Fighting Monsters by Moonlight! [Closed/Mentor]

[Hirosame]

Hiro walked along, guided by the moon-lit path, to the destination that he had been sent to go to. Luckily enough for the monk, the stage was set for a small hunting quest to be undertaken at night. Apparently, there were a few Dull Green Slimes which needed to be dispatched and items collected from them, once they were dealt with. The items that these monsters dropped were somewhat useful when it came to low-level crafting, especially because they could only be collected at night. While Hiro was on his way through London, he found a bulletin board with this information clad on it, and a place for a higher level person to sign up, with another on the other side for a lower leveled person to sign up. Figuring it would be nice to help someone else out for once, Hiro went ahead and signed his own name up. He'd meet up with the person he'd be working with at the location where the quest was to be held. Luckily enough, it was going to be in a field where the moon would show them the way. Hiro could more than easily dispatch them in the day, but the item(s) might not drop.

The night was fully lit by the full moon overhead. The grass' color could be discerned by the light coming off the moon as it is, and the city was a good deal behind them. The only light that he could see was from the moon. Hiro loved nights like these. Nights where only the cloudless sky could show where everything is. If you look up, you see all the stars, a few passing clouds, and the moon. If you look ahead, you can see everything before yourself. If you look down, well, there isn't a whole hell of a lot to see on the ground, aside from the grass you're stepping on, but you can sure as hell see it! If you, y'know, forget the fact that your shadow is likely covering up part of the grass, as well. Whatever, the point is, it's bright enough to see a lot out. As much as he liked the night, though, Hiro also enjoyed the daylight. But, he'd probably miss a lot of that tomorrow, since this mission may take a long time to complete. Unsure as to how things would turn out in the end, he made sure to pack food and such that he had made and been given back in the city. He packed enough for himself, as well as the other person who would be here, should they get hungry as well.

Another thing that Hiro managed to do was pinpoint the location of the slimes, which seemed to undergo a change during the evening. They either grow darker or duller, or they glow with the moon. He wasn't sure which of the ones would happen, since he didn't come outside to fight a lot at night. Nights are for sleeping, but tonight would be a different one. Since the Monk knew that it would also be cold out tonight, he brought along his long black trench coat, which he wore presently. Underneath were his usual clothing, but he also brought along the Weatherproof Cloak that he had made a long time ago, should the other person need to have something to warm themselves up with. As he thought about this, the rendezvous point came closer and closer, and Hiro found a nice little place in the road to stand and wait. He opened up his inventory, to check through a few more things. Since he didn't need weapons, he was more than ready to take on a few slimes. Though, should it also be required to make things more fun for everybody, Hiro would lower his level down to the other person's, so that he doesn't take all the kills. He had done that once before, and he still wonders how that person is doing. They never talked to him again, which he chuckled to. Maybe they were stronger than he is now. It didn't matter at the moment, though, as he turned his head skyward. He watched the moon and stars for a little while, waiting for his eventual partner to show up.

[712 Words]

Tag: Valerie

[Valerie]

Valerie walked toward the bulletin board at dusk, looking for a quest for a low level player like herself. She finally noticed a post which separated lower level players and higher level players, and then pairing them in a mentorship program-like thing. The brunette’s violet coloured eyes widened slightly in surprise, she had not expected such a thing would exist in Elder Tale and wanted to know what is was about. The thing which was holding her back from signing up immediately was her dislike of meeting new people but she knew that leveling up is important, more important the possible discomfort it may cause her. Leveling would mean she would be targeted less by player killers which equals to safety from being killed unnecessarily. Even though death is not the ending for adventurers in Elder Tale, it is not something she wanted to repeat multiple times. She sighed softly and then quickly signed her name on the post before she went to search for the location the quest was held.

When the sun finally disappeared over the horizon, a grin appeared on her face and she stopped walking for a moment to search for the stars. Valerie loved the night, it was home to her, the shadows and moonlight. Instinctively, she ran to the nearest tree and swung herself on to the lowest branch and made her way to the top branch, swinging from branch to branch. The girl let out a giggle and leaned back onto the tree, staring up into the night sky, observing how the moon and stars contrasted the overly bright sun in the daytime. Valerie didn’t hate the sun, for the moon would not shine without it, but she disliked the blinding light it projected which casted away the shadows in which she hides in. Her eyes wandered over to the time and she jumped slightly when the clock showed that she was late to the mission location. Valerie jumped off the top branch and landed in a crouch on the path. She quickly took in her surrounding, quietly cursed herself for losing track of time, and then darted quickly in the direction of the field.

She panted slightly as she reached the edge of the field, spotting a six foot tall male in the field. Valerie’s back stiffened at the opposing appearance of the player in the field and quietly moved closer to the unknown player, stayed in the hidden shadows of the treeline. As she approached the player, her eyes quickly ran over him. She noticed how the player did not have any weapons on him and her sharp eyes spotted the monk symbol on his necklace and grimaced slightly, wondering how painful a death by a monk would be. He had a lean build but she suspected he was made of mostly muscle and bone. Probably a really hard punch in the gut or if he wanted her to die painfully, he could always strangle her till her HP slowly decreases until it’s all gone. Her violet coloured eyes narrowed slightly and took a deep breath before stepping out of the protection of the shadows. Her hands were resting on the hilt of her daggers as she walked up to the stranger. “Hello.” She greeted the man softly, her expression neutral and kept a meter distance between herself and the red haired stranger. Valerie’s jaw clenched at the incredible height difference between her and the monk and looked up at him with her eyes, only tilting her head back slightly. “Are you here for the mentorship thing?” She asked him carefully, peering into his emerald green eyes.

(Word count: 606)
Tags: Hirosame

[Hirosame]

The stars shined overhead, causing Hiro to lose all track of time and his senses. His mind was completely enveloped by the beauty that shown above, but his eyes picked up on a little movement off to his side. It moved slowly, but still in an intimidating manner. Hiro's mind snapped back to reality a second later, but made no immediate movement. His eyes only shifted over to that side, to size up what it was that he saw. The girl that stood there wasn't as tall as he, but still held the aura of being a cautious adventurer. He could tell this mostly by the fact that she had her hand on the hilt of her dagger. There were two possibilities for who this person is: This girl is either an assassin hired to kill him for some kind of money, or she was to be the person with whom Hiro would be on this quest with. Hiro turned his body to face the girl as she spoke for the first time, her voice quiet, and somewhat hesitant. His thought was confirmed, when she mentioned that she would be undertaking the mentor quest with him, and he smiled to the girl. Nodding to her, he responded in kind.

