Windsor Castle [Hirosame/Kazuko/Midori/Scoria/Fernweh]

[Murasaki]

Hirosame
Kazuko
Midori
Scoria
Fernweh

Your adventure in the Windsor Castle Dungeon begins. You may RP the dungeon raid however you'd like, including whatever battles or puzzles you may wish to add as long as it is reasonable. 

[Hirosame]

Hiro walked up to the gateway to the Windsor Castle depths, being the first one on the scene. Hiro stood ready for the dungeon run to begin, but felt a bit disappointed that his level had been brought down dramatically from what he had just gotten it to be. Having become the strongest in the guild, and out of his group of friends, he felt himself empowered by his strength. Not to mention, he had finally gotten up to the second level of skills, which would prove to be more useful than one would think normally. However, this dungeon leveled him back down to 20. He wasn't all that disappointed, however, despite it having taken away his ability to use the second set of skills that he has learned. He was still able to use all of his first level skills, some of which he didn't have until after level 20. So it wasn't a total loss. He could still prove to be useful in the end, and would be able use those skills in this quest. He felt confident enough in his own abilities, and the skills of his allies.

Hiro took a passive stance just before the gateway, sitting in the middle of the foyer. He looked to his sides at the empty room around him, and thought about how he would certainly be able to enjoy the dungeon below. He had only ever seen the outside of this place, and since he and his allies had gotten a quest to be down in here, this was the first time he could be inside the building. Speaking of their quest, it was a fairly straightforward one. Their mission was to go through the Windsor Castle Depths, and scout out the area, while killing at least 5 of every type of monster along the way. They were sure to run into the monsters along the way, and the dungeon wasn't promised to be super long, either. If Hiro had to guess, they'd probably be in the dungeon for about an hour to an hour and a half. Certainly worth it to scout out the area. But, they had no way of recording the trip through with Fernweh's Scribe level. So, they had to do some searching.

This is how Scoria had come into play. After putting up an add for the mission, Scoria, a Druid, had answered the call, so to speak. He agreed to join the raid, so long as he could get a good set of armor, and was willing to provide other things that a Scribe could provide. Midori took full advantage of that, and requested a new Grimoire. This request was easy for Scoria, but would take some time to finish. That being the case, Scoria asked if he could bring the book with him when he arrived at the site of the raid. It didn't seem like a problem at all, so they went with it. Hiro crafted the Druid's new armor, and had been working hard on making armor and such for the rest of the guild before the beginning of the raid. This mission had been planned out for quite some time now, but it took a while to finally get together. The pace at which everyone worked at was less than steady, Hiro and Midori doing a majority of the work. Fernweh and Kazuko seemed to be off doing their own things for quite some time, which he wasn't all too happy about.

Then again, this is part 2 as to why the raid was so important to the monk. He wanted the guild to go on a quest together, and form a stronger bond as a band of friends, all working towards a common goal. Hiro looked back up from his meditative sitting position, and stood up. He looked to the gate of the dungeon, and only smirked. Apocrypha would show this dungeon just how strong it really was, and would prove to all of London that it was a fairly powerful guild in general. Being able to clear the dungeon here would get their names up a little higher in the public opinion, and would hopefully cause people to think about joining the guild as well. Hiro hoped that that would be the case, but for now, he had to focus on the raid. Clenching his fists, he nodded to himself, and to the dungeon. This would be the day that Apocrypha showed just how strong it was, as a group. And maybe Scoria could get his name out there, too, if he wanted it to be. But, judging from what he knew of the man, that didn't seem likely. Hiro snickered to himself, before turning around, with a triumphant stance, waiting for the others to arrive.

[798 Words]

[Kazuko]

As Kazuko made her way up to the gates of Windsor Castle, her fox tail features hidden as usual to make her appear like a normal human, she could make out the form of Hiro already standing there waiting for their group to assemble for this guild raid their leaders put together. The young shrine maiden wasn’t sure exactly their quest was once inside but she figured Hiro or Midori would explain in more detail once everyone was present. For the time being Kazuko resolved to do her very best as their group’s healer and field monitor. Coming up on the gates the small girl came up a short distance from Hiro, stopped, and folded her hands in front of her.



Bringing up the interface for the inventory Kazuko took a moment to go over the new gear that she had got crafted earlier as well everything else was in order. The fit of the armor fit really comfortably and gave a bit of protection, and what was better was this was able to have cloths over the top for when Masami would get around to making her shrine maiden outfit. “Hello again Hirosame. I’ll do my best today to help us in our raid." She said politely bowing to her guild leader. Even if she wasn’t in his devision the man was still a good leader, but she still didn’t know much about him.



At this point since the others hadn’t shown up yet all that could be done was to wait for them to arrive and start. Finding a tree nearby the small fox tail girl climbed up into the upper branches and leaned her back against the trunk balancing herself so as not to fall, her bow resting in her lap and quiver hanging off the side of the branch from her hip.



[Word Count: 306]

[Fernweh]

Fernweh yawned as he made his way up alongside Windsor Castle, his ears and tail stretching in time to the sudden movement and stiffening of his body. Windsor Castle, huh?~ he thought, retracing his knowledge on the area. Golems, slimes, pigs, and skeletons were on the top of his list for creatures in and around the ruined structure, but other than that it was a mystery. The mystery mostly being what kind of traps and creatures existed in the compound itself.



Apparently they weren’t the first people to go through here, as one other group had gone through for the original run. The thought didn’t really bother Fernweh too much; surprisingly enough given he had a chance to be the first to view something. What did bother him though was the lack of information that had fallen to his ears in regards to what that party had found there. The Fox Tail crossed his arms for a moment, as though to consider if there was some ulterior motive behind the lapse of data. Is it a living maze, as in it changes every day or something? Or maybe the loot isn’t something they want spread on the market before they can benefit the most from it…~ he pondered, his tail flicking back and forth, a physical representation of the gears churning away inside his skull.



Sighing and then shrugging it off, the summoner uncrossed his arms and started walking towards his destination again. To be honest, while people and their motives interested him they were nowhere near the top of his list. If they wanted to hide information for some reason, so be it. After all it would only be a few hours until he found out for himself first hand after all. Well, the rest of the guild and himself that is. Frowning, Fernweh thought about the guild and his guildmates. They were interesting to say the least, yet it seemed like only Hiro and Midori were actually close to one another to any noticeable extent. It was odd for a guild to have such an internal structure but in the end the summoner had just shoved it off to the side. If this is how we are, this is how we are.~ In other words, Fernweh wasn’t willing to do something when no one else seemed particularly bothered by it.



Though groups like this often reminded him of his two compatriots from back when they had originally found themselves in this game, Pen and Khaleesi, neither of whom he had seen in a long time. In a way, it was probably just this world and how it operated. You met people, you part with people, and you stick to some for reasons unknown. In the end it seems those two were just part of the first and second groups respectively, never breaching it across into the third group. Still though, Fernweh couldn’t help but wonder at what state those two were in and if they were faring well.



