Daertalmos Online » Places

         Level: 7EXP: 149 / 782

Thoughts Color #F660AB Dialogue Color #B93B8F

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With the battle won, required items obtained, and a decent amount of silver, Kissa headed back towards town. She carefully avoided the slimes on the way back, cursing under her breath as she passed the grotesque blobs. Upon seeing the brick road that lead into the city, she noticed the knight NPC smirking at her. "I see you got them!" He chuckled while pulling a small bag out, which activated a small window to appear in front of Kissa. She glared for a moment as she read over what she had received.

729 Exp.; 1x Novice Health Potion; 291 Copper; Novice Bracer [+ 1 VIT]

Hitting accept she sighed and started strolling towards the city. "Hey, wait! I have another favor to ask of you!" The helpless knight called, though to deaf ears.

Ignoring the poor knight, she continued to head into town. The bracelet she had received from the quest was nice, however it was far from what she was expecting. After all, he had said he would make it worth her while, and yet, all she got was a bracelet that boosted a stat by one single point. No, that simply wasn't enough and surly not what she had thought as 'making it worth her time'.


Thus, she headed towards the shops. Despite not having a single gold, she hoped to find at least one piece of decent equipment. Since arriving, she hadn't been into a single shop, so she wasn't sure how much things would cost. Judging by what the rewards from quests and in the field, she assumed there should be some cheap equipment.

The sun was starting to descend, making the gentle breeze nip lightly at Kissa's exposed skin. After glancing at the sky, she wondered how long she had been in the game. Was it universal when the sun went down or just in the town? The creators of this virtual world really had made it like the real one in many aspects, so it was safe to assume that it was universal.
Upon entering the third ring, she noticed there were a few people who had set up shops. This reminded her, she too should be working on her job skills a bit more. Finally, she escaped the nipping wind and tucked into the armour shop.

Slowly, Kissa opened the door to the Armour shop, peaking her head inside. The sight was astounding. In all the MMOs she had played, she had never seen a shop so meticulously organized and clean. Everything was sectioned by categories, and even sub categories.
"Oh good! A customer! Welcome to the Armour Shop. What can I help you with?" An excited and soft voice greeted her. Glancing over, Kissa noticed the small artisan standing behind the counter. She forced a smile and waved slightly before stepping further into the shop, closing the door behind herself. It was fascinating to be in such an organized shop, that Kissa almost forgot that the woman was a NPC. "You really have a nice shop. I like the organization of it." The NPC had no reply, but kept her smile and eyes on Kissa, as if waiting for her to speak.
"Right, down to business." Kissa sighed before stepping over to the medium armour.
She was surprised to only see two items in the window, despite there being several items on the wall and stands. Though, she guessed it only showed things based on a level range.

Both pieces of equipment were old leather, and decently priced. In addition, both had pretty good stat boosts. However, she decided to go with the last one, level 8 Old Leather Vest. The thought of wearing something so hideous made Kissa's ears fold down and her skin crawl a little. On the other hand, she tried to think of how helpful the armour would be in battle. If nothing else, maybe there was a hide feature, so that it didn't show that armour.
After letting her finger hover over the buy button, she finally clicked it, and selected to equip it now. Her tank disappeared in pixels, leaving the new vest equipped.- 357 Silver There was the sound of a light chime, like coins rattling against each other before the shop owner spoke. "Ah, I see you have chosen medium armour. Good choice. Anything else?"

Shrugging her shoulders, Kissa moved across the room to a desk with thread and books on it. A window appeared, letting her know it was the Artisan job skills. Since she hadn't leveled the job any, there wasn't much she could buy. Her eyes glanced at the bottom right side of the window that displayed how much money she had. Silently, she judged the pros and cons of spending money on job skills at the moment. It could help her make money, but that would probably be later on. On the other hand, saving up would help her in just a quest or two, to get a new weapon. Either seemed like an okay option, so she decided just to buy the beginners stuff to get it out of the way. Lv. 1. Thick Cotton Twine. - 15 Silver There was a single chime as she selected the first recipe, then another when she selected the second Lv. 1. Thin Cotton Cloth - 15 Silver

That left Kissa with 373 Silver. She selected the last recipe she could buy at that level, Lv. 1. Common Fur Hide - 15 Silver. There was one last signal that the money had been taken from her pouch before Kissa heard the sudden, rather deep, laugh from the NPC. "I see you got a lot of recipes. I hope you don't put me out of business."
For a second Kissa's face was blank as she turned and gazed at the still smiling NPC. Was that sarcasm from an NPC? Shaking her head, she waved one hand and headed out of the shop, with what little money she had left.

         

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╔╗

The First Day ~ The First Battle

|| Location ✦ Daertalmos Online - Bale Forest ||

xxxxx|| State of Mind ✧ Eager |||| State of Mind ✧ "Eager" ||xxxxx
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BGM: Let the Battles Begin!

"Take this!"

A rather loud squelching sound rang out immediately following this triumphant yell, and the speaker, one knight in blue, found herself staring confusedly down the now quite sticky haft of her glaive at the equally confused slime in which it had embedded itself rather harmlessly.

