Mutsu

As she stood in the town of Krycim, out of the path of people stepping down from the teleportation portal in the Portal Plaza, Mutsu swiped a finger in midair and pulled up her player menu. Now that she was on the right floor, it should be a relatively simple matter to go ahead and activate the quest. Or, at least, she assumed that the reason why she had not been able to choose the quest earlier and set it to active was because she had not been on the right floor. Sure enough, when she tapped the "Set Active Quest" button this time it worked like a charm. But, there was no waypoint set on the map for her to go to. Just a general area around the entire town. "At least this place isn't too big," Mutsu muttered to herself, picking a direction at random and setting off at a jingle inducing pace through the town. It was only a matter of time before she ran across the start of the quest at this point.

OOC: Locked Stats in Spoiler

Mutsu popped out of the teleporter in the middle of the town of Krycim. Almost immediately, she felt as if she were sweating. Even though that was, technically speaking, impossible. Or, at least, she was relatively certain that the programmers had not done such a good job of programming that the avatars could sweat. "I guess I'll find out in a few minutes," she muttered to herself. The brunette had been flicking through her quest menu and options when one had caught her eye. Even though it was on the sixth floor. It was a quest that included some nice rewards in terms of experience points and, even better, it included a free bonus skill of the player's choice if and when they successfully completed it. According to the Information Brokers, the quest involved accepting a challenge and fighting a non-player character as a sort of Tutorial on how the player versus player combat system worked. At least that would be guaranteed to be more fun than the other tutorial quests had been. This one would definitely have combat and, clearly, if the information was good, a reward that would probably be worth more than the rewards for the other tutorial quests combined.

ID: 107658
LD: 2 (Nada)

"Only two more to..." Mutsu trailed off as @Hazado leaned in and then flicked her right in the forehead, blatantly invading her personal space. "Hey, what was that for," she demanded, glaring up at Hazado. If the flick was some kind of short joke thing, well... there were going to be problems. To put it mildly. Mutsu blinked at him as he was going on about players that killed other players. Well, of course, that was a thing in a lot of online role playing games. There was always a subset of players that enjoyed killing other players and taking their stuff. Some games even actively encouraged that particular style of play. But, surely now that they were all trapped in here and in the same boat no one would dream of deliberately killing another player. Surely.

"PKer? No one would do that now that death is a permanent thing in the real world if you die in here," Mutsu said, glaring up at Hazardo. "That would be murder. Gamers aren't murderers. Well, I mean, as a general rule and not, you know, deliberately."

ID: 107654, 655, 656, 657
BD: 6 (Hit) [2+3 ACC Clothing+1 ACC Food]
MD: 5 (Miss), 8 (Hit), 5 (Miss),  6 (Hit)

Nepents B, C, D: 7/7
Nepent A: Dead (2x5 DMG [1 Base, 3 Skill, 1 Snack])

Mutsu: 20/20 (0/2 EN) (Hate: 0) [-2 DMG]
Black: 260/260 (Hate: 0)

"Did she smack you? I woulda smacked you," Mutsu suited action to her words by hauling off and walloping @Black on the back of his head with the open palm of her right hand. Since she had no ability with martial arts, yet, the attack did absolutely nothing to him and had no impact on the color of her cursor as the system did not read it as a legitimate attack. "See? Just like that. Makes a really satisfying sound, don't you think," she asked sweetly as she snatched the offered item from his hand.

"This will never fit," she declared, holding the cloth band up to her chest. "I know elastic is a miracle thing, but I'm pretty sure I've got too much here." She bounced around in her armor which set the world to jingling once again. "Plus it's got no support and I'd be hanging out all over the... oh, it's not supposed to be for that. I thought you were being preverted again." Mutsu took the band of cloth and wound it around her right bicep, knotting it off nice and tight.

"Kayaba? This whole game likes to troll me," she groused, eying the offered armor. It didn't look like it would have left much to the imagination. "My armor already has two ranks of mitigation built into it. The logical build is two-handed assault spear and heavy armor. That allows for the best balance between dealing damage and being protected from it," Mutsu continued, speaking as if she were explaining something very simple.

