Chapter 8 - A Fallen being

[Touch_Me POV]

[Congratulations! You are one of the first 100 players to reach Lv.50!]

I watched the notification pop up in front of me, as I had just finished decapitating a [High-Corrupted-Elf]. The mob's body fell and soon a [Data Crystal] appeared on the ground, I slowly bent down to pick it up.

[Player Touch_Me recieved Data Crystal of High Tier]

[Data Crystal: 2× Corrupted Tongue]

Today was one of the few full days off I had before my mandatory vacantions, thanks to the fact that I'd gotten a promotion during those first few days of returning to my old job as a police officer in the real world. And I was taking advantage of that to evolve my character a little more.

"Now it's going to be very difficult, remember what the Devs reported in the last update. The amount of EXP to evolve when someone reaches Lv.50 has exponential growth." I heard my companion's voice saying that as he finished off the last [High-Corrupted-Elf] that was there at the moment.

I was still impressed by the evolution that Keiko was making, both in his career as a player and as a journalist for YGGDRASIL. Due to the fact that he always had to roam and explore the 9 realms, he didn't have that much time to spend fighting over and over again, so unlike me, he was still at Lv.40. Another thing that made him not evolve that much since Earlier Access was that special katana he received from a Dev. As I understand it, he wasn't forced to have a JobClass involving katanas in order to use the item, but if he wanted full efficiency, he had to do something about it. And that something was not only including the Weapon Master JobClass in his character, but also sacrificing some of his EXP into his weapon blade itself.

[Kuwoi-Muramasa] had that strange unique ability. Unlike other equipment that evolves using objects smelted by a blacksmith, that katana evolved by itself when it absorbed EXP from its enemies, instead of letting the player have it for himself. For this, Keiko was forced to start and end a battle with that item. Due to the special effect of paralyzing enemies when unsheathed, Keiko only needed to unsheath it at the beginning and cause the effect, this already counted as "initiating a battle using [Kuwoi-Muramasa]".

I slowly walked over to my battle partner and watched him messing with his status, I tried to peek, but he stopped me, putting his hand on my face. Because of our characters' height difference, he was always forced to lift his arm to do this.

"Curious again, Touch-san?" He gave a light laugh and slowly returned his katana to the sheath on the left side of his waist.

"Actually yes, since Lv.30 you haven't told me how your progress is regarding your character, the most you tell me is the level of your katana." I commented, pointing to the katana on his waist, when pointing, the nickname "[Kuwoi-Muramasa LV.10]" appeared as if it was a player.

That was another bizarre thing about this item, according to the conversation we had a while back, the Dev who gave it to him made the katana work like that just for the fun of it being a test item, to see how the world around Keiko would change to have something like that. But it was hilarious to think that he could set it so that specific people could see the level of that item, currently it was set to "Party Members Only".

"Hm... Okay.. I will show you... but only the job Class!!!"Kei-... Hikari said, with a smug on his face.

It was a little difficult to see his whole body, due to the armor he had, but that mischievous smile did not escape my eyes. Looking at him again, he really already showed how experienced he was becoming. He had a brown cloth outfit and a chain mail over it, in addition, iron plates were placed in the vital areas of his body, in addition to having a glove with spikes on his right hand, while his left glove had a kind of small shield connected. His helmet covered almost the entire head, with the exception of the front part, it was very similar to mine, but mine completely hid my face, so as not to scare players who weren't used to Heteromorphic races.

He didn't really resemble a rogue anymore, even if he had a different set of armor for moments that speed and quick attacks were the most efficient... It was rare that he used this other set, since normally he used his amazing bow for long range attacks, his whip for mid-range and his katana for short-range. He still had his daggers with black blade, but he used more when he saw that it was worth to not make the katana gain EXP instead of him.

Slowly I saw a blue window appear between me and him, it was his character's status window.

————————————————————

Player: Hikari

Total Level: 40

Racial Level:

Human ————— Lv.Max

Jobs Level:

Rogue (Assassin) ————— Lv.10

Ranger ————— Lv.5

Wizard (High-Wizard) ————— Lv.10

Craftsman ————— Lv.5

Commander ————— Lv.5

Weapon Master ————— Lv.5

————————————————————

"So you evolved your [Rogue] to [Assassin] and also [Wizard] to [High-Wizard]?" I asked, curious.

"Actually, I spent some real money to buy an item that forced evolution from [Wizard] to [High-Wizard]... But the evolution in [Rogue]... is a bonus effect of my title as [Born to Kill]." Hikari said smiling at me.

