“Sai is there a risk of infections?” Kristina said, inspecting her body. She had a good amount of cuts on her.

“Unlikely. The only case is if the sloth’s blood itself is poisonous, but I don’t see a reason for it to be this early on.”

“Good enough,” Kristina said. She held her hands over the corpse. “Loot.” A bright light enveloped the sloth. In a burst of yellow dust the body vanished, leaving behind a tooth, a claw, and an eyeball that floated inside a small glass bottle.

You have gained 15% experience.

Steins has gained 20% experience.

Skan has gained 15% experience.

Sai has gained 11% experience.

Pistil has gained 10% experience.

“Interesting," Kristina said, 

"I know right?" Dante said, probably receiving the same message as Dante.

Kristina gave him a long, hard look. "Are you sure we're talking about the same thing here, Dante? Are you really, really, really sure?"

The degree to which Kristina emphasized each syllable gave Dante doubts. "If we aren't I would be disappointed in you," he replied.

"Sai?" Kristina said, turning towards him.

"You're not going to like his answer," Sai said, shaking his head.

"No shit," she said, turning back to Dante. "Let's compare our astute observations--there is a minimum experience earned, and anyone up to five people in the vicinity will receive a share. The percentages isn't solely based on damage dealt, either. Dante got too much experience if that was the case. The real mystery is why Pistil received experience without contributing anything."

Dante gave her the thumbs up. That was almost as good as his. "I was about to say--your name, Sai's, and Skan's all start with the same letter."

"Told you so," Sai said, chuckling. "Sorry Kristina, Dante wins the smart guy award this time."

Kristina walked up to Dante. She wrapped her hands around him and gently squeezed. At first Dante thought she was going to suplex him, but it was just a hug. "It's okay. You're okay. We're going to be okay, Dante," she said, her voice, patting him on the back. She stepped with a sad look in her eyes. 

Dante beamed back at her. Sure, she was teasing him, but he got a hug out of it so who cares?

"Now," she said a little bit more seriously. "Who is this Pistil?"

“Uh, that’s me,” he said, raising his hands awkwardly.

Kristina narrowed her eyes at him. “Who are you again?”

Ouch. Dante could see the pain on the dude. Everyone turned to look at him, and while that by itself wasn’t an issue the situation must have put immense pressure on Pistil. Kristina didn’t say it out of malice—she really didn’t register people often.

“I don't think I...belong here. I can lea—”

“He’s with me,” Dante said, patting Pistil on the back “He’s a bit shy but I get the feeling that he knows what he's doing." 

“Huh, I see. How is your sight?” Kristina said, rubbing her cheeks with her thumb.

“It’s good...” he said, though when he met Kristina’s eyes he changed his answer to alright. Dante could feel him getting smaller under his touch, the poor boy. He was probably comparing himself to Skan and her, and while Skan probably had a good five decades on them, Kristina looked younger than him.

Inadequacy. Grouping up with Sai and hanging out with Kristina for the past 4 years of high-school made Dante quite familiar with it.

“That’s good. Can you search for—”

“Let me do that,” Sai said, stretching in an overly dramatic way. “I’ll need to map out the surrounding area anyway.”

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

True,” Kristina said. "Go on, sho. We'll keep in a straight line at this speed.”

“But we don’t have maps?” Pistil quietly said, looking even more confused as Sai plunged into the forest. Kristina and Skan walked ahead.

Dante gave Pistil another pat. “Don’t worry about it. It’s a bit overwhelming at first but as long as you try your best no one will mind you.”

Kristina will be annoyed, and Sai will plan to have him "accidentally" die multiple times, but that’s only if Pistil was truly useless. Dante genuinely believed he had the potential to be a good ally. Not everyone has to be as good as Kristina to be considered useful. Pistil might be more useful than Dante once he got into his groove. It didn't make sense to ostracize him because of that.

Pistil nodded. He still looked at Skan and Kristina like they were foreign creatures but at least he walked with some confidence. “I just…Skan I understand, he must be a martial arts with decades of experience on him, but the way Steins fights is… I don’t know. She’s kinda—”

“--Driven."

“--Crazy...” Pistil said at the same time.

Dante turned towards him with a puzzled look. “What do you mean?”

“C-Crazy driven I mean. Fearless! She just went in there without a care or hesitation.”

“Fearless doesn’t catch it,” Dante said quietly, remembering how they met. It was back when Sai and Dante were completing another one of Jarckal’s challenges. They'd gone to a pretty horrid high school under his command-- the teachers didn’t give a shit about the students. They just wanted to push them forward so they graduate so the school stays in business.

Dante’s job was to clean it up—both in a literal and figure sense. It wasn’t easy. Even Sai had trouble coming up with a solution they can execute. Getting rid of violence, bullying, and drugs in the school was something Dante capable of doing with his body and Sai's guidance, but to get students to actually study after being raised in that environment? That wasn’t simple.

“I was in a fight, a couple years back, against some nasty high school kids,” Dante said reminiscing. “We were doing alright, but it wasn’t easy. Only a couple of dudes were brave enough to fight with me and they were getting hurt for it.”

“You do look the type,” Pistil said, looking Dante up and down. “No offense man, but I feel like the orc race suits you perfectly."

“It’s cool, but trust me. Compared to my uncles I’m just a kitten. Don't ask--weird family and all. Anyway, so we’re in the middle of a giant brawl and guess who wanders in with a megaphone in hand?”

