Strangest Thing [Mentor/Invite]

[Deleted]

Jacoben HP: 100% MP: 100%

"Any treasure you obtain without ever having to work for it is no treasure at all."

It was an interesting experience, Jacoben mused, going through the old and familiar movements and routines in his newer body. He'd been doing it for ten years now in his original body, and he'd had only one year to get accustomed to being a Foxtail. He hadn't practiced as much since coming to the world of Elder Tales either, having to become more acquainted with fighting as a Sorcerer. Despite that he had never been quicker, the motions had never been easier, and he was sure if he actually put them to the test his Adventurer body would be able to outshine every capability his original body had.

Holding himself in a Horse stance, the Foxtail pondered how he should alter the routines that he had been doing since he had started training as a child, after all the style had not been designed for a user with multiple tails in mind and the positioning of his tails effected every move he made. When making a simple strike like a punch or a chop it was fairly straightforward, his additional limbs shifting instinctively to aid in his balance, but what if he could use them in a more proactive way?

Perhaps if he could consciously move the tails during combat then it could increase the versatility of his skills, useless as they were in most combat situations in the world of Elder Tales. Perhaps if he had been a Monk... Ah well, it didn't matter. Remaining in the stance the little Sorcerer closed his eyes and steadied his breathing, the sounds of the forest soothing him and the light dappled his skin as the leaves of the wooded clearing shaded him from the full force of the sun. It was a good day for this.

OOC NOTES:

Word Count: 429 (295+133 [1.25 Mentor Bonus + .20 Coconia Bonus])

Tags: Shuwen

Made by Sifr of GS, Synesthesia and Adoxography.

[Shuwen]

Words: 622

Shuwen had decided to get up early, to try and get a head start on farming monsters in Windsor forest before the parties came. Perhaps it wasn’t a great idea, but his level was high enough that he didn’t really have to worry about getting ganked unless he engaged in pvp or did something stupid, or both. So the odds were pretty low. The first worthwhile monster he found was a pitted boar. After agroing it with his crossbow, he waited until it’s charge brought it close, then jumped to the side. He was trying to work on front kicking it’s ribs as it passed by, but as his balance wasn’t particularly good, the time frame in which he could do so wasn’t large enough to take advantage of, so he and the monster ended up just passing each other, doing no damage to either party. He figured if he practiced it more, he could probably get the timing down sooner or later and he’d be able to beat it much more easily, possibly without even taking any damage from the monster. However, after a few failed attempts, he realized it would probably take too long to be worth doing so. If he set his feet first, he might have better luck, but the boar could pick up on that kind of thing, and switch to a sideways slashing attack when he jumped, making his efforts all for nought.

A few more failed attempts into the fight, he accidently found himself in a bad location, positioned between several tight trees that would make it extremely difficult to evade, and ended up having to fall back a short distance to get out of it. Once he was clear, he spun on the ball of one foot and faced it. Needless to say, the boar wasn’t very impressed. It hit him with a sideways slash with its tusks, he countered with a punch towards it’s jaw. The momentum from the boar’s charge led it past him, bringing it out of it’s attack range, but not quite out of Shuwen’s. He followed up with Zoom attack, hitting the boar from behind and disrupting it’s balance. Squealing angrily, it turned as hard as it could and attempted to charge him again, but Shuwen didn’t give it enough time. Taking a step forward, he used Aura kick to once again strike it from a short distance, then once it was close enough to attack, he punched it. That was enough to bring it’s HP down to zero, but not before it managed to slash him again with it’s tusks. Gah. He thought, disappointed despite his victory.

As the boar vanished in a stream of bubbles, he scanned the area to see if there were any other mobs coming to engage him. He didn’t find any of those, but he did find something else, someone else to be exact. A fox tail Sorcerer he’d met not long ago. “Uh, hi? He half greeted, half asked. Needless to say, he felt more then a little awkward for not noticing the other player sooner. I guess I wasn’t the only person who wanted to start grinding early today. However, even as he thought that, he realized that might not have been the case. The Sorcerer didn’t seem to be engaged in combat, or anything else with movement. Instead, he stood in place, his legs in a vaguely familiar stance. Recognition dampened the awkwardness as he realized what the other player was doing. “Hey, is that a horse stance?” Though he hadn’t taken kung fu, his “Taekwondo” instructor had shamelessly taught his students a myriad of techniques and exercises from other disciplines and styles, the horse stance was one of them.

[Deleted]

Jacoben HP: 100% MP: 100%

"Any treasure you obtain without ever having to work for it is no treasure at all."

With a final deep breath Jacoben was about to launch into a new set, trying to find something that would give him an opportunity to figure out ways to use his tail in a close quarters situation. However the moment he began to move a voice called out to him and he was forced to abort the movement, his bare feet skidding slightly on the grass as mismatched eyes turned to face the direction that the voice had come from, his second tail fading away in an instant as if to hide itself from scrutiny.

Blinking slightly as he took in the short man before him, Jacoben felt himself flush in embarrassment, both for being caught practicing as well as for the state he had been in the last time he had seen the monk Shuwen. "A...ah... yes, it is" he answered nervously, straightening up now that he had an audience who might observe him practice. When last he and the monk had met the Sorcerer had been the centre of a rather unpleasant disagreement between two other men, and Shuwen had ducked off just as Jacoben had finally lost his temper with the situation. Certainly not the best impression to have left on someone.

It didn't seem as though Shuwen was going to hold that against him however, the monk's attitude not really scornful or cruel, so perhaps he wouldn't bring up the very embarrassing incident and they'd be able to interact as best they could without the large weight hanging over them. "I suppose it seems weird right? A what with me being a Sorcerer and all.... I probably should just forget about it and focus on my magic, but I've been a practitioner for years and I don't really want to let that go to waste..." he trailed off sheepishly.

Really, he would benefit more if he continued to practice with his magic and grinded mobs. His body was fitter than was possible for a normal human, so it's not like he needed to do it for fitness, and as a Sorcerer his greatest combat abilities stemmed from his magical capabilities. Yet here he was practicing Kung Fu as though it had any practical application in this new world. Even the meditative and spiritual aspects could be moved on to work in conjunction with more useful areas.

