Shay

"I was? What of it?" She asked folding her arms over her chest and looking at him with her piercing crimson gaze. "Every quest we have done up to this point has been a quest that either I've already done, or couldn't get the rewards from. I told you from the beginning that doing these quests were to get you closer to my level with out getting me too high so that we could be around the same level."

She sighed thinking about what she had been doing for weeks. After Titan had left her, she was feeling awful. She didn't have feelings for him or anything but he was a really nice guy who was pushing her out of her shell. When he vanished, that shell came back and was denser than ever. She didn't want to see anyone's stupid face at that point. "Look. We are the same level now. That was the intent of doing all those quests. What I was doing for the last years and weeks since I started leveling isn't fucking important anymore. I'm trying my best and my best is barely fucking good enough." The girl turned and started to make her way out of Fortaleza.

Shay cleared her throat. She had no idea that Chase was the same level as her now. How depressing that she couldn't even stay ahead of him. Well, to be fair, he had more skill potential than she did thanks to getting extra experience from the starter lessons, like she told him he would.

"I'm, uh. Level nineteen as well. You are now as experienced as me." She said half jokingly. Even if they were on the same level, their knowledge of the game was still centered around the girl. "It's not that important, I just wanted to be sure that you would be fine to fight this boss. Since there's only one of him and not four like the last one, it should be even easier. I'm much better when it comes to dealing direct damage than I am at dealing area of effect. Don't sweat yourself if you miss an attack or two. I'm fast and that boss will have to do good if he want's to catch me out of position."

"We're going to floor 5. It's a desert so get ready to sweat." Shay said, summoning a long black cloak to her hand and wrapping the cloth around her. There was  no risk of being sun burnt, obviously, but it still didn't feel nice to be pelted by sand. The cloak would provide minimal protect against the harsh floor, so as long as there was no heavy sand storms right now, they would be fine.

"I hate the heat." She mentioned as she began walking towards the floor's teleporter, bringing the hood back to her shoulders and looking over at her duo partner. He seemed to be doing alright for the most part. He was leveling up fast. She was actually starting to get a little bit envious. "What level are you now?" She asked, genuinely curious. She could guess that he was just a level or two shorter of her for now.

"The best that we can do is try not to take too much damage. I think there are a few ways to increase how much health points you regenerate over time, but you have to either buy a skill, get a piece of equipment with a specific buff, or to buy something else that is pretty expensive in order to get that kind of benefit. As of right now, combat ends pretty quickly for the two of us. It makes it really easy. As long as we keep mowing down enemies when they come at us, we'll be completely alright. We both have a pretty high HP pool for now."

Looking at her menu, she had written down quite a few easy quests for the two to do now that they had finally finished off these quests before level 15. In fact, it was all done pretty fast. Like, in a matter of 24 hours fast.  "We can go to either the fifth floor and fight a shark that swims in the sand, or we can go up a few floors and fight a dark elf that either of us could kill without even using a sword art. You pick."

Day 15

EXP Total: 263+31=294
Result: +31XP (13, +6+12), -3 Tier 1 Materials, Uncommon Salve (2)

"Do what you need to do Chase. If I cared so much about this world that I wanted to live here for the rest of my life, I would be cutting down just about any player that wanted to clear the game. We will get out of this game and I will find the new thing to move on to in life. That's just how it works." She explained as they passed through the barrier into town. A short talk with the merchant and the two of them were rewarded with their experience and skill points.

"Well, that was all the quests we needed to do before you hit level 16, and you should have just obtained that level from it. Glad that I got to help someone do them all since I didn't get the experience for them." Shay took a moment to think. She hadn't much planned to do now that they had finished these up. The best they could do now was to wreck havoc on smaller bosses until they hit the second tier, and then do harder stuff. "Well, we only just started for today, but now that those quests are done, I don't mind taking it slower. Anything you had in mind that you wanted to do?"

Shay was rather quiet on her way back to the town, which was just in view, but Chase's question obviously got her thinking. The idea of the world was a really nice one, and she was sure that if it wasn't a death game, she might actually have answered that question without hesitation. The world was beautifully made and had it's own deceptive captivation. Comparing it to the real world didn't seem like a fair comparison though. They weren't really the same kinds of places, even if they seem so.

