[Open] Some Leisure Time

[Deleted]

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It was a peaceful day in town, birds chirping, the air was cool, everything was good, couldn't be any better, at least, to Apollo. If anyone had come to the area he was in, all they would notice was a young man laying down in a patch of leaves, using his cloak as a pillow. His staff lay beside him, clenched in his right hand. His other hand, was scratching his stomach, he was out. Near him, was a small bird, it seemed to be singing him to sleep due to its peaceful hymns. 


*Yaaawwwwn* 
Apollo shooed away the bird as he got up off the makeshift pillow. He sat his staff in his lap and began rubbing his eyes. The bright light made his vision blurry due to just waking up. 

"I'm so booooored" He thought to himself. He was mostly waiting for something to happen. Ever since he got trapped in Elder Tale, he had yet to make any friends. He was hoping to make a few while he could. He crossed his legs and let out a sigh as he lay back down, looking at the clear blue sky. 
"Will something happen soon?" He asked. "Before I die of boredom!?" 

N/A | N/A | N/A

❖ nox ❖

[Shuwen]

Words: 438

As nice as it would have been to do so, Shuwen had better things to do then take it easy. Though simply living in the world he’d found himself in would be easy, making the most of it was another story. As the world was based on what had originally be a combat-oriented mmo, the best way to become more capable as a person in the world was to get better at fighting. The most obvious way to do that would have been to go out in the field and raise his level, but there were a few other things he wanted to do first. Even though he was a monk, his subclass was that of a hunter, which allowed him to use bows. Even though he was fairly familiar with how to fight in hand-to-hand, he was much less familiar with how to use a bow, especially a crossbow. If he wanted to make the most of his new abilities, he’d have to master or at least become competent in the weapons’ use. That was why he found himself in a relatively isolated (but still protected) part of the city, crossbow under one arm. He didn’t notice a prone Sorcerer laying under a nearby tree, mainly because he was focused on the task at hand.

Marking a discolored spot on the side of a ruined building, he walked backwards about ten paces, turned, aimed, and fired the crossbow at the mark he’d made.

Thunk! The wooden bolt slammed into the aged concrete, almost half a meter away from where he’d intended for it to go. Ah, whoops. He thought, rubbing his head sheepishly. Retrieving another bolt from his inventory, he placed it in the ammunition slot and began to pull back the bow’s draw string. Even though he already knew roughly how to go about doing it, he was still unfamiliar with the process, and found himself doing it far more slowly then he could have. Technically he could simply make it happen automatically with the auto-attack skill, but he’d already realized it was best not to be to reliant on it, so he tried to teach himself how to reload and aim the weapon manually. Once the bolt was set and the bow was once again ready to fire, he once again took aim and tried to hit the target again.

Thunk! A little closer this time, but he was still quite a ways off target. Clenching his teeth a little, the monk pulled out another bolt and once again loaded it into the crossbow, still oblivious to the fact there was another adventurer resting nearby.

[Deleted]

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Apollo, startled by the sudden loud noises, jumped up out of  the spot he was in and immediately went into a defensive position. He was still out of it due to being asleep, and it took him a bit of time to realize he had just woken up, and wasn't in the middle of a battle or about to be attacked. He looked around to try and locate the source of the loud noises and noticed another person near the building doing what seemed to be target practicing. Either he was oblivious to the fact Apollo was near by, or he was just disregarding it and figured he'd practice anyway. He rubbed his eyes and pulled himself together, patting the dirt and grass and leaves off his body and putting his cloak back around his body. He grabbed his staff and walked out of the small, forest, at least that's what he called it. It wasn't as large as some of the forests in the real world. 


"Nice to see someone else around here" He said loudly, to make sure the other person could hear him. "Apollo walked closer and leaned against a tree near the other player, so he wouldn't be in his way. "You must the one who woke me up" 
Apollo was obviously irritated, but he wasn't to mad about being woken up, he needed to wake up anyway. 

