Suki smiled at Yui, and shook her head, "No, not at the moment. I was toying with Alchemical, or maybe even beast tamer, but I hear you have to actually win a beast over for that, and it's pretty rare" She gave a shrug, "Mostly, I've decided, I just want to be able to help people" She said, knowing that she had changed her perspective quickly, since yesterday.
But again, Suki had decided to be happy. She looked over to Umichi, and the new girl, giving a nod, "I don't see a problem with having her in the party. Safety in numbers and all that" She didn't think that it was fair that Ayame had been abandoned by her party, and hope that it wouldn't happen to her.
"Ah... That so...?" he asked, a bit of disappointment in his voice. Though he didn't exactly care much for that beta whatshisface, the loss of a third meant that he'd probably be on some guard duty... Which, as usual, was quite a hassle even in other games. Escort missions were always a tad more difficult the less people there were, but that was to be expected...
Well, at least there weren't waves of increasingly stronger monsters... Probably. Screw that.
"Well, I'd assume that difficult would scale linearly given the distance we are from the town... So it's best to be on gua--!"
As those words left his mouth, Fujiwara put his hand on his blade and immediately adopted a defensive stance as a German man popped out of the bushes. Well, THAT was certainly a disconcerting moment for him...
Living in the US did have its benefits, though; maybe he could actually put his multilingual skills to use here.
"There's no need to call us small fries, y'know." Fujiwara said in English, hand still on the hilt of his weapon. "What need is there for someone like you to assert your dominance like that? Here, the playing fields are all equal."
Ayame looked at Umichi's curent party and smiled; it was almost nostalgic feeling, for some odd reason... Like that weird sense of deja vu she had felt when she had met Umichi last night... Almost as if they had been together before...
Well, at the very least she could trust her gut instinct and go with the flow. Being with others that she (at least) FELT like she'd known was better than being hung out to dry like she was now.
"Really? I'd really appreciate if you could." Ayame said, smiling as she walked over to a nearby table and pulled up her inventory to go scroll through her items. At this point, it was out of her control; all she could hope for was his goodwill to reach them and, by extension, her.
Tatsumi over heard the girls talking before wrapping an arm around both of them and butting in. "I have no idea what profession to take up. It didn't even cross my mind until this moment." He grinned cheekily. "Umichi... now that you mention it... I am feeling hungry. Woah. They really went over board with this game. I'm horrified... yet slightly impressed... is that bad?" He comically asked the group.
Upon hearing the male speak out, Gunter paused. He wasn't seeking confrontation, but then again in times like this- can't be too careful. 'Have a lot more to worry about then name calling, kid.' Gunter thought to himself, unable to hide a subtle smirk as he now held up both hands as he replaced his smirk with a friendly... ish smile.
"Easy, easy. Just a solo player checking up on you kids. Surprised to see you both out here on your own. This a couple's retreat or something?" Knowing it was unlikely that they even knew each other, Gunter couldn't help it. He had a hard time taking anything serious, even in the most dire of circumstances. Perhaps the joke would loosen the kids up, or perhaps...
At this point his eyes would dart down to the boy's hand on his blade then back to meet his gaze. Placing his hand idly on the pommel of his own blade, his face would lose most of it's expression as he spoke out frankly, "Look, if you try to start a fight with everyone who tosses a meaningless title or insult your way, you'll have half of this game breathing down your neck. Best pick your battles when you can. Same thing on my end. I don't intend any harm, so why don't we take our hands off our weapons and put them by our sides, hmm?" At this point, his attention would turn to the female, once again smirking in a rather mischievious manner, "Is he always this intense?"
Shaking his head with a shallow chuckle, take his other hand and salute, "Slygunner. Nice English there kid. Figured it'd be hard to come across anyone else speaking it... But I've got German and Japanese as a back up." At this point, he'd offer greetings in all three languages, offering a subtle nod as he stood at attention, awaiting reaction from the duo.
Perhaps Suki had been taught too well by her brothers, or just hadn't had much experience with guys. As Tatsumi butted in, wrapping an arm around her and Yui, Suki reacted instinctively, ducking away, and swinging around, very nearly knocking into Umichi, as if to hit Tatsumi. She pulled short, as she saw that it was Tatsumi, and not some random stranger.
