to be turning his head in the right direction, and his eyes were darting this way and that. "What? Qweschurn?"

“If you are the biggest and baddest here. Why do you stay? You won’t grow stronger if you stay here. You will never truly be mighty if you stay in this place. So why stay?”

"Cause it's my cave!" Rattleskull boomed, slamming one big fist into his chest. He turned and this time caught Ardur's movement, just not his shape or features. "Dis my home! Ain't nobody gonna take it from me! I'm gonna rule it!"

“Are you afraid? Are you a coward? To hide in fear against whatever might be stronger than you outside?”

"No! You dumb!" Rattleskull spat on the floor. "When I takes over da whole cave, I starts on the outside! Dat's cause I'm smart!"

“There’s a storm coming, Skull. When it comes, you have a choice. You can run and hide from the winds and rain or try to stay and whether the storm. But you will find that your numbers will continue to diminish the longer you stay here.”

"Now you REALLY dumb!" Rattleskull laughed. "Can't rain inside caves, idiot!"

Satisfied with his absolute domination of his weakminded adversary in the sophisticated field of academic debate, Rattleskull turned on his heel and started ambling towards the bonfire with a renewed sense of vigor.

---

The flyer had left, and Rain began to drift slowly into sle-

The sound of Jason breaking through into...a cave? Is that what they would be call? She wasn't familiar with this concept of hollow holes in a cave.

Pulling herself to her feet, she meandered over towards the hole the slime had made, covered by rocks it seemed.

"Jason?" she asked hesitantly.

@Zeroth @SilverPaw @Searat @Jobst @Bishop

During his search for a spot to hide Danny ended up back at the cluster of crystals and wondered if he could somehow restore his mp with just the light they radiated. After all if it was enough for the healing herbs to grow on, it had to contain at least some energy.

Before he could try though he saw there were five other monsters around. Normally he would at least try to keep them from using up more crystals but he saw no way of winning the battle and wondered if he could hide. To his surprise though he heard one of the rat like monsters talk, making him wonder if that was normal or if they were from Earth as well. Despite the risk he felt he had to find out.

He slowly lowered himself a little, while doing his best to stay at a height where he believed none of the rats could reach him. "Y..you from Urth too?"

@Duthguy@SilverPaw@Jobst@Bishop@Zeroth

Ed froze at the sound of someone, or something, saying the word 'sibling.' It seemed that the young dire rat was too enamored by the strange but fascinating crystal growing upon the wall. He slowly turns to face the source of the sound and sees two small dire rats and one large adult dire rat. Their smell was far different from the smell of his siblings, and surely his mother and siblings were still fast asleep back in the nest. Ed could feel his heart pump faster. If they were to deem him as a threat, it would be the end of him. No second chances, just there and then dead. He needed to show that he was not of any threat to them. The young dire rat chooses to lie flat on his back to show his submissiveness to the other dire rats. He was just there to explore the cave near the nest, it was not a good enough reason for him to die.

While lying down, he hears another voice. Inquiring if they were from Earth. Ed didn't need to even think when the new voice asked if he was a resident of that planet. "Ya!" Ed squeaked out in affirmation. He pauses for a moment, shocked that he was even capable of speaking considering his current state. He thinks for another moment; about the possibility that he could say more complex words now that he had discovered that it was possible for him to speak. Ed tests the waters and asks the new voice."You...friend?"

@Zeroth@Lucius Cypher

---

After the fanged lizard had her fill, Orchid gathered up what was left. A bit of meat she can use as bait, and the dire rat’s guts still bloody and oily. She gave them a tung and they were somewhat taut; she could use it as string, probably. She put that into her pouch and put the rest underneath a rock. ”Alright, let’s go.” Orchid turned to continue the hunt. They moved further down the cave, going at a fast pace but careful of their surroundings. Soon there was voices up ahead and the two could come to a stop. What they’d see would give even Orchid pause; three goblins. They didn’t look like the same goblins that Orchid was with before, and she was mostly certain that the goblins were not all unified. If nothing else, she doubts that they’d have any issues killing the fanged lizard and attacking Orchid.

