Airi

Airi looked at the caramel apple. Even though she had just taken small bites out of it, she was way more than halfway through. Five minutes left to finish off the conversation with Hei. But a walk to the inn she lived in, from the tavern they were in, would probably take around 2 minutes. She didn't like it, but she needed to end their short dinner now. She noticed that he wasn't asking much questions about her and wondered what that meant. And it made leaving a bit harder. Like it would maybe show that she clearly wasn't interested in anything other than a quest partner. She was aiming for, at most, a friend. "Agree with that," Airi hummed, taking another bite out of her apple. 

Four minutes. She had to end it. Airi shifted in her seat uncomfortably, looking like she was about to say something but had some difficulty actually saying it, and spoke in a voice that held a bit of guilt and reluctance: "Well, Hei. It's been nice talking to you again and I really wanted to learn more, but I should really get going." She pushed back on her chair, almost ready to stand up. Then she decided to offer a bit of explanation. "I have a self-imposed rule on myself to go to bed at 9PM every night, so I hope you understand."

Airi delayed asking Hei another question to savor another bite of her caramel apple. Food's supposed to be one of the basic needs, right? The chair she was sitting on was a bit too tall for her feet to reach the floor, so she began swinging her legs. Inwardly, she counted the seconds to her supposed 'bedtime'. Around seven minutes left. Enough time to talk and build up his trust for her. She paused from eating her most favorite sweet ever to morph her face into a slightly concerned expression. "Hopefully, he's doing alright," she said, talking about Solomon. "He still had some memory loss when we left him."

The red-haired girl stopped talking to take a smaller bite, she had gone halfway through the apple by now and she wanted to have the taste in her mouth for a bit longer. She couldn't find anything else she wanted information on, other than guilds (which he probably didn't have, his name in the friends list didn't have a guild name beside him) and other players (but it was supposed to be a dinner for two people who hadn't seen each other for months, so no; she already lowered the mood by asking about another person already). She noticed that the man sitting across her was enjoying his chocolate tartlet as much as she was enjoying her apple. "Do you like sweets?" Airi asked, pointing at the tartlet in front of Hei with caramel apple.

This time, Aoda and the boar both missed. Airi stood a safe distance away from the boar (who was, at least, still ignoring her presence) with her hands clasped behind her back. Maybe her bad luck was starting to become contagious. Then the dark-haired player stepped towards her and she instantly banished all the distracting thoughts and gripped her curved blade with one hand. He gave her some encouragement, which was a good thing, she guessed. "Maybe," she responded. Then she tapped his shoulder lightly to show that she appreciated his words and went forward.

The boar was just recovering from its usual charge attack, so it would be the easiest target to hit if she got there fast enough. And they were both out of energy, so it wouldn't be good to let the fight drag on. So she rushed forward, approaching the boar's side, and swung her blade downwards. To her surprise, her attack actually hit, dealing some damage to the mob. Was it her companion's encouragement or something? She backed away from the boar (thankfully, it still had most of its attention on Aoda) and sent the other player a bright grin, which was actually pretty rare for her. "I did it!" she sang, feeling almost giddy with her success. 

Airi looked back to see how Sakoda was doing and nodded at the girl's reminder to be careful. She saw the girl drop another round circular object that looked like a berry, maybe another failure. Then Sakoda looked up to see how she was doing and Airi made a gesture with her free hand that meant: "I'm okay, keep doing your stuff." Her quest partner then turned back to the bushes and continued looking for berries.

The boar let out a loud snort and began pawing the ground, as if reminding Airi for its presence. She turned to face it and noticed the boar readying its next attack. "How polite of you to call my attention before attacking," the curved blade user teased, even though the mob wouldn't understand any bit of it. She paused long enough to check her energy, fully depleted since she had activated a Sword Art, and sighed. She would have to stick to basic attacks.

Airi neared the mob, just as the boar started charging towards her. Easy to dodge. The curved blade user skirted to the side and swung her blade downward, missing by inches. She cursed as she moved away. The boar had put on a burst of speed to dodge the attack. Again?! The boar stopped charging a few ways off and Airi faced it with an unimpressed expression on her face. With the way this fight was going, Sakoda would've finished collecting the berries even before she brought the mob's HP halfway down.

(OOC: @Floofy)

Airi giggled at Sakoda's idea. It was clear that the girl was slowly getting frustrated from her multiple failures. "I don't think so," she answered honestly. "But I've heard of items that would increase your chances at finding materials or something. I wonder how they do that. Like if you have a trinket with increased chances in finding materials equipped, would it make juniper berries pop out from nowhere as you approach the bush? Or would it just let you see materials that other players couldn't? Like a hidden berry or something."

