[f02-pp] surface. <<breaking the unbreakable.>>

[NIGHT 0]

quest.

a new mark bestowed upon her as a request meant a new round of preparations to be taken. and bistro wouldn't tell her what was within the labyrinth per say -- but neither could she, upon recollection. wasn't night there for the meeting long ago?

she could barely remember it.

the update brought something akin to a great silence to the twenty-fifth. and she understood why, especially hearing of the hostilities of the great corridors. that it was dark and dull, boring as it was to force players on their toes, and of recent it expanded to feature many new elements. elements that were still dreary and revolting and 'in your face will kill you'.

this was the simplest bit of preparation she could go for. wasn't even worth the time for the most part, in her opinion. but since the vanishing of tempest from her skill list, she thought it best to go chase her favorite art once again.

just in case. just in case.

| NIGHT | Lv. 139 >> P. 107, Lv. 32 | notes: providing the following: x1 liquor of light. x1 breakfast fry. Spoiler NIGHT | HP: 1080/1080 | EN: 146/146 | DMG: 20 | ACC: 3 | EVA: 3 equipped Silver Crescent Necklace ACC II, EVA II battle-ready inventory Teleport Crystal (5) skills. Spoiler mod count: 7/7 2HSS | RANK 5/5 focus, stamina, precision shift: aoe CLOTH ARMOR | RANK 5/5 athletics, nimble COMBAT MASTERY: DMG | RANK 3/3 SEARCHING | RANK 4+1/5 reveal, tracking, detect, night vision BATTLE HEALING | RANK 5/5 ENERGIST FIGHTING SPIRIT QUICK CHANGE CHARGE EXTENDED MOD LIMIT extra SURVIVAL CONCENTRATION HIDING untraceable, vanish, surprise attack-t buffs. Spoiler statue KUMATETSU | +1 DMG consumables Liquor of Light | DMG III | [x] Breakfast Fry | PROTEIN IIIfilling | [x] paragon Lv. 5 | Gain additional col equivalent to 15% of EXP earned in that thread. Lv. 10 | +1 LD to looting. sword arts. Spoiler en cost matches multiplier unless stated otherwise. shift underlined. ST | x12 -> x15 | x20 AOE | x15 -> x18 TECH-A | x12 | STUN | 13EN TECH-B | x12 | DELAY TECH-D | x12 | SHATTER TECH-G | x12 | BURN misc. Spoiler housing Dimensional Backpack, Item Stash | +2 Battle-Ready Inventory Slots. Well Rested | -1 EN for the first three expenditures of each combat.  Relaxed | +(5 * Tier) HP per out-of-combat post. Full energy restoration occurs after two turns out of combat. Squeaky Clean | -25% DoT damage taken from the first DoT applied to this player in a thread. Skylight: Searching | +1 Expertise to declared utility skill. Cooldown of 30 days to reassign. Multipurpose | +1 LD/Prosperity/Stealth/Detection to one post per thread. Can be applied after a roll. Filling | +1 T1 slot to a food consumed by this player in a thread. Can exceed Cook enhancement caps. Col Deposit | +5% col from loot-minimum mobs, +10% col from treasure chests. gathering Greenhouse | +2 G.EXP, +1 CD&LD to gathering attempts. Familiar: Profession | +2 G.EXP Demeter's Cornucopia | +1 CD to gathering attempts.

Edited June 14, 2023 by NIGHT

[Demian 0]

demian? demian was busy doing jack all, that was all.

... no, not quite. in truth, there was no reason to go wandering about to whereabouts he was certain was lacking in ingredients. but the monsters had been stronger -- he'd hated to admit he'd been bested by some of them -- after the day the world was swallowed whole by emptiness.

now how in the world was punching a rock supposed to aid players in their advancement towards the higher floors? demian wasn't sure, but he was certainly going to find out. the second floor felt awful on his skin, likely due to the humidity that made him feel as though he should sweat, but he was beneath switching to a better fit in order to stay comfortable; feel comfortable. no, that wasn't going to do in the slightest.

he knew his way. didn't need to go asking for directions. just knew there was a mountain to climb.

oh, what he didn't know was that the trek was going to be an uphill battle... involving people.

