[F01-PP] Getting Out There | <<The First Lesson>>

[Melissa 0]

The System had updated. Things had changed, and when things changed...that was usually time for a good start. That was Melissa's logic as to why today was finally the day that she was going to stop moping around in the Town of Beginnings and finally set out to actually do stuff, just what she'd brought this game for! She looked over the gear she had, a simply vanity set of plain, leather armour and a significantly fancier sword, with intricate, silver inlays. It was light and easy to swing, which made it signficiantly easier for the beginner adventurer to actually hit things with it. That'd come in handy for...not dying.

It was as Melissa was wandering around, attempting to find a quest, that she found herself approached by an NPC. The mayor, apparently. He'd asked her to help track down a loan he'd given, and had totally forgotten who he'd actually given it to. It seemed like a rather air-headed thing to do, given his status as mayor and dignified appearance...but it was a quest, and that meant good things! She'd been directed towards an alchemist named Zackariah, who before she could even ask her about the loan, had charged her with gathering some materials. Part of the quest, she imagined.

Now, she stood at the gates, slightly trembling...it didn't seem to involve actually doing some fighting, but she wasn't quite familiar with the aggro radius on various enemies, and she didn't want to risk gathering their attention while trying to find the materials. So, the red-haired young lady looked around, attempting to find someone who had a sort of friendly aura, that she could trust to watch her back while out gathering.

Stats:

Spoiler

Level: 1 | HP: 20/20 | EN: 20/20 | ACC: 2 | EVA: 0| MIT: 0

Equipment:

Silver Knight Straight Sword | Rare THSS | Acc/Acc

@Astreya

Edited April 9, 2021 by Melissa

[Astreya 0]

Astreya had been just about all over the First Floor looking for this Gypsy woman so that she too could get one of those cool familiar things, but it didn't seem like she was here.  Well dang.  She hadn't wanted to have to go up to the higher floors to see if she could find her.  It wasn't that Astreya was scared to do so, she just hadn't really done much on the higher floors at all, and had mostly been hanging out here on the first floor.

But before heading up to the higher floors, she had decided to head back to the Town of Beginnings, just to make sure one last time the woman hadn't made her way here while Astreya had been wandering all around tarnation trying to find her.  But as she drew closer to the front gates, she saw another player standing just inside the gates, looking around this way and that, as if she were trying to find someone that she knew.

But either she wasn't finding them or they just weren't around, and the dark-haired girl wondered if that's how she looked just before she'd gone out on her first quest- wide eyed and scared and everything in between.  She felt some level of attachment to this girl already, even if it was just a kindred spirit sort of deal.  

Astreya waved as she approached the gates, giving the girl a wide smile.  "Heyyyy~!" she called out as she approached.  "You all good?  Anything I can help with?" the young woman asked.  "Sorry for butting in, you just seemed a little bit lost," the woman admitted, giving the other girl a small smile.

@Melissa

 

Spoiler

--Level 11
--HP: 220
--NRG: 40

--Base Damage: 8
--Mitigation: 30
--Regeneration: 1% (Currently 2)
--Accuracy: 1
--Recovery: 2 (on CD rolls of 7+)
--Thorns: 18
--Taunt: 2

---

Skills:
Battle Healing: Novice
Fighting Spirit
Howl
|-> Focused Howl

2H Straight Sword: Journeyman

Heavy Armor: Expert
|-> Impetus

Concentration

---

Gear:
»Silver Frost [2H Straight Sword] | Rare T2
[Damage] - Gain +2 base damage per slot.
[Accuracy] - Add 1 onto your BD rolls (Cannot cause crits)

»Battle Dress | Rare T2 Heavy Armor
[Mitigation] - Prevent 12 damage from successful attacks against you.
[Thorns] - Successful non-critical attacks against you deal 18 unmitigated damage to the attacking enemy. Only activates on damage dealing, melee attacks.

