[SP-F1] <<Worn Out Welcome>>

[Malakath Grimm 0]

Malakath arose the day after he unlocked his Artisan profession with a smile on his face. "Full Health, full concentration, full drive to play some more!" He said this aloud as he ran outside, knowing exactly what he wanted to do. In a few minutes he reached the same Blacksmith which he went for the Jewellers tools before and the NPC unsurprisingly didn't recognise him until he mentioned he had picked out the quest. Upon saying "I'd like to talk about that quest you gave me?" The blacksmith hopped up and said "Ah, your here about me assisting the new players in staying alive hmm?" To which Malakath shuddered at how macabre the statement said by the NPC was. "So ya interested in a light chestplate. I'll do it for free but you have to go an' fetch the materials for me. I need 4 pieces of iron from the skeletons in the cave on the outskirts of this floor of Aincrad? Can you do that kid?" Malakath smiled and said "Yeah, I can do that". And he instantly began walking down there, he'd been looking forwards to training some more with the khopesh and maybe improving his level some more, this was the time to do it.

[Malakath Grimm 0]

Malakath knew where he needed to go, though the quest finder helped he knew that this was going to be a long walk. He set off and began to move towards the location. The edge of the world huh? Would he be met with a sheer drop or a large wall preventing him from falling? He wasn't sure, what he knew however is that he had Skeletons to kill. 

He eventually began walking down the paths around the Town of Beginnings again, spotting the Mobs roaming as they did. He began to think how bored they would be if they had minds, repeating the same tasks and doing the same things all the time. It would have been agony for Malakath if he had to walk in the same circle with nothing to look forward to besides a kill or be killed by a player.

[Malakath Grimm 0]

He reached the cave after a few hours of walking and looked inside. He couldn't see much inside at the moment but what he did notice was that it wasn't dark. That made sense, not letting complete noobs die because they can't see what's hitting them. Malakath drew his khopesh at this point and spun it once before moving into the cave. He was cautious this time, last time he only had to fight 1 worm ... This time it was 4 Skeletons. Could be even more since this was a random drop from them. Which slightly daunted Malakath as he needed to kill them each successively. He had no regen items, meaning if he lost some health he would have to run away and rest until the next day to start again.

[Malakath Grimm 0]

NO! He wasn't daunted, he'd walk in there and destroy the skeletons with no worries. He gripped his khopesh and walked into the cave, seeing the piles of bones inside as the skeleton's began to form around him. He saw the first one and decided to play it smart of only being in one aggression zone at a time. As he went to slam his axe like khopesh into the shoulder of the skeleton which wasn't even fully formed.

ID: 6937  Hit Die 1 EPIC MISS!!!

Malakath swung wide and even the bones he would've hit completed forming. Creating a large bony human in front of him that attempted to scratch at him wildly. As much as Malakath was out to complete this quest. The Creature was out for his blood, but Malakath remembered his tactic of stepping backwards, luring the monster to him and out of the way of the others.

[Malakath Grimm 0]

The Skeleton on the other hand didn't want Malakath to run. It shifted to grab at Malakath's leg and bite it hard, trying to take the leg off instead of just biting it like a dog would. 

ID: 6937 MOB DIE: 1 EPIC MISS

The skeleton fell onto it's face, hard, bones cracked as it hit the floor. The skeleton's had Brittle! The Fact that blunt force hurts them! He turned around to watch this skeleton reform itself. Covering it's body now were a collection of microfractures from where it had hurt itself by falling over. Malakath got new inspiration from this and began walking back towards the skeleton once more. A new Dark expression coating his face as he understood what happened when the skeleton missed critically too.

6/7   (Since a low level quest skeleton's roll of 1 causes -1 hp to them)

[Malakath Grimm 0]

Malakath was still walking towards him, until finally taking a small leap and going for a downslash on the skeleton's ribcage. The Desired effect being that he could tear open the ribcage of these monsters and collect the loot from their bone dust afterwards. Malakath felt oddly heroic as he jumped into the air and followed it up with a battlecry as he tried to bring down the khopesh through the ribcage.

