Post by Athena on Mar 13, 2016 6:10:25 GMT
"Do you have a problem for me to solve?"
| Athena grabbed her journal full of notes/maps from the last time she ventured out into the Black Forest. She remembered her encounter with the Dire Wolf and shivered. She didn’t want to have an experience like that again. Athena wanted to at least face some of the Little Nepenthes again. She knew that she needed to exercise caution when facing them this next time because a Dire Wolf might be watching, waiting for her to finish to pick her off. Athena couldn’t have herself dying at this point in the game. She thought she was doing decently well. She knew that there was a party that was fighting the first level boss, and the fact that she wasn’t in that party upset her significantly. She wanted to make sure that she got out of this game alive, and on top. Athena was not one to stand idly by and just ‘let things happen’. That simply wasn’t her style. Athena liked to get out and do things; she wanted to make sure that people could return to where they wanted. Being trapped in this game was frightening to some people, and plenty of people died every day. The fact that people died aggravated her, but she also understood that natural selection was something she couldn’t stop. In the game, it was kill or be killed, whether that be by a player killer or by one of the enemies that resided in the game. This game… It was a game of survival. A game that Athena had never played before, but since she was putting her life on the line for this, she wasn’t going to allow herself to lose. Too many things would happen if she died. She couldn’t tell her family that she had the time of her life while inside of the game. She couldn’t tell her friends who thrilling it was to be playing a game with the largest bet you could ever make, your life. She couldn’t do so many things if she died. She couldn’t continue enjoying the game, even though it did cause her to be distressed at times. Athena’s mind suddenly came back to where she needed it to be. She looked inside of the journal and found everything that she had from last time. Little Nepenthes were weak at their roots. Athena wasn’t sure whether the attacking vines would grow back or not. The monsters didn’t appear to have healing capabilities, but Athena didn’t usually fight the monsters long enough to find out if they could heal. She didn’t want to take the chance of having it heal while she was damaged. Granted, she did have potions to heal herself with, but Athena didn’t want to use one until she was completely sure that she wanted to use one. Athena needed to know, for a fact, that she would die within one hit in order to use a potion. I know that the monsters can be dangerous. So dangerous that they could even destroy our lives. They destroy lives every day, and they aren’t fazed by it. That’s because they’re just animals and AI. They don’t know any better, but humanity does. Since we know that these are just computer-generated enemies, we can battle them without feeling the guilt of destroying a real creature. Athena rolled her eyes at the idea of someone crying over killing their first enemy. It was simply pathetic. It was a world where they would survive or they wouldn’t. The idea of having empathy in this kind of environment for your enemies was just stupid. It held you back from getting your full potential out of you. It held you back from being a great player. It held you back from embracing your inner warrior. It held you back from so many things that Athena couldn’t elaborate on all of the things that it held you back from. Empathy was one of humanity’s greatest features, as well as one of its greatest flaws. Empathy helped you to solve problems with others and make them feel good about themselves, and pull them out of a rut. Empathy was a flaw because humanity would empathize with things that didn’t need to be empathized with. Humanity empathized with its enemies, its allies, its food. You name it, humanity probably empathizes with it. Athena simply hated that concept. Trying to make yourself understand someone else wasn’t necessary. The bottom line was… You simply weren’t that person… And they would never be you. Everyone is infinitely different, whether humanity realized it or not wasn’t up to Athena. She wished they would notice that people are all different. They think differently. They act differently. They are simply different in every way possible. Maybe some ways they think are similar, but the actual thought process is always different. People pull different conclusions from everything, whether they realize it or not. People were definitely like pawns in Athena’s book. Sure, they were all pawns, but each pawn was infinitely different and a single pawn had some things that it was great at. That pawn would be used in the way that it was great at, and probably wouldn’t be used in any other way than that. That was how Athena worked. She thought most things had one function and followed a specific pattern to carry out that function. That was why she thrived at games. Unfortunately, this was her shortcoming when dealing with people. Her own logic contradicted itself when she dealt with people. Since she believed every person was different, and since she believed her ‘pawns’ could only carry out one task, she had a hard time just sticking a pawn where it needed to be. She also found trouble keeping a pawn where she wanted it to be, especially since humans didn’t normally like being subjected to tasks that they didn’t want to execute. Athena looked at her journal for a moment, then shut it. The journal simply wouldn’t be any help other than the damage regions and the map. She realized strategies against enemies wouldn’t work. AI wasn’t just a program that ran over and over, repeating the same process. The game evolved, just as you did. And because the game evolved, it would make the enemies cater to your