"Err... methinks you're supposed to be dead," She said nervously, giving a slight tug on the spear. The slime didn't budge, giving her a glare that suggested it was rather unamused by the sudden attack. "Look, the very least you can do is give me back my spear so we can do this properl- Wah?!" She got no further, for in another instant, several long tendrils of green goop began to sprout from the top of the amorphous creature. Not wanting to be close to it now that it seemed to be attacking, Aoife gave a violent tug on her weapon, trying to wrench it free and hastily backpedal beyond the clumsy creature's reach. Fortunately, the decreased mass holding down her glaive meant that this was surprisingly easy. Unfortunately, since she'd overestimated how much force to apply to recover her polearm, the end result was her staggering rather comically backward and falling flat on her rear, bonking herself over the head with the flat side of her own weapon's blade. She winced, rubbing her forehead and blinking several times, wondering what exactly had just happened, only to be jarred from her confusion by a sudden, surprisingly forceful impact square to her chest, knocking her fully onto her back and sending her rolling head over heels.

Stumbling to her feet, she glanced up at her health bar, breathing a sigh of relief as she saw that it hadn't depleted from the hit. Turning her gaze downward to her armor, she found her relief turning to unimaginable frustration when she realized that her once-pristine breastplate, which had taken the E Rank attack without difficulty, was now covered in sickly green ooze.

"Why you cheeky-!" She cried angrily, only to be once again interrupted by her formless opponent. Three more tendrils of slime swept downward like whips, one right after the other. But, this time, she assured herself, she was ready. Taking a step back with her right foot, she planted herself firmly, lowering her spear with her dominant left hand forward. Gauging the distance between her and her enemy, she waited until the moment the tendrils were within reach before twisting her right hand and lunging forward with her left, flicking the razor-sharp edge of the glaive upward to intercept the oncoming attack. It was a simple movement, but effective, carving clean through the first tendril and chipping away another quarter or so of the slime's hitpoints. Then, she reversed the gesture, bringing her blade back down like a guillotine, splattering the second tendril in the same precise motion. So long as she stuck to the basics, it seemed, she could fight easily.

It was around this time she realized that she probably should have just dodged, given that in the time it had taken her to deflect the first two tentacles, the third had managed to reach her, snaking its way around the haft of her weapon, and then around her hands as she raised them instinctively to block. With strength that was astonishing for the functional equivalent of a pile of animate jello, the slime drew back its arm, lifting her clear off the ground and into the air above it. Aoife held on tight to her glaive, not wanting to be disarmed, yet swiftly regretted this blind determination when she found herself being swung violently downward on the opposite side of the slime like some sort of human flail, slamming her head first into the ground. She groaned, the impact sending shocks through her whole body as she rolled over onto her back, shakily standing yet again, looking incredulously at the comparatively tiny blob that had just picked her up and thrown her with all the ease of swinging a stick. The slime drew back its remaining tentacle and reformed, beginning to lurch slowly towards her. Aoife gaped.

"Did... Did that tiny slime just suplex me?" She wondered aloud. It was hard to tell, given her adversary's lack of arms, yet she couldn't help but feel incredibly foolish for allowing herself to be so easily downed a second time. The humiliating manner of her injury was merely the final straw. Lowering herself into a crouch like an animal ready to pounce, she glared daggers at the hateful blob as it began slowly forming its matter into several long tendrils to continue its attack. However, regardless of its intent, it had less than a quarter of its hitpoints left now. She could finish it in one hit. Bounding forward, she closed the distance in an instant, ducking beneath an upraised tendril and snapped her left arm forward, driving the head of her spear clean through her enemy, splattering it as though it'd been struck by a cannonball. As the little bits of ooze that remained of her enemy began to dissolve into nothingness, Aoife found herself breathing a sigh of relief. She'd have hated to have to wash the sticky residue off her hands and armor manually.

...So of course, out of all the bits of slime that had been left over, those were the only ones that didn't vanish. Aoife stared down at her hands, giving an unusually transparent expression of disgust at the irritating glue-like substance that covered them, as though trying to melt this residue with the sheer force of her frustration.

Throughout the entirety of his life, Licht had never been one to enjoy pointless battles that did not fit a story or plot. He could appreciate unwinnable battles, though. Yet, this one served little purpose in his opinion. A level 15 player against a level 1 slime was not a battle at all, nor did he feel as though it ever was one even when he was a lower level (though to be fair, he had practice even before the beta). It was... well, quite boring to be honest. On Licht's end of the fight he was 'enjoying' himself with a pair of slimes, whom he had honestly paid very little attention to from the beginning. His superior stats meant that their attacks almost seemed to slow to a stop, and a person who was moving as fast as he was comparitively a god. Yes, how great he was. Such godspeed should make someone like Aoife envious, for sur---

*SLAP*

"Ow, rude!"

It was then that Licht realized he catered towards a heavy defense, not agility. In fact, he was about as agile as an elephant compared to people in similar level. So of course when he tried to dodge the slime-whips, it did not really go as planned. He felt a sharp pain on his cheek, where it had hit him, and if anything he was a bit irritated that this little monsters had the audacity to strike at him when it was simply a blob of nothing. So, with about as much effort as he put into anything that didn't involve video games, he stabbed a slime and it more or less detonated like a stick of TNT.

Well that was still rather anticlimactic. I guess we can go see what Aoife is doi----

*SLAP*

"Okay man, what is with these slimes? Don't they into fear?" Despite him being nigh impossible to murder unless he simply sat there for a bit, these slimes didn't necessarily feel the need to hold back with their slaps, and it was not nice at all, Licht thought.

*SLAP*

This time, it was Licht who slapped the slime with his sword. Well, it was actually a swing, but it had about as much effort put into it as a slap would. The slime, just like its brethren, mimicked a hand grenade upon being struck, minus completely obliterating Licht himself. Perhaps frustrated at how much pain his cheek had endured in a battle with the weakest monster in the game, Licht decided it would probably fun to see how Aoife was doing, and if she could even hold her own in a battle.