“Steins? Did she beat them up so she could control the school?” Pistil said, his eyes suddenly glimmering.

Dante couldn’t help but cackle. Even Kristina looked back with frown, as if she could sense Dante was talking about her. “Sorry, sorry,” Dante said, wiping his eyes and catching his breath. His right side throbbed as more blood began to dip. Ops, Sai isn’t gonna be happy about that. “No no, take away the glare and she's an absolute dear.”

“What?” Pistil looked from Kristina to him. “Steins is…like that?”

“A little girl? Oh yeah, she's the cutest devil. I try not to fawn over her too much beca--” Dante stopped himself from rambling too much. He can hardly go around telling Sai likes Kristina like some elementary school kid... But wait, would that maybe?

“This...this is a lot. This isn’t what I expected. You know Steins in real life?”

“Yeah, we besties!” Dante said, nodding his head. Sai was his brother and Kristina was his best friend. Knowing Sai was into Kristina made it a tad difficult to view her as a sister.

“So what happened next?” Pistil said.

Dante liked what he saw in his eyes. Excitement. Passion. Those were the things that got someone far. “Hmm, to what?”

“To Steins! When she entered in the middle of your fight!” Pistil whispered.

“Right right. So she threatened to turn in the leader for...let me see, drug trafficking, assault, and shoplifting I think. It was hilarious. Everyone stopped fighting to check out her collection. Photos, statements, audio, and video. I wouldn’t be surprised if she had his browser history too---note that Sai tried to get it but failed.”

“His browser history? And that’s how she controlled the school?!”

“No, the evidence. Control? Why would she want to control the school? She just wanted her lunch money back. Apparently one of his goons took it from her.

Pistil stopped. “What?”

“I know right?” Sai knew about their business but he couldn’t get proof—neither Dante nor Sai were the covert type, and at the time they didn’t have the funds to hire anyone to do it.

“You’re lying,” he said, dead serious. “This makes no sense. It’s ridiculous!”

“Just because it's ridiculous doesn’t mean it’s not true. The guy surrendered and everybody ended up going home.” Without those punks reforming the school was a lot easier. Sai was somehow able to allocate school funds to hire Kristina to help with writing grants, reforming school policy, and a couple of other stuff Dante had no business being involved with. Most of what he did after that was to show up and smile.

Ever since then they'd done every venture together.

“What are you guys lagging for?” Kristina said, giving them a skeptical glance.

“Nothing! Nothing at all,” Dante said, waving his hands. After giving him a distrustful look Kristina went forward, chatting with Skan.

Well isn't that even more interesting! Kristina always respected capable individuals, but this is the first time that she initiated anything with a stranger. Skan must have been far greater than he gave him credit for. Or something must have happened when I was gone the past few months.

Well, considering she’s been noticeably brighter, there was no reason to worry. Dante turned back to an even more dazzled Pistil. “So what’s your story?

“Me?” Pistil said, slightly taken back. “Nothing special, I guess. Just an old gamer.”

“Well, why are you playing?”

“Loot ahead peeps!” Sai said, poking his head out of the bush.

“Yeah no,” Kristina said, turning towards him. “You’re gonna have to do better than that.”

“Big, scary, mean monsters, urghhh!” Sai said, plunging his head back into the bush when Kristina dashed at him.

“Let’s talk later,” Dante said. He followed the rest through the bushes, earning him a scolding from Kristina for the noise he made.

Level 2 Raccoon

Rank: F

Level 2 Raccoon

Rank: F

Yup. The game was just messing with them at this point. Those raccoons were just freaking bears. They walked on two feet and had two short arms with three wolverine like claws sticking out of their paws. At least the Sloth was creative, if creepy, but this is just downright mocking.

“Dante, distract the right one. Buy us 15 seconds. We’ll kill the left one during that time,” Kristina said.

“You got it.” It didn’t seem too fast. Its claws were an instakill if he gets hit by them, but as long as he kept them occupied he should last a bit.

“What?” Pistil said, pointing at Dante's right side.

He really likes that word, huh.

“He’s barely alive right now. They look even stronger than the boars!”

“We're not here to hunt--we're here to learn about this world and it's mechanics. Dante might die but it this will ensure we get another scouting round in before having to recoup," Kristina said, shrugging. "After that we can seriously grind it out."

Sai walked up to Dante with a determined look in his eyes. “You can do it,” he said, patting his shoulder.

“Thanks?” Dante replied, suddenly nervous. Well, that wasn’t odd at all. “And will you be doing anything today, Sai?”

Sai’s serious face collapsed into a silly, highly punchable smirk. “I’ll cheer you on, bud!” He gave a thumbs-up that Dante seriously resisted the urge to break.

Pistil seemed more unsure of himself. It made sense for him to feel this way, especially when considering the... extreme way they did things, but it wasn't anything Dante could do about that for now. He had his own part to fill. If Kristina thought he could buy that much time, then he likely could, but that didn't mean it wasn't going to take a lot of effort on his part. Staying alive was going to be the real challenge.

"Ready everyone?" Kristina said, taking her position.

"Ay ay captain," Sai.

"No, but let's go for it," Dante said.

With a nod from Skan and Pistil, Kristina began the countdown. On her cue they charged. Of course, out of the five of them, Sai was the only one that wasn't participating in the fight, so it was only appropriate for him to also be the only one to release a battle cry.