Yuurei

Yuurei put down the mortar and pestle she had used to crush up the materials in her potion after cleaning them off and noticed the quest wasn't finished yet. The objective on her HUD said ‘Listen to Zackariah.’ And just as she noticed this, Zack spoke up as if on cue.

“Oh yes! There is one more thing I need you to do if you're still willing to help me young lady.” He said reaching up to a shelf where he would pull down a dusty box. “Could you deliver this package to Lyle Tealeaf the Blacksmith in town? He's been waiting on this for awhile now and I can't ever find the time to take it to him.”

“Yeah, I can do that.” She replied taking the box from him.

“That’s the last thing I needed, thank you for your assistance!”

“No problem Zack. Have a good day.” She said leaving the workshop.

Yuurei wasn't too sure how to respond to being called a ‘mascot’ or a ‘comic relief’. She was definitely not funny, nor did she intend on jumping around in a big squirrel costume or something of that likeness. 

Swallowing a comment that would probably not be the best to say now, the silver haired assailant kept an eye out for this ‘Pseudo-Dragon’ Soredell had spoken of. Should be rather easy to find, so while she kept an eye out for the mob, she kept another for looking for materials. She didn't have a profession yet, but Shield had taught to always look for materials when your out of the safe zone and not in combat.

Luck shined on her - she knew it was somewhat difficult to find materials without something to boost your luck - as she found some medicinal herbs growing near a tree's roots. She grabbed them promptly and returned to her group as quickly as possible.

Yuurei rolled her eyes at the joke and just approached the counter. She had to look up to Grave, being short was tedious in so many ways.

“Yeah, see, my name is Yuurei. I'm not really used to the whole gaming stuff yet. I'm only level four and I was looking to do the familiar quest, which I've heard is exceedingly difficult without something to boost my luck in the field. I need something that will boost that but I only have about 600 col and a few materials. What can you offer me in that price range?” She asked looking at the food in the glass shelves. They looked delicious.

She pulled up her menu quickly to double check her currency and make sure she had enough money, which she did: 600 col from the quests she had done and the four materials she had acquired with Shield. “Hopefully my low currency can get me something decent?”

Yuurei watched Soredell check his inventory. It was probably a good idea to check hers as well just to be safe. Her inventory was rather small, a few loose items like materials and a crappy set of armor she didn't need anymore. After deciding she didn't need to change anything about her current build, she closed her menu and waited for everyone else to finish.

She was wondering at first if she would even be necessary for this quest with other people here being much higher a level than herself.

“Hope I don't hold you guys back from being a lower level, though, I assume our combat time is going to be pretty minimal for this quest.” She said out loud to everyone. “I've been working hard to grind through levels, but I'm still only level four, much lower than you guys probably. I'm sure my equipment gave that away.”

This couldn't be as difficult as looked, right? Mix a few thingies together and mix that together with the other thingie and BAM health potion. Yuurei could handle this easy. She approached the alchemy table with inspiration and handed the materials to Zackariah. He reached into the sack and pulled out some of the necessary materials she needed for crafting.

“Here, takes these over here to the distillery and crush it down to a powder, then put it through the liquid to make a simple potion.” He explained and Yuurei followed his instruction to a tee. Luckily, the potion came out fine and Yuurei was proud of it. Zackariah took it from its holster in the distillery and swirled the contents around. “Good, good. Thank you for the help.

“I can't keep it?” She asked him a bit upset since she was the one who went to find those materials.

“The knowledge of crafting is the reward young lady.” He replied.

“Yeah, that’s pretty fair I guess.”

Yuurei stomped through the grass as she ran towards the Town of Beginnings back to Zackariah’s workshop where she could work on the next step of her quest. She was eager to help him out, and eager to get her hands on more SP. she has seen first hand the benefits of being as high a level as possible. Shield was able to take on any quest they had already done with relative ease. She wanted to be like that, she wanted to show off to the newbs how strong she was and help them with their quests.

Finally reaching after a ten minute run, Yuurei found herself Zack’s workshop. She entered promptly.

“Hey, Zackariah, I got those materials for you.” She said carrying a sack with them inside.

“Perfect timing young one! I could use some help in crafting potions, and this is a perfect time to teach you how to do it.” He said waving her over to his alchemy table.

