Summer

​

Farms!

"Old Macdonald had a farm,
E-I-E-I-O!
And on his farm he had a cow,
E-I-E-I-O!
With a moo moo here,
and a moo moo there!
Here a moo, there a moo!
Everywhere a moo moo!
Old MacDonald had a farm,
E-I-E-I-O!"

Meruru sang the nursery rhyme to herself as she headed past the farmlands that had made the request. The alchemist was not totally sure where she got the song from. It was something she just seemed to know and it was sung to her by her mother as a child... maybe? Weird. Anyway, Meruru was pretty excited to get a chance to help these farmers out. Their land had been ravaged by crazy boars and they needed some fresh ingredients gathered to help replace the damage. This was her forte! Unfortunately it also required her to fight the boars so they did not comeback to redo the damage.... that was...uh fine. She could do that. Bashing a pig in the face with a rod, yeah that would work!

Thankfully two others had picked to do this quest as well. So it was going to be a party! Meruru had everything ready to go and rested on a fence for the others. She had no clue what kind of people they were. Hopefully they liked bacon because they may be eating some as a reward. The forest they were going to hunt the boars in was pretty huge. Reminded her more of home than ever just by looking at it. There were a lot of big forests around Blanch. She could only imagine what was in these woods. Well, it would be a adventure that's for sure.

Meruru thought of back home. Right now she would probably be at some hoity toity party being wooed or more like trying to be wooed by that Grants guy. Duke Grants was such a snob and a stuck up jerk. Meruru would never marry that guy. Then again... the marriage never did seem to be happening. It felt like there was a endless wait for it. Like one week kept going forever and needed some kind of trigger to actually move in. Meruru would stop thinking about it. It always made her confused and gave her a headache. Better to just focus on this adventure for now. Yeah!

@Kyupin Felnya @Garta

 

Kyupin fidgeted with her long bow, frowning at her palm. "I said," she narrowed her eyes at the UI, "Invite. Meruru!" Nope. Didn't work. So using a voice command wouldn't send the invite either. Or maybe it had and the UI just didn't tell her. Was she spamming her potential quest-mate with party invites? That'd be horrible!

She gave up on figuring out that aspect of the game for now, figuring she'd be able to recognize her party mates once she finally got to the objective area.

Kyupin looked up from her palm, focusing on the farm in front of her, shredded crops and everything.

She didn't really want to kill any of the boars, no, but they were ruining the farms. And there would be no negotiating – the farmers really wanted their revenge bacon. It was even in the contract terms! Kyupin pouted, double checking her quiver to make sure she had enough arrows, and then trotted onwards to a figure she could just spot in the distance.

Was that the Quest NPC?

As she approached, she took in the person. She didn't look like an NPC. At least, not one that would be doing farming, if her pretty pink hair and sweet dress were any indication. "Hello," she greeted as she finally came within reach. "I'm here for the quest...?"

@Garta @Meruru Blanchimont

 

Perhaps he'd gotten a little lost. Garta looked around a bit after the dialogue box popped up, alerting him of a quest here, in the Adecus Forest. He hadn't realized he left Brisshal, but he supposed his wandering had gotten him a bit lost. It was bound to happen eventually, right? He had to spread his wings and learn to fly eventually. He read over the quest, something about boars tearing up farmlands. It didn't seem too involved. He saw that two other players were already on the job, but hey, the more the merrier right? He didn't think about it too long before deciding to accept. After all, he'd not really been on quests so much yet, he'd spent most of his time so far exploring and trying to get a handle on his different skills.

He sheathed his sword and saw a fence through the trees to the northwest. He could assume that was the farm in question, and his fellow party goers, as listed on the UI popup would be waiting for him there. No doubt they probably got some notification that he'd accepted the quest along with them, he hoped they hadn't already begun and he was showing up late. That thought in mind, he picked up the pace, running towards the fence in an effort to make up any potentially lost time. Perhaps he was being too cautious, however, as he felt a bit like a weirdo as he burst through the treeline to see two girls, whom were his party members if their nameplates were to be believed.

