Lycan

The boar wasn't having none of that. In retaliation, the animal threw its weight sideways towards Lycan. Luckily, the boy was quicker and kicked himself backwards before any damage was done. As he landed, the white lion logo on his shoulder caught his eye. Then, he remembered Ariel and the cloak she had gifted him. Were it not for her, he would likely be dead.

Lycan snarled the corner of his lip at the animal.

"Not today..." Lycan hissed and dropped to a low stance.

"Let's keep on truckin' until I hit a wall," the boy muttered to himself. Outwardly, he would clearly look like a crazy person. In actuality, well... yeah, he may have a few screws loose. Loose screws give character though, am I right?
 

Lycan searched for a while, before he found another similar plant. This time, when he plucked it, the plant shattered into data fragments.

"Sunnufa..." Lycan began to swear before his vision focused through the sparkling fragments at the board charging headlong his way.

"This gunna hu--"

The beast rammed its head right against Lycan's face sending him rolling through the flower fields in a spray of pedals. He kicked out an arm and a leg to catch himself into a skid. On his burning forehead leaked a red glow and exposed avatar frame.

"You deserved that one," he mumbled to himself. "But you deserve this one!"

Lycan broke into a sprint from his crouched stance, this time leading with his blade's pommel. The boar made a squeal at his approach to which the teen cut short with a dull thud against the beast's noggin. Now the two bore similar red marks on their heads. 

"Nailed it!" Lycan exclaimed with a smile. "I'm having a fantastic day!"

With a quick press of the accept button, the herb transferred to his inventory in the usual flashy manner.

"Y'know..." he mumbled to himself. "Maybe I should check and see if I can score some more of those things. If he's going to open up Alchemy, I might need a few mats to get started..."
 

Lycan sifted through the flora once again. Occasionally, he popped up to check for monsters, all of them luckily far out of reach. As he returned his eyes to the ground, he caught a glimpse of a similar plant. Quickly he plucked it.

Material Item
Name: Herb
Rarity: Common
Description: A common herb either used in cooking
or rendered down into a salve.

"Aw yiss," he exclaimed as he hit accept. A huge grin plastered his features.

Lycan frowned at her coldness. His shoulder's slumped and head hung. He never was good at this sort of thing. Perhaps he should just be grateful she wasn't feeding him to the wolves. She was strictly business, like his old chemistry professor, Mr. Aston.

Lycan took a deep breath to shake off his incompetence as a sociable human being. Maybe this world changed people. Maybe this world didn't permit good will.

The young swordsman drew his blade from its sheath with a hum.

"Yes, ma'am," Lycan replied with a flat, defeated tone.

He gripped the steel in his hand and threw away his cheery demeanor. Lycan buckled and the knees and broke into a sprint, blade to his side like he was taught in the real world. As he closed the gap between them, the animal perked its ears at his approach. Black beady eyes lit red, and a snort emanated from the boar.
 

"Ai!" Lycan shouted as he planted his foot firmly into the grass, blade risen above his head with both hands. "KEN!"

The blade swept smoothly across with a sweet and faint song of steel in the wind.

Panting, blade still stuck in the grass and stomach sore, Lycan let out a deep sigh.

"Get rekt," he mouthed with a grin.

The boy pried his blade from the grass when his amber gaze fell on the odd package on the floor.

"Odd..." Lycan muttered as he plucked the item from the ground. Immediately, a small info window appeared over his grip.

Material Item
Name: Cut of Pork
Rarity: Common
Description: A shank of boar meat carved from the rear leg.

Lycan grinned, knowing exactly what he was going to do with that thing. He hit accept and the item dashed to the wind into his inventory. Confident with his recent solo victory, the boy hustled to the eastern flower fields.

When he arrived, Lycan double checked his quest screen.

"Herbs, huh?" he mumbled. "The hell do those look like?"

With a shrug and dismissal of his interface, Lycan dropped to his knees. He checked to make sure the coast was clear before sifting through the grass, wild flowers, and miscellaneous vegetation. 

"Maybe this?" he asked as he plucked a broad leafed plant from the earth. Another window appeared over his hand.

Material Item
Name: Herb
Rarity: Common
Description: A common herb either used in cooking
or rendered down into a salve.

