Notail Simulator Beta (4/4)

((Same as before))

First thing was first, setting up a base of operations.

And by that you mean set up the tents and fire pits you’ll need to survive. This is easy, mainly because everyone but you is a master of survival skills, but guess what? As the leader, you don’t need to know anything about what you’re doing. You tell everyone what they need to do and hope they know what they’re doing better than you.

In this case, it pays off. An excellent base is completed quite quickly and you already assigned people to get food.

You have no idea how they’re going to get food, but you’re the leader, so that’s not your problem anyway.

You have trouble figuring out what to do next after completing the base and obtaining a stable food supply, so you drag the E-classes who aren’t working with you to explore the surrounding area.

Fortuna rolls a 20 sided die. A 13 is rolled.

The area around the factory isn’t all that impressive, but you do locate better areas to gather supplies. Other than that exploring the area around the ruins is fruitless. It’s much like other places in the woods except with a few rather strange creatures who are labeled as “Decommissioned” lurking around it.

You wonder why the ruins are a hot spot for these creatures. Maybe the Z-classes dump them here when they no longer require them.

You find yourself, and 1/4th of the entire swarm without much to do. You thought the whole factory traveling would take less time, but apparently, there’s a giant maze of rooms in the basement, far, far, more prominent than the factory. E-4 and the rest of the swarm come back every few days, and you do not want them to come back and see you all fiddling with your thumbs. You suddenly decide to attempt training them.

Most of the E-classes aren’t well versed in physical fights, instead deciding to take up long-range arrows and sheer numbers. That simply will not protect them if they ever get cornered.

You help them gather up any knives nearby and teach them how to weld it and attack with it. Everything seems to be going fairly well.

Fortuna rolls a 20 sided die. A 3 is rolled.

Until one of them accidentally stabs another E-class rather harshly. There was so much blood, you were sure they were going to die.

They survived, barely.

After that everyone wasn’t interested in training knife to knife combat. Using a knife was easy they would mention. All one needs to do is hold it, and then stab. They felt like they learned more than enough.

Also, they didn’t want to be the next notail to lose 25% of their blood in one go.

They didn’t tell you this, but you knew this was the primary reason for them to blow training off.

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Every time the rest of the swarm came above ground they would take a day or two to relax after being in a stuffy, dark basement for so long. You always expected to be chastised for not doing much more than maintaining the base and making sure there was more than enough supplies to go around.

E-4 never seemed very interested in yelling at you though. They did give you a very harsh talking to for the knifing incident, but that’s about it.

Instead, E-4 would tell you about everything they investigated that week and what new objects they found. They especially enjoy talking about any rings they found. You did notice before that they wore a fairly absurd number of rings, but you didn’t know how far this rabbit hole went. They collected rings much like you collect knives.

Having E-4 talk to you so casually was.....strange.

You have to be honest, most of the time you didn’t really listen to E-4 and instead just drifted off into your own thoughts.

Maybe you were doing well with your duties. It could be that all anyone expected of you was to maintain the base and collect supplies, something you were succeeding with flying colors.

You just wish it wasn’t such a dull job.

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What did Same face and Z-3674 look like again?

Would you even recognize them if you saw them again?

You’re so glad everyone has to wear their name at all times.

Cause you’re sure, you wouldn’t be able to recognize them any other way.

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You check your map and the endless void that’s on the right side of it. You bring it up to a few people, hoping to get some more info. They all mention that they’ve heard that the whole east of the woods is horrible. None of them have ever been to the east, but you hear many stories about it.

“There’s a ruin there that used to be a forest center! I heard a monster ripped it apart and it lives there to this day.”

“I heard the Hawk kids there eat notails who wander into their area alive.”

“I heard all the stories are fake and that it’s all a ruse to keep us all out of there, but uh, better stay away from it anyway.”

“Someone told me there are no anomalies over there because even they’re scared of that place.”

You’re not sure which stories are fake and which are real, but you’re sure that no matter what the place had to be some kind of disaster zone.

==============

You are so tired of wondering what happened to your old friends. Why can’t you just forget them? It’s been four years since you last saw them, that’s nearly 1/3rd of your entire life.

==============

After a day of resting E-4 and their group, for what seems like the 100th time, head back to map out the factory. E-4 says they think they’re on to something this time, but you hear that every week. Looking at everyone march back in with their creatures behind them, you remember that E-4 doesn’t have one for themselves.

You find a nice spot and lay down the last of your bait.

You weren’t doing this with the intent to get E-4 a creature. Instead, you realized it'd be best for you to collect a fine team of capture creatures as soon as possible. You'll want to make sure you have a well-trained group for once you get out.

If you catch one you don't want you can just toss it at E-4.

You, Tiger kid, and two other notails lay in wait. It would be hours until something would be attracted to the bait. Thank goodness someone had a deck of cards with them.

Finally, something trotted into the clearing, advancing towards the bait.

Fortuna rolls a 20 sided die. A 9 is rolled.

But......It just lowered its head to smell it. It seemed highly interested in the way it smelled, but not much in eating it. It lifted its hoof and smashed it into the bait, absolutely delighted in the sounds it made when crumbled.

It pranced in a circle around it once before repeating the action.

You decided to scan it while you still had a chance.

Fortuna rolls a 20 sided die. A 19 is rolled.

You knew it would be a decommissioned creature, but you weren't expecting it to be a legendary one.

It lifted its horse-like head into the air before emitting a plume of flames from its maw.

The fire was strange, instead of being typical fire, the best way you could describe it was that it was the image of a shack on the beach in what should have been fire.

It jumped around the bait once again, this time completing its prance by setting the food ablaze.

It was bizarre to watch the image of trees waving back and forth in the wind consume the ground. At least now you could confirm that despite its unnatural appearance, it was definitely fire.

Now you weren't sure if you wanted to risk it. The other two notails with you didn't have capture creatures with them as their's were best suited to take care of the base. Tiger kid only had West, who while surprisingly nearly won a contest, wasn't something you would relay on to defeat a horse sized creature. Then there was you, and all you had were two masks that seemed to absolutly do nothing, and Slithers, who you were unsure you wanted to risk on a creature with no info and who hasn't even consumed any bait.

It did seem playful, but a wild creature being playful didn't mean it was going to be friendly to notails.

You either needed a plan of action, or you needed to drop your attempts and maybe see if you can trade items with the others to get new bait so you can catch something smaller.