Suki appeared thoughtful. There should be someway of crafting crystals l, she thought. Which would probably involve mining and crafting crystals and then enhancing them. Complicated, but it should be possible. Not something she could do. Maybe she could suggest it to Yui. She didn't think Yui had accepted a profession yet.

She followed Umichi, still deep in thought about the crystals. There had to be a way to have more crystals, surely the game wouldn't be completely against them. She brought herself out of her thoughts, looking towards the inn, and wondered how there could be darts in this game, let alone the skill to use it. She supposed that with <<knife throwing>>, it could be done. She smiled and nodded "alright, looks interesting" she said "I think it's great that people are trying to cope with living here. They could just as easily
Sit about doing nothing" she said studying the inn

A boar exploded into small crystalline shards which in turn hit the floor and shattered into nothing, two men stood only a few paces from where the boar was slain. The older looking of the two stepped in front of the other and took out his last throwing knife, raising it above its head the games system recognised the action and a yellow glow covered the knife as it then flew through the air embedding itself into another boars side. The boar, roaring in pain, turned round to the man who had assaulted it and with a mighty roar began charging, the man smiled as he raised his scimitar over his shoulder and it began to take on an orange glow, just a second later the mans sword arm moved in front of him as he rushed ahead a short distance his blade aimed at the boar. Blade and Boar collided as the weapon and the man wielded it continued through the boar leaving a large red gash across it as it then split in two not a second after the man had finished the ability known as reaver.

The man smirked as he checked his menu and noticed he had finally managed to get to level 7, he then turned round to face the younger looking man. "Level up, fuck yeah!" he cheered as he closed his menu. "We should probably try and finally find ourselves a quest soon, we've been doing nothing but farm mobs since.." he hesitated for a moment "Since then. We need a way to get more col since we're fucking broke right now"

This man was known in game by the alias 'Firelord' however even 'the great firelord' failed to notice the nearby group of two boars he had managed to catch the attention of and were looking ready to charge him.

"Alright then." Umichi smiled back to Suki, walking towards the Inn of Faith with Suki in hand. Opening the door, he held it open until she went into the inn, and then followed in after her. There were a few people shifting tables and putting up dart boards, they seemed to be NPCs that worked in the inn. At the counter an NPC, named Lina, welcomed the two. "Welcome, to the Inn of Faith! Sorry, we are a little busy at the moment, we are about to hold a darts competition, running twice a week. Would you like to participate?"

---

Before the two of them a quest pop up appeared. The quest pop up was as follows:

Lina said

Ready Aim Throw

Description
At the Inn of Faith, with the increase in darts players, Lina has decided to hold a darts competition, Ready Aim Throw!

Pre-requisite
- Blade Throwing skill - 65

Activation
- Speak to Lina
(Upon activation 50 col is taken)

Clear Conditions
- Get the highest score in the competition

Rewards
- 285 exp
- 2000 col
- Honorary reward for winning (Free food from the inn for a week)

For Suki, there was no accept button, only a decline. Unlike for Umichi.

---

Hitting accept, Lina started to explain. "This is a single round elimination type tournament. Currently there are 8 participants (Three are NPCs) Three darts are used per round, there is only one round between the two participants until the finals, which is a best of three. Although the <<Blade throwing>> skill is necessary, bonus points can be achieved by hitting the dart board without the system assist skill. Throwing multiple darts at once gives an even greater bonus. We run all rounds simultaneously. The first rounds will start in 5 minutes, for now just go ahead and practice or sit down."

Nodding to the NPC to show an understanding, Umichi dragged Suki to a table to sit. "Hm... so ... this is advantageous to real life dart players, huh? I wonder if there are any." Umichi spoke to Suki, looking a little excited and looking about. Although he only looked excited, he was actually very confident due to his ninjutsu training. He did not let it show, and, from what he was aware of, no one knew. A lot of the things he did in ninjutsu were being practiced subtly in this game, so his skills were still in a good condition.

'Firelords' companion stood aside whilst his elder brother dealt with his unfortunate target, confident that at this level Firelord would require little to no assistance to defeat boar he'd engaged. Shurikai's ears were then rewarded with a level up noise and he broke into a grin. "Damn Okibi." He said jovially. "You beat me to it... Congratulations are in order I beleive?" He continued before sighting the two hostile boar his oblivious brother had missed.

