Oscar

I hold the world record on Bowser's Big Bean Burrito. Oscar accepts item

Oscar stopped listening when the word "Karst" fell from the man's lips. It was one thing to suspect a that a ghost from his past was coming back to haunt him. It was quite another to get confirmation. And so suddenly at that. His previous cocky attitude abruptly shifted. Emotion drained from his face like mud washed from a wall. Oscar's eyes narrowed, his mind racing. Justified in his paranoia though he was, it only served to make him more paranoid. But before he let himself fall down that rabbit hole, there were two things that needed to be dealt with. First and foremost, they had to go get Conciliator. They had the benefit of knowing where the people that took her would be. There was only one entrance to The Endless Maze after all. And second, they had to figure out what to do with this guy. If they went flying out after Conciliator, then this dude would definitely give his accomplices the heads up. Somehow Oscar doubted they could travel faster than a message. But how was the question. Surely Macradon wouldn't have a problem keeping an eye on the guy. But what could Macradon actually threaten him with? The guy was green. Anything Macradon did to him would ultimately result in the only Grandmaster Blacksmith that he knew of being unable to even enter a settlement. Mari, then? She was a Player-Killer. But then again, in his dealings with her, she hardly acted like one. Plus, how would he even find her? It wasn't like he knew anything about where she hung out. And then it hit him. There was a twinge in his gut, like an old injury flaring up. A sudden chill came over him as he walked over and hoisted the man to his feet. "Karst is Tyson's screen name," Oscar said flatly. He turned his attention to the man and pointed to the door. "Walk." Despite his prior pleading the man stood firm and crossed his arms over his chest. Something about this man's outright defiance awakened a fury in Oscar's chest like he hadn't felt in years. He grabbed the man by the arm and shoved his face square into the desk. Not an "attack" but it would definitely sting. "I swing around this hunk of obsidian on my back for hours straight. I have no problem dragging you. Now walk." Oscar then relented and so did the man. He headed towards the door with Oscar close behind. The way Oscar figured it was that if someone could grab Conciliator and drag her off all the way to the teleportation platform, Oscar had a lot of leeway when it came to motivating this guy. Bahr followed along behind him. "Where are we going?" Bahr asked. Oscar knew better than to answer that. If he shared with the Crimson Marauder what he was thinking, he knew that it wouldn't go over well. They guided the man out into the field. Oscar was silent as the grave. Honestly, he wasn't sure if he was going to go through with the plan or rip this guy apart himself. Rage was not an emotion that Oscar felt very often. Thus, he was ill-equipped to deal with it. Luckily, their destination wasn't very far outside of the gates. Bahr would recognize it in an instant. Before he could even say something about it, Oscar called out, bellowing at the top of his lungs. "PINBALL! I'M HERE TO SEE WHAT THAT BOOTY DO!"

"Well that's definitely unlike her," Oscar said as he looked down at his watch. Nine a.m. Concilator always had her shop open at eight-thirty on the dot. Oscar had been out about town, taking care of his usual business. The day had been good to him so far. Most of the small inconveniences that slowed one down hadn't really affected him too much. Thus, he found himself outside of Concilator's shop earlier than he usually did - arriving right when she would ordinarily open. Although, the word "shop" was something of a misnomer. It was more of a news stand. Concilator spent her days gathering rumors and information from all around Aincrad and then brought them down to the Town of Beginnings to share with everyone else. He had relied upon her counsel for more than a few quests when he was leveling up. Nowadays, however, he liked to merely stay abreast of current events. Daily visits to her shop were a common occurrence. Oscar waited for another few minutes. Maybe she had forgotten to unlock the door. Or maybe she just needed a break from it all. He couldn't exactly blame her. She worked hard. But then again, it wasn't exactly like her to not let people know if she was going to be unavailable. Oscar looked down at his watch again. Nine-fifteen. He'd been waiting almost an hour at this point. He was about to write the whole thing off as a lost cause when something possessed him to just take a peek inside the shop. He stepped up to the window - normally a bit too high for your average man to look into - and cupped his hands around his eyes to block out the light. His eyes scanned the interior of the room. Normally, Concilator had books lining all of the walls. They were meticulously cataloged. Each book contained vital information about the game. Her insurance policy in case something happened to her. She didn't want the knowledge lost. When Oscar saw the shelves knocked off of the wall and the books strewn about the floor, he knew that this wasn't simply a case of her being late. He stepped back from the window and tried the door. He hadn't done it earlier because he hadn't seen any lights on inside. It had just barely been ajar - not even latched. Oscar stepped inside of the trashed shop and started looking around. This whole scene was rather familiar. Usually, one looks at a trashed room and they think "oh, well this is gonna suck to clean." But, there were certain things that an experienced eye could see. It was often how a room was trashed that told you what you needed to know. This wasn't a common burglary. Nothing seemed to be missing. At least, as far as he could tell. The pages had been torn from the books and scattered all about the room. Someone had taken the time to ruin Concilator's entire life's work in Aincrad. That was someone sending a message. And Oscar had an idea of who was behind it. He opened his menu and began typing out a message. Short and sweet. Somehow he didn't think he had the luxury of taking his time right now.

