Almina

The boar would manage to avoid being damaged by Kylissia, then after avoiding Wulfrin's attack, the boar would proceed to add insult to injury(or was this actually injury to insult?) by knocking Wulfrin face first into the mud. All things considered, Almina regretted not dealing with her middle school's aggressive goat outbreak all those years ago. That could have prepared her for learning how to properly attack enemies in this game...but in hindsight, maybe fighting the goats would have taken Almina on a completely different path, given the very circumstances of her life as a who

Wulfrin was starting to tire out, and the monster was still standing. If there was a time to attack, it was...apparently now. Miryu rushed in without hesitation, but that turned out to be a reckless move full of thoughtless attempts to activate a sword art that were all deflected and blocked by this clearly experienced boar. To add insult to injury, it caught Miryu's weapon(a maneuver Almina was familiar with, thanks to her little excursion with Aidan and the unexpected first battle Almina got herself involved in), and proceeded to toss her up and behind(another trick that she recalled them do

Almina, now in a safer situation, watched as the battle between man and monster unfurled. Wulfrin cut the monster's HP down by half, and stunned it as well. Almina was relieved to know that the fight was going smoothly so far. Wulfrin noted that this would be the trio's chance to get a hit in before Wulfrin could go for a finishing blow. Miryu would almost immediately ready a sword art, but Kylissia would hold out her arm and stop Miryu in her tracks. Kylissia would then go on to explain her reasons why she stopped her, why attacking this monster at this time was not a good idea. Perhaps she w

With the last boarlet down, it was time to wait for Wulfrin to finish his foe off so the party could be on their way- "HHHGGRRREEEEEEEEEEEEGHHH!!" Almina turned to see a huge, snarling beast of a boar, one far larger(but more toned than chunky) than the boar chonkernaut she battled alongside Aidan. It was coming down from a nearby hill towards the trio of girls, squealing wrathful bloody murder as it advanced towards the three. Ah, so this must have been the parent...whose litter the three had just slaughtered. Nice going, Almina. Play stupid games, play stupid pri

Almina blinked when Kylissia made her observation on the boars. "Wait, what??" She asked. "Did I just hear you correctly? Are you saying these boarlets are...like, child boars??" Almina looked to her last target. It looked both enraged and terrified simultaneously. "That's...that's so sick, why is Kayaba making us do this??" She exclaimed. Almina was morally torn by this realization, but in the end, it was just a system, she had to remember that... Almina's hands shook and she directed her weapon to the boarlet. "I'm so sorry..." She began. She could see the fear in its eyes. "

Wulfrin would explain what he knew, and the mystery name would remain a mystery. Along the way to the spawn location of the boarlets, Miryu stopped suddenly, turned and then tugged at Kylissia's arm, but then when she looked back, she stopped again, looking bewildered. This was the second time Miryu had seemed to notice something. Almina was starting to get worried. Once the players had reached the location the target creatures spawned in, Miryu drew her blade and took action the moment she heard a noise, and when Almina rushed over to catch up, Miryu had dispatched a whole quartet o

Almina found it kind of strange when Miryu simply did a long boop in response to Wulfrin expressing his concern for her over what just happened. The return trip didn't seem to have anything out of the ordinary, which was good for the party involved. Of course, as the conversation between Wulfrin and Zachariah that happened earlier had proved, Zachariah was not the borrower. He then suggested the players head over to Lyle's blacksmith, and wished the party luck. Thanks to Wulfrin, getting there was easy. The hard part turned out to be...the socially unmovable object that was L

Oh? Time was up? "Already? Guess that means I'll only be going back with one-" A tremor interrupted Almina, shaking the ground and causing Almina to lose her footing and faceplant onto the ground. She got up and shook herself off, then noticed that the local wildlife was panicking. What was happening? Was it just an effect of the tremor, or was there something else? As the tremor slowed to a stop, Almina turned her gaze to notice that a small tower had just...popped up from the ground. Maybe that was what caused the tremor? Almina got in close, but clearly not as close

