Xiao Mei, Asteria, Edward, Lorek, Danny
Exploring Near Crystals and Cave Walls (D1)@SilverPaw@Jobst@Bishop@Searat@Duthguy
While the group made conversation, Lorek suddenly yoinked two of the few crystals remaining in the cluster, and made off towards what seemed to be just a random lizard that had come across the group and decided it best not to interfere with such a gathering. For whatever reason--the hunt, or perhaps solely to practice on a living target--Lorek was off in pursuit, and he focused all of his energy into a single Mana Orb. He could only cast it twice to begin with, but the essential effect seemed to be that he simply layered one sphere of energy on top of the other. It popped like an electrical surge as it raced through the air, striking the Fanged Lizard in the back. The creature squealed as it was knocked over, rolling until it came to a stop with its legs kicking in the air. It was severely wounded, and struggling to right itself…
You have no MP remaining.
But just as Lorek might have prepared to consume a crystal or further engage his target, Xiao Mei suddenly pounced from behind with a startling cry. Why was she attacking? Was she scared? Had she mistaken Lorek’s intentions? There was no time to discover why, but Lorek barely registered her shout before he felt the sharp pain of her incisors penetrating his body. The soft, spongy flesh beneath the aura of his glow gave way like a cream-filled pastry, only instead of sugary goodness and synthetic egg batter it was his very life’s blood filling his attacker’s mouth. As Xiao Mei fell back to earth and took a piece of him with her, Lorek was left in a very bad situation.
WARNING! Your HP is low!
And with this, chaos broke out among the tiny group. Ed took off at a run, darting between the rocks in the way his instincts told him would provide cover from predators. Danny seemed to freeze up, his indecision over who to side with and what to do turning him into a statue. Mother Rat dropped onto all fours, hackles raising with an angry hiss as she sensed that they were about to hunt the weakened Wisp, but then Asteria tried to calm her down. The vermin matriarch looked at her offspring in confusion, tilting her head, then looked back at Xiao Mei and Lorek with the same lack of understanding. For now she stood down, but there was a tenseness to her body that told she was ready to spring at any time. Her ears twitched warily in Danny’s direction, and her tail lashed back and forth like a coiling whip.
Meanwhile, the Fanged Lizard Lorek had attacked managed to flip itself over--and what was more, another Fanged Lizard came rushing out of the rocks this one had been running towards. A mate, perhaps? Both of them seemed focused on the heavily wounded Wisp, and each spat a glob of poison through the air at him. In the sudden rush of adrenaline all around the group, the purple spheres of hissing ooze seemed to travel in an arc towards Lorek in slow motion…
And things certainly didn’t calm down for Edward, either, after he took off running. Though with his burst of speed he soon left the group behind, he suddenly found himself stumbling upon something even more potentially dangerous. In the early morning of the cave, those who woke up first had the advantage. A good night’s sleep was healing, and those who got the drop on any creature that was still groggy could easily score themselves a meal for the day. In this race of survival, in a cave filled with so many different creatures, every so often a situation like this would occur.
That is, a total free for all.
In front of Ed unfolded a bloody scene. Two Dire Rats, not at all dissimilar to the two females and their mother he had just left, were acting as a pack and attempting to hunt a Goblin. The Goblin had nothing to its name but a blunt looking rock clutched in one fist, which it used to bludgeon the first rat that leaped at it. But the second rat darted in from behind and, with its densely muscled body and its sharp fangs and claws, tore a chunk of flesh from the meaty part of the goblin’s calf. The green creature screamed and went down to one knee, not quite out of the fight but certainly crippled for the moment. However, before the second dire rat could go in for the kill, a Wisp seeking to take advantage of the situation shot it with a Mana Orb from afar, hitting the unaware creature in the side and knocking it over. The goblin turned at the sound of the magic sparks, and in what seemed to be panic simply threw its rock--which landed right on target, knocking the Wisp to the ground in what seemed like a daze. Then, in a seemingly unrelated event, a Fanged Lizard and a Slime literally wrapped together in mortal combat--the slime trying to digsest the lizard, the lizard’s caustic venom coating the slime’s outer surface and discoloring it as the poison damaged it over time--came tumbling over a rock and rolled right down into the middle of the melee.
Each of these creatures seemed
severely weakened as they struggled with one another. Would Ed join the bloodbath, or wait for them to notice him?
Asura, Edith, Scott
The Pool (D2)@Kazemitsu@ShwiggityShwah@CollectorOfMystYour efforts have produced a Skill!
