Betty strode away from the camp for the last time. A quick nap and a long shower had left her feeling refreshed and ready. The forest opened before her as she moved away from the field where the bus had landed a few days ago. Following the direction that it had left from was all the guide that she had.

She was planning to keep her eyes open for any sign of roads and paths. She was not picky. She picked her way through the forest for a few hours. There was very little change besides a strange set of small stone pillars that seemed to ring the camp an hour or two out.

There was no way she would walk between them; some feeling of power came off them. Slasher Step failed when she tried to use it to bypass them.

Curious.

Betty crouched and leaped straight up, Stepping at the highest point of her jump, almost eighteen feet in the air, it activated.

Her hooves bit into the soft dirt as she appeared on the far side.

At least it wasn’t a chainlink fence, she grinned.

Sounds in the woods drew her attention as the trees changed, the pines replaced with poplar-like trees, the white poplar bark over a deep green flesh. The sounds turned out to be something like a flying squirrel. They really looked like squirrels as well. Abominably cute, they seemed to use something other than air to fly. As they moved amongst the trees, you could see them occasionally shoot upwards, like in an updraft, but there was no sign of any drafts on the trees. She watched them for a good few minutes before remembering her Investigate skill.

Essence Squirrellae

These creatures use naturally occurring air essence to empower

Themselves and maneuver through the skies.

Betty was leaning against a tree and eating some Jerky as she watched the little flying buggers. They were just so adorable. Then, a movement caught her eye, a flash of yellow.

Far in the distance, a yellow blob appeared, growing rapidly into the boxy, silent camp bus. Looking back at the way it had come, Betty saw it had appeared over a large, flat-topped hill. It almost looked like a miniaturized Table Mountain. However, it didn’t seem to be that high, so Betty set off at a quick pace. As she moved through the forest, more and more different trees appeared, a riot of colors. Giant trees, like oaks but with jet-black bark and the deep red leaves of Japanese maples, butted up against them where a mix of the pines and poplar but occasionally a strange tree with bright yellow leaves and a ruby bark veined with emerald green.

Betty kept moving, even as the first life other than the squirrels appeared.

She leaped over a line of marching ants the size of large rats, her muscles clenching in revulsion. She hated bugs. A series of small animals moved about; a couple looked like miniature versions of the bears of Earth. She had Investigated them, assuming they were cubs and thinking of Shift Form’s abilities. If she could find an actual bear… she could become one for five hours.

Unfortunately, they were fully grown. Tiny, fluffy bears that were fully grown at about the size of a house cat. If she could return these things to Earth, she would corner the pet market in about an hour.

The most intimidating thing she came across was some kind of mutant-looking ram. It was like a ram given massive amounts of steroids and cross-bred with a warthog. Then, it doubled in size. Nothing was particularly aggressive. Even the little bears had only struggled for the first few minutes of cuddles before giving in and accepting their fate.

Betty looked up at the rock wall rising a hundred feet or so. She was halfway up the hill, and so far, it had been a breeze. She could see no ledges or anything that she could Slasher Step to. She could climb it with the help of Stabby and Hacky, but it would leave her clearly visible to anything passing overhead. If the speed that camp bus had gone by a few minutes ago were anything to go by, there would be a lot of traffic headed this way soon.

Shrugging in resignation, Betty activated Shift Form, becoming a regular Bovinian. With that done, she climbed, stabbing the spear tip into the rock with one hand and burying Hacky’s axe into the cliff with the other. It was easy; she did not even really need to use her legs.

Marveling again at the incredible power the stats had given her, Betty crested the top of the rock.

A Bovinian man reached out a hand to her, gabbling along in a friendly tone.

Fuck.

She thought it would be empty up here. Looking up at him, she activated her Investigate skill.

Bovinian Male lvl 19

Class: Teacher.

Class: Explorer.

Betty smiled and took his offered hand. She had about two hours left before the skill ended. As he pulled her up and onto her feet, the man looked back over the cliff edge, confused. He asked her something, but she had no idea what.