Sakoda stretched and moved on to another bush. Meanwhile, Airi spotted a nearby boar and pointed at it for her quest partner to see. "I'm pretty bored and it might walk too close to us, so I'll take it on. The extra experience points would be good too. I'll call you if I need help, okay?" Then she unsheathed her curved blade for the third time this morning and activated her strongest Sword Art <<Rage Blow>>. She ran forward and the boar noticed her and she was so sure that it would hit, but the boar moved in a different direction than anticipated and she almost tripped while turning around to face it. Miss! The boar attempted to land an attack but she darted to the side, just barely getting nicked by its right tusk.

(OOC: @Floofy)

It seemed that the oddly cheerful pink-haired girl with the mad laughter was drawing a lot of attention. A tall man with grayish black hair approached them and introduced himself as Lee, adding a small joke about 'finally meeting people who aren't turning into scrambled eggs'. He probably meant the number of players who were completely broken by the announcement, but she wasn't sure. He had probably already heard her name, so she smiled and gave him a small wave of acknowledgment without saying anything else. Then another man, with bright yellow-blond hair that kind of hurt her eyes, approached them. He didn't give them his name so she refrained from telling him hers for the time-being. So she settled for a greeting and a short, vague response. "Good evening to you too," she said, turning to face him. "We're doing okay. Mostly." 

At her last word, she looked back to the girl who had stopped crying just a few moments ago. The dark-haired girl introduced herself as Kyoko and apologized for her previous behavior. Airi moved forward to pat her back gently. "It's alright. That announcement was quite nerve-wracking,” the red-haired player said in a quiet voice. Then she stepped back quickly, a bit afraid how the pink girl would react since she was pretty unpredictable at the moment, and gave Kyoko an assuring smile. "Don't worry about dying all too much. You'll be fine, as long as you travel with a group and avoid taking too much risks. And most of the players here are experienced gamers. I bet they'll get us out of here in no time."

The somewhat strange girl giggled madly and cheerfully introduced herself, with a curtsy directed to Airi. She smiled appreciatively in reply, but other than that, she didn’t know what else to say or do. Airi didn’t handle people like her very well and usually avoided them. And then Belle (she decided to call her that since it was the simplest of all the possible nicknames she provided) then said that she wanted to meet the man who made the game. With her cheerful tone and bright smile, Airi couldn’t tell what the girl truly meant. She mentally added it to her long list of 'stuff to learn about a girl named Belle'.

Yet another person joined them. By this time, Airi was having a bit of trouble tracking the flow of the conversation since everything was pretty much happening all at once. It didn't give her much time to think. He didn’t introduce himself like the other new guy, instead asking if he was too late for the party. “Not really.” Airi said in reply. Then she noticed Belle introducing herself to all the new people so she followed. "I'm Airi. Pleased to meet you." she said with a pleasant smile.

She caught the floofy-haired Inaba's side comment and the blush appeared before she could stop it from coming. She wondered if it was the comment or the tone of his voice which was obviously a bit teasing. “Just with the curtsy.” Airi mumbled, looking away from him slightly. She then noticed the man who she first saw talking to Kyoko (did he introduce himself to her? with the number of people and names she had to take in, she had completely forgotten) leave the group and approach another group that also took the announcement quite badly a few ways off. “So he was looking to help people cope with the announcement.” she thought out loud, in a voice quiet enough only for her and maybe the people standing beside her to hear.

After what seemed like a thousand hours, Airi plucked a mature, unblemished juniper berry and happily kept it in her inventory. She got up and stretched. "That was my last one!" she told Sakoda in a cheery, singsong voice. "And don't worry about the time. The quest isn't on a time-limit and you're pretty close to getting all five too, anyway." 

She then checked the task list in her quest tab. Gather 5 juniper berries now had a check mark next to it and the text was slightly faded. Under it, a new task appeared. Give the materials to Zackariah. Simple enough. Then she had to craft a Healing Potion and deliver a package of Healing Potions to a local blacksmith. Boring, but could be accomplished a lot faster. "And the next tasks won't require much time," Airi told her companion. "I hope."

(OOC: @Floofy)

A tavern that sells caramel apples and other types of sweets? Airi looked up at the sign with the tavern name <<The Spicy Bunny>>. The name was somewhat unusual, but then pretty much all taverns she'd ever entered had weird names. It was probably some sort of trend they all followed. Hei, like the gentleman he was, held the door open for her and she stepped in. The place was small, smelled faintly of liquor, and was thankfully empty. She honestly didn't want to deal with any drunks.

