[ GATE IN ]

The sound of the gate chimed briefly over the lovely music of the area as Hachi stepped away from it. ”Woah-!” He exclaimed, sleepy eyes widening just a bit to take in the beautiful scenery. Today, he’d seen an interesting bundle of areas from the keywords he’d been randomly choosing, but this was something special! Looking down at the water below, he crouched and smacked at the surface with his hand. ”Ha! So no walking on water abilities, there just happens to be a surface here. Good to know for the future…” His sentence trailed off, tail moving back and forth excitedly as he hopped up to a standing position once more to see what there was to see.

”Oh! Hey!” Noticing the other player on the field, the blademaster rose a hand in greeting. ”Fancy running into someone else here! I was messing around with different keyword combos- Just checkin’ things out since I’m still preeetty new to the game, and everywhere else was empty. It’s a nice surprise! How ya goin’ pal?” His booming voice was coated in genuine joy for bumping into a stranger, wide smile brightening his tired expression. ”I really dig your look, by the way!” He couldn’t help but compliment the stranger. Ever since being gifted this character and having checked out the classes, Botan wanted to change. Flick Reaper was one of the top choices, but he was still unsure. Blademaster would just have to do for the time being, at least until he was more comfortable with the game.

Looking around, there didn’t seem to be anyone else. Was he wanting to be alone? Hachi had to physically hold his breath to avoid talking too much and pestering the poor man about partying up. He was still getting used to how visiting areas and dungeons worked, he still wasn’t even fully sure how combat worked. He understood the gist of it, but not enough for it to really have any impact. Practice was what made perfect for him, not listening and reading manuals. For now, he tried to let the conversation flow naturally, but if the excited glint in his eyes and wagging tail didn’t give him away, it was only a matter of time before his giant mouth would.

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HP: 100% SP: 100%

Hachi blinked in surprise when Chronos mentioned his compliment possibly being offensive and quickly shook his head. "No way, man! I appreciate that a lot, really! Thank you," he replied with genuine gratitude. Shortly after, the flick reaper went on to ask if Hachi wanted to join him--! That was! Exactly what he wanted!

He pressed his feet into the watery surface as if to ground himself extra from all of the excitement. Not only was he getting to explore a new place with someone today, he was also getting to do a quest!? "I would love to! Please- Uh, hold on, let's see.." It took just a little bit longer than usual before Hachi's member address was sent Chronos' way, his expression turning blank only briefly before lighting up instantly again. He would quickly accept the party invite should Chronos send one and take a moment to read over the quest.

"Oooh okay! Nightmare Elixir! I kinda remember reading over this one-" He examined the bottle that was used as a vacuum of sorts to capture screams once monsters were slain. "Nice, this is my first time doing this quest! I'm looking forward to it." Preemptively drawing his sword, Hachi tried to pay attention to any monsters that might appear. "So, we just gotta kill them and make sure to capture their screams. That seems simple enough! I'll do my best," he promised.

He was still getting used to everything in the game, but the combat system seemed pretty simple. "I wonder what the monsters are going to look like.. I'm stoked to see!" The element was Water, which made sense considering the general look of the field. "Have you been playing this game long, by the way?" He tilted his head towards Chronos after having accepted the quest and everything else finally, eager to begin.

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HP: 100% SP: 100%

"Oh, so you were big into a previous version of the game!" Hachi commented with interest. "Is there much difference between the two? I hope you can still have fun in this version, at least. Admittedly, I don't know much. This is the only version I've played! Oh! Actually, this is my first MMO all together!" He said it with a laugh at his own expense as he happily followed along behind Chronos. Each time the man in front of him did fancy motions with that scythe, Hachi's eyes followed the weapon as if it were a shiny object and he, a curious bird.

He'd been so interested in the scythe, in fact, that he nearly missed Chronos' pause. Catching it at the last minute, Hachi did a small spin to halt himself. Of course, he acted like it was intentional by grabbing a firmer hold of his sword and turning to face the same direction his party leader was facing! "Woah--! Hey!" When he'd went to move with the flick reaper, Hachi jumped back in surprise as the Water Bubble monsters emerged! His surprise had a quick turnaround time and was instantly recycled into glee.

Okay, so this was his chance..! Didn't he have.. Ugh. It wasn't all about spamming basic physical attacks with the weapon, there was more to it! So wait, if anything he should activate his Parry skill before anything.. Right? After a few moments of his contemplation, the man flinched as one of the bubbles hopped forward in an aggressive motion towards him, negating some of his health. "He-Hey! Rude! Okay! I got it!"

Activating his Parry skill, Hachi moved into.. Well. The best defensive stance he could, breathing in deeply through his nose and holding that power within his chest- Bohan was very much taking this seriously! The monster lunged forward again, only to be parried backwards. "Hah! A trap-!" The blade master quickly followed the successful parry up with a Sword Flash attack, causing an instant critical hit as he swung his sword harshly into the bubble. His passive Sharpen Sword skill also assisted in doing a little extra damage, thank goodness for that! So that was how it was supposed to work. Okay.. Okay. Good to know.

After delivering a few more blows to his current beast, Hachi scrambled to use the bottle from earlier. Holding out the item, his eyes widened as the scream flew instinctively into the bottle. "I'm getting the hang of it man! This isn't so hard after all..!" He looked towards Chronos as he called out to him, curious to see him in action also.

