[PP-F6] Secrets of the Jungle (Oikawa)

[Azide 0]

Azide shook his head and tossed yet another plant into a quickly-growing pile. "None of these are quite what I'm looking for. But then again, I can't say for sure that I'd recognize it even if I did find it." He surveyed the sight of the expansive forest that lay ahead of him, nearly straining his neck trying to discern where the sky began and the treetops ended. To simply describe it as a forest would be a massive understatement- this was a lush green tropical paradise. Trees, plants, flowers and shrubs stretched densely as far as the eye could see. This was a place rich with life, and yet he hadn't even placed himself in its midsts just yet. "I've heard the rumors about this place- 'Amazon's Folly', they call it. I hate to be putting someone else's safety at risk here, but in this case it's for the best."

He checked the time and saw there was still a ways to go before he'd scheduled for Oikawa to meet him here. "I didn't exactly leave him with much information, but he still seemed cooperative enough," he thought. Knowing there was still some time before the other player arrived, Azide continued plucking away at plants at the edge of the jungle.

[Oikawa 1]

Oikawa ran his fingers through his hair as he strolled through main settlement on the 6th Floor, Amazon. It was more a village than a city. Wooden buildings and worn-out tents lined the streets. With each offering its own variety of wares. Something he noticed, while walking around the city, was that all the NPCs seemed to be female. Not a single male NPC in sight. Oikawa did have a reason to be on the 6th Floor aside from some NPC eye-candy. He had business with his guildmate and leader, Azide. I wonder what he called me up to this floor for? Is he in trouble? Nah, Azide is much to smart for that. Maybe he's found something he doesn't quite want to discuss with the others yet? I mean we are closer in personality than the rest of our guild. Well he did say something about a forest, however; from what I know, the word forest is not near close enough to describe the vegetative deathtrap, that is the jungle, that lies outside the city's walls.

 

Heading out the gates signifying the safe zone, Oikawa made his way to the jungle. "Hope he's alright.."

[Azide 0]

"No good," mumbled Azide as he scrapped another flower. "The longer I think about it, the more likely it seems it'd be located somewhere immediately identifiable," he mused. He slashed through multiple herbs and flowers growing adjacently, then sheathed his blade in order to inspect each plant individually. He shook his head, becoming increasingly convinced by his conclusions. "If such a thing exists, it's unlikely Akihiko would have left it up to pure chance. Likewise, it probably wouldn't be found through these tedious means either." He looked straight at the jungle ahead of him and attempted to peer as deeply into it as he could manage, but found difficulty identifying anything even ten feet out. "If I'm right, it's possible I might find what I'm looking for at the heart of this place." He shook his head yet again. "No, that's not quite right either. At this point it's just a rumor and a hunch. I shouldn't be expecting much out of this." Still, Oikawa would be coming soon. "But I won't bring his hopes up."

[Oikawa 1]

Walking down an obvious beaten path, Oikawa noticed the further he got from the city the more scenery he encountered. What started as simple grassy fields slowly turned into complicated sights of brambles and oaks vying for the same space. The grass grew longer. Trees lined up one by one like soldiers. Rosebushes and over-sized leaves draped over the path that soon became a victim to the lush vegetation it lead to. Vines roped and and hung onto limbs of trees. Tracing the lines of the entrance to a whole new world. Stepping into this jungle , no this landscape that wasn't bound by the simple growths of life, Oikawa couldn't help but feel lost in a world as green as this. It's.. just.. so beautiful! I've ... never seen anything like it.  He felt raindrops, plop onto his forehead. Looking up, he witnessed the precipitation dance and fall as it jumped from the clouds that hovered overhead. I wonder if this is what Azide wanted me too see? It's certainly an amazing sight! I should find him quickly though. This rain is going to be a pain if it falls any harder..

