Calrex

ID: 8331

Battle Dice: 10 (+2 Damage)

Mob Dice: 9 (+1 Damage)

Calrex readied himself as the Steelback Hog charged him once again, preparing to sidestep right as his downward slash cleared. It worked almost perfectly. His eyes watched as the sword struck deep down through the hog as it charged, cutting cleanly and clearing as it exited. the digital cut was a long and wide separation.

As he tried to sidestep however, he felt the blade for some reason decide to lag behind, possibly due to the weight distribution. The hog managed to slam half of Calrex's body as it continued its charge, sending him to the side spinning from the momentum passed onto him from the strike. He hit the ground and rolled a couple of time before getting back to his feet. He took a couple of deep breaths to center himself as he readied his sword once again.

"Alright, so it seems the weight might be a little much towards the tip of the blade, but so far the balance seems fine. The width seems nice as well since it made a very clean cut. Might have something to do with the geometry of the edge."

HP Counter

Calrex: 7/9

Steelback Hog: 3/8

Calrex weaved his way through the streets of the Starting City, making his way back to the gate he had returned through.

"I might as well go up against another one of the Steelback Hogs and see how I do. I'm not aiming for getting any loot this time, just plainly for getting a feel of the sword itself."

He drew the sword, rushing back over to the herd of Steelback Hogs that were nearby the lake like before. He quickly scanned the group, eventually seeing one that was a good distance away from the rest. It appeared to be clear of summoning any others to its aid. Calrex readied the test sword in a stabbing position as he drew his arm back, tensing his muscles, rushing forward.

ID: 8330

Battle Dice: 8

Mob Dice: 2

Calrex thrust forward, the blade's tip piercing the Steelback Hog in the side. The blade didn't cut deep, unlike the past time Calrex fought, but a hit was a hit nonetheless. The Steelback Hog jumped back in surprise at the sudden attack as it turned to face Calrex, who had readied his sword once again. It tried to rush him immediately, but he managed to easily step to the side, the hog flying right past him.

"Alright, that last strike felt on point and the blade itself didn't seems to disrupt the travel of the stab. Next will be a slash then."

Calrex readied his sword, preparing it for a downward slash attack.

HP Counter

Calrex: 9/9

Steelback Hog: 6/8

What seemed to Calrex like a half hour passed by before Sai came back out. She was carrying what appeared to be a blade of similar design to the Grand Blade that Calrex had requested. This one however seemed to be more of a stock sword than a custom made. The blade itself was a silver steel much like his current sword, and the handle appeared to be made out of a dark gray metal.

"This sword has an almost exact feel to the custom sword you requested, but without the booster that comes with it. In essence there's no difference between it and your current sword other than the weight balance. Feel free to try this out. If it feels right for you, then your custom sword should be perfectly fine as well. If it needs tweaking, come on back and let me know."

Calrex accepted the sword from Sai, grasping it and giving it a test on the feel. His eyes widened slightly in reaction to it.

"Wow...that's impressive! It feels almost exactly the same as the Grand Blade. She managed to determine that just by holding the sword and tossing it around? No wonder she's a great blacksmith."

"This should work perfectly fine. I'll go over to the fields nearby and give it a test and come right back."

"Sure thing. Also don't go stealing that! Or I'll find you...and you won't like it..."

At the same time as the statement, Sai tilted her head downwards slightly, giving a slightly menacing appearance. Calrex felt a bead of sweat build on the side of his head.

"Of course, you have my word."

Calrex equipped the test sword and went out into the streets of the city.

"So, what do you think?"

"It's amazing, exactly what I described, and it feels comfortable in my hand. But..."

"But..."

"Is it alright if I take it out and test it in some actual combat before I give my final verdict? It feels great, but I tend to learn if a weapon is right for me by actually using it."

"Psh, that's perfectly fine! Go ahead and fight some boars and see how it is. If it needs and adjustments to it bring it back and I'll be glad to give it a few tweaks."

"Thanks, I really appreciate it. I don't want to put you out much."

"There's just one tiny detail though."

"A catch...there's always a catch."

"What's that?"

