Kiraboshi! [Midori, >insert Akahiko's IGN here<]

[Elfriede]

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[attr="class","tran2"] [attr="class","tran"] NOTES ! WORDS. 1039 MUSE. --- NOTES. ---

My eyes can see the death of everything [attr="class","ban01"] [attr="class","ban02"] [attr="class","ban03"] even if that thing is God Huh? Where am I? Looking around Mana could see that she was no longer within the safe confines of her dorm room at Oxford. Rather she was outside, amongst nature. A hikkimori like her, outside experience the wonders of mother nature. Though it seemed familiar somehow... I'm outside? That doesn't make any sense; I was just logging into Elder Tale. Could this be? My ears are normal and I was sure I picked Elf as my race; so I don't think this is inside the game. Besides it is not like you can just be transported inside a game. Wait, what am I wearing? As Mana was checking her ears, she noticed something familiar about her clothes or rather armor. Then she noticed the giant scythe on her back. But these are...! The starter gear she choose as an Assassin. Leather armor, the strongest armor type Assassins have proficiency in, and Scythes, a long reaching polearm with a deathly appearance. Of course her starter gear were quite weak and cheaply made. Although, she was more worried about the fact that she was stuck in the body of her Elder Tale character, Elfriede. Wait, is this really my Elder Tale character? Looking around, Mana/Elfriede walked in what appears to be the Half-Gaia counterpart of London until she found a rundown store. Looking into the glass, Mana/Elfriede saw a reflection of herself, checking exactly whose body it is. The hair, eye, and skin color are mine, as is the hair style, but I think the body is a bit shorter and I definitely do not have a fang in real life. So this is a fusion between my body and Elfriede's? Is there anyway to open the menu? As Elfriede waved her arm around, seeing if she can access some sort of menu, a holographic screen suddenly appeared in front of her. Her data statistics such as class, subclass, race, level, HP, and MP appeared. In addition, various menus appear and acted on touch commands as if it was a touch screen. One thing Elfriede noticed right away was her race: Human. So I either the fusion set me to Human or I messed up on character creation somehow. Wait, this means I really am in Elder Tales! Elfriede screamed. “I... ca-can.. ta, tal, talk!?” My vocal cords are working? I can talk in this world? Wait, if I am here then Touko and Jack should be here as well. We were going to meet by Big Ben and say 'Kiraboshi!' as a signal. Though our bodies are a combination of our real world selves and our in-game avatars—we may be able to just recognize each other. So wait, what about combat? Are there still monsters? I still have my scythe. Drawing her scythe, Elfriede swung it around. It felt rather light and easy to use, almost if she was familiar with the weapon. But I never used a scythe or any similar weapons before in my life. Why does it feel so familiar? Is it because of my class? Wait, can I still use skills? Going through the menu, Elfriede searched for her skills list. “Alright, Deadly Dance, Transcribe, Silent Move, looks like all of my skills are here. I wonder what happens if I use them?” Immediately, Elfriede's body moved on its own, performing the skill. Fortunately no one was nearby. If Elfriede struck someone, the guard NPCs may appear and kill her like they do in the Japanese servers. Speaking of dying, what did death do in this world? Game-wise we would respawn in the cathedral, but this doesn't seem like a game anymore. Could I die permanently like in Sword Art Online? It is difficult to use skills as well. These controls are really hard to do. Maybe I can activate them like Sword Skills in Sword Art Online. Testing her theory, Elfriede attempted to mimic Deadly Dance's movements. “De-Deadly Da-da-dance!” Her theory was correct, and it appears that her body knew at least the basics to fighting, allowing her to call on not only skill usage but some basic attacks as well.[ Still I should get more used to my weapon, there is a difference between knowing how to use something and mastering it. Still, the prospect of death worries me. Would it be safer to stay in town? What is stopping monsters from invading towns? Even if the nearby monsters are docile, there may be something like the Return of the Goblin King event on the Japanese server. Well, there is little use worrying about it now; information gathering will be the priority. I better meet up with Jack and Touko at Big Ben. Sheathing her scythe, Elfriede walked through London, towards Big Ben. As she strolled through the ruined city, she saw chaos as other players try to make sense of the situation. “Where am I!?” “What the hell is going on!?” “Get me the GM!” “There are monsters outside!” “I want to go home!” Discord was everywhere, no one knew what was happening. I swear, if we all get teleported to some large city square where a giant robed guy claiming to be the creator of the game telling us that this is a feature of the game I am going to—wait, did I try logging out yet? Opening the holographic menu again, Elfriede opened up the main menu and found a log out button. So at least it is still there. However when she pressed the button it simply denied her. Well I guess that was to be expected. It would have beens strange if it was that easy. With a sigh Elfriede continued on towards Big Ben. Right now she wished she picked Summoner as her class. At least then she would be familiar with her class; also helps that Summoner is one of the two top solo classes and is possibly the most versatile class in the game. As she reached Big ben, Elfriede noticed no one was there yet so she just sat down on the ground and waited. I wonder what Touko and Jack picked again. Touko was thinking Sorcerer or Enchanter while Jack was picking between one of the Warrior classes if I remembered correctly.

