[F-01] [OP] An Easy-Going Weekend in Aincrad

[Tsurei 0]

Spoiler

Stats

Level: 22

Hit Points: 440

Energy: 44

Combat Stats

Damage: 9

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

As promised after the last quest against the Wind Wasp Queen, they engaged in a weekend long break where they didn’t do anything in particular, they simply stayed around in the town of beginnings relaxing, it wasn’t as if this world had a whole bunch of things useful for entertainment, nothing but swords and monsters, if you weren’t out there fighting and levelling up, there wasn’t really much else but sight-seeing.

On this simple morning, the four-man group were lounging around in the Silver Horned Inn, a modest little establishment like any other run by a little npc family.

“Well, isn’t this rare? You guys aren’t going out?” Rossa walked over, her red ponytail swinging behind her as she looked over at them with a small exasperated look, “What, did you guys give up already? Back to being shut ins?” a small mocking grin tugged on her face,

“Oi, that’s a little harsh, isn’t it?” Rei sighed, squinting at her from his table, “We’re just taking a break, a break!” he emphasised, “We decided to make weekends our days off,”

“Hm…” she mumbled seemingly not entirely convinced,

“It’s true!” Rei scowled with a pout at her lack of faith in their drive,

“Then? If it’s a day off, why are you just sitting around listlessly? It’s been a few hours now…” She put her hands on her hip and looked down at them with a confused tilt of her head,

“Well, I mean, it’s not like there’s a whole bunch to do around here…” Rei replied with a depressed sigh, it’s not like they had video games or tv to watch, hell, this was already technically a game!

“Then, if you have nothing to do, then run a few errands for me, you still owe me from a month ago when I gave you food and board for free when you ran out of money,” reaching into a pocket behind her, she slapped a white paper slip onto his face,

“Oi!” Rei recoiled in his chair, nearly tipping over from the impact, slamming back down, he looked down at the slip, scratching his head, “Did I still owe you? I thought I paid it off already, if not, I have enough to do it now-“

“Just go, you’re bored anyway, right?” she pulled him out of his chair and subsequently shoved him and his friends out of the building,

“Hey, why us too!?” Yuta cried out in alarm, he was all for having fun watching Rei struggle getting pushed into a corner by a npc girl but now that he was involved as well…

“It’s my day off! Leave me out of this!” Takuma shouted now a bit more awake, he had barely woke up at noon today and was already being kicked out before he got his breakfast,

“Huh?” Kenji on the other hand had been staring absent-mindedly at a corner in the room, he didn’t hear a single thing before he found himself shoved out the door,

 

As of right now, the four of them looked back over at the Silver Horned Inn, practically their home after the two years and a bit and watched as Rossa, the cheery bar girl and  daughter of the owner slap the doors shut in their faces whilst sticking out her tongue at them, “Get going!”

“Eh…” Rei slumped over in disbelief as they were left out in the streets,

Edited February 24, 2020 by Tsurei

[Baldur 0]

Baldur sat on the edge of the fountain in the middle of the square when he heard a door slam. He looked over to one side, and saw a group  of players practically get thrown out of the Silver Horned Inn. He gave a soft chuckle, wondering what they could have done to get kicked out of the place in such a way.

Probably more noobs trying to molest one of the pretty NPCs.

The samurai tugged at the sleeve of his blue and white haori, the sky blue fabric edged with white flames that seemed to rise from the hem and flickered as he moved it. The two contrasting katana at his side sticking out from under the haori, so that they didn't sit on the edge of the fountain. One sword was dark with black and hints of crimson almost the color of blood, and the other was white, with golden designs on it.

Baldur was also older than most others in SAO, being into his 30s where most others were teenagers or in their early twenties, which lended to him a certain air of being larger, or more filled out than the others. Compared to the NPCs, he towered over them, though he was only about two meters tall. Around his neck hung a matagama, an emerald almost in the shape of a 9, or as though one half of the yin yang.

He tossed a stray rock into the fountain and glanced over at the kids who had been kicked out of the Inn once again.

