[OP-F4] Awakening

[Aquila 0]

Frostbite Lake, everyone knew it was one of the safe zones. Despite being Floor 4, there was a large string of safe zones North of Snowfrost, which were a boon to the hunters that frequented these parts hunting elk. Hunters looking to score some game traveled North from Snowfrost, stopping in the Starglades for a breather. Most of them continued further, up to the lake. They weren't strictly safe zones, per se. There were no guards, no walls, and the only signs anyone had ever been there were the footprints they left behind, which were quickly hidden by fresh snow. But they were monster free, and in this world that was about as good as it got. However, there was a legend, you see, among the players. About 2 years ago a rumor started spreading of a great treasure at the bottom of the lake... But as all things go in Aincrad, it was never that easy. No treasure is without its guardian.

A crack, spreading across the frozen lake. Freshly fallen snow falling away into the newly formed fissure. Another one, the sound ringing out through the still forest. A third crack, freshly fallen snow falls off a tree branch in the distance. A fourth resounding crack echoes out, the surface of the lake an infinitely intricate pattern of spiderwebbing cracks.  A final, resounding crack, the ice shatters; a fist.

[Seul 1]

It was in times like these when one had to stop and reflect on the path they had walk leading up to this moment. As snow drifted slowly from the heavens around him Seul clutched the edges of his coat close in an attempt to keep warm. Although he wasn't too fond of the fourth floor it did provide him with a nice backdrop to collect his thoughts in.

Time was passing too quickly and the days of being on the frontlines, as short lived as they might have been, seemed to be at an end. A pitiful statement seeing as how they still weren't even a quarter of a way through the castle yet. He couldn't help but sigh in response to his own thoughts on the matter and quickly pushed them aside to avoid further confrontation with this truth. Instead he needed to stay positive; that was the only way he'd keep sane in this world.

---

Arriving at Frostbite Lake it was just as pretty a scene as the last time he had visited, despite the lack of a party going on. Though he wasn't expecting anyone else to be in the area, it was foolish to assume it'd be completely void of life in these parts for long. For now he'd crouch at the shore and enjoy the environment; maybe then his mind would be put at ease.

Edited September 12, 2017 by Seul

[Aquila 0]

Another hand joins the first, grasping desperately at the ice. Eventually, miraculously, they find their grip, clawing and scraping their way out, eventually revealing a large man crawling his way out of the ice. His status marker shows the ice rebuff, and it shows. His skin is slightly blue and he's drenched to the core as he crawls out onto the shore. As soon as he makes it to solid ground he collapses onto his side, gagging as he coughs up water.

He struggles to get back onto his knees as he crawls through the snow, not really sure where he's headed, just knowing that he needs to get away from that cursed lake. He makes it a couple meters, but it's very clearly not easygoing, eventually however he notices he's not alone, reaching out with a hand towards the only other living thing in the area before collapsing fully. A glance at his status bar would show the ice debuff has progressed to frozen, and his health has slowly drained into the yellow.

[Seul 1]

Seul’s eyes shifted upwards as something had broken through the icy barrier. A large man coated in ice was crawling his way to shore before collapsing in his tracks. Strange, but then again he should have learned by now not to question the things that occurred in Aincrad.

After getting up from his crouched position he casually strolled over to the man’s side, examining his sorry form as he laid there in the snow. The guy was a freaking giant, at least compared to his own average height anyway. Still, it wasn't like he could just leave him here. Using whatever strength he could muster Seul lifted the player up with a single arm draped around his shoulder; dragging him away from the lake and into the surrounding woods.

***

It had taken some time but he managed to gather enough dry wood to start a small campfire. That along with his coat being used as a makeshift blanket should have been enough to warm up the man. At the very least his health seemed to be more stable than when Seul first found him. Now it was just a matter of waiting for him to wake up...

@Aquila

[Aquila 0]

After a while the man's vitals seem to have stabilized. He slowly cracks open his eyes, grimacing as the bright light burns into his corneas. After so long it seems his eyes have grown incredibly sensitive. After taking a moment to adjust to the light, he slowly sits up, the coat that was draped over him sliding down into his lap. He's slow to respond, his neck lazily craning down to let him examine it further, his hand shakily grabbing the fabric to inspect it. Seemingly realizing something, he looks up from the coat and pans his head around, looking around for the owner of said coat.

Quickly settling on the boy sitting a few meters away in the snow. The orange marker above his head gave him pause, but ultimately he owed this player his life so he quashed his feelings and tried to put on a friendly smile.