"S-Sorry" She said, embarrassed, glancing aside. "Um. There is lots of professions, all quite interesting. It's all in the guide book" She managed a smile "The game was designed to be pretty much like real life. It's...effectiveness is meant to basically be....like living real life, with the game thrown in. It's quite awesome. the first in, what I had hoped, was a long line of games, but I guess that's not going to happen now" She sighed softly, and then gave a shrug.
Dar fought his way back through the forest and back to the fields. He had been at Horunka for awhile now, completing as many quests as he could during the day, and had finally outfitted himself with some heavy armor. It wasn't a fantastic set, but it was something to start with. If he was really going to be going with a two handed weapon, odds were that he was going to take a hit more often then most. With that in mind, he wanted the best protection possible.
Getting through the forest was a lot easier during the day. Part of it was because Dar had grown used to it now. Still, he had wished that Geist and Linc had decided to stick around. He wasn't really liking the idea of becoming a solo player in this death game. He would feel a lot safer if there was someone to watch his back.
Dar went into his menu and did a quick player search. Something else had been bugging him for awhile and he hadn't bothered to check.
"Suzuka usually uses the same screen name from game to game....I wonder if she's in here?" Dar thought aloud as he searched through the players nearby. He tried to find Suzuka through some of her old aliases but had no such luck. On the one hand, Dar was happy that she wasn't trapped in here. On the other hand, he was still alone.
"No use standing around, might as well go find some people." Dar sighed as he checked his map and moved out.
Tatsumi listened to Suki. "Oh... I see... well that makes sense." He equipped his silversmith dagger, tossing it up and down. "Hmmm... well my goal is to boost my stats to maximise my use of this baby... so.." He rubbed his chin with his spare hand, before equipping the dagger. "I know!" He grinned. "I make weapons and armour for those who want to follow the agility stat route!" he celebrated his idea. "What category would that come under?"
Suki seemed to have upset herself. It seemed like he had to comfort her. "Hey... he placed a hand on her shoulder and rubbed gently. "I have a great idea." He looked at all of them. "Seeing as we've partied up... how about we promise to meet each other for real when we win this game?" He emphasised the word 'when'.
<<Avalanche>> Dar brought his sword into the boar that had charged him and crushed it underneath. As the other one came at him from the side he took the blow but was already noticing a significant decrease in damage from his fighting the previous day. It looked like taking heavier armor was a good choice in this regard. With a victorious smirk, Dar brought his sword back around in a rising motion and cleaved through the remaining boar before it split into pixels.
"Kind of a shame that these guys aren't worth more xp. Then again if they were these fields would just be overcrowded all the time." Dar thought aloud as he glanced around. It seemed like most people had already started moving away from the fields and towards the towns to get their better quests. Anyone else in the area was in a full party already. In the meantime, Dar had gotten his fill of Boars but he wanted to take a look around the field a little while longer. The previous night their group had basically made a beeline for Horunka. He had taken the time to read his game manual while he was there and saw that he needed to start building skills for utility purpose. That was pretty standard for MMOs. One, it was a way to keep players more invested in things other than killing, and two it typically gave some of the best benefits in the game.
Dar had thought about taking up blacksmithing but he had done that so many times already before. Instead he wanted to take a look into some potion making. For that, he'd need the right plants. Dar wandered the field with his guide book open as he looked for the right type of flowers and eventually stopped at a patch that looked like a good start.
"Alright so it looks like I just grab here...cut here..." Dar said as he started to gather the materials. He couldn't help but chuckle at the idea of this armed warrior gathering daisies. If his father saw him doing this he would either laugh or cry.
Tsukiya stood at the edge of the boar aggro zone, keeping watch over the field to make sure nobody got in over their heads. She tended to be doing that more and more over the past few days.
What I should be doing is training in the dungeon tower. The more people they have searching for the boss room, the sooner we're going to find it. She thought to herself, glancing over a group of three who's armor was a bit too low for the area. They seemed to be handling themselves alright, so she let it slide.
