[OP-F1] Brave New World

[Rue 0]

A merchant selling perfect items for 300 col she thought. I have 833 col I could by a perfect item and a rare item she thought. What kind of perfect items do you have because I already have a perfect knife. I am willing to buy. She needed new equipment anyway.

[Guest]

Team? The word struck Alkor as foreign, but he didn't openly object to it. None of them were particularly bound in a party, though if it came to that, he might refuse. He was about to speak when a woman who appeared to be selling things came out of seemingly nowhere. That seemed particularly suspicious.

When Rue spoke up and questioned her wares, Alkor turned his gaze to the saleswoman questioningly. A moment later, he dismissed the matter entirely. "I'll come along for the boss," he told them, "but I'm not much of a team player beyond that. Sorry."

He turned away from the group and surveyed the horizon, running a hand through his messy hair. His gear wasn't awesome, his health wasn't high, he wasn't strong. It seemed to Alkor that he was completely out of place, especially with this group. Though, he had to wonder if the boss would make him stronger somehow.

[Twinfire Phoenix 0]

Astra glanced at the player who seemed curious about her wares and her supply. "I have just about anything you can want. I have weapons, armors, pendants, robes, shields, and many more things. All you need is ask, and I will supply." she said as she overheard a player talking of a boss fight. Though she seemed curious to join, she had no particular need to fight these bosses as she only like to gather her wares alone, to keep her stock... unique, from any of the other common merchants about Aincrad.

[Rue 0]

Rue looked at the merchant and said If I can can you show me any pendants you have blue if you have any. She needed good equipment she also needed some accuracy bracers but she was not sure. She wanted to fight the minibuses as well. She wasnt sure what it would drop though.

[Twinfire Phoenix 0]

Astra pulled out a blue pendant, with a gem on the inside. She held out her hand in exchange for the col and then handed her the pendant, but not letting go of it yet. "Once the transaction is made, you will see the result of your item player." she said under her dark hood.

[Rue 0]

so if I put in this 300 col for a perfect item i will get a perfect pendant? she asked putting in three hundred col. She was eager to find out the merchants quality as a merchant. It could be a amazing necklace. Anyway the pendant was very shiny.

[Twinfire Phoenix 0]

Astra felt the weight of the 300 Col land in her hand. Under her hood she felt happy that a purchase was made. She let go of the pendant, and it now was official. The pendant had been sold. "Enjoy your perfect pendant. I look forward to seeing you again in the future." she said as she put away the money. Before she turned around and left she said one more thing to the player who had just purchased the pendant. "By the way, No Refunds." she said leaving the area, and disappearing off the map and out of sight.

As the player held the new pendant and she had checked the quality of the pendant the following information prompted in front of the player.

Cursed Pendant of the Hunter

Quality: Perfect, Cursed

Description: The pendant glows with a blue stone inside of it, however something about the pendant causes the person who equips it gain focus when attacking, but lacks some ability to land critical hits.

Enhancements: +2 Accuracy, +1 Evasion, and the person who equips this pendant may no longer hit critical hits on a 9, only on a 10.

The red text means it's a cursed item. The only way to remove the curse from the item is by doing a quest that will be released soon. Once the curse is removed, it will lose the red effect. Cursed items may NOT be sold or given away. They can only be DESTROYED, however if the item is DESTROYED, the col will have been payed for nothing. It is up to you, the player, if you want to keep the CURSED item.

[Mayonaka 0]

I don't consider myself a team player either, in fact I'm mostly a solo player. Times like these excite me enough to consider myself and those around me a team; they can choose to accept it or not. I pointed out, arguing my point of view as always. The feeling of joy still crept along inside me even though this player I was talking to clearly wasn't that sure of himself, not enthusiastic either.

My eyes narrowed at the male NPC leaving our group with a bag of col in his hands, Rue had just bought something from him. My suspicion grew even more when they told her "No Refunds." After that they disappeared into thin air, like they never came at all. Rue...I don't think you should have trusted that person, the items they sold were way too cheap for a rare item...still can you show me what you got?

[Rue 0]

Rue looked down at the pendant then looked up and seenthe man had disapeared. She looked at the quality and it said cursed. Rue then looked at them and mayonaka asked to see it. She handed the pendant to her. And then quietly said cursed....

[Mayonaka 0]

Cursed huh? So what do you plan to do with it? I said, turning the pendant over in my hands. The gem in the middle seemed eerie enough but now knowing that there was actually such a thing I stared deeply at the strange item. Why in the world would...

[Rue 0]

She took the pendant and put it on. I will wear it i guess she said looking at he pretty blue pendant. It glowed a blue light. It might be useful she thought. That was a NPC. It didnt have a cursor. Where is she though. She disappeared. Well I'm a solo player mostly to so how about a solo team. We are all solo but we become a team. iCal take a mini-boss.

