[SP-17] Setting in place (Challenge of Olympus)

[Kasumi 0]

“That’s not right. Maybe if I, ah there we go” Kasumi is hard at work trying to place a small gem she found recently. Shaving and forming this gem to be the right shape to fit in the necklace she was trying to create. “Almost got it…” Kasumi says under her breath, as a bunch of words pop up in front of her face. Her hand slips and the necklace casing falls to the ground while the gem slides across the table. “What is this now” shouted almost angrily Kasumi looks at the pop-up and realizes it was a quest. 

[Quest Available!]
The goddess Demeter wishes to test your skills as an Artisan. If you fail your will forever know you will never be good enough for this skill but succeed and you will be rewarded greatly knowing that you are the best at what you do. Will you fail or become worthy of my boon? 
[Quest Location: Floor 17]
[Do you accept?]
[Yes/No]

Reading this, Kasumi gets furious. Without hesitation, she accepts the quest saying “I will be the worthy, I'll do what I can to prove that.” Kasumi picks the necklace casing off the ground and moves the gem to the middle of the counter. Kasumi’s demeanor changes looking at this unfinished setting planning to finish the piece later. 

Spoiler

Kasumi, The Blossom:

Level: 8

Weapon: Master White Hand Wraps (T1/Perfect) +3 Damage

Armor: White Red-Trimmed Gee (T1/Perfect) +3 Eva

Misc: Mugen Tenshin Decree (T1/Perfect) +3 Acc

Battle Ready:

Orange Hairband: +3 Loot Dice

HP: 160/160

EN: 16/16

Damage: 8

Evasion: 3

Loot Dice: +3

Martial Arts Rank 2 (+4 Base Damage)

 

Edited February 22, 2020 by Kasumi

[Kasumi 0]

Kasumi starts feverishly adjusting the gem to the casing and with determination she fits the gem inside. With a small glow of the finishing necklace, Kasumi grins and walks to her door. Gathering her things she places her hand on the door handle as she says “I will be the best.” Walking out the door of her shop, quickly making her way toward the teleporter in the middle of the floor 2's warp gate. Standing on the teleportation circle, realizing she wasn’t paying attention to where the quest was located. Opening her quest log and scans through the quest details. Closing out her menu reading back “Floor 17” as her vision blurs and her body feels like a feather for just a few seconds before landing on the town teleporter circle of floor 17 Spartaia.

[Welcome to Floor 17 Spartaia]

Upon landing, words appear in her line of sight. A quick glance around for a moment before eyeballing the map and heading off in the direction of the green icon leading her to the quest location.
 

[Kasumi 0]

Kasumi’s eyes gleam as she looks down at the ground of this city. The floor white marble tiles that seem to shine against the reflection of the sun hitting them. “WOW” Kasumi says as her eyes look around seeing the building around her standing tall and also made of different colored marble. They also shine against the sun's reflective properties. Continuing to walk as she looks around the town, she finally gets to the entranceway for leaving the town. “All beauty aside right now. It’s time to get to my destination.” Kasumi heads out of the town wandering toward her marker hoping danger isn’t a big issue around here. Getting a better look at the outside of Spartaia, grassy mountains fill the lands.  Peering at her map once more, the green icon seems to be leading toward the northeast. With a small nod, Kasumi begins the journey toward the mountains.

[Kasumi 0]

After walking for what seemed like hours toward this marker, Kasumi finds herself at the foot of a mountain. Looking to the sky to get a sense of what time of day it was, the sun was directly above her. It took a good chunk of the day to get to the base of the mountain. Rubbing her eyes a bit from looking at the bright sun she looks forward and finds a path swirling up this mountain leading where the green icon was pointing to. Kasumi takes a breath in then out slowly, ties her hair up with her other hair ribbon and starts running as fast as she can up this path before her trying to get to her destination wondering what awaits her at the top of the mountain. About halfway up, Kasumi stops trying to catch her breath. After a few moments, she looks back to the path and continues running.

