[PP-F1] Back to the Old Grind (Azide and Brayden)

[Azide 0]

Azide sat atop a rather large boulder, swinging his legs slowly back and forth and grinding the edge of his rapier against the gritty surface methodically. After a few minutes, he held it in front of him and scanned the weapon for any signs of change. Still shiny and perfect as always. Carefully, he pressed the back of his hand gently against the surface, drawing it back after finding the metal to be disappointingly cold. "Well, looks like I can't just sharpen my way to the hundredth floor." He swung the thin blade around from side to side, imagining himself to be wielding an actual slashing weapon instead of the flimsy piece of iron he was holding at the moment. He let his arm (and the flimsy piece of iron it was holding) fall back against the rock and sighed, then sheathed it before jumping off. "Might as well try to deal more damage the normal way," he thought. He walked off in search of creatures to grind his blade against instead. His rapier might not be the best weapon for that sort of thing, but he'd find a way to make it work.

[Brayden 0]

Far away from Azide Brayden was fighting a goblin minion with a huge heavy sword. Brayden's dagger went quickly through the beast to end the battle as Brayden began to roam around and scavenge for "Stronger Boar's" or more "goblin minions" or "forest wolves" Which were all much stronger than the average boar or average wolf.

 

As Brayden walked in the field Brayden began to think of Pyro, who he was now(he assumed) engaged too. Brayden hoped they would have the wedding on floor 2's HIgh Fields of crossing. It felt weird, How Brayden and Pyro were often out elsewhere at times. It felt awkward to him. Everything did. Everything was strange in this weird world, the world where Boar's could take out humans in a matter of seconds, where goblin warlords roamed with swords and with Giant dragons. The game where you could find your dreams, no matter what your passion was. Brayden was planning on going vegan when he went off to college, but in this game the beasts were not real. they did not have feelings.

 

In the far distance, Brayden noticed a player- A male player- sitting on a rock, with a rapier and watched him sigh. Brayden quickly ran up to the player and asked, "who might you be?"And he did it with the best possible smile Brayden could manage, except before when Brayden first met Pyro.

[Azide 0]

Azide turned around and found himself approached by another player- a younger boy with green eyes and a bright red jacket. Though he approved of the green eyes, he thought the red to be too flashy of a color. "Well the name's Azide, but I think common courtesy would call for you to introduce yourself first," he remarked. He noticed the boy's wide grin, which almost seemed genuine enough to make him smile back. Almost, but not quite. He pointed vaguely at the boy's jacket. "So isn't it a little conspicuous to be wearing something so noticeable in a game where everything wants to kill us?" He chuckled to himself then walked over to the player and gently patted his shoulder. "There there, just playing around kid. But I don't suppose you want to party up? Might make lighten up the boredom a bit, unless you're boring of course." Azide pulled up a menu and tapped around a few times until he found the party feature. Soon enough, a party request appeared in front of the younger player. "No orange name at least. Can't be entirely sure he won't just kill me, but beggars can't be choosers." He remembered reading something about that in the help menu at some point, although it probably wouldn't hurt to ask someone more about all of this. He was learning, but the process was slow work by himself. "So, what do you say? Let's make this work for both of us."

[Brayden 0]

Brayden realized ho impolite he was. "Sorry!" Brayden saw the party request appear in front of him. Brayden was about to select the button when he asked the other player, 'Azide is it? Well wha level are you? I'm Brayden level 6 by the way." Brayden showed Azide his dagger and the clicked the blue accept button(circle). "Hey what level are you??? Its okay if you dont tell me. By the way you can call me Brayden, or my real name which is Rhonnaldio. It's not the best name in the world wouldnt you agree?" While waiting for an answer Brayden went back into a trance thinking about Pyro once more and Destiny his half sister and Draterion his twin. Who were all in this game. Brayden was far lesser a level than Draterion. But he was an okay distance than Diana/Destiny. Brayden sighed and turned around to see many stronger boars roaming in the area that surrounded the two of them. Not to far in the left you could slightly see the Town of Beginnings.

[Azide 0]

"Whoa, settle down there son," said Azide as he watched Brayden appear in his party list. He shrugged. "Would you believe me if I told you I was level 42 and just preferred the look and feel of cloth clothing?" Thinking he could sense some skepticism emanating from the other player, he raised his hands in front of him and looked away as if he'd been caught in the act. "Fine fine, I'm currently a first level, but I'll have you know I'm at least somewhat capable!" A new number now appeared next to Brayden's name in the party list, along with what Azide assumed was his health bar. "Level six, huh? That should work out just fine," he thought. "Not so high that I'd slow him down, or..." he paused. "if it comes to it, not too high for me to defend myself if he proves to be hostile.". He looked around seeing plenty of roaming boar in the area and took a few steps, then turned to glance back at Brayden. "Well?" he asked. "What are you waiting for Brayden? Let's get to work." Without waiting for the other player's reply he turned and set his sights on one of the stronger boar he'd seen in these parts. "Oh I agree, by the way. Rhonnaldio isn't the best name in the world, so I'll just have to stick with Brayden." He turned his face to show the boy he was only (mostly) teasing, then gestured for them to get a move on. Locking his eyes, he drew his rapier and made a mad dash towards it.