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❖ nox ❖

[Shuwen]

Words: 312

Shuwen’s concentration was interrupted by the sound of someone approaching. Another adventurer approached him, a magic-user judging from his equipment. Judging from the blurry look in his eyes, he either just woke up from a nap, or was just about to. He commented that it was good to see someone else in the area, which puzzled the monk a little. What was so good about it? But when he added that Shuwen was probably the person who’d woken him up, he felt a little more on edge. Was that statement an accusation or simply an observation?

“Probably.” He said with a shrug. With a fresh bolt loaded, he took aim at the discolored spot he’d chosen for a target and once again fired at it.

Thunk! Though it wasn’t much of an achievement, he could see he was improving already. He hadn’t hit the target spot on, but this time he’d only missed by ten or twenty centimeters. The corners of his mouth tilting upwards, he pulled out another fresh bolt, set it, and resumed winding back the drawstring. “I’m surprised you’re able to take things so easy, with the apocalypse and all. Everyone’s been desperate to raise their level or come up with a coping mechanism for dealing with it.” Maybe the mage was just one of those easy going types? He didn’t realize until after he’d said it, but he’d implied the Sorcerer probably should have been doing something else. Instead of smacking himself, he decided to finish reloading, using the act as an excuse to avoid looking directly at the other adventurer. When he was finished, he fired his crossbow again.

Thunk! Maybe he just wasn’t as focused, because he didn’t do any better. No progress, still a good fifteen centimeters from the target. He’d need to do better next round. Clenching his teeth, he pulled out another bolt.

[Deleted]

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He simply shrugged his shoulders. He had no idea how to respond to what the monk had just said to him. All he knew he could do, was shrug. 

"People cope in different ways" He said. "When I sleep, I think of the world I left behind because of the Apocalypse." He continued watching the monk fire his crossbow. He guessed he was getting some practice in to level up his subclass, or skill, he was still confused by how everything worked in this world. 

"And I'm not as calm as I let on, I'm actually terrified." He said, his expression changed to a somewhat, frightened look. "I force myself to be calm, I'd rather not over react and get myself killed" 
Apollo smacked his face to get himself refocused. He then went on to change the subject. 
"Is this a good spot to train?" He asked. "Or did you just come here to get some quiet while you trained?"

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❖ nox ❖

[Shuwen]

Words: 316

So the napping was his coping mechanism, that made more sense. Though he didn’t say anything, he nodded approvingly when the mage explained himself. When he continued his explanation, saying he was forcing himself to stay calm. “That’s fairly normal; trying to keep your wits about it you is a rational a response as any. And you’d probably be an oddball if you didn’t find all this really strange” He swung the crossbow back up and fired it again.

Thunk! Sooooo close this time! Only five centimeters from the target. It was just a matter of time before he hit it dead on. The mage asked him about what he was doing, which he answered as he was reloading the weapon.

“The latter.” He replied to the mage’s question. “I’m already practiced in unarmed combat, so I’m not all that worried about it, but I don’t really have any experience using a bow, and I want to get that out of the way as soon as possible. I mean, I could rely on auto-attack and system commands to compensate but…” he frowned. “It doesn’t really seem right to do that now I’m actually in the game, ya know? I wouldn’t be comfortable handling a weapon I don’t actually know how to use.” He fired his crossbow again.

Thunk! No progress again. A good eight centimeters away this time. He mentally thwapped himself for the lack of progress.

“Anyways, it’s nice to meet you I guess. The name’s Shuwen. It’s nice to meet you…” He briefly stopped reloading the weapon and moved his hand up to check the mage’s data “Apollo.”

He checked his inventory. He’d already used half a dozen of the wooden bolts; it was probably about time he recollected them. Resting the crossbow over one shoulder, he walked over to where he’d been shooting at and started pulling the bolts out of the wall.