"Digital AIDS..." Mutsu mused for a second, then she began bouncing around the clearing and jingling as she sang, "Everyone has AIDS! My grandma and my dog, ol' Blue! AIDS, AIDS, AIDS! The Pope has got it and so do you! AIDS, AIDS, AIDS, AIDS, AIDS! Come on everybody we got quiltin' to do! Help us break down these barricades! Everyone has AIDS, AIDS, AIDS, AIDS, AIDS, AIDS, AIDS, AIDS, AIDS, AIDS, AIDS, AIDS, AIDS, AIDS, AIDS, AIDS, AIDS, AIDS, AIDS!"

Apparently, her shenanigans drew the attention of another wave of Nepents which came storming out to fight them. And they all made a beeline straight for Black.

"RUDE! THIS GAME IS SEXIST!" Snatching up her weapon from the ground, Mutsu launched an assault on one of the little creatures and neatly cut it in half before watching it shatter into pixels. "Victory!" She flashed the V symbol with her right hand and winked a chocolate colored eye at Black. "And if I was a that thing you called me... whatever it is because I don't know... you'd probably like it, because I think you called me something preverted... Pervert."

There was one drawback though to being the first one to kill a Nepent. The other three whirled on her and attacked. "Hey! No!" In came a vine and bounced off her armor, setting Mutsu to jingling. "What? Another one?!? What? No!" Then another one of the leafy jerks landed a solid smack to her armor that continued the merry chorus of bells.

ID: 107644, 107645
CD: 4, 6
LD: 1, 20

Fail, Salvage

+3 Xp, 7 XP Total

"Well, the outside's done. I wonder what the inside of this shop looks like," Mutsu muttered to herself, jingling with every step as she wandered around the outside of the shop, still considering her handiwork on the sign. As far as she was concerned it was a one of a kind work of art. Putting her right hand on the silver door handle that was inlaid into a door made of luxurious ebony wood, Mutsu pushed open the door and walked inside to find.

Nothing.

There was nothing inside the shop. Only a shop counter and empty shelves.

Nothing for recording. Nothing for turning items into recording crystals. Nothing for anything. There was nothing.

What kind of a deal was this?

"I am looking for a group," Mutsu called down from her elevated perch, her chocolate eyes sweeping over the apparently only just barely clad woman. Well, that armor left nothing to the imagination. Probably some fanboy's wet dream. Or something. She made a mental note to not choose to specialize in light armor. Not that she had planned on it in the first place. "You have the armor," Mutsu called down, doing her best impression of Dark Helmet from Spaceballs. "And I see your schwartz's are as big as mine. Seriously, if we flounce around enough I bet we can get an army of fanboys to carry us through this whole thing... we get all the rewards and the cannon fodder does all the work. Speak of the devil..."

Her eyes fixed on Black as the Marine came wandering over. "There's a difference between climbing for work and shimmying for entertainment," Mutsu declared, hopping up and down from where she perched and jingling, in her heavy armor, on the haft of the vanity weapon. "The Assyrians used to put a soldier in a tower on top of their battering rams when they laid siege to a city," she said, nodding sagely as she dropped the knowledge bomb from on high. "But, I promise you, that none of the ancient people's that faced them thought that was sexy."

"I'm a level this many!" Mutsu held up three fingers. Then, on the same hand, she held up just the one finger that was important for sending sign language messages to people. "Get it right! And if you want a dance," Mutsu flicked her finger in the air and pulled up her item menu. A second later, in a shimmer of cerulean sparks, an item came raining down from on high, pelting Black in the head. "There's a 20 HP healing dance, but you have to do something called the 'Icky Shuffle' to activate it!" She watched as Black struck up a conversation with Vally, but she couldn't tell what he was saying from her elevated perch. "You better not be scaring her away, you pre-vert!"

Before she could continue to hurl invective at Black concerning his manners, or lack thereof, she distinctly heard the word sushi. "You have any more of that? Da! Eecheeban Soo-shee!" Mutsu was carrying on enough that she didn't notice the next person to approach until a voice called up to her. A very familiar voice from her high school days.

