Koga

Koga

Boar

Koga watched the girl (well, the boar too, because The man didn't really fancy getting gored today, but he was paying attention to Noctua too) as she charged her Sword Art. So far so good. Until it wasn't...The boar shuffled as it stared down Koga, and the man could see the girl flinch and panic, sending the Sword Art out too early. The violet glowing blade dimmed into nothing, only narrowly passing over its thick hide.

It was the boar's turn now, and boy, he was still angry at Koga. He huffed and puffed and if there were a houze, he'd try to blow it over, even if he was one of the three little piggies. The boar squealed angrily before charging at Koga, but the boy, still on his toes stepped the side and span out of the way, swing his blade as he did so. The virtual metal singed through the air cleanly as it too narrowly missed its target.

Koga wound up right beside Noctua as the boar skidded to a stop, finally realizing it had missed its target. "Hey, relax, don't worry. I'm right here with ya. You can't use a Sword Art again yet, so you got two options, wait for it to recharge, or just go at it with basic attacks. Whichever one you go with, I got your back, you don't gotta worry."

@Noctua

Koga could taste dirt in his mouth as he got onto his hands and knees. He spit onto the ground in an attempt to rid himself of the foul substance and wiped his mouth with the back of his sleeve. 'Damn it...' if he couldn't even kill a few boars without being saved, how could he ever expect to get up to the frontlines? Koga reached out for his sword, which had fallen a little bit aways from him and picked it up, getting onto his knees to sheath it.

"Are you alright? That was a nasty fall." said the other player. Koga couldn't look at the man's face even as he offered him a hand up. Koga took it and hoisted himself onto his feet, dusting himself off as he did so. "You didn't have to do that..." the man replied, looking at the ground, "I could have handled them...but...I guess that could've ended badly so...thanks. I appreciate the help." Koga finally pulled his sullen gaze off the dirt and looked towards the other player, before offering a hand of his own, "The name's Koga. Yours?"

@Yukiro

Koga

When Koga got to the so caller 'garden', his jaw hit the floor. If this was what passed for a garden in Aincrad he couldn't wait to see what forests were like. Lush trees covered the ground, and the sound of river could be heard way off in the distance. "Damn," the boy muttered to himself, "This place is frikking huge..." and even 'huge' was an understatement by the looks of it. The boy took one last good look at the place before starting to move in towards the garden.

Koga didn't get too far before spotting another player. It was girl, who was looking around for...something...what, Koga couldn't guess, maybe materials, but the man doubted it. "Hey," he called out to her, "ya look a little lost. Need any help?" Not that Koga knew his way around this gigantic place anyways but...hey maybe he could lend a hand anyways. The black-clad man approached the woman with a kind smile, "or you just here taking in the sights?"

@Nora

Sure thing! Feel free to hit me up for a thread anytime!

Koga

Boar

The other swordsman's running footsteps could be heard as he ran towards Koga and the boar. The boar turned to try and defend itself but the swords man stepped out of the way and impaled the creature. The green bar next to the boar's name began to drain, yellow, then red before he stepped back.

"...Do it."

Koga nodded and brought his sword down to his side. One step forward. Go. The man started sprinting towards the boar, about to deliver the killing blow. 'Crap.' Just as Koga was about to deliver thr final blow, the boar, not willing to die yet, let out another desperate squeal as it charged him. It was too late to back off now, all Koga could do was dive to the side. The sound of clattering gear could be heard as the man landed badly on shoulder and rolled onto his side, a cloud of dust erupting around him.