Skill Gain: Limited Shapeshift I
By practicing the manipulation of your body, which Slimes are naturally predisposed for, you gained this skill. You cannot alter the total size, texture, or consistency of your body. You also cannot alter your body’s primary qualities--you cannot become “sharp” or “hard,” for example. At this level, complex structures are too difficult. But making yourself into a rolling sphere, a flat puddle, or shaping your pseudopods would all be possibilities, plus more. This skill consumes Stamina, not MP.
As Edith finally managed to paddle her way out of the pool, all but the unfortunate fish she had managed to catch darted away from her in fright. Down, down in the depths of the pool, something that might have been a much bigger fish, or something else, began to drift across the bed deep below the water. But now she heard a voice, and called out to it.
As Scott flew nearby the pool, towards the oddly behaving Fanged Lizard he had seen, he would hear the slime’s softer and more feminine voice--something rather unusual in this new world of gruff growls and shrill squeaks--calling out to him. Sound carried better over the water, so it wasn’t quite clear how far or how close the two were to each other, but if the flying pixie looked he could probably see the two slimes, as each of them were a fairly bright color amidst the dark rocks and the green plantlife.
There was, as Edith had surmised, indeed a series of trails through the herbs and moss growing around the banks of the pool and along the cave grounds. Several creatures, including slimes, had passed through here in the last long while...but if the specific slime they were looking for was the one that had produced offspring, it stood to reason that it would probably be bigger. And there was indeed one slime trail, like a railroad leading towards the trainyard, that was easily two or three times bigger than the others. It led off into the distance, into a darker corner of the cave far away from the bonfire, the entrance, and the pool, towards an area even seemingly without any Mana Crystals...
Jason
The Hole in the Wall (D2)@Guy0fV4lor
As Jason opened up the entrance to his little hidey hole the first time, and left to gather Mana Crystals and munch on goblin remains, he did not become aware upon re-entering his home base that
something else had come in while he was away. Without a second thought towards his own security, he blocked himself in, grabbed several of the crystals from his storage, and began working on his tunnel. His unknown houseguest watched from its hiding place, a crevice in the rock wall it had forced its body into in order to hide from Jason’s sight. It was puzzled at first, as of course it didn’t understand what this oddly behaving Slime was doing, or even how it was doing such a thing as tunneling through the very walls of the cave. But as Jason disappeared into the tunnel and began to work his way upward, the creature quietly moved out of the crevice and, with slow and careful efforts, made for itself an exit in the rock pile Jason used as the impromptu door of his shelter. Jason didn’t seem to notice if any of the rocks tumbled or made a sound, and now the thing had a way out in case things went badly for it. Even a wild animal knew enough to always have an escape route ready.
By this time Jason had almost completed his tunnel to a proper sniper’s bay--but before he could set his finger on the trigger, so to speak, with Crispy in his sights...something hot and painful seared into him from behind!
In the tight, cramped corners of the cave, it was difficult for him to turn, much less to fight. And now, as he did turn, the Wisp staring at him from the opposite end of the tunnel chittered in what seemed to be a laugh of triumph, before it began to glow with another prepared Mana Orb aimed right at Jason’s slimy face...
Rain
Nearby the Hole in the Wall (D2)@Old Amsterdam
As Rain pooled venom in her mouth, unknowingly doing the opposite of Ash who had tried to make her shots smaller and faster, she lobbed a huge glob of poison at the unwary Pixie. It almost didn’t go quite high enough--but she managed to splatter her target in the back as it fluttered along.
It wasn’t quite clear what was worse, the way the Pixie’s scream sounded so much like a human child, or the way the acid began to eat and burn away at the flesh in such a sickening manner...or the way something crunched and broke when the Pixie’s tiny body, its wings slathered in acid, fell to the ground.
At least Rain’s second shot put a swift end to the creature’s misery. Though now she had to deal with looking at parts of its exposed skeleton as the acid ate even further at the flesh.
LEVEL UP!
Your experiences have culminated into new power. You gain Skill Points you may use as you please!
Unspent Skill Points:
5
Current Skills:
Stung Fang I (1.4)
Poison Spit I (1.4)
Muffle II (2.2)
<UNUSABLE> Crafting (0.2) <UNUSABLE>
<UNUSABLE> Alchemy (0.4) <UNUSABLE>
<UNUSABLE> Alert (0.3) <UNUSABLE>
<UNUSABLE> Stealth Kill - (0.2) <UNUSABLE>
<UNUSABLE> Poison Glob (0.1) <UNUSABLE>
Orchid
Looking to Trade (D2)@Lucius Cypher
As Orchid headed for the bonfire, Crispy was there as always, though there were only three other goblins in sight. These had been assigned the duty of chopping and splitting what wood was left into smaller pieces, perhaps in the mistaken belief that having more pieces of wood meant that the fire could be kept burning longer. They whittled away with sharpened stones, but as Orchid approached--not only wearing rudimentary clothes, not only carrying what was possibly the coolest weapon any of them had seen, and not only being female but also carrying an odd lump of clay--they all stopped what they were doing and looked up with awe. Even Crispy stopped dancing in front of his fire to look at her.