"ARIS SENPAI!" Mutsu sprang from her perch like a trained assassin, fell through the air with her arms spread wide, and proceeded to try to flatten Hydravion with the glomp to end all glomps. The super glomp, if you will. Naturally, she was jingling all the way down because of the number of bells she had affixed to her armor. "I didn't know you were stuck in here too," Mutsu squealed. "You still do that pacifist cleric thing in RPG's?"

@Black @Hydravion @Vally

Mutsu was just wrapping up with devouring the sushi roll, locking her lips in the process, when @Black finished digging around in his stores and passed the wasabi to her. "A little bit late now," she remarked, taking the second of the offered snacks and digging in with gusto. Obviously, she had no problems with seafood. Like at all.

Turning her attention back towards Black, she caught the blonde man staring in a manner that was clearly unashamed. "I already said I wasn't sharing my goodies... god-tongue or not. Every man thinks they're king of the world in bed, I've yet to meet one that actually was." Nor had she yet met any man, in that manner anyway. Not that such information was going to be widely broadcast. Mutsu was a happy flirt and tease, but the fun stopped there. 

If the boys thought they might get something they were easy to lead on. Once they got it, so her thinking went, they would move on. Nope, best to string them along a little. As long as she made it clear where the line was drawn, and equally that the lads would require a surgery to retrieve the boys if they crossed that line, then it was all in good fun so far as she was concerned.

Then came the comment about knocking and begging. Mutsu scowled at Black then smirked. 

"Why would I need to beg when you're going to bring me free meals whenever I want them," she asked, bouncing and jingling around Black as she finished devouring the fish. "And stop being preverted, you prevert. Maybe I like girls. I don't, but maybe I do... YOU DON'T KNOW! Ok, I don't, or do I?" She put the tip of her pointer finger in her mouth and gave Black an evil look. "Is it time to kill more stuff yet?"

OOC: @Hydravion, @Shield, @Black, @Vally. Once we catch up to where Zandra is, we will probably add her in too. Posting order is not set, until we enter combat. Unless you want to set it.

Mutsu paced back and forth in one of the larger plazas in the Town of Beginnings, occasionally elbowing 'the talls' out of her way when they moved into the path of her stalking rampage. "Stupid tutorial quests," she muttered to herself. "Nothing but boring fetch quests, and some of them won't even let you farm bonus XP by killing things." Reaching the end of one of the back and forth pacing paths she stopped and hopped up and down which set the bells on her armor to jingling merrily. Growling at no one in particular she stopped and swiped her finger in the air to pull up her player menu.

"Enough of this, time to do something fun," she declared, again continuing to talk to herself. She scrolled through the lists and lists of quests that had been found or discovered, through one means or another, so far. The list was, impressively extensive to say the least. Which made sense as more than a quarter of the floors had been cleared. Of course, that was after two years. So, at this rate, it would only take around a decade for the players to clear the entire game. All the more reason to speed up the process and get higher numbers of players to the Front Line to move things along faster. Probably the Front Liners were too busy doing things the Air Force way and not busy enough doing things the Navy way.

Speedily, Mutsu's eyes scanned through the list of quests until a suitably massive multi-floor and multi-part quest caught her eye. "That will do nicely," she muttered to herself. Something called 'Dragon Hunter Anthology' had to be good. Mutsu didn't really bother to read through what there was that was known about the quest. It checked off all the boxes in her mind for what was needed. So, therefore, it had to be appropriate to choose for a Level 3 player.

Obviously.

Marching back into the middle of the plaza, Mutsu materialized her vanity sarissa, even though she now had a better weapon, and jabbed it point first into the ground before shimmying up the weapon to stand perched on the haft. Used in this way at least the vanity weapon had the benefit of being a suitable improvised platform. "Attention everyone," she declared, shouting at the top of her voice so that it carried to all corners and crannies of the spacious plaza. "I'm looking for anyone that's interested in doing something called the Dragon Hunter Anthology so we can farm some XP and loot! Don't be shy! Come sign up and let's get a move on!"

OOC: What are the bonuses on those snacks?

ID: 107606 (Ignore, forgot we were taking a two round rest period).

