Hisa

"Calm down guys, it's just a" Hisa started before another tiny rock hit her in the face "scratch." This sandstorm was really getting on her nerves. Thankfully the last impact didn't have enough force to cause any actual damage. Unfortunately, the sunlight started to fade which created another set of challenges, temperature drop and even worse visibility. 

The night would make it impossible to react to incoming projectiles, so she decided that it would be best to take a break for now and set up camp. After scanning the area for some sort of protected space, she spotted a larger crevice in the ground they could all hide in. This natural structure provided some shelter and should help them get through the night. "Alright guys, I think we should call it a day. Let's camp there. " she announced, pointing at the fractured ground. " It should give us some protection and allow us to eat something, I'm starving." 

She ventured inside, pulled her bag off of her back and dropped it onto the ground. "Okay, this seems like a good spot." she shouted, trying to overpower the deafening noise of the storm above. "I brought sandwiches. Did anyone get ice cream for dessert?".

HP 60/80

"Alright old man, we did as you told us, the boulder is broken. Get that paint off of my face and give me the skill please." "You should be more respectful to your elders little girl but there you go." the npc said as he pointed at Hisas face, removing the paint and granting her the skill "now go an practice your newly learned craft." Before she could respond, the npc slammed the door shut again. "I'll show you little you bastard. First you draw weird stuff on my face and then you call me short. Come out here and face me!" she shouted at the door while she reeled back for a kick that, on impact, was answered by the very familiar 'Immortal Object' system prompt.

As Hisa snapped back, she realized that she just freaked out in front of her guildmates. With a bright red face she turned around and adressed them "Uuuuuuuh, sorry about that, please uh. I... You know I just sometimes loose control a little when people call me short. Please forgive me.". She bowed deeply, before straightening her back again, trying her hardest to smile innocently in the hopes of not coming off as weird. "Thank you again for helping me on this quest, I really appreciate it a lot!"

Watching Kiluia delivering another devistating blow to the rock, Hisas imagination went wild. "I'm gonna be able to do this someday as well, awesome!" she thought, visibly exited. Haine managed to hit for slightly more than last time. With the boulder already being in the red, it was Hisa's turn. 
She got in position again, aimed at the second imprint Kiluia left and reeled back. This was going to be for her friends who help her out and for the people waiting in the real world. She put her weight and force into the kick again. After a spin, she slightly missed the spot she was aiming for.

1 Damage. "Oh my god." she sighed, disappointed that she couldn't match her damage numbers from before. "I guess it will take a lot of practice until I am able to hold my own in a fight with something that can actually hit me back" she figured while keeping a smile on her face, as to not show her worries to the others. She was grateful for their help and could really get used to questing in a group.

Boulder 13/50

Watching her party members approaching the boulder to strike it made her extremely nervous. What if they hit for a lot of damage and then watched her do 1. What if she hit it and did no damage at all? All these thoughts crossed her mind as she watched Kiluia reel back. 
A hit that made the ground tremble, the damage number that popped up was 15, almost a third of the boulders total health. 
Her heart sank. "They're going to be extremely disappointed with me, oh no" she thought after witnessing this attack.
When Haine stepped up, Hisa could barely bring herself to watch it as to not get even more demoralized. Kiluia's wife got in position, took a deep breath and punched. 1. "Huh." Hisa thought, a lot of pressure being relieved in that moment, "seems like I'm not the only one struggling". 

It  was her turn, she approached the rock, aimed at the imprint Kiluia left on it and with a twist of her waist she unleashed the mightiest kick she could muster. 3. 

"Three! Max damage!" she burst into laughter "I was afraid that I'd do no damage at all."

Boulder 31/50

A little overwhelmed by the number of people that responded she yelled "Hey guys, thank you all for joining me!" waving at them. Hisa was really excited when she spotted Katoka among her guildmembers. "Katsumiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii" she shouted, unable to control herself as she jumped into her arms, hugging her tightly. This was the first time in forever she saw her, someone who reminded her that there is a world outside this game. Trying her hardest to fight back tears caused by this rush of emotions, she took a look around at the group that had arrived. She knew most of them at this point, except for one, Ruler. 

"Hello, pleased to meet you, I'm Hisa" pausing for a second to wipe tears off of her face with her sleeve "I'm sorry this heat makes my eyes water for some reason." she explained, hoping that no one would see through her bluff. "Kiluia, Haine, thanks for joining me again. We beat the boulder so a little sand should be no problem, right?" she chuckled.

