Propagate: A survival litrpg

Day 51

A month has passed since I saved Lily. in that time, we've gotten to know each other much better. I dare say we're pretty good friends now, no more awkwardness between us.

The weather has gotten much colder, though it's still only fall. I've had to go the extra mile while ensuring the base is well protected against the elements. I've made a whole lot of progress this last month, leveling up both myself and skills alike. I've made more leather, not just from the lizard monsters as I've been branching out to whatever I could.

I've built up what I like to call a shrine off to the right of the base. I stuffed it with every warm material I could get my hands on, as well as a sturdy skeleton for its base. Deep within its folds of protection lies the wyrm egg. No, I didn’t forget about it, but I have no clue when it'll hatch, if ever.

I've upgraded the whole camp to buildings once the cold really started to settle in. I even considered getting the [Adaption] skill to make the weather more mild, but I figured that would be unfair to Lily, as she can't use the shop herself.

The storage racks have been turned into a store house. It's about twice the width of a normal shed, the inside plastered with as many shelves as I could fit. It's also where I keep the silk spinner, at least, a much more upgraded one than I first built. This one actually stays put together! And I used gears to make the crank turn faster with less power.

Upon realizing how much wood I would need for the buildings, I finally built myself a proper ax. At least, after hunting for a proper wood. Regardless of affinity, using stone for an ax is just a bad idea. After a week of mass appraisal, we found a pitch black tree with violet purple wood, possessing a shadow affinity. With that, I crafted my shiny new hexsidian ax.

I devised a strategy to cut down trees. I would aim a foot above where I wanted to cut, then I would slice out pieces at angle, digging deeper into the depths of the wood. Once finished, it looked like a triangular maw had taken a bite out of the tree. I would continue doing that while going around the entire circumference, effectively making the tree stand on a much smaller trunk. If I couldn't simply topple it over at that point, I'd just chop through it until it did. Of course, I made sure to yell ‘Timber!’ every single time I did it, much to Lily’s annoyance.

I never cut the trees in the same place, always moving to farther locations, and never near my place. I'd love to replant the trees, but frankly, I have no idea where to get the saplings from. The ones in my base have taken root too much for me to dig them up without doing more harm than good.

Making the buildings involved a healthy dose of trial and error. I used to play this game as a kid called linkin logs. Each log had divots at the ends, letting you slide other logs into place, and preventing them from falling apart. I decided to do that here. Though obviously, it was really hard to cut the logs precisely enough but I managed. Suffice to say, I really power leveled [Complex Crafting] and [Grinding], oddly enough. Though at that point, I had evolved it into tier three; [Chisling], which gave me knowledge on how to chip away at materials in just the way I want. It was extremely useful for the task, and is probably the reason I never got a wood working skill.

I also figured out how to change my status display. The new one makes it a bit harder to find my passive skills, but I think it's for the best. Though, I kept the stats the same, horizontal way just looked terrible.

Class - Thresher | lv 27/50 | 1342/5400 xp **

Party Composition: Max (Dealer lv3 | -16% Skill cooldowns) | Lily (Leader lv2 | Clarity Buff)

Name - Maximilian | Race - Modular Human m

Achievements- The Special | Self indulgent | Sure Kill | I’ll be watching you | (+6)

Hp- 4850/9700 (1/2) | St- 7500/7500 | Condition- Curse of Soul Fray

Legacy: Sky Wyrm ( Wind | Draconic )

Ability’s: Chaos Potential | Overload | Resonation | Mana Sense

SkP- 10 | Stp- 13 | Souls- 487 143 3

Assimilation Bonus:

Stats - (+26 phys)(+3A)

Strength 61

Speed 72 (+5A)

Stamina 75

Dexterity 97 (+71)

Intellect 62 (+11)

Insight 11.2

Sense 85.8 (x2.6)(+10)

Vitality 48.5 (1/2)

Charm 16 {locked}

Special Skills -

Existential Empower ||| - lv15/20 Death Resistance \ lv3/99 - Corruption Resistance ||| lv1/20

Class Skills -

Desperate endurance || lv3 - Schematica (4/9) || lv4 - High Hound || lv3 - Defense Orientation || lv4

Passive Skills -

Complex Crafting ||| lv17/20 - Multishot || lv10/10 - Adv Dismantling ||| lv5/20 - Chisling ||| lv12/20 - Nimble Hands || lv9/20 - Toxicology || lv9/10 - Travel ||| lv12/20 - Strafe Lith || lv1/10 - Greater Regen || lv7/10 - Terrain Memorization || lv3/10 - Knitting || lv2/10 - Evasion || lv4/10 - CQC || lv1/10 - Feather Foot | lv4/5 - Bark Runner || lv2/10 - Night Owl | lv4/5 - Storm Wise | lv3/5 - Brain Enhancement | lv3/5 - Mana Touch | lv3/5 - Mana Manipulation | lv3/5

