Megathread - First Login: Honeyhome Village

Honeyhome Village

The pathway from the Maithe Woodlands led you here!

After braving their first taste of the wilds, players find themselves in a peaceful little hamlet by the name of Honeyhome. The air smells heavily of flowers and fresh pastries, wafting from a small bakery with an elderly woman hard at work within. There is a low hum of life as the villagers go about their day, stopping to welcome those that interact with them. A general store offers basic armor, weapons, and other simple items to those than can afford them while the tall steeple of the town's temple casts its shadow over the road through town. A kindly priest sweeps the entrance hall and a few worshipers murmur praises to Uene for a bountiful harvest and rains for the crops.

Scattered gardens, worn benches, and kind faces abound. Such a kind and welcoming atmosphere can be a rare thing to enjoy and the village is happy to house any who are not yet ready to begin the dangerous adventures awaiting them.

Activities

Some of the NPCs have snippets of advice about the world around them to offer up amidst polite conversation and a few have errands and quests!

The old baker, Mrs. Whittle, needs the combs from Honeyhome's namesake hives to make honey cakes. The hives are located all over town, surrounded by swathes flowers.

Two twin girls cry over their lost and scattered marbles, now hidden all over the village. The shine of glass sparkles in nooks and crannies all around town.

A farmer mutters crossly at his son for letting his prize-winning hens get loose, despite the boy's insistence that they've been spoiled rotten to the bone and gone mad with power.

There are many more people of the land waiting to be spoken to. It would also appears that these people will gladly provide food and lodging for a bit of help.

Instruction

• This thread is for new players logging into TS for the first time.
• There is no posting order and you are free to come and go as you wish.
• Tag those you want to address using @Username.
• Have fun and get to know one another, MMOs are funner with friends!
• You can move between this thread and the other link start threads, but you may only RP in one at a time.

 

Mizuki looked around as she finally arrived in the village of Honeyhome, having travelled here after spawning somewhere on the fields of Brisshal. Considering that it had been quite the distance to walk and that she had nearly constantly been practising using her tail she could now at least walk at a normal pace without any issues, which was good because she didn't want to enter the first settlement of civilization having players and NPCs alike single her out because she was walking funny.

The village was... picturesque, Mizuki was pretty sure was the correct term. It looked like the people who made this game had tried their best to make it feel as authentic as they could, with no sign of this being anything but a completely realistic and normal village anywhere. The only real clue Mizuki could see that would tip people off that this wasn't real was actually rather subtle in its own way: to put it bluntly, she was pretty sure that this village, shaped as belonging to late medieval, wouldn't have been as nice as it is if it had been real. Not that she criticized the makers of the game for making it so, but history classes had made it clear that in those days famine, disease and various other concerns had made life challenging, so this beautiful warm village would have been very remarkable back in those days. If Mizuki was the kind of person who objected to the practical decision of making the game a little bit less realistic in favour of making it more enjoyable she might have made a fuss about it.

However instead of making a fuss she just reasoned to herself that since there were strange things in this world which wouldn't have made sense in real life anyhow (like monsters and magic) it could be that in this world it was easier to get by: even if people capable of wielding magic were rare magic still existed, which most likely was a big help when dealing with disease and illness, since even without the presence of a healer she wouldn't put it past the creators of the game to have included such things as herbs which had as strong healing properties as only scammers would want to make you believe in real life.

So Mizuki was just enjoying the peaceful and friendly scene instead of nitpicking at every single thing, waving at the villagers who greeted her. She didn't notice any PCs, or at least she didn't notice anyone who couldn't just as easily be an NPC. Could players become villagers and just fade into the background of the game? It sounded like a strange thing to do to Mizuki, but just like how she had entered this game to experience a life she wouldn't have been able to life outside of Terrasphere there could be people who wanted to experience the life of a villager. It would be a bit strange in her eyes, but she wouldn't judge them because of it.

The wolfwoman stumbled, however, when she thought she heard a group of people say her name. Looking around (and ignoring the rare confused stare from the Felis who stumbled in the middle of walking for seemingly no reason) she noticed that there was indeed a group of people, but she felt no small amount of relief when she realized that they were praying to the goddess Uene. She hadn't been aware that she had made the family name of her character so similar to that of one of the deities of this world, but at least she wasn't attracting too much attention on her first trip into the civilization of Terrasphere. Although if she wasn't clear on what her name was people might get the wrong idea later on...

Walking further she arrived at what looked to be the centre of the hamlet, a small area where there was more space and there seemed to be more shops in comparison to homes. As one might expect from a world where adventurers were a publicly accepted phenomenon Mizuki could see that the biggest shop in town had armour on display, no doubt because if all the players spawned in this portion of the world it would see a lot of customers. Walking over to that shop Mizuki looked at what was on display through the window. The armour was made of metal, looking like it was of simple materials but decent quality... At least decent enough for someone who was just starting out. Checking out the price tags Mizuki frowned, as it seemed like the money she received upon spawning wasn't going to be enough for her to buy a full set. Although she hadn't been planning on using metal armour: tough as it might be she was pretty sure that with her set of masteries she'd be better off with something which didn't compromise her ability to move overmuch.