Shurikai allowed himself the luxury of a moments surprise before leaping into action, practically spining around his brother before bracing himself shield forward as the first of the two boars began to charge. The low level wooden shield he carried slowed Shurikai's dagger moves to around the speed of a rapier however an information broker had told him there was a world of counters available later on utilising the shield and it provided some security to Shurikai even if his low strength stat meant he only met the prerequisites to brace rather than full on block. The boar barreled into Shurikai's shield tusk first with a solid crunch as the shields durability lowered dramatically and Shurikai's health took a knock. Shurikai roared his dissent as he positioned his dagger into his opening pre-motion and the weapon immediately glowed purple and plunged forwards into the boar as the move Rapid Bite activated. Two more strikes followed in quick succession with practically no discernible post-motion phases between blows as Shurikai frenzied the three hits into the fiend until it evaporated into crystalline shards. Wasting no time Shurikai turned and raised his dagger over head before gripping it in two hands. Moments later he felt an explosion of power rush through him and released the dagger skill Fud Edge into the surviving boar as it tried to pass, the blade of his weapon sinking deep into the beasts fleshy flanks and leaving a deep red puncture mark.

"Switch!" Shurikai called loudly to his brother as he waited for the post-motion to wear off.

"How many times do i have to tell you its firel... woah!" Firelord didn't get to finish his sentence as his brother charged passed him practically spinning him round it was at this point he finally noticed the boars and then regained his footing readying his blade in case his brother needed him.

Once his brother called switch he ran at the boar and held his blade to the bottom right as it glowed red, the whirlwind skill then activated as his blade spun upward and round striking the boar as he span he then followed up by slicing down at its back as it exploded into shards. He then put away his scimitar looking around to make sure there were no more "Man i really wish these guys gave more xp" he said "We should really look into finding a quest to do" he said taking a notebook out of his inventory, all the players had a small notebook which held info gathered by players from the beta tests although a fair few things had changed in the main game but he hoped there would be a known quest in there that was still around "Hey something in here about getting medicine from a plant, doesn't look too hard since there's no level pre-reqs and the blade could sell well. I mean we've spent our entire time here so far farming, we should probably find a quest since we're out of col"

Suki slipped inside when Umichi held the door open. looking about the inn. She was never shocked about how normal the NPC's seemed, working and oing things that they themselves would do in real life. This was their world after all. They were just the visitors. She smiled at the NPC that welcomed them. Suki read the quest, but hit decline since that was the only option for her.

Even though she was participating, Suki still listened to what would happen. She was curious as to why thre was only so few participates. Perhaps others hadn't reached Tolbana yet, or perhaps they just hadn't trainned their blade throwing skill. Or maybe they felt that it was pointless. Suki didn't think so. Sometimes normalcy was best. Especially here, in this game. They'd been here a close to three weeks, and already there were player controlled stores. People were making lives here, unsure of how long they would be here, but certain that it would be for a while.

Suki smiled at Umichi's enthausism and excitement. She was confident in Umichi's abilities, especially after seeing him hit the frenzy boar early on with a knife. "I imagine so" She said, sitting down, "A lot of skills can be transferred in here from real life, I think" She said "I'm sure you'll do excellent though!"

Lina started to announce. "May the contestants in the Inn of Faith's Dart Competition step up to the competition area! From there, you will be given three darts, and a coin toss will decide who will go first. Today's prize is 2000 col and a week of free food!" There were some cheers, and others just shook their heads. Looking about, Umichi wondered why. He caught faintly the word of some whispers, "One of those NPCs will win again. Just watch." Shrugging it off, Umichi didn't care. Stepping into the area, he was up against an NPC named Gilbert. With the flip of a coin, Umichi lost the toss, and Gilbert had decided to go first. Throwing twice in the outer bull, and once in the inner bull, the NPC earned a ton (100 points), all of them shining, "activating" the sword skill <<Single shot>>

Umichi stepped up to the throwing area, holding his darts in one hand. Deciding to use <<Single shot>> as well, to not show off, he threw a dart into the triple 20, followed by the inner bull and finally just outside the triple 20, hitting the triple 5, earning him a ton 25. With that he won his first round. The other two NPCs had faced off and finished quickly, the other players took their time, not activating the sword skill, getting mostly inner bulls. Without the system assist, the scores were multiplied by 1.5. Earning about 2 tons each, which is normally impossible.

