Zerix

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Well, <Searching> was either out of the question, or all it did was extend his range a little and there was just nothing out there. Zerix double checked the <<Cursed Compass>> just in case, but that arrow was still meandering. So, what was left to do, but try something else? 

With his back to the forest’s edge again, Zerix marched forward once more, making sure he wasn’t retracing his steps exactly as he moved. This thing had to lead him somewhere, to something. He knew it wasn’t just a piece of junk. After all, it had led him to that one material. Wait a second… 

Once again, as Zerix looked down, the arrow quivered. He stopped on a dime and held the compass in both hands, until it settled to his right. Once again, he turned so the arrow was pointing straight ahead and followed it. It was just like before, nothing special, nothing different, he just followed it and moved around a tree until… he found another of those reed-like plants! 

Well, something was better than nothing. Once more, Zerix bent down, and poked the reed so that it flowed into his inventory. And with that out of the way, the search began anew!

ID: 198629 | LD: 19 | CD: 3 | Searching for Demonic Shard | Partial Success. Material found (1).

Ugh, this was such a disaster. How had Zerix gotten all the way back to the starting road? Had he really been wandering that far in one direction? Sure, he’d gone out of the clearing the way he’d came in. Maybe that was the problem. There was probably plenty more forest beyond the camp that was ripe with materials. He just was ditzy enough to turn around and go backward rather than forward. 

Grinding his teeth out of frustration, Zerix looked down at the <<Cursed Compass> and gave it a good shake. Of course, this did absolutely nothing but make the arrow spin even faster to the point nowhere. Exasperated, he flung his hands down to his sides, though still keeping a tight grip on the stupid compass. 

Looking up at the sky through the canopy, Zerix stared at the blue and white above for a moment. Wait a second… Maybe the <Searching> skill could help him out again! With his free hand, Zerix did a quick swipe up through the air to bring up the console and activate the skill again. Once more, there was a flash of sepia, but this time… nothing. It didn’t reveal anything at all. 

ID: 198628 | LD: 13 | Searching for Demonic Shard | Failure

Well, he’d found something at least. Zerix looked down at the <<Cursed Compass>> again, wondering what the heck had changed. He supposed he must have just wandered in range of the material. If that was the case, the thing didn’t seem to have a very wide radius. What use was it then? He couldn’t have had to walk more than ten meters or so to find the reed-like Material. 

With another heavy sigh, Zerix began to trudge on again. The arrow kept on meandering as it had when the NPC had first handed it to him. He just had to trust it for now. Move forward and see if he lucked into something, he supposed. He just had to keep on going. 

Look down, look up, look down, look up. The cycle continued on for some time. The arrow wandered this way and that with no sign of a quiver. He was walking a while before he realized things were starting to look real familiar. The trees began to thin out and before he knew it, Zerix was all the way back to where he started, the edge of the forest where he’d first entered. He had to be doing something wrong. 

ID: 198627 | LD: 8 | Searching for Demonic Shard | Failure

A sigh escaped his lips as Zerix was once again wandering aimlessly. It was just like trying to find the camp, but worse. This time he just had a compass that didn’t even work on his side. He moved forward in a straight line, unless he had to move around a tree, keeping watch on the compass as it swayed back and forth, back and forth. He just wanted it to find something, anything at all. 

And suddenly, just like that, the arrow quivered, stopping for a moment as it hadn’t done before. It suddenly turned and pointed very deliberately on the left diagonal. Zerix turned in the direction it was pointing until the arrow met with the N at the top of the face. Finally he had a direction! Zerix did a little silent fist pump and then marched on toward his target!

Just ahead and around a tree, Zerix found a plant that looked a bit out of place in the woods. It was stiff like a reed. But that couldn’t be it, right? It wasn’t a shard, nor did it look particularly demonic. He crouched next to it and looked down at the compass, shuffled around to the side and looked down again. No doubt about it. Touching the plan with one finger, Zerix felt the stiff material just before it shattered into a shower of light and flowed toward him, presumably into his inventory. 

ID: 198626 | LD: 16 | CD: 3 | Searching for Demonic Shard | Partial Success. Material found (1). 

Glancing down at the <<Cursed Compass>> and back up again at the wild edge, Zerix tried to search where the arrow pointed with his eyes. They darted back and forth. He even tossed his head over his shoulder to see the camp behind him. The NPC was just standing there with her arms folded and shaking her head. She seemed a bit disappointed. That made Zerix go a little red. 

