Tusks and Tails. [CG: Okami]

[Saber]

Do you believe in ghosts?

Following on instinct, the Hunter pulled back on the draw string of his bow as the time to strike came closer. The arrow which was nocked quivered slightly in his grasp, but it held strong for the most part and didn’t fall off the wooden frame. The bush the shadow crouched in shuddered, its leaves rustling and rubbing against each other as the player’s movement caused it to spread apart slightly. With a careful push, the hunter slid the glimmering metal end of his projectile out into the open space just beyond it, poking the tip out just enough so that the bush wouldn’t interfere for when he would release his end. Off the sharp point of the arrowhead, the hunter looked far, searching through the trees beyond him for the lone one target, the singled out shadow, which was unlucky enough to have come into the human’s crosshairs on this day. Survival was the name of this game, and the man armed with the silent weapon was becoming extremely good at winning it without breaking a sweat. The creature, which snorted loudly and rubbed one of its tusks against a tree, had been winning until today. For today the time it had spent playing, living, was drawing to a close. As Saber drew his arrow back, he signed the final note of the boar’s footprint on the world. Then, he took in a deep breath.

ssssssssssss…. Fwop…. SQUEEE—

The moment was short and the forest came to life for only a split second as Saber released his held breath, and the arrow along with it. The bowstring whipped forward, launching the loaded flying scythe into the boar’s direction. The arrow, weak alone but a violent weapon of destruction in the hands of the higher level player, soared swiftly through the air before piercing the neck of the boar as it stood up straight. In that moment, the boar had taken a breath from itching its tusk. In that moment, it exposed its flesh just enough. It was in that moment, that Saber capitalized, because after that moment, the boar was turned to nothing but a breeze filled with crystalized data and a pile of items. Saber stood up from his crouched position and lowered his bow to the side, staring across the twenty foot distance he had between himself and the last location of his target. He was both filled with joy because of the shot and he was also concerned. The experience he gained wasn’t much and the items dropped were not exactly things that could be considered trophies by any means. The higher level player had preyed on these weak monsters for so long that it was becoming pathetic to hunt them. He needed something to change his life, to change his pace. The bored player needed some other monster to track that could actually give him a fight.

He considered leaving the zone, but then as he glanced at his bow, he realized that doing such a thing would probably be a horrible idea. His equipment was falling apart at the seams, every seam, and his bow’s durability was most likely on the verge of reaching the lowest possible setting available. In reality, Saber would have replaced his bow after a year of using it consistently, but the item he used seemed to have several years of wear on it. It hurt to see a weapon in such condition but it was all he had for the moment. The player was still working on his blacksmithing skill and transferring working with metal to working with wood was a bit difficult in a game. The hunter had made several bows in reality before, but that was when he had the tools and the actual materials. In the world of Elder Tale, the player had only just recently found a mine to get some ore from. He hadn’t found where to get string yet, nor had he found any fiber flowers he could use to manufacture a string himself. It was kind of annoying.

However, it was something to be expected. Saber had just come to this world recently and he didn’t know a single thing about the surrounding zone until recently. Now that he was exploring more and not just shooting everything in sight, the player was beginning to stumble upon much more materials, much more hidden surprises within the shadows of the trees, and he was starting to find multiple higher level animals. No longer was he hunting rabbits or baby boars because of his horrible luck. Saber was beginning to find things like weasels, older boars, and he had seen some much large creatures during his hunts but elected to avoid them. Such massive beasts, no matter what they were, would be far too difficult to bring down if Saber only had a starting bow. He needed to create something of much higher quality first before he took on anything larger than himself. With that in mind, it seemed it was time to find another herd.

