[PP-F19] Nature vs Nuture (Calrex)

[Baldur 0]

Spoiler

Ralberg, Floor 19
Mid-Afternoon
 

Baldur paced the small common room of The Fat Man's Leap, one of the handful of player housing inns on floor 19. It only took him a handful of steps to cross the room, which did little to help his nerves and simply set him more on edge. The situation on this floor was a strange one. He felt called to this floor, something about the mystery, or the aesthetic, or just the ambiance of it drew him like a moth to a flame. It was just challenging enough to be fun, but down far enough of the tower to be safe for him to solo... At least, that's what he had thought.

His mind retraced his steps from that day. He had been out in the ruins at the center of the floor, exploring them as he always did, but this time he wasn't as alone as first thought. Most days, Baldur could explore the massive, dilapidated, labyrinth like city on his own... or at least it was large enough to feel that way. Today, Baldur's peace was disturbed by something other than artificial intelligence controlled monsters trying to perma-death him. Today it was real, true death.

The man had seemed... scattered isn't the right word, but his mind was not in one place. He had lost his entire party to some strange event or quest line deep in the center of the city. To hear him tell it, they had found a quest that was not in any of the info-broker manuals. It began with a dropped item, which lead him to Ralberg to meet with one of the wealthy landowners. His son and heir had gone into the ruins of the city against his father's wishes, and this item was a sign that something had gone terribly wrong. The father beseeched them to into the ruins and fine his son, or proof of his fate. Instead, what they had found was death. Real death.

Baldur had found the player, who said his name was Irenicus, wandering the streets. Well, Baldur had found him staggering through the streets, slumping against one wall after the next in a daze. A look of true despair was in his eyes. He had told Baldur he would trade him a rare quest item in exchange for help getting out of the maze and Baldur had agreed. The merchant side of him was excited for a rare item, but the human side of him would have helped anyways. It was difficult to look at someone who had just gone through that and not feel compelled to help ease that kind of suffering.

Taking a deep breath, Baldur finally stopped his pacing and gestured with his hand to pull up the UI. Expertly navigating the menu, Baldur could no longer remember what it was like not having one. He pulled up his friend list and found the one person he knew he could trust. Calrex. He pressed the message button and typed it up to his friend.

Quote

>@Calrex, I found a quest on floor 19 that seems different from the others, and it's off the books. No info broker info. Care to help an old friend out? Meet me at the Fat Man's Leap in Ralberg on the 19th floor. Thanks

He felt bad about sending the message to his kouhei. Baldur didn't like taking advantage of friendships, but asking for help in general was very difficult for the gaijin. It was rare that he needed, but Cal-kun was often in the position of everyone wanting help, or to be carried, and Baldur would have none of that. He wasn't after XP or rewards in this quest, Baldur wouldn't be on the 19th floor if he was, but he had a nagging suspicion about this quest... but that also wasn't entirely the case.

Baldur had taken the item to see the NPC in town, Daedalus, but the NPC... it appeared grieved. It seemed as if it echoed Irenicus' emotion. Irenicus had been a Player though... and Daedalus definitely was not. However, the NPC appeared saddened and... empathetic? It expressed sadness about the fate of Irenicus' team... the fact that it even acknowledged other players had attempted his quest was different. He had heard about certain key NPCs being more lifelike than others, better able to respond to speech, rather than parsing for key words like the majority did. There were so many reasons to be excited by this. And concerned.

So Baldur turned around and continued to pace, waiting for his Kouhei, the strongest player in Aincrad.

[-1 Yui's Grace]

[Calrex 0]

With a small sigh after completing his past endeavors, Calrex had sat down on a bench aligned for viewing the massive fountain on the first floor. Another raid complete, another floor unlocked. The speed of the frontliners was certainly something inconsistent, but when put into full throttle a speedy sight indeed. He could still recall the time that they had cleared at least three floors within the span of a month, a feat yet to be overcome. "Of course back then we had a lot more of the unique skill wielders on the frontlines. Zelrius' Dual Blades, Ssendom's Berserker, Tristan't Achilles, Teayre's Battojutsu...it really sped up the clearing speed. But it seems it'll be some time before we come even close to that rate of conquering again. I guess in some ways that's not exactly a bad thing, since it allows other players to catch up and potentially add to the other raid teams."

His thoughts were broken by the ringing sound of his inbox, indicating that a message had arrived. Swiping with his right hand to pull down his menu and navigate to the mailbox the bluenette pressed on the latest message, eyes widening for a moment as he saw the sender's username. It was one he had not heard from in quite some time, not since the Spectrum Coalition was disbanded as the result of lacking active members. The man he had trained under in order to help understand the plight his wife was going through, and the one who bestowed upon him the shift in mentality that catapulted him to the person he was now, "Certainly been a while Bal..."

From the context of the short message, it seemed that the katana wielder had come across a quest that had yet to be undertaken and completed, at least if the info brokers didn't seem to have any info on it, "Not sure if my personal contact might know, but I guess there's no time to track him down and confirm."

Standing up, the Ultramarine Knight looked towards the back of his hip upon hearing the sound of metal clinking against the ceramic of the bench. On his hip sat the Grand Blade III, a weapon which he had wielded regularly in the past, but was now impractical with the changes he had gone through. Giving a small smirk and laugh he swiped through his menu again, the sword vanishing in a flash of light, "Maybe one day, but for now..."

Another long beam of light materialized with his right hand at one point, extended out to be longer than Calrex was tall before stretching out and forming the shape of the Grand Legionbane, the massive two-handed battle axe he had recently commissioned from Macradon. Seemingly without effort the bluenette brought it up to rest against his shoulders before making his way to the teleportation plaza, "...this is the person I need to be."

Moments after reaching the teleportation circle the bluenette's scenery shifted from the first to the nineteenth floor. Following his former guildmate's location Calrex maneuvered through the streets until he reached the front of the Fat Man's Leap. Seeing the inn reminded him of his early days just starting as a single digit level player, when he would stay in the inns made for players. Looking at the doorway he gave a small sigh, "Not getting through the door with his giant thing."

Swinging his axe to the side it vanished in light before being promptly replaced by the Grand Gauntlets III, which encapsulated his forearms. Putting his armored forearms into his jacket pockets he entered inside.

@Baldur

[Baldur 0]

Spoiler

Baldur had turned to door of the inn each time it opened. Am I really that nervous? It had been a while since something could get under Baldur's skin like this. A mix of excitement and nerves. Still, there was no way Calrex would respond to his message so quickly. The highest level player in Aincrad was probably busy doing whatever he did to remain the highest level player in Aincrad. It could be hours before he responded, or if he was in a dungeon he could not even get his message until he left. Waiting here without a response from his friend was foolhardy and unlike Baldur.

Perhaps I should talk to the NPC again, see how he responds to seeing me again.

Turning towards the door, Baldur suddenly saw the door open up to the ultramarine knight. The gaijin samurai was impressed at how quick Cal-kun was in showing up to the inn. That simple fact told Baldur two things. First, that he had been unoccupied, and second, that his name still held favor with his old kouhei.

"Konichiwa, my friend. Thanks for coming so quickly." Baldur said as he hopefully masked his surprise at seeing him so suddenly.

