trenttrent20

"Im pretty nooby still, just sorta post-nooby. That doesn't make any sense..." His voice trailed off as he scratched his chin, shutting his feet for a moment. He'd do just about anything to get some more skill points, and helping new players seemed somewhat easy and fun. Who knows, maybe he'd find one or two he'd like and keep around with him anyway. Adhae would surely be grateful; she loved new people and their interactions. His feet regained their ability to stay still and he put his arms down, looking to the kid. "But, yeah why not. I was just waiting for my friend to be done buying some armor anyway. Besides, boar meat sounds pretty good right now. " He smiled and waited for a response. 

"Oh, and what's your name?" 

"Hell you won't have enough col for anything your first few levels." He pushed back the hair that was invading his face, particularly around his eyes. It had been getting somewhat messy and unkept lately. A new hairstyle or bun was greatly needed. "Well, as long as we don't go too far out..." Verus put his hands together, making one slight clap before finishing his sentence. "I could tank all the damage if you'd want." There was nothing else really to do at the moment. The city wasn't gonna give him anything; Adhaerere had most of the col. He might as well go help out a newbie and earn a few skill points. "If you wouldn't want me to though, I can always direct you to somewhere in the city." 

Verus nodded his head to the guy's words, understanding his reasoning. Just another newbie running around undecided what to do. Though he hadn't met many others, he figured that most of them would get lost or something in the Town of Beginnings. "Save up your Col for a while, make armor your first priority. Level one was somewhat scary to deal with." His moved his left hand to the back of his neck, rubbing it slightly. "With low health and all, it's pretty freaky." He paused, mind focusing in on his partner who was somewhere in the city. Had she found anything? Was she alright? After a few seconds of silence on his part, he focused back in on the new guy. "Oh, yeah that's another thing. Find someone to help. I probably woulda died if I hadn't met my partner." Verus wore a confident grin after that, moving his hand down and letting it grip the hand of his rapier. It was tough, but now he was better off. He was about to hit level five and get up to twenty health. He thought about it a lot recently; being up that high would give him plenty of freedom to practice new things on lower level mobs. It would only get better for him from there.

After assessing the situation for a moment, he grinned widely, showing that it was no big issue. He had offered a hand for the guy to get up, but the man was quick to rise. "Oh no worries man, everyone makes a mistake every once and a while." He repositioned his belt and fixed the straps that held his rapier. It hung on his left, being the only thing equipped on Verus. He really did need some more items and armor, but he just really wanted a better rapier. He was not too far from going up a tier with it, just a few more points and he'd be able to do much more damage then what he was doing now. The thought caused him to smile, but he quickly dismissed it, looking to the guy again. "If you were that deep in thought, can I assume you're a relatively new player?" Verus crossed his arms, cocking his hip slightly to lean to the left. "Or were you just looking for like, a store or something you know? This place is almost too big and confusing at first."

Verus stood, back against the wall as he stared at the one opposite him. It was well kept, but undecorated. Nothing special really in the store other than the treats it produced. He let out a rather audible sigh and shut his eyes, tipping his head slightly downwards. Verus was totally fine with just sitting there and waiting as long as it lead to some peach cobbler. He would make sure to hold her against it; he would for sure get his delicious pie. Then again, he would take just about any food he was given.

Verus watched as his party member was taken into a back room. It made him question whether or not he would go after her and see what behind the door held. It also made him question on whether he would be able to snag a pastry from behind the counter in time. However, he settled for neither of the thoughts, and simply leaned up against the wall, placing his foot back onto it. There he would stay and wait until she had come through the door again, or had screamed for help.

“I will be the best at everything.” He makes that promise to himself as he sped off to a couple of the trees they hadn’t searched. Verus was looking for a certain tree, but had no idea which one it would be. It was the thing he had wanted all this time, and he figured he would need the fruit if it would ever happen.

ID#61599

LD:19

Then, in an arm’s reach appeared the biggest, juiciest looking peach fruit he’d seen in the game. Then again, it was the first peach he’d found, but it was still rather giant. It made a slight noise when he plucked it from his home, but he really couldn’t describe how it sounded. It was just bigger than the palm of his gloved hand. Verus quickly rushed back to Adhae, only to pull out his fruit as she was showering hers to him. He dug into his sack and fetched the other apple he had found, slowly shoving both of them into her arms. “Take.”

