[F-02] [SP] Hunting Poison <<The Venomous Warg>>

[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

Today was a rare wonderful morning for Rei, today was a Monday, the day after their first break in the past month and for once, he was nicely rested, having gone to sleep early after a hectic night of drinking and games with his best friends, he woke up in the early morning without the slightest hint of a headache and feeling energised.

Glancing over to a corner of his HUD, he found that the time was still only around 9am, pretty good for him, it usually took a few more hours, considering that his schedule no longer required early classes, he could theoretically sleep as long as he wanted. The same went for the others though Takuma would opt to sleep the entirely morning and afternoon if he had his way.

Popping open the wooden window, he leaned on the edge and breathed in the fresh morning air whilst squinting his eyes against the bright sunshine of the rising sun that directly faced his window, looming over the huge circular city that was the town of the beginning.

Edited February 25, 2020 by Tsurei

[Tsurei 0]

He felt great personally, this might just be an amazing day for him, but let’s not get ahead of himself, he cautioned himself mentally, having a small little conversation with no one in particular, looking down at the streets below, he noticed a few NPCs going about their programmed routes as per usual and the rare few players who were moving about this early, the rest were still asleep or were still in despair and not willing to go anything.

His eyes narrowed again as the sombre topic fell upon him with his train of thought, there was no helping it, he sighed to himself, granted though, he did manage to see a few new faces moving about, newbies who decided to pick themselves up and do something, watching them pass by made him smile, the own personal journey he made was little different from theirs, a little resurgence of hope and courage.

[Tsurei 0]

It really hasn’t been all that long since he started, but he’s levelled nicely, fully equipped now and were close to finishing the second floor and moving on, well, no matter how far they went, he doubted he would ever settle for another inn like this one, it was cheap and he stayed here so long it might as well have been their second home. Not to mention that he couldn’t help but feel that Rossa’s personality was a little unique, perhaps due to this being the 1^st floor and the developers wanting to set a good impression off the start compared to the later ones, it could be that Rossa was truly unique with functioning well developed AI, he could be developing feelings or it might all just be his imagination.

Well, it was probably cheaper and more decent for it’s price than the others, he could also be too lazy to try somewhere else at this point.

[Tsurei 0]

Well, if he considered the teleportation sickness, then maybe just getting a inn at whatever floor they were at was good enough just to avoid it, but the warmth of being welcomed at the inn by Rossa and her family who practically memorised their favourites and were giving them a discount due to being regulars had something to do with it too.

It was nice having someone to vent to as well, he thought back to the weekend where he had to go everywhere just to gather ingredients for the celebratory dinner that Rossa had secretly planned, he couldn’t believe it asked for monster meat and wild herbs all over the place, stuff that couldn’t even be bought, they had returned along with a few new friends utterly exhausted only to have a nightly feast and drink till they collapsed.

All in all, a pretty amazing weekend of relaxation, but today, it was back to work.

[Tsurei 0]

His eyes idly looked over a few players heading out for another quest under him, the pair of them chatting amicably, as he watched them he couldn’t help but feel a tug at his lips forming a smile,

“Well, here’s to a good day, hopefully,” he murmured as he turned back into his room and began to stretch his limbs, letting out a blissful groan as he did, expelling a deep breath from his chest that made his entire body relax, he moved to put on his clothes and re-equip himself as per usual before heading down to the main room, the regular mopping players were here as usual, drowning as best as they could in their drink, meanwhile, Rei’s eyes looked over and spotted no one at their usual table, so he went to sit down first,

“You’re awake first huh?” Rossa raised a brow with a teasing tone as she sauntered over, holding a circular wooden serving tray in her hand, “That’s rare, actually, I don’t remember that ever happening, is today going to be raining fish I wonder?”