Oscar accepts

Approved

Snake Out of Water It was time. One quest had invoked much fear in the heart of the Hot Dog Man. From Bahr's stories, he absolutely dreaded the Snake Out of Water quest. Apparently Hebinishu was one bad mother. But today, Oscar was resolved to get it done. Taking Bahr's advice, Oscar stacked up on his luck. Gloves on Caerus came on, sacrificing mitigation in favor of luck. Copious amounts of hot dogs were consumed all tailored to his needs in the quest. Finally, as the final part to the buff, Oscar activated his <<Yamata no Orochi Statue>> that rested in his Foyer. The luck buff from his efforts in Scents of the Wild may have meant all the difference in this quest. From there, headed out and teleported up to Floor 16. Not wanting to take the beast on alone, Oscar sent messages out to a couple friends he had made along the way. FOCUSED DOG CONSUMED [+2 ACC -> +3 ACC FROM FILLING BUFF] EVASION DOG CONSUMED [+2 EVA] ULTRA LUCKY HOT DOG CONSUMED [+3 LD] <<YAMATA NO OROCHI STATUE>> ACTIVATED [+1 LD]

Oscar just shrugged and passed the item to NIGHT. "You're good. I got to tick this quest off of my list. That's all I wanted." Then, he turned his attention back to Yuki. Clearly, the girl had come a long way since his last outing with her. He cracked a smile and gave her a light tap on the shoulder with his fist. "Don't worry Yuki. Next time I call you, it'll be for something much less terrifying. Like a dragon or something. Does it count as a snake if it has wings?" Oscar chuckled and headed off back towards the town on his own, throwing up his hand to say goodbye to his two friends. "Make sure you give Yuki a break NIGHT. I'll catch you at the Guild Hall sometime." Oscar hoped that his abrupt departure would also give NIGHT and Yuki the idea to head back to town. After all, it was only a matter of time before Hebishinu respawned. Somehow he didn't think Yuki would find that a particularly-enjoyable turn of events.

The snake, having retreated into the water, thought it was safe. It thought that it could earn itself a brief reprieve from the pain the party was dishing out. And, it might have been correct. Oscar wasn't about to dive into the murk and go hunting a giant snake in its element. But, he also knew exactly where the snake would be in about five seconds. For you see, Yuki had done a great job in angering the creature. All he needed to do was wait in her general vicinity. And wait he did. Until, eventually, the surface of the water started to swell. Like a bullet, the snake lashed out. Jaws open wide, it lunged towards Yuki. But instead of biting down on a small pink-haired paladin, it got a mouthful of Tesseleth's Fury. Jaws snapped down around the obsidian blade. There was a flash of confusion in its eyes as it tasted stone, not flesh. Oscar looked into one of the large yellow eyes of the snake with an evil grin, both hands holding fast to his weapon. "Bye bye," he said in a cheery tone. At that, Tesseleth's Fury exploded in a burst of dark energy. Inside of the snake's mouth. Its head immediately shattered like glass, quickly followed by its body. Oscar let out a small sigh and flashed a bright smile towards Yuki. "I got you Yuki," he said.

With Safeguard down, it was Oscar's moment to shine. He rushed in. Or, rather, rushed in as quickly as his little feet would let him given how convoluted the terrain was. Once he got close to the snake, he swung Tesseleth's Fury with all of his might. An ink-black aura erupted around the axe's obsidian edge. On contact, a burst of pure darkness was triggered from the point of impact, bringing the snake down well below half health. However, even though Oscar had just wreaked absolute havoc on the creature's vitality, it was focused solely on Yuki. It coiled around the small Paladin, lashing out blindingly fast. Its fangs sank deep into Yuki's armor. It let out a loud screech and then recoiled violently. Apparently, her armor had spikes. And those spikes were uncomfortable. The thing would think twice about trying to swallow the Hedgehogadin in the future. "Yeah ****er, she's really spicy ain't she?" Oscar taunted the creature for some odd reason.

