”Hmm? Oh, of course. A heroine is always good with her weapon,” she said, pulling out the sword, a beginner’s rapier, holding it in a way so @Luna could see it in full. ”Or at the very least, she’s good at using some of the auto-combat options till she is truly a master of her swordcraft,” she said with a bit of a laugh, putting it back in the sheath. ”And how is it being a mage? I had been tempted to pick such skills, but felt playing the dashing heroine rogue was a little more my style.” Before she got an answer, however, her UI popped up, informing her of a friend request from some random person she had never met. Not that that had ever stopped her from accepting one. Their picture at least seemed friendly enough, and their message was did not have the lewdness of some random troll. She therefore accepted it, and even sent a message back to @Capernaum with some information to join her and Luna. ”I apologize, received a friend request. If you don’t mind I offered them an invite to come join us, if that’s not a problem with you of course. I just assumed from their message they were simply casting a net out for any kind of companionship and felt compelled to offer it.”
Capernaum nodded, heading to the coordinates given to her, her hook and her food still slung over her shoulder. Well, these fellows seemed to be a fair lot, and they weren't that far away, so Capernaum didn't see a reason why not to join them. In any case, she could see if this game had a group EXP bonus, as well. Finally coming across the coordinates given, Capernaum looked for people who matched the picture on the PM. @Aceline De La Fontaine was the easiest one to discern, since she was the first reply she saw, and the fisher could only assume @Luna was the one next to her. Despite this being an MMORPG, they already seemed like friendly people. The power of technology, then. Bowing to the both of them with a humble look on her face, Capernaum introduced herself politely. "Hello, I'm Capernaum. Thank you for accepting my friend request, as well as for extending your support to me." And then she bowed again, since these people (in-character, at the very least), were, in fact, her seniors. It was in her culture to respect people older than her.
Luna simply nodded along as @Aceline De La Fontaine discussed the merits of their fighting style, and then invited another player into their group. She had no problems with it, and as @Capernaum approached, she could vaguely recognize the other. The local friend requester. Luna's eyes were drawn mostly to the fishing pole they wielded, her eyes sparkling with curious delight. She'd not seen a fishing mastery in her quick overview of the game and wondered if the tool could be used as a weapon. Once Capernaum had gotten within a reasonable distance, Luna made to offer a wave, but the action died off as the younger girl bowed instead. She shifted, uncomfortable with the great show of respect from the younger girl, before bowing her head in response. "Aah," she added, rather helpfully. "I am Luna. And that is..." She gestured to the woman by her side, letting Aceline introduce herself. "You have already tried the combat system?"
The trek through Pormont had been kind enough and here she was in... what did the wagon master call it, Brisshal? If that wasn't right it was close enough. She hadn't caught the name of the forest that she decided to drop off in, but that wasn't the end of the world. Waving off some concern, she wandered around. It was a rather calm day, all warm sun and gentle breezes. It seemed a bit empty here, though, so of course Amrita headed in the direction of the first loud noise she heard. It seemed to be a young man shouting as he waved a sword around, swarmed by... chickens? Were feral chickens a part of this forest then? Well, the world was a large place. It shouldn't surprise her that there were feral chickens. This seemed like it would be good practice for her too, so she pulled out the old crossbow, trying to familiarize herself the grip again. Ah, it's been ages since she tried shooting it. She took aim at one of the chickens, doing her best to hold the weapon steady in her uneasy hands. After a while, she fired. The bolt hit the chicken, who let out a squawk and started running in alarm, and Amrita sighed. She'd been hoping to kill it in one shot, as Iden used to brag about doing, but she'd take a hit for now. "Having trouble, young man?" she called out to @Verity.
This was not his day. Not only he was greeted by a bunch of aggressive chickens, but there seemed to have no signs of a tutorial or a game manual on his palm menu as all he did was waving his sword around like a madman. Thankfully for him, an old woman who was passing by managed to take care most of the chickens. Though he just can't believe at this turn of events. He didn't know what was embarrassing. The chickens that attacked him or that he was saved by some old woman. Although, he did appreciate her on saving his life as he approached her with caution. "T-Thank you..." But as he said this to the old woman, he then wondered if she was also a player of this strange game. @Amrita
It took a bit of doing, but she managed to get rid of most of the chickens. Was tougher than she expected it to be, especially when they got the idea that Amrita was also attacking them and had decided to swarm her too. Feral chickens pecking at her ankles wasn't quite what she had in mind when she had set out. But between her and the young man, they had finished off most of them. Now Amrita was in the process of retrieving any bolts that were still intact. She waved off the gratitude. "Don't mention it. Never seen chickens get that angry before. I wonder what they eat to get that ornery." She gave him a quick look over. She didn't see any large wounds, but she still asked anyway, "You all right, then? Nothing hurt too bad?" Except for pride, maybe. Heh, nothing like old women swooping in and taking care of things to bruise someone's ego. But the man seemed obviously unused to his sword. What kind of instructor let a beginner loose with sharpened weapons? And left him alone and in a forest full of belligerent wildlife, to boot? "Who taught you to fight?" Amrita asked @Verity. "I've half a mind to go wallop them upside the head."
