Oscar

He took another breath, waiting for the throbbing to subside before even thinking about winding up for a second strike. While he was cognitively aware that he wouldn’t do any real damage, the pain inhibitors being pushed to their limits gave him pause. He was striking with a fair amount of force, after all. Sure, he wouldn’t shatter his hand. But, he certainly didn’t want to feel as if he had. Once the throbbing had subsided and he was content the pain inhibitors had “caught up,” he rocked the stone with yet another heavy blow. The rafters of the monastery shudder, cascading dust down towards

Oscar squared up with the rock. As he stepped in front of it, a health bar appeared above it. <<The Boulder>>, it was called. Taking a closer look at the health values, Oscar realized that this wouldn’t be a problem. Even without his weapon, between his base damage and the bonus damage from the first two tasks in the quest, it would only take three or so hits to drop it HP to zero. He took a breath and cocked back his arm. Pulling his hand back across his chest as if he were drawing a bow, he paused for a moment. Then, like a bolt of lightning, his closed fist shot forward. Upon co

“The final trial is to break this boulder with your bare hands. You may not use any weapons or skills. Only your fists. Show me the fruits of your labors in the last two tasks,” the NPC said. All of that only for the climax of the quest to be a bar brawl with a buxom boulder. Oscar couldn’t hide his disappointment. Every other part of the quest had been vastly more difficult than this one. Oscar could hit things all day. It wasn’t anything new to him. Yet, here he was, stuck fighting an inanimate object. He’d heard bad things about this quest and Cardinal’s recent patch had probably impro

“Next, you must meditate under this waterfall until you discover where you draw your strength,” the NPC said. Paint-by-numbers kung-fu flick. Still, Oscar didn’t protest when the NPC guided him to a waterfall just outside of the monastery. Oscar hopped across the stones at the bottom of the cascade and planted himself under the icy spray. Sitting cross-legged over upon a stone directly under the falls, Oscar closed his eyes and folded his hands in his lap. Then, two seconds later, he hopped up, skipped back across the stones, and rejoined the NPC. “I don’t need to meditate under a w

How exactly was this meant to be difficult? It wasn’t as if Oscar was actually feeling any fatigue from this. Not that it would be much more than a warm-up for him in the real world. He was in very good physical condition before he got stuck in the game. Perhaps in his current state, he would have trouble with the task, but certainly not on day one of the game. He ground out the push-ups in short order, then the sit ups. The laps took time. Still, a nice jog was a good way to clear his mind, even if the endorphins weren’t actually physically pumping. After he finished, he stopped in front of t

As he crossed the threshold into the monastery, he was greeted by an NPC. He’d seen enough kung-fu flicks in the past to know where this was going. The NPC spoke as Oscar approached as Oscar shook off the snow from his jacket. “Why have you come he-” “Skip,” Oscar said. An awkward pause passed between the two as the NPC made no motions about getting on with the quest. With an annoyed sigh, Oscar realized that he would need to play along with the quest if he wanted to get anywhere. “I’ve come from far away to learn martial arts from a master,” Oscar said flatly. “I will

Now, one would expect Oscar to simply lift himself up to the ledge he was hanging from. But no, that wasn’t Oscar’s style. Even at the worst of times, he needed to have some sort of eccentric flair going on. The flair here being that Oscar flung himself up several dozen meters to a hand-hold far above him. Flying through the air like a rocket, he would skip massive portions. Much like when one goes up steps two or three at a time, Oscar would skip fifty feet or more each time he launched himself off of a handhold. Climbing like that was not only faster than his previous method - or even the in

Funny as it was to watch a man penguin walk up the side of a mountain with no concern with petty trivialities such as collision or physics or caring about the proper path the game provided, it was even funnier to watch him skid back down to the ground with a sour expression on his face. As his feet touched down back on the surface, he clicked his tongue and shook his head. “Welp, there’s more than one way to skin a cat,” Oscar said. He was absolutely determined not to do this quest the way Cardinal told him to do it. He strode over to the first ledge. Instead of hoisting himself up and startin

