He's not sure what good hitting it gently will do, but the chance to do some magic is tempting. "I can certainly try."
Vrelenor swiftly swings his staff around to point at the chest while manipulating mana with the strange new sense (or is it more like a limb? It's more active than any sense.) his skill gave him, a fist sized lump of ice forms in under a second and shoots towards the chest, he manages to hold back enough that it's no faster than if he'd simply thrown a rock.

@Crusader Lord @Expendable @Crimson Paladin @PKMNB0Y

Seeing the size and armament difference--couldn't she have at least come through to this world as an adult?--there really was little Hikari could do except stand back and watch the fighting unfold. Not that this was entirely a bad thing; it was clear that the armoured knight knew what he was doing, which was pretty impressive given that he had been some random passenger on a plane until this afternoon.

The other fox, however... Hikari suppressed a wince at the flailing. Okay, yes, cutting things with a sword wasn't hard, that was their entire point. But there was a reason combat was more than people waving pointy objects vaguely in each other's direction, and this was an affront to the entire history of kenjutsu. There would at least be time to drill proper swordsmanship into his head after this, hopefully. Or at least "this is the basics of it all".

But with no enemy yet sneaking past to test her ability to surreptitiously knife them, Hikari had time to survey the other fighters. The bandits... looked like ruffians. No surprise there. It was interesting to see that some of the other fighters were wearing maid outfits despite the combat, however. Was this a normal thing, here? Battle maids? What a strange world they were in.

Colleen
Forest Shrine
@Pyromania99@Rin

---

If either Rita or Anya cared to look at the snake haired lady, she was clutching the sides of her head, squatting on the ground.

"My hair, oogh, my beautiful hair...why god...why take it from me...I was a good girl..." The serpents on her head were still comforting the woman, one still patting her forehead as the others started to look in the direction that something rather concerning was coming from. She still didn't move herself though as her mental state continued to spiral as she was now mumbling about fashion, clothing, styling her serpents.

It was not the Caw of the crow that would first bring Colleen out of her stupor.

No, it was her own hair grabbing onto her cheeks with a gentle nibble and pulling her head in the direction of the scraping sound.

"Eh?" Come to think of it, the place was oddly quiet, too. That was never a good sign, was it. Usually a quiet forest meant there was some predator or something nearby that everything was hiding from. A sort of calm before the storm, wasn't it? Coming to her senses, Colleen frowned. Something wasn't right here. She'd stand up, stretching her legs as she'd move over to the short green woman.

"Rita, huh? Colleen. Remember it when I'm saving that green butt of yours." What could be making such loud footsteps. An elephant or something? It sounded excessively large and weighty. She wasn't sure what to expect, but she might as well see what it is before she made any decisions...

Amidst all of the uncertainty about what had happened and how to proceed, the decision to launch a ball of ice at the lone chest would prove rather fruitless. Not because the ice had missed—no, it had certainly landed on the chest and bounced off with a 'thunk' indicative of blunt force meeting wood—but because nothing came of it.

It seemed that the group would need to take it upon themselves to examine the situation rather than carefully prod at things in hopes that they would react in turn.

@Crusader Lord@Thunder999999@Crimson Paladin@Expendable

"Well I tried, one of you armoured guys gets to go poke it now."

@Crusader Lord @Expendable @Crimson Paladin

---

Sora was speaking to the little elf as if she were a child—which to be fair, she might well have been. It would be the only thing that made any semblance of sense in this place. He wasn't a–

"Firstly---Do I seriously look like a child to you?!"

Yes. Sylva wanted to say. Wisely, though, he kept his mouth shut on the matter. It wouldn't be the best idea to aggravate the mid–uh, vertically challenged girl any further. Judging by her strong reaction, this was all very new to her, in more ways than one. He probably would have reacted in a similar fashion if he'd ended up looking like a completely different person after waking up from dying. Now that the thought crossed his mind, he realised he had never actually gotten to take a look at his face yet. Everything felt normal as far as he could tell, except for the obvious abnormalities, but he couldn't be sure of anything yet. He needed to find a mirror or something.

Anyway.... if it wasn't clear before, it was now. Everyone here had been on the plane when it went down. That was one question answered for now, at least. Now, all he had to do was find the answers for the other hundred or so he had in mind. Most people would find such a task daunting, if not impossible, but Sylva only saw it as a challenge. And he never backed down from a challenge, no matter how difficult it seemed. Every puzzle had a solution. All it needed was a little observation and a lot of patience.

While Sylva was lost in his thoughts once again, Sora had walked off to the room he originally came from for some reason. Soon after that, Sylva heard a loud crash that seemed to come from outside. Did he just throw something out of a window? Why would he do that, though?

His unasked questions were quickly answered when he heard the shambling creatures outside moving towards the sound of glass breaking. Ah, so they were attracted to loud sounds. Good to know. That also explained why they were trying to break into the inn so badly in the first place, what with the shouting from before. Moving carefully and quietly would be the way to go here. They had no way of knowing how many of those things were out there, and he didn't have much confidence in the building lasting forever.

The little elf girl was the next to leave, though only for a short moment before coming back with a large, black staff taller than she was. He didn't understand the point of that. Why use a weapon that was bigger than you were? With her size, a weapon of that length would be more of a hindrance than anything else. Then again, her clothing suggested that wasn't quite what it was supposed to be used for.

That reminded him....

"I'll go make sure things are secure then. Guess you're on babysitting duty!" Bianca flashed Sylva a grin and thumbs-up, before heading down to assess things. Sora had already gone ahead to check things out, allowing them to cover more ground quickly. She focused mainly on the doors and windows, making sure they were secure. Or at least weren't about to collapse from the pressure of so many undead creatures vying for entry.

Sylva blinked, ".... Babysitting?"

Well, it wouldn't be the first time he'd been left with a task no one else wanted to do. Still, that term was a bit....

He didn't get to finish his thought before Sora shouted something about Molotovs. Well, so much for staying quiet. The red-haired elf reappeared in the hall some seconds later, asking if any of them knew how to start a fire. That was easy enough as long as he had the materials for it, which given they were in a wooden building, was pretty likely.

"I can, but...." There was still a nagging feeling in the back of Sylva's head, and until he got rid of whatever was bothering him, it wouldn't go away. It was a new feeling, but he'd been putting it off for a while now. It was time to rectify that.

"There's something I need to check first," Sylva's voice was hesitant, but not because he was unsure. It was something a bit more complex than that. Something he should have addressed some time ago.

"Status."

