[System]
Former faction: Decepticons
Role: Engineer/medic

Normal Appearance:

Do not let her streamlined looks fool you - that only means that her weapons are protected in retractable pods. Nightscream stands about 9 meters tall. Her 'helmet' has a retractable visor that covers the entirety of her face when deployed and serves as a HUD.

Alternate form:
Cybertronian jet. As the word 'stealth' is not even in her vocabulary, Nightscream was against hiding on the human world from the get-go, not wanting to 'downgrade' to any human design. Her vehicle mode has the length of about 6 meters and top speed in atmosphere of about Mach 6. As usual with Cybertronian strikecraft, she is fully spaceworthy.

Weapons and tools:
2x retractable blades (Forearms) - Only available in robot mode. A last ditch weapons for when somebody manages to get too close to her.
4x energy blaster (Wings/Wrist pods) - The basic cannons. Not really powerful unless the target is hit with several shots, but with high rate of fire and good energy efficiency.
2x null ray (Hull mounts/Shoulder pods) - High-power weapons that can disable target's electronics (or nervous system) in a single shot and permanently fry it in few, depending on the target's size. The downside is the reload which can take from 60 seconds to five minutes, depending on how much power is Nightscream directing to her other systems.
2x Fusion bomb (Bomb bay) - Only available in vehicle mode. Nightscream's cargo bay can either hold 2 guided glider bombs or minicons/capsule transformers.
Disruptor field (Minicon/Cyber key/...) - When connected to a strong power source, Nightscream gainst the ability to generate an energy barrier around herself that protects her from harm for 60 seconds of continuous fire before it overheats and needs to cool down for 2 minutes.

Personality:
Nightscream is not a very pleasant fellow, having her own ideas about how to do things. Her loyalties lie first and foremost with herself and her own well being. As far as decepticons go, she was loyal to Soundwave who has been her mentor and master since the beginning, but despised Megatron and Starscream for being incompetent. She is often indifferent to the actual battle between the 'Cons and the 'Bots, only on the 'Con team because she doesn't feel like dying for the greater good.

In combat however, she is relentless. Wherever she goes, loud booms follow, as she doesn't believe in stealth, only in raw power. She can focus to the point of the world becoming nonexistent save for her objective, making her very determined, sometimes downright stubborn. Nightscream had an idea of forming a splinter faction within the decepticons, hoping to gain independence from them and the war.

That was before Cybertron was abandoned by both of its leaders, leaving her to realize her plans without any disturbance from a high pitched voice commander demanding her to join air patrols and waste her precious time and intelligence.

History:
Nightscream is a veteran, being an engineer long before Lord Megatron rose to power and serving the decepticons as one and also as field medic and air trooper for decades. Even from the beginning she chose to side with them more from wanting to be on the winning team rather than having the same ideology, always working on her own agenda. Thus she managed to survive to present day.

Nightscream welcomed Megatron's departure as the war seemed to quiet down. With the uncertainty of survival, she is vigilant and on edge, trying to take over of as much of the decepticon intelligence network to get her eyes and ears everywhere she can so she could put her plan to motion. She started gathering followers that could help her find an alternate source of energy for their planet that would render them independent on supplies sent by those that left.

Extras and additional information:
- She is a combat engineer. As such, Nightscream most of the time stays out of a fight or participates indirectly, however she will intervene if she thinks her skills are needed or the situation is rather dire.
- Nightscream has a weird interest in Human culture and is especially fond of the movies.
- Voice actor: Alix Wilton Regan
- Theme: Jinki Extend OST, 18 - Game Kaishi
Name: Nightscream

Former faction: Decepticons

Role: Engineer / Medic / Mad Scientist

Normal Appearance:

When choosing an Earth form, Nightscream was hard pressed to keep her body's power consumption low enough. Thus she chose to make her actual body rather small for the day-to-day things and capable of powerlinking with additional parts attachable to her vehicle mode in a larger, more armored and armed Brute mode. In this form she is almost universally grey and silver with purple and yellow accents. Unlike her cybertronian form that was designed to work in labs, Nightscream's Earth form is bulkier and more armored and also capable of flight in a proto form. Her face has a deployable visor and faceplate.
(Same shape as Armada Jetfire)

Brute Mode:

Nightscream can combine with the unused parts of her alternate mode that take the shape of the boosters and external tank. Her main body collapses it's limbs to form attachment points of the larger limbs and additional armor made out of the disassembled ET. The boosters split in half, the bottom transforming into shoulder mounted cannons while the top transforms into a new set of arms ended in a heavy-duty three arm grapples for hands. In this form she is mostly purple with yellow accents and grey cannons and arms

Alternate form:

The space shuttle. Still not a proponent of stealth, Nightscream kept her usual color scheme. The main body of the shuttle is mostly grey, connected to a purple tank and grey set of boosters. The alt-mode is capable of functioning without the parts that form Nightscream's Brute Mode, sacrificing thrust power for increased agility.

Weapons and tools:

Plasma blaster (Protoform): A gun firing plasma bolts. Trades in rate of fire for heavier hit.
Shield (Protoform): A simple bit of heavy armor that serves as a shield.
2x Missiles (All modes): Wing mounted missiles. Nightscream can swap the warheads if she has alternatives available, but usually she will keep one armed with high explosive and another with an EMP warhead.
4x Energy blaster (Vehicle mode): The standard ranged weapon of choice mounted in the leading edge of the wings. Low energy consumption and damage, high rate of fire. Nightscream has the habit of cycling the barrels on her weapons, virtually quadrupling her rate of fire.
2x Rocket blaster (Brute mode): Monstrous cannons capable of bringing down buildings. They require several seconds of charge before firing and five minutes to cool down and consume unhealthy amount of energon, but one or two hits is all it takes to bring down even larger transformers or to disable a key system on a spaceship.
Null field (Minicon/Cyber Key/...): When connected to a strong power source, Nightscream gainst the ability to generate an energy barrier around herself that protects her from harm for 60 seconds of continuous fire before it overheats and needs to cool down for 2 minutes. She can expand the field's volume at the cost of its longevity.
Laserbeak: Nightscream took possession of Soundwave's deployer for the time being. He can launch out of her cargo bay in vehicle mode or chest in her protoform. She is unable to deploy laserbeak in Brute mode.

Personality:

Nightscream is not a very pleasant fellow, having her own ideas about how to do things. Her loyalties lie first and foremost with herself and her own well being, followed by other Seekers, her mentor Soundwave and then maybe some greater causes. As far as decepticons go, she was loyal to Soundwave who has been her mentor and master since the beginning, but despised Megatron and Starscream for being incompetent. She is often indifferent to the actual battle between the 'Cons and the 'Bots, only on the 'Con team because she doesn't feel like dying for the greater good.

In combat however, she is relentless. Wherever she goes, loud booms follow, as she doesn't believe in stealth, only in raw power. She can focus to the point of the world becoming nonexistent save for her objective, making her very determined, sometimes downright stubborn. Nightscream had an idea of forming a splinter faction within the decepticons, hoping to gain independence from them and the war.

That was before Cybertron was abandoned by both of its leaders, leaving her to realize her plans without any disturbance from a high pitched voice commander demanding her to join air patrols and waste her precious time and intelligence.

Her projects came to be used in a different manner than she intended, having to give up her prototype chassis to extend the life of one of her new 'comrades' and in the wake of the threat of Megatronus, she is willing to enter the battle if it means liberating her brother from his grasp and making sure his influence will never extend to Cybertron.

History:

Nightscream is a veteran, being an engineer long before Lord Megatron rose to power and serving the decepticons as one and also as field medic and air trooper for decades. Even from the beginning she chose to side with them more from wanting to be on the winning team rather than having the same ideology, always working on her own agenda. Thus she managed to survive to present day.

Nightscream welcomed Megatron's departure as the war seemed to quiet down. With the uncertainty of survival, she remained vigilant and on edge, trying to take over of as much of the decepticon intelligence network to get her eyes and ears everywhere she can so she could put her plan to motion. She started gathering followers that could help her find an alternate source of energy for their planet that would render them independent on supplies sent by those that left.

Extras and additional information:

* She is a combat engineer. As such, Nightscream stays out of a fight most of the time or participates indirectly, however she will intervene if she thinks her skills are needed or the situation is rather dire.
* Nightscream has a weird interest in Human culture and is especially fond of the movies.
* Voice actor: Lexa Doig
* Theme

Relations with other characters:

* Prsim: Nightscream is neutral to the autobot, often amused by her at times naive and always straightforward approach to things, usually involving explosives or other causes of heavy damage. Suffice to say the seeker know whom to call upon if there is a building block that offends her. She enjoys schooling the younger autobot with mean and harsh devices, but does it in fact out of the goodness of hešr spark, trying to expand her ways of thinking.
* Turbulence: She approves of him being in the autobot minority to actually use a flight capable alternate mode, as well as being amazed at his internal design. Unfortunately for her, it doesn't look like she would be able to perform experiments on him any time soon.
* Sklog: Having invested lot of her research resources into the former dinobot turned something greater than a predacon, Nightscream is interested in seeing if Sklog's mind would be able to make use of the newfound processing capability and to what potential he can bring her invention. She does harbor some personal bond to the other decepticon, what with seeing him through his reincarnation.
* Cyclonus: Primus! And I thought I was the relic of an old era here!
* Blackarachnia: Ah, my favorite toy. Too bad it got infested and had to be burned.
* Soundwave: Despite bonding to the point of referring to each other as siblings, one look will identify Nightscream as a seeker when the second will identify Soundwave as anything but, disproving the theory of them being related. Their bond goes just as deep though.
* Trine: Nightscream did not share the names of her trine, whether they are still alive or what faction they fight for.

