Party
Between Gilbert and the serious-looking man, is a new player.
A pale-skinned man with long black hair.
Currently, the man looked shocked seeing Gilbert looking at him.
Seeing the surprise in his eyes, Gilbert pointed behind the new player.
However, the man didn't look behind him at all.
His eyes are currently looking at Gilbert's hand.
With Gilbert trying to make him looked behind.
Gilbert looked like a kid trying to hoodwink him. And would possibly bonk him with the sword when he turns around.
The man then raises his two hands above in a frantic manner as if being threatened by a hold upper. "Br-Brother, we can talk this out... There's no need to resort to violence. I can give you money or anything, just don't kill me"
'Is this man stupid?'
<...>
What is he afraid of? he is currently invulnerable for 60 seconds.
'A complete newbie to games?'
Not giving Gilbert a chance to talk, the man then continued.
"Please don't kill me, I can do a lot of things! Uhm, Pumpkin! Please come out and show this person what you can do!"
A silhouette of light then appeared between Gilbert and the man as another person appears.
'This is...'
Gilbert looked at the event strangely.
It must be said that everyone should be careful in handling their soul weapons.
Soul weapons aren't omnipotent.
Soul weapons on weapon-form have great durability and could even recover, so it wasn't that big of a problem.
But Soul weapons on human-form is where the trouble starts.
On human-form, Soul weapons would only receive the same basic stats from their owners and nothing else. They could activate their own skills, but its effectivity would be down to 50%.
And the real problem would be their survivability.
On human-form, soul weapons could get killed easily.
Even though some soul weapons could fight personally with great effect, it was still safer to avoid using soul weapons like pokemon, letting them do all the fighting.
And If by some chance, a soul weapon is killed, then you would have to wait 24 in-game hours to revive them.
That's the reason why when Gilbert came here, Ava was on a resting state.
<...>
Gilbert looked at the person's soul weapon.
It was a cute teenage-looking girl currently dressed in a combination of an orange-black one-piece dress. Her head is covered by a large Jack O Lantern, and violet-colored smokes could be seen from her blue-haired twin tails.
Her master had called her as Pumpkin. And currently, this Pumpkin is laying with her back on the floor with her eyes close as if sleeping.
<'Should we kill her?'> Gilbert asked Ava, he wants to know what's Ava's stand on killing beings of the same kind as her.
However, his worry was unwarranted as Ava replied casually.
Even though the girl, Pumpkin looks harmless, Gilbert didn't know her abilities.
Soul weapons
Depending on their ability and how they are used, they could be something really dangerous.
And Gilbert knows this best for Ava's skills is a huge example.
Chances of Pumpkin having some kind of skill that could be fatal to him couldn't be denied.
And with her in front of Gilbert, the cute sleeping girl is like a sleeping lion.
It was better to eliminate potential danger sooner.
However, when Gilbert was about to attack Pumpkin, he suddenly backed away a good distance from her.
<'Looked at the serious-looking man'>
Hearing his words, Ava looked behind the master of Pumpkin. She could see the serious-looking man from before backed away right now.
His face is currently pale.
Ever since the master of Pumpkin arrived, the serious-looking man had been slowly creeping behind the master of Pumpkin, waiting for his invulnerability to run off.
Gilbert had only tried to warn him once and wasn't planning on repeating himself again.
But it seems a second warning wasn't needed in the first place.
<'Poison'>
Pumpkin then turned into balls of light and flew into the hands of the new player.
Pumpkin, weapon form.
It was a black and orange-colored umbrella with a small pumpkin on its top.
The previous funny expression on Pumpkin's master's face was gone, but sweat could still be seen on his face, as his nervousness became transparent.
"I ask for a truce" He looked at the serious-looking man and at Gilbert. "Us partying together should be more beneficial than fighting with each other. My current skills are support oriented, so I will be of better use alive than dead"
"..."
"..."
"..."
"I'm good with that..." The serious-looking man after a while of silence, voiced his stand as he then looked at Gilbert in wariness.
Gilbert, on the other hand, looked at the master of Pumpkin.
The new player isn't a newbie, but looking at how nervous he was. The previous attack from before should be somewhat limited.
