Zeroth

Black Clover: Fool's Arcana

Update is go! I'll be collabing with Databug for Tristan's next part, but other than that I don't think I missed anyone? Let me know if there are any issues!

The next update will be the last one for this trial, and then we'll move on to the next...which I think will be quite interesting, given what we've seen from characters in this one! >:)

Black Clover: Fool's Arcana

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The Third Trial

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"ATTENTION, APPLICANTS: LESS THAN HALF OF THE SPHERES REMAIN!" boomed a giant voice over the arena.

"Some of them are really going after it." Captain Bisera commented, kicking one slender ankle where one shapely leg crossed over the other. "Maybe we ought to think these tests through a little more before we go changing them up again..."

"I don't know about you, but I've been watching the ones who decided to team up." said Captain Walder as he crossed his enormous arms. "We changed the test from just "flight skill" to "retrieval of a target," but I think it's turned into a display of who's willing to work with others, and how they go about it."

"It's turned into a free-for-all, is what it's turned into." Azarleon snorted. Beside him, Argos nodded in agreement. "We're going to have to rewatch all of this on a recorder tool to pick any of them out of the chaos! Who's bloody idea was this?"

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@Duthguy@Th3King0fChaos
As Albie and Illios both retrieved their spheres with great effort, given their individual limitations, they found themselves drifting away from the majority of the swarming hordes of other would-be-recruits. Both would soon come within sight and sound of each other--however, they were not alone!

"Heeeeey, Sunny Boy!" called a familiar voice towards Illios. It was Bryant, the same boy he'd talked with at the food stalls! With a wicked grin on his face, the lanky blonde came swooping at him from above! "Good to see ya, pal!" As he grinned sarcastically, the mage thrust one palm towards Illios!

"Acid Magic: Melting Spray!" A wide cone of hissing, steaming white liquid headed towards the Sun mage!

"COMMONER! DON'T THINK YOU'LL GET AWAY FROM ME!" Albie would immediately recognize that voice---Snyder Glassard had escaped Gunnar's restraints, and the fire mage was nowhere to be seen this time! "Either hand over that sphere, or I'll TAKE your hands! Glass Magic: Shattered Scalpels!" With a sweep of his arm, multiple blades of transparent glass took shape in the air, and all of them swiveled their points towards Albie! "They said no lethal force--they never said anything about MAIMING!" There was a cold determination behind the pale young noble's thick spectacles...

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@imia@Remram
As Ludo's snakes shot towards her, the girl in the hoodie yelped and tried to find another route--only for the serpents to curve in mid air! Rather than attack her directly, Ludo had limited her movements--she could only go up, or down! After only a moment's indecision, she went up--but Parin, who had been watching from the back, would be able to see the other girl's telegraph the moment before her broom started to move! If the water mage acted fast, she'd be able to intercept her--the only question was, would her physical attacks pass through the intagible magic the way Ludo's poison had?

However, the girl wasn't completely helpless. She revealed a handmade wand in one hand, and pointed it at Ludo!

"Permeation Magic: Invisible Volley!" she shouted! There was a slight glow of power around her---but the projectiles were nowhere to be seen! Despite no doubt making an attempt to dodge, Ludo would feel a sudden impact like a handful of hard punches striking his shoulder, chest, ribs, and leg!

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@ReusableSword@Expllo
Rio and his large, clumsy new friend were still inside the cloud of steam along with several others, thanks to Hikari. As they no doubt searched for a way out of the foggy field, they would find themselves nearly running over the ox-boy! However, before the three had a chance to decide whether to fight it out or not, another half-dozen shadowy figures emerged from the sizzling banks around them!

"Which one's got the sphere?!"

"Which one's causing this cloud!?"

"Who cares, get all of 'em!"

Multiple beams of wind, water, lightning, sand, a rippling soundwave, and a writhing vine of thorns all barreled towards the three mages!

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@Xaltwind@SilverPaw
Nephys and Solveig found themselves back to back against a crowd of other mages closing in on them, but the various applicants were also eyeing each other warily--there were only two spheres up for grabs, but at this point there were at least three mages competing for each singular Angel Sphere^TM.

"Hey!" called one noble looking applicant---though the two ladies might or might not be familiar with him, given that he was a member of the Kira family, Ludo's "friend" Isvelt appeared out of the crowd. "The two lovely young misses, there! I've a proposal for you I bet the rest of these boors can't match!" he called, to the sour looks from the rest of the group. "I'll HELP you defend those spheres, if you'll help ME get one afterward!" He winked at them with a smile. "After all, isn't it unfair of all these riffraff to gang up on two innocent doves like yourselves?"

"I'll show YOU riffraff, you pompous ass!" A young man with wild green hair and several piercings all over his face, wearing an open leather vest over a white shirt and red trousers, rocketed up towards the young noble. "Rock Magic: Rolling Stone--!" A rapidly spinning, melon-sized sphere of stone formed in his hand, but before he could complete the spell to throw it at Isvelt, the young royal held out his own palms.

