Bismuth

"I would never want to harm this place, but these materials." Bismuth's eyes were wide with awe, he was like a kid in a candy shop for the very first time, Bismuth pulled out the journal that he had on his thigh, this one was the newest one, one that he always documented things he had never seen before. "I have never seen anything like some of these." Bismuth looked over towards Nemo as he pulled the pencil in its pouch as well. "May I?" the small nod that Nemo gave was enough for Bismuth to begin, drawing what was, apparently a new material for Bismuth, almost completely ignoring his friend and companion. Lifting his head from his quick sketch almost as if surprised Bismuth closed his book with a dull thud before replacing it.

"Where are my manners, if I start sketching now, I am going to spend no time with you." Bismuth looks over at Astreya smiling as he leans down to grab what appeared to be an inverted mushroom, two in fact, placing them in his inventory as he stood up fully straight again, readjusting his golden glasses, which were almost blinding at this point with all of the materials around him, it was like everywhere he looked was glowing blue, the glasses helped him notice materials, but it seemed like here it would be almost impossible to not run into any. "How'd you come to be the caretaker of such a magnificent garden." Nemo's small look of annoyance diminished a bit, but was still clearly there at the friends taking from his garden "I just always have been, though I don't do much, for the most part the plants do the work, I just protect it from any ill intent."

Bismuth smiled at her admonition towards liking fish, Bismuth grew up in Japan, and fish was a huge part of his diet, and was something that he was very good at making. "I'm glad, it's really all I know how to make right now, but when I get better I plan to branch it out more." Bismuth made quick work of everything in the kitchen and it didn't take long before the food was ready, a completely traditional breakfast. Bismuth led Nari back to the main dining area, and placed the food down on the table, a bowl of miso soup, paired with pan fried fish, steamed vegetables, and sticky rice. 

Taking his place opposite his friend, after pulling a chair out for her to sit in Bismuth put his hands together, bowing his head slightly before looking to Nari "I hope it tastes alright, getting the proportions right in the game is a lot harder than in real life." With that he began eating, not surprised by Nari's next question. Truthfully he had already done the Nature's Treasure quest with Astreya, and not even that long ago, but he was more using it as an excuse to pay back Nari for all of her help with the first lessons, Bismuth wasn't skilled with a blade, which Nari was, and without her it wouldn't have gone quite as well. "Yeah, I did it with a friend a few days ago, but I can't take anything in the dungeon on on my own, so I need help. I figured who better to ask then one of my strongest friends." bismuth didn't add in the part where she was really the only friend he had other than Astreya. Freyd was more an acquaintance than anything, and NIGHT and Koga, well Nari knew how that went. Smiling Bismuth kept at the food, it was okay, it tasted just about what one would expect, and it was something that Bismuth was used to, but he had still missed it, and being able to recreate this, was a dream come true in this game for him.

It wasn't like Bismuth didn't try to sleep, it was just that even if he did, he would be awoken after only a few hours at most, and finding sleep after that point was harder then finding it in the first place. Bismuth looked everywhere in the kitchen except for Nari's eyes "I will do my best. And as for breakfast, why don't we stick with what I know?" It was less of a question than it was a statement, but he was still hoping it suited Nari, though he thought maybe she wouldn't know what he was good at "By that a mean, Japanese style." Bismuth had never introduced himself, and not being completely Japanese it could be hard to tell where he came from. He was born in Japan to a Greek mother and a Japanese father, and he took more after his mother, or so he had been told, it wasn't like he had ever met them. 

It was at this point that Bismuth began prepping for their meal, starting with the fish, which he was planning to simply cook in a pan over the fire, with a skilled hand Bismuth began his work, cutting the fish into two large chunks, and prepping all of the vegetables, and tofu for the miso soup. "Do you like fish?" Bismuth was putting rice into a somewhat water filled pot with a lid and placing it in the fire, this breakfast sort of hinged on the fish, which he had already prepared, so he didn't know what to do if she said no. Everything was chopped, so Bismuth began on the miso soup that he planned to pair with the vegetables rice and fish. Nothing took very long though, and Bismuth had a full traditional Japanese breakfast prepared for them in no time.

Bismuth's slash was blown out wide as his opponent stepped forward into his slash, countering with his own slash at his neck, Bismuth flinched before the weapon even struck, which it ended up doing, making him grunt in pain. Cursing under his breath Bismuth continued his back pedal, he had spent two years in this game, away from the real world, why was it still affecting him so much, Bismuth grew a scowl on his face, and though to most people, they would just assume it was because he was losing, but truly it was because he couldn't shake his own past, even when he was more free then he had ever been.