............
.......
...
.

The answer to the last question was a pretty solid 'not really'. Even though he was getting slapped, if he were actually serious about fighting these slimes, they wouldn't amount to much of a fight at all. They didn't really provide the greatest challenge even in the beta, although to her credit they were apparently buffed in the final game. He didn't remember them being so skilled with their tentacle things. And, although he had seen more than enough hentai to know where this battle could have gone, he at least smiled at the fact that, despite seeing her fall on her ass twice in a battle with just one of these things, she somehow managed to slay it. Truly, this battle had inspired him to tease her to lengths he never thought possible, as she made it seem like it had been some impossibly hard boss fight, or her first time playing a Dark Souls game.

"You got one!" he couldn't help but put emphasis on the 'one' to let her know just how entertaining that was. That she beat but a single slime, and it was impossible for her to not know how silly it was. "That's like, your first kill, right? Congrats! I mean it'll certainly get tougher from here on out, but with that kind of skill you can probably maybe beat a goblin or kobold or whatever they had in this game!"

Aoife turned, noticing that although she'd only taken out one enemy, her quest had progressed by three. That must have meant that the hat-loving man had taken on two more slimes elsewhere. Truly, an impressive feat to face them and come out of it clean, aside for a small fleck of ooze on his cheek. She envied him that, compared to her own predicament.

Still, he seemed rather content with how things had turned out, hailing her victory with some very enthusiastic words. Aoife seemed to contemplate what he had said for a moment, shouldering her spear as she nodded to hersefl, evidently coming to a conclusion on how to respond.

...Yet again, she gave a formal bow, lowering her head respectfully. "Your words are wise. Although the road ahead may be difficult, the fact that one such as myself could defeat one enemy means that I may well be able to defeat another. I will keep this in mind," She said with the utmost seriousness, like a disciple learning from the words of an experienced master. "Thank you, both for your kind words, and for the assistance you have so generously provided in accompanying me."

There was not a proper word for the expression Licht made, hearing Aoife's sincere gratitude towards his blatant sarcasm. But if one had to try to describe it, it could be said to be the mixture of disgust and realization that she was probably not screwing with him. "...Well, no problem....? Keep it.... up?" he was not too sure how to reply since she was immune to his, well, character. It was as if she denied his very existence, and since nobody had ever done that before, he had no real way to cope.

Licht sighed. Somehow he would have to carry on, despite her obliviousness. "That should be three down out of ten, correct?" he QUESTioned. He did not think it the quest tracker was lying to him, and he doubted that Aoife had managed to secretly beat another slime while he was 'fighting' his own.

"Well? Venture forth, young one. It would be best if you learned how to fight for yourself. I am simply backup." Except, of course, for those other slimes that had aggro'd on him. Screw them.

"Indeed," Aoife said, nodding. "It was wrong of me to allow myself to be overcome by frustration," Declared the young Paladin heroically, turning her eyes to the horizon - although whether she was trying to look dramatic or was just searching for more slimes to fight, who could have said for sure? "This is a battle I must fight by myself," She said, nodding to herself, before turning back to her doubtless rather befuddled companion. "After all, if I cannot best foes such as these, there's no telling how poorly I'd fare in a truly... sticky... situation."

Learning from his past interactions with the girl, Licht opted out of asking whether or not the pun was intentional. It was safer this way. "Improving yourself in both mind and spirit through engaging and defeating foes is the fastest way to strengthen yourself, and to take your own power to the next level." he stated. He hadn't expected her to pick up the fact he made a reference to leveling up in there, but he couldn't not do it, that would be completely against his own personal character.

"Indeed!" She declared with the utmost seriousness, giving an emphatic nod before abruptly rouding on the woods, leveling her glaive and pointing dramatically down the path that lay ahead. "And I shall have many such foes to confront, for an enemy of justice is an enemy of myself. Let us go, Sancho Licht! At least seven more of our slippery adversaries must fall before our work here is done."

"Yes... let us resume our quest with haste, you eager paladin, you." Licht seemed to have earned himself a new nickname, and one he probably did not care very much for. However, since he was occasionally calling her Pally in his head, he figured she deserved that much. Pally the Paladin could be allowed to give him a single nickname. "Also you'd better not take forever. Girls fighting slimes with tentacles is not a healthy thing for a young man to watch for extended periods of time."

At least he was nice enough to warn her.

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Aoife slumped back against the trunk of a sturdy tree, stopping to catch her breath as the last slime vanished into light. Her HP bar hadn't dropped by much, as she'd managed to angle most of the attacks she couldn't dodge into the armored areas of her person, but the impacts alone were enough to leave her joints sore, without even bringing into question the irritation of the sticky rainbow-colored ooze dribbling slowly down her torso. At this point, she looked like she'd been assaulted by the entire paint department of a hardware store.

Having taken Licht's advice to heart, she had managed to dispatch most of her foes with haste. That didn't mean she'd done it in a terribly efficient manner. In her hurry, she'd left several openings, and had, consequently, taken more than a bit of a beating. Her arms were still aching from a particular slime that had caught hold of both her glaive and her hands and tried to crush them inside its body. She sighed. I suppose it could have been worse, she thought. At least none of the slime got inside my clothing. That would have been more than just embarrassing.

