ShiningSector

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

Just as Nemo retracted the shipping container's doors closed, Travis himself turned his attention back to the runic lock he had just unsealed moments ago. While unlocking the rune was a part of their plan to stowaway without being unnoticed, Travis briefly worried that allowing the rune to be publically viewed in its current state would not doubt give themselves away, even despite their best efforts to mask their presence. Luckily however, sealing the door had re-engaged the magic lock as his light projection spell then illustrated.

Travis cancelled out his spell once Nemo had secured their presence within the confines of the container via the establishing of a unique and small device to each possible corner of their hijacked space. This was apparently working off of Raiya's earlier statement regarding the assumed circumstance of Seidon's crew being able to detect them in some unnamed nor presented fashion. It was a smart idea of course and the more they could to avoid drawing attention the better.

As Raiya and Nemo we at it again with another session of personal dialogue, Raiya bluntly asked if someone had carried anay water on them. As it so happens, Travis held a policy of bringing with him one or two canteens and the occasional alcohol-filled flask during similar expeditions. Naturally, he reacted to Raiya's question and began extracting one of the canteens from his coat's inner holsters. While pulling the canteen, he summoned his mana into his hand, causing a rune on the large to emit a light bluish glow. He could already feel the bottle cooling upon retrieving it.

"Yeah, I got some water with me." Travis replied as he held the canteen out as an offering, "here y-"

Travis' voice was suddenly cut off by sound of a loud horn of an approaching ship. He froze in place he could hear activity from outside the container as dock crews and machinery began working their host ship arrived. Not long after that, a manadial that Nemo had seized began ringing in which he scrambled to answer lest someone outside took notice. Sure enough, the caller was Seidon himself seeking to talk with Logan. Travis gulped upon remembering Nemo and Raiya having dispatched him just earlier. However Nemo, pulling the same trick as before with the dock's announcement system, imitated Logan's voice and manner of talking and replied to Seidon's query. Thankfully, it appeared Seidon fell for it soon their small talk had ended.

As if the atmosphere couldn't be anymore negatively influencing, Travis and everyone else then experienced a sudden sense of weightlessness as their container had then began to rise into air as begun rising from the ground, likely due to a crane from outside ferrying the over to the ship. The Untalent braced with his back against the inner wall of the container, trying to keep his balance as the container shifted its weight. Eventually that moment soon ended too as the shipping container finally met with a flat surface once more. Travis slowly slid towards the floor of the container, bothered but now calming now they had a moment of stillness.

Looking over to Nemo after the white-haired Talent commented with reassurance on their current situation, Travis simply replied, "don't jinx us."

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

@Cottonmouth

Ah, I just re-read your earlier post and saw that. My mistake.

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

Will be posting later tonight.

Also, @Dawnpath OC made it into the container? That's the main thing I am waiting on.

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

Travis continued at his task while everyone battled against the newcomers Logan and Bosan. As the conflicts raged, Travis could feel a sense of helplessness of being unable to help repelling the new threat. Nevertheless, he kept his focus centered on the runic lock before him.

While studying the characters upon the dial design, Travis utilized one of his manadial’s applications he had recently been able to figure out. The program behaved like a spectrometer of sorts; in this case, it projected a small aurora as a representation of one’s own aura while during a mana flow. Upon the interface was an animated wheel he gently stroked his left hand’s thumb over up and down, dictating the resonating frequency which in turn made the aurora spike or slow down. The idea, his argument, was to match the correct frequency manifested by the simulated aura that the characters corresponded with. His hope was that if he could isolate the proper wavelengths he could then use to them select the proper sequence each glyph is coded in. The concept to him appeared figuratively simple and efficient enough; if anything, he was carefully choosing the right handles in picking a physical lock.

Eventually, he found the proper behavioral states while cross-checking the visualized wavelengths and the likenesses of the characters within the runic lock. The task was nothing overly difficult however it did prove demanding in determining the correct frequencies. Travis took a movement to ease back and wipe the accumulating moisture from his forehead but with the sound of fighting still prevailing behind him, he continued with next portion of the lock.

Upon examining the next sequence, Travis quickly concluded that figuring out the characters and their matching sequence would take up more time than his team was currently allotted if he were to utilize more traditional methods. Given the eight symbolic characters on the lock, Travis with more time to spare, could have analyzed each of the glyphs and created the likely candidate sequence to use. The problem was that it the assumed the caster of the lock was using a predictable pattern and not a random configuration; an unlikely concatenation no one would leave to chance.

Travis however had a different and more efficient approach to this conundrum. Casting an advanced light projection spell, he quickly reproduced the runic lock and projected into the air. Each simulated section of scripting was now his to manipulate as he pulled the entire structure apart, separating each part into different portions based on function and response. The dissected rune now gave Travis a detailed perspective of its inner workings. It was then he found a newer series of scripts and circuits leading to each of the characters that had been visually masked before. Each line connected to what Travis determined to be a kind of receptor node that passively responded to whatever source it was geared towards; in this case to an aura wavelength. The Untalent deduced that if he probed each node without actually selecting its character, he could then potentially root out the sequence he needed.

