Apophenia Evolved

NaNoWriMo 2022 - The Bound Curse and the Lost Maria

Nel — Wed, 30 Nov 2022 23:55:51 +0000

NaNoWriMo 2022 - The Bound Curse and the Lost Maria Nel Wed, 11/30/2022 - 16:55

Boundless Wanderers: Shield and Dragon - Part 25

Nel — Thu, 26 Dec 2019 21:21:57 +0000

Boundless Wanderers: Shield and Dragon - Part 25 Nel Thu, 12/26/2019 - 14:21

The clattering sounds grew louder as the swords continued to clash against each other. Occasionally the man’s speed could break through Gardenia’s guard but is wasn’t without hope. The holes that she was leaving were guarded by chainmail and the hits were fast but had minimal force.

Still she was losing hp slowly but she was not the only one. While she left opening so did the assassin. His movements were quick but light, Gardenia was able to activate sword arts to barely break through his guard and cause minimal damage to him.

Although any watcher would tell that with each exchange Gardenia was losing. She was definitely taking more hits than he was. It might only be a matter of time before Gardenia would lose. Gardenia however was still smiling.

This seemed to clearly frustrate the man who finally yelled out, “Why are you still smiling? You are going to lose and fail.”

“Is that so? Are you somehow under the impression that you are winning this battle? Let me fix that assumption.” Said Gardenia.

⎡Greater Regeneration⎦ called out Gardenia as she cast her spell. Expert healing magic was no joke and very swiftly all her wounds healed and she was the only one in the ring that had full hit points.

At that point the assassin because to fight harder. He back activating his own weapon arts but those seemed even less useful than normal attacks. After all Gardenia also had her shield arts that she could use to reduce even more damage.

As they fight Gardenia nodded to herself, “I see, you are only early expert. Not bad, but not enough to worry. I guess it is time for me to end this.”

⎡Fire Infusion⎦ she called out and her sword began to flicker with flames. The assassins next attack deflected again off her shield but she knocked it backward, pushing herself forward and through his guard. Her sword flickered in toward him. He tried to block it with his second sword but Gardenia’s fluid motions simply bypassed his sword and crashed into his body.

With a single blow the man was flung backward and through the wall of fire. Gardenia did not let him have any time and ran through the wall herself. It basically did not effect her as she swung down at his knocked-down body.

It was over and Gardenia. The man did not move any more and he body was beginning to break into glowing fragments. She turned to see Norra finishing off two other assassins. It looked like she was right to not have Norra interfere.

As it evened Moira simply stood there in awe before saying, “How are you so powerful? You two beat them like they were nothing!”

“I’m not really that powerful. I just have some high level skills.” Said Gardenia modestly.

“No no no. We are very strong. Practically super heroes!” Said Norra, not willing to let that amount of humbleness slide. “Listen there is a big difference between intermediate skills and expert skills and we were just showing that off. Plus Gardenia claims to be a tank but she is really an impressive all-rounder. Beating her one on one is practically impossible I would say.”

Gardenia shook her head, “No, I have many flaws. The battle could have been a lot closer, after doing the fight I am pretty sure that they are NPCs. His equipment was too shoddy, practically worthless. Had he been using better weapons and armor then I would have had much more difficult time beating him.”

“But you still would have?” Ask Norra with a grin.

“Probably.” She looked over at Moira and said, “One thing to know is that the higher levels of a skills are generally more powerful per level than the lower levels. As all the practical knowledge of the skill begins to come together you get a large boost as the end. My opponent was just barely expert but I am getting close to mastering expert skills.”

“It just seems so far away from me.” Said Moira, “During that battle it felt like there was nothing I could do since any of them would beat me immediately.”

Gardenia placed a hand on Moira’s head and ruffled the hair a little bit. “Don’t worry about it. One word of advice that I received is just do what you think is fun. If you want to fight, fight. If you don’t want to fight, then don’t. This world is a game after all.”

“But… I need to protect Mr. Pots.” She held her bag in her arms again.

“Then protect him. Remember not to give up until you have lost your final hit point.”

Moira nodded and said, “Alright, I will do my best.”

Norra was smiling at the exchange although she was muttering under her breath, “Stealing the best parts away from me. You are more devious than I thought Gardenia.”

Gardenia looked around again before saying, “I think we should have some time now. It will probably be a while before the next assassination attempt. Next time will probably be even more dangerous so we should meetup with Oblivion Shadow quickly. I also have another friend who has agreed to help and should be arriving at about the same time.

They arrived at the teleport platform with a little bit of time to spare before the thirty minute mark. The fight hadn’t actually taken that long. There were plenty of people here so they weren’t too worried about being ambushed. Still, Gardenia kept close to Moira just in case.

Just a few minutes after the minimum time Oblivion Shadow showed up. He was still wearing horribly dark clothing but the pitch black robes looked very well made with even blacker stitching. While his hair still covered most of his facial features.

Gardenia waved and he walked over. Moira was practically hiding behind Gardenia who told her, “Don’t worry about Oblivion Shadow, he looks scary but he really isn’t. Moira nodded reluctantly.

Oblivion Shadow looked around the crowded teleport platform and said, “We should find a quite place to talk.”

“I also invited Elunial to join us so we are also waiting for her. She should be here soon.”

“Elunial? Are you sure it is safe to ask her? After all…” He left the question basically unasked.

“I have already informed her about the basics. She has a strong sense of justice so she is on board for helping dealing with the assassins.”

Oblivion Shadow nodded in acceptance and they waited around until Elunial showed up on the teleport platform. She looked practically identical since they late time they had seen her. She was still wearing the simple clothing that she had brought from the monastery, or at least extremely identical clothing.

She ran up practically silently to the group. “It looks like I arrived after Oblivion. Sorry for the wait.”

Oblivion Shadow said, “Alright, let us find a quite place where I can talk about what I have learned.”

The team left the teleportation platform and traveled a bit before finding a restaurant that they entered. There were some private tables and their team rented one of them. After they all took their seats Oblivion Shadow clasped his hands together in front of himself in an ominous manor.

“As you might all know Darkside Maw is an assassin organization. However one thing that I have learned during my research is that they have begun to accept Wanderers as members.”

“Wanderers?” Asked Moira, “You mean Players right?”

Oblivion Shadow glanced at Elunial before looked back at Moira and saying, “Yes, precisely. Since players have a wide breadth of interests it is fairly natural that some people have accepted this offer.”

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Fiction

Boundless Wanderers: Shield and Dragon - Part 24

Nel — Thu, 26 Dec 2019 21:19:42 +0000

Boundless Wanderers: Shield and Dragon - Part 24 Nel Thu, 12/26/2019 - 14:19

“More or less. I am having another friend look into the origins of the assassins and where to find their lair.” Gardenia filled Norra in on the details about who the assassins might be and Moira’s backstory.

“I see. Quite the plot that is unfolding. You were right to call an additional team member. Although, you will probably want to call in some more. This might end with use having to raid Darkside Maw, it is probably inevitable. That is just they way these kinds of quests go. There is also another super important thing that needs to happen.”

Moira was hanging onto Norra’s words. Gardenia knew that the next thing that was going to come out of Norra’s mouth was going to be something stupid but Moira hadn’t realized that about Norra yet.

Moira gulped and asked, “What?”

“We are going to need to get you some new clothes. What you have now… it just won’t do. If you are going to be the hero then you need to look the party. If you were a boy I would put you in green but instead… hmmm. I have just the place for hero clothes.”

It was like Gardenia had known. In Gardenia’s opinion, Norra wasn’t exactly wrong. Moira was still wearing beginner equipment, getting her better gear was an important priority.

Gardenia made sure to include some other actually helpful advice. “Also you should make sure your skills are appropriate. If you don’t have three to four intermediate skills learned you should select a few more. More than that is fine but having a few intermediate skills is important. I am sure between me, Norra, and Equinox we can tell you where the skill trainer for the skill you want to learn is.”

Norra was practically pushing Moira out the door during Gardenia’s suggestion. She could only go, “What, oh, yes. Are you sure it is safe? Aren’t we worried about assassins showing up again?”

“Don’t worry, don’t worry. With Gardenia here they won’t hurt a hair on your head. She is a top class tank who can protect anybody.” Said Norra.

“I wouldn’t put myself that high.” Gardenia was following them as they began to leave through the front of the shop. Before leaving they made sure that Equinox knew that they were going it.

Norra marched Moira through the streets with Gardenia following closely behind. Norra was chattering aimlessly, mostly telling Moira stories about the times that she and Gardenia had adventured together.

Meanwhile Gardenia was sending mail messages to several of the people on her friends list. Norra was probably correct that they would need to assembling a raid team. There was already three of them and if it was a team instance dungeon then she would need three more. Oblivion Shadow was on the list of potential recruits since he had already been roped into this issue.

The clothing store that Norra was leading them to was practically a back alley location. There was just a little sign that said, “True Cosplay”.

Gardenia stopped Norra and asked, “This place… is this a real armor shop? Because it doesn’t look like one.”

“Hey, don’t look at me like that! The two owners are totally expert tailors. If we want good cloth armor that looks good this is absolutely the best placed to buy.”

“Alright then but please don’t dress her up as something weird.”

Norra looked away and was practically whistling as she opened the door and lead Moira into the shop. Inside it was practically normal. There were racks of clothing hanging on either side and a changing room in the back. The whole place wasn’t very big but it gave a cozy feel. Or at least it would but Gardenia could feel danger radiating from all the clothing around her.

The man at the counter looked more like a butler than a shopkeeper. He smiled as they entered and stood up. “My ladies. Welcome to this humble shop. Mistress Norra, it is a pleasure to see you again. How may I help you in this find day.”

There was shuffling in the back room and a voice called out, “Norra? Did you say Norra?” And out from the side room came a woman wearing a maid outfit. She also smiled and said, “Indeed, Mistress Norra and companions. Please, welcome.”

