What Do You Mean It Looks Funny? [Mentor]

[Shuwen]

Words: 443

Shuwen had decided to try out a new recipe, one that another chef of his acquaintance had recommended to him. The dish wasn't something he was familiar with, but it had come highly recommended, and he'd managed to buy the recipe from the guy at a discount, so he figured he might as well give it a shot.

After acquiring most of the necessary ingredients, Shuwen went out into Windsor forest, killing several boars for the meat they dropped, then found a convenient campsite where he set up his portable stove and other things, allowing him to cook in relative privacy. By the time he started cooking, it was nearly lunch time.

Schnitzel could be made with a number of different types of meat. Shuwen went with pork because it was easy to acquire; Windsor forest was rife with boars, and he already had some experience working with the meat they dropped. Fortunately, the rest of the ingredients were fairly easy to acquire as well; eggs, bread crumbs, salt, milk, and flour.

The first part involved preparing the coating. First, he cracked the eggs open and poured their contents into a mixing bowl. The milk quickly followed. Fortunately, that was all he needed to do with that part for the time being, until it was ready to be added to the meat.

The second part involved preparing the meat. Laying out several hunks of meat next to each other, he used a rolling pin to pound them until they were only a small fraction of an inch thick, and sprinkled both sides of each one with salt, then flour, pressing them against the meat to get them to stick. With that, he was ready to start applying the mixture he'd previously made. Pulling out the bread crumbs, he began to alternate between dipping each segment of meat into the egg and milk mixture, and the bread crumbs. The mixture acted as an adhesive, ensuring the break crumbs would stick.

When he judged each piece of meat to be ready, he placed it strategically on a skillet. When all the meat was in the skillet, he began to cook them over medium-high heat. Fortunately for him, they didn't take very long, so he soon flipped them over in order to cook the other sides. Once that was done, he carefully removed them and placed them on a plate.

Well, that's that. He thought as he cleaned his hands by pouring a small amount of water from a canteen, and wiped them on a towel. But did I do it right? I've no idea if this is what they're supposed to be like when ready.

[Deleted]

Words: 505
Total: 505
Tags: Shuwen

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Nothing’s better than a walk in the forest, when you’ve got nothing to do. Ciriodhûl sighed. Don’t deceive yourself. You are here to escape the city, because you cannot make up your goddamn mind! After he had finally found an adventurer, who had needed his help, yesterday, he did not know what to do anymore. But how can I join the guild of someone with whom I cannot talk about how I got the idea in the first place? I need some kind of…

“Wait, what’s that smell?”, he mumbled and took another deep breath through his nose. A feeling of nostalgia took him back to a time when he was still living in Germany. He and his father used to visit a certain restaurant that was specialized in making schnitzel back then and the smell he now experienced in the forest reminded him of those days. He could almost see his father in front of his inner eye, when the smell suddenly changed. “Huh?” The cleric’s phantasm collapsed. “Wait, the smell of schnitzel inside the forest of a former game? No, that’s the smell of burnt schnitzel!” Ciriodhûl stopped for a short time to determine the direction the smell was wafting from and then hurried to its origin. He did not know what got into him to lose his composure this easily, but he just had to know. He had to know whether he was right about the dish and who was making it.

After a short time he was able to espy a wolf hair through the trees, who was placing pieces of breaded meat on a plate. He immediately regained his composure and slowly crept to the scene. “I see, that you made schnitzel. I might be of assistance in this matter.”, he said after he was near enough for the wolf hair to hear him and indicated a bow. “My name’s Ciriodhûl, cleric and housekeeper. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Usually he would have waited his counterpart’s reply, but because he was just too interested in how the schnitzel had turned out, he instead went to the plate to inspect them. He gulped and took a glance at the skillet that had been most likely used to cook them. The schnitzels were not ruined, although the coating was quite burnt at some points. After he had seen the skillet he also knew why. Did he really fry them without using any fat or butter? He already wanted to open his mouth to share his observations with the chef, when he realized how rude he actually was. Get yourself together, Cirio! “Ah, I am sorry, I must have caught you off guard. I hope that I didn’t disturb you. It just so happens that I am of German origin and know a bit about making schnitzel. May I be of assistance?” The cleric bowed again and then offered his hand for shaking. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”, he said again in a desperate move to overwrite his previously hastened introduction.

[Shuwen]

Words: 355

The entirety of Shuwen's focus was on the food he was cooking, so when @ciriodhul approached him, he was quite surprised. Considering how often other adventurers were lured to him by the smell of cooked food, he probably ought to have expected this, but alas, he didn't. He didn't even realize someone had approached him until the Cleric spoke up. His opening words didn't particularly help either; rather then asking a leading question or introducing himself, the first thing the cleric did was talk about the food. Though he did introduce himself soon after. The newcomer's class certainly surprised him a bit; clerics were both uncommon due to their limited ability to fight alone, and highly sought after for their ability to drastically improve the survivability of any group they were a part of. What in the world was this guy doing by himself?

"Ummmmm, hi?" Shuwen responded, trying and failing to turn his greeting into a question. However, the newcomer seemed to be entirely uninterested in what he had to say, instead moving over to inspect the food he'd just made.