The King was now on its last legs. The ceaseless onslaught from the party had brought them to the precipice of victory. They were so close at this point, Oscar could almost taste it. Not a lot of people had slain this boss before. Probably due to the inherent durability of the thing more than any inherent difficulty. Baldur had taken a nasty hit, but it had barely budged his health bar. But, in so doing, now the King had wild aggro. And, unfortunately, Cordelia had been the most recent one to draw its ire. Before Oscar could even react, the King thrust forward with his spear. The golden weapon buried itself into her shoulder, taking a healthy chunk out of her health bar in the process. Now, Oscar felt a mixture of emotions. On the one hand, Oscar couldn't find himself being too concerned about her well-being. A little cold, if he were being honest. But he was just seeing the situation for what it was. The boss wouldn't be around long enough to be a real threat and she still had plenty of health to spare. However, the King had just hit his girlfriend. And Oscar wasn't about to take that lying down. All emotion drained from his face as he calmly strode over to the king. His axe dragged against the ground, sparks flying as the edge chipped the stone beneath his feet. Before he could even remove his spear from Cordelia's shoulder, Oscar swung Tesseleth's Fury straight into his face. The spear was wrenched from Cordelia's body as it was blasted backwards into a nearby half-broken column. Oscar didn't need the help of any Fallen damage to send the King flying. Just the force of his own outrage. He cast his gaze over to Cordelia, peering at her through the corner of his eye. "You're good, right?" He needed no answer. His attention was shifted then to Baldur who was in a prime position to deal the final blow. With the king reeling from being sent flying, there was little chance that Baldur wouldn't be able to finish this. "Baldur. Bring it home," he urged his comrade. So confident that this fight would be soon over that Oscar put away his axe and crossed his arms over his chest, ready to watch the carnage unfold.

Leonidas' Strength enhancements adjusted to Life Mending | Holy Blessing | MIT | MIT as Damage Mitigation+ is not a valid enhancement. Father Wuotan ticket converts Leonidas' Strength to Holy Blessing | Holy Blessing | MIT | MIT Re-evaluation approved.

"You're right Yuki. You'll have to forgive me for being a little over-the-top with the concern. Last quest we did together could have gone really badly. Still kinda feel bad for that one, I guess." Yuki had the right of it though. The sooner they killed this snake, the sooner they could leave. If there was anything worse than dry hot, it was wet hot. The humidity of the swamp was quite uncomfortable. Oscar couldn't conflate his disdain for the heat with Yuki's unease with snakes, but it didn't mean that he wanted to hang out on this floor any longer than absolutely necessary. So, they struck out into the swamp, searching high and low for a giant snake. As it turns out, a giant snake isn't that hard to find. Oscar caught a glimpse of its hulking form slithering out of a nearby body of water. "There she blows! Let's wreck it up." Tesseleth's Fury spun up into his hand. He wasn't in a good position to swing right now, so he would need to leave that to NIGHT and Yuki.

Yuki was rather indignant in response to his attempt to soothe her nerves. This prompted him to take a look at her health value. His eyes widened in shock when he noticed her health and level. He hadn't really paid much attention as it had seemed like just yesterday that Oscar was praying that a lioness didn't take a plug out of her hide. "Holy hell. Level 38. You've been eating your Wheaties, haven't ya?" Oscar smiled widely. He felt bad for treating her like a noob when she clearly wasn't anymore. Even so, he'd really need to focus up to make sure that she didn't become a snake snack. Even if she took an aggro lead, a solid Fallen proc or two would bring the thing down really quickly. Then, he got an idea. "If you're worried about being paralyzed, I can let you borrow my coat. It has Paralytic Immunity so that might make this whole thing more palatable for you."

Oscar was quickly joined by Yuki with a message being sent from NIGHT. Oscar didn't have any particular desire to keep the consumable. So it didn't matter to him whether or not he handed it off to her. Yuki, for her part, didn't seem to be at all enthused with the idea of taking on Hebinishu. Apparently there had been some bad experiences in previous attempts at the quest. Oscar did the only thing that he could think to do. He patted Yuki on the head and stooped down to her eye level. "It's cool, Yuki. You're not gonna get eaten. It's gonna be too busy trying to get at me." All that was left to do was to wait on NIGHT. She said ten minutes and, in his experience, NIGHT was always very punctual. So it wouldn't be long now. In the interim, he could try to make Yuki feel better about the situation she was going into. And he did so the only way he knew how. "Would you like an emergency hot dog? Worst case, you can just throw it somewhere if the snake tries to get you and maybe it will distract it."

Oscar had somehow lucked into yet another Reroll Ticket. Rather than continue to push his luck on his jacket, Oscar instead elected to try and make the axe earned by his zombie slaying into a weapon to rival Tesseleth's Fury. It would be quite a challenge considering he had such a long way to go. The Cerberus Etching had been useful in getting rid of the Cursed Enhancement. Now that it was gone, he could take it to Simmone to get one of the damage slots changed. He honestly didn't have very high expectations. But, then again, it would take much to make the weapon at least usable. The stats were rather redundant considering the bonuses that his familiar gave him. Almost anything would be better than damage. Except for Taunt. God he hoped he didn't get Taunt. Oscar strode through the threshold, placing the axe gingerly onto the counter alongside the ticket. "One more try ladies." And then. Finger guns.