“Nope…” said Gardenia as she practically grabbed Moira’s collar. She tried to turn around and bring Moira back to safety but it was too late. Norra practically teleported to the entrance door and locked it with a click.

Norra had a giant grin and just said, “Too late. You are trapped now. The only thing you can do is give in.”

Gardenia and Moira (who was looking more confused than anything else) were trapped and could no longer escape their terrible fate. They (mostly just Gardenia) could only stand there as the three grinning people moved in closer for the kill.

—-

More than an hour later Gardenia managed to break free. She practically threw herself out the door of the shop. She was wearing a white dress what had a floral pattern. She felt incredibly awkward and defenseless because she was missing her chainmail.

Compared to the basically useless clothing that Gardenia was wearing, the clothing that Moira was wearing was practically utilitarian. Norra and the tailoring couple had still decided to go with green. The clothing was practically a dress covered in embroidery. It came down to around the shins. It had short sleeves and made Moira look almost like a princess.

Gardenia wanted to complain to the shop owners but she couldn’t manage to voice the complaint. She had seen the statistics of the green dress and it was top quality, practically the top of intermediate magical armor.

Norra had gotten in on the “fun” and was wearing her own dress… although cosplay school uniform might be a better description of what Norra was wearing. Gardenia could see the chuckling couple that ran the store through the still open door to the store. She privately swore never to visit that place again.

“Wow… this is amazing.” Said Moira in an act of betrayal to Gardenia as she spin around in her new dress. “Is it really alright for me to keep this?” She also had a new satchel that matched the dress. The head of Mr. Pots pocked out of the bag as it looked around the street.

“It is too late. I have already paid for both of those dresses. They are your’s now and you must keep them forever!” Gloated Norra as she looked in triumph at both Gardenia and Norra.

Gardenia’s groaning was interrupted by a call she was receiving from Oblivion Shadow. She answered the call. “Hey, did you figure something out.”

“Yeah, a little bit. However… well, I think I will take you up on your offer of joining the group. I’m on my way. Can you meet me at the teleport point in Trezy?” He asked.

“Sure, we can meet there. We just… uh, finished, with our current task. How long do you think you will be before getting there.”

“Thirty minutes probably, an hour max. And remember to keep an eye out. Darkside Maw might be even more dangerous then I initially suggested.”

“See you there.” She said as she disconnected.

She waved at Moira and Norra before saying, “Oblivion Shadow is joining us. We are going to meet him at the teleport point in half an hour.”

They began following the road down toward the teleport point. Trezy was a very vertical city and the teleport point was down near the bottom of the city. Currently they were about half way up the mountain and need to make their way down.

As they were passing through a residential area, heading down a flight of stairs, Gardenia paused as raised her hand stopping the others. She hadn’t seen anything but she had a bad hunch.

Norra whispered softly, “Is there an ambush?”

“I don’t know. I don’t see anything but… well… it feels like when I draw aggro and the monster is paying attention to me.”

“Killing intent… that must be it.” Said Norra.

Gardenia quickly swapped her clothing using the equipment menu. Her dress instantly changed into a set of armor and her sword appeared on her side. She drew the shield that had also appeared on her back and placed her hand on the hilt of her sword.

Then a man in black dropped from the top of one of the nearby buildings. His face was entirely covered with black wraps but Gardenia knew that he was the person that she had senses. Norra tensed up next to Gardenia and also placed her hands on the hilts of her daggers.

The man’s hands were free, not yet touching the hilts of his weapons. Suddenly he spoke, “It looks like I need to put some more work into hiding. I didn’t expect any of you to notice me. But since you did there is no point in continuing to hide.”

“What is it you want?” Asked Gardenia with a rough tone in her voice.

Even behind the wraps they could notice the man smile. “It is easy. Just give me the animal and I will go away and not bother you.”

“No!” Shouted Moira, “I am not giving you Mr. Pots. I am going to protect him.”

“Listen, you say that but you really don’t want to mess with us. It would be easier and quick for you to just hand the creature over and then everything will be peaceful.”

“Don’t mess with you? And who might you be? Not just random assassins right?” Asked Gardenia. “Let me guess, you are Darkside Maw?”

“Oh? You have heard of us? Then you should really know not to cross us. After all, we won’t give up until we accomplish your goal.”

“Is that so. Well, it looks like we have something in common.” Said Gardenia as she drew he sword slowly, “And I hope you are more fun then the last two that I fought.”

“Should I join in?” Asked Norra.

“No, in case there are more of them, make sure to keep an eye on Moira.”

The man shook his head and began to draw his own blades. They were shorter than Gardenia’s sword but longer than Norra’s daggers. They also had serrated edges. He took a fighting stance, one that Gardenia did not recognize.

Gardenia took a couple of steps down the stairs putting herself on the same landing that the assassin was standing on. Not letting her get good positioning the man immediately began to rush forward, he short swords moving in perfect harmony. They came from different directions but that wasn’t much of an issue for Gardenia who blocked one of the attacks with her shield and another with her sword.

However the assassins blades practically danced. The one that bounced off the shield snaked downward to get under her guard while the other sword weaved forward and backward threatening to strike at any time if Gardenia made a mistake. His two weapon style was incredible.

Yet his sword again bounced harmlessly of Gardenia’s shield. While the man’s movements might be top quality Gardenia had last since moved into the realm of expert skills and he would need more than slick swordplay to defeat her.

⎡Flame Arena⎦ she called out. The fires flickered around her and the encircled both her and the assassin, trapping them together in a small arena. The heat from the flames could be felt by both participants but Gardenia was used to it.

She grinned at the assassin, “Getting in close with a tank, not the best idea. Let us see how long you can last against me.”

“You think just because you have trapped me that you are going to win?” There was a hidden smirk that the man was making. “You are sorely wrong.” His movements began to speed up, the swords moving quicker than before.

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Boundless Wanderers: Shield and Dragon - Part 23

Nel — Thu, 26 Dec 2019 21:19:03 +0000

Boundless Wanderers: Shield and Dragon - Part 23 Nel Thu, 12/26/2019 - 14:19

“I guess it makes sense that NPCs are taking more of a role in training the new players since it is probably harder to form a group, especially given how many different starter towns there are. The man who trained you didn’t mentioned who was going to come after Mr. Pots so it stands to reason that he did not know who it would be.”

Moira nodded as Gardenia try to walk through the logic. Gardenia continued, “It looks like our only real clue to go on is that they looked like ninjas. I would put their skill level at mid to high intermediate. Practically impossible for a beginner to deal with but not a big problem for me.”

“Are you an expert player then? I heard they had moved on from Trezy to the more remote cities.” Asked Moira.

“A lot of them have. Normally I’m not even around Trezy but Equinox is a friend and I commission most of my equipment from him so I stop by occasionally. But yes, I am an expert player.”

“Wow… doesn’t it take like a year to become an expert player?”

Gardenia chucked a little before saying, “Well since the game hasn’t even been out a full year yet so that can’t be true. Besides the truly time consuming part isn’t getting to expert skills it is mastering expert skills. I haven’t seen anybody who has mastered an expert skill yet. Plus I do kinda play the game a lot.”

“Still, it is impressive. I wasn’t allowed to play until recently so I am going to have to do a lot of catching up.”

“You don’t need to take it too quickly. When I was about your level I went off to wander and arctic zone and fought a dragon. There are plenty of things of intermediate skilled players to do. Although we probably need to deal with the assassins first, I haven’t heard of any ninjas living in Trezy so there are probably from elsewhere.”

Gardenia contemplated the issue for a little bit before saying, “Well, I haven’t heard of anything personally but I do have some friends that might know something. Let me contact them and I’ll see if they know anything.”

Gardenia pulled up her friends list and checked who was online. The two friends who might know something about this were either Vanishing Doubt or Oblivion Shadow. She still felt a little bit awkward contacting any of the members of the Forgotten Saviors since she still hadn’t really found herself so she decided to send a message to Oblivion Shadow.

He knew a lot about the lore of the game so he would probably know if there were any groups of NPCs that did this. It took a few moments for the call to connect before Oblivion Shadow answered.

“Gardenia, it has been a while. I see you are still playing this game.” Was his greeting when he answered.

“The numbers of people playing is just growing so I don’t think it is that weird that I am still playing. How are you doing, still seeking inner peace?”

“I have been descending into madness, plumbing the depths of my own mind.”

“I’m not really certain what you mean by that but I hope it is going well. Mainly I called you because I wanted to know if you knew the source of something. I recently had a strange encounter with a new player. She received an unidentifiable black ferret from and NPC and now ninjas are chasing her down attempting to kill her. I wondered if you might know anything about that?”

“Ninjas chasing down a black ferret? That does sound pretty weird. Do you know if they are players or NPCs?”

“I don’t actually know. However they attacked in an alley in Trezy and we middle intermediate strength. There were two of them. My guess is NPCs and that this is part of some quest line but I am not 100% certain.”

“If they are just independent players then I don’t really have much information I can give you toward figuring things out. Now if those are NPCs or roleplaying players then I might have something. There is a secret organization known as the Darkside Maw. The operate around Trezy. Have you heard about Reverse Zones before?”

“No, what are those?”

“They are a special type of zone. Short story they are basically instance dungeons that need to be cleared in one attempt. There is a little bit more too them than that though. Unlike normal instance dungeons reverse zones are inhabited by NPCs.”

“Instance dungeons inhabited by NPCs, is that even possible?” Asked Gardenia.

“I can understand your apprehension but the records are pretty clear that they exist. From the scant rumors about them I have heard they are extremely dangerous content because they adapt and change to the people that are raiding it.”

“Alright, assuming this Darkside Maw is sending assassins after this girl and her ferret, is there anyway for me to stop them? After all, NPCs can keep respawning and continuing the attack.”

