Soul Bound Online

[Renose]

[fieldbox= Ryu, yellow, solid]
Movement
55 - 16 Movement = 39

He could feel the fog almost nipping at her heels, but she was barely able to dash through, managing to barely catch the timing and everything else. Somehow or another he managed to just make it through, two very nice sights awaiting her. A small spring in the center of the area, and a sack waiting next to that. It seemed like this was a rest area of some kind, hopefully, which would be good since the entrance to the next path looked a bit more chilling, ominous, and a bit bigger than the other ones before. Possibly some kind of boss fight entrance.

A good thing did come of getting through that room, the following notification appearing.

[fieldbox= Reward, white, dashed]
You managed to make it through the area untouched by the fog. +2 EXP. [/fieldbox] [/fieldbox]

​

 

[Zombehs]

Observe
43 - 20 Observe = 23​

There was nothing he could really see in the distance beyond the trees. There were no viable targets as well except for the wall of trees. Well... it made better targets than none. So with that, although he would need to stand up, it was time to experiment for a short bit.

Accuracy Experiment
25 - 11 Accuracy +5 Wounded = 19​

Keter would get a pretty good idea as to what the ranges were. Close Range seemed to be anywhere within a distance of a few steps, but outside of the reach of his arms. Essentially any distance outside of his immediate reach. So any distance within five or so yards was most likely Close. Distances outside of that was most likely Medium, which unless he stood on one end of the clearing and fired to the other, he wouldn't be hitting outside of Medium distances here.

He was able to use Bolt about six times before the spring would mostly be dried up, just about a couple handfuls of the healing waters left. After resting for a little while, and constantly drinking from the spring, his Wound also did heal, which would indeed make the upcoming Boss Fight a bit easier.

Bolt also leveled up two times during the experimentation, the skill now being Level 3 and able to do a little more damage now than before. This would also make the boss fight a bit easier now than before. As such, with very little spring water left, he could either progress, or see if he could do a bit more grinding done and take the gamble of whether or not he was going to be able to go back to the spring.

~~~~~~~~~~
​

Well that definitely wasn't a bad way to spend his time. As he swiped across the notifications to dismiss them, Keter gave the small puddle of spring water a final glance before he confirmed his original idea with a nod. It was likely that the boss area would seal him in, but the reserve could save him if he got hit with some DoT effect or something. Probably a stretch, but he turned away from the spring and headed forwards. The fog swirled around his body as he pressed through it, chilling him to the bone, but he suppressed the shivers with a deep breath and Observed the area that was revealed.

~~~~~~~~~~
​

The area before him was a large, blank clearing. No cover, no trees, just fog upon the ground and an area that was about 50% bigger than the previous area he was in. Suddenly Fog began to move from the ground, the chill of the area starting to rush past him from behind as it moved to the large light, starting to move and fill the light bit by bit, a silhouette beginning to appear, albeit a rather familiar one. The snapping of bone and sewing of flesh could be heard as a physical form appeared, one that looked incredibly familiar. In fact... it WAS him, with a few key differences.

His hair was black, his eyes red, and he was wielding what appeared to be a sword in one hand and a red stone in the other. The reflection of him smirked and suddenly placed his red stone against the surface of the blade and focused for a moment, before the stone glowed and the blade alit with flames. It looked like a bronze longsword of some kind, the doppelganger aiming the flaming sword at him now, starting to advance as he did so in a slow manner. It seemed like this fight was going to be rather tough.

~~~~~~~~~~
​

It was a rather sharp change in scenery, but he couldn't even see what challenge laid in the area, so it was hard to say if the larger space was a boon. A familiar sequence began to unfold ahead of Keter as fog rushed past him and swirled around the light that appeared at the center. Even the sound sequence wasn't too different, even if the enemy formed was completely different. Well, that was an exaggeration since it was still completely humanoid. Still, he was rather impressed that the design team managed to make a tutorial that seemed to cater to each individual player. Props aside, it seemed like he had a doppelganger to deal with at the moment.

There were several details that didn't escape Keter, mainly because they were obvious. Such as the enemy had Red Ether Affinity, that it wielded a blade or that it looked quite like him, and with those in mind he turned his Observe Art onto his foe and hoped it would shed some otherwise hidden details. Beyond that he backpedaled away from his doppelganger, having already nearly died in close range once, and muttered, "Bolt." As before, a projectile formed a foot or so in front of him at chest level before it launched forward at his target.

~~~~~~~~~~

Observe
30 - 20 Observe = 10​

As Keter utilized his observation ability to try and find out something about this target, the following window would appear.
[fieldbox= Observe, orange, dashed]Wielding a longsword and a Red Ether Stone, this opponent shall be a very hard contender. The target seems to be as slow as you, judging by its pace. Judging from the enemy's demeanor, it seems to be very confident, as if it can take much more than you can dish out, meaning its Resilience, Resistance, and/or Endurance are a bit higher than your own. [/fieldbox]
Of course, given the slow pace the enemy was walking from a longer distance away, soon coming into 'middle' range it was in good range for a well placed Bolt.

Bolt
0 (Critical, SERIOUSLY)​

The bolt fired forward, smashing into the enemy's head in a very devastating manner. A bold, red Critical 29 appeared over the enemy's head, indicating that some very heavy damage had been dealt. This was a good sign, as the enemy was wobbling slightly now. He only had two more shots of that though, unless the blue potion healed Soul hopefully.

Regardless, the enemy responded in kind by calling out its own Skill.

"Flare!" It called out in Keter's own voice, a bolt of fire shooting from the hand that was wielding the stone and right towards Keter.

Unfortunately Keter was just as bad at dodging and he took the bolt straight to the torso, it dealing 7 points of Endurance Damage and inflicting a Wound. It was a good thing he had invested in that extra Resistance, or that would have turned out rather differently, although investing in some Endurance would have been a good idea.

~~~~~~~~~~
​

"Great…" This was some tutorial all right, throwing him up against an enemy that was apparently superior in almost every way. From what he recalled of Ether Stones they had a number of charges on them that were expended with each cast and recharging them in combat would leave the enemy completely vulnerable. Ideally the monster was only capable of enhancing its strikes, but Keter sincerely doubted that was the case. Regardless, it seemed his first strike had dealt a good chunk of damage, but any elation he felt was quickly swept away as a projectile of flame shot forth from the enemy's hand.

As expected of his single Quick score, it did absolutely nothing to help him avoid the attack as it slammed into him, flame washing over his body. Stumbling back as he growled in pain, the new black tick that appeared on his Endurance bar wasn't missed. "You serious? I just got rid of one," he complained, and the act helped him cope with the fresh waves of pain that radiated from the area.

He did have an idea in mind, but he needed to know how much Soul the damn monster had to figure out if it was even viable. Again, he felt his Observe kick in against the monster as he continued to back away from the monster, strafing to the side when he approached the boundaries of the area. Rather than attack, Keter watched his doppelganger intently and waited for it to try and use its Flare again. He didn't know if it would work, but it might just be possible to intercept Skill with Skill.

~~~~~~~~~~

Observe
45 - 20 Observe = 25​

As he backed away, the opponent chose to somewhat close the distance. No notifications appeared yet, but he could feel that the art was indeed on. Suddenly, as the enemy raised its Ether Stone, a flash appeared in the corner of Keter's vision, as if prompting him to use his own ability at this precise moment.

Collision
46 + 25 Penalty - 20 Observe Bonus - 11 Accuracy = 40​

The two projectiles collided, exploding in mid air in a flash of smoke, heat, and magical energy. It took a moment for the smoke to clear, but once it did the enemy was rushing towards Keter. Fortunately, given how slow the enemy was, Keter would be more than prepared for a melee attack. It was that preparation that he needed, as it was what allowed him to dodge and even stay right next to the enemy, who looked to be pretty wounded and weakened judging from its panting, if he wanted to deliver some smackdown.

~~~~~~~~~~
​

A bit surprised, but ultimately much more relieved that his idea had actually worked, Keter nonetheless did not let those feelings interfere with his follow-up. Without any idea of how much Soul the doppelganger had and the limitation of one more Magic Word: Bolt looming overhead, there wasn't really much question of what he had to do. His fists clenched tight, he grit his teeth, planted a foot down behind him to push even closer, and struck out twice against the enemy. Ideally he would inflict another Wound, hell maybe even two, but now it was all up to the hidden algorithms behind all this.

~~~~~~~~~~

Punch 1
64 - 25 Distance - 12 Accuracy = 27​

Since the enemy was now right next to him in brawling range, he was able to deliver a proper punch and, even though he could parry with his sword, that didn't stop Keter's fist from getting past the man's fiery guard and deliver a powerful punch right to this other Keter's jaw, the enemy staggering a bit now as he looked quite a bit weakened, a crack definitely being heard with that punch.

Punch 2
43 - 5 Distance Bonus - 12 Accuracy = 26​

Again, another powerful crack could be heard as the second punch was delivered right to the enemy's head, making it barrel right down to the ground in a loud cry of agony present in Keter's own voice, its sword and stone falling to the ground beside it. Suddenly he began to groan and flail in agony as its body began to break apart, fog leaking from its mouth, ears, and wounds, before suddenly the body vanished, the light that formed it seeming to vanish.

With that, the fight was finally over. A notification appeared stating the following.
[fieldbox= Reward, white, solid]You defeated your first dungeon boss, a powerful Anti-Shadow. +4 EXP. [/fieldbox]
Behind it left a key that had a II on it and was white, as well as a piece of strange white and black stone. It seemed to pulse with some strange force and energy, despite its small size, it seemed quite valuable, even more valuable than anything he possessed. Furthermore, the fog in the area now seemed to lift somewhat, lifting the deathly chill a good bit that had been over the area, but a small layer of fog was still there.

Regardless, he now completed the first dungeon, and had 8 EXP to boot. This was quite the productive, profitable boss run.

~~~~~~~~~~
​

Keter didn't really enjoy it when he felt something give from the blow he drove into the doppelganger's face, but that didn't stop his second blow. The voi- his voice as it screamed in pain on the floor was slightly unsettling if anyone were to ask, and he was definitely glad when the monster began to fade and disappear. He sighed softly and glanced at the notification before he swiped to dismiss it and approached the loot that had been dropped.

Unfortunately, if only because he had to toss something, there were two pieces of loot that had been left behind. Naturally Keter simply tossed the broken Bronze Sword from his Inventory as he knelt to pick up the "II" marked Key and the Yin-Yang Stone. Not that he knew the item's actual name, but hey it was white and black. Another unfortunate revelation was that the previous area remained blocked off despite the boss' defeat, meaning he was unable to backtrack and heal what damage he had received.

Disregarding that though, he looked at both items in his hand and his Observe Art kicked in once again before he pocketed both pieces of loot. With all that done, Keter looked up and scanned his surroundings for some way out of this place. The fog and cold might have eased up quite a bit, but it was still pretty cool and far from comfortable.

~~~~~~~~~~
​

The way out was obvious, but what the items were was not. Nothing would come up at all, as if it was beyond his ability to identify either Item. As for the way out, to the north a hole would be opened in the trees, the fog clearing away from this exit, which seemed to have the first real, natural light he hadn't seen in a while, not having seen natural light since the area after the Character Creation room.

It seemed that perhaps the dungeon was really over, the crappy sword being left behind since his sack was full of items.

~~~~~~~~~~
​

"Tch." Seemed like his Observe really didn't like working with items. Maybe it needed a more specific Sense like Appraisal or Identify? Whatever the case was, it seemed that there was nothing left for Keter in this area. The pain and ache in his chest had dulled considerably, but he really did want to get it dealt with, so he stepped towards the northern exit. The light slowly intensified as he approached closer and closer, and by the time he stepped through his eyes were forced shut by the brightness.

~~~~~~~~~~
​

When he arrived in the next area, he would be in a clear forest area, much like the first clearing he saw before. Only this time there was a spring that shone a bit more brightly than the previous one and two chests in the room. One had no lock on it, the other had a lock on it and a sign next to it, the lock having a small I upon it. The sign read:
[fieldbox= Sign, white, dashed]For clearing certain endeavors, Reward Keys will be presented. The numeral on the Key damages the Lock, so when its 'health' gets to 0, the lock shall open. More keys let you open more locks. [/fieldbox]
So apparently the small numerals on the key were not letters, but numbers, and the more he had the more complex special locks he could open? It seemed like some kind of rather interesting rewards system that these chests employed. Still, one was already unlocked, which was most likely his normal reward, then he could use the Brass Key I if he wanted to.

~~~~~~~~~~
​

When the bright spots faded from his vision Keter took in the area he found himself in for a moment, and decided to approach the sparkling spring first. Naturally Observe kicked in just early enough for him to read the notification that appeared before he dipped his hands into the water and took a quick sip. The sensation was much like with the previous spring, if several times more intense.

~~~~~~~~~~
​

Indeed, a window did appear telling him that this water restored Endurance and Soul just as the previous spring did, but that this water was a bit stronger judging by the first taste. Of course, he would need to drink more than that, but soon enough his Endurance and Soul would refill while any Wounds he had would dissipate after taking a good, solid drink here, leaving about three fourths of the spring left.

Now the only other things to attend to in the room were the two chests.

~~~~~~~~~~
​

It was a shame to just leave the spring full as it was, but for the moment Keter decided to check out the chests before he tried to abuse the healing spring. Hopefully the prize room didn't punt him out after he took his rewards or something. He felt rather refreshed after several drinks and quickly made his way over towards the unlocked chest and opened it, sparing a glance for the sign that was planted in the ground nearby. Before he took what was inside though, he went over to the locked "I" chest, produced the Brass Key "I", unlocked it, and stepped back to Observe what was inside both chests.

~~~~~~~~~~
​

In the normal chest there seemed to be no use for the Observe Art here. Well... maybe one, as a window did appear before him as he observed a rather neat item.
[fieldbox= Observe, white, dashed]A Knapsack. A small, somewhat sturdy backpack that is meant to hold a good bit and fit nicely upon the body. Great for any traveler. Holds up to 10 Items and a smaller container can be tied to it for extra space. [/fieldbox]
The other items looked rather familiar. Another vial of blue liquid, another vial of red liquid, and an Essence Crystal for 10,000 Essence. It seemed like just rather basic adventuring supplies rested in this one, which was very nice since now his inventory could be expanded a bit and he had more money and potions to use.

