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[PP|F8]<<Scents of the Wild: Kuma>>Bear-y Angry


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Bringing Night along for another outing was great. These two had basically become inseparable after having quested as much as they have together. Yuki would do anything for Night. Even fight that stupid snake boss over and over again for her special quest item that she needed.

"Thanks for coming along as usual Night, I wasn't sure if you had already done these quests, but I hadn't known about them originally. Aparantly doing them all will give you another buff like a house buff and you can use it to increase your mitigation even further if you're a tank player. You can't gain the benefit from any of the rewards unless you collect all of them though, so we're going to have to kill six bosses for each one of the totems that they drop. Do you want to do them all? This one is the easiest one if I recall the quest information."

@NIGHT

Spoiler

General
Level: 38 | HP:  820/820 | Energy: 76/76 Hate: 1/3/4(M/H/C)

Stats
DMG: 5 | EVA: -1 | MIT: 112 | BH: 8 | DoT Restst: 25%+25%(1st proc) | Thorns: 36

Skills
R2 OHAS, R5 Heavy Armor, R3 MIT Familiar, Fighting Spirit, R2 Block, Rank 1 BH, Concentration

Mods
Athletics; Stonewall

Housing Buffs
Rested; Filling; Tasty; Angler; Hardworking

Equipment(In use)
Charlemagne(Heavy Armor): HM I, Thorns II
Revenant(Shield): Taunt I; Rec II
Trap of Argalia(OHAS): DMG I; BLD I

Equipment(Standby)
Braced Reproach(Shield)
: Taunt; Para II
La Black Luna(Trinket): ACC III

Consumables
(2x)Starter Healing Potions(50HP)

 

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<<Scents of the Wild: Ferocious Foe>>

Wouldn't it be wonderful if NIGHT had looked over the information and was able to go, "Oh hey, I'd did that already"?

Exactly. It would be. So that's what she did.

"But only that one," the knight clarified, taking a bite out of her super fancy Asian Cheetos. She had no idea what Cheetos were, let alone Asian ones, and the food was explicitly nasty tasting in the fast-food kind of way. But it was made by a friend for her, and it also lended the warrior a well-needed buff. So, sure. NIGHT would endure.

As the last of the cheetos vanished away (willed to be, the player couldn't finish them all), the woman dusted off her hands clean of the sticky dust before re-equipping her gloves once again. "That's why we're in this forest to begin with, huh? I should've known."

Or not, she mused, fidgeting with the clasp of the leather gloves for a moment more. There were various other quests that could've been done on this floor, anyway. It's not like she knew them all by heart.

Y8KUauY.png

 NIGHT
  | HP: 1010/1010 | EN: 98/98
  | ACC: 5 | DMG: 18* | EVA: 2 | MIT: 26* | LD: 3
  | VAMP(OFF): 1 | BLEED: 24 | TAUNT: 1 | RECOVERY: 2 
  | Paralytic Immunity | Stealth Detection: 3

* [Filling] used to provide +1 Protein.
[Examine]

[Equipment]

  • Dracbane
    -- [ Vampiric (Offensive) | Natural successful attack rolls of 9-10 heals the player for 10% of their Max HP. ]
    -- [ Bleed | Natural critical attack rolls of 9-10 deal 24 unmitigated bleed damage each enemy turn for 2 turns. Bleed damage does not stack, but can be refreshed. ]
    -- [ Accuracy | +1 ACC ]
  • Basilisk's Bane
    -- [ Taunt I | +1 Hate generated. ]
    -- [ Recovery I | Regenerate 2 EN on natural CD rolls of 6+. ]
    -- [ Paralytic Immunity | Immune to Paralysis. ]
  • Silver Crescent Necklace
    -- [ Accuracy II | +2 ACC ]
    -- [ Evasion II | +2 EVA ]

[Battle-Ready Inventory]

  • [T1E1] Damage Crystal (1) -- [ Damage I | +1 DMG. ]
  • [T1E1] Super Sight Fancy Asian Cheetos (1) -- [ Accuracy I | +1 ACC. ]
  • [T2E1] [ref] Marche Funèbre (1) -- [ Lullaby I | Instant | -1 EVA to one enemy for one battle. ]

