Astra

Astra rubbed the back of his head and chuckled a bit as Wulfrin playfully chastised him for forgetting to include location details in his message. It makes sense, if it weren't for the tracking features he would virtually have no way of finding Astra. Astra didn't even stay in Coral, he just started wandering into the wilderness. What a goofball move. "Heh, sorry about that. Completely slipped my mind." When Wulfrin produced the new sword and armor that he had crafted for Astra, Astra's eyes widened. He was incredibly thankful for Wulfrin helping him out. Not only teaching him how to sur

It hadn't previously occurred to Astra that people may assume "himself and Miyukii as siblings for their similar colored hair, but when she raised the point, it did make sense. Astra stopped for a moment to consider whether or not other players would get that idea. "You know, they might! I guess you could pass a younger sibling. Your hair has some nice highlights, though." He smiled at Miyukii and waved her to follow along as he began to leave the tavern. It was time for him to start gathering materials for Maggie, so she could teach him the cooking skill officially. Astra opened up his

"I guess you could say I'm heading out on an adventure. I'm about to head to the Town of Beginnings and start the quest to earn the cooking skill. I'd like to be able to start cooking on my own, and eventually open up a shop to help others here in Aincrad." Astra cleaned up his tea setting and made his way back to Miyukii. "If you'd like to tag along, I wouldn't mind the company! Anyone who is a friend of Bliss' is a friend of mine." Astra offered another smile to the girl in front of him. "Alright, time to head out!" Making their way back to the first floor of Aincrad, the pair found th

Astra sat and sipped at his cup of tea, ruminating on when he should kick into gear and head to the Town of Beginnings. As he battled with himself eternally over when he should move, he noticed a player enter Fondante's Inferno. The player was a small girl, at least 9 inches shorter than Astra. She had white hair like himself, but it was streaked with blue highlights. He looked up from his tea as she approached and asked him a question: "Do you know if Ciela is around? Bliss sent me here to try her amazing food." It wasn't a surprise to hear that word was spreading about Ciela's amazing c

The encouragement from Oats and Siren helped invigorate Astra has he faced off with his first boarlet. He could see out of the corner of his eye that Siren had gone to strike the boar with her rapier, but unfortunately had ended up missing. Next thing he knew, Siren was straddling the boarlet and riding it as if it was a (smaller) mechanical bull at a rodeo. Astra couldn't help but let out a chuckle at the sight of his companion on top of the boarlet. "Keep it up Siren! You've got this!" He had hoped his words of encouragement would do the same for his friends as theirs did for him. Focu

It was an average off-day from adventuring and trying to build himself up as a frontliner for Astra, where he spent most of his time at Fondante's Inferno helping Ciela around her kitchen. The knightess was mentoring Astra in the art of cooking, something he didn't realize he would develop a passion for at this point. He'd always had a passion for food, but that was namely eating anything and everything he could get his hands on. He had a passion for trying new foods, eating classic favorites, and stuffing himself to the brim. It was a miracle that he had managed to keep his slim frame in the

When Astra's attack missed he felt a wave of frustration come over him. It wasn't an anger, just a disappointment, as this moment was supposed to be his turning point in this world. Perhaps the enemies they were fighting were just low tier boarlets, but he couldn't afford to miss attacks. Every movement and every attack counted, especially when anything here could kill you, and you'd simply cease to exist. Pivoting his head to see his companions, Astra noticed that Oats and Siren continued to hit their targets. Nice, at least they're getting it. Time for me to pull my weight too. Astra wa

When Bliss called Astra handsome, he couldn't help but blush. "H-handsome? Thanks so much." His soft smile widened, and he had to look away so that she couldn't see how red his face had become. Once that seemingly wore off, and he was done riding the high of being complimented by Bliss, he turned back to her. He noticed she was twirling her hair, a quirk of hers that he picked up on when he first met her at the beach. Maybe it's something she does when she's nervous, but nonetheless Astra thought it was cute. He liked her quirks. They were all small things that made up the whole of her, a trul

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Before him was an endless expanse of an azure sky. The sky seemingly stretched along for miles. Underneath his feet was a never ending body of water, crystalline and rippling. It looked like an ocean, but glossed over and solid. He wasn't sinking or falling into the water, he was standing right on top of it. With each step he took more ripples would appear underneath his feet. There was a sense of tranquility here. No fear, no doubts, and no land in sight. Just an expanse of the heavens and the sea. As he reached his destination, which looked no different than his starting point, bubbles start

Astra watched as Wulfrin charged towards the Alpha Boars and unleashed a devastating sword art, his sword glowing crimson while he swung it down. The finesse and bravery that the swordsman showed was exactly what Astra wanted to show himself, and this was his chance now to start making strides to that point. He took a deep breath, and eyed the spawning boarlets before him and Siren. "Right. Let's do this." Siren struck the boarlets first. The metal of her rapier's blade shimmered in the sun beaming down on them. With a confident stride and a grace that only Siren and her southern charm c

Astra's eyes lit up as Bliss started to approach him, while he was standing outside of Fondante's Inferno. He immediately felt like he had lost his voice and couldn't speak, and his heart skipped a beat before beating to a much faster rhythm. What is this feeling? Why am I feeling like this? Bliss is a beautiful person, and just her presence alone could fill a room full of people with awe. Astra was one of those people, and he just couldn't help it. Just play it cool, find the right words. Play it cool, find the right words. The closer Bliss got Astra tried to move towards her as well, bu

