[PP - F15] Off to fight... Flying Monkeys? <<WOTW T.M.H. & S.B.>> (Baldur - Completed)

[Beatbox 0]

Rumor has it that a group of NPC's were on a journey to become humans... one was a scarecrow... one was a Tin Man... and one was a lion. But on their travels a witch had captured their human companion... Dorothy... "Wait a gosh darn minute... I have heard of this story before... It's exactly like the Wizard of Oz... how creative Game Designers." he thought to himself with a giggle. However Beatbox had never DARED to be on a floor like this, this floor already was giving Beatbox a hard time to stay here, he sat down at a bench that was nearby at the safe zone and thought to himself. "There's no way I could be able to solo this quest by myself... I need someone to help me... but I don't know anyone higher leveled than me except Itzal and... Teayre. However I don't think its the greatest of all Ideas to ask her after not seeing her in months on end..." he sighed as he thought to himself. He wanted to be in the front lines, and he thought that this quest would be his ticket to get more EXP to level up some more... he sighed again and thought he should probably just head back home and not try.

[Baldur 0]

"Ohayo." Baldur called out to the young blond he stumbled upon on the fifteenth floor. The elder player, who had the stature of someone in their 30s, was garbed in more traditional-ish Samurai clothing. He did not wear the heavy armor of the Samurai, instead he merely had pieces of armor here and there to give as much protection as he could without limiting movement. The clothing he wore was something between red and orange, with a golden crane proudly taking flight on the left side. A pair of katana sat at his left hip, and over everything hung a blue haori with white flames rising up from the bottom. As the brunette, gaijin samurai walked up, he appeared to have a small black book in his hand, one of the info broker books.

"I'm looking for a small dog. He's supposed to start a quest in the Witch of the West chain."

Blue eyes finally seemed to really look up from the book and blinked for a few moments, as if he felt like he had seen Beatbox before, but was having a hard time placing him. A friendly smile spread across his face and he gave the other player a deep, respectful bow.

"Forgive me. I'm Baldur, by the way. I'd appreciate it if you could point me in the direction of the dog... I'm trying to catch up on some quests I've missed."

[Beatbox 0]

Beatbox was shocked to her a mans voice from the distance, he turned around to see him and said "H-hey." He went to look at the player and to his surprise it looked like a slightly older player dressed in some sort of samurai outfit? Either way it looked cool to him, but he also looked like he had seen him before... maybe he went to one of the two parties that happened last week? Maybe both? He had heard Baldur talk about the Witch of the West chain and a dog, Beatbox knew what he was talking about, although he thought it was just a rumor in the quest's details that it would be a literal dog. Before he could speak the player had bowed and introduced himself, his name was Baldur... that name kinda kept getting more familiar and familiar, he stood up with a smile and a giggle and bowed back "The name's Beatbox! And also do you mind if I ask if you are a part of the front lines? I have always wanted to speak with someone that fights on those boss fights." he then giggled again. He tried to remember the direction of the dog and remembered that it was in some area towards the north. He pointed north "I believe that its that way... I was about to head that direction myself to take it on!" he said as he scratched the back of his neck.

[Baldur 0]

Baldur smiled when the young man returned his bow and introduced himself as well. He had a good energy about him, and in some way he reminded Baldur of Itzal, another young up and coming player. It had been a while since he had seen the junior player, and idly wondered what he had been up to.

"An honor to meet you Beatbox, and yea, I guess you could say I am part of it, though I'm more of a junior member. I've only got 2 fights under my belt, though perhaps two of the hardest in recent memory."

When the player mentioned that he was about to take up the quest, and that the dog could be found somewhere to the North, Baldur let out a sigh of relief. With a swipe of his hand, Baldur called up the menu and sent Beatbox an invite to his party.

"Then maybe we could complete it together." Baldur said a moment before he hit send on the invite. He hated doing quests alone, so even the company of a stranger was preferable to him, and making connections and allies was important to Baldur. The more they bound together, the safer the castle and the frontlines would become. Once Beatbox had accepted, Baldur walked over to one of the wood and rope railings that surrounded one of the ropes required to get down from the village in the trees.