Opening her inventory, Aoife glanced at what gear she had equipped. As she thought, the slime wasn't listed as a permanent status effect on her armor. In that case, it was probably just applied as a terrain effect to her gear that would be removed when she either left the area or unequipped her items. In that case, now that she was done fighting, it seemed like a reasonable enough idea to get rid of the noisome slime. There was just one problem.

Aoife glanced back up to the man in the Elf costume as he came strolling into the clearing. She raised a single hand, gesturing for him to stop. "Turn around and don't look this way," She ordered out of the blue.

Licht had offered minimal help during the rest of the quest, having decided it best if the woman learned how to fight herself. Of course, if she seemed incapable of surviving an encounter, he was ready to step in, but that had proved to be unnecessary. So most of his time was spent watching. Watching and waiting for her to finish up the encounters. He had to admit she did dispatch the slimes in a quicker manner than before, although her victories were always sloppy. That much was to expected from a noob, however.

He was relieved when they were finished. Now they (he) did not have to sit around, watching a hentai in the making. Although he was probably the one most eager to escape the area, he took a brief moment to look back upon the place and admire just how beautiful it really was. People put a great deal of time and effort into this place, and he was feeling sentimental. For about three seconds, then he decided to hurry up and follow his little companion. Strangely, however, he found himself being spontaneously ordered to face the opposite way as he approached the slime-covered girl. Weird. Why would he do that? Had she decided that it would be fun to play hide-and-seek? Perhaps there was a foe behind him? Or maybe....

No, it couldn't be.

He had a very strange thought pass through his mind. He thought that for some weird reason maybe the girl wanted to do something odd like take off her equipment. But he knew that was silly. He was probably just having an overactive imagination or something, because there is absolutely no viable reason for a person to just take off their stuff like that --- it was crazy.

And then he remembered where they were, what kind of situation they had found themselves in.

"O-okay... ?" he did not try to argue with the girl. Instead, he did as she instructed and once again faced the area they had just been. What was it about these trees that inspired such awe from the elf-clad human? Was it the way they gently swayed in the breeze? Was it their brilliant green? Perhaps, maybe, he was a tree in a prior life? If one believed such a theory, that is. Licht wasn't sure, but then again, he never was. He just kinda did things whenever without being sure of them and that was his core nature. These trees that lived, day in and day out, could also be said to be unsure. They were a computer program. Numbers. They existed not yet they did anyway.

What am I even pondering?

Aoife, for her part, watched the Swordsman carefully, waiting for him to either turn around or refuse to do so, for whatever reason. Fortunately, he didn't seem to question her orders, and did as he was told, facing away from her and staring off into space, completely motionless. Clad head to toe in all green, barely moving save for the wind rustling his clothing, he almost looked like some sort of tree.

But, that was a stupid thing to compare a person to, and Aoife didn't really care what he was doing so long as he wasn't looking her way, so, satisfied that he wasn't staring at her, swiftly dragged and dropped all her equipment from her gear slots back into her inventory, then hit apply. Her armor vanished in a flash of light, dissipating into pixels with an audible whine. She stretched, glad to be relieved of the weight of the platemail on her already sore body and arms. Still, relaxing though it might have been, she wasn't particularly keen on the idea of standing around in the middle of the forest in her simulated underwear. After all, even if this wasn't her actual body, it felt real enough to her. So, going back to her inventory, she set about re-equipping each piece of her gear in turn.

As one might deduce from his inner monologue, Licht had begun questioning his own being and what it meant to be himself. Was he a tree? No. Was he ever a tree? No. He was a person. A person with a very active mind and he also happened to have a very short attention span. Patience wasn't something he was great with, so like glass, his concentration shattered.

"Is there a reason I---"

Licht couldn't complete his sentence when his eyes were graced with the sight of digital skin. He couldn't help but notice that, aside from her boots, the girl was as bare as an avatar could get. Truly, the thing he feared most was revealed to have been true: the girl was crazy.

Not that he minded much.

"....nice boots?"

Aoife raised an eyebrow, glancing up at the sound of the hat-loving man's voice. She stared blankly at him. He gazed distractedly back. Aoife sighed and equipped her dress, relieved that, at least, it wasn't soaked in dead bits of slime anymore. Her cuirass followed shortly after as, with a single deft motion, she shut the player menu and turned back to the dumbstruck Swordsman. "It is very impolite to stare," She said pointedly, sounding less embarrassed and more... disappointed. Her expression hardly changed either, presenting an oddly understated reaction to what most women would have considered a grave offense. It might have even seemed like she didn't even mind, were it not for the faintest tinge of red entering her cheeks despite her best attempts to maintain her perpetual poker face. But, mastering herself, she did not make any comment other than this. Turning away without another word, she followed her quest marker towards the edge of the clearing, heading for the guard camp in the woods to turn in her quest. Unlike before, this time, she didn't wait to make sure Licht was following her.

As much as any other man would like to pretend he was 'used' to seeing the female form, Licht did not do so. That is not to say he was like your stereotypical shounen manga protagonist who bumbled around and became the incarnation of a beet just by seeing a girl's hand, but he could admit that although she was an avatar, he did think she was a fairly good-looking one at that. However, he showed as much reaction from Aoife's form as she did. He probably had a small tint of red to his cheeks, but what really showed was that he was more confused by her actions, being unaware of her reasons for doing what she had done. So he voiced such.

"Yeah, well, it's rude to strip randomly too." he replied to her as he followed behind, though she apparently didn't feel like saying much more on the matter. Oh well, so be it. If she wanted to strip at random intervals during this adventure of theirs, then he would not stop her.