"Well, if I let you wield the weapon with all of its benefits, specifically its increase in strength, I feel it might influence your opinion."

"So...what can I do to test it then?"

"Hm...can I see it again for a second?"

Calrex nodded, returning the sword over to Sai. She inspected the blade once again, holding it at the ends with her hands, giving it a few light tosses. She then grasped it with one hand, extending it and bringing it back to a ready position.

"Hm...alright, that's there and...alright! I've got a solution!"

"Huh?"

"Give me one second, I'll be right back!"

"Alright everything seems to be in order. Just wait here and I'll have your sword made in a little bit."

"Sure thing."

Calrex moved to a spot so he wasn't in the way, watching as his sword was being made. Of course since he was in a game, the actual process was simplified to what it would be in real life.

Sai took the Purified Steel Ore and hammered it a few times, watching as the rough chunk of rock formed out into a thin, long piece of steel. She moved next on to the Dark Steel pieces, which she treated likewise. However, instead of turning into two flat slabs of metal about the same length of the purified steel, but about three times as wide. She placed them all together, sandwiching the silver steel between the two dark pieces. With a single hammer stroke to the front and back and pieces morphed into the sword, minus the blue coloring on the hilt. She took the blue petals and placed them into some kind of basin, pouring small bits of various types of liquid into it, then placing the resulting mixture onto a fire. After the mixture boiled she dunked the handle end of the sword into it and held it there.

Calrex watching as the sword made one final transformation animation. As Sai pulled out the sword and wiped it off, Calrex felt like he wanted to drop his jaw. The sword was exactly the way he had described it.

"Here, go ahead and give it a try."

He nodded as he presented it to him with two hands, one on the belly of the blade and the other resting on the end of the handle. He accepted it likewise, sliding his hand around the handle. He shifted his hand so the guard was facing towards his fingers. Hie eyes ran up and down the blade, admiring the black steel of the center that smoothly transitioned to the shining silver edge. He moved to a safe place in the shop, giving the sword a few good swings.

"For being such a strong blade, it's surprisingly light. I think I'll be able to put this to good use."

Calrex took in all of the information that Oikawa gave about PKers and notoriety, as well as the Redemption Quest he mentioned.

"So we're technically allowed to kill only once before we permanently become red players for the rest of the game. I see...I guess that means you really need to make it count should you do so then, because doing so has consequences, just like outside of this game. I wonder if that's that the creator of this game had in mind. He's really trying to make this almost a second reality."

When Teayre suggested further training after their respite in the cafe, Calrex nodded his head, "I agree. Once we're finished and ready to go here, let's try and get moving up in levels as fast as we can, at least enough so that we can defend ourselves from attack."

"There's just one more thing I'm thinking of. Are there any changes to the game should one become a red player? Normally there's some kind of deficit to player killing, like being unable to use towns as safe zones and such, at least from what I remember of other games."

"If there isn't any, there wouldn't be as strong of a reason to become one, because then you would be targeted by blue players immediately when you enter a town. Since I haven't seen any at all, it means they're either only on the upper floors...or avoiding cities altogether."

"Player-killer...PKers...hm..."

"I guess even in a game where death is real, people like that still exist. Guess some really can't resist the urge can they."

Calrex gave a sigh after hearing Teayre's strained statement. Going from the way she was acting, it seemed like she possibly had some trouble before entering the game.

"Don't want to think too far, but maybe a troubled household, or some traumatic event...oh well I won't pry. If anything that'll have to be set on the side until we manage to get out of this game."

"Well, I can't give a good reason to feel safe from those people just yet, but going from how other PKers act in other games they would mainly target players that would be considered easy targets to gain experience or ones that are carrying possibly important items. Since we've got neither of those so far, I wouldn't think we have too much reason to worry in the meantime."

He looked over at Oikawa as he spoke once again, "Since Oikawa has more experience in this world, I wonder if he's encountered any PKers so far."

"Have you encountered any? From what I remember of the manual the crystals over our heads are normally blue, but once we kill a player it will turn orange. Continue to do so and it will turn red right?"

"I can't really say I'm against killing in self-defense against these people, but I wonder if there's any penalties that coincide with changing your notoriety."