@Yukiro

Koga

Boar

"Right, no jinxing. I keep forgetting that games can hate the player." As soon as Noctua had finished her thought, the tall grass to the right of the trail began to rustle. Koga stopped dead in his tracks and put an arm out in-front of Noctua, narrowing his eyes as he watched the spot. A boar, furry and ugly walked into the middle of the trail and stopped. The beast turned and looked at the two players, kicking up dirt with it's front hoof as it snarled at them. Koga let out a relieved sigh and let his arm fall to his side. Just a boar. Easy enough right? "Well Noctua, nows a good time to start learning how to fight." Koga said as he unsheathed his blade, giving it a quick spin as he started to walk towards the beast. "So, first things first. Sword Arts. If you're gonna do any meaningful damage, you gotta know how to use them. Form and timing is everything. Prepare your strike," as Koga spoke, he got into a fighting stance and began to raise his weapon above his head. As he did so, the blade began to glow a deep crimson. "And then, once you feel the Sword Art activate..." the man quickly dashed forward, stepping to the side of the boar, bringing the long curved blade into a cleaving arc against the boar. The beast flew backwards with a squeal and rolled a few feet before getting back onto its feet and turning towards Koga. "You drive it home, give it everything you got."

Obtained This Thread

>> Tier One Materials (1)

@Noctua

Koga

Boars

Koga could hear the other player land his blow, and the boar bursting into bright red digital fragments a moment later. Well, it looked like Koga had some catching up to do here. The man kept his eyes carefully trained on the boar as it kicked up more dirt. It huffed once more and charged, a cloud of dirt behind it as it attempted to gore Koga with its tusks. But Koga was quicker than that. The man stepped out of the way again, and attempted another slash at the boar's side. The blade whistled cleanly through the air as the boar went by. 'Damn, I missed...' Koga thought to himself as he skidded to a stop and faced the boar again who slowly turned its way back around to face him.

The other player hadn't stepped in yet. That could only mean he was watching and waiting to step in if need be...'Looks like I've got an audience...best not disappoint.'

@Yukiro

Koga

Boars

Before Koga even knew it, something else dashed passed him. To the man's surprise, the first boar he'd hit burst into bright red fragments, as did one more. Koga turned to look at whatever had been responsible for stealing his kill...not that he minded since he hadn't really been planning on fighting four boars to begin with but that little instinctive annoyance in the back of his head was still there. But Koga remembered, if he died in-game, there was no respawn. He wasn't about to complain about getting some help. It was another player, clearly a few levels above him. "Nice job," Koga said as he turned back to look at the remaining two boars, "I'll take the one on the left, you take the right?"

Koga stepped toward his target once more. The before dug its hooves into the dirt and snorted before charging at Koga. There was ample time for the black-clad sword wielder to step out of the way, and as he did so he delivered a quick slash to the boar's side causing it squeal as it fell, rolled, and got back on its feet.

@Yukiro

Nice to meetcha too Cordelia :D looking forward to threading with ya!

Koga's Stats And Equipment

Boars

ID: 126857

BD against Boar 1: 5 +1 = 6 >>Success<<

Sword Art: Rage Blow [x2]

DMG: 3 x 2 = 6 - 0 = 6

Koga knew he had the element of surprise. Okay, well these were AI, but the point was he could initiate an attack before the boars did. The man drew his weapon as he approached the two boars, before yelling loudly as he charged forward, breaking into a full sprint. Just as the man closed the gap between himself and closest boar, the two boars lifted their heads and looked in his direction...as did two more he hadn't seen hiding behind the tall grass. 'Damn, too late to back down now though.' he thought to himself as his blade began to glow red. Rage Blow. The luminous blade bit into the first boar's torso as the man let out another cry. A bright red gash trailed behind the blade as it cleaved its way through the virtual flesh. The boar flew backwards with a cry as the other three boars turned to look at their attacker. "Dinner, here I come..." Koga muttered to himself as he switched to a defensive stance, bringing his sword up in front of him.

@Yukiro

Koga was watching some boars as they grazed lazily on the grass that grew in the plains near the Town of Beginnings. It felt stupid, to be planning out how to kill a few boars when there were others planning out how to kill bosses and clear dungeons in the floors above him, but hey, even they started where he was right? And if he had any hope of catching up to them, he was gonna have to suck it up and grind it out. There wasn't really much of choice in the matter. It was either this, or die trying to kill something slightly stronger because he was being an idiot. No, Koga was crazy and a little stupid, but not that crazy and stupid. The man sighed as he rolled his shoulders and spoke to himself, "Welp, those boars ain't gonna kill themselves. Better get to it." It was only two boars after all. How hard could that be?