»Dodgeball | Rare T1 Trinket
[Accuracy II] - Add 2 onto your BD rolls (Cannot cause crits)

»Spotlight | Rare T2 Trinket
[Taunt] - Adds 1 Hate generated from successful attacks, Howl and Furious Howl.
[Recovery] - Regain 2 additional energy on natural CD rolls of 7+. 

---

Consumables:
»Starter Healer Potions | Heals 50 HP
[3 Total]
»Tier One Damage Potion of Uncommon quality. (+1 Damage)
[1 Total]
»Tier One Health Potions of Rare quality. (+10% HP)
[3 Total]
»Tier One Immolation Potion (+10 Thorns Damage)
[1 Total]
»Fixer Upper (Salve) | Antidote I
[1 Total]

 

 

Edited April 9, 2021 by Astreya

[Melissa 0]

The sound of someone talking to her caught Melissa a little by surprise, and she almost jumped at it, before quickly turning, twintails whipping a little as she did so. It was a very...dynamic hairstyle. Fortunately it wouldn't actually interfere with fighting, probably, and in a virtual world like this, she didn't even have to worry about taking care of such incredibly long hair.

"Huh? I'm not lost. Just trying to see if I can find someone to help out with these tutorial quests...which I guess qualifies as something you can help with", she mused, before shrugging. "I uh...don't really want to get ambushed by boars while trying to do material gathering, so I was hoping to find someone who could watch my back. Don't suppose you could help out with that?"

This girl seemed kinda nice, coming up to offer help...maybe having her along wouldn't be so bad. She was pretty, too. Plus, talking to her would help things be a little less monotonous. Yeah, Melissa liked the idea of having her come along.

@Astreya

[Astreya 0]

The dark-haired girl's grin windened a little bit at the mentioned of the tutorial quest.  "Sure!" she agreed cheerfully.  "I just did them back before the update and have helped a couple of people since then so I don't mind at all!  Besides, I'm looking for someone who... may or may not be on the first floor, so a little bit of roaming around won't hurt anything," she agreed with a nod.  

"The boars are pretty rough, but I can definitely keep them from getting too feisty," she agreed, before offering her hand to the twin-tailed girl.  "I'm Astreya!" she called cheerfully, beaming a smile at the other.  "It's nice to meet you," she added, before she made a broad gesture out toward the plains that lay beyond the front gates.  "So just so you know, this quest took me forever when I did it.  Hopefully you've got better luck than I do in finding these."

@Melissa

[Melissa 0]

Well, this girl was definitely the cheerful type. Melissa was a tad more subdued, but it wasn't like the energy bothered her. It was a good balance really, someone to carry the conversation when it lulled or things were a bit too quiet. With a nod of her head and a small, calm smile, she shook Astreya's hand. It wasn't exactly a limp-wristed shake. "Melissa, nice to meet you too. And I hope so. I do like MMOs, but the grinding can get to you a little bit, and throwing it in your face early on can make it hard to get into a game. And I guess if it can take a while, we'd better not waste any time, huh?"

With that said, she turned on her heel, and after making sure that Astreya was behind, headed through the gate out into the plains beyond. It was her first time she'd ever left, and she had to admit, it was a little scary to take a step out into something that could - and would certainly try to - kill her. But she had a companion for dealing with that, and she looked tough, so hopefully there wouldn't be any issues!

@Astreya

[Astreya 0]

As the girl mentioned that she liked MMOs, Astreya couldn't help but to let her grin fade slightly, looking slightly more embarrassed as the pair began to head out into the field.  "This is actually my first MMO thing.  Rotten luck, right?" she asked, glancing to the other girl as she shook her head.  "I'm not really much of a gamer, myself.  I just kinda ended up playing and I guess that's where making that snap decision kinda bit me in the butt," she muttered, shaking her head a little, the dark hair dancing around her armor.

"Now for these herbs, it's all on how lucky you are in finding them.  They don't exactly stand out at all amongst all the rest of them.  And there's a lot of them that look the same too!  So you gotta see if you can find the right ones, and if you get lucky, you can actually do this pretty quick.  It took me most of the day but I helped someone a couple days ago and it took us like... maybe twenty minutes," she spoke, rolling her eyes a bit.  "Totally not fair."