Calrex observed as Oikawa showed his affection for strawberry cream pie, feeling a bead of sweat go down the back of his head.

"Well...he's certainly enthusiastic about the pie here. I guess that's a good sign."

He followed the others inside as the they were escorted to a booth. He took a seat on the side closer to the door, looking at the menu.

"Hm...What should I get. I guess since it's a cafe they'd be more likely to do sweets rather than savory things so..."

He decided to get a bowl of chocolate ice cream and a small coffee before setting the menu in the center of the table.

"From what I remember Celes was going to get it arranged, so once we were done with our preparations we just need to let her know so that we can meet up."

Calrex looked around the cafe. It wasn't a very large one, but the single floor was well accommodating and the people working there seemed to be enthusastic about the job, although whether that was by choice or preference he could not tell. He guessed that at least a couple of the workers preferred to stay in the city and work at the cafe than out in the fields where they could possibly die to monster or player killer attack.

"To keep that from happening...I've gotta get stronger first. That's what this is all for, preparation for the grand plan of escaping this death game."

"Oh right, I forgot about that."

Calrex looked over the loot screen. Since it was for a simple monster, it only contained a single item in it's inventory.

Loot:

1x Boar Tusk

"Not really sure what I can use this for, but I guess since we can't really split the item we'll have to make do."

"I'll get this one, but if we do another battle tonight you get the next drop."

Calrex tapped the blue circle and accepted the item. Nodding to Teayre he speedily followed after Oikawa.

"Hm, well that's new. Haven't seen him get super excited just yet for food. I wonder what it's like in the game compared to the real world."

Calrex nodded as Oikawa and Teayre suggested they had back into town and get some good. When Teayre inquired about how he took so much damage, he decided to respond with a hand behind his head.

"I'm guessing that my mind's not completely synced with my avatar. My strikes seemed to be just a hair off or a split second late. I'm sure it'll fix itself once I get used to the system a little bit more. In the meantime food definitely sounds like a good idea. We'd best not try and get overzealous just yet with our training."

"Or else things could go real bad very quickly..."

OOC: Lol course you've gotta be fashionably late XD. No worries dude!

IC:

Calrex gave a quick sigh of relief when out of the corner of his eye he saw Oikawa charge forward. Although his form seemed a bit odd, it did more than enough of a job to kill the boar. As it disintegrated into small particles Calrex looked over to see Teayre dash over and check if he was okay.

"Yeah, I'm fine, don't worry about me. Are you alright? You seem to have taken more damage overall than I did."

As Teayre went off into her self-loathing speech Calrex calmly shook his head and patted hers, "Don't worry, this was a first encounter for both of us, so it wasn't too off the mark that we would have some trouble."

Calrex sheathed his sword as he looked at the drop, "Here, you can have the drop. I can make do with what I've got so far, and there's always more where it came from."

"I'll need to practice my technique. All of my strikes flew clear of a hit. So either I'm swinging way off the mark or even the basic creatures are moving faster than I can keep up."

He walked back over to Oikawa, "Talk about a quick save. Thanks for bailing us out of that jam. What do you think we should do next?"

ID: 7218

Battle Dice: 5

Mob Dice: 10 (Aw man!)

Calrex smirked in response to Teayre's attack, readying one of his own.

"Looks like Teayre's getting a grasp of the system. I'll really need to pull myself together."

He quickly contemplated the past few strikes and their misses, noting each one about where his mind was telling him the strike was going compared to where it actually went. He noticed that there was some diversion from what his mind thought, trying to compensate for it.

"Alright then, let's give this a shot. Here we go..."

Calrex rushed forward, readying his strike. The boar was focused on Teayre, which Calrex thought meant it had changed its targeting.

This turned out to be a mistake. As Calrex swung his sword, he felt a strong impact to his gut as the boar full force slammed into him. The force of the strike sent him flying a good distance, rolling a few times before the momentum gave way. He was on his back for a good few second before he pushed himself to his feet, checking his health.

"Geezes that was a strong hit. Alright, it looks like it doesn't matter who manages to get a strike. The opponent's targeting system might be set for either distance or cycling depending on the players. I can't take more hits like that, or I'll be toast."

