Party Up

As I walked past a building, I was able to see a group of three people standing in a circle talking to each other. I recognized that the voice I heard belonged to a woman, who was speaking Spanish. Unfortunately, I didn't speak any Spanish nor could I understand it, however they seemed to be having an argument with a younger gentleman who seemed to be speaking what sounded like Chinese or Cantonese.

As I walked up, an older man in a suit, noticed my presence. He nudged the younger gentleman, who then looked up at me. The woman looked in my direction now as well, and there was another moment of silence, before I took the initiative to say something.

"Does anyone here speak English?"

Silence. Well, that would have been too easy huh. It was then that I saw a screen appear before me.

[Carla has invited you to a party.]

[Accept/Decline]

I hit accept, wondering what this was about. When I did, I saw the health bars of my three new allies.

"Hello, can you understand us now?" I heard the woman's voice, however now I could perfectly understand her. The weird thing was that her words and her lips weren't moving the same, it seems this system came with a translation feature when in a party.

"I am Ethan, what were you arguing about just now?"

"My name is Carla, this guy over here is named Li, and his bodyguard there is named Yang. We were talking about investigating the area or to move somewhere else and look for other people."

"Brother, listen to me. I am Xu Li, I am the young master of the Xu family. We are very powerful, and we are not lacking in manpower. Once we find more members of my family, we would be safe. Let me know what your opinion is."

The young man Li was surprisingly better spoken than he appearance would have suggested. He looked rough, but he at least understood that his party's opinions mattered. I took only a moment to think before I voiced my opinion out loud.

"I think we should scout the area, and look for resources. Establishing a camp would be our first priority, and while I believe you are a powerful young master, however when we think about it, we are unlikely to find people as easily as you would think. The entire population of the planet, standing side by side, cover less than 5% of the planet. When that is taken into account, and then considering everyone was transported randomly, I think we have to consider the possibility that finding others could be a trek that could take several weeks, even months if we are unlucky. We have to prepare for the possible long trip."

Li stood thinking over what I just said. His brow was furrowed and he was lost in thought. While he was thinking, I looked at the man named Yang. He was big, and quiet. As I looked at him, he looked at me as well. Sizing each other up, I knew I would never be able to overpower him physically, however I wondered how powerful my [Chain Lightning] skill was.

"Can I ask something, can I ask about our skills? I was wondering if everyone had a combat skill or if non combat skills were possible." I asked, looking between Yang and Carla.

Carla answered first, "My skill is a passive skill, [Track] that allows me to find tracks and mark them for my allies. My talent is a combat talent, so you don't have to worry about my ability to help in a fight, however I hope you understand if I don't tell you too much about my talent. "

"I understand, I won't ask any more than about our combat ability. I have a noncombat talent, however I have a skill that allows me to chain lightning between enemies. I can cast it four times, before I am unable to cast anymore." I told the three, I thought about hiding the number of times I could cast it, however I knew it would become apparent after a few fights. I also didn't want it to become a problem later because of my attempt to hold my secrets back.

"I have a non-combat talent, it is a cooking talent. It allows me to be able to cook monster meat, and remove the harmful toxins from the foods I cook. My skill allows me to enhance my strength temporarily, allowing my fists to become lethal for a short amount of time." Yang was the one who spoke next, and he even explained his talent completely. I was a little grateful that we had a cooking talent, I hadn't considered the difficulty of finding food.

At last, Li spoke. "I have a combat skill, and a non combat talent. I am able to throw small fireballs the size of baseballs. My non combat talent isn't anything important honestly, it allows me to learn to be a better commander, however it is more similar to a hint or tips system. I am not asking to be the party leader by default, but I will do my best if given the chance."

"I don't mind, I think you'd make a good leader. So it doesn't bother me, but what decision did you decide on, are we going to establish ourselves or look for others?" I asked. I really didn't mind if he was our leader, or not. However if he had a talent relevant to it, then giving him the chance to grow would be best.

"Thank you Ethan, I think you're right, we should get a base going, and make sure we have enough rations before we start to wander. With the team set up, I believe having Yang as our vanguard, and Carla as our rearguard would be best. With you in the middle, and me supporting Carla, we should be able to handle most situations. Does everyone agree with the formation? We will then head into the forest, since it is close and most likely to contain animals we could kill for food. We will also pick up wood and tinder for a fire later." Li said, while looking around at us all.

No one said anything, and so we headed out to the forest together. We walked in the formation we agreed on, and as we shared information we found about the system with each other. Everyone had an inventory, and there was even a chat function. There were even ways to trade items, however the market was empty since there wasn't anyone with items yet. Early on items would be very valuable since they would be the only increase in stats that one could gain other than levels.

As we walked closer to the forest, I put my hand on Yang's shoulder, indicating for him to wait. When he saw my serious expression, he prepared to fight. Out of the forest came four wolves, however they were not ordinary wolves. These wolves had silver coats, and were at least 1.5x bigger than normal wolves. The wolves began to spread out, however when I realized there could potentially be a range for my chain lighting to chain to enemies, I immediately activated it before they separated.

[Chain Lightning]

[Critical Hit!]

[You have defeated Silverfang Wolf level 1]

[You have defeated Silverfang Wolf level 1]

[You have defeated Silverfang Wolf level 1]

[You have defeated Silverfang Wolf level 1]

I-

Was it supposed to be that easy...?