Her hopes were starting to go down on her search, not that that would actually stop her. Yuurei was a pretty determined person when she put her mind to something, perhaps that would be why she didn’t rush into the field and attack mobs by herself when she was starting off. In any case, she was still having trouble locating her last material. Moving further away from the city seemed like a good idea, but now she wasn't so sure that was really a determining factor.

After some not-so-idle search Yuurei’s luck finally shined down. Another type of flower she wasn't very familiar with that looked kind of like an orchid had a material tag on it. She quickly bent down and grabbed it and watched as her quest tracker marked complete. Time to return to Zack. The silver haired assailant sprinted forward, leaving dust figure behind her as she headed for the Town of Beginnings.

It seems like the game was just starting to be nice to her, up until now. It had been almost ten minutes since she left the patch of trees and she couldn't find a single material, which was utterly depressing when she only needed one more in the first place. The fields of floor one were scarce with materials and the trees were the only group around her for quite a distance. She had hoped to not go very far from the city for the simple sake of legwork, but it looks like she will have to venture out further after all. 

Getting up off her knee from looking down in the grass for anything small, she wiped the grass stains from her legs and ventured further away from the safe zone in hopes that the further she went from the city, the better luck she would have. She could only hope

Yuurei checked her quest tracker, seeing that she only needed on more material. The greenery around her seemed plucked dry as she was unable to find any more materials in the vines or the surrounding grass of the trees. It would be best to find a new location for farming.

Heading out of the trees, Yuurei saw the group that was being attacked by the boars from earlier. They seemed to be celebrating a well-earned victory. She smiled, glad to see that none of them hate met their fate at this game, at least yet.

Searching the ground adjacent to the vegetation of trees was the first thing she did, but even with a good inspection, she couldn't find anything useful for crafting. She needed to widen her radius for search to find her last material. With a determined demeanor, the emerald clad girl marched through the fields for more materials.

The trees here were a material gold mine. If one dug deep enough through the thick vines, they could easily find a bountiful harvest for their crafts. Yuurei was either having good luck, or, simply put, she had just found a good spot for farming. Nevertheless, she wouldn't dare question her good fortune. 

More scouting attempts very fruitful, quite literally. Searching through more of the vines, Yuurei found some grapes hanging in the greenery with a material tag as well. She quickly collected her harvest and placed them in her inventory with a smile on her face.

She wondered if it was also lucky that no mobs have tried to attack her yet. It was either that, or mobs only attacked when provoked when out in the field. In any case, again, she would not question her good fortune. She continued to look for her very last material before she would have to return to Zack.

This tiny forest, which was actually just a patch of closely knit trees, 10 at the most, was a better turnout than Yuurei could have imagined. She not only found one of those unnamed fruits of Aincrad, looking around even more, she found a patch of grassy, wet moss on one of the tree’s bark with a material tag. She took a moment to bend down and collect it for her quest and watched as her quest navigation updated her progress.

“This is a piece of cake. I'm glad I don't have to spend hours in the field, but I have feeling this isn't as easy outside of this quest.” Yuurei stood back up and cocked her head over to the other trees that she had yet to search. It wouldn't be long before she would make her way back to the Town of Beginning to see what Zack would have her do next.

Not much luck in the grassy plains so far, so Yuurei decided to check elsewhere. A patch of trees in the distance looked like a great place to search. She quickly took off towards them post haste. She noticed a team of people fending of some troublesome boar. Stories of players being taken out by the low level mobs floated through Yuurei’s memories. It would be best to avoid any unnecessary scuffle, even if she did have a bit of an edge on a brand new player.

Finally approaching the vegetation of trees, Yuurei searched through the grass and vine of the trees for any tags of materials. One appeared, though it took a little digging. Something like a fruit was growing in the vines, so Yuurei took it for herself.

“Two down! Three more to go and then back to Zackariah.” It did seem much easier when she was focused solely on looking for materials, this was actually kind of fun

Yuurei sighed in relief as she was able to find her first material rather quickly. She remembered the trouble she had when Shield was teaching her before. Although all the materials were easy to find right now, it was still nice to have someone to talk to as you journey through the floors of Aincrad. It would be rude to ask Shield to accompany her on every quest she did, though, and she felt terrible for being unable to do questing on her own.

She stood from her first material node and looked around; there was no other materials in sight. Perhaps it was just luck that she had found her first material so easily, but nevertheless, she would have to continue. The silver hair girl headed out further into the open fields of floor one, keeping her eyes locked on the ground for anymore materials as she jogged across the grass.