"Thanks for the help. I'm not particularly familiar with this floor. I try to stay away from the 'I'm so dark and edgy' floors." He said with a smirk as he looped the rope in his hand and then began to slide down from the treetops into the shadowed floor below.

[Beatbox 0]

Beatbox smiled to know that he indeed was a front line player, he had always wanted to meet a front line player. "Oh! So you have been fighting among-st the front liners in the boss rooms! I've always wanted to help out... I have this bizarre dream of one day joining the front lines, that's why I came here, I heard about the quest and heard that it gives a decent amount of EXP... I need a lot of that." he said with a giggle, which was then abruptly ended with Baldur wanting to party with Beatbox. He looked back at Baldur and heard his words to Beatbox, he was shocked that a front line player would actually assist a low leveled player like Beatbox. But without much time he said "Y-yeah, lets work together!" he accepted the party request and saw his health bar below Beatbox's. Beatbox had followed Baldur to one of the wood and rope railings that was required to get to one of the villages, he had listened again to Baldur and gave him a smile "Well, I am not too too familiar with this floor either, I typically try to stay away from higher floors that typically mean trouble for my level. However, I suppose high risks comes with high rewards..."

[Baldur 0]

Baldur smiled at the enthusiasm Beatbox seemed to have. That kind of energy was refreshing to the frontliner, who had felt like he had been going through a long slog.

"There's nothing bizarre about wanting to join the frontlines... at least... I hope not." He chuckled softly at the implication. Perhaps wanting to risk your life against crazy powerful monsters for the sake of others was a bit bizarre.

"But we can always use more players. It's very easy to get burnt out, and so giving people the option to be able to rest a bit while others carry your torch is very much needed. Where we're at right now, every man is critical." Baldur's words were a bit elongated as he dropped off the ladder the last few feet and hit the ground. Quickly glancing around to make sure there weren't any mobs, he rested his hand on the handle of the katana at his side.

"Now then, if you were a little dog out looking for help, where would you be?"

(ID# 69207 LD: 3 No dog found)

Glancing about, Baldur saw that there were other rope ladders that came down from the city up above in the trees.

"Perhaps we should check by the other ladders as well."

[Beatbox 0]

ID: 69217

LD: 19

 

"Well... I just find it bizarre that I am enthusiastic about going into fights that y'know... I could potentially die. People have died in those battle's from what I have heard, almost every boss I have heard someone hasn't walked out... but I just want to help progress the game further and I know that every man is needed right now, its just I don't feel like I would be any necessarily help to them right now... I'm a few levels behind..." he said as he looked to the side. Beatbox looked around and tried to help Baldur look for the dog that was needed to essentially start the quest, he looked from side to side and Beatbox looked over and found a dog like figure. Beatbox tapped Baldur's shoulder and pointed down to the dog figure and asked "Hey Baldur... is that him down there?" he asked him with a confused look.

Edited October 10, 2016 by Beatbox

[Baldur 0]

Baldur listened to what the junior leveled player had to say about the frontlines and about how what they did could certainly be considered very reckless, all the while their eyes looked around the forest floor for a small house dog. It couldn't have been more out of place if Baldur had designed it that way himself.

"Well, that is and isn't true. Most boss fights have gone by without anyone getting close to dying. This last one went off almost perfectly... I came the nearest to dying, and I wasn't really in any danger. The real threat comes from when we get arrogant."

Baldur remembered how reckless everyone had been in the Rohk fight. So certain that they could just clear out bosses without any trouble, and power through without any risk at all, and they had lost two players, one of them a man he respected and never had the chance to brief as he had wanted.

"We may have forgotten that the world we live in outside of the game was once dangerous. People having to fight to survive is a part of nature and who we are... we've just been able to use civilization to change the nature of it away from a life and death fight... But yes, facing that death face to face... the immediacy of it, rather than the slow fall into poverty... Your first quest to get to the front line is going to be to reach level 25 and get a full set of Tier 2 gear. Focus on survivability first, and damage second. Once you've got your gear, your next quest is going to be to get a full set of consumables." Baldur began to tick them off on his fingers, "Bonus to damage, mitigation, over-health, and then an array of healing items, and safeguards. Once you've got all of those, then you should be ready to attend your first Floor Boss meeting, and see if it's a boss that safe for you to come along with. Avoid boss fights with heavy AoE until you've gotten the hang of it."

