Zajcica

Yuki finished moving her equipment around. The lance and shield she was carrying disappeared into the ether and the rings appeared around her fingers. She still remembers how she got these silly rings from some random guy on the street, then later she had him make her lance for her. It was just so random how had shoved them to her without even trading them.

Nevertheless, she had to get this drop this time. The game couldn't be that mean to her could it? Just thinking that reminded her of fighting the Amphis Serpens. Although, to be fair, she should have gone into that quest with better sustain and damage to kill it rather than try to rush herself and die in the process. The paladin approached the loot drop that had been laying on the ground for them to inspect. If she didn't find anything in this one, she would have to fight all those mobs again... for the fourth time. Hopefully she could just get it to spawn this time around.

The Nepent Variant had re-spawned and was looking to kill the duo of girls this time. Though this one was probably a new one to the last two but it was still funy to think that this was the same one that was just annoyed at seeing Yuki's smug smile and pink hair.

The girl reared her shield back to protect her from the onslaught of vines that lashed her relentlessly. Thorns wouldn't activate off that, so she readied another sword art. The lance again taking it's pink hue pierced the enemies defenses causing it to exploded into nothing but little blue polygons once again. With it defeated, she opened her menu once again to equip the rings that boosted her luck. It was just getting annoying at this point, but she needed all the luck she could get.

"Welp, you know what they say: Third times the charm, right?" The paladin smiled at the sneaky dagger user.

Nepent Variant: 0/15 HP; Damage 10

Yuki: HP:  380/380 | Energy: 24/38 Hate: 0
Hina: HP:  20/20 | Energy: 2/2  Hate: 0

Yuki watched Hinatao strike out with her blade, not even using a sword art to amplify the damage. Though it was unfair to blame her for that when she didn't know that investing into weapon skill early was how you dealt most your damage. The blade scraped nothing but the air as the nepent moved out of the way. Yuki gave the girl a smile.

"Nice movement, you're getting the hang of this pretty quick!" Yuki said walking up to the over-grown plant and readying her lance. The pink hue embedded itself around the weapon again. The streaks of pink scarred the air as she stabbed the lance into her foe several times. It fell over lifeless.

"Here comes the boss again." She said as if it was a routine at this point. The Nepent Variant respawned, it ovule could be smelled from where she was standing. It smelled as awful as it did the first two times.

Nepent 1 - HP 0/7 -12+12 Dmg: 3

Yuki blushed as everyone started picking on her for being a reckless person when she only wanted to explore some of the floors. She turned her attention between the both of them, her face red with embarrassment.

"O-Oi... I'm working that reckless behavior out of my play style as best I can. It's hard to adjust yourself in such a short time." The memory of Mari going off on her crept back up in her mind. The feeling she experienced that day washed over her almost completely. She sighed and thought back to the low level player she'd helped just a few days ago. "I have even helped some leveling players finish quests so I don't feel like I'm just piggybacking on you and life anymore." She said to Mari with a slight smile.

Another batch of eggs spawned next to her. She collected them all and moved them into her inventory.

LD: 6+6=12 CD: 5
Materials Found: 1
Eggs Found: 6

Total Materials: 4
Total Eggs: 25

Yuki gave Shield another smile, one of hope, to end that subject. Then he brought up how short the front line was of tanks and healers. She wondered if that had to do with how easy it was for damage players to level up compared to a tank player. Damage players could just get strong enough to out-damage almost anything in the easier to medium levels of the game, but tanks and healers need the help of damage players to accomplish that in a timely fashion. Then Yuki remembered that she originally had intended to play as a healer and hybrid into tank later.

"I can invest my skill points into healing late game for the front line players. I don't need the praise of dealing massive damage to anything if it means as many of us make it out of this game as possible. What healing skills are there?" The girl asked pulling up her skill menu to find the locked skills on healing.

LD: 9+3=12
Materials found: 1
Eggs Found: 3

Total Materials: 25
Total Eggs: 59

The Nepents appeared from thin air in front of Yuki and her new friend. An air of confidence had washed over her, seeing as how she had already done this song and dance twice. It was dangerous for the lower level player, but it was like Shield had told her in the cave. Having a feeling of confidence helps others feel safe and do their job better. If she kept her cool and did what she needed to as a good tank player, then nothing would happen to Hinatao.

