Wulfrin

The pair returned to Lyle's shop. The old man was still hammering away at his most recent project. Wulfrin made his way to the forge and set the tusks out for Lyle to see. Wulfrin cleared his throat to get the craftsman's attention. "Don't know why these were so important," Wulfrin said. The old man stopped his hammering project. "But now that I got them, can you please tell me if you took a loan from Dorian?" "I use these on hilts," Lyle spoke with a stern voice. Then there was a nod of approval. "You did good Kid, but I'll have you know that I don't take loans from anyone." The approval

"Alright Anthony," Wulfrin said as he offered the scale and bait tin back to Anthony. "I knew you could do it!" Anthony exclaimed as he pat Wulfrin on the back and shot him a wink. "I knew there was something special about you from the moment I saw you. As a gift from me to you, you should keep the scale. Just don't go giving it away now, because the next time you want one, you'll have to fish without my special bait." He took the bait from Wulfrin and nodded towards his humble fishing shack. "If you're ever in the area again, don't be afraid to visit. You know you're always welcome."

The time had definitely gotten away from Wulfrin. He had started early morning at Anthony's and now it was getting closer to dusk. However, it seemed his hyper fixation was keeping him here. Wulfrin was determined not to leave until he had the scale. After all once he had the fabled material, he could start his journey proper as a blacksmith. Wulfrin continued looking towards the future when the bobber sank below the surface once more. He grabbed the now taught line and began his battle with the fish on the end. The two struggled for control over the other. Eventually a large fish with gleamin

Time marched on. The bobber mocking him as it glided over the small waves that were starting to appear. The wind had picked up in the past few minutes causing the surface of the water to oscillate more violently than it had when Wulfrin had started his fishing venture. He began to wander if it would hinder him more or if the new motion would make it easier to find what he was looking for. While the breeze was a fairly decent one, it wasn't enough to make the session unbearable. The wind was just a simulation after all. Then the bobber sunk beneath the surface of the lake. Wulfrin grabbed the n

Wulfrin stood at the lakeside with longing. That scale was the only thing standing between him and moving on with his plan to get his feet under him. If he could find it then he could do like what Freyd was doing and gather materials and equipment more easily than just searching under rocks. He could have gone with foraging, but he really didn't like the thought of only looking under rocks and such for the materials to craft. At least he had a chance to open chests once he got the profession, at least that was what he had read. From there he could do a multitude of things with the items. He co

"You mentioned Freya last time," Wulfrin remarked as he unwrapped the small sugary bun. "I'm going to have to hit her up as well. These may not do much system wise, but they sure do remind me of the lives we had before." Wulfrin sat for a moment and enjoyed the moment of respite ash he devoured the bun. He began to reflect on the previous skirmish. "If Mama Boar was anything to judge my progress by, I doubt I'll be doing much to help in the fight with Terra Firma." Wulfrin jumped to his feet and dusted himself off. He hated the thought of not being able to contribute, but he hoped he wouldn't

Wulfrin kept up his mental wandering. It seemed like it was the only thing keeping him sane. The repetition of casting the line and reeling it back in only to find nothing at the end was getting to him. He was starting to doubt the tale Anthony had told him. The <<Bless Bait>> wasn't seeming to have an affect. Perhaps it was a placebo? Wulfrin shook the thought away, and focused back on his mental recollection. He was surprised how much he was able to recall, as it had been years since he had studied any of the info he was bringing back to the surface. He was proud of himself. The

Wulfrin found himself wandering away from his monster rolodex, and instead into his mythology knowledge. From what he had read on some of the discovered quests, Cardinal had a knack for pulling from various mythologies. He hadn't fully nailed down which one Cardinal was focused on, but he was assuming it was based off of the Arthurian times. That assumption aside he had noticed a hint of ancient Greek and Roman mythologies too. The good news is he had learned a bit of both Ancient Greek and Latin languages. It wasn't enough to be fluent, but he could at least pick out key words, like names and

