SAO: Roleplay

"Got it," I said, running forwards, my dagger starting to glow. I activated the skill, and in an instant I was on the other side of the skeleton, it's health depleting. I dodged it's counter-attack, which wasn't too difficult because of how slow axes were, and swung again. It had a lot more health than the mole rats did, so it wasn't even near death yet.

I charged forward as well, catching the skeleton in the back with my sword and bringing its health down some more, but not enough to kill. "Wanna try for a combined hit?" I asked Astra, dodging the counter blow from the skeleton.

"Go for it," I said, "We should probably go over all the outside skills before we go too far into the game anyway."

"Right," I said, before charging forward again with a new sword skill and struck at the skeletons weapon, knocking it back as I cried "SWITCH!"

Le-e-evel up. There started to be a rhythm, a flow, to the grinding being done. Going solo. Fight monsters until exhausted, when exhausted, train non-combative skills until recuperated, then fight monsters again until exhausted, rinse and repeat. Step-step-shuffle, step-shuffle-step, shuffle-step-step, step-dodge-strike, step-strike shuffle back. To Niko, it was like learning to kick-box, remember the base movements, combine the base movements into a set, adapt a set to the situation. In his head, when he fought, the drums of war played. They set the rhythm of the fight. Sometimes fast, sometimes slow, he moved in rhythm, he moved in flow. He let his health drop into the red zone, then kill the monster, recuperate, do it again. That's how you trained your health bar. That's how you got better health bonuses. It's also a good way to die.

I darted forwards, my weapon surrounded by the blue aura. I swung it around and then back in a two-hit skill. The second hit depleted the skeleton's health bar completely, making it shatter into pixels. I straightened up, and looked back at Tavi.
"Looks like we've still got it." I said.

"Hah, not like it's been that long since the beta," I said to her in response. My back was turned as I faced her, which made me an easy target for the skeleton that popped out from the shadows and swiped at me with a stone sword, hitting me in the back. I screamed in pain and fear, especially as my health bar dropped to half and I darted forward, panicked as the skeleton came at us....along with a second. "Dammit, I'm at half health!" I screamed.

"Then heal!" I shouted back to Tavi as I lunged at the skeleton closest to Tavi. Thankfully, because he hadn't attack, the game didn't register it as fighting Tavi, so my attack caused damage and switched the skeletons aggro onto me.

Getting my healing crystal, I healed up about a quarter of the way and settled for that as I dashed to my own skeleton, striking it at the rear as it tried to backstab Astra. I made it stumble, then it swung at me and I was forced to parry.

The quest was done. A simple one, but for new players challenging.

Heading out to the town, she checked her inventory. She had items to sell, but she needed a realnblade. Avarice would do...but she needed to find that quest.
Letting out a breath, she began to run.

The skeleton swung it's weapon at me and I raised my weapon to parry it. I misjudged though, and the axe swung straight past the blade of my dagger into my ribs. I watched my health bar draining in horror as I swung a panicked attack, draining some of the skeleton's health; just not as much as I'd already lost.

"Astra!" I cried as I finished off my skeleton, then sprinted for her, slashing at the skeleton that had hit her and distracting it to give her time.

I jumped back, my health dangerously low from the skeleton's strike.
"No healing crystals." I thought, cursing myself for not taking Tavi's advice. "Potions will take too long." I darted, weapon glowing, "Switch!"

Hearing Astra, I blocked the skeletons attack and made her an opening as I jumped back to give her a shot.

I swung my dagger, the skill discharging as it hit the Skeleton, shattering into pixels. If I'd stayed playing solo, I'd probably have died. I stood there, panting from the adrenaline I could feel.
"Time to call it a night?" I asked.

"What, no farming?" I asked her. Then I saw she was in the red, and hissed as I grabbed a healing crystal. "Dammit Astra, you could have said something," I muttered as I handed her a red healing crystal.

I took the crystal from Tavi, silently cursing myself for not bringing any healing items.
"Thanks," I said, "Want to finish the quest then?" I asked, using the crystal.

"Yeah, we're almost done. There's no mini-boss here, so all we have to do is get to the end and we'll have cleared the cave out. Besides, the treasure chests are at the end." That said, I still had two more healing crystals on me.....so I selected one, and sent it to Astra. "Here, just in case there's a surprise."

The clanging of metal upon metal echoed in the makeshift Blacksmithing table. Low-level weapons galore. It was the best way to level up ones blacksmithing skill. Crafting low-level iron weapons, or even improving weapons already crafted. A lot of them broke, something built into the game. It didn't matter, it still increased the skill. Whatever was necessary.

"If there's a surprise, you might need that," I said, not taking the crystal from him, "It'd be my own fault for not bringing any."

"I should be......mostly fine," I said in response. "But if you're sure, then fine. Just please promise me to stay close? I'd rather not lose a friend so soon." With that, I started walking again down the tunnel. The last room, was a small chamber with a lone skeleton standing there, virtually the same as the others. On the fall wall were some torches that helped illuminate some of the chamber, especially the three chests propped against the wall below them. "Looks like we hit a gold mine, eh Astra?" I asked her.

I looked around the room from the safety of the entrance.
"We shouldn't go in there." I said to Tavi, looking at the chests with suspicion.

"You worried it's a trap?" I asked her. Admittedly I had the same idea, but I remember that there were no traps in here. It was just a vanilla room with a final enemy.

