Shay

Thanks

Really? Was he going to make her do this? She learned English before age ten, can do most complex math and got some of the best grades in her some schooling but cardinal direction was nothing but a myth to her. She couldn't navigate her way out of a plastic back if her life depended on it. The girl growled quietly as she spoke.

"You sure you wanna be stuck in this forest for hours? My skills with directions are awful, you know that already." She knew she would probably make her do this, just to help her get better at it. This wasn't a good game to have bad navigational skills. That's when she remembered that she actually had a map on her menu that could lead her back if she wanted. She swiped her hand to open it up, hoping that Titan wouldn't stop her from using it.

@Titan

Shay didn't really have much to do other than this quest and look for their familiar later. Maybe they could fight a few mobs for fun? Eh, no. There will be plenty of time for them to fight something in other quests. She needed to finish these quests as soon as possible so that she could catch up with Titan. It was pretty crazy how much he had given her the drive to level up and become strong. Nothing had really driven her this way before, was this what it felt like to have a rival?

"Watch all you want. I'll destroy anything that gets in my way." She pouted and folded her arms against her chest. Titan was strong compared to her, but that did not mean that she was weak. With time, she would be dealing leagues more damage than he was. She wouldn't stay a low level forever.

@Titan

Once she from the ensnaring roots of the Nepent Variant she gripped her blade tightly and rushed in to make another attack. It was going much better this time around, what with nothing coming up to grab her ankle and send her into the grass again. The blade rushed past and slashed through the Nepent Variant. She had felt it hit the Nepent, but it seemed like her luck was just unfortunate enough for her to somehow miss the attack. A hint of anger furled in her brow, as she had to back off again to avoid being lashed by the vines of the plant monster.

"I apologize. The new weapon is screwing up my accuracy. The blade is much longer and I'm not compensating for it enough. I'll get it on the next attack for sure." Her red-eyes panned over to Baldur, to make sure he was alright. Though he could probably just stand there and do nothing letting his armor absorb the damage and his passive regeneration heal him. No need to worry about his condition then.

@Baldur

Shay 76/80 | 4/8 (-1)
Baldur | HP: 1370/1370 | EN: 129/130 | MIT: 79 | DMG: 19 | Absolute ACC: 4 | EVA: 3 | BH: 54 | Conc (2/3) | Parry (2/2) | QChange (1/3) +1 EN

Nepent V.: 1/15 | MIT 5 | DMG: 10

Shay followed directly behind the gaijin, pulling her blade out of its holster and slashing the bottom half of it's base. Mid way through her strike, before the blade could connect, the creatures vines snapped at her feet. She had to stop short just not take damage, but the sudden stop with the built up momentum sent her collapsing onto her stomach. There was no pain from hitting the dirt, well, other than her own pride. She quickly sprung herself up and dusted the grass off her hands.

"I would have had it there too." The raven-haired girl grumbled as she took up her offensive stance again, looking for an opening for another attack. All it would take was a single hit to fell the mob. A hostile gust of wind could kill it if it picked up enough. Her grip tightened on the sword and she waited for an opening.

@Baldur

Shay 76/80 | 5/8 (-1)
Baldur | HP: 1370/1370 | EN: 128/130 | MIT: 79 | DMG: 19 | Absolute ACC: 4 | EVA: 3 | BH: 54 | Conc (2/3) | Parry (2/2) | QChange (1/3)

Nepent V.: 1/15 | MIT 5 | DMG: 10

Yuki stepped over to the loot boxes, sheathing her sword in it's holder, and opened them one by one slowly. The first one was a success. The boar tuck was moved to her inventory without a second thought. The next one not so much, just completely empty. The third and fourth one had a tusk in each. Whelp. That was pretty fast.

The crimson-eyed assassin stood up and looked up at Titan and gave him a smile. "Well, that was much more painless than I thought it would be. Nice job finishing them all off by the way. I'm starting to feel like my assistance with questing with you is useless cause you can just handle it all yourself. Though you'll say something like 'That's not why I join you for quests.'" She tried to mock his voice light-heartedly. The girl sighed slightly. "We're already done here. Is there anything else you wanted to do in the field?" She asked, giving him the best smile she could muster.

Looting Boars 3/3 tusks.

Shay sheathed her weapon for now and nodded at the katana user. She stood back and waited for the boss to spawn again, letting Baldur take the lead and get the first shot on it. The she would swoop in and steal the kill credit, but that's what she needed so that she could get the drop. She would kill them as many times as she needed to get the stupid item, but hopefully it wouldn't take too long. She wanted to finish the beginner's quests before she hit level fifteen so she could still get the experience from it.

