Aereth

"I really hope for you that this stuff gets fixed in the next update. Haha, looks like I made the right choice to become a scout." Aereth laughed. However, after hearing that Itzals familiar had to die, because of unknown reasons (for Aereth) Aereth stopped laughing and said. "I'm sorry. I didn't want to remember you of something bad or reopen old wounds." Still sitting on the ground, he looked around for some materials. Suddenly Aereth saw something sparkling behind a nearby bush. Behind the bush was a black shiny ore. It reminded him a little bit of a Onyx stone, so Aereth immediately picked it up, stored it in his inventory and sat back down to Itzals right. After some moments of uncomfortable silence, Aereth decited to ask, one again, a question. "So how are your other guild members like? I don't think we talked about them in the restaurant."

ID# 69445 results:

 Loot: 19

Materials: 2 + 1 = 3

@Itzal

"Thank you so much. It kind of feels like today is the first day of a new life for me." Aereth said while also sitting down on the ground. "And the first day of a wonderful friendship." he thought with a smile. Then Itzal mentioned his other apprentice named Birdie. "That's cool. I'm looking forward to meet, and work with her." Then after hearing the explanation of the recording crystal, and listening to his business problems, new questions formed in Aereth's mind. "The idea behind the songs is good in my opinion, but if the debuffs don't work on bosses, the performer profession seems a little bit unbalanced in comparison to the other ones. And you talked about getting familiars. How do you even get the chance to tame one?" He asked Itzal with a curious expression. Catching the ore-like item Aereth tanked Itzal for the present. "Thank you my friend. I will store them, and hopefully use them when I'm able to do something with them."

ID# 69440 results:

 Loot: 8

Materials 1 + 1 = 2 (present from Itzal)

@Itzal

"Haha, you got a point there. I suppose that's just my real life personality trying to be over careful." He laughed as well. "But I would appreciate it, if I could stay at your place, until I opened my own shop." he said while thankfully smiling at Itzal.  "That would be so awesome if I would be able to rival you. And I know it will be hard work until I will reach that point. But I will not go back on my word. I am looking forward to the time where we will look at each other as equal scouts." he said while offering Itzal a fist. "And by the way, do you have any other apprentices? Or am I the only one?" Then Itzal picked up something like a cube from some bushes and placed himself on the ground before Aereth. "Now what was that?" he asked curious, because Aereth never saw something like this before.

ID# 69437 results:

 Loot: 13

After some time Aereth decided to travel just in the trees, because down on the ground were to many boars and wolves. So this time he had to be very careful not to hit a dead branch. He also stopped after every jump to see where he would jump next. Carefully jumping from tree to tree Aereth noticed something hanging from a higher tree branch. So he decided to get up there and look what this could be. Reaching the ominous branch he saw, that the things hanging from the branch were some herbs which he could collect. "Hmm. I think with herbs you can make some potions or something. When I'm back in the city I have to ask somebody if this is useful or not..." he thought to himself while storing the herb in his inventory. The he looked down to see if the amount of wolves and boars was decreasing, but he had to realise that they only got more since the time he encountered the first monsters...

 ID# 69446 results:

 Loot: 19

Materials: 2 + 1 = 3

While walking deeper into the forest, Aereth noticed more and more roaming wolves and boars. "I should be careful around these fellows. I don't want to get into a fight..." He thought. He knew exactly how dangerous his tour into the forest was, but he had to do it. "Somehow I must get stronger. And I know for a fact, that I can avoid these stupid NPC monsters and if worse comes to worse I can also outrun these low level monsters. I need these materials. And it's much easier to look for them in the forest than in the city."  While he encountered several boars, which Aereth simply outsmarted and didn' have to fight, the wolves turned out to be much tougher to avoid. Sometimes he even had to climb a tree in order to stay out of the way of these little bastards.

ID# 69431 results:

 Loot: 3

"Haha, just like in the real life. Hard work, passion and a little bit of luck are needed to be successful." Aereth chuckled. "Thanks for the info about the incoming update. If an update is around the corner, I would also prefer to wait. For now, sadly I don't have a place to stay. Up until now I've stayed at inns or slept outside of the weather was nice enough." He admitted and was touched by the kindness he was receiving. Then he answered with a smile "You are really a good and kind hearted person. But you also need to be careful. There is also a lot of scum here in Aincrad that is just trying to fool and take advantage of you." He said to Itzal with a concerned expression. "I trust you completely  regarding my training and skill levelling. I want to become a passable scout for you and your guild so you can Form me in any direction you want." Aereth said while getting on one knee and lowering his head. Aereth was a very loyal Type of human being. Or at least he thought of himself as a loyal person. While he lowered his head, he saw one single mushroom in front of him. "Wow finally some luck." 