"Oh, hey. I just got a quest for taking care of some boars... I hope I'm not too late." Garta said with a laugh, scratching the side of his face. He still had a bit of a scratch from where that Kobold hit him with a slingshot, and he winced as he touched the wound. It didn't really feel that painful, and he didn't think it looked too bad either, but when he touched it, the thing hurt like hell. He was sure boars probably weren't going to be hitting him in the face, at least he hoped not.

"I'm uh, Garta, by the way." He said with an awkward sort of wave as he got in closer to the two of them. He'd sort of made a strange entrance, so he figured maybe they still needed that confirmation. Though there was no way they'd be mistaking him for an NPC, he was much too off. "It's nice to meet you both, sorry if you weren't expecting a third, by the way. I just kind of got the notification and figured, why not?" He explained, laughing nervously as he apologized. They probably were all strangers to each other, and the explanation was unnecessary, but he just wanted to be sure that he wasn't stepping on any toes here.

@Meruru Blanchimont @Kyupin Felnya

 

"I'm here for the quest...?"

Meruru shot up and looked around. Oh boy she must have fallen sleep! Jumping to her feet and dusting off her dress she looked and saw a Felis girl! Wow there were a lot of those around here! Blanch only had a few come though on occasion. Meruru never really had a chance to hang out with one. Well this would be a chance then. Making a bit of a embarrassed look as she nodded and greeted her party member for this quest.

"Hi, I'm Me-"

"Oh, hey. I just got a quest for taking care of some boars... I hope I'm not too late."

Meruru saw another person show up. Yes! They both came! Whew she was never sure how people wre supposed to be sure of this stuff. They always just ran off and waited for people to show up so Meruru just guessed that was how this worked. It was kinda weird though. Many things were weird lately though. The princess got a better look at the guy as he continued speaking. He had a small scar. She wondered how he got it but it probably would be rude to ask. He talked about some weird stuff too. What was a notification? Was it the quest posted on the wall of the signboard like she used? Was there someone sending magical messages to people? Why not her? Hmmm....

"Nice to meet you both! I'm Meruru. I am not really from around here. It's uh... complicated I guess? Anyway, no worries. I'm here to help gather the ingredients for the farmers."

She counted on her fingers as she spoke. Counting off the needed items for the quest as if it was a simple formula of 1+1=done. She would not realize the actual oddness of that until afterwards. Was this normal?

"Tomatoes, lettuce... and bacon. We will need to gather 10 each of the veggies and 5 slices of bacon dropped from the... you know I don't know. Maybe we should just get what we can hahaha."

The alchemist felt funny again. Like she was somehow stating exact numbers for something that would normally not be dealt with exactly like that. Something felt artificial. She noticed other people doing that kind of thing a lot. Especially back home. Maybe it was always like that. These guys were not doing that at least not yet. They seemed somehow freer. Weird. Yep, word of day, or the week for that matter. She would just do the gathering and let everyone else do the other stuff.

@Kyupin Felnya @Garta

 

At least she wasn't the only one nervous and confused about the entire system. As beautifully detailed as TerraSphere was, it certainly lacked any sort of guidance or comprehensive tutorials. "No worries! I think it was just an open quest," she beamed at him. "Garta, like, G-A-R-T-A right?" she asked, lifting her palm to glance at the menu. She could see the little objective panel, telling her who was active in the quest: her, Meruru, and now, Garta. Frowning in concentration, Kyupin fiddled a bit with the interface. "Aha!"

Invite

Kyupin Felnya has invited you to their party. Accept?

She smiled in triumph as her invite panel pulsed, confirming that an invite was sent. She shut the invite panel and flicked open the contract log, glancing inquisitively at Meruru as she rattled on about the vegetables. "I think that maybe we should handle the boars first? Since that's the main goal..." She hummed, scanning through the contract again.

"And I think I can gather the bacon from them." She looked uncertain. "I did choose Cooking."

Kyupin tugged on her bowstring, testing its resistance, then lifted her bow to show it off. "I'm not really good at close combat," she said sheepishly, nodding at her weapon, "but I can help from a distance!" Her eyes flicked between Meruru and Garta, silently inviting them to explain their skills.