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[Midori]

[attr="class","polaris"] [attr="class","girtab"] [attr="class","gif"] [attr="class","backgroundsinister"] [attr="class","stardust"] [attr="class","lockedroom"] [attr="class","murasak"] It had practically taken Touko about an hour to truly decide whether she wanted Sorcerer or Enchanter. For one, she had checked the skill lists that were available for the two classes and found that they each had their own merits and demerits. Sorcerer was the more offensive version of the two, being able to blast through the enemy line with powerful magical attacks. Meanwhile, Enchanter was the type of class that could turn a difficult situation into a manageable one, what with all the debuff abilities. It was either playing guns blazing or careful strategy. Initially. She noted that each class seemed to have various builds. The Sorcerer was able to swap between close-ranged fighting and the classic far-ranged backrow shooter. Either way, it was still an offensive class that could deal fairly powerful damage as long as it had support. The Enchanter was well-known among reviews to be the weakest class in terms of regular attack potential, but it had some niche abilities of its own. The sprinkler build particularly interested her, but that seemed to require the Enchanter reaching higher levels before learning the key traits of the build. In fact, she was actually considering Samurai until Jack had said he was going to play one. The class's mechanics did somewhat intrigue her. Mana was going to play an Assassin, so that would've meant three physical attackers. In the end, it all boiled down to these two. It might have been a good idea to play a healer class, but hopefully one of Hiro's friends would be able to handle that role once he got the game with his friends. Really, all it came down to were the various unique skills. Sorcerer skills were a little standard according to most MMO games, but they seemed to be very effective at what they did. She was usually the type of character playing a mage anyway. There was a bit more debate. Sorcerer or Enchanter? Sorcerer had Psychic Conductor as one of its skills, a really neat-looking attack. Meanwhile, Enchanter just got the Inversion skill, something that probably came in handy against enemies who used long cast-time spells. Mana Arrow versus Pulse Bullet. Magical Battery versus Cast-On Beat. Singularity versus Thorn Bind Hostage. She eventually defaulted by just throwing a coin and ending up with Sorcerer. Fair enough. Either way, she'd consider the build sometime when making an alternate character. For now, she was awaiting the download of the Novasphere patch. After logging in game, Touko would probably make a few characters and claim their names immediately. She would probably start with the Sorcerer character and name her Midori, the very same character name that she used online and for her Mabinogi account. She had recently gotten to about Level 4000 on that character and was one of the higher-tiered battle alchemists on her server. Either way, Touko would try out Elder Tale for the time being and see whether it was up to her standards. She had even told Hiro and other guild members to try out the game, which they obliged. Finally they would actually play some other game than online battle arenas all day. What was the original topic again? Ah yes, names. The first character would be named Midori. The second character was probably going to be named Murasaki and be an Enchanter. After that, it would probably be beneficial to grab a few popular names as reserve characters. People paid well for certain names, after all. The other options were a no-brainer. Half-Alv wasn't all that different from humans, so half-alv it was. Alchemist was a given due to her history of playing an alchemist on a similar game. She had a bit of hesitation when considering the second subclass, as she had only heard that previous versions only allowed one. The choices were quickly narrowed down to Cavalier or Puppeteer. Cavalier had its obvious uses in horseback magic casting, but she figured that eventually many characters would get end-game mounts anyway. The beginner skill enabling lance jousting didn't really provide much appeal due to her mage class selection. She selected Puppeteer, being the subclass that seemed to have synergy with Alchemist according to initial guides, and because controlling an off-tank might help for sustaining herself in battles. Now all she needed to do was to wait for the patch to download! ... "Well, I seem to have found myself stuck in Sword Art Online." One moment Touko had been confirming the details for her in-game character and selecting the new Great Britain server and the next she found herself looking up at a really old mossy version of the Parliament Building. She made a bit of a sarcastic comment, remembering that fanfiction story where the popular non-magic MMO suddenly became a virtual reality death game. She hoped it wasn't the same way for this game. Even though it was rather boring sometimes, she would want to say that she quite liked her everyday life, thanks. Or maybe it was closer to Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. Touko looked about her as other players seemed to materialize our of thin air, many of them just as confused as her and others panicking in hysteria. Could be worse. It could've also been like Sword Art Online where their appearance changed back to her real life. Not that she looked particularly ugly or anything in real life. It was just that her current avatar looked a bit more cute, the type of person she wanted to look like but didn't have the budget to pretty herself up all the time. Let's see. She checked her inventory and beheld the old grimoire that was taken as her type of starter weapon. She summoned it for a moment and noted its size and weight being similar to a textbook. The rather tolerable clothes she was wearing right now was the beginner's cloth armor. She didn't really want to find out what happened if she unequipped the armor. That was something best found out in an inn or somewhere private. Next was skills. Touko held the grimoire and motioned herself around the menu to activate Psychic Conductor on a nearby cardboard box. However, all the excessive movements required to navigate the skill menu rather confused her. Maybe it was instinctive? She waved her hand forward toward the box and imagined herself lifting it off the ground. Suddenly, her hand flashed for a moment and then the cardboard container rose to the air. Not bad. She waved her hand back and forth, causing the box to float in unison. "I wonder." She clenched her hand as tightly as possible, and the box practically imploded on itself, crumpling into a pile of ripped cardboard. Touko didn't know why, but that action just now gave her an odd sense of accomplishment. Anyway, she needed to get her thoughts prioritized. If she was stuck in this game and so were others, then Jack, Mana, Hiro, and a few others had to be here too. She had arranged for them to meet up at Big Ben and perform the classic anime's "Kiraboshi" gesture to denote that they were a familiar person. Well, maybe that would have been a bit difficult for Mana, because she was supposed to be mute in real life. Unless their transportation in this game meant that they abandoned their real bodies (in which she would actually be a Milletian now), she would have to head to the destination and try to wait for the others. She had to admit, though. Seeing all the other players panicking made her want to panic as well, but that wouldn't have been characteristic of her. She needed to find out more about this game. [attr="class","notesbg"] NOTES SKILLS WORDS CREDIT BY jumpstart! of btn and ote [attr="class","borderradius"] 皐月 冬子

