Well, it'd taken a while, but she'd managed to find some small village out in the fields of Brisshal, having wandered aimlessly by the guidance of her trusty map, noting things down and remembering what was where. Whether by luck or divine intervention, she'd managed to avoid being attacked by anything yet, though now that she was in a village the chances of that changing were a little smaller, at least until she left again. Then she'd be back to the routine of wondering if or when she'd be attacked. One thing she had noticed was that she'd seen far more wildlife than she'd expected, though she just chalked that down to her selecting Beast Taming as a mastery. Chances were it made animals less likely to feel threatened by her, which was nice. She hummed to herself, before flinching at the feeling of her clothes being tugged at by somebody smaller than her. At the start, it'd been difficult to adapt to being taller than she was in the real world, but it hadn't been too hard all things considered. She looked down to find a young girl, maybe seven or eight years of age, tugging at her clothes without stop, staring up at her with tear filled eyes. "Um, is something wrong, y-young lady?" She had to bite down on her stutter somewhat, though it was easier whilst she was addressing such a young child. She didn't have to feel quite so nervous around somebody so young, especially if the child already looked more fearful than she felt. "Please lady! Can you help me find my mommy? You've got a sword, so you can help, right!?" The girl's voice was remarkably loud, yet Luna couldn't help but empathize with the girl, smiling down sadly at her. In a strange way, it was like losing her own mother in the mall, only a hundred times worse most likely. "I can help, don't worry." It was definitely false bravado, she had no clue if she could actually help, but she couldn't just leave the girl as she was. If she didn't help, who would? "Do you know where she would usually be at this time?" She asked, smiling when the girl nodded. "She works the fields with some of the horses! I can't go to check without an adult with me though..." For the briefest moment, impulse told Luna to deny the request, under the grounds that she wasn't an adult. Except for the fact that, in this world, she was. She was an adult, making her own choices. She gulped, taking the child by the hand and taking off at a brisk jog towards the field. It took maybe a minute or two to reach the field in question, but Luna came across the sight of a middle aged woman with her back to the nearest stable, surrounded by three red blobs. Slimes? She wanted to race over and save the day, to be the hero, but her legs locked in place and her knees began to shake. How could she help like this? What use would she be? She gulped, shoving the young girl shakily, slowly drawing her sword from its sheath. "Run down the road. G-g-get help, shout or s-something." And with that the girl set off, leaving Luna to move in closer to the woman in peril and the three slimes, sword clutched in a shaking hand connected to a shaking arm. She drew a deep breath in, still shaking, before raising her voice as loudly as she could. "H-hey! Get away from her!"
Angel loved this virtual world. Mostly. She was mostly adjusted to the fact that it felt like a real world. Mostly. "Ow ow ow!" she flailed her sword at the small hostile creatures found outside of the starting villages, eyes closed as she backed up. She'd been hit for minimal damage but geeze that had stung! Her eyes popped open and yes, the creature was closer. "Wahhh!" she ducked and the creature sailed over her head before she took off running. Running was something she was decent at in the real world for not being especially athletic. It sort of translated here... except her character was new and thus not especially advanced at anything. "Not cool! Get away!" she stopped to flail the sword again, this time hitting the creature nearest her. She struck it, but she didn't finish it off before she ran again. In her haste she ran straight past a middle-aged lady already being attacked. She did notice the creatures had stopped chasing her to instead attack the monsters she'd run past. "Oh. That's fortunate..." she mumbled before she realized how quickly those blobs were downing the furry critters she'd been attacking. "Or not..." she glanced around and saw a young woman that looked close to her age watching the middle aged woman who ran behind Angel yelling for her to help. "Uh, right." she couldn't deny the women if she wanted to. She was a total noob or whatever and all, but she did want to be a hero. Angel was supposed to be more brave right? That's how video games worked! Even if they did hurt... She raised her sword and selected a novice spell. She had one for protection and one for healing, and this one gave her a very weak shield. "You're a human player, right?" she glanced at the young lady again. "I don't know what I'm doing. Help please?"