The group of four rushed into their inevitable demise. Yuki's beautiful lance glowed pink once more, leaving strokes of afterimages with every swing. Three of the Nepents fall to her onslaught, but the last one was determined to see his friends avenged. It's vines lashed out to whip the pink haired assailant to no avail. Yuki turned her head to Hinatao.

"Go ahead and give it a shot!"

Nepent 1 - HP 7/7 Dmg: 3
Nepent 2 - HP 0/7 -20+12 Dmg: 3
Nepent 3 - HP 0/7 -12+12 Dmg: 3
Nepent 4 - HP 0/7 -12+12 Dmg: 3

The girl sat in her spot, waiting for the batch of eggs to respawn in their usual spot again. Once they did, she promptly scooped them up and displaced them into her inventory as quietly as possible to make sure she didn't disturb the fish in the water. Though, did fishing even work like that in this world? Probably not. Her soft voice broke the silence again after a moment of quiet contemplation for the both of them.

"Honestly, as much as a I imagine that there could be other people waiting for me on the other side, I wonder what they even think of me now. I would be happy just to see my sister and parents again and that's it. Anyone else would just be an added bonus I guess." Yuki looked down at her feet, clutching her knees to her chest. "Makes me glad I don't have a significant other that isn't in the game- not that I have one in the game. I just mean I could only imagine what they would think of me laying in a hospital in a coma with a Nervegear strapped to my face. I wouldn't have to worry about them leaving me or anything like that. Is that a weird thought? I'm not sure."

LD: 17+3=20
Materials found: 2
Eggs Found: 6

Total Materials: 24
Total Eggs: 56

Once her inspection was done, the girl opened her menu to ready her battle-ready inventory once again. Three times she would have to murder these things just to get them to drop some stupid bulb from their plants that is supposed to smell good in a perfume or something. Ugh, just the thought of the smell of perfume made Yuki's nose twitch with displeasure. The weapon and shield reappeared in her hands and she turned her head towards her charge.

"Oi, the next batch of enemies is coming soon. You know the rules: Let me aggro them first then you are free to hit them." The point was probably getting nailed into Hinatao's head a little too much, but Yuki wouldn't know what to do if she wasn't able to protect a single person. She was starting to see why Mari was getting so annoyed with her actions when she helped her with the familiar quest.

Day 12

(1)Fail: 0
(2)Salvage: 2
(3)Uncommon: 3
(5)Rare: 1
(8)Perfect: 2

EXP: 74 Total: 530+74=604

With her items equipped now, she walked over to the corpse and did her best to hope that fortune was on her side. It seemed like her luck was only running dry at this point though, because two tries and nothing was there. Still having not found her necessary item, the would have to kill another set of enemies to try for the item again. Yuki groaned in frustration and looked up at Hinatao.

"It seems like I'm having some trouble getting it to drop. We'll have to fight another group of those plants. We can't turn in the quest without that item that the big one drops." She says standing back up and opening her menu again to re-equip her weapon and shield. It wouldn't take long to kill another batch of these enemies. Hopefully the next group would yield a better result so she could cash in on the experience she desperately needed.

He deflected Yuki's question pretty quick but it wasn't like he was obligated to answer it in the first place. Best just to move on and forget about it.

"As far as close family goes, no not really. Both on my mom and dad's side I have a total of about six cousins and they don't even live in Japan anymore. My grandparents don't talk with me much anymore either because of some certain circumstances." It was hard to bring up her past without mentioning her ongoing sex change be difficult. Though she wasn't quite ready to tell him about that. Maybe soon, but not now.

"I doubt the outer ring of my family even knows that I'm stuck in Sword Art Online, and I wonder if any of them would even care." She said that as if she had no idea what her distant family was even like. "I'll just be happy to see mom, dad and Aki again."

The griffin on her head let out a skree when it heard it's name. "Haha, the Aki you're named after silly."