 ID# 69411 results:

 Loot: 20

Materials 1

@Itzal

"As for what I like, I would love to become a blacksmith, because to be able to craft your own weapons would be straight awesome. So the materials can also be sold huh... That would mean, you could also make some money as scout on your own." He answered Itzal. "And what would be the profession in which you can earn the most money? Now regarding my skill-build, in which order should I use my Skill-Points? First to rank 3 OHSS, then S&D?" Then he noticed how Itzal looked at a specific branch in the area. And found herbs hanging hanging from said branch. "Wow. Four of them? That gatherer skill is so broken in combination with your LD boosting gear." Aereth stated in awe. He tried his hardest to find anything in the surrounding area, but wasn't able to find anything. "I definitely want to become a good scout if that means you can find this amounts of materials and everything else." Aereth said in a voice full of determination.

ID# 69365 results:

 Loot: 1

@Itzal

ID# 69362 results:

 Loot: 4

"Haha, thanks. Yes let's go out then. I hope I can do this parcour stuff to in some point of time." Aereth replied. While they were walking Aereth noticed how all the low level monsters in this area were avoiding Itzal for some reason. "Must be because he is such a high level. It is impressive how the Cardinal system even notices such things." Aereth thought while they still walked. Just as the party of the two friends reached the entrance of the forest Itzal began to explain what the areas of responsibility were for a scout. "Haha. But it is suitable to look for mushrooms and berries in the forest. Let's do it." Then they started to look for materials in the near area. After a short time of silence Aereth turned his head to Itzal. "But there I have another question: How do I get a profession? And which one should I get?" still looking at Itzal.

@Itzal

OOC: Please correct me if I'm doing anything wrong. ^^

ID# 69359 results:

 Battle: 9

 Craft: 5

 Loot: 19

 MOB: 3

With a loud thud, Aereth hit the ground beneath him. Just for a few minutes he enjoyed the silence of the forest, while he thought of a very special song. After gathering his thoughts again, he decided to stand up again with a roar. "F*******CK. Why has this stupid game to be so accurate about the physics of the environment! Thank goddess that nobody saw this poor performance." Suddenly he started to laugh. "But thinking of it, this must have looked hilarious. I would have liked to see it myself if I'm honest." Then he looked around himself and noticed that he has never been in this part of the forest. "Hmmm. I can't remember that I've ever been in this part of the forest before. Maybe in here are some valuable materials for crafting." He said to himself and started looking around for materials. And indeed, after just a few minutes he found one.

Materials: 2

 ID# 69357 results:

 Battle: 3

 Craft: 7

 Loot: 13

 MOB: 2

"For now I have rested enough." He thought as he took the last bite of his sandwich. He then stood up again and slowly into the woods. After some time he reached a denser part of the forest. "This environment should be perfect for training my parcouring skills. It's very dense, so I shouldn't have much trouble to jump from branch to branch, because they are nearer to each other than in the wider spread part of the forest." He chuckled. As he finished his thought he grabbed the nearest branch and lifted himself up on top of it. Standing now on top of the branch he locked around to find a route through the dense forest. Then he launched himself away from the branch he was standing on right to the next branch in front of him. After successfully repeating this several times, he unfortunally stepped on a dead branch which instantly broke.

 ID# 69353 results:

 Battle: 4

 Craft: 5

 Loot: 5

 MOB: 10

After finishing this hard and straining (not) quest, Aereth decided to take a break and eat some of food he brought with him. He wasn't assuming to be back in the town before nightfall, so he prepared some food as he woke up. To be exact he prepared three meals. One for a late breakfast, one for lunch and one for dinner. It wasn't anything special. Just some generic stuff the NPCs sold in the town of beginnings. While unpacking his first meal he thought out loud. "How long will it take me to finally get stronger? One thing I know for sure. It will be a hard and straining way. But it's not impossible." Then he took his first bite. For now he decited to dismiss this thoughts and to focus only on his training today. 