 

With that, he brought up his Friend List, and hovered over Azide's name. Selecting the Friend Tracker option, he surveyed the area that his friend was occupying. Well look at that! It says he's not more than a few hundred feet from here. Breaking into a sprint, he bounded through the thickness of the jungle. Weaving in and out of sight. A blur among the trees. He slowed down as he approached a figure sitting in a pile of clipped plants and severed herbs, "Azide... what're you... doing way.. out... here mate? "Oikawa asked between gasps. "Better question why'd you call me way out here? I know it wasn't for the luxurious view? ..was it?"

[Azide 0]

Up until now, Azide hadn't noticed the light drizzle that had enveloped the area. He looked up at the canopy and watched as little droplets of moisture began falling to the ground, though most seemed to end up sliding across the surface of a countless number of leaves before finally soaking into the soil beneath him. As one of the droplets fell, he opened his mouth and caught it with his tongue. "Eh, I've had better," he thought. On second thought, he could only hope that the droplet hadn't first made contact with a poisonous tree frog prior to his tasting of it.

In the distance, he heard a rustling through the undergrowth, and held Atom Slicer up at an angle in front of him. He lowered it, however, upon seeing it to be Oikawa. "Just come back from running a marathon or something?" Azide remarked, waving as his guild mate made his way over. "And as for that, we're here to explore this place in search of anything that might be of use. Sure, it's been cleared in the sense that the boss is long dead, but I'm sure the jungle still holds its fair share of secrets. I'd been planning on heading further by myself, but they say it's rather easy to get lost here." He chuckled. "But on the off chance that we actually do get lost here forever, at least the view is a luxurious one."

[Oikawa 1]

"It felt like sprint" Oikawa joked. Squatting down so that he was eye level with Azide, Oikawa responded. "Searching for what exactly? Anything in particular?" Glancing up, he surveyed the are he had ran into. Not much different from the entrance of the jungle, the scenery was just as beautiful. Just a little more wet. Returning his gaze to his guildmate, he spoke again. "As remarkable as the view is, I'd rather not get stuck here for all eternity," chuckling a bit himself. 

[Azide 0]

Azide eyed Oikawa, hesitating for a moment before shaking his head. "I just thought it'd be a good idea to survey the area, and also gather some supplies while we're at it. After all, who knows what we'll find here?" He feigned a laugh. "I'd rather not get his hopes up. What he doesn't know won't hurt him," thought Azide. "Besides, I figured it would be easier for us to get split up if we brought the whole guild along, so I specifically requested you because I figure the two of us are able to cooperate well enough to make it back out." Although his tone was a lighter and more joking one, the sentiment of it was true enough.

Azide took Atom Slicer, then slashed through a few vines in front of them, watching as they fell to the ground and shattered into bursts of data. In front of them, a path appeared which seemed to stretch deep into the jungle. "So, shall we go?" he asked, sheathing the rapier.

[Oikawa 1]

"Hmm fair enough," Oikawa replied. Taking the compliments more as a joke than anything, he felt there was some minor truth behind it. "I've been meaning to attain some more supplies anyway." Unsheathing his own rapier, Oikawa proceeded cautiously to the entrance of the path that Azide had just revealed. "I guess I'll lead the way haha" Taking a few steps forward, he noticed two strange features along this path of the jungle. First, there was no sounds or rain. The sky above the path was completely cloud free, while the rest of the jungle was littered with the light trickles of rain drops. Also any noises that were harassing them in the background before now ceased to exist once along the path. The second feature was that along the the path, weird blue and yellow mushrooms sprouted here and there along the brush. "Hey Azide are you seeing what I'm seeing?

[Azide 0]

Azide nodded, then followed Oikawa into the forest path. Immediately, a feeling of unease began to gnaw away at the reptilian portion of his brain. "Something is off about this place, and I don't like it." He glanced around, noticing the distinct dryness of the plants which lined their trail. He looked up to see clear skies, when just minutes ago he'd caught a drop of rain with his tongue. Additionally, although he couldn't be sure how long it had been going on for, he now noticed a very distinct lack of any chirping sounds- of both birds and crickets alike. "In fact, I'm not sure I hear anything at all, other than Oikawa. Sure, I can still hear the sound of our breathing and footsteps, but what about the rest?" He back towards the entrance they'd come from, only to see no such thing. Behind them was simply a mess of vines that blocked the way. Without alerting Oikawa, he drew Atom Slicer from its sheath, then attempted a diagonal slash across their lengths, only for the steel to bounce off. A purple dialogue reading "Immortal Object" hovered over it for a moment before disappearing. "Well it depends on what you're seeing, Oikawa. Do you happen to see what I'm seeing?" he asked, not turning around. Quickly, he pulled up a map of the area, only to find a mess of static appear instead. "Damn it."

