[F-01] [SP] Ruined Temple, Ruined Blade <<Katana Acquisition>>

[Tsurei 0]

“Well, it turns out that she wasn’t really as bad as I thought, she was worried and pulled me over to the nurses’ office,” Rei explained,

“Huh? But isn’t that locked?” Yuta frowned in confusion,

“Yeah, she had a spare key though, I guess being an honours student had it’s perks,” Rei shrugged,

“What happened then?”

“She just put me on the bed and told me to rest, she came back later with some water,”

“Airi did? Her?”

“Yeah,” Rei smiled softly, “she’s a surprisingly sweet girl, just a little awkward with people, we just… talked about a few things, for one, as it turns out, she wanted to get along with me but apparently just couldn’t, you know how all our arguments are random and seem really heated, she just had a hard time trying to talk to me normally. Afterwards, she got me a taxi and took me home, she said something about my parents being out and the neighbourhood I was in, so she stayed with me,”

Edited January 9, 2020 by Tsurei

[Tsurei 0]

“… Wait, did you...” Yuta eyed him suspiciously,

“No, no, no, hold up,” Rei held his hands up in a panic, “Nothing like that, we just watched some movies and relaxed together, I even got her to play a few games, as expected, she’s really competitive and a sore loser, naturally, I let her win a few times on purpose, but she found out and ended up really pissed with me, all in all, it was just a fun time,”

“… That’s it?”  Takumi raised a brow,

“That’s it,” Rei nodded, “after that she somehow got my number and kept sending texts and calls with rants and complaints, at the time that you guys saw us, I was helping her out with some shopping, since she couldn’t carry it all on foot.”

“… So… did you guys get together or something?” Yuta questioned, confused by Rei's tone compared to the events he was talking about,

Rei scratched his head, “Not really, we just became a bit closer… more honest, something like that, ah, we became friends, yes, that’s the word,”

Edited January 9, 2020 by Tsurei

[Tsurei 0]

“So you know, nothing really came of it,” Rei concluded, “We’re still in touch, though,”

“You guys are in touch?” Yuta raised a brow, from their school, he didn’t think he kept in touch with anyone except the people that lived nearby and went to church with him anyway, he was fairly sure the others were in the same boat,

“Yeah, mostly we just complain to each other, have a few laughs, think about our time at the school and all that. Come to think of it, I was supposed to meet up with her later in the week, she was visiting the area by chance and thought we should hang out together again.”

“… seriously?” Takumi felt like he had an epiphany with all of this and sent a small narrowed gaze at Rei,

“Yeah, I mean, she has a really short temper, but she’s not a bad girl,” Rei shrugged, “I never really disliked her anyway so yeah,”

“You’re a bit more thick-headed than I realised,” Takumi muttered, shaking his head,

[Tsurei 0]

“Look, I see what you’re saying, and I didn’t notice until afterwards,” Rei shrugged, “but it’s best not to make conclusions without hard facts in this area,”

“For someone who makes guesses on intuition, that’s rare,” Yuta observed,

“Well, I mean,” Rei sighed, “I got the signals, but I mean, what are the chances, it’s too ridiculous to believe and I didn’t want to jump to hasty conclusions, I didn’t want her to be creeped out, you know?”

“I guess so,” Takumi nodded,

“… I wonder if we’ll ever get back,” Kenji suddenly looked up at the sky wistfully, loneliness on his face,

“… we have to,” Yuta squeezed his hands into fists, “I intend to,” he looked back at them determinedly,

“Yeah, we’ll just do what we can at the moment,” Rei nodded, “There’s no point in thinking too hard about the future, everything could change in a moment and everything would be wasted time worrying. Let’s just, have some fun, until the end,”

“Until the end, huh…?” Takumi sighed with a small smile, “Yeah, if it’s us, I think we can manage,”

[Tsurei 0]

When you first come here, you would think that being in such a fun and lively, expansive world where everything is within reach, mystical monsters and awesome weapons, fighting and winning, you would think that it would be fine to be here forever, Rei thought so.

But the more you talked, the more you reminisced, the more you were reminded of all the little things you left behind, and somehow, it made your heart ache when you think about how all of that was out of reach.

Even if they got back, maybe nothing would change, but having all this time on their hands made them think about the past a lot. What could they have done different? What would they have done if they had the chance, and not in here?

They weren’t particularly motivated to get back like those on the frontlines, however few there are now, but at the same time, they didn’t want to be stuck here forever, they were on the fence so to speak, they haven’t given up, but they haven’t worked up the energy.