ID# 69350 LD: 8

After picking up the material, Aereth continued his way back to the little NPC girl to get his reward. "That was a nice little quest there. Not to hard to do and the reward is appropriate. And I'm able to practise my parcouring skill in combination with gathering materials." Then after a short walk Aereth reached the clearing where he left the NPC girl the last time. "Hey girl. I got your pouch." He said while going to the girl. "Wow thank you mister. Now my mother won't be mad at me anymore." The girl said with a big smile on her face. "Haha that was nothing little princess." Aereth smiled but had to wonder how real this little girl seemed right now. After this sentence the little NPC got up and left the clearing in the opposite direction where I came from. "These NPCs Never fail to creep me." He chuckled to himself.

After hearing about the other paladins and the initiation Aereth said "That's really awesome. I will try my hardest to meet your expectations in me." Then the two friend finished their breakfast and went out of the restaurant. "Keep them up?" Aereth asked confused, but after seeing him going for the roofs he understood very fast. "Man, that guy is really fast." He thought while he started to run in the general direction of the gates. However, he didn't want to take the crowded main streets, so he took the first empty side ally hoping that he would reach the gate faster by avoiding the slow crowd. "I have to get this parkour skill mastered quickly or otherwise I will never be able to catch up with his speed. And I have to train harder from now on. Much harder." His eyes changed from soft and warm to determined and cold. Just as he exited the last ally a group of three players got in his way and he had no chance to stop before hitting them. "Juuuuuump." He screamed while jumping over the heads of the seemingly surprised players and landing in front of his waiting friend. "Haha sorry if I made you wait for too long." He said a little bit emberassed while scratching the back of his head. 

@Itzal

ID# 69314 LD: 15 Success.

"Alright, now let's head back to the quest NPC and get my reward." Aereth said to nobody in particular, as he started to make his way back to the little girl. While walking, he thought about what kind of shop he would like to open at some point. If somebody wants to move on in this game, money is also needed to do so. Since you can only have one shop, you cannot make all the stuff you need by yourself, and so you need to buy it from NPC's or other players. Not noticing where he went Aereth stumbled over something and hit the ground face-first. "Goddammit!" he yelled, again, to nobody in particular. Just then he noticed, that he stumbled over a material that could be used to craft  certain things. Dismissing the anger Aereth picked the material up and also put it inside his inventory.

Quest-Item [1/1]

Material 1

"Nah, thinking of it, it's not the most important thing I want. My main goal is to become a fast and mobile unit, and I think the scouting skills will also benefit me if I want to run a shop later on." Aereth replied after finishing his third slice. "Then let's say it would make me happy, if I could show you something that I am good in. And if it's making you and your girlfriend happy too then this only doubles my joy." He replied with a small smile on his face. Then Itzal asked him if he wanted to spend the day with him practising.  "Sounds great, I don't particularly have something to do for today so that would be awesome." Then however Itzal offered Aereth to join his guild as his apprentice which hit him a little bit off guard. "I would love to become your apprentice. And since I don't know anybody else but you in this game, and I want to give be able to give back something to you and your guild.  But are your other guild members ok with me joining? Because I don't want to cause you trouble with your other friends."

@Itzal

ID# 69297 LD: 18 Success

"Yeah that sounds legit. Leaving a small little girl in the clearing of a wood without any defense." Aereth snorted silently, as he entered the forrest in the direction the little girl pointed. "While seaching for that pouch, I could also practise my parcouring skills..." Just as he finished the sentence, he jumped on the closest branch, and just as he made contact with it, he jumped to the next one. "Also if I am looking for this pouch from above, I might be able to find it earlier due to the better overwiew." This time Aereth searched for a path to go, before he jumped away, because this time he didn't want to end up crashing agains some dumb rocks or trees. After a few minutes of jumping, Aereth saw the small pouch lying on the nearby ground. "This has to be the pouch of the quest!" he said to himself and started to look for a way down the trees. Fortunally for him, there were two brances which he could use to get down to the puch. "Yes finally some luck." He then crouched and took the pouch into his inventory.