Gilbert was afraid of the strength of the poison before, that's why he backed away immediately.
Gilbert then looked towards the serious-looking man.
From the start, the serious-looking man had already been at a disadvantage ever since Gilbert had discovered him.
Assassin's formidability came from their lethality best displayed through surprise attacks and ambushes.
And assassins fighting alone in the open could be considered as handicapped.
Still, his soul weapon's ability also remains a mystery.
Gilbert met the wary gaze of the serious-looking man and then said "I don't mind a truce and a party, but first I want to ask you a series of questions..."
Hearing Gilbert's words, the serious-looking man was silent for a moment, before acknowledging.
"... go ahead"
Then what come's next was a back and forth question and answer.
"How many players have you killed so far?"
"...Four"
"Purpose?"
"Ranking up"
"Where are the bodies?"
"...Inventory"
<...>
"Well, that would be enough... let's add each other..."
Gilbert was curious about the smell of blood from earlier, so that should be the reason why.
Corpses of players don't go away magically and stay behind, but in order to hide them, he hid it in the inventory.
Well, that's the end of his curiosity.
There are still other questions that he would like to ask, but the guy probably won't answer them.
Like what percentage his current rate of ranking up is, or what kind of skills his soul weapon has.
Hearing Gilbert's words, Pumpkin's master sighed in relief. That at last, the tension is gone.
The three of them first added each other as friends. And afterward, Gilbert took initiative to create a party and added them in.
In the game, players could have the same names, so in order to add each other as friends or party members, people would have to use their game IDs.
[You have become friends with the player 'X']
[You have become friends with the player 'November']
'X' is the name of the serious-looking man, while 'November' is the name of the master of Pumpkin.
[You have created a Party]
[Player 'X' have joined the Party]
[Player 'November' have joined the Party]
<'That is kinda right, but still kinda wrong'>
While they were partying up, two more silhouettes then started appearing in the church as more players arrived.
November then asked Gilbert and X, "Should we add a few more members to the party?"
X said, "If they are useful"
In this game, a single party could reach a maximum of 6 members.
Gilbert and X are strong, but they still didn't know how strong the enemies are.
"We can just kick them out later if they are really useless" Gilbert voiced his opinion.
Right now, since they have chosen the abandoned church as their starting point, there are not a lot of players around.
With X killing those who were spawned after him, the only players around should be those who have arrived before X and those who are here right now.
These two looked ordinary, but who knows they might be hiding some kind of surprise.
Gilbert looked at the two new players.
The first player is an ordinary-looking young man who is currently looking at gilbert's party in curiosity.
Then the second one is surprisingly, a woman. Though not really that outstanding in beauty, she had a face that others would find somewhat pretty especially in a few angles.
As the supposed leader, Gilbert took the initiative to greet the two.
After getting to know the two a little bit, Gilbert then invited them directly to the party.
[Player 'Jacob Anthony' has joined the Party]
[Player 'Frederika' has joined the Party]
Gilbert gathered the party together.
Frederika and Jacob greeted X and November, but besides November, X didn't really bother much with them.
"I'm somewhat new to games, what do we do now?" Jacob suddenly asked nervously.
"..."
"..."
Gilbert already knows about it, so it wasn't anything new.
X and November though are different, so they are left speechless.
X even looked at Gilbert in confusion.
[(Friend) X - Why?]
Gilbert received a private message from X.
[(Reply) - We can try to see if he had potential to be someone acceptable for a time, but if he really is useless and only manages to drag us down, we could just kick him out anytime. By then, you can use him for ranking up freely as you want.]
[(Friend) X - Ok]
For some reason, it seems that Ava could also read the private chat.
<'This is normal for players... Do you dislike this?'>
"..."
"Uhm... Miss Frederika, us new members should take care of each other."
"Fuck off newbie, just listen on the sides and follow orders"
Status and inventory are already online.
And it seems that the online forum could also now be accessed while in-game.
It's been only an hour since the game started, but it seems a lot of things had already happened.
A lot of good information is available.
"Everyone, the online forum could now be accessed, let's wait for a bit and gather some basic information first before going out."
"Oh, I forgot about that!"
"..."
"What, what forum?"
"Dumbass..."