Cr0wnS

August quickly recovered from the hit and was ready to strike again. He took a deep breath and readied his sword in the typical stance that would activate the system assist for rapiers. The sword once again lit up with a blue glow, illuminating his face and in a small circle around him. In response the boar stamped its hooves and charged towards the boar, and upon reaching it performed one of the beginner sword arts, known as <<Rip Ravine>>, which was simply just two attacks one after the other. Two red lines appeared on the boar's body when the sword had pierced it's hide. Turning around he heard the boar let out a little squeal as it was knocked over, the damage done to it preventing it from attacking August further. This meant that he had time to prepare once again as he assumed the stance to fight the Boar once again. He knew that this was all thanks to the <<System Assist>>, and in the real world, August would probably not even be able to hold a sword properly, despite this, the fighting system was still incredibly awesome for August and he loved fighting despite the danger.

DAMAGE DONE: (3 Base+1 Crit) x 2 = 8 Total Damage

MOB STATS:

• HP: 2
• Damage: 3

CrownS STATS:

• HP: 17
• Damage: 3

Quote

ID# 107482

• Battle: 9 (10, 9+1 Because of ACC)
• Mob: 5

The girls were steaming ahead of August, it seemed as though they were having better luck than him. Despite his hopes, the girls didn't seem to be interacting with him as much, which put a damper on the mood but perhaps they just weren't as talkative. Ulaan had already collected all 5 materials that they needed whereas he was still stuck with 2, the same could be said for Kian who was only one away from completing the quest. He would have to try harder if he wanted to catch up with them and not be left behind. Despite this however, there were no materials to be found. He was usually fairly calm in these situations, being outside on a nice day would usually be a blessing for him, however after many failed attempts at finding materials it was getting quickly frustrating. In frustration he yelled out "Ugh what the hell! Does this game just hate me!" Very unlike him, however he was trying his best and still failing, and it felt as thought the game was intentionally screwing him over as some sick joke. August got up from where he was searching and just pressed his head against a tree, moping around in frustration.

Quote

ID# 107481

• Loot: 3

I am actually getting sick of this

August drew his sword from the holster at his side, the sound of the metal against the leather was a sound he hadn't heard in a very long time, however it was one he instantly recognized and made him feel comfortable. He placed his sword in front of him, setting up the system assist to help him hit the boar. The sword lit up a nice shade of blue, similar to the colour of the sky outside of floor one, as he charged towards the boar. However at the very last second the boar noticed his approach and jumped out of the way, managing to counter attack and headbutt August in his midsection. This threw his centre of balance off and he went flying away from the boar. The HP bar in the top left-hand corner of his screen slid down slightly, not too worrying but not ideal either. As part of the beginning of the game he had health potions however that's all he had and August didn't want to waste it on a simple boar battle. 

Standing up, the boar was now facing him, and it was pissed. Its eyes had changed from a calm green to an angry red and it was stamping the ground ready for the next round of attacking. August picked up his rapier and assumed a fighting stance, showing that he was not going to back down.

MOB STATS:

• HP: 10
• Damage: 3

CrownS STATS

• HP: 17
• Damage: 3

Quote

ID# 107432

• Battle: 4 (4+1 Because of ACC, still a miss)
• Mob: 7

 

Facing the realisation that maybe a new area was required, August set off through the forest more, hoping to find an area that held more materials. Luckily, before too long that would be the case. Walking for about twenty minutes, according to the in game clock, he came upon a pathway made of dirt, that seemed to lead further into the forest. Not weary of anything that could be waiting for him. Following the path it lead him to what looked like another clearing, except this one had a small lake, probably only about four or five meters across, however the water was flowing from a stream across from August. Luckily for August, sitting at the edge of the lake was a glowing rock, which August knew to be a material. He rushed over to collect it, opening his inventory and de-materialising it as it is added. Just as before, he saw a little pop up in the corner of his screen <<Materials Collected: 3/5>>. "Sweet, almost there!" August announced to himself, however as he turned around, an unaware boar was sitting there, grazing on some nearby shrubs. "Damn, should I leave it be or attack it." Had the game not been so dangerous, he would have instantly fought the boar, but now there was the threat of death, so he had to be careful. Despite the threat, he decided to engage the monster, as he was getting very bored with just collecting materials.