"I guess. It's not all sunshine and rainbows, but compared to what I have waiting on the other side, I'd say I prefer it here. Is that a bad thing? I don't think that I want to die here, of course, but I still am having more fun living here than I ever was living in the real world. What about you?"

"Don't say dumb stuff like that." Shay said crossing her arms after returning her weapon to her hammer space. She started to lead the way back to their objective. They would need to speak to the old man again to tell him that the problem has been dealt with completely. "You just saw me miss tons of attacks. Your enemies aren't going to stand there and let you murder them. Be ready for what you can, but don't always expect perfection. It may have been easy now, and it may only get harder from here on out, but that's why we have each other. Also, it isn't as if we're going to stay this weak forever. Maybe one day you never will miss."

Shay was still bad as ever with her words, but she knew that he would understand what she was trying to say. He was pushing himself a little too hard again.

Day 14

EXP Total: 230+33=263
Result: +33XP (15, +6+12), -3 Tier 1 Materials, Uncommon Salve (1), Rare Salve (1)

Shay took a deep breath, looking nearly unphased by how fast paced the battle was for her dodging and striking at the wolf that had remained. She had a little more time to develop her combat skills than Chase did, so this was practically nothing for her. She met his sharp gaze with crimson irises. 

"This was nothing so far." She said, not so much in a cocky way, but more as a way of saying that she was just fine. Still, her communication skills lacked to the point where what she was saying came off much differently than what she meant. "That went much more smoothly than I assumed it would, in all honesty. Critical attacks can really change the pace of a fight for the better. Or even for the worse if you're on the receiving end. Glad fortune favored our side rather than their's." Shay grabbed her sheath from the ground and returned her blade to its rightful place.

The wolf snarled over the boy, ready to bite down on his head while he was vulnerable, but was forced to move as a red slash of sharp blade landed where it once was. Shay looked down at him, making sure he was alright. Once that was confirmed she got back into battle to give him enough time to get to his feet. Her blade came up short almost every single time she slashed at the beast. You would think that it was the actually boss, but she nearly split that one into two pieces the moment she saw it.

Chase was still getting used to the game, so letting him take an attack wouldn't be a bad thing. However, she wasn't going to sit there and let maul on him either. The damage was hardly anything to him compared to what he could do to it. She continued to to give the thing a run for its money while dodging every single attack that it made at her with grace and ease.

Shay | HP: 360/360 | EN: 26/36 -(2) | DMG: 9 | EVA: 3 | ACC: 1 | BLD: 12 | REC: 2 | Antidote: 1
ChaseR | HP: 273/300 | EN: 14/30 | DMG: 10 | EVA: 1 | ACC: 3 | REC: 2 | Antidote: 1

Wolf 1: 0/40 (-40) | 25 DMG
Wolf 2: 40/40 | 25 DMG
Wolf 3: 0/40 (-40) | 25 DMG
Venom Snapper: 0/150 (-50) | DMG: 35 (9-10: 50) | EVA: 1

"Just a group of mobs. When we begin, we're going to focus damage on to the one that looks different from the others. It has a special tactic if the other wolves die before it, so we should bypass that by just murdering that one out right." It wasn't that far of a walk from town, considering it was a quest made for lower level players. The group found the wolves and Shay removed her blade from the sheath it sat snug inside.

Shay was fast. Her sheath fell to the ground, Chase probably saw it, but when he looked back up to her position, she was gone. The black blur of hair and crimson eyes met face to face with the helpless being that was about to get cut completely in half. "Shi-ne." She said as she slashed forward. Her blade barely missed as it hopped back, but the moment its paws left the ground, she was on top of it. Her blade slashed through it's stomach, nearly leaving it in two pieces. She moved back and looked to Chase. "Now! Hit them all!"

