He had just made his second pass around the plants when two more broke off the main group and joined the three he was fighting. Having five to contend with seemed to be in no way harder than three, as his actions remained the same, at least for now. With the another pass done one of the plants burst as the short sword bit deep in its body. The attacks where far weaker than his favorite skill, but they offered constant damage with no post action down time. As <Sprint> began to wear off he found himself struggle somewhat more, <Acrobatics> helped quite well as his body listened a little better at his commands. As for <Sprint> even in cooldown the passive augmented his evading capabilities.

The rest of his party had joined the fray and each in his own was cutting down the nepents, even the little girls was pulling her weight. He couldn't see them all that well thou due to the hoard. But all the ruckus they created had drawn the attention of other teams, hopefully some of them were brave enough to join the fight.

Suki smiled, wished Umichi luck, and settled back, content to wait. She pondered her own upcoming battle, wondering how she was going to battle thirty Nepents in thirty minutes. She had fought more before, but always in the group. Now she'd be doing it by herself.she was more then sure she'd have enough health to fight them, but she also knew it wouldn't do good to become cocky about her abilities. She kept an eye on the time, but she knew Umichi would get back well before the time limit, and she was right as he came running back close to 11 minutes.

She rose, and waited until he'd completed the quest.she poked her tongue out at him, when he said she just had to beat 11 minutes, and then began. She ran, activating her sprint skill, towards a group of Nepents. In her head, she kept a count as she began to fight.as she got them into a group, almost herding them like she would sheep, she began to attack. She moved swiftly, and comfortably with her rapier now, and freely used her speed to fight with the light weight weapon.

She started off with <<sweep>>, which enabled her to attack in a circle, with an sweeping attack at the Nepents, and she she let out a laugh as more then half of them had their held lowered. She followed it up with <<rip ravine>> and then with <<linear>> taking out several of the Nepents, noticing their increased health. She managed to dance out the way of most attacks, but did get hit occassionally. She kept an eye on her health, and she continued as she came on different groups, killing them smoothly and quickly with a combination of her sword skills. She hide larger groups, or made larger groups by herding the Nepents together, and managed to finish them off in three groups of ten. She stood there for a few seconds panting, before activating her sprint ability again and hurrying back.

She slowed I a stop, and greeted the old man again, smiling. He thanked her, and she completed the quest. She checked her time, but knew she had had no hope in beatings Umichi's time, not yet. When she was faster, as she was aiming to be, she'd be better. Still, she was shocked at how close she had come.

"13 minutes and 22 seconds" she said with amusement, as she took out her pot plant, she examined it for a minute, and then let it get some sun, tenderly checking the soil to see if it needed water, unsure if plants in this world needed water to begin with.

Yui - Forest of Horunka village <<8>>

As Timi finished of the large neptent Yui wanted to get ready again for the next monster they would encounter, But it was to late to do so. She could only blink once before the next neptent approched ''He must have been attracted by the sounds of the first one.'' She saw that Timi wasnt going back to Yui ''Wait, Timi no its going to...'' The neptent already started to deal some serious damage to Timi ''Are you okay.'' She quickly started dashing towards Timi when she jumped back all of the sudden while calling switch.

Yui flinched for a second and moved her sword with two hands up to her shoulder while it glowed a bright colour green <<Slant>> she dashed through the neptent as it pixelated into thin air. Yui immediatly rushed back into her attacking stance and looked behind her to see if Timi was still okay ''See if you can find Hana.'' She moved over closer to Timi ready to start a fight as another 3 smaller neptents approched from the front of them ''I'll take it'' She ran a bit forwards and used another <<Slant>> their hp quickly went down to 40% as they all attacked Yui back with no mercy leaving yui with 80% of her hp "Finish it now Timi"

Timi knew she had been careless, but she knew what it was to be lost and surrounded by monsters, and she had just wanted to help Hina. She watched Yui fight the three little Nepents, but kept on the look out for anymore or for Hina. As Yui got the Nepents down, and called Timi in, she jogged over, beginning to engage the Nepents and soon had them killed off. She let out a sigh of relief, and said "she's over here" she led Yui to Hina, and soon they had found the little girl.

Timi smiled at her, and said that they were here to help, giving her their names "your father has been worried about you! He sent us to look for you!" She smiled brightly, but was aware that there might be more to the quest. As she reached for Hinas hand, she was right. Three more large Nepents appeared, giving them a total of five and Timi winced, stepping in front of the NPC girl.