There's nothing wrong with saving a life if you can, She argued to herself, Besides, You can't spend your whole life grinding. There's more to do in the world than...
She stopped her internal debate suddenly because she saw someone who had stopped paying attention, and had aggroed a monster. Yanking her dagger from it's sheath, she took off towards him at a full dash, beginning her Premotion before he even noticed her.
<<Sidebite>>
Two quick slashes with her dagger got the boar's attention, but the boar's AI wasn't quick enough to attack her before her Postmotion ran out. She gave it a heavy kick to the side to give herself some space, then set herself again, preparing for the charge.
"Wha-" Dar raised his head with a flower in his hands as he noticed that combat was suddenly happening around him. There was a girl nearby who was fighting a boar. He was a bit alarmed that he hadn't noticed this before. Were they fighting and just happened to be near him or had he aggroed a mob when he wasn't looking? Even if it had attacked him it wouldn't have killed him outright, so was intervening really necessary?
'Great now I'm thinking like Geist. Doesn't matter, if she went out of the way to help me I should should return the favor.' Dar thought as he moved the plant into his inventory and quickly got on his feet.
The boar was still focused on the girl and was getting ready to attack. This fit Dar just fine, he rushed the boar from the side and attacked it with a downward slash to finish it off from the attacks that the girl had made on it earlier. When it was all said and done, he gave a breath of relief and sheathed his sword before looking over at her.
"Sorry, didn't mean to steal your kill." Dar said.
Tsukiya stayed ready for a second, then sheathed her dagger.
"I wasn't after the kill, just the aggro." She glanced at his healthbar and sighed. "I suppose you would have been fine without me anyway though. I was worried you might be at low health."
She brought down her menu and unequipped her dagger, equipping a two handed longsword in it's place. "My name is Tsukiya. What is it had you so distracted just now anyway?"
Hearing the others accept Ayame, Umichi had sent the invite to her. Suki, then suggested to leave for the bakery. "Sure, sounds good to me." he replied, turning to walk out. He heard Tatsumi speak up. Tatsumi was full of energy, which was good, but somehow it just annoyed Umichi slightly. The kind of guy to go at his own pace, all the time. Realizing that he was hungry, Tatsumi mentioned being horrified, while being cheeky. He held onto the two girls, or attempted to, with Suki backing off. Umichi looked on quizically, before, getting a tad annoyed. Seeing Tatsumi just get all clingy onto Suki like that, just annoyed Umichi. He wasn't exactly sure why, but it just annoyed him.
Not letting it show though, he listened to the back and forth between Suki and Tatsumi. "Well, being like real life .... not really. It's more like, in this game, it was inspired to have a life of it's own. Considering how the Cardinal system works, it means it will evolve by itself. Anyway, doesn't sound like a bad idea, but might be hard, I mean, we could be from different islands, and traveling isn't cheap. Unless you're willing to pay." Umichi replied to both statements, opening the door. "If you don't mind, Suki, could you show us that bakery?" he courteously asked, with a fun smile.
Walking by side Suki to the bakery, he watched as Yui stayed close to Suki's other side. She seems like she is a bit scared of Tatsumi. Once they reached the bakery, Umichi pondered for a moment, which to eat. "Well, I'll try for the cafeteria classic, Yakisoba Bun and Chicken Katsu Sandwich, please" he asked the Baker NPC, Bobbie. Being prompted with the transaction menu, Umichi paid the 40 col, and had his two breads ready. He turned to see what the others would order. Once everyone had ordered he said grace, "Itadakimasu!" and started to eat. It was strange. The texture was as it should be ... but the taste ... was of the other. i.e. Yakisoba Bun tasted of Chicken Katsu Sandwich and the Chicken Katsu Sandwich tasted of Yakisoba Bun. Why? Why Kayaba? Why would you swap the flavors like this? Umichi thought, utterly confused at the choice.
