Randal

“Actually, I found this on the body of the other guy, sorry you had to see that, I know you do not like it. Here have this.” Randal showed her the flute while pulling out a hot drink from his inventory, he had noticed she was shivering though whether it was due to the cold or due to the situation, Randal was unsure.

“I have a theory about something, but I need more proof before I can conclusively say it is the case. The wounds on the body were gnashes and claw marks, and that would indicate that a beast did this, and this flute, I have never seen anything like it before. I think that the NPC back there trained a beast to listen for the call of the flute and was trying to get rid of his companions, but I still do not know why he would do such a thing” Randal offered as a potential scenario. The key to all of this would be the last guy, if he was injured by the beast, it was either because the beast was not expected to betray the flute or that he was attacked by it and was running out of fear, if his injury was a result of the fall, then he could even in cahoots with the other NPC in a plan gone wrong.

“Yes, please, you can start making your way down now, I found a ledge that I am getting off on and starting a new line of ropes down. I can see a small patch of dark colours at the bottom of the ravine.” Randal now more accustomed to abseiling down the side of the ravine managed to reach the bottom much faster than before.

The black patch that he had seen on his way down was the remains of one of the NPCs and a footprint trail of the other seemed to lead away. Randal waited for Ivory to make her way down by checking the body, the NPC was no longer alive but the odd things was that his body was not disintegrating into pixels which meant that there must have been a reason for the body to remain, inside one of the pockets, Randal found an oddly intricate flute attached to a hidden compartment.

Randal finds 2 Mat
LD 12+6=18 | CD 7

Randal watched Ivory run off with a conflict expression on his face, he trusted that she could not get into too much trouble without him for a few moments so he knelt down beside the man and pulled out a hot drink from his inventory, passing it to him, even though it was just an NPC, maybe a little bit of Ivory was rubbing off on him. The NPC accepted the drink and assured Randal that he would be able to make his way back down to the hut in own piece and that if his friends really were alive, that he would rather the duo go and save them. He asked that Randal pass his thanks on to Ivory.

With that Randal ran off after Ivory. She had already spotted a trail of ledges with impacted snow on it, indicating that someone or something had fallen down in that direction. Randal pulled out the vine grown rope that he collected during his interactions with Giovanna the Gathering expert and tied it to a sturdy looking tree. He then asked Ivory to wait for him to make a few points along the way down before following because it is not safe yet.

Randal finds 2 Mats
LD 11+6=17 | CD 9

“Yea? Sweet, check this out, it is kind of embarrassing that the drawing is so crude, but the smithy seemed to know what I was talking about.” Randal started to geek out a little as they read the new quest information. This was definitely exactly what Ivory said, not a good thing, but a quest that did not end at the first step is also a sign of greater loot chances. “Come on, let us go check out what is going on with the rest of them.” Randal led the duo outside and followed the snow that had been marred with footsteps leading them to the area of the new quest marker. When they arrived, an NPC was found wounded and freezing the would stem the blood flow. “Help me please, we were about to pick out the Ginseng when a shadow flashed by and swiped it from us, before we could see it, something clawed at me…the other two, they fell down the ravine. Please, you got to save me…” The NPC said, giving us the option to heal him if we could or wanted to.

Randal looked at Ivory “I do not have heals on me, do you mind?”

Randal finds 1 mat

Randal was very pleased to have his weapon of choice noticed. He had chosen it both due to the fact that he had grown up watching martial art films starring famous artistes like Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee, Ip Man and Chuck Norris, Randal wanted to be like them even if it was just a game and even if it was only for a little bit. He was extra excited to learn that it was rare choice amongst players because it made him feel special. “Oh haha, thanks for noticing, I really am proud of my choices, but I am starting to fight the Swords Art related to the martial arts skills lacking. I actually commission a claw from someone called Macradon. Want to test it out for a bit and see if it works better for me. Besides, I had a really cool idea in mind for the weapon design, want to see it?” Randal offered.

