I woke up to darkness, immediately jumping from the ground where I lay just moments ago. Where was I? What even happened? I looked around, and saw heat radiating off from the… was it a Raccoon Dog? She was no longer level 4, however, and jumped to level 6 from the last battle.

  Mark was right there too, hovering in the air in a position that looked as if he was lying on the ground, his head turned toward the sky. Thousands of stars filled the horizon, the lights shining a dim light on the forest glade. Mark seemed entranced, not noticing me waking up, but the raccoon girl did. What was her name again?

  "Oh, hey there, Shrimpie!" the girl half-shouted, a smile already on her face. My eyes were already adjusting to the dark, and I could somewhat make out my surroundings.

  I still felt dizzy like all hell, though.

  "Sit down, shrimp. Your HP still isn’t full, but at least you stopped bleeding." A new voice commanded, and I finally saw the guide of the raccoon dog’s guide. She was as blue and transparent as Mark was, but obviously she was a woman, and older than Mark by at least a decade - evident by the small wrinkles on her skin, but even more so by the tired look in her eyes. She was shorter, too, as if whoever made her forgot to add a good ten centimeters of height. My head hurt too much to think about why I knew how much a centimeter was.

  I also seriously couldn’t recall their names. I’d probably need to write them down somewhere, unless I wanted to call them hey you for however long we’d be together.

  Yeah, I guess I could understand Mark’s point now.

  "What happened?" I croaked, my voice hoarse from the lack of water. "Did we win?"

  Mark finally rotated to a vertical position, looking at the commotion. Where had that man been during the fight? I made a promise to myself to talk his ears off about it later.

  "You almost bled out. The Tengu took a good chunk of your flesh with one swipe. Crudia and Talisha here are the reason you’re still alive, so you better thank them, Shrimpie."

  "I wouldn’t be in that mess if you had my back. Did you see me smash them to bits? I was damn unstoppable."

  “I’d say you were stopped enough.” Talisha grinned. Rude.

  Mark sighed and took a less fighting tone than usual. "I’m sorry. Okay? I’ve never been in a fight like this before. I’ll try… to be useful next time. I promise."

  I hoped that there wouldn’t have to be a next time. I, for one, would never leave my attribute points just sit around before a fight. Mark was supposed to remind me of that too. But the mood didn’t allow me to berate him more, so I dropped it.

  I was the best fighter there could be, and I wouldn’t let myself get outdone by someone who actually remembered to press a button here and there.

  I turned toward Crudia and Talisha, the two of them silent after our outbursts. They looked alike - a reflection of one another. Soft, short, yet full of life, that I had a hard time finding in Mark. Geez, did most of the animals get along with their guides? Was I an exception?

  Finally, I could see Crudia’s face for more than a glance, and honestly? She was pretty cute! Cute in the same way that wolf was earlier. I didn’t really understand what it was exactly, but the fur just called to me in a way nothing else did.

  Time to speak. No use in prolonging this awkward silence. "Thank you, by the way. Why not just leave me there, though? Would have one less thing to worry about."

  Crudia was the one to speak first. "Talisha is why. Told me to bandage you, talked with Mark over teaming up and such?"

  Huh? Would he decide everything now? Last time I checked, I was the one with a body. "Mark, we’ll need to have a talk later."

  "I know what you’ll say already. Yes, I don’t call the shots. Yes, you’re the apex predator and blah blah blah. You would be dead, Shrimpie. You need a teammate, and I’d rather work with someone who owes you their life as well."

  "Hey, I don’t owe Shrimpie my life! I’d be able to run away!" Crudia half-shouted again, prompting a pang of phantom pain in my skull. God, why was she so loud?

  She was also seriously delusional if she thought that she’d win that fight. She was lower level than the Tengus, and unless she had a powerful skill like [Bullet strike], I seriously doubted her chances.

  "And you were running for your life because you had it under control? Oh, please." I couldn’t suppress a small smile, though. It felt good to see another animal like this, see some thought processes that weren’t completely alien, even if she lived above the water before the tournament.

  She deflated a bit. "Okay, okay, I admit, I might have been out of my league there. But now I’m level 6! That’s gotta be an improvement, right?" She was so excited that I could imagine a tail swooshing behind her, even though it wasn’t needed to see her emotions written plain on her face.

  Mark came even closer, standing right above me. "Sorry, Shrimpie. Really. I’ll do better."

  Damn, how awkward. What was I supposed to do now, seeing that stupid look on his face? It would make me look heartless if I told him to screw off now. "Okay, okay. Apology accepted. This time."

  "Great! Now, we didn’t build a base yet, since-"

  I raised my hand, stopping him in his tracks. "No. I need to spend my attribute points first. No point in sitting on them.”

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  It was Talisha’s turn to laugh, the sound carrying over the silent forest. "Mark, I swear, your attention span is fried to bits. It’s like one of the most important things in this tournament!"

  Mark remained blue, but I could imagine that if he weren’t, then his face would be red. Served him right. And I liked that Talisha woman. She seemed somewhat more reliable, and making fun of Mark definitely helped, too. That guy deserved every joke that landed in his expense.

  Without further ado, I opened up my stat screen.

  Name: Shrimpie

  Species: Peacock Mantis Shrimp

  Class: NONE

  Level: 9

  Attribute points: 8

  HP: 62/100

  MP: 0/0

  Strength: 33

  Dexterity: 40

  Constitution: 20 (+2)

  Intelligence: 10

  Charisma: 15

  Skills - View

  Equipment - View

  Evolutions - None

  Status effects: Null

  Oh, level 9 already? My XP bar was all the way on the left, so I must have broken to level 9 just by a small margin, but the combination of crabs plus one Tengu definitely did pull those numbers.

