FujiwaraPhoenix

The Epic of Beginnings - Fragments of a weathered scroll

Misaki simply returned Lazirha's comment with a smile and a nod before refocusing her attention towards her current project—at least, for the moment. Granted, it was far from fun to watch water boil, and less so over an open fire, but as far as how good or bad her current situation was...

Well, the foxgirl would gladly take a boring day preparing materials over being thrown into life-threatening situtations like the others seemed to have had the pleasure of encountering.

Before she could lose herself in her thoughts, though, Misaki managed to catch sight of a few hunters drawing oddly close to the house. Remembering Narkissa's summary of her last encounter, the foxgirl almost instinctively straightened her back, sitting up straight for a moment as she mentally assessed the threat level of the current situation. It was hard to judge if they were hostile and all, but seeing how armed they were...

Well, if worst came to worst, she'd have to take the others and run. Warding off wild animals was one thing, but people? That was another matter entirely.

It took a moment for Lazirha's words to register, and another few to process, though. Thinking about things now, it was hard to argue that she hadn't technically spent the most time around the village and it's residents... Well, minus the hunters, at least. But given how the girl at her side seemed to be troubled, it only made sense to give an honest reply back.

"Hm... Well, I don't quite mind the town," she began, her head moving lightly from side to side, ears swaying back and forth as she did so, "But if I had to be honest, this sort of life isn't... Really my 'thing'. Don't get me wrong; the people here have been really nice and welcoming of me despite being a complete stranger and I'm very grateful for their hospitality, but I guess I'm used to a more... Fast-paced lifestyle surrounded by things to do? I don't think I could deal with a laid-back life for very long, though maybe that's because I'm still curious about the world. Maybe in that regard I'm still a bit naive, though, but, well..."

Of course, 'staying alive' and 'exploration' did not necessarily go hand in hand—quite the opposite, in fact—but if there was anything that dying once had taught her, it was that diving into something unprepared was tantamount to suicide... And if the last few days had taught her anything, it was that she was probably well out of her depth when it came to anything beyond what she was already doing now.

"...With that said, I think that there are people here who care for you, if Enli is any indicator. My parents were also protective of me just as much as they were anxious of my future," she continued, sighing as she let her shoulders relax for a moment. "Would that I could meet them again. But that aside, if you think it's boring here, maybe it's time to spread your wings and fly, so to speak. Not alone, of course, but I don't think it's a bad thing to want to explore and go on a bit of an adventure. Maybe you'll find something new out about yourself in the process? Though, well, I suppose it is a fair deal more dangerous setting out on a journey here in the first place anyways, but if the benefits outweigh the costs..."

Then there's no reason not to consider it, right?

@Rune_Alchemist

Emerald Odyssey — An MMO Isekai RP (Now Accepting!)

Shokatsu Yu

Aluvera — Outskirts

Seeing that a pair of the griffins had managed to slip past Yu's initial assault, Eunice raised her staff in response before erecting a protective barrier around herself. It seemed that she had caught onto her current status as a priority target in the eyes of whatever foe it was that had sent the monsters after her in the first place. With a frown, the white-haired girl winced as the two monsters clashed against the shield and found herself pushed back from the force.

Though the rear was more than safe thanks to Saito's efforts, the group would have been hard-pressed to push past the wave of enemies without having to cut them all down—or, well, that might have been the case, had the arrival of a third party to help reduce the pressure placed on them in the first place. As Yu arrived back at the pair of griffins pressing down upon Eunice, the sound of another roar instinctively pulled the young man's attention towards it. Seeing a shadow flying overhead, the blademaster brought his blade up in preparation for an attack to come flying his way, only to see that it—or, rather, it's rider—swinging away at the monsters he was preparing to attack prior to their arrival. The scattered bolts of magic flying about overhead coupled with the monster's own attacks seemed to catch more than a few harpies and peppered away at the griffins, forcing both to draw back momentarily from the pain; one of the latter was soon run through with a lance, making clear that the duo who had arrived were almost certainly friendly.

Rather than immediately thank them for the help, though, Yu dashed towards the remaining griffin, who despite the attacks it was taking seemed fixated upon striking at Eunice, and summarily thrust his weapon into its eye. The monster reared back in pain too dire to ignore and brutally lashed back at the adventurer, only to find that its attack had all but missed the mark. As it swung wildly about in an attempt to find the opponent that had taked out its eye, though, Yu—who had used the sword lodged within the monster's head as a temporary platform—leaped further into the air before motioning with his hand. The blade seemed to shake for a moment before driving itself further into the griffin's skull, causing it to pause for a moment before falling to the ground.