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[Elfriede]

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[attr="class","tran2"] [attr="class","tran"] NOTES ! WORDS. 979 MUSE. --- NOTES. ---

My eyes can see the death of everything [attr="class","ban01"] [attr="class","ban02"] [attr="class","ban03"] even if that thing is God As Mana waited, she decided to practice with her scythe a bit more. In reality the scythe wasn't exactly the most practical of weapons, but this was a fantasy world and apparently Elfriede could wield it with ease, cutting through imaginary enemies. This really is functioning on the rule of cool though. Mana had taken both Kendo and Fencing lessons in the real world, meaning she would be decently versed in the use of Katanas and Rapiers, both of which she could use due to the Assassin class having proficiency in all Weapon Classes. She tried applying some techniques to her scythe but they felt clunky and awkward, she couldn't really apply techniques to such vastly different weapons. The scythe isn't meant to be a weapon in the first place anyway. Perhaps I should consider swapping it out for a katana, rapier, or another similar weapon. Though the reach on a scythe is nice so perhaps I should try a glaive or another more practical polearm-type weapon. Still, I can wield it with ease so any practicality issues may be negated. Jumping into the air, Elfriede spun vertically as she applied the angular momentum to her scythe, increasing the damage. It was one of the first tier Assassin skills, Deadly Dance, and a bread and butter one at that. It was a useful skill any melee Assassin could take advantage of, dealing increased damage with each successive use and with a short cooldown that is rare in Assassin skills. Our bodies are stronger here as well. Perhaps that is why I can wield this scythe so easily, even a level one adventurer should close to peak human levels and we will only get stronger from here. Still, I wonder how the people of the land compare to us. Speaking of which, how do they act? In Sword Art Online, they had basic AI, but this feels real. We don't have anything along the lines of SAO's VR technology, though we could probably adapt some technology into it. Still the amount of processing power for some of the effects here should be beyond what even the most powerful computer is capable of. Kneeling down, Elfriede grabbed some of the moss and felt it with her fingers. It actually felt like moss, not some sort of imitation or anything, but actual moss. Furthermore, nothing looked like it was computer generated, aside from the holographic menu of course. Everything looked perfectly realistic, there was no way Mana's computer could handle this type of graphical capability despite being a custom rig with a hefty price tag of just over ten grand, something that only the rich like Mana could afford. It could be a process similar to cloud gaming, where an even more powerful computer is processing for everyone, but then why was there an installation. If the game is hosted on another computer, there shouldn't have been such a large download and installation. Even then, the amount of power needed for details of this level is impossible for anything humanity can create at the moment unless there is something that is kept hidden from the public, but that would more likely be something limited to military and government use. No matter how I think about it, this level of detail is only possible if it was reality. What happened to our bodies then? Did they get reconstructed here? Do we even have bodies in the original world anymore? If someone were to go into my room, would they just find an empty room with my computer on, logged into Elder Tale? However, why is there this holographic menu? Why is there a log out button, although it doesn't work. We really need to gather more information somehow. At the least, we should find a way to survive: food, water, shelter, all of the essentials. Comfort will be something that we will also address if we end up staying here for a prolonged amount of time. I wonder if it is even possible to return home. Could this be a one way trip? After all, if we no longer have bodies in the real world and they have been reconstructed using our character information in Elder Tale. Actually, why Elder Tale? Though perhaps the better question would be how. This world seemed to be created in the form of Elder Tale. The style is definitely there though Elfriede could not be certain. It different did seem like how Akiba was on Japanese server but with London as the base instead. As Elfriede swung her scythe a bit more, she noticed a somewhat familiar figure approaching her. It looked a bit like Touko, but she couldn't be too sure. However, there was one way to figure out: do Kiraboshi! Once Elfriede was sure the person was close enough to see, she immediately did the pose though she avoided saying the words as she wasn't exactly confident in her ability to speak. However, she slipped on some moss and fell face first into the ground. Her scythe, which she was holding in one of her hands, fell as well and stabbed into the ground, inches away from her skull. Immediately, Elfriede's face turned pale as she saw that she was just a few inches away from testing to see if the cathedrals worked. Although, a observer could find the situation rather adorable. That was too close for comfort... Kiraboshi attempt aside, Elfriede was sure Touko would recognize her as Mana since the only real difference between her body in this world and the original was a few centimeters and slightly better complexion. Hair color, hair length, eye color, proportions, were all the same. Picking herself up, Elfriede sheathed her weapon and began running towards the person she believed to be Touko. Once close enough, she began using sign language to ask, “Touko is that you?”

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[Wood Carbuncle]

This world was out of joint. That was the first thought that crossed Jack Lawrence's mind as he looked at the scenery before him. Indeed, the more he thought about it the less sense all of it made. The wavering trees, the slight cold nip of the wind at his half exposed fingers, and the Goosebumps that seemed to now be spreading up his arms. None of it was possible. Well, that is to say that none of it was possible in his current situation. If all was as it should be there should be no way he could feel these things.

