Sitting around the fire in Sam’s cave, they tried to communicate. As in, Sam tried to find a common ground they could try to begin with, but Dia let out the longest sentences of words he had no idea what meant. He got his name in there at times but nothing else. She looked happy, which was good, but he had no idea what was being said. He just assumed that, since the Bonding Contract said she’d obey and be bound to him, the System would translate, and the translation would continue... But apparently not, it was just for the understanding of the contract which... was good but... now he was back to not understanding shit.

He tried to explain things, but that just hit the same problem the other way, he did his best to use his arms or objects or mime. Having no idea where to even start he decided that they needed to go very specific. Trying to mime or example some specific object or event, and find a word for that. But that would produce other problems, if he were to point to a dagger and they decide a word, was that word for dagger, metal, sharp, tool or something else?

Letting out a long sigh he decided to just let it come as it happened. He didn’t care what happened to the people on this island either, hopefully, they could capture someone and ask them some questions. Picking up an item he asked what it was, and though he didn’t have anything to write on he did his best to repeat it several times to try to have it stick. In the cases where he had several of the same thing, preferably different like fish bones and rocks, he asked several times to make sure the word didn’t change. Things like Yes and No were luckily simple, it seems that they had the same head nodding and general body language for agreeing or disagreeing.

This took considerable time, trial and error, and was most likely still filled with errors and misunderstandings. Pointing at stones he didn’t know if the word meant the size of it, the material or just ‘a rock’. A lot of things he wondered about were things that he couldn’t point at, making them problematic. He would have to just pick up words and try to say them to her later to see what she does. If he said a word which had her sit down repeatedly, that could mean sit, as an example. Though he doubted that he’d remember all these words 10 minutes later, it was nice to at least get the smallest bit of insight into her language. It also made her ecstatic, picking up random things he hadn’t thought of and saying words about them, like one of the coconut bowls, the problem was that he didn’t know if she was referring to a bowl, the colour, the material or the texture...

Nightfall had snuck up on them at some point, and though it was interesting and fun to try and learn things like this it was also not a quick ordeal. He often went back to try and remember the words for things he thought he had, only to fail more often than he got it right. The only thing he was sure about in the end was Yes and No, which was a Yip sound and a Yap sound respectively. Sounds he struggled to mimic but she seemed to understand the Yes and No words in English after some trial and error. Given that the words were simple sound bytes she didn’t struggle with saying them. Meaning that if nothing else, they had the first step of communication down!

Though further learning would have to wait, Sam got up and started gearing up. His arsenal didn’t weigh that much but he still preferred to not have it strapped across his body, especially when considering that he made the scabbards himself. Since he already had the armour and smaller items on, the main thing he had to do was the weapons. Dia looked at him curiously as he did so, but since he picked up the weapons with his Psyhands she kept shouting ‘Shirin’, which made it sound like it was referring to his Psyhands or Telekinesis. Seemingly wanting to help she picked up other weapons in their simple scabbards and lifted them randomly in the air, calling for “Sa shirin!”

Perhaps that meant Sam’s Telekinesis or something?

He soon found himself ready and motioned for her to follow, heading in the direction of the camp he had been harassing as of late. She followed him curiously as he tried to explain that he wanted to capture one of them. Naturally, his explanation didn’t do much, or at least he didn’t assume that it did. Looking at him as he spoke it was at least as she tried to understand, but she kept to his side and kept herself rather close to him. Not close enough to be a problem but... it felt odd to Sam.

They soon came closer, at least close enough that Sam chose to sneak rather than just walk normally. As he did so Dia seemed to understand it and started walking on all fours, any sound from her stepping disappeared completely as she started being mindful of where she stepped, she was much better at that than Sam was.

It didn’t take long before they spotted someone sneaking about, three men were walking in a group, one of which was carrying a torch. The next step was simple enough, he needed one of them alive, but taking two of them out at the same time as restraining one was... not easy. He could send Dia on one but he didn’t know her capabilities yet. Luckily, he had a simple solution to things: eyes! He Force Pulse three eyes at the same time, which had to be split up for effectiveness, that should be plenty, with his armour he should be good.

Not intending to wait more than needed, he floated up all his weapons at the ‘last’ of the three and in the same movement he triggered the eye attack on them all. All of them reacted as something pressed against their eye for a split second before the pulse activated, causing them all to scream out in pain, clutching their attacked eye. At the same time, Sam brought down all his weapons. One critical hit, the Vampiric dagger triggered and the man was instantly dead. The others turned towards the sound of their friend being shredded, but before he could move his weapons to the next target, Dia had sprung forward.

