Bahr

(I will be using my final Yui's Grace for this thread)

As Bahr entered the grove within the Town of Beginnings, his eyes fell upon a woman sitting in the grass working on a painting. Considering nobody else was around, he assumed that this had to be Hannah, the subject of his quest. He approached her, holding out the golden band Lyle had given him to deliver to her.

"Oh! I've been waiting for this. Unfortunately, it's only the beginning of what I need to craft the ring I'm working on..." she said, examining the material with a frown.

"Of course," Bahr retorted curtly. The NPC's eyes narrowed as she regarded him, as though his attitude immediately tipped her off to who he was. Perhaps Lyle had been telling the truth when he said the NPCs talked amongst themselves.

"There's a gemstone I need, hidden in a cave not far from-"

"Say no more," Bahr interjected as the quest information populated in front of him, giving him the location of the cave. "I'll be back with it soon." He popped his final Yui's Grace and then he was on his way.

QUEST COMPLETED

Thread net gains:
3 SP
400 col
Potion of Safeguard
"Beginner Armor" - T1 Light Armor (+1 EVA)

When his eyes opened again, Bahr was under the tree on Floor 1 again. He rubbed his eyes and sat up straight, shaking his head as though to shake away the looming darkness his nightmare had wrought. The sun was starting to set, so he headed back to town and entered Lyle’s shop. Before the man could even speak, he would find the materials he asked for shoved into his hands. By the time he had started to pipe up again, Bahr had already grabbed the package and was on his way to the door.

“You know, young man, there’s no need to be so rude. Even though we are NPCs, we still chatter amongst one another.”

“I don’t care about you. You’re just lines of code. There are real people who need my help.”

With that, he exited the shop and started heading toward the grove of trees in the city. It was there that Hannah resided, and with delivering this package to her he could move on to the next quest.

As the next attack came in, Bahr closed his eyes and resigned himself to his fate. Instead of feeling the next claw pierce through him, he heard the loudest clank of his life right next to him. When he opened his eyes, he saw that Zandra had stepped in and deflected the attack. Her weapon began to shine with an orange hue, and she unleashed an attack that chunked a disproportionately large amount of the boss’s health bar.

“Hurry up and switch!”

Without even thinking, Bahr switched places with her and prepared a Sword Art of his own, though he had absolutely no idea which one. His sword shone a deep crimson color, starting from behind him and ripping through the ground as it swung forward. As the blade broke through the ground in front of him, the crimson energy from his blade transferred into the rubble that shot forward, an enormous blast of pure scarlet energy colliding with the boss, which shrieked in response. Bahr watched excitedly as the health bar dipped by a significant degree, but didn’t have the time to avoid the next attack. The last thing he saw was one of the beast’s claws headed right for his face.

Bahr’s eyes looked to the side to meet with that of the source of the voice, recognizing it as the same one that had been bossing him around this whole time. It was a woman adorned in ebony armor with crimson accents, holding a two-handed battle axe that matched. He recognized her as Zandra, long time frontliner and apparently the leader of this operation.

“I said I got it,” he retorted nastily, glaring at her with as much zeal as he could muster.

“Then look out!” she exclaimed, jumping backward to avoid the incoming attack.

Without even looking, Bahr jumped into the air, avoiding the first strike milliseconds before it would have driven into him. He spun in the air and slammed his sword down against the creature’s face as hard as he possibly could. It still bounced off flippantly, leaving Bahr stranded and vulnerable in the air once again.
 

Bahr stood, the top half of his face cloaked in shadow as he hung his head.

“Look alive, Bahr! You’re up next!”

“I got it,” was all he offered in response, gripping the hilt of his sword as tightly as he possibly could.

As he approached the line at the front, he noticed there were far fewer people to maeuver through. The boss monster had already eradicated half of them, surely. The edges of Bahr’s lips curved into a bitter frown as he stopped, looking side to side to examine the others that stood alongside him. How many would survive this phase, he wondered? His eyes again flickered to the boss’s health bar, which had barely moved since Kitsyuisa’s noble sacrifice. His eyes narrowed as he took in the ugly creature before him, cheeks still wet from before. He sneered at it, hatred for the thing seething out of his every orifice.

