[F1-SP] Earning a Living (Tailor)

[Hawthorne 0]

"Finally getting my blood pumping again! Life isn't worth living if you can't find some thrills!" Hawthorne surrendered to his bloodlust and enjoyed the slicing and slashing, the cutting and striking, dancing a glistening tango with this monster. The Hornet struck multiple times, stinging him a little at a time in four different places, but that only made Hawthorne want to strike back faster and harder. He NEEDED to kill this thing, not for the mats, not for the quest, because he needed to feel ALIVE again. "I won't be beaten by anyone, anything- I'm going to CLEAVE THIS WORLD IN TWO, DO YOU HEAR ME?!" He screamed, the manic glee in his voice rising and his strikes becoming more and more frantic. "Death comes for us all, but you're going first- EVERY ONE OF YOU LITTLE MONSTERS IS GOING FIRST!" He hissed, striking like a mountain lion before stepping back and away. "Give me your corpse!" He shouted, lunging back in at his prey.

(ID# 190171- BD 6 HIT, MD 3 miss, 2 damage to Hornet, none to Hawthorne)

Hawthorne 11/20
Hornet 6/20

[Hawthorne 0]

Hawthorne wasn't sure if the AI could feel fear, but he was gonna try and make it. "DIE! BLEED! Weakling little bug! I'll slash you in half!" He roared as he struck with frenzied vigor, slashing and slicing at the bug, not letting it get a moment to counterstrike. "I'll not die in this world, I'll live all the way to the end, and I'll live a good chunk of that way wearing armor made out of YOU, you little piece of pixelated prey!" He whirled like a demon, striking with reckless abandon, trying to end this little beast as quickly as possible. Hawthorne had a moment of clarity as he finished a series of strikes, and the hornet had a moment to attack him as he had no more momentum to turn into another strike, forcing him to parry. Suddenly the world seemed suspended in crystal- a beautiful sculpture of fragile life. He wondered, seeing his HP bar dipping dangerously close to the yellow zone, if he was just trying to reassure himself, if this bug might not actually be able to end him. Then, as everything began to move again, he thought, "Only one way to find out." 

(ID# 190172- BD 2 miss, MD 7 HIT, none to Hornet, 3 damage to Hawthorne)

Hawthorne 8/20
Hornet 6/20

[Hawthorne 0]

"I need to stop second guessing myself!" Hawthorne growled at himself, bracing in a strong stance again, then driving with his back heel to lunge forwards and launch another vicious assault. The bug buzzed back and away to avoid his onslaught, and an idea occurred to Hawthorne. It was going off of patterns to determine when to strike, just like he was, so if he gave it a pattern to exploit, but was really waiting to capitalize on the bug's strike, he could land a solid strike. He whirled and slashed, striking rhythmically, but in a slowing rhythm, giving the bug at first a tiny window, then just a little bigger, and bigger, and bigger than that to try to slip a strike in. "Come on," he thought, willing the bug to open itself up and risk getting sliced. On one rotation, the bug reared up to strike, and Hawthorne knew his chance had arrived and that it was time to kill this beast.

(ID# 190175- BD 1 miss, MD 8 hit, none to Hornet, 3 damage to Hawthorne)

Hawthorne 5/20
Hornet 6/10

[Hawthorne 0]

"You're ANNOYING!" Hawthorne groaned, pulling a potion out and drinking the whole thing down as the hornet backed away, expecting another frenzied set of strikes, but instead giving Hawthorne the breathing room he needed to chug a quick healing potion and go back up to full HP. "But you won't be winning this fight, bug." The bottle shattered to glimmering green and blue as it broke on the ground, Hawthorne hefted his sword with renewed vigor, and readied himself to kill his prey. "BZZZ!" the bug replied, swooping back towards Hawthorne again to attack once more. Poor thing didn't know there was no real chance of beating its opponent. Just another dead target. "Come on then, flyboy- let's dance." Hawthorne smirked, throwing feints and probing its defenses, trying to figure out the best way to strike against this thing. Pure force didn't work so well, so he started to get methodical about slaying his foe again.

