Magnificus the Ingenious
\\: Location: Sen Rynta | Windy Plains - Outskirts

_
Standing there he just sorta had this expression halfway between nonplussed and annoyed. He had only just appeared and now some rude brat was already rattling off at him. Looking down at this mouthy little mouse he could do little more than cock an eyebrow and ask

"What are you, level one?"

Seriously, who on earth did this lady think she was to start levying threats towards me when a simple mob like hobgoblins were giving her such trouble? He had to wonder.

"From the sounds of it I'm the least at risk of immolation amongst the four of us."

Rather nonchalantly he stuffed his hands in his pockets as he strolled past the three of them, his hovering drone issuing an authoritative chirp towards them.

"Anyhow, I wasn't gonna bother mentioning but from the sounds of it you're all gonna be headed down the same road as me for the time being since I'm heading to the nearest town to sell off some junk drops clogging up my inventory. I have no plans of standing here until I can't see your backs so unless you plan to do that yourselves we'll just share the road for now."

He continued on, unconcerned with whether or not they followed or diverted on elsewhere since they were not a factor in his destination plan.

"You just mind your business and I'll mind my own so stow away your PK'er comments, Kay?"

Not that he expected much civility out of this bunch. The knight looking one was mostly stoic and the other one was shy unto having no presence at all in the dialogue. None of that meant however that they had any notions of fair play. He'd be minding his distance for the road ahead.

And here he thought this'd just be a comfy mob grind.

_
Well, the trip was quiet at least. It was as if they had nothing to do with each other the whole way across, just the way he liked it. He wasn't a diehard loner but his own company was preferable to that of those who'd rather give him a litany of accusations and threats instead of a decent greeting or even a name to call them by. In his mind dreams of long caverns filled to the pores with rare minerals occupied his boredom as he looked forward to setting out again for more materials. As an engineer it seemed a waste to grind for cash to buy the kinds of things he could just make.

As for the village it seemed the local drunk had propped himself up and dressed up in guise of a guard or something. The filthy fellow seemed to be bogarding the way forward, insisting that the inn was full as if that even mattered. Rather than answer him he had given the other three a wide berth, standing well to the side with his hands mostly idle by his side.

It's not so much that he cared about staying at an inn or anything like that since he was set up for an extended trip through the woods but he also gave little to no regard towards the lives of npcs. The line between town guard and forest mob was slim and quite frankly his patience was already a little thin. Still, the other three strangers on the road struck him as the jumpy types so he'd wait and let them duel tongues with the slack-jawed yokel, either figuratively or perhaps literally. The latter while enormously unlikely was still vaguely amusing just due to the sheer disparity between them.

He just wondered how long they'd be at it. Maybe he should pull out a folding chair?

_
@Operator Luna@Hammerman@PKMNB0Y

Kokoma
@VitaVitaAR

---

"Umu? What is it?" Kokoma grinned. "You look embarrassed? You shouldn't be, you're awfully cute! Super totally mega adorably cute, ehehe!" The Shenke would grab Sefira from behind, holding her in a hug as the small elf was squirming where she stood. She'd press her own body, and consequently, her own chest against Sephira's back. "Oh, I get it!...you wanna undress me instead, huh? Fufu, well all you'd have to do is ask ya know!"

Leaving the poor elf squirming with that thought in her head would have been fun and all...but she also did want to help and not be a total creep. So it would be about five seconds later that Sephira would feel cold water splash the top of her head followed by a towel as she'd start scrubbing the girls front side.

"We'll get you all nice and squeaky clean first then you can undress me if ya wanna~"

...not that Sefira would be able to do much against the Shenke's scrubbing that were totally starting to wander to places.

Why?!

Why was this happening?!

It was enough to try and adjust to the sight of her own body, this slender, petite figure she'd deliberately modeled on characters she found attractive and cute, but now the elf found herself in the embrace of a pervert. A pervert who was way too close. Incredibly close. Close enough that there was quite literally no space between them.

"Wh-who wouldn't be embarrassed?!" Sefira exclaimed, frantically. Being called cute was bad enough, and no way she wanted to undress this lewd weirdo. What would that even lead into?! The thought was almost making her pass out on the spot!

And it was only going to get worse, as she felt hands scrubbing her. She was an adult! She didn't need this kind of assistance! Why was this happening to her?! What did she do to deserve this kind of treatment?! Why, out of everyone who could possibly have run into her to help her out, was it this perverted shenke player?! Was she the kind of person who ogled their player character in their underwear!?

