[PP-F21] Saunas and Traumas (Koga, Mina)

[Oji 0]

The bubbling and steam that emanated form the large body of water within the giant cavern called to Oji like a Siren singing it's song to a passing sailor. He had hunted and scoured all of the lower floors from some kind of Onsen, but he had never been able to find a good one. There were a few cheap imitations, but apparently the dude that made this game didn't know how important relaxation would be to the players within his game.

It's like he wanted them to die or something

Oji's breath was taken away as he looked around the vast cave, seeing very sparse players but a few miner NPC's, who were near the front side of the gigantic, natural onsen. He had a simple towel wrapped around his waist, with a pair of shorts underneath, as he was asked to remove all armors, weapons and any trinkets he had. That was the apparent rules that the NPC's required for players, or "Heroes", to come and enjoy this area. A small price to pay for relaxation. He took the towel off, the shorts a darker green with a slight black trim, and he stepped foot into the water. As his feet touched the slightly scalding water, a small feeling of relief washed over him. He had gone to a lot of these things when he was living in Tokyo after a hard days work, and after he would usually go out drinking with a few friends. The memories flooded his mind happily. Maybe he would go and get a drink after this.

He waddled his way to the back edge, giving a wide margin to the slightly smelly miners near the front. They were a tad brawny and were talking to one another quite loud, and he was trying to stay as far away from them as possible to try and be able to relax. He soon made it to the other end and sat down, his back to the edge of the pool as his upper body fit into the water, right to under his armpits. He let out a large sigh of relief, his body relaxing and muscles that he didn't even know were tense loosened as the heat did its magic, and he enjoyed the small sounds of water dropping off of stalactites to large mounds of stalagmites and the small ripples of the water being moved by people and NPC's alike.

The only thing missing now was some sake, and a small jazz band playing in the background.

@Mina @Koga

Stats:

Spoiler

Oji, The Uncle of Aincrad
Level: 7
Paragon Level: 0
HP: 140/140
EN: 32/32

Stats:
Damage: 1
Loot Dice: 3

Equipped Gear:
Weapon:
Armor:
Misc:

Custom Skill:


Skills:
Searching R3

Active Mods:

Inactive Mods:

Addons:

Active Extra Skills:

Inactive Extra Skills:

Battle Ready Inventory:

Housing Buffs:

Guild Hall Buffs:

Scents of the Wild:

Wedding Ring:

 

Edited January 25, 2022 by Oji

[Koga 0]

k o g a the elder wolf Spoiler notes none   Koga lv.31 / 24 | HP: 700/700 | EN: 108/108 | DMG: 23 | MIT: 30 | ACC: 4 | EVA: 2 | BRN: 56 | BLT: 32/20 | FALN: 8 | REGN 13 | B.HEALING: 38/77 (SURV)   equipped battle-ready inventory T4 Demonic Katana <<Tsuki no Hikari>> [ CRSED // BRN I // BLT I // FALN I ] T4 Perfect Light Armor <<Shadow Chance Coat>> [ EVA II // REGN I ] T1 Perfect Trinket <<Kashira Cable - Wolf>> [ ACC III ] none   skills Spoiler | COMBAT Mastery: Damage III | Gain 1 * Tier Damage per rank | 15 SP Battle Healing V | Recover 5% (rounded down) of your maximum HP at the start of your turn | 30 SP Emergency Recovery | When non-fatal damage would leave you with 25% or less of your maximum HP, recover 10% of your maximum HP after the attack resolves. Effect cannot occur more than once per thread.  When activated if the player has lower than 10 energy remaining, simply reduce the player's energy to 0. | 6 SP EN Cost: 10 Energist | Increase Base Energy by 5 * Tier | 8 SP Howl | Gain +2 Hate against up to 4 targets | 10 SP EN Cost: 2 EN Cooldown: 2 Posts Focused Howl | Gain +4 Hate against a single target | 5 SP EN Cost: 4 EN Cooldown: 4 Posts | WEAPON Curved Sword I | +1 DMG when equipped with a Curved Sword | 4 SP Katana V | +7 DMG when equipped with a Katana | 30 SP Stamina | Reduces the energy of all Katana attacks by 2 EN | 4 SP Ferocity | +2 DMG when using Katana Sword Arts | 4 SP | ARMOR Light Armor V | +30 MIT when equipped with Light Armor | 30 SP Meticulous | +1 DMG when equipped with Light Armor | 4 SP Resolve | +1 ACC and +10 * Tier HP when equipped with Light Armor | 6 SP | EXTRAS Familiar Master: Rending | You and your familiar attack in tandem, applying Rend [7*tier unmitigatable damage] to the target that lasts for two turns. | 10SP Cooldown: 5 Posts Survival | Increases Healing effects received from all sources by 10%. Grants immunity to all damage dealing environmental attacks/effects. buffs Spoiler Laurel Wreath | Earn Col equivalent to 15% of player’s EXP earned in thread <<Well Rested>> | -1 energy cost for the first three expenditures of each combat. <<Squeaky Clean>> | The first time you would suffer DoT damage in a thread, reduce damage taken from DoT each turn by 25% (rounded down). <<Relaxed>> | Increases out of combat HP regen by (5 * Tier HP) and decreases full energy regen to 2 Out of Combat Posts. <<Multipurpose>> | Gain +1 to LD, Stealth Rating, Stealth Detection, or Prosperity to one post in a thread. Can be applied after a roll.