"Go ahead, I guess. I wasn't planning to make any more, but you're free to demonstrate." He picked the skilled back up and handed it to the cleric. "I don't really feel like making any more, but if you want to do it to demonstrate, I have enough ingredients left over." Actually, he just felt like eating what he'd made and getting the heck out of there, but he knew that if he did, his next attempt to make the dish wouldn't be any better, and all the effort he'd put into them thus far would be pretty much wasted. And that certainly wouldn't do. While his crafting level was probably in a completely different league from Cirio's, he hadn't done any cooking before the apocolypse, and still tended to make rookie mistakes at times. Quite frankly, he needed all the help he could get.

If Cirio agreed, Shu would take a step back and watch, nibbling on one of the shnitzel he'd made. It was indeed somewhat burnt, but still certainly edible.

[Deleted]

Words: 348
Total: 853
Tags: Shuwen

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Ciriodhûl did not really know how he ended up in such a situation. Just a few days ago he had been pretty much unable to find a party. Now he was standing in front of a rather high leveled adventurer and chef – at least that was what he believed after inspecting his equipment – who had just handed him his skillet. I really messed this up, didn’t I? “Well, I just wanted to say that you did everything alright, but somehow forgot to use some kind of fat to fry it.”, he said nervously scratching the back of his head with his free hand. “I can give it a shot, though. I am after all a housekeeper.”

The wolf hair, who had taken a step back nibbling one of his own cutlets to watch him, had indeed left over quite a few ingredients. Everything to coat the meat was all ready and there was still meat left. “Uhmmm …”, he began while trying to remember the name of the chef, only to realize that he had not told him yet. “I am sorry, my friend, but do you have any butter? Any other kind of fat would also be sufficient, but good old butter just tastes the best.” By now he had completely fallen out of character. He was so used to being rejected when he delivered his usual question that it now felt weird to actually be of assistance. For a short time he thought about asking for his client’s name before making a schnitzel – or better trying to make one – but reasoned that such a question would make his act even more ridiculous than he had already made it. You decided to play some weird kind of servant. When you are already doing something like that, behave like one.

If the wolf hair gave him the butter he would make one normal schnitzel by repeating the steps the chef had already made and then frying it in a lot of butter until the coating would be golden brown, because that was how a Viennese schnitzel should be.

[Shuwen]

Words: 439

Shuwen wanted to smash his face against the nearest tree. Oftentimes, recipes didn't include instructions to do things that the writer presumably thought was obvious. Things like using butter when frying something, or to stir the pot of boiling noodles. Things that an inexperienced cook like himself most definitely did not take for granted. Alas, it was too late for him to fix his mistake now, as he wasn't really in the mood to make any more. He'd just have to try to remember it later. That said, it seemed that @ciriodhul wanted to give it a shot. It probably wasn't a good idea to get into the habit of giving things to lower-leveled players, but at the moment, it was probably less effort then using those ingredients himself.

Wait, isn't he a housekeeper? Wouldn't that mean he'd only be able too... Too late! Even if he was of a higher level, housekeepers weren't able to make food leveled higher then ten, regardless of how high their actual level was. And as his main level was only one, it was unlikely his subclass was much higher then that. Alas, the ingredients he was using were leveled in the 20s, significantly above that. As a result, regardless of how much effort and skill he actually had when it came to cooking, they wouldn't turn out very well.

Shuwen's worrying was well-founded. As a level one housekeeper, all he was able to produce was level one food. So despite the fact that he was much more knowledgeable when it came to making this particular dish, they somehow ended up charred and bland tasting.

"Well, as least they didn't turn to mush, yeah?" Shuwen said in a rather clumsy attempt to console the would-be cook. "It looks like you need to level up a bit more." Normally, when someone tried to use ingredient items leveled higher then they were, the attempt usually failed completely, with the dish turning into slime, evaporating, or something equally unproductive. Now that he thought about it, the fact that the cleric was able to complete the dish at all was fairly impressive.

Sooo I should I go about diffusing this? Should I buy some ingredient items for him? No, no, bad idea. I can't just keep giving him stuff. The last thing I need right now is to set that precedent. Even if he doesn't have any gold, he could always... hmm, as a low-leveled cleric, that would be troublesome. They arn't really built for soloing.

"Do you want any help gathering ingredients? As a soloing cleric, you're probably still having trouble with the local mobs, right?"

[Deleted]

Words: 489
Total: 1342
Tags: Shuwen

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Ciriodhûl had a hard time hiding his annoyance. In the spur of the moment he had completely forgotten that he was in a game, although he tended to remind himself of that fact regularly. Is this a good or a bad sign? Well, I guess it’s a good sign to get used to living here after several years have already passed. The schnitzels he had tried to make turned out not particularly better than the ones the chef had made, albeit he had cooked them surprisingly almost in a perfect way. So that’s how crafting level and real skill are treated. Normally he would not have been able to cook anything near a schnitzel because of his low level. However, due to the fact that after the apocalypse crafting by hand became common, since handcrafted items proved to be way better, he had still given it a try. Meanwhile the wolf hair tried its best to comfort him and stated the obvious problem with his level. “I am deeply sorry. I should’ve known this beforehand and still wasted your ingredients.”, he replied and bowed down.

