___

She had been told of another quest that gave something even better than the previous quests, an extra skill. She knew that the skills were there so that players could do things that they normally couldn't do, whether it had to do with fighting or not. Like for her, she already had a skill that allowed her to do more damage with her rapier. If someone else were to use her rapier and they didn't have her skill, they'd do less damage. While it was a concept that was a little basic for the average player base of Sword Art Online, it was one of the many pieces of information being added to her knowledge every day.

Equipment: Rapier

HP: 11/11

Base DMG of 3 = 2 (Rapier) + 1 (Weapon Skill)

She couldn't believe it, she was already on her third solo quest. It only felt like yesterday that she signed on for the first time, but it was more like a week about now. Things were progressing rather well for her, even though she hadn't yet had the opportunity to meet some new people and make friends. She was going to fully start anew in this second life, giving herself the golden ticket to making a social experience of friends and family, which she missed out on experiencing in the real world. While Sword Art Online was hell to some people, it was nothing short of heaven for Red.

I will list the latest creations for evaluation from Pins and Needles here. Sorry for the lack of pretty layout, can't do much on a phone.

ID: 6837

Shop: Pins and Needles

Item Name: Leather Tunic

Item Type: Light Armor

Item Quality: Rare

Item Effect: Adds +2 to Damage Mitigation.

ID: 6870

Item Name: Eye of the Tiger

Item Type: Arm Band

Item Quality: Rare

Item Description: This is a band that ties around one's arm. This one in particular has an insignia of a tiger's eye sewn into the fabric.

Item Effect: Adds +1 Evasion and +1 Accuracy

ID: 6968

Shop: Pins and Needles

Item Name: Red Robe

Item Type: Light Armor

Item Quality: Perfect

Item Effect: Adds +2 Damage Mitigation and +1 Accuracy

End

Rewards:

- Rapier (+1 DMG)

- 2 Skill Points

- 425 Col

She let out a squeal as she felt the force of the snake come down upon her, but she didn't feel any pain. Why? She opened her eyes to see that the snake had struck the sword, not seeing that she had it in front of her. She let out a sigh of relief, "Why do I keep doing this myself... Something bad is going to happen if I keep this up..." She got up, brushed herself off, then headed back in town. When she got to Sai's shop and was greeted with the overdrive hype of the shop owner, she handed over the materials and took a seat. "I hope that little cafe is good... I really deserve a treat after this one."

[6877] 9 - 12 - 5 - 5 -

[___] 2/9 HP

[snake] 0/5 HP

There wasn't much time for her to react, but she did the only thing she could think of doing. She closed her eyes and held her sword in front of her. She was down to the last two points of health and the strongest attack from this snake could finish her off. She didn't feel upset, it was a better fate than returning to the real world. She was disappointed that she wouldn't have the chance to explore this world, start anew, and make friends. That was all she could ask for after all - a second chance. However, as she felt the vibration in the ground as the snake lifted its tail, she knew it was over.

+1 material

[6876] 2 - 12 - 15 - 8

[___] 2/9 HP

[snake] 1/5 HP

The snake was pretty livid at this point, having no pleasure in participating in this game of cat and mouse, or rather, snake and mouse. It pulled its face from the trunk of the tree and hissed, lunging again for the stumbling player. She had only just gotten up from rolling away and was trying to create some more distance between them. Obviously the only ideal method so far was the unsuccessful dodging of the tail that she had been doing so far. It had grabbed her in its mouth and tossed her down right in front of itself, leaving her virtually no time to run from the snake.

[6873] 1 - 5 - 1 - 2

[___] 3/9 HP

[snake] 1/5 HP

"Oh, no. This is no good." She wasn't faring very well, at all. Not to mention, she had a notably improved health bar compared to the last quest. Maybe she had taken this place for granted, nothing was as easy as it seemed. It was scary, knowing that she was three hits from certain death. She hadn't even factored in a critical hit from the snake, that was purely a terrifying thought that she couldn't bear to think about at this time. The snake had slowly closed the gap while she was wide-eyed and staring, but she was able to roll out the way as the snake slammed into the tree that she fell against.

[6872] 2 - 6 - 1 - 6

[___] 3/9 HP

[snake] 1/5 HP

She stood back up, sword still at the ready as the snake hissed at her. She nodded her head, signifying to herself that she was most certainly ready to get him this time around. As long as she could dodge it, there was no doubt that she could counter it, but it wasn't a guarenteed hit. The snake didn't close the gap, knowing this little creature was too blind to realize the vast variety of movesets that were implemented in this game. Instead of swiping to the left, it did it to the left, which caused her timing to be off. As she went to crouch beneath the tail, it struck her and sent her barreling into a nearby tree.

