PP - F1 Black Iron Palace's Wake (Oikawa) (Completed)

[Calrex 0]

After completing their adventure in the underground of the Black Iron Palace Calrex and Oikawa made their way back to Oikawa's favorite cafe, the place he took Calrex and Teayre during their first adventure together, the Starlight Cafe. It had become a place that Calrex frequently visited during his time in SAO, whether it be for picking up surprise gifts for Teayre or simply stopping in to grab a quick drink.

 

As the two arrived Calrex grabbed a table for the two of them as the waiter arrived. After taking their orders Calrex nodded to Oikawa, "Alright, well that certainly was an interesting time. Nice choice of location there man."

 

"Even in the wake of all that's happened, I can still find comfort when I'm spending time with Teayre and Oikawa. Ever since I first started my time here, it seems like the two of them have always been a constant for me. I'm glad to call Teayre my girlfriend and Oikawa my close friend."

 

As he looked out the window he let his thoughts wander. In the wake of his sudden removal from the Azure Brigade it seemed like a new idea was forming in his head, "Maybe...nah, I'll discuss that with them at a later time."

 

With that he looked back his teammate with a friendly smile, "So you got your strawberry cream pie once again I'm guessing?"

[Oikawa 1]

The Starlight Cafe reared into view. The building signifying a place that Oikawa would consider a hangout. It's crazy to think that place has been here for me since my early days in Aincrad. From the formation of a guild to my latest rogue antics, it has stood the testaments of my time here. And I hope its around when we beat the game as well. 

 

As the duo entered the building, Calrex snagged them a table. Ordering the usual, Oikawa turned to Cal as he began to speak. "That little exploration was thrilling actually. I know we probably could've went deeper but that Knight had me exhausted haha. Even though we seemed to hit him the hardest. And was that sarcasm haha?"

 

That last question wasn't much of question more like statement. As he waited for the food Oikawa began to wonder what Kotori had been up to. He hadn't seen her since the last time he was here at Starlight. I hope she's doing alright. His thoughts roamed on until Cal finally broke the silence with a question. "You and I both know that's the only thing I ever order here haha. Of course I got the usual," he replied with a grin.

 

"So what has Teayre been up to? I haven't seen her in a while. Should we be worried?"

[Calrex 0]

Calrex gave a small laugh as Oikawa thought he was being sarcastic for his comment on the dungeon, "No, not at all this time. It was a great time and it really was a great choice. We'll definitely need to go back and explore it further once the next floors get opened up."

 

The waiter then brought their orders: Oikawa's strawberry creme pie and Calrex's iced mocha. He took a small sip of the cooling drink as he gave a friendly nod to Oikawa's statement, "Of course heh."

 

When his friend asked about Teayre Calrex stopped sipping so that he could respond, "She's been doing well. I'm guessing she's been off training on the upper floors, so that's probably by she hasn't been by recently. I have met up with her a lot more often on the fourth floor though, since she seems to like the wintery theme of the entire thing."

 

OOC: Since this takes place before the actual proposal I'll play it as that.

 

IC:

 

"She, well, all of us have come farther than we were only a few months ago. Nonetheless, I'm just glad to be by her side."

 

"However I should probably relay that she was had over heels about receiving the Oikawa Kanashiki, so thanks again for making it. I don't think she's going to be needing any other weapons for quite some time."

[Oikawa 1]

Moments later the waiter arrived with their respective orders. Calrex had ordered a coffee of sorts and Oikawa wasted no time digging into his pie. As they enjoyed their orders, Calrex stopped sipping his mocha to address the blonde's earlier question. Off training eh? Alone without Cal. Hmm I wonder how much stronger she's gotten then? I'd assume pretty strong by now considering I myself have grown quite a bit in the last couple of months.

 

Setting his fork aside, Oikawa wiped his mouth and spoke. "Hmm training all on her own now. Haha we've grown stronger in these past months haven't we. It's amazing to see how far we've come. Though our progress on the floors doesn't seem to reflect that since we've barely scratched 10% of this castle." Oikawa resumed eating his pie and befor elong he had finished it all. Stretching, he yawned as he relaxed and sunk into his seat. 

[Calrex 0]

"Yeah, that is true. Although I have a feeling the progress on the floors isn't exactly related to our personal progress at the moment."

 

"Yeah, with all of the things I can guess are going on with the frontliners there hasn't been much progress at all. Only now has the raid to unlock the eleventh floor actually commenced."