battling style. She shut her journal quickly and headed out towards the Black Forest because she was wasting time thinking about unnecessary things. As Athena headed out for the Black Forest, her memory of facing the Dire Wolf came into mind. Athena… That was just a coincidence that you ran into that. The chances of that happening again are slim. And even if you do end up getting into a fight with a Dire Wolf again... Just use your Sword Art and do what you did last time. Take out the Dire Wolf’s back legs and try to kill it. Even if you can’t, then just simply run away. Your Sword Art should buy you time. Athena suddenly thought of the cooldown on her Sword Art. But if I have to wait for that long… I might not get the chance to- STOP. Athena. Simply stop it. Just go fight the monsters in the forest already. Stop thinking so hard about what you’ll be doing theoretically. Just go and do it. You won’t run into another Dire Wolf. Athena calmed herself down with her own words. They inspired her to go into the forest and be ready to fight as many Little Nepenthes as she could. Athena traveled inside the Black Forest for a minute, but didn’t run into any enemies. This is odd… I swear I should’ve run into something by no- SMACK! SMACK! Athena fell to the ground as she felt two whips of vines along her back, each inflicting ‘10’ damage. She fell to the ground and looked around for the source of the vines. She looked all around, but couldn’t find anything. Athena then started to panic because she didn’t know where her enemy was. Athena. Think. Think. Since it’s adapting to your fighting, where would an enemy be? Come on! Think! Athena continued to frantically look around, when she suddenly spotted the vines coming at her again. She could dodge one vine, but she could try to parry the other vine. Athena dodged out of the way of the first vine by rolling over to her left. She could feel the cool grass against her skin as her vision moved in a circle. When she came back around, the second vine was far enough that she sliced it off as it arrived close to her face. She moved her body to avoid the leaf from hitting her body too hard. But the inertia of the leaf made her take ‘3’ damage. She stood up and watched as the vines retracted. The monster was behind a large bush. Sneaky bastard. I never would’ve noticed the enemy there. I really do have to be careful here now. It’s more dangerous than last time… But why was I able to kill a Dire Wolf when the battles should’ve been this hard? Athena shook her head because right now, that thought wasn’t important. Athena prepared herself for an attack from one of the vines. She would just dodge the vine and then head for the bulbous head of the Little Nepenthes that was behind the bush. The first vine came straight at her, and she dodged to the right by slipping under the vine and propelling herself right with her left leg. Jeez… That was actually pretty clo- SMACK! Another ‘10’ damage was given to Athena as she felt her right leg get smacked by a vine that came from around a tree next to her. She saw the vine retract as she was holding in a scream. This game really is adapting… A bit too well… I have to watch all sides of me and I have to make sure I don’t take any more damage. Otherwise, I won’t be able to battle with other Little Nepenthes. Athena knew that she had inflicted 5 damage onto the plant by cutting off a vine, so that was one fourth of the monster’s health. If she just did a hit like that, or better, she could kill the enemy in 3 attacks. She readied herself to charge at the enemy through the bush the next time it would attack. This time, when the attack came, both of the vines came towards her. It looked like it was going to try and hit her in an ‘X’ pattern, trying to inflict damage and tie her up at the same time. Athena wasn’t ready for this attack, but her plan was still the same. Charge towards the enemy… 1… 2… 3! Athena leapt towards the Little Nepenthes that was hiding behind a bush. The vines didn’t anticipate her movement, so they tried to trap her in her original position, but the trap didn’t work because she had moved. Athena rushed through the bush and found the Little Nepenthes hiding behind it. She took 2 quick slashes at its roots, making it release a guttural scream. Each of the hits inflicted ‘6’ damage. Athena moved back behind the bush to where she originally was. Athena could tell that the Little Nepenthes was not happy. The Little Nepenthes shot its vines at her one more time in an attempt to cause as much damage as it could before it died, but Athena was expecting this blow this time. She dodged out of the way of one of the vines, while she side-stepped the other, and cut off the vine. A red damage number of ‘4’ came from the vine. While that happened, all of the Little Nepenthes had disintegrated into nothing. Athena breathed a sigh of relief at the end of her battle with the Little Nepenthes. Wow. That was way harder than I was expecting. How is it that the system changed in such a short amount of time? That ability to adapt is unheard of. But that must be why Kayaba Akihiko made the game this way. He wanted people to struggle to survive. He wanted them to die relentlessly. Kayaba really is a little messed up in that way, but for some reason, I respect him for making it so challenging. No game can be fun without a good challenge. Athena wouldn’t verbally admit it to anyone, but she genuinely enjoyed herself when she battled and struggled. She enjoyed having the enemies come after her without remorse. It made the game very realistic and it made it incredibly hard. Athena enjoyed incredibly hard challenges, especially this one. Survival usually brought out the worst in people, especially when they would eventually see people dying who are close to them. Athena wasn’t like this though, she wasn’t about to give in to her carnal nature when she’s just playing a game. Sure, she