[F1|PP] Sweet Scents?<<Secret Medicine of the Forest>>

[Zajcica 0]

The paladin found herself back on Floor 1. She needed to grind, and realized that she had missed one of the easiest quests in the game. She could walk through it easy, the information broker showed that the Nepents couldn't do more than her MIT worth of damage and her thorns would kill them all instantly, even the boss. She stepped through the grassy plains of the first floor, no need to really hurry.

The Easter event was still going on, but she still needed to get EXP to level up. Tier 2 was just around the corner, she could taste the damage boost and armor boost of brand new armor. Hopefully that would make things easier for her. Her mind trained back to the things that everyone had said to her to this point, especially Shield's. Confidence and power was necessary to be a tank player, even more so when other players are relying on you to protect them. She would get stronger.

@Hinatao

Using a Yuki's Grace and a Slime Farm bonus to get +2 SP at the end of the post.

Spoiler

General
Level: 19 | HP:  380 | Energy: 38 Hate: 1/3/4(M/H/C)

Stats
DMG: 3 | EVA: 0 | MIT: 54 | ACC: 0 | Thorns: 18 

Skills
R2 OHAS, R1 Heavy Armor, Fighting Spirit, Concentration

Equipment(In use)
Regal Cuirass(Heavy Armor): 1 MIT, 2 Thorns
Ice Wall(Shield): MIT 3
White Spear - Lux(OHAS): 2 Bleed, 1 Taunt

Equipment(Standby)
Silver Serpent Ring: +2 LD
Covetous Gold Serpent Ring: +1 LD

Consumables
(2x)Starter Healing Potions(50HP)
(2)Woodland Armor: MIT 1
(3x)Oyakodon with Miso - Overhealth 2

 

Edited April 11, 2020 by Zajcica

[Hinatao 0]

Hinata didn’t always find herself running through grassy plains, leaving all the bullies behind that she had sprinted away from when she got a chance. But even now she felt like all the years she spent as a child running had paid off. She was trucking it throughout this safe area of the plains and happened to see someone waiting. Well maybe she wasn’t waiting. Hinata had taken a task recently and she guessed that this person was here for the same reason she was. It was only because she happened to have the same task in mind that she approached this pink haired lady and asked about what was going on.

“Hi,” she said, “mind if I join you, whatever you’re doing? I’m kind of in a pickle and I’d really like to not spend the day alone. Surely there’s something I can do to help?”

In reality Hinata was pretty sure she was worthless to this other girl. She was not good at combat, yet, and she had nothing but sadness to tell of her time here so far.  

 

 

 

level 1 stats: 20 health, 2 energy

1 damage

Edited April 11, 2020 by Hinatao

[Zajcica 0]

Yuki turned around as another player approached her. She hadn't yet met this player, but she expected that since she didn't have any gear yet, she was a new player. The girl waved at her.

"Oi, the boss is about to spawn and you look like you don't have anything to protect yourself from this boss yet. Stay behind me and I'll protect you. My name is Yuki, I'll be your shield" The girl bumped her chest with her fist and gave Hinatao a wink. Just as they did they're introductions the nepents spawned behind Yuki. She brandished her shield and lance charged into combat as quickly as possible. The lance shined with a bright pink hue as the girl swung her lance with a large arc over the area. Two of them died then and there. The other two followed up with an attack of their own, but one of them felt her thorns leaving the last one all by it's lonesome self.

Nepent 1 - HP 0/7 Dmg: 3
Nepent 2 - HP 0/7 Dmg: 3
Nepent 3 - HP 7/7 Dmg: 3
Nepent 4 - HP 0/7 Dmg: 3

Yuki: HP:  379/380 -1 | Energy: 28/38 -10 Hate: 1

Edited April 5, 2020 by Zajcica

[Hinatao 0]

“Better behave and look like you’re doing what you’re supposed to. The boss is coming soon and he gets angry easily,” the lady told her. Hinata shouted when she heard that there was going to be a boss coming around. She needed someone to protect her from any danger that the boss would pose to her. She had never encountered a boss in this kind of environment. She was much too new to this setting to truly be prepared for anything like this. Her nerves spiked up and she did her best not to break down and start crying. She didn’t need to get yelled at again.

 

“Oh, uhmmmm okay I’ll do what you say, thank you,” she said with teary eyes. Despite her nervousness, the woman in the workshop was the polar opposite. She was so confident that she wouldn’t take any chastising someone could throw at her which made Hinata have a glimmer of hope inside. She crept up behind the nerpent and gave it one slash with her dagger. hopefully she would hit...

