The Misfits meet System-san

Cassy and Drayden:

They had just received the same notifications and were busy thinking about it.

"So, we have been here half an Earth year," said Cassy.

"Time sure does pass when you’re having fun," said Drayden.

"Ah, I don't think it was all fun," said Cassy.

"Let's not think about that, OK."

"So, what does this mean?" said Cassy.

"I think it means we should start planning to move. We should go clockwise, as that's where the cold weather appears."

"Which means we need to go up and along the Rimwall to avoid the stretch of water that comes right up to the wall."

"OK. We have the water container for drinking water, courtesy of some poor slave girl. And for food, we fill our backpacks with as much fruit and spudnips as possible."

The following two days, they gathered the vegetable food, slaughtered a few more birds, and filled the waterbag. Then, in the afternoon of the next day, they looked out from their window.

"I'm feeling nostalgic," said Drayden.

They cuddled, patted each other's heads, and started purring. Drayden then progressed to stroking Cassy's hair.

“So, I have tamed you enough to be able to stroke your hair!” said Drayden.

“Tame me? That is maybe going a bit far,” said Cassy.

Then she jerked upright.

“What?” said Drayden.

"Look! There are some people!"

"Oh, shit, so there are. What do we do now..."

They were in the distance; it was only because of [Perception Boost] that they could barely see them. There were fourteen people, all with tails, so all, presumably, Felixians.

Cassy and Drayden cautiously withdrew from their window.

"I feel a little nervous about meeting them after all this time. Let's observe them for a while," said Cassy.

The strangers approached their location diagonally, from the anticlockwise direction. As they grew closer, Drayden and Cassy became increasingly uneasy, progressing to full-on horror. Twelve people were on foot, four carrying huge backpacks, while the other eight carried two sedan chairs, four per chair. The sedan chairs were open, showing two more men sitting in them.

Drayden wasn't very impressed, watching intently as the carriers of one chair staggered and almost collapsed.

"What lazy buggers, why don't they get out and walk?"

"Shit!" said Cassy, "Did you see that?"

The man in the chair that almost fell over had gotten out and slapped one of the carriers. They collapsed onto the ground, staggered upright and retook their station.

"That's a girl," said Drayden.

"I don't want to meet them at all!"

The man who had done the violence didn't get back into the chair. Instead, he hoisted himself into the nearest tree and rapidly climbed. Fortunately for our two teenagers, he wasn't interested in looking forward but in looking back.

"If he's looking back, does that mean he is afraid of being chased by someone or something?" said Drayden.

"Dunno, but they're now approaching us again. At least that man is now walking on his own two legs."

"Look, that other man in the chair is injured!"

So he was. There were visible red streaks of blood on his clothes, and he appeared to have a lot of bandages on.

They got closer. Drayden and Cassy became as still as possible, trying to avoid attention. Since their accommodation was without internal lighting, and their window was in perpetual shade, there was a good chance that anyone outside wouldn't notice them.

"Oh. Right," said Cassy.

It was now apparent the ones doing the carrying all had slave collars on. They were all younger than the two men and wore much less fancy clothes than the men.

Drayden slowly sank out of sight, then scuttled rapidly to the outermost door. They had already prepared for this; the outer door was only a metre high, and the inside was shaped to take four wooden poles, which acted to lock the door. Drayden put the poles into place, then closed the innermost door and also locked it.

At least this makes us a little safer.

Cassy hissed, "Drayden, look at that!"

Drayden slowly moved back into the line of sight to view the oncoming people.

"What the fuck!?"

Both men also had slave collars. Although the ones on the actual slaves were grey, the ones the men were wearing were blue.

"What does that mean?" said Cassy.

"Goodness knows."

It was also plain to see that everyone had mottled two- or three-tone skin. The colours ranged from black to white, plus red, yellow, and brown, and every possible shade in between.

"It's quite colourful, isn't it?" said Cassy.

The group disappeared from their viewpoint as they got up to the rimwall.

"Cassy, let's fight like hell if they manage to get through our doors, OK?"

"Y-yes. Shit. If these are slaves, then that means rape."

Drayden shuddered with horror, his tail flicked from side to side. He held onto Cassy, whose tail was trembling.

