[F1-SP] Going Not So Solo (Going Solo Pt.2)

[Ratatosk 0]

Ratatosk sat on the same tree as he did the day before, looking for that group that managed to gain five thousand col in a day. "Where the hell are they? Damn, with a col income like that they could probably buy a guild hall in no time. But how do they do it?" His eyes widened as he saw them pass by his tree, he lowered his voice. "Crap, they almost heard me!" The tactician of the group looked up, "Hey, did you guys just hear something?" One of the girls looked at him, then up to the three, "Yeah I think I heard something too." Ratatosk put his hand over his mouth and stayed silent. In a swift motion, the most muscly of the group took a swing at the tree and Ratatosk fell down. "Owww..."

Edited March 27, 2016 by Ratatosk

[Ratatosk 0]

Ratatosk looked at the four who were above him, he was on the ground with his hands holding him up. "Great, now I'm discovered. Just to let you guys know, I'm not hostile." The boy who was the tactician inspected him from up and down, "Guys, he's not lying." The blonde looked at the tactician and eyed him up and down, "And how the hell do you know that?" The boy shook his head, "Because I can tell just by looking at your eyes. They may be red and scary, but you are like us." Ratatosk sighed, "Look guys, I only came here to see how you earned money, I'm not trying to rob you or anything." He looked up and saw a girl, "Oh [censored]! Girl!" He ran off in a sprint, like his usual self; afraid of girls.

[Ratatosk 0]

"Wait!" The four yelled and even tried to chase him down, but Ratatosk was too fast to be caught when in his girlphobia state. "Girl! Must get away!" After losing all his energy and will to run, he sat down and positioned his back to a tree stump. "Great, and now I have a couple of people on my tail, not good!" The blonde got back up and began to relocate himself to a new spot to survey the group. "Now they can't be too dead set on finding me, they'll give up soon after that and go back to boar hunting." After a couple minutes of searching, he found a suitable tree and hid there. "Perfect."

Edited March 27, 2016 by Ratatosk

[Ratatosk 0]

He saw the group of four hunting stronger monsters this time, but it was different now. Their overall efficiency seemed to have went down, the tactician was the one who suffered the first blow and that's never a good thing. A mysterious player entered the field now, he had on a dark coat and his blade was drawn. The group quickly finished off the monsters after their tactician got hit, but they turned around to see the mysterious player. "Who, am I?" he asked. Ratatosk knew what was happening, this was the guy from yesterday and he probably sought to kill the group. "Not on my watch!"

[Ratatosk 0]

The mysterious player revealed his username, "Hideshido... Is my name." The group of players walked back a couple of steps, they had a suspicious feeling about this guy, and so did Ratatosk. It was good that he soon left after revealing his name, they all sighed with relief and their eyes locked again. Their tactician elbowed the strongest player in the group, "There's the guy again." The blonde face palmed, "Alright, I'll try my best not to run away this time." He breathed in deeply once, and then twice. "Hey, my name's Ratatosk, what about you guys? I saw your last battle, thing's weren't looking too well for your tactician and I'd like to help in whatever way I can."

[Ratatosk 0]

Ratatosk waited for their response, and they denied. "We're sorry, but we don't exactly trust newcomers like you, but you can watch if you'd like." That was understandable, the blonde nodded his head and sat on his stump, watching while cutting apples. "Interesting method, a tank to take the damage, a tactician to plan it out, one rapier user to deal the damage, and a loot build character to finish off the monsters and get items. That's a genius combination, how did you guys come up with it?" The tactician shook his head again, "If I told you, it wouldn't be secret. We're heading back to town, you coming along?"

[Ratatosk 0]

Ratatosk sighed, "Alright then, see you there." He walked away casually, apparently his walking was faster than the groups. "Man, walking is boring, maybe I can see another arena match today, or spy on another group that makes tons of money." The blonde arrived at the gates of the Town of Beginnings before he knew it, he forgot about the old group already. "Must've been bluffing, they probably went back to hunting. Damn, and here I was, a fool to think they'd actually invite me to a group." He laughed shortly, and almost silently. "That's right, I'm solo now, I don't need other peoples' sympathies."

[Ratatosk 0]

He put his hands on the gate, thinking about how long it would take him to become a front liner. "Time is key, but how much time? Assuming I can go out hunting three times every single day, I should reach level twenty five in twenty days. Twenty days! That's way too long, I better step my game up now or I'll never be able to fight on the front lines!" Ratatosk unsheathed his blade and started practicing the motions needed to perform sword arts, the faster he could get one out on the field the faster he could save somebody's life if it were a dire situation.

[Ratatosk 0]

Ratatosk had a sudden realization, "Sonic leap... That's right, I can use sonic leap to travel!" The sword art Sonic Leap allows the user to leap at their enemy, but what if their enemy was the wall? That would mean he'd be able to travel to a wall if he needed to, great. But first, he'd need to test the theory out. "Nah, I'll do it some other day." An arm was wrapped around his head and he looked to his side, "Huh? No way, you're from that group!" The muscly man laughed, "Yup, I have a name you know, and it's Shirotoru, what's yours?" Ratatosk didn't like getting all friendly, but for the sake of research he'd have to, "I'm Ratatosk."

[Ratatosk 0]

After the muscly man in the group had a little conversation with Ratatosk about girls, he ran off to meet up with the rest of the group. They went their separate ways and Ratatosk was sure he'd probably never see them again. "Well, that's another opportunity wasted, guess I'm going to need to stalk, I MEAN OBSERVE! Yeah, OBSERVE! Other people." The blonde sighed, how many times would he need to do this? Perhaps it would be a lot, but at least there will be some decent fun along the way. "Oh yeah, that item is going to arrive soon."