“Are you freaking crying? Get it together, man!”

Hot tears rolled down Bahr’s cheeks. It wasn’t fair. None of this was fair. The horrors of the frontlines were worse than anything he could have possibly imagined. A mosaic of memories flashed through his mind of Kitsyuisa and all the times they had shared together. From starting at the same time on the first floor, to racing each other through the levels and floors, to sharing food with one another at the cafe they frequented, to fighting alongside one another every step of the way. His ability to reach the frontlines, and so fast, was largely due her. The way she pushed him to do better, the competition he felt while trying to keep up with her insane pacing, the pressure to make sure she stayed safe while she did the same for him. She had promised him that they would find his childhood friend together.

And now…

And now…

While she was busy looking at Bahr, one of the monster’s claws rocketed toward her back and hooked into her. Her expression changed the second its appendage pierced through her back into one of hollow fear, seemingly unable to make another expression or do anything as the agony gripped her. The creature raised her into the air to be level with its pincers before closing them in a flash, splitting her body in two instantly. She reached a hand out toward Bahr before exploding into a million tiny blue pieces, the remaining fractals of her being floating upward into the air and dissipating one after another.

Suddenly, it was as though the rabble of combat ceased to exist. Bahr couldn’t hear anything save for the rapidly accelerating thumping of his own heartbeat, and the breaths that he shakily inhaled and exhaled. He couldn’t bring himself to believe what was happening.

The skeletal arachnid started its attack sequence the same way it had several times before. Mimicking Bahr’s movements from before, Kitsyuisa launched herself into the air and delivered several strikes in rapid succession against the monster’s face, managing the fully deplete the remaining HP in the creature’s first health bar. As the creature launched a second attack toward her in midair, she jammed her dagger into the top of its claw and heaved herself above it, dodging the attack and getting a couple more hits in on her way down. Bahr’s face lit up as he witnessed her display of agilitic mastery, impressed by her ability to avoid damage while so many others fell instantly.

She landed and backed away from the creature by leaping backwards, looking back to Bahr with a grin on her face and giving him a thumbs up. He smiled back at her, but the smile soon morphed into a horrified grimace.

She pouted at his retort, taking a long sigh to center herself again.

“You sure you can’t give me anything more than that?” she inquired, her voice adopting an annoyed tinge.

“I’m sorry. I’m honestly surprised I’m alive at all,” was all he could offer. He joined her side as they both watched the spectacle ahead of them unfold. Several clouds of triangular plue pixels hovered where players once stood, the fractals dissipating slowly as the monster shrieked, its first HP bar finally nearing the end.

“Next team, move up! Quickly!”

“Well, I guess that’s my cue,” Kitsyuisa said reluctantly, a slight tremble in her voice. Before Bahr had a chance to respond, she ran to the front and assumed her place in line alongside the others. Bahr’s breath caught in his throat as he thought of how much damage he had sustained after a successful parry. Hopefully she could fair better.

He couldn’t believe it. Only now did he truly understand the raw strength of the creature they were fighting. His fury was once again replaced by inexorable terror. He retrieved a potion from his pack and chugged it as fast as he could, his HP regenerating as the flavorless liquid slid down his throat.

“Are you okay? That looked rough.”

The voice was light and familiar, but Bahr couldn’t place it. As he looked up, he saw none other than Kitsyuisa standing before him. She looked infinitely stronger than he remembered, adorned in custom light armor and holding a dagger he didn’t recognize.

“I’m next up to the front. Looks like a lot of people are dying when they get up there. How did you make it through?” he asked, her determined eyes glancing his direction.

“It was pure instinct,” he admitted as he rose to his feet, shaking his head and looking back at his health bar. It was comfortably in the green now, with only a sliver remaining unfilled.
 