He looked the man... boy? No, Calrex was a man. He may seem boyish on the outside, but what Cal-kun had been through had forged him like the best steel. It was unfair to considering him a boy, even if he still seemed so young compared to himself. Calrex was his senior in many ways, but Baldur had somehow managed to end up in the mentor position. The gaijin had seen a lot more of life outside of SAO than Cal had, and he had tried to impart those lessons to Calex, Teayre, and to some extent Hikoru. He could only hope they helped. Baldur had learned his lessons by fire in the real world, hopefully they spared his kouhei the pain of those lessons.

"Sorry the message was so brief, but it's easier to explain in person."

Baldur gestured and opened up his inventory to pull out the item he had 'bought' from Irenicus. It was a helmet... more a family heirloom than a functional battle helm, but it was ornate and on the brow had the symbol of the Daedalus family. That was ultimately how you were supposed to track down who to go visit, but Irenicus had simply told him where to find the NPC since they had already been there.

"I bought this off of a player on this floor. It's an item that triggers a quest line. You take it to an NPC here in this village, and he tells you the story of his lost son. A monster was carrying the item, so I was told, so that the fate of the boy and his companions was unknown. The quest text is pretty standard. The father asks you to bring his son home, or learn his fate and bring home his remains if possible. But here's the catch, Cal. The NPC remembered the player who gave me this. The NPC acknowledged that he had already asked a group of adventurers to find his son and wanted to know what happened to them. Not only that, but the NPC seemed to display emotion! And he didn't just respond to keywords, he communicated!"

A smile slowly crept up onto Baldur's face as he grew more excited about what this meant.

"I've heard about quests like this popping up, but they never seem to be consistent, like they're all one of a kind. But this could be something completely new, Cal! I want you to come with me, and meet the NPC, and judge for yourself. And then if you're as interested in this as I am, I want your help completing the quest. It seems to be more difficult than the rest of the content on this floor."

Resting his hand lazily on the hilt of the <<Muramasa>> at his side, Baldur looked anxious for his friend to respond. Not just because he needed Cal's help, but because he wanted someone else to be as excited about this as he was. Baldur had been meticulous about helping to fully map the floor, but the maze of the inner city was far larger than any of the boss labyrinths, and as the Frontline moved past a floor, no one seemed interesting in exploring them further save for those who chased the front line.

Edited March 30, 2018 by Baldur

[Calrex 0]

Upon entering the Fat Man's Leap the bluenette's eyes were met with the humble wooden interior he had grown to associate with the NPC inns designed for players to inhabit. It had certainly been some time since he had spent an evening in one, but the setting was something that had yet to leave his memory. Afterward briefly scanning the inside he looked over to see Baldur as the man greeted him from where he was. Since it was SAO, it seemed like he hadn't aged a single day, and was even still garbed in his samurai robes like the Ultramarine Knight had seen so many times before, "Not something surprising, since I tend to do the same for my equipment."

"Certainly has been Bal, good to see you're still doing well, at least from what I can tell."

Moving over to view the helm that his mentor displayed the bluenette pulled up its description, seeing the name of the NPC family that were in ownership of it, "Daedalus...if I recall correctly that was the name of the father of Icarus, a renowned inventor and the one who originally designed and built the wax wings which they used to escape."

His thoughts were disturbed by the man sitting across from him as he continued on to speak about an NPC which seemed to have a higher level of artificial intelligence than the usual ones that the players had grown accustomed to. Ones that seemed to follow a script with little deviation from it, and would immediately reset after the said task/quest was completed or some other interaction concluded. However, there was one bit that seemed a bit off about this, "Having an NPC that is knowledgeable about a previous group doesn't sound like something particularly complex to program, but the other factors do seem to lend to a more complex AI. It might be something worth looking into."

"Whether or not this NPC's AI is more complex than the others is certainly something I'll have to see with my own eyes, but either way this would like an interesting endeavor. I don't think I've participated in a quest that was not yet logged in the info broker's books, so this does sound neat. Either way, it seems like it wouldn't be wise for you to try and undertake the quest alone either. So count me in."

@Baldur

[Baldur 0]

 

Hiding the little bit of relief he felt when Cal accepted his request, Baldur gave him a nod and moved out from the inn with his kouhei in toe. The streets of Ralberg were cobbled, and rich medieval style buildings rose up around them here in the center of the city just outside the teleportation square. It was rich for a smaller settlement, but here it was the main settlement. In terms of the other floors, it would be considered one of the smaller ones, but among the NPCs, only the wealthy lived here.  There were farmers and crafters, but they all had more modest homes at the edge of the settlement or on the outskirts. The village was surrounded by farmland on this side of the ravine, and stretched out to the draw limit of SAO. It was a beautiful site, but it was unsettling to see the Ravine.

The Ravine was a giant gash in the floor,  one so deep it allowed you to look over the edge and see the floor below. It must have been some kind of canyon in the world it was taken from. On clear days at the edge of the city of beginnings, you could occasionally see a world below, that the floating tower of Aincrad sailed above. It cast a similar feeling with the ravine, but THIS one had a bridge going over it to the other half of the floor. The only other way across the ravine was to go the long way around the circumference of the floor, or cut through the maze like city at the heart of the floor. That... was easier said than done. To his knowledge, no one had yet to map it out, and it would take longer to navigate the serpentine paths and dead ends than to take the bridge... or even to walk the long way around. That, however, was where the danger lay.

When you left the relative safety of the farmland surrounding Ralberg, and entered into the open plains, you began to see the true inhabitants of the floor. Strange animals that somewhere merged between animal and mineral. There were no exceptions but those protected by the city. You could see all forms of wildlife, melded with stone and moss. They seemed ancient, and could stand as unoving as stone, but run with a speed that belied the life their bodies still held. You could see herds of horses and the occasional fox, or giant lizard, and all were merged with the stone of the floor and covered with moss and lichen. Only the birds seemed untouched by whatever curse had befallen the people who once inhabited the city.

Those who lived in Ralberg could not remember what it was called. It had been there long before even their parents were born. Life had retaken the city, but not in the way anyone would have expected. It was some ancient human kingdom, because you could see the structures still, and even some of the human inhabitants still wandering the streets. They never spoke, they did not seem to exhibit much in the way of life other than that they moved, body and eyes. They were tough to fight, having more mitigation than most, but they were not particularly quick. They hit like a bag of... rocks.

That makes sense.

Baldur led Calrex down the winding streets. It was not as full of player or NPC life as the other main settlements, and it covered the whole area with the blanket of awkward silence. There were signs of life if you looked, but unless you were in the market or the teleport square, you had to really look. The path took them closer to the ravine, and up higher into the hill the city was built around. As they got closer, the more town style buildings gave way into a more affluent side, where each home was large and separate and had a fence around it. There was social stratification among the NPCs, but that wasn't new. When they found the house with the symbol on the metal gate which matched the one on the help, Baldur pushed it open. Inside of the garden wall, there were two NPC guards. They were not as impressive as the city guards the system used to disperse PKers or monsters, but they looked professional and relaxed.

One of them gave Baldur a nod and pushed the door to the house open. Another man,A butler, announced "Baldur and friend" to the house, and a moment later a mean of wealth came out from his study on the first floor opposite some stairs running up to the second from the main entry way.

"I am glad you have returned so quickly, Baldur-san. It also does my heart well to see you brought a friend this time." He looked Cal over, and then nodded and gestured to his study. Baldur gave the man a slight bow of respect and then entered the study with the casual grace of someone who has been through this before.

