Soredell

Soredell looks over to both @Damien and @Khrysaor, the latter offering him a drink. He briefly considers the offer, before coming to a decision, indicated by him shaking his head. "Thank you for the offer, but I'm fine for now. If I need to I'll get it myself when the fight is finished. He says, turning his attention back to the duel. By the looks of it, the duel between these two was about to commence at any minute.

He turns to @Damien, with a nervous yet fierce look in his eyes, considering that was the only part of his face you can see due to the scarf. "That orange player, @Hydra was it? How did he get orange status? Did he... You know, kill another player?" He asks nervously. His next answer would be the deciding factor in a lot of things for Soredell. He'd heard about orange players, thieves and killers of Sword Art Online. It was ok if they killed someone in defense of themselves or someone else, but cold blooded murder, that was the worst...

As they arrive, Soredell equips all of his gear, his <<Jade Dragon>>, his wakizashi, and his <<Stalker's Cloak>>, and a few other things. "I think I'm decently prepared for whatever we're up against." he says, before looking around, realizing that one of their group members is missing. He too shrugs, simply saying, "Ah well, what can you do I guess?" After making sure he's ready, he turns to the others in his group and says "Well, when you're ready, lets head off." as he steps outside the safety of the town, and right into the desert. Right as he does it, he is hit by a flurry of sand blowing into his face. Thank god he had a mask on otherwise he'd have a mouth full of sand. Looking at his health bar, he sees no change, which is a good thing. He wouldn't want to be losing health before anything happens to him.

Soredell continues to stay at the dueling area, keeping sure to stay towards the front so he could get a view of the action. It was getting harder and harder to do so due to the rapidly growing crowd around him, gathering around to watch the upcoming duel between these two players. Seems as though duels bring a big crowd and a lot of attention. Soon, he sees @Khrysaor approach him. "Huh, I see you're also interested in watching the duel." he says offhandedly. Although, its his mention of him knowing who both the fighters are is what pulls Soredells attention. "Well, you got my attention now, so what do you know about these two?" he asks, and he explains. "So @Hydra is about to go up against one of the best players in the game, a front-lines player, who is also a high ranking member of the Knights of the Blood Oath guild? This seems a bit one sided don't you think?" he says, mouth open in shock from the info he's been given.

Just as he was starting to think he had a nice little group forming, looks like @Hydra was going to challenge someone. Usually Soredell wouldn't be interested in the duels. But considering the fact that he'd never seen an orange player fight before, especially in an environment where there are rules and sanctions in place to ensure that there weren't any... incidents, it would certainly be an interesting bout. "Well, if you guys are going to watch the duel, I'll go and watch as well." He says to the group and promptly heading off to the duel, not bothering wait for the others. Upon arriving, he sees that there are some people here watching and two preparing for the fight. He recognizes Hydra, but he doesn't recognize the other one. Obviously he didn't have any kind of identifying clothing on him, so he wouldn't know if he were part of a guild or something like that. Regardless, this was sure to be an interesting fight.

As Soredell is talking to @Damien and @Hydra, he sees that two newcomers have joined in on their growing conversation. "Hello @Khrysaor, my name is Soredell. Good to meet you." he says to the first newcomer. The second newcomer, he feels an odd sense of Déjà vu, which is strange and impossible, since he doesn't remember ever meeting @Kooh. That's not the point. The point is to introduce himself to her. "Well, I'm enjoying this party as much as I can, which isn't a lot. Truth be told I'm not really a fan of social gathering like these. But since there isn't too much for me to do right now while we're trapped here in SAO, I figured, 'what the hell?' and went. Even went out and got this suit tailor made for this occasion." he says, looking over his attire and everyone else's. "Ah, my apologies, I got a bit sidetracked. If you didn't hear from me before, my name is Soredell, it's a pleasure to meet you." he says, extending his hand to the both of them. He does see Hydra go off, but doesn't follow, unless the others do.

