Acanthus

Despite her bedridden frustration, Acanthus found the way Argent explained the system fascinating. She’d never taken the time to parse the intricacies of healing in the game. His thorough understanding reminded her of the time she wished to catalogue all the flora of Aincrad. She listened silently. “That distinction saved your life two nights ago. One of your debuffs was the infamous ‘Infection IV.’ Standing alone, it ticks away at your health like any other poison debuff. But it has a lesser-known effect: whenever another debuff hits zero, it triggers a moderate burst of damage. If I’d c

Acanthus' indignance subsided in the face of Argent's calm rebuke. Finally, she offered an apology. "Thank you." Argent let the response hang in the air before speaking. "I'm just glad you're ok." "You did a good job with the splint. Did you already know how, or did the game help out?" “Yes. To both.” Argent pulled up the party menu and talked as he reviewed her health bar like a patient’s chart. “I served for about two years as a medic in the army. I didn’t see a lot of action, but I saw enough that the training stuck. You’d be surprised how much of it applies to video games.”

Acanthus sucked in a week's worth of oxygen in a single breath. Her left arm slammed the headboard behind her; she tried sitting up with her right, only to find it fixed firmly in a cast. Her instincts told her to channel a sword art, but botan rested on the other side of the room. A hand gripped her shoulder tightly and squeezed once. Argent stood over her with sunken eyes and a relieved smile. His other hand held three different bottles, all nearly empty. "Hold still. I have another round of potions." Deftly, he uncorked each of the three bottles and administered them to the unwilling p

The Spectral Knight relented under the Player’s onslaught, toppling to the ground. Lessa’s encouragement spurred their progress; Acanthus watched with a distant satisfaction as the others worked together to bring down their strange opponent. As Morningstar moved away from their quarry, Acanthus took the opening. She rushed in, taking the quickest path to the fallen Knight, and flew past Morningstar, stirring up dust in their wake. Alcohol doesn’t smell in-game, does it? The thought nagged at her, causing her to miss an otherwise perfect opening. Botan still connected for almost half

The little girl shook her head and repeated herself. "You're not done. I need you." Both pairs of eyes brimmed with tears. "I need you to find <<The Root>>." The demand sparked a sudden wave of anger. I'm not going. Find it yourself. But the little girl again shook her head. "I can't. I'm not allowed to. It has to be a person… like you." I don't care! If Acanthus could have spoke, she would have been screamed. The intrusion disrupted her peaceful kingdom. The room itself rebelled against the girl: every step she took made the fantasy waver. Acanthus' peaceful surroundings

Despite what her mind regarded as absolute truth, her heart ached with emotion. She would take whatever solace the hallucination offered her. Exhaling, she closed her eyes, ready to remain as long she was allowed. <<You have a visitor.>> The pleasant, neutral voice piped directly into her brain, and Haru's eyes snapped open. She accepted the disembodied voice without question or curiosity, and simply trained her eyes on the door, waiting for her guest. A young girl entered the room. She looked remarkably like a young Haru, although Acanthus remained certain that she

Continued from <<A Bottle a Day>> Everything was normal. And that wasn't normal at all. Haru's heart monitor beeped steadily. The birds outside chirped, crowed, and sang just like songbirds should: there was no cackling, no rumbling, nor chittering from any fantastic, oversized creatures. Taeko Onuki gently accompanied the birds, smooth pop playing through the radio by Haru's bedside. And a clean, antiseptic scent clung to the sheets. The same smell that clung to Haru every day she returned home from work. Every part of the room was familiar, and everything she saw felt

Grind thread combat template Some notes on this grinding thread: I am simplifying the math for my own sanity. I will list BD values for the rolls although results it won't matter. Because I'll be spawning in monsters with no evasion, ACC 5 and AA will always hit. In the dice roller, I will be noting rolls as AoE1/Looting [Monster Name] [Number]-[Number]. I don't think it matters which roll lines up with which mob because they all have the same loot values, and all will die to one hit. In case it matters, low Roll ID matches low numbers to low numbers. For example, if Roll IDs 100000—10000