ID: 6400  Battle Die: 3 Miss

Malakath was overzealous on his leap up and his blade clanked the cave roof. He looked up to see the window 'Immortal object' as he cursed under his breath. But the skeleton was headed for him, clattering it's teeth once more. Wanting to chew on something Malakath owned. Something Malakath was not very fond of having eaten.

[Malakath Grimm 0]

The Skeleton got back up and sauntered to Malakath. Attempting to slash with a sharp bony hand at Malakath. Malakath was prone at this point on his back so it seemed like an easy strike.

ID: 6400 MOB die: 5 Miss

The skeleton was about to rake an arm through Malakath. But Malakath was an Agility based Character, and now a level 4. He turned pretty easily and let the hand rake through the ground. Malakath got up from the ground and took his stance once more. This time holding his Khopesh with both hands to try and get more power and accuracy in his strikes.

[Malakath Grimm 0]

Malakath rose his Khopesh up and held it for a moment. His muscles tensed up as he did as he was gauging how hard he needed to bring it down. He thought about it for a moment, what if these skeletons were made when real people died. "No, can't think about that now." He rose the khopesh slightly higher and ran forward to bring it down on the skeleton. Even if it was a real persons virtual skeleton, he'd release them completely.

ID: 6403 Hit Dice: 6 Hit

Malakath Brought the blade down onto the skeleton, watching some of the bones break under the khopesh made him relax a little. This was not a good idea at this point however as the skeleton didn't fall apart as he expected.

4/7 HP left skeleton1

[Malakath Grimm 0]

The Skeleton took the hit and made a grunt as the bones crumpled a little. But they put themselves back into shape as well as they could and the skeleton lashed out with an arm. Now it was hit it seemed to move more animatedly and Malakath had just relaxed at the blow he'd delivered.

ID: 6403. MOB DIE: 7

The Skeleton raked at Malakath's exposed chest and he lurched backwards as it did so. Four throbbing red lines appeared on his chest and he looked down at them. When he looked back up now however, he was not happy anymore. Ready to break the rest of this skeleton, piece by piece, severely hoping that this wouldn't take as long. Clutching his new wound with his one hand, he charged back at the skeleton, khopesh raised.

Malakath HP 10/11

[Malakath Grimm 0]

Malakath while charging at this Skeleton knew it was risky, but he had to take this chance. He went to run past the skeleton, doing a pirouette and slashing at the skeleton's mid section. Hoping to cut it's top from it's bottom and seemingly end this fight, or at least he hoped.

ID: 6404 Hit die: 2 Epic fail

As he went to spin, he caught his own foot and stumbled forward, straight towards the skeleton. Never closing his eyes or stopped trying to attack. Just for now, while he fell at the feet of this bony monstrosity. He raised his arm instinctively to try and block what blow was going to be launched at him. Though it was just an arm, so it wasn't blocking very much as a result.

[Malakath Grimm 0]

The skeleton began to plan to compensate for the pathing of the spinning slash attack. But when Malakath fell short it had a little trouble adjusting to the sudden change in movement. As a result it simply jerked it's head down to look Malakath in the eye before jerking it's arm back and trying to stab it into Malakath's head. Like some kind of many tipped bone spear.

ID: 6404 MOB die: 7 hit 

It was on target to hit him but Malakath's arm took the hit instead. The 4 sharp, bony fingers disappearing into his arm and reappearing once again as it retracted them. Malakath now had 4 holes in his forearm where this skeleton had stabbed him. But Malakath then began to scream aloud in anger at the skeleton sticking him.