She darted towards the man with the torch on all fours, jumping at him once she came into range, landing on him with her claws first she rode him to the ground, on the way down she bit deep into his shoulder and tore both her clawed hands out of him. This seemed to do considerable damage but he was still alive.

“Fuck, fuck! Get it off me!” He shouted in panic. The man behind him pulled his weapon but was stopped mid-draw by Sam’s blade swarm, falling to the ground, shredded as the other man.

Dia went in for another bite.

“Dia, stop!” Sam called out to her, this was a perfect moment to take advantage of, a wounded man knowing he was outmatched.

To Sam’s positive surprise, it seemed she understood enough of his order. She stopped her bite and took a few steps off the bandit’s body, to make sure he didn’t try anything Sam used some spare hands to take his weapon from him before he could draw it.

“The fuck-” He reacted to his dagger pulling itself out of its scabbard and joining the swarm of other weapons hovering menacingly over him.

“So-” Sam started, coming into view properly as he Psyhand-lifted the torch, getting a better look over everything.

Though Sam was clean of blood, Dia was drenched having bit and clawed the man on the ground only seconds ago. “-I have some questions I’d like answers to.”

“Yeah, whatever you want, man. Just... don’t kill me.” The man on the ground clutched the wound on his shoulder, close to his neck, shivering in fear of the situation he found himself in.

“Good, now, let’s start with the fuck the deal is with this island. I was just transported here without a quest, and everyone is out to get me.” Sam heard himself sounding very annoyed, which wasn’t wrong, he wanted to talk to people initially but had to self-defence them to death.

“N--No one told you yet?” The man stuttered as his expression mixed confusion with the already present fear. “Boss said that you could get it from visiting... something, or have it shared with you.”

This was weird to Sam, but somewhat made sense. If you’re alone or one of few, you could get it if you survived enough to find whatever it was, or like now when there are a lot of Players you could just have it shared.

“Can you share it with me?”

“Y... yes... but Boss said I shouldn’t, but...” The man seemed to want to do as he was told but the situation he was in was a bit...

“Give me a moment.”

The man started looking at nothing at all, a standard expression when looking at the System menus. It took a minute until a window popped up for Sam.

[ Shared Quest: The Island

Conquer the island, and remain as the winning team.

Reward: A powerful upgrade to your class or abilities.

Do you wish to accept? ]

It was simple, but also somewhat ambiguous. If the team leader lied or held things back, it could be abused. Perhaps that was what was going on?

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Mentally agreeing to accept the quest it triggered.

[ Quest: The Island

Survive the Island and become the dominant force.

Dominant forces: 2

Reward: A powerful upgrade to your class or abilities. ]

The question was if this reward was singular or multiple, did everyone get it and if so... Why didn’t they just consolidate the groups and win?

It seemed like the System wanted them to kill each other and cause this chaos. But, it explained a lot. For example why there were multiple camps, if they were all one group then it would make more sense to consolidate their group. At least on an island this small, relatively speaking. It also explained why they sent out scouts or guards like this, if they all were friendly with each other, having a solid fence or just some guards could be plenty.

“Doesn’t that mean that if everyone joins as one group, you win by default?”

“Y... yes.” The man replied without thinking about it. “We considered that but... it seems everyone needs to be fine with this, and as long as there is one who doesn’t agree... The System knows, And since nobody knows if the reward is singular or not...” He seemed honest as he rambled on, not wanting to disappoint the man seemingly holding 8 blades towards him in the air.

“We talked amongst ourselves and... many think the same thing but... The leaders don’t want this, we think they are... a bit... you know...” He made circular motions next to his head with his finger.

Sam nodded, he got what he meant and given that there are people who actively seek out PvP, it made a lot of sense. They might see this as a kind of haven where murder isn’t just -not- frowned upon but accepted widely.

“More people arrive now and then, we all just... end up here. I just want to go home, man...” The man’s fear had faded in favour of just depression.

Sam was glad to have met someone who was not just some murderhobo, but at the same time, this could just be a clever lie. He didn't trust him but would at least let him ramble on if he wanted.

“The thing lists 2 forces, who are they?” Sam commanded.

“There used to be four, it has also fluctuated a lot before it settled. The locals of the island had one, a Goblin, monster, Beastfolk like... your friend here, or something. It was killed. As for Players The Bloodfang Marauders that I’m a part of, the one close to here. Kane, or ‘The Butcher’ as he liked to call himself, was leading us. The Shadowclaw Syndicate is led by someone calling himself ‘Viper’, and The Iron Reavers are led by some ‘Ironhand’.”