DEMIAN | HP: 200/200 | EN: 38/38 | DMG: 6 | ACC: 2 | EVA: 1

Spoiler [EQUIPMENT] bauble. +2 ACC +1 EVA [BATTLE-READY INVENTORY] Costa de Estrellas +3 LD [SKILLS] Spoiler Two-Handed Straight Sword | Passive | RANK 5/5 [BUFFS] Spoiler LIQUOR OF LIGHT | provided. | DMG III BREAKFAST FRY | provided. | PROTEIN II

 

[NIGHT 0]

because the moment he'd walked into view of night, latter fresh off the teleporter, her attention immediately swayed from the task at hand. wasn't this that strange chef out in the woods that day had recommended the other time? she was certain, because imagine the peculiarity of someone keeping a low profile, only to meet with someone who was gallivanting enough to make a fresh-faced warrior jealous. and she didn't catch a name -- didn't know if her duplicate had known, either, and wasn't so much going to ask.

so she tailed him. realized only halfway that they were going the same way -- up a mountain, with the same end goal of punching a boulder, because why else would anyone go hiking aside to further their combat capabilities, if it was on the second floor? so night sighed, dropping her suspicions for the time being.

if anything, the chef did seem like an appropriate rival to challenge heading up to the top. so she put forth a little more effort in her steps, and slowly, silently, started to overtake the man.

---

-> mountain. (1/3)

[Demian 0]

sorry? was there someone else there?

admittedly, it hadn't occurred for him to be bothered by other players, who were headed the same way he was. in fact, that clearly seemed like a normal things players would do, and never mind. yet, for some strange reason, with the eyes he felt upon his back, he had the strangest suspicion that he was being tailed.

... on purpose?

when the woman snapped her head away, her walking pace accelerated, demian turned his to verify his assumptions. he figured himself wrong about the intent. and when his gaze returned to the road, he noticed the other overtaking his position.
now it was his turn to stare at someone else's back instead.

he was certain the visage of the individual seemed familiar. from where, however, he wouldn't say. and amidst his thoughts, he noticed the woman peeping over her shoulder.

curious? so was he. then he read her expression a little harder--

---

-> mountain. (2/3)

[NIGHT 0]

– and hook, line, sinker; the chef appeared to be agitated with her read of his brow. now came the challenge -- the sounds of shuffled feet, despite their lazy and distress-ridden implication, only grew louder, melting into the cacophony of proper footsteps from brisk walking, before one of them decided to break out into a run. night pushed herself to follow suit, distraught and annoyed at the other's apparent willingness to follow suit.

because that didn't feel right. was this the reason why her better half was fond of the man? any usual player would've stopped at brisk walking, right? night's tilted and obviously incorrect perspective was clouding her focus, the moment she sunk into thinking again, and it took her a second further to realize that despite her training, stats and notoriety, she was starting to lose a race with a relative nobody.

what? no. not on her watch. night had something to prove, something dastardly--

---

-> mountain. (3/3)

Edited May 22, 2023 by NIGHT

[Demian 0]

so did demian too, it seemed, because the moment the other had over taken him, so too did he push himself into a relative gear. if it was endurance, he had it. speed; he had that too. but a stopping point, that matched up to the other player...

that, he wasn't so sure about.

so he skid and stopped his jog after a certain point, once the mountain leveled out even. his breath was ragged, gaze to the floor –

no pressure, trying to fit in to an audience of one, who was already a little stranger than he was.

he watched the player skid, too; she slipped, while she was at it, stumbling forward but stopping just enough, in time to catch herself. demian wasn't impressed. neither was the other woman, who shot a look back at him, with all the signs of agony painted across her face.

demian wiped his chin with the back of a fist. what the hell did he do to earn that look? he wasn't the one who started the race; it was--

[NIGHT 0]

– but it didn't matter, because their brief glare-off was interrupted with the shuffling of feet upon dry mountain grass. an npc, the one they were both looking for; master yunxiang. night wasn't that adept at chinese, but she could at least place a translation to the word cloud in that name. xiang's meaning evaded her, however.

so too did the briefing of their little challenge.

the monk held up three fingers, one for each trial. past accounts of the quest did account for some daoyin; a series of exercises in slow movements that were meant to focus on the circulation of qi within the body. that's not what they got from it, however, as his beckoning led them into a cozy interior in the side of the mountain, large studded and wooden doors opening to reveal a dojo. and in there were wing chun dummies, with their arms allowing for rotation upon a retaliating move.