Baldur glanced over when Beatbox pointed at where he saw a small dog. When Baldur's eyes focused onto the dog and the target crystal popped up, he saw that it was indeed a quest NPC.

"Excellent! Since you found him, you go over there. He should have a note around his neck that'll tell us what the next step is."

[Beatbox 0]

He had listened to Baldur speak about what he would need for the front lines and he kind of felt overwhelmed but after thinking about it, it doesn't seem too too bad... "Well... I am currently Level 22... I'm not that far away from Level 25... guess I am more close to becoming a front liner than I originally thought..." he giggled for a quick second and gave Baldur a smile after hearing him some more about what he would need for the front line bosses "Well... my familiar here has the mastery of fighter, getting damage is already here so I really don't need to worry too much into it... I can have the luxury to get more survivability I believe... And I am working on getting some Col so that I can get those sorts of potions... however getting Col is not that easy... I have to fight a massive group of mob's to even get Col... and sometimes I don't even get any from it. The struggle is real..." he sighed and thought that he would not be able to get the potions needed for the front line bosses. He looked over to Baldur and nodded and went over to the dog to look at the note, he read it carefully and went back to Baldur. "The note said to head East of the depths of the witches tower for the <Tin's Heart> and South of the depths of the witches tower for the <Scarecrow's Brain>... and uh... it also appears that we'll be fighting some... flying, monkeys? Along the way..."

[Baldur 0]

Baldur put a reassuring hand on  Beatbox's shoulder as they continued through the forest.

"I wouldn't fret too much about it. Everything begins to move faster the higher level you become, and gaining Tier 2 equipment is a huge game changer. Just make sure you focus on surviving over damage. If you die, then you lose. The fatal flaw of so many players, frontliners included, is that they start to think they're invincible, and then one mistake can put you into an unrecoverable downward spiral. That's why quest number two is get a full assortment of consumables. Those are your lifeline, especially safeguards. Healing potions are cheaper, but never underestimate the value of a crystal's quick heal."

He watched as Beatbox read the note that appeared on the dog's collar, and then he saw that his quest text changed one the junior player had gotten the note.

"Hmm... well then, let's head to the south tower first. It should be the nearest, and then we can move past there to the east tower. As for the flying monkies... they're not bad, just let me take the point. Their biggest frustration is that they're evasive little buggers.  Land a stun or a paralyze right away so that it makes follow up hits easier."

[Beatbox 0]

Beatbox looked at Baldur as he put a hand a reassuring hand on his shoulder as they continued on into the forest. He nodded his head making mental notes into his head listening carefully to Baldur's words. He looked back at Baldur and said "I understand that people make a down spiral to their death... I've seen a player that sounded just like that, I don't know if he has perished... but, I certainly haven't seen him in a long time, and I don't see him in my friends list... either he... died... or he removed me. Either way I can't let imaginary power get to me, this game knows a thing or two about curve balls. And thinking about being immortal is just crazy... say, what does Safeguard... even do?" he asked him with a bit of confusion. He nodded his head with a smile and continued to walk south, he was worried about the flying monkeys, but... since Baldur was here he felt a little more comfortable on this quest. As they walked all the way to the witches tower he heard from a distance what it appeared to be monkey type noises. He nudged Baldur and pulled out his sword. "They're coming." he said with a determined look.

Beatbox: 440/440 EN: 44/44 (Stats: DMG: 8 / EVA: 3 / ACC: 0 / MIT: 25 - Using Old Equipment.)

