Zajcica

With her guard lowered from the shocking disturbance of the Gemini copying her own appearance, Yuki was left wide open to an attack. He charged forward faster than the pink paladin could react to raise her shield. Her own sword pierced through her defenses continuing the trend of her only taking a single point of damage. Seeing as how she was only able to deal minuscule damage, the Gemini backed off to get her bearings. The thorns from Yuki's armor wasn't something that they could copy and the damage that they just dealt wouldn't be enough to weaken Yuki before she finished. Still they were willing to try. What was the point of the challenge without risk?

They looks up to see Yuki was readied for the next exchange. They wouldn't be benefiting from their disguise skill again. No time to worry about that though, as their opponent was coming in hot. Sword raised and ready to strike.

<<The Gemini>>'s Stats:

• HP: 22/40
• DMG: 20
• MIT: 7
• ACC: 2
• EVA: 0
• Critical Hits: 24 on a natural MD 9, 28 on a natural MD 10.
• <<Disguise>>: +1 ACC to <<The Gemini>>'s first attack.

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

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

Yuki was ready for the attack, but not the absolute impact. The hulking elf launched her back a few meters into a makeshift building that the elves were using to store gear. She broke through the wooden wall, splinters littered her armor, then stood back up and jumped through the hole.

"At least this one as oopmf to his hits! I'll be ready for the next attack king!" She picked her white blade up off the ground and readied it once more. She didn't have the energy to use another sword art but that's fine. She ran forward between Mari and the king to see his next attack stopped in its tracks. His blade swung fast through the air, gashing Yuki across her chest, but like usual, she wasn't bothered by the minuscule damage she took. She raised her own blade in retaliation, slashing him across his chest, mirroring the amount of offensive damage he'd done to him. Her thorns made this combat pretty one sided, however. 

"Your turn Mari-chan." The pink paladin gave her comrade that big smile she was used to seeing by now.

@Mari

MARI STATS  HP: 1090/1090  | Energy: 84/106
DAM: 11 | EVA 3  | MIT 43 | ACC 4 | 

YUKI STATS:  HP:  79/80   ENERGY 2/8
DAM: 4  | EVA 0  | MIT 27  | ACC 2

Yuki dealt 1 damage with a standard attack, and 18 with thorns.

Notes:
Elvish King HP: 113/150 MIT: 75 Damage Per hit: 25 (-19HP)

Thanks!

"Tch," The paladin snickered, "How many more times are you going to ask me if I'm ready? By now you should realize that I'm ready for anything! Nothing can stop me, I'm immovable!" The blinding smile grew across her face once more. She could see the fortifications of a camp ahead, she was sure this is where the boss would spawn if she approached the camp. Even now she wasn't scared. Even if she was alone she could easily destroy the boss if given the time. Thorns would eventually kill it, but with Mari, had never felt so confident in her life.

"Yoshi! No more waiting around! I can't get stronger just standing here now can I!" She howled as she charged forward, the boss didn't waste it's time spawning. It spoke more drivel, but she just ignored it. The pink glow of her sword reflected off her armor. The only thing she would reach is the air around the king, but even still she kept up that smile.

"Naze o matte idesuka?!" She yelled, watching the elf pull his two handed blade from the scabbard and bringing it down over the girls head and dug the blade into her shoulder. Again, only a single point of damage. She couldn't hold in her outburst as she watched her health bar tick for effectively nothing.

"Hahaha! Oi, oi! That's the best a king can do?! Pretty pathetic, and here I was worrying that I was the one who was weak!"

@Mari

MARI STATS  HP: 1090/1090  | Energy: 106/106
DAM: 11 | EVA 3  | MIT 43 | ACC 4 | 

YUKI STATS:  HP:  79/80   ENERGY 2/8
DAM: 4  | EVA 0  | MIT 27  | ACC 2

Snake Bite missed, again.

Notes:
Elvish King HP: 132/150 MIT: 75 Damage Per hit: 25 (-18HP from thorns)

The pink paladin reeled back in surprise. Her stale expression painted across her face, she watched the Gemini pull out a blade that looked exactly like her own straight sword and her shield in the other hand. The armor reflected the moonlight off the water and gleamed into Yuki's eyes.

"N-Nijuushin?! Muri!" The girl screamed in her native language. She couldn't believe that an npc had just mocked her appearance. Or, well, then again, the Nervegear did apply the system to read her face and her body size. Perhaps it could just copy and paste that information onto another non-player character. It was actually pretty scary that the game would even do something like this. Was it to make you face your inner fears, or was the game actually trying to pull some kind of fun quest? She wouldn't give in though.