LD: 11+3=14
Materials found: 1
Eggs Found: 3

Total Materials: 22
Total Eggs: 50

Yuki shook her head as the girl said she was powerful. It was a pretty simple lie really.

"It has nothing to do with me being strong." The pinkette explained. "My numbers were just outrageously higher than the enemies. Don't mistake me being over leveled for me being strong and get careless okay? I still have a long time to go before I can consider myself strong."

The menu whirred in front of her as she swiped past the equipment screen looking for her rings that she needed to boost her luck. It was annoying that she had to take the time to equip different items just to get a small bonus, but with her luck if she didn't use them she would miss out the opportunity to get it.

With her rings now equiped, the paladin approached the enemies loot boxes. "Alrighty, lets see if we can get the item this time. Hopefully so we can be finished with this quest and get you back to a safe zone."

The other girl found a way to get her attack, and admirably done as well! She chucked off a small amount of it's health off allowing Yuki to charge it with a sword art. The lance shined a bright pink again, dashing through the nepent variant's defense and causing it to exploded into data once again. Hopefully this time would prove more useful and her luck would let her acquire the Nepent's stupid bulb. Without it they couldn't finish the quest and she had spent to much time to not get the huge chunk of EXP from this quest.

"Beautifully done my new ally! You gave that plant the good poke-y stab! Keep it up and you'll be doing more damage than I do!" Yuki encouraged her. The pinkette opened her menu to start switching out items again. As much as she just wanted to loot the stupid thing now, she really needed the luck boost to make sure she got it this time.

Yuki: HP:  378/380 | Energy: 24/38 -4 Hate: 0
Hina: HP:  20/20 | Energy: 2/2  Hate: 0

The flowers reswapned in the field around the two girls. The paladin gripped her pink lance and let out a battle cry as her weapon turned into something akin to a helicopter blade. Two of the nepents were able to escape the beautiful onslaught of her giant one handed weapon, but the other unfortunate ones exploded into data instantly. It was so gratifying to see things actually die to her weapon, even if it was a quest that was meant to be easy.

The other enraged Nepents followed suit with their own attacks. Stupid as they were they actually hit her, doing nothing more than killing themselves on her thorns. That couldn't have gone any better! With the ending of the mobs, the boss spawned again. It's ugly design and flaccid smell made Yuki nauseous.

"Its the boss again! If I miss, you can follow up with an attack safely." Yuki said readying her shield for the next attack.

Yuki: HP:  378/380 -2 | Energy: 28/38 -10 Hate: 0
Hina: HP:  20/20 | Energy: 2/2  Hate: 0

Roll ID# 139709 was Nepent 1> Yuki. I hit enter and it auto rolled, but the roll is linked so I assumed it was fine to use.

It took a moment to switch out her gear. Good thing the nepents didn't respawn instantly. She had the time that she needed to switch the rings out for her weapons and armor. Even though she knew that she could handle aggroing all the mobs at once thanks to Fighting Spirit, she was still worried about her charge getting hit by something completely random. These things didn't do more of slither of damage to anyone, but you could never be too safe in Aincrad. She learned that the hard way when she fought the wyrms and survived with barely less than 1% HP remaining. A near death was ever so much more scary when there was a fancy little gauge defining your capability to survive.

She readied her Lance and shield for the next fight. The fight would commence again in just a second as the Nepents respawned, angrier than the last batch. "Here the come, stay safe Hina-chan, and we'll get through this easy."

Yuki closed her menu just as the girl asked her what she fiddling with, she gave her a quick smile as she approached the Nepent Variant's loot files. What do you know: Absolutely nothing.

"Well, there are trinkets that you can equip that will boost your luck at finding loot on enemies, however, it seems my luck was still insufficient for this item. Which means more mobs will be spawning soon. At least our health and energy has returned so we'll be ready." Yuki frowned a bit as she opened her menu back up to re-equip her gear. "Alright, just like last time. Wait for me to attack before you make yours. If you draw aggro too early the enemies will pressure you."

