[PP-F1] Let's Explore that Cave! <<The Third Lesson, Is Just As Free>> (ft. Steel and Rienka)

[Steel 0]

"Winter just finished after all. I wouldn't be surprised if that were the case. Some parts of the ground are a little squishy like mud but this is nothing compared to some of the stuff I've had to deal with." Steel said having practically ignored it until Reinka brought it up. To improve his physical ability in the real world, he had done a lot of running and mock battles while running on uneven ground so he was already instinctively moving so that it wouldn't hinder him and so that he wouldn't fall. "Stay close to me so that if you fall, I can catch you before you hit the ground."

Steel then felt a rock at his feet which he picked up and threw it forward, listening for a sound immediately afterward. The echos from the rock hitting something gave him some information. "Looks like it's just the snow melting. I can hear echos further down meaning that there's hard earth over there. So it should be fine after a bit. How are we supposed to find this gem anyway? I got a search skill but I didn't have enough points to get Night Vision."

[Reinka 0]

She grabbed his hand suddenly almost slipping. She stood up straighter and slowly let go looking around. "I'm not sure actually. I mean I have my pendant to help with that, should I switch my accuracy pendant for my loot pendant right now then?" she asked curiously. "I could look around, but if we have to get ore, how would we procure it exactly? I don't have a pick axe or anything. Do you?" she asked.

Considering this wasn't a quest for blacksmiths and the npc didn't give them a pick axe, could that mean it was actually a monster drop instead?

"I'm beginning to think I know why other players complained." Reinka bit her lower lip a little worried about her conclusion.

[Steel 0]

"Actually, keep on the accuracy pendant. If my guess is correct, we're not going to need to do a big search. My guess is that it'll be like that Aladdin movie. We find the jewel on some display, take it and then something bad happens like the cave starts crumbling or a monster falls out of nowhere." Steel said in response. "The ones who complained probably did because of the surprise attack in the dark on a beginner quest. That would explain the boss info I got...." 

"We probably just need to get to the end of the cave and we'll see it." Steel said with some confidence. He then took Reinka's hand again. "Wouldn't want you to fall again." He said with a small smile. "And on the low chance there's more than one path, it'd be best not to be separated." Thought he said that, it was more just an excuse to keep holding her hand.

[Reinka 0]

She squeezed his hand gently and followed him. "I didn't think of that actually. So it might be at the end." She stayed close to him and looked around watching her footing. "I'm going to keep an eye out for materials. There's probably things I can use here for my shop to be. If you don't mind I'll keep an eye out for that. "So you think the gem might even be on display or something? So we should also keep an eye out for some type of glow maybe?" She looked at the ground to see if there was anything coming up for materials. She was a little on edge wondering what might be guarding the gems, or if she get ready to book it. "If the place falls, you hold onto me, if you fall behind I'll pull you with all my might okay." she told him.

98896 13 (Didn't switch pendants so nothing XD)

Edited March 20, 2018 by Reinka

[Steel 0]

"I guess I'll do the same. Haven't got a shop yet but it'll be useful." Steel said in response as he looked around. "I believe it'll it'll at least be noticeable. Maybe there's a dim light and then the jewel can be seen with it. For all we know, maybe the jewel is in the boss and it wakes up when we pull it out. Well, we just gotta be prepared for however it comes at us. I'm sure we can take it on."

"If the place ends up falling down, I'll just take you into my arms and carry you out of here bridal style." Steel countered with a light tone. Though he said this in a somewhat joking tone, he would actually do it if the cave caved in. He thought it'd be easier to deal with as physical stamina wasn't a thing in SAO and though not at his level of strength in real life, he was still confident in his strength level.

Edited March 20, 2018 by Steel

[Reinka 0]

She nodded. "Yeah, I thought maybe it'd be a drop from some sort of monster." She admitted. She switched her pendants. "I'll switch it back if we run into anything, my pendant only helps me attack not dodge after all." she explained and followed him through the darkness. She looked around the shimmers of the cave. It could be ore or wetness she wasn't sure.

She giggled happily hearing him say that. "I'm not sure we have much to fear. This is a normal quest right, we would have heard of a cave falling in, and I'm not sure the game allows for it's structures to actually do that." she punched the wall next to them. "See it's immortal." she explained. "So I think we're actually okay." It was a pity there was no way to become immortal but that's how life was.

She looked around curiously for some materials.

98898 10

Edited March 20, 2018 by Reinka

[Steel 0]

"You never know, it could be part of the chain of events. In some MMOs a rock slide happens to separate parties to raise the difficulty." Steel said in response. Of course, he didn't actually think that would happen in a beginner level quest when only two people could do it at a time. "Even if there's a low chance of it happening, I don't feel like taking chances. Besides, it gives us the excuse to stay like this for the time being." He said this with a grin as he squeezed her hand gently.

Eventually, they reached the end of the cave and found the jewel which was for some reason being illuminated despite the lack of natural lighting. "Well, found it. Maybe they expected us to think there's glow in the dark moss or something." He said as they walked over to the jewel. Steel picked it up and handed it to Reinka to hold for a moment before taking the hand that wasn't holding Reinka's and drew his sword. A large stone guardian dropped from the sky in immediate response to the jewel being taken. Steel just charged up a sword skill and slashed a V on its chest, causing it to shatter into data fragments. "Well, that was easy." Steel said with a small smile.

