[PP-F1-NK] Advancement

[Sey 0]

The little look she gave to him would make him chuckle a little bit as his eyes would relax, staying in a half-closed permission. It seems like she was able to take the hit, but to her best of knowledge, she only knew him to be a new player. He just happened to have some skills with him. Well, if she did not know it now, he was not going to expect her for her to know it later. She did let out as much damage as she could, and the red critical hit marker would be on the top of her head. He'd place a smile upon seeing the hit, she was slowly learning, though why was she not using her sword arts? Even a rank one player was able to use some of their swords arts. Still though, he was not going to comment on that fact yet. Maybe she was just holding it off for later on in the battle. If so, he was now very much interest in seeing what she would do. With this, his violet eyes would glow once again as he pressed his feet against the ground and a reticle would lock onto the boar. With one swift brisk movement, he would end up moving past Kooh and lashing out his furious spike sword art at the boar, knocking it down to the ground once again before leaping back before it could retaliate in any form or way. "Sheesh. This is a tough boar." He'd tell himself before walking back, as if he were walking away from an explosion.

ID: 73568

BD: 5 + 3 = 8
Sword Art: Furious Spike (1 x 6)
Dmg: 7 x 1 x 6 = 42 Dmg

MD: 4

Sey: 440/440 | 7 DMG | 3 ACC | 34/44 Energy | 4 Hate
Kooh: 120/120 | 3 DMG | 2 ACC | 2 EVA | 12/12 Energy | 2 Hate

Boar: 119/220

@Kooh

Edited December 31, 2016 by Sey

[Kooh 0]

Dice Results:

  Hide contents

• ID#: 73567
  • BD: 4 + 2 = 6 - Hit!
  • CD: 9
  • LD: 14
  • MD: 4
• (3 Base) + (2 Weapon Skill) = 5 DMG

Before the creature ever seemed to get time to react, Kooh and Sey were timing their attacks one after another. As its health bar crept down to the half-way mark, Kooh suppressed another frown--was every fight going to be as long as this one? Sure it was trivial in difficulty, but time is money, so at this point she expected this little boar to give them enough col to be worth her while.

"Pfft!" She girl brought a curled hand over her mouth at Sey's nonchalance. "So is this what's it's like to pummel a poor creature to death?" She asked teasingly before stepping up to take her turn. She hadn't distanced herself too much from the boar, and as it twisted and squirmed to regain its footing and try to counterattack, she brought her left leg across her this time to land another kick to the head. As it wriggled around, her strike nearly missed, and she only skimmed along its temple. doing even less damage than usual. "Tch." She breathed out her annoyance.

@Sey: 440/440 | 7 DMG | 3 ACC | 34/44 Energy | 4 Hate
Kooh: 120/120 | 5 DMG | 2 ACC | 2 EVA | 12/12 Energy | 4 Hate

Boar: 105/220

Edited December 31, 2016 by Kooh

[Sey 0]

She teased him a little bit on how he was beating a poor little creature, and he decided to play along with the little tease. Placing a balled fist to his lips, he would clear his throat so that he could get the redneck accent down before starting to speak. "Ya'll city slickers be talkin abusin an animal to death. Ya'll no nothin about pummelin til I bring out the tractor." If one did not understand what he was saying, it was probably because the snow-haired player would not even know what he was talking about. It was definitely a lot of fun to do though, and he got himself a soft laugh out of it before he returned back to his regular voice. It was a mixture of American English with a hint of British roots in his words, so there was a small accent he couldn't fake. "Hey, I notice you're using basic attacks. Do you know the concept of Sword Arts?" While usually being a smooth talker, he was actually trying to help her out now, nothing to hide. But he'd need an answer from her before he continued. Meanwhile, he would place his own spear up once again as he would lash the furious spike sword art towards the boar once again as it would charge back towards their direction. This just meant that the snow-haired player now was given a pass to not move out of place, which was great, since he was a bit lazy. When it arrived, Sey would clench his fist tightly on the handle of the one-handed weaponry as he pierced it through the body of the boar once again, knocking it back down onto the ground as the health would dramatically drop once again. "Piece of cake." Contradictory words that he said on purpose, so that a small window of opportunity to reflect on what he said back at the town about how hard the boars were. Meanwhile, he would place his body onto the ground and cross his legs, watching what happened next."

