Samriel

Samriel smiled in relief as Kranzer got what she was explaining and seemed entertained by the idea that he had made the unintentional joke. Sinking in a hip as she waited for the man to peek into a nearby tree's trunk and smirked when she heard a murmured expletive before he pulled out his prize. "Better late than never." The blonde quipped in a good natured fashion to the man before shaking her head. "No problem. I've had some experience looking for materials out here and there's no point in keeping info to myself if it can help someone else." Their walk back to the Town of Beginnings was as quiet and peaceful as the one they took out. Once in the safety of the town's safe zone, Samriel unequipped her weapon and shield but decided to leave her armor on.

Following Kranzer into the shop, the healer watched the exchange between him and the merchant with raised eyebrows and slight smile. Some NPCs were amazingly interesting and interactive. It was hard for her to stifle her chuckles watching the two, but had to admit that the NPC had a point. She leaned casually against a wall as she observed Kranzer learn how to appraise an item, though didn't succeed on his first attempt. Smiling as Kranzer turned to her and thanked her once again, she could only tilt her head with a patronizing smile. "One thanks is enough. And sure you woulda. ...It just might have taken a lot longer." Her smile became joking at the last statement.

Grinning widely at Magda's praise, she let out a surprised laugh at Mack's teasing of his sister's wide swing, and Samriel argued, "That might be true, but I'm much more used to the heat than the cold." When Magda implied that she would be perfectly fine going naked to stay cool in hot places, Sam blinked with wide eyes at the other woman before shaking her head with a smile. "Oh snap!" She had just noticed the bat had not only just flown over to the red haired man, but also tried biting him. Technically it did succeed, but it was a rather pathetic success considering it only did one damage and was immediately healed. "Wow, I almost feel bad for it." The healer couldn't help but comment even as her Shield Sister told her brother not to move. It was like a scene out of a cartoon and Sam nearly expected for the female twin to smack her other half right on the head and miss the bat completely. But thankfully that wasn't the case. Circling around Mack's seated form to try and close off the creature's escape, Samriel punched out with her hammer at its flapping form.

Samriel (ID#  54382)
BD: 10+1=11 (crit)
HP: 16/16  EP: 4/4   Mit: 18, Regen: 9, Thorns: 7, Dmg: 2, Acc: 1, Eva: 0, Para: 0, Hate: 2

Bat
HP: 14/50-3= 11/50  Damage: 12

The woman's expression was somewhat skeptical at Kranzer's insistence that he was fine, but she wasn't about to press him on it and make him more uncomfortable. So shrugging, Samriel slipped her hammer back in her belt, glancing around once more before being assured that they were mob free for now. Recovering from her amusement, the blonde realized that it was rather rude of her to laugh at him, though she wasn't truly, and smiled awkwardly, smoothing the hair at the back of her head before explaining, "Sorry, it was just so funny. I made the comment about the mushroom kingdom, a reference from some old game. And then you said your mushroom was in another forest, which is a play on words from a famous quote from the old game. And...just...yeah..heh, sorry. It was hilarious at the time." It wasn't very funny at all now that she explained it, but she just wanted him to know that she hadn't been trying to make fun of him or anything like that. Tilting her head as the long haired man continued to have rather bad luck at finding this elusive mushroom, she suggested, [colo#5f3b8a]"Try seeing if any of the trees are hollow. Sometimes you can find things growing in them."[/color] Though said things weren't always mats, it was still worth a try.

Samriel had been cordially (and by cordially she meant insistently) invited by Mack to yet another get together of his. She was starting to wonder if the man just liked any excuse for a party since this time he seemed to be celebrating achieving Grandmaster rank in his heavy armor skill. Impressive enough of a feat, though she wondered if that was really a reason to throw a party. It was more of a small get together though, apparently not as grand as what he had done at the hot springs. And this was definitely different than the hot springs. Sam had never had reason or opportunity to explore this high of a floor and seven seemed fairly interesting. One thing was the same as the other party though, there was still a bowl of punch with a note insisting everyone drink from it. Raising an amused eyebrow at Mack, the blonde shrugged and poured herself a mug and drank. She saw the results on the blacksmith first and laughed at the odd sight of him sprouting feline-like ears atop his head and she even spied a tail flicking behind him.

Without her realizing, ears and tail that matched her blonde hair materialized on her form as well even as she cocked her head in curiosity at his words. "Gnoll Chieftainess?" The young woman wondered why he was so...close, for lack of a better word and felt a little awkward while in the company of of his twin, though not unpleasant. She was just glad that this wouldn't be as big of an affair as previously. Just a few friends gathered together to relate about the good old days. Which begged the question... "So... We're supposed go around swapping stories right? I haven't known you for long though. Don't really have any stories to tell about you. So why invite me?" She liked him and all, but felt out of place among his older, closer friends.

Still wandering around Urbus blindly and occasionally trying to catch a player and ask them if they knew of any Performer shops, to no avail, Samriel looked up at the message tone. Swiping it open, she blanched with perplexed expression. "Wha...? I didn't..." She reviewed the message she had sent him and sure enough, she didn't say anywhere that she needed his help, though she supposed she could have worded it better. She hadn't written in too long, she was getting rusty. Then she began to realize that he would be showing up somewhere here soon....and she needed to find him. "Frick." Looking around, the blonde eventually found her way back to the main plaza where the portal was. It took her just long enough that she wasn't sure if he might already be here somewhere, looking for her, and turned to scan the area. It wasn't like he would be hard to find. The man was practically two normal men combined, in both size and height, somehow managing to be simultaneously ridiculous and impressive.