However even if she couldn't purchase something right now she still would need equipment, which meant that she would have to see if there were some ways for her to earn money. She knew that in games you gained reward for doing quests (even if she herself hadn't played a lot of games she had picked up on the basics: you couldn't survive childhood in the 21st century without learning a bit about games, especially ever since VR made them even more popular than before) but she wasn't sure how to find a quest in this game and how she would set about to complete it, whatever the objective might be. She had already tested combat against a single animal out in the fields, and while she didn't think she'd die fighting something as weak as a goblin she was pretty sure her unfamiliarity with how to move would make quests to kill things awkward.

Looking around a bit more Mizuki wandered through town, trying to find any clue for where she could find a quick small quest with which to earn money. Was there some kind of marker which indicated someone with a quest? She didn't want to open her menu because she wasn't sure how well the NPCs reacted to a PC blatantly showing such things which only belonged in an artificial world.

 

Neldo had given up on his grinding for his first day into the game. It was slow work with his rate of energy recovery so slow. That, and virtual hunger had begun to set in. As real as the game was to him, he hadn't ever stopped thinking of it as a game. Virtual hunger was in the gray area between a game and feeling very real. It was unsettling to say the least.

And so, the Yladian found a road and simply started walking down it. Roads were the veins of civilization and would likely lead him to a place where he could find a meal and perhaps a safe place to recuperate. Any town would suffice so long as it wasn't under some imminent threat.

The road he walked was abandoned. And as he walked his mind of course wandered. His steps began to fall in a rhythm, and a song in his head made it's way to his lips. It was the perfect song for traveling even if it's origins were in the real world. But, Neldo couldn't hit a note in this world. So his voice was a flat monotone that could almost be mistaken for chanting. But in his mind, the Yladian heard the original song and couldn't be dissuaded.

"Ramble on
And now's the time, the time is now
To sing my song
I'm goin' 'round the world, I got to find my girl
On my way
I've been this way ten years to the day
Ramble on
Gotta find the queen of all my dreams"
​

He drew closer to a village of some kind. It seemed peaceful, happy, and something ripped straight out of a fairy tale. It was better than just any village, it seemed Neldo had found one of the most optimal villages for new adventurers. Hopefully things were just as they seemed for once in a video game.

Odds were the villagers weren't fans of Yladian, so he would need to fulfill some sort of work for lodging and food instead of being able to just pay his way. That was fine. It was all dependent on how the villagers viewed him. With that though, he strolled into town.

 

Having found 'her' way into a small village, the short feline was swift to listen in on various conversations around her. Twins were crying in the distance, a farm boy being scolded by his father...Oh, what lovely torment! Who should she play with first until she could find other players to gain aid from?

Her eyes set on upon the farmer and his son, the felis rushed towards them and held a hand up with a grin. "It's not the boy's fault, nor is it yours. It's the fault of your chickens for being so silly, running from the people that can use them. Don't they know it's best to let the food chain run it's course?"

While her words were evil, there was no venom on her tongue. A soft giggle escaped her as she twirled, her brown dress flying up slightly from the air below it. These people were worried over such petty things like livestock! Really, why did anyone care about the safety of chickens?

"Animals are animals. They'll come home when they're hungry and realize this is the only place they can get free food. Just ignore them until the come back. It's a perfect play, don't you think~? Ignore them until they listen to you~"

 

Mizuki was still considering what to do when she suddenly heard a very strange sound. It sounded like an attempt at singing... Yet, to her sharp Felis ears it was not a very good attempt. Actually she was pretty sure that even with her human ears in real life it still wouldn't have been a good attempt. To put it plainly, this person sounded more like they were reciting something than actually singing, but when she paid attention to what was being said she was pretty sure it was supposed to be a song. It was a very strange thing to listen to, since it felt like saying one thing and doing the other but then in sound, but at least it wasn't done with such false chords that it would have made Mizuki wince. She was pretty sure that the sharp ears of a Felis weren't going to appreciate truly terrible singing any more than the ears she had been using for most of her life.

Looking around to see who was responsible for this remarkable form of song Mizuki saw a new sight, one which piqued her curiosity: an elf. Or, at least, the equivalent of elves in this world. According to the information available to anyone who had access to the game they were called Yladian here, but beyond that they weren't much different from the standard mythology of elves so far as Mizuki was aware (she might not be much of a gamer, but she had allowed herself to read a lot in her spare, including fantasy as light reading material in between the more heavy stuff). They were inherently magical, graceful and had pointy ears which declared their nature to the world at large. Of course grace was something of a subjective trait but from what Mizuki could tell from this specimen they did seem to suit the usual definition of grace as used by humans. Well, except for the singing which was just flat.

The Yladian seemed to be enjoying himself regardless of whether others were enthralled by his singing or not, strolling into Honeyhome as if he had lived there for years without a sign of any care in the world. Mizuki wondered if he was an NPC or a PC... She hadn't really seen an Yladian before this one, and they were supposed to be rare... Which made it more likely that this was a player, especially since players were more likely to act so nonchalant in strange territory. For the NPCs this world was their actual world, so if they ended up in some strange location they had never seen before they were more likely to be cautious. But his outfit wasn't that of a weathered veteran adventurer either... Another newcomer like herself? Maybe it was a good idea to approach him and see what he knew about this world... And hope he wasn't like that other guy she encountered upon spawning out in the fields.