Turning the corner and coming into sight of the two party members waiting near the entrance to what he assumed to be the dungeon, the Fox Tail gave a slight wave before sitting down close to the entrance. With the cold stone on his back, he looked at the other two with a small grin before scanning for the other members of the party.

Word Count: 564
Thread Count: 564

[Midori]

Nope, no template this post. This is a rushed delivery after all. Apparently people were counting on this post to be posted before they should post, but apparently two of them already posted anyway so where's the demand for a post? Yeah, you're already figuring that this post will not be quite as serious as you expected it because frankly, introduction posts are the worst. Hey guys, nice to see you again. Hi. Hey. Kay let's go. Okay sure. I'm right behind you. And then it turns out that the actual content of the thread would most likely be somewhere starting on the second page if you were wanting to read a quest with this many people. So yeah, a helpful advice to anyone reading this thread who is not actually following this thread because you're actually interested in our writing but rather because of the possible rewards you might get from this thread (insert deep breath), you might want to skip to Page 2. Maybe. Perhaps I'll include something interesting as a reward for reading through Page 1.

This Narrator would like to point out that Windsor Castle Dungeon was pretty much an Apocrypha guild run. And then it would turn out that the popular if oddly menacing Scribe that's been making things for their group had decided to join in their party. But don't take my word for it. Read the next post. Anyway, Windsor Castle Dungeon was an interesting place that no one had really explored for some time. For about a week, it was met with much hype so wow as the initial explorers encountered the building. However, those very same explorers soon found Sarum, and now we know how popular Sarum has been. Perhaps it was mostly because someone received an item that was able to upgrade Level 1-10 materials into 11-20. Whatever. Windsor was still a mystery and this run would serve as an example to metagaming players on the standards of the raid's rewards.

Of course, Touko was here because she wanted to find out about these standards and somehow use them to her advantage. Maybe some super rare item would be replaced which probably wouldn't be great in the long run, but sell for quite a while for the duration till others spam the raid. It would have appeared that the guild had discussed in advance that they would complete the dungeon first without trying to challenge any bosses. Get a feel of the base rewards first, then consider whether it would be worth it to follow up with a second challenge. Right. This is an introduction post. The schoolgirl-looking Sorcerer had arrived shortly after Hiro and the other two members, giving them a friendly wave as she spotted them.

No dialogue. Not at all. Save it for the next post. In any case, stay turned for the next post if you want actual character development. This is still just a quick post written by Narrator using whatever came to mind.

[Scoria]

Posts. Right. Scoria had a job to do, didn't he? He was a little too busy reading a book. Books. Books were great.

BOOKS. Scoria's love of books was probably in part due to him being a Scribe and the idea of a dungeon with more BOOKS was what was mostly getting him into this raid to begin with. That, and there were more people to harass and bully and torment. He was just that kind of dude. With the look of someone who would much rather bleed an Adventurer dry rather than go on a raid with them, Scoria walked up the path straight to Midori, completely ignoring everyone else. They weren't important. Why? WHY?

Because they didn't read books. And Midori did. He knew this, of course, because Scoria had a parcel in his hands, tied together loosely with strings and covered in brown paper. It was Midori's School Revolution, and the lettering on the parcel was as pristine and clear as the Scribe could make it. He was one of the highest level scribes around, after all, and the item he was handing over was nothing less than a proper, good-quality book. Even if it was a manga. Those are books too. And as two readers of books, Scoria had a natural leaning to be appreciative of Midori, because she read books. And he liked books.

So he wasn't going to gut punch her the first chance he got. Fernweh, on the other hand, was a different story. He looked spaced out, almost like he wasn't paying attention, so Scoria materialized his beginner grimoire in his hand and threw it straight at Fernweh's face. Read a book.

In a calm voice, almost as though he hadn't just assaulted a party member with a magical weapon, Scoria spoke calmly. His permanent glare didn't help his flat, sharp expression any, nor did his untucked blazer/shirt combo. He looked like a high school delinquent, but maybe that was what he was going for? "Read a book.

I am ready." Neither of his familiars were out to play just yet, partly because he knew he'd be in this raid today to begin with.

[Hirosame]

Alright, since the writer for Hiro's posts is as unoriginal as neep, he figured he might as well continue the trend. So, here's a thread that is spawned from whatever he decided to type about. Get it? Got it? You don't? TOO DAMN BAD! Okay, let's do this.

So Hiro thought it'd be a real good idea to tell everyone about what they were supposed to do in the quest today, but it would probably end up as a long-winded speech about what they were supposed to do. So, instead of doing that, he just wrote on a piece of paper that they needed to kill 5 of every enemy in the dungeon, as well as explore the entire thing, and map it. This would prove to be the reason why Scoria was there. Because Fernweh was just a wee bit too scrubby when it came to the subject of scribe shit. No offense though, Fernweh. Love you, bro. Best Summoner NA 2014. Wait, this is the English server. Eh, NA meant the world anyways, since 'Murrica. At least, until China hops on the bandwagon and takes over everything, screaming "...for China!" to everything they believe in. But, that's enough of that.

So the mission started. Yay. Whoopee. Yahoo. Who the neep cares. They were going into a dungeon, so what else was there to say? Oh, right. His allies. He should probably acknowledge that they were there. He said hi to them all, and started walking forward. It wasn't his fault that they all showed up late, and made him start every quest. Maybe Hiro wanted to show up late sometimes. Maybe he'd like to sleep in one day, completely disregarding that the quest was taking place during the afternoon. Maybe he wanted to sleep in until the afternoon, okay? He's really tired! He had to fight a giant plant the day before yesterday, and some punk-ass, bitch Island golem yesterday. He was tired after not being able to take a rest and just relax for a day. Rest? For Hiro? Hahaha, NOPE2.WAV, apparently. Which was ironically recorded using the writer for Hiro's quests' voice.

Whatever, irony aside, it was about at this moment that Hiro realized that he was walking directly into a wall, and had been making his walking animation for about 10 seconds into the face of the wall, soon followed by the sudden fact that the doorway had yet to open. Elegance++, no doubt. The monk then turned and looked to his allies, hoping that they wouldn't have noticed his painfully obvious mistake, and decided to write it off as the game having glitch him into the wall, which he himself knew was utter bullshit. This game had become their actual world, so lag was gone. Which was astounding, of course, but still didn't make much sense. Every game has lag, except for this. Whatever, time to stop being philosophical in a game that had no philosophy outside of researching the next biggest weapon, until someone makes a gun. So the quest was to go in and kill at least 5 of every enemy on the way to exploring the entire dungeon, and avoid every boss like the plague. Sound good? Sounds good to the writer, and since no one else is going to set the stage, it was good enough. Deal with it. sun3. The door was open, so it was time to move. Hiro started walking forward, still disregarding his floop earlier.

