[PP-PT-F1] Moving up in the World, the Business World <<Earning a Living: Appraiser>>

[Yona 0]

If Yona was gonna get anywhere, she had to be more than a scavenger in the wilds. But what else could she try? She was clumsy with the forge, kept poking herself with the tailor's needle, wasn't delicate enough to be an artisan, she wasn't the best with potions unless a quest required it, she was a mediocre chef at best, as she found herself incapable of performing the key actions for making enhanced food(how does that even work?), and despite her sense of style and pretty voice, she didn't seem capable of writing her own songs, let alone winding up as a Bard from Dungeons and Dragons just by choosing performer as a profession.

So what else could she try? Well, she recently heard from the grapevine about Appraisers, who could identify a looted item's enhancements, sometimes coming across something unique... With a glint in her eyes, and a smirk on her face, she began seeking out a teacher for Appraisers. She came across an NPC who knew a potential mentor's location, and marked it on her map.

When she arrived, she could clearly see that this NPC had wares for days, maybe weeks, or months, even! The NPC emerged from a rack of scrolls, greeting Yona with a smile of pearly whites as shiny as that bald spot on his head. If there were nice-looking scavengers of the Business World, he was clearly one of them. "Why Hello, what is it you're looking for today?" 

"I'm looking for someone to train me in the art of Appraisal, and I was directed to you." Yona revealed. The NPC scowled. "I don't do anything for free." He shot back. "Obviously. You think I didn't know that?" Yona responded. "Is it a Col Payment, or do you need me to fetch something for you?" The NPC seemed to be in thought for a short moment as he looked Yona up and down. "Well knowledgeable, straight to the point...seems to have a little potential...hmm..." He muttered to himself. Then out loud, he said, "Tell you what, you bring me the items, I'll show you how to identify them." With that, Yona would nod in agreement and be off.

 

Yona made a straight dash towards the safe zone's exit, but she skidded to a stop when someone walked in her way. Yona stopped moving only an inch from who she almost bumped into. This person wasn't an NPC, so why didn't she move in time? "Whoa there!" She called out as she was skidding to a stop. "I almost bumped into you, did you not see or hear me coming?" After a second or two, however, she then followed with, "Then again, this is a bustling city, so I can't possibly blame you for something like that." Wanting to come across less rude, she decided to introduce herself. "I go by Yona." She said with a light smile as she offered her hand to shake.

@SuzuNa

 

Stats and Equipment:

Spoiler

Level: 1

HP: 20

Energy: 20

Base Damage: 6(Curved Sword R1[3], Sharpened Wakizashi[2])

Mitigation: 6(Moonshard Veil)

Accuracy: 0

Evasion: 2(MoonShard Veil)

Loot Die: 3(Thuban's Eye)

 

 

Additional conditions:

[None Yet]

 

 

Equipment:

[T1]Sharpened Wakizashi(Curved Sword, 2 DMG)

[T1]Moonshard Veil(Cloth Armor, 1 MIT, 2 EVA)

[T1]Thuban's eye(Trinket, 3 LD)

 

 

Consumables:

Teleport Crystal x1

 

 

Skills:

Curved Sword Rank 1

 

 

Extra Skills:

[None]

 

 

Mods:

[None]

 

Addons:

[None]

 

Edited June 28, 2021 by Yona

[SuzuNa 0]

SuzuNa had been strolling through the streets, most of her vision blocked by large boxes of floating UI. She'd spent far too much time burying her head in the sand, ignoring her problems instead of trying to adapt to this 'game' world. So she was playing catch up to everyone else. But that was fine. She wasn't in a rush for the frontlines, just… anywhere away from the stagnant position she'd maintained for so long. She muttered to herself as she scanned another vibrant box. A button, somewhat familiar, caught her eye. She squinted as she reached for it. "So this button opens the—"

A stranger's voice interrupted her, far too close to her ears to be shouting that loudly.

SuzuNa flinched, hands flailing through the UI in front of her. A button opened another box, and then another, and soon her already cluttered vision was near impossible to see through. "Just—one second, sorry! Wait!" She frantically pressed at the 'x's in the corners of each box until, finally, she could see her close collision… and the hand they were sticking out.

