[F-01] [SP] Punching Rocks, Testing Katana Arts and Hiking with Friends «Breaking the Unbreakable»

[Tsurei 0]

“Ah, nah, it’s nothing, just thinking over the data I gathered from the Katana test,” Rei replied nonchalantly, making sure to display a small grin to reassure his worried friend,

“I see,” Yuta nodded simply, letting go of Rei’s shoulder and standing with folded arms, looking out over at Takumi and Kenji’s ongoing battles, “So? How was it?”

“Not bad, I’ve tested out Rank 1 and some of Rank 2, there’s a area art suited for when I’m surrounded, another for when I want to make a strong enemy helpless for a moment and two purely damage output attacks,” Rei went down the list mentally, listing them out,

“That’s sweet,” Yuta smiled slightly, “I’ve been saving points for the Martial Art skills, I can’t wait to get it,” he looked over at Rei at the side of his vision secretively almost, “I saw you out there, that was impressive,”

“I guess,” Rei shrugged, “Some of them were a bit annoying in how they worked, I need to experiment a little more,”

ID# 135474
LD: 4 = No Treasure Found

Edited February 2, 2020 by Tsurei

[Tsurei 0]

“Still, it looks like we’ve still got a lot to go,” Yuta gave a sudden sigh, looking over at Takumi and Kenji’s fighting performance with a wry smile, hands on his hips, he watched as they clumsily fell over or panicked when the wolf got too close, how they were hiding behind their shields and lashing out near haphazardly,

“I suppose,” Rei smiled as well, a soft gentle one, his eyes squinting just slightly out of friendliness, he watched his friends’ amateurish moves and mistakes, knowing that one day that it’d all be gone,

“Come on, let’s go help them out,” Yuta slapped him on the shoulder before running forward, drawing his dagger and heading over to Kenji,

“Alright,” Rei nodded, splitting up with Yuta and headed to Takumi’s fight, drawing his katana, with the fights now 2 on 1, it ended quicker even if Rei and Yuta mostly took a backseat and focused on helping out rather than taking charge, otherwise, their non-combatants would never improve.

[Tsurei 0]

Those rabid wolves were already stronger than the giant silver wolf of the first floor, but Rei knew that the second floor had even stronger enemies, considering their level, they should be on the fourth floor to be considered even with the enemies in terms of stats alone.

The idea made Rei sigh deeply, just thinking of the strength of monsters in the higher floors making him somewhat dizzy, it was going to be ridiculous up on the hundredth floor, he briefly wondered if there would be a normally harmless creature like a rabbit up on the highest floor capable of instantly killing veteran players or something, would the game’s creator be that spiteful?

Well, if they decided to trap a bunch of people into a game where you could die for real, he supposed this wasn’t out of the ball park either.

For the rest of the day, they continued to travel through the forest, up the mountain, they were given a co-ordinate of the area most likely to contain the quest, so they simply tried to follow that.

[Tsurei 0]

Their journey was peaceful, serene almost, ignoring the monster encounters, the four of them were basically out for a normal hiking trip, out here in the wilderness, the middle of nowhere, not a single person around except for them. Long hours of walking and climbing with the occasional fight would still lead to boredom and that prompted them to chat about senseless things, things with no meaning at all.

“Hey, you said you still kept in contact with Airi, right?” Takumi panted, his head down and body leaning forwards as he climbed the steep hill with great effort, the question was directed at Rei seemingly, “What’s she up to these days?” he questioned aloud, more out of boredom and sound to fill the air rather than any genuine interest,

“Airi’s… I think she was about to finish her bachalors in creative writing,” Rei mused, rubbing his chin with a thoughtful frown trying to remember,

[Tsurei 0]

“As for what she was up to… well, last she told me, she was talking about how she spent the summer holidays abroad, over in France,” Rei went on, “Well, she was basically going on a girl’s vacation with her friends from highschool,”

“Eh… so they kept in touch huh,” Yuta idly replied up ahead of the group, climbing further and faster than the rest,

“Yeah, apparently, sent me quite a few photos,” Rei nodded, “Basically, France is romantic and so on so forth,”

“Ah… I remember seeing that on her facebook,” Kenji spoke up,

“It’s not surprising she’s still friends with Saori and the others,” Takumi shrugged,