[Oikawa 1]

Oikawa slowly turned around. He immediately noticed that their entrance was no longer there. Unsheathing his rapier, he threw a series of jabs and thrusts into the vines. But the attacks just bounced off of them like there was a barrier. A purple text appeared in front of the foliage <Immortal Object>. "Immortal..Object?" Glancing at Azide, Oikawa asked "What have we just gotten ourselves into? First there is zero noise in this are. Second while it was raining on the other side of that entrance, this side is clear skies. Third, we are now being trapped by immortal plants. I don't like this. What are we really doing out here mate?" With a concerned look, Oikawa waited for Azide to explain himself.

[Azide 0]

Azide watched as Oikawa tried his hand at breaking through the foliage, only to achieve about the same amount of success as himself. Which was to say, none. The dull clank of Oikawa's rapier rang across the jungle, as if fighting a lose battle against the dead silence, which seemed to drape itself over every vine and tree in the whole forest. Oikawa turned to him for an answer to their current predicament. "I'll be honest, I had no idea that this would happen. I'd heard the rumors of players getting lost in this jungle, but I hadn't thought it was because the game physically trapped them inside." Azide turned around to face the trail, then made his way over to the side of the passage. He swung Atom Slicer experimentally, only to get the expected result. "Looks like it's immortal objects all the way down, to say the least." He glanced at Azide, then pointed back to the trail with his blade. "Looks like our only choice is to keep going."

[Oikawa 1]

"Hmm so the rumors were true." Looking up to the sky he continued "To think there is code for an event to literally trap players in an area. Wait? Who am I kidding? Of course it's possible. I mean its SAO." Following Azide towards the passage, he raised his rapier and engaged his shield. Gesturing towards the pathway, he looked at Azide. "Lead the way my man. Last time I went first, we got trapped by immortal plants. In fact, we are still trapped by immortal plants" Chuckling, he waited for his leader to.. well lead him.

[Azide 0]

Azide nodded, decided to pull up the SAO interface before taking the lead. With a few taps, he opened his inventory and swapped out his current weapon for another. He held the newly appeared rapier in his hand, acquainting himself with its grip before lowering it to his side. He glanced at Oikawa and shrugged. "I'd planned on continuing to use Atom Slicer until it was absolutely necessary to switch. Call me sentimental, but I think this situation warrants the use of a more refined weapon. It looks like we can't afford to mess around here, so Quantum Slicer it is. We'll test out that craftsmanship of yours too, while we're at it," he said with a chuckle. Perhaps it was an inappropriate time for doing so, but he thought it'd be best to maintain a lighter mood. "Morale is an important thing." And on that note, the two began to walk down the long path and winding path, surrounded by trees on vines on both sides. There were also various blue and yellow mushrooms growing at the base of the undergrowth, and he wondered if this was what Oikawa had been referring to earlier. In any case, the path seemed like it went on forever, and forever would be a rather painful length of time to spend in silence. "I reckon we might be here for a while," he said, turning to Oikawa. "How about we pass the time with a bit of conversation?"

[Oikawa 1]

"Man that thing is beautiful. Hopefully my craftsmanship lives up to expectation!" Eyeing the sword, Oikawa felt a swelling of pride. I did a pretty good job huh! Nah stay humble, let your work speak for itself. Taking off down the path, lined with tall looming trees, the previously noted blue and yellow fungi, and various plant genus, Oikawa began to think. What if this path leads to a pit crawling with Venus flytrap creatures and giant flying jungle spiders? Oh god anything but giant flying jungles spiders. Arachnids give me the freaking willies. Suddenly his train of thought was broken, when Azide brought up their apparent silence. "Oh! Um what, do you want to chat about? It's not like this pathway is getting any shorter" he stated as he gazed at what seemed to be an endless zig-zag of walkway covered by the greenery of the jungle. 