While Mizuki was still overthinking her actions another newcomer entered the village, this one more blatantly a PC by her completely carefree behaviour and even more noticeable appearance. This one didn't seem to have any hesitation in approaching the villagers, happily talking to them about the apparent issues of chickens having escaped. Mizuki hadn't really been paying attention to that conversation at first since she had just thought of it as background noise of the village, the wolf Felis shaking her head as she silently scolded herself for being so inattentive. Well, too late now, since she wasn't very enthusiastic about the idea of just barging in and entering that conversation now.

Instead she walked over to the Yladian, trying her best to look amicable but mostly managing to look politely interested. Which might be the most appropriate, considering the circumstances. She first raised a hand to draw the man's attention, then once she was close enough to talk bowed slightly as way of greeting before strengthening the gesture with her words.

"Greetings. From your appearance and behaviour I'm guessing you are, like me, new to this place, although you are free to correct me if I happen to be wrong." She put out a hand in case the man was willing to shake it. "I am Ueno Mizuki, and I would be grateful if you shared your name as well." Now that she was the one starting the conversation and the other person wasn't immediately acting like he was looking down his nose at her Mizuki noticed that she was quickly falling into the habit of retreating behind polite words, trying to communicate without actually connecting to the man. And only now did it occur that she might have interrupted his song rather rudely, so she added hastily. "I apologize for interrupting you as you were singing, but since I'm new here I was hoping I could find some good acquaintances. I'm not very experienced at games, but I assume that one of the better ways to go about it is to make sure you have people to share information with and work together with."

In real life Mizuki had to work together a lot with people, so that wasn't an issue. No, the issue was that she usually met people in a professional fashion, and here she was talking both very formally and simultaneously possibly saying way too much as a first greeting. Despite her attempts Mizuki couldn't completely conceal that she was a bit uncomfortable, her tail slightly curled as it once more betrayed her feelings to the keen observer... Although in this case the rest of her body language wasn't exactly foolproof in deception either. She'd have to get used to that, since... She was pretty sure that her guess that interacting with others helped a great deal with games like these was spot on, so she couldn't just keep being uncertain and nervous about approaching others and talking with them openly and whole-heartedly.
@Neldo Dini

 

Neldo looked down at the Felis and smiled kindly. She was open in approaching a new player, and didn't seem like a backstabber in the first moment. Although she did behave a little oddly, but not in a way that was unsettling. A mutual friendship could be beneficial for both parties, so why not?

"Well met, lady felis. You don't have anything to apologize for, to be honest I hadn't even realized I was singing aloud. It probably sounded terrible since I have no musical skill in this game. So in that case, thank you for stopping me." He bowed his head briefly. "This is my first character in this game, but I've played games most of my life. It never hurts to have good friends, but definitely be sure that they are indeed 'good' friends."

He raised his head to briefly scan the town. In the distance another Felis seemed to have jumped right into a quest of her own. Best to hasten progress before all of the quests were taken and Neldo would have to sleep on the street. "Well, lady Mizuki. I am Neldo Dini. You may call me Nel for short. Since you've been here a bit longer, I assume you've heard some of the troubles the locals are having? If so, why don't you take the lead and set us in the right direction? I need to try and find lodging for the night and one of the locals might be willing to arrange a deal."

Hi smiled amiably at her. Hopefully she could save him a little bit of time if she was so outgoing. He was certain he could help her in the future, but for now there was no point in going solo. Besides, the locals might look upon an Yladian with friendlier eyes if he was partied with a felis.

 

Seeing the man smile in reaction to her approach was at least a relief, since it meant that he wasn't upset about her interrupting his singing... or at the very least was willing to not let it trouble their interaction. Although she blinked and couldn't help but look surprise when he referred to as lady. She herself didn't look any different from the other starting adventures, not even having had the opportunity to change her starting outfit to something more suitable to her own tastes yet. The Felis's ears twitched as she raised one eyebrow before rather blatantly pushing the issue of terminology aside, instead focusing on the actual conversation. Although that eyebrow promptly went up again when the man explained that he wasn't even aware that he had been singing out loud, and was actually thanking her because he believed that without the Music mastery he couldn't be very good at singing. While she wasn't going to dispute that it was still a strange thing to be thanked by the very person whose singing you just interrupted.

"I would describe it more as monotone than truly horrible, but you might be correct that this world unfairly affects your ability to sing if you don't have the correct mastery. But I don't think I'm much of a lady, as I'm just an adventurer like every other player."

The knowledge that this man was familiar with games was useful and fortunate, and his admittance that this was his first character in this game specifically was comparatively irrelevant. As long as he was knowledgeable about the underlying trends of most games he should be able to help her with the things which were most important, namely the things which might otherwise become troublesome for someone like her who simply hadn't played a lot of games in her life. His comment about requiring those friends to be good friends had her think back to some memories of her life on Earth before she nodded.

"That is most certainly true, here or anywhere else. A friend who isn't a good friend can be more harmful than a complete stranger." It weren't the most pleasant memories that Mizuki was reminded of, but the man was speaking the complete truth so far as she could see: after all, his statement did agree with her own past experiences. "For my part I'd definitely try to be a good friend, since there is little reason for me not to." If you joined Terrasphere because you wanted to see what life could like if you were more outgoing you wouldn't go around and make people into your enemies and give yourself the reputation of being untrustworthy.

Once the man had introduced himself and immediately followed up with a question regarding finding some issue of the locals that they could help with Mizuki nodded, trying to remember what she had overheard so far. The other Felis was already helping the two men whose chickens had escaped, so there was little reason for her and her new companion to get involved with that. As for the rest...