“Rather, it’s just us who’ve been distant, huh?” Rei sighed,

“Pretty much,” Takumi agreed,

“Well, we’re not really the types to send a ton of messages over LINE or anything,” Yuta waved dismissively, “And anytime we try to do something, it’s only ever to hang out at Rei’s house for some games,”

[Tsurei 0]

“And whose fault is that, I wonder?” Rei glanced over his shoulder,

“What?” Takumi frowned, feeling pointed out,

“Well, if a certain someone had a proper sleeping schedule and bothered to go somewhere, we’d probably have done a few things,” Rei chuckled dryly,

“And since you never come along, Kenji never does either,” Yuta added, “Leaving just us two,”

“There’s nothing stopping you from going if I’m not there,” Takumi protested,

“Yeah, but there’s not much point if not everyone’s here,” Rei sighed sadly,

“Yeah, yeah,” Yuta nodded in agreement,

“Well, we’re all stuck here now, so it doesn’t matter anymore,” Kenji groaned pessimistically,

“You’re right about that,” Rei shrugged,

“Look, I’m with you guys right now, alright?” Takumi grunted, “So stop complaining,”

“Wait up,” Yuta suddenly held out his arm, causing everyone to freeze as he put his hand to his ear and listened intently,

“What’s up?” Rei asked carefully, his hands already on his weapon, glancing around himself in search of enemies,

[Tsurei 0]

Everyone froze in place, straining their ears or otherwise waiting for someone else to spot the problem,

“I hear water,” Yuta eventually spoke up, looking back at his friends,

Letting out a deep sigh and narrowing his eyes, Rei relaxed, “Hey, don’t scare me like that, jeez…”

“It’s a good place to take a rest near a source of water, so why not?” Yuta shrugged, waving him onward and leading, picking out a path among the rocky, uneven terrain littered with tree roots,

“I mean, we already have water with us to drink, so long as we find some flat ground we should be fine,” Rei queried back, not quite seeing the point,

Pushing apart the thicket in front of them, Yuta let out a drawn out gasp awe, eventually the others made their way forward and they all made the same reaction, looking over, they managed to find a waterfall,

[Tsurei 0]

Moreover, the position they were at was leading out to a flat stone platform like cliff next to the waterfall which was exceedingly close, on top of that, the platform was halfway up the waterfall.

Pushing away the bushes, what they saw was a viewing platform overlooking the way they had come from, the sight of open blue sky after wandering the dense forest was a almost blindingly mystical sight after their eyes had adjusted to the low light, the cool air tingling their skin and breaths along with the constant crashing of the water that speckled them with spray, it brought it with a new sensation, one of discovering the unknown and seeing grand sights they would never otherwise see in person.

The four of them wandered onto the clearing, eyes glancing all over, looking back, they could see the steep climb, the expanse of greenery from the forest fading off, the peak and summit in view above them,

[Tsurei 0]

And over the edge of the platform was a wide scene splayed out before them, the city they had arrived in that seemed like a old medieval European village from the past seemed so small, from here they couldn’t even see the people as little more than very small black splodges.

As Yuta carefully wandered to the edge, Takumi and Rei glanced at each other with a small understanding that both of them were afraid of heights, though curiosity won over for Rei, Takumi stayed planted where he was as far away from the ledge as possible.

Inching forward with weak legs that felt like jelly, though he knew this was a game, he also knew that visual perception was the strongest of a person’s senses and this was a game where death was still real. He had no doubt fall damage would be deadly and very, very painful. So he inched forward.

[Tsurei 0]

In reward, he was given the glorious open scenery that made his eyes sparkle in wonderment, like a child’s.

“That’s the city we just came from I think…” Kenji murmured,

“Yeah…” Yuta replied distractedly, “I think I can see the people, other players like us going off on their own adventures,”

“Well, they look like a blur to me,” Rei replied, even in game, his short sightedness hadn’t changed, it was nearing the point he needed glasses to even be able to drive safely, but he still had yet to actually wear glasses, vehemently deciding he didn’t need them.

The train of thought made him briefly wonder if he could even get glasses in this game, if they would actually help and how much of a hinderance in combat it would be.

