Arthur was asked many questions by many people both during and after everyone had eaten their fill. The amount of food he’d given was, while a lot, not even half of what he’d managed to gather. On his way here, he’d stopped by nearly every single house on the street he went down, eventually streamlining his scavenging into an effective and quick routine. While he didn’t relish the thought of taking things that weren’t his, he wasn’t about to let perfectly good food go to waste because of a na?ve wish that things weren’t the way they were. He was fully aware that his inhibitions were something that, at least for now, he would have to put aside for practicality.
It was no small amount of times that he’d been asked specifics about his class, level and abilities. Some of the survivors had spied the battle that he’d charged in on, and therefore, saw the ease in which he crushed monsters that the refugees had been running for their lives from. Even before he’d dropped a several hundred dollar grill smack in the middle of a room full of hungry people, rumors had begun spreading. His display with Dr. Sherman didn’t cause those rumors to get any smaller amount of traction, with the light show only causing more stirs among the survivors. The enterprising members of their destitute group had talked about a shining green knight that’d turned the tide, but only after said knight had actually appeared did anyone give the would-be gossipers any credence. After saving Nicholas Sherman’s life and solving their food and water misfortunes in just hours, the stories coming from those gossipers quickly transformed from “baseless rumor” to “points of inquiry”.
While Arthur wanted to submit to his naturally trusting nature, he knew that giving out too much information was still a poor practice. The less leak there was, the less dangerous things would be for everyone involved once they got to whatever passed as “civilization” in this new world.
Aurora ate with the rest of her friends as the day slowly but inexorably turned to night. As per usual, Gideon and Ema were doing most of the talking and bickering while she sat back quietly to listen to their banter. Some might call it strange of her, but she rather enjoyed people-watching, and both of her friends knew she preferred to just listen to their conversations rather than talk herself. After all, this was part of why she and Ema got along so well. The garrulous and loud personality of Sasaki Ema mixed with the quiet yet attentive listening of Aurora Diné like hot, sweet apple pie mixed with a mellow, chilled whipped cream.
Not for the first time, she considered the new addition to their band. Arthur Lindow was a strange person for more reasons than most could tell from simply looking. Since one’s name and level were only visible when they became hostile, no one knew exactly what level he was. If his story about this “Undersea Redoubt” dungeon was to be believed, he had to be higher leveled than her entire party.
Identity Screen
Name: Aurora Diné
Title: N/A
Class: [Rumbling Sky]
Level: 7
Stats
STR: 1
VIT: 1
DEF: 1
DEX: 17
INT: 75
Accord: 2 offers
Link Mates: N/A
Feats: 1
The last time she checked, she and Gideon were both level 7, with Ema being slightly behind at level 6. With Arthur’s performance during the previous battle and the information he’d given afterwards, she assumed him to be around level 15 to 17, or even level 20. Strength also had to be his highest stat, with how easily he blocked attacks and ripped through enemy mobs. She read only a little about how the stats worked, but remembered seeing that weight tolerance and force application was under that roof. Lindow had both in such spades that she couldn’t imagine that strength wasn’t his focus.
As the night went on, Arthur became the focus of more probing. While Aurora had already made her own preliminary assessment on the man, she and Ema had the unique resource that was Gideon Omari. As the only one present other than Sherman that had known Arthur previously, he had insights on his character from before the System. Though he made it clear that they weren’t friends, he shared what he knew while the man in question grilled up a storm.
After his sharing of knowledge, Aurora came to the conclusion she’d already drawn; Arthur Lindow was essentially a teddy bear inside a suit of armor. The only thing that confused her was the dichotomy between his character and his acts of violence. During their battle outside, he didn’t show the slightest hesitation to cut down the monsters before him. While it was true that they were after his life, being able to kill anything with so little thought after only three days by his own word was concerning. Such a dichotomy would lead to suspicions of a serial killer’s mindset, but Aurora wasn’t sure that could be it, either.
Aurora looked at the subject in question. He was grilling a rack of corn, chatting amicably with a couple of people. She could tell he wasn’t used to the attention as he stumbled his way through the conversation, getting by on politeness and attentiveness. Offhandedly, her eyes slid down to his mostly destroyed shirt. He’d asked for new clothes, but in their desperation to find food and water, clothes were summarily overlooked. As a result, if he wanted to get rid of it, he would have to either conjure his armor or go completely shirtless. He would not do one because it was cumbersome and he would not do the other because he would be far too embarrassed, but both decisions left him with his torn up tee as his only shirt. Aurora noted it had far more dried blood on it than anyone else’s.