While he dealt with people in his age or anyone younger than him, the only ones that made him unable to calmly face against was an old woman. In fact, just looking at her was enough to leave his jaw dropped when she took care of the chickens with just her crossbow. Well, at least the chickens just dealt him little damage as he checked his HP. "Other than a few scratches, I'm alright." However, Verity didn't get out of the woman's wrath yet as he found himself being questioned at his poor fighting skills. He thought he can battle the monsters with some of a feature that let him fight automatically. But he never expected he had to swing his sword without it. Whether he wondered if she was too old to play this game or not, he felt he might deserve this. "N-Nobody. In fact, I didn't take any swordsmanship lessons before this." @Amrita
She stared as the man looked intently at his hand before replying to her question about his injuries. Wasn't even the hand he was swinging his sword in, the sword that he didn't know how to use- oh, but that was a can of worms she was going to get to later. "Well, good that you don't have any wounds," she said in response, still rather baffled by the odd gesture. She had been getting the sense that something was off about this man. Not in a bad sense, but it was just... strange. Come to think of it, a lot of the people around also felt the same way. Come to think of it, she'd recently began feeling the same way about some of the newer visitors to her hometown... Well whatever it was, that could wait for now. "So you come in here looking to start a fight with a sharp weapon you don't know how to use?" she asked, aghast. "You could cut yourself to pieces! Even my son trained with wooden blades before he moved on to steel." Oh, and hadn't he whined and complained about that? She remembered getting pages of letters that made his impatience obvious. But he ended up good with his blade, still with cuts to show for it, but that was nothing compared to just how many bruises he'd gotten from being whacked with training swords. @Verity
Actually, he was ambushed, but he doubted that she would care about how he got into that embarrassing first fight. In fact, he wondered what would happen if he might encounter a very strong monster unlike those chickens. Yet as he continued to talk to the old woman, Verity noticed how she reacted to his swordsmanship rather than his lack of knowledge about the game. "I-I'm really sorry for fighting without thinking of my safety." He trully is as he didn't want to anger the old woman just by making excuses. Yet, he wondered if she can help him about his current situation. Besides, his only weapon in the game right now was a simple broadsword and he needed a way to fight his way with it. "If it is okay for you, maybe you might teach me how to fight." @Amrita
Well, it was good that he understood how dangerous it was. Regardless, this wouldn't do. When he asked her if she could teach him, she frowned. "If you're talking about how to use that sword of yours, I don't know how to use one of those." She hefted up her crossbow. "This is all I've got." And if she barely remembered how to fire it straight, well, that wasn't anything that the young man needed to know. Amrita made a gesture towards the direction where she had seen many of those strange, heavily-armed people wandering about the forest. "Seen a lot of folks like you hauling about weapons of their own. Should be at least one or two of them who know how to use a sword. Come on then-" Wait, she didn't know his name. Huh. Of all the things to forget to ask someone. "I'm Amrita. What can I call you?" @Verity
It made sense since he felt that she was not the type to wield a sword. Though he did consider choosing a bow as his first weapon, he wanted to start out a melee weapon just in case. Plus, there might be a chance for him to take another weapon than a bow. Still, he was a little grateful that she will escort him, but he might be a little annoyed that he has to deal with other players though. As for his name, he was a little reluctant to tell @Amrita about his name. He usually gives it to people he deemed trustworthy. Yet now that he thought about it, this was similar to social media and he did only use his surname as his username, so he might as well tell her while preparing for the worst. "Verity. It's nice to meet you."
"Verity," she repeated, making sure she got the pronunciation right. "Nice to meet you too. All right, so come on then. Faster we find you an instructor, the faster I don't have to worry about anyone's hands getting sliced off." Well, to be perfectly honest, the worry would still exist. Just a bit less so. Amrita started off down the path she had taken to get here. The forest appeared rather sparsely populated though. There were occasional pairs or smaller groups in conversation, but it looked like- huh. 'Now that's not a sight you see everyday,' Amrita thought, watching a man conjure fire in his palms. The two people he was chatting with didn't even seem surprised by that at all. It appeared that these people were far stranger than she had first thought. She frowned and turned back towards @Verity, asking, "Do you have any tricks up your sleeve? Something like that?"
He can agree to her suggestion. Since there have been no signs of a tutorial in the game so far, it might be a good idea to find someone to help him as fast as he can. However, he still needed to be cautious since some of them might take advantage of newcomers such as himself. Upon he saw one of the people nearby conjure fire, he then remembered that players can use magic as another way to fight, which made sense since this was a fantasy-themed game. And when @Amrita questioned him about it, he did remember that he also chose a magic mastery during his character creation. "I think so," he said as he raised his hand, trying to wave it around to see if he can conjure up any kind of magic. But to his surprise, a panel opened up right in front of him. "What in the world?" Despite he was confused at the sight of a panel right in front of him, he decided to tap one of the icons out of curiosity. But as he did so, his body began to move on its own as he started to recite some kind of invocation in Latin, something that he found himself unable to control. Once he finished, a gust of wind blew behind Verity and Amrita as the former stood there in shock. "O-Oh my..."
@Verity made some more fancy motions with his hands, staring at them in surprise. And then he started chanting, words pouring out of his mouth that seemed to have no meaning. But it filled the air with an otherworldly energy, something that made all the fur on her tail stand on end- oh, no, wait, that was just the sudden burst of wind that started out of the aether. Amrita looked back at the direction the wind had blown. Then back towards Verity, who looked as shocked as she was. At a loss for anything else to say, she said, "That answers that question, I guess." She let out a huff. Sure there were occasional people who had magic powers, Amrita even (probably) knew a few of them herself (Leanna always had the most vibrant flowers lining her windowsill, Amrita had always suspected-). But it looked like all these magical people were bursting from the ground like crabgrass. It was odd, what was happening around this region. No other way to put it.
He can't tell if he should be surprised at himself or the game's features. Either way, he was utterly shocked in awe that he managed to conjure up an Aeromancy spell. Guess that might able to prove that he can magic in this virtual world. Yet, he then wondered as he stared at @Amrita. He originally thought of her as another player, yet he started to notice that she didn't mention anything related to the game mechanics. He just started playing, but he knew there was something off about her. Just in case... "Well, did you encounter any other players here before me?"
