Katagawa

It seemed Ryo was doing fine with her own refining, But Hokori was struggling a bit to get it to that state. She continued to cut closer and cloesr to the guidelines provided by the equipment, but it didn't seem to be registering anything. She was hoping that this effort didn't blow up in her face, though she supposed that was why there was multiple crystals needed to be gathered. "You go ahead and sing here," she said towards Ryo, "I think I'm going to be a little while before I can finish refining this crystal." She really hoped that she would be able to have a good quality of crystal come from all of this. If not, there would be more time to practice her newfound craft. Her mom probably wouldn't be too proud of her choice of profession in this game, though it was probably more sustainable than singing in the real world.

@Ryoko

Hokori was doing her best to make sure that she didn't cut too close with the crystal refiner. If she kept making the lines get closer and closer, she could figure out how to be a bit more steady with the crystals themselves. Of course once these crystals were refined, they would have to actually record something into them. Ryoko's exploding crystal jarred Hokori out of what she had hoped to be her last pass, but thankfully she had swerved away and not towards the crystal, preserving its shape. Only a little bit more and this should be usable. "Make sure you're not going to fast. The faster you go, the worse it will turn out to be. And I have a good feeling the better refined the crystal, the better quality of sounds it will have. Not like we have record players or anything in this world, so we will want to be careful." She was mostly ignoring the NPC, still wanting to use her own skills as an engineer on this challenge.

@Ryoko

The two of them quickly moved back towards the town of beginnings and were able to find their way to the singer's shop without too much trouble. Once there, they were quickly instructed to refine the crystals that they had found. It was a little bit tricky to figure out just how to do it, but they eventually got to work. Hokori attempted to use some of the knowledge of soldering she knew from the real worl, but it seemed her hands weren't nearly as stable as they were in the real world. Probably something to do with the game's programming. If it had to keep things that accurate for everyone, that would probably make the server move at a crawl. "Looks like I'll be needing the assist systems, assuming this game gives any. Just try to make straight cuts along the gems, that's seems to be what the game wants from us."

@Ryoko

It seemed that @Cosi was mostly distracted with the commotion that had been going on. Though she still couldn't quite tell what all was happening, it seemed like one of the players finally got escorted out of the place. With the commotion dying down, Hokori quickly excused herself to go stop by @Benny, signing herself up for the raffle. Perhaps she would win something, though that wasn't much of her worry. She was primarily concerned about getting the rest of her build together. This was just going to be a way for her to get some other form of bartering chip. She didn't want to have to be that way, but she had a feeling not everyone shared the same sentiments as the people who had gifted her the armor she was wearing not moments ago. After entering the raffle, she waited around a bit to see if she did win anything. Not that she knew when the raffle would be, but hopefully she wouldn't have to wait too long before that.

-Katagawa enters the raffle-

"The problem that we would be facing is of course what else can be done. It's not like we exactly have laws enforced inside of our own game. Unless someone made some sort of police force, the only enforcement that can be done is the death penalty. Surely saving the lives of other people who would die at the hand of a killer are worth taking out the killer. It is not ideal, but it is what we face." As she finished her tirade a little bit, she managed to find another small crystal jutting out from the ground. "There we go, all of the materials we need. Let's head back to the first floor and see what else we need to do." Hopefully the quest wouldn't take too much longer, it had already been going on forever as it is. Not that the company wasn't enjoyable. Ryoko seemed like a very nice person to be with. Though perhaps a little too idealistic for her tastes

@Ryoko

Hokori followed @Cosi's gaze to see someone get themselves captured. It seemed to have started in the shadows, but most of it was in full view of the place now. Though it was quite crazy, she was pretty sure it had something to do with the wanted posters that had been scattered about recently. "I've never really been one for Christmas. I mostly just liked having it as an excuse to return to my parents for week or two before I had to fly back to university. Not that I was really able to afford flights that often. Crossing half the world does that." She didn't know why she felt like opening up so much to him, but it just felt natural. Adjusting herself in the bench, she noticed she had still yet to take off her armor. "Oh, I am so sorry about that." Navigating once more through the maze-like menu, Hokori quickly changed into something a bit more casual. Not the most festive outfit, but she hoped that wouldn't make her stand out. It seemed like she wasn't the only person though who hadn't put on any festive clothing.