Malakath HP 9/11

[Malakath Grimm 0]

The Skeleton was quite unwavered by Malakath's warcry as it were and raised it's arm again to deliver another strike. Malakath saw this coming and raised his arm once more. Watching the fingers disappear into them once more. Malakath was done with this and whilst taking the hit, moved his fingers around and grabbed the arm of the skeleton. Pulling sharply, the skeleton hissed and lurched forwards but Malakath used this to pull himself up and turned about to slash the arm off with his Khopesh. Screaming with hate and anger whilst he did so. The skeleton's arm came off and Malakath looked at it as it turned to pixels again. Hoping that it would give him some of the item he needed. But alas he figured he needed to kill the actual whole entity to guarantee an item.

ID: 6405 Battle Die: 7 Mob Die: 8 Loot Die: 6

Malakath HP 8/11

Skeleton HP 2/7

[Malakath Grimm 0]

Malakath looked up once more and saw the skeleton staring at where it's arm once was. Obviously confused by the loss of it, Malakath Walked up to it and did a standing pirouette once more. Sending the head flying up behind him, the body turned to pixels and left a <<Chunk of iron>> on the floor. "So that was one of the items ... Interesting". Malakath picked up the head and tapped the forehead to initiate searching it for loot. Oddly enough it gave him another <<Chunk of Iron>> which he so desperately needed. He turned about and headed further into the cave in the desperate hope that he didn't need to kill any more than 2 more of these things. But the likelihood was that he'd be killing 2 more and then heading back, with or without all of them.

Dice ID 6406  Battle  6  Loot 18 Mob 3

Mob missed

Malakath hit for 2 Damage Skeleton = 0/7 dropped one chunk of iron.

Loot value of 18 gave Malakath another chunk from the piece he knocked off.

Malakath HP 8/11

[Malakath Grimm 0]

Malakath sauntered further in, surprised at how difficult that last fight was. He had hoped at least that these mobs would've been simpler to handle but alas, they were somewhat difficult to handle. He thought about this for a while until he saw more bones moving along the floor. This time when they reassembled. He noticed this one had a broken iron long-sword, so still doing not much damage. But nevertheless in a VRMMO, a skeleton with a blade is frightening to say the least. Malakath screamed once more as he charged at the bones before they fully reassembled, hoping he might be able to get a hit in before the Skeleton could form fully.

ID: 6407 Hit: 4

Malakath missed the strike, sort of just disturbing some of the bones while this skeleton was forming. The skeleton did have enough together to strike out at Malakath but Malakath managed to duck the strike.

ID 6407 Mob: 4

Malakath HP 8/11

Skeleton HP 7/7

[Malakath Grimm 0]

Growing somewhat irritated at how difficult his weapon was to hit with at his current level. Malakath ran at the skeleton and began trying to hack vertically and horizontally. In the sheer attempt to land a hit, but the truth was he was frightened that he would die down here. In a cave for beginners, on the first floor, in a cave on the edge of the world. That was the scariest thing, this death game in a fantasy universe made you have to make EVERYTHING real. So He Wanted to clear this up as fast as possible, to get back to real people. Not these faces of the damned, at this point he was kind of disregarding safety in the hope he could get his materials as fast as possible.

ID 6408 HIT 2 MOB 4

At this point, nobody was hitting anything as they were both just deflecting strikes from one another. The dead eyes from the skeleton staring into Malakath's bloodshot ones.

[Malakath Grimm 0]

This Deflecting match was going quite well, but someone was going to give in sooner or later. Either Malakath was going to break through the pathing of the AI. Or the AI would try and get past the human thinking Malakath, since both were likely. 

ID: 6409 Hit: 7 Mob:7

The truth was now that both characters were getting small scratches on eachother here and there. Malakath's blade doing slightly more damage, but the skeleton obviously getting hits in too. Malakath could've sworn he saw a smile crack in the bones but that was probably a mixture of adrenaline and fear. Since the human brain recieved some too, his avatar would begin to process much faster as a result and hopefully gain an upper hand. But all that was to be decided, and the skeleton was about equal with Malakath.