Hopping periodically to try and see over the small crowd around her, the blonde then jumped slightly for an entirely different reason when she heard a low rumbling male voice directly behind her. Whirling around with her hand over her heart, Sam let out a sigh, her eyes rolling while she shook her head in exasperation. "Jeez Mack, cough or something." Half-heartedly glaring up at the blacksmith after she registered his question, she deflected for a moment, "I didn't ask you to come down here. You didn't need to drop what you were doing or anything. I just wanted to know if you knew anything about performers since you seem like an experienced guy." Crossing her arms in the same manner as him she then replied, "But yes, I have."

{OOC: why do you enjoy my pain D; I can't help it both of them are physically awkward! I feel like RNGesus knows and is stacking the odds against them... T~T }

Samriel let out a small snicker as Mack antagonized his twin about the floor they were headed to next. She wasn't very happy about it either, but it was still amusing to witness the sibling banter. "Can't we go to somewhere warmer?" She asked with a hopeful smile. "Like the fift- Gah!" Her sentence was cut off by a surprised cry as Mack once again threw her bread, the same bread in fact, since he had rescued it from the bat's sticky fingers...wings? Feet? Whatever. She barely managed to catch it by cradling it between her chest and upper arms and then lowering her head to bite into it. "Fank oo." She said around the mouthful, unable to simply hold it since her hands were occupied. Glancing between the bat and Mack as he spoke of why it was easy for them, she wondered if Mack was some sort of MMA fighter like his twin. Something had to explain his entirely too buff appearance. If her mouth hadn't been occupied, she might have made some jesting comment about how they had a leg up on her because of their personal experience, especially given Magda's 'practice' comment.

But when he told her to 'get used to it' because life wasn't sauna, the blonde couldn't help but grin around the baked good, her eyes showing more of her smile than her mouth. That was a pep talk if she ever heard one, though she was momentarily confused at his mention of one place on the fourth floor where she had been that was nice before realizing that the party he had held had been on the fourth floor. Perhaps the entire floor wasn't bad, but she was absolutely sure that the only good parts were the ones that managed to be warm in spite of the persistent snow. Her Shield Sister didn't seem to appreciate her brother's 'buck up' comment nearly as much though, so much that it caused her to miss her attack on the bat completely. Taking that as her cue, Samriel walked sideways, following along the cave's wall before suddenly lunging out, swinging Dawnbreaker in a wide horizontal arc from right to left. Perhaps sword arts weren't her thing, but a regular attack was fairly simple. Just swing until you hit. This seemed to be the way to go, since for the first time today, her hammer actually connected with something, whittling away two measly health points from the flying rodent.

Samriel (ID#  54087)
BD: 8+1=9 (hit)
HP: 16/16  EP: 2/4   Mit: 18, Regen: 9, Thorns: 7, Dmg: 2, Acc: 1, Eva: 0, Para: 0, Hate: 0

Bat
HP: 19/50-2= 17/50  Damage: 12

Samriel's head tilted, surveying Kranzer and attempting to determine how truthful he was being when he said he was 'ok'. But when he explained, she nodded in understanding. "If you need to take a breather or just head back for the day, just say the word. Whatever you want." The woman's voice was very light and casual, truly meaning what she was saying. When he seemed surprised at her statement that it was the first floor, she couldn't help but give him a lopsided grin before it became subdued into a simple smile as she considered his words. "That's...both good and bad. It's necessary." She felt awkward, not knowing how to express her thoughts verbally and not wanting to bungle it up, deciding to just keep silent.

But when Kranzer made an off comment about his mushroom being in another forest, Sam's eyes bulged, surprised at his joking reference...until she saw him completely unsmiling, which only caused her to shout out a laugh before hiding her mouth, and thus entire face, behind her shield arm as she tried to quiet her chortling. He didn't even realize-! God that was funny. Lowering her arm, the blonde tried valiantly to keep a grin off of her face as she followed after the man. "Ain't that always the case. Don't worry and don't give up. I'm sure you'll get your Princ-I mean mushroom in no time."

Blinking at the bread suddenly being thrown at her, she managed to catch it with her chest, cradling the loaf between her armor and her forearms before stuffing the grip of her hammer into her belt loop and picking the bread up. "Thanks Mack." Smiling brightly at Mack's statement, she shrugged at Magda before biting down. Bread was simple and a world wide commodity that nearly every human being enjoyed.....and she missed it terribly. Moaning nearly obscenely as she chewed, the blonde let out a sigh through her nose. There just was no such thing as good gluten free bread, but at least in Sword Art Online she could experience the taste of real bread with absolutely zero repercussions. Glancing over her shoulder as Mack followed behind them and continued to speak. At his twin's correction of the term 'sword arm' to 'hammer arm', the blonde chuckled around her mouthful before swallowing and taking another bite. It was nice going into a quest knowing what to expect and especially with such overpowered backup. For the first time in many many months, Samriel actually felt fairly safe, even though she wasn't in a safe zone.

