[Open] Some Leisure Time

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Apollo overheard something nearby, but ignored it, he figured it wasn't really important at the moment anyway. 

"My class is Sorcerer but I'm also a Tailor, and a Sage" He said calmly. "I haven't really trained my Tailoring skills yet, I may need to soon if I'm going to make a name for myself" 

Apollo crossed his arms and let out a sigh and realized what Shikiodus had said was true, they were all Wolf Hairs. 

"Wow, you're right" He said, happiness hidden in his tone. "I haven't really met any others since coming here" 

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[Shuwen]

Word Count: 436

In the face of Apollo’s brazen accusation of him evesdropping, Shikiodus… couldn’t seem to believe he’d been seen through. He didn’t even try to hide it? Shuwen silently tsukkomi’d him.

He still didn’t seem concerned about death, but neither did he want to continue pursuing the subject, so the Monk chose to let it drop. Well, it’s certainly not something to brood over very much, I’ll give him that.

Shuwen chuckled a little at the Bard’s opinion on crafting. “Well, since the Apocalypse, a lot of people have been doing more crafting and less fighting, since combat is harder and a lot scarier then it used to be. Because there’s less people farming them and more people using them, materials are probably more expensive and harder to find then they used to be.” Also, the usefulness of leveling one’s subclasses could vary depending on the subclasses in question. His for example, didn’t have very high combat benefits from leveling, though he could see where the Bard was coming from.

Upon realizing they were all of the same race, Shiki raised his hands intent on high fiving them. Shuwen did so, though not very enthusiastically. It was an over-popular race, and he wasn’t sure he’d go with it a second time if had he the chance to choose again. Maybe were-cat or dwarf. That said, Geez, this conversation is all over the place.

“Woodwork would be a good choice, at least it would for me. I’ve been having a devil of a time finding one; it doesn’t seem to be a very popular class.” He grunted in frustration. “Which means I’m going to have a really hard time getting a better bow once I level up.” He held up his crossbow, which was very notably made of wood, to emphasize his point. If I did ever decide to change my production class, I’d change it to woodcrafter. Right now though? I’m a Chef, it seems to be in the middle in regards to popularity; there aren’t a ton of us, but there’s enough that you can usually find one when you need one.” He rubbed the back of his head a little, apparently lost in thought. His eyes seemed to lose some focus, as if he was talking as much to himself as to them. “The most popular crafting class seems to be blacksmith, since they make most weapons and heavy armor. There’s a high demand for both, but from what I’ve seen, a lot of people who get it only do so for the armor bonus, and don’t bother actually leveling the class” He shrugged helplessly.

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"If I were to change my class, I'd probably chose something that would benefit myself as well as anyone that partied with me" He said. "Something like Tailoring, or being a Blacksmith maybe" 

He rubbed his chin, thinking about what he could be if he wasn't a Tailor. He couldn't really think of anything else he'd want to be besides the two he already stated. 

"If you had to change your class to anything, what would you change it to?" He asked, wondering what the others would pick if the had to change, or just, wanted to try something new.

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[Shuwen]

Words: 237

As much as he’d enjoyed their conversation, he felt that potential topics were running dry. Shiki didn’t seem to have any further interest in talking, and Apollo seemed to be just dragging out the current subject, presumably until he couldn’t stand talking about it any longer. That… does not strike me as a good idea. He thought, feeling a little grim at the prospect. He turned back towards Apollo. “I don’t know. My character was a Guardian before the apocalypse, but with the changes it brought about, Monk suits me much better; it’s better aligned with my actual skills.” He chuckled a bit. “I’m not sure I want to keep hunter though. It saves me the skill slot that would be needed to use a bow, but that’s not as big a deal as I first thought. I’m thinking of switching it to something like Acrobat or Courier. Probably courier, since it suits my current fighting style better, and isn’t as common a choice.” He shrugged a little indecisively. “Well, I’m getting kind of tired of sitting around here. I got a decent amount of practice in, so I think I’m going to go fight some monsters. Either of you interested in coming along?" If either of them expressed interest in doing so, he’d promptly add them to his party and start moving out of the zone, if they didn’t he’d wave goodbye and leave without them.

-Possible Exit-

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Apollo lit up instantly at the question about going to fight some monsters. He instantly raised his hand up and said "I'd be interested!" 

Apollo had never fought a monster before, mostly due to his laziness, and he wanted to join someone else, to have more fun fighting them.

"I'm extremely interested" He said, excited. "I need to get some training in as well."

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[Shuwen]

Words: 265

Shiki didn’t seem to have any interest in going out of the town zone to fight, but Apollo did. Though considering he was referring to it as “training”, Shuwen couldn’t help but be a little worried about that. Just how much experience has he had fighting monsters so far? Considering his level, probably not much. Not that he could claim much more then that. “Alright then.” He replied, waving the Sorcerer on. He sent Apollo a party invitation, which the Sorcerer presumably accepted, and the two of them left the town zone.

“Since our levels aren’t very high, we’ll be sticking to the server’s newbie zone, Windsor forest.” He gestured in the forest’s general direction, which would be clearly visible a short distance away once they left town. “There’s a couple spots in it with higher-level monsters, but most of them are intended to be newbie-friendly, so we shouldn’t have much difficulty taking them on.”