[6848] 4 - 5 - 8 - 5

[___] 4/9 HP

[snake] 1/5 HP

She figured the easiest way to go would be attack its tail as it attacked, that way she wouldn't be too close to the entirety of the body, but closer to the least amount possible. It tried to close the distance as it slithered towards her, but she kept running backwards. She didn't feel too fond of being eaten or constricted today and the message came across pretty clear to the snake after a few meters. It lifted itself up back to the standing position and winded up the tail attack gain, though this time, she was ready. When he attacked, she crouched underneath, but missed the perfect opportunity to strike.

[6847] 1 - 10 - 20 - 6

[___] 4/9 HP

[snake] 1/5 HP

She wasn't sure how to begin fighting this thing, it was just so... weird. There wasn't really much of a focal point for her to attack, such as the chest and back of the ape from earlier. This snake was just one continuous tube with fangs and a lot of strength, plus it was pretty quick too. It was far different than the boar from the other day and made the wolf seem like an easy animal to defeat. She took too long to recover though and the snake spun, whipping its tail in her direction. She raised her arms to block the blow, but it was still quite powerful. She didn't fall this time, but it did do damage.

[6846] 5 - 7 - 18 - 8

[___] 5/9 HP

[snake] 1/5 HP

Now that it was down to only one hit before the monsterous snake would fall to the girl, things would certainly heat up. Sadly, she wasn't anywhere near educated enough in how dangerous these creatures could be. In fact, before she had the time to get out of its range of attack, it pulled back its tail and slammed it into the girl. It caused her to be launched away, rolling time and time again until she came to a full and complete stop. Heart nearly thumping out of her chest, she picked herself back up, "Wha..." She had treaded the danger on her first attack, but now, she had completely crossed the line.

[6845] 7 - 10 - 2 - 6

[___] 6/9 HP

[snake] 1/5 HP

She had struck first, landing a successful hit, but not enough to really send him into the danger zone. Much like the ape that she had fought earlier, she noticed that the health of the enemies were one and a half times as much as the creatures in the last quest. It was pretty interesting to see some physical evidence of the enemies growing stronger, besides their cunning. Well, she figured it was their cunning that made them last longer against her. She wasn't so sure though. She rushed in for one more strike while the snake wasn't too phased, but... Boy, oh boy. This snake had breaken its boiling point.

[6844] 7 - 5 - 5 - 4

[___] 7/9 HP

[snake] 3/5 HP

She breathed out a sigh of relief, that was one of two of the beasties down that she needed to hunt. The other one that she had to go after was a large boa constrictor called Debzon... Debzon... Was she saying that right? Regardless, she hated snakes. Snakes, spiders, and other miscellaneous creatures that wiggled and squirmed. They weren't necessarily bad or ugly, but... She shuddered, even the thought of them was enough to send goosebumps up her arms. Unfortunately for her, it wasn't too long before the encountered the scaled monster, which was far bigger than she imagined.

Red had been told about another quest, one that promised some really handsome rewards. The most important one being that it offered an extra skill, one that didn't require the player to level up. Red needed whatever she could get at this point to increase her survivability, she really did enjoy this place. This time around, she had someone to accompany her along the way, but it was a guy. She was nervous, considering the quest went out of the safe zones of town, though she had to stop guilting her perception of everyone without reason. It was a stranger, not someone looking to snag her. There wasn't a reason to, why would he? She took a few moments to calm herself before pulling down her hood and coming out from the corner of the house, "Hi, Raeyliff." She still wasn't sure about this...

[6843] 9 - 7 - 16 - 9

[___] 7/9 HP

[Ape] 0/5 HP ... +1 material, +25 Col

"Oh, come on. I really have to get back to town before nightfall." She wasn't very fond of the dark, especially in this unknown world. There was no telling what creatures awaited passersby after the sun had gone down and she wasn't going to be finding out any time soon, unless it was from some sort of player book or trustworthy source in the town. She dashed to the left and it copied her, to the right and the same result, but once she decided to stay still, the creature's curiosity of the sudden change of pace got the best of it. The moment it leaned around the corner, Red struck it right in the nose.

[6842] 1 - 7 - 4 - 4

[___] 7/9 HP

[Ape] 1/5 HP

She rocked her head back, quickly pressing her palm against the area that had been struck, "Ouch, seems I underestimated it..." The animal was pretty smart, in fact, it had copied Red and had better accuracy. Even without warming up its throwing arm, it hit her spot on. She ran forwards, knowing that this ape was smart enough not to close the gap again, but it wouldn't go down that easy. It started to circle around the trunk of a nearby tree, one that was big enough that he could easily hide behind it. As she circled one way, he would circle the other, and vice versa.

