@DestinyStar@Haeo

-Delcastle-
Day 16 / Midday / LVL 12

Del smiled as another PM popped up and quietly resisted the urge to look through it. Again. Likely it was Tailpin again looking for a placement of some sort. Time would figure that out well enough. Instead, he focused on Cinera and the light picnic that Bulwar had made for the moment. Nothing special, sandwiches mostly. Food wasn't scarce anymore but it was hard to find anything new on the market with players fearing to explore far from Bulls run. Hopefully someone got past the first hurdle of the game soon, waiting wasn't his style and it only meant stagnation for the guild.
"Everything going on is to be expected. We're popular, sort of, and starting to get a name going. We keep up like this we might just be one of the most influential players in the game. Though there's still no word of anyone even attempting some of the dungeons on this floor let alone the floor boss itself." He rolled over and lay on his back, hands on his chest as he closed his eyes. "I can see us, all of us, helping every last person. When this world blocks the path we will always find a new road. I believe that in my heart." A sigh of peace escaped him as his hands came to rest behind his head. "What does your heart tell you is next for us, Cin?"

========================

-Indominus-
Day 16 / Afternoon / LVL 16

Dom frowned at the girls use of vulgar language, especially since she spoke so crudely to Smart who had been her uncle since she was still in diapers. The old bastard had been in her fathers life when HE was in diapers for cryin' out loud! But that wasn't much of an issue and let it slide at youthful rebellion, patting the air for Smart to keep his calm. Last thing anybody needed was another damn fight. "What are we doing out here? Young lady I've been cutting a path through dungeons sicne before your daddy drew his first breath. Smarts been with me damn near every one of 'em too, much as I hate to admit it to him, that rat-faced son of an ogres arse." He turned to Smart and stuck out his tongue and flipped him the bird, a casual insult if ever one was tossed between the geezers. "Still," he turned his attention back to his granddaughter. "We can't give you all the space in the world. You might not think much of mean ol' Grandpa but I ain't dead just yet. Gonna keep being a pain in your neck same as I am for his wrinkly keister. Don't gotta fight the world alone." He gave her a hug by surprise, a quick one that picked her off the ground before dropping her back down while Dom took a preemptive step backwards (You never know if they hug back or throw a punch these days!) "Me 'n Smart most likely gonna keep goin' till we find somewhere worth stoppin'. Maybe head north east, see what the fuss with the greenery is all about." He looked back to Smart for an answer.

Tailpin
Lvl 11
Day 16 Afternoon

The price range for player housing started at ouch and went quarter-past boing. The homes were far out of the price range of the people on this floor. It was obvious that nobody was supposed to buy a place until at least the third or fourth floor was cleared. There was just too much money involved. It would probably cripple the guild's finances to buy even just a shack at this point.

Still, he knew the scale of things now. It was possible to save up money and that was what he intended to do. When a base became an option then it would be good to have some extra saved up. Though, Delcastle would likely have an established budget for such a thing long before they needed it. He smiled faintly to himself as he left that district and wandered over to the east gate. Money never hurt to have in games like this and he needed more materials to experiment with anyway.

So, if Delcastle wasn't going to send instructions or directives yet, that was fine. He'd just go wolf hunting in the mean time. He knew how strong they were and how they moved and it was daytime. They'd be slower than the Wild Dogs were, at least at night when he was used to hunting them. There wasn't much in the way of hills to the east of town and the ground had a bunch of hollows but he did have better armor and a new bow to test out. The only possible issue would be the wolves attacking in groups. Eh, he needed to work on his rate of fire anyway.

He headed out the gate with his new bow in hand after sending one last PM to Delcastle.

HUNTING WOLVES TILL SUNDOWN.

================================

Smarter'n'me
Lvl 15
Day 16 Evening

Smarter'n'me didn't even flinch. He'd seen tantrums and hurt feelings often enough before to recognize them. He'd also seen exactly what disrespecting your elders usually got you. His eyes met the girl's gaze without flinching. For once, he waited until after his old acquaintance had said his peace before saying his own.