"So umm...what brings you out here?" Jac inquired hesitantly, now trying to draw some attention away from his silly pursuits and doing a terrible job of it. It was fairly obvious why Shuwen was here after all, to grind up some more levels, and Jac was the one who was holding him back by trying and failing (at least in his mind) to be sociable towards the Monk. The Foxtail felt like hitting his forehead a few times to alleviate the sudden feeling of stupidity that had washed over him, but that would only make it even more awkward as he'd be revealing to Shuwen how he was feeling and he couldn't stand for that.

Instead he took a few more (subtle) deep breaths and tried to keep his body from revealing just how nervous he was as he waited for a response or a clear way to get out of the awkward situation.

OOC NOTES:

Word Count: 799 (544+245[1.25 Mentor Bonus + .20 Coconia Bonus])

Tags: Shuwen

Made by Sifr of GS, Synesthesia and Adoxography.

[Shuwen]

Words: 372

As he’d thought, the foxtail was someone he knew. It was Jacoben, the equally socially awkward foxtail he’d met at the Coconia festival over at Stanford. The one he’d run out on when he realized he was in the middle of something akin to a love square. He didn’t think he’d made the wrong decision at the time, and still didn’t think so, but he couldn’t help but feel the move had been a bit… cowardly.

Fortunately, it didn’t seem like the Sorcerer had held any hard feelings from that time, at least none that he could disconcern. It also seemed like he may have made a mistake; he’d assumed that the Sorcerer had caught sight of him while he was fighting, and had been feeling awkward because of it, but he seemed to have been mistaken. The Sorcerer hadn’t actually been looking his way, and he seemed just as surprised when the Monk chose to call out to him. I get the feeling I seriously got the wrong impression of this guy. Clearly embarrassed about having been seen, he started talking self-deprecatingly about his insistence on practicing what he knew in a world where it probably wouldn’t make much difference.

“There’s nothing wrong about maintaining your body, or your control over it.” Like most people in modern times, he hadn’t taken martial arts strictly to learn how to fight. If he had, the training probably would have been far harsher, among other things. He’d learned it for a combination of fitness, fun, as a social activity, and to build self-confidence, so it wasn’t hard to understand why someone would want to continue practicing what they’d learned, even if they weren’t planning to use their body for combat. “I’m sorry about interrupting you; I bet it’s a pain to be practicing in front of someone who isn’t a peer.” He’d tried that once. It didn’t go well. “What discipline were you taught?”

Jacoben inquired why he was out there. “I was practicing, and leveling.” He replied, nodding in the general direction the boar he’d been fighting had come from. He hadn't quite realized Jacobin had asked the question to merely distract him, so he responded earnestly. “I wanted to beat the late morning rush to farm. I guess I’m not the only person who had that idea in mind.”

[Deleted]

Jacoben HP: 100% MP: 100%

"Any treasure you obtain without ever having to work for it is no treasure at all."

"Ah...Lau Gar Kung Fu," the Foxtail responded sheepishly, still rather uncertain as to how to take the appearance of the Monk during what was supposed to be private training time. Still, it wasn't like Jac was the owner of the zone or anything, so he couldn't claim that the other male had to leave. Instead he decided to try and be a little bit more sociable, hoping to leave a better impression on Shuwen than he likely had during the Coconia Festival because he didn't like his poor handling of the situation that had driven the Wolfhair off previously.

"It...can be difficult," he conceded, "I find it a bit hard to practice even with others of the same school. It made it really hard when they asked me to instruct the novices, but that was part of becoming a higher rank I suppose..." he trailed off, somewhat embarrassed at the memories that brought up. A particularly bad time had been when someone older and physically stronger than him had protested being taught by a 'scrawny weakling' and had left the school after Jacoben had dropped him to the floor ten seconds in. He had been training for over ten years and the loud man had only just joined, but it had rattled his confidence nonetheless.

He listened as Shuwen explained what had brought him here, and after a few moments contemplation he made a tentative offer. "Perhaps we could farm together then? I don't think I will be getting any practice in now, and I could probably do to level up a bit more, I'm kinda low levelled compared to a lot of others I guess." He hadn't really spent much time on quests or farming, happy enough to live a more comfortable and interesting life here in the world of Elder Tales without doing anything particularly strenuous.

A bit of combat certainly wouldn't hurt him, especially if he had a partner for it. The area wasn't particularly high levelled and there would be enough enemies around for the two of them to fight should they start now, before others arrived and they had to race to tag the foes or wait for them to respawn. Plus it would be interesting to view how a monk moved, maybe he would be able to incorporate some of it into his sets later if he got a chance to examine the melee class skills. They wouldn't really help a physically weak (for an adventurer at least, he was several magnitudes stronger here than he was in his old life after all) Sorcerer, but it was a good mental exercise as well, and helped him move better in combat situations.

"Or I suppose I could let you go on your way...I wouldn't want to intrude on your time," he added after a few heartbeats as uncertainty made itself known in his mind. He was getting a little more confident as time passed, but it he was still very shy and meek. This meant that his anxiety often got the better of him and left him in a situation like this, doubting his own decisions and thinking that the worst of any situation was going to occur. Still, he was able to prevent his body from giving away any of his doubts as he awaited the monk's response.

OOC NOTES:

Word Count: 803 (554+249 [1.25 Mentor Bonus + .20 Coconia Charm Bonus])

Tags: @shuwen

Made by Sifr of GS, Synesthesia and Adoxography.

[Shuwen]

Words: 513

@eleri responded, saying the name of his discipline. It wasn’t a style he’d heard of before. He’d heard of Hung Gar, but only in a particularly instructive manga, so his knowledge was far from complete or worth bringing up. “Huh, okay.”