Spoiler

The study itself was richly decorated and filled on most walls with books, though a large and hand carved fireplace took up one wall between two giant windows looking out over the ravine and the ancient city. it was a breathtaking view that Baldur was envious of. He wondered if there was somewhere in the city he could get a house that would have  similar view. The only reason Baldur hadn't gotten a house yet was that he could not decide between an eastern and a western style home. The man moved round his beautiful dark wood desk and took a seat.

"Does this mean you've given more thought to my request? I am sorry to be so forward, but my son is all that I have left... of my family, and of my wife." The face of the man seemed genuinely aggrieved. You could not help but begin to read his body language and feel that he truly felt the loss of his son.

"He is not just my heir, but my only boy left to me. I promised I would watch over our children... and now I have failed my family completely." He pushed himself back away from the desk and walked over to the fireplace, leaning against the mantle where a small array of out of the place trinkets sat. Mementos of his wife, missing son, and more.

"I have spoken with my friend, and he has agreed to help." Baldur told the man with a sympathetic smile.

The NPC broke out into a wide eyed grin, and brushed away a tear that formed at the corner of his eye from joy.

"Thank you so much! Money seems an ill reward for so great a favor you do me, especially considering... what happened to the other party... but still, are you sure that with just two of you, you are up to the task? I could not bear on my conscience that any more would be hurt looking for my son. He is my son, but even I must draw the line at only so much loss of life in exchange for his."

The NPC bowed his head, as if fighting with memories and his own words. He took a steadying breath and focused his eyes on Baldur and Calrex, the green eyes possessing more awareness of them than shopkeepers and normal quest givers.

"You are welcome to stay here while you are helping me out, and anything else I can do to aid in finding my son and bringing him home... in whatever shape that may be."

Baldur gave the man a nod of thanks.

"What was your son doing out in the ruins?" Baldur asked of the man.

"It is an old family legend that before fall, we all used to live inside of the ancient city. Much of our magic, and our culture was lost when the city... changed. The people who were left there were cursed, and those are the ones you see who remain, twisted and consumed. My son, and many others, believed that there was something hidden away in the palace that could change it all, and bring us back to our former glory. He wanted to seek out those answers, and perhaps find a way to reconnect with the other human kingdoms. It was our only hope of getting off of this floating rock or else fight back the curse..."

He looked down at his hand which was covered in a thick glove.

"It is not common, but it is also not uncommon, that when one spends too much time in the ruins, or with the cursed, that you may become cursed yourself."

Baldur's eyes widened. This was new information.

"We're not sure how it happens, just that it does. There is no known cure, but once someone is discovered to have exhibited signs of the curse, they are sent out to the city to live with the others and isolate the changes of it spreading further."

Baldur took a moment, then spoke in a softer tone, "Then the people who wander the city, they are villagers as well as those who used to live there...?"

The NPC merely nodded.

Spoiler

 

Edited March 30, 2018 by Baldur

[Calrex 0]

It seemed after their brief exchange at the Fat Man's Leap, there wasn't much more that needed to be said at the moment. It was a long silence as the two made their way through the streets of Ralberg, the bluenette keeping his hands in his jacket pockets calmly while they winded their way through. Brief glimpses at at the Ravine seemed to rip through parts where one would expect to see houses and other establishments, breaking the consistency of the cityscape. He had seen things like this on the lower floors, where one could look out and see the floors below as if a flattened world was stacked on top of the next. It was also the choice spots for people that wished to bring their existence to an early end in the game. During his times viewing the Memorial of Life the Ultramarine Knight had seen numerous entries which stated how the players had died, being one of the more notable methods of death comparatively to player and monster kills.

Exiting out of Ralberg was crossing a threshold of a city bordering wilderness, as the medieval structures were replaced with lush forests, but it was only a brief glimpse outside of the safezone that Calrex was granted before they turned another street which led on the path to the NPC Baldur had spoken to previously.

Making their way up to the mansion the bluenette's eyes scanned the exterior for a moment. The separation of the masses versus the richer status was not something uncommon to the previous floors of Aincrad, and this setting seemed to follow the setup to the letter. Higher status equaled larger estates with more invested structures that dwarfed the smaller, clustered, and cookie-cutter like dwellings of the working folk. Entering through the gates and across the expanse that led to the mansion seemed to slip through time as the next thing Calrex knew they were entering into the interior. Inside existed yet another symbol of this NPC's wealth, servants. The butler that announced their arrival, as well as the other hands which made their brief appearances from the shadows of the other halls were an easy indicator that the mansion was large and wealthy enough to house all of the people that lived/worked inside.

Being led by the head of the household the bluenette calmly removed his hands from his jacket pockets, exposing the deep-sea blue colored gauntlets which surrounded his forearms, the only piece of his current attire that seemed to represent his martial prowess outside of a weapon. Upon seeing his teammate give a slight bow out of respect for the man standing before them Calrex himself tilted his head downwards in a nod as well before following suit. 

Entering into the study he saw more representations of extravagance, as well as the fireplace. It was here that he began to actively pay attention to the NPC's actions and movements, his eyes following the man's every move and expression. Going from his attire, it was possible that the head of the household was formerly a knight or other man of military status. The scar across his lip and easy wearing his armored garbs was representative of that. He had not let time and wealth mar his former duties, but seeing the smaller expressions that broke through his hardened facade was certainly something that lent a deeper layer of complexity to his AI than the more two dimensional things the bluenette had experienced in the past. 

Hearing more about the lore of the floor was something unique, but yet uncommon. The curse that seemed to be commonplace on the floor, and the city's reactive measure to it, were cold yet standard. Without a cure, the only thing that the city's governing body could likely do is quarantine or exile the afflicted in the hope that keeping such people isolated from the rest of the populous would minimize the impact, and if things went well the "disease" would eventually die off. However, this wasn't a disease that killed its host, it was a curse which corrupted and kept it alive. The main difference between this and something similar like a zombie apocalypse was that there were built-in safeguards in place like the declared safe zones that separated normal NPCs from the monsters in the field zones just next door.

Even with this new information, Calrex held back from speaking. He had only just met this man, and it seemed that of the two of them Baldur was considered the point of contact. Looking over at the man he considered his mentor the bluenette gave a nod before returning his hands to his jacket pockets, "Three questions come to mind then after hearing this. One, Is his son corrupted at this point. Two, can this curse affect players. Three, what's become of the team that was sent before us?"

[Baldur 0]

Baldur let the revelation hang in the air for a moment longer, glancing out of the corner of his eyes at Calrex to see if the bluenette was going to ask a question or not, but his friend just remained silent. As the silence lingered on, the Daedalus moved over to another section of bookshelves and pulled out a crystal decatur and poured himself a drink. While alcohol was not a thing that existing for players in SAO, that doesn't mean it couldn't exist for NPCs. They could do many things players could not, and be effected by things player could not, since they were just programming, after all.

"Thank you for your time. Daedalus-san."

The man took his glass and nodded with distraction, then raised his glass to the two of them before wanding back to his window overlooking the ravine as means of dismissal.

Baldur lingered a moment, his blue eyes examining his companion, before leading Calrex back outside of the study. The butler was there waiting for them, prepared to open the door.

"As my master has said, you are welcome to stay here for the evening, or go about your business at your leisure."

The gaijin glanced over at Calrex, but before the kouhei could answer, Baldur declined the offer.