"Alright, now that everybody's arrived, I guess we should head out.". With a smile, she turned around, leading the group out of the city gates into the desert. The sand immediately blasted them. Pulling her scarf all the way up to her nose and leaning into the storm, she pressed on. At first, it was manageable, the course sand was annoying but once they managed to get a bit further into the desert, the sandstorm would pick up stones and launched them at the party. Hisa got hit repeatedly, her body withstood the pelting and she was able to continue but not without taking some injuries.

HP 60/80

"Yeah, I actually have some experience in martial arts, my parents stuck me in a couple of classes to make me go out more. Good to know that nothing's gonna jump out and surprise us. That thing looks pretty huge but hey I'm sure we can break it. I'll go knock on the door and start the quest then." Hisa replied, looking at the couple before she walked to the hut and knocked.

An old man opened the door, greeting her "Hello little girl.". "Goddamnit" she uttered. "I'm assuming you came her to test your strength?" the npc asked. Hisa, a little annoyed by the fact that he called her short replied "Yes, I have come to train martial arts."
"Very well, to see if you are worthy of walking the path of a martial artist, you need to break this boulder." as he pointed at the rock Kiluia and Haine stood in front of "It is okay if your friends help you out, but I feel like you need a little additional motivation.". 

As the npc vanished into the house, Hisa turned around, looking at Haine "So, what does he mean with" raising her arms to make airquotes "additional motivation".

Before Haine could reply two hands grabbed Hisas shoulders, spinning her around a full 180 degrees. As she stopped spinning she felt a brush with paint gliding along her face. "Alright, all done. This paint won't go away until you break the boulder, good luck" was the last thing she heard before the door was slammed shut in front of her.

A little bewildered, she approached Haine, standing in front of her, tilting her head back to look at her as Hisa's guildmate was quite a bit taller than her "Uhm, what did the old guy just draw on my face?".

Feeling a little more comfortable after venturing out of the city on the first and second floor, Hisa's confidence rose, maybe a little too much. She figured that she can probably take on greater challenges and ventured all the way up to the fifth floor. With each floor, the zones got harsher and harsher, turning from lush green plains to barren lands and finally into a desert.

Taking her first few steps into this level, a heatwave immediately hit her. While nice at first, the heat soon tired her out. Sweaty and exhausted she sought shelter in a nearby tavern. 
As soon as the moon drove the sun out of the sky, temperatures dropped rapidly. She went from multiple cold showers in a row to wrapping herself in blankets in a matter of hours.

The next morning, the cycle began anew. When her room started to heat up, she shoved all the blankets away and changed clothes into something lighter that allowed her to venture outside without dying of a heatstroke. 

As she approached the gates to leave the safe area, a woman, fully wrapped in a thick cloak that covered every inch of her body, stopper her. "Excuse me, are you an adventurer?" the misterious figure asked. A little bewildered, Hisa replied cautiously "Yes, I am." "I have an important favor of you to ask." the woman said before caughing "I had to leave precious cargo behind because I fell sick and had to save myself. Could you venture out and retrieve my cargo for me?". "I, uh" Hisa started before being interrupted by a system message 'Quest Accepted'. "Okay now you're just bullying me!" she yelled at the menu before realizing that all of the npcs started staring at her for shouting at her wrist. 

Her face turned bright red before she regained her composure and reluctantly accepted her fate "I will retrieve your cargo I guess." "Thank you." the figure replied "But be careful, the desert is a hostile place. Prepare for sandstorms and massive temperature changes." before leaving, entering the nearest inn.

'Survive the Desert' appeared as her new quest objective. "This sounds kinda dangerous, I should probably not do this alone"  Hisa figured. After opening the guild chat, she sent the following message.

Quote

'Hey guys, I'm on the 5th floor atm and this random person came up to me and said something about having lost cargo in the desert. I think I'm gonna need some help with this one, a round of drinks after the task is on me of course ;) . Also, should you come and help, please bring ice cream, they don't have any around here and it's really goddamn hot.'

Surprised at the sudden greetings, she wanted to reply but choked a little on the sandwich in the process. "I" she started, before she forced the rest of the snack down her throat. "Sorry about that. Yes, I'm Hisa, thank you for replying to my message and joining me on this quest." 

She stood up, patting herself down to clean sandwich crumbles off of her clothing. "So, I'm guessing you've done this a million times probably and I'm sorry for asking for your time. I'm just not sure what waits for me in this hut and quite frankly, I just don't wanna die." she said smiling, a little unsure on how she should behave. "I know that this quest is about breaking a boulder but with this game, you never know what might wait for you on the way to said boulder and, uhm, well, you obviously know but I don't so uh." pausing for a moment  "I'm sorry, I've just never been much of a talker, I tend to just stick to myself so I might need some time to get used to having company I guess." Hisa explained while somewhat nervously rocking back and forth, heel to toe.

