OwO

Cacophony Concord

Lv. 40
HP: 143/506 SP: 45/450 MP: 30/30
^{(400) + 60 + 10% (400) + 50 + 0% (30) + 0 + 0%
STR – 156 (130) + 5 + 15% | AGI – 61 (50) + 5 + 10% | END – 63 (50) + 10 + 5% | DEX – 50 (50) | LUC – 39 (29) + 10}

Inspect

^{Star-Studded Rebellion, Pentozali
Weapons
Pickaxe - Uncommon
Shovel - Uncommon
Equipment:
Devil-Horned Battlemask - Rare Helmet - +50 HP, +50 SP, +10 END - HP > 50%, -5% HP/t. HP ≤ 50%, +10% SP/t. HP ≤ 20%, + 40 STR.
White Snake's Robes - Uncommon Armor - +5 AGI, +10 LCK - Improves Stealth by 15% when traveling on hard surfaces.
Beasthide Bracers - Common Arm Equipment
No Leg Equipment
Thornspike Boots - Common Shoes
Accessories:
Wrestler's Loincloth - Common Accessory - +10 HP, +5 STR}

Mags moment of triumph had been cut short. Worms burst out of the oni and went to burrow inside of her. Oh, that made sense. Dead oni being controlled by worms. Well, back to the plains after this. She liked the plains. She got to fight karate frogs in the plains. She just had to not think about it. Her pain setting was set low enough so that it wasn't that bad.

Well, all she had to do was keep calm, deal with it, and not think too hard about it. She's been through worse pain. Just think of it like a cramp. That's all she had to do. She had cramps all the time.

"Blow me the fuck up, magic man!" She screamed as she desperately tried to untangle herself from the corpse and run. Her hands frantically went to rip out the worms by any means. A mixture of claps, slaps, tears, and grips from an over-strengthened ape.

Oh no, she thought about it.

What came out of her mouth was a scream that couldn't be called human.

The Devil Hunter Agency

Beniha's reaction to Kaze's entrance was unceremonious. She paused, looked at the large man, and gave a disinterested sigh. They were coworkers, not rivals. There really wasn't any point to his entrance being like that. In her own view, anyways.

"Morning."

Then came the motorcycle extraordinaire herself. Da-Xia's entire speech gave Beniha pause. In classic fashion, she placed a lit incense stick in her mouth and pinched the bridge of her nose. Really, why couldn't these hunters be normal?

"I'm just going to pretend I didn't hear half of that. Just... Demons move out of their own self-interest. Keep that in mind when you call them 'good'."

With Da-Xia came a third. That ghost, Hanako. Beniha didn't even acknowledge her existence besides a harsh glance.

Well, before the arrival of Adam, battle broke out. Large insects excited by their presence came to hunt. With a great sigh, incendiary feathers formed to create a large zweihander.

"Da-Xia. You're the fastest. Make sure people don't get caught by those things. Kaze, same deal. Go for the ones closer to us."

She intentionally ignored Hanako again and left the ghost to her own devices.

With Zweihander in hand, she charged the insect demons. Her goal was simple. Fight her way to the black rocks to either destroy or collect them. Either or.

The Wayfarer's Guild

^{@Moonshadow@Epsir@Psyker Landshark}

"Let's."

There was no point in waiting or delaying their job any further. Sheri was of the sort that only introduced themselves once. If Mathias missed her introduction, then she wouldn't say it until the situation called for it.

---

The wealth of the Gold Quarter was no shock to Sheri. Infrastructure and designs made by book elves were often just as flashy. Magic made it easy to glamour a building to any specification. They still had utilitarian cores made out of stone and wood. The same could be said of the Gold Quarter. They were still just rocks, wood, and everything betwixt. The only difference was that the aesthetics were physical rather than magical. It made her think why they would even try to dress their buildings using such archaic means. Magic was simply easier.

