[PP-F3] Search for Sunken Iron Treasure

[Miaki 0]

It was a hot and humid afternoon on the third floor. So hot that it sent most players running to a floor with cooler temperatures. This just meant there would be less players around the floor. Miaki needed a break from the meetings and political chit chat of guilds. Today he would check out a lagoon in the search of sunken treasure. Could such a thing exist? Sure! Why wouldn't it? He needed some materials to give to an artisan in order to make some sweet items anyway. So Miaki found himself near an area called <>. An enclosed area that was a rough hike to get to and only used by those willing to go out of their way to find stuff there.

Breaking through some trees, the <> found himself on a small cliffside which overlooking the crystal clear deep blue waters of <>. There wasn't a breeze flowing through the area which made the water seem more inviting to escape the heat. Miaki was wearing his signature attire of someone out of an old noir film, that being his brown trench coat and fedora which covered his strawberry-blonde hair. Underneath his cloak was his katana which had been a prime weapon for battle so far. His silver winged falcon was around somewhere weaving between the trees perhaps or circling far overhead. Miaki knew <> would come out when he was needed.

Maiki began to make his way towards a shade place to determine where best he would start his dive. He then noticed the sunlight shimmer off the silver hair of someone in the direction he was circling towards. Someone else was here.

[HikariZX 0]

Standing out near the lagoon, Hikari's Silver hair flowed with the hot summer wind, her new black coat didn't help at all keep the heat away. The third floor was a place she'd never seen before, though she heard it was a tropical weather floor, she never expected something this hot. "Woo... I really should have made something cooler..." A full metal guard covering her right arm also attracted more heat, making this primary arm unbearable to work with outside. Hikari had heard about a dungeon hidden in this lagoon, supposedly containing some high-quality treasure, underwater. Though she was skeptical, she trusted the person who gave her this information and so sat by the water water waiting for him. Taking off her boots and rolling up the tips of her pants, Hikari dipped her feet into the water, considering also taking off her coat for the time being. Hearing the footsteps of someone approaching, Hikari turned her head towards the right, seeing a player in a detective outfit, strawberry-blonde hair peeking out from his hat. No doubt this was the one who told her about the treasure, the Brigadier General of the Azure Brigade, Miaki Murakami.

[Elyth 0]

The majestic nisepanda...

The gentle-beast of the Third Floor...

The one who beats up anyone who threatens it with cuteness and ferocity...

The one mob that is not really a mob...

The one mob that eats convenience store lunches...

I am currently a nisepanda.

HI I AM ELYTH

[HikariZX 0]

"Wah! W-what the hell?!" With a horrified look on her face, Hikari looked up at the animal she was just imprisoned by. Her sword far away due to her just wanting to rest for a while, she had no way to defend herself against this... yellow... four-legged and long necked beast. Was it a mob or something? A friendly animal maybe? Hikari had no idea what this... thing was doing caging her. Hikari noticed the beast was writing something on the sand with a stick, barely making out the letters as it was, presumably, not used to writing with its mouth. She barely made out what it said:

HI I AM ELYTH

This thing had a name, Elyth. Hikari was extremely confused as normally there were no named mobs beside bosses or mini-bosses. Quickly crawling away on her back, Hikari ran to her sword and immediately drew it, asking in a panic while pointing it at the beast: "W-what the hell are you?!"

[Miaki 0]

Miaki walked over and saw that it was the young Hikari. A player he only recently met. She was someone who stood out and looking to make a name for herself in Aincrad. The character of her own story. In Aincrad it seemed like every day was something interesting which begged the presence of the yellow creature before him. As he came closer a yellow creature resembling a giraffe came out of nowhere and entrapped Hikari on the beach. The movement of the creature told him it wasn't a mod but it wasn't your normal non-combatative mob. Miaki saw the words on the ground and read them.

HI I AM ELYTH

"Wait, wha.... WHAT!?" This creature was his friend Lady Elyth? He round about so she could see him. "Elyth? What happened?... What are you?" He said with confusion.

[HikariZX 0]

Seeing a brown-coat clad player coming over to check on things, her friend Miaki, Hikari saw how surprised he was to see the writing on the sand, though what shocked her most was what he said in return:

"Elyth? What happened?... What are you?"

"Wait, Miaki, you know this thing?!" The yellow beast stood there, looking at Miaki. Still bare-foot from before, Hikari lowered her sword and asked Miaki: "What do you mean, what is this beast?" Hikari was nervous but, if Miaki hadn't drawn his blade yet then surely this creature wasn't dangerous, right?

