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Asteria



Something did indeed appear due to Asteria’s actions, though it was a completely different kind of being than she’d been expecting. A strange kind of earthly humanoid with gems for eyes burrowed out of the earth, and Asteria immediately used Monster Analysis II on it. “So, you aren’t an undead. Huh. I was expecting something related to necromancy, since this seems like a prime spot for doing that kind of a thing…Also, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if there was a town of dark magic cultist in existence which did precisely that,” she answered. Not that she actually knew anything about the dark magic of this world, but even if it was an unwise practice, well, people were always attracted to power. And if a temptation appeared directly in front of someone, it would be difficult to resist. Even knowing that, as she did, did not preclude the possibility of giving in to the so called “easy” path, and in fact, if the being in front of her had been so simplistic as to desire some blood in exchange for more killing potential, she would have promised it that. But as it turned out, that wouldn’t be necessary. And that was also fine.

“What would your contract involve? Do you only protect the dead within, then? And I suppose you wouldn’t care to resolve certain outside events that very well may cause disturbance within, would you,” she commented dryly. “No matter. If you happen to be curious enough about how a Dire Rat can converse with you, however, perhaps we could exchange some information,” she offered. Just then, Ed approached, and informed he of the current situation. “After we deal with that mess out there,” she added to the being, then moved to quickly store that gold coin with the rest of their belongings, and swiftly removed the Bloodingfly stinger from the clay jar, wrapping her tail tightly around it.

Asteria strode back to the first chamber. “I think the plan’s fine. And I’m ready,” she whispered. She made contact with mother rat briefly, relaying a feeling of quiet, caution, staying together, and attacking enemies one by one through Telepathy as best as she could through emotions alone. Then, she focused on her sense of smell, trying to get a whiff of whatever kind of scent that might feel purple to her. Following Ed’s directions, the trio quietly began sneaking outside, attempting to approach their enemies unnoticed…



Party 2 contacted

After an eventful day of studying, family interactions, meeting up with friends, part time work, and the drudgery of completing various chores, Juliane was more than ready to fall asleep – and more importantly, to log into Thalam Online. It was releasing worldwide today, and though she was excited to try out something so new and promising, she thankfully didn’t have much trouble falling asleep. She’d already created an account under the user name of ‘Queue’, so she simply entered her password, and hit play.

…And she got hit with the loading screen, but that was to be expected. The background was beyond pretty though, and madly detailed, not to mention the sublime orchestra music playing. Sooner than expected, she was at the character creation screen. Ahh, now this would be a challenge. Juliane thought she’d prefer one of the fantasy races…but not a dwarf, as those tended to be either short, burly, or lolitas, no, not the Greenskins either, she thought, though they could be fascinating to try and make as visually appealing as an elf. The Beastmen were perhaps better to be left aside as well; she’d prefer to avoid a virtual encounter with a furry, of all things. Since she intended to create a female-gendered character, there was already a higher possibility of attracting that occasional desperate pervert (usually male, but who could really say in this day and age) – or an immature teen; sometimes the two were difficult to distinguish. Such pitiful behavior was simply a part of human nature, unfortunately.

Breaking out of her reverie, Juliane finally selected the Fae race, and spent the next hour or two creating her in-game avatar. There were truly many options, and so, so many ideas she wanted to see realized. A dark skinned, busty beauty, an Asian-esque slender woman of elegance, a petite sparkly rainbow of a muffin-doll…In the end, she went for the aloof, mature look, the Fae’s skin a dazzling ivory white, her eyes red as the richest of wines and as brilliant as a ruby, hair stretching to her thighs and coloured a toned-down green. Her Fae-exclusive appendages were a set of dragonfly wings, all four transparent, though glimmering in a dark violet to light green gradient, with splashes of reddish yellow present at the very base of them. When folded, the wings were hardly visible from the front, and even from the back, they were mainly covered by her long hair. Spread out however, they were…simply enchanting. Juliane changed one of the basic sets of clothes provided in the character creation screen to match her chosen avatar as best as she could, though she suspected there were even more intricate possibilities to unlock within the game. When it came to the class, she mostly picked on a whim, since each of the basic ones had some appeal.