The inside of Aelrod's mansion gave the same amount of confusion for her. Why was it so spacious? There was so much room for nothing. He could have filled each room with books. People really only needed enough room to walk in a straight line. Oh well, she thought to herself, the earthen folks were strange people with strange customs. Perhaps he was welcoming to giants. Well, if that was the case, maybe he should have invested in bigger doors.

The general briefing that they gave didn't give too many clues. Helmlenfell and the disappearance of Andar were their only leads. It was probably good to start with one of them. However, that was what a regular investigator would say! Sheri was a mage. She excelled at magic! And she had just the magic for this situation!

Probably...?

"Would you mind if I take some of these parchments? They are a helpful reagent for many of my tracking magics. Oh, and anything that this Andar may have worn."

She began to search through the silver tome she kept with her. She would turn to a page, pull out a book, then scan the book to see if she had the right magic in a strange and awkward to watch process. Apparently she didn't, considering how she repeated pulling out a new book multiple times.

"If only I had another set of arms..."

She paused her search to pull out a notepad from the silver tome. With her quill in hand, she jotted down some words.

"To research," she mumbled to herself, "extra appendages."

She paused as she looked at the dark elf, squinting as she did so.

"And... hair... growth."

Cacophony Concord

Lv. 40
HP: 180/506 SP: 0/450 MP: 30/30
^{(400) + 60 + 10% (400) + 50 + 0% (30) + 0 + 0%
STR – 156 (130) + 5 + 15% | AGI – 61 (50) + 5 + 10% | END – 63 (50) + 10 + 5% | DEX – 50 (50) | LUC – 39 (29) + 10}

Inspect

^{Star-Studded Rebellion, Pentozali
Weapons
Pickaxe - Uncommon
Shovel - Uncommon
Equipment:
Devil-Horned Battlemask - Rare Helmet - +50 HP, +50 SP, +10 END - HP > 50%, -5% HP/t. HP ≤ 50%, +10% SP/t. HP ≤ 20%, + 40 STR.
White Snake's Robes - Uncommon Armor - +5 AGI, +10 LCK - Improves Stealth by 15% when traveling on hard surfaces.
Beasthide Bracers - Common Arm Equipment
No Leg Equipment
Thornspike Boots - Common Shoes
Accessories:
Wrestler's Loincloth - Common Accessory - +10 HP, +5 STR}

Oh, that hurt. The collision of bone on bone made that weird visual effect that could only be described as a real life glitch. A bright spark of light, followed by immediate darkness in her periphery. Things had a weird aura around them. Not of the useful variety; it was more of the "it makes things hard to see because eyes don't work" sort. She had completely lost her plan of attack. It was a good thing that the plan of attack that she just thought up was the exact same plan. Turns out, when your plan is just "hit shit, win", then it's fairly easy to figure out what you're supposed to be doing.

The stench was her only clue to her new plan. If they were rotting out in the inside, then punching more out would be useless. She needed to do something wild.

Uncaring to her current position or any sort of fundamentals in grappling, she leapt off the ground to wrap her legs around his torso. A better position? Probably not. But she grabbed on tightly to the base of the oni's skull.

Then proceeded to attempt to rip his fucking head off.

Cacophony Concord

Lv. 40
HP: 253/506 SP: 450/450 MP: 30/30
^{(400) + 60 + 10% (400) + 50 + 0% (30) + 0 + 0%
STR – 156 (130) + 5 + 15% | AGI – 61 (50) + 5 + 10% | END – 63 (50) + 10 + 5% | DEX – 50 (50) | LUC – 39 (29) + 10}

Inspect

^{Star-Studded Rebellion, Pentozali
Weapons
Pickaxe - Uncommon
Shovel - Uncommon
Equipment:
Devil-Horned Battlemask - Rare Helmet - +50 HP, +50 SP, +10 END - HP > 50%, -5% HP/t. HP ≤ 50%, +10% STA/t. HP ≤ 20%, + 40 STR.
White Snake's Robes - Uncommon Armor - +5 AGI, +10 LCK - Improves Stealth by 15% when traveling on hard surfaces.
Beasthide Bracers - Common Arm Equipment
No Leg Equipment
Thornspike Boots - Common Shoes
Accessories:
Wrestler's Loincloth - Common Accessory - +10 HP, +5 STR}

Now back in the Thunderstruck Grove, Mags--alongside a light party this time around--managed to find herself in a familiar scene. Momentarily hidden from a pack of oni who had completed a hunt. Instantly, she began to whisper orders to the others. Not out of leadership, however. More out of a general malice towards the concept of organization.