Betty mimed, putting her hand over her mouth and shaking her head, then doing the same with her ears.

She had seen it in a mini-series a long time ago.

The man nodded and patted her gently on the back before leading her along a path, one hand on her back, the other pushing aside what appeared to be giant ferns. She was distracted by the beauty of the things but caught several life signs in the distance. That was not a good idea; her skill was ticking away every second.

She stopped, pointing to herself, and then off down another path, away from the life signs. The man hesitated, looking worried. She waved, motioned him to follow, and walked down the track.

He followed behind her, his hooves clicking off the occasional stone. Betty kept ahead, searching for a nice secluded area, until she came to a small pond surrounded by giant ferns. There were no life signs anywhere nearby.

Betty looked at herself in the water. Her face was still hers; the eyes were Bovinian, but other than that, it was her. So that was kind of reassuring.

Wondering if the water was safe to drink, she activated Investigate.

Bovinian Female lvl 16

Class: Counselor

Betty blinked; the skill had activated on her reflection. She showed as level sixteen. Why? Bossy had been higher than that… Betty figured it must be some kind of camouflage caused by the skill. She smiled at her reflection.

That could come in handy.

She turned around and found the man staring at her, confused. She beckoned him over and pointed into the water. He looked puzzled and tried to see what she was looking at.

She pointed again as he bent closer.

Betty shoved his head under the water and kicked his legs out from under him. He thrashed and fought but was no match for her. Eventually, the bubbles stopped.

Skill: Shift Form - Duration reset

5 hours remaining.

Smiling, Betty took a few minutes to search the body. She found a selection of useless tat and some small rods of copper wrapped with a set of elongated hexagonal notes. Betty was pretty sure she had just found some Bovinian money. The numbers on the notes set the values as between five and ten ‘whatever’ values to each note. Some stuffy-looking Bovinian women adorned each note.

Betty thanked her latest victim by smacking his corpse’s head into a large rock that protruded from the water.

With any luck, it would look like an accident.

Betty tucked the notes into her back pocket and explored a little. The paths wandered around the flat top of the hill with little rhyme or reason. She occasionally passed a few other Bovinians, returning their friendly smiles and waves while trying not to think about how many levels they would give if she killed them.

None of them seemed to be above level nineteen so far. Then, a series of boxy-looking flying vehicles shot overhead; they looked official. As they faded into the distance, Betty decided that it would be a good idea to keep moving, just in case.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Plus, her five hours were almost up.

Betty was just examining a pair of young teens, the girl leading the boy deeper into the paths for a bit of playtime where her parents couldn’t interfere when a wailing sound made her freeze. Someone had found the body.

Time to go.

With a last look at the suddenly loud campground, Betty slipped over the edge, dropping a few feet before digging Stabby into the wall and starting her descent.

A few seconds after her hooves touched down on the soft grass at the bottom, she grew back into her normal shape, sprinting swiftly into the sparse forest.

This was a much different bit of forest, the trees getting further apart, eventually ending in a wide dirt road.

Betty lurked at the edge of the trees, taking shelter beneath the dense red leaves of the weird tree she had begun to think of as a Japanese Maple Oak. The dark black bark was soothing. She chewed on some more Jerky and watched a veritable parade of official-looking vehicles fly back and forth. To her surprise, they did not, in fact, come from the small town ahead of her. Instead, they seemed to come from somewhere much further away, flying to the town before turning and heading for the camp.

Betty activated Investigate as she watched,

Anti - Grav Sled

Official Vehicle - Police Analogue

Power source - Gravity Essence.

Scanning….

Herd Instincts -

Movement of vehicles in formation in the absence of roads

Suggests strong remnants of Herd Psychology.

Expect the citizens to show these features:

Pathing - Sticking to paths made by the Herd.

Flocking - They will move in groups.

Mediocrity - Will not want to rise above others.