"Thank you, that is very kind, but I have preparations to make."

The servant bowed to them, and let them outside. Baldur continued to be silent until they were outside the walls of the manor.

"Sorry. I don't know if that was an attractive offer to you or not, but when you spend more time in there it feels more like a mausoleum than a home."

He continued to lead Calrex back to the city square as they spoke.

"It's about 16:00  server time, and it'll probably take us about an hour to get to the ancient city if we go by bridge. It would take us longer if we went the long way until we found an entrance. It gets dark on this floor a little earlier because of the mountains on the edge, but along the ravine side it stays light until about 19:00. I'm pretty comfortable exploring the city at night, especially having you with me, but it does get more dangerous at night. With the high walls even the moon and star light gets blocked out. It's hard to move about without a light stone or a torch. Fortunately most of the nasties take after our friend the angler fish and have these glowing stones or carvings on them.

The flip side is that the bridge side tends to be more... dense with mobs and the labyrinth is particularly tricky. If you go around the long way, then city kinda... slowly grows up out of the ground. The mobs are much larger, and fewer and easier to avoid. I think our goal will be to get to the heart of the city, but as yet, there's no good map on how to do that. I think there's a palace or a smaller tower in the middle, and that should be our goal."

At this point, Baldur had realized he'd done most of the talking.

"Sorry Cal. What're your thoughts?"

[Calrex 0]

As the two concluded their meeting with Daedalus Calrex gave a small nod of his head before following his samurai-style partner out of the mansion. With the exuberant surroundings now becoming further and further away the bluenette gave a small sigh to himself, "I'll never understand the appeal of upper class glamor. Heck even ballroom type events feel like such stuffy affairs..."

"No it's alright. I'm with you on that point. Those types of luxurious abodes really aren't my style, so not having to spend the night works fine with me."

As they made their way down towards the direction of where they needed to go the bluenette listened attentively to Baldur's strategies and suggestions as to their approach on the ruins. Nighttime encounters were certainly more vicious than daytime monsters, something that Calrex was more than familiar with due to his past times having to fight mini-boss level monsters in the past after the sun was set. However, the direction that they wished to approach the ruined city from was the main deciding point for this venture.

"So we have the shortcut which is potentially more perilous and monster infested, or we take the long route and avoid combat, but it eats up more time. Pretty commonplace decision, and likely intentional game design. High risk with high potential payoff, or low risk with lower payoff. If we're fighting dense clusters of monsters, that likely means more group based combat, where if we're fighting singular groups we can focus out efforts. But there's another factor that comes into play..."

"I think in terms of how our builds and equipment are set up, we'd be likely better off taking the longer route. If I recall correctly the katana's Sword Arts are more for single target based combat. If we take the bridge, that'll likely mean we're fighting clusters of creatures, which will also expend our energy reserves faster, and will result in us having to hide and recover before continue, which would in the end burn more time and likely offset whatever time we got from the shorter distance. If the long way has less monsters overall, plus them being more single targets, then that'll work more to our advantage."

Crossing his arms for a moment the bluenette continued, head slightly tilted down as he processed his thoughts, "The other thing to is that if we so happen to burn a little more time with the longer route, that means depending on when we arrive we may have less time until daybreak, meaning less time having to fight in the dark, especially if at any point we need to fight our way out, because by the time we get the surface there is the chance that the sun will already be up and the monsters that do spawn will be at an overall lower difficulty."

@Baldur

[Baldur 0]

Baldur listened to Cal's opinion on the strategy and was happy for it. The direction was the one he preferred to go anyways, but Cal's reason was flawless. By going the long way, they would encounter larger mobs, but they would be single target fights, which was both of their forte. Not that Cal couldn't tank multiple mobs, but Baldur's energy pool would disappear before long if they kept up AoE fights. Cal's own pool was almost limitless because of his level, but If he was tanking, Baldur would be the damage dealer. His hand rested on Fudoshin and Raijinken, both of the swords were on his hips. He didn't need to worry terribly about his safety on this floor, so he went with utility over frontine. Plus, the cursed blade <<muramasa>> was reserved for fights that were important. If he used the blade too much, then he ran the risk of succumbing to the temptation of the power it offered like everyone before him, and those who envied the blade.

"Great point about our builds. I guess I've been solo too long." Baldur let the implication hang there for only a moment before he rushed to fill the silence before any questions could be asked. "I completely agree. Plus, wait till you see them. They're pretty neat. Not as big as the boss, but they're a fun fight if we get into it."

Baldur gave Cal a nod to indicate they were moving away. The daylight would be up for a while yet, and Baldur would miss seeing the city light up. It wasn't as impressive as others, but Ralberg had a lazy sunday feeling to it. The NPCs didn't rush about, they meandered. The village was beautiful and without being ostentatious, and it was rustic without being sparse or run down. When it glowed with lights, it reminded him of being back home, dancing on the back porch with Tyger while fireflies flitted about. It was an otherworldly reflection. Normally memories of Tyger and... what happened... brought him distress, but this was a peaceful memory, one so far removed it was almost the reflection of another life.

"I have to say, this has become one of my favorite floors."

They weaved their way through the lazy streets towards the exit. The city had walls... of a sort, though they were the least impressive of any main settlement, and had more entrances than any other he'd seen either. It would be impossible to defend a perimeter here. Instead, the city just seemed to transition from rural settlement to pasture and farm with only the change in the background music and the suttle disappearance of the main settlement's protection.

Instead, they were greeted by rolling fields and wonderful vistas. On this side, you could almost not see the ravine that split a section of the floor. 

Spoiler

For the first half hour, all they saw were NPCs, occasionally a field in which appeared some kind of random event like a carnivor threatening a field or a farmer trying to fend off some trash mob, but for the most part it was an almost idyllic peacefulness. Once the farms spread out and became fewer and fewer between, and the land slowly became more wild. There were still fields and farmhouses out here, they even passed what looked like an old waystop inn, but here nature was fighting back against civilization and it was reclaiming buildings. The subtle lights of the eyes of mobs hid within bushes and at the edge of vision, but as long as they stayed on the path, they would be unmolested a while longer.

Eventually, however, even the path fell to nature.

"We've got a way to go before we get to the ruins, but now we'll find more mobs. They'll probably just be trash, and given our level we'll probably not aggro them, but just be aware of it. As we get closer to the ruins of the old city, however, you'll easily be able to spot the massive beasts. They're probably a good three or four places tall at the smallest, and most would dwarf a building. They've got high mitigation, but between us, their HP probably won't be a problem."

Baldur rested his left hand on the handles of his katana and gave Cal a chance to rest and look around before heading out further into the plains.

[Calrex 0]

As they made their way out of the city Calrex let his eyes casually wander, taking in the background elements as the two made their way out of the settlement and towards their destination. Returning his hands to his jacket pockets the bluenette watched as the brick and mortar of the buildings that initially surrounded them gave way to green pastures, and with a stretch of time passed he looked back to view the city from afar. With their current location the massive scar across the earth wasn't even in view, with the sunlight slowly coming down to illuminate the horizon line.

"Yeah, I can see why. The scenery of this place is certainly more lively and involved than some of the other floors. I wonder if this particular floor was a passion project for design team, because I'm definitely detecting the amount of heart that went into it."