Almina sighed when she realized she hadn't managed to get her hands on a single material so far. Wulfrin then spoke up, suggesting to "be a bit less picky". Almina blinked. There were three players who all knew this, heck, Almina had experimented with the common flowers trying to see if they'd qualify for materials. On top of that, there were three players searching, so all things considered, this task would be easier said than done. She got up, and looked for anything that popped or contrasted to the local environment in any way...ah, like that blue mushroom over there. She mad

Wulfrin warned the three girls no to go too far, so that if anything dangerous came up, he could protect them. "Don't worry, Wulfrin, we won't!" Almina assured. What she could not assure, however, was that she wouldn't drift off within sight. From a search around the floral foliage to a gaze into the sky, she saw clouds in all kinds of shapes and sizes. as her imagination became active and her walking began to slow, the skies slowly turned from blue to gray, from gray to dark gray, then from dark gray to a dark, grayish crimson...and with a flash of nonexistent lightning, a storm passe

Miryu had a whole set of screenshots already. Excluding the one she'd just taken of Almina, there were no less than twelve that appeared on Miryu's menu screen. Wulfrin and Kylissia returned, and upon learning of this, suggested that Miryu keep the screenshots for the time being. If Miryu was an amnesiac, that would at least explain why she already had screenshots, though it wouldn't explain how she's level one after having been to who knows how many places in Aincrad, given the variety of environments in the screenshots. Even if Miryu was carried, there still wouldn't be any logical explanati

Kylissia took Wulfrin aside for some kind of discussion. Almina had no idea why this was necessary, but regardless, Almina needed to kill a few seconds, if not more. Almina began thinking of what she could do. "What could I possibly talk about with an Amnesiac...?" She wondered. "...Maybe I could teach her a few functions of her menu, like the messaging system!" With that, her eyes lit up, and she looked over to Miryu. "Your menu's gonna become very handy to you throughout your adventures. You can use it to access your inventory, manage equipment, swap equipment in the blink

The rest was all a blur. What Almina remembered after Autumn's attack, was Autumn being seen unharmed...and falling to the ground as though it were an emotional response. Almina walked over to the player, looking at her sympathetically. "Are you alright?" She asked. Not everyone starts out ready. In fact, no one ever starts ready at all. They have to become ready, and they'll never really know when they're ready...it's all a leap of faith in the end. Everyone who takes their first steps outside the safe zone to start their journey...leap of faith, right there. This poor girl most li

What both confused and concerned Almina at the same time, was how Autumn let out a panicked scream rather than a battle cry. Despite this, Autumn's attack landed well...too well, actually. Shock filled Almina's face as she realized who the boar's gaze was now directed to. She dashed towards the beast. "Autumn! Look out, it's targeting you!!!" She called out in warning as she tried to intercept. Her attempt at unleashing a sword art would fail, but she was at least able to put it in lock for a few seconds. As she and the boar pushed against each other in struggle, Almina called

Almina was concerned. An armored figure? Suddenly gone? "This...this is..." Her train of thought was interrupted for the time being, but nevertheless her concerns remained. The arrival to the shop that the mayor had entered, at least, had made things much easier. The three would enter to accidentally eavesdrop on a conversation that seemed to bear importance to the town's protection. A tremor... "So I wasn't just imagining things...there was actually a tremor that shook the land..." Almina thought. "So...I wasn't the only one who noticed..." She thought aloud.

Kylissia made a good point in terms of taking the bull by the horns. Now that troubles had taken Almina to another world, in a sense, Almina was likely to have to look for trouble herself when it didn't find her. Such is the nature of those with ties to destiny, one might suppose. Kylissia then looked to Miryu, and everything started to make sense when she spoke. Almina blinked as her expression became a soft, mild form of shock. "Amnesia? Oh no..." She thought. Fiction often made Amnesiacs into powerful individuals, but the reasoning behind that was usually because they had the