As he picked up his items, Saber opened up his menu and another message box. He added a dash to a tally he had going on and raised the count from twelve to thirteen. It was a miniscule number compared to his first few days when he, to put it simply, performed a blitzkrieg strike on the lower level area of the forest. He didn’t let a single creature get away then and his kill counts averaged around twenty three or twenty four every five hours. He was on top of everything then and his eyes were always searching for his next prey. Today, and twenty levels later, Saber was much more patient. He singled out his targets, tracked them down until he was in a safe distance to shoot from, and took each monster down with as few shots as possible. Before there would have been six or seven arrows in the ground by the time Saber got his kill. Seeing himself be able to finish off a boar with only one, well placed shot, made him feel much better about himself now.

The only downside was that it took much more time. In that time, Saber had lost the other group of boar he was tracking. The group was a small one with, at max, six boar total. Four of them were older and two were younger. Saber had just finished off one of the adults, bringing the number down to five total; three adults and two youngsters. The boar he had just shot hadn’t strayed very far from the group so Saber could safely assume they were still nearby. How nearby though was a different question on its own, leaving Saber with the choice of attempting to find the group again or to find something else to hunt entirely. It made him sigh, but Saber decided to do both. He held his bow in his hand and used his “Silent Move” skill to make his steps inaudible as he started to make his way back towards the last known location of the boar pack.

: Post Title :
-On The Hunt-

: Word Count :
1,188

: Skills Used :
Silent Move

: Tagged :
Saber

: Notes :
One shot, One kill.

Coded By Saber of L33T T3@M

[Okami]

One might not consider the overly excitable fox-tail to be a hunter. And to some extent, or rather the blunt truth bludgeoning itself square into the poor girls head, was that she wasn't a good hunter. Frankly, she sucked at it. Despite the racial advantage one might expect to come with being a living, breathing fox woman, with fully functional heightened senses and some might say even reflexes (which mattered very little in comparison to her fellow adventurers since everyone's reflexes were heightened), the sorcerer just could not for the life of her manage to track and catch wildlife to save her life. Oh sure, she could viciously murder them well enough, but expect her to catch the meat fresh and wiggling? You'd be better off slamming your head against the wall. You would certainly have a better chance of success that way than letting the little dynamo of spirited destruction try to successfully snare a meal.

Her ancestors must be crying at her ineptitude. You know, if they were real. And not just pre-programmed back story.

But even her acknowledged lack of capability at catching them alive didn't stop the little woman from continuing to try, and failing spectacularly, at the hunt. For even now she prowled the forests next to London, tail swishing to and fro as she stalked the wildlife. And by stalk when mean crawling across the ground on all fours trying her best to keep out of sight. The little fuzzy ears and tail sticking out of the tall grass was a high sign that she was doing it wrong. Drudging her way through the muck and grim, past the sticks and fallen leaves, the fox-tail sniffed her way around the area. And by around, we really do mean around. She'd been going in circles fro awhile now. It seems the tall grass had confused her, gotten her into a spiraling and unyielding expedition into the the untamed grass that had left her strafing around the area. Sometimes even going in reverse when it'd finally clicked 'hey, I'm not accomplishing anything. I should be trying something else' and proceeding to strafe in the other direction. This had happened several times already.

But by some estranged miracle, she'd broken out of her self-inflicted torture, crawling her way across new terrain in the brush. Two soft, fluffy ears slowly rose up from seemingly nowhere. They appeared at the very end of a log, flickering and twitching in delight. Slowly, and surely, they bumped their way down the log's mossy self. It was the only thing that appeared, for the Fox-tail was being extra careful you see. She had finally found, through tireless effort and imagination, totally imagination, that entire time she was just luring them into a false sense of security! Really!...She'd found her target of focus. It was a little smaller than she'd imagine it be, but Okami wasn't picky in her prey. The majestic beast had appeared before her, as if a gift from the gods them-selves for all her hard work, and she would not squander her opportunity.

Inching her way down the mossy path, she came to a stop at the very end, where the log split into a connected branch and quietly raised her head up from it's perfectly hidden location behind the log. She grinned down at her prey, tooth on display for all to see. "Did you think you could escape me~? You should have known this day would come. No one can escape the greatest hunter in the world~ Ohohohoho~"

The beetle flickered it's wings, looking as if it was contemplating simply flying off from this idiot or sticking around to see just how stupid she could get.

