Tsukiya Tsukiya would have preferred to go somewhere a bit more rewarding, but she understood that they should keep the girl out of danger until they were sure she could handle it. She lowered her menu again and selected her sword, equipping it since she often took it off in public areas, and nodded to Yukihana. Lowering the visor on her helm and putting her hood up, she waved at the door. "Lead the way," She said in her quiet voice.

"no" Suki said softly, "its more like Life in that respect." She checked the time, and finishing off her food, she rose, smiling, happy to get a move on, and happy to leave that conversation behind, not wanting to think about the possibility of death again. She was happy enough to not think about it, and she said "We should head to the meeting soon. It would be good to get there early, to see how many people there will be. I think it would be good to know, so we can know if we need to change our fighting or what not" She shrugged.

Whatever plant-related trauma the girl had suffered, YukiHana was nevertheless dead set on fighting and that didn't leave Pyotr with much of a choice. 'Just a little east of here, about ten minutes walk.' She gave the reticent Tsukiya a half apologetic, half encouraging smile and led her new found party out of town, doing her best to avoid picking up stragglers enroute. Last thing she wanted was for this particular farming patch to fall victim to over-hunting. 'And here we are. Not much to look at, but these here woods have kept me fed and watered for a week now.' She used the term woods generously of course; it was little more than a handful of trees set aside in a low valley, just out of reach of the casual wanderer. Only the most enterprising or desperate adventurer would have paid any real attention to the area due to a combination of low mob spawn rates and a lack of decent resource nodes. The only things worthwhile for a half a mile were milling about before the three girls, rooting around in the digital underbrush. 'That's what we're after. Young Blazeback Boars; stupidly weak for this area, but they still drop everything the adults do, including meat, tusks and the occasional piece of armour.' Pyotr herself had no issues massacring the boars and she doubted that they would give Tsukiya any problem either, but YukiHana was still an unknown. She knelt by the girl, giving her a challenging grin. 'Whadya say then? Wanna go butcher Pumbaa?'

Standing up from his seat after everyone finished their meal, Umichi spoke "Well, the meeting will be soon, so let's get going to the arena." Taking the lead, he opened the door for everyone and sent a message to Paka, Yui and Timi.

Hey, it's almost time for the meeting. We should meet up at the arena where the meeting is being held.

With everyone out of the Inn of Faith, he led the party towards the arena, reaching the meeting place at 12:15 PM. "Well, seems to be about 30 or so people." Turning around Umichi spoke, "So, do you guys just want to stick together, or want to check out if there any other parties and what they are like." "Pumbaa?" YukiHana asked back to Aki-nee. "What's that?" Still young, she had not yet watched the Lion King, nor even knew about it. "Anyway, here I come!" The little girl ran off, drawing her dagger out. Her short size and high agility allowed her to move quickly. "So ... I hold it like this ... " Holding her dagger outward and upright, it started to glow a light blue. Reaching the front most Young Blazeback Boar, she executed a quick skill <<Side Bite>>. Slashing twice at the boar as she almost danced around the side of the boar. Taking down a good portion of health, and having only a short post-motion, she ran at it again. The Young Blazeback Boar turned and attempted to charge into her. Holding the dagger with in one hand at the hip, she activated <<Jab>> with a slightly yellow glow. Side stepping the boar as it charged into her, she finished it off with a single thrust. Standing there, with a slightly extended post-motion, she was rather close to another boar that had decided to attack at her. Guarding, she reduced the damage and was pushed back.

Suki looked about them as they reached the meeting place. She Realised with a sudden jolt, as the elected leader for their group, that she might have to speak for them. And just the thought of that caused her to blush. She was okay with the group itself, use to them and knowing them now, but...speaking out in front of others? She was suddenly reminded of her six grade talent show, and she blushed even More, looking aside. Maybe she could pass i off to Umichi, and then immediately berated herself. She should do it. She just hoped her voice didn't come out in a squeak. As she glanced about, she realised with another jolt that she recognised a hooded figure. They had come across him or her before, and Suki didn't like them. They knew stuff they shouldn't. But it wasn't like she could stand up and accuse them of something she had no proof in. She sighed softly. And then said "we probably should talk to others, but.::it might just be best for now to stay together" she said, spying Timi, the young girl making her way towards them