She instinctively took the hand, giving it a firm shake despite the clear confusion on her face. "Uh, sure. Yona. Nice to meet ya. I'm..."—Did people go by their real names or their usernames here? She'd forgotten to ask ChaseR what the norm was—"SuzuNa?" Nothing like sounding uncertain about who you are while introducing yourself to sound completely normal. "Anyways, sorry 'bout that."

"Wait." Her face scrunched as the rest of the incident catching up to her busy brain. "Why am I the one apologizin' here? You the one runnin' near head-first into folk." She stared expectantly at Yona.

-----

Stats:

Spoiler

SuzuNa | Lv.1 | HP: 20/20 | EN: 20/20 | DMG: 4 | ACC: 2 | EVA: 1 | LD: 3

Equipment (3/3)

• Small Konpeito Sack (#185200)
  T1 Perfect Crafted - Trinket [Loot Die 3]
• Soldier Uniform - Power (#196273)
  T1 Perfect Crafted - Cloth Armor [Light Momentum 2, Evasion 1]
• Triple Rake Claws (#196257)
  T1 Perfect Crafted - Claws [Accuracy 2, Damage 1]

Battle-ready Inventory (1/5)

• Starter Healing Potions (3)
  Heals 50 hp

Skills

• Claws - Rank 1 (Sword Arts)

@Yona

Edited June 27, 2021 by SuzuNa
Editing stats to [PT]!

[Yona 0]

The player was closing a bunch of windows on her UI.

A VR Newbie, she seemed to be, judging by how she acted with all the windows popping up and having to close them. Either that, or she was so busy with them that one little slip messed everything up. The player introduced herself as SuzuNa, then placed the blame for the close call on Yona. "Excuse me, what?" Yona thought. Then again, she was a bit excited to get out of this situational dump, she didn't see this town as a dump, but she sure saw her position as being in one. "So you're saying I wasn't paying attention, and I was on the belief you weren't paying attention to your surroundings until last minute. I actually thought you were heading a different direction but then before I knew it we were on a crash course...you know what, let's just say we were both at fault in this case, but at least we didn't actually crash into each other. Can we agree on that?" Yona took a quick breath, then spoke again. "I um, I'm sorry for assuming you were going a different direction." There, now there was no need to worry about it...hopefully. "I really should have gone outside more often..." Yona thought. "But if only my damn parents had just let me." 

With her thoughts out of the way, she decided to explain the situation. "I've been needing to get to a better state of living, and to do that, I need a profession. I've considered and tried multiple, but they didn't seem to fit my style." Yona explained, omitting the issues she had with some of the ones she attempted. "Now that I've actually found a possibility, I'm off to get the items I'll need, which are out there, beyond the safe zone's edge. ...But I'm still kinda low level...maybe having an ally around would be beneficial... Hey, you seemed to have trouble with the UI. Are you new to VR gaming, by any chance?" She looked Suzuna up and down as she asked this. She might possibly look new to some people, but only stats could confirm, though honest words were alright, too.

@SuzuNa

 

[SuzuNa 0]

SuzuNa watched the glory that was Yona speaking, always expecting a breath and being surprised by yet another word. As the other took a breath, SuzuNa made the mistake of assuming that a question meant she should speak. "Sure—" It was not meant for her to speak. She pursed her lips and leaned back as Yona continued. After Yona's apology, she waited a moment to respond, just in case there was anything else. No? Alright. "Much 'ppreciated. All's forgiven. And sorry, for not watchin' around me."

She rubbed her neck as Yona barrelled straight on with her explanations, this time about her overall situation. A profession, huh? That sounded... smart. Maybe she should get one too, if it was more profitable than running around just doing tasks for people. She grimaced at Yona's blatant questioning. "Ah, yeah. This one's my first." Not just her first VR game, but her first game in general. Not that Yona needed to know.

"So, ya mentioned maybe havin' an ally around. I can do that." She'd gotten new equipment, as recommended, and had a vague idea how to use them if any trouble came up now. "We just need to be in a 'party', right?" She frowned, scanning through her UI. When ChaseR had done it, he'd been so swift about it all that she'd missed the exact steps. She cleared her throat. "Just invite me and I'll accept." She could do that much, at least.