[Tsurei 0]

“You don’t need to be that mean, jeez…” Rei rolled his eyes, already feeling a sense of both exasperation and fondness wash over his heart as he leaned on the table, “Anyway, just get me the usual breakfast,”

“It’s already on the way, idiot,” she took the seat next to him on the circular table but not before slamming her fist lightly on the top of his head, causing his head to sink off his hand and slump into his arms,

“Ow,” Rei grumbled as he rubbed his head, looking up at her with a small scowl but he was met with a bright friendly smile on her face and he found that he couldn’t retort further,

“So? Where are you going this time? To the second floor again?” She leaned her hand in her hands, looking over at him with interested emerald eyes,

“Yeah…” Rei nodded after letting out a yawn, “We’re hunting wolves and a venomous warg today, who knows if we’ll do anything else, but after that, it’s a dragon,”

[Tsurei 0]

“Heh…. Wait, a dragon!?” she mumbled with seeming disinterest despite her locked gaze but then her eyes shot open wide at the mention of a dragon,

“Don’t worry, it’s another young dragon,” he waved his hands downwards to motion for her to calm down and sit back down, he tapped at the inventory and summoned the guidebook, quickly flipping through it, “Let’s see… it’s the Quartz Hatchling,  it’ll be a decent fight, but we shouldn’t have any problem with it,”

“Don’t scare me like that…” she sighed with relief before fixing him with her stare seriously again, “Even young dragons are still scary, don’t get careless, I want to see you back before 6 again,”

“What are you, my mom?” Rei grinned casually, trying to settle down her worry but she didn’t react to it,

“I’m serious, we’ll have your dinner ready for you, so if you don’t come back you’ll be wasting our time and food, so you better make it back,”

[Tsurei 0]

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Rei sighed, waving dismissively, here he thought she was worried about him, well, she was, in her own way though she couldn’t outright say it.

It’s a bit pitiful hoping that an NPC would be sad if he didn’t make it back, well, considering that he doubted anyone would notice if he disappeared, there was some artificial comfort in this.

When he refocused on the NPC Rossa’s stare, he smiled back against the furiously bubbling expression,

“I know, we’ll be back safely before you know it, I won’t take any risks, alright?” he assured her softly with a gentle tone, causing her face to blush red and quickly look away as she quickly realised she overextended in showing her worry,

“I-I just don’t want my food to go to waste, and we’ll be losing a valuable customer so-!” she stammered out a few excuses, only daring to glance sideways at him for a few moments, now she had her arms folded and Rei was back to relaxing by leaning on the table,

[Tsurei 0]

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Rei stopped her there, wanting to put an end to her perceived embarrassment as early as possible for her sake, internally he remarked at how realistic this game was, what kind of genius programs all these expressions into this young girl’s face? Well, the same person who would gather sensory data on an innumerable amount of things as well as trap thousands of people in a virtual death game.

“Y-you… W-wipe that grin off your face!” It seems his chivalrous words in an attempt to make her less embarrassed that he got her meaning instead had the opposite effect as her face went shades redder and was completely coloured, she raised her wooden tray and leaned over the table to smack him over the head, the sudden motion was enough to startle Rei as he instinctively cowered and raised his arms when Garda, Rossa’s father, bartender and cook of this establishment called over,

[Tsurei 0]

“Hey, Rossa! Hurry and come over, the food’s ready!” his gruff voice grumbled over, his face appeared leaning out from within the kitchen, visible by the doorframe,

“Y-yes! I’m coming!” Rossa called out, quickly shooting Rei a glare before stomping off, letting Rei sight out in relief,

“Jeez…” he relaxed once more as he gazed around the tavern and out the window, staring absentmindedly at the people walking by outside,

“Morning,” Yuta grumbled as he walked past him, taking the seat opposite Rei, he settled down and stretched out as he leaned back in his chair,

“Morning Yuta,” Rei replied off-handedly,

“You’re definitely up early today, did something happen?” he asked as he leaned back forward, a small teasing grin appearing on his face, implicating any manner of things, he supposed that this teasing side of him was learnt from Rei from back in middle school,

“We had a whole weekend off remember? I’m just feeling great,” he replied, ignoring half of the implications levelled at him,

[Tsurei 0]

“That’s easy for you to say, I’ve a banging headache…” Kenji groaned as he staggered over to their table, his footsteps heavy on the wooden floor before he slumped into his chair heavily,

“Your fault for drinking more than you can handle,” Rei grinned meaningfully over at him,

“It’s you guys who kept eggin’ me on!” Kenji grumbled back as he laid his head down,