"Wh-" He began to speak, but was interrupted by a deep hacking cough, his throat felt impossibly dry and scratchy. With a swipe of his hand he opens his inventory panel and quickly scrolls through his.... hm, well that wasn't right. His inventory was almost empty. A matter for another time, for sure. He's thankful at least his food and water seems mostly intact, and pulls one of his bottles of water out of his inventory, grabbing the canteen as it materializes in front of him. He takes a few generous swigs as he chases away the thirst wracking his throat, wiping his mouth off with a forearm.

"Ahhh, sorry, sorry. My throat was killing me. I gotta thank you for pulling me from that shore... I probably wouldn't have made it on my own. My name's Aquila, now who do I have to thank for saving me?"

@Seul

[Seul 1]

“My name isn't important. What matters is that you're alright.” He replied with a shake of his head while poking at the fire with a stick. While the fact remained he did save the man, that didn't make them friends or anything and with things like the Tracking skill along with being marked as a killer the fewer people who knew his name, the better off he would be. Hell, saving Aquila could have been a mistake for all he knew at the moment. Perhaps someone had left him for dead for a reason and now he'd go carryout whatever heinous schemes he had planned to do before getting trapped in the lake… It wasn’t like those plans, if they even exist, would affect Seul though. For now he’d just have to hope he did a good deed.

***

Times like these made him wish he had chosen to become a cook instead of a performer as he imagined nearly freezing to death would make anyone hungry. Feeling bad about not having anything to offer he instead he opened his inventory to look for anything he might have saved during travels. “So how did you get here, @Aquila?”

[Aquila 0]

He crosses his arms as he closes his eyes and thinks back.

"Hmmm... now lets see... I believe it was right about... I dunno a day after they cleared the Floor 7 boss? Everyone was rushing up to the 8th, I'd just gotten my shop set up in 7 in Nimbus. I'd heard rumors about this place, thought I could find some rare crafting material or something, plus I heard it was a safe zone so it shouldn't have been too hard, right?" He grimaces as he uncrosses his arms and extends them towards the fire to warm up.

"My memory's pretty foggy, but some way or another I ended up in the drink. Something pulled me down into the lake, couldn't seem to shake it off. Made my peace and all before I passed out, but... here I am I guess." He swipes open his menu again, but pauses and his eyebrows furrow slightly as he seems to be looking intently at it.

"How long have I..." He seems to trail off as he opens another submenu, and as soon as he does his scowl turns into a look of shock.

"Two years!? I was under that [censored] lake for 2 years???" His voice has raised a bit into a shout at this point as he quickly navigates to another submenu.

"What the [censored]?? All of my items are gone! They're just question marks!" He swipes away his menu angrily as he looks up to @Seul

"What's happened in two years? What have I missed? Have they cleared the game yet??"

[Hito 0]

Hito loved nature, all sides of it even the harsh cold, she had heard of this place from a man in the town of beginnings and came up here to study the landscape. The frozen lake had soon come into view and was surely a pretty picture apart from the cracked and shattered ice. Hito had looked for the cause looking saddened as Frostbite Lake's main feature was presumably it's frozen lake. Hito had soon found the fire on the other side of the lake and could barely see the two men out if the swirling winds.

Camping PKers for all she knew but she didn't want to assume anything and moved slightly closer, trying to listen into their conversation. She had heard the end of the conversation and Hito wondered what happened to the bigger man at the fire.

Was cryostasis in SAO even possible? Of course, there was a man claiming so infront of her.

Edited September 21, 2017 by Hito

[Seul 1]

"C-Calm down!"

The once peaceful mood had shifted to one of distress with the man’s revelations. Seul couldn't really blame him for freaking out though; if he really had been trapped in the ice for that long then he would have missed out in quite a bit. He'd try his best to fill in any details.

“First, no the game hasn't been cleared yet… Should've been pretty obvious since we’re still here. As far as missing things goes the highest floor the clearer have reached is twenty one. It's been a slow path to the top of this place and a lot of people have even died just to get us where we are now. I'd recommend visiting the Monument of Life when you get the chance to make sure none of your friends kicked the bucket.”

Hopefully his words would be enough to alleviate some of Aquila’s worries. He couldn't imagine what it must have been like to be so behind but perhaps things were meant to turn out this way. The world of Aincrad did work in mysterious ways after all.

---

[Search Attempt | ID: 88634 | LD: 20 (19+1) | Success!]

