[OP-F1] Learning the Fundementals

[Rynn 0]

(This thread is set approximately a month after the start of SAO)

"One Eleven...One Twelve...One Thirteen" Chanted Rynn, sucking in a quick breath between each number. The sun was about a hands-breadth over the horizon, and the other players had just started going about their daily business. Rynn herself was no exception. Suspended from her ankles from a lamp post in one of the side streets from the central plaza, her early morning exercise routine began with two hundred inverted crunches. Though the morning air was still cool, her skin had the distinct gleam of sweat. "One Forty Four...One Forty Five.. " Her muscles strained. Used to be she'd make it through to thee or four hundred without to much trouble. But that was the point of all this really, trying to get herself back into shape before heading out of the protected walls and into the unknown. "One Ninety Eight...One Ninety Nine...Two hundred!"

Rynn let herself hang upsidedown for a moment, catching her breath as she did. Her abs ached, but she ignored it for the most part. Pain today meant surviving tomorrow. That was her mantra. pulling up her character menu (Which took several attempts before she managed to get the gesture correct), she pulled up her stats, trying to track her progress.

As always, it seemed her efforts were met with nothing but disappointment. "Still level 1" She said, mostly to herself. It was frustrating, no doubt. Other players she'd seen were already ten levels above her, yet they never seemed to do any real training. Just heading off outside the city each day and returning each night. Heck, half of the other players seemed pretty out of shape by the looks of things.

Rynn was 99% certain she was doing something wrong, yet she couldn't put her finger on it. Weeks of intense physical and cardio, yet her stats hadn't budged. At first, Rynn just thought that meant she had already topped out the scale measuring her abilities. It seemed reasonable. But then she caught a glance of a young girls stats. The kid couldn't have been more than twelve, and was skinny as a beanstalk. Yet her stats were head and shoulders above Rynn's.

It just didn't make sense. What was she doing wrong?

[Kane 0]

The morning air was still, and cool. With the westerly wind, into the city swept Kane. Fresh off of a battle on the sixth floor that had tested his mental and tactical limits, he had decided to come back to Starting City for at least a day of down time. The central plaza was quite serene, as players had yet to wake up and NPCs had their own individual wake up times. The few players who were up were either doing something calm like meditating, or eating breakfast

As Kane strolled through the plaza, he caught a glimpse of himself in the window of a shop. This was not the man who had entered Aincrad a month ago. The reckless, arrogant boy had been shaped into the calm, centered man. His cheekbones were high and his chin was strong and dusted with stubble. He wore a dark green ensemble over his already impressive, broad-shouldered build, a tunic the color of the forest at night, with light tan trousers and dark suede boots. His chest was armored, covered by a <>, which covered his vitals and extended up to an oversized pauldron on his left shoulder. Around his neck was a faded celadon <>, with a hood that covered his medium length dark blonder hair, and shielded his emerald eyes against the harsh rising sun.

Across his back, hanging from a leather harness, was Kane's most treasured possession in all of Sword Art Online: His massive great-sword, the <>. Forged by a master smith from Adamantine and Mithril, the gleaming blade was massive, almost as tall from blade tip to hilt as Kane was, standing at six feet, one inch tall.

Smiling and moving forward into the light, Kane's eyes caught movement from a side-street: A girl, who had to be in the best shape Kane had ever seen, was hanging by her ankles from a lamp-post. He saw her move, and he wasn't sure whether or not she could get down. Moving down the street, his boots muffling the sounds of his footsteps on the cobbled ground, he stopped at a small distance away. "'Pardon me, miss? Are you up there on purpose, or do you need a hand?" His voice was low, gentle but with the promise of restrained power. His tone was good-natured, though, and he hoped she wouldn't be offended.

[Miaki 0]

"Kyaaa!" With a final flurry of stabs from his <>, Miaki dropped the last of the health on the <>. It's growl was cut off by the sound of glass shattering as the beast exploded into infinite fragments that started to dissipate. Miaki sheathed his weapon and noticed the dark wooded region start to get lighter out. He looked up and saw the sun starting to peek up on the horizon. The rising of the morning sun marked the end of Miaki's late night expeditions beyond the safety of the wall in the <>. It had been a month since he found himself trapped in this death game and he had what some would call an erratic sleeping pattern. In truth this was not due to his being in SAO but something he kept to in the real world. And so with the sun starting to peek out, Miaki decided to head back to town a short run away.

