Ivory Lotus

It didn't seem like the smartest or most sanitary idea to try blowing on the strange flute. Ivory didnt fancy going toe to toe with some mystery monster. Wolves were one thing, she had experience with those, but who knew what this creature was that the NPC from earlier had mentioned. If it came down to it she figured they would use the flute to try to progress in the quest, but for now they should probably follow the lead that they currently had, following the footsteps or backtracking and talking to the NPC from earlier. It seemed obvious to her that they should follow the footsteps and try to find the third NPC. There were just too many unknowns currently. She took another sip of the hot chocolate savoring the taste but knowing that she probably didnt really have any time to relax. "Sooooo... Follow the footsteps?" She asked Randal, already moving to start walking beside the trail, cup held in both hands.

The white haired healer smiled to Astreya as her offer of friendship was accepted. She wouldn't admit it but she had never messed with the friends list either. It definitely wasn't that she didn't have friends though, oh no. She had more friends than she could count. They just were always busy and tended to give off the impression that they were avoiding her or didn't want to be around her. She knew that wasn't the case though. They just probably had a lot going on.

Ivory started to zone out a bit as they ventured further into the maze. "Well, we cant get lost if we aren't trying to get anywhere in particular in the first place." She mentioned in passing, revealing her trick for never being lost despite the fact that her sense of direction practically didn't exist. She continued to kick the rock from earlier around on the ground as they walked, humming to herself happily seemingly without a care in the world, despite the fact that they were searching a maze for minotaurs that could pop up at any second and may in fact be hunting them even at that very moment. She had a slightly zoned out look on her face, but a peaceful one.

[Labyrinth Search 5/5]

"Wow, you got a lot from just that." She expressed, accepting the hot drink and taking a tentative sip, enjoying the feeling of warmth spreading through her body afterwards. She glanced around a bit, thinking about what they should do. "I think the only way forward is to follow the tracks and see where it leads us. It's up to you though." Ivory shifted a little in place, not too excited to go back the way they had came just yet in case the body was still there. The events Randal had presented seemed a bit far fetched, but this was a video game. Regardless they needed to verify if the third NPC was okay and then they could try to figure out exactly what had happened. She took another sip of the drink before offering the cup to Randal who she was sure was a little chilly as well. "If what you're saying is on the right track its also possible the NPC we saved before was involved as well in some way. After all, why didn't he go over the ravine with the other two, and why didn't the beast finish him off?"

Ivory slowly started to climb down the ravine, taking her time and more sliding down the rope than actually climbing down. She finally reached the bottom a fair amount of time later, noticing the body and looking away uncomfortably. She had dealt with death before and it wasnt a foreign concept to her, but she was still a fairly sensitive young woman. She let Randal deal with whatever was going on and followed the footsteps a little bit further into the trees, waiting for Randal to finish searching. Whenever he did show up, she spoke up. "Do you think they were being chased? Why else would the third NPC get up and start walking, especially after a fall like that? You can see the footprints on the right are longer than the left, so he was probably limping too." She deduced, pointing to the footprints in the snow. She didnt know anything about tracking, but that had seemed fairly obvious to her.

Why is this so absolutely perfect. @Randal

Ivory ignored the cold on her bare arms, her sleeveless shirt not doing much to protect her from the clod. The vambraces were a far cry from her warm cloak, that was for sure. She frowned, tapping her foot impatiently as Randal started to climb down using some vine rope. She seemed a lot more serious now, and some of it was worry that this seemingly random vine rope would snap and send Randal falling down to his death. She rubbed her arms slowly, trying to generate some warmth and waiting for Randal to signal to her that it was okay to start climbing down. There wasnt much she could do right now except wait. She started to twirl her hair in between her fingers as she waited, trying to make out the other NPCs in the snow below while she did without much luck. "Is everything going okay down there Randal?" She called out, leaning over the edge and calling down to him.

Ivory nodded appreciatively at the design. "An ocean theme, I like it a lot." She commented on the weapon design. It was very cool looking, that was for sure. They followed the quest marker, Ivory noting the detail of the quest. The games life likeness was something that still continued to amaze her. Sometimes she even forgot that the was in a game. She rushed over to the NPC, barely waiting for Randal to say anything to her before starting to heal them. Her hands glowed a bright white as her first aid skill activated, closing up the the wounds in a matter of moments. "We need to hurry, if the others survived the fall we may be able to save them too!" She said hurriedly, unbuttoning her cloak and placing it over the NPC she had just healed before moving to see if they could find a way down the ravine.