"Gold Magic: Coin Flip!" An enormous, round golden coin manifested in front of the noble! It seemed like a normal magic shield at first, but when the spinning stone struck it, the broad surface rapidly spun like a water wheel paddle! It flipped the rocky projectile right back at its caster, striking him dead-on in the face! Nose bleeding and eyes rolled back into his head, the wild young man plummeted towards the safety net of the officials...

"Forget him, take the girls out!" shouted another! A barrage of fireballs, a lightning bolt, icicles, a wind funnel, and a purple, pulsating laser beam all flew towards Nephys and Solveig--!

Black Clover: Fool's Arcana

@BladeSS4 There are still several issues with this application as is, but it's somewhat more workable than before.

• We already have another player whose magic is Sun themed, as well as an important NPC, so I feel like this would be a little too much overlap given the rarity/power of that element.
• I'm not going to allow the grimoire to have a spirit inside it.
• Given his background information and the fact that he's not going to have lived multiple lifetimes anymore (you'll need to correct that in his details btw), it doesn't make sense for him to be a master martial artist. Characters starting the game shouldn't really have something like "knowledge of many styles" and so forth.
• The "creative use of mana" skill sounds like more of an informed trait, it's not really something that differentiates him from other players in any noticeable way. Especially when his spells are just "flashbang" and "fireball" respectively.
• This is more of an opinion than something that goes against "the rules," but to be perfectly honest a lot of details in his background, personality, and description of his magic come across as very...Gary Stu/Main Character Syndrome. I think characters having tragedy or extreme events in their lives that drive them is fine, but this just doesn't come off that well.

Again, it's more malleable than it was before, but by the time all of the above was addressed I feel like it would still be a completely different character.

EDIT:
I will be working on a GM update post this weekend! I think everyone's pretty much done with collabs, right? If not, let me know!

Black Clover: Fool's Arcana

@BladeSS4 The thing about Spirit Magic is that it requires meeting that spirit and forming a contract with it over the course of the RP itself--it's not something that Players can start out with from the get go.

Reborn in a Fantasy World, This Time I Shall...!

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Neir - Slums Guard Station

《 Level 3 Panic 》
@ERode@TheMushroomLord@PKMNB0Y

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"You said that it knew biomancy, right? Is there any chance that someone else might know about that fact? Slimes knowing magic is rare enough, but one that could communicate on top of that..."

"Unless Cassius spilled the beans before me, no!" Connor jittered up and down. "I mean, unless, maybe...I dunno, would people want to listen to us with something like, some kind of scrying magic? Do you guys have...uh...surveillance systems, of any kind?" He suddenly looked up and around as if expecting to see a camera or drone trained on him. "But, they h-haven't really used their magic in any kind of, of flashy way! And you're basically the only other person any of us have willingly talked to since we got here!"

He looked around the cabin one more time, before deciding to take the tarp that had once hidden the slime--they might need something to carry his friend in when they found them. He found the balled up, shitty cloak he had left behind as well, and carefully nudged it into the center of the tarp with his foot before wrapping it all up in a bundle that, thankfully, blocked the worst of the smell. Putting the brown-bagged sandwich into his pocket, he followed after the adventurer.

Meira continued her attempts to seek out the missing slime, and the two searched high and low, making multiple loops around the slums. Connor had no indication thus far that whoever had taken the slime would stay within the area--but, why would anyone else be passing through the slums if they didn't have to be there? To his mind, it only make sense that another member of the bottom-feeder neighborhood would have been in the right place at the right time to find the slime. Maybe they wanted to use it for garbage disposal or something? Meira had said that areas inhabited by slimes were apparently kept clean, which made sense considering what he'd seen of his friend's digestive abilities.

But nothing turned up, and no one else proved of any use to them. Connor grew more and more concerned--and then, because he could not stand being helpless, and because he wasn't familiar with this level of emotion, and had no idea how to deal with it, he felt himself starting to dissassociate. Everything was hopeless. Everything was pointless. He'd failed to protect a friend--he wasn't any kind of hero in an isekai world.

He was just a loser, like he'd always been.

It was getting too dark to continue the search. Dejectedly, he plodded behind the cat girl when she suggested lodging at the guardhouse for the night. Shoulders slumped, head down, the twenty-two year old grown man made quiet little pathetic sounds as tears slowly managed to find their way down the crease of his nose.

Then the inside of his head dinged.

Several messages at once--could these things lag? Could they have "connectivity issues?" No, more than likely the slime was in a hurry--sending one thought at a time because they didn't know if they'd have time to finish the next one. As he read each snippet, his breath started to catch faster.

I've already told Meira the slime's got abnormal magic--she's been dealing with me and Cassius all day, maybe she's already figured out that we're otherworlders? Would it really be that much more of a risk to tell her about the message system? For all I know, maybe it's a generic QOL-type magic anyone here can do! Whenever he'd questioned her at the restaurant, however, the catgirl hadn't come across as...especially knowledgable. Maybe...maybe she would just assume it was a magic spell she hadn't heard of before? Maybe he could pass it off as like, a class skill for a Monster Tamer?