Skills

Skills

Mod Count: 4/5

  1. Two-Handed Straight Sword | Passive | RANK 5/5
    Ferocity, Precision, Finesse
  2. Heavy Armor | Passive | RANK 3/5 
    > Athletics
  3. Searching | Passive | RANK 3/5

[Extra]

  • Survival | Passive 
  • Concentration | Active -- CD: 3
  • Familiar Mastery: Fighter | Passive | RANK 3/3

Misc. Buffs

Spoiler
  • Dimensional Backpack, Item Stash
    | +2 Battle-Ready Inventory Slots.
  • Well Rested
    | -1 EN for the first three expenditures of each combat. 
  • Col Stash
    | +5% bonus col from monster kills and treasure chests. 
  • Relaxed
    | +(5 * Tier) HP per out-of-combat post. Full energy restoration occurs after two turns out of combat.
  • Squeaky Clean
    | -25% DoT damage taken from the first DoT applied to this player in a thread.
  • Filling
    | +1 T1 slot to a food consumed by this player in a thread. Can exceed Cook enhancement caps.

 

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Yuki nodded to her ally, giving her that big smile that she basically painted on her face 24/7. Doing this stuff was so much more fun when you had a friend like Night to help you through it. "Yeah, it's just a big bear. He'll be a mean one, but nothing that me and you can't handle as a team. His damage is completely irrelevant to me and he won't be able to even hurt me without my Battle Healing bringing back to completely full anyway. So, technically I could do this by myself, but it's much more fun if I bring you along! He can paralyze the both of us though, so be careful."

The paladin led the way through to forest lackadaisically with her arms thrown behind her head relaxed and eased. This would be an extremely easy boss, and she was ready to stand around do almost nothing again after all the pressuring quests that she has done lately.

@NIGHT

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"Oh look," NIGHT pointed out almost comically. "There it is."

In the middle of their lazy forest stroll, underneath the thinning sunlight canopy, right smack down the leaf-littered road was one large brown bear. Super fuzzy, very cuddly. Kumatetsu must've been halfway through the brush on its way to cross to the other side when NIGHT had pointed it out, disrupting its own casual routine with sharp cat eyes and an indifference in mannerism to the creature weaker than the players themselves. She watched as the ursine boss whip its head around, eyes locking with its spotter, the dark-clad woman giving it a carefree wave as it began to snarl and turn to charge towards the party.

Suffice to say, it wasn't going to get very far with its advances.

With a shrug, NIGHT let Yuki take the lead with the fight, barely forgetting to unsheathe her own blade in the conflict. Blazes of pink and brown would soon clash in a minute.

And... NIGHT just wanted to take her time for the moment. Wait, did she equip Dracbane by accident--

@Zajcica

Spoiler

ID: 151438 | LD: 17 (14, +3) | I found a bear.

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Yuki jumped on it the moment Night pointed it out. She was ready to bash into this thing and watch it do absolutely nothing to her at all. It would be fun even thought she herself couldn't do anything effectively to it. The pink-haired tank jumped on the Kuma who had barely gotten a moment to process what was happening before it had an incessantly annoying woman jumping on it.

"Oi, oi! I'm you're enemy stupid, look at me!" The paladin's lance grazed the hair off the back of the bear, missing it's body by nothing more than an inch. In the same moment, its claw reached out and scrapped against the paladin's chest. Shallow red marks left behind. Her battle healing instantly closed the wounds and she was back up to full HP. Meanwhile, the bear was regretting it's choice, taking the full damage from her thorns.

image.thumb.png.3026b005d4da45b9aa1ef2e6f1875666.png

Yuki: 820/820 (-1+8) | 76/76 | MIT: 112 | Thorns: 36| EVA: -1 | BH: 8 | BLD: 9-10[24/2] | REC: 2
NIGHT: 

Kumatetsu: 264/300 (-36) | DMG: 75 | MIT: 50 | EVA: 2 | ACC: 1

Edited by Zajcica
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Guess which annoyed her more: the bear, or NIGHT having had the wrong sword equipped for the job?

