Loot, Baby!!!

I sat frozen in my position for almost five minutes before I could finally calm my beating heart and adrenalized body and when I stood up, I felt my legs womble for a bit.

Okay Rubik, steady yourself. Slow and steady wins the race, I said to myself and breathed in and out for a few more minutes before finally making it to where the body had fallen. I was quite surprised by the fact that the one called human Karl wasn't actually named Karl, instead his user id was Gin, which was strange to say the least. I mean, why would his party members call him Karl when his username is Gin. Also, by the way in order to form a party one needs to sign a virtual contract which basically says 'I won't stab in the back when all of this is done and over.'

But then again, given the harsh punishment of breaking adventuring rules of the contract, there are many who join a party without a contract. I think these guys were foolish enough to trust a person with no contract.

Anyway, the guy named Gin/Karl had his head pretty much roasted by the Red Flame Potion and after five minutes, all that remained of his head was a big, clean white skull. In fact, it looked so clean and white, it felt like it was artificial. Wtf!

But as I was contemplating blankly, an old but mature roar sounded behind me and it roughly translated as, "You did pretty good, child.'

"Wah!" I was a little shocked by the voice, you can say that my nerves haven't calmed down yet but then I remembered the real reason why I wanted to kill this human named Gin/Karl.

"I-I'm sorry, let me help you." I say in normal tone but when it reaches the bear's ear it auto-translated into animal language.

The bear gave a small laugh and replies, "I'm grateful."

So, after removing the two big glowy bear-traps from it's leg, the bear abruptly jumps onto its leg like they were never injured in the first place.

"Woah there, friend. Please be careful or else you might injure your legs." I said cautiously but again, the bear only gave a small laugh.

"I'm a level 9 Warrior Scarlet Bear, these injuries are like tooth-prick scratches to me. The only problem is the poison which invaded my body but it has subsided into a minor pain to me. I will get treated later."

"Welp, alright." I mutter. Truth be told, I didn't think this guy was this talkative and boasty.

"By the way," the bear said as it lowered its body down and looked at me eye to eye, "you do know that after the entire party is killed, the bodies only stay for 30 mins before disappearing, don't you?"

"Oh! Fuackk!" I cried as it suddenly dawned on me. I turned around and dashed towards the seven dead bodies (six because one was already looted by his mates). On the way, I even summoned Rommie to help me with the looting.

"Virtual clone, Rommie!" I cried and with the decrease of mp in my body, Rommie was summoned right by my side.

"Rommie, go get all the loots from this bodies asap!" I said to Rommie but he looked kinda glum, I guess. Nonetheless, he dashed towards the other mates of the party while I dashed in the opposite direction.

30 mins later, we return to our original position with heaps of equipments, books and potion bottles.

<Congratulations, you acquired a Fine Leather Armor (Large)—made with tanned leather from a level 1 Warrior Wildebeest from the Yaeb Grasslands in the far south. The craftmanship is mediocre with only slight modifications and focus from the smith, resulting in various underlying mistakes and overall bad design of the armor. It is made for a man with Large size, not compatible with the host.

Effects: Def: 25 Passive Effects: Light Armor, aids in movement and dodging and overall consumes less stamina than others. Durability:79/100>

<Congratulations, you acquired a Fine Leather Gauntlets (Large)—made with tanned leather from a level 1 Warrior Wildebeest from the Yaeb Grasslands in the far south. The craftmanship is mediocre with only slight modifications and focus from the smith, resulting in various underlying mistakes and overall bad design of the armor. It is made for a man with Large size, not compatible with the host.

Effects: Def: 15 Passive Effects: Light Armor, aids in movement and dodging and overall consumes less stamina than others. Durability: 80/100>

<Congratulations, you acquired a Fine Leather Boots (Large)—made with tanned leather from a level 1 Warrior Wildebeest from the Yaeb Grasslands in the far south. The craftmanship is mediocre with only slight modifications and focus from the smith, resulting in various underlying mistakes and overall bad design of the armor. It is made for a man with Large size, not compatible with the host.