The next monster he went through was the dragon. He had seen info about a dragon hunting quest, but Wulfrin assumed it was still way out of his league. Dragons were as apex as an apex predator could be. Most of the time unless an upstart adventuring party, or another dragon, came around to defeat the dragon, the domain it ruled would stay under its control pretty much for the entire dragon's natural life cycle. That life cycle easily could reach into the thousands of years mark. In that time, their scales would harden and their melee attacks would begin to bull on their respective elements. Th

The more time that passed the farther into his mind Wulfrin wandered. He began recalling more childhood memories, all related to skills he thought would help him survive. From the skills he had picked up while cave delving to his knowledge of his own sword fighting style. Eventually he found himself running through a mental index of various mythical creatures he had studied for bettering his own games. He started focusing on weaknesses he knew. He started with the bulette, as that was likely to be the next big monster he would face. The outer hide of the beast would be near impenetrable for hi

"I don't know about champion," Wulfrin sighed as he returned his blade to the scabbard at his waist. "If it weren't for you, I'd have been that boar's dinner." Wulfrin turned to his mentor. "At any rate thanks for stepping in. Also what was with that odd miasma leaking from the boar?" Wulfrin eyed the hands that had disappeared into Freyd's pockets. "That one of those fancy martial arts moves?" Wulfrin navigated swiftly through his UI to the social section and sent a friend request to Freyd. "Best I do that before I forget again." Wulfrin said with a smile. "Let's go pay an old blacksmith a vi

As Wulfrin continued his idle swordplay, he found himself wandering deeper into old memories. He glided through the air with little effort, the occasional Sword Art creating a trail that followed behind him. Wulfrin's strikes were accurate, but without a proper target to gauge his power, he couldn't really critique the damage output. The fundamentals had returned, but Wulfrin was having to adapt to the extended range of mobility. The system was only interpreting the signals that were being sent by his brain and applying them to a virtual body that didn't share the same physical restrictions as

Wulfrin continued his exercises. He was getting back into the grove. He was still very rusty, but at least his mobility was coming back to him. Wulfrin assumed it was because of his body being virtual. He felt no restrain or weight as he started into the more acrobatic of moves. Wulfrin began to focus on the Sword Arts allotted to him by the system. Each one had a distinct initial motion you had to perform before being allowed to execute the skill. The few skills he knew were either a sweeping area of affect strike, a single target slash, or he could strike with the flat of his blade and stun

Wulfrin began going through his mental notebook. He was fixated of the basics he had learned. The simple movements of strikes and blocks he had been taught in his youth were more fitted for a weapon capable of being wielded either two-handed or one-handed. His current short sword didn't quite meet the criteria, but he could improvise. He focused on the one-handed variants he had been taught first. The movements were designed to keep one's hit area narrow. It also allowed for simple martial arts to be used. The martial arts support wouldn't be on the table unless he could unlock it, but he coul

Wulfrin drifted back into thoughts about his future. The info he had gleamed about the frontlines had him constantly questioning what kind of swordsman he wanted to be. He vowed to make it up to the higher level players that had taken him under their wing. Mostly Freyd who had been helping him out so far with clearing what was essentially the tutorial. He was making progress, and it was much faster than he was expecting. The new gear he was waiting on was sure to help with staying ahead of the monsters he was going to face as he climbed up the floors. Wulfrin couldn't however shake the thought

Wulfrin returned to the grind of fishing. He was starting to lose track of time, despite always having a clock in his vision. That was the beauty of the contextual UI of SAO. With the exception of a few important bits of information, like HP of yourself and party members, the UI practically vanished if you weren't directly focused on it. Wulfrin guessed that was a good thing, as he wouldn't really like having his vision interrupted by parts of a user interface in a game that is trying so hard to emulate the real world. The lake was still calm and smelled of fish, and that definitely wasn't goi

Wulfrin landed in battle stance and was ready to swipe again. His body felt heavy, he found himself gasping for breath out of exhaustion. For the first time he could actually feel the strain his body was going through. Despite the sheer exhaustion that had befallen his avatar, he readied his strike. Whilst Freyd cackled with laughter from under the boar, Wulfrin activated the <<Horizontal>> skill that he had grown so fond of. The blue colored blade of his sword left another gash in Mama's hide. As he recovered from the strike, his body seized. He had almost reached empty on his ene