They waited. Finally, to their [Preception Boosted] hearing, they started to hear the steps and other noises as the party made their way up the stairs. Hopefully, they would miss the doorway...

No such luck.

Faintly but, coming through the small gaps between the stone doors and the surrounding walls, they could hear the voices from the party.

"Hey, there's a door here!" said voice A.

"So there is. Has someone evacuated a side room? But, how can that possibly be, since the Voice of the World should have forbidden it?" said voice B.

"Maybe it's part of the original stairway?" said voice A.

"Bullshit. It's rough around the edges, and the stone differs from the walls."

The footsteps stopped, and there were various thuds and scraps as the sedan chairs were put down.

"Well, get it open so we can look!" said voice A.

Noises of thuds and bangs and scraping sounds echoed in their little residence. Drayden and Cassy hugged each other and tried to keep as still and silent as possible.

"Shit, it's not moving." said voice A.

"Yeah, yeah, because none of these pathetic slaves you brought have any worthwhile skills. Somebody with a good [Stone Masonry] skill could be through that in ten minutes flat." said voice B.

"Because we didn't have enough money, you dumbass! And we weren't planning such an extended diversion, anyway!" said voice A.

"Aww, just shut up already, you fat slob."

"Well, it was your fault for trying to go through that shortcut! I told you that was the first place they would try to look for us!"

"Shut up!"

"And now we must divert hundreds of kilometres just to save our lives!"

"Just shut up!"

He finally shut himself up, at least for a while.

"Just forget it. We have more than a couple of hundred kilometres to go. Remember, we have to get well past the Manfestorian staircase - if we come down any near that, they will skewer your fat arse as soon as they see your blue collar." said voice B.

"How the hell are these miserable slaves going to manage to get us that far?" said voice A.

"Hey, maybe there are some ferrals that we can claim? Somebody with maxed-out strength abilities would be nice. Or, maybe some vermin we can put our collars on!"

"Dream on, fat slug. Meanwhile, I'm going to have to walk myself up these blasted stairs while you get a ride, you shit!"

"I didn't ask to be hit by a [Fireball], shit face!"

"Oh, just shut up. Again. It's all your fault. Only an idiot would be caught by a slow-moving [Fireball] in an ambush. And, slaves, get moving, or you'll get another beating! It will take at least four days to get to the top and another three weeks to get well past Manfestoria. So get moving!"

They got moving.

Drayden and Cassy, reflecting that they did have maxed-out strength abilities, sat there in the silence left behind by the slaves, arms and tails wrapped around each other, and didn't dare move or say anything for the next hour.

"D-D-Drayden... I don't want to be enslaved. They'll probably rape me, and I won't be able to do anything! Just promise to kill me if it comes to that, OK?"

"Ahh, right. Yes, err, let's hope it doesn't come to that, OK?

"Voice of the World? Perhaps that is what the locals call System-san," said Cassy.

"Hey! Remember when the system administrator started to say Voice of the Word and then changed it to System?"

"Anyway, the man said that the Voice of the World would normally prohibit such a thing as digging into the wall," said Drayden.

"That's right. So, just like the status says, our ability to dig into the Rimwall is unique."

"What, exactly, does that mean?"

"Who knows," said Cassy.

They decided to stay in for the evening. This was no problem since they already had enough food and water for the next couple of weeks—except they had to sneak out to go to the toilet.

Two weeks later.

"According to their talk, they should be getting past this Manifestoria place, whatever that is, by now," said Drayden.

"Yeah, OK. After all, if we stay here, the people pursuing them might arrive. And, by the sounds of it, they are a lot stronger. We don't want to get caught here like rats in a trap." said Cassy.

"Bloody hell, I guess so. Let's restock and go."

So, three weeks after the slave party had passed by, fully stocked with water, edible vegetables, and fruit and stuffed to the gills with a farewell roast dinner, they started climbing the steps.

"Bye-bye, fat roasting birds, thanks for all of the meals!" said Cassy as they stood on the top stair landing of the recess that contained the nesting birds.

“Is my girlfriend getting scary?” said Drayden.

“Oh, only slightly.”

They kept climbing, and two days later, they cautiously and slowly, looking in all directions, emerged from the top staircase onto the top of the Rimwall.