[User]
Sklog continued his onslaught against the decpticon's shield, he was filled with anger and didn't want to listen to reason. He was hurting both inside and on the outside, his joints felt foreign and his now super sped thinking was frightening him and gave him the equivalent of a headache. Suddenly his attention was taken away from Nightscream as Prism tapped on the door with a mocking tone.

This broke Sklog, he was getting angrier by the second now but the sight of Prism got him even angrier than before. 'Tall-bot do this. Tall-bot bring Sklog to room.' Sklog thought as he didn't even bother to call Prism by name as he was filled with rage. Sklog dashed for the door, mace in hand, and with all of his new body's might he struck the door's seemingly weakest point. His joints ached from the huge amount of exertion and even his mechanical parts groaned in protest of what the Predacon did but a little more pain was nothing for Sklog as he felt hurt enough already. Sklog just hoped that his blow would break through the door.

[Assistant]
"Understood." Turbulence "Lets us know if it come to..."

The Autobot's words trailed off as he watched Prism suddenly pull herself free from the wall she leaned against for tome before casually walking up to the door with a totally different expression on her face. Turbulence did not know what Prism was intending on as she searched through her compartments, but after she apparently found what she was looking for, an unexpected smirk had then formed, instantly spelling dreaded uncertainty for the Autobot flyer. Before Turbulence could even question her motives, Prism had then began to knock on the large metallic door, while mocking the lab's occupants at the same time.

What the-

"Prism? What are you-" Turbulence's questioning demand fell short just as a loud reply from the other side assailed the sealed doors, "Dammit, Prism! What are you doing?!"

[User]
With Sklog distracted by Prism, Nightscream altered her plans on the fly. Doing a quick calculation and taking Sklog's new size to account along with the countermeasures she put into that chassis, the engineer opted to give him a full dose of both of her null rays. Even then it would be barely enough to bring him down for a few minutes, but that was all Nightscream would need to restrain him.

The blast was indeed a heavy one, transferring through the door as easily as through Sklog's frame, likely giving a nasty jolt to the Bot on the other side as well. Nightscream shut down her shield, letting the vents cool her down. She felt a pang of jealousy at seeing it's might - she was this close to being able to get rid of Megatron herself, and then Prime up and left, dragging Megatron away with him. And now her piece of art was inhabited by that brute and her vision for Cybertron was reduced to four people on a rusting planet.

Sometimes, she just wanted to up and leave, see what Other systems ins pace had to offer.


[System]
Age: 28
Gender: Male
Nationality: Polish
Description: Growing up in a family of middling means in Krakow, Stanislaw was an avid fan of gaming, spending as much time as he could on his computer when he wasn't studying. Strategy games and MMOs were his vice of choice, and his childhood was spent playing most of the big name ones. However, he soon discovered that he was actually rather good at RTSes in particular, rising up through the ladder during his early teenage years until he found himself qualifying for his first LAN tournament at fifteen.

From there, Stanislaw saw a string of dizzying successes in the RTS world under the tag "Acturus", placing well in several LAN tournaments across Europe and even winning a few. Over the next decade, he made a name for himself as he continued to compete, being picked up by an esports sponsor and traveling across the globe to compete. Still, all good things had to come to an end. Faced with dwindling results and worsening reflexes in comparison to 17 year old Koreans at the top of their game, Stanislaw made the decision to retire from professional gaming at the age of 25. Most of his money from his winnings and sponsorships had gone into investments, and he found himself able to live rather comfortably when he returned to his native Poland.

For the past three years, Stanislaw has still had somewhat of a presence online, maintaining an active Youtube and livestream profile both for the hell of it and for a bit of extra money. Still, he spends most of his time these days working on finally going back and getting his college degree. After three years of studying and getting a business degree out of it, Stanislaw decided to delve back into online gaming, having heard of Cacophony Concord's rising popularity. Now that he'd graduated, he found himself with enough time to just outright mainline a MMO again when not making the occasional Youtube video. The sheer versatility of the game system impressed him, and he set out to create his desired build: emulating his RTS glory days by summoning minions and directing them how he pleased.

Username: Amulak al Acturus
Race: Human
Gender: Male
Height: 190 cm
Weight: 77 kg
Voice Pitching: -60
Decorations: None
Appearance: Wears unadorned, hooded black robes.You start with 80 points. When applied to HP, MP, or SP, each point consumed grants 10.
HP – 150
MP – 200
SP – 50
STR – 5
AGI – 10
END – 10
DEX – 5
LUC – 10Classes: NonePerception: Fantastic
Gore: On
Pain Setting: 15%
Clothing Damage: On
Nudity Censor: Off
Profanity Censor: Off
Combat Action: Manual
Spell Incantations: Manual

[User]
HP: 320/320 | MP: 336/336 | SP: 352/352

---

Raime only gave the obvious trap a deadpan look. Among the countless undead, abominations, bandits, and other nasty things that lurked in the mist. There was no possible way for an infant to be left alone in a place like Thunderstruck Grove and expect it to live longer than a minute; what more a whole day? "I think our little hunt for players at low health is a bust." He knew what had to be done. Raime was a little disappointed that he wouldn't be able to play longer but he did make a deal with the caster.

No kids dead as long as he provides him a person to kill.

He knew that thing wasn't even a kid but, if he didn't do this, his companion might be unable to hold off his urge to murder the 'helpless' child and likely cause both their deaths. Raime would rather only one of them die in this fool's errand of fulfilling class requirements. Swallowing his pride, he turned to face the caster. "The chances of our survival are absurdly low. Even less if we fall for that trap over there." He uses his head to gesture to the not baby. "How about we call it quits on finding low health players or bandits and I just let you kill me? I promised you a corpse. Well, here is the opportunity." He says before going to a seiza. "So how we gonna do this? You gonna strangle me or maybe you break my neck?"

---

Username: Raime Braun
Race: Human
Gender: Male
Height: 189 cm
Weight: 90 kg
Voice Pitching: 0
Decorations: None notable.
Appearance: Splitting image of his own physical appearance. Wearing a full set of traveler's clothes.
=Points when applied to HP, MP, or SP, each point consumed grants 10.=
HP – 320
[Determines how much damage you can take before death.]

MP – 320 + 5% = 336
[Used for spellcasting. Affects magical damage.]

SP – 320 + 10% = 352
[Used for techniques and skills. Affects physical damage.]

STR – 20
[General physical strength.]

AGI – 60 + 10% = 66
[Affects perception of time in combat. Partially affects physical speed.]

END –25
[General toughness and physical defense. Affects SP regeneration.]

DEX – 60 + 5% = 63
[General skill and accuracy of movements. Affects weapons and tool usage.]

LUC – 11
[Affects item drop rates.]
Classes:
Scout Lvl.25 - [+5% MP | +10% SP | +10% AGI | +5% DEX]

* [Ranged Proficiency Lvl.1] = Increase Proficiency with Ranged Weapons.
* [First In, First Out] - Passive. Increase movement speed by 15% when engaging and disengaging enemies.
* [Dive N Strike] - Active. 10% SP cost. Dive in any direction and roll, increasing evasion. If evasion is successful, increase the damage of the next attack.
* [Zoned In] - Increase AGI by 20%. Passively Consumes 10 SP Per-Turn while Active.
* [Asess] - Active skill that consumes 50 SP. Observe a single target and determine whether they are stronger or weaker than you. Has a chance of gleaning further statistical information.

Perception: Realistic
Gore: On
Pain Setting: 100%
Clothing Damage: On
Nudity Censor: Off
Profanity Censor: Off
Combat Action: Manual
Spell Incantations: Manual

Helmet: [N/A]
Armor: Traveller's Clothes (Gray)
Arm Equipment: [N/A]
Main Hand: Light Crossbow
Offhand: Wargtooth Dagger
Leg Equipment: Traveller's Shorts (Gray)
Footwear: Traveller's Geta

Accessory # 1:
Accessory # 2:
Accessory # 3:
Accessory # 4:

Money: 14 Silver Pieces
Inventory Type: Common Pouch
Inventory Capacity: 05/20 Items

---

List:* Standard Bolts x ∞
* Pearl Clover x 16
* Night's Ward x 8
* Frostgrass x 12
* Tripiste x 10

---

[Assistant]
Ari Reina Caladis(Theresa)
-Taking Ranger Class-
HP – 2(3/20)
MP – 3(30)
SP – 5(50)
STR – 10
AGI – 20+4
END – 5
DEX – 25+12.5
LUC – 10
Type Auxiliary Arms, First Stage

+20% AGI, +50% DEX

A length of yellowed parchment, with pictographs written upon one side in red ink. At each end of the parchment is a loop made of silvered roots.

All Beneath the Earth
Active. Periodically consumes 20 MP. Nuclei wraps around the caster's eyes like a blindfold, before granting them the ability to see night as if it were day, as well as to see through objects within a range of fifty meters. In this sight, Immortals and Riens are outlined in blue, monsters are outlined in red, and flora are outlined in yellow.
Equipped: Dual kodachi, plain black wood scabbard, nondescript hilt. Kusarifundo, plain long iron chains with weights on either end.

0 R, Common sling, Turtle shell shield, rocks, grass monkey's fist(stone).
Uploaded Image
Username:Ari Reina Caladis
Race: Cat
Gender: Female
Height: 142cm
Weight: 40kg
Voice Pitching: -2
Decorations:
Appearance: No real equipments yet, but looks like the picture just with more drab turtleneck and long skirt combo.Classes: NonePerception: Anime
Gore: On
Pain Setting: 20%
Clothing Damage: On
Nudity Censor: Off
Profanity Censor: Off
Combat Action: Manual
Spell Incantations: Manual

---

Scratching her head, she looked glumly at the list of jobs on the stone. Ari didn't really want to get one that she didn't feel like playing, but apparently she was supposed to have one.