@Yukiro

Hows it goin everyone! You can call me Koga in and out of character. I've enjoyed SAO for a long time (mostly the actual SAO arc lol, but the others ain't half bad either) and got back into it when I stumbled on Alicization on Funimation. I've been roleplaying for a number of year and count it among my many hobbies. Uhhhh, I'm really into gaming and game design (currently working on a degree that'll hopefully help in that department), music, writing and uhm...oh yeah, I love food! Feel free to find me on DIscord or drop me a DM! Always happy to thread, so don't be afraid to message me. Excited to thread with you all!

Koga

By the time Koga turned back around to look at his party-mate, she'd already equipped her own weapon, a rapier. "Rapier, huh? Not my personal favorite but its fast as hell. Good choice." He commented as they started walking again. "Thank you for agreeing to stay in a party with me..." he heard Noctua say as they scanned the area for any more materials. "Don't mention it," Koga replied, "MMOs can be tough if you don't party up. Even if it is just a simple fetch quest. Plus, I don't mind having some company. Makes things less boring, ya know?" Koga looked over to Noctua as he spoke giving her a small smile as he did so.

It wasn't much longer before Noctua spotted something and ran over to it, and picked it up. Thankfully nothing jumped out at her as she did so, that would've been a terrible start. "Don't jinx us," Koga said with a chuckle at Noctua's comment about luck. "But yeah, we got lucky. Hopefully we won't have to wander to far from town. I haven't really looked too far beyond the starting areas, so I dunno what's out there."

Obtained

>>Tier 1 Materials (1)

@Noctua

*cough* I could use one if you're still making them *cough* Or the files to make it, either works?

Koga

"Okay, that seems simple enough. Dumb, but simple."

"You forgot annoying as hell, but yeah, that about sums it up." Koga replied to Noctua as they neared the town exit. NPCs bustled around them, some trying to sell them things, others just adding 'life' to the place.

"Okay, so we go and find things. That doesn't sound horrible..." Noctua said, to which Koga could only chuckle light-heartedly, "I mean, no, it's not horrible the first few times. But holy hell after about the fifth time you'll want nothing to do with them, trust me." Then she asked him about battle...Koga kept his eyes forward as he walked, trying his best not to let his concern show through the cracks...he could teach her some of the basic things right? No way that could go wrong..."I might just need some pointers, but I will get it and be useful, I promise." Koga couldn't help but laugh. Not at her, but more so how determined she was to prove herself. Like she had anything to prove to him of all people. It wasn't like he'd done much thus far. "I'm sure you will be," he said to her kindly as they finally exited the town and safe zone. Koga opened his inventory as they walked, reequipping his weapon, the curved sword when glowing into existence at his side. "Well, honestly, there's no good answer to that question. We could run into mobs along the way, that wouldn't surprise me. If this were a more specific quest than just 'find five random materials' I'd say that we would definitely find some guarding the materials, but I don't see that happening." the man shrugged as they entered the plains of grass that surrounded the Town of Beginnings and began to follow the northward trail towards the forests. "I guess we'll just have to wait and see if we run into anything. If we do, they'll probably be so low level we won't have to really worry about getting too hurt. I can give you some pointers if it comes to that." he offered.

Even though they were still near the town, Koga's eyes wandered back and forth across the trail and lo and behold, there was an ingot there. Who woulda thunk it? Koga couldn't help but start laughing. "No way," he said as he went to go pick up the item. The man tossed it into the air, and caught it as it fell back down before it disappeared into his inventory. "Well, that's one down."

Obtained:

>> Tier 1 Material (1)

Koga

Fetch quests. Why did it have to be a fetch quest? They were awful! It was literally just a list of chores. Start at point A, go to point B, don't die! Get item C, return to point A. Oh yeah, don't die again. Profit? If there was one thing Koga thought that the gaming world could go without, it was fetch quests...and underwater missions...and escort missions...although by the looks of it, this may become an unplanned escort mission too...well, hopefully Noctua was entertaining by the very least.