-2 Materials (Apple & Peach)

He watched as she triumphantly seized an apple, holding it up as high as he could. Verus started to slow clap, nodding his head slowly and calling out to her. “That a...girl?” His sentence paused as she instantly fell out of the tree, crashing down with the grace of a humpback whale. It was truly an enlightening experience enough so to make Verus grin. He did not laugh, he did not cry; it was a grin. But not any grin. This grin was a judgement grin, and he sat there, baring some of his teeth after a little while of his smirk. “Those cat-like reflexes of yours are really starting to shine hun.” A snicker escaped him and he walked over to her, pulling her up. The apple was miraculously saved, and that in itself was truly impressive. “An arm or leg for an apple. Good work tank, now let me show you how it’s done.”

ID# 61597

LD: 5

Verus spent a good couple of minutes scouring the ground for fallen fruits, hoping to be as lucky as he was last time. He had to follow up on his word, but resulted in two handfuls of air. With his shoulders lowered and a sluggish walk, he retreated back to her. “....imsorry.”

“Food is definitely in the top fifty things I care about.” He joked, watching her begin to violate some trees as well. He hadn’t really interacted with nature yet in the game, and it felt strangely realistic. The texture of the peeling bark was there, and it was apparent that each tree had gone through a good amount of weathering. The sensation of its touch was somewhat relaxing; it felt real.

“I mean, if you’re going to make me a cobbler….” His pitch in voice changed to a higher tone, and he shrugged his shoulders slightly while speaking. Peach cobbler sounded damn good right now.
 

ID#61595 results:

LD:16

Before he went to follow after her, he stopped, holding his foot in the air before he set it down. He placed it in the position it was just in and slowly reached down. It was a bright red apple, fresh from the branch it had fallen from. He held it up in his hand, looking over to the fruitless Adhae. “I’m already better at this than you.”

+1 Material (Apple)

With a tug of his shirt, Verus fell in line, taking up the rear as the now party of three left the shop. He didn’t register that Adhae had pretty much started her first quest, and assumed it to be just a materials run. Then it all started to click for him; she wanted to get a profession. Verus had never really taken her to be any sort of cook, but it was a game after all, she could be anything she wanted to be.
 

The NPC was rather quick on her feet, leading the two players through the town rather speedily. The blooming trees appeared over a few of the town’s outer houses, signifying the start of what he assumed to be a farm of some sort. What they came upon was a decent sized orchard, filled with dozens of different trees. There were a good variety of trees from as far as he could tell, with him guessing that there were around eight or so different species. “Neat.”

After the NPC had said its lines and bailed, Verus slowly strolled over the nearest tree and knocked on it. “So you’re going to be able to carry me, AND make me food?” The tree was strong and sturdy, coded well into the game. “I would be an idiot to pass that up.”

The trance of fresh food was strong, and kept Verus pulled in for quite some time. It must have been minutes of him just eyeing the rising amounts of steam and warmth that were emitted from the fresh creations. His eyes had become slightly dry, and he realized that he had not blinked in a while. In doing so, he sat backwards, finally out of the spell he was shortly trapped in. He stood up and dusted the back of his pants off, placing his hands on his hips and listening to the two speak back and forth. Verus had no idea what they were talking about. The one thing that did stand out to him was the mentions of the words “perks”, “damage” and “EXP”. He dialed in onto the conversation, learning how a simple profession would further NPC’s and players in the game by being able to produce items and earn more skill points. He was interested, but not in baking.

Verus raised a hand like he was going to ask something, pointer finger extended upwards and all, only to pull it back down and remain silent. He had nothing to say and didn’t want to extend their time there, even if it was in a trance-inducing bakery. They had places to be, and armor to buy, but he remained quiet. Adhae looked like she was having a little fun.

Verus followed along behind her, after departing from the armor store, chiming in occasionally here and there. “Nah, save the materials, you’ll be able to use all our Col anyway with no worries.” He smiled and continued to listen about how she always enjoyed shopping and trying out new items of apparel. He was reasonably okay with going from store to store to search for a few things as long as they would assist the two in their adventures. However, he was somewhat impatient and would come off whiny after long periods of doing nothing too exciting.