"Very," I said, "We should come back with a rogue. Anything could have changed from the beta."
'Rogue' wasn't an official term, as there were no classes, but it fit the kind of player that used daggers and could pick locks and detect traps.

"Right.......bit of a waste though, could be better loot in there and I'm going to need a better sword soon," I said. Though I wasn't willing to take the chance, so with a sigh I turned around and started walking away. "Just so you know though, this means we won't be completing the quest and getting the gold and XP."

"You decide." I said. I didn't know whether to take the risk or not, another level up and some more money was a tempting thing.

"How about this," I suggested as I turned around again and walked inside the chamber. "I've still got two healing crystals on me so if anything bad happens, I can recover from it. Wait here to see if there's a trap; if there is, run. If not, come join me. Work?"

Monster Attack! Niko was attacked while he was working out his smithing skills. Armed with only his smith's hammer he turned to face the monsters, they were Dire wolves, low level monsters. They would, however, prove to be a challenge in numbers. As each dire wolf attacked, Niko dodged, rolled, and tumbled in evasive techniques. For many of the Dire wolves died from the blows of his smithing hammer, many others died from him punching or kicking them. He moved his camp a little closer to the village, but not quite into the village.

(dat loot though.)

He continued to pound away at his makeshift forge to craft weapons and improve them.

"Alright." I said to Tavi, nodding. It wasn't like I'd actually leave him, though. I don't think I could have, leaving someone to a trap would be just as bad as killing them myself.

"Okay, cool," I said, and strode forward into the chamber to have a dance with a skeleton. It spotted me, and immediately advanced, charging with a weapon for a strike. I dodged it, coming up inside its lunge, too far in for it to counter, and stabbed it with my sword once, twice, three times in a vicious lunge. It's health bar dropped, but it wasn't dead yet as I skipped back, only to jump back off my right foot and come down with an downward arc, killing it then and there in a shower of pixels. Waiting for any other surprises, I then went to the chests, opening the first and....

No dramatic raise of he he curtain, no doors revealing enemies. I was in the clear, as my inventory screen popped up to show I got a new item. A sword actually. "We're good," I called back to Astra.

"Alright." I called back, entering the room. I felt bad making him take all of the risk, but I promised myself that I'd make it up to him. "Anything good?" I asked, walking up behind him.

"Got a sword, the 'Silver Blade,' according to the ID tag. Some armor pieces, gold....and that's just in one chest. Wanna check the other one?"

"Gotcha." I said, opening the other chest. "Money, health crystals and weapons?" I said, confused. "They're really high level too. Moon and Star." I said, "I dunno what they are though."

"Can you equip them?" I asked her. "Or are there level requirements?"

"I need... Seven-hundred and ninety agility and 340 Strength." I said, "But the stats are ridiculous. Think I should keep them?" I asked him, they were obviously some of the top-tier items, probably meant to drop from a raid boss. "If they're not just glitching and they actually have these stats." I said, the crushingness of virtual reality sinking in for a moment. It wasn't like you could make a game with no glitches at all.

"Keep them for now," I said, and I was glad to be able to equip the new sword. "Even if you can't use them, you can always either save them for when you can use them, or sell them for a boat load of money." Opening the other chest, I found some health crystals, a teleportation crystal (very handy) and an armor piece that went over my shirt. The 'Ranger's Mantle' was it's name. Equipping it, there was a shimmer as it generated around me and I wound up wearing an emerald green garment that was essentially a mantle, that also had a hood and cape that went down to my calves. "Huh," I said. "I think I joined the caste of Lord of the Rings."

"You definitely look the part," I said, looking over him, "I never get the cool gear." I said, pulling a face.

"Hey, I'll give you some of what I got," I suggested brightly, opening my inventory screen and selecting some of the new items, and sent them to her. "Here, maybe these'll help ya out."

"I was only joking," I said, rejecting the trade. "I got those amazing weapons that I can't use. I think we're probably about even."

"Still," I said. "You never know if you'll like it or not, plus this stuff you can equip." But if she wasn't going to accept it, I couldn't really push. "It's up to you Astra."

"I already got the dagger," I pointed out, "So it's not like I didn't get any new gear for now. Just keep it." I glanced around the room, it was completely bare. "Wanna head back?"

"Sure thing," I said, and started walking, albeit slowly so we'd keep pace. "So, head to the farming grounds, or call it a night and get some sleep?" I asked her.

"I think we should call it a night," I said, yawning, "I'm knackered."

Doing my best not to chortle, I said "Knackered? Going to guess you're not really from the US?" Then again, if her accent hadn't told me that, then I guess her bluntly telling me where she was from wouldn't do it either.

"England," I said, "Rainy, rainy England." I smiled as I said it, "I guess you're an American then?"

"Yup, Manhattan," I said proudly. "One of the greatest cities in the world."

I yawned as I walked towards the entrance to the room.
"We should get back. Another day of killing monsters tomorrow."

"Yeah, definitely. However, first things first," I said. As we got to the entrance of the cave, the guy who gave us the quest was still there. I told him we finished, and he congratulated us while the game distributed awards. Mainly, Col and experience, though I did not level up sadly, only being two hundred points away now.

I turned in my own quest, which left me a little XP away from levelling. The walk back to the tavern was quiet, probably because I was exhausted. Stopping outside my room, I turned to Tavi.
"G'night." I said, smiling.

Returning the smile, I said "Goodnight Astra. Hopefully......well, hopefully I'll see you in the morning. I'll definitel wait here for you."