Somebody ran past the woman that needed help, leading some animals to the slimes and making them fight, though the slimes clearly won. Was it a fellow Beast Tamer like herself, though only with more time and effort invested into the game? She even seemed to cast a spell that did....something? Maybe it was an attack or defense buff? Knowing how these games worked, there was a high chance of it being one of the two. But hey, this meant that the girl was better than her, right? Apparently not. Immediately the other girl mentioned something about not knowing what she was doing, immediately shattering all of Luna's hopes and dreams. She was going to die here already, without even knowing what she could even do in the game. It'd teach her to read instructions more carefully, she supposed. She nodded, gulping and jogging over as fast as her shaking legs would allow her, standing next to the new arrival closer to the little girl's mother. "U-um, I don't know what I'm d-d-doing either. H-how do you cast spells?" She asked, there wasn't much time to feel self conscious about it now, at the very least. Her shaking sword arm showed just how scared she really was, a glance at her face would show that she was biting her lip in an attempt to keep herself clear of mind. The slimes had seemed to switch their attention to the two women that were clearly more of a threat to them, slowly sliding closer to them. Luna almost whimpered, breathing heavily. Could she really do this? "A-a-are you ready?"
"Not even a little," Angel shook her head. "I don't like pain..." she took a deep breath. "Uh, swipe your hand like this," she made a movement which brought up a menu. "Select the spell and your body will do it automatically." She only had a few seconds to show how to do things. "That's all I know, sorry!" she held up her own sword and squeaked as she flailed at the slime thing while she jumped back. "Stayawaystayawaystayaway," she muttered rather loudly. "Oh!" she realized she'd hit the slime harder than the creature before from the way it had recoiled. "Hey maybe we can beat these things. They're pretty slow..." She gently pushed the lady that had been behind her aside. "Run and find a place to hide okay? We don't want you to accidentally get hurt." Here she was. Being a cute heroine saving someone! Maybe it was a little too real, but that couldn't stop her... not if she wanted to do well at the game and make new friends!
"S-swipe my hand?" She gulped, testing it briefly and finding two spells that...really didn't sound all that amazing when she read them. Sure, she wasn't expecting anything powerful as soon as she logged in, but would they even help all that much at this level? Well, there was only one way that they could really do this in any way and that was to just try and hope they managed it. They either saved the woman as heroes, or lost to slimes. She took a deep breath, before stepping forward and swinging her own sword rather haphazardly, missing the slime she'd chosen completely and whimpering as she stumbled to the side with her swing, unused to the weight of a sword. The slime lurched forward, slamming into her and causing her to stumble back, lashing out instinctively and catching the slime on the side, though cutting it didn't seem to do too much. Were they resistant to slashing damage? Or did they just not appear to be hurt physically? Still, the blow she'd taken hadn't taken her health down too significantly. It hurt though, stinging as if she'd walked into something. It definitely wasn't unbearable though, at the very least. She stepped forward and swung again, missing once more, though this time she stepped backwards and swept her free hand to the side, tapping the first spell on the list without reading it. Suddenly, her left arm began moving on its own, spinning above her head before swinging her arm back down, a tiny spark leaping from her hand and into the slime. It didn't seem to hurt it much, if at all, but the slime seemed incapable of moving, the electricity causing it to vibrate uncontrollably. She clenched her eyes shut, stepping forward and swinging recklessly, finally hitting it now that it was stationary, cleaving it in half. God, she hoped it was dead. There were still two more, though the new girl was fighting one of them. "Do you need help?" She stared the third one down, sword point pointed at it, trying to make sure it couldn't catch her off guard.
"Uhm," Angel flailed some more, then suddenly had a thought. Maybe she'd do a little more damage if she swung uh... better? She squeaked again, backpedaling fast enough to dodge the slime. "Stop trying to hit me!" she ordered, an adorably annoyed look on her face. "I think I'm okay! If you beat that one they'll all be taken care of right?" She gripped the sword in both hands, which probably didn't make any statistical difference, but it was easier to hold and swing. She swung hard, and her sword made a 'squelch' noise as it flew threw the creature. It paused and then fell in two before melting into a puddle. "Oh hey, I did it!" she was glad she'd hit it before. That was probably why it was dead now! Angel nearly forgot she should help the other girl, and ran over to stand by the girl's side in case she needed help. She wouldn't be a kill stealer though. People always hated to have their hard work taken from them. "Okay, this is the last one!"
