FujiwaraPhoenix

The Jade Stream

Well, here's where I ask you two to figure out what you want: a cave as a base, or an underground base in the forest. You don't have to ask for permission from me for this; one of you, just pick something in your next post and we'll roll with it.
Of course, I'll be fleshing out the place, but details.
Hooray for player-driven pseudo-freedom!

The Jade Stream

"...Y'know, I'm fairly certain that tapping rocks won't get us anywhere in our investigation..." Liu trailed off as he watched Torako go around and poke any rock that seemed 'right' to her. It was a way to start, at least; he'd give her that much. But given what they knew about the bandits so far...

"I mean, if I knew the place I'm pretty sure people would've dragged me along to hunt down these bandits a while ago. As things stand, we might have to comb the place over to find anything. Though... I think we can narrow down the location, at the very least. I'll keep on the lookout for that kind of thing, though, Kyang, so bear with me here."

As the three continued to walk along, Liu began to list off what would make sense about the hideout's location.

"First and foremost, it's probably relatively close to where we are now. The main roads to and from the town are a while away, and the bandits hauling their loot back would have to deal with fatigue on top of likely having fought the people transporting the goods. Next, there's probably something inconspicuous hiding it... Assuming it isn't a cave, of course. A giant boulder in the middle of a forest, for example, sticks out like a sore thumb, especially if there are no signs of things like moss or the rock being worn away at any point. Now, underbrush, on the other hand..."

Liu continued on, beginning to veer off the path to look around for anything unnatural; a trail of crushed plants, for example. To hide a tree in a forest would be no hard feat, after all. But...

"I mean, there's always a chance I could be wrong about this. Either way, we need to find the place and strike before any of the bandits start catching on that those others have been missing... Which, to be honest, I'm worried they might have already."

I died and reincarnated into fantasy world- WHAT'S WITH THIS LIGHT NOVEL-LIKE SETTING!?!

Takeyoshi Sakujima- 歩いて行く

The corridor that the two walked down was, luckily enough, well-lit; Takeyoshi didn't expect that much, if anything. Granted, the whole dungeon had a very... Magitech-like aspect to it, so it made enough sense to prevent him from dwelling on the matter too much. The lighting itself was a tad... Nostalgic, though that was probably the color of the lights doing work there.

The end of the passageway led to what was effectively another identical room to the one from before, save for the way back. At the very least, they didn't go in a big circle... Right?

As soon as the thought crossed his mind, though, the way back was slowly closed off by a wall rising from the ground.
Of course.
The mark above the gate was marked 'teleport,' which made sense; that was where they came from, after all. Before Takeyoshi could make a suggestion to Miyu, though, he noticed the light gathering above her head.
...
Oh.

"For the love of--!"
Just as Miyu fired the explosion magic forward, Takeyoshi took a step back and covered his ears. The explosion was deafening, throwing a large cloud of smoke and dust into the air. It seemed to be far enough away from them to not warrant any coughing, But, even so...!

"What are you thinking?! The place is probably built to withstand stuff like that! And what if it backfired and blew US up instead?!" he asked incredulously, staring at the cloud and waiting for it to dissipate.
If it ended up actually REVEALING something, though, he'd eat his own words. But that was probably as unlikely as it'd get.
Probably.

I died and reincarnated into fantasy world- WHAT'S WITH THIS LIGHT NOVEL-LIKE SETTING!?!

Takeyoshi Sakujima- ダンジョンに入れた後で

The momentary flash of light felt par for the course for Takeyoshi; there had been no doors here, after all, so something like this made more than enough sense. Teleportation magic, though... That was something he'd have to look into later. Assuming it wasn't archaic magic or something that required absurd amounts of time and/or energy, it might be worthwhile to dig deeper into in the near future.

The three doors, each with a mask above them, led Takeyoshi back to thinking again. The possibility that the masks meant something straightforward were equally as likely as a trick, so both the happy and sad masks were risky. They reminded him of opera masks, in a way, and those overexaggerated features sent shivers down his spine. At the same time though, the mask with no emotion could have been just as bad, if not worse, than what was down either path. Maybe...

"...Ah? Hey, wait, what!?"

Takeyoshi broke out of his trance-like state almost instantly as Miyu began running down the path he had just been wondering about. Oh, for the love of-

"O-oi! Wait up!" he cried out, taking chase after the girl. "At least make sure that I'm not lost in my thoughts before you dash ahead like that!"

The Jade Stream

"Yeah, Xin decided to finish up his duel early today. I'm expecting him to be done by the time we clean up the bandit leader--earlier, actually. Though I respect his ability to fight, the headmaster is... How can I put it? Er... It feels like he transcends common knowledge, to be quite frank. There's a very good reason as to why he's still at charge, after all," Liu responded in kind as the three began a trek through the slightly-worn forest path to the mountainside. "Though he is an ally of ours, I have to be honest here; I'd put the odds at 90 to 10, in favor of the old man. Xin winning would be a momentous upset, and even then it's a stretch. Of course, I could just as well be saying this because I've known him for longer, but... Well, it's still a tough one."

The trek continued on for a few hours more, the sun rising into its regular position to lord over the land as it did. The forest, while dense, slowly cleared up as the trio's surroundings grew rockier the closer they got to the mountain. The green plants that surrounded the area rapidly began to become more scarce, being replaced by stones of various sizes lying around the area.

"You know... I realize now that we only know the general location and nothing more than that. Maybe I shouldn't have offed the guy so quickly..." Liu trailed off as the mountain began to grow closer and closer. "You want to try looking around for caves? Or do you think it'll be more hidden than that?"

I died and reincarnated into fantasy world- WHAT'S WITH THIS LIGHT NOVEL-LIKE SETTING!?!

Alright, went back and edited my posts accordingly.
Guess I'll sit back and wait for now, then.

I died and reincarnated into fantasy world- WHAT'S WITH THIS LIGHT NOVEL-LIKE SETTING!?!

@PKMNB0Y Eh, no, not like cans, the example is to show how they hover one above other in the sky, not their exact shape.

I imagine them to be this shape:

My Hider

@Medjedovic

Okay, I'll get to editing, then.

By the way, how's the gateway/entry point/whatever supposed to look like?

I died and reincarnated into fantasy world- WHAT'S WITH THIS LIGHT NOVEL-LIKE SETTING!?!

@PKMNB0Y Here's a video of a bloody palace playthrough. Pay attention to the environment, you can see other floors in the distance. Just imagine each floor is a lot larger and closed off.

I use it for comparison because it was a partial inspiration for Qaizan ^^"

@Medjedovic

Huh, so that's how it is, then?

I was assuming it was a tower at first, but then it ended up being a series of magically floating towers, and now I'm not sure what exactly is. Can it be described as a bunch of floating buildings that look like tuna cans or something? Or is my mind veering completely off course?

I died and reincarnated into fantasy world- WHAT'S WITH THIS LIGHT NOVEL-LIKE SETTING!?!

Ah... Hrm.

I should probably fix that, then.
Also, never played DMC games, so.

I died and reincarnated into fantasy world- WHAT'S WITH THIS LIGHT NOVEL-LIKE SETTING!?!

Uh... That's in the other area, and... Well, 'easy' is always subjective. So... Dodging answers wooooo