He just wished she had been wearing the costume that won the competition.

         

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Level: 4EXP: 157/272 Thoughts Color #F660AB Dialogue Color #B93B8F

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Kissa stood in front of the Knight NPC huffing. It was hard to believe that after only 9 slimes she was worn out and ready to go to an inn. However, she had only reached level 4 and, as she gazed at the NPC, was sure she wouldn’t get enough exp to level up. This is exhausting. I can’t believe how much of that I felt. On top of that, I can’t believe they made a game where your equipment hurts! The boots weren’t tight, however they were irritating her feet. She was sure if she wore them in reality, her feet would have blisters. She sighed, pushing the pain to the side for moment. Though she was still recovering, it was time to turn in her quest.

“Oh it’s you! How did you fair against those slimes? Were you able to collect the stolen supplies?”

A small message type box opened, revealing Kissa’s puny inventory bags. The supplies she had collected for the knight had taken up the rest of her bag space, not that there was anything else she could have filled it with.

“Yeah, I got ’em.” She growled, clicking each box of supplies, until she had given him all of them.

“Oh thank you! You really saved my neck. It’s not much, but here is something for my appreciation.”
Another small window appeared, displaying the rewards for her trouble.

-Quest Complete-

139 EXP gained2 Silver

Her eyes lowered to examine it. Was this some kind of joke? Killing the slimes gave more exp than the stupid quest! She didn’t even get an item? 2 Silver? That was pathetic. Her fist clenched as the window faded and she heard the small chime, indicating she had leveled up. Taking a deep calming breath, she decided to ignore the ’reward’. Maybe later in the game, it would be better. This was only the first quest after all. Glancing to the knight, who looked apprehensive about asking for another favor, she decided to move on to the next quest. After all, it was still too early to head back to town.

“What is it knight?” She sighed, prompting him to give her the next ridiculous mission.

“Well, I hate to trouble you again-” Kissa scoffed and forced her best friendly smile, despite envisioning herself punching the lame knight. “I was hoping you could kill 4 Boreorcs for me. I am supposed to do it myself, but I can’t leave my post and since the attack. The Captain is keeping all the good weapons for front line soldiers, so I am not even equipped for such a mission!. I will make it worth your while, this time. I found a nice rune the other day, and I’ll give it to you. Oh please, wont you help me? My captain is threatening to demote me again!”

Kissa bit back bitter words as she considered what type of rune she might be given. Even if it was low level, nearly anything would be of help at this point. Rolling her eyes, she nodded, accepting the quest and disregarding her better judgement.

“Oh wonderful! Just bring back the spear of each one you kill. That will also help us with weapons!” The knight cheered as she walked away, back towards the inner field. Before she got too close to the area where the Boreorcs were, she opened her inventory and character windows. As a starter package, she had received four Novice’s Health and Mana potions and one starter Agility Rune for armour. While battling the slimes, she had used all the potions she gained from battle, plus one of the Novice Health potions. That left her with only 3 Novice Health Potions in her inventory. Maybe trying to tank the Boreorcs, like she had done the slimes, wasn’t the best idea, since her character class was far from being a tank. She decided to equip the rune to her tattered boots. Though she doubted it would make them more comfortable, it would at least do something for her stats. She then assessed her stats. Moments ago her ribs, legs, and hands still hurt from the battle with the slimes.

But now, her health had been completely restored during the amount of time that had passed, since there wasn’t much to restore in the first place. She had been chugging every potion a slime dropped, as soon as she could. Now, the pain was subtle and felt like bruises that had almost completely healed. Of coarse, other than her feet. Turns out, armour was pretty damn uncomfortable when it was ripped and tattered like hers. With that in mind, she hoped to collect enough money to buy some at least decent gear. Pushing the strands of pink hair off her shoulders, she got ready to rush one of the Boreorcs. Just as she took a step,her attention was shifted at the sight of a player soaring across the field after an attack. The Boreorc swiftly followed, though missed his mark and hit the tree next to where the player had fallen.For a moment, she was stunned and perplexed. In normal MMOs it was rude to attack someone else’s monster, however he might be in need. She hastily glanced at his health. 66/132 HP Just as she managed to catch a glimpse of it, another Boreorc gave a battle cry in the distance. This wasn’t good. Even if she could kill the one he had damaged, if there was a horde, there was no way they could win without some teamwork. Then again, there was no time to invite him to a party. The Boreorc who had been attacking him was getting close to finding him again. Briskly, Kissa rushed the injured monster to at least distract it. “I’ll distract him, you heal yourself!” With that, she launched her assault on the monster. Jumping into the air for momentum and extra force, she slammed her fist into the back of the Boreorc’s skull as she came back down with all her might. It wouldn’t kill it, but attacking from behind would give her an advantage for a moment, due to how slow the creature turned.

Veran stood there for a moment, contemplating how much dying was going to hurt, but then something unexpected happened. Another player had jumped in, and gave a pretty hefty punch onto the new Boreorc's head. With that, and he encouragement, he took out one of his novice health potions and chugged it as fast as he could. A few moments after downing the entire contents of one, which tasted fairly sweet, almost like a mixture of honey and milk, and he felt himself mending. He felt his bones start to knit back together, and the hole in his side was starting to close up, the glowing red hole slowly growing smaller and smaller, until it was gone. His health read 132/132. He smiled and shouted towards the new player.

"Thanks!"