 

 

 ID# 139698 results:

 Battle: 4

 Craft: 11

 Loot: 9

 MOB: 7

Edited April 5, 2020 by Hinatao

[Zajcica 0]

Yuki looked behind her to make sure her charge was alright, but she had disappeared. Soon after, she heard the swing of a dagger behind the remaining Nepent. The pinkette grinned happily as the other girl got into the combat.

"I love the enthusiasm! If you get hurt, back up immediately and don't be afraid to use a potion. The boss will spawn after this one dies, so don't attack it until I take a swing at it or it will start to attack you okay?" Yuki's pink, beautiful lance reached out at the remaining enemy to thin the line and further her Sp count. She was extremely happy that she could help another player with leveling up. Her lance missed, unfortunately, but as Shield had said, her weapon wasn't the polearm - it was the armor she wore. It slapped her with it's vine and dispersed into digital coding.

"Alright, the boss is going to spawn in a moment. Be careful, stay back for a moment and let me draw the Hate on it first." Yuki said, readying herself.

Nepent 1 - HP 0/7 Dmg: 3
Nepent 2 - HP 0/7 Dmg: 3
Nepent 3 - HP 0/7 Dmg: 3
Nepent 4 - HP 0/7 Dmg: 3

Yuki: HP:  378/380 -1 | Energy: 28/38 +1 Hate: 2
Hina: HP:  20/20 | Energy: 2/2  Hate: 0
 

Edited April 5, 2020 by Zajcica

[Hinatao 0]

Hinata had walked up to do what she had to do but it didn’t look like it had any effect. Her target was distracted but still she managed to somehow fail. It didn’t give her the warmest fuzzy but she wasn’t in danger and that was all that mattered to her. She got new instructions and she was quick to heed them. “Okay,” she said, “I’ll be patient.” She’d wait for the person in charge to finish up with the small fries around here before getting engaged again. Hinatao couldn’t help but notice just how reel everything felt. Even though this was supposedly just an easy task things couldn’t have been more scary. She had no idea how people did this on a day to day basis. She hoped that she would get used to it quickly so she could do this stuff on her own. It was only a matter of time before she didn’t get scared at approaching strangers.

[Zajcica 0]

With it's minions dead, the even uglier and smellier Nepent decided to appear before the two women. She still couldn't believe just how realistic everything in Aincrad could feel. Well, nevertheless, the paladin took charge. The beautiful lance, Lux, gleamed with its pink hue once more. Unfortunately, she had missed again. It was regular for her to miss attacks, but thankfully, thorns made up for what she lacked in damage with a weapon. The Nepent took a healthy bite out of the paladin and exploded around her into blue polygons of data. Yuki gave her charge a smile.

[color#f53dac]"And look at that, it's dead. But I'll have to loot for the bulb really quick. If I don't collect it, we won't be able to turn it in and will have to fight all that over again."[/color] Yuki said opening her menu and inviting the girl to her party. "What level are you by the way? I need to make sure you don't get attacked easily so it's important."

Nepent Variant: 0/15 HP; Damage 10

Yuki: HP:  368/380 -10 | Energy: 28/38 +1 Hate: 0
Hina: HP:  20/20 | Energy: 2/2  Hate: 0

Edited April 5, 2020 by Zajcica

[Hinatao 0]

Hinata watched as the woman with the lance missed. She felt a sinking in her chest but apparently this girl didn’t need to actually hit anything to succeed. It was like her armor itself was enough to damage anything that tried touching her. “That’s incredible!” she shouted as she cheered her teammate on, “how’d you do that?”

 

“Oh, go for it. You killed it so it only makes sense that you collect it.” Hinata thought of what it must be like to be that strong, then she said, “I’m just level 1. I have 5 points in the hide skill though, if that helps you at all. If you haven’t guessed I don’t really like to do combat so I spent everything on hiding hehe.” She didn’t know at the time that it would be such a bad idea for a low level to invest in hide compared to other arts, but she hardly cared at this point.

[Zajcica 0]

Yuki gave her a big smile. She felt nervous that she would be tanking for a completely new player with no useful combat skills that didn't need time to prepare. Though she knew she could handle it. The girl was amazed by Yuki's glorious armor, it felt weird to take credit for all the work Macradon put in to making her armor for her. She was happy to see that she was alright.

"Arigatou!" Yuki replied with a slightly nervous smile. "My armor is enhanced with thorns, so if anything touches me, it will take damage for it. It's an enhancement that tanks get to supplement our inability to damage. Once we head back to town, I'll take you to my smith. He gives discounts to new players for new items. You'll need a new dagger. That one is fine, but you'll want all perfect gear so you can be as effective as possible"

She moved through her inventory, switching the weapon and shield out for out for her bonus luck rings. Now it was time to check the enemies loot.