[Elyth 0]

...

Elyth waited for the two humans to say their "What are yous" before deciding to write again.

Then she decided that it was too much work because it was way too annoying and where were those babel fish when you needed them? Sighs permeated from Elyth's nisepanda mouth and she debated on how to explain this to these humans.

She said "I'm the friggin' shogun!" in nisepandanese, but that had nothing to do with the plot, and the nisepanda's role was to beat heroes up. Elyth wasn't really all that fond of beating up people, but... oh wait...

Gripping the stick again, Elyth sighed and wrote out:

THE SHOGUN

But ya know, I don't like being called 'thing', Elyth thought, eyeing the silver-hair human.

[Miaki 0]

The creature who was apparently Elyth wrote into the ground once again this time saying "the shogun". What was that suppose to mean? Did someone called the shogun do this? Was she the shogun". None of this was making any sense. To him. If only he could communicate with creatures. But he lacked the ability to do so. Seeing Hikari confused made introductions a little difficult but he tried anyway.

"Uhhh yeah, Hikari this is.... Elyth... Though what happened to her still confuses me. She is supposed to be... Uhhh human."

[HikariZX 0]

Looking at the writing, Hikari got even more confused. "The... Shogun...?" She uttered those words with her mouth wide open. Hearing Miaki speak to her made her even MORE confused. "W-wait... you're saying this thi--" Suddenly cut off by the so called "girl"'s glare, she rephrased what she was about to say. "So, you're saying this... yellow, fluffy, long-necked and cute animal is actually a girl...?" While she was extremely confused, Hikari could not help but find its appearance distinctively cute and... yellow... "Um... how exactly did this happen, uh... Elyth?" Hikari was now very obviously nervous, she thought shape-shifting impossible in SAO but then.... SHE came along.

[Elyth 0]

"So, you're saying this..."

What are you saying? I'm obviously cute as-

"...yellow, fluffy, long-necked and cute animal..."

Oh, finally, SOMEONE recognizes my adorableness.

"...is actually a girl...?"

...

Well, Elyth thought. I guess I don't look very human now...

I wanna go to sleep.

Elyth yawned. She picked up the stick again, and sluggishly spelled out:

DOES THIS LOOK EASY TO YOU

[Miaki 0]

Miaki stood there as Elyth in this strange form drew into the sand once again. He read the message and didn't even consider how hard it would be to write with your mouth. He had so many questions but he couldn't allow himself to overwhelm her. "I didn't think about that. Ummm stomp once with your right... hoof? If there is something we can do to help you." He thought of this simple 2- questions game might help with communicating. He could only imagine how Hikari was taking this odd situation.

[HikariZX 0]

Hikari could feel the clear murderous intent emanating from the now giraffe-looking girl, though she knew it was not a giraffe at all. "L-look... I'm.. Really sorry for calling you "thing" before.. I was panicked, you just suddenly trapped me, you know?" She saw Elyth spelling something out again.

DOES THIS LOOK EASY TO YOU

"Not at all, it looks extremely difficult to write with your mouth like you're doing right now..." She suddenly realized what Elyth meant with the word "THIS". "W-wait! I'm sorry, I guess I didn't think about your feelings beforehand... I can only imagine what it's like being turned into an animal, be it this or any other... I'm sorry!" Sheathing her sword, Hikari bowed to the girl solemnly, cheeks flush with embarassment.

[Elyth 0]

Elyth didn't really want to stomp her feet. It took up to much energy. See, if writing in the ground took up 10 energy, then stomping took up 5 energy, and that was a lot. Pained, Elyth struggled to wrap her mind around the events of the day, and could find no real solution to this whole ordeal other than everyone treating her like she was still a human Elyth.

And concerning what Silver (nicknames- you just got one) said about her feelings being hurt, Elyth really wasn't that hurt. Being a Nisepanda was actually pretty... expanding.

She was very tall now, and could also swim through the water. If she wanted to, normal mobs would be whimpering at her feet. Now all she had to do was to get outfitted with giant spikes on her feet and armor on every inch of her body, and she would be comparable to even Hannibal's war elephants! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

UEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEEHEHEHEHHEHEHEHEHHEEHEHEHHEHEHEHEHEHEe Elyth laughed in nisepandanese, and saw that Silver was bowing.

"Uh, no, that's not necessary..." Elyth said (in nisepandanese), and realized that Silver couldn't understand her. So instead, Elyth grabbed Silver by the back of her shirt and threw her onto Elyth's nisepanda back.