"Ah this ranger thing has stealth in it huh? I'll pick that one then." Looking past the list, it was also stated to have traps in it. A good start she suppose. Ninja was supposed to be stealthy, strong, fast and able to make their own gears. For now, she would have to see what she can do first. Traps would really help a lot. Getting stronger would be great, as well as gathering some poison now that she had a taste of the stronger creatures to be found. She read somewhere that very brightly colored creatures were the ones to look for for poison. All these knives would be great poisoned. As well as her twin kodachi.

Twin kodachi?

"Oh, that's right. Lew? What happened to my other sword?"

[User]
Amulak al Acturus (Stanislaw)
HP:815/900 MP:1000/1150 SP: 130/130

HP – 750 (+150)
MP – 1100 (+50)
SP – 100 (+30)
STR – 40
AGI – 50
END – 50 (+5)
DEX – 40 (+4)
LUC – 50 (+7)
Classes: Mage
Perception: Fantastic
Gore: On
Pain Setting: 15%
Clothing Damage: On
Nudity Censor: Off
Profanity Censor: Off
Combat Action: Manual
Spell Incantations: Manual
Funds: 1983.33333 rishi
Items:
Bonerattler's Staff
Uncommon Weapon
+30 HP, +30 SP, +30 MP
10% chance of Disrupting enemy spellcasting when attacking.

Bulwark Boneplate
Rare Armor
+100 HP
Reduce physical damage taken by 20.
Recover 2 SP for every hit taken.

Shamanic Beads
Common Accessory
+20 MP

Raider's Wargtag
Common Accessory
+4 DEX, +4 LCK

Thunderstruck Amulet
Uncommon Accessory
+20 HP, +5 END, +3 LUC
Reduce lightning damage taken by 20.

HP potions: 1 uncommon, 2 common

As much as he wanted to just knock off at least one requirement for his Necromancer job today, not even Amulak was greedy enough to take such an obvious-looking piece of bait in a zone where it was already incredibly dangerous for his level.

"Relax," He waved dismissively to Raime upon speaking of the hunt for low-health players.

"I not going to take obvious trap, this baby don't need to die, yes?"

What came after, though...

It wasn't killing Raime he had a problem with, oh no. If he was offering his neck, Amulak would take it. The problem was his odds solo against another monster like the centipede in this zone. He really didn't want to take another full 24 hours to make another run at the Grove if he screwed this up or got unlucky. And if Raime was gone, he was basically flying solo for the rest of this session considering Ames and Mags were...somewhere.

"Killing you is not problem. Making it through zone so we don't have to do this shit again is real problem. Lew back to town to simp. Ames and Mags disappear to somewhere. Not certain of chances at soloing. If I make it to tunnel, should not be problem." Amulak mused out loud, staring at Raime for a long moment before coming to a decision.

"I will take risk, then. Is only game, after all. Strangle...might take time. Turn off pain setting completely before we start, yes?" He started chanting, conjuring up Seeker Chains that he planned to wrap around Raime's neck. "We begin strangling after you make this not weird for you."


[System]
Alias: N/A
Age:16

Powers/limitations:
Elemental Heritage (fire)
-Naturally immune to fire attacks
-Can naturally produce fire and heat using a mana source.
-weak to water and cold attacks
Curse of Rage
-drastically increases fire abilities at the cost of succumbing to his fury.
-curse is kept in check by magical seal created by his father.
-severely drains mana source after use, long cool down.

Appearance:

[User]
Grace was in line for food at the cafeteria when she felt someone tap on her shoulder and she turned quickly, looking surprised before she realised who it was and smiled gently. "Tea the meal or tea the beverage made of hot water and dried leaves?" She replied with a small laugh. "I like both. A very calming drink; tea." She contemplated for a moment. Honestly it wasn't a drink she had a lot, since she rarely drank anything else besides water for a number of reasons. It had a load of health benefits, was exceptionally calming for her, and having a drink bottle full of water was always comforting since she couldn't conjure water out of the air, but was limited to manipulating existing sources.

That being said tea was still a nice drink. "Why is that?" Grace eventually asked. She doubted someone would have brought tea to school would they have? It didn't seem like a thing that was practical to bring to school. The line moved up slightly and Grace took a few steps with them. She wasn't overly keen on the whole school lunches thing, but she had forgotten to pack her own this morning so she was stuck with whatever the school was providing. It didn't look as bad as she'd heard they were supposed to be though.

[Assistant]
Grace's aura spiked for only a moment before the realization of who he was came to her and her body language relaxed; he simply smiled at her. Her answer had caught him off guard as his brain came to a halt, the gears eventually worked themselves out and he laughed along with her. Laughing, it wasn't something he experienced to often, but with Grace it came almost naturally, he wondered if her personality was having just as much of an effect on him as his was on her's.

Eventually she ended up asking him, "why is that?"

"Well, I happened to bring along an extra bag with me today and I thought you'd might like some," truthfully he was going to drink the second bag later in the afternoon, not that he was going to mention that bit to her. Just from his few encounters with her, she seemed like the type to enjoy calming things like tea. Admittedly there was an ulterior motive than just offering tea out of good will, he figured it would help her relax that much more, maybe get her to open up more and hear more of her tale.

"I just need a container to heat it up in," sensing the area he found a stack of Styrofoam cups, "perfect, I'll go save a couple of seats."

Making his way around her and out of line he snagged a couple of cups, just for good measure. He sensed around the entire cafeteria, pinpointing an area that would be out of the way and din the noise a little. Cafeterias were good for meeting up with people you wanted to meet up with, but for a new coming loner like Kyle and the timid personality Grace had, he figured secluded would be better. Eventually finding a more out of the way spot he made his way there and secured it, propping his bag in the place where Grace would sit. Satisfied, he pulled out the tea bags from his pack, including a ceramic mug he had brought from home and sat down in the empty space across his backpack, awaiting Grace's arrival.

[User]
Smiling happily Grace shook her head slightly, despite herself. "Thank you, but I'm fine really…" She trailed off as he began looking around for containers and moved off, saying he was going to go save her a seat. Tilting her head slightly the girl wondered to herself. He was certainly a strange one, Kyle. Maybe that was why she liked him. He didn't seem like the others around here. The entire time she'd seen him he hadn't seemed all that interested in anyone else. He hadn't gone out of his way to speak to anyone else that she'd seen.

As the line moved Grace eventually collected her lunch and made her way over to where the boy was sitting over in a corner away from the busyness of the cafeteria and walked over to him. He had his bag placed on the seat opposite him and she paused for a moment. She assumed it was a seat for her, but at the same didn't want to go touching his things without permission. "You know… if you wanted me to sit with you… you just had to ask." She said softly as a thought occurred to her and she looked at him curiously.

"Kyle… do you mind if I ask you a question?" Grace on, still standing there unsure exactly to in the situation. "I mean you don't have to answer it if you don't want to. I was just wondering… how you grew up I suppose?" She said, trying to figure out how to word it properly. "I mean… did you go to school like normal kids or were you home schooled? Did you have any friends?"

[Assistant]
It didn't take Grace too long afterwards for her to meet up with Kyle, he waited patiently for her to sit, but after noticing how her aura was reacting, he raised an eyebrow.

"You know... if you wanted me to sit with you... you just had to ask."

Suddenly it felt like a pit opened up in his gut and he suddenly felt like an ass, completely assuming that Grace was just going to come over and sit with him. But... "I apologize," he started, "I guess I just thought after our talk before class that we would..."

"Kyle… do you mind if I ask you a question?" Grace asked him, in a tone that implied she was going to ask her question anyway "I mean you don't have to answer it if you don't want to. I was just wondering… how you grew up I suppose?" She said, trying to figure out how to word it properly. "I mean… did you go to school like normal kids or were you home schooled? Did you have any friends?"

"huh..." that was a bit of a curveball, "well um...first, would you like to sit with me?" He said this while plopping the tea bags in their separate cups and began preparing them. At this point, he didn't think there was a reason for her to say no, even though assuming is what got him feeling like this in the first place. He grabbed his backpack, allowing Grace to sit, from there he pulled a water bottle from the pack and filled both cups with water. Using the remaining water he poured it on his hands, washing them and heat drying before sticking just the tip of his pinky in each cup and instant heating both to perfect drinkable temperatures. He passed the Styrofoam cup of tea to Grace before taking a sip of his own and telling his tale.

"My father is an influential businessman, an investor in projects, among other things and my mother, she was the reason why I have my powers. She is no longer among us, but my father, he is the one who helped me develop my powers further. Early on in my youth I had a difficult time controlling my powers, he trained with me, nearly night and day, to meditate, contemplate, project myself into the cosmos." He took another drink before looking at Grace, "When I had more of a reign on my powers and I was more...contemplative, my father mostly left me to my own devices. He has caretakers who watch over me and tutor me, but for most of my life I lived in a peaceful seclusion, my only real contact with the outside world, to be honest, was whenever my father would allow me to accompany him to work."

He took another drink of his tea, pausing to allow everything to settle in, "All in all, I think I grew up well."

[User]
Grace looked at him for a moment as he apologised and she simply smiled and giggled slightly. Perhaps they were not so different. "No no… I just meant next time you don't have to go to the effort of offering me some kind of incentive to sit with you. Nothing so fancy as tea." She tried to clarify as she sat down with him once he moved his bag. She guessed they were still in that early stages of friendship where they were still getting to know each other, so it was to be expected that there would be misunderstandings like this.

Well at least she hoped they were in the early stages of friendship. Placing her tray on the table she listened to his story, both interested and surprised by some of it. "I see…" There was a sad note in her voice now, something maybe close to pity… sympathy. You'll have to forgive me for saying… but it sounds awfully lonely." She supposed she was one to talk, so figured that maybe an explanation was due. "It may be hard to believe… but I wasn't always so shy and timid. I used to have friends."