"What did you guys do to offend her?" Baldur called to them, with a bit of a smile on his face to show the question was meant to be playful.

[Tsurei 0]

“Hm…?” Rei gave a small unenthusiastic sound as he and his friends looked over, now noticing the somewhat flashy looking person in a bright blue and white haori and with two katanas, there were several things going through his mind, but first, dang was he tall and second, he really went all out for the samurai look huh?

As he wondered on how to explain himself, he found that all his friends turned to look at him to answer, he almost wanted to ask why they were giving him that accusing expression, it wasn’t his fault! Though he supposed it kinda was...

“Ah… We didn’t exactly offend her or anything, it’s just that she sent us on an errand,” Rei shrugged with a small half grin, waving the small paper slip in his hand,

As he spoke, his mind went ahead to comprehend what was going on after an automatic well natured response, a little late, but he just realised that this person was a player, which he found strange, considering this first city is half full of people in despair unwilling to step outside the walls and were waiting out for a miracle. People usually kept to themselves as far as they experienced. Granted, they did only spend the last near month starting to get out there.

 

Rei appeared to be a young adult in his early twenties, with olive skin, short black hair and average build, he didn’t look that remarkable except for his vibrant blue eyes, wearing rather simple and casual clothes, a sand coloured v-necked tunic tied with string and dark grey trousers, quite possibly the exact clothes he spawned into the game world with, but over that was a black sweat jacket with a pair of white stripes down the sides, pinned on his chest was a little golden crown with the words [KING] written onto the bottom, which, whilst something he clearly custom bought, didn’t seem to have any remarkable effects except for resembling modern world clothing.

He didn’t seem to be wearing any gear at all at this moment in time, except for the slightly tattered blue flowing scarf he had wrapped around his neck, a brilliant gradient shade reminiscent of the ocean on a summer’s day, the quality of the item quickly set it apart from the rest of his shabby appearances as proper equipment.

Edited March 6, 2020 by Tsurei

[Baldur 0]

Baldur smiled at the kid who spoke for his group of friends about their errand they had to run. He gave them a slight playful smile and a kindhearted chuckle as he rose to his full height from the fountain's edge.

"I've never seen an NPC push someone out of their Inn like that before. It must be quite the errand." He had a lopsided, easy going smile, and his blue eyes were the color of a calm ocean.

"My name is Baldur, by the way." He gave the group of them a slight bow of his head is some mixture of Japanese tradition, and imperial Europe. His left hand rested casually on the hilts of his katana, not as if he was ready to draw them, but as if they were an arm rest, or some kind of rudder he had to direct to walk through the crowds of people on the first floor.

"I don't think I've seen you around before. This fountain is one of my favorite places to sit, but then, I haven't been spending as much time as usual on the first floor lately. I closed down my shop, 'Catfish Sundries' a long time ago."

He gestured with his head, as if it would suddenly ping the map and tell them were it was.

"Have you guys ventured beyond the walls of the Town of Beginnings yet?"

[Lilik 0]

"Baldur, huh?" Lilik pushed off the wall she'd been leaning against, long arms swinging loosely as she sidled up to them. Her long, pin-straight hair fell like a purple tapestry down her back, and it rolled over her shoulders as she gave her head a toss. It was as close to a greeting as the samurai was going to get. "I've heard that name before." Eyes the shade and hardness of rubies swept over him from head to toe. Then she loosed a soft tch sound. "Assumed you'd be taller."

Granted, most everyone was shorter than Lilik. At a natural six-foot, her heeled boots added another couple of inches, shooting her over the heads of the average crowd. It was true that some women would be uncomfortable being so tall. Lilik, on the other hand, found it incredibly empowering. Her confidence made her appear even taller, and she quite enjoyed looking down her nose at the rest of the world. With her broad shoulders back, and her ample chest thrust forward, Lilik moved past Baldur to survey the small group of newbie players. At least, she assumed that was what they were, based on their attire. It wasn't altogether different from her own attire, of course; only her leather breastplate actually provided mitigation. But at least everything else she wore looked like armor, even if the exposed midsection was more fan-service than functional.

