Hanzoku

Hanzoku nods to Nymoria as she takes the time to give him tips for his hoped for future career and teach Foyle the proper way to gather herbs. "You seem to have a real gift as a teacher, Miss Nymoria." he says with a smile. For himself, he had found an interesting deadfall and a ghostly axe flicked in his grip as he 'chopped' up the tree-shaped material in hopes to collect something permanent from it. "If you have questions about basic gaming mechanics, feel free to ask me as well, Foyle. A lot of the basics of this game are cribbed from the games that preceded it." he offers the other sw

After a few minutes, Hanzoku recovered his energy enough to lever himself to his feet and go from core to core, touching each one and looting the drops of the four deer he had just fought. It was a pleasing haul - he already more then made back the cost of his consumables, as well as some materials that he was in dire need of for his burgeoning music studio. While he didn't have any clients (yet), it was sure that he would eventually get requests, and he knew he'd need a stock of masterpiece quality songs ready and waiting. Who knows - he might even have some of the frontliners come through hi

His energy ticked over just enough, and on his mental HUD, one of his abilities lit up from red to white. "Ah ha, there we go!" he says cheerfully to the man-eating deer that was trying (and failing) to eat him. Whether or not it understood him, it gronk'd aggressively and lowered its head, scuffing its hoof aggressively. Hanzoku grinned as he lowered his stance in response, sword held parallel to the ground, energy beginning to crackling along the length of its straight blade, highlighting the sharp edges. "Let's get this over with, shall we?" he said lightly. The deer charged at hi

Now that he didn't have to constantly worry about an enemy striking at his back, he took the time needed to regenerate his energy as an opportunity. The deer would alternate between attack patterns - one was rushing forward and swiping back and forth with its antlers, trying to overrun and trample him underfoot. It would alternate that sort of aggressive attack with a more measured approach where it came close and lashed out with the sharp edges of its hooves, trying to focus his defenses lower so it can sneakily lean in and try to take a giant bite out of his face. That one had been a fun exp

With only one enemy left, Hanzoku consulted his HUD. As he expected, his energy reserves were hovering near critical - it was the biggest weakness in his build and something he'd have to look into fixing. Two cleaves was enough to put him hard in the red, though to be fair, he was showing a fair amount of bad luck in combat when fighting groups. For this hunt he had even consumed an accuracy buff, which meant that he more or less had only a 30% chance of missing. So missing the same deer twice in a row was... multiply that... yeah, around 9% chance of occurring. In fact, mathematically speakin

The third thing he found disturbing was how enemies would fight instinctively with pack tactics. It was difficult to get the mobs tangled with each other or fighting in each other's way. Instead, they'd split and circle around, always trying to get one or more at his back where they could go in and attempt to hamstring him or bite at the back of his neck. Luckily is armor protected from both tactics quite well, but it took constant effort to keep as many enemies as possible in his line of sight. It was a far change from every other MMO he'd ever played, where whole masses of enemies would be c

Hanzoku gritted his teeth as the deer bore down on his blade, red-rimmed eyes rolling as it gnashed at his face with a mouthful of razor sharp fangs. That was the second-most disturbing things about monsters - or at least the ones that resembled peaceful herbivores. Almost everything he encountered was 'upgraded' for combat in some way or another. From rabbits sporting spiral horns like unicorns that they used to gore passing giant insects to death to a cow he had seen that opened up into what was mostly a giant fanged mouth and a lashing tongue to draw prey into its mouth - anything that look

As his sword clashed against antlers and hooves, Hanzoku thought that what was probably the most disturbing thing in the game is how almost everything one encountered outside the safe zones was a monster. Not all of them are immediately hostile, of course - some could play quite cutely. But once combat is triggered, even the most peaceful-looking creature would display unbound aggression and psychopathic disregard for its own survival to keep attacking until either the monster or its target was dead. These deer were a good case in point - two of the four were dead, and one was nearly on i

The herd stopped and stamped their hooves nervously. The human they were fighting seemed highly resistant to being trampled, and two of them were badly hurt in the bargain, but there was no way out but through. Lowering their heads, they advanced at a canter, bunched shoulder to shoulder to force the human to face their charge, like cavalry leading with lances - if these lances were multi-pronged antlers. Meanwhile, Hanzoku was loosening a shoulder where one of the hooves had struck. As with lower floors, his armor, enhanced by his increasing skill and some temporary buffs - was far more

With a supremely unsatisfying meal in him and a much better tea to give some taste to what he ate, Hanzoku was ready to venture upward. His last few quests had helped his skills increase by leaps, but Cardinal does not reward those who don't strive. The monsters on Floor 1 were no longer a threat outside of rare elites, so after careful research he had made his way to the eighth floor, where the forests abound with deer, bears, enraged treants and playful fire foxes. He avoided the trickier and harder prey, and instead tracked down a small herd of Great Tailed Deer. Having herded them into thi

Thematically, I like Option 2 - a weapon can be damned or holy, but its odd that its both and doesn't suffer a matter/antimatter interaction and explode. It also sounds like Option 3 needs to be looked into - at the same time, once 2xFLN/2xHLY isn't the BiS option, then it becomes (somwhat) less important if the other enchants aren't top tier, as you take one top tier and a fitting support enchant next to it. Option 4 isn't really a great choice, because it effectively just becomes a gear tax on high ends. Assuming that was the only change, each high end would then need 3 end-game we

