Zajcica

Yuki shrank a bit when he mentioned her outburst of her being able to survive something like that on her own. She had honestly said such to make herself feel stronger than she really was and not feel so embarrassed that the dragon nearly crushed her.

"I may have been spouting drivel. I don't think I could have purely killed it with my thorns and attacks alone. The potions I brought were going to be my escape plan... I wanted to see what kind of damage it could do and how long it would have taken me to kill it with my thorns." She said feeling stupid. The plan sounded so much dumber out loud than it did in her head. What if she had died? "I'll be more careful from now on though, but yeah, its hard to vanquish my spirit when I get fired up. Let's kill another dragon!"

She stood on the teleporter and repeated the phrase she'd used to get to other floors, "Tei: Urbus!"

Yuki wanted to argue that statement to Life, but he seemed pretty adamant about atoning for himself by helping others. He didn't owe Yuki anything, but he does seem like has something weighing him down heavily. She really wanted to ask him more about it, but it would be insanely rude of her to ask him about his past like that when she barely knew him at all. The safe zone wall was coming into view by now. It was always relieving to see it coming back in from the field.

"N-Nee? Thank you for deciding to help me, and I'm sorry I lost my wits a bit. I understand that you and Mari have a lot you need to work on, but so does everyone in this world. And even in the real world. Nobody can be perfect and it's not like we could every really get close. Mari continues to urge people to avoid her because she has an orange crystal, but I think she's well on the path to being a better person. You're a good person as well." She smiled at him for the first time since they started fought the dragon. "And, I realized I never thanked you for saving me from the dragon so... Arigatou, Life-san."

@Life

She was absolutely annoyed that anyone would call her a kid, but to be fair, she was rather small and didn't have on the front side. It would be pretty easy to mistake. Life didn't exactly apologize for mistaking her for being ten years younger than she really was, but that was alright. She'd get over it.

Mari's message stayed up for a second. Life mentioned Mari like he might have known her. Honestly Mari and Yuki weren't really that close, she had just helped Yuki start her adventure and she looked up to Mari as a mentor. If it wasn't for her, she wouldn't really be as confident as she was.

"A-Ah, yeah but not really. I went to an event way up on about floor 20 and met her there. I was pretty stubborn and bugged her a lot, but then we quested recently and she taught me a lot about the game. I want to get stronger to repay her for the help she'd given me... Now I feel like I owe you as well..." She looked down at the floor awkwardly. "People have just been helping me a lot and I've done nothing for my past ten levels. I'm just an idiot built like a steel wall..."

@Life

Yuki folded her arms and pouted slightly, looking off to the other side away from Life. She wasn't a helpless little girl, she was a freaking woman.

"I'm just fine. Granted that was the first time ever took more damage than my regeneration could return, I have several potions that could keep me alive. Just because you are stronger than me doesn't mean I can't fend for myself.." Why would she say that? If it were Mari, she would have just thanked her for the help and the two would have laughed about it. Or well, Yuki would have laughed and Mari would have probably been her grumpy self.

Eh-? Did Life just call Yuki a kid?

"E-Eh? Kid?? I'm 22 years old now, maybe 23 I've forgotten where the calendar is now." She fixed her ruffled up hair. "I'm probably older than you are."

Yuki's notification box opened in front of her, a new message. From Mari it would seem.

"I've accepted Macradon's proposal to be a teacher

-Thanks." -Mari

That brought a renewed smile to Yuki's face. Mari was a really good teacher to her, she was glad to see it was taking off.

@Mari

She laughed awkwardly as Life mentioned her balls- Er, not those ones - and guts for rushing in to be someones shield. She blushed a bit, even after her flushed face was washed out.

"I mean, my job as a tank is to stand and be mostly a punching bag for my party members so they can win. Um...Isn't it?" That's certainly what she had done for Mari and Luna so far. Even if she hasn't been that great at it. "I'm really nothing to be admired." Some old voices popped into her head. Ridicule and snide remarks about her not actually being a woman.

She blinked as an additional quest popped up on her HUD. There was more to the quest, she remembered now. This was only the first one of nine. Then Life had to say something awkward like that. "Wh-What are you insinuating? I-I-" She looked at the quest in front of her with the now updated objective. "I'm going to continue this quest! Y-You're welcome to come... If you want to." Her voice started somewhat angrily like she was still trying to avoid the feelings, but then calmed down and became awkward and quiet. "Do you want to?"