Takumi, his opponent, seemed to be able to tell that his plan was to garner distance, which made it clear that he was far more skilled then himself, and chose to dive in with a thrust. A thrust that Bismuth was able to twirl around the outside of in order to bring his own blade slashing diagonally down on Takumi, though so far none of his attacks had landed, and he doubted that this one would either, he had to try, this was to garner more confidence in himself, something that he was sorely lacking in.

Some more crafting stuffs

Bismuth chuckled at Nari's straight forwardness about her lack of skill in the kitchen "Don't worry, I myself don't have much skill, honestly, I just like it because I can make myself buffs." Bismuth winked as he walked through the half door that separated his cluttered kitchen from the main dining room, gesturing for Nari to follow as the door swung softly from being moved through. Truthfully, Bismuth wasn't the biggest fan of cooking in the real world, he had always loved to paint though, and because that wasn't really a profession he could have he had practically chosen cook at complete random when he realized that appraising may not have been for him.

Bismuth looked back towards Nari, the sound of creaking coming from the wooden half door as a somewhat awkward silence filled the Bistro before Bismuth smiled warmly "Oh you know how it is, too much work going on to sleep much." Bismuth was trying to reassure his friend, although it wasn't a full lie, it was definitely not the complete truth, but telling that to anyone wasn't going to happen, so this was an easier option. "So what are we thinking for breakfast?" Bismuth looked around his kitchen to see if anything would come to him at seeing all of his ingredients.

Bismuth chuckled at the thought of Astreya failing to garden, he wasn't trying to be mean, but it didn't particularly surprise him by any means. "I never had the chance to have a garden." Bismuth followed behind the recently dubbed Nemo and beside Astreya as they were lead deeper into the forest, towards the direction of the edge. Bismuth really knew the advantage that a guide would bring to finding things, having been one for multiple players before, and was glad that they were able to find one here and now. He was confident that they would have been able to find the dungeon eventually on their own, but having the caretaker himself bring them there would just make it all that much easier. 

Bismuth could feel the change around them as Astreya cheered, it almost seemed like they were walking through the edge of the world for a second, which maybe they were. Thick wide trees surrounded them almost completely for a brief moment before they broke through into a both beautiful, and lush landscape, where previously the sounds of the forest were loud, in here they were almost cacophonous, birds and insects chirping, the sounds of streams running over rocks, everything one would imagine a fairytale forest to have. The sounds however, only added to the beauty, on every side Bismuth could see an array of plants he had never seen before, things that he had ever seen in Aincrad, which means that they had to have been grabbed from some of the much higher floors, trees, flowers, vines, bushes, every type of plant that could be imagined filled his view as he walked forward, a big grin appearing on his face. "This truly is amazing Nemo, how do you do it?" Bismuth wasn't really talking to Nemo, more focused on the awe inspiring display than actually talking. 

Bismuth was in his cramped and messy room, working on all of his charts and maps like he always did, taking notes on things that he had already taken notes on to make sure that they were worded the best they could be and held as much detail as he could manage. Bismuth planned on publishing all of his research someday into one big compendium, a large manifest of everything that he had been able to learn throughout his time in Sword Art Online. hearing a knock on his door downstairs Bismuth blinked, taking the focus away from his writing made him realize that he hadn't slept again, and could feel it in his eyes and mouth, that has to be Nari he thought walking over to a window that overlooked the street below he threw it open, leaning out of it precariously far in order to shout at Nari in the street below him "It's not locked, come on in and make yourself comfortable, I won't be long." Bismuth's hair fell around his face, not held back by his usual ponytail, similar to the time that the duo had first met.

Bismuth left the window open as he went back to the desk, finishing up the last few lines on his chart before opening the door into the upstairs hallway of his house, turning to the end of the hallway where there was a washroom he could use to wake him up a bit. A large basin sat in the corner, filled with water, Bismuth splashed some of it on his face to wake himself up, before tying his hair up in a bun, something a bit different then normal. Walking downstairs Bismuth could see Nari waiting in the main room of his tavern, a new sword hung at his hip, the very same one that Nari had made for him, and the bags under his eyes had noticeably darkened since there last encounter, but otherwise Bismuth was exactly the same. A smile lit up his face as he saw his friend "Thankyou for coming, I figured I could make us breakfast and we could talk, before heading out." the smile on his face growing as he thought about the adventure that was to come.