[69 words]
[578 actual words]

[Kazuko]

Kazuko simply sat in her branch as she watched the rest of the group begin to come together at their meeting place. Midori seem to be her usual quiet self, the shaman never could figure out what was going on with her division leader, Fernweh seemed distracted and lost in himself again which seemed to be a regular occurrence for the man, and the new guy that Kazuko had never seen before gave a bit of a scary feeling. Especially when he threw a book at their Summoner’s face. However he and Midori seemed close the two of them appeared to like books (one maybe more to use as makeshift weaponry though) so Kazuko decided to carefully let herself drop from her branch and go over to retrieve the book that was thrown at Fernweh. “Hey, umm he probably deserved it and all but you should really take better care of these books you know." She said speaking timidly and handing it back to Scoria with a smile. Looking over her shoulder when their guild presented the mission notes the young Fox Tail girl scanned over the words quickly before nodding her agreement



Turning away back toward the castle Kazuko fell in behind Hiro as he approached the front door. Although something seemed off about him today to the girl, it might have been he was walking into a closed door for 10 seconds but no that couldn’t be it no ones that much of a baka scrub. After the man came to his senses and opened the door the small shaman was at the edge of the wall trying to peek through the widening gap as the door swung open, her bow held ready and pointed down with an arrow having just been put in place. In a place like this where almost no one had gone in it pays to be careful, but still an exploration mission into a place like this got her a bit more excited than usual.



As much as she wanted to go in first she resigned herself to wait until the others had gone in first since she was the healer and therefore the weakest offensively of the group the back, or furthest from conflict was the safest and best place for her role. When Fernweh would walk past her she would gently place her hand on his shoulder and use Prayer of Recovery, an act that would heal any minor damage the book may have caused but also the bell chimes might help to comfort the other Fox Tail after the less-than-amicable start to their guild raid.




[Word Count: 435]

[Fernweh]

Fernweh was not always known to be lucky, but at times the gods of the world shine down in one glorious moment of divine intervention. For the dozing Fox Tail, that moment was now. Having grown tired from the long walk to the castle, he had greatly underestimated the depths of his desire to sleep. Not even a minute had passed between his back hitting the cold, cobble stone walls that he felt his mind slip back and forth between the gates of reality and dreamscape. Only his fear of Hiro rudely awakening him kept his mind from completely giving in, for a few moments at least.



Yet that moment was just enough to save him. Head bobbing up and down as the battle for which domain his conscious mind would temporarily reside, Fernweh could scarcely feel the intent to harm coming his way until he felt something skim the ears on his head. With his mind forcefully ripped back to reality, the Fox Tail yawned and went to feel the top of his head. No damage huh~ his mind slowly comprehended as it shook off the last tendrils of drowsiness. Turns out, at the moment he had completely fallen asleep, his head dropped just enough to save him from a direct blow.



Blinking a few times, Fernweh looked back at the newcomer to the group with a slightly annoyed glare. “Now that wasn’t very nice was it? One of us can get hurt.” ‘Could’ would normally be used in place of ‘can’ but Fernweh felt like driving a point home. Do. Not. Wake. Me. Up. Simple, direct, and pointed; an all-around harsh remark designed to protect his sleep with a threat of violence.



Standing up, Fernweh dusted himself off and took stock of the area again. Looks like everyone is here then.~ Two DPS, two support, one tank. Not particularly strong in number but the balance across them all was fairly reasonable. As long as the tank was alive, DPS wouldn’t have an issue with taking damage. The two supports easily had healing covered as well. With a few steps, the Fox Tail fell in line as the group made their way through the door.

Word Count: 366
Thread Count: 930

[Midori]

Post normally? Nah, posting like this was easier. Though normally posting fairly seriously, Hiro was getting into the mood of not caring what others' reactions to this thread would be! Even Al would approve! No need to go into another thread and grab the post template. Perhaps if it was necessary, such as before a boss so any visitors watching this thread would know the clear detail of their intended bosses, then the writing style could possibly change. Narrator will now make occasional comments as necessary.

But for now, it was time to start the dungeon run. First of all, the Druid Scoria had made a beeline to her and handed her that crafted manga grimoire she had requested. In their silent exchange, she could see the trace of a smile from him, which would apparently change as soon as he saw the sight of Fernweh napping on the job. But just as he managed to literally throw the book at Fernweh for slacking on the job, his drowsiness had somehow caused him to dodge the attack. That was actually quite impressive. Perhaps their napping guild member was a better fighter when half-asleep? They would need to test such a theory in the future. Nevertheless, after the book had missed Fernweh and was now on the course of sailing right into the trunk of a tree, the Sorcerer pointed her palm forward in its direction. The Psychic Conductor ability caused the book's sailing trajector to slow and finally move to a stop as she managed to grab ahold of it telekinetically. But due to the far range of the ability, its sustained effect had died off and the book ultimately fell back on the ground. Kazuko was the one who eventually retrieved the item.

Her attention turned back to the guild leader, who seemed quite eager enough to start the mission that he was literally walking into the wall of Windsor Castle, stuck in a walking animation for some reason. Narrator is reminded of a certain social experiment and proposes the idea of Twitch Plays Hirosame. Our Summoner has Truant, release him! Guys we need to pound Stonehenge! It would appear that their mission plan was fairly simple. They had apparently decided to challenge the dungeon in a somewhat straightforward manner. Rather than tirelessly go through the various rooms and search for clues, they were planning to kill five of each monster. Supposedly doing so would mean that after every 5th kill of a certain monster type, a dungeon room key would drop. With enough room keys, they would be able to explore the castle more thoroughly.

Without a bestiary or Scholar to consult, she had to research the monsters' weaknesses the regular way. As soon as the players stepped into the empty hall of the castle, an automated voice resonated through their minds.

<Windsor Castle Dungeon battle quest has begun. Base level of all monsters has been set to 13.>

[Scoria]

Scoria watched as the book floated slowly and as Kazuko picked it up and brought it back to him. He hated that immediately. He'd accept Midori's assistance in the matter (although he didn't really care that much), but this shaman was way too much of a pushover. Even if she was ten. If she had been just a few years older, Scoria would have cursed a lot and ignored the PG-13 rules. She was a kid, however, and while he didn't exactly give her any extra leeway in what she was allowed to do, he did take care not to be foul. Hiro had said 'hi' and whatnot and Midori, for the most part, was being rather hard to read. Maybe she liked detective novels. Scoria took the book from Kazuko and nodded, as much of a 'thanks' as she was going to get.