I am useless, he thought, so utterly useless. Who am I deceiving? I can’t even do anything, when I have finally the chance to assist someone in combat. His thoughts focused on yesterday’s events. Zyoto was right to leave me alone. I am not even helpful to another level one and now I try to help a high leveled adventurer? He took a deep breath. No, he could not fall into despair now. He had not spoken to the guild master yet, Zyoto had mentioned, and observed rationally he was not at fault that the situations, he had been in, did not really favor him.

Before he could come up with a plan of what to do now, the wolf hair piped up and offered him to help gathering ingredients. “Huh?”, the cleric exclaimed puzzled and was silent for a rather long time, until he finally replied. “Since I somehow failed my start equipment, that’s right.”, he focused on the second question abandoning the offer. “I wear chain mail and use a two-handed staff. I’m fine, though. I don’t want to bother you with something this irrelevant. I mean, I don’t even know your name and just barged in. I should be the one helping you to gather ingredients! Although I might not be able to do that… Still, I want to make up to you for this.” Idiot, what do you want to say? Calm down first and think. “Sorry for my confusing reply. I just wanted to say that I might have trouble with the local mobs, but I would never want to waste your time on this. In fact, I came to the forest for a walk and not hunting, before the scent of your food reached my nose. I am ashamed that I ask this late, but what’s your name?”

[Shuwen]

Words: 432

Shuwen wasn't particularly bothered by how poorly @ciriodhul 's schnitzels turned out. He'd almost seen it coming after all. In all honesty, he should have predicted it sooner. "Don't worry about it. I didn't notice the lack of butter was a problem, so my next ones probably wouldn't have been any better otherwise." That was simple enough to dismiss. The next things he said were somewhat more difficult to deal with.

"Failed your start equipment?" he wasn't sure what the cleric meant by that. Did he pick a loadout that suited him poorly or something? But judging from what he had on hand, that didn't seem to be the case. So what was he going on about?

Shuwen pointed above himself, at where he estimated his own status bar would appear on the cleric's interface. Maybe it was rude of him, but not introducing himself was his own fault, his oversight, rather. Since the names of everyone present appeared on the interface, it made sharing it verbally somewhat redundant. However, it seemed to be important to him, so he mentally backed up a bit and introduced himself. "The name's Shuwen. As you can see, I'm a monk, and a chef." His name, main class, and level should have all been present on the interface. His crafting subclass was already plain as day due to their circumstances.

"As for the rest of what you said... how to put this... you probably shouldn't insist on doing things by yourself." He pointed at the other player's status bar, more specifically, at the icon that indicated his class. "Cleric is a healer class, after all. It isn't really intended for solo play. You'd probably do better in a group." He put is pointer finger down and scratched his chin. Now that I think about it, I'm surprised you're on your own as it is. Not a lot of people like to play support classes, since they typically aren't all that great on their own. But because of that, and because they work so well as part of a group, healers tend to be highly sought after by teams and such. Every twelve year old kid and his brother is willing and able to play as an assassin or some other damage-dealing class, so they're everywhere. Tanks are a bit rarer but still still an appealing concept to a lot of people, so it's not too hard to find one. But healers? Not so much. I'm surprised no one's pushed you to join a guild or whatever, regardless of your level."

[Deleted]

Words: 460
Total: 1802
Tags: Shuwen

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While introducing himself the monk Shuwen pointed in the air above him. What’s he …? Oh. Ciriodhûl had almost forgotten that this was a thing. Usually players would have a status bar displayed above themselves, when one clicked on them with one’s finger. Due to privacy some information could be hidden, whatsoever, and the cleric was used to not use this feature. He did not want to use it. Although he accepted the reality that he had been sucked into a game, he tried to make this illusion as realistic as possible. Therefore he had never used the Elder Tale interface while socializing. It just felt rude. And until now he had completely forgotten about it.

The next things Shuwen said, however, hit Ciriodhûl hard. Now he pointed in the air above him, most likely at his own status bar, and taught him that a cleric was intended for playing in a group. As if I don’t already know that. I played plenty of MMORPGs before Elder Tale, you know? Of course he would never say something like this aloud or even show his disgust silently. Nevertheless, he was not able to hinder his smile at becoming forced. He looked slightly down and avoided eye contact. Naturally Shuwen was irritated that a cleric was on his own, because they were heavily sought after. As a chef he seemed to be pretty good at rubbing salt into wounds. Why had he been mostly alone the last few years? It was not an easy question to answer. It was not even a question he could answer with certainty. In fact, he was ashamed.

“Well, I didn’t have any friends to begin with, when the apocalypse happened, and I was bad at speaking to people. You are the first adventurer I met who was not bothered by my demeanor at all. Many laughed at me. Others would send me confused away. Guilds, however, are a whole different story. I don’t particularly like them. My attitude may not suggest it, but I would not work for everybody. If I would’ve found friends I might have joined a guild, but that never happened. However …”, he paused to think about how he should put it. “… I’ll most likely join Noihara sometime in the next few days. I just need some kind of excuse.” He spoke the last sentence solely to himself and when he realized that he had spoken and not thought it, he added: “But that’s not of your concern.” He sighed. “Well then, do you think there is anything I can help you with?” His smile softened. “After all I am a housekeeper and cleric. Always of assistance!” He indicated another bow. The one thing he was very proficient in by now.

[Shuwen]

Words: 371

Shuwen's spiel about clerics needing to be more social didn't seem to phase @ciriodhul very much. If anything, it probably just annoyed him. Aw well. The presence of a status bar, on the other hand, appeared to ruffle his feathers a little. I guess he really hadn't noticed.