It was the latter. Jack's Executioner desperately needed the work out, and out of all the days, she'd missed this opportunity. That's what NIGHT got for taking slack upon such an ordinary mission, one could suppose, to which they would be right.

So she drew a breath, let out a sigh, and pulled Dracbane from her back with absolute grievance. Maybe this would teach her to be more careful next time, NIGHT hoped inwardly to herself, her spare fingers activating a crystal within her jacket's pockets. But truth be told, it was most likely going to see a re occurrence again in the future.

Making mistakes like these sucked.

Her blade's tip hit the floor and subsequently disrupted the dirt beneath it, a straight line pulled through the ground of fallen leaves. With one upward slice as NIGHT got close, a flash of light uppercut the boar as it stood up to intimidate Yuki and ride out its pain from having gotten stung by her thorns. This time, instead of tasting a pinprick of damage, it would have a whole feast to gorge itself with, Galaxy Destroyer decimating its health bar, pushing its gauge into the orange.

@Zajcica

Spoiler

Using: [T2E1] [ref] Marche Funèbre (1) -- [ Lullaby I | Instant | -1 EVA to one enemy for one battle. ]

ID: 151441 | BD: 10 (6, +5 -1)
<<Galaxy Destroyer>> vs Kumatetsu.
18 * 13 = 234 DMG | 234 - 50 = 184 DMG
> Kumatetsu enters Beast Form! (+25 DMG, -1 ACC)

Kumatetsu | HP: 116/300 (-184) | ACC: 0 (1, -1) | DMG: 100 (75, -25) | EVA: 1 (2, -1) | MIT: 50
| BEAST FORM | CD10+: PARTY PARALYZE | BD10: +2 ACC, +15 DMG

[2] NIGHT | HP: 990/990 | EN: 87/96 (-9) | ACC: 5 | DMG: 18 | EVA: 2 | MIT: 26 | LD: 3 | RECOVERY: 2 | VAMP-O: 1 | BLEED: 24 | PARA IMMUNE | TAUNT
[2] Zajcica | HP: 820/820 | EN: 76/76 | DMG: 5 | EVA: -1 | MIT: 112 | THORNS: 36 | BH: 8

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With another heavy heave, the paladin raised her lance and tried to smash the bear into the ground. The thing was much more nimble than she gave it credit for though, slipping cleanly through her attack without much of a problem. It retaliated with an attack of it's own while she was open to attack. The claw raked it's way across her body with ease. Again, it only succeeded in doing more harm to itself than anything else. 

Yuki grinned. It was nice to do a quest that wouldn't end with her being flung into freezing cold water or be swallowed whole by a snake. The last week had been rough for her with the problems that she's had to come to terms with. She was glad that her knight was there to help her through all that. She let out a low whistle as she noticed just how much damage Night could do. "Damn, I forget how strong you are some times. You nearly killed it off in a single hit."

image.thumb.png.76eda34d797dfc3014a5825785ee7b42.png

Kumatetsu | HP: 80/300 (-36) | ACC: 1 | DMG: 75 | EVA: 1 (2, -1) | MIT: 50

[2] NIGHT | HP: 990/990 | EN: 87/96 (-9) | ACC: 5 | DMG: 18 | EVA: 2 | MIT: 26 | LD: 3 | RECOVERY: 2 | VAMP-O: 1 | BLEED: 24 | PARA IMMUNE | TAUNT
[2] Zajcica | HP: 820/820 | EN: 76/76 | DMG: 5 | EVA: -1 | MIT: 112 | THORNS: 36 | BH: 8

Edited by Zajcica
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"Might've," came a low rumble from NIGHT, the woman's eyes absolutely flooded with a seething discontentment with adjusting to her heavier blade's use now. Her sword came to rest by the woman's side, her stance low as she swerved to avoid the wide frenzied strike by their target against them. "Maybe if it didn't have such a thick hide to begin with, I might've torn it to pieces by now."

Another strike from the warrior, her edge coming around NIGHT's side with a spin, digging into Kumatetsu's hind quarters with a circular slash. With that, the boss let out a beastly howl signifying its demise before collapsing to the floor, scattering its form into pieces. The bear was no more.