MOB STATS:

• HP: 10
• Damage: 3

CrownS STATS:

• HP: 20
• Damage: 3

Quote

 ID# 107418

• Loot: 16 

Materials collected: 3/5

There was a reason that August had invited Miyuki to come join him, when he first encountered her, he couldn't help but notice how infectious her enthusiasm and joyful nature was. In this game full of doom and gloom it was nice to have a positive influence around every now and them. The blonde girl skipped towards him at a reasonable pace as he could help but reciprocate her smile, "Glad you could make it." August returned to where he was siting and invited her to sit next to him, the garden was very well laid out. It was a large square with a smaller square made out of bushes and flowers in the centre. The entrances were all marked clearly by wooden archways painted in a nice soft white, the whole area was very idyllic and a nice escape from some of the very typical areas of the first floor such as caverns and forests. The games artificial sensory generator produced the familiar yet lovely smell of roses and other flowers coming from the many blooming petals around the pair.  So! We have several options here, we can fight mobs, do some gathering, or we can do fishing. Personally fishing sounds a bit boring sooo, how about we do some fighting? There are some interesting mobs that only spawn around here so I thought maybe we could get some items and Col from them!" Truth be told, he just wanted something to do other than picking flowers and strange rocks from the forest outside the starting village.

August walked slowly around the strange coloured cloud, careful to avoid any status effects that it might entail. If he got paralyzed out here then that might mean his swift demise at the hand of an enemy. He had heard stories of this happening of course, many people in the town of beginnings told stories of people that they had seen slain by level one mobs. In the months following the release of the game, one fifth of the players that started the game had died. Despite this however, the front lines group had managed to clear a quarter of the floors so far. This obviously would have inspired hope in many of the players, including August, who aimed to join the people in the front lines. Once he had seen the sheer ferocity in which people had taken down floor bosses, he wished to be a part of it and join in with them, working towards the end of this prison.

Continuing through the forest nothing had caught his attention. It is very likely that someone had come through here and cleared everything out right before he arrived, because there was simply nothing there for him to collect. With the release of a sigh he sat down to think about his next move.

Quote

ID# 107340 

• Loot: 6 

There was a limit to what August could do on his own, and he realised that he could no longer just rely on himself to go out into the wild to fight mobs or gather materials. From his travelings he had heard about a quest called <<Nature's Treasure>>, well, maybe a quest wasn't exactly the best description for this. It was simply just an area that NPCs hinted at that was useful for gathering materials as well as <<Col>> from mobs. August had met a player a few days prior that he thought about bringing along to help him fight enemies. He didn't have many, if any friends in this game, so any opportunity to interact with people was welcomed by him. This players name was << @Miyuki >>, he composed a message to her, inviting her to meet him in the garden area about an hour outside of the town of beginnings. It was by one of the small towns that dotted the first floor of Aincrad, and from what he had heard from other players, this area was teeming with materials as well as mobs. The system of the game was not entirely hateful however, as it scaled the mobs to the level of the players that initiated their spawn, to an extent of course, each floor had its own minimum levels and damage values and obviously as you reached the higher floors, this minimum increased exponentially. The message he had composed was as follows;

Quote

@Miyuki

Theres a specific garden area just outside of the town of beginnings, if you walk for about an hour, you should reach it, it's pretty obvious. I attached the location just in case, I thought you could give me a hand fighting the enemies around here to farm some Col and Materials. Ya know, if you want to of course.

Message me back.

An hour had now passed since August had entered the forest, and he was getting further and further away from the entrance to the town of beginnings. He would have to be mindful of this if he wanted to make it back before dark. If he wasn't careful, August could be walking through the forest blind in the middle of the night, and his risk of dying from a random mob encounter would probably skyrocket. If he didn't collect all the materials he needed today, then he would need to return to the town and rest for the night, not exactly the most efficient option but neither was staying out in the forest past nightfall. Funnily enough, in his time walking around the starting town, he had heard stories of beginning players staying out at night in the forest and seeing ghosts, however, this was definitely fictitious, even if he believed in ghosts in the real world, the possibility of them actually being coded into a game was absurd. Even despite the absurdity, he didn't want to take the risk.

