Looking For A Challenge? (SAO) [Hiatus]

[Takarashi]

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Keiyo ██████████▀
_________________140 / 250 | LV: 1

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A sudden snarl was his only alert of an oncoming attack. Keiyo didn't even have time to begin turning around before the wolf's fangs sunk into his shoulder. He let out a sharp cry and immediately bright his fist down on the beast's muzzle. Not enough to do damage, but enough to shake it off. The pain felt so real, making his shoulder sting and burn. He wanted to clasp the wound and nurse it, but was well aware that he didn't have that luxury. The swordsman was forced to grit his teeth against the throbbing wound as he quickly drew his sword again. A quick glance at his HP showed that the wolf had a fierce hit. The lad wanted to make a mad dash for the city, but with this thing snapping at his feet he would never make it in time. He could only hope that he could react quickly enough to its movements.

The animal was quick to recover. As soon as its paws hit the ground, it had bolted forward and swiped its claws at Keiyo. By some stroke of luck he deflected the attack with the flat of his sword. The second swipe he managed to weave away from. He didn't have time to prep a Sword Skill, so he merely swung when he had an opening. A red line marked his hit on the beast's body, but it didn't do much to disrupt his opponent's balance. This wasn't looking good.

[I_See_You_Monster]

PoH ██████████▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀
_________________250 / 250 | LV: 1

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Select

Name "PoH" is available. Continue?

"Yes! No one took it yet, then again after what happened years ago who would." The girl now known a sPoH exclaimed with joy as she got the named she was hoping for. No one liked having to pick a name that was not their first choice but thankfully she wouldn't have to.

Continue

As PoH finished up her character creation she felt her body go limp as if she was falling asleep, She imagined it was what dying felt like, she was invigorated by the thought that she understood what death felt like just before getting into a game. It was a rush every time. Soon she opened her eyes staring at the cobblestone ground beneath her feet the wind suddenly gently blowing against her.

"I did it I'm here!" she exclaimed once more making a fist and placing it to her chest to feel the cloth of the garment she wore. She looked at her hands and the rest of herself. She was fairly tall and good looking. Satisfied with how she looked PoH checked her inventory, opening up the menus and going through them. one of the items read "Instruction Manual". PoH smiled thinking to herself "I won't need this." moving past it she found her gold. Starting gold was seemingly okay.

PoH casually walked to the shops near her and looked over the merchandise, she saw armor and weapons and some potions. The first thing she thought of were weapons, Poh bought a dagger and held it in her hand, squeezing it tight and feeling it's construction. She reveled in touch. The nervegear was amazing in that and many other regards. PoH struck a battle stance making cuts in the air away from any player characters. After a few moments she felt her other hand was kind of empty so she bought a second dagger and once again took a battle stance.

"Now this feels more natural." PoH smiled content and returned to her normal pose sheathing her daggers beneath her robe. Looking back at the armor she realized she no longer had enough for any decent armor. PoH laughed at her decision making. She wasn't worried, she had two daggers and would deal lots of damage with them compared to having just one, she would just have to learn not to get hit.

With that the strange new cloaked girl walked o ut of the Town of New Beginnings and into the fields of Aincrad to find what awaited her. Though she walked like any other player, her excitement was great and it took all her effort to not go running and screaming through the fields.

[falcon_tenou]

((I'll post later tonight had some family issues now I'm at work))

[Takarashi]

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Keiyo ████████
_________________100 / 250 | LV: 1

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((Gotcha, thanks for the heads up Falcon.))

The ensuing battle against the swordsman and the wolf looked like a quick, clumsy dance. The young man had poor footwork while the beast seemed to bolt from point to point as it tried to get hits in on its target. After a few narrow misses and deflections, it managed to rake its claws on Keiyo's side. He stifled a pained grunt as he tried to put some distance between them, but with the wolf's speed that barely did anything. "Just a few seconds! That's all I need to charge a Sword Skill!" He thought. As he ran, the swordsman raised his blade just above his shoulder to prepare a vertical slice. The blue aura gleamed after a few seconds to indicate that the move was ready. "This had better work!"

The wolf was within striking distance of its target now. Its paws beat hard on the grassy plain and its snarl carried in the wind. Once it closed the gap, it sprung at Keiyo with its maw hungering for his body. The telling sounds carried to the fighter, though, and as the beast was in midair, he stopped, spun and ducked, and swung his sword in a fluid motion. He cleaved the creature in two and was met with a hail of glowing fragments. Through more luck than skill, he survived the encounter. Keiyo wheezed as he processed the fact that he had won. Against a level one monster, of all things.