In the other chest, Observe played a bit more of a role here, the Sense even leveling in the process.
[fieldbox= Observation, orange, dashed]Observation is now Level 2.
+1 Observation Score. [/fieldbox]
[fieldbox= Observe, white, dashed]Leather Armor. A rather light suit of leather armor. It should provide some adequate protection.
Medium Light Armor, Requires 5 Might, has Armor Penalty 3, Armor Rating 6. [/fieldbox]
[fieldbox= Observe, white, dashed]Bronze Caestus. A pair of Caestus meant to go on the hands to protect them and allow for heavier hits. +2 Damage Mod, -5 to Unarmed Parrying Penalty. [/fieldbox]
This all seemed to be some rather good loot, the final thing that was inside of this box being another Essence Crystal worth another 10,000 Essence, meaning he would have a good bit of money to spend once he got to the starting town. 30,000 Essence in total. With that he could either exit, or take a moment to just rest and mentally prepare, possibly even spend some EXP if he wanted.

~~~~~~~~~~
​

"Sweet," Keter muttered as he quickly reached into the first treasure chest to grab the Knapsack. Like the description pointed out, he also tied the Sack to one of the straps so he could continue to use both. Thankfully, otherwise he might have actually flipped out, the vials seemed to stack with like as he plopped the red and blue atop the ones he already had. The additional Essence was rather nice as well, and he then turned his attention to the other chest.

Lo and behold, his Art actually managed to identify the items within this time to his delight. Another Essence Crystal was quickly pocketed before he swapped out the Rune Etched Hand Wraps for the Bronze Caestus. That choice didn't really need to be thought about as his Magic, currently at the least, had proven far too weak. Hopefully it was more of a late game thing. As for the Leather Armor, well that took a bit more thought.

Eventually he did put it on, and disappointingly the Armor Penalty did actually drop his Quick to 0. He could barely shuffle his feet around and combat was an impossibility like this, so he unequipped the item after a bit of struggling to reach the menu. "Well shit…" He originally hadn't planned to invest all that much in Quick, even with the amazing effect, probably the best in his opinion, of granting extra actions. There was probably a Haste spell down the line or something had been Keter's line of thought, but magic like that seemed rather far off.

For the moment Keter figured he might as well abuse what remained of the spring and try out the Magic Art he hadn't gotten the opportunity to through the tutorial. He really either needed to advance it to something that didn't take a full action, or just get 20 Quick… WIth a sigh, he clashed his caestus clad fists together and felt Soul drain from him as a faint translucent aura seemed to shroud them. He smashed his fist into the ground with a sharp exhale, watching as the aura burst outward to add the extra oomph. Thankfully it didn't have a cooldown, so he could use it in between Magic Word: Bolt. With one Skill and Art to use up his Soul, Keter set forth on the first few steps on the journey to grind.

~~~~~~~~~~
​

Of course, since this was Word Magic, he would have to focus and conjure the magical word first, saying it upon completing the mental steps, Word Magic being you had to say the word in order to use it, even if it was an Art.

Magic Word: Strike
31 - 11 Magic = 20​

The Word was conjured rather well, and with only two uses he could do before he had to take a drink, things were about to get a little more grind based in here since Keter decided to have the wise idea of exploiting the restorative powers of the spring.