The bleeding on his shoulder had stopped, but he was still clenching onto it, the pain was evident even though he looked stable.

“Liked? Was?” Sam asked, noticing the past tense of the words surrounding this Butcher.

“Yes, he was found dead in his hut, dirt in his mouth and throat torn apart. We don’t know who did it and there’s a slight problem finding out who’s going to take over.” The man didn’t seem uncomfortable talking about it. “When they find out who it is, it’ll probably rise to 3 again.”

“Oh, that’s practical. So... All I need to do is to get universally recognized as the dominant force on the island?” Sam barely realised something. It wasn’t that he just didn’t dislike killing Players, he might have come to like it. The extreme XP compared to other sources, normally having better than normal loot as Players would gear themselves.

“Well, kind of, yes. At least we think so. Most of us joined teams just to survive, but lots of people claim that once it’s just this one boss or something, they’ll challenge them and become the leader and win... or something. I... I just want to go home.”

Sam pondered a few things. What defined if you were the top dog, so to speak? The System was probably the final arbiter, but if the locals were once a faction but weren’t considered now. And that the system considered the leaders as equals which meant that he would need to be considered as a powerful force. He needed a reputation...

“I suppose I just need to kill the others like I did Kane.” Sam commented. He wasn’t lying but the man didn’t seem to entirely believe him.

“You... killed Kane?” His voice was filled with disbelief.

“I’m wearing the armour, no? And who can shove dirt in his mouth enough to choke him, without getting attacked?” Sam felt a bit of pride in that one, it was his first clever and non-normal way of attacking that succeeded that well.

“Y... you are.” He didn’t seem to have realised before now. Sam gave him the benefit of the doubt, both considering it ‘his’ armour rather than Sam’s, but also not noticing it given the situation.

Parts of Sam wanted to kill the man, he was a danger in the sense of information, but at the same time, he was perfect to make some rumours go, getting things started. The only danger he could pose was to hint where Sam came from, but that could be mitigated by just leaving in a different way than he was going.

Sam would have to continue doing what he was doing, he had to make a show of things, so he would have to trigger them during a gathering, during the day or something. He didn’t want anyone to join him but he needed to be recognized as the dominant force. Most likely killing the others.

Moving his Psyhand with the torch over to the man, who winced in fear until the torch stopped. “I suppose this is where we leave you, thank you for the information.” He smiled wide, this was mainly to play along with the rumour aspect of it, but it wasn’t entirely acting.

Instinctively the man reached for the torch and took it, Sam let go and left in the wrong way compared to where his cave was. Dia followed without question but seemed a bit surprised and confused about leaving the man. Though she didn’t seem to question it.

They ran into the forest, it took a minute for Sam’s eyes to get properly used to the darkness again, he tried to not look at the flame of the torch and to hold it in a way so it made the smallest problem, but it still had a severe effect on his eyes. Dia, for some reason, seemed like she was worse for wear than he was, she struggled to run properly and almost fell over many times.

“Are... are you ok?” He asked her, using words he knew she didn’t know. Though it seemed his worried expression said something.

“Var krin, var tan torka.” She looked hurt, which made sense as she probably was.

Sam had no idea how severe her original wounds were. Her health was still 54 out of 140, which was relatively low all things considered, but it didn’t seem like she healed like Players did. If she healed more realistically compared to Players, she might still have internal wounds or some of the blood she’s caked in might be her own.

Her steps became more unsteady as time went on, though the more he inspected her gate the more it looked like a mix of fatigue in addition to whatever pain she might have. Which made sense, though she had been resting the last few days she was healing during that time, which wasn’t proper rest. He would have her rest properly when they got back.

Squatting down he urged her to get on his back, she was pretty light so even his strength would be plenty, he already carried her once and it was going to be easier having her on his back than in his arms. She was confused at first but after some coaxing and leading with Psyhands, she found herself on his back, being carried back to the cave in a very roundabout way.

As they arrived he decided that she needed to be cleaned before they could go to sleep. The stream was ever present, as was the waterfall, so this was not an issue. She looked a bit better having at least somewhat relaxed on the way back. He helped her into the water and she started scrubbing herself down with water and some moss to get the grime out of her fur.

She looked at him as she sat in the little basin where the stream widened slightly. “Kirn var tarn, var krin.” Her expression was slightly pleading, he wasn’t sure what she wanted but given the situation, she might be too hurt to properly clean herself.

This wasn’t the first time he had cleaned her, but given her requesting expression it felt... different.