---

ID212511 | cd7 | first task progress: 1/2

Edited June 14, 2023 by NIGHT

[Demian 0]

demian knew exactly why he was here. but he wasn't exactly aware, either, that there would be another player to be interested in the same trials he was intending to be put through. at the same time he would be undertaking them, no less.

not only that, the relatively short woman from across the room was accompanied with a scowl, the bottom lid of one of her eyes twitching just as she spotted the dummies. behind the midpoint of two was an accompanying third, that the monk strutted towards, his hand behind his back. with a gesture, he beckoned them to pay attention, before leaping into action.

right. it made up the second part of his name. through a series, a multitudinal flurry of punches, blocks and kicks, woven through dodges, the sections of the master's dummies turned and turned, until they finally locked in rotation, all arms pointing right, as he gave the dummy a final, brutal strike.

---

ID212512 | cd5 | first task progress: 1/2.

Edited June 14, 2023 by Demian

[NIGHT 0]

then the cue was ushered to them, and now night couldn't help but look over at her competitor, sizing the man up through a prolonged stare. they were past losing their breaths – but the other player still looked to the dummy with a hunch in his back, lips pressed in a thin line. was he shooting glances back at her? he shifted his feet apart, a shoulder-width's, fingers curling with their arms thrown back, in preparation for an attack. a forecast, then; past the eyepatch of the stranger she could feel a statement being made, that, unbeknownst to her she was simultaneously echoing back.

she was sure she wasn't doing the same. night, however, was moving on instinct, subconscious informing her movements; emotion-ruled, more than her thoughts. who started the fight again? it didn't matter, now they were in it. but she wasn't going to lose, not to...

---

ID212513 | cd10 | first task progress: 2/2.
DMG+2.

Edited June 14, 2023 by NIGHT

[Demian 0]

demian was sure he leapt first, charging into the fight a second or half earlier than the stranger did. his rhythm was mathematical, hits systemic – it was better to block, dodge and apply forces for the rotation of the dummy's parts to wind one way than the other, to ensure it locked sooner. yet, his combat ability wasn't to form, not as it once was, not as he should've been used to despite operating at this strength for quite a while – and his opponent was quick to catch up. linear progression was pitched against a frenzy; impatient, impractical, inefficient, and yet his alternative was solving the puzzle of their training much faster than he was. back and forth, the arms went, and demian kept track of the dummy's twists and turns from the corner of his sight. no, he was getting close, his precision would pay off–

---

ID212514 | cd10 | first task progress: 2/2.
DMG+2.

Edited June 14, 2023 by Demian

[NIGHT 0]

– until it didn't. night kicked the last of the arms into a lock, the impact resounding with a harsh clatter, punctuated only by a soft click within the dummy. but it was just in time for her blows to fall into beat with her training rival's conclusion, after a shoulder-shove and a dodge had slid the center's axis in alignment with the others. which was an unimpressive time to beat, according to the player, because by the end of her own flow she found herself panting hard. but over her shoulder, the stranger hadn't seemed to exerted as much energy as she did.

what the heck was the show of endurance on about?

the man was breathing heavily, and suddenly the glare her way felt heavy. or that was her own frustration getting in the way – in time for the master to tap his demonstration figure twice with a stick, and call for them to head onwards, into an inner sanctum across the dojo hall.

