Reytac

Reytac rubbed his eyes, feeling the strain of staring at the schematics and testing his materials and jury-rigged examples. This was, actually, easier to put together than a full hwacha would have been - he was able to use wood for the main construction material, easily sourced from any of the forests, since without explosives or flames, the tubes didn't have to be made of metal to withstand heat to prevent warping. This did have the downside that, because it was wood, repeated firing would eventually start to cause cracks to form and the weapon would have to be replaced. But that time frame w

What Reytac created was a wooden frame, five slots wide and five slots high. Each row would have a reinforced tension line running through, from about a third of the way from the back end where the operator would be working. Reytac had settled on this because even with the better materials that he was able to test, that was the limit that they could handle. A sight better than their real-world equivalents, thankfully, but still not as grand as he had wanted. The front side of the weapon was left open - for one person, or preferably, a team - to load the arrows, quarrels, into the ‘tube.’

Something to turn the tides of a battle. That meant, something that could affect many people at once - a deterrent or a force multiplier. Not something that would only affect one person, that wouldn't be good enough here. Reytac took a deep breath and exhaled as he thought about options. Arrows to black out the sun. The thought came to him, unbidden, and he focused on it, chasing the idea. He wouldn't be able to make one of the actual tools that caused the saying he was thinking of - he didn't have access to explosive powder. But - there might be a way to do it with tension and pulleys, espec

”There is a workshop. Messenger, take the Traveler to where he can work undisturbed. Dismissed.” Ares’ booming voice pulled Reytac mostly from his thoughts, and he blinked as a Satyr took him by the arm and led him off down a hall, to an ornate workshop. The walls were lined with tools of various kinds, with tables with saws, clamps, vices, and presses all over the room. It was a beyond fully-furnished workshop, and Reytac's fingers twitched, itching to use it. But he wasn't here to just ‘use’ the workshop. He had a challenge before him, a test. He'd been wanting to push and try the limi

”Ah.. Thank you for the honor, Lord Ares.” Being respectful to the digital deity who could probably wipe him from the game in seconds seemed like a safe bet for Reytac. He gave a slight bow, which made the giant before him nod once. ”I come in response to a challenge?” Which, to be fair, was something that should worry him. The Greek gods did not have the best track record of being gracious when their challenges were bested - just look to Arachne. Reytac watched as the blood-red tuft of bristles atop Ares’ helmet bobbed as the god nodded once, sharply. ”Indeed. As one of the architects o

Reytac stared, unseeing at first, as he made it to a set of stark white marble columns. There was no gate between them, so it wasn’t the pearly gates, but he had been concentrating so hard, for so long, on climbing the mountain that he had honestly forgotten why he was doing it. ”Traveler, you’ve arrived. You’ve got some determination about you.” Rey blinked, confused, until the Satyr bounced past him through the columns, then waved over his shoulder. ”Come along, dear traveler.” Reytac stepped past the columns - and then his head hurt for a moment as everything around him blurred him for a mo

”You know, no one is going to judge you for taking some time, traveler.” The piping voice of the Satyr came from beside him, and Reytac blinked as he looked over his shoulder. This was the first time that his guide had spoken in - Rey didn't actually know, how long it had been since they started climbing the mountain. He’d almost forgotten the goat-man was with him. The brunette narrowed his eyes before shaking his head sharply, and putting one foot in front of the other. ”Not a chance. I’d judge myself. I am not going to stop til I make it to the gates.” The Satyr studied him for a moment

This was, Reytac had to admit, the first time that he actually regretted wearing leather armor instead of just plain cloth armor. Even as little as he wore, the leather on his body was trapping heat against him, and he could feel sweat stacking up beneath it, soaking into the clothes he wore. Normally this wasn't a problem, as he could normally just pull his equipment off and cool off some. But even though the Satyr - who Rey noticed was following along behind him at a sedate pace, looking like he was having no issues whatsoever - had said there would be no threats, Rey didn't want to take a c