Standing off to one side with one hand resting on the hilt of her sword, Pyotr watched YukiHana's fight like a mother-in-law scrutinizing a woman cleaning her son's house. She took the time to analyse every move the girl made, her stance and choice of attacks. Yuki was fast and showed an intuitive understanding of her weapon and its use; her situational awareness was lacking though, Pyotr noted as the girl accidentally pulled another boar, forcing her on the defensive. Deciding that Yuki's display was enough proof for her, Pyotr leapt forward as the mob circled for another charge, bringing her sabre down and slashing up in a tight green <<Arc>>, shattering it into light. She breathed easy as the post-motion wore off, then turned to her adopted charge. 'Alright, not bad. Never seen a dagger user actually pull it off before, truth be told.' She knelt down by the girl, planting the blade of her sabre into the ground to lean on. 'So... Were you in a party before? Did you learn to fight with someone else?' Acknowledging YukiHana's skills was all well and good, but morbid curiosity still plagued her. She was half afraid that she'd hear some horror story of Yuki's past party mates dying on her...

Fujiwara and Ayame finished off their meals and continued onwards behind Umichi, the former noting how he was still acting as the de facto leader even though he had already handed off leadership to Suki. It was kind of amusing to him, really- how Umichi had been pushing for her to lead, only to end up subconsciously reaching back to take hold of it again. But that issue could wait. As they approached the other raid members, Fujiwara cracked his knuckles and scanned over everyone carefully.

"I'd probably recommend we stick together for this one as well. It's better working together in small subunits in scenarios like this, and since we've been working together for so long it's probably for the better if we do." he stated, making sure his inventory was stocked with items. It wouldn't do if he was caught in another scenario like he was a while before- everyone had gotten into a fuss, and he was the one responsible. Doing that again wouldn't just damage the group's integrity, but also...

Ayame glanced at Fujiwara as he seemed to nervously monitor the other players' appearances and such. Though socializing seemed like a good idea in her head, the aversion of that route by most everyone else made her reconsider. She was used to working in groups in school, so the way the group was now was to her liking. There was also the more morbid reason, but she pushed that thought out of her head immediately. They wouldn't die. They were all experienced enough to take on this challenge in the first place, after all. To think that would be like discounting their presence entirely, a notion she would prefer not to hold onto.

"I... I agree. If we want to meet other groups, it's better to do so as a group than by ourselves. It'll also make self-introductions easier." she stated, equipping her scythe and sheathing in on her back. Her weapon was strange on its own, which probably meant that they would probably attract attention regardless of what they did... For better or worse.

Suki smiled, relieved that the others felt the same way as her. Of course, she felt better about being able to go up to other players, with the others. So, perhaps she was being a little selfish. But she couldn't help it, even through all they had been through, her confidence wasn't what it should be at least when talking to strangers.

It was even worse thinking about standing up and speaking.

so she didn't do that. Instead, she smiled and gave Timi a hug as she reached them. She seemed upset slightly, and Suki asked her what was wrong.

"Yui is upset that Paka is going to leave. Does he have to?" Timi asked softly, looking up with wide, trusting eyes.

Suki sighed. "It's not my choice, Timi. It's Paka's. But I'll try and convince him to stay" She promised, hoping that Yui was alright. She took Timis hand, and seeing who she assumed was leading this meeting approach the centre of the room.

"Lets sit down" She suggested to the others.



Paka wished he could give some sort of comfort to Yui. But he coouldn't think of anything. "I'm sorry Yui" he said softly, looking to the time, he sighed.

"The meeting will be happening soon. We should head there" he said after a moment or two, but was aware of the sounds of fighting. He shifted, drawing his weapon, and looking about, taking a few steps forward, he could see the group, saw the killing of a boar.

"hey!" he yelled to them, "there's an important meeting going on, about beating this level!"

"Alright then." Umichi nodded, acknowledging the consensus of sticking together. Looking around he noticed someone. They had no weapon associated with them and they were looking around, like they were looking for a group. Their eyes met for a moment. And then he went and sat down with some others.

Noticing that Timi was returning, he smiled. Suki and Timi hugged each other before speaking about Paka. So ... he wants to leave us huh... was all he could think in response to it. Crouching down to Timi's height, he spoke to her, "You wanted pancakes right Timi? Did you know there's a place that sells egg benedict, which tastes exactly like pancake with strawberry jam? Do you want to get some later?"

