][]

Rachel opened her eyes and she suddenly noticed that she was laying on a wooden floor, not a grassy field or dirt, she listened to a group of people talking and her nose quickly alerted her to the smell of food.

As she got up she noticed that she was now n a room filled with people each wearing different colored armor, above each of them there was a small screen that showed their names.

"We were brought here after we managed to beat the wolve's," John said to her as he handed her a plate filled with grilled meat

She took the plate and began to eat, she didn't want to admit it but she was starving, after all, she hadn't eaten anything during these last two days.

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Aincrad. Now I know that all of you are eager to go up the castle but first, you need to know a few things" a man wearing a white mask said to them

"First allow me to apologize for certain inconveniences, the castle coming in contact with a certain tower and ongoing games for example, but rest assured we are currently dealing with the issues, "the man said as he bowed to everyone in the room

"Now with that out of the way, let me explain certain things and all of you can forget I ever existed. Oh and before I forget this uniform is used by everyone who is tasked with performing orientation"

The man pulled a crystal out of nowhere and immediately took out a sword, followed by a spear, then cloths- food and armor.

"Most of you have noticed that your clothing and other objects vanish, these things go to a storage space everyone that is a player gets. Now there is a limit to it and as you grow in power that limit grows."

"Now it is possible to work around this by getting a separate storage place such as crates or handbags," he said as he pulled a purse out of nowhere opened the purse, and pulled a table that was bigger than he was from inside the purse

The man looked around to see if everyone was paying attention to him and made everything he had summoned vanish.

"As I mentioned earlier certain things have begun to happen and as such several changes have and are being done"

"As of this moment, I ask all of you to please refrain from attacking the citizens of the castle for it's them that make the clothing- armor- houses, and food that all of you eat"

"You can identify the citizens and players by the names everyone has over their heads, of course, this goes for the monsters as well but they are free game so feel free to wipe them out if you want"

Rachel watched as the man placed his hand on his chin and slightly tilted his head. It was disturbing how someone wearing a red suit, who only wore a white mask that had a pair of black eyes and a black smiling mouth seemed so threatening, despite not doing anything, that could be considered threatening.

"I see, I will inform them of the changes," the man said to someone the players couldn't see

"I have just been informed that certain individuals that look different from any of you will be within the castle, we ask of you to please don't attack them either"

Rachel listened to the man's words, if she had to describe how the man sounded she would have said that he sounded disgusted by what he had just been told.

"Carrying on, there are certain crystals that exist within the castle, by now some of you have used one or more."

"There are crystals that can be recharged and used continuously, while others can only be used once"

"There are also extremely rare crystals that allow the user to perform certain things that in any other situation would have been impossible for anyone or anything"

The man said as he summoned different crystals and then began to gather light, Rachel watched as the man created a white crystal out of the light.

He then summoned water and created another crystal.

"You can also make the crystals if you learn how, and even modify your selves- weapons and armors, but I will not show you for that isn't my role"

"..., Now some of you are asking yourselves, dint others leave the town of begins before us, yes and I have already explained this to them so they have gone ahead and left this area behind"

"Thank you for your time," the man said as the entire room shattered.

Rachel found herself inside a large city, she watched as the people around her looked around confused before they started walking in every direction, she had to admit she was glad that she wasn't the only one holding a plate with food still on it.

"I guess that's it," John said before he took a drink from the beer he had been given

"So what do you two want to do from now, I mean you both got what you wanted, Rachel you can see the stars whenever you want now and Blue you have the nickname e you wanted so there's no reason for either of you to risk your lives going up the castle" John pointed out to the two of them.

Rachel turned to look at Blue but her teammate just looked at John with a confused expression.

"I don't know how things are done where you are from John but, from where I come from every adventurer wants to have his name known by everyone, so if I can do that by reaching the top, then I'm going up the castle" Blue answered John, before taking a bit from the chicken breast he was eating

Rachel watched as the blood ran down Blue's mouth, the chicken he was eating was raw, but the boy ate it like if it was the best meal he ever had.

"How about you Rachel?" John asked her

Rachel didn't know what to say to Johnin all honesty she knew that the only thing she had to do was wait until it got dark to see the stars, last night she was able to see them before things went bad.

"I don't know," she said to John as the image of Baam looking at her with a desperate expression flashed before her eyes

"How about you?" she asked John

"I don't know, I guess the only thing I want is a place to call home," John said to her

"I guess we can help Blue become an adventurer for now," John said to Rachel as he looked at the city.

"For now let's see what we can do," John said to Rachel and Blue

"What do you desire, is it riches- power- perhaps something or someone."

"The castle does not deny anyone their wish, the question is can you keep your wish safe from those that will take it from you," the examiner said as he watched at the players\ adventurers move into the city

His eyes witnessed two realities happening at once.

On one side people went about their lives intending to gain something, while on the other people were trying to keep what they wanted safe.

The examiner smiled underneath his mask, as both halves came together, contrary to popular belief this was his true purpose, to keep a record of everything that happened and so he began to divide himself more and more to fit the new roles that were being created.

He watched as people from the tower were brought into the castle and entered the town of beginnings, considering that most of them were considerably powerful he was happy to see the floor guardians strip them of that power.

If those newcomers wanted their power back they would have to earn them, granted the castle didn't have certain things and so they would have to learn new ways of doing things.

He turned his head to the sky and witnessed people that had no interest in going up the castle enter different floors, but they weren't able to enter any other floor just the ones they had arrived, if they wanted to go up or down they would have to start at the bottom like everyone else.

His break was over, it was time to meet the new batch that had passed the test, there was no need to clean up any dead, the wolves did that on their own

He stood inside the same room as he always did and said "Ladies and gentlemen welcome to Aincrad"