The brunette man took a deep breath and ran one hand through his hair, his fingers ruffling through the locks as he looked upwards and upwards. A wry smile twisted his lips. The Satyr had helped him get here, crossing much of the floor in the blink of an eye, but apparently wouldn't help here. But - from what he remembered, that was also the case in Greek mythology. There, the gods had lived on a normal mountain, but the number of Grecians who had actually climbed that mountain numbered in the single digits. So he was just following in small, rarefied footsteps. After a quick check to make sur

They reached the base of a large mountain and Rey looked up, and up, to see it stretch out of sight into a cloud-bank. He gave a slow nod as the Satyr stepped in front of him and clapped his hands together sharply. ”We are almost there, traveler! Now you just need to climb Mount Olympia. Final little ‘right of passage’ as it were. Once you're at the top, well, geography isn't going to work like you're used to. You'll be taken straight to Lord Ares’ domain, where he will address you. Mind you to be respectful there - you might be a traveler, but Lord Ares is a deity. Far beyond you.” With that

”Oh, enough of this talk of professions. You're here, and hopefully you're the first of many to come. Now, then - this way, traveler, this way.” Now, Reytac knew that something funky was going on with their little jaunt through the floor. The Satyr hadn't given him a chance to try purchasing a horse for travel, instead dragging him along on foot. And yet, the gate that they had left through was already a decent distance behind them in the space of only a minute or so. His erstwhile companion seemed intentionally oblivious as he nattered away to Rey, keeping up an almost running monologue about

”Well hello there traveler! It's always so wonderful to see another of your ilk answer the challenge! Come, come, follow me, right this way!” Reytac had to stop himself from doing a double-take as he stared at the person that had come up and taken his arm, and was now pulling him through the city streets. It was an NPC, and friendly - and non-human. More nonhuman than elves were - this was a satyr. The figure wore a loincloth to keep himself decent, and had a set of pan pipes hanging from a belt that was wrapped loosely around his torso, and even as he pulled Rey along through the safe city, h

Reytac followed the trail through the forest of the floor he was on, back to the safe haven - to the teleport plaza, in fact. Which made sense, as the quest was taking him high up, to the 17th floor. He rolled his shoulders and took a deep breath. He'd been laser focused on his crafting for a bit, and hadn't thought about socializing with people for a few… Days? A week or two, maybe? He wasn't sure. Time was very sketchy in this blasted game. It'd been a while. So being around other people was jarring. He hurried through the teleport plaza as quickly as he could, ascending upwards to the targe

After fully reading the challenge email, Reytac realized that a quest box had appeared next to it, confirming his suspicion that this was a system-event of some sort. He read through it to see the reward, and his eyes widened. The reward was an item that would make his engineering crafting smoother? His fingers twitched and his lips curled up slightly - there was no way he could turn this down. He was trying to stock a shop, and grow and test the bounds of what his profession could do - something that made him better at that was music to his ears, honey to his mouth. He took a deep breath,

Reytac stared at the message icon that had been blipping on his inbox page for a while now, unsure what to make of it. He had glanced at it when it first came in, confused, and put it out of his mind. At the time, he had been in the middle of working on his engineering, and the message had come in at nearly the same time as his first rank up. He'd almost entirely forgotten about it since then, but now that he had slowed down for a moment, he was staring at it. It almost taunted him - his message inbox was mostly empty, sparse messages from Mari when he'd spoken with her, but other than that he

Reytac let out a laugh, his eyes crinkling up. "I don't necessarily need a 'better' companion. That can be a trap, thinking there's someone or something 'better' out there. Sometimes, it's just about finding the right one. That applies to people too. And thank you for keeping me company - I have a feeling Searching for these ravens could get lonely if I did it long enough by myself." One hand reached out and scratched the raven under his jaw, and the bird let out a little trill before leaning into the scritch. After petting the raven with a murmur of thanks to Cascade, Rey scanned around, unti

"Huh? Oh, no Miss Cascade, you're fine. I just - would never think of myself as that, so it's surprising you did." Reytac reached out again to try to pick up the bowl of Familiar Food, to try luring the raven back towards him - only for it to crouch down and take off, flapping over his head swiftly. Hazel eyes followed d the bird flapping away, before Rey reached up and pinched the bridge of his nose. He didn't know if he'd moved too swiftly, or if that particular raven just didn't like the smell of the Familiar Food from the Tamer. Whatever the cause was, he was left companion-le