Thinking about Arthur’s story, she supposed it made sense why he found it easy to kill. According to him, he’d been trapped in an abyss of death for days, fighting for his life as much, if not more, than they had. He’d described horrible monsters she’d never seen before, half-living terrors that used bone spikes for weapons. He talked about how every enemy there out-leveled him and his friend both by miles, yet they’d still prevailed. Such an environment would surely breed a “kill or be killed” mindset; it would either shatter a person into tiny pieces, or build them up greater than ever before. It would hammer an individual into shining steel regardless of their previous ideals, if they were allowed to keep such ideals at all.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
She pretended not to listen in as the others began to grill him for information, just like the corn he was tending to. Hardly anyone waited for other items to be cooked after the chicken was finished, but even so, many looked on at the sizzling vegetables with watering mouths. Many still had food on their plates and seemed unconcerned about potentially wasting food. Vaults were a convenient commodity indeed.
As people asked him for more and more information on him, he began deflecting with the grace of an 8 ton elephant trying to turn during a sprint. It was clear that he lacked social graces, despite consistently committing attention grabbing actions. He spoke to each person asking him questions equally, or at least tried to as he let them down as gently as he could. Aurora imagined that if he wasn’t feeding their starving group, there would be greater resentment from the interrogators, but as it was, the most they did was grumble under their breath. She poorly hid her disappointment at the interrogation’s failure as she added his social skills to the list of inconsistencies in his character.
As the night went on, the three friends discussed the changes to their skills and Identity Screens after the most recent battle. They’d all leveled up before Lindow had arrived, but none had done their skill choice until arriving in their safe zone. Ema, ever the industrious, went first with talking about her new skill.
[Lifeguard]: Grant yourself or an ally a shield that absorbs physical damage. Shield HP is determined by the magical damage of the user, not the recipient. Shield lasts for 5 seconds, with moderate cooldown.
Arthur would have recognized this skill as one of Mira’s. While it might’ve been concerning that the wording of this skill talked about magical damage, the three assumed it should be fine. Ema’s magical damage would actually be one of her higher traits, but since she was a support focused class, it was just that she would never gain any attacking skills. Not having access to offensive magic didn’t mean her magical damage was any lower, as that was decided only by her intelligence stat, and not her class itself. Thanks to this, her new skill would actually be rather potent. Aurora went next after some nagging from her friend.
[Static Bolster]: Passive – Gain stacks of [Static] passively. Trade 1% of your max MP for 1 stack of [Static]. Grants additional [Static] effects to the [Lightning Bolt] skill as you level up.
- Level 5: If expended stacks of [Static] equal 10 or more, inflict additional explosion and fire damage.
The group was shocked at the usefulness of Aurora’s new skill. While it wasn’t an active ability, it was no less impactful for what it would allow her to do. Being able to start a fight with Static stacks was something that she’d longed for since gaining her class, and this passive would allow her to do just that. Just like everything else with her skill set, however, it would require exorbitant amounts of mana. Sacrificing half of her overall mana for full power from the start would be impracticable, as a full power Lightning Bolt would take more than she’d have left. The group theorized that the best use for that specific part of the skill would be to sacrifice 20% of her maximum mana to gain Levitation, and to gain the rest of the stacks the normal way.
Being able to spend mana for stacks of Static wasn’t the only thing the skill did, however. Gaining Static passively was also a huge boon, as she would be able to gain stacks while she charged up her skills for maximum damage. The icing on the cake was her Static stacks gaining additional effects, which was already starting off strong. Gaining the ability to make things explode was always good for a damage dealer, so everyone was suitably excited to see the new ability in action. Gideon went last, confident that his new skill was the best among the three.
[Arms of the Colossus]: Two sets of ethereal arms float behind you. These arms can hold items and weapons of any type up to a certain weight limit based on your weight tolerance. These arms can access your Vault.