The attack grinded against his sword and forced it to his side. Fortunately, it appeared that the bosses attack continued to grind along the flat end of his blade adjacent to his body. The force of the strike rivaled that of a freight train, causing Bahr to spin uncontrollably away from the boss. His feet caught his fall as he skirted across the ground for a surprising length, and he was forced to plunge his sword into the ground in an attempt to halt his momentum. It pierced the floor and rendered it split for several meters before his body finally stopped moving.

“Alright! Next team, to the front!” he heard someone call out. His eyes flickered to his health bar as he exhaled a sigh of relief for having a moment of reprieve. To his surprise, there was only one-third of his HP remaining. Even after blocking the boss’s attack, he was still dangerously close to red.
 

Suddenly, it was time. The beast swung one of its mighty claws at the front line, and without even thinking Bahr leapt as far into the air as he could. In an instant, all of the fear he had been feeling before converted into pure, unfettered fury. He could hear the most guttural of yells coming from somewhere, but he couldn’t place it. As he brought his blade down against the face of his enemy, he realized it was his own voice that was producing the sound. His sword bounced flippantly off of the monster’s skull as Bahr’s eyes flickered to its health bar, which had moved a single pixel as a result.

Despite having only dealt the tiniest fraction of damage to the beast, it was none too happy about it. It swiped at Bahr while he was still in midair, and he contorted his body to position his sword in the way of the attack.
 

The beast swung one of its enormous claws at the players in the front row, several of them flying back from the impact and combusting into puffs of triangular blue pixels instantly. Their health bars had been green before they had been hit. Bahr gaped at the sight of it, his eyes wide and pupils dilated, jaw hung as far as it could reach, breathing restricted and heavy.

“What are you doing, you idiot!? It’s time to move! To the front!”

Before he knew it, firm hands were placed against Bahr’s back, forcing him to the front row. The monster’s crimson eyes bore into Bahr’s, and it felt as though it was peering through the window into his very soul. Instinctively, Bahr readied his weapon, still unable to shake the expression of abject horror he was currently wearing. He tried to take a step back, but was unable. There were too many people behind him.

When his vision finally focused enough to make out what was happening, he saw it. It was the largest, scariest and most powerful monster he had ever had the displeasure of laying eyes on. It wore a gigantic skull for a face, its body completely skeletal but in the shape of a gargantuan arachnid. Its boney pincers extended far beyond its face and seemed to carve the very air it touched into pieces as a consequence for merely sharing the same space. It towered over the army of players that stared it down, shrieking into their faces with a decibel level high enough to send them hurtling backwards. It had four health bars, and the first was close to being depleted but hadn’t quite gotten there yet. Truly, it was the most abysmal thing Bahr could have ever imagined, the sight of it paralyzing him with fear to the extent that he could not move unless his very life depended on it.

His eyes snapped open, and all hell had broken loose. Cries of fear and agony were being shouted and orders were being called. Everyone around him was bustling about energetically, carried by a cornucopia of emotions. A myriad of panicked words overlapped each other constantly, and Bahr squinted as he attempted to decipher their meaning amidst the chaos. His vision was still blurry, but his other senses were kicked into overdrive. He could smell something horrendous, like a mixture of decay and ancient mold. The air had a foul tinge to it, the taste completely indescribable but undeniably the worst he had ever experienced. The ground beneath his feet shook and rumbled, forcing himself to brace his stance to stay upright.

Above everything else he was experiencing, one sensation stood out amongst the rest. Panic. A pure, unadulterated frenzy of extreme fright. The fears he had had of dying did not hold a candle to what Bahr was now feeling. It wasn’t that dying was a possibility; he recognized it as inevitable.
 

