Sera

Sera shook her head in response. "I'm not in a big hurry myself. Getting stronger is in my agenda but not really something that I have to push myself towards. I want to be able to get stronger so that I can go and see the rest of the floors in the game. Maybe it'll help give me the muse to create music again." The musician mulled moving out of the bushes that she had found her materials in. Stepping over to the area that Weed had been looking through, Sera would attempt to help him find some if she can.

"Lemme see if I can help you find one more. It would be kind of mean for me to just leave you behind because I finished what I was doing." The girl walked around the perimeter in the smaller areas to see if she could find any materials hidden under the brush or within the grass.

The bushes had proved fruitful so far, so Sera wasn't willing to give up on finding materials here until they gave up on her. As she surfed through the leaves of the brush to find that last singular material, Weed called back to tell her that he was finding some himself. It could have just been that Sera had chosen the wrong area to make their search good. Beginner's mistakes could be easily forgiven, hopefully.

A few moments later, the musician would find her last necessary material for completing the quest given to her. "Ah! I've found my last one." She called out swiping the material and moving it into her inventory. "Are you sure you don't want a little help? I understand if you want to do it by yourself so you can learn the best way to search for them. If not, I can sit here and wait for you. I don't have anything better to do."

Materials: 5/5, all materials found

What the musician had not expected, foolishly, was that her teacher would strike her down the instant she made one mistake. The attack with the broken katana scrapped her, dealing a single point of damage to her small health pool. The resistance of her blade caused Sera to fall to her side. No matter how good the blade was, she wasn't going to do anything with it until she actually put in the training. Setsuna's methods were ruthless.

Before she had time to stand up, another first hit duel request appeared before her. She promptly accepted, trying to focus the best she could. When the timer ticked to zero, she would make her attack once more. I light blue tinge across the blade sparked a crescent light as she missed the target at hand. Setsuna was not giving her that satisfaction of hitting her for free. If she wanted to get a hit in, she would need to be less predictable. Quickly, she would attempt to get out of the way of Setsuna's next attack.

The glee on Sera's face was over-welling as she stood up from her prone position. The first step that she had taken to becoming a stronger player was here and now. Setsuna gave her some praise for getting the blade to work as her partner. However, nothing could have prepared her for what was about to happen next. A duel request appeared before her asking if she wanted to accept a duel between her and Setsuna. The nerves wracked in the musician were more than she could take.

Quietly accepting the prompt and looking back up, Sera realized her opponent was giving her the first move. Given Setsuna's posture and the broken sword, no matter how strong she was she wouldn't kill Sera. Though now, the timer was ticking down. She needed to make this attack count. The moment that the duel began Sera would refresh her mind on what she was taught: Fight with purpose. She quickly dashed to her opponent and make a wide swing, just barely missing her. "Shit!"

4 + 3 - 3 = 4

Sera misses Setsuna.

Although the girl extended him the offer, the bull of a man decided to let her have the area to herself. She was sure that he could make it through the brush with little resistance if he wanted. Whatever he preferred though. She would stick around and maybe help him find some if she found her own quicker. "Suit yourself then." The girl responded as she looked around for another group of materials.

It looks like this area was a good spot for materials to grow. Without much looking she was able to find herself a second material in just another minute. Perhaps as she pulled these ones up, the ones on the other side of the brush would appear for him. "Looks like I found another one. I'll just need one more then I'll be able to come over and help you find the last ones that you need." Sera shouted from her position completely covered in greenery from the shrubs that she was rummaging through.

Materials: 4/5

Material found.

Sweeping up the weapon that had left her grasp, the girl hurried back over to her teacher and listened to her words. This time, her voice was not rough, making it a little easier for Sera to set into the training. She explained that she was forcing it too much to work, not sharing a common goal with it. If she wanted this sword to work for her, it would have to work with her. Taking both hands on the hilt of the blade, she attempted to calm her spiked nerves in hope that if she was just calm and tried to work with it, it would just work.

"As if my life depended on it..." Sera whispered staring at the blade. In her mind, she wished the blade to protect her. She wanted it to work so bad so that she could protect herself and get stronger. Just then a faint glow sparked on the blade before fizzling out just as quickly as it came. "A-Ah!! Did I do it?!" Sera was surprised momentarily before she attempted to activate the weapon's attack, swinging with full force only to fall to the ground face first. The glow of the blade disappeared. "Ow..."

Sera was going into full investigation mode. They'd been at this for nearly an entire hour now, so they should have found around twenty of these materials already. Searching even on the branches of trees at this point. "This doesn't seem right. There's no way someone can be so unlucky when it comes to something like this."

As she tip-toed around the area, peeking over bushes and under them as well. With an extensive search, Sera would jump in glee as she finally made a break through. Though it took crawling through a clump of bushes and covering her skirt in twigs and greenery. "Finally found one! Come look over here! I think this area over here is a good spot for it since I actually found one."