As the guild message jingle sounded, she opened her menu. Reading Kiluia's message made Hisa slightly nervous. She had never met these people before, she didn't know anything about them and they didn't know anything about her and yet they were so willing to help.
"Katoka always had a knack for finding friendly and helpfull players, I envy her a little." she uttered. 

While waiting for the two to arrive, she sat down, doing the only thing that calmed her down when she was nervous, eat. After she grabbed a sandwich out of her inventory and ate it, with what could only be described as inhumanly big bites, she figured that she should probably warm herself up.
Standing in front of the hut she began to stretch, run in circles and shadowbox. Wether or not this actually prepared her for the upcoming fight she suspected to happen did not concern her, it was more of a ritual to get her into the right mindset.

Having finished her first quest, Hisa was ready for the next challenge. She read something about breaking a boulder to unlock the martial arts skill, so she decided that this was the task she should do next, how hard could it be?

Selecting the quest in her available quests list, led her up the the second floor. Upon arriving, the questmarker moved to a mountain peak. "Oh, great, gotta climb again." she sighed before venturing southward. During the walk along the trail to her destination, she realized that the zone is slightly different to the first floor. The terrain was rough and barren, instead of trees the landscape was filled with rocks and boulders. Yet, there were no enemies in sight. "Maybe they really only spawn at night , at least on the lower floors" she thought before finding herself facing a steep incline as the road stopped. 

With the quest marker straight ahead she had no choice but the hike and climb her way up. It was a fairly long ascent but she was sure that at the top, something amazing had to wait for her. It was the quest to unlock martial arts afterall, maybe a monastery of monks. Her imagination went wild as the final edge was just an armslength away.

As she grabbed it and pulled herself up, her disappointment was visible. It wasn't a monastery, nor a training ground filled with fighters, but a single, small hut.

Still, this quest in was marked as 'Very Hard' for her level. She wondered if the path to the boulder would be filled with enemies, or that there might be a bossfight in that building. Unsure of what to do next, the quest objective only stating 'Knock on the door of the hut'  and with the danger of dying being ever-present, she decided to ask for help.

Thankfully, her friend Katoka convinced her guild leader to invite Hisa back when the game started out. Having mostly been inactive and spending time in the city, she never actually talked to any of the members. Reluctantly, she typed a message in guild chat, asking for anyone to help her with this quest as she was unsure of what she would confront her if she opened the door.

"Hello there." she shouted to overpower the sounds of metal hitting metal. "Hello there adventurer, how may I help you?" Lyle answered, pausing his work, wiping the sweat off of his forehead.
"I'm guessing you are Lyle Tealeaf?" 
"Yes I am, why do you ask?" 
"I have a package from Zackariah for you." Hisa explained before placing it on the counter.
"I have been waiting for these, thank you very much."
"Could I ask you a question?"
"Yes of course."
"I see you specialize in heavy armor and blades, where would I need to go for light armor and martial arts equipment?"
"To be honest, there is no town merchant that can sell you anything better than what you already have. If you want better equipment, you will either have to buy it off of another adventurer or craft it yourself."
"I see, well, thank you anyways, have a nice day."
"Wait, before you leave, I could use your help as well."

Package delivered - Quest completed

Time flew by as she read up on all the skills and weapons available. She also found out that there are armor skills, which was very interesting to her as she only ever saw stat bonuses on them in other games. 
When she checked the ingame clock, it showed 10am. This meant that the smithy had opened. Deciding to finish this quest sooner rather than later, she closed the menu and mader her way through the city.
When she heard a hammer slamming down and saw smoke coming out of a furnace atop a sizeable building, she knew she found the right place.
As the door was open, she entered, a wide array of swords and heavy armors on display. Eventhough they looked fairly powerful, a check revealed that they were all starting items, barely worth anything and not granting any stat boosts. "Typical of a mmorpg to have the npc smiths sell only crappy equipment" she thought while approaching Lyle.

Package in Inventory

After leaving the workshop Hisa found herself with some spare time on her hands as Lyle's smithy was not open yet. Although she was tempted to peak into the package, the fear of the quest failing as a result was too great so she left it untouched. 

The only productive thing she could think of is to find out how to unlock martial arts, as it was still greyed out in her skill list. When pointing at it, 'Clear <<Breaking the Unbreakable>> to unlock' popped up. This quest was located on the second floor and she was not yet comfortable to venture up there, but she noted it down nonetheless. 
She also looked at other skills, but found herself always returning to martial arts. With this, she would no longer be unable to defend herself.

