Out of the castle into the world

[blueayes]

As the three groups greeted each other Asuna noticed more than one member of her guards arrive and Kirito immediately separated himself from her.

Unfortunately, this is supposed to be a meeting between representatives, and Kirito is a mercenary a solo player, someone with no alliance to anyone, except for her, but that was because she is his wife.

Regardless he isn't a member of ay guild so he can't be at her side during this meeting.

As Kirito walked away he opened his help screen and found began to look for any ruins or tunnels that he could explore.

Unfortunately, the tunnels underneath the fortress were already explored and are being collapsed.

When it was discovered that they didn't lead anywhere, everyone agreed it was better for everyone living in the fortress if they weren't there anymore.

As he walked out of the living sector of the fortress and reached the exit of the fortress Kirito felt his lungs tighten, for whatever reason this world seemed to restrict his movements, but not by much.

The best way Kirito could describe it was as if he was trying to walk up a set of stairs, but every time he gave a step his feet would always land on the edge of the step and he would be forced to balance himself with his other leg.

As he exited the fortress he noticed that the kids had started a fire, by hitting two rocks together, something that they couldn't do inside Aincrad, it was just one of the things that the other players had discovered.

Even now the blacksmiths had separated themselves into two groups, those that focused on repairing and maintaining every piece of weaponry and armor that the player had, and those that experimented with whatever the players found when they went out exploring.

Right now the Army is protecting the settler while helping them build their new homes, while at the same time keeping an eye on the elves.

Kirito couldn't blame the Army for summoning Eldath and if he had to be honest, Kirito would have done the same.

As Kirito looked at the locations the players had marked he found that a lot of caves near the fortress were filled with goblins.

From what the adventurer Goblin Slayer had told him, goblins are swarm enemies, meaning that alone they aren't a problem, but when they outnumber a person, that's when they're dangerous.

The man just said to carry healing potions and if players found any children then they should kill them because goblin children learn from the deaths of the adult.

More than one group of players was heading towards the nearby caves and had marked their targets, just in case they needed help.

Marking a location is something that t players came up with after floor fifty, if a team failed to leave a tower or anyplace that were exploring after a certain amount of time, then everyone needed to head there because something had happened to them.

Of course, by the time everyone had reached floor fifty everyone had put their differences aside and was working together.

 

[blueayes]

Still, right now everyone is operating on the information they have, its funny now that he stopped to think about it, in their old world, or was it the real world, everyone knew that they couldn't just touch something and it magically became something else.

The creatures here don't just disappear when they die and leave behind gold or whatever valuables drop from them, like in the game, and yet just like in the game people can make fireballs by saying a couple of words and get paid for killing monsters.

"This whole world is confusing," Kirito said to himself

He stopped walking and for a brief moment he found a nearby tree and leaned on it, to everyone else this small little act was pointless, but for him, it was worth his weight in gold.

Kirito allowed himself to take in the sight around him, everyone around him had gone through hell just to make it here and a lot of them didn't want to go back home.

After all what was at home?

Earth may have been the world that they had grown up in, but there is a reason why everyone felt trapped there, and maybe if the situation had been different, how many people would have tried to pass the game and go back.

Kirito heard his help screen beep, the first team had cleared one of the caves already and was in the process of collapsing any tunnel that led nowhere.

"What?" Kirito said as he looked at the same message appearing over and over again but it was coming from different teams.

"Get a Hospital ready"

"Kirito!" Klein said to him

"We have work to do" Kirito heard Klein say to him before his old friend ran back into the fortress

"Stay where you are, we have enough people preparing the hospital but someone needs to receive whatever survivors the other teams found, " Asuna said to him

"What's happening?" Kirito said o himself but his question was soon answered when a group of women and girls were teleported in front of him.

They were naked and looked as if they had been tortured, but it was their eyes.....their eyes looked dead as if the only thing they could do to keep themselves safe was to give p and die even if their bodies still lived.

"Okay the first group just arrived, I need a lot of people to carry them in,....guys they're in bad shape," Kirito said to everyone in the fortress

Soon several players ran towards the girls and covered them with blankest and began to either carry them inside or guide them in if they could walk, but just as one group was starting to go inside another group was teleported in.

This kept on happening over and over again, until the only reason the other teams stopped teleporting people to the fortress, was that they were done killing every goblin near their locations.

