Looking For A Challenge? (SAO) [Hiatus]

[Takarashi]

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

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It wasn't clear what went through the young swordsman's mind, but he decided to wander off instead of following Takeshi into the potion shop earlier. Maybe he had to go use the bathroom in real life? Who knows. The point was that he was back in town, safe and sound, with his health sitting pretty at 100 percent.

He had decided to go and take a small stroll around the city since he had more or less ignored it at first. He was quickly learning that this game didn't cater to the impatient or the unprepared. "Their boars certainly don't mess around." He slipped his hands in his pants pockets as he looked around at buildings and stalls. It seemed odd to Keiyo how big the city was given the way he learned about the game. A curious e-mail with no instructions? How was that any way to advertise something as massive as this? For that matter, who the heck made this game?

After a brief stroll the young man had decided that he had seen enough. He would have plenty of time to get to know the locations and the NPCs. More than likely he would hear something from one of the other players if there was anything particularly good to know. Keiyo decided to saunter back toward the first gate he had went out through to reach the field. Though he still had a pulse of excitement in his chest it was coupled with a sense of confidence after his brush with a few mobs. Whatever was waiting for him out in that field, he could tackle it. He was sure of it. Maybe. Kinda. Sorta. Whatever.

[fairfolk1]

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Lvl: 1
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Aearo sighed and walked up to another boar, throwing a few more swings at it. A successful skill and a normal attack were enough to kill each, but the real challenge was actually making the attacks successful. While she was getting used to the weight, it was still heavy has hell. She could only get a successful skill around once every four times she attempted. I really hope when I level up it gets lighter. She thought to herself, smacking her fourth boar. So far she'd obtained two boar meats and needed four more to turn the quest in. The drops aren't very kind, are they? She watched as her attempt to do a vert swing was thwarted by the weight of the axe and the boar slammed into her. She'd learned to stay on her feet when they attacked by now, she'd been hit quite a few times. The armor was pretty helpful to protect against the damage as well. She attempted a vertical swing again and was successful, making the loot screen pop up as she slammed her claymore down into the boar's head.

Three more, eh? A chunk of boar meat was in her loot screen, which she greedily took. She couldn't wait to hit level two, to make this giant sword lighter. She was about to engage in another battle when she noticed someone running from four boars. Ah, a scrub attracted a bunch of mobs and is about to get killed, eh? She thought, watching her. The girl turned, appearing to want to now engage them. Aearo figured she'd probably be mauled in a couple seconds, that she'd have to respawn. Her eyes widened when she saw the girl take a skill stance and one-shot all four of them. Woahhh...I'll have to try that. Aearo took the same stance that the other girl did and watched her sword, waiting to see if it glowed. After a few tries and about a minute, she managed to replicate the stance. Let's try this baby out.

The next boar Aearo faced, she aggroed the mob and took the stance, hoping that it would activate. It did and Aearo replicated the spin, hitting the boar and taking down a lot of it's hp. She then attempted a vertical, which of course she failed, and killed it with a normal attack. Well, that was an interesting new move. It's AOE too. She thought as the loot screen popped up. More meat, only a couple more. She proceeded to take out a few more, watching her exp bar raise, and started walking back to town to turn the quest in. Ah, well. It was a fun beginning run. I'll probably be level two once I do another quest or grind a bit. She was entering back into the city when she passed by another player. "Helloooo~." She said, dragging the "O" out in a slightly lazy tone. She gave him a wave as well as she passed, wondering what this man was going to do for his classing. He still had the generic clothing and didn't seem like he'd been around for all that long. "You know where a store that I can sell my junk to would be?" She asked, wanting to dump all her loot to get more Col.

[Ashielle]

▧ ▧ ▧ ✖ TYRANT Noiz ✖ ✖ ✖
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◢deception and perfection are wonderful traits
one will breed love, the other hate◣
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◆ location: town ◆ level: 4 ◆ mood: optimistic

Noiz walked along a trail of similarly colored tiles in the center plaza of the city. He studied the gear of players who ran past him and felt a bit behind, having yet to make friends to take down bosses and hunt for better gear with. Would he need other people to make it far? he wondered to himself. Surely his information gathering skills would carry him for awhile, and he needn't worry too much about locations of necessities, but could he take advantage of what he learned being as weak as he was?

