Mutsu

Mutsu had wandered through the teleporter in the Town of Beginnings and made her way up to the fourth floor. Ordinarily, at her level, she would not have considered making such a trip since the monsters and mobs on the fourth floor would be pretty well above her ability to deal with. But, the tip she had heard was that there was a player blacksmith who kept his shop on the fourth floor and that the shop was usually found somewhere around the town that had the teleporter in it or, occasionally, just outside the walls of the town so that it would be available to orange players. When she popped out of the teleporter, Mutsu had not expected to be confronted with snow. She was not prepared for the snow, but at least she was in her armor and not a bikini or a tank top. The brunette when skidding down the stairs from the teleporter, jingling merrily, but managed to catch herself before she fell.

Once she got used to the snow, after a few seconds, the floor really wasn't all that bad. It also wasn't all that crowded, which had a good bit of appeal to her.

Tromping through the snow, Mutsu searched for about a half an hour before she found the shop that was housed in a tent. It didn't look like much, but she pushed her way in. When she entered the shop looked empty, but there was an item sitting out on the counter. It looked like a mahogany bracelet with a quartet of emeralds set into it. No bells, but the item still looked reasonably good to Mutsu. She tapped it and considered the stats for a moment. Three charges of +30 Mitigation temporary stat bonus. Mutsu whistled to herself. That would be pretty ok. Retrieving a scrap of paper from her inventory, she scribbled a note explaining that she had taken the item since it had been indicated to her that the shop owner liked to help other players and that, if there was an issue, the blacksmith could message her and she'd return to pay for it.

[+1 Nerius' Strength - +30 MIT for 1 Thread, 3 Uses, non-rechargeable.]

Out of Combat: +1 EN, +10 HP [HP Full]

ID: 107373
LD: 9 (Nada)

With the boar slain and the loot gathered and stored in her inventory, Mutsu set off once again through the tall grasses of the prairie with the tip of her sarissa serving as a visual marker of where she was for anyone that might have been trying to find her. She found a few likely looking bushes that seemed as if they might contain sweet, sweet crafting material goodness. But, when she kicked the leafy villains they refused to disgorge anything that might have been of use to her. Sighing, the tiny collegian puffed a blast of air from her lips to get her hair out of her face and began to consider her options. She could not see any creatures to slay and the non-combat gathering was not going all that well.

"I can't see anything from down here," she growled to herself. With a grunt she slammed the tip of her spear into the ground and then shimmied her way up the sarissa, which was easily taller than the grass. As she perched on the weapon's haft she held a hand to her brow to shield her eyes from the digital sun, and surveyed her surroundings.

ID: 107372
BD: 2 (Miss)
MD: 2 (Miss)

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

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

"Am I included in that threat," Mutsu asked innocently, taking a swipe at the Nepent in front of her and completely missing the leafy monster. "I think my butt's too adorable to chop up," she continued, shaking her butt @Black which set the bells on her armor and weapon to jingling. "My lady bits too, how does the line in that movie go?" Mutsu screwed up her face for a moment, completely ignoring the Nepent as it took a swipe at her an missed by a wide margin. "I think it goes, 'There's a shortage of perfect breasts in this world, so it would be a pity to damage mine," she concluded, taking one hand from her sarissa and placing it against her armored bosom. "And once I get over my self-image issues I'm really going to go places."

"Fate/Zero is the best, Stay Night's ok. Aporypha starts out good and then kinda tail off and I haven't seen Apocalypse or any of the others yet," Mutsu remarked. "But, I liked Aldnoah.Zero and Infinite Stratos better."

"Hip Hop," Mutsu asked, scrunching up her face and scowling as her eyes narrowed in Black's direction. "All that synthetic auto-tuned crap, that's not real music," the tiny woman declared, taking on the tone of a music snob. "No, if you want real music you need to listen to Michio Miyagi. Now there's a master of music. Or, at least some good J-Pop like AKB48. You know, real music. Not noise."

