Katagawa

It wasn't long before the two of them were both on the water with the old man. Hokori cast in her line and was already feeling a tug on it. It didn't take long before she reeled up a swordfish ready to take a bite out of the people on the boat. "Looks like we've got a live one." She drew her blade after placing down the given fishing pole. She tried her best to get some footing while on the boat, but the small space and wake coming from the fish was making it hard. She had no idea how she was going to be able to do one of her sword arts without causing some friendly fire. Hopefully she would have enough damage that she could take the thing out with her attack and end up in the water without fear of retaliation. If she didn't have the damage, she just hoped that Cosi would be able to follow up with a killing blow.

@Cosi

Hokori was backing up as the Wasp came in to hit her through a small opening in her armor once more. It seemed to not be as effective as she thought it would be. She was quickly backing up though as Black mentioned another one coming. "We're going to have to dodge around it, I can't keep this up for much longer. I can take their hits but I don't have the energy to keep fighting back." At the rate she was losing energy just trying to be on the defensive, she probably only had a couple mroe good swings in her. What she would give for a way to gain back some energy. Hopefully the second soldier wouldn't notice the fight. For now, the first was still focused on her, but that would only hold for so long. She needed to finish off this fight as soon as possible.

As Black came in with his own attack, she watched as the bee slowly picked itself up. She tried to activate a sword art to finish it off, but the hefty strike was unable to connect with the now quick-moving bee. A scowl coming across her face, she quickly went to go place herself between the bee and Black. "Stay behind me for now, attack as soon as you see an opening." Hopefully, the Bee would impale itself on her armor, though it was not a certainty. As it stood now, she could at least hold off against it for quite some time. There was a thought in the back of her mind that had wished she had grabbed some sort of passive healing ability. That would mean she could probably hold out against this thing almost indefinitely. As it was though, she wasn't taking enough damage to be worried about dying. She would make sure that Black could get away before she got close to going down.

The two of them had made it down to the first floor after fighting the wasp queen up on the second floor. Though it wasn't as good of a reward as she was hoping, perhaps there would be a bit better of pickings down here. As they walked through a garden, she decided to switch the gear she had equipped. The feather talisman she had gotten from a shop on the fourth floor was rather nice looking, plus it would hopefully make her quite a bit faster.

Of course, this peace was quickly interrupted by Black spotting a pair of goblins. She nodded to his plan and rushed in to take on the goblins. Of course, she hadn't charged her sword up yet, so the goblins had plenty of time to dodge her attacks. She wasn't too worried though, so long as Black hung back for a bit she could sit here and dodge their attacks as well. Hopefully he would have the wits about him to not pull the goblins attention.

Though she was staying back and making sure nothing else showed up, it seemed as though Rithe was handling herself quite well even in the darkness of the cave. "Don't worry about me, I'm fine. Keep attacking whatever is deeper in the cave. I'll work on clearing the wreckage." Though she normally had very little strength, the game had offered her a benefit of gaining some minor stats. With that, she was able to start clearing away the rubble. It was still pitch black, but she could at least tell she was making progress. Hopefully Rithe would keep the golem off of her while she finished clearing a path.

Guess there is a benefit to having some muscle. I was always told a girl shouldn't get that defined of a body, makes them less attractive. Now I see why all the guys were begging to take me to the gym. No, it was probably for other reasons that they wanted me to go to the rec center with them, those perverts.

@Rithe

The wasp was already coming back at her, though the stinger did puncture her armor and get to her health bar, it also took back some damage from the spiked pauldrons she had on. As it retracted from the pain it felt, Hokori burst into a horizontal spinning circle. The wasp was to close and couldn't back out in time. Of course, ti tried to go up out of the way, but she saw it coming and adjusted to have the last two spins be vertical, slamming the insect into the ground. It twitched a little bit as it laid on the ground, the paralysis from her blade taking effect. "Get it now!" It wouldn't be able to last much longer, it's health was already dipping into the red and would probably die in one hit from her or two from Black. regardless, there was no way it was going to get another attack off against her.

"It's nothing, really" Hokori was doing her best to play off her strengths, not wanting to take so much praise. "I just have a status effect on my weapon. Got it special ordered from one of the player shops who gives a nice discount to players just getting their footing in the game." It really wasn't all that special, and she was thinking about switching weapon types anyways. The weapon she had just didn't feel like it was her kind of weapon. And the heavy armor was not fitting for her at all. Though she had done very little combat in any sense back in the real world, she did enjoy being able to use her shorter height as a way to out-speed opponents.There didn't seem to be anyone to follow for that idea though, at least not as a defensive option. It seemed there were those that used it for offense as a secondary defense, but no one used it as a tank build.