With room to breathe again, Eunice soon turned her staff towards the remaining griffin in front of her and, after a brief pause, launched a silver bolt of magic from its tip. The spell quickly coalesced into the form of an ornate spear as it drove its way into the monster's body, leaving the others to finish it off.

"Are you two all right?" she asked, glancing towards the two swordsmen as she confirmed their health before nodding and breathing a sigh of relief. Of course, the timely arrival of the other two had turned a slightly problematic situation into more of a rote encounter, but she still felt obligated to thank them all the same.

"Ah... Thank you for your help," she said, bowing before looking at the other two again. "But we must be off; time is of the essence."

It did not cross Eunice's mind to think that her voice might be recognizable despite her outfit, but in what circumstances would that have been normal anyhow?

@Sho Minazuki@Rune_Alchemist@VitaVitaAR

---

Sen Rynta — Bramblewood Estate

It was no surprise that Anastasia found the appearance of Myrtle's residence rather overwhelming, especially given how it was multiple times larger than it already was in the game until then. The young woman's mouth was left agape, and as she was led inside, that awe simply left her dumbstruck.

The grandeur of the structure was undeniable, of course, but the real reason that she was here was that she at least had one other person that she knew in the game here now. Try as she might, Anastasia found herself simply unable to teleport to meet any of her other friends at the moment, scattered about the world as they were, and though the possibility of traveling with others to her destination was possible...

Well, being a stranger to all of them was not something she was entirely comfortable with, either.

@Hammerman@Operator Luna

The Epic of Beginnings - Fragments of a weathered scroll

Once she had gathered everything required to start the process and returned to Lazirha's home, Misaki took a deep breath and began to set everything she needed up. In the middle of preparing the pot of water, though, the foxgirl found herself momentarily accosted by their gracious host, who had apparently returned from wherever she had gone. The curiosity, of course, was reasonable—after all, what sort of 'normal' person in this era would attempt something like this?—and given what she had taken...

Well, it was only right to answer.

"I... Hm... How to describe this..." she began, musing to herself before glancing at the shredded pile of plant matter in its bag before shrugging. "I suppose that the best way to describe this is... I'm taking the fibers that make up the plants here, cleaning them of any spare materials, soaking them to break them down into pulp, then breaking them down further beyond that. Afterwards... Well, assuming Narkissa finishes the frame I asked for, that pulp would be dried in the frame to create something I hope to be able to sell to Lady Mie, even if it's only at a proof-of-concept level. With that said, though, I'd appreciate it if you didn't spread that around the village—at least, not quite yet."

The other people living with Lazirha would probably understand what she was attempting with a glance, at least, even if they might not have understood the process in its entirety—granted, even what she was doing now was still half-fumbling about and piecing together bits and pieces of papermaking from memory—but the bargaining chip would most certainly lose it's value if the process came to light too early. Hopefully that wouldn't be the case, but who knew what would happen?

@Rune_Alchemist

Emerald Odyssey — An MMO Isekai RP (Now Accepting!)

Shokatsu Yu

Aluvera — Outskirts

With consideration to their goal, Saito's suggestion seemed to be the most pragmatic, provided that they were given an opening to break through in the first place. Five griffins was not necessarily the most daunting set of enemies to have to face, sure, but their numbers coupled with the swarm of harpies did not make the task of slipping out of the city unnoticed any more possible.

"If you're heading the rear, I'll take the vanguard," Yu stated, flicking the blood from his sword as he glanced around. The griffins were almost upon them, but the adventurer was not of any mind to let them collapse upon the group so simply.

Running forward, Yu quickly closed the distance between himself and one of the creatures, who seemed to take his choice of action as a challenge. As it attempted to claw at his face as it drew ever closer, the swordsman slid underneath it, running his blade along the monster's stomach and through its body before swinging back around. With Eunice and Saito moving close behind, though, a pair of griffins seemed to fly around and attempt to strike from behind the group. Of course, that left three of the monsters approaching from the front and flanks, but with one of them injured, taking out at least one more would let them simply cut through the rest.

Of course, taking on all of them at once, even with the benefits that the transfer of his skills from the game unto his current form, was not something Yu had much confidence in either. But when the other two in front of him, uninjured as they were, seemed to dive after Eunice regardless of his aggressive position as the harpies harried away at them...