With that, there was three players and one NPC left. Without much of a break, Lina announced once more, "The first round winners are, Umichi, Thompson, Jessica and Ryuu No Kage. The pairs will be Umichi vs Jessica and Thompson vs Ryuu. Let's move on to round two!" Jessica was confident, as she saw Umichi's performance and believed she would get an easy win. Once again, she was to go first, and she got a three inner bulls, without the system assist, earning 2 tons 25. Holding all three darts at once, Umichi used the system assist again, utilizing a <<Triple Shot>>, hitting three triple 20s. Almost in shock, Jessica could not believe it. Throwing two at once, multiplied the score by 1.2, while all three multiplied the score by 1.5. With that, he earned 2 tons 70. The spectators were cheering. "Maybe he can win! The NPC won't beat that." Turning to the other match, Ryuu No Kage and Thompson had just finished as well. Thompson won with 2 tons 55. Ryuu No Kage was angry, starting to swear. Some spectators helped him out, telling him it was okay, it can't be helped.

Finally the finals. "We have the finals coming up after a 15 minute break. We will add a special rule, all three rounds can be played at once. Good luck!" Stepping out of the area, Umichi sat back down with Suki. "Phew. They are pretty tough." he smiled. "Want to eat something after the tournament?" he asked her, taking a sip of some water on the table.

it seemed like a great prize, and for a second, Suki agreed with the whispers that a NPC would win. then that thought was banished from her mind. This was a compertition, and yes, the NPCs would have an advantage over others, but that didn't mean that they would win. It wouldn't be fair-that was like saying that they wouldn't be able to beat this game. IT simply wasn't true. They would. She leaned forward in her chair to watch the matches.

She focused on Umichi, smiling as he defeated the NPC in his first round, watching the other rounds as well, seeing that the other players did not activate their sword skill, giving them a higher level of points. Suki wondered for a minute if Umichi was trying to get people to underestimate them. The way he threw the darts showed that he had skill in this game. Or maybe she was just looking into this too much. She shrugged to herself. Then he had his second round, and Suki saw that the player he was up against was over confident, and was not surprised at how Umichi won.

She smiled when Umichi joined her again, "That was pretty impressive" She said, "food definetely sounds good after the tournament" She said, nodding. Suki didn't mind sitting and watching Umichi in the tournament. It was interesting, impressive and made her think about training her knife throwing skills. But she needed to train with her rapier, and focus on her alchemy as well. And now there was the whole leader thing.

Smiling back at Suki, their little time to chat was over. "After a coin flip, it is decided that Thompson will come up first! Will Thompson head up to the stage first! We will do 9 darts and whoever gets the most points wins." With Thompson going up onto the stage, the NPC got ready and threw three darts at a time, hitting both the triple 20 and the inner bull with each shot. Again and again, getting a total of 1125 points. Having hit 5 triple 20s and 4 inner bulls, 'without' the system. Lina announced once more, "We have a new high score!!!" The spectators were booing, disappointed thinking there was no chance. Standing up, and approaching the stage Umichi started to ask, "What happens if you throw six at once?" The NPC, Lina, was confused. "Um... are you sure about that? I mean, you wouldn't be able to throw it very accurately. It would be something like ... triple the points?"

Umichi smiled at the reply, picking up all 6 of the 9 darts, holding one between each finger in both hands. "I'll show you a high score." The onlookers were starting to leave, believing the result was clear. Standing there, closing his eyes, breathing in and out, Umichi suddenly leaned forward with his hands crossed and at his waist. Throwing his hands forward, all 6 darts precisely landed on the triple 20. Instead of taking the other three to hit the board, he rolled them onto the floor, forfeiting the points he could of earned from the three. Going up to take the 6 from the board, there were faces of disbelief. Suddenly cheers were heard. "We have a new high score of 1620 points! Give it up for the new champion Umichi!"