@Yona

[Yona 0]

The way SuzuNa spoke the term "Party" seemed to suggest that she was unfamiliar with the term. So this was a total newbie she was working with, but Yona was a newbie once, so she couldn't possibly blame this player for looking slightly clueless...though some of the other words had suggested that Yona might not have been the first to do anything with her, and may have showed her a few ropes. Yona pulled up her own UI and sent a party invite to SuzuNa. "Right, so, what's your level at the moment? I may be level one myself, but I know a thing or two that ought to keep me alive." She asked after sending the invite. It was always good to know what you were working with. After all, there was only one way Yona knew to get her hands on items that weren't identified...or maybe there were two methods, she hadn't been out there for very long at all, but she had experience with other games, so that might help.

@SuzuNa

[SuzuNa 0]

She was prepared for the invite box this time and accepted it after only a moment's delay. Smooth and casual. Her lips twitched, restraining a grin as she eyed the new information popping up in the corner. It was a new feeling, being excited about all of this instead of disgruntled and confused. It was the small victories in life.

"I'm level one, too." Her brows furrowed as she faltered to a stop. "But… you saying 'keep us alive' like we walking right into danger. What kind of dangerous profession you trying to get into?" Was that just the reality of this world, where trying to do anything of substance meant putting yourself in harm's way? She frowned and glanced at the city gates looming not too far from them, then back at Yona. "Not that I'll back out or nothing. Just, y'know how it is. I wanna know what I'm dealing with." And what profession to avoid.

Once they'd crossed the safe zone threshold, she took a few long moments to navigate through the UI and equip her claws. She'd had the armor and trinket on the entire time, but had warily avoided bringing out the weapons in town. It felt wrong. Not that it felt any less wrong to bear weapons out here, but the threat of dying did a pretty good job of clamping that uneasy feeling.

"So, what's the plan?"

@Yona

[Yona 0]

SuzuNa revealed she was level one, too. Looks like they were in the same boat here. The player then asked what kind of "dangerous" profession Yona was getting into. "I'm looking to be an Appraiser, which doesn't exactly have a dangerous process, so I've heard. But to do that, I need items to appraise. Where are those items found? Out there, where the enemies dwell." Yona explained. "In games like these, such items are often found by killing monsters or opening treasure chests. In this game, if you have the cash, you can get them from a shop...of course, items found out in the field do have their value...if identified by an Appraiser. Sometimes, an item identified by an Appraiser can have some enhancements that aren't found in equipment some other player could make, and from what I can tell, that's where the profession truly shines."

Once the players were outside the Safe Zone, Suzuna would equip a pair of claws, and ask what the plan was. "Well, that depends on both our gear, to be honest. Sure, we might be able to dish out enough damage to take out a single enemy with ease, but defenses are also an important thing to take note of. My Cloth Armor I have equipped has Mitigation and Evasion, so I'll take less damage if I'm hit, and it will be harder for them to hit me. I might not be a Tank, but I can try to pull Aggro on the enemy so you don't have to worry about getting hit, should you lack Mitigation on your own equipment." Yona answered. It was always best to form a mostly baked strategy before going into the fray, anyway.

@SuzuNa

[SuzuNa 0]

SuzuNa whistled, brows arched to her hairline. "You've done your research." That was the result of actual effort and research, right? She wasn't exposing how utterly lost she was by being impressed? Still, no matter how lost she'd been before, that explanation had at least helped her understand a little bit more.

But once Yona got planning the nitty gritty? She was lost again. "Wait." Mitigation? Evasion? Tank? Aggro? So many words she couldn't even begin to try to comprehend. "You're saying I don't gotta be actually physically dodging the 'enemies' and stuff? Our armor just does it for us?" She frowned down at her… minimalist… armor, and pinched the black skirt between her fingers. "What's my armor got?" Maybe nothing? Maybe that's why she got it for free?

"But, if my armor can help me do things... then can my weapon do that too?" Because that sounded really, really convenient. If she didn't need to actually know how to fight, then maybe she stood a chance in a world like this?

@Yona

Edited June 27, 2021 by SuzuNa

[Yona 0]

SuzuNa seemed impressed with Yona's explanation on the profession. However, when she started explaining the statistical plan, the player had no idea what she was talking about?