“Ah yeah, that was a pain, I didn’t get far enough to act as an instructor though.” Not entirely true, in regards to the material needed to know how to teach, Shuwen knew most of it. However, his instructor claimed that teaching required a whole nother set of skills in addition to that, it wasn’t just a matter at being good at martial arts, and he’d deemed him totally unsuited for teaching. Sure, if he got partnered with a newbie for an exercise or drill, he wouldn’t mind walking him through it. And when they sparred, he had enough self control to keep himself from simply blowing said newbie away, but he couldn’t do any of those things without supervision from a proper instructor, and wasn’t able to provide supervision himself. Considering that doing so would have probably only increased his workload, Shuwen didn’t particularly mind, though it may have hurt him in the long run.

Realizing he was probably just getting in the way of the Sorcerer’s practice, he was about to turn and bit a farewell, but the Sorcerer suddenly asked if he was willing to farm with him. “Sure!” Shuwen didn’t really believe the line about him being relatively low leveled; there was certainly a solid margin between the two of them, but he could get why the Foxtail would want to party up with someone. Sorcerers had limited MP, and were relatively fragile, so they were considered to work better in a party. And Shuwen was more then happy to party up with him. They selected a direction to travel in and on they went.

The first mobs they encountered were a trio of Nepent Snatchers. Shuwen would try to get in between them, normally a disadvantageous position, but he’d decided to use his area of effect attacks on them. Leaping the remainder of the distance between his previous position and his desired position, he came down slamming his foot against the ground, using Aura Kick to strike and agro all three of them. Hopefully it would keep their attention on him and off of Jacoben as long as he didn’t use any particularly damaging or agro-attracting skills. Just in case, he quickly ducked in order to allow the Sorcerer to launch an attack with a lower chance of hitting him in the process. If the Nepent’s attention remaind on him and they tried to close in, he’d follow up by pummeling the ground with a punch, using Tiger Echo fist to hit them all again and knock them away from him, giving the monk a chance to jump back out from between them. At that point, they’d probably be too scattered to hit them all with another area of effect skill, though since he wasn’t terribly familiar with the Sorcerer’s skills, he could be wrong about that.

[Deleted]

Jacoben HP: 100% MP: 93%

"Any treasure you obtain without ever having to work for it is no treasure at all."

Following the Monk, Jacoben readied himself for combat when they stumbled across a group of Nepent Snatchers. In an instant his single tail had fanned out to reveal a second, his crystal ball floating out of its small satchel to hover just off his spread hand as his ears flattened against his skull. With tails twitching excitedly the Sorcerer watched and waited patiently as Shuwen began the attack to grab aggro. It was somewhat annoying to have to wait, but since the Monk wasn't a tank and a Sorcer was very, very, good at dealing damage he had to give the other male time to build up sufficient threat if he didn't want to get killed by their opponents.

His crystal ball began to glow as he channelled mana, arms whirling in a fluid gesture as he targeted a reasonably sized boulder nearby. Another movement had the stone lift itself from its location and hurtle through the air towards one of the Nepents, slamming into the creature's back from an unexpected angle even as Shuwen began to knock them backwards. Jacoben wasn't idle however, moving onto a new spell the moment the previous one had finished, wanting to catch their opponents while they were all grouped up. Unlike other MMOs it was impossible to continue chaining skills continuously due to the long cooldown periods, but to make up for that basic attacks were much more feasible options.

As he finished the casting motion a ball of fire erupted from his palms before it rocketed off past Shuwen and slammed into the nearest foe, bouncing off of it to hit the other two one after another. He wasn't sure if it was enough to kill any of them, but it was sure to put a dent in the HP considering the plant creatures' weakness to fire, which was quite useful to the two Adventurers. Moments after the Orb of Lava bounced between the monsters Shuwen sent them flying with one of his skills, spreading them out far enough that the Foxtail felt confident in getting closer.

Glowing slightly as he focused on the enemy that had been struck by the flying boulder in addition to his Orb of Lava (and thus the weakest of the trio), the Sorcerer disappeared suddenly only to reappear just in front of the monster. Eyes widening slightly as he realised the spell had put him a little bit closer to the creature than he had intended, Jacoben was forced to bend backwards to avoid a swiping tendril that could have really hurt, his left hand pressing against the ground as he turned the momentum into a cartwheel which gave him enough room to send his crystal ball flying into the monster with a flick of the wrist, finishing it off with a final blow. It was lucky he was martially trained, it made dodging attacks so much easier than they might have been. With one foe defeated the silver haired youth turned to see what was happening with the other two Nepent Snatchers, confident that Shuwen would be capable of defeating the remaining foes without much difficulty. After all, it wasn't like they were particularly strong enemies, a few punches would probably be enough to do it.

OOC NOTES:
Word Count: 784 (541+243 [1.25 Mentor Bonus + .20 Coconia Charm Bonus])

Tags: Shuwen

Abilities Used:
- Psychic Conductor
- Orb of Lava
- Blink

Made by Sifr of GS, Synesthesia and Adoxography.

[Shuwen]

Words: 618

It seemed his guess was off; he’d expected @eleri would want to hit the Nepants with an area of effect attack before he knocked them all helter skelter, but apparently not. Instead, as he proceeded to knock them back, the Sorcerer used some kind of telekinesis skill the monk wasn’t familiar with to hit one of them from behind with a boulder. It was certainly a bit more subtle then the last two Sorcerers he’d partied up with, at least relatively. However, he quickly followed up with more familiar fire attacks to take advantage of their elemental weakness. Orb of Lava seemed to be a favorite of sorcerers everywhere, at least as far as Shuwen could tell, because most of the ones he’d met seemed to like using it almost right off the bat. The fireball flew over his head and ricocheted between mobs. Jacoben used Blink to advance on the nearest one, presumably leaving the other two to him. Okay then.