Quest-Item [1/1]

ID# 69295 LD: 9

After some walking, with still no useable item in sight, Aereth found a small clearing in the woods. In the middle of the clearing sat a small child. From so far away it was hard to see but if somebody listened carefully, you could hear some quiet sobs. After hearing the sobs, Aereth decited to get closer to the child and ask is what was wrong. When Aereth got closer he noticed something. "First of all, this person has no cursor, so this means that this child there must be a NPC, and second, the child is a girl. Maybe I get a quest when I talk with her." As he aproached her he said. "Hey little one. Are you ok?" Then the crying girl looked up to Aereth with teary eyes and said. "Hello M-Mister. *sob* I-I'm not hurt or something if you want to know that. It's just... It's just that my m-mother sent me shopping to the city outside of the forrest. And... And I lost the pouch in which all the things I bought were, and I can't find it anymore." Just as the little girl said this sentence, a small window appeared in front of Aereth. "So this should be a fetch quest..." he thought whil pressing the blue circle to accept the quest. "Don't worry little girl, I will go and find the pouch for you." He said with a small smile. "Thank you mister! I will wait right here until you come back." the little girl said cheerfully.

ID# 69284 LD: 8

Finally reaching a bigger branch, Aereth stopped climbing and readied himself for a little training. He crouched and jumped with all his might away from the branch. Shortly before the branch of the next tree he reached with his hand for it and and barely took hold of it. Using the momentum from the jump he swinged his body under the branch, and let go of it when he generated the maximum possible momentum. Again gliding through the air, he noticed, that this time there was no next brach to hold on, so he tried his best not to crash flatly against the ground by crouching and rolling when his feet met the ground. Not seeing where he rolls, he hit a nearby rock with his body. "Man... That wasn't as smooth of a landing as I imagined. I have to train that part later again." He chuckeled to himself. "Maybe, I can go around and seach for some materials." Looking around he didn't find anything usefull so he decited to walk a little bit deeper into the wood

"The only thing I want is, that later when I have higher sword skills and good equipment I want to be able to fight simple mobs on my own." Aereth said after taking another bite from is pizza. "Ah... Thats some good stuff. And thanks for the information about Opal and Teayrne. I will be careful around Teayrne." Then Aereth noticed how Itzal fell silent for a moment after Aereth mentioned the word ballroom. Just when he was about to ask if everything was ok, Itzal answered that he has a girlfriend which is the real reason why he wants to learn how to dance. "Just by looking at him I can say that he really loves her. She must be the special one for him. And I'm sure he's trying his best not to blush right now." he thought slightly chuckling. While Itzal talked about his real life back in the real world, Aereth thoughts also drifted back to the real world... "How long until we get out of here? Will you have the patience to wait for me? Is it even fair for to assume that you would wait for me?" All this thoughts turned the chuckling into a little frown. Quickly dismissing the frown, he said. "Think about it my friend. It' like I said, it would be an honor, and the least I can do for you, if I could show you and  your girlfriend some steps. I'm sure it woud be fun. And as for now I don't have anymore questions. I think that I am going to take the sout path. And I'd be greatful if you could teach me, and help me on my way."

@Itzal

The sun was slowly rising and almost everybody in Aincrad was still asleep. But not Aereth. Even though it was very early in the morning, the dark haired player was already training in the woods. Ever since he saw his friend Itzal jumping from roof to roof he also wanted to master this way of traveling. It was fast, you get an adrenaline rush and it looked really cool. "I have to train really hard if I ever want to be able to catch up with my friend, and even harder if I want to help at the frontlines someday" Aereth thought to himself while he climbed on one of the highest trees in the area. "I still need to get a feeling for this virtual body of mine. My control over it is still insufficient. As long as i don't have more control over it and gain some levels, I won't be fighting mobs anytime soon..."

While Aereth talked about how he was interested in maybe becoming a scout he noticed the smile that started to form on Itzal's face. After hearing that Itzal doesn't want anything in return for helping him, and that he could help him every step of the way, Aereth started to smile broadly. "You would really do that for me? That would be straight awesome. But I have some more questions. Will I be able to stand my ground agains some simple monsters on my own when I become stronger or will I have to rely on others in this regard? And are there some dangerous players that I should avoid?" Aereth asked stll smiling, but he also noticed how Itzal hesitated a little bit after he heard that he would teach him how to dance as a repayment for the efforts Itzal is going to put into the training. "Maybe he wants to suprise somebody special with the dancing..." Aereth thought to himself and smiled warmly to Itzal. "If you are interested I can teach you all Ballroom dances, which are Slow Walz, Tango, Viennese Walz, Slowfox, and Quickstep, and some Latin dances being Samba, Cha Cha Cha, Rumba, Paso Double and, my favourite, the Jive. And it would be an honor for me to show you how to do one, some or even all of them." He said while still smiling. Then the waitress placed the two meals in front of the two friends. "Do you have girl or a female friend which you could take with you, since this are all couple dances which require a male and a female to dance together?" After asking this question, Aereth also took a bite of one of the delicious smelling slices.