There. Now Silver could be transported with ease.

Miaki, too, had to be brought up to Elyth's back. So Elyth threw him up too.

There.

Elyth stamped her foot impatiently and hoped the two would tell her where they were going today, and whether or not they liked the view from there.

[HikariZX 0]

"Gwaaah!" Hikari whimpered as she was thrown on Elyth's back along with Miaki. "W-wait a minute, w-what are you doing?!" The shape-shifted girl was now strong enough to be a sort of pseudo-mount for both of them. Hikari shuddered at the thought of hearing her call her that. "Geez... you look really sleepy, are you sure you can carry us like this?" Hikari was already worried about her even though they never really had a conversation, she just felt... something... about her that made her seem friendly enough. Now on Elyth's back, Hikari could see her tiny ears flapping on the wind. "H-hey, wait a minute, I still haven't put my shoes on!" Hikari struggled to get off Elyth, though it was useless, she was way too tall to be able to land safely upon the ground. "Elyth, can you crouch a bit, I need to put my boots back on..." Hikari said this in a meek voice, still embarrassed as she was basically riding on a girl's back.

[Miaki 0]

Finding himself mounted on the giraffe-esc Elyth was something Miaki didn't anticipate but secretly wanted to do for reasons that he couldn't quite explain without coming off as odd. Simply put, you see a fancy mode of transportation and you suddenly want to ride it. He'd never say that out loud though. Not right now atleast. As Elyth seemed to be listening to Hikari's requests Miaki looked out into the water. He wondered how well ELyth would be able to swim in this state. "Uhh could you possibly take us out into the water? I wanna see if we can spot anything beneath the surface... It was an odd request but at the moment Elyth seemed to be accepting her current state.

[Elyth 0]

Elyth was, once again, conflicted. Should she let Silver get her shoes or should she take the three of them into the waters of this lake thing?

Hmm.

Okay, shoes first. But, as Elyth inscribed into the dirt:

HURRY SIL

She didn't bother to write the rest of Silver because she realized it was a waste of time. Elyth knelt and waited for Silver to hurry up and get her shoes. Miaki probably knew what Elyth intended, and now she had a destination, so YAY!

[HikariZX 0]

Now noticing Elyth had crouched down a bit, Hikari put her boots on quickly, hurriedly jumping on her back again while noticing what she had written on the ground.

HURRY SIL

"Eh...?" Hikari made a confused expression with a smile and asked: "Are, are you calling me Sil?" Eyebrow raised, eyes closed and smile still there, Hikari jumped back on Elyth anyway.

[Miaki 0]

With Hikari wearing her boots again Miaki pointed ooff towards the water in victorious mannor. "And now it's time for adventure! Forward unto dawn Elyth! There is treasure to be found!" He said with the excitement in his voice. An aura of thirst for adventure was animating off of him. The was treasure to be found and he could smell it practically. Miaki didn't get excited about things like this but today felt like a good day.

[Elyth 0]

"And now it's time for adventure! Forward unto dawn Elyth! There is treasure to be found!" Miaki cried.

It was certainly a strange thing to say, but Elyth knew that Miaki was just really excited and that they were going to raid some long-forgotten treasure or the like. And she wanted to correct Silver on her incomplete assumption, but oh well, the nickname really didn't matter all that much, and Elyth could correct her once she turned back into a human, though...

She hoped that would happen. It was certainly good to turn into a Nisepanda casually, but meeting the wrong people as a nisepanda would be bad. She nodded to herself, and headed into the water to look for this... Hold on. Didn't Miaki say something about going underwater? Elyth paused for a second, and then took up her stick again, writing:

WE'RE GOING UNDERWATER

HOLD YOUR BREATH

She was getting faster at writing as a Nisepanda. This message didn't take but a full thirty seconds, but she still had to wait for Miaki and Silver/Sil read the message.

[Miaki 0]

Elyth wrote once again into the sand this time to tell them to get ready for holding their breath. This was a natural thing to assume one would do but had to be said all the time anyway. Miaki nodded, "Alright. We will." He then wondered how well this giraffe looking, shogun, Elyth could hold her breath. Could she swim well enough? How do you manage that with four legs. Miaki was starting to wonder how exactly this would all go over. As they got close to the water he then thought about his clothes. He still had his coat on and everything. 'Uhhh oops.' Opening his menu he unequipped the coat and equipped a black swimsuit. His body shimmered and his clothing changed. 'That's more like it.' He thought as they reached the water.