“Let’s make this place our camp! It’s a little early, but damn…” Yuta declared, glancing around at the others for confirmation before gawping at the view,

[Tsurei 0]

“I suppose it’s as good a place as any,” Kenji agreed, glancing over at Takumi and Rei,

“Yeah, let’s do that,” Rei nodded in agreement, distancing himself from the ledge, “So long as this little cliff doesn’t randomly fall off, we should be fine,”

“I doubt that’d happen,” Yuta rolled his eyes with a small smile,

“You never know,” Rei shrugged back, “I certainly hope the game didn’t bother to make that a possibility.”

Soon enough, they split off, gathering firewood so they could have warm meals, even if it was just to heat up their precooked rations and other foods in their inventory, none of them were particularly eager to be cooking up in the mountains, they were not terrible by any means, in fact Yuta and Rei were decent at making their own meals, but they were no better than the average person who lived alone as a student.

[Tsurei 0]

Tonight as well, as thought it was a habit by this point, the four of them were huddled together by a campfire, sitting on fallen logs they had dragged across, a pair of triangular prism shaped tents erected behind them, sleeping bags within.

They sat, a blanket wrapped around them, the gentle, warm crimson flames crackled between them, seated by a circle of rocks, the four of them ate quickly from their metallic box kits scooping up some readied rice and curry with the starry night sky around them, a full moon well on display with it’s silvery light causing the water spray there was to act as though they were sparkling crystals.

Camping like this, together with friends out in the wilderness where you only had each other, in a world where death was real and outside the safe zone anything could come kill you, the sense of warmth and comfort in their camaraderie and friendship stirred a melting feeling in their chests that made them softly smile at each other, no words were needed to share this feeling.

[Tsurei 0]

Even so, soon their food was finished and everyone was satisfied, in the natural world, it was already quite dark out, the distant torches the only light sources for the town down below, the rest of the world was pitch black, only barely visible by the grace of the dim silver lighting of the moon and stars. Though it was so dark, it was not nearly late enough for anyone to sleep try as they might, so they simply stayed around by the warm fire, soon, the atmosphere got a little awkward from the silence, that’s when Yuta broke it by unleashing a hearty belch.

“Urp…” Yuta burped, grasping onto his stomach and glancing over at his friends for their reaction, Kenji had merely looked over blankly with no reaction whatsoever, Takumi sent a look of disgust and Rei sent a half furrowed brow and a wry smile,

“Ugh… that stinks!” Takumi gagged, waving at the air,

[Tsurei 0]

“Geez, what kind of uncivilised barbarian are you?” Rei commented jokingly,

“Sorry,” Yuta laughed, only slightly embarrassed, “I was just really full after that,”

“I remember you guys really liked the curry in high school,” Kenji recalled in thought,

“Yeah, seriously, curry Fridays were the best,” Yuta gave a wide grin and leaned forward, hand on his crossed legs,

“No kidding,” Rei nodded with a smile, “I still miss it every now and then,” he realised with some sadness, he remembered that his father used to cook meals for him when he came back on holidays from university, how long has it been since he last tasted that? To had any real contact with his family?

Long before he got trapped in this game, even further past it…

“We were never lucky, our classes were always on the other side of the school from the canteen,” Yuta complained idly,

Kenji glanced over at Takumi, “Our teacher always let us out early, so we could get there rather easily,”

[Tsurei 0]

“Yeah, keep making us jealous,” Yuta groaned, “we had to sprint to even have a chance to get our lunch within 30 minutes,” he glanced over at Rei, his comrade in the same class,

“Pretty much, I’m impressed you never slipped on that muddy hill even once going at the speed you went at,” Rei sighed wryly,

“I’ve got good balance,” Yuta shrugged in response,

“The last time you tried to jump over the wall you nearly landed on Satsuki, didn’t you?” Rei commented, remembering an event years past,

Satsuki was one of the uptight girls in the school, they knew her only because they would hang out at Takumi and Kenji’s class which she was a part of, long straight black hair, thin glasses, she was a bit bookish and strict with rules, the model hardworking student, above average physical ability and excellent grades, there was no one who didn’t want to share her notes, but from what he remembered, she didn’t seem to have many close friends. He found her eating alone several times in the past in the back park.