"If anybody here's passing judgment on anybody else here, then that'd be you, little princess." He said softly. "Your granddad's right, sick as his face makes me, and he and I have watched these games change from pretty early on. If that's the best armor you could find that did what you want it to then you did good to buy it." His voice gained a slight edge of sternness. "But I'm not going to respect an outfit designed by a filthy pervert. I've seen those stores in town and I know there ain't much better for modesty than what you're wearing. And, that is worth every cuss and swear I can think up. You're already stronger and better than this outfit can show." He took a long breath through his long nose and let it out slow. "I don't like the idea of you thinking you need something like that enough to put your pride behind it."

He turned away, looking toward the hazy green of the forest to the northeast.

"I'm not your pa. I'm not going to lay down the law to you and I'm not going to expect you to do as I say." His voice fell to near a whisper as he started walking eastward. "Princesses don't listen to wretched old men anyway." Then he cleared his throat and raised his voice. "But don't you think for a minute that this sicko's paradise gives you the right to threaten me. If you pull that stunt again, there'll be blows."

He whipped up the menu and a party invite, shoving it over to his old acquaintance. If that girl wanted to fight alone then they should let her for as long as they dared. But, that didn't mean that they would be going far.

"We'll be going as far as we feel like." He turned his hawk nose toward his housemate. "Make sure you don't fall behind ya old sack of moldy bones." He said as he kept going. Though, the insult lacked feeling and there was a subtle change in the set of his shoulders as he softly marched off.

@DestinyStar@Zelosse

@Tracyarmav
Ikanus tilts his head and opens up his inventory scrolling through. "It is a very good idea...hmmm...im not sure if i have anything though" He continues looking, scrolling past healing items, hides, supplies, food, and potions. Surely he has something. "In all honesty I normally use Anubis as a tank so that the target focuses on him" He keeps scrolling. As he goes he starts shaking his head. "It does not look like I have any bait items" He looks at edgar. " Do you have any bait items?" he tilts his head. "I focused more on beast mastery then anything else and I don't have any scatter abilities for monsters yet" He looks a bit apologetic for not having anything for baiting. if anything, he would be willing to lure the monsters to him so that edgar could get through, but that seemed a bit extreme.

Ikanus looks away from edgar and looks back at the entrance with the monsters, trying to come up with another plan. His eyes narrowed as he studies the situation. "If i had some sort of hiding ability that would have been useful as well" he seems to speak to himself, well these thoughts give him ideas for what to try for abilities next.

Day 16 midday. Level 12

Mai'lo glanced at Emperor as the others left the table and grunted quietly before draining the last of his tankard. "Yeah. We met back on day one, just outside town here, remember? I was part of the group that had just lost a member in a battle with some bears."

He leaned back in his seat and laced his thick fingers together behind his head. "How've you been keeping yourself the last couple of weeks?"

Nenatalev
Day 16 - Sunset - level 14:

The Gourge, was her place. She had a nice little camp were the monsters were not around, in a small alcove hidden away. It could not sustain more than a few people, but that was fine, since while she had brought along a few guards with her cute charm and showwomanship, It had not lasted. The cowards fled in the night after an outing went sour and one of the friends got killed. And now, she was trapped, unable to go back to town and not thinking to get a teleport crystal, having spent most of her cash on healing potions and the like, which were dwindling into nothing. Soon, she would be out of them, and one bad slip would mean her death. But, she was determined to kill as many of the monsters as she could, gather as large a pile of loot and die with it.