Not long after they entered the forest, they ran into a pair of dull green slimes. Fortunately, they weren’t the type of monster to attack on sight, so they didn’t take the initiative. “There we go; basic Dull Slimes. Right up there with rats on the difficulty scale.” The monk commentated cheerfully. “You want to start the fight?” There were advantages to starting the fight with a magic attack, most notably that the enemy wouldn’t be actively targeting up while you were trying to cast it, but he wasn’t sure if Apollo was smart or experienced enough to realize that. Well, either way, he’d probably figure it out soon enough.

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Apollo followed behind Shuwen into what he claimed was a forest perfect for newbies. He lowered his head, remembering he was still at a low level and needed to do some training. He noticed some basic Slimes in their area, and listened to Shuwen claim they were up there with the Rats on the difficulty.

"I can start the fight" He said, wanting to fighting. He reached behind him and pulled out his basic staff. He held it out in front of him and began to get ready to cast a spell.

He got a bit away from the monsters, enough distance so that they wouldn't notice and target him while he was trying to cast his spell.

"Orb of Lava" He said. He had a 2 second start for casting his spell. Luckily for him, it only effects the monsters and not any allies in the area. The tip of his staff began to glow red as a ball of Lava appeared in front of him. He prepared himself to launch the ball at the enemies, hoping the attack would work.

((Are we going to make a new thread for this or going to just continue here?))

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[Shuwen]

Words: 300

Apollo seemed to be quick on the draw; he cast a powerful-looking fire spell he called Orb of Lava, launching it at the nearest enemies. The spell wasn’t enough to kill them, but it did knock large chunks off their HP bar, cutting them down to between twenty and forty percent of their maximum health. “Not bad, let me finish them off. Shuwen rushed in. Having taken a big him from him, the slimes were heavily agro’d towards Apollo, which meant they were largely going to ignore the Monk. But until they reached the Sorcerer, and he didn’t screw up the distance, Shuwen had free reign to hit them until they reached his ally.

The monk ran in between the two slimes and slammed his fist against the ground. “Tiger Echo Fist!" Shuwen growled as a glowing shockwave was released from his fist, hitting both the slimes and knocking them to the side. Their charge was disrupted, but not halted as they continued to move towards the Sorcerer. Shuwen moved towards the leftmost, and struck it with a low kick, followed by an overhead hammer fist. Those two hits would be more then enough to reduce it’s HP to zero, causing it to burst apart in a stream of bubbles. If Apollo didn’t choose to attack the other slime while he was busy with it, the Monk would go after the remaining one, using a low sweeping kick followed by an uppercut, bending his legs so it was low enough to hit the slime. “Not to difficult, especially since there’s two of us.” He said matter-of-factly, as if they were just raking the front lawn or cleaning up the kitchen. “We can probably fight those all day without any serous problems. Well, until we run out of MP at least.”

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Apollo, while recharging his skill, watched as Shuwen finished off one of the slimes. He couldn't keep up with all of the movements, they seemed so swift to him. He laughed at what Shuwen had said to him, he had said it so mater-of-factly. 
"Just as long as we don't run out of MP" He said, agreeing with him. His staff then started glowing red again, he was charging another Orb of Lava to attack the other slime, which he assumed was the last one. With a swift swing of his staff, the orb was flung at the slime, dealing enough damage to finish it off, he had hoped. 
He relaxed a bit, in the hopes he had finished it off, allowing him some more time to recharge in case it survived or if another came out at them.

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[Shuwen]

Words: 447

“Do you have any more efficient spells then that? No offense, but that spell looked pretty mana-intensive. The enemies aren’t terribly difficult, so you might want to focus more on conserving mp. We have more then enough firepower to take on enemies of this level. We can probably afford to tone it down a bit.”

The next monsters they ran into were a pair of Young Pittered Boars. They moved significantly faster then the slimes did, but they weren’t as mobile while doing so. In other words, they were good at charging. So Apollo’s magic probably still hit them with magic as long as he aimed properly. As they closed in, Shuwen didn’t close into attack range right away, instead equipping his crossbow and shooting the nearest one with it. Once the bolt landed, he didn’t bother to reload, instead tossing it to one side and charged the mobs. The monk considered using the knockback and range of Tiger Echo Fist to knock it back and follow up before it could regain momentum, but he wanted to save mana, and until he leveled u, it would be his only area of effect attack, so he didn’t try to hit head on. Instead, he did the same tactic as before, getting in between them so his area of effect attack would hit them both.