“Hmmm, that is. a tricky question. Normal NPCs don’t usually attack players. I will have to do some research about that. Also the route to the Darkside Maw, paths through the Tunnels to Reverse Zones are typically secret. Finding it might be tricky.”

“Are you fine with spending time looking into this?” Asked Gardenia.

“I don’t mind. Looking into things like this is one of my hobbies. The library in towns don’t cover reverse zones very much so this is an opportunity for me to discover new information. However you should take care, if what I have heard about Darkside Maw is correct then the enemies that you faced are practically rookies. Since you have proven capable of dealing with them next time they will send tougher opponents.”

“Thanks, I will keep that in mind. Good luck trying to find out more information.”

“I will talk with you later.” Said Oblivion Shadow over the call before he hung up.

Moira hadn’t been able to hear any of the conversation so Gardenia had to explain what she had learned to Moira.

“So these Darkside Maw folks want to kill me and take Mr. Pots? Why would they want to do that?” She said.

Gardenia shook her head, “I don’t know yet but according to my friend they will probably send even stronger assassins next time. While I can definitely protect you if they attack I don’t know if I also can defeat them. I wanted to call in reinforcements. With another party member I can allocate defeating the assassins to them.”

Moira nodded, “Alright, if you think they will help but is it really alright for a several expert characters to waste their time helping me?”

“It will be fine. I’m sure she will be totally interested in helping you. Give me a moment while I call her.”

It took very little time before that call connected.

“Yo yo, what is up? It has been like infinite time since you last called me. I was beginning to think you had forgotten about me.”

“I need your help protecting a girl and her magical ferret from mysterious ninja assassins.”

“Tell me where you are and I will be there immediately.” Demanded Iyrandrar Norra.

“Equinox’s shop.”

The call immediately ended. Gardenia looked over at Moira and said, “It looks like she is in, she will be here soonish I think. She probably needs to teleport in from another city but is otherwise available.”

“Alright, I’m still a bit surprised about how everything. Did I somehow become the important chosen one or something?” Said Moira.

Gardenia giggled a little bit, “Maybe, maybe, I will have to tell Norra about that when she gets here. I’m sure she will have something to say about that.”

There was a knock on the door and Gardenia said, “Come in.”

Equinox opened the door. He was holding a plate full of small cake slices. “I have brought some snacks for the guests. Please help yourself.” He placed the plate of cakes on the table between Gardenia and Moira.

Moira looked at the slices of cake with a hungering look in her eyes, “Really? Is it really alright?”

Equinox laughed, “Yes, it is fine. There is a cake shop a few shops down and I have several guests who like hanging around and chatting while I finish their job.” He winked at Gardenia while he spoke. “So please help yourself.”

“I invited Norra to join us so save a slice for her.” Said Gardenia.

Equinox was grabbing plates from the cupboard in the room. He placed one set in front of each of the girls before setting one aside for Norra. Gardenia helped herself to one of the slices while Moira grabbed another one.

“Anything I can help with?” Asked Equinox after everybody had been served. “About the whole assassin thing I mean?”

“How are your combat skills?” Asked Gardenia.

“Still lacking. I am close to mastering several of my intermediate skills but it hasn’t happened yet. Since I am mainly a crafter and not a gatherer I don’t have much opportunity to raise them.” His description made sense. He was an expert crafter however so he had certainly put a lot of effort into his chosen profession.

“Well, that meets the minimum criteria so sticking around shouldn’t be an issue. You can probably beat the assassins I saw earlier but I’ve been told that there might be much more dangerous assassins coming in later. That was one of the reasons I called in Norra as backup. Although if you were to hurry up my most recent commission that would also be beneficial.”

“There is only so much I can hurry. You are talking about an expert tier weapon. I’ll do the best that I can but I am pioneering new techniques here so I can’t give you an proper estimate about how long it will take. However, “ he paused, “I can close the shop a little early and start working on it now.”

“Thanks.”

He just nodded before taking his leave from the room.

Moira has a grin on her face before saying, “Is he your… you know.”

Gardenia did a double take before shaking her head and saying, “No, just a regular friend. Although, if you ask me, I think he has been getting rather close with the owner of the sweets shop and just uses the guests as a reason to keep buying her cake.”

Moira nodded with great interest. Gardenia had never been much for discussing this type of topic but she knew that many people were interested.

Gardenia tried to make small talk with Moira until she was eventually saved by a boastful announcement, “Out of the Darkness comes the world’s true hero.” The door practically slammed open to the appearance of, “Iyrandrar Norra.”

She still had her blond hair tied up in pig tails but her other equipment had changed a lot. She was still wearing what could be described as leather armor or maybe instead an idol outfit. It left most of her legs and arms exposed while covering all the vital bits with a golden leather. The strange part was the decorative fills while made it look extremely non-practical.

The other major change was the Norra had succeed to getting the elven legacy skill and now had pointed eyes to compliment her look.

Moira practically clapped upon Norra’s extreme entrance. Gardenia was practically used to the weirdness that Norra extruded so she basically ignored the entrance. “We saved you some cake. Also I’m pretty certain Moira is the hero in this story. She is the one with the mysterious magical animal who is targeted by unknown assassins.”

Norra fell to her hands and knees in disappointment. “No! Defeated once more!”

It didn’t take Norra too long to “recover” and she pulled herself up onto the chair before grabbing a fork and began to eat the cake. Once her had recovered some of her energy from the cake she spoke once more, “So, you called the great me to assist in defeating this evil assassin organization?”

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NaNoWriMo

Boundless Wanderers: Shield and Dragon - Part 22

Nel — Thu, 26 Dec 2019 21:17:56 +0000

Boundless Wanderers: Shield and Dragon - Part 22 Nel Thu, 12/26/2019 - 14:17

It took Gardenia several days to come to her decision. Eventually she met up with the rest of the Forgotten Saviors so tell them.

“I apologize but I am going to leave the Forgotten Saviors.”

Drake was silent but Perfect Zanth said, “What? You will be leaving us? But we need our tank. What is a healer supposed to do without a tank?”

Steela just nodded and said, “If that is the decision that you came too.”:

Gardenia did her best to smile back at them but it was also hard for her to leave. This place had started to become her home since she had joined.

“Yeah, I am thankful for my time here but I feel like I need to do other things. The battle against the dragon taught be a bit about what I am missing and I want to go and try and figure that out. It might take a while and I didn’t want to inconvenience any of you.”

Drake stood up and said, “The members of the Forgotten Saviors will never be forgotten. May your journeys always be exciting.” Then without another word he turned and left the guild room.

Pristallia grinned and said, “It looks like you managed to make him embarrassed. He probably doesn’t want to say it but things will be harder without you around. With you here this reckless group of idiots were capable of just doing their thing.”

Arthur shook his head, “While I would like to deny the reckless idiot part be will certainly miss you. Make sure to come back and visit sometime. All of us, including Drake, are going to miss you.”

Gardenia smiled, “Thanks. I am going to miss you guys too. For a while I felt that things might be Drake’s fault but while he might be a bit standoffish it wasn’t really his fault. I just don’t really know what I want to do. I thought fighting tough monsters might be it but I think that is just part of it. Now I want to go off and figure the rest of it out.

Vanishing Doubt looked a bit sad when he said, “I hope you find what you want. It was good to have you while you did. Not many people can put up with us for as long as you did. We will always remaining of your contact list.”

Steela nodded, “Yeah, if you ever need help just send us a message and Forgotten Saviors will be right over. Even if Drake decides to drag his feet I will twist his arm and bring him over.” She raised an arm and made a twisting motion.

They looked at each other and all at once said the same words that Drake said, “The members of the Forgotten Saviors will never be forgotten. May your journeys always be exciting.”

“May your journeys always be exiting.” Said Gardenia is farewell.

Chapter #4 — Guardian Lions

Many chance encounters can build the future and turn into something that could almost be called destiny. It began with a girl running through the streets of the city of Trezy. She wore a plain brown robe, something that practically everybody would recognize as beginner clothing. She seemed to be in a panic as she ran down the street and ducked into an alley.

She ran through alley and was just about to turn the corner onto a slightly larger street when she bumped into a woman.

“I’m sorry.” Shouted the girl as she rushed by the woman, barely giving the woman a passing look. If she had the girl would have seen a woman with long black hair wearing silver chainmail. One her back was strapped a large shield.

Indeed, the woman who had been knocked down was Gardenia. Gardenia watched in confusion as the girl ran passed her and began to head down the street. Gardenia was standing up and was about to forget the entire thing when she saw black shadows dash across the nearby roof and follow after the running girl.

That immediately sent off warning bells in Gardenia’s head. She began to run after the girl and her pursuers. Gardenia definitely had more skills than the girl since she was able to close the distance fairly quickly.

The girl ducked into another alleyway and was running down it when her rooftop pursuers dropped down. There were two of them. One appeared in front of her and the other behind her. They were wearing black clothes like a ninja and drew duel swords.

She staggered backward but wouldn’t protect her since the second one was behind her. That one was already running at her. She screamed but in a moment everything changed.

There was a flash of light and the ambusher behind her had been cut down. There standing in front of her was the shining figure of Gardenia brandishing her sword. While she had been able to surprise the first ambusher the second one was now aware of her.

He watched her carefully, before rushing in using agile movements. He attempted to dodge past her just as she swung her sword at him. He also swung his swords but they were not aimed at her, instead they were aimed at the girl.

⎡Aggression Pull⎦

Rather than hitting his intended target his blades clattered against Gardenia’s sword. His vision was fogging over and all he could see in the alley was her. She swung her sword once again and he tried to block but Gardenia adjusted her footwork in the middle of the swing and the sword passed between his swords and struck him directly in the chest.

That was all it took for him to lose all his health and die.

Gardenia took a moment to glance around and when she confirmed that there weren’t any more attackers she turned to look at the girl who was still sitting on the ground after having fallen over.

“Are you alright?” Asked Gardenia.

