[IC] SAO: Living in Aincrad

[FujiwaraPhoenix]

Fujiwara

Fujiwara stifled a laugh as he watched Sly panic over the mention of mobs. This guy... He really was kind of green to the whole 'game terminology' thing, wasn't he? Well, that wasn't exactly reassuring... But the fact that he managed to correct himself right after at least mitigated the situation somewhat. Didn't seem completely new, but his reaction...

"Well, if you're that confident in your ability to fight then I've got no place to argue. Still, doesn't hurt to be more cautions than not, especially in a world like this one." Fujiwara said, rolling his shoulders (simply out of habit) and looking at Minako.

"So, we gonna keep movin' or what?"

@Leolycan@KoL

Ayame

Ayame was startled by the sudden request that popped up in front of her screen, given that she was still eating her meal as it did so. Luckily, the shock didn't cause her to do anything stupid, like crushing the bun, but it still definitely caught her off guard.
"Ah! Erm.. Uh... Yes." Ayame stammered as she looked over the completion requirements before checking her inventory. Two tusks already obtained from her previous outing with Leo would probably cut down time spent killing all the things on this list, at least. Accepting the quest, Ayame looked back at the others for confirmation.
"I... Should be fine." she said, taking another bite out of her meal as she waited for the others.

@Little_ninja@Caits@liferusher@YipeeXD

[chukklehed]

Tsukia rolled her eyes at the quest popup. "I swear, these random quests keep getting more ridiculous. Pushing herself up, she glanced at the sky. "Well, whatever, we've got some time until sun sets. Why don't we wrap up some boars real quick before we head into town? She hit the accept button on the quest window, then opened her menu to send a friend invite to Dar.

"You planning on using your two-hander? If so, I'll switch back to my dagger and pull aggro, then you can charge in from the side for the kills. She swapped her equipment out, then did something peculiar and dropped her two handed sword from her inventory, carrying it with her free hand.

"Ready?" She asked, winking at Dar.

[DELETED7282737]

Yui

Yui akwardly looked at Umichi when he offered the blade with a rather calm voice. She gladly took it and ptessed on the button this time returning a warm normall smile. She equiped The Breaker and immediatly had to bend through one of her knees because of the heavy object suddenly spawning in her hand. She was barely able to keep it upright and gave an awkward smile at everyone "I quess they were pretty serious about the 15 strength hehe." She switched up the swords again and casually stood in the blacksmith waiting a few moments longer for Suki to finish.

As they left the blacksmith Yui shyly waved at the blacksmith who seemed to be mostly cheerfully waving at all of them. Yui once again close to Suki they started to head over to the stall of old Meredith. She shyly smiled at the old woman and covered part of her body by standing closly behind Suki. The old woman seemed to be working hard and has made all the jewelery that was lying in the stall herself. Yui quietly spoke to the woman "They are all very pretty though." She blushed a little after having said that and went a little more behind Suki. Once they were done talking to the old woman a notification popped up once again showing the quest that the old woman had given them in front of all of them. Yui hastily pressed the accept button and started to equip her armour.

She selected the heavy armour although it was only the chest piece since full armour wasn't available for her yet. The chest piece spawned in carcasing her upper body. It was just slightly bigger then her own body making her look a little wider and stronger then she actually was. Yui didn't have any of those materials they needed yet since she sold everything before she had met the group to make some more money so it would take a little while longer for her to complete the quest.

[Little_ninja]

Umichi

With everyone confirming they had received the quest, Umichi opened up his map. Hm... if we go there, first for the boars, we can start making our way back using this path and encountering wolves and then passing through this forest for nepents. So, going straight to the boars, and then a bit of a round about way to go back will probably be most efficient. "I think we should to this area first to get the boars and then follow this path to get to the wolves and nepents before we make it back to Geniku. What do you guys think?" Umichi asked, showing the map and pointing to the areas he was talking about.

If everyone agreed, Umichi would begin walking out of Geniku and into the fields. There weren't many enemies nearby at the moment. A boar here and a wolf there. Going along the path, they encountered a small pack of Dire Wolves. Bringing out his sword, he quickly ran passed, slicing, one, two three, four of them. They had only lost about a third of their health. There were six wolves in total. Having reached behind the back, he had pulled some of the aggro towards him. Side stepping a Wolf, he cut down with a <<Vertical>> where it pixelated in front of him. A wolf from the side came at him, he narrowly dodged it by crouching under. Rolling forwards he pierced another wolf, where it pixelated. One more wolf came from behind the wolf he pierced, lunging at him. Umichi was barely able to dodge it, but got his leg nipped by the claws, losing a small amount of health. Getting up, he sized the other four wolves left standing.

