Rikuto Yuuto Sato / Ryuusa Lvl.06
Ruins => Somewhere on Floor 1 => ToB

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Rikuto made a decent number of sales, but nowhere near as much as he would have liked since it turned out (obviously) that he wasn't the only one who had the idea of making sales at the speech. Fortunately for him, most of the other players selling things were high-level players who were only selling drops that they didn't want or spare items. There were maybe one or two other actual merchants. The place became so packed that people ended up needing to get onto pillars to see the stage, one of such people being that little girl he saw before. Some other people of note were two players who had decided to have a battle as they waited and another pair of players who were playing their flutes. Maybe hiring a musician would help me get noticed more... He thought about that for a few moments before deciding he would need to get better merchandise before considering hiring more employees.

Business continued until it came to an abrupt halt. Xenith stood up and notified them that Saito had arrived, so both Rikuto and SilverMist stood up to see. Sure enough, there he was, preparing to begin his speech. As he spoke, Rikuto noticed many people in the crowd cheering and agreeing with him, mostly weaker players by the looks of their equipment, but there were just as many stronger players that cried out against him indignantly. Disagreements began to ensue, so the three of them left as soon as the speech was over in fear of a riot starting. In a safe-zone there could be no damage taken outside of a duel, but the impact from an attack was not diminished in the slightest. Safe-zone conflicts could still be pretty scary, especially one with that many people. Rikuto was very disappointed that the teleport hadn't been found, but he couldn't lose hope. While it was true that the beaters had an easier time leveling up from their knowledge and would ultimately have an easier time exploring the floor, that didn't mean lower level players like himself were incapable of working hard and searching for the teleport themselves. He decided he would talk with customers and people who sold him certain materials to try to find people who had searched much of the floor and that he would ask his company to do the same so that he could search every unsearched part of the floor there was. It would be difficult, especially at his level, but definitely not impossible.

The three walked together towards the town of beginnings where Rikuto would once again liberate Kouki of the shop counter, but he sensed something that caused him to stop. He was immediately grateful that he had taken the detection skill and notified his companions that something was wrong. He stayed still for a moment, waiting to see if whatever it was approaching them would come closer. The trio soon stood surrounded by six players, two of them orange and four red. They each drew their weapons and Rikuto looked at them, immediately judging by the quality that things weren't looking so good for them. An orange player, tall man with a scimitar, spoke first. "We saw the goods you had at your shop back there and thought they were pretty nice, but unfortunately, we got robbed just recently, so we didn't have any cash. Would you be so kind as to donate some?"

Rikuto didn't buy it for a moment, equipping his partisan and SilverMist's Luna Cape. He looked at Xenith and SilverMist (who was shaking in fear), both of them having drawn their weapons as well, a mace and a dagger respectively. "Sorry but we're a business, not a charity," he said. He whispered to his companions, "Try to buy some time. Xenith, when I say go, use your Ghostwalk, okay? Then get us out of here." She nodded in affirmation as Rikuto lifted his spear in the air and it began to glow white. The bandits noticed and lifted their weapons defensively, but the speaker held out a hand and stopped them.

The tall speaker smirked, giving an obviously fake laugh. "Funny. Now give us all you've got and we'll let you go. Armor, clothes, weapons, everything." Some of his cronies started chuckling. "Be smart, 'business man'. You can't take us all on, no matter what sword art you're using is."

SilverMist gasped at this, wrapping her free arm around herself defensively. "Maybe we should do what they say. I don't want to die..."

Xenith's eyes shot open and she turned to SilverMist, speaking quietly. "Nobody here wants to die, but I overheard one of them with my listening skill. Even if we comply with their demands, they won't let us live." SilverMist wore a horrified look. Xenith turned to the speaker and tossed a rock at his feet. "There. That's all you'll be getting from us."

The scimitar wielder was visibly enraged. "Looks like we've got a badass over here. They won't listen to us, so get'em, boys." The bandits charged towards them out from the trees.