In an attempt to keep things polite, Cirio stumbled through an explanation that he was socially awkward, which made grouping up with people difficult. He even punctuated it with a snappy bow. Apparently, the fact that he'd just described at least half of the game's user base seemed to have escaped him. I wonder how long it will take for him to realize I'm of a class geared towards soloing, or that I picked it deliberately?

"Something you can help me with? Not really, unless you want to do some grinding." He replied as he began to return the portable stove and other cooking gear to his inventory. "I'd like to work towards getting back the ingredients we just used up." With the gear safely stowed away, he began rummaging through the satchel bag at his side. "Actually, unless you want to help, you should probably clear out now; there will probably be a bunch of monsters over here soon." To emphasize the need to decide quickly, Shuwen used his free hand to manipulate his interface, and quickly sent Ciriodhul a party invite, which he was free to accept or decline. Regardless of what the cleric did, Shuwen would pull out... something foul smelling from his bag and tossed it onto the ground a few feet away, downwind of course.

Using the interface would reveal to Cirio the items' name and description. The most urgent piece of information he'd probably learn was that the item, which was classified as "monster bait", attracted monsters.

"The monster bait will lure the monsters here." Shuwen explained if Cirio didn't both to check the item for himself. "It's to make grinding easier, among other things, since it saves you the time of hunting them down one by one. If you don't want to have to put up with them, I suggest you clear out." Shuwen started to make light hops, bouncing on the balls of his feet.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}Unmentionable: Level 30 Monster Bait. An unpleasant mixture of peanut butter and uncooked meat. Practically inedible for humans, but rather attractive to many monsters. Does not provide any bonuses from being eaten, but can lure monsters to a specific location, draw agro when held, or act as a distraction. May not effect monsters whose level is higher then the item’s.

[Deleted]

Words: 502
Total: 2304
Tags: Shuwen

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Surprisingly the monk did not send him away but instead made a quite ambivalent reply about whether Ciriodhûl wanted to do some grinding. He was not exactly sure whether Shuwen was serious or just trying to politely decline his offer, although the fact that the wolf hair had previously offered to help him gathering ingredients gave him some confidence. After the monk had stated that he would like to get the used-up ingredients back and pushed the cleric to make up his mind by advising him to clear out if he did not want to help, he sent Ciriodhûl a party invite. The cleric had to decide quickly, and while Shuwen pulled something terribly smelling out of his bag – probably some kind of bait – he accepted it. What can possibly go wrong?

Now that the monster bait laid on the ground a few meters downwind, his new companion explained to him how it would work followed by another advice to clear out if he did not want to fight the lured monsters. Maybe Shuwen really wanted him to go, but Ciriodhûl did not particularly care. The monk sent him an invite and that was all that counted. Because he had offered his assistance he would not simply leave. It might be foolish to think, after everything which had happened, that he was able to be of assistance, but the role he used as a façade did not allow him to back off now. Therefore he opened the interface and equipped his staff. “I hope you don’t mind, when I stay.”, he said, while the monk warmed his muscles up, and placed himself somewhere apparently safe, so that Shuwen was between him and the bait. “My heal might not be more than the proverbial drop in the stream of your HP regeneration, but with a whole bunch of luck on my end and a whole bunch of bad luck on your end, the drop may even be enough to prevent the stream from drying out for a split second. Anyways, I’ll just don’t get in your way and observe.” Wait, observing? At least that’s something I can do. Four eyes are better than two. After a rather long pause he spent thinking about his idea he added: “I can play the field monitor if you want. Looking out for new monsters joining the area and your HP bar. This way you can focus on the battle at hand.”

Ciriodhûl knew that the monk class was often used by solo-players and judging Shuwen he was most likely one of them. Nevertheless, soloing depended on attention. The player had to fill out every role at once. The cleric, however, intended to be Shuwen’s eyes. While the monk would fight or rather hunt the monsters approaching the bait, he would be able to retain an overview of the area. This way the monk would not have to always keep an eye at his farer surroundings himself, what would conserve at least a bit of his concentration.

[Shuwen]

Words: 590

The first group of monsters to show up were a trio of Briar Weasels. Their levels were in the 10-15 range, not a big challenge for Shuwen, who's level was significantly greater then that, but more then @ciriodhul would have likely been able to manage them on his own. Upon coming into range, the monsters refocused their attention on Ciriodhul and began to stalk towards him with moderate speed. Oh yeah, that is a thing, isn't it? Normally, monster's priorities were determined by the agro system, which meant that the biggest apparent threat was usually their primary target. However, if one of their potential targets was significantly weaker then the others, it wasn't terribly unusual for them to target that one instead, unless or until one of the other targets managed to draw significantly more agro. I guess I'd better do something before he gets swarmed. He didn't doubt the cleric's courage, but subjecting him to that wouldn't be very nice. Taking a deep breath, Shuwen let out a sharp ;"Kiyaaahh!" in the weasel's general direction, activating the skill Rafting Taunt, an agro management skill that would bump the user to the top of the monsters' priority list for several second. Letting out soft growls, they turned towards the monk and started closing in on him instead. That got their attention. Better hit them before they lose interest. Alas, the effect of Rafting Taunt didn't last very long, so he had to move fast or they'd head back towards Cirio again. Taking several steps forward, he made a long low leap towards the weasels. As he came down,he bent his knees sharply to absorb the impact of the landing and slammed his fist against the ground below, activating the skill Tiger Echo Fist, releasing a shockwave that hit all three of the weasels. The attack knocked off a chunk of the weasel's health, and knocked them away a short distance, scattering the trio.

