Out of the castle into the world

[blueayes]

"The world was changing, the sound of thunder could be heard for miles, and everyone that heard it knew what it was.

An ancient part of them knew that something that shouldn't happen was happening.

Events similar to this one had occurred three times before and each time the world change.

The first time was in a time long forgotten one only known to those long gone, in ancient cave writings or beings so old that they rival the gods themselves.

What occurred in those ancient times is unknown, except for one major change, it was the event that made the gods stop simply throwing their dice and create a new world

The event that followed brought forth the Emperor of all demons, who tore and killed his way to power and ruled over all of the demon kings, it was believed that it was this same event that created the greatest hero that has ever lived.

Cow Girl her uncle and Goblin Slayer stood silently unable to move as they watched a castle falling from the sky.

They watched as the stones broke and turned into light and they watched as monsters spiled into the world.

Cow Girl and her uncle wanted to tun and hide, but their bodies dint answer them and so they were forced to watch the event happen, they tried to close their eyes but they couldn't and they watched as the castle fell but never landed.

Goblin Slayer stepped forward, this light reminded him of something that he had seen before a long time ago when an alchemist he knew left this world for another.

He watched as adventurers fell from the sky, each wore different kinds of armor that varied in colors, but what struck him the most was the coat of arms that they all were.

No, that wasn't right, the designs that the adventurers wore were different, one group wore one sigil while another group wore another sigil.

Goblin Slayer understood that whatever these men and women were they weren't just simple adventurers, no, their armors were only one kind.

Granted that the armors varied in skills and designs but all of the armors were the same, meaning that they were made specifically for knights to wear.

Goblin Slayer came down to two conclusions either these men- women and children were either an invasion force or what was left an army that had been sent to deal with whatever evil existed within the castle.

Goblin Slayer watched carefully as small dragons- pegasus's and a few other animals stood protectively around some of the fallen knights, while completely ignoring the others around them.

This wasn't good, he could deal with the weaker knights, but he now knew that there were beast tamers within the group and that made things even more difficult for him.

He watched as the knights piked themselves of the ground and looked around themselves with confusion and he felt his blood freeze.

Goblin Slayer could sense the danger, a knight that wore red armor and wielded a large white shield focused Goblin Slayer's attention towards him.

Yet this man was not alone, a knight that wore gray armor, another that wore green armor that completely hid his face, a woman that wore white armor, another that wore purple armor, a man that wore black armor and had two swords instead of one.

There were more a lot more than he could ever hope to defend against,

Goblin Slayer did the only thing he could do, he picked Cow Girl up threw her over his shoulder and pulled her uncle's arm, and ran hoping to get them to safety.

He could see the farm, just a little bit further and he could reach the forest, no matter how powerful or skilled the knights were if they didn't know the lands they couldn't find them.

Goblin Slayer stopped running and Cow Girls uncle felt his eyes widen with horror, the same knight that wore a long black coat and black armor stood in front of them.

"So, I noticed that the three of you are running away from something, can I help you out," Kirito said to them

Goblin Slayer put Cow Girl down and drew his sword, then he felt them, their presence was all around them, the knights had surrounded him and his family?

"Easy there big guy, I- we don't want any trouble"

"You see you may not believe this but we were fighting in this castle that floated in the sky and we managed to beat the thing that ruled it when the castle began to fall"

'The next thing we know, we're here, only that we don't know where here is" Kirito said to Goblin Slayer.

"Kirito can't you see that the man and his wife are terrified of us, forgive my friend here"

"I am Heathcliff leader of the Knights of the Blood Oath" the knight that wore the red armor and wielded the great white shield said to them

"Goblin Slayer watched as the man closed his eyes, took ion a deep breath, and smiled.

"It seems we have caused the three of you a great deal of trouble, could you point us towards the closest village or town and we will be on our way," Heathcliff said to them

Cow Girl and her uncle instinctively pointed in the direction of the town,

"Thank you," Heathcliff said to them and the three of them watched as the knights walked towards the town.

 

[blueayes]

The guild was in a frenzy, those that could use magic used it to contact everyone they could but try as they might no one knew what had happened.

Several witnesses had seen a castle fall from the sky, others had seen monsters spill into the world, while others had seen the castle vanish.

The sounds of people murmuring and feet moving soo caught the guild members' attention and every adventurer inside the guild drew their weapons ready to fight for their lives.

Thena the guild doors opened and a group of knights walked in.

Guild girl tried to keep her cool, she had heard about this, and like it or not she had to keep her cool, she was one of the eldest members of the guild staff and if her will broke her cowers would immediately break.

"Can I help you?" she said to the knights and to her surprise a woman with long light brown hair walked up to her.

"We came to sign up and become adventurers" Asuna answered her

"Sure please sign your names and what skills you might have" Guild girl said to Asuna as she handed her a sheet of paper and she watched as her coworkers began to hand the rest of the knights a sheet of paper.

They had to be careful, she had heard stories about knights deserting their posts and trying to become adventurers only to turn around and burn down the towns they arrived to, why they did it no one know.

Maybe whatever they had seen had driven them to insanity, or perhaps they found that the life of an adventurer was what they expected and decided to take their revenge on anyone they met.

"I have a question...two questions actually"

"Can you tell us where we are and do you have a map?" Heathcliff said to guild girl

"Certainly, we are in the frontier town and I'm afraid that we don't have any maps of the area, think of it this way if there isn't a town or village then you are beyond the border and therefore in the uncharted lands" Guild Girl answered Heathcliff

Heathcliff handed Guild Girl his application and took a seat and waited for the rest of the players to do the same.