She engaged one, careful now, and soon had it dispersing into crystallized data, and looked over to Yui, before she engaged a second one, checking on Hina, and checking on her own health as well.

Umichi

With Suki having left to do the quest, Umichi sighed. He felt ashamed of his time, having expected a time of less than 10 minutes. That is what happens when he leaves most of the closer Little Nepents. Having gone to the further reaches of the woods to find his prey. Lying down, on his back, hands behind his head, Umichi looked up at the sky, through the trees' leaves. The scene in front felt serene, and gentle, as a breeze swept by him. For a moment he wondered, I wonder if it rains or snows here. having not seen either so far.

As Suki came back, Umichi hopped up. "Gokurou sama deshita." He smiled. "Guess that's it for this place. Shall we head to Tonkilo for the 'Cows of the Counterattack'?" he followed up with a question, grabbing his pot plant up and putting it away in his inventory. Waiting for a response from Suki, he observed her. This was something Umichi would do from time to time, to look for any cute quirks Suki may have.

---

YukiHana

YukiHana was quite adept in learning things, and learned that the enemies had learning algorithms , and it was possible to trick them and make them confused/pause momentarily. An example of that was stopping and running through them as she did before, which was different to her just running away. With them chasing here again, she checked to make sure she had <<Acrobatics>> equipped. With it equipped, she saw another Onii-san go to help the dagger-wielding Onii-san, and it seemed the first Onii-san that was tall and blonde, was doing fine. She wouldn't need to do what she did earlier, at least for now.

She started to take deep breaths while running, concentrating. Slowing her running pace, the Little Nepents were catching up. Slowly, getting closer. Suddenly, YukiHana back-flipped, landing on top of one of the Little Nepents. She had her dagger at the ready as she landed on top, stabbing it as far as she could. Kicking off from the Little Nepent, she repeated this about five times, getting behind the Little Nepents. The Little Nepents stabbed, had taken some more serious damage. Still only resulting in about 30 or so %. However, the Little Nepent hoard had become confused and spread out. Using this opportunity, she dashed around, slashing some of the Little Nepents, but with the room given, she was able to perform a couple of simple sword skills, such as <<Side Bite>> and <<Round Accel>>. The dagger glowing with each strike of the sword skill.

The few Nepents she had hit with both the stab and the sword skills, had burst into pixels. However there were still about 12 or so Little Nepents. Still running through the hoard, she cut into the last without a sword skill, however, at that moment, had stepped too close to the Little Nepent, tripping over a root, and tumbling away from the hoard.

Suki brushed back her hair. She had long since given up tying it up, as it always found a way out of the ribbon. This world didn't appear to have things like hair ties, and Suki had never grasped the ribbon, although she smiled at memories of her father clumsily trying to take her hair when she was a kid. She bit her lip as she thought on the others, hoping that Timi and Yui were okay, and that Fujiwara wasn't going to cause Ayame too much trouble when he woke, and that Paka wasn't sitting around brooding. She looked up, catching Umichi looking at her, and she found herself blushing. She turned to put her pot plant in her inventory and then nodded.

"Doing Cows to the counter attack sounds like a good idea. I've nearly reached level 11, so it would be nice to finish the day off by leveling" she said with a smile. The beauty of the cows quest was that you could talk to any baker, and then follow the rumors from NPCs to where the minatour was. The large cow was a good fight, and the cream was delicious on bread, and was highly benefical when grinding, giving the 50 percent experience bonus.

She said goodbye to the NPC John, but he didn't seem to hear. Still, Suki was polite to the NPC and that was all that mattered. She checked her health, checked the area around them, but there didn't seem to be any more monsters around, and then nodded "right. Shall we head off?"

Suki brushed back her hair. She had long since given up tying it up, as it always found a way out of the ribbon. This world didn't appear to have things like hair ties, and Suki had never grasped the ribbon, although she smiled at memories of her father clumsily trying to take her hair when she was a kid. She bit her lip as she thought on the others, hoping that Timi and Yui were okay, and that Fujiwara wasn't going to cause Ayame too much trouble when he woke, and that Paka wasn't sitting around brooding. She looked up, catching Umichi looking at her, and she found herself blushing. She turned to put her pot plant in her inventory and then nodded.

"Doing Cows to the counter attack sounds like a good idea. I've nearly reached level 11, so it would be nice to finish the day off by leveling" she said with a smile. The beauty of the cows quest was that you could talk to any baker, and then follow the rumors from NPCs to where the minatour was. The large cow was a good fight, and the cream was delicious on bread, and was highly benefical when grinding, giving the 50 percent experience bonus.