The monk smirked. Tiger Echo Fist was, in his opinion, an excellent opening attack. As one of the few area of effect skills in his arsenal, and had a significant knockback effect, it was great for breaking an enemy's charge. Alas, he hadn't gotten it off quite as quickly as he would have liked. One of the weasels had seen he was closing in, and had attacked him with the whiplike-vines that entangled it's tail. The lashing attack managed to land just before the weasel was blown away by Shuwen's attack, dealing a small amount of damage as it hit his chest horizontally. "Gyah!" Shuwen hadn't expected them to land any hits, so the dull pain in his chest was unexpected. I'll have to do better then that. He thought ruefully. Even lesser monsters' attacks can sting. He turned his head towards Ciro. "See what damage you can do to them while they're focused on me. You don't have to a lot; just be sure to keep an eye on both of our health bars while you're doing it if you can." In more difficult fights, the healers would largely stay out fo the fight, monitoring their allie's health and prioritise healing the ones that needed it the most. Due to the level difference between Shuwen and the mobs, it was unlikely he'd need much in the way of healing unless reinforcements showed up and protracted the battle, so it was probably okay for Cirio to focus a bit more on dealing damage as long as SHuwen was able to keep them off the Cleric's back.

[Deleted]

Words: 598
Total: 2902
Tags: Shuwen

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„Three Weasels ahead!“, Ciriodhûl shouted a bit louder than necessary. “Coming in on one o’clock.” He turned around to quickly check the other directions of incoming monsters. After he had confirmed that those three Weasels were the only ones, he set his focus on them again, only to realize that he had somehow drawn their agro. Wait, what? That does not go as planned. He made a step back to steady his standing. Whatever you do, do not run away from the tank, he recited a good friend’s words he used to play MMOs with. It will only complicate things. Since he lacked any offensive skills he could use to hold them back, he simply casted his Reactive Heal on himself and thought about why he was focused by the Weasels. It was not long, until he remembered a common feature of MMORPGs: Level and agro. To prevent low level characters to enter high level territory, they gather a lot more hate than high level characters by just being there. On the other hand high level characters in low level areas gather no hate at all and are not going to be engaged by low level monsters.

What did I get myself into? When the Weasels came into range, Shuwen let out a cry, gathering enough hate to draw agro. Thereupon he leaped in front of the monsters and interrupted their charge by slamming his fist against the ground and creating a shockwave that knocked them back and scattered their formation. Nevertheless he exclaimed in pain and the cleric saw that the monk’s HP bar decreased, although it was not really noticeable. One of the weasels must have landed a hit on him. Okay let’s see how much my heal does. Ciriodhûl pointed his right hand at him and used Healing Light, a small but efficient healing skill that would shoot a white light with a hexagram shape at Shuwen. When it connected, the monk’s HP bar increased even less than it had decreased before. Figured. The cleric felt even more useless, as his partner in fight wanted him to do damage. He looked at the staff in his left hand and sighed. Well, here goes. After he had used another Reactive Heal at Shuwen wrapping his target in the warm orange light he was already wrapped in, he took his staff with both hands and made sure to approach the fight from the side. It would be bad if he stood in the monk’s way. Lacking any form of offensive skill and weapon the cleric could only use his staff to smack the enemies preferably on their heads. Therefore he carefully closed in on the left Weasel while he made sure to keep his distance because that way he was able to utilize the rather high range of his weapon. He watched for the right moment and let his staff come down in a diagonal strike aimed for the Weasel’s head. The Weasel, however, dodged the attack and he hit the ground instead. Ciriodhûl was not surprised. His hitrate was not very high to begin with and since he was also underleveled the chance for him to even hit a Weasel was very low. Not to speak that the amount of damage he could deal was not very much, either. I wonder if I should keep this up. It’s not of much use and Shuwen will have a harder time holding the agro, because the distance between me and the monsters is much shorter, so that they can immediately attack me if he should ever lose it.

[Shuwen]

Words: 642

Shuwen already knew the reasoning behind reporting such things, but since he wasn't caught up fighting and had also been on the lookout, there hadn't been much of a point to it yet.

A short amount of time after he took the hit, Shuwen felt a tingling sensation on his back, accompanied by the sight of his HP bar refilling, causing the monk to relax slightly. It was true that the difference in their levels meant that Ciriodhul's healing wouldn't have a huge effect on him, especially since he also outleveled the monsters they were fighting. However, the monster bait was still active, and more monsters were likely to come soon. Regardless of the level difference, he was glad that he didn't have to worry much about keeping an eye on his HP, since there was a cleric already seeing to it. If nothing else, the healing Cirio provided him would allow him to last significantly longer if more monsters appeared and the fight dragged on.

