[PP-F8] Should One Be This Far Up?

[Sey 0]

Out in the forest! That was what he aimed to go for anyways. For him to be up on the eighth floor was a stupid idea on it's own, but he wanted to see what kinds of NPCs that he would see there. Naturally, he would do this just to improve himself and bring in a bit of Col as well, but this would require a bit of help. At this point, he just would move to the border of the safe zone knowing that at least someone would come on by. There were 10,000 players after all, and say half of them had been murdered, that meant that there were another 5,000 around on the various amounts of floor that exist. With this, he would place his left hand in his pocket while the right one would he placed on his assault spear, waiting for any players to come on by. Perhaps he needed to pay someone as well in order for him to go through the forest with them. Or if they are already going, maybe he could just tag along with them. Regardless, he would be waiting at the edge of the safe zone, doing what he did best at the game so far. Waiting. It was a trait that was pounded into him.

[Baldur 0]

"Waiting for someone?" Baldur said to the younger assault spear player who seemed to be loitering at the edge of the settlement. Baldur had just broken his fast with a bit of warm bread from a nearby tavern. He didn't cook for himself, but he tried not to let his diet become to stale, even though the effect of it had no bearing on his health within the world of Sword Art Online. His real body was being kept alive by a machine, and here there were no calories or nutritional value. It was nice being able to gorge himself on whatever foods he wanted and not have to worry about his waistline or his cholesterol.

The player looked out of his depth, but Baldur had done much the same back when he was of a lower level. He had ventured up to this very floor to push his limits, but that was back when this floor wasn't far from being the front line, and the top most floor they had reached was only one or two higher. They had managed to come a long way in the years since, but not as quickly as they should have. Attrition was the true enemy of the front lines.

"I'm Baldur, by the way."

The gaijin samurai was garbbed as he always was, in his light armor and robes the color of sunset, and his blue and white haori hanging over his shoulders, with an omnipresent katana at his hip, while his left hand sort of rested lazily on the blade as one might rest a hand halfway into a pocket.

[Sey 0]

A sudden player would approach him from behind, causing his tensions to rise once at the moment, but not to react in the same way he reacted to the previous character he met in the same fashion. So he would not swipe his assault spear towards the man that came by, a smart move he learned from experience from the past. Instead, he'd cool his tensions down, knowing that most players don't quite approach him with the intention to murder him. "You could say that. I'm planning to go through the forest. I want to know what kind of monsters there are." He would explain, tilting his head to the side as he would look back out towards the outside of the safe zone. With this, the man would add onto the fact that he was someone named Baldur. At this point, even frontliners were so trusting to players, so it probably was not too dangerous to do the same. "Nice to meet ya Baldur. I'm Sey. So what brings you over here?"

 

[Baldur 0]

"Hmm... on this floor? A lot of different kinds. It also depends on if you stick to the trees, or if you go down to the swampy mess at the base of them. It gets much more difficult down there... same with the further away from the settlement you go. There's a dungeon on the far end of the floor I've been meaning to go to."

He regarded the younger player with a pair of steel blue eyes.

"Have you never been to this floor before? It's... quite a ways down..."

Baldur walked up to Sey and offered him his hand. It was a more western greeting, but Baldur was a gaijin, and it was an old military gesture to show that you were unarmed and unthreatening, which was Baldur's intention here.

"It is nice to meet you Sey."

Smiling to his new acquaintance, he gestured out to the floor. "I'm probably high enough level that I'll kill whatever experience you're hoping to gain, but I don't mind showing you around if you meant to go out. I was just planning to find some food myself. Sometimes I lose track of time, and I don't notice until those damn simulated hunger pangs hit you."

[Sey 0]

"Yeah... No. I haven't. It's a new floor, but it must have been new to all of us at some point. I want to learn it a well. Besides, if the ninth floor had things you could fall through and accidentally die in, then I don't think this could be too far worse, right?" The snow-haired player would ask with a hint of optimism in his eyes. Honestly, he just wanted to check out the floor and see what what was going on in it. If there was some sort of treasure he could find in the hidden, he would love to find out where it is. "I would gladly appreciate the help. I'm afraid I won't be of too much use, but I'll certainly try my best to make something work out of it." The player would explain before giving a genuine half smile to this person. He seemed like a wise man, one who has seen it all and able to tell him what the game was like and what it was not. Hopefully he was right, since he seemed rather trustworthy for some reason.