Koga let out an exacerbated sigh, not at Noctua's question, although it could be misconstrued that way, but rather the quest itself. "So," Koga began, "a fetch quest is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. Go get item, come back, turn over item, get a shamefully small amount of col and exp. Pretty lame, but right now, I need every bit of experience points I can get my hands on." The man turned around and shoved his hands into the pockets of his coat as he started to walk towards the town's exit, "On the point of crafting materials. My best guess is to start walking north towards the forests. Hopefully we'll find stuff on the way, but I'd be willing to bet we'll find things in the forest itself too." Koga honestly had no clue where any of the crafting material drops were in this game. Logically though, it made sense...hopefully it wouldn't take them forever to find it.

Koga

The Party prompt disappeared, only to be replaced by 'Party created'. "I'm Noctua," the girl replied, suddenly blushing a little. She must not have known that the Form Party prompts showed the other usernames...oh...well crap. Now here's something you gotta understand about Koga. He is always for helping others, and showing them the ropes. However, he also really, really likes it when people can pull their own weight...and since Koga was trying to get to the frontlines as fast as possible, this might put a slight obstacle in his path. But then again parties weren't permanent. And besides, maybe she had played other MMOs and just solo'd like he usually did. Certainly everything would turn out okay.

"I haven't played anything like this at all before..." Cue the sound of shattering glass.

Koga put on his best smile, eyes blinking rapidly. It wouldn't take much for someone to see through his thinly veiled disguise. "N-never?" he asked before shaking his head. This was fine. Whatever, he didn't mind teaching a newbie the ropes...but...if something happened to her because something he told her was wrong? Thankfully the boy's thoughts were cut off by Noctua's voice, "Since you're the party lead, you have to start the quest for us right?" Well, at least she knew that much.

"Right, sorry," Koga apologized before hitting the accept button on the quest prompt. a plain white box with the quest title and objectives appeared before both the players while Zakariah spoke, "Alrighty then! I need you to go fetch me crafting materials, please. About five will do. Doesn't matter what they are, just any five crafting materials. And hurry back!" Sure enough, the objective for the quest read, 'Go fetch five (5) Tier one materials and give them to Zakariah.' Koga groaned as his head fell forward. "I hate fetch quests..." he mumbled. This day just kept getting better and better...

@Noctua

Koga

Just as soon as Koga was about to hit that little blue checkmark, a voice sounded from behind him, "I really hope these will help me survive." Koga turned around to look at whoever was speaking. It was a brunette haired girl, still wearing the starter gear, just like he was. "Honestly, anything we can get will help." the man shrugged. It wasn't like this gear was gonna do them any good up on the higher floors, but it was going to take some serious grinding to get even halfway there. From what Koga had heard, the Assault Teams had an easy 50 or 60 levels on them. "Fancy a party member for these?" she asked of him. Again, Koga shrugged, "Eh, why not. Ain't gonna say no to some company. The name's Koga." the man said, gesturing with his hand and sending the party invite to...Noctua, he read from the party invite prompt. Huh, interesting username

Koga

Well, Koga figured everyone had to start somewhere. And technically everyone started at the Town of Beginnings so...here he was...At this point in the game everyone knew of Zakariah and his starter quests...God, starter quests...Masa-no, Koga couldn't believe he'd been in the game for this long and was only now starting the beginner quests...if only Tsuki-Koga shook the thought from his head. He needed to get his [censored] together. He needed to start working on getting out of here. He had to catch up to the Elite Teams. And boy was that one hell of level gap....

"Ah, so you're new to Sword Art Online are you? Well, let me show you some tricks to help you survive." Zakariah said as Koga approached. Koga rolled his eyes at the "new to SAO" bit. No one was new anymore...but, that being said he still needed the help. He'd take anything he could get right now.

@Noctua