Great. NIGHT went to relief her blade of her duties, before feeling Dracbane topple out of her fingers. She'd barely managed to catch the sword in time, only to tiredly return it to her sheathe with a tired look and a sigh. Goddammit. At least their mark was slain early in their adventure.

"So, what do we do now...?"

@Zajcica

Spoiler

ID: 151445 | BD: 12 (8, +5 -1)
<<Galaxy Destroyer>> vs Kumatetsu.
18 * 13 = 234 DMG | 234 - 25 = 209 DMG

Kumatetsu | HP: -93/300 (-209) | DMG: 100 | EVA: 1 | MIT: 25

| BEAST FORM | CD10+: PARTY PARALYZE | BD: 10: +2 ACC, +15 DMG

[4] NIGHT | HP: 990/990 | EN: 78/96 (+1, -9) | ACC: 5 | DMG: 18 | EVA: 2 | MIT: 26 | LD: 3 | RECOVERY: 2 | VAMP-O: 1 | BLEED: 24 | PARA IMMUNE | TAUNT
[2] Zajcica | HP: 820/820 | EN: 76/76 | DMG: 5 | EVA: -1 | MIT: 112 | THORNS: 36 | BH: 8

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When the beast was confirmed dead, the woman moved her lance back into her special pocket dimension along with the shield. No need for her to have that heavy [censored] on when they weren't in combat. The paladin stretched out her arms and looked over to her friend, whose expression wasn't matching hers at all.

"Um, Night? Are you okay? What's wrong?" She asked, moving closer to her friend who was barely able to keep her sword in her hand. The paladin gestured her to come along back towards the safe zone with her. Night wasn't looking that enthused to be done with the quest when they got it complete in two fatal swoops of attacks. "You wanna go back to my place and relax, or to your place or something? You look like you could take a break."

Working her way through the branches, she could see the safe zone incoming.

@NIGHT

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"Oh no Yuki. Nothing's wrong. I just miss Jack's Executioner is all." Like hell NIGHT would ever say something like that aloud. But the more Dracbane bore down its weight upon her back, the more she really was preferring her soul-bound greatsword more than anything in the moment. Yuki might've let her shield disperse, but the damage dealer was less keen to let down her guard just as easily as her tank did. After all, NIGHT didn't have much in the way of defensive capabilities. And besides, who else would be better suited to taking down any possible threats?

A break sounded grand though. Mostly because the humidity of the forest air was starting to get to her, and the noises of the bugs in the woods? Awful. Not even choosing to turn around to follow her tank along, NIGHT proceeded to pace backwards, setting her arms behind her head as she humored Yuki's questioning for a beat. "Your place. I'd barely gotten to look around last time I was there."

Snoop opportunity get.

@Zajcica

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She avoided the question. There was something wrong with her, and Yuki could tell, but she wouldn't bug her too much about it. If she wanted to talk about it, she wouldn't have skipped over the subject.

Several minutes of walking back to floor 8's teleportation terminal, Yuki stepped on the pad with her partner and called out to whatever force willed the instantaneous movement that was the teleporter. "Floor 22: Coral!"

Suddenly, the duo was in Coral, a place that Yuki herself was coming to love as a home the longer she stayed. The walk to her home was short since it was literally close enough to reach out and put your hand into the safe zone barrier. Instead of entering the home from the side entrance connected to the shop, Yuki used the front door. A massive red gate breaking in the stone, she pushed out the opening and welcomed Night in. Her armor flashed into a kimono instantly and she slipped on a pair of geta. 

"There's the pond. You can actually fish for materials in it since we're outside the safe zone, but be careful cause monsters can spawn from bad luck in fishing, even here. The door there leads into the main room. It's got a kotatsu and a pleasing aesthetic, but its kind of small. I don't spend too much time in there. Then there's just my bedroom and my kitchen."

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For some reason NIGHT had figured Yuki's home was much larger the last time she was here. The refresher of an introduction was still welcome however. She followed her host around while taking in the sights, trying to commit it to memory -- she could definitely recall the fishing pond, at the very least.

"You just relax in your bed room, I take it?" NIGHT could relate. She stepped into the home once her shoes had been returned to her inventory. Muffled steps upon wooden paneling when she'd walked in. "I-- wouldn't want to pry. But if you'd prefer hanging out there, then lead the way."

