3 The Girl

"Inventory?" Ater asked, "Inventory is just 'Open inventory'. Why?" Otto opened his inventory to an empty set of 1 by 1 boxes as they lied on a blue board, "Your class doesn't give you a weapon, it's a free class remember? I think you'll probably find some dead group and be able to steal a weapon, but its quality is not... ensured."

There was a hesitancy with Otto's slow stare. They were going to steal things from dead people.

"You mean steal from dead people," He said, disliking the idea, "Ater, they're dead people. It'd be tomb raiding but weapons instead of jewels. That goes against my principles."

Ater gave him a long disappointed look.

The rain was gradually stopping, leaving lush wet grass behind as Ater walked out into the sun, with Otto. The black cat was small and looked childish with Otto following behind. Otto's somewhat lanky figure shuffled awkwardly.

"Oh, loosen up," Ater answered, "Anyways, it's not like you have any other choice. You can't change your class without money and last time I checked you were broke. Of course, you can try to find a dungeon, but those things don't come until like, later, later, and it's less effort."

Ater hopped over a loose rock, "Now look over there."

He lifted a small cat paw towards the edge of the field where someone was bloodied with brown and red running, "That is a dead body, someone with a weapon most likely. Now all classes have their individual weapons, but your class has the benefit of freedom; it's possible to use any sort of weapon."

"You want me to pick it up a dead person's stuff."

"Beggars can't be choosers," Ater snarked, "Besides I think it's a gun. He looks to have the build of a gunslinger. Guns are good tools to have when first starting."

Otto sighed and jogged over to the mauled body, the damage that was clearly done by a sword of sorts. Otto wrinkled his nose at the smell of rotting meat.

"The dead bodies are used as compost." Ater remarked, pleased with the disgusted look on Otto's face.

Otto picked up a bloodied gun and shook some of the dripping droplets off before he wiped it on his shirt, lightly staining it red. The body had deep dark impalement marks through him, eyes rolled up and blank as a deep red marked the pale grey of his shirt and pants. Hands splayed out as he seemed to grip something in the grass, there was a stench with the rotting flesh.

"How did you even find a dead body in the middle of this place?" Ater made a small smug meow, eyes narrowing in happiness at the question. He had planned it.

"My nose."

"Ew," Otto wrinkled his, "You mean to tell me that you were smelling a dead body all this time? I feel horrible for you."

Monotone as Ater scratched Otto lightly on the leg.

"It's useful so shut up," Ater looked at Otto as he held up the gun to a tree.

"So, do we just shoo-" A thin red light appeared as he aimed the gun at a nearby tree, trying to avoid the distasteful body on the ground, "... What is that."

The realization of the red line dawned on Otto as he shot a bullet at it. Right at the tree, right where the line met the tree.

"Does it need to be recharged?" Ater shook his head.

"No, it's running on mana, each bullet is one mana point," Ater replied, "You could transfer some of them, but that needs money so you'll have to wait a bit."

Otto nodded and opened his status to see exactly 99 mana points in it, he shot again, keeping his status open and was assured that his mana was going down with the number of bullets.

"Hey, how do we replenish our mana?" Otto asked, "Does it go up automatically?"

Ater nodded and watched as Otto held the gun to continue shooting.

"Huh, so how do we increase mana points? Like total mana points."

"Bunch of ways, but levelling up is the easiest because right now you're at level 1, there are 1000 levels. Do them slowly," Ater walked around and suddenly stopped, "Ah I forgot again, this is why my human form is better sometimes... The world's based on an encounter rate, that's what kills all the weak newbies first, unless of course, you have me. So don't go too close to the monster. Have you ever activated your skill? I mean it appears to be semi-passive, but it can't be completely passive."

"Activate it," Otto questioned, "Do we just scream it out loud or something?" Otto gave a small shout of his skill's name, nothing happened, "Do we need to be fighting to activate it?"

Ater shook his head and lick his paw again, waiting for Otto to activate his skill.

"Hey, answer me, Ater."