Quest Rewards

'"Stalker's Cloak" (Uncommon Light Armour: 1 mod - Damage Mitigation)
1 SP

Thread Rewards

800 Col
2 SP

Thread Completed

After about 15 or 30 minutes of waiting, Soredell is called over by Hanna to the counter. Upon arriving there, he sees Hanna at the counter, with Griswold walking in with Soredell's completed armour, exactly to his specifications. "Well, here it is, the armour ya requested as per yer specifications. Made out of the materials that you got and gave me. Now, if there is nothing else, I'll be off." Griswold says before leaving once again. "Thank you kind adventurer for your help. I hope that armour will be put to good use, and please forgive my husband. I know I've said it before, but he really does care." Hanna says to Soredell, giving him a warm smile. "I should be thanking you both for helping me in making my armour. At least with this I can survive out there." he says, looking out the door. "Well, I best be headed off now, thank you once again." he says, waving Hanna goodbye and leaving the store.

Even after getting onto the main road and out of the forest, Soredell keeps on running. Putting as much distance between him and that death forest was probably the best thing that he could do right now. Besides, he had materials to give and armour to get. As he approaches town, and the armoursmith, he slows down his pace, going from a sprint to a jog, and then into a walk respectively. He eventually gets to Griswold and Hanna's armoursmith shop. He walks inside, walking up to both Griswold and Hanna and puts the materials on the counter. "Well, I see yer not dead. That's good at least. Ya got the materials as well. Looks like you just might survive this." he says, taking the materials and examining them. "Well, ya got the materials I needed, and yer not dead. As promised, I'll get started on that armour ya want." he says, taking the material and the parchment with the drawing on it. "I know it doesn't seem like it, but he was worried about you. He was worried that you may not return from this." Hanna says after her husband leaves. "Thats... good to hear. It took me quite a while to get those materials, I just hope it will all be worth it in the end." Soredell says in reply. "I'm sure it will be. Since my husband is making the armour you need, is it alright that you wait for a few minutes?" she asks. "Oh of course, no worries." he says, taking a seat and patiently waiting for Griswold to do his thing.

Soredell continues to run through the woods, trying to get as far away from the clearing, and most likely, the dark elves as possible. He doesn't want to have to stay there any longer than he needs to, and going off his last combat encounter with one of the dark elves, he wasn't anywhere close or even ready to being able to fight any more. As he runs, he continues to look back and listen to see if he is still being followed, or even worse, chased. He somehow miraculously dodges any obstacles in his way, from ditches to fallen trees to large rocks and everything in between, making sure he avoids tripping and falling, something that would put him at a disadvantage if he were to get into a fight right about now. Thank god, Soredell can see the main road from here, and from there, the town, where the armoursmith Griswold and Hanna were waiting for him. All the more reason to haul ass.

Last break, and one way or another Soredell would be done with this mission, with or without that last piece of material that he needs. Soredell gets up, stretching himself after his break, preparing for one more search. He goes through the area carefully one more time, keeping sure to keep himself calm, and not have any violent outbursts that involve destroying things around him. Just as Soredell has given up on searching for the last time, he catches something in the corner of his eye, the last <<Dark Cloth>> that he needs. Rushing over, he quickly checks it, confirming that it is indeed the last piece he needs. Thank god. "Alright, that's every piece of material that I need. Now I can get out of here." he says, making sure the material goes to his inventory and he doesn't delete it this time. Soon after he puts the material away, he can hear voices and rustling in the woods. Monsters. That's all it could be. "No, I'm not dealing with this today, not now." he says, dashing as far away from the clearing as possible

Why should Soredell even bother continuing searching? He has searched for quite some time now, and in that time, he was so close to finding what he needed, and closer to finishing this mission and getting himself the armour that he needed. Yet right as he thought he was close to getting the next material he needs, bad luck hits him like a truck and he is constantly left with nothing to gain from his searches. And the cycle is destined to repeat over and over and over again, the only moments of levity he is given is on the rare occasions when he does acquire a material that he actually needs. But right after that he gets thrown back into the cycle. Soredell desperately needed a break from this. So take a break is exactly what Soredell did. Take a break from any searching, even if it was just for 5 more minutes.

