5 Peculiar Discovery in game

Zhang Shan's heart almost stopped beating, All the hair in his arms and back are standing due to nervousness and fear.

*Sssshhink*

Ye Qing drew out his dao sword from its scabbard slowly as he gestured the others to follow closely, the others did the same by preparing their weapons. Ye Qian readied her bow and arrow while Lan Ranyan took out a white orb. Zhang Shan flowed suit and took out his beginners dagger.

The crackling sound of the burning torch and the dripping of water from stalactites falling through small pools are the only sounds that could be heard.

After a few more steps, Ye Qing stopped and as he did, the others halted as well. a few feet away in front of them, a vague silhouette can be seen. The group moved closer and as they did, an outline of a creature as big as an elephant can be seen.

"It seems to be dead." whispered Ye Qian.

"Nothings dead until proven so... We've encountered monsters before that play dead to catch prey..." Ye Qing whispered back.

As Ye Qing slowly tried to approach, Ye Qian slowly knocked her bow to the maximum and half a breath later she released the arrow.

*twang*

....*swish*

*thuuuk*

The arrow hit.

Ye Qing looked back atYe Qian with a look of bewilderment as if saying "Aren't I heading there already? why the need to race?"

"..."

The four observed no movement from the creature at all.

"Seems to be dead" Zhang Shan murmured.

*twang**twang**twang*

....*swish*....*swish*....*swish*

*thuuuk**thuuuk**thuuuk*

Three more arrows made their way to the presumed corpse.

The three looked at Ye Qian with a bewildered and surprised look.

"..."

"What? Never hurts to be sure!" Ye Qian returned their looks with a face feeling wronged and then shrugged her shoulders.

"Well, that definitely proves that itis DEAD." Lan Ranyan sarcastically said as she moved closer to it.

The group investigated the corpse, while Ye Qian retreived her arrows she released earlier with what seemed to be a skill that involves telekenesis in order to summon her arrows back to her quiver.

Looking closely at the dead creature, Zhang Shan saw that it looked more like a gigantic rhinoceros with hard plate like skin although it didn't have a horn. the mouth of the creature is lined with sharp jagged teeth.

"This is a Sharin, these are commonly found in the plains of Larpasse, only groups of level 30+ players go there to hunt them. They're tough to kill and move in packs and they're famous for their hard armors which is what level 30 players collect and process. It's body seemed to enter rigor mortis and it shouldn't be more than a quarter of the day since it died" Ye Qing explained with seriousness to Zhang Shan

"This is nothing to be surprised about, we did encounter a few of these before in here, although in a deeper part of the cave." Lan Ranyan added.

"There's another one here!" Ye Qian shouted.

It seemed that she wandered off a few feet further away.

"It seems they died instantly due to these fist-sized puncture wounds." Ye Qing said as he tried to do a quick autopsy by carefully cutting one corpse open with a dagger.

"Qing, I'm thinking their death itself is peculiar. the insides themselves were turned to meat paste... What kind of skill could do this? Do you think whatever did this is still here and could threaten our quest?" Lan Ranyan asked

"I don't think so, whether its a player, an NPC, or another monster. They wouldn't just leave the corpse out here afterwards... I'm thinking this is just a wanton act of killing and nothing more. For the skill, I believe the skill from the point of impact has an after effect of flesh liquefaction. That is to say, it's a definitely a high tier skill, somewhere around our skill levels.... Don't worry too much though, we can definitely handle it if its only just this." Ye Qing answered.

"I think another one is over there" Ye Qian said, pointing a few more feet away.

Seeing that she was right, Lan Ranyan thought that it would be best to create a better source of light. She created a large orb of fire with both of her hands using the orb and then with a wave of her hands, had it multiplied into smaller ones then willed them to scatter all around a larger area.

Basic skills and magic don't require any special process and incantation. As long as one is familiar with the triggering process or conjuration method, they can generally do it silently, this is reffered to as "Silent Casting". Veteran players also inculcate this technique to do sneak attacks to monsters and players, whether in an ambush or while in fierce combat.

Lan Ranyan's actions seemed to be effective as a larger area has been illuminated.

The group was shocked, as all around them, every few feet, a dead Sharin could be seen. There were 16 of them strewn across the cavern floor. The most curious thing as Ye Qing mentioned is that they all died as if running away from something.