Bubbles began to form in the center of the pool. Only a few at first. And then more, until suddenly the water broke, and exploded in all directions as a dark haired man burst up from the center, shaking his hair free of the water, and wiping his face.

Something, something Floor 21. Honestly, Koga didn't really know how he had wound up anywhere these past few days. Everything had been a blur since the the last boss raid. What should have been a victory ending with a celebration had only resulted in a long and arduous debate over the ultimate fate of the boss. The ordeal had left Koga feeling drained and disillusioned with...well, everything.

As Koga's hands flung away the warm water and he opened his eyes, he let out a startled, "Ah!" of surprise as he spotted another, older man now sitting comfortably and relaxing in the pool with him. Koga had never even noticed the man enter. "Shit, don't sneak up on people like that!" the Wolf admonished the older gentleman.

Edited January 25, 2022 by Koga

[tricolor_mina 0]

Violet was walking down the path, a soft smile on her face. She was wearing a black wetsuit that was detailed with pink and white patches on the arms and chest. Her familiar was holding a soft blue floatie in her claws, a delighted look on its face. The natural pools in this cavern were rather beautiful, and said to be nice for relaxing in. An NPC had given her the idea to visit, and she'd taken it with a grateful smile on her face. Being able to find natural wonders on this floor was a blessing that she had rarely gotten the opportunity to enjoy... 

Violet nearly stopped short when she spotted the other two players that were already sitting within the pool, a confused look on her face. one was an older man that had dark brown hair and steely greyish-blue eyes that looked like they could pierce right through her. The other was a relatively familiar man, one that she had seen several times over throughout her time climbing higher and higher in the floors. Red eyes and dark hair, and a face that she could remember easily. A faint chuckle bubbled in her chest as she strode forward, quickly entering the water. Akame hopped off of her shoulder, before landing in the water with a splash, the blue floatie keeping the tiny dragon above water.

"Well well... I seem to keep running into you, don't I?" Violet commented, her earlier confusion having dropped for a crooked grin, "Are you two here to enjoy the hotspring as well?"

 

Spoiler

Stats + Equipment

Stats

• Level 31 (Paragon Lvl 5)
• 680 HP
• 102 EN
• 21 DMG
• 78 MIT
• Acc 4
• 32 Blight
• 40 Frostbite
• 56 Burn
• 68 Vamp. Def.

Equipment

 Armor - Queen's Gambit (T4 Demonic Light Armor(2 slots MIT, 2 slots Vampiric Def.))