They took a seat and her companion bought a caramel apple for her which she took gratefully. The red-haired player took her first bite and it was like pure heaven on earth. Or whatever she was supposed to call this game they were all stuck in. But anyways, she hadn't eaten caramel apples in a whole year, due to lack of money and people to buy it for her. She then firmly decided that caramel apples were what she was going to buy first once she got some col. Then she reminded herself of the man sitting across the table. "Have you heard from Solomon?" Airi asked once again. She had asked that question awhile ago and he didn't hear her properly so she didn't get to receive his response. "He's in my friends list, maybe also yours, but I never sent him a PM." 

They were both searching this time. Airi watched Sakoda out of the corner of her eye and watched the other player throw away a juniper berry that looked good enough for the NPC. Was her companion turning careless out of pure boredom? "Hey!" the red-haired player reacted. She caught the purple berry and handed it to the girl beside her after a quick examination. "It's a good one." she said in explanation as Sakoda took the material from her hand. "Examine it more carefully next time, okay?"

Then Airi turned back to the bushes she had dug through. All of them contained the green, immature berries, which unfortunately, the NPC wouldn't accept. "No luck here either. We only have a few more bushes before we have to look for another cluster."  Then she stood up and watched for mobs while walking towards another bush. She sighed as she watched a player kill a weak boar from far off. If she had gone out with another player and killed mobs for as long as the time they spent looking for quest materials, she could've leveled up twice already. And they said quests were the fastest way to level up.

(OOC: @Floofy The quest only needs an LD of 11+ to get the materials, so the last one was good enough)

"Sure. I only need one more, after all," Airi agreed with a nod and began looking around the bushes too. And with a twinge of frustration, she found out that most of the berries in the bush were still growing back. Maybe her previous suspicions were true. Maybe another player had passed by, on the same quest as them, and got all the good stuff. Or maybe her stroke of luck was over. "Nothing here, either." she commented.

She moved on to the next bush before realizing it was one of the bushes Sakoda had already dug through. She inched to one of the bushes her companion hadn't looked at yet and started searching. "This quest is just the first in a four-quest series, right?" Airi began while looking through the bush. "I wonder if the others would be just as tedious." Then she sighed in slight annoyance. "No wonder they called this the beginner quests. Easy to complete, but extremely boring."

(OOC: @Floofy)

"Well, here's what I heard from the other players. The quest requires you to slay a number of mobs until the boss spawns, and you're supposed to kill the boss and loot an item. If you don't repeat process." Airi said. The pieces of information she'd given was common to other players and he would be taking the quest with her, so there was really no disadvantage in giving it away. "I'll be busy collecting more information about quests tomorrow and maybe grinding, so maybe in 5 days? I'll PM you if my schedule changes."

Then Hei asked her what she wanted to eat and she suddenly remembered the delicious caramel apples she had eaten on the first day. She had only gotten a sample since she didn't have any money to buy the actual thing, but she loved it. And here in SAO, they could eat anything they wanted to without worrying about the calories and lack of nutrients. Heck, they only needed a small bite to satisfy their hunger pangs. "Well," she started thoughtfully, looking up at the night sky. The red-haired girl could feel his anticipation and she loved it. "Caramel apples. I'm craving caramel apples." Then she looked back at Hei with a hint of a smile. "I mean, if you're willing to buy."

(OOC: Yeah, let's finish this page)

Airi returned to where her newfound friend was collecting juniper berries (and failing like she did at first, apparently) and stretched. What a boring quest, she thought once again. She hoped that the next parts would contain a little more excitement in them. The fun type of excitement, not the dangerous and deadly one. Try as she might, she still preferred doing something boring and safe than doing something fun but dangerous.

A notification popped up, her partner had accepted the friend request while she was gathering berries. The older girl had introduced herself as Sakoda, but her player name was different. Very different. "Would you mind telling me why your player name's Floofy?" Airi asked. It was an unusual name, kind of cute and weird. After a few moments of thinking, she realized that that was the reason why her companion had introduced herself as Sakoda. Really, saying your name was Floofy would make people laugh and not take you seriously.

(OOC: @Floofy The posts have a 150 word minimum, by the way)

The boar the red-haired player had been watching turned around and began walking towards them. Airi pulled her blade out of its leather sheath and assumed a battle-ready stance, but didn't take any action yet. Maybe it would turn around and go in a different direction? The boar kept walking and she quickly examined the boar's stats. It was just as weak as the boar she had fought earlier, she could probably kill this one with one hit if she got another critical.