Well, Soredell's search of the area surrounding the campsite proved to be nothing more than an absolute waste of time, and a fruitless endeavor. The obvious next step is to search the campsite itself, again, for probably the third time today alone. He has to go and carefully pick through the wreckage, knocking over collapsed debris, and destroyed bits of whatever with his foot, since at this point, he cannot be bothered to get down on his hands and knees once again, search the area. No, this time he would simply nudge, move, or even kick things out of the way. This method of searching has also proven once again to be unproductive to Soredell as he fails once again in his search for any more materials. (seriously, who's even surprised at this point?) He looks at the time. The time indicates that it has been roughly 10 mintues total, thus had 10 more minutes to search before he would leave.

In the first 5 minutes, Soredell makes a conscious effort to search the outskirts of the camp, and the rest of the clearing for anything that even remotely resembles the <<Dark Cloth>> that he desperately needs. He meticulously searches through every section of the high grass that surrounds the camp, reminding Soredell of a very green wheat field, where the blades of grass go up to your calves, some reaching up to your hips. Due to the grass' limiting mobility on Soredell, and because of his still bubbling anger, he decides to cut down the grass as he walks, venting his frustration, as well as providing a better view of the ground so he can spot any pieces that have somehow dropped to the ground. Unfortunately for Soredell, even by doing this, he can't seem to find anything of use, no cloth, no materials, absolutely nothing. What a totally unexpected surprise.

Soredell idly wanders through the desolated clearing, barely paying attention to his surroundings. He stomps of a piece of cloth here, kicks a broken piece of wood there, and generally makes a mess of the area while 'searching' for what he needs, if you can even call it 'searching' at this point. It has essentially gotten to the point where Soredell has just about given up on this search since so far it seems to be fruitless. RNG has done nothing but screw him over, his luck completely gone, he's growing tied from searching, as well as destroying the place. "This is becoming nothing short of tedious. If I don't find one more piece of cloth within the next 20 minutes, I'm heading elsewhere." he says to himself, before resuming his search. One way or another, in 20 minutes, Soredell will be gone. Done with this quest and this fruitless search.

Soredell continues to try and calm himself down, but after all that has happened, its fair to say that he is beyond calming down, or even reasoning. All he wants is that one damn piece of cloth, and if he can't get even that, then he'd settle for nothing less than the destruction of the entire clearing, and if it gets to it, the destruction of the entire damn forest at this rate. He didn't even care anymore. As far as he was concerned, he was just about done with this quest in more ways than one. The worst part about this whole thing was that all of this work would be for a piece of armour. Granted it would be better than what he had, which was nothing, it still wouldn't be so hard for something so simple right? Oh if only it really were that simple. But thanks to Soredell's old enemy, RNG, it seems getting something so simple is going to be impossible.

Soredell goes through the last standing tent very quickly, and in the neverending cycle, his finds come up short. No cloth, nothing helpful at all. In a moment of frustration, he kicks out the supports holding the tent out, the tent crumpling down being supported by nothing but air. He briefly considers burning the whole clearing down from some fire purely out of anger, but stops himself realizing how much of a stupid idea that would be. Almost like a spoiled child who didn't get a toy he wanted, he sat down on a nearby log that didn't get overturned during his previous rampage, scowling at whatever remains of the campfire, which quite frankly, isn't a lot. Just a mess of ashes, burnt logs and rocks all scattered about the area. This was becoming absurd. How hard is it to find a simple material right? It shouldn't be this hard that it has turned Soredell into an angry mess hellbent on destroying the area around him, but quite honestly, it was getting close to that point.

Soredell rubs the back of his head, embarrassed at that stunt that he pulled on @Damien and @Hydra. He steeled himself, extending his hand to both players, shaking Damien's hand. "Pleasure to meet you Damien. My name is Soredell. I'm mostly alright. Apologies once again for that little incident." he says, looking around to make sure no guards were coming this way. Nearby players were muttering among themselves before going back to their own conversations. "It certainly isn't like me to be tripping over like that. Guess something stuck out on the floor and my foot caught on that." he says. Turning to the other, he says. "My apologies once again for that incident. I hope that you won't hold any ill will towards me for that." he says, extending his had to Hydra. "My name is Soredell. This... certainly has been an interesting introduction to say the least." he says, before casting his eyes towards the quickly filling ballroom. "There certainly is quite a surprising number of players present. I wouldn't have thought that there would be many attending. I'd assumed that they would rather be pushing through the frontlines and working to beat this game." he says to the two of them as an attempt to start a conversation.