One by one the guild staff called the player's names before handing them a porcelain license [ Dogtag ]

"I'm sorry to ask this now but do all o you have enough to pay for the?"Guild Girl began to ask only for all of the knights to hand her a gold coin.

Guild Girl had to stop herself from trembling, this was way more than the licenses were worth and if the knights found that she had overcharged them, then they could..

No, it was better not to think about it

 

[blueayes]

Gild Girl watched as all of the knights sat on the empty tables before a few of them stood up and moved the tables around.

The knights ordered the biggest feast the kitchen could make and paid with gold.

She watched as the waitresses brought the knights alcohol and she watched as all of the knights drank and it was only then that she realized what was happening.

Even before the food was bright to the knights, she could see the tears falling from their eyes.

She watched some of the men struggled to hold back their tears while the children that were with them cried.

"We beat that monster and we escaped that castle, that prison, that dungeon"

"Congratulations everyone," Heathcliff said to everyone as he lifted his cup, however, his expression was far from cheerful

With those words both the Guild staff and the adventurers understood, these were the survivors of the castle that fell from the sky.

Unbeknownst to Guild Girl or anyone else within the adventurers guild, the surviving players felt completely overwhelmed for another reason besides the fact that they were in this new world.

They all had a countdown in front of their eyes and above the countdown was a sign that said [ ]

Guild Girl watched as the knights drank until they passed out, some stayed awake and paid for everything the other ate- drank or broke.

She watched men and women comforted one another and leaned on each other, she watched as the adventurers returned from whatever quest or job they had taken up and noticed the knights.

She kept on watching even as the sun ell and again some of the knights paid to be allowed to sleep in the guild for the night and she watched even after all of her coworkers went home for the day.

 

[blueayes]

Kirito opened his eyes and found Asuna speaking to several of the guild and team leaders, he noticed her turn towards him and immediately she stoped her conversation and handed him a glass of water.

He was about to say something, but he wasn't able to talk considering the hangover he was having, he drank the glass of water and turned his attention to Asuna again.

"Asuna," Kirito said but that was as far as he got because Asuna began to explain everything to him

"The guild leaders and team leaders agreed to keep our groups together or let anyone that wants to leave do so"

"We don't know what or where this is and unless we have any real information we cant just move on, so, " Asuna said to him and Kirito already anticipating her next set of words spoke for her

"And so we're going to live here from now on," Kirito said before realizing that he had a hangover, this was surprising because the game imitated a lot of things from real life but it couldn't imitate certain things, and having a hangover was one of them

Asuna immediately placed a sheet of paper in front of him but before he could say anything she began to explain the rest.

"I have good news and bad news"

"The bad news is that there aren't enough hotels or rooms for all of us to rent, the good news is that we can move into any dungeon - abandoned fortress or whatever"

"The bad part about doing that is that we immediately become responsible for the maintenance and security of the said place. Not to mention that considering that the lands are technically still part of the kingdom we will be expected to pay taxes"

"Hold on give me a moment," Asuna said as she read what was written on the back of the paper.

"And we will be expected to send help if we're ever called to help the kingdom fight a war," she said to him

"Wouldnt it be easier just to start a new town?" Kirito asked Asuna

"You would think so, but no, we would still be taxed, and considering that we would be exposed to attacks, and let's face it, we can't win any real fights right now," Asuna said to him as she signaled around the room, showing Kirito the state everyone was in

Kirito noticed a waitress walk past him and he noticed that she was giving beers to everyone that needed them.

"Hey can I get one of those," he said to the waitress who immediately nodded to him

"So who is going and who's not?" Kirito asked Asuna, Asuna immediately exhaled and looked around the room

"We have a lot of players that either can't fight or arent condition to fight so we're going to be splitting up into two teams"

"One stays behind to guard the civilians and the other goes to kill everything inside the place that gets piked we can worry about cleaning it up later. Asuna answered Kirito who just nodded

In the end, the guild leader managed to get the Adventures Guild to give them an Idea where some places were and everyone agreed to check out an abandoned fortress.

Luckily for them, the entire place was empty, there was some water damage but nothing they couldn't handle.

So after they managed to get everyone to the fortress, they all began to clean it up as best as they could.

In all honesty, the work that the players had to do was the only thing keeping them from falling into depression.

Candles were placed on the ceiling and torches were light so that the fortress could have some light.

Kirito looked around and if he had to be honest, it was a good place, the walls were strong, it was only three days away from the town they arrived to and had more than enough room for all of the players and everything they had with them.

Hell, they could pile a bunch of eighteen-wheelers on top of each other and they would have trouble filling up the main room.

Slowly everyone began to warm up to the idea that, they couldn't go back home anymore and concentrated on finishing their jobs, so they could go deeper into the fortress and do who knows what.

They know that the Adventurers Guild of this world had been keeping an eye on them during all of this, but none of the people they sent ever tried to talk to them`

Still, Kirito had to admit that despite the way they arrived in this new world their luck hasn't been too bad, they haven't run into any monsters and the land outside is good for farming if they decide to clear out the trees and use it for that.

Hell, they might just decide to keep all of the trees around as an extra layer of protection in case monsters or people try to attack.