Active Skills -

Brash Dash ||| lv12/20 - Spring 4/4 || lv 7/10 - Power Boost || lv5/10 - Lofty Meditation || lv8/10 - Pierce | lv5/5 - Smash | lv5/5 - Slash || lv8/10 - Supplementation ||| lv13/20 - Seeking ||| lv5/20 - Sharp Shot ||| lv1/20

Resistances -

Greater Pain res || lv7/10 - Shadow res | lv2/5 - Force Res | lv5/5

Stocks -

+24 Str | +31 Spd | +23 Stm | +37 Int | +25 Vit | +18 Def | +7 Fer

Piercing chomp lv1-2 x5 - Crushing Bite lv1-3 x13 - Ripping Snap lv2-4 x9 - Healing Rush x5 - Feather Faint lv4 x1 - Claw Strike lv3 x2 - Snipe lv7 x1 - Armor Up lv1-4 x7 - Thread Spin lv7-12 x34 - Scale shot lv2-9 x28

So I may have done a little off camera mining. Lets just say a lot happened in the last four weeks.

About ten days ago, we got attacked by a roving band of kobolds. They looked like a cross breed between lizards and dogs, but they stood upright and had crude weapons and armor. I should clarify, when I say ‘attacked’ I mean I stumbled on them while I was hunting, and they immediately started chucking rocks at me. So in retaliation, I promptly murdered them all. Lily gets freaked out when I eat raw monster in front of her, so I ate the whole band right then and there, which is how I got the ‘scale shot’ stocked skill.

The others I got from a pair of tigers, the ‘claw strike’ skill, ‘Armor up’ from this small group of armadillos with oversized front legs. They had these huge metallic plates on their arms that could shift into a shield. I got ‘Thread spin’ from one of my many silk runs into the spider caves. And I got ‘snipe’ from this huge owl with arrows in its wings. It looked alot like that one pokemon from some of the latest generations. The name is lost on me.

I also got a new stocked stat from the twin tigers, called ‘ferocity’. It seems to combine speed and strength. It's essentially just attack speed, though the system mentioned something about channeling emotion.

I was excited when I reached lv25, I thought I'd finally get a new skill but nope. I got another goddamn coupon. This one is a [Class Skill Upgrade Coupon]. So now I have that and the molding coupon. Yeah, I still havent used it. I've checked though, and all it does is change a passive skill to an active one and vice versa.

I doubt I need to explain why my skills leveled up the way they did. My magic skills and [Brain enhancement] seem to level up in tandem. They're not very high level, since magic is stupidly hard and I'm too busy to practice. Lily says she's already ranked them up once. Actually, I can look at her status. I've grown familiar to the connection made from her skill [Party Link].

Class - Grand Paragon | lv 17/200 ******

Party Composition: Lily (Leader lv2 | Clarity Buff) | Max (Dealer lv3 | -16% Skill cooldowns)

Race - High Human

Name - Lily f

Skp- 3 Stp- 0

Stats -

Strength 7

Speed 15

Stamina 13

Dexterity 10

Intellect 40

Sense 20

Vitality 20

Spirit 10

Charm 17 {locked}

Skills -

Mana Sense || lv5

Mana Shifting || lv4

Mana Grasp || lv3

Water Affinity | lv3

Lightning Affinity | lv2

Stitching | lv3

Cooking | lv4

Focus | lv3

Meditation | lv4

Class Skills-

Super Appraisal |||||| lv5

Soul Exploitation |||||| lv2

War Conduction |||||| lv1

Party Link |||||| lv2

Lately she's been coming with me on hunting expeditions to raise her level and try out her magic. Our method so far has me pinning down the enemies while waiting for her to weave her magic. It's painfully slow, and she's slowed down even more by the stress. I try my best to assure her everything will be fine, but there's only so much I can do.

Besides the warehouse and silk spinner, I've made myself an actual house. It's about fifteen feet wide, and around seventeen long. I even made a little connected outhouse, with a door and everything. There's a closet, all sorts of drawers, a table and chairs. I went kinda crazy on the furniture. I didn't make beads, since I didn't really have a reliable way to get mattress stuffing. I just made a cot with woven string.

Don’t worry, I didn't forget about Lily. Even when I assured her making a second house wouldn't take up too many resources, she said she was fine. She even declined when I said I could put a wall between us. I had her settle on a curtain that she’d help make. She’s really determined to be useful, despite the fact that her presence is already helping me alot. I was mentally on my last legs when I saved her, just talking to another person is doing wonders for my mind.