Looking down at the compass face again, Zerix shook his head. Why should he care what an NPC thought of him, anyway? She wasn’t going to help him, so there was no shame in him having a little bit of trouble! Maybe the location was the problem. He hadn’t even left the clearing after all. Surely there wasn’t anything interesting where the quest started. If he found the Demonic Shard right at the edge, it wouldn’t be a very fun quest. 

So, Zerix began walking forward into the woods, once more crossing the threshold of trees. As he moved, he looked down at the compass periodically. He didn’t let it take his full attention like last time as long as it was still moving erratically. He just had to wait for it to figure itself out, but for now he hadn’t found a thing. 

ID: 198625 | LD: 6 | Searching for Demonic Shard | Failure

Zerix watched the arrow moving north to south east, south east to north west, north west all the way around past south and up to north again. He struggled to follow it, wandering away from the wagon. Spinning all the way around, the world in his periphery began to blur and he almost stumbled aside. What the heck was he doing, he felt a bit silly. Looking up from the compass he realized he had almost turned to walk right into a tree! 

Frowning, Zerix realized that this wasn’t working at all. The <<Cursed Compass>> had certainly earned its name. There was probably some kind of trick to it. Following it like this probably wasn’t going to get him anywhere. He had to figure something else out. Right now, it just seemed to be meandering randomly. So, Zerix stopped moving and stood still. 

Instead of moving while following the compass, the quiet boy examined the forest ahead of him. He was at the edge of the clearing, with no idea where to go back in. The trees and bushes didn’t look particularly interesting and there weren’t any peculiar plants to gather. In any other game, there would be some kind of glint or something to give him a clue about what was something he should pick up, but not here. At least, not now. 

ID: 198624 | LD: 10 | Searching for Demonic Shard | Failure

It was a small circular device, no different looking from any other compass, really. It looked a bit ornate, probably to get that fantasy aesthetic, Zerix was sure, and seemed heavily worn from use. The thing was, the arrow didn’t seem to want to settle down. It drifted this way and that way, spinning all the way around as it built momentum before slowing again. Zerix squinted at it and looked back up at the woman. 

“Uh, how does it work, exactly?” He asked tentatively, giving it a little shake. Surely this wasn’t all there was to it? Well, it was a skill in a video game after all. He probably didn’t actually need to have much practical knowledge. Some probably helped, but mostly it was handled by the system so ultimately, anyone could do it. 

Even so, she just gave an ominous chuckle aside a small smile, “If I told you that, it wouldn’t be a very effective test, now would it?” Of course she wasn’t going to tell him. He supposed even for a tutorial quest, that would just be too easy. 

Zerix shook his head and shrugged, now starting to turn with the compass a little. He began to meander this way and that, changing direction as the compass drifted. How to make it work? 

Just as he was getting used to the idea of partying up with two whole new people, a third appearance. Zerix turned his head to see who she was and was surprised by her myriad of equipment. She was almost certainly not level one, that much he could tell. Why was she going on this quest? It made him a little uncomfortable, but she had given him no other reason to suspect her, so he just nodded his assent. 

From there, the guy of the blindfolded duo spoke up. Zerix almost jumped at his enthusiasm. He was pretty friendly, which was good even if a bit startling. When the party invite came up, Zerix quickly accepted and gave a bit a nervous smile. He followed along when the blindfolded girl began to lead and it wasn't until she made the introductions that the quiet boy spoke up. 

"Zerix… Level 1…" He replied and refrained from pointing out that he could already read their names on the Heads Up Display for their party. Their third was called Lessa, he saw. It hadn't told him their nicknames at least and people seemed to like introducing themselves besides. It was only polite to reciprocate. 

Once they arrived at the quest location, Zerix was happy to let Setsu what little talking was allowed to be done. Guess it was pretty typical for a tutorial level quest to be so very on the rails. Zerix didn't mind that. Direction was a good thing. So he just nodded to confirm he was ready to go pick some herbs. 

Of course, that changed almost as soon as Zerix slowed to halt in front of the fire. There was a creak and the wooden door on the side of the wagon house opened. Out stepped a rather surly looking woman with incredibly long blonde hair braided with mostly gathered flowers and a few jewels, clothed in a simple brown hooded robe. Her green cursor told him she was safe and the situation told him she was almost certainly the NPC he was looking for. 

Thankfully, Zerix didn’t even have to open her mouth for the NPC to engage him in conversation. Although, she did not seem to realize exactly what he was here for. Perhaps she was a multipurpose NPC, also having a herb shop of her own rather than just being a simple quest giver. That would make sense. 