"Oh, no..." Yona thought, upon the realization hitting her. Out loud, she would simply say, "You...don't play very many MMO's, do you?" She tried so hard to avoid grimacing at the inevitable...how was she going to explain all of this? Maybe it was best to just answer the immediate questions for the time being. "Open up your UI, and access the Equipment tab. You should see your equipped gear listed there. You can check an item's enhancements from the list, or even with the items in your inventory." Yona began. "Evasion doesn't necessarily do all the work for you, it makes it easier to dodge incoming attacks. You still have to move out of the way yourself. Think of it like...a bit of a speed boost to help you get out of harm's way. Mitigation reduces the amount of damage you take, but damage dealt can never be below 1. Weapons can have enhancements, too, like Damage, which increases your base damage, as the name tells, and Accuracy, which can make your attacks more precise, it becomes easier to hit a target. If your equipment has different enhancements I didn't mention, point them out and I'll explain what little I know about them." She explained.

Might as well get these explanations over with now, before engaging any hostile creatures.

@SuzuNa

 

[SuzuNa 0]

She cleared her throat, gaze pointedly dodging Yona as she followed her instructions. She flicked a hand out, index and middle finger together, and dragged down through the air—she'd practiced this motion over and over in the inn the night before, to the point it was almost natural. Any ease she had stopped once the menu was actually open. She scanned the UI with squinting eyes, and poked at icons with a single finger, like an elderly person stabbing away at a keyboard.

Once her equipment tab was open, SuzuNa looked up, taking a deep breath. She wasn't really able to navigate the UI and do anything else at the same time. "These enhancements… Do I gotta do anything for them to work?"

After an answer, she'd scan the equipment. "Let's see… Trinket with Loot Die… Armor with Light Momentum and… Evasion! And Claws with Accuracy and Damage." Well, she at least knew three out of the five enhancements now. She waited patiently for Yona to explain the two other ones.

@Yona

[Yona 0]

SuzuNa had some questions as she searched her Equipment for Enhancements. "Enhancements are as they're named. No special actions are required, they just enhance your abilities and make the things you do around the game much easier." Yona answered. SuzuNa listed the enhancements her equipment had, one of which seemed a bit meta in terms of the name. "Loot Die, so it is called. From what I can tell, it makes it easier to spot things when searching for something, and when looting slain enemies, it increases the odds of better drops. Things like that. Light Momentum makes it easier to hit your target every time you miss, but once you hit, the benefits of the enhancement disappear until you miss again." Yona explained.

"Now, before we get into any fights, maybe we should make sure we both know what we're doing. Combat may sound simple in a lifelike game like this, slice things, enemy dies, 'woo, you win', but due to Sword Arts, it's actually a bit more complicated than that. Typical attacks don't do much at all, just your base damage. Keep attacking that way, and it'll take a long time to fight enemies, and it will be more likely they'll win as a result. That's where Sword Arts come in." Yona explained. She turned her attention to a nearby tree. "There are a number of ways to activate them." She began as she drew her weapon. "The most common method is to use a certain motion or two to activate it while your weapon is drawn. From what I've heard, some players manage to master them to the degree that they practically just have to think it while they have a valid target in their sights and bam, it activates. I'm not sure that the latter is legit, but hey, maybe with practice, we'll have a chance to see if the rumor holds water." She said with a chuckle.

"But since you're kinda new to combat, the basics should do just fine." Yona decided as she took position. "Like so..." With a precise movement, her wakizashi glowed and she swiftly attacked the tree. The object was clearly damageable, as several slash marks appeared on the wood of the tree. "There...why don't you give it a try? Best to figure out how it works now, rather than having to learn this in actual combat with an opponent that can actually fight back."

@SuzuNa

[SuzuNa 0]

She nodded along as Yona explained everything to her with surprising detail and care. Maybe when she was alone, she'd do some experiments, trying things with and without her equipment to experience the differences. But for now… the concepts made enough sense. Sort of. She'd asked more than enough questions, talking more than she usually did, and she'd rather get to the practical demonstrations than any more discussion.

She watched Yona's movements with narrowed eyes, carefully noting each detail. The shift of her feet, the slight pause at the height of her movement before the sword started to glow, and then rapid, swift movement that made Yona look like a professional fighter rather than just some girl.

Then it was her turn. "So… random movements won't help." She muttered to herself as she walked up to the tree. She gently drew the tips of her claws against it, then drew back and gave a full slash. Her movement was clunky, heavy and clumsy, leaving just the beginnings of some grooves in the wood. With her baseline established, she shifted again.