During his grinding, by the time the spring was all dried up, Word Magic hit Level 2, Magic Power was almost there, plus his Magic Word: Strike, Art had hit level 5. Furthermore, thanks to the thought of exploiting the springs, the following notification appeared before him.
[fieldbox= Reward, white, solid]You have made some smart decisions to help you on your way. +1 EXP. [/fieldbox]
With that, there was now nothing he could do in this room at the moment aside from spending EXP. So now it was either time to leave or time to check out if there was anything worthy of spending his 9 EXP on.

~~~~~~~~~~
​

It was dull, repetitive, but thankfully the grind wasn't at the point where it took a lot of time yet. Keter drained the spring dry in just under two minutes, with plenty of pings to let him know his actions weren't for naught along the way. As he stood from the strike that had used up the final Magic Word: Strike, he dismissed the notification, and then brushed off some of the dirt that had actually gotten knocked up with all the punching.

Calling up his character menu was simple enough and he stared at the stats for a moment before he allocated the earned exp with a sigh. Four points brought his Cunning up to a flat 20, and he debated on the increase to Quick before ultimately leaving it at 1 for the moment. With nothing else to do in the area, he finally moved towards the exit.

 

[Calypso Major]

[fieldbox=Ryūketsuki, yellow, dashed]

Reward: You managed to make it through the area untouched by the fog. +2 EXP.
......................................................................................................................................................

"Cool, so now I have 4 points I could spend?"
After closing the notifications that appeared in front of her, Ryūketsuki looked around this new area. Approaching the sack, she picked it up, moving it around in her hands to see if there was anything in it, or if it was just a larger empty sack that she could hopefully equip.

After a few minutes of dealing with that , she then went over to the spring, cupping her hands in the water and bringing the liquid to her mouth.
After seeing the results of what the liquid did, she thought about what to do next. This appeared to be some sort of pit-stop, and usually when games gave you something nice, it meant that there would be something tough in the next section. "Ooh, I wonder if it'll be a boss fight?" Getting pumped, the blonde just about rushed over to the exit, before stopping herself. Taking out her scythe, she looked at the bronze blade on a stick.

"I got lucky my first fight, but I don't know what type of damage a basic attack would be. Probably should train a little bit..."

So, with that in mind, she tried to grind her "Mighty Swing". While she was doing this, she slipped once, the momentum of it caused her to swing in a circle. "Ah, I wonder if I could do that again?" [/fieldbox]​

 

[Renose]

[fieldbox=Ryūketsuki, yellow, solid]
In the sack was a 5,000 Essence Crystal and two vials of strange red liquid. It was unclear as to what was in these vials, but they would still most likely be something useful to hold on to.

After that, she began to grind her Mighty Swing Art. With the apparent possible healing spring in the area, she would be able to recover her Endurance between grindings of the Art. She could get about 15 uses between each drink in the spring, so a total of 45 uses, letting her grind a good bit actually. At some point she tried to see if she could use the Art to perform a full circular attack.

Mighty Swing Experiment
16 - 11 Accuracy = 5

It took a bit, her Scythe Proficiency Sense growing to Level 3 and her Mighty Swing Art leveling up a good bit during her experimentation. Eventually she managed to figure it out though, learning how to suddenly focus and swing in a full circle utilizing the Mighty Swing. As she did this, yet another notification appeared revealing the following.

[fieldbox= New Art, red, dashed]

A New Art has been learned.

Full Circle (Rank 10, Level 1 (0%))
Requirements: 10 Might, 10 Quick
Cost: 6 Endurance
You utilize a large portion of your strength to swing your weapon in a full, fierce circle. This can be used to attack multiple enemies surrounding you or a single opponent with two strikes in a single attack. For attacking multiple enemies, you get -50 to your Accuracy to hit all of them.
For a single enemy, you perform the first strike and if it misses, the circular swing gets a -25 to its Accuracy on the circle around.
If the first strike hits, the second one will deal (5 + 50% Might)% more damage.
If it is Parried or Blocked by someone whose Might is greater than yours then the Attack is ended. If a single enemy dodges out of the range of the first strike, then the second will automatically fail.
[/fieldbox]

It seemed now she had a pretty handy new Art as well, the spring eventually being all dried up, so now she would have no choice but to move onward, but with the amount of grinding she did this fight should be a bit easier than before. [/fieldbox]


​

 

[Calypso Major]

[fieldbox=Ryūketsuki, yellow, dashed]

Mighty Swing has been updated: "Full Circle" now available.
Mighty Swing is now level 8.
Scythe Proficiency is now level 3.
...................................................................................................................................................

Looking inside the sack, Ryūketsuki saw the 5,000 essence and two red vials of...something. "Health Potion maybe? Eh, let's just get rid of a saber and hope that the two vials stack." Taking out one of the Poor Quality Sabers, the blonde then proceeded to put the red vials into her own sack, seeing as how this other one was completely and utterly useless , and also pocketing the essence while she was at it.

After a while of grinding, the spring was nearly dry, and closing her notifications, she went to get her last drink, she saw something....peculiar in the reflections of what little water was left. It was a funny incident, really, the reflection showed a man that had the same features as what she picked for her avatar, but of course that couldn't be right -

"WHAT THE FRICK-FRACK-PATTY-WHACK ?!?"

Looking at herself, or should she say himself , he saw that indeed he was a man. Now, if he remembered his character creation process correctly, he would remember that he did indeed pick - wait, no, did he pick female for gender selection?

No, no he did not.

Sighing, disappointment in himself swept throughout his body as he took that last drink out of the spring. Then, he looked at the exit, and instantly his mood brightened up at the thought of a boss battle. "Oooh, I wonder what I'm gonna fight? A big spider? A big imp? A big dragon? A big-" And as the list went on, Ryu walked to the exit, continuing on in this weird messed up dungeon.[/fieldbox]​

 

[Omnial]

As Soren stepped into the next area he would see a rather clear area. The fog in the area was chilling even more than usual, but before anything else could happen the area behind him was sealed off by the trees and then the fog began to act up now.

It suddenly began to move from the ground, the chill of the area starting to rush past him from behind as it moved to the large light, starting to move and fill the light bit by bit, a silhouette beginning to appear, albeit a rather familiar one. The snapping of bone and sewing of flesh could be heard as a physical form appeared, one that looked incredibly familiar. In fact... it WAS him, with a few key differences.

This Soren's eyes were a light purple and its hair was orange. Furthermore, in its hand it was holding a red stone that seemed to have some sort of strange, black glow surrounding it and in the other hand it was holding a small throwing knife. It was unclear as to what this was, but the enemy suddenly acted.
It raised the stone up into the air, suddenly a blackish, reddish smoke escaping from it that suddenly struck three of the lights above, which came back down, forming into the same undead he saw before. It seemed like this was going to be a tough challenge if he had to contend with getting knives thrown at him and undead. Perhaps there was a way for him to alleviate this, the creature's eyes filled with red light that burned lightly like fire, groans of pain coming from the creatures as they began to walk towards Soren.

~

"Well that's a thing." Soren looked at the copy of himself and three undead soldiers, this wasn't going to be a battle that he would easily make it out of without a scratch. Plan, I need a plan. Undead, healing works best, though I don't have the soul reserves to do that multiple times. If I could get the stone from his hand, maybe that would make a difference? Or if he is truly based on my character, than he shouldn't have much in the lines of armour or health. Should be pretty easy to fight one on one. "Relief" He tried to keep his distance as he healed the closest of the undead.
~
As Soren used the skill he would notice the red light in its eyes slowly beginning to fade, turning halfway orange. Unfortunately the enemy didn't like this and the other two began to advance now as, suddenly, the enemy would begin to rush forward a short distance, before throwing the knife right towards Soren from a more medium range.
It would stick right into his shoulder, a twinge of pain shooting up his entire arm as his Endurance bar not only decreased by 8 points, but a small part of it became black and a small one appeared right next to it, revealing that he had been Wounded as well.

Still, one of the beasts appeared half pacified, so perhaps some evasive manoeuvres to get away from the two advancing and another Relief would help to turn the battle a bit?

~

"Ouch. Pain hurts." Soren felt an echo of distress as the knife sunk into his shoulder, "Games can hurt." He nodded his head, accepting this new knowledge. "So, I don't supposed me asking kindly for you to just leave would work no?" He looked at the copy of himself, not expecting an answer, but sort of hoping for one. "Oh well." He shrugged and continued to try and keep his distance, as he turned to another undead minion, "Relief."

~

"What I hope is for you to die!" The other Soren shouted in Soren's own voice, but suddenly its eyes widened. When the real Soren used Relief once again, draining his Soul another 10 points, the enemy he used it on the eyes seemed to go white, and it turned around, suddenly lunging straight towards the other Soren, aiming to bring its sword down upon him.

Unfortunately the other Soren managed to dodge in time, but now fortunately the other Soren was too distracted with moving away as quickly and safely as possible to get another attack now.

Unfortunately for the real Soren, the other two seemed to perform jumping lunges at him, aiming to slice him up. Luckily both lunges were rather inaccurate, allowing Soren to barely dodge both, but now they were both right next to him, meaning that he could go for Soothing Touch instead, or really hope that he could try and get away and perform another relief. Either way, the enemies that Soren pacified seemed to be turning on the boss.

~

"So it does talk." Soren looked at his copy, Though it didn't quite seem to have the same mannerism as me, He caught a glimpse of the undead that he had pacified going after the copy, this he saw in between his narrow dodge of the other two undead. "Well that was close, and so are you, Soothing touch." He touched the face of one of the undead with his hand.

~

Soothing Touch
0 (Critical... ... ... ... )

While he didn't have to say the name of his Art, he could if he wanted to. Regardless, when he did use it a large surge of Green Ether engulfed his palm, and...

Touch
22

He was able to touch the creature's face, pacifying it rather instantly as a matter of fact, which meant that this one now advanced towards the man as well, who was about to utilize the red stone, but was a bit too late when suddenly the one near him slashed him for 15 Damage with a rather nasty swipe, the other one lunging at him, forcing him to dodge backwards to evade the attack which effectively saved him from yet another painful slash.
Still, with this Soren only had one more enemy to pacify, which proceeded to slash at him with a mighty swing of its sword as well. The swing only did a very grazing blow, but put his own Endurance at a dangerously low level and, unfortunately, inflicted yet another Wound, bringing his own Wound Counter to 2 and his actual Endurance amount to 1, meaning one more hit and he was a goner. Perhaps healing himself wasn't such a bad idea, although it couldn't be with Soothing Touch since that used up Endurance.

~

Two on you, and one on me. Well, technically all on me, two of me. Soren paid no attention to how narrow and close he was cutting it, standing with both low Endurance and fairly low Soul. He only noticed it by chance, "Oh, I nearly died? That won't do." He tried to step back, "Relief." This time, he cast it on himself trying get to a reasonable healthy state.

The beast would take a swing at Soren as he tried to step backwards in a quick manner. Luckily it missed, Soren being able to step back rather safely and then use his Relief Skill.

~

All it did was heal 3 Endurance though, not much, but he was back to 4. That didn't mean he could take another glancing blow, however. In the meantime, the other Soren tried to do the same thing the real Soren was doing, except the opposite. Unfortunately it just wasn't this other Soren's day as he found himself failing, getting slashed again for 15 Damage, but fortunately for him being able to evade the second one and step away in the process.
Perhaps now a tactical treat would be acceptable, since now the second one was slashing at him again, barely missing in the process with its rusty, sharp blade.

~

"When in doubt, drink the red drink. Items are how player characters are better than npcs after all." Without a hundred percent assurance of what it was exactly that he would be drinking, and going mostly on assumptions of red drink heals health, Soren took out the item he had picked up earlier and consumed it.

~

And the red drink did what he assumed it did, it also healing one Wound in the process. He also did find his Endurance back up at its max, granted his Max that had been reduced by a Wound, but his max nonetheless. For now, he was in no danger of dying at least, since to first drink the potion he had to do a bit of sprinting away from the enemy before he could drink it safely, the other Soren trying to stop this, but once again he was interrupted by the two creatures who slashed at him before he could get away, one getting him for another 15 and a heavy wound as he cried out in pain and the other missing completely as it stumbled and fell to the ground.

~

"Just as planned." He brushed his hands past his lips after drinking the potion. "Now, then, back to business. I should have no soul left to use, and five knives if that." He pulled out his knives, "Time to simply avoid your goon, and kill you with the help of my two undead friends." He struck a battle stance, then went in to attack his copy.
Well his knives had been retrievable, so if he bothered to retrieve them after every fight he would still have 10. Now he went to move in, aiming to assist in the taking out of his copy with the help of the undead, effortlessly staying out of the reach of the one that was still aggressive towards him.

~

Throwing
58 - 25 Distance Bonus - 9 Accuracy + 10 Ally Proximity Penalty
Throwing into melee was a bit difficult but could be managed as he got into a Close Range and threw his knife, trying to avoid hitting the undead. Thankfully, since one of them was on the ground at the moment, the knife was able to strike in, dealing a pretty strong blow as a red 6 appeared over the enemy's head, a wound also appearing as a brigher red mark as the knife stuck in him, a loud cry of pain once again coming from the other Soren in Soren's own voice.

The man decided to be smart for once, making a quick tactical retreat backwards, which left him wide open once again to both a powerful lunge, which horribly missed and allowed the other Soren to easily dodge and left the undead on the ground, the other one now just getting up, but still at the moment the other Soren was available to be attacked.

~

"Not so fast you imposter." Soren tried to sound cool, or say a cool line, but it didn't work out as planned with the way he spoke it. He got himself into position, as yet another one of his trusty undead allies had fallen over, and he took the chance to chuck another knife at the fake.

~

Throw
75

Unfortunately the knife missed, and in the meantime the one Undead ally he had left was standing up, the other one that had gotten struck was also standing up, but just standing there, while the third one kept still trying to advance towards Soren, but Soren being three times as fast helped him stay ahead still.
The man seemed to take this opportunity to try again to use his own power on the one after him, but right as he raised that stone the beast lunged right for him. A nasty slash and a loud cry of agony escaped from the man as in bold red text: 37 Critical appeared, this causing the man to fall back, his Ether Stone falling on the ground next to him.

Suddenly he began to groan and flail in agony as its body began to break apart, fog leaking from its mouth, ears, and wounds, before suddenly the body vanished, the light that formed it seeming to vanish.
With that, the fight was finally over. A notification appeared stating the following.

[fieldbox= Reward, white, solid]
You defeated your first dungeon boss, a powerful Anti-Shadow. +4 EXP. [/fieldbox]
Behind it left a key that had a II on it and was white, as well as a piece of strange white and black stone. It seemed to pulse with some strange force and energy, despite its small size, it seemed quite valuable, even more valuable than anything he possessed. Furthermore, the fog in the area now seemed to lift somewhat, lifting the deathly chill a good bit that had been over the area, but a small layer of fog was still there.
Regardless, he now completed the first dungeon, and had 8 EXP to boot. This was quite the productive, profitable boss run.

The path to the north was now opened as well as the three other enemies seemed to vanish into nothingness. To , the north a hole would be opened in the trees, the fog clearing away from this exit, which seemed to have the first real, natural light he hadn't seen in awhile, not having seen natural light since the area after the Character Creation room.

~

Seeing his copy slowly dissipate, Soren looked longingly at it. "I wonder where it will go? Simply back into the stream of data? Or will it be forever remembered someplace?" He walked over and picked up the stone it once held in its hand and placed it into his bag, along with picking up yet another key, this one with a slightly different marking on it. "Must have a use eventually." He decided after that to continue on the path, to the new clearing, the clearing with natural lighting.
~
When he arrived in the next area, she would be in a clear forest area, much like the first clearing she saw before. Only this time there was a spring that shone a bit more brightly than the previous one and two chests in the room. One had no lock on it, the other had a lock on it and a sign next to it, the lock having a small I upon it. The sign read:
[fieldbox= Sign, white, dashed]
For clearing certain endeavors, Reward Keys will be presented. The numeral on the Key damages the Lock, so when its 'health' gets to 0, the lock shall open. More keys let you open more locks. [/fieldbox]
So apparently the small numerals on the key were not letters, but numbers, and the more she had the more complex special locks she could open? It seemed like some kind of rather interesting rewards system that these chests employed. Still, one was already unlocked, which was most likely his normal reward, then he could use the Brass Key I if he wanted to on the other chest.