@Caits @PKMNB0Y @liferusher @YipeeXD

[MarshiestMallow]

As Yui huddled behind her, Suki looked down, and gave her a smile, trying and hoping that she was being reassuring, before following Umichi out to start the kissed. Suki practiced with the Raiper on the lone boars that they came across, getting a feel for the weapon as well as a feel for moving swiftly.

She managed well enough with the Raiper, and was pleased with it, but still begrudged the amount she had had to pay for it. She glanced to the wolves as Umichi attacked them. Suki approached, with caution, wary of wolves. Growing up with animals, Suki had learned a respect for them. But she doubt that would be much use here.

She darted in to attack one of the wolves as it was preoccupied with Umichi, but at her movement, it looked to her, and was ready to pounce. Suki darted to the left, throwing it off, and continued on and just as it was about to jump at her, she attacked, three times in a row, killing the Dire Wolf. It disintegrated into a million pieces of data.

She darted back before the other Dire Wolves could notice and attack her.

[Grayscythe]

"Yeah sounds good." Dar said as he also rose to his feet and drew his weapon. He didn't really have any other weapon options right now anyway. Sure he had his one hander starting weapon, but this sword was not only of better quality but it fit the skill set he wanted to use.

Once they had gathered themselves, Dar set out into the field with Tsukiya to go hunting. They would spot a pack of boars early on and Dar would gesture for Tsukiya to begin the attack.

"After you." He said, holding a hand out before him and stepping aside. In truth, they weren't going to get a ton of exp out of these boars much longer. Hopefully Dar could level up again before nightfall then so they could do some more advanced hunting. He also liked the idea of patrolling the field and trying to help people from getting killed who were still struggling in the first area. It'd be a pitiful end for a player to be killed by such weak monsters.

[MarshiestMallow]

The group soon brought down the Dire Wolves, and Suki looked about them, slightly wary, but for now, there didn't appear to be any more monsters around. She knew that could change in a heart beat, so she quickly checked her health, and the rest of the groups, using the group menu.

They all seemed okay for now.

Umichi had killed more wolves then the rest of them, and Suki wondered if he had been doing some more training after they had reached the inn. Quite possible. Or he was just naturally skilled at the game.

she checked her inventory, and was surprised to have collected a Wolf paw. one down, four to go she thought to herself. This could very well take all day, but it was good training. She looked about at the sound of hoof beats, seeing what could only be described as a heard of Frenzy boars. there was more then 10, she could see that, but less then 20, seeming to move towards some grass, starting to graze.

She grinned. "how nice, just showing up like that"
@Little_ninja@Liferusher@yipeeXD@PKMNB0Y

[Little_ninja]

Umichi

It wasn't too long before finishing off the other wolves. His health was fairly high, he lost hardly anything from the few small scratches he had from avoiding so many multi-directional attacks at once. At the end of the battle, he looked around, things seemed safe. With that battle, he had a pop up, congratulating him on his level up. Finally! he thought, adding his stats. Finally reaching the threshold of 10 <<Strength>>, he changed weapons to the Anneal Blade.

The drops indicated that he had received two paws. Three more huh ... Seems like the drop rate is the same. Hope the rewards are the same Umichi recalled the knowledge he had collected. Continuing to head to the field where he believed Frenzy Boars would be found.

However, before reaching the field, they had encountered a singular of Frenzied Boars. A group greater than 10. Just what they needed. Suki seemed to notice as well, and grinned, commenting "how nice, just showing up like that"
"Quite right. Very convenient. I'll try to pull a few away at a time, best not to fight too many at once." Umichi replied and then explained.

Leading, he picked up a rock, and started to activate <<Single Shot>>. Throwing the rock, he hit one of them, drawing the attention of the Frenzied Boar and the ones surrounding it. A small group of five headed towards them. It was time to try out his new weapon. Stepping through, he maneuvered passed the boars landing a cut on three of them. Their health bars drained, depleting completely. The Anneal Blade could not compare to the Beginner One-handed Sword. With that he moved on to strike down more enemies.

@Caits @PKMNB0Y @liferusher @YipeeXD

[YipeeXD]

Tatsumi had kind of taken a back seat so far, arms folded standing behind the rest of the group. However, a group of boars had arrived, and it seemed like it was time to make an appearance. "Oh?" He equipped his throwing knives. Of course knife throwing was a skill which he decided he was going to try and max out during their time in the game. And so, he threw a knife planting it firmly into the skull of one of the boars for a critical hit, taking it's health straight to 0, and bursting into shards of data. He had already made progress in knife throwing from day 1 in the game. He equipped his silver smith dagger, bringing in front of him, ready for any boars which made an approach.