Her tone became slightly sadder at this, longing. She missed her old friends. "It was early middle school I think. One of my friends had a bit of a mouth on him, and it got him into a lot of trouble sometimes. Onetime he said the wrong thing to the wrong guy and got into a physical fight, which the other guy was winning. He was hurting my friend and… I got mad. Really mad. I'd never taken control of a person before that day… and haven't since then. Up until that point I didn't even know it was a thing I could do, though since there is so much water in the body I guess I can understand it."

She paused for a moment, sipping on her tea lightly. "It scared him. Scared me. I had to change schools because of that. After that incident though I was always that little bit afraid that something else would make me mad and I'd do to them what I did to that boy. It's not something I ever want to do to a person again. My friends didn't talk to me after that, even though I was in a different school there were ways they could have contacted me. But they didn't. I don't blame them I guess I wouldn't like it if I knew my friend had been keeping a secret like that from me." Freak had been the word of choice but it wasn't one she liked repeating.

[Assistant]
He listened to her story, quietly, intently. While his story had been met with some form of sympathy, he simply brushed it off, he didn't desire it, because he didn't need to. Her story, however, showed him that they lived practically polar opposite childhoods and it confirmed one thing for him; she had power. Enough power to even take over an unwilling being, if only she knew what true water elementals could do.

"My father once told me, that born, blessed, or cursed, once we have our powers, it has become a part of who we are." Kyle looked to Grace "You had an accident, you lost control, it happens, and unfortunately those around you were unable to understand it." He remained quiet for a bit, choosing his next words carefully.

"Grace, I'm sorry for what happened to you, but...don't be afraid of who you are and what powers you possess. You're a good person at heart, I can tell that and I have no reason to fear you, even with your level of power."

He sipped at his tea again, he could tell stories to Grace about the times he's lost control of his powers, how he's nearly burned down more things than he could count. Kyle's face became somewhat sullen at the thoughts.

[User]
Grace looked at him in surprise. She had never really thought about it that, always assuming she had been afraid of other people. But maybe he was right, though he hadn't said it in so many words; maybe she was afraid of herself and her powers. Maybe that was why she shied away from so many people. However it was the last sentence that made her look up in surprise, her brow furrowed in confusion. However after a few moments she simply shook her head and tried to laugh it off. "My level of power? No. You must be mistaken."

Her power was just like everyone else, only that it was water based rather than the other kids. She wasn't any more powerful than the next person. That made no sense. She was sure everyone got angry and lost control and had things happen they were never able to recreate, either by choice or simply because they were unable to. "I'm no more special than anyone else." She assured him, looking back down at her cup of tea and frowning again. Kyla had lived his entire life on his own anyway; he'd never had other people to compare to just like she had. How could he possibly know how powerful a person was or wasn't? Especially when he'd seen so little of her powers being used?

[Assistant]
He smirked slightly, "Grace, I think you underestimate yourself." While it was true that he had seen little display of her power, he just had this...feeling that she had more potential than she was letting on. Her story about controlling that one person proved at least that she had the potential, if nothing else, at least to Kyle, it didn't seem like a story anyone would just make up. Perhaps he was getting a bit ahead of himself though.

He smiled and relaxed his posture a little, "I suppose it really doesn't matter right now though, how powerful we are, after all we're just students trying to learn, leave the heroics to the professionals right?"

[User]
Grace smiled slightly at the boy's words and gave him a look. Exactly what kind of look she gave him she wasn't sure, but she supposed it didn't matter either way because he couldn't see her face. "Maybe I do…" The girl pondered aloud as she rubbed her finger on the cup in her hands, bringing it to her lips and sipping gently. He had her really thinking now. What if she was powerful? What would that even mean for her? She still wasn't sure what she wanted to do with her life. Being a super hero just seemed… too out of character for her.

It didn't feel right. Did the magnitude of her power open up new opportunities for her? Turning back as Kyle spoke she smiled again, nodding slightly. "I suppose so…" She said, her voice clearly indicating that her thoughts were now on other things. "Do you know what you want to do with your life yet?" She asked eventually, turning back to look at him, thinking it was rude to just sit there quietly and not really add to the conversation. That and she wondered if maybe his answer may help her find some kind of direction in some way.

[Assistant]
Her aura spiked suddenly, confused he raised an eybrow, unsure of exactly what that was Grace had just...felt, done, anything. The good news though, he got her thinking, which was exactly what he was driving for, letting her take a deep long look at herself and think on things. It seemed though that whatever pondering she had was short lived and her mind wandered elsewhere. Her minimal responses suggested it before she asked him her question.

"Do I know what I want to do with my life yet..." he thought on that, he had always lived in the present, never really dwelling on things that have happened or things that have yet to happen, that being said... "I've never really thought about what I've wanted to do with my life, I generally live in the here and now, but, to be honest, I think my father has... expectations of me, though I'm unsure of when he'll exactly share them with me. I honestly believe though that it has something to do with sending me to this school, up until now, I've never been in a social learning environment."

This got him thinking though, "And what about you? I'm sure that's what you were thinking about before you asked me."


[System]
Apparent Age: 25

"IS": Human

Features: Female, 5'9", brown eyes, cropped brown hair, light brown skin.

Role: Porter

Description: Ruby takes pride in her work as a Porter, and dresses in a smart, professional uniform, with her hair neatly cropped, nails clipped, eyebrows plucked, and - most importantly - teeth brushed. You won't find just another smelly adventurer here; this girl can Dress to Impress. The oral hygiene doesn't seem to work so well on her language, though, as she's steadily sassing her way through a library of cusswords every time she goes out.

Armaments:
* Porter Uniform: Resistant to shear, stain, fire, cold, and water. Grants +1 to Professionalism.
* Arcane Blaster: Magical flintlock pistol. When the flint strikes steel and sparks the magic circuit, it draws from the user's mana to fire a deadly bolt of energy. Can load and fire flares.
* Bag of Holding: Dimensional storage pack with infinite capacity. Stores everything listed below, in addition to client properties.
* Survival gear: rope, cooking pot, ladle, survival knife, matches, ferro rod (for sparking fire), compass, canteens, gill net (for fishing), charcoal water filters, a month's worth of pemmican, several changes of clothing, magic torches, first aid kits, 6 flares (used: 1)
* Crafting gear: tool box, sewing kit, chemistry supplies
* Hygiene kit: several bars of soap, toothbrushes, floss, tongue scraper, several tubes of toothpaste, tweezers, brushes, combs
* Office supplies: ledger, checkbook, notepad, sticky notes, box of pencils, eraser, sharpener, felt-tip pen

Teraterifficence:
* [REDACTED]
* Crazy-prepared, if the above Armaments list didn't give it away.
* Alchemic Crafting: Can use the "essence" of monster drops to enhance items. Requires construction of a magic circle for transmutation.

Original World: An interplanetary empire has conquered the entire galaxy. Their fleets are nigh-invincible, and rebel forces are powerless to stop them.

And they're the good guys.

Upon expanding their reach to the galactic edge, the seven immortals on the empire's ruling body, the Immortal Council, set out amongst the stars to create new worlds for their people to inhabit. Planets that were once desolate grew life, and systems plagued with disaster saw peace. Each world took on a life of its own. Some developed a rich fantasy life, while others created breathtaking marvels of science. There was a place for everyone.

That is, until all hell broke loose on a certain backwater world named Aion...

Backstory:
"You were adopted."

Just three words. Some think it's an insult, as if being pushed out of a body part is somehow superior. Some think it's an expression of love, from people who could have picked anyone they wanted and deliberately chose you.

I just munched on my cracker.

It wasn't exactly a revelation to 10-year-old me - I mean, when my dad stormed into the living room ten years prior and the first words out of his mouth were, "You went and bought that little chicken-fried f*cknugget from the agency?" it wasn't hard to put the pieces together. I was a baby, not deaf. Ironically, that old potbellied fart became my role model when I grew up, because Holy Smuckeroli, the adventurers here are dumber than ducks on Sara Lee white bread. Fire-breathing dragon captured the princess? Bring a wooden sword to the battle! Kraken tearing up your ship on the open sea? Oh, a lightning spell will do nicely. Vampire Lord threatening the country? Kill it with blood magic! They collect harems of psychopaths, waltz into traps, spare bloodthirsty monsters- I'm surprised there's anyone left in the Hero business to cuss at.

The sorts of people who think 101 Ways to Die is a guidebook are also the sorts of people you can make money on. If there's one thing every aspiring hero needs, it's a girl with a level head, plenty of Band-Aids, and just enough romance to keep him puffing to Season 2. That's where I come in. For only 2 cents an hour and 3% of the total loot, the Redford Porter Service will handle all your adventuring needs. Lost in the Forgotten Woods? I got a full-color topographic map. Broke your Master Blade cutting grass? No worries, I can make you two more. Whatever moronic puzzling predicament you find yourself in, I gotcha covered.

Swindle me, though, and I got a bullet with your name on it.

[User]
Violet hears the sound of cracking bones as her ball makes contact with the head attacking Sierra leaving only the head that lies in front of her. It had to struggle to look up near her meaning it couldn't react in time. Her dagger struck true as she rammed into the head with all her force. It was a bit jarring to come to a complete stop but the head... cushioned... the fall? Nevertheless the two heads are taken care of and now attention goes back to it's original- She then feels something under her heel. She sees the head looking right at her, mouth open. Violet knew what it meant but it was too late to dodge. Violet attempted to cover herself but to no avail as the black ichor spewed forth.

Violet wipes and opens her eyes and all of the heads are gone. All she sees are Kite Walker and Sierra together in the middle of the halls slightly ahead of her. She stands up and pats herself off and starts to walk over to the group. 'Looks like we made it out alive guys. I really thought we were gon-' Then Walker raises his sword to her. 'Wal-'

 "Gypsy...? This little guy told us everything about you. You're disgustingly under prepared, weak in even stature, and to sum it up... wholly useless to us." His eyes were completely filled with hatred. A darkness of familiar malice flickered behind them.