"I heard the baker mention how she wanted to make honeycakes but needed someone to get the honey from the beehives located around the village... So if you are unafraid of bees I'm quite sure that the baker would not only consider letting you stay with her but would also let you have one of the honeycakes as reward for getting the honey. There was also some commotion that way about two girls who couldn't find their marbles... Personally I think we would be better off gathering the honey, although I wouldn't want to leave those girls in tears either. Maybe we could do both at the same time, looking for the marbles as we move around town to gather the honey."

Since Neldo had said that he would let her lead the way Mizuki took that as him saying that she could decide where they would be going, which meant that after thinking it over for a bit longer she decided that trying to help both would indeed be the best option. Gathering the honey would send them all over the village anyway, so they would have plenty of opportunity to find the marbles. Indicating for Neldo to follow Mizuki set off, moving back towards the edge of the hamlet while her ears swivelled, catching the sound of buzzing while her eyes were focused on the ground instead. Logically speaking the marbles should be on the ground, so if she just paid attention... She blinked as suddenly a harsh light shone straight into her eyes, the Felis stepping backwards as she tried to get the after-image off of her retina. Focusing on the source of the light she saw (with some difficulty) that it was a small shiny object reflecting the sun, resting in the grass next to one of the houses. Walking over Mizuki picked it up, confirming it to be one of the marbles. She showed it to her companion before putting it in her pouch.

"That's already one. I don't know how many there are around but let's just try to find as many as we can... Although we'll have to take breaks in between to deliver the honey."

Reaching the first hive Mizuki stayed at a respectable distance, since while she was pretty sure this should be doable that didn't mean she was completely confident about the plan of just walking up to the hive and grabbing the comb containing the honey. Bees were always fiercely protective of their home, and neither she nor Neldo had the kind of protective clothing that a beekeeper would wear while getting the honey. After looking thoughtful for a moment she turned towards Neldo.

"We might have to go back to the baker first and ask her if she's willing to lend us some protective clothing, unless you think you can safely get the honey out without being attacked by the bees."
@Neldo Dini

 

Two tasks at once seemed a bit like an overkill, since Neldo had only hoped to find lodging for the night, but the tasks were so simple that he saw the wisdom in his partner's words. Two for one was always better than one for one.

"It does seem to be a simple task to collect the marbles as we make our way to the hives. And I believe I have a means to drive the bees out for a time so that we can safely retrieve the honey." His fingers coiled around the coal in his pocket. "We just need to smoke them out, but we'd have to be far from the hive before the bees return. Are you as nimble as the rest of your race, Lady Mizuki?"

To Neldo a lady was a lady. And manners were manners. Actual titles meant nothing, and so he had paid absolutely no mind to the girl's comment on the title of Lady.

As they walked, Neldo knelt to pick up the marbles that glistened all over the city. They were almost anywhere you could look, but still spread out. As predicted, gathering them was a casual experience without much trouble. It would be the honey that would be an issue.

Soon they were approaching one of the hives hanging from a tree above them. Neldo set about gathering fallen branches and any kindling he could from the ground and even a few dead limbs from the tree itself. He broke larger pieces into smaller pieces over his knee saying, "Now then, lady felis. Would you be so kind as to scamper up that tree but not get too close to the hive until I've started the fire?"

 

Mizuki nodded as Neldo explained that he thought it an easy task to get the bees to leave their home if they smoked them out. She had to admit that thought hadn't occurred to her yet, having been thinking about other things instead. "That is a good idea. It's a bit cruel and it might kill some of the bees but at least we'll be able to collect the honey safely... And I think that as long as we don't use too much smoke we should be able to avoid dirtying the honey with it." Smoke effectively was just flying particles, so if they got mixed with the honey it'd degrade the quality. Although now that the thought occurred to Mizuki she wondered if it worked the same here... She kept seeing this world as just an alternate world, with some changes but still in the end a type of reality, but did this world also use molecules and atoms? Was Terrasphere that complex a game? She didn't know, although even if it didn't go all the way down to atoms it wouldn't be very difficult to program the game in such a manner that smoke made things dirty anyhow.

When Neldo asked her how good her flexibility was Mizuki frowned in thought, her tail swishing behind her once or twice as she considered the question. Eventually she decided to just be as honest as possible. "I don't know, since I haven't actually seen any Felis performing acrobatics yet. I would assume that my body is nimble enough, but the bigger questioned is whether I'm good enough at using my body. Although of course it also depends on what you are planning. And I'm still not a lady." Manners might be manners, but for Mizuki she'd be happier if he dropped the honorific, since it sounded too formal. She was here to experience a more relaxed life, so formalities weren't in her plans of things she would have to deal with. She wasn't going to press the issue too far, but if she could get Neldo to stop doing it she'd appreciate it.