He assumed Apollo would go after the closer one, so he went for the second; it had been knocked back somewhat by the attack, and he did his best to capitalize on that. Springing forwards, he hit it with a sideways hammer fist. However, by that point, it had regained its balance, and struck back with it’s tusks. Blah. Despite being a dps/tank “bruiser” type, he wasn’t particularly fond of trading blows, especially when he had better options available, but he couldn’t really think of any at the moment.. He followed up with a low kick to the boar’s midsection, it responded with a sideways slash at his legs Ignoring the spark of pain coming from his ribs and legs, he jumped back and used Zoom attack. By using a skill with a longer range, he hoped he could avoid allowing it to hit back. His left arm glowed as it grew about a meter in length, spinning on the ball of one foot, he hit the boar’s side with a spinning backfist. It tried to close in to get back into attack range, but the front kick he followed up, on top of all the blows he’d already delivered, was more then it could handle. Now that his opponent was done, he turned to see how Apollo had fared against his own opponent.

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Apollo nodded in agreement to Shuwens statement about preserving MP and using the other spells he had to use. 
"Sorry man, for a second I forgot I had other spells to use" He said, excitement was in his voice. "I think this is my first battle" 
He followed behind Shuwen when some new monsters arrived. A pair of Pittered Boars. They moved faster than the slimes had. He noticed Shuwen had attacked one of the boars, the furthest one out. He noticed Shuwen had wanted him to attack the closest one, at least that's what Apollo had assumed. 
His staff started to glow a shade of blue. He didn't know if this attack would work as they wanted it to, but he had to try it. After about two seconds, a shard of ice formed on the tip of the spear. Apollo then swung his staff at the closest boar, throwing the ice at the boar. As it sped towards it, it changed into a spear like shard of ice. 
"Frost Spear" He called out as it launched towards the closet boar. 
*Please Work* He said to himself. "If this attack lands, it'll slow it down, but increase its defense somewhat" The Frost Spear attack had landed its hit, only hitting on the right side of its right back leg, luckily. 

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[Shuwen]

Words: 336

Huh, I didn’t realize aiming spells would be so difficult. He’d figured magic would be more accurate then projectiles, and therefore easier to hit with. He hadn’t counted on Apollo’s inexperience getting in the way of that. Aw well, hopefully he’ll get used to it soon. The Sorcerer finished the boar off with a different spell, one that didn’t look quite as flash as Orb of Lava. But it was still powerful enough to get the job done; the boar squealed then burst into a stream of bubbles.

“Looks like you still need to get used to combat. It’s a good thing you didn’t go out alone then. I don’t think a magic attacker’s low defense would have left you much room for error if you were by yourself.” Even though it was also relatively knew to Shuwen as well, his background in martial arts meant he was already somewhat used to the movements, though he wasn’t yet used to fighting actual opponents outside of sparring. I guess I need to get used to that as quickly as possible.

They continued to combat various monsters until their hit points or mana points became unacceptable low, at which point they’d take a break. The monk produced some makeshift cooking equipment and began to cook a pair of boar steaks the monsters they fought earlier had dropped, and vegetables he’d been keeping in his pack. “Discovering how to make tasty food in this world was a godsend.” Shuwen commented. “Though it meant I actually started having to actually learn how to cook! Heheh." The chuckle at the end of the sentence wasn’t quite feigned, as his knowledge of cooking was limited, but he wasn’t a total stranger to feeding himself, and he occasionally found a more knowledgeable adventurer willing to share their knowledge with him. “Anyways, we should probably head back into town once we’re done with dinner, I don’t have any way of making light, magic or otherwise, so we’d be at a disadvantage in the dark.”

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He nodded in agreement to what Shuwen had said about him getting used to combat. "Sorry" was all he had to say. He didn't like to admit it, but he did have some things to get used to while he was here. It was starting to hit him that this wasn't just some Video Game anymore, it had, or will become, the life they live. 
He then watched Shuwen finish off the boar, which he had only managed to slow down, maybe. 
He had followed Shuwen and had done quite a few battles, up to the point their mana and hp were beginning to get low. Apollo didn't have any way of healing his MP and he didn't know if Shuwen did or not.
They had stopped for a break, a food break is what Apollo figured they'd stopped for. 
"I'm sure you'll become a great cook Shuwen" Apollo said to him with a smile on his face. "I'm not that great of a cook, well, I wasn't before I got into Elder Tale" He laughed a little. He was trying to lighten the mood some. 
Shuwen had then suggested that they head back for town after they finish things up, he agreed with him when he said they'd be at a disadvantage in the dark. 
"I agree" He said. Apollo then looked around. "I need to buy things to help with HP and Mana" 

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[Shuwen]

Words: 211

Once the food was done cooking, he passed half of it to Apollo. The steak wasn’t particularly well cooked; the half of it that had been closer to the inside of the pan had received significantly more heat then the other, and the bottom of it was nearly charred, while the half of the steak that had been on the outside was probably a bit rarer the Apollo would have preferred, but it was certainly edible, and would certainly taste better then unfounded food.

“The food should increase your HP regen a bit, though not by a huge amount.” He said. “There’s a few recipes that increase MP regen, but I haven’t started on those yet.” He took a bite out of his steak, making a displeased face as he did so. “If you can find a supply of those, you should probably buy them up. You’d probably be a lot stronger if you had more MP to draw from.[/b]

And so they finished the meal and headed back towards London town. “We might do this again sometime. I haven’t bothered to join a guild, so finding people to party up with hasn’t been easy.” They made their farewells and split up, more or less content with the progress they’d made.

-Exit