ID: 107370
BD: 6 (Hit)
MD: 8 (Hit)

ID: 107371
LD: 13
CD: 8 (30 Col, 1 Mat, 1 Rare Weapon [UID])

Mutsu: 14/20 (0/2) (3-18 = 1 DMG)
Boar: 0/10 (5x2-0 = 10)

Total Thread Loot: 4 T1 Mats, 60 Col, 2 Rare Consumables [UID], 1 Rare Weapon [UID]

Mutsu scowled as she eyed the boar with disdain and disgust. One lousy hit point. The boar had a single hit point left after her last attack. That was completely unfair. If one attack was not good enough to kill the mud loving beast then two definitely should have been more than sufficient. Especially if one of the two hits was a critical strike. She eyed her weapon and grumbled many insults at it. Starter weapons were always weak in these kinds of games, but it seemed to her that Sword Art Online was taking the idea of weak weapons for starting players to some kind of ludicrous new height.

The woman was so fixated on her sarissa and how crappy the weapon was and how Alexander the Great would never have equipped his troops with such a poor weapon that she didn't notice that the boar had charged again until it was almost inside the reach of her spear. "What the hell?!?" Defensively, she lowered the weapon just in time for the boar to skewer itself upon the stick. For a second it looked absurdly like a luau pig as its momentum carried it down the length of the weapon just far enough that it managed to impale one of her hands on its tusk before it shattered in a shower of blue sparks.

In the wake of the pesky porcine there was a new weapon laying on the ground, a single tusk which was probably a crafting material, and a small jingling bag of col. Mutsu quickly stored all the items in her inventory.

"Slow route," Mutsu pouted, allowing the sarissa to fall from her hands. She speedily swiped a finger in the air and managed to hit the 'store weapon' button on the menu, watching it dissolve into blue sparkly nothingness just before the useless weapon would have hit the ground. It had taken some practice to be able to perfect that little maneuver, at least to be able to do it without tossing the spear in the air first. "And bells are for everyone, put it on," she continued encouragingly, watching as @Ptolemy slipped it into his pocket. "It's lovely and jingly!"

"Chatting with a stranger," Mutsu asked, blinking her brown eyes at Ptolemy. Abruptly, she put both her hands over her armored chest and gave Ptolemy a deeply scandalized look. "Are you a stranger danger, Ptolemy," she asked mischievously, keeping up the faux act of a woman who had just been scandalized by someone perverted. "Do we need a responsible adult? Because I don't know any around here..."

"Wait, you mean that this quest will deliberately job the system so that monsters don't spawn," Mutsu asked angrily, growling and puffing out her cheeks so that she looked a little bit like an angry chipmunk, though woe betide anyone that commented on that. Scowling, she tromped off in the direction of one of the main gates of the Town of Beginnings, muttering dark things about idiot programmers under her breath, as she jingled her way down the wide avenue in the broad sunlight. Then, all of a sudden her entire demeanor changed and she brightened considerably.

"No monsters, you say? I have an idea says I," she declared, spinning to face @Hazado which set every bell affixed to her armor to jingling. "While I have this quest active you will take me to the Main Dungeon on this floor. And then, when we take the stairs up to the second floor, we will go to the Main Dungeon there. And then so on and so forth until we make it all the way to the very top and defeat the game without ever having to fight any monsters! LOOPHOLE EXPLOIT, BRILLIANT!" Spinning back on her heel, the armored woman took off at a run in the direction of the gate. "Hurry up! If we're quick about it this should only take a week or two," she called over her shoulder before suddenly coming to a screeching halt just inside the main gate of the Town.

"But that's pacifist play style," she scowled and made a face. "That's so boring..."

OOC: Accurate stats are in my signature bar.