@Meruru Blanchimont @Garta

 

The pink-haired girl seemed a bit off. She looked at Garta like he was speaking another language for a moment that made him feel like either he was being weird, or maybe she was an NPC. He really had been fooled a fair number of times by these NPCs because they were so real. Garta frowned, looking over at the other girl, who spelled his name out. Suddenly a dialogue box popped up, telling him he was invited to a party, and if he'd like to accept. He looked at the two of them and realized pretty quickly he'd been in a similar situation before.

"Yeah, sorry, that's what I meant. I got a magical message telling me that the farmers needed help here." Garta said with a smile and a small nudge to the Felis girl. Garta nonchalantly accepted the invite on the UI and gave the both of them a nod. She explained that she thought the boars should be their first target, and Garta agreed. They were probably going to be the hardest to track down, as they were not planted in the ground for them to just walk up and harvest.

"Oh, cool." Garta said as the girl explained she'd chosen the cooking mastery, and that she should be able to harvest bacon. He cleared his throat, "I have chosen hunting as a.. er, hobby. I think I should be able to help track the boars down fairly simply." Garta explained, nodding at the girl as she flaunted her bow, "and with my sword I should be able to make sure nobody gets hurt." He explained to them, hoping to settle any worry they might have that they could be in any danger. He wasn't sure how strong these boars would be, but he'd taken care of a wolf and some Kobolds already, so a boar was probably somewhere in between the two.

Either way, he started to realize how incredible and real that the NPCs were in this game. He honestly thought the pink-haired girl was another player, she was even doing a quest! This was unlike any game he'd ever played before, MMO or otherwise. He was stunned by this. It made him want to believe it was just another player playing the role, but something about her seemed too naturally unaware of these things. He had to assume this meant she truly was an NPC.

"Hmmm," Garta hummed as he turned toward the forest line and pressed his index and middle finger to his temple to enter investigation mode. He nodded happily as he could see more clues than he did last time he tried this. His eyes glowed a slight green as he searched off, finding a trail of tracks that led into the woods a fair ways it seems. He pressed his fingers to his temple again and dismissed the investigation mode. The tracks remained highlighted opaquely for him on his UI. "My hunting senses are showing me tracks from where one of our boar friends must have last come through the field here, likely heading back toward the forest after eating his fill from the poor farmer's harvest." Garta explained. "So, what's the plan, boars first, or vegetables?"

@Meruru Blanchimont @Kyupin Felnya

 

The two would explain there abilities some. The Felis did not say her name so she would call her the neko for now. Neko was a archer. Then Garta who the neko reacted to weirdly, talked about his hunting skills and his sword. Swordsmen were always pretty dreamy. Meruru only wished she could meet one who would sweep her off her... wait a minute. No not really. That was a strange thought she had. Meruru was getting sick of these fluctuations. Was she sick? She hopes not. Well if she was, maybe she could use her alchemy to get better. The girl decided that she would look into what illness this could be later. The city had a good library she had heard.

Then Garta mentioned magical messages.Huh? Meruru basically was finding herself just standing here having to keep her jaw from dropping in awe of all the weird. These two were like, fooling with things that she could not see or really grasp. It was like they would wave their hand and stop moving for a second only to return to normal. It was something only people around here have done she noticed. It was definitely not what was going on back at Blanch but this was almost as strange. Once the focus shifted for her to explain her abilities, she was happy to try and participate and get off of the stranger topics that were crossing her mind.

"Me? Oh I'm a Alchemist! Or trying to be one anyway hehe. I have to get a workshop together and find a good base to work from first. Also I'm kinda... still practicing too."

She decided it best to not mention her 'ahem' upbringing. It would make things even more awkward. Also she assumed that if they knew how to get weird messages from nowhere they probably knew what alchemy was. So she saved everyone the lengthy explanation. The sword guy took charge of the group and put his finger to his head. What was he doing?

"You... okay Garta?"

She had no clue what happened so she decided maybe it was best to just expect weirdness and go with it. Maybe this whole experience was a dream and she was still in her bed at Blanch Castle. Meruru was not really sure she liked that possibility. Getting stuck with her steward and Grants again, yuck. Garta then asked what to do first between the boar hunting and the gathering. Oh, she would show her talent now!

"No worries! I can handle the gathering of the items while you guys keep a eye out for boars. I have a good eye for ingredients so it will be perfect for this. You can count on me!"

