[SP|F1]The Fallen Won't Be Forgotten<<First Lessons>>

[Ruler 0]

The Monument of Life.

A wall emblazoning the names of all those who had fallen to this twisted game's ill intent. The longer she stood in front of it, the more that she had wished that it didn't exist. Conner's alias sits on the wall, chiseled into stone forever, but Riley... His name isn't there.

Curse this game's unfairness. They didn't even have a chance. The Nervegears were pulled off of them before they even knew the rules about the game and Kayaba doesn't care. Such a thing can't be forgivable, not even to someone as forgiving as herself. She couldn't just stand around and do nothing anymore. The anger welling in her expression was overflowing. Revenge was never a worthwhile endeavor, but for now, she would use that fuel to start playing Akihiko's stupid game. This wouldn't be the end of her spirit.

The blonde turned and exited the Monument of Life.

Spoiler

Ruler
Level: 1
HP: 20/20
EN: 2/2

Stats:
Damage: 5
Accuracy: 3
LD: 3+3

Equipped Gear:
Weapon: La Pucelle[Rapier/Perfect/T1] DMG III
Armor: Maiden's Forgiveness[Trinket/Perfect/T1] ACC III
Misc: Luminosité Eternelle[Trinket/Perfect/T1]LD III

Skills:
Rapier [Rank 1]

Mods:

Battle Ready Inventory:
Starter Healing Potions(50hp)*3
Ice Cream Mochi(LD III)*2 <Using

 

[Ruler 0]

The quiet halls of forgotten names soon turned into a bustling street of non-player characters and other low level players like herself. Those players were choosing to stay on the lower floors while others risked their lives to combat the front lines and make it out of the game. It was hard to judge them for cowardice. Choosing to fight for one's freedom might sound like a easy choice when offered, but there were likely players who only came to enjoy the virtual world for what it was. The scales were not balanced in their favor.

What even to do now that she was deciding to come into the game and be a fighting figure? There was no hope that she would be reaching the front in any small time, so that shouldn't even be a thought in her mind. Usually these sort of games had a tutorial to help guide players through the basics...

[Ruler 0]

After what felt like several hours - which really it was only one - Alicia finally found the starting quests. The embarrassment of asking another player for that sort of information was a little more than she thought it would be initially. As she entered Zachariah's hut, she was greeted with an older man than she was expecting. Wait, what really was she expecting?

"Good evening, Ma'am. Looking to start your journey here in the wonderful tower of Aincrad I see?" The old man set down his vial of some alchemical mixture down on the counter next to his alembic to speak to her directly. Alicia stood up a little more straight than normal, even though she knew he wasn't a real person.

"Y-Yes. If you would, please, teach me what I must know." She responded, hoping that this wouldn't be too difficult for a single player. The tutorial couldn't be that hard, after all.

[Ruler 0]

Was being this polite to a program really necessary? Probably not.

"It's not difficult at all, young lady." The alchemist began to put is full attention into her arrival. "You see, I just need a few more ingredients to help make medicines for the sickly around these parts. If you could head outside of town and collect me some materials, I will teach you how to make a potion that you can use to heal wounds."

An interesting proposal for a good cause. Alicia could get behind this. "Very well, sir. I shall do as you ask. I will return with the items you seek." The girl offered him a wave and left his hut, letting the curtain drape back down behind her. With a sigh, she looked around trying to find the quickest path out of town and started making her way. It would take her awhile to start, but it shouldn't be too hard to get the hang of at all.

[Ruler 0]

The warm sun beat down overhead. The golden-blonde made her way out of the safe zone where she would surely find the items that the man was looking for. Ingredients for potions? What sort of items would that entail? Herbs and flora most likely were her best bet. Hopefully she would bring back the right kind of stuff. With her luck, she would end up bringing him back something that was toxic or poisonous.

As soon as she stepped out side of the barrier that protected civilization from the wilds, she equipped the flag that she had order from that Artisan. Apparently it could boost her luck. Which it seemed to already be doing as a material came into view nearly instantly. She walked over to the tree it sat under and reached down to pick it up. Her first of many, likely. This was the first step of her journey in this game.