[MarshiestMallow]

Suki joined the battle of the boars, she tried to move as smoothly as she could, but the board were different from the wolves. The wolves tended to attack as a pack, the boars individually. Often, she used an attack that would let her spin about, cutting into the boars around her. Perhaps that was why she saw Tatsumi kill a boar with just a knife. She didn't dwell on it long.

Suki knew she would have to train some more, and resolved to put some time away for it that night and in the morning. She couldn't do anythin about it now, as she fought with her new Raiper. She took down four of the boars before stepping back, to allow the others to attack an get some of the quest items.

She looked about them, wary that the game might send more monsters their way while they were still dealing with the boars. For now though, it seemed clear enough and the others were steadily dealing with the remaining boars. She checked their health, but all seemed well, for which Suki was greatful for.

[DELETED7282737]

Yui

Yui gave a brief nod at Umichi their plan and followed up behind the group giving a shy smile at Suki in the progress. It didn't take long for the group to find a small group of Dire Wolves. Of course the group immediately took action and dashed into the fight. Yui huddled behind the others and entered the fight as last since her condition wasn't that great after having put all her stats into strength. Yui lightly panted and if this would have been real life she was dripping of sweat. Yui sliced one of the Dire Wolves and did another <<Slant>> with a <<Vertical>> short after to defeat another Dire Wolf close by. Her movements were slow but effective and only swinging the sword with one arm made it quite difficult to do anything quicker. Yui triumphantly smirked after they had defeated the group of Dire Wolves and followed after the group again as they continued to find more.

The group had already defeated 5 out of the 10 Frenzied Boars before Yui's slow arrival. She had seen on how they had done it and wanted to try the same as Umichi. When they all were ready Yui picked up another rock and trew it towards the boars. To her surprise the rock didn't land any further from her then a small 8 feet. Yui embarrassedly blushed and walked towards the back leaving it all to Umichi again. When the other Frenzied Boars approached them Yui would tank 2 or 3 of them with <<Slant>> while the rest of the group would defeat the other two.

[Little_ninja]

Umichi

Finishing off the first group of Frenzied Boars, Umichi saw everyone was rather healthy. He looked over the field for the other group. 7 ... no 8 he counted, grabbing another rock. He took a few steps to the side, angling the shot, after setting the <<Single Shot>> motion, he threw the rock, hitting one of the boars where it recoiled into another, before the rock dropped. The recoiled shot did not do any noticeable damage, but it helped to grab the other boars attentions.

He had noticed before, that Yui had tried to throw a rock but failed to do so, Should let her know about the <<Blade Throwing>>. Umichi dashed towards the boars, stepping to the side of the foremost one and cutting it from the side, bringing the blade to his other side, and doing so again the same to another boar. Cutting down two of the Frenzied Boars, he started to dash to the rest of the boars who had gone behind him. Facing the boars and his party, he dashed through once again, taking down another two of the boars. Turning back he saw Yui attempt to tank on two of them. Instead of jumping to her rescue immediately, he waited to see how well she could handle the situation, on the look out for anything else that could happen.

@Caits @PKMNB0Y @liferusher @YipeeXD

[MarshiestMallow]

Suki watched the others continuing to fight, willing to step in, but happy, for now to stay back. She kept a hand on her rapier, but otherwise, she didn't activate any skills to use it. She watched Yui as well, but the girl seemed to be doing well. Suki smiled, and looked over to Tatsumi as well, who seemed to be holding his own as well.

She was glad at that. It meant that they could, hopefully, become a good team. She looked about, focusing on the tree'd area for little nepents, and further around them for any Dire Wolves that may be trying to sneak up on them. Nothing so far, but Suki knew they would come. Around this area, there wasn't that many players training, most, Suki supposed, had gone to other towns, larger ones that offered more then where they had gone, meaning that the monsters had a faster respawing rate, or weren't depleted yet.

She blinked, and looked behind her, feeling like they were being watched, but there was nothing near them, no one watching them. She shook her head, assuming she was just imagining things, and turned to attack a Frenzy boar that had shown some interest in her.