"Yeah, that's me." Hiro spoke, in a relaxed manner. The smile on his face stayed as he talked, as was his usual way of meeting new people. "Call me Hiro. I'll be helping you out with this quest, but I'll make sure you get some kills, too." Hiro joked at that last part, a grin forming on his face. Before much else happened, Hiro opened up his interface and went to the party menu, selecting the newcomer for a party invite. Once he sent the invitation, he opened up another interface, and lowered his level significantly. From what it was now down to about 5, just so he didn't completely destroy the Dull Green Slimes which they would be fighting soon enough. Hiro's hands were about to return to his pockets, when he remembered one other thing. He'd save it for now, but he'd bring it up later. Closing the interface, he looked over at the girl. She was smaller than he, this was certain, but she didn't look like she had had much battle experience as it was yet. Maybe it would be better for her to try out some fighting routines before she gets much further into the world. Having fought a few bosses by this point, the experience in fighting normal monsters helped out a lot.

To prevent himself from staring at the girl, Hiro looked around the area for a moment, scanning for any monsters that may or may not be there already. It looked like there weren't many around here, so they may need to walk a bit of a ways to find their mark. So, he'd explain how things were likely to go down now. "Okay, so." He began. "I'm sure you read this already, but we're basically just killing some monsters for some of their items. What I'm confused about is how many we need to get, though with us both here, that likely won't be a problem. If you look around, you'll see that there aren't any Dull Green Slimes around here, so we may need to relocate." Hiro paused for a moment to point with his thumb behind himself. "If anything, they'd likely spawn over there." Returning the pointing hand to his side, he continued. "Whenever you're ready, we can head out." Opening up his interface once more, Hiro opened up his inventory, and pulled out the Weatherproof Cloak, extending the cloak out to the girl. "It may or may not get colder as the night goes on, so if you'd like to borrow this, then by all means. If not, we can just get right to work." Leaving the suggestion up to her, should she want to take it, he kept his hand extended out for whenever she either took the cloak or denied it. He had a feeling that he'd have to put the cloak away in just a minute here, but its nice to have options in most situations. Maybe she'd appreciate the offer, which was the main reason why he kept his hand outstretched.

[716 Words]

Tags: Valerie

[Valerie]

Hiro… She thought to herself and smiled politely at his joke when he mentioned the quest. He seemed quite friendly but this didn’t make her any less wary of him, though she smiled politely as he spoke. “I’m Valerie, but if you prefer, you can call me Val.” She replied, watching Hiro open his interface in slight confusion until a party invite popped up in front of her. She hesitated slightly but accepted the invite, laughed inwardly at herself for being reluctant when she had already determined to continue with the quest. Valerie noticed him observing her through the corner of her eye but didn’t say a word about it, pretending she hadn’t noticed it and stared up into the night sky again, trying to keep herself positive about this, and inhaled a deep breath of the chilly night air.

Valerie listened carefully to her mentor’s words and nodded. She looked over to the place where he pointed to, frowning since it seemed like any other place nearby, nothing special about it but she trusted that the monk was skilled enough to know such thing. When he asked if she was ready, she nodded slightly but he had reopened is interface. The brunette blinked at the tall man and had decided to tell him when cloak appeared and glanced at it in slight confusion. Valerie smiled at his thoughtfulness, a true smile this time, though she shook her head and refused the clock. “I’m alright with this,” She said, pointing to her long coat which had long sleeves. “But thank you. So I guess we can start then…” She said, trailing off, not knowing what to say, and cursed herself inwardly for forgetting how to talk to strangers and looked down into the green grass. 

(Word count: 295)
Hirosame

[Hirosame]

"So, Val, then?" Hiro spoke, putting the cloak he had offered to the other player away in his inventory. She had said she was good with what she had on, and she knew it'd be there if she needed it later, so he figured it might do him some good to just put that away. With the cloak in his inventory, he turned back to his would-be student for this quest, Valerie. Now that they were in a party, Hiro could see her level and class. Swashbuckler, and level 1 to boot. He didn't pay much mind to the level, though, and decided to focus almost solely on the fact that she is a Swashbuckler. Hiro only knew of two or three others of the same class. He'd heard that in previous renditions of the game, Swashbucklers were definitely much more present in the world. However, since he didn't play back then, as he and his friend Touko were much busier with other games at the time, long before his spell in League came about, he didn't much care for the game as much as he did now. Well, he had no choice but to care about it now, since it is basically the world he lives in now. He shrugged at the thought, though.

Hiro finally turned back to Val, who mentioned that she was ready to go. After nodding to her when she thanked him, Hiro turned a bit to face the direction of the slimes, in which they were to be found. "Let's get started, then." Hiro said, calmly, as his feet began to move before him. He put his hands in his pockets as he walked, as a small gust of wind caused them to get chilly for just a moment. Despite this, though, Hiro didn't mind the cold. Winter, Summer, Spring, Fall, all the seasons were just fine to him. As the British Winter had arrived, the cold winds and cooler air would cause him to shiver on the worst of days, but nothing too bad as it is right now. At night, though, the wind could get very brisk, and his nose would begin to run if they stayed out here all night. Even in this world. It was amazing how well the virtual reality worked now, seeing as it could actually simulate sicknesses as well as it could. But, that's not the point for right now. Having only made a little progress since he had started walking, and assuming that Val was keeping up with him, he figured that he might as well break the ice and talk about something, just to keep both of them from getting bored.

Hiro turned his head to the side, guessing where Val was in relation to him. "So, you know about the Dull Green Slimes and how they change during the night time, I assume?" He paused for just a moment, to let her reply, but continued anyways. Even if it was a recap of what she already knew, it killed time just by talking. Maybe she'd appreciate that. "They change color to allow itself to either hide better in the evening, or to shine with the moon. I'm honestly not too sure which it is, since I haven't seen it myself yet, but I'd assume that they change their color to a darker one, to hide better." Finishing this little somewhat-lesson, Hiro turned his head back around to face the road. Then he began to wonder how and why this person was here when she could very much be doing something much more productive: Like sleeping. Was she a night-person? Did she not like questing around in the day? Maybe she's secretly an owl, and only operates at night. While that may be a bit too much of a joke, he still found himself to be curious. He turned his head again, attempting to look into her violet eyes. "What caused you to take on this quest, if you don't mind my asking, Val?" Hiro didn't slow his pace, or turn back around to face forward, either. Genuine curiosity getting the best of him, he continued moving forward, awaiting her response.

