Null

Hearing the carving on the tree, Null looks around and sees her carve the same and scratching it away. He looks to her “Someone back home, or someone lost here?”, he looks at her like he wants to sympathize with her about the situation of being trapped. 

His dumb smile returns, “Think of it this way, maybe a few levels up you can form your own party, hell maybe even a guild. With a following on your side you should have no problem, then I’ll just be a lost memory as you breeze through to freedom.”

Null looks back down towards the three boar pups they left as they circle around the area as if they are defending it from something, probably them. “You feeling up to trying again? Now that we’ve recovered energy, running low shouldn’t be a problem.” He’s obviously trying to change the subject, he isn’t great at talking to or reasoning with others.

“Honestly, we are party members and that’s it. Sorry to come off as rude but this is a game where you can’t have others constantly rushing in head first without the slightest hint of a plan. I’m looking to survive this game, and even if I don’t hit hard I can do it on my own with a good plan.” He lays on his branch looking into the trees and watching the leaves blow.

“The only reason I teamed up with you now is because of my low damage and being in such an early stage leaves little for planning, especially with all of these open fields. I have nothing against you, you seem really nice, and while a little much your childish attitude can be quite charming. Though this has evolved beyond a game you can talk about on the playground.” He closes his eyes and begins to think to himself.

Seeing that he was now one against a group of three boar pups with one energy to hit each, and doing basically nothing from that he decides that now is the time for a tactical retreat. Even as a low-level quest, he knows that there is no chance of him doing anything with no energy to hit them back, he would just be taking the hits for nothing. 

Sadly, the Boars can see the gears turning as the one came out of the lake and all three are surrounding him as if it were some sort of epic standoff against these level one pigs. 

Null points their attention towards another side by yelling to the distance “about time you showed up”, as all three boars looked away he left them with two middle fingers and a cloud of dust as he now gained distance away to where they seem to have lost him, jumping into the tree with Lila.

Tusks Collected: [1/3]

Null can see Lila is getting tired of this fight, so Null tries to do something, but sadly fails as he swings his club causing him to swing off his course towards the ground. Now Null was also starting to get irritated, they probably should have waited to regain their energy to make the fight easier for them, but beggars can’t be choosers.

With the boars turn once more upon them, the first boar went for Null, but his trusty cowards jump once again saved the day. When the second boar attacked, they charged towards Lila, who just tried to attack them. With the final boar ready to charge, Null just straight up went Mario on the poor piglet, that’s right, COWARD JUMP. With very little energy left, they didn’t seem to have much of a choice but to run. It was a little embarrassing to just run from the weakest monsters in the game, but they wouldn’t be able to hit them otherwise.

He laughs as she basically just face planted in front of this small Boar “Ok, I know you’re on the shorter side but this is a little much. Why don’t you let me take a whack at it?”

Null grabs his Club once more and prepares to try and attack the same Boar pup Lila just charged at, luckily this shot hit, though not with a ton of damage.

It was time for the three boar pups to do their attacks, the first one was ready to charge at Null but the bash on its head disoriented the creature causing it to miss Null. The second one didn’t fare much better as it bumps into the one trying to hit Null and is pushed away. The third one, seeing an opportunity goes for Null while they are distracted, but Null coward jumps over the little thing.

Null could tell this battle was going to take a while.

Null looks over to Lila holding the rock out at him and giggles “I don’t know, that rock may be a terrifying golem in disguise. Therefore we have to get rid of it!” He chucks the rock across the water and gets a few skips in before it splashes under the water. 

His smile fades for a second, “Sorry to say, but I don’t really trust anyone to know my life story, let alone someone I just met. You seem nice, but I’m not sure how long we’re gonna be in a party you know. It just feels best to not get attached, lest they get killed later on.” He faintly lets out a laugh and the small smile returns, “Heh, there I go again looking to the future” 

His eyes are averted as three more Boar Pups start running towards the two to initiate combat. “You feel up for another fight?”

After the second Boar Pup goes down to Lilas’ attack, Null applauds slightly “and this is why you’re the fighter, well done. If we keep this up, it shouldn’t be too long before we find all of the boar pup tusks, even if we don’t have the best luck”

As they sit, Null looks over the lake and drops his club to the ground. “This game may be a life or death situation, but isn’t that just real life? If anything this is just a more interesting version of reality.” He has this very neutral smile while looking out, “If anything this world makes real life seem boring, I sometimes wonder if it’s even worth leaving. But at the same time, I know a lot of people have family and friends outside of this game, and so do I so there’s no point in just sitting around and making them worry you know?”