~

"Might as well take it all and just leave my lesser valued items behind." Soren opened the unlocked chest, and then stepped over and used his 'I' key to open the second chest, viewing the goods from both of them to see what he would take.

~

In the unlocked chest there was a vial of blue liquid, a vial of red liquid, a 10,000 Essence Crystal, and a knapsack, which seemed like it could hold 10 Items inste
ad of five if he decided to equip it onto himself.
In the second chest was a suit of leather armor and what appeared to be a Green Ether Stone, the stone glowing with the power of Green Ether which he would recognize, except it seemed to be a small bit... shinier... than the one he saw offered in the Character Creation menu. In this chest was also a 10,000 Essence Crystal.
There was, of course, a spring in the middle of the area that he could drink from to restore his Soul, Endurance, and Wounds. This was a good little place to rest and gather one's bearings and find out how he wanted to spend his 8 EXP or if he wanted to spend it at all.

~

"Well, there is no point in leaving any of it then, if I can take it all thanks to a new bag." Taking the knapsack first, and now having more than enough space, Soren helped himself to taking all of the items. Upon seeing the spring, he knew exactly what to do as well, which was drink from it, dipping his face again into the water to drink. "Well that was lovely." He spoke as he wiped away the remaining water from his face. "Well, I should probably try to equip this armour, and put up some stats as well." May as well just increase stats which increase other things. Get the most bang for my experience. He increased his Finesse to 10 and his attunement to 12. "All set and ready to go." He continued on his way.
Ready to enter the world.
[/fieldbox]​

 

[ERode]

Once Tsukikage was ready, three slots in her Inventory full thanks to the Sack, potions, and key; she would move forward and enter the next area. This area seemed a fair bit larger than the others, the fog here seeming even colder than before as suddenly the very trees moved behind her, sealing the way off. So there was no going back to the spring unfortunately.​

The area before her was filled with trees and the ground laden with the chilling fog of the forest. There seemed to be nothing for now, but suddenly a sphere of light that was about a small bit smaller than her head would pass right through her from behind, sending a chill rocking through her entire body, before it moved to the center of the area, breaking her stealth immediately.

Fog began to move from the ground, the chill of the area starting to rush past her from behind as it moved to the large light, starting to move and fill the light bit by bit, a silhouette beginning to appear, albeit a rather familiar one. The snapping of bone and sewing of flesh could be heard as a physical form appeared, one that looked incredibly familiar. In fact... it WAS her, with a few key differences. ​

One, her hair was black. Two, the eyes were green. Three... she was wielding a bow instead of a dagger. She laughed, in Tsukikage's voice, and aimed the bow right at her, firing a shot right off the bat right towards Tsukikage. ​

Fortunately the arrow missed, unfortunately it hit very close to her, getting stuck in a tree that was but inches from her face. If she had been standing a few inches to the left, Tsukikage would have a new hole in her head. Now the apparent reflection(?) was preparing another shot as she laughed. This was most likely going to be a battle that would be the full test of Tsukikage's abilities, since she would need to get a lot closer to this ranged enemy to even hurt her.

A flash of light, and then there it was, the final boss of the tutorial dungeon. A smirk popped up on her expression as a clone of her own character model popped up, with the exception of having the opposite color scheme and weapon style. What was this going to be, a long-ranged assassin with the Observation ability to counter her own Stealth?​

Instinctively, Tsukikage snapped her head to the right, just as an arrow embedded itself into the tree behind her. As she prepared another shot, the white-haired girl rushed behind cover, before letting out a long, deep breath.​

Keep low.​

Keep calm.​

Keep quiet.​

With those three rules in mind, she began to scamper from one tree to the next, trying to get in range for a Viper Strike. This was going to be the type of fight that's decided by whether or not she can maintain close combat with this archer, huh?
​

Hiding
35 - 21 Stealth = 14
SR = 21 + 10 Cover Modifier = 31​

Tsukikage would be moving quite slowly, the trees and the ambient darkness of the area seeming to aid her Stealth a good bit. This would indeed make it harder for the archer to see her as she prepared and held an arrow notched. The longer Tsukikage could go undetected, the closer she could get before the archer had a chance to fire another shot. Of course, with Hide she would only be utilizing 6 of her Quick for moving forward, since it slowed her movement speed by a good 73% according to the Level 3 Art's description. ​

She managed to make it 2/3rds of the way, now about a slight medium distance away before suddenly the Archer whipped around very quickly and fired an arrow right at Tsukikage, who was currently slowed due to the Hide Art. ​

Fortunately the arrow only grazed her side pretty full on, dealing just five Damage to her Endurance and luckily no Wounds. It would have dealt more, but thanks to a good Resilience a good bit of that damage was resisted. Still, that was only a somewhat glancing blow, barely full blow. She could either try and rush again, to see if she could get there before the archer fired off her next shot, or try and get behind cover to see if she could stealth again. ​

Tsukikage hissed as an arrow grazed her side, a line of white-hot pain surfacing. It didn't do much damage, ultimately, but it still hurt like a bitch. Rolling into cover, she considered her options. The distance was still too far for her liking, and she wanted to get into point-blank range before unloading all her attacks anyways. For now, the white haired girl stuck with the plan, ignored the pain in her ribs, and continued to stealth from tree to tree.​

The hunter can fire off all the arrows that she wanted, but the predator was going to go for the endgame.​

And that, that required patience.
​

Stealth
47 - 21 Stealth = 26
Art SR = 5 + 10 Cover Bonus = 15​

Patience she did indeed have. At first she wasn't spotted. She managed to get a bit closer though by moving amongst the trees once again. Tsukikage managed to get a good bit closer now, soon enough within a close distance hiding right behind a tree right near the enemy. She was now in perfect rushing distance of the huntress, or in perfect sneaking distance if she would prefer to try some semblance of a sneak attack.

Now, she was in range, huh?​

Tsukikage closed her eyes, envisioning her movements, considered her combo, and then dashed out of her hiding spot. The moment she got in range, she activated Viper Strike, closing the distance as she thrust her first dagger into the clone's spine. As it was performed, her other dagger swept in, cutting towards the back of the neck.​

Using the momentum of the swing to tear her main dagger out, Tsukikage twirled and followed up with another two lightning-fast strikes, this time slashing the tendon of her clone's right arm, before jamming a dagger into her thigh.
​

Stealth
89 - 21 Stealth = 68​

Unfortunately her plan didn't go AS planned. The clone did manage to turn around in time, but was in no way able to get her shot off in time before Tsukikage was upon her, flashing slightly glowing steel as she called out "Viper Strike" and attempted to stab the clone with the lightning fast strike. ​

Viper Strike
0 (Critical)​

Tsukikage's Viper Strike buried deep into the clone's torso, eliciting a scream from her in her own voice, in Tsukikage's voice. A bold red Critical 47 appeared right above her head as the blade sunk deep into the doppelganger. It seemed though that, despite this attack, she was still alive and thus a second attack would be coming from Tsukikage shortly. ​

Second Attack
9 - 13 Accuracy = -4​

Next a red 0 appeared over her head. Unfortunately the attack, while deep and full, was too weak thanks to the penalty from Ambidexterity. Still, it was at least some experience that would be gained, so not a totally futile attack​

First Slash
35 - 25 Distance - 13 Accuracy = -3​

Unfortunately it seemed like she wasn't inflicting any damage with this slash either. Another 0 appeared. It seemed like this shadow was a bit tougher than one would originally have thought. While she was getting attacks off, none of them were doing any damage. ​

Second Slash
22 - 13 Accuracy = 9​

The same dance, the same story. A successful attack, no damage. Still, she had inflicted a very heavy blow on the creature that inflicted a very heavy wound. ​

Suddenly she turned into a glowing ball of light, moving back a good 'medium' distance before she returned to the ground and back to her physical form. She then fired another arrow once again right at Tsukikage. ​

The arrow barely missed, as it wobbled a bit from its heavy wounds, which was most likely the reason why the arrow wizzed right by Tsukikage's head. It seemed like this was going to be a game of cat and mouse, especially with how the now wounded huntress could teleport.

A crippling strike, followed by three more that failed to make any impact. As the huntress reverted to her ball form, Tsukikage grit her teeth and gave chase. Closing the distance as an arrow flew by her head, her red eyes burned with excitement and violence as her daggers flew out once more.​

A flash of bronze swept up towards the huntress's bow-holding arm once, twice, as Tsukikage's blades went snicker snack in the foggy arena, aiming to cripple her opponent's ability to aim.

As Tsukikage sprinted forward, the huntress would manage to get off three shots. The first shot whizzed by her as she was just rushing forward, the trees providing a bit of cover. Unfortunately they also made it take a bit longer to get to the huntress since it wasn't a completely straight rush. The second shot also missed, but a third arrow would stab right into Tsukikage's shoulder. ​

Immediately a sharp heavy pain would rock her entire arm as her Endurance bar dropped by 11 points as then a small part of it was turned black, a tiny 1 popping up next to it, indicating that she had been wounded. Still, it was after this third shot that Tsukikage managed to get from a middle distance to right on top of the huntress. ​

Tendon Cut 1
66 + 25 Distance - 13 Accuracy +5 Wound = 73​

The first one missed, and the huntress was able to gracefully dodge backwards, so Tsukikage would have to take a few steps to follow it up with a second Tendon Cut, her Endurance chipping away slightly with each one. ​

Tendon Cut 2
93​

The second attack also unfortunately missed, and the huntress was able to dodge backwards once again. She then aimed her bow right at Tsukikage, firing an arrow that aimed right towards her leg in a similar fashion to Tendon Cut. ​

Luckily it missed. ​

But that didn't stop her from quickly preparing and firing a second arrow as she called out a couple words. "Target Aim!"​

The arrow glowed a slight white tint as it fired, almost as if she was aiming for a specific spot on Tsukikage at the time as it went right for the area where the first arrow hit. Luckily Tsukikage was able to nimbly dodge just in time, leaving the huntress now open for attack as she prepared her next arrow.

A flash of pain shot all the way up into her head as an arrow pierced into her left shoulder, so prominent that Tsukikage dropped her dagger. Biting into her scarf to stop herself from screaming, her two Tendon Cuts went wildly off the mark and she could feel her Endurance running low. For a moment, she considered popping one of those red vials, but two more arrow shots from the Huntress forced her to dodge frantically. She was just as fast as Tsukikage, but also significantly tankier, huh?​

What a fun tutorial!​

Her blood boiled as she tore the arrow out of her shoulder, sending another wave of wretched pain up her brain. Going low, she burst outwards with a Viper Strike, her one good arm guiding it towards the huntress's flat chest. From there, in point blank range, she relinquished her grip on the dagger and, clenching her fist, struck the pommel of the dagger with another Viper Strike, pushing it in even deeper.
​

Viper Strike 1
23 - 2 Accuracy + 5 Wound = 26​

The strike hit, the blade striking and biting it deep, dealing 16 Damage and yet another Wound. With four wounds, this Tsukikage was starting to stagger a bit. The enemy wasn't down yet though, Tsukikage executing her next and last Viper Strike in hopes to end the other Tsukikage once and for all. ​

Viper Strike 2
62 - 25 Distance - 12 Accuracy + 5 Wound = 30​

Its wounds were definitely showing, as its combat ability was being heavily impacted as the dagger impacted heavily once again with this next Viper Strike, dealing 17 Damage instead of 16. It was clear that her own ability was rising judging by the increase in damage. Still, all it got was another wound, it somehow still being alive. ​

Now its body suddenly began to glow, the creature trying that same teleport technique that it did so easily before, but now that it was so heavily wounded, perhaps it needed a bit more effort now. It seemed to almost be about to do it, but perhaps if Tsukikage could strike the other Tsukikage before it could pull it off, perhaps it would be interrupted. ​

Chance Time
26 - 12 Accuracy + 5 Wound + 25 Chance Attack Penalty = 43​

Thanks to it being wounded, it was unable to dodge and initiate its teleport properly in time at the same time, causing Tsukikage's blade to sink in somewhat deep, but not as deep, instead a measly 6 Damage being dealt. Still, this meant that the creature was now opened for attack once again, and was unfortunately right within swinging distance to.

Two strikes, one opportunity attack, and then…​

Before the huntress could retreat once more, Tsukikage closed the distance a third time, staring into those blank, emerald eyes. Mustering up whatever strength remained in her body, straddling the boundary between life and death, she brought both hands onto a single dagger, and struck three times, jamming it into her adversary's face.​

"UOOOOOOOOH!"
​

Stab 1
92 - 25 Distance - 12 Accuracy = 65​

Unfortunately it missed, the huntress able to somewhat dodge it, but not get away, so next came the second stab. ​

Stab 2
28​

This one hit, and for a pretty decent chunk of damage to. And by chunk, it was a nice chunk of 14, which seemed to send the creature to the ground, bow dropping next to it in the process, crying out in agony in Tsukikage's own voice when the huntress fell. Suddenly she began to groan and flail in agony as its body began to break apart, fog leaking from its mouth, ears, and wounds, before suddenly the body vanished, the light that formed it seeming to vanish. ​

[fieldbox= Reward, white, solid]
You defeated your first dungeon boss, a powerful Anti-Shadow. +4 EXP. [/fieldbox]​

Behind it left a key that had a II on it and was white, as well as a piece of strange white and black stone. It seemed to pulse with some strange force and energy, despite its small size, it seemed quite valuable, even more valuable than anything he possessed. Furthermore, the fog in the area now seemed to lift somewhat, lifting the deathly chill a good bit that had been over the area, but a small layer of fog was still there. ​

Regardless, she now completed the first dungeon, and had 8 EXP to boot. This was quite the productive, profitable boss run.

Fucking shit that was fucking intense. Was this tutorial dungeon supposed to be meant for party play after all? Falling onto the ground and enjoying the sound of her own screams, Tsukikage just felt good that it wasn't herself that was screaming her death throes. Ah, that felt good. This is why she played virtual reality games. No where in real life could you have this sort of intense, desperate struggle after all.​

And killing something that literally had triple her END and the same Quick as her!​

That felt very, very good.​

Slowly getting up, and still feeling a bit dizzy from everything, Tsukikage picked up her dropped dagger, rubbed her still wounded shoulder, and then went through her loot. Another key, this time white, as well as a yin-yang stone, huh? There was the bow as well, which was pretty nice to have on hand. It'd be a pain in the ass to learn to use it, but hey, seeing how it was a boss drop, maybe it was worth something.​

Tossing out the rusty sword and the sack, Tsukikage put in her new acquisitions, stretched out her slowly healing body, and then marched forwards once again. Training's over. ​

Now it's time for the real game.​

The north seemed to have an open path now, the way being to the north, where a hole would be opened in the trees, the fog clearing away from this exit, which seemed to have the first real, natural light she hadn't seen in a while, not having seen natural light since the area after the Character Creation room. The light slowly intensified as she approached closer and closer, and by the time she stepped through her eyes were forced shut by the brightness.​

When she arrived in the next area, she would be in a clear forest area, much like the first clearing she saw before. Only this time there was a spring that shone a bit more brightly than the previous one and two chests in the room. One had no lock on it, the other had a lock on it and a sign next to it, the lock having a small I upon it. The sign read: ​

[fieldbox= Sign, white, dashed]
For clearing certain endeavors, Reward Keys will be presented. The numeral on the Key damages the Lock, so when its 'health' gets to 0, the lock shall open. More keys let you open more locks. [/fieldbox]​

So apparently the small numerals on the key were not letters, but numbers, and the more she had the more complex special locks she could open? It seemed like some kind of rather interesting rewards system that these chests employed. Still, one was already unlocked, which was most likely her normal reward, then she could use the Brass Key I if she wanted to on the other chest.

The sunlight was blinding, but, for once, it felt warm and comforting rather than just unbearably hot. In the light of day, she read the sign, and smiled. Looks like there will be more choices to be made, huh? Without any hesitation, Tsukikage brought out the Brass Key and slotted it into the locked chest, opening it up to see the goodies inside.​

Hopefully it was a Bag of Holding. She was feeling the squeeze of a five-slot inventory already, after all.​

In the unlocked chest there was a vial of blue liquid, a vial of red liquid, a 10,000 Essence Crystal, and a knapsack, which seemed like it could hold 10 Items instead of five if she decided to equip it onto herself. This would solve her ailing inventory problem. ​

In the locked chest there seemed to be some different rewards. Another 10,000 Essence Crystal, a suit of leather armor, and what appeared to be two rather... pretty nice looking iron daggers that had a bit of polish and sheen to their sharp blades. ​

Plus in the room was also another healing spring like before, only this one shone a bit more brightly than the one she saw before.

Oh, it seems like the game designers understood a player's obsession with hoarding after all.​