She was stopped when Black had found another wasp. It seemed to be coming back towards the nest they were leaving right now. "Let me open him up again. I know you might have things to help out, but I'd rather you not get hit by this thing. It seems a little bit tougher, so I'll lead forward." With that, she quickly made her way forward and opened with the same vertical spinning move as before. Though it might be a little repetitive to use on repeat, it was still something that she could do. It hit the wasp, though it was still in the air as she felt frozen from the end lag of the move.

Hokori watched as Black went after the wasp. He didn't seem to do any damage, but it gave her enough time to prep for her next strike. "Watch out!" Shouting towards him, she hoped they would get out of the way before her attack came crashing towards them. She went for a horizontal swing this time, catching the queen as it was rising back up into the air. The first strike cut off a wing, the second spin its stinger, the third knocked it down, and finally the fourth knocked its head off. The queen shattered into many pixels and Hokori was left with just her and Black standing there in the field. "Now that wasn't so hard was it?" She flashed a smile towards him. The exhilaration of her attacks was nice, though she did feel like it was not what she should do. It would be much more interesting and efficient if she was able to keep the damage off of others while they dealt it all for her. Though some found it boring, she found fun in optimizing as much as she could.

It wasn't long after walking into the cave before the sound of flapping was being heard by the group. Cosi seemed to notice them first, but Hokori quickly made her way in front of him to take her swing. Though she and Cosi could probably tank both of them just as easily, she wanted to try and get a swing it at each of them before others could get hit by her own blade. She had still yet to find out if people could be hurt unintentionally by a sword art, but she wasn't about to find out. Once she landed a couple of her strikes, light from her sword art temporarily lighting the room and illuminating the bats, she backed up a bit to let the bats that wanted to come at her. "I can hold off some of them, go for the ones that aren't weakened yet Cosi!" She didn't know how to direct Dustin, so she just did her best to make sure they weren't hurt.

((OOC: try to remember what level and gear you guys had then, know it's been a while since this thread started)

It didn't take long for the cave guardian to show up after Rithe had grabbed the crystal. Hokori wondered if she was even able to attack the creature, so decided to hang back for the time baing. As it stood, it would be much better for Rithe to be able to take this down on her own. It seemed she was having some confidence issues and Hokori hoped to help remedy that. Perhaps she might give a swing at it if she felt that Rithe was struggling too much, but for now it was better not to interfere with what the quest was giving them. The darkness wasn't helping much, and made it so that she couldn't quite see what form the guardian had taken. She had heard of it being a golem, though the time she had done this it ended up being a pair of cave trolls. Perhaps it was random, and maybe there was a difference to them. As it stood though, it seemed as though Rithe was able to do ok on her own.

@Rithe

The wasp was already coming back at Hokori faster than she could respond to it, it quickly stung her through one of the chinks in her armor. It didn't really sting, but it was still depleting her health bar a bit. Without checking to see if Hunter was still out of range, she unleashed another spinning attack with her large sword. She managed to hit the beast once more and chipped its health down even further. Though unsure where he was at the moment, Hokori shouted towards Hunter, "You should be fine now. I don't think it will bother you any more." It was going after her now, and hopefully it would take the recoil of attacking her next time it hit. "Just make sure not to hit it too hard or it may change targets." She wasn't worried about that, but it was best to let it be known.

Hokori followed along with Black, who seemed to listen well to her instructions. They were being very cautious, even though she kept a relaxed posture. "If you're looking for orange players, I doubt you'll find them here. Most of them are going to be on he first floor or the higher floors. The second floor is where they know everyone is going to be smart and just run away." She was mostly just pulling these arguments out of thin air, but that didn't mean they were false. It would be stupid for someone to attack players on the second floor.

As they approached the queen, Hokori did her best to remain quiet. She had yet to see mobs react to sound, but she had also never faced a boss. Nodding towards black, she quickly brought her blade up and felt the sword art taking over. She began to spin around in a vertical circle, smashing the unsuspecting queen into the ground. "Now! While it's down!" She knew that it wouldn't have that much durability and it seemed she had gotten the status effect off of her weapon. This meant that she was going to be able to take it down rather quickly. With any luck the queen would be dead before it could attack.

@Black

Hokori listened as the man introduced himself. He was a raather burly type of man, but definitely still had an air of intelligence around him. Guessing they were military, she accepted the party invite when he sent it. Black was only level 1, which could be a problem. "I haven't fought this boss before, though I do know a little bit about it from info brokers. I should be able to taake its attention from you and keep you safe. Eighteen mitigation is a fair amount, moree than I have right now. Of course, I'm not fully focused on mitigation, I'm still trying to figure out something that would work ass a better way to take damage off of others. Just make sure not to attack until I hve the things attention. You should be safe after that." If this person was military, they would hopefully listen to her. SHe had no clue how to give a proper command, but she did know some basic ideas of tactics and strategy.