As he meandered through the field, he found a nice tree that offered a healthy amount of shade. Feeling like taking a bit of a rest, he patted out a spot for himself in the grass beneath the shade and laid down. It was cool, and tiny rays of sunshine occasionally peeked through the canopy of leaves overhead as they were rustled by the breeze that periodically rolled through. He raised his hands to create a makeshift pillow of sorts under the back of his head as he relaxed, elevating his skull to keep his neck straight and getting it off of the solid ground. Though, it wasn’t like the ground was even that hard. It was soft and caved easily beneath his weight almost snuggling him in a welcoming embrace. It was as though Mother Nature herself was beckoning him to stay awhile.

As he focused on the leaves, he couldn’t help but feel his eyelids become heavier. And heavier. And heavier. Until he could no longer keep them open.

For this one, Bahr was going for style points. While the Boar Pup was gnawing at his ankle, he positioned his foot underneath it before launching it into the air. He wound up his sword behind his head and swung it at full speed, clocking the Boar Pup with the flat end and hurtling it into a nearby why, where upon impact it exploded into triangular blue pixels that calmly floated away. With his job done and plenty of time left on his hands, he put his sword back into its holster upon his lower back, dusted off his hands against once another, and started on his way back to the usual field.

The weather was absolutely excellent today. The sun was warm, but not too hot. The breeze was cool, but no overwhelming. If he hadn't found the fields of the first floor so dreadful, he may have actually been enjoying himself. But alas, he hated the place, so he squandered what would have been a good day on feeling sorry for himself.
 

In response to his taunting, the boar pup pounced, all in unison just like the group before them. Bahr unleashed yet another Blast Sword Skill, which dispatched three of the four instantaneously. The last one just... missed. 

Just as before, Bahr opened his loot panel and found that two of them had dropped the item he needed. Excellent! That meant he was done already. He had the rest of the day to goof off and collect materials or something. Not that that was particularly what he wanted to do. But hey, anything beat sticking around this stinky pit fighting monsters that couldn't even properly defend themselves. Oh! Maybe he would go find something stronger to fight! After his SP recovered, that is. Would be pretty silly to get into a fight with something tough when he could only use a sword skill or two. 

When he closed the panel, he discovered that the final Boar Pup was gnawing at his ankles again. Apparently the developers had given these mobs very cookie-cutter AIs.

Bahr examined his loot panel as soon as the first two went down, pleased to find that they had both dropped the item he was looking for. Once he closed the loot panel, he noticed that the two remaining Boar Pups were gnawing at his ankles, desperately trying to deal even a modicum of damage. A quick look at his health gauge revealed that his HP wasn't dropping at all. He chuckled at their efforts, marveling at how helpful his new armor was turning out to be. Sure, they wouldn't have hurt him much to begin with, but this was just laughable. He used Blast again and dispatched the remaining two pups with ease.

As soon as they materialized, he checked his loot panel again. No drops this time. A little disappointed, but not discouraged, Bahr closed the loot panel to see that four more Boar Pups had spawned in their place.

"Wow! The respawn rate for you guys is insane. Eager to die?"

And back to the fields he went. He followed his map to an area where the Boar Pups were supposed to spawn, not particularly paying attention to what was actually in front of him. Once he reached the spot, he dismissed his map and noticed that at least four Boar Pups were staring him down. 

"... Oh good... You're here."

All at once, the Boar Pups pounced at him. He instinctively reached for the sword mounted against his lower back, charging it and releasing a Blast Sword Skill in an attempt to hit all of the targets. The first Boar Pup dodged the attack, and it missed the third Boar Pup, which managed to land an attack that dealt no damage due to Bahr's armor. The second and fourth Boar Pups weren't as fortunate, eating his blade and bursting into triangular blue pixels instantly. 

(I will be using Yui's Grace for this thread.)

It had been awhile since Bahr completed the first of the Lessons quests. It had concluded with him delivering a package to Lyle Tealeaf, local NPC Blacksmith extraordinaire. Having turned in that package at the end of a long and frustrating day, Bahr hadn't felt up to completing Lyle's quest at the time. Unfortunately, Bahr was beginning to run out of quests to complete on the first floor, and was reluctantly forced to circle back around to this one. Has he entered Lyle's shop, the NPC immediately started to fire up its scripted sequence. Bahr groaned. 