"No, you don't fucking scream it," Ater grumbled, "Are you stupid?" Otto glared at Ater as he continued random methods to activate it, "Just say 'Activate Eyes of the Devil' or focus really hard on it. You know, technical stuff."

Otto blinked in realization and muttered out a reluctant 'thank you' before he activated it, painting his world in red and blue and green as it turned into a grid, labelling everything and everything to come. His head hurt.

"What in the world?" Otto rubbed his eyes before opening them again, the projectile of a leaf, the patterns of the monster from far away, and simply everything and everywhere they were supposed to go, reaching him with the all-consuming boom of over information.

"It hurts my head, but everything is, visible?" Otto said as Ater tilted his head and padded away, "I can literally see where you might be going."

Otto trailed after Ater who walked around.

"Great, now tell us where we can find other people, you should be able to tell," Otto rubbed his eyes and tried to look, "C'mon it's not that difficult, just focus." Otto found green dots and red dots and blue dots and all dots distracting as he tried to find a label for 'human'.

Ater gave him an unimpressed look when he stopped with Otto nearly tripped over a wandering tail. Ater rolled his eyes and walked beyond him.

"It's hard, leave me alone," Otto grumbled and ignored the cat's whining for him to hurry up. He focused on a single dot, ping ping ping ping pi- "Besides what colour would a human be?"

"Peach," Ater replied, "It's what most kids are told when they're asking, what colour is mummy's skin?"

Otto ignored the pestering before he zoned into a smaller blue point that flickered each time he said human being.

A small blue dot appeared and along it was a small rectangular piece of information. Its info fulfilling whatever requirement Ater was whining about.

"Elizabeth Mills?" Otto stopped following the cat, "She seems to be human, a swordswoman, magic swordswoman, too. Might be useful. Doesn't say much." Ater turned around and nodded, "Say, will she notice if you start acting weird compared to her familiar?"

"No, her familiar will report me though, as long as they are a normal familiar. They all talk, but just not like me. Who knows which asshole up there is dealing with us," Ater replied, "Of course, I'll be mute, can't have you giggling in the middle of a conversation with a girl - You'll look like a pervert. Not that you aren't one already, don't know yet."

Ater blinked and unnarrowed his eyes, making himself look like an overly cute cat that had slightly matted black fur that retained little fluffiness. The rain did him well, "I'll try to be a cat, no, I am a cat, I'm a cat."

"Cats don't say 'I'm a cat'" Otto remarked, "They say meow or miaow or mao or whatever it is that cat's say."

Ater meowed.

"That was so similar, why can't you just be like that all the time? Soft and cute,"

Ater pawed at Otto's pants, fraying the ends before the blue dot came closer and closer. He could see the outline of a girl with what appeared to be an owl flapping around, "We're close."

Ater nodded and padded around on paws in grassy lands. She had light brown hair, mossy.

"Who are you?" The girl turned to him brandishing her long sword, hands awkward as she held it out. Her eyes narrowing, glaring at the newcomer with a gun and blood on his grey shirt. Hers was slightly stained, but her owl, dotted with black and white dots, was clean.

Wherever he had been, it was nowhere good. Ater had his eyes wide enough, stupid enough, to seem like a normal familiar as the owl stared at him, assessing, but also not, "I said, who are you."

Stressed words, stressed person.

"I'm Otto Kettering, though the system spelt it Otto Bettering," Otto slowly set his gun down on the ground, "There was a body over -" He pointed in the direction of the body, "- There and I went over to check if it was salvageable. Died obviously."

The woman lowered her sword and glared at him.

"Unless of course, you did it, then I'd get your... uh, err, hostility. I won't report you. I don't really know how to report you either, there doe-"

"I didn't kill him," The girl said, she had hazel eyes, with little bits of green around, "It was -" She paused and took a deep intake of breath, composure lose. It was too much, "-That was, probably, my friend."

Otto tilted his head and nodded, allowing the girl to sit on the grass and take an intake of breath.

