[OP-F1] Open World Ruminations

[Lennoth 0]

Lennoth, clad in a cloth long coat of red and trimmed in wide bands of silver, the flecks of gold playing against the coat as when the wind tusseled his hair about, stood within the shadow a tree just at the edge of the forest.There he watched, though the more accurate verb would be studied, a particular group of players rallying against the mobs that roamed the open, windswept grasslands. They’re use of tactics was there, shakily, but it was slowly becoming more fluid as they used it. Two were shield users, switching out at regular intervals, keeping the attention of their quarry while the rest hack at it until it dispersed. It wasn’t the fight that he was interested in. It was how they were trying to limit their encounters. Levels were small for the majority of the population, the first liners and those that found themselves within a guild that moved and populated the floors in between the first and eighth being the exceptions, so mastering evasion and mob patterns were critical, Lennoth had surmised.

A solid understanding of the base creatures will make the tasks of understanding higher level enemies easier.. Lennoth had repeatedly rebuked himself for not allocating his skill points into passives but c’est la vie. For now he’d focus his attention on learning the mob patterns while making sure to keep his ears open for any approaching sounds. With luck, he hadn’t had to worry overmuch about a PK’r coming up around him so far, though already those rumors circulated around the Town of Beginnings. Carefully, he skirted around the mobs respawn points to avoid any unneeded fights. He allowed himself to entertain the stray recollections of recent times, distracting himself from the menial task of wandering safely through the spawning grounds.

Chaos was the most apt word he could use to describe the first couple weeks. Deaths, both self-inflicted or through other means, took to the player base like maggots to rotten meat. He was forced to admit to himself that his own delay (and now having to play catch up) was from his overwhelming desire to remain safe within the confines of the <>. Safety does not mean freedom. he heard those words that rekindled his desire and he would bless the person who spoke that in a passing conversation. His eyes flitted about, sweeping the area haphazardly, not for the roving monsters as he trusted himself implicitly with their spawning points and ranges, but for other players.

[Miaki 0]

Miaki was visiting the first floor for a change. This visit wasn't out of nostalgia or anything absurd like that. No, this visit was business mostly. He has visited the <> to check with a potential lead on he had on some recent suspicious player activity. The lead turned out to be no good and a dead end for him. But instead of wasting a teleportation crystal to return to the room at an inn he shared with his fiancé Nikki Styx on the fourth floor, he decided to walk across the plains to get back and use an actual teleportation gate.

The day was slightly overcast as the sun light poured onto random hills of the first floor. Miaki was wearing his light brown trench coat with a matching fedora that covered his strawberry-blonde hair. He wore black wire-frame glasses and adjusted them often out of habit. His katana, <> was tucked away underneath his trench coat and could be seen on occasion depending on his stride or how he carried himself. This was the young man who had come to be known as the <>.

He was crossing the fields noticing the occasional player running to and fro, likely on a quest, and sometimes a small group of players trying to get enough Col off mob drops to get by with food and rent. One player though caught his attention. The way the player carried himself was different. He was low level, that much was certain based on the fact he was distancing himself from different groupings of mobs. But he seemed calm and fully aware of the fact that he was low leveled and hadn't been able to do anything about it. This interested Miaki and caused him to change his direction and veer towards the unknown player.

[raab 0]

« Link . . . Start ! »

"I've never once stolen a thing in my entire life!"

"Get back here!"

"We don't take kindly to players like you 'round here!"

"Yeah, shack up with Hood if you're trying to play like that!"

The young player had got himself into quite the pickle. As Raab had come to better understand the world of «Sword Art Online», it was growing particularly clear that many of the players had adopted play-styles that lacked any sort of serious loyalty or trust. At least, that was the way it was on Floor 1. It was difficult to find your way into a party, especially having come into the game as a solo-player with no out-of-game friends to back you up. Raab sighed and shook his head, knowing that marked progress in the game was going to have to come sometime. He was just going to have to meet the right people.

Which brings us to the current situation, a young player sprinting away from another group of slightly higher-level players after accusations of thievery started getting tossed around. There were many rumors surrounding various groups, both criminal and vigilante, that had begun terrorizing the players of the first 10 floors. It was clear that these groups were simply looking to take advantage of low-level players, taking their consumable gear to help fuel their own adventures as the attempted to push through towards the top of the tower. It was sickening, at least to Raab, that people would take those kind of measures to ensure a better standing in the game.

