Katagawa

As the two navigated their way through the Town of Beginnings, Hokori did her best to figure out the menu system some more. Though she didn't like it, she doubted this game would be getting updates while they were stuck in it. She looked around and found out what she could from the settings, and sent a party invite to Cosi while she was rooting around. She debated about going through the in-menu market to try and get some new vanity items, but decided it would be better to conserve her Col. Perhaps when she was further along and had things to spare she could worry more about her looks. For now she needed to save every bit she could to get the gear she needed rather than just wanted. She eventually stumbled across the map, and with it found the quest marker. "That took longer than it should have, NPC is this way Cosi." She directed him towards where the quest was guiding them, hoping that the two of them could finish it quickly.

@Cosi

Thankfully, Hokori was right about Cosi still being close by and didn't have to wait that long. "Hey back, " she greeted him, "Supposedly there's a grove in this town where an artisan is. Don't know exactly where to look, but I doubt it would be far from the central plaza. I'm ready when you are, I'll be equipping my new gear once we start talking to the NPC. I don't know about you, but I've never liked listening to monologues. I'm a much faster reader." She stopped leaning against the wall of the shop and prepared to head out. Though she knew that she could probably equip her new armor in seconds, she felt that it was prudent to keep moving forward for now. And if she did miss something in the NPC's dialogue, than she hoped that Cosi would catch it. Regardless, she did unequip what she already had on while she waited for Cosi's response. Her simple dress flowed a little without the armor there to weigh it down. It felt a bit freeing, though she knew she would be much safer if there was something to protect her.

@Cosi

Once Hokori exited the Blazing Typhoon, she remembered that she had a package to deal with. Though she didn't see Cosi around, she definitely would enjoy doing the next quest with him. Remembering that she had had him in a party recently, she checked to see if she could message him. After navigating through the horrid menu, she found the recently partied with tab and was able to send a message off to him. She knew that he would be coming by the Blazing Typhoon soon to pick up his own order, so she decided to wait just a little bit outside there. If he didn't respond soon, she would just go off and do the quest on her own. Efficiency would be the key for her here.

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@Cosi

    Remembered we got that package from when we did the second beginner quest together. I'm just outside the Blazing Typhoon if you want to take on the next one together. I'll wait for a bit, but don't take too long.

 

Though the young man seemed a bit more confident than most, she still felt it would be a good idea to help him out. "I don't mind, could use a bit of down time anyways. Besides, I'm really not that much higher than you in level." It would be nice to finally be helping someone else rather than focusing on herself so much. Hokori accepted the party invite and offered her hand for the man to shake. "The name is Katagawa, feel free to shorten it however you like. Nice to meet you Pure." She had never really bothered with nicknames before, mostly because of how formal she had been taught to be while studying abroad. She had never wanted to appear as a negative representation of her own country, so being very formal was her way of counteracting that. Perhaps while in this game she would be able to loosen up and not be so strict with things.

@pureblade

Hokori was waling through the town of beginnings when she noticed someone heading out. Though it was difficult to tell from this angle, there was certainly an aura of uncertainty around them. She quickly made her way to the gates, her heavy armor clanking on her, and caught up to them. "Hello there, you seem like you could use a little bit of help. Mind if I come along?" He seemed to be a bit younger than her, but age didn't really matter in a game like this. She hoped that he would accept her offer, though she would understand if he didn't. She wasn't actually that high of a level to be offering much help, but as far as she knew this floor was rather tame so she thought she would still be able to provide some assistance to others.

Hopefully, they don't end up being some high level player that just looks like it's their first time out the gates. I really shouldn't have rushed to a conclusion, but probably wouldn't have the opportunity if I didn't get here quickly.

Katagwa was glad to have the items back, and took them with a quick thanks. She didn't think she would be using them soon, but they may come in handy one day.

"Yes, let's." Hokori brought up her menu and sent the Col to Cosi as the two of them headed back to town. Though she didn't know what would be coming next, she suspected that there would be more quests to come. When they got back to the blacksmith, Hokori found herself rewarded with a piece of heavy armor. It wasn't much, and she knew she would be getting much better craftmanship soon. Once they received their package and told to go find the artisan, Hokori turned towards Cosi and handed him her armor. "If you're a merchant, you can probably sell this off. I won't need it, so why don't you make some use of it. I'll be around by your shop soon, hopefully you'll have that identification ready for me by then." Hokori then turned to go towards the artisan, but stopped a little. "We might want to go together on this next quest as well, though I guess that'll be up to you."