 'Bout as useless as a screen door in a hurricane. Can't even protect the one person ya was tryin' ta save.' Sierra's eyes filled with disgust looking at Violet, arching a brow in disgusted confusion.

 Kite approaches Violet and hold out his hand.
 A kite flying in the sky.
 A girl holds the string. A hand takes a hand.
 A hand lets go of the string. A wake of eyes.
 Violet is the kite.
 The kite is impaled and shorn to shreads by the beak of a dozen shapeless birds.
 A hand holds a string.
 A girl is dead, face-down and crumpled in a dirt hole.

 Violet is forced back to reality as she sees everyone now glaring with evil murderous intent. She had been betrayed by everyone she tried to become allies with. She start to back away from them in sheer horror. As she gets closer to the wall she hears

 Mah oh mah, now izint this just...unfortunate

 Violet turns around to see Keepa emerge from the cell directly behind her.

 "Ya closest frieeends...? All up an just turned th'backs on ye! Well shucks, don'y'worry..." As a head comes out of every cell surrounding Violet. "we ain'here'ta turn ah backs on ya. Tch~ We like ya so much, we could just eat... you... up"

 Violet tries to call her ball to her, currently a brighter yellow than she'd ever seen before. One of the heads reaches out and grabs the ball, pulling it close to cheek and crushes it in it's mouth.

 "No more of that now. If you wanna wallop us, ya gonna haf ta do i'cha-self..."

 All the heads begin closing in on her as she looks up and sees Walker, Sierra, and Kite walking away leaving her to her fate. Violet falls to her knees and holds her dagger out at them pathetically.

 "Oh come now...Whatcha gonna do with that? Maybe ye can help me pick ya outta meh teeths...when ahm done witcha, of course~!" As all the heads begin to swarm her.

 After a bit of a pause, Violet let's out a bloodcurdling scream. She lies in the middle of the room in the fetal position, both hands on her head as she sits there crying and screaming. Her ball shifts to a brighter yellow than it had been before and makes its way back to her but unlike before, this one slams into her knocking her back towards the wall as it rolls away on the ground still shining a blinding yellow. She no longer has any concern or sense of anything going on around her. She just sits there, crumbling, pitiful and afraid.

[Assistant]
Walker had been figuring out how over their heads they were right now, all things considered. The flaunting and fiasco that Violet was undertaking, leading to a face full of whatever that vomit was thrown up, the woman with that flashy magic tool firing blast after blast as she tried to get Kite back and cleaned up. The blade work grew more spiteful, remaining the last one to fall back as the others backed up. The fact they could keep backing out, well, was a good sign. "Keep laughing Keeper, it's the best medicine for those heads you've had wounded so far mate."

 The good news of a path of escape opening up was lost by the sudden shrieking and sobbing from the gypsy woman, and he scowled and groaned to himself. Of all the times to lose their cool, now was not the time, even if it was probably a side effect of that goop. However, given the response that was going on from Keeper, he knew they didn't have time to clean her up and dust her off quite yet. Sheathing the sword, and hanging onto the torch, he turned and bolted, skidding to a halt next to Violet and taking a knee. "Right, you two, take the torch and move! I got our panicking companion."

 Tossing the torch towards the other two, Walker quickly picked up Violet, the fetal position making it easier to get her up, though the jarring against the bolt embedded in his shoulder making him grimace, and once he had her braced, picked up the shining yellow crystal ball as well and started moving as fast as he could while carrying Violet in her panicked state as well as keeping a hand on that stupid yellow crystal ball. If he'd been able to, he would have also carried the torch, but between his shoulder, carrying another person, and her kit, well, he couldn't do everything. Regardless, they needed to move, getting her back into the waking world would have to wait.

[User]
Ruby watched with a resigned expression as the torch soared through the air. There's no way I'm catching that. To her surprise, she did catch it, albeit after a brief fumble and whispered curse. With her other arm, she picked up the kite and ran behind Walker as fast as her legs could carry her. Keepa's last words haunted her, and she wished (not for the last time) that she had the power to beat him. Fantasies of magic powers, martial arts, and hi-tech suits danced in her head until a few things occurred to her:

1. She had none of these things.
2. She had allies who did have these things.
3. Getting away safely was more important at the moment.

How narrow had been her brush with hell. If Keepa hadn't chosen to monologue, she would have been eaten, and then... she didn't even want to think about it. Twice she'd faced her end at the maw, and twice she'd been saved by the skin of her teeth. When Violet woke up, that girl deserved a hearty thanks.

That is, if she woke up. The poor girl had gotten a face-full of goo, giving her nightmares such as curled her in fetal agony. Her blood-curdling screams and bitter sobs made Ruby want to curl up herself. How Walker managed to carry her with a straight face, and with an arrow embedded in his shoulder no less, she'd never know. Dude was a walking hero.

The creature under her arm, however, was an enigma. His bird mask reminded her of a plague mask, but for some reason, the word "kite" came to mind when she looked at it. Why? While she knew "kite" was a type of bird, the mask didn't look like a kite's face. Perhaps it had been the vision from earlier.

She recalled the image of birds making nests in a tree. The birds tore into kites of fabric stuck in the tree, and used the material to build their nests. Even the sticks and strings of the kites seemed to become part of the tree. Assuming the content of the vision is symbolic, what if...what if birdface was the kite? That would make Keepa the bird. Fantasy fiction writers like to think of dungeons as being like living creatures, so if it's like that, this place could be the nest, or the tree, and it's sustaining itself by eating adventurers.

Ruby mulled it over.

She looked at birdface.

Using ths little guy to build a massive dungeon? Preposterous. Stupid theory.

Ruby lifted her eyes and scanned for possible exits. If they were to escape Keepa's grasp, they'd need to lose him somehow, whether through tricky maneuvering or locating a strong door.

Please guide us out of here... she prayed.


[System]
Age: 22
Gender: Female
Appearance: 4'11, Short sandy blonde hair, Tanned skin, Green eyes
Hometown: Iviser
Personality: Brusque and Reclusive, but genuine and kind when you get to know her
Relic Description: A one foot-tall stuffed weddelbek plushie
Starting Natrelmon: Vazra, Tibearius

History: At a young age she lost her voice when a Vazelium latched onto her throat and caused irreversible damage. She was given life-saving treatment after the creature was detached, but she could never speak again. The incident spanwed a fascination with the creatures, and during her travels to Toran, she caught one of her own.

Her relic, which she affectionately knows as 'William' was a plushie given to her by the doctor who saved her life, and is a treasured possession of hers. The doctor, who had knowledge of necromancy, sensed the spark within her. As her parents died on the trip, he took custody of her, and mentored her in the ways of Necromancy, as well as inducting her into the Mage's Academy.

She eventually lost track of the doctor, and set out to defeat all the arena masters while searching for him. She aspires to give people the chance to continue living their lives, similar to how she was given another lease on life.

Professions: Tracker, Mage
Gifts: Advanced Knowledge
Magic: Necromancer, Mistshaper, Invoker

Magic:
 Necromancer (3)
 Mistshaping (3)
 Invocation (1)

Professions:
 Tracker (1)
 Mage (1)

Books:
 Knowledge of the Secret Evolution Atrixus
 Knowledge of Bei-Fong

Natrelmon:
 Level 15 Vazra 「Nomstel」 Dark Pact
 Level 10 Tibearius 「Urst」Dark Pact
 Level 25 Kujaku 「Kaisl」 Dark Pact
 Level 14 Kyumin「Fulnit」

Items:
 20,000N
 9x Relic E

[User]
Kiyo was pleased for the briefest instant physically possible as she watched her plan unfold to completion, but beyond that she did not have the capacity to do very much at all. Selim's momentum had all been converted to force when he hit the wall--and Kiyo had seen him wince in pain--but he had proven his combatative nature when he immediately turned himself towards casting spells and executing a strategy he'd been building since the beginning of the battle. Had she the time, Kiyo would have thought of this as an admirable trait in a bodyguard--and certainly something better than what some of the Lifanites settled for in order to simply look good rather than be adequately protected. Kiyo's own momentum, as well as taxing spellcraft, left her with little in the way of options as to what she could do now. Selim's counterspell and utterance of two other spells--clearly Abjuration spells, given their verbal components--left Kiyo with little choice but to use another of her precious With the Wind spells, dashing herself diagonally to the northeast as soon as she could. The blind did still manage to hit her, its searing light barely clipping her field of vision but thanks to its magical potency still being quite enough to utterly blind her. The sudden loss of vision, no matter how many times it happened, was disorienting enough to make even the most battle-hardened stumble and stumble Kiyo did.

She fell pretty spectacularly, mentally taxed from the spellcasting, and through sheer force of habit managed to tuck herself into a roll forward so that her stumble didn't end in injury. As she finished the movement, going maybe six feet, the blind had ended, and much of her momentum had gone into the roll. It was little effort to turn herself around so that she was facing Selim once again, and as his movement would have carried him forward she would have a second to gulp down a breath and steady her focus. She had escaped the worst of his gambit, but it was clear to her that he had a physical advantage purely based on his ability to weather her own stratagem with minimal disruption to his own. Soelbe's gambit with Indolu's Pride was effective, of course, at robbing the Mythari of its sight as he was not within the light of Indolu, and with Kiyo's stumble she simply did not have the capacity to give it orders. The Mythari continued on its course upwards, now at least 12 feet in the air, and prepared to aid Kiyo when she recovered.

