Tsukuru held his arm out at the side, fully extended, and activated his Ability.
The sound of electronic interference filled the area, and three masses of pixels appeared under his arm.
Like always, the groups of pixels clustered together into the shape of his Black Obsidian Dagger.
There was a bright flash of light, and his daggers fully manifested.
Tsukuru then used his Video Stasis Skill to "grab" them.
Auras of glitching pixels enveloped them, and the daggers hovered in mid-air.
Tsukuru swung his arm out, sending the daggers flying.
In his vision, the System's "vector" appeared on the head of each spider, the "vector" turning red when it did.
The three daggers struck home, running each spider through its head.
The spiders all let out screams of pain, and began to spasm.
They collapsed to the concrete floor, dead.
A second later, they exploded into square, translucent pixels.
A System message appeared in front of Tsukuru.
[You have killed three Swarmers. 36 XP awarded. First time killing a Swarmer. Bonus XP will be awarded. First-Time Kill Bonus: 10 XP. XP: 346/800]
At the same time, the number next to the "Skull" symbol on screens had changed, going from "0" to "3".
Tsukuru smirked, as this had confirmed his suspicion.
However, as he looked at the screen, another problem seemed to arise.
As Tsukuru looked at the "XP" number on the screen, a look of both confusion and annoyance came across his face.
The two numbers didn't match.
While the System said that Tsukuru had only gotten 12 XP for each Swarmer, the screen showed that he had gotten 25 XP for each one, as it showed a total of "75", not the "36" he had gotten in his System.
Tsukuru's hands tightened into fists, his hands tightening so much, his nails were digging into his palms.
"WHAT?!" He yelled, his voice echoing across the stone platform.
bit his lip in an attempt to rein in his rising anger.
He bit it so hard, his teeth cut through his lip, and he could taste the iron of his blood in his mouth.
"What…the…FUCK…is going on?!" He said in slow, drawn-out breaths, similar to what Vorden had done when Layla had called him "crazy" in the canteen.
However, at that exact moment, the sound of electronic interference filled the area again.
Still scowling, Tsukuru looked forward.
This time he saw seven groups of pixels.
And while the first four on the left clustered together into the shapes of the large spiders, the three on the right, took on a small, humanoid shape.
There was a series of flashes of light.
When it faded, Tsukuru saw another group of four spiders.
But he also saw a group of three bipedal creatures with light-green skin, sharp teeth, and eyes with black sclera and golden pupils.
The creatures had dark, navy-blue hair pulled into ponytails, long noses, and ears with pointed tips, like that of an elf.
They also had numerous light-green spikes jutting out of various spots on the top of their head, as well as a group of spikes sticking out of each shoulder.
They also had a lean, toned physique, with six-pack abs visible on their bare stomachs.
The creatures wore a ring of small skulls, most likely held together by string and holes drilled into each skull, around their necks like a necklace.
There was a similar "necklace" around their waists like a belt, although the skulls for this"necklace" were larger, with the one in the front looking like the skull of a bovine, such as a cow.
Attached to this "belt" was a brown, ragged set of clothes, like a cross between a kilt and a loincloth.
In each of their hands, they carried a dagger.
But not a normal, modern-looking dagger.
There had blade made of sharped stones, fastened into cut slits on thick, cut three branches, with the two pieces tied together where the dagger's "guard" would be with sturdy twine.
To Tsukuru, they looked like weapons straight out of the Stone Age.
As Tsukuru stared at the green-skinned figures, who were only slightly shorter than himself, his eyes widened.
"Wait, are those…goblins?" He muttered.
He narrowed his eyes at the green-skinned figures.
Like with the Swarmers, a rectangular bar appeared above them.
[Goblin]
Seeing this, Tsukuru burst out laughing.
"Holy shit, they actually are!" He exclaimed in an excited voice.
However, unfortunately for Tsukuru, the Goblins took his laughter as him mocking and looking down on them.
The Goblins grit their teeth in anger.
They all roared at Tsukuru, and charged towards him, daggers held out at their sides.
The Swarmers seemed to take this as some sort of signal, as they scurried forward, as well.
Seeing this, an amused smirk appeared on Tsukuru's face.
"Alright, let's do this!" He yelled.
This time, he outstretched both of his arms out to his sides.