Looking up from her bread as the rumbling masculine voice called out that the quest's mobs were coming, she cursed around her mouthful and was about to try and put her only half eaten bread in her inventory before she was dive bombed and it escaped with her snack. Swallowing hurriedly, the blonde exclaimed, "Hey, that was mine!" In a hurt tone of voice, more concerned that it had taken her food than the small amount of damage it dealt her. The only small consolation she had was that it had been hurt by her armor when it had crashed into her and stolen the bread. Grabbing her hammer from her belt, Samriel was impressed yet again by the amount of damage that Magda dealt, crashing the flat of her hammer into the flying rodent's head twice with a 'sword' art.

Having a bit more confidence now that she had rose a bit in level, the blonde rushed the bat, hoping that she could catch it off guard from the other side, her shield raised to protect her even as she tried to copy the skill she had seen her Shield Sister just use. A golden light began to shine around the peen of her gemmed hammer and she quickly closed the distance between herself and her target before she swung her weapon up to meet the bat's head....but instead sailing harmlessly up and past it as it flapped just to the right. "Fffff-." The blonde stumbled slightly as she started to lose her balance from the failed attack but barely caught herself, throwing her right leg backwards to ensure she didn't topple over.  "Gah, you make it look so easy." She said to the red haired woman.

Samriel (ID# 54048)
BD: 2 (miss)
HP: 16/16  EP: 2/4   Mit: 18, Regen: 9, Thorns: 7, Dmg: 2, Acc: 1, Eva: 0, Para: 0, Hate: 0

Bat
HP: 33/50  Damage: 12

Samriel couldn't tell if Mack was being sarcastic about his sister being thrilled about the different monsters they'd have killed by the end of the day. Wasps and bats were pretty low on the weird monster tier, but she supposed they could only go up. At least they weren't killing boars and wolves. Sam was sick of those. When Magda leaned down to whisper to her the promise of a snack if she needed it, Samriel beamed before whispering in return, "My savior~" She'd have to keep that in mind. Perhaps after they finished here. Laughing at the woman's loud change of opinion, she simply nodded along. "We shall survive on the...pixels of our enemies!"

Frowning for a moment at the mention of the cold floor, the blonde tried to think of it as a good thing considering what he was saying about the quests on said floor. She'd definitely need a snack if she was going to deal with that. Shaking her head at Mack's statement about the drop from this 'Snow Beast', the young woman said with an easy going smile, "I'm fine as is. All yours sister." Meaning 'sister' in the colloquial sense as well as their new found 'Shield Sister' status. "Hey, how many quests are we going to do anyways? Kinda makes me wonder if there will be like a limit or something with the system. 'You cannot do more than five quests per day', or something along those lines." She had played other games like that in the past so players couldn't get ahead too quickly without exploring further and taking their time.

Finally Mack had lead them to an opening in a hillside, a cave. She should have seen that coming when he had mentioned bats, since it wasn't night time. Blinking at the sudden light, Sam looked from the dark of the cave's mouth to Mack's hands. He was wearing these gauntlets that seemed to exude light. "Huh, haven't seen anything like that before." Smiling in amusement at the blacksmith's show of chivalry, the blonde nodded in thanks before following after Magda with hammer still in hand, idly letting it fall back over the back of her hand before catching it again repeatedly. "Frick it is pitch dark in here. Guess you knew that though, huh?" She nodded to Mack's glowing gauntlets.

Urbus was a quaint town and one of her favorite floor capitols, though perhaps to be called 'town' would be an understatement. Though the buildings were under developed due to the medieval architecture, the place itself was rather large, sitting in the crater of a mountain. Or perhaps dormant volcano? Regardless, the point was that it was huge and open aired and one of her favorite hangouts besides the Town of Beginnings. What was with the developers and understatements? She wasn't here just for the sights though. The blonde had been thinking for a while, really for months now, about taking up a profession. She had been busy getting a grip on herself and helping other panicked people when the game first truly began. Then she was sort of adopted by the Crusaders. After that, they focused more on helping people. They helped other professionals than take up professions themselves. The most popular of them being blacksmithing, tailoring and alchemy. The least popular being fishing and performing. Fishing she could understand, they were pretty much entirely dependent upon cooks. But performers? They were Aincrad's bards and there was a surprising lack of them to be honest. She had helped other players with their Earning a Living quests plenty of times before. But never a performer. She had no idea how they even worked, though the idea was appealing. She liked music as a hobby. Knew how to sing, read music and play piano and very very little guitar. But her passion had always been writing and playing games. If only there was a profession that revolved around that, heh. Sam debated for a long while before deciding that perhaps she consult a more veteran player. Mack seemed like he knew a lot about this game and he was certainly a respectable level. So she shot him a PM.

TO: Mack
FROM: Samriel
SUBJECT: Performer
BODY:
-  Hey Mack, do you know anything about Performers? Or how to become one? How they do their stuff? Trying to find one in Urbus since I couldn't find any in the Town of Beginnings but not having any luck.