[696 Words]

[Valerie]

The small brunette nodded and obediently followed her mentor, moving to walk quietly beside him. She felt a cool breeze pass by her and smiled happily and looked around the forest as they kept walking. Valerie was more than happy that is was a crisp, cool night. Her violet eyes wandered around the forest and weaved through the tree they passed. The girl let her mind wander, imagining Elder Tale covered in snow and ice, and unconsciously smiled. Just like home. She thought to herself, feeling slightly sad, not knowing if she’ll ever return. Her eyes found a small pond deep into the forest and in her mind, an image of the pond being frozen, flashed in her mind. Maybe they’ll make a skating rink here. And the familiar figures of her friends appeared on the pond, skating and having fun in the snow. Her vision began to blur as tears filled her eyes. I’ll be back. I promise. She told herself, blinking back her tears and looked up at the pale moon.

Then Hiro’s voice suddenly popped into her head, she jumped slightly and turned to him, blinking slightly from be pulled from her thoughts so suddenly. “Dull Green Slimes…” She repeated blankly before shaking her head. The girl’s purple eyes widened in understanding as the pieces came together in her mind. “Slimes were green-ish brown in the day time to blend in and perhaps a darker green-ish brown at night. Okay, I got it.” She said, summarizing his mini lesson and nodded as she made a mental note about slimes. Valerie felt her mentor’s silence and watched him out of the corner of her eyes. He seemed to be trying to piece something together, something that confused him, but the small girl shrugged it off and didn’t think much of it until he spoke again, asking for her reason for taking this quest. So that was what he was curious about. She told herself, and bit her lip to suppress the urge to smile too much but her eyes sparkled in slight amusement. “Well, I’m still at level 1. It’s rather dangerous to be at such a low level.” She explained plainly.

Word count: 364
Hirosame

[Hirosame]

Finding himself actually a little surprised, Hiro widened his eyes at the plain reaction which he had received from Val. Turning his attention back to the road, he thought about it for a moment. It was a simple enough reason, yet he didn't even consider it. Usually when he had come on these mentor/student quests, the other person usually had some profound reasoning as to why they were undertaking such a quest, and why they'd need a higher-leveled person to help them complete the quest. Then again, the fact that he had set his level down to 5 for this quest was a bit curious in and of itself, should the violet-eyed girl think to ask him about it. Most mentor quests involved someone above and someone below the level 15. His own level for this quest wouldn't matter in any case, as Val had mentioned that she was level 1 as it is right now. So, perhaps it would be best to just allow things to go along as they are. She had answered his question in a simple way, but he found himself smiling, and even chuckling a little bit. Without realizing it, he soon found himself having a good laugh about it all.

Hiro took a second to calm down after he finished laughing, probably looking like an insane person to this girl now. He figured it might be best to explain it. "Sorry about that." He began. "It's not often that I get a straight and simple answer like that, really. It's nice, but it is also kinda funny to me." Having felt that the reason was explained enough by this, he just let it go for now. Hiro then took a moment to look up into the sky, up at the shining moon. His feet carried him along while he looked, letting his mind wander for a bit. He thought about the wide fields where he lived, back near London. Thinking about how the sun and the moon would make the entire area bright and vibrant. The small lake behind his home seemed to always glisten all the time on the sunniest days and clearest nights, with the full moon. Maybe Hiro would try and find the place where he lived in England at some point? It would be one hell of an adventure to try and walk through his own home in this new world, if it was standing there or not. Maybe it would be all crumbled down, and had no place for it to be anymore. Or, maybe it was all covered by roots and vines by now.

Hiro let the thought slide, keeping it as a possibility for some other adventure. For now, though, he had to focus on the mission at hand. Looking back down to the road, Hiro couldn't see anything else along the path, save for himself and Val. The fact that it was so clear, though, did make him wonder if there were actually any monsters along the way or not. He only really took a guess that the slimes would be off in this direction, but if Valerie knew about that, she'd probably think pretty poorly of her mentor. A small bead of sweat began to drip down the side of his face opposite from Val, hoping to hide the fact that he wasn't entirely sure as to where the monsters would be for right now. Hiro turned the other way for just a moment, and spoke. "So, you see anything yet? No monsters?" Keeping his head to the other side, he wondered if his own little facade would cover his potential screw-up. A wry smile formed on his face, while he mentally beat himself up for not knowing exactly where the monsters would be. Feeling the embarrassment filling up inside himself, he tried to play it off as cool as he could, turning his head back around to the front. Little did he realize, though, the look which he had on right now very clearly conveyed "I may or may not be wrong about the monsters" right now. Hopefully, Valerie didn't notice. Hopefully.

[689 Words]
Tag: Valerie

[Valerie]

When she had finished explaining her reason for the quest, Hiro was silent for a moment but suddenly begun to chuckle, which turned into full on laughter. Valerie raised a single brow quizzically at her mentor but began to laugh as well. She simply smiled as he apologized and explained the reason for his sudden laughter. It was perfectly understandable, his reason for laughing. For Valerie, it was actually rather unusual for someone to explain their sudden laughter, but it was certainly welcome change. Although considering her lack of communication with other people, she didn’t even know if it was considered unusual and gave another light giggle and then looked away into the forest again.

“So, you see anything yet? No monsters?” Her mentor asked, his face turned away from Valerie, making his voice more distant, but she still heard what he said. “Um…” She started but didn’t know what to say and trailed off into a light and awkward giggle. The smaller girl had not been exactly looking for monsters for the last while and her face flushed a bit, feeling bad for letting her mind wander. “Sorry, I hadn’t seen any monsters so far...” She looked up as she apologized and the girl suddenly burst into her unrestrained, melodic laughter. “S-sorry.” She apologized, stuttering half way from laughing too hard. As her laughter died down, the small girl’s frame racked with a short series of coughs which turned into short pants to catch her breath. When her breathing steadied, she looked back up to apologized properly again. “Sorry. It was just your expression…” She said, trailing off in a fit of light giggles again. “Sorry. I shouldn't have laughed.” She apologized again, smiling sheepishly up at the monk and bit her lip to supress the rising laughter. “So…” She took a deep breath of cool night air to steady herself. “I guess if there haven’t been any slimes here, we should probably keep going or go into the forest, since there would be no point in going back.” She concluded, a light smiled on her face.

Count:348
Hirosame

[Hirosame]

Feel like an idiot: Success! Hiro could mark that one down for today, he has successfully felt like an idiot. Not a complete day without it! Like some kind of vitamin or something. But, in any case, Val did seem rather upbeat for the moment, as she had laughed once already with him when he began laughing, then again when he explained why. Maybe he pinged this girl the wrong way at the start: Perhaps not so much a loner as he had thought. Either that, or the Monk/Swashbuckler duo were getting along just fine. Perhaps a mix of the two, since he figured that breaking the ice is hard to do in a lot of ways. In any case, though, she also seemed to have picked up on his distraught state of being, but didn't take it in the way that he had it on for, which was certainly good enough for him. The less she gets on his case for, the better. It would make things go by a hell of a lot smoother, since he actually didn't know what to do at the current time. But, this is when she suggested that they could either keep going with the plains or walk into the forest, instead of turning back around.

