Kazzy

You enter this blacksmith shop and look around, entertained by the stone dragon carvings inside. What gets you more attention however is the numerous arsenals in display along with their price tags sitting beside them. You walk up to the items and look for something worth your purchase.

Your eyes catch two shields with different appearances and properties. The iron type simply protects you, while the ornate type does that and apparently regenerates your health. As good as that sound, you think you prefer to spend less and just rely on your potions, feeling confident that you can protect yourself still with your armor, shield and maybe luck. Heh.

You pick up the iron shield and pay 200 COL to the owner who is present here. You bow to him and mutter a thank you before leaving with your new toy.

Paid 200 COL for Iron Shield. 

@Vigilon

With the blade somewhat clean, you fish out a bottle of oil purposefully for weapon cleaning from your inventory and another new rag. You deep a bit of the latter into the oil and scrub it on your sword, repeating the process on the full helmet in and out.

With that done, you sheathe your sword and keep the rags and oil in your inventory, just in case. You look at the shores of the lake and let the breeze blowing through your face. Even though this scenery is quiet but peaceful, a melancholic feeling grows in your heart. You cannot help but wonder why. Maybe part of you misses home. Or maybe you feel lonely. Not even shaking your head in denial helps brushing off the melancholy in you.

For some reason you turn your head to another direction of the shore and notice a feminine figure sitting on it with her knees on her chest. Huh, another player here to appreciate the quiet. You look away, but every few seconds or so your eyes dart their gaze at her direction for a split second before you finally decide to stop.

@Mishiro

You gaze at the Nepents through the visor of your full helm. They are somewhere half your height, though they are still large. You listen to Haltar suggesting you to attack one of them while he aims for the other. You nod. A simple but perfect plan. You feel grateful that you leveled up from the past two beginner's quest you went through, thus you were being granted more energy to unleash your Sword Arts effectively.

As a final step of preparation, you equip yourself a new iron kite-esque shield that you purchased a while ago. It isn't too heavy and with thanks to your latest skill, you can utilize shields better for more effective blocks.

You step up to the first Nepent and break into a dash, your sword glows green in color as you take a swing.

ID: 118278

BD: 1

MD: 6

Kazzy: 99/100 -- Energy 8/10 -- DMG 3 -- MIT 23

Nepent 1: HP 7/7 -- DMG 3 -- MIT 0

Unfortunately, luck decides to s**t on you for no reason as you accidentally trip on a rock and miss your target. The Nepent hisses as it spots you and pathetically slaps your helmet. You quickly adjust yourself into a combat stance and grit your teeth.

"Tch," you murmur as you curse at your foot messing up this simple attack.

@Haltar Dhrim

"Yeah, let's," you say, not wanting to waste any more time being idle. Kinda sucks that Clyde steps out of this, but as long as you are here with Haltar, he should be okay. You walk out of the village with him and head to the forest to start with in this quest. The journey there doesn't really take much of your time as all you have to do is to just follow the road until you see a sea of trees out of it then just simply walk to it. 

You wonder what monsters aside from the Nepent lives in the woods of the first floor. Could be wildlife like the ones in Floor 2 or 3, you can't quite remember. As you keep moving on beside Haltar and stare ahead at the woods, you also think that this place is perfect to hide a treasure chest or even a sub dungeon. If that's true....man, the loot. You imagine how abundant it must be.

Reality snaps back at you as you suddenly stop upon reaching a small clearing surrounded by the trees. You think you hear a rustle, and you want to ignore it. But being in a place that could present unexpected dangers anywhere, such a risk is not worth swiping out.

You draw out your sword and look around for any Nepents on your way.

@Haltar Dhrim

Oh right. The secret medicine of the forest. You heard a bit about the quest and remember its summary of plant monsters carrying a certain antidote to heal a diseased village. For some reason the way the quest describes the method to get the medicine reminds you of the boar tusks that you got for the old blacksmith in the Town of Beginnings. You cringe at the thought of grinding again and struggling to kill when your energy is low. You sigh in relief as you realize that you are not doing this quest alone this time. That helps a lot.