While he hadn’t tried it out yet, Gideon had an instinctive knowledge that this skill would bring four large arms into existence behind him in an almost spider-like fashion. As the skill said, they wouldn’t be real arms sprouting from him, but rather purely magical constructs that would be half his size each. Being able to access his Vault meant that he could store weapons in it for his arms to swing, or even miscellaneous objects to throw or use in battle in different ways. He could even use them for non-combat purposes, making every chef in the world bitterly jealous.
While his skill was certainly potent, Ema argued vehemently that Aurora’s was the best. To no one’s surprise, the two descended into their usual bickering, with Aurora sipping at her water bottle, eyes closed contentedly with her signature relaxed smile.
In the middle of the night, while everyone was asleep, Arthur made his way outside. It was quiet, with even the constant wailing of crickets he’d been dealing with since leaving the Undersea Redoubt being mostly absent. He leaned over a railing, breathing in the clean, crisp night air with a sigh. After the System arrived, he’d noticed that the air had become much cleaner. That, combined with the stars and moon both growing brighter, he contemplated just how deeply the System suffused his world. He contemplated if it was even his world anymore.
“How did I know you’d be staring forlornly into the middle distance? Really trying to stick to this ‘man of mystery’ trope, aren’t you?”
Aurora languidly shuffled up to the railing, resting one arm on it as she looked where Arthur had been staring. He looked at her with a wincing smile.
“Sorry, did I wake you? I tried to be as quiet as I could.”
She shook her head. “Relax. I just couldn’t sleep as per usual. Ever since the… killing began, it’s been tough for me.”
Arthur’s eyes fell, and he turned back to look over the railing. “You too then…”
Silence went on between them for a moment, neither wanting to impede on the other’s thoughts. Finally, Aurora’s curiosity won out over her tact.
“So, why… are you helping us?”
Arthur didn’t answer.
“You only know two people here.” She continued when he didn’t immediately speak. “Not even that, really. You only actually knew Sherman, yet you risked your life for people you don’t know. In a world like this has become, almost anyone would be out for themselves.” She went on. She wasn’t normally the talking type, but this had been something that was bothering her for a long time.
“You only just got free from your own nightmare. In your own words, you barely escaped with your life, but then you come here and help us?” She shook her head. “You had so much food that it could’ve lasted you for months. Years even, if you had rationed appropriately with your new body. Yet you gave such a huge chunk to us. I don’t even know if you have any more than we saw left.” Losing steam quicker than she could gain it, she looked at him again. He remained looking at nothing but mountains and night sky, smiling to himself. “So… why?”
“You don’t give yourself enough credit.” He said, voice smooth as the nights breeze rustling through the trees. “You’re asking me why I helped, yet you’re doing the same thing.”
“You can get by without anyone’s help. I saw you during our last battle, you’re a one man army.”
“You say that, yet you’re the one who killed the most monsters.”
“That doesn’t mean anything. I can’t do anything unless people are-” She stopped, attempting to regain her balance. “I know that you’re trying to keep your cards close to your chest. If you don’t want to answer my question, that’s okay.”
Arthur finally turned to her again, his deep, beautiful green eyes piercing through muck-colored hair to meet hers.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to frustrate you. I only meant that you also chose to help people over saving yourself.” He smiled. “You could just fly away anytime you want. Maybe it’s not that simple, but something tells me it wouldn’t be that hard either. In my eyes, you’re a better person than me. It’s not as easy for me to escape.”
She looked down at his shirt for what felt like the umpteenth time. No matter how many times she looked, it seemed more ragged than before. There were more tears and holes than she could count, with dried blood splotched on it like a paint shirt. There were other befoulments, like what looked like ink and dirt. His arms were covered in small scars, and she could just barely see what looked like an enormous scarred crater where his heart would be. “Somehow, I doubt that it’d be as difficult for you as you make out.”
Arthur chuckled and looked up at the stars and moon. They shined with a dull, pitiless light.
“I’m helping because I can, Aurora. Just the same as you, Gideon, and Ema are. If I have something that someone else needs to survive, and I can live without it, I’ll give it to them. It’s that simple.”
Aurora let out a hum of satisfaction. “Something tells me that doesn’t exactly stop at something you can live without, big guy.”
Arthur smiled, but didn’t answer. Aurora joined him in watching the stars, eventually thinking about the goblins her new friend had sent flying previously. As they returned to the rest of the group for another attempt at sleep, she mentally emended her view of Lindow from a teddy bear to a teddy bear with a shotgun.