As Cirio closed in on the leftmost weasel, Shuwen charged between the other two. The three mobs set upon him, the one that Cirio was attacking ignored the cleric in, except to dodge his attacks. As the cleric's hit rate and damge were significantly lower then the monk's, it was unlikely it would change targets just from that. Shu was personally more concerned about the body type of the monsters he was fighting. Shuwen had taken up martial arts back on Earth as a hobby. He wasn't particularly good, but he'd found that certain moves that hadn't previously existed in the game could give him a significant advantage under the right circumstances. Alas, the martial arts he'd been taught was intended to be used against other humans, and didn't do so well against enemies with drastically different body types, restricting the kinds of moves he could effectively use on them.

The monk made a wide step to to get in just the right distance, then made a low kick aimed at a weasel's ribs. Catching as many of their lash attacks as he could on his shield, Shuwen proceeded to use low kicking techniques to target them. The moves he was using more closely resembled the movements of a soccer player then a martial artist, but they seemed to work. Curious, he experimentally tried stomping on one of them, to see how effective the move would be. The weasel squealed in what he presumed was distress, but it's violent movements almost caused him to lose his balance and topple over. Okay, don't bother with that one again. He thought as he stepped back and went for another low kick. Soon, however, the difference in their levels started to show. One weasel was quickly dispatched, and then the other, the mobs dispersing into multi-colored bubbles and appropriately-leveled loot, which he didn't really have time to look closely at yet.

The only one left would most likely be the one Cirio was fighting. It had continued to attack Shuwen, but less aggressively then the other two, since it had to take the time to dodge Cirio's attacks. Even if they hadn't done much damage, they'd reduced the mob's damage output, which in Shuwen's opinion, had made his contributions worthwhile. Activating the skill Zoom Attack. Shuwen wound up his arm and was about to strike the mob with an unnaturally long punch when something curled around his leg. "Dawhani?!" It seemed that while they were focused on the briar weasels, a Garden Snake had also been drawn by the monster bait, been agro'd by the monk, and had curled around his legs before he'd noticed it's presence. Shuwen reacted by trying to jump away and shove it away with his foot, but with the snake entrapping his legs, that only resulted in him losing his balance and falling over.

[Deleted]

Words: 584
Total: 3486
Tags: Shuwen

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Well, it’s not very likely that he loses agro, so better keep this Weasel busy. Ciriodhûl had never had any experience in fighting with a weapon let alone a staff. Therefore his moves were clumsy and he retreated for a moment to think this matter over. Maybe I should try to make a thrust movement with the foot of my staff instead of doing a strike movement with the head. I doubt that it will do damage, but it’s a lot faster. Returning to the fight he immediately checked the effectiveness of his new strategy out. Surprisingly he was able to land a hit on its back, which dealt, not so surprisingly, almost no damage at all. Nevertheless it was still enough to distract the Weasel and hinder its attack at the monk. Shuwen made use of the same technique and foremost used kicks to attack his enemies, although his try to stomp on one was not that good of an idea. Refocusing on his own battle taking place the cleric’s staff came down in a strangely rhythm, while he tried to adapt to his opponent’s movements. His effort was not very successful but he was at least able to slow the Weasel down and thereby hold it off Shuwen’s back.

While Cirio was still busy struggling to be useful in close quarter combat, the monk had been able to defeat the other two Weasels. The sight of them dispersing into the anima bubbles they were made of was a relief. Naturally Shuwen turned around to take care of the last one, when an outburst of surprise left his mouth while he was preparing an attack. The next thing the cleric could see out of the corner of his eye was the monk toppling over and clunking on the ground. His HP bar took a rather big hit in comparison to how it had decreased before, albeit it could still not be considered threatening in any way. The Reactive Heal he had casted in the beginning of the fight was activated and restored the lost health. Fortunately the amount it healed was significantly larger than the amount Healing Light could restore. Ciriodhûl quickly glanced over and saw the cause of his fall. A snake had entrapped his legs and disturbed his balance. Making use of the moment the last Weasel suddenly leaped in front to land on his partner, but the cleric, who had somewhat expected the Weasel attacking, made a desperate attempt at defending the monk, used his staff as if it were a baseball bat and aimed for the Weasel, which was currently in the air. Unable to dodge without any kind of foothold the staff connected with the mob and knocked it to the side. Of course, even a direct hit failed at dealing any significant amount of damage, but it still loudly squealed in pain at the time of impact with the ground. Meanwhile the snake had straightened up and was about to spring forward and to drive its poisonous fangs inside Shuwen’s neck. Verdammt, I was supposed to be the field monitor. How could I miss a snake entering the battlefield? “Watch out!”, he shouted out in case the monk had lost his orientation because of the fall and rushed at his side. He doubted that he was in time, but if Shuwen was not able to get the snake off his body, he would try it the same way he interrupted the Weasel in its jump. Playing baseball.

[Shuwen]

Words: 453

Maybe having Cirio focus on offense wasn't a good idea. Generally speaking, it was the job of the back row fighters to stay on the look out for unexpected changes on the battlefield, such as the arrival of more enemies. However, it's not like Cirio could do that while he was focused on sticking a weasel. Expecting him to do both would have just been silly. It had been his call, so it was ultimately his own fault. Guess I'd better deal with his then. Cirio rushed over to here he was, presumably to help him deal with the snake, but unless it tried to make a run for it, he couldn't think of much the cleric could do for him in that regard. "Heal or attack. I've got this!" He said, sounding a bit more confidently then he felt.