He straightened himself, readying his sword in a defensive position.

HP List

Boar: 3/9

Teayre 4/5

Calrex: 4/9

Oikawa: 15/15 (Not yet acted)

Hello, this is more of an inquiry than a suggestion. I noticed that each of the separate boards are separated by 10 floors, although within those boards you need to disclose what floor your topic is taking place in. Is there a reason why there isn't a sub-board for each particular floor?

ID: 7150

Battle Dice: 1

Mob Dice: 7

Calrex observed as Teayre's blow looked like it connected, but his eyes narrowed as he noticed her movement seemed to freeze, then resume as the boar began to move again.

"Reactive aggro? Huh, that's something I don't believe I've dealt with before. In any case going from what the words mean it's gotta be whoever is currently attack is the one the boar is focusing on. Alright then, if that's the case, drawing its attention should be easy."

Calrex rushed forward, closing the distance between him and the boar, holding his sword in the same position. As he got within striking range he snapped his wrist towards his face as his elbow lifted and dropped, the sword rotating over his head and coming down in a diagonal cut from left shoulder to right hip. The strike whizzed by the boar as it turned to face him.

"Alright, now I've got your attention."

The boar charged him once again as Calrex readied to turn aside. As he did his body seemed to remember the glancing blow from him, and decided to remind it of him again. The momentary distraction caused him to temporarily slow his rotation, the boar's tusk glancing off of his hip as he passed by.

Calrex readied his sword, taking a breath to calm his nerves.

"Alright, I've got to make sure to stay on my toes now. Right now I'm still low in level, so I can't treat this as a simple minion. I have to fight it with the same strategy one would use to fight a much tougher opponent. Exercise caution, strike only when able, and already be ready to bug out if need be."

HP List

Boar: 5/9

Teayre: 4/5

Calrex: 7/9

Oikawa: 15/15 (Not yet acted)

ID: 7132

Battle Dice: 3

Calrex readied his sword as he watched Teayre jump in front to try and strike once again, this time scoring a hit on the boar.

"Nice sho...gh!"

He had to skip his thought as he saw the boar go by him, its tusk glancing off his arm as it passed by. He tried to quickly turn and get a strike in as it passed by, but his strike just missed as the point flew just above the highest point of the boar's back. He took a quick step back to ready himself as he looked down at the wound.

"Huh, the wound is definitely there, but it only feels like a scrape. I'm guessing the wounds feel much worse as our damage gets higher. I'd better be careful."

"Yeah I'm fine. Let's take care of this thing, although I think if we do make it out of this we'd better recover before trying anything else."

He brought his sword up to his face, standing sideways, the tip of the blade facing towards the boar.

"Alright focus. I've gotta make these next strikes count. Teayre can only take a few more hits. If she take one more I'd better step in and tank the opponent."

OOC: Oh my goodness these rolls! XD

IC:

ID: 7119

Battle Dice: 3

"Ookay so it looks like we'll need to definitely get acquainted with the system quickly."

As Teayre ended up at Calrex's feet he looked and focused on the boar, readying his sword.

"Teayre's taking the hits right now, and that's not good. I've gotta get its attention towards me."

He gave a soft exhale as he lowered his body. He stepped around Teayre as he kept his sword pointed forward at the boar. In a slow swaying motion he coiled up his body, then sprung forward as he thrust towards the boar's head. He through he was going to hit, but then as his vision refocused it was a couple inches off from a hit once again. He flew past the boar as he slid a few inches to kill his momentum.

"Alright, it looked like I'll need to reconfigure my body's feel for striking. Right now it's like I'm off in triangulation of my strike, probably because I've only practicing outside of a virtual game. Next time around hopefully this works."

HP List

Boar: 9/9

Teayre: 4/9

Calrex: 9/9

Oikawa: 15/15 (Not yet acted)

OOC: Uh oh...

ID: 6317

Battle Dice: 2

Calrex nodded in response to Teayre's shout, taking note how her personality seemed to do a slight shift after she engaged the boar in combat. He took note of the boar's close call at hitting Teayre while additionally avoiding her strike in the process.

