[SP-F19] To New Heights

[Birdie 0]

A single leaf fell from a branch, whisked away by the gentle winds. As Birdie perched herself upon a boulder - of which sat dormant amidst a field of broken archways and ruins - a sense of tranquillity washed over her like nothing she'd ever felt before. The vast 19th floor seemed to be devoid of commotion, a lack of flurrying crowds and loud marketplaces giving it a special type of appeal; the quiet, calm kind. There was so little to worry about, mobs and players alike, that the woman who sat in a state of peaceful solitude persuaded herself no harm could come of it.

With her knees wrapped up in both arms, Ava watched the cursed fauna roam the lands beyond, her mind wandering astray. So many things to think about, so much time to think.

At any rate, she hadn't ventured to the 19th floor to sit and think. She used her arms to guide herself down the side of the rock, landing on her feet with a gentle thud. Tipped by a recent customer, she'd learned of broken ruins that housed sought-after, high quality gems and other precious materials, as well as a few similar locations on the highest available floor. Journeying across the vast open fields that surrounded the main settlement, she now found herself in one such location, and readied herself to begin gathering.

"Looks like my equipment's in check.. time to see what they were talking about."

 

Edited December 8, 2016 by Birdie

[Birdie 0]

She stumbled upon a small rock in her path, fumbling to her hands before she managed to recover. The ground was more uneven than she thought, likely tied to the history of the place - perhaps it used to belong to a longstanding civilisation, inevitably wiped out by the twisted human-like beings that haunted the floor. Intrigue aside, she wasn't there to meander about the place and inspect the ruins for its rich lore. Materials were the only thing on her mind, and the sooner she was able to make haste away from that dilapidated place, the better.

Her first find came almost naturally - taking away from the training session she'd recently had with Itzal, a small pile of pebbles sat stashed away behind some overgrown grass, and brushing aside the foliage revealed a nice set of gems that were ripe for the taking. Re-homing the materials inside her inventory, she happily sighed and moved onwards.

#72038
LD: 18+5=23 <<Gained Four Tier 2 Materials>>

Edited December 12, 2016 by Birdie

[Birdie 0]

Passing through a crumbling archway, the true extent of the ruin's state was finally revealed; the walls weren't just cracked and broken, but rather seemed smashed and beaten by a physical entity. "What would be strong enough to smash rock.." she pondered aloud, grazing her hands against a mossy stone wall. "Maybe the wildlife, but.. they're usually passive..unless a group of players came along and messed with them."

Birdie's detective work continued as she walked along the length of the wall, her hand gliding along its surface. She noticed a small hole in the wall, barely large enough to fit a hand into, and approached it with the necessary caution. Upon closer inspection, a sparkle came from the dark and she beamed an excitable smile, reaching in blindly to grab whatever lay inside. Thankfully, the Cardinal hadn't any tricks up its sleeve, and out come 4 high-quality materials which she could use for crafting.

ID# 72039
LD: 10+5=15 <<Gained Four Tier 2 Materials>>

Loot:
8 <<Tier 2 Materials>>

Edited December 12, 2016 by Birdie

[Birdie 0]

Closing the latch to her satchel, she briefly surveyed her surroundings, checking to see that she was still alone within the ruins. Not that any players would be likely to find her there - it was even less likely they'd be able to catch her.

Satisfied that nobody else was present, dirt and stone displayed beneath her feet as she continued on the path. Surprisingly, the section of ruins she was walking towards seemed relatively unharmed, and the flooring was even visible save for a thick later of dust. 'Vines are draping from the ceilings so the foliage tried to reach out this far.. maybe something's preventing the area from spreading this far?'

A loose stone tile rocked beneath her feet, an oddity considering that the area of the ruins she navigated seemed to be mostly intact. Wobbling it a few more times, she figured that it mightn't be that heavy to lift. Using both hands, she was easily able to remove it and reveal the treasure beneath; a small pile of gems, much like the ones she'd already encountered.

ID# 72041
LD: 12+5 <<Gained Four Tier 2 Materials>>

Loot:
12 <<Tier 2 Materials>>

Edited December 12, 2016 by Birdie

[Birdie 0]

"Sapphire, ruby.. two emeralds?" Notifications in the corner of her HUD told her what the items that she'd been picking up were, leaving her surprised by how generous the game seemed to be treating her. 'I wont complain about it, just hope my luck isn't gonna run dry soon..' Moving the tile to cover the empty hole in the floor, she gently slid it into place and picked herself up from the floor. A clear dead end awaited her up ahead, leaving the woman with no other option but to turn back and continue her search elsewhere.

A split in the path presented itself. 'Did.. did I miss that before?' Curiosity soon got the better of her, and she ventured from one section of ruin to another. The air became noticeably damper, as if a body of water lied ahead. 'That's strange.. is there some sort of reservoir ahead?' The question occupied her thoughts as she pressed on further into the ruins.