ID: 107163
BD: 6 (Hit)

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

Mutsu: 20/20 (0/2 EN) (Hate: 1)
Black: 259/260 (Hate: 1)

"Sarissa," Mutsu growled, kicking @Black sharply in the back of the leg though not with enough force to trigger the whatever it was in his armor that was effectively killing the mobs. That was a convenient trick to have up a sleeve, Mutsu made a mental note to look into it. She punctuated her action by making a kamikaze attack out from behind Black and slamming the business end of her weapon into the head of one of the little plant creature things that looked like copyright infringement of a Weepinbell. Unlike with Black's attacks, the Nepent was not dispatched by the paltry amount damage she had dealt to it.

"This weapon sucks," she complained, narrowing her brown eyes as she whirled to face Black after his cosplay comment. "Yes I can cosplay," she declared, completely ignoring the fact that she was in the middle of combat with several other plant monster things. They clearly could not possibly hit that hard if Black was not being bothered by him. He had taken several hits and it did not seem to matter too much. "Because I'm Asian, female, and busty... so I don't have to get fake stuff, like those pervy guys that dress up as female characters... well, some of them are pervy," she continued, quickly correcting herself. It would be very wrong to classify them all as perverted. But, the group of people that cosplayed was large and varied enough that, in pure mathematical terms at least a few of them had to be. So, the statement wasn't wrong.

"As for the mouth breathers, I've put a LOT of points into strength so I can fling most players with enough force in Safe Zones that they leave me alone and, since it's a Safe Zone I don't accidentally PK... no matter how hard they slam face first into immortal objects," she concluded with a smirk before changing topic.

"No idea what American football is," Mutsu answered, shrugging her shoulders. "I never got a physical souvenir, but I did once get an American player to look right at me when I was sitting behind home plate and yell something that rhymes with 'duck shoe'. Then he struck out. I maintain this means that I won the exchange."

"Kuromakuro is wonderful, so is Fate/Zero. Kakegurui is pretty good, even the live action adaptation wasn't terrible. At least it stayed close to the source material," Mutsu said, wincing as Black began to sing Kanye West. "What is that awful noise? Is that supposed to be music?"

ID: 107368
BD: 9 - Hit
MD: 9 (Hit)

Mutsu: 15/20 (0/2) [4-18 = 1 DMG]
Boar: 1/10 (1 Base + 3 Skill + 1 Crit. - 0 MIT = 5 DMG]

Total Thread Loot: 3 T1 Mats, 30 Col, 2 Rare Consumables [yet to be submitted]

Mutsu grunted as the boar slammed into her with a shoulder check again before continuing past her. This time, though, when the beast planted its forelegs and tried to then kick her in the back and send her sprawling to the ground she was ready. Growling, she thrust the tip of her sarissa into the soft dirt and, using the weapon and her legs as a sort of modified tripod, she was able to keep her feet under her when she was kicked.

"See, I can learn unlike you little piggy," she snarled, jerking her weapon free from the ground and slamming the business end of the lengthy sarissa into the back of the retreating pig. The beast squealed as the tip of the spear slammed into it and a critical hit was scored. Mutsu watched as the enemy's health bar ticked down, down, down to one remaining health point. "Really?!? You've got to be joking!"

ID: 107132
BD: 7 - Hit
MD: 7 (Hit)

Mutsu: 16/20 (0/2) [3-18 = 1 DMG]
Boar: 6/10 (1 Base + 3 Skill - 0 MIT = 4 DMG]

Total Thread Loot: 3 T1 Mats, 30 Col, 2 Rare Consumables [yet to be submitted]

The snarls and growls issuing from Mutsu were on the same level of the noises coming from the boar, matching the creature in ferocity and anger. The spearwoman had really had just about enough of the system not allowing her to hit her target. With a screaming roar she lunged forward and jabbed the steel tip of the leaf shaped spearhead in the direction of her digital tormentor. At last, success! The weapon gouged a lovely red furrow across the boar's snout as she scored a solid hit on the creature and its health bar dropped by just about half. "Finally," she snarled, not caring that the boar then neatly sidestepped after being hit and slammed into her again.