A short jog later, Yuurei was at the edge of the Town of Beginnings safe zone. This would be the first time she would step out of it without a party to aid her. Though, with her new found levels and equipment she would be just fine. She stepped out of the safe zone and began her search for any kind of materials lying around near the safe zone invisible walls.

With some early luck, she was able to find a patch of flowers that had a material tag on them not too far from the city. She tapped the tag and add them to her inventory promptly.

“That was much easier than before. Perhaps you can find materials much more easily without a group of people, or they spawn much more rapidly while this quest is active.” An indicator marked Yuurei’s progress, showing her that she had collected one of the five materials she needed.

Yuurei smiled at his confidence in her. His demeanor and attitude was much like Shield’s which helped that initial anxiety wash away. He continued talking seeing as his guest had nothing to say, only waiting to be briefed.

“All I need you to do, is head outside of the safe zone and gather up some materials. All you need is five.” He said moving to the other side of his alchemy table where he continued his work with the potion in his hands. Emerald clad girl got excited; she knew how to do this already.

“Oh, yeah! I can do that! Easy peasy!” She said and watched as her objective changed on her HUD.

“Great!” Her proprietor said. “Bring me 5 and we can move on to the next step.” Without a moment to lose, Yuurei charged out of the building and for the town’s safe zone. This quest would have been helpful in the beginning, but no complaining now.

After accepting the quest, a waypoint marker came up, opaque from the building’s walls where her initial target lied. Her objective was to talk with a man by the name of Zackariah. So, without wasting any time, the silver haired player stepped through the door and into Zackariah’s shop, where the man welcomed her almost instantly.

“Welcome! Welcome! You must be a new player just starting out in Aincrad, am I right?” He asked, turning to his guest with a green potion in his old hand. Yuurei was taken aback momentarily by his age, but remembered that he was NPC.

“Uh, yeah. I'm already level 5, but I thought I should at least finish as many quests as I can.” She replied walking in to shake his free hand. He gladly returned the handshake.

“Well, that’s just dandy.” He said. “Then this should be no problem for you at all!”

Yuurei was in the Town of Beginnings as per usual, still clinging to its predominantly known stature as the starting city of Aincrad. She enjoyed it here and likely wouldn't find herself leaving it behind for some time yet. She had already made her way up the ranks to level 5 without much trouble, thanks to Shield and his help. Even though she had made her way this far, though, she had found out that there is actually quests in the Town of Beginnings for newbie players like her to learn how to play the game. Shield had taught her quite a lot, but there is a level restriction on this quest and would be stupid to miss out on easy spoils.

The young girl made her way through the plaza to old looking workshop. Albeit old, people seemed to come in and out of the building often as she watched the doors. The quest marker popped up and Yuurei accepted it.

Yuurei sighed in relief as the congratulatory message popped up on her HUD. She laid on the ground awhile longer before finally sitting back up and yelling out.

“Thank whatever freakin’ deity I need to thank here that that is done with!” She got up to her knee and lifted herself up and turning to companion. “I would not have been able to do that without you Shield, thank you.”

Yuurei rubbed her arm, still feeling the fatigue of their battle. There was a cut on her skin, but still no pain and no blood sermounted. “I guess I should work on getting some damage mitigation like you have, hunh?” She laughed trying to get her mind off the pain. “Shouldn't be very difficult, but you've got the item thingie we need for the village now right? Why don't we go cash that in for our SP then? I could use something to drink too.”

It didn't take long to find Soredell. He stuck out like a sore thumb here in the ninja get-up, but she didn't really have room to talk considering her own attire. He waved her down and she wasted no time in joining to group, unaware her was looking for more than just one partner.

“Oh! Pleased to make all your acquaintance. I'm Yuurei, nice to meet you all.” She said with a smile. It was at this time she noticed how heavily equipped the others were, compared to herself with nothing more than some basic armor and a vanity weapon. All these players were so far ahead of her. It ruffled her feathers a bit, but she would reach that level one day. Then no one could make fun of how much of a newbie she was.

“We're going to hunt down some familiars, right?” She asked shaking Soredell’s hand.