couldn’t escape and she could die if she failed, but it was still a game, all the same. This logic probably would scare the majority of people that she would ever meet, but Athena probably wouldn’t mind even if they were scared. Athena’s logic was hers, and if someone wanted to oppose it by being afraid… To each, their own. Some people may take that as an optimistic look from her, but that was just her reality. It was all a game. Because it actually was. It was all a game. People may have thought that this would be their new life. Sure, it might be for a while, but if they escaped, they would all just go to referring to SAO as a game. Athena wasn’t about to give SAO the privilege of making it ‘her new life’, as some would put it. She wasn’t going to stand and give a game her life. Games were meant to be completed and finished. The same logic is used in SAO, otherwise, the game’s existence would’ve had no purpose. If the game had no purpose, then the creator wouldn’t have let it come into existence. Some people would probably argue with Athena about this, saying that ‘Kayaba would just make the game to watch people die for his enjoyment’. But what if that wasn’t the case? What if Kayaba wanted to show that humanity, even when faced with a death-defying obstacle, that they were stronger than any obstacle it was faced with? What if he also wanted to just pick out the finest gamers in the whole world? What if he just wanted to go through a process of natural selection to create a finer generation who could survive on their own? Athena didn’t know, but SAO, she knew, wasn’t just made for Kayaba’s enjoyment. Kayaba’s enjoyment was just an addition to whatever it was that he originally wanted to achieve through this game. Athena then questioned her own logic. Maybe she was wrong. But she’d never know until floor 100. She’d never know until after she’d get out. Athena enjoyed having a moment of rest, but she wanted to battle another Little Nepenthes before she left the Black Forest. Otherwise, her trip might have been a waste. Athena used the map she had created before to find her way around the Black Forest. Eventually, there was a small clearing that she had never seen before. Athena looked at her map, and realized that she was heading in a different direction than she had originally gone the first time she had entered the Black Forest. But that wasn’t important. Athena looked in the middle of the small clearing and saw what looked like a Little Nepenthes, but this one happened to have a name. ‘Level 1 - Ruti’ The thing that was special about this Little Nepenthes was that it had two red balls on top of its head that seemed to be berries of some kind. Athena thought this enemy might be dangerous, but it was another enemy for her to battle. Athena moved a little closer to the monster called ‘Ruti’ and noticed that it had 3 vines instead of 2. Okay… Maybe I’ll get more XP for defeating this one… Or maybe a special item? Whatever. I just need to defeat it. But… I’m only at 22 health, so I might want to use a health potion, even though I know that I didn’t want to. I have the funds to buy another one, so I guess I could use it… Athena reluctantly took one of her health potions and drank it. As the substance went down her throat, she was surprised by how sweet the potion was. It didn’t taste good to Athena because she hated things that were too sweet, and this potion definitely fit into that category. Athena internally cried, but saw her health bar increase from 22 to 62. Athena took a deep breath as she decided to climb a tree that was closest to Ruti. Athena climbed with the tree with minimal problems, but she wasn’t sure where she needed to aim for this new enemy since she didn’t know any of its weak points, and Ruti seemed to actually be rooted into the ground, so there was no taking out its roots. The first thing that caught her eye was the large berries that it had at the top of its head, so she decided to go for those. Athena took a deep breath as she prepared herself to jump. She planned to simultaneously kick Ruti as well as sticking her rapier through one of the berries in it. Athena jumped and landed perfectly on Ruti, feeling it crush underneath her feet, providing a nice cushion for her descent. Her rapier didn’t pierce through the center of the berry, but it pierced through the edge of the berry. A juice came out of the berry that she had stabbed, which leaked onto Ruti, making the monster scream. Her jump had caused the monster 8 damage, while the berry’s juice did a surprising 10. What the hell was that juice?! How was it possible to- There was some juice from the berry on her rapier. The juice almost touched the handle of her rapier, but Athena reacted quickly enough to point her rapier down so that she didn’t end up hurting herself in the process. There’s a surprising amount of references to the outside world in this game… I’m pretty sure Ruti is a plant that contains one of the most dangerous biotoxins in the world. I better be wary of the way the berries are used in Ruti’s attack… Otherwise, I’m going to be toast. Athena watched Ruti angrily writhe it’s mouth at her, followed by a bombardment of three vines. Athena tried to predict the movement of the the three vines, but there wasn’t a pattern she could pick out in their movement. She just decided to try and dodge all of them. Unfortunately for Athena, Ruti baited Athena with a vine heading right towards her, while there were vines on both sides of her, ready to sandwich her, making sure that she would get inflicted with damage from all three vines. Ruti’s plan had worked against Athena because she dodged right, but the vine coming in from her right knocked her left, causing her to run into the left vine, which caused her to be hit by the center vine, knocking her onto her back. Red ‘11’s came from her body. More than half of her health had been knocked out in a measly