The petite elf's face was practically glowing pink, and one could swear that the water on her body was being converted directly into steam from how much the humiliation was blazing away inside of her. The only solace she could possibly take is that no-one else could see this, but given that meant she was alone with Kokoma that didn't exactly provide much reassurance.

"I-I-I didn't need this kind of heeeeelp..." whined Sefira desperately, noting with no small amount of concern that the scrubbing definitely didn't seem intended solely to get rid of the river muck, "Wh-wh-what are you even doing?!"

@Rune_Alchemist

@PKMNB0Y@VitaVitaAR

---

As the conversation unfolded he seemed rather unconcerned, though he was listening. As the last of the gunk was washed away, he began to hang the coat as the kid went under the water. He stepped a bit over to his side to get a better look, standing closer to Yu as he did. The sound of running water was broken as the kid emerged, running and scampering away from a large fish. More fish huh... Well no matter. The kid was looking for a sword and the fish was getting in the way. Yu asked him what they should do, the fish was no threat to them after all.

"What're you looking at me for? You're the one concerned with the kid are you not? Besides... I've run my sword through enough fish for a week already", he quipped. Despite saying that, he has his sword in his left hand, ready to draw and do the deed himself, he was just feeling a little lazy about it right now.

---

---

The trip to the village was quiet and honestly unpleasant, as with the wariness, hostility, and vex that was coming from different sides. Yui was only concerned about three things during this trip down, and that was monsters, PKs, and the tag-a-long, even if he made it very clear that he would mind his distance. Which he did, yet Yui was still cautious. Why did he bother travelling with them? Clearly he was better off alone rather than walking alongside the likes of them. She huffed at the notion. Whatever his intentions were, they'll reveal themselves in due time.

Yui thought of the plant she was meant to forage. Discreetly, she checked her potions inventory. There was enough, but only for one equal battle - Yui grimaced at the thought. Players shouldn't be fighting against each other, however... the world is such a place. They'd take arms against each other as sport, finding pleasure in misery as they cry at their own. People can be cruel, beyond imagination, sickly sweet before they toss you away cold-heartedly.

She suddenly thought about her younger brother, a nerdy yet rambunctious one, who always said things such as 'If I was isekai'd, I would...', running off with his head in the clouds. Luckily he's never touched Emerald. Despite his feisty attitude, he was a considerate and impressionable soul, and Yui never forgave herself for letting the world inflict its poison on him.
So when they came down face-to-face with this ragged man who fancied cosplay, she smiled.
Not genuinely, no, she never did - it was a corner tilted lip smile that you'd portray at annoyances.
Or pure garbage.

She loathed the appearance of the man, and if he didn't shut his mouth, she'd stab him.
"Let's camp outside instead." she spoke, trying to avoid major confrontation with a man who she has no business with.

Kokoma
@VitaVitaAR

---

"Cleaning silly, what else?" Kokoma responded matter-of-factually. "We gotta make sure every single bit of you is squeaky clean~" The Shenke was definitely taking liberties to what it meant as 'clean' and where exactly she was even cleaning now. "Or...are you gonna tell me you know how to do it properly~? Come on, you got a cute new body you gotta take care of it~" Would this cause maximum embarrassment? Probably. Was she also wrong? Not at all. It would in all take a good ten minutes before the Shenke would finally deem Sefira clean enough. There was not a single body part on the elf that wasn't left unclean or untouched. Once she had been done, the Shenke had gotten undressed herself and decided to take a relaxing bath on her own.

"Haaa, you have no idea how good it is to not be in a dumb suit in some black company working my ass off all night fueled on coffee and sheer hatred." She'd say, washing both herself and some of Sefira's clothes. "Say, Seffy-chan. What'd you do before this whole thing happened?" Kokoma was a bit curious at least, about her companions. While she didn't care at all about leaving her old life behind really, she did want to get to actually know her companions a bit.

"I... You know, fair's fair," Yu said, shrugging and shaking his head as he stared at the riverside. "Big fish are just more of a nuisance than anything; it's the sword I'm worried about..."

Walking closer to the deeper end of the water, the swordsman stared downwards for a few moment and, after seeing that the fish wasn't rising to the surface to chase him off, drew his own sword before simply releasing it into the river. The younger boy stared at Yu in baffled confusion as the Blademaster took a step away, but after a few moments, the sight of that very same fish that had chased him away from the weapon earlier leaping out of the river and away from his sword left him even more confused.

