Acanthus

Scrolling through the LFG posts was something of a guilty pleasure for Acanthus. There were scores of posts from mid- to low-level players, with tone ranging from begging to entitlement. “I need this quest item!” or the evergreen, “Can anyone help me with this field boss?” Most of those posts were followed by listing gear that would barely pass a large boar, let alone the Ripper of Glyndbourne. She watched these posts populate and wither in the forum with a detached sense of schadenfreude. They deserve to languish in the middle floors. They have not put in the time to grow as you have. If

Katoka took a single sip and grimaced. Mari swiped the bottle and demolished it as an afterthought. Her audacity stunned Acanthus. Then, she laughed, loudly and wordlessly, until tears formed at the edges of her eyes. “That wa s a TERRIBLe idea.” Acanthus desperately tried to catch her breath, clutching her sides as Mari sputtered near the end of the bottle. “Keep goi nf, you’ re almost hther, Mari. gold. Marigold.” Acathus chuckled again. She couldn’t help it—everything was brighter and funnier. “I fuck in, fucking tol d you. It’s terrible.” She doubled over laughing as Mari complimented

Custom Skill Proposal Name: >run_cmd swap(int *x int *y) (Disabuse System) Mechanic: Whenever you activate [[Assault Mode]], instead swap two of your core stats as though you just activated Temporal Distortion (Quest Reward from <<Down the Rabbit Hole>>). Description: A skill that can only be learned when the truth of the game is confronted: you are lines of code in the same way that your enemies are living, breathing creatures. Did Kayaba foresee the denial of his reality blossoming into its confirmation?

Appraisals (Each ID Links to the crafting date.) (2) Aincrad Lullaby | 245530 245531 | Instant Lullaby 2 Off to sleep, never to wake. (2) Minimalistic Etude | 245533 245685 | Instant Hypnosis 2 A few seconds is all it takes for the listener to lose focus in the heat of battle.

Compared to the previous floor boss, Acanthus felt entirely unprepared. She had helped with a few field bosses for this raid, but nothing she wanted to bring. The lion’s fur sounded nice, but shed part of her ability to weather damage. And the crystal tempted her, but the thought of opening herself to a brutal counterattack sounded foolish. She would rely on the bolder members of the team to commit to the supposed weakness. But no other preparations had been made. The floor boss was a rush project with a firm deadline, and Acanthus couldn’t bring herself to care. The spice of death slowly

"Whenever you have a moment, I have a larger order to place. I'll come find you after the floor boss." Purchasing. Creme Brulee x5 Payment. 10 Materials sent to Demian.

"Thanks for coming through on short notice. I have a few rarer tea leaves for your troubles." Purchasing. 4 Imperial Grey Quarter (DMG 3) Payment. 24 materials sent to Kingsley.

The boss rumbled as it sloughed centuries of dirt from its back. For every decade of dirt it shook off, it grew. And it continued to grow, past what Acanthus thought might be its full stature. It was as massive as it was old. Some developer was paid extra to animate this one. Jomei’s rapier flashed. She was used to seeing it turned against her. Being on the other end of the blade felt gratifying. “Good blow,” she remarked, and honed in on the scorching red wound it left. Acanthus closed in, ready to follow-up on the opening Jomei had created. But Wormwood still felt alien in her hand

“Sorry.” Mari accepted Acanthus’ paper-thin excuse quietly, a wounded acceptance marred by the dark thoughts moving across her face. Shit. Shit shit shit. The excuse was terrible, but she had still hoped. Acanthus opened her mouth to explain herself. It’s me. I’m a jumpy idiot. I really am sorry. But they had already moved on. Mari took one last swig of the fruit juice before Acanthus polished it off and swapped over to sake. She enjoyed her own cup slowly while Kat spoke to Mari. “Not every day you run into someone so striking off the beaten path like this.” Acanthus sputtered

Ara followed in the wake of Acanthus’ fury, cutting down the lion in a single stroke. Its face contorted in a pained grimace before the entire thing shattered and vanished in the winds of floor seventeen. Acanthus fought the visions of Kumatetsu while she cleaned and sheathed Wormwood. The thing hadn’t felt any pain. It was just a thing, after all. The frontliners talked amongst themselves, debating whether or not the message was real. Truth be told, Acanthus had just assumed the strange message was true. Or at least had some merit to it. How else could some stranger reach out to the enti