Having made Kingsley's acquaintance on Floor 1 and having promised to come visit his tea store, Hanzoku drops by to make good on his promise. Looking around the store, he breaths deeply of the scents of the various teas before bringing over a packet of imperial quarter blend. He watches with anticipation as the tea brews and is poured into a container to take with him. He takes a careful sip of the steaming hot liquid and closing his eyes in pleasure as the taste of tea, jasmine and bergamot fills his mouth. "Ah, this is truly wonderful. I'll have to come back more often." imperial

Looking to stock up on energy before he went out grinding mobs, Hanzoku had counted it his lucky day when he ran across this pop up restaraunt just outside the elven capitol of Ellesmera on Floor 8. Having grown stronger from the quests he's already done, the ambitious adventurer has been forced to move up the tower to find mobs that can still drop loot for him. Finding the stand set up and with arrays of food set out, he browsed the display and neatly collected what he wanted to try - it all looked delicious, and he had a sweet tooth, so three deserts alongside fish and meat skewers wasn

13/8/2024 ID Result CD LD 1 225902 Perfect craft (+9 XP) 12 2 2 225903 Failure (+2 XP) 2 5

Hanzoku doesn’t even twitch when Kimba roars at him. Not even a muscle spasm as she claws the ground in front of him. She stops and looks back at Arial in concern - was this human broken? the little lioness steps closer and roars as loudly as she can in his face. Then stares nonplussed as he continues to breathe in and out calmly. stepping boldly onto his legs, she reaches up and baps him on the forehead with a soft paw. Revenge achieved for catching her earlier, she checked back again with Arial - was he really okay? Meanwhile, Hanzoku was only vaguely aware of his surrounding

Ariel isn't quite so quiet with opening the chest or her sounds of happiness at finding a dungeon map as she believes, but the middle-aged man allows the sound of her looting the chest to pass through his outer awareness without truly intruding on his meditation. The near reflexive urge to utter a 'Gratz!' is suppressed and falls by the wayside as he focuses instead on the growing stillness within himself. A feeling of tranquility and ease that has been missing for so long, and he nurtures and holds to that feeling like a flickering flame in a breeze, hands cupped around that flame to keep it

This time, he finds his focus. His breathing slows as the repetition of breathing from the stomach helps sooth his nerves and lets him sink deeper into his meditative state. The day was warm, but not hot. The sun and the soothing breeze over the water made it so that simply sitting by the water was a luxurious experience. But even those sensations fade as his focus deepen. Worries are met and acknowledged. Worries from the past; what was happening in real life, where was his body. How were his friends and family? Worries from the present; The threat of monsters and player killers alike. T

12/8/2024 ID Result CD LD 1 225751 Failure (+2 XP) 3 4 2 225752 Critical Failure (+2 XP) 1 11

Hanzoku's eyes spring open as the stone skips towards him, the plunking sound as it splashes through the water drawing him immediately from his meditation. He starts to rise with one of his hands is instinctively at his side to draw a sword that currently is safely stored in his inventory. He stops as he recognizes the skipping stone and flushes as his eyes meet Ariel's. The stone loses all momentum and sinks into the water close to where he stands as he returns to his sitting position. "Ah. Sorry, I have trouble relaxing, even in safe zones. Its silly I guess - its safer here then in RL, but

Hanzoku nods his head in respect to Kingsley. In another game, where combat magic was a thing, the old man might have been able to fight on the front lines. But at his age and condition, forcing him into serious battle was a death sentence. "I always liked tea back in real life. I'll have to visit your shop when we're done here." "As for me, I'm set on advancing to the front lines, though I'll likely work to support the frontliners for a while once I'm strong enough to manage that. I'm well behind the curve - I was... out of it... for the last two years." the scruffy man said, his express

11/8/2024 ID Result CD LD 1 225492 Failure (+2 XP) 5 3 2 225493 Failure (+2 XP) 3 5

Hanzoku grimaced a little at the next activity, but finds a seat on a rock and rests his hands on his thighs. "I've never been the best at meditation - my thoughts tend to keep going rather then quiet down. Nothing for it but to take my swing at it." he says, closing his eyes and breathing in slowly from the stomach and breathing out through his nose. The first order of business was to relax his muscles, focusing on each muscle group in turn and acknowledging the tension and letting it flow away. The second was to let external stimulii float to the background. That had been easier in the

10/8/2024 ID Result CD LD 1 224996 Rare Item (+6 XP) 11 13 2 224997 Failure (Salvaged Material) (+3 XP) 6 14

Kimba spun to a stop on the other side of the bush, watching carefully to see if she needed to run left or right to stay away from the human, who was surely coming... right... through the bush?! Indeed, Hanzoku had anticipated the little lioness' tactic as soon as she had taken the low road. If he went left, she went right, or back under. The bush wasn't so thick as to be impenetrable, but it had branches and thorns. Gritting his teeth, he accelerated and leapt forward, tucking his arms in front of his face, letting the lashing branches slash across his skin, leaving welts and scratches t

Out on the plains, Hanzoku looked around, noting a few of the omnipresent boars rooting and grazing, but overall it was peaceful, and he relaxed a little as the discussion swung to what constituted a material. "Huh, Miss Nymora is right - for me, they're rocky outcroppings, sparkling trees, odd flowers - like that dandelion you just found, good job there! So I go over to them-" he says, walking over to what looks like a regular rock to the others, and starts miming hitting it with a pickaxe. "And I 'mine' it until the system decides I did enough-" A few more swings did the trick, and