Greystone Castle, an actual baronial castle on the east side of the Dark Cloud Forest, belonging to House Norn.
The day of the blood rain.
"Women and children hide in the castle, all men take their weapons and follow me to the battlements, no retreat, I will cut off the head of anyone who takes a step back!" The Knight of Thor shouted, waving his crossed swords.
The castle was in chaos as the trainee knights, the peasants who had taken refuge, were driven to the battlements by the knight of Saul, armed with swords, rakes and pitchforks.
It was the triennial day of the blood rain, when the black clouds that hovered over the dark cloudy forest all day would rain down like blood.
The blood rain has a strange power that makes the demonised beasts that inhabit the forest go mad and rush out of the forest in a wave.
Therefore, at this time of year, everyone in the whole of Greystone must be stationed in the castle to fight the tide.
On the side of the battlements, a dozen young boys, aged 13 to 14 or so, stand here, wearing studded leather armour and bright crossed swords on their belts.
These are the trainee knights of Greystone Castle, the core members of the Norn family.
At this moment, the flaxen-haired Kyra put her right hand on the black-haired Heath's shoulder and teased, "Hey, Heath man, I see you shivering, what? You scared?"
Heath gave him a look and didn't say anything.
He was indeed scared, but it was nothing to be ashamed of, anyone growing up under peaceful times would not be able to keep their composure at the sight of such a scene, I'm afraid.
Heath was not from this world, he came from a realm called the Blue Star.
He doesn't know how he got here, he just remembers that three days ago he was working late at the office and got too sleepy so he fell asleep at his desk.
He woke up in a different world and changed his identity from that of a 30-year-old city dweller to that of a 13-year-old trainee knight at Greystone Castle.
No sooner had he finished familiarising himself with his new identity than the day of the blood rain arrived, followed by being driven up to the battlements by the Knight of Saul with his crossed swords, and then the present.
"The Baron is here!"
"We have two knights, Lord Baron and Knight Sol, we can defeat even a high level demonised beast, we will win!"
At this moment, a clamour rang out among the crowd, and everyone's eyes looked in unison towards the stone staircase.
Over there, there came a middle-aged man, in his forties, wearing a lockets armour with a blue cloth cover over it, looking formidable.
This was Baron Carter, the owner of this grey stone castle.
The appearance of Baron Carter brought a loud cheer from the crowd on the battlements, and the fear in Heath's eyes subsided.
This was because, in addition to being a lord, Baron Carter was a true knight!
Knights, the collective name for humans who wielded great power in this world, were also the ruling class of this world.
By practising special techniques, they were able to raise their physical qualities to a level far beyond that of ordinary humans, and any full-fledged knight was capable of astonishing combat power.
Heath had seen Baron Carter lift a boulder weighing at least several hundred kilograms with ease and split it in half with a single sword.
'With such powerful people, and two of them at that, we should be able to get through even this damn blood and rain day safely...' So comforted Heath in his mind.
The Baron and the knight of Sol adjusted their formation on the battlements, before leading the group aside and waiting.
Little by little, time passed, and after about half an hour...
"Rumble!" There was a sudden rumbling sound from the sky.
The dark cloud floating above the forest suddenly spread outwards at an alarming speed, enveloping the entire forest, and even Greystone Castle, in a matter of moments.
The sky above was black and oppressive.
"Tick! Tick-tock!" Then, the crisp sound of raindrops rang out.
Rain descended from the dark clouds.
The rain was red, like blood.
Heath lifted his hand and looked at the red liquid sliding down the back of it: what the hell was this stuff? Was it really not blood?
It looked just like blood, and even had the same pungent fishy smell.
"Drop, Transcendental Energy detected, extracted, Transcendental Extraction System starting to activate." It was at this point that a cold voice rang out in Heath's mind.
Heath was taken aback: what?
Am I hallucinating because I'm too nervous?
Just as he was thinking this, the voice rang out again, "Drop, Transcendental Extraction System activated successfully."
A list of data appeared in front of his eyes.
Name: Heath Noon.