The girl looked up at Gardenia and it felt like there were sparkles in her eyes. She looked like she was maybe twelve or thirteen years old. Her hair was short cropped and a strange dazzling blue. She was clutching the bag she was wearing in her arms.

“Yes, you saved me.” Said the girl.

Gardenia held out her hand toward the girl who relaxed the grip on her bag and accepted the hand. Once she had been helped up she brushed the dirt off her clothes.

“Wow…” she said looking at Gardenia, “You are super strong. You managed to beat those two assassins practically instantly.”

“It wasn’t anything really. I just saw them following you and decided to get involved.” She looked over the two dead bodies who were beginning to dissolve into light particles. “Were those players who were after you?”

The girl tilted her head before saying, “I think so? They didn’t really talk to me and I was trying to give them the slip but I am not the fastest runner so they caught up to me.”

Gardenia looked the girl up and down. To Gardenia’s eyes she looked basically just like any other beginner player who had just arrived at Trezy. Back when Gardenia first arrived in the city she looked about the same.

“What did you do to get on some assassin’s bad side? Attempting pvp in a city is risky after all.” Asked Gardenia.

The girl looked nervously around before finally saying, “I think they are after Mr. Pots.”

“Mr. Pots?” Asked Gardenia. She tilted her head in confusion.

The girl opened the flap of her bag to reveal a furry black ball. The ball twisted and turned in the bag before revealing itself to actually be an animal. It looks like a ferret except Gardenia could tell it absolutely wasn’t a ferret since her monster identification skills were saying that the creature was an ⎡Unknown Creature⎦.

“And this is Mr Pots?” Asked Gardenia looked at the creature. “And what is he?”

“He is my pet!” Said the girl.

“Your pet? Does that mean you have a tamer skill?”

The girl nodded, “Yup, although, Mr Pots does not listen to me yet. I got him before I got the tamer skill and my level is still low.”

Gardenia had heard of the existence of the tamer skill. It allowed players to tame and raise monsters as companions however she had also heard that the skill wasn’t very popular. It took a lot of time and effort to train a monster.

“And why were those assassins after you? Were they trying to rob you and steal Mr. Pots?”

“I think so… maybe?”

“You don’t know?”

“Well…” she twisted her foot on the ground trying to decide whether or not to tell Gardenia. Finally she made up her mind and said, “I was given Mr. Pots and told to protect him. He also said that I needed to keep him a secret. Then… well.. I might have let Mr. Pots eat dinner with me. I think that is where they saw me.”

Gardenia looked at the ferret-like creature. She couldn’t see anything strange about the creature with just her eyes but her identification skill was still saying it was unknown. “Protect him? Why would people be after him?”

The girl shook her head, “I don’t know. The man didn’t really say much else. Mostly I thought it was just the normal protect your pets thing but thinking back I believe he actually meant that I would need to protect him.”

“You are probably going to have a hard time protecting Mr. Pots. Taming is an intermediate skill but it looks like you just finished up the tutorial zone?”

She seemed a bit embarrassed before saying, “Yeh, that is pretty much true. I’ve learned a couple of intermediate skills but they are all still level one.”

“Did you get Mr. Pots in a special quest in the tutorial zone?”

The girl nodded, “Yeah, that is right.”

Gardenia nodded herself, “I see, do you want my help protecting Mr Pots?”

“Really? You would do that? You seem really skilled and stuff. Is it already for you to help a weak player like me?” She sounded excited.

Gardenia smiled, “Yeah, no problem. If assassins are attacking little girls in the streets that sounds like something that needs to be stopped. My name is Gardenia by the way.”

“Oh, yes, my character name is Moira.”

“Nice to meet you Moira. Now let us get out of this alley. I know a safe place nearby. You know, if case more assassins come after Mr. Pots.”

Moira followed Gardenia back out of the alley and down the street they had just traveled on. Not far away was a place Gardenia was very familiar with. Equinox Smithing. A little bell rang as they entered the shop.

Equinox looked over from the counter and saw Gardenia, “Back so soon? Did you forget something.” He noticed the girl following after Gardenia, “Or is there something else?”

Gardenia asked, “Can we borrow a room to talk in? This girl’s ferret is being chased by assassins.”

Equinox looked slowed from one to another before finally saying, “You are serious aren’t you? Wow…. Sure, you can use one of the rooms. Although if assassins break in I won’t be much use. I will try to scream loudly while dying.”

“Thanks.” Gardenia lead Moira into one of the back rooms. It was more like an employee break room than anything else but it had some chairs.

“He is one of your friends?” Asked Moira.

Gardenia nodded, “We go way back. When I started playing the game he was one of the players in the same starting town as me. Although the starting towns were probably a lot busier back then. What are they like now?”

Moira pondered the question before saying, “The people there were very kind but there weren’t many other players. The man who gave me Mr. Pots, I think he was an NPCs, he took me under his wing and taught me how to fight and use magic. Once I had mastered some of my basic skills he said that learning was up to me now. So he put Mr. Pots into my care and sent me off to the city.”

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Boundless Wanderers: Shield and Dragon - Part 21

Nel — Thu, 26 Dec 2019 21:16:13 +0000

Boundless Wanderers: Shield and Dragon - Part 21 Nel Thu, 12/26/2019 - 14:16

Once the Dragon has regained its footing to returned to fighting. The main different was that ever moment was potentially lethal for everybody. The blood that has been rare before was now practically flowing from the giant monster. More and more of the battlefield became toxic pools of blood which could not be fought in.

Gardenia was trying to lure the dragon away from those pools but it was resistant to such actions, instead switching aggro if Gardenia pulled away. While they might have been able to move it with a different team composition the fact that most of their damage came from melee fighters made moving the dragon practically impossible.

“20%”

The dragon made an another attempt to fly away. It flapped its wings and again tried to escape. Once more Pristallia put her special bolt into her crossbow and fired. This time the party managed to avoid the ensuing blood splatters as the dragon crashing onto the ground once more.

While time however they did not hold back their attacks against the dragon. Vanishing Doubt had been conserving his mp but that was now over. He began unloading all of his spells at the dragon attempting to kill it as quickly as possible.

That second bolt had been the last of the special bolts needed to ground the dragon. If the dragon attempted to fly another time then they would have failed. Everything came down to this last push for damage.

Drake’s spear streaked with black as he began to activate the unique arts they he gained from his great demon spear. Special magical weapons like the one he used were extremely rare and presenting a unique opportunity. They skill the weapon provided was strong but should he ever decide to change weapons the effort he had spent leveling that skill will become wasted.

The arts were very powerful but making a mistake using them caused intense backlash to the user and it was incredibly easy to make a mistake. Even Drake had failed countless times practicing the arts.

Pristallia also had some trump cards hidden up her sleeves. While she did not have an more of the bolt which grounded the dragon, she still had plenty of other powerful damaging bolts. While the cost of each of them was quite high, failing here would be even worse than wasting those bolts.

While Arthur and Steela also began to use the most powerful techniques they had they could not compare to the burst DPS that Drake, Vanishing Doubt, and Pristallia could release.

Before the dragon had even managed to right itself, Pristallia called out “10%”. It was a frightening amount of damage in that short amount of time. However the would not be able to keep up the damage for much longer, just long enough to defeat the dragon.

At least they had believed it would be before the dragon roared again. The scales of the dragon began to smoke as blood poured over them. The air began to grow event hotter and acrid. Even this proximity to the Dragon was causing their hp to drain.

While the drain might not be significant for Gardenia who was already taking and healing large amounts of damage, it put a time limit on the other members, a short time limit.

Not only that but the attacks of the dragon were even more powerful than before. Gardenia could still survive them but it was a challenge each time. The dragon’s defense rose as well so that last 10% left was taking far longer to chew though.

It was then that the dragon began to breath in. Vanishing Doubt still had enough mana to cast his disruption spell once again. It landed perfectly times but the dragon simple ignored the disruption and breathed fire. Gardenia could only withstand the attack, activating a shield art and hoping that would be enough.

When the gout of fire disappeared she was still standing there. Her shield was looking in terrible condition and her hp was only holding on by a few shreds. Her only consolation was that whatever rage boost the dragon was receiving right now did not seem to effect the fire breath damage much.

Zanth was able to begin healing her but she had no time to attempt to heal herself because the dragon did not let up. Her life continued to teeter on the edge, just a hairs breath away from defeat at any moment.

“5%” called out Pristallia. It seems so far away.

Gardenia could just hold on as hard as she could and protect herself. At this point every single block she had to make needed to be a shield art or she would be dead. Her mana was getting perilously low as she had to trigger art after art.

Then her mana ran out. The first attack knocked her back but Perfect Zanth still had enough mana to save her from the next attack which sent her flying several feet from the dragon. She needed to crawl to her feet, she needed to get up and keep fighting. However her leg ached, making it impossible to stand up.

The dragon was breathing in, preparing for another dragon breath. Gardenia could accept herself dying, she was the tank after all, but she could tell that was not what was going to happen. The Dragon was aiming at Arthur Ironheart.

Vanishing Doubt was beginning to cast another interruption spell but nobody expects that to work. Gardenia couldn’t get up and reach him and there was no way for Arthur to get out of the way. There was only one last hope for him.

Gardenia called out, trying to ask him, “Drake!”

Her eyes locked with Drake’s for a moment. His great spear techniques were strong enough that if he made an attack perfectly he could turn aside the dragon’s head and save Arthur. He began to trigger and art but it wasn’t the one Gardenia hoped.

The blaze of fire shot from the dragon’s mouth and engulfed Arthur Ironheart.

Just as the fire began to dissipate Drake finished charging his spear art and called out, “Eternal Impalement” The spear attack pierced the Dragon’s neck and in that moment the dragon died.

However it was too late for Arthur. He had already hit 0 hp and would have to revive back in the city.

The battle was over and it was their victory but Gardenia could only feel the bitter taste of failure. What should have been great relief and happiness was simply the opposite.