BOOKS. Of course Scoria had not forgotten about books, but the look Fernweh gave him wasn't met with any cowering or backing down. 'Slightly annoyed glare' was Scoria's default. Honestly, Scoria hadn't even thrown it that hard, and it wasn't even a reasonable weapon, so what was it actually going to do? Was he so concerned about sleeping that he was willing to forgo the party's safety? Scoria hated him already. Well, Scoria hated a large majority of the party anyway, holding only a grudging acceptance of Hiro's existence and a casual interest in what kind of books Midori liked. Kazuko was too young and too easily pushed around for him to give her more than cursory respect due to all people and Fernweh...

neep that dude. Scoria made as much clear. "Yeah, it'd be a real shame." Again, it was Kazuko who kept Scoria from being graphic with what he actually meant. And what he actually meant was this. "None of you are permitted to die before me. I won't allow it, so don't die." The lingering 'or else' was fairly clear as the Scribe pulled out his quill and map, stuffing them in a pocket so he could tap it every so often to record new minimap data. Monsters were leveled thirteen, were they? Scoria stepped up so he was up in front, taking the position normally reserved for tanks. If Hiro was up there, he'd certainly keep to the second position, but since the Shaman of the party clearly wanted to be at the back of the group (had she even considered a rear flank), Scoria let her do it and stayed in the front. Both the magic casters were better suited behind Hiro and, to a lesser extent, Scoria. Well, whatever. They'd see his mettle. What he really needed now was a makeshift spear to use, but he probably wouldn't be able to rip anything off the wall or dismantle any object to make a spear out of until they actually got a little further into the castle. Well, the thing to do was to take a room, so Scoria turned into the closest room with a closed door there was. Inside was a rather well furnished study of sorts, complete with a bookcase...

EMPTY. MOTHERneepER. WHERE ARE THE neepING BOOKS. Walking over with a rather calm expression on his face, Scoria didn't let any of his disappointment seep through into his face, except for the sharp, glaring expression that more or less made itself a permanent feature. The big indicator he was focused on the lack of books was the fact he didn't notice the small pedestal with an imbedded glowing green orb standing right in the center of the room. The thing was just standing there, like a hand reaching up to present something, and Scoria ignored it. Of course, the orb could not be removed. It was a sign of those lovely, lovely... orb rooms.

[Hirosame]

So after that little embarrassing little spell of shit, it looked like things were about to get moving. Hiro was about to start through the gate, but suddenly Scoria was in the front. Hiro was about to throw the guy out of the way, but he decided against it. Hiro didn't mind letting someone else tank, no matter how poor of a job they were going to do at it. He went with it, though, and started to walk to the side of the Druid, somewhat co-leading the pack. It kinda stunk, being the only melee type in the group, as well as probably their tank. While it was certainly an advantage to have the tank as the melee, in order to draw all the aggro, but it still was a bit worrisome, since he'd probably be dealing the most damage, as well. Well, physical damage, in any case. He didn't let any of his thoughts escape his mind, and only kept walking along with the group. And eventually, hey! They came to a room!

It looked like a library of sorts, but kinda empty for one. It had some nice furnishings, of course, but it wasn't all that special. Hiro decided to walk around the room, looking at things casually. He placed his hands on his pockets, and waltzed around, viewing at his own pace. He noticed, eventually, the orbs in the room. There looked to be four in the room, as well as a door on the opposite side of the room. He went up to the door, and tried pulling at the handle, turning it and all. It wouldn't budge, so Hiro did the next most sensible thing: Kick it. He put his hands back in his pocket, and gave it a solid right leg donkey kick, but the motion was to no avail. The only thing that really came from it was the fact that his leg started to shake a bit, and it hurt a little. He put his foot back down onto the ground, and motioned for everyone to stand away from the middle of the room. Moving over to the center of the room, Hiro picked up a loose stone, and threw it at the orb, spawning 5 [Goblin Butlers], whose health bars were forged above their bodies. Having recognized that the voice in their head said that monsters were level 13's, Hiro knew he'd have a ton of fun here.

They were still circled in the middle of the room, and Hiro smirked, activating both Zoom Attack and Beatdown in tandem with one another, and a certain song began to play in his mind. Hiro started with a move from Mabinogi that he had learned the trick to a while back, and used as a great way to start off one of these orb rooms: Windmill. This attack, coupled with Zoom Kick, hit them all and sent them backwards. Getting back onto his feet, he made a beeline for the closest goblin to him, delivering a few solid punches before sending it into the abyss. Beatdown's ticker reset, and an icon that portrayed the same one as the skill appeared with a [x1!] next to it. Hiro's speed had increased a bit more, and he launched himself over to the next nearest enemy. But, as he had done this, the other three soon formed a circle around him. He was used to this kind of combat, as the enemies all had weapons, whereas all he had was his fists.

Hiro was dodging and weaving around the attacks of the enemies, as his body reacted in perfect alignment with their attempts at fighting. Hiro would punch them or kick them every so often, dealing damage on each of them in his deadly dance of fists and feet. He didn't want to expend all his mana quite yet, so he'd conserve it for now. He would just win this using his own strength. Having been given the opportunity to do this, Hiro made a backhand spring and wrapped his legs around the neck of one of the goblins, and slammed its head into the ground, rolling over where the body had begun to dissipate from. He followed that up with a sweeping kick to the goblin directly in front of him, and vaulted over the body as it fell, using a Somersault Kick to finish it off quickly. Okay, so maybe he didn't conserve the rest of his mana. It was a fight, after all. He turned around in enough time to see the weapon of a goblin flying at him, with its arm still attached to it. Hiro dodged to the side, and made good use of his knee to deal almost fatal damage to the enemy.

Oh, but he wasn't done yet. Hiro still had a little bit more fighting to do. Hiro took the goblin that he had just knee'd in the torso, and threw it at the other, then followed up immediately. He made good use of his [x3!] Beatdown counters, and seemed to almost disappear and then reappear next to the two goblins. Hiro delivered a final kick to the goblin he had been fighting before, ending its pointless existence. Hiro swiftly turned to the last one, and punched it directly in the face, while it was still staggering backwards a bit, and sent it flying into the wall. Hiro followed up, as if that needed to be stated, and flipped himself up into the air, and gave one final donkey kick to the monster, before it disappeared. Hiro stood back up, put his hands into his pockets again, and nodded to the others. "Who's up next?" He asked, walking over to the place where the rest had gathered. He turned around, and looked at the orbs, waiting for someone else to give it a go. He imagined that Kazuko and Fernweh would probably pair up for this, if they were going to do any fighting for right now. Maybe this was just used as a warm-up session for them. Whatever, Hiro was already warmed up, and celebrated silently at the [x5!] counter in his upper-right field of vision.

[1030 Words]

[Kazuko]

As soon as the first of their party crossed through the door the announcement was made that the enemies were all base level 13. Normally this would worry the girl quite a bit, after all she was only level 10, however she had faith they could all pull together to get through it. Oh and Hiro being level 20 helped a bit too probably. As for the others Midori could probably hold her own but the shaman couldn’t figure anything about the other female of the group, Fernweh though might need a bit more looking after seeing as the man was about to pass out as it was, and finally Scoria well Scoria seemed to bit on the basy side for a druid thinking he can take frontlines with the tank. Doesn’t he know how healing is supposed to work here? Other than that though the new party member in Scoria didn’t seem too bad to the young shaman priest as she brought up the rear with her bow armed and pointed at whatever Kazuko was looking at as she scanned the room.