Attributes: Strength 1.1, Agility 1.3, Physique 0.9, Mental 1.2 (average value for an average adult male is 1.).
Heath was overjoyed: It's really the system!!!
As an otherworldly visitor, Heath used to be fond of reading online novels, so of course he couldn't possibly not know what the system meant.
'Rumour has it that all travellers must have a golden finger, I thought it was just a legend, but it turns out to be true!
The crisis was imminent, and this golden finger came at a really good time.
Heath hurriedly asked in his mind: Transcendental Extraction System, what is your function?
"Drop, Transcendental Extraction System, can extract energy from all transcendental substances to feed the host itself, including but not limited to attributes, skills, and knowledge."
"Conditions for use, 1, must be in contact with the extract, 2, the extracted object must be a transcendent substance, 3, the extracted object cannot be a living thing."
Heath froze: Transcendent Matter? What is considered a transcendent substance?
He was about to ask, but at that moment there was a clamour from the battlements.
"Coming... It's coming! The tide of beasts is coming!"
"Oh my God! So many!"
A thick layer of dust and smoke suddenly appeared in the distant forest, and all of them were densely packed with demonized beasts.
It was like a tidal wave as they came in groups and rolled in.
The earth even began to tremble.
Despite their preparations, everyone on the battlements could not help but suck in a cold breath, their faces turning white involuntarily.
Baron Carter stepped to the front, drew his crossed swords and said coldly, "Draw your swords and prepare for battle!"
With the battle imminent, Heath could only put the system aside for now and stood in a line with the other trainee knights with cross swords drawn, indifferent to the incoming tide of beasts.
100 metres...
50 metres...
10 metres...
The next second -
"Boom!" There was a loud bang.
The countless demonized beasts hit the city wall heavily, and the thick city wall visibly shook violently.
The strong impact caused the demonised beasts to instantly turn into corpses and die under the wall, while later demonised beasts then stepped on these corpses and crashed headlong into the higher parts of the wall.
The corpses piled up under the walls and soon reached a height equal to the battlements, allowing the demonised beasts behind them to rush straight up to the battlements.
The battle, the curtain goes up!
"Kill!"
Baron Carter took the lead and slashed his crossed sword forward, only to hear a 'poof' sound, the three-metre tall boar in front of him was split open by the sword.
"Kill! Kill! Kill!" The men on the battlements were shaken by the cold, stern sound of killing, and they took up their weapons to fight these murderers.
At the same time, Heath had his first battle in the other world.
Fighting him was a ragdoll rabbit.
These creatures had nothing to do with the cute pets of the Blue Star, and anyone who saw them could only think of horror.
They looked as if they were a crudely stitched together poor quality ragdoll, with dense black threads growing from their skin and eyes that were simply two buttons.
Although they are the size of an ordinary domestic rabbit, they are extremely powerful fighters, with sharp teeth and claws and the speed of the wind.
These are unique to this world, demonised creatures, legend has it that they were transformed by wizards using black magic.
"Whirrrrrr!" The crossed swords cut through the air with the sound of breaking wind.
Heath danced with the crossed sword in his hand, and after crossing paths with the Muppet rabbit's claws twice, he finally waited for the opportunity to slash his sword at the Muppet rabbit's body.
The rabbit's skin was cut smoothly by the sharp crossword, and the disembowelled rabbit squirmed like a disgusting worm on the ground for a while before moving on.
Heath's tension eased a little as he took the first kill in the other world.
He wiped the blood from his face and prepared to run to the next enemy.
However, at that moment, the system beep suddenly sounded, "Drop, found extractable transcendent substance, do you want to extract it?"
Heath froze and subconsciously said, "Extract."
"Drop, please ask the host to touch the transcendent substance."
Transcendent substance? Was it talking about Muppet Bunny?
Guessing in his mind, Heath placed his hand on the Muppet Bunny's corpse.
At once, he felt a surge of energy from the Muppet Bunny's body, which then surged through his palm and into his body, as if his body had become lighter.
At the same time, the system beep sounded again.
"Drop, extraction successful, agility +0.01."