"Klein," she began as she turned to him, "86 on my lead and pop 'em." She turned to the remaining two IRL-men in the party."Raime, approach and take the juicers. Amulak, don't let Raime take the juicers."

Finally, she turned to Ames: "After all we've been though, am I really going to attack these oni?" Before Ames (or any of the party, really) could respond, Mags was already charging the oni by herself. She had a basic idea in her mind of the impending fight. She'd punch the shit out of one of them. That was her true master plan.

Choosing the closest one, Mags went for a flurry of blows. Well, it was the Power Hour and she unloaded every bit of her SP into the attack. Every single ounce. All 100% for 20 punches. She could probably generate enough SP afterwards so it wasn't a horrible idea. Probably.

Akasha Agency (Tentative interest check)

yes

Cacophony Concord

Lv. 40
HP: 253/506 SP: 450/450 MP: 30/30
^{(400) + 60 + 10% (400) + 50 + 0% (30) + 0 + 0%
STR – 156 (130) + 5 + 15% | AGI – 61 (50) + 5 + 10% | END – 63 (50) + 10 + 5% | DEX – 50 (50) | LUC – 39 (29) + 10}

Inspect

^{Star-Studded Rebellion, Pentozali
Weapons
Pickaxe - Uncommon
Shovel - Uncommon
Equipment:
Devil-Horned Battlemask - Rare Helmet - +50 HP, +50 SP, +10 END - HP > 50%, -5% HP/t. HP ≤ 50%, +5% STA/t. HP ≤ 20%, + 40 STR.
White Snake's Robes - Uncommon Armor - +5 AGI, +10 LCK - Improves Stealth by 15% when traveling on hard surfaces.
Beasthide Bracers - Common Arm Equipment
No Leg Equipment
Thornspike Boots - Common Shoes
Accessories:
Wrestler's Loincloth - Common Accessory - +10 HP, +5 STR}

"My docket is pretty firmly in the follow-others camp." Really, Mags was the type of person to march to her own drum. However, she was also someone who enjoyed playing with friends. Until the next oddity caught her eye, she'd continue helping her friends. Well, as much help as she could be. After all, someone who started street fights to min-max and cheese class requirements was someone a little too driven. "If we have some downtime, I'm going to ask some monks about a coin."

"Bet we end up killing Lugh in this event."

Bronze Castle's Spikes

"Anenome!" Amitha let out as her war cry.

However, she wasn't a warrior. She was a blacksmith. Even then, that was a tenuous claim. Usually, an intelligent fighter would perhaps funnel the enemy. Use their numbers against them. Deploy a form of tactics that would ensure that the line is held and the bird beasts are left dazed and confused.

So of course, what Amitha did was pick up the knocked out bird beast by the throat and swung it around as a weapon. She was a goat, damn it. Not a thinker. The only thing she could think about was how many of these birds she could eat when this was all over!

The Wayfarer's Guild

^{@Moonshadow@Epsir}

"Ah, found it." Sheri announced to the three others as she reached the page she had in mind. The text on the page was just as esoteric as on the cover; illegible to those whose wayward glances saw the pages. With a simple movement, her fingers ran along the page. As her fingers reached the opposite end, a spark of magic ignited from within the book. An almost instant accumulation of ambient energy, only for it to burst open with a soft clap. Small fragments and streams of multi-colored energy alongside shimmering particles of dust flew towards the roof, only to calmly drift towards the earth after they reached their apex. On collision with the earth, the bits of magic faded back to the ether and vanished from sight and materiality.