[Azide 0]

"Oh I don't think we'll have to worry about that," said Azide, touching the edge of the blade with his finger. "Thing's so sharp that I wouldn't be surprised if just touching it lowered my health bar." He lowered the blade back to his side, but kept it out. He glanced around, observing the flora of their environment.

"And yet, no fauna so far. I have no doubt we'll be running into some at some point- but when? And so far, no signs of what I'm searching for either." He shifted his eyes back and forth between the two blocks of forest on either side of them. "I doubt it'd be placed somewhere random like that. No, there'd be no doubt about it once we saw it."

He turned back to Oikawa. "You alright, Oikawa? You look a little nervous or something. I'd point out the sweating- but then again, we do happen to be walking around in a jungle, and it's rather hot. But still, that's something we could definitely talk about." Just then, Azide stopped, seeing a fork in the path ahead of them. "Also, should could probably talk about which path to head through while we're at it," he added, pointing at the fork.

[Oikawa 1]

"Oh yeah I added a thin layer of metal on the edge of the blade to give it more of a ...cutting edge." Chuckling helped calm his earlier thoughts he looked at the fork in the road Azide had mentioned. "Oh man I hate choices like this. If you go right you wish you had left.,but go left and you'll wish you were right. Still don't know what that means gramps, " he stated as he looked up to the sky briefly. "Yeah and the reason I felt so nervous was because I was thinking about what creatures we might encounter. Particularly of the 8-legged variety." Standing now next to Azide, Oikawa closed his eyes and pondered a bit. "Lets go right "

[Azide 0]

"I'd like to say that I hope we don't have to test out this cutting edge today, but I'd be lying. Actually, I wouldn't mind running into a few monsters here. A weapon like this? I'd like to see just how well it holds up," said Azide. He turned to Oikawa, laughing at what sounded like some sort of old saying. "I used to hear the same sort of nonsense when I was younger. But as you get older, the more you start to miss that sort of thing," he thought. "Whatever we find, I'm sure the two of us will be more than a match for it." Nodding at Oikawa's choice, the two turned right. Right into a trap, that is.

Behind them, vines from both sides of the passage grew out and merged together, weaving a dense net which blocked off their previous route. Azide struck at the resulting barrier, only to see the expected result. Suddenly, he heard the sound of scurrying footsteps from somewhere up ahead. A lot of footsteps. His grip tightened around his sword as he saw two creatures turn the corner. Out ahead of them stood two large spiders. "Terrifying, but they actually have ten legs each. Are they technically still spiders?" He kept his rapier raised in front of him and turned to Oikawa. "You know, I think I'm starting to understand what your grandpa meant by that."

Azide HP: 22/22

Oikawa HP: 22/22

Spider 1 HP: 11/11

Spider 2 HP: 11/11

[Oikawa 1]

As they started down the right pathway, the jungle enclosed them. Once again blocking their exit, and not allowing them to change routes. "Great, now i do wish we had left... Oh wait immortal foliage says no...." Turning around to face their only choice, Oikawa spoke to Azide. "Creatures would be nice, as much as I love the scenery and the deathtrap that it is, I grow bored of the walking."

As if on cue, enormously soft footsteps good be heard up ahead. But rather than normal footsteps it sounded like a ton of scurrying footsteps. Suddenly rounding a corner, 2 giant 10-legged spiders came thrashing down the path. "NOOOOOOOO. Really RNGesus? Spiders? Of all the stupid MoB's you could spawn you choose spiders?"Panicking a bit and growing a little scared, he continued his rant. "Not only that they aren't even regular giant spiders. They're 10 legged freaks of nature. Literally!!!! Azide, you just had to wish for monsters huh? I'm gonna lose it! I have arachnophob- *Thunk* Having fainted mid-sentence, Azide was left to deal with two situations. An incapacitated partner and two most likely giant poisonous spiders.

