It didn't take long for the spilled monkey guts to start to smell. "Pee-yew." Eimear said as she grabbed up the remains of the monkey and dropped it unceremoniously in the river. "I can't believe the devs made smells this lifelike."
"Who says devs made it?" I asked.
"What do you mean?"
"What if this is a world based on that game? Not actually a game?"
She shrugged as she kicked a hole in the clay to slide the viscera into. "There's still a menu. If there was ever any evidence for intelligent design in the world, the System sure feels like it would be it. What else could it be?"
"Nanobots in the water that infects our vision?" While I didn't think that at first, I did start to wonder what was actually going on. If we were in a game, shouldn't the System be telling us about it, about our exit conditions, or what the state of the world was?
"Some gamer who ascended to godhood to create this reality?" She asked in reply.
"A system created to harvest living energy to replenish the world from corruption?"
"An alternate dimension that our consciousness got pulled through?"
"Alien invasion to harvest our consciousnesses and resources?"
We laughed in unison at that last one.
"It doesn't really matter, does it?" She looked forlornly off at the setting sun. "We aren't in Kansas anymore."
"Is that where you were from?"
"Naw, I'm from..." She squirreled her face. "Fuck. I can't remember. Mi-something."
As we got lost in thought, Eimear pulled at her bloody gambeson. "I'm going to take a bath."
Without any other warning, she pulled her shirt off. I went beat red and turned around. The sun crested against the horizon -- the sky turning beautiful shades of oranges and yellows.
"Oh sorry," she said. "I didn't think you'd mind since we're both girls here"
"But... I..." I took a deep breath.
She sighed. "We don't have time to be shy. We have to survive." Her feet crunched on the rocky clay behind me. "You should also wash off."
"N-No. It's fine. You can wash." I gulped. "Someone should keep watch. I... I.. have a spell for it."
"Oh," she paused.
My body clenched as I kept my eyes on the tree line, waiting for a bomb shell to drop. I couldn't tell her.
"Yeah, that works."
I let out a sigh of relief.
She laughed, then punched me lightly in the back. "No need to be so prude about it. Cast your spell and clean up, the smell is as likely to attract monsters as the fire is."
"I... Ok."
What else could I say? I plopped down on a driftwood log next to the burgeoning fire and kept an eye on the tree line with my Sense Monsters spell. I started to get curious and looked over my shoulders, but I shut my eyes before I could see anything.
"Holy shit. That's fucking cold!" She shouted from behind me.
My eyes shot back to the fire and the meat started to smoke on the axe-head skillet. I started to Respecialize to take Clean.
I heard her furiously splashing and scrubbing, and as quick as she went in, I heard her feet scrambling up the shore. She plopped down next to me, shivering and naked.
The meat was coming along nicely. Maybe a little blackened from the ash and smoke, but it should be ready to eat soon.
"You ain't clean. Where's the spell?"
"Uhhh... It's... uhhh," I stammered out.
"I-if you don't have a spell, just g-go on in. T-the water's great," she said as she shivered.
"Uhhh..." I scrambled to find an excuse. "I need to cook dinner."
"I c-can do that." She reached over and grabbed the axe skillet from me.
"But..." I looked down, and winced as my wounds flared up. "I might reopen my wounds."
"What?" She exclaimed. "You didn't get hit that much, did you? You must've lost, what? Ten hit points, at most."
I turned to her and gaped, my eyes went down to her chest, blushed, then stared back at the fire. "I-I o-only have t-ten hit..."
She laughed. "Girl. What has your panties in a twist? You never seen another girl naked before?"
Silence.
"Wait..." More laughter. "Seriously?"
Silence.
"What? Were you homeschooled or something?"
"Or... something." I mumbled out.
"Well, the system was pretty strict about sex, so at least I know you're also a girl." I could feel her gaze on me as she studied me. She let a hand flop down, limp at the wrist. "Gay?"
I twitched with rage at the accusation, but didn't dare refute her. According to the darned System, I was incredibly gay, getting turned into a girl. I doubted my token resistance counted for anything. I may as well have prayed for it and let it happen. I was an idiot for thinking that it was a good idea.
"Really?" She used her sword to flip the slab of meat on the axe head. "I mean... I'm not, but I knew plenty of girls in college that were. Nothing to be ashamed about."
"I'm not..."
"Girl, it's fine. I ain't afraid of you jumping me, and you don't have to worry about me jumping you." She grabbed a stick, and hung her recently washed gambeson and trousers on it. She held it over the fire as though she was roasting a marshmallow. "Wait... Only ten HP?"
"Y-yeah?"
She nearly dropped her clothes into the fire. "Girl. You need way more than that."