And so, after being accused of stealing the party's last rations of bread and jelly, Raab was forced to retreat to the «Grasslands», a large enough expanse of Floor 1 territory that Raab hoped would facilitate a cunning escape from the enraged players he once called his party members. Raab had turned his head around, looking to see if the group was still chasing after him.

"Oh, sweet. Lost 'e-..."

Crash!

Not realizing the danger of sprinting at full-speed in a more densely populated area, Raab had haphazardly tumbled right into a young man with a mop of strawberry-blonde hair and a light brown trench coat. The crash sent both players to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust which left Raab hacking up a lung as he desperately attempted to get to his feet. As Raab regained his composure, he quickly rushed to the other player that he had so rudely pummeled with the entirety of his own body.

"Ah! Oh, shi-, uh...sorry, man!"

Raab couldn't help but allow an uncomfortable smirk creep across his face; it was all he could do to lighten the air after the unprecedented collision.

"Here...let me help you up."

[Lennoth 0]

The event that unfolded was nearly comical as he watched the scene play out. He’d seen the lower level one, assuming from the simplicity of his equipment and the fact that he was charging headlong recklessly down the road. Thankfully the scene gave him enough time to search out the one in the fedora’s profile. <>- the name was synonymous with the <>, an elite, front line guild with a penchant for being more the antithesis of the mavericks, with Miaki at the helm. He, himself, held a reputation beyond the leader of one of the top guilds. He was one of the few to unlock the <> a skill Lennoth had plans of gathering up when he could. Which will be a good way off. He paused, after moving closer to the road, but maintained a large enough distance and waited. Miaki’s path was clearly readjusted to intercept Lennoth, and he would not be so churlish to ignore such an individual without cause.

The other, after a similar search, <> was not someone whom he had heard of but given the spectacle that was unfolding before him and the fact that his indicator was green meant he wasn’t a threat, but that didn’t mean that Lennoth could rest at ease. Information was a fickle thing. Just as it was easy to gather, it was equally easy to manipulate. Still though, he wouldn’t deny the humor as he watched the runner stumble through his apologies and offer a hand to pull Miaki up. He did throw a look back the way this Raab person came from to see if whatever it was he was running from was still after him.

With nothing in sight, Lennoth returned his eyes back towards the other two men and studied patiently.

[Kana Misouko 0]

Kana wasn't paying attention to her surroundings as usual, she was too busy preparing to enjoy her first bite of a game-made sandwich. This was so exciting, ever she she had arrived here, it was always just plain bread. She rarely got her hands on anything different, and she wasn't an amazing cook either. So luxurious food was hard to come by, but here she was about to eat some. She was so happy.

Some higher level player had heard her talking about how boring the bread was, and he had offered it to her. Saying he had plenty more, She had tried to refuse, but in the end she had taken it gratefully. It was surprisingly how nice people still were after everything that had happened, most of the time she expected to be attacked for her items or something. But no, there were still good people in this game.

It was because of Kana's attention being focused mainly on her sandwich, she only barely saw the guy running at her in time, she jumped out of his way. Which would have been fine, people were always running about like mad men in this game. Except for the fact that she had lost hold of her sandwich...

"Nooooo!" She shrieked, trying desperately to catch it, only to have it slipped through her fingers and hit the floor. Then it shattered. She fell to her knees, staring at the now empty space, she reached out only to touch the floor. "No way..." she whispered disappointedly.

Then a new emotion took over, her face turn into a snarl, her fist clenched and she began to shake. She turn to look at the perpetrator, who had now knocked over someone else. She stood up slowly, striding towards him, "Yo! Moron, you and your trigger happy feet just cost me my sandwich!" She growled angrily, and she stomped to his side she placed her hands on hips defensively staring at the guy with an expression that would usually make her brother leave the house.

[Argumail 0]

Argumail trudged into town almost died. "I'm so hungry!!" He muttered.

He thought he saw Terrence laughing at his misery. "I'm Kita No Ryu..." he was interrupted by his stomach," I know I know Mr. Tummy but where am I going to get food for free."