Happily dumping the contents of her Sack and putting them into the larger, more spacious Knapsack, Tsukikage looked around quickly to confirm that she was, indeed, alone, before stripping down to her rather provocative fishnet underwear. As she stood out there in the open, Tsukikage stretched out her arms in a long, relaxed sigh, enjoying the warmth of the sun and the damp breeze coming from the sparkling spring.​

She danced from one end to the other, her pain numbed and replaced by a sense of relaxation. A jump, a cartwheel, a somersault, a twirl, and then...a smile.​

It was nice, having such a light body, such an immortal body.​

After a while, though, she got over herself, and put on her new armor, to replace...pretty much nothing. The new daggers came next, quicksliver blades that flashed in the sun as she twirled them in her hands. Nice shit. The money and the pots, which she was now certain were END and SOUL pots, were a nice addition as well, and now, she actually had the room to fit them all! Placing her bronze daggers in the knapsack as well, Tsukikage took a quick sip of the spring, and brought out her new daggers once more.

TENDON CUT TENDON CUT TENDON CUT TENDON CUT TENDON CUT TENDON CUT TENDON CUT TENDON CUT TENDON CUT TENDON CUT TENDON CUT TENDON CUT TENDON CUT TENDON CUT TENDON CUT

SIP

VIPER STRIKE VIPER STRIKE VIPER STRIKE VIPER STRIKE VIPER STRIKE VIPER STRIKE

SIP​

Yeah, the new daggers were real nice.​

Still need to figure out how to deal with that 'hits target but deals no damage' problem though.​

Her new Armor seemed to reduce her Quick by 3 when she put it on, due to something called Armor Penalty. This meant that she was now a small bit slower than before to the point where she couldn't act as quickly as she could before. Still, the 6 points of Armor Rating the armor gave would provide some very nice protection against anything that could try and attack her. Plus, in the end, she could also increase her Quick if she wanted to so that she could wear the Armor properly. ​

As for her Art and Skill Training, she managed to get Tendon Cut up to Level 6 and Viper Strike up to Level 7 before the spring was finally dried up. With all of that said and done, now there was really nothing she could do in here except leave, her journey into the game's world now having officially begun. Of course, she could also see if there was anything she wanted to spend EXP on right away, or just wait until she got to any sort of town first and then spend it.

Oh, what a drastic reduction in her Quick. As a notification window popped up about her sudden loss in such an important stat, Tsukikage narrowed her eyes. Decisions indeed. The armor penalty was a little too big for her liking, and she had gone in with the expectation that she would be making a speedy, dodge-centric character as well.​

As a matter of fact, that reduction in Quick was going to reduce her Stealth rolls as well made things REALLY questionable. The whole idea of dual daggers was for lotsa hits and lotsa speed to begin with, so...hm…​

She stroked her soft face in contemplation, before deciding that she'll remove the leather armor after all. Maybe there was cloth armor or something in the NPC village that she could get, huh?​

Wrapping the cloak over her body, she tossed the leather armor into her knapsack instead, and headed off.​

 

[Illin]

[fieldbox= Rumeus, olive, solid]

When Rumeus entered the next area, the trees behind him would move and creak, sealing off the area he had just come from. Now he was officially trapped within what appeared to be a large clearing that was littered with rocks, a few trees, and a few other things. It seemed like some sort of arena of some kind complete with cover, the likes of which could help or hurt him in this scenario.

The fog in the area was chilling even more than usual, but before anything else could happen the area behind him was sealed off by the trees and then the fog began to act up now.

It suddenly began to move from the ground, the chill of the area starting to rush past him from behind as it moved to the large light, starting to move and fill the light bit by bit, a silhouette beginning to appear, albeit a rather familiar one. The snapping of bone and sewing of flesh could be heard as a physical form appeared, one that looked incredibly familiar. In fact... it WAS him, with a few key differences.

This Rumeus' hair was an blueish, purplish color. His eyes more of a magenta color rather than light green. Finally, rather than a stone in his hand like Rumeus, there was just a ring upon his finger.

---

Rumeus was not as meticulous as most experienced players were; in fact, his remembering to recharge his stone and actually use it in combat could be considered lucky. But if there was anything he learned from RPGs, it was that attacking opponents while they were making a grand scene or materializing was a prime opportunity to attack. Of course there were a few RPGs where the opponent was actually invulnerable during this period, but Rumeus attributed that to poor game design than an inaccurate decision on his part. I mean come on, it was only in fiction that people waited for their opponents to finish all their preparations and grandstanding, right?

Rumeus was already moving in close as the opponent was materializing, and managed to fire two Earth Bullets while the apparent creature was materializing, having to take a few moments to move in within range and another to fire two bullets, only having enough Soul for one more Bullet.

Earth Bullet 1
30

It successfully fired, but it hit the creature as its form was still materializing, so the physical rock that was created from the Earth Bullet Art harmlessly phased right through the still ethereal being.

Earth Bullet 2
25 - 13 Brown Ether Affinity = 12

The bullet that was fired right as the enemy was materialized seemed a small bit more powerful than the previous one and...

Does it hit?

0 (Critical.... THE HELL?!!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!)

The bullet slammed straight on to the enemy, cracking right into its skull. The enemy fell over now as the red '31 Critical' appeared right over its head in bold text. This normally wasn't how one was supposed to fight any boss fight... But Rumeus knew an exploit when he saw one and took a cheap shot at the right moment to somehow score a Critical Hit.

Suddenly, as the other Rumeus laid on the ground after being knocked over, it began to groan and flail in agony as its body began to break apart, fog leaking from its mouth, ears, and wounds, before suddenly the body vanished, the light that formed it seeming to vanish.

With that, the fight was finally over. A notification appeared stating the following.

[fieldbox= Reward, white, solid]You defeated your first dungeon boss, a powerful Anti-Shadow. +4 EXP. [/fieldbox]

Behind it left a key that had a II on it and was white, as well as a piece of strange white and black stone. It seemed to pulse with some strange force and energy, despite its small size, it seemed quite valuable, even more valuable than anything he possessed. Furthermore, the fog in the area now seemed to lift somewhat, lifting the deathly chill a good bit that had been over the area, but a small layer of fog was still there.

Regardless, he now completed the first dungeon, and had 8 EXP to boot. This was quite the productive, profitable boss run.

To the north a hole would be opened in the trees, the fog clearing away from this exit, which seemed to have the first real, natural light he hadn't seen in awhile, not having seen natural light since the area after the Character Creation room.

---

"Huh?"

Rumeus didn't realize he had already defeated his enemy until the notification popped up; he was in the process of casting another Earth Bullet. As it fizzled out, he got to take a good look at his opponent and hear its death throes.

"Looks and sounds like me; a bit creepy…"

And from what the notification stated, it was an Anti-Shadow.

"If it was a doppelganger…"

It could have been a drawn out fight. Doppelgangers were fearsome enemies, as far as Rumeus' game knowledge went. Beating them solo required luck or in a team scenario focusing down one then another. It was a different story if it was a doppelganger that merely mimicked his actions, since it would be easy to trick it to kill itself if that were the case. And from past experiences with games, he knew that some doppelgangers were slightly stronger than the original. He didn't have any spells in his arsenal that could be used for outplaying an opponent with skill (he didn't even remember that he had an unused Art). His playstyle was straightforward.

"Yeah, that would have been really bad…"

He couldn't see how the fight could come down to anything else but luck. And if the copy's stats were better than his…

"Well, it's over now. Hahahahahaha! Man it's cold!"

Rumeus laughed for some time while rubbing his arms. He was glad that his penchant to attack his enemies early paid off so well. A while later, after regaining his composure, he stretched his arms. He knew that he would have to find out how to deal with these Anti-Shadows eventually; they would most definitely appear in the future. And he was sure a preemptive attack like that would only work once. But for now, he would enjoy his rewards.

"Oh?"

After picking up the stone, he tried to pick up the key that dropped from the Anti-Shadow, but found himself unable to. After several more fruitless tries, he opened up his menu.

"Ah…"

He was full on inventory space. It seemed that the blue vials stacked, but he would still have to give up on an item.

"Hmm…"

He arbitrarily discarded the claw and picked up the key. Both things were obviously more important than weak monster drops.

After picking up the key and stone, he went towards the exit that emitted natural light.

---

When he arrived in the next area, he would be in a clear forest area, much like the first clearing he saw before. Only this time there was a spring that shone a bit more brightly than the previous one and two chests in the room. One had no lock on it, the other had a lock on it and a sign next to it, the lock having a small I upon it. The sign read:

[fieldbox= Sign, white, dashed]For clearing certain endeavors, Reward Keys will be presented. The numeral on the Key damages the Lock, so when its 'health' gets to 0, the lock shall open. More keys let you open more locks.[/fieldbox]

So apparently the small numerals on the key were not letters, but numbers, and the more he had the more complex special locks he could open? It seemed like some kind of rather interesting rewards system that these chests employed. Still, one was already unlocked, which was most likely his normal reward, then he could use the Brass Key I if he wanted to on the other chest.

---

"Neat."

After reading the sign, Rumeus attempted to open the unlocked chest first, but immediately used all his strength to get away from it after pushing off the top as he remembered something at that moment.

"Wah!"

In some RPGs, there were enemies that looked like chests. And if one tried to open such a chest, they would be greeted with a nasty and powerful attack. Such scary experiences left a scar in his heart, though it wasn't such a deep scar if he could forget it.

"Oh man, how could I even forget?"

Rumeus admonished himself. He had no idea how he forgot such an important detail. If those attacks could frighten him when it wasn't even a VRMMORPG, it would be only magnified when he was in one!

"Maybe I'm just too happy from beating that boss or something…? I can't be so careless around these things..."

But from the chest's lack of reaction, it was probably a normal chest. Still, Rumeus didn't bother to look at the treasures hidden inside it yet. He decided to open the locked chest before doing that. He took out the Brass Key I and used that to open the chest before running away with all of his strength. After seeing that chest's lack of reaction, he went back and examined the treasures in both chests...

---

In the unlocked chest there was a vial of blue liquid, a vial of red liquid, a 10,000 Essence Crystal, and a knapsack, which seemed like it could hold 10 Items instead of five if he decided to equip it onto himself.

In the second chest was a very small ring with a small rune etched onto it and what appeared to be a necklace of some kind that had a small stone in it that gave off a faint blue glow. Furthermore there was also another 10,000 Essence Crystal. Both fairly nice rewards.

Plus in the center of the room was another healing spring like before, but this one gave off a brighter presence than before, meaning this could be a good area to rest and prepare before he entered out into the world, possibly decide on how he wanted to allocate his 8 EXP or if he even wanted to do so.

---

"Interesting!"

It seemed this knapsack could hold many items more than his sack. There seemed to be no weight penalty to it either, which was nice.

He collected all the items in the chests, though he had no idea what they did. As he was picking up the vial of red liquid, a thought came to his head.

"Hmm…"

He looked back and forth between the vial and spring. Then, he opened the vial and emptied its contents onto the ground. With the now empty vial, he walked towards the spring and attempted to collect the water in the vial. He was actually able to dump out the red potion and collect the springwater in the vial, the water being a slight bluish color as it gave off a white glow.

"The red liquid is obviously some sort of health potion, so this water would be better… Ah! I should have drank it instead to see how it tasted...!"

After regretting his action for a bit, he attempted to equip the necklace and ring, putting the ring on his right hand's middle finger.

"Huh."

He closed a notification that told him to open up the Gear menu, then opened up the Gear menu to look at his equipment's stats...

"Not bad."

They were useful items to him at the moment. He saw no reason to not equip them, so he kept them on.

"Now then..."

This time he tried to drink the springwater and see if it did anything but restore his health. If it increased his stats, that would have been great. Unfortunately, it seemed that it didn't do anything because his stats and scores seemed to be the same both before and after he drank. In addition, though he tried to go back to the previous area where he dropped the claw, it was closed off by trees. When Rumeus tried to fire an Earth Bullet at it, it did nothing to open the previously open path.

"Oh well."

It seemed there was nothing else to do here. Rumeus was not prudent as the others in utilizing the spring for his Arts or Skills. In fact, he wasn't aware that Arts could be leveled outside of combat and he still didn't remember he had an extra Art at this point in time. He walked towards the exit, a faint smile on his face.[/hr][/hr][/hr][/hr][/hr][/hr][/fieldbox]

 

[Skyswimsky]

Collab between Skyswimsky and Clyde
Maki was sick of this already, why did she even care so much in the first place? No matter what the young girl came up with, in the end, she always hesitated. This was not how she imagined herself in this other world. Sure, actually caring about her Username was a step into the right direction, but at the same time it was simply not.

The rich girl wasn't sure how much time she wasted on this, for her, last aspect of character creation now, but it felt like an eternity. Ultimately, who the hell cared? Yeah. Putting all doubts aside she simply put in a single letter: A.

It was a miracle this name wasn't actually taken, but saved Maki from just repeating the same letter over and over again until something would have been free. With that step finalized Maki, no, A, was able to really start the game now.

---

"Wow…" Was the first word A whispered in awe after her eyes got used to the sunlight. This was truly something different. Something that somebody like her, without any experience with prior VR-Games, was not prepared in the least. She took a few steps forward and stopped. It just felt so...natural? The sound, smell and taste of the forest was very different compared to her hunting trips some of her father's business associates liked so much. Regardless, this was just the beginning, and A was very well aware of that. Stopping to space out she took a quick glance at the sign.

Just some glorified spooky text. 'Return from whence you came', hah, who would log out right after character creation? What a load of bullshit. Disregarding it for now A eyes wandered around the place until they rested upon another...player? NPC? Mob? Shocked for just a mere moment, A quickly collected herself. Just how long was he standing there anyways? Pointing her finger at the stranger the blonde greeted him. "Yo, you! Having fun sneaking up on a great person such as I?!"
-
He was really overthinking this customization wasn't he? By the time he finished, Ova was looking like he came out of some plot of some cliche anime. Yet, he honestly didn't care much. He finally got into the game, after a Log In message. In front of what he could only assume was the tutorialing dungeon.

However! He decided to take the time to sight see. Ova was clearly easily distracted by the clouds, white pearls of light, while sun reflected on gaseous edges. The grass whistled, in the way grass would. This beat the real life any day. Nothing was beautiful and as wonderful as this was. There was no great pearl, unless you wanted to take a bullet train an hour to find that jewel.

Ova put up his hands, cupping the sun in his hand. The music was a calming hymn of nature, that he enjoyed listening to. Shit, he could stand here forever and simply listen to the music, except that would mean he'd never get to play the game.

A voice is what pulled him and distracted him from the attention and sights. Ova turned around to see a young woman with blonde hair and blue eyes. Like a foreigner or something. Ova blinked slowly, as it always took him a second or two to register what was going on.
>Ova bowed<

His character animation gave a short bow, hand across his chest. White hair flowing in his silver eyes.

"Hello," Ova said more reserved, but with a gentle smile.
-
Oh-ho, he was one of THOSE? Well, this could turn out to be either lotsa fun or hella boring. Regardless, considering this was probably something like the starting area, that guy was most likely another player rather than those infamous NPCs that A actually heard about.

Still, a simple 'Hello' was a rather obvious, but boring, reaction so far and the blue-eyed girl already lowered her expectations. Damn it. Thinking about it she could have posed as an NPC in front of him! But now? The sentence she threw at him wasn't super serious or edgy after all.

Instead, A sighed, giving a simple reply with a wry smile. "Yes, hello hello. You may call me A. No reason to be all stuck up."
-
Ova stared at her with a blank airheaded expression. Stuck up? Ova cocked his head to the side, like a confused puppy hearing a weird noise for the first time. He blinked slowly, staring at her.

"Stuck up?" Ova looked above in the sky, who was stuck where? "Who is stuck up?" He asked looking around, "I don't see anyone stuck anywhere?"
-
A more-or-less honest grin appeared on A's face. Pointing towards the sky she replied. "Your personality! High stuck in the clouds! Or maybe some high tree. You must have lost it or something."
-
Ova gasped and started to look around.

"Oh no where it go," Ova said, he didn't think Ova realized it was a joke. Seemed odd to have a different persona online, but it was humiliating to watch him look around. When finally Ova gave up, as the light bulb moment went off in his head.

"I have a personality," Ova told her, "That wasn't very nice of a trick. I'm Ova. And you?"
-
"Tricks? Me?" A gasped in shock. "I would never pull any tricks nor lies!" Adding after a small pause, she added. "I am A." That nearly sounded like a lie now, didn't it?
-
Ova put his hands on his face in surprise.

