As the adrenaline faded, so too did their sense of slowed time. While some experienced the change more than others, all could feel a slight change in the movement of the grass, the blowing of the wind. It seemed as if, unless they were in combat, the time dilation that their AGI granted them wouldn’t activate. It was a small thing, though, compared to the bigger problems that cropped up. Despite his participation in battle, and despite setting up the party for everyone else, Ames hadn’t received a single point of experience from the fight…a fact that didn’t initially stand out to the others, when Ari and Klein hadn’t either.

No one was particularly worried about the discrepancy in EXP gain though, and other than Raime’s adventures with testing out local herbs, a portion of the party scattered off back to town.

The ranger’s investigations, if it could be called such, didn’t last long enough to give him any obvious hints as to what exactly was edible, what was beneficial, and what was poisonous. The wilderness corndog that was the riverside cattails tasted about as cotton-y as he would have expected it to, but the rest all had a vaguely grass-like taste, in that it didn’t taste all that great or noticeable. Some stood out from the others though; a plant with rounded, white leaves about the size of his thumb felt cool to the touch when he rubbed it against his skin. His resources were at their max, so it was unknown what numerical benefits, if any, would come of this, but it was a promising result after foraging for all of five minutes.

After all, while Raime may be satisfied with tasting unknown plants in a virtual world, the remaining members of the party were here to grind levels and get swole!

Though they lost their main tank in the form of Lugh and their only melee weapon as a result of that, the party remained fairly solid as they fought more kappas down the length of the Pearl Bloom River. Magpie’s improvised weapon proficiency meant that she wasn’t ever completely unarmed, while Klein’s Nuclei ensured that he could safely tank even without a healer present, so long as he wasn’t in a situation where he would get hit again. As his own stats increased, so did the accuracy and fire rate of Raime’s shots, while Amulak remained a bolt-slinging mage in the backline, doubtlessly outperforming the others in DPS. They set a steady rhythm as their stats increased with further level-ups, and soon enough, kappa were just fodder for them to deal with. Magpie’s sandals, Raime’s bolts, Klein’s fists, and Amulak’s magic were enough to deal with any of those turtle-wrestler-freaks that popped up from the river.

And yet, even when his own participation, his own attacks, was not insignificant, Ames still could not seem to get a single level up. As a matter of fact, the party as a whole had their grinding slowed significantly due to how the red-haired warrior didn’t receive resource refills like the rest of them, and couldn’t regenerate resources in other ways like Klein could. Ames simply had to wait for his HP to slowly crawl back up at the end of every fight, while the others waited.

What was going on? Though the warrior wasn’t completely useless as he still had his talisman-boosted stats, the gap was closing rapidly. Was this a bug? In a game famed for not having any bugs? Or was something else at play here?

As Ames mused about this, their HP just about filled up once more, the party’s path down the Pearl Bloom River brought them to the apex of a hill, from which a small waterfall crashed down. In the frothing waters, within the pounding mist, the party could make out a silhouette. Something, some[i]one[/i] was there.

[b]“Gero gero.”[/b]

The silhouette in the waterfalls disappeared.

Behind them, they could all hear the dripping of water.

There was a frogman standing there, green-and-black skin glistening in the light of day. It towered over even Klein, its trunk-like leg muscles thrumming with each beat of its war drum heart. Wrapped in a reed-weaved robe, it stared down at them.

[b]“Ribbit.”[/b]

And in that moment, the party knew.

Poorly equipped as they were, flight was not an option here.
[sub][@Searat][@Psyker Landshark][@Yankee][@OwO][@Shovel][/sub]
[hr]
[hider=Statistics: “Damage Nullified by END”]
[quote]
12 Damage
[/quote]
[/hider]
[hider=Query: “Kekkaishi”]
[quote]
A class focused on creating a variety of static barriers to ward off attacks, manipulate terrain, or crush foes. Consecrate land to debilitate your foes while shielding your allies with talismans and battle chants. Specializes in using staves.
[/quote]
[/hider]
Though his grip on her had been solid, Lugh wasn’t vigilant all the time. While he had been distracted by checking up his stats and looking through new possible classes to pick up, Ari slipped out of his grasp and was gone in the teeming masses of other kookily-designed players. Yes, he perhaps could have gone around grabbing every cat-eared girl and checking to see if it was Ari, but that would have ended up worse than Magpie causing a commotion in front of the Keystone itself.

Anyways, Horogi may be known as the hardcore PvP nation, but it was also known as the nation of the degenerates. There were furries everywhere once he started looking for them.