She had a point: It wouldn't serve them any good to go back now. But, when she mentioned the forest, he had a feeling that it was mostly out of her own desire to go into the forest. A little smirk soon formed on his face, after the look was gone, and he turned to face the girl a little bit. "Something tells me you wanna head into the forest and check it out." Hiro said nothing more for now, and only stopped where he was. He looked at the girl for a few more moments, the same smirk on his face, until eventually a chuckle could be heard from him. He turned to face the other side of the road, which lead over into a small path into the forest, and motioned over towards it. He'd let Val go ahead and make the call, as to where they'd go. If anything, it would serve to her own benefit, getting used to fighting in different areas. Hiro was quite adept at fighting in all sorts of terrain by now. Perhaps it would help the girl to find out how fighting differs in a forest, or how mass combat works in the fields, depending on her answer. Hiro stood by, though, and let her do the choosing. This was an adventure he was stepping in on, anyways.

Hiro found himself looking around again, though, checking out the field. Not only was it dead silent except for the two living beings standing not too far from one another, but there was also nothing else around them. Trees were likely the only thing around them right now, save for the road that they stood on. Hiro and Valerie were hanging out at a fork in the road, where the road continued on or split off into the trees, following a small path inside, as he had made note of before. However, what he noticed was that beyond the forest, the moon's presence became a lot less apparent, and they'd likely be walking around in the dark for the duration of being in the forest. While Hiro had half a mind to advise against entering the forest, he knew that Val may or may not want to go inside the forest, regardless, but he'd be forced to bring his level up quite a ways in order for them to be able to see anything well enough. However, if she had night vision or something like that, he wouldn't need to rely on his levels in order to allow them to see. As a monk, he's gotten used to fighting without his eyes, and using his instincts to tell where an enemy was. That kind of skill, you can't unlearn just by being a lower level. However, the moon might be powerful enough to make the place visible, even though it was covered by trees. It's possible, but he just wanted to be ready for all scenarios. Instead, Hiro returned his attention to Valerie, waiting for her decision.

[717 Words]
Tag: Valerie

[Valerie]

“Something tells me you wanna head into the forest and check it out.” The monk said with a strange little smirk on his face, stopped and turned to her, chuckling. Valerie grinned in response and stopped beside him. “I certainly wouldn’t mind.” The small swashbuckler said teasingly and followed Hiro’s gaze to the small path that led into the forest, away from the main path. Without another second, Valerie headed over to the path and looked back at Hiro strangely who was still standing where he was, her expression asking if he was coming along with her.

She found him staring around the area with wary eyes. Valerie stopped and did the same, scanning the area carefully, focusing her mind on her hearing and sight. The area was dark, but her eyes had adjusted enough to see in the dark. Though it was dangerous going around along at night in Elder Tale as a level 1 player, she had been careful and trained herself to keep her senses alert to the area around her. It was something she had taught herself in real life, isolating her two main senses to map out her surroundings. It was one of the reasons why she disliked crowds because it overwhelmed her. The forest had been extremely quiet, even the leaves barely rustled in the wind. Oh…I guess it is quite dark… and quiet, but that’s better that being surrounded by the sound of growling monsters at night. She mused to herself, making the corners of her mouth quirk up slightly. Valerie turned around and faced the monk. “It might be dark, but it should be fine. I mean, it’s not too cloudy tonight… If you won’t want to, we could just stay on the path.” She offered, unsure of what to say. For the low leveled swashbuckler, it was rather strange for her to say such a thing but if Hiro wanted to stay on the path, she wouldn’t mind and looked up, waiting for his answer.

Word count: 334
Hirosame

[Hirosame]

After Valerie had given her opinion on going inside the forest, Hiro nodded to her a little bit, his eyes resting on the path ahead of them. He was more than willing to go inside the forest, and the girl seemed trustworthy enough that he could have his back to her. If she tried something, though, Hiro was more than willing to swap his level back to max, and only try to fear the girl out of her attack. But, he didn't feel the need to attack the girl at all, nor did he feel that she would bring him any harm. With that being settled, Hiro began to walk towards the girl, after she took some time to look around, too. She found it just as suspicious as he did. "We can go into the forest, Val." Hiro said, a cheeky grin on his face. "Unless you're too scared to." He joked to her, throwing her a childish glance, but continuing towards the forest. He returned his glance to the road, unsure as to whether or not he should have joked with the girl in such a manner. They had just met, after all, though a little fun like this wouldn't be too big of a deal. Hopefully.

It wouldn't take much time before the two of them went inside the forested area, as Hiro noticed already that the noise that came from the rest of the field seemed to die down even more. Hiro slowed his movement for just a moment, realizing how much quieter the place was getting, as the trees loomed overhead. Taking the first few steps inside, the sound of the wind through the fields stopped, and all that could be heard was some faint rustling. Luckily enough, the moon was, indeed, bright enough for them to see where they were going, since the trees didn't have as much leaves on as before. One of the benefits of winter, perhaps. During the mid-to-late spring or summer, though, the moon would be completely covered by the leaves. He didn't pay much more attention to it, since it was all out of his control now. He turned a bit to look over at Valerie, making sure she was still there nearby him. Giving another nod to her, he continued on forward into the forest. What surprised him was the fact that he could actually hear a few birds in the trees overhead. Surely most birds would be sleeping right now, but perhaps a few stayed awake, in this game's logic.

Light chirping was all he heard, and a few rustling branches nearby, but nothing too distracting. If anything, he could hear their own footsteps a lot more than the birds. The crunch of the leaves on the ground, a few sticks being snapped here and there, caused him to heighten his senses, just to make sure that he didn't miss out on anything. His voice lowered, he looked back to Valerie for a moment. "Keep your eyes and ears open. If there are slimes here, we should be able to hear them." He didn't slow himself down, crouch down, or anything of the sort. "Slimes aren't intelligent enough to know when they're being hunted, but if they do hear something prowling, even they're smart enough to tell that something's wrong, and they'll begin to panic." He turned back around to face the road ahead. "If you hear or see one, try to catch it as quickly as you can. They aren't fast, either, but if they have a large enough gap, they can get away." Without even realizing it, he was already trying to teach Val about how these monsters worked. He didn't pay much more attention to it, though, and just kept his eyes scanning from side to side, trying to make out any kind of movement as he could. While he wanted the quest to go without a hitch, it would be a wonderful learning experience for Val, if something went wrong. He wouldn't cause the problem, probably, but would be there to help her fix it. Or, laugh at the mistake. Whichever came first.