[Deleted]

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Apollo nodded in agreement. "Speaking of which, I should probably work on my Tailoring" He said, looking in the small bag on his side. He shrugged and looked away from the bag. 

"Nice to meet you Shuwen" Apollo said, with a smile. "Practice is a good thing to do" He agreed with the other person, he thought he would train some of his magic or tailoring skills later. He then noticed Shuwen had looked at Apollos data. 

"Do you need any help collecting those?" He asked, noticing he had gone to collect the bolts.

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❖ nox ❖

[Shuwen]

Words: 237

Apollo, presumably spurred by the sight of him practicing, decided to do some practice of his own, and started working on tailoring.

When he went to retrieve the projectiles the Sorcerer offered to help him get his bolts back, but Shuwen shook his head. “Nah, I’ll probably end up doing it a lot regardless.” Fortunately, they weren’t that difficult to pull out, so it didn’t take him long to retrieve them all. The Monk reloaded his crossbow, rewound the drawstring and fired again. While his aim didn’t seem to be improving much, at least he was making noticeable progress on getting used to reloading; it wasn’t taking quite as long as it had at the beginning of his practice. He fired again.

Thunk! Once again, no visable progress. The shooting was beginning to feel tedious, and Shuwen felt that he was getting in the wrong mindset to continue shooting in. Clenching his teeth a little, he tried to fire it one more time. It was only slightly more accurate then his previous shots; about five or six centimeters away. With a sigh, he reloaded the crossbow one more time, so it would be ready the next time he needed it, and put it away.

“What say we add each other to our friends list? I might need a tailor in the future; I don’t have any casual clothing or anything yet. We could also party up sometime.”

[Deleted]

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He listened to Shuwen as he finished picking up the bolts. He was already almost finished when he had asked if he needed any help. Apollo laughed in his head lightly. He then watched a bit more of his training, as he shot at the target again, then, he gave Shuwen a sort of, surprised, expression. 

"How do you add friends?" He asked himself. He had completely forgotten how to add friends in Elder Tale. He had been preoccupied with trying to figure out how to handle things now that he was trapped in Elder Tale. 

"Sure, we can add each other" He said, now remembering how to add friends.

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❖ nox ❖

[Shuwen]

Words: 203

"Well, back when we were just playing the game, you’d click on the icon around the person’s data and dragged it over to the “friends list” button on your own interface. In that case...” he brought up Apollo’s data again and mashed his finger against the icon, he the shifted it to the side without pulling back at all. As he expected, the icon went with it. Once he reached the friends icon, his (currently blank) list came up. He pulled back his hand, and the icon moved into it, Apollo’s data appearing alongside. As soon as he completed the action, a notification would pop up on Apollo’s interface, asking him to confirm or deny the action. “I think that should do it.” While he was at it, he took a slightly closer look at Apollo’s data. “So you’re a sorcerer? What kind of magic do sorcerers use again? I keep getting them mixed up.” He knew that clerics were the ones who specialized in healing, and summoners summoned things, as the former was a stable of many rpgs and mmos in general, while the latter’s name spoke for itself, but he’d yet to come up with a way to remember the others.

[Deleted]

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Apollo heard a small ding, as soon as he heard it, he did the same thing Shuwen had done, and pulled up his notifications. He accepted the request and added Shuwen to his friends list. 

"It's nice to have a friend" He said calmly. He then listened to him ask him about his abilities. 

"Hmm, kinda hard to say really" He said. "I have basic spells, one that'll add electricity to someones weapon I think, and a few attack spells" 
He rubbed his chin, which was his way of thinking. 

"I'm also somewhat of a sage?" He said, confused by his own statement. "Which I think lets me feel the elements in the area, or something like that" 

As a new user to Elder Tale, he didn't understand much about his own abilities. He just knew he had some basic spells, more attack than he had support, at least he thought that. "Maybe I should read up more on my spells" He said, while laughing.