@Black (Spawn the boss whenever you're ready)

The old man, who had a rather complex AI, was still yelling at the two of them as he explained what they were probably supposed to do next. It seemed that they were supposed to learn how to fish in this game. Once the old man was out of the place, she responded to Cosi. "I'm not all that surprised, many games want to put their best foot forward in the opening moments of the game. Though this game in general is rather impressive, I would figure they'd follow the same idea. I'm guessing higher floors have less NPCs and more beasts to cover up the lack of effort there. I wouldn't know though, still need to go above floor 2." SShe really did need to fix that. Following the path of the old man, she waited for Cosi before triggering any further dialogue. The next part would liekly take them onto the water so she didn't want to leave Cosi behind.

@Cosi

The two were able to move out into the fields and it didn't take long before Hokori had found a wasp for the two of them to attack. It was rather large, and she was fairly certain she could take it with a little bit of help. The only issue was she had no idea how powerful Hunter was. It was possible he was actually much more powerful than he seemed. Of course, that wouldn't be a good assumption to rely on. She should be able to safely solo take out this beast, and any help from Hunter would just expedite the process. "I see a giant wasp up ahead. Hang back until I can get its attention than attack it with whatever you've got." With that bit of advice, she quickly charged in and activated her spinning sword art, clipping the wasp with each hit. Though it was knocked back, she could tell it was now focused on her, at least for the time being. Hopefully Hunter would either stay back a little longer or not get its attention. She didn't know precisely how the game worked with its AI but she did know that the more damage you dealt the more it would hate you.

As the two went in, they were quickly greeted with hostilities from the old man reesiding in the place. Hokori had quickly gone and reached for her weapon, thought her hand came off of it as Cosi expertly avoided the nassty situation. It seemed that the old man was a bit of a fisherman and the two of them had just delivered a fishing pole to him. It was a nicce gift, but she was curious as to why the quest had brought them here. What lesson did this old man have in store for them. She kept an eye on the quest dialogue, but it seemed the action hadn't quite finished yet. She whispered over to Cosi, "What do you think we're going to do here?" There was no indicator of the objective they had in front of them. Though it may not be, she presumed that it would likely be some form of combat against something in the lake. It was all just guesswork right now of course.

@Cosi

Hokori had decided it was time for her to start taking on a few more things besides the boars on the first floor. She was wanting to play it safe, but tey were barely giving her any rewards now. She had headed up to the second floor instead, heaaring rumors of a powerful wasp queen who resided on the floor. As she was wandering about the floor, she noticed what appeared to be a hive. The mobs weren't currently there, which was a bad sign. As she approached, she noticed someone else there. She still had her blade drawn as she approached them. "Hello, are you here to take on the wasp queen?" She was hoping that they hadn't just taken it out and that they would be able to face it together. However, she noticed that they didn't seem to be that high of a level, probably loweer than her if she had to guess. It appears she might have her defensive work cut out for her if they stuck around here.

Katagawa: 400/400 HP | 40/40 ENG | 1 ACC | 17 MIT | 16 THN | 7 DMG | 9-10 PARA

@Black

Thankfully, it didn't take too long for Hunter to come through the portal himself. There wasn't that much time to waste, though it wasn't like they really had anything else to do. "There you are," she waved over to him, "once you've got yourself situated just let me know and we can head out into the fields. If you're scared of heights just let me know, there's a few cliffs around here. Nothing lethal of course, just a little bit of height is all." She let her large blade rest across her back as she had grown mildly accustomed to, and her heavy armor clinked and clanged a bit as she moved around. Once he was ready to move out, she would guide the both of them towards the fields on this floor. "There's a few threats that we need to look out for, but we should be fine as long as you let me attack things first."

@Hunter Yagami

It took a surprisingly short amount of time for Hunter to decide where he wanted to grind. Hokori brought up the confusing menu and sent him a party invite. "We can start whenever you'd like. I'll meet you on the second floor and we can go hunting from there. I suggest you bring a jacket if you have one, it does get rather windy up there." Once the party was set up, she would make her way towards the portal in the center of the plaza the blacksmith shop was located off of. Saying, "Floor 2," Hokori was quickly taken away towards the second floor. Once there, she walked out of the teleporter area and waited for Hunter to come through. Hopefully he knew how to use the thing, else she might be waiting for a while. In the meantime, she did her routine checks on her gear. She was still uncertain as to whether or not she actually wanted to stick with the type of gear she had gone with, but for now she needed to use what she was trained with. There would come a time she would try and respec the skills that she had.