Baldur: 855/855 EN: 84

Flying Monkey1: 200/200 (MIT: 50 / EVA: 3)

Flying Monkey2: 200/200 (MIT: 50 / EVA: 3)

Flying Monkey3: 200/200 (MIT: 50 / EVA: 3)

Flying Monkey4: 200/200 (MIT: 50 / EVA: 3)

Monkey's DMG Per Attack: 70

Edited October 10, 2016 by Beatbox

[Baldur 0]

"A <<Safeguard>> Potion is an invaluable tool that absorbs all of the damage of the first hit you take after drinking it, no matter how big... or how small. It's a great tool to give yourself a breath, say if you needed time to drink a couple potions, or to let someone heal you, or take hate back away from you."

Baldur smiled inwardly, the young man seemed to be incredibly teachable, he just needed someone like the <<Guardians of Aincrad>> to take him under their wing and teach them the basics of the game once you hit that dangerous threshold. Things in the high end of the game could really hurt, and since they had so much HP, you couldn't handle them easily... you even started to encounter monsters like the <<Flying Monkey>> which could give Baldur a run for his money, and Baldur almost never missed.

"A pack? That's not good. Let me go in first. I'll AoE them down to get their attention, but you should focus on one at a time. We'll just hot my mitigation and evasion are enough to get us through this. But if things go bad and I tell you to run, drop what you're doing and run. The longer you wait cause you think you're helping me, the more you actually put me in danger. I'm just holding them long enough for you to get out before I do so myself." Baldur gave him a reassuring smile as he suddenly crouched down.

"Not that I think it'll happen."

And then he exploded in motion. The system assist grabbed a hold of him and he shot across the forest like a blue and orange streak, the <<charge>> skill landing him in the middle of the group of mobs while he executes his <<Amatsu no Homura>> sword art, dancing around in the midst of the monkies as he slashed each of them through with his katana that seemed made of azure light and lightning. Unfortunately, none of them were paralyzed by his attack as he had hoped, but he had managed to drop them into the red.

 

---

ID# 69234 BD: 7 +3 -3 (hit) MD: 5-2 (miss)
Baldur uses <<Raijinken>> to activate <<Amatsu no Homura>> 15 (base) +2 (charge) +1 (ferocity) = 18x9 = 162-50=112 DMG

[H:0] Beatbox: 440/440 EN: 44/44 (Stats: DMG: 8 / EVA: 3 / ACC: 0 / MIT: 25 )
[H:1 (all)] Baldur: 855/855 | EN: 66/84 | EVA 2 | ACC 3 | DMG 15 | MIT48
Flying Monkey 1: 88/200 (MIT: 50 / EVA: 3 / DMG 70) [Target: Baldur]
Flying Monkey 2: 88/200 (MIT: 50 / EVA: 3 / DMG 70) [Target: Baldur]
Flying Monkey 3: 88/200 (MIT: 50 / EVA: 3 / DMG 70) [Target: Baldur]
Flying Monkey 4: 88/200 (MIT: 50 / EVA: 3 / DMG 70) [Target: Baldur]

[Beatbox 0]

ID: 69236

BD: 5-3=2

 

Beatbox had listened to Baldur speak to Beatbox about this fight and he was rather surprised "Is a pack not supposed to happen Baldur? Are we in some bad trouble?" he asked with a bit of shock and concern. He pulled out his sword and turned to the pack "Well... I guess I'll pay attention to one at a time... I'll try my best to stun one of them." he said and thought in his head "Well... I am about as ready as I'll ever be..." then before he lunged into battle he watch Baldur strike against them and perform an AoE on all of them, and with one hit... they were in the red HP zone, with awe he looked at Baldur in amazement. He shook of his amazement and looked at one of the Flying Monkeys and tried to swing a combo that would lead to a stun on one of them, however it played the blonde haired player like a joke and move out of the way with ease. Beatbox looked at the monkey with a growl and moved back away from them, hopefully he would take them all down with another AoE combo.

@Baldur

 

(Sorry for Copying and Pasting :/ Kinda lazy today.)