The duo was now at the hut and waited briefly for someone to open the door, but no one came to, when they went inside there was no one around, it would appear that the other NPCs had yet to return.

Suddenly, a quest update occurred, they were supposed to check out the other three areas for clues to what had happened to them and why there were not back yet.

Randal finds 1 mat

Fortunately, Randal’s fall was not broken by a hard concrete floor but instead the pitfall trapped snaked and turned in all manner of ways until Randal was flushed out into a room with no discernible door or window, only a candle lit up one side of the room. A young boy tried to tackle Randal to the ground but was easily sidestepped.

Randal was about to strike back when he realised that his quest objective had changed from “Find Issela’s boy and bring him home” to “Rescue Kagamine from the Faultwarren Bandits.”. Putting two and two together, Randal discovered that he waws 50 percent done with the quest and just needed to find a way out while keeping the Kagamine safe.

Just to be sure,, Randal asked the young boy. “Hold on hold on, I am not here  to hurt you, my name is Randal, I am here to find Kagamine and get him back from the Bandits that run the fort that I saw above. Would that be you?”.

“Yea, my name is Kagamine, did Issela send you? Damn it, if I was not wounded I would have already been out of here.” A voice much brasher than his appearance sounded out. It was apparent that they relationship was not as suggested. “I will go with you if you think you can get out of here but there’s one thing I need from you, there are a bunch of children somewhere here that are being held captive for salve trading if their ransom fails to pay up, we need to help them, if not I refuse to leave.”

Randal finds 2 Mats

When Randal reached the barracks in the small town of Flora, there were not many guards on shift, it would appear that being a guard was too dangerous for many in Flora who would rather become a merchant instead.

Randal asked for someone who could direct him to the nearby county boards and when he got there, he did not see any requests for the Faultwarren bandits. There were only the requests for the usual monster culling or boss sighting explorations. Randal seemed confused at this development for is there was even child kidnapping this was a serious incident.

Nonetheless, Randal made his way to the named Forest to see if there was anything he could do to find the Bandits without any help. Randal spotted a large concrete fortress right in the middle of a moat and as his steps drew closer, the ground opened up and became a trap, he fell into the hole.

Randal finds 2 Mat
LD 12+6=18 | CD 7

Quest Info

Lvl 22 Randal Info
HP 440/440 | Energy 62/62 | Damage 18 (+2 SA) | MIT 20 | ACC 3 | EVA 4 | LD 6 |

After using 100g Protein Powder and Carrot Juice (Protein x2, ACC x1) (+2 DMG. -30 MIT, +1 ACC)

Lvl 22 Randal Info
HP 440/440 | Energy 62/62 | Damage 20 (+2 SA) | MIT 0 | ACC 4 | EVA 4 | LD 6 |

Skills and Equipment

Battle-Ready Inventory

“Come and get it, the freshest fruits and cuts of meat in town.” A fat butcher announced outside an establishment. He was among the many salespeople that littered these streets trying to create business.

Randal was enjoying his time strolling around the streets of one of the NPC filled towns of Flora when he heard the sounds of either a quest or a player crying, both of which were common occurrences no matter where one went. Randal was never one to say no to listening about a quest, information is key. The person crying turned out to be a Fae woman, the Faes are rumored to have magical powers or superhuman-abilities but that part of their lore was not implemented into SAO.

“How can I help you m’am?” Randal posed as a question to her.

She looked up at him and his equipment and started to beg for his help. “My son has been kidnapped by the Faultwarren Bandits.” She lamented.

Randal looked at her quizzically, “Who are they and where can I find them?”

“They have made camp outside of the village near the Forest of the Wavering Mists. I do not have much to reward you for your kind returm but if you speak to some of the town guards they may offer a reward for the capture of the bandits as they have been plaguing this town for quite some time now.” She said.

Randal learned her name and bode farewell to Issela and went to speak to the town guards.

“That’s incredible in and of itself ya know, I still get the jump scares and jitters when something runs at me because I can never tell if my armour is enough to protect me from harm.”

