Beat

The hairs on the back of Beat's neck stood on end as his ears adjusted to the change in the ambience, his heart rate increasing as a smile slowly crossed his face. His enthusiasm and pride in battle was a great source of strength for him and it made the experience a rush. 

"Looks like we're getting closer. The boss's guards so far have been stronger than it is. Let's hope we at least get a nice challenge from more of them."

It would make sense to have guards accompany a boss like this since it was so weak by itself. The fact that they hadn't really run into any bosses that spawned with adds was a bit odd to Beat. Then again, the majority of the bosses they had seen had been on the first floor. The forest gradually turned into structures made of honeycomb, making a sort of large, single dungeon room that was bee themed. It was a little odd, but Beat spotted a unique portion of the wall and broke it away after pulling up the material tag on it. The room appeared to be a boss room even if it was empty at the time. 

"Here it comes...I'm ready."

Beat snickered as he always did when Norbert and Shield were having a disagreement. Norbert's ineffectual attempts to swim away were particularly amusing to him. He moaned at the unfortunate news about Shield's first unique enhancement being unusable to him. 

"Maaaan that sucks! You should try to stick to items we'll benefit from. I know your stock isn't always up to you though. Our low tier is another factor we have to contend with. Even if you did find something good, it wouldn't be very good as soon as we reached the next tier of strength."

Beat's eye fell on a low hanging branch that had a bird's nest resting within it's smaller extremities. Inside the nest was an egg that was tagged as a cooking material. He quickly snatched up the useful item and continued walking with Shield, pulling up his energy bar before speaking. 

"Yeah, just for another minute maybe, then I should be good. Energy comes back a lot faster out of combat. Speaking of which, with my cooking, I can make food that will give me a good amount of energy. It takes time to eat, but it's completely viable in combat."

Beat nodded in agreement. Loot and game features were certainly appealing to him, but now, people's lives were on the line. He was probably unaware of it himself, but the fact that the stakes were so high was actually motivated him more. Some people found the challenge too daunting and had simply conceded to life within Sword art online. Beat would have preferred that the stakes remained at simple glory and total game domination, but being a savior came with a glory of sorts, not that people's appreciation really mattered to him. 

"That's true! That last hit bonus is apparently no joke. I wonder if it's entirely random or if the person's specialization plays is a factor. I would suck if a sword dropped for me."

Beat's brow furrowed as a realization hit him.

"That's another thing, how do Tanks get the loot drop? Do they just hope the dps gets them close enough for the tank to finish? Sounds kinda bs to me." 

Rolls

Beat's enthusiasm from the previous day had carried over to a new day. He had been studying recipes all night in order to decide what he would make the next day. The walked up to the preparation table in his kitchen with a bounce in his step. He pulled out chocolate, sugar and mixed nuts and put the combination of items into a bowl which quickly formed into a single bar resembling the power bars one would see in a health food store.

"Well, it isn't the flavor I would prefer, but it looks tasty enough and this will help me with my energy problem next time I fight."

Adding the item to his inventory, it made a dozen ordinary chocolate chip cookies and managed to burn a second batch. He was not discouraged as he was now at a point where he was seeing regular success. It was encouraging to see that his cooking rank had increased with his recent culinary adventure. 

Beat smiled as he watched his energy bar tick up enough to finish the fight. He had been waiting for this moment and by his estimate, the wasp Shield had just struck was now within kill range. He focused his left leg once again took on a familiar glow. Leaping into the air, Beat brought his leg in an extremely wide arc, making the largest version of this sword art yet. The wave was thinner as a result of its new size, but it would get the job done as it cleaved through each of the insect, carving them in half. Their assailants dissipated as Beat landed, giving Shield pat on his pauldron.

"Yeah, but I like to get my hands dirty. I like to think I have a good working relationship with numbers."

He laughed at his twist on the concept, knowing exactly what Shield had meant. Looking at the reward screen, he was pleased to see that the rewards seemed to be climbing with the difficulty of the enemies.

"Not a bad haul for those enemies. I can't wait to get back to the fifth floor. Ten-thousand col each for one dungeon is pretty nice." 