Malakath HP -1 7/11

Skeleton HP -2 5/7

[Malakath Grimm 0]

Malakath was shaking now, a result of the adrenaline probably, but he didn't let up. He felt cold yet warm at the same time, as if he was dead but still had arm blood in his body. Either way he was losing focus and still had a battle to fight in here. Throwing caution to the wind he did a massive upwards slash in the hope that he could force away the skeleton's weapon to let him follow it up with a massive strike.

But the skeleton sidestepped this to try and strike himself. Luckily Malakath managed to deflect the weapon using the curved part of his khopesh.

ID:6410 Hit: 4 MOB: 4 

But this didn't dissuade Malakath whatsoever, as he rotated, his back to the skeleton for a moment to backhand slash the creature. Hoping that the skeleton couldn't react fast enough.

ID:6411 HIT:2  MOB:5 (please discount 6412 ... somehow rolled twice, though nothing took place anyways so it wouldn't matter)

Yet the skeleton and Malakath were still engaged, doing a dance of death around the cave. Malakath continue his onslaught until a hti would be landed on either side however.

ID:6413 Hit: 7 MOB: 1 loot: 12

And indeed he finally landed something. His blade striking the spine of the skeleton and kocking it into a wall, causing it to crack up even more. (epic miss of brittle skeleton). The Damage seemed so much that the arm fell off and on contact with the ground turned into a <<Chunk of iron>> much to Malakath's delight.

Malakath HP 7/11

Skeleton HP -2(-1) 2/7 HP

[Malakath Grimm 0]

Malakath didn't want to let up the skeleton, this last skeleton was his chance at getting out of here. A chance at finally leaving this cold place behind, getting back to civilization and just crying about his plight would be a good night for him. He looked back to this skeleton, tears beginning to well up in his eyes. The rage of this god forsaken game taking lives then placing avatars, of their bones in place instead. It horrified him to the point of tears, he would release this hollow skeleton. Hopefully bringing those who died some peace in the afterlife. a single tear dropped onto his blade as he went to strike te skeleton, hoping to end all of this with this final stroke of his Khopesh

ID: 6415 Hit Die: 4 Mob Die: 5

Malakath noticed that the skeleton is its remaining hand another sword magically appeared. The skeleton deflected Malakaths blow and attempted to swing another one but Malakath stepped inside its arc of swing with another attack poised. Now crying fully at the fact tha the things which aren't actually alive are fighting for their life too.

Dice ID: 6417 Hit: 8 Mob 6

The skeleton managed to cut a scratch into Malakaths back, bringing him down to yellow health. But Malakath was looking at the skeleton in the eye sockets and said "You're free now, sleep". With this, the skeleton in his arms vanished an a <<chunk of iron>> was in its place. Still crying Malakath added these to his inventory and headed out of the cave.

[Malakath Grimm 0]

As soon as Malakath had the light hit his face he winced as it struck his eyes. He wandered out a few paces only to fall to his knees and stare at the ground for a while. He had finished his quest but after seeing the skeletons he hadn't felt right, like his imagination had disturbed him. He planted his face in the dirt an began to weep simply and hard into it. This place was horrible, it was a prison within a game, a place of darkness and pain. But his home nontheless, he loved games, but this nightmare was too much. He needed to be back at home, apologising to his parents for ignoring them and not being a good son. But for now he needs to head back to the quest giver, then the inn. His walk back was slow and painful, as if every step was a chore and he had to slug it out.

[Malakath Grimm 0]

It was sunset when he made it back, but he didn't feel the warth or the beautiful red light. He walked, slowly and methodically to the blacksmith and handed the goods over. Four chunks of iron, that's all he got for such a mental assault, great. Malakath thought about how so many had jumped from the edge of Aincrad, given up hope and on life. But he couldn't do that, he needed to get home, to tell his parents something, to apologise. He received the metal breastplate from the blacksmith and donned it. Looking at it with horror on his chest, as if he was to carry his burden with him until the end. Everyone else looks a it like a quest reward, him like the mark of a PKer.