Shuwen tried to make a grab for the snake's midsection, but it snaked it's way out of his grasp and bit him on the neck. Owwwww A new icon appeared on his status bar. A poison debuff. Well, it probably wouldn't make too much difference either way. He could already feel Cirio's healing effect him. It probably wouldn't completely undo the damage, but it would go a long way towards mitigating it, and extending the time by which he could last on the battlefield. That was enough. The snake then apparently tried to avoid any incoming retaliatory blows by snaking across the monk's underside and onto the ground. Happy to get a little distance from it, Shuwen rolled away before it could get back on him. Annoyed that he hadn't landed any hits on it, he also drew a throwing knife from the belt at his shoulder and threw it at the reptile, knocking off a chunk of it's HP. He was about to follow up with a ranged skill when he was interrupted by the appearance of a boar mob making it's appearance on the battlefield, charging between the two with all the wrath of an angry god. Eh? Who's it going for, Cirio? Not good! He turned towards the cleric to shout a warning, but realized that he was wrong; the boar's charge wouldn't take it anywhere near either of them. In that case, what was it aiming at? Ah, that's what. He thought after tracing the boar's line of attack. It was heading straight for the monster bait he'd set out earlier. Well, it's certainly doing it's job I guess. I'd better change targets before it does any damage to the bait. Pulling out another throwing knife, he quickly threw it, then followed up by jumping and striking the boar with the Wyvern Kick skill, knocking the boar off course.

[Deleted]

Words: 516
Total: 4002
Tags: Shuwen

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Fortunately the monk had not lost his orientation and told Ciriodhûl to let him handle the situation, in a way that was reassuring enough to make the cleric stop. Instead of playing baseball with the snake he decided to go back at what he was good at and he quickly casted another Reactive Heal on Shuwen wrapping him again in a warm orange light. While he stared at the cozy light for a short moment, he eased off. I sure know why I am always playing a healer or support class. He caught a glimpse of the weasel, which was back on his feet again, but still far enough away to not be of a problem. When he looked back at his laying companion, he observed him fail an attempt to grab the reptile and the following counter bite. This time around the damage done to his HP bar was clearly noticeable and even the immediately triggered Reactive Heal could not compensate it. Additionally he saw a poison debuff added beneath his HP bar and above the cleric’s. That should be no problem … Because Ciriodhûl was a dedicated healer he had not chosen any damage skill first, but had focused on filling the healer’s role to its fullest. Therefore his third Cleric skill was Cure. A spell meant to remove debuffs. However, the soon as he used it on Shuwen the scales fell from his eyes. Double-checking his assumption he looked at the monk’s status bar. The poison debuff had not vanished. … if I the snake’s level were not that significantly higher than mine. His next look was devoted to his own Mana bar. After three Reactive Heals, a Healing Light and Cure it was missing a little more than a third. I have to watch out for my Mana. Sorry Shuwen, but until I can cast another Reactive Heal without risking to go out of Mana, the Do-Your-Best-Heal must be sufficient.

The cleric made a few steps out of the fight to go back to his self-appointed role as the Field Monitor. Meanwhile the monk was back on his feet with the snake in front of him and the weasel coming in from the side. But before Ciriodhûl was able to inform him about the weasel another mob entered the area. “Boar coming in on ten o’clock.”, he cried out, but Shuwen had already noticed the highly visible creature and now warned the cleric instead. However, none of them was its target. It ran straight for the laid out monster bait but before it could reach it, the monk throw a knife and made a high jump to kick down at the monster, which had obviously changed its target to him and was now knocked back by his attack. The cleric looked again at Shuwen’s HP bar that was slowly but steadily decreasing. Although a lot of it was compensated by his HP regeneration the poison still dealt some damage. Pointing his right hand at the monk, Ciriodhûl shot another hexagram of white light. “Watch out for the snake and weasel behind you!”

[Shuwen]

Words: 500

It seemed Shuwen's urgency in warning @ciriodhul about the boar was doubly unnecessary; he noticed it at about the same time and shouted a warning as well. Right. I should just leave that to him. He's the support unit after all. It looked like Shuwen had gotten a little too used to fighting without a support unit, and his habits were causing inefficiency. I guess this is a good chance to get used to fighting alongside one.

He was about to charge in and finish off the boar, but the healer shouted a warning, reminding him that there were two other mobs that he had to deal with. Right, got to do something about them. Checking the current distance from the boar, and making a guestimate of how long it would take or it to launch another attack, he turned around back towards the snake and the last brial weasel, who were chasing after him. After making sure they were close enough, he waited just another few seconds, until he was sure all three of them were in range of his next attack, and struck.

Fortunately, the cooldown for a specific skill had finished up a few seconds earlier, and was ready to use again. For the second time during that fight, he used the skill Tiger Echo Fist With all thread of the mobs closing in on him, he was able to damage all of them, and scatter them a bit once more. Turning back around, he took several large steps forward to once again get within striking range of the boar and hit it again with a kick to the ribs. As it had already taken quite a bit of damage from the other three hits he'd already dealt it, the fourth strike was enough to finish it off. Okay, two left. Normally, he'd be more worried about his health at this point, and would have to fight the urge to go all out in order to preserve his HP, but with a healer seeing to his injuries, it wasn't a concern, leaving him free to focus on offense. Pulling out another throwing knife, the monk spent several seconds casting. When he was ready, the threw the knife in a trajectory that was roughly in between the two mobs. As he threw it, the skill Missile Strike activating, causing a number of duplicate knives to be generated in mid air along side the original knife. The barrage struck the two mobs, causing each of them to take several hits apiece, destroying them both.