Venturing into the dungeon the first one the group encountered seemed to be a library of sorts. Seemed to because looking around the room Kazuko saw bookcases lined up in the room, but no books. Maybe someone had been here before and stole them all, or they got destroyed in the Cataclysm, whatever the reason was though the truth was as of now it was just a fairly large empty room lined with empty shelves. It’s really too as a library this size could hold enough books to keep the girl busy for a while, busy and distracted rather, which was something she didn’t need right now. Walking deeper into the room Kazuko was able to spot something new and different from empty shelves, it looked like a single slender pillar with a green orb placed on top of it. What’s more is that there were three others just like spaced out around the room. Well there were four of them until a certain monk decided to immediately break one of them which ended up spawning 5 x [Goblin Butlers], wait goblin butlers? That didn’t make any sense at all, why would a goblin go into the serving business like that as a butler anyway?



While Kazuko was busy contemplating the social and economic viability and implications of goblin house servants Hiro was already busy turning each one into a fine pixelated red mist. The show their monk was putting was pretty flashy, but still entertaining and it got the job done. It seemed this dungeon run was going to be just as easy as the girl thought it would be with a level 20. When the man finished his battle so flawlessly it didn’t look like any effort was exerted Kazuko was taken a bit aback when he turned to them and asked who was next. “I’ll go next I guess, I’m not as strong as you are but I should be able to hold my own just fine against whatever comes out of there." Kazuko said making herself seem as confident as she could, like when she’s back at town caring for the chapel when players or People of the Land come around. Anyway the young shaman picked up another loose stone and hurled it at the orb that was closest to her. On contact the orb shattered in smoke and spawned 5 x [Goat Servants]. Well those aren’t little goblins at all, just her luck that she’d get the bigger enemy.



When combat began Kazuko could hear music playing in her head as she held her bow to the first enemy. They were three levels higher but she still wanted to show her party that she wasn’t a burden to them and could hold her own. Firing her first shot it stuck right in the chest of the first Goat Servant in front of the group. Oddly enough it seemed like the hit staggered the beast slightly, or maybe it was just a surprise hit or a critical or something. Taking a step back Kazuko shot another arrow at her first target once again causing it to stagger slightly in its gait. Well that seemed to settle it, it appeared this enemy has trouble dealing with ranged attacks, if it was Hiro we could’ve seen how it did against melee attacks as well but their tank seemed like he had his fun and was currently sitting against the wall watching the rest of them. Taking in a deep breath Kazuko decided she’d need to expend some mana on this fight and the only offensive skill she had was a barrier that she wasn’t sure could be used on multiple enemies. Forming a small orb in her hand the shaman threw it at the next goat servant trapping in the air 2 meters in the air. Maintaining her distance the shaman would form more orbs in her hand every time the spell was off cooldown until she had four of them up in the air.



With shaky breaths from heavy exertions the young shrine maiden looked up at her mana pool as it flashed dangerously low. That took way too much of her resources to do and she made a mental note of that for the future when using that skill. For now she settled with filling her first target with enough arrows to make a goat pin cushion. A task that took way too long and tedious a process that involved firing one arrow, moving back a step, firing again, and repeating. A simple strategy that had proven to work in almost every mmo the girl played in the other world that players gave it a name, kiting, probably because it always looked like the players had the mob on the end of a kite string and were just playing with it. Anyway this fight wasn’t going near as fast as the monk’s but it was safe, proven, and very little risk of taking damage, which if you’re a soft healer is a very good thing to avoid.



After finally felling the first goat man, the other four still floating in their orbs not moving, Kazuko fell against the wall trying to catch her breath. If this was going to end anytime soon she’d need some help finishing these off. “Hey guys can one of you please help me finish these? Otherwise it’ll take forever like this." She spoke up to the group standing straight again. After retrieving her arrows where the fallen mob was Kazuko readied the first volley to break one of the goat men out of his bubble. Hitting the goat man inside the beast took damage from the arrow as well as the resulting fall damage after being broken out of Purgatory barrier. This time though Kazuko took up position on top of one of the bookcases, feeling more at home and at ease at higher locations. From here she was able to crouch down on one knee and fire quicker than on the ground trying to move and shoot. When the goat servant started climbing the shelf as well Kazuko knocked three arrows instead hoping that maybe the three together would have enough recoil to knock him off her perch. Which it did, but only because it also happened to be the killer blow, and well that’s it for now the shaman was spent at this point as combat was clearly not her strongest asset and her mana and stamina were starting to run low now.

[Word Count: 1,267 (new record for a single post)]

[Scoria]

Show off, wasn't he? Scoria didn't mind that Hiro was proactive, especially considering how he was clearly the highest level and the front-line tank of the group, but... He was a bit of a show off. Well, it wasn't like it made that much of a difference in the long run, as long as that trait of his didn't land them all in a big piling heap of trouble. Scoria wasn't so blind and focused on books (BOOKS) to ignore the orb being hit and the resulting appearance of some enemy mobs. Wasn't that just fine and dandy. The druid turned around to glance at their levels. 13, were they? Just about dead even with the average party level. Huh. The butler aspect was a little bit weird, but the druid didn't really care. Hiro seemed to have it all under control and quickly wiped out everything in sight. When Kazuko decided to go next, Scoria almost smacked her upside the head.

Yeah, let the level 10, 10 year old shaman with little to no offensive capability take on an entire mob of enemies. That was great thinking. All of you. Good work. When Goat Servents appeared and Scoria checked their rating via the interface, he was unpleasantly surprised to find these were effectively level 18 mobs. Fantastic. Just what he wanted. Well, he needed a battle BGM as well. Why not this one? As Kazuko attracted the attention of all five goats somehow (was she really drawing that much aggro), Scoria moved towards the center of the room. Didn't he say no one was allowed to die before he did? What were these idiots doing drawing all the aggro then? "Let them down. Don't waste your mana." The roleplayer had mentioned this was a study before, hadn't he? And studies had more than just bookcases, although he was going to use those too. Positioning himself a few feet behind a desk, the player got his tactics ready, taking a boxing stance and bouncing slightly. Well, he didn't attract their attention with just that, Scoria followed suit of the rest of his party and threw rocks at the two goats closest to him, one across the table and one off to his side. They turned to face him, finding an easier target in someone who was down at the ground with him rather than up on a bookcase. Even if Kazuko didn't drop the goats, the rock would pop the bubble and down they'd fall. The closest goat went to rush him and Scoria did what any healer type would do.

He ducked straight to the ground and activated Glacial Freeze, using his body to trip the now off-balance goat. Down went humpty-dumpty. Now that was all well and good, but there was another goat to deal with, so Scoria made use of the desk in front of him. Raising his foot up, the druid slammed it into the desk and sent the piece of furniture right into the goat. With a radius of five meters, both goat and desk slid right to the end of its range, then promptly tumbled over after meeting something that had an actual coefficient of friction. Poor goat was pinned under a desk, ripe for someone else to pick off.