 

Calrex took another sip as he exhaled, letting the heat from the drink escape through his breath as he continued to think, "At the least it seems like fairly soon the three of us might be strong enough to actually participate in the raids now."

 

As Oikawa relaxed Calrex responded in kind, leaning back in his seat, "In any case I hope that the three of us are strong enough now that maybe we can change that. Maybe with a few more people we can start clearing the floors a little bit faster than before."

[Oikawa 1]

"Touche my friend. Touche. Give it some time. Soon enough we will be the main front-liners."  The blonde yawned. He suddenly felt quite tired. Maybe all this training is finally catching up to me... Heh, guess that means it's working. Through sheepish eyes, the blonde brought up his menu and flicked through his contacts. He took note of all his friends that seemed to have disappeared on him. The two most shocking being his first friend, London aka Sindon, and the second being Azide. I wonder what happened to the two of them. Where could they have gone?

[Calrex 0]

Calrex took note that the training seemed to be getting to Oikawa as he saw his friend give a yawn and appear sleepy. He gave a friendly smirk as he swiped down on his menu, checking to see if any new messages came in. When he saw nothing came in he took another sip of his iced mocha, feeling the cooling liquid trickle down his throat as he looked over, "Well, let's just hope it won't be just the three of us right? Heh?"

 

He casually went over to his friends list, making note of the various people he had come across during his travels. For sure there were many that suddenly stopped showing any activity, but he figured that they had their own things to take care of, so he didn't let it bother him.

 

"Sousuke, Tyrius, Celes, Raeyliff, there's many people I saw when I first started out that suddenly became inactive. Celes I met only briefly some time back before she suddenly disappeared again. I wonder where they could have disappeared to."

[Oikawa 1]

Oikawa hazily glanced over at Cal as he cracked a joke. "Yeah that'd be tragic haha but the three of us could handle anything. I mean look at you. You've already surpassed me in level. I guess I should stop slacking." Sighing, the blonde sat up and thought for a moment. Suddenly his eyes grew wide as a he remembered something. "How good are you at finding materials? I just remembered I have a couple orders at my shop and I'm down to my last material! We should totally go mat hunting!!" he exclaimed. Flicking through his inventory, Oikawa un-equipped his talisman and equipped his Leopard Plushie instead. "I'm gonna need all the LD buffs I can get. I don't feel like beating on boars just yet haha."

[Calrex 0]

"Heh, I know. I thought by now you'd be at least Level 40. But no worries, I'm sure both you and Teayre will catch up fairly quickly."

 

As Oikawa asked Calrex about finding materials he gave a cheeky smirk as he nodded, "You forget that I'm the unofficial material gatherer. Gathering them is what I do!"

 

He quickly downed the rest of his iced mocha as he nodded to the waiter, getting the pill and paying for it, "Do you know how many you might need? I've gotten a good track of how the monsters roam around, so we can try to avoid danger if possible."

 

Calrex made a few swipes to his menu as the trinket Teayre made for him, the Ocean's Defense, appeared around his neck, "I know exactly how you feel. It's a pain to work at something and now have much to speak for it right?"

[Oikawa 1]

"Oh I have no doubt about catching," the blonde exclaimed through a few chuckles. As Calrex downed the rest of his mocha, Oikawa went through the rest of his orders and did a count. "To answer your question, nope. I remember your title very well, hence why I asked you King of Material Gathering. As for how many I need. I think I might need 6 but I can settle for 4. I don't want to be looking all night considering it'll be non-combat gathering" 

 

Checking his gear, Oikawa confirmed his readiness and looked towards Cal. "You ready?"

[Calrex 0]

Calrex gave a nod as he got to his feet, "Yep, let's do it."

 

As the two exited the Starlight Cafe he made a few swipes on his menu, surrounding himself in the Grand Chariot armor while keeping the Grand Gauntlets equipped, "Alright, now the only thing we have to worry about is the drop rate of the materials. I've had good and bad days, but it seems like if we head a little further out than the immediate area around the settlement we'll have better luck finding materials."

 

As they reached the gate Calrex gave a calming exhale as he nodded, "Alright, let's get started."

[Oikawa 1]

Oikawa followed Cal out of the cafe. As they traversed the town, Calrex brought up how the gathering could be spotty, But should they venture out further than most, their luck should increase. "Sounds good man. How much further out should we travel? I'm assuming we'd probably have to go past the Field of Crossings. Probably near the outskirts of Horunka Village huh?" Once they neared the gate, Oikawa let out a final yawn before slapping his cheeks.