"Yoshi! Soreja, kakugou!" She drew her blade and prepared herself... but the doppelganger was already on the move before Yuki got the chance to even react.

Yuki laughed at Mari's reaction to her own little creation. Her mother had thought it was unnecessary as well, but it was just what Yuki enjoyed. Well, that along with the standard stuff that someone would put in Onigiri, like sakura denbu.

"Hey, don't knock it until you try it. It sounds excessive but I swear you'll fall in love the moment that you try it." She insisted on selling her product. Though, her sell was short when Mari brought up the next enemy. She did drink one of Mari's potions, and maybe now with her improved base attack, she could deal some reasonable damage. "I will give it a go! Maybe I'll be able to deal some reasonable damage to something and do more than a single point of damage!"

She eagerly pulled out her sword. Almost as if it was a call to battle, the Elvish Commander fell from one of the high tree branches, landing in front of the two.

"Oui dfu ryja paah duu silr uv y hiecyhla. E femm aht oui rana." The hulking elf said in some benign tongue Yuki couldn't begin to comprehend. The sword she wielded glowed pink and she slashed through the air and hit only air. The elf's axe sundered past her armor, dealing a single point of damage to her and causing her thorns to damage it.

"Uh, whoops. I missed."

@Mari

MARI STATS  HP: 1090/1090  | Energy: 106/106
DAM: 11 | EVA 3  | MIT 43 | ACC 4 | 

YUKI STATS:  HP:  79/80   ENERGY 5/8
DAM: 4  | EVA 0  | MIT 27  | ACC 2

Snake Bite missed. Thorns deals 18 damage

Notes:
Name: Elvish Commander HP: 82/100 MIT: 55 Damage Per hit: 20

The hooded figure gave her a grin to that remark and walked past her, gesturing her to follow her.

"We must leave the safe zone to activate combat, as dueling in safe zones are prohibited. Follow me, I know a place outside the zone where monsters will not bother us while we fight." They say, leading the way out of the safe zone as quickly as possible. A quiet laugh escaped their lips as Yuki boasted her strength. "I fancy myself on being quite the effective fighter as well. If I were you, I'd be prepared for a good fight."

They led her into a secluded part of the woods, a small pond ran water over stone into a river nearby. The quiet splashing continued over the sound of buzzing and bustling insects. The hooded figure turned to meet eye to eye with the pink paladin. Her hood fell past her head and to the ground, revealing a doppleganger of herself. The Yuki copy, folded her arms and grinned at her.

"Are you ready?"

Yuki blinked as the hooded figure insisted they battle when neither of them even know names. The refused to show their face no matter how much they spoke, the hood, in fact, seemed to blacken their face entirely. Yuki was a bit nervous, but with Macradon's armor and Mari's teaching and encouragement, she could overcome any challenge ahead. The pink paladin turned to face the dark figure with a smile.

"I will gladly accept your challenge friend, but I must warn you that I am no pushover. This battle could easily be one sided if we aren't careful." She boasted, smile radiating off her face like a beacon of glee. She had never been one to boast the way she was now, and she was sure if she were to enter floors higher than this one, simple mobs would maul her alive and she'd just be another name on that black epitaph in the center of the Town of Beginnings.

Yuki watched the final soldier they would have to kill explode in to data bits. Only the few boss-types to kill now. This quest was taking a bit longer than the other ones she had done. Now that the interruption was out of the way, she insisted on continuing the conversation.

"I can't say I boast that kind of prowess, but I make some really good rice and noodles, I love making Onigiri, as well, and filling them with mochi!" All this food talk was making the girl hungry, even though they never actually got hungry. She smiled happily to Mari, "When I get the chance I want to learn the cooking skill and make Japanese meals for everyone! I'll give you a special deal on meals for helping me out so much![/color] 

The paladin's enthusiasm shone more radiant than her pink hair, or her smile. She continued to follow behind Mari, she wasn't sure how hard the upcoming enemies would hit her for, which made her worry a bit, but she trusted that Mari would save her if she got into trouble.

@Mari

Yuki watched Luna's rapier bounce harmlessly off the minotaurs shield. It was obvious she hadn't draw it's attention enough and she needed to distract it more so Luna could get good hits in. Unfortunately the beast didn't quite hit her either, so of course that meant thorns wouldn't proc for that round. Disappointing concidering it was the bulk of Yuki's damage and her main form of dealing damage in total. She'd have to rely on an attack of her own, so she raised the pink blade once more and went for another series of stabs. The three hits pinged of the minotaurs shield and did no effective damage.