Kiyo knew that her time was limited to close out the battle. With Selim's natural advantage in close-quarters combat and her own limited reserve of spells, Kiyo would have to end the fight extremely quickly if she wanted to have a chance. With that in mind, she begun a cautious walk towards Selim once more, knowing that her window was closing, and prepared for him to react in kind. She could further evaluate which of the forming manoeuvres in her mind would be most appropriate based on how he reacted to their next engagement. Of course, Kiyo had not forgotten about Soelbe, but simply elected to attempt to execute her strategy before it could have a real impact on the battle. As she moved towards Selim she drew Mythari into the fray also, having it charge quickly towards him. Mythari would have to contend with Soelbe, but if Kiyo's plan worked then that would not matter. A risky gamble, for sure, but one that Kiyo was willing to take to prove her own strength and test Selim.

[Assistant]
Oz Morioka

The sound of tumblers clicking in place rang in Oz's ears with dispassionate finality. Strangely enough though, shuttering up the workshop that he had called home for the past fourteen years was proving to be a far more anticlimactic affair than he had expected. Sure he would almost certainly return to this out of place building on the outskirts of Lifan once he had finished his Rites, but still, he had been expecting… well, more.

Raiha's letter had been so flippant and out of nowhere that Oz couldn't even bring himself to be all that surprised. It was just like his master to suddenly drop everything and anyone around her in order to pursue the latest object of her interest. Although in her defense, the redheaded Searsinger had never done so on quite the same scale as this before. Her letter didn't even say whether she would be gone for only a few months or if it would be years before she would return, only that Oz shouldn't bother waiting around for her.

Taking one last sidelong glance at the workshop, Oz did just that and started walking towards the center of town. His recluse of a master lived as far out of the way of the city proper as possible, so the sooner he started walking the better.

---

"One way to Toran." Oz's voice just barely cut above the busy din of the station's morning traffic. While he personally wasn't a big fan of them, the only way to get from Lifan to Toran in anything resembling a reasonable amount of time was to take a train. He handed over the necessary amount to the attendant and glanced around, losing himself in the bustle of the place.

"Just a moment," the attendant said, completely stopping in his tracks mid transaction. The older man eyed Oz up and down, as if trying to confirm something with a rather scrutinizing look. "You're that Morioka woman's apprentice, aren't ya?" he asked innocently, to which Oz could only nod his head slowly in silent confirmation, his face scrunched up quizzically. Yet the attendant said nothing while he rummaged through the drawers on his side.

"Aha! There we are," the man finally proclaimed as he held up a letter for Oz to see. "An odd one, that master of yours," he went on to say nonchalantly as he opened it and took out the money inside. "Said her apprentice would be coming through here and that he would probably be going to Toran, so she left enough money for your ticket." He finished his little explanation as he produced the ticket and handed both it and the money Oz had previously tried to pay with. But when his eyes fell on the aforementioned apprentice's face, a small, unnecessarily apologetic laugh escaped him.

"Looks like you have it rough. Try to hang in there kid."

---

By the time the train finally pulled into Toran, Oz had come dangerously close to becoming completely stir-crazy. The brown haired youth was off the train before the doors had even finished opening. He could have sworn that one of the train operators muttered something along the lines of "kids these days," but he was already too far ahead of the words to worry about it much.

Oz didn't have a particular destination in mind as he took off, simply enjoying being free of the oversized metal box that had been his prison for the past few hours. But even at his quick pace, he couldn't help but marvel at how different Toran was from Lifan. While he didn't stop at any point to truly appreciate any of the art adorning the various buildings and bridges, he couldn't help but be impressed by their sheer ambition.

It didn't take long for his gallivanting around town to take him to the town square, where some kind of commotion was breaking out. It didn't take much detective work to figure out who the perpetrators were, as the crowd had been polite enough to give the two trainers duking it out plenty of room. The woman was instantly recognizable to Oz as a Lifanite, a true Lifanite unlike himself, while the dark skinned man she was trading blows with was much more difficult to place.

As his footsteps finally came to a stop, he noticed he was standing right next to a short girl with blonde hair.

"Looks like I've missed quite a bit," he announced good naturedly, as if the two of them were old friends. "Who do you think is coming out on top here?"

Denral

[User]
▀▄▀▄▀▄ Mαʅʅσɾყ ▄▀▄▀▄▀
Time, IC Day: Late Morning, Day 1
Location: Toran, within the city

---

Mallory saw Xander's explanation about Sei as more of an excuse, not a solution to his problem. She made a note to see what she could find in the library over Mythari. It might yield more help than simply laying the blame on the fact the natrelmon evolved and gotten a wild streak because of it. At this moment, she was glad she only got a 'spooky' natrelmon rather than a nuisance like Sei.

For most his conversation, she remained silent. His view on the magic school drew an eye roll from her, naturally. While 'self-taught' in magic was possible, she viewed it to be a riskier version of proper education. It was likely because she was biased, but she found it hard to believe he could cast magic as well as herself or her classmates. The fact he hadn't set himself on fire was a miracle enough.

His excitement was palpable when it turned to his new natrelmon. Her gaze followed him while he introduced each one, from the Grianos to Loutila. The Bovent and Loutila appeared to be the more well behaved and passive of the group, enjoying each other's company.

When he mentioned never getting into a fight, she frowned.

"Let me guess, you randomly just tossed relics until you caught them?" Her voice took on a sour tone as she exhaled, keeping her frustration in check.

She slurped up the last of her noodles leaving the bowl empty now.

Casually she reached into her bag and pulled a dishcloth from a waterproof bag, her figure rose from the seat. She made her way over to the fountain then dampened the rag. Finally, she wiped out her bowl and chopsticks, sticking them into her bag. Her free hand gestured for his, indicating he should pass it over so she could repeat the process.

"Maybe afterward, I'm heading into the wild to see what I can find. I will also need that bowl and chopsticks back... unless you want to eat from a leaf in the future?" She asked, making a note where the local trash bin.

[Assistant]
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As Mezhas watched the bout, she couldn't help but feel she was slightly out of her depth. She was aware that her dark gifts gave her a distinct advantage, but watching these two made it feel as though the advantages were insignificant. She wondered if this was how the battles at the arenas would be, and for a moment her rites felt like an insurmountable adventure.

Her focus was broken by a man's voice beside her, and her head snapped sideways to look at him. After composing herself with a deep breath, she took a brief moment to study the man, and frowned slightly as her eyes returned to the ongoing fight. She couldn't exactly answer him, and without thinking brought a hand to her neck, pressing her fingers to the pronounced scars on her throat without a word.

She took her hand from her throat, then pointed at the woman. While she couldn't really tell who was doing will in the situation, she figured the man wouldn't notice her shrug, and she felt pressured to give some kind of answer. She figured she chose more out of a bias favoring women than anything else, but decided not to think too hard about the whys. She wouldn't be able to give the man her opinion if he asked anyway, so she figured that point was moot.


[System]
Gender: Male.
Age: Unknown, due to warp influence.
Faction/Race/Species: Adeptus Astartes.
Sub-Faction: Fallen of the former Dark Angels of Caliban.
Rank/Position: Former techmarine.

Mental and Physical Traits: Xepherial is a logicalist and a pragmatist to a far greater degree than his Adeptus Mechanicus mentors would be comfortable with in current times. He is sharp of mind and exemplifies a scientist in his pursuit of truth and understanding. Ideally, his fighting is done by the machines he communes with, which can be quite substantial with all of them working in blessed coordination. He prefers to plan ahead and be prepared for battle, but should he personally engage, his sharp mind can simultaneously command four extra limbs in addition to his own, making him a terrifying opponent indeed. He doesn't have much experience fighting unarmed and unarmored and doesn't plan to gain that experience. He's standard size for a space marine but of course does see to the maintenance of his biologic components as diligently as he would any weapon or vehicle. He is typically quiet and confident and fully devoted to the Emperor while also fully respecting the presence of the Omnissiah in all non-sentient machines.

Appearance: Xepherial looks surprisingly youthful, with straight black hair and light colored skin. His eyes are a confused shade of hazel, but he usually wears his helm. He always wears his artificer power armor, a variant of the Mk V Maximus, with the left pauldron being black and bearing the old icon of the sword and wings. The armor of the right arm and left leg is red. His servo-harness is black, bearing two servo-arms, a combi-tool, a Fyceline Torch and a Plasma Cutter. The Machina Opus is clearly visible on his midsection and right pauldron, while his chestplate bears the typical Imperialis.

Wargear: Calling upon his training from Mars, Xepherial was able to repair and maintain his gear. He has the servo-harness and four accessory arms which wire directly into his spinal column for maximal control by his brain. He carries a bolter and still has his Omnissian power axe. Other than that, he is accompanied by whatever constructs he has either built or found across his path and restored.

History: Xepherial began as a native to Caliban, was recruited and trained, survived, and a century or so later was sent to Mars. He spent the standard 30 year cycle at Mars and then returned home, just in time to miss departing with El'Johnson and the majority of the Dark Angels forces in the Crusades. Apparently, Luther and the Lion had some kind of disagreement that was mentioned only in whispered rumors that had caused some bad blood. For the next 50 years, El'Johnson kept failing to return to Caliban, and everyone began to suspect a problem. Xepherial had been "left behind" with the Lutherian Dark Angels, and was on that side of the fence when Lion El'Johnson finally did return to Caliban after the Horus Heresy and civil war broke out. Xepherial remembers everything.

That was because it all happened only less than 50 years ago, according to Xeph. The warp storm had sucked him in and thrown him across time AND space far into the future. He originally had no idea where or when he was and wandered alone on a strange hostile world on the edge of the warp that was ruled by human warbands and mercenaries. His first encounter with the natives quickly demonstrated that he could not be easily taken down and salvaged, so a truce was eventually reached. Xepherial agreed to temporarily join the warband, exchanging his service for information and supplies. He came to be a respected oracle of sorts giving his adopters quite an edge in their inter-gang wars simply by upkeeping their machines.