She tried to put her understand to the point where her reasoning could be understood by the new player, but not to the point to scare her. If Yuki didn't draw aggro, the nepents would attack Hinata and could kill her.

LD: 1+3=4 Fail

Yuki gave her a big smile. She felt nervous that she would be tanking for a completely new player with no useful combat skills that didn't need time to prepare. Though she knew she could handle it. The girl was amazed by Yuki's glorious armor, it felt weird to take credit for all the work Macradon put in to making her armor for her. She was happy to see that she was alright.

"Arigatou!" Yuki replied with a slightly nervous smile. "My armor is enhanced with thorns, so if anything touches me, it will take damage for it. It's an enhancement that tanks get to supplement our inability to damage. Once we head back to town, I'll take you to my smith. He gives discounts to new players for new items. You'll need a new dagger. That one is fine, but you'll want all perfect gear so you can be as effective as possible"

She moved through her inventory, switching the weapon and shield out for out for her bonus luck rings. Now it was time to check the enemies loot.

With it's minions dead, the even uglier and smellier Nepent decided to appear before the two women. She still couldn't believe just how realistic everything in Aincrad could feel. Well, nevertheless, the paladin took charge. The beautiful lance, Lux, gleamed with its pink hue once more. Unfortunately, she had missed again. It was regular for her to miss attacks, but thankfully, thorns made up for what she lacked in damage with a weapon. The Nepent took a healthy bite out of the paladin and exploded around her into blue polygons of data. Yuki gave her charge a smile.

[color#f53dac]"And look at that, it's dead. But I'll have to loot for the bulb really quick. If I don't collect it, we won't be able to turn it in and will have to fight all that over again."[/color] Yuki said opening her menu and inviting the girl to her party. "What level are you by the way? I need to make sure you don't get attacked easily so it's important."

Nepent Variant: 0/15 HP; Damage 10

Yuki: HP:  368/380 -10 | Energy: 28/38 +1 Hate: 0
Hina: HP:  20/20 | Energy: 2/2  Hate: 0

Yuki looked behind her to make sure her charge was alright, but she had disappeared. Soon after, she heard the swing of a dagger behind the remaining Nepent. The pinkette grinned happily as the other girl got into the combat.

"I love the enthusiasm! If you get hurt, back up immediately and don't be afraid to use a potion. The boss will spawn after this one dies, so don't attack it until I take a swing at it or it will start to attack you okay?" Yuki's pink, beautiful lance reached out at the remaining enemy to thin the line and further her Sp count. She was extremely happy that she could help another player with leveling up. Her lance missed, unfortunately, but as Shield had said, her weapon wasn't the polearm - it was the armor she wore. It slapped her with it's vine and dispersed into digital coding.

"Alright, the boss is going to spawn in a moment. Be careful, stay back for a moment and let me draw the Hate on it first." Yuki said, readying herself.

Nepent 1 - HP 0/7 Dmg: 3
Nepent 2 - HP 0/7 Dmg: 3
Nepent 3 - HP 0/7 Dmg: 3
Nepent 4 - HP 0/7 Dmg: 3

Yuki: HP:  378/380 -1 | Energy: 28/38 +1 Hate: 2
Hina: HP:  20/20 | Energy: 2/2  Hate: 0
 

Yuki felt a little bad about bringing it up to her since it made her friends from the real world. She tried to smile for Zandra and put her hand on her shoulder.

"Hey, don't worry about it if it brings up bad memories. No need to stress yourself." The warm smile proceeded as she spoke. "Honestly, I've never heard of you guys. This is my first MMO. I only picked up the game because I was extremely interested in the VR aspect of the game. Since you shared some real life info with me, it would be rude of me not to reciprocate. I currently have a family I'm looking to return to at home. My parents and my sister have probably spent priceless hours crying over my comatose body they could have been using to live their lives and do whatever they want. It was all waste on me. That's why I need to get stronger and see them again, so all that energy can be focused off me and others can live their lives again."

The girl continued to search for more eggs, picking up a batch and moving them to her inventory.