A few seconds later, the musician would drag herself through the bushes and brushed the excess off her clothing. "There we go. Hopefully we find a bigger batch this time."

found a fuckin material finally

Materials Found: 3/5

Progress was being made, yet she still couldn't force the weapon to activate it's sword art. She obviously needed more practice. The girl's explanation was hard to follow with the way she was talking. She was speaking as though she could just force her sword to work for her. A weapon was a tool, but tools still require knowledge to understand and use. If you handed her an ice pick, she might know how to chisel ice, but she wouldn't be able to sculpt.

"Th-This is a lot to take in. You're saying it like I can just force myself to know how it works." Sera complains as Setsuna asks to her- well, more like demands - to take another swing at it as if her life was on the line. She would try, drawing the sword with speed like that of the iaijutsu art, but no skill was really there. The blade slipped from her hand and glided across the stone and dirt of the path they stood. Completely embarrassed, the teenager hurried to grab her weapon.

Weed agreed that they just weren't hitting the right lucky spot for the materials that they needed. They were inside the circle where the materials were supposed to respawn more frequently for the newer players, yet they still couldn't find anything at all.  "Well, I'm in no rush specifically. Leveling up is important, but the journey is always better than the destination. As I keep going, I'll get stronger."

Getting stronger was important to the girl, but she felt no urgency to level up as quickly as possible. If she were to rush writing all the songs that she made, they would sound absolutely awful. A quick inspection of the area caught her eye on a herb. Unfortunately, it wasn't tagged as a material though. Just when she thought that she was going to get her third. "Man, every plant is looking like one of these materials at this rate. It's getting hard for me to differentiate them."

Materials found: 2/5

No material found.

Sera was glad that even though he saw the danger of the world, he could appreciate the point she was trying to make. It was a marvel of design that she couldn't help but pay attention to. Now that she was beginning to venture outside of the safe zones, what sort of wonderful places would she see?

"I was only really pointing out how amazed I am that something like this world can exist. Only that it's a shame that it has to be used with such ill intent as to endanger thousands of people." Sera responded, looking for more of the materials that they were farming around for. There was still nothing in sight. Sera was starting to wonder if the few were simply free or if they were really just having that bad of luck at actually finding these things. "Man, our lucky really isn't the best right now it is it?"

Materials Found: 2/5

No materials found!

The duo shifted through the brush of the forest not finding much luck in locating the next set of materials that they needed. This was going to be a little more time consuming than she initially expected. Weed would bring up what she had been doing before she got trapped inside the game. Sera shook her head somewhat nonchalantly. "I was a student in my second year of high school. I played a lot of guitar and video games in my free time, but other than that I was just an unlucky victim of this world. It's shame that such a beautiful existence is so dangerous. This place really is a marvel to be apart of, that is, if it wasn't life and death at stake."

It may have been weird to have such an opinion like that, but she couldn't help but see the world for what it was: A masterpiece of art that was brought to life so beautifully. It reminded her of when she would find just the right cords.

Materials Found : 2/5

Sera twitched slightly as his hand reached to her head, only to find that he wished to give her a soft pat on the head. It seemed rather diminishing to something that you would do to reward a dog to another person, but it was better than what she thought was coming. For all she knew, he brought her out here to get her killed for some reason. "Th-Thanks. I'm going to do my best to make my position in this game beneficial not only for me but for everyone involved."

When the man reminded her of their quest, she started to look around again. "I imagine they disappear for awhile and take a time to respawn once they've been taken. There could be a small limit to how many can spawn in one area so might have to move around a little to find more." With luck not really on her side, Sera couldn't find anymore in this particular moment.

Materials Found | 2/5

Sera rubbed the back of her neck when Weed came at her with some questions. It was clear that the teen was a little on the timid side, but was capable of holding a conversation with a stranger. "I play a lot of video games in my free time, but I never really got to experience an MMO before. My thought was 'Why not try one that's also in Virtual Reality? Two new experiences in one!' and now I'm here: Somewhere I really don't belong."

Her head hung a little. Though really, it felt extremely awful to have wished this fate on someone else. For all she knew, a child much younger than her could have gotten sucked into this. There was already an orphanage in the Town of Beginnings for the young kids that got sucked up in this experience. Yet, if she had let someone else buy her copy with much more gaming experience than her, would the frontlines be closer to finishing the game?

As the conversation carried on, she too would forget to be on the look out for the bounty at hand. If they slacked off too much, they would never get done.