When the man with the orange cursor simply said that he had plenty of unique items in a very boasting manner before actually listing them all and boasting some more, Samriel only shrugged casually, not offended in the least. "Hey man, more power to ya. Just wanted to make sure you didn't do something you might regret. Have fun with the hangover though." Shaking her head with a slightly amused smile, the blonde wondered if he was as powerful as he claimed, while a darker part of her mind wondered if he had killed to get those unique items he was bragging about. Frowning slightly now, she knew that was unfair of her to think, he might have murdered countless people for all she knew, but he also might have had to make a very hard decision that resulted in the forfeit of another person's life.

She tried to reserve judgement for now, broken out of her contemplative thoughts by a muscular feminine arm as it hung on her shoulders. Glancing aside...and then up, Sam blinked at Magda's statement towards Ssendom before letting out a chuffing laugh under her breath. She supposed that he was coming off like one...more the rich than the playboy though. Being guided back into the water towards Chewie, the long haired woman asked of her companion, "You wouldn't brag if you had those toys?" Her attention was drawn back to Mack though, even across the other side of the hot springs she could tell something was going on with the two women he was with. Glancing back to Magda, she saw her chat up some guy with grey hair, asking him to swim, which he replied affirmatively before dipping himself in after the redhead.

There sure were a lot of couples around. "Well at least I have you Chewie." She joked to the bear cub as he gnawed on the bone that remained after he cleaned it of all remaining meat and gristle. The arm she was using to ruffle his wet fur was taken by the elbow and she looked up to see it was Mack. "Eh?" She asked in confusion as he told her to 'cmon'. The blonde didn't pull away though, letting herself be gently dragged through the water back towards the man's twin. "What's up? Looked pretty tense back there." In fact the man himself looked rather tense, which was an odd sight on the buff blacksmith out of battle.

Samriel nodded with a subdued sigh when Mack told them that they couldn't rest just yet. She wasn't tired of course, it was simply her laziness kicking in. But when he mentioned that they had a long way to go before they reached level ten and that they would rest and eat well tonight, the blonde blanched before following after the buff blacksmith. "Can't we eat well...like...sooner than tonight?" She wasn't hungry currently, but she knew it wouldn't be long before she would be craving something since she had skipped breakfast in her rush to make Mack's meeting time. But at Magda's gung-ho attitude, the blonde smiled a little with exasperation, giving up. "I suppose you have a point. Though personally I think it's all of what you've accomplished." And if they did manage to reach level ten by the end of the day, that would be quite an accomplishment for her. "So we're moving up from wasps to bats now?" She asked of the unofficial leader of their trio.

Samriel was regaining her balance when she heard Kranzer's voice call out and glanced over at him, seeing that he was running in fast and hot with his dagger out, the blonde quickly back pedaled. She had no qualms about him taking over the fight, and so brought up her shield, ready to help if he needed it. Which he didn't. She was right in her earlier assumption that he was higher leveled than herself after she witnessed a rather impressive display of a Sword Art, her eyes widening to take it all in. The word 'pretty' came to mind as she watched the man finish off the lone wolf with a single stab. The young woman would have had an urge to clap if her hands weren't otherwise occupied or if it hadn't just been some level one mob.

Still worth a friendly nod though, which she gave the long haired man before frowning slightly at his heavy breathing while he crouched down, resting a hand on his knee. "You okay?" She asked with slight concern. At his remark about it being weak she shrugged, "It is the first floor after all. Thanks for the assist." The blonde didn't even feel a smidgen of annoyance at the man's 'KS'. If he hadn't, there was a very real possibility of it taking a dozen long drawn out minutes for her to finish it off on her own with her pitiful damage output. "Any luck on the mushroom kingdom front?"

Fidgeting under Kranzer's wondrous gaze at her casual statement that she had been trying to be Thor when she first picked up the game, she wondered if he was impressed of the character she had been modeling her own character after or her brazenness in attempting to play as a man, though she hadn't stated that outright. "Well it is a fantasy kinda game. Thor seemed appropriate." Plus she just thought he was really cool at the time. What? So sue her.

The blonde wasn't sure how the other player would take her well meaning advice but relaxed when he thanked her for it, smiling at the warm reception and noting that he seemed a tad...relieved? That she said she would guard him. Honestly she was just glad to be helpful since she pretty much invited herself along. True to her word, Sam played the diligent lookout, eyes flicking around constantly, though she paid enough attention to her companion to stay close by and not get lost as he took a meticulous path of his own design, a straight line. Harder than one thought in wood such as these. But at Kranzer's question, the woman paused, looking down at her feet for a moment before replying steadily, "No, not anymore. We disbanded a few months ago." 

Glancing over at his back as he stated that he was going to look around, she nodded with an acknowledging smile after he gave the reason for the strategically placed leaf. Staying put, Samriel was sadly unaware of the literal wolf at her back. It had crept up on the pair but only now attacked when the higher leveled player left. She was just taking a step to the side when she felt something lunge past her, narrowly missing a tackle from the wolf. "What th-?!" The healer spun in place, trying to bring her hammer down on the monster but missing by a mile as she stumbled back to face it.