Continuing to scan the ground, he found a plant that seemed to call his attention, it seemed that it was not meant to be there, just based on the contrasting colours to the ground around it. It was an orange flower with blue highlights that was bigger than any of the other shrubbery around it, however as soon as August stepped towards this odd flower, it seemed to make the animation of spurting out some kind of gas, before inevitably exploding into the small diamond shaped pixels that made up all of the assets in this world. August stayed weary of the strange coloured cloud and kept walking deeper into the forest.

Quote

ID# 107250

• Loot: 14

The trees closed up above August so that only small streams of light shone down onto the shrub covered ground, this was in stark contrast to the very open grove that he had entered the forest through. It was almost slightly claustrophobic, and the amount of room he had to move around in got smaller and smaller as the density of trees increased. He had never actually been this far before, and he was surprised that the system hadn't spawned any mobs for him to fight, but perhaps due to the parameters of the quest, this was intended. Since the quest was designed obviously for low level players, maybe Kayaba didn't just want 10,000 <<Level 1>> players dying immediately from encounters with low level mobs. August continued to scan the ground for anything that he could find as he continued to walk through the forest, however he wasn't having much luck, maybe this quest was meant to be semi hard, at least by beginners standards. Out of the corner of his eye, he thought he noticed a gleam from atop one of the trees. Luckily, since they were so clumped together, it was easy to use multiple trees in order to hoist himself up there. However, once he reached the top, there was nothing there, just a birds nest and some eggs, however the mother bird was not home, so maybe August should leave before it comes back and tries to attack him.

Quote

ID# 107206 

• Battle: 7
• Craft: 10
• Loot: 3
• Mob: 2

"Hm, alright" August responded, she wasn't wrong, but he felt like a change of scenery was needed. Despite the danger, the group weren't really going to get anywhere in the game if they didn't go and fight mobs. The frontlines group, from what August had been told, had made it only nearly a quarter of the way through the game. There was no shortage of time that could be spent catching up to some of the players who had already steamed ahead, but some progress needed to be made, otherwise they would be left behind. The terse response that he was given for his idea was enough to shut him up for the moment, despite being an airhead he was still able to tell when someone wanted him to shut up. Keeping to himself, he searched the ground around him for anything that seemed out of place, however there was nothing to be found whatsoever. The entire process and now this quest was getting a little bit disheartening, but at least he was outside doing something. All the months spend cowering inside the Town of Beginnings had left him feeling quite pathetic, so any chance to leave and actually contribute to his progression was a good experience and an opportunity to get closer to leaving. Not that there was very much waiting for him back home.

@Kian

Quote

ID# 107188

• Battle: 3
• Craft: 10
• Loot: 2
• Mob: 10

Materials Collected 2/5

August stood up and dusted himself off. The fall hadn't been enough to damage him but it was a bit scary, so he decided that maybe the canopy wasn't a good place to search for materials. The next place that he decided to search would be the direct opposite, perhaps there would be some materials around the roots, that's usually where some herbs or rocks could be located. However, despite searching all of the trees there wasn't a single material to be found. There was however, several spiders and some small furry animals. The animals could have been used for food, but August couldn't bring himself to kill them, since it was a small family of five. It dawned on him again the sheer scope and attention to detail that was present in this world, and the amount of effort that Kayaba Akihiko must have put into making this into a playable game. For a murderer, August felt that Akihiko had put an exorbitant amount of effort into crafting this death game.

He was thinking about moving on from the grove, further into the forest where there might be a higher density of materials. As August walked further from the grove, the trees got closer and closer together and it started to get slightly darker. Perhaps this would make it easier to spot anything that was out of the ordinary on the floor of the forest.