Just like Neldo she gathered some more marbles on the way to the first hive. Since they reflected the light so brilliantly they weren't hard to find in the middle of the day, where the sun shone on everything. The only difficult was any marbles which had ended up in a shadowed place, but even those still had a faint reflection since shadows weren't actually utter darkness, so as long as you kept your eyes open you could find those as well. Mizuki didn't think there were that many marbles spread throughout town, since they did belong to two girls and she doubted those two would have an entire heap of them. Still, she and Neldo did already have a fair amount by the time that they arrived at the hive, Mizuki storing the ones she found in her pouch so she'd have her hands free. She watched Neldo as he set up the fire, taking note of how the man seemed to have experience with it. He moved with purpose, and while Mizuki herself wasn't very experienced she thought she could recognize the marks of experience in Neldo's actions. Was he one of those people who'd go out on survival camps for the hell of it? She'd ask him but for herself she thought that information about your self on Earth was too private to ask of someone you weren't that close to, and she wasn't going to be a hypocrite.

"The tree?" Mizuki seized up the tree, judging the difficulty of climbing it. It was a fairly old tree, tall and thick, with many branches. Fortunately it wasn't one of those types which had a very long trunk and then only had branches all the way at the top, so together with its age she thought it should be possible. "I'll give it a shot." She walked a bit away from the tree, then once she thought she had enough of a running start she dashed towards it, her momentum allowing her to push herself upwards with her feet two times as if she was running up the tree before gravity put a halt to that. Reaching out with her hands Mizuki managed to latch onto a ridge in the old bark, then pulled herself far enough up while also pushing with her feet until she could grab a branch. Some more squirming and pushing later and she was on the first branch, after which it was easy to move over to the side of the tree at which the hive hung from one of its many branches. She wasn't going to get on the branch just yet, but she didn't want to be too far away either. The quicker she got the honey out the better.

She nodded towards Neldo to indicate that she was in position, then waited for him to make the fire. It would take a bit after he made the fire for sufficient smoke to get to the hive, given the hive's altitude. Looking down at the pile Neldo had created Mizuki realized that she remembered something about fire and yelled down at him. "Don't forget to add plenty of leafs. Those create more smoke." Since it was autumn there were plenty of leafs lying around, so that shouldn't be an issue. With that said it was back to waiting and keeping a careful eye on the hive and the flame. She wasn't actually in some kind of race, but as mentioned before she'd rather finish this quickly, if only because there was more than one hive so the quicker they were with getting the honey the sooner they'd be able to move onto the next. If they were too slow it might take all the way until evening before they were done, and while Mizuki didn't mind doing some minor work to help get used to this body she didn't want to spend the entire day at it.
@Neldo Dini

 

The Yladian watched the Felis scamper up the tree. She didn't seem to have much in game climbing skill but she made due with what she had. He went back to building the small brush pile, before looking up and nodding at her note about leaves. They would indeed make more smoke, but often they were used to start a fire for the ease with which they burned. They would definitely help.

Neldo moved away from the pile to the thickest matting of leaves on the ground. He spread the fingers in his hand out wide, like a rake and swiped the ground around him in a large arc dragging the leaves into a pile. He did this a few times before mashing the leaves together and carrying them back to the brush pile. He opened the pile and placed the leaves inside of the wood. Then he deftly slipped the piece of coal from his pocket into the center of the leaves where it couldn't be seen. After replacing the sticks and branches over the top of the fire, he hunched over it to try and keep the felis from seeing his magic.

He mumbled the magic word, "Ignite." in Yladian under his breath, and the coal hissed to life. It smoldered and soon the leaves erupted into flaming life that licked and breathed all of the wood around it soon igniting it as well. It wasn't a large fire by any means but it was burning as much as they needed.

Neldo held out the palms of his hands toward the fire as if warming them, "That feels rather nice!" He commented happily. He used a little more energy now to do a basic and nearly useless spell in pyromancy to direct the path of smoke to rise in a curiously winding path that hit the hive directly. "Alright, here we go now! Be ready!"

The bees buzzed excitedly and began to exit the hive. Some lingered close, but Neldo managed to push some of the smoke out towards them and drive them off. He kept a thin veil of smoke nearly encircling the felis for protection. Now it was up to her. They had to act fast, as the fire wouldn't last long with the small pile of brush it had been provided.

@Ueno Mizuki

 

Since she was already in the tree and didn't want to start climbing up and down the entire time Mizuki could do little but watch as Neldo finished making his little fire, accepting her suggestion for the leafs and gathering quite a large amount. It looked like with the materials the Yladian now had prepared he'd be able to get quite a fire going, which in turn would lead to more than enough smoke to get rid of all the bees so Mizuki could get the comb filled with honey out of the hive.

When Neldo kneeled down very close to his little pyromanic pile Mizuki frowned, unable to see what he was doing from up in the tree but unsure if that was part of the procedure of lighting it on fire. Come to think of it, she hadn't bothered to think about how he would light it on fire, taking it for granted that if he was the one to suggest using smoke to get rid of the bees he would have a way to create a flame. However she couldn't really think of what else he might be doing down there other than maybe give a small prayer (was there a religion where you'd give a prayer before lighting a fire? Could you pretend there was one if you were roleplaying? Come to think of it, maybe him calling her lady was just him getting really into the role of a gentleman adventurer) she just went with him using a flint and tinder, and getting close enough to the pile that he wouldn't need several attempts to get the fire started. It wasn't really important, anyway, as long as they succeeded in getting enough smoke into the hive.

