The Misfits meet System-san

Bronsen:

They went back to the cave and stepped into their new accommodation. The air smelt clean, crisp, and cold - after all, a two-metre-wide hole led outside.

"That entrance hole is a bit of a danger; any passing hungry creature could stroll right in," said Alice.

"Hmm, there are plenty of boulders outside, if we picked one of the right shape and pushed it into the entrance to act as a plug..."

"But how do we then get inside?"

"Ahh, how about we push it all the way in? Then get in ourselves and push it out just enough to block the entrance?" said Bronsen.

"Wow, this Emotional Control ability is amazing."

"Yeah. Next thing, we need food and clothes. And we have three wargs and one horned cougar lying outside." said Bronsen.

"But no knife, remember?"

Ding! [Bonded Dagger] added. How about you allocate 10 points to it?

"What is a [Bonded Dagger]?" said Bronsen.

Nevertheless, let's allocate 10 points to it.

Alice must have done the same thing since-

Beeeeeeeep! You haven't noticed yet, have you? You have a 'shared' system status. Only one of you needs to allocate anything!

"Oh. I see," said Alice.

"OK, I'll allocate the points..." said Bronsen.

Let's see, I think status and presto, I have a status screen. It is strange how it is in my visual field, but it does not seem to interfere with my normal vision.

OK, allocate ten points from our accumulated points into [Bonded Dagger].

Bronsen was interested to see that he now had 33 points in his free points number. Plus, a new entry for the [Bonded Dagger].

So we started with 55 points for killing the cougar, the system used 12 points for [Emotional Control], and I just allocated 10 points to the dagger option. So that explains the remaining 33 points.

But what about all of these locked points? There are over twelve thousand! How about I allocate some of them?

Ding! They are called Locked Points for a reason, you know.

Bronsen gave Alice a sheepish grin. "It was worth the effort."

"So, how does this [Bonded Dagger] work?" said Alice, "Wait a minute, the [Heat Resistance] has gone up again. And now there's 13 more points in the other free points number."

"Shit!" said Bronsen, "Look at that! - Drayden's and Cassy's names are also there!"

"Oh. I must have been too busy before to notice," said Alice.

"So they are in this word, also? Somewhere, somehow. Only not here, since there is no need for heat resistance where we are." said Bronsen.

They hugged each other again, arms and tails around each other. But only for a moment. After all, their [Emotional Control] didn't let them off the hook; they had more important things to get to first.

"Sigh. So, now, how does this [Bonded Dagger] thingy work?" said Bronsen.

As he said so, he had held out his empty hand.

"Hmm," said Alice, looking at his hand, now not so empty.

"That's a neat trick," said Bronsen.

He held the dagger up close.

"Yep, your basic dagger, black handle, polished black steel blade, hmm, it looks razor sharp, but... it can't cut my skin."

"Of course it can't. If our skin can come out of that battle with the cougar still intact, then it will take more than a little knife to damage it," said Alice.

"Pretty obvious when you say it like that."

They spent a few minutes in the fun pastime of materialising and then dematerialising their daggers. Alice tried the experiment of tossing hers away. It vanished once it got more than four or five metres from her. But she was able to rematerialise it again.

"Oh, wow. This is amazing!" said Bronsen.

"Yeah, it can never get lost, can never be taken away from us, always on hand but always out of sight if not in actual use," said Alice.

The next step was trying out their new toys.

"Let's go and get the warg bodies and bring them to the mouth of the cave," said Bronsen.

He immediately set off.

Alice:

Alice watched as Bronsen, with considerable speed, raced back to their first location, feet pounding over the snow, tail flicking back and forth to maintain balance.

Can't he wait just a moment to get me on board with his plans?

But she kept her mouth closed. This time. She chased after him.

He looks handsome. Broad shoulders, trim waistline. Shit, what am I thinking of, I don't have time for that.

[Emotional Control] working overtime, she concentrated on immediate concerns.

"OK, now that we have the three wargs back here, how about I do this one, and you watch and then do the same for that one?" said Bronsen.

"Right," said Alice.

"OK, lie the carcass belly up. Now get out the dagger; we now cut off their you-know-what. Then split the hide from tail to throat, then insert your knife under the skin - ah." said Bronsen.

He stopped and waited while Alice went green in the face, turned around, and puked up a bit of stomach fluid. He gently patted her back.

This is cute; I'm patting her back with my hand and tail. And her tail is wrapping around my leg.

"It's all right, Alice. I did the same thing the first time, err, only time, I butchered a sheep."

I feel a touch squeamish right now.

Fortunately, the Emotional Control ability kicked in. Feeling much more settled, they continued and ended up with a lot of messed up pelt and flesh, but they were now the proud owners of two warg pelts, with numerous holes and cuts in them, plus several large chunks of what looked like cookable muscle flesh.