But, shouting, the sounds of activity, of people. Of freedom. Her heart filled with happiness, Nena spent the next few hours making herself look a bit more presentable, and a bit less Woman of the Wilds. The sun was setting by the time she finished, but that didn't matter, they were not going anywhere. A week's joureny would not be over in less than a day, she told herself, constantly. And she was right, when Nena came out of the hidden alcove and exclaimed with great volume, so that all of them could hear her. She wasn't quite sure how many of them there were, but that was by-the-by. Freedom, was at hand.
"Who dares to invade the Realm of Nenatalev, Queen of the Gourge!?" She demanded, being a bit mad, what with over a week of isolation and life-or-death on every day, with death being inevitable eventuality. Freedom would be stared in the face, and then the funny little dimple on freedom's face would be laughed at.

@Tracyarmav
Ikanus pinches the end of his nose and squints. "That...is potent what is that?" his voice coming out funny since his nose is pinched. He shrugs. "Considering the stench coming off of that...I have a good feeling that would *breathes through his mouth* work...really well" He breathes through his mouth to try to avoid the pungent smell coming off of...whatever that is. Taking a few steps back he releases his nose and looks at edgar. "If that...*gestures at the stuff* works then we can run in and work our way through. Do you have a teleportation crystal?" Ikons has one that would transport both himself and his pet, but he wanted to ensure that edgar has one. He wouldn't want anything to go wrong...especially in this situation.
Anubis even rubs his face with one paw, his ears folded back. He snorts a few times and shakes his head.

"Ahh yeah I remember... I've been keeping well, questing and trying to make money and stuff." Emperor said before fidgeting in his chair a little "How have you been then?"

@pockets

Day 16- Night-Level 12

A battered, bruised figure stumbled into the city limits, her blue furred tail matted with blood, the fur cut pretty short, her ears suffered a similar, but worse fate. Her left ear suffered from a cut that split the cartilage on the tip. For a game, this seemed way to realistic, but here she was, a player, who started with unusual fox features, one of which was now slightly maimed.
Sapphira trudged herself into the village her body aching everywhere, the pain in her left ear still bothering her, even though it happened almost three days ago. Who knew humans could be this cruel? Now for the first time in her life, Sapphira was afraid, not of the game, not of dying, but of the people in the game, the actual players. No way the monsters would have let her live after mauling her like that, not that the game would even allow mobs to actually injure players. But apparently, players could injure other players, or torture for that matter.
As Sapphira arrived in the city square her strength slowly began to falter. Under the eyes of the people in the square, the injured fox girl collapsed.

@DestinyStar

-Delcastle-
Day 16 / Midday / LVL 12

Del smiled as Cinera poured her heart out, clearly a bit afraid of her opinion coming off as gloomy but that could not be helped. He listened intently to her concerns and found he agreed with them though maybe not as much as she did. Risk was always going to be present, floor one or floor 100, that was never going to change for the guild and the only choice was to move forward. But Delcastle agreed they must be cautious with dungeons where the threat was at its peak, guaranteed they would lose members to this worlds deadly secrets. He resolved to make sure that so long as they wore the World Walkers name with pride he would make sure that number was as low as possible.
He took the sandwich idly with a thank you but his eyes were a thousand miles away, remembering the beta vaguely and idly sorting through what could be the hardest areas. After a moment of space-staring he turned to Cinera and flashed his usual confident grin as he sat up and crossed both legs. "I see where you're coming from. You're right. Not everyone is gonna be like us, but that doesn't mean we should ignore people we find untrustworthy. On later floors we are going to be forced to go to places that will challenge us as a group. We are going to expand. But thats all a problem for later. For now, we need to take some risks and move forward quickly." He took a bite of his sandwich and brought his thoughts back into focus. "I want you to know that if you have doubts about anything, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant, I want you to bring it up immediately. I put my guild ahead of all the players, for without my team we are all just lonely players trying to fight a tidal wave. Stay a worrier, Cinera. That is what we need when pride blinds us." He smiled and enjoyed the rest of the evening with Cinera as they talked about everything that came to mind, a few times he threw out a PM to respond to other requests, and talked until the sun the sun dipped low in the sky.