“Um, I actually wanted to learn to gather herbs myself…” Zerix muttered tentatively in response. In response, her rather bored eyes seemed to lighten up a little, implying she was pleased by this turn of events. Immediately, her demeanor changed and she dug out a small compass to give to him. Zerix took it and turned it over in hand as she explained what exactly it did. 

In that moment, Zerix felt attention being pulled toward a very faint smell. At the same time, his gaze was nudged skyward once again. Was that… smoke? Zerix could recognize the smell now. In the air, now he could see the thin wispy white curling up in one of the spots of blue sky he could see through the canopy. That could definitely be a campfire and should signal the NPC’s location. 

“Yes!” Zerix pumped his fist and whispered to himself excitedly. He was on the right trail, at the very least. That was cause for at least a little personal celebration. 

With renewed vigor, Zerix stepped off once again, moving in the direction of the smoke. Moving around the trees and through the brush was especially easy now that he had a concrete direction. His doubts had been pushed away! And sure enough, he thought he saw the flickering of fire and some movement in between some trunks ahead. He picked up his pace and scampered excitedly out into the clearing. 

There it was! He saw it, just as described, a little wooden wagon house on wheels sat in the midst of the clearing. The campfire was blazing and flickering. Perhaps that was the movement he saw, for there was no woman in immediate sight. 

As he moved through the forest, Zerix realized that his first impression hadn’t been quite correct. The forest wasn’t really all that dark. Perhaps it was merely anxiety influencing his perception, or that part of it happened to be a bit darker. Beams of light pierced the canopy in plenty of places, creating a rather beautiful effect, if he dared to think such a thing of this place. Admittedly, Zerix did allow himself to become slightly distracted, his neck craning as he followed trails of light upward to the dots of blue amidst the greenery above. 

Wait, no, focus. You’re here for a reason. Zerix thought to himself. He had to figure out where this NPC’s camp was. Rather than just aimlessly wandering around, it was probably best to utilize the <Searching> skill. It was still only Rank 0: the most basic level of perception available to anyone, but using the skill itself still had to have something of an effect. For such a basic question, surely you didn’t need more that the basic level abilities. Zerix was counting on that. 

Pulling up his menu, Zerix didn’t even have to scroll down the list to engage <Searching>. Suddenly, the menu disappeared and his world turned sepia for the briefest of moments. It was always a fascinating experience. 

With the knowledge in mind, the quiet boy now made his way toward the gate at the edge of the Town of Beginnings. He had approached this gate many times before, sometimes crossed it, but usually didn’t. This time, he was determined enough that he did not even paused at the threshold. He just kept right on walking. He had his polearm, basic as it was, in hand, just in case, but didn’t feel like he would be needing it. 

Normally, he would just continue on the road ahead, but instead he turned and faced the forest on the right. It was here that he paused and took a deep breath to steal himself. Looking into the trees, he saw darkness ahead as the canopy created more shadows than it let through light. Instinctively, and for a split second, that screamed danger to him. But he couldn’t keep letting that stop him, even if he was alone. 

After the end of a long exhale, Zerix made himself take that first step, and then the second, and by the third he was already passing in between the first set of trees. From there, he was already into the forest and continuing to walk through the trees felt much easier. 

As scary as it was, a game was still a game. Resources were everything. Zerix knew that. Gathering was an easy enough task, but getting something out of it was pretty RNG-dependent without an associated skill. Luckily, there was a mechanic in this game to help with that: the professions system, specifically the gathering professions. Zerix had heard about them before: you had to go on a little quest. There wasn’t supposed to be any combat involved, although in a world like this there was no real guarantee, but he could always run away if he had to, right? 

A little visit to the local tavern and Zerix was able to get the info he needed. Apparently, the quest giver was always moving around the floor, but she settled in a little forest just outside the Town of Beginnings. No one could tell him exactly where she was at any given time, but with a little searching, he could find her hut. It didn’t sound too bad and it meant he didn’t have to go through the Plains and risk running into any Boar or other monsters that normally spawn there. Sure the road was usually pretty safe, but this made him feel more comfortable. 

Zerix knew he had been in the Town of Beginning far too long. Progress on the frontline was steady, but slow. They needed all the help they could get. There was nothing Zerix wanted more than to help, but he didn’t know anyone. He didn’t know anything. How could he even help? He couldn’t. So, every morning, he went out, planning to do something, but he ended up frozen. Really, what he needed was a little push. 