The issue with Oscar’s preferred method of travel was that, eventually, you’re going to run into a bit of game geometry that didn’t work like you thought it would. Even with poor balance, wedging yourself in between two inclines would give you some small amount of height which, if you shuffled your feet, you could build upon to force yourself up even higher. This was standard, even if unintended by the developers. But, there were some such formations that worked properly. Which is real life gravity and physics - or a rough approximation thereof - would suddenly kick in and all of a sudden you

And so it was, Oscar found himself scaling a mountain. Not the first mountain he’d climbed and certainly not the last. Sheer cliffs and deep ravines weren’t anything new to Oscar; it was standard fare when you dropped your house on the side of the mountain. Still, it was cold. Cold enough that even with his <<Survival>> Skill, he felt the chill. He supposed Cardinal wanted to make one work for their rewards. But the signs that this was a quest targeted at lower-level Players were showing through the cracks. After all, why would Cardinal place you up against dangerous monsters durin

The day had finally come that Oscar was no longer SP-poor. In fact, he didn’t really know what to spend his remaining amount on. He could go down the path of First Aid as he had in the past, but he hadn’t got much use out of the skill and it would have been prohibitively expensive to invest in. In addition to the SP costs, but he would be stuck making the choice between a litany of other, arguably better, Extra Skills. If he was going to start spending his SP on something, it would be something he could get daily use out of. And so he scrolled through the list of locked Skills and Arts. Certai

Oscar found himself surprised that half of Jevi's sandwich hadn't wound up shattered on the floor. Maybe it was the first date jitters that gave her a startling mastery over one of Oscar's messier concoctions. He'd been known to surprise himself on such occasions. An impressive accomplishment regardless. He took a beat to look out over the waters. Opportunities to relax were few and far between. He'd be lying if he said he wasn't feeling the consequences of his actions. Who could have possibly foreseen that pushing away his closest friends and allies would result in not having any friends and

"We've got a heading then," Oscar said with some measure of excitement as he clapped his hands together. "Less information than I would have liked. Can't expect a solid tactical work-up from a bunch of scared kids, I suppose. Let's ride." One quick jaunt to Lhasri later and Oscar stared up into the dark eyes of his chosen mount with trepidation. The color had all but drained from his cheeks. "Y'know. When I said 'let's ride,' I meant it metaphorically." Flashing back to his days mucking out stalls and shoveling manure, beads of sweat began to form on his brow. "I agree with the merits of

Oh, word?

It was a shocking turn of events. Oscar had expected this to happen any day now and he was still reeling. He'd held out some glimmer of hope that Tyson wouldn't go that far. That at least some level of restraint remained in the kid. He hates me, but there's no way he'd go after some grade-schoolers right? Tyson isn't much older than they are. He can't be that stupid. But he did, it didn't matter, and yes, he is that stupid. It was because of this, Oscar let the silence drag to allow the gravity of the situation to really sink in. What had happened and what needed to b

Skill(s) Being Dropped: Katana R5 (30) Mod(s)/Addon(s) Being Dropped: Precision (2), Ferocity (4), Stamina (4), Tech Shift (10) SP Incurred Towards Limit: 50 SP SP Refunded: 50 SP Cost: 50,000

"Who is Tyson? What don't I know?" "Several things," Oscar said quickly, his eyes flashing gold as he activated his Searching skill. He wouldn't put it past Tyson to leave a couple of bodies to keep tabs on Oscar, even if the tactic had failed so gloriously before. He quickly swept the room behind Lessa and paused to respond. "I don't have time to go into it all. Long and short of it is that I've got an entire guild of Player Killers gunning for me at the behest of a real-life associate. I'm surprised Bahr didn't tell you about it." He started to turn to face Freyd, but stopped himself. "