Spoiler

Yuki switched her shield and weapon our for her two rings.

 

[Hinatao 0]

Hinata listened intently as the woman explained to her some things that she had no knowledge about. Something about having armor with thorns which meant that it reflected damage, or it caused damage if someone touched it. She didn’t understand the formulas and why things worked as they did, Hinata just accepted them at face value. “Wow, I didn’t know you could do all that with some armor. And I’d love to meet your smith. I need a discount too… I’m afraid I don’t have very much to my name. What are you doing with your interface by the way?” she saw that she was changing equipment but she didn’t understand why. For all she knew most gear was just armor and weaponry, she didn’t know about how one’s luck could be augmented too. She then wondered about what kind of dagger she would get when this was all over. Hopefully it was stylish!

[Zajcica 0]

Yuki closed her menu just as the girl asked her what she fiddling with, she gave her a quick smile as she approached the Nepent Variant's loot files. What do you know: Absolutely nothing.

"Well, there are trinkets that you can equip that will boost your luck at finding loot on enemies, however, it seems my luck was still insufficient for this item. Which means more mobs will be spawning soon. At least our health and energy has returned so we'll be ready." Yuki frowned a bit as she opened her menu back up to re-equip her gear. "Alright, just like last time. Wait for me to attack before you make yours. If you draw aggro too early the enemies will pressure you."

She tried to put her understand to the point where her reasoning could be understood by the new player, but not to the point to scare her. If Yuki didn't draw aggro, the nepents would attack Hinata and could kill her.

LD: 1+3=4 Fail

Edited April 5, 2020 by Zajcica

[Hinatao 0]

Hinata listened to the girl again and was intently trying to process all the information she was getting. She had gotten so much info today that she didn’t know if she could retain it all. She’d try… She noticed that Yuki had gone to look through the corpses of the creatures and didn’t find anything she was looking for.

 

“Aw, that sucks to have to do this all again. At least you got that armor!” Hinata stepped back so that she (hopefully) wouldn’t get aggro’d. Then she let Yuki do her thing. There wasn’t anything else she could do but sit around and wait anyway. She was pretty much a leech in this scenario with a big girl that was nice enough to let her tag along.  

 

“Good luck!” she shouted, not that she thought Yuki needed it in the slightest. She gripped her dragger tightly, ready to attack when the right moment came.

[Zajcica 0]

It took a moment to switch out her gear. Good thing the nepents didn't respawn instantly. She had the time that she needed to switch the rings out for her weapons and armor. Even though she knew that she could handle aggroing all the mobs at once thanks to Fighting Spirit, she was still worried about her charge getting hit by something completely random. These things didn't do more of slither of damage to anyone, but you could never be too safe in Aincrad. She learned that the hard way when she fought the wyrms and survived with barely less than 1% HP remaining. A near death was ever so much more scary when there was a fancy little gauge defining your capability to survive.

She readied her Lance and shield for the next fight. The fight would commence again in just a second as the Nepents respawned, angrier than the last batch. "Here the come, stay safe Hina-chan, and we'll get through this easy."

Spoiler

Yuki switched her rings out for her weapon and shield.

 

Edited April 5, 2020 by Zajcica

[Hinatao 0]

Unfortunately for Hinata, the prospect of battling again did scare her even if she hadn’t taken any damage. She shivered as she looked around and waited for something to happen. She knew that she wasn’t in any real danger but it didn’t make the psychological aspect any less scary. What if her teammate disconnected, or worse? Then that would certainly leave Hinata all by herself with these crazy things that would come after her and kill her. It wouldn’t be the first time that someone got screwed over something going wrong with the system. She tried to push these fears back and wait. She was lucky that she at least got a small break before the next wave of enemies spawned.

 

“I’m ready!” she said confidently. All she had to do was attack once they were aggro’d. Easy right?! She tried to pretend like it wasn’t her first time attacking a dangerous enemy.

[Zajcica 0]

The flowers reswapned in the field around the two girls. The paladin gripped her pink lance and let out a battle cry as her weapon turned into something akin to a helicopter blade. Two of the nepents were able to escape the beautiful onslaught of her giant one handed weapon, but the other unfortunate ones exploded into data instantly. It was so gratifying to see things actually die to her weapon, even if it was a quest that was meant to be easy.

The other enraged Nepents followed suit with their own attacks. Stupid as they were they actually hit her, doing nothing more than killing themselves on her thorns. That couldn't have gone any better! With the ending of the mobs, the boss spawned again. It's ugly design and flaccid smell made Yuki nauseous.