"A!" Ova exclaimed, "A is for anything, anyone, and apples." He laughed a little, "I'm surprised they allowed you to just have a letter. Maybe next time I should go for O. Oooo oooo maybe we can have an Alphabet Guild."

He was not making fun of her. Well Ova wasn't. Ova was being serious. Akito on the other hand was questioning his life right now at this point.
-
"Wrong, wrong and wrong!" A shook her head. "A for alpha...female!" Hah! Now it actually made perfect sense why A called herself, well, A. "And while an alphabet guild..." Yes, she actually knew roughly about the concept of guilds. "... sounds really lame I, the great A, shall forgive you for that suggestion seeing how you're already accepting me as your great and only leader of our not existing guild!" Hah! Not even 10 minutes into the 'game' and A-chan already got herself a mook!
-
Ova frowned and even Akito did. She was seriously grating on the nerves. Ova's eyes glinted.

"Well you think highly of yourself," Ova said, he turned around, "I was just having some fun. I think the mere fact you didn't just name yourself Alpha instead of A is ridiculous."

A bit of himself slipped in there, but it was hard to play the loveable idiot, when standing in front of him was the obnoxious girl. Loud. Grating. And had her own dumb logic.
-
"Well, Alpha was already taken!" A now lied casually. "And thanks for those sweet words, keep em coming!" She now looked around a bit before resting her eyes on Ova's face again. A guild, huh? If anything she'd probably name it 'The Fools'. "Now, instead of wasting our precious time standing around in this totally life-important scenario that will secure our future we should probably go and do something more important...!"
-
This game came out, what not too long ago? As much as he doubted the logistics of her claims. He didn't say anything. He let his mouth slip him again, which is what usually pushed people away. Except that he was thinking too much at this moment and needed to accept what they were doing.

"Well, I do believe this is the tutorial dungeon, so" Ova clapped his hands together and looked excited like a child, "let's go explore!"

Then it dawned on him, how incredibly useless Ova was going to be in the first few levels. The way he designed his sorcery users were average even in their core skills, because he rather focus on the things they aren't good at, to balance them out later. Usually Endurance and Resistance for health reasons so the squishy sorcerer wasn't so squishy later on.

Which meant overall average skills in the long run.
-
Hah! Meatshield acquired. A was returning his enthusiasm with a simple air punch. "Let's rock!" And with those words the party would make their way into the woods! ... Hopefully, they were in a party, or at least that's what A assumed.
-
"We should party up," Ova said, "I'll send you a request."

In a manner of seconds, a little party invite message was thrown to A, plus a friend request. Akito groaned to himself outside of his character. Why was he doing this? With this person? Everyone in Time Wake, was more mature. More adult. And clearly whomever he was speaking to was not.
-
"That was about damn time!" Was all A responded without any signs of insecurity in her voice before accepting the party invitation and friend request. Now, they could truly start.[/hr]

 

[Calypso Major]

Boss Battle Collab Post: Ryūketsuki Vs. Anti-Shadow

When Ryūketsuki stepped into the area she would hear the trees moving behind her, within moments the area behind her being sealed off, effectively trapping her in this new area. It seemed like just a simple clear area, nothing in it except for more fog.

There seemed to be nothing for now, but suddenly a sphere of light that was about a small bit smaller than her head would pass right through her from behind, sending a chill rocking through her entire body, before it moved to the center of the area, breaking her stealth immediately.

Fog began to move from the ground, the chill of the area starting to rush past her from behind as it moved to the large light, starting to move and fill the light bit by bit, a silhouette beginning to appear, albeit a rather familiar one. The snapping of bone and sewing of flesh could be heard as a physical form appeared, one that looked incredibly familiar. In fact... it WAS her, or rather HIM, with a few key differences.

It was a man, like Ryu, except his hair was purple and his eyes were a reddish color. Also rather than a scythe, he seemed to be holding a glowing purple stone. It seemed to be like the Purple Ether Stones that were offered at Character Creation. Suddenly the 'clone', in Ryu's own voice, chanted out words as if using a Skill.

"Shard Shield!"

Suddenly shards of ice formed around the man, each of them moving around his form, acting as small shields surrounding him. It seemed like this man was taking a more defensive approach to counter the real Ryu's more offensive approach. The man was also a somewhat 'long' distance away, so while Ryu could rush in, the man would probably easily dodge a straight up rushing attack.

She would have to plan strategically if she wanted to beat this enemy.

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As Ryūketsuki stepped into the clearing, he could hear the sound of wood moving. Looking behind him, he no longer saw the path in which he took to get to this area, which in turn both excited and worried the blonde. "OH, well then. This must be a boss fight, if the game is going to try and trap me here!"

This was further supported by the fact that another pixie-ball-light thingy appeared, this specific one much larger than the two she had encountered before. After the usual scenario of an enemy being created, she was faced with an inverted copy of her own avatar, purple hair and reddish eyes giving off a creepy vibe. Not to mention the glowing purple stone in his hand is the substitute for Ryu's own scythe, as he suddenly called out a skill that caused smallish icicles to form around him.

"Well there goes any chance of a direct attack…" The thought passed through his mind rather quickly, as he pondered for a bit on what to do. He could rush straight on in, but wouldn't those icy things just impale him instead? Oh well, she still had to get relatively close in order to do anything - wait, that's it!

Rushing in, she decided that now was the time to test out her new art on an actual opponent, yelling out once she got into range. "Full Swing!" Taking a step forward, she twisted her body, letting the scythe cut through the air in a clockwise circle, allowing the momentum of it to pull her into a full circle. Hopefully this wasn't a horrible idea, but if it was then oh well, it's not like this guy could one-hit-KO her...probably.

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Well, he didn't have to yell out the Art's name, but whether or not he read the full details of the guide was a different story. Regardless Ryu would rush forward, shouting out and performing her Full Circle Art in an attempt to take out the ice shards and the man at the same time in one singular swing.

Full Circle
35 + 50 Distance Penalty - 11 Accuracy = 76

Unfortunately the blade completely missed both the man and the icicles since Ryu was just rushing in from a large distance while also shouting what he was doing. So he didn't hit anything. Now the man had a chance to act, as he was able to easily dodge backwards, aiming his hand now as an arrow sized shard of ice appeared, firing right at Ryu now.

Fortunately the real Ryu was also nimble on his feet, dodging out of the shard's range right when it was fired, the man now being Close, but not Point Blank, so perhaps a rush would have a much better chance of hitting this time around.

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Well, that was a complete disaster. For one, Ryu forgot to judge exactly how far his opponent was from him, and instead gave copy-clone-Ryu a chance to dodge his attack.

Indeed, if he wasn't in the middle of fighting, the blonde would be busting up laughing over what had just happened. But, if this Ryu was anything like the real Ryu...he definitely wouldn't be expecting the same attack two times in a row. And seeing as the distance was much, much shorter this time...might as well try.

Taking a step forward, he tried to close whatever distance may or may not be needed in order to hit, and swung his blade counter-clockwise this time. He probably shouldn't say the name of the move this time, since he just did last time...but just for the hell of it, he shouted. "Full Circle!" Once more.

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Full Circle
54 - 11 Accuracy = 43

Unfortunately Ryu missed once again, but this time the enemy didn't get to get away from Ryu this time. So now the other Ryu was practically within brawling distance or 'point blank' range. This meant that the next attack would be much harder to dodge.

So instead, wanting to get away quickly, the man began to move backwards now, but did so in a manner that, rather than guard himself, he was trying to move backwards so he could act as quickly as possible, thus leaving himself open for a quick regular attack.

So taking advantage of the sudden opening, naturally Ryu swung his scythe.

Chance Attack
6 + 25 Penalty - 11 Accuracy = 20

The man was actually able to get away, but only because one of the three icicles moving around him shielded him from the attack, getting shattered by it. Possibly he could use Mighty Swing or Full Circle to strike either the man multiple times or be able to strike multiple targets to hit both him and the shield.

The man, now a few steps away, fired another icy arrow sized shard once again which fortunately missed once again. It seemed like both of the combatants had some pretty poor accuracy going for them.

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Ryu's luck must really not be on his side today, at least not with this fight. His first attack missing, and with only 35 endurance left, he wasn't willing to try another Full Circle again until he was more confident in the fact that it would hit. But, on the bright side, one of those icicle things surrounding the copy was shattered by his second attack, and his opponent's attack also missed.

Those icicle things are just getting in the way, trying to shield fake-Ryu from real-Ryu's attacks. So, instead of aiming for just the purple-haired man, the blonde aimed for both him and whatever icicles want to get in his way, preparing himself for yet another attack.

"Mighty Swing!"

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Mighty Swing
4 - 11 Accuracy + 19 Mighty Swing Penalty = 14

The swing hit full on, slashing through not only one of the icicles, but also slashing a large gash in the man's chest as well, a red 26 appearing above the man's head now as the strike struck deep, the man only having one icicle shield remaining now.

Still, the man was pretty wounded now, so instead he tried to fire an icicle from right up front, the aiming and raising of his hand and the purple stone in it definitely leaving him open for an attack.

Chance Attack
13 + 25 Chance Attack Penalty - 11 Accuracy = 27

Fortunately the swing hit, but the icicle blocked this attack as well. Still, this was rather fortunate as now the man was completely undefended, but he was also firing an ice shard from point blank now, a point blank Ranged Attack being pretty hard to dodge.

Unfortunately the attack hit straight on, the icy shard with its chilling ether shooting past Ryu, slashing his shoulder, his Endurance Bar dropping by 4 points and a small part of it turning black as he now had one Wound, symbolized by the small black 1 next to his Endurance bar, but luckily damage was all that it did, Ryu still having 28 Damage left.

Still, they were now in point blank distance once again, the perfect range for a full out attack now that the fake Ryu didn't have any icy shards defending himself.

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Ryu mentally cheered when both of his attacks hit, shattering the two icicles left and dealing a whopping 26 damage to Fake-Ryu. But of course he would have to get hit now, seeing as there was barely any distance between him and the attack, leaving no time to dodge and inflicting 4 points of damage, along with a single Wound...

"Eep, it's cold!"

With 28 endurance left, he would really have to watch what he was doing from here on - yeah, that definitely wasn't going to happen.

All this meant was that he would have to defeat this purple-haired man before he died, either that or use one of those red potions should his health really get low. But for now, he decided to go all out once more, swinging his scythe in a clockwise motion and preparing to let the momentum turn him in a complete circle.

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Full Circle (First Hit)
25 - 25 Distance Bonus - 11 Accuracy +5 Wound Penalty= -6

The initial swing hit dead on, dealing yet another whopping 26 Damage to the fake Ryu, yet another large gash being hewn across its torso, this one a bit deeper than the last. Then came the second part of the spin, which would definitely deal a bit more damage if it hit, this fight definitely starting to turn into the real Ryu's favor.

Coming Full Circle
17 - 25 Distance Bonus - 11 Accuracy + 5 Wounded Penalty = -14

The spinning strike dealt yet another rather devastating blow, dealing 29 points of Endurance Damage now and dealing yet another deep gash, signifying that this man was even more wounded than before. Judging by the heavy gashes and his heavy panting, this fight was almost over, of course Ryu himself was also running a small bit low on Endurance, only having 22 points of it left himself.

Naturally the man quickly decided to chant his Skill once again.

"Shard Shield!"

This caused only two of the shards to appear this time rather than three. Perhaps this was because the man was wounded? Still, another Mighty Swing or two could definitely bring this fight to a close.

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Only two icicles appeared this time? A smirk formed on the blonde's lips, as he realized he must be getting close to defeating this "boss". Now that he has figured out a solid strategy to deal damage, of course it would be relatively simple for him to just repeat what he did before.

Filled with determination, Ryu lifted his blade once again, aiming for both the icicles and the fake-Ryu. Letting the scythe cut through the air, he gave a battle cry, "Mighty Swing!"

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Mighty Swing, with Determination (no Save Points)
33 - 25 Distance Bonus - 11 Accuracy + 5 Wound

Another icicle shattered, another 26 Points of damage dealt, and another very heavy gash across this being's body, it panting very heavily now as there seemed to be fog leaking from a few of the wounds. This fight was definitely in the bag, but not before suddenly the fake Ryu had one more trick up his sleeve.

"Chilling Grasp!"

The stone shone as the fake Ryu's hand became encased in the purple glow and icy chill of Purple Ether, before it attempted to grab at the real Ryu with the icy hand.

Fortunately the real Ryu would be able to parry the arm aside with relative ease, considering how much the man somewhat stumbled given his extremely heavy wounds. All it would take was one more well placed Mighty Swing and this fight would most likely be over.

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"Whoa there!" The new attack wasn't expected, but given the fog pouring out of the multiple wounds, it was pretty easy for Ryu to parry. Of course, it was clear now that one more hit should get the job done, and with a final "Hup!" he went all out for one more, "Mighty Swing!".

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Mighty Swing
9 (It hits)

A final slash. Both icicle and body were slashed asunder, the fake Ryu falling backwards with a cry of agony that was present in its own voice. Various other gashes were present about this fake Ryu's body, the likes of which began to leak out fog slowly, before suddenly the other Ryu began to flail and scream in agony as its body began to break apart, fog leaking from its mouth, ears, and wounds, before suddenly the body vanished, the light that formed it seeming to vanish.

With that, the fight was finally over. A notification appeared stating the following.

[fieldbox= Reward, white, solid]You defeated your first dungeon boss, a powerful Anti-Shadow. +4 EXP.[/fieldbox]

Behind it left a key that had a II on it and was white, as well as a piece of strange white and black stone. It seemed to pulse with some strange force and energy, despite its small size, it seemed quite valuable, even more valuable than anything he possessed. Furthermore, the fog in the area now seemed to lift somewhat, lifting the deathly chill a good bit that had been over the area, but a small layer of fog was still there.

Regardless, he now completed the first dungeon, and had 8 EXP to boot. This was quite the productive, profitable boss run.

To the north, a hole would be opened in the trees, the fog clearing away from this exit, which seemed to have the first real, natural light he hadn't seen in awhile, not having seen natural light since the area after the Character Creation room.

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"Ahaha, I did it~" Basically doing a victory dance after seeing the Fake-Ryu "die", the real Ryu went over and saw what was dropped. "Oh, I have to make room for this stuff, huh? Well, I'll just drop a claw, that should do it~" Doing just that, he then picked up the key, along with the black and white stone, clearing the notification real quick.

"So, now I have 8 EXP total to spend? Sweet!"

Looking back on his experience with this dungeon, one could see that increasing his Finesse and Might would be the best...but, he also reeeealllly likes the idea of being lucky, so he'll just divide the 8 between the 3 stats.
Allotting 3 points to Finesse, 3 points to Might, and the last 2 points to Luck, the blonde scythe-wielder then set off, entering the northern exit.

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[BCOLOR=transparent]When he arrived in the next area, he would be in a clear forest area, much like the first clearing he saw before. Only this time there was a spring that shone a bit more brightly than the previous one and two chests in the room. One had no lock on it, the other had a lock on it and a sign next to it, the lock having a small I upon it. The sign read:[/BCOLOR][BCOLOR=transparent][/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=transparent][/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=transparent][fieldbox= Sign, white, dashed]For clearing certain endeavors, Reward Keys will be presented. The numeral on the Key damages the Lock, so when its 'health' gets to 0, the lock shall open. More keys let you open more locks.[/fieldbox][/BCOLOR][BCOLOR=transparent][/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=transparent][/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=transparent]So apparently the small numerals on the key were not letters, but numbers, and the more she had the more complex special locks she could open? It seemed like some kind of rather interesting rewards system that these chests employed. Still, one was already unlocked, which was most likely his normal reward, then he could use the Brass Key I if he wanted to on the other chest.[/BCOLOR]

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Walking into the next area, Ryu was happy to see that the chilling fog had disappeared, leaving this clearing bright and cheerful. Seeing the spring, first he practically sprinted towards it, looking into the waters to see if anything was there before taking a tentative drink.