"Crap, this thing has better defenses than I anticipated, but I still have its attention Luna, feel free to make your attack. Remember to keep you head calm and take your time!" The pink paladin encouraged standing in her defensive posture to block any massive damage to herself.

The Gemini

Now having gained some levels, Yuki was unafraid to step foot on the higher leveled floors. Her next destination was Floor Six - A giant jungle of tangle weeds and trees scatter across the stretch of the land. It kind of reminded her of Floor Two, but much more lush and dense of forest. Many different animals made noise in the background, making it hard to hear the NPC approach behind her. They tapped her shoulder.

"I'm sorry to bother you, ma'am, but I must speak to you of something most urgent." They say hiding their face from view while they speak. "I find myself looking for challenge on this floor and you look extremely formidable. I was wondering if you would like to fight with me. I will make it worth your while and teach you one of my hidden skills that you can't learn otherwise. I will also ensure that our fight will not result in your death should I win."

General
Level: 4 | HP:  80 | Energy: 8

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

Equipment(in use)
Regal Cuirass(Heavy Armor): 1MIT, 2 Thorns
Aegis(Shield): 2MIT, 1 Regen
Saber(OHSS): 2 ACC, 1 DMG
 

Equipment(on standby)

Silver Serpent Ring: +2 LD
Covetous Gold Serpent Ring: +1 LD

Consumables
3) Starter Healing Potions(50HP)

Yuki, who was lagging behind Luna quite a bit, rushed forward to her calls. She rounded the corner to see the Minotaur. Unluckily her ally had missed her own strike and taken a hit. She peered up at Luna's hit points while rushing to her aid, sighing in relief that it didn't do some massive damage to her. Her blade glowed a neon, rose-pink color.

"Don't worry Luna, I'm here!" She said, stabbing the blade into the minotaur's side in quick succession. It didn't appreciate that gesture, turning to combat her now. "There I got it's attention. I'll be your shield, just do what you need to." She says with a smile and shield raised, ready for the minotaur's next attack.

It felt great knowing that she was able to be effective with her tanking. Although she had originally intended to become a support to aid her allies, tanking surely felt like she was able to help her friends by making sure they don't out right die, or even really get hurt... Or well, not hurt that much.

@Luna

Yuki entered the shop, greeted by the nostalgic sound of 8-bit gaming. The moment she entered the door she was greeted by the keeper. Yuki waved and approached the red haired woman with her item.

”Good day! Have an item here that I would like to have appraised. I got pretty lucky on some of my first few mobs and dropped something decent. Would you be willing to take a look at it and see if it’s worth keeping?” She asked accessing her own inventory and taking the Tier One Perfect weapon out to set on her counter. “I have a pretty nice weapon right now, admittedly, but I like to have options.”

"A-Arigatou..." She said taking one of the potions and downing.

Yuki gasped slight'y as Mari brought up the topic of cooking. A passion that her ginger-haired companion had yet to see from her glinted in her eye.

"I absolutely love to cook!" She exclaimed with a glint in her eye. "When I first started my transformation, my mother taught me how to cook! She knew how much I loved bentos so she taught me how to prepare them. After that, I couldn't help but ask her to teach me how make more extravagant foods. I spent two years learning recipes with her as I went to college, probably the best bonding me and my mother have had-!" She hushed up when she realized she was making quite the scene. Not to mention that she was starting to feel upset, thinking about her mother and how much she missed her.

"Sorry! I didn't mean to go on a rant like that. You can learn how to cook as a skill in the game? How did I not know this? I wanna learn that skill for sure!" As for Mari's final question, Yuki elected to ignore it.

@Mari

Yuki returned the white blade back to its scabbard. The elf fell over. limp to his death and exploded back into binary. She hadn't cared too much about the elves appearing human or even speaking to her directly. In the end, everything in this entire word was really just that, fake. Ones and zeros of stranded code. Mari's voice brought her back to reality.

"I wonder just how in depth the language is. It sounded weirder than even some European languages I've seen written." She says forgetting that her own language isn't even written phonetically. "Just keep leading the way Mari-chan. I'll continue to do my best." She said as the two continued down the path. It was strange how open to her surroundings she was now. In real life she would never have to be this alert and, all things considered, she didn't necessarily have to right now either. A feeling was eating at her neck that Mari was testing her, or watching her, to make sure she could handle herself. Was she trying to make sure that Yuki was ready to begin handling herself so that once she found herself in threat, she would be prepared? 