+10 HP (full), +1 EN

"Love taps? I have full on love... waterfalls? Rivers? It sounded cleverer in my head," Mutsu grumbled, dropping her weapon and putting both her hands on her chest as if she were going to do something lewd. Except she was wearing a steel plate breastplate that completely covered everything. She'd clearly forgotten that part. "Correction! I have love gongs," she declared, rapping out a smart little riff on the breastplate with her knuckles as @Black killed both the boss nepent and the remaining nepent ankle biter without putting in much work, really at all.

"Of course I'm ahead of the Air Force," she pouted. "But, they do serve a purpose. Someone has to keep the Officer's Golf Course looking nice for the Colonel."

"Bottomless pit of goodies," Mutsu asked, blinking her big brown eyes at Black as he produced two snacks. She eyed them greedily. "I have a blouse full of goodies, but I'm not trading," she declared, accepting the snacks and beginning to pop the sushi rolls into her mouth like candy. "Da! Da! Eecheeban Sooshee! Eez goo-d! Me like," she declared, slipping back into the bad Russian accent as she ate the sushi because... reasons. "Needs some wasabi though. Wasabi horseradish. Not actual wasabi root, there is a difference," she continued, nodding sagely at this bit of culinary wisdom.

ID: 107603
LD: 18 (3/5 Found)

"Rrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaaammmmmmmpppppppaaaagggggggeeeeeee," Mutsu declared, ignoring what had just been said by @Hazado as she gave her best impression of Archer from what was, by now, a classic adult cartoon. Knowing there were no monsters that could spawn and kill her since she was acting like an idiot did help. With that, she went jingling away out into the field with the bobbing tip of her sarissa being the only indicator of where she was within the wide field and its grasses that were slightly taller than she was. Of course, since there was no breeze in this part of the digital world, the grasses swayed as she moved around, giving the appearance of a velociraptor moving through the field, at least when viewed from above. Finding another bush, she delivered a savage kick and a crafting material popped up on the ground in front of her. "Found another one!"

Mutsu stood back and admired her handiwork on the sign of her new shop. NO REFUNDS!!! That stated the shop's policy in that regard in rather eloquent and simple terms. The crude drawing, since she had never been good at art, next to the sign of a stick figure dancing and playing the cowbell made it apparent to everyone that this was a performer's shop. And, since the shop was on the very, very, very edge of the wall for the Town of Inti, practically hanging out over empty sky when you really thought about it, Mutsu knew that everyone would know that she had class and appreciated the finer things in life. Like an incredible view out over the twentieth floor from a shop that was just barely staying within the safe zone of the town but from which she could still send wares to orange players through a basket, rope, and pulley system.

ID: 107585/86
CD: 9/8
LD: 12/13
BOTH ATTEMPTS ARE SALVAGED!

XP: +4 XP total

ID: 107581
BD: 6 (Hit)

Nepents G: 1/7
Nepent A, B, C, D, E, and F: 0/7 (DEAD)

Mutsu: 19/20 (0/2 EN) (Hate: 0)
Black: 253/260 (Hate: 3) - F & G - (Hate: 1 - Mutsu :) )

Mutsu's chocolate eyes rolled upwards where she spied her now orange cursor. Then she spazzed out. "What? What do you mean orange? I didn't kill anyone! Oh! Orange is not a good color for me!" Abruptly, she stopped her tirade and looked pensive. "I guess orange compliments my eyes ok, brown and orange work together. But, it doesn't match the rest of my ensemble, not even at all."

Not paying attention, even slightly to what she was doing, since the nepents were no threat at all, Mutsu swung her weapon back fully intending to bounce the sarissa off of @Black's noggin again. On the backswing, though, the business end of the colossal spear caught one of the remaining nepents. The spearwoman wasn't aware of that fact until the sound of the nepent shattering into cerulean pixels reached her ears. Whirling around she stared at the spot just in time to see the last of the pixels dissolve. "I did it!" She flashed the V for victory sign with her right hand.