This was already getting kind of boring to be honest. When she got stronger, she would just destroy everything that got in her way. That is, after all what a damage build was supposed to do. She'll prove to herself that she can do something useful for the people of Aincrad.

@Baldur

Shay stood against a tree while she waited for Titan to show up. I wouldn't be hard at all, just like since she finally had the ability use Katana Sword Arts, she would be doing a lot more damage. She invited Titan to a party and decided she would lead the way this time. She was bad with directions, but when it came to combat, she would do better this time.

"Thanks for coming along. I won't get us lost this time. Then we can go and get my familiar, then yours sound like a good deal?"

It didn't take long to find a spawn of boar pups. Four of them at once, it would be just like the Nepent quest again, accept this time she had AoE.

"I'm moving in, support me." Her blade turned as red as her eyes and she charged forward, spinning on her heel and aiming just a little too high and only hitting one of the boars. It exploded into pixels. The girl let out a quiet, "Tch." in response and backed up so Titan could make his attack.

Shay 160/160 | 16/16 (-3)

Boar Pup 1: 5/5 | 3 DMG
Boar Pup 2: 5/5 | 3 DMG
Boar Pup 3: 5/5 | 3 DMG
Boar Pup 4: 0/5 (-6) | 3 DMG

The Nepents collapsed in front of her before exploding into the blue polygons once more, except for one. It was barely missed by Baldur's fury. No matter, Shay had a weapon to kill as well, so if she kept getting lucky and letting the bleed do it's work. They would be done here soon. 

The rave-haired woman grabbed hold of her Katana's hilt and rushed the next Nepent, decisively swinging the blade in it's path. Her luck seemed to be running dry now though, seeing as how she missed this attack pretty much entirely. The Nepent retaliated, swinging its long vines at Shay who was just too agile to hit. Her evasion armor was really paying off here. They system seemed to force a player with evasion to just move out of the way. It felt natural, but also like she was being guided.

"Let's finish this last one and move on then."

Shay 76/80 | 5/8
Baldur | HP: 1370/1370 | EN: 128/130 | MIT: 79 | DMG: 19 | Absolute ACC: 4 | EVA: 3 | BH: 54 | Conc (0/3) | Parry (2/2) | QChange (3/3)

Nepent 2 7/7

Right after finishing the quest for Zachariah to create the potion from materials that she gathered, Shay was tasked with taking a package to a local blacksmith. She delivered the package post-haste and now she was met with a new quest for Lyle, the Blacksmith. He needed Shay to go back out of the safe zone to acquire a set of boar tusks from little baby boars. They weren't difficult to beat up so she should be fine. She actually wondered if Titan wanted to join her since he had only really left to go do that event stuff. He should be free by now.

She opened her menu and found Titan to send him a quick message. 

"I'm doing more questing on floor one if you want to join me. I'll be outside the safe zone on the west side of the town if you decide to tag along." -Shay

The text was written with Japanese Characters first, but then re-written underneath in English.

@Titan

Another try at this Alchemy non-sense and she'll get it right. She mixed the materials together once again, grinding up herbs and putting them through a distiller to get a mix of liquids that would be usable on the battlefield. After another five or so minutes, the crimson-eyed assassin had made a new potion. A menu appeared on it saying it was a successful craft and showed the healing effect that was needed. Zachariah applauded her and smiled.

"Well, done young lady. This is probably the most basic craft you can get from Alchemy, but you know what they say, 'Practice Makes Perfect'. Now, I have one more thing to ask of you." He said handing her a box enclosed with some heavy contents. "Take this Lyle Tealeaf and our business is concluded. Well done today, and good luck on your future endeavors." Shay wasted no time and took the box to the indicator on the map, dropping the package on the mans counter. Lyle greeted her, and said he had work if Shay was looking for it.

Success: T1 Uncommon Healing Potion

Quest Rewards:

4 SP = 2 Quest, 1 Page, 1 Bonus

Items:
- 5 Tier One Health Potions of Uncommon Quality (+40HP)
- 1 Tier One Damage Potion. (+1 Damage)
- 1 Tier One Over-Health Potion (+50 Temp. HP)
- 1 Tier One Uncommon Health Potion(Made by Shay)

400 col for Shay(Page Col given from Titan to Shay)

Shay waved off Titan after saying their goodbye and headed back to Zachariah. It wouldn't take long for her to finish this stupid potion. She had no idea how to do these stupid things but it shouldn't be that hard.

Upon reaching Zachariah's home once again Shay walked in and was led back to his alchemy table. It looks like she didn't have a choice in the craft, it was meant to be a potion and nothing else. That was fine though. If it was good, she would have something useful for a tough boss. She followed the instructions that the old man gave her, trying to mix the concoction of materials together in a certain way to get a good result.