"I see," you say to Haltar and turn your head to Clyde, wondering if he is on board on this at all. 

"You into this too?" You ask out of curiosity. You also look at Haltar and assure him with "I'll help you with the best of my abilities." Who knows, you might find it fun to be a tank and be the protector of the party you are in like a true warrior.

@Haltar Dhrim @Clyde

You sit down near a lake not far from the road leading to the Starting City, wearing no top and only pants since you just cleaned yourself with its fresh waters. It felt almost heavenly when you dipped yourself into the water, especially when you were exhausted from walking around to find any monster worth slaying but to no avail. The full helmet and sword lay close to you, ready to be cleaned.

You drink the lake's water as the breeze blows through your strong, muscular skin, thirst quenched easily. You feel lucky that there aren't any signs of lake monsters so far. Even if they do, you only imagine them to be sea serpents or anything similarly monstrous, and you wouldn't find any of those make sense to spawn in such a low leveled area. 

You decide against eating your rations for now and pick up the sword, scrubbing it with water with the help of a clean, white moist rag. This and the helmet need to be oiled, you think. 

So far, this whole place is quiet, with no one to be heard or seen beside yourselves. You feel somewhat peaceful and appreciate the quiet.

@Mishiro

You bow back at both men when they introduce themselves, and with them greetings settled, you listen to Haltar who is talking about some quest that supposedly is more difficult than the tutorials, although how difficult it is isn't really specified here. You simply nod at the agreement of taking the quest together with him and Clyde the cowboy. Whatever that quest is, you hope it is worth taking.

Looking at your own chainmail armor that you are wearing, you decide that you should be the tank of the group. No biggie here. You can take damage with it, and maybe further more if you have a shield. You open your inventory and fish out your full helmet, then you don it. So far the helmet's visor doesn't really blind you at all. You could still see clearly through it.

You look at Clyde and Haltar, the latter whom you asked, "So what's the quest about? Where should we be off too?"

At the same time you are adjusting your sword belt.

@Clyde @Haltar Dhrim

A bit further into the village and you come across two players on the road, one stands out so much that you think he is from another game. What's with the cowboy getup, you think to yourself as you see nothing practical about it battle wise. With that big fedora and cape he looks like he is asking himself to have his clothes tugged by foes and then immobilized prior to death. You decide to not question it further and look at the other brown haired player who is shaking hands and telling his name.

So that's Haltar. He doesn't look so bad with that leather armor. Judging by that he must be the evasive type. Or maybe he isn't comfortable with being heavy.

You walk up to him put a smile on your scowling face as you ask, "Haltar, yes? I'm Kazzy Kuroda."

You also offer your hand to be shaken by his.

@Haltar Dhrim @Clyde

You perceive a bulletin board as you are having a dinner consist of roast beef and cheese, looking at the various notices, announcements, and so on. Some of the requests seems to be written by fellow players, then a thought occurs to you. Maybe this is a good way to see if they need any help. After what you have been through in your last adventure, you feel like wanting to spice s**t up a little. Gotta keep the monotony away from having you bored of monster slaying and money making.

You finish your meal first and then look at the bulletin board, noticing a recently written request about helping one called Haltar to retrieve some medicine from a forest. For some reason you feel like you have heard about this particular quest before. Eh, no sweat. Enemies are still weak there much like the boar pups. You make a note to yourself to meet this Haltar in the village of Horunka in two days as stated in the notice. You leave.

Two days have passed and you already made your way to the village. Standing among some of the buildings, you look around and wonder how Haltar looks like. Crikey, if only he described himself.

@Haltar Dhrim @Clyde

You stand up and walk to Lyle, examining the chainmail closely. It reminds you of such armor worn by knights in the 12th century, where chainmail is the norm and great helmets serving as the icon of knights in that same period. The same goes to the Crusaders.