Turning back to face ahead he listened as Baldur began to explain further about their trip, as well as pointing out something that had become common knowledge for most of the higher level players. Their level discrepancy compared to the monsters that litter the floor serve as a repellant, causing the field creatures that spawn to either hesitate or avoid engaging in combat with them. It tended to work out for the better in this case, because such a difference would also mean that the only thing that would result from the combat was wasted energy, as they couldn't reap rewards from monsters too far below them in level.

The last sentence seemed to describe the massive size of the singular monsters they were likely to encounter on the trip towards the ruins. Calrex gave a nod before responding, "Well, it's not like size ever really became an issue for us in the past. High mitigation on monsters seems more commonplace at this point then evasion or other stats, and so far other than increasing their HP pool it seems the only way the Cardinal system attempts to balance monsters to our difficulty. I just hope that doesn't mean that there's more tricks that will be thrown at us later on."

@Baldur

 

[Baldur 0]

The first length of this Trek was one of Baldur's favorites. It was mostly peaceful at his level, and even without that protection, there were few mobs. The bridge... well, even in real life Baldur had an unkind relationship with heights. He had never fallen, that he could remember anyways, but he had always been troubled by heights. The bridge over the ravine was no exception. He tended to stay away from that unless another group happened to be crossing it at the same time. He would let them go ahead by a wide margin and then follow slowly.

As they crested the next hill, they could suddenly see the city in the distance. It was a massive thing, with walls so high they could be made out this far, with the large gates visible. Well... the arched entrances that still had them. Most had fallen or rotted away leaving only the stone arches as monument, but a few of the larger gates had been made out of tougher stuff, and those remained. Baldur could have lead a herd of elephants through some of those. From this vantage as well, they could see several of the large monsters wandering around as well. The massive human and animal hybrid beasts plodded slowly around the field and what used to be an outer city. The main city, or the inner city, was all stone and therefore had "weathered" better. The outer city had been made of a mix of wood and stone and other materials, but nature and battle had reclaimed those. Now what used to be buildings appeared to be more large mounds with vines and lichen growing on them, stalked by monsters both normal and giant sizes.

"The big ones are pretty fun to fight, but they can take a while, even for me."

It would be a while yet before they would make it down into their threat range.

"They can aggro from a radius roughly proportional to their height. So if you figure the size of a person sized mob's aggro radius, then scale it up for their height, you can see how they can come out of nowhere. The fact that they have irregular patrols just makes it even more annoying."

Baldur caught sight of something and then pointed. Down in the field, there was a full party of players carefully engaging some of the wild life who had aggroed one of the giants. They were prepared for this, and their tank switched out with one of their heavier fighters and began to engage the colossal mob. The DPS pushed the smaller mob down and once it shattered, they turned to the larger one. They were easier to evade, but hit a lot harder. The tank was doing everything he could to hold back the massive blows of the creature.

"They've obviously been working together on this floor before."

Baldur gestured and began their way down into the field of ruins.

"So, I've been meaning to ask... how have you been Cal-kun? Everything okay?"

 

[Calrex 0]

As they continued to make their way further and further along their planned route to the ruins Calrex continued to calmly observe their surroundings as they continue to become more and more engulfed by the grass and stone setting of the field zones. It certainly seemed to match the general lore of the floor, of nature seemingly trying to overtake what the citizens of the safezones had established in the past.

However, as they came into viewing distance of the massive ruined city his mind seemed to split into two different tasks. One was taking in at the grand appearance of the city, which was likely a large feat even for the designers to pull off. Layers upon layers of textures for just the areas itself mixed in with monsters wandering around following a programmed AI to split up at certain points and reconvene at other corners with other monster clusters. The other part of his mind was already starting to break apart the scene so that they could plan their approach, taking in the different possible routes they could take to navigate through the maze-like passageways in order to reach their destination closer to the heart of the area.

"Yeah, those creatures definitely seem like they're built for durability, not so much agility or damage. Likely the difficulty is going to be revolving around their survivability and sustaining the constant barrage of attacks from teams of players. However that aggro range is definitely got to be troublesome at points, since they can likely detect you from ranges that you can't see them. You could be going around a corner and all of a sudden be met with a massive fist coming at you."

When Baldur pointed out the other player team that seemed to be fighting in the area the bluenette's eyes followed over to observe the group. Their teamwork was certainly on point, especially going from their outwards appearances. Unlike Calrex or some of the other players he had recently seen making their way up in level, these players followed the usual route of specializing. It was possible they had met sometime before making their way up to this floor, and if they were close friends they might have built their characters to synergize.

His thoughts were broken as his teammate asked how he had been, at least since Baldur had last seen him. A lot had certainly happened from then, but for the most part it wasn't anything out of the ordinary, save a few events that had happened to the bluenette recently, "I can' really say that anything is new or out of the ordinary, heh. I mean, I'm sure you're already away that the Spectrum's guild status is gone due to too many of us falling into inactivity. I think Oikawa's holed up in his shop now for the nth time, Teayre seems to have followed suit, and Tak's basically gone MIA. But outside of that I've been just doing the usual with training and participating in the floor raids."

Stretching his arms Calrex gave a calming breath before speaking more, "How about you? It's certainly been some time since I last saw you out and about? Have things been ok?"

@Baldur

[Baldur 0]

As Calrex and Baldur made their way closer to the city gates, they lost sight of the party and their ability to see other mobs and colossus amidst the growth and ruins of buildings. Baldur, however, seemed to have a well trusted invisible path he followed. Not just as if he were following a map, but as if he had walked this path many times before, quickly becoming evident if it weren't already that he was well accustomed to this floor.

As they picked their way through the fallen rubble, the wall quickly began to loom overhead. Eventually, they found their way to a wider square just before a giant gate, one of the few to remain in tact. It had a mix of battle worn, and time worn, as well as impressive scale. You couldn't help but imagine an entire column of soldiers or a steam of trade wagons coming through these giant gates.

"This is one of the lesser known entry points." Baldur gestured to the gates "From far away, it looks like it's one of the few to remain closed, but as you can see, it's just large enough for a single person to slip through... it also helps if you're accidentally kiting a colossus." Baldur grinned sheepishly, as if he had done just that. "It takes less time to escape them one v one than it does to solo them."

As they got closer to the gate Baldur and Calrex both noticed something with their <<Search>> skill. Something was coming up on them rapidly. Multiple somethings.

Swiftly and with practiced motion, Baldur slipped into his <<charge>> premotion, needing only a target to unleash his <<Iai>>. The stun and run tactic would be the best here, so he also grabbed for <<Raijinken>> rather than <<Fudoshin>>.

"Something is-" Baldur called out to Cal as if he couldn't see that it was coming as well, when several players burst forth from the twisting alleys and dense growth.

In pairs, a full party began to file out.

"Oh." Baldur said to Cal, as he relaxed his position and stood up, though he kept his hand casually on the paralytic sword as he always did.

"Hey!" One of the heavy armor bearing players shouted at them. "This is our turf!"

"Yea! Don't go stealing our XP!" Barked a smaller guy, obviously one of the dps members judging by the spear in his hand.

Another player, a red headed girl placed an arm on each of her companions, "Please, forgive their rudeness. We meant no disrespect, but leveling here can be dangerous if you don't have control of the zone. We just wanted to see who you were, and make sure we didn't kite mobs onto you or... vice versa...."