"Hm. I guess my angle was a bit off...? No, if I had a bit more speed there..." Yu mused to himself before turning back towards the boy still staring at him in shock. "One half of the problem's done; hurry up before that thing comes back, okay? As much as I can chase that thing around, moving that sword underwater's surprisingly difficult..."

His words seemed to shock the boy out of his apparent trance, and with a nod he dove back into the water. However, when he returned without the weapon and with an irritated look on his face, Yu couldn't help but be curious about what the issue was now.

"...It's stuck," the boy spoke before diving back down to try again. This time, however, he returned with the weapon in hand, bare steel slightly warped, chipped, and rusted but otherwise intact.

"The sheath's still down there, but this is still fine," the boy said, placing the weapon off to the side as he dragged himself out of the water fully. "Thank you, mister..."

"Shokatsu is fine," Yu said, looking at the sword and the boy intending to carry it back. "Uh... You sure you want to be carrying that sword back like that the whole way, though? I don't know where your home is, but..."

To this, the boy seemed to realize the issue present in actually bringing the weapon back home, and crossed his arms in a mix of irritation and contemplation.

"...We could bring it back to your place come tomorrow?" the swordsman suggested, glancing at the sun in the sky as it continued to set. "Don't know where you live, but if you're able to make it all the way here and feasibly make it home, then it can't be too far, right?"

Of course, it was up to the others to decide if they wanted to detour in the first place, but... Well, hopefully the two girls would be done with their bath soon enough to be able to make a call on that matter.

@Sho Minazuki@VitaVitaAR@Rune_Alchemist

---

With entry into the village not being an option, the group of travelers would be left with little recourse but to set up camp outside of its walls. There were a few other groups of travelers there, it seemed, who had fallen victim to the same problem that they had, but at least their presence meant that they wren't alone in their exclusion.

The spot that they had chosen, amusingly enough, seemed to be one right next to what seemed to be an older man who was resting against a tree. With a rice straw kasa upon his head and a simple cotton shirt and pants, he seemed oddly out of place near what was otherwise a very Western-looking townscape, but for the most part the others seemed to pay him no mind as they spoke with their traveling partners. He seemed to remain silent for the most part, his hat tipped over his face to hide it from the remaining sunlight...

At least until he suddenly rose to his feet, startling those nearby. There was a brief pause as the older man turned to look towards the group, his face still somewhat hidden by his hat, before he let out a sigh.

"Aah... Sorry 'bout that. I thought I felt something off just now," he said, his deep and somewhat gravelly voice somewhat familiar to the players nearby for some reason. "Need to go check the source of that out tomorrow..."

As to what 'that' was referring to or who this person was... That would be left to those present to ask and find out if they so wished.

@Hammerman@Operator Luna@A Lowly Wretch

Magnificus the Ingenious
\\: Location: Sen Rynta | Windy Plains - Outskirts

_
He nodded sagely as the still unnamed knightly lady recommended the safer path of simply camping outside. Seems they weren't the only ones around here who took that route either. It made sense for folks to just camp by civilization though. Any adventurer worth their salt would be prepared to spend a night or three camped out in the wilds which really seemed to call to mind just what on earth these noobly players he had shared the road with were planning. He wouldn't be surprised if they had set out in foolish haste, their preparation inversely proportionate to their eagerness to explore.

Ah well, it wouldn't matter. After tonight he'd be back on the road, off to find Sen Rynta's mines so he might plunder them of precious minerals. With that in mind he set down his turrets, the disc bound orbs chiming to attention and placed down his shield generator which resembled the turrets except instead of discs this orb hovered atop a small engraved pillar of black stone with a mana gem set in a recess right in the center of the pillar. As the shield generator activated it projected it's mana blue semi-transparent film across a twenty meter in diameter dome, the borders clinging to the contours of the earth's dips and grooves. The shield generator is capable of creating a full three hundred and sixty degree sphere of protection however it's unable to bisect solid matter present in it's borders, limiting it to the unoccupied spaces it can fill until more space is opened up for it to occupy.

Now that he was protected from outside intruders, attacks and even certain weather conditions like rain he simply pulled out a foldable lawn chair he had built for comfy camping times, laid back and breathed a nice long sigh of relief. Life as a technomancer really was a treat. It didn't matter if you were pretty or even likeable, with smarts beamed directly into your head by the game itself you could carve your own luck out. All you needed was some spirit, creativity and an eye for opportunity. At least, that's what he told himself.

_
Speaking of opportunity an old man of eastern garb resting against the nearby tree which was partially clipped through the force field stirred.

"Aah... Sorry 'bout that. I thought I felt something off just now. Need to go check the source of that out tomorrow..."