Though, I think that's had the unintentional effect of turning her into my emotional anchor. Yeah it's weird to rely on such a young girl, but emotions are weird, I can't help the way I am. She's kinda like the little sister I never had.

Right now I'm making armor. Shin and arm guards. Over the last four weeks I've gone through a few variations of armor, and now i'm trying this one. It's a very fluffy bear pelt used as lining on a lizard leather sleeve. The actual armor part is metal plates I got from the armadillos, I couldn't eat them so I brought them back to base. Each armadillo had three rows of six plates on each arm, which then funneled to two plates and then one, resulting in twenty one plates on each arm. Eighty four metal plates in total. The other armadillos were clearly of a lower tier than the two I got the plates from, so I left them.

I tried to put three rows on the guards, but it just wouldn't fit. I had to settle for two rows of six fitted close together. It looked like a braid of metal. I put on both sleeves, and shivered as I felt the warmth immediately snuggle into my skin. Besides the arm guards, I made a much larger quiver out of lizard leather, with a very sturdy belt looping around my chest. I noticed the belt went right over my heart, so I attached an armadillo plate to the strap right over the area. Not great, but it'll do till I come up with a chest plate design. For now, let's finish these leg guards.

“ MAXXXX!!!” I hear Lily shout across the camp.

“ Uh YEAH!!?” I shout back while looking towards the source of her voice. I also focused on the link I had from both her [Party Link} skill and the Seek I put on her. Nothing out of the ordinary it seems.

“CAN YOU COME HERE FOR A SEC!!!”

“Sure!”

What was she working on again?

I walked over to where I heard her voice, directly behind the house and out of my line of sight. When I round the corner I see her on the floor with strings and needles scattered everywhere, the remnants of my cloak clutched in her arms.

“ Check this out!” she holds up my cloak, barely getting half of it off the floor, upon inspection, it looks like she's fixed it. The holes have been patched with leather that was sawn into the inner hide. New teeth for the zipper have been put in, and she's even lined the whole thing with leather!

“ Aw sweet! Thanks!” I grab it from her and put it on, immediately noticing the weight difference. The shoulder skulls have been replaced by a drape made of armadillo plates. Around twenty on each side shoved together and curled around. Actually not just the shoulders. She's made a ring of plates all around, about four plates thick. The wolf teeth at the ends have been replaced with smaller plates clipped on instead of hanging.

“ It looks good. And it feels good too.” I'm actually pretty happy right now. “ How about I go hunt us some volcan hogs for dinner in celebration?” Volcan hog is her favorite. Her eyes visibly brighten at my suggestion. “ Alright, while I'm gone, can you finish my leg guards?”

“ Wont you need those while you're out though?”

“ Nah, not really. Honestly, the arm guards are most important, the legs are just to complete the set. I need a chest piece more than anything. “

“How does that work? “

I ponder her question for a moment before answering. I wonder, is she just making conversation or does she really not know how armor works? “ Well, most attacks are aimed towards the upper half of my body, aiming down would give me a perfect view of the attacker's neck. Thanks to that, all I really need is gauntlets to pad my punches and to block any attacks. Of course, it's better to have a chest piece just in case, since it would cover my vital organs, but I know the strength of everything around here, I'll be fine without it.” I muse more to myself. “..Though, once we venture out I'll need to go double time on my armor.”

With my rant over, and Lily showing no signs of speaking, I walk over to my boots and supplies and start ferrying it over to her spot.

“ Say, why are you over here again? Specifically out of my sight. “ I add with a touch of suspicion.

“ I'm not some kid you have to keep an eye on 24/7! “

“ First of all, you ARE a kid. And second of all, you are way too weak to be out of my sight… I say as I'm about to leave you unsupervised for half an hour… “ I almost facepalm as I realize my own hypocrisy.

She chuckles at my mistake, but decides against pressing me on it. Wise move. “ I just wanted it to be a surprise..” She almost looks a bit down. Is she pouting?

“ Mmm, I see. Well, that's… fine? I guess? I don't know, I need to think. I'll see you in an hour, two max. “

“ See yah!! “ I exclaim as I dash off at mach speed.

I get over to the river after a few minutes, right at my favorite spot. It's essentially the only natural dock on this island, that and the one I used to climb on here for the first time which is on the other side of the beach.

The reason I came here specifically? Well, no horribly made boat this time, and I'm not gonna swim either. I look out at the rapidly flowing river, and set my gaze on the many small boulders peeking out of the water, like ground down kraken teeth.