Baldur's hand slowly eased off of his katana further. This made sense. They were really here to make sure he and Calrex didn't steal the Colossus for the xp, or kite the lesser mobs across where they were pulling. Body pulling could be dangerous because you could risk too many accidental adds, but if you had the spawn rate down to a pattern, it became much safer.

"I'm Aridani, and we're the <<Knight Lights>>." She introduced them with a wry smile. "We meant no disrespect."

"Well, Raku did..."

"Shut up!"

"Why the formality, Ari?" The members all spoke on top of one another, with a casual ease that showed they have worked together for a while and were comfortable with one another. It was probably a guild of a single party.

Edited April 8, 2018 by Baldur

[Calrex 0]

As Calrex followed Baldur along he could tell that the samurai-themed character had made himself very familiar with their surroundings, as well as the overall layout of the ruins. The man seemed to easily navigate his way around, avoiding the various mobs that seemed to move along in drove through the worn down stone walls. Eventually they made their way over to a massive gate that he pointed out had a smaller opening that could only fit a single player at a time, making it easier to avoid larger creatures since they were incapable of pursing them through.

"Even though these creatures could probably break through that large wall very easily, their AIs are likely set to disengage combat and turn away from it due to a programmed barrier keeping them from doing so."

It seemed they weren't able to enter just yet, as both of their battle-hardened skills put them on alert. While Baldur lowered himself into a combat position, Calrex clenched his gauntlet-clad hands into fists, keeping them in his jacket pockets. While he knew he could likely also trigger <<Charge>> and enter combat immediately, it also depended on what they were about to face. If it were a monster, it would be fine, but a player or worse player-killer would mean that a preemptive strike was the equivalent of a court judge declaring you guilty. In SAO, self-defense meant you had to survive the opening strike, and the bluenette also knew that it was possible to go orange if the self-defensive tactics you applied happened to kill the assailant, "Yeah, a very just system Cardinal has doesn't it. The designers certainly did a lot of layers and work to get things looking pretty, but they apparently did dibbly-squat on fact-checking other aspects of their system. Although I guess they might not have taken into account how much of a constant it would be now."

As the group of player made their way up, initially warning them off from experience gaining in the area Calrex gave a small sigh for a moment. He had not seen a group of players try to hoard a farming spot in a long time, but he had definitely been around talks of such things before. It seemed rather odd to him, but he guessed certain games might had favored such types of mentality.

When the player named Aridani walked up, introducing herself and the name of her guild, the bluenette merely gave a nod before lowering his arms to his sides to show he wasn't hiding anything. He could definitely tell that the group were well acquainted with each other, whether such familiarity came before or after they had been trapped in the game. Glancing over at Baldur for a moment Calrex gave a nod before facing back forward, "Don't worry, we were just passing through to get inside the city. Didn't mean to intrude on your guild's farming grounds."

[Baldur 0]

"Don't you recognize him?" Aridani said in a half whisper, turning her head back towards her party. Trying to hush them all with a commanding gaze. Most of them seemed cowed into civility except the shorter one with the spear who was apparently named Raku.

"Who cares who he is? There's six of us and only two of them."

"Yea, cause it's worth becoming a PK to mark your own territory." Aridani hissed at Raku again. Raku seemed like was going to say something back, but his brain must have caught up with his words and he flustered, but said no more.

She then turned back to Baldur and Calrex and gave them an apologetic bow. "Sumimasen. We mean no disrespect. Some of my guild just don't have great people skills." With those words she grabbed Raku by his short hair and forced him into a bow. The rest of the guild did the same.

Baldur's eyes rose slightly at the display, and he turned his blue eyes towards the bluenette to gauge his reaction as well. Calrex was one of the most famous people in Aincrad due to his status as the highest level player, or the strongest player, depending on who was talking.

"Daijoubu, it's fine. Your concerns are perfectly understandable." Baldur said with friendly smile and gave them a slight bow of his head to acknowledge their apology. He took a step back to disengage, and the other party began to stand up. Several of the members looked confused, but took their lead from Aridani. Raku looked more embarrassed than angry, and equal parts confused.

"Why were you so polite to a couple of scrubs? We could have taken them!"

"Shut up Raku."

"That was Calrex, the Ultramarine Knight."

"The Invincible Warrior? Uso! What would he be doing on a floor like this? They're up to 22 now."

"Dude, no one goes into the middle city unless they're higher level and after something. It's a death trap in there."

With their voices trailing off, Baldur moved towards the door with a bit of a frown on his face.

"That was... odd. Does that happen to you often?"

The gaijin gave a smirk and then proceeded to the door through the main city outer wall. This was where the labyrinthian streets began. He knew bits and pieces of it, but even with the game map, it was impossible to put it all together.

"From here on out I'm a little more blind. I've been into the middle city, but I've usually just stuck to the wall. I didn't want to get lost and trapped and have to burn a crystal to get back home. But you'll see the cursed more here. There are the occasional colossus but they tend to be more near the broken wall sections, and not up here where it's in tact.

Baldur took them down one of the wide boulevards that ran alongside the wall. The mobs were less here along the wall, since they grew more dense the further in you went towards the palace. He had climbed the wall before hoping that with height he could get a better understanding of the layout of the city, but the growth and the twists and turns of the streets and the fallen buildings meant that it was impossible to tell where to go simply from a vantage point. All he could tell was that there was an inner city of larger buildings, and a castle at the heart.

"Here, there's a small safe zone here." Baldur pointed to a small alcove between two collapsed buildings and the wall. You could easily have walked past and not known anything had changed, except for the icon appearing in your UI next to your name. Along the entrances to the make-shift cave, were the small glowing markings of a safe zone. Immediately Baldur let out a sigh of relief. He hadn't realized he'd been holding his breath.

 

Spoiler

 

"Sorry it's kinda been the Baldur show so far, but we've just about reached the limits of my knowledge now. From here on, you know about as much as I do, other than how to fight the cursed. Have you spent much time on this floor?"

Baldur swiped with his hand and then navigated to his map. The map showed he had explored almost the entire perimeter of the middle city wall to the outer city, with only small jaunts into the middle city.

"It was right around here-" Baldur gestured to the map, showing one of the spears of information justting from the wall towards the heart of the empty map data that was the middle and inner city, but it was about half way between them and the bridge side. "-that I found the map."

He pulled some water out of his inventory and took a swig. He didn't need to eat or drink, but his mind told him he was thirsty, and were he in the real world, he would probably be desperate for some water, so the wanna-be samurai took a drink.

"We can try and avoid the patrols and wandering monsters, but sooner or later we'll have to fight something. And it'll take a lot of doubling back and dodging encounters to do that. Or we can just fight our way through. There aren't any other safe zones in the area that I know of, but there are some structures that can double as one... at least being out of their line of sight."

He glanced out of the cave, they had about an hour of true sunlight left, then whatever light would filter through the foliage until night fell.

Edited April 9, 2018 by Baldur

[Calrex 0]

A single eyebrow raised as Calrex watched the team of players in front of him bow their heads down in apology for their rudeness. He gave a small nod, but at the same time from his own perspective he found it to be rather unnecessary. Whatever supposed disrespect and rudeness that the player Aridani suspected her guild to be of was nothing compared to some of the other situations he had gone through or observed, and on a more depressing note it was more from higher level players than it was the lower level ones. For a handful of the frontline level avatars there seemed to be some form of arrogance that came with it, as if they considered themselves a higher cut of the cloth than the others. It seemed like they had forgotten that not only a few months ago they too were in the same place as the group that was standing before him.