[Tsurei 0]

“Yeah, she nearly slapped me with detention,” Yuta nodded with a slump of the shoulders,

“You’re lucky I bailed you,” Rei slapped Yuta on the shoulders, “you still owe me for that, among other things now that I recall,”

“Oh come on, I help you out plenty of times,” Yuta pouted,

“Like when?” Rei raised a brow in question,

“Like…. Like that time when… er…” Yuta scrunched his face, unable to remember anything,

“That’s what I thought,” Rei gave him a small grin,

“Speaking of debts, you owe me some money for breaking my phone back in middle school,” Kenji brought up with serious expression, looking over at Rei,

“Come on, there was no way I could pay that back back then,” Rei sighed, “I’m pretty sure I paid you back a few years ago during your birthday too,”

“Did you?” Kenji looked at him suspiciously,

“Yeah, he did, it’s your own fault that you ended up giving it all away to the next charity you walked by on the way home,” Takumi attested,

[Tsurei 0]

Their conversations for the night went on and on, endlessly into the chilly night air where the only warmth came from the campfire casting it’s warm glow on them. They spoke of idle things, things long in the past, their youth that they would never get back again, something they all knew in the back of their heads, it made the young adults that they were, worried, not quite ready to adapt to the modern society that the world demanded them to do so.

Not that it mattered anymore now that they were stuck in this game, who knows if they’d even survive to make it back, a bit of them hoped they didn’t, wanting to abandon all their responsibilities and discard the expectations that weighed on their shoulders. And the other part of them refused to simply let themselves die, though it might come one day, they weren’t going to just let it happen.

That’s why they’re out here, travelling, until the very end.

[Tsurei 0]

The next day came quickly, waking up to the sight of a sunrise right outside their tent over the horizon was a blinding sight, Rei was the first to wake up, leaving the tent and stretching his limbs with a long drawn out yawn, rubbing at his eyes he saw the first sights of dawn over the edge of the horizon.

Breathing in deeply the chilly, fresh mountain air, he turned around to look at the summit that they hoped to reach at some point this week, their quest waited for them there where Yuta could get his Martial Art skill and start properly developing his skill trees.

He looked around at the tents in which his friends were still sleeping, considering that it was still rather early, he wondered how long it would take before they decided to wake up, should he go out for a bit of hunting?

[Tsurei 0]

Well, since they were out here in the middle of nowhere with no real way of telling when they might get attacked, he should probably refrain. Filled with a sense of idleness he decided to do a few morning exercises, since no one could see him, he didn’t feel as self conscious about it though he was still worried. He felt at least, he should do some warm ups considering they were going to be hiking the whole day away and his legs were still somewhat aching from the other day of climbing.

He didn’t intend to take it any further than that, he wasn’t sure if it was even possible to build stamina or hone his body within a game, moreover it would be pointless since his real life body was probably like a vegetable at this point, when he realised how futile it all was, Rei slumped onto the log, only to later get up and give his katana a few test swings, imagining enemies and possible attacks and counters.

[Tsurei 0]

It didn’t take much longer before everyone woke up, that is, everyone apart from Takumi, they had to shake and practically throw him outside the tent so they could wrap up the campsite, after a simple breakfast of some dried fruits and meat, they began to make their way up the side of the mountain, though from a smaller scale, they were really just moving up a hilly forest, and hoping that they wouldn’t end up having to take a long detour to make their way to the summit.

During that time, they encountered a few unwelcome enemies, namely, those shotgun bees from the first floor that they had to deal with when they were searching for Rei’s katana at the time.

Thought it was more proper to call these things wasps, they had an overall less fat and fluffy appearance, sleeker and more streamlined, their eyes were almost more like black streaks on their yellow heads,

 

ID# 134970
BD: 3 +3 = Hit [Tsuchi Kaze]
MD: 6 = Hit

Damage Dealt = 7 x 4 = 28

Damage Received =  30 - 17 = 13 - 10 [Regen] = 3

Rei [Regen 2/3]: HP: 337/340 | EN: 30 (-4) /34 | 7 DMG | 17 MIT | 0 EVA| 3 ACC| 1 BLD| 2 REGEN

Shotgun Wasp: HP: 72/100| 30 DMG

Edited January 26, 2020 by Tsurei