She would grasp her rod tightly and run off into the woods expecting them to follow. She was so excited to finally get this going. It was when she gathered and quested that the princess was able to forget her rather pressing concerns about what was happening to her or to the world she thought she knew.

@Kyupin Felnya @Garta

 

A chef, an alchemist, and a hunter walked into a farm... No! Kyupin shook her head, mentally slapping herself to focus on the task at hand. Which was, well, studying her partners.

Kyupin frowned at Garta's odd behavior, picking up on the sudden shift in his language. Was he... getting into character now? Did he want to do some sort of weird roleplaying thing now that they all knew they were in a party together? Every once in a while, he kept staring down their companion, Meruru, as if she were from another world. Although slightly weirded out by his acting, Kyupin supposed if he was going to try and settle into character, she would try her best to play along too. Wouldn't want to make him feel uncomfortable! Meruru, on the other hand, seemed to play along naturally! Or maybe she was the one playing a role and Garta was accommodating her? It was just one big loop of confusing information that would overwhelm her if she focused on it any longer.

"So, what's the plan, boars first, or vegetables?"

She blinked, impressed by the show of skill. Sure, from her perspective, it looked like he'd had a headache and just squinted into the distance, but he sounded so confident that Kyupin had no doubt he was seeing the tracks. Alas, she didn't get so much as a chance to breathe before Meruru was taking charge and launching into the woods.

Kyupin squeaked, not expecting the sudden rush. "W-Wait, Meruru!" she called out, stumbling after the excited girl.

Maybe she was paranoid, but she could've sworn she saw a rush of shadow in the woods! Whipping out an arrow from her quiver, she aligned the arrow head with her narrow gaze, trying to locate that rustle of movement again. There! Kyupin focused on the shadow as it broke out of the treeline, launching itself at Meruru.

She only had one shot, really, so she couldn't mess this up.

She released the arrow, watching it sail across the air..... and spectacularly miss the boar.

"MERURU!" Kyupin cried out in fear, scrambling to line up another arrow. But it would take too long - there was nothing she could do but watch and hope either Meruru or Garta could do something about the aggressive boar.

@Meruru Blanchimont @Garta

 

It seemed his subtle nuances were picked up by the girl, as she asked him if he was okay. He was trying to be sneaky about things and not let her know anything was going on. Then again, he supposed an NPC was probably a lot less distracted by the world around them, and she was looking right at him the whole time no doubt. It certainly didn't help that the Felis girl, who's name he'd learned to be Kyupin, was not catching on to the fact he was trying to be normal.

No sooner had Garta let the girls know he could track down the boars they needed to hunt, the pink-haired NPC girl took off running into the forest. Ordinarily, Garta would be impressed with her bravery, but in this situation, he knew that it meant he was going to have to chase after her so that she didn't die, or scare away the boars, whichever sounded more reasonable. Sure enough, the Kyupin ran right after her, and Garta knew where this was going. He followed suit, and made it a three person train of fools running into the woods in search of their quest objectives. "Wait up!" He hollered after them, no doubt too late to be heard.

Vegetables might not be the tastiest foods to eat, but he knew they weren't going to be dangerous. The threat they faced was simply boars. He wasn't sure if he really needed to worry about them or not, but he'd rather prepare for the worst and get the best than vice versa. He chased after Meruru with his senses on high alert.

He had fallen a bit behind the two of them, as he didn't exactly have any warning he was about to engage in a foot race through the forest. He could see that the girl ahead of him was readying her bow, and he didn't know why for a moment until she fired off an arrow. For a moment he thought she was taking aim at Meruru, but he quickly made out the figure of a boar just ahead.

Garta exploded past the archer as she knocked another arrow. She screamed out for the pink-haired leader of their group to watch out. Without thinking, Garta drove forward, trying to intercept the boar before it could gore his target. Garta drew his sword and slid to a stop in front of the beast, stopping it's charge toward Meruru. However, this did put him in a bit of a pickle. His sword was the only thing holding this things tusks back from stabbing into him. It didn't look very clean either, so he assumed there was a reasonable chance for it to inflict sickness upon him.

