Rachel watched as John looked around, for some reason he acted as if something had spooked him.
"John, what's wrong?" Rachel asked John
"...Anak, I take it you fought before in the castle right?" John asked Anak
"Yeah, why?" the green woman answered John
"Did the tings leave any blood on you?" John asked Anak
It suddenly hit her, even without hearing Anak's answer both Rachel and Blue looked at one another and started walking closer to both JOhn and Anak, there hadn't been any blood sofar.
It wasn't because the things they killed didn't bleed, the reason was more complicated than that, their armors seemed to be made of what they killed, at least that was their experience up till now, no matter how limited it was.
"I have a question for everyone, does anyone know what an N.P.C means?"
"The other players the ones that were handing out the books said that the people we encountered should be considered N.P.C's until we found out if they weren't," he said to them
A beeping sound told them the map was changing again, but all four of them ignored the beeping sound as they walked deeper into the new area they were in.
"The air feels wrong," Rachel said to them as they walked, they walked for a few minutes until John stopped walkinG.
Rachel wanted to say something but her words died in her mouth as she looked at the sight in front of her, animals of all kinds, laid dead all around them.
The creatures were mutated into strange things that shouldn't have existed but did.
She ordered her help screen to scan the creatures and she found it began to show a lot of information but nothing particularly useful.
Then it stopped, showing pages of information, and displayed a set of instructions.
"Use the conversion crystal to take the creatures Shizu core and turn it into a mana crystal, depending on the creature a different crystal will be created"
"Don't bother, they were all cut open" John said to her as he inspected the bodies
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Rachel watched as John held the crystal he received with his left hand, the crystal began to shine and the blood that surrounded the creature's bodies that had long sunk into the ground began to be absorbed by the crystal John held.
"It's better to get what we can with as little effort possible," John said to everyone as he lowered the crystal to the creatures corps
"Strange," Anak said as he moved to one of the dead bodies.
"What?" Rachel asked Anak.
"The blood is being taken by the crystal, but the animal's corpses aren't affected at all" Anak answered Rachel
Rachel didn't say anything she just walked up to a nearby corps and placed her crystal near it, she had to take a deep breath and tried not to vomit as the smell of the creature hit her.
She watched the crystal spin in her hand and she felt the wind blow, from the side one gust of wind was followed by another, it kept on happening that she finally had enough and looked around.
"Get down!" Blue screamed as he pulled Rachel down.
Rachel looked up and found a strange tiger looking, creature loudly eating the corp she had been working on, Rachel looked at the creature and watched as her help screen turned on.
"Iron tiger, its body is covered with heavy armor, making it highly resistant to damage. The good news it's slower than a normal tiger" Rachel said to everyone by text message.
She felt her eyes widen as three circles formed underneath the tiger's body near the neck, underneath the back claw, and near the stomach.
The high grass kept her and Blue hidden so the creature still hadn't noticed them.
"Are all of you seeing this?" she asked her team, as she sent them a picture of the circles that had appeared on her help screen, her team's answer was a collective no.
"Nobody move, the tiger has the high ground, if we attack now, we won't win," John said to them as he took out a red crystal, however, his help screen alerted him about movement nearby.
"Hey!" he heard someone scream and the tiger jumped down
"You're doing it all wrong, if you want to get stronger you cant hide and attack one of you has to bring the ting out," he said to them.
Rachel watched as the tiger lowered its head and the fur on its back stood as it prepared itself to attack, the tiger leaped forward and John activated his crystal.
The crystal shattered in a burst of red light hitting the tiger directly in the stomach, the tiger fell severely injured, the only thing that was left to do was to put the creature out of its misery.
"Look, I get it you don't play a lot, but you can't be too cautious," the boy said to John as he walked up to him and pointed at the tiger's body.
"You should let your team kill it, otherwise it's going to count as your win alone" he explained to John
Rachel pushed herself to her feet and pulled Blue up, helping him to his feet, the two of them walked up to the injured tiger's body and they looked at John who nodded at them.
So Anak- Blue and herself began to stave the tiger's body until it stopped screaming.
"My name Kirito, you guys are new to all of this right?" Kirito asked them
"John" John introduced himself as he stretched his hand out to shake Kiritos hand
Rachel noticed that after Kirito shook Johns's hand he walked towards Anak and began to look at her, before lowering himself to her feet.
"You're a lizard person, your skin is green and your hair is brown."
"Were you altered or changed somehow?" he asked Anak
Anak didn't say anything she just pointed her sword at Kirito and instantly, a duel request appeared between the two.
"Put that down, haven't you been listening o paying attention to the message board?" Kirito asked Anak
"Rachel," John said to her, and before he was done speaking Rachel's help screen opened to the messageboard.
Rachel read the messages, other players were announcing that people that had different forms had suddenly entered the castle and were now investigating them, to see if they were a new kind of N.P.C or worse people who had been altered by the one that doesn't deserve to be named.
"So you're investigating," John said to Kirito
"No, honestly it's not my problem, players are players but, I'm curious about how you became this way, considering one of the N.P.C's we ran into looked like a younger version of you" Kirito said to Anak
Anak lowered her sword and took a deep breath.
"I have always been like this and hat was my daughter, I don't know how we were separated," she said the truth and said a lie
"Can you turn around for me, I just want to see your back" Kirito said to Anak, Anak gave Kirito a disgusted look but did what he asked anyway.
"Your armor's damaged, you barely passed your test. Here use this, it's a skeleton soldier's bone. You can use it to repair your armor, but you need to upgrade soon" Kirito said to Anak as he handed her the bone.
Rachel watched as the bone turned to dust and made Anaks armor glow on her back, it was as if she was watching someone stitching clothes together.
"Before I forget, don't go in that direction, the rest of the group left already so I'm the last one left."
"Anyway, we ran into some dangerous, N.P.C's over there, they're too strong for you guys right now so come back later," Kirito said to them before he said goodbye and walked out the door leaving them behind
Nearby Androssi Zahard, hid behind a boulder, she had been the only survivor, she had barely entered the testing floor when the knights arrived and began to kill everyone around them.
Granted the test was to kill as many people as possible, but that didn't mean they had to kill everyone.
Normally she would have tried to join them and then betray them when the time was right, but the knights didn't seem to care for climbing the tower, they were more interested in collecting the Regulars blood.
She hid behind the bolder the entire time they were fighting, and when the fighting ended, she listened to the regulars beg for their lives and scream as they died.
Now she was the only one left, it was pure luck that they hadn't seen her, so when everything had gone quiet she took her chance and ran away.
Normally a princess wouldn't run away, but she wasn't an idiot so she knew when to pick her battles, as she ran she found a single knight wandering around, looking for survivors.
She followed him, her plan was simple, capture him and interrogate him, then her heart stopped, not because she met with more knights, but amongst them was someone that should have been dead.