Soredell gets onto his hands and knees once again and he climbs into the second tent. It is exactly the same as before. Lantern, sleeping bag, small chest, all upturned from his previous search. His previous search didn't make his current search any easier on him as he methodically searched through the tent. No dice, and there is nothing here of use to him. No <<Dark Cloth>>, no useful materials, nothing. Absolutely nothing. Right as he gets some good luck, he just gets hit with more bad luck like a truck. In a fit of absolute frustration and rage, and in his wrath, he completely destroys the two tents that two of the dark elves are sleeping in. Things are ripped apart, destroyed, et cetera et cetera. By the end, the campsite is nothing but completely destroyed, even the storage tent and the fire pit are all destroyed. Well, sans the last tent for the third dark elf. Better hope that there was something useful in there.

If there were no more in the storage tent, the next obvious solution to Soredell's plight was to search the sleeping tents that the dark elves slept in. Surely there would be some <<Dark Cloth>> there right? Only one way to find out for sure. Soredell got on his hands and knees once again and crawled inside the tent. It was a familiar sight. Sleeping bag, chest, and lamp, rummaged through from his earlier search for the metal. So, Soredell began yet another search through the tent, looking for anything that resembled a <<Dark Cloth>> material. It takes some time, but eventually he finds a piece at the bottom of the small chest. "Oh thank god, that's two down. Just one more cloth and I'm finally done here." he mutters, as he begins to back out of the tent. There were only two more tents to search. Surely he'd find more piece of cloth right?

Well, if something was on a roll, that would really be Soredell's luck right about now. Bad luck that is. Soredell continues to meticulously search through each box, crate, barrel, chest, whatever storage they had contained in that storage tent of those dark elves. Soredell knew that someone, somewhere, out there, they were laughing their heads off at Soredell's expense, and quite frankly at this point, Soredell's pain and misery. Who knew something like a fetch quest would be the catalyst of emotions like misery and pain? If he didn't know it before, he sure as hell did now. Soon enough, Soredell has completely searched the contents of the storage crate for what seems to be the third time now. Or was it the fourth? Soredell had simply lost track of how long he's been searching for the material he needs. "Oh come on! This shouldn't be this hard!" he yells, kicking down a standing barrel in frustration.

"Well, I don't know what I really can do at this level. I mainly wield a katana, and am more prone to be a bit of a glass cannon, if you can even call it that." he says, patting the sword at his side. "Hopefully this quest will help me level up a little bit, get some good gear, you know..." he says, as the group walks to the gate. He sees who he can only assume is the fourth member of their party for this quest. As they get closer, Soredell recognises who this person is. It's none other than the one who forged his katana. What were the chances. "Oh wow, its you. You're the one who made my katana." he says, holding the weapon out, still resting in its scabbard. "It's served me well during the time I've had with it." he says, putting the sword away. "I have nothing else that I really need to do. No objections here. Whenever we're all ready, we'll head off." he says, preparing himself for the quest ahead.

Soredell continues to sit at his table in silence, not really bothered to get any food. He wasn't hungry for the food available anyways. Soredell scans the people nearby, all of them are obviously dressed nicely for the occasion. Some people are talking to others at their own tables, or around the tables serving food and drinks to the patrons present, while there are a few eating by themselves. He briefly considered joining them in conversation, but dismissed the thought soon after, concluding that he would just make it uncomfortable for the two. His eye catches the player with the afro leaving the area to go elsewhere. Even though he doesn't know the guy at all, he took his leaving as a silent cue to leave the room himself.

So, Soredell decided to trail him, not in the creepy stalker way, but just general following. One issue arose the second they went into the main foyer. He lost him in the growing sea of players. Having nothing better to do, he began to walk around the area, keeping an ear out for anything suspicious, or anything important other players were saying. Nothing on that first part, but as for the second part, he overheard someone mention the guild name "Celestial Ascendants". 'Whoa, this event even brought out even the big guilds. I wonder if the Knights of the Blood Oath are here as well?' he thought to himself as he continued to wander around.

