Acanthus

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

An avalanche of rats interrupted her realization. They must have cleared out all the surrounding houses. With a quick, flowing strike, she positioned herself on the other side of the swarm, at the edge of a busted out window. She turned around to see the rats bearing down on her. In a second, they would be on the staircase. And they could probably manage them faster than her. It was time to think outside of the box. She eyed the second-story window. “What are you doing?” “This?” Koji giggles at the TV screen. “I’m torturing the NPC. He’s supposed to deliver me a letter, but he’s

They did not. After killing four more, Acanthus hunkered down in a rotting second-story home as the wave of rats flowed just outside, in the busted cobblestone streets. Although the rats did not seems to lose aggro, Acanthus was thankful that they did not always know her location. She might be able to explore the town, but she would have to be careful now. Her fist tightened and relaxed in an attempt to calm herself. She killed a few rats for col and experience, and now her whole expedition was being unrailed by some stupid endless river of them. What a great return to the world of a

She decided to try something a little different. Stopping in place just long enough to charge up a sword art, she crashed through the mob, targeting the shrieking rats first. Not one managed to finish their cry, and Acanthus sheathed her sword in the silence with satisfaction. But the silence did not remain. A chittering sound grew beneath her feet, and the earth began to rumble as another dozen rats clawed their way above the earth. Wait, how?! Maybe the shrieks from before the pack maxxed out still counted? Or there was some trick at play, and the mob was infinite. Whatever it was, she

Acanthus cut through three of the new rats with ease. The fourth stayed back long enough to release another ear-piercing shriek, and a new mob of rats emerged from the ground to join the fray. Her frown spread as she wondered how many times this mob could summon more of its kind. She slew the last of the pack just in time to see more spawn. The rats themselves didn’t seem too dangerous, but if they were endless then she had to consider running out of energy. Not to mention that her ultimate goal here was to investigate the increased aberrations. She swatted away more rats, and decided that may

The swamps of Floor 29 were the same as she recalled from her visit to Graycott Point: damp, sucking ground that gave little warning when it would give out. She had already traveled the area once, and recalled some of the signs. Dangerous ground had a faint, electric shimmer when the player approached. It was barely noticeable to the naked eye; it took Acanthus almost three knee-deep mistakes to catch the pattern. Now, her time was improving, and she could make out the silhouette of Miremore in the perpetual sickly yellow twilight of the floor. Just before entering the town, Acanthus spie

Floor 29’s teleportation plaza looked like a kicked anthill. Dozens of players patrolled the streets, while others built barricades or searched the ruins of the town for clues or answers. Internally, she derided them. Did they really think they would find something in the wreckage that the frontliners had missed the first time around? They would just meet the same fate as all the unprepared players. They were wasting time here, when they needed to be searching the far away towns and centers. Or even the black sea on the outskirts of the floor. Without greeting any of the players, Acanthus

“Three more cases of the cherry stuff, Argent. And a little information, if you have it.” A green player icon sprung to life as a cheerful young man appeared behind the bar. The bar itself was spotless wood, lit by the warm, welcoming light of floor twenty-two. The bar matched the dozen or so round wooden tables scattered around the floor—also perfectly cleaned, chairs stacked dutifully on top in preparation of a busy evening. Between the furnishings, the shelves well-stocked with meat and drink, and the large windows overlooking the main lake on the floor, the entire place looked as thou

Acanthus smothered her thoughts between the couch cushions. It did her no good to revisit problems she couldn’t solve. She listened to the soft ambience of the Villa, letting it rest gently on her dulled senses. I’m probaly need to eaase up on the stuff. Just cuz I cam get drumk doesn’t mean I have to. ALso, I’md running out of wine. She rolled over on the couch, set the half-finished bottle on the floor, and began to flip through her messages. If anyone had some more drinks on short notice, Argent would. She had met him while visiting new bars and taverns. Oz and the Sour Rumor

Her free hand stretched forward to open her menu and check her housing inventory. Acanthus filtered by “drinks,” and ran a quick tally. “I s tartde with two-hundredd and seven-ty– seventy-thre e.” She recounted to no one in particular. “Ap proximately twelve-hundredd and five-ty militers perday. Bottles are… bottles are seven-and fifty? Hundred. Seven-hundred and fifty.” Her face contorted as she tried running the numbers in her head. It was no good. She’d accidentally turned off too many of the brain functions. Self-medicating was a fine line, and lately, she was worried she had lost whe

A whole day, wasted. Acanthus picked grime out of her metal armor as she gave the landscape another despairing look. When Argent had shared news of another Spectral Knight, she had no doubt the thing would be near the Kineallan Parish, as he said. He was a new source, but proved reliable over and over. If not a touch overconcerned. * * * “I’m telling you this so that you can go and get a group together. You’re going to reach out to the other frontliners for this one, right? This isn’t some patrol into Miremore, like last time. You’ll get yourself killed.” Acanthus shakes her hea

Crafting results for 6/2/2025 (Link to shop post) Step 1: Fusion Fusing Uncommon 243754 + 243751 -> 243757 (Rare) Fusing Uncommon (Mast) 243756 + 243746 -> 243758 Rare (Mast) Fusing Rare 243755 + 243747 -> 243759 Perfect Fusing Rare (Mast) 243739 and 243730 -> 243760 Perfect (Mast) Step 2: Appraise (IDs link to the shop thread in which the item was rolled or fused. If the item does not have a link, then it was fused or rolled in the same post it is appraised.) March to the Dawn | 243750 243760 | Instant HP Recovery III A militaristic

Today's Crafts Extended Workshop. (+3 EXP total from Trinket | Tuning Fork + Hard Working) Roll: ID# CD: LD: Quality Count Experience Ambition Mod 1 243756 CD: 3 +1 LD: 15 Uncommon (Mast) - 6 (+3 Ambition) 2 243755 CD: 9 +1 LD:

Another wine bottle ricocheted off the marble tiles. The sound bounced from floor, to wall, to ceiling, to wall, back to the rafters, and then finally to the couch where Acanthus reclined. Her left hand held the pale green neck of tomorrow’s regret. It was a good vintage. Good enough, at least. The discarded bottle rolled across the floor, making an intolerable scraping noise. It hobbled across luscious, speckled floors so extravagant that Acanthus doubted such a floor existed anywhere on earth. With a sharp crack, the empty bottle split against the far wall of the parlor, vanishing with

No words for Demian today. She did her best to treat him like nothing more than one of Aincrad's shopkeepers. Anything more was simply too much effort. Purchasing: Skewer Roll x10 (20 materials) Bento x5 (15 materials) Bingsu x5 (25 materials) Miso Soup x5 (25 materials) Gelato x5 (10 materials) Mousse x5 (10 materials) Total. 105 Mats sent to Demian.

Crafting results for 6/1/2025 (Link to shop post) Step 1: Fusion Fusing Uncommon 243740 + 243732 -> 243741 (Rare) Fusing Uncommon (Mast) 243738 + 243737 -> 243742 Rare (Mast) Fusing Rare 243736 + 243733 -> 243743 Perfect Fusing Rare (Mast) 243739 and 243730 -> 243744 Perfect (Mast) Step 2: Appraise (IDs link to the shop thread in which the item was rolled or fused. If the item does not have a link, then it was fused or rolled in the same post it is appraised.) March to the Dawn | 243744 243735 | Instant HP Recovery III A militaristic f