round! Athena was now worried a little, but she figured that Ruti’s health wasn’t much better than the majority of the Little Nepenthes, so if she could just land a single hit on Ruti, she could defeat the monster. It seemed that Ruti was ready to strike again, but Athena took advantage of her speed to head straight for the other berry she hadn’t cut. Athena’s plan wasn’t to cut the berry despite how effective it might be though. Athena was baiting Ruti to hit her with one of its vines in defense. But right before the vine would hit her, she’d dive to the left of the vine and make Ruti hit its own berry. Athena smirked at her own plan. Athena headed towards the berry as fast as she could, which seemed to take the monster by surprise. Athena looked out of the corner of her eye and saw a vine getting ready to whip at her. She dived left and heard the whip of the vine come… But she heard something else hit the other vine. Athena looked up at the vine that was supposed to whip the berry, but it was being held by the other two vines to keep from hitting it. Damn you Ruti. That plan was nearly flawless. But now you’ve left yourself open! Athena charged towards the berry and sliced it as she ran behind Ruti. She heard the scream of Ruti for a few seconds, but then it disappeared. She didn’t even have to look back at Ruti because she knew that she had killed the variation of the Little Nepenthes. I guess I got lucky with that one… If I hadn’t used a potion, I’d be dead now. Athena quietly thanked herself for her caution. Athena wrote in her journal that there were such things are variations of basic enemies that she would face. She drew the example of Ruti. Ruti was a highly intelligent Little Nepenthes with three vines and two berries, which contained poison. The berries were the only weakness she could think of, but the berries would probably be used in the attack somehow. Athena didn’t want to find out how it was used because in that situation, she would probably be damaged severely. Athena was just thankful that she could even endure a battle like that. If she hadn’t used her stealth skill and pierced that berry, she was sure that Ruti would’ve outsmarted her. Suddenly, it hit her that she could’ve used her Sword Art. “Are you kidding me?!” Athena verbalized this question because she was so mad. You know what? I’m going to kill another Little Nepenthes just so that I can get that closer to leveling! Athena ventured into a part of the Black Forest she had already been in, which allowed her to fight a Little Nepenthes without running into a Dire Wolf… Probably. Athena spotted a Little Nepenthes and climbed up into a tree so that she could do her special ‘dive kick pierce’ attack that she had tried against multiple enemies, which was usually pretty effective. Athena took a deep breath and looked down at the Little Nepenthes. Suddenly, Athena heard a cracking noise from behind her. She looked at the branch she was standing on, and right at the base of the branch was… A vine?! She looked at the Little Nepenthes and realized that it had latched onto the branch in order to try and make it break, causing Athena to fall. Too bad the branch was a bit too sturdy because Athena jumped as soon as she could, attempting to pierce the Little Nepenthes with her rapier. As she fell, the rapier pierced the Little Nepenthes’ bulbous body, causing ‘7’ damage. Athena pulled her rapier out as quick as possible and heard a large crack above her. Apparently, the vine was wrapped around the branch so many times that the Little Nepenthes had tried to let its vine loose, but ended up pulling the branch down. The branch came down on the Little Nepenthes with a large crash. A large red ‘12’ letting Athena know that the branch had inflicted the Little Nepenthes that much damage. Athena hurried and squared herself towards her enemy, put her rapier in the middle of her ‘magic circle’ tattoo and slashed the rapier in an ‘X’ motion. Athena didn’t care if this attack was effective or not because the Little Nepenthes was crushed, so it had no way of attacking Athena. It was kind of pitiful, but Athena honestly didn’t care. She took a quick slash at the helpless monster and destroyed it. Alright. Three Little Nepenthes. One being a special variation. I’d say this was a good day today. Athena thought back to the last time she had finished her hunting in the Black Forest. She checked around for any glowing pair of eyes, but she never found one. She breathed a sigh of relief. This time around, she wouldn’t have to deal with a Dire Wolf, which brought her a significant amount of comfort. She wrote in her journal that she had defeated three Little Nepenthes, one of which was Ruti, the special variation she drew inside of the journal as well. Athena started heading back to town and avoided any enemies she saw. She didn’t want to have to battle anymore today. Her last battle was pure luck that the enemy was stupid enough to invoke its end by its own vine. She wanted to end her battling with that good battle in her mind. It was much different than the first day, and it helped her convince herself that battling did come with its risks, but it was mostly rewards. Athena happily walked as she examined everything she had written in her journal that day. She had mapped out the area where she met Ruti, she had drawn Ruti, and she had even written how many enemies she had battled that day. It was a good portion of knowledge that she gleaned, but she wished that she could’ve battled more. But now it was too late to do that. She couldn’t go back now that she was in town. She might as well allow herself to get some rest. Athena thought she did some good work today even though she didn’t kill many monsters. She smiled at her own hard work. This game really isn’t bad. I’m having fun, even though I might get stressed sometimes. I’m getting some good rewards for my hard work too. |
MADE BY ★MEULK OF GS