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❖ nox ❖

[Shuwen]

Words: 202

“So… a magic DPS class? Okay.” He supposed the name fit, though he would have preferred something less generic. Sage was listed as a subclass, so it presumably had a different ability set, albeit one that likely fit well with a mage class. That said, it didn’t seem Apollo new much about his abilities either, even commenting that he probably ought to read up on them.

“That’s probably a good idea.” Shuwen already had a pretty good idea of what he was capable of, maybe even better then most players. Wasn’t there an Art of War quote regarding that? He took a moment to remember it’s wording. “If you know your enemy as well as yourself, you’ll win every time. If you know yourself but not the enemy, you’ll win half the time. If you know neither, you’ll always lose. Something like that anyways.” He said with a frown. He couldn’t recreate the formal syntax of the original book, but he could at least get the point across. “Not the main point of that saying, but still relevant. Getting to know yourself is the first step of that. You can’t really do the other stuff until you do that first, yeah?”

[Shikiodus]

Shikiodus has been watching a man firing a cross bow for a bit by now,
Huh, not as smooth as others...
He began to study what he was doing more closely, eyes widening at the sight of him manually firing!
"Well, thats different. i wonder how he can be such a fast learner!"
He lied down, sipping his juice. This was probably the only tasted thing he has ever had.
"Why does all those sweet treats look so good, but taste like bad saltine crackers?!"
The birds still chirped over head, and he lifted his head up to watch them "huh, must be challenging each other to a race." He reached his hand up to the air. "I wish i could be up there... Oh, how cheesy that sounds!" he gave a short grumpy face before laughing "Ahh, who cares? plenty of people dream, don't they?"

“I’m surprised you’re able to take things so easy, with the apocalypse and all. Everyone’s been desperate to raise their level or come up with a coping mechanism for dealing with it.”

Huh?
Shikiodus leaned over the edge of the roof, laying on his stomach, and murmured "and why wouldn't you? if your gonna be stuck in such a fantasy setting, id take all the time in the world!" He ruffled his own hair a little, confused of why he would say that, sipping his juice.
He watched him fire another arrow. "wish my father didn't die, woulda taught me the bow" he sighed, "that woulda been fun."

"And I'm not as calm as I let on, I'm actually terrified."

Well, this just makes no sense. this is the most beautiful place Ive ever been, even better than little miss perfect neighborhood! Sure, we battle for our lives going out there, but cmon!" he spreaded his arms wide, "That is the fun of it all!" He stood up, lifting up an imaginary sword into the sky with confidence "That is the adventure of it!" as he said so, he puffed out his chest. Then he realized, he might be seen! he huddled back down, laying on his stomach, watching once again.

“That’s fairly normal; trying to keep your wits about it you is a rational a response as any. And you’d probably be an oddball if you didn’t find all this really strange”

Well im GLAD to be an oddball, thank YOU very much!

His face wrinkled in agitation as he sucked the last of his orange juice.

"Speaking of which, I should probably work on my Tailoring"

A tailor as well? Cool!

“What say we add each other to our friends list? I might need a tailor in the future; I don’t have any casual clothing or anything yet. We could also party up sometime.”

Shikiodus smirked, "hah, i almost forgot about the friend list." he opened his up on the interface; empty.
He pouted, "Your right friends list, i wont be making any friends on a roof. This totally blows." at this, he cracked his knuckles, and stretched.

"Maybe I should read up more on my spells" The strange sorcerer laughed.
Shikiodus began to stand. Screw it. he thought, i gotta introduce myself!
"With courage, pride, AND GUSTO!" he flexed his muscles, and checked the ground as he got on his feet.
Not too far, lucky me! and hey im not too far away from them...

He moved back a little, then jumped off the building towards them 'Land on your feeeetttttt!!!!'
PUMF! Made it!
Almost instantly, he gave an exaggerated bow towards them, casting spotlight on himself.
"Good day my fellow lads! i am..." he brushed his hair back dramatically as he straightened out "Shikiodus!"