Drake however raised his spear above his head and shouted, “Victory!”

The others joined him in cheering but Gardenia could only feel the voice that was missing. She knew it wasn’t totally logical to feel that. Arthur wasn’t really dead after all but he was missing this moment, this special experience.

She stumbled to her feel, discarding her practically useless shield.

“Leviathan, come, it is your time to harvest the body. Steela, Zanth, you two, check out the lair and see if there is any treasure that can be found.”

They nodded and began going over to the hole. There was still pools of dragon blood all around so it was tricky to navigate.

Gardenia was still limping as she walked over toward Drake. As she got closer to him he glanced over and noticed her expression, “What is wrong? Is it just your leg still not working?”

“You could have saved Arthur. Why didn’t you?” Was all she could ask.

“Is that it? I just judged that victory was more likely if I used the opportunity to charge up a finishing blow. Sacrificing him was the optimal strategy.”

Gardenia could only ball up her fists. “We would have won either way.”

“You can’t be certain. It is important to never let up until the very end.”

“Still…”

Drake however just laughed it off, “Don’t worry about it. You can tell him all about my glorious victory once we return to the city.” He brushed off her remaining worried and went to check on Leviathan who was examping the dragon.

As Drake got closer he was asked, “Which drop in the most important? Was it the dragon blood? I ask because there is something I can harvest call ‘Dragon Essence”. While I believe that I can get both only the first one has a 100% chance of success since the difficulty of the dragon is so high.”

“Dragon essence, this is the item I am looking for. Everything else is valuable but that is the item that I absolutely must get.”

Leviathan nodded and began harvesting the dragon. Less than a minute later the body began dissolving into particles. Leviathan handed over a large red jewel to Drake who held it up to the light to examine it.

“Perfect” he said before placing it into his inventory. “Now we just need to make sure the lair is barren and fill our inventories before heading back.”

Steela and Zanth returned to report there were a lot of jewels in the lair. They had taken what they could but a lot of the jewels had been damaged beyond value, probably due to the dragon’s corrosive blood.

With that dealt with the party began heading back through the jungle. They fought several monsters along the way making sure to collect what resources they could. By the time they returned to the camp at the beginning of the zone they had filled all their inventory with resources.

Gardenia was quiet throughout the last travel time back. Steela questioned her about it but she brushed off the question by saying that she had broken another shield and that this one had been expensive.

“At least you didn’t get melted to the ground this time.” Was Steela’s joking response.

Her mood did not improve until they finally arrived back in the city and met back up with Arthur Ironheart. Perfect Zanth then described the final moments of the battle to him and excruciating detail.

Pristallia went off to reserve a location for them to party at. This lead to a lot of the other members breaking off to go get preparations for the party. During that time Gardenia got a spare moment alone with Arthur where she managed to say,

“Sorry for messing up. Had I done better then I could have protected you.”

He laughed it off, “Don’t worry about it. You did the best that you could. The only thing that can be done is getting stronger.” He winked and said, “Besides, it is good to fail ever once and a while. Then you can figure out what is important to improve.”

Gardenia could only mutter thanks and nod but it did feel like a weight had been lifted from her back. She just needed to accept her failure and move past it, not that it was much of a failure in anybodies eyes but her own.

They gathering in the upper balcony of an expensive restaurant. This entire area was reserved for them, Pristallia certainly spared no expense for the party. After food was brought out Drake revealed the special item he had created which would grant him access to the dragon’s legacy.

He potion sparked red and in front of them all he opened it up and drunk the entire bottle. In only a few moments his body began to crack. Two red horns began to sprout from his head and he was forced to shed his chest piece as wings began to grow from his back.

A couple of minutes later the transformation was complete and the party applauded his transformation. He spent the better part of the new half an hour showing off his horns and wings. He had also gained access to the rare dragon legacy skill.

After the party wrapped up Gardenia could feel the fatigue getting to her. Despite the sleep functionality she was feeling like she needed a good rest. She bid the others farewell and logged off.

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Boundless Wanderers: Shield and Dragon - Part 20

Nel — Thu, 26 Dec 2019 21:15:20 +0000

Boundless Wanderers: Shield and Dragon - Part 20 Nel Thu, 12/26/2019 - 14:15

They crept forward through the ash. There was no obvious lair for the dragon to dwell in however this was obviously a place that it lived. The heat grew hotter the farther into the area the moved and Gardenia cast her fire resistance spell on every member of the party before quickly drinking a mana recovery potion.

“Hold.” Called out Pristallia who had the skilled needed to notice things quickly. “This is sloping down. You can barely see it but there looks like there is a hole just over there.” She pointed and others could barely see the black sliver.

Drake nodded, “That must be the lair. We need to get closer.”

The tension was palpable as the hole drew nearer and everybody could see it better. It went down into the ground and nobody could tell how deep it would go. Only that it must be the lair.

As the depths began to reveal itself there was an earthshaking roar and out of the hole came the dragon. It was big, bigger than the last one Gardenia has seen. The size difference wasn’t actually that much but ever a little bit of increased sized made it significantly more intimidating.

That wasn’t even mentioning the giant black horns that the dragon sported. The horns were bigger than an entire person. Having just emerged from the hole the dragon’s wings were pulled back keeping the body sleeker and more compact.

Rather than attempting to bite Gardenia it instead tried to use its enormous horns to gore her. She had been prepared for this can called out “Iron Shield” activating her shield arts and gaining more defense and stability. Even with that she was pushed back several feet however the damage she took had been minimal.

Drake shouted, “Split up and begin attacking it. Attack the sections of it away from Gardenia if possible.” As he yelled everybody split up to do their duty.

Gardenia pushed back at the Dragon, making sure to swing at it with her sword to help draw its aggro. Her shield arts not just reduced damage but also made her a more inviting target.

Perfect Zanth was her backup. While she could heal herself there were often times that she could not find the time to cast her own spells because she was so busy defending. He could also use his plant magic to help restrain the dragon, although the effects of those spells were lessened in the burnt ashlands they were fighting in.

Drake, Arthur Ironheart, and Steela had surrounded the dragon and were busy dealing melee dps to the monster. Arthur and Steela made sure to stay vaguely close to Gardenia so that if the dragon turned its attention to them she could interpose and protect them fairly quickly.

Drake was off by himself charging spear thrusts but nobody worried about him. If he couldn’t take care of himself against the dragon than everything would probably be doomed anyways. Besides he wore plate armor and could guard himself plenty well.

Steela had mace related arts that she was using which reduced the opponent’s defenses. The mace was an excellent weapon to use against heavily armored foes, especially bosses. The main issue was that is was more difficult to defend with a mace since adjusting the momentum of the weapon was difficult.

Arthur dealt quick repeating blows doing a decent amount of damage per hit. The attack effectiveness was practically the opposite of Steela. Two weapon fighting was about fast individual hits. It was usually less effective against a creature with high defense like a dragon but when combined with Steela’s defense dropping it did very high dps.

Vanishing Doubt had his lightning magic which he use conservatively. He had several powerful spells at his disposal but was saving them for the most opportune time. His spells had good interruption effects so saving them to break the dragon out of a particularly deadly skill was his primary job.

Pristallia was mostly a reserve member. While her crossbow did good damage her combat build was a bit specialized. She used rare and powerful special bolts which had unique effects. Most crossbow users instead used arts to inflict large damage at range. Her special bolts had the advantage over spells in that they did not use mp but instead needed to be acquired ahead of time. It was a powerful build, assuming you could afford it.

Leviathan’s only job was to stay far away from the battle and marvel at their fighting. While initially it might seem like everybody was just going their own thing it was much more complex than that. The fact that Gardenia was managing to keep the aggro from the dragon was a testament to the teamwork that everybody had.

That moment Arthur spent repositioning, the larger charge up attack that Steela used. They were all part of keeping the aggro on Gardenia. When the dragon had first burst out of the hole Leviathan had fought the fight would be hopeless for the team but instead it was feeling hopeless for the dragon.

The biggest wildcard was the dragon’s splattered blood. Many of the attacks were beginning to cause actual injuries to the dragon and splatters of blood were beginning to scatter across the ground. The team avoided those blood pools almost naturally and the green smoke coming off the small pools showed that their efforts were well rewarded.

Since, from the inside of the fight things weren’t going as smoothly as it looked for Leviathan. Everybody was straining at their edge to keep up with the giant monster. Each attack had the force of a trunk behind it and Gardenia had to successfully block every single attack. Her hp was remaining high purely due to the full effort of both her and Perfect Zanth. A single mistake from either of them could easily cause Gardenia to die and the entire team to wipe.

Drake, Arthur, and Steela had to also be extra cautious. While the dragon’s head was its most dangerous body part they needed to pay attention to everything else as well. The dragon’s tail, claws, and even its wings could cause serious damage if they did not dodge them properly. Each of them had taken small amounts of damage defending from the occasional attack however Perfect Zanth never had time to focus on healing any of them so they just had to keep up their own hp as much as possible.

When the dragon finally slammed its front legs onto the ground and began to breath in it was Vanishing Doubt’s time to act. He began casting a spell, one more powerful than anybody else was capable of casting. In the grand scheme of things the dps of the spell was not worth the mana cost however its real benefit was interrupting. Just as the dragon was pointing its face toward Gardenia and was about to exhale a giant bolt of lightning struck it. It got knocked to one side and the torrent of flames that was about to appear instead dissipated.

The dragon tried to turn its attention toward Vanishing Doubt from this attack but Gardenia used that moment to use one of her shield arts. “Anger Draw” which caused the dragon to turn its attention back to her.

While it looked seamless Vanishing Doubt only had a margin of error of about a second in recognizing the signs of the dragon and beginning casting the spell. Missing the timing would result in the dragon’s breath hitting Gardenia at full strength.

As the dragon slowly lost health Pristallia tried to call out the intervals of the health. While Gardenia could do it her hands were quite busy.