[691 Words]
Tag: Valerie

[Valerie]

Hiro had somewhat answered her question, or rather statement, with a cheek grin which made Valerie raise a single brow at him condescendingly but a smile appeared as a light chuckle left her lips. “How dare you think I’m too scared!” She exclaimed, pretending to be offended with a childish glint in her eyes as she joked back at him and followed him into the forest. The swashbuckler kept a steady pace as she let her senses continue to scan the area. Her violet eyes darted through the trees, hoping to catch a glimpse of a monster of some sort. The forest kept its steady rhythm as the leaves rustled quietly and a light breeze passed by.

As they went deeper into the forest, the rhythm began to diminish and the trees overhead began to block out the winds’ howls. Her mentor became to slow down a bit, being more cautious with his steps. The young swashbuckler followed suit and instinctively moved her legs around anything that may possible make a sound. Hearing a light rustling nearby, Valerie stiffened, glancing at the monk who seemed to notice it too, but didn’t do anything about. Rather suddenly, he turned to her while she was studying him, making the girl glance away briefly but looked back as she noticed him motioning her forward. Automatically, she followed him further into the forest without another word.

Her ears caught some high pitched sounds above her, making her twitch slightly. Birds… Forget they exist… Wonder how hard it is to fight flying monsters. Her mind wandered a bit until a short series of sounds came from the forest floor, snapping her out if her short tangent. The girl looked up at her mentor who noticed it as well, telling her to keep her senses sharp to the surroundings in a low voice. Hiro gave her a quick lesson about slimes and Valerie nodded curtly in acknowledgment, making sure she did not make a sound as she walked. The girl had scanned the nearby area multiple times but found nothing so she focused on her sight and looked out farther into the forest. With every step she took, she looked farther, checking for any movement or the strange outline of a slime. Soon enough, she spotted a strange, darkish blob just left of the path about ten meters away.

The swashbuckler automatically moved her hands to the two daggers at her hip, ready to drawn them. “Hiro. Ahead, to the left.” She said quietly, but never took her eyes off the creature. Valerie’s jaw clenched as her eyes took in more of the slime. Disgusting creature. She thought in her mind as she waited for her mentor’s instructions.

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[Hirosame]

Seeing as how accepting and relaxed Valerie was, Hiro felt that the quest would go along without much other problems. When Val mentioned that there was a monster nearby them, Hiro smiled at her a little bit. She's got good eyes to have spotted that one. It was a good distance away, and while he hadn't quite made out what it was yet, he had noticed that it was there. Hiro stopped in place, and slowly slid down into his attack stance, as Valerie had gotten ready to pounce as well. A smirk soon formed on his face, scanning around the area. After seeing what he wanted to see, he spoke in a hushed tone. "Keep this in mind, too, Val." He began. "Dull Green Slimes travel in packs of usually three to four." Hiro motioned with his head at the slimes nearby the one she saw, and then again to the large group of slimes that spread out in front of them. They looked to be all coagulated in one area, as if they were concentrated here. He recalled a time where he came out to this same forest to kill only ten of these guys, all in one sitting. It didn't take him long, but he was at a higher level then, too, compared to now.

"A little extra note for you, before we get started." Hiro continued, looking over to the Swashbuckler. "If they outnumber their attackers, they tend to stay and fight. There's about 10 here for us to kill, so five each?" Hiro winked at the girl, teasingly. "I'll let you get some of your own kills, but if you need some help, just call me over." Hiro lowered his stance for just a second. "Dibs on the right side!" Hiro called out, launching himself to the right side, and immediately attacking one of the slimes in the group. Hiro thrust his fist onto the slime monster, vaulting himself over it, and then whipped it directly into a nearby tree, which he very quickly followed up with a roundhouse kick, slamming it into the wood further, causing it to disappear instantaneously. Instincts foreboding him, Hiro flipped himself backwards into a backhand spring, and used his feet to blast the flying slime back from whence it came, and directly into another slime behind it. Finishing the spring, Hiro performed a nice little back flip onto the two slimes that had now become one, so to speak, and crushed them both under his feet. The one which he threw back here was gone, but the other just got stomped on.

So, Hiro would begin to put it out of its pain. Lifting it up, Hiro threw it up into the trees, letting it have a fun little fly up into the sky before it explodes. Hiro turned back around to see a slime coming right at his face, and not enough time to block or dodge. So, Hiro took the minuscule damage, letting the slime bounce off his face. His expression was that of a less-than-pleased person, actually feeling a little embarrassed that such a simple attack could hit him. To make up for it, he decided not to spare them for much longer, and to end things quickly. He only had to worry about two more anyways, since the other one that he threw up into the air would be coming back down shortly. Hiro raised his hand up into the air, cupped it into a fist, and slammed down onto the ground, activating Tiger Echo Fist, and sent them up into the air. Following them up with Wyvern Kick, which helped him ascend quickly, he matched their level of height in only a second. Grabbing one of the slimes, he performed a midair somersault and launched it back down to the ground, following up with his right foot, crashing down onto it. The slime exploded into bits, and the other slime he threw up earlier came back down.

Hiro caught it with his right hand, nestling it in his palm for a moment. These little guys sure were small. So, he drew his arm back, and aimed at the last slime that was up in the sky. Throwing it back up into the sky, and following it up, Hiro cupped one hand, as energy began to fill his it. Once he was close enough to the two slimes that had been previously forced upwards by him, he let the energy go in a powerful blast of Aura Dragon Punch. The Azure wave of energy enveloped the two slimes, causing them to disintegrate in only a second, as the blast dissipated a long ways up into the air afterwards. Hiro landed on his feet, and looked into his inventory for a second. There was a few instances of an item he'd never seen before. Thinking about it, he wondered if this was the item that they were out here to get. The item was called "Boiled Slime Sludge", and the very thought of what it looked like was less than appealing to the monk. A grimace appeared on his face for a few moments, as he closed his inventory once again. Hiro then decided to take it off his mind, and looked over to Val, whom he hoped was having an easy enough time with the slimes as it was. Perhaps if she needed a hand, he'd be right here to offer it, but it also helps to let yourself work on your own fights sometimes. Hiro stayed back for now, and watched the Swashbuckler fight, thinking about how she could better her own way of fighting. Not a place for a monk to judge, but as her mentor, he needed to help her out in this regard, regardless.