The main reason for the player's preference in visiting her friend's place was for any possible new dishes she might've been cooking up -- but wasn't that a rude motivator behind making herself the paladin's guest? She covered up her tracks with a quick interjection. "So, about the other field bosses. Do you have the information on hand about them already?"

@Zajcica

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Yuki led the duo into her bedroom, walking through the tiny living room that wasn't much bigger than 16x16 in feet. From the front door, this was the only way to reach her room without having to go all the way around the back. Once they were in her room, the paladin opened the sliding glass door where there wasn't much to see in her backyard, but one could see the beautiful nature over the stone wall and the light breeze could come through, bringing the smell of food. "Would you like anything to eat or drink? I have NPCs run the shop while I'm gone, but I can have something made in minutes." She offered gesturing to her personal kotatsu. It was warm out this season, but that didn't mean she couldn't enjoy the comfort of the table even when the heater underneath was turned off.

"Uh, no, I don't have information on them yet. I figured you did. The info on the bear wasn't difficult to come by." She admitted.

@NIGHT

Edited by Zajcica
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"Uh, no, I don't have information on them yet. I figured you did. The info on the bear wasn't difficult to come by."

[♬]

NIGHT stopped at the door. Her sights had been set to the ground, but with a lift of her head, she met her friend's face. "Yuki," came the player's desperate whisper, a half-smile beginning to form on NIGHT's face. And here she had imagined she'd finally gotten a conversation piece going.

Whoops.

[/curbyourenthusiasm end]

"I'll have anything you want to offer," she clarified, taking a seat at the kotatsu. How did this work again? She just put her feet underneath the blankets, right? "Green tea, perhaps? Oh-- if you had some edamame, that would work too."

Within a moment, NIGHT brought up her mail interface, fingers hammering aggressively upon the light screen keyboard. One message to Bistro, and she'd received an immediate confirmation, though there were warnings of a delay in gathering the intel. Fair enough, she couldn't expect her informant to have all knowledge on hand. After the message was sent, she rested her elbow on the kotatsu's table, propping her cheek up with a hand.

"So Yuki, who'd you get your information from?"

@Zajcica

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Yuki went into the kitchen momentarily, her second personal one where her room could be seen from. Before long, nice could start to smell Edamame and Tea. "I usually get my information off of players in Coral. Ones who have already completed the boss. Why? Where do you normally get your information from?" She asked, focused on the cooking.

It didn't take her long to make such trivial dishes considering she was bordering grandmaster cook at this point. She may have already reached if it hadn't been for the fact that she's been working insanely hard to grind her way up to tier three so she could start working on getting the armor she would want for that level. "We're both getting closer and closer to Tier 3 hunh? Soon we'll be closer to the front lines. I never asked you, but are you wanting to join them there? I want to."

@NIGHT

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Why? Just a hunch. She'd been suspicious of a friend's sources a long time ago; now she just wanted to know if Yuki would drop any names, better if they belonged to anyone she knew. If there were more players with information on hand up in Coral, perhaps NIGHT could rest easy in knowing their world was bigger than she'd first thought. Maybe she could finally drop her nagging curiosity on the subject.

"No reason. I get mine from an alchemist's down on Floor 1. She's..." A handful. "... accommodating. And the other broker's a mystery."

With the edamame served, NIGHT said her thanks, before unequipped her gloves and picking up a bean between her fingers. Immediately, she'd let the snack go, and it fell back into the bowl as NIGHT hissed and shook her hand. Her tips stung. Gotta let it cool.

"Frontlines," she repeated with a scowl, eyeing the small pile of legumes before turning to her friend. "I'm not keen on the term. And I certainly don't know any of the front liners. Whatever they're up to, it's their business." Another test of the beans, NIGHT picking up the same string she'd withdrawn from earlier. "But if you want to join them... You're already in contact with a couple of players there, right? I'll be rooting for you if you go for it. Need anything I could provide?"

@Zajcica

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The girls reaction wasn't what she thought. If she didn't have any intention of joining the front lines what was her motive for leveling up? She didn't seem to have much of an interest in helping lower ranked players either.