Agil

ID: 107130
BD: 4 - Miss
MD: 6 (Hit)

Mutsu: 17/20 (0/2) [3-18 = 1 DMG]
Boar: 10/10

Total Thread Loot: 3 T1 Mats, 30 Col, 2 Rare Consumables [yet to be submitted]

As the boar went charging past Mutsu after having shoulder checked her the porcine attacker stopped, planted its front hoofs in the ground, and then lashed out with a two footed kick and slammed into her back. For the second time in less than five minutes, the woman was knocked into an unwilling faceplant on the ground. Snarling, she lashed out wildly with her sarissa as she rolled over onto her back. The boar danced easily out of the way to dodge the strike as the weapon again cleanly missed. "This weapon sucks," she growled, using the lengthy spear to push herself, again, to her feet. Snarling, she rounded on the boar and adopted a fighting stance once again.

ID: 107127
BD: 3 (Miss)

Nepents 2-3: 7/7
Nepent 1: 0/7 (DEAD)

Mutsu: 20/20 (0/2 EN) (Hate: 0)
Black: 259/260 (Hate: 1)

"I know lots of anime," Mutsu said defensively, puffing out her cheeks and glaring at @Black. "And video games. And NPB, that's the best kind of baseball," she continued, glaring at Black and daring him, with her chocolate brown eyes, to try and argue that Major League Baseball was better than the Nippon Baseball League. Obviously Japanese baseball was better. After all, they had won the World Baseball Classic more times that the United States had, ergo NPB had to be better. "My twin is the boofy nerd. I'm basically one of the boys..."

"But with lady bits," she added quickly, blushing slightly and quickly changing the subject to something else.

"Gundam, Code Geass, Kuromakuro, all the good ones. Mecha is the best, everything else is after that," she continued as they moved from the Town and out into the Fields, gradually making their way in the direction indicated by the quest marker which, appeared to be taking them into a forest. "My weapon also helps me separate horny fanboys from their money, if I wear something suitably perverted," she continued as they disappeared into the forest.

They were not moving through the forest for very long before the nepents spawned. "Those look like Weepinbell... I smell copyright infringement," she declared, popping out from behind Black as each of the plants attacked him and lashing out with her sarissa which sailed cleanly over all of them, missing completely and causing her to growl. "I need an accuracy buff!"

ID: 107125
BD: 4 - Miss
MD: 6 (Hit)

Mutsu: 18/20 (0/2) [3-18 = 1 DMG
Boar: 10/10

Total Thread Loot: 3 T1 Mats, 30 Col, 2 Rare Consumables [yet to be submitted]

In a sudden, lightning quick, movement, the boar dashed forward and charged Mutsu. "What the hell," Mutsu squawked as the boar darted underneath the tip of her sarissa. The weapon removed a few strands of hair from the creature's bristle covered back, but other than that there was no discernible damage that the digital beast suffered. Boars were not supposed to be this fast. Someone had clearly programmed the animal to be better than it would have been in real life. That was the only explanation, as far as Mutsu was concerned. Not that she had really ever closely observed a boar to know what one could or could not physically do. She set her feet as the burly beast shoulder checked her and was rocked back a few inches but took no appreciable damage as a result of the assault.

"I can do better than a t-shirt," Mutsu chirped brightly, clapping her hands happily for a second. Swiping her right pointer finger in the air, she called up her player menu and, tapping through a few screens in quick succession, she materialized a simple item in her hands. A silver bell on a slender leather cord. Bobbing and hopping up to @Ptolemy she dropped the bell over his head. "There we are! A little gift from Mutsu to you! Welcome to the wonderful world of fantasy-based prison role playing games!" She danced out in front of Ptolemy and materialized her sarissa in her hands. "So, are we doing this the boring way and trying to gather materials from rooting around in the wilds? Or are we doing this the fast and fun way and slaughtering a bunch of animals in the fields around the Town," Mutsu asked, sounding a bit too enthusiastic. "Personally, I vote for the fast way. More XP that way, then you can get on to the next fetch quest."