"Take it, there's more," Lyle says as he shakes the haubergeon, which you take gently and admire it before putting it into your inventory. You consider discarding your starting armor. 

Lyle pulls out a pair of mail chausses from the chest and show it to you. "For the legs," he says, in case you can't recognize the pieces. You nod knowingly and receive it too.

More pieces of armor are given to you to complete the set. Another coif, a gambeson, and finally, much to your delight, a great helm. Wonderful. This helm is the early incarnation since it doesn't entirely enclose your head like a barrel much like the archetypal later great helms. The 'pot' however does enclose the entirety of your skull's top half, with the metal 'mask' protecting your entire face. You feel satisfied with its appealing design.

"Thank you so much, sir," you say and bow to Lyle after storing your gifts. The old man chuckles and pats you on the shoulder.

"Two more things, one which I need you to deliver something for me," he says as he continues fishing out stuff from the chest. A potion and a package wrapped in brown paper.

"This potion is called Safeguard, made by our alchemist friend Zackariah. It can protect you from...say an initial attack that catches you off guard. A strong one too. One more before you go, take this package and give it to Hannah, an artisan. You can find her drawing in a grove of trees in this city. You won't miss it, otherwise just follow the signs."

You gladly take both of them to your inventory and delete your old chainmail armor. You are surprised when it appears briefly in front of you only to disintegrate in pixels like enemies would. 

"Again, thank you for the armor," you say again with a bow, seeing that you are finally done here and wanting to rest. "I will take my leave."

Lyle nods with a smile. "Go on. Say hi to Hannah for me mate. Good day."

And with that, you leave his workshop and head back to the inn for a hot meal and maybe sleeping through the evening before being nocturnal at night.

CONGRATULATIONS! YOU COMPLETED YOUR ADVENTURE!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Obtained 3 SP (+2 from Quest)

Obtained 400 COL

Obtained new chainmail Tier 1 armor with +1 MIT

Obtained Safeguard potion

You finally arrive at the Town Of Beginnings and eventually at Lyle's door, knocking it loudly due to the rain. You are greeted quickly by his presence as the door opens. Lyle takes one look at you and grin, "Hard at work eh? You finally got them?"

You nod in response, adding with, "Can I dry myself inside?"

"Sure! Come on in and hand me those tusks."

You oblige and enter his home, the door closed behind you. You doff your armor and now standing in drenched shirt and pants, you take a chair with you and go to the furnace, sitting near his workplace. You look at the anvil briefly, feeling the warmth of the burning furnace. You then swipe your finger down and bring out the three tusks from your inventory, showing them to Lyle in your hands when he approaches you with a drink. He nods with thanks.

"Put them on the table," he says.

You stand up and do so, then sit down as he gives you your refreshment. A simple hot chocolate. Damn. You sip the warm drink and close your eyes as you enjoy its taste and warmth. You smile at Lyle and nod with thanks.

"And now with my tusks finally available, I shall give you something I recently forged as a gift. Here."

He takes something out from a nearby personal chest and shows the item to you, making small rattling noises. You look the thing he is holding out in awe.

A long sleeved chainmail, aka a haubergeon, covering the entire body and arms with mail mittens included.

ID: 117914

BD: 8

Kazzy: HP 60/60 -- Energy 3/6 (Used Snake Bite!) -- DMG 3 -- MIT 9

Your sword glows blue in color as you charge towards the pup, which notice you and caught itself off guard as you finally unleash your Sword Art upon it. Snake Bite to be exact. The pup has no time at all to defend itself as you slash its body in three different angles, all cut deep into its flesh severing its organs. The pup explodes into pixels and you grin, baring your teeth as you glad that you rested beforehand. 

And now for the loot....

ID: 117915

LD: 14 (Obtained 3/3 Boar Pup Tusk)

"YOSH!" You cry out in joy as the loot window tells you the good news: you have successfully obtained the final tusk. You sheath your sword and suddenly break into a rap number derived from "Like A Butterfly", imagining the song playing and the female singer singing alongside you. Your rap game lasts all while you make your way back to the starting city.