"I learned in school," she continued, swiftly changing the subject, "that you shouldn't bring anything to eat unless you brought enough for everyone. Of course," she scowled. "Then I did bring enough mango gummies for everyone to have some, and I still wasn't allowed to have them." She was still pouting and scowling over this long ago childhood slight when the sound of a roar from the grove of trees that Black had indicated caused the woman to squeak and dive behind the tank that was a more tanky tank than she was.

"At least we get to farm XP a little bit if we don't find it the first time," she declared, dropping her weapon and placing both hands in the middle of the much beefier player's bag. "Well, get going! Go fight it! You know what they say, 'Marines lead the way, charge in and save the day!'" Mutsu had no idea if they said that or not, but it rhymed and it sounded good. "The Navy's done it's job, now get in there and kill that thing post-haste! Who's a good Tanky McTankface? You are!"

ID: 107550
LD: 4 (Fail)

"Easier than normal," Mutsu repeated, intending to only mouth the words but, instead, it came out more like a growl. "So, the devs think all the players are total mouth breathers that can't get through a basic tutorial quest without having their hands held," she asked, bouncing angrily which set the bells affixed to her armor to jingling and, in many ways, rather ruined the effect of the anger. "This is what's wrong with the world," she declared, whirling in the direction of the digital sun, with more jingling, and flashing the glowing orb a one fingered salute. "Tutorials shouldn't be any harder than the main game and they shouldn't be any easier than the main game. That defeats the purpose. Also, what's with all the additional rules on these things? Don't kill the thing. No monsters will spawn. Pick daisies in the sunshine like a pansy... yes, pun intended."

@Hazado

ID: 107530
LD: 19 (I can't hit anything in combat... but dem LD rolls...)

"Silly rabbit, napalm sticks to steel. It also sticks to children," Mutsu said with a soft giggle that was equal parts adorable and disconcerting, given the topic of conversation as she accepted @Hazado's offered hand and was pulled back to her feet. "We just have to figure out how to make some..." Abruptly her face fell as something important occurred to her concerning this brilliant plan and scheme.

"Nevermind," she said, sounding angry. "That giant colostomy bag will have made those gates immortal objects so they won't burn." Growling, she hauled off and kicked the nearest bush. That action was accompanied by a quick howl of pain as the bush dissolved in a shower of blue sparks and left, in its wake, a hunk of grey ore that floated down to the ground. Mutsu stooped, tapped the ore, and added it to her inventory to the accompanying chime of the quest. "Any idiot can do this quest, can't they?"

ID: 107524
BD: 2 (Miss)

Nepents F & G: 1/7
Nepent A, B, C, D, and E: 0/7 (DEAD)

Mutsu: 19/20 (0/2 EN) (Hate: 0)
Black: 253/260 (Hate: 3) - F & G - (Hate: 1 - Mutsu :) )

"Are you sitting down on the job," Mutsu demanded as @Black changed his armor and then sat down on the ground. Instead of attacking the Nepents, they were no threat whatsoever, after all, she whirled the sarissa that was easily three times longer than she was tall above her head with the maximum amount of flourish. Then she brought the haft of the weapon crashing down on Black's head with a resounding digital crack. She may not have been able to hit the nepents with the useless weapon, at least not very much, but apparently smacking a stationary target did not present much of a challenge at all.

"Now you get up , right now, and finish killing these weeds. Make them Weed-B-Gone," she demanded, twirling the spear threateningly and acting is if she might bring it crashing into Black's skull once again. "You can have your snacks when the job's done. You're the muscle and I'm the super attractive brains, who also has bells." That last bit was the part that was of critical importance.

"I dropped off a spear with a merchant to be identified," Mutsu said, continuing the conversation about weapons. "With luck it will come back with Fallen Damage or Holy Damage or PURE CLEANSING FIRE OF THE SUN, as an enhancement," she declared, looking a bit too much like a pyromaniac as she said that last enhancement, an enhancement that did not exist in the game anyway. "The obvious build is heavy armor and two handed spear. Maximum protection, maximum damage, maximum effectiveness."