[Tsurei 0]

“… Anyway, it’s what it is,” Rei sighed, getting their attention, “We talked for quite a while, let’s wrap up,”

“Yeah, so you and Kenji will sleep, Yuta and I will take first watch,” Takumi confirmed with a nod,

“We’re counting on you,” Rei nodded back, entering one of the tents and Kenji entered the other, slipping into their sleeping bags, at first he wondered if sleeping in what was basically a bag would be comfortable, but it was like he was wrapped in blankets, it didn’t take long before it was nice and warm, it wasn’t exactly the most comfortable, but it gave him a glimpse of his bed at home, his bed at his apartment, or even their beds when they went camping that one time.

The fact that their lives were in danger out here, and that it depended on their friends outside to alert them and not let danger go by unnoticed, was a little unnerving, Rei imagined there would be plenty of potential for paranoia and mistrust in a situation like this.

But for him, well, if he died, he died, nothing he can do about it. He’ll be himself no matter what happens. With that in mind, his eyes closed and he soon fell asleep.

[Tsurei 0]

Rei woke up naturally, some time before dawn, he was drowsy and yawned deeply, stretching out his limbs over the warm sleeping bag, there was no concept of time out here without the sky in view, he laid down for a while, stretching out his limbs and slowly waking up before he stepped out of the tent to see Yuta and Takumi chatting lightly, poking at the campfire,

“I’m up,” Rei announced, taking a seat, “One of you can go sleep now,”

“Right, I’ll go wake Kenji then, we'll just swap shifts,” Yuta nodded, standing up, Takumi did the same, leaving to sleep in the tent Rei left, soon enough, Kenji joined Rei on the log, the fire was still very much alive, no problems around them and the sky was still pitch black with the outline of trees barely visible.

“Brr…” Kenji shuddered, pulling his jacket tightly around himself, as well as giving a big yawn,

[Tsurei 0]

“You sleep well?” Rei queried casually,

“N-not really,” he sighed back, cracking his neck painfully, “I could hardly get much sleep,”

“Were you worried that we’d get attacked?”

“Yeah, there’s that as well, but it wasn’t all that comfortable,”

“I suppose, I slept perfectly fine though,” Rei replied easily, leaning back on his log,

Kenji glanced over without saying a word, only the sound of the insects and owls around them along with the crackling campfire filling the silence.

“… Why are we doing this?” Kenji suddenly asked with a deep sigh,

“Hm?” Rei looked over at Kenji who stared at the fire,

“We have enough money to survive for a while right? We don’t need to go on trips like this anymore,” Kenji met his eyes,

“… Do you plan to stay still and grow mold for another two years?” Rei asked steadily,

“I just don’t want to risk my life like this.” Kenji replied seriously,

“… I’d just rather have something to do, something to excite me, to make me laugh, I don’t want to be weighed down by despair like that again,” Rei looked up at the sky and let out a foggy breath,

[Tsurei 0]

“So you’re just bored?” Kenji cut to the heart of the matter, “That’s what this is all about?” he got annoyed, he was risking all their lives out here just because he felt like it,

“Yeah, that’s how it is,” Rei admitted simply, “I’m just bored, I don’t want to sit around waiting for it to end, standing still is the worst, since we’re here in this world that doesn’t exist, where we can still see and feel, why don’t we explore a bit, see and feel a bit more? Things that we can’t see and feel in the real world are here, I finally began to move. I don’t plan to stop.”

“… So, what’s after this?”

“The second floor, we’re doing Yuta’s quest for Martial Arts, we have to punch a boulder or something I think,”

“… That doesn’t sound the least feasible to you?” Kenji looked at him with a frown,

[Tsurei 0]

“It has 50hp, if we punch it around 50 times, it’ll break,” Rei shrugged, “Easy peasy,”

“Easy for you to say,” Kenji scoffed,

“So? How are you settling in this world?” Rei suddenly changed direction,

“Huh? I-I…” he sighed, “I can’t fight all that well, so in a place like this, I feel like I’m barely surviving,”

“… Well, your HP’s high enough, so you mean you’re dying mentally?” Rei stated more than asked,

“Yeah… you could say that…”

“If you learn to fight, get the basics down, you’ll manage, it just means we need to get into more fights to get all of us adjusted,”

“… How can you and Yuta adjust so easily to this stuff? Because it’s a game? Because the two of you are into that anime or whatever nonsense?”