[H:0] Beatbox: 440/440 EN: 42/44 (Stats: DMG: 8 / EVA: 3 / ACC: 0 / MIT: 25 )
[H:1 (all)] Baldur: 855/855 | EN: 66/84 | EVA 2 | ACC 3 | DMG 15 | MIT48
Flying Monkey 1: 88/200 (MIT: 50 / EVA: 3 / DMG 70) [Target: Baldur]
Flying Monkey 2: 88/200 (MIT: 50 / EVA: 3 / DMG 70) [Target: Baldur]
Flying Monkey 3: 88/200 (MIT: 50 / EVA: 3 / DMG 70) [Target: Baldur]
Flying Monkey 4: 88/200 (MIT: 50 / EVA: 3 / DMG 70) [Target: Baldur]

Edited October 11, 2016 by Beatbox

[Baldur 0]

Baldur watched as Beatbox tried his best to follow up on Baldur's suggestion and hit one of the monkies with a stunning attack, but the Monkeys proved to be too evasive. If you didn't have the highest accuracy possible, then it was impossible to hit these things without finding that perfect critical hit chance. There was some skill involved, but when the numbers were maxed like with a flying creatures and evasion, then it was almost impossible to hit.

"Nice try! These things are a pain, even for me!"

But it seemed Baldur was luck this time. Beatbox's attack may have missed, but it drove the last <<Flying Monkey>> into range for Baldur to get them all with his AoE attack. Once more he repeated his <<Amatsu no Homura>> dancing among them as he slashed through each of them, the red gashes of his blade revealing the wire mesh that made up their 3d models. Baldur counted his heartbeats, but they were off, so that when he sheathed his sword, the flying monkies had already shattered into millions of luminous polygons. One of these days he'd get the timing down.

"Usually they just spawn in groups of one or two. But if there were this many, we must already be right on top of the tower."

Indeed, as Baldur took a moment to survey the area around them, he saw the peak of one of the witch's towers just behind some trees.

"Keep your eyes open, but that should be all of them. Now we just need to find... er... which part was hidden in this southern tower?"

 

---

ID# 69241 BD: 6+3-3 (hit)
<<Amatsu no Homura>> hits for 16x9=144 - 50 MIT = 94 DMG

[H:0] Beatbox: 440/440 EN: 42/44 (Stats: DMG: 8 / EVA: 3 / ACC: 0 / MIT: 25 )
[H:1] Baldur: 855/855 | EN: 48/84 | EVA 2 | ACC 3 | DMG 15 | MIT48
Flying Monkey 1: 0/200 (MIT: 50 / EVA: 3 / DMG 70) (Dead)
Flying Monkey 1: 0/200 (MIT: 50 / EVA: 3 / DMG 70) (Dead)
Flying Monkey 1: 0/200 (MIT: 50 / EVA: 3 / DMG 70) (Dead)
Flying Monkey 1: 0/200 (MIT: 50 / EVA: 3 / DMG 70) (Dead)

[Beatbox 0]

ID: 69242

LD: 15 (There is that one chance I could roll a 20 xD)

 

Beatbox had kept watching in amazement as Baldur attack the flying monkey's once more and killed all four of them. His jaw dropped and he looked at him with pure amazement "Dude that was awesome! There is no way in hell I could be able to do stuff like that at my current level!" he said with a smile and excitement, he thought for a moment that he was going to be able to do stuff like this in the near future. He snapped back into reality when he had asked about what item we we're supposed to look for at the southern part of the tower "Oh... we are looking for the Scarecrow's Brain here... then to the east of this tower we are supposed to find the Tin's Heart... also do you find this quest story to be vaguely familiar to something...?" he asked him with a giggle. He looked around trying to find it, but alas... he could find the Scarecrow's Heart. 

Edited October 11, 2016 by Beatbox

[Baldur 0]

"Yea, I can definitely feel the references to Oz here. Hopefully there aren't as many flying monkies as in the movie." Baldur joked. Then he pulled out his pair of monocles and put one on each eye. it was a strange sight. One was rather normal looking, albeit a bit fancy with the filigree, while the other was a gold frame surrounding a ruby colored lens. The two items boosted his searching ability considerably.

"I forgot, I have a few items for just this purpose."