@Melissa

[Melissa 0]

A newbie, but further along than her. Normally Melissa would be annoyed at the idea of being left behind, but it was kind of her own fault for not having actually made any attempt at progression in the past while of people being stuck inside this game. But that changed today! "Yeah, that's the worst luck. Hopefully my gathering luck isn't as bad, because I don't want to be stuck here all day. I've been playing them for a few years, to get some kinda excitement. It's kinda boring where I live."

For now at least, it seemed that Melissa's luck certainly wasn't looking too good, because after a couple minutes, she came away empty-handed. "Damn, nothing. I hope this doesn't keep up...", she muttered, rubbing her head. Were they really gonna spend ages looking for these? She sure hoped not, she had other things to do, and grinding out materials for a tutorial quest wasn't exactly her definition of fun.

ID# 187882 | LD: 3 | No materials found

@Astreya

Edited April 9, 2021 by Melissa

[Astreya 0]

"Oh yeah?  Where do you live?" Astreya asked as the girl offered up that she  mostly played the MMOs because of how boring life was around her.  "Not to be nosey, but if you've got twice the luck that I do it's gonna be a little while- better to make some conversation," the girl added, grinning a bit.

Besides, it was always fun to learn about people and where they came from- there was a whole lot of people stuck here in the game, and the more she learn about people and talk to them, the better the time she'd have would be.  

She followed along while Melissa as the girl hunted for some of the herbs... only to come back lacking.  At that, Astreya couldn't help but to giggle a bit.  "The bad luck begins!" she cheered, raising both hands over her head in amusement.  "I had some luck going around to the right side of The Town of Beginnings.  We can try that?" she asked.

@Melissa

[Melissa 0]

"I live on the outskirts of Nice, in France. It's a pretty place, I have to admit, and there's some cool stuff there, but my little neighbourhood was kinda sleepy", she explained, as they headed off around to the right side. Melissa kept a leary distance from the boars as she did so, one hand always on the handle of her sword.

"I was saving up some money from a part-time job to move into my college's dorm when the next year rolled around and they opened up spaces, but spent some of it on SAO, and...well, I guess I escaped some of the monotony at least. Kinda wish it was less deadly though."

With a shrug, she started looking around again...and this time, managed to find something. She raised it up with a grin, before placing it into her inventory. "There we go. Four more to go, and we can be done with it. Hopefully this keeps delivering."

ID# 187888 | LD: 19 | 1 Material gathered (1/5)

@Astreya

Edited April 9, 2021 by Melissa

[Astreya 0]

As the girl mentioned that she was from France, Astreya squealed a little bit in excitement, hopping up and down.  "Omigosh I would love to go to France!  It always looks so pretty!" the girl cheered, more than a little excited for what seemed like such a small detail.  "Plus the language always sounds so... awesome," she finished with a slight sigh.  "Okay, I'm, like, officially jealous of that," she added as she trailed along behind, the girl's carefree words somewhat dampened by the fact that she kept a hand on the hilt of her blade at all times.

"Yeah.  It took me... a long time to get up the nerve to actually leave the Town of Beginnings," Astreya agreed.  "I just kept hiding out there because I didn't want to deal with.. all the dangers.  But eventually I realized that the people at the Front Lines were doing all the work and I needed to pull my weight too," she spoke, nodding to herself, before seeing the herb in Melissa's hand.  "All right! Twenty percent done!"

[Melissa 0]

Melissa couldn't help but chuckle a little at Astreya's excitement. She'd figured the accent would give it away, but not everybody would be familiar with that, she supposed. "Oh, tu es fan de la langue française? Je suppose que c'est populaire." , she said with a grin. It was only a basic sentence, but she figured that her companion would probably get some giddiness over actually hearing her speak her mother tongue. "Nice has quite a few good tourist attractions. Maybe if we ever make it out of this place, you can come visit or something."