As he looked around and walked, he almost didn't see the people he was about to run into. Too late, as Soredell's foot caught on something, causing Soredell to lose balance, nearly crashing into @Damien and @Hydra "Oh s**t! Sorry, didn't mean to do that. Just tripped on something. Are you both alright?" he says, getting up properly and looking at the two he nearly crashed into. His eye is immediately drawn to the orange crystal hovering above one of the players, and his blood runs cold, his heart seems to stop beating, and beat faster at the same time, at least to him. "Oh, I am so, so sorry about that." he mutters just loud enough for them to hear. He soon finds that his hand has subconsciously moved to the handle of his katana at his side, before moving his hand back to a more neutral position. Didn't want to make a scene.

"Oh Jesus, I'm so so late. Pretty sure everyone is already there by now at least." Soredell mutters to himself as he runs up to the castle. He had gotten a notification about a new event occurring somewhere only a few hours ago. Something about Valentine's Day. Keep in mind Soredell wasn't one for stuff like dances and all that, especially in a place like Sword Art Online, but an event like this could potentially yield some rewards that would help him get to the front lines. 'Just this once. Then never again.' He thought to himself after choosing to attend the event.

One problem was getting to the event on time, which he was already failing. Another problem was getting some formal wear for the event. He doubted that the event would let him enter in his combat gear, so he had to find a tailor and get a suit made for him. It wasn't easy, and he had to jump through a lot of hoops, but eventually he did it, managing to get himself a simple black suit, with a grey dress shirt and black tie. As a last minute addition, he bought himself a black scarf to use as a face mask.

Back to the present, Soredell had finally made his way to the location of this event, doing a once over on himself to make sure there wasn't anything out of place. Soredell had never been one for formal events, especially one like Valentines Day, or as he liked to call it, Singles Awareness Day. Even at his age before SAO, he had never really been with anyone. Take from that what you will. Regardless of that, he still wanted to make an effort to look decent. Who knows? Maybe he might get lucky this time around. Steeling his nerves, taking a deep breath, he makes his way inside.

The Foyer of Amour looks exactly what Soredell expected from an event like this. The place looked like a ballroom. In the spirit of Valentines Day, the statues resembled the figure Cupid, wielding bows and arrows, the arrowheads looking like hearts. Slow music can be heard all around, making Soredell think of the song "Let's Get it On" by Marvin Gaye, even though the song and the music here sounded nothing alike. Looking around, Soredell saw a surprising number players present. A few in the middle of duels, some dancing, many conversing among themselves. Obviously since he was primarily a solo player, Soredell didn't recognize anyone. So where would someone go to in the middle of a formal event if he didn't know anyone, besides leave? The food area. It doesn't take long for him to find it, and sees a few players present. He looks around and sees there are indeed a few players by themselves. It probably wasn't the best time to initiate any conversations with them since they were mostly eating. As a result, he sat by himself at a table near some of the other single players at their own tables, and just looked around, not really doing much unless he was called over.

How typical is it that the second that things are starting to look up, how it appears that his luck is beginning to change, life just finds a way to just take a dump on Soredell. It's as if the Fates of Greek Mythology were planning moments like these, laughing at his expense. The second that he finds the first material, he begins to search through the rest of the tent, properly this time. But thanks to Soredell's 'luck', he can't seem to find any more. Even after searching the entire tent thoroughly, and even double checking to make sure that he didn't miss anything, his searches come up short once again. Another setback in what should really be a simple fetch quest. This was infuriating. Simple search or fetch quests shouldn't be THIS hard. Forget all that trials and tribulations, hard work pays off bulls**t, this was just a manner of getting something, then being done with it, especially something as simple as cloth.

Well, chucking things around in a self induced range didn't yield any helpful finds, which was quite obvious. The more obvious option would be to do a proper search this time around, properly searching the contents of the boxes. Like before, the contents of the crates and barrels are filled with items completely foreign to Soredell, but that didn't matter to him right now. His main concern was finding some <<Dark Cloth>> and getting out of here, before anything else comes up to him and attacks him when he's unprepared. Death was not something he needed while doing something as simple as searching for materials. Soredell begins looking through the boxes of mysterious dark elvish contents, properly this time. Thankfully for Soredell, his efforts have been rewarded, after searching through the first few boxes, he finds the first piece of the <<Dark Cloth>> material that he has been desperately searching for. "One down, two to go... again." he mutters to himself.