She said goodbye to the NPC John, but he didn't seem to hear. Still, Suki was polite to the NPC and that was all that mattered. She checked her health, checked the area around them, but there didn't seem to be any more monsters around, and then nodded "right. Shall we head off?"

Yui - Forest of Horunka village <<8>>

She waited for Timi to finished them all of with only taking a few more hits from them brining her down to 75% of her health. She smiled brightly at the girl that she did good killing them all. Before Timi could lead her to Hina she equiped her other sword skill <<Cyclone>> she gave a nod at Timi that she was ready and followed her towards the girl sitting alone in the forest. She didnt let her guard down for one moment and letted Timi do the talking to keep herself concentrated. She gave a glance to her back as she could see 2 red eyes appearing from the shadow of the trees. She didnt wait for it to come and closer and ran up to it using her ability <<Slant>> again with a normall hit after it to give it some more damage. The monster hitted her once and she left it for Timi to finish while it was still attacking her.

She turned around to see that Timi encountered another big neptent, but could quickly slay it. She gave a smile that it was going well till now but after a brief moment she got serious again. Without saying a word she tried to get some distance between her and the almost dead neptent. She moved her sword to the right from her all the way back till she couldnt move her right arm anymore to the right. Her sword gave a blue light as she moved a bit through her knees to get the twist right. She rapidly started spinning with her sword swinning around her hitting the two other neptent for 40% of their health leaving them with 60%. The other 2 neptents only attacked Yui and didnt do anything to Timi. The other neptent that was low health joined the other two helping them to attack Yui.

She gave a glance at Timi to see where she was at. A big neptent was still standing in front of her and 3 others where still attacking Yui the area around them seemed to be clear but she didnt know for sure "Timi finish the one that is alone first and after that take these 3, You dint have a lot of time but i'll trust you." She looked at her own health and saw that it was at 60% now so she should be fine. She attack the two with some more health tostill get them a bit lower in the hp and waited for Timis help.

Timi fought hard, to protect Hina. She wasn't too sure if NPCs could die or not, but she wasn't going to risk that, and besides, just because someone was data didn't mean you should let them die. She fought back against the Nepent, giving her some room, and attacked, ducking under an attack and slicing the Large Nepent, landing a critical blow and she didn't stop, wanting to help Yui, to make sure Yui was okay. She lashed out, and the Nepent disintegrated into shattered data. Timi stood there a minute, breathing before rushing over to Yui.

She quickly dispatched the Nepent with little health, bringing the combat down to two, and she began to hit them with a a barrage of attacks, going for ones that hit fast, and recharged quickly. She slowly brougt the Nepents health down, until they both shattered, and Timi stood there panting, looking up as she got the notification

congratulations! You have reached level eight!

She quickly allocated the skill points

Level 8
agility 22
strength 9
health 0900/1475

Before looking over to Yui, to see how she was, "are you okay?" She asked, taking out another health potion and drinking it down, looking over to Hina, seeing that the NPC girl was okay too. She smiled at Yui, and brushed back her hair

Yui - Forest of Horunka village <<8>>

The three neptents around her where begining to annoy by using attacks to push Yui around a little, It didnt take long before she lost her stance and was being pushed around taking some damage from every time she was attacked. Timi finished of the other Neptent standing around and took the low health one from Yui while she was still taking the other two. Her health had dropped to 50% at this point and was slowly dropping lower and lower. Timi took the other ones and Yui could finally restore her health to full again. She got closer to Hina together with Timi and started to calm down the little girl in front of her "Dont worry Onee-chan is here to get you back to your daddy."

She was still crying a little but for the most part she had calmed down. The bushes behind Yui moved, she raised her sword again whie turning around to the sound from the bushes. Suddenly the bushes to the side where moving while the others stopped "Its still not finished Timi, There is one more somewhere around us, keep on looking." It didnt seem to stop moving around them when suddenly the neptent dashed out to attack Yui from the side. She could get her sword in between her and the neptent while being pushed back by the force of the dash "ill try to keep it like this."

Timi stiffened and looked about when Yui said that there was another one. She froze when she saw that this one had a fruit on it's head. The last time she had come against a fruit Nepent was with her old groups, and they had barely survived. Timi was stronger then she had been, and faster too, but she still worried. She took a deep breath, checked her health, which was still just about full, and began to attack the Nepent together with Yui, "it's going to spawn lots of little Nepents when we kill it, isn't it?" She called to Yui, taking a risk and looked about them to make sure there wasn't any other monsters around, but there wasn't.