ID# 98932

BD 6

Steel:

HP: 300

Energy: 26/30

 

Reinka:

HP: 200
Energy: 20/20

 

Stone Guardian:

HP: 0/20 Dead

Edited March 22, 2018 by Steel

[Reinka 0]

She smiled happily as he told her he just wanted an excuse to be close to her. She squeezed his hand back and kept close to him. "Well lets just hope it doesn't have a rock slide." She replied as she looked around at their surroundings. "I'm surprised there aren't any bats or anything down here and-" She was pulled over by the stone, and she held it with her free hand.

She looked up at the light that was actually coming from a hole in the cave. It must have lead up to a cliff side, and as she looked through the gem a golem was magnified and she nearly dropped the gem. She looked up at the name of it and saw it was a stone guardian, but it didn't even matter because her boyfriend was already in the enemy's face with a brilliant sword art attack.

"V for vendeta?" Reinka asked him as the guardian seemed to explode in blue fragments.

She put on her loot pendant.

"I'm going to look around for any treasure chests that might be around okay?" she told him. "Also, I can't believe you one shot that thing, have you been training that much without me?" she said surprised. "It was amazing."

[Steel 0]

"I have no clue. I was just using the sword skill Vertical Arc which makes me strike at the enemy in a V shape. Maybe there's something behind it but I don't know." He answered honestly as he sheathed his sword.

"I'm both hoping and not hoping we get a Mimic. That fight was boring." Steel said with a bit of a yawn. "The stone guardian didn't have much health. And I don't think I did that much training. I'm a higher level than you already and I just did some fights with bosses in the past by myself." Steel said in response. He then realized what he just said. "This was from before we met. Of course, I haven't broken my promise about not doing that sort of thing on my own." He said in a bit of a panic. He remembered how she was last time he mentioned something that made her believe that he could die.

[Reinka 0]

98936 1

"It looked really impressive." She told him. "So what is your skill with the sword at now or is it the same?" she wondered why that was her first time seeing that move, but maybe that just meant she work on being more freestyle with her own moves as well. Maybe it was boring but at least we got something out of it right?" She asked.

She looked around for any type of chest and kicked some dirt around not seeing anything. She shrugged feeling a bit dissipointed it'd be nice to find something in that kind place.

"Oh well. I guess I didn't find anything this time around." She walked over to him. "Maybe next time? It's okay if you train without me as long as you're prepared okay. I've started braving it a little....Just a little though." she felt a bit weak saying it. She should be more dependable like Steel.

Edited March 23, 2018 by Reinka

[Steel 0]

"Well, I managed to get my one handed straight sword skill up by a rank so my attacks are stronger and my skill repertoire is a bit wider." Steel said in response, not having actually thought about it. "Yeah, we managed to complete the objective albeit very quickly. And the rewards will probably help us in some way." He tried to be a bit positive.

Reinka was looking around for a treasure chest, only to fail and become dejected about it. "Yeah, let's look for one later. Maybe in an area that's not so dark."

"Don't worry about it too much, just go at your own pace. And I'll be here whenever you need me." Steel said in a tone of reassurance as he took hold of her hand again. "Maybe after we finish the quest, we can go to another floor and train a little there for a change of pace?"

[Reinka 0]

"You'd train with me?" She smiled happily and squeezed his hand. "That sounds amazing. I'd really like that actually. I want to get better as fast as I can you know." She admitted. "I'm not sure why though. You think I'd be afraid of frontlinning." she looked up at him. "Hey Steel, what's your goal? Are you going to reach the top? If you don't feel like doing that I won't either." She figured all the best items might come from floor boss drops but she also worried that it would be the death of her if she tried to do it, and yet that was part of the game. Maybe they had to risk it, so many other people were. "Hm, how is our funds? I have cash, I could pick up a few keys for chests to make it easier if we find them, or maybe we should invest in buying some blank maps to find hidden dungeons on some of the higher floors. What do you think darling?" She asked curiously.

[Steel 0]

"If I had to be honest, I don't know what my goal is. At the moment, I'm definitely not ready to be at the frontlines, both level wise and mentally. At the moment, I'm more focused on making sure I'm not leaving you behind. Well, perhaps we can take our time to think it through." Steel said in response. "We got a little under 80 floors still left to go and there are other ways to help the front line after all even if we don't fight. Well, the really powerful gear would be from up there though."

"So which floor do you want to go to after this? We can't go too high though." Steel asked after they had settled on going up to another floor.

"I also have some money saved up. I've only been paying with materials for my gear anyway." Steel said in response. "How much do those items cost anyway? If we can get more than we paid for it, we'll be able to earn a decent amount of money while earning some experience points. Who knows? We might be able to get a house."

[Reinka 0]

"What level do you think would be good for us? We should look into some more quests too, find out more about the world. Eventually I'll need to find higher tier items for my potions. I'm not sure how to do that yet. It might be because I'm not high enough level as an alchemist or player so far." She kept following him. "Us get our own house. That sounds amazing!" she leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. "But, if you build a guild wouldn't we have housing there? Though, a cottage someplace else would be a good idea, just to get away from things and enjoy life." she thought it was romantic in a way. "Steel, what kind of house would we get? I like a lot of styles." She never had her own home she was so use to living in hotels because of work, a place that was actually home sounded amazing.  "I i don't have any saved up myself, I've been too busy buying my armor and items for my shop that I forgot to consider a house. I guess I've been spoiled a little now that I stay with you."