Beat folded his arms as he watched Shield's numbers once again, utterly defeat their opponents. He chuckled as the banter continued.

"Well, I suppose I would tank, but I don't care to let numbers do all the work for me. Plus, no one ever said tanks aren't supposed to do damage. Now, if we had a third, you might have the luxury of sitting back and soaking everything."

It wasn't that they had been trying to find a third regular party member, but the idea had likely occurred to both of them at least once. The higher floors were dangerous and, at some point, they would need either more damage or a healer. Although, adventuring would be less lucrative if they had to split loot another way. It was a dilemma that they would likely eventually have to deal with

"Of course, we can't find anyone to play with because so people on the lower floors have settled to just live out their lives in the game until someone saves them."

Beat laughed doubling over as Norbert flailed at their venomous adversaries. There was something about an angrily flailing turtle strapped to Shield's back that set the younger player off. 

"Mess'em up Norbert! Almost! Not that time!" 

Beat entertained himself for a few more moments before seeing an opportunity that was not going to pass up. The wasps had flown in a sort of formation that was rather effective, but left them open after Shield laughed it off. Fully committed to the attack, the follow through left their backs turned long enough for beat to leap into the air and send his glowing leg along his X-axis, releasing a bright wave of energy that caught all of them from behind and sent them into the trees. He looked to Shield and referred to their banter. 

"How was that not as cool as getting stabbed in the face?"

Beat watched as Shield abated the wasps' onslaught with his numbers alone, not even bothering to defend himself since his numbers also dealt damage to them assuming their attacks were not perfect. Thorns was a nice ability and one that Beat might consider since it required no energy to use and added damage on top of whatever he would manage to do with his own attacks. 

Thoughts for later.

He refocused himself as he jumped into the air, addressing Shield's banter. 

"Attacking is just way more fun. Anyone can stand there and reflect damage, but-"

Beat had jumped directly in front of one the wasps and performed a single forward flip, bringing his heel down on top of its head, sending it plunging several feet before it could right itself in the air. Landing gracefully, Beat pointed at the example he had just made. 

"That feels amazing when done correctly."

Beat watched eagerly as the wasps swarmed Shield with reckless abandon, driven by their natural instinct to attack anything with area that they deemed under their control. Beat had always detested wasps, having been stung a number of times in his life, thus adding to the list of reasons he preferred to not leave his home. He glared at them as his left leg began to glow below the knee. 

Nasty creatures, no reason to exist.

"This is revenge!!" 

Beat leaped into the air, directly above Shield and perfectly in between all of the wasps as his glowing leg turned in a lightning fast 360 as he spun, his hell catching each of them squarely, knocking them back and doing a good amount of damage. He smiled as he landed, satisfied with the damage they had sustained. 

"Not too bad, how are those thorns working out?"

Beat snickered as Norbert defied his new owner. He encouraged the hard shelled ally with nods and whispers. He wondered if his familiar would misbehave the same way at first. It was also worth pondering if familiars grew as they gained strength. 

"Yeah, get him Norbert. Lower those ears."

He hardly attempted to hide his antics as Shield glanced at him, giving the serious tank a toothy grin. He had been teasing and so had meant nothing by it. This was Beat's way and Shield was just going to have to learn to like it. Beat leaned down to pick up what appeared to be a chunk of broken armor, assuming it had been from a dead player, but he perished the thought as he reminded himself that nothing remained when you died. The thought was certainly sobering to say the least. His dark contemplation was cut short as a trade menu opened in front of him. 

"Ahh, it's back!"

Beat's smile was now one of appreciation as he readily accepted the trade, welcoming his old ring back to his inventory. He swiped through his menus, equipping the returned trinket over the slightly less effective substitute he had been wearing. He made one last glance at his equipment, happy to see his loot chances ever-so slightly improved, before closing his menus and giving Shield the "go-ahead" with a nod.

"Let's exterminate some bugs."

Beat nodded in agreement as his brow furrowed in frustration as he tried to understand what the developers were thinking.

"I know what you mean. I mean, fifty hitpoints? That's embarrassing. Maybe it is because the party that discovered had to meet special conditions before it unlocked the spawn." 