Ivory: 41/56 EN Used FA R5 -15 EN

It was honestly really cute to see Randal excited about something, even if it was about a weapon. But weapons were just tools after all, it was how they were used that mattered. She tried not to judge others anyway. "I don't really know anything about sword arts honestly, so I don't know exactly what martial arts lacks. But its really cool that you're branching out. I'd love to see your design." The fact that Randal was so enthusiastic about it made her interested.

She then glanced over the quest update. They had made short work of finding the ginseng, so she normally wouldn't have been worried about the NPC's taking so long, but the quest update told a different tale. There was obviously something wrong if the quest wanted them to check up on the NPCs and it probably involved combat too. She crossed her arms nervously. "That's probably not a good sign, is it."

The girl grinned. "I mean, your certainly jump scared me this that punch. Now that I think about it, martial arts is fairly rare to have at that rank. That is really cool, and it definitely suits you." She nibbled on her lip thinking about what he said. It wasn't a difficult question at all, but she was internally debating how much she wanted to tell him about herself in the real world. "I've always wanted to help the sick, so yes, I'm very happy about this quest. It should feel bad to hurt another creature, even if its just code; If you hurt something that is just code and cant feel, there isn't much of a moral quandary there, but I think even doing that is desensitizing you to the act itself, especially in a VR game where everything seems so real." She elaborated on her feelings about hurting the enemies before moving to walk next to Randal as they headed back to the hut. 

She shrugged. "We have been in here for a long time, it used to be scary for me. But you cant feel pain, so I got a little desensitized to the mobs of the lower floors. A boar can only ram you so many times before it stops bothering you." She knelt down in the snow next to where he had brushed aside the snow, nodding. "I guess its really not that hard to find, huh. If it was the reward would probably be better." She commented, gently extricating the plant from the ground and handing it over to Randal to put in his inventory. She didn't want to misplace it, and Randal seemed to be way more reliable than her in general. She started to quietly hum to herself as she stood up, adjusting her cloak around her shoulders and brushing a strand of her long white hair behind her ear. She gave him a dazzling smile, her pale skin, red lips, and white hair making her look very at home in the snowy atmosphere they had found themselves in. If she were wearing different clothes she could probably be mistaken from a distance for some kind of cute snow elf. "I have absolute confidence that you can keep us safe."

She made a humph noise. "They're like abnormally large puppies. And its not like it hurts me, so why would I bother them, right?" She asked Randal, shrugging nonchalantly. She wouldn't mind have a large fluffy wolf like dog once she got out of this game now that she thought about it. "I just want to help. If I can take hits for others and heal them when I cant do that that's all I want. Its enough to save lives at least." The woman expressed, standing up and starting to brush the snow off of her cloths, unrolling her sleeves again to hide the armor on her arms. She didn't like the look and honestly hoped to get some really cute armor of some kind made at some point. "I'll just have to rely on you if we run into any trouble I guess." She said playfully, making puppy dog eyes at her newest friend and pouting.

Quest Complete

Thread Rewards:

400 col

400 EXP (200*2)

Quest Rewards:

500 col

450 EXP

(5) T1 Uncommon Health Potions: Heals 5% of Maximum HP.

(1) T1 Uncommon Damage Potion: +1 DMG for an entire thread.

(1) T1 Uncommon Overhealth Potion: Adds 5% of Maximum HP to users Maximum HP for a thread.

(1) T1 Perfect Health Potion: Heals 15% of Maximum HP

Total: 850 EXP, 900 Col

NIGHT

Rolling for Unique Skill.
ID: 188955 | LD: 13

Ivory hummed to herself as she walked, wondering if she should maybe hit up Randal and see if he wanted to do a quest or just hang out or something. Maybe she would go wandering again or check out a new food place. A new food place.... Wait a second, Randal was a cook, if she recalled correctly. Maybe he could maker her something delicious. But then again she didn't have any money, and she didn't want to take advantage of her friends. Back to the same old place she usually stayed then, and the same old food. She thought back to the soups and stews her mother used to make and how delicious they were. This game had good food, but it wasnt the same as home cooked family food. She smiled anyway, deciding to interpret the memory as a positive moment of reminiscence rather than of something she had lost. Shed be out of this place soon and she'd see her family then, she was sure of it. 

The woman jumped a little as the wolf was blasted away from her, disintegrating. She was very obviously more shaken by Randal's prompt response to the wolf attacking her than the wolf itself. She shook a little bit as adrenaline rushed through her system.  