Katagawa's Appearance:

On 12/19/2018 at 12:26 AM, Cosi said:

Roll ID: #110724

BD: 4 + 1 = 5 + 1 = 6 - hit (killing blow) [Concentration used]

[H:2] Cosi- Hp: 398/400 | EN 35/40 | 8 DMG | MIT 18 | ACC 3 |
[H: 1] Katagawa- 240/240 HP | 19/24 EN | 6 DMG | 18 THN | 17 MIT | 1 ACC | 9-10 PARA

Wasp Queen- Hp: 0/50 | 20 DMG

Hokori watched as Cosi was able to bring the insect down to its knees, or at least as close to knees as one could bring an insect to. As he backed up, she prepared an attack of her own. She lept up into the air and began spinning vertically through it. As she fell through the air, she drew the blade as close as she could to speed herself up with angular momentum. As soon as she came into contact with the slowed down Wasp Queen, she tore through it. There was barely a shread of effect left when Hokori landed on the ground. It was still not the best of landings, but it was better than she had expected. At least this time she managed to stay up. "I think that may have been a little bit of overkill. At least there's no energy wasted as this is our only enemy."

@Cosi

Looking around for more materials, Hokori found herself disappointed once more. It seemed as though the game was against her in finding things to progress this quest further. "Well, let's hope that the last one shows up soon." Continuing her search, she listened as Ryo talked about some thoughts she had about this game. "I doubt that there is any way to directly see what is going on. If there was, a lot of players would be getting held accountable for what they had done, possibly even unplugged to prevent them from killing more people. They may have some form of analytics going on, which means they'd be able to tell in general what's happening though. Like if you were in a fight. At least that means they can probably tell from the gathering of all the players when a boss fight is happening. If a whole bunch of minds start racing at once, that means a large fight is going on."

@Ryoko

It hadn't been too long hanging around the town before Hokori spotted @Cosi. He seemed to be waving at someone, but she dismissed it. Instead she just came over and sat next to Cosi. "How are you doing? It's been a little bit again hasn't it?" Her tone was quite casual, and very tomboyish. Though she had never been very feminine to begin with, living at a college with mostly guys made her be all the more butch. It helped her stay casual with guys, but it wasn't always the best thing. It meant that guys got into the weird area of both wanting her to be their date while still staying in a platonic relationship. It was difficult to draw boundaries, but at least here in this game it seemed easier. They all had the common thread of being stuck here, not that that was a good conversation topic.

Why is my mind racing so much? I don't normally think this much about anything, even the few times I've gotten drunk.

Hokori was waiting about at the first floor. There didn't seem to be that many people still in need for the beginner's quests anymore. Perhaps the people left in the town of beginnings were few enough that the rate of conversion to actual players was getting lower and lower. She wasn't surprised, it was going to happen eventually. She just hadn't anticipated such a drop off. It could just be an anomaly with the pattern, but that didn't change the fact that she was without anyone to help. That was when she got the message from Cosi.

It seemed that he was looking for some people to come with him to a Christmas themed event on the fourth floor. Though she wasn't too keen on the whole Christmas idea, hating how western culture had commercialized it so heavily, it wouldn't hurt to try and see if there was anything special that was there for her to find. Perhaps she could even try and get herself some new gear. The light armor she had received was nice, but it still wasn't quite ideal for her. There may be something that she could get her hands on that would be even better than what she had now.

Once she made it up to the fourth floor, Katagawa quickly began to search around for @Cosi.