No, there were a few ways parts of this could be explained. One possibility is that all of this was a dream. He could have fallen asleep at his computer desk while waiting for the launch and all of this was in his mind. The prickling feeling spreading across his arms could easily be explained by the simple fact that his apartment was drafty, which he knew for a fact it was. The building was old and the rent was cheap. With only the radiator in his bedroom actually producing much heat and his computer being near the window in the kitchen half of the apartment it only made sense that he would be feeling the cold and reacting to it. Indeed, a dream was the most likely explanation for all of this, but that was exactly the reason that he shouldn't believe in it without assurance. After all, believing or not believing wouldn't make much of a difference within a dream in the end anyway since he would just wake up when the time came.

In that case what were the other possible explanations? Bending over, Jack grabbed rock about the size of a child's fist and rolled it in his hand. As expected it, also, was cool to the touch. Now that it was in his hand it was clear that it was seemingly a weathered piece of concrete. Grasping the sharp rock firmly, a few fragments broke off in his hand before the threw it against. A few drops of blood fell from his fingers and hit the dry earth below and his hand began to sting a bit. It was real enough for him. Perhaps somehow this was some perverse version of the future where he had been revived or become a cyborg? Jack quickly wiped the remaining blood off on the cold silver metal covering his right arm, but as his left hand crossed in front of his body a transparent window popped in the center of his vision. Well, looks like cyborg is still much in the running. Looking over the window's contents, Jack was more or less able to discern its purpose. That is, if he hadn't have recognized it from the get go. Without a doubt, this was that status screen from Elder Tales. That in itself significantly reduced the possible explanations for the situation down to three.

• One: As he first assumed, this could all be a dream.
• Two: He was either kept in stasis or revived in the future as a cyborg or at the very least given some sort of neural implant to allow the display of this screen. Based on the status screen, it was more likely than not he was being made to fight for some reason or another.
• Three: Somehow, Elder Tale had come to life or Jack had come into the game.
• Four: His memories up until this moment were false.

Since there was nothing he could do in situations one and four, he would have to focus on at the very least figuring out if he was a future cyborg or just inside the game world. With all of the changes that could have been done to his body was there even a way to prove one or the other? The fact that his appearance was spot on for when he registered his character in game made him lean towards that explanation, however implausible, but this could be explained by his futuristic machine masters having chosen there subjects/slaves from Elder Tales' database. It would have enough information to contact them in real life and somehow get them in stasis or find whatever organs, like their brain, which may have been donated to science and then reused for this project. That along with the data from the servers would explain his current appearance and the choice of status screen. Looking further down the way he could even see a building that closely resembled the parliament building, although it looked like it had been weathered by hundreds of years.

Wait, something was wrong. If that was parliament then it was safe to assume that church was likely Westminster Abbey. If that was the case though the distance was all off, only about a quarter of… Well, that settles that, item two would be scratched from the list. This was without a doubt the Half Gaia project or some sort of derivative. That is, that, a dream, or Half Gaia and regular London never existed and this had been reality. Assuming this was in fact Elder Tale then he had an appointment he needed to keep. There was always the possibility that Big Ben, the meeting place, could be some sort of trap assuming his memories were false or even somewhere he could never reach if it was a dream, but there was no harm in seeing if he could get more evidence towards any of the arguments. After all, even if it was a trap it was the only lead he had in this city. All Jack could do now was make his way to the tower and hope that Touko and Mana would be there to respond to the kiraboshi.

------- ------ ----- ---- --- -- - -- --- ---- ----- ------ -------

Making his way past around the parliament building, Jack approached Big Ben. It seemed that if this wasn't in his head then he wasn't the only one in this situation. The grounds of the parliament building have become a refugee camp of sorts with people trying to find their friends or more often just information on what was going on. Either way, he had no reason to go there just yet. It was situations like this when people will just accept whatever answer they are given if it makes sense, which could lead to situations he would really rather not get caught up in. Better to stay clear of the swarm until everything calmed down a bit. Following his initial plan, he made his way out of the bustle of the street and inside the clock tower.





*Will get a template soon. Word Count is 1112. ~ Aka

[Midori]