From their vantage point Orchid could see that they weren’t much better equipped than she was. They too had pointed sticks, with crude clothing in the form of loincloths made of vines, fur clumps, and leaves. They had small pouches on them that might have something useful or maybe nothing at all. The real issue of course was not only did they outnumber the two, but that they were goblins; Orchid wasn’t sure if she could eat them.

”Remember, video game. They’re not humans. You’re human. And… And maybe they have food. Maybe goblin meat is okay to eat. Either way… Kill them.” Orchid had to hype herself up, but she also wasn’t just going to go charging in. They needed a plan. Fortunately it didn’t seem like the goblins saw them yet so Orchid had a plan. She took the bones out from her fur pouch, gathering them up in some rat stomach. ”I have an idea. I think I can trick those goblins into helping me, but lead them into an ambush. Take these bones and try to plant the pointy bits up, hide them with a bit of dirt so they’re hard to see. When the goblins step on them it should hurt their feet and give you a chance to shoot them down. I’ll sneak up behind them and take them out too. If possibly, spread some of your poison on the bones too so that’ll make it even harder for them to survive. I… I’ll see if they have any food on them afterwards. I’m more interested in collecting their things than eating, really.”

Well, this was certainly not a good sign. Not moments after they resumed hunting, they ran into three goblins. Ash was already formulating her own plan, staying low to the ground and hiding slightly behind Orchid's feet. If the goblins did see her, no doubt they'd only think of her as food. As much as she'd like to avoid fighting and persuade the goblins to do her work for her, she doubted she was skillful enough for that yet.

"…huh, not a bad plan." Ash mused quietly. "It'd be easier if I well, had hands instead of these ugly claws. I can't really carry very many of these." It shouldn't be too hard though. Maybe two sharp bones in either claw, and a few in her mouth? "We'll try it - but I won't waste my poison. It only remains acidic for a short time after exposed to air. If I inject it into their bloodstream it can paralyze the victim, so you can land a finishing blow on them. Biting their ankles will be easy enough." She had been using it a lot today after all, and while she wasn't a biologist she was certain there was a limit to how much her body could make in a day.

Acting quickly, Ash grabbed two bones in either claw, scooping up a few more in her mouth before scurrying off back the way they had came. A few yards back had been a good choke point, one might say. She could set up the bones there. As easy as this plan sounded, she doubted it'd go as such - to say she was a little nervous, was an understatement.

”I trust you. Just trust me.” Orchid watched the lizard scurry off as she peeked back towards the goblins. They seem to be hunting too, but not nearly as watchful as they were. Perhaps they were cocky with their numbers. Taking a deep breath it was time to work her magic. Orchid took the bloody meat from the rat hunt and squeezed the juice around her arm to make it look like she was injured. Just for good measure she hide the poisoned piece of meat underneath her armpit too, just long enough for the smell of poison to get stronger. Once it looked good enough Orchid approached the goblins.

They were immediately on guard until they saw Orchid’s face and body. Unlike theirs, she was definitely female. A mix of confusion and bravado appeared on their face. Just what Orchid had expected. She spoke frantically. ”Please, help me! I was hunting a dire rat, but it wasn’t alone. One of them bit me, and they’re right behind me! Help me kill them and you can have anything you want!” This caused one of the goblins to puff up, a lurid smile on his face. Orchid grimaced and gulped. She knew what she said; this was an expected response. “Anything?” The goblin asked. Orchid made herself look meek. Innocent. Weak. ”A-Anything…”

The goblins chuckled as the biggest of the one (By an inch or two) raised his stick. “Let’s get huntin boys!” The goblins pushed past Orchid and ran up ahead, eager to kill some dire rats. But there wasn’t any rats up there. Nothing but the fanged lizard and the trap. Taking a deep breath Orchid took out her rock and followed up the rear. The goblins moved fast, but it wasn’t long before the two racing to be first hit the trap; two bones stabbed through their foot, causing one to immediately kneel in pain and the other to start hopping. The one in the back stopped and looked confused as Orchid was coming up behind him with the rock. She looked like she was going to bash his head open.