Magnificus grinned, rising up from his lawn chair before folding it up and tucking it under his arm. With chair under arm he approached the old man, wearing an intrigued yet friendly-ish smirk as he came to a stop at a socially acceptable distance.

"Ah, a fellow hat aficionado I see. A fine choice indeed..." He opened the conversation, trying his best to sound mysterious and/or cool despite being really neither as he awkwardly leaned on his lawn chair that was just a bit too short to really lean on evenly.

"No need to apologize, one should definitely trust their instincts, especially in a world such as this." Deciding to give up on trying to lean on the lawn chair he simply quick-flicked it back into his inventory, standing back up straight before offering his hand forward in an offer to shake.

"My name is Magnificus, Magnificus the Ingenious as nobody calls me. Feel free to call me Mag."

In truth there wasn't too much reason to get all caught up in some old guy talking to himself but quite frankly any company would be preferrable to the knight of cold shoulders and that sour patch kid.

_
@PKMNB0Y@Operator Luna@Hammerman

"..."

The experience of a thorough cleaning the first time she ever removed her clothing after becoming Sefira was possibly the most embarrassing experience of her life. The elf, cheeks still deeply flushed, was now hugging her knees up to her slender body, silently giving the shenke quite a look.

Cute new body this, take care of herself that... it wasn't as if she didn't know these things, but that didn't mean that having someone else do it for her was any less embarrassing. Especially when that person had serious case of wandering hands.

Still, at least she was clean now. All the goo was gone. Her hair, her skin... everything.

Her eyes drifted down to regard her own body for a moment, before she found her cheeks growing even hotter and quickly averted her eyes again.

It was bad enough after being washed like that, but Sefira felt even more embarrassed with Kokoma still present...

She was a little surprised when the other girl started talking about her life before the game suddenly became real. She worked at a Black Company? That sounded miserable. Not that it excused her behavior, but no wonder she seemed to be throwing herself into this new world with gusto.

Still, that didn't mean acting this way was appropriate!

"... I'm a university student," Sefira said, after a few moments of hesitation, "I was working on my studies, I played Emerald Odyssey as one of my hobbies."

@Rune_Alchemist@PKMNB0Y

---

---

Yui could honestly do not much more than stare at Magnificus' sad attempt of striking up a conversation, especially a trap conversation. The old man was nonetheless an NPC with a glaringly obvious, but not visible, quest symbol above his head. She waved away her shield and lance, pulling out her tent and sleeping bag from the inventory. Sleep, food, and preparing for travel tomorrow morn was more important than the trouble that Magnificus was about to stir up.

Despite her thoughts, Yui herself was curious. Did the developers program him to have a tingle too? Was her intuition better or worse than what it was? What is the source he spoke of?
All these questions, and Yui knew the only answer to them would come from this man, so she too walked towards the eccentric pair, standing up stiffly with her arms across her chest. "What do you mean by that?", she asked bluntly. There was no point beating around the bush, small talk could wait later. She was still hungry after all.

Kokoma
@VitaVitaAR

---

"Hobbies, huh." Kokoma would sink a bit into the water. "Having hobbies must have been nice..." A moment of silence followed as the Shenke just let herself be immersed in the water. University had been a pretty long time ago for her, and she had been playing Emerald Odyssey since day one, or close to it hadn't she? Jeez, so long. She'd start tilting her head back and forth as she thought, a small bit of frustration forming in her mind.

"Bwahaha, now I feel like an old woman complaining like this!" Before it grew to big though, the Shenke would hop up, getting to her feet. "Alright lets get dressed! We're probably clean enough and those guys are probably hopeless without us." She'd grab Sefira and pull her too her feet...where she would promptly resume normal behavior and 'help' the girl dress herself. Supposing Sefira didn't attempt blasting her with magic during the process, the two would hopefully be back at camp soon enough.

For a few moments, Sefira found herself regarding the shenke as more of a person as opposed to a ball of raving perversity. It was an insight into who she was beyond the fact her hands tended to wander.

Of course, she soon received a stark reminder of those habits when they got out of the water.

"H-hey-"

In some ways, this was worse then being undressed. For while she was now dry and clean, her Starlight Mage outfit was not yet ready to wear.

Which meant the clothing she had prepared was for her other class.

Sefira didn't like playing Sage. She didn't take the class seriously. It was a backup, meant only for when she had no choice but to play healer.

So, unlike her Starlight Mage gear, she'd paid no attention to making it look like a serious mage outfit. She'd just gone for something that looked cute.