Yep, I'll jump across. My [Spring] is at lv7, and every time a skill levels up, its ability increases and cooldown decreases. [Spring]’s cooldown decreases by three seconds for every level, and I got an extra charge at level four. I get another charge every thirty nine seconds. According to my calculations, if I jump at just the right time, I'll be able to leap the whole thing without falling into the water. If I stand on the smooth boulder for more than eight seconds, I'll fall. Ok, just like I practiced…

I set my legs into a sprinting position, I breath as my eyes fluctuate between each boulder, envisioning myself leaping between each one at just the right time. Three.. Two.. One.. Go!!!

I push off the dirt floor, the air rushes around my face as I jump and plant my feet firmly into the earth, before executing a perfect [Spring] [¾]. I sail through the air, using the advanced knowledge granted by [Strafe Lith] to perfectly align myself with the boulder in the air. Thanks to [Feather Foot] I know how to break my fall while maintaining my balance, and I do so perfectly as I slam feet first into the closest boulder. One down, seven to go.

Minutes of profuse sweating, along with intense mental and physical gymnastics, I end up on the last boulder. This course isn’t perfect, as the last boulder is still a decent distance from shore. For this reason, I'll be empowering my [Spring] which I didn’t think of until I was already mid air during my last attempt. (I had to swim to shore.)

As I crouch down, I feel my feet begin to slip off the boulder. Looks like time’s up. I push the immense energy into my legs as fast as possible, leaving me no time to admire the beautiful white and rainbow glow it produces as I activate my last charge of [Spring] and sail into the air.

Going… going…… Still going. Oh shit! Did I under shoot it? Oh wait, false alarm. Huh, that tree is coming at me pretty fas-

SLAM.

< -50 HP >

< Hp- 4800/9700 >

Thanks system. Real helpful.

I grapple my way out of the tree, eventually tumbling pathetically onto the forest floor.

“ Ow. “

The pain dulls the feeling of triumph, but not the hunger. I'm craving some pork. I use [Seeking] to find my query, wich then leads me on a wild goose chase towards the nearest group. I don't use my dash, as my speed is already superhuman. Those pigs can be hella fast when they want to.

Fifteen minutes of running later and~...

I do NOT know where I am.

I am now in a prairie. At least I see the Volcan hogs. One family. A big one, a huge one, and two medium ones. The smaller ones are about the height of the average twelve year old. The big one is as tall as me, and the bigger one is as big as a house. And they are all fat as hell. They're skin is a smoky color, with flaming stripes covering their body’s. They have a big mohawk of fire along their spine, and their tusks are also coated in a sizzling oozing orange liquid.

Thanks to all of that fire though, they have this remarkable bbq taste. It makes my Texan blood come alive. I'm not joking around for this hunt, I'm going straight for the kill. With that thought, I crouch behind a large cluster of tall grass. I pull out my bow and load a shark arrow. With little trepidation, I activate [Pierce] and fire at the largest one, probably the mother boar.

The arrow wizzes off with a minor burst of wind, displacement and all that. Less than a second later and the arrow goes through the big pigs head, and it crashes to the floor. I load another arrow as I acknowledge the kill notification. The pigs are panicking, and taking advantage of that, I fire another shark arrow using [Power Boost]. In even less time, the arrow one-shots the second largest pig.

I turn the bow horizontally, loading two arrows simultaneously to kill off the two younger boars. With my high level aim, missing a shot this easy would be straight embarrassing.

< lv12-26 Volcan hog Slain x2 668 XP acquired>

< lv6-8 Adolescent Volcan hog Slain x2 178 XP acquired>

Upon inspecting my status, I notice just how many skills I need to rank up. I've been holding off since I haven't actually had to use them in awhile, what with mostly hunting small game besides the occasional raid party. Well, no time like the present. System! Rank em all up!

< [2nd] Tier [Multishot] Has ranked up into [3rd] tier: [Spectral Arrow]- Create a spectral arrow out of stamina with half the power of the last arrow fired. Can also increase the power of a loaded arrow by 50% known as [Spectral Aspect]. [Spectral Aspect] will be split evenly among multiple arrows, and power will be evenly split among created arrows. Percent will increase by 5 per level.>

< [1st] Tier [Pierce] Has ranked up into [2nd] tier: [Penetrate]- Increases Damage and ability to pierce by 300% can be used on multiple small weapons or projectiles at once. One minute cooldown.>

< [1st] Tier [Smash] Has ranked up into [2nd] tier: [Wrecking Smash]- Increases damage and destructive force by 300% for five seconds after the initial skill execution. Three minute cooldown. Applies to both hands.>

< [1st] Tier [Force Resistance] Has ranked up into [2nd] tier: [Greater Force Resistance]- Decreases damage taken from blunt force even more, and decreases knockback taken. >