"W-wow, you can hit hard and fast..." She responded, ignoring his question for the moment as she caught her breath. The glowing red marks slowly faded as her health bar refilled completely in moments. Randal was definitely way stronger than she had thought, having no idea of his skills or level before now. She bit her lip gently, sitting up in the snow and rolling the sleeves of her cloak up, revealing a pair of plate steel vambraces underneath. "I don't have any real equipment, but these count as heavy armor anyway so they activate my armor skill." She glanced around the clearing, looking for more wolves. "I usually just let them bite me, I think they're kind of cute to be honest." She explained to Randal about the wolves. Generally there was a bit more running involved, but she wasn't really in any danger to enemies of that level. "Thank you anyway though." She said tentatively, understanding that he was just trying to protect her; plus, maybe he wasn't as tanky as her and they were a real threat to him.

Her mind wandered as she left the shop, thinking to herself about the first time she had made a medicinal tea with her mother. It was strange, she had gone two years before this whole sword art online thing not seeing them face to face or talking to them that much. She had been so involved in her studies that her family had fallen on her list of priorities, something that she regretted immensely. So much for her advice that she had given her newest friend Randal about not being worried about death if you didn't have anything to regret. Maybe that had been a dumb piece of advice seeing as they were not in any position to fix the regrets that they had while stuck in this game. All she knew at this point was that she missed her family immensely. She frowned, the sadness evident on her face.

."Now, was there anything else?" Zackariah asked.

Ivory smiled, not really seeing any alternative to explaining the situation. He seemed like the trustworthy sort. She then confessed to him that she was there to see if he had borrowed money from the mayor as the forgetful old man had somehow forgotten who he had loaned it to. It was definitely the sort of thing Ivory would do, but also she was aware of how silly a thing it was to do and didn't hesitate to call him out on it in front of Zackariah.

Zackariah chuckled and shook his head. "Leave it to Dorian to forget something so important. No, I'm afraid it wasn't me that borrowed the col. You might try Lyle, the blacksmith. I've seen him talking with the mayor frequently the past month or so, and he's just up the road. I wish you luck!"

Her eyes widened. This was a series of mini quests or something? And she had to go find another person. She groaned loudly, her head falling and a very tired look appearing on her face. Maybe shed complete this whole thing some other time. It wasnt the quest, it wasnt finding materials or whatever. It was quite simply going places. She was terrible at finding places. Her sense of direction was, quite simply put, horrendous.

She bit her lip thoughtfully, picking a material out of the small assortment she had collected and examining it. She placed it carefully in the miniature cauldron, adding water and stirring slowly, making sure the herb was mixing with the liquid. She slowly reduced the mixture until it was a little thicker than before and went to bottle it up. The whole process only took her a few minutes and as she expertly bottled the mixture it was very obvious that this wasn't the first time that she had done something like this. She looked over the consumable, smiling happily. She was very proud of her accomplishment, a perfect healing potion on the very first try. Even with her experience she hadnt expected that. She hoped that this was a sign of things to come. She showed the potion to the potion maker happily, before depositing it in her inventory for use at some other point.

+1 Perfect t1 healing potion

It actually only took her 30 minutes this time, and although that was still way longer than it should have been, she was very happy with the results. Progress was progress after all. She entered the potion shop again, once again noting all of the shelves of potions and the alchemist himself. Passing over the materials he ushered her to a workstation, explaining to her how crafting worked and what she needed to do to make a health potion. It looked simple enough and it was actually quite similar to how her family had done it in their medicinal shop. It was way simpler actually, but the general idea was the same and she wasn't going to sweat the details like that. She organized the materials, her face becoming serious for once as she focused on the craft, starting to make her potion with care and focus that seemed very out of character for her.

"That would have been pretty cool. It sucks we had our brains kidnapped by some eccentric weirdo. What happens happens for a reason though; I just dont know what that reason is yet." She commented, attempting to slide down the snow like Randal had but instead just ending up tumbling down the hill in a very ungraceful manner, flopping face up in the snow at the bottom and just laying there for a moment. Luckily the slope hadn't been very steep or very long, and she was perfectly fine. It really showcased just how clumsy she could occasionally be. She sat up after a moment, noting the animals and the decently large area they would have to search. "Onwards!" She said playfully, pointing further into the little meadow they found themselves in.

She hummed to herself, moving a little away from Randal and keeping her eyes on the ground, trying to pick out the little white flowers of the ginseng plant in the scattered snow. A howl came from a ways away, but Ivory just ignored it. Then came the sound of padding feet on the ground, increasing in volume slightly as it grew closer. Suddenly, a large white tundra wolf sprinted out from behind a grove of trees to her left, sprinting at her and leaping at her. Its sharp canines connected with her shoulder, tearing through and leaving glowing red lines behind. It looked like a serious wound, although the healthbars told a different tale. Ivory for her part, completely ignored the enemy, as though it didn't exist.

