Tanoshi

As the boy was making his way towards the location of the quest, a thick stream of fog were rolling in and nothing was discernible in the mist. It was as if the whole land was being covered by a black and white blanket. If he didn't keep track of time, he would had thought it was night time. Interesting... He grinned as he knew that if a fog was to roll in, chances were, entertaining things could happen. It did. As he was treading along the long lines of trees, trying to find a way out of this obscure condition, noises were heard. Even if his eyes were blinded, Tanoshi's ears were still working properly, he could perceive even the slightest movements of objects around him. He heard what he believed was the sounds of the rustling leaves not so far away from him, possibly in the bushes. He drew his sword as he kept on moving forward. 

How far could it possibly be?

Tanoshi questioned himself as he had been travelling for a great deal of time. He had seen different kinds of mobs on this floor, the tropical flora, all sort of beautiful things, but he had gotten tired of repeatedly encountering them. He wished that something intriguing would happen, he wanted to stop this boredom, there was nothing fun of just walking. It would actually feel nice to take a lazy nap in this tropical forest. He thought. With the relaxing breeze and the scenery, they would make this location a fine napping zone. Tanoshi covered his mouth with his hand as he was yawning. He wanted to pass out sleeping right where he was standing. All sorts of sounds in this woodland, combined together would make a charming lullaby, the lullaby of the forest with bird chirping, the movements of the bushes and leaves as they came to interact with the wind. He shook it all off and slightly slap himself, walking deeper into the forest.

As he was taking his first footsteps on the muddy path, he had already seen other players. There was a party of players, keeping a distance of several feets away from Tanoshi, there were farming, killing different kinds of monsters which the boy could recognize as animals that inhabited jungles. He would love to join them and fight the beasts, unfortunately, maybe not this floor. Despite Tanoshi having a good armor, his statistics were still lower than the expected ones of the 6th floor. Luckily, as Vanessa said, the quest he was going for was scaled for different levels. Now that he had noticed it, the muddy ground he was walking on, it felt real. It could be described as a bit slippy and it was extremely uncomfortable to move. Moreover, he felt disgusted. If the mud was real instead of just strings of ones and zeros, he would had never walked on them. He proceeded on walking straight up ahead while also pay close attention for materials, it would be nice if he could get some more for his store.

<<Armor of The High Empress>>

What a name for an armor! Maybe it was supposed to be a girl armor, anyways, I don't really care, it's strong.

Within a few clicks, the armor had been equipped on Tanoshi's upper-body, granting him total protection, the golden armor shining under the light of the tropical sun. He figured that this quest ought to be really difficult, so difficult that Vanessa told him to get a new armor and an immolation potion. He hoped that this would go well. The boy then turned to Vanessa, the tomato colored-hair girl standing besides him, asking out of curiosity.

"What am I supposed to do in this quest?"

"Fight an NPC" Vanessa replied hastily, not providing further explanation.

He rolled his eyes to Vanessa's "clear" explanation.

"Just keep walking until you see him, you can't miss it." The girl added before waving goodbye to Tanoshi and returned to floor 1 using the Teleportation Pad.

Upon seeing her disappearance, Tanoshi drank a bottle of immolation and proceeded into the forest, looking for this NPC she was talking about.

Tanoshi backed away as the ending of the encounter was drawing near. His morality was being tested against. He didn't know whether he should interfere and stop Violet from continuing what she was trying to do as that man over there would be gone in real life if by any means his HP dropped to 0 in the game. However, Tanoshi saw it. Tanoshi saw how wrong the man was, he seemed to had lost his mind, charging mindlessly into the battle, only to kill. Would it do the world any good if the man was gone? Maybe. That man over there could had killed many people. He deserved to be killed, to be eradicated from this world. Tanoshi bit his lips and observed from a safe distance, knowing that Violet would get the hang of it. Not like he would die painfully, that was a good way for people like him to meet their demise.

On the other side of the plains, Yvelxis was being attacked by Violet. With every slashes, he knew that he would die soon.

"You seemed weak enough for me to kill..."

He replied to Violet's question earlier, his face forming a lunatic smile. He didn't even bother attacking Violet, he felt pathetic, weak, he knew that he would die so what was the point of resisting. No. He began to run, making his way out of Violet's claws. He was breathing heavily, exhausted from the aftermath of the fight but it was alright now, he was safe. Or at least he thought so. He stumbled and lost his balance, rolling on the grassy ground. He was done for, what a nice place to be dying at.