Nevertheless he enjoyed his meal, and finished it quickly. Umichi got out the guide book and flipped through it. Let's see, there was a quest near the blacksmith around here from my intelligence gathering, but I can't just say let's do it without proof of it. Ah there it is. He flicked to the page and found the quest he was looking for. "Once we finish eating, it's off to the blacksmith. After that, do you guys wanna do this quest?" he asked the others, showing them the page in the guide book.
Description In Geniku, there is a poor woman, who lives in her small stall, where she sells hand-made accessories. She is currently troubled by her sudden lack of resources, she requests for you to get some materials for her.
Pre-requisite - Reaching Geniku - Merideth is at her stall
Activation - Visiting Merideth’s stall - Asking if Merideth has anything else to offer
When she heard Umuchi but into their conversation her full attention went over to him. Umuchi already seemed to be well aware of this new world and probably had already carefully read the guidebook. He seemed rather caring about them all and it made her smile a little at him. Still it was a little scary to know that they still could pass out from not having enough sleep. She had never missed much sleep so she didn't know if it would become a big problem with her fear of darkness. Yui her eyes went over to the new girl. The party seemed to be expanding rather rapidly. She shook her head to not have a problem with the girl joining and gave a small warm smile at her as she talked "I-i don't have a problem on her joining. I-i haven't been with you all for all to long so i'll just follow your lead."
Her head trailed over to Suki again, listening to her talk about her profession and such. She turned her eyes to the ground for a second thinking about what her own profession was going to eventually be and softly whispered the words that Suki just said "Alchemy, Beast tamer..." She didn't have a clue on what to chose for herself and went silent for a while as they kept on walking.
Yui felt something on her shoulder. Her head turned towards the weird object on her shoulder as she already felt a little nostalgic by it. She jumped up seeing that Tatsumi had placed his hand around her shoulder and was already being pulled a little closer to him. She heavily blushed and was unable to speak as a fluttered expression was on her face. Not a single boy had ever been so informal with her up till now. Steam was almost coming out of her ears as she was still stuck in his grip. As soon as he released her she holded herself and shivered lightly with her eyes averted to the ground. It was clear she had developed some kind of fear for Tatsumi now as it was to see that she walking so close to Suki.
Suki just nodded at Tatsumi, but was uncomfortably with the close contact of a relative stranger, but the prospect of being able to meet people that had similar interests to her was an interesting and entertaining one. She gave a smie, but focused her attention on Yui, who was sticking to her side. Suki gave the young girl a smile, but didn't make a move to give her a hug, to reassure her, nnot wanting to scare the girl off.
She led the way to the bakery, and studied what was available, interacting with the NPC there, as if they were any cashier in the real world, asking them how they were and such, before ordering a bun, asking Yui what she wanted and getting it for her too. suki biit into the bun eagerly, wondering about the taste of it. Why were things not how they should be, taste wise? Was it simply that it was hard to program the tastes, or that the NPCs didn't have the skills for it?
Suki decided not to dwell on it, looking to Ayame, she gave her a smile and asked, "Hi, I'm Suki", but glanced over to Umicchi when he suggest a quest. "i'm happy with that"
"A good samaritan eh? Well that's a lot better than the alternative I suppose. Nice to meet you, name's Dar." Dar said with a smile. So there were people looking after other players here, that put him at ease. If people stuck together, then getting through all of this would be a lot easier. It wasn't uncommon to meet helpful players in MMOs, but there were such things as griefers. It made Dar wonder about that though, would there really be people who would cause the death of other players in here if it meant that they would be killing them in real life? It wasn't too outlandish. After all, killers were a real life concept, not just a virtual one.
When Tsukiya asked him what had distracted him from the boar, Dar reached into the pack and produced a flower. "I was...picking these." Dar said. Now that he brought it out he realized it kind of looked silly. An armed warrior picking daisies out in a dangerous field. It was pretty comical.
Tatsumi had also purchased a bun. He was dissatisfied with the taste, as he only had enough col for a basic bread bun. He had spent the rest of his early earnings on his silver smith dagger. He munched on his bread, which tasted very average. He facial expression was glum, shwoing how immature he was being about it. Umicchi suggested a quest. "That's a good idea, it'll give us a chance to get to know each other's strengths and weaknesses." He grinned.