Mimicry - Copying the behavior of nearby individuals.

Protective Grouping - The herd will gang up on threats.

Information added to Rosetta Stone.

Betty grinned. Being a Xenoarchaeologist was the best thing ever! As she watched the sleds fly back and forth a few more times, she marveled at the absurdity of it. There must have been a shorter route. Yet, again and again, they took the long way. Even with so many dead and missing.

Betty grinned as she realized that staying away from the locals would be easier than she thought if they tended not to wander too much.

The sign floating over the dirt road was a marvel. Betty was standing in the early evening gloom and staring up. There had not been a single person along the road all day. As the evening came, Betty decided it was worth the risk and strolled a bit closer to town. The hedges around the fields that filled all the available land around here were more than enough to duck into if need be.

The sign was a surprise as she crested a slight rise. It had shimmered into existence like a wavy hologram.

The strange lettering framed a picture in the center. It was a hat sitting on a field. That was it, a hat on a field.

“Is this because I’m a Slasher?” Betty looked up at the sky, asking whatever Gods this world called their own. “Hat-on-field? Really? Really!” The damn Crystal stuffed lake with its summer camp was one thing… but this? She wondered if it was her. Was she making connections where none existed? Or did the system give her a class based on surrounding features? Something made her get that Slasher class in the first place.

“Why was I assigned the Slasher Class?” Betty asked aloud. As she hoped, the system responded.

Upon activation of the Trinity System, your mental state was assessed.

It was determined you were not in the emotional state necessary to make an informed choice.

A scan of your memories, thoughts, and predispositions occurred.

That information was added to nearby geographical and social information.

A match was found.

A mental archetype for the Apex Class

Was chosen to give you the greatest chance to flourish,

According to your own memories.

“Ah, Okay.” Betty shrugged. “So I became a slasher because I watched too many horror movies, and a bunch of areas kind of matched around here.” Betty chuckled to herself. All those Moms in the eighties. All those religious nuts proclaiming that Horror movies made people into Killers.

They were wrong; The Trinity System did it to try and help them.

As night fell, she walked carefully into the small town. Her hooves clicked down the sidewalks as she Form Shifted into a Bovinian again. It looked like this place closed down early, at least on the edges of town.

A roadside store was all closed up, shutters blocking off the sight of what was inside. She came next to a row of houses, lights shining from within as she passed. The voices from inside were muffled; if the houses weren’t all some version of a hexagon, it would be just like home.

A dark, quiet building sat behind a field and some small playground equipment. Pictures of Bovinian children playing and laughing were painted on the front wall.

A Kindergarten. Perfect.

Betty looked around a few times and ensured she was out of sight before breaking a window. Slasher Step took her inside, where she quickly searched the rooms until she found a set of small books. A quick flip-through confirmed they were what she was after.

Moving quickly back outside, Betty jogged further away before finding somewhere to hide for the day. It was ridiculous; everything was occupied or well looked after. Weren’t small towns supposed to be all run down and shitty.

Movies had lied to her again.

It took a while, and her five hours were almost up before she could find anywhere. It was right in the middle of town. Almost precisely in the middle of town.

A closed-up and boarded-over store sat on the edge of a town square. The two-story building was completely empty, with dust on the front and back doors. A quick Slasher Step onto the roof showed a skylight crusted with muck that looked down onto the second floor. Everything was covered in sheets.

Perfect.

It took no effort at all the wrench the window open, the rusted lock barely resisting. Once it was open, Betty dropped down. A quick search through the building set her mind at ease. It was an empty, dust-sheet-covered apartment with a lovely additional perk. A shower. A working shower.

There was even power, or whatever made the lights work in this world, but Betty left the lights off. It was not like she needed them anyway. With the advantage of her Senses, there was no need for lights. She did open the back and side windows for a bit. Her improved sense of smell did not get along with the musty, stale air.

“Welp, I got a place to stay, I guess.” Betty grinned. “Wonder what the neighbors are like.”