The second thing she looked into was healing. Having played support characters in other mmorgs, the system in SAO seemed very different. There were barely even healing skills available, but she figured it would not hurt to get one.

Package in Inventory

After analysing the potion, Zackariah smiled at her "Very well done.". With a sigh of relief she expected the 'Quest Complete' system message appearing but instead it updated as the npc continued "Now, could you help me once again?". "I am not going to collect more flowers." she blurted out before immediately apologizing "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sound rude.".
"Don't worry, I have all the materials I need. The favor I would like to ask of you is to deliver this package to Lyle Tealeaf, a local blacksmith."

As Hisa touched the package, it dematerialized, and reappeared as an entry in her inventory, when the quest objective updated 'Locate Lyle Tealeaf and deliver the package'. "Great, a fetch quest followed by a delivery quest." escaped her, answered with a confused look by Zackariah. "Don't worry about what I say, I sometimes talk to myself", she explained, forcing a chuckle "I will deliver your package."
 

Package recieved

She watched Zackariah closely as he grinded the flowers down and funneled the powder into a vial with water before placing it over a small fire. He then carefully turned the vial sideways as to heat the concoction evenly. 
After 3 minutes had passed, he quenched the fire, swirled the mixture around after which it turned into red.
"This is how you make a health potion, now try it yourself."
Hisa grabbed a vial, the flowers she gathered and got to work. Crafting required patience, not something she was known for and thus she struggled a little. She didn't grind it into a very fine powder, nor did she heat the mixture up slowly. Even after all of these mistakes, after she was done, the mixture still changed color. It now being a dark shade of pink instead of red proved that it worked, albeit not resulting in the same quality Zackariah had achieved.

Potion crafted - Uncommon Quality

Hisa woke up by the sun blinding her through the window. Determined to finish this quest, she got up, got dressed and left the inn. On her way to the workshop, she paused from time to time, to look at different equipment offered by the craftsman. She concluded that there was a way to use martial arts in this game, as there were wrist and ankle bracers on display.

Upon arriving at Zackariahs workshop, the sign was no longer there. Her knocking was answered with the familiar "Please come in".
When she entered, the npc greeted her with "Welcome back little girl, have you gathered the materials already?". She replied with an annoyed "Yes I have, old man, here they are" before placing the gathered flowers on the counter.

"Very well, now I will show you what you can do with these, watch me do it first and then repeat." 

Quest items given to NPC

Despite it being dark, she had little trouble finding the workshop again. From the distance however, she could already see a sign on the door. "Oh no." she uttered. Standing in front of it revealed the message 'Closed until 8am'. "You can't be serious.". Her temper fired up immedtiately. Shouting "You really made me go out into the wild to search for your stupid flowers only to close when I return?" as she reeled back, unleashing a punch at the door. 

'Immortal Object', popped up, followed by an immediate "Goddamnit!" by Hisa.
With no chance of getting into Zackariahs shop at this hour, she returned to the inn, glaring at every passing npc and player who asked if she was okay, given the enraged expression on her face.

When she arrived at the inn, she immediately went up to her room, slamming the door behind her before she laid down to rest for the night.

5/5 Quest Items

Investigating the patches of grass that lined the edges, she hoped to find the last material she needed. After the sunlight has almost faded she caught a glimpse of something glowing, it was a flower. Gathering it, caused a system prompt to appear 'Item requirements met, return to Zackariah'. 
She darted out of the water immediately, sprinting towards the city. Hisa was never afraid of the dark, but who knows what dangers spawn once the sunlight was gone. 

Half an hour later, the Town of Beginnings was in sight again. With the moon already visible, she reached the gates. 'Safe zone entered', interrupted the flow of the chat window, otherwise filled with players either offering their crafting services or arguing about which barmaid was the cutest. Sighing at the cesspool that was the first floor chat, the sense of familiarity calmed her down. Eventhough it was not perfect, she was home again. 

5/5 Quest Items

A sigh of disappointment escaped her as she didn't find what she was looking for. Wondering if the spawning is randomized, she investigated the nearby area.
Even after spending some time atop the hill, Hisa couldn't find a flower. Considering her options, it was either checking every previous spot that yielded a material or figuring out what she missed. 

An idea sprang to mind. There might be a flower hidden underneath the small platform over the narrow river she crossed a while back. She figured that this would be a difficult enough hiding space to draw out the players sense of exploration.