[Brayden 0]

Watching Azide madly dash towards the boar, Brayden sighed. Why did everyone seem to be like that towards Brayden, even though he was not much younger than the mass majority of the people Brayden had met in general. Brayden began to get lost in thought but then remembered that they were in battle. Sometimes Brayden just dozed off like that oddly. It wasn't that odd in general but Brayden thought of it as strange. 

 

Brayden appeared in front of the boar moments later with Azide, quickly attempting to activate his charge skill as Brayden scurried up at the boar, with his dagger shooting forward as if the shining neon green dagger had a mind of itself.

 

ID:6932

BD:6(+1  = 7) Hit

MD:6(Hit)

 

HATE:

Brayden:1

Azide:0

 

Brayden's dagger ran through the boar and Brayden called over to Azide to "Switch!"

 

Brayden-14/15

Azide-5/5

 

Boar-4/7

 

 

(I will control the boar dont worry about rolling the MD, alright?)

[Azide 0]

Azide watched as Brayden charged boldly at the boar with nothing but a tiny dagger, then found himself nodding in approval after seeing the attack actually turn out well. "Hmm, who knew daggers made good assault weapons? Ah well, what do I care." His rapier in hand, Azide ran forth and flanked the wild boar, turning sharply to deliver a well-placed blow in its side. He watched as the creature flailed about momentarily. "I wonder if he knows he's at the end of his rope?" As both a boar and a virtual one at that, he decided the answer was probably no. Still, an animal without knowledge of death was arguably more deadly than one which knew itself to be mortal. He looked to Brayden. "Let's wrap this up, shall we?"
 
ID: 6940
BD: 9 (Crit +1)
Damage = 1 (Rapier) + 1 (Crit) = 2 

 

Brayden-14/15

Azide-5/5

 

Boar- 2/7

[Brayden 0]

Brayden witnessed as the blade, of some sort of rapier, pierced the boar. Brayden saw the boar begin to get angry and then turned it's attention towards Azide, and Brayden knew he had to do something to stop it from attacking the player. As the boar charged forward, Brayden kicked the pathetic thing out of the way dealing no damage but preventing damage temporarily dealt to Azide, and then turned his attention on hitting the booar with his dagger as Brayden whipped it out at the boar with a flick of the wrist and the blade being a deep neon reddish color as Brayden did it.

 

ID:6948

BD:2+1=3(Miss)

MD:3

 

The boar surprisingly dove out of the way before Brayden could do it and Brayden called out "Switch!" to Azide.

 

Hate:

Brayden-1

Azide-2

 

Brayden-14/15

Azide-5/5

 

Boar-2/7

[Azide 0]

The wild boar charged wildly at Azide, which when combined with his rather large size, reminded him of the sight of an oncoming train. Luckily enough, Brayden had managed to derail it with a kick before it could reach him. He watched as the creature went flying back, then tumbled across the ground, giving Brayden an obligatory thumbs-up. "That was pretty good work buddy," he began as he took a few steps toward the toppled boar. "But I'll do you one better." Azide rocketed forward with blinding pace, bringing back memories of the track team, then leapt high in the air before bringing his blade crashing back down cleanly through the overturned creature's heart. Flawless. "Sure, this is the first time that particular maneuver's worked, but what he doesn't know won't hurt him," thought Azide as he remembered all those hours of rehearsed practicing his sword skills. It squealed shrilly before bursting into a scatter of crystals, then faded away leaving behind nothing but its hide (which he stowed away just in case). "Come on now, can't even spare a single col?" He shook his head. "Impoverished swine." He looked up out of the corner of his vision to see that both his level and health had increased. "Oh hell yes!" He looked over to Brayden. "So guess who just turned level three?" remarked Azide offhandedly. "If you guessed me you'd be totally right, by the way," he added. "So, what's next?" He put away his rapier, looking around at all of their potential targets.

 

ID: 6940
LD: 4 (Nothing found, except for guaranteed mat)

BD: 10 (Crit +2)
Damage = 1 (Rapier) + 2 (Crit) = 3

 

Brayden-14/15

Azide-9/9

 

Boar-0/7 (-3)

*1 material acquired.