Effects: Def: 10 Passive Effects: Light Armor, aids in movement and dodging and overall consumes less stamina than others. Durability: 88/100>

<Congratulations, you acquired a Normal Leather Armor (Medium)—made with normal leather by a novice armorer but with great focus and dedication, the armor has been gifted with a slight bonus. Made for medium sized men, not compatible with the host.

Effects: Def: 20(+2) Passive: Light Armor, aids in movement, dodging and overall costs less stamina to move around. Durability: 67/100>

<Congratulations, you acquired a Wind Mage's Robe (Medium)—a common dress worn by travelling Mage. Features a hood to conceal the wearer's identity but only partially. Effects: Improves mp regeneration by 1%. Def: 10 passive effects: Light armor, aids in movement, dodging and overall low cost of stamina per action. Durability: 44/100>

<Congratulations, you acquired a Damaged Normal Steel Breastplate Armor (Medium)—too damaged to be of any use except for recycling. Wearing it would be a blasphemy and insult to the wearer itself. Effects: Def: 5 passive effect: Heavy armor, offers more protection but is heavy, less likely to dodge and an overall increase in stamina consumption. Durability: 10/300>

<Congratulations, you acquired a Fine Steel-alloyed Breastplate Armor of Gin (Large)—once used by a warrior of the Whiteskulls but was killed by a strange demi-human. It was a customized steel plated armor for the warrior named Gin and is entirely incompatible with the host.

Effects: Def: 45(+5) Agility (+3) passive effect: Heavy armor, offers more protection but is heavy, less likely to dodge and an overall increase in stamina consumption. Durability: 324/350>

<Congratulations, you acquired a Normal Steel Plated Gauntlets (Large)—a normal steel made heavy armor for the arm and upper arms which takes more damage but is heavier than light armors. This make the armor heavy to use but offers more protection. There is no specialty associated with the making of this armor. Effects: Def: 25 passive effect: Heavy armor, offers more protection but is heavy, less likely to dodge and an overall increase in stamina consumption. Durability: 145/200>

<Congratulations, you acquired a Normal Steel Plate Grooves (Large)—a normal steel made heavy armor for the legs which protect the legs and groin area from all kinds of damage. But since it is heavier than light armor, moving is slightly more difficult and overall stamina consumption is increased. Effects: Def: 20 passive effect: Heavy armor, offers more protection but is heavy, less likely to dodge and an overall increase in stamina consumption. Durability: 70/100>

The armors acquired were mostly so-so, as per the system. I'm not too confident about them myself since I'm no expert of armors but I most probably will sell most of these armors for money when I return to Brimlow town and then buy an armor, maybe even a customized one if I'm not too broke. The only good thing that I received from looting them were a set of five throwing knives and another Rare Poison-Fanged Blade, making it possible for me to dual wield the daggers. The throwing knives were

<Congratulations, you acquired a partial set of Rare Sparrow-tail Throwing Knives—Made by Senior Weaponsmith Fostag Hardbelt during his heyday for one of his close but mysterious demi-human friend. The original set of 50 throwing knives came with a custom made with leather vest which can hide the throwing knives perfectly without giving away the wearer's intention. Master Fostag's meticulous smithing and dedication reflected on the sharp, brownish-black exterior of throwing knives, giving it a shadowy glare when shot at the enemy. The sharpness of the knives also makes it easy to cut through flesh of all kinds of creature.

Effects: Atk: 60 passive effects: 1. Penetration: these throwing knives have a 10-20% chance of penetrating the skin of the target, ignoring all kinds of defense and dealing an additional at least 2x damage depending on the accuracy and strength of the user. 2. Sharpness: These throwing knives have an extra-ordinary cutting power and is able to slice the skin of targets with a 5% chance of bleed effect.

Durability: 100/100)

I looked carefully at the five throwing knives in my hand and was a little fascinated by them. The brownish-black gradient gave it a nice look and it fit almost perfectly in my hand. The knives were quite small, not longer than 20cm long and was purely made of a black metal. The blade of the knife was a near perfect triangle while for it's handle, it had a short but a more rounded metal shaft. There was no handle for the knives and only a cloth was used to protect the hand from the sharpness of the handle.