She only had a few seconds to work, pointing the bones upright and spaced out enough that they would step on them. Covering them with a bit of dirt was the hardest bit, and it didn't go as well as she had wanted. She'd just have to hope that the Goblins were too focused on Orchid or whatever else the female goblin was doing to distract them. Once done, she set herself up off to the side in a dark crevasse near the wall, and waited, ready to strike. As soon as Ash saw the first two Goblins step on the makeshift caltrop trap, she made her move.

Target priority…go for the one still standing while it was focused on Orchid. Ash rushed out as swiftly as she could, baring fangs and clamping her teeth down into the Goblin that Orchid was aiming for just long enough to hopefully deliver a dose that would paralyze him. That was all she could do. Immediately, she pulled away, biting away a chunk of skin in the process. Immediately she turned to the goblin still hopping in a rather comical fashion, taking another bite out of his ankle.

Before she could really get a good dosage of venom in him though - something slammed into her side, hard. The impact sent her rolling across the ground, reeling from the impact and seeing more than a few stars.

"Ey! Whatiz'this?!" He snarled, looking back to Orchid who was attacking the hopefully paralyzed Lizard. "Lizard try and make a fool of us! You, female! This a trap!?" The Goblin had a gnarled wooden stick in his possession that looked like an old tree branch. At least the second one seemed to be having trouble moving after biting him, even if he didn't get a full dosage, having tripped and gotten a sharp bone to the face.

Orchid gave no response to him. Well, aside from smashing one of the goblin’s eye with the sharp stone she had. She aimed right for his eyes, hoping to slice them out. He wouldn’t be able to fight if he was blind after all. With the lizard biting and poisoning one followed by Orchid slashing his eyes out, hopefully he was out of commission. Orchid wouldn’t have time to finish him off as the other two turned towards her. Perhaps out of anger or out of foolishness, they turned their backs on the fanged lizard and hobbled towards Orchid. Their movement was notably difficult for them as the bones still jutted from their feet, making it hard for them to take steps. Orchid stepped back, grabbing the hopefully blinded goblin’s gnarled stick while her own sharp stick was still on her back.

”Idiots. Just die already!” She taunted the goblins to come towards her, but she was intentionally keeping her distance, baiting them away from the fanged lizard so she could recover and come back to the fight. Once she did, Orchid would also attack by hurling her rock at whichever goblin wasn’t attacked by the lizard.

Ash rolled over onto her stomach, using a claw to grab her head. Urgh, that really hurt. Goblins were a lot stronger than they looked…or maybe she was just a lot weaker than she thought. They were pretty fast, too. Fast enough to react to her biting and paralyzing one, and then knocking her off the other before she had a chance to really sink her fangs in him.

Urgh, maybe this was a good idea to try out that other skill of hers. She had never used it before…she was a little afraid too. She didn't want to die again, but she'd need ever advantage she can get, even if it meant a little self-harm. She was no stranger to that, really…always shoving people away and focusing entirely on her work. This wasn't any different. If this worked as she had hoped, then this would be easy.

She closed her eyes, focusing for a moment as she shook the stars from her vision from the blunt weapon. When she opened them again, she felt so focused. Clearer. Like she could do anything. Aside from the throbbing pain in her side, she felt great. These Goblins likely wouldn't be much of a problem, then!

Hissing, the Lizard dashed forward with newfound strength from the skill. The goblin in the back that had been given a small dose of poison barely had time to react as the Lizard leaped from the ground, latching her claws into his lower leg, teeth tearing into his flesh as he was distracted by Orchid's taunt. Surprised by the attack, the goblin attempted to shake the Lizard off, but only succeeded in slowing himself down and getting another dosage of the paralyzing venom as Ash jumped off, firing several globs of poison at the goblins head once she had landed.

As the lizard attacked Orchid hurled her stone at the other goblin. To her surprise however he simply dodged it and charged, ignoring the pain in his leg to try and stab Orchid. She too went immediately on the defensive, panic quickly seizing her mind. Hunting rats was one thing; she was used to that. But fighting a goblin? She never even fought anyone when she was a human, not seriously anyways. The closest she’s ever been to fighting was watching action movies and they weren’t on her mind right now. She swung her stick around haphazardly hoping to keep him at bay, but the goblin seemed more experienced than she was. He was easily able to dodge her swings and soon was upon her before she could run, stabbing his stick right into her shoulder.