Bismuth was glad that Nari was getting better at talkin, this felt a lot more natural then the last time they had, where she seemed way too bad at talking to people to actually hold a conversation this long. "It's fairly quaint just a small little tavern, but for now, it's home." Bismuth smiled, yawning again as they talked, raising a questioning eyebrow at Nari as she raised her voice to say to have extra utensils, almost as if she wanted there travelling companions to hear it. 

Shaking his head Bismuth followed Nari, pulling his dagger out of the sheathe on his lower back. "That sounds like a plan." A small quiver in his voice at the idea of fighting anything actually head on, this would be his first actual fight in Aincrad, and he could feel the sweat making it harder to grip his curved blood red dagger. 

Bismuth watched as Nari cut down three of the four boars she was engaging, and watched further as three more entered the fray. Nari had reached the end of her sword art, and Bismuth figured that this would be the only time that he could jump in in order to help at all. Gripping his blade harder, Bismuth ran forward past Nari in a blurry flash, spinning himself and in turn his dagger, so that it sliced through all four boars, and ended with him facing Nari, hearing the four consecutive explosions of dying monsters Bismuth smiled at Nari, sheathing his blade as the blue faded behind him, Bismuth couldn't see how he actually looked, and despite his tired appearance, he thought that that must of been pretty cool.

Bismuth could see his destination already from where he was, albeit far off in the distance, the lowlands provided a very good view of the mountain that housed the town of Athenaia, there he would be able to find the teleport gate, which would bring him to the third floor, though the roads to the top of the mountain could be very dangerous the Athenaians assumed that you were a Spartaian and the Spartaians assumed you were an Athenaian which just led to either side attacking players on site, which would not bode well for the very under leveled player. Hiding through the lowlands was a lot harder than it was in the plains, the further you went into them, the shorter that the grass there got, making it impossible to use it for cover anywhere but where it nears the plain. Bismuth was well practiced though, so he was confident he could make it there without being spotted, so long as he took everything very carefully, which he always did. 

Crouching low in the tall grass Bismuth once again pulled out his old journal that housed his maps for the floor, Bismuth flipped until he landed on the page that described everything about this particular section of the floor, focusing on the lowlands that surrounded the mountain the main settlement sat on. Bismuth was reading through his notes on the patrols that the Athenaians made through here, and making a mental note of them before closing the book and standing, looking at the sun's placement, Bismuth knew that he would probably make it through the lowlands as the sun was setting, sighing Bismuth began his trek taking it much slower than he had the plains he just exited, he knew needed to be a lot more careful, because while they had patrols, the Athenaians were a lot more randomized then the lions, and it was much harder to actually avoid them.

I do the crafting stuffs

So far, the matchups seemed to be like they were for the first lesson, the two frontliners would talk amongst themselves while keeping a vague eye on the two newer players who were talking amongst themselves, almost as if they were two completely separate groups. Though something seemed off about Nari and NIGHT, last time they were completely flustered at the sight of each other, but now it seemed like not only were that not the case, but rather there was something, different there, an animosity perhaps. Bismuth just shook his head, it wasn't really his business, going back to paying attention to the woman beside him Nari, who seemed a lot more confident in herself.

Ignoring her first statement, which honestly seemed to be more of a jab at NIGHT than it was supposed to be comfort to him. Bismuth rubbed the back of his head with one hand, "I just have a small little Bistro on the third floor in the town of Flora, not much going on right now, haven't officially opened just yet, but I would be glad to cook for you some time." Bismuth's warm smile contrasted his tired eyes as he looked at Nari, she was sweet, and cooking her a nice meal would be fun, especially it would let him practice his skills on someone other than himself. "Though I really only know how to make Japanese dishes, which you would never guess by looking at Bistro." The inside was decorated to look like your classic medieval tavern, so the fact that it served so much rice and fish was an odd combo.

Bismuth smiled, a tired demeanor permeating his whole body, normally he was gripped with fear in combat, but the respect that his opponent was showing was representing his culture nicely, though the confidence quickly subsided, because he knew that looks could be completely deceiving, and that despite the man before him seemed his younger, that did not mean he was not a superior combatant, because Bismuth could barely hold the wooden curved blade that he carried for most fights.

