Chapter 19

I was back in the forest.

The sun was still rising, and the thin morning fog had already subsided.

Val, the mysterious NPC with all [ ??? ] in her stats had assigned me a task to steal the bear cub from the mother bear that nearly killed me.

...Wasn't she the one who let them go?

It's probably just the whims of someone of high standing.

Shaking that thought of out my head, I hear sounds of fighting in the distance.

'001, do you know what's going on over there?'

Aksing 001 about the faint clashes in the distance, I didn't want to go over and get caught in whatever is fighting over there cause it sounds like an intense battle.

{ ...I'm not allowed to say. }

I was slightly surprised, but I guess 001 made sense. After all, 001 is just the guide, not a personal assistant.

Nodding my head a bit, I cautiously approach the noises, careful not to reveal my presence.

The sounds of blades clashing against each other suddenly stopped, an ear-piercing scream cried out before the fighting continuing at a much faster pace than before.

It wasn't long before I could see two blurry figures going at each other.

One of them was pitch black and had no definable features, the other was familiar to me.

It was Val.

She was in her beastkin form, black wings with white tips extended out her shoulderblades through slits in her clothes.

A long black and silver tail swung behind her with long silver-grey ears extending from her head.

Her opponent, the black figure had a skinny figure with a black cloak that was faded to ashes at the ends.

The ground below the black figure was rotted and deprived of life.

'What... what is that...?'

I nervously ask 001, unsure if 001 was able to say or not.

{ That is a demon. An intelligent one at that. }

'Demon...? Ah! The guys from the trailer?'

The trailer had shown off a war between a mass of black and red fighting with the elves, faes, and dragons.

And at the end, it showed demons in the current era.

{ Correct. They are the otherworldly invaders. I recommend that you watch from farther away. }

The fighting had shifted slightly, and Val was pushing back the demon.

And without warning, she twirled the blade in her hand around the demons' saber, causing it to fly off.

The saber landed near me, its black blade stuck into the ground.

Val didn't seem to care where the blade went and said in a calm voice.

"You, lose,"

I stared at the pretty lady pointing her spear* at the demons' neck.

( Indrid doesn't know the actual name, looks like a spear though )

After which she swipes the spear and the demon's head flies off into the air.

When the demon was beheaded, the corpse turned to dust and disappeared, leaving a glowing red stone where it once laid.

I saw Val picking up the small stone and pocketing it, before walking further into the forest.

The saber that the demon wielded hadn't disappeared along with the corpse, allowing me to take a closer look.

'This... 001 is this safe to touch? I won't get some sort of curse right?'

{ It won't curse you, don't fret. But I recommend you get your own weapon as this one is about to break. }

Looking closely, the blade has a few chips and thin cracks on the sides.

{ If you wield the saber then you won't be affected. Other native inhabitants will because of the otherworldly contamination. Technically you are also not from this world so you wouldn't get infected }

'Ah, okay.'

I grab the hilt of the saber, it was made of rough leather and was slightly larger than what I could grip.

The saber was fairly heavy, but nothing J couldn't bear.

VANHA's leveling system was pretty unique, there was nothing like distributing stats or anything, and things like HP and MP were calculated in percentage.

Strength, stamina, and all those other things grew by each level, and could also be increased by repetitive tasks.

Say a player did a ton of push-ups, they would get a system notification telling them their strength increased.

I was currently level 5, just at the minimum of tier 1.

After picking up the saber, I trail after Val, cut fauna and branches made the trek easy to follow.

Shortly after, multiple overlapping screeches pierced my ears, I could feel a ringing in my head.

Was it some sort of Banshee scream?

Despite the incoming headache, I only stumbled slightly and continued after Val's tracks, saber in hand.

When I finally catch up to Val, I see her wielding another weapon that I could recognize from my experience in playing games.

It was a silver glaive, flames were coming off the blade, and was clearly a better quality from the spear she held before.

'Where even did the spear go anyway??'

{ The weapons she is holding are made of mana. She was holding a Qiang before, the glaive she is holding is created with much denser mana. }

001, sensing my thoughts responded in a monotone manner.

'Ohh okay-'

My thoughts cut off short when multiple shadows jump out of the dense trees, some sprinted at Val while others went around her.

I stiffen and silently back away, thankful that I didn't come closer to observe.

Val gripped the glaive in her hand and her outline blurred, black blood flew in the air, landing on the ground with a sizzle.

She navigated the black figures and I could barely see the glint of the silver glaive from where I was.

Dead leaves resting on the ground were kicked up into a swirling storm, light from the sun above shone and the visual effect was astounding.

Within the black splatter of blood, there was a mix of red drops, clearly from Val.

There were some scratches on her arms and a long slash from the claw of a feral demon that went from her shoulder to the other side of her chest.

A portion of her feathers was ripped off but that didn't hinder Val, she kept on flashing in and out with strange footwork.

My mouth was slightly agape at the spectacle, I could barely sense it but I swear I could feel waves of 'mana' coming off of their battle.

Demons were dropping like flies, but there were more coming from above, a bird the size of a car was circling above before suddenly descending beak first.

{ It's a feral demon on the brink of tier 2! }