[Lennon79]

If there is any sure-fire way to accept the truth of one's own mortality, it can probably be found at the bottom of a bottle. Maybe Kayaba Akihiko had predicted this or experienced it first-hand, but for whatever reason he had programmed Sword Art Online with the most realistic inebriation simulation known to mankind and the first night had seen thousands partake in excess. Pyotr had been one of those drunken few, spending far too much of her hard-earned Col on ales and whiskey in a small tavern. On the plus side, she had almost made a profit by buying and selling drinks to wasted players, on the minus... well, let's just say that the hangover simulation was pretty good too. Staggering around outside of town, she barely knew where she was at this point, let alone the time. Between a crushing headache and a craving for munchies, she had not had a great morning thus far; fortunately the pain was fading as the <<Drunk>> status ailment counted down. Collapsing under a tree some way from town, she took the time to survey the area with a bleary eye before judging it safe for the moment.

As the pain and grogginess slowly passed, she was finally able to take stock of the last 24 hours and the crazy shit that had happened. It had been a bit uneventful, aside from watching a few players die before the announcement (and later realising it with fridge horror) and that inane episode with Cam... Can? Can-Can? She could barely remember the boy's face, let alone his odd name. Unfortunately his creepily cheerful personality had carved out a space in her memory and Pyotr doubted she would ever be able to forget. Ditching him had been easy though, making use of his short attention span and the kindness of some unfortunate good Samaritan... and running like fuck, of course. The route to the town of... something-or-other had been fairly full of boars, so she had been able to grind up a level and collect a few trade goods, although they had all been used to pay for the night-long bender shortly after. And the tavern... She thrust the thought aside, not wanting to think about all the stupid things she said and did with dozens of strangers. In real life she hadn't gotten out much, so last night had been a real education; it's amazing how many Queen songs are sung by the Japanese and can be played on a lute.

When she felt a little better, Pyotr started off in a random direction, reasoning that she would eventually find civilisation of some sort. Be it a town or party, she could ask around to find a good spot to solo grind or maybe party up. Her spirits began to lift as she trekked across the rolling green hills and a old folk song came naturally to her lips. 'Rastsvetali iabloni i grushi, poplyli tumany nad rekoj...' Off in the distance she spied a group of figures facing off with some kind of mob, probably boars. Finding a safe place to observe, she watched with interest as the party fought. Going it alone was her normal modus operandi, but maybe a little help would be useful in this world...

[Little_ninja]

Umichi

While looking at the party, Umichi couldn't help but wonder, Just how old is everyone? I mean, Suki and Yui both look younger than me, but how old are they? Ayame feels older, just the air around her I guess. And Tatsumi ... well, he looks older, but his mind is much more like a kids. He spotted something, in the corner of his eye, moving, almost hiding. There was no ill-intent coming from the direction, Another player? Umichi wondered.

The fight was about to end, Umichi saw that Suki had picked up the aggro of another Frenzy Boar. She was handling herself quite well. It would probably take a bit of time for the mobs to respawn in that area. It wasn't a suitable training area for a large party, but that just left it more empty.

As it was, the boar section of the quest would be finished soon, if memory serves correctly, it should be a 1/1 drop rate at the moment so 10 is all we need. The problems are with the wolves and the nepents. "Does everyone have 10 boar tusks?" he asked everyone.

[MarshiestMallow]

Suki killed one final boat, and stepped back, checking her inventory. She saw that she had all the boar tusks required and stepped back, pleased. She looked to Umichi and nodded, satisfied that she had gathered them all, and now waiting for the others.

She glanced about, but there were no more monsters right now. She did see another player who seemed to be watching them. She hesitated. While she didn't think there would be player killings, you never knew what people would do, and here in this world it would be virtually impossible to track someone down who killed someone, except by the marker system. Which wouldn't be around when they got out of here.

Still, the person just seemed to be watching them. She bit her lip, and then called out "hey! Are you okay? Do you need a hand? Are you alone?" she didn't approach just yet, glancing back at the others, but tatsumi and you both seemed to be doing okay as well

@yipeeXD@liferusher@Little_ninja@Lennon79

[Lennon79]

Sipping at her ale from her spot under a tree, Pyotr watched the party carefully. Each seemed to split off on their own to attack their targets, taking on multiple boars at a time. There wasn't much of a sense of teamwork, although she would she would be the first to admit to hypocrisy on that note. One of the girls seemed to try tanking some mobs, which was good; assuming she could hold their aggro, the others would have a good opportunity to get some hits in... but instead they just... watched. Somehow that irritated Pyotr. The girl was filling one of three vital roles in any MMO; tank, DPS and healer, and yet the others all seemed content to DPS their own mobs without hitting hers. Weird. Admittedly SAO had torpedoed the traditional MMO role triad, but a tank still needed backup to survive. Suddenly she felt much less eager to join a party...