ID# 72042
LD: 7+5=12

Loot:
12 <<Tier 2 Materials>>

Edited December 12, 2016 by Birdie

[Birdie 0]

Stone pillars and archways painted silhouettes across crumbled floor tiles, the sun's light hitting them in a strikingly odd way. Almost as if a natural deterrent for adventurous beings, Birdie picked up on the creepy shadows and where they were coming from, not before convincing herself she'd seen movement first. Several openings now presented themselves to the scout, causing her to ponder each possibility.

Left of her position was a relatively undamaged hallway made of arches, with frequent gaps in between. It seemed to lead to a set of steps which elevated higher; promising, yet she didn't will to climb any higher without inspect the whole first floor.

In light of this, she chose the right path, the way which would seemingly lead her to the source of the air's dampness. Small streams of water started to emerge from the walls as she ventured further on, causing her steps to slow. 'Where's the water coming from?'

ID# 72043
LD: 8+5=13

Loot:
12 <<Tier 2 Materials>>

Edited December 12, 2016 by Birdie

[Birdie 0]

The streams of water soon converged into drains on either side of her, four separate trails leading into each one. The further she followed along the path, the more curious she became of the trail's end.

Before she knew it, a solid wall blocked her path, with two small holes allowing the streams of water to pass through. A symbol depicting a deer seemed to be etched into a slab of stone, placed in the middle of the wall. "What the..?" Looking around revealed no such levers or buttons to press, and the only clue was an oddly symbolic image which she hadn't a clue how to bypass.

"Hm.." Birdie gently placed her hand on the deer symbol, not expecting much to happen - to her surprise, she was able to push the slab back, revealing a small deposit of materials on the inside. She beamed a smile, "Aha!"

ID# 72044
LD: 16+5=21 <<Gained Four Tier 2 Materials>>

Loot:
16 <<Tier 2 Materials>>

Edited December 12, 2016 by Birdie

[Birdie 0]

Following the drains upstream, Birdie returned to the point where the streams converged and then eventually back to the very first trail of water, where she happened upon the 4-way split in the road. One path would lead back to where she'd come from, and the other seemingly lead to a dead end save for a small pile of goodies.

With no intention to seek elevated ground, she took the third possible path and looked ahead to see what awaited her; a narrow path than most, with walls mossy and crumbled throughout. Since coming to the ruins, the woman had painted a mental image of the ruin's layout in her mind, yet this path should stray away from any part of it she'd explored previously. She gulped, moving onwards shortly after.

True to her suspicions, the path was eerily narrower than others within the ruins; whether this was to generate fear or keep something larger from passing through was unbeknownst to her, and she hoped it would stay that way.

ID# 72045
LD: 6+5=11

Loot:
16 <<Tier 2 Materials>>

 

Edited December 12, 2016 by Birdie

[Birdie 0]

She gazed upon the derelict ruins, moss-covered walls and cracked pillars aplenty. As far as she could see, no white patches of light were present in the surrounding area, and the path she'd followed from a four-way split appeared to present a dead end. A pang of disappointment struck her hard - the first time she'd mustered the courage to explore a high floor alone and her only finding was a strikingly barren ruin with little noteworthy loot?

She turned tail, heading in the very opposite direction. If she walked far enough, the entrance to the ruin would present itself and she would be able to leave the dreaded place- dreaded not for its gruesome or terror-inducing detail, but for its mind numbing simplicity and lack of character.

The pathway leading into the wide open revealed itself, in the same condition as she'd left it before. A lungful of dusty air filled her lungs as she let out a deep breath, and pressed onwards into the wilderness.

ID# 72046
LD: 4+5=9

Loot:
16 <<Tier 2 Materials>>

Edited July 19, 2017 by Birdie

[Birdie 0]

The sun beamed brightly through a gap in the grey clouds, warming a spot on the ground with its wonderful rays of light. Birdie had traversed East, away from the ruins she'd found which contained a lukewarm quantity of materials at best. If she was to gather a meaningful amount to take back home, she would need to focus harder and seek more plentiful sources of valuable crafting items; Hillsides would be grand for ore, tall trees often had fallen branches of a rich wood and the odd fallen animal carcass which had deteriorated into a pile of bones would usually hold key bone fragments for weapons and armour, and it would be easy enough to trade either of these resources for things an Artisan could work with.

A glowing flash of white light struck her eyes, hidden behind the cover an unmoving boulder. Given its suspicious position in the midst of a wide open valley, she had to assume there was some backstory behind it, but that wasn't her concern. She moved closer to retrieve the materials - four weathered rocks - and continued onwards through the valley. 