Materials Found | 2/5

Sera found the tone shift of the man somewhat unexpected. He seemed like someone who wasn't much of an avid gamer compared to her, aggressive with his intentions, but then he was suddenly being a little more lax. He offered her to stay for chat while they worked on the quest, but wasn't stressing her to stay. Yet, she agreed that having someone to speak to during these dull moments would be nice and if anything attacked them, they would have strength in numbers.

"I'll stick around. This is the area for the materials anyway, so there's really no reason for me to leave unless I bother you something." Sera said a little nervously. Her confidence was never in the right place. As she spoke, she would step around for more materials, finding on near the base of a tree just waiting to be picked by a lucky owner. Unfortunately it wouldn't be for her, but it was for the experience to get started.

Material found | 2/5

She wasn't sure if it really was the reason that she had 'purpose' that she was able to draw the blade or if it was because she had simply given it enough tries to actually release the blade from it's pinned prison. Either way, it had come loose and she could finally get some practice in with it. Her curved sword knowledge wasn't going to be helpful here, so says the other katana wielder. If she wanted to find her 'purpose' with this blade, she would need to continue to develop those skills.

Sera replaced the blade in it's sheathe. Setsuna mentioned something called 'Iai' which she knew had to do with the Japanese sword style of quick drawing your weapon. She didn't know anything about that fighting style, but she had no knowledge of swordplay in the first place and she could still use the curved sword without a problem. It must have something to do with the system guiding her like she was just the product of coding. This game was really weird.

With a deep breath, she grasped on to the thought of protecting herself and finding her purpose. With no luck, the blade still came out of the scabbard but with no sword art activated. It was clear she would need more than just plain thoughts to get it to work. Getting some experience in would be nice. "I-I'll get it."

The teen picked herself up off the ground as the girl, obviously younger than her but more experienced in this game, spoke concisely and strongly. There was something about her aura that was off-putting yet seasoned. Wielding a weapon with purpose and not treating it like a toy? She wasn't totally sure if she had more a purpose than just keeping herself alive as she attempted to do something about her situation.

Soon, she would draw her own blade, demonstrating just how she should do it. Comparing how she was handling her weapon to her new-found teacher, she could see the difference. Sera would take a moment and breathe, adjusting the sword to her side rather than holding the sheathe in her hand. If her own protection was the purpose she needed to wield this weapon, then that would be the temper to sharpen this sword to her needs. "O-Okay..." Sera responded, looking down at her hands as she did her best to mock Setsuna's motions. Her right hand placed to hold the sheathe and her left to take hold of the hilt.

Her first attempt failed yet again, but it felt different this way. Less like the sword was a plaything for her desire. The second was another failure, but her third try, she really calmed her mind to get this to work. With an exasperated groan, she finally pulled the blade loose from it's scabbard. The glowing white and mint-colored blade shined against the rays of the sun. "I-I did it! It was really that simple?" She asked herself as she gripped the blade with both hands, unorthodox with her left hand since it was her dominant.

For a moment, she would give the blade a quick slash. A basic attack was a fine start, but as she attempted to replicate what she was able to do with her curved sword, the bright blue tint did not appear. "I can't seem to activate my sword art... Doesn't this sword fall under the Curved Sword Skill tree? It should work since I have a rank in it..."

Sera was surprised when the man from outside the door barged his way into her path and demanded that he come along with her. That made her excessively nervous. "O-Oh-- I, um.." She managed to stutter over his menu scrolling. A party invite came just as quickly. Weed would like to join your party. She wondered what reason he would want to join her, and there were only two obvious answers: 1) He was in need of help for the first tutorial quests, or 2) He was going to attempt to kill her.

Killing her was the least likely option of those two since he was probably the same level as her and also since he had a green cursor. "Well...I know a little so I can help you some... So here." Sera would accept the party invite and open her map as she began to walk. "You see..." She points to a section on the map and allows him to look at her screen. He can clearly see her stats and name displayed. "Most quests have a marker with where you'll need to go to complete your objective. For this one, an area around the Town of Beginnings seems to be marked, so that's where we'll go."

She would soon lead the two out to the fields where she would look to find any materials she could. She found one without taking more than a second. "They look like this. We just need five of them each."

Materials Found: 1/5

Though she had ordered her weapon and everything, Sera needed to get a run down of the basics. Up to this point, she'd played enough video games to know that she wouldn't understand anything if she didn't do the tutorials first. Best to learn what she's getting herself into before jumping face first into danger without the slightest clue how to participate in the game. This was her first MMO after all so she wasn't really sure how these games functioned. Especially one where death is permanent and very much real.

As she approached the NPC who would give her the quest to start her journey, she noticed a very burly man standing off to the side. Maybe he was just waiting on someone to join him. Nevertheless, she would walk inside and have a quick conversation with Zakariah. He needed some materials to make medicines. Sounded like something she could easily do herself. Though the prospect of leaving the safe zone again wasn't really the best feeling. As she walked out of the building, she wondered how she would fair if she met enemies in the process.