"Hey Acanthus, sorry to ask, but would you message your friend Argent and tell him I found you? He's been blowing up my inbox and I couldn't respond while fighting." “Argent?” So he *hadn’t* trusted her to find a party. She bit her lip in frustration, trying to tamp down her annoyance. Argent was only trying to help, and after saving her once, Acanthus begrudgingly owed him. Stiffly, she opened her messages and sent a quick confirmation. <<Argent. Made it here. I found a party. Baldur sends his regards.>> Acanthus thought better of expressing her anger through the me

THREAD SUMMARY Experience | [Word Count: 7960/10 = 796] * [True Tier: 8] * [Group Factor: 1] = 6368 * 1.1 (slime farm) = 7004 EXP Col | 955 (Laurel Wreath) + 400 (Bonus) + 315,510 (Loot) = 316,865 Col Materials | 100 (Loot) = 100 materials Mon | 1 Mon earned. Looted Items: (Note: I am not listing all the Rare and Uncommon items. It's just too much bookkeeping, and not worth holding onto them for appraisals. This is my formal notice that I am intentionally not listing them because I am not claiming them. Consider them destroyed.) T4 Perfect Weapon | [243800a][243800b][243

Argent stood at the bar, wiping it down one last time. It had been a good evening: plenty of people and plenty of good conversations. Around 2:30, he had sent the last three patrons, a friendly group of older men, on their way. They paid their tab cheerfully and tucked their chairs in as they left. Now that Argent stood alone in the bar, he could begin to clean. He wasn’t sure why he felt the need to only clean when no one was around. Part of the feeling stemmed from a desire to be present with the patrons while they were here. Many of them came here to talk and socialize, and when they d

Her return to the teleportation plaza was a blur of pain. Acanthus had the distinct sensation of her mind and body as separate entities, firmly detached and refusing to communicate. Her body processed physical sensations—the swampy roads back to Illridge, the violent vibrations of her left leg and both of her arms. Other parts of her body she could not name twisted in pain as well. The litany of debuffs remained even outside of battle. She did not recognize half of them, but she did see her health bar slowly draining, battle healing be damned. Her mind took these sensations and archived

A clarion call erupted from the knight, overwhelming and terrifying. The volume and intensity increased until a small *pop* signaled the end of her hearing. Acanthus could feel the vibration of the horn shifting the organs in her body, and the paws of each individual rat as they scattered. They were no longer biting; they seemed more terrified of the knight that they were hungry for Acanthus. All at once, the infinite rats vanished like a cloud of soot, leaving her alone on the belltower with either her savior and executioner. The knight regarded Acanthus with a sense of intelligence she

The reality of the situation settled in. The rats, an end of her own making, was so close that it pressed against the hatch. The tower was tall enough that even if she could survive the fall, she would almost certainly be paralyzed long enough for the rats to reach her. The hope she had chosen to chase dangled over a ledge of her own, eager for escape at any cost. Her final thoughts were a steady stream of practical concerns. Who’s going to keep my shop open? I’m not married, so none of my items will pass on either. What a waste. I spent a long time getting all of my gear together. This i

Acanthus lay there, stunned. She had always wondered what it would be like to finally convince part of the game that it was crafted. Seeing the results left Acanthus terrified. “There’s something wrong here. On Mire—M–ire… Floor Twenty-Nine.” Her voice stuttered like a lagging internet connection. “I’m supposed to die every day. But I’m not supposed to remember it.” She held up her fingers and began to count. “Drowned. Cut down. Suffocated. Crushed by debris. Eaten. Eaten alive. Drowned again.” Her laugh echoed, causing the bell to ring faintly. “The list goes on. I didn’t always remember

Acanthus slammed the hatch shut on the last four rats. She had time now, if only a little. A middle-aged woman stood precariously at the edge of the belltower. The cloak had fallen from her head, revealing thin, strawberry-blonde hair that greyed at the temples. At the sound of Acanthus climbing, her head turned to regard the intruder. One foot was already dangling from the tower. “Please. Wait. Talk.” Acanthus pushed through the pain to form words. She had crawled through the hatch; rather than standing up, she had rolled onto her back, directing her voice at the inside of the massi