“Oi! You da only youngling dat made it back?” The goblin now took her in fully, and put one yellow tipped finger on his chin in thought. “Huh, you...you done good, huh?” Seeming to appraise her, he walked around in a circle. “Did you make dat?” he pointed at the sword. “And...what’s all da mud for?” The goblin seemed extremely interested in what had transpired since the last time he saw Orchid, but it didn’t look like he was going to immediately try and take her items from her--possibly because he didn’t understand what she was doing with them yet, and possibly because he didn’t seem to use many weapons of his own aside from the torch he was always carrying--which by now was beginning to burn a little short. His interest seemed to be that solely of one intellectual towards another...for a given value of intellectual, at least.
Digbie, Mourningstar, Oberon, Orochi
The First True Party (D2)@King Cosmos@CriticalHit@Gardevoiran@floodtalon
As Digbie did what he was best at throughout the night, his line of thinking seemed to pay off.
You are experiencing a fast rate of Skill Progression.
But by morning all this digging was taking its toll.
Your Stamina is low. You are exhausted. You are thirsty. You are hungry. Your MP is depleting.
Nonetheless, he had gotten quite far with his tunneling, and now his little base camp could perhaps be considered an actual sub-cave, easily big enough for himself and all his companions to sleep in and perhaps store some loot. Of course, its opening was far too large at the moment...and what was he going to do with all this loose dirt that he had been digging out?
While Oberon presumably slept and Orochi spoke of getting breakfast, Mourningstar had risen early and, seemingly ignoring Digbie, began to practice the same magical activity she had attempted yesterday--and this time she had better results.
Your efforts have earned a new skill!
Skill Gain: Mana Shape I
You can shape your raw Mana into the appearance of something. At this rank, your Mana does not have weight, force, or other physical qualities. Your Mana cannot produce sounds. Your Mana cannot move freely. Your mana can have its color changed. Your shapes must be relatively simple with no moving parts. The shape cannot be held for long without more MP.
But now she turned her attention from that task to using her Magic Analysis on Digbie.
You used Magic Analysis I!
Magic Analysis I’s effectiveness is reduced to 25%. This is a Monster.
You have analyzed this Monster before. Effectiveness increases to 35%.
This is a Goblin. Goblins are capable of Magic. This Goblin is unusual. He has one magically oriented skill. His skill seems related to the Earth element.
Reoth
On the Hunt (D2)@Kangutso
As Reoth tried to make his way across the cave, he would often find it difficult to stay out of sight from other predators. His white body stood out like a sore thumb among the darker colored rocks, and even in dark places would reflect the soft lights from any nearby Mana Crystals. But, he did eventually get good enough and fast enough that he could work about as well as any other Fanged Lizard--it just became very clear that, going forward, he would probably need to do a little extra work to remain hidden.
His hunt for something more filling than bugs, however, soon found him stalking a different kind of buzzing thing. A Pixie, roughly a foot tall with brightly colored hair, flitted through the air with its dragonfly wings like a dancer. It seemed to be paying little attention to the ground, and the white lizard, below it...
Ash, Naji
Nearby the Pool (D2) @Rune_Alchemist@ghastlyInc
Ash found the Mana Crystal easy enough to break off, and as she did so the poor, nearly starved pixie inside the crevice was finally free! A voice, calling to them from somewhere closer to the pool, echoed across the cave--but it seemed that same voice was answered by another nearer to the water, one that sounded distinctively feminine--even more than Ash. Then again, she probably wasn’t given to adding such a sickly sweet facade to her conversations.
As she intently examined the Crystal, her newly upgraded Alchemy Skill activated.
You used Alchemy II!
Effectiveness reduced to 80%. This is a solid Material, though it can be used in Alchemy.
---Mana Crystal---
Small Item. Solid. Crystalline. Brittle, can be easily broken or powdered. Low Hardness, can be easily scratched and does not hold up well against pressure. Very Low Sharpness, will not hold an edge. Magical, highly reactive, non-elemental. Mostly Stable.
You have used this item once in a reaction with Fanged Lizard Venom.
---Analysis Complete---
Meanwhile, though he was free, Naji had some problems of his own to deal with.
Your Stamina is very low. You are exhausted. You are dehydrated. You are Starving. Your MP is almost depleted. Your HP is starting to deplete.