As she squirmed, forced into her Sage gear, the reality of the situation was upon her.

For Sefira was now wearing a schoolgirl uniform. A red ribbon around her neck, the familiar white and blue colors. A pleated blue skirt and black thigh-high socks with remarkably modern-looking shoes for a game set in a fantasy world.

It had been an event outfit.

"... A-ah... aaah..."

Worst still was the 'headpiece', a pair of ribbons that pulled her hair up into lengthy pigtails.

"..."

Blushing furiously, her entire face practically glowing red, the blonde elf made her way back to camp.

@Rune_Alchemist

With there being general agreement that they could move to deliver the sword the next day (after assurances that the sword, damaged as it was now, would likely not be something that they had any reason to steal), the young boy who had come all this way to retrieve it was soon back on his way home. Of course, Yu was aware that a detour like this would delay their ability to reach the floating city by a day at minimum, but the curiosity of seeing what 'new' things had popped up after the world had changed was enough of a reason to explore in the interim. Of course, it was up to the others if they wanted to follow, but if it was somewhere close enough that even a boy like that could get home before too long, was it really all that problematic?

Or so he told himself, at least. Once the two girls had returned—one in a slightly more 'modern' outfit than when she had left—he had been promptly handed the now-dirty set of clothes to be washed. If it meant anything, washing what had gotten stuck to it wouldn't take too long; it was the drying that was the problem.

Once all of the mud and gunk was removed (or at least removed to the best of his ability), the group promptly made their way back to camp, where Eunice and Kokoma's arachne had all but finished the preparations for their meal. As far as everyone could see, there were a bunch of fish on skewers around a fire, and the massive bird that the arachne had retrieved was being carved up..

"Ah, I see you've..." Eunice trailed off as she stared at Sefira, the pastel colors of her outfit a far cry from what she had been wearing before. "...Returned. What sort of outfit... Actually, let us save that question for later. The fish should be done cooking soon, at least."

Of course, whether or not anyone had remembered to give the pair any sort of seasoning was a question still left unanswered...

@Sho Minazuki@Rune_Alchemist@VitaVitaAR

---

The older man seemed a bit taken aback at Magnificus' introduction, and the oddity of the man's appearance and mannerisms seemed to throw him off, if only slightly. However, that passing surprised seemed to wane after a few seconds, and he gave a simple nod in return.

"My name is Liu Zhen; I'm a traveling monk from Wufeng," he said, giving a bow towards the odd man—and the woman who soon strode up to his side. "It is an honor to meet you. With regards to my worries... I suppose that if you're willing to listen to an old man's sudden outburst, I have no reason to hide what I'm looking into, hm?"

Of course, that name was not one so easily forgotten—not when the last expansion of the game was still so fresh upon players' minds. Though he was somewhat disguised now, the older man's voice and appearance would match up near-perfectly with what had been shown in the game—and now he was here in the flesh, though notably not aware of who those in front of him were.

"Over the past few months, I've been travelling around this continent here—Usira, was it?—because I wanted to... See the world for what it was," he began, his voice somewhat heavy for a moment as he lingered on those last few words. "And while I have been surprised at what I have seen, a few days ago a friend of mine asked me to investigate some place to the west of here. Something about an odd confluence of mana and a resurgence of undead, or something of the sort."

There was a bitter smile on the old monk's face as he finished his explanation, and for good reason. His daughter had been taken from him by the vengeful spirit of a hero betrayed and a demon sealed, and she had given her life in front of him to see them put to rest. It was only natural that he would have strong feeling about those bound of the past bound to the present, even if he was hiding it from these passing strangers.

"But, well, that's neither here nor there," he said, settling back down against the tree he had been resting against. "I'm sure you adventurers have more interesting things to worry about than an old man's worries, hm?"

@A Lowly Wretch@Operator Luna

Kokoma

---

Well, she had been wondering what kind of outfit Sefira had, and she certainly wasn't disappointed. The Shenke would take a moment to see everything that had been cooked, stopping a moment to give the Arachne a hug and being told slightly off that if she discovered she had made Sefira uncomfortable, the spider would make her uncomfortable...to which the Shenke merely chuckled nervously too and then promptly ran in the opposite direction.

"Mhm? Hey Eunie? You seen the kitten I had?" She'd ask the woman, after making sure to avoid suspicious glances from the Arachne. "His legs probably broken pretty bad so I wanna make sure he's not doing anything dangerous." She'd grab a fish, holding it over the fire as she'd wait for an answer.