Not much later Miaki ran through the city gates and saw a few people starting to move around.

[Rynn 0]

"Hmm?" Rynn muttered, a tad suprised that she was being addressed. The person before her was a young man, probably no more than five or so years younger than Rynn was from the looks of it. Decent looking fellow, all clad up in simple but practical garb. Not that Rynn herself was in a position to be judging fashion. Her garb was tan and fairly minimalistic, just a light fitting top and pair of shorts. More impressive was the sword that this stranger had. Darn thing was so big that you'd almost think it was the sword carrying him around!

"Oh...sorry, I was kind of 'in the zone'." she explained, still suspended from the lamp post. "Anyhow, yeah I'm Just getting some training time in. Hoping to raise some of my stats, maybe level up a bit" Rynn tried to sound like she knew what she was talking about, though anyone with a half decent eye could tell that she really had no clue what she was actually doing. Well, aside from the actual exercises, that part she seemed to have down to a T.

Flexing up, Rynn grabbed the post bar and started doing a series of rapid fire chin ups, letting her lower body hand down at about eye level. "Gotta toughen...Up if...You wanna...Stand a chance" She panted out between breaths, never breaking rhythem or slowing down. "Know what...I mean?"

[Edwyn 0]

Ed left the inn just before day-break, the sunrises in SAO always seemed more beautiful than the ones in the real world, maybe it was because it was a game, but Ed liked to think that it was because this world was still unspoiled and bereft of machines or exhaust to clog the air. As he was walking through the city he heard two people talking in an alleyway, he looked and saw a girl hanging from a lamppost. What is she doing up there? he asked himself. Then he saw her begin to do chin-ups. What is she doing? he asked himself again. Exercise is one thing, but this wasn't going to help her in this world, because it was a game there were only certain things that would help to level up a person's skills, this was not one of them. A person's body could not change in the game because the NerveGear had done the scan and taken the information before you entered the game. If you wanted to level up, you would have to do the same things as many other games, fight monsters, do quests, ect. This was what Ed had been doing, but the girl looked like she could use some help. "Ahoy!" he called down the alleyway, before walking towards them. "And how are the pair of you on this fine day in Aincrad?"

[Kane 0]

Kane was a bit puzzled by the girl's statement. He himself was not out of shape, but this girl was ridiculously in shape! However, she couldn't have been leveling up by training that way. "Umm, sorry, but you do know that training like that won't level you up, right? I mean, your Endurance stat will most likely go through the roof, but your actual level depends on doing quests and fighting monsters... It's not based on your actual physical condition."

The early morning was so quiet and still that when Kane heard a voice coming from the street beside them, his hand went to the handle of the blade at his back out of reflex, the result of a month of caution and hard-fought battles. Seeing a young man who almost looked like a slightly younger, smaller-framed version of himself, he stayed his hand. He didn't look hostile, and his tag was green. Besides, here in the city, players were immune to PvP death.

Kane waved back, seeing no harm in politeness. "Any day that I get to see the end of is a good one, friend." He turned so that he was facing the two of them, the girl hanging from her ankles and the boisterous one strolling down the street.

[Rynn 0]

"Really? You sure?" Asked Rynn, dubious. "Guess that would explain a lot..."

Did that guy just say Ahoy? Thought a very puzzled Rynn. She stopped her exercise, since this was rapidly growing into some manner of conversation. It'd be rude to continue, plus it was hard to stay focused while chatting.

Dropping down from the bar, Rynn landed down. She was about as tall as this new arrival, and a smidge taller than the other gentleman with the enormous sword. "Doing good, yourself?" She answered, pulling up her character menus (First try this time). "Probably should wash off" She added, mostly just talking to herself.

Now, Rynn intended to withdraw a washcloth from the inventory, but instead she ended up changing her clothing to the default character armor. "Wait...no, thats not right" Trying a second time produced an item from her storage, but not her desired washcloth. Instead a small bag of Col appeared and fell to the ground. "Urg...No" With increasingly frantic tapping of the command window, she proceeded to repeatedly withdraw and deposit items, change equiptment, and generally muck up her efforts. Exasperated, she gave up, now standing in a small pile of assorted junk, but thankfully back in her typical garb. "Stupid menu" she muttered, feeling equal parts embarrassed and frustrated.

[Kane 0]

Kane's face was a mask of incredulity as the young woman began what was essentially the act of dumping everything out of her pockets and onto the ground. She was a solid inch taller than he was, and the combination of her height, musculature, and good looks made her seem almost Amazonian.