Sylva wasn't 100% certain that it would work, but something about the situation made him want to try it regardless. And yet, there it was, staring him right in the face, blue glow and all. It didn't seem to fit in one bit compared to everything else around him. Everything about it was unnatural, in a way he couldn't quite describe. His eyes swept over every part of the "screen", taking in the descriptions and the–his gaze paused briefly on the race section. Dragonborn? Well, that certainly explained a lot of things. He also took a glance at his stats—they weren't anything too special, considering he was just level one—but none of that stood out to him as much as the final skill section did.

Rune Magic? Was that.... what he thought it was?

Would this even work? All logical indications pointed towards the fact that he was going crazy. And yet, there was a thrill in his body that he'd never felt before. Logic was useful in its own way, but sometimes you just had to take a leap of faith. With that simple thought in mind, Sylva brought his arm up to his chest and closed his eyes, concentrating. He breathed a soft sigh and let his eyes open once more, all his hesitation gone. Letting his newfound instincts guide him, his fingers traced a symbol in mid-air. Unbidden, the name left his lips.

"Ignis."

A modest flame appeared above his hand, flickering slightly, and Sylva smirked.

Groovy.

@VitaVitaAR @RolePlayerRoxas @SilverPaw @PKMNB0Y

“He’s the cautious sort. I wouldn’t expect him to get himself into trouble, so long as trouble doesn't find him.”

Though he didn’t really know C either, outside of immediate impressions and the fact that the youth remained inside that rickety old shelter with the slime. More notifications for messages were popping up in the corner of his vision, but the elf did not attend to them yet, only turning slightly to cast a gaze through the shoddy woodwork of the shack towards the others. The cat-eared girl spoke of hunting monsters, and one of them was stuck in a body that could be considered monstrous. The other, of course, was waiting for nightfall before advancing outwards, and they were all capable of communicating through some form of holographic display, so at this point…

“If you’re stuck in this area, I’ll join you. Need to get my bearings of this place either way.”

And with that, he strode in sync with the patrolling swordswoman, avoiding puddles of stagnant water and piss that were too deep to risk with the sandals on his feet. Now that the elf was moving properly, his clothes really did feel mismatched with his environment. The fabric was richer than what he was accustomed to, silken against his skin, while he honestly couldn’t comprehend how it was wrapped around his body. It reminded of a Grecian or Roman robe, the extra cloth thrown over a shoulder, and its coloration was a white that sparked like quartz in daylight.

“I’ve heard of an organization called an ‘Adventurer’s Guild’ before. Would you be one of them then? The type to hunt…slimes and such, when you’re not keeping the peace?”

Though mildly intrigued by the elf's decision to follow after her, the catgirl chose to shrug her shoulders and simply acquiesce to his decision to follow after her. So long as he didn't attempt to actively impede her if something came up, what he chose to do wasn't really any problem of hers.

"Advanturer's Guild? Yeah, I'm a member... Though if you're asking a question like that, you must have been in one heck of a gated community before," she responded, casually glancing over her shoulder as she made sure that the elf was listening. "Slimes are a bit of a non-issue, though; the worst they usually do is bounce around and eat corpses of the dead. Annoying at times, but that's just nature."

At that, though, the catgirl slowed down before finally turning back and giving the person following her another once-over.

"...Well, if that's your question, then how about I ask one of my own? Your clothing looks way too clean for someone who should be living here. I know I said everyone's got their own troubles back there, but you don't strike me as someone who's had any, so..."

The young woman leaned in closer, staring straight into the elf's eyes with an unflinching gaze.

"What's your story? I'm all ears."

While Cassius was being questioned, Connor would find that there were indeed insects—roaches, mainly—crawling beneath the boards of the shack. Killing one of the dozens that would soon begin to scuttle away wouldn't be an issue, but not even a single point of experience would be granted to him in doing so.

@ERode@Zeroth@TheMushroomLord

“Because I don’t live here.”

The answer was direct, without hesitation. Trust was built upon the impression of being straightforward, without any attempt at bullshit or deflection, after all. He matched her gaze, holding it briefly as he recalled everything that C had mentioned they ought to figure out. The Adventurer’s Guild existed, and with a positive enough impression, he’d be able to get a reference from someone who was associated with them.

“I’ll tell you more if you tell me about this place and yourself. The other one in the shack was worried about demonic kings and wars.”

If she agreed, of course, the elf would begin speaking himself, his gaze turning towards their surroundings once more as he followed her patrol route through the winding corridors made by the shantytown’s residents.

“Where I came from, everyone is of one race and you spend perhaps a quarter of your life in schooling before you’re expected to obtain a profession, where you would spend the remaining three-quarters of life contributing to society and the betterment of your family through work. If you’re lucky, you’d have opportunities to travel and relax, but for most, they need to work hard just to pay for food and rent.” Unless one was fortunate enough to be born with wealth, connections, or talent. Or lucky enough to have risked it all on an investment that paid off. But even that could be lost with a surprise medical bill, a downturn in the economy, pandemics and technological advances blasting apart preconceptions like a double-gauge shotgun. “So, for many, the space between the end of the first quarter and the start of the three quarters is where they find an opportunity to enjoy their lives while they are young and fresh.”

That wasn’t his own experience. He didn’t have the space for such a whimsical adventure, even if he had booked that flight and flown on that plane. He lifted his gaze towards the sky, one so desperately blue, one so uncaring for the desolation of those beneath it. Was Heaven real in this world? Was Heaven just another person’s Earth?

“That’s what I did, but instead of enjoying anything, something I don’t quite understand happened to me, and when I woke up, I found myself in that shack with the other guy.” The elf turned back to his companion. “The distance between where I am and where I was is uncrossable, so now, I suppose, I’ll have to find work.”

His palm turned towards her.

“And a knowledgeable guide would work wonders there. Especially if she’d work for free.”

He did not smile.

---

I don't really know how to respond to my face being described as kind of like an adult's.

What does that mean, really? If you look close enough you can barely figure it out?

It's not exactly reassuring is what I'm saying.

The fact that the other girl describes staying with me as 'babysitting' earns her a sharp glare. Urk, I'll find a way to pay her back for that. I might not even know her name yet, but I'm definitely not going to forget that little joke until then.

Glancing at the windows again, I sigh.

There's no point in dawdling anymore. It's clear that something unpleasant is going on here, beyond just the undead outside. Seriously, what's with that scratching down below?

The disturbing possibility of it being the age-old nemesis of any seasoned veteran of a certain game series, the undead dog, fills my mind for a moment before I dismiss it.

Not that it might not be an undead dog, but rather because I don't want to think of this in terms of a game. Sure, plenty of isekai protagonists treat it like that, but I can already feel the air on my skin. I have a full sense of my body, as awkward as that is given my new form.