With that said, she continued her search. However, this time it appeared there was nothing to find, and she gave a disappointed sigh. "Damn, nothing. Let's try a different spot I guess. And yeah, same here, I think. I don't really like taking risks, but...I got SAO for a reason, and I've got plenty of experience with video games, so I'm going to give it a go."

ID# 187898 | LD: 6 | No materials gathered

@Astreya

Edited April 9, 2021 by Melissa

[Astreya 0]

The dark-haired girl couldn't help a happy little laugh as Melissa spoke a bit of French, the language sounding just as fun and exotic as she had always heard it before with others as well.  It was just a rather beautiful language, flowing from one word into the next so easily.  It just flowed and was super fun to listen to.  

"Oh man, I'd love to come to visit once we... y'know, clear the rest of the floors," she spoke, shaking her head.  She had heard that they were in the twenties or so when the update had gone through.  Which  meant that they had at least another seventy-some floors left to go... and who knew how long that would take.  "But that's why I'm planning on leveling up!" she called out, making a slight show of flexing her arms.

She nodded along, her sapphire eyes flickering this way and that while they were talking, just a passive surveillance on the field to keep an eye on where all of the mobs were.  She didn't want anything sneaking up on them.  "I'm not, like, much of a gamer, myself.  Seems like everyone else is though," she mentioned with a small laugh.

@Melissa

[Melissa 0]

That happy laugh that came from Astreya earned a matching giggle from Melissa. It was nice to have that kind of camaraderie again. She'd been decently popular in school, but since being stuck inside SAO, the redhead had been a tad cut off from all that. Without realising, she had gotten quite lonely.

"As am I. Having others to assist on the front lines - or even just gathering information or loot to help - will speed things up, even if it's small. Do you have any idea on what you want your role to be? I'm still in-between myself. Being a tank would give me better survivability, but it would also put me the most in harms way."

As she spoke, Melissa had been searching for more materials, but alas, once more she came away empty handed. "Ugh, let's maybe try somewhere else. Not having any luck here, so maybe it's only one for a specific area..."

 

ID# 187903 | LD: 8 | No materials earned

Edited April 10, 2021 by Melissa

[Astreya 0]

The two shared their laugh for a moment, and she nodded, approving of the fact that they were able to actually just kick back and relax a little bit, even if they were still on this gathering quest.  "Yeah I've been considering going to Tank as well.  Mostly because I feel like... well, just what you said," she spoke, gesturing to the girl.  "Most people aren't going to want to be on the front lines because it puts them in harm's way.  I don't really know if we have a shortage of people who are able to do the tank thing, but just from how this whole place is setup- that seems like that's the most likely."

She exhaled slowly at that, hating to have to commit to such a thing.  "But honestly I just want to help get everyone out.  It's not even just for me or anything.  There's a lot of people stuck in here that don't want to be, and are too afraid to leave the Town of Beginnings... and I want to help them too," she spoke, closing one hand into a fist.

Edited April 9, 2021 by Astreya

[Melissa 0]

Being able to relax was indeed nice, but Melissa still wasn't letting her guard down. One hand remained on her swords pommel at all times, even while gathering. She almost seemed paranoid about the idea of being attacked, despite otherwise being in a good mood.

"So you're the righteous type, huh? I'm not selfless enough for that, but it's nice to have people like you around. Me, I prefer...stability. But that kinda thing is boring too. I guess this is me taking a risk for once."

Melissa had made her way to a different area a few meters off during their talk, and as luck would have it, there was another herb to be gathered here. They were making progress yet again! Still, there was an annoyingly long amount of time between finding these herbs, and it was a pain to deal with. Why was the drop rate so low? What a pain in the ass...

ID# 187908 | LD: 12 | 1 material gathered (2/5)

Edited April 11, 2021 by Melissa

[Astreya 0]

"Righteous type?" Astreya asked, pausing as she thought that over for a moment.  "I mean I guess.  I wasn't really thinking about it that way but I suppose so," the girl admitted, tilting her head slightly to one side as she continued to consider that simple remark that had been made.  "I mean, I wast to do the right thing by everyone else, and it seems like if we can all work together on getting to the hundredth floor, then we can all leave.  So if, like, most people don't want to be a tanking type, then I guess I should do that, right?" she asked.