As Lila hits the Boar Pup and gives that little speech he chuckles and lightly bursts out “Yeah! You’re gonna be one of the best soon enough, just don’t forget us little people ok?” And with a quick slam onto the first Boar Pups head, its data scattered as it is defeated. Null looks down to see one of its tusks that were left behind, “Huh, looks like I finally got one, cool. This should be easier than expected.”

He turns around to see how Lila is faring against her Boar Pup, as it comes out of the slash she dealt to it in a frenzy just bucking around trying to just hit something, but with no luck as Lila wasn’t even scratched in its little fit of rage.

“Looks like you really messed him up, I kinda feel bad, just take it down already will ya I can’t watch this anymore.”

Null looks towards Lila “It’s cause you’re rushing in instead of preparing, watch this!” He rears back for a powerful swing and goes for the attack only to miss completely. “... Don’t watch this, keep doing what you’re doing” Null regains his guard after spinning from the force and weight of his mace. The two boar pups looked really fired up now, and it seems like it’s not gonna get any easier, even though this is a small sidequest fight which will happen a lot more soon.

It’s time for the boar pups to attack again, they keep their same targets with Boar Pup #1 going for Null, charging forward, though Null with his light cowardly footwork jumps over it through it’s charge. “Oh god! That was close!”

The second boar pup is keeping its sights on Lila through another powerful charge closing its eyes to wildly break towards her only to veer off the track and go right past here like he couldn’t even see her… oh wait.

At the end of his explanation with his dumb grin he looks over to see that Lila is gone, she is running, she is attacking the boar pups “… She just completely ignored my plan, that jerk!”

Running towards the same pup Lila attacked Null swings his thick wooden club at the boar, “Guess the plan is changing!” He yells while attacking the monster. After the hit, the boar pup goes to retaliate against Null, but as the monster lunged forward Null fell back from swinging the club too hard, making the boar pup target him. Out of anger it goes for Null but trips over him.

While Null looks over at the boar pup he accidentally tripped, apologizing, the second one runs at Lila and tries to attack her. Null looks and yells “Look out!” but is a little too late at the second boar pup hits Lila. “... Sorry”

Null chuckles “I guess we will have to spar, viewing yourself so highly means you must be strong so I don’t think a real fight would go in my favor” He begins to follow her to the lake as they push through some bushes. 

At the end of this trail is the lake he spoke of earlier, with two Boar Pups in clear sight. 

“Hey check it out! Found some already, one for each of us. You can finally have your chance to fight.” Looking at the Boars he can see they are alert at the moment so he turns to Lila. “They don’t seem to notice that we’re here right now, so I suggest we wait a little bit until they turn away, so we can catch them off guard without having to worry about them calling in any friends, sound good?” He looks towards Lila with a dumb grin on his face at his quick thinking.

Through his explanation, he tells Lila about how he too is a new player. “This is also my first fighting quest in this game, and while I am excited, I’m also a little scared at the thought of my plan going off the rails.” He giggles softly “It’s just how I am I guess, looking to the future”

He knows she is probably not paying too much attention to what he is saying so he begins to just spout nonsense as a way to learn how quickly the energy will muster. “Well I guess we should probably start headi-... is everything ok Lila?”

He sees Lila begin to shake as she is becoming impatient, Null beginning to feel bad that he may have been taking all of the fun and excitement away from her with his rambling, so with a gentle smile he begins to sprint and yells back “I’ll race ya there!”

While he is being dragged away he yells to Lyle “Yeah what she said!”. He is jogging at a moderate pace to keep up with this odd girl, but there was something about her hyperactivity he found interesting. He stops as she tries dragging him some more.

Null: “We can’t just go rushing in blind for this quest, we need to know where we should go first” With a swipe of his hand he opens his menu to create a party. “Also if we will be fighting together we should create a party” 

He sends Lila an invite and opens the map to show her. “If we want a good chance of finding Boar Pups to fight, we should go where they are most likely to spawn. Which, from what I gathered, is by this lake. That sound good Lila?” He looks at her with a smile, he wants to see how she approaches a combat center quest such as this with that much energy.