Passive Skills -

Complex Crafting ||| lv17/20 Spectral Arrow ||| lv1/20 Adv Dismantling ||| lv5/20 Chisling ||| lv12/20 Nimble Hands || lv9/20 Toxicology || lv9/10 Travel ||| lv12/20 Strafe Lith || lv1/10 Greater Regen || lv7/10 Terrain Memorization || lv3/10 Knitting || lv2/10 Evasion || lv4/10 CQC || lv1/10 Feather Foot | lv4/5 Bark Runner || lv2/10 Night Owl | lv4/5 Storm Wise | lv3/5 Brain Enhancement | lv3/5 Mana Touch | lv3/5 Mana Manipulation | lv3/5

Active Skills -

Brash Dash ||| lv12/20 Spring 4/4 || lv 7/10 Power Boost || lv5/10 Lofty Meditation || lv8/10 Penetrate || lv1/10 Wrecking Smash || lv1/10 Slash || lv8/10 Supplementation ||| lv13/20 Seeking ||| lv5/20 Sharp Shot ||| lv1/20

Resistances -

Greater Pain res || lv7/10 Shadow res | lv2/5 Greater Force Res || lv1/10

Looking good!

The mama pig is too big to carry, so I'll take the large one back and eat the rest of them. Thanks to the way my assimilating stomach works, when I eat something with the intent to assimilate it, the food just sort of disappears. I get no nutrients when assimilating food. But that also means I can just assimilate infinitely without getting full. Thanks to that, i'll eat the mama pig and two little ones here.

Well not here, actually. Upon doing a scan of the surroundings, there are some dangerous monsters near here. I'll have to move the food somewhere else.

After moving and consuming the pigs, I lift the big one and start heading over to the island. I'm a bit turned around, so i'll go a different way then before.

< Adolescent Volcan Hogs absorbed! Part: Whole. Processing… complete! 10 strength | 8 stamina | added to stocks! >

< Volcan hog absorbed! Part: Whole. Processing… complete! 22 strength | 12 Stamina | 14 Speed | Flame Charge lv7 | added to stocks! >

Crazy how much more stats these three hogs gave me than like five hundred ants. I guess quality is valued more than quantity for assimilation. That's good considering that's how it works for soul collection too.

Ah shit, I forgot to try out [Spectral Arrow]. Well, I'm sure there'll be a next time. At this point, I'm about halfway back to the island. After trudging through a small marshland, I'm back in a short but expansive forest. These trees are all very normal, brown bark and green leaves. I've been missing simple stuff like that lately.

NNIIEEEGGGHHH!!

I stop dead.

… Was that a horse? No, it definitely was. Now that I'm focusing a little, that's not all I'm hearing. The sounds are coming from the left, through a deep wall of hedge. I walk over to it and press my ears against the leaves.

More neighs, and the constant clip clop sound of hooves against ground. The sound of wood creaking, and metal shifting. Voices, all male. I can’t recognize any words though. I tear through the hedge wall, afraid that if I leapt over it I could be seen. The natural barrier is deeper than I thought, about five feet thick.

I'm tempted to use [[Wave Cutter]] against the wall, but that could have unknown repercussions, best to just suffer in silence without calling attention to myself. A moment of scrabbling later, and I break through the barrier. I crawl along the ground solid-snake style, and sneak through the bushes.

The busy sounds and voices grow louder and closer, and after shimmying forward fifty feet, I find a bush with a large enough opening though all its leaves to peer through.

Soldiers.

Wagons, goods, crates full to bursting with what I could only call supplies. Weapons, armor, tools, People!!!

But not my people. These guys are coated in medieval plate armor. Actually, the ones in armor seem to be marching somewhere in tightly organized groups. Around the encampment, tents and rudimentary buildings are being used and built, all non permanent structures.

A man clad in polished leather armor takes out a large roll of something shiny. He rolls it out on the ground and starts twisting it around wooden stakes placed far from the camp. Some kind of perimeter? It's not razor wire, it kinda looks like a conveyer belt filled with equally spaced holes. I notice other men of a similar description doing the same thing on the other sides of the camp.

They aren't making the wall around the entire camp though, they've left a wide gate for wagons to come through, which must be some kind of supply line.

I need to stay here and observe these guys. It's times like these I really wish me and Lily could communicate over distances. I'm sure she'll get a skill for it eventually, but it’d be nice if that time would come sooner! I feel my connection to her with the seek. She's still in camp, but pacing.

On another note, I have no clue what these guys are saying. I don't even remotely recognise the language they're speaking, not that I was exactly a language master on Earth. Luckily, I can feel a skill gaining xp pretty fast, which is hopefully a language understanding skill. Ill just have to wait and see.