Scoria, on the other hand, was now sliding in the completely opposite direction, noting that there was an empty wall that just barely avoided the edge of the ice. That was nice. Planting his leg down in a safe zone, Scoria watched goat-kun try to stumble towards him, taking ice damage the longer it stuck around. Scoria's free hand slipped behind the bookcase he was standing next to as said goat-kun tried to get closer and closer. "If you did your job, this wouldn't happen." Anyone who built bookcases knew that they usually needed to be anchored if they were sizable or you were in earthquake zones. That level of attention was required and not displayed at all here, so Scoria just waited until goat-kun managed to get close enough and then ripped the bookcase off the wall and straight onto the goat's face. Woops. Said goat was now struggling to get this bookcase off of him, but he also had the misfortune of having ice underneath him making it hard for him to do anything... and a Scoria repeatedly dropping axe kick after axe kick on the bookcase, draining the goat's health faster and faster. It finally managed to get the bookcase thrown off and pushed towards Scoria, but Scoria just shoved it right back. The druid was off the ice rink, so he didn't shift. But the bookcase and the goat did, right across the ice onto solid ground.

Hopping over the edge of the ice near the wall, the druid didn't waste much time positioning himself for a rather nasty spin kick, landing the blow right in goat-kun's side. After taking fall damage from purgatory barrier, fall damage again from being tripped, more damage from having a bookcase smashed against you (twice), repeated axe kicks, ice damage ticks every so often, and finally a kick to the side of the torso, goat-kun finally shattered. There was just one goat-kun left standing (slipping across the ice at the moment) and one trapped underneath a rather heavy oak desk. He'd leave the rest to the rest of the party.

[Muse: Mirai Nikki Battle OST]

[Tag: Hirosame Midori Fernweh Kazuko]

[Fernweh]

Fernweh stifled a yawn as the party made their way into the first open chamber of the dungeon. Oh yay, books. Any second now…~ the Fox Tail waited for the sound of fluttering pages, either from some demonic textbook flying off the wall or from that bastard who interrupted his sleep earlier. A couple seconds ticked by without any similar sound reaching his ears. Assuming they were in the clear, at least for the moment, he made his way over to the sparsely populated bookshelves and removed a volume. Upon opening the cover and flipping through a couple pages, he quickly realized it was a lost cause. Placing it back on the shelf he reached for another only to find it crumble between his fingers.



Sighing, he figured if there was any reason he hadn’t been assaulted with one of the novels it was purely because the druid couldn’t find one that remained intact for more than a couple seconds. Taking a moment to knock off the dust, Fernweh scanned the remained of the room to see if there was anything of interest. Chair. Table. Table. Table. Lamp/candle thing. Chair.~ he noted mentally. Whoever had owned the castle prior to the events turning it into a dungeon had either hated clutter or had been ransacked. Unless... Maybe this isn’t the room the owner actually used?~ The thought had sparked some interest in the summoner’s mind, inspiring him to take another look at the shelves that lined the walls. Dungeons in games always loved the cliché classic ‘hidden behind a bookshelf’ move after all.



Right before he was about to pull a suspiciously large volume from the wall, Fernweh’s concentration was broken by a solid thud, the sound something made of flesh makes when striking an unmoving object. Ear’s perking up, he turned to find a comical seen played out in front of him. Something crushed under desk, another slipping on ice, and two of his hapless companions to blame for their current predicament. Looking back at the volume, then back to the two remaining creatures, and then back to the volume again, Fernweh let out a sigh. “I’ll finish them off then,” he said begrudgingly. At the very least they could have waited a few minutes and perused the area before starting initiating combat. Maybe there was a secret room that is now inaccessible because of their actions? Now they had no way of knowing.



Holding out his grimoire Fernweh let an arc of magic streak from it to the ground, leaving a smoldering ember. “Summon: Salamander,” he mumbled, activating the summoning skill. Rewarded by feeling the string of mana link him to the ember on the floor, he watched as spirals of runes started burning to life in concentric rings. That just never gets old~ he thought grinning, watching as the circles of runes came to completion and formed a large salamander which immediately started radiating heat. Targeting the monster with lower health, whom also appeared to be taking up figure skating, Fernweh commanded, “Target! Attack!”



As far as summoned beings went the Fox Tail had just two at his disposal, golem and salamander. These two could easily be divided up into two opposite categories as well, his offense and his defense. Salamander was the offensive power, boasting strong fire elemental attributes, while golem made up the defensive, being made of stone had its benefits after all. Fernweh watched as the salamander leapt from the ground and tore at the goat before releasing a flame attack at point blank range. Needless to say the short onslaught was too much for the already damaged goat to handle as it was followed shortly by a bust of pixels. Turning to lock on to the second one, Fernweh commanded again, “Shift target, attack!” After a couple hits, followed by the smell of smoke, the second one burst into pixels as well.



Cutting the mana stream, the summoner tilted his head to his partner in thanks. “Want to try the door again?”

Word Count: 669
Thread Count: 1599

[Midori]

Right. Of course it was an orb room. Mabinogi had plenty of these room types back in their traditional dungeons. Although she figured that because there was only one orb at the center of the room (it appeared to be a study), then they had to activate it somehow. Hiro decided to be the guinea pig for the first step, as it spawned... a few goblins in butler suits. Okay. Well, that was actually a relatively tame mob in terms of design. She had expected darker abominations that one would otherwise expect from a haunted house. Maybe even zombie goblin butlers. But at least it wasn't a giant white gorilla with an overgrown head that was topped with a bunch of fruit. Apologies to Clothman's pet, but that was probably the dumbest artistic decision for an otherwise dark themed MMO. But she had to admit that through that bad MMO, they had encountered Elder Tale next.

Hiro practically performed a Windmill and critically one-shotted all of the Goblins that had just spawned. Well, kind of. More like all of the Goblins were knocked into deadly and then he had to finish them off using a couple of assorted combat skills. No Pegasi in this world to summon and clean up the mob, so that was the most they could do to deal with these kinds of mobs. It would have appeared that the orb room mobs were fairly weak at first, but that was only given that the first wave were supposedly the weakest ones of the bunch. Even still, they were Level 13. That was equal to Touko's own level, and she was actually the second-strongest of the group in terms of level. So it didn't come as a surprise when the healer of the group had walked forward and triggered a mob that they couldn't handle.

Goat Servants. Level 16, and five of them? Suddenly the difficulty had scaled up immediately. Kazuko managed to somehow defeat one on her own, but her stats were dropping quickly and there wasn't much else that she could do to the rest other than trap them in temporary bubbles. It was then that Scoria performed some kind of spell that turned the surrounding floor's composition into ice. With this technique, he managed to defeat two of the remaining goatmen by exploiting their bumbling dexterity in walking through the ice. It would appear that their big frame made it very cumbersome for them to move properly within the slightly small room. The only ones left were a goatman who was careful enough not to budge from its spawn point and another that was apparently stuck performing the mansion's duck and cover training procedure. Fernweh was the one who finished off these targets by summoning his Salamander to burn the two monsters to ashes.