“75%” was the first call. Nobody knew precisely how the dragon was going to react to losing health so they had to be on their guard for any potential change in behavior. There was no possible way that a dragon with so much buildup could be simply slain with some kink messing things up at the last moment.

As the dragon began to lose more health the intervals between its attempted breath weapons got shorter and shorter. On the fourth attempted breath weapon the first mistake was made. Vanishing Doubt was in the middle of drinking a mana potion when the dragon began to breath in. He was unable to switch into casting his spell fast enough and Gardenia had to take the attack directly.

The heat was incredibly but she managed to survive. Perfect Zanth managed to perform a clutch heal and Gardenia received enough health to survive the horn attach which almost immediately followed. Had that been all they would have gotten off lightly, however Gardenia called out the probably almost immediately.

“The attack weakened my shield. I can take one, maybe two more of those attacks before I am no longer able to defend properly against the dragon.”

That put the fear of the dragon into them.

“60%” was the next call. While it was almost half way it felt like an endless path. If the dragon got any strong it was only a matter of time before a dangerous mistake was made and the team wiped.

They managed to continue with their same pattern until just after Pristallia called out “50%”

Just like that the battle changed. The dragon roared in anger and began shacking its body. Black droplets of blood scattered into the air. All the melee characters tried to fall back as much as they could but Gardenia was also busy defending and was only able to mostly escape.

Droplets of blood fell onto one of her legs as she tried to fall back and the was intense burning in her leg. The results were almost immediate. While the damage was quickly healed the intense pain did not fade and she found it difficult to move as easily as she had before. While it didn’t effect her ability to defend against the dragon it would greatly reduce her ability to defend for other people.

She could feel the risk and the danger of the fight previously and it had filled her will excitement. This was just making things even more threatening and she loved it.

“The blood got my leg. My mobility is decreased.” She called out. In one way it was good. She no longer needed to pay attention to everybody else. She could now just dance with the dragon.

The dragon’s movements were also getting stronger and faster. Not only that there were small speckles of blood that occasional traveled through the air. The entire battlefield felt like a war zone by this point. Pock-marked ground and stains of black smoking blood.

“40%”

Gardenia could barely hear it. She was having a staring contest with the dragon and it seemed like the dragon was losing. While she had trouble moving it was still enough for her to keep the attention of the dragon.

“30%”

It was here that the dragon had it. It opened up its wings and began flapping them. It was attempting to abandon the fight. Pristallia however had prepared for this. It was time for the special bolts she had prepared.

The bolt tore through the sky and it was like a giant wind storm kicked up around them. The dragon was buffeted in the air and came crashing back to the ground. Arthur yelled out in pain as he dropped one of his swords. The sandstorm had caused his arm to get splattered with dragon blood and he had lost the use of one of his arms.

It was a perfect moment to strike however. The dragon was still scrambling to right itself so the party moved in for the kill. They continued the assault however they still kept several of their trump cards at the ready. While the dragon was currently on the back foot, the most dangerous moments of any fight was alway as the very end when survival was truly on the line.

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Boundless Wanderers: Shield and Dragon - Part 19

Nel — Thu, 26 Dec 2019 21:14:23 +0000

Boundless Wanderers: Shield and Dragon - Part 19 Nel Thu, 12/26/2019 - 14:14

The team followed the man who lead them through the jungle to a set of huts surrounding a large raised wooden plateform. The man motioned for Drake to step onto the platform and Drake obliged him by stepping up onto it and swinging his large spear back and forth several times.

After a few minutes an extremely large man stepped out of one of the huts. He was wearing crude armor which seemed to be made of large insect carapace. He also carried a hatchet and a shield covered with scales.

In the background Steela leaned over to Vanishing Doubt and asked, “What do you think of the skills level of that NPC? He seemed pretty intimidating.”

Vanishing Doubt could analyze what skills a player or NPC had although without seeing them in combat the accuracy was lower. He watched as the brute of a man stepped forward and stood on the platform with Drake.

“I would put their skills at about par. It doesn’t like the NPC has any expert skills but I can the feeling that he has multiple mastered intermediate skills. He is certainly a difficult opponent.”

Leviathan also leaned in to ask, “What do you think that Drake’s chances are of winning?”

Steela laughed slightly, “I expect Drake to win handily. If their skills are about the same then there is no way that Drake will lose.” The rest of the team nodded in agreement.

Leviathan wasn’t so sure however. If their skills were about the same it would fall back to luck or style matchup. He had seen them fight and while everybody was impressive the npc certainly looked impressive as well.

The man who had brought them to the village stood on the edge of the platform and said, “The fight continues until one participate surrenders or becomes unable to fight. Begin!”

With partially no waiting the man ran in with his axe and swung at Drake. Drake was able to sidestep around the attack and sent his giant spear snaking toward the man’s side. He blocked the attack with his shield but the force of the attack sent him back a few spaces.

It only took a moment for the man to stabilize himself and regain his footing but that was all the time that Drake needed. He brought back his spear and the tip glowed with black energy. He called out the name of the art. “Demon Strike” and thrust the spear toward the man at extreme speed.

Once again he brought the shield up to defend but against this attack it was basically useless. The shield shattered at the impact and the man as sent flying across the platform. However the battle wasn’t completely over yet. The man managed to catch himself and roll along with the ground before springing back to hid feet.

He spun to find Drake charging at him. This time however it was the man’s turn to activate an art. He gripped his hatchet in two hands and raised it up over his head before calling out. “Ancient Split” bringing his hatchet down. However there was a world of difference between the technique of him and Drake. Drake was able to bring up his spear and almost gently deflect the attack sending it to one side. The force of the attack still caused Drake to lose some hit points but it allowed him to keep moving and push the weapon out of the way.

Before the man could even respond the great spear that he was using thrust forward. “Giant Thrust” called out Drake as he activated an art once again.

“No wait…” called out Gardenia as she stumbled forward but she was too late.

The attacked pierced the man’s chest in one instant the man had lost all of his hit points and collapsed to the ground. There was a moment of silence as all eyes continued to stare at Drake. He pointed his spear at the man who had announced the beginning of the fight and said, “It is over, you can announce my victory.”

He had a sour look on his face. “You are the victor. We will show you the Sky Terror.” As he spoke the body of the defeated man began to dissolve into glowing particles.

Drake took a step off the platform and slung his spear over his shoulder once more. He looked over at Gardenia and asked her, “Is something the matter. You called out at the last moment?”

“You didn’t have to kill him. You could have just made him surrender.”

“Is there any point to that? He was just an NPC.”

Gardenia has trouble forming the words to explain the sinking pit in her stomach. Eventually she managed to say, “It probably dropped your reputation in the village.” There wasn’t much else that she felt that she could say.

He pondered that for a moment before saying, “You are probably right. Although I don’t plan on staying here to do quests so it shouldn’t be an issue. After all learning about the dragon was one of the conditions for this fight.”

Gardenia just let Drake past as she tried to wrestle with her own inner thoughts.

Meanwhile Leviathan was in awe of the fight, the actions of Drake were beyond what he could imagine. Not only had Drake beaten the man but he had done it without having to use his expert skill. He had watched several high ranking PvP battles before but nothing compared to the quick thinking and techniques that Drake had used. Before he had hired he hadn’t thought that such a thing was possible.

With the match over the team followed the man and Drake into a tent. Gardenia could feel the gazes of all the other people living in the village and wondered why nobody else seemed to be worried about it.

Once the leather door cloth closed behind her the man spoke, “I will answer you questions about the Sky Terror. Speak quickly so that you may leave quickly.”

“Give us directions to the Dragon and anything that you know about it or its lair.” Said Drake plainly.

The man nodded, “When you leave the village you will see a large tree. It is the biggest tree you will see. You must go in that direction. Once you pass that tree you will continue in that direction. When you get to the burnt lands you will know that you are in the right place. The Sky Terror lives within the burnt lands. As for information about the lair or the creature itself. It has large horns which it can use to gore you. Heat radiates from the burnt lands so we can not go within and find out about the lair.”

Drake nodded and turned away, leaving the hut. He was followed by most of the group. Gardenia stayed behind a moment and once all of the others left she said, “Thank you for your information. I am sorry about what happened to your warrior.”

The man stared at Gardenia, looking deep within her eyes. “It seems that not all Wanderers are completely heartless. I would be wise to abandoned this foolishness of fighting the Sky Terror. Its power is greater than whatever you think it might be.”

“We are going to fight it anyways. However thanks for the warning.”

Gardenia turned and began to leave as well. However just as she was about to leave the man said, “You must avoid its blood, whatever you do, do not let the blood touch you.”

“Thanks.” Said Gardenia as she nodded at him and left through the door flap. She hurried to catch up with the others who were already leaving the village. She turned to see the villagers all still watching them as they left and heading in the direction of the large tree.

She grimaced but followed her companions. They headed through the jungled until they reached the giant tree. It stretched up high in the sky. Drake stopped them there and said, “We are taking a break here. Everybody log off and make sure to do everything you need to once. After we come back we are going to going into the Dragon’s territory and I want to make sure everything is perfect. Be back in two hours.“

Everybody nodded one at a time before starting to log off. Eventually only Gardenia and Steela were still standing under the tree.

Steela moved over to Gardenia and asked, “Is something wrong? You have been a bit out of it since we went to the village?”

Gardenia signed and said, “I don’t know. I guess I am just a bit upset about how Drake treated the villagers?”

Steela leaned in closer to take a better look at Gardenia’s face before saying, “Hmm… you feel sympathy for them, the NPCs?” She seemed to nod to herself before continuing, “I don’t thing there is anything wrong with that. Although you shouldn’t be as worried. NPCs respawn just like we do.”

“I guess. Still I do feel bad for them, especially when we could have done something better.”

“Listen, it is simple. This world is a game, so just do what you want to do, what makes you happy. There shouldn’t be anything else you need to worry about. You joined us here because you enjoy fighting tough monsters right? That is just one way to play the game. Whatever you decide is the right way to play is the right way. Got it?”