With his hand held up, he received a congratulations box that told him about the exp and col he earned as well as the free food. Cheers were heard as he closed the box. Suddenly someone spoke up. "Hey, how are you sure he didn't cheat!?" There were cries of disbelief in his ability. It was Ryuu No Kage, unable to bear the idea that he had lost. People asked how he did it, and they would not believe if he were a dart player, since they do not throw like that. Telling a half truth, Umichi replied, "I used to watch those shows that used cards as weapons, so I tried throwing them like that a lot and eventually was able to do them like that." Unsure it would work, Umichi waited. There was talk of disbelief, but someone spoke up, "I did that a lot too, I could throw only one card though. I saw someone do two as well." The story started to sound more believable and he was let off.

Sitting back at the table with Suki, he smiled. "I won." His smile turned into a grin. "Let's order some food. It's on me, since it's free that way."

Suki settled back to watch the rest of the competition. Without using the skill, the players were displaying an incrediable skill, which helped Suki confirm that some real life skills did get transfered into the game. She supposed that the nerve gear helped transfer these skills, and it also helped the the bodies they were in in the game were quite similar to their real life ones. Suki wasn't too sure, but their bodies here were most likely exactly a copy of their real bodies, except...data. And that just confused Suki, so she stopped thinking about it. She focused on the match. Suki had never played darts before, so even throwing one was a bit unnerving to her, let alone three.

She winced when the score was announced, wondering what Umichi was going to do, and how he was going to win the match-She was sure he would be able to. When he asked about using Six, Suki leaned forward, wondering just how Umichi was going to do this, six seemed like a lot, and she wondered how he was going to score enough points to win with six. She bit her lip, trying to see what Umichi was doing, but couldn't get a clear look. She wasn't aware that she was holding her breath until she could see and count the score in her head, and she was cheering with the rest.

When someone, one of the defeated contestants, shouted, asking how they were sure he wasn't cheating, Suki laughed. if this was a real life game, that might stand, but here? How could you cheat here? She was sure the system would pick it up for one, and short of being plugged into the system, there was no way that Umichi could cheat. As she realised that, she realised that Umichi would have to have tremendous skill in real life as well with darts, and she wondered how much dedication he had put into this skill. Suki, with her brothers, had practiced archery, amusing themselves in their spare time hiting goals from further and further away and the hours they had practiced...she imagined Umichi must have practiced as much, if not more, with darts.

She smiled when Umichi returned to her, dragging herself out of her thoughts. "I knew you would" She said without a hint of doubt in her voice, "You're good at everything you do" She smiled brightly, and nodded, looking to see what th inn served, before choosing some food to have. "Free food is always good"

"Death game...." He said with a somewhat amused look on his face, fate had actually listened to his wishes at last. He had logged later than most, actually he was one of the last to log on due to some cultural issues with the landlord. That was all the past, since now Providence was upon him. Then and there as he was looking in the mirror provided by the GM, seeing his golden eyes turn blue and silver hair turn matted blond, he decided that in this world he would do as he pleases.

And for close to two weeks he did...at times stealing at times begging. He was always just barely avoiding a permanent orange name, he never fought thou. Neither monsters nor duels. But anyone would get bored of this after a while, hitting this critical point Kingetsu, wandered down to the market, with a specific goal in his head. In fact his goal was to find a reason to get of his ass and go kill something. And there it was on a craters table labled exotic weapons. A three bladed claw like weapon, while he still hadn't acquired any appraisal skills he could only tell the general stats, which seamed better than his Short Sword. With a barely contained enthusiasm he asked the NPC the price of the desired item. The seemingly busy NPC halted his crafting to deliver the price: "That'll 500 col...." Kingetsu waved his hand in front of the NPC saying in a almost chanted voice "You want me to have if, you'll give it to me for free..." The NPC just returned to work announcing over his shoulder in a sour tone "Come back when you've got col." Suddenly that morning of the 14th? game day had become his save point