They were in the field before Acanthus even knew what had happened. Morningstar had sussed out the lion almost as soon as they were on the Floor. She wondered if he was part bloodhound. Reading minds seemed to be an in-game skill: perhaps there was also a hidden skill related to searching that let you smell out the enemies? Either way, the Lion never stood a chance. Morningstar and Arabelle were already on the lion, destroying chunks of the health bar in single blows. Arabelle remarked that she hoped piercing the hide would not affect the drop. “Not that I’m aware of. I’ve hunted thi

Mari began to reach out, stretching closer to Acanthus’ face. At that moment, the reality of the situation dawned on her: she was alone, in the wild, with a complete stranger. A stranger with an orange marker. The wind picked up, and the shade of the tree danced as the branches shifted lazily. A knife flashed in the shadows cast on Mari’s hand. Acanthus recoiled for a fraction of a second, smacking her head on the back of the tree she rested against. The light had settled, and Mari looked the same as she had before. “Oh, I’m sorry! Sorry. I started drifting off to sleep. It’s a calm

Brrip. Acanthus rolled over, shaking off a deep and dreamless sleep. Her head throbbed only a little. Groggily, she tried opening her menu once, then twice, and then finally managed on the third swipe. MORNINGSTAR: want to talk about last night's message. can kill some field bosses while we do. meet at noon? Acanthus startled, falling onto the marble floor with a solid *thwack*, and the reminder that she was presently in a safe zone. The message sent anxious chills all the way down her back. What message? What did I say to him? I don’t remember sending anythi

Acanthus looked over at Mina hopefully, silently urging her to give up her antidote. If she was unwilling, Acanthus might give hers up with some reluctance. She wanted it for the raid, but having heard Ciela was joining… “It’s good to hear that she’s ready to take on the floor bosses. Is this her first fight, then? I know she wasn’t at the last one, but I wasn’t sure if she’d been in some before that or not.” With a quick leap, she took Wulfrin’s hand and settled onto the cart next to him. “So we just just roll along with the caravan, let ourselves get ambushed, and then kill all the

The two moved neatly to the other side of the room. Acanthus alternated squishing “small” (hand-sized) spiders, while fending off some of the more eager aberrations with her shield. She kept her eyes on the monsters, but heard Sable moving and muttering as they reached the door. “I don’t mean to alarm you, Sable, but there will be a point that the crowd is too big even for me to handle.” She severed the arms of an encroaching crab-person, who promptly melted into a black puddle. Two more horrors took its place. “We still have some time, but you will need to figure out the—” “Get in h

“Nothing.” Acanthus responded in-between much needed breaths. “I’ve checked with most of the reputable info brokers in Aincrad, and I’ve searched half this floor myself. Not a single solid lead.” The Knight’s brutal attacks stirred up the chaos once more. Lessa and Jomei joined, spurring the fight with words and actions. Something about the pair seemed different than usual. It was the way they carried themselves around each other. Were they dating? Had they been dating? People are allowed to just be friends. She chided herself for jumping to conclusions. Just because you see people t

3ulogy performed admirably with the attack. The goal hadn’t been to deal any damage. She needed someone to attack it to gauge the attack pattern. Facts and memories began to mash together to form the final puzzle pieces. Despite the realness of the game, it retained some of its idiosyncrasies. One of which was the shark’s animation. Despite being mostly lifelike, it engaged in a few “tells.” For instance, Acanthus caught the thing jerking its head upwards before diving back into the sand. And whenever it dived, the way the fin moved suggested either retreat or a charge. And when the thing

“That was a good hit, Yuki!” Running in as the light of the Sword Art faded, Acanthus watched for the shark’s next move. It struggled to orient itself from the fierce attack, but then whirled around, bearing down on the tank. Acanthus sprinted to catch up, but the shark was impossible to keep pace with. Below ground, it burrowed like a meat-seeking torpedo at a breakneck pace. But even above ground, where it was slower, its colossal size and speed was unmatched. It was just like the first time she was here. Acanthus had hoped her immeasurable skill and powerful equipment would do the

