[F01 - SP] <<Training Your Friend>>

[Yukiro 0]

Yukiro sat in his shop. Yumi was sleeping on his head, apparently very comfortable up there. Yukiro had tried to coax him off of his head, but he had refused adamantly to sleep anywhere else. 
It had been kinda cute at first. But Yukiro starting to get tired of having to constantly keep his head up. He had to do something. 
Could he train a sugar glider? Was that a thing he could do? He might as well try. 
...
But not in a shop full of sharp weapons and hot forges. He didn't want any impalement happening. That would be bad. 
Yukiro stood up. Yumi stirred on his head, probably woken up by the sudden movement. After walking to his shop's door and stepping outside Yukiro locked his shop up and left to go find an open space to train a sugar glider. 
Yumi began to move around on Yukiro's head, looking around at the town from her high perch. He seemed very happy with the current situation. 
What a shame he was about to be trained by someone that had gone through the training Yukiro had gone through. 

Spoiler

Yukiro

********************************************
LEVEL 12
240 HP | 24 EN | 10 DMG | 18 MIT | 3 EVA | 1 REG 

Skills:
2H Straight Sword - Rk 3

Equipped:

• "Sterondight" - 2H Straight Sword (T1 Perfect) DMG x3
• "Nightmare Overcoat" - Light Armor (T1 - Perfect) MIT x2 Prevent 18 damage from successful attacks against you | REG x1 After taking damage, gain Regen at the beginning of your next turn. Heal 5 HP every turn for three rounds. Damage over time effects (Bleed, Poison) will not trigger Regen. Does not stack with Battle Healing. Taking damage while Regen is active will refresh it to its full duration.
• "Ravenfeather Treads" - Light Armor (T1 - Perfect) EVA x3 Reduces the die value by 3 on an enemy’s attack against you. Cannot be used to avoid a critical hit.

Equipped Vanity Items:

• "Amber Clover Pendant" - Vanity - LD x2
• "Witcher's Vambraces" - Vanity - Thorns x2
• "Jack's Purgatory" - Vanity - Cursed//Burn//Blight//Freeze

Battle-ready Items:

T1 Health Potions of Uncommon Quality (+40HP) x5
Starter Healing Potions (Heals 50 HP) x3
Crystal of Agile Dragon Wings (Teleport crystal) x2
T1 Damage Potion. (+1 Damage) x1
T1 Over-Health Potion (+50 Temp. HP) x2

 

Edited November 13, 2019 by Yukiro

[Yukiro 0]

The Town of Beginnings was buzzing with activity. People were moving in crowds and swarms like schools of fish. It made trying to navigate town difficult at best, let alone trying to find an open space. Yumi seemed to be drawing energy from the crowd, zipping this way and that on his head, trying to see every possible thing there was to see. 
... Where could Yukiro go to escape the crowds..? Oh, there's an idea. If every body's in town then the fields must be nearly empty. That's where he should go.
Yukiro began to jog towards the Town of Beginnings East gate. He rarely ever saw anybody at the East gate, and not many people were out there anyways. It should be nearly deserted. Yumi skittered around Yukiro's head, apparently trying to find a place that was not bouncing. Eventually he gave up and retreated to Yukiro's shirt, hanging on the inside with his head poking out.

[Yukiro 0]

As Yukiro approached the East gate out of town he noticed a small diner. And suddenly, he could go for some food. He slowed down and changed direction, heading into the diner's entrance. After taking a seat a waiter came and took his order; Yukiro ordered a parfait. He didn't get enough sweets these days, he was always busy helping others do things. It was kinda nice to be able to go out on his own for once. Not that he was complaining. He'd rather help the others than not. 
Eventually his parfait was brought to him. Yukiro began to eat, but Yumi decided that the occasional spoonful was for him. He'd pop out of Yukiro's shirt and grab the spoon, nibbling at the creamy contents.
Yukiro had to use a lot of different spoons. 
When he was done that waiter came and took his bill. Standing up Yukiro left the diner. That was another place he'd have to mark on his map. 

[Yukiro 0]

After his short snack Yukiro, and Yumi, were ready to head out and start their training. 
Mare accurately, Yumi's training. But it couldn't hurt for Yukiro to train as well. He couldn't afford to get rusty. The pair walked at a brisk pace to the town's East gate until, soon enough, they had left town. Yukiro took a deep breath of the air. There wasn't much room before the forest that was near the town began, but nobody was here, so it was the perfect space to go and train. 
But first Yukiro would have to get Yumi out of his shirt and keep him off his head. That would be the real challenge. Yukiro held out his hand and tried to lift the tiny critter out of his shirt. Yumi fought the ordeal, but eventually Yukiro convinced him to stay out of his shirt. Then he had to prevent the marsupial from hopping to his head. This presented more of a challenge.