An hour of stalking later, and I finally learned the new skill, along with another one I somehow didn’t notice.

< Acquired Skill: [Specific otherworld language comprehension] >

Jesus. Trim it down for god's sake.

< [Specific otherworld language comprehension] abbreviated to: [SOLC] >

For the last hour, the entire camp has undergone constant changes. The metal belt they wrapped around the wooden stakes was completed about fifteen minutes ago. It was done very sloppily though, most small creatures would be able to go through all the gaps made from the uneven spread of the metal. Is it negligence? Or intentional? Either way, it's thanks to that I can still see the camp despite the walls.

A man clad in mud colored robes trimmed in silver stands in front of me a few dozen feet away from the wall. He raises a dull metal spear with a wicked curved blade high into the air, before moving it in patterns in the sky. It looks insane to me until I notice all the mana in the area moving and twisting around the man. Every movement with the spear twists the mana every wich way, like a basket of snakes when whistling that desert tune.

I watch the strings twist themselves into five glowing constructs. He gathers mana behind the constructs, before moving the strings through them with a powerful thrust of his spear. The constructs spin as the mana strings move through and come out shining silver.

These five strings of silver mana then converged and twisted into another rune, much larger than the small ones they came from. After a few moments, the large silver mana construct seemed to be ready. The man planted his spear into the ground, before spreading his hands outward as though gesturing to the forest.

The sloppily placed metal sheets began shivering, before twisting and moving wildly. They straightened out and wove themselves together,before planting itself deep into the ground. In just a moment, the sloppy metal fence had become a hardy fortress wall. Now unable to see through it, I gave up on the reconnaissance and language learning.

I crawled through the hedge again, grabbed the hog and ran off toward the island. Change of plans. I need to tell Lily immediately. This is a huge step forward. People, real people! I'm not sure what I'll do next, but that group of soldiers holds the key to our future. Now, how do I get it? This requires intense discussion.

Time blurs and my memory forgets the journey. I leap across the rocks perfectly once again, barely acknowledging the impressive feat. With the massive pig in toe, I arrive at the island after two and a half hours.

I get back to the base, and after setting down the pig, I shout towards the house. “ Lily! I'm back!“

I hear her pipe up from within the house. “ I feel like that was more than two hours!!”

Oh yeah, forgot I said that. Luckily, sundials don't work in this world, giving me an excuse to not make a time device. I don't know the specifics, but the sun makes weird shadows that don't work the same as on Earth.

“ Well it totally was!!! Anyways, I found something pretty big! Come out here! “ I shout, trying my best to feign excitement. Regret worms its way into my gut as I wait for Lily with growing discomfort, as if announcing my arrival was a mistake.

A bit of rustling later, and she peaks her head out the door. She starts walking over to me with what I can only assume are my finished leg guards in her hands. A big smile etched across her face.

“ I have your leg guards right here! Where's the.. Oh! There it is! We're gonna eat super good tonight! What took you so- “

“ Lily. “

She stops rambling and looks up at me. Her body stiffens when she notices my serious expression. I watch her smile die with veiled disdain. What’s going on? What’s wrong with me? Why do I feel like this? It's at this moment that my words become stuck in my throat. And I get a good look at her for what feels like the first time.

She's short. Rather, she's very small. No muscle, less than five feet tall and quite thin. Her hair is a glossy brown, naturally wavy that comes half a foot below her shoulders. Her eyes are large, and colored a very deep blue, with strings of silver spiraled within. A very beautiful yet unnatural color. Though I have no right to think that, considering my eyes are green with a touch of gold. I wonder what the colors mean?

“ M-max? “

Despite my quickened thoughts, I've still been staring at her for almost ten seconds, completely silent. Any one would get nervous with that kind of atmosphere.

“Oh, sorry. Just… thinking about something.” Aaaaand there goes my window. I'll bring it up over dinner. “Actually, never mind. I'll just… go prepare the hog. “ I leave Lily to process as I saunter off to butcher the pig. I need to sort my thoughts. Why must socializing be so difficult?

*** Secondary ***

What the heck was that??

I watch as Max, the hulking brute that he is, stalks off towards the massive hog that had suddenly appeared while I was making his armor, among other things. I tighten my grasp on the large and heavy pieces of armor as he begins ripping the monster apart, his dark expression remaining unchanged.

My unease refuses to fall away as I walk back to the house to set down the heavy armor and consolidate my thoughts. I sit on my cot, staring across the cozy wooden expanse to stare at Max’s side of the room.

I look back fondly on that memory, the sheer perplexity on Max’s face when I said I didn't mind sleeping in the same room. He argued with me about it until I started gaslighting him into thinking it was normal. I don't think he has much experience dealing with… people… so I managed to convince him after an almost half hour discussion.