With that, Lugh simply struck it out solo once more, his dark hair ruffled by Zephyrus’s grace as he strode through the crowds like a shadowy snake through a grove. The area were the Keystone was served as a natural gathering point for Immortals, and subsequently, the locals had set up a large message board up there as well, plastering it with quests, mundane jobs, or advertisements. The sheer amount of text caused him to blink a couple times, but after his vision cleared, Lugh found himself able to read the foreign script as if it was English.

Some points stood out to him. Caravan escort quests to the Mora-Sho looked absolutely lucrative, compared to requests for guards of caravans heading elsewhere. Monster extermination requests were plenty, offering what seemed to be decent monetary rewards, but requested parties to check-in at the Mora-Sho Gentlemen’s Society regularly. Other requests seemed almost insane, if not for how Immortals were, indeed, immortal. Apothecaries and medicinemen wishing to test new potions and poisons on live subjects. Mysterious organizations asking for healthy blood donors with a high tolerance to pain. Crazed arts wishing for models that had nearly inhuman proportions. It was all wild, but perhaps some craziness was to be expected.

After all, this [i]was[/i] a crazy world.

A popcorn stall was also looking for new workers.
[sub][@Cu Chulainn][/sub]
[hr]
[hider=Class Search: “Qi”]
[u][b]Low Rank[/b][/u]
[quote][i]Monk[/i]
[sub]+10% SP | +5% STR | +15% DEX [/sub]
[hider=Requirements]
[list]
[*]Max SP equal to or greater than 100. (Current: 50)
[*]50% of total damage dealt to enemies comes from unarmed attacks. (Current: 0%) 
[*]Receive training at the Gao Long Monastery.[/list]
[/hider][/quote] 
[quote][i]Qi Gong[/i]
[sub]+20% SP | 10% END [/sub]
[hider=Requirements]
[list]
[*]Max SP equal to or greater than 100. (Current: 50)
[*]Receive training at the Gao Long Monastery. 
[*]Recover 200 HP passively, without resting. (Current: 6)[/list]
[/hider][/quote] 
[quote][i]Dao Shi[/i]
[sub]+15% SP | +15% MP[/sub]
[hider=Requirements]
[list]
[*]Max MP equal to or greater than 100. (Current: 30)
[*]Max MP equal to max SP.
[*]Meditate underneath the Pearl Bloom Falls.[/list]
[/hider][/quote] 
[quote][i]Shinobi[/i]
[sub]+5% SP | +20% AGI | +5% DEX[/sub]
[hider=Requirements]
[list]
[*]Perform 3 backstabs at the beginning of combat. (Current: 0)
[*]Defeat one monster solo without receiving damage.
[*]Receive training at ???[/list]
[/hider][/quote] 
[quote][i]Sohei[/i]
[sub]+5% HP | +10% STR | +15% DEX[/sub]
[hider=Requirements]
[list]
[*]Max STR equal to or greater than 10. (Current: 10)
[*]Light an Incense Stick at a shrine in the wilderness.
[*]Defeat, but do not slay, 5 humanoid monsters.[/list]
[/hider][/quote] 
[/hider]
Though none of the “qi” classes appeared to be easily accessible to Ari in her current state, that didn’t deter the cat-eared girl at all from scrambling into the crowds and escaping her captor/teammate. The instructions that Fa Trung gave her for the hideout of the Tsi-Lai Gang were still fresh in her head, and with another improvised weapon in her hands, she scrambled for the location. Two blocks west of the southern gate, underneath a bridge!

The density of the amount of people in Nyu-Taro never seemed to change, no matter where one went, but the quality of the people certainly did. Whether by necessity or by aesthetic choice, the people who Ari slipped by around the southern side streets of the city-state definitely looked on the sketchy side of things, people who would scam a senior with a fake water purifier and then place a fake fly in a restaurant meal so they could bully the manager into giving them a free meal. Not murderous or violent, but assholes of a different kind.

And, like assholes wont to be, the bridge that the beggar man had mentioned before stood over a sluggish river of sewage, rotting garbage seeping down. The smell was horrendous, all wet and moldy, and just being nearby was enough to make her ears shudder in disgust. But the quest was a quest, and Ari would be remiss to give up here. She dropped down, approached the collection of crates that Fa Trung said would be hiding an entrance, and as she got close, she could hear the sounds of other human beings seeping through the cracks and gaps between the boxes.

Laughter, jazzy music, and the sounds of cards and dice being slapped on the table.

This wasn’t just a den of rogues she was planning on invading. This was a den of [i]gambling[/i]
[sub][@GreenGoat][/sub]