Touko observed the surrounding environment and noticed that there was relatively little damage dealt to the room by the flame attack. One would have figured that the wooden surface of a table or chair or even a stray book would catch on fire. However, it appeared that because of this place's labeling as a dungeon, everything was extremely resistant to damage because the dungeon had to service practically the entire server after all. Nevertheless, all the mobs had been defeated and the next wave would only trigger if the orb was hit once again. She knew that whoever should walk up to hit the orb was at a greater risk of immediate aggro due to their proximity to the monsters. So instead, the Sorcerer decided on a different plan.

The ground was still frozen, so she figured that it was possible to attack the orb from a range and still manage to trigger the mobs. In order to do this, she started by summoning her puppet. Allul-0 was called forth, its wooden figure standing at roughly 4 feet in height with humanoid features much like a mannequin. Because of this characteristic, it looked very obviously like an artificially constructed object rather than anything on par with Fernweh's summon for example. She took a moment to reequip the puppet's inventory as she summoned forth a basic katana in one of its hands. Then, she activated a spell that caused the puppet's control bar to levitate in midair. Psychic Conductor served as a way for Midori to effectively hit the orb from across the room without much trouble. She raised the puppet's arm with this magic and paused. Wait. Battle music first. Touko turned her head and noticed a jukebox in the corner of the room. She had no idea why there was a jukebox in a study, but maybe this was the reason why everyone suddenly had their own battle theme within the last posting round. After setting the machine to play a fairly upbeat and vaguely appropriate song, she slammed the puppet's arm down upon the marble.

Monsters suddenly appeared in a cloud of black mist. Then, before she could even make out their names, a couple of them had fallen at that very moment. Goblins dressed in maid costumes, apparently. It appeared that this wave was a little different from the prior two, as the monster types were not all the same. Three Level 13 Goblin Maids had spawned, three goblin maids had tripped on the ice and fallen. Meanwhile there were two cheating mobs that were just a couple of utensils floating in mid-air. Phantom Tableware, so they were called. They were Level 15. "I'll leave someone else to finish off down the goblins since they're having trouble moving first of all." Meanwhile, the Sorcerer casted her own spell toward the flying objects. She figured that since they were metal, there was a commonly known detail about metal being good conductors of electricity. She wasn't too sure how true that was, considering that she was originally a Bio student and not an Engineering student.

Nevertheless, Serpent Bolt was generated from the body of the wooden puppet after a few moments of casting. The electricity arched away from the puppet's body and struck all five targets at the same time. All mobs had originally aimed their attention in her direction, as she was the caster of the spell. However, through activating the puppet's Act 2 skill, attention was thrown back toward the wooden puppet. She observed that the utensils seemed to be taking a proportionally greater amount of damage as the electricity traveled from one utensil to another. This essentially tripled the damage of the otherwise low-dealing Serpent Bolt. The electrocuted tableware fell to the ground and shattered after sustaining a couple of shocks from the attack. So in the aftermath, two enemies were down, three others were slightly preoccupied and losing HP by the passing second, and neither her nor her puppet had taken any damage. Glacial Freeze was really a useful spell.

[1139, no template in sight]

[Hirosame]

Good muse. Perhaps it was just Midori's tastes in music that Hiro found interesting, or perhaps the song itself. Either way, he wouldn't let some ice get in his way of kicking some ass. Of course, he had to hand it to the other three, taking care of some relatively strong enemies before he even needed to step it. It was a nice little rest from the usual hack-and-slash method of fighting that he would normally employ. Perhaps the others read his previous post about not getting a chance to rest? Whatever, he still enjoyed the time off. He had to jump a little bit so that he wouldn't get his feet stuck in the place where Scoria had created the ice. There was a few safe spots where the ice didn't reach the wall, so he probably should start from there for his attacks. Since he'd have the stable ground, he'd be able to take care of the remaining few Goblin Maids. He had to hand it to Fernweh and Kazuko, though, as well, for taking care of those Goat Servants. Hiro would be honest, he didn't think they'd perform as well as they did. But, enough of that. Back to using the stable ground as a place to fight from.

Lul K. Screw that.

No, no, Hiro was given the opportunity to do some ice skating, using his enemies as target practice while on the ice. So, instead of staying up, Hiro laid down on his back, with his feet up against the wall. He wasn't going to skate in the official tense, since he was probably just going to rebound off the other wall and deal damage as he passed by. So, Hiro launched himself off the wall, got his body so that he was lying on his side, and performed a Somersault Kick to give his entire body rotational force, which he kept spinning from. The Goblin Maids, which were just now standing up but being shocked mercilessly by Midori's Shock skill, had no time to adjust themselves as Hiro pretended that he were a bowling ball, and they were the pins. Strike. The monsters were sent to the ground again, after being hit so roughly from underneath. Hiro didn't feel bad at all about knocking them back down onto the ground, and he stopped on the other side of the room, feeling slightly dizzy.

He stood himself back up, watching the lightning arc from the tableware to the other. It seemed that their numbers in a small group would be their downfall, so Hiro was more than certain that Midori would be able to take care of them on her own. So, he just needed to focus on the enemies before himself. Hiro looked to the wall again, and kicked himself off, but this time, it was in the air. Wyvern Kick was used to give him some extra maneuverability in the air, as he donkey kicked one of the Goblin Maids, and rebounded off it to the other, where he used Aura Kick to send it off balance. Hiro landed on the ice, and slipped a bit. He managed the keep himself up, but not gracefully. He started to slip and slide towards the last Goblin, and vaulted onto his hands. He wrapped his legs around the head of the enemy, and launched it ahead and into the nearby wall. He stood himself back up, this time more gracefully, and looked at the Goblins. They were almost dead, and Midori's Serpent Bolt finished them all off shortly afterwards.

Hiro sighed, as the ground around him melted off. It looked like Glacial Freeze has done its job, and now Scoria was taking the skill down. Since this is as far as anyone else has gone in their posts, Hiro would need to get everybody moving once again. He motioned for everybody to follow him up, as he went to the final orb. He punched it, and the gate forward moved up and out of the way, just like it had in Mab. Hiro put his hands in his pockets, and started to walk down a nearby corridor. Unbeknownst to him, it was one of those long, winding corridors that everybody hated. Since they didn't have a map to follow, they'd just need to wing it. But, winging it would come to an abrupt end, once the pathways diverged in two different directions. So, it would make sense that the group split up here to check down both, right? Hiro knew that everybody would hate him for it, but it looks like they would need to Scooby-Doo this stuff (unintentional pun is unintentional).