The boar let out a grunt as it noticed her and she sprung into action. She charged forward before the boar could hit her with her blade glowing red as she activated her Sword Art <<Rage Blow>>. She moved to the boar's side, dragging the sharp tip of her curved blade through the boar's flesh and backed away. The boar burst into tiny red pixels and she grinned, closing the pop-up window which showed the amount of EXP she just earned. Another critical hit. Would this good luck of hers last?

(OOC: @Floofy)

The young girl smiled at Sakoda and opened her menu to send a friend request to the other player. "I was actually just about to say that," she said as she pressed the 'Send Friend Request' button. Then she turned back to the last bush in the cluster and inhaled deeply. If she gets one more berry from this bush, then she'll have four berries. The red haired player then began looking through the berries. Unlike the other bushes, it had more fully-grown ones... and most of them weren't in the best state. She parted some leaves and reached deep into the bush, successfully plucking a good berry. "Four out of five!" Airi sang, keeping the material in her inventory. 

She stood up, brushing the dust from her skirt and looked around. She spotted another cluster of six or more bushes containing their needed materials a little ways off. No mobs stood in their way, though a boar looked a bit too close for comfort near the cluster of bushes. She could tell easily, however, that they wouldn't walk into its aggro circle. "Your turn to gather," Airi said, gesturing to the bushes she had found. "I'll attack the boar if it gets too close."

(OOC: @Floofy)

Airi gripped her sword tightly. She would land a hit this time. The boar's HP was already low, it was easy to fight after all, with a level 3 player dishing out his strongest Sword Art. And it wouldn't be good if it stayed alive for too long. It dealt a lot of damage, took 9 of Aoda's health in one hit. And she didn't have any health potions for him to use. Did he have any? Maybe going out this early was a bad idea. 

She took action while the boar was preparing its next attack. The higher-leveled player had dealt enough damage, so if she landed a critical with her next attack, it wouldn't change aggro and start attacking her. The red-haired girl went in from the side this time, close enough to hit, and swung her blade. She didn't feel it dragging through the boar's side, was she supposed to? Airi backed away, out of the boar's attack range, and checked its health. No damage? Seriously? Was her hit blocked without her noticing or was she too far again? She looked back at Aoda and felt herself flush in embarrassment. If this trend of failures went on, she wouldn't even be able to land a hit on the boar! She turned away, hair shadowing her face. This definitely wasn't a good idea.

Airi thought about his question, biting the interior of her cheek. Truth or lies? Telling the truth (that she had done nothing but mope around in her room at the inn and walk around town aimlessly, helping other players sometimes) would make her look weak and cowardly. She didn't others to think of her like that. Telling a lie would eventually have repercussions if she didn't say it well. However, it made her look less weak and cowardly. Partial truth, then. "I've been running around town, helping others with their tasks and building up some sort of reputation while I still didn't want to leave the safe zone," she replied, hoping that he understood the value of a good reputation like all the sane people did.

She quickly checked the time as they passed by a clock. Uh-oh. Fifteen minutes 'til her self-imposed bedtime. It was a bit early and she would probably push ti back once she would start doing quests, but she was all adamant about following her own rules. Dinner with Hei would have to wait 'til tomorrow. But she felt a bit reluctant to say goodbye immediately. Not because she liked him, love was all a game for her at this point after all. But because she had accepted the offer to eat dinner with him and she didn't like suddenly backing out. It could affect his opinion of her in a negative manner. So instead, she quickly said what she came for, while looking for a way to close the conversation. "By the way, you said earlier that we should do some quests together, right? I've heard of a quest, an easy one, from the other players. I think it's called the 'Secret Medicine of the Forest'. Do you know of it?"

(OOC: Feel like this thread has been going on for too long in a different direction. And everyone's pretty much divided up at this point. Would you all agree to close in a few posts, or should we keep going for a bit more?)

Oh, whoops. So Sakoda wasn't a beta tester after all, just someone who knew a lot of stuff about the game without being in the actual beta. Well, fair mistake. But then why did the other players avoid her? Was it something the golden-eyed player had done? Or was it because she gave off the 'beater' vibes whenever she talked about the game? Airi decided not to ask for now, since it may be some sort of personal question. 