”Argh!” Orchid cried out in pain. Before she could try anything the goblin punched her right in the face, stunning her long enough for him to raise his stick and stab her again, though this one he only managed to cut her shoulder instead of stabbing into her flesh. He tried to stab her again in the face but Orchid grabbed his hand holding the stick, struggling against him. He tried to punch Orchid again, but she grabbed his other hand before he could strike her.

The goblin Ash had been fighting now had been completely neutralized by the acid. He fell to the ground, thrashing as Ash finished him off by tearing into his neck. This had gone well. Extremely well. Better than she could have hoped, but if this overwork skill worked like she assumed…well, she was already feeling the fatigue, but she was trying to ignore the pain. Just…the third one left.

Ash turned to Orchid who was fighting with the third one, wincing slightly as she was stabbed by the goblins sharp stick. She had to finish this fast, but she wasn't sure her stamina was going to keep up. Well, just one thing to try.

She rushed towards the Goblin, climbing up his legs to his back, using her claws to hang tightly to his flesh and hopefully causing some damage. In the next instant, she sank her fangs right into his neck, hopefully giving Orchid an opening to do something, deactivating the Overwork skill in the process. The paralytic should hopefully take effect quickly enough.

As the two goblins struggled against each other the lizard crawled up the back of one of the goblins and bit him in the back of the neck. He let out a guttural scream and for a moment was weakened. And in that moment of weakness Orchid also struck. ”Grrr! WAAAAARGH!” With both hands busy grappling the goblin Orchid raised her neck and also bit into the goblin’s neck, on the other side of the fanged lizard. But while she bit to poison, Orchid tire and gnashes at his neck and caused blood to spill all over her head and shoulders.

The goblin died quickly but not before Orchid tossed him aside, picking up a stone nearby and bashing his head in again, and again, and again. She kept smashing his face until his skull was nothing but blood and pulp. All the while Orchid had tear last streaming down her face, her breath heavy as her face was twisted in a furious yet horrified grimace.

Ash fell off the back of the Goblin, falling to the ground and weakly struggling to her feet. All she could do was watch as Orchid repeatedly beat the other goblins face repeatedly, too tired to say anything as she caught her breath, air tasting of blood filling her lungs. Still…

"Oof…" Ash limped over, her side hurting more than a little where she had been hit with that blunt stick. Maybe this would be good enough for another level up? Her body certainly felt like it deserved one, hah. "Hey, hey. He's dead." Ash grumbled, fatigue quickly setting in. "We're safe…for now." Couldn't be too comfortable. She needed to find somewhere to sleep for the night, and quickly.

Hmm…maybe…eating that rat restored her stamina a bit. It was a morbid thought, but…Ash tore into the goblins arm, tearing off flesh from his bone and quickly swallowing.

"Tastes terrible, but food is food." She mused hoping it'd restore her strength a bit. "Urgh, I don't think I can help you find anything else. That took all I had."

It took a few minutes but eventually Orchid calmed down. Her arm was sore and her shoulder felt even worse. The first thing she did was stand up, grab her sharpened stick, and stab the first goblin she attacked through the heart. Just to make sure. The. She looted their bodies. Unfortunately no food; it was mostly rocks and herbs. She rubbed the herbs around her wounds hoping that would help them heal. She took what little clothing they had, mostly loincloths. She took the cleanest looking one and made it into a makeshift bandage, pressing the herbs against her wound. She also used one as a bra to cover her chest, and finally used the last one as a bigger pouch to carry all the rocks and herbs.

There was also a few sticks too. One sharpen stick that still had her blood on it and two gnarled sticks she could use to beat things with. The gnarled sticks were bigger and thicker than the sharpens one too, making them a bit sturdier. Now all she had left was corpses. With a stony expression Orchid took out her sharp knife and began the grim but meticulous process of butchering and skinning the goblins. ”Take whatever meat you want. Just leave the organs to me. I might need them.”