[Ratatosk 0]

Ratatosk walked out of the gates of the first floor city again, this time with his sword drawn. He wanted to go back to see if that group was hunting monsters, it would be an amusing sight to see them fight twenty, or even a field boss. "I wonder what it's like to know that you're... Powerful? Capable of fighting." The blonde didn't notice he was on his back facing the stars, he didn't even see that his hand was trying to grab the moon. "The moon? What does this mean... Am I... No, I'm not weak, I'm going to become strong!"

Edited March 27, 2016 by Ratatosk

[Ratatosk 0]

His senses were activated, especially his hearing. "Hmmm, is that the player from before? His name was... Hide... Hideshido?" The blonde took a peek from outside his new hiding spot, there he was again. Hideshido, the mysterious player that took on the thirty from yesterday. "Best not engage, or talk to him. I can tell he's not stable just from looking at his eyes." Ratatosk sighed, "No front liners today, no new senpais or people to teach you tricks. Damn, that's absolute bull [censored]." He shrugged and sighed.

[Ratatosk 0]

He had enough of the crap for today, first there's no front liners and now he's not making any progress? "Great, I can clearly see that I won't be earning much money, but at least I'll get some SP. Doing this around ten times a day is overkill, six is enough." That's it, it would be easy to get six training sessions done within a day. Really easy actually, all I've gotta do is swing my sword and don't fall asleep." He smiled, that plan was perfect. Six SP per day would be nice, but a bit lonely since he goes solo. "How many levels would that be? Well, only ten days to become level twenty five then I guess."

[Ratatosk 0]

Ratatosk knew his six SP a day plan was going to fail, "Right, I'm busy on those days so how much could I get then? So at least eleven per week... No, that's not enough! Sixteen per week should be my minimum, I can't let it be delayed for too long. Eventually, everyone will reach the high levels and I won't be able to participate in a floor boss." That's right, once floor twenty one is reached he won't be at the recommended level to participate. "But floor bosses do take a while to complete right? At least a couple of hours and minimum, and a couple of days at maximum." It will take a while, but he knew that he will too, become a front liner.

[Ratatosk 0]

Ratatosk looked at the field again, this time there were two new groups doing some hunting. "Oh [censored], thing's aren't looking very good for them..." Right off the bat, a field boss appeared and with a single sweep of its sword, killed two players. The blonde stared in shock, "Oh my god! There's no way in hell I can sit around. Those players he just cleaved were probably level one, I'm level six so I should be just fine... Yeah, fine. Time to stop watching and start fighting, do front liners really cower in fear when faced with a mini boss?"

[Ratatosk 0]

Ratatosk looked at the miniboss and knew that it was weak. "Right, that group from before could ju-" He was cut off by his own words turning into real actions. They group that just met with him killed the miniboss in a slit second. "Jesus, how strong are they? They can't be that strong if they are still on this floor, better keep my guard up and ignore them though." The group's tactician smiled, "Their deaths will not be in vain!" Altogether, the four of them made a silent oath by raising their fists in the air. Ratatosk felt a great pain in his chest, "What's happening... To me..." His breathing got out of control as he fell to the floor, "Calm down, calm down!"

[Ratatosk 0]

Ratatosk was on the ground, his hands shaking uncontrollably. He was gripping his chest as if he had a hole in his heart, "What... The... Hell?" The blonde let out a scream before his breathing began to stabilize. "Right... I'm Ratatosk, I am Ratatosk... I am Ratatosk..." The memories of having friends like that were painful to him, it all goes the same every single time. You think you found a group of friends that will be there for you all the time, but then... They die, just like that, just like thin air. Ratatosk couldn't bear with it, and now he's suffering for ignoring the problem for that long.

[Ratatosk 0]

His state of mind finally returned as soon as he stood up. "I wish... I had friends like that..." Ratatosk abandoned those thoughts as soon as he turned around, but the jolly group's tactician had something else in mind. The boy put his hand on Ratatosk's shoulder from behind, "Your name is Ratatosk right? If you want, or if you need too, I guess you can hang out with us for just a bit. Well, what do you say? We won't bite." Ratatosk along with the boy smiled, "It's been... So long..." The blonde muttered. He told the boy and explained to him that if he gets too attached to people, he'll be destroyed when he sees them die.

Edited March 27, 2016 by Ratatosk

[Ratatosk 0]

Ratatosk got uncomfortable being around a group of overly optimistic and confident people. "Wish I could stay, sorry pal but I'm overdue on a quest." He felt a lingering feeling within him, was it emptiness? No, it was a warm feeling, it made him feel like he was being held by his mother, the mother he only had for five years. "Damn, I hate thinking about this sort of stuff... It's nothing, I'm fine." The blonde entered an analytical mode of thought about the group, but most importantly the system. "They make col by having a good final hitter..."

[Ratatosk 0]

"Great, more god damn campers." The blonde sighed as he saw a group of four newbies trying to fend off a medium level player. "Do they really think he's going to die? Just one punch from him and they're done for." He waited until the commotion died down, nobody was hurt in the conflict and he could successfully enter the city. "Great, time to look at some more arena duels. I notice I'm getting a lot stronger too, I can't wait!" He bought the free ticket as usual, and sat down on his seat. Two light armored wearers, one of them with a scythe and the other with a sword. "Oh man, this is going to be awesome!"