This brings a problem that has started to show up, the player [knights] are all veterans of the death game and as such need to keep up their training regardless of what it is.

The problem is that they know little to nothing about this world and they neither have the tools required or any of the materials needed to do any of the tasks they did before.

On one hand, they discovered that the whole touch something and it automatically becomes something else method still applied to, but that didn't mean that it applied to everyone else, after all, they were players of the flying castle, not these new lands.

And even if this method still applied to them, the players themselves cant do a lot of things because they neither have the ingredients or materials required to do a lot of the things they needed to do, like weapons maintenance and so on.

Normally things like polishing armor- cooking food and even cleaning floors aren't things people tend to worry about but thas because people take those things for granted, clean armor is an armor that doesn't stink and normally that means well-polished armor.

Somewhere along the way, someone suggested going on quests again to learn about this new world, but that the players should only take the jobs no one else wanted to do or low-level jobs that would give them an excuse to walk around towns and villages.

This would allow them to keep a group guarding the fortress - both gather information and either start earning money or the materials they needed.

 

[blueayes]

[New world, New rules [ But we are still just as good]
Kirito and Asuna walked toward the adventurers guild they had to admit that they felt pretty nervous neither of them knew if the world they were in was either an update of the death game they had been a part of or if the world they were in was real.

Granted they had been in this world for a while now and understood that while they could still use the skills they had inside of the castle neither of them had fought anyone or any monster from this new world.

They noticed that their little group attracted the attention of a lot of the locals but so far no one bothered to say anything to them so they just headed straight towards the Adventurers Guild.

With them were several other players, but they all had agreed to either separate into groups of three or pairs considering that they would all be taking extremely low-level quests or jobs, so none of them needed a complete party for anything.

The moment they opened the doors to the guild house they felt the eyes of every adventurer in its turn to look at them, yet as quickly as they came, they were just as quick o leave.

Asuna being the second in command of the Knights of the Blood Oath and by that extent, the only one that everyone even respected at the moment had no other choice but to be the one responsible for dealing with the people of the Guild.

Kirito watched as the woman behind the counter jumped with a look of surprise when she looked up and found their group all standing in front of her.

"Yes, can I help you?" Guild Girl said to Asuna who immediately handed her a stack of papers and took a deep breath.

"We have taken an old fortress three days from here, depending on the speed of that a person walks"

"The current population is around ten thousand, however, we don't know if any of the women are expecting," Asuna said to Guild Girl as she watched the members of the Guild behind the counter separating the papers she had given to the receptionist.

Kirito watched as an older man whispered something Guild Guilrl before the woman immediately searched through the papers in front of her and handed it to the man who immediately began to read it.

Kirito watched as the guild staff brought out a map and circled what he assumed was the area where the fortress was and what was the fastest way to get to it from the town.

It was like a switch had been flipped and the people behind the counter had suddenly been given a fresh pair of batteries considering how much they were moving around, hell even the adventurers that had completely dismissed their group had gone back to looking at them.

Kirito didn't blame them considering how much the Guild staff was running around.

Old parchments were dug up from boxes, Kirito watched what he could only assume were accountants began to take notes and compare what was written down on one parchment from another before throwing them to one of the gilded staff.

After half an hour of waiting the guild staff handed a stack of papers to Asuna who immediately began to read them.

Luckily for him and everyone else, their help screens still worked so Asuna could send them the images of what she was looking at.

So fortunately or unfortunately a lot of people either chose to ignore the papers or found them too confusing and chose to leave them to the people that could understand them.

The stack of papers the guild staff had given Asuana said that because the Knights [Players ] have taken over the fortress they were now responsible for maintaining it, the surrounding area now belonged to them and they were free to do with it what they wanted.

Now how much land that was no one knew considering that nearly all of the records are useless because the fortress had been built a very long time ago, during a time fortresses like were built quickly.

Meaning that there was a war and the place we are living in now was expected to fall to the enemy and had only been built to either slow the enemy down or make them think they captured something important when in reality no one cared about it.

There were a lot of clauses included in the papers, also one-third of the crops would be taken as tax should we not have the money to pay, and that if there was a war we were expected to protect the frontier from monsters and people.

Luckily the papers also said that we should ignore any summons to the capital because by the time we even manage to get there it would already be too late.

There were trade deals, included but these only included protection for anyone that visited us on their way back, so we would be expected to escort anyone that visited us back to town.

There was something else that Kirito had to admit he didn't like because the players had taken over the fortress they were also meant to keep whatever deals that had yet to be kept by the old residents of the fortress.

Luckily for everyone, the Guild Leaders gave up a lot of their gold so they could get rid of whatever debts that would show up, but that was the thing.

From what the papers said a road was supposed to be built that led from the fortress to the town, but for whatever reason, it was never built and so the players were expected to fulfill the end of the bargain.

Kirito didn't like it, because according to the papers, the road was supposed to make it easier for the knights to reach the nearby towns or villages, but according to the map the guild of this world had given Asuna, most of those villages were gone.

That also meant that the players weren't expected to build one road but a lot more how many exactly Kirito didn't know just yet.

"Is that all" Guild Girl asked Asuna with the friendliest smile she could make

"No, please give us all of the low-level jobs that are available, we can do everything from cleaning up after animals - building or repairing houses an/killing monsters," Asuna said to Guild Girl who looked at her with a shocked expression

"Yes- yes" Guild Girl said to Asuna before taking a stack of papers of jobs no one wanted to do, considering they paid very little and were nothing more than manual labor.