ID#86869 | LD: 12+5 | Found 4 <<[T2] Weathered Rock>>'s (20 total)

 

Edited July 19, 2017 by Birdie

[Birdie 0]

Despite travelling lightly, only her light armour and two search-enhancing items trinkets adorning her body, the warm midsummer's sun started to do away with her energy, inducing the faintest semblance of fatigue. It was nothing a small sip of water couldn't fix- even if drinking and eating weren't as crucial as in the real world, they still presented an unshakable annoyance if left unchecked for too long.

A brief sweep of the surrounding area revealed no materials, so she pressed on. Green hills and the occasional tree was the only way to describe the part of the nineteenth floor she'd found herself in. Perhaps grander sights were hidden behind the tall masses of dirt and plant matter but there were few other incentives to stray from the relative safety of the dirt trail, and with in mind, she stayed put. If her previous encounter with a supposed building of note- the derelict ruins which resulted in nothing more than a dozen or so materials- then there was no sense in seeking out another unless it presented an obvious dungeon entrance or treasure chest.

ID#86870 | LD: 9+5

Edited July 19, 2017 by Birdie

[Birdie 0]

The faintest hint of white captured her eye, just a few dozen feet to the left. In any other case, she would have easily been able to simply walk across and hold her hand out, retrieving them with little difficulty. The materials she sought were atop a large boulder, standing six feet taller than herself and extremely curved at the side, meaning there was little she could grip onto and pull herself up onto it. She pressed a thumb to her lip and let out a low hum, attempting to envision the best way possible to scale the obstacle. There's a small hill to the side, doubt I'll get enough height from that to land on top of the boulder though... hm. Engaging her menu, Birdie scrolled to the inventory screen and located her heavy two-handed straight sword, Frost Drake's Chagrin. She dropped it as a physical item and caught it, and briefly inspected its durable to make sure it wouldn't break during her manoeuvre.

Alright, here goes nothing. Birdie had propped her sword into the ground tip first, leaving its hilt and crossguard sticking out of the ground. Placing one foot on the guard caused the weapon to audibly crackle and whine and in a panic, she leapt from the sword, barely grappling onto the heavy round boulder. A sigh of relief escaped her lungs, and she moved to gather the four materials.

ID#86871 | LD: 12+5 | 4 <<[T2] Weathered Rock>>'s (24 total)

Edited July 19, 2017 by Birdie

[Birdie 0]

Before she leapt down from the boulder, Birdie noticed that the flashing white light of materials hadn't burned out just yet. As she leant over curiously and put a hand to it, the source allowed the scout to gather another four materials before finally it finally disappeared. Huh... must have been a rich source. Wonder how common those are here? Materials gathered, she leapt down from round boulder and landed with a groan, bending her knees to absorb the shock of the fall. With Itzal's ongoing training, she was more than excited to be learning about proper athletic manoeuvres, including that of landing safely and without breaking speed.

She retrieved Frost Drake's Chagrin and inspected the sword to find less than 20% of its durability wasted. The game likely hadn't intended for such a strange solution to her problem yet it hadn't prevented her from doing so, so she returned the Two Handed Straight Sword to its rightful spot in her inventory and continued onwards, following the trail once more.

ID#86874 | LD: 16+5 | 4 <<[T2] Weathered Rock>>'s (28 total)

Edited July 19, 2017 by Birdie

[Birdie 0]

The artificial sun which had been brightly in the sky began to subside behind grey clouds, leaving a gloomy, overcast shadow upon the nineteenth floor. Birdie had been wandering for several hours at this point, looking for anything that caught her eye; potential dungeons entrances, possible chest locations or, more importantly, materials. The aim of her game this time around was to gather as many tier two materials as possible in light of the recent update, where the lower floors and higher floors each wielded different results when gathering. With the front runners on the verge of breaching the third tier floors, she had to be prepared for yet another excursion of gathering even higher tiered materials, yet that wouldn't matter for quite some time.

Across the hilltops in the vast distance, a small stone-like structure presented itself. Seeing as it followed the trail she was blazing, the scout decided to head towards it, hoping it would yield some materials at least.

ID#86876 | LD: 3+5

Edited July 19, 2017 by Birdie

[Birdie 0]

The stone building drew closer with each step. Rough details had started to paint themselves in the distance; vines hung from the entrance way blocking the path inside, piles of crumbled rock sat littered around the outside and a dim, weak light appeared to be emanating from within. The rocks would be good spots to check for materials and the entranceway could likely be opened with a slash of her rapier, though Birdie was uncertain of the light flowing from within. If it really were a dungeon entrance, it would be far too dangerous for her to go it alone, even if it ended up being beginner-tier. There was always the possibility of noting it down on a map and saving it for later, which is likely what she'd end up doing if things went down that way.

Another flash of light. She felt initial shock for having come across a plentiful number of materials since leaving the ruin but in all honesty, she expected to find more outside than in that boring, dilapidated place.

