[PP-F2] Tears in the Dark >>Let There Be Light<< (Takao)

[Vayrin 0]

Vayrin slowly trudged along the trail that lead to the mountain. After another day of grinding she had grown a little weary. She hard been working hard to level up. Every day was a grinding day though. Seeing as all the quests were still too advanced for her. Due to the sun's decent she decided it was best to head back into town. Her feet kicked up dust from the ground as she carelessly trudged along. Not trying to keep her current presence hidden from anyone. Behind her the shadows of the large mountains enveloped the landscape as the sun's glare fell behind them. A slight breeze had picked up in the canyon she had been walking through, silently blowing her hair slightly. Vayrin had her normal expression on her face. The calm and collective face she showed most often. Even though she was out in the open, today Vayrin had not been worried about running into any danger. Seeing as most of the mobs on this floor laid dormant, unless attacked first. Vayrin stopped for a moment, and stared ahead. Something had been amiss. She did not remember coming this way. Usually this could be understandable, but her sense of direction had never failed her until recently. With that in mind, the violet haired girl opened her menu. She swished through it and pressed an array of buttons until her map popped up. She stood there for a minute, debating her route back to town. Vayrin frowned. It seemed in her grinding day, she had gone a little "out of the way" from her normal hunting grounds. Vayrin sighed silently, and closed her menu. She continued to walk down the path.

[Takao 0]

With the conclusion of the boss raid on the twelfth floor and a set of players already searching for the next boss room, Takao was afforded the opportunity to reflect on the affair - which was his way of justifying being lazy and letting others do what he'd done following the previous boss fight. Despite his better judgement screaming in protest, he'd given his familiar sovereignty of his shop for the time being, which he was sure to pay for later. It was nice to have a little time to himself for once, sans his reptilian companion. He found the second floor to be an unusual place to spend said few hours of solitude, and yet, there he was. His emerald hued gaze had fallen upon the transparent windows of his menu that tracked his movement closely, and followed him even as he walked along the canyon he'd found himself in. "«Amphibian Scale» huh..." he quietly muttered to himself as he read the text of the item holding his attention. "A shield... Entirely useless to me." A huffed breath escaped his nostrils and his eyes closed, though his legs continued moving, carrying him forward while his hand swiped the menus away. His eyes opened and he stopped in his tracks when the sound of footsteps alerted him to the presence of an approaching player. "Hm?" His head tilted to the side upon seeing the other player, who had ventured so far away from the town just like he had. "Uh... hello!" Takao said, quickly adopting the warm smile he usually sported in addition to his overall friendly demeanor.

[Vayrin 0]

"Hm?" Vayrin stopped walking when she heard an unfamiliar voice call out. It seemed her "less discreet" way of walking didn't go unnoticed. The girl quickly turned around to find the source of this call, but to no avail. She looked back down the path and saw a figure. She squinted and saw that it was a player. At that note she continued to walk towards the player. As she got closer she noticed his appearance. He was taller than her, and seemed to be a bit older as well. Judging by his gear, Vayrin immediately jumped to the conclusion that he was a high leveled player. This could go either way. she had met very few high leveled players, and all of them seemed to be kind to her, but that could just be her lack of experience. As she got closer to him, she gave a hand gesture waving at the boy. "Uhh. Hi." She said when they came into talking distance. She was a least bit curious as to why he was down here. Although, after meeting Zelrius she could have thought of a reason.

[Takao 0]

An almost immediate lapse of memory had left Takao wondering why he'd suddenly decided to grab an unfamiliar player's attention, especially when it would've been just as easy to keep walking. He could've just passed it off as a friendly greeting as well, but with their attention rather adamantly set on each other, it seemed a bit late for that too. Instead he dropped his hand down to his side and approached her as well, and stopped to maintain a bit of distance. "Sorry to call out to you outta nowhere like that." His hand raised to rub the back of his neck, and he offered her an apologetic smile. It hadn't crossed his mind at the time that it might have put some players on edge to be approached outside of a safe zone. "I haven't seen any other players for a while, so I just figured I'd say hello!" His apologetic smile quickly turned back to the warm one that was more typical of him. His green eyes quickly glanced over her, briefly examining her stature and equipment. Nothing seemed particularly out of place about her, and the green cursor floating above her head meant it would at least be very unlikely for her to attack him head on. "My name's Takao."

[Vayrin 0]

Vayrin stopped as the boy spoke to her. She stared at him with her usual calm and serious expression as he continued to talk. He apologized for calling at her which she thought was no big deal. She was actually relieved that another person was around. She had been thinking she was alone out in the middle of nowhere. Usually she wouldn't mind it, but the tall mountains around them evoked an empty atmosphere for her. This usually never bothered Vayrin as she was mostly solo, but something about the second floor just made her feel alone. Vayrin quickly shook the thought to come up with a response to the boy's name. "Oh, no worries. Uhh. My name's Vayrin." She said, giving off a small smile. He seemed friendly. Her muscles relaxed a bit. She didn't even realize they had been tense until now. To break the awkward silence that would follow, Vayrin asked what she was curious about. "What's a high-leveled player like you doing all the way down here?"  She said, confident she was correct about her earlier assumption. 

[Takao 0]

Takao inclined his head slightly as they exchanged introductions, and met her smile with another one of his own. His head tilted ever so slightly to one side at the mention of his standing as a high leveled player, and his gaze fell down to his equipment. The equipment he wore was high in quality, yet acquired when he was still rather new to the game in terms of experience. His emerald hued gaze settled back on her, dismissing the uncannily accurate assessment as some kind of innate skill. "I was just taking a walk and enjoying some time by myself." His words were followed by a short pause as he mulled them over and shook his head. "Well... That's a bit of a lie, actually. I wasn't really enjoying it much." His correction felt much more honest. Gloved hands found their way into the pockets of his trousers and a shrug rolled across his shoulders. "What about you?"

[Vayrin 0]

Vayrin let out a sigh as the boy asked her what she had been doing. In truth what she had been doing wasn't very exciting either. Constantly grinding. Trying to reach higher levels so she could take on the more advanced quests by herself.  "Yeah...I'm in one of those awkward grinding stages... Still too low leveled to do any of the rewarding quests."  That was pretty much the entire truth. When Vayrin said it, she realized she did not feel uncomfortable talking to a random stranger. Despite him being a high leveled player, he did not look very threatening. For some reason she had found herself talking in a normal tone and pace like she already knew this kid. That was strange... She only guessed his friendly look and demeanor calmed her. Her violet eyes looked down for a moment, then she broke her thoughts to keep the conversation going before her partner got weirded out by her sudden silence. "Just been killing mobs to level up."