Tundra Wolf: 200/200 HP | 60 DMG | MIT: 0 |

Ivory: 409/410 HP | MIT: 62|

Ivory shrugged. "My parents owned an herbal medicine shop. We never farmed anything ourselves, but we did deal with the plants. Its been a long time since I did anything to do with that though. Even before this it had been a long time." She explained, seeming much more relaxed now that her mind was on other things. She honestly missed the cozy hominess of her parents shop, it had been years, not even counting her time stuck in sword art online, since she had seen her parents face to face let alone the shop she had spent so much time in with them. She had been a very very busy person back then, a far cry from how she was now. She looked wistful at the thought of her family before her facial expression shifted slightly, becoming a little more sad with a tinge of worry in her eyes. "I was um... in school when this whole thing happened." She mentioned before forcing herself to smile at Randal. She didn't want to bring the mood down. "Anyway, lets see what we cant do to help these people out!" She exclaimed, her bubbly, happy nature resurfacing seemingly out of nowhere, a far cry from just a moment before.

Ivory personally wasnt super worried about any kind of trap, at least, not for herself. Despite her earlier reaction to the brandished weapons, she could take a pretty hard hit. Honestly, even on the seventh floor any of the mobs that tried to hurt her would find themselves in for the long haul. She did her best to pay attention, taking specific care to memorize what it looked like. She smiled after a moment. It had been a long time since she had been involved with plant and herbs, but she was certain that this flower was a ginseng flower, the roots of which were often used in Chinese medicine, or made into a tea of some kind. That didn't mean that she knew how to harvest it or where it grew or any of that, but she felt mildly accomplished at having recognized the plant. She gently grabbed Randal's wrist as she led him outside excitedly. "My family used to use the roots of these flowers for a medicinal tea. It can help increase blood flow, which would help a person with hypothermia warm up faster." Her excitement at her discovery was evident in her voice and the look on her face.

LD requirement lowered to 9

Ivory blushed, Randal brushing the snow from her hair for her seeming a bit intimate to her. He was cute, and they had danced and stuff, but she barely knew him. She shook her head, trying to think about something else. Like the NPCs in front of them brandishing their weapons. She squeaked and hid behind Randal, peeking out from behind his shoulder as they, after a moment, lowered their guard slightly. She drew her cloak around her a bit tighter, listening as they explained that they needed another person to help in some way with gathering herbs. The reward sounded really lame, but who knew. 

"Do you want to help them Randal? We could maybe keep searching while we do. They seem nice enough, even though the reward doesn't sound very good." She expressed quietly from slightly behind him. She shivered slightly from the snow that had made its way into her clothes after the fall, her nose now a little red from the cold. 

Ivory giggled at his response, looking back down at her feet for a bit to regain her composure. She wasn't sure if they should bother the NPC's, being a little worried that it might be the start of a quest or something, and she wasnt sure what kind of stats Randal had. She knew she couldn't really fight anything by herself. Where her skills shone was in a full party. 

"They look like they're talking about something important... What do you think it could be?" She voiced in a hushed whisper to Randal, her purple eyes widening a little, as though the distant NPC's might be able to overhear them despite the long distance between them.

Following his advice she hopped tentatively from one rock to the next. Her caution didn't amount to much though, as on the very last rock foothold her foot went flying out from under her as she began to fall down onto the snow.

Ivory swayed slightly in the wind, following Randal's line of sight to the NPCs making their way up the mountain. She had never heard of this temple, and had never been there. To be completely honestly honest she had no idea where they were currently, and that was just kind of how she lived her life. She crossed her arms under her chest, thinking, lips pursed gently. "I don't really know anything about this temple place, honestly I don't even know where we are, I was just enjoying your company." She confessed after a moment, avoiding eye contact with her newest friend. Seeing as she was definitely incapable of leading them anywhere they wanted to go, it was either talk to the NPCs or maybe Randal actually had a sense of direction, unlike her. She shifted awkwardly, an embarrassed blush in her cheeks and she snuck a look over at Randal to see his reaction to the fact that she had completely made up the fact that she could guide them.

She made her way back to the starting city. Luckily it had fairly visible walls, even from where Ivory had gone out to, and she had managed to find her way back without a hitch. She was definitely a ditz, but she wasn't that much of a ditz. She wandered in through the gates, nodding to the NPC guards. She knew they weren't real people but it still didn't feel right to just ignore them like they weren't there or something. Now for the ridiculous task of finding the potion dudes place again. That had taken two hours last time. This time it would probably take way less time, but she couldn't be sure. it had been pure luck that she had managed to find it the first time. This time she had a vague idea of the general direction at least. She started to walk, her boot clicking on the brickwork streets. She needed to make friends with a navigator or someone who could help her finding things that honestly shouldnt even be that hard to find.