Another man's voice could be heard, this one had a lower tone and calmer, but stern, voice.
"This is why I rarely bring this eejit into a party." The man could be seen facepalming. "You can't just shoot a child, Jeffon."
"I thought she was ambushing us!" Jeffon opened his arms aggressively. "Don't blame me!"
"It's just a mishap." A tall woman with a full plated armor casually approached the crowd. "It's not worth getting riled up on."
Jack's vision had returned to him. He also noticed that his arm was rapidly healing. Not wasting any opportunities, he undeployed his tentacle and let his hand gradually reconstruct by the work of a bizarre property.
'Magic?' Jack thought to himself as he stared at his healing arm. 'Definitely not, I didn't sense any mana being used.'
He then darted his eyes to those foreign people. Starting from the one who was healing him.
It was a rather petite girl with a literal four meter flag pole strapped to her back. Her clothes consisted of a multi-layered dress with armor plating, black pants that were tucked into armored boots up to her knees. Her brown shoulder-length hair gently flowed with the wind. Currently, she was pouting as she threw her cute yet deadly stare to Jeffon.
'I heard that one of them called her Vea. Heh, what a nice lassie.'
The man that Vea stared at was the one who shot the fragmented projectile. And that projectile came from a long cannon that was supposed to be put on a ship. This man that was called Jeffon, was cradling it around his waist as if it was just a mop.
Wearing wacky brown apparel. His quirky orange hair was only a second to his dense fur cloak. Jack's first nanosecond impression of him was 'A rich guy' and 'Someone who looked like an extravagant mansion owner'.
Jack kept staring at the cannon guy. Jeffon's frown showed that he felt bad.
'It seemed like he had no bad intentions here. Looking at their conversation, I feel like you have a rather awful reputation there, lad.' Jack thought.
There were two other people. The tanned knight lady with red hair, and another man with numerous staffs strapped on his back. From one made from some smooth wood to ones that appear to be created industrially. Although they all differ in appearances, Jack could make an easy guest that this was the group's sorcerer. Some of his wands appeared like the casting catalyst staff back in his world.
Jack grew more curious. 'That guy has way too many staves! How in the heck does he use them all without dropping one? And the lady knight over there is mighty good-looking, but that guy has too many staves!'
[Why are you getting surprised by the amount of staves he has rather than the fact that the girl in front of you can literally use healing magic without mana.]
'Well, there is a giant worm summoning the soul of the undead, and a scientifically impossible flying-kraken. Why would I be surprised if there is a healing spell here?' Jack felt like he wanted to laugh, but refrained from doing so as he didn't want to be seen with suspicion.
"So, did you all even check if she was a monster or not?" said the knight. "I saw that there was a tentacle replacing her arm, and then it disappeared when Vea's healing started taking effect."
'Ah right.' Jack put a deadpan. 'I thought that it would be inevitable that they would think that I'm a lassie with this pretty face. At least they won't kill a little girl or else I would be questioning these youngsters. Are they even young with that level!?'
"You're playing an immersive virtual reality game, where everything is literally possible," said Jeffon as he shrugged. "It might be a new race that came with the new patch this season."
"I think she isn't hostile, Nurul." The staff-freak sorcerer glanced at the remains of the bonfire, sharpened spears, and the pelt that bathed in the sun. "It seemed like she was a hunter."
"Duh." Vea then gazed at the staff-freak who said the obvious.
"Have you all even appraised her?" The knight summoned her greatsword just for her to lean her chin on the pummel. "I don't want the same scenario with the shape shifting bandit to happen again. Everything that can change a body part is really suspicious in my eyes right now."
"Does anybody have an Appraisal Gem?" Vea asked at her party. Only awkward glances were exchanged. "No? Fine, I'll use mine."
"That thing is more expensive than my Ymir Bachelor equipment set." Jeffon awkwardly smirked. "I definitely don't want to waste a single cent on a bad game mechanic."
The staff-freak nodded satisfiedly. "This is why I always bring Vea to my party."
Another green screen appeared in front of Vea. Numerous icons manifested within as the girl scrolled down with her index finger, soon stopping and pressing upon a grayish blue gem with a foreign symbol on it.
The screen disappeared. At the same time, a palm-sized gem manifested from the air and landed in her hand.
'Another System User?' Jack's eyes were wide open, shocked, and intrigued. 'Look, Sephiroth. There is another System User here!'
[Strangely enough, I can't feel any trace and digi-strings from it. As if it was coming from the world itself_
[It seems like they will be doing an appraisal on you, Jack. If they really did, then I might be able to replicate the process to keep in track of your Level Quotient in this world.]
Vea felt like she wanted to cry when she held the precious Appraisal Gem in her clutch. "Appraisal!"
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