[PP|F1] <<The Second Lesson, Is Also Free>> Noise

[ChaseR 0]

Having finished the first beginner quest, the duo went to the shops to get Chase some better gear. After looking around for a while, they found an Artisan, a Blacksmith and a Tailor, proficient enough to make the perfect gear for him. He quickly equipped the new sword and trinkets that were made for him, trusting in Shay's word to not need the armor quite yet, although it worried him. "Say, does the armor even do anything..?", he pondered, remembering just how much he doubted it could protect at all in a virtual world. Once they headed back to the workshop, they heard the NPC's troubles and Chase agreed to help out, thus accepting the mission.

Exiting the shop, the bluehead opened the menu to find food, not another Dry Bread at last. He took out the [Rare Mochi] and scuffed it down, having begun to feel hungry already. As if that wasn't enough though, finally something other than damn bread drier than a desert. He looked to the side at @Shay, slowly starting to step towards the gate and frowning. "Teach me how to use a sword and trade.", he blurted, looking at her with furrowed eyebrows. As laconic and to the point as ever, even after shopping for some good gear. "Having eaten good food and wanting to gift something like that... Tch..."

Spoiler

Name: ChaseR
Level: 4
HP: 80/80
EN: 8/8

Stats:
Damage: 7
Accuracy: 3
LD: 3 (+2) = 5

Equipped Gear:
Weapon: <<Cloud Cutter>> (T1/Perfect/2HSS): DMG III
Armor: <<Hard Leather Armor>> (Vanity/Light Armor)
Misc: <<Warm Earmuffs>> (T1/Perfect/Trinket): ACC III
<<Silver Earring>> (T1/Perfect/Trinket): LD III

Skills:
Two-Handed Straight Sword [Rank 1]

Extra Skills:

Mods:

Battle Ready Inventory:
Starter Healing Potions(heal 50HP)*3
T1 Rare Health Potions (heal 40HP)*5
T1 Uncommon Damage Potion (+1 DMG)*1
T1 Special Over-Health Potion (+50MHP)*1
Rare Mochi - LD II*1
Requires Extended Weight Limit 1
Requires Extended Weight Limit 2
Requires Extended Weight Limit 3
Obtained via Item Stash (Housing)
Obtained via Dimensional Backpack

Housing Buffs:

Guild Hall Buffs:

Scents of the Wild:

Wedding Ring:

[Consumed Mochi - LD II]

[Shay 0]

"Of course I'm going to teach you how to use a sword." Shay said plainly popping the paste-mochi into her mouth. "I told you we're going to level together. We can't do that if you don't know how to fight. Unless you wanna learn how to tank or heal."

She didn't care what sort of build the blue-headed boy was going for, she knew how to build them all. Helping him find the right build that suited him was what she was good at. "In order to finish this quest, we have to kill boars and get their tusks to drop. It's not hard since this mochi we just ate will increase our luck stats for awhile."

She was sure that he wouldn't understand entirely how one could shift their luck like that, but it should be apparent enough that this is a video game where the laws of the realism didn't exist. "I'm going to teach you how to activate a sword art."

Spoiler

Name: Shay
Level: 15
HP: 300/300
EN: 30/30

Stats:
Damage: 7
LD: 4
Accuracy: 1
BLD: 12
REC: 2

Equipped Gear:
Weapon: (Katana)Murasame α: BLD 2; DMG 1
Trinket: Gold Covetous Serpent Ring: LD 2
Misc: Deep Red Tie: Recovery 2; ACC 1

Skills:
Curved Sword [Rank 1]
Katana [Rank 3]

Extra Skills:

Mods:

Battle Ready Inventory:
3 Stater Healing Potions

 

[ChaseR 0]

The boy nodded at her, exiting the safezone and stepping out into the field as he breathed in, exhaling with a sigh. More terms he'd never heard before, and he was certain that wasn't a general game term either. Just how little touch he had with RPGs before getting involved with one... Honestly... "... Sword arts?", he questioned with a confused expression, taking his weapon out of its sheathe and trying to find out how to hold it, feeling quite awkward regardless of his stance or grip on it.

