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THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

@Zapdos

At the mere mention of The Witch Queen, Lucy tensed up a little. James had spoken of an enemy ambush but now Adam was claiming it to be the work of The Witch Queen. Lucy wondered what could have transpired for the him to know Mytheria's greatest threat was behind their attack, but if she tried to question and clarify every tall tale of adventurers, she'd never have a moment's rest, so she let it go.

At his first question, she shrugged. "If I knew what it was, maybe." She could tell it meant a lot to him, so she felt bad. "I'm sorry." His follow-up question sounded like a good idea. "Yeah, I suppose if anyone might be able to help you properly identify it, it would be someone at The Academy." Of all they'd shared with her - the uniqueness of their situation, their cube and the classes - it all told Lucy to try her best to offer them some kind of help, so she stayed on the subject until something came to her.

"I'll tell you what: If you go there, ask for a woman named Clarissa Shields. Tell them you've been sent on Adventurer's Guild's business." She took a small piece of parchment from behind the desk, wrote some words on it, slipped it in an envelope and stamped it with a wax seal and pushed it forward on the counter. "That should get you in the door to someone high enough."

@Saiyan

She nodded at Zell. "In ascending order; Bronze, Silver, Gold, then Platinum and finally Diamond." She reassured the others. "I believe, looking at your stats, history and abilities, that you will be able to handle a gold contract. I've been in the Guild for more than while now and seen all kinds of parties. I'm a pretty good judge of these things."

After Zell went downstairs, she addressed the rest. "I warn you though. Ascension and abilities will only get you so far. What seperates the best parties from the rest is teamwork, decision-making and spirit," she lectured them. "Be courageous, be virtuous, be smart. Learn eachother. Trust eachother." She smirked. "Even the idiot."

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

@Zool@Calle@Saiyan@Teyao@Crusader Lord@Zapdos@Eviledd1984

VOTES ARE TALLIED AND THE WINNING RESULT IS:

NO.3 - A SINGLE GOLD CONTRACT

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

@Zool@Calle@Saiyan@Teyao@Crusader Lord@Zapdos@Eviledd1984

If you want to vote on Second Chance's next course of action by OOC or by PM, you can do so. Or if you want to write out your vote by way of story in IC, you can do that too. Whatever each of you wants do.

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

@Zool@Calle@Saiyan@Teyao@Crusader Lord@Zapdos@Eviledd1984

@Crusader Lord

Lucy smiled at Lillianna - partly because the exceptionally pretty woman was so formal and polite, which was adorable, but partly because of the imagery Zell had brought to mind, of a necromancer who needed friends so badly they'd have to raise them from the dead. "Ask away, sweetheart."

The first question was quite the surprise. Lucy rubbed her chin. "That would mean that you have an affinty for both Air and Light Domain magic. It's quite rare for any mage to be specialize in twin elements. Looks like you've been dealt an extraordinary hand. Kudos to you. You should go to the Academy, if you've not been already. I'll bet they'd love to meet a twin-element mage that's just started her journey as an adventurer. I'm guessing you must be highly intelligent for The Source to bless you with two Domains, so if you like books, tomes and scrolls, you should do quite well there."

At her next question, she shook her head apologetically. Although she was good with faces, such a description would be difficult to pinpoint, but she did try for a moment, if only for how polite Lillianna was. "Hmmmmm... died in the Mazy Hillocks, did he? Not a nice place to meet to your end." She leaned folded arms on the counter and looked to the ceiling for answers. "Halberdier fighters aren't commmon..." In the end she blew out a breath of resignation. "Sorry, I can't think. I'd need a little more, I'm afraid."

The fact that Lillianna was talking about the Mazy Hillocks was baffling. Surely that's not how they'd gotten here! That place was a death trap. And Adam had mentioned the giant centaur. Coult it be...? Surely not.

@Teyao

When James stepped up, Lucy met his stern eyes. So he's the one they've chosen as leader. After he scanned his crystal, she glanced at the screen and saw his details. It wasn't everyday you saw Cleric-led parties. But then, it also wasn't everyday you saw a Cleric who wasn't tied to any diety. In fact never in Lucy's life had she ever met a Cleric who wasn't already tied to one or two of the divine. First, a twin-element mage and now this... this party was unique indeed.

Could I be seeing historical greatness in it's seedling form? the long-lived elf thought. A far-fetched prospect, but still - nice to guess about.

When he started talking, Lucy got the feeling this would be serious. "Go ahead."