 Accessory -  Mask of rose (Perfect T2 Jewelry (3 slots Acc))

 Weapon - Jack's Burned Lament (T4 Demonic weapon(Blight/Burn/Frostbite/Cursed)

---

 

<<Normal Inventory>>

Guilty Thorn (Perfect T1 Rapier (2 Bleed, 1 Keen))
Jack's Burning Lament (Perfect cursed weapon (1 Burn,1 Blight))
Righteous Executioner (Perfect T1 Rapier(1 Bleed, 1 Para, 1 DMG))

 

[Oji 0]

Oji's mind had finally started to settle, his mind that's been trying to prep and plan multiple things for his frontline debut, trying to find the easiest quests for him to do with no hassle, finally started to lessen with the screams of what needed to be done, and started to enjoy the moment that he was in. It was peaceful, it was calming, it was-

"Ah!"

Oji leapt back at the sound, hitting his head on the sharp done and let out a small shout in response. His head fell under the bubbling water for a second, his eyes getting a slight sting from the sudden water. He emerged with a gasp, coughing a bit and rubbing the back of his head "You're one to talk, Jeez I'm trying to relax and you scream out of nowhere!" He shouted back. He slumped back down into the water, groaning a bit. Even if he didn't take any damage, he still felt the pain. His eyes panned back to where Koga was, and his eyes locked onto a young lady in quite the getup. He almost felt a blush on his face as he sunk even lower, doing his best to cover his uncovered chest. "Uh, hi there." He spoke. He frantically looked around to see if he could see any sort of indicators for separate bathing, but he looked to no avail.

[Koga 0]

Koga turned when he heard a feminine voice behind him, one he vaguely recognized, and a face he had equal amounts of trouble placing. The man took a moment or two before he was able to place where he'd seen that pink head of hair before. "You were at the last boss raid, right?" Koga said, turning and drifting slowly to the side, and sitting himself on the natural(?) bench of the spring. He remembered her mostly because she had been one of the few to speak out when most had wanted to simply kill the boss and move on without a second thought. "Uh...Mina. Right?" This was one of those times Koga really wished his memory was better.

Koga glanced over to the older man to see if he too knew the girl, but, judging from the way he was...behaving...it would seem not. Or at least, if he did, he was uncomfortable around her for some reason.

In any case, Koga turned back towards Mina as he settled in, the near scalding water providing some relief for his tired virtual muscles. Why did Kayaba decide that exhaustion was something worth including in the game? "Indeed we are," he replied. "Didn't even know about this place till this morning. One of my customers had mentioned it to me. Why is quite beyond me, but hey, she wasn't wrong about it being a nice place to relax."

[tricolor_mina 0]

"Oh..? You actually remembered me!" Mina cheered, her smile erupting into a full on grin. "And you remembered my name as well! Its good to see you again! You really surprised me during the Raid, I didn't think you'd vote the way you did, Though I suppose you weren't the only one I was kind of wrong about~!" Shield immediately came to mind, though so did Freyd and Raidou after they had changed their votes. Hopefully she got the opportunity to express gratitude towards both of them in the near future. Violet Swam over to the other player, poking him gently in the chest with curiosity in her eyes, her smile remaining firmly in place. "I'm not entirely sure if we've been introduced, have we?" she commented, her eyes scanning over his features with a twinkle. "I am Tricolor_Mina, Though you're more than welcome to call me Mina, as that is what I'm often called by my colleagues." Akame was using her tail to propel her float around, and ended up bumping into Koga, a chirp of surprise coming from the tiny Dragon. Violet turned her gaze briefly in the direction of her wayward familiar. "And that precious little one is my familiar, Akame. She's rather playful, so don't be surprised if she jumps on top of you~"

Violet tilted her head in confusion. "A player guided you here?" Violet commented, folding her arms over her chest. "I got recommended this place by a group of NPC's that were wandering around. I came by a few days ago to check this place out, I was a bit surprised at their request to leave gear behind though.. I guess its because this is a kind of safe zone?" 

[Oji 0]

Oji quietly watched as the two did a quick meet up, she seemed a bit cheery and obviously, if Koga knew her it either meant she was also a frontliner, or Koga was a player amongst players. Either or he decided not to ask for now, something like that needs to be kept between men, and if he needed to beat the kid he would worry about that when the time came. The young girl, Mina, came over and poked his chest, and introduced herself in a cheery tone. He closed his eyes and gave a small smile.