For her it was mostly a logical thing.  If you needed so many of three different things in order to proceed, and most were predisposed against one of those three things... it only made sense to wear the mantle from one of those, right?  Just to make sure that everyone could progress forward.  

"I dunno.  Dad always said to try to like, take the logical path if I could.  And this seems like that.  But I guess I can be kinda righteous too," she added with a grin.  "Hero Astreya!" she cheered.

[Melissa 0]

"I didn't mean it as a bad thing. Not the 'holier-than-though' kinda righteous, but y'know...yeah, the hero type. Doing what needs to be done, even if it puts yourself in harms way. I'm the logical type, but...admittedly more the selfish kind of logical, if I'm honest. I don't really wanna get hurt, or take too many risks. Putting myself right in the line of fire...that's not something I can do, I think. If I mess up as a DPS, that means it might take longer to kill the enemies, but if I mess up as a tank, then I get myself killed...and possibly everyone else."

Not wanting to have things be dour for too long, Melissa waved a somewhat dismissive hand. "But it's whatever. You've got the enthusiasm and motivation for it, so I'm sure you'll do fine. Just be careful, okay?"

After a while more of searching, the redhead clicked her tongue and folded her arms. "C'est chiant! This is taking forever..."

ID# 187929 | LD: 5 | No materials found

Edited April 9, 2021 by Melissa

[Astreya 0]

The woman nodded along with the other girl's words.  She supposed she understood where she was coming from on that- it was what she'd been trying to say, but Melissa had ended up putting it better than Astreya could herself.  It was a bit amusing really, to hear that someone else clarify what she was trying to say.

"Yeah, I suppose I can see that.  And yeah, if you mess up as a DPS then you've got time to make up the slack.  But if I miss something as a Tank then who knows what tragedy could befall... well, everyone," the girl spoke, laughing slightly- but only because there was nothing else to do but to laugh.  If you let things stay too heavy, it would drown everyone in despair.

At the request to be careful, she grinned.  "Of course!  I figure there have to be other tanks up at the top floors that wouldn't mind having someone else to rely on sometimes to learn from," she spoke, before the other girl vented her frustration.

"Sorry- I might be bad luck in this quest," she offered, laughing slightly.

[Melissa 0]

"Yep. But let's not worry too much about that for now, yeah? It'll be a while before we ever hit the frontlines, so we should focus on the present. I mean, I guess it's good to plan ahead, but given that gear is level-locked, it's like you can do much about that anyway", Melissa answered, rolling her shoulders as they headed towards another area. They'd removed pain as a thing from the system, but fatigue? That was still there, much to her chagrin.

Frustratingly, something else that 'wasn't there', was the herbs! Where even were they? She knew the designer of SAO was a sadist, given the death game they'd all been trapped in, but this was really something else. "Well, we haven't been attacked yet, so you can't be that bad luck. I'm halfway tempted to fight something just to break up the monotony, though. My sword makes it easy to hit things, and I can probably handle them if it's just one at a time..."

 

ID# 187930 | LD: 9 | No materials found

Edited April 9, 2021 by Melissa

[Astreya 0]

"That's true.  After the update my stuff got a lot better, but it's still nowhere near the endgame level of things," the young woman agreed. "Besides, if I'm going to do a tanking role, I probably need a shield, and not a two-handed sword," she added, gesturing to the oversized greatsword on her back.  "But I figured once I got closer to the front lines I'd actually see about putting together a set of armor and weapon to do the tanking thing.  Right now it's just kind of uh... mixed, I guess.  My armor's pretty tanky," she admitted with a small nod.

But as the girl continued, Astreya let out a laugh.  "Come on now, it isn't all that bad.  We've been out here for like a half hour, tops.  When you get to eight then we can talk about it being monotonous," she spoke.  Then again, she had been attacked while she was hunting the herbs too and that had at least been a change of pace.  "I can also tank for you!  Or I can let you have at it if you'd like and step in only if you need it."