When Astra had woken up at the inn he had been staying at in the Town of Beginnings, something was different. There was this feeling in his stomach that he just couldn't shake. Was he hungry? Usually, but that wasn't it. A morning cup of tea didn't do the trick either. It wasn't necessarily a bad feeling though, it was actually quite the opposite. He was nervous, but he was excited. He had butterflies in his stomach. Today he was going to be surprising Bliss, the girl he had met recently at the beach party, with a picnic on Floor 22. Jeeze, why am I so nervous about this? I'm sure things

As Ciela spun towards him, Astra could tell that her demeanor was infectious. Watching her spin and work around the store was not only inspiring, but also let him know that he was in the right kind of place. The kind of place where a good attitude and friendship meant something. As she expressed her recognition of him, Astra couldn't help but blushed. People had talked about him? Especially Siren and Wulfrin, who he regarded highly. "Hopefully they've said good things," he laughed. "They've been great to me so far. Really helping me find my footing." On the topic of the orphanage,

Astra walked into Fondante's Inferno, sitting quietly on the serene and lush floor 22. Immediately the sensational aroma of sweets and treats filled his nostrils and brought him into some sort of food heaven. He had heard of this shop before, because the owner and the cook extraordinaire was Ciela, who happened to be married to Wulfrin, who happened to be teaching Astra the ropes of SAO. He took in the sights of the adorned walls, and the rustic comforting feeling of the shop. This was a place to buy goods, but it also felt like another home. He hadn't officially met Ciela yet, but the s

"Hi, A-Astra. I'm B-Bliss," the beautiful girl enveloped in the waves said with a shy smile. As Astra looked closely at her blue eyes, he couldn't help but notice a dampness on her face, as if she'd been crying. Bliss patted the water next to her, and expressed that some company wouldn't hurt, so Astra began to sit down in the rolling waves next to her. As he sat down he unbuttoned and took off his linen shirt. Now, with shirt in hand, he was sitting in the water next to the seemingly popular blonde-haired beauty. "Bliss, that's a lovely name! I like it a lot. Seems fitting," he said wit

Naturally like any good quest, there was a part two. Of course the fatigued alchemist Zackariah didn't have Dorian's money, but that was no sweat to Astra. This was still just the start of his journey, and any hurdles were to be expected. Astra followed his companions as they walked through the Town of Beginnings to Lyle's forge, watching an influx of players and NPC's alike as they passed him by. As they crossed through the entrance to the forge, the sound of clanging metal filled Astra's ears. Astra looked towards Wulfrin, as he was leading the charge into the shop, and could hardly be

After watching his pseudo-mentor catch some fish, Astra turned his attention to the others who were walking along the beach. It seemed like a good chunk of the people here were at least somewhat familiar with each other, and were connecting and chatting without a care. His perception and penchant for people watching also gave him that the idea that some of the others here didn't know as many people, just like him. That was reassuring, he wasn't alone in that at least. Maybe it was time to try introducing himself to someone, come out of his shell just a bit. Astra noticed as an astounding

The relief of finding at least one material really settled Astra's nerves. On the brighter side, Oats had seemingly found every material necessary which really helped. At least they had completed this part of the quest without too much issue, though that's not to say that effort wasn't put in. "Good job, darlin’! I’m glad my little good luck charm worked for ya," Siren said to him. He hoisted himself off of his knees and stood up, extending an arm out and flipping his thumb upwards into a thumbs up. "At least it's something! The crown definitely helped. Seems like Oats carried us though.

"Let's just call it a safety net," Wulfrin responded to Astra's question. Curious about the intricacies of having your own shadow become a sort of familiar, but not wanting to pry too much, Astra nodded and continued to search for materials. "I've found one!" Oats being able to find some materials gave him a bit of hope. He smiled at his companion and raised his hand, giving a thumbs up. "Hey, nice! That's something." Even if he ended up finding no materials, at least his companions were. He hadn't spent a lot of time around them but so far he really felt like he could trust them. Relati

The sun beamed down on Astra as he made his way through the soft grass towards the even softer sand. He held one hand over his eyes, almost like a salute, so he could see what was going on ahead of him. Lo and behold, just like the posted message implied, a lot of other people were already here at the beach. It looks like they had begun scavenging for something, and he didn't want to interrupt. So many players that he didn't recognize, which made sense, as he'd only recently started getting his feet wet in the world. Nerves began to creep up as he thought of meeting all of these new people. Ho

Astra continued searching through the grass, with nothing fruitful turning up. "How am I supposed to get these materials back to Zackariah? I can't find a damn thing." Taking a moment to catch his breath, and regain some energy for resuming his search, he noticed a shadow moving quickly through the woods. As his eyes adjusted it seemed upon closer inspection that it was shaped like Wulfrin. Lifting his hands from the patch of shrubbery he was picking through, he turned to the party mentor. "Wulfrin, was that...Was that your shadow?" The inflection in his voice lent itself to his in

Astra followed his party out of Zackariah's shop and out of the Town of Beginnings, into the wild. He maintained a steady pace with the group that Wulfrin was taking the lead of, but made sure to take in all the sights and information he could. As they passed wild mobs who were grazing the area Astra made sure to study them as best as he could. You never know when you could be fighting them. Best to keep a distance though. Eventually they reached a pretty spacious and lush location, where they'd be searching for the materials. Wulfrin began to fish, while Oats and Siren began to search f

Astra stood in shock for a moment when Siren sent that friend request. The notification stood in front of his face and his eyes glazed over. He took a breath and pressed his finger on the "accept" button. "Hell yeah, this is good. This is progress." As Siren took the lead and led the party to the alchemists shop, Astra followed in tow. With a particular pep in his step. He was starting to make some moves, make some friends, start making a dent in the world. As they walked through the town he took in all of the sights and sounds. Players and NPCs alike were going about their business. He w