Suki then suggested "Let's sit down". "Sure, let's sit over there. Where there's enough room for us." Umichi suggested, pointing to the right hand side of the stadium in the middle section, before starting to lead the group in that direction. Offering for the others to sit first, Umichi waited, as the man at the center of the stadium stage started to speak. Not too far away, was the faces of a party that the group knew, waving to them. Umichi sent a wave back before finally sitting to listen to the speech.

---

"Good afternoon everyone.
My name is Fenrir. I would like to thank you all for joining me on such short notice.
My party and I, just yesterday evening, have found the room to the boss, Illfang the Kobold King!
Now then, all of the information we need about Illfang can be found in this guidebook that I am sure all of you have received.
First of all, I would like everyone to gather into parties. After which, I would like the allocated leaders of the parties to convene with me down the front to discuss the strategy to be taken. The rest of the members may use this chance to talk and bond with your fellow party members or people in other parties.
Now go ahead and form your parties! Be quick, you don't want to be partyless!"

With that speech, everyone around started chatting and forming parties.

---

With Aki-nee taking care of the other mob, YukiHana smiled. "Arigatou! Aki-nee-san!" Aki-nee then came and praised YukiHana 'Alright, not bad. Never seen a dagger user actually pull it off before, truth be told', which made her even happier. "Homete! Homete!" (I think homete is praise. I might be mistaken. Basically she's asking for more praise.)

Aki-nee-san then continued by asking YukiHana a question. 'So... Were you in a party before? Did you learn to fight with someone else?' Before getting a chance to answer, another mob came out charging. YukiHana activated <<Jab>>, her dagger giving off a yellow glow. Running past Aki-nee, YukiHana stabbed the boar from the side, pushing it, making it deviate from it's course which would of hit Aki-nee. After missing Aki-nee, it turned back to attack again. YukiHana managed to activate another <<Side Bite>>, finishing it off.

"Ie (No/wrong). I tried really really hard, and suddenly the dagger started to glow and guided me through the attack. I learned that this game helps you attack. It would be fun if it wasn't so scary." she replied to the question, after the post-motion wore off.

Suddenly there was a yell, coming from an older male. Instinctively, YukiHana hid behind Aki-nee, unfamiliar with the stranger. He yelled, "Hey! There's an important meeting going on, about beating this level!". "Beat this level??? But ... don't levels have big scary monsters called bosses at the end? I don't want that!" the young girl cried out.

"I guess we'll just take our seats, then." Fujiwara said, walking over to the area Umichi had directed them towards before taking a seat. Ayame followed suit, taking a seat right next to him. Though the area wasn't as crowded as he had expected it to be initially, there were enough people there to constitute a raid party... Probably. A low level raid brought to mind images of little ants swarming over a beetle, which, in retrospect, was quite the amusing mental image.

As the person named Fenrir continued his speech, Fujiwara simply nodded his head. The debriefing was standard fare, and since they were already prepared there was no reason to worry for the moment. As the person ended his speech, Fujiwara casually leaned back in his seat.

"There's not much else to say right now, is there? We've been with each other for what feels like forever, so I'd say we're fine just waiting for now."

Ayame looked to Fujiwara with a hint of relief. If he was trying to make them relax with his behavior, it at least showed he was changing bit by bit. That much was good.

"We shouldn't get too ahead of ourselves, though- being antisocial probably won't end well for us if we get involved in future missions like this."

Suki settled down, letting Timi lean against her. The young girl seemed to be a little bit intimidated of the crowd, or maybe she just wanted to be close to those she knew. As Fenir began to speak, Suki looked over to Shinobu's group, the foursome sitting together, clearly at ease in each others company. Riku, Kenta, and Minoru seemed content to follow Shinobu's leadership. Suki knew from talking with Riku that the group had been together in several multi-player games, and worked well together.

When the chatter began, Suki saw the group come over to them, and she smiled, welcoming them, and saying "A good turn out. I'm glad you guys could make it, and that you didn't have any troubles in the Labyrinth"

Shinobu laughed in her easy, loud way "Oh, the Labyrinth is a piece of cake!" Minoru rolled his eyes, but smiled at Shinobu's antics.

Suki smiled at them, looking at the others. "Well. I guess I should go down there" She said softly, Shinobu taking her by the arm, looping hers through Suki's.

"Don't worry! It will all be good, Suki!"

Suki reluctantly headed down, as it was either that, or be dragged by Shinobu.



Paka hadn't considered that some people wouldn't want to be apart of the battle. Had they had too many risks, or was the girl just scared? It was easy to be scared, Paka knew.

