Desaray had everyone take the basic skills, so they each had first aid as well as appraisal. With their new inventories, Desaray was able to stick her entire bag into what was no different from a slot-based inventory system you would find in any MMO. After that, she began searching the lower floors that had not been harmed by the light wave and stored many things. Food, blankets, and stuff that they would need to at least live a somewhat comfortable life while they waited out the new changes that were about to occur.

Once they cleared the building they were in, they made their way to the store on 5th Avenue. As they walked Desaray was quite curious about how it was to walk around in a body like Mike’s. She kept taking peeks at him as they made their way over the rubble. She was in the rear while her father took point. Becky, Mike, and Yu were in the middle. Yu, however, started to wonder if Desaray took a liking to Mike when she saw her staring at him. “Desa, is something wrong with Mike?”

Desaray smiled hearing Yu speaking up like this. She could hear a hint of jealousy in her voice. “No, I was just curious about how he walks. The movement of the rocks are perfectly synced. While he has normal hands, his feet are different and are kind of like cylinders that are flat on the bottom and round on top. I was wondering how he was able to climb up over the debris so easily. Normally wouldn’t the lack of tread make it harder to walk?”

“Ah.” Yu felt embarrassed, she realized she was acting like a jealous girlfriend when girls stared at their man. But she was not even Mike’s girlfriend yet! Trying to stay composed, Yu continued: “Now that you mention it.”

Desaray grinned seeing how Yu was acting. She bumped her with her elbow and whispered to her. “Don’t worry. I will not try to steal him from you. I will support you, but you shouldn’t wait too long to tell him how you feel.”

“I….” Yu was going to deny it but stopped herself. While she was embarrassed, it was not to the point that she was willing to run away. She did like Mike. This was a fact that she did not wish to deny. She lowered her head slightly and nodded as she took a peek at the boy she liked, who was walking behind Becky. She needed to find the right time to speak to him.

They made their way over to 5th Avenue, where they were met with another group of people. But these people were not like them, they were still human. Both groups stopped and looked at each other as if they were deer in headlights. It was not until a young boy from the human group yelled out did both sides finally react. “Monsters!”

“Monster yourself, kid! We used to be human too! Once you kill a monster, you will end up just like us!” Becky was the first to yell back at the kid. While she knew she was indeed a monster, she did not like being called as such. She never killed anyone. The only thing that she had killed since the start of all of this was the slime that turned her into what she was now!

“Lier!” The boy yelled back. “We killed a few monsters, and no one turned out like you!”

Desaray and the others froze. Ricky being the adult here, looked at who seemed to be the boy’s parents and asked: “Is this true? Did you kill some monsters and did not change?”

“It’s true.” The man, who seemed to be the boy’s father, pulled the boy back, nodded, and answered. He was shocked to see monsters talking. “Were….” He paused and looked at Ricky and his group before continuing: “Were you really human?”

 “Yes.” Desaray stepped forward and replied. “We were all human. In our group, you can say that I was the first to change. I killed a goblin and turned into this. My friends killed slimes, and my father killed a goblin as well. We each got a system upon killing them and changed into what you see before you.”

“I see… We killed little green men, and not too long ago, my son killed a blue ball thing. Nothing happened to us besides the blue window that popped up. The system you speak of.”  The man looked at his family, who were indeed all still humans, and wondered what he would have done if they had changed into monsters. But after thinking about what his son said, he felt slightly bad as well. He looked at Ricky and the others and decided to apologize. “I am sorry for my son’s words. He was rude.”

“It’s fine. He is young.” Ricky replied with a forced smile. He turned and looked at Desaray, who nodded at him before looking back at the man. “If you would excuse us.”

“Huh? Yeah…” The man replied somewhat absentmindedly. He watched as Desaray and her group began to walk away. He was quickly brought out of his stupor when he felt a pinch in his side. His wife whispered in a slight panic as she said: “Honey! Look where they are going!”

“This…. Hey!” The man yelled after Ricky causing Desaray’s group to stop and turn towards the man. 

“Yeah?” Ricky already promised himself he would not give up anything that would allow his daughter and her friends to survive another day. With no sources of known food yet, they were not planning on giving up any resources. So as he looked over at the man, his eyes narrowed. 

“Are…. Are you planning to go to the store? My family and I were also going to go th…..” Before the man could finish speaking, a fireball suddenly slammed into the debris in front of him, causing him to pull his son and wife into his arms and jump back to dodge the sudden attack. He looked up to see a blue-scaled lizard staring back at him.

“Sorry, but find you or sources of food. We are calling dibs on this store.” Desaray snorted. She felt bad for having to do this, but there was only so much food to go around.