Well, it only made sense to double back and try to pull their attention away. If they were pursuing her, then it only made sense to keep her out of harm's way. The harpies, at least, he could cut down as he moved if they attempted to dive at him again—the bleeding monster lying off to the side from the last time one had attempted something like that proved how wise of an idea that would be to repeat.

@Sho Minazuki

---

As the battles continued on, Sefira would find that her initial volley of spells would provide a few of the people they happened to be aiding the openings they needed to either find more lethal blows or retreat to safety. Of course, with the thinning crowd of monsters, Kokoma's riding about would soon bring to attention another group—one that seemed to be harried by a few more than one or two monsters. The group of griffins and harpies was hard to ignore, especially when they were all apparently converging upon a single point. Whether or not they would intervene and lighten the burden upon them or finish up the rest of the monsters preying on the weak remained to be seen, though...

@VitaVitaAR@Rune_Alchemist

Emerald Odyssey — An MMO Isekai RP (Now Accepting!)

Shokatsu Yu

Aluvera — Inconspicuous House

Yu silently considered Eunice's words as she spoke; logically, there was no reason to stay in Aluvera beyond helping in recovery efforts, and given the amount of people already present within the city, there was no real reason to worry about its further safety. Being as strong as they were (or, well, as he presumed himself and the other two present to be), it only made sense to be a bit more proactive.

"I see no reason to stay put, so I'll also follow suit. I'll be in your care," he said, nodding his head as the other two spoke similarly. The slightest hint of a smile seemed to cross Eunice's face as she heard those words, but no sooner than that did she rise to her feet.

"Then we should depart soon. I fear the incoming rush of people might be a problem unto itself."

As she spoke, Yu brought the UI up and, just as Saito had seen moment prior, found that he could no longer fast travel across the world.

Or, well, to anywhere besides Aluvera, at least.

"...Of course it wouldn't be that easy," he spoke under his breath before standing up as well. "Right. Let's head out, then."

Once everyone had readied themselves, Eunice led the group out of the house, her hood up to hide herself from the public eye as they moved about. The streets were less barren than before, at least; a few people had cautiously come out of their homes to assess the damage, but not adventurers had yet seen them—at least, none as far as any of them could tell. That, at least, made the walk to the city's gates easier.

The wide expanse of land in front of them, developed or otherwise, caused Yu to instinctually take a deep breath; he had seldom been to the countryside, but seeing this sort of view for himself for the first time—at least, from this point of view—was shocking all the same. Of course, that view was soon tainted by the sight of a few of the remaining monsters from the earlier assault, driven out of the city by the legions of adventurers within. Though no small number seemed to be holding the guards at bay, there seemed to be a few hanging around the rearguard for whatever reason.

"I suppose that simply leaving was too much to ask for," Eunice said, unsheathing her staff and holding it at the ready as a few griffins and harpies seemed to notice their presence. "Be careful; they seem to be more organized than the ones you fought at the square."

The griffins—five in number—began to fly around before moving to pincer the group; the harpies, meanwhile, seemed to be watching from the skies, taking any chance they could to dive in and strike wherever they saw an opportunity to do so. With precious little time to think of a proper battle plan, Yu drew his sword and glanced at the others with him.

"Break through or cut them all down?" he asked, sidestepping a harpy clawing for his face before stabbing back, drawing no small amount of blood from its torso in the process. "Regardless of what we do, if we stay put, we'll just end up boxed in on all sides."

@Sho Minazuki@SilverPaw

---

Sen Rynta — Wellspring Park

Once Myrtle had accepted the request, Mini had taken a moment for himself to try and fiddle with his own UI—a moment that was almost immediately thrown out the window once the weather mage had casually lobbed a tornado into the air. With his eyes wide open for a moment, the Belva instinctively moved towards the tree for support, but only seconds later found that it didn't actually have enough force to draw anyone in. With no reason to panic now, though, he took a deep breath and shook his head before chiming in.

"Well, regardless of what you do next, I've gotta go find my friends, wherever the heck they are" he said, raising his arm and giving the two present a small salute, "So good luck out there."

And with that, he was off.

@Hammerman@Operator Luna

The Epic of Beginnings - Fragments of a weathered scroll

Stretching her arms as she took a small break from stripping down the bamboo to its components, Misaki quietly glanced at how the deer had fared in its efforts to help her... Only for a piece of bamboo to unceremoniously land on her head. The hollow noise it made upon impact might have made for a good enough comedic moment for her to laugh, if the mild pain didn't keep her from doing so.