Samriel (ID# 53768)
BD:  2 (miss)
HP: 4/4  EP: 1/1    Mit: 18, Regen: 9, Thorns: 7, Dmg: 2, Acc: 1, Eva: 0, Para: 0, Hate: 0

Wolf
MD:  1 (miss)
HP: 4  Damage: 3  Mit: 1

Samriel blinked at his question and a nostalgic smile began to spread slowly on her face as she nodded in agreement. "Yeah, now that you mention it, I am. Hehe. When I first picked up the game and started playing, I kinda wanted to be a bruiser. Or Thor. Basically Thor. The shield was added as an afterthought. But once we all found out we were stuck I started reading over the manual and got recruited into a guild. Someone that could heal in the middle of combat was more needed than a damage dealer. So kept the heavy armor and added a shield and got to healing." The blonde shrugged, as if what she did was simply the most natural thing in the world. At least the world they currently lived in. She noticed how he kept looking away from her, never looked at her too long or kept eye contact. Perhaps he was just shy? Or could it be something else? She didn't see any reason to bring it up and so left it alone, content to keep her eyes moving, looking ahead as well as well everywhere else honestly. Never hurt to be on guard after all.

Giving the man a frowning glance as he said that he wanted to duo DPS and support, Sam's lavender eyes flicked down to his dagger when he showed it at his hip. [color=#5f3b8a]"Mhm..."[/color] She commented simply, wrestling with whether to say anything or not...it really wasn't her place but... "No offense to you, but I'd make sure to hold off on wasting SP on things besides your weapon and armor skills until you're well leveled. Personally I think it's good for everyone to have First Aid, but not at the sacrifice of something else. DPS users like yourself need to make sure that they're well enough protected after all. But it's your build." She wasn't a real tank after all, even if she might be built like one, so she couldn't get aggro off of other players with more useful skills like Howl.

But when the subject of builds and skills was finally exhausted, Kranzer came to a stop, remarking at the closeness of the woods that were their target destination before asking if she was ready. Taking a split second to bring her at ready items to summon in her hands, a silver round shield and one handed warhammer materialized in her hands, glistening with precious gemstones that mimicked the colors of the rising and setting sun. Giving her companion a nod, she confirmed verbally, "Yep, ready." They continued until they finally arrived at the fringes of the woods and Samriel was frankly surprised that they hadn't been beget by any monsters so far. It wasn't like this path was usually teaming with mobs or anything, she simply didn't think that they'd get that lucky.

Considering the question Kranzer posed to her for a moment, Sam eventually replied, "I'll keep watch." Smiling cheekily at the man she told him, "After all, this is your quest. It's your determination that needs testing, not mine." Letting out a tinkling laugh, the blonde continued into the forest, keeping her eyes peeled for any signs of mobs, wolves or otherwise.

At Kranzer's hesitation, Samriel tilted her head, wondering if maybe she had been a bit too forward. He seemed a rather subdued person. But before she could backtrack her 'offer' and say that if he wanted to do it solo, she wouldn't impose. When he thanked her however, she simply smiled and agreed with his statement that they should hurry up. "I try not to either. Mobs change out and the nocturnal ones can be a bit nastier if you don't have a group. Not to mention the whole visibility and lurking PK boogiemen." Her tone was lighthearted but her warning was absolutely serious. It was never good for players as low leveled as themselves to be out of a safe zone at night.

Ignoring the NPC merchant's stares as they left, the blonde woman trailed alongside Kranzer as he lead them to where the quest had intended. As soon as they reached the border of the town's safe zone, Sam paused to equip her armor, a golden breastplate inlaid in a trim with lines of small rubies to accentuate curves accompanied with leather trousers and the hollowed out skin of a fox's head as a hood, rubies inserted for eyes. After putting her weapon and shield in the 'at ready' status, the blonde kept pace with her temporary companion. They were quiet, simply soaking up the sounds of the wildlife as they walked.

At least until Kranzer finally spoke up and Sam glanced aside at him in curiosity, considering his question as she looked him up and down. He looked like he had a light sort of build. Probably going for damage dealing and evasion, preferring to be light on his feet. At least that's what she was getting off of him currently. For all she knew, he could suddenly equip tank like heavy armor. So she answered honestly, "As long as I'm not under leveled to whatever we fight, I prefer front line. I'm going for a tankier sort of build. Lots of mitigation and thorns. I can back you up too, I have First Aid. I'll just rely on you to actually kill anything though." Samriel winked at the long haired man, completely fine with her inability to deal much damage. "I'm guessing you're DPS? Light armor and....." She was going to take a guess, but honestly there were too many options for DPS builds in Sword Art Online.

Landing back after her failed swing at the wasp's royal butt, Samriel's head tilted towards the sound of Mack's voice before glancing at her heads up display. Magda was still well within acceptable health limits so she would refrain from healing her. Instead, the blonde focused on getting a better angle on the wasp. If its' main body was too high up for her, then she could try and get a hit on one of the dangling legs. She wasn't worried about it turning on her as her Shield Sister had all of the aggro on herself and Sam had yet to even score a hit on the insect. So when Magda ruthlessly pounded into the Wasp Queen at complete disregard to her own safety, Samriel's expression dropped from excited concentration to that of concern. Which was well founded considering that the monster immediately retaliated on the well built woman who thankfully withstood the hit easily due to her well crafted armor.

