___

[7028] 6 - 5 - 16 - 7

[___] 12/13

[Wind Wasp] 2/7

She picked up the pace and ran after a wind wasp that was hovering rather low, while keeping her train of thought. If he was right about them being such a strong group, then is it even feasible that I try to fight all the Wind Wasps and Queen on my own? There was a chance that it was even more powerful than everyone was gossiping about and what if it had something like paralysis? She was only a level 5 at this point, which meant she couldn't take many hits before suffering the consequences. She'd give it some heavy consideration while fighting the wasps as she brought the next Wind Wasp into battle.

[7027] 9 - 2 - 16 - 4

[___] 12/13

[Wind Wasp] 0/7 ... +1 material, +35 Col

As programmed, it flew back down, repeated the same formula attack and fell prey to her swift rapier, "Two down, ninety eight to go..." She shrugged her shoulders, having to slay even a hundred, which the boy had exclaimed was the minimum number of wind wasp kills required, was going to take all afternoon and night. Plus, she didn't even have a partner, let alone a group like the original founders had. Speaking of which, that brought another important piece of thought to her mind, "Wait a minute... Maybe this isn't such a good idea to fight a field boss on my own." After all, little was known about it.

[7026] 2 - 12 - 14 - 10

[___] 12/13

[Wind Wasp] 2/7

At least, she thought she was going to be having a field day. She readied herself for the next swoop, but she missed as it slowed itself down. It got her right in her chest and inflicted a single point of damage, "Guess these things aren't all that weak." It wasn't much of an improvement of difficulty, but it was nice to know that she needed to be careful and keep an eye on her health. Speaking of keeping an eye on things, she looked around to check to see if a swarm had formed yet. Luckily, it hadn't because she would be vastly outnumbered and outpowered pretty quickly if that was the case.

[7025] 8 - 11 - 2 - 9

[___] 13/13

[Wind Wasp] 2/7

She didn't have to chase down another as one witnessed the end of his fallen comrade. It rushed down and struck her in the side as she tried to jump out of the way, landing a blow, but in return, she was able to strike it while it was still within close range itself. She took a step back and it flew up before she realized what had happened, "Wow, I didn't take any damage from that?" She couldn't believe it, armor and skills made quite a noticeable difference. Between her ability to one hit KO these mobs and absorb all their damage, she was going to be having a field day here.

[7024] 10 - 7 - 4 - 4

[___] 13/13

[Wind Wasp] 0/7 ... 1 material

The Wind Wasp was extremely quick, more so than any of the other monsters that Red had encountered in the game thus far. The boars, wolves, and even the snake was slow as molasses compared to this. Where there was a will, there was a way though and she had the will to meet the Queen herself. When the Wind Wasp flew down close enough, Red had the opportunity to strike and did so, landing a critical hit and slaying the wasp in a single strike, "Wow, that'd make it pretty easy if I could kill these things in a single hit." If she did, then it would be no time before she encountered the Queen.

[7023] 1 - 1 - 6 - 2

[___] 13/13

[Wind Wasp] 7/7

Without wasting any more time, she took her exit and began heading towards the wind wasps. Obviously, the fact of the matter came down to whether or not these rumors were even true to begin with. If the boy was lying about it, which she could only assume, that meant she'd have to use the rumors as her lead. However, the boy sounded like he was recycling them himself. She'd just have to take a first hand account on what was bound to happen. Once she made it there, she got right to work on farming some Wind Wasps to bait the Queen's appearance or, at the very least, make her way into the hive.

"Oh, but that's not all, ladies and gentlemen. We then met the Queen," cue the expected shocked gasps of the crowd, "I've already told you about her, but we beat her, nice and easy. We're a strong group and I'm a great leader, if I do say so myself." Red could overhear someone mutter, "Yeah, right. You couldn't even tell us the name of the group..." However, everyone else seemed to believe every word he said, she'd have to take his words for guidance. If that's how it really went down, even if it wasn't him or his group that did it, this was the only lead that she had.

"Now, back to what I was talking about before I was so rudely interrupted." He cleared his throat, acting as if he was of a higher standing, "Me and my group were on our usual hunting run, though we decided we'd farm the wind wasps instead of the wild boars on this floor. After we farmed a good hundred or two wind wasps, everything went silent." As if on cue, everyone that was talking amongst themselves hushed, "There was no humming of the wasps, they were letting us pass into the hive. They watched every step we took until we entered, then the humming picked back up as they flew restlessly around the hive."