Wasting no time, he began emitting through the aura he projected in his hand and brought it close to the runic lock. While the actual rune wouldn’t visually respond towards this gesture, the simulated copy that mimicked it however did. Bringing his aura over each character node he eventually caught a line giving off a faint glow that none of the other lines emitted. With a bit of hesitation, Travis tapped into the glyph with his forefinger to select is as the first part of the sequence. The real rune naturally reacted with the character lighting up while the simulation manifested a green coloration throughout its own script before connecting with the locking script whose designated pillar design separated into two halves.

“Bingo.” Travis smiled, now confident that he finally found the solution to their problem.

With relative ease, he pinpointed each node in-part of the established sequence and tapped into the aligned character, further undoing the rune’s security measures. It wasn’t long until Nemo’s and Raiya’s voices resonated nearby, indicating that they had dispatched their adversary. This was soon followed by an unexpected gunshot the momentarily distracted Travis, unaware that it was Zoey’s piece that had discharged, finishing off the remainder of the two party crashers, finally ending their threat and collapsing the realm spell that had enacted, returning everyone back to real time.

Just as Nemo queried upon his progress did Travis then select the last remaining character, “I think I…”

With the last glyph now in-place, the whole rune seemed to flip its hidden elements over to the front, showcasing each node that was selected breaking the security pillars within the scrips. With each now measure broken the rune itself then unlocked, representing this through its design dividing in half as its original purplish hue turned to a bright confirming green. Travis rose from his position with a somewhat smug expression, feeling not only feeling triumphant in unlocking the rune but also overcoming Siedon’s handiwork. The thought then quickly hit Travis that he didn’t personally know Paul Siedon and only knew him by name, erasing any sense of rivaling superiority he had beamed while losing himself to the brief moment.

“Yes, we’re in” said Travis has he recomposed himself while opening up their hijacked container.

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

@ShiningSector You're up next mah boi.

@Cottonmouth

I'm nearly done with my post. Technically if it had not been for taxes for the past several days, I would've had it up by now; I've been chipping away at it since. I should have it up an running by tomorrow, likely in the evening.

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

He worked through decrypting the rest of the rune, ensuring there were no hushed functions he had missed. Since orchestrating one of his most ambitious spells yet, there were several tricks and methods he had picked up through his arduous research. Many of which corresponded with how a rune could be constructed and the many intertwined commands that not only defined its function but its intention as well. This could include secondary and additional protocols and safe guards if needed to support a glyphic spell's basis and determine its efficiently too. If anything, writing a rune held little differences in principle if it were compared to designing a computer program.

Travis soon verified that there were no elaborate schemes to the runic lock that stood before them. The locking algorithm was complex enough to prevent most violators access into whatever the spell was securing. So theoretically, there was little reason to implement any additional measures than what already was considered and proposed as acceptably efficient.

It was then that Zoey's and Raiya's voices bled into the scene, confirming that they had just transitioned over, He? The least you could do is address me in second person; I'm literally right here, thought Travis, only sparing a mental remark against Raiya's statement while he worked on the rune. Matching the characters with their frequencies proved to be a complex matter at first but a closer inspection of the glyphs revealed a clue Travis soon picked up on. Each small drawing characterized the kind of state activity one’s aura would behave in the presence of mana circulation. The more edgy and dynamic glyphs seemingly represented an aura’s active state while the more curvy and rounded shapes hinted to a more relaxed state. While this was certainly something to work with, Travis however identified that he would need to probe each character in order to find which combination order was the right one to disengage the spell.

As he looked through his notes and looked back to the rune, Travis couldn’t help but take notice everything suddenly became silent. The overhead chirping of seagulls, the never-motionless waves rocking against the docks, and the many artificial sounds of bells and machines nearby, all came to unusual circumstance of quietness. This what of course broken when the loud bang of a small explosion erupted right behind him; the sound was enough to make the unprepared Untalent jump. Smolder and debris surged around him as a result of the detonation occurring is such close proximity.

"What the hell?" Travis frantically yelp as he spun around to investigate the source of the interruption, waving his arm repeatedly as he tried to clear the cloud of burnt dust that currently engulfed him.

With the sound of a finger snap, the dust quickly vanished and what he found was Nemo directly behind him with another one of his “X” spell deployed as traces of steam and smoke fuming from it. Raiya now armed with her katana stood firm and alerted as she faced the direction of the disturbance. It then seemed clear that Nemo had responded to some kind of attack, given how it seemed aimed at Travis’ general location. He gulped at this startling realization, now coming to know that he was being targeted by someone; but who? He soon got his answer when two men in came into the scene; one of them armed with a bat enchanted with runic designs and dressed rather unusually in a gruff work attire however fashionably displayed their collection of jewelry and piercings all over their body and jumpsuit whereas the other individual dressed more professionally in a dark blue suit.