The blonde reared back her hammer, intent on bringing it down on the thing hurting her new friend, only to have it suddenly burst into pixels before she even got close. Blinking with wide surprised eyes, the hammer swung harmlessly back down to her side. "Oh." Her mind finally put together that Magda's armor likely had thorns and it had been at really low health when it had attacked her. Smiling widely, Sam raised her gem encrusted hammer towards the other woman. "Good job. How's it feel to single-handedly defeat a quest boss?"  Her tone was light, recognizing that the other woman was still coming down from an adrenaline high from the fight and wondered what got her so worked up. She had said that she had been a fighter in real life, perhaps that had something to do with it?

Resting the peen of her hammer on her shoulder, the blonde glanced over at Mack and asked, "Well I guess we can hit the easy button and turn this thing in. What's next?" The young woman's posture was easy and her expression open, the easy fight having relaxed her.

Floor six was a lot more humid than Samriel had thought. It was one thing to read a description in a manual. 'Jungle' was a pretty loose description though. Of course she pictured a lot of plants. Possibly bugs along with some interesting flora and fauna. But the one thing she didn't take into account? The heat and humidity. "Uuuugh..." The blonde player fanned herself futilely. "Stupid virtual weather. Who wants to feel miserable in a game? Fricking masochists. Fricking sadist Kayba Akiko..." Sam muttered to herself as she prowled the town of Amazon. She had thought it funny that the name was so on the nose. Now she didn't particularly care. She did know that she wanted to return here with Magda though. She was fairly sure that she'd find the indigenous NPCs quite interesting considering their similarities. Perhaps they would accept her as their Queen!

Samriel chuckled along with Magda as she stated that her use of underwear as swimwear was brilliant. "Gotta be resourceful when you're low on col. Or mats I suppose." More and more crafters were preferring to accept materials as payment for their wares, though they still took col of course. Waving her arms slowly to paddle in a circle, the blonde listened contemplatively as Magda told her that this was just a party to relax and get to know each other. But the secondary reason sounded more likely. Glancing over at the red haired woman's twin, Sam let out a soft chuckle. "Definitely seems like the latter. Or maybe just an excuse to see his girlfriend in a bikini." She nodded over to the brunette girl that Mack had his arm draped over rather possessively. Who wore glasses to a hot springs?

She along with perhaps one or two other players glanced upwards when glowing purple letters began to write themselves in the sky, asking the party at large how they were. Sam was trying to figure out how in the world that was managed when she caught sight of the snuggly phoenix that had greeted her earlier, and she laughed aloud in surprise and delight. The familiar looked quite proud of its work before dejectedly seeing that not many were actually paying attention. The blonde was just about to wave it over when there was a loud splash that wasn't her this time and she turned to see Chewie paddling quickly towards the two female players, a weird owl cat creature dive bombing him before he suddenly sank like a rock in the water, causing the girl to panic slightly. "Sh**, can familiars drown?" She asked as she swam closer to the bear, but it wasn't needed as he soon popped back up to the surface before floating between herself and Magda and then...no Samriel couldn't have seen that right. She must have water in her eyes, or perhaps the heat of the hot springs was getting to her.

Shaking her head while tossling Chewie's wet fur on his head, Sam grumbled, "You're such a troublemaker you glutton. Bad dog." Still, she didn't stop her petting, though she wasn't entirely sure how sanitary it was for an animal to be eating in hot springs where everyone was swimming. The blonde took solace in that this was a game and therefore not nearly as nasty as it would be in reality. She considered dragging the familiar over to his owner, but when she glanced to where Mack was it, he had moved and...was now cowering behind some guy with long grey hair? While two women glared at him. "Looks like your bro got himself in some trouble." She told Magda with a slightly amused smile. "Y-"

Whatever she was about to say next was cut off as a man's voice carried over the idle chatter to catch people's attention. Glancing to where the voice was coming from, Sam saw the orange cursor first and the purple phoenix second. And in her mind, one couldn't possibly be that much of a psycho killer if one had as friendly a familiar as that. Plus he had been invited so he must not be a sadist or anything. Plus...he looked pretty sloshed. Scratching Chewie's ear one last time, Samriel waded over to Ssendom as he spoke of wanting to sell a rare item called 'Absolute Accuracy' that would conform to a player's preferred weapon. As another red head (seriously, how many people had red hair here? She counted at least six) bounded up to the scarred man in the a fairly skimpy bathing suit, Samriel sighed. Raising a hand in greeting, the blonde suggested to the man tentatively, "Hey. Uh, not trying to tell you what to do or anything man... But maybe you should save trying to sell or buy anything for when you sober up?" She knew that only bad things could come of trying to do...well most anything drunk. She learned much at college.

At the information that the wolves that Mack had cleared out in mere seconds could have one shot both of the women forced Samriel to suppress a shiver. Usually Aincrad only leveled the monsters based on what floor they were on, but she supposed there were a few exceptions. A daunting thought to keep in mind when traveling with an overlevelled player, though the benefits outweighed the risks in her opinion. When the insistent blacksmith told her how Chewie would feel if she didn't join, the college graduate had to pause and actually think on the word before recalling a loose definition. She had of course heard of the PK guilds that he spoke of as well. They were part of the reason that those dwelling in the Town of Beginnings stuck closely to each other and rarely left safe zones unless in groups. A question popped into her mind that she wanted to ask the more experienced player, but now wasn't the time. As he apologized for his earlier action, the blonde shook her head and forced a hint of a smile. "You're good." She excused nonchalantly, inwardly embarrassed at her reaction and silently beating herself up over it.