As he talked, she easily filled out the registration as she listened, keeping her eyes mostly on him. "Hommas? Sounds familiar." But she did have to pause at the mention of stone coffins from the sky. She wanted to interrupt and clarify - stone coffins!? - but thought better to simply listen. He described the battle, which was nothing new, as were the party member deaths, unfortunately. She wanted to get back to these 'stone coffins in the sky,' but the focus had shifted to this cube. Politely, she stayed on topic. When Fenna handed her the cube, she studied it, turning it in her hands.

"Well, what have we here. I've never seen anything like this before." After a moment, she looked at James. "You said it fell out of the undead leader? And then the rest of them fled?" Strange. "Most undead types are pretty stupid. Too stupid to know how to flee a battle."

She let slide the swearing, naturally. He wasn't cursing her out - he'd just been through a lot. By the sounds of things, this party had been in over their head from the start. Ogres with back up? Mazy Hillocks? All in their first day.

"I'll be honest, it's a miracle you're all still alive," she said to them all before looking at the cube again. What in Mytheria is this thing? she wondered. Shaking her head, she handed the cube back to Fenna. "Alright. Alright. This is a lot of information." She'd been a Guildmaster for decades now, but so much of what she'd been told was a complete first. Some of it was so outlandish, it sounded like lies. But when she looked at James and the rest of them, she sensed no deception. "Give me a second."

Finishing the regristration of the party, she now had access to more of the Source Code, so she tried to make sense of it. She could see that their journey began just a day ago, which lined up with their story. As did the battles. But what drew her attention was two HUGE notifications.

"By the Quinity, am I reading this right!?" she exclaimed. "You did kill Aurok." She looked at Adam, who was the one who hinted to it earlier. Then peered around the rest of them. Early, unascended adventurers, all of them. "Aurok the Maneater... How!?"

And after that was explained, she would tell them that that they were the richest Bronze Tier party in Mytheria. "You've just earned a huge bounty. 35,000 Silver coins. Or 350 gold, to make it easier. I'll fetch that for you in a moment. But, first, there's another matter that needs addressing - Crikey, there's a few matters - but one at a time..."

"It says here that you have mail. There's a message in your Source Comm Inventory." She shook her head and shrugged. "You probably don't even know what means, do you? Which makes this even more strange.

Source Comm is a magical messenger service for adventurers who have reached Silver Tier and above. But you guys have a message already, and you've only just registered. That never happens. I don't even know how that could happen.

Listen, I am sorry but I'm just as confused as you lot with all this. I've never heard of stone coffins falling out of the sky, harbouring adventurers with amnesia - or whatever's happened to you. I've never heard of a party having Source Comm messages in their inventory when they don't even have access to the service. And I've never heard of a Bronze Tier party coming in to claim a Platinum Tier Bounty!"

Lucy was stumped. At this point, the strange cube was the least of her concerns and had quickly faded out of focus. "I have a funny feeling whatever's on that message in the Source Comm has some kind of answer for you. I'd like to know myself, to be honest. But to open the message, you'll need to rank up to Silver Tier, as a party. The fastest way to do that would be to complete contracts with the guild."

She looked through data on another screen whilst continuing. "Two silver contracts ought to do it. But you guys must be a lot stronger than your rank suggests, so I'd say, if you want it done a lot quicker, take a single gold contract."

@Zool@Calle@Saiyan@Teyao@Crusader Lord@Zapdos@Eviledd1984

And so, Second Chance - The Heroes from the Sky, would get no information about the cube, but it felt like answers about their inception into this world might be close, with the elusive and mysterious Source Comm message. But to get that message would require going down one of three paths:

1. Go out into the wild and hunt down monsters to kill until they'd gained enough Source to rank up to Silver Tier. Random encounters, random difficulty and random cost in time and resources.

2. Take two silver contracts - which might take weeks but would be relatively easy compared with what they'd already faced.

3. Take a single Gold Contract and rank up in the quickest time, but face a tough challenge.

4. Leave and look and look for answers elsewhere, always with the option to come back if they ever changed their mind.

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

@Teyao - I agree with@Zapdos, for the record, although I'm not sure if I'm part of who you were asking here lol.

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

@Calle@Saiyan@Zapdos

Lucy patiently watched everyone talk it out. When Fenna informed her to ignore everything Zell was suggesting, she nodded knowingly.

"Party idiot," she said to the woman. "Got it. Most parties have one of those. My condolences to you... Fenna," she added the woman's name as it came up on the screen.

The idiot was next, with a couple of questions for her. "Oh we don't need the scanner to tell what class you are," she said with a cheeky smile. "I'd peg you for a low-intelligence Bard, but seeing as you're carrying two swords... plain old fighter." She checked the screen. "Yep. Fighter. No brains required." She'd dealt with every type of adventurer in her time. Zell was the kind she loved to deal with. She enjoyed the banter. "As for your teleport. It's an ability rather than a spell, so there's no real way to say it other than; you just do it. Sorry. You'll have to figure it out for yourself, Zell."