Before either of them could continue the conversation Seul’s ears perked up. The otherwise quiet woodlands surrounding the lake had erupted with the sound of crunching snow echoing throughout.

“We have company.” He whispered while his eyes shifted toward the source of the noise. A female player had managed to creep onto the scene without either of the men taking notice till now. Fighting back the urge to instinctively reach for his sword, Seul began to address the girl directly.

“Do you need something?”

@Aquila @Hito

Edited September 23, 2017 by Seul

[Vigilon 0]

As usual, Vigilon was just casually wandering the fourth floor, which occasionally brought a flashback to when he met Veriost, his familiar. The small white frost dragon wasn't asleep this time, probably due to nostalgia, and Vigilon was heading over to the nearby frozen lake. He continued to traverse the area, to then begin crossing the ice covered lake. He was wondering if he would end up meeting anybody else during this random trip in which he was really just wandering the floors as if he had nothing better to do. He then saw the light of a fire on the other side of the lake, and wondered if there were some players over there. The fire also might just warm him up if he was welcomed. Hey, just because pain can't be felt doesn't mean the bones can't be chilled by a virtual reality's chilly atmosphere, and right now he was starting to shiver. So he started running towards the other side, but the problem was, he forgot how slippery ice can be. First he slipped, then he fell on his back, and the lack of friction brought him the rest of the way. slowing down to a stop just a stone's throw from where the players were. How humiliating. As he got up, believing that the players were looking at him, seeing as he'd slid across almost half the lake, he said, "I don't know about you guys, but I'm just gonna try to forget that that happened. Anyways, you guys up to anything?" Vigilon still had yet to notice the orange cursor above the head of one of the players.

@Aquila @Seul @Hito

[Aquila 0]

Aquila returns to his seated position, leaning back against the tree as he strokes his beard.

"Floor 21 huh? Two years and we're still not even a quarter through..." He sighs wistfully as he leans his head back against the trunk. "Monument of Life... I can't say I made very many friends. I can only think of two off the top of my head, Rusty and Vashtor. Good kids, both of them, I can only hope I don't see their names."

He's broken out of his contemplation by the sudden arrival of two newcomers, a young girl who had presumably been listening in on them, and a young boy who came sliding in across the icy lake. "Well, this is quite a surprise, I didn't expect Frostbite Lake to be so popular these days, now that the front line is so far away." He beckons them over with a wave of his hand, his lips cracking into a slight smile now that he's regained his composure. "Mmm... I suppose it's a good thing, though. Damn near froze to death if it weren't for you." He said, gesturing towards Seul. Looking back at the other two, he gives them each an appraising glance. "So what brings you all out to this icy hell?"

@Seul@Hito@Vigilon

Edited September 23, 2017 by Aquila

[Hito 0]

The girl came forward from the frosty scenery and towards the illuminated campfire, she hadn't noticed how much she was shivering until she felt the warmth of the fire. Her eyes glanced towards the smaller of the two and she spoke slightly too quick, "I mean no harm I was just wondering what happened to the lake." She turned just in time, in an attempt to avoid eye-to-eye contact, to see the brown-haired man barreling and stifled a laugh before once again turning to her conversation with the two, "I was just here to observe the landscape." again she spoke softly, hushed and seeming to want the conversation done with. Her arms were held close, one overlapping the other, to her woven wool tunic and a slim sheath lay by her waist with a simple semi-circular guard, platinum blonde locks of hair falling down the side of her face, exposing one ear and only half of one of her hands, she moved closer to the crackling campfire and stopped before the heat had become too intense, when she became close enough you would be able to notice the light blue in her eyes that the mix of snow and sky had previously covered.

[Seul 1]

A giant, a hippie, a klutz, and a killer all hanging out at a frozen lake in a virtual world… It sounded like the setup to a bad joke. It seemed Seul had a knack for drawing in a strange crowd these days, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. In fact it had been quite a while since he last interacted with other players. Most tended to either avoid him outright or would only serve to slow him down while traveling. He might even say that this was “nice”, just sitting and talking for a change rather than hunting monsters.

“Wonder if anyone else will show up.” He said to no one in particular while beckoning for the two newcomers to join the conversation.

“As for why I'm here, I don't really have anywhere I belong. Not anymore anyway. Came here because I thought it'd be quiet while I think over my next move.”