"Almost there." Zachariah said upon looking at the potion. "Not good enough of for use, but close. Try one more time and you'll get it right. Crafting takes practice."

Fail

The girl walked around the tree to confirm if there were any materials. Still nothing useful, she shook her head at the boy. She wasn't going to let the anger get the better of her again. She looked over at the blond and scowled.

"Nothing back here. And still no materials anywhere. Guess I need to look further." She said continuing down the path looking close to the ground for any usable materials, yet again.

"You get enough of those egg things? I think that event thing is finished now. I didn't have much reason to go find those eggs so I ignored them, to be honest. I didn't really feel like searching for them anyways. Still, I hope you got what you want out of it. She smiled lightly to the blond boy, trying to show him that she wasn't getting as frustrated with the material situation as she really was.

fail

Shay looked around with the help of Titan, but even still she struggled to find anything useful. Of course now it was going to be impossible to find any more materials when she was literally only one away from being finished with gathering. She groaned in slight frustration as her search turned up dry. Tedious crap like this was annoying.

"Where in the world did the rest of these stupid materials go? I only need one more and now I'm not going to find any? I hate this stuff." She growled at the game mechanics even though she wouldn't be able to change them.

"After we get my fox, we can go straight into getting you your wombat. I won't be satisfied with you just aiding me. I need to return the favor by helping you as well." The girl continued her soft smile after that comment. She had never really been in such a good mood, despite the annoyance of the non-existent material.

fail

Shay walked quietly as she inspected the area for more materials so they could be finished with this quest already. Unfortunately, she was still coming up short with her materials, so she would have to keep looking for anything she could use. A wombat suited him pretty well and she knew that the fox would suit her. It was sly and could never be caught by anyone. That was it, her mind was decided upon. Finding a kitsune specifically could be difficult though.

"I think that the fox will be what I go with. I hope that you can help make it easier to find and I'll do my best to help you as much as possible as well." She smiled lightly, wondering when she would find the last necessary material that she needed to please Zachariah. Then she would just have to make a craft and the quest would be over.

fail

The crimson eyed assassin looked around for anything else she could use for a material node once again finding absolutely nothing usable. It sucked since she was so close to being finished with this part of the quest. They were almost done. After this was over, she wondered if he wanted to go ahead and do the familiar quests. She still wasn't sure what type of familiar would even work for her. What type of mob would be a good one for her?

"A wombat? How unique. What type of animal do you think would fit me for a familiar? I have no idea." She admitted, continuing to ponder what would be a good fit for her. She sighed when nothing came to mind. "Something sly and sneaky. Perhaps a kitsune. A little fox would be a nice companion."

A legendary being known for guiding lost souls even further astray? Sounded perfect for her.

fail

The girl grinned at the challenge presented to her. It would be fun to have someone drive her to get stronger. It's not like she had the drive to do much else in this world. She was starting to get an odd feeling around Titan. They already felt like childhood friends or something. Shay had never been like this with any other person in the world, so how was he able to just pierce through her lonely nature and make friends with her so easily? It was pretty weird, but was she actually beginning to like Titan more than she expected? The thought of being closer to someone than a friend was completely foreign for her.

"You asked me earlier if I knew what I was doing next. Familiar is on the top of my priority list. I hear its a good way to get free damage on top of your weapon damage so that will be pretty much necessary for me." The girl explained as she picked up another piece of material. Only one more needed.

LD: 12+3=15
7/5 Materials

Shay snickered at the boys poke to make her feel more motivated. If it happened before this two years of solitude she would have told him to screw off and leave her alone. For some reason, that wasn't the case here.

"Challenging me isn't that great of an idea, blondie." The raven-haired assassin taunted him. Her smile turning into a challenging grin. "If you wanna race with me, you had best be sprinting because I go fast."

The crimson eyed woman looked around for another node of materials that she could use, and still nothing decided to show itself to her. She was beginning to feel tedious to do this stupid looting quest. Monotonous tasks always annoyed her though. She looked over to Titan again and her tone seemed much less callous than before.

"Titan, you're a really nice guy for putting up with someone like me. Thank you again for looking deeper at me and making sure I was alright inside. I really needed someones help to break out of this rut."

LD: 12+3=15
6/5 Materials found

The girl stared at him with her callous face momentarily, her mind must have been trialing while he spoke. Though an out of character reaction spurred assurance to the boy after he was finished speaking: Shay gave him an actually genuine smile when he confirmed that he wanted to see her become strong. She didn't know why she smiled at all. Was it because there weren't many who had told her that up until now.