"That was an appropriate amount of fun." Turning back to the first page of the tome, Sheri began a forbidden act that would inflict those who witnessed it with a new kind of existential dread; she managed to stick her hand inside of the pages to pull out another tome. It was one bound in a silver leather, unmarked by a title. Instead, it was covered in ornate markings that had no purpose other than aesthetics. In a simple motion, she opened the silver-bound book and dropped the previous book inside. It slipped into the pages as though it were nothing more than an immaterial illusion.

Without much of an external acknowledgement to what she had done, she took a badge from Kiska and placed it upside down on the inside of her coat's wide collar.

"No questions from me."

Cacophony Concord

Lv. 29
HP: 253/506 SP: 450/450 MP: 30/30
^{(400) + 60 + 10% (400) + 50 + 0% (30) + 0 + 0%
STR – 156 (130) + 5 + 15% | AGI – 61 (50) + 5 + 10% | END – 63 (50) + 10 + 5% | DEX – 50 (50) | LUC – 39 (29) + 10}

Inspect

^{Star-Studded Rebellion, Pentozali
Weapons
Pickaxe - Uncommon
Shovel - Uncommon
Equipment:
Devil-Horned Battlemask - Rare Helmet - +50 HP, +50 SP, +10 END - HP > 50%, -5% HP/t. HP ≤ 50%, +5% STA/t. HP ≤ 20%, + 40 STR.
White Snake's Robes - Uncommon Armor - +5 AGI, +10 LCK - Improves Stealth by 15% when traveling on hard surfaces.
Beasthide Bracers - Common Arm Equipment
No Leg Equipment
Thornspike Boots - Common Shoes
Accessories:
Wrestler's Loincloth - Common Accessory - +10 HP, +5 STR}

While her legs were still barren, Mags looked much more like a geared out fighter now. While not exactly geared out like a master brawler, it was a marked improvement from before when most of her items gave no stats. Not aesthetically, though. Mags was firmly in leveling gear territory now. As cool as the bangles were, they didn't exactly work incredibly well with her play style of throwing shit at people. 100 health was a lot to pay.

So she subsequently went to pay 253 HP at all times to wear a battle mask on top of her head. What did it give her? Stats at 5% SP a turn, something she didn't need unless she was in a fight. Well, if she ever needed to strength check something, she could just pummel her own face in until she got that juicy +40 STR.

Her time off the game wasn't exactly of note. For someone who spent most of her available free time on MMOs, her time off the game could only be one of two things: familial obligation or work. It was work this time and her work was boring.

She did end up checking the keystone again to see what prereqs she filled out. After all, she was getting close to 50 and she still hadn't decided on what class she wanted to take after that. Maybe she'd investigate what the coin was. Ask the shaolin or whatever they were renamed in this world. They'd probably have a decent idea on what a coin given out by a martial arts frog would be.

What she did notice, however, was that she died. She hadn't been locked out, so she thought. Mags only thought was that she had an ego death from something... Probably something she ate. Or smoked. Or attempted to boof. One of the three. Ames would probably want to know that she didn't have to kill herself, probably. She just had to... do one of those.

She eventually found the group and approached. Her entrance was compounded by the fact that she slapped Ames on the back and shouted out her discovery.

"Ay Ames! Ya didn't actually have to kill yourself! Smoking that ass hash gave us an ego death that counted." She was about as enthusiastic as someone who finally got back to gaming after working could be.

After looking around, she noticed two people weren't even close to the plaza.

"Did Lugh and Ari split the party again? Eh, doesn't matter. You and me. We're the only ones around here that aren't complete fools." She went to look at Raime. "Quote doesn't work if I count you. You are now legally a fool."

On her docket was asking the monks about the coin and figuring out what to do about the conflict. The latter she'd do with the group. The former she'd do alone.