Once the fire was going the smoke quickly followed up, Mizuki nodding and giving Neldo a small smile as he made a comment about the warmth of the fire being nice. "I can't share in it since I'm up here, but I'll take your word for it." She then focused on the hive, waiting for the smoke to hit it. Mizuki wasn't exactly an expert on fire or starting one, so while she found it interesting to see how the smoke curled and clawed its way upwards towards the hive it didn't occur to her that maybe the smoke didn't naturally move like that. For all she knew they just had a lucky breeze helping them out, or whatever. All she knew was that it looked like Neldo's plan was going perfectly, which meant that the next part was for her to take care of.

She watched the bees as they left the hive, the Felis staying at a clear distance since she didn't want to get stung by the agitated little insects. Since they were driving them out they wouldn't be in the best of moods, so Mizuki wouldn't be surprised if they would sting anything which happened to get close enough... And Mizuki didn't feel like being among that group of unfortunate things to get stung. Luckily the smoke managed to drive them all away, so Mizuki could get to the actual harvesting. She climbed as quickly over the branch towards the hive as she was confident she could manage without falling, then once she was close enough held onto the branch with one hand while reaching out for the hive with the other. She wasn't exactly an expert with honey gathering either, so it took a while before she figured out how to grab the right comb, the one which they could extract the honey from. Once she found it she quickly pulled it out, hoping she hadn't damaged the hive too much. As annoying as bees could be she didn't want to actually destroy their hive, not only because that would mean there would be less honey next time but also because it'd be bad for the bees. Well, for now she had managed to get her hands on this comb, so they could move onto the next.

Mizuki looked down, then tried to quickly crawl backwards to the base of the tree, not wanting to drop off of the branch right onto the fire. Even if it wasn't a big fire she was pretty sure that would count as a bad idea, so she waited until she was well enough away from the fire and the smoke before carefully lowering herself, for a moment hanging onto the branch with one hand before letting go. She landed on both feet, for a moment fearing that she would lose her balance before she managed to grab onto the trunk of the tree for support, after which she let out a loud exhalation of relief before straightening up and looking at Neldo.

"That worked out reasonably, but we'll have to repeat it several times before we've got enough honey. Should we first deliver this comb to the baker so we do not end up with too large a package for us to carry comfortably, or should we try to gather as many as possible before delivery?" Mizuki herself was mostly in favour of just delivering this comb before moving on, because she had a feeling that she'd end up being responsible for carrying the combs. She didn't know exactly why, since there was no reason why Neldo couldn't do it as well, but the feeling was very persistent nonetheless. Mizuki wasn't going to voice that concern out loud, since it did sound a bit silly, so instead she'd just wait for Neldo to give his input. "We've also already gathered quite a few marbles. I do not know how many there should be in total, but maybe we should go and deliver those we've already found, and ask how many more we'd have to look out for?" Since they did already have a bunch of marbles the girls who the marbles belonged to should already be happy, at least happy enough to tell them how many marbles were still left for them to find.

Mizuki really hadn't expected to spent this day doing chores (gathering honey and finding lost marbles was honestly just chores), but on the other hand she didn't feel like complaining about it either. There were a whole lot worse things you could end up doing on your first day inside Terrasphere. Picking a fight with a beast which was way too strong for you and getting killed, for example. She doubted that actually happened a lot, but it was a thing that could happen if you weren't careful, and it would be a lot worse than simple tasks like this. Hell, Mizuki herself could've ended up in that situation if she hadn't decided to be more careful and check out the village first. She had fought with some creatures, but she had the presence of mind to stay away from anything which looked like it could hurt her really bad if she messed up.
@Neldo Dini

 

Neldo watched from the ground carefully as the Felis went about her task. She was swift and resolute in her actions without any hesitation. This was good. This was among the most minor of quests in the game, but that attitude was an excellent indication of a great gamer. It would land her in trouble, but you needed that sort of confidence to try to best unknown challenges that lay ahead.

As she began to scamper back down the tree, Neldo snatched the thickest burning branch from the fire and held it like a torch. With his other hand he made and open hand gesture before closing his fist and snuffing out the flames quickly. Relaxing his fist into an open palm the coal, and his focus weapon, floated into the palm of his hand before he pocketed it.

It wasn't a huge concern of Neldo's if people found out his only real ability was magic. But magic users in the game were rare, meaning NPC's behaved bizarrely and unpredictably towards them. On top of that, skilled players would know right away how weak a mage was at an early level and would likely take advantage. He didn't fear Mizuki attacking him, but feared she may speak of it later. So, when she landed from the tree he was busy stomping on the fire pit to appear as though he put it out through natural means.

As the felis spoke Neldo finished stomping out the remainder of the 'fire' and turned to face her. He scratched his check as he thought, and his toe started tapping. "Well, you make a lot of good sense." Reaching into his robe he grasped all of the marbles he had gathered and handed them to Mizuki. "Why don't you go ahead and turn in the honey and the marbles we've collected so far." He turned and looked off into the distance, pointing at the next hive and adding, "I'm going to go ahead to the next hive and set up another small brush pile so we can keep moving from one to the next without delay."

He smiled adding, "Don't take all the credit, Lady Felis."