Circling around behind Magda, Sam's head twitched towards Mack when she heard him call out to her, but didn't look away from the monster as she nodded. "If you're sure!" She began a slow approach, not wanting to get in the way of her Shield Sister as she flashed a grin before urging her to watch as she performed another impressive maneuver. But upon seeing Magda take a hit, her pace began to quicken as her narrowed lavender eyes flicked to her HUD, relieved that her party member had already regenerated the health chipped away from her. At the taller woman's encouragement, Samriel responded, "Got it!" Before quickly making her way around to the wasp's back. Its nasty stinger was still pointed towards Magda since she was the most threat to it...or at least had the most hate. Twirling her gem hammer over the back of her hand and catching it again, Samriel murmured to herself, "Here goes nothing..." Before charging forward with a grunt, her left arm raised to protect her while her right arm swung her warhammer downwards at the insect's thorax. But the wasp was too quick and frankly hovering too high for the shorter player to hit, the hammer swinging harmlessly in the air as Sam grimaced.

Samriel (ID# 53289)
BD:  2 (miss)
HP: 4/4  EP: 1/1    Mit: 18, Regen: 9, Thorns: 7, Dmg: 2, Acc: 1, Eva: 0, Para: 0, Hate: 0

Queen Bee
HP: 18  Damage: 12

Samriel considered his offer with a shrug. "I can never decide what profession to take. Or rather, what would be the most useful. There's a surplus of blacksmiths, tailors and alchemists and quite a few merchants. I just can't decide out of what's left. Besides, it sounds like a lot of work to keep crafting regularly and get mats so you can keep crafting...." The woman was just too lazy to consider tying herself down in such a way just yet. Then her blonde brain began to belatedly pick up that he was still trying to think of a way to pay her back for her help and she just kept shooting him down. "Not that I don't appreciate the offer." She added on a but awkwardly, embarrassed at her lack of tact.

After entering the shop, they were given a standard greeting and Sam stood aside, glancing at all the things that she couldn't buy out of boredom as Kranzer spoke to the NPC. When he asked why the long haired man thought he would be a good merchant, the woman looked up in curiosity, wondering how he would reply. But when Kranzer looked to her for help, she could only raise her eyebrows and shrug at him, attempting to mouth, "Just answer honestly." The NPC drew attention back to him though, insisting an answer to which Kranzer could only awkwardly chuckle and fidget. No surprise, this didn't win the shop keeper over, and instead he thought of some weird quest to prove the man's dedication. Resting her right elbow in her left palm as her right hand shifted to cover her smile as she snorted at Kranzer's bewildered expression. "Definitely not all. Guess you're just lucky." Sam told him with a pat on the shoulder. "So it's off to the woods we go? At least it's on this floor so it we shouldn't have to worry about much." Raising a hand, the blonde flicked open her menu before sending Kranzer a party invite.

At Kranzer's somewhat flabbergasted tone as he reiterated her statement of how to accomplish his chosen quest, Samriel nodded once and replied, "Yep." Her lips popping at the 'p' sound. "I mean it won't be finished just there. That's just the first, er well I guess second? Thing you need to do. I think you randomly get the quest automatically, but then you have to choose what profession you want and that can be triggered by any number of things. But once you decide that, just go to a NPC run shop of the profession of your choice and they'll set you up with what you have to do next." The blonde spoke as she lead the way, knowing exactly where she was going.

Sam glanced aside at the man not too much taller than herself as he spoke of a merchant's abilities, piquing her interest. "I didn't know that merchants could do things like that. Just thought they were like the jack of all trades profession." Shrugging, the braided woman paused before making another turn at an easy pace before looking back to Kranzer as he made his offer. Her face blossomed into an expression of pleasant surprise, mouth quirking in a subtle sign of amusement. "Well aren't you a nice guy." She ribbed a little with good natured humor. "No need for the discount, everybody's gotta make a living, right? Even in a game, heh."

Thinking on her new equipment that she hadn't really had a chance to try out yet, Samriel nodded. "That sounds good though. An item can really have hidden properties? I wonder what kind..." Her gear was already pretty amazing, but at the thought that it might be even more so amazed her. Her balanced teetered as she rocked back on her heels and walked backwards two steps. "Heeere we are," The healer showed off the door to the unassuming shop like a show girl on a television game show before holding said door open for Kranzer before walking in behind him.

When Magda only laughed in the face of the danger, Samriel was tempted to roll her eyes but kept them in check as she received a pat on the shoulder. The other woman's enthusiasm was hard to hold against and soon Sam found herself smiling back, shaking her head in amusement at the wink. Maybe she could get some of her old confidence back. This would be different. Especially with a player like Mack around. As mildly annoying as his protectiveness was, she actually did appreciate it. Though when he tried to use her and Magda's new 'Shield Sister' status to get her to join their guild, this time she couldn't keep her eyes from rolling. Though when he tried to bring Chewie into it, she just laughed. "That dog would like anyone that gave him anything remotely edible! Why do I get the feeling that you won't let this go?" She was starting to get ridiculously amused at his efforts to convert her.