[963 Words]
Tag: Valerie

[Valerie]

Her mentor stopped and Valerie felt his presence change a bit as his posture slid into one of a predator. She stopped beside him and listened to his advice. When Hiro mentioned that Dull Green Slimes travel in groups of three to four, the small girl shivered in disgust as she looked over the area, spotting the others. The monk paused for a bit before adding on to his lesson, making a light joke out of it. This made the Swashbuckler grin at Hiro, nodding in response. “Dibs on the right side!” The monk had called out as he sprang right, toward the slimes. Shaking her head in mild amusement, the Swashbuckler drew her daggers and looked left, trying to find the locations of all the slimes. The girl smiled when she counted five slime creatures on the left side and darted left.

Valerie launched herself at a dull green creature that was farthest away from the group, slashing her daggers through the slime’s body, creating two parallel marks on the slime which quickly disappeared as the slime moved. It was an odd sensation, like in hitting through water. The girl concluded, disgust plainly seen on her face as she jumped out of the slime’s reach. Valerie checked the HP bar of the creature and smiled slightly when it was only a bit more than half remaining. I need to finish this one first or other slimes will notice. She told herself and tensed her body again, the Swashbuckler gripped her weapons tightly and sprang at the wounded creature one last time. The blades sank into the slime and she dragged it across the slime, making an X pattern. The monster tried to back away but the swashbuckler applied the skill, Straights, to her right hand and swung her arm horizontally, activating the skill by gripping her dagger tighter mid swing. The dagger glowed a dim golden color, making Valerie wince at the sudden light and averted her eyes from the light. Aw, shit… I can’t see. She cursed, as the slime burst into anima. The girl’s eyes narrowed, trying to make out the figures of the Dull Green Slimes. Valerie looked around her and bit her lip, as four slimes surrounded her.

Panicking, took a deep breath, thinking about her skills. Shuffle Windmill. Immediately, she got into position and activated the skill, spinning around rapidly four times. She looked around again and the slimes had backed away from her, making a larger circle. The slimes are too close to run and jump out of the circle. And up... The girl glanced up and saw a low branch, her face brightened and she jumped up. Using her momentum, she swung herself back and forth on the branch. At the peak, she let go and dropped down into a crouch. Pain shot up her legs as she straightened but the girl charged straight into the group of slimes, activating Straights again, applying it to her right hand. The golden glow slashed through the slimes once but they didn’t disappear. Damn. They better not surround me again. She thought to herself as her saw darkness around her. She heard a strange sound in front of her and instinctively moved her hand in front of her face, the blade facing out. On her blade was an impaled slime that was slowly sliding down to the ground but it disappeared before it hit the ground. Well that was unexpected. She mused and sprang at the slimes again, using Straights with her left dagger and the blade glowed gold as it swung through the slimes. One by one, the slimes disappeared in to anima, looking like a reverse snowfall.

Valerie straightened into her attack position and glanced around, making sure all the slimes were gone then straightened back up and sheathed her daggers. The forest was silent again, making the swashbuckler look around for her mentor who seemed to have been watching her. The girl ran up to him and smiled. “That was fun.” She said pleasantly, happy that it wasn’t as hard as then had thought.

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[Hirosame]

Hiro watched the Swashbuckler go about her fight, having caught the point where she went up into the air. This really put into perspective how quickly Hiro can defeat enemies as a monk, even with his level greatly lowered like it was presently. Getting back on topic, though, it seemed that Val was attacking based on reaction, not really planning her moves out beforehand. When Hiro had watched Stryke fight, a good friend of his who happened to be a Swashbuckler, as well as Ruemia, an acquaintance of his, their moves seemed to be fluid and without error. Although, both of them were above level one, and had happened to be fluent in such things prior to this world. Hiro remembered that Ruemia had spoken of how she used to fence when she fought with her dual rapiers, and Stryke had played around with sticks when he was younger, or something of that manner, before he started swinging two swords around in this world. The thought of a little Stryke swinging around a few sticks caused him to laugh just a little bit. But, the laugh was soon followed by a kind smile, hoping that both Swashbucklers were doing well.

Val trotted back over to Hiro, denoting that the fight was fun. Hiro straightened himself back up, unfolded his arms from across his chest, and smiled back at the girl. She looked pleased with her work, and she should be. Dispatching 5 slimes on your own is a hard thing to do as level 1, especially all as one. "Yeah, not too shabby, I'd say." Hiro spoke, stretching his arms up a bit. "So, how do you feel after your first encounter?" He asked, pausing for a bit. It's an important thing to reflect on the battles you have, especially the first battle. Hiro recalled how he had went into a deep state of mind after having fought Mayahuel a long time ago, and then again after fighting Stonehenge, the boss-level monster which he had found with a few of his friends, Midori and Fernweh. But, he would listen to the girl's response in how the battle went for herself, since it's important to learn from each fight. But, it's also very important to come back alive from each fight, too. Can't learn a damn thing if you're dead! He smiled to the girl, actually finding himself to be rather proud of her, for some reason. Having just met the girl maybe 30 minutes ago now, this wasn't the kind of thing you should think.

But, he disregarded that thing entirely. If anything, he was happy that she had dealt with the monsters so easily. Speaking of the monster, Hiro opened up his inventory, once the girl was done answering him, and looked into the inventory. The "Boiled Slime Sludge" item was still there, and he held 3 of those already. The quest asked for 5 or more, giving an extra reward for 10+ of the item. So, Hiro closed his inventory, and looked to the girl with a smile again. "Well, I've got 3 of the item we need here, and the quest asks for at least 5. If you have 2 more of them, we can go and turn in the quest soon. However, there's a bonus for having more than 10, so if you wanted to, we could stay out here and keep collecting more." Hiro shrugged. "It's up to you, in the end. I'd like to keep collecting more of these things, disgusting as they are, but if you've got enough and you've had enough, then we can call it quits." He liked being out here right now. The moon was shining down on them, the night was quiet, and Hiro wasn't alone out here, either. Valerie seemed to be a pretty cool person, one which he wouldn't mind getting to know a bit better, so he hoped that she'd want to stay out here a bit longer and fight some more slimes, too. But, if she had enough already, and didn't want to stay out here much longer he'd understand. Hiro isn't the kind of person to make people do things that they didn't want to do, or didn't want to continue. Either that, or he's really indecisive. Either way, he left it up to her.

[721 Words]
Tag: Valerie

[Valerie]

When her mentor asked for her opinion of her first fight, she smiled and looked up into the sky. “Well, I guess I feel great… ” She said, before expanding on the fight. “I mean, beside the fact those slimes weren’t too nice to look at, I had enjoyed it quite a bit and overall it wasn’t too bad considering I’m still here.” She joked lightly. “All of this is quite addicting… with the adrenaline and all.” The small swashbuckler observed with a laugh. She had felt a pull within her that told the girl to find more monsters to fight. It was slightly odd for her, but she had truly enjoyed the fight and everything about it. Valerie had never learned to fight in real life, but when she entered Elder Tale, she had studied her skills carefully, making sure to know how to use them to the best of her abilities. For example, knowing that Straights decreased a weapon’s attack after used, she waited until the skill was ready to use again and applied it to her other dagger, making both attacks of equal strength.