"I guess that's that." Shuwen said with a small grin. Running back over to the monster bait, he picked the item back up and returned it to his inventory. He figured they'd fought enough for the moment, and wanted to keep it from attracting any more mobs. "So how was that?" He asked, turning towards the cleric. He quickly noticed something about Cirio's status bar. "Huh, you went through a lot of MP, didn't you?"

[Deleted]

Words: 405
Total: 4407
Tags: Shuwen

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For the first time in this fight, Ciriodhûl had the feeling to be of some use. First he had defended his partner from the last weasel and now his warning apparently helped Shuwen out. The monk stopped his charge at the boar and turned around to first deal with the two older, crippled mobs. He waited, until all three were in range and scattered them like he had previously stopped the three weasel’s charge by ramming his fist to the ground. After he had killed of the boar, he began channeling another skill. By spamming Healing Light the cleric had been able to preserve the monk’s HP against the still not worn out poison debuff, but now that he opened himself up, Ciriodhûl was worried. He had reduced his Mana consumption by avoiding his main heal spell, which did not mean, however, that his Mana regeneration was enough to take care of the remaining. Therefore he was now at half his Mana, did maybe even less heal per second than the monk’s HP regeneration, but had to now heal significantly more than before. Lovely, I sure hope this fight does not drag on any longer or I am faster out of Mana than I would die if one of those monsters hit me. Choosing the monk’s HP over his Mana Ciriodhûl used another Reactive Heal on Shuwen taking his MP down to one third and continued spamming Healing Light.

He was soon relieved, when Shuwen finally casted his spell finishing off the snake and the weasel and put the still monster luring bait back in his inventory. The cleric exhaled, while his body eased. After that Shuwen asked about how “it” had been – either the fight or his last show off of attacks – leaving a note about the current state of the cleric’s MP.

“I am relieved you finished them off or else my MP would’ve fallen to zero.”, he answered and smiled. “You put on a quite impressive show there, although I thought we were in a bind, when this snake got you off your feet. I hope I was not a burden, since I neither dealt damage nor did a significant amount of healing.” I guess, I could not even heal half his health, until all my Mana would have been spent. “Anyways, did you gather enough loot to refill your stock? Or do we have to fight again after a short pause?”

[Shuwen]

Words: 302

@ciriodhul expressed relief that he'd finished things before the cleric's MP had run out. "Ah, yes, I suppose the level difference would make that harder." Considering how close to his full health that Cirio had managed to keep him, Shu didn't really think he was ever really in danger, but it seemed the cleric was not so confident.

"Look on the bright side. If you get used to keeping higher-leveled players topped off, I bet healing same-level party members will be a piece of cake." He chuckled a little at the thought, hoping Cirio would light up about it.

I... guess I did? Once you've leveled up enough, and acquired enough skills to keep up a continuous barrage of them, it's pretty easy to make it look flashy. As for you being a burden, you did fine. " The guy seemed to be constantly worried about that, so perhaps a simple reassurance was the best course. "They weren't the right type of monsters to get the exact same ingredients back, unfortunately, but they dropped enough of other ingredients that I could probably make something else from these. Good enough for me."

"Still, that might be an issue. Maybe you ought to start packing some MP-healing items? There's a food item that can restore MP if you make it with the right ingredients. I can show you how to make them. Though at your current level, any that you make now will be a bit..." he took a quick look at Cirio's level "inadequate. Maybe I could also make a few higher-leveled ones for you? I'm sure they'd go a long way to helping you with your MP issues. Well, assuming you're willing to help me gather the ingredients." At the last sentence, his lips twitched upward into a grin at his own repetition.

[Deleted]

Words: 261
Total: 4668
Tags: Shuwen

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Ciriodhûl could not suppress a smile, while Shuwen was reassuring him. Despite being a loner he sure was a kind-hearted man. However, he still seemed to be oblivious to what level differences meant in MMORPGs. He was not at a rather high amount of HP because the cleric did a good job at healing, but because he simply received not much damage. It was not a matter Ciriodhûl was eager to discuss, whatsoever, so he did not interrupt him to say something. His need for ingredients seemed to be filled, nevertheless, which made Ciriodhûl feel relieved, after he had wasted his former ingredients in the spur of the moment.

After that the monk brought the topic back to the cleric’s Mana consumption offering to make a few higher-leveled MP restoring food items for him, since his own housekeeper level was too low. However, Ciriodhûl was not only a housekeeper, but also a Pharmacist. “Certainly. I could really use MP-restoring items, although I could craft Lesser Mana Potions by myself. My Crafting Class is the Pharmacist. I would need the ingredients to do so, though, so gathering more ingredients seems good to me.” The cleric paused and made a bow. “Thank you for everything. I’m not used to such kindness. Most people I encounter send me away fairly fast.” He thought about yesterday. I have to thank you as well, Zyoto, if I encounter you the next time... Whenever this shall be. “Enough reminiscence. Anyways, where do we find the ingredients you need? I shall find the herbs I need almost everywhere.”