---

[Ruler 0]

On top of the flag that she had ordered, there was also a holy emblem and a weapon befitting her style. The rapier probably wasn't the best weapon in the game, she assumed as much judging by how few people she has seen actually wield one, but she had always followed this sort of weapon type in other MMO's so it would feel weird to switch it up now.

So, no combat would be required of her yet. That was fine. After all, she was sure that she would see tons of battle ahead of now and would be tired of them before long. Walking further out into the wilds would yield the best benefit of materials for her, so she wouldn't hesitate to continue further. It was difficult to feel scared of the first floor enemies, especially when they were this close to town. They would likely take no effort to dispatch of.

Close to a bush, she was able to spy another one of the glowing materials that the alchemist needed. She scooped it up quickly and added it to the bunch.

---

[Ruler 0]

Off in the distance where many enemies that she could later fight. Perhaps she could farm some money off them later and get some experience. If she was lucky, maybe even a good item that could be stronger than what her blacksmith had done for her. Nothing to be stressing about just yet, however.

Continuing on her walk, a curious looking grove had come into view past the line of trees. There were likely to be an abundance of materials there if she gave it a look. It also wouldn't hurt to get to know of any potential farming spots later.

Upon entering the grove, she was met with heavy bushes and greenery. It was difficult to see to far past herself. Using her weapon to cut through some bushes, she takes a step and sinks directly into the ground. It opens up and swallows her. A pitfall trap? She unceremoniously landed on her back end. So there are traps in the game, nice. 

---

Materials found: 3

[Ruler 0]

Getting up off her behind, she dusts her clothes free of the dirt and inspects the area. A cave with some dampened walls and moss, yes, her favorite. If this was anything like she expected it was, she would just need to find the sole exit and escape. Too bad she couldn't reach the ceiling of the cave from here, or else she could just climb out.

A singular exit led from the current section she was in to the next, so standing around was pretty useless from here. The heels of her metal boots clicked along the rocky surface of the cave, echoing back to her with every step.

Rounding her next corner, she was met with an ugly sight: An overgrown rat with disgustingly rotted teeth and skin so disease ridden it couldn't grow hair in some places. It noticed her at the same time, running straight in her direction. Latching the flag to her back, she readied her rapier for a fight.

---

Materials found: 3

[Ruler 0]

The motions in these kinds of games were all pretty familiar. She had never held a weapon in her real life, but it wouldn't matter too much. The system was aiding the movements whether she knew it or not. A benevolent yellow light glowed from the weapon in her hand as she focused her energy into the blade. The diseased vermin approached her at a blinding speed, but she was faster. The rapier sliced through her target with ease, splitting the thing in half before inevitably exploded into blue dust.

Returning her weapon to her side, Ruler sighed and looked back at where the beast had been slain. There were some drops at least. This one was a unidentified consumable. Trying to see if she could identify the item was failure. It only appeared with a message saying that a merchant must identify the item for her. She would keep that in mind for later.

---

Ruler | HP: 20/20 | EN: 0/2 | DMG: 5 | ACC: 3 | LD: 3

Diseased Rat | 10/10 | DMG: 3

30 col; 4 T1 Materials

1 Rare Trinket

[Ruler 0]

The fight with the rat had got the adrenaline pumping. Even if she didn't really have a heart, the placebo feeling that still made her feel human was kicking in. A deep breath was all she needed to calm the nerves before continuing her way out of the cave. There was no way this was designed to be a fatal trap so soon in the game. If it was, that was poor and unfair design by the game developers.

The sound of her heels clicked through the stone cavern, reverberating back to her every time she took a step. Sneaking up on an enemy seemed fruitless with this equipment on, but perhaps the game had ways around that where sound detection didn't really matter.

Remembering what she had come for, the woman took a quick look around for any materials that could be useful to find nothing of significant value.

---

Materials found: 3

Ruler | HP: 20/20 | EN: 1/2 (+1)| DMG: 5 | ACC: 3 | LD: 3

[Ruler 0]

Turning the corner, her head was nearly taken off by another enemy. She really needed to pay more attention, or get less noisy shoes in the foreseeable future. The bat swooped down and tried to bit her with it's vicious looking fangs, but luckily, she was fast enough to react to the attack before she lost her head.