"Is our destination a bit more deeper inside?" asked Zhang Shan.

"Yes, get back in position and we'll continue on. Don't worry about the corpses, we can always come back later and even make a few trips back to the city in order to collect the loot" Ye Qing said.

The four moved on to the path after Lan Ranyan extinguished the orbs of fire.

"Hey Ran, does it exhaust too much energy to cast those orbs?" asked Zhang Shan as they continued further.

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"At my current level, it doesn't feel too much taxing for my body to do these tricks... If you're thinking why I don't just do it all through out until our destination, the reason is very simple..."

She paused and added "Where's the fun in. that?"

Zhang Shan contemplated, Lan Ranyan does make a point. The feeling of mixed emotions he had experienced earlier while covered in the unknown was truly something that should be cherished and is definitely a great feauture of the game. In the real world, you wouldn't actively seek out such scenarios,but in here with it being a game. Once can experience a handful of emotions while your physical body is safe in the capsule.

Further along the way, they found a few more dead monsters other than the Sharin, that were supposed to be situated a little more deeper in the cavern. Ye Qing mentioned that it seems every one of them aren't in their supposed spawn areas and have moved in order to avoid whatever killed them.

Players collectively call the areas monsters could be found at as "spawn points", although it isn't exactly similar to how other game mechanics work out as.

In Alternate Realm Chronicles, its more applicable to call them monster territories since monsters don't exactly re-appear instantly after the first batch of monsters are eliminated, rather it takes some time before a new group of either similar group of monsters or an entirely different species would stray back in to those areas, this process is being reffered as "spawn cooldown".

Some players have tried to uncover this phenomenon and found out that monsters do this to expand territories, re-population or migration, there are also instances where players would see monsters fighting for these spawn points. The game company mentioned that the game was designed to mimic normal animal habits.

The deeper they went the more monster corpses could be found, these monsters are mostly the common and rare types. Ye Qing was smiling ear to ear as she kept mentioning getting rich after they're done with their business and not worrying about purchasing more arrows, she seemed very petty, Zhang Shan thought.

The group finally reached their destination where no more dead monsters could be found, Ye Qing signalled the group to stop and started to re-cap about the ambush strategy. Meanwhile, Lan Ranyan and Ye Qian started unpacking a few items for Zhan Shan. A few newbie armor set, minor healing potions and minor buffs.

"You know, when I encountered those monsters, I wasn't really as well equipped as you are right now" Ye Qian teased.

"Since you agreed to help us out, we wouldn't be too stingy... See how generous we are!" Lan Ranyan boastingly added while grinning.

Alternate Realm Chronicles doesn't really have any level requirements when it comes to equipping items, If a newbie is backed by high level players, a guild or a corporation, they can help them out with strong equipment and when power leveling.

However the downside of this method is the lack of actual experience when fighting against all odds, in which skilled veteran players have gone through. For some of the rich gamers, this is negligible and can be taken as nothing but ramblings of the poor.

Players like Ye Qing and Lan Ranyan knows that this isn't actually the case, first generation players and the beta-players call this process the "baptism of blood". All though they did help out to power level Ye Qian before, they didn't really neglect this process.

Even if they did assist right now in providing assistance to Zhang Shan, they made sure to have it affect the baptism process with as minimal after effect as much as possible.

After a while, Zhan Shan was instructed to walk alone and was repeatedly re-assured that they would cover him for any possible threats.

Zhang Shan agreed and went forward with a torch and a jian sword provided by Ye Qing. He was told that he doesn't really need it, but if he wants to have something to make him feel safe, he can have it.

As soon as he reached the area which was determined as the monsters hiding place, he looked back and found that the three could no longer be seen.

Although fear and nervousness was still present in his heart. Zhang Shan was also excited and kept repeating to himself that this is just a game.

*skhrich*

*skhrich*

*skhrich*

Zhang Shan nervously turned around to the source of sound. He saw the ground rising up slowly and growing.

After a few breaths, he saw the mysterious monsters.

Two car-sized scaled creatures that resembled spiders appeared.

*Krrrryaaahhhh* two high pitched noised were released by the creatures.

Zhang Shan froze, and when the creatures stopped their screams. There was only one thing that flashed in his mind.

~RUN!