 

[blueayes]

Elsewhere
The sounds of battle echoed through the once empty streets, one after another, children dressed in beautifully crafted armor, teleported a group of elderly- pregnant women- children or women who were carrying infants.

His loyalty to his father's kingdom was unquestionable, but it had been the Greate Shield who had both led the attack to reclaim the kingdom and brought him into the Knight house.

The Knights of the Blood Oath are an order that perhaps isn't secret, but they aren't well known either.

When he had returned home, he told his family the story of the mysterious knight that wore the blood-red colored armor and carried the great while shield.

Yet his father for all of his knowledge of the world's ongoing events failed to know anything about the knights stationed in the frontier.

Regardless he did as he had been told by the Greate Shield and asked his father for aid in reclaiming the kingdom that he and the rest of the knight houses had worked so hard to reclaim from the undead.

At first, his father denied his request but his father's eyes soon turned towards where his sister stood.

His father agreed that he would help him rebuild the kingdom under one condition, in exchange for the worker- money and whatever would e needed to restore the fallen kingdom.

He would have to marry his sister thereby pledging both kingdoms to each other.

In all honesty, this was rather pointless, his kingdom had nothing of value except for the land and that stood between a river of fresh water and a forest.

The river connected to his father's kingdom, but it took three days to arrive from one kingdom o the other, so getting supplies was difficult.

It was only after his father started to send the workers that he realized why his father had made such a union.

Every man and woman that arrived was either covered in scars or had bodies that showed how strong they were to anyone that looked at them.

If they didn't have either of those two, the look in their eyes made him immediately distrust them.

These were the men and women that had been forged from a lifetime of hardship, people who would sooner kill him and run away than listen to anything he said.

"So this is the place we have to clean up," a muscular man said to him

"Yes" he answered the man

"So which ones my house?" the man asked him

"All of you are the first ones here, so pick one and we all will work together to clean the ones you [pick first" he answered the man

He later learned why none of them had bothered to kill him or just run away, his father had told them that if they wanted a fresh start with a clean slate then he offered them just that.

A chance to start over was what his father offered them and that was exactly what they had received, in this once abandoned kingdom, the pasts of the men and women working for him didn't matter.

No one questioned anyone bout their past, because when you come here, the past stays in the past.

If you met someone that killed someone you loved, it was better for the two of you to deal with it outside of the kingdom, because no one else will forgive you for bringing up things that should have been left behind long ago.

He had to admit seeing the once-quiet streets come to life warmed his heart.

Yet at the same time, he was growing worried, everyone called him king, but he was the king of a land filled with Barbarians, wizards- knights and thieves that had no honor, and yet he had grown proud of having them as his subjects.

Where his sisters' kingdom was guarded by well-trained knights, his was guarded by adventurers who had heard about a place where they could start over and no one would ask questions about what they did.

It was only a few months but his city was already growing and the lands were quickly prepared to be planted and grow the needed crops for the future.

It had all looked so promising.

The light of another group of refugees teleporting in caught his attention and to his surprise, a group of Dust Elves arrived.

At first, he thought that the elves would be told to leave, but he smiled when they were taken to a nearby building so they could rest alongside the other refugees.

"When you come here, the past stays in the past" he reminded himself

He felt his sister grab his hand and they both watched as the people kept arriving, a few minutes quickly turned to a few hours until the refuges finally stopped arriving.

"One second" he remembered Greate Shields words, as a shadow passed over his kingdom

He didn't react when he noticed several creatures fly towards the object, somehow he suspected that whatever it was, was headed towards the frontier.

"Just one second" the words repeated themselves in his head, as the Dark Knights and Shadow Paladins prepared to defend themselves from the creatures.

As the flok of beast flew away the ground shook as the massive footsteps of giant bests made themselves known.

The screams of the guards alerted everyone to prepare their weapons, as an army of beats marched pat the walls, yet to everyone's surprise, all of the creatures ignored his kingdom.

There are no words that could describe how helpless he felt as well as how insignificant he knew he was at the moment, yet as the creature marched past his kingdom he notice something.

A creature that looked like a lizard man, but wasn't a member of their species stopped walking looked up, and stared deeply into his eyes.

The creature then turned its eyes towards the emblem that great shield gave him.