---

ID212515 | ld16 | second task progress: 1/3
DMG +4

Edited June 14, 2023 by NIGHT

[Demian 0]

if there was tension in the air, demian would swear he couldn't feel it, even though he could spot the signals. now his own eye twitched, too, and he shrugged off his body trying to react in mimicry. micro performances weren't necessary, and neither was the hostility from the woman. yet, quiet, teeth set together as they passed the threshold of light into dark, there was a darker enclave with a ray of sunlight pouring in from the ceiling.

the other winced beside him as his eyes adjusted to the contrast. humidity hit him hard, but it must've affected the other much more from her exhale, eyes restless. the cavern floor circled around a large spring, and foliage climbed the grey stone, soaked with dew by the pour flowing in from on high. the crash of water hitting the pool was harsh, dense, yet no signs of the setup indicated that the dojo would be overrun by flood, nor face moisture damage soon.

---

ID212516 | ld6 | second task progress: 1/3
DMG+2

Edited June 14, 2023 by Demian

[NIGHT 0]

the master but sat upon a nearby boulder, cross-legged, as he gestured to the players with a finger pointed towards the waterfall. as the other moved, night stalled – she was set on watching the monk instead, a nagging feeling of anxiety in the depths of her stomach.

when one of his hands took on a shape, that's when she knew she was ready to stop playing games. thumb to middle finger, the monk's hands were rested upon his knees, and so too did the stranger seem to get into position, unquestioning.

awful, and utterly ridiculous. night couldn't meditate, couldn't because she'd tried, didn't want to because she knew what happened last time, but sucked in her fears as she pushed herself to wade into the pool. the water past her calves, the stranger's red eyes but stared at her, finally unmenacing under the light, as she continued to question his motives even further.

something about his nonchalance seemed familiar.

---

ID212519 | ld17 | second task progress: 2/3
DMG+6

Edited June 14, 2023 by NIGHT

[Demian 0]

demian was trying to be patient. slow, the other player, and finally she sat down beside him, the torrent of nature merciless upon their shoulders. he was perplexed by the nature of human hesitance, really, the nerve; but as the master closed his eyes at the far corner of the room, so too did he surrender to an ill-fated, false slumber.

there was no way he was going to be able to reap the benefits of meditation. so he sat in the quiet, waiting for the moment to pass.

and he thought.

it was outside of his nature, to regard and consider others outside of the norms, and outside of coincidence. he believed not in fate, but he believed in the growing presence of someone he knew, present in his imagination, in his mind space of the void as he felt the time pass. and he had his anchor, so some part of him figured this was enough.

---

ID212517 | ld17 | second task progress: 2/3
DMG+4

Edited June 14, 2023 by Demian

[NIGHT 0]

if night knew he was trying to do the same, she would've gotten up and cursed him out, and then really she would've hammered in the foundations of their rivalry from there.

but she wasn't privvy to another player's thoughts. so she didn't.

in a similar fashion, however, she'd closed her eyes, drunk in the breath of the tides. her body betrayed her mind – even though cardinal wasn't supposed to show it as much, for her heart thundered, and her fingers shook with every gasp. so much of it felt like a stranglehold, despite the lack of obstruction on her concentration.

at every attempt at quiet self-reflection in this state, night would always fail.

she thought of her solution better. that instead of the random stranger beside her, it would be day. night knew it had to be, soul searching for the same calmness of the atmosphere, in the tides, the nature of things. everything, and everyone else present was still. still, except for her.

day would've blended into that.

---

ID212520 | ld8 | second task progress: 3/3
DMG+6

Edited June 14, 2023 by NIGHT

[Demian 0]

enough to him was a different tale than enough for the master. somehow, yunxiang must've figured five minutes of meditation would be the most that players could stand, and with a small gong in his hands (cardinal entities had the funniest ways of pulling out random items from their inventory), he would rouse the individuals to pull themselves out from the water for their final task.

the stranger seemed not to move. her breathing was ragged. it was as though she was being suppressed by something, but demian wasn't an exorcist, and neither did he believe in ghosts haunting players in the traditional sense humans believed about spirituality. no, it took the other a moment longer to get up, and her eyes seemed to give away her internal thoughts – she was shaken about something.

and he thought back to his friend, in the room with them, but not really. day's name was pressed between the tip of his tongue and the roof of his mouth, as they shambled out of the pool over to the monumental boulder.