Rubbing the point of impact, the young woman made a mental note of how the creature had managed to do so in the first place before directing it to simply help break everything apart. Breaking everything into strips was simply her method of making things easier to process without having to pound everything down to a pulp from scratch, after all; if the deer was able to crush things into even smaller components, then that was all the better.

Once most of the bamboo was broken down, though, Misaki would gather everything up on top of the cloth and bundling it up before taking a deep breath.

"Next up... Distilled water, I suppose," she sighed, shaking her head as she turned back to the empty pot. Logically, it wouldn't be hard to set up a filtration device—something to catch the steam and condense it wouldn't require too much finagling, and with some spare bamboo to use as vessels to store the end product, she could probably get to turning the broken-down bamboo into pulp... Whenever that was done.

Would that she had something caustic to skip this step, but hoping for something like that in this situation would likely take more hunting than she had any immediate time for.

Maybe it was something to consider later tonight, but for now, Misaki simply set off to find some water to boil and whatever else she needed to set up the device in question. Assuming she found everything, the only thing left to do was set it up, turn on the flames, and wait.

@Rune_Alchemist

Emerald Odyssey — An MMO Isekai RP (Now Accepting!)

Shokatsu Yu

Aluvera — Inconspicuous House

Nova's explanation of their situation, paired with Saito's rather succinct synopsis, left Eunice at a rather distinct loss for words. There was a moment where it seemed as she might almost ask if they were lying to her face, but the expressions on the three adventurers' faces left her little reason to doubt the veracity of their claims. To this, the white-haired woman sat there in silence, trying to process everything mentally before shaking her head in disbelief.

"I... No, the travel from another world would explain your presence, but a world without magic? That doesn't explain why everyone else seems to treat your presence here as a matter of fact, though..." she muttered to herself quietly before leaning forward, her eyes towards the ground all the while. "And... A game? I understand what you mean by 'computer', I think, but to emulate our world, people and all, with pieces on a board—"

"It's not a game in the sense that you might be thinking," Yu said, interrupting Eunice's mumbling to add his own piece to the others' explanations. "While this world only really has board games, the game we are referring to is akin to... I suppose the best analogy in this case would be an interactive storybook or dream world, where we can create and interact with characters and the world within? That doesn't mean that the world as we see it now was exactly as we saw it, though, seeing as how those streets and this house didn't exist before..."

Despite her apparent shock, though, it seems that the explanation had managed to reach Eunice. As absurd as all of this sounded, it seemed impossible for three strangers to corroborate the same story on a whim when asked, and so she could only accept this as the truth behind the situation until she learned more.

"...I see that I have much to consider for the days—no, weeks to come. Sadly, I have not heard of any spells with the capacity to summon people from another world, much less change such a large quantity of humans into other races and manipulate the memories of those who live in the world, but I shall do my best in helping everyone seek out the cause of their presence here," she finally said, taking a deep breath before looking back towards the three present, uncertain as she looked about being given such a revelation in the first place. At that, though, Eunice soon turned back towards Nova, whose questions she had thus left unanswered; after all, with the question of their presence here unanswerable at the moment, it only seemed prudent to address that which they could attempt to resolve before anything else.

"Now, to answer your questions thus: I had stated that you all—in other words, all of the adventurers in this world, or at least those who witnessed that man's descent into Aluvera—had a desire to know, and my memories state that no small number would move aggressively in an attempt to pry information from him, regardless of what he may actually know. I am not excusing myself from the number of those who would wish to get to the root of this problem, but I would rather prioritize the life of a person and obtain information by speaking with him rather than banking on the possibility that force might expedite the process."

The serious tone she had taken made it clear that Eunice did not particularly like being painted as hypocritical, but that was more an aside than anything else given that the more important question had yet to be addressed.

"As for my plans hereon... Supposing that our visitor from Pelemeos had not arrived, I would visit the other city-states in Usira and decide on a more proper course of action afterwards. My intent is to help try and settle this matter out of the public eye until the dust has settled, though I suspect that the possibility of massive upheaval is rather high."

With a sigh, Eunice turned towards the other two briefly to see if they might give some minor nod of approval before continuing.

"That... Is the long and short of it, I suppose. To stay here in Aluvera or follow me on my trip, or even trust my words in the first place... I will leave to you to choose."

@Sho Minazuki@SilverPaw

---

Aluvera — City Streets

As Kokoma and Sefira rode further from the center of the city, the presence of monsters would drop off—at least, initially it would. Nearing the city's gates, closed as they were now, would reveal that most of the beasts that had not been killed outright had fled outside the walls. The plains provided little in terms of cover, but with the nature of the monsters, such things might not have provided much in terms of assistance for them.