"Why hello, young traveler! You're just in time. I've been looking for someone to-"

"Collect some Boar Pup Tusks?" Bahr interjected impatiently as he tapped accept on the quest panel that populated, "On it. See you in a bit." With that, he turned and exited the shop, wandering through the city streets toward the gate leading outward as he popped a Yui's Grace to prepare for the task ahead.

Name: Gloves of Caerus
Your Profession: Tailor
Your Rank: 2
Roll ID: 118976
Roll Result: CD12 / LD19
Item Type: Gloves
Tier: 1
Quality: Perfect
Enhancements: +3 LD
Description: "These gloves are rumored to have been worn by Caerus himself, Greek deity of opportunity, luck and favorable moments. They're tan and unremarkable in appearance, but never fail to bring luck to the wearer."
Post Link: http://www.sao-rpg.com/topic/17882-f1-r2-tailor-the-crusty-bahrnacle/?do=findComment&comment=576102

Day 4

Today was the first day Bahr had decided to open up his shop. He had carefully arranged the shelving and display cases, swept up the shop, gotten everything all clean and spiffy, and otherwise straightened everything up. There was only one problem. Bahr frowned as he examined his work, remarking on how empty the shop looked. He only had a single pair of gloves for sale! He rubbed the back of his neck nervously as his lack of foresight caught up with him, barely noticing when the door opened. 

"Oh, hey there! Fancy meeting you here," he said with a grin on his face. A single bead of sweat rolled down the side of his head as the nervousness began settle in. He was totally unprepared!

It was none other than Kityuisa. She perused the shop for a moment, seemingly impressed with it despite its lack of product. Before long, she had selected something - the only pair of gloves in the entire shop. "I'll that these!" she exclaimed enthusiastically, placing the gloves on the counter. "I need more luck..."

Bahr felt conflicted. On the one hand, this would mean that now he didn't have anything in stock. On the other hand, it was exciting that he was making his sale so soon. As he processed the payment, she spoke again. "But for real, how have you been? I love what you've done with the place!"

"Oh, you know. I'm hanging in there. Just trying to get my Tailoring skill leveled up so I can start making some real equipment." He paused for a moment before backpedaling a bit, the nervousness evident in his voice. "N-not that the gloves you picked aren't great! They're actually my best work yet! Here!" He practically shoved the gloves into her hands once the payment was processed. "Thank you for your business!"

It was then that he noticed the order form lying on the table in front of him. He examined it carefully, brows raising. Perfect Armor was a tall order, especially considering he couldn't even make it yet. He took the form and gave her a smile. "I'll get to work on this as soon as I'm able. You'll get a message when it's done."

With that, he retreated to the back of his shop and approached his seeing station. He cracked his knuckles and sat down, getting to work on some new clothes. 

-(3) T1 Materials

+(2) T1 Materials Salvaged

+18 EXP

Tailor Rank increased. 

As Bahr moseyed into the shop, something seemed... off. The placement of the shelves, the items on display, the subtle aroma of teenage girl... All of it seemed strangely familiar to him. As he perused the shop and tried to figure out why it all felt so familiar, a message panel popped up in front of him, catching him by surprise.

Quote

From: @Kirbs

Your order is finished! Sorry about the wait.

His face scrunched up in confusion as the shopkeeper emerged from the back of the shop. Why, it was none other than Kirbs herself. He looked at her, then at the message, then at the rest of the shop, then back at her. Suddenly in clocked. He had been here before! And placed and order, too! It had been so long that he had nearly forgotten all about it. He scratched his head as he approached the counter, trying to think of a way to fit the new trinket in with his existing materials. 

"H-heyyy Kirbs. Here for that item you messaged me about," he said nervously, doing his best to cover up the fact that he had completely forgotten all about their transaction. "Thank you so much for this, you're a lifesaver," he said as he scooped up the trinket, hurriedly rushing out the doors before things got any more awkward.