Once that was done, he looked around, noticing the sign this time and reading it. "Oh, so these keys are useful? Cool!" Walking over to the unlocked one first, he opened it up, seeing the contents before using the brass "I" key to open the other chest.

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[BCOLOR=transparent]In the unlocked chest there was a vial of blue liquid, a vial of red liquid, a 10,000 Essence Crystal, and a knapsack, which seemed like it could hold 10 Items instead of five if he decided to equip it onto himself. [/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]In the second chest with the key had what appeared to be a suit of leather armor, which would be good for protection, and what appeared to be an iron scythe with a rather nice looking blade. There was also another 10,000 Essence Crystal, bringing his Essence total to 35,000. [/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]The spring itself still had about three solid drinks within it, and the clearing he was in was a decent size. He could have a little time to train like before or move onward.[/BCOLOR]

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Of course, the first thing that piqued Ryu's interest was the knapsack. Swapping it out real quick with her own, she was practically glowing with satisfaction that this one is slightly less useless than the other, with double the space inside. Her mood dimmed a bit when she thought of the items she left behind in past stages of this dungeon, but the depressed mood of hers didn't last for long. Smirking, he then grabbed the two vials of different liquids, pocketed the essence crystal, and proceeded to unlock the next one.

"YES!" Looking up, she praised the game for a good few moments, the reason being the armor and iron scythe she found inside this once-locked chest. Seeing the essence, of course she took it, now having 35,000 total. As for the armor and scythe, she immediately equipped them, testing to see how it fit on her, how the blade was, etcetera...

For now, she put all of the extra stuff she didn't have equipped into her inventory, seeing as she now had enough room for it all to fit. Before going out though, she decided that now would be a good time to test out her new scythe, grinding her Mighty Swing the first round, and her Full Circle the second, before the spring ran dry.

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[BCOLOR=transparent]Scythe Proficiency, Mighty Swing, and Full Circle all gained levels, the new Scythe being a good bit nicer than the previous one, the blade being stronger than the previous scythe. So some good grinding had indeed be done with the spring being able to speed up that grinding a good bit. [/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]Of course, the Armor, with its Armor Penalty, reduced her Quick by 3. So that was definitely something that Ryu was going to have to get used to. [/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]Aside from that, there was nothing else here for Ryu to do, so either he could stay here and mentally rest and prepare, or exit the dungeon and venture out into the world.[/BCOLOR]

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[BCOLOR=transparent]The armor penalty wasn't such a big deal for the blonde, not when he had a better weapon to make up for it. Once he was finished with his good bit of grinding, he took one last look around, and seeing as there was nothing much to really do anymore, he left, walking out the exit like nothing important had just happened, the new gear definitely leaving him glowing like a firefly with joy.[/BCOLOR]​

 

[Renose]

[fieldbox=Ryūketsuki / Soren / Rumeus / Tsukikage, red, solid]
When these four exited the dungeon, they would be engulfed in a bright white light that only seemed to grow more intense, until the entire area around them was engulfed in light. As they continued to walk forward, their worlds would soon enough begin to grow darker and darker. Their bodies would begin to grow heavier and heavier, the chill from the forest starting to permeate their very beings. It was like walking through a wall of solid cold, and the more they walked the heavier their bodies became.

Eventually, unable to walk anymore, the consciousness of each player would fade and even their eyes would grow dark.

...

Nothing

...

Cursed

...

...

Trapped

...

Dead?

...

No? You aren't dead? You are alive? Haha, you believe anything in this world is really alive? We die and the strong come back. The weak are doomed to wander the Forests and Labyrinths forever. We live forever in this cycle of death. If you think you can escape it... if you think you are strong enough to face this Cursed World... then awaken.

---

Suddenly all four would begin to awaken to the slow bumping of what appeared to be a carriage. All four of them were in a wagon of some kind, their driver's appearance obscured by the hooded cloak she was wearing. As each of them stirred, they would suddenly hear their driver begin to speak. She sounded like a rather interesting old crone judging by her voice; aged in years and possibly a little lost in the head.

"Ah, glad to see you're all awake dearies" spoke the driver of the horse drawn wagon as she continued to utilize the reigns to keep the horses pulling it in check.

"Found you lot outside the Forest of Spirits I did. You all best thank your luck that I found ya, otherwise Wolves would have devoured ya while you slept". The wagon would continue to pull along now, its path still being somewhat bumpy as if they were on a dirt road rather that wasn't entirely too smoothed out by walking. "Its not often that new Souls come to this place. After all, what Soul would want to exist in this Cursed, Sealed World whose name has been all but lost". She just gave a wheezy cackle, before clearing her throat.

"But I digress dearies. Your reasons matter not now. You are stuck here in this world, forever doomed to die, revive, and die again; never able to know rest, and even if your Soul loses its strength, then you will be doomed to forever be a Lost One, or perhaps consumed by The Curse and turned into some awful beast who's only purpose is to be hunted".

She just let that hang over their heads for a moment as she guided the horses, soon enough speaking once again after clearing her throat. "Anyway dearies, I am taking you all to the Town of Clear-water. We are halfway, so if you have any questions or would like to get to know each other, then feel free to converse. You don't need to pay this old crone any mind any longer".

So the group of four was now in a wagon, these all being the players that just went into the first dungeon solo. Apparently one of the ones that the four saw wasn't there, so either he failed to clear the dungeon or just had to log off. Regardless, they were in the wagon and had a little more to go, so they could either sit in silence and perhaps look over their menus a bit more, ask their driver questions, or get to know one another.

Of course they weren't literally trapped here, they could still log out, so this was most likely either an NPC or a REALLY convincing Roleplayer.
[/fieldbox]​

 

[Illin]

[fieldbox= Rumeus, olive, solid]

"Ah no way!"

Rumeus was checking his status window, but there were no abnormalities detected. Yet, he was still feeling sluggish and cold. The more he walked the worse it seemed to become. Was he going to die here?

"Oh well..."

His consciousness faded with that thought, but he soon woke up. How long he had been out for he wasn't certain, but he thought he heard something as he lost consciousness. What it was, he couldn't remember though.

Besides the hooded figure, there were three others in the wagon with him. He thought he recognized some of them from earlier. A faint smile formed on his face as he glanced at the others in acknowledgment. He opened up his menu while the hooded figure was talking, wanting to check some details. His multitasking stopped for a bit though, when he heard the NPC stating that they were stuck in the world.

He quickly browsed through the game menu and let out a sigh of relief as he verified the log out button was there.

("Damn lady almost made my heart leap out!")

It would not have been funny if that scenario occurred. First The New Gate, now SBO? VRMMORPGs would never be trusted again, or VR tech in general if it happened. But it was odd that they made this NPC say such an alarming statement. It was a rather morbid and unfunny joke to him.

After taking several deep breaths to calm himself, Rumeus looked at the three strangers in turn before speaking.

"Haha, oh man that was scary. I thought I was really trapped here for a second! Man these developers put in such a bad and scary joke! How are you guys finding this game? I think it's pretty interesting so far, but this is my first VRMMORPG. I don't know how it compares to others. Ah, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Har-"

Rumeus cut himself off as he realized he was about to say his real name. He coughed.

"I mean my name is Rumeus. Nice to meet you all. Maybe we can all party up together?"

Without waiting for an answer to that question, Rumeus sent party invite requests to the other three.

("Friend requests too?")

He shrugged his shoulders and sent friend requests as well. Then, he waited to see how the others would respond to his actions. [/fieldbox]

 

[ERode]

Light.

Then darkness.

And finally…cold.

Tsukikage closed her eyes, and let herself go.​

---

A wagon, a crone, and some more insidious backstory. Of course they were heading by wagon to the starting city, and of course the game basically forced her to go into a group. She had to wonder if the crone was failing to recognize the fact that there were probably hundreds who were found in the Forest of Spirits on a daily, perhaps even hourly basis. Whatever, all this was for immersion anyways. Chances were that the wagon was going to be attacked by monsters partway through as well, to force players into a party-fight scenario, but all things considered, the wagon wasn't going that fast at all, so Tsukikage could probably make it to the Town of Clear-Water if she ran there instead.

Well, with only 8 EXP, it'd probably be a good idea to go along with scripted events for a little while longer.

Crossing her arms and leaning against the side of the wooden carriage, Tsukikage's red eyes flickered from one of the strangers to another. Two of them were probably teenagers, seeing how one had a hilariously edgy design, with his green hair, dead-fish eyes, and facial tattoos, while the other one seemed to be specializing in using farming tools as weapons for some reason. The other one was harder to pin down, but from his words, it was rather easy to surmise that he was a fresh-faced newbie to Virtual Reality games in general. After all, he was afraid of getting trapped in the game? Afraid of some generic intro text? Dang, what a pussy. Reminded Tsukikage of her mom after that whole incident with the New Gate.

Out of whim, Tsukikage decided to accept the party invite anyways. It might be useful, having a new perspective, and the Rumeus kid reminded her of a dog, so that was nice as well. She did arc an eyebrow at his insanely low END though. 6 HP? What sort of Anti-Shadow did he even fight?

Well, whatever. Judging by his party-eager attitude, he was probably the type to go around adding everyone onto his friend's list in any sort of social game. Pointing upwards, she said, "Name's floating above me. Do you understand how party-play works in VRMMOs?"[/hr]

 

[Skyswimsky]

[fieldbox=A & Ova, white, solid]
A distinct chill would wash over the pair as they stepped into the fog laden entrance. There truly was something ominous about it, the chill of the fog caressing over the forms of the two players as they walked into the hole in the trees.

Soon enough with about a fourth of a minute of walking the two would be in an eerily lit clearing, the entrance behind them closing. Fog was rolling over the ground with a movement speed that even a snail could beat. There was nothing but silence. It was cold, and through the fog and trees surrounding each clearing a few distant, moving lights could be seen. Each light seemed rather lonesome though, soft whispers and sounds heard from various directions. Some sounded old, others young. Some female, others male. Some were words, others were sounds and cries.

Among the various whispers though, one distinct one stood out. The sound of a myriad of whispers, each saying different parts of this phrase.

"The Forest desires you. The Forest detests you. The Forest will trick you. The Forest will guide you. The Forest will aid you. The Forest will consume you.

Nothing is as it seems"

And with that last whisper, the fog surrounding the walls of trees surrounding each clearing would part a tiny bit as some of the lights faded slightly, and something is revealed.

One of the lights from before slowly seemed to float from above, followed by one more. Like gentle leaves they dropped to the ground. The moment they touched it though the cool fog upon it seemed to stretch and move into each of the lights, the two small spheres of light beginning to grow and change shape. They seemed to take on a humanoid silhouette, before more defined fleshy features could be seen as more of the fog rolled over each now appearing creature. Sounds of flesh and bone snapping and mending into place could be heard, before soon enough the fog cleared.

Standing before the pair was a pair of horned, red skinned creatures that stood about three feet tall. Each had a small saber in their hands, the blades looking a bit worn and chipped. The imp like creatures each had tiny wings that most likely couldn't be used for flight, clawed hands, and hooves instead of feet.

The two creatures narrowed their yellow eyes, which had a distinct lack of pupils, and aimed their shoddy sabers at the sword wielder once they finally were prepared, both sets of yellow eyes looking the players over, as if preparing a plan of attack.

~~

"Well, the forest sure can't make up its mind." A tried to hit some conversation as she obviously led the way deeper inside the endless woods. Still, A did not expect that this would have been so easy, already feeling a myriad of emotions compared to her humble real self... was this just the power of technology? Whatever the case was, A quickly pushed the thoughts of Maki aside, she was now A.

Concentrating at the matters of hand, the girl pressed onwards. She was actually itching to try out how her self-made character would do in battle or something, after all, she had a rough idea what she wanted to make out of herself in mind but didn't bother too much with the rules, math and whatsoever. She already had enough to do with numbers as Maki.

Finally, things got actually really exciting as some light slowly formed into something more...specific? 2 little creatures that looked like twins. "Yo! Those are enemies, right? Right!" Maybe in another scenario she would have tried to communicate with them, but right now? Hell no. Without waiting on her party member sharing any doubts he could have, the blonde hair charged with her weapon, ready to give one of the little ones a beating of a lifetime.

~~
1st Attack
42 + 25 Distance Penalty - 6 Accuracy = 61

Given how the creatures were well prepared for her attack and the distance her not too slow, but not too fast either, self rushed from, A would quickly find her bronze sword parried by the rusty saber of the demon like creature she tried to slash.

Of course, with her attack parried, now she had both enemies right near her, one within 'point blank' swinging distance and the other two mere steps away from A. If Ova didn't act quickly, A would probably find herself flanked by the enemy.

~~

Oh jeez. Already and he was still getting the hang of this. All right let's see what he can do with this. He decided it best that he try to gain some distance from them? Well okay let's not pretend he had a strategy here, he only had one attack. He clasped on his Silver Ether Stone. Let's do this, as he casted his Wind abilities through the stone towards the creature A was attacking.

~~
Push Wind
5 - 6 Silver Ether Affinity = 0

The stone in his hand shimmered with a silvery glow before, from that same hand, a pulse of silvery wind would eject out towards the intended enemy.

Pushed?
37 - 25 Distance Bonus - 11 Accuracy + 10 Firing into Melee Penalty = 10

Not only was the Imp knocked down by the not too strong pulse of wind, but in the process as it stumbled it dropped its saber, so the the creature who was now prone and disarmed right within the perfect stabbing distance of A, who would now have a much easier time hitting the enemy since it was prone.

In fact, since it completely opened itself up to her by falling in such a manner, she now had the perfect opportunity, or chance, to stab now if she wanted.

~~
Wow, A was did not expect that little critter to just casually block her attack like that! The girl was either really unlucky or, for being a beginners dungeon, the game was actually a real challenge. Well, she had chosen herself a nice first game in that case then.


Regardless, A's spirit was nowhere crushed because of one petty fail. Instead, it didn't take too long at all as her loyal mook made himself useful and opened up one of the enemies for a chance! The blue-eyed girl immediately reacted, seizing the chance to hopefully get some work done!


Chance Attack
4 (Critical Strike!)

With the creature upon the ground, without a weapon, hitting it was much easier than usual. She even managed to stab the beast deep in the chest, a bold red 28 Critical! appearing above its head as the blade struck deep for critical damage, a heavy, deep wound able to be seen.

The strike had the creature crying out in agony with the wound before it vanished in a plume of the same fog that formed it, only a reddish tint was able to be seen in the fog as it vanished, leaving nothing behind but a small horn and its rusty, useless looking saber.

Now there was just one of the creatures left, and it did not look too happy as, whilst angrily chittering, it charged A with rusty, but still sharp, saber at point.

Fortunately A was able to parry it, albeit with a small bit of trouble, but nonetheless she was able to avoid taking any damage from the creature, this fight still not over yet since she only managed to get lucky with that first Critical Strike. Still, this teamwork was pretty flawless, with one person knocking them down and another taking them out. Perhaps this wouldn't be impossible after all.

~~
At this point the only thing he had to rely on was his winds again. He let the stone glow in his hand and casted another wind power. That was two used and he only had one more. This game was not playing around, he sighed. Maybe he should restart the game? Clearly this wasn't going to work in the long run. Was it?

Push Wind
2 - 6 Silver Affinity = -4

Once again he managed to summon forth the silvery wind, attempting to use it to either push or, hopefully, knock down the creature that was clashing swords with A.

Pushing
85 - 25 Distance Bonus - 11 Accuracy + 10 Firing into Melee Penalty = 59

Unfortunately the wind wooshed right past the two fighters by a small margin. Luckily though he didn't accidentally hit A in the process, which could have been bad if it did. Still, this meant he only had one shot with the wind attack left.

Meanwhile A would still be clashing swords with the enemy, having another chance to take a swing at the creature.

~~

Hah! Now this was working way better in her favour! With one down, there was just one more to g. After her more-or-less successful parry it was time to finish this in just another single strike. Feel particularly lucky it was now about time to pull out her one and only art: Gambler Action. Tied with a Full Attack! Now, A would go either big or home, just like she imagined.

~~