Acanthus scrambled halfway up the tower before the rats broke through. From this distance, the rats looked and sounded like a tide of water. It filled up the bottom floor with ease, eating away at the stairs as it grew towards her. She slowed down without the large swarm rats in sight, though stragglers still rushed ahead to be picked off. The warnings she had ignored were now impossible to disregard. <<In case of damaged limbs, excessive use will lengthen the debuff timer and increase the severity of the debuff.>> If she pushed herself much, walking would no longer

She tried to roll with the falling momentum. An audible *snap* told her she had failed. <<Status Ailment: Left Leg - fracture 02h:44m>> <<Status Ailment: Right Arm - broken 03h:44m>> Heaving with exertion, she cleared the open space and arrived at the tower. The rats were no longer a ball; it was an entire sea of them, crashing through the narrow and winding streets of Miremore. Another legion spewed forth from the docks, forming another wall to block her path. If she wasn’t committed to finding the figure before, she certainly was now. It took all her energ

<<Status Ailment: Left Leg - fracture 01h:46m>> <<Status Ailment: Right Arm - sprain 02h:59m>> But the roof held together. Acanthus bolted upright and began running along the shingles, intent on catching the lumbering figure. The figure, shocked at the loud explosion of roof tiles, began running for the belltower. “No, wait.” Acanthus cried out weakly as she continued running, jumping lamely from rooftop to rooftop. If the buildings hadn’t been crammed so close together, she would have never stood a chance. Her body resisted every movement, even the pitiful

This house was just like the last. No other way to the ground than a window. With increasing desperation, she scanned the town for any trace of hope. She couldn’t jump to the ground again. She would likely lose full functionality, or maybe fracture her other leg. From the dim skyline, she caught a hint of movement. A cloaked figure dragged itself towards Miremore’s belltower. From this distance, she could not make out a player icon. But still, she would have to take her chances with the unknown over the infinite swarm of rats she had summoned. Rather than leaping to the ground, Acant

Acanthus stood unsteadily, knowing that she was simply adding more time to her penalty. For a fraction of a second, she debated holding her ground to fight the ball of rats. One-by-one, they were easy enough to slay. And as four more crawled through the crevices of the house to be slain, her courage redoubled for a moment. The entire building shook as though it had been struck by a flung boulder. Timber from the roof crashed down around her, and a decade of dust floated to the ground. Then, another colossal strike. Boards guarding the windows cracked and flew into the house. Acanthus saw

Collapsing against a cold fireplace, Acanthus checked her general inventory. Even though the monsters were looking for her, the game did not consider her to be in combat. Which meant… The teleport crystal materialized in her hand. She had bought a collection of them from the general merchant. They were all the same, and had none of the flair player-crafted crystals possessed: these crystals were simple rectangular prisms, twinkling blue. It was the same design Edict had pressed into her hands before he left her. Her head grew light; she was breathing too quickly. Don’t do this t

The rats continued their search for meat. Acanthus managed to hide from the ones that had wormed their way through the cracks. But she doubted it would stop them for good, even if she could recover her energy. Her heart skipped a beat when she looked up at her status ailment. <<Status Ailment: Left Leg - fracture 01h:14m>> It was going the wrong direction! Acanthus felt her head swimming with anger and frustration. What kind of game mechanic added time to a status debuff instead of subtracting it?? A realistic one, perhaps. Silently, she dragged herself to her feet.

Biting her tongue, she returned to one knee, and checked her status bar. <<Status Ailment: Left Leg - fracture 00h:59m>> “Fuck.” She whistled out slowly to contain the “pain,” and then gingerly returned to her feet. The buzzing persisted, but it was manageable now that she expected it. Killing four rats that had not yet joined the ball, she limped as fast as she could to the nearest sturdy house. She had to hold on for an hour before her leg would return to proper shape. She’d kill to have the First Aid skill right now. She made a mental note to purchase it as soon a

Halfway to the ground, Acanthus desperately hoped the developers of SAO had felt the need to skimp on monster pathing. She felt her body connect to the ground, and her entire being rocked with the familiar buzz of pain indicators. She muffled her scream of shock, hoping that less sounds would attract fewer monsters. The rats—now a ball—swirled and bubbled at the window she had leapt from. It pressed against the frame, shifting left and right as if debating whether to follow her outside. Four of the rats fell from the window, and died with flat, sickening crunches. Somehow, the game had co