Adam stepped up next and for a second, Lucy's smile disappeared. Did he just say; giant centaur? "The crystal turns purple when it's interfacing with the Source Code - The Source Code being 'the language of existence and creation.' So when you scan your crystals, our magi-tech computers are creating a link to your crystals via the Source Code, giving us your information. And when your party wins a fight, you will gain power through your crystals absorbing a portion of the life force of your enemies - to do so also requires interfacing with the Source Code, which is why your crystal turned purple."

Lucy suddenly got distracted with her screen, filing through the data as she searched out-

No use, she wouldn't be able to tell until the party was registered with the Guild. Still, there was no way Adam could be talking about the infamous Aurok the Maneater. No way.

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

@Zool@Calle@Saiyan@Teyao@Crusader Lord@Zapdos@Eviledd1984

When The Heroes from the Sky arrived at the Adventurer's Guild, they would either go up the stairs to the meet one of the Guildmasters, or be directed there by anyone who they asked. The bartender would be unfamiliar with their faces and eventually point them up the stairs too, once he realised that they were not registered with the guild.

However it happened they would eventually be upstairs at the grand desk, speaking to Lucinda Bottrill, one of the two guildmasters in the Adventurer Guild's Valhiem Chapter.

"Hello there," she greeted as they approached. The north-easterner Elf never forgot a face, so when she saw them, she immediately knew that they introductions were necessary. Getting up from her chair and walking behind the desk, her little pet dog, Scribble, jumped off her shoulder ran past the party down the stairs. "Lucinda Bottrill. Call me Lucy. How can I help you?" After realising that they were greener than leaves in the spring season, she informed them that before she could offer the guild's services, they would have to register their party. "I'll be needing you all to scan your crystals, if you please. And I'll need your party name and your chosen leader, thank you. Then I'll be able to help you with whatever you need."

Built into the well-polished wood desk was a golden metal plate with a wide slit that glowed the same blue as their crystals. As they passed their left hand over the scanner, both the blue glow and their crystal would briefly go purple to signify a connection. Then Lucy would peer at her magi-tech screen and look at translated Source Code provided.

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

@Zool@Calle@Saiyan@Teyao@Crusader Lord@Zapdos@Eviledd1984

All votes are in!

Party Name: Second Chance

Party Leader: James Sirius

Seeing as Zool came up with the party name, MacKensie can suggest it IC. As for how James ends up signing the dotted line, I'll let you guys play it out how you wish.

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

THERE WAS A TIE! FINAL ROUND! VOTE ONCE AGAIN FOR THE PARTY NAME! ANSWER VIA PM OR OOC PLEASE, ASAP!

1. The Audacious Anomalies

2. Second Chance

Please vote between these two most popular results. Players can vote for their own suggestion, in this final round.

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

@Zool@Calle@Saiyan@Teyao@Crusader Lord@Zapdos@Eviledd1984

To heal all wounds of the party would ordinarily cost around 800 silver and a couple of hours, judging by the current state of the party. Due to MacKensie being absent from the hospital, aswell as the expert nature of James' medical treatment and Fast Healing spell on Lillianna, the cost was 300 silver and one hour.

With a combination of medical research and knowledge, the current level of technology and magic related to those who bear The Gift of the Source Crystals, party healing at hospitals was a relatively simple and cheap affair. Each injured member would be laid on special beds, scanned with technological devices that linked with their crystals, and given special enchanted tonics.

James and Zell would be fully healed within 20 minutes. Lillianna would be as good as new in 1 hour.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

From where they entered - The South West Entrance - The Heroes from the Sky would see, right by the hospital, the famed tavern and inn; The Mended Drum(See map No.5) - a place where they could rent rooms and rest while they were in Valhiem.

Their path to the Academy where they needed to deliver the cube, would require them to go through The Bazaar(See map No.10) - a loud commercial district where many of the city's shops and stalls were clustered. Past the Bazaar they would go north along the river and The Warehouse District, until they reach The Big Bridge.

Going across The Big Bridge, they would be looking right at the Citadel Mountain, where stood the governing district - The Town Hall, the Governer's House, the City Barracks and Fortress - all together known as The Citadel(See map No.1).

To get up the mountain would require following the road past The Adventurer's Guild(See Map No.3), where Commander Vadim of Hommas said there might be answers as to why the party had been dragged from their world.

Following the road around and up the mountain would eventually come to The Academy(See Map No.2) - Valhiem's prestigious campus for education, technological research and magical pusuits.