ID#86882 | LD: 13+5 | 4 <<[T2] Unrefined Ruby>>'s (32 total)

Edited July 19, 2017 by Birdie

[Birdie 0]

A low hum escaped her throat.

The building was further than anticipated- much further, in fact. As she crossed over a hilltop and peered down into the ensuing valley, a relatively steep decline was laid out before her. Though her scout training had done wonders for her athletic abilities, this sort of cross-country trekking was far beyond her comfort zone, and one slip or fall could send her tumbling down the rest of the hill... she toyed with the idea, but ultimately decided to tackle it from an angle, minimalizing the effect of the steep hill.

Dark grey clouds loomed in the distance, though she elected not to think anything of them. No materials presented themselves at present, save for some measly rocks which didn't count as real items in the first place. A low hum left her throat once more, and she pushed on through the 19th floor.

ID#86883 | LD: 3+5

Edited July 19, 2017 by Birdie

[Birdie 0]

"... this is a problem..." Birdie stood before a deep crack in the ground; A valley running through a valley. It was wide enough for a party of 6 or so to pass through side-by-side and seemed to extend past the naked eye, offering little-to-no escape other than to traverse its length and find a way out further down. The fall itself might not be enough to drain her health but if monsters spawned at any point down there, she was good as death.

With that in mind, she set about finding a solution. No terrain should be impassable save for floor borders so there must have been something  she could do to cross over to the other side. A tree that was ready to fall, a large boulder she could unlodge and have it fall into the hole; Anything of that sort, she began to seek out.

At first sight, only a few schools of rocks were scattered around, nothing noteworthy of collecting. A solution didn't present itself immediately but then again, one rarely did, so she began to travel along the edge of the crack in the ground in hopes of finding a way across further along.

ID#86885 | LD: 3+5

Edited July 19, 2017 by Birdie

[Birdie 0]

Time passed swiftly by, and the stone structure she'd intended to explore was getting further and further away. The wide crack in the ground which had prevented her from crossing through a valley didn't appear to have a bridge of sorts, so the scout was forced to traverse its length in order to seek another way around.

A flash of white light appeared not too far up the valley, so she'd backtracked momentarily to inspect the materials. <<Chiselled Runes>>, as their name tag suggested, were small pebbles with strange symbols carved into their surface, representing a spiral or a flame. Though they were fun to look at, she cared little for their appearance and merely added them to her material count. Upon seeing her total tier two materials approach forty, a smile tugged at the corner of her lips, though she was still too peeved from the problem at hand to derive any joy from her findings.

As she followed the trail once more, a peculiar sight caught her eye; a leaning tree, curiously positioned in a way that would act as a bridge should it topple over.

ID#86886 | LD: 18+5 | 4 <<Chiselled Rune>>'s (36 total)

Edited July 19, 2017 by Birdie

[Birdie 0]

"Here goes nothing!" Birdie pushed against the leaning tree with all her might, attempting to tip it past the point of no return and hopefully have it fall over, allowing her to use it as a bridge to cross the valley within a valley. One hundred and thirty pounds weren't going to cut it, however, and her efforts were met with a low groan as the tree didn't seem to budge. She stumbled in a way in a huff. "Ugh, or not... damn it, there's gotta be another way..."

An idea popped into her mind. She summoned the inventory window and sought Frost Drake's Chagrin once again, this time equipping it as her main hand weapon. If her theory was correct, a simpe Sword Art would slice the tree at an angle, causing it to topple over on its own. One clean strike to the base of the tree later and it fell perfectly vertical, the top of the tree landing clean across the other side of the valley. "Aha!" She cheered and swiftly moved across the impromptu bridge, where another flash of white presented itself before her eyes. More Weathered Rocks, huh? Great...

ID#86889 | LD: 12+5 | 4 <<Weathered Rock>>'s (40 total)

Edited July 19, 2017 by Birdie

[Birdie 0]

(The roller completely screwed up the roll on this, so I'm considering it a non-find.)

Birdie exited the other end of the valley, having successfully crossed the gap between both sides. Only a short trek would separate her from the potential dungeon which loomed in the distance, and she would be able to save its location and hand it somebody else who might have the strength to take it on.

Although she had toyed with the idea of going it alone, she knew the risks involved with engaging combat by herself, especially given that she was on the highest available floor and her level certainly wasn't in the top 10%. Bearing this in mind, there was little sense in her actively seeking a dungeon out if there was no self-benefit; It was more of 'seeing as I'm already here' type scenario.

She rolled up to the entrance of the small stone building, having found no materials around the exterior. A swift chop with her sword sliced the vines blocking the door clean in half - revealing nothing more than an immediate dead end.

... sigh.

Edited July 19, 2017 by Birdie