"Well, it looks like this is going to be interesting battle."

He rushed forward, positioning himself just behind Teayre as he continued sprinting.

"Let's see how the AI handles line of sight. If I pop out from behind her and strike, will it have a lag time in responding to the attack?"

He held his sword in his right hand, readying his sword for a diagonal downwards cut from left to right. As he got to within a two step's distance from Teayre he sprung forward. At the same time the boar appears to be readying a charge. Calrex prepared himself to maneuver out of the way. He brought his sword down as he passed by Teayre, but his sword only cut air. His strike had been an inch too far to the right and cut just above the boar.

"Alright, well this is going to be interesting."

Calrex readied his sword, pointing it towards the boar.

HP List

Boar: 9/9

Teayre: 5/5

Calrex: 9/9

Oikawa: 15/15 (Not yet acted)

Calrex moved quickly through the streets of the Starting City, weaving past various NPCs, players, etc. as he blazed through back towards Sai's workshop.

"I'm actually kinda excited to see how this turns out. I only started recently and I'm already going to be getting a custom-made weapon."

He brushed past players as the streets as they got narrower and narrower. Eventually he saw the familiar shop as he drew into view. "At least I didn't have to go through that really crowded market this time."

He stepped into the shop and looked around. Even though he was gone for a decent amount of time, the shop seemed fairly untouched. Nothing was really moved around, and none of the sword he had looked at before seemed to have been put away or sold. The familiar young girl came out from the back of the shop and recognized Calrex almost immediately.

"Hey there, welcome back! I'm guessing you gathered the materials needed for your weapon?"

"Well she doesn't seem miffed like earlier."

"Yes, it took some time, but I managed to gather it all. The ones I had to gather seemed a lot harder to find than the one that was from a monster."

"Yeah it tends to go that way. Alright go ahead and lay them out here on the table and I'll get started on it!"

Calrex nodded and approached the table. He performed the familiar motion of pulling up his interface, going to the inventory section, and began materializing the components onto the table. First the Purified Steel Ore from the Steelback Hog, then the two pieces of Dark Steel from the Dark Steel Salagmite, and finally the two Blue Petals from the Azure Flowers within the forest.

Sai stepped over and inspected each of the materials, making sure they were not damaged in any particular way, then began grabbing each material and taking them to a particular station behind the counter.

ID: 6276

Loot Dice: 19

Calrex picked up his pace after finding the first blue petal he needed for his blade. There was only one petal left to find before his mission was complete, and after spending so much time doing menial harvesting he was excited to finally be back in the city. He rounded every tree, searched every nook and cranny, and also possibly scared some of the random creatures that inhabited it.

"Come on, just one more...please!"

His eyes darted back and forth as he looked for one last flower. He felt he was nearing the end of the woods when he finally saw it. A single blue flower at the very edge of the forest, nestled underneath the tree right at the edge. He ran to the flower and stopped right in front of it. He dropped to his knees, thankful for finally seeing this quest's end. He reached down and plucked the petal from it, the final piece being added to his inventory.

"Thank good, it's over. Now to get these back to Sai."

He got to his feet, turned towards the city, and began the trek back to the gate.

ID: 6272

Loot Dice: 4

"Oh...finally!"

Calrex almost sprinted towards the glistening blue flower he saw at the base of a tree. It felt like almost an hour had passed since he got his first piece of material, so seeing the blue rose was almost like witnessing a miracle to him. He bent over to take a good look at it, seeing the glowing blue petals of the flower. He reached forward and plucked one of the petals, looking at it in his hand.

"Is this what I nee...huh?"

Almost immediately he dropped the petal as he saw little green spots all over it. Aphids...or at least SAO's version of aphids. The flower was contaminated with it. There was no way he could harvest petals from it. He gave a soft sigh of defeat, got to his feet, and carried on.

ID: 6273

Loot Dice: 9

ID: 6274

Loot Dice: 19

It was almost as if the first flower he found had opened a can of worms on the situation. While he was finally finding flowers, all of the ones he came across were contaminated with the same bugs that were on the first flower.

"I don't know which is worse, not finding them, or finding them but can't use them."