-Night / day 16-

Delcastle and Cinera returned to Bulls run in silence as they navigated the familiar streets and took a detour to the square, Delcastle hoping to find a late night vendor to pawn off some items he had been holding onto for some time. The streets were empty, most players returning to the inn or staying out in the wilds to save costs or time. "Empty today. What a shame." He lamented, his Lucerne resting on his shoulder comfortably as the pair turned a corner to the town square. Cinera shouted something and he turned to see a girl collapsed in the square, even at a distance it was obvious they were hurt and needed help. Del rushed forward with Cinera and slid to one knee, gently rolling over the girl to see her face. The fox merchant.. "We need to get to the inn!" He motioned for Cinera to run and get a room secured for the young fox girl. A potion could help her but not while she was unconscious.

Delcastle hooked his Lucerne on his back and lifted the fox girl in his arms, making his way to the Inn and the private room Cinera had procured. Many eyes glanced over at the unusual sight but like always he did not even register them. Up the stairs he went and entered the room with a nod to Cinera. Two beds, three people. "Shes hurt, bad, but not at risk. Needs rest and healing potions, maybe some food." Del placed Sapphira on his bed as nicely as possible and took out three greater potions from his personal stash, placing them on the nightstand beside the unconscious fox merchant. He turned to leave but stopped at the door. "I'll get something for her to eat when she wakes up. You take the other bed, I'll take the floor." He left unsaid that injuries like this might not have been done by a monster. The game tended to finish off their prey, but cruel humans were all too willing to make others suffer.

-day 17 / midnight-

Del had returned as promised with a plate of vegetables and bread, a pitcher of water and a single cup on the tray he placed beside the healing draughts. Del nodded to Cinera who was likely equally worried and took a seat on the ground with his back to the wall and closed his eyes. He could afford another room but his concern demanded he be there when she awoke. His inventory was full of things that might be useful when Sapphira awoke.

========================

-Indominus-
Day 16 / Afternoon / LVL 16

Dom scratched his head as Scarlet took off in a sprint, embarassed as always with a little show of affection. Poor girl was fighting something here he couldn't see yet and that pained him greatly, remembering her father and all of his troubles with life and love over his young life. Like father like child, this generation was incapable of talking about her feelings to a trusted family member and was trying not to be a bother. Maybe that was the issue? Dom gave a hearty sigh and let it slide for now. Vulgar language, racy clothes, disrespectful attitude. All of it was a bit much for even his (rarely) patient self. Dom just stood and watched her go on her little journey.
"Damnable kids. Never willing to admit they need help." His lamentations were put on the back burner as a new player entered the game. Female by the sound of it, and arrogant.

"Who dares to invade the Realm of Nenatalev, Queen of the Gourge!?"

Indominus grinned as a fire took to his eyes, flashing a toothy grin at Smart before taking off in a sprint. Dom followed the sound of her voice and where he assumed it had come from, silently tracking this newest event. Eventually he slowed down and glanced over a ledge, a very poorly dressed woman stood infront of what could only be assume was another tunnel with a look of defiance. A dominant feature was her fox ears and long tail, but another feature on the front of her caught his attention more. Npc? Player? Time to find out!
Dom took a backstep off the ledge and began a sword spell as the dust and debree announced the entrance of a green cloaked fighter with a jet black glowing fist. The moment his boots touched ground he thrust. 'Midnight fist', his signature attack skill, launched out strong and fast at Nenas face with the intention for a stunning blow and some hefty damage.