On 12/5/2018 at 2:49 PM, Cosi said:

Roll ID: #110562

BD: 2 + 1 = 3 - miss (-2 EN)

[H:1] Cosi- Hp: 400/400 | 37/40 | 8 DMG | MIT 18 | ACC 3 |
[H: 0] Katagawa- 240/240 HP | 22/24 EN | 6 DMG | 18 THN | 17 MIT | 1 ACC | 9-10 PARA

Wasp Queen- Hp: 26/50 | 20 DMG | 

Hokori just nodded along with Cosi as they prepared to face the creature. There was a lot more that they would need to catch up on, but who knew if they would ever get back as close as they once were. It was strange looking on him like this, but she shook her head and prepared to attack the beast. It was moving around a bit faster than she remembered last time, and her blade only caught air. Stepping back a little bit, Hokori decided it would just be best to let Cosi fight the thing. He would be able to take it down much more handily if she wasn't hindering him. Once more her ambition to try and circumvent the system had slowed her down. Perhaps she should change up her tactics to make sure that she stopped falling so far behind the others. Either that or just make sure to continue to serve as the faithful back line should the front liners ever face a wipeout of members.

@Cosi

(I'm not going to try and come up with a creative title)

Character Name: Katagawa
Skill being dropped: Concentration
Skill being added: Disguise
Why?: Switching for 2.6 changes
Link to gemini thread: http://www.sao-rpg.com/topic/16789-f06-sp-a-duel-of-fate/

Hokori watched as others talked and grabbed their own uniques. It seemed that she had made it in time, and was already looking at some herself. Waiting for most people to pick their own, she spotted one more that she wanted to possibly take. It was a light armor, which wasn't what she currently wore, but it seemed like it was much more fitting piece of gear than what she currently used. It would hopefully be something she could truly utilize in the future. Perhaps put together some form of atrrition build that she could use. Walking up towards the person handing them out. "I'll take that light armor." Her voice was a little shaky, being around so many intimidating figures. It was still her best chance at remaining professional and trying to assert herself within what appeared to be a tight-knit community that was the front lines. She didn't know if it would be enough, but hopefully she could count herself among that group eventually.

HOkori was watching as Ryoko went to look over the side. she thought about questioning her previously stated fear for heights, but thought better than to try and debate over it. If they were making it up, it was one of those mostly harmless lies to tell. And if they weren't, it would be them trying to overcome their own fear. In the meantime, she managed to scrounge up another material. "Got on more!" That meant one more to go, and hopefully that one more wouldn't be too far off. They still needed to actually sing for the lady who had sent them on this quest, so that meant that they were going to need to actually take more time out of their day. Everything here seemed to be going quite roughly to be honest. Nothing was really going her way, but in the end things should prevail. That's what she had always felt.

@Ryoko

Hokori qas looking around on the first floor for more people to help out with their beginning quests when she happened to glance by an announcements board. It seemed that someone was handing out unique enhancements. Though she didn't know that much about what her options were, she knew that she would be wanting to snag what she could. Immediately turning towards the teleport gate, she prayed that there was still some there when she arrived.

Warming her hands as she walked into the shop, Hokori noticed that there was already quite the crowd forming. Hopefully they were saving some of the items for her. She couldn't really tell who was the one handing them out, and there seemed to be all range of players in here. There was multiple people who seemed geared up well enough to be fighting on the front lines. Meanwhile, there was also still those who were obviously not nearly ass high of a level. Her head was hung a little bit low, realizing she was. Probably the lowest level player in the shop right now. Everyone else was clearly more powerful than here. The opportunity cost of spending so long trying to find a shortcut was becoming more and more apparent now.

Cosi talked about what he had been doing in all this time, and Hokori just nodded towards him. It wasn't much, but he had definitely pulled ahead of her. It was a little sad to see she had been so incredibly outpaced, but it was the price she paid for mostly just helping newer players out. "I'll hopefully be able to respec my skills here as well. I'm not sure where to go, but I know that I'll be wanting something besides this heavy armor. As much as it may protect me, it feels so impractical." Once Cosi offered to go on the quest with her, she nodded her head. "Getting something to actually fight would be nice. I can't tell you how many times I've just been going against the basic boars on this floor to defend new players. You'd think the developers of this game would've made theem a little bit easier to fight." At least no one had died on her yet. Though for how long that would keep up she had no idea.