"GO!" Rikuto gave the order and everything seemed to move in slow motion. Immediately, Xenith pulled SilverMist closer to her and her mace glowed silver, activating her Ghostwalk sword art. A circle formed around her and SilverMist, putting them both into a state of intangibility where they could not attack or be attacked for three seconds. Immediately, Rikuto slammed his weapon into the ground, shouting "Thunder burst!" As his companions were becoming intangible, a massive shockwave burst out from where Rikuto stood, leaving him motionless. The wave continued for an impressive 50 feet, throwing those hit by it even farther. Of course, Rikuto would be stunned for 25 seconds, and if one of them had the sprint skill then it would barely take them 5 seconds to cover the distance, but the heavy damage would ensure that they didn't get up immediately. In moments, the Ghostwalk wore off and the girls lifted their boss, running with him towards their destination.

"Geez, you're so heavy, boss!" complained SilverMist. "Couldn't you have at least unequipped your plate armor if you were going to do that?" Rikuto knew she was hiding a smile as she said that though, since she loves seeing her creations put to good use, in this case being the Luna Cape.

"They would have gotten suspicious if I unequipped it there," Rikuto replied, chuckling. "Besides, you only need to carry me until I can move again, then we can use our teleport crystals to get back to town." He was glad that he managed to find such competent, reliable employees and good friends. It was a good thing he hadn't sent Kouki to the speech, or else it could have ended badly.

The trio ran, but soon they heard a shout from behind them. "DAMMIIIIIIIIIIIIT!!!!!" they recognized the voice as that of scimitar guy, who had gotten up and was now chasing them. Rikuto noticed his carriers start to run faster. They had a good head start, but he unfortunately had the sprint skill and was closing the gap fast.

"24...25! Leave me, keep running!" Rikuto counted out loud and the girls tossed him down, still running as he had ordered. He brought out his shield and teleport crystal, his companions doing the same as they ran. Their assailant caught up to Rikuto and activated a sword art, diving at him, but when the attack reached him Rikuto was no longer there.
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The three of them laid there in front of the Town of Beginnings teleport gate feeling exhausted. Rikuto reflected on what had happened, thinking, Wow, 50 seconds... That's the most I've ever gotten it. When they had all recovered, Rikuto paid them a bonus and they each went their separate ways, Rikuto returning to the store in the marketplace. When Kouki asked what had happened, all he said was that he'd tell him later. Seeming to understand, Kouki left to do whatever he usually does and Rikuto stayed at the counter, appreciating what some would consider the uneventful life of a shopkeeper.
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Robin - Lvl 9
Floor 1: Horunka Village Ruins

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Rikuto Yuuto Sato / Ryuusa Lvl.06
Town of Beginnings: Marketplace

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Rikuto sat at the counter exhausted from his recent adventure when he noticed the door open. The one who stepped inside was quite a surprise to him; one of the musicians from the ruins. He looked at her name. Princess, eh? Something else he noticed was how young she was (something that her name further reminded him of, since there are many little girls who wish to be princesses). It was always saddening to see young children trapped in this death game with everyone else, separated from their loving families. That sort of thing always struck a personal chord with him.

He listened to her as she spoke, stuttering and asking for a job. It was a good thing she was a musician instead of asking for a position at the counter since he would have had a hard time rejecting her. He stood up and said, "I pity the fool who calls music skills useless. Business isn't just buying and selling, you know. Making your shop stand apart from others is vital to success." He opened his menu and began typing a message. "Yes, we're hiring, and don't worry if all you have is a music skill. Here, I'm sending you an application. After you turn it in, I'll message you on how things turn out. Take as much time as you need to fill it out, but remember that there are others looking for work too." He typed out the application and sent it.

(OOC: You don't actually need to fill this since most of this I already know from the sign up. All that matters is that Princess shows up to work at some point each IC day.)

From: Ryuusa
To: Princess

Application for employment​

Personal Information
Username:
Age:
4 best skills (with levels):
-
-
-
-
Sword arts:

Employment Desired
Position:
Salary desired:
Desired hours:
Are you employed now or have you been employed in the past? Yes/No
If yes, list the employer(s):

By signing here you recognize all of the following: You will be required to work any time you are called directly by the store manager. You are allowed holidays and other special occasions such as boss battles off. In the event that you are called to an event with optional attendance, you will be paid a bonus for attending. You are expected to cooperate with co-workers, customers, and the manager.

x__________________________________________________

Click to expand...