Attack 1
54 - 25 Accuracy Bonus - 11 Accuracy = 28

The blade had a pretty solid hit on the creature's torso with the first strike. Not too deep, but a red 9 appeared to show that she definitely did do some damage. Then came the next strike with the light sword, leaving everything to chance as she just attacked wildly.

Attack 2
43 - 25 Accuracy Bonus - 11 Accuracy + 20 Second Attack Penalty = 27

This next attack only did one more point of damage than the previous attack, but left a slightly deeper gash than the previous attack as well, a loud cry of pain escaping the creature as this attack seemed like it hurt a bit more than the previous one, despite having only dealt one point of damage, so perhaps this attack probably wounded the creature more than her previous one did.

The now pretty wounded creature bared its saber once more, attempting a slightly less accurate slash towards A's torso in a flurry of two slashes.

The first one cut in quite deep, leaving a very heavy gash as surge of pain would move through A's body as the large, deep cut was left in her torso. A small part of her Endurance Bar grew black as a small black 2 appeared next to her Endurance Bar, showing that she had accumulated 2 Wounds from that attack.

Furthermore now her Endurance Bar was down to 18 points, although there was a tiny ding as a tiny box appeared in the side of her vision, some sort of notification that wasn't going to pop in while fighting.

Luckily she was able to barely parry the next attack, her wounded self making this a small bit harder. Regardless, now both A and the enemy were starting to hit low points, this fight starting to get a bir more intense now given that both sword fighters could die any second now. She would need to finish this quickly if they were to progress.

~~

Fuck. This hurt. This hurt a lot, though, for some reason the pain wasn't so strong that she'd just curl onto the ground and cry out loud... maybe that wasn't the case in real life anyways? Or just the game being, well, a game. Regardless, A could feel adrenaline surging through her entire body. She smiled and laughed at this small onslaught. Just how could that little critter be on par with her? Or was A that weak?

Regardless, there wasn't really any time to think in the first place, just acting, and A had to act fast, retreat was obviously not an option, so she pressed onwards. Knowing she would probably get rekt anyways if she missed it was pretty obvious for her to take the gamble a third time, not a full out attack, but as some people like to say, third time's the charm.

~~
Gambler Attack
1 (Critical!)

So naturally, leaving everything to chance, A quickly slashed her sword, and managed to cut right into the beast's neck, a bold red Critical 29 appearing above its head as then it simply fell over without making another sound. Then it vanished in a similar manner to its compatriot, the following message appearing before both A and Akito.

[fieldbox= Reward, white, dashed]
You have fought your first enemies and survived. +2 EXP. [/fieldbox]

With this, an entrance in the trees opened to the north of them, showing the way onward. There were also two horns and a claw left behind these creatures as well as their poor, shoddy sabers. Which could be useful, but didn't seem like they would be.

Well at least they won this first fight and could now progress through the dungeon or rest if need be, although the two Wounds that A suffered probably weren't going to go away anytime soon.

~~
Ova sighed. This was brutal, perhaps he needed to restart this game and choose his skills a bit better. All he did was sit out and take EXP. And A was getting her ass kicked out of her. How was that right? He walked over to check the loot.

"This should be distributed amongst the two of us," Ova said, he frowned and bit his lip, "Sorry I was completely useless."

He walked over to the loot, hovering over the ground. Pointing to the loot looking at A. Was it fair for him to even touch it? Considering he had done nothing to earn it.

"You keep it," he told her retracting his statement from earlier.

"Ha...ha...haha." It was over, A won, they lost. It simply felt great, even with the pain. Turning to Ova the blonde had a fat grin on her face. "Don't worry my loyal Servant! Without you this would be like easy mode, no?" Having said that, A finally paid attention to that small notification that popped up: A notification about some of her stuff increasing. Good.

Now, with that out of the way A could finally get to the loot. This was all crap anyways, no? Before she could give any form of suggestion however Ova took the initiative. "Alright! All the goodies for me then! Inventory." With that last word, a simple inventory interface opened which was promptly filled with the two weapons, horns and claw.

"Now..." Taking a look at the only way forward she pointed her crappy sword into that direction. "Let's keep rolling!"

Ova looked at her.

"You're really injured," Ova told her, "Do you have anything to heal?"

A shrugged. "Just a flesh wound! And unless the crap those critters dropped can somehow heal, no, I don't."

"I only have one more wind spell,"

"You mean that super-useful-thing that dealt no damage? So magic, or whatever, has like limited amount of uses? And that's the only thing you can do?" A now asked in honest curiosity.

Ova shifted. He smiled at her, but the smile meant nothing. He was just trying to ease the situation. Maybe he really should restart? How did he mess up this bad? Because he wasn't paying attention. And now someone else was suffering the consequences.

"Yes, magic has a limited amount of uses," Ova paused, "You should really not bleed out and die. What if there's something tougher?"

Jesus, why was this tutorial so brutal?

"Wow...only 3 of those? And nothing else I assume? You really ARE useless!" As harsh as those words were, A was simply grinning.

"Well, if YOU know how I can heal myself I am all ears! And anyways, if there's something 'tougher' I just have to hit harder. Simple, no?" Of course, Ova couldn't let his only hope just run into her demise... or could he?

"Actually I don't have any healing magic," Ova frowned, "And without any healing properties." He was afraid she was going to get smashed in the next room. And he'd have no way of defending himself. And that was not a fun time. Now what were they suppose to do? They could move on, but then. They were going to be the ones who got laughed at for dying in the tutorial. Which then he came up with a great plan with some quick thinking.

"I don't think the Great A would die in the tutorial, the Great A is too Great for that," Ova stared at her, in hopes that this would work.

"Of course not! Hence there is no reason to worry in the first place!" Yes! It even made sense… and if this kept going on they would have wasted enough time to regenerate in the first place anyways.

He didn't quite get her and only sighed. He groaned a bit. He didn't want to be humiliated for dying in the tutorial first thing. If there was one thing he strived for it was greatness himself and he didn't quite get her and her greatness. She was no greater than he was and he didn't want to be a laughing stock.

"Fine, we can keep going," Ova said clearly he wasn't going to get his way. So, they might as well just keep moving. He didn't want to take center stage though afraid of what might linger in the next section. He only stepped forward a little in hopes A would take charge. As loud as she was and as boisterous as she was. He felt guilty for using her as shield.


He also felt guilty he couldn't do anything else. But he also didn't want to be a joke. He already was a joke.

"Hope we don't fight anything tougher," he mumbled.

Good. Pointing her sword once again towards the opened up path she proclaimed loudly. "Well, then, onwards to victory!" NOW they finally could move on to face the next danger that would hopefully not kill them!

[/fieldbox]

 

[Omnial]

Walking, more walking, cold, more cold, and oh...there goes being able to walk, vision darkening, annnnd I am out. Soren was uncertain if he fell forward or backwards, or even if he fell at all, but it felt cold, dark, and void of pretty much anything else.

The next thing he knew, he was in a wagon, and off he was. An old woman speaking, and now an actual person speaking. "Neat." he clicked to accept both the party invite and the friend request. He turned around then trying to get a look at where they were, scratching his head as he really had no land markings or knowledge to go off of. "Soren." He pointed upward, then turned back to look at group, this time eyeing them up more, letting out a slight hum as he stared at them each, one by one, in an awkward fashion. "I may like this party. Though I do wonder...." He then gave them all a quick glance. Should I stay with them? I mean I am a healer, finding a party is the easiest in the world for such a role, I could do better? But this is the start of the game, I should just stick with a few faces for now, then build up my skills, then post that I am looking for a more active party, and become their number one healer. He nodded to himself.

 

[Renose]

[fieldbox=Keter, blue, solid]

When Keter exited the dungeon, he would be engulfed in a bright white light that only seemed to grow more intense, until the entire area around them was engulfed in light. As he continued to walk forward, their worlds would soon enough begin to grow darker and darker. his body would begin to grow heavier and heavier, the chill from the forest starting to permeate their very beings. It was like walking through a wall of solid cold, and the more he walked the heavier his body became.

Eventually, unable to walk anymore, his consciousness would fade and even his eyes would grow dark.

...

Nothing

...

Cursed

...

...

Trapped

...

Dead?

...

No? You aren't dead? You are alive? Haha, you believe anything in this world is really alive? We die and the strong come back. The weak are doomed to wander the Forests and Labyrinths forever. We live forever in this cycle of death, where we are all trapped, doomed to die and die again until we become Lost and lose said ability. If you think you can escape it... if you think you are strong enough to face this Cursed World... then awaken.

Suddenly, before he would wake up, he would feel something gripping his entire form, and then the gentle movement of a bumpy road would be the first thing he would feel right before he would awaken, now being face to face with three others. [/fieldbox]

[fieldbox= +1/-1 Passenger, red, solid]
Unfortunately Ryu would suddenly vanish. He most likely had to log off or something along those lines due to real life issues. As Ryu disappeared, the old crone that was driving the wagon along at a decent pace would suddenly let out a slight cackle.

"So your new friend has left huh dearies?" she laughed in her slightly raspy voice. "Don't worry, ill find you a new one" she spoke, before suddenly the wagon stopped. The driver seemed to get off, the sounds of some shuffling being heard outside of the wagon, before the inside of the wagon went completely dark. No sound, no light. Nothing.

Then, in the blink of an eye there was another passenger within the wagon. A white haired, green eyed man with some form of strange bronze gauntlets of some kind upon his hands, a caestus more specifically for those who would know about this type of thing.

"See what did I tell you. A new friend, a new friend that you all can go die together with. Or perhaps a new friend to grow powerful with? Or a new friend to stab in the back. I am merely a guide, so do what you wish with your new friend".

Now there were four players in the carriage once again, this old crone becoming stranger and stranger by the minute with each thing she said. Was she really an NPC? There had been rumors of people using these types of games for acting jobs or other such things. Perhaps this old woman was one of those people? [/fieldbox]

​

 

[Illin]

[fieldbox= Rumeus, olive, solid]

Rumeus let out a slight frown at Tsukikage's response.

"Umm..."

Well, Tsukikage seemed to not be the friendly type, at least not with strangers.

("I mean, 'name's floating above me' has more syllables than "Tsukikage'...")

Or the listening type either. He said that SBO was his first VRMMORPG, but she still asked such a question.

("Or maybe it was a leading question, and when I would respond with 'no', she would say some negative thing.")

When he was about to answer despite the possibility of it being a leading question, the man named "Soren" introduced himself.

"I may like this party. Though I do wonder...."

He nodded, then fell silent. Rumeus tilted his head, waiting to see if he would finish his thought. When he didn't, Rumeus suppressed a sigh and forced an awkward smile. Even though these people gave off an awkward first impression, that was merely a first impression. Rumeus wasn't the type of person to just give up on a person after one incident. Besides, it was a game after all. In his experience, most people who played games didn't have much social experience or delicacy, even more so in RPGs. So he should have expected this type of eccentric behavior, but he was still a bit discouraged nonetheless.

"What do you wond-"

A person disappeared from his peripheral vision. Then, the old woman spoke her lines, and a new stranger popped up in place of the one that disappeared. Rumeus waited for her to finish, still not thinking that she was anything other than an NPC. He then looked at the new arrival, and spoke, a small smile on his face.

"Hello there. Huh, it's a bit strange she isn't restarting her dialogue. Was waiting for that. Well, I'll give you the summary. She found us outside the forest, something about souls yada-yada, and we're heading to the town of Clearwater. I'm Rumeus, he is Soren, and she is Tsukikage. Ah, that's right."

Rumeus sent friend and party invites to this new stranger. Without waiting to see if he accepted or not, he continued.

"Before you appeared, I was about to answer Tsukikage."

He turned to Tsukikage, his smile replaced with a neutral expression.

"To answer your question from before, I don't have any experience in party play in VRMMORPGS, SBO being my first one. Though, I'm not unfamiliar with how party play works in typical RPGs. Why do you ask?"[/fieldbox]

 

[Zombehs]

While he could not fault the immersive sensation offered by Soul Blade, Keter did admittedly find the sequence a bit annoying. Walking ahead aimlessly and blindly was far from fun, and it didn't help that his body had begun to shiver uncontrollably. Pins and needles stabbed into every limb with the slightest of movements, and eventually he simply felt things give up as his body fell to the ground. At the very least he wasn't trapped in his immobile body for very long, his eyelids growing too heavy to keep open shortly afterwards.

What followed afterwards felt rather odd and out of place, but Keter wasn't sure if that was just his inability to take such "heavy" warnings seriously. Whatever the case was, his inability to move vanished quickly as his hands clenched into fists. He remained still for a moment and then sat up slowly as he cracked his eyes open to look around. For a moment he focused upon the person that had spoke, and he felt his Observe Art activate even as he dismissed her as most likely being a NPC. Most likely.

As for the other three individuals in the wagon with him: there was jailbait, easily identifiable face tat, and then someone rather plain. It was probably just a fact of life as low-level players that their equipment would only be so diverse Keter supposed. He nodded politely when Rumeus explained things rather briefly before he accepted the party invite and declined the friend request. While the other three could glance at his name easily enough, Keter still waved a hand in greeting towards them. "Keter."

He, of course, then promptly Observed all three of them while Rumeus and Tsukikage finished their discussion.

 

[Renose]

[fieldbox= Keter, Blue, Solid]
Keter attempted to utilize his Art on each person in the wagon. Luckily Arts could be invoked silently, so it would merely look like he was just looking over each person for a few seconds rather than using some sort of ability upon them.

Observation (The Driver)
79 - 22 Observe = 57

Unfortunately on that angle, nothing really popped up. So either it didn't work or there was nothing the game had to offer on this old woman. The better possibility, since Observe was meant to be used on living persons and creatures alike, was that it just didn't work on this mysterious old crone, who didn't seem to notice at all that Keter was looking her over since, of course, her cloaked back was to them.

Observation (Tsukikage)
20 - 22 Observe = -2

Observing the rogue like girl, this time, actually did make a window appear, so it was most likely that his Art was working; just not on the old woman apparently.

Tsukikage

Name
Tsukikage

Race
Human

A new person to this world, this particular human seems to have a very small, lithe frame; almost like a child even if the expression she was wearing would obviously suggest otherwise. Most likely prefers speed given the lack of armor and light daggers she is carrying.


Endurance
33/33
Wounds
0

Soul (So)
15

Might (Mi)
10

Quick (Qu)
??

Finesse (Fin)
10

Cunning (Cu)
1

Attunement (Att)
10

Luck (Lu)
1

His Observe Art went up to Level 6 after that one. So it meant the Art was indeed working, although for some reason her Quick wasn't visible to him. Perhaps that was due to needing higher levels to see that particular Stat, since it was most likely higher than the rest. After Observing Tsukikage, Keter then moved on to Rumeus.

Observe
12 - 22 = -10

Like last time, yet another window appeared before Keter.

Rumeus

Name
Rumeus

Race
Human

Judging by the brown stone they are carrying and lack of any other defining equipment except a ring and a necklace with a small, blue stone in it this human prefers to utilize the mystical powers of Ether. Their strong Soul means that they can utilize their powers a bit more often than others around this level of experience.

Endurance (En)
6/6
Wounds
0

Soul (So)
32/32

Might (Mi)
1

Quick (Qu)
??

Finesse (Fin)
1

Cunning (Cu)
1

Attunement (Att)
??

Luck (Lu)
1

So while every other Stat seemed to be well... not good... his Quick and Attunement w,ere high enough to be hidden from the view of Keter's Observe Art. As such, it seemed like he perhaps was some form of quick Ether user?

Then finally came the man with the facial tattoos, or Soren as the name above his head suggested.

Observe (Soren)
94 - 22 Observe = 72

Unfortunately, unlike with Tsukikage and Rumeus, the Art just didn't seem to work on Soren. A more likely story though, since the old crone was alot more mysterious and not some brand new player to this world, was that he just didn't Observe Soren right, and that is why no window appeared offering new insight to this player. So other than his Endurance and Soul Scores, which were visible in the upper left corner of his vision beneath his own bars like it would be in any other MMO since they were in a party, there was no new information to go on about this particular player.

[/fieldbox]






​

 

[Omnial]

"Hmmm, A new face to replace the old one, except this one talks." Soren looked at the new person sitting in the wagon with them, trying to see if he could place what is role in the party may be. "Nope." He shrugged, unable to see it with just the basic starting stuff he had and without seeing any skills used. He sat back to enjoy the ride, and listen in to the rest of Remeus' conversations. He seems the type who will keep things entertaining, He seems socially normal, I may stick with this one for a while.

Soren looked at Rumeus, then looked over to Tsukikage, wanting to see how their conversation would unfold.