[Kasumi 0]

As Kasumi is running she finds herself sliding halt in front of a figure that appeared randomly blocking the road. Looking up this large hulking figure Slowly, brown fuzz comprising horse-like legs complete with a pair of hefty hooves, a manish frame in essence of pinkish-purple hue with a balded head equipped with horns of a ram. Kasumi instantly gets into a defensive stance as it begins to speak to her saying “You must be Kasumi. My mistress, Athena would like you to be escorted to the front gates of this trial. Come… I will see you to Mount Olympus” as he starts slowly walking up the path. Kasumi drops her defensive position in relief not wanting to fight and begins to follow this large minotaur figure up the long wavy path deeper into the mountains. Being so far up now, Kasumi feels a small breeze through her hair. Still following she catches her breath and enjoys the cool wind against her skin.

[Kasumi 0]

Heading further up the face of Mt. Olympus, the ground becomes harder to walk across. Holes beneath Kasumi’s feet become obvious to the eye and large rocks that have fallen from the walls of the mountains around them have blocked some of the pathing. This causes them to climb a bit and avoid the collisions of holes down the path ahead of them. Another hour passes as they finally get to the top showing a pair of giant steel doors. “This is where we part. Be wise with your words and don’t punch anything…” The large figure says as he puts both hands on the large doors and pushes against them causing them to open wide. 
Kasumi walks carefully in front of him to look inside. The room itself is huge with windows spotting each wall a few feet apart. A round table with 7 chairs sitting around it and in these chairs there are shadowed figures in all except for 1.
 

[Kasumi 0]

 “Don’t make me wait much longer, Charge… Come in...” says the only form that takes its shape of the shadows sitting in the chair. Sitting upright in her chair with a half twist of her legs positioning them under her chair, Kasumi shouts in question “Athena??” as she starts walking forward toward her.
“Yes I am Athena, I want to see what you are capable of with that craft of yours. Must you fail, well it’s all in those words” she stands saying “But if you succeed then you are worthy to call yourself an Artisan.” Athena walks to a small opening in the hall and with a wave of her hand a large standing jewelry case appears with a glass lid. Kasumi walks to the case and puts her hands on the lid and looks to Athena. With a small nod from Athena, Kasumi lifts the glass lid with a blinding light as it opens.
 

[Kasumi 0]

Kasumi rubs her eyes a bit to gain vision back and looks inside. Three separate empty gem casing are hovering a few inches from a red velvet cloth. Kasumi looks to Athena confused as she starts a soft laugh at Kasumi’s reaction. With an almost gliding movement, Athena moves to the other side of Kasumi saying “You didn’t think they would be gem ready, did you? No. This brings you to what you need to do to prove your worth. Find me 3 uncut stones, all of the different colors. Red, blue and green uncut stones to be exact. Find them, cut them into the perfect shape to fit these casing and place them. Take as long as you need but be exact in your cuts.” she says this last sentence with piercing eyes toward Kasumi.  “What if I’m not exact?” Kasumi says with a small frown looking at the outlines of what she needed to fill.

[Kasumi 0]

With a small chuckle as she glides against the chair and takes a seat saying “Well I guess you're going to have to try and find out won’t you?” Touching the casing where the stones are to be placed she tries to get a feel of what each shape is supposed to be. A thought comes to mind as Kasumi turns to Athena saying “Where am I going to find these uncut stones that I require for this task?”
Athena sits up in her seat again like she was getting excited. “This Cathedral is surrounded by mountains correct. Well right outside these doors” as she points to the large metal doors they entered “there is a cave opening with oh so many directions inside. Find the right path and the location of the stones will show itself.” Kasumi looks to the doors then back at Athena saying “How will I get back in?” With a smile, she points to the big guy that let her for the first time saying “He will be awaiting your return.”
 