Null looks in a mix of fear and concern for the figure that just walked in the door with this hyperactive energy to her. He looks down at the woman as she is shorter by quite a bit and he says with hesitation. “You… can NOT be real. I am all for people being optimistic but you are just a whole other level.”

Lyle looks at the two and smiles “Well if both of you decide to take on this quest that just means more materials for me! I’m looking for three boar pup tusks from each of you, they’re a drop from the boar pups outside the town. With two of you fighting them it should be way easier than it usually is.”

Null looks at the girl and sighs “Well, I guess if it makes the fighting easier I can handle it.” He holds out his hand to greet her “My name is Null, it’s very nice to meet you, I hope we work well together”

With Zackariahs’ package in hand, Null heads to find the blacksmith, Lyle Tealeaf. After a few minutes of searching he finds the building and walks inside to see an older gentleman with a beard hammering away at an anvil.

Lyle: “Oh! Hello there young man! What can I do for ya?” The man says in a powerful tone. Null flinches a little at the volume, but takes out the package.

Null: “Hello sir, I assume you are Mr. Tealeaf? My name is Null, and I have a package from Mr. Zackariah that he requested I bring to you.” 

Lyle: *Laughing* “Ahhaha, perfect! These must be the crafting materials I requested. Thank you young man.” He opens the package and looks facepalming. “Oh darn, I forgot to ask for the boar tusks! Excuse me young man, I seem to be missing some important materials in this box, could I ask you to go out and collect some for me?”

Null: “O-of course sir!”

Watching the materials disappear he looked back at the emerald clad girl. "Well there's no turning back now then, thank you, I hope you have better luck later on, let's go"

He begins to follow back to the safe zone alongside Yuu, Null truly appreciates this act even if he feels it might hinder her later on. "I just realized, couldn't you have held on to those materials if you do decide to return to this quest later? I understand the sentiment but I'm not sure if I understand this item gathering quest". As they return to the shop Null looks at Yuu once more. "Do you plan to join me for the rest of this or is this where we part ways?" With his hands in his pockets and materials in hand, he asks this question with a hint of gratefulness for meeting this woman. She's quite the cool character, and he smiles "If so, I hope we meet again, for a new player you seem very experienced I know you're going to make it out of this!"

"You don't have to apologize, you've been suffering this hell and it can really take a toll on someone. That's why I try so hard, even if we do die we can at least die happy." He says with a stoic look on his face, he's been through this song and dance before it doesn't really bother him. "I don't blame you for being on edge, especially since you have to do something as dumb as this for hours." 

He looks around for more materials and finally finds his last tier 1 material. "Alright, that does it for my material collecting. You want I should help you look for the rest of yours?" He tries to think of something to do while waiting for his party member to collect the rest of her materials, while he knows he can't be sharing his, he is unsure if he can help her look for her own. If not he will just find something else to do while he waits.

Materials Found: [5/5]

“It’s not that I’m bothered by your views, I just try to make people happy is all. It isn’t a pity party or anything, it's just how I am.” He can tell he’s irritated her, not too far fetched for people he talks to, might as well quit while I’m not ahead.

He tries to avoid any areas with monsters for right now since he is still just starting and is at such a low level. With nothing more to do but hunt he keeps looking around. While hunting Null starts thinking about the friends and family who are probably worried about him outside the game, and those who may be in here as well who he can try and help. They may have even died already, everything is a mystery and this is one less exciting than what he’s used to.

During these thoughts he looks to the ground and notices another material, picking it up. (To himself) “And that’s one to go”

Materials Found: [4/5]

Null looks over to the Emerald woman now very curious.

"So if you aren't much of a gamer, what brought you here? Friends who play, peer pressure? It's probably none of my business but heck I'm just making conversation at this point. I'm quite the nosy type so you will be getting a lot of questions from me."

He laughs as if to try and bring a smile to the girl, even if he doesn't know her he always wants to bring smiles to others even if just a small smirk.

"I'd wager there's more to this tough girl persona you put on, I'm almost certain you really are someone sweet I'll just need to pick at your brain some more. *Chuckles* Sucks for you I guess!"

Looking around for more materials during this conversation proves difficult, with nothing being found. This mission is proving to be more difficult than he first imagined it to be.