Sera | HP:20/20 | EN:2/2 | DMG: 4 | MIT:9 | EVA:2 | ACC:1 | LD:1

The more that Sera attempted to force the situation with her own weapon, the worse it continued to get. This was all extremely new to her to the point that she couldn't fathom why such a thing refused her input. The only situation that she could arise to was that she didn't have the necessary skills to wield the weapon, or she wasn't a high enough level. Though she had expected for the Katana to fall under the curved-sword archetype. What was she missing?

Another attempt to unsheathe the weapon was met with less pleasing results. They system seemed to want to tell her that it wasn't going to be this simple. A quick shock of the blade was enough to startle her to drop it to the ground. It was only at this point that she realized that she was being watched. Another player coming back from the fields with half her health remaining. It was clear that they new their limits.

"U-Uhm, excuse me? You look like you know what you're doing... Would you know why I can't draw this weapon? I won't be able to fight if I can't use it and it's the only one I've got up to this point... I was told my starting weapon wouldn't get me anywhere so spent almost all my money on this one..."

It took no more than an hour to get all the gear that she needed to get started. If she was being honest with herself, Sera was feeling somewhat half-hearted when it came to this sort of thing. Her free time was always filled with gaming but this was something completely different. The fate of her real world life was at risk any moment she stepped out of the safe zone. She was standing right in front of it, the soft colored opaque barrier that kept monsters away from players.

Her nerves were so shot she was locked in place. The armor and items she acquired were now on her person. It felt weird honestly. As she stepped through the barrier, she was realizing that she never even tried to practice with the blade. That's kind of important. Just a few meters from the safe zone on the danger side, she attempted to draw the weapon from it's sheathe.

It refused. The system bit back at her.

Sera was completely confused. She continued to try and separate the weapon from it's holster. No dice. "What in the world? Why can't I draw it? A-Am I not a high enough level? All my other equipment was the right level..."

Taking gear | Placeholder for later reply

Things were beginning to change for this teenager. After years of being left to rot in this game, she had finally decided that it was time she try to do something. She had forgotten how long it had been since she last saw her family. Six years? It felt like a century had gone by.

Nevertheless, the brunette needed to get her hands on some good gear. If she knew one thing about RPG games, it was that gearing up was one of the most important parts. SAO couldn't be too different from online open-world games, could it?

Sera stepped into the Black Odyssey, looking around the place for anything useful. She saw mention of packages for certain gear types. She would have to ask the teller about it. A pair of NPC's awaited at the counter. "H-Hi." The girl waved. "I saw you guys had offers for certain packages with new sets of gear. I could really use one."

Relationships and threads ph

Sera
~
Silence for a Musician

Real Name: Serana Yukiko
Ethnicity: Japanese American
Height: 149cm
Weight: 52.2kg
Age: 17

Personality: Gentle; Nervous; Hopeful

Likes: Music and art; video games; rain

Dislikes: Spiders and snakes; aggressive people

The Chorus
Serana was born in America. She grew up in a pretty quiet neighborhood with her parents. As an only child, Serana felt pretty alone. She never had problems making friends, but none of them every really stuck around. She would see them at school, but never really get the chance to hang out with them. Soon, she would come to pick up a guitar in her early years. Her parents would pay for her to take lessons in her free time.

Another interest the girl had was video gaming. This is where she met her real friends. Though she never met them and could only talk through the game, they were some of the closest people she had in her life. That would bring her into the world of Aincrad. A new adventure; a place to make new friends. If only one failure didn't mean death.

A Crescendo
Kindness | A virtue by all rights. Serana was always a pretty formal person and her parents raised her like that. Meeting new people can be awkward but you can expect her to always be polite with you.

Hopeful | Though she's easily spooked, Serana has high hopes. She wants to become stronger and challenge herself. Its not worth escaping if she can't grow from this experience.

Resourceful | Serana isn't the smartest person in the world, but she does her best with what she has. Always trying to learn from her experiences, she strives to become a better person than she was yesterday. Making due with what she can.

Unnerved | Serana is extremely skittish. She's really easy to scare when placed under pressuring situations. It makes it hard to progress in the game but she is determined to grow from this experience.

Lonesome | Being an only child and growing up without any memorable friends, Serana has become a pretty dependent and quiet person. She usually prefers solace, even if she is with other people. This makes it a little difficult to hang around her.

MMO Inexperience | Although she had picked up on playing video games, she has never had the chance to try out an MMO before. This is her first time experiencing such a world, which makes it difficult to know what she needs to do. She only hopes that she'll be able to figure it all out on the way.

Rhapsody and Scales

Support Package

Vanity Light Armor
Vanity Curved Sword
3x Starter Healing Potions

Rank I | Curved Sword