Suddenly, he tripped over his own feet and sent himself crashing to the ground. After realizing what had happened, he sighed dejectedly and chuckled as he shook his head. Yeah, he thought, I'm gonna need a little help. Noiz collected himself and strolled over to a nearby fountain and sat beside it. He opened his Social Menu and looked through it. Empty. Completely empty. A sour look washed over his face as he admitted to himself that he would need to be more outgoing in order to succeed. He closed the menus and resolved to make a least one friend today, and preferably find some sweet loot, too.

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◢you'll find me among the lonely hearts
and i'm after a brand new start◣
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[falcon_tenou]

Lvl: 6
EXP to next level : 0/1600

Takeshi sat on a log for a moment as he flicked his menu open and looked through a few things before he pulled open his stats and began to allocate the past points he saved and his new ones , placing a few into STR and quite a few into DEX for crit chance and the rest into VIT. He was satisfied and shut that menu before he went through his basic skills and began to read them slowly , trying to figure what he should work on next as opposed ot just leveling , his dagger skill level has upped and so had his swords proficency . " hmmm " He thought almost out loud to himself " I should work on battle healing ... but that requires being hurt. I actually should work on my slash forging." He said to himself as he opened his stash menu and activated his portable crafting stand , having only reach level 2 on this skill it was fairly simple things he made . He then started to pick and choose from his metal materials he had collected from vendors or fighting monsters , as well as bones . He began to mix a few elements and bash them on the anvil before him , forming a weapon after a few moments. " You have made a basic +1 sword " the screen popped up as he tossed it aside on the ground and went back to making more , ending up making a few more of the same sword and a few daggers here and there . After about 15 minutes of doing so he was down to a few last mats and he just hit lvl 3 in the forging skill. " one more .. " He said to himself as he forged out another weapon. The window popped up " You have created Wolf Fang Dagger" . He tilted his head as he opened the weapon window and looked it over . " hmm not bad 2 more dps than my main hand ... and +2 crit chance and wow ... + 10 crit dmg definately worth the time and effort " He said to himself as he equiped and dropped his main hand on the ground .

[I_See_You_Monster]

PoH ██████████▀▀▀▀
_________________330 / 450 | LV: 2

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PoH had lost 50 points of health but she was starting to grasp how to fight with daggers, it was all about knowing the length of your blade and getting in as many attacks as you can while dodging. Poison seemed to help a great deal but since she saw none sold in shops she would have to rely on her shoddy success rate from time to time. After grinding she would go back to making potions for now she wanted to try her hand at straight up combat.

PoH walked over to a wolf keeping herself out of eyesight with her hide skill. Silently she approached the wolf and loaded a sword skill executing it before the wolf could notice managing to strike the wolf with one dagger. Surprisingly her attack did much more damage than normal taking off a third of the wolf's HP. Excited PoH whirled around and lunged at the wolf again running both daggers along it's sides. The wolf landed a hit on her biting her leg and taking off 70 HP.

This wasn't that problematic as the wolf only had a few more hits until it died. Trying something different PoH stood in place and loaded her skills her daggers glowing as she waited. The wolf charged and lunged at her. PoH cut in an "X" in front of her cutting the wolf's face and spinning to it's side. It was rather elegant until she lost her balance and fell the wolf not taking a moment before running at her PoH threw her dagger and landed the final hit. Laying her head back her body flat on the ground facing the sky she closed her experience menu.

This was like no game she had ever experienced. She had perfect control which was both an asset and a hindrance. She could control herself however she was not a fighter nor had much practical fighting experience outside of sports which greatly helped her reaction time and dodging. Luckily the skills made a big difference

PoH got up and gathered her dagger that lay on the ground preparing for another wolf, a few more and she would level. Her fighting got a bit better with each battle as she learned more game mechanics, sneak being one of the more useful ones.

"Just a few more, then I'll go buy some more daggers...using my main weapons as throwing weapons could prove problematic in the future." PoH said to herself quietly contemplating various strategies as she watched the wolf. She lacked the raw strength the other players seemed to have so strategy and use of skills would be what kept her in the game.

[falcon_tenou]

Lvl: 6
EXP to next level : 0/1600

He smiled to himself as he got up and stretched abit , looking about the fields again , noticing a few new people on rather late tonight . " Hmm it seems more people are on now .. " He said to himself as he put his hands back in his pockets , strolling towards town once more . " He knew well enough that his dagger was good , but his offhand lacked so he figured he would go in search of someone that knew how to enchant weapons . His eyes glanced about ash is mind raced about the people in the fields fighting. The one thing he had up on most people in this game is he developed games like this and in his down time he learned many forms of martial arts and weapon training so this was second nature to his mind and body .