Watching as Baldur took a step back to show they didn't mean any harm the bluenette also kept his arms lowered, hands open to show he had no intention of triggering any of his Martial Arts Sword Arts, "We appreciate the gesture, but there was no disrespect to be had. As Baldur said it's understandable. We'll get out of your guys hair, so best of luck with your farming."

As the group began to walk off Calrex could still hear some of the banter between the group, also hearing the mention of his self and game-given titles. The Ultramarine Knight and Invincible Warrior. Looking back, he wasn't exactly sure why of all the titled he could have picked, it was something like Ultramarine Knight. Originally he picked ultramarine due to its meaning, "beyond the sea." It seemed representative of something distant and far off, but to him it also meant that there was something beyond the limits of what he could see, and that reaching that point might mean there was something still further beyond. "Knight" was something he added on after finding people that he wanted to protect, to become stronger for. Teayre, Oikawa, Takneil, Ariel, Baldur, Takao, Meokka, Azrael, Tristan, and all of the people he had grown closer to during his time in SAO became part of his drive, and part of what made him want to propel himself forward. If he hadn't done so, he likely still wouldn't be of level to reach the frontlines.

The title of Invincible Warrior didn't carry as much weight with him as his self-title. It was nothing more than the title given to the bearer of the Achilles unique skill, one that was passed down to him from its original carrier Tristan. Where Ultramarine Knight was something he always had to support and defend, at times he found himself meticulously picking apart the idea of an Invincible Warrior. In some ways he found it to be the contrast. Where his idea of "ultramarine" being limitless or intangible, "invincible" was something tangible but shallow. Invincible meant that you couldn't break past the surface of whatever it was. "Warrior" was normally someone that was less about protecting those they cared about, and more striking down those that got in their way.

"However...I guess now both of those titles has started to lose their meaning to me, to the person that I need to be to be more of a protector. In some ways, both titles are set in stone or derived from something more physical. From what that old man said, I need to become more than that, at least if I am to have any hope of helping protect more people than before. If that's the case, then it may not be long that I cant consider myself the Ultramarine Knight anymore."

His thoughts were broken by Baldur's comment. Apparently, the samurai had also overheard the conversation, and going from the exchange it was also out of the ordinary for him. The bluenette gave a small laugh before speaking, "Honestly, that's probably the first time I've experienced something like that. Most people tend to leave me alone and go about their business, and Im sure a handful of people wonder if I'm even still alive going from my lack of activity around the floors as of late."

Following his teammate through the winding parts of the city he felt like time had folded, with the next instant they were now in a makeshift safe zone, more because it was out of sight of the wandering mobs. "I can't really say I've taken the time to do so. For the most part my activity has mainly revolved around the floor raid meetings and the actual boss fights, with nothing really much inbetween. However, if we had to choose between fighting now or avoiding combat, I would think we should get the fighting out the way now. Field monsters, even the ones in these ruins, are like going to be weaker than the ones we encounter further in, so clearing up this area will allow us some breathing room now and potentially later on, depending on how long the respawn time is for these mobs. If there's makeshift safe zones around we can always use them to recover our energy. If I'm able to keep the damage off of you, then that means we'll only have to worry about me healing as well, and with my Rank 5 Battle Healing I should be able to offset most of the damage on initial strike."

@Baldur

[Baldur 0]

Calrex wanted to press on into the ruins. They could clear out an area as they went, getting as deep as they could through the lesser mobs to buy themselves some breathing room while they were easy to find. The light would last long enough for the to make some good headway. Especially since they would have to end up back-tracking a lot. Pushing off from the wall he was resting against, Baldur crawled over a bit of the rubble and jumped down to the street beyond.

Street may have been a bit generous. It was neither long nor wide. Beyond here, it was more alleyways and courtyards. Sometimes there were passages between buildings small enough that you could just barely squeeze through, though those made Baldur nervous because if the way was barred, there was nothing he could do but teleport out of there... if he could get his hands to his crystal.

As they emerged from the alley into another square, Baldur began to notice something was different this time. He couldn't put his finger on it, but this plaza was different from the last time he was here. He carefully and slowly scanned the plaza again, hoping that perhaps his <<search>> skill would pick something but, but it didn't find anything, or wasn't high enough to detect whatever was hidden there... assuming something was hidden there. With his nerves getting to him, Baldur slowly rubbed his thumb on the kashira, an old nervous habit he had. Moving into the center of the plaza, Baldur tried to take a mental step back and look at the place as if he had never been here before.

All around them old stone walls rose perhaps thirty or more feet into the air. Stone worn down by time and weather and flora. Vines grew over everything, and grass... weeds... grew up out of what would have once been nice cobble stone streets. Even trees occasionally over grew walls where they couldn't always just burst through them or bring them down. Statues two or three times the size of a normal person and faded giant mosaics littered the walls. Light filtered through far off buildings and giant trees. This was the middle city. It was more over-grown than the outer city, and less than the inner city... as if nature had erupted from the heart, rather than invaded from the outside. On tops of the walls, small monkey like statues almost appeared to crenelate the wall that surrounded them on the square.

From the square, they had three different branches they could take apart from retreating back into their safe zone and back out onto the main boulevard that paralleled the massive outer walls.

The largest exit took them straight 'towards' the inner city. It appeared to be the main thoroughfare, but that could be deceptive. It led into a labyrinthine building with a serious of courtyards of it's own, as well as a maze of hallways sometimes blocked off by gnarled roots or fallen rubble. The other two exits flanked that one. One immediately appeared to lead into an adjacent courtyard that may have once had a dried up man made pond. The other just led into a dark corridor.

"This is about as far as I've made it on my own bef- Ow!"

Baldur winced as a large, fist sized rock hit him in the face and ticked down his HP. A moment later his battle-healing brought him back to full, but the experience was an unpleasant one. There may not be pain in SAO, but that didn't mean things didn't hurt in different ways.

Shooting his steel blue eyes around the square, Baldur tried to see what it was that threw something at him, just in time to shield his face with his hands as it hit him anyways.

"Ow!"

Pulling his hands back, Baldur saw more rocks being flung at them from every angle. And while his battle-healing could keep up with one or two at a time, the sheer number of rocks flying at them would over-whelming the healing. And while it would then take forever for him to get hurt, the death from a thousands cuts would eventually get them all.

"It's the monkey statues! They're not damn statues!" Baldur spat out with annoyance. The wall was too tall and too slick to climb up. He had tried that before as a means of shortcut.

[Calrex 0]

As they made their way deeper into the ruins of the city Calrex gave a calming exhale to center his senses. It seemed as the light of the sun continued to go down the mood of the floor gradually began to shift of one of awe and wonder to ominous and dangerous. The one unique design of the ruins took on a more sinister tone as their once colorful hues became more and more saturated. It almost felt as if the setting of the thirteenth floor had begun to seep into this one in some ways. However, after spending so much time in the relocated place of the Amethyst Boutique, he had become somewhat numb to these types of settings, and to some level find it rather boring. "Yeah, that's not odd at all for a normal person to have this kind of reaction..."