As he made for the city gates a new idea struck him and striking a Power Rangers pose he half yelled "I want to be a Merchant". Nothing actually happened thou, a little ashamed of his action he ran to the gates. Two weeks ago the fields around the city where so overly populated that monsters ended up being fought over, now...pretty much the same, while some had advanced, most where still too afraid to go beyond the wolves. "Whatever tickles their fancy..." He shrugged. As he looked over the field he didn't actually spot any mobs, just players waiting or running to catch a boar or another, other than that only green plains. But before actually going try and catch one of the mobs he unsheathed the blade and slashed a few times at the air to get used to the weapon. Opening the skill menu he equipped the 2 available skill slots <1-handed sword> and <Leather Armor> since they seemed as the best options having both a defensive and offensive power. A tool tip appeared next to it as Kingetsu hovered his finger over them, which let him know how to use each skill. Using this chance he took a quick peek at his inventory. As barren as always, not one Col to spare. With a sour taste in his mouth he closed the inventory. Then he struck the pose needed to perform the skill. With the weapon resting above his right shoulder he activated the skill. The skill was done in an instant. The rigidity made it's presence felt but it was just an instant. With practice done he moved onto the field for his first encounter.

Sadly a loner had it quite rough with numerous parties grinding all over. When he finally got first to a boar he was so out of breath that his skill nearly missed. Instead of hitting the beasts neck he activated the skill and it fell on its back, much tougher than expected. The cut turned red as it's hp depleted. While the blow did bring the HP in down somewhat it was by no means strong enough to kill. And now that the boar turned to attack all the bravery that he gained within the city seemed to vanish. The piercing red eyes of the boar fixed him as it prepared to strike with it's tusks. The swing came slower than expected and Kingetsu jumped back. Now with some distance placed between the the boar charged. With his feet stable on the ground Kingetsu waited until the last moment to jump to the side, the landing was by no means gracious as he landed on his stomach. Scrambling to his feet, he prepared to to take the hit. As the boar had already started turned back for another charge. Getting ready he attempted to hit the boar while it charged. The parry stopped the actual charge but damage was still applied due to the boar's kinetic force. The pig tumbled into Kingetsu as some sort of tackle attack. His health bar took a good hit, but as he got up it seemed that the boar had taken more damage from both the parry and the crash. A swift slash to the neck was enough to take it down for good. A status window appeared as the boar dissipated in a multicolored cloud of pixels.

"One down, a horde to go..." He bitterly said, as he prepared headed for the next one. This time it went smoother, first <Slant> then a <Parry> followed by some deft slashes took it down. Not before it took a swing at Kingetsu's HP thou, now down to 70% it appeared that he would be at least able to level. Since his XP bar was at 24%. After a short verification of his skill window and status window he continued his killing spree. Three mobs later he was left with 50% HP and just 40% XP needed for the next level he was quite sure he would make it in time. Now having gotten the hang of both Parry and Slant skills it actually took more time to get to the next monster than to kill it. Thus he made quick work of the last 4 mobs needed to level up, well as quick as he could find them. From the notification window he added all three points to strength which would probably boost his <Slant> enough to 1 shot boars. In the end he actually can't believe that what should have taken him a measly 5 minutes took him over 3 hours, disheartened at the idea that he probably can't get his hands on the new weapons today he trudges back toward the city to heal and rest for a while.

Yui

Ayame didnt seem to reply at the moment and looked quite busy with her own things or she might have just not heared Yui talking to her. She peeked over the menu to look at Ayame but she didnt seem to notice at all. She shrugged and walked away to Timi again at the table.

Pretty much no one was left at the inn and everyone was doing their own little thing outside this left Yui and Timi on their own to go do some quest that is miles away, but it will be happening they just needed some time "Looks like its just you and me, We should stock up on some teleportation crystals and go out after that."

She closed her eyes for a moment just to make herself feel a bit more calm. She slowly breathed out and in, it made the stress a little bit less, she would to look out for Timi all the time or she might get hurt. But it wouldnt be so hard if she just does her best wouldnt it? She opened up her eyes again and jumped up ready to go "Come one Timi-chan we have a lot to do"

She walked of towards the market with Timi to get some more crystals. When they arrived something immediatly catched her eye, She ran off towards a hot bun shop drowling about how much food they sold after a minute she got back to Timi with 2 buns in her hands and handed one out to Timi. Her mouth opened widely as she was saying "Itadakimasu" with her mouth still wide open. When she took the bite her toungh felt like it was on fire, Well it practically it was

"Hot-hot-hot" Yui was waving with her hands wind into her mouth while stamping with her feet on the ground in pain. When the food in her mouth finally cooled down she faced Timi again "Loow ouwt iss swill hawd" (look out its still hot) Yui finished her bun with some care and waited for Timi to finished hers. Yui continued dragging Timi along with her to get those crystals.