She looked down at the stag beetle, copper colored exoskeleton shining dully in the mid-day sun. It's jagged jaws were on display as a warning, as a reminder to anyone trying to toy with the little critter that it was packing something sharp and painful and you'd be an idiot to mess with me. He, Okami assumed he since she wasn't someone who was overly familiar with insects, that was entirely unacceptable for a prim and proper lady of ancient Brittan, seemed perfectly un-threatened by her presence. Was it that the beetle thought he could get away whenever he so choose? Or maybe he simply didn't think the little ball of fluff watching him at the moment wasn't worth his time to notice? Did this insect deem the mighty sorcerer Okami beneath it's notice?

A single, dainty finger was raised into the air, and like the predictable outcome that it was, it moved towards the insect with all the grace of a small child prodding an animal with a stick. The fox-tail nudged it in the rear a few times, trying to see if she could provoke it into some kind of action. It flickered it's wings a few more times. Okami frowned, looking down at the tiny beetle, apparently unamused by it's lack of fleeing in terror. "Hey hey, don't you want to run away?" She nudged it a little more. "I'm a big, bad, mean and scary fox-tail sorcerer~ You should be fleeing in terror of my majestic greatness and offering me your daughters to ravish so I'll leave your little insect village alone~"

Then, after a very, very brief moment of contemplation, the sorcerer made a face. "Not that I'd want any bug to ravish. Ewww."

The bug gave her another look of 'are you an idiot?' Or at least, that's what Okami thought it was doing. It just kind of sat there, flicking open it's wings, keeping an eye on the large and potentially dangerous predator that was standing over it. But this bug, you might have realized, was a pro at dealing with larger wildlife. The younger beetles, the more foolish, would have ran by now. Would have sparked the larger creature's interest. Made it gave chase. The secret it would tell you, in the clitter-bug mumbling that was the native tongue of stags, was to simply stay still. They can't see you, it would assure the younger generation just as they hatched from their eggs. Practically blind and can't notice you without some movements. Stupid creatures, really. Entirely beneath your effort and waste of energy. Give them enough time and they'll go away on their own.

Unless they were those big harry things with the sharp fronts. They'd just smell and gobble you up given the chance. Those guys were dicks.

"Hey, hey, do something already" It continued to poke the slowly agitated insect. The beetle looked up at the stupid pinkette, unable to understand the language it spoke, but realizing that this idiot wasn't going to go away without some external nudging. Protips be damned, this thing was getting on it's nerves and it wasn't about to let some arrogant big creature get the best of it. It was suicidal, the beetle knew, to do what it planned, but that was fine. It lived a long and honest life of forging, siring new generations into the world, spreading it's knowledge and teaching. It could afford to be a little reckless after a life time security and safe choices.

Jaws opened, target set, the beetle leaped. And a scream filled the area.

The first thing out of the tall grass was a tiny insect, happily flying it's way to safety. If one could read the facial expressions of stag beetles, a very ancient and highly thought of skill set known to the greatest of sages, they would find it looking entirely too smug for it's own good. Trailing behind the creature, a single finger in her mouth, was a depressed looking fox-tail. Her ears had dropped, and her tail sagged behind her. It was like the very life had been stolen away from this poor child. "Owie..." She muttered, gently sucking on a single finger. A few stray tears formed their way at the tips of the woman's eyes, but she couldn't cry. The sorcerer was a big girl. She could handle a little bite from a measly insect!

...Sniffles.

"W-well," she started, finally releasing the tip of her finger from it's mouthy prison, "I-I didn't want to be your friend or anything anyway! Stupid bug!" She yelled at nothing in particular. Looking down, back up, she felt her usual spirit drained. Putting her hands in her skirts pockets, she kicked over a rock, awkwardly standing in the middle of an area.