Before promptly drawing his bow again and rolling out of the way of the Boreorc that had hit him, letting his slam against the tree again, leaving it stunned, and firing another two shots at it, killing it, his shots penetrating the heart and forehead once again.

Well, thats my quest done. I don't think it be good if I left this girl alone though.

He turned to look at what she was doing.

The Boreorc turned and caught sight of its attacker, but she jumped back. Swiftly, she glanced over to see the player downing a potion. Good. Now that he is healed, I don't have to worry about him. Her attention was shifted back to the Boreorc. If he charged, she would be able to side-step him. There were plenty of solid trees for the monster to run into, and it looked like they weren't the most graceful of monsters.

With her knees bent, she watched as the Boreorc got ready to rush her, just as she planned. It was time to see what she could do. The monster charged with its spear ready to impale the small Caith. As soon as the monster was within attacking distance, she launched her fist into the side of it's head, knocking it off balance and causing it to fall to the ground. Her confidence was growing and she felt unstoppable, until she tried to draw a breath. The gash in her side was deeper than she had realized. The sensation of pain radiated all the way down her left side and nearly made her knees buckle. When she had been attacked by the slimes, it hurt, but this pain was on a whole new level.

The realization that she had not been breathing hit, and she gasped in an agonizing scream. Her hands clutched the gaping wound just above her hip. Panic seeped into her thoughts. Her eyes locked onto the hefty Boreorc who rolled in the grass trying to get up. It would take him another moment to get up, hopefully. Her hands shook as she tried to bring up her inventory. After a few tries, she managed to open it before snatching a potion. Her health bar wasn't too far down, but it felt as if the Boreorc had landed a critical hit. Her movement was paused by the decision she could not make. The Boreorc was getting closer to getting to his feet, or at least, he was no longer rolling from side to side. Kissa took steady deep breaths before she made a decision. Rushing, she stepped beside the Boreorc's head and kicked it as hard as she could with her right foot. It was surprising to see it had done damage, nearly half of what her fist normally did. A vicious smile spread across her face as she began kicking the creature several times. His HP was getting low, but rolled away from her and finally got to its feet. Kissa brought her fist up, disregarded the throbbing pain in her side, and prepared to attack the Boreorc ones more. One hit should do it...Maybe two. She told herself as she bent her knees and prepared to dodge an attack.

During this entire procession, Veran was keeping track of all that was happening, trying to find an opprotuinty to help in as well as recovering his SP by regenerating it. The moment when the Boreorc backed off again after taking quite the beating from the dimunitive Caith Duine was the point where Veran launched an arrow, which lodged itself in the front of its throat, burrying into the fleshy neck, severing its spinal cord, dealing critical damage and killing it instantly. It fell forward, dropping its spear and flopping face first onto the ground before shattering into crystals and dispersing. Veran slung his bow back over his shoulder and jogged over.

"Thank you, Kissa." The name of the avatar popped up as Veran got closer."I'm not sure if I could have dealt with both of the Boreorcs if I was still injured."

When the arrow soared passed Kissa, she jerked her head in the direction it had come from. She had not expected the player to stay, and had forgotten about him after he had taken a potion. However, she was now greatful to him as well. With the Boreorc defeated and pixalized, she pulled out the potion she had held before. In a small way, she still did not want to take it. She didn't have too many left, and felt that if she were to venture into town, she might not come back until the next day. Despite this, she knew she wouldn't be able to stand the pain much longer, even if it did slowly heal over time. Her neko ears folded as she took a large swig from the small bottle. The crimson liquid wasn't bad, but not good either. It had a flavor she couldn't place. With the numbing effects of the potion kicking in, she decided to reply to the player, who had obviously looked at her player-card. "Thank you as well. I guess I bit off a little more than I can chew." She paused for a moment, resisting the urge to introduce herself. It seemed a bit pointless, since he already knew her name. Then again, it wasn't a greeting through which he obtained the information. 'Yes, I am Kissa of the Fel Forest. It is a pleasure to meet you-" Her head tilted to the side as she waited for him to introduce himself. Even if she could look at his player-card, she felt it was simply polite, given the current circumstances.

Veran raised an eyebrow at her inclination, but he played along.

"Veran. It is a pleasure to meet you two, Kissa of the Fel Forest."

Veran thought for a moment.

"What brings you out here into these parts of the woods?"

She smiled softly, bowing her head when he finally introduced himself. At his question, she scoffed, pointing her thumb behind them, towards the city. "Damn Lame Knight can't do his job. He said if I collect 5 spears from these Boreorcs, he will give me a really nice rune." She shrugged her shoulders before looking down."Though, I didn't know they would be this difficult." In a way, she envied the hunter, simply for his class choice. Had she known she would be stuck in the game, she would have gone with a class she was familiar with and comfortable in using. Knuckler was a fluke choice that was chosen simply because she had never played a fighter before.
A thought crossed her mind as she gazed down at the soft grass. Her eyes lit up as she smiled at him, a broad coy smile. "Heyyy, you are a hunter. Maybe you could help me out? I don't have anything to give you, but I'll owe you one. I'll even befriend you, so you can call on me when you need. Come on, what'd ya say?"

Veran pondered her request. He thought about the merits of helping the player that helped him out. An eye for an eye, though, in a more positive way.

"Sure. Why not. He said as he shrugged his shoulders.