Word count: 614

[Deleted]

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"I still have a ways to go" Apollo said, chuckling. "I'll learn a lot soon, it just, takes time" He lowered his head a bit. "I hope that made sense" He said, starting to laugh. 

Apollo heard someone land near him and Shuwen, and his first reaction, was to jump back and pull his staff out, however, he failed and slipped over his foot and fell backwards. 

"Ow, really?" He said to himself. "Who jumps off a roof?" 
He rubbed the back of his head as he heard the name of the one who jumped.

"Shikiodus?" Apollo registered the name into his mind and pushed himself up off the ground, patting the dirt off his clothing. 

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❖ nox ❖

[Shuwen]

Words: 366

Somehow, Shuwen didn’t notice the strange adventurer monologing to himself and posing dramatically. Considering that it was his second failed spot check since the thread started, he probably ought to invest a few stat points in observation, but such is the life. Meanwhile, Apollo admitted it would take quite a bit of time before he was up to par. The monk tried to restrain his response to that, in order to avoid needlessly insulting the Sorcerer, but he said “Yes, I guess you do.”

His lack of observational skills were soon remedied by the eccentric Bard doing something that made him real obvious to spot; jump off a nearby roof. The monk’s first thought was What the heck was that guy thinking? His second thought was Shouldn’t he take fall damage for that? Regardless of the drop’s effect on his health bar, the idol introduced himself with much enthusiasm. “Um… hi. I’m Shuwen.” Shuwen replied rather lamely. Apollo’s reaction was a bit more extreme, pulling out his weapon and presumably expecting to fight, only to lose his balance and fall backwards. That was… a little sad. He couldn’t help but admit to himself. Wordlessly, he extended a hand in the mage’s direction and attempted to help the mage to his feet. Apollo asked allowed who would jump off a roof. The question was probably meant to be rhetorical, but the Monk responded. “He does, apparently.”

Once Apollo was back on his feet, he turned back towards the newcomer. “Well that was certainly an entrance. Hope you didn’t take any fall damage from that.” He knew it was an existing mechanic within the game, but he couldn’t remember if it applied in town zones or not, and to what extent said mechanic would hold up after the apocalypse. “So, uh Shikiodus, why did you jump off a building just now? We have a word for that back home, but I’m not sure whether it would apply in the same context here in Elder Tales, or wherever we’ve ended up.” Yes, he was implying Shikiodus might be a little cracked in the head, that’s what he normally thought of people who jumped off of buildings, deal with it.

[Shikiodus]

He laughed after hearing what they said. "Well, i don't have any worry of death now do i?" he stopped laughing, his face straightening. "i am bored, i want to do something, lets do something." he sighed in boredom, and pulled out his guitar, messing with it and trying to figure out what to do next. "What have you guys been talking about?" he asked, knowing full well what they have been saying.

word count: 73

[Deleted]

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Apollo crossed his arms. "Wouldn't you already know this?" He said. "Seeing as how you were eavesdropping from the roof." 

"But to answer your question, all we're really doing is just talking, he's doing some training though" He said. "You're welcome to join the conversation, not that you needed my permission to do so" 

"Not worry about death?" He said, somewhat surprised. "I worry about dying all the time, you never know when something will happen, even if we are in the city"

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❖ nox ❖

[Shuwen]

Words: 357

Shiki-something-or-another laughed off Shuwen’s concern about damage, saying he didn’t really need to worry about dying now that they were immortal, then changed the subject. Shuwen wasn’t so sure about that, but he decided it wasn’t worth arguing and held his tongue on the matter.

Apollo was less then pleased. He accused the bard of eavesdropping on them. For some reason he still explained it for him, albet with some attitude. The Sorcerer was also more then a little annoyed with his casual attitude of death, and unlike the Monk, didn’t hold his tongue.

