Gamer's dream, weak's horror

"If I can sum it up in one work: Weak."

"I wouldn't call the one weak," Kurai pointed out. "The character 'Haseo' possesses a strange power from the AI known as Aura. He is also a high level from his old game and the most experienced in fighting beings like us." The dog cocked his head to the side, listening to Marie. "In fact, he's the most dangerous to us. It's his power that proves the most dangerous, in my oppinion. If we could take it from him..."

"That means, Ore-sama have to be one to look after those brats right?"

"I can watch them," Kurai offered. He started pacing. "My appearance will be enough to make them trust me. I appear to be a puppy. They'll never suspect a thing." He paused. "They're all children, as far as I'm concerned. As long as I'm wary of Haseo, I should be safe."

Luke decided to go next. "I'm excellent at puzzles." He thought a little longer. "I'm not good at much else," he admitted.

Haseo was pissed that he missed. Had he hit that Marie girl, he'd have gotten them their ticket out of there. Well, whatever. He turned back to the others he appeared to be stuck with.

"Name's Haseo. I'm known as the PKK, or player-killer killer, Haseo, the Terror of Death. I'm a Level 150 from my game, and my stats are stacked in favor of physical attacks, though I do have some spells. I'm an Adept Rogue, meaning I can change my weapons. I can be a Twin Blade," he showed everyone his twin daggers, "an Edge Punisher," he sheathed his weapons with a flash of digital light drew a giant sword about the same size as he was, "a Flick Reaper," he sheathed his huge sword and drew a scythe, "or a slightly illegal job class." This time, he drew two guns. "I'm what's known as a 'Jack of All Trades and a Master of None'. I'm powerful with all my weapons, but in a battle of sheer strength against someone who can only use a certain job class, I'd lose, but that's not gonna happen."

He hesitated a moment before adding, "I also have an "Avatar." That's something like a puppet creature that none of you can see. Only other Avatar Users, and possibly AIs, can see them. Everyone else sees just a gold aura around my character. That's what I used earlier on that weird girl. Had she not dodged, she would've been dead standing."

In response to Ephraim's problem, Haseo explained, "It's simple. We'll act like we're in a game without auto-mapping and draw it all ourselves." There was one problem with this idea, though. "Anyone got any paper?"

"I do!" Luke said, pulling a miniature suidaku puzzle book and pencil from his pocket. He flipped to the back, where the blank puzzles were, and offered it to Haseo.

"This is a video game," Kurai pointed out. "I'm a program. I'm not like normal animals, and that girl, Konata, will point it out, I'm sure. Even if I talk, it shouldn't bother the Iaguz. He won't be able to sense me properly. It'll be like seeing me through a filter for him." He pulled back his chops in a smile. "He'll see me exactly how his friends see me."

"Don't forget the paper," Haseo called, tossing the Sudoku book to them, which they caught before leaving.

"Understood, Master." The puppy turned and scampered away. It was hard to make a grand exit when one was a tiny pup.

Back at the base, meanwhile, things weren't looking so good. The construction of the base wasn't going too well. Mostly because they didn't really have a way to chop down trees. No ax, no felled trees, fewer supplies to construct a base out of. Haseo could hack down the thinner ones with his giant sword--which strangely had a chain saw like mechanism on the edges--but these were hardly big enough to be worth calling trees. Sappling was a better term.

Anyway, Luke was busy trying to solve the mystery of how to construct a base with few materials. He was sketching in the dirt and crossing out ones that didn't work. Eventually, he hit upon a decent design and called everyone over to see.

Haseo nodded at the design. It seemed sound enough. He looked back at his stack of sapplings and branches. "We're going to need a whole bunch more..."

Luke sighed. It was times like this he wished Professor Layton was around. He'd know just what to do. If only he had something to take his mind off the whole problem...

A small bark encroached on his thoughts.

Luke turned to see a small black puppy wagging its tail at him, tongue lolling out of its mouth as he looked at him. His eyes lit up. "A puppy!" he said excitedly petting it. "Guys! Guys! Look! It's a puppy!"