"B-but I'm a mage."
"And survival is king. You need HP."
"But what about--"
"No. No buts. We gotta up your physical stats." She rolled her steaming and barely less bloody gambeson around to dry the other side.
"But, how?"
"No clue. We'll figure it out. Have you gotten any skill ups yet?"
I shook my head. "You?"
"Nope. I wonder how we do that." She looked into the fire. "Can we eat yet?"
"I think so. Let me check." I cast Extrude Wood to pull out a shelf from the driftwood log we were sitting on. I took the axe out of the fire, and plopped the meat onto the makeshift plate. It oozed as the smell made my stomach growl in anticipation. I used the axe to brutally sever it in half revealing the tender pink meat hidden behind the blacked outside. I offered a piece to Eimear, as I grabbed the other with my hands.
"Thanks." She shifted her stick to between her knees, steadying it with one hand while the other took the oily and dripping piece of charred meat. "Bon a petit. But you still need to take that bath."
It was bland and stringy, but it was still the best thing I'd ever tasted. I nearly burned my tongue from the heat, and she laughed as we both blew on our food to cool it down. We were still hungry by the time we finished, so we carved off another chunk of the monkey monster and put it on the fire.
My low activity counted for my respecialization, and I was finally able to take Clean. I cast it, and the blood, mud, sweat, and grime vanished as motes of dust.
"Much better," Eimear sniffed my now clean everything and nodded in approval.
"We should find shelter." I blushed as I tried to change the topic. "Before it gets too dark."
She nodded. "I might know of a place. There's a mesa not too far from here. It looked like there were cracks running all along it. We could probably find a cave that we could hide in for the night."
"We should get moving then."
"Once we finish eating. We'll be better off if we aren't hungry," she said as she stared greedily at the fire.
"But then we'll have to travel in the dark."
She twisted her face in annoyance. "It's fine, I have my fire magic."
We were both interrupted by a system notification.
[ System Message: Daily status update.
Skill Increases:
Appraise 0->1
Athletics 0->1
Axes 0->1
Bravery 0->1
Butchering 0->1
Carrying 0->1
Composure 0->1
Concentration 2->3
Cooking 0->1
Dodge 0->1
Empathy 0->1
Focus Regeneration 0->1
Insight 0->1
General Mana Control 1->2
Health Regeneration 0->1
Leadership 0->1
Logging 0->1
Parkour 0->1
Perception 0->1
Persuasion 0->1
Physical Resistance 0->1
Rapport 0->1
Stamina Regeneration 0->1
Stealth 0->1
Survival 0->1
Tracking 0->1
Woodworking 0->1
Native Memory Update Progress: 41% ]
Pain wracked my head as new knowledge flooded into my Neural Annex, sparking like lightning. I suddenly knew the basics of a bunch of different things. However, at the same time, I got that feeling of standing at the precipice of a void, that there were things I should know about that seemed to vanish from me.
When it said Memory Update, was it taking my memories from me? My gut roiled as it felt confident in that conclusion. How much of my life was just gone? How much of me was replaced by knowledge of this world? Forty One percent?
It was all too much. Too many new skills and holes in my memory.
I grew weak in the knees as my body revolted against me, the only thing holding me up was leaning against Eimear. Though even she seemed overwhelmed by her own updates as we both collapsed.
Before I could come to terms with my replaced memories, we got a new message.
[ Zone Message: Warning. Death in the community negatively affects cohesion score. Current settlement is deemed unviable.
Day 1 of 10 of the New Native Elves of Erendria Trials complete.
Evaluation Rankings: Taur-Na-Tastaith Zone-47 is ranked 40/58. You are currently below the acceptable threshold. Finishing below the acceptable threshold will mean zone resources will be repurposed. ]
Then my stomach dropped out from under me as I read the third message.
[ Admin Message:
Good evening Elves of Erendria,
I'm sure that this past day has been quite a trial for all of you, but I hope that you've been starting to adapt to this new world.
I know the Zone Message was ominous, but don't worry about whether or not you live up to its thresholds or not. There is a place for everyone in Erendria, so even if this utopian forest isn't it, I'm sure we can find another home for you. (We're always looking for orcs, goblins, and other monstrous races to challenge our new heroes.)
That said, the System is going to be upping its strictness on in-world dialogue and verisimilitude over the next few days. You may start to get more warnings, or outright censoring of conversations. Please be aware of what is expected of Natives of Erendria.
Keep trying to survive, and work together to become the next generation of Natives. We are looking forward to seeing what the top ten elven teams can bring to Erendria.
Through adversity and apocalypse, we triumph,
-Elven Native Admin, Cyril ]