As he wandered out today, there came a push. The mayor himself strode up and addressed him. Zerix turned around, blinking, and pointing to himself as if to say ‘who me?’, but not actually saying anything at all. At this acknowledgement, the NPC went on about his problems, as NPCs were wont to do. It was a quest, of course, an opportunity. He’d run into them before, but following them through to fruition was another story by himself. 

The quest sounded simple enough, but they rarely were. Zerix was apprehensive about accepting, until the mayor said just one more thing: “I already recruited a couple others to help me with this. I think they are already on their way. Why don’t you party up? More heads are always better than one after all!” The man declared jovially. Zerix nodded in response. That… was good. A party. He needed a party. Since this was the Town of Beginnings, that also meant they were probably also on or around his level. He had to do this. 

“Okay.” Zerix replied simply, and pressed the green circle to accept the quest. He could do this. Now, it was off to Zachariah’s shop in order to meet up with the party! 

Character Name: Zerix

Character Description: A quiet kid that liked to support his friends, but ended up alone in a very cruel world. 

Character Journal: https://www.sao-rpg.com/topic/21065-zerix/

Profile

Username: Zerix

Real name: Kai Mizuhara

Age: 18

Gender: Male

Height: 5' 10"

Member Directory: https://www.sao-rpg.com/topic/20785-member-directory/?do=findComment&comment=643515

Background:

Zerix grew up in a loving home, but he had always been a quiet boy. His mother was a research pharmacist with one of the largest conglomerates in Japan, while his father worked remote as IT, a regular code monkey, so he could stay at home and take care of him and the house. While his mothers as always traveling, his dad was always around. His father instilled in him a love of videogames from a young age. Zerix always used to watch his father playing as a kid and got used to being player 2. His father taught him how to stay safe and support him and it was a role he always loved. 

As Zerix grew up, he branched out, gaming on his own and with some close friends. He played plenty of games, but always liked those he could play with friends, even if he didn’t talk that much outside of games. He had a core group of buddies from school he always gamed with. They made time to play together even while taking college entrance exams. Zerix was going for technical school so he could learn to code, just like his father. 

After exams were over, their futures were set, going to all different places after graduation, but games could always bring them together no matter where they were. When SAO was announced, the group decided to try for one of the elusive ten thousand spots. It would be their first real foray into VRMMOs. 

Now, Zerix was a bit apprehensive, because it didn’t seem like there would necessarily be a traditional support or healer role like other MMOs, based on the information available. Unfortunately, as fate would have it, Zerix was the only one among the group who managed to snag a copy. Still, he bought the game, so he could at least try it out, little did Zerix know that when he joined SAO, alone, without any of his friends he had been playing with for so long, he wouldn’t be able to log out. 

Virtues

[Loyal] Zerix doesn’t have many friends, but those he has he wants to stick with. If one has earned his loyalty, they can count on him to be there for them. Although he might not say that outright, or offer up front, he would do just about anything for a friend, if they only ask. 

[Caring] Zerix likes to play support, because he likes to allow his friends to play and have fun without having to worry about dying or getting frustrated. Not that it isn’t a fun role to play for himself. It makes him happy to play happily with others. Ultimately, he cares about the mental well being of people and, of course, their lives, which makes a game like this quite hard on him. 

[Adaptable] While Zerix has his preference, he is nothing if not adaptable. He might not excel in every role, but he has the flexibility to competently do anything he sets his mind to. He doesn’t really understand stereotypical limitations on who can or should do what. He just sees something that needs doing and does it. 

Flaws

[Quiet] Zerix doesn’t talk much. When he games with his friends, he was a lot more outgoing, but SAO isn’t like other games, or rather VR isn’t. It’s too much like real life for him to feel comfortable getting loud. This can lead to communication issues. 

[Self-Critical] While Zerix can forgive a lot of others (even if you stand in the fire one too many times), he is highly critical of himself. He likes to be effective and efficient, making no mistakes, so that he can make up for that in others. If he does make mistakes, he is very hard on himself and can get overtly depressed which can lead to more mistakes. It can be a bit of a vicious cycle. 

[Socially Oblivious] If you want Zerix to know something about yourself, you need to tell him. It’s not that he is totally ignorant of social cues, but he isn’t going to realize what is sometimes obvious to others. If someone implies that they need help, but does not ask, he does not just offer to help. He doesn’t even realize that it might be expected of him. 

Skills:

[Polearm Skill | Rank 1]

Inventory: 2,000 col, 25 materials

New Character Bundle: Support Bundle

Equipment: [Starter Polearm (Vanity)]

Consumables: 

[(3) Starter Healing Potions (Heals 40 HP)]

Roleplay Log:

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