"Hm... I heard that in last week's update, [Born to Kill] became a limited title for only 5 players per continent." I spoke calmly as we started walking through the region, we were close to some cliffs and ravines, so the scenery was quite interesting, to say the least.

"Yes, that's true, the Devs said that if the maximum amount of these players is reached, the only way to receive it would be to carry out the achievement right after one of these players has their account banned or deleted... But taking into account that what it does is increase bladed attacks by 50% in addition to turning [Rogues] into [Assassins] instantly... I don't see it as something very powerful.... I mean, it's obvious that high level players will have plenty of ways to counterattack others who have such advantages." Hikari commented as we watched a kind of floating platform made of rock from the ravines.

Hikari jumped on the platform and then jumped again to reach the other side of that deep hole, and I followed even with slight difficulty. Even though I didn't know his agility stats, it was clearly higher than mine, even though I was 10 levels above him.

"Wait, but why do you have these other JobClasses?" I asked after realizing he had two JobClasses he never mentioned that had before.

"Are you talking about [Ranger] and [Commander]? Well, the first one is a JobClass that is connected with [Rouge]'s skill tree, so I took it to specialize more and to use my special bow in a more powerful way, even with [Weapon Master]. In the case of [Commander]... I did a little research, apparently the skills this JobClass can give.. skills involving speaking louder and things like that, can buff beings that are following my orders, which can be either Players and NPCs" When he said that, it all made sense.

Considering how famous he was becoming as a YGGDRASIL journalist, it was expected that at some point a lot of Players would join him in groups, temporary or permanent. And in that way, he could be considered a leader for them. Having a JobClass with skills like that would be the best option.

After a few minutes walking through the amazing landscapes of our home realm, we noticed that there weren't many enemies around. And that was incredibly strange, very strange...

"Was there an error? Maybe their spawn glitched?" I commented after noticing that my friend had the same thought.

"No... It doesn't look like that..." He spoke in a low voice, it was almost a whisper, and slowly approached a small pile of dust.

Touching that small pile of dust, we could see some [Data Crystal]s, all of which appeared to be Low-Tier drops. "Apparently there were some players here recently..." He spoke and then grabbed the bow on his back.

In the slightly mountainous region where we were, the monsters respawned every 10 minutes, this meant that the players who farmed there were still close. That made me start walking and trying to look into the distance, until suddenly...

"HELP!! SOME- AAAH!"

It was a cry for help, and apparently, it was a player who could be having problems with monsters. My feeling of wanting to help anyone was beeping! And I wanted to further improve my name as a warrior for JUSTICE!

"Let's see what's going on, Hikari-kun!" I exclaimed and started running in the direction of the scream, he was still following me a little behind and already pulling the string of his bow.

After a few meters, we saw a kind of Player, he seemed to be serving as a security guard, and behind him was the entrance to what appeared to be a large cave. I was really confused, but soon I heard again the cries for help, they were coming…. From inside that cave.

"That voice is clearly a Player..." Hikari spoke, pulling the string of the [Bow-Bifrost] to the end.

"I agree... This situation... looks a lot like someone is being attacked and others are giving cover... but we need to confirm... I'll go there and ask pretending to be a little lost... you keep targeting him." I said and my friend agreed.

I started to walk calmly there, as if I didn't want anything, and I noticed that I got the attention of the 'guard', even though he couldn't see my face and knew that I was looking at him. That Player was the clear stereotype of a big human, but not in the sense of power, but of weight.

"Oi Oi!!! What is a tin head doing here?" He said, trying to intimidate me.

"Oh! A thousand apologies! I'm looking for a specific type of monster that spawns infrequently in this part of the map!" I replied, still acting my character and feigning innocence.

"Why the fuck would you look for something that has little chance of showing up here?" He asked, seeming to view me as some dumb player, I was lucky I had turned off my level view beforehand.

"Oh! It's a new thing! When you kill a monster in a place where it's rare, it's even more likely to drop the highest tier item it has!" I exclaimed, still with that lie to pique the guard's curiosity.

"Oops! This is new!! I think I already know where to look for some things..." He said thoughtfully, falling into my conversation, but soon...

"HEL- AAH! NO, MY WIN-" Another scream was heard.

"Eh!?! So problem there?" I asked.

"Nothing much... It must be a monster." The player there spoke a little seriously.

"Are you sure? It seemed to be a Pla-" Before I could speak, he seemed to be trying to hit me with some kind of very large sword, but before he could swing that sword in my direction, he had been hit.

[Player TrupeMortal received fatal method damage.]

[Player Hikari killed Player TrupeMortal.]

[Player Hikari will be shown as a PK for 1 day IRT]

Notifications from my Party group came up as that big human fell to the ground already lifeless. There was an arrow that pierced his skull from the side, for the simple fact that that guard had no protection on his head.