Quote

ID# 107133

• Battle: 9
• Craft: 9
• Loot: 14
• Mob: 1

The grove where he had entered was fairly spacious. It was a wide dirt circle carved out of the middle of the forest with sparse patches of grass dotting the ground, the roots of the trees formed the edge of the grove as they extended up to the base and roughly fifteen feet upwards to form the green leafy roof of the canopy. It was a nice day, as it usually was on the first floor. Each floor seemed to have its own environment as well as its own seasons, and each change on their own time scale. It was truly fascinating to August the sheer depth of the content that was in this game and the time and care that was put into it. He could see why so many people were so quick to suck up all of the 10,000 copies. From what he could determine before he logged in, the online copies sold out in seconds, and before too long all 10,000 players were logged in. However, what was waiting for them was not a virtual paradise, it was a prison.

For some people however, perhaps this would be somewhat of a paradise, an escape from the real world. Despite everything that had happened since he started in this game, August could fully admit to himself that the environment around him was beautiful, and in another life, perhaps he could have been one of the players who loved it here. Ah! He was getting distracted, August had a habit of drifting off and losing his train of thought. Luckily however, while he was looking up at the trees, he noticed that there was another glowing object sitting up in the branches. With all his strength, he slowly inched up the tree towards the branch where the material was located. However, grabbing onto the material made him lose his grip, and he fell to the ground with an unattractive thud. 

Thinking that it would have hurt, August immediately grabbed his back and started moaning, however, due to the way that the game was programmed, players didn't feel pain. Therefor he was able to stand up and was completely unharmed.

Quote

ID# 107131

• Battle: 3
• Craft: 10
• Loot: 20
• Mob: 9

Materials found 2/5

The best place that August knew of was only a half an hours journey from the entry gate, well, at least that was what the in-game clock on his HUD told him. It was now just after midday, and he had plenty of time to search for these materials, however knowing his luck it could take well into the night. Since it was a quest and the NPC was scripted he assumed that the place where the npc resided was always open. Unlike a player run store, NPC stores generally only sold basic items for beginning players, with the odd exception of course. As well as this, the NPCs generally had a fixed price for all of their items, and didn't take custom item orders. Out of all the professions, being a blacksmith had the most appeal to August. It would be a neat way to make some extra money, as well as this he could make his own weapons to his specifications and for free on top of that. The only downside to this is that he would have to collect his own materials.

Once he reached the edge of the forest, August took a few steps in towards a clearing where he would start his search. Finding materials through gathering wasn't too hard, nor was it risky, but it got a bit boring, and he had not a clue how to fish, although he was sure someday he would give it a crack. Off to the side of the clearing was a rock that didn't seem to belong in the grove, and upon reaching it, August's suspicions were confirmed. The rock was a marker, and upon lifting it up, there lay a smaller glowing rock of the same shape. "Sweet, one down, five to go!" August congratulated himself and continued on.

Quote

ID# 107123

• Battle: 10
• Craft: 5
• Loot: 16
• Mob: 7

Materials found 1/5

The girls were steaming ahead of August, it seemed as though they were having better luck than him. However despite his hopes, the girls didn't seem to be interacting with him as much. Maybe he would need to be the one that needed to stimulate conversation, like him, the pair seemed to be pretty introverted, or perhaps they just liked to keep to themselves. Either way it wasn't much of August's concern. He continued his search, this time he decided to look back in the trees, since there was no pattern to what he was receiving so the best thing to do would just be to search the easiest place, which would be the trees. He climbed up one of the smaller looking trees up into the canopy, where there was a small glowing orb that he could pick up. Once he did, a notification popped up on his HUD, <<Materials Collected 2/5>>. A smile came across his face, "Finally, maybe not too long then." August jumped back down from the tree to where the girls were. Noticing that Ulaan had collected another material, he blurted out "Wow, looks like you're almost done then. Great!" He let out a small laugh as he opened his inventory and placed the material in his inventory. "Should we try to look somewhere else or would you guys prefer to stay here?" There were other places on the first floor that could potentially have more abundant amounts of resources, however there was also the threat of low level mobs. "There is the threat of mobs however, so if we want to stay here where its safe, that's totally fine."