His area of effect attacks had cooldowns of ten seconds, so he couldn’t use them again right away, which was a bit of a bummer, but he’d live. Since there’s two of them, I should probably line them up so they can’t flank me. It was something he’d learned from his instructor. The best way to deal with two opponents was to put one in between him and the second opponent, so the one that was farther away couldn’t attack him. Of course, since they’d be moving around and constantly jockeying for a better position, he’d have to keep moving to in order to maintain that advantage. Circling around towards the closer one, he used Iron Body, causing his skin to change color, and his speed to decrease a bit, though in exchange it boosted his attack and defense. He started with a one two punch combination, to which the Nepent responded with a lash attack. He saw that the second plant was trying to move around it’s compatriot and get in a position to attack, so he moved in the opposite manner to ensure it didn’t. Since using Iron Body slowed him down somewhat, Shuwen had to make sure he wasn’t about to get caught in a bad position, and figure out the best way to move in advance before he was flanked. Turning, he hit the plant with a round kick, followed by an elbow. It’s a shame I can’t jam their attacks, but those tendrils don’t have joints, it wouldn’t work. There wasn’t much point in trying to throw them either; their roots provided all the support the Nepents needed to make it a chore for him. The plant reached down with it’s “flower” and tried to bite his head off. Shuwen countered with a front kick, forcing it’s “mouth” closed. It was still able to damage him by ramming, but it wasn’t as damaging, nor was it as incapacitating as being half-swallowed would be. Fortunately, another punch was all he needed to bring the plant’s HP down to zero, causing it to vanish in a stream of bubbles.

And now for the second one. Like the first, it attacked by lashing out with its tendrils, but it was far enough away that he could dodge it by stepping back. He then pulled out a throwing needle and threw it at the monster, dealing a small amount of damage. I definitely need to get those upgraded before long. Starter equipment isn’t going to carry me through much longer. As it moved forward so he was once again in attack range, Shuwen hit it again with a side kick, using Zoom Attack so he’d maintain a range advantage and push it back a little.

[Deleted]

Jacoben HP: 100% MP: 93%

"Any treasure you obtain without ever having to work for it is no treasure at all."

With his opponent defeated he was able to watch as the Monk carefully ensured that his two opponents couldn't surround him, demonstrating a good knowledge of the sort of tactics one needed when fighting in close quarters combat. Running towards Shuwen, Jac readied himself to join the battle once more, the simple opponents that they fought not really worth the trouble but he wanted to try and get into the rhythm of fighting once more. He examined the situation carefully as the Wolf Hair struck down one of the Snatchers and knocked back the other, inadvertently pushing it closer to the Foxtail that was running up behind it.

A sharp gesture of his right hand had his crystal ball fly through the air and slam into the creature, a second gesture altering its trajectory so that it could strike again. Sliding into a stance he had used hundreds of times before when he trained in Lau Gar he brought the dull crystal back before his hands where it hovered briefly before he pushed forwards with his arms and embedded the weapon deep into the plant monster's body, finishing it off thanks to Shuwen's previous attacks on it.

With the battle over the Foxtail looked down at his crystal ball with a bit of irritation. It should have done much more damage than it had, but he still hadn't replaced it. He supposed that meant he needed to get on to crafting one for himself so he was no longer using such a basic weapon. It had been ok for a while, especially considering his lack of combat up until recently. Oh well, there wasn't much that he could do about that right now, at least he had a compatriot to help him rather than trying to solo grind.

"Well, let's move on," Jac suggested calmly after they had gathered whatever meagre rewards they got for their kills. Leading the other male off into the woods they would soon stumble across a pair of Pittered Boars that had their noses in the undergrowth, obviously eating something. The youthful Sorcerer gestured for Shuwen to go first knowing that if he drew aggro, even with his higher level, he'd get flattened into a paste by the two boars fairly quickly.

Readying his crystal ball Jacoben pondered the best course of action, it wasn't like he had that many skills to choose from just yet, and his gear was subpar for his level, which meant even though he was higher level than the enemies he had to be careful what he did otherwise he might end up dead. Of course, he had to account for what Shuwen did as well before he could actually put any plan into action.

OOC NOTES:
Word Count: 659 (455+204 [1.25 Mentor Bonus + 0.2 Coconia Charm Bonus])

Tags: @shuwen

Made by Sifr of GS, Synesthesia and Adoxography.

[Shuwen]

Words: 425

As he pushed back the remaining Nepant, @eleri, who had apparently finished off his opponent, joined him, striking it from behind with a crystal ball. Getting in what appeared to be a martial arts stance, he struck again with the ball, ramming it into the monster and reducing its HP to zero. With that, the fight was over. “Not bad.” He told the Sorcerer. “Did ramming it in cause it to do more damage or something?” He hadn’t been able to tell from where he was standing, but it seemed like it would be an oddly showy move if it didn’t have a purpose, especially with Jacoben, who didn’t seem to be the flashy type.

The next monsters they ran into were a pair of pitted boars, Jacoben gestured towards him to go first. “Alright.” He jumped up and came down with an Aura Kick, agroing them both, then quickly circled around to get them lined up. As expected, they quickly started to charge towards him. He responded a side kick aided by Zoom Attack to kick it between the eyes. It staggered the first boar just enough to make the second boar accidentally run into it from behind, damaging the first one yet again. As they were clustered up, it was probably an ideal time for Jacoben to hit them with a magic attack. Assuming they were still relatively close, and weren’t already dead, he’d follow up with a Tiger Echo Fist to keep them off balance, followed by two kicks aimed at the nearest boar, which would probably be enough to finish it off.

“The Monk class suits me well, I think.” He commented offhandedly once the fight was over. “Even though I was playing a Guardian before the server change, I don’t mind fighting without heavy armor or weapons.” He scratched his head. “The only issue is a lot of the martial arts I know either doesn’t apply due to changes between world (or whatever we’re in), or it’s only effective against humanoid opponents, which is also an issue, since most of what I fight isn’t.” He turned towards Jacoben. “Have you been having similer issues?” That might have been a somewhat stupid question; considering he wasn’t using a melee class, it was unlikely Jacoben used it enough for that to be an issue. Or perhaps it was, he wasn’t sure. “Do you have any ideas for getting around that?” He'd been making efforts to adapt, and having stumbled upon another martial artist, it seemed like a good time to compare notes.

[Deleted]

Jacoben HP: 100% MP: 87%

"Any treasure you obtain without ever having to work for it is no treasure at all."