"Is this all of them?" Asuna asked Guild girl who suddenly stopped breathing

"Please give us all of the jobs that need to be done, as long as they are low-level and are from this town and every other village," Asuna said to Guild Girl.

Kirito watched as the guild staff brought out several stacks of papers and placed a map on top of them.

Again they were lucky the jobs on each sheet of paper were nothing, herding livestock- building fences - hell even killing Goblins, nothing any of them haven't done before, and thanks to the help screens they had, they suddenly had a more detailed map on top of the one that the guild had given Asuna earlier.

And so everyone graved a stack of papers and left to wherever they had to go, unfortunately, there weren't enough players to do all of the stacks, so Asuna ended up asking the Guild to hold the stacks of paper until one of the teams came back and asked for another sack.

Yeah this all seems pointless, but we need to know how people do things here and one village can do things completely different from another one, so this gives us the perfect excuse to gather as much information as we can.

 

[blueayes]

And so they all went their separate ways, fortunately, or unfortunately, most of the jobs in town didn't take too long so they were able to do most of them in no time.

They helped cut and bring wood for a couple of houses, deliver groceries for people that were either too old or sick to be able to go and get them themselves.

Each time they arrived at a new place the person who opened the door was shocked to see the two of them, regardless the people paid with whatever money or items they had.

Unfortunately, most of the work in the town was done so they had no choice but to go back to the guild and change the stack of papers for another one, according to Guild girl the other knights had already finished with their first stack of low-level work and were already starting with their next one.

It was only now that he and Asuna exchanged their stack of papers with Guild Girl for another stack that they both realized that the guild staff had placed the stacks in a way that the players had no choice but to do the jobs in or near the town first.

Kirito was about to walk out of the guild house when Asuna signaled to him that he should take another stack, there was no reason for him to refuse so he did what she asked.

The days that followed were boring they had to either cut the grass and open a path to a village that didn't exist anymore, help farmers herd animals, build a barn or a house in an area where there weren't any people.

A lot of the jobs they were given had already been done by someone else or made them walk to places where no one lived anymore, regardless the two of them had been given a job to do so they did it.

Kirito and Asuna knew that wherever they went and found someplace abandoned that something terrible had happened there because when they were rebuilding a wall that had been broken they found a lot of skeletons that belonged to Human children.

They fixed abandoned hoses that were in the center of a town that had long since burned down.

Before either of them knew it, all of the stacks of papers were done and they had little to nothing to show for it, how would they, after all, the only thing they had done was do everyday things that most people wouldn't be bothered to do.

Regardless they got what they wanted not only had they mapped out the nearby area, but they had done it in a more detailed way than what was shown on the maps that the guild had given them.

So after buying something to eat they both headed back to the fortress.

Kirito had to admit that he was excited to see how the place had changed after being away from it for a month, Asuna on the other hand wanted to take a hot bath and lay down for an entire day, just doing nothing.

Thye knew that the rest of the teams were already heading back to the fortress because one of the guild girls had told them when she gave them their reward, so neither of them was too worried about anything dangerous showing up along the way.

Neither of them knew of the events the Player's actions had unwillingly set off.

In the center of several villages - towns and cities, an announcement was being made.

Several villages and towns that had once been lost had been recovered and as such whoever wanted to live in the frontier could do so, and so the settlers gathered around the men.

They did so either because their lives had gone wrong and they wanted a fresh start or because they believed that they could succeed where others failed.

Some were even made to leave by the people around them, regardless of the reason they people began to move towards the abandoned towns and villages, never knowing of the fate that had befallen the people that once lived there.

Kirito and Asuna entered the fortress and the two of them immediately headed towards their room, Kirito poured hot water into a tub and immediately laid in it.

He enjoyed the sensation of the hot water covering him and he loved the fact that Asuna had decided to join him.

The fortress hadn't changed much during the month, the only real difference was that all of the grass around it had been cut and some of the trees had been cut down to make a defensive wall around it, other than that there was nothing new.

The first part of the plan had gone off without any problems, they managed to look around and see what was going on, and although the two of them had ended up with the boring jobs, they had gathered some important bits of information.

Something out there was killing entire towns and unlike the two of them the other teams did end up meeting a lot more people, who told them about the monsters in this world.

There were dragons- trolls- golems wizards- slimes and all sorts of common creatures one expected to find in a fantasy game.

Except there was one big difference.

From what the other teams said, the people that lived outside of one of the larger towns all feard Goblin attacks because the creatures were known to kidnap people and if the person they took was a boy they would torture and eat the boy, but if it was a girl they would rape her make her have goblin children and when she was dead they would eat her.

"Goblins were supposed to be the weakest of all of the creatures, alone they were nothing anyone could beat, but in a large group...." Kirito thought to himself before the realization set in

All of those towns and villages he and Asuna had visited and worked in were all abandoned because they were the result of goblin raids.

Granted his conclusion had little backing it up but if he was right then that meant that a lot of the rules the players were familiar with didn't apply anymore

He sent the information to the guild leaders and let them handle the rest he brought Asuna closer to him and began to enjoy the rest of his day.

 

[blueayes]

Kirito looked at the information the rest of the groups had gathered and he was surprised by the different outcomes that each group obtained, not because they ran into things they hadn't seen before but rather because of what they had learned.