" Nee, Mari-chan? You said earlier that you were a bad teacher. I refuse to accept that. I've learned so much from you already, so thank you."

@Mari

Yuki laughed when Mari asked if she could tank another one of the elf's attacks. If he didn't hit her, there wasn't much in the question; if he did, he would do more damage to himself than her. Being a tank meant controlling the battlefield for your allies. She was beginning to see that power firsthand. 

"Yatte mina yo." Yuki taunted, laughing in her Japanese. The elf couldn't understand her speech just as much as she couldn't understand his, but he was sure from the tone that she was making fun of him. He took his blade again and attempted to stab her. She shield caught the edge, sliding it off to the side with no problem. 

"Kantan Sugiru." She looked over at Mari, still with the serious face she wore from the last attack, but more laid back. "Well, it would literally be a waste of my energy to attack him at this point. Go ahead and do the honor, Mari-chan."

@Mari

Yuki drew her sword from it's scabbard. The white blade glinted it off the sun when it peered through the trees. Her guard was up and she would be ready for anything... She hoped. 

Her ears perked up. It was quiet but she could hear the footsteps behind her, very close. She turned around in her defensive posture two swords coming for her neck. Both blocked by her shield at the same time, halted instantly. Yuki's face was stern and focused, when push came to shove and there was a sense of danger her attitude flopped on its head. 

Her shoulder pushed into the two swords, sending them back into the air, her blade hued in pink again.

"Your lethargic attempts at staying surreptitious behind the trees won't catch me off guard!" Yuki growled, swinging her sword horizontally one way and then back they other way through bother their chests. She stood tall her blade ready for the next attack, if need be. She had even forgotten Mari was there, but her confidence shone radiance in her spirit.

@Mari

Yuki laughed as she told her about her first impressions of Macradon. It made Yuki feel kind of nice, because the situation reminded her of how she acted towards Mari when the two first met at the gala.

"The way you explain Macradon's attitude towards you eerily reminds me of my own attitude towards you in original meeting. You attempted to push me away so easily, but I was too stubborn to walk away." She laughed reminiscing to that night. "Does that mean you are confident to call me a friend as well?" The way she said that was rather lackadaisical, like she already knew the answer herself.

"I wonder if maybe we had ever passed by each other in the real world. Likely not, but a funny thought. You think if you do ever return to Japan that we'll meet? That is if we.. Uh, no- yeah, that would be fun." Yuki swallowed that "if" quickly. 

@Mari

Yuki smiled warmly to Mari. It may not have seemed Mari was cheering her up with her more stern tones, but in Yuki's mind, she needed this reality check. She wasn't invincible and if she kept pushing herself too hard without worrying about her own sanity, she would kill herself with her own depression. 

" I can't say I talked with him long, but he treats new players rather well. I'm proud to have gear made by him." Yuki explained. "Also, I'm surprised with your Japanese recognition. You caught me off guard responding to my snarky, self-hating comments without a second thought. I didn't take you for a native or anything." 

The pink paladin rose to her feet, armor jangling against it's own segmented pieces. She gestured deeper into the forest and gave Mari a smile and a nod.

"Not getting anything done sitting around here. I don't have all my energy back yet, but that's fine. I'm sure that if I get into trouble, somehow, you'll protect me."

@Mari

It was done in a flash. Thinking back to her battle with the wolves on floor one, or the wasp on floor two with Luna, she could have just used some Sword Arts to end combat quicker. Why did she not try it? Perhaps it wasn't on her mind that the mechanic was meant to be used.  It wasn't absolutely encouraging to see that her strongest attack was mitigated almost entirely. She looked at the ground the back up to her companion.

"Yowaidesuyo, demo... kaizen shimasu." Her voice in a quiet, but solemn tone. "I have learned a lot thanks to you. I don't think that you're a bad teacher. I am a bad student. I'm hardly giving myself a chance. I can't be a symbol to others and be there when they need to hear that things will be better if I'm making myself suffer."

Seeing as how Mari was relaxing for a moment, Yuki took her time to sit herself on her knees and meditate on everything that just happened. Her green bar pinged back up to full momentarily, but not her energy.

"Those were only the whelps of the group, I'm sure. I wonder for how long Macradon's craftsmanship will keep me alive." She remarked looking over the armor she was wearing. "It's only because of this armor that I've been able to survive for this long, or else those wolves would have mauled me on floor one"

@Mari

"Go-" The pinkette was about to apologize again when she noticed Mari giving her a glare. The word sunk down her throat and she cleared her voice. It was hard for her to accept that she would be doing anything any time soon, it was like trying to grab the stars out of the sky. "I'll do my best, Mari-chan, that is all I can promise."