In the end, Juliane ended up with a pretty Fey ranger avatar. The name she wrote in before confirming her choices was one she had already decided on previously. Alright, then, in-game I'm Vesper. She clicked confirm, and after another brief loading screen – it was a different one, which was certainly appreciated – Vesper appeared in the beginning area, Bellview, a paradise-esque beachside location. There was a town in view, and they even had a quaint little port. How adorable! Vesper took flight, stretching her new appendages, and made several loops in the air, descending just before her stamina burned out and she would be forced to crash. Less than a minute of flight, huh. A bit disappointing, but I just need to level to get more stamina, so shouldn’t be too much of a problem. Next, she familiarized herself with an UI, which was simple enough, as it was fairly similar to any other MMORPG, with just enough of that ‘this is a new, fresh, and trendy system!’ flavor that she could easily accept it.

Vesper saw the quest, and, since doing so was standard practice in games, decided to go out and find those slimes to kill. She followed the noise to the north – on foot – and was not too surprised to see the utterly crowded environment. There were hundreds upon hundreds of players, each tackling a lvl 1 slime, though as she ventured further north, parties became more common. Parties of three to five level 1 player for a level 3 slime, huh? These things must be more tanky and harmful than expected. Vesper would frankly prefer soloing, to be honest, but she wanted to raise her level from this abysmal 1 number, and get to the more exciting stuff as soon as she could. And for that, a party was simply the more sensible choice. She took ahold of her bow, looked around…and found the perfect party! There was a four-person party, and by the looks of it, they were a warrior, healer, mage, and rogue. If she joined, they’d have each of one class, which should be optimal. Blinking at every one of them, Vesper sent each player a party request, then drew an arrow out of thin air, notched it onto the bow, and aimed at the slime they were facing. As soon as she got the notification that they accepted her request, she would unleash her charged Aimed Shot.
Online
Queue
Class: Ranger
Level: 1

104//104//107
[actions:
Aimed Shot]
@Haruharara A couple more questions. What's the relationship between Stealth and Invisibility? Do they overlap? Do they stack? Does the class skill outgrow the racial skill?

Do you intend to develop more non-combat skills? I know you have some for crafting, but if I, for example, wanted to create a thief, would it be eventually possible to learn lock-picking, pick-pocketing, the creation/use of disguises etc.? Is it possible to do mining without becoming an armour- or weaponcrafter? Will there be fishing, cooking, jewelry crafting, etc. or will those not be as important as the combat encounters and the story/quests?



Awareness drifted barely within her senses, manifesting as the occasional roll on the bed, hitting the wall with a leg, burrowing a hand underneath the pillow, a vague feeling of drool-caused-dampness beneath her cheek. The mechanical ringing of her phone startled her awake and Kathryn met consciousness with a dizzying crash, though she soon came to her senses with the brief thought of “Oh, this again,” accompanying a wide, hand-covered yawn. She staggered to her tiny bathroom, which had a sink, toilet, shower, and washing machine all crammed into it.

The first order of business was brushing her teeth, because that faint cloying, metallic feeling of old blood in her mouth was just as annoyingly disgusting as the bad morning breath had been when she was still human. When the last swish of water finally left her mouth after the three or so minutes of dental care, Kathryn was much more refreshed. Of course, the face staring back at her from the sink mirror could be mistaken for that of a corpse depressingly easily. With a sigh, Kat shucked off her sleeping clothes – leggings, T-shirt, panties – into the laundry basket, and tied her hair into a messy bun with one of many hair ties she kept there.

After a quick shower, Kathryn finally felt like she rejoined the living, and threw on the clothes she’d already prepared yesterday. It was a semi-casual sort of attire; jeans, gray dress shirt, and a black leather jacket – good enough to go to work with, where she’d change into her uniform in any case. Her living-cum-bedroom was as cluttered as ever, though she strived to tidy it up a bit on a weekly to bi-weekly basis. Well, that was just how it was when she used every spare bit of surface for depositing her various items, whether that be books, notebooks, pens, magazines, loose documents, her electronics, that one yoga mat, hand weights, cleaned blood bags, or the occasional cigarette pack.