[Yukiro 0]

Spoiler

ID# 129035 | CD: 3
0/3 Successes

Yukiro sat down in the grass, holding Yumi in his hands. Yumi seemed to snuggle up in his hands, getting comfy. Apparently he was ready to stay a while in Yukiro's hands. It was kind of hard for Yukiro to say no as well. 
Oh come on, just look at the little guy. He's adorable! How could Yukiro just throw him out into the cold? 
Just because it's a beautiful, sunny day doesn't mean Yumi would be more comfortable outside of Yukiro's hands. 
"... Yumi, you little glider. You're a difficult one, you know that?" 
Yumi squeaked in response. 
With a heavy sigh Yukiro brought Yumi up to his chest. Yumi peeped excitedly and hopped into what was becoming a Yumi-exclusive pocket. 
This little guy is going to be the death of me. I need to learn to say no to him. 
It did not help Yukiro say no to him when Yumi started to purr. He didn't even know sugar gliders could purr. 

Edited November 14, 2019 by Yukiro

[Yukiro 0]

But it just made Yukiro's heart melt all over again. Standing up with a heavy sigh Yukiro turned to go back into town. There wasn't even a chance that Yukiro could convince himself to be harsh with Yumi. 
Trust me, in his situation, you wouldn't be able to either. 
Yukiro trudged back into the Town of Beginnings. He could feel Yumi curling up against his chest, becoming still. 
"Are you going to sleep, Yumi?" Yukiro whispered. The sugar glider didn't respond. Yukiro nodded. Yeah, he was asleep. Yukiro smiled as he walked back through the east road out of town. He glanced at the diner they had gone to on their way out of town. Maybe he should visit there again. But not now. For now Yukiro needed to find Yumi an actual bed. Yukiro decided that the best--- and only-- place he could go was back to the Lucky Armament. He'd figure something out there.

[Yukiro 0]

But... he could afford a detour before then. Yukiro cut through the center of town and navigated through several alleyways before arriving at his intended destination. A small hill resting right in the sun, a single tree providing enough shade for one to get comfortable. 
Yukiro walked up the hill and to the tree, being careful not to jostle Yumi's bed too much. He carefully sat down and leaned back against the tree. Yukiro closed his eyes and began to rest. Yumi rested on his chest; a tiny weight in his pocket that was steadily breathing. Yukiro rested one of his hands on his belly and slowly drifted off to sleep. 
... 
....... 
Yukiro felt something tickling his nose. What would be tickling his nose? Why did he have to wake up? He was having such a nice dream too. 
Yukiro started to stretch. And the thing that was ticking his nose moved. Specifically, it moved around on his head. 
Ah. Yuki must have woken up before Yukiro did. 

[Yukiro 0]

Yumi skittered up Yukiro's arm, whirling around and around and around it. The sugar glider ran up to Yukiro's shoulder and down to his wrist, and back up, and back down. And back up, and back down. He looked like he was having fun, so Yukiro let him run around. Yumi went up and over Yukiro's shoulders, crossing over to his other arm. And then the sugar glider repeated the process. He ran up to Yukiro's shoulder and back down to his wrist, and back up, and back down. And back up, and back down. And again and again and again. It looks like he was having a real good time. 
Yumi ran quickly up to Yukiro's head and climbed onto the tree from there. The sugar glider skittered all over the tree before deciding it was time to go back to Yukiro. The little critter hopped from the tree to Yukiro's head and then jumped back down to Yukiro's shoulder to start running on his arms all over again. 

[Yukiro 0]

Yukro was about ready to go somewhere. He'd woken up more fully from his nap and Yumi was clearly awake too. He was done running up and down Yukiro's arms and shoulder, but was happily playing up in the tree instead. Yukiro stood up and stretched his body towards the big blue sky. He leaned over to his left, then leaned over to his right. He stretched is back and his leg, his arms and his core. Once he felt that he'd stretched all of his body Yukiro looked up into the tree and saw Yumi playing on one of the higher branches. 
"Oi, Yumi! It's time to go, so come down!" he called up to the little sugar glider. 
To Yukiro's surprise Yumi jumped off the branch and spread his 'wings', gliding down to land on Yukiro's shoulder. 
Well, they are called sugar gliders for a reason. It's because they glide, if you didn't already know. 