@Kian

Quote

ID# 107115

• Battle: 10 
• Craft: 4
• Loot: 19
• Mob: 4

Materials collected: 2/5

"Hm, interesting." The girl called Kian didn't really give him much of a response to go off of. The other sister, going by her username of Ulaan, moved slightly closer to August, which made him a bit confused, maybe she had noticed something that he didn't. He let out an awkward cough and knelt down to the ground to look for more materials, "Well that's...a terrifying way of looking at it?" August thought perhaps she was exaggerating for dramatic effect, but if there was someone that was chasing them then at least for the moment they would be safe. The lingering threat of death if someone removed the Nervegear would keep them in the game for at least as long as all of them were trapped in there. As he sifted through the dirt, August hoped that he would at least find some material that would progress him further in this quest, however, despite his best efforts there was nothing but more dirt, he was destined to be stuck on this quest forever. "Well, nothing to be found here..." August let out a sigh, luck was not on his side today, while the girls seemed to be steamrolling through their quest. It seemed that the girls didn't seem to be opening up at all to him so he resigned to the fact that maybe he should wait for them to ask him some questions.

@Kian

Quote

ID# 107005

• Battle: 3
• Craft: 3
• Loot: 1
• Mob: 6

From the back of the store, the man stopped what he was crafting and came rushing to the store section of his blacksmith store. "Hello there! Welcome to my store, what can I do for you?" The man gave August a warm greeting, and August replied in kind, "Uh, is there a quest I can get from here?" The mans face lit up, "Yes! Of course, so you want to become a blacksmith eh? Well, you've come to the right place! Before I can teach you however, I'm running a bit low on spare materials. So! Before I can teach you, please go out and collect 5 materials for me! Then return and I will help you through your first craft!" As soon as the man finished his explanation, a small window appeared in front of August, it was a quest accept or deny window. The mans explanation was fairly straight forward, so August thought he could complete it in an afternoon or so. Therefor, as August accepted the quest he heard the familiar ding! that signified a quest had begun. As soon as he accepted the quest, the man begun his next set of dialog "Brilliant! Return to me when you've collected the materials, good luck." With that, Cerdic retreated into the back of his store and it was time for August to set out on his way.

Leaving the store, August once again traced through the maze like streets of the Town of Beginnings , eventually finding his way to the large archway that was the main entry and exit to the town. From now, the plan would be to head to the forest region not far from where he was, and start digging through the dirt to try and find anything that he could that might be helpful for him

As per usual, August enjoyed his time roaming around the Town of Beginnings, checking out the stores that he hadn't visited. Exploring such a vibrant community, despite it just being fake and virtual, was calming, as it made him feel less alone, and it broadened the world and made his surroundings feel less suffocating. He also regularly left to explore the forests and plains around the walls of the town, trying to avoid battles as much as possible to keep himself safe. However, this was getting quite boring as the numbers of shops that he hadn't visited were getting narrower and narrower as the days went on. He decided that he needed something to do to fill the time that he wasn't going out leveling up, and luckily for him, he might have heard of a quest that could fulfill that. Through word of mouth, he had heard of a collection of one time only quests that would award the player with the ability to both have and level up a completely separate set of skills, known as professions. However, the player could only complete one of these quests. 

Exploring through the city, August finally came upon the shop that would begin his journey on this quest. <<Cerdic's Smithy>>

He knocked on the front door to begin the quest, however the door was already open so all that happened was the door slowly opened with a creak from the old hinges. From the back of the store he could hear the sound of metal banging heavily on metal, for what he assumed was the man named Cerdic. "He...Hello?" August called out into the back of the shop to see if it would trigger the quest. Luckily, that's exactly what happened.