"W-Woah, it's heavy... It's heavy when I hold it... Maybe if I find the right stance...", he thought, silently inspecting the blade and even losing himself for a moment. Once he was finished admiring his blade, he held it in front of him with his hands on both hilts, lowered and looked at Shay. "I've never held a sword.", the bluenette added, keeping the same confused expression. "S-So sword arts and even my stance... Can I even swing this? How should I swing this? Why were there no instructions, t-tch...", his mind rambled on and on, as he began to ponder the many questions of Aincrad once more, getting closer and closer to his ever-approaching existential crisis.

[Shay 0]

Shay summoned her blade from the ether in it's saya, holding it in her off hand as they walked into the wilds. The duo walked in the direction that the boar pups were located, it was easy since she had already been there once. "Explaining sword arts to their deep core is irrelevant. Just remember two important things: Using a sword art increases your damage at the cost of using more energy; and, some of them have special effects. You're gonna use an area of effect sword art here. It attacks multiple targets at once."

At that moment, a group of four boars spawned ahead of them, just out of detection radius. The dark-clad rogue unsheathed her blade and focused. "Put all of your focus into your weapon and let it build up until it's ready. Once it activates, the system will move your body for you." Soon, her katana lit up in a bright red color, humming with power. When the energy was stored the girl bounded forward with incredible speed.

Her blade released the red energy into the boar pups, killing two of them outright and dropping from one of them the tusk that she needed. The two that she missed jumped on her instantly, hitting her quite easily without her evasion gear on but doing minimal damage. Just as the first two died, two more boars joined the fray. "Take your time, I'll be alright."

---

Shay | HP: 292/300 (-8) | EN: 25/30 -(5) | DMG: 7 | LD: 4 | ACC: 1 | BLD: 12 | REC: 2
ChaseR |

Boar Pup 1: 0/5 | DMG 3
Boar Pup 2: 5/5 | DMG 3
Boar Pup 3: 5/5 | DMG 3
Boar Pup 4: 0/5 | DMG 3

ID#156055 drops 1 boar tusk. [1/3 tusks]

Boar Pup 5 & 6 join the fight in place of Boar Pup 1 & 4

[ChaseR 0]

He listened to what the Katana user had to say, opening his mouth as if to speak before seeing her launch right forward. "Take your time", she said, but that only made him feel more stressed out seeing how he was bombarded with what ultimately boiled down to: "S-So hold your sword, try to do what feels natural and hope for the best...". Chase tried to calm down, as hard as it was, emptying his mind, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. He kept his sword low, his blade right above the grass, held with both hands. He opened his eyes, a fierce look on his face and ran right towards the boar pups, a faint green glow coming from his sword.

As Chase swung his blade horizontally, he could feel his powerful motion aided by the system. He couldn't see or feel anything helping him out, but it was obvious this wasn't fully on him. There had to be some assistance, at least with the aim. With a single sweep, he took out one of the pups. He could feel the system still helping him move, realising this is what Shay must have meant when she mentioned it being an "area of effect" sword art. The bluehead swung his blade once more, taking another pup out and planting his foot in the ground.

The glow wasn't gone from his blade, as Chase realised this wasn't quite it. With every slash he became progressively more and more tired, but he had to finish what he started, obviously enough. He swung two more times, taking out all four of the pups and watching them turn into blue crystals, before disappearing into thin air. The loot confirmation message popped up, saying they already had all three tusks, which honestly surprised him. The entire situation surprised him on its own. He stood in awe, with his blade lowered as he panted for air, the glow finally fading away. "That...", he mumbled, completely speechless before looking over his shoulder at Shay.

Shay | HP: 292/300 (-8) | EN: 25/30 -(5) | DMG: 7 | LD: 4 | ACC: 1 | BLD: 12 | REC: 2
ChaseR | HP: 80/80 | EN: 0/8 (-8) | DMG: 7 | LD: 5 | ACC: 3

Boar Pup 2: 0/5 | DMG 3
Boar Pup 3: 0/5 | DMG 3
Boar Pup 5: 0/5 | DMG 3
Boar Pup 6: 0/5 | DMG 3

ID#156066, ID#156068 and ID#156069 drop 1 boar tusk each. [3/3 boar tusks]

Edited June 28, 2020 by ChaseR

[Shay 0]

"Great job." The rogue offered a smile as he took a breath. "Now wait righ there, I need to collect my own and only need two more. It shouldn't take me too long."