"I do like bacon," she said, looking a bit wistful. "What kind of a monster doesn't like bacon? Or tea? And, of course, only the worst of criminals like coffee. Or drink their cider cold. Unless it's alcoholic cider, then it has to be cold. Unless you've mulled it first, then it should be warm. But carefully, so that you don't get rid of the carbonation in the drink. All the best ciders come from the U.S. or U.K. But, our budget beers like Sapporo and Kirin are miles better than that crap that Americans brew.

"And I'm the best at dancing. And bells. And music."

ID: 107488
LD: 18 (SUCCESS!)

Mats: 1/5

"Well, have they tried burning the door to the ground with fire? Lovely, pure, cleansing fire," Mutsu asked, stopping just outside the main gate of the Town of Beginnings to turn back in a merry tinkling of bells to blink he large chocolate eyes at @Hazado. It seemed to her that burning the door to the ground was the logical solution. "I bet there's some kind of tar substance, or oil, in this game. These games always have oil. I bet a game as creative as SAO would let us make napalm out of that. Or Greek fire. OR SOMETHING THAT WILL BURN QUITE NICELY!" Mutsu triumphantly thrust her right fist into the air and then began walking backwards and doing a little dance. The solution was easy. Burn everything. Suddenly, her heel caught on something and the woman flopped to the ground on her rump with an undignified squawk and a clattering clank of jingle bells.

"What the hell," she demanded, flopping forward suddenly onto her armored stomach and digging one hand into the ground to haul out the offending big of stone that had tripped her. The next thing she knew, the stone had dissolved in a shower of sparks and there was a soft chiming noise. A marker appeared on the screen that said, '1 of 5 Crafting Materials Found.' Since only Mutsu could see the message, it must have looked as if she were staring blankly into space for a moment.

"Oh God, this really is easy," she muttered more to herself than to Hazado. A toddler could do this quest. If only there was one she could foist it off on while still getting all the rewards. "What is a boar pup," she demanded, still laying on the ground but rolling over onto her back. "I thought baby boars were called 'piglets' or, you know, 'bacon bits.'"

ID: 107486
BD: 4 (Miss)

Nepents F & G: 1/7
Nepent A, B, C, D, and E: 0/7 (DEAD)

Mutsu: 19/20 (0/2 EN) (Hate: 0)
Black: 255/260 (Hate: 3) - F & G

"It's this stupid beginner weapon," Mutsu growled, bending over and retrieving her weapon and not caring one bit about the affect that it might give to her body in the leather pants she was wearing. The pants she was only wearing until she could obtain for herself a proper set of armor. "It has no accuracy. It has no damage. All it has is an adorable little bell, see?" Mutsu pirouetted gracefully and extended the business end of the sarissa until it was practically under @Black's nose, then she gave the weapon a little shake and it jingled. "And I had to put that on there. It's not the bell's fault the weapon sucks."

The mention of 'actually Satan' triggered something in Mutsu's memory from a parody she'd seen of Fate/Stay Night. "Oh yes Black, as with everything else about me, you've correctly deduced that I AM ACTUALLY SATAN! And I'm not a Sabre-class servant, I'm clearly a Lancer-class," she continued, striking a pose an ignoring the fact that what she had just said could be taken as a crude double entendre, at least for a few seconds until it caught up with her what she had just uttered. Then she glared at Black as if it was all his fault that she'd just said something unintentionally crude.

"Are you being pre-verted," Mutsu demanded, giving the taller man a very cross look. "That's where you say or do something perverted before I realize you've done it," she continued, explaining the term. "So, are you thinking pre-verted things right now," she huffed, puffing out her cheeks and bouncing on her feet which set all the bells to jingling again.

OOC: I'll transfer the funds to you in just a minute, after I make the post.
 

The journey had been less than pleasant to get to this shop. The floor was too, something. It wasn't the heat that bothered Mutsu. It was the humidity. And the fact that she was smart enough to know that drawing aggro on anything on her way to the shop would be pretty stupid, so she had been forced to forego any farming on the journey. And she was sweating. Some sweat in places she didn't know she had. More sweat in places no woman should have to sweat. As in ever.

"Compound's big enough," she muttered to herself, eyeing the area that Shied had set up as his shop. "I wonder if he's compensating for something." Still grousing, she pushed open the door to the shop and walked in. "You the merchant doing the free upgrade of rare unidentified weapons and armor to perfect quality at no charge? No lies, will be pretty mad at... someone if you're not. I have some things I need a merchant to look at."