BD: 9
Sword Art: Furious Spike (1 x 6)
Dmg: 8 x 1 x 6 = 48 Dmg

MD: 4

Sey: 440/440 | 7 DMG | 3 ACC | 29/44 Energy | 6 Hate
Kooh: 120/120 | 3 DMG | 2 ACC | 2 EVA | 12/12 Energy | 4 Hate

Boar: 64/220

@Kooh

Edited December 31, 2016 by Sey

[Kooh 0]

Dice Results:

  Hide contents

• ID#: 73571
  • BD: 1 + 2 = 3 - Critical Miss!
  • CD: 8
  • LD: 10
  • MD: 2

This time, Kooh couldn't help from bursting out laughing. The girl clutched her stomach giggling for a few moments before coming back to her senses. "Ohh man, that was just priceless." His imitation had her thoroughly amused, perhaps moreso than the average person would be considering she couldn't fake an accent to save her life. As they both seemed to be loosening up a bit, she cocked an eyebrow once the conversation returned to normal and he asked her about Sword Arts. "Uhh. I mean." She flexed her hands in and out of fists a couple times, as if contemplating her own lack of a literal sword. She figured at this point embarrassment was inevitable--if he was stronger than her in combat (which wasn't hard to do), he surely knew more about it than her as well. Avoiding an actual admittance of her lack of knowledge, the girl just shrugged, and as enough time had passed for Sey to attack and back off again, Kooh moved in for another attack of her own. She took a similar approach to the leg sweep from before, but this time aimed higher for just a crouched roundhouse kick to the boar's head. Unfortunately for Kooh, whatever zone she was in before she'd clearly knocked herself out of. Her kick went wide, missing the creature completely as it backed away from her. The momentum left the side of her boot digging into the grassy earth in front of her instead.

@Sey: 440/440 | 7 DMG | 3 ACC | 29/44 Energy | 6 Hate
Kooh: 120/120 | 5 DMG | 2 ACC | 2 EVA | 11/12 Energy | 4 Hate

Boar: 57/220

Edited December 31, 2016 by Kooh

[Sey 0]

It brought him warmth to hear he laugh from the little imitation he just made, it was a great feeling being able to make others laugh. He was no comedian, but he did have the timing and could take advantages of some moments in order to help execute stupid tasks such as that. "Thank you, thank you. I'll be here all night." He would bow formally as well to compliment the little scene. But then the topic of the sword arts would be brought up, and she would end up answering in an extremely familiar form. "Say no more. I'll show you." The snow-haired player would explain as he would attempt to make his way over to the ginger-haired player, only for the boar to bull rush it's way towards him from the side in order to distract him. The spear-wielder locked his feet against the ground as he let his blue light coat the tip of his spear once again, showing a sword art of his being activated. "Hey love," His British roots revealing themselves now. "Back off!" With one mighty swing of the blade of the spear, he would end up striking the boar with the furious spike and knocked it with a heavy amount of impact towards the ground, knocking the health bar of the boar from the yellow zone to the red zone.

Flicking a bit of his white hair from his sight like nothing had happened, he'd continue to walk over to Kooh before opening up the options that can be accessed through the menus. "If you open up your menu, you should be able to see a skill options. You have Martial Arts, so you should tap that. All of the sword arts you have equate to your ranking. With those, you can trigger more fancy options while inflicting more damage. Each sword art is described on there." He took a break for any questions in case the girl was a little confused about what he was saying. "In order to trigger it, you just have to think of the sword art you want to use. Then the system will handle the rest."

ID: 73582

BD: 6
Sword Art: Furious Spike (1 x 6)
Dmg: 7 x 1 x 6 = 42 Dmg

MD: 5

Sey: 440/440 | 7 DMG | 3 ACC | 24/44 Energy | 7 Hate
Kooh: 120/120 | 3 DMG | 2 ACC | 2 EVA | 12/12 Energy | 4 Hate

Boar: 22/220

@Kooh

 

Edited December 31, 2016 by Sey

[Kooh 0]

Dice Results:

  Hide contents

• ID#: 73583
  • BD: 6 +2 = 8 - Hit!
  • CD: 3
  • LD: 3
  • MD: 5
• (3 Base) + (2 Weapon Skill) = (5 Damage) x (4 Sword Art - Delayed Sword) = 20 DMG
• +1 Crafting Material

Kooh had just finished dusting off the front of her cardigan after standing back up from her failed attack. She didn't care for the whole down and dirty in-your-face combat thing. Though her virtual body felt no fatigue, her mind told her this type of activity was tiring and unattractive. Why would she want to go around punching dirty animals for money all day?