To put it simply, this isn't a game. Treating it like one is something only an idiot would do.

We've been dumped into a ruin surrounded by undead, so I can't exactly say this feels like the lighthearted game universe isekai that suits that kind of behavior. And even then, when written by better authors, those are the ones that hit the protagonists in the face with the reality of their new world eventually.

That's right, you'd have to be an idiot to treat this like---

I stare blankly at the dragonman for a moment.

Status? Why would you even expect that to work? Why---

Hold it.

"... Status."

It's still hard to get used to my own voice as it is now. Seriously, it's exactly like I imagined Sephily talking.

But it's going to be even more difficult to get used to the screen that just materialized in front of my face.

"Seriously!? This is one of those kinds of settings?!"

No way, that can't be it, right? Is this something only the reborn people can do? It'd have to be, right? This definitely isn't the sort of start a lighthearted game isekai would take.

Right?!

Right?!

It's all there, including my race(High Elf) and my stats(1s in everything but dex and magic). I even have a level.

I'm only level 1, but still.

What kind of tone is this world anyway?!

I inhale deeply. No, I can't think of it like that. There's no inherent 'tone' to another world.

Even if it sure feels like a bit of a cruel comedy right now.

---What's this?

Star Mirror?

It's a skill. A skill with a description explaining a certain sort of magic that uses the stars.

...

I probably shouldn't be excited in this situation, but I was only making a guess when I picked up the staff, thinking I was going to be a mage.

But this seems like it confirms it?!

Despite everything, I actually have magic!? That'd be a silver lining, no doubt!

Only---

How do I even use it?

Is there incantations? Do I need some sort of ritual?

Urggh, of course there's no instruction manual. There's a status screen but no tutorial.

If this is a game world, it's starting to feel a bit more like that certain series. Surrounded by undead with no instructions in some ruined hellhole?

Familiar in a concerning way.

"Start a fire?"

The other elf is back, this time asking about fire. The dragonman's managed to conjure up some flames, too.

What, did he get a tutorial and I didn't? Is this some kind of joke?!

Trying not to show any envy that he figured it out that fast, I take a deep breath.

"Well, it looks like we don't need to know the conventional way," I begin, "But if you're talking about fighting the undead with fire, you can't just light them up and that's that."

Just lighting a corpse on fire isn't the end of things, after all.

"First, if they're not dried out it's going to take a while to burn them until they can't move," I continue, "Which means now you've got an attacker that's trying to kill you while also being on fire. Congratulations, you've just made your situation worse."

I wave my hand, to illustrate the leaping flames that would presumably be coating the undead's body.

"Plus, some of the undead outside clearly have armor, which is going to be a problem. Unless you can make fire hot enough to cook them inside, in which case you can probably burn the unarmored ones fast enough to kill them outright."

Or, well, whatever you want to call permanently disabling a shambling corpse.

"What I'm saying is you can't just say fire's going to solve the issue, okay? If they don't feel pain, all you're doing is making a bigger problem for yourself and everyone else."

Not that fire is the worst idea, but I don't want anyone here thinking it's a perfect solution to our problem.

Our problem being the literal zombies outside.

"That girl with the hammer has a good weapon for taking them on, at least," I add with a sigh, "And we'll need it because there's no way staying here for too long is a good idea."

That dragon guy was able to summon fire just by saying a word, so it has to be incantations, right?

But what do I say to cast a spell?

If I could figure that out, then---

I let out another sigh.

Speaking of my skill, though---

"Oh, right, try saying 'status'. It's ridiculous, but it works, it brings up a screen. There's stats and everything."

No reason not to let anyone else know. In fact, I should let that other girl know. And show her I'm not just being babysat.

"I'm going to let her know, too."

I'll just head after her.

@PKMNB0Y@Aku the Samurai@SilverPaw@RolePlayerRoxas

@VitaVitaAR@SilverPaw@Aku the Samurai

Yep, this place had seen better days, no doubt. The utter state this place had been left in no doubt told a desperate, harrowing tale of what had occurred. Bianca really couldn't imagine what must have transpired in this place, though she could certainly wonder why the four of them woke up in this place. This whole 'other world' thing was a completely alien concept to her, were you supposed to jump smack-dab int he middle of your nedt life's crisis situation? Why even go to another world to begin with, then?!

Traversing the dusty, disrepaired building cautiously, hammer gripped tightly in both hands, Bianca tried to tune out the shuffling and banging from outside. It didn't seem like there were any threats within the building, but she swore there horror movies that would trick the protagonist with stealthy, murderous creatures that would strike at the worst times... she pivoted quickly to fend off an attacker, and proceeded to feel quite silly that there was nothing trying to attack her from behind. Laughing at her paranoia, Bianca jumped at Sora's sudden exclamation from nearby, finding herself blushing slightly once she recognised the voice. What was it, molotovs? She curiously approached the kitchen, passing the elf as he returned to the others.

Curious, Bianca entered the dusty kitchen, briefly covering her mouth to protect from the disturbed dust. It looked like he'd just gathered some items together, candles and the like? Come to think of it... yup, checking the ceiling made it clear there wasn't any electrical lighting. That was going to suck in however many hours of daylight the had left, it was a good thing Sora found some stuff to give light! The rest of the kitchen... could definitely do with a little cleaning, especially if they were going to be holed up for a while. Though a quick check of the stock that remained didn't inspire much hope, given how much of it was spoiled. Sighing, Bianca was about to return to the group as well, but paused. That faint scratching noise felt way too close, nothing like the noises from outside. Where was that even...

"Ah!" Bianca stepped back once her eyes drifted to the floor. That was a door in the ground! A cellar?! And it... sounded like someone was in there. Briefly, Bianca wondered if it was a survivor trying to get out, but... that would be wishful thinking, wouldn't it? As if it would be that convenient. Probably best to ignore it.

...Then again, that noise was kind of disturbing, and she'd hate to have to listen to it if they were going to prepare meals in the future...

Bianca gripped the heavy weapon tightly. In her arms, it wasn't all that difficult to hold, even with one hand, but a weapon like this would be great for self-defence, right? Not to mention, in the worst-case scenario, she held the high ground! One, maybe even two zombies, couldn't be that much of an issue in this situation.

And hey, if it was a survivor that locked themselves in, she was just doing a good deed! There was basically no downsides to taking a quick peek!

With that, Bianca placed her hammer on the floor at her side, kneeling down to place her hands on the latch. Hopefully, she was on the opposite side of the stairwell from here. There was a slight moment of hesitation, though rather than nervousness and fear stalling her, Bianca felt... excited? Was she anticipating a fight or something? Well, whatever the reason, she was looking forward to what lay behind the cellar doors. She removed the lock.

