[F-01] [SP] Little Emerald and a Stingy Mimic «DHA 1: the Emerald Hatchling»

[Tsurei 0]

Spoiler

Stats

Level: 20

Hit Points: 400

Energy: 40

Combat Stats

Damage: 8

Mitigation: 17

Accuracy: 3

Evasion: 0

Weapons

[T1] [Perfect] [Katana] Mizuha (Damage 2, Bleed 1)

Armour/Accessories

[Vanity] [Light Armour] Dark Leather Armour [T1] [Perfect] [Light Armour] Ocean's Mantle (Mitigation 1, Regen 2) [T1] [Perfect] [Trinket] Ice Star Chain (Accuracy 3)

Battle Ready Items

5 x [T1] [Uncommon] Health Potions  (+40hp) 2 x Immolation Potions 1 x [T1] [Rare] Damage Potion (+2 Damage, 1 Thread) 1 x [T1] [Uncommon] Over-Health Potion (+50 Temp HP) 1 x Snake Venom

 

 

Their destination was a place called the Emerald Grove, where the Emerald Hatchling resided protecting a gemstone of the same colour, a gemstone that according to the guidebook, was one of nine gemstones that acted as keys into the dragon’s castle on floor 10. They were nowhere near tackling something like that, but for now, since this was a Floor 1 boss monster, they probably could do fine.

The Emerald Hatchling had a hundred and twenty five hit points, twenty five mitigation from the armour of it’s scales, and a basic damage output of fifty per hit, it was no joke, they’ve fought something close to it in stats before, but the high mitigation was a first, with that kind of damage output, they would have to be extremely careful during every moment of the combat. If it landed 8 hits on any one of them, it was game over.

Edited February 11, 2020 by Tsurei

[Tsurei 0]

According to the guidebook, there was more. The Emerald Dragon was capable of unleashing a magic infused screech that caused the body to slow down, it was a rare occurrence or proc rate, but it was still something to take into mind.

Ignoring their armour, if the dragon hit them 8 times they would die, for Rei, if he considered his armour, he could probably take around 16 hits consecutively before dying, as a result of his mitigation and regeneration, Takumi and Kenji would probably last even longer because of their shields and defense focused builds, but Yuta was probably in the same boat as Rei.

Meanwhile his strongest sword Art did fourty-eight damage, reduced by it’s mitigation, it would be twenty three or so. Meaning approximately 6 hits to kill the creature. All in all, it was clear that they were the stronger ones, the quest was recommended for level 10s but Rei couldn’t help but curse at that kind of recommendation,

Edited February 11, 2020 by Tsurei

[Tsurei 0]

If they were Level 10, they would only have two-hundred health points, that thing could kill them in 4 hits! He supposed the point was to deal with it as a team, but from what he could see, it was still incredibly reckless. As he articulated words to convey his train of thought, he could sense his friends become tense and then relax,

“So yeah, as long as we’re careful, there’s very little chance we’ll lose to it,” Rei concluded in what he hoped to be an encouraging but cautionary statement,

“There’s four of us! it’ll be easy!” Yuta waved dismissively, trying to hide his earlier nervousness,

“If it didn’t multiply it’s health bar because of the number of people in our party,” Takumi sighed, almost shooting Yuta with an invisible arrow that caused him to wince visibly,

“W-well, it’s just the health, right? Not like the damage or anything,” Yuta tried to steer it back to the optimistic side of things,

Edited February 11, 2020 by Tsurei

[Tsurei 0]

“… Are we really going to be alright?” Kenji mumbled, worry etched on his face as he trudged along at the back of the group, his expression showed that he didn’t share in the group’s carefree chatter and optimism,

“Well, going by the numbers, we’ll be perfectly fine,” Rei shrugged at the front, with those kinds of odds, he felt that it was perfectly reasonable to be relaxed about the encounter, but he was still careful to be cautious,

“by the numbers that is, it sounds good on paper, but who knows what it’ll actually be like,” Takumi dismissed that notion as well, almost as if he was dead determined on showing that this was a horrible idea no matter how you looked at it, after all, they were headed to kill a dragon in first person with all senses simulated, it was going to hurt and be terrifying since it was a world of difference from behind a computer screen.