With a small huff of breath through her nose, she turned and cocked her head to the side as Sey denied the boar's counterattacks yet again. He approached her, and the girl raised an eyebrow as he started giving her a lesson in combat. "Uh huh..." She frowned as her own menu floated in the space in front of her. It was hard to tell if she sounded skeptical, disinterested, or both. Kooh's eyes flickered over the text in front of her before she half-heartedly dismissed it with a light chuckle. "Well that sounds both convenient and ridiculous." Another smirk curled the corners of her lips.

The critically-injured boar snorted at them in the distance, clearly displeased with their little lesson in the middle of a fight. Rushing towards them, Kooh cupped a hand above her arm, making a motion as if rolling up her sleeve. "Fine then, if you make it sound so easy..." The blonde accepted the boar's final challenge, hurrying to meet its charge before skidding to a stop. Her leg moved swiftly, her boot taking on a reddish hue as she swept out the boar's front legs so its tusks and jaw met the hard ground with a thud. Following up with a final strike, the color soon faded as the boar's health bar dropped to zero and the creature shattered beneath her.

Sey: 440/440 | 7 DMG | 3 ACC | 24/44 Energy | 7 Hate
Kooh: 120/120 | 5 DMG | 2 ACC | 2 EVA | 7/12 Energy | 5 Hate

Boar: 0/220 - Dead

Edited December 31, 2016 by Kooh

[Sey 0]

"Hmmmm, your luck is unfortunately extremely low. We didn't get loot from that boar." Sey would announce as he tilted his head to the side, placing the pointer finger of his right hand to his chin while he looked towards the direction of the fallen boars final position before it bit the dust. It would probably have been an annoyance to the girl if she didn't even get col out of the monster. And remembering his session back when he was fighting them alongside Jonathan, he would remember how he felt about the sort of thing. Sure, it was on a higher up level, but it was still the same situation regardless. He decided to uncross his legs and push his palms behind him so that he would get a sudden jolt back up onto his feet. The drastic difference in the damage inflicted with a sword art and without is painfully obvious. "Well, remind me not to get you pissed off." The snow-haired player would tell her, looking back to the data fragments of the boar as it fell before them. "I suggest you invest more into the Martial Arts skill. Each rank gives you a new set of sword arts as well as one additional damage, so that's a very useful skill... If you are aiming for DPS."

But with that useless information out of the way, he'd place the options of her character icon up. If they got no loot from this, he'll at least reward her some for what she had done. He looked like a new player and she went out of her way to help him. "Sorry about the loot by the way. Here, hopefully this can compensate for it." He'd explain before pressing "Trade". A small little screen would pop up in front of him, and his inventory placed by the side. The col value he had was at the bottom of the trade HUD, as well as an empty slot for typing. When he clicked it with is finger, he'd type in "5,000" before confirming. A trade request HUD screen would then be sent over to the ginger, leaving Sey waiting for her to accept the trade. It was free col for her, hopefully so he can get some nice perfect items. "It's the least I could do for ya. Go get yourself some perfect items with that money. You don't have to right now if you don't want to. But at least, as a token of gratitude, accept the col."

-5,000 Col offer pending

Edited January 1, 2017 by Sey

[Kooh 0]

The girl frowned in response to her "bad luck". Swiping her hands together as if to shake off any dirt from her palms, Kooh slipped them back into the pockets of her cardigan, turning towards the white-haired player as he continued speaking. Her expression stayed neutral as she considered his suggestion of improving her combat skill, mentally shrugging it off. Fighting wasn't fun, and it now proved not to be very profitable for her either, so what was the point?