Tanoshi | HP: 20/20 | EN:2/2 | DMG: 4 | MIT: 0 | ACC: 1 | EVA: 0 | BLD: 12

Violet | 219/220 HP | 17 - 4 + 2 = 15/22 EN | 3 DMG | 14 MIT | +1 ACC (+2 w/ Dahlia) | BLEED | +1 LD | 1 RECOVERY | KEEN (activated next turn) 
DMG: 3 * 4 = 12 DMG

vs.

 Yvelxis | HP: 36/80 | EN: 3/8 | DMG: 2 | ACC: 3 

"800 Col? That's a good price."

The boy grinned as he looked at the screen and accepted the offer, obtaining the item and thus, giving the girl standing besides him 800 Col. As he received the item, he gave it a quick scan.

"Band of Fire and Steel? Looks nice."

Immediately after that, he slipped the ring on his middle finger, admiring how well it was made. It seemed that the ring was made in great details, now that he had received this ring, along with the guild bonus, he would be able to become a better blacksmith.

"Thank you for the item girls! I will pay another visit soon, I guess."

Tanoshi gave Moro and Maru a slight bow before heading towards the door, exiting the shop, making his way down the dirt path.

"I can choose how it looks like? Nice!" Tanoshi considered several designs he would love his ambition item to have. He wanted it to look fashionable, an item which could be used to further enhance his skills and make him looked fashionable would be truly neat. He slightly scratched the back of his head, drowning in his own thoughts. It should be something that he could wear, something that he could bring anywhere, maybe something that was small. After a moment of silence, Tanoshi spoke up.

"I think I'd love to have it taken the form of a ring, can you do it for me?"

I've definitely gone crazy.

For real Tanoshi? They are strangers!

They might be nice, but they can stab your back!

Chill Tano, it's unlikely that they will draw their swords and kill you.

Strings of thoughts were sent flying through the mind of young Tanoshi. He felt as if he had gone crazy. He did notice the sudden change in his reactions, they were strange, he went from a scared and panicking kid to a nice boy, asking those strangers for a heartwarming campfire. How cute! Anyways... His eyeballs moved rapidly as he looked at each of them, counting. Five. That was the number of players gathering around the campfire that he built, which was supposed to be for his quiet and peaceful night, things went in a totally unexpected direction. Though, it'd be safer in number, in case a floor 100 boss suddenly spawned, all of them would meet their demise, still better than dying alone under the night's sky. As Tanoshi was sitting on the green grass, keeping a safe distance from the burning fire, he tried to remember their names. Okay so we have the creepy boy, introducing his name as HD, HD as in HD TV maybe? Then, someone said their name was Marry, maybe the orange girl. Oh, and Androiida is the shy girl! Finally, we have Bakugo, a boy that doesn't speak Japanese influently. Maybe not a native speaker. The boy thought as he was trying to remember the names of those newly-met players, it was likely that he got all of them wrong, as he had never been good with names. For a while, all Tanoshi did was remaining silent, eyeing them talking with each other, until Mari gave them a proposal.

"If some of you help provide me with a savoury meal, I'll let each of you ask me a question. Anything. I've been around a while - and am a returning frontliner. Information is very, very useful in this world. More so than some scraps of food. Right?"

Tanoshi figured that Mari would be starving as she was offering food for good information. Or was it just the girl being nice? Tanoshi wouldn't really care as the deal sounded good. At the same time, the boy was being hungry as well, haven't putting anything in his stomach for half a day to save his little amount of Col.

"Food for information? Sounds good to me!"

@Mari @Basuke @Andromeda @HoaxDemon

Tanoshi was flipping the pages of the virtual note of what the store had back and forth, checking up on different kinds of items in this game. There were so many items that he had never heard of and they all seemed to be really interesting. Then, he flipped back to the first page, the page with the ambition item and the materials. They are both a bit too expensive for my wallet... I can't get both of them. He sighed and looked over the two girls with a smile.

"You are as energetic as ever huh? It would be nice if you can get me an ambition item, really need them for my blacksmithing skill."

The door slowly opened as a figure made his way in. It was Tanoshi, a boy seemingly in his teenage years. He was once again visiting Simonne's store, there were a lot of stores available but Simonne's was the only one that he wanted to shop at, possibly because she had high-quality products. The boy walked up to the counter and quickly scanned through the prices of different items. At first, he was only here for some materials, but now, he also wanted to buy something else. He looked around to find the two energetic girls of the store.

"Right..."