[Yukiro 0]

Spoiler

ID# 129116 | CD: 1
0/3 Successes

Yukiro navigated through the maze like alleys of the Town of Beginnings and back into the crowded streets. Why was it so crowded today? Was there a festival going on or something? If so it would be hard to tell though the dense population of people. But fortunately Yukiro already had an idea of where to go next. If there were sugar gliders in this game then maybe there were books on sugar gliders. And that meant that a mandatory trip to the library was in order. Yukiro had passed it a few times while looking for places to eat sweet foods. It was on the far west side of town, which meant that Yukiro would be walking for a while.
The as he approached the west side of town the crowd started to thin out, getting less and less people crowded together. Maybe something really was going on. He'd have to check it out later.

Edited November 14, 2019 by Yukiro

[Yukiro 0]

The library was not that far away from where Yukiro was, so he slowed down a bit. The library was a building that was somewhat large compared to the ones surrounding it, but it was also built so that it looked almost the same as the buildings anywhere else in town. The only reason Yukiro knew what he was looking at was because of a plaque on the wall the read 'Beginnings Library'. Yukiro walked up to the wooden doors and pushed them open. Yumi skittered from Yukiro's left shoulder to his right one. Fortunately he was a quiet familiar, not one to cause a ruckus, so the library shouldn't complain that he was there. Just as he expected, the librarian only glanced up at him before continuing to write on a sheet of paper. Now, all Yukiro had to do was find a book about sugar gliders. In a building filled with books that may or may not have the one he was looking for.

Edited November 15, 2019 by Yukiro

[Yukiro 0]

The library had book cases that reached a few feet higher than Yukiro's head, and more on a second floor. So Yukiro had his work cut out for him. While Yumi simply hung around on Yukiro's shoulder, seemingly content to just sit there for a while, Yukiro was left to browse the bookshelves. He didn't know if he could ask the librarian for help, so he decided to just browse all the shelves book by book. 
He quietly walked around to the first shelf on the left side of the library. It was the only logical place to start. He started to scan the first row of books. 
Stephan King. 
Next row. 
The next row of books were... He couldn't tell. But they certainly weren't telling him anything worth knowing. Oh, there's a title he recognized. 
Twiligh-- 
Next row. 
He didn't recognize any of the titles of authors here. Though that may just be because he doesn't read much. But again, nothing he needed. 

Edited November 15, 2019 by Yukiro

[Yukiro 0]

Yukiro scanned the shelves further. As it turned out he was in the section where all the books were stories. Still, he wanted to make sure he didn't miss anything. 
The lowest row had been horror stories. That was certainly not what he was looking for, but he'd made sure to check every title just in case. The row above that had been romance. Funny how they had been put right next to each other. But he wasn't looking for Romance either. It was even more funny when he found that romance had bee put between the horror and comedy sections. 
The librarian must be spiteful about something. Much to his entertainment. 
The next row up was adventure; even he could recognize The Lord of the Rings. It was truly an iconic series. 
Next shelf. 
Eventually Yukiro skipped the rest of the book case as it was entirely nonfiction. And he was looking for a book on sugar gliders. Not stories. For now. 

Edited November 15, 2019 by Yukiro

[Yukiro 0]

Yukiro walked over to the next shelf. The books here were thicker, so it had to be the right section. 
Or at least it had to be nonfiction now. He really hoped he wasn't getting into an area where the stories were this long. Upon closer inspection, he found the books were also very dusty. Yuki picked one of the books off the shelf and dusted off the cover. The dust made Yumi sneeze. 
It was cute. 
The title of the book was The birth of the Castle Radius. Having never heard of anything like it, Yukiro flipped it open and started reading. 
More dust. More tiny sneezes. Sugar glider sneezes are cute. 
The book was about the lore and legends of castle Aincrad. It explained the lack of magic, the reason that the castle is now floating in the sky. It explained the menu, inventory, and other features that players could access. Yukiro kept reading, despite the fact that it wasn't what he was trying to find. 