The wild beast charged, head lowered for a strong blow. Lycan tired of dodging, the boar was almost dead. Instead, he braced his feet and reversed his grip with both hands on the hilt. Lycan was going to skewer the bastard if it meant taking the hit.

The boar roared, Lycan raised his sword high.

Tusks slammed into the teen's stomach and with all the force he could manage, Lycan brought the blade down. It hit flesh and kept sliding deeper until it yielded into the grass below. The youth stared insistently into his foe's eyes and the red hue faded from them. Ripples of fragmenting data spanned across the animal's bluish black fur.

"That's for Alastar..." Lycan hissed, remembering the player who fell to the boars just outside city limits.

Then, the monster exploded into a spray of glimmering digital fragments leaving just the boy, his blade, and a small wrapped item on the ground.
 

"Come on! Just die already!" Lycan roared, again taking the fight to the boar. This time, his mark began to burn.

Lycan bolted to the boar's side, startling the swine. A fire of rage in his own eyes, Lycan dipped his blade low and back up, catching the beast into the gut and sending it rolling away. The boar tumbled in the grass and came to a stop... still alive.

Lycan let a few words slip his lips that would have made his mother cringe and readied his sword.

With a snarl on his face. Lycan took the fight to the boar. This time, the boy charged, blade held to the side. As he neared the animal, he stepped firm and began to swing. The system read his motions as an art and swung diagonally, over the boar.

"Damn!" Lycan remarked as the beast opened its tusked maw.

Before it could close down on his leg, Lycan rappelled backward and avoided the damage. The boar trampled the grass at its feet in anger.

Again came the animal's attack, again Lycan prepared. He raised his blade to bear down on the beast's head for a finishing blow. As the boar charged, Lycan dropped the edge. Sensing danger, the animal skirted to the side. Lycan's sword dug into the grass and the boar ran wide for a second pass.

Lycan braced his boot against the flat of the blade, and loosed it from the ground. His face twisted in dissatisfaction.

"Damn," Lycan swore at his own incompetence.

Again, the boar charged, squealing and howling with all its might. The attacks became familiar and predictable to the boy. Again, he dodged to the left as if fighting a bull. This time, as the beast passed, Lycan adopted the familiar stance of a swordsman. Again, the hum filled the air. Luminosity gathered on the polished edge of his blade.

"Ai!" Lycan shouted in the same manner he remembered.

Pulled faster than he's ever moved before, the blade cut into the boars hide diagonally. Lycan tensed his arm, remembering the tatami mats back home. His foot planted firmly in front of him and core tightened. The blade grew brighter.

"Ken!" the youth chanted as his sword lashed out a second time.

The blade halted in the air, motes of energy hissing from it's tip. Lycan grinned.

"Holy!!" he remarked, the power of the swing still hot on his arms. Compared to his kendo training, nothing felt quite like that. In the midst of his admiration, the boar charged again. This time, the swine stomped wildly his way, full of hatred.

Lycan clenched his teeth and lowered his brow. He fell into a low, one arm stance and prepared for the attack. This time, he timed it properly, sidestepping with far more grace and finesse. Before his foot landed, he brought his sword arm high and across. The system didn't aid this movement, and his assumption that it would, threw off the timing ingrained in him from his real world swordplay.

A double miss.

Lycan staggered to a new stance, sword across his chest and held out with his freehand at the ready behind the edge. The swine halted its charge and turned a pair of red eyes toward the youth.

As Lycan continued toward the east fields, a nearby spiral of light formed. Familiar with this re-spawn animation, he readied his blade. As the light gathered, a shape began to take form. It culminated into a short, stocky creature and burst into existence. The wild boar proceeded to chew on the grass as though it had been grazing this whole time.

Lycan lowered his blade, assuming he was outside of aggro or the beast hadn't seen him. This simple movement caught the boar's attention. It's black, beady eyes lit up red. Then, with a squeal and a stomp, the boar began charging.