The blonde blinked when an interface suddenly appeared before her, displaying 5,000 col in a pending trade window. Her eyebrows narrowed as her glance flickered up to Sey with a glare. The amount he was casually giving to her was greater than all the col she had on her, quickly dismissing any 'low level player in need' feel he might have had left in her eyes. Still, she wasn't stupid. The girl pressed the 'Accept' button to confirm the one-sided trade, and as the window vanished she slid the hand back in her pocket and shifted her weight. "Alright, so what gives?" She asked a bit harshly, glancing the player up and down again. "Little ol' you is so down on your luck, you need the help of a player who does a fraction of your damage to kill a mob and then give away money. What's the point of a reverse hustle?"

Trade Confirmation

Spoiler

• +5,000 col (Given to Kooh from Sey)

 

Edited January 1, 2017 by Kooh

[Sey 0]

She took the transaction without even questioning it, deducting the col from his own account and adding it towards hers. The best part of the trade was when she actually was putting the pieces together finally learning that the pieces did not add up correctly. He'd calmly place his hands in his pockets, letting his spear fall to the ground before letting it dematerialize and return to his inventory. The commanding tone of a leader as she was boldly aiming to search for the truth, he could not help but smile. He liked these types of people. "Perhaps there is a bit more to my story than you might know." His smile sly as he would calmly look to the side towards the sun. "First, aren't you the slightest bit curious about my level? How I am able to inflict so much damage? Let's just say... I don't belong on this floor." Moving towards the direction of the sun in a walking manner, he'd continue to explain as he halted a few feet away. The promise he made was to return the favor to the guild for what it gave him. "View my profile, it should confirm that I'm in the 20's of my level. Or perhaps you might take my word for it." He'd then look over his shoulder, knowing the answer to the question that he was about to ask. It was a small little taunt, his violet eyes calm as he would speak to the ginger with a playful taunting tone in his voice. "Do you believe me? Or perhaps you are going to portray me like some villain for some reason." And so he'd turn his body around to face her, awaiting an answer.

[Kooh 0]

Kooh kept her eyes on him, holding back a scowl as he danced around with his words. She simply frowned at him, but maintained a glare as he casually glanced back over his shoulder at her. "You didn't answer my question." She said flatly, shifting her weight to her right leg before beginning to consider his own question. "Why, is that what you want? To be a villain? Because if so, you're being very cliche about it." Her expression shifted to a smirk and she matched his taunting banter. She tilted her head to the side just a bit. She wasn't going to gain anything from staring daggers at him, so she'd just have to play his game. She pulled her hands from her pockets, folding her arms in front of her chest and shifting her expression yet again to puzzlement. "So, what's the point? If you're not a bad guy, does that make you a saint?" She continued to prod at him. At least if he was a self-proclaimed villain, she'd probably be able to get a monologue of his master plans out of him.

[Sey 0]

The part that amazed him the most was how she did not try to bail out on him when he revealed that he was a higher leveled player. She instead just continued to apply pressure, which was something he definitely could play along with. Though he could not help but let out a small innocent chuckle when she said he'd but such a cliche villain. "Pfft, I'm sure I could make a great villain." He'd turn his head to the side, letting out a little fake "Hmph" as he closed his eyes, acting as if he were offended by her words. But it was merely a joke before his eyes would reveal once again to lock onto her. What was the point of it? He'd simply point to her with a straight left pointer finger. "The point is not me, but perhaps you. Eh, it could have been any newer player in this game, but you were the first one to catch my eye." A collected non-caring response as he shrugged his shoulders. The next part was definitely not it at all. "As if. Honestly, I'm indifferent. To satisfy myself, I like to help other player. Took a little bit of trickery, but I got you to take out a boar, though I was hoping to give you some loot..." His head would turn to the side with some shame as he was not able to complete that task. "Seems like that was out of the question. So I decided to give you some col as compensation, in which I hope you'd buy perfect level items. But, eh, who am I to tell you how to live your life?"

[Kooh 0]

The girl simply wore an amused smile at the thought. While her own motives were questionable more often than not, the thought of the boy before her as a typical villainous type of character was intriguing. As he took a more dramatic pose to vaguely explain himself, she replied with a simple, "Well then, you flatter me." while wearing another smirk, as if she felt honored for being chosen by him. "You're an odd one, though." She followed-up with a small frown again. "You could have easily just bribed me. I'm sure almost anybody would take free col and experience if you were just handing it out." Kooh offered a shrug, closing her eyes a moment with a sympathetic smile. "Then again, who am I to criticize your methods. Whatever works, yeah?"