Unlike Asuna and himself, the other teams had gone to the edge of the territory this worlds guild managed and as such, they couldn't go any further regardless they learned a bit more than what was expected.

To the North were the Black mountains an area that was covered in mountains just like their name said but what was unusual about this area was that the mountains were in fact volcanoes, most of them weren't active, but some of them were so the area is dangerous.

Regardless the area is inhabited by fire and rock creatures along with some flying creatures and things that have gained a mixture of all of the qualities to survive in this area.

TheBlack Mountains were also an area where a lot of miners go to search for rare metals that can only be found where active volcanos are and from what the other team reported there was supposed to be a school of fire magic there.

To the East were the Endless Deserts, again the name was self-explanatory but from what the other team reported the desert wasn't a dead place, from it.

There were entire cities built underneath the sands, from what the people told the other team.

One day a guy became so frustrated with walking in the desert that he said the hell with it and began to dig.

They claimed that by the time he found cool ground underneath the sand, he couldn't get out of the hole he had dug himself in, so he just kept on digging, eventually, more and more people found that hole of his and started living there.

What's interesting isn't that people live in those giant holes, it's the fact that if they ever feel like if they are running out of room they just start digging another hole.

The desert is filled with all kinds of animals that live in it, but from what the people said new monsters are showing up, so it's gotten even more dangerous.

Unfortunately, none of the people knew what monsters lived in there.

To the West are the Great Mountains there are a lot of settlements there because not only do the mountains keep a lot of the monsters away but the mountains are filled with gems, gold, and all sorts of rare materials and the ground underneath the mountains are perfect for animal life.

The school of mages is supposed to be near it, however, this isn't the main school, not by a long shot, this school was made by people that couldn't quite make magic work for them so they learned how to make magic happen by mixing all sorts of things.

For a moment Kirito thought to himself that this school was a school for Alchemist instead of mages.

Finally, South, the south was covered in a tundra unfortunately beyond that there wasn't any information.

There are other areas in this world but on a large scale of things, these are just the countries that exist - areas or kingdoms that exist.

As for the area that the Players were in, it's considered the Green, because of all of the forest and fields that exist in it, and it's also considered one of the most dangerous areas to live in.

Unlike the capital that exists in a safe region, the Green has little to no protection, monsters are all over the place and people go missing all of the time.

It's called the frontier for a reason and even though there are a lot of farms and people settling all of the time, there isn't a lot of progress in this part of the world.

He noticed an update on the fortress's way of doing things and just like everywhere else the place was becoming complicated.

The fortes was going to become the main area and judging by how big it is each guild would control an area of it, this would keep the players and by extent, each guild from starting any unnecessary fights with other guilds.

And it would ensure that the fortress was never unprotected.

Of course, this meant that anyone apart of any of the guilds couldn't just enter another guild's territory unless the other guild allowed it.

The center of the fortress was for the people that either didn't or couldn't fight, unfortunately, this place the people in the main entrance of the fortress, but it also left them enough room to restart their lives.

Either by starting their own shops or falling back into doing what they did before the death game.

Considering how big the rooms in the fortress are room wasn't going to be an issue for a while.

As for un officiated people like himself or teams that weren't guilds, there were marked as Mercenaries by the guilds inside the fortress, and as such unlike the main guilds they could enter any of the guilds protected areas.

[Point of View change ]
Guild Girl listened to the conversations happening, not a lot had changed, except for one thing, the adventurers were telling one another about the Knights that had recently arrived.

Normally she wouldn't have taken any notice of their conversations but it was her job to notice anything that caught the Adventurer's attention.

From what she heard the knights were busy opening roads that lead to villages that have been destroyed by goblin raids and even built walls of rock or wood around them.

Even in areas where there was nothing left of those villages or towns.

The paths or roads being built were nothing more than a mixture of rocks, tree branches, and even large monster bones placed on both sides of a path that the knights had cut the overgrown grass from.

It wasn't anything Guild Girl didn't know about, but she knew why the adventurers were taking note of the knight's actions, for one these acts were jobs the knights had taken, on another the knights were well knights.

When had a person seen a knight get on his knees and cut grass like a normal person?

Guild Girl noticed that a sheet of paper landed in front of her and she found her boss looking at her and just like her, he was listening to the conversations of the adventurers.

"Look," her boss said to her, and Guild Girl began to read the paper he had given her

"The capital didn't waste any time, they are sending settlers to the frontier, they didn't even bother to see what the knights were planing, they only saw that all of those lost villages were cleaned and ready to be resettled," Boss said to her

Guild Girl didn't say anything she just looked at the paper in front f her, she knew that most if not all of the settlers would die, either from illness or monster attacks, but that was the life here.

The door of the guild opened and Goblin Slayer walked in, he walked past all of the adventurers, and like usual he stood in front of her, except this time he opened his bag and took out several parchments.

"I found a black pillar, it belongs to the knights"

"I know because I saw it fall along with them," Goblin slayer said to her, and Guild Girl began to read the papers Goblin Slayer had given her.

Goblin Slayer had drawn the pillar and a couple of the signs that were on it, Guild Girl felt her heart stop at what she saw next.

Thirty thousand names were written on it, Twenty thousand names were crossed out.