The previous wound dug deep into Yuurei’s skin. She had never felt severe pain like this, besides that time she broke her arm a few years back. She looked at her health bar, seeing that was only a fifth of her health. That seemed reassuring that she could take quite a few hits before it was zero time. Regardless, she needed to put the pain she was feeling aside and simply march forward. Show this overgrown excuse for a vegetable who was boss. 

With no time to lose, the silver haired assailant dashed forward, sword ready to meet her opponent once more. Unfortunately, the pain in her body was more than she anticipated when she began to sprint, she swung wide and lost balance, smacking her shoulder into the grass. She felt breathless and found hard to regain her footing.

“Ah...crap…” She whispered to herself, hating to admit she had wore herself out so quickly

Yuurei was scrolling through the message board curiously, only to see what people talked about on here. Status updates on progress and some ads for people’s stores were the bulk of information on the boards with the occasional quest-help requests like she had done when she met Shield. When the boards l refreshed once again, there was a request for the Familiar quest on the 6th floor. She was pretty low leveled but this quest was easy and surely wouldn't be a danger to her as long as she let the higher level players tank for her. She replied in a comment to Soredell’s message.

With her message sent, she made her way to the Town of Beginnings teleportation gate and called out - “Floor Six - Krycim!” A flash of light passed and she was on floor six, for the first time actually. She looked around for this ninja that was requesting aid for his familiar quest.

Shield recommended getting some loot boosting items that were consumables before doing her familiar quest, but didn't really give her a name to go off of. She had to ask around to find someone who can make her such consumables and quite a few people recommended a guy named ‘Grave’. A weird name to her, though she was sure other people looked at her the same way if they knew that Yuurei actually meant Ghost. He was also supposed to be one of the top authorities on martial arts. It seems weird that someone would want to use their fists over a sword in a game called Sword Art Online, but to each his own.

She opened up the door of the cylindrical building and walked in. “Hello? Is Grave in today?” She called out looking around the store. She didn't see him right away and didn't want to intrude.

The silver haired warrior was caught off guard as the tendrils caught her skin.
Although there was no blood, she still felt the pain at full force and let out a cry as she was hit.

“Agh...[censored]!” She said rubbing her arm, not so surprised that the game didn't simulate blood. “That was the first time I've been hit.”

She looked over at Shield and noticed his concerned expression. Her face steeled and got serious. If she was going to make it through this game, she needed to learn to take the pain. There would be a time when Shield would not be able to help her and she would need to get some mitigation items.

With some reinforced courage, the girl held to her sword valiantly and dashed the creature, slashing it once again with all her force to no avail. Although it was stupid to see this creature absorb everything she threw it, she knew it was only a matter of time before Shield’s thorns would annihilate their enemy and they could -hopefully- be done.

Yuurei saw her cue to jump in. It was time to rectify that poorly made attack from earlier. She would not make the same mistake twice, this thing was going to taste pain, even if had to suffer with tiny little pricks. She knew she could stand there and wait for Shield to just make it bleed, but that would hardly be the spirt of things in this world and Yuurei was no coward. She dug her foot into the ground ready for the charge and bursted forward with all her might. He sword bit into the fauna being's skin(?) and made it squeel in pain. Even with such a deep blow, the health bar dropped at the same rate, albiet a critical hit. Yuurei was starting to get pissed.

"Even though I am lucky enough to land a critical hit and still this beast ignores my damage as if I attack it with a feather!" She said as she backed up to meet Shield again. She held her sword ready to fight and looked over at Shield. "I'm afraid I can't do more than minimal damage to this thing. It's really rather frustrating. Hopefully you hit it with your magic tank powers and it goes poof soon. Infuriating that should call myself a DPS build." She spits disgusted that she can't do anything to help even if Shield is leagues above her.

Yuurei hopped back as the viney tendrils slapped the ground by her feet. Shield replaced his gear with different items so they wouldn't have to fight the boss so many times, but she didn't care. The more they fought, the more experience she would gain. Although, this would be a good chance to show she was capable of dealing some decent damage...hopefully.

Her saber glowed with an emerald radiance, as beautiful as the gem it mocked. With a auick thrust forward, she sliced through the beast and stepped back to watch it's health bar drop. It dropped, but hardly.

“Wh-What? I hit it with everything I had!” She said as she returned to Shield’s side just a pace behind him. “I guess bosses, even the weak ones, shouldn't be underestimated. Well, you're up Shield. It seems like I can't help much, as usual.” The silver-haired girl stepped back to let her ally work his magic.