[attr="class","polaris"] [attr="class","girtab"] [attr="class","gif"] [attr="class","backgroundsinister"] [attr="class","stardust"] [attr="class","lockedroom"] [attr="class","murasak"] Suddenly the idea of getting trapped in a game wasn't quite as terrifying as the other players made it seem, if she would have been able to crush objects using only her mental willpower. The only thing Touko would need to find out was whether there was a real death that occurred when one's HP ran out or whether it was one of those hands where you simply revived back in the main town upon death. The former option would have admittedly made it quite a potentially dangerous lifestyle, which wouldn't have been helped by her choice of the classic magic glass cannon. Seriously, she would have spent all her time defeating those mobs that would die in a single hit rather than risk her life over something more difficult. If it was the latter, she'd expect that there would have been quite the saving grace to other players. If it was impossible to die, then it would have been safe for them to risk their lives exploring the place, knowing that failure only meant a small loss of EXP in most cases. However, at that same time, Touko figured that many players would get all overconfident about their abilities. If death did not have a significant impact in the world, that would mean death was cheap. Cheap enough that players would probably degenerate into PKing others simply over petty excuses like claiming a public training spot. It would only have been a matter of time. In any case, she checked the grimoire's description and beheld its apparent magical properties when wielded by a member of the mage classes. Once again, she made her guinea pig a lone and empty cardboard box laying around on the street corner. After all, it was wrong to test her skills on other players or animals but was totally fine to scorch this type of inanimate object, right? It wasn't as though the box could just suddenly start talking and reveal its identity as some sort of supreme ancient deity that would decide to take over the city in order to spread its name all over the land. But really, she was starting to overthink this sort of thing a little too much. Jack's occasional profound monologue was starting to get to her own thought processes as well. Despite coming to accept that this was actually her current reality relatively early, Touko was actually searching for some clues that would help her in turning such a confusing situation to at least a tolerable survival strategy. She didn't really know very much about Elder Tale beyond the bits of information that she had checked online about its mechanics. Touko merely knew enough about the merits of the multiple classes and had checked the Sorcerer builds in particular, so she would probably be okay if it was possible for her to level enough to get all of the staple skills. On the other hand, Elder Tale was still quite a bit of an unknown environment to her. While it was at least comforting that their current location was a smaller replica of London, she would have preferred some other scenario instead. Now if this game had been Mabinogi, where her character had actually been at a respective level to take on essentially most of the game's content, it would have been much more easier for her to quickly relax and plan for what was necessary. After all, her survival would have been guaranteed there, not only through the lack of permanent death but also the boon of having a great deal of knowledge about how that particular universe functioned. Surely the most frightening thing about being trapped in this game ultimately tied back to the lack of knowledge they had. There was a lack of knowledge over the mechanics of the game, a lack of knowledge over many of the other players besides the few she had promised to meet, and a lack of knowledge over what it took to return back to the other world. Her thoughts about the other MMO reminded her about Mana at this moment. If Touko herself had held some opinions over having been thrust into an unfamiliar game, then Mana must have felt a similar feeling as well. Supposedly the other girl had played this game for a long time, her main account in Japan essentially capped out. She was the one with all the knowledge of the former world, only thrust into their server on an equally new character. Touko wondered whether the girl would even have the motivation to become stronger in this foreign and strange world. And what of Jack and his circumstances? He had been nearly ready to expose that mysterious hacker in court using all the amassed evidence that they had collected. One of the main reasons why they had chosen to play Elder Tale was to use its service as a guise to throw off the hacker's trail in case the rest of his information was being tracked. Considering that Elder Tale's data would have been extremely secure and encrypted in many ways, not even a regular hacker would have been able to intercept it for himself. But then, what would have been Jack's reaction to this occurrence? At last, they were now in a fantasy world where they could finally leave behind the stress and troubles that they would have had to deal with as growing young adults trying to find a purpose in life for themselves. At least, this world provided them with such goals that would have been as simple as gaining levels and progressing one's ability. Yet, it just felt all wrong. It was like a dream that could have fallen apart any moment. Perhaps they might all wake up suddenly to find that nothing had actually happened, that the world was in fact normal and that society would continue to move on. Touko needed to meet with the two of them right now, and that was what was going through her mind as she advanced on to the site of their destination, the location of Big Ben. It hadn't even occurred to her that it was the very spot that she had also told Hiro to bring his friends so they would also meet up. At last, the famous clock tower was now looming over her position, although its faded façade would have left more to be desired. She noticed immediately upon entering the clock tower that there was an enormous number of players who had seemed to follow the same idea as well. Considering how instrumental the tower was to London itself, it made sense that this would have been the perfect meeting place for the players on this server. Her eyes moved back and forth, sifting through the crowd until they met with that of another set of equally familiar eyes. At that very moment, the other girl had slipped and was merely inches from injuring herself, so Touko immediately rushed to her side. As soon as she saw the sign language done in a hurry, she knew this was Mana. Aside from a few characteristics, she looked the same as she would have been, aside from perhaps a small difference in height. Touko herself had a bit of a physical change, but it was still representative of herself. She could only make a silent smile to the other girl as she adjusted her right hand to perform the Kiraboshi gesture. There was no need to shout out the callsign either - such a thing wouldn't have been appropriate for the current circumstance. At that very same moment, she turned her eyes to see the figure of Jack walk through the clock tower's entranceway. Granted, out of all three of them, his appearance had been the most stunningly different from his true form, but given the details that he had said his character would look like, it was undoubtedly him. As such, she would make it simple. As the young man walked by, Touko once again flashed the hand gesture so that it would attract his attention, then went on to speak. "It doesn't seem like we're going to be in this game for just a few hours anymore… What should we do?" [attr="class","notesbg"] NOTES SKILLS WORDS 1377 CREDIT BY jumpstart! of btn and ote [attr="class","borderradius"] 皐月 冬子

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[Elfriede]

[attr="class","cscroll"]

[attr="class","tran2"] [attr="class","tran"] NOTES ! WORDS. 1329 MUSE. --- NOTES. ---