When she stopped speaking, more boar pups entered the battle field. Since they're new ones, they wont attack ChaseR unless he enters combat. The rogue took hold of her blade, reading herself for a fight. Some crappy mobs like this wouldn't threaten her.

The redness covered her blade once more as the boars approached her. With slices more precise and clean than the eye can follow, Shay eliminates each and every target with swift strikes. Except for one, which jumped and hit her dead in the stomach. The damage was still minimal. "Only one more tusk to go now. This should be rather easy, but still it continues to be difficult with me." She complains as more boars join the fight.

---

Shay | HP: 287/300 (-5) | EN: 25/30 -(5) | DMG: 7 | LD: 4 | ACC: 1 | BLD: 12 | REC: 2

Boar Pup 1: 5/5 | DMG 3
Boar Pup 2: 5/5 | DMG 3
Boar Pup 3: 5/5 | DMG 3
Boar Pup 4: 5/5 | DMG 3

[ChaseR 0]

Chase silently watched Shay, feeling the fatigue get to him from spending all of his Energy like that. He could move, but felt like he'd collapsed if he pushed himself too much, or maybe even a tiny bit. He was too tired to tell. The bluehead's eyes widened when he saw Shay get hit in the stomach, tightening his grip on his sword and lodging it into the ground, using it to help himself keep standing and rest at the same time. "If an item can make me luckier, which isn't realistic, then a hit from a lower level monster should be weaker to a higher level player... She shouldn't be in danger, judging by her green bar, but... It looks like it still hurts."

Just as he glossed over the thought of hurting, he looked down at his right hand, remaining silent and trying to dig his nail into his skin. "Right... I'd overheard some people sometime during my stay, but... Something about a pain absorber? So if we were to get hurt, it'll only sting... Still, I'd probably react like I really got hit.", he finished, looking back up at Shay to see how she'd handle all of the boars. The only certain thing was that she could do it, they were weak. Much too weak to be a problem for her. It's just that there were so many, and they didn't seem to stop appearing.

[Shay 0]

With the only pup remaining being the only one she needed, Shay quickly activated another sword art and killed the last remaining boar. After confirming the kill on the last boar had net her the tusk, she quickly moved out of the battle radius next to ChaseR. "All done. Good job, let us head back to Lyle and turn the quest in." Shay said as she started to take the lead ahead of him back towards the town of beginnings. That had gone much more smoothly than it did the last time. Thanks to actually having access to an area of effect sword art in her katana kit rather than having to use a curved blade.

Just as she was coming out of hiding to start leveling again, a new friend had been found. This boy showed a lot of promise compared to someone with a lot ego who already knew the game. Being able to teach him is better than getting a cocky upstart of a player following her around. Though, they may have to multi-class a little if they want to see effectiveness in combat together.

---

Shay | HP: 287/300 | EN: 20/30 | DMG: 7 | LD: 4 | ACC: 1 | BLD: 12 | REC: 2

Boar Pup 1: 5/5 | DMG 3

[3/3] Tusks
 

[ChaseR 0]

Chase nodded at Shay and began to head back alongside her, walking slower than normal as he waited for his energy to come back. Sooner than he expected though, he was back to feeling fully energised, as if he'd never gotten tired in the first place. "This really doesn't feel that normal... Game logic's going to be hard to get used to.". His eyes darted towards Shay's direction, and although hesitant, he coughed to get her attention and stopped, opening up his menu. "Teach me how to trade. I can't use the menu.", he almost demanded with how abruptly he spoke, looking at her quietly.

This quest had gone by so quickly, that now that both of them were relatively rested, it was the perfect time to learn some basics about the world and give his little 'gift' to Shay. Although how precious it was or how expensive is... a whole other matter, of course. It was true that he didn't know how to operate all parts of the menu however, and sooner or later, he'd have to stop relying on Shay for everything. "The sooner the better, too."

[Shay 0]

Shay stopped and looked the boy in the eyes. Everything was so simple to anyone who had ever touched a game was completely unapparent to this boy. He must really have zero experience with gaming. For what reason would he get a hold of such an expensive console and game then?

After a moment, she opened her menu. Her dominant hand waved down in front of her, pulling up the stats menu. "Head to items. Scroll over the item that you wish to trade and hold it with you finger. A sub window will pop open that allows you do things with it. Usually it's 'Equip/use', 'trade' and 'discard'. I heard there a few items that you can 'Copy' too such as keys to houses, but I'm not sure about that one. I spoke fast, did you catch that?"