When they arrived at the shop Yui bowed a little down to look Timi in the face without her having to hurt her neck all the time from looking up. She was holding a crystal next to her face with the top of her fingers "We'll use this to ge there but remember only use the Tolbana ones to get back." She handed Timi the crystall and stood up again "Ready to go" she smiled happily at the little girl as she was holding her own crystal to.

Ayame turned to respond to Yui, only to see that she had already left the inn. Sighing, she turned back to her file and read it over. It felt incomplete, of course; it was from her perspective, which in retrospect was probably kind of stupid, all things considered. She contemplated asking if Umichi and Suki could add their own anecdotes in, but that would have to wait for another time. Before she got back to her work, however, she opened up a PM window on the side and sent Yui a message.

"Yui, sorry that I'm a bit busy at the moment. If you're in a pinch, just send me a message and I'll come running right over. I don't want Fujiwara to wander off again, so I'm sticking around just to be safe. Sorry."

Quickly hitting send, Ayame shifted her focus back to the document she was writing up and quickly got back to writing.

Timi nodded, content to follow Yui and what she wanted to do. She watched Yui curiously as she closed her eyes, breathing in and out. Timi knew everything would be alright, but let Yui relax in peace, once again content to wait. She sat quietly, and looked about the Inn, but there was nothing really interesting there at the moment. The table that Umichi had destroyed was either fixed or replaced with another one. She smiled and rose when Yui said to come on, and trotted along behind Yui happily.

As they walked, she spied the mean boys, but they made no move to torment her, and thrilled, Timi poked her tongue out at them. Childish, yes. But fun. She smiled and caught up with Yui, watching as Yui ran off to a food stall, soon returning. Timi accepted the bun, and blew on it, watching as Yui danced around saying "hot" Timi smiled and nodded, blowing on her bun for a minute before opening her small mouth up as wide as she could and biting down into the bun. She licked her lips when she was finished, and followed Yui.

Timi accepted the crystal and nodded, giving Yui a smile, and nodded, "it's going to be okay, Yui-chan. Don't worry. I know you can look after me just fine!" She smiled big, and activating her crystal to teleport where they needed to go. She would never get use to that, but it was fast and effective travel. She blinked and looked around for Yui, staying where she was, assuming that Yui would appear near her. She licked her lips again, as if she could still taste the bun.

Being praised by Suki, Umichi was happy. When she mentioned he was good at everything, he solemnly shook his head. "Nah, there's only so much I can do. I am not good at everything, and not everything I do." He closed his eyes for a short moment, before looking back at Suki with a smile. "See anything you would like?" he asked her, taking a look at the menu. Deciding very quickly that he would try the specialty food, Faithful Broth. He waited for Suki to decide before asking Lina to come over.

"Hey Lina, could you get our order?"
"Why, of course, Umichi!"
"I would like to get the special, Faithful Broth, and Suki here would like ..." He paused, letting Suki tell Lina what she wanted.
"Okay, your meal will be here in about 15 minutes, please wait."
Lina smiled and walked away.

"It's a good thing there was nothing about how to throw the darts. That would of just made things annoying." Umichi spoke, only stating that his throw was not a normal dart throw, to Suki, turning back to her. "Anyway, did you enjoy watching the competition? Should we see if there are other ones around?" He asked Suki.

Suki pondered the menu for a few moments, unsure of what to choose. She finally decided on something and ordered it when Lina came over, saying thank you when she'd said it would be here in 15 minutes. It amused her that even with the fact that cooking in this world could be instantaneous, or close to it, there was still a wait period. She supposed that that had to do with the fact there were still over 9000 people in the game.

"They probably didn't think anyone would do what you did" She pointed out, "Perhaps there will rules about that in the next dart competition, if there is another one" She said with a laugh "It was brilliant to watch" She said with a smile "You've probably inspired others to try and do what you did. It's nice, seeming semi-normal activities" she thought about if there were any other competitions, but didn't think that there was anything she could enter-short of archery, or rounding up animals, she doubted there were any skills she could transfer into the game. Drawing, maybe. Or music. But that was it.