Of course, despite that he asked me multiple times throughout the building of the house if I wanted to change my mind. I always said no, resulting in him adamantly separating the both of our cots and making a sliding wall that I never used.

The first few nights were rough, due to my own nightmares and Max staring at me. He thinks he's slick, but his eyes glow in the dark and when he's fighting, making it really hard to sleep through it. The trauma from almost dying a month ago is still fresh in my mind. The whole experience made me recognize the danger and absurdity of my whole situation. I even recognized how odd it was that I wasn't freaked out for the first few days.

I confided in Max about it. After a moment's pause, his demeanor shifted dangerously, and he told me about his near death experience with The Wolf, and the status condition; Mania.

According to his own personal theories, the system puts a secret condition on people like us, which he calls ‘The Displaced’. This condition removes emotions like fear, panic, and stress, allowing the displaced to focus on survival, supposedly giving them a better shot at completing whatever purpose we have.

His Mania broke when his fear overrid the condition. He thinks something similar happened when I was attacked by the hoard of monsters, but he was surprised I didn’t notice the condition or the messages he supposedly got when it broke. What with my [Super Appraisal] and all.

Ever since that event, I've been plagued by fear and nightmares. It's why I can't stand being alone. Just the few hours he leaves for hunting puts me on the verge of panic attacks. I was relieved when I heard his voice, though I had to steady my heart before meeting him. I wonder if he can see through my smile?

He tries to play the big brother role. He's doing a good job taking care of me, despite the situation and his lack of experience as a caretaker. He even told me that he liked kids, before panicking and flushing red saying “N-not like that though!!!!” I remember he had shouted indignantly, despite the thought never even crossing my mind. It took everything I had to not unravel into a giggling mess, in order to maintain the serious atmosphere and prevent him from ‘nevermind-ing’ the conversation.

He then cast a dark look to the side, saying that he could ‘never interact with them’. He added to my unease when he looked back at me and switched to a bright smile almost immediately, before chowing down on whatever meat happily, as if he were a beast without complex emotions.

I’ve come to understand him better in these last few weeks, specifically his lack of perception concerning himself. He has no clue how scary he can be, or that I can see through his strained smile. He can't help how intimidating he is. But when he looks genuinely happy at me, before turning a wretched glare at the empty forest, It scares me.

I like Max. This isn't some unfortunate circumstance I have to make the best of. He’s trying his best for me, despite his mild sociopathy, so I want to understand him better. If he could be open with me, it’d be better for the both of us.

With my thoughts consolidated and goal set, I ventured out of the house only to be met with the decedent smell of roasting volcan hog. My mouth waters at the scent, but I swipe it away and harden my heart, preparing for what's to come. Time to break through this barrier with Max!

*** Primary ***

About twenty five minutes after our impromptu staring contest, I notice Lily walk out of the house before wiping an arm across her mouth, as if I hadn’t intentionally wafted the smell over there. I almost said a greeting, before the anxiety spawned from the last conversation grasped my heart with its icy hands. Over dinner. I’ll say it over dinner. Fuck, why is this hard!!!

I notice her face as she trots over, steeled with determination as if she was about to slay a dragon, or accomplish some other type of monumental feat. I really do wonder what's going on in that head of hers.

“ Is it ready yet? ” She asks, hunger evident on her face. Starting a conversation? How rare, especially considering this awkward situation I've created. Man, it's times like these I wish I wasn't a sentient being.

“ Hey-”

“ Hey-”

We both start talking at the same time, derailing each other's conversation attempt. I mentally imagine shooting myself in the head, content with just staying silent for the rest of the week until Lily pipes up.

She waits until sure I don't want to speak first. She resolves herself with her head down, before looking up at me with eyes filled to the brim with determination.

“ Max, thank you for everything you've done for me.” She starts off theatrically. Oh no. Did she finally get tired of my antics, is she leaving? Oh no no no, no!

Before my lamenting kicks into full gear she continues. “ I appreciate you taking care of me all this time, building this wonderful home, hunting food every day, and personally ensuring my safety. I really can't thank you enough. “

…But?

“ However..” She visually squirms in place. “... this relationship isn't right. I want you to rely on me just as much as I rely on you. I don't want to be your eternal burden, riding your coattails to success. I don't want to be unremovable chains weighing you down. I want to lift you up. I want us both to stand on each other's shoulders. I don't want you to be my dad or some kind of guardian. I want us to be…..” She struggles for the right words, the effects of her emotional gushing already having taken weight in my mind.

“ Friends, allies, partners. Don't keep me at arm's length because of whatever responsibility for me you think you have. “ She paused to catch her breath, though no more words were necessary.