@Ueno Mizuki

 

Mizuki had been busy finding her way down from the tree, so she failed to notice that Neldo's putting out of the fire was nothing more than an act to keep his ability of using magic a secret. From the Felis's perspective he just happened to be good at working with fire, which was hardly a skill which warranted suspicion and closer investigation. Many things which might look suspicious if you knew the truth of the matter would only appear harmless to someone who didn't know the whole truth, since a somewhat sad fact of reality was that quite often the vital questions were never asked, and thus the important answers were never found, because it took more than just something which didn't have a direct explanation for people to begin questioning. At least, most of the time. A mere lack of information wasn't sufficient to bring someone to question the reality before them, since one almost always had to face reality without knowing everything. For someone to question what lay before them the information that was available to them would have to be either a violation or a direct contradiction of what they believed they knew, or what they strongly suspected. In Mizuki's case she didn't have much reason to suspect Neldo of anything, since he had given her no reason to believe that he might be trying to hide something important from her. While the way that he had started the fire had been a tad odd it hadn't been so blatantly unnatural that it would lead Mizuki to question his behaviour towards the campfire as he put it out if she could see it as perfectly normal as well.

With that said, when Neldo agreed with first returning the comb of honey and the marbles that they had already collected Mizuki took the comb in one hand, accepting Neldo's marbles with another so she could put them in her pouch, once she had received them all grabbing the comb with both hands again since she didn't want to risk dropping it. When Neldo explained that while she delivered their findings so far he would go ahead and prepare for the next batch of honey Mizuki nodded, as she had to agree that there was little reason for Neldo to follow her or just loiter about. This wasn't a task which needed the both of them to be present, and if Neldo made the preparations for the next part while she was doing delivery it would speed up the process, so they wouldn't be busy they entire day with something as simple as gathering honey and marbles. "Understood. I'll try to be quick, so we can keep going at a steady pace." She turned around to walk back towards the bakery, only halted by Neldo's comment about taking the credit. Raising an eyebrow Mizuki looked back at the Yladian, only after some thinking realizing that he was probably joking. "I'll try my best not to." She said, before resuming her steps.

It didn't take long for her to reach the bakery once more, although since she wasn't sure how fragile the comb exactly was she didn't risk running, and thus she wasn't quite as fast as she would have liked. Nevertheless once she had arrived at the bakery giving the comb to the female baker was a simple task, Mizuki explaining that she and her friend had chosen to deliver the combs one by one instead of carrying them all in one go, since they weren't sure how troublesome it would be to carry all of them at the same time and because they believed it'd save time in the long run. The baker didn't argue, although she did explain that while she could already begin to extract the honey from the combs, she couldn't begin with preparing the honey cakes until she had all the honey, since it would be a waste to make the batches with only a very few honey cakes at a time. Mizuki promised her that they would try to get the combs as quickly as possible, although she first had to pay a visit to the two girls who had lost their marbles to ask them how many they were missing so she knew how many to look for. With the help of the baker's directions Mizuki made her way towards where the two girls could be found, although honestly in a settlement of this size it would've taken a couple of minutes tops to find them anyhow.

The girls seemed to be a little bit startled by her initial appearance, but they were overjoyed when she showed them that she and Neldo had already gathered several of their marbles. Quite a few, in fact, so when Mizuki asked them how many they thought were still missing she didn't think there would be that many left to find. And as it happened she was correct, as the girls counted the marbles carefully and quickly discussed before concluding that there should only be about a dozen left. Their collection was quite the impressive one, especially since in such a small village it shouldn't be too easy to collect so many, but it looked like Mizuki and Neldo had already found most of them. With that in mind Mizuki told the girls that she and her friend would do her best to find them all before it got dark, after which she went off to rejoin Neldo at the second hive, on the way finding another couple of the lost marbles. However the sun was slowly leaving its bright spot high up in the sky, and while it would still take a while before it actually became evening the light wouldn't reflect off of the marbles quite as sharply as before.

Rejoining Neldo Mizuki looked at how he most likely had already prepared an excellent fire, although this time it looked like the hive was attached to a tall post rather than a tree. Not so high that it was impossible to reach, but it would be a bit harder to get the smoke into the hive proper... and it might be a bit harder to grab the comb without the bees noticing and coming after the raider of their home. "We might have to be a bit more careful with this one."
@Neldo Dini

 

As Neldo moved on to find the location of the next hive, his feet shuffled beneath him to another tune in his head. His head began to rhythmically bob side to side to the tune. Sparkles in the grass gave away the presence of more marbles which floated into Neldo's hand with a small beckoning motion. As the touched his hand, he quickly ascertained that there had only been a pair of two which he swiftly pocketed.

He was near full on dancing to the hive as he moved now, quite enjoying the fact that he was just far enough away that people weren't staring at his oddity. As he continued his shuffle steps, he began to sing to himself again quietly mumbling but hearing the true tune in his own head.

"I am an opera singer,
I stand on painted tape
It tells me where I'm going,
And where to throw my cape"
​

He arrived at the hive and while still dancing with his torch held in one hand he began making more beckons to various flammable kindling, which rolled or was dragged along the ground and soon formed a messy heap near the post's base. Neldo knelt down and with his free hand began to assemble the pile into a proper fire pile of sorts.

"I call my co-stars brother
I call my co-stars name
I play both good and evil parts
I sing to Verdi's grave."
​

Thrusting the small burning torch into the center of the pile, he mumbled a word briefly under his breath and almost immediately the small pile went up in flames. The Yladian took a few steps back and gave a shifty glance that ensured no one had seen anything suspicious. He really need to relax, these local NPC's were hardly on the ball as it was. In the light given off by the fire, there was yet another twinkle, and a third marble drifted lazily to the mages hand.