"Its the boss again! If I miss, you can follow up with an attack safely." Yuki said readying her shield for the next attack.

Yuki: HP:  378/380 -2 | Energy: 28/38 -10 Hate: 0
Hina: HP:  20/20 | Energy: 2/2  Hate: 0

Roll ID# 139709 was Nepent 1> Yuki. I hit enter and it auto rolled, but the roll is linked so I assumed it was fine to use.

Edited April 5, 2020 by Zajcica

[Hinatao 0]

Hinata shuddered as enemies popped up all around her. They gave her a menacing look and made her feel like she was about to get attacked. But they didn’t. They all went for the girl with the pink hair that looked as confident as ever. Hinata didn’t even know what was going on. She just ran at an enemy and slashed away with a dagger that she had on her. She hoped for the best but she had surprisingly good form for someone as scared as she was. She hoped that in the end the enemies would all die and she would be allowed to go free and finish up this quest of hers. She guessed that failure was nearly impossible. All they really had to do was hope that they got the item they needed from the enemy this time around. Hinata hoped to actually hit something this time, since she had just missed the last time.

 

 

 ID# 139714 results:

 Battle: 8

 Craft: 10

 Loot: 4

 MOB: 9

Edited April 5, 2020 by Hinatao

[Zajcica 0]

The other girl found a way to get her attack, and admirably done as well! She chucked off a small amount of it's health off allowing Yuki to charge it with a sword art. The lance shined a bright pink again, dashing through the nepent variant's defense and causing it to exploded into data once again. Hopefully this time would prove more useful and her luck would let her acquire the Nepent's stupid bulb. Without it they couldn't finish the quest and she had spent to much time to not get the huge chunk of EXP from this quest.

"Beautifully done my new ally! You gave that plant the good poke-y stab! Keep it up and you'll be doing more damage than I do!" Yuki encouraged her. The pinkette opened her menu to start switching out items again. As much as she just wanted to loot the stupid thing now, she really needed the luck boost to make sure she got it this time.

Yuki: HP:  378/380 | Energy: 24/38 -4 Hate: 0
Hina: HP:  20/20 | Energy: 2/2  Hate: 0

Edited April 5, 2020 by Zajcica

[Hinatao 0]

Hinata was proud of herself having attacked it successfully. It was probably the first time she had successfully landed an attack on an enemy so powerful since she started getting into this kind of lifestyle. She felt the adrenaline running through her veins, and she hoped that it was all over now. She just had to wait for Yuki to check the loot again.

 

“That wasn’t so bad. I don’t know about doing more damage than you though, you do a ton! Those health bars just drop instantly the moment they touch you.” Hinata didn’t know about how damage worked or that Yuki had clearly specialized in safety over damage.  Honestly that was kind of what Hinata wanted to do herself. She would prefer to just never get hit at all though. “Did we get what you needed this time?”

 

She looked around and wondered if they would finally get a lucky roll.

[Zajcica 0]

Yuki shook her head as the girl said she was powerful. It was a pretty simple lie really.

"It has nothing to do with me being strong." The pinkette explained. "My numbers were just outrageously higher than the enemies. Don't mistake me being over leveled for me being strong and get careless okay? I still have a long time to go before I can consider myself strong."

The menu whirred in front of her as she swiped past the equipment screen looking for her rings that she needed to boost her luck. It was annoying that she had to take the time to equip different items just to get a small bonus, but with her luck if she didn't use them she would miss out the opportunity to get it.

With her rings now equiped, the paladin approached the enemies loot boxes. "Alrighty, lets see if we can get the item this time. Hopefully so we can be finished with this quest and get you back to a safe zone."

Spoiler

Yuki switched her weapon and shield for her rings.

 

[Hinatao 0]

As Hnatao victory was all but assured, she wondered about how long this was gonna go on for. She just had to get that lucky roll apparently. As Yuki explained that she wasn’t that strong and listened to a warning about not being too cocky. It was true that Hinatao was far from being strong enough to be considered “strong” as she was pretty much a beginner at these kinds of things. She had to keep in mind that she had to be careful and not overdo herself. Hinatao had little to do in the oh so peaceful lul of the battle as it was just waiting for the girl to figure out exactly what they were going to do next. Hinatao hoped that they wouldn’t have to fight any more enemies and that they were both safe and could go home. “Yes, I hope you get what you need this time. Good luck again.” Not that her good luck had done anything last time. Still, it was better than saying bad luck and getting something that nobody wanted.