[falcon_tenou]

(I'll try and post once at work lol no pics tho lmao)

Lvl5
Exp to next lvl : 420/1200
A long sigh escaped takeshis throat as he sat there on a fallen tree .glancing about the terrain before him all the time listening to the few players in his area clash with monsters ." this is a pain trying to get just a few levels to process to the next area.." He muttered to himself as he looked over as the boy whom he had walked by before defeated a wolf ,all be it a lvl 1 wolf but at least the kid was learning is what he was thinking. " I wish I could find a lvl 6 elite... " he saidnto himself once more

[I_See_You_Monster]

PoH ██████████▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀
_________________250 / 250 | LV: 1

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Poh entered the field and saw some players fighting a wolf. She watched for a few seconds her head covered with her hood. She watched them defeat the wolf with a bit of struggle. "This doesn't look too hard" she thought to herself standing in the field. Just as she thought this she heard a snarl from her right side. Turning her head calmly she saw that it was another wolf.

"What luck." PoH said softly to herself as she grabbed both her daggers from inside her cowl and slashed the wolf jumping backwards after doing so. The wolf instantly ran at her and bit her arm. It wasn't horrific pain she felt but it was intense and unpleasant none-the-less. PoH stabbed the wolf again and flung herself back falling onto the ground the wolf immediately lunging at her. PoH's reflexes were fast and she shielded herself with her arms which were once again bit. Her HP gauge was at a little more than half.

"Am I really going to die like this in front of these people?" She said under her breath, not wanting to be a spectacle let alone the laughing stock of Aincrad. She pushed herself backwards with her feet jumping vertically and rolling away. getting to her feet just in time to block another of the wolves attacks with her arm her HP now at one third.

"First skill I'm investing in...acrobatics." She once again murmured getting another cut in on the wolf, her daggers didn't do much damage at all with single cuts and stabs. The wolf had only lost a third of it's health. As they seperated again PoH charged the wolf screaming with enthusiasm. Both daggers ready to strike at once and deal fatal damage. The wolf returned snarling and charging her again. PoH unleashed the full fury of her daggers swinging them both in an "X" shape at the wolf in front of her the daggers hit the wolf just as it bit her throat.

PoH exploded into shards her final expression that of surprise with the wolf left at a quarter HP. PoH had crit on her final attack but it was all for naught.

She respawned in the town of new beginnings and sat on a bench running through her menus to check her inventory and stats.

"The Instruction Maunal eh....fiiiiiine." she said reluctantly as she pulled it out and spent the next while reading it over on her bench beneath a tall beautiful tree.

[Takarashi]

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Keiyo ████████
_________________100 / 250 | LV: 1

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The young man never imagined that the introduction to a game would be this taxing. This felt like he had really just picked up a sword and went out into the wild to start fighting animals. Keiyo had tried VRMMOs before, but most of them aided the player in some way - aim assist, reaction time enhancers, system telegraphing, something like that. While the Sword Skills certain helped, he had to already have some sort of advantage before he could active one. Keiyo sat himself down and laid his arms across his knees while he caught his breath, while allowing his sword to lay by his side. "A challenge. Bah. This feels more like work than playing a game." He thought as he popped open his menu. He navigated toward his experience to look at how he was fairing. Admittedly he was close to hitting level two already. Not only that, he felt genuine satisfaction. He had earned those points, damn it. As he thought more about it, maybe this game wasn't so bad. Just tough. Very, very tough.

As he flicked through his menus Keiyo came across his skill listing. It was pretty barren, and practically everything was at zero so far. He noticed that his One-Handed Straight Sword skill had gone up a couple of points though. He wondered what that meant exactly. Keiyo flipped to his inventory and summoned his guide book. After flipping through a few pages, he found that skills increased the more they were used. Depending on the nature of the skill, it would do things like increase damage, quicken attacks, shorten cooldowns, and so on. "So, if I keep skilling up my sword proficiency, maybe I can activate Sword Skills faster?" He thought. It made sense. And he was just starting out, so maybe it was fair that sword skills needed some time to charge up.

After dismissing his book and menu Keiyo looked around the plains. His eyes settled on a man in dark clothing not too far away, presumably the same one that had helped him earlier. "Was he watching me? That's... kind of creepy."