He had stopped dancing, and now simply bobbed his head, though he continued to mumble to himself waiting for his partner to arrive.

"And every single morning
By 10 a.m I'm dressed
My rehearsals last for hours and hours
With diligence I have been blessed
Some people, they call me monster
Some people, they call me saint
My talent feeds my darker side
Yet no-one will complain"
​

Neldo finished up just before Mizuki arrived and turned to nod his greeting, "Welcome back, Lady Felis. I agree it will be a bit more difficult this time around, but I'm quite sure I can drive the smoke by fanning it with my robe. But without branches do you think you'll be able to shamble up this post? I don't suppose Felis have claws like a cat that could aid in this?" The last question could be taken as a joke, but sadly Neldo knew very little about the felis apart from they had tails and could be animalistic of even feral depending on the player.

@Ueno Mizuki

 

As Mizuki arrived she saw that Neldo had already hurried up with creating a new fire, which meant that they could get this one over quickly as long as they managed to find a way to get the smoke into the hive. Since it was attached to a pole instead of a branch they'd have to influence the winds a bit, since Mizuki doubted that it would conveniently blow in the right direction, especially since for most of the day the wind had done very little. Neldo's suggestion of using his cape to direct the smoke sounded good enough, or at least better than all the other options since Mizuki honestly couldn't think of much better. If they placed the fire too close to the post that might get ignited as well, and they couldn't afford to be that careless (not that she knew of there being any sort of penalty for property damage in these parts beyond what the people in the village might feel you deserved, but it was the principle of the thing. You just didn't go around burning their stuff in the process of gathering ingredients for their baked goods). As such they'd have to affect the smoke instead, and Neldo's cape was as good a choice for that as any.

"Not a lady. And your cloak shall have to do the trick, since we don't really have many other options. As for climbing..." She looked at her sharp nails, which were exposed in these simple gloves which only covered her fingers up to the first joint. "They'd probably help, but since these hives are also supposed to be emptied by the villagers themselves I doubt they'd make the pole so you'd need a Felis's grace and claws for it." She pointed towards the pole. While it was hard to see, the pole did have handholds. They weren't very big so it was easy to overlook them, especially since they were made of the same wood as the pole itself, but as long as you weren't too careless they should be good enough for getting up to the hive to extract the comb. At least, as long as you knew how to get the comb, which made Mizuki glad that they'd first taken care of the hive hanging from the tree. "You drive the smoke into the hive, I'll climb up there and grab the comb." She decided against mentioning that she had heard him in the distance. While she hadn't seen him use his magic his voice had carried far enough that her sensitive Felis ears had managed to barely catch the faintest sound, although that had been enough to remind her that Neldo, polite and cooperative as he was, was not blessed with the gift of song.

With that Mizuki moved to right next to the pole, making sure not to attract the attention of the bees by moving slowly and evenly. She could hear agitated humming and buzzing, so they were aware that she had gotten closer, but it looked like she had managed to avoid aggravating them. Of course that'd change the smoke hit their hive, but by then they'd hopefully be more concerned with getting away than attacking the foreign presence. Mizuki waited for Neldo to do his thing with the fire, watching the smoke get pushed towards the hive as his cape was used to move the air in the right direction. The smoke moved slowly, but it did seem to be working just fine still. When the smoke DID hit the hive the buzzing became a lot worse, and Mizuki ducked to avoid the bees as they began to frantically evacuate the hive insofar as possible. Some of them flew quite low as they all moved away, Mizuki having to wait a bit to make sure that all the defenders were out of range before she straightened up and climbed up the pole until she could reach out and grab the comb with one hand.

Once she had the comb she didn't waste any time and let herself drop back onto the ground, making sure not to actually drop the honey container even as she hoped that the smoke would keep the bees long enough at bay that they'd no longer be thinking about how she had grabbed a portion of their hive while they were being driven out. She didn't want to take chances, because virtual or real she didn't feel like getting stung. Instead of risking it she moved further away, keeping the comb close to her body and keeping low in the hope of avoiding the notice of the bees as they were focused on the smoke. Only when she was several yards away did she finally breathe out and relax a bit, although she still kept a wary eye on the bees. Considering that she didn't feel like breathing in smoke she'd been going without breathing for the entire duration of extracting the comb, so now she was taking deep breaths of blissfully clean air to compensate while she waited for Neldo to finish messing up the hive with his fire.

She herself meanwhile looked around to see if she could get a grasp of how many hives there were left for the two of them to take care of. There had been quite a distance between this hive and the one at the tree, and the village wasn't that big... so realistically speaking there couldn't be more than, like, four or five hives, maybe six. Which meant that if they kept up this speed they'd quickly be finished with this task, and that many combs filled with honey should be enough for the baker's woman to have enough of the sweet nectar to create quite a load of honey cakes. Which made Mizuki curious about what food would taste like inside the game. She'd yet to try that out, but would it be as real as on Earth, or would taste be too complicated for the virtual world to duplicate perfectly? She wasn't sure, since on one hand taste was pretty complex but on the other this game had already smashed quite a few of her beliefs about what one could achieve if they made full use of the technology that was available in this day and age. Another reason for her to look forward to eating the honey cakes. "Shall I return this comb while you move onto the next hive? And did you find any more marbles? I believe there's only a few left to be found, so if you encountered any on your way here we most likely have all of them."
@Neldo Dini