Materials Found: [3/5]

"I'm not expecting anything, I'm just wondering how you plan to make it out alive without the hope that you will, and looking for people here to give you a reason to escape" Null is just planning to keep silent at this point is he believes no matter what he says it's gonna piss his party member off. The two obviously have conflicting views on the situation but he wonders what brought them to this lack of hope.

As he looks around he finds another material and puts it in his bag. He knows nobody begged for this world but such a realistic MMORPG is a big deal. He knows that when people first heard of Sword Art Online they were probably losing their collective [censored]. In a world with no hope, how can progression possibly be made? He continues to hum a tune to take his mind off of the previous conversation, as he would rather stay oblivious and naive, than vengeful and rash.

Materials Found: [3/5]

Null looks over with a raised brow, looking as he believes Yuu has something to hide. He approaches her "Why do you not accept to see any good in this "prison", it may be rough but it is still set in a fantasy world, one I am sure we all wanted to live in at some point in our lives. Like it or not, this is exactly the kind of world many people young and old have wished for. It was just twisted and we now see how dangerous a wish it truly was"

Looking around in some more bushes he laughs a little "We asked for this and now we must pay the price. I just choose to look at the bright side, sorry if that comes as a shock to you"

His search becomes more frantic and random, without truly looking and just pushing bushes. Laughing he says"These last three materials shouldn't be so hard to find"

Materials Found: [2/5]

"My name is Null, well don't you think we should also enjoy the experience? Even if we spend all day, it would just mean looking at the beauty of this world beyond the monsters." He gives a naive smile "Keeping a positive outlook makes it all more enjoyable, maybe it could bring Lady Luck closer to your side. She's always seemed to be a fan of those who appreciate her"

He picks up a material "Ha! See what I mean?! Put some excitement behind your motives and it'll feel like no time at all. Just a small smile could win you the game." He goes back to looking around with a smile on his face and humming a random tune. While hunting around he will look casually at the flowers and grass, appreciating the creatures and artificial life around him.

"This game really is amazing don't you think? It looks so beautiful, even if there are scary parts too."

"Sure, I would really appreciate the help" he accepts the party invite happily "you know I've always liked the simple look and lifestyle, it always sounds pretty underrated compared to the nor-" she is gone "wh... wait up!". 

He catches up to her "Man you just get right to the mission, don't you? Honestly, the game won't be as fun if you just rush in. Don't you think planning is a good thing?"

If anything he seems more interested in who this girl is and what leads her to a noob when she is friends with front liners. She seems to know Zackariah pretty well, but she takes on this beginners quest. He finds her interesting and will study her personality as he goes on. 

"So uh, thank you for inviting me, but why do you need such a low-level quest when you know front liners. Even if you are low level now they could blast you through the ranks if you are so quick to action. Not that that's a bad thing"

*Zackariah approaches from behind a desk standing proper and calm*

Zackariah: Why yes, I would be Zackariah. I am glad to see someone so eager to take on my quests.

Null: Quests? You mean there are multiple

Zackariah: Why yes, three to be exact. Would you like to take on just one or hear all three?

Null: I would like to hear all three before I accept any if you don't mind.

Zackariah: Of course, first of all, I require some tier 1 materials for my wares. I'd say five will suffice.

Secondly, we require more healing potions, so if you could help us produce at least one more and prove your crafting capabilities it would be appreciated.

Finally, a friend of mine, Lyle Tealeaf is a blacksmith around here, simply deliver this package to them. Surely all of those missions should be simple enough. 

*As the explanation finishes, Zackariah looks towards another player*

Zackariah: You two could even work together

*Null turns around quickly*

Null: Oh god! Sorry I didn't see you.

*Null wanders the town of beginnings in search of information on some easy quests and comes across the workshop of Zackariah, curious he enters*

Um... Hello? *quietly* Huh. This place looks a little dead for a starter workshop.

*Null begins to look around the workshop to learn the specialty of this man, eventually coming across Zackariah himself*

*Normal Tone* Is anyone here? I've come looking for a quest and I heard this is a good starting place. I assume you are the man they refer to, would you happen to be Zackariah?

If the quest I've heard about is still available I would very much like to take it on, though I would like some more details if at all possible. Would there be any combat or dungeon crawling, what should I prepare for. Honestly, all of the information I gathered was very vague. Though I guess I should be grateful for any information in the beginning town.

Sorry, where are my manners, I should introduce myself, my name is Null! As you can probably tell I am still quite new to this game, I am not picky on tasks as long as I have detail.