Finishing their meal, and having agreed to the quest, Umichi started to lead the party. "Off to the blacksmith. Who needs something done at the blacksmith at the moment? My gear is still good, and I got my next sword ready. I just don't have the requisites to use it yet, but I will soon." he asked, leading them to the blacksmith. As they were walking, Umichi realized something he had forgotten.
"Uh... Sorry, I probably should of done some introductions before we moved to the bakery for Ayame-san over there. Anyway, although, yes, we can all see each others' names since we are in a party, I think it is still appropriate to introduce ourselves. Going along, everyone this is Ayame. As I mentioned before, she was unfortunately left out of her previous party. Ayame, this is Suki, whom I was previously in a party with, before the party got disbanded. That there is Tatsumi, who just joined. As you can see, his quite energetic. Lastly, this is Yui, who also joined. She seems to need to go to the blacksmith, although I don't know why yet. Let's all get along now." he smiled throughout his introductions to the team for Ayame, as they reached the blacksmith.
"Looks like we're here. Be sure to check the durability of your items and get them repaired if necessary. Don't want them to break." Umichi gave the party a fair warning to be wary. He decided he should check some of the items. The light armors were not much better than the beginner gear. Well, he wanted to keep his gear light, since he wanted to be built for DPS. The weapons were an improvement though, they had some nice low level gear, ranging to show the variety that existed in the game. Speed, light, heavy, hard hitting, sharp, impact, there were many types just among the swords, let alone the number of weapons that existed in the game, same which were yet to be unlocked. Nonetheless, the Anneal Blade truly trumped them all.
Looking outside, he noticed that Meridith's stall was very close to the blacksmith. "When you guys are done, we can start the quest. The stall is just right over there." Umichi pointed to the stall. "If you guys don't have enough col, let me know, I have some I can spare if need be." he smiled to the party, letting them do what they needed.
With her Ojii-san standing up, YukiHana equipped her items, and went downstairs, with him. In the lounge of the inn, she saw Jax-onii-san. "Jax-onii-san, Ohayo Gozaimasu"(Good morning), she bowed politely to him. "Where is Nagayama-nee-san and Natto-san?" she asked. She then turned to her Ojii-san, "Ojii-san, are we just going to search for Onee-san and Onii-san by ourselves? Do you think everyone else will help us again?" she asked, tugging at his legs.
Tsukiya looked at the flowers for a minute in silence, her eyes unreadable, before her composure broke and she had to stifle a laugh with her fist. "I'm... I'm sorry," She apologized between giggles, "It's just, you stopped in the middle of a battlefield to pick flowers?" She got ahold of herself and stood up straight again, but her previous frown was now replaced with a grin. "You're an odd one, you know that?"
Dar blushed and frowned before looking away. Great now she was laughing at him. Still, she had a point. It was an odd sight, and if he had been on a higher floor he had a feeling that he wouldn't have gotten so lucky. So for now, it was funny. Still felt kind of embarassing though.
"I-it's for medicine! I'm making healing potions!" Dar stammered before giving a sigh and putting it away. He had a feeling that she wasn't trying to be mean, so he decided to lighten up. When he saw that Tsukiya was grinning, he rolled his eyes and put his hands on his hips.
"You don't play like a new player, or at least if you are you've caught on pretty quick. Why are you still out here? You could have moved on to a more lucrative village for better quests at this point. "Dar asked.
Tsukiya looked around and motioned to the side of the field. "If we're going to talk for a while, we should move out of the spawn zones." She led the way to a point past three rocks stacked on top of each other.
"I put these up at random places to mark the outer edge of the aggro zones for today. Anyway, you asked me a question before." She tapped the ground once with the toe of her boot and fell backwards, laying down heavily. "I tend to alternate my time between guarding the lower level areas and helping clear the dungeon tower. I hear talk about somebody starting a guild to keep lower level players safe, and I'm glad to hear it, but until then someone has to do the job. She plucked a blade of grass and rolled it between her fingers, her eyes far away.
"When I bought the game, I thought I'd be soloing the front lines. I never imagined I'd be stuck guarding first levels against boars..."