Speaking of blood bags, she opened her fridge, took out the snack, popped its cap open, and sucked the blood out as swiftly a child might do with one of those small packets of orange juice, crumpling the plastic to get every last drop out of it. It was simple chicken blood; if she went for the human variety, she preferred an actual restaurant or a bar. She washed the empty container with efficient, practiced movements, then left it out to dry. Kathryn checked the time, then – just to make sure – padded to the small, closed off balcony, and gingerly pulled the curtains aside, and peeked through the shutters which served as another layer of protection from the sunlight. Yep, the sun had indeed set in its entirety, and the sky had darkened enough for her to be able to go out safely. Time for work then. Kathryn briefly put on some make-up, grabbed her handbag, descended the three floors from her flat to the ground floor of the apartment building, and headed outside.

At the back of the building, next to the apartment’s designated parking lot, there were a couple of bicycle racks as well, and that is where her transportation device awaited her as well. Though she had a car license, she frankly wasn’t willing to invest into owning a car, not quite yet. If she really needed to, she could always visit her parents and borrow her mother’s Toyota, not that it was usually worth the hassle to do so. But for commuting to her workplace and back, a bike was just fine. She could have even jogged there – or pretty much wherever she pleased, without getting tired – but people could easily get too freaked out by supernatural behavior like that.

Bitter thoughts aside, Kathryn was at the station within 20 minutes, and after securing her bike, headed inside, waved at the guards she passed (though not all deigned to acknowledge her beyond a bored stare), and changed into her uniform as soon as she arrived at the locker room. As she was fastening on her duty rig, a friendly face showed up, causing Kathryn to break out in a grin.

“Hey, El! Think we’ll be paired up for patrol anytime soon?” the vampire greeted cheerfully.

“What, with Meadows assigning the rotations? Fat chance. Would really help when I have to cover for Victor though,” the female lycan commented. Ellen was a tanned brunette of 5’7 and looked deceptively light, her hair barely long enough to put into a ponytail, rather shapely as well as packing some decent muscles. They’d known each other for almost a decade now, and had hit it off almost immediately upon their first meeting, and their relationship naturally progressed to being very good friends.

“Yeah, she really can be unbelievably petty,” Kathryn retorted with a scoff. That their superior was kind of a bitch went unsaid, but was understood nonetheless. Ellen mock-shushed her, and they shared a smirk. “I’m going ahead,” she departed with a smile, though the short trip to the office part of the building was enough to remind her of the usual drudgery of her work. It wasn’t quite enough to get her to wish for an incident, but, well…she couldn’t say she’d be averse to something to spice her day (or rather, night) with either.

Tonight, Kathryn was assigned to patrol with Jennings, a human male in his late twenties, early thirties, who often took the night shift for the bonus it gave him. Kat found him at his cubicle sipping at a coffee while looking over some documents. He turned to her with a sulky grunt, and the vampire quirked her lips in a half-smile, half-grimace. “Let me drive today,” she said, though it wasn't a request, and Jennings shrugged, obviously not caring either way - either that, or he was just unwilling to bother arguing against something so minor. They both did some perfunctory administrative work until it was finally time to go out. Driving in general was pretty fun, but there was that special thrill of being in a police car and just getting to see how very careful people usually were when aware of their presence. It could be kind of amusing, even. And whenever someone stupid enough to try and hassle – or even attack – a police officer showed up, she got to let loose a bit – but really, just a bit. Only against extremely violent supernatural beings could Kathryn ever employ all of her power, and admittedly, it was rather an addictive feeling that she had to keep tight control over.

Two or so hours of driving around Duncaster later, Moreno and Jennings parked in the center, and took to patrolling on foot. It was a fairly decent preventive, though there were plenty of corners they rarely – if ever – covered, not to mention the myriad of shady locations that took on legitimate covers or were just that unassuming. Oh, and there was also corruption, of course. But Kathryn chose not to concern herself overly much with things that were outside of her sphere of influence. Instead, she enjoyed the night-time stroll and the never-ending thrum of the city’s life, despite the fact that being on the job meant she couldn’t quite relax.
So, how exploitable are the Invisibility and Flight racial skills? Does using them require a resource (mana, stamina) or is there a fixed amount for the duration and cool-down of them? Or is it literally the case that it's possible to stay invisible during the whole night-time cycle of the game and that one can use flight all the time, any time?
Jandar Varan
and
Bellinar Saroth
In front of Ashkevron Residence, Askavi