[Azide 0]

Azide glanced over briefly to see Oikawa crumpled on the ground, then shifted his attention back to the two enemies currently marching towards them. "He's lucky this path isn't muddy," he thought, recalling how it'd been raining outside of these trails. "Oikawa, get over it and pick yourself up. Besides, those things have more than eight legs. Technically speaking, your arachnophobia arguably doesn't even apply here," he said as the two spiders began scuttling forward with all ten legs. Not hearing any response, his eyes darted back and forth between his partner and the the pair of 'spiders' heading their way. "God damn it Oikawa."

Left with nowhere to regroup, Azide ran forward to draw the attention of the two spiders, placing himself between them and the incapacitated arachnophobe. As one of the two spider pulled out ahead and pounced at him, Azide managed to roll out of its way. The second spider charged forward, using all five pairs of its appendages. He managed to leap out of its path, leaving himself temporarily free as the two oversized bugs took a moment to recover. Turning his head around, he saw the former spider eyeing his unconscious guild mate. "Hey, over here!" he yelled.

The creature turned around, just in time to see the player as it was stabbed through cleanly by his blade. It could only watch as the player drew back his slender rapier. The creature writhed about in pain, sending its legs into a momentary scrambling spasm.

ID: 8519

BD: 5 (+1 Accuracy) = 6 (Hit)

MD: 4 (Miss)

ID: 8520

MD: 4 (Miss)

Damage taken (Azide) = 0 (Miss)

Damage taken (Oikawa) = 0 (Not targeted)

Damage taken (Spider 1) = 1 (Base) + 3 (Rapier) + 3 (Skills) = 7

Damage taken (Spider 2) = 0 (Not targeted)

Azide HP: 22/22 (-0)

Oikawa HP: 22/22 (-0)

Spider 1 HP: 4/11 (-7)

Spider 2 HP: 11/11 (-0)

[Oikawa 1]

Oikawa's eyes flew open as he drew in an exaggerated breath. "Man what happened? Did I fall asleep?" he inquired through a groggy gaze. Rubbing his eyes he tried to recall the situation. "So I remember we were walking. And like suddenly my worst fears came scuttling down the path. Two giant spiders! Crazy right?"  Looking up he screamed. "IT WASN'T A DREAM? IT WAS REAL? OH MY GOD IT WAS REAL!!" Oikawa scrambled to his feet and tried to calm down. He noticed one of the fuzzy octobugs were writhing around from an apparent wound he assumed Azide had inflicted. While the other one stood dumbfounded. Oikawa began to panic again. He drew his sword with a trembling hand and aimed it at the uninjured arachnid. "Wh-wha-what do you..you..you say we end this-is-is?" His voice quivered as he faced the bug.

 

Suddenly Oikawa's demeanor changed. He became focused, confident and his gaze became a menacing combo of coldness and blood lust. He smirked. A wicked grin tugging from the corners of his mouth.  He glared icily at the 10 legged spider creature in front of him. Then, in the blink of an eye he lunged. He appeared on the other side of the beast. A sadistic look  "Well it seems I haven't grown accustomed to using this body yet. Oh well next time you won't be lucky" He said as he pointed the tip of his rapier at the spider. An even more sadistic expression flashed over his face. "I'm going to tear every limb from your freaking hair covered body. Then I'll slowly stab and pluck each eyeball from its god forsaken socket and feed it to the fauna of this godforsaken jungle." Twisting around to stare at the creature, he licked the corners or his mouth and asked. "How does that sound eh?"

 

 

 

#ID: 8525 BD: 3 MD: 2 (3 - 1 Evasion)

(Note: Since we can only have 3 Enhanced Items equipped, I will continue using the first 3 listed as they are what I walked into the thread with.)

 

~Oikawa~

HP: 22/22

~Azide~

HP: 22/22

 

~Spider 1~

HP: 4/11

~Spider 2~

HP: 11/11