[I_See_You_Monster]

PoH ██████████▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀
_________________250 / 250 | LV: 1

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PoH found the book boring and stood up after skipping through it only paying attention to the skills section. While skimming she realized something. She was new and that means she had less penalties and no exp to lose as her exp total was 0. That wolf may still be there with low HP. PoH grinned wide snapping the book closed and putting it back in her inventory.

PoH dashed through the Town of New Beginnings quickly making it to the field she gazed around as she ran seeing wolves spread out sparsly. Soon she locked in on the one that had defeated her putting her right hand at her left side and her left at her right as she loaded a sword skill wanting to finish the wolf off in one blow to avoid getting hurt further as she had no potions.

The wolf turned to face her just as she drew her daggers once more from within her cowl their blades glowing blue as she cut that familiar "X" shape before her the wolf broke into shards and the exp and gold gain popped up in front of her. PoH smiled wide and stared at it forgetting to keep her balance she fell down on her knees looking at her gain and how close she was to leveling. Thankfully the wolf had netted her alot of exp. She closed the menu and gazed around, noticing the two men in the field she made sure their eyes never met. She didn't want them thinking she was watching them or even looking their way.

PoH found some boars in sight and walked over to them both daggers in hand. "Maybe these are the beginner mobs." She said softly before luncing in and taking a cut at one keeping an eye on it's HP gauge which much to her delight dropped considerably more than the wolves. The boar charged her and PoH dodged easily. "Stay Calm PoH, it's a beginner mob, just attack, and dodge, attack and dodge." she said in her head repeating the words over and over as she dodged the boar though not able to get an attack in. She dodged a few more times not understanding how she could dodge while attacking especially with tiny daggers. She eventually managed to slash the boar while she dodged having to maintain the right distance and know the exact length of her daggers. after doing that a few more times the boar was defeated and she was closer to leveling up.

PoH sat on the ground and opened up the manual again needing to read more, this game was rather difficult and she would need any tips she could get.

[Takarashi]

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Keiyo █████████
_________________120 / 250 | LV: 1

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The swordsman supposed that if the man clad in black wanted to talk then he would make his way over here at some point. Keiyo blinked and broke eye contact with him. He noticed that his HP had ticked up a little faster than it had been before. He figured that sitting and resting must allow it to recover more quickly. It was a common practice in MMOs, but was glad to see it at work all the same.

The lad was back on his feet and looking around the field once more. The town was only a stone's throw away. He also saw that there was woman that seemed to have just picked off a few enemies of her own. "She must be new, too." He thought once he saw her pull out the guide book as well. Given that the other guy felt a little more intimidating and less approachable, he figured that a fellow newbie might be a bit easier to talk to in order to get some other base concepts down. Keiyo approached her at a casual pace, taking care to look out for randomly spawning enemies now. He felt that the longer this game went on, the more he would develop a healthy sense of paranoia.
"Hey. How are you finding the game so far?" He proceeded to ask when he was within ear shot of the dagger wielder.

[I_See_You_Monster]

PoH ██████████▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀
_________________250 / 250 | LV: 1

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PoH had gotten to read a little more on how to effectively use daggers as she heard a voice from behind her. She jumped slightly her plan to be unoticed had failed. PoH turned her head slowly and got to her feet turning the rest of her body to face the man. He was the one from before who killed the wolf, obviously better at this game than her PoH pressed her lips together hard thinking how to answer.

"It's hard. The range on daggers is really low and so is the damage though sometimes it seems to do more damage than others. Luckily this book is helpful." She held up the book not hiding the fact she was new. She figured that he likely saw her die to the wolf so it was no secret she was a newbie.

"W-what about you? You killed a wolf and only went down to roughly half health. You must be finding it okay." she remarked somewhat nervously. She had hoped she wouldn't have much character interaction until she was much stronger

[falcon_tenou]

Lvl 5
Exp to next lvl 900/1200

He averted his gaze from the two in the fields having seen the woman be slain and come back. He smirked though has he saw what he had been waiting on this whole time ,and orange name monster. This monster was a elite dire wolf and lvl 6 non the less. " time to try it out.." He said as he stood up and brought his sword out of the sheathe ,holding it up toward the sky he said lowly " darkness sword " as he did the area around him grew heavy with pressure ,anyone near that wasn't used to it would feel like someone was trying to push them to the ground . " geez.. " he said as his katana changed form and he started to move . his feet were agile for such a large guy with heavy cloaked armor ,however the wolf was just as quick leaping at him. He swung his sword just as he was clawed the wolf got critted and lost half its HP while he only lost a quarter .