---

The carriage's attackers hadn't been prepared to be attacked themselves.

While they'd managed to put together a hasty defense of their own, it was clear that they were taken aback by the pressure that was suddenly being placed upon them.

With the green-cloaked men who had gone to meet the new arrivals dead or fatally injured, injured, the carriage's attackers could no longer afford to focus solely on breaching its defense.

"Shit!" snapped one of the green-cloaked figures, "Who are these people!? Hurry up and---"

He was cut off with a strangled cry as the Zweihander-wielding maid rushed him during his momentary lapse of focused, bringing her blade down so swiftly between his neck and shoulder that she nearly split him in half diagonally across his torso.

As she tore her weapon free from his body, she twisted her frame and brought the blade across another attacker in mid-swing, hacking his right arm from his body and sending him screaming to the ground.

Despite her frame, it was clear that a considerable amount of power was behind each swing. No wonder she had remained standing as the carriage defenders had been worn down.

A swift downward stab ended the green-cloaked figure whose arm she had just severed.

While they were still outnumbered, it was clear the sudden appearance of unexpected assistance had shaken the green-cloaks resolve.

"Grrr... retreat!"

Indeed, now that the tide was turning, it seemed they no longer fancied their chances, turning and vanishing back into the tall grass as swiftly as they could manage.

"... Thank goodness..." the petite maid with a sword and shield said, before slumping against the side of the carriage with a sigh.

"Linie!"

The taller maid rushed to her side, swiftly kneeling and placing a hand on her shoulder.

"I'm okay, Shiela... don't worry..." she half-murmured.

It was hard to tell just how bad the shield maid's injury was, but it was certainly deep enough to tear through the leather padding on her waist.

"M-Mistress, you don't know that it's safe---!"

There was a voice from within the carriage. Moments later, the door opened.

From within emerged a blonde girl of around seventeen years old in fine clothing, a grim expression on her face.

"How dare they assault a carriage belonging to my family," she narrowed her eyes, though she was clearly avoiding looking directly at the carnage, "I-I'll have these bandits exterminated for this."

Though her tone was sharp, the hitch in her voice as she surveyed the violence around the carriage revealed a considerable amount of her true feelings.

"Mistress, Linie is hurt," the zweihander maid, Shiela, said as she remained close to the smaller girl, "And some of the others... they're..."

She trailed off.

"... I see," the young woman said, averting her eyes after a moment, "... I'll make sure they pay for that, on my honor as Duke Darnell's daughter."

After a moment's pause, she spoke again.

"How bad are Linie's injuries?"

Sheila hesitated for a moment.

"I-I'm not sure, I---"

"I-I'm fine, Mistress," chimed in the smaller maid, "S-so, you don't need to wo-"

"That's nonsense and you know it, don't behave so foolishly," asserted the young woman, "Do you wish to reflect badly upon me? Hmph. Rest until you can be administered first aid at the very least."

With that, her gaze briefly left the maids to fall upon the newcomers, the armored man and the two kitsune.

"... I take it you assisted in driving off those rotten boors?" she asked, cocking her head.

@Raineh Daze@PKMNB0Y@Sir Lurksalot

The lock to the cellar—which, of course, had been secured from the outside—unlatched without much effort. Protected from the elements as it was, the door's hinges were left fully mobile (if not a little squeaky from the lack of lubricant for the hinges). Slowly, the wooden door creaked open as the intrepid explorer pried it open, and the light from inside the inn only barely filtered inside.

In so doing, however, the source of the scratching noise would be made promptly clear. A zombie, it's body dusty and dried out, began to shamble towards Bianca with what appeared to be a knife in hand.

The fact that the zombies were capable of complex motor functions like climbing stairs and wielding weapons would be a concern in it's own right, but luckily the undead still seemed to be rather slow in it's approach. As to how to deal with it...

Well, there were a dozen ways to solve that issue.

@VitaVitaAR@RolePlayerRoxas@Aku the Samurai@SilverPaw

---

Given that she had been expecting some sort of meandering or dodging of her question, the catgirl was left rather surprised at the elf's rather succinct response to her question. The slightest bit of shock crossed her face as she took a step back, but that emotion was quickly suppressed as she seemed to lose herself in her thoughts for a moment.

"...Well, I can't say that I'm not at least intrigued now. Fine, I'll play along," she finally replied, a slightly cheeky smile on her face as she continued. "This is the city of Neir, one of the bigger cities in this country of Cethaim. It's ruled by a bunch of nobles with King Selm at the top, and that's honestly all I've ever cared to learn about. As for that other stuff... Well, I haven't heard of any talk of war, else I'd have probably skipped town by now."

With her own side of the deal settled, the catgirl listened in quiet contemplation before nodding ever so slightly.

"Mmm... Your story's a bit farfetched, but I guess if it was some teleportation spell gone wrong at play..." she mumbled to herself before shaking her head. "No, no, too many possibilities. But if you say you've come from a 'place of schooling', I don't think it'd be hard to find a job inside. Honestly, it'd probably do you better than any of the manual labor the people living here usually opt to do."

After crossing her arms and nodding her head, the catgirl looked towards the elf's extended hand, then back towards his face.

"I don't usually work for free, though, but I am fine with handing out a few favors here and there," she said, finally choosing to shake his hand with mild conviction. "If you don't mind a small bit of testing to see if you're as smart as you claim, I could probably help you out here. Don't know if I can say the same for your friend back there, though..."

The catgirl seemed to pause for a moment after finishing her own statements before realizing that she had forgotten something important along the way: introductions.

Oops.

"...And before I forget: my name's Meira. I'll be able to get things started after I'm done patrolling the area for the day, but at the very least I'm going to need a name from you to work with, no?"

@ERode@Zeroth@TheMushroomLord

---

---

"Holy shit..." Duncan muttered under his breath, watching the armoured maid go to town with her great sword. Honestly a little surprised at the raw power she was apparently hiding in that modest frame of hers, but still rather grateful that between the force of her offensive and his own (by his standards, anyway) haphazard flailing, their emerald-caped attackers had apparently decided to cut their losses and run.

A gratitude only vocalized by a loud exhale as the old man visibly relaxed, stabbing his sword into the ground and waving Steve and Hikari over before undoing the straps on his shield starting in on those of his helmet. Taking the opportunity now that the immediate danger had passed to not only address that little cut above his brow but... well, he had crunched at least three skulls in that little melee there.

...And truth be told, the sensation (and smell!) of what he suspected were teeth, chunks of bone and bits of brain sliding down his face was more than a little unpleasant, now that he had the time to think about it.