She let out a small chuckle. "So, now what? I appreciate the offer, but it doesn't change the fact that this place is boring." Despite her better judgement, the girl couldn't think of anything besides an honest response. By now she knew well that players like herself were deemed 'part of the problem' in Aincrad; her unwillingness to advance in level and fight on the frontlines could easily be interpreted as a death wish, though she thought of it as just the opposite.

Edited January 1, 2017 by Kooh

[Sey 0]

"Odd? Not the first time I heard that, look at my eyes and my hair color and tell me if either of the two are normal. More so, this combination." Sey would reply in turn, yawning with his left hand covering his lips to show that it was pretty much common for him to hear such a thing. The ginger herself seemed to have red eyes now that he looked form the distance, though it was not quite confirmed. Red was kind of hard to miss, but they might have been orange, or they might have also been purple. However, all three colors would be far too unusual. "Oh. But I'm not giving them out to just anyone. To you, I looked like any other player, yet you were willing to help me and you helped fight a boar. Your original reward would have been all of the loot I obtained from fighting them, on top of the loot you earned as well." His eyes would shift to the right side as he bit his lower lip in embarrassment. "But that didn't work out too well..." She then would ask about what they could do next. The good way to get adrenaline running was to fight against the enemies. But he honestly would like to know her better as well. Placing his finger on his chin and looking to the ground, he would think for a moment about which he wanted to do. Only, his stomach would then growl a little bit, and an answer had been given to him. "It does get boring. Let's get outta here. I'm hungry, would you like to come to a restaurant? My treat, love." More British roots.

[Kooh 0]

"Pfft." Kooh hadn't been sure whether the boy's hair and eye color had been altered in some way or if they were natural. Though all players were returned to their real-world appearance during The Announcement, she figured there had to be some items that let people run around with even slightly altered appearances. Either way, it amused her again that he used his appearance as justification that he was 'rather odd'. She shrugged off his praises, if that was what he was going for. "Ehh, you didn't seem half-bad. Besides, who was I to turn down an upstanding gentleman in his time of need?" She teased again, echoing her words from their meeting. When he seemed disappointed that the monster hadn't dropped any loot, she couldn't tell if he was being genuine or just exaggerating.

A few moments later, when Sey's stomach made an audible grumble even with their slight distance apart, Kooh held back a chuckle. He suggested a restaurant, even offering to treat her. Again, another teasing smirk. "Man, giving me col AND a free lunch? You'll spoil me, y'know."

[Sey 0]

"Oh, shut up." Sey would reply with fake offense once again to her tease about him being an upstanding gentleman. It was not too often a comment he got in the game, but pretty common in the real world where he would shake the hands of many others who called him professional back in the real world. Despite his hair color and eyes, he made sure to be a good person to them and things ended up going well. However, around this ginger, he was able to loosen up a little bit. Her collected nature was something he admired, not a single care in the world. On top of that, she was even able to make a few crack jokes here and there in the process. "Pfft. As if you're going to turn down being spoiled. Come on, it's not too far from here." Sey would explain with a smile as he would make his way over towards the safe zone, though only too look back towards her to see if she were following. If so, he would continue to press on forward with a genuine smile. "So for real though, where do you even sleep? If the fountain was a better alternative to where you were able to sleep in the night, then how bad could it be? Inns cost only ten col last time I checked." The snow-haired player would ask, and it was a genuine question. Nothing unironic. Nothing sarcastic. It was him actually caring about where she slept.

[Kooh 0]

"Why, I never!" She brought a hand up to her chest, exaggerating offense right back at him. Afterwards she settled on another amused smirk. Sey was certainly an interesting player, and she found herself wondering if she would be seeing any more of him in the future. She'd at least ride today out and see where she ended up. As he started off leading the way back to town, she slipped her hand back into her pocket and gave a casual stride to follow him. Now she had to wonder where they were going. He said he was level 20-something, so would he still stick around on the first floor? She'd only been up to the fourth herself, and hadn't spent too much time exploring each level up to there as it was.

Then he brought the topic of conversation back to her personal life. With a frown, Kooh stared at the boy's back before shifting her gaze back to the towering city walls not far off. "In the forest, usually." She said without hesitation. She was curious whether or not he'd believe her, but continued. "Do you leave the city at night very often? It's quiet, since most players stay inside."