But just as she debating whether to leave or call out to them, the decision was made for her. One of them called out, a young woman. Pyotr signed quietly, again unsure of how to proceed. A part of her wanted to march right down there and ask why they weren't supporting one another, but at the same time this might be her only chance to make contacts. Bitchiness wasn't good for making friends, but well... they kinda needed to be told. To Hell with it, she thought. The worst they can do is ask me to leave. Pyotr put aside the possibility of them attacking her, hoping that social order hadn't collapsed that far on just the second day. 'Uh, hi there.', she started, making her way down to the group. 'Yeah, kinda alone. Just watching people, trying to uh...' She wracked her brain, trying to come up with some passive small talk. It wasn't working. 'Sorry, but I've gotta say this; your teamwork sucks.' Well, I've fucked my chances now, might as well go the whole way. 'I've been watching you guys fight, trying to see if there's any benefit to joining a party and with what I've seen, well... Do you guys ever support each other? You just seem to... run off on your own and ignore each other.' Behind the first girl, the other one still faced off with a pair of boars, holding them off with her sword. 'Case in point, why has no-one helped that poor girl?' She was tempted to run in and hit the boars herself, but after her less-than-friendly introduction, she was afraid someone might consider her a threat...

[Little_ninja]

Umichi

As Suki called out to the other player that was nearby, Umichi continued to watch over Yui. She was holding off the boars, but not attacking much. It seemed like she needed to learn more about how to fight in this world. As Umichi was about to call out to Yui, the other player had answered Suki. Turning around, he heard her mention the lack of teamwork, and the lack of support. Umichi nodded, "You have quite a point there, if this were your average MMO." He was not looking directly at Pyotr, but moreso at Yui's health bar. It was still healthy, but it was dwindling slowly.

"You see, it is not so much like a regular MMO, where there are tanks, DPS and healers. Although, people with shields are more likely to stay at the front and tank, it depends more on the situation. In SAO, everyone contributes and does damage. The more damage dealt, the more experience earned. If I just went ahead and killed everything, no-one else would gain any experience." he paused, turning to Yui. She seemed okay for now, but he was ready to act at any moment necessary. "She is holding fine on her own for now, so I won't interfere unless she needs it. You see, parties help as you don't need to take on all of the aggro yourself. In addition, they reduce the severity of status effects, such as <<Paralysis>>. If you were by yourself, you would be vulnerable and could be killed just from not being able to move. Other benefits include availability of quests and completing quests quicker." Umichi breathed in deeply to call out to Yui. "Yui! Step to your right, and pull the sword a bit with your left-hand, the boars should move beside you. Then target the back of the head with a strike." continuing to watch on.

"Also, it would be bad for later, if she could not handle two of those boars. They are the same as level one slimes in this game. The weakest and easiest monster to fight. I want to let her grow, not just dive in and kill everything. Otherwise, she becomes dependent of everyone else, and will struggle in the future." Umichi concluded what was happening right now, and explained it to Pyotr. "If you think, taking all of the exp for oneself in a party, and not letting others grow is right, then you are right, we aren't doing anything for each other right now."

[MarshiestMallow]

Suki didn't see anything wrong with what they were doing, given that they were in a quest that they all had to complete, but she looked over at Yui who seemed to be fine, to Suki. She looked back o the girl, as Umichi spoke. Suki felt uncomfortable, unsure if they were doing the right thing or not.

"Um. Well. We're doing a quest, and unfortunately while we are a group, the quest has to be completed individually, and if we don't let each other get the required items, then...we all won't get whats required. Yui's fine. If she was n trouble, we'd help"

She looked to the girl, wondering if she had done something wrong by calling the girl over. Suki just wanted to be able to help people, but if the attitude of this girl was anything to go by, then not all people wanted help, or even appreciated the offer,

She sighed and gave a shrug, uncertain. "We will get better at team work. It's only been two days, and I've only been with Umichi since the beginning. Tatsumi and Yui came later" She said, trying to explain, and feeling like she was doing a poor job.

Feeling like Umichi was better at works, Suki opened her inventory again, taking out a health potion just in case Yui's health went too low, so Suki could be ready to help her, her blade in her other hand. But Suki was angry, annoyed at the judgement when the other girl didn't know the full story.

Suki hesitated, debating about whether or not to continue, before saying, her voice full of uncertainty and nervousness, "My father always told me that judging someone without knowing all the facts just makes you seem like an ass. So I won't just you by your pre-judgement of us. I'm Suki" She was prepared to start over with the girl

[YipeeXD]

Tatsumi had managed to gather all the items which he needed for the quest. He had underestimated how fun this game was, despite the impending death involved with it. "Yo! I have everything I need!" He grinned, hands on hips. Although he wasn't sure what the next part of the quest was. He hadn't really been listening. To him, enjoying his time in the game was important.