“Gonna say it out loud,” Ezekiel welcomed Jason, grinning. “You ain’t shit, man.”

Fuck him, too. Jason chuckled and smiled back. He immediately found a nice root to lean his back to and breathe.

His legs are still twitching. His right arm feels numb. The sensation of him driving a dagger into a wooden creature remained alive in his fingers. Jason will never forget this. His eyes fell to the area where the monster was slain. The ground was shaken. Few broken trees. It seemed like a grenade was dropped here. For a moment, Jason thought that he could have died, but he smiled it off. Everything just feels amazing.

But it is time to get to the matter at hand.

“Rations.”

Jason materialized his supplies. A bottle of water, pieces of dry bread, meat, and berries appeared in front of him. Ezekiel took point and checked if there were monsters around. Once he’s certain that there weren’t any. He joined Jason in his meal.

“I don’t think that seeing this world as a normal game will work to our advantage for long.”

Ezekiel groaned bitterly. “I was hoping that you would not say that, at least not right now.” He cupped his chin and looked at the moss-lit ceiling. He gave himself a moment of silence. “You didn’t get EXP, huh?”

Experience points. It is a prime mechanic in almost all role-playing games. As a standard, it is used to reward players for going through all the missions and all the content and at the same time mitigate their progression and lock them out of some parts of the game. Progression is the key idea here. If there is no EXP to farm, they cannot get strong. And if they cannot get strong… Jason’s mind wandered about his first kill.

“Not a lick. If you told me that they were designed to be ignored, I’d believe you. They did reward me with coins. Two FAIs or coins to be precise.” Jason sighed. All of that trouble for two gold. Relatively speaking, though. The fight was easy.

“So there must be a shop somewhere. If our stats won’t progress, then we can probably stock up on some items and use that to clear the dungeon.” Ezekiel smiled. “Assuming that this game is well-designed of course. I had my fair share of playing RPGs like this, too. To summarize,” he materialized his character parameters. “we don’t get ‘strong’ by increasing these numbers. These numbers will only go up if we’re strong. This is a measure of how consistent we are relative to these skills.”

“So, what are you saying?”

A vein popped at Ezekiel’s forehead. He would have cried tears of blood if he could. “Arthur is good with chicks, so he probably has a lot of charisma. It is not the other way around.” The poor man clutched his chest as he stifled a bitter cry.

Ezekiel has thirteen points in Finesse. Based on how Jason understands it, he finds it easy to execute his theory in practice. In short, he’s both creative and skillful. Jason thought about how the previous fight went and how it ended up with a lot of dead trees. Jason failed to not make himself laugh.

Ezekiel clicked his tongue. “Bro…”

“Nothing.” Jason laughed and Ezekiel soon followed. “It does mean that you’ll have to work on your communication skills if you have to increase your charisma. That being said, thinking about how graceful your shots are… it is… very… consistent.”

“I’m telling you,” Ezekiel laughed louder. “I held up my bow perfectly. I was going for a headshot. There were no crosshairs, so it threw me off! That and the lack of EXP is a dead giveaway, the game-like aspects of this gave stops at our gear. We have nothing to exploit. And I really have to learn how to shoot like a proper archer.”

“There are no critical hits, either,” Jason added. “Based on what you’ve said, if we are to treat this as real life, no amount of damage will kill the monster if we keep hitting the wrong thing. Its weak point is its heart. And now that I’m thinking about it more, had I attacked somewhere else, I would have died.”

“So that means…”

Ezekiel cupped his chin. Silence fell on both of them. Jason’s eyes got sharper. Ezekiel did the same. They are brothers in arms. They have experienced combat together and can trust each other with their own lives, to a certain degree. They know what the other is thinking right now. And they both shared an evil grin.

“We can kill Arthur,” Jason continued.

Ezekiel’s face did not change. He must be holding it in himself right now, but the fist pump he allowed himself to have was a dead giveaway. Jason got into it and started smiling once again. His face was starting to get sore because of this. He must be having fun. Indeed, it has been a while.

“So now, we have to get back. It’s getting late.” Jason showed Ezekiel the time and date in his inventory. Today is November 13th. It is also almost 10 PM. He can only blame the luminous moss of this forest for screwing up their perception of time. “If I have to sleep, I might as well do it in a safe zone. And besides…”

Ezekiel raised his brow.

“We gotta get you a girlfriend.” Jason started walking away. He had to stop himself from letting out a laugh. They’re going to fail, and Ezekiel is going to fail spectacularly. “We have information to share. And once we look credible enough… it will be easier for people to join us. And if more people gets to live… the higher your potential to—”

“I get it.” Ezekiel caught up to him and clapped his shoulder. “Thanks, but nah. Not right now. I don’t mind waiting a bit. Gotta have that cool story to tell, remember? So, why don’t we treat this more seriously before getting me a girlfriend? Being called a slayer of oakwalkers has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?

Ezekiel offered Jason a fist bump. Jason reluctantly indulged him.