Randal pocketed the white flower together with the long extending roots of the ginseng that was carefully extracted by Ivory into his inventory.

“Even if they are just digitalised code, if you feel bad for the fact that we have to hurt monsters then you probably also feel good that these herbs as part of a quest are going to a good cause to help the sick right?” Randal asked curiously, he wanted to know more about how Ivory thought about these things because she had such a unique approach to the death game.

Following that, both Randal and Ivory returned to the hut to get their reward. Who knew what the information would be, it could be directions, it could be secret cave, it could be destiny.

Randal finds 2 Mats

“ I don’t think they were designed to be cute, think about those snarling teeth, I am surprised you don’t find it scary at all.” Randal offered, remembering a moment in a previous quest where he had to deliver a venomous Warg for the objective to be considered complete. 

“It would definitely be good for there to be more stalwart healers and supporters amongst the players.” Randal said, reflecting on his own obsession with having good enough offensive abilities to tackle the higher tiers of floors.

“If all the minds on this floor was like that, I’m confident in helping you out no matter the situation, but there is a high chance that was just the runt of the litter considering how quickly it was dispatched.” Randal finally remarked.

“Come on, let us look around for that flower and deliver it back to the NPCs, should be easier now that the goats had run away from the wolf.” Randal said pushing aside the snow to reveal some roots.

Randal finds 2 Mat

"Hello? Do you mind helping me craft something according to these specifications?" 

Randal said, looking at the smith behind the counter, all along the shelves were rows of weapons. On the parchment of paper that Randal slides across the counter to the Blacksmith is a crudely drawn diagram of claws. He explains to the smithy that he hopes the claws are retractable so that he can keep them on while traveling without tearing up his own belongings. He hoped that the claws could also be made durable and offer great offensive capabilities. Lastly, he asks that an inscription be written on the wristguards of the claws but the words are inelligible.

The smithy tells Randal that he could probably have the item ready later that day and informs him that there was an inn nearby that he could wait. The smithy would give him a call when the item was ready and sent Randal a friend request. Quickly opening the interface to accept, Randal needlessly said, "Thanks for helping me out, Macradon, I'm Randal.", obviously reading the Smithy's name from the interface.

“umm…you let them bite you..okay…”

Randal sort of muttered to himself and Ivory in a sort of stunned way. The same way someone would you broke into their mind and stole all the common sense in the world away from them. This was no easy feat when from the on start you were beset with the fact that a random virtual reality game had imprisoned thousands of people. Randal came back to himself and questioned.

“Sorry about that, you plan on sticking with this into the later part of the game? Stacking more and more mitigation until not even the boss monsters could phase you?”

Randal asked curiously, he had specialised in evasive properties, opting for the softer and more malleable cloth armour to improve his evasion to the point of pseudo-tankiness.

“I cannot imagine you dragging some wolves around your ankle letting them bit you but that’s pretty cool, when if you tamed one of them, I do not know if anyone has ever tried to tame a familiar that was trying to kill them.”

Randal looked at the area around them and suggested they continue looking for the Ginseng too.

Randal finds 1 mat

“Actually, to be completely blunt with you. I think he has a major case of reading too much manhwa, I’ve seen some and that’s exactly the backstory that happens.” Randal was saying as he watched the almost regularly clumsy girl roll comedically through the snow, Randal thought to himself that if she were to wear a suit, she would make a very cute penguin sliding through the snow, though he did start to worry about bringing her to a high mountain top.

Unexpectedly, while searching for the Ginseng plant but to no avail, only having been the target of goats trying to butt heads with Randal, a sudden cry was heard as a white wolf lunged at Ivory and the sound of bodies colliding filled the air. The wolf was gnawing at Ivory and in a split moment, Randal mustered all the speed he could get on the frictionless snow and swung a mighty right hook, activating his Sword Art and taking away a quarter of his energy. The wolf never looked up or took its maw away from Ivory’s shoulder, so it had no idea what had hit it so hard that its jaw unhinged and loosened its grip on its prey before blasting it down the side of the mountain into nothingness.