"Ah," Okami finally realized something, taking her hands back out and hitting the fist of one into the open palm of another. "I should go hunt some boars." Mindless death and slaughter. That would make her feel better. Not all those fancy, smansy hunting. That was for posers. Real adventurers maimed and pillaged and plundered up front. Like a real (wo)man. "Piggies, piggies~" She called out, the previous sourness having been flipped on it's head and replaced with mischievous intent. "The big, bad fox-tail is coming to huff and puff and blow you all to smithereens~" The sorcerer grinned with a cat like enthusiasm, tails perking up to it's usual tussle and swishing back and forth with fervor.

The game was on. Nature vs. her. And Okami would come out on top in the end.

"Ohohohoho~" The fox-tailed laughed, rolling her hips as she walked deeper into the forests, looking for any lost little boars to acquaint with her ever lovely ice spells of death.

---
Word count: 1,582
OOC: I made a beetle smug as neep and win over an adventurer. What the hell am I huffing. *Sniffs herbs* We'll meet up in the next round of posts, probably while murdering boars. Up to you whether we meet before or during boar murder.

[Saber]

Do you believe in ghosts?

In order to get a better view of the messy area around himself, Saber stepped up onto an old, rotted log and used it as a step so he could hop up towards a lower hanging tree branch. He wasn’t strong enough to lift himself completely onto the platform, but he was strong enough to at least grab onto the forest limb and hold himself up above the ground higher than usual. From there, he was able to see much further and could look over much of the vegetation around him in every direction, except to his direct right as the player hadn’t exactly learned how to see through solid objects yet. Then again, Saber doubted that would even be possible because of how semi-realistic the game was with its mechanics. Trying to comprehend how such a skill would work didn’t interest the dangling player at all, though he did think it would have been cool to have some kind of X-Ray vision. As he glanced around, scanning the deck of the forest around him, Saber chuckled slightly at the thought of being able to see through all of the annoying shrubs and bushes only to see more of the same stupid shrubs and bushes on the other side. Talk about a waste of a skill.

Seeing nothing in his general vicinity that interested him, Saber released the tree branch and dropped back down carefully onto the log beneath him. He grumbled at the lack of anything to hunt and cursed at himself for choosing to single a monster out and leave the large group behind rather than just kill them all at once. At first, it was a sound idea and he went along with his instincts without second guessing it or even weighing the consequences, but it was a foolish mistake. Saber was still stuck in the belief that his real world tactics would work here and translate over easily, but even after all of his days and nights fighting and tracking beneath his belt; the fool continued to forget the simple fact that this was not reality. The massive-multiplayer game, Elder Tale, was a game just as the name stated it was. Hunting a single target wasn’t going to cut it here simply because it only gave a small amount of experience, basic items, and didn’t exactly give him much food, if it did at all for that matter. Saber needed to focus on group strikes and eliminating more than one target at a time if he was going to be successful. He needed speed with his shots, aggression when engaging targets, and an ambition to take on larger groups if he wanted to level beyond where he was at quickly. His goal was the top where his Guardian had been, and getting there was much harder without a party.

As an Assassin, Saber had to rely mostly on his own personal skill out in the wilderness. He was the hunter, he was the tank, he was the healer, he was the tracker, and he was the killer. As a Guardian, he had grown used to inciting monsters to attack him and taking the damage from their attacks while allowing others to fire in around him. It sucked going from that class to an almost entirely solo-playing class, but Saber had to deal with it. It was sad because the class’s solo-playing ability was the exact reason Saber had chosen Assassin for his main class, even if it was just coincidence that he had done it right when he was literally sucked into the game. He still didn’t trust people and the world was nowhere near what he wanted it to be. If he wanted to influence it at all, Saber needed to reach his objectives and would have to do so steadily. He needed not only to surge through his levels rapidly, but he also needed to make himself a worthy enough player in general. With a quick glance at his ragged clothing, he looked more like a homeless person than anyone who was actually strong. Even his scarf was starting to show some age to it and that thing was a high quality piece of work. It was probably the most expensive thing the man had aside from the bow he had.