When she was able to stand without getting eaten, she reached down to pull up her sword. The blade got caught in her holster for a moment, slipping from her grip and clanging loudly on the ground. Graceful Alicia, well done.

Quickly, she reached down to pick the weapon up, having no time to make her own attack before the bat had gotten out of range. Her back straightened as she waited for the bat to make it's move. Using a rapier was about grace and patience, just ignore what happened literally five seconds ago.

---

Ruler | HP: 20/20 | EN: 1/2 (-1+1)| DMG: 5 | ACC: 3 | LD: 3

Cave Bat | 10/10 | DMG: 3

[Ruler 0]

Though she had missed her first strike with the grace of a stumbling elephant, Ruler wasn't one to dwell on mistakes. Making mistakes is how people grow and if you never made any mistakes you wouldn't really see what you need to improve on. She was still just a young, low leveled player looking to improve.

The bat was ready to come back in for another attack. It swooped down onto her, biting on her shoulder and leaving red teeth marks dotting her back and chest. Once it finally let go of her, she checked her health, which was still fine. No worries, she readied the holy glow in her rapier once again, or at least tried to. It refused to work. It was only now that she had realized she was low on her energy reserves. While she could make a basic attack, she knew it was probably best to simply rely on the sword arts.

---

ID#157723 canceled. Not enough energy to make a sword art attack.

Ruler | HP: 17/20 -(3) | EN: 1/2 (+1)| DMG: 5 | ACC: 3 | LD: 3

Cave Bat | 10/10 | DMG: 3

[Ruler 0]

Again, the golden blade in her hand charged with energy, humming with a low hue of power. This time she wouldn't miss the stupid thing. It dove in at her again, chomping at air as she dipped out of the way and attempted to make another attack. The rapier reached out to her enemy and barely missed, yet again. Nearly thrusting through the wing of the giant vermin was more than annoying. It was almost more annoying than accidentally dropping her own weapon.

She backed off again, making some distance between her and her enemy to try and regain her energy so she could attack again. Caution would be recommended from here on out. Her luck of dodging two of those attacks from the bat was exceptional. She would be in danger if she felt that attack more times than once. Well, she was sure that it wouldn't allow her to just rest, so getting ready for her next attack, she pays close attention to the bat's movement.

---

Ruler | HP: 17/20 | EN: 0/2 (-2)| DMG: 5 | ACC: 3 | LD: 3

Cave Bat | 10/10 | DMG: 3

[Ruler 0]

She wasn't fast enough. It was way too fast suddenly. Even as she tried to dodge the oncoming back attack, the bat swerved in and caught her arm, latching deep onto her body and not letting go for anything. The pain could barely be felt, but it still wasn't very pleasant. She waved it off her arm until it finally let go and tried to create some distance again.

"Curse you!" Her voice echoed down the tunnels of the cave. A growl formed around her lips as she cursed the digital mob for it's bettering against her. If only her energy would come back, she would be able to get another sword art off and she would start running if she couldn't make another hit happen. The gear she had gotten was supposed to increase her accuracy when making attacks. How unlucky could she be that she would miss two attacks.

---

Ruler | HP: 12/20 -(5) | EN: 1/2 | DMG: 5 | ACC: 3 | LD: 3

Cave Bat | 10/10 | DMG: 3

[Ruler 0]

It would be best to not let herself be taken aback. With a quiet breath, Ruler focused her energy back into her weapon. It glowed with a golden hue like it had before, radiant as the sun at noon's height. The bat came in yet again for another set of strikes as Ruler pierced through it's guard. It stalled momentarily and then exploded into a shower of blue polygons just like the rat before. Soon after, the loot box appeared before her, showing her the rewards. They weren't anything to be very proud of, but at least she was getting the hang of combat.

With the wave of her hand, she closed her menu and sighed. Back to this material gathering that she needs to get done for Zach. Unfortunately, the materials that she was obtaining from the monsters that she was killing wasn't counting towards that. Time to keep looking around.