Name: Mutsu
Your Profession: Performer
Your Rank: 1
Roll ID: 107436
Roll Result: 10
Item Type: Support Song
Tier: 1
Quality: Uncommon
Enhancements: +20 HP Healed (1 Slot @ T1)
Description: The healing sound effect/song from The Legend of Zelda. Obviously.
Post Link:  EARNING A LIVING QUEST CRAFT

ID: 107440
BD: 1 (Miss)

Nepents G: 7/7
Nepent A, B, C, D, E, and F: 0/7 (DEAD)

Mutsu: 19/20 (0/2 EN) (Hate: 0)
Black: 255/260 (Hate: 2) - C

"Take that! Go, go Gadget Javelin!" Mutsu tried to fling her sarissa at the last Nepent. The ridiculously large weapon had all the aerodynamic properties of a semi, and flew about as far as one. It thudded into the ground and dug up a nice deep furrow of digital ground. The remaining nepent was, quite clearly both unimpressed and undeterred by the improvised attack. "Well, that didn't work. Another urban myth dispelled."

"Everything about me gets better with age," Mutsu declared, still showing that she had absolutely no self image issues as she jingled around the battlefield like a demented elf of Santa. Or maybe Satan. It was difficult to tell sometimes. "Until I get old, like the Cryptkeeper. Then things will start to sag." She scowled and made a sour face. "I need to win the Holy Grail War so I can wish to never get old. This is the right thing for that, right?"

"Everything builds off of Classical, except for original Japanese, which is it's own unique thing," Mutsu declared, spinning in a jingling circle and flashing the V for Victory sign with her right hand. "And there's always religious zealots in every game. You'd think they'd think it was a sin or something... but I bet you there's some player in here with a name like j3sus4ev3r or IHartS4t4n... which is the same thing, different religion, when you think about it." As she was speaking she made no effort to retrieve her weapon. What was the point anyway? If these monsters were the best that a "death game" could throw at them then the challenge level was apparently on the shallow end of a toddler pool.

@Black

ID: 107436
CD: 10 (Uncommon)
LD: 16 (Non-Masterpiece)

With all of the things gathered from the annoying fetch quest to obtain her profession, Mutsu all but flew back to the Town of Beginnings. In the figurative sense, not the literal one. Unfortunately, flight was not an option in Sword Art Online when it came to getting around the various maps. That left only one option. The brunette hit the gates to the Town of Beginnings at a dead sprint, not bothering to slow down. In the real world, she wouldn't have been able to sprint nearly as long or as far, but stamina worked differently in Sword Art Online. Which meant she could finish this stupid fetch quest that much faster. In a matter of minutes she had burst through the door, hurried through the instructions from Alyssa Singular, and crafted her first item.

A musical chime told Mutsu that she had completed the quest. Pocketing her newly crafted item, she exited the shop and set off to see what quests she could do next. With a little luck, and speed, she could get all the tutorials done in a day and never have to think of this dark time in her existence as a player ever again.

END OF THREAD REWARDS:

1 Uncommon Song (yet to be submitted)
9 T1 Mats
460 Col
2 Rare Consumables [UID]
1 Rare Weapon [UID]
+2 SP
+Performer Profession
+Performer Shop

ID: 107435
LD: 18 (SUCCESS)

Total Thread Loot: 5 T1 Mats, 60 Col, 2 Rare Consumables [UID], 1 Rare Weapon [UID]

As she slid down the sarissa and back down to the ground Mutsu's boots sank into the soft earth and a decidedly heavy sounding thud. Immediately thereafter she felt a sharp jab of pain in the big toe on her left foot. Swearing like a sailor, because no one was around the see the shameful and shameless display, she hopped around and shook her foot this way and that. She had obviously stubbed her toe on something.

"HOW?!?" She whined and continued hopping up and down, finally turning her attention back on the spot where she had stubbed her toe and noticing that something decidedly golden was poking up out of the ground. Abruptly dropping the charade, the pain had faded by this point anyway, she knelt on the ground and began to dig with her hands until she unearthed a small golden nugget. Tapping it, she discovered it was a crafting material.