"So," she drawled, hands planting themselves on her hips. "What am I interrupting?"

Edited March 5, 2020 by Lilik

[Tsurei 0]

Rei felt himself relax speaking to Baldur, at least he seemed friendly but most of all was that they were currently in a safe zone, as well equipped as he was, there was no chance of being suddenly killed here at least.

“Well, we don’t exactly stand out,” Rei smiled, scratching the back of his head in answer, he glanced over at his friends, whilst their demeanour was incredibly casual, at a glance they certainly had a strange mix of colours, Rei himself had black hair, Yuta who was eyeing the newcomer cautiously with narrowed eyes had bleached silver hair, Kenji who looked on confused and absent-mindedly, half staring at the sky and birds rather than pay attention to the conversation had chestnut coloured hair and Takuma who seemed like he was struggling to even stay awake on his feet with dark bags under his eyes had flame coloured red hair, all of them were wearing similarly casual clothing that made them comfortable and reminded them slightly of home. If they were to be dressed like this in the real world, they would only be slightly out of place.

It was probably just how they acted seemed so normal that they weren’t exactly outstanding. When Baldur half bowed to them, he quickly found himself a bit flustered, normal habits and custom sort of flew in the face of 2 years of moping around in a video game world with little to no interaction other than with Rossa at the bar and his best friends,

"A-ah, I'm Rei, this is Yuta, Takuma and Kenji," It would be quickly noticeable that the names that they introduced themselves as were different from their displayed user names to a varying degree. [Tsu-Rei] turned out to be Rei, [Riyu] was somehow Yuta, [Kasuta] was apparently Takuma and the strangely named [Jikken] written as experiment turned out to be called Kenji. It was quite possible that they were introducing themselves using real names.

“We’ve nearly finished clearing the second floor right now after clearing everything on the first floor,” Rei explained, “We’re just going to complete every quest we can as we move upwards,”

Takuma nudged Rei painfully in the ribs causing him to rub them with a wince before whispering to each other, “Hey… I know I’m not one to say, but should we really be telling them this?”  Meanwhile, Yuta who would normally be the one to dispense caution as frowning deeply, rubbing his chin in thought.

 

As they watched the new woman come up, Rei’s internal commentary went on automatic, `Oh great, more new people,` the situation was getting stranger by the second if only because contact with other players was something they haven’t run into just yet.

“You want him to be even taller?” he couldn't but give out a slightly higher pitch commentary from the side, tinged with disbelief and a bit of humour, he flashed a small uncertain grin and breathed out a slight chuckle,

“Oh! He’s Baldur! That Baldur!” Yuta’s eyes suddenly widened and pulled Rei and Takuma out of the way, letting the two newcomers confront each other. As their newly appointed and fledging information broker of their very own, Yuta has managed to catch some snippets of some famous news,

“Am I… er… supposed to know who he is?” Rei grumbled confusedly, hoping he wasn’t making a fool of himself in his ignorance,

“He’s a famous player on the higher floors!” Yuta shout whispered in his ear, causing Rei to raise a brow,

“Seriously? Someone like that is just chilling down here?”

“Overwork kills heroes, so they say,” Takuma shrugged between them, his expression having not really changed even after the information. Kenji having now only focused on the scene in front of him began to glance left and right confusedly, from the tall intimidating woman, to the friendly, flashy man and to his three best friends huddled away from the pair of new people, facing him and having a not all that discreet emergency meeting.

Edited March 6, 2020 by Tsurei

[Baldur 0]

Baldur watched with a slight shine of amusement in his eyes as the group talked amongst themselves, they seemed so at ease with one another that it almost made Baldur jealous. They were probably friends before the game, and had stuck together after being trapped here. The twing of jealousy at having so many friends was pushed away. Baldur wouldn't want his crew trapped here alongside him, and the relative anonymity he had here because almost no one knew him, had allowed him to reinvent himself in a way that meshed more with the world around them. He had no image or pretence he had to keep up from the real world.