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HP: 90% SP: 80%

"Huh!?" Hachi could only watch in awe as Chronos take out not just one, but two of these little slime suckers. Leaning on his blade, he moved a hand to raise his own jaw that was hanging open once the other two slimes were defeated. "Okay, cool guy! Takin' out two at once, I see you!" Hachi complimented his party mate with genuine admiration before standing up straight again, sword in hand. This was going pretty well! Only seven left, not too shabby at all.

"Oh yeah, it's been a blast so far.. It's taken some getting used to, but I'm really enjoying myself playing this game! I can see why my buddy liked it so much." He spoke, responding to the earlier topic while walking around on the water's surface and looking down into it as he did so. As if something new would pop up out again just as the slimes had. He wasn't gonna be surprised if he could help it! "It seems like a lot of people like to do their own thing though, I'm glad I found a chill guy like you who didn't mind me tagging along. I know it can be a pain partying up with a stranger. Or, well, I don't know that, I'm just assuming for some people it must be."

Botan in general never felt put out in any sense of the phrase when it came to meeting strangers or going to any kind of social event. Game night? He was there. Spontaneous hike? You bet. In the game, of course he was down to do anything, but he could understand why that made him seem unapproachable at first in Mac Anu. "You're super good with your skills by the way! I guess experience from the last version you played probably helped? Or, maybe, you're just a natural!" The racoon grinned up at Chronos briefly before peeking down into the surface once more, taking cautious steps.

"Now now, where oh where are the rest of you stinkers at..?"

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HP: 90% SP: 80%

Well, Hachi supposed it was a good thing that doing things alone in this game was easier than in other games. Even if he couldn't relate, he could understand people who had a hard time being around others. Either out of fear, nervousness, or just plain ol not liking company. The person who gave him this character originally got the game to work on talking with and getting along with others and it had made a big difference, now that Botan thought about it. When Chronos mentioned not minding having people join him as long as they actually contributed, the look on the racoon's face somehow became more determined! He would absolutely pull his own weight! "I can't imagine joining someone's party to just be lazy, unless someone is extremely over leveled and just wanting to hang out with their buddy. Then.. Maybe? Still."

Staring up from the 'ground' and back towards Chronos, Hachi nodded. So he'd previously played the Flick Reaper class, after all! Well, it was a good thing it was still around in this version to return back to. "You'll get there in no time! Especially being as experienced as you are. I guess it takes a lot of time and hard work to level up in this game, huh? Well, it should be no issue for you. I'm rootin' for ya." For the moment, he gave up on trying to guess where the enemies would emerge from, opting instead to look towards his party mate as they spoke.

"I know I'm still getting used to this blademaster thing, but I gotta be honest- I'm not really feelin' it. I'll give it bit longer before I do any changes th-" He followed Chronos' sight line as it left his gaze to the fast approaching ripples in the water, readying his sword once more. "Yep, looks like! We better attend to em then, huh?" That being said, Hachi immediately prepared a Razor's Edge attack while charging forward, inspired by Chronos' last contribution to the battle. It was halted briefly as he managed to lazily duck and avoid the two seahorses' water attacks, but not his target's. Nonetheless, his sword cut into the Bogglefish, hopefully drawing its attention towards him as he clumsily spun around to face it again, preparing a Parry for its more than likely inevitable retaliation.

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HP: 75% SP: 70%

When Chronos repeated the question back to him, for some reason, it made Botan think of it more. While the Flick Reaper moved to target one of the sea horses, Hachi's own target lunged forward with an attack only to lurch back once more as the blade's Parry caught it off guard. Much like before, and something he was slowly getting used to, the passive Sharpen Sword activated as soon as his parry was successful. This allowed him to follow it up with a more damaging Sword Flash attack and he wasted no time slicing that fish up like a piece of sushi and taking care to collect its scream while he was at it!

The boosted critical attack was enough to finish off the bogglefish, thanks to Chronos' assistance, but now there was the matter of one singular seahorse left. Speaking of which, Hachi found his feet slowly being dragged backwards across the water's surface before he fell right on his ass. When he'd been focusing on the boggflefish, the second seahorse had loaded up another ranged water attack right at him! Rubbing the back of his neck with only a little bit of sheepishness, the small paper cut in Hachi's ginormous pride healed instantly with a laugh. "-Got me good that time!!" Quickly, he bounced back up to avoid another attack.

"I'm thinkin' Tribal Grappler, honestly." His half-lidded gaze briefly looked towards Chronos. Curling his fingers around his sword so that he could form a sort-of-fist in one hand and a full fist with the other, he gave the air a few quick jabs before returning to his regular battle stance. "I dunno! I just think it suits me more. Seems like a lot of fun, too. Easier to learn- Uhm. Not like this class is thaaat hard to learn or anything. It's just not really me."

Before the seahorse could strike again, he tried to match his timing with whatever Chronos was doing next. If everything worked out, he would hit the beast only a moment before his companion with a quickly executed Ogre Sword, the damage itself was nothing impressive. However, his intent in lowering the defense of the beast with that attack so Chronos' would be more effective was.. Well.. Effective!

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HP: 55% SP: 50%