[6841] 2 - 11 - 15 - 8

[___] 7/9 HP

[Ape] 1/5 HP

It threw up its arms in rage, throwing up clumps of grass as it hobbled away. I didn't expect this thing to be as tough as the wolves from the other day, but even still, I'm not so sure they really are. It was certainly a more interactive animal, considering that it was behaving more or less like she would expect an actual monkey to, but it wasn't the brightest. Or so she thought. After it had made enough distance between itself and the girl, he started picking up rocks. She had thought it was still picking up grass, but that was a big mistake. Before she knew it, she saw the arm of the ape extend and shortly after, would experience a thump in the middle of her forehead.

[6840] 6 - 7 - 9 - 8

[___] 8/9 HP

[Ape] 1/5 HP

She had a bright idea, I could just throw some rocks at the ugly thing. She picked up some rocks, having no real knowledge that they didn't do any damage, then proceeded to throw them at the animal high up in the tree. A few had actually hit and the ape was getting wildly upset at this point, angered enough that it actually started climbing back down the tree. Once it got to the trunk, it lept towards the girl in the hood, knocking her to the ground before she could unsheath her rapier. "Get off of me!" She pulled the rapier out and struck the ape in the gut, forcing it off of her.

[6839] 3 - 6 - 19 - 3

[___] 9/9 HP

[Ape] 3/5 HP

It waited there for a long time, waiting to see what this similar stature creature would do, but Red was wondering the same thing. Neither were very intelligible of each other, which was why they were at a standstill at the moment. Obviously, the animal was highly upset with Red's sudden offense, but it wasn't sure if it was an intentional attack. On the other hand, Red wasn't sure if these were attackable monsters. She hadn't read about there being a bow or slingshot or anything like that, what could she really do? It wasn't like she had anything she could throw at the ap- Wait a minute...

[6838] 2 - 6 - 17 - 4

[___] 9/9 HP

[Ape] 3/5 HP

She had landed the first hit on the oversized monkey, square in the back. It was just potent enough to cause the ape to leap away, enraged by having some foreign animal disrupting the peace of his five course banana dinner. Red ran forwards, while it was still trying to recover from the sudden shock, but before she could reach the hairy monster, it lept up high onto the trunk of the tree. It climbed upwards, increasing the distance by a notable amount, which left a pretty good impression on Red. Who would have thought? They actually have more tactics than just attacking and running away?

[6837] 7 - 11 - 11 - 5

[___] 9/9 HP

[Ape] 3/5 HP

Red was kind of wide-eyed, surprised to have someone rush her out so quickly after only having just met. She figured they would have had a little bit to talk about before discussing the details of the quest, but that must be the nature of the NPCs. It was quite confusing to have to detract some of the "normal" human responses and habits from her expectations, but she marched on. She had a quest to do and it wasn't going to get done itself, plus she wanted to try out a cafe she stumbled upon the other day. Once she had made it to the forest, she found the first target - an ape.

She walked in, being immediately greeted by a woman that looked like she was hard at work, "Why, hello! What brings you around to this no-name smithshop?" Red wasn't too sure how to respond, either of two obvious answers implying that she thought this was in-fact a lowly no-name shop, "I'm here for a quest." The smith stood up, approached the woman and whispered under her breath, "Perfect, that's just what I needed. I've been in need of someone to retrieve a few items for me, listen closely..." She told Red about the details of the quest, then pushed Red outside, "See ya when you get back!"

Today's quest was more of one that would increase her ability to fight, in due respect, it would provide her with a stronger rapier. She had been told that monsters have varying capacities of health, not just a flat three health a piece. Of course, that's all she had ever encountered, but she knew she needed to prepare for the future. She was on her way to a different shop, one under a more homely and simple name of "Sai's Shop." She wasn't so sure whether Sai was a boy's or girl's name, but if the player book was correct, then it was most likely going to be another NPC. Even they seemed so realistic.

((My phone is being really stupid so I can't copy and paste. ): I have attached the info, but I will edit in whenever I can into the text post.))

Red closes the door to her crafting room, giving her the isolated concentration needed to create the best crafts possible. However, it didn't necessarily ensure that she'd create a perfect craft every time. With needle, thread, and a variety of other tools at her disposal, she begins on creating the item... "Let's do this!"

She was rather pleased to find her first ever craft turned out to be a rather good quality, especially since it was for herself! She scurried to try it on, finding the fit to be pretty comfortable. "I'm one step closer to being safer in this world..."

[6837] 1/15 - 1 - 11 (Rare) - 5

[6838] 1/15 - 2 - 6 (Bad) - 6

ID: 6837

Shop: Pins and Needles

Item Name: Leather Tunic

Item Type: Light Armor

Item Quality: Rare

Item Effect: Adds +2 to Damage Mitigation.