"Um, hey, this might be super rude of me to ask," She started, sitting underneath of the kotatsu and getting herself comfortable. "If you aren't leveling to reach the front line, and you aren't leveling to help out lower-leveled players... what is your motive for fighting? I feel like you're my best friend in all of Aincrad and I just can't read you. You feel like a person that might have something of an upsetting past, but I really don't want to assume anything. If there's anything you want to let off your chest, I am always here to talk with you Ren." She asked, taking a quick sip of the now warm tea.

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Super rude?

NIGHT shot Yuki a questioning look, starting to bite into her snack. Edamames were often eaten with their pods left over -- without another bowl present to discard her leftovers, the listening player fished out a handkerchief from her inventory. A few folds of the cloth, and a long pull of the bean from her maw; NIGHT chewed on her friend's query, placing the empty pod into the cloth in her hands.

Do you... really need to read me?

The woman reached out to grab another snack from the pile, taking the moment to shift her gaze away from Yuki's unrelenting stare. NIGHT was a private person, sure. Being put under scrutiny like this was unsettling to say the least. Especially when she was put in a closed space, having a private conversation with someone she thought she'd trusted.

How much could she share with them? No-- the question should've been how much did she want to share with them? Even if she were to open up, NIGHT wouldn't know where to begin, nor what to say. At the very least, if someone were to be specific, she'd know what was comfortable to say, and what wasn't.

Most anyone's queries were too vague. This was one of them. But she would be honest where she could find herself to be.

Another pull of the bean through her lips, NIGHT humming to fill the silence between them; a half-hearted attempt to waive off the awkwardness that settled in between them. "I did it because I was bored," she mentioned, chewing her meal on one side of her mouth. "Staying in town all the time got on my nerves. 's not like I had much to do in my inn room." With a tilt of her head, she returned the question over to her friend. "Don't you feel the same, too? Getting antsy about not being able to do anything."

Her gaze lingered a little longer on Yuki, an almost piercing glare partially rescinded when the woman went back to her snack.

@Zajcica

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"I mean, yeah. That's why I came out. I want to do something to improve our chances of getting out of here. I don't want to be a lifeless corpse to my family and not have to see them years longer. If I help the front lines, we can get out of here sooner and I'll come out with more pride than I've ever known in my entire life." Yuki said taking a bite of the edamame and a sip of her tea. Her gaze shifted outside the open door and onto the nature in her backyard. "I didn't mean to intrude on your reasons or anything, sorry if it was a bit rude of me to ask or anything."

"Y'know," The girl tried to change the subject. "This world is deceptively beautiful. I don't think I could ever have a house beautiful as this in real life. I don't think I entirely regret putting on the nerve gear. What if I didn't and I never got to meet great people like you and Shield?" Trying to make the best of one's situation was what Yuki was best at. Her smile shined over to her friend.

Edited by Zajcica
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"It's alright. I just hope you didn't think those were the only two reasons to go hunting."

NIGHT continued to enjoy her meal, pulling the beans from their pods in tugs. Her gaze settled on the door, too, as Yuki turned towards it, looking out at her garden. Her friend started to speak about the wonders of Aincrad, and while NIGHT was hesitant to agree, she eventually gave in with a nod.

"I don't know if I'd ever say I'd regret it," the woman commented, wrapping her cloth over yet another green shell. "It's too early to say that. I'm just trying to make the best out of what I've got. But... you're absolutely right on the housing front." NIGHT's eyes returned to the elements in Yuki's room, taking in the comforts of the interior space. "Living in a bigger space for a change... It's a strange, yet comforting feeling. And the people around make our situation much more tolerable, of course."

NIGHT finally turned to her tea, raising her cup to her lips. A slow, relaxing session after an easy, simple task. If only all days could be like this.


Thread Summary

Quote

[Total]
+ 4SP
+ 2,200col
+ Kumatetsu Statue

Spoiler

[Quest Reward]
+ 2,000col
+ 2SP
+ Kumatetsu Statue

[Thread Progression]
+ 1SP
+ 200col/participant

[Misc.]
Quarantine SP Bonus!
+ 1SP

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