"Sunnofa--!" Lycan tried to sidestep out of the way, his Blood Wolve's Cloak lagging ever so slightly in his wake. Luckily, the young swordsman skirted (literally) the damage by a hair. When his feet firmly planted from the dodge, Lycan twisted his wrist to set the blade low. As he began to set it into motion, a faint hum and soft luminosity possessed his blade. As though his body became pulled by strings, Lycan's arm shot across in a sharp diagonal arc and snapped to a rest at a high point. Motes of energy danced off his singing blade.

The boar reeled back with a howl and shook its head, a red laceration across the side of its head.

As Lycan walked away, he pulled his system menu back up and selected the Quest tab. The two quests from the flower girl and the alchemist appeared. Lycan checked both of them and found they existed in the same general area off to the east gate. With a rub of his chin, Lycan hit the close button and continued his stroll toward the gate.

"That was weird..." Lycan mumbled to himself. "Never seen a game so interactive... For a moment there, I thought they were actually people."

The teen looked up to the sky for a moment. Clouds wistfully breezed by with the bright sun shining down on them. Small avian creatures soared about with larger ones circling in the distance. The boy returned his gaze to the street as to avoid bumping into the comers and goers who shared it with him.

"It just feels so real..." Lycan thought to himself, "I know there's just another floor above us, but there's a whole sky, and weather.... Is it like that on each floor?"

Before long, the boy had journeyed his way to the east gate. At his feet glowed the marker indicating the border of the safezone. He hadn't been outside it's limits for some time, and the few times he had, death knocked on his door. He still remembered the player he saw killed at this very spot the first day he logged in.

"No time like the present," he assured himself.

Then, he crossed over into the field. This time, drawing his sword from his back to be prepared for any sudden re-spawns or stray aggro.

<<Making A Living: Alchemy>>
Quest Giver: Galli of the Flask
Time Limit: None
Details: Help Galli and his daughter. Bring him (1) basic herb & (1) water flask.
Rewards: <<Profession: Alchemy>>
(1) Crafting Material

The window popped up in front of the novice player with a blue accept icon and red rejection icon. Quickly, he mashed the accept button and the window dissipated. Behind it, Galli cradled his daughter under the stand and let her rest back into the makeshift nest of rags and cloth.

"Hey, how about I go get you some ingredients?" Lycan remarked.

"Wait, I have the quest, why am I still going on with this?"

"You'd do that?" Galli asked. Lycan nodded.

"I have a weapon and armor, it should be easy for me to hunt out there. It'd be too dangerous for you."

"He's an NPC, what am I talking about?"

Galli's expression brightened up. For a bearded man in the mid of his life, the sight hit Lycan right in the feels.

"Thank you! With the ingredients, I can start making potions again! If you do that for me, I'll teach you a thing or two about alchemy," Galli thanked.

"You got it," Lycan replied before he turned about and began walking in the opposite direction.
 

"I appreciate the offer," Galli commented, "but I cannot accept your charity. I got myself into this mess, I can get us out."

Lycan looked up, closing his windows.

"Listen, man, that's fine if you want to man up and own whatever happened, but you can't do that to the girl."

"The girl...? Wait, isn't she also an NPC? What the heck am I talking about?"

Galli paused for a moment, then looked at his daughter. By now, his rocking has soothed her back into a slumber. Her small thumb nested in her lips and shut eyes still moist with tears. The NPC father looked back to Lycan.

"I used to be a famous alchemist," Galli began, "I had the best shop in the city, but I wanted more... I dabbled in some forbidden concoctions to try and make some more money, but they found out. They had me arrested, took my shop, took my savings, my wife left us both for someone more wealthy... I have nothing. I can't even afford the ingredients for a basic health potion."

"Wait... is this...?" 

"So that's why your prices are so high..." Lycan mumbled. He nodded his head as he figured it out. "What can I do to help?"

Galli's anger softened, but only briefly.

"Daddy, I'm hungry..." Leccah cried out, tugging again at his robes.

The NPC's rage completely diffused. He let out a sigh and turned to the girl under the stand. Carefully, he plucked her from her impromptu nest and cradled her in his arms, cooing her with reassurance too soft for Lycan to hear.

"You can't help us," Galli commented. Lycan approached the stand again.

"Come on, man. You barely have anything to sell, let me help. I have some Col if that'll help?"