It was a difficult sensation to describe. An almost electric crackle ran through her limbs, urging them into a single movement. Her body leapt forward, claws raking diagonally through bark like a hot knife through butter. "Whoa." That… was a dizzying experience. "So, just like that…" She took a step back, trying to do it again. It took a couple tries to recreate the movement properly, but after a while, she was certain she could get it to activate more times than not.

She beamed, admiring the numerous grooves in the tree and then the claws that made them. Her cheerful gaze shifted to Yona and her joy stepped on the brakes. "Oh. Shit, sorry. We were meant to be… your quest…" She cleared her throat and hurried back to Yona's side, sheepish. "Let's go do that."

@Yona

[Yona 0]

SuzuNa listened carefully, then began to practice on the tree as Yona offered. A few basic attacks were dealt to it, and then Suzu managed to learn how Sword Art activation worked. "Yeah, that's it, there you go!" Yona encouraged. SuzuNa then remembered that Yona was currently on a quest. "Well, if you're ready, let's go." Yona decided. The tree had been a worthy training dummy, but it was time to move on.

Surprisingly, it didn't take very long to run into some trouble. Yona slowed down when she saw a whole herd of boars on the horizon. "Hold up...I'm gonna see if I can keep its attention, assuming it becomes hostile on sight." Yona warned, holding her arm out to prevent her ally from getting to close to what could be an enemy's aggro range. "Boars may seem docile, but they are easily provoked, and will become hostile to anyone or anything that steps within their agrro range...aggro is a term having to do with aggression, by the way. To 'pull aggro' is to get its hostile attention in a way that it keeps its eyes on you, rather than others." Yona explained. "I'll step forward, but I'll try to do so slowly as to not have the whole herd stampeding towards us."

She did so, and she stopped when only one of the boars squealed, its cursor turning red, as it turned its attention towards her. She stepped back. "Let's make sure we don't provoke the others just yet, hopefully we can pick them off one by one...otherwise, we might just end up having to put up with a field lesson on Area of Effect Sword Arts." Yona suggested.

She then attacked the Boar once it was in range, but the battle was over as soon as it began...maybe she should have just used a basic attack. "Well, that was...easier than expected." She remarked. Then again, it had been some time since her first battle, so she might have forgotten how easy it was to kill low level enemies...once Sword Arts were learned. She began to look through what this battle had earned her, and her ally was probably hoping for a share of the spoils, so she guessed. "Want some of this?" Yona asked.

 

ID# 196739 BD: 7(hit)

ST-I: 6x4=24 Damage to Boar

ID# 196740 CD: 8, LD: 12+3=15(84 Col, <<Unidentified T1 Rare Claws>>, and <<Unidentified T1 Uncommon Consumable>>)

 

Yona: HP: 20/20 | EN: 16/20 | 6 DMG | 6 MIT | 2 EVA | 3 LD

SuzuNa: HP: 20/20 | EN: 20/20 | DMG: 4 | ACC: 2 | EVA: 1 | LD: 3

                     Enemies:

Boar: HP 0/12, 4 DMG

Edited June 29, 2021 by Yona

[SuzuNa 0]

Watching Yona's sword skills versus a living, moving target was entirely different from watching those same elegant strikes against an immobile tree. SuzuNa was quiet, taking mental notes of every step - from Yona's careful approach to the hoard, luring a tiny boar away from the group, to the strong swing cutting diagonally across the boar and ending its life.

As Yona looked through some UI, inspecting the drops, SuzuNa approached. "Didn't you need those for your appraising quest?" She scratched the back of her head. "This learning experience has been more than enough for me. But, if there's something you don't want… then I won't say no, you know?" It wasn't like she particularly needed or craved new things, but she'd never say no to (relatively) free stuff.

Once that was sorted, SuzuNa directed her attention to the horde of boars again. They were milling around the general area, not too far from where they'd first spotted them. "I guess it's my turn to try?" She approached the horde, recalling Yona's process.

With each careful step, she'd stop and inspect the horde. No reaction? Then she'd inch forward again. Over and over until finally one of the boars on the fringe of the hoard snorted, head shooting up and body shuffling to face her. SuzuNa swallowed, eyes darting to the other boars even as she stepped back, luring the single boar out. None of the other boars followed the lone hog ranger. Good. 