"Aye. If you don't want to fight the boss, its probably still a good idea to go to the meeting. There's probably a lot of support roles you can talk on, without having to fight the boss" He said, stepping closer to the group.

Tsukiya broke into a wide grin at the thought of fighting the floor boss. "Don't you see, Yuki?" She asked, gripping the hilt of her sword. "That's exactly what we need to do. A big boss means big drops, Exp, Cor. The danger is pretty limited assuming we have a large enough group, but we don't want to have too large a group or else the drops get diluted. But it might not matter with a floor boss." At this point her eyes were practically sparkling, and she was hurriedly flipping through her handbook to try and find an entry. She even seemed to be drooling a bit.

Suddenly she seemed to remember who she was talking to, and cleared her throat, regaining her previous level headedness. "I mean, of course you might not want to fight it yourself, perfectly understandable. There should be a safe zone just outside the boss door."

Mythrilite hurried over to the meeting as quickly as he could. He got the news pretty late while he was trying to farm some low-leveled monsters, and if he didn't hurry, he might miss it. Panting, he finally reached the location of the meeting to find out that everyone was chatting amongst themselves and forming parties. Perhaps it was not too late to join a party.

When he asked a couple people, though, he got responses like, "Sorry man, we're full." or "We're saving our last spot for our friend." Mythrilite wouldn't give up that easily, though, and went over to Ayame and Fujiwara. "Hey, um, you guys in a party? I got here pretty late and still haven't joined one," he said, putting his hand behind his head. "Bit embarrassing, really, heh heh."

A small sigh of bemused relief escaped as Pyotr ruffled the girl's hair; she was a pretty handy fighter, although taking her into a real fight was still a dicey affair. But Yuki's claim to have figured out the combat system through intuition took Pyotr aback. It had taken her an hour of wheedling it out of an ex-beta tester... She opened her mouth to query this, but was cut off by a male voice nearby. The floor boss..? Pyotr's eyes widened as she realised the implications; supplying kit to the raid teams and claiming the first trade nodes on the new floor were the main reasons she was here after all. But with YukiHana, could they really join the raid? Would they even allow it?

'I don't know.', she said guardedly. 'It's not as though we would make a big... differ...ence...' Her voice trailed off slowly as Pyotr looked over to Tsukiya for support. I-is that... drool? Something was very wrong all of a sudden, as though the heretofore taciturn player had switched personality. In truth, the sheer enthusiasm on display kinda freaked her out. 'You... really wanna go, don't you? I guess for the sake of argument, we could go...' It wasn't as though attending the meeting was a solid commitment to join in and even if they did fight, Yuki and Pyotr could just hand back and... fight the adds or something..? Casting a sidelong glance at the guy who had called out, she turned to the young girl. '... Opinions, kid? We don't have to go, but...' But the extra money would be very nice...

"Oh come on you two, you should at least socialize a bit with the others. It would be good to have connections right?" Umichi suggested to Ayame and Fujiwara, as Shinobu and the others came over. "Hey guys, how ya all been? he asked them. With a quick chat, Shinobu and Suki then took off with the leader roles, heading to the front. "Don't worry too much, you will do fine Suki. Take care of her okay Shinobu."

A guy then came up to Fujiwara and Ayame, asking to join the party. Umichi noticed him, and was planning to tell him that, they were a pre-made party, having traveled together for a while. It could be hard for someone to adjust in so suddenly. However, since it was Fujiwara and Ayame being asked, he left it up to them to speak. Other leaders could be seen leaving to join the front with Suki, Shinobu and Fenrir.

---

"Good day to you all. There are still a few others to wait for it seems, but why don't we introduce ourselves for now? As you know I am Fenrir. I specialize in the use of two-handed swords. In MMO terms, I am a tank. My party consists of one sword and shield bearer, a curve sword user, a claw-user and a two-handed spearsman." Fenrir started introducing himself. There were so far 5 leaders down at the front, taking turns to introduce.

---

YukiHana looked down. Shaking her heard. She did not want to go. Tsuki-nee spoke up, trying to give reasons, and then suggested that she could stay outside the boss room. "No! I don't want to be left outside alone." she cried out. Aki-nee was trying to suggest not to, but seemed to be swayed a little by Tsuki-nee. Continuing to look down, she sniffled a little. "F...fine... we can go. Don't leave me alone though, please." she squeaked meekly.