Orchid took what she thought might be useful. Intestine and long hair for rope and strings, bones and teeth for weapons, stomachs and lungs to make into bags. Between the butchering, she also ate some of the goblin flesh, raw. She tried not to think too much about it. Orchid reeked of gore by the time she had finished butchering the goblins, not even leaving a corpse so much as piles of meat and bits of bones. The little green girl looked more red as she turned to the lizard, presenting her a sort of satchel made of a goblin’s lung, guts, and bones. It had small loops that could make it fit on a belt, or for the lizard, worn around the shoulders like a visceral backpack.

Ash simply watched Orchid's meticulous work, silently dining on parts of the goblins arms and legs. She had just eaten, but she wanted to keep her stamina up since that Overwork skill likely did a number on her body. The female Goblin certainly had some knowledge of what she was doing. Perhaps it was instinct? Well, she didn't care too much about that. Just the pain her entire body was feeling. What did she need, though? She didn't care too much about hearts or other organs…but there were things that she might be able to use in alchemy perhaps, if she had a way to preserve or immediately use them, but considering she didn't, then they were useless.

She was pleasantly surprised when Orchid offered her something, though.

"…a gift?" Ash implied quizzically, lizard head tilting slightly to the side. In her previously life, she hadn't ever received such things. Mildly confusing…but a welcome gesture, likely nothing more than an ally giving thanks. She could probably wear it around her front shoulders. It was small enough, and as long as she didn't pack it too heavily she could reasonably maneuver with it. "Hmm…I am unsure why you are giving me this gesture, but far be it from me to look a gift horse in the mouth." She mused.

"…Ahem, if I may make a suggestion…it is getting late and in my condition I'm not likely going to be able to fight anything else without rest. After killing these goblins, I don't think it'd be too much of a stretch to say that the big goblins are going to have questions for you. Perhaps it'd be best to find somewhere the both of us can rest for the night without being disturbed?"

Orchid nodded her head silently. Her body was exhausted, yet she wasn't tired. More like she was just… Emotionally drained. She certainly didn’t want to think about that big goblin and his cronies right now. Frankly, she’d be perfectly fine if she never saw a goblin again. Unlikely, but that would be nice. ”Agreed… Know anything safe? With some light? I still have some work to do.” Orchid had a large sack made of goblin flesh over her shoulder that she intended to make something out of. She already had an idea too. She just needed a safe place to work on it.

"Hmm, not for one of your size." Ash frowned, fumbling with the small satchel. This would take some getting used too. Lizard arms weren't great with the whole grabby and rotating things. A lizard could easily slip into small cracks and crevasses that a Goblin couldn’t easily get into. "Head to the opposite side of the cave of the Bonfire would be best. Should be able to use the Mana crystals as a light source…providing they aren't all gone."

Well, there was one place maybe. The place she had been staying at until now, if her fuzzy memory served. It was pretty far in the opposite direction of the Bonfire, and there had been a few crystals that she hadn't been too interested in until today. If they hadn't been used, then they could at least use it to recover for the night.

Motioning for Orchid to follow, Ash quietly led the Goblin away from the bonfire, cautiously avoiding any main paths and keeping her eyes, ears, and other lizard senses open for anything that could be amiss or be an indication of danger. She really didn't want to run into anything else nasty. Thankfully, they made it to the other side of the cave with relative peace.

The area wasn't exactly well hidden. Just a small hill within the cave surrounded by large rock formations and stalagmites with a few crystals growing higher in the ceiling and along the walls and just enough light to see. A few other fanged lizards scurried about, but they didn't seem too interested in them for various reasons.

As soon as she arrived, Ash nearly collapsed from exhaustion, breathing heavily and curling up against one of the walls. She'd mess with the menus and see if she could get any use out of the crystals tomorrow. For now, she just wanted to sleep.

Oh, and find Ryuu, Rain and the slimes…and that Pixie. Ardur? That sounded right…but for now, sleep. Unless Orchid woke her for whatever reason, the Lizard was out quickly.