It was true that sometimes MMOs had global unlocks that made something available to the entire player base once someone had performed the unlock requirements. He shrugged as he decided to keep his eyes peeled for more materials as they neared the forested area where they could see wasps flying above and through the tree tops. 

"I guess it's just a gimme. Something to reward going through the effort of unlocking the boss spawn. Only thing I can think of."

He smiled, eyeing the wasps with a greedy gleam in his eye. 

"I wonder what those guys drop...up for checking to see?"

Rolls

Beat returned to his kitchen once again, this time, determined to make something worth more than a filling meal. This time, he would make something he could actually use. He opened up his menu and pulled up a cook book of recommended recipes that he had purchased from an information broker. IT had been affordable and he figured it would be essential to know the official recipes. He walked behind the long counter that ran the length of his cafe and pulled out his ingredients. He flipped through the pages until he found something that caught his eye. He retrieved apples and yeast and combined them with a bottle. The confection blurred for a moment as it ran his cooking skill check. A few moments later, a bottle of Hard Apple Cider appeared. 

"YES!"

Beat threw his hands in the air in celebration as he read the item tag. It was something that would prove handy in upcoming battles, but it wasn't a game changer exactly. He thought for a moment and flipped through the pages again as he found another recipe. He retrieved cookie dough, some electrolyte spice and a cookie sheet. HE combined the electrolytes and the cookie dough together then put the solution on the sheet twice. A few moments in the oven produced an even bigger success, though one of the attempts had failed. Beat danced around his kitchen in excitement, unaware of the stares from outside he was attracting. 

Beat used his napkin to wipe his mouth as he stood up, thinking about their first sub-dungeon. A high level player named Rain had carried them handily through the depths of a desert dungeon filled with lizard soldiers that, even now, would pose a decent threat. Now, after they completed the three or four quests on their roster, that feeling was likely to change a little bit. Their goal was reaching the second tier of power in the game. At that point, better equipment became available and the enhancements on that gear was practically doubled. Players within that tier were in a league of their own compared to the two of them as they were currently. 

"Indeed, we'll hit that second tier in no time. I wonder how hard a sub dungeon would be now. We may have to look into it once we have knocked a few more quests. If I recall, that dungeon gave us quite a good head start financially thanks to Rain not taking his share." 

Beat turned and walked out of the tavern, waiting for Shield before beginning down the cobblestone road through the town, towards the forest where the boss was said to be. Just outside of the safe zone, one of the stones in the road stood out. Upon picking the stone up and inspecting it, it turned out to be a piece of metallic ore. He stowed the valuable material and continued on. 

Beat nodded slowly in understanding as he took the final bit of his steak. As he chewed the flank of some unfortunate virtual bovine, Beat considered the possibilities that freeing up an equipment slot would bring. When it came to an enhancement he would need permanently, it wasn't hard to choose. He swallowed the last thoroughly enjoyed morsels of his meal and took a sip of orange juice before replying.  

"Well, my familiar will definitely be giving me a damage enhancement then. I can't see a situation in which that won't be helpful to me."

Beat pulled his menus back up and started flicking through his stats at a rapid pace, running calculations and projections of what end game statistics would look like. Beat was smart for a guy who dropped out of highschool, he just lacked a good chunk of the basic education that his peers had likely gotten. When it came to video games, his knowledge and abilities to pick out optimal builds were unquestionable. He quickly downed his juice as he continued to flick through menus until he shook his head, his brow furrowing. 

"Hmm, specializing early is best at lower levels, but once we get into the higher levels, we'll have to skill points to spread out. I think we're on the right track, but optimal endgame builds will vary I think since you have to worry about more than just combat." 

Beat smiled as his eyes went wide, taking another bit of steak at just the wrong moment. He chewed quickly and swallowed as he rushed to reply in his excitement.

"A falcon! Oo I like that! My first thought was a dragon, but it would be a small one and I'd rather have something a little more grown up. I'm not looking to take care of a baby."