"You've got to be kidding," she muttered to herself, hefting the golden bounty for a second and eyeing it before adding it to her inventory. As she did there was a soft audible tone that told her she had collected the requisite number of things to complete the fetch quest. "Finally."

ID: 107434
BD: 10 (Hit) [Nepent E takes 6 DMG]
MD: 4 (Hit)

Nepents F & G: 7/7
Nepent A, B, D, & E: 0/7 (DEAD)
Nepent C: 3/7

Mutsu: 19/20 (0/2 EN) (Hate: 0)
Black: 257/260 (Hate: 2) - C

"Fetishes," Mutsu demanded, hopping forward and scowling. She slammed the business end of the sarissa into the head of the offending Nepent and the little plant creature exploded in a shower of cerulean sparks. "No, no, no," she declared, reflexively slamming her legs together. "The first vine that tries to hentai me and I am noping right the F out of here!"

"Are you implying that I'm so bad at this game that I'm going to die," Mutsu demanded, dropping her weapon as she faced @Black with hands on hips. "I'll have you know, Mister, that I have been playing these games since most of the player base in here was in diapers!"

"You ever hear Two Steps From Hell," Mutsu asked, abruptly changing the topic as she retrieved her weapon. "They're not bad. I guess Billy Joel's ok too, but he's basically classic rock. Just only with piano. Ooh, and Trans-Siberian Orchestra!"

ID: 107377
BD: 2 (Miss)
MD: 8 (Hit)

Nepents C, F, & G: 7/7
Nepent A, B, & D: 0/7 (DEAD)
Nepent E: 3/7

Mutsu: 19/20 (0/2 EN) (Hate: 1) - E
Black: 257/260 (Hate: 1) - C

"Ow! Hey what the hell!" Mutsu squawked and turned to face the offending Neptent as the little monster smacked the leather pants she was wearing with one of its vines. It wasn't as if the attack had hurt all that much, nor really caused much in the way of appreciable damage. But, it did a great deal to damage the narrative of her perfect butt. While she was carrying on another one of the nepents landed a hit on @Black and was promptly killed for its impudence. 

"Was that a crack about bells," Mutsu demanded, ignoring the fact that she had just made a pun. "My bells are lovely and jingly and everyone loves them so..." She made a crude one fingered gesture at Black as two more Nepents came scurrying out of the forest to enter into combat with them. "And who wouldn't want a piece of me? I'M DELIGHTFUL!"

"And the only one of those I know is DBZ," she said, addressing the question of which Anime's she had seen from the list. "Boring and no plot originality." She screwed up her face and did her best impression of Krillin. "Yer so strong Goku! Nobody's stronger than you! Oh look, this person is stronger! Better train! And now they're dead!" The smallish brunette blew a big raspberry.

"What about Vampire Knight? Blue Exorcist? The Devil is a Part-Timer?"

"Classical is the best music. Then instrumental. Then J-Pop," Mutsu said ticking things off on her fingers. "Everything else might count as music. Sometimes. But nothing else is good... ok, maybe classic rock like AC/DC. And I do intend to become a performer."

Out of Combat: +1 EN [FULL]

ID: 107375
LD: 8 (Nada)

Mutsu stood on the haft of her sarissa with the business end of the weapon planted firmly in the ground, looking like a somewhat curvaceous version of a sparrow. Except without feathers. Also, no beak. But, other than that the similarities were close enough. The brunette spun slowly on the spot, considering her surroundings and what the next course of action should be. There did not seem to be any likely looking places for gathering materials outside of combat anywhere close by to where she was. Naturally, she could not be completely certain of that fact since the grass did I pretty good job of obscuring things from her vision. Similarly, she also did not see any monsters nearby that could be easily slaughtered to render up whatever juicy, juicy loot they might have had. Growling and muttering, Mutsu made a delicate sort of backwards hop, wrapped her arms around the Sarissa as she dropped past, and slid back down to the ground as gracefully as a firefighter heading out to fight a fire.