Rikuto hit send and looked back up to Princess. "Alright, that's that. Hope to see you soon!" He realized that of the places that did hire, not many seemed to have applications (or at least ones like this). He really did hope that she would show interest, although as things stood right now, he wouldn't be able to pay her as much as he'd like. Players had to find the second floor fast or else things would eventually come to a standstill and he would lose any advantage he had, not to mention the fact that if that happened, he would be unable to pay his employees and keep making a profit. He had plenty of ways to stay ahead, but they didn't matter if he couldn't get access to better resources and create better merchandise before other merchants reached him.

His thoughts drifted back to Princess as he wondered why she needed the money since a look at her gear told him she was fairly well off. He also wondered if she had family waiting for her outside the game and if she was all alone in it or not. The children in SAO were orphans for all intents and purposes, trapped here with no parents and only very rarely with a sibling. Rikuto decided not to ask her about any of that, though. Right now he wasn't a concerned father, he was a businessman observing a potential employee. He noticed another person enter the store and welcomed them, resuming his role as shopkeeper.
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\\Nirvana//
\\Level 10 - Experience %0//
\\Plains outside Town of Beginnings//
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He was a few minutes outside of the city, he was scouring the plains for a little bit of easy XP. When he got there it was barren, the spawn rate for enemies had been reduced to virtually nothing and all the players were at the ruins for some speech. Well, almost everyone. Two people had followed him from town. The names over their head were Basker and Dominion. He figured they must be PK hunters, or PK'ers themselves. The two followers drew their weapons, which prompted Nirvana to speak. "Look, you have the wrong person! I didn't do anything." he lied. These two men looked familiar he thought. The one on the left, Dominion, was wearing heavy armor and wielded a great sword while the one on the right, Basker, wore light armor and used a sabre similar to Nirvana's. Perhaps they were a clan that he had come across at some unfortunate time. If they were hunting him down they may well have been victims of his other self.

He knew his other self had been going around killing people, it was an unnerving reality. Nirvana had out of body experiences at random times, during which he watched his own body torture, murder, and steal from other players. Nirvana claimed it was like watching a movie, only it was in first person and the repercussions were very real. These occurrences were never this bad in the real world. There the worst thing he ever did was cause a scene at a local restaurant. He hoped this situation was just a misunderstanding when all doubt had been cleared. "You look like the guy who killed our clanmate, you have a red indicator, and there are stories of a blonde player killer running amok. Either you are a very unlucky individual or you are, in fact, the player killer we are hunting." Dominion said.

Nirvana wore a look of dread. They knew who he was, and they were hunting him specifically. With his emotions on high it only took moments for his other side to take control. His neatly kept hair fell over his face as he started to crouch. Only a few words crept from Nirvana's mouth before he lost complete control: "Please, don't do this." The two men scoffed at his words, Nirvana leaned forward from his crouching position and placed a hand to balance himself. His sword shone turquoise as he launched himself at Dominion. Unbeknownst to the hunters was that this was merely an illusion to keep their attention as the <Hidden> Nirvana used a sneak attack. With their attention on the decoy Nirvana followed up behind Basker and stabbed him on his side, slightly above the hip. With his <Hiding> broken he immediately led into Draught of Delirium by slinging his blade to the side. As it shone crimson he attacked each hand and leg methodically, finally ending with a quick slash to the throat. The man fell to the ground exhausted and weakened. Dominion fled the scene before Nirvana had realized, which left him agitated. "All these piggies do is talk about how they will avenge their comrades, but they always turn tail and run when they realize they're outmatched," he growled. "So what kind of stuff do you have? If you don't want to die you'll show me." Basker made an effort to show his personal menus to Nirvana, but lost strength in his arm before displaying his inventory. "Are you really going to test my patience? Fine, let me give you a hand." said Nirvana, as he kneeled and began moving Basker's arm. He traversed through the dying man's menus, looking at his inventory. On his person Basker had about 600 Col, a basic set of light armor, a Dueling Sabre, a Nightwatcher(clan) sigil, and one very interesting accessory: Grave Digger Gloves, an item that no one under level 25 could equip. What in the world was this item doing in this man's inventory? "Where did you get these gloves?" Nirvana asked. Basker could only make slight groans and growls. "Ah, yes. I suppose it is hard to talk with a slit throat." Nirvana motioned his blade swiftly into Basker's chest. The hunter shattered into particles of data and a message of what items could be looted popped up. The sabre, gloves, and 600 Col were the only items worth his time, so he snatched them up and headed back towards town. He stopped and looked back. "I should have mentioned that I like to lie." Nirvana said, continuing his path back to town.​