From close up, it was clear that Nena had lost a few of her marbles along the way, but not enough for her to be totally out of the running. So when an old man came up to her in a cloud of dust, she wasn't quite sure what he was doing until she saw the fist flying towards her. There was no time for manouvering to get her better Sword Art down, so she instead dropped to the ground and in a glow of teal light, activated 'Fox's Whispering Forest'and used the temporary, but considerable, increase in her speed and dodge rating to avoid the attack and put some distance between them, before finally taking what looked to be a fighting stance.
"So, you come to rescue the Princess? Well she is a Queen now! And Queens fight their rescuers to prove their work. I read it in a rock once" she stated, with no volume control in the slightest. "So come on, person! This is were you get slightly hurt!" as a threat, it could have been better, but as a statement of truth, there was nothing finer

@KabenSaal

-Indominus-
Day 16 / Afternoon / LVL 16

"Princess my wrinkly ass, you're in tatters and your empire sucks. Why'd you make camp at the exit ass-end of this dusty place?" Less of a question and more of a rambling Indominus rushed forward with fist leading, three rapid jabs led the way for a powerhouse uppercut as he still bulled forward to catch the fox opponent. As his fist rose he continued the motion upwards with a jump and twist, his trailing leg coming forward in a high mid-air kick and still the attack flowed as momentum carried him around to launch one more straight kick with his opposite leg before finally touching the ground. Nimble fighter, his chosen passive, made him agile enough to do quick succession combos while his core stats in strength and vitality made him a heavy hitter.
The ground didn't seem wide or long enough for anything elaborate from either one of them, Nena having set up camp in what could only be referred to as a hole.

Nena heard the man's ramblings, but didn't seem overly bothered by it, the hand streching out remaining stonic, and unwavering, until the first punch came in. Then, with a flash of teal, Nena started Wolf Swallows Moon, and felt herself unable to move as the Sword Art began. It was not long before the first hit connected, however, and then it began. First, Nena's fist used the force of impact to close around the man's fist, ruining his flow with her rather well toned musclar structure, then, with a second teal glow nearly as soon as the first glow had faded, she activated the follow-up, Snake Ensnares Earth, which snapped out a palm strike, adding the man's attacking strength to Nena's own, and making quite the dangerous attack, that would be very difficult to get away from since she had hold of one of his fists and was not going to let go any time soon.
"Face-Punch!" She exclaimed with great volume, even though the palm was heading to smash into his chest rather than his face, but she was mad, so technical things like that escpaed her.

-Indominus-
Day 16 / Afternoon / LVL 16

[HP]73%///////-[]

Dom growled as his fist was snared and struggled to escape the grab but quickly gave up as Nenas follow-up thrust her palm with his own strength directly back at him. DAMNIT! Dom scrounged his mind for a way out but realized too late it would be a battle of who could take the most punishment. The palm-strike hit home on his chest and blasted the air from him, knocking almost 1/4 of his considerable HP in a single counter strike but Nena still held his arm, preventing any escape or retaliation on his own part. Plan B it is then! Unlike Smart who was as elegant and graceful as any pro figure skater on ice, Indominus earned his name by refusing to acknowledge he was about as graceful as a beached whale.
As Nena retracted her palm-thrust, Dom took a running step forward and grabbed the back of her head pulling her forehead into his own incredibly thick cranium with all the force he could muster, breaking the grip long enough for him to boot her away and gain some distance. Though not a very damaging attack it served its purpose. Indominus gave his head a shake from side to side and stumbled for a moment as his free hand rested on his temples. "Gonna feel that later.." He grumbled.

Nena let out a strange sound as she hit the man, something like triumph, mixed with a sneeze. However, she was distracted by a notification super-imposed into her vision, announcing that she had turned orange. This, of coirse, was a shock since she liked her normal colour, and so she didn't notice getting headbutted until she had actually been headbutted, and then with his boot getting stuck in, she was knocked back, granting distance for both of them. Nena let out a cry of pain as she was headbutted, and staggered for a few seconds before regaining her footing.
"Ow!....hey, your head thing is Orange now. I wonder if that is what that notice meant...." Nena put in, pointing tothe diamond like shape that hung over everyone's head, usually green, but now orange, and ominous for those who knew what it meant.

