Wulfrin

The trip back to Tolbana was very uneventful. The paths were well traveled and monsters kept their distance allowing for a swift return. Wulfrin navigated to the back ally smith shop where Callum did his work. The sounds of metal being shaped with rhythmic strikes of a hammer filled the soot filled interior. The workspace was still cluttered, but as suspected there appeared to be a larger stock of scrap pieces. Callum was at the anvil shaping another ingot into a long thin blade. A rapier perhaps? "Ah, welcome back," Callum said as he quenched his current project in the nearby barrel. "I

Wulfrin cast the line for the final time. Success or fail didn't matter the only things he would keep were if he opened another chest. Any additional materials he managed to scrounge up would be confiscated by the system, but that was never his goal. He wanted a chest to expand his inventory a bit. The more options he had, the more he could offer to other players, or upgrade his own gear. A new future in Aincrad was withing reach he just had to catch it. He watched the bobber intently. Time seemed to elongate as he watched every small movement. Just as he was about to reel in the line, the bob

"Perhaps I'll take a trip to the various floors," Wulfrin said to himself. "See if I can find a plot of land I like." He started to think about his future as he cast his line into the river. The forge he planned to run would be simple and open to the elements. Completely enclosing the forge was a bad idea. Besides there was the view. If he was going to live somewhere he may as well enjoy the view while he worked. The higher he went the more likely to find other players looking for gear. He couldn't provide gear for the frontline players, but he was going to fast track his progress to that goal

Wulfrin returned to the river. He welcomed the break, and it had helped him complete the quest. The boar wasn't that bad of a fight either. "Maybe," Wulfrin thought out loud to himself. "Maybe I could grind them for col and additional stock if I'm ever bored. It's also good to know for future hunting trips." He cast his line back into the river. This time he truly didn't care what happened at the end of the line. In the end he had already found the required materials, so everything else was just bonus. Getting this finished would allow him not only to craft gear of his own, but also get some a

The boar had left itself wide open. With a swift strike of another sword art to fully exposed flank, the boar let out another shrill screech as his HP bar fell to 0. The boar must have taken a critical injury, but it was hard to tell as based off Wulfrin's mental calculations, the boar would have fallen to even a regular strike from his sword art. The boar shattered into a confetti of tiny polygons leaving be hind a small pouch. Upon retreiving the pouch, an info panel appeared detailing the contents of the boar. "Let's see," Wulfrin said to himself as he browsed the contents of the boar. "A h

It took a while, but finally Wulfrin located a pack of wild boars near where he was fishing. He patiently waited for one to break off from its herd, knowing they wouldn't attack unless provoked. Once the boar broke off he led the boar out of agro range of the others. He had fought these mobs before but he was definitely not prepared to face a full herd. Once he had the boar far enough away, he lunged outward. His sword glowed with the brilliant blue light of his sword art. Wulfrin slashed into the boar's flank as it let out a loud squeal. The HP bar dropped well into the yellow. It was definit

Wulfrin cast his line once more. This would be his last before he took to other methods of material gathering. His luck so far was terrible when it came to fishing. Even starting the profession was egregious. At the very least he wasn't doing it for nothing anymore as even a failed attempt at least awarded him with experience. The bobber lazily bobbed along the surface. Not even a nibble was happening. Either the fish truly weren't biting or Cardinal was toying with him. The silent staring contest continued for about an hour before Wulfrin retrieved his line. He had nothing to show for the att

"I'm woefully out of practice," Wulfrin replied between strained breaths. "Haven't gone climbing since before the game, when I was much younger. Only thing I have going for me is the fact that this body is virtual." Wulfrin thought about how best to answer the question. "Truthfully, I haven't been at it long. If it weren't for players like yourself taking on quests on the lower floors, I definitely would not be making all the progress I have." Even though the progress was limited, Wulfrin still knew that often times he was pulling the higher level players away from their work on the frontlines