[Kasumi 0]

Kasumi looks to the Minotaur as she walks past him, exiting the building. Walking down the small number of stairs she hears the doors close behind her. Turning around, seeing him standing outside the doors, Kasumi nods and looks around for this cave entrance that she never saw coming up here. Looking left with a shake of her head, then looking right and plain as day there was the cave entrance inside the mountainside. “I swear that wasn’t there before” saying confusingly as she starts heading that way. Walking carefully into this cave it looks very dark. With a frown as she was not equipped for this darkness, Kasumi steps a few feet in as two torches on both sides of her light upon the walls, lighting a few feet in the distance ahead of her. Confused again she walks past where the light ends, the torches behind her dim then turn off.

[Kasumi 0]

Darkness aluminates around her, as a few more steps, take place a few more torches light with a few feet radius again. “Okay so as I walk the light will appear and disappear. Kind of cool but what’s the point” Kasumi concludes as she stops walking suddenly due to a 3 way split in her pathing. Seeing the 3 possible directions and not noticing any obvious difference between them, Kasumi decides to continue straight ahead. As Kasumi walks down this hall with torches lighting up and darkening, it starts to become warmer. Noticing this Kasumi walks with caution not knowing what to expect further on. Continuing on it starts getting warmer, warmer then eventually hot. Sweat begins to run down her face. A couple more feet and the torches stop lighting up. Kasumi stops dead and looks in the distance noticing that there was a small light ahead that wasn’t a torch.

[Kasumi 0]

Continuing on Kasumi finds herself in a large room. From the entrance of this room, Kasumi is standing on a platform that is about 10 by 15 feet long. The rest of this floor is lava-like liquid with pillars sticking out from it. The tops of the pillars are small 3 by 3 feet platforms that can be stood on. Kasumi follows the columns with her eyes across the hot liquid and at the opposite end of this chamber, there is a pedestal with something glowing in a red bright light placed on top of it. Kasumi looks at the stone constructions and the distance between them and concludes that they were about 2 or so feet apart from one another. “That must be one of the stones I need and to get there I need to jump across these... '' Kasumi thinks out loud looking at the pillars and the hot liquid with a hard swallow of spit.

[Kasumi 0]

Kasumi takes a few steps backward as she closes her eyes and takes a few deep breaths as she is trying to focus before the first jump. Opening her eyes and getting a running start, Kasumi makes a leap toward the first pillar. Her feet land on the pillar but her balance feels off so she quickly kneels to one knee to regain footing. Her chest starts pounding as she looks and now feels the hot liquid. The steam rising, hitting Kasumi as more sweat drips down her face. Looking to the next pillar saying “No more running. I can do this... I've handled worse.” as she leaps to the next platform with no issues. Jumping from one to another to the next she eventually finds herself standing on the other side staring face to face with the glowing red stone. Kasumi grabs the stone not thinking anything would happen. This portion of the cave begins to rumble angrily.

[Kasumi 0]

Feeling the floor beneath her shake she looks back toward the pillars which were slowly sinking into the lava. Without thinking she pockets the stone and starts jumping across each pillar more focused than before trying to quickly get across them without falling. Getting to the other side again she puts her hands on knees out of breath, staring at the columns as the tops disappear into the lava. After a moment of catching her breath, she turns and walks out of the heated area. The torches going down this cave hall are different now. Kasumi sees that the torches are staying lit down this hall now. Sort of confused, Kasumi finds herself at the 3 way slit from before. Eyes take to the other 2 directions, she starts walking down the right path. Coming to another 3 way split she stands there for a moment to which way to go next.