OOC: If you're familiar with Durarara!!! this will make a whole lot more sense...

"Ichiban Sushi, eh," she asked, taking a step back from the towering man of African origin and scanning him up and down for a moment. "A black guy that runs a seafood shop called Ichiban and makes sushi... someone likes Durarara!!! maybe a little too much," Mutsu said, hopping a few steps away from @Black with the merry jingling of bells. "Come!," she exclaimed, throwing her arms wide and adopting a ridiculous, and ridiculously bad, Russian accent. "Try Eecheeban Sushee! You like! Such very goo-d sushee! I make you goo-d deel, ja?"

"Look," she said, reverting to her normal voice and putting both her hands on her chest. She would have pushed things up and out, but the steel armor made that quite impossible. "I know I have the right, uh... physique, let's say, to be Anri but I don't have a knife that tries to talk me into being a serial killer," she flicked a finger in the air and pulled up her menu, re-materializing the sarissa. "I have this lovely great spear and," she continued, jabbing the weapon into the ground with enough force to shatter a paving stone and embed the business end of the massive weapon about a foot into the ground. "It doubles as a viewing platform." To illustrate this point, Mutsu shimmied up the sarissa with practiced ease and perched herself on the end of the weapon's haft.

"Okinawa is a lovely place," Mutsu called down from her perch and, after a second's thought, she added, "And don't get the wrong idea," she continued, flouncing as much as she could from the small elevated perch afforded by her weapon being stuck in the ground. "You Marines may have a girl in every port, but that doesn't mean you have a port in every girl... if you take my meaning." With a hop, Mutsu dismounted from her elevated position and returned to the ground in a graceful crouching super heroine landing before tugging the spear from where she had stuck it.

"Yes, it's time to go kill some things," she said at last, flashing another V for victory salute. "I need glorious loot!"

"Oh, I did expect more from this game," Mutsu said archly, scowling at @Ptolemy. "I missed out on the Beta Test, so I didn't get to be a tester. But, I read everything there was to read about this game before it came out. I expected something better from the Tutorials than simple fetch quests." Her lip curled up in disgust at the mention of the words 'fetch quest.' "Every RPG since the beginning of time has used fetch quests as tutorial missions. Every. Single. One," she shrugged her shoulders which set the bells to jingling again. "I expected better from SAO, but nope, fetch quests. I was going to just skip them, since the rewards are usually pretty weak. But, given the way things have turned out..." the woman trailed off for a second before hopping back aboard her train of thought.

"Well, every little bit of XP helps now, right," she asked. "Plus, seems to me everyone should be working together to escape from this rather... uh, exquisite prison. So..." Then came the remark about bells being tiresome.

Rude.

"Bells aren't tiresome," Mutsu shot back. "You're tiresome and don't know what's good for you," she huffed, crossing her arms across her chest and scowling darkly at Ptolemy. Everyone loved bells. Even if they said they didn't, they secretly did. "Bells are love! Bells are life!"

"Which way is faster to complete this fetch quest," Mutsu asked, pushing open the door to Zackeriah's shop and stepping out to the sound of a variety of jingling bells, only one of which was above the shop's heavy wooden door. "It seems that killing monsters will be the fastest way," she continued, beginning to tick things off on her fingers. "That will also return the greatest amount of experience from the quest and result in a better gold... I mean col payout." That much all seemed obvious to the short woman. "Plus it will make this little exercise much more fun, and if you're along to watch out for all the monsters anyway... then there's no point in not trying to buzzsaw as many of them as possible."