The forsaken denizens of his world seemed to quickly become more and more depraved over time, and the worship of chaos was something Xepherial couldn't stomach. For years, he listened to communication lines and plotted his departure form the world, driven by the need to discover what had happened to his home planet, his chapter, and his honor. Finally, the predictions of a psyker, a shaman among the natives told him a set of coordinates where he must go, that "one of his kind" would be found there, but also he gave a warning. His brothers were his brothers no more, and if they found him, they would kill him.

Xepherial eventually acquired a small ship and was able to revive its machine spirit enough to fly once more. Deciding he would rather die than waste a warrior's years on some Emperor-forsaken hellworld, Xepherial launched himself on a mission of faith.

[User]
Ga'duk waited patiently in his seat, the rumbling engines and high alert in the rest of his squad going largely unnoticed. He had performed and confirmed his ready check twice, although the sergeant had fixed his mask so that it was actually sealed and would protect him from a hard vacuum if the hulk had vented its atmosphere. The pilots navigated around shining spotlights on several crash sites across the hulk's shell but were always less than satisfied by the possible landing zone. The sergeant moved to the front cabin and began arguing with the pilots so that he could depart and complete his mission, Ga'duk on the other hand rocked gently back and forth day dreaming of mopping a vast station rather than getting "'oonds" and having to spend days with the medi-guys.

Finally the sergeant and pilots hammered out a plan and pulled the rear of the transport to a section of hull that seemed sturdy enough to bear their weight. The transport locked itself to the hull with some mag-clamps and opened its door to bare hull. The guards understood immediately and broke out their breeching cutters, thin jets of hot plasma slowly burned through the hull leaving droplets of hot slag cooling on the floor. While the guardsmen were cutting the sergeant turned to Ga'duk. "Are you ready?" he said rhetorically, Ga'duk nodded but the sergeant continued "good, now when we get the hole cut you have to go out FIRST and KILL anything that is NOT us. Ok?"

Ga'duk nodded slowly, "y-..yeah, i got it sarge" he said laughing "i'll squish dem"

The sarge slapped his shoulder "yeah, thats good, its what He would want."

Ga'duk's eyes went wide "He? You mean da Empoor?"

"Yes, He wants you to squish the enemy"

Once the sarge stopped talking Ga'duk charged the half cut breech slamming with his full weight and strength, several of his squad had to dive out of the way to escape from being crushed between the ogryn's shield and the hull. The first impact warps the hull and audibly strains the metal, each of the gaurdsmen stare at Ga'duk in surprise both his unexpected charge and his immense strength buckling the thick hull. He backs up and readies to charge again, "squish dem for da Empoor!" he shouts as he charges again crashing through the weakened hull into a large corridor. He raises his axe and searches for a target bellowing a barbaric warcry, but finds none. The guardsmen follow him out and form a semicircle barricade of las-guns around the breech. Ga'duk looks around again while lowering his axe before dropping his head, "I sorry Empoor, der was nuttin to squish.." he said, vox channel open. His entire squad chuckled but Ga'duk was visibly wounded that he could not fulfil the Emperor's will.

[Assistant]
The generators started to light up, slowly. But instead of the usual blue hue it gradually turned to purple in the same rate which it grew in luminosity. Until it was a raging inferno of warp light that intermixed with the plasma within.

During this, Zuriel felt an opening, a rift further to the fore of the hulk. It closed almost as soon as it had opened, but something came through.
Was it a summoning? Or just a single effect? No matter what, it was no minor psychic power being unleashed and more importantly, there was another psyker on board.
He smiled, he suspected there probably was other on board the hulk, probably even psykers. Definitively psykers if one counted deamons. Albeit weak ones.
Now he knew, he cursed his wandering mind. He had let too much energy through, his ritual was disturbed. The generator hissed and spat, wailing faces emerged in the light and in the corners of vision and atop the machine, a fury and some disfigured dark fiend sat and licked their mouths when gazing at the dread magi busy with the ritual.

If it was more power the warp wanted, it would get it.
Zuriel cast his hands towards the ceiling and began shouting his incantations instead of simple murmuring. He allowed energy to pass through the veil at an increased rate and more than that, he enforced his will upon it even further.
The small deamons on top of the reactor wailed in terror, they had misjudged their planned meal and now fled. There was no time however as the dread magi violently gestured more energy into the star, energy began to visibly enter it and wind began to rush into the symbol. The deamons tried to clamber and flee, but was pulled in by the gale wind which violently yanked at the robes of the fallen tech priest. The pathetic deamons dematerialized and became energy to fuel the ritual.

As black tar like warp stuff dripped from his eyes, mouth and from under his robes he finished the incantation.
The generator was now running at more capacity than it was supposed to bear, light shone out from rips and tears in the reactor and the ship got a massive influx of raw electricity.
Lumo bars exploded, blue lightning arced here and there and warning sirens began to blare.

With a black smeared smile Zuriel exclaimed.
-"Excellent..."

The generator was going to explode... in time. For the moment it was producing enough power to probably run a couple of ships, armed only with lances in high combat pressure.
The only thing keeping them from rupturing instantly was the energies Zuriel put in place to sustain it. It would not last forever.

As he turned around and began to walk away with heavy steps, he couldn't help but fiddle with his fingers, holding his fingertips at the fingertips of his other hand and flexing.
He was on his way to the sensorium.

[User]
The two shuttlecraft from the trader vessel were tightly sealed to a flat surface of metal that was 90 degrees to the surface where Xeraphiel was standing on. They were high above his head as if clinging to the side of a wall. He craned his neck to look up at them. It being space, the techmarine simply jumped onto the wall with his magnetic feet and began walking toward the shuttles. "Up" had a new direction.

The vessels were powered, but were also dark and vacant. It was obvious that the crew had gone straight through the underside into the hulk just moments ago. If he had intent to follow them, then he would have to traverse into the spacehulk from the same point. Fortunately, the traders had already cut an opening.

Xepherial raised his left, black gauntlet over the door mechanism, holding it only an inch away. A specialized dentrite snaked from his wrist and began signalling to the shuttle controls. Xepherial had no intent of damaging the shuttle, for all creatures and artifacts that embodied knowledge were sacred. Convincing the machine to override the safety protocols and open its door would be far more efficient and less blasphemous than plasma-cutting through ceramite. The two beings argued at the speed of electric impulses traveling through circuits and neurons until an agreement was reached. Xepherial had won. "Comprehension is the key to all things." He affirmed as the seal split, and pressure briefly escaped the cabin.

Passing into the hulk, there was air pressure. Sensors detected it was breathable, at least for a neigh-immortal space marine. What was more, there was sound, and a new direction for gravity. The techmarine landed loudly, armored feet against metal floor, as he responded to the readings his poweraromor supplied. Ancient generators were supplying artificial gravity somewhere in this place, maintaining a level akin to native Terra. It was a strange fact that sentient life didn't often develop on planets with gravitational extremes.

There was only one direction his targets could have gone, and so Xepherial began following. It wasn't long before a freshly cut opening in a metal wall revealed the path his quarry had taken. Cutting a door would have slowed them down, so they must have been close. Xepherial kept his senses on high alert. He wasn't exactly silent, but neither was the slowly flexing conglomeration of broken ships and asteroid. Deeper and deeper he traversed. Disturbances in the dust on the floor betrayed the tracks of Fio'Ui, Joran, Nykerio, and Naamah, helping Xepherial know which way to turn in the large open chambers. There wasn't much light, and the ship he was in appeared to be well devoid of any other life. As he walked, he brought up the display of the signal source he had recorded from the small, incinerated Imperial craft he had visited outside and was impressed to find the traders seemed to be heading directly for it. Cooincidence couldn't yet be ruled out, however.

The display vanished and Xepherial's bolter swung in the direction of a flash of movement in the corner. ... Trained on the location, Xepherial was fully ready to fire, but no enemy showed itself. Whatever that had been, it was gone, but it had revealed itself. After a quick 360 scan, Xepherial returned to his pursuit.


[System]
Species: Human
Gender: Male
Age: Around Early 20s
Height: 165 cm
Appearance: People only heard him on early and during the war, no one knows who he is except the king, prince and king's military personals. They describe his appearances unique and odd along with other knights. It was a iron-clad with a different design, an odd looking headwear with a pair of horned attached, the facewear resembled as a demonic looking. He fought savagely with a multi type of weapon in the heat of the battle. Without an armor, he is wearing kimono and hakama. He has a medium skin tone, handsome facial, shouldered length black hair that always tied as ponytail and a pair of brown eyes.

Bio: He came from the land of Samurai. An only son of the defeated daimyo that fled to the nation along with his mother. With an unfortunate event, the ship they ridden capsized by a tidal wave. He was only the one that had been recovered from the shore of Kindeance. He entered his service at 16 years old from the lowest to the knight of the field. On his skirmishes he gained his nickname of The Horned Ironclad Demon. Adapted with various type of weapon in the heat of battlefield, matching enemies from one against the hundred, he fought savagely and brought fear to the opposing side. He took many of the heads of suspected superiors on opposing side to the king. A samurai way to proven himself as useful fighter. He served loyally to the king and developed a close bond to the young prince.

After his service. He became a member of the Adventurer's Guild. Rose up the rumors about him as he keep soloing the high difficulty quests.

When the event came by, he received a special quest straight from the top, which is the king himself. He accepted it because he knew he was trustworthy and capable to doing this special task and the young prince was involved on this event.

The ronin attended the king along with the unfamiliar new faces.

Skillset and spells:

Mononofu: The way of the samurai. Compatible with various samurai weapons and mentally focus during the battlefield. Gaining almost perfect Hit rate and has an immunity against mental debuff. When mounted, gains high ground advantages along with the compatible weapons.

Ki:a natural energy given off by people and objects when they move. It exists separate from mana. Ki-sensing can be used to predict attacks and others' movement, including natural objects and events found in nature.