"Hi, my name is Oji. Long story, don't ask." He said with a chuckle. People were usually confused to why he called himself "uncle" but the story always took too long and brought up bad memories. Oji swam back a small bit to give some room as she came a bit too close for his comfort, and he looked to see her familiar swimming in the pool, and he chuckled. "Ah, my familiar isn't a fan of the water so he decided to stay outside for now. He's probably out exploring the caves that little troublemaker." He said, a look of mild irritation on his face. He turned to Koga. "The little gremlin chewed up my couch that I just bought. I didn't even know familiars could damage furniture!" His arms raised dramatically, water splashing outwards. "He's lucky he's cute because I'd do the quest again to get another familiar if he weren't."

He heard the two of them bring up how they found this place, and Oji raised an eyebrow. "I learned about this place from that IBS café place, it was found awhile back but people are only kinda coming around, if that wasn't obvious." the old man motioned to the two of them. "But what brings you guys here? Just needed time to relax or trying to get from the heat of combat?" He jested, leaning back onto the stone chair.

[Koga 0]

"I'll...choose to take that as a compliment," Koga replied to the girl, recounting their ordeal, being forced to choose between killing and sparing the Broken King. He did, however, make a mental note that apparently he looked like a cold-blooded killer. Was that good? Probably not, but hey, if he ever decided to get into the intimidation business, it might play in his favor.

The man then watched as Mina waded up to their older counterpart, and poked him in the chest, causing him to shift uncomfortably, moving ever so slightly away from her. Ah, so he was uncomfortable. Koga inwardly chuckled. The old man did seem to be an endless source of entertainment, if at his own expense.

"Yeah, they can be real brats sometimes," Koga said with a chuckle as he playfully picked up Mina's scaly companion and gently pet his head. "I let Okami go do some hunting for now, but usually he's causing me all sorts of trouble. Dude really likes to see me riled up, I guess."

The man returned the flying lizard to the water for it to resume its playful swimming as he looked at the others. "Uh, yeah...Been spending a little too much time fighting mobs and my sister was starting to give me hell about it. Said I was starting to look like one, needed to take a day off. All that stuff." Reality being that Aki had been pestering Masato for the better part of the year to take a break. He'd spent pretty much every single day since Christelle left farming, questing, or helping others do the same, just so he could take his mind off it all. But, memories tended to come to one unbidden, especially when you worked where many of them were made.

[tricolor_mina 0]

"Oji..?" Violet nearly did a facefault, a distressed look on her face. "Wha..? That... Oh, you meant that kind of Oji. That didn't register right for some reason... did the system bug out or something..?" Violet let out a squeak as she was suddenly drenched by the older man throwing water everywhere, Her familiar let out a screech of surprise, and ended up taking off into the air, her poor floatie getting abandoned in the water as the tiny feathery dragon flew off. Maybe being in the water with noisy humans flinging around water wasn't the best idea. Violet let out a wail. "Akame, nooooo! Come back!" Violet picked up the floatie, a distressed look on her face. "Akame's really well behaved for the most part, but she's also really unpredictable... I guess she draws the line at getting water flung at her..?"

Violet let out a sigh, sinking deeper into the water. "I came here because I wanted to go rock climbing at first, this place has some pretty nice looking walls... but then those NPC's mentioned the hot springs.." she said idly, glancing up at the rocky ceiling. "And that's basically that, so I ended up heading here to try and relax because I've been working my ass off trying to get up to snuff for being on the frontlines. I've been feeling like I'm lazy for not stepping up, and it was stressing me out, along with some other reasons.."

[Oji 0]

Oji nodded as Mina understood the joke behind his name. In all honesty he had never planned to play the game long so he had made a joke name, but now he had to live with it. He just shrugged. "No glitch, just allowed it." He said with a chuckle. He did feel bad that he sent the dragon away with his splash, but he knew it would be fine. He didn't absolutely drench it, it was just a splash. But he understood why such a small creature would not like that. Must have looked like a tsunami to the small little thing.