I looked at my colleague and made a sign with my arms for him to come over to where I was. Now we stood near the entrance and heard low moans of pain, as well as approaching footsteps. I noticed that he started using our Party message command, with something appearing in front of me.

[Hikari: I'll take care of them, protect my back... I'm going to try out a new skill I recently gained.]

[Touch_Me: Are you sure about this?]

[Hikari: Absolute. At the first notification saying I took damage, you enter.]

[Touch_Me: Alright...]

After organizing our plan through the chat command, Hikari put his bow away and was holding the katana tightly, still not taking it out of the scabbard. With everything ready, he rushed in there, and I stood waiting, holding my sword in one hand and my shield in the other.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

[Unlucky Player POV]

Shit! Shit! SHIT! How did I end up in this situation?!?

I had just accepted an invitation to enter a newbie dungeon! And when I get here, the people who invited me instantly kicked me out of their party and started beating me non-stop!

Due to how PVP currently works, I was now stuck! Wonderful! I couldn't use the teleport command to go to the Spawn, because I was in battle! And if I logged out now, I would gain several debuffs when I return, in addition to most of my drops disappearing as a sign of giving up! SHIT!

"What's up, robobird? Are you going to cry?" One of the players who tricked me tried to provoke when he saw that I had stopped talking or making any noise, and soon he punched me in the stomach area.

[Player |||||||||| Lv.10 recieved damage]

[Player |||||||||| Lv.10! You are with low than 15% of your HP!]

Holy shit... I'm really fucked up... not only has this all happenning, but I'm a fucking [Magician] out of MP!!

"Ah! What the fuck... I thought angels and humans were partners!" I exclaimed and then another of the Players over there grabbed my only wing tightly.

"Angel? You look like a bird that some troll caught, chewed up and then spat out because it tasted awful!" The player in front of me exclaimed.

"If this makes you an angel, then I having a [Holy Gem] as an accessory makes me Pope!" The player who held my wing quickly grabbed a dagger and stabbed it, as if trying to tear it apart.

[Player |||||||||| Lv.10 recieved damage]

[Player |||||||||| Lv.10! You are with low than 10% of your HP!]

"HEL- AAH! NO, MY WIN-" I screamed again and was soon kicked in the face.

[Player |||||||||| Lv.10 recieved damage]

[Player |||||||||| Lv.10! You are with low than 10% of your HP!]

"I was getting tired of it already... Seriously... I had barely started playing this thing I was recommended to play and already I had players treating me like this?!... What a shitty gam-" My thought was interrupted when suddenly the one holding my wing seemed to pin it and one of my wrists to the wall, his look a bit surprised.

"Someone killed Trup.. what a disgrace..." One of them said in a low voice and they seemed to be walking out of that area they had trapped me.

".... Really, could it be that if I chose to play as a human... I wouldn't have this problem?... ah.. of course not... motherfuckers like that are everywhere." I thought for a while, looking down at my robotic-looking body. "Shit... I at least shouldn't have chosen to have only one wing for pure aesthetics... At the time it seemed so badass the idea, I would look super edgy and attract attention... well... I did... but not the one I wanted..."

"AAAA! WHO ARE YOU SON OF A B-" I hear an angry scream coming out of nowhere.

By the way that cave had been programmed, it was not possible to see much ahead, even with a torch or lighted item, the maximum vision that could be had was 4 meters, after that it was all darkness. And in the midst of this darkness, I ended up watching something rolling across the floor towards me...

It was the head of the human player who was leading that Party....

A FUCKING HEAD! DECAPITATED ROLLING ON MY SIDE!!!

"WHAAA?!" I exclaimed, trying to get up and run away, but the fact that I had low HP, 0 MP and was trapped by the wing and a wrist, made my escape not even exist.

"Relax, wing guy, are you okay there? Did these guys give you too much hell?" I hear a voice coming from that same darkness, and soon I saw another human player approaching.

He had well-made armor, something I would see a player with a JobClass of [Berserk] and [Knight] wearing. He seemed to have a katana in his hands, it was a little dirty with blood, but slowly that blood disappeared, as if the blade was absorbing it. His helmet was exposed in the face area, showing slightly pale skin and a few patches of fiery red hair.

"Hey? Not listening?" He asked again, and I realized I hadn't even answered him.

"Ah... I... I could be better... Those guys got me in trouble.. I don't have any MP and my HP is already on the critical.." I said things that were very obvious and objective, nothing much. If this guy also wanted to kill me, I would know, because with that information, he could even kill me in a single hit.

