Never a Lazy Day

[Conchobar]

Today, Conchobar found himself trying to relax in the Windsor Greatwood, doing little but enjoying the day.  Not too long ago he had spent a significant amount of time in a forge, where everything was hot and dark, so sitting out in the sunny woods was surprisingly relaxing.  The spell sword watched nature simply be nature:  The wind rustling through the trees, the leaves falling to the earth.  It was nice.  It reminded him of home, bar the occasional slime bouncing around.  This may be a foreign world, but that doesn't mean that it has to be a strange place.  The rules were different, at least many of them were, but not all of them.  Beauty, for example, was still beauty.  The wonderful emerald green world around him was proof of that.  Things that were Awe-striking could still be Awe-striking, though for different reasons.   He would be more than willing to spend hours here, just watching, feeling the gentle breeze roll by, watching the clouds swirl gently above.

There was never a dull day here, he had noticed, which was nice.  One day he could be battling monsters, and the next he could be enjoying food at a restaurant, or swapping stories with those around him...  Did he want to go back to the real world?  In some aspects, yes.  He had quite the promising future ahead of him, studying the historical and mythological world, with a free ride through college... But some aspects, no.  This was a world he could do whatever he wanted in.  If he wanted to fight, he could fight.  If he wanted to eat, he could eat.  If he wanted to study, he could study.  There were no Social Norms, there was no routine that needed be followed.  The best part was most everyone was likeminded, to a degree.  You wouldn't find someone here who would think that playing video games made you stupid, or take the typical meat head stance with MMO's being for losers... Everyone here already had a common interest in the game, so it wouldn't be hard to find someone to be friends with.  It is nice to know that, no matter what happens, everyone has a potential to be a friend.  You weren't going to find someone who thought everything you did was stupid, or a waste of time.  Of course, everyone would always have conflicting thoughts, sure, but it wouldn't be as bad, especially because of how few people there were.  There will always be people who think they are superior, of course.  And of course, people who would be friends in the real life, who let the power go to their head.  People became KSers, power mad, and willing to try to beat down anyone who questioned them... Luckily, the community usually dealt with those kinds of people, so it meant they didn't stay in power.  People here took care of themselves, for the most part, which was nice. It made him smile as he could just be lost in thought, watching a slime bounce by.

Word count... 508

[Pyramus216]

“What nice weather. Shall I compare it to a summer’s day?”


Pyramus remarked, glancing up at the crystal blue sky above. The sunny sky, warm weather, and cool breeze all pointed to a remarkably fine day for going out and enjoying the free nature that Elder Tales had to offer. Back in the real world, you’d be hard pressed to find such a large expanse of fields and forestry as the Windsor Greatwoods. Emerald grass rolled through countless hills and grand arboreal constructs rose from the soft, fertile soil, undeterred by modern deforestation. It was beautiful and the temptation to just lie down and soak in a few beams of Vitamin D was strong.


However, he had another purpose for roaming the zone, other than to delight in the wonder of the wild. After a while of training, he had finally gotten accustomed to wielding the Starter Long Spear that he had equipped upon entering the game. It was a weird sensation, swinging around a weapon whose weight was much more than his old body could handle. However, he adapted quickly, and was soon dispatching slime after slime with his new found combat skills. Now, though, he was up for more of a challenge and wondered how he would fare against a human being. Perhaps it was his competitive spirit awakening within him, but he was itching to feel the adrenaline from a battle against a more intelligent, powerful opponent.


Only moments later, he spotted another human being in the zone. A quick interface check revealed his basic information.


Conchobar Aegis-Sorcerer-Lv.1


He was a perfect candidate for Pyramus’s plans and appeared to be within a close age to his own. It should be easy to strike a conversation with him.


“Hey, man.” Pyramus greeted from afar, waving as he approached the Conchobar. “How’s it going?”


Stepping closer and closer, the Samurai grinned and approached with an overall sense of friendly familiarity despite this being the two’s first meeting. It would be rude of him if he just straight up challenged the guy to a duel, so Pyramus decided to start up a conversation first.


“Nice to meet you, I’m Pyramus. What brings you around these parts? Grinding? Or perhaps something else?”


WC: 371

[Conchobar]

Conchobar had been so lost in his thoughts that he hadn't been paying attention to his surroundings. He wasn't even aware there was another player in the area until he spoke up... No, player wasn't really the right word anymore. Adventurer. Nobody was really playing this game anymore, they were living it, adventuring through it. Sure, they may be choosing to play the roles that their characters once were, but here, they were people, not players. But, that wasn't much to be stated. The armored man turned to look at the person who had greeted him, as he would offer a polite smile. In a surprisingly easy move, he shifted the sheath on his hip, that was previously laying flat along his leg, so that it was perpendicular with the ground, grabbing the hilt and using it as something to pull himself up to a standing position. The movement may look odd, but it was certainly effective as he was soon standing just as easily as everyone else.