“Yeah, we have accumulated a fair amount of information about situations like this, being trapped inside a realistic game,” Rei shrugged, “Is pretty common for troupes, it let’s us understand the general idea fairly quick,”

[Tsurei 0]

“It doesn’t really help anywhere else, so we’re clear,” Rei felt like Kenji was trying to place his inadequacy somewhere by comparing himself to others, “Look, me and Yuta always liked combat stuff, so that lends us a bit more to this kind of activity, but everyone’s had to adapt, everyone had come here to play this kind of game, it just so happens their lives were on the line now.”

“It’s just… not easy to accept that our lives hang by the logic of numbers,”

“Yeah… but we can make that work for us, if we have the higher numbers, we will probably be fine, so if we’re careful, we won’t encounter an enemy that can kill us without a lot of effort and luck,”

“… Is there any specific information about what we’re searching for up here?”

“weren’t you listening? A temple, or tower more like, it extends to the skies and has a barrier preventing it from being seen unless we’re close enough.”

[Tsurei 0]

“Within that tower are treasures and loot we can make use of, including getting me an upgrade in attack power, we’ll have to fight monsters and avoid traps probably,” Rei continued,

“Right…”

“If we can increase my and Yuta’s attack power, we’ll have ample ability to take on whatever comes at us, so long as our levels are good enough, when we get back after these two quests, we’ll be well equipped to handle things, more over, once we get everything, we can even start searching for a familiar, that’d help us all out,”

“A familiar?” Kenji looked over confused,

“Ah, right, it’s essentially a pet, but if your pet was a small dragon that could breath fire to hurt your enemies, they can deal damage to enemies, protect you, or heal you, it depends,”

“That’s… interesting,”

“Yeah, but it’s hard to find familiar candidates, and it’s also hard to actually tame them in the first place, that’s pretty much a quest that’d take the whole day or several,”

[Tsurei 0]

“Oh…” Kenji made a sound of understanding, though he was barely following,

“It’d take quite some time to find and tame them, then there’s a separate quest to train them, which, of course, also takes a hell of a long time,” Rei went on about the quests sighing and frowning at the long amount of time he would need to spend on it,

“But we’re doing it after we do Yuta’s Martial Art quest, yeah?”

“Yeah, we should pretty much gear ourselves up in everyway possible, and I’d like to clear the quests in the 1^st floor before moving on to ensure we can handle the next floor,” Rei nodded, “As you say, I don’t plan on easily risking our lives and at the same time, I want to see everything there is, it’s a win-win,”

“… Sorry,” Kenji looked away, realising that his outburst was due to a misunderstanding,

“… Don’t worry about it, it’s just the usual,” Rei shrugged nonchalantly,

[Tsurei 0]

Their morning watch went by without problem, no monsters or other players would be out here in the middle of nowhere he supposed, they watched the sun rise, though being in the thick pine forest, it hardly made much of a difference, it may have snowed last night, since everything was covered in a fresh layer of snow, including their tents.

Knowing how they were, Rei didn’t wake the pair up until around noon, once they had ample time to rest, they went about getting rid of the camp, starting with taking down and collecting the tents, they left the campfire and logs there, letting it be a clear camping sight, perhaps one day, another person passing by could make use of it.

Though, at the same time, if for one reason or another they were being tracked this very moment, then this would be a dead giveaway. Well, it’s not like they could help that part.

[Tsurei 0]

They were back on the path, so to speak, there wasn’t actually a path, but still, they were on the move. The forest didn’t stop at the slope where they needed to climb the mountains or anything like that, so at a point, they would have to guess and walk left instead, after a hour or so, that’s what they did, hoping they were right.

“Hey, did you know that there’s a quest to get married and divorced in this game?” Yuta brought up to the others with a small frown, scrolling through the guidebook,

“Yeah, I heard about it,” Takumi nodded, “Getting married in a game is just plain out weird though,”

“Considering that we’re using our real appearances and essentially living out our lives here, I don’t think it’s all that unusual in this instance,” Rei shrugged, “In other games sure, it’s kinda weird, but this one is fair enough,”

“I agree,” Kenji nodded,

 

ID# 134125

LD: 2 = No Treasure

Edited January 10, 2020 by Tsurei

[Tsurei 0]

“But hey, isn’t there a lot of stories about real life couples being made because of an in game relationship?” Yuta pointed out,

“Those are kinda outliers,” Rei shrugged, “Usually that kind of thing ends badly,”

“It does sound needlessly romanticised,” Takumi nodded in agreement,

“Now, doesn’t that just say something about the desires of gamers like yourselves?” Kenji smirked over,

“What the hell?” Yuta frowned and glared over at the strangely direct insult,

“I don’t want to hear that from the dude who is desperate for attention,” Rei shot back in equal measure, causing Kenji to look away from their combined glares,

“Come on, calm down,” Takumi sighed, “Where did this all come from so suddenly?”

