A crossbow bolt bounced off of Sally’s dark aura as her boots thudded through the dirt. The orc she had set as her target on approach seemed rather shocked that she had managed to avoid being skewered, and in turn, he suffered that fate. Her dagger lashed across his arm before imbedding itself under his chin, a spray of blood arcing out as she twirled from the opponent, using [Eat Brains] as she passed.

[Chain] went out and dragged the next opponent over - the boar-faced humanoid tripping over Cross just before they reached her. An easy jab into their eye-socket, and then she left them for the goblin to eat.

Arrow bounced from her breastplate with a sharp clank, and she turned her bright crimson eyes over to the assailant. Two others were on their way. Curse went up on the first as she ducked below the swing of a large axe, burying her dagger into their thigh. Stood and kicked out at the damaged leg before blocking the swing of a sword from the next orc.

Return arc of the blade nipped at her head as she grabbed the offending wrist. Dagger went in to disarm them, and she followed up with a headbutt. Kristov struck the other orc with a bolt to the stomach, and as the attacker hunched over in pain, Cross stepped in to stab them in the face.

“Puh-puh!” He exclaimed, his mouth more bloody than usual.

They both ate well, and continued deeper into the outpost. Sally dodged and weaved throughout the throng of System-created being slowly overrun by the risen zombies. Back to something she was used to - no - something she excelled at. Even with the world as their oyster, she had stuck to using her dagger for everything. Being close and personal had been her favourite, even when she had more spells at her disposal. Made it easy to fill her stomach.

Cross had filtered into the role perfectly as well. While she often acted as a shadow herself, using cover and her pals to dip in and out of combat to hit spikes of opportune damage, the goblin was then her shadow in turn.

Finishing off the wounded and getting in the way of the footwork of the orcs, Cross was making things easier for both her and her gathering horde to gain the advantage. Either his stature or nature as a System-created meant that the boar-headed humanoids barely gave him a glance… at least until it was too late.

In fact, she had been having so much fun that she hadn’t even been paying attention to what the rest of the Party had been doing. Only partly because she wanted to ignore the shrill tunes of the kazoo. But as she took a moment to breathe, they were doing well themselves - even if not such a dervish of death.

Poppy once again reminded her of Humphrey in her stoic and methodical approach to combat. Well-honed and deliberate attacks between using her shield to block. Practice that enabled her win to be inevitable against the System-created who were either weaker or just not smart enough to deal with a roving hunk of metal.

Kristov and Claude stayed well away from the danger. It was an interesting experience to have Party members that were truly support focused. In the Outsiders, Lucius was always up front with them fighting and Norah was very aggressive with her ranged attacks. They all had auras to keep them up, and she herself had some healing - but otherwise, they just got stuck into it.

There was some importance to Party composition… but she didn’t care for it. In Sanctuary, one of the toughest groups was the all-paladin Party. Although they’d easily stomped through most of the Events and Dungeons available, there were a couple they just avoided due to their weakness - giving them the appearance of having a 99% success rate.

The last 1% being against Theo. Not that the vampire was entirely undefeated in his tenure as a Boss, but he made the extra effort to never fall to the paladins. Something about them trying to game the System tickled him, and he just had to be better than them. And somehow, he was.

Sally paused and allowed the crowd of shambling undead to take the lead. Outpost was all but taken over now. She yawned and stretched out. Maybe they should focus on building an undead army rather than just leveling up.

“Puh-puh-puh,” Cross said, standing beside her.

She put her hand on top of his head. “That’s right. They didn’t stand a chance against the two most powerful zombies in the world. All shall fall beneath our might and into our stomachs.”

[Poppy: I have five more daggers for you!]

Sally turned to see the knight step over, her shining armor now lashed with streaks of crimson. “I picked up six myself! I’ll be popping this world like a balloon in no time at all.”

[Poppy: Not literally, I hope!]

[Poppy: <<]

“Tempting, but no.” She put her hands on her hips and grinned at all the destruction they had caused. “Let’s get set up for lunch. I bet the others are hungry.”

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It didn’t take them long to set up a small campfire and chairs from things stolen from the outpost. Sally sent her zombies off down the hill and cleaned herself and Cross off so that it didn’t put the others off of their food. She stared at Poppy, who didn’t seem to be eating.

“Can you only eat in private, Poppy? Because of your vow.”

The knight nodded.

“Oh, you should have said.” She stood from her chair and grabbed Cross, sitting the goblin down on her chair instead. “We’ll go to the other side of the outpost then so I can keep you company, and leave the boys to it.”

“Puh-hp.”

[Poppy: Okay ^^]

The small zombie didn’t seem too pleased to be left alone, but remained in place as requested. Likewise, Claude and Kristov were lukewarm on being lumped in with the undead greenskin, but kept any grumblings to themselves.

Sally rubbed at her head and sat on the ground beside a wooden log wall. It had been a long day already. A few hours before dusk, perhaps. After having a proper fight where she felt more like herself… she had made a decision on what to do in this world.