"Magic is all about mindset, and the Crystal Ball is technically a magical implement, I'm not sure if it gives it a noticeable effect but it feels like it hits harder when I do that, just like it probably feels more powerful to throw a heavy punch rather than a jab," the Foxtail responded in regards to the query about his final attack. He wasn't certain that it changed anything, but it seemed to move just a bit harder and faster when he put effort into it rather than just telekinetically whipping it around.

But there was more to do than chat idly about his theory regarding basic attacks, those two Boars wouldn't kill themselves after all. Watching as Shuwen bunched up the two animals the Sorcerer began to move his arms to cast his spell, the movements smooth and fluid as a length of ice appeared beside him before hurtling forward and slamming into the rearmost boar. With the Frost Spear embedded in its back the boar was slowed down significantly, which would help Shuwen avoid getting attacked by both of the mobs simultaneously.

A grasping gestured had a large branch slowly rise from the woodland floor and hurl itself into the slowed Pittered Boar, knocking its head aside with a grisly crunching sound as he took out the remainder of its HP and it disappeared into basic items. This left the other boar that Shuwen was fighting to go, though it seemed very near death and he decided to leave it to the Monk while he waited for his cooldowns to finish. Once the creature was dead they were able to converse as they gathered up the gold and whatever else might have dropped.

"I can imagine it's difficult, though I don't know what school you're trained in," the Foxtail began, his twin tails waving calmly behind him as he stood up and stretched. "As a caster a lot of what I can benefit from is the spiritual side of the art, meditation and self-restraint, that sort of thing has been really useful to me since it seems to have an effect on the way I use my Mana. Also the flexibility and agility has been life saving in dodging attacks that I would have had a lot of issues with. But actual contact? That's not something that I've really experienced since coming here, even my basic attacks have a degree of range to them." Jac rubbed his chin as he pondered the situation, trying to think of a way that might help Shuwen better use his fighting skills from both this and the previous worlds at the same time.

"If you want we could go through a list of common opponents and try and determine the best way to alter the styles we know to suit them?" he suggested after a few moments of thinking. After all, two heads were better than one. If the two of them worked together then they might be able to figure out how to alter any number of their usual actions into something that could be used against the monsters that inhabited the world of Elder Tales. It wasn't like they had been trained in fighting wolves and boars and far more mythical monstrous creatures that they could potentially come across when exploring this world.

OOC NOTES:
Word Count: 803 (554+249 [1.25 Mentor Bonus + 0.2 Coconia Charm Bonus])

Tags: Shuwen

Made by Sifr of GS, Synesthesia and Adoxography.

[Shuwen]

Words: 413

“So it was the psychological effect you were after, not the physical. That makes sense.” That was a little disappointing, but not wholly unexpected; he’d figured @eleri might have stumbled on to something.

As he attacked the first boar, the Sorcerer went after the second one with magic, using an Ice attack to slow it down, before following up with a telekinesis attack, leaving it for Shuwen to finish with a normal attack.

Apparently, there wasn’t much Jacoben could do without knowing what school he trained in. The Monk scratched his head ackwardly. “Heh, to tell you the truth, I don’t really know either. My instructor just called it ‘Taekwando’, and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t just that; we had bits of boxing, Akido, Judo, and whathaveyou mixed in. I guess you could say it’s a modern hybrid of... something or another.”[/b] He’d figured they’d be able to use their shared interest as a conversational topic, but it didn’t look like that was getting very far. Aw well. Eleri went on about how it had benefitted him, but it didn’t seem like he’d come up with anything particularly useful or innovative, so he was beginning to tune the guy out, until he suggested they come up with something together.

“I needed to adapt what I know a bit to fit the monsters here, but the things I’ve used the most are holds, throws, and jams. Holding obviously allows you to pin an opponent, and possibly do a small amount of damage over time. Throwing is great for controlling distance, and if you throw enemies into each other, they’re good for crowd control. Jaming is good for increasing the effectiveness attack interception, I’m guessing it could be particularly useful for player versus player combat, though I haven’t had a chance to test that, nor do I want to.”

“Well, the Nepents are a pretty good example of what I’m talking about. Their roots give them too much support to knock over or throw, and their vines are too flexible to pin or jam, so all I’ve been able to use against them are footwork and maneuvering tactics. Boars are a bit easier; they rely a lot on forward momentum and charging, so disrupting that in the right way can pretty much cripple them. Their tusks are neigh-impossible to pin or jam though, and their center of gravity is too low to throw them.” He scratched his head, trying to think about it some more.

[Deleted]

Jacoben HP: 100% MP: 87%

"Any treasure you obtain without ever having to work for it is no treasure at all."

"Hmm, Taekwando huh? Doesn't that have an emphasis on kicks?" the Foxtail Sorcerer inquired as he tried to consider how the Korean art would be able to be altered to suit the strange world that they now inhabited. Although he did say it was mostly a hybrid form of various other martial arts as well, so it wasn't the best idea to simply try and classify whatever it was that Shuwen actual knew. Instead he would have to start from the foundations and they could work from there, perhaps they could come up with a good style for dealing with the various non-humanoid threats that they faced in their lives nowadays.

"Holds would be fairly useful for when you're in a party too, since you can prevent the enemy from moving long enough for your allies to take them down. At the moment I think what we should consider is the styles outside of our own. It sounds like most of your stuff is what we call a hard style, locks and holds and the like, and Lau Gar is fairly similar in that most of it is aggressive and straight forward," he began, partially talking to the monk and partially thinking out loud for his own benefit. "Perhaps for something like the Nepent Snatchers or the Boars it would be better to follow the principles of soft styles like Tai Chi. Instead of trying to lock their tendrils redirect the energy of the attack in a way more beneficial to you.... maybe whipping them with their own 'limbs' could work? All it would require was you altering the direction of their attack" here the Sorcerer shrugged slightly, not sure how feasible such a move would be considering the way combat worked in this world.