She asked looking though her opaque menu at him, her crimson eyes piercing the faded transparency.

[ChaseR 0]

Chase began to sweat when her piercing gaze met his own, almost feeling his breath cut off before she opened up the menu and the tension lifted. "One of these days, I'll die of a heart attack...", he mumbled very lowly, listening to her and nodding along as he opened his own menu. He went through his inventory and found the item, following her instructions. He seemed surprised to be looking through the menu, although at the same time rather nervous because of being watched by her so intently. Having gotten a good look and idea for what the menu looked like, the boy took a deep breath and then traded the item, selecting Shay as the recipient.

A trade window popped up with him offering Dry Bread to her. He looked at her with a serious expression, still slightly intimidated by the look on her face. "You helped, so I bought you food. We can eat together.", he awkwardly blurted out in a deadpan voice, beginning to stiffen the longer she took to reply. "... I might as well die right now.", he thought to himself, feeling as if the tension he accidentally created again by offering practical dirt cheap food was suffocating him.

[Shay 0]

As he concluded the trade, a flash of light summoned a piece of bread into the girl's hand. It looked like random vanity food that one could get from an NPC shop, or something that an aspiring cook player made. They didn't necessarily taste the best, but they satisfied the stomach at the least.

"Sure." She said closing her menu and taking a seat in the grass with her katana laying next to her, ready to get back into battle again should they need to protect themselves with anything. The rogue bit into the bread, not really seeming to mind that the bread was completely stale and not as pleasant as her regular cook makes. Food is food after all, and Shay was hardly picky about what she ate. As long as it didn't taste like absolute barf, that's all that really mattered. She was still really quiet, only really seeming to reply to direct questions.

[ChaseR 0]

All of his muscles quickly relaxed, the trade being over now. He took a piece of bread out from his own menu as well, sitting down next to her with his sheathed sword placed down on his right. In all honesty, he was far too surprised that this had worked out. He found her quite odd, in a nice way. She didn't want him overestimating his abilities as that would put him in danger, but even if underwhelming, she let him make more courageous offers like this one.

He took a bite out of the bread himself, looking to the side and watching Shay eat it. "She doesn't mind?", he thought, a small smile appearing on his face before he looked back at his own lunch and took another bite out of it. By the time he'd already eaten half of it, he let out a deep exhale. "Thanks.". He knew he wasn't good with words, but he didn't care. She'd seen him at his worst already, heard all of his ambitious thoughts and agreed to raise him to adapt to this world's needs. Chase just wanted to express how thankful he was for everything, even if it wasn't much relative to any, even slightly experienced, player. Dry bread was too cheap of a commodity, but it was all he could afford before now.

[Shay 0]

Shay ate the bread much more quickly than Chase may have expected, having finished even before he got to the halfway point. Once it was downed, she took a moment continue resting, picking the crumbs off her face with her fingers and tossing them into the grass. It was pretty apparent at this point that the girl was something of a glutton when it came to foods.

"Gochisousama deshita." She said, looking over at him, hoping her may understand enough of her native tongue to know what the words meant and hoping that he wouldn't get mad since she had forgotten to say ittadakimasu before she started. With her hunger satisfied for the moment, she had to wonder what would be on their agenda after all these beginner quests. She had already completed the Hoya herself, and the Wind Wasp, but she might have to take him through those so he can get the experience as well. Those fights were so easy, even someone like him could handle it.

[ChaseR 0]

Ethan looked at her with his eyes squinted, realising that she must have said thanks or some wish. "... People in India do that. I remember from a trip with my family.", he thought, grinning and giving her a nod. "Not a problem.", he responded despite not having understood what she'd said, getting up and putting his sword back on the belt around his waste. He began to head back to the Town of Beginnings, walking with his arms crossed as he figured they might as well turn the quest in now that they were done eating too. 

Halfway through walking, he froze and stared down at the ground, lost deep in thought. "Wait a moment... Indians say mantras before food.", he connected the dots, looking over his shoulder at Shay with a completely serious face, as tensed up as he could get. His eyes were pinned on her katana, before running over her armor. The bluehead remained like that for a little while before snapping his fingers and pointing his right index finger her way. "You're Japanese?", he asked, making a sophisticated guess based on her armor. "She's kind of like a samurai... Right?"