Takeshi then leaped back and spun the sword around once before flicking his wrist "gengtsu" he said as a different for of it flew from his blade this one was black and flame like,hurling right for the elite. He scored a hit but the wolf had charged him and bit taking half of his remaining life before the wolf died. " damn..' He muttered as he looted the menu putting items and gold away before taking out a potion and drinking it to revive his health. "At least the was good loot" he said and looked to his exp

[Takarashi]

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Keiyo █████████
_________________120 / 250 | LV: 1

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She seemed a bit jumpy. Then again, given that enemies could just pop up out of nowhere, perhaps it was normal to feel like that around here. He dismissed it as he listened to the young lady talk.
"That book is a life saver. I can't imagine trying to play the game without it." He replied with a sheepish grin. "I'm not doing so well myself. I handled the wolf but I was fumbling all over the place. That guy over there had to save me from the first boar I fought because I didn't know how the system worked." Keiyo thumbed over his shoulder to the man in the distance. "Have you figured out how to use Sword Skills? They make it way easier to fight."

The swordsman happened to glance over his shoulder just in time to see the man he had pointed to dealing with a monster. Keiyo couldn't really see what was happening from this distance, but his movements made for an impressive display. "I, uh, think he has a better grasp on the whole thing than we do though."

[I_See_You_Monster]

PoH ██████████▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀
_________________250 / 250 | LV: 1

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PoH smiled at the man's story of almost getting killed by a wolf. "Same, though lacking a hero to save me I died. I checked the skills and there are alot of them. The passives interest me more than anything though." She looked down at the manual putting it back in her inventory before lifting a finger to her lips in thought as she looked up to the sky. She paused for a moment and let her arms hang at her sides again in defeat.

"A heavy armor class would have been easier, just invest in combat and armor. Pay alot for gear but be indominable with little to no effort...but those kinds of classes are no fun at all. I guess we just invest in our own individual fighting styles as best we can." She was almost talking to herself at this point running through in her head how she was going to play this game. She knew her goal however the road to achieving it was much harder than she had expected. They were pioneers in this world and although they had a manual, there were no experts. They would have to become the experts.

While she pondered Keiyo had pointed out the man in the distance. PoH focused on him and watched as he used skills she had never seen this early on in a game. "Maybe he does. Such powerful skills in the starting field. I'd like to find out what they are but something tells me my path won't lead me to skills like that, I'm curious to see how different we all turn out in the future." she said with a smile Keiyo's relaxed nature putting her at ease.

[falcon_tenou]

Takeshi rolled through his menu a few more times before glancing about again."respawn is usually too long to wait..." He muttered about the monster. He decided to head back towards town for a bit of rest and buy more food and potions. He sauntered down through the field ,approaching the two he saw earlier.

His pace slowed until he stopped in front of them ,his 6'4 self seeming menacing to most as he flicked his menu open and selected a sword. It suddenly appeared in his hands ,it looked ordinary nothing spectacular. He pulled the top belt from his cloak and in covered the lower half of his face so it was more visible."here that last monster dropped this and I have no need for it " he said as he held the sword you to the man. It was a lvl 2 sword with +3 attack and +2attack speed.

[Takarashi]

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Keiyo ██████████
_________________130 / 250 | LV: 1

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"Passives are alright, but I'm more interested in the combat. The battle system is like nothing I've ever seen before." He paused as he thought. "The difficulty makes me want to master it rather than give up. It's so strange."

"I find most heavy classes in games are hard to play. You need a lot of money to fund all the gear you need, and even with all the defense you still need a healer by your side. Though, since this game doesn't seem to have magic, I don't even know how that works here. I think potions are the only way to recover, or so the book seemed to say."

The young man merely nodded at her final words. He had a feeling that everyone would end up being quite different in terms of play style. From the sound of it she favored speedy characters like himself, but noted that she used daggers. What kind of differences would that bring about?

Keiyo's attention was caught a moment later by a familiar voice. He turned around to see a sword uncomfortably close to him. "Erk." He leaned back a bit in favor of comfort. Being at a bit of a loss for words, his eyes shifted between the weapon and the taller man. Given that Keiyo towered over most people, that was saying something. He carefully reached out and took the weapon. "I, uh, don't know what to say. Thank you. What's, uh, your name?"