He continued walking, finding yet another flower. He plucked another petal from it, partially expecting it to be also contaminated...when the petal actually appeared in his inventory.

"What? Alright! Just one more to go then!"

With renewed spirit he got to his feet and began to search for the one last flower petal he needed for his new custom blade. 

ID: 6269

Loot Dice: 13

ID: 6270

Loot Dice: 5

Calrex sighed as he continued to wander around the forest, searching for the last materials he needed to complete the quest. Unfortunately, it appeared that due to unknown circumstances the blue flowers he was supposed to find were nowhere to be found. He checked away from, directly around, and anywhere in between the trees in the forest to no avail.

"Kind of cynical to think about, but I wonder if anyone in this game has died simply from spending too much time searching for a single piece of material. Although I guess it would be understandable if it were a rare one."

"...but in this case it feels like this flower should be a simple one to find, yet it feels like it should be a rare item. How long have I been at this?"

He let his eyes scan the forest, but still no flowers were to be found. "How long is it going to be till I find one of these things?"

ID: 6253

Loot Dice: 14 (So close!)

"...aaand I'm having no luck again..."

Calrex decided to enter the cave in order to find more Dark Steel, since the first one was right at the entrance.

"I'm guessing that the cave holds the steel and the forest has the flowers. Hopefully this might help boost my chances of finding the materials faster."

Calrex's eys darted back and forth across the different rock formations as he wandered further and further into the cave, sword at the ready. So far none of the hunks of stone stood out like the first one did. They all seemed to be made of clay or other more common cave ores. He thought that possibly he was nearing the end of the cave as he continued to move further in.

"Come on...give me...huh?"

ID: 6254

Loot Dice: 16

"...Yes!"

Calrex rushed over as he saw a familiar stalagmite formation on one side of the cave. It was another Dark Steel Stalagmite. He held his sword at the ready, drew it back, and gave another swing. The piece fell off just like before, falling to the floor as the formation dissipated.

"Alright, one material down. Now to forage for the blue flowers needed for the sword."

He went over and picked up the material, putting it away in his inventory. With that he promptly left the cave and exited back out into the forest, looking around as he exited.

"Still no trace of the blue flowers yet. I'll keep looking for now."

ID: 6251

Loot Dice: 9

"Well looks like my luck finally ran out."

Calrex wandered around through the forest, looking to see if there was any of the two materials he was looking for. Nothing stood out as he passed around for at least a good ten minutes.

"Huh, do these materials have a low spawn rate or something? I'm not having any luck with finding these things..."

Calrex sighed as he continued to scrounge around again. He finally stopped when something glinted in the corner of his eye.

"Is is that?"

ID: 6252

Loot Dice: 17 (+1 Material) 

The glint came from a large rock stalagmite that was resting right at the entrance to a cave. It was made from what looked to be some kind of black iron.

"That must be it!"

Calrex rushed over, looking at the stalagmite.

"Ok...now how do I harvest this thing? Maybe a blow from my sword?"

He flipped his sword into a normal grip, holding it with both hands as he slammed it into the top point of the stalagmite. A large clang echoed out as a piece of the rock fell off on the ground. Calrex readied for another shot to try and harvest another one when the stalagmite despawned into crystals.

"Darn, I was hoping to get one more."

He went over to the piece that had been knocked off, picking it up. The display identified it as Dark Steel.

"Sweet...I'm well on my way..."

Zeke's right, you can't create a character from scratch, but you can modify their appearance.

Calrex looked over at the others as they got ready with their weapons drawn. He nodded in agreement as he observed Teayre's weapon.

"Looks like she opted to go with a curved sword as her starting weapon. Great of slashing, but not as useful in terms of stabbing techniques. Still, every person has their style of combat. To each their own..."

"I guess if no one wants to I can give it a shot. Oikawa, can you keep an eye out in case for some reason things decide to take a turn for the worse?"

"Yeah...I'd rather not die just yet."

Calrex drew his sword and lowered his stance into more of a crouching position, scanning across the boars that were wandering around.

"I don't want to go engaging a bunch of them at once, but I also don't know if this game has an area of detection system. If it does, I wonder if more boars will come and assist if one is under attack."