It seemed they were taking the wise and sensible course of slowly progressing through the quests in the safest way possible. It was not unlike how Baldur and Tyger had started out, a measured pace to make sure they were always operating within the safest of parameters so that they were almost never truly at risk. Though Baldur did recall running for his life from wolves on the first floor when he had made his first solo venture out.

And then perhaps the tallest woman he had seen in the game showed up, apparently thinking he needed to be taller. Unconsciously, Baldur straighten up a bit towards his full height, but it was the reaction of this so called Yuta, that caused Baldur to blush.

"Calling me famous is a stretch. If anything, I'm just well known for dressing the way that I do." He tried to deflect some of the attention with a bit of a chuckle on his lopsided grin.

His steel blue eyes turned to the newcomer.

"We were just introducing ourselves. And I am afraid you have me at a bit of a disadvantage. You know our names... what is yours?"

[Life 0]

Life was once again roaming the lower floors, looking for some inexperienced players that he could assist with getting stronger. It had become a habit for him these days as a way for him to repent for his past misdeeds, and also as a way to help players muster up the courage to make their way to the front lines. 

He turned the corner of the street near the silver horned Inn to discover a small gathering of players enjoying a chat. Lets see here... Life examined each of them closely, and none of them particularly seemed to be low level judging by their gear, except for maybe... ah the tall girl. The other two was what appeared to be a male in the same age range himself and a more mature fellow. He figured it was probably a fun idea to see what the ruckus was about and sus out the situation a bit more. As he drew nearer he couldn't help but overhear the fellow katana user asking for their names. No better time to introduce myself I suppose Life jested to himself.

"Life, pleasure to meet you all." He spoke with a friendly smile. He stood at 6"2, being the tallest in the group, resting his left hand on the modest hilt of his katana almost mirroring the Samurai in front of him. His katana didn't appear to be anything special, but that was because all the craftsmanship was in the blade hidden within the saya, the only other remarkable feature was the symbol for [Fate] inscribed on the bottom, paying homage to his original katana. 

Life wore an armored yukata with black leather bracing underneath the fabric which protected his vital areas and extremities. The material of the yukata's fabric was ebonweave, a fabric that appeared pure black in low-lit areas, but in areas with high visibility light it was possible to see the fabric was actually blue with a spiraling staircase pattern. His hair seemed to match this theme, appearing black unless exposed to the light in which a blue hue could be noticed. Life also wore a necklace, a silver angelic cross with a ruby at its center that sit comfortably on his chest. 

@Tsurei @Baldur @Lilik 

Edited March 11, 2020 by Life
typo

[Tsurei 0]

Even more human interaction, he should’ve expected something like this on the first day off that they had the opportunity to take, despite his casual demeanour, Rei was a natural shut in, so with more and more moving pieces or people in the situation, it was like piling up code on a poor overworked computer, he was beginning to run out of energy in trying to stay composed at this point.

“Hey, join the party,” Rei looked up and shrugged, giving Life a small smile, his words were tinged with humour and rather than mockery and was filled with a strange sense of welcoming, like, hey, this is totally normal, why don’t you come on over and join in, sort of deal.

Yuta very quickly grabbed him around the shoulders and neck and pulled him back into the huddle, his gold coloured eyes glanced over at the now three people and he couldn’t help but wonder if their encounter here was attracting all sorts of attention, something he dearly liked to avoid,

“There’s more of them! What do we do now!?” His voice came out surprisingly unsteady, his old social anxieties from back in school awakening after 2 years of near isolation with nothing but best friends and npcs made him entirely unsure of what to do in this situation with real people, naturally the same could be said of the others, but whilst Rei weathers this situations with honesty, Takuma was naturally apathetic,

“Don’t we have an errand to do? We can just use that as an excuse,” Takuma cooly pointed out to the white paper slip that Rei was still holding onto,