@Itzal

After hearing Itzals explenation of how he sees his position in his guild, Aereth smiled and thought to himself "If everybody in his guild is like him, then it doesn't seem far fetched when he says that they are more like a family than a guild. I really like that thought." While entering the restaurant and finding a place to sit Aereth said "I agree with you wholeheartly, when you say realtionships and bonds are far more important than titles, but in my oppinion, also and appropriate ammount of respect for his superiours is needed." Just after saying this they found a place to sit and began to look through the menu. Then Itzal said that he would answer all the questions Aereth asked after ordering the meals. "So, am I going to eat a simple salami pizza or should I go with a Neapolitan one?" "I think I'm going with a salami today." After Itzal ordered his pepperoni pizza Aereth also ordered his salami one. "As for now I have a more or less a fast and mobile build in my mind, so tank and healer are out for me right now. The tasks of a scout sound very interesting to me. So maybe you could show me the basics of scouting and searching for materials, if you have the time." Aereth said full of hope. Because what would be better than to learn directly from a person which is so experienced like Itzal. "But before you decite whether you want to help me or not, I have to say that I have nothing to repay you." Aereth admitted sadly. "Unless you want to learn how to dance." Aereth joked. 

“Yeah I kind of know what you mean. The adrenaline rush is amazing. Especially after you finished everything, but your heart still beats like crazy and your feet feel like pudding. Pizza sounds great. Back in the real life, we used to eat cold pizza for breakfast when we didn’t have any time left to prepare one. Although now I would prefer a hot one.” Somehow this thought made Aereth happy and sad at the same time. “Now is not the time to get sentimental.” Quickly dismissing the bad thoughts, Aereth listened to Itzals explanation of his job as the scout paladin councilor in the guild he is in. Really impressed by the fact that he met a paladin councilor of a gulid that helps and supports people new to the game, he nearly tripped over his own feet. “That’s really impressing that you are the scout paladin councilor of your guild. And please don’t bow for me. I should be the one bowing in front of you.” He said while lowering his upper body to a bow. “Thanks for hearing out my questions. So first of all I would like to ask you, how should I start levelling up the most efficient way, because due to the fact that I am only level one right now I am quite afraid to go outside for a hunt or so. And second, how should I spend my skill points without wasting them for more or less useless skills. As for now I have either a fast and high DPS, or a scouting-build in mind. Or just some general help in how to watch out for myself outside of the city would be great.” After that he raised his upper body back to a normal stance and thought to himself, “Was that too much to ask? I don’t want to scare him away, just after our first meeting… Dammit Aereth that was definitely not cool…”

@Itzal

„Wow, that's kinda awesome. It saves you a ton of time, and besides it also looks kinda cool. I didn't even know you could do stuff like that.” “Now he most definitely knows that I'm completely new to this game…” He thought while awkwardly scratching the back of his head. Then he felt a small frown creep over his face. He hated to admit it but he is weak. Weak and unexperienced. He needed somekind of mentor who showed him the mechanics of the game. The frown then immediatly got replaced by a big smile after hearing the word breakfast.

Shaking his head he answered “Haha, never heard of it, I also never played D&D before. To be honest, this is one of my very first RPGs but breakfast sounds really nice. Is there a special restaurant where you want to have breakfast?” He said to Itzal while they started walking.

“He really looks like a very nice guy. Offering free breakfast to a stranger while dropping from a building.” Aereth thought and chuckled a little bit to himself.

“Also by the way, can I ask you some questions about this game? I mean if you have time and if it doesn't bother you too much?”

Aereth was walking slowly through the streets lost in his thoughts all alone. “Man I have to get stronger really soon if I want to help clearing this dammed death game… I can’t just stay here and waste more time, I have a promise to keep…”

Then seemingly out of nowhere a player dropped to the floor. A little bit surprised he sees him rolling a little to soften the impact. As Aereth walks over to the player he notices that he also seems to be lost in thoughts. “Hey friend, are you hurt or something?”, Aereth asks as he offers him his hand. “Oh by the way, my name is Aereth. It’s nice to meet you.”, Aereth says with a little smile.

“Hm maybe I can ask him a few things about the game, since I do not really know how to stand on my own feet in this game. And he also looks powerful and experienced.”, he thought at the same time.