Bowing respectfully at his opponent, Bismuth also drew his blade, longer than the dagger he had used last time, this sword was a more proper curved blade, one that Bismuth was hoping would help him more than the small reach of the dagger. "It is truly an honor." Takumi lunged forward soon after their brief words, his attacks may have been easy to read, and telegraphed, but that didn't mean that Bismuth had the speed to be able to dodge it, or the well trained footwork of someone, like Takumi, who had put real effort into training there craft. Bismuth tried to bring his blade up to block the diagonal swing of his opponent, but his new blade was much different from anything he had used, and it took more time than he was used to to bring it up, feeling the thwack of the wooden sword reverberate down his body as it hit his shoulder Bismuth grimaced, trying to focus on the person using the weapon not the weapon itself, jumping backwards Bismuth sent a horizontal slash at his opponent, hoping that he would be able to increase some of the distance between the two in order to formulate a plan, which was becoming harder and harder as he felt the fear slowly crawl through his body like a snake.

1/3 @Snow

0/3 Bismuth

"It definitely feels like there should be something more here, but I don't see anything at all." Bismuth kept his eyes looking around there surroundings as they talked, he figured that it was more important to be watching for any kind of entrance then it was to be polite, but as off right now he couldn't see anything at all. It definitely didn't help that practically everything in these woods looked identical, it was definitely a forest, which made it all that much harder for one to keep their bearings, though Bismuth wasn't having much trouble at all. "We have to be, and if we both fell somethings off. . ." Bismuth stopped short at the shout of his companion.

Placing a stabilizing hand on her shoulder Bismuth squeezed slightly taking a step in front of her, he knew that she was far more competent then himself, but he still couldn't let a lady, no, a friend get hurt while he was there, no matter how much he was silently cursing himself, what if this was something dangerous, and he had just stepped in front of a tank, hopefully his levels would be enough to keep him alive. A silver haired, gardener, from the looks of his attire was standing before him, his hands held up at chest level, palms outward to show that he meant no harm "My name is Nemo, and it looks like you are looking for my garden? I can lead you there if you want?" The younger man looked very not threatening, and Bismuth let himself relax, "That would certainly be helpful, if my partner her agrees." Bismuth gestured to Astreya waiting for a response from her.  

Bismuth just smiled at his companion, his tired eyes full of warmth, the sun coming through the thick overhead canopy glinting off of his glasses. Bismuth readjusted the sword he now carried on his hip, much longer than the dagger he was used to, and not something he was all that used to yet. "I have heard some rumors too, so it has to be here somewhere. Thankyou again for inviting me, it fells nice to have companions for once. Especially one who can take care of themselves easily. And me honestly" Bismuth reached into his inventory and pulled out a small snack, popping it in his mouth before continuing. "The two of us can find it for sure." Swallowing Bismuth couldn't actively feel a difference, but he knew that the snack he just ate was going to be able to increase his luck, and perceptiveness, and with that, he should be able to find what they were looking for all that much faster.

Bismuth chuckled at her joke about cartographer's intuition, he had this floor mapped out already, and if that was going to help them at all here, then he would have already found this hidden dungeon. "No, no intuition, but I heard that the dungeon was on the edge of the floor around here, it shouldn't be too much longer until we get to the actual edge." Bismuth smiled again, his tired demeanor and the warm smile contrasted with each other, but none the less it was clear that Bismuth was enjoying himself here. "Once we get there we can skirt around the edge until we found something, this dungeon sounds like it is definitely worth finding." Bismuth shuddered at the thought of what might be protecting such a great dungeon, but he had Astreya with him, and he knew that she was more than capable, so he had nothing to worry about. Shaking the fear away Bismuth continued trekking through the underbrush as the spoke.

Buying the following items:

Golden Key [1]

Total: 1000 Col

Buying the following items:

Golden Key [1]

Total: 1000 Col

Stepping back into his kitchen Bismuth began the process of preparing more snacks, this was his general morning routine, he would spend all nigh fiddling with his charts and maps, sleep an hour or maybe more if he was lucky, and then he would cook for himself before heading out to adventure, or gather materials for the day. He may be tired all of the time, but he enjoyed his life just like it was, though even if he didn't being able to sleep for more than a few hours was a luxury that Bismuth rarely had. Bismuth shook his head as he began chopping up his ingredients, normally a lot of fish and sushi, but today he was going to try something different.

The ping startled Bismuth, it had only been a day since he had ordered the sword from Nari, but it seemed she was already done with it, a speedy craftsman, though he doubted that would effect the quality by any means. Putting his charcoal pencil away. clothes and hands covered in charcoal Bismuth made his way to the teleporter in order to procure his new weapon. The walk from his shop on the third floor to the teleporter was a decent one, with him no living in the main settlement, but rather a small town outside of it. Soon enough though Bismuth found himself back at Nari's shop customary tired eyes hiding behind his glasses "Hey, I came as soon as you sent the ping, thankyou so much, I will have to make you dinner some time." Bismuth smiled at the new weapon taking it out and giving it a small swing, it was a change from his dagger, but it was a fine weapon indeed.