[Takarashi]

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

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The lad was just about to step outside of town when an unfamiliar face called for his attention. He perked his head up and looked the armored lady in the eye to show that she had his attention. "Ah, yeah, I've seen a few stores around." He turned and pointed down the path he had just come from. "If you go down this road for a little while, there's an alley that has a bunch of NPC stalls to sell to. Do you want me to show you?" The swordsman proceeded to ask. He knew from asking workers in real stores that taking someone to the actual spot was usually the best thing to do. Even in well marked places it could be a hassle - but this town didn't even have that much convenience.

[Ashielle]

▧ ▧ ✖ TYRANT Noiz ✖ ✖ ✖
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▄ ▀ ▄ ▀ ▄ ▀ ▄ ▀ ▄ ▀ ▄▀ ▄ ▀ ▄ ▀ ▄ ▀ ▄ ▀ ▄
◢deception and perfection are wonderful traits
one will breed love, the other hate◣
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◆ location: floor 1 ◆ level: 4 ◆ mood: optimistic

Noiz got up from the bench he was sitting on and walked towards the low level area. He double checked his inventory to make sure he had all his equipment on before silently nodding to himself. The boy waved to each player he passed by, trying to keep a pleasant looking smile on his face. You never know when people thinking you're friendly might come in handy.

When he reached the edge of town, he drew his rapier and dashed towards a nearby wolf, cleanly stabbing a fatal artery and downing the wolf in a matter of seconds. He chuckled to himself, lucky hit. Having a skill set based mostly on catching enemies off guard and hitting them in critical areas was extremely useful but it meant he had to plan out his actions ahead of time or else he'd be screwed. Studying a closeby pack of wolves, he tried to identify their weak points before heading back into battle.

▄ ▀ ▄ ▀ ▄ ▀ ▄ ▀ ▄ ▀ ▄▀ ▄ ▀ ▄ ▀ ▄ ▀ ▄ ▀ ▄
◢you'll find me among the lonely hearts
and i'm after a brand new start◣
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[I_See_You_Monster]

PoH ██████████▀▀
_________________400 / 650 | LV: 3

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PoH had gone in town briefly and sold her potions at an NPC vendor. They didn't sell for much but it was enough combined with the drops from mobs to buy 3 more daggers which she put in her cloak smiling to herself. "Now I'll be able to poison from a distance." PoH though to herself

She didn't bother restoring her HP and had no potions left to do so with either way. She was growing slowly more confident in her ability to use daggers though she was far from perfect. Walking quickly PoH approached the field noticing another person waving at all the player's he passed. PoH ignored him and began crouching, activating her sneak skill. She loaded a sword skill and lunged at a wolf taking a third of it's health off with a tasty crit. The wolf snarled at her, PoH smiled at it, showing her teeth. They both charged at one another at the same time as much as PoH was learning the AI of the wolves she was using it aswel, lunging into attacks was really useful and it made her faster. As her daggers connected with the side of the wolf she got bitten again. That was the one problem with lunging at your enemies, it makes it hard to dodge. The wolf had a little less than half HP left.

The wolf charged her and PoH dodged easily throwing a dagger as it passed, the dagger connected though it did very little damage. The wolf circled her for a second allowing her to throw another dagger the beast immediately charging, another graceful dodge and a dagger throw brought the wolf to a quarter HP. PoH lunged once more and finished the wolf off.

Walking to her 3 daggers she picked them up and put them back in her robe. Not wasting time PoH sneaked up on another wolf using poison this time the wolf's health went down steadily as she dodged and threw her 3 daggers at it until she was down to just one dagger which she used to deliver the final blow.

LEVEL UP!

PoH gathered her daggers and smiled wide going back to the herb patch "I definitely need more poison." She said as she sat in the patch and began grinding once more.

[fairfolk1]

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Lvl: 1
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Aearo watched as her health regened relatively quickly. Probably because I'm in a safe zone or something. She thought to herself, letting it peek before looking in the direction of where he was pointing, only seeing open road and a few NPCs. Well that's helpful. She thought to herself. There were plenty of alleyways, so pointing in a direction and saying to go to a certain alleyway wasn't very useful. She was about to thank him for no reason, but then he offered to show her the way. "Ah, yeah, that'd be appreciated." She offered her hand towards him. "You may call me Aearo. Shall we get going?" She started walking down the path after either a few moments of keeping her hand offered out or after he took it.