Randal saw that that was the end and squatted down beside Ivory, he then realised that there was barely any change in her health, “Erm, how much armour are you wearing….?”

[0 Hate] Ivory: 409/410 HP | MIT: 62|

[1 Hate] Randal: 440/440 HP | 46/62 EN| Damage: 11 (+2 SA) | MIT: 20 | EVA: 4 | ACC: 3 |
BD: 10 (Major Crit)
Randal uses 16 Energy to hit the wolf with All Might doing : (11+2+2)*17 = 255 DMG
Cooldowns: All-Might [0/3]

Tundra Wolf: 0/200 HP | 60 DMG | MIT: 0 |

One more eval for myself thanks

“I was already working at the time, my company decided that SAO was going to be the next hit thing and way paying us to become renowned in the game to promote the company, it was a pretty genius idea, if only I could log out.” Randal said with a shrug. He noted Ivory’s moment of despondence and moved on from it, everyone had their story to tell, and they would if they wanted to. Seeing as how she was as lost as he way when it came to any special way of finding the spot of Ginseng, Randal and Ivory started following the quest marker which was a semi-large area, there were a few groups of mountain goats and other animals scattered into 2 different piles and they would have to search both. This time Randal did not try to jump along the footholds but found a safe path to slide down the snow in.

Randal finds 1 Mat

Eventually, Randal‘a state of mind transformed from completely confused to semi-concussed, the water didn’t seem as heavy as before, his body moved slightly to be more aligned with the natural chakras of the waterfall and was figuratively sucked into it. 

In his own experiences, an enduring painful experience will go either one of two ways, the person will break and succumb under the brutal nature of the situation or they will grow to be resistant and stronger because it. As of this moment, Randal had simultaneously experienced both in a short amount of time and perhaps this was the growth that the masters expected in them (or just him).

Randal felt that the waterfall was filling his fist with power, the same kind of driving power that was beating down in his shoulders and the same kind of relentlessness, never failing to hit Randal and inspiring Randal to never give up in hitting something else be it his Inner demons or his outer ones.

Natural LD : 20 (Total damage bonus +6)

“Oh! Your family used to  farm ginseng? Do you happen to know what are the locations where it usually grows! Our best bet is probably to combine both the location that the quest is asking us to and for you to see if anything stands out to you.” 

Randal cheerfully said pleased with ivory’s discovery. 

“Well, if there’s nothing else we should probably get going then.” 

Before Randal could leave his seat there NPCs didn’t forget to warn him to be careful, the herb usually has wildlife close to which means that monster attacks were not unlikely and that they should be guarded against those eventualities. Randal thanked them for the warning and gave it thought, if the problem is monsters and not mobs then maybe he would be able to avoid combat since Ivory was not a fan of it. Though he thought back to some of the quests that he participated in and all of the combat that that entailed and hoped that she could find a way to avoid it.

“Should we? Who knows what the information would be but at least its not something that involves murdering another creature in the game. We can even do it while we work towards getting you that familiar and if I am lucky, their information might point me in the right direction.” Randal said out-loud to Ivory and the trio, after asking a bit more about what they needed, they told Randal and Ivory to follow them into the house to collect some equipment before setting out to leave. “It could be a trap so be careful.” Randal said to Ivory in a hushed whisper. The cabin looked like something they would find in the Alps, but it was not used very often which was evident from the snow that piled up all around the house obscuring the majority of it from obvious view. Inside, they were offered a seat on some wooden seats and a cup of hot chocolate, they then sat down begun to explain that once every few months, a special flower would bloom around the peaks of the mountain that helped sick people in the town who were suffering from a severe form of hypothermia. They showed Randal and Ivory a picture of the flower in a book and told them that animals tended to be spotted near the areas where the flowers grew. There were four areas on this mountain that they were going to search, and Randal and Ivory would be tasked to travel to one of the four locations.