With his shameful look on his mind, it was only logical that Saber began to consider calling off his hunt in exchange for a day of shopping and trading. He definitely needed to get some new clothes and a new weapon. Even if he would have to buy everything from some non-player shop, he needed something, anything. If he found a player shopkeeper, than that would be even better for him because Saber would be able to customize a little, but he knew full well it might cost a little extra for it. Although it would be tougher than any NPC piece of scrap cloth, and Saber could use all the armor and extra protection that he could get out here. Death was not an option for him. His health had not fallen anywhere close to the point where he ever had to worry about death, but it was still on his mind. What really happened when an Adventurer died? Deep inside, that was a question Saber wanted, no he needed, to answer. The Hunter considered shooting someone random that he happened to come across while wandering around, someone with a very low level who wasn’t looking at him. The only issue was that if he actually killed them, both the character and the player behind the monitor, than he knew full well that his mind wouldn’t be able to bare it. Saber would kill a person, have their blood on his hands, and his mind would fall into shambles immediately after the moment he realized the wrong he had done. It was too risky of a thing to test, so he would have to continue to tread lightly.

The player took a gentle step down off the log and began to make his way forward again, continuing towards the direction of where he had last seen the pigs he was searching for. When he passed a pair of closely standing trees, the grass to his right rustled. His reactions kicked and the player immediately snapped an arrow against his bow, nocking it and pulling back on the string. For a moment, he stood there and quietly stared at the bush, waiting patiently for something to appear. It didn’t take long for something to do just that, but the shadow moved so quickly that Saber failed to even release his arrow before he was forced to give chase. A low hiss escaped the man’s lips and he kicked through the brush with haste, tearing through the bushes and hurdling over another small branch as he started the pursuit. From the back, and a swift evaluation of the shadow’s size and shape; Saber determined he was chasing down a boar, and a big one at that.

Coming upon a large tree that had tipped over, Saber separated his arrow from the bow he held and picked up his speed. The player glanced to his right and used his peripheral vision to track the target, watching as it sped forward straight towards the log. Sneering, the Hunter nocked his arrow again and decided to exchange a bit of speed for preparation. The log drew closer… closer… closer… closer! Closer until the player was forced to either jump over it or jump on top of it. He chose the second and swiftly stepped up onto the mossy wood. It was slick, wet, and mushy beneath his boot but the player kept steady as he began to run in a diagonal line towards his target. The boar chose the first option and hurdled over the top of the toppled spire, diving into a bush on the other side of the log. When it popped out the other end, Saber was ready and jumped up into the air over the top of the cluster of nature. Drawing back, Saber yanked the arrow into a firing position and then released. The low level arrow shot forward, piercing the lower back of the boar. Upon impact, the arrow shattered ninety percent of the animal’s health bar and caused the boar to squeal loudly with displeasure and pain. It continued to surge forward though, pumping its feet as it continued its attempt to escape.

Snagging another arrow from his quiver, Saber stopped running and took a solid stance. The boar continued to bolt forward, running faster and faster as it neared a broken down log. The player behind it sucked in air and pulled the bowstring he clutched until it was taut, and then he pulled a little more. The thin, weak line of string strained and begged for relief while the wood crackled a little from the pressure. Saber ignored it and leveled his shot, tracking the boar with the tip of his arrow. The instant the boar hesitated and adjusted, preparing its body for a leap of faith over the log in front of it, Saber lifted his bow and fired, releasing his held breath and his deadly projectile. The shot surged forward and arced through the air as gravity immediately snagged the light object. As the pig leapt into the air, Saber’s arrow came down. Before the pig could get a few inches off the mossy floor beneath it, a sharp piece of metal dived downwards from the sky above and dug its way into the creature’s right side, cutting into the digital flesh and wedging itself inside. It was a magical sight to see as the pig looked as if it suddenly grew wings and ascended to heaven before bursting apart into pixels and items. Saber chuckled at the sight, but he didn’t have long to think about it.