"Great! Thanks!" She cheered, literally jumping with joy. Opening the menu attached to his player-card, she sent a friend request. "I only need to collect 5 spears, so it shouldn't be too hard for the both of us. I am a close up fighter, and you are ranged. We will be a great team!" She stated, though it was more to herself than him. She was sure he knew about the different classes, at least a little. He looked to be skilled, even though his level wasn't high. It made her regret her decision a bit more, but she forced it to the back of her mind. There was no changing it now, and no point dwelling on it.

Veran nodded, and opened his menu and accepted her friend request, and sent her a party request.

"Might as well right? At least we both get some experience and copper from the Boreorcs when we kill one."

Then the Drop screen finally appeared in front of him.

819 Exp
374 Copper
Novice Health Potion

A soft glow encompassed Veran's body as he leveled up two more times. He looked at the numbers on his experience bar and saw they read 166/782.

Damn that scales pretty hard. he thought as he assigned his six stat points.

VIT 11 -> 12
ENG 10 -> 11
AGI 13 -> 14
END 11 -> 13
DEX 15 -> 16

The Vitality upgrade brought his health to 180, his Energy upgrade his SP to 120 and his Endurance allowing him to equip D- Rank armors.

Kissa accepted the party invite while bouncing on her toes. Her feet were still aching, but the excitement of parting up again flooded her. She watched Veran for signs that he was ready and noticed him adjusting something in his character menus. Tiptoeing over, she glanced at he window in front of him. It was stats. She had forgotten all about the stats, since most of the other games she played did them automatically."Oh jeez! I forgot all about that!" Her cheeks flushed a light pink in embarrassment. Quickly, she opened her own character menu and gazed at the numbers and stats. She had 9 points to distribute, and only one idea of where some should go. Hmmm, I know I need to add to agility. Maybe work on vitality and strength too? It would be nice to pack a harder punch to these things. With her mind made up, she distributed the points evenly between the three choices. When she selected apply, she noticed her HP bar had increased to 130 HP. It wasn't much, but ever little bit would count in the battlefield. Her physical attack had gone up to 48, which was a little disappointing. However, she was sure that a better weapon would help with that.

Closing the menus she gave a sheepish smile, almost apologizing for taking the extra time to work on something she knew she should have done before now.

Veran nodded, before starting off into the forest, with Kissa following behind him.

Ten minutes later

It was then, that she noticed a noise in the bushes, her ears twitching towards where the sound had come from. Turning on her toes, she faced the direction with her fist up, ready for attack. Her eyes focuses, but could not see as far as her ears could hear.

Veran slowed to a stop, his senses on high alert. He heard the trampling of bushes, and the snorting of Boars. Preferring not to take the chance of it only being normal Boars, he climbed up a tree quite deftly, having experience in doing so before. It also helped that the tree had quite a few strong branches for Veran to hold on to and they were all relatively close together. Veran finally got high enough to see what was ahead.

The thought of jumping in a tree was tempting as she watched Veran scale the tree. It was rather impressive and amusing to watch the human scurrying up the tree like a squirrel. She choked back she laughter threatening to break into the silence.

In the tiny clearing below him, there were four Boreorcs, and quite a hefty number for them to take on, especially with only the two of them and the small space for them to fight in. He was sure he could take out at least one of them in a single volley though, so that would even the odds out. He clambered down the tree again, dropping to the ground next to Kissa.

"There's four Boreorcs in the clearing ahead, but I'm pretty sure I can snipe one before the others realise what's happening. Afterwards, I won't be able to get another volley in too solidly until only one of them is on me. It takes too long for me to draw my bow, and the clearing's small size doesn't help with the distances the Boreorcs need to travel to hit us. I'm relying on you to keep them off of me so I can pick them apart. That okay with you?

Kissa noticed Veran descending the tree before she watched him land with a thud next to her. She listened tentatively to the report before pondering on the question. Not too long ago she had told herself tanking wasn't a good strategy to use, however in order to complete this quest, it seemed she would need to basically do that. With there being no other options she could think of, she decided to show off her false bravo."Hell yeah, I got this." She gave a playful wink and bounced on her toes. In the back of her mind, she hoped the agility boosts would help. If she attacked one hard enough in the head, it might give her enough time to attack another that might be near Veran. The only problem with this plan, was she wasn't sure how the Boreorcs would attack. Would they focus on the closest target, or go for whoever attacked it. Probably the second. In that case, all she had to do was run around attacking them right? This strategy gave her a little hope of actually winning. She knew she was fast, and the knuckles she had did decent enough damage. While she was running around, she would weaken them, and Veran would be able to make the finishing shot, as she took on a different one. This is going to work!

Nodding once again, Veran climbed up the same tree and this time pulled his bow out. In his hand he held three arrows, to fire one after another. He took aim for a few moments before letting loose his arrows in a rapid volley. Since he was aiming for center mass, they all hit their mark. The Boreorc dropped to the ground, dying and shattered into crystals as the other three Boreorcs charged at his tree, hoping to knock him off.

"Go Kissa!" he shouted before throwing himself off the tree branch towards the ground, over their heads and rolling as he hit the ground, but still sustaining ten points of damage.

Once Veran was up the tree once again, Kissa concentrated on any noise from his bow. As the first arrow was fired, her eyes moved to where she thought the Boreorcs would charge from. It didn't take long to lock onto their positions, for they were extremely loud as they traveled. I just have to keep them off him for a little bit. She mentally reminded herself as she moved closer to where the Boreorcs were coming from. Within seconds, she was face to face with three of the ugly beasts. A smirk spread across her face as she realized her plan was idiotic, but just might work.
Deliriously, she charged the Boreorc in the lead. When close enough to reach, but not get injured, she slapped the monster's spear. With the small opening, she slammed her fist into the middle of his face. One hit. Moving her focus to the one on the right, she barely dodged a jab by twisting to the right. As quickly as she could, she stepped in and punched it, in the side of the head. Two down. Jumping back away from the now infuriated monsters, she realized she hadn't landed a hit on the last one, and it was headed towards Veran.
Immediately, she ran after it, hoping to catch it in time.