@Life

The dragon exploded into digital coding and Yuki continued to lay in the grass. Confused at first to the dragon's death, but then she came to the realization that Life had saved her from the dragon by killing it single-handedly. Her face got even more red with that realization. How could she just brag about being strong then get knocked on her ass and have to be saved by the person she boasted to. She covered her face with her hands until Life made her way over to help her up. He reached his hand down to her, but she ignored it and sat up quickly.

"D-Daijoubu-!" What was this stupid feeling? She should be extremely annoyed that she couldn't do anything to help, but overall she felt relieved more than anything. Was Life's charm getting to her that much? It was then she realized that her not taking his hand to help her up was kind of rude. "G-Gomen... That was just... A bit embarrassing."

Redirecting the reason she was embarrassed to just being pinned by the dragon, rather than the stupid love-dovey feeling in her stomach would probably help, as long as Life didn't notice it. Life then asked what her username actually meant.

"Th-That's not important!" Gotta change the subject really quick before she melted. "I-It's pretty impressive, the damage you can output, Life-san."

Yuki blushed deeply as life interrupted her reminiscing with his hand on her head. Her hair was ruffled out of place and strands of pink covered her vision. Butterflies flew in her stomach. What was this stupid feeling? She hated it but also loved it at the same time. This wasn't a feeling she had ever experienced as a man. Is this really what it feels like to be charmed by a guy?

"I- uh, I-" She mumbled to herself quietly, her face filled even deeper red than it was before. He was so calm about it all, even if he was hiding his own fears. His speech was charming but reassuring at the same time. It was almost as if he was treating her as a helpless little girl. "I- I'm strong too, I can protect people! Remembering what fuels a person's resolve is what truly makes someone strong."

On queue, the boss spawned several meters ahead of the two. Yuki drew her new lance from her inventory and stood in front of Life. "Don't worry, I'll keep it occupied while you attack." She said charging ahead of Life, recklessly maybe, but full of enthusiasm. She went to strike the beast with her new weapon, but was caught off guard. The dragons claw came down and smashed Yuki into the grass under its scaly grasp. She let out a sharp cry of pain. "K-kuso..."

@Life

Yuki: 160/180 Hate: 1 (52 - 27) + 5 = 20 DMG
Life: 500/500 Hate: 0
Emerald: 125/125

Yuki smiled and was pretty ecstatic to hear what the front lines was like. Hearing that two of his friends died in that fight made her frown a bit, but it was nice to know that one of them survived. 

"You sound a lot like Mari in that regard. You both have had a rough time and made your decisions, but now you're trying to redeem your mistakes and failures by helping players like me. I never really knew what MMO games were like. I simply wanted to try the whole virtual reality thing out for the most part. Here I am now. I can only imagine how much my sister has cried for me." The grimace stole her smile as she mentioned her family. "I miss my family so much. My sister always wanting to dress me up, my moms cooking and my dad being scared I'll get mugged on my way home from school. You never really think that you'll lose something like your family so quickly and miss such basic things."

She only continued droning on about her family while they walked towards the boss area. It was sudden how quickly her mood went from a hyperactive schoolgirl to quiet and reserved. Thinking about her family always got her like this.

Yuki reached her hand out to shake with Life. Her handshake was much more firm than the man was probably expecting from someone so small. After all, Yuki was a man and did have a little more muscle than most girls did. Ah the life of a transgender woman.

"That's quite a few exs. You must really have a history, I won't pester you about it though. I thought front liner level was close to like 60 or 70 wasn't it? Does that mean you took a break from it all? I'm ashamed to say I was pretty shocked about the situation when it all began and I hid." She looked at the ground, upset with herself for a moment before looking backing up. "But I'm doing my best to become stronger now. I hope I'll be able to make waves with the higher players soon."

She waved her right hand down pulled up the party menu and sent Life an invite. "Well, let's get this quest underway then, hunh?"

@Life

Yuki paused momentarily when she heard Life begin speaking Japanese. Sure, it was pretty likely that most of the players in the game were Japanese, or understood it to a degree. Heck, Mari understood it and from what she knew, the dagger user wasn't native. She lost herself in thought until the mention of the Dragon Hunter quest came into conversation.

"I was actually going to go do that quest right now myself!" She exclaimed. That giant smile she always wore around her friends came back. "I would have no problem tanking with the armor that I have, I'm just worried about my damage being to sup-par to kill it before it kills me. I was thinking of messaging one of my higher level friends for help, but Mari has helped me with two quests already and I don't want to bother her for everything I'm doing.. She helped me finish a really hard quest recently and I gained five levels from it. I'm currently level ten! Soon, I'll be tanking with the front line."

Her anticipation could almost be felt as she spoke. She realized that the front lines probably weren't the most welcoming place, especially as they continue to clear floors, but it was in her motto now. Become powerful and do something, don't lie down and wait to die like some coward.