Edited September 23, 2017 by Seul

[Aquila 0]

He clears his throat as he speaks. "Thinking over your next move, huh? Seems like I might be right, that orange cursor is more of a recent development, isn't it?" He pauses for a second as he looks over Seul, his eyes narrowing for a second before his features soften again. "You don't seem much like a PKer to me, though. Else I wouldn't be sitting here talking to you. So what was it, then? Self defense? I can't say I know how that whole PKing system works, I tend to stay away from combat, even more so PvP."

He turns to Hito, "And sorry about the lake." He rubs the back of his head with a hand as he smiles sheepishly. "Waking up at the bottom of a lake with your lungs filled with freezing cold water isn't my idea of a good time, so I kind of freaked out a little." Taking a second to finally look the girl over, he finally notices. "Actually, this is quite the long way for a sightseeing tour. That's still all the starting gear, right? I'd heard that quite a lot of people didn't leave the Town of Beginnings, but that was years ago. I figure if you were ever gonna decide to leave, it would've happened a while ago, so what brings you out here now?"

@Seul@Hito

[Vigilon 0]

Vigilon couldn't exactly tell if this was a good time or a bad time to have come to floor 4. Nevertheless, he listened to what the others said as he brought the situation to his mind, which brought him to notice the orange cursor. He backed up a step or two slowly, then even more slowly walked towards the conversation. "It BETTER have been self-defense. I don't exactly approve of meaningless murder..." So there was a giant(Probably just in comparison), a girl who happened to be in starter gear, and a PKer in this conversation. He couldn't expect much success in his words this time seeing as he came in such a humiliating manner, but he could at least try. "I'm Vigilon, the future leader of the Guild-to-be, the Rising Dragons. Sure, I don't exactly seem like a leader type at the moment, but we all have to start somewhere, right?" He didn't know whether or not the other players would know what he meant by having to start somewhere, but it was his only current defense to turn around his self-humiliation from the way he saw it. "I'm just wandering the first few floors at the moment, sometimes there just isn't much to do." He turned to Hito. "You look like you're in starter gear. Guess I wasn't the only one still stuck with that during my first visit to floor 4. Then again, if I wasn't dared to have my search in this floor, I don't know if I would have met my familiar." As if on cue, Veriost, who took flight when Vigilon slipped, flew down and landed on his shoulder. The small white frost dragon gave him a look. "Hfff." Vigilon sighed. "No need to give me that, Veriost..."

@Aquila @Hito @Seul

[Hito 0]

The girl turned her focus on and off their conversation until the part where he questioned the man's orange marker, of course she had seen it, she assumed everyone had but she didn't want to make judgements, maybe it wasn't a coldblooded development as The Giant said, even so what would she do about it if it was? Hope her legs could carry her atleast to the other side of the lake? No, if he was a cold-blooded PKer he was either an idiot or high-level but he didn't seem to be as The Giant said they were still here right, atleast for now... By now the conversation topic had changed over to her, the Brown-haired Guild Leader and Aquila asked her questions one after the other to which she resonded quickly, feeling somewhat rushed. "I'm actually here to map geographic anomalies within SAO to see how it differs from the real world that way, I heard about this place from the town so I came, it seemed like a good idea.. I thought I'd be alone." At this point she found herself rambling and let the conversation carry on away from the topic of her, thinking to herself about how weird this was, how the four had happened to be here all at the same time, of course it was coincidence but even that has it's limits, luck exists too, maybe this was a lucky encounter for her?

Edited September 28, 2017 by Hito

[Seul 1]

“If you're all so desperate to know what's up with the crystal then fine... I'm not the strongest player around, but I'm no slouch either. When you start going to the frontlines and word gets out that you're carrying some valuable loot people get desperate. They’ll do whatever it takes to get your stuff; even kill. I'm not sure who exactly the group after me is, but the guy they sent wasn't playing around when he tried to take my equipment. So I attacked him first in a panic and after he stunned me I tackled him and just kept stabbing until there were only pixels left.”

Getting up from his his seated position he stepped over to Aquila to retrieve the cursed coat he had used to initially warm the man. After putting it back on Seul turned away from the group.

“I'm not a bad person. But… I have to survive. If that means murder then so be it. I hope you all never have to experience this truth with your own hands. Still, I should get going though. Don't go falling in anymore lakes Aquila.” With that he began a slow trudge through the snow. Perhaps he was wrong about them. Maybe there really wasn't a place in this world for someone like him. The judging eyes of those around him never ceased to bore into his very being even in a place protected by the game's systems. It couldn't be helped. The path of an orange player was a lonely one; the sooner Seul made peace with that the happier he would be.

[Seul Exits the Thread]