My eyes can see the death of everything [attr="class","ban01"] [attr="class","ban02"] [attr="class","ban03"] even if that thing is God What should they do? Surprisingly, the question didn’t really appear in Mana’s head until now. She just sort of focused on testing out the capabilities of her new body and getting to the clock tower. Well, that may also be due to how Mana believed that information gathering is almost always a priority. Using sign language, as she was still not yet comfortable speaking, Mana told her two friends, ‘Well, we should act as if we were stranded on an island. Food, water, and shelter would be the first thing we would normally collect. Though shelter is already provided as we can either sleep in one of the abandoned buildings or we can purchase an inn room. Food and water can be purchased as well, although I hear the taste isn’t so great—something along the lines of a tasteless soggy cracker.’ Though none of that is free… ‘However, we need to have gold for inn rooms and food, and the only way that I know of to gather food is to slay monsters. Of course, there is a risk of us dying for good; no one really knows if the cathedrals still work. However, if we stick to the beginning monsters for now, we should be able to safely gather gold. Their attack patterns should be rather simple and easily predictable, and their statistics should be rather low. On the Japanese servers, you had to try really hard to be killed by one of the level one monsters. If we bide our time, eventually someone is going to bite the dust. When that happens we can discover whether or not we really die for good and can adjust any plans depending on the results. Or at least someone should eventually die in battle. If the monsters act like how the monsters on the Japanese server were programmed to then most of them should avoid higher level players. So as players get stronger, eventually the monsters will start fleeing from them, resulting in some of them hunting stronger monsters to save time. As players start fighting stronger monsters, sooner or later someone are going to die.’ A bit cruel and slightly morbid, but we don’t have too much of a choice. The other option would be to test it ourselves and I rather not take that gamble. Mana never really did have too much in the way of morals. She still had her lines, but there were fainter and further away than most people. The border between right and wrong for her was a little blurry, meaning she had no qualms about sacrificing a few random people to test out some of her theories. ‘Also, as I am sure you guys have noticed, our classes and their skills are all perfectly usable. They may very well level the same way as they did when Elder Tale is a game. Our bodies apparently know the basic of combat so we can call on that information and have our bodies sort of fight for us, kind of like a set of carefully crafted macros. Still, if we do plan on fighting stronger enemies, it is best not to rely too heavily on those macros.’ I really wished I picked summoner again. At least I would know exactly what to get, although some of the quests are a bit dangerous. ‘We gain one new main class skill every third level after first so at fourth, seventh, tenth level, and so on, our main class gains a new skill. Our subclasses gain a skill every ten level ups so at eleventh, twenty-first, thirty-first level, and so on. We don’t have any access to internet guides and I don’t have all of the class information and builds memorized. Plus with the new expansion, Novapshere Pioneers, a lot of things could have changed; for one I know the level cap has been raised from ninety to one-hundred. Anyway, if these menus are correct, Touko is a Sorcerer and Jack is a Samurai, meaning we have a rather high offensive set up right now. Our weakness would be a lack of healing abillities.’ Well, we will eventually have to find other people to party with if we want to take on some dungeons so it should be fine. We just need to be more careful in open field areas. ‘Party balance aside, we should also spend time practicing our class features. It is one thing to use our class abilities and it is a completely different thing to master them.’ Standing up, Elfriede drew her scythe and began swing it around in a variety of elegant dance-like motions. However, at certain moments, her movements felt a bit clunky, like there wasn’t a real transition from the previous move. Holstering her weapon on her back again, Elfriede continued speaking in sign language, ‘As you can see, the basics of our class is rather easy to use, but there are still imperfections. Practice should allow us to negate or at least minimalize those moments of chunkiness in our techniques. One thing to note is that we are not require to strike in pre-programmed paths and can aim our attacks. It may very well be possible that we our combat can go beyond what the game would normally allow by striking in certain areas like the legs to cripple someone for example.’ Which means… ‘Which brings me to my next point: this is probably no longer a game world, or rather may never have been the game world of Elder Tale. Personally, I suspect that this is more likely the world the game was based on, though our access to the classes and the holographic menus does make me a bit hesitant about this theory. However, I am certain that this is not a game world but an alternate world. There is no way a computer could be processing all of this detail. Even my beast of a computer couldn’t hope to be able to get even a single frame per second with the graphics set to this level of detail, and considering that my computer had a price tag of over ten-thousand pounds it would limit any hope of the game being profitable at all if no one could run it, let alone the impossibility of creating such a game engine in the first place. Even if they did make the engine, the only way to allow players to play it would be via cloud gaming which would still be impossible on such a large scale as the amount of processing power to render he game in such detail for even just one person would be impossible to imagine. So unless the game is running on some top-secret super computer of unimaginable power, this is not virtual reality. And because this is no longer the game world, a large amount of information that we once had may no longer be valid. Already I was a bit low on information as this is a new server for me, but now we can’t be too sure of the information that we already have. So while gold for food, water, and shelter is important, our top priority should be gathering information, and the best way to gather information is to just play on through, gathering gold for supplies along the way. This may no longer be a game, but we can observe that at least some game mechanics still work. We just have to experiment and see how far the mechanics can take us.’ And I should probably tell them about… ‘Oh, I there is one more thing…’ Opening her mouth, Elfriede struggled to get the words out, “I-I-I t-t-th-ink… m-m-my... vo-cal co-ords w-were res-stored… to… a… func-tion-nal ssstate… w-w-wheeen my bo-dy w-w-was re-con-struc-ted in t-t-this w-wo-orld.” Elfriede didn’t know why, but it semed that her vocal cords were recreated as a functional set in this world, however she had never really spoken before so she still has difficulty saying words.

template by darkee of btn.

With minor modifications and v5 conversion by Archetype=Luna.