“ Lily." She looks at me. “ I’ve been trying to be a perfect guardian, elder, and role model. I'm not. I'm afraid. And I don’t know what to do. Where to start. I've been stumbling around in a dark cave with no light and no exit. I'm confused. The fear has taken a back seat but now.. “ I stare at my blood stained hands. “ I don't know what to do. I just don’t know… where to go, what’s next. How to get us out of this endless wait for nothing. “ I feel something heavy weigh down in my eyes, running down my face. “ I.. It… I….I’m……..” I cover my face with one hand while leaning on that arm, I slump over, attempting to do nothing.

With nothing more to say, no way to close off my sentence, or make a heroic end to my speech. I go limp with sorrow. I hold back my sobs, attempting to hide my weakness from her. I fail. I remove my hand to see lily nowhere to be found, until a small body wraps around me, radiating comforting warmth.

We stay still like that for a long time. Until I get a hold of myself, and a little after that. “ You're not useless." I say unexpectedly. “You have been doing much more for me than you can possibly know.“ I hear her say “thank you.” quietly, her voice muffled almost imperceptibly from being buried in my shirt.

We disconnect and sit side by side while staring into the fire. In wordless, comfortable silence, I hand her a plate topped with cut volcan hog meat and a fork. She eats with a small smile as I mull over my next words.

“While I was out,” I started slowly. “ And the reason I was late was because I found people. “ Lily snapped her head towards me and started vigorously chewing in order to say something, almost choking in the process resulting in me patting her back a few times.

“ cough cough… thanks…” she coughed pitifully. “Welcome.” I said neutraly. “ Not good people though, it was a band of soldiers, setting up some kind of camp not far from where I hunted the volcan hogs. They have a huge supply train of wagons continuously pouring through a gap in their defenses. They have huge stockpiles of armor, weapons, base materials, and probably food, though most of the crates were unopened. On the one hand, this means there are people in this world besides us. On the other, they clearly are not displaced like us, and are probably here on violent business. For all we know, they could be here to exterminate us! ”

“The reason I blew you off earlier is because I still didn’t have a plan on how to deal with them, or if we even should. But, it's both of our business, plus I'm universally clueless. So… what do you think?”

The entire time I've been talking she's been eating and listening intently. Now that I've finished Talking she swallows her last piece of pork before speaking. “ We need to go talk to them!!!” She shouts.

“Why?” I say, refusing to use my brain. “Those carts must have come from somewhere right? Which means there are human settlements nearby! Which means more people, and gets us a step closer too…” She stops abruptly in confusion. “What's our goal again?” I look upward with my eyes while thinking.

“Well, we really only have two big ones. Find more displaced, and get back to Earth. Mainly finding out why we are here and how to go back though. I miss the convenience of high society.”

She looks up thoughtfully, maintaining the same motion I had just executed. “ Well, it's not like we can find out stuff while staying in this forest, plus other displaced would probably gravitate towards other people as well, right?”

“ Actually, that gives me an idea!” I say. “ We should aim for a library. Though i'll have to power level my language skills before that…”

“ Oh yeah. Forgot about the whole ‘Language barrier’ thing. Man, they always gloss over that in anime.”

“ Every. Single. Time.” I state exasperatedly. I look up at the moon. “We should go to bed.”

“Agreed.” She said easily.

As we both march off to bed, I think about tomorrow and the days to come. I guess my loneliness arc is over huh? Tomorrow we talk to the garrison guys, I'm sure it'll go over peacefully with no repercussions. Why do I do this to myself? Now something bad will definitely happen. Or maybe it won't now that I've acknowledged it? I'm too tired for this.

Continued on in the next episode! Hah! I crack myself up sometimes… If my life was a movie it would flop hard, this shit is boring af.

I enter the cabin only to find a suspicious lump in my cot.

“Lily. What are you doing? Go to your own cot.” she popped out of my blankets indignantly. "But what if I don't wanna~” she drawled. “ What if I don't wanna?” I said, casually ripping her off my sheets by the collar of her dress before dropping her onto her own cot. “ You can do whatever you want, just don't involve me.” I said tiredly as I slipped into my cot.

I hear ruffling before the unholy scrapping of wood on wood. The sound stops and I feel something lightly hit the edge of my cot. warmth radiating near me, but not touching me. My curiosity overwhelms my unobtrusiveness. I turn around to see Lily's face a foot away from mine.

“ I.. you.. Do-...” she cuts off my rambling. “Good night!” she says happily, clearly enjoying my reaction. I let out my last gravely sigh of the night as I turned to face the wall, finally falling asleep to the sound of her breathing.