Edited November 15, 2019 by Yukiro

[Yukiro 0]

Spoiler

ID# 129202 | CD: 8
1/3 Successes 

The story fascinated him. He had never been much of a reader-- he'd never had the time to read books anyway. But his mind was absolutely taken with this story. It explained everything about the lore of Sword Art Online. He just sat back against the shelf and kept reading until Yumi got tired of Yukiro's lack of movement. He hopped down off of Yukiro's shoulder and made a sudden, loud barking noise similar to a chihuahua that echoed through the library. 
Yukiro paused his reading and picked up Yumi. 
"Hey, you've gotta be quiet. We're in a library," he whispered to the sugar glider, "What do you want to do?" 
The sugar glider just stood there and looked up at Yukiro. 
Yukiro sighed and placed the sugar glider on his head. He closed the book and returned it to the shelf. He'd have to come back later. 
Yukiro stood up to continue his search for information. 

Edited November 16, 2019 by Yukiro

[Yukiro 0]

Yukiro scanned the rest of the shelf very carefully. He didn't wan't to miss even a single detail. The books were all thick and dusty, but with enough dusting, double checking, and sugar glider sneezing he was able to figure out the general theme for each shelf. Yeah, he was definitely coming back here. 
On the next shelf there were newer looking books that were nowhere near as thick. Upon closer looks Yukiro found that they were about the various weapons and armors in Sword Art Online. He pulled out one of the books and started reading. 
It spoke in detail of the differences in damage between various weapons and some of the sword arts available for certain weapons. Yukiro only skimmed through it, so he ended up putting it back pretty soon. He pulled out the book next to it instead. He sat down and flipped it open to the first page. 

Edited November 16, 2019 by Yukiro

[Yukiro 0]

As Yukiro began to scan the contents he learned that this book was about the two kinds of armor in Aincrad; light armor and heavy armor. Both had their advantages. Heavy armor could block more than it's fair share of damage and light armor allowed the user to evade more easily. That much was obvious. But he learned about two more enchantments for heavy armor that he wasn't familiar with. One was thorns. If the player was hit while wearing thorned armor the opponent would also take damage. The other one was called heavy momentum. When the one wearing this armor missed an attack he would gain damage to his attacks. How much damage was proportional to the items tier and the number of slots used for the enchantment. 
This was news to Yukiro. If he could figure out a way to use this to his advantage, he could become very helpful as a party member... 

Edited November 16, 2019 by Yukiro

[Yukiro 0]

He'd have to consider his options later though. Right now he had more important things to focus on. Yukiro stood up and closed the book, re shelving it in the same place he had taken the book from. He scanned further down the section. More books were, in a sense, tutorial books. It dawned on Yukiro that if he'd come here after first entering the game he'd have known everything he'd need to do to get stronger faster. 
He pulled a new book off the shelf, finding out that this one was about skills. Specifically, it was about utility skills. He started reading without sitting down this time. 
One skill in particular caught his attention.
Quick Change. 
With it he could switch equipment instantly. Now that was something that he could take advantage of. Switching between weapons and armor as needed? He could adapt to support and defend other players, even switching to a full on DPS style if needed. 

Edited November 16, 2019 by Yukiro

[Yukiro 0]

More things he'd have to consider further. Yukiro closed the book and replaced it on the shelf. He scanned the titles of the next few books... it looks like they were all on various kinds of skills. He picked out the next one. It was about combat skills. That sounded very useful. He flipped open the cover and started skimming pages. Yet again, a skill stood out to him. Parry. It halved the damage taken, which was a more than useful ability. It might be a key one in defeating many foes. And it had mods... Ah, the skills could be expanded to do more. Interesting. One of the mods could stun an opponent and render them helpless, while the other countered the damage and dealt the parried damage to the attacker. 
This was incredible, but Yukiro would have to plan wisely. All of these skills cost a large amount of SP, which was not an abundant resource by any means. 

Edited November 16, 2019 by Yukiro

[Yukiro 0]

Spoiler

ID# 129277 | CD: 3
1/3 Successes

On to the next book, Yukiro supposed. He closed the one in his hand and replaced it on the shelf. He picked the next book out, scanning the title before flipping open the cover and starting to read. Weapon skills. This could easily be the most important of all the skills in this entire game. At least, that was what Yukiro thought. The book listed the various aspects of different weapons; some were light and fast with low energy requirements while others required more energy in exchange for more massive attack power. The next thing it listed was mods. There were four different mods; two reduced the energy needed to use the weapon, another increased it's potential accuracy and a final one increased damage. All of them were appealing, but it was more important that he level up his two-handed sword skill for now. He supposed there was no reason to read on.

Edited November 16, 2019 by Yukiro