[Kasumi 0]

Making a decision, heading through the left tunnel. Walking a while, Kasumi finds herself walking deeper and deeper into the nothingness of this direction she chose to go down. Finally, halting at the sight of a dead-end in front of her. “I knew this felt wrong” saying with a sigh as she sprints back the way she came. Coming back to the split with only 2 directions left to go, waiting in the thoughts of which path to try next. Kasumi positions herself to when she first found the split. Looking forward then right and forward again. Deciding and beginning to walk forward down this path she says “I hope this way is the right direction." As she gets deeper down this tunnel, running water almost like a waterfall hits her ears. Hearing the running water and seeing the tunnel veer off to the right, Kasumi follows the path and peers around the corner. Eyes begin to widen slowly as she follows with her eyes where the stone was located.

[Kasumi 0]

Looking into this room, like before there is a 10 by 15-foot platform at the start. Three moving platforms about 3-3-3 in diameter. The first platform lowers enough to jump on as for the other 2, they rise higher than the one before it. The last step raises to the top of a waterfall on the opposite side of this room. On the top of this waterfall, there is a hovering ground slab of stone with another pedestal with a blue glowing object on it this time. Looking at the rest of the floor, it’s all water that is about 10 feet deep. Looking at all of this trying to make sense of what needs to be done saying “Jump to each platform with perfect timing and get the blue colored stone from up there” as she looks toward the blue glow in the distance then back at the water.

[Kasumi 0]

“If I fall I will land safely but have to start over” saying as she closes her eyes to focus a bit. Kasumi waits for the first platform to get close enough to jump onto. Hoping to the first one, it rises about 5 feet into the air before there is a slight moment where the second one is the same height. Miscalculating, Kasumi tries hopping onto it before it raises 5 feet up from where it stopped. Kasumi misses completely and falls into the water below with a splash. Sinking two feet underwater Kasumi quickly pulls herself up to the surface. “Dang it” saying as she swims to the beginning ground. “It doesn’t stop at the same height for very long. I will need to be quick about it then.” Getting to her feet knowing what to expect now she tries again. Standing at the edge again she waits for the right time to jump.  

[Kasumi 0]

Waiting and waiting, getting ready...

Kasumi hops to the first one. Decides to wait for the platform to go up, back down, then up again to see exactly how long they match up. The second time it goes up, hopping to the second one then pausing to check the timing again just to be sure her calculations were right, which they were but she waits for the second raise any way to be sure she won’t mess up this far up. Hopping to the third platform she waits for the second raise as well before making the leap to the stone. Standing in front of the blue glowing stone now confirming it was the item she was looking for, waiting, thinking. “If I take this the room will most likely shake again. I’ll dive into the water and make my exit, then on to find the last stone” saying as she looks down off the edge at the water.

[Kasumi 0]

Taking a glance at the water then back at the stone, Kasumi readies herself to jump 20 feet down into the water. Taking a slow breath in then out calming her nerves a bit, quickly grabbing the stone then taking a quick dive off the ledge. As expected this section of the cave begins to angrily rumble as Kasumi hits the water. Still, underwater she swims to the wall, quickly grabs the ledge with the stone still in her hand and runs out the exit heading the way she came. After she can no longer feel the cave floor-shaking Kasumi stops for a moment to put the blue stone in the pocket where the red stone was placed, with a wipe of her forehead and after ringing out her hair, Kasumi continues on to find the last stone needed. Instead of heading to the very first split, Kasumi decides to go to the last recent 3-way split and head the last direction that she hadn’t gone yet.

[Kasumi 0]

Standing at the 3 way split once again she heads to the right tunnel opening. Kasumi has decided to go every direction that was presented to her until she found this last room with the last stone in it. Walking down this tunnel, the torches light, go out and reignite as she comes into the distance of the activation and deactivation range. Kasumi was starting to get used to the caves lighting system. Finding herself at another dead end, Kasumi starts walking the direction she knows to the very first split that she came across when she first entered the cave. After a while of walking, finding herself sprinting now, Kasumi finds herself where the very first 3-way split was located. Just to make sure, Kasumi repositions herself facing the 3 tunnels from the entrance and looks forward to where the red stone might have come from. All the torches down that tunnel were still lit.