"You need to tell the knights to go get it, I think it's something important to them," goblin Slayer said to her before he left the guild, Guild Girl knew that Bosss had already given Golin Slayer his next quest so she didn't have to give it to him

She continued to look at the parchments Goblin Slayer had given her, there was a boys name and next to it said committed suicide by jumping out of the castle

Another name and next to it was killed by a dragon, another by dwarfs, another by lizard men, there were so many names Guild Girl felt her boss take the Parchments and he looked at them

"I see," he said before he walked out of the Guild

 

[blueayes]

Kirito listened to the sounds of marching feet, it was time to do what anyone else would have done and that meant patrolling the nearby areas.

The players would stay clear of any of the villages or towns so that they didn't affect the people in them, this was mostly to keep everyone from getting bored and to gate the players familiar with the territory.

None of them were to get into any fights with any adventurers they met, after all, they were people doing their jobs, and the players themselves weren't in any position to fight anyone just yet.

"Kirito," Heathcliff said to him

"I need you to go with Auna and a couple of the guards, they're going to bring something that survived the destruction of the castle."

'You don't need to do anything just keep guard while everyone else figures out a way to bring the Black Pillar to the fortress" Heathcliff said to him and Kirito could see several players that had beasts waiting for him at the entrance of the fortress.

"Sure but why do you need me? I mean the pillar shouldn't be too hard to move considering that all of the mounts can move something like it without any problems" Kirito said to Heathcliff who just looked at him

"The truth is we have the farmers in that area quite a scare when we arrived, so Asuna is going to try and smooth things out with them, and considering you're married to her " Heathcliff began to explain

"I might be able to smooth things out with the farm girls husband" Kirito interrupted Heathcliff by finishing his explanation

"Glad you agree, Asuna is already waiting for you," Heathcliff said to him before walking off

Kirito had to admit that whenever he laid eyes on a Kujata it always took his breath away, the monsters were giant, but didn't eat a lot and unless a person was close to them they didn't attack.

Of course, by close Kirito meant that if the thing couldn't smell you then it wouldn't attack and they were taking three of them, this meant that they would arrive at that farm in less than half an hour.

The Kujata were each pulling a wagon that could be disassembled to make one big wagon, the wagons themselves were attached to the Kujata by large heavy chains.

Kirito heard Asuna call him over and the moment he took his seat next to her, the Kujata let out a loud moan and began to walk towards the direction of the farm.

The sounds of trees being broken as the Kujata used its giant horns to break the trees and open a path could be heard for miles and Kirito could see people staring at them as they moved past the villagers and adventurers.

[Cow Girl ]
She was done for the day, the cows had been milked and her uncle was tending to the fields, she had already fed the chickens and fed the pigs, she just needed to take care of the laundry and that was it she could have the rest of the day to herself.

Then she heard the loud moans, at first she thought that it had been the cows, but the sound was too loud and the ground was shaking.

CowGirl nearly let out a scream when she saw the giant beasts and its eyes moved and stared at her, yet the creature just kept on moving, as if her presence wasn't anything important.

then she noticed that someone was riding on the giant bull's back and he was waving at her, without knowing what to do Cow Girl wave back.

Out of all of the three massive bulls, the last one stopped and she found herself watching a group of knights getting of a large wagon and bring down a small table begin to build a tent.

She watched as a knight that wore white armor walked up to her and she felt herself tremble as the man stood in front of her.

She had heard stories about this, how knights would expect the women in villages to attend to them and how they would force them to....she didn't want to think about it, she felt herself about to cry when the knight spoke

"Lady Asuna wishes speak to you, she would like to offer her sincerest apologies for whatever discomfort we have brought to you and your family," the knight said to her

CowGirl looked down at her clothes and she heard the knight speak.

'You don't have to worry about your clothes, it was us who arrived without an invitation, if it's a bad time we can come back another time" he said to her

"No, I... I can...I have time today" Cow Girl said to the knight who escorted her to a tent the knights had set up right in front of her.

The smell of tea reached her nose and she found a woman with long brown hair and hazel eyes sitting on a wooden chair waiting for her, next to her was a man wearing black armor.

CowGirl realized it was the same man that had moved faster than her old friend had, there were knights on every corner of the room and cowgirl realized she was in the presence of a noble

"Please sit down," Asuna said to her and cowgirl watched as a knight pulled a chair out for her

A knight poured her a hot cup of tea and CowGirl watched as the Noblewoman in front of her took a small sip from the cup she had in front of her.

"Do you not like this kind of tea?" Asuna asked cowgirl who immediately drank from her cup

"You don't have to be so nervous, it was I who came to your home and asked you to meet with me," Asuna said to her as she watched how tense cowgirl was in front of her

"I wanted to say I'm sorry for scaring you and your family when we arrived here," Asuna said to cowgirl who immediately smiled at her

Neither of them said anything after that, Cowgirl was too nervous and hadn't spoken to a lot of people in her life and Asuna didn't know what to say.