"Hm... and what level are you?" He asked me as he seemed to move his arm to his back, as if calling someone who was not yet in my field of vision.

"I'm just a Lv.10 [Magician]... Those guys over there were looking for newbies to guide them through easy dungeons, in exchange for 200 coins per person..." I replied as he took out the items that held my single wing on the wall

Observing further ahead, I noticed a kind of another player, he was too tall to be a human character, and his whole body was covered either by parts of his iron armor, or by a whitish fabric he was wearing underneath. He stood there watching the situation, while he had a great sword and a shield in his hands...

"My goodness... I was saved by the royal cavalry?" I ended up making that comment by accident, when I really wanted it to be just in my head.

The two players stared at me, until the redhair one started to laugh a lot, as if he found what I said very funny. He looked at that white knight in shining armor, unable to stop laughing. "Oh my god, Touch! You did it! Someone finally compared you to this! Holy shit!"

The white knight released a kind of dust through the holes in the front of his helmet, as if he was taking a deep breath. "At least my role in maintaining JUSTICE is being done!" He struck a grandiose pose.

". . . " I observed that scene well and thought. "Are you serious? I was saved by a knight who uses a katana instead of a regular sword and a madman in white shining armor?"

After I was able to move now, the red-haired human player, or as the shining armor guy said, Hikari, gave me a potion. When analyzing the potion before drinking it, I noticed that it was a high tier HP recovery. I got my virtual eyes wide open, after all that would recover my HP without a shadow of a doubt.

"Well... You need to be careful, not only with scammers, but with human and demi-human players... recently the people who manage YGGDRASIL, announced the existence of secret JobClasses, and so far the only tip they gave is referring to 'Killing beings heteromorphic'... So there are players hunting NPCs and others going after other Players of this category." As he spoke, I drank that potion which easily filled my HP, but it was strange... it also recovered some MP.

"I never heard of that... I was told about the secret JobClasses part, but not that they were only for humans and that they had hinted at that." I spoke calmly.

"I see, there are other places to get news besides the game's login hud." For some reason he smirked at me. "But if you're at such a low level and you're a newbie, you should at least team up with your friends, shouldn't you?"

I was silent for a few seconds and then he seemed to understand my situation. "Oh... there are few?" No... he didn't understand.

"Actually... I don't have any friends at all... I chose to be an angel because people always love Angels in animes and mangas. And I chose to have only one wing to attract more attention... But nobody sent me a friend invite and... I'm not the type of person who sends invitations..."

"Hum... You can be our friend if you want!" Said the knight in shining armor.

"Really?..ah..okay..." I said as I activated my invite setting.

Two notifications appeared in front of me and one in front of each of them. I soon accepted both friendship invitations.

"Hm... [Luci★Fer].... Interesting name, especially with your choice of race and design." The redhair guy said, smiling at me.

"Thank you..." I was silent, thinking "Holy shit, I had already heard their name and accepted their friend request, but I still forgot!!"

I opened my friendship window and continued talking. "Same to you, Hi-" I noticed their names and tried to hold in my laughter, but I couldn't.

They stared at me confused as I continued to laugh. "Wait! Isn't Hikari a woman's name?!"

"Well... I chose it because of the element, not the name itself." He replied.

"And you! Touch_Me! What's this name! That seems more like a suggestion than anything else!" Unlike Hikari, the knight was just silent, staring at the ceiling, looking ashamed.

I continued to laugh until I realized a slightly... minuscule... important detail... Their levels...

"Wait... I'm being friend... with a Lv.40 and a Lv50?!?" I exclaimed inside my mind.

"Anyway..." Hikari caught my attention. "Do you want to farm? We know a place that in 2 hours you can kill some monsters and earn 2000 coins in drops transation... if you're lucky of course. What do you think?"

"O-Of course!" I accepted their idea, and we started walking out of the cave, until a doubt arose in my mind...

"Wait, why didn't you guys kill me to try and see if you could get those secret Job Classes?" I watched the two that were in front of me, and Touch_Me just gave a little laugh

"I'm not from a human or demi-human race, there's no reason for me to do that." Touch_me spoke first.

"I'm not interested in that kind of thing, anyway, if I was interested, I'd try things that didn't involve killing players first... unless the players were aggressive, like the guys that attacked you." Hikari was the next to respond, taking off his helmet and showing that he had a very spiky ponytail, with a kind of golden accessory holding his hair in place.

"I see... Thanks again." I said a little embarrassed for having asked that.

So we walked together towards the place they wanted to recommend me.

Little did I know that this would be the beginning of not only a bizarre friendship, but also great and humorous... at least for me. Hehe.