"We can see if there are any other competitions" She said "it seems like it's fun, and a common occurrence judging by what they said about NPC's winning it" She said thoughtfully, "It seems to be a good coping mechanism"

Shurikai grinned as his own level 7 notification appeared, muttering to himself "I knew I couldn't be far behind." before nodding and grunting agreement with Firelord. "We've done well to get as far as we have just farming but I could use another upgrade in terms of kit and mobs don't pay too well on their own... besides... it is getting busy even this far out of town." The nineteen year old said, gesturing to the horizon and a group of figures appearing over it.

Shurikai let his elder brother take the lead and, as he followed furrowed his brow as he milled through his own thoughts. "How strong do you think we need to be before we can make clearing party?... We are planning to join the clearing party right?"

The city felt stuffy, even unwelcoming after the rush hunting boars was. With 9 kills he managed to earn more than half the col neared to buy his weapon. He permitted himself a good meal as to recover from the fights, but it seemed so boring. Around him he could see either people that risked their lives to hunt beasts or those to scared to do shit and tried to make a living of the hunters. In truth there way too many people invested in tradeskills, but even so the prices never went down due to the great demand.

Revitalized he marched right back onto the fields...all he needed was some 10 more boars, easier said than done thou as the points he spent in strength were not enough to end the boars life in one swing. Thus the <Slant> <Parry> combo continued easily ending a single boar in seconds. Worse was the lack of mobs...

It took him some fifteen to twenty minutes to get one kill, not really the way he planned to spend the day. He was beginning to hate his new found resolution, what after, what will those claws change, so many doubt gathered with each minute of searching a boar that he was on the verge of giving up at all times. At the same time thou each slash, each kill made him feel better. Each step taking him further and further from the packs of players hunting in the vicinity of the city. At last he could feel his blood flow again, slash after slash, parry after parry. Then again the slump, the wait...

Some three hours later the needed col had been gathered, he was on the outer limit of the boar zone. He sat down to catch his breath after his last clash. It had been a good day for a newb, at least in SAO terms. With his XP bar half full and HP almost untouched he could easily continue, but the claws were waiting for him and he couldn't wait to get them. As he got up to head back a boar spawned in his path, shrugging he readied the short sword and lazily headed toward the beast to engage it...

"Ha! Something like that doesn't apply to real darts though, not that I play. I just threw it in a way that was more comfortable, especially for throwing multiple projectiles. Anyway, it won't really help me much with my fighting style. If anything, I need to improve my reaction time. I haven't had any way to improve that yet. I'm not really being attacked in blind spots to react to, or anything that has any fast attacks yet." Umichi told Suki, how he pretty much wanted to be able to move faster. "Armor just feels too clunky and restrictive. I like my free movement, so I need to be able to avoid or guard with my weapon. *Sigh* There's no way for me to improve at the moment. I still feel like I am not fast enough." He continued, starting to look a bit distant. All he could think about at that moment was, Unless I react fast enough, I won't be able to protect them. Protect the lives around me. Even if this strength isn't real, I need to be able to use it.

Not long after, Lina came with the food, for the two of them. "Thanks for your order. Please enjoy the food." Lina said walking away. Snapping out of his distant look, Umichi spoke, "It looks good. We should eat. Itadakimasu." Gesturing to the food. Soon after he got a spoon and started to eat the broth. It looked like a herbal stew, however, tasted a little like beef patties instead. As always, food confused Umichi in this world, none the less it tasted good. Scooping some with the spoon, he started to give it to Suki. "Here, you should try some too. Ahhh" He suggested for Suki to open up and say ahh.

"I don't know..." Firelord replied quietly "The clearing party will be dangerous and I don't know if I want to put you in that kind of danger. Anyway if we're gonna start questing it might be worth trying to find anyone else we can party up with, the more of us there are the more likely we are to survive..." he said as his eyes scanned the fields "At any rate we should begin heading back to town, let some other players camp the spawn points" he said as he began to head in the direction of the town bringing up his equipped skills and swapping out <<knife throwing>> for <<detection>> so he would be able to notice better any boars that tried to charge them.

As they walked firelord noticed a lone player in the near distance getting up and heading slowly towards a boar, the way they moved made it seem like they were tired of farming and firelord reckoned solo players could be the easiest to approach and convince to join you since they have nowhere else. With this in mind he began approaching the man