As he did, three groups of pixels appeared under each arm, clustering together into the shape of six daggers.
There was a flash of light as the daggers materialized.
Tsukuru then activated his Video Stasis Skill with both hands, enveloping both hands down to his forearms in the aura of glitching pixels.
He then grabbed three daggers with each hand, enveloping all six daggers with the aura of glitching pixels.
Tsukuru swung both arms out from different directions, causing them to cross at the elbows when they met in the middle in front of him.
Instantly, the six daggers shot out.
Tsukuru aimed at the inner-most three Swarmers and the three Goblins, hitting them all between the eyes.
On impact, the Swarmers all screeched, and the Goblins let out pained grunts.
Seeing this, Tsukuru smirked.
"Doesn't matter who or what you are." He replied, bringing up his hand to tap his forehead with his index finger. "A headshot is always the best course of action!"
Like before, the Swarmers spasmed before dropping to the ground.
Meanwhile, with the Goblin's, they all loosened their grips on their daggers, causing them to fall to the ground with a clang.
The Goblins then fell backwards, falling on their back.
Almost simultaneously, all of the Goblins and the three Swarmers all exploded into pixels.
A System message appeared in front of Tsukuru.
[You have killed three Swarmers. 36 XP awarded.
You have killed three Goblins. 75 XP awarded. First time killing a Goblin. Bonus XP will be awarded. First-Time Kill Bonus: 20 XP. XP: 421/800]
However, the one remaining Swarmer continued to scurry forward.
It leaped into the air towards Tsukuru, intending to pounce on him.
Tsukuru smirked.
He used mental commands to equip the Intermediate-Tier Knight Gauntlets still in his System's Inventory.
Pixels began to envelop his hands down to his elbows.
The pixels then clustered together, forming the gauntlets.
As they fully manifested, Tsukuru felt his strength skyrocket again, just like in the assembly hall.
As the Swarmer closed in towards Tsukuru, Tsukuru swung his arm out, punting the Swarmer like a ball, smashing his fist into its face.
The Swarmer let out a screech, as it flew backwards in the air from the force.
A moment later, it too exploded into pixels.
Another System message appeared in front of Tsukuru.
[You have killed a Swarmer. 12 XP awarded. XP: 433/800.]
Tsukuru smiled triumphantly.
However, as Tsukuru looked up at the screen, his smirk morphed into an angry scowl.
To him, it looked like the "325" in the "XP" line was taunting him.
The sound of electronic interference filled the area once again.
Another set of five groups of pixels began to appear.
However, as they clustered together, Tsukuru noticed that the pixels took on the form of slender, humanoid shapes.
In fact, it looked exactly like when Tsukuru summoned his Video Summons.
There was a bright flash of light.
When it faded, the full appearance of these figures came into Tsukuru's vision.
They had the same "uncanny valley" aspect of Tsukuru's Summons, making them look as if they had walked right out of an anime-style video game.
They looked very similar to the previous Goblins, same light-green skin, same navy-blue hair, same golden pupils with black sclera. They even had similar outfits.
Like the Goblins, these figures had green spines sticking out of their heads and shoulders, as well as lean physiques with toned abs.
However, everything that had made the Goblins look ugly had been removed.
While the Goblins had long noses, and sharp teeth, these figures had normal noses. And their sharp teeth looked more endearing and "cute"than frightening.
Additionally, their hair, while still ponytails, was much longer, with it reaching down past their backs, with the tips reaching their hips.
Unlike the Goblins, who were bare-chested, these new figures had pieces of brown cloth hanging down from the skull necklace to cover their chests.
But it was less of a dress, and more like a bra, as they covered the middle of each breast, and nothing else, with the clothing wrapping around the figure's back at her lower back, ironically enough, right where the strap for a bra would be.
On top of that, while the Goblin's clothes looked like a combination of a loincloth and a kilt, the clothes on these figures genuinely looked like the bottom of a flowing dress.
Also, instead of holding Stone-Age daggers in their hands, each woman held a spear.
Like the daggers, they appeared to be made with Stone-Age equipment, consisting of long pieces of wood like a quarterstaff, with a sharpened stone fastened in a cut slit in the top, and sturdy twine holding them together.
However, the longer Tsukuru looked at the group of five, the longer he could help but feel that he recognized them.
As if he had seen them before.