"A 'leveling guild', so you guys like to... power level other players," Mutsu asked, quirking an eyebrow in @Hazado's direction. Mutsu set off, resolutely, in the direction of the nearest gate that would allow her to exit from the Town and out into the surrounding fields. "What exactly do you get out of that? I have no desire to join a guild."

ID: 107045
BD: 3 - Miss
MD: 4 (Miss)

Mutsu: 19/20 (0/2)
Boar: 10/10

Total Thread Loot: 3 T1 Mats, 30 Col, 2 Rare Consumables [yet to be submitted]

Mutsu continued to circle the boar as it squealed and grunted. Whether or not it was squealing and grunting at her was a matter that was up for debate. After all, such noises were simply the normal noises for a boar to make. Or, at least, that was the assumption that Mutsu made and she was simply going to roll with that assumption. Growling back at the beastie, Mutsu lunged forward and jabbed with her spear at the boar. The procine super villain, for super villain he clearly was, leaped back nimbly out of the way and flashed his tusks in her direction. "No fair," the little woman pouted, though she did not let up on her combat stance or turn her back on the boar or cross her arms over her chest. "Piggies are supposed to be dumb and slow."

"Now you're getting it," Mutsu said, tapping her nose with one finger while pointing at @Ptolemy with her other hand. "Free ticket to experience points and money, and maybe even a few other loot goodies." She scowled when Ptolemy mentioned that he was getting ready to do the taking a profession quest. That quest was not really much fun, it was not much fun at all. But, it definitely qualified as a fetch quest. Of that there could be no doubt.

"I don't have a bell obsession," she continued, sounding a bit defensive about the implication. "Everyone loves bells. Bells are delightful. You ever see anyone frown when a bell is jingling," she asked, bouncing up and down on her feet which set every single one of the dozen bells affixed to her armor to ringing. "So, I already did the taking a job quest. Tedious and boring. You will hate it. Plus, the rewards are not that great. So, it will still be a chance to kill things and get basically nothing for it... when are we leaving?"

ID: 106947
BD: 1 - Miss
MD: 5 (Miss)

Mutsu: 19/20 (0/2)
Boar: 10/10

Total Thread Loot: 3 T1 Mats, 30 Col, 2 Rare Consumables [yet to be submitted]

Mutsu spat, even though she did not really need to spit, to get the dirt out of her mouth as she narrowed her eyes at the offensive boar. How dare the four legged terrorist attack her without having the good grace to announce its presence in a boarfully appropriate way. The boar squealed and grunted as it circled her. Mutsu growled right back at the beast and leveled her spear at the creature to keep it at arm's length. There was, after all, a reason for carrying such an impressive weapon. It was not a matter of compensating for being short. Nope, it was not about compensating for a lack of height, not even at all. As they pair of combatants continued to circle one another, Mutsu made a half-hearted jab at the boar and the tip of the sarissa sailed over its head. But, because the weapon was in the beast's face it also couldn't try to attack him back. Check and mate.

"No, bells never get annoying," Mutsu said in a tone that one might use when they were absolutely positive that they were right as they explained the facts of life to a very small child who had asked a question that even the child should have known the answer to. "Bells are love, bells are life," the diminutive woman continued, her eyes narrowing when @Ptolemy mentioned that he was reasonably certain she was a foot shorter than him. Her brown eyes scanned him up and down, nostrils flared and fists clenched. After a few seconds, she decided that he had only been stating something that seemed to be a fact and, slowly, she relaxed.

"If it was a quest involving killing a field boss then it wouldn't be an annoying fetch quest, now would it," she asked sweetly, bouncing on her toes which set her armor to jingling happily. "Then it might be a quest that was actually fun and that gave out rewards worth having." She grinned toothily at Ptolemy. "So, what quest are we going to do?"

