A Girl and her Chicken [Mentor | Snowfell Festival | Akira]

[Icyferno]

Status: Healthy | Rested

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Chickens. Every Adventurer should know of the bird, given that their being here means that their family must have had enough money to at least afford a basic computer. If they could afford a computer, surely they would know of the bird which was widely consumed by the general public! The popular poultry was often used completely, from eggs to meat to feathers to organs, all in the name of consumption. Organs were mostly for medicinal purposes though. These flightless birds were one of the many animals which Adventurers could recognize from their past lives, and any Adventurer with half a brain would know food when they see it. Naturally, chickens were mostly domesticated by the People of the Land, so there was no sudden depopulation of wild chickens due to overhunting since there were few wild chickens to begin with. That was not to say that the Adventurers had forgotten the taste of chicken though. Once the discovery of taste had been made, there were large orders placed for everything from vegetables to chickens to exotic ingredients, and the chicken stock of farmers fell drastically for a brief period of time as the market struggled to adjust itself.

Much time had past since the first Adventurers who had really good internet connection arrived, so there was plenty of time for the market price to hit the equilibrium price of supply and demand. Despite the meats of other creatures such as boars taking prominence in the market for meat due to the influx of fresh boar meat from newer Adventurers everyday, chicken was still a respectable source of meat, one recognized by Adventurers the world over.

When winter comes, food becomes scarce. The prices of many foods creep up without the forces of globalization to combat the lack of a food supply, and the Adventurers were often left with no choice but to dig deeper into their walllets to pay for their sustenance. With higher costs come more work, and as people always say, those who don't work don't get to eat. It was the way of the world: There was no such thing as a free lunch. But there also existed another thing in the world, and it was called: Opportunity.

Records of the People of the Land indicate that the wilds of Moon Dance Village erupt with wild chicken activity at the end of the year. Known as [Snow Chicken], these lumps of meat were fairly weak, to the point that a seasoned Person of the Land hunter could easily kill a dozen of them a day, given the right positioning and some modicum of skill, all in preparation for the Snowfell Festival. Conducted over several days, it starts with a fairly large Farmer's Market where farmers sell their things, which was strange to the Swashbuckler since he thought that they should have been selling their produce all year round instead. The highlight of the Snowfell Festival in Moon Dance Village was to have the chicken killed throughout the season cooked and eaten in one big night, the climax of the festival, before things slowly go back to normal.

Since he was now residing in Moon Dance Village, that meant that he, too, was included in the festivities. While he could have simply holed up in his home from start to finish, that would be terribly rude of him, so he stuck his head out and went to help with the preparations. Since Adventurers were obviously stronger than the People of the Land, as if that had not been emphasized countless times, the Adventurers were asked to hunt down the [Snow Chicken]. In return, they would get some free fried chicken during the festival. It seemed like an okay deal, and since Icyferno had nothing to do at the moment, he pitched in to hunt the bird, lured in by the promise of succulent, crispy poultry. Also, if he could capture some to rear, that would be a bonus for him. Skuggi was not interested in hunting down food for sport, so it opted to stay at home to slack off, or do whatever it usually does in its spare time. Maybe it waters itself secretly?

The cold weather outside made him wish he had purchased a thick, heavy coat, while also making him slightly regret his decision to go hunt the [Snow Chicken]. He wondered if their feathers could be used in coats. Probably not, he did not see many chicken feather coats in the old world. Maybe he could start a new fashion trend? Nah, it would probably end in failure, he was no Tailor. Or maybe some pillows? He could always do with more pillows. Maybe build a pillow fort for fun, if he had that many feathers.

Anyway, he had to hunt the [Snow Chicken] first, so he could get the meat to the People of the Land. Whether they would let him keep the feathers or not was an issue he would have to solve when he got to it. As he entered the forest, he began to hear the sounds of chickens making their signature chicken noises. Seems that there were some Adventurers already starting the hunt. He hurried his pace slightly, if only to find the fattest chickens to bag.

And then there was a girl, a girl he had never seen before. Then again, he did not remember the faces of many a female Adventurer anyway, so maybe he had seen her, once or twice. Or he just had a really bad memory. He probably did not get out enough, he should increase his social activity.

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Word count: 936
Total word count (Swashbuckler): 936 x 1.35 = 1263.6
Notes: I did not know what Akira was doing, so I left it open.
Tags: Akira

[Akira]