12 Snacks For Ariel

“Well, there goes the element of surprise if it was needed, I suppose.” Randal said softly, he jumped down and slid down the snow feet first, arriving quickly at Ivory and helping her up, dusting the white-coloured snow from her white-coloured hair. At that point, the NPCs had turned to face the commotion with their weapons drawn, and so Randal brashly asked, “Hey there fellas, what lovely weather we are having no? Do you mind if we ask you some questions?” The NPCs seemed to lower their guard slightly when they realised that they were not being attacked nor where their “attackers” lizardmen or other kinds of monsters. Although the first impression certainly was not favourable, they did not have any grudge against the two players and so readily answered any question that was not too invasive. “Let’s start with this, do you happen to know anything about the Temple of Three?” The trio of them exchanged a look before explaining that they were simple mountaineers that collected special herbs for the town and that they were in need of a fourth person as one of their original members had fallen sick. They explained that if helped, they would provide the players with some information that might be of use to them, though they did not specify what they would say.

Randal finds 2 Mats

Day 22 ( 53 exp)

Randal used attempted 8 crafts and failed 3 times.
He managed to salvage 1 of the failures, using up 7 materials in total. (14 exp)
He made 5 Meals.

3 T1E1 Meal (12 exp)
3 T2E2 Meal (16 exp)
3 T2E3 Meal (11 exp)

Thread Summary Randal

Thread Summary Alkor

NIGHT:

Rolling US for Randal.
ID: 188954 | LD: 2

“My name is Randal, thanks again.” Randal took another look at the man that spoke to him and scanned him from head to toe, he looked like he had made his way around the Aincrad several times over. “How did you manage to get here? Was it just by sheer luck that you came to my rescue?” Randal initiated a conversation with him. Randal owed him a life debt now. “If there is anything someone like me can offer you, I will do my best to acquiesce to a request, if not then I will repay this favour.” Randal looked around the area, if the mysterious man had not done this quest yet he should. In a few moment, Randal had already accumulated a large amount of wealth from doing some safe gathering, it is quite curious how much he or the other player would get if they defeated monsters and collected the rewards.

Randal smugly looked at her and said, “Whaaa you mean you’ve been lost this whole time, I had no idea” He sang jokingly, Randal looked around at the fact that on the way up they almost sort of avoided the roads somehow and managed to find their way up a mountain peak was already an impressive feat of its own. “Do not worry about it, I am enjoying the company too.” Randal then went on to suggest they approach the NPCs to see what the deal was with the hut and if they could get their bearing on properly, Randal also knew that at some point, Ivory would have to start looking for her familiar, so he was content to hang around and explore the floor until then.

He told Ivory to watch her step, pointing out rocks that jutted out of the snow so that she could use them as footholds as they made their way towards the three characters in the distance. There was little snowfall, so Randal could see them clearly, they were wearing white and grey parkas and were speaking in muffled tones though the wind made any attempt to overhear the conversation from a distance nearly impossible.

In a tremendous bout of luck, Randal was saved by a mysterious player. He crouched down next to Randal and slashed at Nemo with his 1-Handed Sword, taking away all but sliver of Nemo’s health. Blood began to seep from Nemo’s visage and a blight spread from the would taking away what was left of it. Nemo was subdued, beaten down by this stranger who saved Randal.  He sort of nagged Randal for taking a bigger bite than he should have but also praised him for his efforts. All that was meaningless in front of true strength, Randal was helpless once again. Previously, he had a friend <<Night>> help him and he vowed then to get stronger but look at him now, different place, different enemy, and different Ally but some situation. It left a bitter taste in his mouth but there was nothing he could do. Randal got up and thanked profusely. “You really saved my life there, thank you for all of your help, let’s see what Nemo has to say for himself.”

The dragon was withering away, flakes of its scales, skin and body were crumbling apart and the same young man Nemo was revealed to be inside. It snarled at Randal and the intruder before giving up. In its human form, it said that only the strong should be allowed in here and although reluctantly said that the power of your companions is the power of the individual too and gave Randal a crystal saying he had earned the right to be here, but he should not be too proud of the way that he did.