ID: 106939
BD: 3 - Miss
MD: 8 (Hit)

Mutsu: 19/20 (0/2) (3-18 = 1 DMG)
Boar: 10/10

Total Thread Loot: 3 T1 Mats, 30 Col, 2 Rare Consumables [yet to be submitted]

Cursing and stomping through the grass, the bell adorned tip of her sarissa bouncing and jingling merrily above the top of the field grass as it blew in a gentle breeze, Mutsu continued her work towards accomplishing the requirements for the fetch quest. The sooner the requirements were done, the better. She was making so much noise, between her own complaints and the jingling of the bells, that she never spotted the boar that had appeared until the animal had pawed the ground a few times and charged her down from behind like a runaway bacon freight trained. The brunette was knocked sprawling to the ground, her cries muffled with the mouthful of digital dirt that she unwillingly was forced to eat. Growling, and knowing she had not actually been hurt too badly, she pushed the tip of her weapon into the ground and used it to get back to her feet, glaring hatefully at the offending monster.

"Yes, under the Department of the Navy," Mutsu continued, smiling a sweet and devious smile. "For administrative purposes. Administration includes issuing orders," she declared, jabbing a finger at @Black confident that she had just scored the decisive point in this discussion. Because, let's face it, she had. There was no arguing this away. The Navy gave the orders and the Marines jumped to obey. That was what Administration meant. "And there aren't any Marines on Iwo Jima anymore. They're in Okinawa, or stationed elsewhere in Japan. Or protecting the South Koreans from the Little Tyrant that Couldn't."

"Yes, her crew did blow her up," Mutsu scowled, puffing out her cheeks for a moment, but then she suddenly brightened and grinned in a predatory way at Black. "Which means you don't want to make me angry since you know what happened last time..." She trailed off and then held up both hands to make an explosion gesture as her brown eyes widened. "Boom goes the dynamite..."

"Of course I'm keeping the rewards," she declared, flashing the traditional V for victory. "This glorious campaign is my idea, after all. To the idea person go the spoils. Let's go!" With the she spun smartly on her heel and shoved the doors to the shop, and disappeared back out into the street.

Out of Combat: +1 EN (Full EN)

ID: 106938
LD: 8 (No Mat)

Total Thread Loot: 3 T1 Mats, 30 Col, 2 Rare Consumables [yet to be submitted]

Mutsu continued to grumble and mutter darkly to herself as she wandered through the grass of the plains. This quest was unbelievable. This was Sword Art Online, after all. How could they have failed to put time and thought into making new and unique tutorial quests. Fetch quests. Really? "Ugh," Mutsu growled, throwing her hands up in frustration at the whole pointless exercise. "If it weren't for the fact that I now need this XP I would not be bothering with this," she said, continuing to grumble and complain, accompanied by the jingling of bells, even though there was no one at all around to hear her or commiserate with. Approaching another likely looking bush, at least in terms of finding a crafting material, she drew back a belled and booted foot and delivered a savage kick to the topiary. Unlike the last time, this time nothing happened other than the bush shook a bit and a songbird exploded out of it, twittering madly. The tiny spear user scowled and continued on her way.

"And what's wrong with bells," Mutsu asked in a slightly demanding tone, as her hand was removed from the front of @Ptolemy's shirt. "I won't touch you again," the short woman continued, jabbing a finger in his direction and stopping centimeters away from poking Ptolemy in the chest. "Unless you say anything at all that might make me think you were referring to my height," she continued in a light tone. It was always important to lay out the ground rules first when meeting new people. That way, if they had to be kicked in the shins later because they had said something she found offensive, that they would not be able to say she had not properly warned them of the consequences of their actions.

"What's natural about seafoam green hair? What kinda genetic lottery was that," she asked, wrinkling her nose and dropping her hand from pointing her finger at Ptolemy. "And it doesn't matter which quest you're doing, does it," she asked, continuing to pepper Ptolemy with questions. "All fetch quests are the same, and," she scanned his gear which seemed pretty similar to her own, "at this level they're all pretty easy. Simple bonus XP for me, so, what are we doing," she concluded, still not bothering to properly introduce herself.