Well, even if the other girl seemed annoyed, at least she was able to handle the slime that she was facing. That left her with one more to fight, though she really was not looking forward to doing it all that much. Just killing one had been hard enough, though she assumed her first spell would make it easier to kill at any rate. The only issue was, she wasn't quite used to using spells yet, so she didn't exactly know how many she could afford to use before she started to run out of energy. She was still a little shaky, but defeating one of the slimes had done wonders for her confidence as she stepped forward again, clutching her sword with both hands as she stepped into range of the slime, slashing down at it, her blade only glancing it as it slid to the side, before stretching out to slam into her. Luna shrieked, stumbling away to avoid the attack, flailing uselessly in her panic. It took a moment for her to breathe deeply, blinking away as much of her fear as she could. She couldn't exactly beat it if she was too afraid to enter range with it, spells not withstanding because they were pretty unreliable until she knew what they did. That left only one thing she could really think of, panic stricken and fearful as she was. Abandoning all defense, she stepped forward and raised her blade above her head, bringing it down as hard as she could. As she raised her arms, the slime slammed into her chest, before pulling back and ramming her again and then again, before she finally managed to bring her sword down onto it and kill it. It wasn't the cleanest kill, she'd let herself take a couple of hits for it, but a glance at her health reassured her that she wouldn't drop dead the next time something hit her or she stubbed her toe. She sighed, smiling to herself as she sheathed her sword and turned to her helper. "Ah, t-thank you for helping me! I don't think I could have saved that w-woman without you."
Angel blinked. "Oh, um, yeah. No problem." she looked around as if afraid yet another thing would attack her. She dropped her arms and finally put away the sword. She blushed a bit, which she wondered was on the model or just her in the real world. "To be honest I was just running from the monsters those slimes beat up, so I guess I shouldn't have been scared at all..." she rubbed the back of her neck. "Should we tell the lady she's safe?" Angel hadn't paid attention to where she ran. "Was there anyone else here? Did we save everyone?" Her mind was working overtime after that little adrenaline rush. "Oh, I'm Angel," she introduced herself with a small, uncharacteristically shy wave. "It's nice to meet you. I hope I didn't look too stupid just now. I'm really bad at handling pain you see... maybe I shouldn't have picked a sword as a weapon, huh?"
She'd been running from those creatures, had she? Well, maybe the creatures had hurt the slimes a little before they'd jumped in, so it might have been for the best after all was said and done. "W-well, even so, a-at least we managed it....right?" She tried to offer, though it came out a little more mumbled and awkward than she'd hoped. And after she might've just looked cool too! Curse her predisposition to being awkward when she was talking with somebody face to face! "A-ah, I-I think she might've run t-to the village. I-I sent her daughter back too..." She poked her index fingers together, wishing she had pockets right about now. "I-I think they were, um, the only ones here?" It sounded more like a question than an answer, but she didn't want to be blamed if she'd been wrong. People did that all the time at school, so she didn't want it here too. "Uh, I'm um, E-ah Luna! I'm Luna." She gave herself the mental equivalent of a slap, having almost given away her real name once again. She'd have to get used to introducing herself as Luna. "S-should we go and check on the woman....a-at the village?"
Angel giggled, already feeling more at ease now that the danger had passed. She was weirdly oblivious of people when they were shy or nervous. Or rather, she was good at ignoring it. Shy people tended not to like having their shyness pointed out anyway. "Luna's a cute name too," she mused. This girl was a good half a foot taller than her. Maybe she'd misjudged how tall an eighteen year old was? Eh, everyone looked big to her. At least she was used to her less modest clothing now. It was just part of the Angel she'd constructed, right? Oh wait, she was supposed to be thinking about the npc's wasn't she? "Right!" she nodded. She opened her hand and found the party menu to invite Luna. "Just in case," she decided. "There's crazy animals out there. And who knows what else..." She looked around. Which way was Luna talking about, anyway? There was a village... in a direction... she was sure of that much. But she was going to wait for Luna to lead the way since it was her quest. "So um, you're new too, huh?"