"Neat trick," Wulfrin replied with a slight shake. "Disguises aren't quite my style. That being said, I'm sure it will be a very unwelcome surprise when you come back, assuming the system lets him remember you." Wulfrin let his mind wonder. Do NPCs hold grudges? He decided to shake the idea away. "Anyway thanks for the boss encounter. That mid-boss guarding the arena for the four real bosses was kind of a push over, but it was still a good learning experience." The two made their way to the teleport gate. Wulfrin was excited to get the desert floor behind him. He had grown tired of the sun, sa

Having recast his line for the second attempt of his three attempt cycle. Cardinal was definitely mocking him since it always seemed to wait until his last attempt to grant him his desired item just to keep him hooked. He definitely intended that mental pun as he watched the bobber dip up and down with the waves. At least the weather was nice. To be fair, the weather was always decent in Aincrad. If you wanted to experience other types of weather than the default of the floor, you had to either wait for an event to change it or go to a floor with the desired settings. That was one benefit to b

"You mentioned you've been baiting him," Wulfrin asked his companion. "You mean you've been trying to get him to lash out at you?" Wulfrin pondered the possibilities. His temper had cooled significantly on their walk. He still harbored hatred towards those who exploited those below them for their own gain, but at least the thought of possibly finding a lair seemed to satiate the anger. It also gave him something to look forward to. "These dungeons you mentioned," Wulfrin found the idea of dungeons exciting. "How do you access those and are they worth doing?" Wulfrin could see the gears turning

"Ah," Wulfrin said as he accepted the offered snack. "Another player that just has random snacks. You're the second player that I've traveled with that has a secret stash of comfort snacks." Unfortunately Wulfrin didn't have a resource to get these snacks so whenever he was offered them, he took them with out hesitation. The two made their way to the main mountain path. It was intimidating steeper and more jagged than Wulfrin had traversed before, but it shouldn't be too bad to travel. "Sure hope all the sources were correct about there being no danger for combat. Fighting while worrying abou

Having gathered what they could from the "rich guy mafia", the duo started their trek back towards Abdullah. "I take it those thugs aren't part of the quest itself?" Wulfrin asked. "I'm not complaining, I felt like I contributed more to the ruffians. That and it felt good to stick it to the man." Wulfrin could only wonder if that was how Cardinal saw the real world. The arid desert was worse now that the sun had reached its peak. The rays scorched the area to the point Wulfrin was afraid he may start to see HP drain. "I doubt Abdullah is going to be too happy wen h finds out about his goons,"

"Wulfrin," The man replied accepting the handshake. "Pleasure to make your acquaintance, Star." Wulfrin did a quick look over his inventory. "I'm as read as I think I can be. From what I understand, this quest has limited danger, so I came geared for a more exploratory adventure." Wulfrin listened intently as Morningstar explained the travel plans. "It's been a while since I've had a nice mountain hike." Wulfrin looked over his map. This was his first time moving through the mountains, so he decided it would be best to differ to the one who seemed more versed in the terrain. "While I like to t

Wulfrin recast his line and materialized a honey bun from seemingly nowhere. This was a gift from Freyd. He had a fellow player that would make small treats like this all the time. Freyd had an abundance of them and offered some to Wulfrin. It was a bad habit to have, but it kept Wulfrin rooted to the real world. The snacks often served as a welcome reminder to the life he left behind. They only satisfied the urge of hunger in the game, but if he had survived this long his body must have been getting nutrients somehow. Likely he was in a hospital linked up to some massive array of life support

Wulfrin eyed the bobber intently. It seemed to mock him by occasionally dipping below the surface of the water. He found himself thinking ahead to what came after the quest. He could open a shop, but he had no land to do that on. He supposed he could just sell from his inventory, but that limits what he was capable of doing. There wouldn't be any forging of new gear for people, nor would there be any maintaining gear. He also couldn't craft anything new. All he could do was hoard as much col as he could get his hands on. Then he could maybe afford a plot of land somewhere, but he would need ev