She continued to help attack the Nepent, finishing it's health while using her short stature and speed to keep out the way of attacks. Together, she thought they should be able to kill it and it's spawns, but she did worry for a few moments until she just focused on the battle

Umichi

Noticing her brush her hair, Umichi took note of the fact that Suki did that quite a bit, brushing her hair out of the way. She then blushed before speaking up. As she was ready to leave, he said a simple "Bye" to John, taking the lead. As they walked, he asked Suki, "Why don't you tie up your hair? I'm sure a ribbon would suit you. Also, will we activate the quest separately? So we can take on the Minotaur twice?" He faced her, still walking, looking at her a little curiously, before turning back ahead of him. He checked his own experience, since he was earning less exp from the monsters, since his level was that much higher than theirs, he had only earned about 400 total from them. Together with the quests, he was barely 1/3rd to his next level. He had swapped his <<Acrobatics>> for <<Blade Throwing>> while they walked and talked, throwing out an iron throwing knife from time to time to kill an enemy or two without worrying or detour.

Angelo soon followed the prison in the white hood back to tolbaba and Angelo turned to his partner and smiled Bertie he went over to an inn nearby "we will sleep here for the night then we will head out in the morning, if someone wishes to join us then they should meet us here at noon" Angelo said out loud fit the stranger to hear so that Angelo would know by noon if the guy was going to join them or if helping Angelo was just a convenience. Angelo soon walked to the inn keeper and asked fire a room with two beds passing for it himself before going upstairs. ...

Suki sighed softly, "I did use a ribbon, early on remember?, but I never seemed to get it tied right, and it kept on coming undone. Having all brothers didn't give much in the way of tea parties and dress ups, and my father tried his best, but there are somethings only a mother can do for their daughter" She spoke softly, and shrugged, then she brightened suddenly, and said "I could ask Ayame, or Yui!" She smiled, and resolved to do just that.

She thought about the cows of the counter attack quest, and nodded, "lets do that then" She said, as they headed back towards town, she found a bakery, and spoke with the NPC, activating the quest for herself, she hit accept, and stepped back to let Umichi speak with the baker.

Umichi

"Hm? Don't you just equip it like other things? Won't the system do it automatically? Or can't you touch it, and press what type of way to wear/equip it? I mean, you can set where the sheath to swords are and all." Umichi asked curiously. Most things in SAO were like that, to chop up food, a kitchen knife of sorts would need to be held and then tapped down onto the food. Voila it was done. Equipping clothes, click to equip, and they appear. "Well, if you'd like, I could do it. I used to do it often." he smiled at Suki, fondly remembering something from before becoming trapped in the death game.

As Suki activated the quest, it seemed she was letting him speak to the baker as well. "Um... this is a kill type quest. If I accept the quest now, then we kill the Minotaur, then we won't be able to do it again. I'll get the quest after we finish it for you." Umichi informed Suki, indicating that they should look for the Minotaur.

Yui - Forest of Horunka village <<8>>

The damage that was dealt to the large neptent was wuickly enough to kill him. Yui waited for Timi to finish the monster off but before she did just that she spoke up to Timi "I dont know hiw many there will spawn, but if it gets to hectic we might just run towards the village again with me carrying Hina." She looked over Hina who seemed to be in no state to move on her own "I think I should carry her anyway." The monster was dead and suddenly a whole bunch of little neptents where being spawned "These should be easy to kill." She swung her sword to the right again and got a whole lot of Little neptents with her <<Cyclone>> dealing a lot of damage to them and trying to get all their attention so they wouldnt hit Timi "Try to last hit them and kill them all, just like we did last time but a whole lot more now."