---

ID212518 | ld9 | second task progress: 3/3
DMG+4

Edited June 14, 2023 by Demian

[NIGHT 0]

the boulder that the master was sitting on had to go.

unceremoniously, the monk slapped a yellow strip of paper, with red markings upon it, onto the rock. it invoked a sense of understanding into night that it was an enemy – ghastly in nature, to be exact – though it made little sense to have done so as an indication that they should be hostile to it. it wasn't as though the rock was going to attack back.

the only one haunted here was herself.

so she rolled up her past, her thoughts and her feelings into a ball. felt it in the ball of her feet, just as she reeled up her legs to give it a strong kick. the rock crumbled, barely, though its surface was weak enough to be impacted by a lasting, glowing mark. cardinal thought it was slick with its effects; night knew it wasn't actually breaking the way she wanted it to.

---

ID212521 | bd4+3+2 = 9

Boulder | HP: 49/75 | EVA: -2
NIGHT | DMG: 20+6 | ACC: 3
Demian | DMG: 6+4 | ACC: 2

Edited June 14, 2023 by NIGHT

[Demian 0]

perhaps this was the monk's way of trying to make it up to them for having dual trainings instead of a focused effort on an individual student. that, or he was trying to get them to learn how to work together after their inherent showdown from earlier.

that's what demian thought a different player would say, and he decided that the notion was foolish as it came to mind. he could see the rock's weak points, as easily as the two of them knew of its health, so he pierced it with a hard stomp at the top of the boulder, once the woman had reeled back enough, careful not to trip on the slippery floor. a crack developed, to his amusement, and the growing frustration of his rival-now-ally started to seep into the way she wound her body up for another strike.

demian but stared at the boulder, and then back at her, eyes searching for lingering signs of the apparition, imprinted on her mannerisms like a tattoo.

---

ID212522 | bd7+2+2 = 11 | cd12

Boulder | HP: 34/75 | EVA: -2
NIGHT | DMG: 20+6 | ACC: 3
Demian | DMG: 6+4 | ACC: 2

Edited June 14, 2023 by Demian

[NIGHT 0]

a bad tattoo, but night wouldn't know what signs would give it away, nor would she be aware of the gaze and intent. instead, simmering at the crack in the boulder, she knew she wasn't going to be outdone.

perhaps that was the only sign that the stranger needed to know she was marked.

it was unlikely that a fist would deal as much damage as a kick when punching down, yet night tossed her whole weight into it, almost in the same manner that her secondary had. and if there wasn't going to be a crack, by some miracle she was going to will it to happen, fury and might behind the lingering fist. the boulder's foundation gave way, instead, until what was left was the top half of the stone, barely kept in tact from that singular strike.

---

ID212523 | bd9

Boulder | HP: 7/75 | EVA: -2
NIGHT | DMG: 20+6 | ACC: 3
Demian | DMG: 6+4 | ACC: 2

Edited June 14, 2023 by NIGHT

[Demian 0]

with the final bit of health to chip off, demian figured it would be best to be efficient. he barely gave the other a glance as his sights set upon the dojo's exit, and he walked over the boulder like a stepping stone, making sure to emphasize his strength as he carried himself over the remains. it crushed and fizzled under him with the final impact, damage nowhere near overkill, and felt the gazes of both the stranger and the monk on his back as he left.

he wasn't intending to race anyone down the mountain. no, screw that. being around someone who he wasn't used to was hell enough, and he wasn't of the mind to be considering twice about how the secondary fit into his friend's life. the similarities were there, and so was the strength.

demian figured, if he was going to make up for her help, he'd have to get at least as strong – as equal – as the woman in the tracksuit to make his help worth her while.

---

ID212524 | bd6+2+2

Boulder | HP: -3/75 | EVA: -2
NIGHT | DMG: 20+6 | ACC: 3
Demian | DMG: 6+4 | ACC: 2

Edited June 14, 2023 by Demian