The creature said something thing to another of its kind, both bowed their heads at him and left.

Everything was silent for a long moment after that, then they heard it, the roar of a dragon and soon the sounds of battle followed, no one knew what exactly happened after that but, the hows of a dying dragon soon echoed, until they finally stopped.

As the sun fell and the moon began to rise, he found his mother and father who had used a spell to meet with him and his sister, both were shaken by what they had seen, but were relieved when they saw that neither of them was harmed.

The recent events had shaken both his parents and the nobles, so much that they had decided to build up their defenses and so they were going to stop sending resources to his kingdom.

He expected that to happen, thankfully his kingdom had just received plenty of new hands that could help fix his kingdom while they were here.

 

[blueayes]

They returned to the group and allowed their guides towards a nearby mountain and to their surprise, they found a group of men who wore metal armor each man's armor was different both in design and color.

The three of them looked around and found that their group had joined several other groups until a large crowd was formed.

"Okay all of you came here for a reason" one of the men spoke but his voice sounded as if he was standing next to her, but his voice wasn't loud nor was it disturbing.

"If all of you expect us to tell you what to do and how to do it, forget about that, we have our own problems," the man said to them

"However I know that sometimes things go wrong so if anything major happens just say I need your help Armor and one of us will come to help you," the man said to them

As they listened to the man's words they felt themselves quickly become relieved of their worries but at the same time be filled with new worries that replaced the ones that had just left them.

"With that out of the way, these are the few rules that we have for you"

"Don't kill anyone, whatever happened before you came here, that's in the past, leave it there"

"If someone kills someone else, there have better be a good reason for it and by that I mean that person did something here"

"Next no stealing from each other, there's plenty to eat"

"Finally if there are any Elves amongst you, I'm sorry but you have to eave," the man said to everyone and the entire crowd began to murmur amongst themselves

"What about Half-Elves?" a man asked the man that had been speaking to them.

"They can stay, but they need a partner that isn't a complete elf" the man wearing the armor answered the man

"Why aren't the elves welcomed?" her mother asked the man

"Good question. You see we have weapons that can kill a lot of things and we made the mistake of showing a group of elves one of them and they tried to steal it" the man answered her mother

She could feel her heart begin to beat inside her chest, both she and her companion were half-elves and only her mother was Human meaning that unless they had a partner and that could only mean a Man, then they would be forced to leave.

"No!" cried out a female el as the group near her had graved her hands and forced her to the front and placed her in front of the men wearing armor.

The screams of men- women and children followed as elves were forced to stand or kneel before the group of men who just looked at them with cold eyes.

"We aren't cruel," one of the armored men said as he looked at the group of elves

"There are two ways that you can stay"

"The first is that you cut off all connections to themselves outside o our territory, so any family that you have left outside is lost to you"

"The second is that someone in the crowd claims you as their own, you can leave," the man said to the group of elves who turned to look at the crowd, but everyone in the crowd turned to look at each other but no one answered.

"I'll take the two girls and their mothers," a human man said as he pushed his way out of the crowd and stood behind a pair of elf girls who immediately graved their mother's hands.

"It's your choice do you want to go with him?" the man said to the women and their daughters, who nodded in response

"You're responsible for them now, that means that you can't beat them and that you have to take care of them," the armored man said to the human

"One by one the elves began to walk into the crowd as someone took them until finally, only a small group remained.

"So what's it going to be, will you leave or will you cut your ties?" the armored man asked the group

The group of elves all chose to cut ties with the elves that remained outside of the green land.

"Excuse me" she heard the voice of a Human man say t her

The man wasn't fully grown man yet, nor was he young enough to be called a boy but he carried a pair of human infants in his arms.

"I'll make a deal with you, if you help me take care of the babies, I'll make myself responsible for you," the man said to her.

As she looked t the children she felt her mother s grip tighten, yet as she was about to answer, she heard her companion answer the boy

"We're a page deal, you have to make yourself responsible for the three of us," the half-elf said to the man as she pointed at her mother and her.