"This world doesn’t even have any light,
Can’t stop it’s going to destroy my mind!"

Your rap vocals get louder whenever the chorus mentally kicks in, indicating your passion for going hard in this favorite song of yours. The rain somehow fits your musical moment, almost as if it belongs in some movie

You also remember yourself saving some people and beating up any goons looking for trouble, as if you are playing hero. You even defended yourself from being mugged at one point. Culprits were some sort of gang that wanted you dead after you gave your lesson to one of their gang members that almost assaulted a girl he stripped. Like Bruce Lee you beat them to a pulp, even the leader wasn't spared as he begged for mercy upon seeing his buddies down.

You realize that this kind of thing won't be very easy in Aincrad. One, criminals aren't as abundant as in the real world. Second, even when they exist as players with orange diamonds, which indicated that they committed a crime such as killing outside an authorized duel, you find your fists useless to deplete their health...unless they are probably weakened with your weapon. Maybe. The important thing to note is that you prefer to stay away from playing hero against criminals whose levels and equipment are better than yours. It's time to play safe now.

The rain shows no signs of stopping as you stand up and turn around to see the pup still wandering around nearby. You take a deep breath and feel your energy restored. Time to take down the final prey. Hopefully you can manage to get its tusk this time.

You remember your boxing days.

People often call you the Dragon Boxer due to a pair of custom boxing shorts that you wear. The shorts itself is white in color, with its thigh sleeve bearing the logo of a Japanese dragon holding a pearl. The pearl resembles everything epic like immortality, prosperity or whatever. Simply grasping it is the equivalent to being a god incarnate. Heh.

You remember your boxing styles too, which you still stick to the brawler and rush fighting styles like you employed in the streets, albeit a bit less extreme thanks to boxing rules. You always aim for the vital parts, especially around the body since mommy said that it is quicker to make the opponent stagger if such points are being attacked. You even dodge frequently and may not attack at all if you feel like it, just to tire the enemy while occasionally throwing jabs to the face. The head is only your target when you have the chance to beat the s**t out of your foes until they are knocked out.

You smile as you remember the victors you achieved, your mom's proud expression on her face, and even the few losses you went through as you took them as lessons to boxing to victory. Oh, how you miss those days.

Just when you are about to relax for a while in the rain, you turn around to see ANOTHER new boar pup appearing out of nowhere, looking at you for some reason. How it is there suddenly is a mystery. Either you don't hear it coming due to the rain, or the game just spawns a new one as soon as the fight ended. You close your eyes and let out a soft sigh, thinking about whether you should wait for your energy to heal itself or just get over it straight away. 

On second thought....maybe you should rest for now. The pup doesn't go aggro when it sees you, as of typical of other adult boars unless provoked...or being called. You still don't get how the whole aggro thing works. 

You lie down on the grass while hoping that the pup isn't out of your sight. Eyes closed, you begin to reminiscent about your previous life in reality.

ID: 117891

BD: 10

Kazzy: HP 53/60

"ORYAH!" You cry out as you swing your sword once you are within reach towards the pup that shows no resistance against your attack. The overhead swing is so strong that its skull splits into two, brain matter spill briefly before it disintegrates. You pant heavily once more, muttering "Yare yare..." while starting to slightly regret starting upon Lyle's errand, and doing this alone too. You close your eyes, facing the sky while it darkens a bit and rain starts to drizzle.

ID: 117892

LD: 16 (Obtained 2/3 Boar Pup Tusk)

You hear the familiar notification sound of the loot window that says about yourself earning another tusk. You let out a deep, long sigh and sit your ass onto the grass, letting yourself soaked by the incoming rain. Ah. Fresh, cold rain. You even open your mouth to drink it for a bit to hydrate yourself.

Just one more to go and you are done...and indeed, you are so done with this and wish for a more exciting adventure. You slightly open your eyes as you face the horizon, wondering how mom is doing. The sounds of rain is your only audio companion.