"May I ask what level you are? Oh! Watashiwa Yukidesu. Yoroshikunee!" She said with another bow.

@Life

<<DHA1: Emerald Hatchling>>

Yuki scrolled through the quest data. Those hunters were pretty cool to share the information with her when she wasn't even close to getting to floor ten but it would be good to take this quest early and have them finished for when she did make it up to floor ten level. She actually met the recommended level for this quest, or at least a level short of the recommended level. Still closer to it than she normally is. The only thing she was really worried about was dealing enough damage to it. Mari popped in her mind instantly and she scrolled through her friends list to find her name. She was just about to start typing a message, but stopped as her finger got close to the keyboard. She couldn't just default to asking Mari for help with every single quest she takes on, no she would have to do it solo or find someone else to help her with her escapade. Luna was another option, but she was still pretty low level too.

Yuki sighed, walking through the Town of Beginnings as she contemplated what she should do. She was so lost in though that she didn't see the towering man stopped in front of her. She crashed into him, with her being the only one to hit the floor.

"It-t-ta.." She paused as she looked up to see the cloaked man looking back to see what just bumped him. Her face got red for a moment, awkward thoughts filled her head that hadn't felt before, but to put it bluntly: This man was rather handsome.

"Ah, gomen!" She said getting up and bowing apologetically. "Too many times do I meet new people by crashing into them! I'm such a freaking klutz!" She laughed awkwardly hoping he would forgive her for her clumsiness.

@Life

Yuki raised her head back up when the man asked if she would like some help with her quest. It was pretty obvious that she was a new player, hunh? Questing on the first floor wouldn’t be something you saw from higher level players

”Nice to meet you Solei! I wouldn’t want you bother yourself since you have some children with you.” She chuckled a bit awkwardly, “Although, I am only doing the First Lessons quest and Im pretty sure that one doesn’t involve any combat. So if you want to come a long I wouldn’t stop you. A healer would be super helpful with combat if I were to run into enemies for sure.”

She looked at the quest description again before making any assumptions but she was pretty sure that it didn’t involve participating in any combat, but she thinks the second lesson will require it.

”Would Emi and Eito be alright to leave the safe zone? From the way you sounded, you didn’t seem to mind if they did. I would be pretty upset if I caused them to get hurt because we all got dragged into a combat situation.”

@Solei

The last member of her family, her younger sister Aki, was probably torn to shreds right now about her current state. She was probably strapped up in a hospital room right now like other were that are trapped in the game. She remembered Kayaba showing news reports of SAO players being moved to medical facilities. Aki was really close to her older sister when she started her transition. She loved the idea of having an older sister, even if it was a bit awkward for her to get used to at first. She wondered how much her family was seeing her in the real world. How much had they cried for her while she sat around doing nothing to escape her situation other than making sure she didn't die. She realized now that she would rather die than watch others die trying to free her. She would help them, or die with them. It was that simple.

The safe zone was just ahead, so thankfully she could put this adventure behind her.

Her father was a little more lax than some of her real life friends' fathers were. The friends that remained on good terms with Yuki when she started her transition had fathers that resented her life choices. She was so scared to tell her father about her change from male to female that she had to tell her mom first and then she convinced Yuki to tell him about her feelings. She was glad she did too. Her father was so accepting of it, much more than she had thought he would be, for sure.

Her train of thought was interupted by the glowing craft node of to the side. This one was pretty difficult to not spot. Right on the side of the road just ripe for picking. She reach down and collected the material into her inventory. Once that was done, she got under way again. The safe wasn't much further away now.

Thinking about Mari made Yuki think about her mother for some reason. Maybe it was because Mari came off as the motherly sort. She was doing her best to help others and lead them into directions that would help them get stronger. Where they could learn from their mistakes and become stronger on their own. Her own mother wasn't that kind of person per se, but she cared for Yuki all the same. She was the kind of mother that coddled her children because she always felt the need to. She was like that even before Yuki started her transition and she could only imagine the words her mother would have for her once she found her way out of this video game death trap.

About half way to the safe zone now and no materials have shown up since she started walking back. Maybe she wouldn't even find any, actually that seemed like the most likely thing to happen at this point.

 She had already been walking for about five minutes but hadn't come up with anything useful for materials. It wouldn't stop her from looking around while she walked though. Seemed like a waste to not look around while she walked anyway. She could always just stop for a few seconds, round up the materials and continue on her way.