So, taking a knee, the old man let his shield down before finally pulling off his helmet. Tearing off the cleanest piece of green cloak he could find on a nearby corpse to wipe all the gunk off his face. Slowing to a pause halfway through as something he felt through the cloth and the leather of his gauntlets' palms began to click in his head.

This... was his face— same scars, same shape, same teeth in his mouth— but not the one he had when he was on that plane; with it's many valleys, wear-lines and wrinkles.

An almost comical expression came to him as he began to put it together.

'Am I...?'

"How dare they assault a carriage belonging to my family, I-I'll have these bandits exterminated for this."

The arrival of a new and haughty to the scene caught his attention and ended that train of thought almost as quickly as it began, the man's head snapping up and catching sight of the very obvious noblewoman as she stepped out of her ornate carriage. Which both made sense, the maids and their soldiers had to have been guarding something so fanatically and presented a bit of a problem; Duncan didn't exactly have a lot of experience dealing with any aristocracy. And the ones he had met in passing once or twice over the course of his long life, well...

Ol' Queen Lizzie couldn't legally have his head lopped off on a whim. This girl? Ehhh... that wasn't so certain.

So he quickly finished wiping off his face, discarded the rag and maintained his position down on one knee. Bracing his right hand on the hilt of his sword, still stabbed into the ground, and bowing his head slightly in (what he vaguely recalled as) a gesture of respect as she addressed them and— being the closest to her at the time— responded.

"It is as you say, My Lady." He said, pulling hard on the memory of novels he read as a boy and all those D&D sessions he ran for his son and his friends when they were young. "The three of us were traveling the road before stumbling into the tail-end of that ambush. Where those men drew little distinction between our party and yours and... well, things played out the way they did."

He supposed he could have claimed that they had charged in there like big damned heroes looking to save the day, but being up-front and honest would probably serve them better in the long run.

"I am called Duncan MacTyr," He continued, before indicating towards the pair of kitsunes. "And these are my companions; Hikari Abe and Steven Yu."

@PKMNB0Y@VitaVitaAR@Raineh Daze

Well, it at least seemed that the poor armored man was aware of the terms a certain 'mage' was using. Then again the mage guy was trying to explain things....not that she felt it was the best way to go about it for people waking up IN ANOTHER WORLD nessecarily. But what was the perfect approach then? Eh. She could've done better too, she supposed, though personally it felt gamelike enough that she didn't feel too much panic or anxiety about it all for the time being. Not much at least. So perhaps an apology was in order then.

Nyana did, however, refuse to acknowledge the gibberish that kinda sounded like Spanish of some kind? She didn't speak it, but she'd heard others speak it often enough to get the gist of it being that sort of thing perhaps.

"Sorry for the fussing then, but...yeah, this isn't pretty normal or anything. Not sure if everyone on that plane would be familiar with this sort of thing or genre at that."

"I agree with the knight, through, we should find our way out of here. We'd better be very careful, though."

This guy had a head on his shoulders, even if she didn't know his name as of yet. Still was a small comfort to know someone else was wanting to see if they could get out of where they were and to actual sunlight though. Albeit they'd need to be careful, yes, depending on what lived in here. If it was a giant sleeping dragon, though, she was not going to be around for one of them to accidentally wake it up! That sort of stupid aggro-pulling was not her forte, and it didn't seem they had a healer on their hands either for that matter. Yup. A bunch of potential DPS and Tanks....totally the best comp for a spooky cave dungeon.

Nyana would gently run a hand along some of the wall moss as they walked along, trying not to damage it but also to listen to how it brushed against her gloved and armored hands. It was a beautiful litte glow it seemed to have, at least once that meadow was gone, but overall was still just as strange as it could be to her she supposd. It shouted 'unnatural', and yet for all she knew something like this was back on Earth. Hmm. Pushing such things toward the back of her mind as they moved along, however, Nyana took pause and stopped as they entered the new section of the cave. Her shadowed and hidden face, then, swiveled about to look at the details of it carefully before anything else as MMO and game knowledge seemed to kick in somewhat for her.

The other branching path would eventually lead to a small alcove—one that appeared to be rather empty at a glance. The main path from which the two diverged, however, seemed to open up into a more spacious area. This new section of the cave seemed a fair deal more barren, but a quick glance around would little more than the presence of a simple wooden chest and a few odd indentations along the stone wall.

Odd indentations, a wooden chest with a fantasy-esque chest lock on it, and all of that barren space between them and the chest itself. She could already hear the meme describing the whole situation inside of her head at that. It's a trap! Because duh, it looked like a trap to her at the very least. Not that everyoone in the world might notice such, but ah....eh, it was what it was she supposed.

"'Come into my parlor, said the spider to the fly.'"

"Unless someone knows how to make a light, I suggest we try gathering some of that moss in the last cave and bring it in here to see if we can find any tripwires. Or don't they have traps in isekais?"

Well, Jase the Cold Water Thrower was aware of what this room looked like as well. Good. The more they were all aware of this, the better they could get past it perhaps. Beause this was nothing but a trap. A trappity trap trap tra-

"Yeah, this is screaming trap, probably something nasty in those indentations just waiting for us to get closer, either that or something triggered by the opening the chest. My new eyes seem to be seeing pretty well in this light and I don't see anything, but the triggers could easily be inside the chest itself, or even some magical sensor. Our best bet is probably to have whoever's toughest walk carefully inside while the rest of us watch their back, if that doesn't trigger anything we can take a closer look at the chest. Before we try anything though, what are we working with if something does ambush us? My skill is Ice Magic, sounds like it could get interesting eventually, but for now it's basically just shooting sharp icicles and jets of frost which could slow something down."

Holy mother of dialogue. Did this guy know how to-....never mind. Never mind. Look, it was good he was seming to think of ways to try to help, but at the same time he could have not just blurted it all out. But even so, the idea of the 'tankiest one walks in and we see what happens' felt like not the best of ideas. It was obvious, yes, but that was what the makers of the trap wanted, yes? For someone to just walk into it? They needed a better plan, though, and so perhaps-

"So shoot an icicle at it," he said with a shrug at Vrelenor. "Something with some heft to it. If it's boobytrapped, we can see what it does."

Eh?

"I'd rather not do that unless we don't have any other option, if I can hit hard enough to smash the chest, then I'd probably also ruin anything inside it, an it might well be those indentations that we need to worry about anyway."

"Would it be possible for you to shoot ice with less force?"

"If need be, I could prod for triggers from a distance with my weapon. And if I am interpreting my skill correctly, I might be able to jump over the traps, but that wouldn't help if the chest has a trigger or a trap of its own."