Just hold on, we're trying to find you! It looks like Meira, the adventurer, is going to hold off because we can't see in the dark--so much for her being half freaking cat.

Even if you could move well, there's probably not much point in struggling unless they try to hurt you! What if you...tried to be more like a plant cell, than an amoeba? Use matrix layers to make a harder cell wall?

CONTACT: Slime

Then, there was the content of the messages themselves. The slime had indeed been captured, by either a child or some smaller race! Instantly Connor's depression turned into anger. Whoever had kidnapped his friend deserved to have the shit beaten out of them! If it was some stupid kid, why the hell were they playing with a monster they didn't know?! Where were their parents--oh, right, slums, so it was probably some crack baby street urchin who didn't know any better! Or, if it was some kind of halfling, goblin, or gnome--!

Focus, Connor! He actually had a lead now!

Look, it might sound bad to say this, but, if they're small enough, and it's only them and you in that location...Do you think maybe it'd be safest to just kill them?

If you can't engulf their whole head while they sleep, maybe try choking them, suffocating them, or...you know?

CONTACT: Slime

He wasn't a bad person, he kept telling himself. His friend was in danger! It only made sense to eliminate a threat!

But, if the slime had been taken by someone smaller than the average human...Crawlspaces. Sewer pipes. Attics. Maybe a wooden crate of some kind, or a garbage dumpster. Those would probably be the spaces a small, homeless person or an orphan would be able to hide, where bigger people or enemies wouldn't be able to get to them easily. Such small spaces, however, likely meant they would have to be careful with something like a cooking fire, or too much waste and refuse, because the smoke or fumes and filth would be too much for them. Some of those kinds of spaces would also mean that he and Meira would need to look higher or lower than they had been so far--

Ah! That's it! I can just suggest places we haven't looked yet--she doesn't have to know that I'm going off a description of the perp!

By the time he had thought all of this out, and started trying to make plans within his plans--over thinking and over analyzing to the point of self-paralysis, as he always did--they were back in the guard station's infirmary, watching a cleric-classed person heal Cassius.

"H-hey, M-meira, um," he began, leaning towards the cat girl in a conspiring manner, "It just occurred to me--does this place have a sewer under the streets? Or, um, could there be crawlspaces under the shanties? Maybe attics on top? Small, hard to get to but easy to hide in spaces? Um...M-Maybe "S" managed to get somewhere like that, or maybe whoever grabbed them was, I dunno, smaller or more nimble than we are? Like...a kid, or a gnome?"

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CONNOR'S INVENTORY

• Dusty Tarp
• Shitty Cloak (wrapped in Dusty Tarp)
• Brown Bagged Sandwich (in pocket)
• Knife Bandolier
• Caliboard, the Holy 2x4

Black Clover: Fool's Arcana

@BladeSS4 Unfortunately I'm going to have to say no to this character outright. At first I thought it was just a matter of clearing up how certain things in the series work, but given how you've described how his particular magic is so different from the series' normal spirit magic by design, I don't think I can allow it even if it were to be tweaked. The whole reincarnation/regression angle, the spirit binding, and so forth--by the time we finished critiquing and making everything work, it'd be a completely different character. If you have questions I'd be happy to go into more detail, but this character probably just needs to be reworked in his entirety.

Black Clover: Fool's Arcana

remram and i both figured itd be best if u played edward in our collab. i alr have a starting prompt if ur down for this!

@imia

That would be fine! When making a PM convo, you can include more than one username in order to do group PMs, so we should all three be able to work on it.

@Th3King0fChaos
Illios gonna hafta get a move on if'n he wants to catch one of those spheres methinks. :o

@Zeroth
How much longer is the third trial going to last, give or take?

@Xaltwind

Not much longer! Hence why I said it'd be okay for everyone to go ahead and grab a sphere instead of just "attempting" to do so. We've gone from "No one has a sphere, it's chaos!" to "Some people are holding onto their spheres, do you keep chasing the free ones or try to take one?" So the next step will be "All PCs have a sphere they must defend/are contesting a sphere," which should resolve in another step/set of collabs. So, aside from collabing with others, I don't see more than two more GMPosts forthcoming, tops.

Black Clover: Fool's Arcana

@Remram They just lost control, or at least Edward did. Leaving Parin up to @imia!

Black Clover: Fool's Arcana

Nice post! I like the chance to have Kora interact with Tristan. What would you think of doing a collab?

@Databug

That would be fine by me, just send me a PM when you're able!

Black Clover: Fool's Arcana

Also quick double post. Had a lengthy PM discussion with @Xaltwind, who has decided to use a new character. Camilla will be relegated to NPC status, since I'd still like to use elements from her backstory with other plot-related things. Just wanted to make it apparent there's no doubling up or anything!

Xaltwind, you can add the new character to the CS when you get a chance.