"It is a bad thing. I've heard that other players direct their hate to beta testers a lot, maybe angry at them for 'not sharing much about the game' or blaming them cause they pretty much helped the gamemaker finish the game. And maybe some of them were even accomplices in the whole death game thing." the younger girl spoke, looking through the second-to-the-last bush. She pulled out a nice-looking berry with a triumphant grin. One more bush to search. "But whether you're being avoided now or not, you'll find a guild with nice people eventually. The game would never run out of those. And hey, if you do, send me an invite."

(OOC: @Floofy)

A notification popped up in front of Airi and she tapped it, opening a PM from Hei. She skimmed through the text, slightly frowning at a typo, and decided that it would be alright for him if she didn't send a reply. He said that he'll be giving Solomon a quick lecture about the game basics, but with the current state of the strange blue-haired man, she could safely bet that it could take up the next 30 minutes or so. Damn, she was glad Hei was there to handle the Solomon guy. She didn't have the patience to deal with people who were not really right in the head. And whose opinions didn't really...matter that much to her.

So she took her time in getting to the place that should sell notebooks. She wandered the streets in a leisurely pace, listening in to other players' conversations as she passed by and appreciating the game's beautiful graphics. She could just do this all day, if only the game didn't contain the danger of death and the relatively tense atmosphere that came with it. It was oddly relaxing. On the way, she ended up at another line of merchants. This one was a bit more populated than the one she had been in earlier and the players were a bit more lively. So the red haired girl decided to look around a bit, since Hei would be taking some time anyway, and began inspecting the merchants' goods. Well, no wonder there were a lot of players. They were a whole line of food merchants and they were doing this special first-day promo: free samples. She began looking through the samples with an eager grin, trying to decide which one to get first. Eventually, she plucked a caramel apple from a merchant's hand with an appreciative smile and took a small bite, savoring the flavors in her mouth.

"Other players avoid you?" Airi asked the golden eyed player. It was unusual for other players to ostracize another. After all, they were all in this death game together and they couldn't clear the game without needing each other's help. Unless... "You were...a beta tester, weren't you?" It made sense. The older girl had mentioned something about gathering the quest materials in the beta and she wasn't like the typical newbie who knew nothing about the game and asked a dozen questions at a time. "Oh. Wow. You really are one," she murmured when she came to that realization.

Then she realized that she sounded a bit too much like the other players who despised beta testers. "I mean, you being a beta tester's okay with me. It's actually really nice. I don't get why the others don't like people like you. I mean, you knew nothing about what was going to happen." The red haired player held up another juniper berry in success. Would the next one be a fail? Probably. "I'm a bit interested as to how the game was when you couldn't die in real life and you could log out as well. So what did it feel like? Was it actually...fun?"

(OOC: @Floofy)

"Alright, you gather and I watch for mobs at the next batch." Airi rummaged around the third bush and plucked a fully-grown berry that lacked defects. Finally! She held up the berry in Sakoda's direction and grinned at her success. One berry down, four more to go. Plus her companion's five berries. Then she carefully kept the material in her inventory (wouldn't want to lose such a precious find now) and moved on to the next bush. Of course, the other player never left her vision. 

"The Knights of the Blood Oath sounds like a guild I would join," she said, in another attempt to make conversation. It really was boring out here. She even found herself wishing for some action. And she hated fighting mobs. That was definitely saying something. "Since they're called the leading guild in SAO and all. Though I've heard that it's a bit hard to join, so maybe I'll just join one of the other guilds, given the chance. What about you?"

(OOC: @Floofy)

The fox-eared player enthusiastically accepted her friend request, and so did the blond-haired monk. Airi closed the corresponding notifications and beamed at the two players. "If you guys need help with anything, just send me a PM. I'll do the same," she said, then gave the both of them a slight bow. "If you'll excuse me now." Then she took Hei's offered arm (what a gentlemanly guy, if she were just like her friends back in real life, she would've fallen head over heels already) and began leading the both of them away from the group.

"Thanks for the offer," Airi said again. The sun had fully set now and the virtual sky was replaced with an artificial moon and stars. She could hear her silly friends' comments by now: "A walk in the moonlight, how romantic!", "Geez, Elsie, are you even keeping count by now?", "She isn't, but I am. I think this is the 19th guy so far."; and so on. She thought she heard their distant laughter, and turned her head to look behind her. Nothing. She was imagining things again. Abruptly, she pushed the thoughts out of her mind. Time to play. "So, how's life been? I haven't talked to you for months, though I think I've seen you around town." Airi inquired. 