"Hello!" He would say, responding just as kindly as the other appeared, wrist resting softly on the hilt of his blade. His large shield rested against the tree he had been sitting under, not too far away, but at least not in his hands at the moment. "I suppose sight seeing might not be the worst answer to that question." He would explain with a shrug, turning for a brief moment to look around them. "Spent a lot of time working on a subclass, and I thought I would treat myself out here, though I won't like, for I planned on grinding a bit, later, to see if I could get myself to level up." He had nothing to lie about, and no reason to hide his motives, so why should he?

The British server was a new one, and though he knew some things were changed in the translation and localization, he found it mildly annoying that they kept "Samurai" as the name of the class. Though, he could hardly blame them, the more he thought about it. Technically, the Guardian class took the role of the Knights, and there weren't any real parallels to the samurai class in European history, at least, to the same level. The sword techniques they used as well were not anywhere in their history. And, if anything, it might spur people to learn more about what the samurai were capable of. If they saw a samurai doing these impressive things, it may inspire people to do the hard research and learn what they could. To that degree, he didn't really have a problem with them. They were too unique and steeped in their own lore to try to change and localize.

"Mind if I return the question? You look like you've got fire in your blood, not in the kind of mood to just idly chat with a stranger." He would say. 'Fire in the blood' wasn't much of a common saying anymore, but it was something he always found accurate. Sometimes you're just motivated, but being 'motivated' doesn't do the feeling justice. Sometimes, just because things were old, didn't make them dated. He liked to think, at least.



Word count: 538

[Pyramus216]

Simply by observing Conchobar, Pyramus learned quite a bit about the adventurer, much of which was interesting. Most blatantly obvious was the sword and shield he wielded, along with the armor he wore. From the information he had received from checking the interface, the man was a sorcerer yet he was curiously wielding equipment befitting of a warrior class, like a Guardian. It wasn’t unheard of for sorcerer’s to try a Spellsword build but it was the first time Pyramus had seen one since entering this new world. It was unorthodox, interesting and… exciting. It was this unpredictability, this freedom unchained by absolute programming that made the idea of PvP combat exciting. Of course, monsters were challenging as well, but humans had a form of fighting prowess that could not be find in less intelligent creatures.


“Hmm…The phrase “fire in the blood” seems a little violent don’t you think? It makes it seem like I’m burning with emotion.” Pyramus responded, finding slight pleasure in the chance to talk about language. He had a slight passion for poetry back in the old world, especially anything Shakespearean, so it was nice being able to speak about familiar topics. “Though a little trite, I’d prefer the phrase “Hot-blooded,” coined none other than by the great Shakespeare himself. While it portrays my passion, it does not suggest an excess of it.”


Despite his objection to the language though, Pyramus was quite impressed by the man’s keen observation. He wasn’t sure what gave away his excited motives but Conchobar had nonchalantly picked up on it. Clearly, the Sorcerer was both unorthodox and observant. All the better for Pyramus.


“Well, since you’ve already caught on, I suppose I’ll cut to the chase. I was looking for someone to spar with. You know, engage in some friendly PvP. So, I wanted to ask if you were interested in sparring with me.”


He answered, grinning cheerfully as he invited Conchobar. He knew that the chances of the guy accepting weren’t especially high, considering that PvP wasn’t exactly a profitable exercise. However, he still held a firm hope that such a one-of-a-kind fellow would possibly be interested in testing his skills on another human being.


“Having been here for a little while, I wanted to see how my newfound skills matched up against a human opponent. I’m sure you’re tired of only fighting slimes everyday as well. So, how about it? Wanna give it a go?”


WC: 407

[Conchobar]

Having studied older historical text as long has he had, he found that he would, on occasion, use older terms that almost don't even apply anymore, even if they are used correctly. Sure, 'hot blooded' was a derivitive of the much older 'fire in the blood' but that didn't make them interchangeable. Much like the modern words 'good' and 'well'. They basically mean the same thing, but if someone is 'doing good' and 'doing well' they mean different things... but that is a conversation for linguists not historians... Except when referring to said ancient text. History ends up being that catch-all study where all other forms come in handy, even math and science... but that was getting off topic. As to how he could tell, it was mostly a guess. Everyone who was out in the wilderness had something they were planning on doing, so really it was just a matter of casting a large enough net, and eventually catching a fish. He wouldn't have been able to guess specifically what, but he didn't need to.