Once the chest was open, Hokori began to get ready to head back to town. She didn't think anything would intercept them on their way, so she just strapped her sword horizontally on her back down towards the hips. It wasn't the best place to put a giant sword, but it was the best she could think of without unequipping it. "If you're a merchant, then sure. I'll let you take the items to your shop to identify them. Just make sure that you get them back to me once they are identified. I would say one rare weapon and one consumable each. The perfect I'll leave to you, as you're the one identifying all of the items." She realized that she should probably go find herself a profession as well rather soon. Though she couldn't decide what profession to go for, she knew that there was no sense just putting it off. "I wish I could offer you something in return, but I still need to find myself a profession. Is there any costs you want me to pay for for the identification?"

@Cosi

With Cosi seemingly stabilized, Hokori went ahead and answered his questions. "Now we go turn in this quest. I don't think either of us are in shape for fighting any more, at least for now. As for rewards, I've got a few things. We can split everything up once we're back in town. Don't want to gimp you of your fairly earned rewards, would I?" Hokori looked around for a bit, noticing a small gleam coming from the ground. She went over to it, noticing that there was what appeared to be some sort of chest buried in the ground. "You might want to come take a look at this." As she dug it out, she could tell that it was certainly a chest. She couldn't tell what might be in it, but she figured there would be a nice amount of loot in there. She waited for Cosi, not wanting to open it without him there.

Letting Cosi take another swing at the boar, Hokori took a deep breath before going for her own strike. She was getting tired from all this swinging, but pressed on anyways. With the boar trying to charge Cosi down again, it wasn't paying attention as she quickly brought her blade down. It sliced through the boar, finally shattering it into pixels. Hokori quickly checked the loot screen, then dismissed it to go help Cosi. "Are you doing alright? That boar took you for quite the ride." She did her best to steady him, letting him slowly gain his sense of direction back. She was surprised he was able to fight at all while being so dizzy, though some of the wildly off swings began to make sense now. "The boar's dead, you can put your sword away now." Though he might be able to tell it was already gone, she didn't want him to be swinging randomly at her while trying to get him back to his senses.

Hokori kept out of Cosi's way as he swung at the boar, and actually managed to hit this time. Once he was backing away from his attack, she quickly went in and swung her own blade. It felt heavy in her hands, but she was able to put enough weight behind it to hurt the boar. It didn't seem to do that much, but it was certainly nothing to be ignored. She made sure Cosi was doing okay before trying to put herself between him and the boar. The boar seemed intent on charging down Cosi, and didn't want her in the way at all. Perhaps it was some strange maternal bond, but Hokori was glad that she was able to keep Cosi out of harm's way. So long as he was still moving around like he was crazily drunk, she didn't want the two of them to meet up again if they didn't need to.

Hokori brought her sword back out of the boar's snout, not wanting to get pulled along if the boar began to move again. "No problem Cosi." She saw him swinging wildly and had to step out of his way. He was likely dizzy from being on top of a running and bucking boar, and she didn't want to get hit by his own attacks. The boar seemed to be a bit stunned as well from the unexpected stop. Though the two were separated by quite the distance, Hokori decided to play it safe and instead try and recuperate some of the lost energy she had. She was beginning to feel quite tired again, and wasn't sure if she would be able to keep swinging her sword with the assistance of the game. It seemed as though it wanted to stop her from attacking at all, but she wanted to keep fighting until she knew the boar was down. She had already managed to take on one, so a second shouldn't be as much of an issue. Especially as it was already weakened by Cosi.

Hokori didn't want to risk hitting Cosi, but knew he was going to get thrown off pretty soon anyways. She knew she likely couldn't yell at the boar to draw its attention, so she decided to get its attention through pain. She followed its path and began to get an interception route. Letting the boar come to her, she quickly stabbed it through the snout, bringing it to a halt. She knew this might send Cosi flying off, but at least she would be able to prevent another charge. The boar was stopped, but it still seemed intent on taking out Cosi. It tried to buck him off after being stopped by her blade, and she wasn't sure if he could stay on it. It wouldn't be easy, but she hoped he could actually get a graceful dismount rather than stubbornly stay on it. If he stayed, it would be much harder for her to get a clean hit next time around.