[Brayden 0]

"Well, the main dungeon here would be nice, there's kobald's not much stronger than that boar but then there's much stronger one's, we could just stay here, or there's this one underground dungeon I've been hearing about.... Not many have ventured into it, none very far. It is said to be growing. Isn't that crazy???? There is said to be currently 9 levels in the dungeon, and nobody has gone further than level 3 I here."

 

Brayden begins to twittile his fingers.

 

"Or we could just do something else of course."

 

(OOC: I had a long post that had a bunch of lines but then it was deleted, sorry!)

[Azide 0]

(Haha, no problem at all Brayden! Bad luck though!)

Azide's ears perked, and he turned to Brayden. That very same curiousity which had once served him well in his scientific pursuits now seemed to flash across his eyes once again. "If what he says about the dungeon is true, there are still things left to be explored there." He stroked his chin a slowly a number times and nodded to himself. Whether it was just the allure of knowledge that drew him in, or the rush of adreneline that flowed through his veins with these brushes with death, he wasn't entirely sure. "Well, that settles it," he decided. "I'm getting tired of walking around fighting boar all day. They really are a bore you know." He shot a quick glance at his health bar in the corner of his vision. "Nine health and no supplies. Better than what I started with, yes, but something I'll have to watch out for in any case." He made a few taps through the SAO user interface and after a moment, a bottle appeared in his dominant hand. He unscrewed the cap and eyed it cautiously, before taking a long swig. "Well what do you know? Waters really do come in bottles after all," he reflected. "That still leaves the question of whether all of my water comes from this one bottle, or if I'd spawn another one, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there. Realizing the other player was probably waiting for him to continue, he snapped out of his little daze and looked back up. "Sorry about that," said Azide as he wiped once at his lips with his sleeve. "To the dungeon it is."

[Brayden 0]

Brayden laughed when Azide had said the boars really were a bore, kinda like slimes in other massively multiplayer online games. Brayden had yet to see one in Sword Art Online and the boar's were the most sime-like creatures in this highly strange MMORPG. To tell you the truth Brayden had never been the gamer type of person, never really gamed much, only came in here to escape reality and to find Draterion and Destiny, in which Brayden had done, and also had to whack into their brains that they were his siblings.

 

Brayden thought for a moment and remembered where it was, wasn't actually far from where they were. "The dungeon is about a quarter mile of Town of Beginnings, and on the south side. Are you prepared to go?" Brayden pulls out part of a loaf of brad and some water too, gulping down the water and slowly eating the bread. "so off to the dungeon then?"

[Azide 0]

Azide downed the rest of the bottle's contents, then watched as it shattered into an assortment of glowing crystal shards before fading from his hands. "Well, I think it's safe to assume all those waters I have won't be coming from one bottle." He shifted his attention back to the other player and nodded. "Ready when you are, Brayden." He scratched his head and looked at the ground for a moment, then cleared his throat. "Actually, I have no idea where we are right now, so you should probably lead the way," suggested Azide. "I have a feeling today's gonna be a long day, and me playing the role of navigator probably wouldn't help." 

He'd never been particularly good with directions, and something about going from point A to B somehow always ended up taking him to C, G, K and sometimes even Q. He thought himself to be just as smart as the next guy (likely smarter even, assuming the guy was within a few standard deviations of the norm), so it baffled him just how poorly his grasp in this one area happened to be. "If I survive all of this, I should really start carrying around a compass of some sort."

Looking back up, he gestured towards the general direction of where he thought their destination to be (although he was most likely completely off base, judging from his record with that sort of thing). "Well? After you."

[Brayden 0]

Luckily, they weren't too far from the town of beginnings, only on the border of the North side actually. So all they would need to do is to go straight through the town of beginning, which would heal Brayden of the little bit of health he had lost while fighting the boar moments ago. Where Azide and him had met. So Brayden leads Azide, with a quick, "Let's be on our way!"

 

In real life, Brayden had never really been the shy kinda person. But in Sword Art Online, it just seemed to happen he just became shy. While walking, Brayden was also thinking of Pyro, and what would happen of either himself or Pyro died, and then Brayden began to think what would happen if Pyro had died. Brayden would go mentally insane if that happened, but Brayden was sure it wouldn't happen. 

 

When they were halfway through town, Brayden turned to ask Azide a question. "What do you think of this? I mean, the game? the deaths? the world? the morale in this place? What are your thoughts on that?"

[Azide 0]

Leaving immediately, the pair had been able to make good time on their trip, managing to reach the Town of Beginnings without much trouble. Up until that point, their journey had been rather uneventful, and between the two of them few words had been exchanged. Azide glanced over discreetly every so often, noticing the far off look in his eyes. Brayden was probably lost in his thoughts, he reasoned. " A child, albeit a relatively capable one, is still a child nonetheless. Here's hoping he's not already burdened with too many thoughts." As a future chemist, he was quite familiar with the power of thought and what it could accomplish. That is to say, it could accomplish nearly anything, with enough minds search for an answer. And yet, he knew all too well their potential to overwhelm. He had his own moments, after all.