“Yeah, I’m not going to forget a second of last night, I never knew you had it in you!” Yuta glowed happily, praising extravagantly,

“Stop…” but Kenji already knew where this insincere praise was coming from and was already dreading the end of the sentence,

“Those wonderous moves, that unbreakable poise, that unwavering grace, truly, your dance moves are forever seared into the halls of my memories,” Yuta began to milk the moment for everything he got, gesturing into the air, encouraged by Rei’s growing observant grin,

[Tsurei 0]

“Ugh… Don’t bring that up again… please…” Kenji groaned in near physical pain as he shrunk back into his chair a little, bringing his hands up to beg for his plea,

“Still, it was a great night, huh?” Yuta smiled back, easing up, “I never thought I’d hear Rei sing either, that was a blast from the past, huh?” he directed his teasing over to Rei now, wanting to keep the streak going,

“Oho?” Rei raised a brow, his eyes glimmering with hidden indignation, so this little tyke dare use what he learned from the master against him, huh? Well then, “I recall a certain someone sobbing and crying his worries before confessing his undying love to an NPC,”

Yuta’s face quickly darkened and all trace of joy left him, “Y-you saw that?”

“Well, let alone saw, the sound from the street brought it to my attention,” Rei stood up, taking a few steps away from the table before suddenly spinning into a elegant twirl that ended with him on his knees, proposing to an imaginary person, “You… You are the one who captured my heart, accept my burning passion, my dear Hanako, I could never live without you…! No…! W-where are you going!? Please… don’t leave me….!”

[Tsurei 0]

Now it was Yuta’s turn to mimic Kenji, withdrawing into his shell with a burning face looking downwards in shame, meanwhile, Kenji was rowdily laughing, nearly choking and coughing his guts out, Rei glanced over at the scene with a small victorious smile until a sharp, painful impact struck the top of his head, sending him nearly falling over,

“Guh!?” he grunted in pain, looking up to the sound of a loud wooden slam, his eyes nearly teared up from the pain as he rubbed at the sore spot, he found Rossa looking down at him, hands on her hips glaring at him,

“What do you think you’re doing in the middle of my tavern being so noisy first thin in the morning? Shut up and eat, stupid Rei,” she reprimanded him with a harsh, sharp tone that only someone with a serious amount of disgust could muster,

“Ouch…” Rei winced visibly from her words for dramatic display before standing up and taking his seat, “I got it, I got it, jeez…”

[Tsurei 0]

When he looked at the food on the table his eyes widened slightly, suitably surprised, “Hey, isn’t this…?”

“Yeah, it’s leftovers from last night, we whipped together the rest for you, be grateful,” Rossa confirmed, turning away with a haughty twist before walking off to tend to her job,

“Yeah, yeah, thanks,” Rei rolled his eyes, feeling his gratitude dissipate in front of that attitude, he turned over to his friends with a wry smile,

“Same as usual then,” Yuta smiled back, taking comfort in the way that Rossa and Rei interacted like clockwork, there was a sense of familiarity in their routine that grounded them in a relatively peaceful lifestyle, taking a spoon he scooped up some of the warm stew before speaking, “So? Where to today?”

“We dealing with the venomous warg today, if we’re lucky we might be able to take down the Quartz hatchling whilst we’re at it,” Rei explained, eating his food as well before looking back up, “Did you find out where it’s zone is?”

[Tsurei 0]

“Yeah, it’s in the norther forests somewhere, oh yeah,” Yuta replied but suddenly remembered something,

“hm?” Rei looked back towards him after having returned to his food just momentarily, surprised and curious about the follow up,

“Apparently this one likes pranks and tricking people, on another note, it has a name; Zylara, the other one we got was Rhaegal,”

“Right…” Rei frowned, wondering how listening to flavour text was useful to him, but… “It likes pranks huh…. So that means…”

“Traps, most likely,” Yuta nodded, confirming his train of thought with a understanding gaze, “We should be cautious when we enter the zone,”

“Agreed, but let’s take care of the warg first, it’s going to take us hunting in the mountains, there’s a lot of wolves in the quest but the warg is somewhat harder to find, it may take a while,”