"Hey, err, this thing's tusks are pretty gross so watch out." Garta explained, not sure how he was going to disengage this little clash he was having with the boar. He couldn't attack it with his sword if he was guarding with the sword. It was a tricky situation for sure. Hopefully one of the girls would help him out here.

@Meruru Blanchimont @Kyupin Felnya

 

The alchemedic princess was jumping head first into this adventure! The moment she was in the woods. Meruru immediately caught sight of the thing she was so good at noticing. She really was not sure why, but it was helpful! She began to check a nearby patch of lettuce. How much it would actually total up to she had no idea. When she tried to gather in Brisshal it made no sense at all. She could have sworn she had picked up a bunch of sand but for some reason it only turned out to be 2 units. Then again why did that even matter... ahhhh! Never mind! None of this mattered because before she could of even head edfor the lettuce patch, a boar came charging her from up ahead!

"W-Woah! "

Meruru quickly did the first thing to come to mind, especially after seeing a arrow completely miss the pig as it continued towards her. She lept to the side crashing hard into the bushes as Garta rushed forth to try to kill it. He ended up stuck in a clash between him and the boar. She heard him say it's tusks might be infectious. Oh that would be bad, because she had no idea how to cure that right now. Meruru got up from behind the bushes and swung her arms around frantically trying to think of what to do! She was a adventurer this should not be too hard... right? Oh items! Yeah alchemy will help! She began to full with her bag looking for something/anything useful when it dawned on her.... uhhh.... right. She did not have any items made yet.

"Um... I don't have any items available right now guys.... yeah... heh...heh..."

The struggle would continue and Meruru would just have to make a snap decision! Her face became one of sheer determination. Okay boar, time to get what is coming to you! Meruru knew she was not really a fighter but a beat down was a beat down! Here it goes! She readied herself and ran straight at the boar from the side. Bashing her crappy rod like it was a hammer onto the boar's head. Making several attempts at war shouts while she was at it.

"YAH YAH TAH HAH! TAKE THAT! AND THAT! AND SOME OF THESE!"

@Kyupin Felnya @Garta

 

Thank god, Garta had made it in time. Her shoulders sagged, the tense fear that had locked up her body slowly loosening. But they weren't quite out of the woods yet. The boar, still locked in a fierce battle of wills with Garta's sword, was still very much alive.

Kyupin let loose her second arrow, watching as it pierced into the boar's rump. She beamed, delighted that she'd shot true — and then quickly let out a cry of dismay. She'd just shot the poor thing! Sure, it was attacking her friends-partymates-acquaintance-peoples, but still. And she'd even taken joy from the shot! Her lips wobbled, overwhelmed by that disgusting realization. What if she started to take joy in killing things? What if it became second nature, just another part of life? She took a shuddering breath.

It's just a game. Kyupin shook her head. A very realistic game, but still, a game. That's what people did in games. Kill things. She swallowed thickly, steeling herself to knock another arrow.

Not that it was necessary.

Meruru's battle cries were... enthusiastic? Kyupin was hardly in the position to judge: she'd probably do very much the same. Or scream and cry. Probably scream and cry. But with each bash, pounding into the thick boar hide, Kyupin could see its health drop. Could hear it's pitiful squeals of pain and rage. And as its bar dropped to a frightening red, Kyupin squeezed her eyes shut, looking away from the scene. Just a game... she tried to remind herself, though her throat still locked up. She knew she should keep her eyes open, see what death was like in this game - come to understand and accept it. But, she couldn't. At least, not yet.

It was noisy. Too many sounds. Meruru's shouts, Garta's steady breaths, Kyupin's own anxious hiccups, and the boar... The boar was silent. No more grunting, no keen whines. It was noisy, but so horribly silent at the same time.

She whimpered. "Is it... dead?"

@Meruru Blanchimont @Garta

 

The pink-haired maidens cries of battle and enthusiastic attacks with her rod made Garta snicker a bit. She really was just an alchemist? She at least was trying to make it work with her staff, so Garta had to give her props there. He wasn't sure if she really was brave, or just gravely unprepared but lucky. She ran off into wild boar-infested woods, without any means to combat them it seemed. Garta nodded as the boar collapsed before them, laying eerily still. This was the cooking girl's part right? He turned to look at her.