"C-cute!?" She blushed, looking away. Was it really a cute name? She'd just picked one of the first things that came into her mind and rolled with it, though maybe she'd come up with something that wasn't totally silly as far as fantasy names went. "A-Angel is....n-nice t-too..." And of course, she felt the need to repay the compliment, but felt far too awkward to say anything more than she'd already said. She blinked when suddenly a menu opened in front of her, showing a party invite. There was a party system in this game? Had she skimmed past that part of the information too? She inwardly chastised herself, tapping the accept button, though she wasn't really sure what it would do besides add Angel's name to her UI and display her health and energy. Could they see each other on the map now? Did this game have a friends option too? She tried her best to smile confidently, taking a few steps in the correct direction and beckoning for Angel to follow her, a hand raising to play with the flower that was attached to her face. How she could see through it she didn't know, but it looked pretty! "U-um, yeah I'm pretty new. I uh, spawned today but um, didn't r-read any of the instructions first."
Angel remembered her first day of spawning. She'd met a nice fairy with a super squidgy slime pet. Of course that had been like two days ago but still... "I don't think there were any instructions," she shrugged, looking somewhat relaxed for the moment. She hopped a couple of times in excitement though. "That means we're both new! I've been playing for a couple of days but haven't made any real progress. I get stuck looking at everything and talking to NPC's who I suspect just want to get back to their gardening...." She eyed the hp bar of her new friend. She was pretty sure she could manage a heal spell for now, so she did her best to cast the spell as she was shown instead of automatically. It topped off a good amount of the girl's missing HP, but she had the feeling it might have done better if she'd auto-casted. "There! I guess my healing magic choice was a little handy, at least..."
"Y-yeah?" She smiled, nodding along as the girl spoke. She was fairly energetic, wasn't she? It made a nice change from the usual npc's that just went about their day to day business, doing whatever they had to do. Well, as far as she knew, having not even been in the game for a full day yet. It wasn't like she would know more than Angel would anyway, since the girl had been online before her. Heck, she hadn't even known how to use any spells until Angel had shown her. Speaking of using spells, her hp bar suddenly began to fill again, though it didn't fill all the way. It was better than nothing though and she turned to see her new ally finish up the spell, talking about her healing magic being handy. "Ah, yeah I-I almost picked illumancy myself, but uh, in the end I went for aeromancy, obviously." She shrugged, poking her fingers together as she continued to lead the way to the village. "Thank you for, you know, healing me. I um, I appreciate it." "So um, w-what Masteries did you pick? Um, if you don't mind me asking that is?" She stuttered out, trying to make some small talk as they walked back. They probably weren't in any danger now, slimes seemed to avoid places where other slimes had died. At least for a short while.
"Oh, that was aero... aeromancy?" Angel had been a little distracted if she was honest. She was just now realizing the girl had a flower for an eye. Had such odd design choices been part of character creation? Eh, in the end she'd decided she wanted to be a regular pretty human so she could feel like she was experiencing the strangeness of a new world properly. "I picked uh, the swordy one," she could have opened her skills but she was being lazy. Angel had mountains of energy but her desire to be a perfectionist or someone who studied up on things properly was... well... it lacked that energy. "The healy one that sounds like a light, and music." Music was easy to remember. She wasn't even sure she could spell the magic one she'd chosen. "O! What about you?" she asked. "You have aircromancy and a cute flower," she mused. "Oh! do you want to be newbie buddies? Do people still say newbie? I'm not really sure, I use lots of words people my age don't really use because the old ones are funnier."
Wow, she hadn't been wrong when she'd analyzed the girl to be pretty energetic, as it turned out. Already she was bouncing off of questions and finding different things to talk about, so maybe having a conversation wouldn't be all that difficult after all? Especially if she could get Angel to take the lead, most of the time! At least it seemed that the girl was decent at speaking to people and generally being sociable, so that was a plus in Luna's eyes. At least she wouldn't have to try to take the lead all of the time, then they'd never get anywhere! She was fairly sure the 'swordy one' was slash and the light one was illumancy. She'd taken the time to memorize the names of the Masteries, though she was fairly good at remembering things anyway. They were a pretty interesting mix of masteries, the girl seemed happy with her ability to heal, anyway. "I uh, I chose Slash, Aeromancy....o-obviously..." She tried to let a chuckle out, but it sounded a little more like she just took a deep breath. "A-and Beast Taming. T-the flower is just cosmetic....I uh, I kinda liked....how it looked....?" She half asked, half clarified her choice, though she wasn't exactly sure it was suitable justification. As for newbie buddies, whatever they were, well that wasn't too bad. "I, um, I think I'd like that."