Whew. Blowing the thing apart was one way to perhaps mess things up royally for themselves, depending on said chest contents or the like, though the possibility of a pressure trigger under the chest was maybe there as well? Hmm. They didn't need to overthink it, but perhaps those indentations would be the key. Perhaps have icy guy put his skills to the test and try to plug up those holes, while Jase went and got some moss to light up the way and potential tripwires? Yeah. Jase's less-inane suggestion, to her mind that was, combined with that approach could do it. She just needed to say something.

"What about you?" he asked the knight. "Do you have a skill or ability that might help us here?"

Nyana quickly pulled up her status screen again to check things, before quickly closing it again with a sigh as she got her answer. Perhaps this guy's skill would be more useful in this place? Though again they'd need to deal with the indenations and such as well. Get some light in here. Etc. So it wasn't too cut and dry, though her 'skill' wasn't going to be a help unless it involved tanking damage perhaps.

"Not unless I want to jump out there and get shot with arrows or such I'm afraid. All I have for a skill right now is a boost to one of my defensive stats. But perhaps-"

"I can certainly try."

A fist sized lump of ice forms in under a second and shoots towards the chest, he manages to hold back enough that it's no faster than if he'd simply thrown a rock.

Amidst all of the uncertainty about what had happened and how to proceed, the decision to launch a ball of ice at the lone chest would prove rather fruitless. Not because the ice had missed—no, it had certainly landed on the chest and bounced off with a 'thunk' indicative of blunt force meeting wood—but because nothing came of it.

"Well I tried, one of you armoured guys gets to go poke it now."

For the love of-...nope. Nope, they were not going to dawdle like this and waste too much time doing nothing or the less-useful ideas if she could help it. If. So, in that vein, the streamer breathed in, slowly breathed out, and then turned to address the three guys in the room. They'd had some ideas so far, yeah? So they needed to make use of the good ones from that pile then. Seemed like a not-bad idea to her at least.

"I-....ok. Ok. Guys, we have a few good ideas going for this that you've already said somewhat already. So here's the plan:

Jase had a good idea with getting some of that moss for starters, so I'll go and grab some unlesss anyone else wants to help with that tooo. Not too much, don't want to lose our way elsewhere navigating this place, but enough to see if there's little tripwires or something carefully. If we don't find tripwires, then maybe its pressure plates or something here instead. Keeps it simple, narrows things down.

Second, Vrelenor, you already mentioned the indentations on the wall, ok? Can you try to fire some 'frost ray' or something to freeze them over maybe? Clog them up if they're holes or arrow slits or poison gas vents or someting like that with an icicle or something like that even?

Then ah-....actually, I don't know your name yet either. Your idea to prod the traps isn't bad, though, and if it ends up being tripwires you might be able to maneuver past them to get to the chest. Barring that, maybe, perhaps with a good enough running start or something you could jump over to the chest...or, well, as close as possible without landing on it maybe? Up to you there, but for now I'm going to get a small bit of glowing moss."

With that, Nyana would head out to gather some glowing moss along the way they'd come. Not too much, or enoough to lose her way, but a small amount to bring back and use to look for things on the floor. Well, if it stayed bioluminescent after removing it from the wall at least. It was worth a try though! And once she got that moss, she'd come back and try to carefully check the floor for tripwire-type triggers....but not step forward onto it in case of pressure plates.

Simple, right? She hoped it would be.

@PKMNB0Y@Thunder999999@Expendable@Crimson Paladin

The country, Cethaim. The city, Neir. A feudal ruling system, with a King Selm and the nobles that likely managed the cities or provinces. School had stopped teaching medieval history after the eighth grade, but media had kept the knowledge alive regardless. No war though, so it must be a time of peace.

And regarding the cat-eared girl’s response to his own story…

“Too many possibilities,” he echoed.

That was an apt way of describing the difference between where he came from and where he now was. Amoeba the size of basketballs, possessing human intellect. Heads-up displays invisible to all others, yet capable of assigning numerals to vague values. And, of course, mercenaries that hunted monsters while taking the form of lanky youths. It was fictional, and perhaps it was made even more fictional by how ‘C’ had predicted all this through his own consumption of media.

“I’ve no problem with testing. As for the other one, I’ll help him out afterwards, if he wants work.” The elf retracted his hand. Her grip was solid. He felt the calluses, formed by the hilt of that two-handed sword. “And mine…Cassius.”

He blinked, eyes flickering upwards briefly as he reconsidered his thoughts, his words.

Ah, no. It made enough sense. In this feudal, miserable age, where there were no cars, no internet, no central heating, no plumbing, no good food, no entertainment, there was nothing to distract from the mind-numbing nature of ‘work’.

If he died and returned to a world with more possibilities but less quality of life, and if there was no guarantee that his modern education would mean much to aristocrats and those who had wealth, why should he be so eager to delve back into an office job?

Why indeed?

“If you’ve got nothing else to do but patrol, would you mind telling me about your life as an adventurer?”

Petra stared at the message box, partially because it was the only thing she could see and partially because there was a fair bit of information for her to dissect there.

Firstly, ‘universal translation’ supposedly being common in fantasy stories – at least in whatever stories Down had read – was yet another big point in favour of the fantasy logic hypothesis, even if it still wasn’t nearly enough to count as conclusive evidence. What could she do to get more concrete evidence? How exactly does one imperially test whether or not the world follows formal logic? She needed something testable. Perhaps she could think up a list of fantasy tropes and then try to verify whether they applied or not? Petra wasn’t sure.

Pushing the matter aside, Petra turned to Down’s next observation, one that was far more immediately useful; they were in a shantytown – or at the very least something that appeared to be one. Petra supposed that if this world truly was running of some foreign logic, it was entirely possible that shantytowns were somehow natural formations here, but at that point she’d have to start throwing out basic assumptions, so for the time being she decided to go with the far more reasonable assumption; this world had intelligent life in it – beyond her companions and her, that was – and moreover, whatever that life was, it was probably at least somewhat human-like.

Even more interesting than Down’s observations on their surrounding, though, were their comments on magic and their own Skill. It seemed as though their Skill was also one pertaining to magic, and while they didn’t say specifically what it was Petra was certainly very interested to find out. Did the third person that’d come with them also have a magic Skill? Petra wondered how Down’s Skill would compare to her own. Two examples obviously wouldn’t be enough for her to establish a pattern as to how magic worked, but it’d at least be a boon in helping her make guesses, certainly a lot better than just one.

Contacts: "Down"

I think you’ve just got to think about it really hard to use magic and there’ll be a sort of draining feeling once you manage.

Maybe… I’m pretty sure it’s enough to do something at least. There’s probably more to actually doing things properly.

