Zajcica

The wasps quickly surrounded the pink haired woman. She watched closely as they all approached her slowly, looking for an opening her defense. She showed no weakness to them. Her blade lit up in its beautiful pink gleam and soared in a circle around all her enemies. They all reeled back to the damage, and she was happy to see that her combat skills were better than her regular looting skills. A few critical popped up for her, and her mood was instantly flipped. Battling was so much more fun than collecting materials.

It didn't take long for the bugs to come after her, though. Her armor took most of the hits, but one go through and thorns did its due. She hoped this would not be a repeat of the wolves on floor one, but it was certain she would get some col and maybe some materials for combat.

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

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

Giant Wasp 1 65/75 (5x2)=10 DMG
Giant Wasp 2 69/75 (3x2)=6 DMG
Giant Wasp 3 69/75 (3x2)=6 DMG
Giant Wasp 4 49/75 (4x2)=8 DMG, -18 Thorns= 26 DMG

Rage Spike hits all targets.

Giant Wasps (75HP, 20DMG)

Nothing was going her way now. The luck she had with destroying the Gemini had faded with her quest to find materials. It was obvious she wasn't going to find anything useful on this floor for now. If she wanted to find more material, she would have to go back down to floor one and retake the quest. This constant failure of finding absolutely nothing was only beginning to aggravate her more than anything. One last look, turning up to find nothing, again, and the pink paladin groaned. Time to head back to town.

She turned on her heel towards the town of floor six to be met by the buzzing of overgrown insects. She quickly switched back to her battle equipment seeing as they were ready to fight. There was four of them in total, the same type of enemy, so it was likely that they all had the same stats. Even so, she hadn't seen any mobs on this floor yet, and would be ready to run if she needed to.

Aggravation was swelling with her mood. She had felt so triumphant finishing the fight with the Gemini in just a minutes time, and now she was getting too easily annoyed that she couldn't find anything on this stupid floor. If she just went back to floor one and reacquired the material farming quest, she would find things so much easier than she would up here on floor six. Continued examination led to no payout. For as lush and abundant the brush of floor six was, it was pretty freaking void of anything other than useless branches and mobs. Quite a bit of wet moss too.

She could still spend a little more time up here on this floor, but then she would probably head to another floor to find a good quest that could get her some levels. Maybe she would message Mari again and ask her if she wanted to do some quests. It was always fun to hang out with Mari, even if she did seem to turn everything into a lesson for Yuki.

She was still pretty close to the safe zone. Perhaps if she took some time to venture a bit further away, she would have better luck finding any kind of materials. It was a little disheartening to find absolutely nothing after ten minutes of uninterrupted searching. Why was it so difficult to find materials when they're almost a necessity to the game. It seemed rather unfair that you couldn't multitask to find materials without taking a quest to find them specifically. 

She ventured further away from the safe zone, but still couldn't find any materials that she could use for crafting. The anger in her expression could be felt by anyone if they were to see it. Farming materials wasn't as calming or fun as she thought it would be. Still she would try for a little longer. If she couldn't find anything in the next ten minutes, she would be returning to the town where the Gemini had pulled her off.

The pink paladin continued searching through the bushes and large tangled roots that found their way out of the soil. Still nothing could be used for crafting. How was her luck this bad? Maybe she wasn't meant to be a crafter and rely on being solely a tank for the foreseeable future. Her mind was set on taking the cook profession though. She loved cooking and a rut of bad luck wouldn't stop her from realizing that skill while she spent her time alive in this game.

She wondered just how many people would hear about her store and how popular it could become. Not every player in the game was from Japan, so maybe those players might not find time to try the traditional food she could make, but she knew high level players relied on cooks to boost their skills. Maybe her best chance for business was with them.

Yuki sighed quietly to herself. She hadn't been as lucky as she was with her quest on the first floor. It should have been expected, though. The quest itself did boost the odds of finding useful material after all. It wasn't her luck that had given her those materials, more of just the system letting her find things, because that was what the quest expected from the player. She wondered what the normal odds of finding usable material was then. Probably somewhere around twenty percent or even lower.