Of course, skills only made up a small portion of fighting. With their long cooldowns it meant the majority of the time players would be using 'basic' attacks while they waited for their stronger skills to be ready to use again. It was during this period that any martial art would be most useful, rather than when they were stuck following the animation for a skill. The problem of course was that almost every martial art was designed with fighting other human beings in mind, and the vast majority of opponents in Elder Tales were not even close to being physically similar to humans. That meant an entirely new set of moves designed simply to deal with the oddities of biology that they fought. "I think this is something we'd have to test...." the youth stated before trailing off, nor sure how the Monk felt about what he had said.

OOC NOTES:
Word Count: 645 (445+200 [1.25 Mentor Bonus + 0.2 Coconia Bonus])

Tags: Shuwen

Made by Sifr of GS, Synesthesia and Adoxography.

[Shuwen]

Words: 423

“Well, sort of. That’s its primary distinction from say, karate, but not everyone uses it that way.” Shuwen had certainly focused on kicking when he was younger, but as he’d aged, he’d been moving more into punching and hand techniques, so that was actually a harder question to answer since he hadn’t been formally trained in any other style, so it was hard to say. The style could be bent to suit the preferences of the person using it, how true that was for other styles, and how they could be changed he didn’t really know. An outsider’s perspective wasn’t usually enough to know that sort of thing.

“Well, I have had some luck applying soft style principles, but with only limited usefulness. I’ve been able to add momentum to an opponent’s attack to make them overextend, and by throwing them into each other’s attacks, but they don’t work against everything. Nepents don’t put enough nearly momentum into their attacks to overextend, and I’ve only been able to do that against boars if I could get beside or behind them, at which point it’s superfluous.” He thought about it for a moment. “Turning their attacks around and back on themselves would be a bit much, but I might be able to get nepents to hit each other if they’re close enough, but I’d some way to precisely direct their tendrils, which… I don’t really have. Tai chi might be better suited for that. Do you know any moves that might be effective for such an endevor?” As Jacobin had pointed out, most of Shuwen’s training had been in hard style techniques, so even if he knew the basic concepts of soft style martial arts, he didn’t usually possess the necessary knowledge to use it effectively.

Now that Shuwen thought about it, weren’t they pretty much making an entirely new martial art? While they did have knowledge taken from the real world, it wasn’t enough or suited for their current circumstances. Adapting what the knew to suit the world of Elder Tales required making fundamental changes to that knowledge and how it was used. Didn’t that mean they were essentially creating something new? It was an interesting thought, to say the least. How many people could claim they were attempting to invent a new martial art?

“Yeah, there’s no way to know unless we try it out ourselves. I’ve done a few things on my own, and a lot of what I tried needed adjustment, so I don’t mind having to try them out.”

[Deleted]

Jacoben HP: 100% MP: 87%

"Any treasure you obtain without ever having to work for it is no treasure at all."

The Foxtail listened patiently as Shuwen explained his thoughts on the matter of the martial application of skills from their world. It seemed like they were on their way to developing their own martial art if this continued, a style which would reflect the unique needs of Theldesia when it came to combat. That was....unexpected, particularly if the style started to spread.. they could become founders which was one of the highest honours a Martial Artist could obtain in life and the thought of such a thing almost took his breath away. A curious desire to actually explore this idea took route in the young Foxtail as his mind raced with various thoughts.

"We could probably develop a two part component, one that focuses on the mental practices that would benefit casters like myself and a physical aspect for melee classes. It's not like it'd be limited either, after all the skills I learned from my training have made it much easier to dodge enemy attacks than it would have been if I hadn't been a martial artist for as long as I have, and mental strength is useful for a combat specialist too."

The Sorcerer pondered the situation for a moment before he registered Shuwen's other question, "huh? I know some basics I suppose, but Lau Gar was a hard style not soft so it's only basics," he informed the monk, not mentioning that he had learned more about Tai Chi from Avatar: The Last Airbender than he had in formal training. Some of the concepts from that show had caused him to explore other martial arts as best he could via Youtube and Google, but he had no formal training in anything other than Lau Gar. Still, some experience in such things was better than nothing and the accuracy of internet sources was much higher than it used to be. It was no substitute for actual training but the chances of finding a combat Tai Chi practitioner in this world were slim to none.

"I think we should go and find a really weak opponent, that way we can practice without getting killed. We'll just have to make sure we're not using higher level gear or weapons so we don't kill it too easily," Jac suggested as they seemed to come to a consensus that practical experience was key to figuring out their own style for this world. Training with each other would be pointless at this stage as they wanted to develop techniques for dealing with non-human foes. Normal martial arts had more than enough tactics for dealing with humanoids and if they did end up making up their own style then they could simply integrate what they already knew about it into it.

Rolling his neck and shoulders to work out any kinks that might have developed while they had been talking Jac gestured towards Shuwen, "you probably know your way around this area better than me if you grind out here regularly. Today's the first time I've come to this location so I have no idea where we might find some suitable enemies." With that said he would follow the Wolf-hair's lead in search of a suitable practice dummy for their training.

OOC NOTES:
Word Count: 778 (537+241 [1.25 Mentor Bonus + 1.2 Coconia Bonus])

Tags: Shuwen

Made by Sifr of GS, Synesthesia and Adoxography.

[Shuwen]

Words: 514

Shuwen wasn’t quite as excited as @eleri about what they were doing, but what they were doing was certainly interesting. Circumstance had put them in an ideal position to create something new, to add to the various martial arts that already existed. Was it because they were special? Not particularly. They were simply in circumstances that their previous educations didn’t cover, and had to improvise. It was still cool though.

“Oh, right.” Due to how Jacoben had worded what he’d said earlier, he’d thought that Lau Gar had more soft style aspects. It was annoying presumptuous of himself. Judging from the Foxtail’s reaction, he only knew about as much or marginally more about soft style technique then Shuwen himself did. Whoops. He mentally backpedalled away from the subject. Though I guess practice would be a good way to make up for that.