The boy opened his menu and scrolled through his tiny list of equipment and items. He felt poor and weak, it just felt so pathetic to have those few stuffs to carry around. He missed that feeling of always carrying a wallet stuffed with cash back in real life, when he was living in prosperity, having anything he would possibly desire, except for one thing. Freedom. Still, all of that were still better than being stucked in this game of death. If he made a mistake, he would be killed. He would live a meaningless life, dying in a meaningless way, no-one would even learn of his demise, maybe his parents would... but he didn't really reckon they would grief for long. Then, he found it. The armor that was crafted by a fellow blacksmith, a powerful one he would say, high-quality. Up to this point, he still hadn't learnt the details of the quest and the reason that he needed to head into this wet, muddy forest. He hoped that it would worth his time.

"Twenty-four?"

Tanoshi restated what Solei just said, confusion in his tone. He had never expected a 25-year-old guy to look this young. Just a slight look at Solei gave Tanoshi an impression that the boy would be around fourteen or fifteen, he looked just like a high school student. Maybe it was just Tanoshi's expected appearance for someone in their mid-20s that was wrong. He sticked his tongue out playfully and added.

"You seem really young, thought you were around 15 or 14..."

Just at Tanoshi ended his response, Solei asked Tanoshi what his age was, a question which Tanoshi tilted his head to a side to. He hadn't kept track of time since he got here, but it felt like a really long time so he figured that he would be in his early 20s by now.

"When I entered the game, I was like...16? However, I don't even know how old I am at the moment."

"To be upfront with you, which I think is both right and fair, before we do anything, I should say... I don't trust you. And you probably shouldn't trust me, since we just met. I think if we get that out in the open, we'll do a lot better than scheming and watching each other. It's not like I mean you any harm or anything, I just don't trust people immediately. If you're okay with that, I would still love to help you with your quest."

I have been a total idiot, what have I been thinking? Still, can I possibly trust her? Only time will tell.

Tanoshi smiled an gave a nod to Kashima. She was just like him, being cautious, hard to trust strangers immediately. It felt good to hear her telling him that, so that Tanoshi could lower his guard on her, he would rather focus on this quest than spending the entire day watching that seemingly innocent girl. Actually, from the beginning, Kashima wasn't acting suspicious or anything, it was just on Tanoshi's part that he couldn't trust people he just met easily. He hoped that he could somehow, become friends with her, it would feel nice to know someone else other than Vanessa.

"That's really honest..." He responded to everything that Kashima just said, scratching the back of his head. "I appreciate it, to be honest, I don't really trust you as well, it's because I don't trust strangers easily. So....let's not waste each other time and proceed further into the quest, shall we?"

Tanoshi turned his back and walked deeper into the garden, walking past the flowers on the sides of the path which emitted a serene scent. He believed that the quest would go down fruitfully.

Crafting:
Roll ID: #135870 CD: 5 (fail)
Roll ID: CD: 8 (salvage), LD: 7+5=12 (keep materials)

Tanoshi felt lucky because he was having Violet with him. If, by any chance, he went out in the fields all by himself and somehow met a Red Player, he would had been killed. This is one hell of an experience, isn't it? Tanoshi remained serene, not panicking because he knew that Violet would be able to take care of the "evil guy". The boy slowly looked at the red-haired player, shaking on the ground because of the wound inflicted by Violet. A smile of satisfactory formed on the face of the boy. Even though killing wasn't a right thing to do, this guy truly deserved it, he'd probably killed several weak players, those that couldn't handle things by themselves. If he was killed by Violet, she would be doing Aincrad a big favor.

As for Yvelxis the player-killer, he just couldn't believe what had just happened, he just seriously messed with a high-level player, standing guard here wouldn't be a sensible choice. The red player slowly stood up, backing away, trying to find an escape route. Yvelxis was panicking, realizing what he'd gotten himself into. It was likely that he needed to fight his way out. He backed away, raising his sword, concentrating on Violet's movements so that he could lock her attacks.

Tanoshi | HP: 20/20 | EN:2/2 | DMG: 4 | MIT: 0 | ACC: 1 | EVA: 0 | BLD: 12

Violet | 219/220 HP | 19 - 4 + 2 = 17/22 EN | 3 DMG | 14 MIT | +1 ACC (+2 w/ Dahlia) | BLEED | +1 LD | 1 RECOVERY | KEEN (deactivated for next turn) 
DMG: 3 * 4 = 12

 Yvelxis | HP: 60 - 12 = 48/80 | EN: 4/8 | DMG: 2 | ACC: 3 

Of course, Tanoshi chuckled, wondering what he had been thinking. Indeed, Solei seemed to had mentioned an orphanage recently in the conversation, but Tanoshi was too focused in gathering materials so he didn't pick every pieces of information up. A job in the orphanage sounded like a really nice job, you would get to help children whose parents are long gone. He wanted to apply to a similar job when he get to leave this death game. He should stop thinking too much about the future and focus on the road ahead instead. So Tanoshi kept walking, paying close attention to materials.