---

Ruler | HP: 12/20 | EN: 2/2 | DMG: 5 | ACC: 3 | LD: 3

Cave Bat | 10/10 | DMG: 3

40 col; 2 T1 Materials

1 Rare Consumable
1 Rare Weapon

[Ruler 0]

Walking through the cave, there seemed to be nothing else that threatened to attack her. That was good at least. Considering how she was pretty beaten up by the last enemy, she wouldn't want to get into another brawl like that until her health was restored. A beam of light appeared down the corridor of stone, signifying the exit to the cave. Good thing there was actually an exit in the first place.

Upon stepping out, she was greeted with the warm feeling of the sun and not only that, she was also met with the presence of a material, one that she would need for the quest she was undertaking. She reached down and picked up the item carefully, adding it to her growing stash of materials.

She only needed a single more material in order to return to Zach with her spoils. It would be a good idea to start heading back to the quest giver while she kept an eye out for the last material she needed.

---

Materials found: 1
Total: 4

[Ruler 0]

And just like she thought, she found the material that she was looking for with little to no effort, her foot nearly stepped right on top of it as she was making her way back to the main city where Zachariah was waiting for her. These were her first steps in the game, and she would be ready for anything after this. Something she was already noticing was that her weapon wasn't quiet up to snuff. Perhaps she could look into inventing in a better weapon than the rapier. If she really wanted to protect herself, dealing as much damage as possible was her best bet.

Finally back into the Town of Beginnings, Ruler makes her way back to Zachariah's hut. "Good day," She said as she walked into the door, collecting the materials in her hand. "I have collected all the necessary materials that you needed."

---

Materials found: 1
Total: 5

Edited July 11, 2020 by Ruler

[Ruler 0]

Potions were an odd thing in video games. How they worked were well beyond her comprehension and she certainly wasn't going to take the time to invest in them further past this quest. If she was going to take on any sort of profession, Blacksmithing would be more her style. It seemed simple and easy to perform without having much knowledge prior.

When Zachariah turned to greet her, he ushered the player over to his work station where the materials would be used to create a potion. Like previously mentioned, she had no idea how this thing was supposed to work. Her best hope was that she would get lucky, yet luck was not on her side this time. The potion came up as a failure. Though, she was disappointed not. Failure was the way people improved. If you didn't make mistakes, you could never truly become better at your hobbies.

---

Failure

Edited July 11, 2020 by Ruler

[Ruler 0]

Yet all it took for her was one failure to land a perfect creation. With another mixture of the boiling bauble, Ruler had somehow crafted an item of perfect quality. She assumed that perfect was the best that she could acquire, as they wouldn't really name it perfect if it wasn't of the best quality.

She gave it a simple name before pocketing the item for herself and handing over the remaining materials to the man who was teaching her. It was a shame that she wasn't allowed to keep the materials she had farmed up through gathering, but at least she was allowed to keep the ones that she had earned off of the monster drops. Those would help her later when she decided that she wanted to undertake the quest that let her start learning the blacksmith skill. With that, she would be able to create her own weapons, rather than having to pay for them.

---

Perfect Potion crafted

Edited July 11, 2020 by Ruler

[Ruler 0]

With her first lesson completely finished, Ruler waved off the alchemist and returned to the town proper. She had a lot to do in order to get strong enough to start helping clear the game, but if she didn't want to ruin the memories of Conner and Riley, she would need to become stronger than even she expected. Not only would she have to change this weapon, but she would have to invest in joining a guild. The thought of making new friends scared her, as they could one day end up like her two friends, but this wasn't the type of experience to try and handle solo.

She quickly turned to the player request board, looking for any guilds to join and one caught her eye pretty quickly. Firm Anima. She would join them, and maybe make some reliable allies. Hopefully they wouldn't end up like Conner and Riley did. She didn't know how much more of this she could take.

Spoiler

Rewards:

SP: 2 Quest; 1 page; 1 event
Col: 470
T1 Mats: 6
1 Rare Trinket - 156773
1 Rare Weapon - 157754a
1 Rare Consumable - 157754b