"Never mind the wastage; I'm sure we'll get better," said Bronsen.

Ding! Basic [Butchering] skill added-initial 5 points allocated by the system.

Note: such skills can not have their points increased by the user. They can only be developed by appropriate experience.

Alice skimmed through her status screen. And found that, yes, she now had the skill basic [Butchering]. She also had the skill, basic [Fishing].

"Cool." said Alice, "Wait a minute, we also now have basic [Fishing] plus [Swimming]. And [Emotional Control] has gone up to 15!"

"That confirms it! Drayden and Cassy are somewhere out there; it looks like they are in a hot place on a lake or ocean shore," said Bronsen.

Alice concentrated on the [Fishing] ability. She had the momentary urge to dive into the water, dagger in hand, and lunge at a passing fish.

There's no water here, so ignore that!

Getting back to business, Bronsen took the hides and the usable slabs of meat and put them inside the cave in one corner. He used one of the hides to wrap the meat in, thus keeping it off the sand.

Then they, working together, returned outside, butchered the third warg, and stored it inside the cave.

This is incredible; it feels more manageable, and we are much more efficient than before.

Now for the big one.

Bronsen indicated the cougar.

"If we get the skin of this one, we can use it as a blanket," he said.

He then coughed and added: "Err, naturally, a shared blanket? Purely to combine our body warmth, of course..."

Alice stared at him, and he started to wilt. That is, his tail slowly sank.

Hmm, actually, why not? Although, shouldn't my body react a bit more to this situation? After all, we are both naked. In fact, why isn't his body reacting at all?

Never mind, wait until we are safe and sound in our new home to worry about such things.

"Sure! Purely for the shared body warmth, of course," she said.

Bronsen's tail sprang up and actually wagged a few times.

Alice couldn't help herself. She burst out laughing. Bronsen, looking at his tail, went red in the face. Eventually, Alice decided they had better get back to business.

Half an hour later, they now owned one big pelt and some larger slabs of meat. There was still a lot of waste, but their results greatly improved upon their first attempt. Bronsen decided also to save the horns.

Ding! Basic [Butchery]: 3 more points added. Still, mind you, there is a long way to go before you get a good fur coat.

Ding! [Fireball] ability added.

Alice hastily looked at her status screen.

Yes! [Fireball] with 3 points.

"I don't know what a [Fireball] is, but it sounds awesome. What if I put in ten more points?"

She tried, only to get a message:

Ding! Nope, this is a skill the user can't allocate points to.

Bullshit system.

"Anyway, how do we use this?" said Bronsen.

Standing naked in the snow, feeling the cold but not shivering, they looked perplexed at each other.

"What about an instruction manual?" said Alice.

System san didn't bother replying.

By just concentrating on the [Fishing] skill, I had a momentary desire to stab a fish. So, what about I think about wanting to produce a Basic Fireball?

There was a slight 'whoosh' sound, and a glowing ball of light appeared a metre in front of her. It sat in the air, a sphere a couple of centimetres wide, a pale blue colour. Not blindingly bright, just bright enough to be seen in the currently gloomy cloud-covered weather conditions.

Alice carefully and cautiously looked at her creation.

I don't feel any heat - I probably need to get right up close to it. She slowly moved her hand towards it and began to feel the heat at a fifteen-centimetre distance.

Now I feel the heat.

Encouraged by this, Bronsen was also able to create a Basic Fireball. His was precisely the same size and colouring as Alice's.

"We've got our nighttime lighting! And, how hot is it?" he said.

Without further fuss, he reached out to grab it -

"Ouch! That hurt!"

Course it hurt, you stupid twit. How about taking a bit of care next time?

But Alice didn't say this out loud.

Bronsen's [Fireball] had disappeared when he hurt himself. He furiously waved his hand around, then eventually stopped.

"It's already stopped hurting - I suppose that must be one of the results of our tough bodies."

Half an hour later, they had a campfire burning brightly. Alice had made sure to get in first and proposed that Bronsen go around harvesting firewood by breaking branches of the closest trees while Alice watched for predators. Lighting the fire was easy; Bronsen created a [Fireball] right next to some of the finer branches in the fireplace, and eventually, they caught alight.

Sitting next to each other, lumps of cooked meat dangling from their daggers, they ate their fill.

"It's a bit tough," said Alice.

"It could do with some seasoning," said Bronsen.

"Not to mention some vegetables."

"And a glass of orange juice."

"I'm sure my mother could cook up something scrumptious with this," said Alice.

They both stopped eating for a while. Their arms were around each other. And their tails.

"This [Emotional Control] is incredible. I think I would be going insane from stress about now without it," said Alice.

"Yeah."