[Guest]

Alkor watched the exchange in stoic silence, then gave a sigh that denoted his expectations had been met. The saleswoman had been peddling malfunctioning wares, something certainly not worthy of hard earned Col. Still, it wasn't his place to tell people where to spend, or what to buy.

Instead, he shifted his focus to the conversation they were having about "teams," "solo players," and "bosses." He scuffed a boot along the ground idly and stared up toward the slowly bronzing sky, twilight swallowing the world in its daily triumph. Night would take the floor soon, and with it, the stars.

Inwardly, Alkor wanted to stare at them alone. Here he was, however, committed somehow to a pressing task. On the one hand, he could walk away any time he wanted. If he looked at the situation in its entirety, however, lending his assistance was the only feasible option. They probably wouldn't be able to handle it with any less number of people.

He also knew the chance probably wouldn't come again. "Alright, we'll go when everyone is ready," he said quietly, his arms folding. "But that's as far as I'll go. Once it's dead, I'll head off."

[Rue 0]

Rue looked at Alkor and then the others and replied Me to. I will be done leveling by then. Also after this Mayonaka I wouldn't mind to level together sometime. It was rare to see a girl now. This game she thought didnt have that many. She ha only met two including Mayonaka.

[Mayonaka 0]

I was a little disappointed to know that they weren't going to stay after the adventure. I, of course, would have liked to stay with them until they absolutely had to leave; but this was another thing that was out of my hands. I'm ready, we can head out anytime now. I think that's a great idea Rue! I said, excited that I might make another friend to hang out with. On the plus side she was a girl.

[Razmor 0]

Angel had zoned out, not even realizing that the mysterious merchant had appeared and had sold Rue a cursed pendant. His attention returned to the group when he heard them start to say that they planned to split up after beating the boss. He frowned and stood up. "Awe come on, being alone is no fun. Plus, the more friends you've got, the easier life gets." Then he balanced his sword on his shoulder and casually switched his frown over to a smile. "But I won't try to change your minds. Anyways, lets go kill us a boar." Then he turned and started walking to the edge of the field.

As they walked, he filled them in one the boss. "Wilbur is a massive frenzy boar that's about the size of a jeep. Two massive tusks of iron, no joke there they're actually made of metal, and a nasty temper. From what my Info Broker, Spirit, told me, Wilbur has 50 HP and deals 2 damage with every successful hit. From what I remember, he can charge you, stab you with the tusks, and on rarer occasions, eat you. But don't let that discourage you. We've got four strong players here who can handle anything. Sounds fun right?" He said with a strange grin. It was tough to read, but if one looked for long enough then they would more than likely see a twinkle of excitement. But looking even closer, then they'd see a touch of fear. He had never taken on a field boss with so many people before and he wasn't sure if he could keep the situation under control when the fight began. He was the Tank, and it was his job to get everyone back to the safe zone.

They walked up to the top of a large hill and looked down. There, built into the side of a smaller, steeper hill, has a large hole the size of a garage. Moving around the entrance, were a group of about 4 smaller frenzy boars. Angel stabbed his sword into the group and leaned on it, watching the monsters below. "Anyone got a game plan or do we wanna wing it?" He asked the group, looking back with the same crazy grin.

[Guest]

"Great! Let's go get gored by a saber toothed pig!" He couldn't have hidden his disdain for the concept even if he'd wanted to. Alkor watched Angel walk nonchalantly in the direction of death, letting out a frustrated growl as he had no choice but to fall in step behind him. His brown eyes flickered over the field as he followed.

When the Tank stopped, Alkor crouched to his haunches and eyed the group of mobs lazily. "If I'm right, and with situations like this I'm not usually far off," he muttered, "those four are adds. Extra mobs that fight alongside the boss. They're probably linked, in fact." The young swordsman reached up and scratched his chin, taking a moment to consider the playing field.

"I don't know if it's possible to pull them without pulling the boss. If it is, though, it would have to be done at range. That means someone either needs to have a ranged weapon, or a skill that functions from further than five feet away." Alkor ran a hand over the grass at his feet, twisting a blade of it idly around his index finger. "Barring that option, Angel, you'll end up having to tank the boss and four minor enemies at once. Even with your HP total being as high as it is, too many hits will become problematic."

He rose slowly and put three fingers. "The way I see it, we have three choices here. Feel free to disagree at any point, but here they are. First, if someone does have that ranged skill, we pull the furthest mob from the cave. That will pull the four adds without triggering a boss encounter. Then, we can take them out and proceed to the big beastie."