Spoiler

<<Ronin Uwa-Obi>> unequipped for the <<Searcher's Eye>>
<<Emerald Teardrop>> unequipped for the <<Monocle of Sight V2>>

Pushing the bottom floor door to the tower open, Baldur was confronted with the sight of what he would assume Dr Frakenstein's workshop would look like. There were jars of body-parts all over the place, with tables practically overflowing with scientific equipment which made Baldur's stomach turn. He took in a deep breath and pushed forward, glancing around the bottom level of the tower.

(ID# 69255 LD: 1 (lol))

"Hmm... I'm not seeing anything here. Let's try going up to the second floor of the tower and looking up there."

Baldur walked over to the ladder which rose through a man sized hole in the floor above.

"After you."

[Beatbox 0]

ID: 69258 / LD: 12 (Nope.)

"Oh god I hope we don't see as many flying monkeys as there are in the movie. That's the thing I want to see the least today, well that and besides death its the thing I don't want to see." he said in reply to Baldur. After he was done looking around he looked back to Baldur and saw that he was equipping things to this sort of situation, "Man is he prepared... all I have is what I have right now... I really need to get col and materials..." he thought to himself with a smile. He watched him look around for a bit himself and he couldn't find anything. "Yeah sure maybe it's above us on the next floor." he followed behind him towards the ladder, he offered Beat to go first with a smile he said "Thank you good sir." and proceeded down the ladder. Once he had gotten down to the second floor he jumped off the ladder and started looking... however he wasn't so successful in finding it. "Not finding it here! Maybe you'll find it." he said. 

@Baldur

Edited October 11, 2016 by Beatbox

[Baldur 0]

ID: 69260 LD: 2 +3 (S&D)+3(LD)+1(Skill Rank)= 9 (GDI)

Baldur climbed down the ladder behind Beatbox, the two strange monocles in his eyes. No one in their right might would try to fight while wearing two monocles, so Baldur was thankful that they had cleared out all the flying monkies outside already. As they proceeded down to the next level, he saw what appeared to be a wide array of... scarecrow body parts, pieces of metal vaguely human shaped, and picture of a lion out in the wild with darts thrown into it. Slowly, Baldur began to dig around inside the new room.

"Hmm... I'm not seeing anything yet, how about you?"

Baldur knew that their time must be limited before the mobs would respawn, but he was still hoping they could find the Scarecrow's Brain and get out of the tower before any more would show up. They had gotten lucky with the last batch, but Baldur didn't want to test that luck more than they had to.

"Maybe I'm looking for the wrong thing... I'm just imagining a jar filled with green liquid and brain floating in it... but what would a scarecrow's brain look like?"

[Beatbox 0]

ID: 69261 / LD: 1 (I don't even want to know what I found with that roll.)

 

Beatbox had payed close attention to Baldur... was the items he equipped... monocles? Beatbox didn't know people wanted to stay classy in this game, he giggled at that thought. He looked around and this floor surely should have the jar that holds the scarecrow's brain... he doesn't really know what that would look like. He thought for a moment before looking again, however as he was looking he found a jar, but what was in that... he didn't like and it scared him so he yelled for a moment and threw the jar, the jar exploded into white crystals and disappeared, he looked back to Baldur and said "Whatever I found it wasn't a brain, I'll tell you that." he shook his head while calming down once more. He thought about it for a moment... what would a scarecrow's brain look like? He thought about it some more and laughed "I think it would involve a lot of hay... maybe even a needle. Y'know since it was made from a haystack?" he said jokingly.

Edited October 11, 2016 by Beatbox

[Baldur 0]

ID# 69268 LD: 17+3+3+1 = 24 (Brain Found!)

"Hmm... straw, of course! Why didn't I think of that."

Baldur ran over to another side of the room where there was a huge pile of clutter, and then emerged triumphant with a handful of straw.

"I guess... this is... it?" Baldur held the straw for a moment, and then with his other hand he pulled up the menu to reveal that there was indeed progress made in their quest log info.

"You know, I probably would have turned this place upside down before I would have thought to look for straw." Baldur said before putting it away into his inventory and clasping Beatbox on the back.

"Well done, my friend."

Turning back, Baldur switched back to his combat gear and then began to climb up the ladder to the ground level of the tower once more.

"You ready to head towards the next tower?"

@Beatbox