[Sey 0]

He'd continue to walk as they entered the safe zone towards the direction of the shop, in which getting there would probably only take about a good minute or a couple. In the meantime, the ginger would reply to him in turn for the question that he asked her. "Hm." A small little thought process was occurring in the back of his mind, as he was trying to see what he could do for her. The forest did not sound like the most comfortable area to sleep in, since there were not many areas to lay a head down on in the first place. Not without getting mauled by a bear anyways. However, he was not going to apply pressure onto that subject. Maybe if he got to know her a little better, he could propose an offer. "Leave the city at night? To be honest, I don't quite think so. I usually sleep in. Is there anything interesting to see out there?" His body would turn around, making him walk backwards as he'd look at her, locking eyes with his own casual calm facial expression. Within a few seconds after that, they'd arrive to the restaurant of his. Plucking out a small set of golden keys, he'd move to the double doors and open the building to her, opening it. "Welcome to the Keep. Bet you didn't know I had a restaurant, did ya?" A small teasing tone in his voice as he continued to hold it open for her.

[Kooh 0]

"For being a fake world, I gotta admit they did a pretty good job with it." Kooh answered simply, her eyes meeting his as he turned to face her. Most nights she entertained herself by exploring or enjoying the atmosphere of the game world after sunset. She was most certainly a night owl, and if she found secluded enough places to rest she usually wouldn't have to worry about neither adventurers nor wild monsters stumbling across her hiding places. Still, even sightseeing gets boring after a while.

Sey grabbed a set of keys and unlocked the door to a fairly average-feeling restaurant. The exterior wasn't too fancy, but it didn't looks like a shack either. The girl narrowed her eyes towards him once again, this time in a much more playful manner. "Well well, an established businessman, too!" She shifted her stance slightly before accepting his invitation to enter. As Kooh stepped inside and took a look around, she admired how simple and comfortable the environment felt--much like a cafe one could visit in the real world. Perhaps he intentionally designed it that way?

[Sey 0]

Maybe there was a little bit more to the game than he thought, and he loved to go out to the world to see new things and make new discoveries. He only saw so many things in the daytime, but there was a dedicated nighttime as well. And because of this, he would have to make sure that he checked it when he can, though it would be in his best interests to tell Pixel this before hand. "I could always use something new to see. Maybe when I get the Night Vision mod, I should be fine. I would rather not fight in the night, but that's not really my choice, now is it?" And he'd leave it off with a simple shrug. The best part however was that despite talking to him in a teasing and playful tone, she would still comment about him being an established businessman. That was actually right on the money... That was Sey, or Semato rather, in the real world. It was an engineering company that he thrived in, and here he was repeating that fate again. She was right, but their real lives never were asked, so he'd keep his mouth shut about it. So he replied by scratching the back of his head and chuckling a bit nervously. "I have no idea what you're talking about. Anyways, take a seat anywhere you like, seat at the counter or a booth is all the same to me. Anything you would like to eat?" Sey would ask as he would then close the door behind the both of them. Now Kooh was not just someone he had met, but as a customer. And a customer must be treated with respect.

[Kooh 0]

"Night Vision mod, eh?" The girl mused, The only game skill she had was her Martial Arts, so in the back of her mind she began to wonder if there were any more interesting abilities the game would let her mess around with. She shrugged it off, sliding herself into a booth near a window. The sun still shone brightly outside, and as she crossed her arms and leaned forward on the table to rest her head she began to feel the warmth on the back of her black hood. Kooh's garnet eyes followed Sey as she quickly made herself comfortable.

She frowned at his question. What did she want to eat? What was there to eat? She mainly got by on the bread she found in her inventory at the start and whatever cheap items she could find in the marketplaces; mainly fruits and snacks, but not necessarily full meals. She vaguely called to mind Adhae's cooking, but again it fit more in the realm of snack foods. Of course, it was the best of any snacks she'd had since coming to Aincrad. At that moment, she decided the thing she missed the most about the real world was food. "Mmm..." She grumbled, realizing she hadn't answered his question. "I dunno. What's your favorite? What can you make?" She shot back more than one question to weasel her way out of deciding.