Jandar quirked an amused eyebrow at Fatima’s reaction to Xandar stripping, and returned her smile with a faint uplift of his lips’ corners. He then followed the Queen, helping gather nearby branches, picking the larger ones from the ground and occasionally tearing one off straight from a tree. He deposited the material to the same spot Fatima did, and assisted in uprooting the stones. Fingers strained with the earth from the handiwork, he turned from where he was crouched over the disturbed ground, facing Bellinar. Jandar chuckled at the Eyrien’s complaint. “We are sure to leave here, so the mess should not matter as much, should it? Besides, it may even lead the enemies to believe the place was actually ransacked.” His smirk stretched into an evil smile as a mischievous idea occurred to him. “Perhaps we should strive to cause an even greater chaos, both without and within Faeril’s house.” By that point, Jandar’s shoulders were shaking lightly in mirth as he held back a full-blown laugh, though the desire soon passed by, and he sighed, shaking his head left and right twice. “That was, of course, a joke,” he added, dryly.

Bellinar gave a wane-but-game smile at Jandar's joke. "If they did think that, all the better for Faeril. Though I doubt if we leave that we will ever return. The Widow's path is now entwined with your Lady." The Warlord Prince nodded towards Fatima before continuing. "Faeril is just fussy about her home and it's a family home. Been so for generations."

Jandar brushed the earth off his palms and stood up, briefly glancing at the platform Fatima an he had set. It was as good as it was going to get until Markov returned with proper logs. He then turned to Bellinar. “I agree that it is very well possible she may never be able to return, even if we all survive whatever we will have to go through yet. The kind of mission we are undertaking…I myself have doubts as to when and if I may be able to even visit Kaeleer," he confessed. “I can only pray that the hardship we are to go through will be worth it in the end.”

"Kaeleer... I've never been. Faeril wished to go there one day, but after the business with her mother and aunt and hunting our father down... The taint of the twisted Queens was strong and we couldn't risk leaving." Bellinar almost looks wistful, as he sighs in resignation. "We need somewhere safe to gather our power and recruit a Court for Fatima without stepping on another, reigning, Queen's toes."

“Indeed. I do not know much about the state of Terreille, except that it is rather awful, if you don’t mind my saying so, but such a safe spot may very well reside within Kaeleer. Returning there, however, might be a challenge, what with the strict border control in this Realm,” Jandar made a complicated expression, somewhere between a smile and a grimace, and which was coloured partly by nostalgia, partly by bitterness at the things he had seen and learned in Terreille, and partly by worry for Fatima and the precarious situation they were in.





Jun ambled along the streets, glancing casually around as she sought hidden corners and secluded alleyways and run-down shops, though she certainly didn’t ignore the more resplendent of the establishments as she passed by various locations. She was thinking of stopping somewhere for a drink, to try and gather information more directly, but just then, two young women ran by her, both covered in cuts and bruises. One was a slender, dark-haired beauty, taller than herself, and the other was an even thinner though somewhat shorter blonde – though that foreign looking hair was most likely a wig. Both wore make-up and were dressed somewhat revealingly, never-mind that whatever or whoever had harmed them had shredded their clothing, so it was barely holding onto them. At a glance, Jun guessed that the damage was most likely caused by a human, perhaps by one of those debt collectors or the like. Nonetheless, there was a possibility that they were harmed by a demon, and even if that wasn’t the case, Jun supposed she could offer them temporary protection in exchange for information.

That decided, the flame breath user dashed in the direction of the injured females, and though they’ve advanced several meters ahead of her since Jun last saw them, catching up was no chore. To the people around her, she would most likely appear as a simple strong gust of air displacement, a mirage that most would dismiss as mistake, figment of the imagination, or the result of having drunk to much. Of course, if a fellow demon slayer or perhaps a demon was watching, they could identify her as a member of the Corps at a glance. Jun caught up to the women just as they entered one of the small, grungy side-streets, though they did not notice, as her steps were light enough for untrained people to remain largely unaware. The demon slayer slowed down, slinking behind her target in what from an outsider’s perspective would seem like an incredibly suspicious action. Hit with the sudden realization that she was putting off the inevitable, she tsk-ed, the slight sound alerting the females. They turned around, obviously panicked. “Hey,” she called out, though not quite loudly.