Airi nodded, unsheathed her curved blade, and automatically slipped into a battle-ready stance. It was something she had seen other players doing whenever they were preparing for combat. She looked over the boar's stats: 30/30 HP and probably a lot of damage. The boar was strong. It wasn't something she could face by herself. Heck, it even seems too much for the two of them.  And what was it doing so close to the safe zone? Like many new players, she believed the common assumption that the weakest mobs were the ones nearest and the strongest were the ones farthest from the safe zone.

Her companion activated a Sword Art without the slightest hesitation and successfully landed the first hit. Airi readied her curved sword and followed after him, her sword glowing as she activated <<Rage Blow>>. The boar was big enough, hard to miss. She stopped, just near enough for the tip of her sword to reach the mob, and swung her blade horizontally. And missed by an inch. Too far! 

The glow of her blade died and she leaped back, moving to stand behind Aoda. He did say he was going to take the hits, right? An embarrassed blush colored her cheeks, but she didn't look away from the mob. "Sorry, I'll go in closer next time," she quickly apologized, fidgeting uneasily as she waited for the mob to retaliate. 

Airi visibly perked up at the mention of guilds. "Do you know of any? Guilds, I mean. I'm a bit interested in joining one." the red-haired girl inquired. She turned to the next bush and began rummaging through the leaves, looking for the fully-grown ones. Unfortunately, there were none. Another player had beat her to it. At least she hadn't touched worms this time. "Nothing here, either. Four more bushes left before we have to look for another cluster," she sighed, sounding a bit exasperated. She motioned for Sakoda to come nearer. "You gather too. I don't think any of the boars would be passing by us anytime soon."

She stood up, moving to the next bush. This was getting incredibly boring. She was somewhat glad that she had someone to talk to out here, because if she had done the quest solo, she would've given up earlier. And her consecutive fails were extremely demotivating. "I don't know how to make this a bit faster," Airi said, replying to the Sakoda's earlier question. "Though I do know how to make this a lot less tedious and boring. Let's talk. Why did you choose a spear in-game?"

(OOC: @Floofy)

The cat-like woman handed her a sheet of paper that contained information on how to get the Martial Arts skill. For a few seconds, she ignored the fact that the woman was wearing all-too indecent clothes sent the helpful player a sweet smile as she accepted the item. "Thanks, Vale. This would really help me a lot. I'll find a way to return the favor." Airi told her. The red haired player quickly looked over the paper. A quest. She can bring other players with her, but she'll be the only one to unlock the skill. And she needed to destroy a boulder with her...bare hands? She had to admit, it was a fitting but very hard way to unlock the Martial Arts skill. She kept the item in her inventory and decided that it would be the first quest she would do once she reached Floor 2. Getting other players to help would be easy enough, and she could always do it by herself. It's not like the boulder would retaliate anyway. Then Vale left the scene in a hurry and Airi blinked dumbly as she watched the woman leaping from rooftop to rooftop. Oh no. She didn't get to add Vale to her friends list. It was, after all, the main reason why she made an effort to talk to other players.

She didn't want this effort to go to waste. So Airi turned to face @Mist and @Dominion, and quickly sent them both a friend request. "Would you mind accepting? In case we would need to help each other. They did say that clearing the game should be a joint effort." Then she ran a hand through her silky red hair in a way men found attractive and smiled at the player who was displaying obvious interest in her. "Getting some dinner with you would be nice. Would you mind waiting a bit for me to repay you though? I think I would take some time in finishing the quests."

Her companion hesitated for a few moments, then charged forward, slashing madly at the boar until it burst into red pixels. It didn't get a chance to hit her either. "Nice," Airi commented as she went to stand beside the other girl. Then she nodded to the bushes containing the juniper berries. "Path's now clear, so we can get those now. I guess they'll be enough for both of us to get near halfway through the required number of materials. Also, can you look out for mobs while I'm gathering? I'll do the same for you, of course." 

Without waiting for a reply, she strolled towards the bushes while keeping the other player at the corner of her vision. Sakoda may be a Level 1 player like her, but that didn't mean that Airi was completely safe around her. She crouched down in front of a juniper bush and began plucking the bigger sized berries. There were a few of them (most were still small though), and were comparatively bigger than the real life versions. Maybe to make them easier to spot. The girl then stood up and examined the two good materials she had gotten. Then quickly dropped them in disgust. "The fully grown ones here have worms in them and I don't think the NPC would accept those stuff." Airi told Sakoda. "One bush out, five more to go."

(OOC: @Floofy I'm not really sure, but I think you have to follow the combat system stated in the rules)