"Oh great" Travis sighed under his breathed, fearing that he was about to get caught up in a brawl with some nasty-looking fellows whom were likely the ones responsible for taking a pot shot at him in which Nemo has countered in the nick of time.

Travis was about to stand up to meet to respond to this new threat but after Nemo just got done in a short dialogue of smack-talking and even the verbal burning in one of the interlopers, it became apparent that the fight had just started. Right away, Nemo had ordered the rest of the team to split up and engage the two while specifically declaring that they would also cover Travis as he worked.; everyone responded silently in-kind as the battle got underway. Travis resumed his work on the rune as best he could but now knowing there was fighting taking place around him, the focus and concentration he needed to unravel the spell had been unhinged in the initial commotion, putting him in a not so good situation. He tackled this dilemma as best he could by reminding himself what was at stake if he should not finish on time. The pressure was certainly rising but Travis bitterly continued on.

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

I'll have a post up later tonight after work.

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

Sorry about the delay; the post it up now. Would have had it up sooner if it weren't for an weird internet connection dilemma.

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

"I'll get it done," Travis reassured after Raiya reminded him of the time table that stood against them. Hopefully.

It was then Zoey made several proposals regarding how their group could make it across to the industrial containers unnoticed. However many of them as Zoey herself and Nemo pointed out that either method presented would give them away in some fashion, making the trek to the containers risky and difficult to go about unnoticed. But Nemo in all of his cleverness picked up the dock's automated radio frequency with his mana dial and imitated it, creating a false workplace wide broadcast before crashing the entire networked radio system. The misleading message grabbed the attention of all the dock works as they abandoned their stations, following the broadcast's instructions in assemble elsewhere and leaving the way clear. I really need to give these things more attention, thought a fascinated Travis.

It was then Zoey's time to shine as she begun transiting members of their team to the containers they sought to commandeer, starting with Nemo whom she nonchalantly and without warning made vanished in through a shadowy aura. Travis felt somewhat tense with the concept of being consumed in darkness in such a fashion, even though the method was likely harmless and ferrying them over a long distance. Unlike how she phased Nemo out from their location, Zoey this time bothered to inform Travis about how she would do him the same service. As instructed and with a nod in compliance, Travis gave the effort of at least calming himself in positive before feeling Zoey's light press and the encompassing embrace of darkness for a split moment.

The instance of immediate travel nearly put Travis off balance upon reaching the other side of the docks and right where the containers would be. The Untalent fought the slight feeling of his stomach churning as he set about his designated part of scoping out the containers for any protective wards. He gave a small smirk as he worked before batting a brief eye to Nemo, "how was the ride?"

After a quick minute of searching, he eventually picked up the presence of an installed spell on each of the containers. Casting a passive and unobtrusive spell, Travis summoned the ward's rune to manifest itself visually, "Found it" he announced.

Keeping in mind with Raiya's words, Travis did his best to note every important and relevant details of the presented rune. Luckily for him and everyone, the rune was not booby-trapped with a grossly fatal curse unlike the design they had encountered back it the Redwood catacombs from what he gathered. However his suspicions were confirmed as he noted several modern-written scripts woven in the spell's structure. The rune's purpose was undoubtedly clear in preventing unauthorized access or tampering with the containers. The method in how it operated exactly Travis couldn't be sure but it was seemingly non-violent through his interpretation. He soon found a security measure imprinted with the transcript that pulsated outward to an unspecified location. Travis deduced that this functioned service as some sort of silent alarm if the spell itself was handled improperly. The man named Seidon, assuming this was his handiwork, would be notified almost instantly if Travis slipped up.

"It a pretty secure runic model," Travis commented aloud as he continued his analysis of the drawing, not expecting an answer during the process.

Upon glossing into other sections of the spell, Travis made out what looked like multi-dialed lock with an array of shapes and glyphs to choose from. It made sense to assume this was the method of unlocking the rune though a closer inspection also revealed a series of rules detailing the implementation of corresponding aura frequencies that would add up to each correctly set graphic. The Untalent eased back from the whole design to view it from fuller perspective.

"...I believe I can crack this without being noticed," Travis reported to his teammates that made it over thought mindful in how he would select his next words as he set the expectations, "Its well designed but I should have it unlocked...at best, five minutes perhaps?"

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

"Centuries old runic writing methods and techniques are one thing, but something that was probably cooked up recently and is likely to involve more intricate and current standards is another entirely," Travis argued as Nemo presented the task to him, perhaps unintentionally in the manner of assuming the scenarios were without specific and important technicalities.

With a brief sigh though, he accepted the challenge that stood before them, seeing that no one else possessed the knowledge in dealing with the presented issue as he did, "but I can definitely take a crack at it. All I need is plenty of time to study the runes - if there are any - and devise a solution to get by without being noticed."