Oh...this was more serious than Almina thought. Wulfrin explained how he'd gotten the feeling that Miryu didn't even know this was a game. What confused Almina was, how exactly did that happen? Everyone logged into this game on the same day, and were all trapped inside on the same day. That, Almina knew. This was advertised to be a game back in the world Almina came from, that she also knew...so how could this girl here not know these things? Well, there had to be something that could explain it all... The three girls were brought over to a tavern, where Wulfrin

Another player entered the scene, asking about what was going on. The male player, who introduced himself as Wulfrin, explained how he intended to take the girl with him over to Tolbana so she could start the First Lesson Questline. Before Almina could make any remarks about it, the girl with him spoke an odd question. What strange things were happening right now...First someone says that the First Lessons were located in Tolbana, even though plenty of people claimed to have stumbled upon the first quest right here in the Town of Beginnings, then the girl right next to said person has no clue

Not everyone expects to find the unexpected within the expected and mundane. Players were always the unexpected little sparkles in the otherwise standard and normal Town of Beginnings, aside from the tutorials, the size of the sprawling city, and of course, the players that decided to stick around despite their strength by setting up shop...not that any of this bothered Almina, of course, there were just only so many places she could get a view from before she got tired of them all. She was wearing her everyday Safe Zone Outfit, which was a simple white shirt paired with a knife pleat skirt an

Almina let out a soft chuckle when the girl opened up her mouth, about to remark about the whole truck situation. The girl then suddenly covered her mouth, but it's not like it would have hurt Almina. She wouldn't have been the first to suggest that it was the famous, notorious Truck-kun, and Almina would have doubted she'd be the last, had she spoken it. The girl opened up her mouth again, but shut it once more, before sending a party invite her way. The invite would pretty much introduce the girl's username in the process. "She seems like the shy type to me..." Almina thought. "She could def

Upon Almina speaking of the incident with the boars, the redhead seemed to unleash a panicked outburst. Almina blinked. She had nearly had similar treatment by others in regards to certain things Almina had almost gotten tangled into back in real life before this game. "...Everything I do is a risk to take. At least, that's how I'd put it for myself." Almina responded to the outburst. "I mean, of course it would seem like a dangerously excessive risk, but I guess I'm too used to dealing with dangers and potential situations, or, more accurately, attempting to dodge them, on a regular basis...H

"Oh, so you're a first timer?" Almina asked. "I was one myself, just a day or two ago. Pretty sure I'm still around your level, though..." She added. With a cheerful grin, her hands behind her back, she'd continue. "The first battle is bound to be a nerve wracking one, no matter how prepared you are...after all, I kind of jumped at the first quartet of boars I saw when out venturing with my cousin yesterday, and...hoo, boy, I might have misjudged the capabilities of the big one in the group." She'd chuckle awkwardly, but keep her smile going regardless. "I mean, we killed it, sure, but it took

Almina watched as Aidan did his best to avoid being damaged, eventually managing to apply enough force to get the big chunky boar to flip several times and stumble onto its back, its legs flailing about as it tried to get a hold of some level of footing. Almina then decided to make an opportunity out of this. She rushed over to prepare another attack, but just as her weapon was coming down, the bulky chonk swine rolled itself to the side and got back on its hooves. Then the big boar advanced towards Almina. The two combatants locked, and then Almina began to push against it. It started going b

Now that there was no more need to always be stuck in the town, Almina had more places where she could go to take a look at the digital horizon while getting lost in thought. For example, a nice, tall tree just outside of town. The digital horizon was different here, because there was less "town" to be seen, and more of the first floor's wilds in view instead. It was a nice change of pace. Almina snapped back into reality(or, more accurately, the game's reality) at the sound of someone struggling. She looked to her left, then to her right, and then looked down from the tree sh

Having to chase after her weapon wasn't what Almina was expecting to end up doing in a fight, but seeing that sword of hers flipping through the air at a fair height, airborne at about five meters per second. Not what you'd expect in any fight whatsoever. Even characters in fiction didn't normally go through this...then again, Almina and her life don't exactly count as "normal"... The sword landed in the ground, and she was finally able to retrieve it. "Phew, finally! Now to-" Almina heard Aidan cry out in the distance. Seems like the boars hadn't stopped. "Ugh, wh