Wulfrin cast the line back into the river. This would be his second attempt under his own personal restrictions. This plan was put in place to help mitigate the monotony of gathering materials. That was the part he liked the least about SAO. It had an egregious Random Number Generator that always seemed to be the bane of his existence. Every time he had to complete something that required him to collect any amount of items, he found himself continuing hopelessly, failing over and over again. Not this time he vowed. He would break up the fails with a combat to stretch his legs. Maybe looting th

Wulfrin recast his line into the river. Should he make three attempts to catch in a row that fail, he told himself he would face off with some mobs. He was confident he could handle the lower level mobs on floor one on his own if he was able to take them one at a time. The small mount of combat experience he had gotten had proven that much. He had a close run in with an enraged mama boar, but with the help of his mentor Freyd, the beast was able to fall. Up until that point Freyd had simply been the silent observer critiquing his performance, but in that moment of pure terror, he had stepped i

Here in Aincrad, Wulfrin could be the swordsman he had always dreamed to be. In every game he played the first character Lance created was Wulfrin. A human from a mundane life that never backed down from challenges and would do anything to help others. Often times that was the biggest weakness the character had, a fatal flaw if you will. He was too loyal. Wulfrin had a bad track record of putting his allies above whatever goal was before them often going so far as to sacrifice himself to get his allies out. Normally this wasn't a problem as in those games there was some way to come back, but t

Wulfrin continued his path of reflection. He cast his line back into the river, the bobber dipping up and down over the waves almost mockingly. The memories of this river were fresh, but they were still just as real as his life before. Outside of running through a repository of old memories for skills that could help with survival in the death game that had become his new reality, he hadn't really dwelled on his life before. Lance's life was rather mundane. He was stuck in college studying Computer Science and living with his parents. The house was always full and he often found it very hard t

Wulfrin had been browsing the broker's quests list for the next quest he would undertake. His criteria was simple; it had to be low risk as the players that he had been being carried by were all busy at the time. He found a quest that fit his criteria. A quest in the mountains of floor two; there he would be able to train body and mind. No danger was listed on the info panel, and it even specified weapons were not needed. On top of that he had found a notice that another player was looking for additional players that may be wanting a traveling companion. There was a time and place posted, and

The floating castle was unforgiving in many ways. Wulfrin had gone many times to Black Iron Palace to take in the number of names that appeared on the Monument of Life. Each name that appeared came with a brief description. Many of them were simple things, killed by boars and such. Wulfrin had already faced many of the dangers that players had fallen to. He managed to get his confidence up by telling himself he was making progress. He also scoured the monument often to see if he recognized any names. He had intended to join up with some other friends he had run with in other games, but hadn't

Wulfrin cast his line again. His time in Sword Art Online have mainly consisted of menial tasks like this. He had very few experiences in combat, but that was intentional. Wulfrin was trying to get as much of a gain in his level and gear as he could without fighting. Once he had exhausted all of those options, he planned to start getting into more fights while staying as safe as possible. Ideally those combats would be accompanied by some high leveled players looking to get more people to the frontlines with them. So far that plan was working. He had several paths before him he just needed to

Wulfrin made his way to the familiar riverside. Here is where his adventure had started. It began with him simply turning over rocks and picking up random bits of herbs for materials to satisfy the requirements of Zachariah. Not far from here was a cave where he found the secrets of a tablet outlining the foes he must face to find the treasure within. He had also faced off with several boars not far from here. For the most part though, the area was very calm and free of danger, unless he went out of his way to look for it. He pulled out a simple fishing rod and hook and cast it into the river.

"Wulfrin," Wulfrin introduced himself. The two shared a brief handshake before Callum led them into his small storage space. Most of the material lay in started but not yet completed projects. What was finished was a few bits of armor plates and simple weapons. "Unfortunately," Callum said with a sigh. "I can't really spare any of our stock." Callum only gave the cluttered workspace a cursory glance. "But, if you bring me back something to work with I'll be happy to pass on what I know." Wulfrin had already done a crafting tutorial before, so at least he knew the drill. Gather some materi