@Hunter Yagami

Katagawa returned in kind with the firm handshake she was given, though she could tell they were a little hesitant at first. And though she didn't notice any gear that was particularly enticing, she did see that they carried themselves more confidently than most she had found wandering about the Town of Beginnings. "It's just me. I have a few friends around, but not a whole lot of them are really at my beck and call. We all tend to do our own things." She was unsure just what he wanted to hunt, but she was open to taking on a few things. "If you're just looking to grind mobs, I suggest we go up a floor here. At least then we can still get loot if I deal the killing blow. If you wait for me to get their attention, you should be perfectly safe." It also meant that they would get better loot, but she didn't want to bribe them into danger. If they wanted to play things safe, she would let them do just that.

@Hunter Yagami

She was about to leave when Hokori received a tap on her shoulder. Turning around, she saw someone smile and greet her, though they didn't appear to be doing a quest of any sorts, she still wanted to help them all the same. "Sure, I'd love to. The name is Katagawa, people call me Kat." She outstretched her hand towards them, waiting for them to shake it. Though it seemed a few people weren't used to a woman offering to shake their hands, it was what she had learned to do while in Europe studying. Smiling and waiting for them to take her handshake, she gave a glance over him. They seemed to be rather new, at least in terms of experience. Of course, there wasn't that many top tier players that wandered around here any more. There may have been more if this acted as the re-spawn point for the game, but that option was all but gone now. If she had to guess, they were almost certainly a lower level than her, and probably lower than level 5. It wasn't a bad thing, it just meant she would have to be careful where she took them.

@Hunter Yagami

Hokori let Rithe take the lead on their way into the cave. now that they were in the quest area, it's not like they could get turned around. If they did, she would just kindly point in the right direction, or maybe say the right direction with how dark it was in here. She was taken aback at the question, then realized that they probably didn't have a STEM section if hey went to college. "Comes with being an engineering major. As much as they say the work force is almost evenly split in terms of gender, it certainly isn't that in the schools. It's not too bad, though you do have to put up with a fair bit of teasing. A school of about 20 plus guys to each girl means you get a lot of unsavory offers." She shivered a little at some of the memories, hoping Rithe wouldn't see it. Soon after, they were able to locate the gem, and then the cave collapsed behind them. "Well, best draw whatever weapon you've got now."

@Rithe (OOC: you're good to spawn the monster whenever)

Hokori was trying and failing to find any materials right now, but she was doing her best not to feel down about it. It wouldbe much more useful to just keep pushing through this and not worry about what could come. It also seemed that Ryoko was about ready to go fighting again. "Sure, let me know if you spot anything, or if you just want a change of scenery. We should still be able to go up a couple floors and face some monsters there." She was unsure as to how accurate that statement was, but she did feel as though she had enough poewr to take out the weaker monsters on higher floors. There wasn't much she would be able to do to take on the stronger monsters of the floors, but she should be able to protect Ryo from getting hurt too bad. At least, that was what she hoped.

@Ryoko

The two waited in front of the cave for a bit, peering in and trying to figure out what they could see. "Support isn't all that bad actually. You may feel like you're not doing much, but it is usually one of the most important roles in a game. I've done my fair share of playing support, side effect of being the girl in a university full of boys, they are an underrated necessity." She continued to look into the cave, hoping she was at least doing something to cheer Rithe up. Realizing she had yet to do so, she made her way through the maze of menus and sent a party request to Rithe, in case the two got separated. "I've done this quest before, but I'm not so sure if the gem will be in the same place. As for sight, it gets a little bit better once you're inside of the cave. Just make sure that when we start swinging to not get hit by my blade. I may be careful, but it is close quarters in there."

@Rithe (I am so sorry for missing this)

Hokori was making her way through the Town of Beginnings, doing her almost regular patrol now of helping anyone she saw. It was the best service she could think of, especially while she was still pretty low of level. She would still get a fair amount of exp and would also get some friends. Networking was always the best approach to many things, and this was not going to be an exception. The more friends she could make now, the more she would be able to get them and herself to the front lines. More people on the front meant that the game could get pushed with more and more risks. Enemies would be able to go down quicker and the need for tanks and healers shouldn't have to increase too much. There didn't seem to be anyone knew, but she went over to the blacksmith's shop just to see if anyone did want to try and grab her attention. She would let anyone interrupt her really, she didn't mind giving a helping hand with whatever she could.

@Hunter Yagami