Lycan opened a trade window, thinking that was the best way to donate the money, but when he typed in a few variations of Galli's name, nothing came up.

"Weird..." Lycan mumbled.

"Not now, Leccah!" Galli muttered, trying to kick his leg free. The sobbing continued.

"Is that a kid?" Lycan, now concerned, tried to go around the cart to find out for himself.

"No! You can't come on this side!" Galli warned, spreading his arms wide to keep him from getting on the other side.

It didn't matter, because under the crook of the NPC's arm, Lycan saw a small girl with cherry blossom hair tucked into the nook of the stand. Her face was dirty, rags coiled around her for warmth, and eyes glistening with sadness. Then, Galli shoved Lycan away and sent the boy staggering.

"There's a girl under there!" Lycan shouted, catching his balance. Then, the puzzle pieces started to fall into place.

"That's none of your business!" Galli cried out.

Lycan glanced down at the wares on his stand. Compared to the player run shops in the marketplace, the options were sparse. In fact, there was one potion that read:

Name: Potion of Nothing
Maker: Galli of the Flask
Store: Galli's Stand
Description: An empty flask filled with the purest
nothingness one can find.
Price: 10,000col

"Ten thousand col?!" Lycan exclaimed. "The hell?!"

"If you don't like my wares, you can leave!" Galli barked back with a slam of his fist on the cart. Doing so elicited a small whimper.

"What was that?" the teen remarked.

"Nothing! Go!" Galli shouted and the whimper turned into a soft sobbing.

"Seriously though," Lycan continued as he peered to the base of the stand. "What is that?"

"Daddy...?" the sobbing voice called out as something tugged at Galli's robes.

"I'm afraid I do not," Galli, now sounding frustrated, lowered his tone. "If you are not here to buy or barter, get out!"

Lycan took a step back, his brain trying to rack what the proper response would be.

"Do I need to role play this out? Like, do I need to ask him if he needs help or something? Do I need to ask for a recipe...?"

"Uh... Sorry! Sorry!" Lycan stammered. "Can I see your wares?"

The boys twisted his face in confusion, completely going off the fly on this one. Galli still wore anger on his face.

"Everything you see here is for sale."

The white haired boy walked up to Galli's stand.

"Good morning, lad," the NPC greeted with a bow. "What may I do for you?"

"I'm looking for a quest," Lycan replied. Gallie raised a brow.

"A quest? I'm afraid you'll find nothing of the sort here, just potions and crystals for your everyday needs."

Now, Lycan raised a brow.

"Axios said the NPC was Galli, what the hell?"

"Uh... do you have a questing potion?" Lycan tried, oblivious to how to initiate the start of this adventure.

"Nothing?" Lycan repeated. He turned to look back ant her only to catch the guard of her blade to his nose as she briskly passed. The teen reeled a step back and cupped his nose as she continued out into the fields. She didn't look back. She didn't say another word.

Lycan struggled with human interaction, especially starting out. He was a terrbile read of character and even if the message were tied to a rock and bashing into his skull, he'd still slip up. Close friends were a different matter, for he usually had enough time to learn the rights and wrongs. Close friends, however, were few and far between.

"Hey, wait!" he called to Lessa, reaching out for her and crossing over from the safezone. "Hey! What do you mean, 'nothing'?!"

His tact translated as stupidity, his mind filled with nothing but pleasant small talk and the desire to learn more about his acquaintance.

"If anything, you're a really nice person," he assessed without true knowledge of her, just the past events. "I meant what do you like to do? If you're not fighting up there, do you like hunting treasure, do you like helping people, or are you just... you?"

Lycan finally matched her pace, still rubbing at his nose. Instead of the usual pain he recalled in the real world, it felt more like a numbing tingle. He scrunched his nose with the urge to sneeze, but it never came. Meanwhile, he became oblivious to the boars and other players that fought in the field around them.

They were in the fields now. People died here.

The pair encroached the city limits. Unlike the marketplace, players were sparse here. Either they were venturing inward to earn a well deserved rest from the morning hunts or beginning their days late like so many did in the real world. As they approached the limits, Lycan stopped just shy of the semi-translucent marker separating the safe zone from the wilds. He halted for a moment before looking back to Lessa.