"I was out and found him with another guy, another swordsman, and w-we were all friendly at first until we weren't. I don't know if it was something he said or if it was something I said, b-but he stabbed him, he stabbed Alan." The girl let her sword drop as she stopped looking stern, holding the sword as she bent down on her knees, "And now, I don't really know what to do. We were always together since we were kids and now he's just gone."

"So, the dead body over there is your friend," Otto clarified, "He was killed by a guy called who? We have to know the name obviously." Otto looked at the flying owl looking at him warily as he held a hand out to get her up. The owl didn't seem to be able to speak of anything except its beak.

Her eyes were had turned borderline teary as they started to sprout tiny drops, "I'm sure we'll still find him if we try. And I'm very sure that he had a reason that can help us find him."

"... Ed Brooks, that was what he called himself at least. He introduced himself," The girl stopped anything from dripping down, "Sorry for pointing a sword at you. Didn't know if you were like Ed. That guy was fucked-up."

Otto shrugged, it was understandable. Looking around the area as if looking for something, he saw a glint of red; the monster was walking a mere mile or so away from them, haggard.

"Something wrong?"

"We should get moving before the monster comes near," Otto said, "I don't think it can see us very well from here, but it's a threat." The owl stared at him and then looked at Ater, who ignored it in favour of staring blankly at the ground; being a cat was hard.

"Let's head to that tree," Otto offered. The girl followed him as he walked over, stray steps as there were loose stones here and there.

"I'm Elizabeth, Elizabeth Mills," She told Otto suddenly, "My mom was French, but I was born in America technically."

Her small hand was loosely holding her sword, unguarded. Otto didn't seem much like a threat anyway.

He often gave others the appearance of someone to kick rather than respect, a childish feeling without the pity, lacking a sort of maturity that some twenty-year-old people get.

"I was charged with, err, theft before I came here. Me and Alan realized that most of the people who came were probably convicts or ex-convicts since we were both thieves and the other guy... Ed, he was a robber. Seemed like a bit too big of a coincidence so we just assumed that everyone was here for something pretty small. It was one robbery he said."

"Murder, but I didn't do it," Otto answered, "It was a little girl and her grandfather." He looked wistful, beyond his age as he mentioned it, like some faux war general repeating a story. They were, or at least Otto assumed, happy before the murderer ruined all of their lives.

He should've been at home, drinking hot chocolate, writing his novel with the fireplace near his feet, toes in a rug. Cozy. That wasn't for him, maybe in some other universe.

"Don't think much people admit to murder, it's a heavy charge," She answered, sounding quite sad "What did you do for a living then? I obviously stole, not that I'm quite proud of it. You sound like a weirdo. Where are you from?"

Otto blinked and blocked his mouth with his hand, everyone he met said he sounded like a Brit although he's never even been to Europe. He was from the United States of America.

"Writer, from America," He shrugged and looked around with some hesitance, "Say, what's the name of your familiar? Mine is Ater. He looks cute for an owl. Kind of like a big cute bird."

Elizabeth smiled and petted the owl on the head,

"Minerva. It's a she." Elizabeth looked around, "What are you planning to do? We've been walking 'round randomly."

Otto continued with his walk. He was looking for more people as Elizabeth didn't seem all that useful in a fight. A ping rang through his ears, along with a gurgle of a noise from behind as the familiar blue screen popped up.

[You have spent ten minutes with a player, would you like to form a party with them? Reply yes, or no]

Otto looked over Elizabeth and her excited face and relented, "Do you want to? It doesn't seem all that important to me."

She nodded and they formed a party. Otto muttered a yes and another ping came

[Party formed, what would you like to call it?]

"Strawberry Pudding," Was the reply as Elizabeth looked at him with a confused look. Before she read the screen in front of her with an irritated noise. Ping.

[Party Strawberry Pudding formed]

"Strawberry Pudding? Seriously?" Elizabeth questioned, "It sounds uncool." Otto smiled smugly before he found someone else. The second blue dot of the day, but soon there was another blue dot and another. Dozens upon dozens of blue dots appeared clustering; A group of people.

"What?"