"Do you want to hear a story?" Asuna asked Cw Girl who nodded

"Along time ago, there was a castle in the sky where an evil sorcerer lived"

"The sorcerer filled the castle with all sorts of evil creatures and monsters, the castle was as large as an entire kingdom"

"He filled it with creatures that resembled people and even had them act as if they were people"

"The castle had one hundred floors and then the sorcerer did the cruelest of things"

"He pulled people out of the world, people that had never fought monsters in their lives, the people were brought to a town and they watched as the sky turned red and rained blood"

"The sorcerer told the people, if you want to be free you will have to reach the top of the castle"

"Men- women and children, were trapped in that castle, twenty thousand died, either from the monsters or because they couldn't take it anymore and so they killed themselves"

Then one day the strongest of the knights opened the last door and together with all of the survivors they fought the sorcerer and the most powerful of all of the monsters"

CowGirl watched as Noblewomns smile [Asuna] was filled with sadness

"In a way the people were free, but they were left in a world that wasn't their own, maybe it was but it had changed, moved on without them," Asuna said to CowGirl, as she finished telling CowGirl the story of the death game while leaving out some bits of information

CowGirl closed her eye and she began to tell Noblewoman [Asuna] the stories of her past how she and her old friend would chase after rabbits, how they would often chase one another along with the other children, the two of them laughed as they told each other of the fun times they had during their childhood.

For a brief moment, neither of them remembered that they were from different worlds and soon CowGirl watched as Noblewoman [Asuna ] left with the giant beasts that were now pulling the Black Pillar that Goblin Slayer had found.

She heard her uncle call to her and she told him that the knights and one of the nobles had come to apologize and she watched as her uncles' panicked expression became one of relife

[Change]

"I think its time we get out into the world"

"There's no point in us staying inside the fortress, the Guild leaders have agreed that as of this moment everyone that wants to go to this worlds guild and start taking quests"

"Go ahead" Heathcliff announced to everyone

The moment those words left his mouth the feeling of excitement filled a lot of the players, they liked not having anything trying to kill them but staying inside the fortress was boring and there wasn't much to do besides cleaning the place out and repairing some damage

It was time to see just how good they were when they were put against the monsters of this new world

 

[blueayes]

The sound of armored boots could be heard as the knights left the fortress.

If one looked at they would have believed that nothing different was occurring, just like the day before and the day before that one the knights patrolled the surrounding lands and continued to restore their recently acquired fortress.

Yet one would need only look closely at the number of knights that left the fortress and headed towards the nearest town and they would have realized that nearly half of the knights had left the safety of the fortress.

Kirito watched as half of the players accompanying him separated themselves from the group and headed into the woods and later the open fields hoping to test their skills against the monsters of this world.

There wouldn't be any rewards for them and if they were then in all honesty Kirito would be a little bit jealous if he found out that whatever reward the second and third group gained was better than an official reward he and Asuna would get when they completed their quest.

Kirito and Asuna both knew that from here on out the two of them would be completely on their own.

It was true that they both still had a lot of the magic crystals they bought or gained inside the castle, but unless this world had anything similar to them, then these items were especially rare in this world so if they used just one, it could mean losing something unreplaceable.

Of course, there was always the possibility that something even better existed in this world and that the crystals were just as easily replaceable in this world as they were in the castle so they had nothing to worry about if that was the case.

The only reinforcements they would get would arrive after they sent the destress signal through the chatroom, which could be accessed by their help screens.

The question was, if the help they would need would arrive on time or if they would arrive too late and only find whatever trinkets remained when their bodies vanished.

Kirito turned to look at the other players accompanying him, none of them voiced their concerns but judging on how they each held their swords or shields tightly, he knew that they were just as worried about their first encounter with a monster of this world as he was.

They finally made it to town, unlike the last two times when they slowly walked to the fortress of the town, this time they had cut down their time to half an hour by moving at the speed their levels allowed them to.

So a walk that would have taken three days only took half an hour.

The group that stayed behind was mostly the people that couldn't fight and some of the mid-level and high-level players because either they just plain didn't want to leave the fortress or they just wanted to leave the life of adventure behind them and so chose to restart their lives.

As they walked into the town Kirito noticed that none of the townspeople were frightened of their arrival like they were the last time the scout group arrived, some people stopped to take a glance and then they moved on with their lives.

They entered the Adventurers Guild and found it unusually empty, but considering that it was already noon, he figured most of the adventurers were off doing whatever quest they had picked up

So with no one in their way the group went towards the board where the quests were put up and they each picked the ones they liked, unfortunately, the only quests or jobs left were low-level ones, like killing slimes, killing rats, or killing goblins.

None of them were in any rush to get into any fights they weren't ready for so they each picked one of the jobs and showed it to one of the receptionists, that was seated behind the counter.

Kirito looked at the job Asuna had piked for the two of them and he had to admit it was a low-level job, they had to clean out or kill all of the slimes they could before sunrize.

If they were inside the tunnel after the sun rose then the slimes would all such towards the entrance of the tunnel and they would be overwhelmed by sheer numbers.

The instructions were easy enough, so he and Asuna said their goodbyes to the other teams and headed straight for the tunnel, lit was a good thing that their storage space still existed so they didn't need to worry about carrying any potions or weapons.

They finally found the entrance to the tunnel they each took out a torch and light it, from here on out they would need to be careful because they would be limited to using short swords, daggers, and anything that wasn't too big that it would get stuck in the ceiling or walls of the tunnel.

Kirito drew his swords and he heard the sound of Asuna drawing her rapier, and with the sound of their boots stepping into loose dirt-covered stone they walked into the tunnel.

As the orange light of the last sunlight of the day guided them deeper into the tunnel, they soon found themselves in near-complete darkness with the only light available to them was that of their torches.

 

[blueayes]

It's a funny thing walking in near-complete darkness, even though the two of them had torches with them, they both had their eyes wide open as they tried to see any movement that shouldn't be present.

Every step they took echoed and the shadows around them either danced, elongated, or seemed to become darker as they walked, before vanishing as the light they carried abandoned whatever objects it touched to make those shadows.