ID: 117888

MD: 1

ID: 117889

BD: 10

Kazzy: HP 53/60

Boar Pup 1: HP 2/5

You let out a roar and charge towards the pups that do the same to you, squealing loudly as they make their final stand. Your eyes widen as you dodge the first from hitting the left half of your front. At the same time you eye the third and grunt while taking one big step and thrusting your sword to its direction. It worked! You stab its eye and it immediately dies, exploding into pixels. 

"YOSH!" You cried out loud as you turn your head abruptly to the first, scowling even further as your grip around your sword tightens.

ID: 117890

LD: 4

You grit your teeth and let out a 'tch' as you realize that no loot window appear before you after the third die. Just f**king great. Your temper flares up as you calmly walk to the pup that is now idle, probably still hurt from its slashed snout. It seems to be panting of some sort as it has trouble breathing from its bloodied nostrils.

ID: 117886

MD: 10

ID: 117887

BD: 8 MD: 4

Kazzy: HP 53/60

Boar Pup 1: HP 2/5

Boar Pup 3: HP 2/5

If there is one thing you remember hating about RPGs in general, it's the grinding and fetch quests. Grinding without anything interesting to spice it up is enough to bore you out, the same goes to fetch quests. And now you realize that this is more or less the same thing you despised, except there won't be any systems to make yourself automatically land on hits against enemies. 

...you really should try to get some help someday to make these quests faster to finish.

Back to the battle, you finally have enough of trying to be strategic, so off you run to the pups, going berserk much to their surprise. The third pup takes a charge, but it is too late to dodge a wild overhead slash that almost cuts its snout in half. It squeals in pain as blood leaks out onto the grass, coating them.

You are about to take another swing close to the third when you feel your side being bumped by the first. You quickly back away and face your blade towards its direction.

You hope to end this quickly.

ID: 117883

BD: 3 MD: 8

ID: 117884

MD: 6

Kazzy: HP 54/60

Boar Pup 1: HP 2/5

Boar Pup 3: HP 5/5

You somehow lost concentration as you accidentally get too close to the injured pup. At the same time, the healthier one is already sprinting towards you, charging its skull to your direction. Time does not spare you from their little attacks as you are hit on both sides of your body, the injured somewhat have the energy to still support its kin. You stumble onto the ground as you lost balance and quickly get up, looking at your health.

Still very okay, though you feel more annoyed that you didn't pay much attention to the distance between yourself and the first pup. You swing your sword in the air while running towards them, only for them to retreat for a bit before you stop, intending to conserve your energy. You pant heavily as you look at your own chainmail. If your body aren't as strong as it is today, you wouldn't even be able to withstand the weight of this armor, even for a bit without proper training on wearing one proficiently.

You glare at the pups as the only sounds present are the wind, your breath and their snorts.

ID: 117872

BD: 7 MD: 1

ID: 117873

MD: 10

Kazzy: HP 56/60

Boar Pup 1: HP 2/5

Boar Pup 3: HP 5/5

You are close to the pups when they abruptly take off with a new charge. One of them barely makes it as its head feel metal plunged through the skull. The other hits your leg, though it barely registers as a legit hit. You kick the first one in the face to draw your blade out of its head. You see its health depleting to a quarter full as you hear the third snorting while circling you and its mate.

The first is notably weak thanks to its new injuries, limping while moving around, unable to run in circles like its buddy did. You turn around to glance at the third briefly and slash the air to flick out some of the blood on the blade. The pace of the battle changes as you suddenly run along the healthy pup that circles you to confuse it. You think that you should finish the first pup as soon as possible.

ID: 117845

MD : 1

ID: 117846

BD: 8

ID: 117847

MD: 1

Kazzy: HP 57/60

Boar Pup 1: HP 5/5

Boar Pup 3: HP 5/5

The two pups charge again in unison, but you manage to find the energy to dodge by jumping away from them at the side. Naturally, both miss and happen to pass their injured kin that is still charging towards you. You let out an "ORYAH!" as you run towards it and from a good distance, you plunge the blade to its snout, stabbing through one of the nostrils. The pup doesn't let out a squeal as it immediately dies, exploding into pixels of data.

