Pollux

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No dice. She continued. Yue Hua trekked for what felt like hours, taking breaks along the way to drink water and rest her strained eyes. Down the mountain. Off the wider trail. Up another. Across a shaky wooden bridge atop a rushing river, which few players dared to cross because one misstep or one unlucky day with the bridge's structure would send one tumbling down the waterfall at the end of the rapids. The steep and forested incline beyond was one of her favorite gathering spots overall because it was almost entirely her domain. Today, it didn't seem as inclined to serve her. Yue

Though the man had by no means attempted to conceal his approach, Yue Hua almost jumped at the addition of his voice. She turned partway to glance at him and her brown eyes briefly met his as Giovanna laid the requested item in her open palm. "Oh," Yue Hua said, "Of course." He looked like a finely honed blade, Yue Hua thought, like if she knocked the back of her hand against him, she would immediately take Thorns damage. But that didn't deter her from turning back to Giovanna and asking if she had another compass to borrow. ...Why did she think Giovanna would have two dark magi

"Hehe. Thank you." The end of Yue Hua's tail flicked upward and she subconsciously brushed her hand through its feathers. "Your ears are lovely, too. I'd considered a similar effect in the past but I couldn't find the clothes to match. Not in my preferred style, at least." She thought the newly reintroduced Freyd similarly inclined to their hobby, even though he had wandered here not by his intention and his words implied some degree of separation from it. Appearances spoke for themselves, didn't they? So, while her gaze was narrowed in scrutiny, she wasn't interested in the 'how.' She th

Urbus was blanketed in a deeper autumnal chill. Warm drinks were offered at every market stall and residents on the road carried firewood on their backs. Yue Hua hiked up her white coat to cover her bare shoulders. She passed the only gate out of the city, distractedly waving to the guards, who nodded at her once then returned their steady gazes to the road and the rest of the people passing along it. Yue Hua rechecked her equipment. She had her old sword at her hip and a basket hanging from her arm. Inside it, she'd laid a folded cloth, a pair of gloves, and a foraging knife. She had als

If by any chance their third participant was just as eccentric in their choice of self-expression, they could, hilariously, convince the lost old man that he’d walked right into a furry cult ritual. Yue Hua arrived dressed in the full effects of her vanity potions, unlike in their trip to the desert where she had gone half without for her comfort, with her yellow-to-blue gradiented hair loosened to its full length and her hands painted, a pair of horns atop her head, and a long feathered tail, the end of which wrapped around the doorknob and swung it shut behind her. Eyes lined with kohl fell

"And I thought I'd graduated from that work _ months ago, Alchemist Evangeline," Yue Hua teased. But she went easily. Outside, she reviewed her task. She instinctively turned back towards the teleport plaza before she even finalized her plan. Floor 1 was the second to the last floor she liked to gather in, second only to the floors that had near to zero alchemy materials, because in line with its reputation as the 'safest' floor, its outer zones were frequented by droves of lower leveled and non combat focused players, what available gathering nodes likely already picked thr

Whichever Yue Hua chose, Evangeline was eager to be the one receiving knowledge this time around. Unfortunately, she was not so eager as to let her new peer dip her hands into her precious stock of ingredients. She ran a business on top of her passion for the craft, and each type of herb and root in her possession was measured and had its purpose charted by the gram. Little wiggle room there was for another person's experiments. Or: quest parameters, but they made sense. Cardinal ran a tight ship with its narrative. "Believe me, I understand," Yue Hua said with an easy shrug. Sh

Less and less players visited these tutorial NPCs the more time passed within the game. Yue Hua once imagined it quite the lonely existence, but Evangeline looked perfectly content crafting every day in the solitude of her little workshop. And she wasn't even alone, per se -- the random alchemy novices were a bonus. Potions of assorted colors, scents, and sizes lined the shelves behind the brewing table, and an open book daringly placed beside a pot containing a mysterious bubbling mixture listed down alchemy orders placed by other NPCs. Yue Hua was briefly put on hold as Evangeline lower

At this point, she had no affect on the affairs of the higher floors. She’d forgotten about the boss battle. Frankly, she was impressed that Freyd and Wulfrin were out on other business this late. Yue Hua would have rather spent the entire day relaxing. “Daily crafts for me,” she answered Xena. “I’d only finished half earlier. Recently, I have been experimenting on condensing multiple vanity effects into a single potion." She swung her arms behind her head, shutting one eye against a gust of wind. The other turned to her senior. “Well, if you need anything today, Wulfrin, the doors to my

thread summary. Scarlet Firefly + 585 exp | 300 + (408 * 1 * 0.7) + 200 col + unlocks: <<familiar>>; <<training your friend>> + 1 guild token Pollux + 285 exp | 408 * 1 * 0.7 + 200 col + 1 material + 1 guild token

Morningstar and Bistro? Yue Hua hummed. She was surprised -- and still not too familiar with either of the mentioned personalities. Not that it was a race, she was just internally scribbling over her miscasting of Firefly as the timid one of the guild. But as she did so, Yue Hua also nodded along confidently at Firefly's assessment, because in her opinion, not even the hardest of hearts could possibly resist a cat. After a short, comfortable lapse in their conversation, they passed the gates leading back into town and Firefly's voice took on the tone of a confession. Yue Hua's steps

She let the cat sniff her fingers before she started to pet it. It seemed curious about the unusual off-yellow color of them, flicking its tongue at the back of her hand. Then it nudged at her more insistently and Yue Hua gently rubbed its head. The cat's eyes squinted shut and it leaned upwards into her touch. "Baby. You're so sweet," she giggled, delighted. While Yue Hua was cooing at the new familiar, Firefly thought of a name. "I think it suits her, too." On the surface level, the cat was silvery-gray. Possibly, it also carried some amount of expectation, like all names did.

Her eyes glinted at the challenge. "Deal. And of course, I will be the one paying if you solve it instead. Where do you usually eat, Leader?" She did not know where a movie star's tastes in food leaned but today she felt confident in her wallet. Not so much in her problem-solving abilities. Yue Hua was, in her humble and unbiased opinion, a force to be reckoned with in a physical bout, calm, collected, and efficient; but stacking a race on top of this uncommon task shot an excited, jittery feeling through her nerves that made her want to bounce on the heels of her feet. Wrestling bac

If DoTs were her intention, Yue Hua didn't think Xena would have a problem with the crit. portion of it. And a poor Floor 5 quest boss stood no chance against the spectacular arts of two frontline level players. Really, with the sudden inclusion of Freyd and Xena, they had overdone it. Soon after Wulfrin's strike had brought Terra Firma crashing to the ground, Yue Hua busied herself with poking through the sands. Her loot goblin tendencies afforded her no rest. She unearthed a thinner scale that had fallen off the beast's armor and was partially buried in the quick scuffle, not to be