With that said, less obstructions meant more room to wreak havoc on the people outside, be they slightly overconfident adventurers or the unfortunate guards who were by no means prepared for an onslaught as sudden as this. The monsters were rather thin in number, but even with a few seasoned adventurers slowly making their way onto the battlefield, they could only kill so many at a time...

@Rune_Alchemist@VitaVitaAR

---

Sen Rynta — Wellspring Park

Once he had finished dragging the unconscious man out of the way, the Belva brushed himself off before crossing his arms and nodding, well pleased at himself for being able to move someone multiple times his size despite the situation. It would have been rather embarrassing to have needed assistance, after all.

It was it at this point that the pink-haired girl strode over to him and offered to become contacts. Given the casual nature of the request and the situation, he was hardly in any situation to refuse, and so...

"Mmm... I see no reason not to," he began, fiddling for a bit with the air in front of him before finally finding what he had desired and promptly sending the request to the girl in front of him. The name "Mini Marcher", clear for Myrtle to see, wasn't exactly serious, but whether or not she would make a quip about it remained to be seen.

The arrival of another woman—an elven Paladin, by the looks of things—brought some relief for the unconscious man in the form of some healing, but as as the two began to talk, Mini seemed to take a step back to see how this would end up panning out.

@Hammerman@Operator Luna

The Epic of Beginnings - Fragments of a weathered scroll

Given the current situation with the Kyrinth and the village, as well as how it had acted the day before, Misaki was surprised to see that the deer had decided to follow her all the way back to Lazirha's house. She had told it to stay put there, of course, lest any of the hunters see a meal in its presence instead of a friend, but that ultimately made her job no easier.

Gathering the requisite tools was, at the very least, not particularly troublesome, what with Lazirha only so happy to oblige her requests. The way that the girl was keeping herself at the moment, though, gave the foxgirl pause...

But ultimately, if it was something she wanted to share, she would share it; prying into matters she had no say in felt wrong, and she had only known the girl for a few days. If she wanted to open up to her, then by all means she would do her utmost to help, but otherwise, her own pursuits came first.

Once she had properly gathered everything and set her workstation (if it could even be called as much) up, Misaki took a deep breath and began to break the plants down. The deer's desire to help, though, however endearing, was difficult for the foxgirl to accommodate. Breaking up the plants in this method wasn't something that a deer could do, per se...

Or maybe it was?

"Ah... Hm..." she began, thinking for a moment before carefully placing a stick of bamboo (or whatever it was called in this world) in front of the deer before speaking, "Could you try breaking these down for me?"

With that, Misaki would attempt to demonstrate, attempting to physically break the stem up before returning to her seated position. Hopefully her point had been made properly.

The problem of making the pulp had not yet been resolved, of course, but this was likely something to be taken one step at a time anyhow.

@Rune_Alchemist

Emerald Odyssey — An MMO Isekai RP (Now Accepting!)

@Archangel89: Hm...
I think that it... Probably could be functional? Bit odd to call them a caster if they use lances (which I'd assume generally would give more physical stats), but I digress.

@Operator Luna: Looks good to me. Accepted.
If you want the discord link, just let me know and I'll throw it your way.

Emerald Odyssey — An MMO Isekai RP (Now Accepting!)

@Archangel89: Hm...
Well, I'm not one to help with descriptions, per se, as that's more on the player than the GM. On that note, though, the class doesn't inherently look self-sufficient. You can't use half of your kit if the requirement is that they're smacked around by melee as a caster unless you have a phase where you use melee, so that part might need to be changed.
I do think that ice would be better served geared towards a more utility-based DPS role, though, if only because of the natural contrast against fire's all-offense repertoire.

@Operator Luna: Analysis time!

• I think it's sorta odd that the class is mounted by default, as we have mounts already extant within the game's systems. Mounting lends itself well to mobility (and this sort of playstyle might become more frequent post-isekai), but I think that they shouldn't necessarily be mounted from the get-go, especially seeing as how mounted combat for the low-movement, low-mobility tanks can lead to a disjoint in terms of visuals and gameplay. Imagine having to chase after a boss to do damage as a melee in normal gameplay. Yikes.
  On the upside, removing that mount requirement means that the anti-forest thing is gone by default.
• Harvester should probably be more specialized.

That's it, really. If those changes are addressed, I don't think I have any other qualms with the form as-is.