Keeping this in mind, he was almost surprised to hear the boy toss a question his way. He glanced around quietly for a moment, judging them to be roughly around the town's midpoint. It'd been awhile since they'd last spoken, relatively speaking.

Azide replied without missing a beat. He'd thought over all of this before many times, of course. There was no true research or interning here to be done, no real research to be performed. Stuff to be seen and observed, yes, but there was no comparing it the nitty gritty realness of the real world which had captivated him at birth. "It's all just artificial, lacking the finesse and finer details of the world it was based on. Almost as if it were a masterpiece that'd been translated one too many times, and lost a layer of its complexity," he'd reflected. "So why does it excite me?" It was thoughts like these that filled his mind when all was said and done.

"This world is dying, Brayden," he replied. "To untrained eye, it's a place of beauty and wonder- lush with life and a worthy recipient of our awe. And yet, it dies." He stopped, and gestured around them. This was the very same spot Kayaba Akihiko had made his fateful announcement many moons before. "Ten thousand stood here before," said Azide. He let his eyes close for a moment, then opened them again. "Ten thousand lives. Nothing more than that will ever exist in a place such as this, where nothing is born." He turned to look the boy in the eye. "Every day that passes, this world grows weaker. It dies, Brayden. It dies, because we die." He set his hand on the boys shoulder. "And when the last of us dies, nothing else will remain." Suddenly, he raised a finger and poked at the boy's armor, as if striking at his heart. "So don't die, Brayden."

Azide laughed, then tapped lightly on his watch. "Come on, we've still plenty to do."

[Brayden 0]

"Umm......Okay!"

 

Brayden continued to walk through the beautiful town and began to think about what Azide had just said to him. It was an interesting thing to hear about, but at the same time rather boring, Blah Blah Blah, why did it matter if they died here? They were gonna die anyways, and atleast here you couldn't feel pain. 

 

Brayden continued to slowly walk through the town, without another word to his friend, just thinking about Pyro, his friends, and death. The worst thing that people seemed to care about-death. I don't know, maybe Brayden thought he should begin to care about death in this game, but that didn't seem to be so important to Brayden. Brayden looked up to see the cave with the stairs leading down into the dungeon not too far away. "come on, let's go!" Brayden rushed towards the cave-ish dungeon.

[Azide 0]

Brayden gave little indication of paying much attention to his little ramble, but Azide figured that would be case. "I've thought about all of this stuff before, but it's good to hear it out loud as well. It's more tangible, in a way. Besides, the kid might be capable in this game, but he's still a kid." A kid like Brayden shouldn't have to think too hard about things such as death, he reasoned. "But at the same time, it's important he doesn't take it too lightly either."

A while passed before any more words were exchanged, and by then they'd long since made their way out of town. As they traveled through the woods, Azide had even managed to gain another level after the pair cut down a herd of boar that'd been blocking their way, and by now they were nearly there. He glanced at a lone cave in the distance as Brayden pointed it out excitedly, following the younger boy as they ran towards the opening. He drew his sword and glanced at Brayden, nodded, and the pair descended down the stairs and into the dark dungeon below.

For a while, he could see nothing but black. "Brayden, I think our eyes are still going to take a few minutes before they're fully adjusted. So in the meantime, keep your ears on the lookout," he warned. Azide slowly made his way forward, keeping one hand in contact with the cave wall at all times. He was suspicious of a faint hissing sound from up ahead, but didn't think it was quite necessary to cause any alarm. "A false alarm would be quite the pain in a dark place like this. The possible separation that it'd threaten could end up being worse than any creature we might encounter on the first floor."

Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a shadow dart across the ground, seeing it pop up again moments later. Azide drew his rapier discretely, so as not to draw the attention of either Brayden or the probable monster. He stopped and closed his eyes, trying to track the figure's movements, but found only the gentle patter of his friend's footsteps. Finally, heard the distinct march of little feet from the darkness ahead and opened his eyes just in time to see a cave spider leap at him from the ceiling. He swung his blade, hoping to at least knock it out of the air, but missed as the shadowy blur bled right past it. It landed on his chest, and for a moment he could see the glow of a countless number of eyes stare into its own. Before he could knock the creature off of him, it pricked his shoulder with either a pair of sharp fangs or claws (he couldn't tell), then jumped back onto the rock wall. "There's a spider here, by the way."

ID: 7217

BD: 5 (miss + 0)

MD: 8 (hit + 1)

Azide HP: 10/11 (-1)

Brayden HP: 15/15

Spider HP: 3/3