Akira hymned and skipped along happily through the snowy moondance village. Today was going to be a good day. As soon as she woke up Akira had quickly decided that today she would do something a little crazy today and invite in her goddess’ tendencies of insanity and do some crazy stuff involving chickens on this day. Akira went to market on her way to the forest and started buying the ingredients for the fun she had planned for herself. Akira went to each individual stall and bought a few things from each of them. All the stalls were either produce or food or meat related which is exactly what she needed. All of her shopping took about a good hour or two for her to finish. After she finished shopping Akira started hopping to the woods like a bunny with her hair bouncing with every jump and her fox tail swinging happily along the way to the moondance forest. She was gonna have so much fun. Akira was grinning ear to ear when she arrived to the forest. It was time to catch some chickens. Akira quickly materialized one of her red katanas in her hand and started chasing after all the chickens slashing random and hitting practically everything except the chickens, even herself a few times. Akira yelled and sang loudly like a crazy person as she chased through the woods slashing at everything with a single katana. “ COME ON CHICKENS! LEMME CATCH ONE YOU BEAUTIES! I PROMISE WE’LL HAVE A LOT OF FUN TOGETHER!” she yelled as she laughed manically. This was already being an extreme amount of fun for her. After several hours of slashing a lot of things and making her throat her from excessive loudness and laughing Akira materialized her katana back into her inventory and set about catching a chicken with her bare hands by sneaking up on one. Akira slowly and silently walked around the woods trying to find an unlucky chicken. She enjoyed the sneaking around a lot too. After about an hour Akira finally caught one of the damned chickens. She held it close as she ran around trying to find a big enough space to do her thing.



Moments later Akira found one and while still hugging the chicken she got out a large piece of beige cloth out and set the chicken on it. Surprisingly the chicken didn’t run away. It simply stayed on the cloth. It appeared that the chicken had accepted its fate. She smiled as she continued getting out the rest of what she’d need to this. Akira now had a knife and a lot of random vegetables out on the ground next to her. She took the knife and cut off the chicken’s head. Now the chicken was dead and a lot of blood was gushing out of the chicken’s body. She collected the blood in the cup and looked around quickly. It was at that moment she discovered a male adventurer who was watching her. She looked at him and realized how weird it must be for him. “ Uh… Hey there? I’m Akira and I’m just doing some worship for the goddess I worship. Her name is Lyssa and she’s the goddess of insanity and rabies. But don’t mind me. Just continue along with whatever you’re doing.” Akira smiled at the man before adding, “ unless you want to help. It’s actually pretty fun.”


Word count: 570 x 1.25= 712.5
Tags: Icyferno
Notes: enjoy . I had a lot of fun writing this one and my eyes burn ahhaa

[Icyferno]

Status: Healthy | Rested

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The girl in question was revealed to be Akira, a fellow Swashbuckler, with the aid of the system identifying her. As all female Adventurers went, she was pretty, though a little on the skinnier side, and appeared to be the around the average height of a young girl. Which reminded him, he never did find out whether such characters had smaller hit boxes. He guessed they do now, technically. Even without the system assistance, he could tell that she was a Fox Tail due to her ears and tail, though given the way some liked to cosplay, sometimes it was hard to tell. He wondered what it was like to have those though. Having chosen Human, he had the advantage of being more familiar with his new body, but might have lost racial advantages for that early boost.

In short, she was the type of girl who would be adorable and very popular in real life (though it still depended on her actual personality) who gave off a lively vibe. Also a type of person he would find difficult to associate with, since he lacked social training in dealing with females in general. Thankfully, killing a bunch of weak [Snow Chicken] could be done solo, so there should not have been any problems there.

The girl in question appeared to have recently caught and killed a chicken, evident by the remains of a mess of blood which indicated either a killing blow or an amateur butchering what could have been a clean cut. Honestly, he was probably going to haul all the chickens back to Moon Dance village since he was uncertain in his chicken preparation skills. Most of the blood was collected in a cup which was unfortunately not described by the owner, and thus remained 'just a cup full of blood'. He had no idea what she was going to do with a cup of blood though, unless it was secretly wine. There was a bunch of vegetables around her, obviously not from these part of the woods, so his first assumption was that she had the Chef subclass and got hungry, and so killed the a [Snow Chicken] she captured for food. Frankly speaking, he was not one to disturb another person, so it should have been high time he left the area. But unfortunately for him, she spotted him. Usually, such encounters resulted in a simple hello and goodbye, as two strangers who had never met and were not in immediate need of assistance of any kind.

Upon an explanation on her part, Icyferno was stunned. No, he did not get a debuff for being talked to, nor was it him freezing up because a pretty girl (or maybe she was a trap?) took interest in his activities. Rather, the contents of her speech indicated that she worshipped a goddess. Okay, perhaps there were some religious folks who still believed in their religion, though he expected them to die down. Perhaps he was at the wrong place at the wrong time, and interrupted some ceremony of religious importance, which meant he was screwed. Following that, she explained that she worshipped the goddess of insanity and rabies. That was the weirdest thing he had ever heard of, exceeding even talking plants and extremely cliche quests by far.

He did not actually hear the rest of her words, his mind spending the time instead to process the first two bits of information, seemingly stuck on how a person would end up worshipping such a goddess. As a result, he simply stood there, mouth hanging open while his brain drew upon all of his intangible Anima reserves to continue functioning.

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Word count: 611
Total word count (Swashbuckler): ( 936 + 611 ) x 1.35 = 2088.45
Notes: Anima is technically MP. I say 'intangible' because no real MP loss occured.
Tags: Akira