His brow quirked as he reached out and attempted to pet the shell of Shield's companion. He knew the Turtle would have to real way of feeling and appreciating it, but petting an animal just seemed like the natural thing to do. He looked to Shield as he continued to pet Norbert. 

"So, what does a familiar do for you? I haven't looked into the specifics other than the info you shared from the info broker about loot find bonuses helping."

Beat hoped it provided special bonuses unique to Familiars alone, though any bonus at all would be helpful. He remembered that Ariel had possessed a familiar as well and was kicking himself for not asking these questions then. 

Beat's face scrunched up at the smell of the fish bait as he glared at Shield. 

"Hey man! That stuff reeks, I'm trying to enjoy my br-"

He paused as he watched Shield place the fish over his shoulder, his eyes growing wider as a turtle's head appeared and snatched the fish and then some. It took him only a few moments to realize what that Turtle was before he smiled, happy that his Friend's efforts had bore fruit. 

"I take it that is your familiar? Very cool. Once a certain chef finish an order I recently placed, I should be on my way to hunting one of my own. Where did you find this little guy?" 

The smell of the bait dissipating somewhat, Beat resumed eating his steak as he thought about what sort of familiar he would prefer. He knew he really wouldn't care for a turtle, but the animal somehow suited Shield. The thought brought a smile to Beat's face.  

Beat smiled as he pulled the quest up and reviewed the stats of the field boss, scoffing arrogantly and shaking his head, a disappointed look on his face. 

"Yeah, this thing won't even drop standard loot, so all we can really hope for is whatever comes from the quest rewards."

Beat looked through his equipment as he took another delicious bite of juicy steak. He was suddenly reminded of a scene from a movie he had seen where one of the characters was eating a steak and acknowledging that while the steak was not real, his brain only knew that it was satisfying and delicious regardless of what he actually knew to be true. Taking a swig of orange juice, he swallowed and gave the heavily armored man an inquisitive look. 

"Did you ever see the Matrix? Great movie that has some parallels to our situation. It's kinda funny." 

He figured making small talk wasn't really Shield's thing, but Beat enjoyed conversation while they were actually sitting and taking a few minutes of respite before charging into battle. Beat hoped that there would more interesting fights along the way, but if not, we wasn't about to complain about free skill points. 

Beat returned to the first shop had ever visited after being trapped inside the prison that was Sword Art Online. He was glad to see that the shop still played relaxing music, allowing customers a nice escape from the hustle and bustle of the city. Following his normal routine that he always followed when entering a shop, he enjoyed the decor and smells that drifted around the shop as he browsed the wears the occupied the shelves. He was hoping that the still mostly empty shelves were a sign that his efforts to promote the shop had been successful. He laughed at himself as he thought about his current business's success. Approaching the counter, he smiled to the one time acquaintance, grabbing an order form and beginning to fill it out.

"Well, it looks like you can't keep stock on the shelves, so I'm guessing that means business is still good?"

He looked down and evaluated his order form before sliding it over.

"I think this will be a simpler order. Just something to help me find a good familiar." 

OC: 

Ordering the following: 

Shield had managed to catch beat at the most inopportune moment as he had just taken a large bite of steak. He held his finger up, indicating that his partner would simply have to wait. He resisted the urge to prolong the enjoyment of his mouthful of food and irritate the sometimes impatient man standing before him. He was, however, still only halfway through his meal, so he gestured to the chair across the table from him after swallowing. 

"We do, but Beats gotta eat. Take a sit, I'll try not to dally too much. This steak is legit though." 

He knew slowing down and waiting wasn't something the older player enjoyed doing, but he was determined to try and get him to relax a little. Since their last adventure, particularly the expression of values the two of them shared, Beat had decided to take Shield's words under advisory, since he hadn't yet figured out everything just yet. Regardless of whether or not Shield took his  offer to relax, Beat would continue eating his meal until it was finished. He was in no rush to finish his meal, but he would eat at a steady pace to avoid invoking Shield's ire.

"You know, I wouldn't have to buy food at a tavern if I could cook for crap. Hahaha!"