“The Bashful Iron.” He whispered the store’s name before stepping inside after Adhae, admiring the small baking shop. It was simply decorated with primary colors and was fairly small, only showing off freshly made items. The aroma that filled the little boutique was quite nice; a mix of fresh breads and a slight hint of pastries filled the air. It calmed him down for the most part and somehow put a limit on what he wanted to say. It was if he really couldn’t think of anything to say; mesmerized by the smell. His ears picked up the two talking, but he had already begun to peer into the counter shelf full of freshly made rolls. He had been living off of the beginner bread so long he forgot how nice it was to be able to even see new food. His eyes were double the size and he just sat there, crouching down and admiring the food. He was a goner.

The shop was quaint and named similar to the dozens of other shops around. They must have been on the equipment side of the marketplace, as a couple of other adventurers had begun to walk by. The two of them, Verus and Adhae, stuck out somewhat, barren of any form of protective armor or non-starter clothing. He almost felt embarrassed that they had worked somewhat hard and hadn’t really divulged in rewarding themselves with nicer clothes or maybe a better weapon. However, it was all in good reason; he would help dress her in the clothing and armor she needed before he would worry about himself. He trusted her enough to have a good feeling that she wouldn’t run away with all his Col, and he figured that if they’ve been together all this time it would work out well. Besides, having an armored tank was always good to hide behind in bleak times.

Verus moved up next to her, hip to hip, and too planted his face against the window, peering in. “Oh I know you won’t get sick.” He used his hands to act as semi-binoculars to help him peer inside the store, inspecting the amor lining the walls and on several shelves. “Did you see any you like in there? Or anywhere? There has to be something in there that would look good on you.” The store was still closed due to it still being the beginning of the day, but he wait with her if she truly sees something worth buying. He pressed himself off against the glass and took a slight step back. “We have enough to get you something now you know.”

He pushed his back forwards, resulting in a few pops and cracks. The day was young and the sun was still slightly rising. It had been ages since he had been up so early, but he may start after seeing how beautiful mornings are in this world. Verus let out a slight groan and raised up his arms, stretching everything he had. The town was relatively peaceful this early on, and only a few of the NPC’s were awake and getting ready for the day. Verus paused and looked back, seeing Adhae peering into one of the many merchant shops we had passed by already. She had been eyeing just about everything we passed, and her urge to buy something was blatantly apparent.

“Oh come on now,” muttered Verus, not really sure what else to say. He turned around and walked over only to see her smushing her face into the glass. “I wouldn’t think that that’s really clean…”

After a few days of mob grinding just outside of the small village of Horunka, the Verus and Adhaerere had decided to cash out at where they began the game. The walk back took them a fair amount of time, but they'd eventually arrive. The primary focus was to find her some armor and meet back up later, so the plan was to split and try and cover twice as much ground. He waved as Adhaerere left to scour the Town of Beginnings and stood there for a moment, eyeing the massive gate they were standing under. He had never really taken the time to explore his spawn point. The only place he knew of in the town was the small pub he'd Adhae in. After that, they got out of town as quick as possible and started to grind a few levels just to be safe. He had no idea where any of the shops or restaurants were, and was slightly curious. 

The city was alive with NPC's, as he had somehow found his way into one of the many marketplaces of the town. His eyes were slightly above the crowd, being just tall enough to see over most of the bobbing heads. There was a strangely large amount of traffic in the small area, and he would get shoved or pushed every once in a while. The food vendors had seemed to be drawing in a lot of attention, but from what Verus was able to see it was all just basic ingredients. Adhae would have loved to come to this district. He had really gotten lucky with his first encounter with another player. It made him believe that players were mostly kind and strong, but then again he'd only have met two people so far.

He squeezed out of the crowd, literally pushing himself out of the belly of the mob of NPC's into an open area that was much less crowded. It was strange that they had gravitated into one collective instead of spreading out a little, but he did not think much of it afterwards. Verus dusted off a couple of hairs on his shirt and continued to search around, pausing for moment. Pulling up his menu and looking for a map of the city. A small green dot was moving in the opposite distance of him, and he could only assume that it was Adhae searching about. He zoomed out by pulling his hand in a pinching motion back at him, looking at the city as a whole. 