"Wow, you didn't shoot that arrow with your eyes closed, did you?" Garta asked, tracing the arrow from the pig's posterior to the squeamish archer. She wasn't even looking, she was too afraid of it or something. She asked if it was dead. Garta looked back at the boar and poked it twice with his sword, "Yeah, pretty dead. Good job team!" He said, trying to encourage them. Meruru might be an alchemist without any tools, and Kyupin may be a hemophobic archer, but they beat the boar, and that was the important part. "I uhh, guess you have to harvest it for bacon now... are you going to be alright doing that? I can give it a try if you're not going to be able to." Garta said, rubbing the back of his head nervously. He could imagine a hunter needing to harvest his kills as well, he just hoped he'd put enough points into the skill to do that as well.

He could imagine that as a girl who has not seen much stuff like this, and perhaps hasn't played too many video games, that this sort of stuff might be a bit strange. It was just a game though, after all. There was no reason to be afraid of killing virtual boars in a virtual world. To him it just made sense, but he could see where others might disagree. He rubbed his chin, thinking on it for a moment.

The world here was full of creatures and animals like this boar. Monsters of all sorts that will attack, and kill, without provocation. If she was going to be afraid to hit and/or kill a single boar, what would she do to a pack of them? Garta frowned, he didn't know how to begin to try and convince her killing them was fine, not without using real world analogies and stuff that would confuse the heck out of their NPC friend. Instead he just turned to Meruru and cleared his throat, "Are you okay, at least? You sort of rushed in pretty wildly. I wasn't sure I'd beat him to you." Garta explained, sort of hinting that the girl might want to stick with the rest of the group, rather than run off so wildly next time. Of course, to each their own, but it couldn't hurt to try and convince her, right?

It was pretty black and white for Garta, kill or be killed. Meruru seemed to be of the same mindset, but she was actually from this world, so that made sense. She didn't know of a safe place, a world where you didn't really have to fight to survive, and normally people just lived peacefully. Though perhaps Garta was being to harsh toward Kyupin, if so, he'd be sorry.

@Meruru Blanchimont @Kyupin Felnya

 

After a few more strikes and then a couple kicks of her feet against the boars side. Meruru felt exhausted. She also notice it was dead. Oh... right. Whew. The princess had let her fear and the excitement of the moment kind of guide her and she noticed from the others reactions that maybe this was not very nice for the poor boar. It was kind of embarrassing. Luckily she did not actually break the boars flesh because then she would have had blood on her weapon and that would have been gross. The pig obvious just went brain dead. Well she was sorry but it was not like she had a choice. This was not her first time killing a monster or beast. She ran away from the castle and practiced swinging her rod at things before. It was kind of fun. Why she wanted to adventure a lot more on top of alchemy.

Looks like it was time to turn the boar to bacon! Mmmmm bacon! Meruru was feeling kinda strange again. So she asked the others.

"So yeah this may sound dumb but uh,, how is bacon actually made? I kind of thought that when it died. It would just, you know, plop out bacon. Do we have to cut it up?"

What was she doing? How could bacon just 'plop' out? It was as weird as the gathering thing she noticed before. Things did not work that way... did they? Maybe she would just watch and see what happened. She would watch and think about how great it was to have some friends here now. Friends? Yeah, surviving a killer boar encounter is definitely a bond maker. At least to Meruru anyway. Garta and Neko... hey she should ask her name. Even though Neko was a cute name too.

"Hey um Neko.... what's your name. I don't think I caught it haha. I've never actually talked to a Felis before. Um, I don't think. You're so adorable!"

Meruru felt the urge to just grab and hug the cat girl, unfortunately boar guts was a good way to keep here from going anywhere near the Felis right now. Garta would make a comment that came off pretty convincingly as a soft scold at her running ahead of the group earlier.Yeah that was not the smartest thing Meruru realized. Falderen was not home turf. She did not know anywhere she was going, but... that was the exciting part of it really. Meruru would promise she would not do it again but she really was not so sure it would not happen. It was kind of a bad trait of hers.

"Yeah that was pretty dumb. I just got really caught up in the moment and it caused trouble. I'm really sorry!"