Alkor paused and looked around, just to be sure he didn't go too quickly for anyone. "The second would be to use two Tanks. Since May... erm..." He looked at Mayonaka, blinked, then looked away, "I hope you don't mind if I call you May," he said awkwardly before continuing, "anyway, since she has a good chunk of HP as well, she'd be the best candidate for the job. We'd split the enemies up and divide them evenly between the tanks while we whittle down the numbers and hopefully finish the boss in one piece, rather than in pieces."

His gaze swept along the ground as he came to the final thought. "Last of all, and probably the most dangerous option, is we let you Tank all of them at once, Angel. We'd all have to move fast and kill the weaker monsters first, just to be safe. Anyway, that's what I think."

While he didn't usually say much, strategy fell into his real world passions. Historian by choice, Alkor had studied many battles and learned to adapt different approaches to combat into games he had played. Things like this were the few times where he actually spoke without really getting thrown off by his social ineptitude. Once the briefing had ended, though, he retreated quickly into his shell.

[Steel 0]

"Mind if I help?" Steel said appearing out of nowhere, surprising everyone. "I know some skills for the one handed sword that can help ease the pressure on the tanks. I'm not that bad in a fight either. As for your strategy, I overheard it and it's not bad. I think it'll work if we all work together."

[Kazuya 0]

Ryuu saw a group of players as he was on his way out of town, and hoped that he could get a little help starting off. He runs off toward them. 'I should act like a newbie. I don't know how they will act if they knew I'm a beta tester.'

"Hey! You guys. Does anyone know where I should go to get some experience fighting?" He stop right beside the player, Steel. "I just got here and don't really know where to go." He smiles trying to pull off an innocent smile.

[Mayonaka 0]

I smiled contently when the other player (Michad) spoke of not wanted to split the group either. As he said, and I agreed, living here in Aincrad would be much more fun if you had a few friends instead of wandering around alone with no one to watch your back. Being me, I almost always needed someone to watch my back because I was always doing something stupid and getting myself into trouble.

My ears perked up when he explained the field boss, I found the name funny. To me, it sounded like an oversized boar waltzing around with false power. He shouldn't be too hard to beat, especially with the skills we have here. I inserted after he told the group about Wilbur, the boss. I followed him up the hill and looked down at the movement below. Four smaller boars were grazing, and somewhat guarding the main target. I would say to just go in and fight our best but I think that wouldn't be a very smart idea. The grin on his face reminded me of myself, being happy too. A grin almost identical to his spread across my face as I thought about what to do.

I'm totally fine with tanking, I have to most health anyways so it wouldn't be a problem to me at all. I would like to point out that I have never tank before, I can figure it out I'm sure. I said, sincerely hoping no one objected because if they did then other people would get hurt besides me. I knew that some of my friends that I had met through this game wouldn't approve of my actions but if I didn't take these then who would? If I didn't take the damage and let someone die I would never forgive myself for it; I hated seeing and even hearing about deaths in this game. Your plan will work fine. I can tank the monsters while everyone else goes into battle and kills the main enemy.

[Razmor 0]

Angel remained quiet through the briefing, his attention focused on the smaller boars ahead of the group. He heard two new players greet the group, neither one of them introducing themselves. He slowly shook his head, but he didn't say a word. "No, we can't let anymore people in on this job. There's enough already. Too many people means too much responsibility to go around." He thought to himself, never letting a word escape into the open air. He slowly stood up and took his sword out of the dirt and balanced it on his shoulder. Then he turned to face Mayonaka. "Tanking isn't as easy as people make it look. Trust me, I can take care of it by myself. Thanks to my armor skills, I don't take too much damage anyways. And thanks to this thing," He said, tapping on his shield, "I'll be fine." Then he lowered his eyes to the ground for a moment. He looked back up and met her eyes, "Can we talk for a second, alone?" He asked, slowly walking away from the group and not giving her much time to answer.

When they were out of earshot of the group, he slowly faced her. "Listen, talking as one player to another, I need you to take care of something for me. While I'm tanking, I won't be able to deal much damage to the boss or the adds. Which means if something goes wrong, I might not be able to come to the rescue. That's why I need you to help me get everyone back home in one piece alright? Let me handle all the tanking, and you finish the fight. As the highest level player, I need your help on this one, and I don't ask for help too much." It was true, every word. His attention would have to be totally focused on keeping the boss's attention, along with the smaller boars. He needed help on this one. "Everyone in the group is capable of handling themselves but, you never know what could go wrong, ya know? Just help me out and I'll, buy you an ice cream or something?" He said, trying to convince the player. Ice cream was a great reason to help someone, even if it was life threatening danger.

Then he somehow managed a weak smile. "So, can you help me on this one?" He asked, putting out his hand for her to shake. It felt a little weird, personally asking a player to help him defend some people he'd just met. But it was his style and his job as a Tank.