Verus' map disappeared as he was bumped into by a considerably smaller looking player. Verus looked slightly down at him and stared. He didn't look much different than Verus based on clothes alone, so it was as if they were both considered new players; even though he wasn't. "Well..."

"There's no point in me having it anyway. Well, that's not really true but you could use the money more than I could!" His grin shined true as he watched her hesitantly accept the gesture. It really was nothing to him anyway, they would generate far more col with this simple investment. It worked for both sides of the party. 

"Lucky? I wish I got to move around a good amount. To meet new people and see other parts of the country was the dream, but alas it never came." His parents were hard working people, but that would be the overall problem Dillon had with them. They were never around for him to really talk to or learn from, so he resorted to the internet to solve his teenage troubles. "They're a nice couple, just extremely hard workers." His statement was short and sweet, wrapping up all of her questions about his parents in a concise summary. That would keep her at bay for a while, or so he thought.

"What do you mean?" His voice was slightly shaky, but his sentence came out sounding semi-normal. He was thoroughly confused with her question, as he had never heard one with that certain style of interrogation. Verus took a brief pause to think, tapping his foot rapidly against the ground. His leg began to shake from the action and he sat there in his seat genuinely repeating the question to himself. "If a crystal ball.." He became fixated on this part of the question, repeating it once more afterwards. It was just question he had not expected to have been asked; it caught him off guard. "Well, I've alwa-"

Verus couldn't complete his sentence due to another unforeseen incident. A young girl had fell and poured some sort of liquid all over his lower body, causing him to wince and jump backwards. His response to the action further caused his chair to tip backwards, sending him crashing onto the ground with a somewhat soft thud. It was not as dramatic as Verus made it seem. He tugged at his pants and tried to air out his loins, quickly standing up and slightly bouncing as he angrily looked for the c culprit. "You..."

He felt as if it would be a good day, and by looks of the weather outside; it was. The two of them had been walking for sometime, but hadn't really found anything worth sticking their swords into. Sure they had fought off a handful of boars and wolves, but he truly sorta wanted something else. Even though they just started, he wanted to put himself out there a little, maybe fight the momma boar or an elder wolf or something. However, he wanted to at about the median threshold between easy and somewhat difficult mobs as they were both still pretty low level noobs. 

"More questions?" He had gotten slightly overwhelmed with the amount of things he had said about himself in the past few days. It wasn't really the questions that bothered him, more so that he never really talked about himself. "But to answer your question, no. We stayed in the same prefecture my whole life. It was pretty boring if you asked me." Verus looked to her, wondering how she would reply. Before she could though, he quickly pulled up his menu, showing her his col. "So I know you've been thinking about that ARMOR lately, so Ive come to the decision I might as well chip in." He quickly pulled up his friends list and clicked on the transfer button, sending her a request to accept 650 col. "Besides, I need someone to hide behind."

As quickly as he was thrown into the water, he was dragged back out again. This time, he was dropped with much more force, except it felt as if he was pushed down this time. A much larger splash had followed, and a slight indentation of his body was left int he rocks underwater. He landed with a grunt, but was muffled as his face went under. He pushed himself back up, wiped his hair from his eyes and coughed up a little pond water. "I'm pretty sure this is bullying now."
 

Verus: 14/16
 

He paused for a second, noticing that his health bar had increased since he last saw it. "Did we just level up by beating me up?" He laughed and stood up, trying to ring out some of the water from his now soaked shirt. He was tempted to just take it off but figured the cool water would feel good for a while. "Well...thanks for that." After picking up and fixing his rapier back in place, he pulled up his menu and allotted the skill point to where his others were put. "So, what now?"

But laying here doing nothing is niceeeeee." He let out a semi-loud grunt and rolled over onto his stomach, looking away from her. His eyes focused on a small lake nearby and watched as some mobs were surrounded it. "There." He sluggishly lifted up his left arm and pointed at the pond a decent ways away. "Take me there." They had been fighting for so long and all he wanted to do at the moment was bask in some lake water. "Better yet, carry me there. Put all your points into strength. It'll be worth it. I'll feed you in...in bread." He quickly opened his menu and summoned a loaf of bread, holding it up in the air. "This is an offer you can't refuseeee." The ground beneath him was warm, mostly because of the sun beating down. It had been a good day, he had gotten some skill points and got to further know his partner, Mallory.