Entering into the plaza the bluenette let Baldur take point, as the man had more experience navigating the winding broken-down streets and alleyways. His eyes continues to scan the area, as if to try and detect something that was out of place or likely to attack. It was something he had developed to be a habit, even now without the <<Reveal>> skill he once had. Unfortunately, perception would not serve to prepare him for what occurred next. Although partially comedic due to the timing of the initial "attention-grabbing" throw followed by the onslaught of rocks, it was getting worrisome that the two of them were being continuously pelted by the monkey statues on top of the walls, "This can't be good..."

He knew that his combined defensive skills would be more than enough to offset the small bits of damage he was incurring, but looking at the team health bars he could see that his teammate's healing was having trouble keeping up. Reacting instinctively he swiped on his menu to quickly switch equipment. The Grand Gauntlets III remained on him, but lose their combat properties as the Grand Guard III appeared on his forearms, his avatar being encapsulated by the full body armor of the Grand Chariot III. His mitigation jumped up to maximum possible without special equipment or buffs as he rushed in front of Baldur, "Get down!"

Slamming his forearms together he assembled the two pieces of his shield together, forming the massive tower shield before kneeling and securing himself into place. It wasn't going to completely stop the pelting they were receiving, but it definitely would lighten the load by blocking a quarter of the incoming rocks, "Pretty sure these statues are meant to throw off our decision-making by forcing us to make a choice under pressure. I can hold it off for now, but going from the situation we're not going to be turning them off soon, so we need to pick a route and move."

Calrex could hear the rocks as they broke against the hardened metal of his shield, but he could tell it was starting to wear on him as he was beginning to have trouble keeping his planted shield upright against the combined force continuously beating down on it. Glancing over at his health he could see it dropping and going back up with each moment like a music equalizer, but for the most part it seemed stable. The same could be said for Baldur's health, which seemed to be able to keep up now that he wasn't taking all of the volley coming at them.

@Baldur

[Baldur 0]

As Baldur tried to shield himself from the stones being thrown by the monkeys who were half stone like most of the animals on this floor, Calrex changed out his gear and suddenly held up a giant shield. The reprieve didn't even stop a lot of the stones, but they did keep them out of his face, which gave him enough time to get his bearings, and shield his face with his arms while he looked around. They had four routes, three if they wanted to move forward rather than back.

"Well, one of the routes ahead leads into another open square, if we went that way, then we'd just continue to be sitting ducks. The other two lead into enclosures. I have no idea where they go, but at least they couldn't come at us with numbers. He'll do better with one-on-one or two-on-two. Let's charge straight ahead for the main doorway!"

Baldur poked his head out from behind Cal's massive shield just enough to be able to see the way forward. Ducking back behind it, he pointed Cal in the direction forward.

"We know where we're going, let's just run for it."

Baldur put a hand on Cal's shield, then ran forward towards the door, his arms up to protect his face. He would let Calrex pass him just inside the door, but it got Baldur out of range of the monkeys and their stones. Once the Bluenette and he were both safe inside the tunnel... hallway... thing then he was able to catch a breath and examine the surroundings. There were once great murals painted onto the stone here, but what appeared to have been centuries had worn them away leaving only fragments of color and shapes that once spoke of the grandeur that this place would have had. It reminded Baldur a lot of Pompei, but this place had been worn away by time and nature, not volcanic ash.

"Well, there's only one way forward, do you wanna take the lead with your shield there and I'll watch the rear?"

Baldur had never really been in danger with the monkeys, they could never have taken enough of his life away from him to be concerned without him having just sat there for a long time and taking it. Still, the hallway was not any less creepy than being ambushed by a pack of rock monkies throwing stone poop at you. Who knew what they would find in here.

Unlike other dungeons, where the layout is random and meant to be confusing, this hallway functioned as an actual hallway in a building. It got them from the front stoop into the main room of the building. Smaller halls branched off from it, and the frame of old doors were the only thing that broke up the smooth, stone plane of the walls. The room they were in now was lit through holes in the giant dome ceiling. Above them on the second floor was what appeared to be a viewing balcony. Baldur ran up to the wall, and attempting to use his acrobatics skill to parkour his way up to the balcony, but the gaijin Samurai got no where close as he pushed off of the wall and reached for one of the many stones.

"Damn."

Baldur landed gracefully, in spite of failing at his jump.

"Well, so much for that shortcut."

He gave Cal a pathetic smile and then began to look around the larger room they were in.

"Hello?" a voice called out to from the upper balcony. "Is... is something there...?" The voice took on a much more timid inflection. A shadowed, barely visible figure came up to the arched doorway to the viewing balcony, but it was only visible because of Baldur and Calrex's <<search>> skill. Otherwise, he would have still blended in.

"Konbanwa." Baldur called out to the shadows, in some strange mix of trying to make his voice carry, yet not sound loud. Almost like a stage whisper.

"We won't hurt you." Baldur said again after an imperceivable heartbeat.

The person moved forward enough for Cal and Baldur to perceive a shape, but nothing more. The player wasn't using the <<hide>> skill, it just had no light up there and they had a bad angled, obscured by hand rails and roots.

"Who-who are you? How do I know you're not one of them."

One of them? Baldur wondered.

@Calrex

[Calrex 0]

As he quickly heard Baldur determine their next location and rush ahead out of range of the statues' pelting Calrex merely gave a nod, more to confirm with himself rather than his teammate who was already far enough ahead to see his head tilt. Splitting the Grand Guard III apart into its two forearm pieces he sprinted after the samurai-themed player, swiping on his menu as he did so. He could sense the rocks striking into his avatar, but the combination of mitigation, battle healing, and Achilles was more than enough to nullify the incoming rocks as he entered into the tunnel, taking a moment to catch his breath before stepping forward.

Hearing his teammate suggest that the Ultramarine Knight take point while he watched the rear Calrex gave a nod, "I think I might have a better idea. If I spot the monsters first I'll open with a Charge to hopefully stun the group. That should leave you an opening for cleanup. Since they'll be stuck for another rotation I'll be able to finish them off hopefully after that. If not then I'll have at least priority in Hate levels so that you won't get targeted."

Since his menu was still open it only took a few button presses for his massive tower shield to vanish. Extending his arm forward a single point of light quickly stretched and expanded horizontally to a length almost too big to fit into the hallway before materializing into the Grand Legionbane, his new two-handed battle axe. Carefully resting the balancing point of the weapon against his shoulder Calrex moved forward into the opening, glancing over as he saw Baldur try to maneuver his way upwards, falling short but not without sticking the landing. It was a good attempt to try and save them time, but it seemed unfortunately that whatever route they had chosen was now keeping them along a particular path. It wouldn't be the first time this was the case, since the bluenette's extensive experience with navigating dungeons of various floors and levels showed at least that much. The dungeons were vast, but in terms of actual explorable environments the frequency of such types of labyrinths were not as common, especially if you wanted to speed clear the area and get out.

Looking forward Calrex watched as Baldur began to interact with the seemingly shadowed person that they had just encountered. It was the second time now that he also picked up on the lag in time between his teammate and himself sensing the potential danger present, "Not surprising. I did trade out my Search skill sometime back. I'll just have to become more accustomed to that fact. I can't be as proactive anymore as a result, so I just need to make sure that I take the proper precautions to avoid getting into a bad situation right from an encounter's start."

"I'm sorry, but what exactly do you mean by that? Them is a fairly general term, so you could be referring to numerous categories of humanoid creatures that might pass through this area. If you mean to say we're here to hurt you, I don't believe so unless you intend to do us harm."

@Baldur