"I've seen the Monument of Life. Many of the names on there are marked 'F1'. So, I completely believe you about those boars," the boy commented, eyeing the few players that fought the swines vigorously. Were this still a normal game, Lycan might have found their behavior silly. However, as they shouted with each blow and block, he admired their fighting spirit.

"If you're not a front liner," he began, still watching the other players fighting, "then what are you?"

The question was innocent enough, but his delivery and tone almost crossed as if asking some deep, probing question. Almost as if he had asked her 'why are you here?' or 'what do you live for?' Meanwhile, he focused toward the fields, itching to start his first stint in combat.

"Yeah, yeah," Lycan stammered with a hint of irritation on his voice.

"Couldn't even draw my sword..." he chided inwardly.

Lycan grunted as he lifted himself from the dirt and grass. He promptly padded away the loose blades of grass and dirt which fragmented into sparkling mist upon hitting the ground. Once decently maintained, his hand drifted to the glowing scar on his face. Warm to the touch, slightly painful, and strangely damp, Lycan pulled his hand away to watch small cubic bits of red lift from his hand.

"Blood?" the teen muttered, again placing his hand against his cheek.

"No, not blood. Definitely an injury though," he mentally corrected.

Calrex's voice brought his attention back to the situation. Before he replied, Lycan drew his weapon. This time, with a slow fluid motion and successfully. He wouldn't be caught off guard again and the weight of a one handed blade wouldn't trouble him as they traveled compared to the heavy weapons.

"Let me check the marker I set," Lycan replied to Clarex.

He looked to the horizon where the tips of pine trees crested. In the midst of them, Lycan saw a white chevron shaped marker with a number present over the top. From their current distance, they could close the gap in about ten to fifteen minutes. The youth then checked the opposite direction toward the town. While the occasional player battled with the local fauna, many were clear outside of earshot with the nearest players engaged in mass harvesting.

"Let's keep moving, but here is good," Lycan nodded as he continued their previous pace.

"I heard from those two players about a monster that spawns in this clearing we're heading to. They mentioned the spawn timer is incredibly long and not guaranteed which makes this particular monster rarer than most of the other spawns on the first floor. Apparently, it drops a rare item or material called 'The Philosopher's Stone' which is nested in its head. They also mentioned its name, 'The Gemmed Rabbit'."

Lycan kept an eye on the two of them from the corner of his eyes. Still being new to this game, who was to say they wouldn't just leave him out here? He swallowed his doubt, and remembered what had happened no more than a minute ago when the fencer saved him.

"They're good people."

"I don't know how strong it is, but I can only assume that its not as easy as that wolf if the people I overheard were actually front-liners. It might even be an optional mini boss I heard this game has..."

((OOC: In fact, since I'd like to pull a loot roll off this thing, could we spawn it with the necessary HP to do so? That's be half of Calrex's HP, but only the 3DMG and plenty of MIT. A bullet sponge really. Thoughts? We can move this to PM if we want to discuss it more and I'll edit out my OOC notes once we decide.))

The party screen popped up in the midst of Lycan's fiddling. Lessa's name and a limited number of options appeared. The teen selected join and noticed a new health bar under his own. As he was busy focusing on the edges of his peripherals for more changes to his HUD, the streets grew infinitely more busy. The high noon rush began.

Lessa's voice broke him of his trance, and drew his focus back to her. She subtly gestured toward one of the gates leading out of town.

"I haven't," Lycan replied to her question as he matched her pace through the streets. "I heard that the monsters out there are like the old JMMORPGs like Ragnarok Online. They're weak, but almost on par with the level one player. Prior to... well... anyway... I was hoping to figure it out trial and error style."

Lycan nervously scratched the base of his skull with a sigh, but reminded himself to stay positive with a weak smile.

"This is much better," he spoke with the faint waver of a chuckle. He gave a slight pause, but his mind raced to keep conversation flowing.

"So, uh, silly question? Are you one of the front-liners?"

That might work, but if you have a player with low hate take up the high hate of a drawn out battle, soon all the players are at that high hate for switching. Maybe if the attack lands, the switch is successful and the hate transfers. If it fails, the tank still keeps the hate and the failed switch loses a turn as if stunned?