Tailpin
Lvl 11/Day 16/ Nightfall
[HP]100%//////////[]

The hunt had not been inspiring. It had been productive though. When Tailpin passed back through the east gate of Bull's Run he was paging through his inventory, taking stock of the loot that he acquired. So, he was looking down a little toward his feet when he noticed something odd about the paving stones. He dismissed his menu and knelt down to look at the discoloration of the street for a moment before he recognized it.

"Blood." He whispered, looking up and spotting where other drops had fallen and the path they revealed. "A blood trail?" This wasn't something that made sense for a game like this to have, even with Kayaba's deranged intent.

Then the drops nearest him started to shimmer. After a moment, they shattered into shards of red, leaving the stones clean. The next few started to shimmer next. There was only so much time to follow the trail. Tailpin started moving. The pace was fast, a solid stride but not difficult to match. In fact, this pace only made sense if the person was carrying something... heavy. Blood trail and a heavy burden. The path led toward the inn.

"Audit!" He cursed as he started to run toward the inn. He kept a casual eye on the blood trail but his guess proved correct. The trail entered the inn and went upstairs to one of the rooms. Hopefully, whoever had found a way to leave a blood trail in a VR game would be ok.

He thought about sending a PM to Delcastle but stopped. It was getting late, the boss was likely busy all day, and Tailpin didn't know enough to warrant a report. It might just have been an injury glitch of some kind too. He just didn't know enough. Instead of brooding, he just did what he had to do and got to bed. It would probably be another busy day tomorrow.
----------------------------------
Smarter'n'me
Day 16/Lvl 15/Nightfall = Seriously Camping Time
[HP]100%//////////[]

Smarter'n'me had had enough of arrogant nonsense and uppity melodramatics for one day. At least he'd have a break from that while hunting with Dom. Besides, two weeks here and that bore of a rampaging ogre fart had better have more stories than the one about that brat. He was looking forward to adventuring in the wilds without any of those poorly dressed goat-kin bothering the two old men who knew better when he heard two things that made him not want to turn around at all.

He heard a challenge that had to come from a crazy lady or an idiot, possibly both, and the sound of rapidly receding footfalls. No monster yet had been able to speak and no NPC would announce themselves from so far away. It was obviously a player.

"Dom, you stupid leech licking hairball pissing hermaphrodite hate child of a goblin lama and an ugly stick, you're going to end up a criminal you irony sucking shield muncher!" He screamed in the beginning of an escalating tirade of extraordinarily colorful verbal diarrhea, well seasoned with frustration and topped with flakey contempt and spicy ridicule.

By the time he mentioned lamas, he had begun a hot pursuit of his speeding companion. By the time he got around to therapy and incontinence, Dom had already leaped into battle. By the time Smart got a good seat for the show, his friend had already been reclassified as an orange player for assaulting another player outside of a duel or safe zone. So, he sat on a rock and clapped. The sound of his clapping carried well, echoing off the walls of the gorge.

"Well done, you pinnacles of ironic bat puke. Now you're both criminals." For once, no laughter accompanied this long-time-coming, I-told-you-so moment. "A dunce cap licking punch addict and a fox that ate too much rotting rat." His hawk nose twitched. "That's a couple made in a fetish flick."

@Zelosse@KabenSaal

-Sapphira-
Day 17- Morning

It felt quite good to wake up, yes. She hadn't realized that she had made it somewhere safe, feeling the soft bed underneath her body, warm sheets covering her. As she slowly began to feel things again, she started to feel the biting pain in her ear, although way, way less than yesterday. Of course with the return of her senses, she also could make out, she wasn't actually alone in the room. Her heart started beating faster as she, panicked as she became, she turned around to face the threat yelling out loud: "Who are you?! What do you want from me?! Haven't you done enough?!" When she noticed who she was yelling at, her ears folded back, her healthy one and the split left one, which after it had been cleaned was fairly visibly nicked quite a bit with a cut going about two centimetres into the ear lobe leaving a visible gap.
"Oh...", was her response to seeing two familiar faces and her body relaxed visibly exhaling a good amount of air.