Betty snuck down the stairs, careful to Slasher Step as needed to avoid leaving tracks. When she got downstairs, Betty looked around with wide eyes.

“This is a crime!” Betty cried. “How could they let this happen… what kind of monsters live in this forsaken town?” Her eyes flicked over the dusty floor, seeing evidence of sporadic visits. Good to know, but how could they let this happen?

Betty slowly moved along the racks and shelves. It was stuffed with comic books and games in boxes decorated with images of Player Icons and figurines of incredible detail. Others held stacks of cards of various types. One wall held little racks of cubes with multiple pictures above them. They looked like movie posters.

Another wall held books, graphic novels, and, best of all, Tee shirts.

Carefully reaching to the back of each row, Betty chose a selection of almost everything, going back upstairs with her arms full. It was quite a haul, but it wasn’t the best thing.

The best thing she could only take when she left. Just opposite the door was a larger-than-life figurine with badass leather clothing. It was her size! She wanted the dark leather jacket so badly. But it looked like someone came here from time to time. She couldn’t take something so noticeable.

Back in her new apartment, showered and refreshed, Betty took the dust cover off the bed and snuggled in as best she could. The books she had taken from that Kindergarten she found were in her hands. It was time to start to really learn the language of this world.

As she read and re-read the books, it was crazy; the pictures were almost exactly the same as the ones she had read to her little niece a few years ago. There was one small difference besides the characters being Bovinian. In each case, the girl was in the lead or led the way rather than the boy. She had never even noticed that about the books on Earth. But, seeing it flipped here, she realized how much that was bullshit. Earth books all taught children to read with the boy in the lead. As the center of the story.

Slowly but surely, the words started to translate as more and more of the stories made sense. Thanks to the Rosetta Stone skill, it stayed locked in her mind once she figured out a word. It required no further effort on her part. It simply translated itself. One of the books even taught her the pronunciation of the letters and sounds that made up the words.

Rosetta Stone did its thing again. In a few hours, she could read as well as any kindergartener. She moved on to some of the simpler-looking comics with bright, simple pictures. As the night passed, Betty moved from one to another. It was amazing. It was only when a sunbeam hit her eyes that she realized the sun was up and noises came from outside.

She had been deaf and blind to the world, lost in the story of a young boy destined to marry a wealthy and influential family’s heir. She was an awful person who beat the boy and sneered at him. She called him something that did not translate but seemed to be the equivalent of ‘only good for breeding.’

Rather than marry the awful girl, he had run away into the wild grasslands that surrounded the castle. There he learned to chop wood, hunt, and fish. One day he saved a woman from a set of bandit women; they weren’t Bovinian which she assumed meant they were fantasy bad guys. Surprised at the ferocious nature of this male, so unlike the docile and quiet behavior of most men, she fell in love with him immediately.

Betty wanted to finish the comic, but there was no time. Instead, she needed to focus on what she could see out the windows and ensure no one was headed her way.

By mid-day, she was bored out of her mind. No one had even looked toward the building, all huddling in groups and talking animatedly before moving on.

By evening she was reading again, ignoring the outside. So she was shocked when she heard a sound downstairs, immediately Slasher Stepping through the apartment and listened at the stairs.

“We must start tonight!” A woman’s voice was low and throaty.

“After the unknown at the camp, we can’t. There is too much unknown.” This voice was light and airy.

“It will attract the Sentries, unknown, and the rest can die a few days later.” Gleeful and dripping in venom, this voice was sharp and angry.

“Screw the Sentries unknown their unknown up their unknown.” The first voice again as the others laughed.

“They never unknown that it was us who killed the unknown who owned this store.” The airy voice again. “Or any of the others.”

“All unknown to the great unknown.” The women intoned before they left.

Betty grinned. It looked like she wasn’t the only killer in town.

This was her territory for now. These idiots had to die.

Betty descended the stairs, sniffing around and memorizing the scents in the room.

It was time for a hunt.