Shay | HP: 360/360 | EN: 28/36 -(8) | DMG: 9 | EVA: 3 | ACC: 1 | BLD: 12 | REC: 2 | Antidote: 1
ChaseR | 

Wolf 1: 40/40 | 25 DMG
Wolf 2: 40/40 | 25 DMG
Wolf 3: 40/40 | 25 DMG
Venom Snapper: 50/150 -((11*8)+12) | DMG: 35(9-10: 50) | EVA: 1

Shay walked into the inn of the floor, taking note of what Chase had to say, but she didn't seem to comment on it. They could easily kill this boss with a single strike - if everything went as planned. If not, they might be in a little bit of danger, just nothing mortal. This was the whole reason that she brought the crystals with her. And the whole reason they were stopping to see this NPC merchant.

After a short conversation with him, he passes Shay and ChaseR a free vial of antidote. Shay herself opens the glass containing the green liquid and downs it right then and there. Once she is finished, Chase can see by her health bar that a status buff had been put next to her name. "Drinking some potions will apply and effect on you. The one that this one gives will negate a status effect coming at you. This group of enemies has an attack that might inflict poison, so I suggest you drink it just in case."

"As long as you don't go too far ahead of my level, I won't mind. I'm almost level 19 and you are level 15. We're doing fine right now." She mentioned before taking the lead towards the tavern where they would meet the old fart that was supposed to give them some antidote potion to help them fight this enemy. It was known for having poisonous attacks, so anything would be helpful.

"Listen, this boss is likely the hardest you've faced up to this point. Whatever you do, don't be scared and believe in your power. It might be strong, but if you keep your head in the game and do what you need to do, nothing bad will happen alright? With us both doing what we need to, we'll defeat this boss with one fell swoop." Her reassurance was met with a hint of strategy. She didn't want him to under estimate anything because he was getting stronger, but she didn't want him to think they were in any danger.

T1 Uncommon Lullaby

T1 Rare Lullaby

Day 13

(1)Fail: 0
(2)Salvage(LD:6+): 1
(3)Uncommon: 4
(5)Rare: 1
(8)Perfect: 0

EXP: 37; Total: 230+37=247
Custom Ambition Tool: +1 EXP; ATP bonus: +2 EXP, +5 to Salvage attempt

Gathering her usually equipment took almost no time. The healing crystals that she had made would help with this boss. She couldn't benefit from it's rewards anymore thanks to the level restrictions, which were present in basically no other quests even though there were harder ones than this, however, questing in general still offered the girl experience and that was all that really mattered. After this, they will have already done all the quests that they need to catch Chase up to her.

Finally she had made it to Urbus, and Chase was already waiting for her. Good, he was getting around just fine. "Ohaiyo." She said simply, walking over to him with a wave. She seemed in a much better mood today than she did most of the day yesterday. "Gotta finish this last quest before you reach the level cap. The experience isn't anything that special, but hopefully it will help you get closer to me. We're nearly the same level already."

"Just message me whenever you're ready. I don't care what time." The girl said as the two of them stopped in front of an inn on the second floor. She placed a hand on her hip and returned her weapon to her hammer space looking to Chase with a slight smile. "You did great today for a noobie. You didn't take a single hit I believe and you nearly destroyed every single boss that got in your way with a single attack. That's pretty impressive, I can't lie and I've been playing these sort of games for a long time."

With a quick nod, she could see that Chase was reaching his limits now. He was going to sleep well tonight. She gives him probably up to 2pm before he wakes up tomorrow, maybe even later than that. She could be lenient on him for that. "I'll see you tomorrow. Message me when you're ready." The raven haired woman slowly walked off towards the teleporter. Damn, she was more tired than she expected for doing almost nothing.

"We don't have to complete a number of quests to move to the next floor. We could travel up to floor 24 right now if we wanted and do whatever the hell we wanted up there. It would be ill-advised, but there are some bosses in the game that players our level could easily handle and we will. There's a boss on floor five that we could easily handle together. It's an easy one to do because there's a lot of introductory bosses for lower players." Shay hated all this explaining, but he was still learning. It's still only his first day.

"Once we're done with that we could probably work on tackling some tougher bosses. It will help once we've maxed out our weapon skills, then you can invest in some tanking skills while I invest in support. We'll be a two man team that can take on just about an bosses with us alone."