She looked back and forth from house to house, wondering if you could buy any of them, then turned back to her escort. He was a lot taller than her. He towered over her. He's probably in his twenties or something. She thought to herself. Being fourteen made you pretty short in VRs where you had a decently accurate image of yourself. "What are you trying to class into?" She asked, going back to her thoughts about his equipment. It still seemed relatively lacking to her. Is he just going to be a generic swordsman or something? She wondered, looking him up and down. "Oh yeah, and do you know if there are professions in this game? Y'know, blacksmith and all that?" She asked, not quite sure on all the professions she could go into. She guessed that there was some type of herbalism from the fact that she'd seen a lady picking grass and that there was probably alchemy since this game was potion reliant.

[Takarashi]

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

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She seemed like a friendly enough person. He reached out for Aearo and gripped her hand lightly. "I'm Keiyo. Yeah, let's move."

The young man walked at a casual pace beside his new acquaintance. He kept his focus on where they were going, but from the corner of his eye he could see her looking around a fair bit. She had to be new like him. That was reaffirmed as she asked more questions. "I hadn't thought about a class yet. I like using my sword and I like being quick. I don't know what that would technically fall under." He tossed a few words around in his head as he said that. He'd played his fair share of games, but the exact nature of every class changed with each one. "I guess you could just say I'm a Swordsman. It's my favorite weapon so it suits me, I think." Despite his somewhat intimidating exterior, Keiyo seemed to be a friendly and relaxed person. He cast Aearo a glance at her second question. "Ah, yeah, the guide book mentioned professions, or at least they had life skills that could relate to them. Smithing, sewing, fishing, potion making, those sorts of things. I find that I'm more interested in the combat than anything so far though."

He paused in front of the alleyway he had been talking about, and pointed toward it. "This is the one I was talking about. The NPCs here seem to deal in crafting supplies and whatever other loot the enemies just drop. Say, uh, do you wanna be friends? I think this is the longest conversation I've had since I started playing."

[Ashielle]

✖ Lᴠ. 4 ✖ туяαηт ηø׀ź ✖
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Taking a deep breath, Noiz grasped his sword and daunted towards a pack of 3 wolves. He weaved in and out of them, slashing at their necks and ankles. The inexperienced fighter's fancy foot work was his downfall, however, as he slipped and fell. Fear filled his eyes and he held his forearm out to defend against the wolves, then picked up the sword he had dropped. Noiz scrambled back to his feet and ran away a bit before charging back into battle. Putting all his weight into it, he thrust his sword into one of the wolves causing it to disintegrate and disappear. A couple slashes later and all the wolves were gone.

Noiz dropped to the ground, breathing heavily as he looked to his health. He cursed himself for taking so much damage when he thought he was ready to take on a group that big. Shuffling through his inventory, the boy took out a small healing potion and drank it, then looted the wolves.

10 health points restored!
1 wolf meat received!
1 wolf meat received!
1 wolf tooth received!

He put the loot in his bag and looked through the item descriptions, in case anything interested was there. Nope, he thought, just generic drops. It's better than nothing, though. It'll be nice once enemies start dropping things I can actually show off. Still sitting on the ground, in a patch of grass just out of sight of wolf aggro range, Noiz daydreamed about being high leveled and owning rare items. One day I'll be part of a big guild and I can relax and make use of my non combat abilities, because clearly, he laughed, I'm not suited for battle.

ⓔⓠⓤⓘⓟⓜⓔⓝⓣ
standard clothes
standard rapier
ⓛⓞⓒⓐⓣⓘⓞⓝ
floor 1

— ❝ᴅᴇᴄᴇᴘᴛɪᴏɴ ᴀɴᴅ ᴘᴇʀғᴇᴄᴛɪᴏɴ ᴀʀᴇ ᴡᴏɴᴅᴇʀғᴜʟ ᴛʀᴀɪᴛs❞
❞ᴏɴᴇ ᴡɪʟʟ ʙʀᴇᴇᴅ ʟᴏᴠᴇ, ᴛʜᴇ ᴏᴛʜᴇʀ, ʜᴀᴛᴇ❝ —

[-R e q u i e m Raynbow-]