Hiro opened his inventory and looked through it as the girl looked at him blankly when he talked about collecting an item for the quest and bonuses. “What item?” She asked him, blinking a couple of times, trying to think of what he could be talking about. This was the Valerie’s first quest and had no idea what the monk was talking about. “I guess we can keep collecting them and get the bonus.” She said. The level one swashbuckler was still geared from her previous fight and her body seemed to tell her to find more of the disgusting looking slimes and kill them. “Yeah… Let’s do it.” Valerie told him with new enthusiasm and bounced off her toes excitedly at the idea of finding slimes to kill.


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[Hirosame]

Hiro listened to the girl explain how she felt after the fight, even though he had asked her about what she wanted to do next. She seemed very hyped up over the fact that fighting such monsters with such an amount of ease was possible. However, it wasn't a good idea to let the blood lust go to your mind. Hiro would need to keep that in mind, and teach her about letting herself get overzealous. That's the last thing that one would possibly want when it came to a fight. You stop thinking entirely, ignore your surroundings, and just start slashing away. You lose all control after a while, and, without keeping it in check, you could end up hurting someone else around you. Hiro had to deal with Saeko at a time like that, on their first quest together. It was less than pleasant, sure, but she learned, somewhat. Since she had joined up with him and his guild, though, she's been a lot more easily controlled. Well, that is to say, Hiro isn't the one controlling her, but more that she's controlling herself a lot more, and taking a deep breath before doing something she'd regret. She's improved from the hot-headedness she had before, at least.

But, that was Saeko, and Val was certainly no Saeko. Val, however, seemed very willing to go along with the quest even more, to which Hiro nodded and smiled again. "Alright, then let's do this!" Hiro exclaimed, matching the enthusiasm. He walked over to her, and put his hand on her shoulder, giving her a pat, in a calming fashion. "But, let's tone it down just a bit, okay?" Hiro asked of the girl. Being enthusiastic was okay, but keeping cool was also a good thing to avoid. He let go of the girl's shoulder, and looked ahead at the path, before making his way again. That same smile was on his face, but he began to think about how he may have killed the fun for the girl at that moment. So, he decided to mock her a little bit, in a joking way. Hiro stopped and started to bounce on his toes, like she had, and spoke. "Gonna kill more slimes, gonna kill more sliiiiiimes.~" Hiro looked back at her, and shot her a childish look, sticking out his tongue a little bit. He grinned from ear to ear, continuing on. If she hit him in the back of the head, though, he felt like he deserved it. But, it would be well worth the taunt. Val seemed like she was fun to joke with, so maybe she wouldn't take it offensively.

Hiro returned his vision to the road, hoping his so-called student was following him up now. So, now was a good time for some more mentoring. "You performed well in that fight, Val. I'm glad you know the basics of fighting." He raised his hand up a bit, pointing his pointer finger up in a studious manner. "However, you were a little too reckless with your moves, and it looked like you went into a bit of a blood-lust, so to speak. You need to keep your surroundings in mind, and sometimes, use them to your advantage." He put his finger back down, and looked at her. "That being said, though, I did notice how you used that tree branch to escape the slimes that surrounded you, so I will commend you for that. That was a good use of terrain. But that's not all I mean. Knowing where a tree or two are is very important to use as cover, use as a weapon, if you can, and also to know how you can avoid being cornered." Hiro stopped, and pointed to a tree nearby them. "Like that over there. If you find yourself being advanced upon by three or more enemies, try to avoid having your back to the tree, and find an alternate way out or around." He turned back to the girl, smiling still. "Know your surroundings, and use them in different ways. That is the message of this little lesson." Hiro winked at the girl, smiling larger, and continued on through the forest.

It was useful knowledge when it came to fighting, especially since she had such short ranged weapons. If being a monk had taught him anything, it's that using the area around you to give you an edge in the fight is almost vital. But, enough of that. "Another thing to keep in mind, Val." Hiro continued. "Try to keep a level head at all times. Like I mentioned before, you seemed to lose control for a bit and just attack randomly. Granted, you used your skills effectively, so I can't say much more about that. Just mind yourself, as much as your surroundings." Hiro struck a profound pose for a moment, attempting to look heroic for a moment. "Never lose sight of yourself!!" Speaking in a profound manner as well, he found himself looking more like an idiot than before. Stopping his pose, he chuckled a bit, and continued onward. After a few moments of silence, though, he remembered how Val didn't know about the item for this quest. "Right, so the item we need to get. It's gonna sound gross, but it's called 'Boiled Slime Sludge'. I wouldn't recommend taking the item out of your inventory, if you get any, unless you have to in order to turn the quest in. But, that's what we need, and for this quest, to get the bonus, we'll need ten or more to clear it." He turned to her again. "We can stay out here all night, if you wanted to, collecting them!" He was joking, but somewhere inside him, he wouldn't mind it at all, if such a thing happened. But, it was her call for that.

[977 Words]
Tag: Valerie
Note: Sorry, lots of talking in this one. The closer I got to ending it, the more I thought of for writing. I gotta do that mentor thing here somewhere, don't I? XD Hope you enjoy, regardless!

[Valerie]

“Alright, the let’s do this!” Her mentor exclaimed with the same enthusiasm. Then Valerie felt a gentle pat on her shoulder as Hiro gently advised her to calm down a bit. The girl looked up and nodded, taking a deep breath to calm herself, realizing the reason her mentor had not let her excitement guide her actions. Reining in her enthusiasm, she contained in within herself, making sure to not let it take lead. It was never good to let something like excitement to lead one’s actions since it is not observant and is often impulsive which could be dangerous in many ways. The girl followed the monk’s gaze onto the path and walked beside him as he begun to walk again.

Randomly, he started to bounce on his toes in a similar fashion as she had previously. With a childish look on his face, he began to tease her, repeating the phrase, Gonna kill more slimes, and stuck out his tongue at the end, grinning. This made the girl chuckle lightly at him as she took on the mentor role and raised a brow condescending at Hiro, reaching up awkwardly to pat his shoulder and imitated her mentor. “Let’s tone it down just a bit, okay?” She teased in a teacher like voice, playing along with a smile and turned back to scan the area. Seeing the monk play around was rather relieving for the girl because it told her that her mentor was not someone who doesn’t understand jokes.