[Tsurei 0]

“We should be careful, we can’t let ourselves die here,” Yuta stated firmly, his tone hard and serious as he glanced over them all, “I have no intention of dying here, we’ll run if it all goes badly, but if Rei thinks we can do it, I’ll trust him,”

“Since when did you have that much trust in him?” Takumi raised a brow with a odd expression on his face, trying to figure out where such a strong emotion came from,

“I think it’s possible as well and a reasonable difficulty, we’re nearly double the recommended level and by the numbers we should be well capable of doing this, Rei wouldn’t mess around with that and I’m sure he’s doing this because it’s a calculated risk,” Yuta explained at length, trying to convey things objectively.

Everyone’s eyes fell onto Rei who immediately felt uncomfortable, what he was doing wasn’t all that great really, thus far, he’s been selecting quests that he was sure he could complete with a good margin of error,

[Tsurei 0]

Then he stopped to think about it and quickly realised something,

“You’re just saying that so you can blame it all on me when it goes south,” he cried out, smacking Yuta over the top of the head in a friendly manner,

“I guess you found me out,” Yuta stuck out his tongue slyly and glanced away,

“You little…” Rei sighed, slumping his shoulders with a hint of mock anger, “Whatever, it’ll be easy enough, but it’s going to be tough like everything else, so don’t slack off, got it!?” he shouted over, turning over to face them directly, hands on his hips,

“Yeah…” Kenji and Takumi looked over at each other uneasily,

“Yeah!” Yuta gave an exaggerated salute,

“And you two in the  back, you’re the ones with the most armour and mitigation, you’ll have an easier time surviving than me or Yuta,” Rei pointed out with a finger, jabbing at their shiny heavy metal armour or extravagant shields,

[Tsurei 0]

“Yeah, but we’re easier to hit,” Takumi shrugged with a wry smile,

“But that armour’s going to mitigate it all anyway,” Rei rolled his eyes in exasperation,

“If we’re hit more often, it’s going to even out anyway,” Takumi argued back with a narrowed stare,

“Me and Yuta will be the ones doing most the fighting anyway, since we’re the attackers we’ll hold most of the dragon’s attention anyway, so it’ll be aiming at us instead of you guys!" Rei threw his arms up in the air, turning around and continuing to walk, giving up on extended arguments.

The four of them walked in a straight line through the forest, as they did the forest got thicker and thicker, the canopy of leaves above them soon blanketed out the sunlight and bathed everything in a dark grey shadow, the sound of birds chirping gradually got quieter, leaving them only with the now chilly wind rusting the leaves around them without the sun to warm them up to make it a pleasant spring.

[Tsurei 0]

The roots underfoot got more common on the surface of the ground, lush grass gradually faded with the lack of sunlight and flowers ere no longer in sight, only gloomy mushrooms of various ilk remained growing at the base of the thick trees that dotted the entire area, it wasn’t long before walking in a straight line for more than a few meters became impossible as it soon felt more like they were intricately climbing up a mountain, careful to find the flat ground between roots of varying heights and depths on the surface. Creatures like wolves and wild animals were all over the place, but because of the level difference they practically fled when they got into aggro range.

Thanks to that, they had a relatively peaceful journey, but at the same time, seeing the animals run away when they ever got too close made them feel a little strange and somewhat insulted.

[Tsurei 0]

During the journey the group didn’t say much to each other, they were slowly heading deeper and deeper into unknown territory with the fight against a iconic dragon was soon coming up, everyone was busy stewing in their own thoughts and considering combat scenarios and responses, guessing at what the fight would turn out to be like.

Hearing the sound of a dry twig snap in the silent and heavy atmosphere made everyone nearly jump out of their skin, if not from the sound then from each other’s shocked reactions,

“AH!” Kenji was the most skittish, yelping and jumping visibly,

“Argh!?” Takumi was the closest to that, so is reaction in turn was to whip around raising his arm defensively with a disgruntled cry,

Yuta reacted almost exaggeratedly violently, he summoned his dagger and raised his fists into a low crouched defensive stance, facing Takumi and Kenji, the sources of the sound with an intense glare,

[Tsurei 0]

Meanwhile Rei visibly jerked in the front, but not much more as a chain reaction to the other’s surprise, he appeared relaxed and composed but really it was just because he was either too lazy or he simply didn’t have the kind of skittish flight of fight reaction time needed to react in any meaningful way.