Meruru then remembered her task here. Right the lettuce patch! She would have to take care of that still. Hopefully she could get some extra ingredients here for alchemy later.

"Okay I'm going to take this chance to gather some. It'll be real quick!"

She ran over to the patch and this time looked around just in case another boar was here. It wasn't so she bent down and started to collect some lettuce. As she pulled off heads and put them in her bag she felt weird again. The bag was holding the lettuce pretty well. The lettuce removal was not that hard really. She was just breaking them off with her bare hands. What was weirder.... not every head of lettuce was counting as a unit. It was sometimes going up faster than it should should have. Wait why was she even thinking of this that way? She shrugged and decided to finish, up standing to see if the bacon was ready now. Meruru was unsure if she should expect a mutilated corpse or a pile of raw meat with the animal completely vanished because it 'turned' into bacon.

@Kyupin Felnya @Garta

 

Flinching back at Garta's question, Kyupin avoided answering by taking a long, shuddering breath. And then another. And then another...

... until she was able to directly look at the still boar. There wasn't any blood - just a cold corpse, staring lifelessly ahead. It made it a little more bearable.

She smiled weakly at both her party mates. "Yeah, I'll... I'll do it," she sighed. Trotting forward, bow by her side, she came to a pause in front of the boar and stared thoughtfully at it. Meruru asked good questions. "I think I can just loot the bacon, but maybe I'll get extra when I use my skills...?" she murmured.

Leaning over the boar, she quickly brought up the loot menu, taking the little bacon that was available.

Loot

[Fresh Bacon] - Quest

Mmmmm, bacon. A delicious quest item.

Then, she scrolled through her skill list, activated her cooking, and got to work. Her ears piqued upwards as Meruru spoke. "Ne...ko...?" she repeated softly, flushing as the pink-haired maiden continued to ramble. "Thank you, I think? I'm Kyupin Felnya." She clapped her hands together, smiling as another loot menu popped into sight while the boar corpse was replaced with bones.

Loot

[Scraps of... Bacon?]

I guess you could call this bacon. Maybe.

Her smile quickly morphed into a pout. "Looks like the quest bacon is just regular loot." She casually forgot to mention that, even if you could get extra quest bacon from cooking skills, her cooking mastery was just so bad even the game made fun of her for it.

Looking up from her UI, she noticed Meruru, once again a fair distance from them, collecting the lettuce. With an exasperated sigh, she climbed to her feet, closing the distance between her and Garta. "So. Where to next?"

@Garta @Meruru Blanchimont

 

Garta's eyes darted back and forth between the dead boar, the Pink-haired alchemist, and the squeamish cook. This should be rather interesting to see play out. Meruru had a point, he too had expected the bacon to just plop out, but he guessed he wouldn't know if he wasn't the one looting it. Kyupin knelt down, and seemed to be interacting with her UI. Thankfully, it looked as though Meruru was looking for veggies to collect. Garta let out a sigh, pressing his fingers to the side of his head again and looking around.

He could see tracks from the boar leading off into the woods, but he wasn't really sure if boars were pack animals. Following tracks might not do them any good. He scratched his chin, trying to recall if he'd ever heard anything one way or the other on the subject. If he had to guess, he'd have to say no. After all, this one charged them all on it's own. It was reasonable for him to think that meant they were more isolated creatures. Still, that wasn't going to make their quest any easier.

Kyupin used her cooking skills, and informed Garta that the bacon for the quest was regular loot, which he assumed meant cooking didn't really do much for their completion efforts. "That's fair, I suppose." Garta admitted, making sure he wasn't being heard by Meruru, "Wouldn't want people having advantages over quest completion just based off their mastery skills. At least not one this broad. It involves combat, people who are combat focused should be able to finish the quest just as well as anyone." Garta explained, watching to make sure Meruru didn't catch their meta discussion.

"As far as tracking more boars goes," Garta said, his voice raising a bit so that Meruru could actually hear, "I'm not sure if we could follow this one's tracks and find more or not, but if I found a unique set of tracks I might be able to find more boars." Garta admitted. He wasn't sure if he was supposed to take the reigns and show them to more boars, or if that was even expected of him, he just knew realistically it wouldn't be so easy.

@Meruru Blanchimont @Kyupin Felnya