As the last Boreorc charged at him, Veran shot an arrow at it, but missed as it a small deviation in the charge allowed it to sidestep the arrow, before Veran rolled out of the way and took out an arrow and stabbed it into the back of the dazed Boreorc's knee as it was stunned by slamming right square into the tree behind it. A quick three shot volley into its back finished it off as it slumped to the ground and shattered. Veran turned, to assist with Kissa's pursuers. He nocked another arrow and took aim. He just needed to wait for the right opening.

Kissa was grateful that Veran was agile and attacked the Boreorc she missed. When the monster burst into crystals, she turned her attention to the other two, who were close to attacking. Taking a deep breath, she decided to run for it, just enough to get them away from Veran and give him a shot. She swiftly jumped to the side and took off a few paces. The monsters followed, just as she planned. She launched a counter attack at the first one, however was still hit on her arm with the spear. Praying it wouldn't affect her attack, she started punching the one in reach. She landed three blows before she was hit again, knocking her HP down to 84. She winced at the seering pain, but landed two more blows. The monster froze and burst into pixels, leaving only one left.

Seeing his teammate get hit, he couldn't help but feel sorry for Kissa, for he knew that it must have hurt. Still, that didn't stop him from perforating the remaining Boreorc with a precise volley of arrows, killing it with three stuck in its back, in a small circle, a few inches in diameter. The beast promptly slumped over before shattering into a multi-color mix of pixels. With all of the Boreorcs dead, Veran slung his bow over shoulder and turned to Kissa.

1244 EXP ; 212 Copper ; 1x Novice Health Potion for Veran. 1203 EXP; 184 Copper ; 2x Novice Health Potions for Kissa

"How many more do you need?"

With the last Boreorc gone, Kissa sighed and knelt down. If she could bleed, her arm would have been covered in blood. Instead there was a small puncture wound in her upper arm. Despite the pain, she gave a weak smile to Veran. "Thanks. You know, I think I might get used to little scraps like this soon." She chuckled softly before tilting her head back. For the first time in a while, she appreciated the cool breeze and the shade of the trees. If there hadn't been so many monsters who wanted to impale her, she thought it would be a nice place for a nap. His question pulled her out of her relaxing wishes. She realized she had not gotten the spears. "Shit!"
Jumping to her feet, she rushed to where the two Boreorcs had been. There on the ground were two spears. As soon as her hand touched them, they burst into pixels and were added to her inventory. She then backtracked to the other bodies and got the others, including the two from the previous battle. With three of the spears, a small pop-up window appeared asking if she wanted to collect the Thick Fur Hide from each Boreorc, in which she clicked 'Collect'.
When she had all five spears in her inventory plus some crafting material, she gave Veran and thumbs up. "That's all of them." She huffed from all the running. "Thanks for all your help. I don't think I would have been able to make it on my own with the way they all attack at once."

"Not a problem." Veran said with a small smile, hidden behind his bandanna. He waved away the drop screen that appeared in front of him, deciding to assign his stat points later. "So I guess we'll start heading back now?"

Slowly but surely, the wound on her arm was starting to heal. She nodded, turning on her heel. Though she was weary of hunters, she was glad she found one. Turns out archers are amazing back up.

Veran nodded, mostly to himself and followed behind her, though he was still a bit guarded. He didn't want to be caught by any monsters unawares.

         

---

Danriel walks into the blacksmith's shop and the bell rings alerting Fergus to his presence.

"Hello, what can I get for you today."

"I was planning on coming shopping today. Could I get the [Fire Tome] for 386 Silver?"

"Aye, you can."

Fergus goes and wanders through the shop with purpose when he finds the stacks of spell books. He looks through it and finds a [Fire Tome] very quickly, Fergus takes it out and Danriel give him the money. They exchange pleasantries while Danriel takes out his [Weapon Wis Rune] and gives the [Fire Tome] a +4 to Wis. Then, Danriel leave, on his way to the Armour Shop.

         

---

Danriel Thanamor had decided that he was tired of waiting as the thinning crowd meant less people to team with. He'll just play as normal until he met people that he'd like to work with, which would be other elves. Danriel smiled to himself as he began walking in the direction of the blacksmith. He needed to get some shopping done anyway, so since he was in town he might as well get it done.

As he is walking he tries to check if it's true that he's really stuck. He opens the menu and sure enough, there's no log out button. That's disconcerting. He thinks to himself as he continues to take steps. Then, just out of curiosity he checks his quest log and finds that it has been erased. "That glitch erased my quest log!" he declared in rage.

He grits his teeth as he looks for another quest to take on before leaving the city. It isn't long (especially in Faclarebal) before he finds an NPC giving out quests. Danriel walks up and speaks to the NPC.

"Hey, what kind of quests do you have for me today?"

"I'm trying to cook something for my wife but I don't have the right ingredients. Could you go to the Dark Bale Forest and get me [5 Edible Pollens] [2 Earthly Tracies] and [2 Firmament Essences] please?"

"Definitely, I will see you when I get back! And then he leaves for the blacksmith.