"A spar, you say? I must say that I haven't considered doing something like that here..." He would admit, stroking his chin in thought. He didn't know of a dueling system, though he had hardly checked. Though he would admit that he was hardly geared for dueling, especially at this low of a level. Quite the opposite. He had set himself up with the basic requirements, being a magic for his sword, and the appropriate armors. That being said, he was still competent enough in a fight, he just lacked solid skills. He knew Samurai were know for their chains, but were vulnerable at the ends of them. He, on the other hand, was pure consistency. There was no high point to his attacks, but no low point either. He would always be doing the same damage... at least, until he dropped low, then he would be doing more, but that was another matter. Truthfully, it was about weather or not his armor could allow him to survive the samurai's attacks long enough for his own basic attacks and DPS to whittle him down. But... it wasn't like he had enough loot to lose, and the other person clearly didn't seem to be interested in a PK, so why not?

"Alright, I'll accept this duel." He said, with an honorable smile, drawing his longsword and holding it out. "Before we start, are there any rules you want to cover? My own suggestion is no lethal blows. As much as I appreciate sport, I wouldn't want either of us to be going to the cathedral." He explained with with a nod. Nobody wanted to die, not in this world, so there was no reason for honorable individuals to force it upon the other unless it was necessary.


Word count: 535

[Pyramus216]

“Good to hear.” Pyramus nodded to Conchobar’s acceptance, returning his honorable unsheathing by overly dramatically stomping his spear’s butt into the soil. The fertile dirt gave into his motion and the spear sunk into the ground a little, leaving a small dent in the earth. But even in such a little push, Pyramus could feel an unnatural strength in his arms, something beyond what his slender, though still muscular, frame would suggest. The feeling like you could leap over hills and lift mountains (Not that he could) was thrilling, intoxicating even, only driving his desire to use his powers even further.

Although his mind was busy contemplating his new physical strength, he did not miss Conchobar’s question.

“Hmm… Rules, huh. Give me a second to think…” He brought his free left hand, the one not holding onto his spear, and pressed it against his chin, in a subconscious imitation of the Thinker. Naturally, in other to guarantee fairness and safety to all parties involved in a spar, rules were set in place, restricting possible actions. Not only that, it would be imperative to have a way to settle the battle. Simply brawling until one side was no longer standing wasn’t the most civil idea, so there had to be some way to determine who the winner of the duel was. Pyramus quickly scrambled his brains to figure out these two things.


Perhaps taking some rules from actual martial arts sparring could help. No, that wouldn’t work due to his lack of knowledge in that field. He knew a few guys back in the old world who took martial art lessons, Karate probably. However, this didn’t mean he actually knew anything about the glorious art of combat or the rules involved. Instead, thinking of rules that made common sense would be more effective.


“No lethal blows sounds good. I’m not too fond of dying, after all. Other than that, how about no hitting below the belt or going for the face, especially the last one. Wouldn’t want to end up with a big bruise on our faces, even if it will eventually go away with a heal.” Pyramus suggested, turning back to Conchobar. “Also, I’d like to suggest a way to settle the duel. How about we have the battle end when one of us hits a certain percentage of HP left? That way, we won’t end up sending the other to the cathedral and we’d have a definite winner.”


Pyramus had chosen a HP based victory system to fit the situation. Due to his lack of martial arts knowledge, going with complex point based battles would be confusing as well as not exactly exciting. However, allowing the interface to do the math for them would allow both players to go all out as long as they stop when a winner was settled. It would allow for a fair but also fun spar between them.


“Well, that’s what I think. What about you? Oh, and as for the percentage of HP, I’d think something like a quarter of our HP should be fine.”


WC: 512
Notes: Sorry for the super long delay.

[Conchobar]

Conchobar would listen to the suggestions listed. That seemed like a fair suggestion. Given that he was unaware of a duel system that prevented combat from actually being lethal, 1/4 seemed like a really good number. The Wolf Hair found himself drawing his blade, waving it around for a moment, before it would catch fire. That may have been cheating by some definitions, but in all truth, that was the only spell he needed to cast. Everything else was passive for him, and with a five minute duration, the sorcerer wouldn't have to worry about breaking his own combat and waiting for cooldowns. That was the greatest advantage of his build, that he was always as powerful as possible. The Sorcerer read up on the samurai, as that was the close second for his class. If it wasn't for their chain mechanic and theming that broke from his Irish King concept, he would have chosen it. But they relied on chaining together things, which meant they had a specific order of their skills. And since they were both level one, that meant that his opponent would be repeating the same skill combinations over and over again.

This was important from a tactical standpoint, because that meant that the Spellsword knew what his opponent would do, with little trial and error. A higher level samurai would be able to mix up the combos with different chains, but at low level, there was probably only one real chain they had. Perhaps Conchobar could disarm him? That would certainly change things in his favor. Samurai were known for having high defenses, but while the samurai was wearing chain mail, Conchobar was wearing full plate, which should probably put him at the advantage. With doubling fire physical damage, he would have a significantly higher DPS than the samurai, but the samurai had an inherantly better burst than he did. Typically speaking, a Sorcerer should more than outdamage a samurai, but not only was the Wolf Hair building a spellsword build, mage classes were notoriously weaker than melee classes at lower levels.