Hmm… this is nice stuff. But most importantly, Senior Fostag made it for his demi-human friend, is this a coincidence? Nah! This must be the effect of the luck stat.

I acquire a few bags from these people and shamelessly tried to pocket everything that I and Rommie looted from these people, not even leaving the damaged and broken steel breastplate of first fallen warrior. Even their friends were like, 'this is useless' but since I'm effectively broke now, I'm more like 'I can sell this'.

I even took a selfie with Rommie with the dead warrior Gin/Karl. After all, I need some proof to show to my friends that I killed a human WARRIOR right after entering this world.

By the way, there were also quite a few potion bottles but most of them were health and Mana potions, a few of them were poison and some miscellenous. There were a few tomes too and given my high intelligence stat, I'm sure I can learn a few things.

"Are you done with your looting, little child?" asked the scarlet bear after it saw me packing all the bags. By the way, I haven't been called 'little child' by anyone in my whole life except for my great-grandfather.

I turn towards it and saw it munching on a branch, leisurely. It's body was filled with injuries but the bear's face looked like it was on a grocery trip to a neighborhood shop.

I nod at it and said, "Yes, I'm done."

"Good, now hop along. Let me treat you for saving me back then. Without you, I would've lost my life and family."

…

After four days of Rubik killing Gin and his squad's massacre, three people arrive at the location where the battle took place with the scarlet bear that day. One of these three people was Bane, the one whom Gin betrayed and backstabbed. And today he came back with his Guildmaster, a female dwarf named Hilda.

"Guildmaster, this is the place where that bastard Karl betrayed us and stabbed me in the back before taking the kill. You have to take revenge for us, Guildmaster!" Bane said in a half-pleading and half-angry tone but his Guildmaster was emotionless. She turned towards the third guy in the squad and said in a calm tone, "Grayson, do you find something from what this bastard told us?"

The third guy, who looked like a Mage, took out a small white orb and chanted a few incantations. Almost immediately, his eyes and the white orb glowed with a golden hue which lasted for a few seconds before dimming down to normal. He shook his head and replied, "Four days ago, there was no one named Karl here. In fact, no one named Karl has been here for the past half-year game time." He replied.

"What!! how can that be—"

"Shut yer trap, ye arsehole!!!" shouted Hilda as she slapped Bane's head with a metal rode with a wooden hand at one of its ends. It was a special item which enables small people, like dwarves, to slap someone's head just like a normal person.

"Don't ye understand this, ye noob! That man obviously gave a fake name! For lord's sake Bane, do you have a negative intelligence stat?! Even a baby would understand that the man who doesn't like to sign a contract would also give a fake name. The only reason for which people don't sign a contract is to fucking keep their identity a secret!"

"Ohhhh… I see, I see." Bane nodded his head in an understanding fashion but this only made Hilda more angry and she was about to hit him again when Grayson, the group's Diviner said in a serious tone, "Guildmaster, I found something else too."

"Oh! What is it?" she asked, stopping abruptly.

"The scarlet bear they were hunting didn't die here. In fact, it left this area with a player. Voluntarily."

"Was it the guy named Karl?" Bane asked expectantly but Grayson shook his head, "No, he's a new player. Most probably a newb who was teleported here from character customization. This guy has almost no strings of karma attached to him in the game world."

"Did the guy Karl was killed?" Hilda asked seriously to which Grayson nodded his head, "Yes, in fact there was a violent death. I don't know what happened exactly but he died with a lot of agitation and anger. There are also slight wafts of excitement, greed and anticipation but I can't trace any of it."

"It's alright. Just remember the scent of the new kid, we might be able to recruit him if we ever come across again. When we get back, I will give you a little treat."

"A treat!!" All of a sudden, two doggy ears popped out from under Grayson's hood, giving away his identity as a beastman, more specifically a Kobold.

Hilda shook her head and sighed internally, 'A bunch of children….' She said to herself.

…