Even more than magic, though, the final part of Down’s message was what interested Petra the most. Shapeshifting and gaining abilities from things she ate? There certainly wasn’t anything like that listed on her status, but neither did universal translation show up, nor did anything governed by her biology, so it might be possible.

Contacts: "Down"

I don’t see anything like that on my status and I was already eating dirt or something when I woke up which didn’t seem to do anything, but I guess it couldn’t hurt to try.

Not long after, Petra was watching her body digest several bugs, along with a not insignificant amount of dirt. At first she’d tried not to think about the fact that she was eating bugs, reasoning to herself that any perceived grossness was only on a superficial level and that is was probably perfectly normal for slime monsters or whatever it was she was.

Her apprehension only lasted a moment after she engulfed the bugs, however, before it gave way to curiosity, and she stared transfixed at her digestive cells peeling apart the dead insects layer by layer, in a manner that was simultaneously both slow and shockingly fast. No, it wasn’t fast so much as it was efficient; her cells dancing to incomprehensible chemical music, swarming towards the feast for just long enough to tear away and engulf their fill before vacating to digest and distribute their nutrient payloads.

Beyond watching her digestive processes, Petra was also looking out for any change that might indicate something had happened. No matter how frequently she checked her status, though, there was never once a change to the sheet, nor was there any miraculous moment where she gained access to one of the insect's senses, or method of moving, or otherwise felt any different at all. She tried willing her body to take the shape of one of the insects she’d digested with all her might, but unsurprisingly, that to failed to work.

Petra mentally sighed to herself. It was about as much as she’d expected, but it was still pretty disappointing. If she’d been able to shapeshift into the things she ate, then it might have been possible to gain a human form… or at least something closer to human than an amorphous blob, since she wasn’t quite yet up for eating people. Hell, if she’d been able to gain a bug's abilities, that might have at least solved her vision and movement problems… Wait.

…

Petra paused – or at least she imagined herself pausing, considering her body was already more or less as still as it was going to get. She wasn’t so lucky as to gain some mystical ability to steal creatures abilities just by eating them, but she did still have magic. Magic that supposedly operated on biological systems. Could she emulate something similar?

Petra focused her attention on one of the as yet less digested insects within her. She observed the insect as a whole for only a moment, before zooming in on the structure she was interested in; its eye. Petra had a pretty decent idea of how a human eye worked, but unsurprisingly the compound eyes of an insect were quite different, more specifically, they were a hell of a lot more complicated.

Perhaps if the insect were still alive and its eyes hadn’t already been partially digested, Petra might have been able to figure out some of the underlying mechanisms behind its eyes, as it were now though, she figured she had little chance. That was okay though; she wouldn’t need the whole eye for the idea she wanted to test.

Delving deeper into one of the ommatidium that made up the compound eye, Petra closed in on the part she was looking for. While a lot of the insect’s eye was fundamentally different from a human one, Petra was glad to see that at least the most fundamental components were more or less the same. Petra flexed her will once more, uncertainly straining her thoughts until she felt the magic give in – the draining sensation picking up ever so slightly – and with any luck, directing her digestive cells not to consume the rod cells at the back of the insect's eyes.

Petra patiently waited until the rods were free-floating before continuing her work. Somehow the effort of actually moving the rods towards her exterior was far more draining than actually liberating them in the first place and while the draining sensation itself grew no worse with time, Petra began to feel what she could only describe as an aching in some metaphysical part of herself; an ache she was pretty sure was connected to her use of magic. Or perhaps overuse of magic? She refused to stop quite there though.

Identifying one of her own sensory cells – one of the multitude of chemical receptors she was pretty confident was part of her ability to taste and smell – Petra forced the thing to disconnect itself from the nerve it was attached to through sheer force of will, before attempting to implant one of her sequestered rods in its place. Her first attempt at getting the cell to connect failed, or at least it failed to produce a functioning result, as did her second and third attempts. If moving the rods throughout her body had given her a headache, then this task was giving her the beginnings of a migraine.

It didn’t matter though, because on her fourth attempt Petra actually succeeded at getting the cell to attach to the nerve properly and suddenly she could see. Not see in any useful sense of the word – a single rod certainly wouldn’t be enough to do that, nor would completely covering herself in the things for that matter; she’d need to figure out more complex eye structures for anything like that – but it was sight nonetheless. A tiny pinprick of light, visible only for the fact that it encompassed the entirety of Petra’s ability to see, nothing more than a single data point informing her of the presence or absence of light.

Feeling surprisingly emotional at such a tiny change, Petra gave one last push with her magic, commanding her newly minted sensor to start dividing, before finally dropping her magic.

Petra realised that pushing her magic as she had, had been a very stupid thing to do considering her lack of understanding about what exactly she was doing; for all she knew souls were real and she’d just irrevocable damaged hers, or maybe she’d just barely survived and another moment of pushing would have killed her. Even if it were ‘safe’ Petra was certainly feeling the consequences of her actions, an impossible to describe aching sensation in a part of her being that she had not previously been aware of and didn’t particularly want to be now.

Even as Petra mentally berated herself for her bad decisions, she would have smiled if she could. She’d already told herself she’d fix her hearing, but now she was almost certain that she could, and more than that, that she could fix her whole body. Her understanding wasn’t nearly good enough yet, and if it had taken this much out of her to steal just a single cell she hesitated to think what it’d take to build an entire human body, but even so, with enough time and effort, Petra was sure she could figure it out.

Contacts: "Down"

I can do the stealing thing with Biomancy! I was only able to take a single cell for now, but I can do it! Oh and if you are going to do magic try not to push it too far. This is kinda painful.

Though his first fight was far from pretty, resolving everything unscathed was probably the most Steven could have hoped for. He could feel Hikari's judgmental gaze digging into him as he made his quip, and the young man quickly decided that it was for the best to not linger too long.

Was it his form? It had to be his form, right? With a Japanese name like that, maybe she thought the way he fought was an insult to the craft?

...She wouldn't have been wrong if that was the case, granted, but it wasn't like he could do any better handling a katana for the first time!

Rather than fret about the opinion of his peers, though, Steven chose to focus his attention towards the bandits—or, well, he would have, had Duncan not already gone and scared what remained of them into retreating. Breathing a sigh of relief, the kitsune quietly sheathed his sword and began walking back towards the armored man to regroup. His gore-splattered face was, admittedly, not the prettiest sight, but given how he had intended to go into medical anyways the sight didn't feel that disturbing to him.

Whether that was good or not was up for debate.