There was light here at least. Orchid could work in peace. She stayed relatively close to the Ash, close enough to call for her if something happened. Once she settled down Orchid took a moment to close her eyes and rest. ”It’s all just a game… All just a game…” Orchid had to keep telling herself that to regain some semblance of sanity. She quickly put the violent scene with the goblins out of her mind, for her own good. She laid out the supplies before her. It was already starting to smell but she’d have to ignore it for now; it was time to work.

First Orchid took account of all the things she has. Four sticks, two sharpened and two gnarled. She had her sharp stone and two hard rocks. She also had her herbs, about five or six good leaves that she had collected over the past week. Then the bones. All those bones. She had given Ashe all the dire rat teeth and bones to make the trap. Then she had a bunch of teeth from the goblins. In fact, all their teeth; she had knocked their teeth out or shattered their skulls to collect their teeth and skull fragments into sharp bone blades. And of course she had collected their other bones, mostly from the ribs, but also their forearms and leg bones since they were the longest. She left the spine and smaller bones from the hands and feet since she didn’t really know what to do with those. And of course, guts. So many guts. She still had some of the rat intestines for string, plus the goblin intestines and their bigger organs like the stomach and lungs. She had also collected the liver and kidneys since she knew they had a lot of essential vitamins and nutrients, though she wasn’t too keen on eating raw goblins yet.

Cracking her knuckles Orchid felt a bit of pain in her shoulder where she had been stabbed. It hurts, but there was little she could do but let the herbs do their work. She wished she had a pot or something she could collect and boil water with but for now she’ll just have to deal with what she had on hand; a bunch of body parts and her wit. First she took one of the sticks she collected from the goblins, carefully examining each one. She needed a sturdy stick that could withstand a beating; the sharp sticks were good for stabbing but too narrow, too fragile. So she took the gnarled sticks which were mostly straight and could be used for what she needed. She looked at the various bits of teeth and bones she had, carefully arranging them around the gnarled club so she knew how she needed to carve the wood. Then she picked up her sharp stone and got to work.

First she needed a fire. She knew one way, honestly only because she saw it on the survival channel back in her human life. She had pulled it off successfully a few times but never easily, and certainly not under such stressful conditions as now. Frankly, Orchid wasn’t sure if what she had now would even suffice. But she’ll make it work. She grabbed the two sharp sticks and took her sharp stone, slowly and smoothly carving the sticks even further to gather tinder. When the two sharp sticks had become somewhat thinner but still solid, Orchid carved a small hole into the slightly bigger shaved stick, not completely through, but just enough to fit the smaller shaved stick. Gathering her tinder together Orchid then took her sharp stone and the remaining gnarled club and started splitting the branch to make kindling. She wished she had more sticks to make a bigger fire, but for now this would have to do.

Now came the hard part: creating a flame. ”Speed, not strength. Do it fast, be steady, be patient…” Orchid chanted to herself so she would remember and calm her nerves. Putting the smaller shaved stick into the notch of the bigger shaved stick, Orchid spun the stick in her hand rapidly, moving her hands down like she saw on the television. For the first few minutes, there didn’t seem to be much. Orchid’s hands were hurting and she was sore. But a few minutes more and she smelled smoke. ”Steady now.” She kept going until she could see a small ember form. Then she removed both her fire sticks and lightly blew on the embers to get it to spread. When it glowed a healthy orange, she tossed some tinder onto it and blew again, spreading the heat to the tinder and creating more smoke. ”Yes!”

Moving the fire away from Orchid she stacked some kindling onto it and soon it would catch flame. She had a small fire going now. It wasn’t much, but it was warm. It made Orchid happy, happier than seeing that bonfire. This was her fire. Letting herself warm up by the flame she looked back to her gnarled stick and the bones arranged around it. She still had some work to do. So picking up the sharpstone again, she took one of the hard stones and sharpened it some more. It was getting dull after repeated use.

Orchid carefully carved out about sixteen notches up the side of the gnarled club, aftering using her sharp stone to shave it down into a more straight form and tossing the shavings into the fire. This process was most meticulous since Orchid didn’t want to make the holes too big, nor split the gnarled stick. If she did than it would be all over. But thanks to her patience she was able to carve our sixteen holes on the side, just slightly smaller than the teeth she intends to put in them. But before she did, she also cut a small notch at the top and bottom of the stick. She had ideas for those. Once she had all the notches she needed Orchid placed the stick on top of her fire to dry and harden. She watched it carefully, using one of the long goblin bones to move it around.