Nirvana's pace had slowed after many minutes of walking, his mind was struggling for control. Currently his other self had been in power, but the constant battle for supremacy lended itself to the real Nirvana. Why must this be so hard? His knees grew weak from the distraction, causing him to fall. The fall jarred his consciousness, Nirvana had now surfaced from his imprisonment. The gates of the Town of Beginnings could be seen in the distance. Many of the people that were absent in the last few hours had returned. Either they were exiting the city to go questing or they were returning from the speech to have a rest. Neither of these things concerned Nirvana, who had taken yet another life in this game. He had a much more pressing issue to be concerned about: the Nightwatcher clan. They were obviously after his head, and for good reasons too. He did kill two of their members after all. As he neared the gates a few glances came his way, most of which were born of fear from his red indicator. If only they knew how gentle he really was. Something caught his attention, a young girl reminiscent of the first player kill he committed. The girl had black hair, was fairly short, and wielded two daggers. The name over her head read Princess, she must be young Nirvana thought. A tear welled up in his eye just thinking about how he was the reason someone as young as this died. He moved his thoughts elsewhere and trudged into the city.

Now in a safe zone he could relax, to an extent at least. One thing he had been meaning to do for a while is get a new set of armor, one that would help him be agile, yet sturdy. There were a few NPC's in town that could help him, but from previous experiences he had preferred going to real merchants, as they usually had very elaborate collections, even if it was only the first floor. He also contemplated making his own armor, but that was usually expensive, and unless he had connections it would be more time consuming than worthwhile. The shopping district was busy, as it usually was. NPC's and players alike hassling prospective consumers into looking at their wares, most of which were simple basic-level equipment. A few shops had some interesting forging ingredients, mostly received as special drops from enemies or quest drops. The prices that most people wanted were absurd, and most of these items were possible to get for free if a person dedicated the time to get it. You almost had to haggle if you wanted a fair deal. Now, haggling wasn't a talent of Nirvana's per se, but his logic often could make a merchant bend just so he would be quiet. One shop caught Nirvana's attention. It was being run by a very business-y looking person, and the name over his head read Ryuusa. Perhaps he had some proper wares for Nirvana's needs. "Do you have anything for more agile players? I'm looking for some light armor specifically, but weapons, accessories, and the like are always wanted." Nirvana said, smiling.​

Robin - Lvl 9
Floor 1: Horunka Village Ruins

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Rikuto Yuuto Sato / Ryuusa Lvl.06
Town of Beginnings: Marketplace

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After Princess left, Rikuto tended to his customer. Once that was over, he sat back down and took a look at Princess' application. Everything seemed to check out. He'd notify his other employees at the end of the day then message her that she was hired. He wondered whether or not to do an interview, but figured that he already knew enough of her ability and personality from what he'd seen to be good enough for the position he would be hiring her into. Afterwards, he let his mind wander a little. He began to wonder if there was a craftsman somewhere around that could make some glasses for him. Not that he needed them in this world, of course, but he felt weird without them. He thought about other random things until another person entered the store, a customer with a red color cursor.