THREAD SUMMARY Experience Acanthus | [Word Count: 5642/5 = 1128.4] * [True Tier: 6]= 6770 + 3500 (quest) = 10,720 * 1.1 (Slime Farm) = 11,297 Exp Freyd | [Word Count: 5642/5 = 1128.4] * [True Tier: 18] * 1.03 = 20920 Exp Wulfrin | [Word Count: 5642/5 = 1128.4] * [True Tier: 6] * 1.01 = 6838 + 3500 (quest) = 10,338 Exp Morningstar | [Word Count: 5642/5 = 1128.4] * [True Tier: 7] * 1.01 = 7977 + 3500 (Quest) = 11,477 Exp Col Acanthus | 507 (Laurel Wreath) + 100 (bonus, split equally) + 10,000 (Quest) = 10,607 Col Freyd | 1523 (Laurel Wreath) + 100 (bonus, split equally) + 4

“Apple Pie… McThingies? Freyd, I think you’re imagining things.” Or Cardinal’s translator was malfunctioning. Was Freyd American? The thought hadn’t even crossed her mind. Coworkers who had traveled abroad returned with strange, upsetting stories about American fast food. One of her friends swore that she went to a McDonald’s where they used fried chicken instead of a bun. Acanthus shuddered. The logistics of consuming such a monstrosity aside, it sounded deeply unappetizing. Surely Masako had misheard, or invented the story for shock value. A chime from her menu interrupted the train of

The boy admitted his mistake and waited for the tirade. Heat rose in the back of Acathus' neck. Traveling into danger, and he didn’t even think about a crystal?? I even asked if he had everything he needed! What— Memories washed away in uneven breaths. Acanthus composed herself, and smiled to reassure Sable. Fishing through her inventory, she pulled out one of her spare crystals. Even the touch made her pulse skyrocket, but she could hold the crystal long enough to pass off. “It’s perfectly ok. We left on short notice, didn’t we? And you don’t have a lot of experience knowing what

He took the sword. “You look like shit.” There it was. The patented ‘Star humor. There was still an edge to his voice, but the insult was dressed with the tone of care. It was a start. “Thanks. You too.” Then, a spray of flower petals. No, blood. Star’s hand vanished, a result of the strange Spectral Knight that loomed over the two. Morningstar lost no momentum, sending it off balance with a spinning kick, and Acanthus moved in while it reeled, scoring a few powerful hits. Acanthus stepped back to cover star, raising her shield defensively. “Are you ok? We can fall back if

“Wulfin, good to see you again. I saw your message and thought I would stop by.” The sigh she observed told him that he had given up on the thought of others joining him. Strange; she was always a little bit relieved anytime other people last-minute cancelled on her. Hopefully Acanthus’ company would be better than none. “I’ve not done this quest before, but I was told it has a good reward. It’s also repeatable, so do you know exactly what to expect? I’ll have to admit that I didn’t do much preparation. I normally like to know what a quest entails, but I was told the monsters are not

Two unfamiliar faces and a stranger was all it took for Acanthus to investigate. She was often more sociable while on the hunt for new watering holes. “Wu lfrin. Nice to catch up. Seems like we’re running in to each other quite a bit, hm?” She pulled a gourd from her inventory for a quick swing before reattaching it to her belt. It wasn’t a perfect solution, but it did fight the biting cold somewhat. The stranger chatted with summer-vacation Nemo. I guess Cardinal doesn’t have all the kinks worked out yet. Acanthus waited patiently for their conversation to end before introducing her

Did she like her work? It took her a moment to realize Sable meant the game. He had just referenced the frontlines, but still… Thinking about the game as another salaried position depressed her. Swords and monsters, and it was still just an eight-to-five job. She left the question to suffocate with a curt reponse. “It’s alright. You fight things, do quests, and try not to die.” He didn’t press any further in the moment, moving towards the dilapidated church instead. The pair entered and surveyed the room around them. While Acanthus studied the high ceilings for any irregularties or monste