Since it apparently wasn’t an area Jacoben frequented, Shuwen began thinking about the usual spawn points, and the enemies they could potentially practice on. A low level opponent, hmm, would you prefer a slime, a nepent, or a boar? He figured any of them would do for their purposes. Finding them in the right numbers and levels would probably be tricky, but if they had to, they could always just whittle down their numbers down to a more appropriate amount. “As for gear… don’t worry about me.” As long as he didn’t use skills or directly attack too often, it probably wouldn’t be a big deal. He gestured at what he was wearing; as a monk, he carried no weapons except his projectiles, and his armor was the default starter armor. Between the shortage of leveled crafters and the fact he’d yet to seriously move outside Windsor forest, he hadn’t needed anything more then what he’d been provided with upon character creation. Would he probably need more at some point? Most likely, but for now, it was all he had.

After hearing whatever monster type Jacoben requested, he would begin searching around for the nearest ones. He didn’t quite have their exact locations memorized, and they moved around a lot, so it wasn’t quite as simple as making a beeline to the spawning point, but he had general idea of their timing and movement patters, so he knew how to go about finding them. “We may need to whittle their numbers down a bit first. We’ll probably want to start with handing single opponents instead of starting with entire groups, but that’s up to you I guess.” He looked around to see if he could find any more of the monsters. “Speaking of which, have any alchemists or mechanics gotten around to inventing a viewing dohicky like a spyglass or binoculars? Something like that would be pretty useful in a field zone like this.” It probably would have been useless in the game, due to how the graphics were designed and the view was limited by the game's own limitations, but with those no longer being an issue, they could potentially be more useful for spotting far away enemies and the like.

[Deleted]

Jacoben HP: 100% MP: 100%

"Any treasure you obtain without ever having to work for it is no treasure at all."

"Let's go with a Nepent for now, a slime is too far beyond what we are used to when beginning and a boar is a little too familiar," the Sorcerer suggested. Once that was decided they went exploring in search for opponents to practice their skills on and hopefully develop a new form of fighting style that would help them combat the unusual foes that they came across in Theldesia. Following behind Shuwen the Foxtail thought about what he knew of Nepents and the way they moved, mentally going through a repertoire of techniques that might be useable against the plant monsters.

As they continued their search for the right mobs, Jac considered Shuwen's offhanded query, trying to figure out if he had heard anything about such creations but he came up blank after a few moments of thought. "If they have made anything like that I haven't heard of it," the Sorcerer stated with a shrug as they looked high and low for a Nepent Snatcher. He was starting to think that getting telescopes or something set up would benefit them all, twenty five minutes of fruitless searching was enough to irritate anyone.

Thankfully it was soon after the half hour mark that they would find a sole Nepent moving slowly through the woods, its tendrils whipping around slowly as though it were scenting the air like a serpent. "I guess I'll go first..." the higher levelled Adventurer offered, rolling his neck from side to side to loosen up his muscles...even if he didn't actually need to warm up like that anymore. Some habits were hard to break after all.

With that done he ran forward to catch its attention, getting almost close enough to tap its side before it acknowledge him, the level disparity meaning it wasn't as likely to attack him as it was someone like Shuwen who was much closer to its own level. Because of this he wasn't quite as prepared for its initial attack, forced to duck under a whip like swing of the creatures vines in an attempt to make sure that any potential threats to its existence were dealt with. As the Sorcerer straightened out his tails spread out into view, four fluffy silver appendages which fanned out behind him. There was no point holding them back when he would need his focus on the combat techniques that he needed to develop in order to beat the creature. At first he simply dodged, watching the way the pattern of attacks repeated over and over again, some of his clever tricks to avoid the attacks being put to the test in the face of his inhuman opponent.

"There's a pattern here, just need to find it, try and help!" he declared as he avoided another lash of its vines, his back bending into a sturdy arch as he started to move somewhat like the Nepent each swaying of his lithe body reminiscent of the plant creatures themselves as he became more and more attuned of its rhythm with every second it attacked him. Still, he couldn't quite see the pattern itself from the outside, as he was much too busy trying to avoid every swipe of the tendrils and needed to keep on his toes to avoid getting struck. "Can you see it yet?"

OOC NOTES:
Word Count: (798 [551+247, 1.25 Mentor + 0.2 Coconia Bonus])

Tags: Shuwen

Made by Sifr of GS, Synesthesia and Adoxography.

[Shuwen]

Words: 527

@eleri decided to go after the Nepents for the time being, due to being in between in regards to familiarity, with slimies being too unfamiliar, and boars being of the opposite extreme. Shuwen could agree with that logic. He… couldn’t yet conceive a way to practically apply martial art to something who’s body resembled nothing so much as a pile of jello, and a boar would probably too easy. Left to his own devices, he’d have been perfectly willing to start with a boar, then work his way up to Nepents, but it seemed Jacoben was a bit more gutsy then he was. Well, he was hardly unique in that respect.

After he asked about a viewing aid, Jacobin shook his head. It didn’t seem like he’d heard any news of any being created. The monk found that slightly irritating. After all, if someone had gone out of their way to recreate a freaking karaoke machine, you’d think someone would be willing to go out of their way to make something simpler and more practical. The monk made a mental note to suggest it to the next mechanic or alchemist he came across. An alchemist would probably have better luck then a mechanic; I don’t know if any of the playerbase has the knowledge necessary to create lenses, so magic or magitech will be needed as a substitute for something like that.

After far too much searching, they managed to find a lone Nepent. Shuwen was going to try his hand at it, but Jacoben requested to go first, so the Monk let him. After getting close enough for the Nepent to notice him, the Sorcerer proceeded to dodge every attack that came his way without counter attacking. He called out to the monk, asking if he was noticing a pattern yet. “Well, it looks like it’s alternating sides. Left tendril, right tendril, left tendril again, right tendril again, and so on. Most of the attacks seem to be horizontal or diagonal with a horizontal inclination. No vertical attacks. The optimum attack range for the swings seems to be about one to four feet, if you got any farther then that you’d be too far away, and any closer, the attack would likely jam and probably wouldn’t do any damage. No other attacks to mix things up. Don’t Nepants also usual-” He was cut off when the nepant opened it’s “mouth” and lurched it’s head/flower thing forward, attempting to grab Jacoben with it’s… not jaws, that’s what they’d be called if it was an animal. Spines maybe? The spiny things it had instead of jaws.