The sky was a pleasant shade of orange and the birds sang happily as the morning sun peered over the edge of the crater that housed the small town of Urbis. The town had a medieval European sort of design and the stone buildings seemed arranged haphazardly. Towards the center of the town,   Beat was sitting in the local tavern, enjoying a plate of steak and eggs. He had recently begun learning to cook and he was always taking notes on flavor and texture, not that he truly had a lot of control over the exact properties of the things he made, at least not yet. So far, he had managed to make a passable stew, something that felt like an accomplishment when compared to how the rest of his attempts had gone.

Crazy how hard it is to make food..I'll get there though...

He pulled his menu up as he ate, checking the time. HE was waiting on Shield to arrive so that they could venture to the woods to hunt the hidden field boss that an unsuspecting low-level party had uncovered. Its stats weren't impressive, but the quest yielded a good amount of SP, something he and Shield were always looking for. 

Accepting the quest with @Shield

Beat barged into the shop, having received communication from Shield about needing his lucky ring. He wasn't happy to part with it, but he knew it would be coming back to him. Plus the merchant warrior had promised Beat a piece of armor in exchange. Beat did most of his adventuring along side Shield, but he knew there would be times when he would want a little extra protection in leu of some of his damage. He walked up to the counter and pulled up his menu. He retrieved the ring from his inventory and laid it on the counter. 

"Hey! I've got food to burn! Let's do this thing!" 

He would wait patiently, not truly wanting to go back to his kitchen to actually burn more food. HIs efforts in his profession had produced little edible food and it had been a discouraging beginning to his career. He had no intentions of giving up, but he found himself needing to get away to avoid feeling too discouraged. 

Trading the following:

for 

and 

Rolls

Beat returned to his shop for another attempt. He had given his error a good deal of thought and had watched another chef work while he was away from his shop. Cooking was more of an approximation of actual cooking. The most striking difference was the amount of time it took to finish a dish. Upon correctly assembling the ingredients together, one could make a salad in about ten seconds. This feature suited Beat just fine as his cooking knowledge was extremely limited and he would find it arduous to learn how to cook and then have to take a realistic amount of time to cook it. 

Thank god for crafting systems

Beat combined a stick of butter to three bowls of flour and put them in the oven. As before smoke rose from the oven, though not nearly as much as before. The failed attempts quickly de-spawned along with the smoke that came from them, but a small loaf of bread sat inside the oven, a reminder that he had learned from his time away. He retrieved the loaf and set it on the counter. 

It won't provide any numerical benefits, but it smells and likely tastes great!

Beat wandered through the front door, taking in a large waft of delicious smells and delectables. He had experienced little success on his first day, but he knew that new food businesses always struggled at the beginning. It was fortunate that the real world barriers to entry for businesses didn't really exist in Sword Art Online. Once you completed the quest, you picked a spot, got your shop and trained your profession skill. HIs first day had been a loss, but he got a little experience from it and would try again the next day. For now, he had his sights set on something else, a familiar. For that, he would need all the luck he could get if he wanted a rare creature. 

If I'm lucky enough...

Beat walked up to the counter and pulled over an order ticket, smiling at the chef and sliding the ticket to him. 

"Hi there, I was hoping you could make something extra special today. I would also like the Tier 1 tiramisu sitting under the glass there as well as that bag of steamed peanuts." 

OC: 

Ordering 1 of the following for 600 col: 

Also purchasing the following from stock for 1200 col: 

Rolls

Beat walked into the front door of his new shop, having just selected the location based on the foot traffic. He wanted a place that wasn't too crowded, but was close enough to the hustle and bustle of town that it would get enough business to make a decent profit. He turned and locked the door, not wanting to serve customers until his skill was at least somewhat decent, and made his way through the shop, inspecting it with a wide grin. 

This is where I will make delicious food for everyone! This is so exciting!

He quickly made his way over to the oven and laid the materials out on the preparation table. He scratched his head and tossed all three into the oven. IN an instant, smoke bellowed out of the appliance. 

"Ahh crap!"

He opened the oven and retrieved the one salvageable material from the now empty oven. The smoke quickly dissipated and he was left with a day of failure as his beginning into cooking. 

"This is going to be a long week...."