August had never met someone from that far away before, but maybe he had, he had just never asked where they were from. "Oh nice, I guess that means that you guys aren't speaking in English then? Interesting. I'm from the US." August didn't have much interest in visiting Mongolia, but to be honest, travelling anywhere would have been an experience. "Whats it like? I've never been, actually in saying that I've never been outside of the states." While talking to the girls he decided to look through a neighbouring tree, and in between its leaves was a small glowing round ball that he could only assume was what he was looking for. August picked it up and a little ding sounded as a popup appeared in his HUD, <<Materials Collected 1/5>>. "Huh, we might be out here a while if we need 5 of these things." He turned back around to the girls "So how did you guys end up playing SAO? I mean, me and one of my friends were obsessed with it before its release and we were overjoyed when we got a chance to play it." August quickly remembered the countless hours the pair had spent going over every single bit of information they could find about the game.

@Kian

Quote

ID: 106898

• Battle: 3
• Craft: 4
• Loot: 16
• Mob: 5

FINALLY :|

Materials collected 1/5

August saw the other two manage to find something and felt slightly dejected, it seemed as though he wasn't any closer to completing the mission, and perhaps this was going to take all day. The girl responded with some remark, and August responded in kind, "Well lucky we're out here, it would be a good opportunity to get to know each other, where are you guys from?" Yet again it had completely flown over his head that the pair were teasing him. He decided to change his strategy, perhaps the girls were right and the trees were where the resources were. However, much to his disappointment, the tree that he had decided to search was completely empty, the only thing that could be found was sticks and leaves, not anything that could be useful for their quest. "Hm, this might take a bit longer than expected, sorry, guess I'm not lucky today." He held a small smile and let out a soft sigh before sitting down on the ground and staring up at the canopy of trees, the small amounts of light that were shining through warmed up his body slightly, adding to the nice temperature of the day. The sun was shining and the humidity was nice, in all honesty August couldn't help but think that perhaps there were times in here that were better than on the outside. These thoughts however, were quickly replaced by the memories of his friend and a wave of depression crashed over him. As per usual he took a deep breath and calmness returned to him, he had practiced getting rid of these thoughts while spending time in the city.

Quote

ID# 106697

• Battle: 4
• Craft: 2
• Loot: 10
• Mob: 9

@Kian

The party headed towards the large entrance to the <<Town of Beginnings>>, which was not a very long journey considering that the shop was located in a part of the city that was in close proximity to the entrance. When they reached there August opened his quest log to see where he could obtain these materials from. It seemed that there was just a general item that the system dubbed <<Material>>, which could be obtained from a variety of sources including mob drops and gathering. The quest specifically requested that the materials be retrieved from gathering however, which would be a nice relaxing way to spend an afternoon. From his map, August saw a forest not too far from the entrance of the starting town, which might be inhabited by some low level enemies. He pointed the two girls towards the forest and explained what they would be doing. The three would stick together in a loose group and see what materials they could find just from the forest floor.

After about half an hour of walking, the group were deep into the forest, and they could finally stop and start looking. August bent down to the ground and started sifting around the base of a nearby tree, unfortunately however, there was nothing there except dirt, much to August's dismay. "So, I never actually asked, do you guys prefer to be called your in game names or something else?" Previously he had been just calling them their screen names, which now that he thought about it might have been a bit rude.

Quote

ID# 106630

• Battle: 2
• Craft: 8
• Loot: 7
• Mob: 6

@Kian

August stood there for a second contemplating his answer, all the while his facial expression didn't change. In all honesty they probably thought he was some kind of halfwit from the amount of time he was taking to respond to a yes or no question. In the end, the conclusion he drew was a simple "Sure", as he opened his menu and send the two a party request. Their attempt at trying to charm him flew straight over August's head as he stood there blissfully unaware of what was really going on. All the while the old man continued his speech in the background, "Thank you kindly! Return to me when..", however August turned to him and bluntly interrupted, "We know, thanks". He wasn't trying to be rude, but it was an NPC and he had already heard it before. The man simply smiled and retreated to the back of the shop, behind the stacks of papers and empty glass containers that were collecting dust on the many bookshelves and tables that were scattered around the room. "Well, shall we go?" August gestured towards the door before swiftly making his way towards the exit, out into the fresh air of the starting town.