✰ pιхel ✰ xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx т н e в e r ѕ e r ĸ
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τσ υηρατнє∂ ωατєяѕ, υ η ∂ я є α м є ∂ ѕнσяєѕ...
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Pixel's boring grind continued on for a few more minutes, managing to accumulate 10 more pieces of boar meat. She sighed yet again, an annoyed look on her face as she swiftly sheathed her sword into it's brace on her back; opting not to drag it across the ground for the time being. Thankful that her chosen hunting grounds weren't too far away from town, her mood improved in the short time it took her to get back through the gates. After all, how could she stay annoyed while having the opportunity to play such a wonderful game? Sure... it was mysterious as hell and she still had no clue why she had been sent the strange email invite to play; but whatever, she was here now. Clearing her head of the mystery as she looked around, she was mildly surprised at how much the server population had grown in the past few hours. New-comers were everywhere; she could tell simply by the fact that she was asked a dozen questions on her way to her destination.

Pixel entered the central plaza where the fountain was located and went into a small cooking supplies shop. Luckily she wasn't short on col; a handy side effect from all that meat grinding. 'Meat grinding... eww..' she silently snickered to herself. Making a quick purchase of a few beginner's spice packs, she exited the shop and made her way out to a random spot in the plaza, close to the fountain. She waved her hands in the air, pulling her cooking pot and spoon out of her inventory, along with a cutting board and a small knife. They fell to the ground with a thud, landing in a prearranged pattern. Pixel flopped down onto the ground beside them, cracking her knuckles and getting a determined gleam in her eye. "Okay... I've totally got it this time!"

Waving her hand across the top of the pot magically filled it with water, simultaneously lighting the small cooking fire below it. She wasted no time in getting to work; retrieving a slab of boar meat from her inventory and materializing it on her cutting board. She made quick work of it with her knife, sliding the chunks of meat into the now boiling broth. She added the beginner's spices soon after, making sure to follow the amounts needed carefully. People were walking around all around her, staring at the random girl cooking something in the middle of the plaza. Yet it was almost silent in her head, focusing on completing the stew and blocking out everything else for now. All she had to do was wait for the game indicator to show it was perfect time to add the pepper powder and the stew would have the highest percent chance to complete. That being said, this was the hardest part. The wait.

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...ιмαgιηατιση я є ν є α ℓ ѕ τяυτнѕ τнατ яєαℓιτу σвѕcυяєѕ

Level : 5 ┇ Location : Floor 1 ┇ HP : ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀x l 90%

[falcon_tenou]

The beginner city seemed busy tonight as he walked into town hands in pockets like usual. His feet lightly clacking on the ground because of his boots as he went. Glancing about slowly ,heading towards the main square where most new players trade goods or practice professions skills at. Most of the players seemed leery of him because of his ominous stature and presence. His black messy hair danced in the breeze as his coat flapped. His ryes moved from person to person until stopping on the young woman whom was in front of a caulden. He had actually seen anyone take a cooking profession yet so this intruiged him.he paused for a moment and watched what she was doing (( posting from phone sorry no pics and such))

[I_See_You_Monster]

PoH ██████████▀▀▀
_________________430 / 650 | LV: 3

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PoH spent a fair bit of time grinding potions making 20 hp 10 potions and 30 hp 30 potions along with 6 weak paralysis poisons.. She was entirely focused on making potions and it seemed as her skill went up she was able to make better potions, still not anything potent enough to write home about but still they were getting better and would fetch her a little bit more gold at the NPC shops.

Satisfied with her progress PoH got up and headed for town, she didn't much enjoy going to town as it meant no levels but now that her medicine skill had gotten higher she figured it was time to see what the town actually offered. It was hard to pull away from the thrill of fighting in such a realistic game. She didn't want to take any breaks at all but wolves wouldn't keep her leveling forever.

Finding some NPCs she talked to them, rather surprised by their AI and how real they seemed. A few offered quests that would give EXP for doing what she had already been doing. Grabbing a quest for killing 5 wolves PoH walked through town square her thoughts interrupted by the smell of food. PoH hadn't realized that hunger was a thing but after smelling whatever was cooking she became very much hungry.

Did this mean she had to log out and eat? Could you eat food in the game? Would it taste good? PoH grew excited the more she thought about it and she walked over by the girl who was cooking and watched from a distance her cloak still on with the hood up concealing her appearance from anyone who wasn't either sitting or somehow lower than she was. PoH reveled in the smell of such delicious food not willing to approach the girl she kept her distance and merely observed and enjoyed the smell.