“Wolves huh?” Kenji shuddered, holding onto his shoulders, “I really don’t want to fight them…”

[Tsurei 0]

“Well, these are mountain wolves so they might be a little more feral,” Rei shrugged in response, not really caring, by this point they’ve fought all sorts of mobs, so just some wolves feels pretty tame,

“I hope they don’t have rabies, I hate how realistic they are when they try to bite you, you can see all their teeth and drool go flying…” Kenji grimaced, no doubt imagining right as he was eating was not a great idea,

“even if they do have rabies, it’s not like it matters to our bodies in this world,” Yuta dismissed his concerns easily,

“Maybe, but it still creeps me out,”

“By the way, did you hear about the rumour?” Yuta looked around him, almost as if to make sure no one was listening in before he leaned forward and spoke furtively,

“Rumour?” Rei and Kenji looked over to him with raised brows of mild interest,

[Tsurei 0]

“They say there’s a guild out there specifically for PK,” Yuta’s eyes glanced to the side, narrowing slightly, his expression solemn and clear that he found the idea distasteful, even Rei’s interested expression quickly retreated and turned serious,

“PK?” Kenji however looked at the pair of them who seemingly got what it meant, but he tilted his head at them confused,

“Player killing,” Rei spoke gravely, “As in, they fight other players,”

“But doesn’t that mean-?” Kenji frowned, his face turning horrified as he connected the dots and realised something,

“Yeah, normally in a game, they’re par for the course, but now that death became permanent in this game, it’s no different from an organisation based around murder,”

“How- why would anyone do that? Or even build and join a organisation around it here!?” Kenji cried out, outrage on his face, the idea of someone like them, simply people playing a game and getting trapped in it without any idea would decide to go out of their way to kill people, made his blood boil in anger and righteousness,

[Tsurei 0]

"Who knows? Maybe they find it fun,” Yuta shrugged, shaking his head cluelessly, “But I heard that they don’t believe that you can actually die, and that when you die, you just wake up in the real world,”

“Then why don’t they just go and kill themselves?” Kenji snapped,

“Well, they think they’re doing us a favour by killing us and freeing us from this trapped nightmare,” Yuta leaned back in his chair, spitting out the last line with no lack of mockery,

“Everyone’s been trapped here for a few years, I’m not surprised something like a cult grew out of it,” Rei sighed, leaning on the table, “Thankfully, we’ve not had to deal with stuff like that all too much,”

“Well, we’re careful to avoid them and not get in their way anyhow,” Yuta added,

“Isn’t there anything we can do to stop them?” Kenji growled, his  hands balled into fists as he glared over at them,

[Tsurei 0]

“It’s one of the reasons so many people decided to stay here in the safe zone where they can’t be killed, and it’s a whole guild, so probably not much we can do,” Rei shrugged nonchalantly, the whole thing wasn’t his problem anyhow, he was content if they just never came face to face, ever.

“So we just have to live in terror of them!?” Kenji was practically shouting now, causing Rossa to look over with a bit of worry,

“H-hey… what are you guys shouting about?”

“Ah, nothing much, he just gets worked up when it comes to criminals,” Rei gave a half smile and tried to play the situation down, after all, speaking realistically it was only obvious there are murders in the world,

“S-sorry…” Kenji quickly bowed his head to apologise for disturbing the peace for a few moments before he slowly sat back down a bit sheepish as he whispered, “We really can’t do anything about them?”

[Tsurei 0]

“Short of killing them, not really,” Rei shrugged and glanced over to Yuta, their now own information broker for any more answers, their gazes met but Yuta shook his head,

“Not really, there’s a system run Jail, technically, but it doesn’t hold them in for all that long, a few days or so,”

“…Any player-run prisons?” Rei raised a brow, having a small idea,

“None that I know of, I don’t think there’s actually a guild that has enough resources for something like that anyway,”

“What about the frontliners? They have to be strong and have a lot of people, right?” Kenji’s eyes shone like he had an epiphany as he made the suggestion but it was also quickly shot down,

“The guilds there are still small and some of them are solos who happen to be friends with each other, they’re not a party like us or even united under a proper guild,”