The two girls that had entered the shop were cute but that didn't particularly have much effect on August at the present moment. Mostly due to the fact that most of that stuff just went in one ear and out the other. He was a bit inexperienced in that right so it was difficult for him to understand when someone was trying to flirt with him, even as a joke. The small in game clock on his HUD said that it was just before mid day, so the group had the rest of the day to see if they could gather these materials.

@Kian

For sure man! Just hit me up whenever you want :)

Thanks Neo! Will be sure to follow up on that haha

Just as August was typing the names of the players he was messaging, the door behind him opened and two players stepped in, ironically it wasn't the two players he was thinking of. It appeared to be two sisters, based off the fact that they shared similar appearances as well as their clothes, despite being different colours, were essentially the same. They were shorter than August although he couldn't quite tell if they were his age, older, or younger than him. He wasn't about to ask however, as he might offend one or both of them. Similarly to when he entered, the man appeared out of the back and shuffled over, opening the door as if they weren't there. August just assumed this was some pre-scripted event that started the quest.

"Hello there young ladies! Would you like to come in?". The two were already in the shop so he skipped ahead a few steps. August just stared as the script was being played out and the two screens appeared in front of the pair, asking if they'd accept the quest. Since he was just about to leave to do the same quest, August mustered up the courage to ask the pair, "If you guys are going to take the quest, want to do it with me? You know, since it would probably be faster or whatever." To him this seemed the most logical way to say it without making it sound too weird. 

All the while the old man was just frozen in place as he waited for the two to either accept or deny the quest. It was a little creepy as there didn't seem to be any natural movement, like breathing or even the slight shifting of his feet as he stood there. 

@Kian

August strolled through the town of beginnings just as he had done a thousand times before. He had a general knowledge of how to get around and he had visited a lot of the NPC stores that littered the various side streets, not that he had enough money for copious amounts of shopping but he liked to try at least one thing from stalls who sold foods that piqued his interest. It was nice outside, then again, it was rarely anything other than sunny on the first floor. August assumed it had something to do with the way the game was designed, although it could just be a coincidence. The warm air and sunshine made him feel relaxed, and he regularly spent time lying on grassy patches just outside the Town of Beginnings. The other day he had discovered a store on the verges of the town that he hadn't been in before. There was a rickety wooden sign hanging from a rafter above the door that read "Zakariah's", beyond that August could not discern what the store actually sold, but there was a pleasant aroma that hung around the store, almost like the owner had been brewing the most delicious smelling perfumes. 

He decided to investigate the store, however as he approached it seemed closed. The shadows from the surrounding buildings dwarfed the small store, however it was cute, almost like a little toy. August walked up to the door and loudly knocked three times, and just as he finished the third knock he heard the sound of feet shuffling near the door, as if someone was waiting for an arrival. An elderly man opened the door and smiled at August, who responded in kind with a confused look. 

"Hello there young man! Would you like to come in?"

August just stood there in slight disbelief at the welcoming nature of the man, "Uh sure" he responded as he stepped inside. The familiar sweet scent filled his nose and he was drawn further into the store, the old man closed the door and shuffled behind him. "How lucky of you to come! I need help from a strong young man like yourself. Do you think you could help me?" the man asked, turning around to face August with his hands clasped together. August responded with silence and a nod. The man turned back around and walked further into the store, "Well I need someone to gather some materials for me, it shouldn't be too hard they drop on this floor! Not to far from this town" he declared.

A small quest log opened up "Do you accept? [Y/N]"

August pressed the yes as the mans face lit up and he addressed August one last time, "Thank you kindly young man, return to me once you've collected enough materials." Without anymore the man disappeared back into the store. This was going to be boring, but maybe August could do something to make it more interesting and get it over faster. He opened up his menu and opened his message bank. There was a pair of players that he had run into the other day that seemed interesting, they hadn't talked much but he thought maybe they'd be interested in doing this quest with him.

Hi everyone! I've been a big fan of SAO for quite a while as well as forum RPs so wanted to come along and see what this one was all about. I've always enjoyed writing and I hope to RP with some of you guys soon!