“Ask Kenji,” Yuta scoffed, “Besides, I’m not interested in a relationship right now,”

“Neither am I,” Rei nodded, “I was never all that interested in having a relationship, I mean, what’s it even good for?”

[Tsurei 0]

“Tch, you’re the guy with a girl fawning over you,” Kenji spat,

“What are you even on about?” Rei sighed with pity, “You’re overreacting, she’s just a friend,”

“yeah right,” Kenji looked away annoyed and unconvinced

“Jeez… well then, how’s your love lives going?” Rei shrugged nonchalantly,

“Just as well as you’d expect,” Kenji grunted,

“Nothing, huh… that’s unfortunate,” Rei shrugged, “You’re still only 21, I mean, 23 now, I suppose, you’ve got another 20 years to find someone, generally, after you leave University, you’re probably bound to find someone eventually,”

“… You think so?” Kenji sighed sadly,

“There’s no need to think about it too much,” Takumi added, “Whatever happens, happens, that’s just how it is,”

“Yeah,” Yuta nodded in agreement, “I mean, from what I hear, Takumi wakes up from blackouts in other girl’s beds all the time,”

“Look, it was just that one time!” Takumi protested,

“Still more than the rest of us, except for maybe Rei,” Yuta narrowed his eyes over,

[Tsurei 0]

“oh yes, of course, I sleep with girls all the time,” Rei rolled his eyes sarcastically, “There is not a moment I am not swamped in girls. Seriously though, I’m in the same boat as the rest of you, relationships just seem like a ton of trouble,”

“How is having love and warmth from another human being troublesome?” Kenji frowned,

“I mean, quite often it turns sour, right?” Rei shrugged, “Being too deeply involved and emotionally invested is just asking for a breakdown,”

“But the whole point of a relationships is opening up to each other out of love and trust,” Kenji frowned,

“That’s the ideal,” Yuta shrugged, “There’s nothing perfect in the world, and yeah, I know where Rei’s coming from, but I still want to have a family of my own one day,”

“Yeah, having a family one day wouldn’t be too bad, if I didn’t look at wailing babies with sheer disgust,” Rei shrugged, “Also women are a little too demanded and hard to figure out, right?”

[Tsurei 0]

“That doesn’t meant I should try though,” Kenji persisted,

“… You already know you’re mentally unstable,” Rei sighed, “I’m not saying you shouldn’t when it works out, it’s probably the best thing in the world, but it’s like a drug, once you lose it, everything’s just several times worse than normal. It’d be like having all your eggs in one basket if you’re not careful,”

“It can’t be helped, that’s how love is,”

“Yeah, it can’t be helped, therefore I plan to distance myself from it, besides, who in their right mind would like guys like us?” Rei shrugged with a small grin,

“You have that right,” Yuta laughed,

“Yeah…” Kenji sighed,

Takumi cleared his throat, “I think you’ll find that I get along with the girls at my university quite fine,”

“Not romantically though,” Rei added, “as friends it’s easy enough, since you don’t expect things of them,”

“That’s true,”

“Anyway, heads up, we’ve got some more hornets,” Rei warned, drawing his weapon.

[Tsurei 0]

There was once more another swarm of them, like they only travelled in swarms, perhaps the game was spawning several of them to match their own party size, it wasn’t a uncommon balancing tactic, but he didn’t feel like that would make sense when they were just wandering in the field and the monsters weren’t spawned for them specifically.

Though that being what it was, the battle was currently 4 vs 12, with each person taking on 3 giant hornets, these things were giant, probably human sized, but they were also agile and stayed in the air most of the time out of their effective range, meanwhile, they were forced to dodge their hail of shotgun blast like giant spikes that were shot out of their butts.

Rei threw himself behind a tree, hearing the cascade of tens of needles the size of arrows punch into the earth and the tree itself, he felt fortunate that they didn’t go through the tree entirely.

 

ID# 134126
BD: 5+3 = Hit [Rage Blow]
MD: 4 = Miss

ID# 134127
MD: 10 = Crit +2

ID# 134128
MD: 5 = Miss

Damage Dealt= 3 x 2 = 6

Damage Recieved = 7 + 2 - 8 = 1

Rei: HP: 259/260 | EN: 24(-2)/26| 3 DMG | 8 MIT | 0 EVA| 3 ACC| 1 BLD

Giant Hornet #1: HP: 19/25 | 7 DMG
Giant Hornet #2: HP: 25/25 | 7 DMG
Giant Hornet #3: HP: 25/25 | 7 DMG

Edited January 10, 2020 by Tsurei