“D-did they send you?” the blonde one asked bravely. The black-haired one drew a sharp looking hairpin somewhere, clutching it in trembling face.

“And who might they be?” Jun asked in a drawl, cocking her head slightly to the side and jutting her chin out, an expression conveying both curiosity and a sense of superiority.

“Hey, let’s dash, she’s not involved,” the hairpin-holding one whispered to the other.

Before the blonde could reply, Jun tsked. “Oh, but I am involved now,” she rebuffed the pitifully armed female. “Listen, I just want to talk. I could even solve your problem for you if you give me valuable enough information,” she declared with supreme confidence. However, what she was genuinely considering at the moment was that she could offer the females temporary protection at best, though if the situation was dire enough she could send them in the direction of the Itoshi estate…

“Haah? What could a girl like you do?” the blonde asked rudely in disbelief.

Jun smirked. “You didn’t notice that I was following you ever since you ran past me, did you? Besides, there is this…” she nonchalantly pushed the coat covering her to the side a bit, revealing the hilt of her sword hidden beneath it for but a moment. The females both looked startled, and backed half-a-step away from her. “If I had wanted to kill you, I already would have,” Jun sighed. “Don’t worry, I use this only to cut down monsters,” she said, somewhat sarcastically, because she knew the pair would believe her phrase to be metaphorical. “So, do you two have some place we could discuss this? Or do you seriously want to stand here and wait until whoever harmed you to find this shitty back street?! Not like it’s the most secluded spot ever,” she grumbled.

“So you wait and head them off,” the blonde challenged.

Jun smiled nastily. “I won’t do a thing for you until I know what’s going on. And I just stalled your escape long enough that if we don’t relocate right now..." she paused for the dramatic effect. "Well, it wouldn’t be good for you, would it?” She scoffed, as if she truly didn’t care what might happen to the women. Honestly, if some ruffian showed up just then, she’d probably beat them up and protect the women even if the opponent wasn’t a demon and she technically shouldn't be getting herself involved in events not at all related to demonic activity.

“You bitch,” hissed the blonde. The taller one, however, took a hold of her companion’s sleeve, and whispered to her urgently. The blonde grimaced furiously. Fine. Let’s go,” they both turned, proceeding down the alleyway, though they both kept a firm eye on her as they walked. Jun affected her most bored expression, and followed.
Asteria



As soon as her sacrifice-esque action was done, Asteria felt a sudden presence. The closest reference to it was that water spirit in the sword she’d met way back in the dungeon. Narrowing her eyes, she dropped the coin from her mouth to her left palm, clutching it closely while looking around warily. “Hello?” she murmured the question. She used Mana Sense to try and get a feel for the disturbance. “Are you a spirit? Were you that being who was pleased by me offering part of the bug meat? Any connection to the coin?” she wondered aloud, whispering. She was mostly attempting to communicate with whatever was there, just to see if what she felt was some sort of a sentient spiritual being or not. She cocked her head to the side, focusing intently on her sense of touch.

“You know…If you like blood so much…there are some bandits outside this place, up to no good for sure,” actually, from what Ed had told her, she wasn’t sure if they were about to ransack the barrow if they had some other purpose. The fact that they were a danger was indisputable, so the details probably didn’t matter that much. “They’re bothering us too, but they outnumber us, some have armour, and they may be more skilled too…But I think at least one of them is a human,” she confided in a hushed, somewhat sweetly beseeching tone. Ed had referred to them as ‘armoured dudes’ so that last bit was likely true. “And if we had your help dealing with them…well, in exchange we can bring the corpses inside and you could have all that tasty fresh blood, hmm?”

Asteria didn’t honestly think something like what she was doing could get any sort of reaction, but then again, back when she had been speaking with the water spirit, that being had spoken to her and had wanted her mana…Though, as she still clearly remembered, dealing with it hadn’t been possible. Maybe this would be different. Or maybe nothing would happen. She was fine with either outcome. If mother rat, Ed, and herself had to deal with the situation themselves, they would. If there was actually some mysterious protective force in the barrow that had interest in keeping potentially disturbing presences aside, then perhaps it would offer a helpful push for them to deal with the bandits.

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