Kane bent down to help her gather some of her things, picking them up and then opening his inventory to use the <> command to automatically put them back into hers. "Here you go," he said, smiling as the sun continued its steady climb in the digital sky. "It can get frustrating keeping track of which button goes where, especially when it's all motion connected."

[Rynn 0]

"Thanks" Rynn answered, glad to see here possessions, meager as they were, had been returned. Taking a second to calm herself and try another crack at it, Rynn managed to successfully withdraw a small, somewhat drab washcloth, which she used to dry off some of the sweat from her exercises. It still struck her as somewhat unnecessary, cleaning off virtual sweat, but since the game could simulate pretty much everything, she was almost certain that she'd start to smell bad if she didn't keep a regular hygiene schedule going. "So what was that you were saying before?" She asked "About having to kill monsters and stuff?"

[Kane 0]

Kane took his hood down, not needing it any more in the shade of the buildings. His forest-green eyes watched as she wiped the sweat from her brow. "Well," he said, stretching his own shoulder, the pauldron moving along with it, "You obviously take your training very seriously. But physical fitness actually doesn't mean that much here in Aincrad. Even the scrawniest, least athletic person, if they have the mental fortitude and reaction times, can use the system to accomplish some awesome feats."

Kane felt like an object lesson was appropriate. He stepped back five paces, looking at the lamp-post next to the one the girl had been training on. "For example, in the real world, a blade like mine wouldn't be practical..." He unsheathed his war sword, the mithral gleaming in strange, pale green waves across the blade. Tapping the lamp post with the edge, he was pleased to see it wasn't an <>. That meant it could be destroyed, and the system would rebuild it later. "And in the real world, no matter how strong I am, I'd never be able to do something like this."

Hefting the massive two-hander across his shoulder, its blade began to exude an orange light. Then... -CLING CLIING CLIIING-

The sword moved fast, too fast to be humanly possible without the Sword Skill system. The skill that Kane had used, the <>, dragged the blade into a supremely quick figure eight, then swept it across the post once more. By the time the blade had returned to the hook at Kane's back, the lamp post had fallen in almost slow motion, into three neat pieces.

"So you see," Kane concluded, "Fighting monsters and learning new in-game skills is the only way to get stronger here. I'm guessing you weren't really a big gamer before all of this?" It wasn't a bad thing; many of the residents of Starting City were non-gamers, here through bad luck.

[Rynn 0]

Rynn gave an impressed whistle as the lamp post was cleaved into pieces. "Wow, that's something alright!" She did her best to listen intently to the information, trying to absorb it so she could put it to use. It was certainly challenge though.

Being confronted about her lack of gaming skil, Rynn just shrugged "That obvious huh?" she wasn't ashamed of it or anything, its not she had anyway of knowing that one day her life would depend on her knowledge of how games work. "I think the most intense game I played before this one was Tetris."

[Kane 0]

Kane knew from her somewhat limited inventory that the woman in front of him wasn't very well equipped to go seeking out the strongest monsters in the game. "Well, like every game, Sword Art Online has rules. Rules that you can use to your advantage, and rules that can keep you from getting killed. But, where are my manners?" He stepped forward, extending a hand to her, and nodding his head to include the other player. "I'm Kane. Pleasure to meet you."

[Edwyn 0]

Edwyn watched as the girl dismounted from the lamp post and proceeded to dump an almost endless amount of her items onto the ground. She must be looking for something, but why is she taking everything out to find whatever she's looking for? he wondered. It didn't immediately occur to him that she might not be a gamer like the most of the people in SAO and this might be her first time using VR tech. It did take quite some getting used to. He watched the other guy help her a little bit and she was finally able to get all of her items back and withdraw the item she had been searching for, which seemed to be a washcloth. He guessed that made sense, she had been working pretty hard, at least from what he had seen. The boy then proceeded to explain the fundamentals of leveling up to her and Ed took his time to study them both. The boy was tall, but a good inch shorter than Ed, with brown hair and a slight beard. He wore a half-plate on his chest and a few other pieces of armor, but his most interesting piece of equipment was the massive sword that he wielded. It seemed a pale green and was near as tall as the man himself, a fearsome weapon to be sure, and Ed felt that his great-axe did not quite measure up. The girl was tall too, Ed's height, with black hair and she was probably the fittest girl he had ever seen. Though clad in basic clothes, she held herself in a confident way, even though she was apparently struggling with life in SAO. An interesting pair indeed.