Getting the world absorbed into Sanctuary was the main goal. In a way that had been the idea from the outset - she had just gotten too lost in the emotional stakes of the people trying to survive here. If she wanted to save them, then all that mattered was getting powerful enough for Chuck to do his magic.

She watched Poppy take her helmet off after a quick glance around. The woman gave her a soft smile and then removed some food to eat from her Inventory. Maybe there was a way they could meet in the middle…

[Sally: Hey, Dent?]

[Dent: Here. All is well?]

[Sally: Yeah, got a question for you and Chucky.]

[Sally: If we take this world as is… could it be quarantined?]

[Dent: I believe we have something like that planned - why?]

Her thoughts ran around in her head as she typed out the reply. If they could keep an artificial separation for Thrimble while it was on Sanctuary, then Chuck could give the people here the benefits of their System but still allow them to fight against the big bad if they wanted. Those that didn’t could just go to the mainland.

[Dent: I see no reason why that couldn’t happen.]

[Dent: Will check with Chuck, but I see no issue.]

[Sally: Thanks, Dent - you’re a STAR~]

[Dent: Any problems with your dagger?]

[Sally: Seems fine,I don’t have many basic ones to fully test…]

[Sally: hmmmmmmmm~]

[Dent: Get another level and we’ll talk.]

She grinned to herself and closed down the windows. If they got to the point where they could drop her in with [Skeleton Key] and a ton of normal daggers - well, that would be even better than earning a permanent skill in a lot of ways.

Poppy tilted her head, eyebrows raised.

[Poppy: Something good? Theo???]

“Maybe.” Sally waved her hand. “But no, not fangs. Just talking with the guys back at base. They wanted to know if my dagger was working fine. They had sent a long list of things to check but I deleted it accidentally. Well, on purpose.”

[Poppy: May I see it?]

“Sure.” That was one of the things on the list, she was certain. Spinning it out of the sheathe, she stretched her arm out to hand it over.

It dropped onto the dried dirt.

[Poppy: Oh? Butter fingers! I thought I had it…]

The knight leaned forward to try to pick it back up, but her plated fingers just scratched lines through the loose earth.

“Huh.” Sally grabbed it up with no issue. “Seems as those it’s like… bound to me in some way? Only I can wield it because it’s a Sanctuary item? A limitation, but also useful?”

Poppy pouted and went back to eating her pastry, while Sally tried to imagine various ways in which to use that new information to her benefit. She’d need to let Dent know as well… but he surely had plenty on his plate.

They’d tried to hide that things were fine back home, but she could tell when they weren’t. For one, the Outsiders chat was almost dead - ironic given most of the participants. While she surely got on a lot of people’s nerves, there wouldn’t just be radio silence if things were okay. They just didn’t want her to worry.

Which was nice, even if it did make her eyes roll. No doubt Theo’s world would be claimable before hers, and if the issue was something the vampire couldn’t deal with, then she’d be no help either. Once she was powerful enough to save Thrimble, only then would she squeeze out the information from someone. After all, ignorance was bliss.

[Poppy: Are you sure about this dagger hunting we’re doing?]

[Poppy: Not to doubt your methods or anything…]

[Poppy: I’m just anxious;;]

[Poppy: Especially if we’re being tracked by a monster!]

Sally nodded. “Trust the process. If I get enough daggers, I can stab through any armor. Even stone. It makes level scaling mean less when I can strike a vital point past any natural or Stat-based defense. That equals faster leveling, as I chew through things with reckless abandon.”

Sally the Unholy Knight had been fun for a while. Something different. But… the thoughts of going world to world trying out different classes and living the Player experience over and over had already become tasteless, like old gum. She was a zombie who killed and ate anything killable and edible in her way.

Getting back to her overpowered state as soon as possible on a loop was the most effective way of doing this. It’s a Theo line of thinking… but she’d admit he’d be right in this circumstance. Not that she would tell him.

Idly, she ran her fingertips over the bumps in her padded leggings. This world was… a lesson.

Something to come to terms with the stakes and process of what they were doing. She wondered how big Chuck was planning with this. A handful of worlds to grow larger… then what? Keep continuing? There would be a point where Sanctuary was large enough. Maybe they could set up a second world to be a sister planet. Give it the same System but keep it safe, put some smart people in charge.

Then what of planets that were already doing fine? Peace treaties or ways to do trade? What if a System decided to wage war on Sanctuary? What if they weren’t edible?

[Poppy: You okay, Sally?]

[Poppy: You look like you’re about to pop!]

Sally refocused, the whirlpool of thoughts sinking out through the plug hole. All of that didn’t really matter. She just needed to kill and grow powerful right now. That was it, same as it always had been since day one.

Her eyes went up past the sitting knight.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Her hand gripped tighter at her blade. “Helmet back on, though. We’ve got company.”