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[Wood Carbuncle]

Jack had seen the inside of the clock tower before as a child, but what he saw before him now was much different than he remembered. A simple spiral stair case went along the wall of the tower while the rest remained a fairly sizeable open space. That said, it seemed that their group, assuming there really was a group, hadn't been the only one to decide on the clock tower as a meeting place. Stepping off to the side and away from the entrance, Jack began to survey the room. It seemed that the variety of clothing was fairly limited. While that would seemingly be more evidence to this being Elder Tales, their clothing could just have easily been modeled after the game's and given to cyborgs with the appropriate classification. Deciding to get a better view of the room, Jack made his way across the room and to the staircase. A few seconds later he saw a black haired girl bring her right hand near her eyes and make a symbol. Redirecting himself through the small crowd, he saw another girl standing next to her. From that point it was easy figure out who was who, seeing as Mana, having obviously spent much more time on here character than Jack had on his, looked almost the same as she did in real life. That, and the fact that Toukou was talking. Taking note of what Touko said, Jack also kept a close eye on Mana's hands. While he had only started learning sign language a few months back, he was still able to pick up a fair amount when it just came to reading. After a moment her hands began to move and Jack translated as best he could, going over the information as he did.

All in all, it seemed as though the two of them were convinced that they were indeed trapped within the game. While Jack still wasn’t completely convinced of that yet, following their train of thought wouldn't hurt just yet. Regardless, survival was key and as Mana had noted a steady source of income was necessary. That said, there had been one flaw with what Mana said. Killing mobs wasn’t the only way of getting an income right now. As everyone was a new player to this server extensive amounts of trade or crafting weren't an option just yet either. That said though, it was exactly because most everyone was a new character that this option was available. If need be, they could always just wait for players to hunt a good sum of mobs and then go and pick off the groups of players. Yes, it was a bit savage, but it still none the less was likely the highest paying thing per time spent at the moment. That wasn't to say that PKing was Jack's style. To be fair, he didn’t really mind killing players within a game, but often it was only if there was a good reason to do so brought on by the other party. That hesitance was doubled now that there was no real assurance that this was even a game. Indeed, as Mana said they would have to wait until someone died to find out, be it by hand of monster or player. Of course, getting a healer would be a good first step in making sure one of them wasn't that someone. While he hadn't tested out his skills yet nor had past experience with them, Jack couldn't help but believe that they would be effective, although he had to wonder how healing would work if they were indeed cyborgs. Regardless, it seemed that Mana too felt that this world was both Elder Tales yet not it at the same time.

Most it had been stuff that Jack had already considered, helping him make the translation more of less accurate. The one thing that had never crossed his mind though was that in this world Mana would be able to speak. The moment sound started flowing from he mouth Jack's jaw dropped far enough to hit his steel boots. "Ma- Elfe…that’s great!" Having been friends with Mana online for a few years now and, as of the past semester, having started picking up sign language to help her a bit with the classes they were in together, this was great news for Jack. Finding it a bit hard to control himself, he tossed his arm on her shoulder and ruffled her hair a bit. "God girl, why didn't you mention that first? If anything, I think some celebration is in order- you know, once we get everything settled and all." Withdrawing his arm, which by know he was sure was probably getting to her a little bit, Jack did a quick overview of his take on the situation.

"More or less, I have to agree with Elfe here," said Jack, making sure not to accidently slip into real names in public. "Information collection will be key right now, but at the same time we can't let us get swept up by all the rumors and stuff. Ya see, I have a few theories on what could'a been going on, but the only other two that seem remotely possible at this point are that either this is how the world always has been and our memories have been erased, or that this is actually the future and somehow our brains were preserved and put into these bodies modeled after our Elder Tales characters. Who knows, maybe the reason these menus pop up and we have status screens is because we are cyborgs now or something, I don't know." Waving his hand again like he did earlier to wipe away the blood, Jack brought up his menu and equipped the only weapon in his inventory, a halberd. An instant later the pole arm seemingly appeared in his hands from nowhere. "Anyone can tell ya that just ain't normal, but somehow we can do it. Who knows, maybe you are right there Elfe. Maybe we all did somehow slip into an alternate world serving as the game's basis. Hell, maybe this world itself is Novasphere and this is why we are the pioneers. None of that matters in the end. All we know right now is we are here, and if killing some mobs will let us get somewhere to relax while we figure out the rest that’s fine by me. What's your call, Midorin?"

In truth, Jack just wanted to put off thinking about the problem for a little bit. He was happy to see his friends again, but at the same time he didn't want to worry them. The fact the he met them here either meant that he was dreaming/going crazy or that this was all happening somewhere at some time. Assuming his memories were correct, his most valuable asset was slipping through his fingers and soon the damage in the real world might be irreparable. That is, assuming they could ever go back to the place/time/reality they were once in. Going back meant that he would finally be able to bring the evidence they had collected to light and maybe even get Jack's name cleared. At the same time though, the longer they were stuck in here the more of a chance that the hacker had to delete the trail it had taken them so long to uncover. They may not have the hacker's real name yet, but they were able to get together enough to find out the online name they went by, among a few other things. For the moment though, there was nothing they could do about it but get information on what was going on and figure out a way to get out of this mess. In the end though that mess with the hacker wouldn't really matter if they couldn't get back after all of this, but if that happened would he really be able to live with not getting justice? Really, he did not know.