He looked over his shoulder and saw a sandwich, nothing really special mind you but a sandwich nonetheless, in the hands of a beautiful woman. He walked towards the woman and almost trapped on his own shoes ," Nobody saw that!right.... good!" He thought. He stopped when he saw a man running and then he look at the woman with the amazing sandwich.

" Everyone is always in a hurry." Argumail sneered as he watched like it was slow motion as the beautiful sandwich hit the ground then, broke into a million pieces.

He saw that out coming minutes ago but, he was sure if he could have made a difference if he had told the woman this. He walk towards her and said," Unfortunate, I wish could have done something to prevent that from happening the sandwich you had was beautiful." He touched the ground where the sandwich ground and felt nothing just emptiness of space around his hand. He wished he could buy her another but, he was just a broke mentally unstable man. " Are you ok?"

[Kana Misouko 0]

Kana glanced over as she was joined by another man, for some reason the guy was apologising for not being able to help her, she smiled her his kindness her anger lessening slightly. "Honestly, it's fine it's not your fault, it this idiots fault for running around like a mad man." She aimed the last of her sentence at the fool who had knock her sandwich out of her hand. Filling her words with as much heat as she felt. She had really been looking forward to that sandwich, and not that it had been taken away from her, the highlight of her day had been ruined. She would just have to work on her cooking until she could finally make a new one, although that wasn't easy, she was a little hopeless at it.

"But I'm Okay, thank you for asking,just annoyed." she replied! looking at the man before her. He was a few inches taller than her, and a few years older too. He seemed like a nice guy, she was glad that someone had showed concern for her, and also appreciate how heartbreaking it was to lose a sandwich when all you ever seemed to eat was bread and water. She glanced over at the idiot, wondering if she was going to get an apology from him, Geez, where are people damn manners these days! Just because they were in a game didn't mean they couldn't be polity. It was still a SOCIAL network after all.

[Argumail 0]

Argumail smiled at her, he could tell she was furious. Perhaps he should take his leave and go hunt for a bambi or maybe cut up Pumbaa. But he interested in how the event might turn out. He wondered how furious she really was.

She had to be at least his age, maybe a little younger. He looked at her up and down suddenly she was so short .She was nearly his height, which kind of freaked him out. He wasn't check out but he blushed because it appeared that way." What's your name?"

" If your trying to get an apology out them your probably have to asks them up front.", he laughed," Listen I'm going to hunt for some meat, if you like you can partake in the meal."

[Kana Misouko 0]

She grinned at the friendly guy, she could feel her temper fading, Just as she had a short fuse, the anger never lasted too long either. She felt it fading, she turned her back on the rude guy, swinging her hair in such a ways he hoped it would hit him a little. It didn't, but the gesture remained the same. She place one hand on her hip and held the other out in front of her, in the form of a handshake. "I'm Kana, what's yours? She asked, intrigued by how nicely this guy was responding to her, it was somewhat refreshing. She almost didn't care about her sandwich anymore... Almost.

She glanced back at the loser, who still didn't seemed to acknowledge her, she sighed before looking back at the gentleman before her. Listening to his suggestion, she shook her head. "Somehow I doubt I would get one even if a did." She told him, she shook her head. "Sounds good, shall we party it up?" she asked! she wondered if she should message Kiluia and invite him on their little meat hunting trip. She decided against it, he could be busy with the kids or the guild, she didn't want to disturb him. If he was free, he normally tended to just turn up anyway.

[Argumail 0]

" My name is Argumail.", he said with a gentle smile while he shook her hand. As he shook he thought," How in god's name is her hand so soft in virtual reality?"

He was trying to maintain his gentlemanly persona. He was starving but, he continuing his friendliness and hoped his stomach wouldn't start eat itself. He looked at her and said," If you like I could accompany you, or would you like from me to split from you...."

Then he realized that she was waiting on a response from him. He thought about it as tactically as possible and then said," Well, at our current state.... Well at least mine.... I need someone to take a hospital if i start to die of starvation."

He laughed a little to give the impression of it being a joke but he was serious. " I think that Culmon Mountain Range are not too far away." He said," Would you like to go there or somewhere else?"