The man looked t the three and nodded

"Okay," he said to the half-elf

The first thought that came to her, was that she had just become the man's property and truth be told she most likely had, but this felt different she wanted to say something but she didn't know what,

"What happens if the person responsible for a half-elf wants to leave the?" the half-elf asked the armored men

"Then they leave each other and the half-elf is free to live here after all her or she proved itself worthy of living here"

"He or he is one of you, after all, the same goes for the elves that have someone responsible for them"

"The time limit is one year, they just have to stay together for one year, if the person responsible for them wants to let them leave they can, and if the elves or half-elves want to eave that person they can" the armored man answered the half-elf

To her surprise as well as everyone else the rules were surprisingly lenient and as the men wearing armor vanished from sight she noticed that everyone began to separate into small groups again.

 

[Louker]

Bod Oath

Click to shrink...

Is it meant to be Blood oath

 

[blueayes]

Is it meant to be Blood oath

Click to shrink...

yeah missed that one .

thanks

 

[blueayes]

[Elsewhere]
The city was filled with new life as the merchants arrived, the caravan was met by the city guards who upon seeing the merchant's cargo nearly choked on their tongues.

The merchants quickly set up shop and when the people went on about their day saw what the merchants had brought with them they quickly surrounded the men and paid whatever the men wanted for their cargo.

The scene repeated itself wherever the merchants went but by the time any high templar arrived to see what was going on with their own eyes, the merchants were long gone.

The city's noble houses were filled with the distinctive green color of the small trees that had been bought by the nobles, yet it was the strange fruits and exotic beasts that according to the merchants were meant to be eaten.

As the days passed a rumor began to spread through the cities and towns no one knew when the rumor had started or who had started it, but it was spoken in the dark corners of allies at night- within the slave pens and inside the cages where the gladiators slept.

Even amongst the noble houses, the story was told from one person to another.

"There is a green land where a great river is born. Look for the great skeleton beast that cuts the path for the river, and follow the river back to where it came from"

They listened to the two drunk men tell them what they knew and despite several templars listening to the two men's words none of them did anything to silence them.

The green lands were what was being talked about by everyone, some claimed to have been t this strange land but were forced to leave by the men that wore metal armor, others claimed to have heard about it.

One thing was certain both the Sorcerer Kings and the Veiled Alliance wanted to find the green land as soon as possible.

Normally no one within the veiled alliance would have paid much attention to the pointless rumors that had been spread for one reason or another.

Even if the merchants had brought plenty of green plants and plump animals that were ready to be eaten, didn't prove that such a land existed.

The merchants might have just found a small patch of land that had escaped the great sundering that had nearly killed their world and were carving away at what little life remained in that place.

Yet it was only when the story repeated itself that the alliance began to take the stories seriously, the stories told by the merchants contradicted each other, but remained the same at their core.

There was a mountain where men that wear metal armor rule, each of them can use magic but it doesn't affect the world around them.

Some stories claimed that the metal men were cruel dictators, others claimed that they were at best neglectful masters or worst uncaring dictators.

All were welcomed to the green lands, but the moment they entered those lands they were to immediately swear loyalty to the metal men and discard their old lives.

Elves were the only group that wasn't warmly welcomed and half-elves were accepted but were untrusted because of their mixed blood.

The alliance was surprised to learn, that both elves and half-elves were welcomed if they discarded their past and swore to not help an elf or half-elf that remained outside.

If they were partnered with someone else, for that person would be responsible for them, then they were no different than everyone else within the green lands.

The alliance was doing everything they could to find the strange mountain or the giant serpent that plowed the dead land, but try as they might they couldn't find the slightest sign of a river or the beat.

The templars didn't even try to interrogate anyone anymore, even they had tried looking searching for the things that the story said to look for, but in the end, they too failed.

"We didn't learn anything new," Jacob said to them before he took a drink from his mug

"So tat it, we're just giving up," Sara said to Jacob she had raised her voice slightly after hearing Jacobs words

"No, I said that we didn't learn anything new so that just means that there's one group that we have to pay a visit to," Jacob said to Sara who immediately understood what Jacob was implying.

"No, we can't trust them, hell even the dam story says that they aren't welcomed in the green lands," Grey said to his two companions, who looked at him with understanding eyes.

Elves no matter who they were, weren't to be trusted, because if you weren't careful they would rob you just as easily as they would kidnap you and sell you into slavery.

Still, what else could they do, they had done the same thing everyone else was doing except talking to the elves, and considering that they hadn't even tried to reach the green lands meant that if they knew where they were, they certainly weren't in a hurry to get to them.