The two players explained why they were here and he nodded. "Yeah, some days you just need to relax. This was a great choice for it you two." He chuckled. He leaned back against the rock edge and gave a loud sigh of satisfaction. "I used to go to one of these things every other day in the real world, so once I found out about this place I had to come." he looked and saw a few of the NPC's leaving, probably done in their... what was it called, programming? Something like that. He looked at the two. "Well, we got the place to ourselves now." He jested, and looked at Mina. "So, tell me about yourself, if you'd like. I know plenty about Koga here, but I don't know anything about you."

[Koga 0]

Koga stared with wide eyes as Oji splashed the water, sending both Mina and her familiar shrieking. He wasn't sure if he should have be amused or just plain surprised. It just wasn't something he had expected from either the older gentleman. He seemed kind enough sure, but Koga wouldn't have necessarily described him as playful. But then again, the man did seem to love cute, small creatures, so maybe Koga shouldn't have been that surprised.

The swordsman leaned back into the stone walls of the spring-cave as the conversation proceeded, content with listening to Mina's story. He didn't know much about her, despite having met her on at least a couple occasions. He didn't really remember them too well either, aside from the most recent, which was unfortunate. However, this seemed like a good opportunity to get to know one of the people he would be fighting alongside from now on.

[tricolor_mina 0]

Violet blinked in confusion at Oji's question about herself. She wasn't exactly one to really talk about who she was as a person, so it was putting her on the spot to an extreme degree. Not only that, but she wasn't exactly ready to be talking about anything personal with someone who was, at best, a friendly stranger. So, she decided to go with something simple. "Oh... you, you want to know about me..?" she asked tentatively, cocking her head to one side. "um... I'm just a Frontliner that wanders around from place to place, ne? I just like to travel, and try and see all the more exotic sights that Aincrad has to offer. Its kind of like what I used to do in the real world." A small lie, sprinkled with a healthy dusting of truth should suffice.

"That being said... I want to hear a little bit about both of you as well!" she said dryly, eyeing Koga, who, at this point, had been very quiet during her small spiel. "I'd like to know a little more about some faces that I'll probably end up seeing quite a bit more around Aincrad, and this seems like the perfect place to ask those kinds of questions~!" her voice was playful, and she leaned forward, her deep red eyes glittering with amusement. Nothing like asking for someone to drop something small yet interesting to get a better read on who they are as a person. It made life a whole lot more interesting that way.

[Oji 0]

Oji listened to the girl speak about her and he nodded, but something picked at his brain that she was holding back info. But, he ignored that. He had barely gotten to know the girl, and even if he had experience with people and somewhat lying tones, it doesn't mean that's what this girl was doing. He would give her the benefit of the doubt unless proven wrong at a later date. She then asked about themselves, and Oji leaned back onto the rock to relax. She seemed to be much more interested in Koga than him, and he felt to comment on the matter but the air was already a tad awkward, for him anyways. His comment would only make that worse.

"Well" he said, garnering the attention of the two "I'm just an old man who finally left the first floor. Got myself pretty situated now, and I'm grinding when I feel like it. I'm not in that much of a hurry to hit the max level just yet, so I'm enjoying my time on the floors." He chuckled a bit "Trying to make the most of the life in here as I can, albeit we might be here awhile at the pace the frontlines is going." he then gave a good laugh at the jest towards the two in front of him. "If you guys keep going at this pace, an old man like me will be there in no time flat."

[Koga 0]

Mina did her best to be vague as possible about herself, and Oji followed suit. Which, to be fair, Koga couldn't fault either of them for. He sure as hell wasn't about to dump his life's story on either of them. It wasn't exactly a joyous one.

So, Koga simply mimicked their response, molded to his own experiences. "Can't say I'm that much more interesting. I just work my forge, and walk around and kill stuff and level. I guess now that we're actually on the Front," Koga looked at Mina then, "maybe I'll start helping with the Labyrinth searches and stuff? Other than that, I don't really know. My sister calls me a workaholic." He chuckled a little at himself. Tala wasn't exactly wrong. The man hardly took the time to rest these days. He couldn't recall the last time he had a good night's sleep. Too long, but hey, he was still here, so something was working out for him at least.