As they walked they soon found the extra touches that the guild had told them about and unsurprisingly they were burned out.

The guild hadn't given them any spares, so it wasn't their job to relight them, but having more light didn't hurt so as they walked they began to replace the torches before lighting them.

Kirito and Asuna both had night vision, but it was limited and only lasted for a few minutes, it wasn't something meant to be used for long term like what they were doing right now.

No, it was meant to give them an extra edge during a fight or when they had to search for something, but after the time ran out they would have to wait for their eyes to cool off and they would be forced to stand in complete darkness at the mercy of whatever was inside the sewers with them.

Kirito and Asuna walked in complete silence replacing any torches they found, the items were something so common that every player had more than enough to spare and in all honesty wanted to get rid of them.

They repeated this action until they reached the point where the tunnel split itself into three different paths, normally splitting up would be the stupidest thing they could do, but they both were high-level players and they had the maps that showed them where they were at the moment.

So without any words, Kirito went left, while Asuna went right, the only thing that the two of them did was simply give each other a look before nodding and walking down the tunnel.

If there were monsters inside the sewers, then they either had already seen the light of the torches they carried or of the torches they had left behind.

If it was the latter then that meant that they would eventually attack the two.

If it attacked Asuna, then Kirito could run back and help her, if it attacked Kirito then Asuna would run back and help him.

If the two of them were attacked then the enemy must be pretty strong for it to have enough guts to do something so stupid.

If the enemy was stronger than the two of them, then as players it was their job to kill ut and brag about it, if it wasn't and it was just a bunch of low-level monsters trying to swarm them.

Then their number better be something comparable to a flood.

Asuna walked deeper and deeper into the sewer and with every torch she replaced she noticed that the walls of the tunnels were covered with slime.

Not the actual monster but the pieces of the monster that were left behind then it moved.

She lifted her torch and used it to see if any slim was on the ceiling and she was lucky to notice that a drop of slime had fallen from the ceiling.

She moved her head slightly and to her surprise, she soon noticed the scent of acid, she didn't scream, nor did she allow her emotions to get the better of her.

No, she had more than enough experience to know, that any sound she made would be carried and she would alert anything that was in the sewers with her.

Asuna lifted her hand and opened her help screen, she looked through her items and found her helmet, she hardly ever used it, but if she was going to be in a place where acid fell from the ceiling then she wouldn't be walking around with her head unprotected.

The last thing she did was send what she had discovered to Kirito and the rest of the players, as she warned them about the threat that the slimes posed to them.

The creature's acid wasn't strong enough to eat through her armor, but any exposed part of her body wouldn't be so lucky.

Kirito picked up another bone and just like the ones before it, this one crumbled as soon as he was standing up straight.

There were bones of giant rats everywhere, but they were hollow and it looked as if something had eaten them from the inside.

Bones weren't supposed to just break when a person held them, especially if the entire skeleton was still in the shape of whatever it was before it died.

The sound of something dragging itself just out of sight caught his attention, but he didn't chase it instead he just walked and continued to look for any clues that he could find while replacing whatever torches needed to be replaced.

Whatever was dragging itself was starting to leave a trail as the bones scattered around the tunnel he was in, were beginning to only show up on the edges of the tunnel, while the center of it was completely clean.

Every time he replaced a torch he was careful to keep the touch he held towards the darkness, whatever was in the tunnel with him seemed to shy away from the light.

He had dealt with creatures like this one before, things that didn't like being near any light.

It would wait until he either walked past a corner and attack or continue to hide until it either ran out of places to hide and it was forced to attack or this was nothing but an act it was putting up, to put him in a false sense of safety.

Meaning that if it attacked, it expected Kirito to run back into the light and when Kirito thought he was safe the creature would strike as it took advantage of the fact that his guard was down.

Kirito walked until he found the end of the tunnel and h was thankful that Asuna had warned him earlier as he laid eyes on what was covering the entire ceiling- wall, and floor in front of him.

Hundreds of thousands of cockroaches varying in size clung to the walls looking at him with hungry eyes.

Asuna stopped walking, running away would be pointless, she knew that she would have to walk into a place covered with slimes, but she didn't expect it to be true, normally things like this were just a figure of speech.

Both Kirito and Asuna opened their help screens and found iron masks and put them on as an extra layer of protection.

It was as if an alarm had been set of nd beth the slimes and cockroaches charged at them.

Kirito used his sword and his speed to cut up any roach big enough, and he either stepped on or crushed anything small enough, Asuna for her part was forced to use her speed to strike at every core she could see.

It was thanks to her speed that any of the slimes that did manage to land on her flew off before it could do any harm.

Regardless had the two of them been any weaker then the enemy would have overwhelmed them.

Finally, when it was all done they just collected the proof they needed and burned whatever traces were left of their prey.

Before they left the sewer, they walked back and explored the last of the tunnels, even though the enemies they fought were weak, they were both thankful that they didn't find anything.

As they walked out of the tunnels, they were slightly surprised to see that it was already daytime and the townspeople were going about their day.

Asuna and Kirito noticed that people soon beg to stop walking and looked at the two of them with fearful expressions.

Asuna remembered that she was wearing her mask and her helmet before taking them off.

She turned to look at Kirito and gave him a warm smile when she finally saw his face.

"Let's go get paid, I need a bath," she said to Kirito before leading the way back to the adventurers guild.