"Hey so, how old are you?" Tanoshi asked Solei in curiosity because the boy claimed that he was too young to have children on his own.

Tanoshi paid attention to his surrounding, fear that he might lose a few pieces of material by accident and so far, he had only found one of them, he seriously needed a skill, a buff of some sort.

Crafting Weapons:
Roll ID: #135706 CD: 4 (fail)

Roll ID: #135707 CD: 3 (fail)

Tanoshi himself also had a "great friend" as well, didn't he? The one that was willing to show up whenever Tanoshi needed him most. The one that cheered the boy up whenever he was unhappy. Hiroto was also the one that gave up his life for Vanessa and Tanoshi. He wondered what would change if Hiroto was still around. The only thing that Tanoshi wanted was to revive Hiroto, let him live a life he deserved to have. However, Tanoshi still had Vanessa, a girl he hadn't seen much since Hiroto's death, sometimes, she would appear and assist Tanoshi in several things. Memories were flooding back as Tanoshi take his steps into the field because it was also in this exact same area that the tragedy happened.

Anyways, Tanoshi needed to be on high alert for the materials required for this quest. He was listening to Solei throughout the path as he looked around for materials. Suddenly, there was a part in Solei's words that troubled Tanoshi.

"I don't have much at the moment, I'm always busy with my kids and stuff so I barely have enough time to craft anything," 

Kids, he has kids...?! No way, he looked so young! Or it could be the player I am talking with here is 30 or 40 years old already...?

"Y-You have kids?!" Tanoshi asked in disbelief. "No way!"

Tanoshi Rank 1 Blacksmith ^-^
Workshop of the Tanuki
@Zandra

Crafting:

Roll ID: #135650 CD: 4 (fail)
Roll ID: #135651 CD: 1 (fail)

Tanoshi was flinching, shaking he would say. What could the boy possibly do in this situation? Watch Violet fight for his and her life while he was all here, backing away like a true coward? Unacceptable... However, he remembered that smile of Violet, when she realized that the guy was level 4, which would possibly imply that she was stronger than him, she had a chance of winning. Then, he blinked a few times that she was acting as a shield for him, the girl that wanted to kill him just about fifteen minutes ago. Tanoshi might not want to be a burden for her, so he backed away, opening his inventory and did what was considered a sensible option at that moment, to drink a health potion. Just as the liquid was shoved down his throat, his HP bar was swiftly going up.

Then, the red player attacked Violet, trying to knock her down before killing Tanoshi.

"Stay away you filthy little b*tch...!"

Upon hitting her, the red player backed away, realizing she overpowered him...

Tanoshi | HP: 20/20 | EN:1/2 | DMG: 4 | MIT: 0 | ACC: 1 | EVA: 0 | BLD: 12

Violet | 219/220 HP | 19/22 EN | 3 DMG | 14 MIT | +1 ACC (+2 w/ Dahlia) | BLEED | +1 LD | 1 RECOVERY | KEEN (activated) 

 Yvelxis | HP: 60/80 | EN: 3/8 | DMG: 2 | ACC: 3 

"Is that so? Or you were trying to ignore me Tanuki?"

Tanoshi gave Vanessa an innocent smile, it was true after all, the boy genuinely didn't perceive a single word from the woman. Did he? Now that he thought about it, he must had heard something, a strange voice asking if he was ready or not. Could had been Vanessa. Jesus. That daydream was so awesome, it put him at ease. 

"Yeah...I truly didn't hear you. I was kinda, you could say distracted."

Vanessa raised one of her eyebrow in disbelief, but she would kinda just ignore that for now, Tanoshi could had been truly distracted, however, she knew Tanoshi. He had never been the kind that could go off inattentive that easily. Then, she took a look at the equipment he was wearing, the beginner's equipment. It seemed that he hadn't worn the armor he bought.

"Change into your newly bought armor please, Tanu-kun!"

A soothing breeze blew pass Tanoshi, moving his violet-colored hair to the left. He figured that she might as well was just a rookie like him as well based on the equipment she was carrying. That was one benefit of being a blacksmith, knowing the strength, durability of a piece of weapon or clothing on a slight glance. He sighed, motioning his left hand to the empty space several inches away from his chest. Then, he put his thumb and index finger together, pulling them downwards. Following his actions, a ringing sound was heard and a window popped up from the middle of nowhere. That was the menu.