"Well, No low blows, 25% HP being the cut off, and no cheating. Sounds fair to me." The Wolf Hair would say as he readied his large shield in front of him, his longsword at the ready. He wasn't sure what all to expect, in truth, but he was kinda eager nonetheless. "On your guard, then." Conchobar took a few paces until they were directly opposite each other... Despite that technically being true in a geometric state as they are the only two points on the metaphorical grid... He made sure the trees wouldn't be a direct problem, at least at the start of the fight. There were a couple meters between the two opponents, as he would give them the countdown. "Three... Two... One... Go."

Conchobar would make forward progress, holding his shield up in guard. While he knew that there would be few options that a Samurai would have mid fight, right now he could have any number of attacks from the skill list, and he wouldn't want to rush into combat until he knew what it was he was doing. Pyramus had a spear, which meant that he was at an inherent disadvantage, with his sword having shorter range. He needed to get in close to do damage, but that wasn't the same for the Samurai. On the other hand, his large shield would allow him to absorb the blows, which would let him get closer with less issue. He would keep on the defense as he moved, letting his opponent show their hand first.


Wordcount: 609

[Pyramus216]

It seemed that the Wolf Hair was okay with Pyramus’ suggestion, so he started preparing for the fight. He took a few steps back in order to gain a proper distance between them, and kept a firm grip on his spear. The few moments before the beginning of the battle were important for two reasons: To read the opponent and set up any plans of your own. He had only had his new form for a few days, but he was confident that he had enough basic knowledge to formulate a decent plan.

First of all, he looked up at his opponent, who was casually setting his sword on fire. Without a doubt, the Sorcerer swordsman was a spell sword user, enchanting his blade with powerful elemental powers. The real question was how much he could do with the set. Sorcerers typically had low defense but high attack and range. However, the wolf hair probably was the complete opposite. His heavy armor allowed for much more physical defense then the average mage. The question was whether his range was limited to the reach of his blade or if he also had a small arsenal of ranged moves, for insurance. Considering the low level of the player, the latter was less likely, but Pyramus couldn’t be sure. If he took care and only tried to keep distance and harass his opponent with his spear’s longer range then he’d be a perfect target for a fireball to the face. It would be preferable to stick to a close-mid range from his opponent, to maximize the efficiency of his spear.

One thing that Pyramus had to note was his own skills. Samurai were known for their high burst, chain skills. If used correctly, one could deal massive amounts of damage within seconds. However, Pyramus had started his character without a single chain move. He had three skills on him, two attacking skills and one taunt, but he would be unable to chain them together. His victory would have to depend on his use of the three atypical skills against Conchobar’s unorthodox build. Luckily, he had spent a decent amount of time thinking of ways to utilize each skill to its full potential.

“Alright, ready when you are.” Pyramus finalized his quick battle briefing and took an impromptu stance. Soon enough, the Sorcerer was counting down. The two of them were a decent distance from each other, good enough that a starting charge would be necessary. It was a rather plain arena, without any trees in their immediate vicinity; though they were available should either of them decide that fighting between wooden pillars to be to their advantage.

Once the battle began, the Wolf Hair leaped into a steady charge, moving forward while raising his shield to protect himself. Due to his heavy armor, Conchobar would be well protected from Pyramus’s spear attacks, allowing him to be fearless in his steady approach. It would be hard to pierce through that literally iron defense.

“No normal attack will work. I’ll need something stronger, but a big, direct attack will only leave me open to a counter.” Pyramus hastily pondered as he readied to counter. “If that’s the case, I have just the thing.”

Pyramus planted both feet firmly into the soil, in order to brace for any recoil from his attack. His arms twisted around his body, bringing the spear to a low height, aimed upwards towards the center of Conchobar’s shield.

“Take this. Sword Rain Flurry variation: Cheval de frise!” Power surged through his arms as he rapidly thrusted the spear in front of him, five times in total. Stab followed stab as a barrage of attacks were thrown in front of him. Any foe coming his way was bound to run smack into all of his attacks, effectively being warded off as well as injured. It was essentially a wall of sharp, metal strikes that had been formed in front of Pyramus.

After having been tackled by one too many boars, Pyramus had devised this technique to ward off charging foes. Based off of the French military invention, Cheval de frise took the offensive skill, Sword Rain Flurry, and used it defensively to keep enemies at a distance. It was Pyramus’s own proud invention, though it had a lot of weaknesses: the long animation time involved, the inability to actually block attacks, and the waste of mana for very little actual damage done.

WC: 740