Right after the next kill of his hunt, more bushes rustled to his left. As if the sudden sight of a familiar face being turned to dust had alerted them all, a cluster of four other pigs began to move rapidly forward and away from the scene. Hissing was becoming a habit of Saber’s, as he released another one in reaction to the sight before him. He had found his targets and there was no hiding it; they knew where he was too. Thankfully, they seemed to all be going in the same direction so he had something to work with. Before they could get to far and Saber was left standing around thinking about strategy all day, he took off and gave chase. Using longer strides, the player crossed more space in less time for only a few seconds before he pulled his steps in. It didn’t take long for him to close in, but by then it seemed like the boars in front of him were also growing tired. One of them was heaving and squealing loudly. In response, Saber chose that pig as his first target. Sorting out the weak was his best option, as they would be the first ones to start dancing around the forest in attempts to lose him.

Saber took his chance and moved up to the right side of the four boars, watching as they began to spread out slightly into two groups; each group contained one adult boar and a youngster. His target was on the right and it gave Saber a chance to relax because of how much closer it was to him. The player nodded to himself and picked up speed slightly, increasing just enough to get ahead of the beasts. Then, he prepared his shot. The very instant he had the arrow loaded, Saber skidded to a stop and leveled his bow. The arrow balanced on the bowstring and Saber sucked in air. The boar appeared, and Saber released. His projectile soared through the air and it was at the moment, he realized he had made a mistake.

Just on the other side of the boar, and barely in his view, Saber could see what looked to be a fluffy pink looking tail wiggling in the air. The man cursed and was about to shout, but it was too late. The arrow whizzed by the tail he had accidentally shot at, thankfully missing it, and slammed into the thick trunk of the tree beside it. Regret of not checking his surroundings flushed through Saber’s mind as he watched his targets spread out and take more drastic escape routes. For only a moment, Saber ignored the tail he shot at and swiftly steadied another shot. Before the pigs could get away, he fired again, choosing speed over accuracy, and struck the younger boar in the backside. The damage stacked up just enough to empty its health bar, killing it almost instantly on impact. However the bigger boar, which would have net more experience, was able to escape, leaving Saber to deal with only one extra kill.

“Damn it.” The Hunter whispered as he lowered his bow, accepting defeat as he watched the bushes in the distance shake. If it wasn’t for that stupid tail, he would have been fine but it seemed that the forest was more attractive to people than the higher leveled player initially thought. This was the second time in the forest someone had disturbed his attempts of leveling. Hopefully this time it wouldn’t be a woma--…
“Oh for christ’s sake.” As Saber started to make his way over towards where the pink tail was, he realized his shot had barely missed a woman, one that looked as if she was in her mid-teens. Though, he doubted her personality would reflect that. Because of the game’s influence, Saber doubted anyone acted the way they looked. It was a given whenever someone was given a mask. For now, he would just have to deal with whatever she may say to him and get it over with.

“My apologies Miss, I did not see you there. Are you alright?” Saber stepped out from behind the tree blocking his view of the lady and spoke loud enough so she would be able to hear him clearly, but he kept his voice low enough so that it wouldn’t echoed. He wanted to apologize, not tell the world that he was sorry.

: Post Title :
-Pink Tailed Pursuit-

: Word Count :
2,394

: Skills Used :
N/A

: Tagged :
Saber, Pink-Tailed Player

: Notes :
There's too many women in this game.

Coded By Saber of L33T T3@M

[Okami]

There was a whizzing. It hadn't exactly clicked what had happened before it was too late. It sang through the air, bolting past her tail and piercing square into the tree trunk next to her. The fox-tail froze in place, arms frozen mid swing and a single leg up as she was about to make way towards the commotion she'd heard. The sorcerer looked at the arrow that had hit the trunk and slowly turned her head towards the general direction that it'd flung out, sweating a bit.