One of Rikuto's favorite things about owning a shop at this town was that he could help beginner players reach beyond the confines of this place, yet the young man standing before him seemed to have had no problem doing that. Although he was still in beginner's equipment, he was level 10, plenty strong enough to go wherever he pleased on this floor. Maybe he wore that armor to lure unsuspecting players to their graves by making them think he was weak, or maybe it was to give much weaker players who only really had that armor set a false sense of security around him. Whatever the case, killing was unforgivable. However, it wasn't Rikuto's place to forgive or not, his place was doing business. The person standing in front of me is not a player killer, he is a customer, he told himself. With that, he resumed to 'business as usual'. It was a good thing he had mastered the art of 'hiding your true thoughts and emotions when dealing with customers', and only some sort of mind reader would be able to figure him out when he focused on business.

Rikuto gave a smile (A completely genuine one, mind you, unlike most shopkeepers. He was always genuinely happy to be making money.) as the customer, 'Nirvana', approached the counter and made his request with his own smile. "Do you have anything for more agile players? I'm looking for some light armor specifically, but weapons, accessories, and the like are always wanted." Rikuto could worry about the ethics of selling gear to PKers later (which he will probably actually do) because such a general request was a real opportunity to make some sales!

Stepping outside the counter, Rikuto began walking towards where the weapons were displayed. "Weapons will be the easiest, so I'll start with those. You say you want speed, but speed comes more from the fighting style than the weapon itself, although there is the general need of the blade to be light for speed. For a straight blade user, I'd recommend either a rapier if you use a style with plenty of stabbing or a short sword if you need slashing power as well." Rikuto held up a second rapier he had made and a shorter blade called a gladius. "If you're exceptionally fast and don't mind getting right up to your opponent, I have a +5 basic dagger for sale, as well as a weaker and unboosted yet faster and lighter stiletto dagger." He put the swords down and pointed to the weapons he mentioned. "Thinner weapons like the rapier and the stiletto can hit gaps in armor if you're precise." He moved on to further down the display to where the curved blades were housed. "For a curved blade user, a katana is probably your best bet, although they require the katana wielding extra skill and are a little more expensive. A more affordable and available option would be a scimitar which is exceptionally light but only really works for a slashing-oriented style. We have a +2 and an unboosted one. If you can't wield or afford a katana and really need a stabbing curved sword you could go for a sabre or better yet a talwar, but if you want the talwar you'd need to wait until I forge another one. That won't take too long, though, and I'd message you once it's done." Rikuto was seriously glad that he had taken the time to learn all this from a sword nut he had met during the period after he quit wasting his time at the tavern and decided to be a merchant.

Moving on to the armor section, he began to explain why he had decided to present this section second. "I decided to wait before showing you these because an item we've recently acquired has changed what constitutes as light armor." He realized he still had said item in his inventory and pulled it out, holding it up for Nirvana to see. "This is the Luna Cape, an item that reduces the weight of any equipment you are wearing. With this, you can have the same mobility wearing medium-weight armors as you would wearing light armors without it, and light armors become that much lighter. This could potentially complicate your choosing process, so I thought it would be best to present the armors to you last with your weapon choice hopefully already decided if you choose to buy one." Rikuto walked over to the light armors. "Here we have a +6 cloth armor which is really just padded clothes, although this specific one has a hefty boost. There's also a +2 leather armor and an unboosted chainmail tunic." He moved along the section a little to reach what he considered medium armor. "If you can handle the slight increase in weight or choose to buy the Luna Cape, we have a suit of scale armor." He held up the suit made of layered metal scales. "You could also try the ringmail, which is essentially chainmail with heavier, thicker rings." Rikuto returned to his seat at the counter. "It's up to you whether you value mobility, protection, or price more, but if nothing here satisfies you then you can pay to have one of your own sets boosted. It will take time to get the materials if you request a higher level boost, though."

(OOC: Rikuto has the prices next to the weapons, so he doesn't need to actually say them in dialogue. Here is a list (although I have no real sense of scale to base these prices on, so somebody tell me if they seem too cheap or too expensive):

Rapier: 550_____________________+6 Cloth Armor: 500
Gladius: 400____________________+2 Leather Armor: 500
+5 Dagger: 330_________________Chainmail Tunic: 800
Stiletto: 280____________________Ringmail suit: 900
Katana: 800____________________Scale Armor: 1000
+2 Scimitar: 600
Scimitar: 500___________________Special Item - Luna Cape: 1300
Sabre: 480
Talwar: 600
)
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