Hokori heard an extra loud squeal coming from behind her and turned to see Cosi riding on top of the boar. Becoming quite worried, she quickly went over and dealt the killing blow to her boar, dismissing the rewards screen without even looking at it. "Got my boar, I'm coming to help Cosi. Try not to fall off, but make sure to roll if you do." She had done some horse riding on a whim while in college, and vaguely remembered some of those lessons. It had been a while and riding a wild boar would be quite a bit different, so the lessons may be for nothing. They were meant to deal with the horse going crazy though, so hopefully they would still be useful. She prepared to go for a strike, but try and make one from the side. She couldn't risk hitting Cosi, but needed to quickly take the boar out.

Having received the notification that her request was finally ready. Hokori went into the shop once more. She thanked the blacksmith for his work after quickly inspecting it. It was exactly what she wished for, and knew she would be returning once she was in need of stronger gear. Though it may not be for a while, she could tell that there would be few that could match Macradon's skill. She put the equipment on and gave a little spin. The armor fit perfectly and the sword was well weighted. Leaving the shop with a small bow and a smile on her face, Hokori was looking forward to using the new equipment.

Items Picked Up:

Hokori listened to Cosi as she kept an eye on the boar in front of her. "I bet you could still find something close to pork chops. I bet you anything they serve a good steak." Not wanting the conversation to distrct her too much, she quickly brought her sword in front of her and prepared to heft it at the boar once more. It tried to charge her down, but she managed to sidestep it and get another gash in its side. Though she was trapped in between the two boars again, her boar seemed to be getting quite winded from her attacks. One more may finish him off. She hoped Cosi could hold out long enough that she could start to help him take down his own boar. These things weren't as tough as they originally seemed, guess it just took a few tries to take them down.

Hokori gave a swing of her sword at the boar as it began to charge at her. Though she was able to hit the boar with her sword and make a gash in it, it ended up crashing into her with its side and knocked her over. She quickly pushed the weight off of herself, and quickly maneuvered around to make sure she was in view of Cosi's fight as well. If it wasn't going to take advantage of her being down on intel, she would just have to change the tables.

"I think I'm doing slightly better than you. And if you want pork chops, you won't find them here. Go to floor 7 or something, there's probably a player run shop that can give them to you."

She wasn't in the mood for witticisms at the moment, as much as she could enjoy them in a social situation. This wasn't exactly like sitting around in a college dorm playing the newest fighting game though. Now things were life and death, with no way of knowing what could be the thing that ends your life.

Hokori turned, hearing the banging of armor onto the ground. She saw the Cosi was knocked to the ground, though not that damaged. Thankfully, the game was kind enough to show her teammates health bars. Knowing that he should know she knew his health, Hokori didn't bother so much about asking if he was okay. She just gave an affirmative nod towards him as she went for her own attack. She brought her sword down from her shoulder, letting gravity carry it into the boar's hide. Even though it was preparing to charge, there was little it could do as it was brought to the ground by the sword. Thanking the effectiveness of the attack, Hokori lifted her sword once more and towards her shoulder. She could feel the drain the game was trying to put on her, and hoped that she would still be able to swing this by the end of the fight.

Hokori turned to look behind her, making sure that Cosi was doing fine fighting the boar. He seemed to be doing okay, but she didn't want to stay separated longer than they needed to in this fight. Especially right now, as she was stuck being between the two boars. If one of them turned towards her, than she would be sandwiched between the two of them. Though she could probably fend them off for a bit, she would need help to stay alive. As she was lost in thoughts, she barely noticed that her boar was charging again. Letting it go past her once more, Hokori held out her sword in preparation to take it on.

I need to start hitting it, otherwise one of our fights is going to go on longer than we can let it to. It would reflect badly on us if either one went down today, and have quite the embarrassing epitaph on the monument of life.