It'd been a hunter of some kind, she thought, considering the fact that a bow was used. She wasn't exactly all up to date on the information involved with Elder Tales, having taken a skimmed interest at the line up at best, but Okami was entirely sure that bows were affiliated with the 'hunter' roleplay class...as well as some other main classes that allowed bows and the person could just be playing one of those classes instead so hey, what did she know? Another arrow shot it's way out of the brush, striking down another piggie. The rest got the general idea of 'if we stand around we're going to die' and made a break for it, shooting through the grass and forests. The biggest, she realized, had gotten away. Didn't seem big enough to be a momma, but it was certainly plump enough for some delicious experience. Alas.

Then she heard a voice call out to her and her eyes slowly trailed over to the visitor. Well, she thought, her certainly looked like a hunter. "Ooooh~ No I'm fine~" She admitted with some energy, but not exactly her 'full power' as it were. It was then, and only then, that the woman realized she was still frozen in place. Letting her arms drop and fall behind her, clasping them together, the fox-tail rolled back and forth on the balls of her feet. "Ehehehe~" She laughed, embarrassed that she'd been caught. "Quite the shot you got there mista~ You a hunter?" She asked curiously, eying the man and his bow.

---
Word Count: 348
OOC: Posts posts posts.

[Saber]

Do you believe in ghosts?

After Saber was able to get a closer look at the condition of the fluffy tailed person he had accidentally shot at, he could clearly see that she wasn’t injured in any way. Not physically at least. From her posture; she seemed to have been frightened by the noise of his shot and froze up. And yet, he was more worried about her being a woman than being injured. He had some terrible luck out in the wilderness with the opposite gender and he would have appreciated it if for once, just once, that he would have the opportunity to run into another male player. The estrogen levels in the world he currently lived in where to damn high and it was making him extremely uncomfortable. In his life on the other side of the monitor, Saber interacted with only one or two women on a daily basis and he knew both of them personally so it was easier to deal with them. However here in the new world, he didn’t know a single person. The fact that his list of women interacted with was increasing began to make Saber question the actual gender of half the people he had met. There was no way to tell if the player on the other side of the monitor was the same gender they were in the game, and that went for both sides of the coin. For Saber, he felt awkward every time he talked to a woman in game because of the likelihood that it was a male on the other end trying to take advantage of his own gender, and that made him cautious when partying with females. The fact that all the players he had interacted with so far were women; Saber was on the verge of reverting to the two rules of the internet Shiori had told him about, rules twenty-nine and thirty; there are no girls on the internet.

For now, he had bigger problems that needed his attention other than the apple and banana conflict. Due to the woman being in his path and snagging his attention, he had lost sight the creatures he was hunting and didn’t have long to track them down. Although, he now had an advantage which he didn’t have before of because of his slaying one of the pigs before they could escape. The small amount of experience he gained caused a light to flash above his head as the game registered the kill and his Tracker level increased into the next threshold. At the same time, he was notified of a change in his skill list on his display. Saber initially had ignored the notification, as well as his level up, as he elected to instead check on the player which had mysteriously appeared. Now that he had confirmed the woman’s safety and the fact that he had just barely missed her, he could finally check on what had happened to his own avatar and what new weapon he had in his arsenal. Before he checked on that though, the woman had acknowledged him. She also seemed interested in how he was dressed, strangely enough. The man never knew that rags and tattered clothes were interesting beyond the fact that there was a story for each hold in his pants, but from her question it seemed she was more interested in his class than those old man tales.

As much as he felt that she avoided everything else about him, the Assassin wasn’t bothered by her straight-forward question about what kind of character he was as it seemed to be rare to see players with bows. In his time, Saber had only come across ten players total during his time playing Elder Tale, and that included his current time actually living in the world. Two of the users played like he did currently; they kept to themselves and leveled in the wilderness all by themselves except for when they needed to clear a dungeon of sorts. The others were much more active and played as support characters rather than mesh with the attack roles. It was a pity to see such powerful avatars be used so weakly. He was in no place to argue in the end, as everyone had their own play style, even if it was a horrible one.