Wordcount: 1337

[Midori]

[attr="class","polaris"] [attr="class","girtab"] [attr="class","gif"] [attr="class","backgroundsinister"] [attr="class","stardust"] [attr="class","lockedroom"] [attr="class","murasak"] It wasn't until that moment that Touko truly realized Mana's disability would still have an effect in this world as well. Mana had started by performing various statements in sign language. Touko had to admit that her knowledge of sign language was rather basic and wasn't to the level of Jack's ability, meaning that she was only able to understand some of the gestures. First of all, there was an analogy about an island and essential resources, which meant that they would need to secure at least food and drink while shelter can probably be taken in one of the various unused buildings in the city. It didn't seem as though most of the buildings were populated to the point of London's density. The food and drink were being sold at stands from what he had saw, but there was the matter of needing money. Fortunately, the prices were rather cheap, with items being only a few gold at the least. However, Mana's gesture suggested that the taste of the food in this world was nothing compared to theirs. Either way, they were in a somewhat desperate situation, so taste shouldn't have been one of their major concerns for the moment. That was where the issue of gold came. Mana's next series of gestures was a bit more complicated to understand, but Touko was able to identify that it was about earning gold but having to risk some danger. Someone was going to die eventually, so it would be up to the knowledge they gain from that point on to determine what they should do. If it was a permanent death, then finding a healer was crucial. Regardless, they still needed to exercise caution. Usually, the penalty for non-lethal death in games was an EXP drop and a usual revival in town. If they were to assume that this tower was the center of town, then it would have required several more minutes in order to get back to the training spot. It was moreso difficult in long expeditions too, effectively nullifying any progress made on the trip. The next part was a little more detailed as it covered the in-game mechanics. Basically, the body knew how to perform the skills that they had chosen for their class. Touko had figured that out when she had attempted the Psychic Conductor skill a little while ago. After that came a bunch of numbers, which probably signified that skills were gained at those respective levels in a simple pattern. They would also need to fight some monsters shortly enough in order to gain a better understanding of how their party worked. The current combination of Sorcerer, Assassin, Samurai meant that they certainly packed the offensive power to deal with most beginner-level monsters easily. However, once the difficulty scale should rise, Jack was going to need to serve as the tank while Mana and Touko perform DPS. There was little space within their group for support and healing, so they needed to find someone of that sort. Perhaps Hiro knew someone as well. Mana made her closing statements and finally started to speak instead of signing, which surprised the girl just as much as it did Jack. Except this really did meant that they were truly in another world of some sort. Either this world was virtual reality, which Mana had shown some skepticism toward, or it was an entirely different world in entirely different bodies. Jack brought out a few conspiracy theory possibilities that would likely explain why as well. But he was right. They certainly needed to find something to do for the time being. Simply standing around making theories wasn't going to help if they didn't experiment how the world worked for themselves. Jack had addressed Mana by a shortened form of her current username of Elfriede and Touko as Midorin, one of the more common nicknames he had given to her during their online conversations. At this point, Touko double-checked both players' attributes. She had come to figure that accessing someone's basic data was like hovering a mouse over them and applying some pressure in the air, as though clicking with the hand. This had brought up Mana as Elfriede, while Jack's current username was a little more complicated. "Wood Carbuncle?" Touko immediately recalled those brown shirts he liked to wear. It was just a plain shirt with no other designs to it, other that the two enigmatic words. Neither of them had been able to find out what it really meant, although Touko had her suspicions that Jack simply bought it because it contained the words Carbuncle. That was a little reminiscent to their experience of playing that new Final Fantasy MMO; Touko had only played the beta and wasn't really committed beyond that, while Jack had apparently mastered all the crafting classes and essentially ran a good portion of the economy within a few months. Really, it was what she would have expected. "First I need to figure out what I'm supposed to call you here. Probably the most obvious one that comes to mind is Woody, but that just reminds me of that cowboy from the old Disney movie." Plus a samurai was pretty much the opposite of a cowboy as far as culture was concerned. "I think we should start with the combat first. The sooner we practice our team strategy, the more prepared we are to survive here. Also, since we're going to need money anyway, it's probably best to gather up our share while others are still lying around here not knowing what to do." It was pretty much the best course of action since everyone was at an equal footing. Whoever controls the early game situations will certainly determine the way everyone will adapt to their environment. At the very least, she just wanted to hit the early level training areas before other people should overcome their fear of being trapped in this world. Once the majority of players started to train, these areas were simply going to get extremely crowded. It was thus in their best interest to level quickly and unlock at least a few alternate training locations so that their circumstance was at least a little better than others. Then, depending on whether anyone should die on this first day, they can either choose to stabilize their growth rate or to continue expanding to the higher levels. "As for finding other people we can work with, I had also told one of my other friends about Elder Tale. If he happens to be here, our party will become more organized than the various soloers and we'll be able to gain an upper hand in recruiting some healer classes to join up with us as well." Numbers were an important matter in this situation as well. When they decided to play Elder Tale, no one had expected that they would have been thrown into this unknown situation. However, because they had fortunately made an appointment to meet at Big Ben upon entry into the world, the three friends were already at a greater advantage than others. It likely would have taken a few days before other groups should form a stable position, from which she suspected that guilds would be formed. In the meantime, there were a large number of confused and discouraged players around here; if they were to show their team unity, it was a possibility that they would gain more allies along the way. "The question is, where would the training areas most likely be?" Knowing that this place was essentially London, the east side of the city was going to be a port area. That brought a minor question to her mind on whether it was possible to reach other nations or at least other parts of the United Kingdom through ship travel. Anyway, with this in mind, the most likely candidates were training spots on the west and south sides. There was a lot more forestry in these surrounding regions, which would likely equate to monster spawns. It was really worth a try. [attr="class","notesbg"] NOTES SKILLS WORDS 1348 CREDIT BY jumpstart! of btn and ote [attr="class","borderradius"] 皐月 冬子

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