Once Cosi entered the fray of the fight, a slight weight lifted off of the shoulders of Hokori. Maybe it was just her blade resting on the ground now though. The boar was getting angry at her now, and scuffed its feet along the ground. Preparing for the incoming point blank charge, Hokori lifted her blade up off the ground and onto a shoulder. She was pretty sure she wouldn't be able to return a strike and avoid the hit at the same time, so she decided it would be best to avoid the damage for now. As the boar charged, Hokori gave a quick sidestep to get out of the way of the attack. As tough as these things seemed, they weren't the brightest of creatures. She kept her focus on the boar on her, though knew that Cosi may be having some issues with taking on his own boar. She knew he couldn't hit quite as hard, but hoped he could hold his own.

Watching Cosi take out the remaining boar pups. Hokori began to look for more boars. Even though he had gotten all of his tusks, there was no point in stopping the killing spree. "Nice job Cosi. How about we take out a couple more boars before heading back." Without waiting for him to answer, she looked around and found herself a couple of boars. "I'll take on one, you take on the other, sound good?" She went down towards the hill and grabbed the attention of one of the boars. She quickly hefted her sword and let the sword art activate. She let out a large thrust and pierced through the boar. It let out a squeal and prepared to charge at her. Hopefully Cosi would start taking on the other boar. She might be able to take them both, but it would be better if she could get some help.

Katagwa noticed Cosi go and begin to fight some boars. She had a thought in the back of her mind that wished she had some popcorn to watch this. She instead settled to just clapping a little bit as one of the boars dissipated. She couldn't tell from her distance if he got a tusk or not, but it did seem that they weren't much of a match for him. Hefting her blade, Hokori placed it over her shoulders. Though it wasn't the most comfortable position to keep the sword, it was something to take the weight off her arm. She approached the combat slowly, making sure her energy bar would hit full before she engaged. Cosi seemed to be handling it fine, so there was no need to rush into the fight. And there would be more boars if need be, so no sense to want to take a kill.

@Cosi

ENG back to full, Concentration CD: 3

Katagawa did what she could to rest up. She knew it was just the game imposing some restrictions on her, but they seemed so real. She gave a laugh at Cosi's statement that he might need help. If he did, she would jump into the fray. For now, she thought it would be better to wait till that little bar went back up to full. It seemed she would be able to take out boars much faster this way. She couldn't tell for certain, as she didn't know if she could keep uhp with the sword swings. The game was truly terrible at defining the costs for things, only showing what happens when you drain. For how much it was trying to toe the line between a game and a new world, just the fact that there was a UI meant that her immersion was gone. It would be much better to just show the costs of things and let her optimize it to the best of her ability.

He could just be trying to keep us here longer than, hiding information we could use to trivialize the game.

@Cosi

Katagawa felt the drain as soon as the sword art had finished. The game couldn't make her actual body tired, but it did a good job of emulating that. "Let's wait a little, feeling a little tired here." She propped her sword into the ground, leaning on it for a bit more support. She noticed her energy bar was quite low, and guessed that was why she felt so tired. She noticed a small, babbling brook and went over to get some water from it. "As little as these things seem to help, it seems it isn't hard to get some sort of placebo effect going." She felt a little bit better, and noticed her energy go up a bit. Maybe she would let Cosi go do some fighting while she regenerated a bit. She already had her three tusks, so may as well let him get some work in. "You go ahead and find some boars to fight, I'll catch up with you once I'm ready."

@Cosi

Katagawa: ENG: 3/10 (+1 regen; 2 more non-combat posts to hit full)

Hokori strolled out into the fields next to Cosi, letting her eyes search for some boar pups. Though she didn't know whether or not she would be getting the tusks she needed that quickly, it would be best to find a large group and take them out as quickly as possible. It didn't take long until she had spotted a pack of them moving around, nibbling on the grass. Though she felt some pity for them, she knew that they were a programmed means to an end. She made sure to focus where she would strike before going in with a sweeping attack. Energized by the sword art system, Hokori made one sweep with her large sword followed up with one coming back towards them. As the particle effect cleared from her view, she noticed that there was only one boar left as a rewards screen popped up. It seemed she had already gotten her three tusks. Though she considered just leaving Cosi behind, she decided against it in hopes she could make a friend in this cruel world. "Guess these guys aren't as tough as I thought. Better safe than sorry though."