“Of sorts.” As he answered the question, Saber followed the woman’s eyes as she stared him down. It was weird, but he felt naked because of her gaze. The fox tail was staring right at him, evaluating his avatar most likely to discern what he was. The experience was a new one and to sum up what he thought; he never wanted it to happen again and he wanted to hide himself in the closest bush. The man felt exposed and nude before the prying fox eyes.

“Women…” Was the mental excuse Saber used to end his mental terror and diverted his eyes towards the menu he brought up rather than try to understand what the fox tail was searching for. The man tapped across the virtual screen, switching to the skill list so he could see what new weapon he had available. To his surprise, it was Eagle Track, a skill which allowed the user to actively follow the footsteps of a targeted player or monster. It was a perfect addition, and one he had been praying for. Now he could deal with losing a target for a short period as long as he knew their general direction. However, this time he didn’t simply trudge off. The player glanced over at the hot pink foxtail and wiggled his nose beneath his scarf. She could be of use…

“You asked me a question, so I will ask you one; does your class enhance your scent?” Saber had an idea in mind, but it would only work if the woman indeed had some sort of nose-enhancing racial skill. If she didn’t, then he would have to hunt the way he regularly did. It wasn’t a necessity for the woman to say yes, but Saber hoped she did. In the real world, Saber’s pup helped him during hunts with sniffing out pray and finding new animal’s to track simply by the scent left behind. He didn’t have the pet luxury here, and due to his subclass being Tracker rather than the Hunter subclass, Saber couldn’t make any friends out in the wild for the time being. That left him with one other choice; he would have to bring along this new face if possible.

: Post Title :
-Confirmation and Confetti-

: Word Count :
1,094

: Skills Used :
N/A

: Tagged :
Saber, Pink Fox Tail Woman

: Notes :
Women and their Curiosity

Coded By Saber of L33T T3@M

[Okami]

"Ooh~" She cheered, more to her-self than anything. 'Sort of' to her was a 'I am most definitely a hunter'. Because as far as she can remember in her time stuck in Elder Tales, he'd been the first bowman she'd run across. Plenty of big, muscular manly men monks or solemn, shy knight women with the kind of sword arm that anyone would be afraid of. But this was her first real encounter with anyone using ranged weaponry outside of magic. So, naturally, her curiosity got the best of her. Not that the pinkette fox-tail wouldn't have been curious regardless, but now he was going to be on the receiving end of her blunt of questions regarding the class, him-self, what he was doing, what he plans to do afterwards, the weather, shiny things and possibly a discussion on her very fluffy tails. Not necessarily in that order. or even one at a time.

And just as the sorcerer was about to being her tirade of questions, finger raised and mouth a gaped, he'd turned away. More specifically, he'd was working through his menu's. Had the hunter had a message from someone or possibly gained a level? That could be it. Or maybe he was trying to simply ignore her by faking being busy? Now that would just be unacceptable. With a huff, she balled her fists and marched her way right up to the hunter. "Hey, hey," she called for his attention, bouncing her way around him. "It's rude to ignore a lady, you know!" She declared, sounding pouty at his sudden lack of interest in their conversation.

Then the hunter had turned to her, and asked the weirdest question. "Eh?" The sorcerer blinked, flattening her feet and wiggling her nose unconsciously. "Well," Okami started, "I certainly do have good smell as a fox-tail..." She was, after all, not human at the moment. The sorcerer was a mixture of beast and man, made through some kind of crazy wizard science by the people of the land, according to flavor text. "Why do you want to know?" She inquired, curiosity once more getting the best of her.

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Word Count: 357
OOC: SHH. I'M HUNTING WABBITS.