Hiro looked down the corridors, and saw that he could see next to nothing just a bit further down from the entrances to these tunnels. He sighed, and looked at his group. He and Midori already knew one another well enough, Kazuko and Fernweh were both pretty chill around one another, and Scoria just liked books. However, desperate times call for desperate measures. He analyzed the total levels of everybody in the group, and basically based his decision on everyone's levels and combat abilities. "Alright, Midori and I will check down this path to the left. You three go check out the path on the right." He said, in a tone that would befit a leader. He then threw a frozen glare at both Fernweh and Scoria, remembering how their last exchange was less than favorable. "And no fighting among yourselves. I'm putting Kazuko in charge of you guys, got it?" Hiro returned to his normal manner of speaking, and relaxed himself once again. "Let's meet back up here in half an hour, and tell each other what we found." Without much further adieu, Hiro turned and started to walk down his corridor, hoping that Midori would be following him soon enough.

[979 Words]

[Kazuko]

Yeah it would be the healer’s bad luck to get one of the more powerful enemies spawned randomly on top of them. Luckily she was able to take one down somehow before retreating to the bookshelves, which is where she was now. But you already knew that from reading the last posting order so why are you reading this again? The rest of the party already quickly dispatched the remaining Goat Servants and Hiro and Midori did their thing to kill the next wave that had appeared. So the next order of business was obviously to hit the last switch that would open the door, right? All Kazuko knew was she wasn’t going to hit it again, she had already had her fill of taking agro of super mobs and it wasn’t pleasant. All the Trap writing this could think of for this moment was whenever he’d be transporting items in another game and getting attacked by every spawned mob along the way. Those bandits were not a pretty sight and much tears were shed by that person, but this isn’t about that particular trap nor is it the same game so how about we get back to Kazuko’s story and what she’ll do now.



Kazuko waited until the ice finished melting before climbing down from her bookshelf of safety. Hiro had already punched the last orb revealing an open passage behind the previously locked set of large doors. Taking a moment to reload her supply of arrows that were now scattered around the room she placed them back in the quiver hanging at her side before taking her spot at the back of the group again. Letting a small sigh escape her lungs Kazuko strung the bow across her back as the group began to move, that last encounter showed the young girl that her combat abilities were woefully lacking for a difficult group dungeon like this. Likely due to the fact she picked a healing class and had next to no spells for dealing damage, but thank whatever deities Elder Tale her class came equipped with dozens of spells to prevent damage. It kind of would result in one of those stalemates of “I can’t kill you, but you can’t kill me either" kind of scenario.



As the party came to a split in the path Kazuko trotted up to the front and began looking down both paths with Hiro. They both looked dark, or at least beyond the range of her eyesight which wasn’t very far at all since it didn’t reveal anything. “Yeah, I guess splitting up would be the most efficient way of exploring this place." She spoke up agreeing with the monk’s plan of action. Eyes trailing over to the two others that were going to be going down the same path as her Kazuko simply nodded and began to speak. “Alright sounds good we’ll…wait what!" Kazuko exclaimed at the last part thoroughly shocked at having just been promoted to a leader. “Are you sure? Fernweh I’m pretty sure I can handle but I don’t even know anything about ‘Scoria'" She continued, needing to look up at the party list for Scoria’s name. “All I know is that he apparently really likes books…as weapons." Turning her head to the side and muttering the last part softly as she glanced over to Fernweh.



Having reluctantly resigned herself to having been made the leader of her search party Kazuko looked over at the pair that would venture down the other path. The two guild leaders seemed to be really close and wanting to be together all the time. Maybe they were a married couple in the real world or something it was hard to tell. “So I guess in thirty minutes we’ll meet up back here at this intersection and share what we both found then." Taking a deep breath before summarizing the plan they had, more for her own benefit more than anything else. Kazuko turned toward the right branch and faced the her two companions with a bright smile clasping her hands behind her back “Alright then I guess we’ll get going then; Fernweh should probably take the lead since he can use Salamander to help light the way, umm Scoria since you like to apparently fight things too how about you follow behind Fernweh since you’ll be our damage and he can’t fight very well on his own. I’ll take up rear guard as umm…what was it called ‘Field Monitor', ‘Operator' That seems to be the best fit though for someone like me though."


Word Count: 761

[Scoria]

Oh, that was lovely. Scoria gave Midori a cursory nod at her electrical tactics, noting quietly to himself that his Call Storm skill might synergize well with that. Not only because of the elemental resistance drop, but because it was water. That would be fun enough. Scoria's eyes flicked over to Fernweh, giving him a quiet nod at his murder tactics as well. And then Hiro did his show-off thing where he beat up all the rest of the goblins, which was fine enough. Then there was another orb and the door opened and people stepped outside and then more things happened. And then Hiro did a very stupid thing. He split up Scoria and the two people he considered most competent, Midori and Hirosame. That was a terrible idea. Even worse, he put him together Kazuko and Fernweh. Yeah, that'll go reaaaaaaal well.

Scoria right about gave up having neeps. Kazuko was saying something but Scoria's mood was basically 'yeah yeah whatever busy here' as he lifted his hands up and made a simultaneous summon of both his familiars. He didn't actually summon them, he just contacted them. Whichever one wanted to show up today would show up, he supposed. He was expecting Alraune, considering how much more he tended to favor her and how long she had been around, but... Well, that wasn't what happened. What showed up was his Grey Wolf. The wolf bounded straight up out of nowhere and glanced around at the area. Scoria knelt down and whispered in the wolf's ear, scratching the top of its head. "Follow those two. Play guard, prioritize the mage, please." Standing up again, he nodded and turned around while the wolf bounded up to stand next to Midori and Hiro. That was... that, it seemed. The creature was much like any other wolf and while it was relatively fragile, even in comparison to Alraune, its selling point was that it could clear a distance in a moment's notice. In other words, if anything tried to sneak up on Midori or Hirosame, that wolf would pounce and give the duo a little extra time. Then it'd run like hell towards something else. Scoria stressed one thing to his familiars when he summoned them, and that was to not get killed.

Well, it was Scoria's familiar, and it was fairly competent. It was just strangely serious and oddly loyal compared to its druid as it stared up at Hiro and Midori, almost as if to salute. When they moved, the wolf would be at their heels. And if anyone on Scoria's party had objections, he'd punch them all in the face. Especially Fernweh. Repeatedly. And hadn't Scoria just indicated he was going to be tanky, or did Kazuko just assume that summons and familiars were expendable? The druid could feel his glare darkening and becoming more caustic as he turned to look at the youth. Whatever. The druid shoved his hands into his blazer pockets and let Fernweh take the lead. The summoner surely thought he and his summon were hot shit, but Scoria knew, as most druids did, that a familiar was more of a bargain. The familiars had a much stronger personality and acted more like NPCs than... well, whatever the hell summons were. They were... unique. Not that Scoria considered summons expendable either.

Anyway, Fernweh was leading, so Scoria hung back and just glared into the darkness. Without Alraune to have his back, he was a little bit on edge, but Kazuko was supposedly watching the field. Her and her massively wasted MP pool. Scoria was going to punch her in the face and give her a lesson in mana conservation when this was all over. That and the importance of life.