[Shay 0]

Shay followed behind that boy a step or two, he seemed to be taking the lead back, so she didn't mind it. They were somewhat quiet for a minute until the boy stopped in front of her. He was frozen up for a second before turning and pointing at her for some reason.

"You're Japanese?" Was her Japanese speech not enough to give that away? Maybe he took a wild guess when he reacted to her thanks for food. Her arms folded over her chest as she responded. "Hai, yoroshiku." She said plainly with a slight wave. "Was it not apparent? Perhaps you just aren't very well versed in Asian languages. My apologies."

After that, she continued to walk towards town, beckoning him to follow. There was no time to be dawdling when they could be leveling, after all. Any wasted time talking about irrelevant things was time they could be using to kill a boss.

[ChaseR 0]

Chase shook his head at her statement, following right behind her and making sure not to trip anywhere. "It's okay. I only know English. The game's Japanese, so there must be a lot of you.", he responded, albeit a short while had passed. "Truth be told, I haven't seen too many players that really stand out, like Shay. They must be in the upper floors, huh? I might have to talk with more of them, as horrible as that sounds.", his inner monologues went on and on. Overall, that was the one thing he hated about himself. Even inside of his head, he could never catch a break.

And as he drew closer and closer to the conclusion that there'd be a necessity for socialization sooner or later, they eventually arrived at the Town of Beginnings, and headed right towards Lyle's workshop. "Say, NPCs aren't real people. So what do they need all the items for?". With that question in mind, he thought he'd ask Shay, although he could tell it was most likely just to give the players some objective. "What will he do with the tusks?"

[Shay 0]

"A lot of people I've met have been from either Japan or America." Shay mentioned with a bit of shrug as the duo entered the safe zone of the Town of Beginnings. "I imagine it must have been difficult for the American players to have gotten a hold of Nervegears. They're not cheap whatsoever, even my bank account took a heavy toll." She stopped right there. This was most of the reason that she kept her stupid mouth quiet. No one needs to know that you're rich Junko.

"As for the tusks, they'll probably just go back into the system and cease to exist. Think of it more like this though. The Tusks get molded down into experience for us as a reward for completing the quest. Getting hung up on things with NPCs aren't really important. They system respawns them and such. They're just data like all the other things in the game. They only thing that makes them different from random mobs and bosses is that they don't attack you on sight." Shay didn't sound harsh when she said this, only such like that's the way it was.

[ChaseR 0]

"Yeah, me and Lily had to gather up pocket money since the beta got announced to get a hold of one. It still cost more though.", he nonchalantly said, for the first time in forever talking about his past life before getting trapped in the game. He hadn't paid close to any attention at her comment regarding how rich she was, thinking it was probably just her being bad with words, same as he.

He nodded on the small remark about experience and the differences between NPCs, before he proceeded to ask. "Why are they called NPCs again?". Chase had heard the term a lot of times before, sure, but he never knew where that abbreviation came from. As they entered Lyle's shop, he was looking over his head in an attempt to see some title or name possibly next to his cursor. Unless, since this was a fantasy game, that was a separate race. "They're a different race?", he continued, dipping his head in to greet the old man before opening his inventory to place the materials on the bench to turn the quest in, expecting Shay to do the same.

[Shay 0]

The rogue too dropped her materials in to the blacksmith's hand who had yet another task for them, they were to go and find another person and deliver a package to them. Typical starting quests for games like these. Shay normally skipped them, but these ones gave some decent experience and you needed all you could get in a death game like this.

"NPC is another bit of gamer lingo for characters that aren't real people. It stands for Non-Player Character. You and are known to the system as 'Player Characters', or PCs. Man, I really have to teach you more basic acronyms or people are going to give you weird looks." She shook her head and took the deliver box that they needed to take to the third lessons. The box flashed with light and disappeared to her inventory. Their next objective was to find a painter by the name of Hannah and deliver these stupid boxes. Easily done, until the NPC tasks them with killing something.

Spoiler

Rewards:

SP: 2 Quest; 1 page; 1 event
Col: 200 per player
1 Tier One armor with one (1) slot mitigation
A potion of 'Safeguard' that can only be used in the quest 'The Third lesson, Is Just as Free'. Safeguard blocks the damage from the first successful attacks that hits the player.