The information about tiers was quite useful, she had yet to learn about such a thing and filed the new info to save and write down for later. No sooner than she processed what he had just told them when Samriel suddenly felt like she was being strangled, her feet dangling uselessly off the ground in a mirror image of her past and she immediately panicked. Her left free hand tried to pull at whatever was strangling her, but it was only her own armor and hood. Processing Mack's voice and words, she stopped kicking and forced her fear back down her throat as she did as he said, hearing the howls. As soon as her feet touched the ground again, Sam touched her neck, tugging her armor away from it for extra breathing room and specifically looked anywhere but Mack and Magda as she pulled up her hood, her expression mostly hidden by the ruby eyed fox head due to her shorter height.

Not wanting to get left behind, the blonde followed behind the twins, keeping her shield arm up as a precaution. Ducking down, she easily slipped into the path the two larger players had carved through the under brush and by the time she had moved from behind Magda, the wolves were already dissolved into shattered pixels. Seeing something tossed towards her, the healer caught it with her free left hand and nodded thanks to the thrower. She wasn't sure why he was giving her anything, it wasn't like she had even helped. Even as moral support or healer. But who was she to turn down free things? She already knew how generous the man was anyways.

The blonde remained quiet as they continued their journey towards the insect monarch, finally finding it in a clearing that Magda had walked into. She wished she could share her Shield Sister's enthusiasm for battle currently, but she was still shaking off the sudden reemergence of old emotions and memories. Now wasn't the time to reminisce though and as Samriel set eyes upon the giant insect, she realized that it was a wasp, not a bee. "Great." At least bees were kinda cute and chubby with their fluffy little bodies. There was absolutely nothing nice about wasps though. Widening her stance, the young woman nodded at Magda's battle cry and assured her, "I've got your back." She could focus on the fight. She had to. The blonde watched as her battle partner unleashed a 'sword' art on the nasty looking monster, deftly avoiding an attack from its stinger in the process. "Keep it up." She encouraged, glad that the fight was off to a good start. "I've gotta save my energy in case you need healing."

Samriel
HP: 4/4  EP: 1/1 Mitigation: 18, Regen: 9, Thorns: 7, Dmg: 2, Acc: 1, Eva: 0, Para: 0 Hate: 0

Queen Bee
HP: 40 Damage: 12

Seeing Magda lean in, Samriel did the same and a wide grin spread across her face at the other woman's statement. "Ain't that the truth." She replied, bumping elbows in a friendly manner. Upon her statement of her real profession, the blondes expression blossomed into one of surprise and intrigue, though the smile became a bit wary at her intense enthusiasm about acquiring a martial arts skill. Chuckling, she told her Shield Sister, "More power to ya girl."

"Twenty five..." Samriel's mind reeled at the thought before latching onto something, "What's tier two?" She gathered from what he said that apparently one needed to be at least level twenty-five to equip it, but she hadn't yet heard of equipment having tiers. Then again, she wasn't a crafter and she and her friends were all very low leveled...nowhere near level twenty even. The blonde blinked as she watched the muscular man hurl his great axe with a casualness that belied the amount it cut into the thick tree. She was about to ask why, but was distracted as Mack further explained about his guild. When he stated that his twin was only a level or two ahead of her, the healer's eyebrows raised as she glanced at Magda for confirmation. It was rather hard to imagine this women being as passive and casual as she had been since they arrived in Aincrad.

When Mack referred to her by her less used nickname, Samriel smiled gently, thinking of another who had called her that. But it soon fell into a serious and none too pleased expression at his reassurances. It wasn't that she didn't believe him, she just still couldn't believe that some guilds did such a vile thing. She had heard rumors of big guilds that had visited the lower floors to recruit and all had assumed that they just needed fresh blood, more members and all that. Until a few months later when it began to circulate that those very guilds had simply thrown the numerous low level players at mini bosses and floor bosses until they gave out. No regard for human life. It was one thing when one was throwing their life away, but to manipulate innocent and naive players like that? It was unspeakable.

Finally the blonde swallowed thickly and replied, "That's good to hear." Turning to Magda as she received a pat on the shoulder and told not to overthink things, the blonde smiled slightly and nodded. But it became a little wan when the red haired woman reassured her that nothing would touch her when she became a full tank. "I'm more worried about you. Just because you're a tank doesn't mean you're invincible." Her tone was utterly serious as her expression before she looked away, bothered by her new found friend's casualness. "But don't worry, that's what First Aid is for."

She tried to shake herself from her dark mood as Mack continued to speak of the Knights. The more she heard, the more that it wasn't sounding like a bad idea. Her interest especially peaked at mention of a front line healer, Shizuka. Smiling lopsidedly as the blacksmith admitted that it would take some work to get them to level ten by the end of the day, Sam admitted, "Alright...I have to admit I'm interested." Glancing away from the male twin to the female, the healer saw a material drop to her feet. "Oh look, you got a mat. Good job." She casually congratulated her Shield Sister and wondered if she'd get as lucky. Walking to the next tree, she gauged it before shaking her head and passing onto the next one and finally knocking her hammer against the trunk but having as much luck as Mack had, shrugging at the twins.

[ID: 53107 ; LD: 9 = No Material]