Now no longer calmly walking but jogging to race the fading sunlight, she approached the wooden bridge. Hisa slid down the sides into the brook and waded through the shallow stream until she was beneath the structure, almost knee deep in the water. This again blurred the line between game and reality, as it felt cold to her, despite her knowledge that this is only a simulation.

4/5 Quest Items

Heading to the lake she noticed that it was already afternoon, she had to be faster and find the last two before the sun goes down. Looking for these at night would be pretty much impossible. She also worried that mobs would spawn freely at night, this zone might become dangerous. 

Approaching the water, something glistening in the sun caught her eye, the flower had indeed respawned. Wasting no time she picked it up, updating the quest progress to 4/5 T1 Materials, before turning to the other spot she found one, next to the tree.

Venturing up the hill she already thought about what she would do with the quest reward. Buy some equipment, maybe even a trinket. Since Hisa never paid much attention to the pricing of these items and had no idea what she could actually afford. All she knew is that her climb demonstrated that her techniques translated into the game, so she would look into martial arts gear, as she had years worth of experience in fighting with her hands and legs.

4/5 Quest Items

The impact felt unnatural. A sensation shot through her body, not pain but not comfortable either. It was the game signaling to her that she just took damage. Checking the combat log revealed the exact amount '8 Damage | Source: Falling'. Looking at her hp bar confirmed it, 12/20 HP remaining.

"So this is what getting hurt feels like in this world, it's not as bad as I exptected it to be." she thought, looking at her body, the only sign of the event being a slight red glow eminating from her legs. She also spotted something else while looking down. Her mood brightened significantly as she, by coincidence, landed right next to one of the flowers. 

Eagerly placing it into her inventory, she heard that jingle again, the quest progress updated to '3/5 T1 Materials'.
Being over halfway done fueled her enthusiasm, "Maybe the one next to the lake respawned already, I should check".

3/5 Quest Items

HP 12/20

Having scaled the mountain she was greeted by a rather flat, lush field of wildflowers. She believed that one of those had to be a T1 material. She crawled throught the field, investigating every single flower she could see but there were just too many. Hisa had to rely on her eyes, every other approach would use up too much of her time. Scanning the field as thorroughly as she could, none of the special flowers could be found. 

"Goddamn fetch quests." she mumbled before turning around, approaching the edge of the peak, looking down. It was a rather sizeable drop, not enough to kill her but also not safe either, at least given her real life experiences. She had always wondered if fall damage existed and now was as good a time as any to figure it out. 

 Stepping back a little as she took deep breaths. Determined to not let this game freighten her more than it should, she leapt.

2/5 Quest Items

Having left the thicket behind her, the mountainside was right in front of her. The trail transformed into an assortment of dirtpatches and rocks, which led her to start climbing up the less dangerous side of the ridge.

On her way up, she was thankful for all the sports she did back in the real world. While her strength didn't fully translate into the game as it would have given her a stat advantage, she could still employ the techniques she acquired.

The ascent also didn't cause her to fatigue, which gave her plenty of time to think. She wondered what happened to her parents and her body, where she was right now and if she would ever be able to escape this virtual prison. Coming across bird nests, she peeked inside in the hopes of the animals having used the flowers she was looking for to build their homes. Most were empty but all were made from regular sticks and foliage so she continued on her journey to the summit.

2/5 Quest Items

After finishing her meal, she wiped herself clean with her sleeves before she got up, patting off any crumbles that fell into her lap. With her eyes set on a mountainside, that should be about an hour of walking away, she set off.

Traveling along the every inclining trail, Hisa's hike took her over a small brook and along the edges of a grove, where she stopped for a second. It felt colder and it was an eerie sight, darker and gloomier than the rest of the zone. She figured that this place must hold the monsters of this zone.

Without a weapon or armor she wasn't willing to tackle that kind of challenge yet and continued walking, looking for any signs of flowers on the outskirts of the thicket. Staying alert at all times at to not get surprised by a wild beast that could be darting out from between the trees. 

2/5 Quest Items

"Please don't betray me video game knowledge." she uttered while inching her way along the trail, darting her view left and right to not miss a spot. But alas, even after half an hour, there was no flower to be found. "I should have figured." escaped her lips when she reminded herself that this game was marketed as a hardcore VRMMORPG for the truly dedicated. They wouldn't just hand out fetch quest items. It would have ruined their reputation if the beta testers got the impression that the game was too easy.

With that option ruled out, she had to find a new location, but first it was time for a snack. Hisa walked back to the tree in whose shadow she found one of the flowers and sat down, grabbing a sandwich out of her inventory. Eating it, she took some time to figure out possible spots where more flowers could be hidden. The quest progress still showed '2/5 T1 Materials'.

2/5 Quest Items