Her mind continued to wander. She wondered how Mari was doing since their last escapade with the elves. She hoped she would find a quest that she could invite her on again. There were thousands other she could ask to do quests with her, but Mari seemed to understand her best, or at least did her best to understand her. She had always mentioned being an awful teacher, but it wasn't true. She was great teacher and definitely wouldn't be as far as she is now if it weren't for her ginger haired friend.

The path was ensnared and blocked up by roots more than she remembered. Though she did kind of explore a bit off the path looking for materials when she first came through. Oh right, she almost forgot to keep an eye out for any materials as she made her way back. Unfortunately nothing really turned up for right now. After what she just endured with those stupid wasps, she wasn't all that upset that she couldn't find any materials the intended way. It felt so much easier to just attack mobs and get them to drop materials or undertake the Nature's Treasure quest and search for them that way.

Her mind wandered a bit while she walked, but she was also making sure that no more mobs got close to her. She wouldn't last if she had to go through another combat like those wasps. She couldn't believe how many times that last one missed her before it proced thorns and finally died.

She bent over and collected all the items the wasps dropped for her. Plenty of materials and col for sure. Certainly none of these other items would really be useful to her besides maybe the trinkets. She would have to get them appraised again. She wondered if Ceres would want to take another crack at identifying her items for her. 

Once she was finished with her looting, she tried to remember which direction she came from originally and started to head back to the safe zone of floor six. The main settlement was pretty far away, so while she walked she could keep her eyes out for an more materials. Maybe she would get luck. She switched her sword and shield out for her rings and started to make her way back to town.  If she walked quickly, she could be there before the sun rose and get some sleep or something to eat.

The next would surely finish her opponent and she could finally start making her way back to the safe zone. She waited for its attack again to see if she could get another attack on it as it missed her. Surprisingly enough, it did actually hit her. It's thin spear-like stinger pierced directly through her chest. Now was her chance to end it since that attack was a critical strike.

She grabbed the stinger stuck in her chest held it place and stabbed through the wasps abdomen. It made some ear piercing noise as it keeled over and exploded into data. She sighed quietly to herself in relief. Now time to loot the items off their bodies and start making her way back to the safe zone. She reached down and started to inspect the remains of the mobs. Hopefully she could identifying anything useful. Consumables or weapons would be really useful for sure.

Yuki
Level: 4 | HP:  79/80 | Energy: 0/8

Stats
DMG: 3 | EVA: 0 | MIT: 27 | ACC: +2 | Thorns: 18

Giant Wasp 1 -1/75(Dead)
Giant Wasp 2 -1/75 -3 DMG
Giant Wasp 3 -2/75(Dead)
Giant Wasp 4 -5/75(Dead)

Giant Wasps (75HP, 20DMG)

Combat Finished!

Ready to end this fight with her next strike, she readied her blade for the wasps next attack. She would dodge it and just strike it down while it was vulnerable. It came after her, charging in and rearing its stinger back for the next attack. It missed just barely so she went to make her final attack, but the wasp was fast enough to dodge her attack. Why did the game insist on being so annoying? 

The wasp pulled back to prepare itself for its next attack, which was fine because Yuki needed to regain the energy to make her next attack as well. Just one of them need to hit the other and this combat would be finished and she could gain some col and materials for her time. It was kind of funny how these mobs survived so much longer than the Gemini did against her. In either case, they end with her victory.

Yuki
Level: 4 | HP:  80/80 | Energy: 0/8

Stats
DMG: 3 | EVA: 0 | MIT: 27 | ACC: +2 | Thorns: 18

Giant Wasp 1 -1/75(Dead)
Giant Wasp 2 2/75 -3 DMG, 18 thorns
Giant Wasp 3 -2/75(Dead)
Giant Wasp 4 -5/75(Dead)

Giant Wasps (75HP, 20DMG)

Yuki focused herself and slashed through the over grown bee another time, dealing her crappy low, but reliable damage. She would kill it eventually, if it was the last freaking thing that she would do. Her luck was turning around a little though as the wasps damage came through her armor. It dealt a solid point of damage to her and took the entirety of her thorns damage. Its health points dipped into the red zone and only a single hit would finish it off at the point. Good thing, too. She was ready to head back to town and get something to eat already. She also wanted to take a moment to look through her skill points and see if she could buy any new skills. That would help her with fighting easier for sure.

The grip on her sword tightened as she was ready to make the final killing blow on her opponent and make her way back to the town.