But just like the difference between seeing Yona's skills on a tree and a living being, it was a different experience as a combatant. There was no time to get into the right position, to restart her movements when she jerked too strongly. "Oof!" SuzuNa choked as the boar rammed into her, knocking the wind out of her. She stumbled back several steps as the boar reared back, preparing for another round. "D-Don't worry! Focus on your quest, and I'll… handle this." She'd try, at least.

@Yona

Spoiler

ID 196856 | BD: 1 | MD: 9 | ST-I > Boar

• SuzuNa (critical) misses! (-2 EN, 0 hate)
• Boar (minor critical) hits SuzuNa.
  4 + 1 = 5 DMG

[0] Yona | HP: 20/20 | EN: 16/20 | 6 DMG | 6 MIT | 2 EVA | 3 LD [NOT IN COMBAT]
[0] SuzuNa | HP: 15/20 (-5) | EN: 18/20 (-2)| DMG: 4 | ACC: 2 | EVA: 1 | LD: 3

Boar | HP: 20/20 | DMG: 4

Edited June 30, 2021 by SuzuNa

[Yona 0]

Normally, enemies would shatter upon being defeated. Why was there a corpse left behind this time? Yona walked towards the body, and the option "Search" appeared in front of her. Upon doing so, an uncommon weapon appeared before her, and then the boar shattered.

So it was a temporary thing, then. Alright, no biggie. She took a good look at the weapon, but it didn't look all that impressive. "...Do all unidentified items look as weak as this piece of junk?" She thought aloud. She hoped it was only until the identification came, as to keep the item's real value a surprise. Clearly she couldn't do anything with it at the moment, so she stowed it in her inventory for the time being.

Then Yona heard a boar squeal, and looked to see incoming disaster. SuzuNa had gotten herself in combat with a boar, but its attack had cut down a quarter of her HP. Yep, she had zero Mitigation. "What the hell are you doing??" Yona reacted. Suzuna Claimed that she could handle the situation, that Yona only needed to worry about her quest. "I- I just.."

If this was not a literal life or death situation, Yona would have left this alone. But seeing that it was not, she let out an exasperated breath, and readied her weapon, in case SuzuNa proved herself to be more reckless than she already had done.

ID# 196918 CD: 3, LD: 9(found Uncommon T1 Curved sword) 

@SuzuNa

Edited July 1, 2021 by Yona

[SuzuNa 0]

She stiffened at Yona's outburst, heat creeping up her neck and reddening her ears. Sure, her life was on the line, but death was nothing in the face of her stubbornness. "I was just caught off guard! I've got this!"

The boar snorted, kicking up dust with its forepaws. It charged in a straight path, head poised for ramming. 

SuzuNa sucked in a deep breath through gritted teeth, dropping her weight closer to the ground and narrowing her eyes. It was time to show she was more than just talk. She shifted her arms, hitting the sweet point of her movement. The recently-familiar feeling of power surged through her. She released her breath in a hiss and simultaneously released the power with a strong sweep of her arm, claws raking through the air.

The boar squealed as the tips of the claws tore through it, leaving no evidence except for the swiftly dwindling bar floating above its head going from green to red. Its trajectory swerved sharply, sailing a good meter past SuzuNa. The boar stumbled to a stop and turned, huffing and snorting.

It wasn't dead yet, but that didn't stop SuzuNa's proud huff of laughter. "See? No problem. So. Focus on your quest." She readied herself again.

@Yona

Spoiler

ID 196922 | BD: 5+2 = 7 | MD: 2-1 = 1 | ST-I > Boar

• SuzuNa hits Boar! (-4 EN, +1 hate)
  4 * 4 = 16 DMG
• Boar misses.

[0] Yona | HP: 20/20 | EN: 16/20 | 6 DMG | 6 MIT | 2 EVA | 3 LD [NOT IN COMBAT]
[1] SuzuNa | HP: 15/20 | EN: 15/20 (+1, -4)| DMG: 4 | ACC: 2 | EVA: 1 | LD: 3

Boar | HP: 4/20 (-16) | DMG: 4

Edited July 1, 2021 by SuzuNa