"I did not think otherwise." The smile continued as he spoke. "It just feels good to hear that someone I know is making sure that I will make it through this hell. I didn't know what to think when I found out I couldn't leave this place. I have no one to go back to, but I have no reason to love it here either. I feel like I've been stuck in purgatory for years. Now I think I have a good reason to preserve myself."

LD: 12+3=15
5/5 Materials found

Shay ruminated on those words, wondering exactly who those people were that rooting for her success. In the real world, no one really came to mind. But here she had met some new people. Not many, however. Mari and Baldur were good examples, they wouldn't have helped her if they didn't think she could succeed in becoming a stronger player. Then she looked over to Titan. Her contemplative expression pierced through him.

"Are you one of those people? One of them who really wants to see me succeed in this digital hell?" She asked. She already knew the answer, but tiptoed explanations got on her nerves. Direct and straight answers were much better than trying to walk carefully over broken glass when you could just walk around it.

No materials this time around. She had a feeling that this conversation was going to be going on longer than expected. And here she thought this quest was going to be snap.

LD: 9+3=12
4/5 Materials found

Shay went silent on that and turned away. He was trying to make her remember that her parents might still care about her? It wasn't his fault, but that only made her think about the last time she'd seen them, the funeral was awful. So many people she didn't know and all the family members that were there only for formality and didn't care about her parents actual deaths. It was pretty repulsive.

"Well, silver spoon or rusted, I have to learn to make my own way and life. Aincrad is my challenge and I will conquer it, or die trying." When she had started her leveling off with Mari, she didn't have much a drive beyond fighting. Now, thanks to Titan, she was beginning to see what she needed to do. She cleared her throat after retrieving some stray material. "Thank you for worrying about me." The girl said quietly. It sounded like it was difficult for her to say, but it was pretty sincere from what the blond could tell.

LD: 18+3=21
3/5 materials found

Shay seemed to be reluctant to share anything about her personal life with anyone, but she didn't really have anything to lose at this point. She had already lost most of her pride in the maze when she let someone see her break down and cry the way she did. She sighed audibly and scratched the back of her head.

"As I said before, I've been pampered for most of my life and I'm starting to get fed up with being spoon fed everything in my life. I'm trying to make something of myself now." She admitted. It sounded stupid to say out loud, but it wasn't false. "If I die on the way, at least I can say that I tried to make the best of my life in here, and that didn't wait to just die in the town of beginnings. That must sound completely inane to you."

LD: 11+3=14 
2/5 materials

Shay pretty much flinched at the question when he asked it. It's not like she was purposefully avoiding him or anything.

"I-I'm not avoiding anyone!" Oddly enough, that was the most expression of emotion that she had shown anyone in Aincrad since she started leveling. "It's only been a day since we met and this is the only thing that I've done since the quest we did yesterday. I just didn't mind doing this solo was all." Sh tried to collect herself to look for anything useful but came up short this time. No materials laid around that were usable for the quest.

She cleared her throat and looked at the party invitation that she had received from him. She took a moment and accepted it. Her health bar was now shown to her partner, making it easy to tell if she took any damage. She didn't really know what else to talk about, so she thought of a random question.

"Why the name Titan?" She questioned the blond.

Threads Completed/In-Progress

Legend - In-Progress | Finished and Locked | Abandoned/Hiatus

<<Long Live the Queen>> - Level 1
<<Secret Medicine>> - Level 4
<<Search for the Hoya>> - Level 4
<<First Lessons...>> - Level 6
 

Relationships/Friends lis

Legend - How did you make her like you this much? | Good Impression | Unmoved | Bad Impression | Very Bad Impression

Titan, The Blond - Titan is an okay guy. He's kind and willing to do anything he can to help. If only Shay could accept his friendship better than she is.

Mari, the Orange Player - Mari is a higher level player with a dark past, indicated by her cursor color. Even so, Shay wasn't scared to party up with her to gain some pretty easy SP. Mari seems to be trying to better herself for the most part, and Shay respects that.

Baldur, the Samurai - Baldur is a pretty kind person who could deal with Shay's callous demeanor pretty well. He helped her train with the Katana during a quest, which was necessary to the skill, so she is thankful to him for that.

Skills

Weapon and Armor Skills
Rank 1: Curved Sword(5)
Rank 2: Katana(5+8)

Non-Combat/Passive:
N/A

Combat/Utility:
N/A

SP: Total(34); Used(28)

Inventory

Weapons:
(Katana)Murasame α: BLD 2; DMG 1
(Curved)Murasame ε: BLD 2; DMG 1

Armor:
Leather Overcoat: EVA 3

Trinkets:
Deep Red Tie: Recovery 2; ACC 1
Silver Covetous Ring: LD 2

Equipment(In-Depth)

Consumables:

x5 Starter Healing Potions