She picked the brush apart and looked around the base of trees to find anything useful at all. Still her luck was drier than a well in the hottest summer. Would it just be best to head back to town and continue her search for quests to boost her level grinding further? A few more tries and she would start heading back to town. She had only been searching for materials for about five minutes total. That's not a whole lot of time to invest in material searching.

She stepped out into the dense forest, mobs roamed free enjoying their digital life without much of a meaning. They wouldn't be difficult to avoid like in most cases. It had seemed to her that mobs wouldn't really attack you unless they got exceptionally close, or if you engage them first.

Looking around the brush for anything useful was useless. She could tell already that without the help of the floor one quest it could be difficult to farm your own materials. However, farming your own materials didn't cost any money at all. You could buy them from merchants if you wanted, but she imagined that could get expensive pretty quick. It seemed like a better idea to just farm them for herself.

The jungle/forest was nothing like she had ever seen in Japan. It was pretty surreal to experience the environments in the game. They all felt so real and like there was a ton of time invested on making them as real as possible.

With the Gemini defeated and Yuki left alone outside of the safe zone, she decided it wouldn't be a terrible idea to farm for some materials while she was out here. Though the only time she had actually farmed for materials, the quest made them spawn more frequently than they do outside of it, so she expected to be difficult to find more materials. She walked up to the pond that surrounded the short battle to see if any material nodes littered the edge of the water. A few minutes of walking around brought up nothing. She sighed, remembering the luck that she had before getting three nodes in less than about 5 minutes.

She would probably have better luck in the field than this enclosed area, so she headed back the way the Gemini had led her though.She was sure she could find some if she took her time, but she didn't want to spend too long out here. Quests were on her mind.

The pink paladin was pretty surprised when she saw the king survive one of Mari's attacks. No one could strong enough to one-shot ever enemy they encounter, but it was still the first time she had seen something survive Mari's attacks. Nevertheless, it would be dead soon. Yuki steeled herself and tried to activate a sword art, but her energy reserves were too low. A simple attack would suffice for now.

Her blade coursed through the air, way too wide to hit anything. She couldn't believe she had just missed so awfully, like she wasn't even really aiming at anything. Her feet fell out from under her and she crashed into the ground with a loud thud. The elf kings boot met her stomach, sending her into the air. While she was suspended, the king swung his sword into her like a baseball bat. The pinkette dashed through the air and was launched through the another one of the buildings.

Curse her clumsiness.

@Mari

The Gemini laid on the ground breathing heavily from the damage he had taken. His appearance returned to the hooded figure that the Gemini really was. The pink paladin stood over her opponent and sheathed her sword. Her hand came down to him to help him off the ground.

"Gomen. I was just too strong for you. I wasn't really the challenge you might have been looking for. I was just a bully." She said, a bit upset with herself. She knew the outcome of the battle would be like this. Her armor was making her invincible in floors lower than 6.

"Maybe so, but a deal is a deal. I will bestow you a special skill, as I promised." He said. A prompt came across her HUD.

'You learned the skill Concentration!'

The Gemini took their leave passing by the paladin without saying another word. And now she was alone the forest. Her original intent was to find a quest to do, but I guess it would be a good time to check out some of the mobs on this floor, or just farm mats.

The sneak attack might have thrown Yuki off, but she wasn't defenseless. The fact that she had only taken one damage proved that point pretty easily, but now she wasn't going to be caught off guard by cheap tricks like that again. She readied her blade, shining bright even under just the moonlight, and charged her opponent with vigor.

The gemini charged her in return. Without a doubt, they were much faster than she was, but that wouldn't matter if they couldn't do enough damage to beat out her regen. Their copy blade slashed though her stomach leaving nothing but a small red cut across the her digital body. Thorns was enough to get her doppelganger down into the red. She quickly turned around and grabbed the collar of the Gemini's breastplate, forced them the other way and dropped them on their rear.

"Muda da!" She said as the blade shined a glorious pink color that rivaled the sheen of her own hair.  The blade pierced through the copies chest three quick times and with that the Gemini's health dropped to one.

<<The Gemini>>'s Stats:

• HP: 1/40 (-23HP)
• 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: 5/8

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

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