Shay nodded as he returned to her, closing the loot window of the stinger poison that she had acquired for being apart of the group when the wasp was killed. "If that's all you can handle for today, sure. I will admit that I am a little bit tired, even though I didn't really do anything for more than half of those quests. I'd offer you a room at my place, but you would likely be more comfortable in an inn than on the wooden floor of my shop." Shay mentioned as she started to lead him back into town.

"So, you're now in the teens of levels I presume. You're pretty close to my level at least, which was the whole point of us doing quests that I've already completed. When I'm ready to start questing more, I'll send you a message. If you really want to join the front lines and help them fight, then we really need to start getting some of the games content done."

Shay took an aggressive stance like she was about to rush in and murder the giant bee with a single stroke - which she wasn't, she was only going to basic attack it - before Chase spoke up. He wanted to take the boss on alone, which seemed fair. When she had done this quest so long ago, that orange player had carried her through it. She hated the idea of being carried through a quest and wanted to make up from it back actually taking the Queen on this time. However, this wasn't about her. This was about empowering her ally and raising his confidence. With a gentle nod, the girl did as he asked, reforming the Murasame's saya back into her hand and sheathing the blade in an instant.

He rushed in, slashing the bee nearly in half. It fell to the ground completely limp from the attack that he had made. It was actually more impressive than she imagined. He had made so much progress in just a single day. Five quests done and several levels gained. Hopefully he doesn't get too used to leveling up so quick. It would be a little more difficult to level up from this point on.

"Floors don't really have names. It's just Floor 2. Most players remember it by that, or by the main settlement." The rogue explained as she wasted no time moving through the town of the floor, which was considerably smaller than the Town of Beginnings. But they weren't here to sight see or anything. They had a stupid wasp to kill.

The forest of the floor wasn't as thick as the third floor at least. She made their way to the location of the wind wasp and noticed it floating around there alone. She could help if she wanted so she removed her sword from the saya and threw it into the ground, it disappeared the moment that it made contact with the grass. "If you don't kill it on the first attack, I'll jump in and help you. Don't need you taking a tone of damage since your still new to fighting. You'll get the hang of it as we continue fighting."

"I offer the service of the hot spring to anyone who buys from my shop. Since you are my duo partner for leveling, I guess I can return the favor by letting you use it if you want." She shrugged. It was a nice way to get people to come to her shop. Even if she was keen about leveling in the game as quickly as possible, she sure as hell knew when to relax. She had been doing it for a literal month after Titan poofed.

Walking into Snowfrost and stepping on the teleporter, Shay looked to her duo partner and gave him a nod. "Give it a try yourself. It's not hard, just say the floor and the name of the town you want to go to. Basically repeat what I'm about to say. Floor Two: Urbus!" She called out and with a quick flash of light, she was gone.

"These crystals in particular are made for healing. I have no idea why they do that compared to a potion, but I'm not going to question it. They do what they do for the sake of either protecting me and my party, or weakening our enemies. That's all that matters." With that, she ushered the boy out of her house and locked to door to her home via her console. Once that was done, they skipped over the rocks in the hot spring and started to make their way back to the teleporter. This boss would be lucky to last two seconds against the both of them.

"If you want to break, yeah. I don't mind. I'm getting kind of tired anyway. Being near those hot springs makes you tired pretty quick. Its nice to relax in them though." She mentioned looking ahead to the destination before them. It was annoying how far out she had chosen to live, but the spot was serene if not scenic.

The frustration of being so good at one's hobbies only to have their crafts be destroyed right before them was probably one of the most infuriating things in this game. Crystal after crystal would shatter no matter how beautifully or perfect you play the song. After about five minutes, she could finally be finished with playing the same song over and over again, gaining several different results from this craft. All of them had healing effects though, which is what she was shooting for.

Once she was done, she shut the lid on the keys of the piano and moved the five crystals she had produced into her inventory. She turned around to see Chase enjoying the music playing. That at least put a slight smile on her face. Not many people got the chance to actually listen to her play live, and even in the real world, the only people that listened to anything she played were her instructor and her late parents.

"Pleased? People don't really know that I have this skill. I'd say three- well, now four -people actually know about it."