Tanoshi played around with the <<Menu>> for a while before opening his stats screen, flipping it over to the girl. Despite the level of the boy, he was well-equipped. He wanted Kashima to see his stats with her own eyes so that by any chance, if she intended on hurting her, it wouldn't work. While she was reading it, he explained with a smile of friendliness on his face:

"I suppose you can call me new as well, have just been going around, killing and doing quests for a week or so. Prior to that, I was kind of, scared."

Tanoshi would give this girl benefit of the doubt. She seemed to just be a social butterfly, he didn't really need to stress himself out. That would just worsen the situation and he might as well lose a potential friend. His contact list was kind of limited at that moment. He should better find more reliable people so as to add them to his Friend List, and as a result, he would have more choices when seeking for help in danger times.

@Kashima

I never had to worry about resources and my allowances back in the real world...

The teenage boy opened his menu, scrolling through his materials and currency. The boy frowned at just a slight sight of it. Disappointing he would say, so far he had spent quite alot of materials and what had he managed to craft so far? If he didn't count his sword, that would be nothing. Nothing... such a terrible blacksmith he was. He really needed to gather more materials for the sake of his career.

"Low on materials aren't you? I know a quest..."

Vanessa told him about a quest that ranged through many floors. The quest made looting easier. Tanoshi was glad that the developer of the game actually made quests that would boost the survival chance of the players. Kayaba wasn't a bad guy after all, was he?

The boy slowly approached the quest location. A building with a giant garden. Throughout the path he walked, there were flowers being planted on the sides of the place with trees of different heights. Then, he was greeted by an NPC, a Quest Giver one. He was told about the details of the quests and several side things. Tanoshi was smiling, appreciating Vanessa because she told him about this quest.

"Some extra materials never hurt anyone. Mind if I join you? My name's Kashi." 

A girl approached him and introduced herself, which put him on alert. He couldn't trust people that just suddenly go up to him, if this was in the real world, he would believe that they wanted his money, his wealth. It seemed like that she wanted to accompany him on this quest, however, he believed that she was asking him for some free protection. Let's talk for a while to see what kind of person she was....

"Is that so? You can call me Tanoshi, a pleasure to meet you. Would be great to have you keep me company." The boy replied Kashima with a professional voice, keeping his facial expression neutral.

When playing games, he'd always disgusted gold diggers, those were people that were either girls or pretending to be girls. They tend to make gorgeous, cute avatars to flirt men into giving them money. Stupid people. After all, being gay kind of gave Tanoshi a fair advantage when seeing those gold diggers, never got tricked by those pretty girls.

@Kashima

Tanoshi was here, facing a Red Player. He would never expect people like that exist, those that would kill players despite knowing that respawning wasn't a thing. He held his sword tightly, ready to strike. He gave the Red Player a death glare, Tanoshi hadn't wanted to kill anyone this bad. That Red Player over there, he could had been the cause of a few deaths. Thinking of deaths as numbers, it wouldn't be that much. However, thinking of deaths as the disappearance of souls that once existed on this world, a death was a lot. Souls that used to belong to people, people with emotions, with their own dreams, ambitions. All of those crushed under the hand of one trash bag. That guy in front of Tanoshi looking at him with a desire to kill, he shouldn't even be considered as a human, unlike Violet, it seemed as if he actually took killing people as an amusement, a hobby. Tanoshi just wanted to eradicate the guy from this world already. He would be doing it a favor.

He kneeled down, his sword shining blue as he prepared himself to activate the sword skill <<Straight>>. He was shaking, not because he was scared but because he was furious. Furious of this cold-hearted killer. The guy was truly insane. Tanoshi dashed foward, holding his sword tightly, feeling the cold breeze of the wind as he moved foward, as he was running through the green grass. Slash. His sword made a satisfying sound as he striked it at the killer in black. It hit the killer, reducing his HP slightly. However, Tanoshi couldn't foresee what came next. The man held his sword and leapt toward Tanoshi, activating a sword skill...

It was too fast for the boy to react...

The player hit Tanoshi, sending him back a few feet, his HP reaching the yellow zone.

<<Straight>> on Yvelxis: 4*2=8 (damage)

<<Snake Bite>> on Tanoshi: (2+2)*3=12 (damage)

Tanoshi | HP: 8/20 | EN:0/2 | DMG: 4 | MIT: 0 | ACC: 1 | EVA: 0 | BLD: 12

Violet | 220/220 HP | 22 - 4 + 1 = 19/22 EN | 3 DMG | 14 MIT | +1 ACC (+2 w/ Dahlia) | BLEED | +1 LD | 1 RECOVERY | KEEN (activated for next turn) 

 Yvelxis | HP: 60/80 | EN: 5/8 | DMG: 2 | ACC: 3