“Umm….I think so but I don’t know if that really eases my concerns.”

“Maybe not right now but just think about it.” Steela waved and then began to disappear as she logged out. Gardenia still couldn’t figure out what she was really implying but logged out as well. She needed to make sure to get something to eat.

Gardenia returned near the end of the allotted time. Everybody else had already logged in and as soon as Gardenia arrived, Drake made a movement with his hand and everybody began to head out. After not to long they arrived at the burnt lands that had been spoken about.

The jungle just stopped and before them was a field of what could be described as ash. Immediately they could feel the head emanating from deeper in as they crossed over into the ash field. As they moved farther everybody took battle positions, with Gardenia in the front.

Drake spoke as they walked, “This Dragon is a horned dragon so be on your guard. Horned dragons have the highest physical attack damage of all types of dragons so make sure to guard or block the attacks. Also it seems that it has high fire damage too. This dragon probably don’t have any great weaknesses.”

He spoke using the knowledge from his Dragon Encyclopedia skill which provided him information about different types of dragons. Gardenia has a similar skills but her skill provided a lot less specific information in return for having information about all types of monsters.

Gardenia hesitated and then said, “Are there types of dragons that have poisonous blood?”

Drake turned his head oddly before saying, “Some dragons have special blood. Burning blood, poisonous blood, all kinds of things. But… that is usually reserved for adult dragons. Young dragons usually don’t have those features. Why are you asking?”

“The man in the village mentioned something as I was leaving the hut. To be careful of the dragon’s blood.”

Drake paused and said, “Everybody. Keep the utmost care. This will be the hardest battle we have ever faced. Leviathan, stay out of the fighting. Staying alive is your first priority.” Leviathan nodded, of all the members him staying alive was the most important. As long as he lived to harvest the dragon body it didn’t matter how many other members of the team died.

Gardenia kept the physical enhancement and fire resistance spells that she knew up on herself. It was normally a waste of mana but every second might battle when the dragon appeared.

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Boundless Wanderers: Shield and Dragon - Part 18

Nel — Thu, 26 Dec 2019 21:13:41 +0000

Boundless Wanderers: Shield and Dragon - Part 18 Nel Thu, 12/26/2019 - 14:13

Since she used a crossbow, Pristallia had the alertness skill but against traps in an intermediate zone that alone was usually not sufficient. Given a slow enough travel speed she could notice the traps before they triggered but that would have slowed the journey to a crawl. Eventually the team had to progress following Gardenia who continued to have physical enhancement spells active.

The traps were fortunately fairly rare an after triggering several of the traps, Pristallia could figure out what to look for. While this didn’t guarantee that Gardenia would not longer trigger the traps it did mean that no other one of them would trigger a trap.

After more traveling they reached beyond the zone that contained the traps. While still being careful they figured that the farther away from the lizardman village the less likely they would be to encounter traps. Still they tried to avoid letting their guard down since a mistake would result in one of them having to take a several hour hike back to this zone.

Beyond the region with the lizardmen there was a region full of ravine. The jungle trees bridges many of the ravines and while travel over the top was possible it was very dangerous. Although maybe not as dangerous as going through the ravines. Inside were snakes, a great many snakes.

Rather than attempt to pass through the snake filled ravines the party circled around the side. Pristallia had been marking all the important locations of interest on the map as they traveled and this was certainly an important landmark.

Beyond the ravines there was a large lake that reflected the light in an apparently tranquil scene until a crocodile around three times bigger than normal burst out of the water and attacked an animal which was drinking at the edge of the lake. After that the party kept a wide birth of the lake.

“Are you sure this is an intermediate zone?” Asked Perfect Zanth skeptically as their journey continued. “It feels more like an expert zone to me.”

“I said high intermediate didn’t I?” Said Pristallia. “That means that we are capable of surviving and winning against what can be found here using just intermediate skills. Since we are doing just that I would say that the estimate is correct. Obviously it would be easier with expert skills but that it true for basically everything.”

Drake scoffed at the exchange, “Honestly I had thought it would be a bit more dangerous. Were we not trying to explore quickly I think having a go at that lake crocodile would be fun. I don’t think it would be that hard for us to beat it.”

“Maybe, assuming it doesn’t ambush us and devour me right away.” Said Zanth hesitantly. While Perfect Zanth was commonly the one suggesting more caution action he could still keep up with the rest of the party when things got dangerous.

Certainly more nervous than Zanth was Leviathan. While Zanth’s cautioning words were good natured, Leviathan was more unprepared for the situation than he had thought. While his skills weren’t actually that inferior to the rest of the team their casual acceptance of the danger of the region grated on his nerves.

He tried to console himself that he wasn’t that behind everybody else but with else he felt like he was the normal person traveling with monsters. When Drake suggested that they could defeat the giant crocodile he could barely control his fear. While everybody else seemed to take it as fact that they would indeed be able to beat the monster, Leviathan had the feeling that any normal team would die horribly to it.

The think that made him feel even more nervous was the fast that they were searching for a dragon. He had been under the impression that the dragon would be the only real threat in the zone and that everything else would be fairly easy. However if the terrifying crocodile qualified as easy then how scary was a dragon actually.

Even the fight to the death against the groups of lizardmen had been only really a warmup to the rest of the party. He was figuring out that the stories that he had heard about the Forgotten Saviors were probably all true, that they were danger maniacs who did ridiculous deeds.

This was made all the more apparent when they wondering into a large next of flying creatures that resembled pterodactyl. There were more than a dozen of the birds that flew one way and another. Several times Leviathan thought he was dead only to have the monster that he was attacking either die abruptly from an attack or become blocked by Gardenia’s shield.

It wasn’t like the coordination between the members was especially good, they each basically just did their own things. It was just that each of them fought naturally like it was in their blood. While even the most basic player could take advantage of the game’s system to fight it was like these players actually knew how to do it and weren’t just using the support functionality.

By the time they had returned back to the starting camp Leviathan felt thoroughly exhausted and nearly collapsed when he heard Gardenia said, “Hmm, I am a bit disappointed. It wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be. Maybe we should have fought the crocodile, it might have actually been a challenge.”

“Don’t jinx it.” Said Perfect Zanth, “If something goes wrong then it will take too long to walk back, After we deal with the dragon we can fight it on the way home.”

Steela snorted, “Like we would lose against that monster. Maybe we should take on the entire lizardman village, now that would be an actual challenge. Fighting ten to one odds sounds like it would be fun. Plus there is probably good loot there.”

“If we are talking about loot then the snake ravines is probably the best location. There are likely mining nodes in that location and anything we fight here is probably rare and sells for a lot. Metals are always in high demand.” Said Arthur.

“No, no, no, while metals are valuable they take up too much inventory space.” said Pristallia, “Long lost ancient treasures are the most valuable per inventory space. We could see the abandoned city just before we headed back. Whatever treasure lies in there is going to be worth more,”

“Focus.” Said Drake, “The dragon comes first. After that we can hang around and fill our inventories before returning. Is everybody ready for the four hour break? Nobody needs more time do they?” He looked over the team and everybody shook their head. They had all planned on spending a lot of time exploring so a short break was all that they needed.

Leviathan secretly wanted a little bit more than that but his commission cost was earning him a quite a lot of gold so he wasn’t about to make them regret bringing him for such a minor reason.

After those few hours everybody logged in once more. They all found Drake had already logged in, assuming he had logged out at all. Once they had all returned it was back into the jungle. The abandoned city that Pristallia had mentioned as their next destination. Pristallia estimated that they had hit about 35% of the major land marks on the first journey into the jungle and they intended to see the rest of them on this voyage.

While there was still no sign of the dragon or the dragon lair, Pristallia wanted to make sure the map she was creating was as complete as possible before scouring the zone for the dragon. The city was overrun by giant apes. The initial battle with them was quite promising, uncovering several valuable treasures like Pristallia had mentioned but then the even larger leader of the apes showed up and the team decided to pull back, after all looting the city was not their primary objective and dealing with all the apes would probably take at least a day.

Although if you asked Leviathan they would have all died if they tried to take on that many apes and the leader of the apes at the same time.

As they approached the farthest reaches of the zone they were stopped by Pristallia who motioned for them to stop and then pointed, “Does that look like that I think it is?”

“Like decorated ape skulls hanging from the trees in a parameter telling you not to pass it or you will die? Yes, that is what it looks like to me.” Said Perfect Zanth as he stared off at the thing that he had just described.

“Maybe a town all the way out here? There wasn’t any reports of such a town existing were there?” Asked Gardenia.

Pristallia looked concerned, “No, nothing that was mentioned in what I heard, although this is pretty deep into this zone. It is also possible that the town was added by the same update that added the legacies.”

“Should we try and talk with them?” Asked Gardenia, “Maybe they know where the dragon is?”

“Talk with them…” Said Perfect Zanth, “Did you miss the ape skulls portending our deaths?”

“They might just be there to ward off the apes.” Gardenia said it but she still felt skeptical about that idea. It did seem more likely that they would try to murder the party.

Drake walked forward, “Come on. They will either answer or they won’t no need to debate about it. If they don’t want to talk we can just threaten them a little bit and I’m sure they will tell us where the dragon is.”

Gardenia was a bit uncomfortable barging in but followed Drake anyways as they passed through the parimeter of ape skulls and into jungle on the other side. It was only a few minutes later that they were surrounded by a bunch of people who were pointing a variety of crude weapons at them.

The people were all dressed in clothing made of plants or animal hides and the weapons were made of stone strapped to wood. However Vanishing Doubt whispered to the party, “Be careful, their actions imply that they all have intermediate skills despite their crude equipment.”

One of the NPCs stepped forward from the group and spoke. “Who are you intruders and why have you trespassed on our land? Speak quickly.”