@Cosi

On 11/29/2018 at 10:28 PM, Cosi said:

ID: #109996 - BD: 4 + 1 - 1 = 4 - miss
ID: #109997 - BD: 3 + 1 - 1 = 3 - miss
ID: #109998 - BD: 2 + 1 - 1 = 2 - miss
ID: #109999 - BD: 3 + 1 - 1 = 3 - miss

[H: 0/1/0/0] Dustin: 180/180 HP | 10/16 EN | 5 DMG | 14 MIT | 1 EVA

[H: 1/0/1/0] Katagawa: 155/160 HP | 9/16 EN (-6 sword art) | 7 DMG | 18 THN | 17 MIT | 1 ACC | 9-10 PARA

[H: 0/0/0/0] Cosi- Hp: 259/260 | 24/26 | DMG 4 | MIT 39 | THN 18 | ACC 1 | RGN 5 (for three turns)

Flying Bat A: 36/50 HP | 20 DMG | ID# 109736- MD: 10- Crit! 

Flying Bat B: 30/50 HP | 20 DMG | ID# 109737- MD: 4- Miss

Flying Bat C: 36/50 HP | 20 DMG | ID# 109738- MD: 1- Miss

Flying Bat D: 32/50 HP | 20 DMG | ID# 109735- MD: 6- Hit: Regen Proc!

Hokori was trying to continue to fight off the bats, but everyone was closed in so tightly into this space that she couldn't manage to swing about her blade. It meant that she was unable to get anything done to thew bats, perhaps she should stick to thrusts from here on out. "Try to take one or two of these things out so we can actually free up some space to fight. I can't swing my sword around in here without hitting the walls or one of you." She had no idea how much Dustin would listen to her after their little spat, but hopefully Cosi would actually pay attention to what she had to say. She was probably hitting the hardest in terms of an area damage, and that was what they needed right now. At the very least she could hope that they remained aggroed onto her where they wouldn't be able to do any more damage to her.

@Dustin

It wasn't long before Hokori ran into Cosi. He certainly wasn't doing much to hide his presence, not like he could with that giant snake around his neck. It seemed that she wasn't the only person to go through a bit of a change to their appearance. Seeing that he had also respecced his gear, It made her realize she still was thinking about doing that herself. There was so little that she actually enjoyed about what she was doing. What she wanted was to be able to reduce the hits taken, but she needed the funds to actually reset herself. "Not doing too bad. I see you've been quite busy lately. What all have you been up to?" It was true she hadn't been doing much, but at least she was making sure to bolster up some of the lower level players and guide them safely into the range they could take things on for themselves. Didn't matter what her power was. It mostyly mattered that everyone made it out of this game. Or at least, as many people as possible made it out of this game.

@Cosi

Having just recently gotten back from helping out another player on the first floor, Hokori realized that she had a message in her inbox. She was a little bit embarrassed that she had left it ignored for a while now. Seeing it was from Cosi, she quickly opened it up. It seemed he wanted to go take on the queen on the second floor. She couldn't remember if she had taken it on already, but did know a bit about it from the information brokers that stopped by. Thankfully, it was one of those free sample kind of info bits, so she had still yet to pay for the information. It was strange how people would nearly extort players for this info, though the world still had turn apparently. Regardless, she knew that if Cosi had been doing anything at all while he was silent to her, he would be able to take it on quite handily.