Perfect counter: Deflecting melee and physical projectiles. Counter and re-counter counter attacks.

Equipment: Personal horse, samurai armor set and samurai weapons, adventurer bag, convenient consumable stuffs for traveling and a tea set.

Others: He is an experience fighter with quick reaction time and have a sharper instinct than an average. He is also light footed. He likes tea and love to promote his cuisine as he is good on cooking.

[User]
"Our man need to sleep somewhere, yeah? Good point though, so we go in fast and hard. You got our exit planned?" This felt kinda rushed, unless Sparky here secretly already kept a plan to assault the target. Wont be too surprising if she did, honestly. The elf had way too many obstructive layer to be just a disposable pawn like the rest of the team. Just what kind of company was she running?

Yvonne took another bite out of her chicken. Whatever company it was, they made some damn good chicken.

"Yeah, nah. Let's just attack them as your initial plan. If it goes well there should be no tangible way to connect it to us." As if any plan ever went well. If it require more than two steps it's less of a plan and more of wishful thinking, but Yvonne just shrug. She'll improvise on the fly if it's necessary, it's nowhere near her first time up shit creek with no paddle. "You sure our target will be there? It's well past midnight in eight hours."

[Assistant]
[GM Post]

The idea was solid, but plain physics dictated that it wasn't a possible outcome. Converting the ashes back into paper was a slow, energy consuming process, but as it went there's clearly something wrong with it. The reproduced paper was based on the remaining corners - ergo, completely blank. Combustion tend to be a one way street after all.

A fly buzzed and landed on the paper. It rubbed its front pair of legs impertinently.

[User]
The fly was incinerated upon approach, and he irritatingly shot the ashes and paper in his hand forward, making a cloud of black smoke and a decent smear on the wall.
 His usefulness to this team at this point was already questionable, but it only seems to dwindle further.

 No, there's one more foray left to tackle. Henri moved closer to the stairs and carefully discarded all the items that weren't his but Cedar's, then headed down the stairs, meeting the other four members mid-way.
 As he took something off from inside his coat, "Cedar, I left your stuff in there. Matilda," he handed back her family's medallion, and walked past them. "I'm going to check the submerged floors."

 His shoes make an awful amount of clacking noises without Cedar's boots, huh. Putting bronze soles on his shoes for easier sliding and skating... It definitely is one of the ideas of all time.
 After making sure that all the items within his body are fully sealed to prevent water damage, and depraved of air to prevent buoyancy, he walked down the waterlogged stairs and into the water.

[Assistant]
[GM Post]

The submerged level was pitch black. Moss grown on just about any surface, while tiny fishes lazily floated around the room without much care to the world. The layout was much the same as the floors above, and equally empty. Seemed that this level wasn't instantly flooded back then, allowing the content to be evacuated before the water took them. The structure itself was relatively well-preserved despite decades sitting underwater, though the great logs holding up the ceiling had shown some signs of rotting by now.

The stairs still continued down, to what must've been the cellar.

[User]
Kaito listened quietly to Jazdia's plan. It was pretty audacious to just blitz in through the front door, grab the man and get out. However if they could manage to lure away enough people, they might make it to the target and get out. However, the aftermath could become problematic. The Black Serpent's guild would see it as a declaration of war.

"I think it is plausible. With the distraction and the element of surprise to actually get in and get out. No one in the Black Serpent guild is going to expect anyone storming through the front door. So far so good. But the plan hinges on if we can find evidence of their involvement and if we can persuade the royal court to make a move. If we fail on that second part we'll have the entire guild coming for our heads. I doubt constable Delving would be very pleased to raid the Black Serpent guild for us after today, in the case he's not involved with them himself. Who do we present the evidence to?"

[Assistant]
Invoking Golem Automaton's 30ft-radius perception to be able to 'see' solid surfaces and temperature in the water.

 As he walks deeper in and the mineral oil grease seeps upward out of his body, he wondered. What exactly did he expect to find here? These lower floors must have been submerged for an innumerable amount of years, exploring this has a massive chance of being completely fruitless in relation to finding the prince.

 Nevertheless, he pushed on, down towards the cellar. He was curious.

[User]
[GM Post]

An actual door actually barred the cellar entrance, though the once solid wood had rotten soft and the hinges rusted brittle. It detached and slowly fell backward with the slightest push, impacting the ground with a dull thud. There's many objects here - barrels by the dozens lined the walls on both sides, whatever it contained had long since compromised by the rotting wood. There's a sizeable wooden table down at the center, flanked by long benches, equally rotten to the rest of the room. On the far side was what looked like a well, its purpose made obsolete by the sheer amount of water available in the immediate vicinity.

On closer examination, a few chests were stacked at the corner next to the barrels. Rot had started to afflict the wood, but nowhere as severe as the rest of everything in the cellar. Was the wood treated before?

[Assistant]
Cedar gladly reclaimed his clothes and boots-- then set about washing the remaining bits of muck (and filth, from the way he came in) from his extremities before re-clothing himself.

"Nice ta get my clothes back on--" he murmured. "Nasty way in though-- an' I JUST had a bath!" He frowned in that inscrutable way he did when displeased.

He turned to face Matilda.

"Looks like 'is place is all cleared out a'eady. Shame-- I werent none too sure if'n there was bastards in 'ere stills er not-- Spent a good hour planting surprises for em, if'n they was... Had jus' gotten all clean from walkin' the marsh all in muf fur for disguise reasons, when Henri said ya was in here aready. Glad ta see ain't no harm done... Lesee what the dumbshits lef' fer us."

Reclaiming his walking stick and leaning on it in his usual manner, he began his own inspection of the room he and Matilda were in.

[User]
[GM Post]

Some part remained relatively untouched. The bedrolls was still laid out in order on one side. The one cookpot with a layer of moldy something at the bottom was still by its lonesome at the corner after someone kicked it off the spit a few days ago. The face-down corpse and unstrung bow hadn't moved at all from its previous position, near dead center amidst the pool of dried blood and a veritable swarm of flies. And some crows, that took stock of the party for a grand total of three seconds before returning to their feast.

A few things changed. The ash that was gathered by the cooking fire had been dashed against a wall, leaving a white-grey splotch and a few scattered scrap of paper. The rolls of tools have been, well, unrolled to reveal their secret. Empty backpacks piled on one side, its content regurgitated and rearranged in an obsessively neat manner across the floor.

A few adventurous flies were crawling over the recently unveiled preserved food, impertinently rubbing their front legs together like a group of evil masterminds.

[Assistant]
By this amount of barrels... How much of this waterlogged room is just wine? If someone else swam in here, would they get drunk?

 He grabbed one of rotten barrels and cast Inorganic Heal on it. Yeah, that would work. He tossed the repaired barrel aside, back into where he found it, as he focused on the two chests beside the corners of the barrel racks. Wait. He walked a little around the table, and saw a third chest, and a fourth. Ah.

 He summarily kicked the table and chairs aside, disintegrating them into nothing but a disheveled wood pile on one side of the room, and willed the chests to scoot closer to him so they're all at arm's reach. These chests... It's probably safe to open them underwater, right? These chests don't exactly come waterproof.

 Henri began opening them, one by one, with his own hands so as to naturally dismantle any such magical traps laid on them, while using Telekinesis to basically command the locks to release or be shattered.

[User]
[GM Post]

Thankfully, the way alcohol worked it'll disperse very quickly in presence of water. Not like Henri could get drunk, but still. Think of the fishes. As for the latest loot, each of them let out sizeable air bubbles as they're opened. Upon closer look there's rubber lining the rims, giving them good waterproofing to last through all these decades submerged.

They're filled with bottles. The first two, according to the label, was whiskey. The next two had differently shaped bottle, labeled vodka. Not like it's readable in the pitch black. Within each box was a piece of paper that was probably receipt or something, now completely drenched by the rushing water.

[Assistant]
Chonan nodded at Jazdia, and took the arrows from her, along with the map that listed the targeted locations. "I shall start early to make the needed preparations. Thank you for the meal; I'll catch up with you guys later." he said, while making a bow to the party, before immediately leaving the inn.

He headed to the weapon shop to browse for a bow, pathing straight to their displayed wares, where he picked out a decent long bow then tested its pull weight. Nodding his satisfaction to the shopkeeper, he approached the counter to make his purchase.

"A Longbow huh? Well, that's something new from you." the man said. "What happened to your sense of artistic fashion? That seems a bit plain for your tastes."

"It never hurts to try new things." replied Chounan.

"I see.." said the owner, rubbing his face with an amused smile, as Chounan counted out the coin.

Having made the purchase, he left the weapon shop. His reasons for purchasing a simpler, more common bow were pretty straight forward: His preferred Yumi was rather conspicuous and easily identified. He did not want to be identified as the culprit, should people start asking. Appearances weren't important. The clothing he had on underneath his armor was dark, and would blend into the shadows in the alleys at night nicely.

***

(This mission should be effortless. I've been practicing the bow since I was 3, and this will be no different from any of the competitions I've shot in, and took the purse.) he thought to himself.

Soon enough, it was time for the mission. He took his horse, Kuro, and dressed in a hooded cloak for extra concealment. As his name suggested (for any that knew the language, anyway), Kuro was black, making finding the branding mark on him difficult in the daylight, let alone at night. Identifying him should be all but impossible.

Like a bandit on a raid, he headed for his first target. He remained calm, enforcing the proper breathing techniques from his many competative shooting contests back home. He drew the bow back, then released the arrow straight into the rafters of the warehouse, right through the open ventillation window without stopping his horse, before moving to the next target. One arrow per warehouse, unless size dictated more.

Using the back alley ways, and 'scenic byways' to escape guard patrols and Guild members, he made his way back to link up with the group once more in the early hours of the morning, meeting with Jazdia as she was having her morning breakfast.