First encounter with the Elves

Rory calmly approaches the two elves who are fighting. The two notice her presence and momentarily stop fighting.

''What is Humankind doing in these woods?!'' the Elf knight exclaims.

The Dark Elf girl turns to Rory standing behind her,'' Do not interfere! Begone from this place!''

Just in this words exchange, Rory is already able to discern the difference between the two Elfs.

Normal players would always choose the knight Elf, as in most stories, the Dark Elves are the bad guys. But since this became a game of death, Rory realized that Akihito Kayaba changed a lot of things in the game; For example, NPC's can now interact with players as if they were really real beings, Akihito has practically created a world independent of program scripts.

That being said, Rory, with that quick exchange of words, could feel disgust and discrimination in the Elf knight's tone, as if she were some sort of being inferior to him; And the dark elf, ordered her out of that place out of real concern for her, she didn't want to drag others into her fight.

*TING!*

Rory opens the status and sees the notification of a new mission.

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Name: Encounter with the Elves (Normal)

Mission: Choose a side.

Progression: 0%

Reward: Gratitude of the Elf you helped; Unlock the quests of the Saga of the Elves.

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Rory smiles, and approaches the Dark Elf woman who's facing the Elf knight, standing by in case he attacks.

''Good afternoon; My name is Rory Mercury.'' Rory introduces herself elegantly and smiles, ''Looks like you need help dealing with this garbage~''

The Dark Elf stay silent for a second, absorbing Rory's words, and then she smiles, '' It seems that some humans understand about honor after all...and aren't blind either.''

She liked how Rory called him a 'garbage'.

The Elf knight saw the human join the dark elf and his expression darkened, '' You fool.....you side with the Dark Elf?!''

The Dark Elf faces him and prepares to fight again, ''I have come to take back....that which you have stolen from my people....the secret key!''

''Very well.....then the two of you...'' The Elf knight, with a serious expression, raises the sword over his head in an attack position, ''....shall dye my sword red.....with your blood!''

Rory hears the notification noise of the mission being updated, but she doesn't pay much attention and waits for the Elf knight to make his move.

In the blink of an eye, the Elf knight appeared in front of Rory and attacked her, ready to slice her vertically in half.

'Tch, just a weak little human....' the Elf knight thought.

But when the sword was ready to touch Rory's head, he saw a sneer on the little human girl's face, and he felt a chill down his spine, radiating through his entire body.

*BANG!*

The Dark Elf beside Rory, who also couldn't react, was taken by surprise hearing a bang and ducked under the shock wave caused by it.

Chunks of wood and vegetation flew everywhere, and the shock wave raised a small cloud of dust.

''W-What was that?!'' she exclaimed.

The Dark Elf who is crouched, raises her head and she sees what happened in shock; A few meters from them, the Elf knight is inside a crater caused by a large impact on the trunk of a giant tree.

The Elf knight cough and spits blood, his armor is half broken and his sword has been destroyed, luckily he managed to protect his body in time with his shield, otherwise he would probably be dead.

He lands with a thud to the ground and looks cautiously towards where Rory was, but he can't see her because of the cloud of dust.

'Urrg!! What did this bloody human do to me?!' he thought with hate and fear.

The dust cloud vanishes and Rory appears through it while faking an sad expression on her face, ''Oh my, I thought knights were honorable, but attacking a girl out of nowhere like that is really something a scum like you would do~''

The two Elves stare at Rory, and they can't help but be surprised and shocked to see the weapon she is carryng.

In Rory's hands is Nightmare, a huge halberd almost twice the size of Rory, and its blade was bigger than her body; The halberd looked more like a giant axe.

'Is that... a weapon? How the hell does a little girl like that carry such a thing like that as if it is nothing?!' The Elf knight starts to sweat, just one attack from that weapon nearly killed him.

'But I can't let myself get caught...' Renewing his resolve he stands and advances towards Rory.

''I will admit, little human girl! You are strong, but that's it! I am a proud elf, you will never defeat me!'' he is about to attack Rory again, and Rory lightly twirls her halberd with a giggle; crushing proud beings like him is fun for her.

But unexpectedly, the Dark Elf makes a move and stabs the blond elf in the back with her blade.

''Urgh! Attacking me from behind! Dark elves are really without honor!'' he spits in anger.

''Honor? Do you dare talk about honor after stealing what is most precious to us?!'' The Dark Elf responds angrily.

The Elf knight snorts and spins, attacking her with his shield; The Dark Elf removes her sword from his back and retreats to Rory's side, who has been standing watching with an grin on her face.

Rory could have ended this quickly, but she didn't, for two reasons; The first is that it wouldn't be fun, and the second is that if she wants to build a place to worship Emroy, she needs to make the Dark Elves owe her and trust her, and for that, she needs to create a bond with them.

The Elf knight's life reached zero with the Dark Elf's stab and he started to transform into blue data particles, ''Shit....I am...beaten...what a terrible shame...to lose to a human and a Dark Elf...''

He takes a small bag made of leaves tied with vines and the Dark Elf opens her eyes in surprise.

''Thats the key!''

He lifts it up with his hands and the Dark Elf runs to try to get the bag that was in his hand, ''I'll not cede my spoils to the likes of you!''

When the Dark Elf was about to pick up the bag, a huge hawk appears and grabs the bag with one of its claws; The force of the wind created by the beat of the wings caused the Dark Elf to be thrown back a few centimeters.

The Elf Knight finally disappears into blue data particles, and the falcon goes towards a person standing right next to them.

The Falcon lands on the arm of another blond elf, but this one wears no armor and his eyes are extremely sharp and cruel.

The Falconer Elf who just arrived scratches his head in disappointed, ''Oh, those hopeless knights, too proud for their own good.''

He looks at the Dark Elf and smiles, showing her the little bag made of leaves, ''Well, at any rate.....I'll be taking custody of your 'secret key' or what have you. So no need to worry~''

Rory already wanted to kill him, this Elf has a disgusting smile. She was ready to throw Nightmare towards the disgusting Elf to slice him in half, but she felt a great blood-lust beside her and saw it coming from the Dark Elf woman.

'Heh, not bad. I think I'll see what happens for now, I will wait until she really needs help~' Rory puts Nightmare aside and watches the NPC's show for now.

Behind the Falconer Elf, more knight Elves appear beside him, ''Oh? Have we met before? I wouldn't forget such beauty, even in a Dark Elf.'' he asks looking at the Dark Elf with lecherous eyes.

He scratches his chin, pretending to be thoughtful, ''But if I had to hazard a guess....I'd say you look like the herbalist I killed...when I stone this key...''

The Dark Elf's blood-lust explodes and she runs to attack the Elf Falconer, and the Knight Elves run to attack Rory, thinking she's just a little girl with a really big weapon.

''Well, looks like my waiting time is over.'' Rory sees the knight Elves approaching her, she wields Nigthmare and smiles gratefully, ''Gentlemen, thank you for offering your lives to me so willingly~!'