@Cosi

"It shouldn't be too far" Hokori had never actually gone to the village, but if it was anything like the other quests, it wasn't going to take long to reach their destination. As big as the first floor was, very little of it was actually being used by the content developed for it. If anything, it was just there to make sure the player density wasn't too high for the first few floors. Once the two were at the village, Hokori gestured for the girl to stay behind while she went ahead to scout the area. Without warning, she was quickly attacked by a group of the nepents. "Quick, over here!" She didn't wait to immediately start a spinning attack to clear the nepents that were all around her. As she pulled her sword into her other hand as well, she noticed only one of them remained standing. A little surprised that she had missed, she quickly prepared to strike at it in case the girl wasn't able to kill it off.

The girl had caught up to her, and Hokori realized that she slow her gait a bit more than before. She was mostly used to walking with people much taller than her, meaning she had to move much more quickly than normal. Once they had caught up, it seemed they didn't have much to say, just a single question. "A lot of people hesitate to go out of the gate when it's still their first few times doing so. I saw you waiting there and figured you could use some help." Though she didn't particularly want to help because she was a little girl, there was certainly some motherly feeling that made her want to drop what she was doing to help her. It was something she had never truly felt, always being focused on her work and surrounded by other guys. Perhaps she could try to regain some of that femininity through this girl. Not that she would wish to do so, but just maybe give herself a reason to get out of this game besides helping herself and her parents.

@Theodosia

As her thoughtss drifted towards darker thoughts, Hokori was interrupted by the little girl. She immediately caught herself, and a hollow smile came across her face. "Yeah, I'm fine. Let's go get ourselves that medicine. The village won't get that medicine if we don't help." It probably would, but the girl didn't need to know that. They seemed  rather mature for their age, which was both a blessing and a curse. Sure it meant that they could have wisdom beyond their years, but it also bore that knowledge of knowing. Either way, Kat gestured for the girl to follow her and began to move her way over towards where she knew the village was. She had considered doing this quest before, so had done some research on it. All she didn't know for certain was whether or not she could take it on on her own. The girl was unlikely to slow her down, but it was going to be seen if it could speed her up.

@Theodosia

The young girl seemed determined to progress, and that was quite admirable. It was a little worrying as well to see someone like her making their way towards the front lines. Every bit helped, but the stress this would put on her life was unfair. A little kid like her should have the chance to play and frolick in the bushes. That was all taken away from her now. At least the adults could say they have had a childhood. And for some this was them able to relive those fantasies. For her, it was just a mass grave waiting to see how many people weer able to crawl out of it. The quest would be simple enough, and there hopefully woldn't be anything to threaten her. The monsters themselves weren't going to be too strong, so it was entirely possible they could be in and out with barely a scratch. If there was any worry, Hokori knew that she would be able to pull back the two of them enough to avoid combat and regenereate the health and rseources they would need.

@Theodosia

Hokori was grumbling as she was trying to move an item that didn't seem to want to be moved. It was some weird quest item that was bugged and wasn't removed from her inventory. "Another thing to plug it up with no use for it." As her mutterings continued, she was interrupted in this process by another girl. They seemed a bit younger, though being a video game that wasn't surprising. It also seemed like they were more of the shy type. "It's just one of the many things developers can't seem to get right. You would think they have dealt with enough pooor inventory systems playing games that they would be able to fix it." The girl introduced herself as Etherial. "Katagawa. People usually call me Kat, but call me whatever you'd like." She closesd her inventory and stood to offer Ehterial a handshake. Even in a game like this, she still clung to the bits of dignity she could find.

@Etherial

Hokori was still looking for materials when she heard Ryoko shout towards her. She turned to see the gleam of a material flying towards her face. Just in time, her hand raised and she caught it in her hand. "Thanks" Checking her quest log, she noticed that the counter had not ticked up. "That's strange, doesn't look like you can hand me materials. Guess the game only counts it when you loot it from the source." She figured that might be how it worked. She still had materials from when she started the game, so it waas entirely possible that it wasn't just counting the number of meterials in her inventory. It would be much simpler to just count whenever she received a material from a list set of sources. Probably a good thing that they hadn't gone higher, or the mobs materials may not have counted. "Well, I'll keep searching. If you want to split any extra materials you find at the end we can do that."

@Ryoko