  Ohhh, how lovely. Getting these numbers up just made my brain buzz in a way that nothing else did, and I just kept wanting to push them more.

  I wanted to put every single point into strength once again - it won me the battle this time around too, after all. But I remembered Mark’s words from last time. He wanted me to put the points into constitution, right? I still didn’t feel like talking to him, though. What a dilemma.

  Well, I couldn’t just sit around forever, right? I just dumped all of the 8 attribute points there. The change was miniscule, but I felt my muscles harden, felt the bloodloss get a bit less annoying.

  A thought struck me then - I wouldn’t be able to do fight before healing, right? There was a way to regenerate more quickly, though. "Mark, how do we get some of those potions you mentioned?"

  "Need to collect herbs. And craft a crafting table in a base. You’d remember if you listened while I explained the crafting system."

  Talisha interrupted Mark, showing off her knowledge. "Actually, the simple health potions and antidotes don’t require a table! We had no luck collecting the herbs, though."

  I nodded, questioning them further. For how lively the two of them were, I still wasn’t convinced that they’d be of any serious use. "So, how did the two of you survive the whole day? What was your goal for today?"

  Crudia tore her eyes from the trees, looking at me. "Goal? To survive, of course! And get as much XP as I can! That’s what Talisha recommended, at any rate!"

  "And it’s seriously a wrong approach." Mark interrupted, again choosing such an arrogant tone that I wanted to punch him in their stead. "Again, Talisha, didn’t you play any video games before in your life?"

  The tone seemed to irk Talisha even more than it irked me. Good! Show him his place, Ms. guide! "Excuse me Mr. Smartass, no I didn’t. I had this thing called a job!"

  Thankfully, this made Mark take it down a notch, replacing the tone with an exasperated one. "Even when you were younger? Back when the old consoles were a hit? Never?"

  Talisha didn’t bother responding again, and, as much as that guy irked me, even I could feel his hopelessness. It was a bit comedic, though. Well, better get to raising the morale "So, what’s the problem? Mark can just guide us all, right? And though you aren’t that much of a fighter, that speed of yours can really help in a fight, Crudia."

  The permanent smile plastered on Crudia’s face got even bigger, and she bobbed her head up and down so fast that I had trouble seeing her features. "Yes, sounds good, Shrimpie!"

  Talisha was about to say something, but Mark interrupted once again before she could do so. "Good. Now, it’s almost the end of the night, and you two can count your lucky stars since we didn’t get attacked by anything. We need to be prepared for the other nights, though."

  I expected as much. He was so hell-bent on cutting trees before that I was beginning to feel like a construction worker or something. Or was it lumberjack? These human occupations still seemed a bit arbitrary.

  "That means getting grass-rope, wood logs, and as many crafting tables as we can. Oh, and a flint."

  Talisha went to grab him by his shoulder, but her hand slipped through Mark the same way mine did. I thought that they’d be able to touch each other, but apparently not, much to the surprise to even the guides. Or at least by their expressions. "Hmph. Anyway. How does that help us in the long-run? They don’t gain experience from building stuff."

  Mark, as always, had an answer ready. He would never stop being a smart-ass, would he… And stubborn as a bull, he was. Definitely not like me.

  "Not true, actually. The floor is inspired by survival video games. That means crafting gets you XP as well, though less so. Way less. But it’s not nothing. They can kill monsters later, preferably a boss or two before the floor is over. But the important part is that they unlock skills, and crafting items should do that. Them getting stronger is also important, and items are one way to do that."

  "You sure?"

  "Did you not read the written guides? There was a section about it."

  "I did, but there were literally thousands of pages there! Tens of thousands even!"

  "And what else did you do, locked in that space for two years? Trim your nails?"

  "Excuse me? No? I mean, occasionally, sure, and ew if you didn’t. But I did spend most of the time trying not to go insane. You know, insane from spending two years locked in a damn room? I also tried crafting things from paper. I discovered that I LOVE origami! The pages of the books were really good material for it."

  This whole discussion went on and on, prompting even Crudia to face-palm and whisper something about how humans were stupid. My excuse for that - ‘Human eccentrics’ - made her laugh so loudly that our guides had to shush her, lest she call upon something in the forest.

  We also talked about our fighting styles and skills. She had a stealth skill, which made enemies lose track of her for a few seconds, and some other less useful skills, none of them that important for combat. Overall, I got the impression of a good scavenger, but a meh fighter. But it wasn’t all bad. Hopefully, she’d prove her worth later.

  [DAY 2]

  By the time the sun came up, we had a fairly solid plan on our next steps. I would continue cutting down trees and filling my inventory with wood, Crudia would go cut some long grass with her daggers, and possibly search for flint, and then we’d build a base after lunch, sometime in 6 hours.

  Our system had a friend feature also, which allowed us to contact one another after we shook hands in that weird human way. Gosh, did that feel awkward.

  But we did it anyway. Forcing down these natural feelings was hard, to the confusion of our guides. But I was really glad to have found someone that understands me a bit more here.

  "See you in few hours!" she said, and turned away toward where the river was.

  I said my goodbyes, and turned toward the trees, equipped my stone axe, and got to cutting. Mark just lounged nearby, as if mocking my hard work. Why couldn’t this whole thing be the other way around? Animals mocking humans? They would surely be more fun to watch, with how weird they were.

  As I had these thoughts, the first tree finally broke and began falling to the ground. With a large thud, I was not only rewarded with yet another tree inventory but also another message.

  [New Skill Unlocked!]