As he approached, though, the entrance of undeniably villainess-like young lady very promptly caused Steven to stop in his tracks. The way she carried herself and the overwhelmingly proud nature of her voice may as well have started ringing alarm bells inside of his head. Tropes and trends didn't really matter in a situation like this, where he—who was probably no better than a street rat or vagrant in her eyes—was staring nobility in the face.

Luckily, Duncan's choice to speak for them meant that Steven didn't have to worry about committing any sort of faux pas in the process of introducting himself. As the man introduced the group in sequence, Steven gave a formal bow towards the blonde. This one, at least, was a lot less uncertain than the one he had given Hikari earlier during their introductions.

Given how he was likely the youngest among their group (physical appearances nonwithstanding), though, the kitsune deemed it best to let the others handle the flow of conversation for the moment.

@Raineh Daze@Sir Lurksalot

---

By dint of being what it was, the glowing moss that Nyana chose to gather did indeed continue to glow after being picked off the walls. The glow seemed to be derived from something within the plant itself, but though those processes remained unknown for the moment, the light it provided would be very much appreciated by those without the ability to make out the darker sections of the cavern.

With moss in hand, though, it would be simple enough to light up the center of the chamber. The ground, contrary to the fears of the group, was bereft of any tripwires or pressure plates. Some might have considered the situation to be eerily normal, but one could just as well argue that it was exactly what one would expect a cave to be to begin with.

@Crusader Lord@Thunder999999@Crimson Paladin@Expendable

---

---

As the floorboard came free with a woody shriek, the crawlspace beneath the shack was exposed to what limited daylight illuminated the interior. A crowd of roaches started to scatter--and Conner jabbed his new weapon as fast as he could. The board's flat edge caught two of the critters, crunching them nearly in half. Leaning uncomfortably close to the earth scented hole, he managed to wedge the weapon up against a corner to trap another handful of scuttling adversaries. They almost got away from him, but with the speed and coordination of a gaming addict, Connor managed a second blow, then a third, to bring down the insectoid horrors!

Not nearly as dramatic as the opening battles of most isekai. Hell, even by casual JRPG standards that was barely worth calling a tutorial. But no new notifications appeared, and when he opened his status window again he couldn't see any kind of bar graph or rising numbers.

Okay, so there's a few options. First, EXP might not be visible at all regardless of what tasks award it. Second, the bugs might not be considered "valid" targets--maybe only creatures roughly "on par" with me, level wise or something, award EXP. Or possibly, only "hostile" targets award it--maybe whatever deity dropped us here doesn't want to incentivize wanton slaughter. The jury was still out on whether or not some intelligent higher power HAD plucked them away from their deaths and deposited them. But considering the way these things usually went, and that "hole" in his memory... Third, killing or fighting may not award EXP in this particular setup. It's rare, but there are some games where practicing your skills or completing roleplaying challenges are more important than being able to kill every enemy you come across. Fourth...

He'd have to think some more about it, or get more data. Probably both. The slime was already relating their own experience with trying to use magic, so he couldn't spend too much time lingering or they might level up before him.

For now he dropped the bugs onto the Slime's membranous surface, one at a time, and watched the result.

Contacts: "Slime"
Don't take this the wrong way, but watching you do this is actually pretty neat. Reminds me of a vid I saw once about how white blood cells attack foreign bacteria and such.

He watched each cockroach be broken down, then noticed some of them were disappearing more slowly than others. The slime's surface occasionally wobbled. No more new messages came through for the moment, as they were clearly focused on whatever internal processes were going on. But, as cool as this was...

I feel like, even if we don't remember...no one would've chosen that form for themselves. If something or someone had summoned them into this new world, then the only two reasons Connor could think of as to why his companions were non-human were that it had either given them a choice--a "character creation,"--or it had simply slotted them into new bodies for its own purposes. Perhaps mere amusement.

So he, for some reason, was entirely the same, but some other prick got to be the tall bishie elf? Granted, Connor kind of hated most elves aside from the "classic" ones--and that was because most of the ones he hated just ripped off the tropes without ever innovating. But then there was this poor soul. No eyeballs, no mouth, not even a functioning spine. Connor leaned one elbow on his knee, and let his chin rest in his hand as he sighed.

"_{Just like Earth, I guess--some people get handed everything they want, and other people get shit on their whole lives.}" He muttered under his breath.

Then the last bug's body disappeared before its head. And its head disappeared very slowly. And...Connor felt like he'd need a microscope to be sure, but it sure seemed like something was happening inside that gelatinous mass.

Ding

His eyes scanned the Slime's message, and a smile slowly started to pull at his lips. Then he pumped his fist.

"Hell yeah!" He shouted, though not quite as loudly as when he'd awakened the other two. Then he looked around sheepishly, as if expecting every fantasy equivalent to a meth-head to come spilling through the windows after them. But, so far, it seemed no one besides the catgirl had bothered to even check in on them...

Contacts: "Slime"
Nice! And, if you were able to digest the dirt, you could potentially dig tunnels to hide or get around unseen if need be. If something bad happens, the bug-hole I dug is...uh...to your left?

If you wanna rest, I'm gonna practice my own magic. Once I feel like I could conceivably defend myself I'll try to find us some water and a way to filter it. Bound to be a well around here but I'm sure it's filthy.

Before settling down to another task that could potentially become very distracting, however, Connor took another look out the window--only to find that the elf guy had walked some distance away with the catgirl.

That knife eared sonnuvabitch! He better not be ditching us! the younger man seethed, clenching one fist under the windowsill. Turning away with new fuel in the form of spite and distrust, Connor blew air through his nose while angrily reading over his Status screen again. Keeping what the slime had said about their own abilities in mind, he extended one hand and tried to think about how best to test this idea...

Conversion of magical power into applied forces, huh...?

Javal

"It looks like there's no tripwires or pressure plates," the dragoon remarked.

Javal carefully approached the chest along the same path as the knight, halberd in hand. With his free hand, he took a clump of moss and used it to illuminate the chest, allowing him to more carefully examine it from every side, looking for any wires or potential trigger mechanisms attached to the exterior of the container. He also took a closer look at the indentations, trying to assess the exact sort of hazard they might pose. Would arrows fly from them? Would spears emerge from them?

The chest had a lock, but he could see a few options. He or the knight could probably smash the chest open, although the elf mage seemed apprehensive about trying anything like that. Perhaps it'd be better to leave this room and keep their eyes out for a key, rather that fixate on it. After all, they had no idea where they were or what other hazards lurked in this cavern.

"If there is a trap, it could be triggered by opening the lid," he remarked, as he looked over it.

If he was back on Earth, this is what they'd consider at the airports to be a suspicious package.

@Thunder999999@Expendable@Crusader Lord