As her stick was hardening Orchid began to carve two of the goblin bones, one which was a large skull fragment and another which was a femur. First she took the sharp stone and shaped the skull fragment into a four-pointed star shape, though one point on the star was longer with the opposite side very short, and the whole thing wasn’t very strait. But that was fine. When it looked right she put it aside to work on the femur. Using one hard rock for leverage and the other hard rock as a hammer, she smashed the tip off the femur to give it a sharp point. Then she began to sharpen the bone with the hard rock until it had an edge. Orchid kept doing this until she had a blade made of bone.

After that she checked on her stick. Because her fire was pretty small she figured it would take longer for it to really harden, and by now her flame was dying. She didn’t want to lose her gnarled stick to the fire so she took it out, letting it sit to cool down. Despite being near the fire it wasn’t brittle but harden; it looked like Orchid took it out at a good time. ”Good. Good… Time to put it all together.” Orchid went to retrieve the goblin guts, stretching them around and even wrapping it around her arm until they were taut and relatively dry. They were still sticky with fat and blood, so Orchid washed them in a nearby pond, but otherwise they were still flexible.

Orchid began to fit the various bits of goblin teeth and skull shards up the side of the stick. The fire hardening made the initial notches slightly bigger, big enough for the teeth to fit snuggly. Those that didn’t Orchid simply shifted around or used a smaller bit of bone for. Soon she had sixteen assorted bones and teeth lining both edges of her stick, with two big goblin teeth near the handle to serve as a makeshift hilt. She then took the goblin guts to wrap around the wood and tighten it, ensuring that the teeth don’t fall out so easily. She tighten it as much as she could, checking the teeth so that they only wiggled a little. Then she moved onto the tip of her blade where she inserted the goblin femur blade, sliding it into the notch and using the rat gut to tighten the wood. The rat gut was much thinner, but Orchid had less wood that needed binding, so she used all of it to make sure the wood clamped tightly around the bone blade. If she had the tools she’d bolt it in too, but she did not. Lastly was the hilt. She fitted the four pointed skull shard into the hilt to give the weapon some counter weight, then used the remaining goblin gut to not only bind the skull shard to the wood, but also wrap the handle and tighten the hilt.

Orchid didn’t know how long it took her to make it. Frankly she wasn’t even sure if it would work well. It smelled something awful. But she made it. It was her beautiful mess. It was a sword. The teeth wasn’t meant to cut flesh so much as it was meant to help Orchid saw through things like wood, should she manage to come across a large enough tree or root in this cave system. The pommel was sharpened and slightly curved so she could use it for precision cutting, such as wood carving or skinning. The real business end of her weapon was the sharpen bone blade at the tip, meant to slice and dice whatever monster or beast she needs to kill. While it looked like a sword, she was going to handle it more akin as a spear, with a lot of thrusting motions and the occasional slice. Also, it’ll look intimidating.

Orchid admired her blade, taking it to the pond to wash before drying it over her now dying flame. She sighed and moved closer to the fanged lizard she had befriended, hiding her sword behind her as she curled up next to the lizard. It had been a very tiring day and she’d like nothing more than to rest.

@Zeroth @SilverPaw @Searat @Jobst @Bishop
If he hadn't been half expecting it already due to their talking the confirmation that one of the rats was from Earth as well would have been a shock to Danny. Of course he knew that the Demon king had summoned others, but he never though that he would run into at least one of them so soon. Thinking back to the talking slime from earlier he wondered if that was also a former human, but decided that would be too big a coincidence.

Danny wondered about the rat's question he had no intention of fighting, but to be declaring them friends was a bit too soon. With that in mind he felt there was only one answer. "Ally for now, maybe friends later" Deciding to show he was serious and willing to trust them he slowly lowered himself to the point that the rats could reach him if they wanted too while also making sure not to show any aggression.