Another chunk of time passed. The songs of the nonexistent birds as well as the relaxing background music of this section of Floor 1 was rather calming. It didn't help Wulfrin's boredom though. "Alright," he said as he cast his line out again. The motion was becoming second nature. "Let's see if we can't plan for the future a bit." Wulfrin started by perusing the list of skills provided by the system to all players. How to best utilize the skill points he was getting would be important. It was in his best interest to maximize his survivability and damage output before going too much farther in

Another cast another streak of nonexistent luck. Cardinal's random number system had to be toying with him at this point. Wulfrin had seen the fish jumping out of the water occasionally, and yet he still wasn't getting any bites. He sighed and gathered up his things. Maybe a change of location was in order. He continued making his way around the lake shore until he found another cozy little spot where he could set up. This time there wasn't a chair, but at least there was space to lay down and stare up at the floor above. Again he felt at ease. SAO may be a game where one wrong move could end

Having not caught anything in a while, Wulfrin decided to take a short break. He materialized a small wrapped item. He had stopped and located a small deli in Tolbana, where he picked up a small sandwich to help stave off the sensations of hunger. He knew he wasn't really hungry, the NerveGear was simply telling his brain he was hungry. That was where the biological processes stopped though. His avatar, while sharing his real world appearance save the eyes and hair style, it was still virtual. He began to think about his real body. He knew he had to have been placed in a hospital, but how long

For the moment it appeared the fish had stopped biting. Wulfrin checked the line a few times, recasting after each to try and find the schools of fish. The single shade tree nearby made it much more bare able. The sun wasn't really a problem in Aincrad, being as there was always a giant slab of rock and steel above you at all times. He began browsing the info broker pages. If he was going to be just sitting around waiting for fish to bite, may as well read up and plan the next adventure. Most of the action was directed to the higher floors. There was the <<Scents of the Wilds>> he

As the minute's ticked on, Wulfrin found himself oddly at peace. The cool breeze that blew through the area reminded him of all the camping trips he had been on as a child. This entire experience in SAO had brought up many old and supposedly forgotten memories. Games were always an escape in his mind, a way to relax and forget about the troubles of his rather mundane life. Another tug at the line meant another catch for Wulfrin. The fish had scales that created a rather beautiful hue. It wasn't the gleaming variety he was looking for so he stashed it away in his inventory and resumed his trip

Wulfrin snapped back to reality as Freyd nudged his shoulder. He still had some shock in his body, but finally the adrenaline started pumping. He readied his blade just as he had against the smaller boars. "Alright mama," Wulfrin stammered. "Let's see what I'm made of!" He rushed the Mama Boar slashed horizontally across her center of mass just as Persi got out of the path. The brilliant blue trail left by the sword skill <<Horizontal>> lingered briefly. As it faded the gash in her hide became visable. A brief glimpse at her HP and Wulfrin felt his stomach sink. The attack had left

Wulfrin cast his line once again. He watched as the bobber rested calmly on the surface, occasionally oscillating with the few waves on the surface. At the very least he was killing time, but it was still dreadfully boring. Then he felt a tug on the line. He quickly started to reel in the line. There wasn't much to fight, but there was some resistance. He reeled in a small fish. It wasn't the scale he was looking for, but oh well. The fish counted as a generic material, so at the very least he could use it to fund his forge when he unlocked it. "This is going to be a long quest," Wulfrin said

"Let's finish this," Wulfrin murmured as he approached the boar. Once again he lunged towards the boar with blinding speed, his sword glowing a brilliant blue light. The sword pierced the boar's body with no resistance, dropping the boar's HP to zero. As the polygons dissipated, there was another item along side the usual boar tusk. It was a small vial of a viscus red liquid. Upon a closer inspection, the vial appeared to contain blood. "Well that's new," Wulfrin said as he got closer to the vial. "Guess its a rare, drop." Little did Wulfrin know there was another threat making its way up to h