“Right, right,” Rei nodded, surprised he forget all about it in the panic, his arm around Yuta, he turned his hand to get a better look at the list, Rossa sent them on some kind of errand, so it couldn’t have been anything too bad, but…

“What the hell is this!?” he couldn’t help but cry out at the ridiculous list of items, at the very least, most of these things were not purchasable at the market down the road! King Wild Boar Meat? Heavenly Winged Bacon? Shuram's Wild Vegetable Basket? Oh, and some high quality red wine and tomatoes. Okay... Weren't some of these rare mob's rare drops? How does she know about them? Also, when did she have the time to draw a pitcutre of herself at the bottom? Despite it's simplistic nature, it was a very clear image of Rossa giving them a childish expression of mockery, sticking her tongue out at them with the words; - Hurry back with the items or no dinner for you!

This is... their dinner?

Edited March 9, 2020 by Tsurei

[Lilik 0]

The woman opened her mouth to respond, but closed it again with the appearance of another player. The black-haired player rivaled her in height, something she secretly appreciated. He's cute, too, she thought, but knew it was only lust - she was immediately attracted to just about anyone she didn't dwarf. He was quick to introduce himself, but as the other players in the group launched into a discussion of their own, she merely tossed him a quick, flirty smile over their heads. It was like a secret kept just between tall people. It's the simple things in life.

Finally, she caught and held Baldur's attention. Loosing a quick shrug, she replied, "Friend of mine speaks pretty highly of you. Said you were a Frontliner, too, so you must be pretty capable." Something devilish flashed in her red eyes, but her smile was innocent enough when she added, "You'll have to give me some pointers. I'm on my way up to the Frontlines myself." She went to turn away, but tossed over her shoulder, "Lessa probably says hi. She doesn't know we're talking, but if she did, that's the kind of thing she'd do."

Finally tuning back into the discussion being had between the other players, Lilik pursed her lips. "A grocery list?" she demanded, looking over Tsurei's shoulder at the paper. "Sounds like one of those garbage gather quests."

@Life @Baldur @Tsurei

[Baldur 0]

Baldur watched as another new comer came up to the group, and gave Life a slight bow of his head in greeting. The man was taller than even Baldur, and came up to about height with Lilik, though he could not tell who was in fact taller, it seemed the woman gave herself a bit of a lift with her footwear. The tall woman then revealed that she was a friend of Lessa, or at least somehow seemed to know that Lessa and he were friends.

"If it comes from Lessa, that it is probably far kinder praise than I deserve." He said with a bit of a shy smile. He couldn't imagine Lessa saying anything judgmental about him, let alone critical of him. She may say it to him, but not about him to others.

Baldur watched as Lilik went over and read the apparent grocery list over the kids shoulders, and glanced over at the other new comer, Life, as well.

"It seems we are all meeting new people again. Let me see if I can do justice to the introductions." Baldur went around and gestured to each person, giving the names that he had been given, since unlike other MMOs there were not names floating above their heads, and without being in a party, he had no way to divine what their names, in fact, were. He had the names of the newcomers down, as they were the most recent, but he paused and struggled for the names of the group of kids, other than Rei, who had been their spokesman.

Turning back to the kid, Baldur gave him a sympathetic smiles, "So your NPC host has sent you on a fetch quest for your dinner, eh? That does sound much more like it."

 

[Life 0]

The first man he caught the name of earlier, Rei, seemed pretty welcoming though he seemed to quickly become preoccupied with some kind of list he was given. While the man struggled with that, Life noticed the woman looking over their heads giving him a coyish smile. Life returned the gesture raising an eyebrow and onced over a twirl with his finger around his fringe that rested on his jawline before smirking and looking towards the other fellow feeling rather silly. He was terrible with flirting. The maturer gentleman gave him a polite bow, it seemed this group of players were quite friendly to say the least. Life returned a deeper bow to the man, as is customary from their country when dealing with superiors or elders. 