So he turned to look at the others with a raised brow, “What are you guys doing?” he asked with a disturbed, judgemental sigh,

“Ah, you bloody…” Takumi cursed as he lowered his arm, greatly annoyed and greatly relieved in equal measures, his face red from embarrassment,

“phew…” Yuta let out a relaxing breath as he unsummoned his dagger and stood upright, staring at Kenji with a disapproving expression,

The focus of everyone’s grumbles now, Kenji could only give an awkward, lopsided apologetic smile, as he scratched the back of his head, “Sorry… I was just surprised…”

[Tsurei 0]

“Be less surprised then, stop being so scared,” Yuta scowled with mild annoyance, turning around and following after Rei as they resumed walking,

“Or better yet, be surprised quieter! You screamed in my ear!” Takumi grumbled, shaking his head as he tossed a unreasonable complaint towards his friend,

“Well, it’s not like I can blame you, it’s so quiet and we haven’t talked much,” Rei shrugged from the front, he acted the most mature in this situation, but it was also simply because he was the least affected,

“Y-yeah…” Kenji turned his face downward in shame, trying to avoid meeting anyone’s eyes that he was sure were glaring at him right now, even though they actually weren’t,

“if you’re so tense all the time, you’ll just get exhausted, so everyone just relax…” Rei gave his lackadaisical advice with a small carefree smile,

“Easy for you to say!” Takumi shouted back in rebuttal,

[Tsurei 0]

“But he’s not wrong,” Yuta answered in begrudging support as he let out a quick sigh, dispelling more of his body’s tension that he didn’t realise he had held in, “At this rate, we’ll have problems fighting the dragon,”

“Why do we even have to fight something like a bloody dragon anyway!? We could’ve just ignored it, right?” Takumi demanded an explanation, now too annoyed by the earlier incident to stop complaining,

“Well, my plan was for us to complete every quest on each floor going up,” Rei shrugged, giving a `isn’t it obvious,` explanation, “That way we can earn the rewards, gain the extra exp and so on along the way, it’s more efficient than grinding and it’s a good way to explore around like we’re supposed to,”

“That’s just what you want to do, what about us!?” Takumi cried out, slapping his chest in referral,

“Part of the whole adventuring thing means that we’ve gotta do it with friends right?” Rei looked with a expression that was full of annoyance that he was the one who had to deal with this outburst,

[Tsurei 0]

“Besides, I don’t remember anyone complaining about it half an hour ago,” Rei pouted in argument,

“There was! I did! You just ignored it!” Takumi cried out, looking so infuriated that he might just tear out his curly brown hair,

“Yeah, yeah, well, we’re here anyway, so let’s just wrap up the dragon fight and go back home to sleep,” Rei sighed, giving up entirely on the explanation and argument,

His exhausted expression suddenly disappeared, all the tiredness, laziness and slovenly expression disappearing instantly as he felt a strange weightless sensation take hold of his gut for just a moment.

“What was- guys?” he looked around to ask what just happened, but instead he couldn’t see anyone at all, the forest had changed entirely, all of a sudden, he was standing in front of a large mound of dirt with a cave entrance under it, even from here he could see the faintly glowing green crystals that grew at the base of the trees,

[Tsurei 0]

The tree’s themselves didn’t appear any different, but their leaves seemed oddly brilliantly green now, looking around himself, all the trees of the forest also had these emeralds all of a sudden. Looking back at the cave, he could see that the earthen ceiling seemed to be held together by the roots packing the dirt tightly together, he didn’t get it, but this was a scenery often seen in video games.

“Rei!?” Yuta’s voice suddenly cried out in searching alarm right next to him, causing him to jump, Yuta had the exact same reaction as him, “Rei? You’re here?” his voice was full of bewilderment and relief,

“Y-yeah… where did you guys go?” Rei asked in response, struggling to understand just what happened,

“We were just behind you, then you disappeared…” Yuta looked around himself as well, coming to realise that Takumi and Kenji behind him were nowhere to be seen,

[Tsurei 0]

On the other end of the invisible wall, Takumi and Kenji had stopped in their tracks, staring ahead in pure horror as they had watched two of their friends disappeared in the blink of an eye, not even a trace to be seen.