Yuki
Level: 4 | HP:  79/80 | Energy: 0/8

Stats
DMG: 3 | EVA: 0 | MIT: 27 | ACC: +2 | Thorns: 18

Giant Wasp 1 -1/75(Dead)
Giant Wasp 2 2/75 -3 DMG, 18 thorns
Giant Wasp 3 -2/75(Dead)
Giant Wasp 4 -5/75(Dead)

Giant Wasps (75HP, 20DMG)

The stinger of the wasp went right by Yuki again. This had to be the dumbest mob that she had met so far. It had missed her so many times, at least ten times it had missed her in this combat. That's really the only reason that it had survived combat for so long. She was half tempted to just start walking towards the safe zone. She was pretty far away and was sure that a few more successful hits to her would send it to it's doom. So it would just follow her as she walked towards the town and hit her eventually right? Nah, she didn't want to feel so stupid, plus it would be pretty annoying to have the thing buzzing around in her ears as she made her way back.

She would just continue her assault on the stupid bug and eventually kill it. At least a few more attacks would get it low enough to the point where thorns would kill it in a single hit. She made another attack to it, dealing her damage and getting ready for her next attack.

Yuki
Level: 4 | HP:  80/80 | Energy: 0/8

Stats
DMG: 3 | EVA: 0 | MIT: 27 | ACC: +2 | Thorns: 18

Giant Wasp 1 -1/75(Dead)
Giant Wasp 2 23/75 -3 DMG
Giant Wasp 3 -2/75(Dead)
Giant Wasp 4 -5/75(Dead)

Giant Wasps (75HP, 20DMG)

The mobs in this game were absolutely stupid ninety percent of the time. The missed tons of hits and when they did hit it was almost always a critical. Again, the wasp continued to miss her. It stabbed nothing with its stinger, only disturbing the air around her and it. The pink paladin pulled her sword back and connected with the wasp again. She could say it over and over again but her damage absolutely sucked, or she needed to get more energy so that she could use sword arts more often. Mari did rely entirely on using sword arts to deal damage, so maybe that was the most reliable damage dealing ability in the game. Made sense.

Unfortunately her energy wouldn't be regenerating with her making an attack every time the energy came back. It seemed a bit clunky that normal attacks also consumed energy, but its something she would just have to get used to.

Yuki
Level: 4 | HP:  80/80 | Energy: 0/8

Stats
DMG: 3 | EVA: 0 | MIT: 27 | ACC: +2 | Thorns: 18

Giant Wasp 1 -1/75(Dead)
Giant Wasp 2 26/75 -3 DMG
Giant Wasp 3 -2/75(Dead)
Giant Wasp 4 -5/75(Dead)

Giant Wasps (75HP, 20DMG)

Another round of attacks. Yuki didn't waste her time with this stupid wasp. If she wanted this combat to end, she would need to be proactive at least and be sure that her own attacks made their mark. She slashed through the base of the insect again. It was basically glowing red with all the scratch marks that littered its body. Even though she had made the critical strike on it, it didn't improve her damage enough to make her feel like she was making any more significant progress. It was more damage than she could do without it of course, but barely.

The wasp had no luck breaking her defense. which still meant that thorns wasn't going to proc for her. She was still getting aggravated that this was her only way to deal damage. Relying on the enemy hitting you was pretty annoying compared to being proactive with dealing damage with your own sword.

Yuki
Level: 4 | HP:  80/80 | Energy: 0/8

Stats
DMG: 3 | EVA: 0 | MIT: 27 | ACC: +2 | Thorns: 18

Giant Wasp 1 -1/75(Dead)
Giant Wasp 2 29/75 -4 DMG
Giant Wasp 3 -2/75(Dead)
Giant Wasp 4 -5/75(Dead)

Giant Wasps (75HP, 20DMG)

If one thing was for certain, its that the game was designed to annoy solo tank players. She really wished Luna was here at this point to kill the damn thing so this could be over, but its not like she had the time to message her and ask her to come help. Besides she wouldn't make it in time if she even did message the blue haired rapier user. The wasp made another quick attempt to kill her off, but only ended up missing her as horribly as she missed it just a second ago.

She raised her blade again and attempted to cut its long stinger right off its body. She missed the base of the stinger but still was able to land a nice hit on the wasp dealing the minuscule amount of damage that she was capable of to it. A solid three points of damage and the stupid thing was looking a little weaker.

Yuki
Level: 4 | HP:  80/80 | Energy: 0/8

Stats
DMG: 3 | EVA: 0 | MIT: 27 | ACC: +2 | Thorns: 18

Giant Wasp 1 -1/75(Dead)
Giant Wasp 2 33/75 -3 DMG
Giant Wasp 3 -2/75(Dead)
Giant Wasp 4 -5/75(Dead)

Giant Wasps (75HP, 20DMG)