Shuwen rubbed the back of his head. The conversation was taking an unpleasantly hostile turn, something he’d prefer to avoid if possible. Perhaps a compromise is in order? At that point, he decided to speak. “Well, it’s not as bad as before, dying I mean, since you just resurrect in the cathedral, but I’ve heard you experience some kind of nightmare in the process, the kind that really makes you feel bad. It’s also inconvenient for more practical reasons; you lose exp and have to start back in town and all that.” He rubbed his head some more. “It’s not as big a deal as it was, but it’s still something to avoid, yeah?” He suspected there was a little more to dying then they knew; things like that didn’t just happen without any detriment, but he didn’t really know enough about the process to be sure. He hadn’t even died yet after all.

“Hmm, we could go hunting in the field zone perhaps. If the three of us party up, we could probably handle most of whatever we find in there. If you guys don’t want to do that, we could work on our crafting skills, or we could… just… keep… talking.” He cut what he was saying a bit short when he realized he was beginning to trail off. While living in the world they’d found themselves in wasn’t particularly difficult, some parts of it were certainly much harder then when it was just a game. Of course, it’s not like he was good at talking to people back then either.

[Ghans Chandler]

That was another day in the fields, I went for a walk in the fields, see what I could find and do on my own. I managed to see some animals running away hiding from me, then again the place was a bit lifeless for me. “Well… why should I be surprised? Every time I do this I keep finding myself getting away from the city daily troubles.”

I’ve never been eager to draw my sword and I was really getting bored really. Me and my solitude in a deep forest, sounded like a bad poetry title. For once I was really looking forward a bit of jolly-cooperation, besides the fact it might raise my info sources towards the future. Some monsters got into my path when I was walking by so I unsheathed one of my blades and pointed the creature with it. “I was starting to wonder when one of you would show up… and here you are, I hope you and your friends provide a challengue.”

[Shikiodus]

"Wouldn't you already know this? Seeing as how you were eavesdropping from the roof." Shikiodus squinted his eyes at him "How did you see through my master sneaking skills, eh???"
"But to answer your question, all we're really doing is just talking, he's doing some training though" Shikiodus shrugged, "Well, ive never been one for leisure speaking, but ill take a stab at it."
The sorcerer he learned to be Apollo said "I worry about dying all the time, you never know when something will happen, even if we are in the city" Shikiodus folded his arms together "Are you dumb? its not like youll die forever. worrying about death TOTALLY ruins the fun does it not? or is that just me?"
The other person, a monk named shuwen, spoke. “Well, it’s not as bad as before, dying I mean, since you just resurrect in the cathedral, but I’ve heard you experience some kind of nightmare in the process, the kind that really makes you feel bad. It’s also inconvenient for more practical reasons; you lose exp and have to start back in town and all that.” Shikiodus smiled, and grunted "well, my point simply was not to worry about death, since you will just come back... Albeit with some less exp."

Shuwen seems a nice sort, i guess. “Hmm, we could go hunting in the field zone perhaps. If the three of us party up, we could probably handle most of whatever we find in there. If you guys don’t want to do that, we could work on our crafting skills, or we could… just… keep… talking.” Shikiodus shrugged, "I am up for whatever you guys want." Shikiodus scratched the back of his head "although my opinion on crafting is its better to get stronger so that you may defend yourself for when you go out to get the materials or gold."

Shikiodus laughed "I just realised, we are all Wolf-Hairs, the best race ever!" Shikiodus randomly lifted both his hands up for high-fives from the both of them "Yeah, high-paw!"

After a moment, Shikiodus said "I might change my crafting class. Not that i don't like being a tailor, but since im in a gaming world, why not be someone else entirely or mostly, am i right?" he scratched his chin "I don't know what id do though... maybe woodwork? Meh, ill figure it out." He looked to the others "how about you guys? what do you think about your classes?"

Word Count: 413