Bismuth looked over at Nari, who was now coming back from talking to the NPC for this quest, though she seemed a lot more confident in herself than last time. Boarlets didn't sound like much of a problem at all, especially since he had put on more than a few levels, but fights would never be Bismuth's cup of tea, and the light fear grasping at him was all the proof anyone would need. Looking over to Koga at his words on being busy Bismuth smiled, his warm smile having been replaced by a tired one. "Got my shop open. Bed's not the best, but I rarely use it anyways." It was like Bismuth had been muted, not seeming quite so bright as he had before. 

Looking around Bismuth saw that NIGHT was already walking off towards the gates of the town without much of a word, just a simple hey. Following NIGHT Bismuth glanced back at Koga "I think you overestimate my abilities there Koga, I might be higher level, but I am in no way stronger." Chuckling a bit Bis continued there walk, things had gotten very different for the group very fast.

This was going to be Bismuth's very first attempt at actually making something useful since he had gained his cooking profession. Yawning Bismuth stretched as he entered his kitchen, he had recently stockpiled it full of materials, but hadn't had the chance to use any of them yet. Getting to work Bismuth began chopping and prepping everything that he would need, as of right now all he could really make were snacks, but even so, he would put his all into it, especially if he could create something actually worthwhile.

Bismuth was now a little bit higher level, a little bit less than halfway to his goal, and with that it was time to revamp his armor ands style. There was only one tailor in town that Bismuth knew of, Setsuna, and though the last encounter had went fine, her reputation was that of a prickly person to deal with. With a hand drawn blueprint in hand Bismuth once again entered the shop.

"Hello" Bismuth looked around the shop as he talked "I would like to place an order for cloth armor, I have a blueprint here." Standing at the counter Bismuth didn't know what to do, waiting for the owner to come out, so he just stood there hoping it wouldn't take long.

A decision had been made, Bismuth wasn't getting anywhere with his search here, but he knew he had some stuff that he left at home that would be able to help him in his search, most notably the glasses that Freyd had given him on their first encounter. His Hikei, or revealing mirror, made it a lot easier to notice material nodes around him, giving the ones that had materials to find a feint blue glow. It would be a really slow and long trek back to the main city here on the seventeenth floor, and he would have to go through territory even more dangerous than this one, the hoplites were even harder to predict then the lions, and once he made it there, he would still have to get to the teleport gate, and travel to the town of Flora on the third floor before he was home, and then he would just have to do it all in reverse again. 

Bismuth smiled despite all of that though, the exploration and thrill that came with hiking through the hostile zones of Aincrad was part of the reason he even came out here at such a low level. Resolving himself, Bismuth began his journey through the long grass, pausing every now and then to make sure that there was nothing around before he would continue again, the tireless journey took him 2 and a half hours, being able to make his way from where he was and where he wanted to go in a straight line really shaved most of the time off. It could be hard to tell where the Nemean plains ended and the lowlands began, but Bismuth's knew the wilderness here pretty well, and the minute change in length and color of grass was the indication that he was now in a much deadlier hunting ground, a war between the Athenaians and Spartaians had led to the areas around the main settlements to be constantly filled with warriors from both sides.

Bismuth stepped out of the arena on less shaky legs, his confidence being boosted by his victory, though he chalked it up almost completely to luck more than to anything else. He wasn't a practiced combatant, even more than that he could barely hold his weapon when it came down to combat. Either way, a win under his belt really meant something for his confidence, and with it he was able to stand a lot taller when he put his slightly curved wooden dagger back on the weapons rack, as he looked through the sea of people.

Bismuth didn't have to wonder for very long about who he would go start up a conversation with when his opponent from the previous battle came up to congratulate him. "Oh, no, that was entirely luck, which I seem to have a lot of." Bismuth smiled back at the shorter woman, it was nice to see that there was no animosity there for his victory. "Now you though, those moves were incredible, I can tell you have immense training and skill, you were truly beautiful on the field out there." Bismuth wanted to praise the frontliner for her skill, because if he hadn't have gotten lucky as much as he did, surely she would have handily beaten him, as he could tell by the bruise forming on his side. "My name is Bismuth, it is a pleasure to meet you." Bismuth extended a hand to the woman before him offering for a shake, smiling warmly.

@Zandra