Drake just casually placed his hand on his spear while he said, “We are Travelers and we are seeking a dragon that lives in these lands. Tell us were he is and we will leave your lands.”

There was some nervous glancing back and forward as they watched Drake carefully, clearly willing to start a fight at any moment if Drake decided to do anything with his spear. Still, the spear that Drake was using was much larger than any of their spears. After all the great spear that Drake used would be more accurately described as a polearm than anything else.

“You seek the sky terror? Then you see your doom.”

“I don’t need your commentary about the dangers of fighting a dragon. Just tell us where the dragon’s lair is or I will have to force it out of you. And don’t think I won’t be able to.” Said Drake in a threatening tone.

The man who had first spoke took several steps back. He consulted with a couple other members of the tribe before eventually stepping forward once more. “We will only show you the location of the sky terror if you want prove you are strong enough. If you can beat the strongest warrior in the village then we will give you the respect that you deserve and show you where the sky terror resides.”

Drake smirked, “Fine with me. Bring me your strongest warrior and I will defeat him.”

The man turned and pointed deeper into the jungle, “You will follow me to the village. It is there that you will do the battle.”

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Boundless Wanderers: Shield and Dragon - Part 17

Nel — Thu, 26 Dec 2019 21:12:44 +0000

Boundless Wanderers: Shield and Dragon - Part 17 Nel Thu, 12/26/2019 - 14:12

While Plate was the normal equipment choice for tanking it was practically impossible to create plate armor with bonuses to spellcasting or agililty. Since Gardenia’s method of tanking required her to heal herself she had taken to using chain instead. While the bonuses to casting weren’t as good as wearing cloth armor it was a nice middle ground.

Her shield was different however, it was made of a special allow which had higher magical resistance than normal metals. When she had defended against the juvenile dragon that shield had been destroyed and this was a countermeasure against more events like that. The special metals gave the shield a nice glossy silver color which she also liked.

Unlike her armor, her sword was nothing special. While there were many types of special swords that could be created hers was just a simple blade, a high quality blade but nothing particularly special. After all having a special weapon wasn’t really needed when being a tank.

Her selection of potions wasn’t particularly unusual either. Most of it was mana recovery potions, in two varieties. The first restored mana quickly and was helpful in a fight. The other was a much slower and could be used to help speed up mana recovery between fights. While the quick recovery potions were much more useful they were also much more expensive. No need to waste money when there was more time available.

She also had a handful of other associated potions. A couple of strong defensive potions for the really risky situations however those were even more expensive then the quick mana recovery potions so her supplies on those were always limited.

While there were more items she could plan for there wasn’t much more she could do until Drake knew where they were actually doing. There was a big difference between zones and each of them usually had different requirements.

Instead of spending even more time doing preparing Gardenia instead talking with the other members of the guild. While Drake was always off somewhere doing something the others did spend time in the guild room enjoying themselves with the other guild members. Perfect Zanth in particular spent a lot of time in the guild room, although honestly he spent most of the time perusing forums.

Steela occasionally hung out in the guild room. When there weren’t any planned events in the guild she spent time participating in PvP. There was an arena in the city and she spend a lot of her free time there. Her rating was pretty high but she wasn’t a full PvP build so some of the real experts could beat her. Still she kept trying and was slowly working her way up the ranks.

While Vanishing Doubt didn’t spend much time in the guild room he did spend a bit of time. He was a connoisseur of tea and used the guild room as a way to practice and enjoy the tea that he made. The fact that tea brewing was its own intermediate skill was always something that Gardenia was surprised about.

While Arthur Ironheart didn’t spend too much time around he did show up from time to time. He was a well known miner that Drake managed to recruit and when he wasn’t needed on one of Drake’s adventures he was working with other groups. A lot of smaller guilds didn’t have their own intermediate miner and Arthur was often hired out to join when going to certain locations that needed his skills.

All together it was a quirky team all gathered around Drake. Indeed when Drake called together everybody once more they showed up to hear his new plan. They surrounded the table with Drake at its head.

He laid out the map on the table. “This is Duzy jungle. You might not have heard about it since it is a few zones away from a different city but this is our target location.”

The map was pretty barren. There was the marker showing the entrance of the zone and a couple of points of interest but there was almost no detail, especially farther into the zone.

“And there is a dragon here?” Asked Perfect Zanth.

“Indeed. This zone has existed for a while now but it is a high intermediate zone which is fairly far from a city.” Pristallia had returned with Drake and she was explaining what she had learned. “ Currently the only real export from the jungle is wood although it is largely unexplored so there might be other goods which just haven’t been found yet. But that is just a quick background of the area. The important fact is that there is a dragon that lives here. Several reports from the region say they have seen the dragon flying over parts of the jungle. While it is not 100% certain it does sound like the dragon is also a juvenile.”

Gardenia raised her hand to asked a question, “Do you have a plan to prevent the dragon from escaping? While I believe it is true that we could beat a dragon of the same strength as the one we fought before, if it escapes when everything could be lost.”

Pristillia nodded, “I have acquired some extremely special bolts for just this purpose. When used they will knock the dragon out of the sky and keep it grounded for a little while. The only problem is that I could only get two of the bolts so we will need to make sure the dragon is dead before the second bolt wears off.”

There was a moment as the team pondered the setup. There were lots of variable when hunting dragons.

Arthur Ironheart finally made his voice heard. “Do we have a butcher lined up for this job? If we are looking to kill the dragon for a special drop we likely need an intermediate butcher to ensure that we get the proper item drop to make sure Drake learned the legacy skill.”

Drake shook his head, “No, I don’t have one planned. All of the high quality butchers are spoken for. Do any of you have suggestions?”

“I know one that I could probably convince to join us.” Said Gardenia, “The only problem is that I know she only plays during sleeping hours. I’m not certain how useful she would be in battle but her harvesting skills are top notch.”

Pristallia said, “An option but that time constraint is pretty limiting. Try to find out if she is available but know that her restrictions make her low on our priority list.”

Gardenia nodded, she had expected that but an butcher is better than no butcher when hunting such a valuable monster.

“Anything else we should know about the jungle?” Asked Zanth, “Common enemy times, things like that.”

“Normal jungle animals for one. Giant cats, giant snakes, giant apes.” Responded Pristallia.

“That is a lot of giants.”

“However the thing we really need to worry about is the lizardmen. They hunt is large groups and could easily defeat a surprised team. Because of that you need to make sure to stay alert in the jungle. Other than that make make your normal preparations.”

Drake waved his hand breaking up the meeting, “Alright, you all have the information you need. I plan on heading out tomorrow evening. It is the weekend so we can keep up at it as much as we can. Once I have an exact time for the meeting I will send a guild message and we can all meet up at the city teleport.”

Even with the knowledge that they were traveling to a jungle didn’t really make any changes for Gardenia. However she did call up Evening Wanderer to find out if she would be available for the journey. The responses was about what Gardenia had expected. Eve would be happy to join but she could still only play in the evenings.

Unfortunately as it turned out that was too much of a condition for Drake and they instead recruited a different independent players to help with the harvesting. It was a far too serious man named Leviathan. While his combat skills were as good as the rest of the party he did have the necessary skills and the available schedule.

—

The entire team of Forgotten Saviors, plus one extra, met up at the teleport point and paid the fee to transport to another city. Doing so wasn’t cheap but Drake said, “You can’t put a price an a Legacy skill” which was probably right.

Once in the new city they had to make sure to register at that respawn point. Although the goal was to avoid dying since the trip back to the zone would be untenably long. Then they took the Tunnels to another region. This particular region was very swamp like and could have been and issue if the team was not as experienced as they were.

They need to pass through the zone to enter another section of the Tunnels. Theoretically there was another route to their destination zone that didn’t go through the swamp zone but exploring the Tunnels was not something taken lightly.

After finishing the last trip through the Tunnels they finally arrived at Duzy jungle. In total it took around three hours to get from the city to the jungle. Not the worst travel time but definitely not quick. While there was penalties for dying everybody agreed that the primary penalty was the long travel times that were wasted.

As they emerged from the Tunnels into Duzy jungle they were struck by the thickness of the undergrowth. The area near the entrance had been chopped down leaving a small clearing near the where they entered. There was a wooden palisade surrounding an empty fire pit.

“It looks like a camp location has already been setup for us.” Said Perfect Zanth as he looked around the entrance area. “Do you think this was made by a player or part of the zone as it was created?”

“This is a wild zone so it probably was created by a player. One with a pretty high level carpentry skill too.” Said Vanishing Doubt as he looked over the camp. “Without a skilled carpenter the overgrowth would have reclaimed the palisade in short order. Still, this will be a good place to camp if it takes us a while to find the dragon’s lair. Unless it shows itself we will need to search the zone until the find it’s lair.”

Drake nodded, “Yes, however today should be focused on locating some landmarks and better filling out the map that we acquired. That was if the dragon does show up we can figure out where it is coming from and going too. We should also familiar ourselves with the local monsters. While we are still searching for the dragon our first objective is figuring out the local.”

With that they began exploring into the zone. Pristallia had the cartography and orienteering skills so she could keep track of all the locations they had visited. Most of the monsters turned out to be relatively easy for the eight person team however that wasn’t always true. The first time they got ambushed by lizardmen it was an incredible struggle. They got ambushed and nearly lost Vanishing Doubt before Gardenia was able to get into position to protect him.

That attack had only consisted of six lizardmen. It would certainly have been much more dangerous if there had been more of them. One of the things they discovered while exploring was an entire village of lizardmen. They gave the village a large berth. While they might be able to win if they took the village on carefully that was not their goal in the zone.

Another potential danger was the traps that the lizardmen had setup in the zone. The first time they accidentally tripped one of the traps it was Gardenia who took the brunt of the trap with large logs swinging out of the trees to crush her. She managed to survive because of her refinement which boosted her innate defense. Any other member of the team, except maybe Drake, would have certainly been crushed to death.

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