Fujiwara glanced at Umichi expectantly as he recommended that he and Ayame should speak with others more; it wasn't his place to socialize, and since he was more or less the de facto leader of the group there wasn't much of a point to talk with others in his opinion. Wasn't it a leader's job to go and make the connections and not him? It was much easier for someone with a more likable personality like his to make connections anyhow, and Umichi didn't make as many mistakes as he had, if at all. He wasn't like Paka, whose solitary actions and 'lone wolf' playstyle made everyone tend to shy away from him...

No, he was different. He wasn't one to make the same mistakes as he had before.

Ayame looked at Fujiwara with a bit of concern. He seemed to be in a bit of deep thought, so when someone approached them she was the only one aware. When the person asked about joining the party, though, she hesitated a bit.

"Er... I'm sorry, but I'm not one to ask about this." Ayame said, motioning towards Umichi. "I'm not much for this kind of thing, so it's probably best if you ask the party leader instead."

Tsukiya's expression softened to one of kindness. "You wouldn't be alone, Yuki. I'm sure that at least Pyotr would stay with you. Boss rooms are dangerous, and you shouldn't take one on unless you're sure of yourself." She glanced at Pyotr, considering for a second.

"If you think you're up to it, I'm not going to stop you from following me," She finally said, "But make sure it's what you want. There's nothing wrong with keeping out of danger, it doesn't make you weak, it makes you smart. Make sure you know your limits."

Paka watched this discussing, silent, glancing at the time. He looked to Yui. "We should probably head along, Yui. If they come, they come. If they don't, well, that's their choice." He said, his voice tired, weary.

He looked back to the group, "Look, you may not think you're small group can help, but any extra person can help. You shouldn't worry. the heads won't let anyone die fighting the first boss." he gave a smile hoping that he was reassuring, but expecting that he wasn't.



"Don't worry! Suks doesn't need taking care off! Just needs nudging!" Shinobu, clearly without any embarrassment or such gene, yelled over her shoulder, still pulling Suki along.

"Why, why do I have to know you?" Suki groaned under her breath, and Shinobu gave Suki's arm a squeeze "Because you need me! All you need is confidence, Little Suki."

Suki just sighed, wishing she was back with the others. As Fenrir introduced himself, and his group, suki decided to just get it over with. "I'm Suki. My groups pretty much been together since the start. I currently use light one hand swords-I like being able to chop and change hands, keeping one hand free, just in case. There's currently seven of us. a short sword user, another one handed sword user, a couple of Katana users, and a scythe user. One of our members undertook a quest to get that. She said, looking back over to Umichi and the others, but unable to see they clearly through the crowd.

Shinobu grinned, and said "I'm Shinobu. I can tell you, it really ticked me off when I couldn't log out, but then, i figured, perhaps this is for a reason. My group, we've been together in other games before, and work well together. i use one handed swords and shields, we got a two handed sword user, a spear user, and a Katana user. We can accept a couple of people in our group for this boss floor, but we're a close knit group"



Timi watched the crowd, staying close to the others, feeling small, and kinda useless. As the stranger approached and asked if they could join their group, Timi studied them.

"Hi" She said shyly, "I'm Timi." She smiled, a small, smile, trying hard to be friendly. She looked to Ayame, as she said she wasn't the one to ask.

"Why can't you? I think we all need to make connections, and to step up, a bit, cause that way, we can find good people to ask for help, if we need it-Those with good skills that refine them and such, like smiths and stuff" She said, in a small voice, as if afraid she'd get berated for her opinion

The promise of loot and the next floor were pretty tempting for Pyotr, but she had to balance her own desires with her new found and self-enforced responsibility. 'I'll go. I can fight, though I'm not great.' She rested one hand on Yuki's head, ruffling her hair encouragingly. 'And you can come keep me alive. I think we'll make a good team, you and I.' Her grin faded slightly as Pyotr turned back to the guy. 'Sure, lead on. Just don't expect any miracles...' She led the others on after him, a sardonic smile hanging off her face to hide the sudden grimness she left. I just made a really rash decision, didn't I..?

Paka nodded, and he lead them to the meeting.



As time passed, and the leaders got acquainted it was set that the next day they would meet at the Labyrinth's bottom, and make their way to the top to defeat the boss. They were told to get to know their team members, those that would be teaming up with for this first time.

Suki arrived back to the others, a little pale, but she smiled. She had made it through one trail of leadership. She blinked as someone had joined them Ah. Hi" She said to the stranger, the guy. "Do you need to join a team?" She asked, kindly.