 

"I'm so taking a nap after this. Lets go"

[Calrex 0]

"We probably won't need to go that far, but definitely a good distance away from the city. I usually need to get out of sight of the buildings before the materials actually start becoming a more frequent."

 

ID: 17283

Loot DIce: 3 (Search and Detect +2 / Item +1) = 6

 

"Yeah, we're still not far out enough."

 

Calrex gave a quick scan of of the are nearby, but there were no materials to be found at the moment as he scanned around, "Yeah, this area is still picked clean by other players at the moment. The respawn rate of the materials in this part of the area seems less frequent because of it. I guess that's a way of forcing players to venture further out for materials."

[Oikawa 1]

[17304] LD: 4 [2+2]

 

Oikawa nodded as Calrex spoke. So we don't have to go that far. Good to know. The fields were pretty barren aside from a few weaker players and the occasional boar or two. As he scanned the fields and collected a few stray objects, he concluded that there was nothing to gather in this area. Moments later, Calrex echoed his same thoughts. "Yeah we should move out further. There is like nothing here at all." 

[Calrex 0]

ID: 17306

Loot Dice: 5 (Search and Detect +2 / Item +1) = 8

 

As Oikawa echoed his thoughts Calrex gave a nod. Even as he gave another quick look around there appeared to be nothing useful in the fields where they were walking by, "Yeah, still no luck."

 

With that he started heading further down the path as he kept looking around. At this point they were passing by the river that Calrex usually searched by in the past, as well as a couple of the hilly plains which were home to a few trees that he found materials growing off of.

 

"I wonder if those ones have respawned just yet."

[Oikawa 1]

[17308] LD: 5 [3+2]

 

​The blonde trotted along as they traversed the fields. Not to far away, the sound of running water caught his attention. Patting Calrex on the shoulder, he jogged towards the river and searched for anything that could be useful. Not satisfied with simply looking, Oikawa reached his hand into the stream and felt along the bottom. Nothing aside from a few digital rocks could be felt. Stepping back, he walked back to his companion and gave him an update. "If there was anything there, it isn't now. That place was just as barren as the fields. Where to next?"

[Calrex 0]

ID: 17310

Loot Dice: 17 (Search and Detect +2 / Item +1) = 20

 

"Hm..."

 

As Calrex watched Oikawa scour the river bottom for any items he walked a little further down, sweeping his hand through. As he kicked up some of the dirt underneath his eyes spied something reflective as he pulled a piece of refined ore out from the water, "Huh, this looks like it might be useful."

 

He handed it to Oikawa, "We might have a little more if we head a little further upstream."

 

Total: 1

[Oikawa 1]

[17319] LD: 16 [14+2]

 

Oikawa grasped the ore and placed it in his inventory. "Nice find! Thanks." He followed Calrex further up along the river. Nothing seemed to jump out at him. The grass riverside was barren, the river itself seemed to be even more devoid of materials than last time and there weren't any clusters lining the bottom. You would think finding materials would be easier in th- He paused mid thought as he nearly tripped over a golden rock protruding from the ground. Bending over, he realized that this was a craftable ore. Collecting it he shouted to Cal, "Found another one. We might finally be in the right area."

 

Total: 2

[Calrex 0]

ID: 17337

Loot Dice: 18 (Search and Detect +2 / Item +1) = 21

 

"Heh, yeah you're probably right!"

 

As Oikawa made note of finding another ore Calrex turned, tossing yet another ore of similar to the one he had just found. He had found it while scanning across the ground just nearby the riverbank. It seemed like possibly this area would be considered similar to a mining area, which is why they were finding so many ores at the moment.

 

"You said you need at least four to six right? We should be able to find that many fairly quickly. With any luck we might be able to get more before it gets too late."

 

Total: 3

[Oikawa 1]

[17344] LD: 16 [14+2]

 

"Yeah 4 should be fine. One of the orders paid in mats so the minimum is doable." As he surveyed the are for more ores, he was surprised to find that another ore was perched just a few yards up. "Well I'll be. Found the fourth material! That wasn't so bad haha" Adding the material to his count, Oikawa grinned and gave Calrex a thumbs up as he counted to make sure there were four. "Unless you need some materials I think I'm good. Thanks for helping me out man!"

 

Total: 4