The pair looked at each other to see if the other had any idea what just happened,

“Did you see anything?” Takumi questioned for confirmation, but he instinctively knew by the look on Kenji’s face that he also didn’t see anything,

“No, nothing, they were just in front of us and now they’re gone,” Kenji shook his head with a shaken up shiver of fear,

“… What should we do?” Yuta glanced around, now that he thought to look, he consciously realised that they were surrounded by feral, wild animals of the forest, namely wolves and the like, circling them cautiously, baring their fangs and red tinged eyes with bloodlust,

[Tsurei 0]

“I-I don’t know!” Kenji cried out, his voice a pitch higher and his tone nearly carried a angry, accusatory tone,

“We can’t… just leave them,” Takumi muttered, his eye twitching as he realised that no matter how much he wanted to just run away from it all and leave this all behind, he really couldn’t bring himself to abandon his friends like this,

“R-right…” Kenji replied uncertainly, his voice seemed clear that he felt just as much desire to run away, but certainly a lot less spine to decide to stay and search like he did, with a small sigh when he realised this, Takumi shook his head to clear his thoughts,

“...I’m going to look for them, what about you?” Takumi looked over at him dead on, seriously asking for his intentions,

“I…I…” I want to run away… was an answer that Kenji couldn’t bring himself to say out loud, not because of the guilt, but because of how shameful such a statement would be, it would be admitting to being a coward,

[Tsurei 0]

He gulped down his saliva as he felt his entire body tense with the effort of forcing his next words out, “…I’ll… look too…”

“Right.” Takumi nodded, his eyes widened as he looked at Kenji in a new light, his reaction was unexpected, he thought to himself in a calm, observing manner, “Then let’s get going, I don’t know about you, but I have no desire to end up as their afternoon lunch,” he jabbed his finger over to the wolves with a small mocking smile, hoping to ease things up,

“Y-yeah…” But Kenji completely missed that, he took the comment at face value and he too, feared becoming the wolve’s figurative lunch, well, since they would disintegrate into nothingness when they died and the wolves were just NPCs that didn’t need sustenance or even sentience in the first place. Though with the realness of the game, like VR, you found yourself forgetting details like that and make assumptions that it was all real.

[Tsurei 0]

“Hey, what are you guys doing?” Rei’s voice was filled with a friendly, judgemental tone, just from hearing his voice made a clear image of his expression in their heads, one of a conflicted expression with one brow raised and the other furrowed as he looked at them with something halfway from laughing or crying, it was that kind of in-between but contradictory show of emotions,

His sudden voice that they didn’t expect to hear right next to then caused the pair of them to jump out of their skin yelping,

“R-Rei!?” Kenji cried out in shock, his eyes wide,

“I’m here too you know,” Yuta sighed, walking out from behind Rei, almost as if appearing from thin air,

“Yuta!? Where did you two go…?” Takumi frowned as he stared at them with concentration, his eyes slowly widened as he noticed that the air from where the pair appeared shimmered ever so slightly, it was like a ripple across invisible air coloured water, like the haze from a hot summer’s day, it was so faint you’d think you were just imagining it.

[Tsurei 0]

“What’s going on…?” Takumi muttered in question, frowning as he stared and rubbed his chin at the shimmer which soon disappeared entirely, though he couldn’t be sure and wondered if he just lost his place to look and began to search,

“This Emerald Grove, just might be in another Zone,” Rei guessed, using words that he other two didn’t understand, it took even Yuta a bit of time before he understood it.

Zone, also known as an area or Level. Games were usually made up of numerous Levels or Zones that were only loaded in when necessary, such as entering through a door and entering a new Zone that was solely in the interior of the building, then the outside would also be it’s own, albeit larger zone. It was massively common in video games to have this sort of procedure, it was impossible to load everything at once after all with the current processing power.

[Tsurei 0]

Or rather, it was unnecessary strain that would hamper the whole experience. This was Sword Art Online, using the Nerve Gear, it was a impossibly revolutionary device that could put a person to sleep and have them experience a game as if it was reality by creating a dream like state and simulating the senses by manipulating the brain.

A piece of technology capable of connecting someone to a invisible network that held hundreds of thousands of people in a huge 100 floor world with thousands of kilometres of ground to cover, even this was not an exception. The temple and towers they’ve travelled to that they couldn’t see until they were closer was just another example.

With everything cleared up, the four of them tentatively entered the Emerald Grove zone, and slowly descended into the cave, though, it quickly became clear it was no cave, they barely had the time to admire the tunnel’s darkness and the light at the end, as well as the brightly glowing emeralds in the dim light before they arrived somewhere else.