Reytac paused and looked at the two women who had come up talk to him, his eyebrows raising to his hairline as he blinked in surprise. Just judging from their gear, both of these ladies were immensely stronger than he was - way beyond what was normal down here. One looked like she could be nicknamed 'Mordred', clad in pitch-black plate armor, her spear in a loosely ready position even now when she was relaxing, her ornate shield covering most of her figure just as a matter of course. The other could very well have been her counterpart, clad in gleaming silver armor with a blue-wrapped hilt pe

Reytac blinked, confused. He looked down at himself, then up towards where Cascade was standing, then back down to himself, his brow furrowing in consternation. "Me? Intimidating? What?" That came so out of left field to him that Reytac actually needed a moment to process that she was being quite serious when she'd said it. He frowned and looked back towards the bird, which had hopped away from him when he'd spoken. Well, he still wasn't able to do the tame, so who knows, maybe she was right? But seriously, intimidating? Him? After watching the raven flap its wings again and bounce away from

Reytac blinked once, then twice and tilted his head to one side, then the other. "I know that there's something to do with fae on one of the floors that has to do with the faerie king? I saw that one had been a a floor boss, so might still be something there." He'd heard about that one a while ago, but didn't remember what the floor that was on had been. One of the many he hadn't been to just yet, probably. He sipped on his canteen again as he listened to her talk then closed his eyes. How did you know if you were ready to marry? "I .. bear with me here. I may ramble a bit. But - there i

Reytac looked over his shoulder to see that Cascade had managed to actually pull of her tame, and was now cuddling the raven that had approached her, petting it and playing with it lightly as she got used to it. Some of the guarded nature of her face had faded, her eyes lighting up with wonder as she interacted with the small bird, and Rey let out a soft chuckle before turning his attention back to his own taming 'opponent'. The raven that had approached him was still turning up its beak at the Familiar Food that he had set out, fluffing its wings and hopping around the bowl to approach

"It'd be nice to see something that isn't just more trees. I feel like, that's nearly everything I've seen here? I know there's a desert floor, but I skipped it on accident. I saw the snow floor - floor four, I think? But.. It was just a snowy forest. More. Trees." Reytac snorted and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He turned to ask the bartender for a glass of water to go with the alcohol, pausing, when he remembered that there was no one here but the two of them. That the alcohol that they were putting into their systems was just there with no source. He exhaled, and pulled a water canteen ou

From the corner of his eye Reytac could see another corvid shuffling forward, hopping towards where Cascade was, but his attention was on the raven that had approached him. Carefully, he pulled his hand to his inventory and pulled out the bowl of Familiar Food that the beast Tamer had given him. He spun the lid open and set it down on the ground between him and the large raven, which fluffed its feathers as it looked down at the offering, then back up to him. Caw. The sound was almost dismissive, but the bird didn't leave, yet. Instead it hopped around a little, stari

ID:255129 CD:5 LD:4 Salvage, Fail EXP +3 (+1 CAT) ; - 1 Material ID: 255130 CD:1 LD:11 Fail, EXP +2 (+1 CAT) ; - 1 Material ID: 255131 CD:8 LD:18 Uncommon, LD Success: +2 Uncommon IDs 255131, 255131-1, EXP + 4 (+1 CAT);- 1 Material ID: 255132 CD: 3 LD:5 Fail, EXP +2 (+1 CAT) ; - 1 Material ID: 255133 CD:4 LD:13 Salvage Success, EXP +3 (+1 CAT) no mat change Fusions: IDS 255131 + 255131-1 into Rare: 255134 _______________ End results: Unfinished IDs: Rare: 255134 Materials - 4

Reytac spun his new hammer around and back up onto his shoulder, whistling under his breath. The new weapon, one of the amorphous blobs of potential that he's been given by Mari from the snowy wolves, had been appraised by one of his guild mates - he really did need to interact with him more, getting the other man's help had been the first time he'd actually talked with any of them. It had ended up being a solid hammer - a bit lacking in raw damage compared to his Initiate's, but it traded that for the first DOT equipment that he'd gotten his hands on, and while it was amusing to think of a ha