Her eyes widened as Mari responded to her Japanese without the slightest hesitation. Up until that point, she was using pretty standard Japanese the most anyone could know, but it was clear now that Mari knew more Japanese than she had originally thought. She was just about to test her skill in the language when she bumped into her arm. Everything happened so fast. 

Mari's blinding speed was so impressive to behold. Yuki's chin was basically scraping the dirt as she watched her hands move faster than her eyes could track. Stunned in silence, Yuki saw Mari look back to her, expectant of her coming attack. 

Don't screw it up, stupid, stay focused.

She raised her sword herself and ran into the combat. The blade glowed pink as she started up the sword art. Although she felt confident, she couldn't hide the nervous eyes from her observer. The snoozing elf barely had time to react. Yuki's pretty-pink blade dashed into his abdomen like a razor of a rose pedal. It wasn't precise or anything amazing, but she had succeeded.

...and dealt a single point of damage.

The elf scowled down on her, being what felt like an entire meter taller than herself. His sword slashed across her chest, Yuki flinched back in slight pain. She looked up at her own health, glad to see the running gag of a single point of damage being continued so far. That was until the thorns triggered, the elves health bar took a much bigger prick from that than her sword art.

The pink paladin let out a sigh, and nodded at Mari, assuming her usual defensive stance.

Yuki shrank slightly again when she was reminded of being the controller of hate, as tanks should, yet she had no reliable way to generate hate like tanks should. Her voice only slightly out of character.

”G-Gomen, I invested my only SP into a weapon skill without understanding what a tank needed to succeed, or else I would have allocated them to hate generation.” She mumbled, “However, I do have a single AoE sword art available for use. Im not very strong or anything, so I doubt my damage will matter at all, but that should allow me to pull hate on multiple targets and distract them for you, at least. Mottomo fukai shazai. My options are limited. One day you’ll see me strong though! I promise that to myself!”

Yuki seemed to be trying to make light of her situations the best she could. It seemed like she didn’t want to look so weak in front of Mari.

“Watashiwa yowai kobamimasu..” The pink paladin mumbled to herself, seemingly. She didn’t explain the translation, if Mari even heard her say that.

@Mari

Yuki laughed at Luna's response to her Japanese. She clicked the party accept button and looked up at Luna's health bar to ensure it was accepted.

"I could teach a bit of basic Japanese if you're interested. I was number one in my school for English class and I'm native Japanese if the name Yuki didn't give that away." She explained. It was pretty obvious that she was Japanese from her thick accent. If that didn't give it away, her name surely would. 

"When you say hello to someone, you first think about what time of day it is, like in english. For example, Good Morning is Ohaiyo Gozaimasu and Good Afternoon is Konnichiwa." Yuki started going on an English to Japanese lecture as they started walking towards the quest marker. It wouldn't take long for them to reach the massive labyrinth since they were actively avoiding combat with the scattered mobs. 

Yuki was through the teleporter within a minute. She didn't have much to do right now other than quests, so when she saw the message from one of her favorite people in Aincrad, so far, she didn't hesitate making her way to floor 3. She didn't even actually respond to the message Luna had sent her. She approached the bluenette and gave her a glowing smile.

"Kon! Choushi wadou?" Yuki's Japanese came faster than a bullet. She realized that Luna couldn't understand what she just said based on the confused expression. "Uh, Gomen- Sorry. Hey, what's up? You found another quest for us to do then?"

She looked through her inventory to make sure she had everything she needed, equipping the armor and sword she received from Mac and the rings she had received from some stranger in the Town of Beginnings onto her active inventory. She also checked her consumables to make sure she everything she needed.

After finally finishing her quest she heads out of the luscious garden, she started heading back to the main settlement of the town of beginnings. She watch mobs run through the world aimlessly as she walked. The last thing on her mind at this moment was combat though, so she wouldn't be engaging in any of that at all. She had found several tons of items and resources to be used. This would be extremely helpful when she started her restaurant. She wondered just how popular it would get when she became a much better leveled cook. Would everyone come to try her food? The pink paladin held her high with a huge smile painted across her face. 

Only a couple dozen meters away from the safe zone now, she walked through the grass and let out a relieved sigh. This was only the beginning of mark on this digital world and she would make a crater, not a hole.