If it managed to capture the Sorcerer between it’s jaws, Shuwen would attempt to distract it with Rafting Taunt, causing his agro to exceed the Sorcerer’s, causing it to toss Jacoben aside and focus on him. If Jacoben managed to evade it somehow, Shuwen would do nothing. Either way, once the action was complete, he’d try to give some advice. “When I can’t dodge that attack, I normally force it’s mouth shut by either kicking the lower jaw thing upwards, or stomping on the upper jaw thing, to push them back together.”.

[Deleted]

Jacoben HP: 100% MP: 87%

"Any treasure you obtain without ever having to work for it is no treasure at all."

With Shuwen calling out the pattern that he was seeing it was becoming easier for Jacoben to anticipate the movements of the Nepent Stalker, and which meant he could better avoid the movements, moving backwards consistently to avoid getting struck when it was impossible to simply dodge aside. It wasn't particularly difficult to avoid the strikes but it was a whole different matter trying to turn that into some form of offensive movement against the creature. With its lack of bones and joints in its limbs it was more like fighting someone wielding a whip than anything, and in his experience the best way to respond to a whip was to avoid getting struck by it.

He noticed the change of attack a moment after Shuwen started to speak of it, forcing himself to bend backwards into a cartwheel to avoid the 'mouth' of the plant creature. "Ok, I think I have the basic idea," he declared as he moved back into striking range, the Foxtail's fluid movements resembling the way the Nepent's tendrils moved. It was far from perfect, but he was taking inspiration from the monster and using its own strengths against it.

Swaying from side to side he carefully avoided the swipes of the vines, his body bending as far as it could to avoid the attack even as he kept moving forward. Eventually he would move close enough that the Nepent would try and bite him again, forcing him to flip backwards and follow Shuwen's advice and kick it's lower 'jaw' to avoid the bite. Moving faster this time he'd tap the creature lightly on the trunk to signify a potential finishing blow before putting space between them to allow Shuwen to take his own turn.

"I'm not sure if it's because it's still running on a program, but as long as you keep your joints loose you can set up a pattern of swaying to avoid the attacks and get close enough for a killing blow. It's the same sort of issue facing a whip wielder, but easier to predict. If you time it right you shouldn't get hit," he explained as he cleared the range of the creature and waited for Shuwen to take over. Once the Monk engaged the monster in combat the Foxtail would watch carefully, seeing how the Wolfhair would handle it compared to him. As a Monk Shuwen would undoubtedly have an easier time fighting in this fashion, Jac was definitely focused more on how he could avoid getting hit as a softer target. Watching the movements would also help him develop his understand the way that the Nepent moved as he would be able to view its actions from the wider picture rather than being within a few meters of the creatures.

He couldn't help but wonder if he had taken the right approach in this matter, but between the two of them they would probably be able to figure out the best course of action when fighting a creature like a Nepent Snatcher. Perhaps they should make sure to come up with a method for avoiding creatures with tentacle limbs as their focus, with the specialties of a Nepent being a secondary concern. That might work, it would make a good foundational form if they did make their own school.

OOC NOTES:
Word Count: (800 [552+248, 1.25 Mentor + 0.2 Coconia Bonus])

Tags: Shuwen

Made by Sifr of GS, Synesthesia and Adoxography.

[Shuwen]

Words 536

@eleri managed to avoid the plant’s biting attack by cart wheeling backwards. After dodging a few more blows, the Sorcerer waited for it to try to bit it again, and he promptly countered by kicking it’s mouth shut as Shuwen had suggested. He tapped it again to indicate a counter attack before backing off. “You know, if you’d used a full attack just then, you probably couldn’t have recovered in time to dodge the next attack.” In Shuwen’s experience, dodging monster’s attacks wasn’t terribly difficult, but only if you completely abandoned offense. By focusing entirely on defense and evading, one could keep the damage dealt to yourself to effectively nothing, but it meant you weren’t able to do any damage in return. That was how things had been in his experience, and Monks had notably high evasion. A Sorcerer, who’s physical abilities ranged from crap to unremarkable. Jacoben was able to manage a tap, but to be honest, that wasn’t very convincing. He was, however, right about comparing the vines to whips, and using similar tactics for dealing with them.

When it was time for them to switch out, Shuwen did his best to draw the plant’s agro, using Rafting Taunt to ensure Jacoben could disengage safely, and hitting it with a few throwing needles. They didn’t do much damage, but helped draw it’s attention enough to negate Jacoben’s agro. He was about to rush in, when he realized something. The roots were the plant’s primary method of traveling over distances. In order to move quickly, it had to uproot itself. The reason he hadn’t been able to stagger it was due to its roots, but if he hit it while it was traveling…

Moving slightly to one side so Jacoben wouldn’t be caught in the attack, Shuwen lept forward, using Tiger Echo Fist to stagger it. He then charged in and hit it with a shoulder barge without giving it a chance to recover. As it was currently unrooted, he was able to successfully able to knock it onto it’s side. Huh, it worked after all. He thought, feeling more then a little exhilarated at his success. “It looks like you can still stagger it after all. If you get enough distance, it would uproot itself to come after you. If you hit it with a ranged knockback skill before it reroots, you can knock it onto one side.” However, by the time he finished speaking, the plant managed to right itself, and stuck its roots back into the round to prevent that from happening a second time. “Looks like you’ve gotta keep it busy though, or it won’t stay that way.” The Nepent lashed at him with a tendril. Shuwen ducked by jumping down into a forward roll. Instead of standing back up to resume attacking, he rolled again to the other side, dodging the next in coming tendril. At that point, he was too close to the plant for it to attack him with it’s tendrils properly, and it tried to bit him. Instead, he uppercuted it’s incoming “head” and interrupted the attack. I guess the main benefit of dodging is giving yourself the time and opportunity to move into a better position.