LD: 8+3=11
Materials Found: 1
Eggs Found: 4

Total Materials: 1
Total Eggs: 10

Yuki smiled, looking up in the sky as her familiar too did it usual 'skree' noise around her guild leaders familiar. It looked marginally less alert than Zandra's though, considered she was barely a week old. The pinkette then turned to the other woman behind her.

"Like I said, nothing special, just regular non-combat gathering. I don't mind that at all." They approached the area the marker had led them to and would get the benefits for. As they walked in, Yuki instantly found a large batch of eggs. She walked over and scooped them up, moving them to her inventory. "So, Z, you've been running Aincrad Trading Post. What's it like to be a guild leader? I've had visions of being one myself in the future, which is why I was wondering.

The familiar finally came back down and landed on Yuki's head, like it was her little pink nest. Yuki smiled at Zandra again, hoping she would be fine with her calling her 'Z'.

Materials Found: 0
Eggs Found: 6

Total Materials: 0
Total Eggs: 6

Name: Deep-Fried Ice Cream
Your Profession: Cook
Your Rank: 6
ID: 139647; 139647-1; 139647-2
Roll: CD: 11+1; LD: 18
Item Type: Dessert
Tier: 1
Quality: Perfect
Enhancements: Ambition
Description: A large scoop of any flavor ice cream surrounded in a cocoon of pancake batter that has been deep-fried.
Post Link: [Here]

Yuki thought about Mari as Shield explained his old friend Rain. Mari was a remarkable person to her. She scolded and pushed Yuki all the time, but in an attempt to make her a better person. Deep down, she felt like Mari was something of a pseudo-mother figure to her. Let's face it: Even in your twenties you can rely on your parents. Her attention focused back on Shield when the skree from bird came out, and the bumped into her head.

"Uh, sorry I got distracted. Thinking about my family gets me like that." She looked at her collection of eggs. "Oh, yeah I got around 50 just from this one round of collecting. I'm not intending on leaving soon either with out much reason. You staying out much longer?" The girl shifted in her position to get more comfortable and looked over to Shield. "Do you have any family outside the game? I have a sister, a mother and a father waiting for me and I'm sure they are all crying over me in a hospital room somewhere. Thinking about them makes me feel resolve, but it makes me feel a bit upset at the same time. My heart aches with how much I miss them, so I use that to keep myself going."

LD: 20+3=23
Materials found: 2
Eggs Found: 2

Total Materials: 21
Total Eggs: 47

Again he was offering her the contents that he rightfully had acquired from the chest. She really didn't want to impose on him by taking things from his chest just after socking him in the face. Though, he seemed to be fine with it all. Yuki would have felt horribly bad if she had punched him in real life, but honestly, what was the difference of punching him here or in real life? She still felt bad about it since that really wasn't her intent.

"I- I don't know if..." The stern look that Shield gave her spooked her enough to hit 'Accept'. "Th-Thanks Shield. When I get stronger, or if I find the time to help a lower level player with anything, I'll do anything I can to help them. I'll be sure not to take unnecessary risks from now on. Thank you for shedding light on that. I will be become better than I am now, and I'll help everyone."

LD: 20+3=23
Materials found: 2
Eggs Found: 2

Total Materials: 19
Total Eggs: 45

Yuki had expected Shield to keep pushing her until she was on her edge, but really he just started laughing. And he laughed pretty hard. She felt sorry since she didn't really mean to hit him like that, her hand kind of just took control of itself to make him back off. If she said sorry, though, she was sure that Shield would scold her. She quietly watched him go back to his fishing spot, then she followed behind him and sat back on to her knees. The girl was quiet for a moment. She felt like things were going to be awkward now.

She watched him fish up the second chest, which was making her feel like she really needed to invest in the fishing skill soon for her Nature's Treasures quests. The  girl wondered how much it would cost to get her hands on a teleport crystal.

"Do you know how much Teleporation Crystals cost? I'll buy one when I-." She looked up at her orange cursor, remembering she wouldn't be able to return to the safe zone now. "When this wears off."

LD: 2+3=5
Materials found: 0
Eggs Found: 0

Total Materials: 17
Total Eggs: 43