Valerie continued to walk silently beside Hiro as the monk began to talk about her fight earlier. The level one swashbuckler listened carefully to his comments, making note of what to do and what not to do. She smiled sheepishly when he mentioned blood-lust and her recklessness. I guess, I did get carried away… She noted to herself. On the topic of terrain, the monk pointed to a nearby tree and informed her about how it could be used as a cover or a weapon, but how it could also be used against you. As he concluded his mini lesson, the monk had winked at the girl but she simply just smiled back. Know your surroundings, and use them in different ways. She noted in her head as her mind wandered off again. He sure winks a lot… I guess, it just part of his personality. She concluded and shook her head in amusement. Valerie was enjoying her time with Hiro, though she was unsure about him at first, the swashbuckler trusted him and liked joking around with the monk.

The monk was silent for a moment before adding on to the lesson. Her mentor continued about keeping calm during a fight and not losing control. At the end, the tall monk struck a rather profound pose for a moment and concluded everything in a short statement, in a tone that projected the same feeling as his pose. The swashbuckler bit her lip, trying not to grin at her mentor’s actions which amused her to no end. Moments later, Hiro seemed to remember her previous question regarding the quest and explained the item which they were supposed to collect, Boiled Slime Sludge… Well doesn’t that sound pleasant. She thought sarcastically and turned to her mentor to clarify a question that was on her mind. “Mhm…Considering how I only used my daggers to kill the slimes, how would I collect the item?” She asked Hiro.

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OOC: It was great, thanks!

[Hirosame]

"You don't have to do much of anything to collect items." Hiro began, immediately responding to Valerie's question. "The item should appear in your inventory automatically, once you kill the monster required." Hiro opened up the interface and then his inventory menu, and put the item up for both of them to see. It only showed the name of the item, and the number of them he had in his possession. The interface appeared so that Val could see it as well, and he pointed to it. "You might wanna check your inventory, just to make sure you didn't pick some up. Then again, there's usually an interface that appears once you trade with someone and once you receive an item from a monster or quest. It's kinda like a confirmation screen, showing you what happened, when, how, and why." Hiro pulled the interface down, and looked over at the girl for a second. "I'm actually a little surprised that you don't know about that function, to be honest. Please don't take that offensively, though." Hiro smiled to her for a moment, then looked back to the road.

They were getting deeper into the forest, and both of them were looking around more actively for slimes to be seen in the area. While they hadn't seen anything for a few minutes now, since their last encounter, Hiro was hoping to find some slimes that they could fight. What he was thinking about doing was he'd go and fight a small group, just to show Val how fighting while keeping calm and using your surroundings can help out. A small enough group of slimes would be just fine for him to work with, since he didn't need to be in the middle of a large group. A large group, at this current level setting would likely screw him over, and he'd either die or be forced to swap back to maximum level, just to survive, but even then, that wouldn't be fun. Then it struck him: Could Val tell that he was a higher level than he is right now? He wondered about it for a minute, actually thinking that she might not know his total level. He didn't want to brag about being the level he was, since he didn't think levels were that big of a deal. It's all about the personal skill, and the personality. If someone's a high level and is a jackass, then screw them.

Hopefully, Val didn't think Hiro of being a jackass. Maybe a bit of a joker when it came to having fun and being active, but not like actually being mean. Though, he had to admit, the fact that she had come up to him and patted his shoulder, the way he had done to her a little while before, made it seem like she was pretty much okay with him. That, my dear reader, is one of Hiro's favorite things. Hiro loved to meet people and talk to them, as well as get along with them, and them getting along with his shenanigans. He's an active guy, always looking to move around a lot, whether it be day or night. Rain or shine. It's very difficult for him to stay in one place for a long time without doing something, or without having some kind of objective to fulfill. Thus, stakeouts are a difficult thing for him to do. However, he kind of observed the same of Valerie. Adrenaline pumping through one's body was enough of a drive for most people to get up and moving, and the Swashbuckler wasn't much different. This would make her into a character that Hiro wouldn't mind hanging out with in the future. While he thought about this, though, he had completely stopped looking around the area for monsters. He immediately snapped back into reality, a light blush on his face from embarrassment, and continued to look around for the slimes again. He hoped that they'd find some monsters soon, though. While walking and talking with Valerie is nice, it's also good to finish the objective at some point. Whenever that would be.

[688 Words]
Tag: Valerie

[Valerie]

Hiro opened his interface and showed the girl the item that appeared in his inventory. Valerie nodded and opened her own interface, checking her inventory and the same icon appeared in her inventory with a number two beside it, indicating that she had two boiled slime sludges. Her mentor mentioned his surprise on how the level one swashbuckler hadn’t known about the function. The girl smiled back and shrugged, not offended by his comment, before closing her interface. “It’s fine. But it turns out I have two slimes from the previous fight.” She informed the monk. “We’ve completed the quota, but let’s go for the bonus.” She said with a smile and the focused back onto the path.

The girl’s violet eyes scanned the area for slimes but also at the same time thinking about ways to use the current terrain to her advantage. For the past few minutes, there hadn’t seen any slimes and they weren’t walking slowly either. Valerie was content with the current speed at which they were going at, if anything she would like to go faster, but it was good enough. She was used to walking fast and was thankful for the fact that Hiro hadn’t slowed down, thinking she couldn’t walk fast enough. He was clearly much taller than her, and with long legs, his strides were quite long, but Valerie’s shorter strides were quicker. The swashbuckler was rather an impatient person and never did things without a purpose. Every move she made had a reason behind it, although the reason maybe something silly and random, but still enough of a purpose for her.

While they walked through the forest, the monk seemed to be pondering about something in the silence that had settled between them. The short swashbuckler brushed it off, realized that if the thing he was curious about was important enough, he’ll ask her about it. From what Valerie saw, Hiro did not seem to be one to remain silent when he has a question that could be answered, unlike herself who often sinks into herself, overanalyzing everything without simply asking for the answer. The girl was thankful that her mentor didn’t go off assuming things and had taken the time to ask her questions that he was curious about.

Valerie mentally scolded herself for not focusing and then cleared her mind of other thoughts and focused solely on the terrain they were currently in. Trees could be used as a weapon if I break off a branch but it could be an obstacle in a fight. She observed a series of trees that passed by. Bushes could be used a distraction if I take a rock and throw it at the bush to make a sound… And I could use rocks. The swashbuckler chuckled lightly at her own stupidity at forgetting about using rocks as a weapon. Her eyes darted around the forest until they rested on multiple little dull green blips that moved slowly but steadily away from the path. They were about to pass the slimes, so the small girl tapped her mentor’s shoulder and pointed left toward the moving blobs. “Slimes.” She said softly, her free hand resting on the hilt of her dagger. Though Valerie tensed slightly, she was not afraid of the slow moving monsters.

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