Name: Shining Battleaxe Item Type: Two-Handed Battleaxe Enhancements: Holy | Cursed | DMG | DMG Changed to: Holy | BRN | DMG | DMG Item Used: Cerberus Etching - http://www.sao-rpg.com/topic/19485-f09-spyou-light-my-mornin-sky-with-burnin-love/?do=findComment&amp;comment=609312

50,000 Col transferred to Crozeph

The winding mountain path leading up this manor was empty, as per usual. Oscar was able to take in the scenery in peace. He stopped by the stream that he had stopped at so frequently when he was first starting out and splashed water in his face. The cool, refreshing waters washed away the soot and grime from his fight with Cerberus. Once that was done, it took a long drink of water from his cupped hands. The cool liquid soothed his parched and dry throat. He let out a contented sigh and then continued on the path to his home. Once he had returned, Oscar stepped inside and headed for the kitchen. Cordelia was out, she had her own shop to run now. It left Oscar alone in the house for once. He made himself a quick sandwich and a large glass of lemonade. Cool foods that wouldn't feel too heavy while he was still rebounding from the heat. Once he'd finished, he settled into his room for a quick nap. That quick nap would quickly turn into several hours of sleep as he wouldn't wake until the following morning. Thread Summary 8 SP [4 - Quest, 1 - Page, 1 - Bonus, 2 - Mega Slime Farm (next use June 23 2020)] 7,900 Col <<Cerberus Etching>> <<Heart of Zylara>>

Something had reignited Oscar's passion recently. With a goal in mind, however ephemeral and potentially pointless it was, he could really bring his axe to bear against something. He had refrained from taking on the newly-discovered Gatekeeper of Fire simply becuase his heart wasn't in it anymore. But now, with a fire burning in his chest and a new carpe diem attitude, Oscar was ready to leap back in the thick of things. What better way to do that than to take on a reincarnated superboss by himself? Out of all of the rebirthed bosses, Oscar had only received help on one of them. And that was simply because Absolute Zero was an overtuned mess that required nearly a full party of level 40 players to combat safely. This, however, didn't seem to be a an even remotely-similar situation. Oscar was filled with self confidence. And it showed when he massacred the Slimes that had grown in his farm. With that done, he headed into town and teleported up to Floor Nine. <<QUEEN'S HONEY>> CONSUMED +3 DMG <<FOCUSED DOG>> CONSUMED +2 ACC <<EVASION DOG>> CONSUMED +2 EVA -> +3 EVA FROM FILLING BUFF <<KUMATETSU STATUE>> ACTIVATED +1 DMG MEGA SLIME FARM USED - +2 SP TO THREAD

The cool mountain air was just what the doctor ordered. Floor 25 had been a welcome respite from the heat, but there was nothing like being high up in the mountains. The air was thinner and, in comparison to the thick, smog-laden air of Floor Nine, made breathing much easier. To say nothing about the crispness of it. Oscar strode through the town, whistling a giddy tune. He would take the scenic route home today. Stop by the stream to wash the soot that had to be all over his face off. He was beginning to feel a little hungry as well, so his timing was impeccable. All-in-all, Oscar felt very good about today. Not only had he been able to finish off an extremely difficult quest, but yet another Heart had been added to his collection. If he kept this up, he would have all nine of them in a heartbeat. He chuckled at the pun that ran through his head. He could feel an actual, tangible improvement in his mood.

Oscar was able to follow the chalk marks back to the settlement without being set upon by any foes. He knew that he was extraordinarily lucky to have collected two of the Hearts without encountering a single enemy. He didn't delude himself into thinking that such luck would hold out forever. For now, at least, he was happy to have made such headway on his little treasure hunt. Oscar walked back into the settlement with glee, wondering whether or not he should update the old man on yet another successful trip. In the end, he decided not to. It had been quite a tiresome day and the man would definitely know when he had gathered the other seven. No sense bothering him with constant updates that wouldn't really mean anything until the task was done. So, without any further business keeping him here, Oscar stepped onto the Teleport Platform and returned to Deepedge. TRANSITION TO FLOOR 7

Oscar entered the maze, roaming about aimlessly while marking the walls with chalk so that he could find his way out more easily. He didn't know what was worse, the heat or the dark atmosphere of the Endless Maze. After a moment of thought, he settled upon one. It was definitely the heat. He made his way through narrow passageways and meandering corridors before, eventually, he found himself at yet another of the Labyrinth's Safe Havens. Just like the last one, there was a statue holding a large gemstone at the center of the lake. And, again, like the last one he encountered, as he stepped up to the shore, the gemstone rose from its pedestal and dashed across the lake into Oscar's possession. Oscar added the <<Heart of Zylara>> - a massive quartz gemstone - to his inventory and made ready to return to the settlement.