(ID# 190176- MD 3 miss, no damage to Hawthorne, Hawthorne regains 50 HP from potion, goes to 20)

Hawthorne 20/20
Hornet 6/10

[Hawthorne 0]

"You seem to be going off the same pattern irrespective of whether or not I do...anything." Hawthorne observed tightly. "I've been wasting my efforts, you're just a simple AI that strikes when it feels it's time to, not a responsive enemy. I'll end you shortly, now that I know you operate like any other foe in any other video game." He snarked, disappointed that combat was so simplistic. On the plus side, at least the chances of him getting out of this game alive just became far, far better. "BZZZZ!" the hornet replied, striking at him but ultimately being parried away and backing off as he counterstruck. "You've got nothing, I just need one good hit and you're dead." Hawthorne said, more to himself than to the hornet. He needed to just line up ONE good shot, not make a million worse shots all strung together. Just one good slash would get the job done.

(ID# 190177- BD 1 miss, MD 9 minor crit for 4 damage)

Hawthorne 16/20
Hornet 6/10

[Hawthorne 0]

"You little bastard!" Hawthorne barked, pulling away too late as the hornet slipped away after its strike. Hawthorne could swear it was chortling at him. He looked at angle he could approach from, he strode forward, looking for an opening, looking for it to linger in one spot too long, something, anything. This bug was REALLY pissing him off, and he needed this fight to END already. This'd taught him to string together fights one after the other at such a low level. He needed to hold onto as many potions as he could, and he'd just spent one of his three. He'd have to be more careful in the future, if he wanted to ACTUALLY leave this stupid torture chamber. Things could be worse, though. He could have no targets.  "Try this on for size, you worthless piece of filth!" he shouted, slashing at his prey, trying to make an opening by forcing it to respond to his attack. He converted the feint into a heavy handed overhead strike, hoping it would find its mark.

(ID# 190178- BD 6 hit, MD 1 miss, 2 damage to Hornet, none to Hawthorne)

Hawthorne 16/20
Hornet 4/10

[Hawthorne 0]

"Much better." He thought to himself, "Just a couple more of those, and it'll be dead. I REALLY do rely heavily on that bleed ability at this low level." Hawthorne mused silently, moving like a shadow sticking to the hornet. Not wanting it to get a chance to back away and come back at its leisure, Hawthorne had backed it up out of a thickly forested area and up to a ridge. It would need to stop retreating soon, or it'd go over a cliff. Hawthorne hoped it was smart enough to realize it should go forward, as he WANTED to get it in close where he could land a lethal blow against his foe. It was hard to tell though. A real-world bug wouldn't be very smart, so the AI one was unlikely to be either. He needed to be the one to kill it or he'd get no loot, so he couldn't push this experiment too hard. Just needed to land another strike or two and he'd be home free...

(ID# 190179- BD 8 hit, MD 3 miss, 2 damage to Hornet, none to Hawthorne)

Hawthorne 16/20
Hornet 2/10

[Hawthorne 0]

"You can't do anything at this point, Hornet. Come on and take a stab, you only have one chance to do ANYTHING before I kill you, just come at me." Hawthorne caught himself monologuing, and mentally slapped his wrist for trying to talk with an AI, but then again, it was good practice for fighting human opponents. He probably wouldn't be doing any of that til he was out of this game again, but you gotta keep sharp or you'll get dull. The hornet buzzed close again, engaging and giving Hawthorne an opprtunity to strike at it, but Hawthorne had to open himself up to kill it. He took the risk and aimed his blade at the bug's midsection, preparing to split it cleanly in half. All he had to do was land ONE MORE HIT and he'd be done with this tiresome fight. He just needed it to drop a couple materials too and he'd be ready to go back and make his armor. He crossed his fingers behind his back for luck.

(ID# 190180- BD 10 Critical Hit, MD 8 hit, 4 damage to hornet, 3 to Hawthorne)

Hawthorne 13/20
Hornet 0/10

(ID# 190181- LD 9, CD 10, 50 Col and 2 T1 materials)

[Hawthorne 0]

A long walk later, Hawthorne strode into the shop again to the sound of a jingling bell and, "Welcome, step right in-" and he tuned the rest out as he sat down again, trying to figure out if he did something wrong or if the system just had given him bad RNGs the last two times. Seemed, based on the work those around him were doing, it was all up to the system to decide what happened, as nobody seemed to be using any PARTICULAR real-world technique. That was both liberating and frustrating, because it meant he didn't have any real control over whether this went well...but that's just how things are sometimes. "I'm gonna have this armor- I'm GONNA get this armor!" he whispered to himself, fierce and sure he would get those done eventually.

(ID# 190182- CD 3, fail)

It shattered into glitter again. Yeah, emphasis on, "eventually" he was pretty ready to just give up on this stupid quest. What a load of garbage it was, trying to get this stupid objective completed.