Suki shrugged "I doubt they programmed hair accessories into the game. Given that my avatar had short hair, before we are real appearances came, I didnt give it much thought. Ribbons are for the crafting skills and as such don't have anything like hair tying in their uses. I think" she shrugged again, then nodded when he said about accepting the quest for himself Later. "That would be great" she said wit a smile, "thanks. But later"

She headed out and began to speak with NPC characters. She talked with them for a few minutes, before being given a general idea of where the minatour was. She led the way out of town, towards where the NPC rumors said the beast would be. She gripped her rapier, knowing the large cow could come out of no where and she wanted to be ready to attack it. When the beast appeared, she didn't hesitate, instead rushing in to get in close, she attacked with <<rip ravine >> and followed it up with <<penetrate>> before jumping back, and staying out fm its reach. She circled around it, intending to put Umichi behind it, so they could attack from both directions

---

Timi nodded at Yui, getting ready. When the Nepent was dead and had spewed out 50 or 60, or perhaps even 70 little Nepents, Timi grimaced, and when Yui began to attack, so did Timi, holding her short sword in a good grip so she wouldn't loose it, she quickly began to attack the ones Yui had damaged. She traded between <<horizontal>>, <<vertical>>, <<horizontal arc>, <<slant>> and <<uppercut>>, kulling the Nepents around them.

She glanced to her health and Yui's from time to time, and looked back to Hina when she could to see if the little NPC girl was alright. Timi was holding her own, even with slight damage every so often, and she was glad she wasn't alone. Together with Yui's damage, she managed to take down about thirty of the Nepents, and then she retreated back to Yui's side.

---

Paka looked up, seeing Angelo and his group return to the inn. Paka had been thinking a bit, and he approached Angelo, saying "hello. Did you do well training today? I was thinking it would be good for you and those with you to go back and do some quests. We've done a few that I can suggest for you to do, if you would like" he said

Angelo looked over smiling as he saw paka "hey dude nice seeing you. To be honest I'm planning on taking us to a new town tomorrow but what quests are you talking about? Cause we were level grinding but we can only do so much here." Angelo asked wondering what he would mean since Angelo didn't know where else they could level grind in this area. Angelo was going to lead his team but that didn't mean he wouldn't look for help if it was offered to him. He was going to prove he was a good person and doesn't need to steal...

""Well, there's several quests we have done, and some I've read about in the guide book. Quests are good, because you can get experience, col and good items from them, as well as skill points. Some would be good for you specfically" Paka said, thoughtfully. "Lets see. There's secrets of the medicine forest as well. You can get an Anneal blade, which you can sell for a good price if you don't wish to use it. There's Sasamaru's Daughter. New Cuisine. The sick companion, but again you need an Alchemist. This ones from the guide book, The town messenger, as well as a special tip There there's Creature of the full moon. The time is just about right. We did this one, but you need an alchemist. If you don't have a blacksmith, I can help. You need to completed the dire werewolf quest as well, to get the weapon to slay the wolf. These are all in different towns, but if you wish to do the dire werewolf, you have to sleep in citadel."

Hearing Suki tell him her doubts about hair accessories being programmed in, Umichi decided to retort with two simple facts. "This a self-learning system, creating and adapting as it goes. There's no way it won't learn about hair accessories, if what you said were true. But it's more likely that they are programmed in. Kayabaya most likely set out to trap everyone from the start, it wasn't a sudden impulse. From the features available in the game, dressing up and using things like make up, tying one's hair, would most likely be included. He has designed it to have a reflection of every day living, just with monsters, essentially." Umichi informed Suki, hoping he did not sound like some lecturer or sermon. With Suki accepting his aide at a later date, they set off for the Minotaur.

After finding the monster, Suki had set off ahead of him. Instead of poising for battle, he called in cheer. "Hue! Hue! Suki-dayo! Ganbatte!" Umichi laughed and smiled. As Suki circled the Minotaur, the beast turned it's eyes onto Umichi. It started to charge at Umichi with a giant battle-axe. Already used to it's attack pattern, Umichi had no need to worry, as it approached ever so closer. Grasping his Anneal Blade with his right hand, he took pivoted around the axe attack, coming down where he had just been a mere short moment ago. As he spun, Umichi drew his blade, activating a simple <<Slant>>. The post-motion was almost non-existent. Allowing him to dodge the wide swing the Minotaur used. Ducking under, he activated <<Horizontal Square>>, significantly reducing it's health. Even the slant had dealt a good portion of it's health, clearing about 15% of a single bar instantly. The last attack left it with a little less than half of it's last (2nd) bar of health. A post motion could be felt by Umichi, but it was decently short, due to Umichi's first upgrade in his <<One-handed straight sword>> skill.

Having over-swung it's weapon, the beast had trouble trying to find Umichi again. Walking away from it, he left the rest to Suki. He kept an eye on it just in case, "Switch!" he called out, indicating he was letting Suki take over. The Minotaur's cursor indicator was a light red/dark pink in colour, indicating he was a decent couple of levels at least above it.