The instructions were simple if anyone wanted to find the green lands then they just needed to find a great skeleton that opened a path and they would find a river.

The three of them closed their eyes and exhaled, it was time that they gave up, it was pointless for them to look for the green lands after all, if they were real, then there had to be something to prove that they were real.

A strange sound cough their attention and as the bar became silent everyone listened to the sounds and slowly everyone realized that the strab=nge sounds were coming from every direction, and seemed similar to a stampede of animals.

Everyone listed and were slightly shocked to hear something that they hadn't heard in their entire lives, water was falling from the sky.

Everyone knew that this was called rain, but no one in the city had seen rain before, and those that had, could only tell those that followed by the stories they told.

Perhaps sit was fate, perhaps something had heard them talking to each other, it didn't matter the three of them looked at each other and vowed to search for the green lands one more time.

 

[blueayes]

They took a deep breath as they sat down on a pair of rocks, the ruins they had been exploring were nothing special, just a bunch of old abandoned buildings and maybe there was a skeleton here or there.

She could hear the great skeleton doing its sacred duty and opening a path for the river to flow, but the sound of it digging was starting to slow down.

The land was so dry that on one occasion the skeletal beast ha stopped moving and waited until the river finally caught up to it.

Had anyone ever told her that one day, she would fear not hearing the movements of the creature she would have thought of them as fools or drunk.

Back then a group of men and women went out to see what was wrong and they found that the river was being swallowed by underground tunnels, that were collapsing as the water washed them away.

According to the scouts, the beast turned to look at them, but it ignored them as if their presence was entirely meaningless to it and when the water finally reached the creature once more it went back to digging a path for the river to flow.

Life was strange now somehow everything seemed new to her and at the same time, it all felt so natural that she could easily tell herself that she had been doing the same things all her life and believed it.

The role everyone performed was simple, those that could fight had immediately made themselves the guards of their town.

The women that had children maintained the houses - cooked and cleaned everything their rulers had given them.

There were two settlements but both belonged to the same town, those who accepted the houses that their masters had given them and those that didn't and chose to build their own.

The metal men called themselves Players and each of them varied in power and as usual, the strongest amongst them ruled over all of the lesser nobles.

Oddly enough, the meta men or players weren't cruel nor did they demand anything, they just asked everyone not to kill each other and not to cause too many problems.

Unfortunately, problems occurred on the first night everyone arrived.
crime happens a lot more during the night, so she listened to the screams of the unwilling accompanied by the moans of those that were willing.

So it wasn't any surprise that in the following day several men suddenly had groups of women surrounding them for protection.

The man that was responsible for her was no different, but this group was far enough from everyone that no one had noticed them, the night before.

No one exept for an elf and a halfling.

The women offered themselves to her partner and to prove their usefulness they presented to her partner the dead body of an animal they could cook and eat.

None of them had any hunting experience so reluctantly everyone agreed to let the two women into the harem her partner had.

There was already a running joke amongst the people that some men had gathered a woman from every race to satisfy their fetishes.

She smiled at the thought, it was pretty funny after all, the harem just needed a halfling and her partner would have tasted every civilized race there was.

Her partner handed her a mug filled with grape wine and she eagerly drank it, everyone has a role and hers is to be a guard while her partners' role is to be a scout.

Someone that either goes deeper into the mountain or leaves it when there's something that needs to be explored outside of it.

The only reason she isn't walking around keeping an eye on everyone is because of the ruins that had just been uncovered, the days were boring so she had expected something new to happen, but no there was nothing here just old buildings from a time long forgotten.

She enjoyed the sight of a river flowing next to the town and wondered if the town once had a river flowing through it or if this was something new, created b the white being in the sky.

"Hey they're coming back," June said to her as he pointed at the merchants who had returned with cages filled with the slaves they had just bought

The slaves were bought using the player's money so no one owned them except for the players and because of that, no one would dare to lay a hand on them.

For whatever reason, the player made a rule that no one could own slaves except for them, and even then after one or two years of servitude, the slaves would be free to choose if they wanted to stay or leave.

The fact that even the elves that were amongst the slaves could choose was proof of how kind their masters are.

Two years of servitude for a lifetime of freedom.

After the merchants returned and the players saw that everything they had sold everything, they were ordered to go back out and bring back as many people as they could, without causing problems.