Thread Summary Word Total - 7,601 Oji - 1267 EXP [Base Rewards], 300 EXP [EaL: Artisan], 89,276 Col [Farmed], 110,724 Col [From Oscar], 400 Col [Base Rewards], 36 Materials [Farmed], Jigen kōtai [Crafted Trinket ID: 202833] Oscar - 10,133 EXP[Tier 8 EXP Rewards], 4 Demonic Shards Random Dungeon Map - 201479a, 201479b, 201758a, 201758b T4 Perfect Weapon - 200230a, 200230b, 201480b, 201481b, 201481c T4 Perfect Armor/Shields - 200164a, 200164b, 201480a, 201481b

Oscar rarely slept anymore and when he did, it was never for long. It seemed as if whenever he slept for more than a few hours, he had half a dozen fires to go put out. Such was the life of the man waging a war all on his own. Occasionally, however, his mind simply gave out on him and forced him to slumber. Exhaustion was his greatest enemy and it had a tendency to sneak up on him. And so, Oscar awoke from one of those involuntary deep sleeps. And, true to form, he was greeted by a cacophony of chimes as messages hit his conscious inbox the moment he was aware of his surroundings. The staccato

Oscar was careful to give Oji ample time to get back to town before he started on his own meandering path back to town. He'd not seen much of his enemies since the incident on Floor 13. That being said, Tyson was too pragmatic to let Oscar go completely unobserved. The goal here being to avoid roping anyone into his personal war unnecessarily. Especially not a guy who had only just gotten his courage together enough to engage with the game. A swift dash carried him around to a farther entrance to town. It was closer to his shop and far enough to make any distant observer assume Oji and Oscar's

Dumbstruck, Oscar watched as the scene before him played out. Had the Frontliners finally lost all semblance of sanity? Speaking to Gabrandr as they were was little different to speaking to a rock. It wasn’t real and any “sentience” it displayed was an insulting facsimile created by a very sophisticated AI. Bound to Cardinal and doomed to be wiped from existence the moment the servers shut down, Gabrandr constituted nothing more than an obstacle standing between the thousands of remaining Players and their freedom. An obstacle they should have dispatched five minutes ago. As Morgenst

They were in the back half now. Oscar had expected some big phase transition at this point, but it had never come. He found the boss's attempts to mimic sentience and tug at the raid groups heartstrings amusing, though equally disappointed that people were responding to the nonsense as if the amalgamation of binary before them could even truly comprehend what was being said. Kayaba was successful in creating lifelike caricatures, but at the end of the day, they were just that. Once this boss was defeated, there would be nothing after for it. Outside of the lingering memory of the encounter lef

Chaos abound on the battlefield. A veritable clusterfuck of Players throwing themselves against the boss, frantically disabling explosive machinery, and - with this particular foe's mechanics - hoping to end it quickly. Gabrandr's blade had already shaved off a healthy portion of Oscar's health bar, even through his immense mitigation. If this turned to a war of attrition, the Frontliners simply wouldn't have the resources to deal with something with this much Phase. Sprinkled into the combat was dialogue from the boss. Oscar tuned it out. He didn't know what the story was and, frankly, h

Was it nerves that had Oscar hesitating? He'd wasted an entire window of opportunity to leap into the fray. Everything that had transpired in the moments since the fight began in earnest whipped by him like a blur. It couldn't be his nerves. He wasn't shaking. It couldn't be fear. His heart wasn't racing. Had he merely zoned out for a moment? Oscar had never been one to particularly enjoy the scripting that all of the bosses followed. He was already about as immersed in the game as one could be so all this grandstanding that the bosses tended to do just disengaged him from the task at hand. A

"Let's head back so I can get this quest done, and then we might go to the tavern for a few drinks? It's the least I can do for saving my ass." "That's... probably not the best idea," Oscar replied quickly. With all the people gunning for him - looking for any vulnerability to exploit - it wouldn't be a good idea for a newbie to be seen hanging with Oscar in public. The situation had escalated to the point where he doubted they would bother to hold a Oji hostage. Indeed, they would be far more likely to just kill him. It was one hell of a situation to be in. Couldn't be seen around him, n