[Rynn 0]

Accepting the handshake, She nodded and smiled "Nice to meet you. I'm Hibi...er...I mean, my name is Rynn" Add that to the growing list of things that Rynn had trouble adjusting to. Not using her real name.

While dealing with introductions between the other two gentleman, Rynn thought a moment about what to do now that she had a better grasp of what it took to level up in the game. "Suppose I should try and find a quest then...or maybe just go fight monsters" She thought aloud. Probably would have gone off to do so, except she had a follow up thought a split second later "Of course...I don't really have any weapons...or armor...Probably should fix that before picking a fight with some nasty goblin or whatever"

[Kane 0]

After introducing himself to Edwyn, Kane propsed some alternatives to Rynn. "You know, you don't have to be a front-line fighter. You could learn a profession, and help people by selling items, crafting armor or weapons, that sort of thing. Crafters play a vital role in the fight to clear the top floors."

[Rynn 0]

Rynn chuckled "Somehow I don't think cabbage farming is going to seriously contribute to anyone's chances of getting out of this game" She shook her head, adding "Not like I've got any experiance doing stuff like that anyway. Never had any kind of hands on job before, except a short stint as a custodian."

As she spoke, a thought popped into her head, causing Rynn to raise a very confused eyebrow "Hold it...didn't we just cover this?" She asked, perplexed "You said that the only way to improve your skills was to fight monsters." The contridiction didn't make any sense so far as Rynn could figure. Now, she was perfectly willing to acknowledge that she had probably just misunderstood what Kane had meant, but it none the less merited clarification.

[Kane 0]

Kane shook his head, now attempting to clarify his earlier statement. "Sorry, I was talking about your combat skills, leveling up by learning the techniques to keep yourself alive in the field. But there are a whole other set of profession-related skills and non-combat skills within the game. Look," he stated, opening his menu for her to see.

There was a list of various skills, including Sprint, Perform, Hide, Listen, and a multitude of other small skills that had various levels put into them. "I generally put the majority of my points into skills that I need as a melee fighter, but I try to keep up with the other ones as well, like Purchase Negotiation. Crafting items, using an instrument, or doing a quest that doesn't involve combat, all of these are ways to improve non-combat skills and level up. When you level up, you have more points that you're able to put into your skills. The more you use your skills and level them, the more health points you have, the better products you can create, and generally, the longer you'll survive."

[Rynn 0]

Despite getting a huge, heaping pile of information filled with more than one term that Rynn only half understood, she felt like the majority of what Kane was saying actually made some sense. "I think I get what your saying" She muttered, nodding along as he spoke. It was a tad embaressing, having to be walked through all these little details like she was a child learning how to safely cross the street. But Rynn did her best to put such thoughts out of her mind. She'd rather have to take a hundred lessons on Gameplay 101 than just play it by ear and get herself killed trying to figure out how to equip something.

"I'll keep that in mind then, though none of that really feels like its much my style." She said, stretching her arms a bit to keep them from cramping up "I've never been one to do well waiting for somebody else to solve problems. Rather be out there" She gestured with a nod towards the city walls "Fighting for a win, than stuck on the sidelines" There was almost a small fire in Rynns eyes as she spoke. No doubt about it, Rynn was the kind of person who seemed to feed off of adversity and challege, rather than running away from it like most. She laughed a second later, rubbing the back of her head "Guess I got some catching up to do though, huh?"

[Kane 0]

Kane grinned at her determination, and approved of her desire to learn and grow. "Hey, I know the feeling. Some of the players out there were beta testers, and they're in the low 20's already by the end of the first week. Me? I was sitting in a tavern having an existential crisis for the first day and a half. I know what it's like to have to play catch-up."Looking at her basic armor and starter's <> short sword, Kane knew where she should start.

"If you'd like, there's an NPC smith here in the city named Pepper. She's the one who made this sword for me. If you've got the Col, I'm sure you can get some upgraded gear from her if you trade in your old stuff. If you treat her nicely, she might even make you a custom weapon!"

<>

[Rynn 0]

<>

"Yeah, that actually sounds like a good plan. I don't think the swords really the weapon for me, so I could use an upgrade." She paused thinking what sort of weapon she could make use of. For a second, she didn't think their was anything she could make use of, but then it came to her and the answer was so obvious that she wanted to smack herself for letting a month go by without thinking of it. "Can she make spears?"