ID: 117848

LD: 15 (Obtained 1/3 Boar Pup Tusk)

A loot window pops up telling you that you successfully have its tusk added into your inventory. With this newfound determination, you turn around and face the other two, slowly swinging your sword left to write as you calmly walk to them. They look hesitate for a bit, although judging from their stance, they seem to be preparing for yet another charge. All they have to do is to wait for you to get close enough to them. You don't mind.

ID: 117842

MD : 6

ID: 117843

BD: 9 MD: 4

ID: 117844

MD: 10

Kazzy: HP 57/60

Boar Pup 1: HP 5/5

Boar Pup 2: HP 1/5

Boar Pup 3: HP 5/5

The three pups charge towards you in unison. One is a little bit too fast as you immediately take a wild swing to hit any of them, and by luck, you manage to slash one of them in the snout, which causes it to retreat a bit and squeal in pain. You didn't have time to jump away from the other two that bash their skulls against your hip. Thanks to your chainmail, you still don't feel much pain, though you still find yourself being pathetically smashed obnoxious as hell. You swing your sword in the air towards their direction, and unlike their injured brother, they manage to trot away for a distance before your blade can reach their flesh. 

You turn around and look at the injured one. It's still determine to stop you, just like an adult boar you. Persistent b@stards these creatures are, pup or adult. You could almost call this determination, although not in a way people usually perceive it.

ID: 117841

BD: 1

MD: 5

Kazzy: HP 59/60 -- Energy 0/6

Boar Pup: HP 5/5

Another minutes passed as both you and pup avoid and try to hit each other, only to miss. Rinse and repeat. You feel slightly exhausted and just stood there, knees slightly bend. It takes seconds for you to recover a bit by taking a deep breath and standing straight again. Adjusting your coif, you look at the pup that is now as still as a statue, as if it is waiting for something.

And indeed it does, for you hear more steps trotting towards your back. You turn around to see two more pups preparing to circle you along with its comrade that requested for help. This is going to be fun. You grin slightly, as least three versus one is a bit more intense than only a singular foe. You just stand still, gripping your sword tightly as you turn around looking at all the circling boars. Their eyes glow red as they prepare to launch themselves towards you.

ID: 117840

BD: 1

MD: 4

Kazzy: HP 59/60 -- Energy 1/6

Boar Pup: HP 5/5

At this point this fight becomes a swatting competition where each time you miss, your time is wasted. The only way to win this thing is to kill, and that your enemy is a god damn pup. Sounds easy on paper, but you swear that the administrator might mess with players like this just for s**ts and giggles.

"Stay still!" You shout as you attempt another swing at the charging pup, only to miss yet again, the same goes to itself. You wish in your heart that you bought something that would replenish your energy for the sake of Sword Arts, and now you regret that. 

"Just my so called luck..." you murmur as you look around briefly. No other boars are still nearby, as the grazing group had left to another spot. At least you won't have to worry about that, but now you still have to confront the task you find tedious to complete.

ID: 117839

BD: 4

MD: 7

Kazzy: HP 59/60 -- Energy 2/6

Boar Pup: HP 5/5

You throw yourself into a thrust with your sword, anticipating the tip of the blade to make contact with the pup. Unfortunately, the pup picks up a bit of extra speed and bumps you in the hip, albeit pathetically. You quickly step aside and slash your sword wildly while backing away.

You are relieved when you notice that your health barely chips away, but now you find the pup more of a nuisance than a threat. Like swatting a mosquito or something. The pup lets out a loud squeal, as if it is calling for help. S**t. A few other pups might not be a problem, but if the mother comes in...

You step a bit closer to the pup who is now ready to charge at you again, perhaps to buy its reinforcements enough time to appear while you are distracted. So be it. "Bring it on!" You exclaim, gritting your teeth.