It seemed the list that was given was some kind of grocery list shoved at him by an NPC. So a boring fetch quest. "Well, go ahead and spill it. What do you need to get? Maybe we can help you out with it. More hands makes lighter work after all." If it were rare monster drops and gatherable material it would make more sense for a small part to go and try to hunt them down together anyway otherwise it could take much too long on your own. 

@Tsurei

Edited March 18, 2020 by Life

[Tsurei 0]

Rei looked around at everyone and back in the corner of his HUD, if this was a real quest, he sure couldn’t see it, he turned his head down and inwardly wondered how to explain this, this was a game so it only made sense that it would be a quest, but at the same time, he really couldn’t see this as anymore than a random errand that Rossa pushed on them to get them out of the inn.

Still, he considered the list some more, whilst some of the ingredients were normal, what the hell were these things about monster drops? He’s never heard of these monsters before and they sounded rare, more people would definitely help, but… wasn’t this just their dinner? He felt a little bad about that,

Also, Oi! What’s this about a garbage boring fetch quest, this is their literal dinner! He had no idea what the end product was going to be, but at the very least, they’ve never had anything less than delicious at the inn!

Well, things being what they were, Rei sometimes forgot that this whole world was just a game, something that Takuma was keen to remind him of at every turn,

“Well… er…” Rei struggled to come with a response as he glanced down the list, trying to separate them into categories, “Apart from the things we can fetch from the market, there’s also things like food drops from a King Boar, a Winged Pig and some kind of assortment of wild vegetables,”

“They sound pretty normal, don’t they?” Takuma commented off-handedly, looking over to Rei and Yuta in confusion since they seemed to be overly conflicted,

“Yeah, but as normal as they are, I’ve never heard of them,” Yuta explained, “King Boar sounds like a mini-boss of some kind and this Winged Pig sounds like one of those things with a 1% spawn rate, as for the vegetable basket, I have no bloody clue,”

“I don’t suppose we can just gather some random vegetables in the forest?” Kenji suggested, hoping that a obvious solution would be the one,

“It’s a named item though, it can’t be that easy,” Rei mumbled, frowning and rubbing his chin,

“It’s like, there’s no way a random quest or errand is going to take us to other floors, so this has to all be on the 1^st floor,” Yuta reasoned, “The largest floor… and we can’t really say we’ve gone everywhere in it,”

Takuma and Kenji looked at each other and shrugged, they weren’t keen on getting chewed out by the npc later, but at the same time, this was game, did they need to take this errand so seriously?

“Since you guys have been at this longer than we have, do you guys know where we can find these things?” Rei looked over at the others and held out the list for them to read, did he mention how weird it was to ask for help gathering ingredients for dinner?

@Lilik  @Life @Baldur

[Baldur 0]

Baldur smirked, when he heard an all to familiar name come up on one of their shopping list items. Ali'i pua. It had been a very long time since those words had graced the screen. Finally, he withdrew his thousand yard stare and returned it to Rei, though the strange grin of bemusement still lingered on his face.

"Yes, I've seen the king pig before. He's been known to spawn when players get a little... ham.. fighting the boars on the first floor. He shows up to defend his pack. He gored my brother in the beta test, which is even funnier since my brother's user name was Ali'i Pua. Which means King Pig, in Hawaiian." Thankfully, his brother hadn't been able to take time off on the launch day like Baldur and Tyger had been able to, and therefore wasn't stuck in the game. It was a major saving grace for someone who had been in the beta. Baldur had always been jealous of his brother getting in, but not getting in himself.

"It would make sense to me. There are quite a few new players who... lose to boars on the first floor. Maybe this is why?"

Baldur had not through of the event since he had triggered a similar one with wolves. It had been the first, and only time, he had ever almost died. From that point onward, Baldur never went anywhere without safeguards and teleport crystals, to ensure he could get out of any situation. And thankfully, he had never needed them. The only time he had ever been forced to use a teleport crystal in battle was against the floor 24 labyrinth guardian as he ran out of energy and needed to regroup.