She watched with her own eyes as every single merchant was given a fortune, gold real gold coins were handed to the merchants before they left.

A small amount of metal could easily buy a dozen slaves, but gold was more than enough to buy an entire market.

"You know sometimes I wonder why they let us do whatever we want, then I look up and I see them," her partner said to her as he signaled to something in the distance

Sara turned to look at what her partner had signaled to and she smirked.

The dragons that guarded this place weren't like the ones she had heard about.

They didn't demand tribute or ruled over anyone they just passed their days either flying in the sky- digging themselves into the ground or guarding the green lands.

Sara knew that it was only a matter of time until someone found the green and tried to either destroy them to gain power or tried to conquer them.

She knew why her masters had ordered the merchants to bring slaves, but she wished that they hadn't.

On one hand, they needed workers who would do as they were told, the hunters- guards, and scouts needed someone to help them relive their urges when they were away from home.

And the people needed entertainment and just because people couldn't kill each other anymore, didn't mean that the gladiators wouldn't come to exist here.

After all the men and women could still kill the beast that they fought against, and after two years of fighting and training the green lands would gain guards that already had more experience in combat than most of the other cities.

Despite all of this she wondered if her situation had changed at all, sure she now slept on a comfortable bed and wore comfortable clothes, ever since she came to these lands she never went hungry.

Yet, these lands had people that ruled over them, over her and those people were ruled over by even stronger people, who might have a powerful master ruling over all of them.

The streets were just as dangerous as the ones in any other city, but at the same time the only thing anyone needed to do was call to their masters and they would appear when they were called.

In the end, she chose not to think about it anymore, she had her role and it was the role she had chosen.

She chose to become a guard, she could have easily chosen any other role but she had chosen this one and that was all that mattered.

 

[blueayes]

She watched as the merchants arrived and started unloading the slaves, she listened as the rules were explained to them before the slavers placed a collar on the slaves they would be training.

She watched as a couple of the guards began to look for the men- women- boys and girls that looked as if they could defend themselves to train them before they could start fighting each other for everyone's entertainment.

Some of the women did the same but they separated their groups into two separate groups one was a group meant to accompany the scouts- guards and hunters, while the other group was the one that people had t pay for if they wanted to enjoy themselves with them.

Two years those were the rules, more than enough time for resentment to set in.

Ashley watched as the last group was brought to the fields to help expand them, so far her and her mother's lives were calm here, there weren't any raiders to worry about and the only things she had to worry about were the beats that roamed the outside f the town or the people at nigh.

The latter was easily avoided as long as she didn't leave the house at night.

Life was calm here they didn't have to worry about anything and their masters were kind enough to give them the tools they were using to tend to the fields, sometimes she wondered how long their new lives would last.

She quickly dismissed those thoughts, because they were pointless, both her mother and herself were able to live one more day without worrying about someone cutting their throats at night.

Her mother was taking care of the infants, while the halfling and the elf were hunting.

She knew that her masters were watching her and everyone else after all why wouldn't they be, magicians like them always were.

She knew that to them everyone around her was nothing more than property, things that they could kill simply because they felt like it, yet unlike the city she lived in before their presence wasn't cruel.

Everyone was careful to take care of everything the players had given them and if anyone had a problem with someone else they would settle it in the pit and get it out of their systems.

The two of them would fight each other and everyone would show.

A hierarchy was quickly forming, not between the players and them but between the townspeople that had arrived before everyone else, to put to simply, if you were a sav then you belonged to the bottom of society here, and if you were one of the first people to arrive then you were just a couple of steps below the players.

Everyone else was in between, the reason for this was simple, not because the people here had any real power but because of how everyone lost the fear they had about the players with the time they spent here.

The mere existence of the merchants was proof of this, several ex nobles and men that were once guars to caravans called to the players and told the players about starting trade with the outside world and the players agreed.

The men knew that the players would eventually demand to gain something in return so they started bringing back slaves, that was before the players ordered the merchants to bring back as many people as they could.

Everyone has a role here and hers is to work in the fields, while her mother's role is to take care of the children, when she gave birth to her children it would be up to her mother to raise them while she worked, that was her role and they were grateful for them.

The hunters are starting t come back, the first to arrive are the scouts and the ones after them are the people that were injured, finally, everyone that helped kill the animals.