Once she could hear him well enough again, it turned out he had stopped describing the Queen itself. Is it really THAT big? I haven't dealt with any monsters bigger than myself before, that's just humongous... He was now referring to the first findings of the Queen, "Yeah, I was a part of the group that fought them. We were-" Though someone blatantly interrupted him, "What was the name of your group?" He avoided the question, "Shut up, I'm telling the people what they want to hear. I'll answer questions at the end, okay bub?" He gave him a menacing scowl and the member of the audience went quiet.

She joined a group of players that were hanging around the NPC owned pub on the second floor, where the Queen was actually spotted. She listened in on their conversation, but a few bits of chatter were missed out since she was in the back and everyone was equally as enthusiastic about it as the spokesman. He raised his hand, pointing high to the sky, "It was about thirty eight meters high! The stinger was at least six meters on its own, it was huge! I couldn't..." The chit chat among the crowd came to an uproar, droning out the spokesman, but he seemed to still be caught up in speaking.

"Sounds good, Kosan." She returned the smile, relieved that she'd have a moment to think about things. As he turned the corner into the room, she looked down, wide-eyed, "Oh, geez, I can't believe I just did that." She was muttering soft enough that nobody would be able to overhear, not that there was anyone else in at the time, "He probably thinks I'm just some awkward girl that doesn't get out enough." She shook her head, "Not that he'd be wrong, but..." She jumped as she heard his voice perk out, stating that he was already done, "Wow, that was really fast." She wasn't nearly that fast at crafting herself, "It looks incredible." She extended her arms out to hold the rapier, nearly dropping it when she felt the heat. It didn't hurt, but it spooked her, "Oh, sorry... Sorry, but it looks exactly what I expected it to. You're really good at this."

"I can't believe I'm actually going through with this..." She wanted to say no, but that's a hard thing to say to a person, especially to one that's helped you out. He's just so... The man was quite a strange one, he looked and acted in a very creepy manner, though he came off with good intentions. Maybe he just has trouble... Sometimes she had trouble communicating something, perhaps he was the same. He had invited her to join him on a quest, one called Avalanche. It had a pretty strong field boss, even more so than the Wind Wasp Queen. I hope he's stronger than he looks. She wasn't sure what level he was, but he certainly came off as if he was rather used to the game. Now, she was simply playing the waiting game, thinking of the ticking tock of the old grandfather clock in the orphanage. It was far more calming than one would believe.

Taking this quest with Kosan.

"Ah..." She took a seat, but she wasn't sure whether it was just a trick to get her to stay or something else, "Okay." He seemed to be thinking it over before he spoke back up, reminding himself audibly that she was a tailor. He turned out to want a deal, rapier for a mask, something that would fit her current financial situation better than Col, "Oh, I uh-" She was surprised, he was trusting this no-name girl with a lackluster shop to craft something well enough that it would make up for such a pricey rapier, "I'll accept the deal." She removed her hand, releasing the grip on the bottom of the chair, then shook his hand to finalize the deal.

It turned out that Ariel would be a bit out of the loop for a while, considering Red wasn't too great at socializing. She figured that they could see her name, forgetting that she had chosen one of the most mysterious names in the game on mistake. Honestly speaking, she had figured it would be a quick ten or twenty minute venture in this place, nothing like this though. Finally, Brayden introduced himself. He was considerably younger and a level higher than her, she was surprised that there were kids so young in this game. Wasn't there an age limit on this? It was kind of scary too, knowing kids were having to fight for their lives here. If he was thirteen, that meant there had to be other younger ones. She didn't like the thought of an eight year old having to survive under such conditions and not being able to see their family, "Well, I believe that covers it. Shall we begin the quest?" She opened up the menu and accepted the quest, "No backing out now..."

He's testing me, isn't he? She hadn't encountered any players like this before so either this guy was high on his ego, typical stalker potential, or just far too awkward to conversate on a business level, "I run the Pins and Needles tailor shop on the fifth floor, it's new..." She would then mutter under her breath, "... and a little messy and not as busy and..." She shook her head, knocking herself out of the embarrasment, "Thank you for asking, but I'll be alright." She gulped, Maybe I am a bit parched... Am I just overthinking this? I don't feel too well... She hadn't even noticed her heartbeat was rising, but she had a mixture of fear and anxiety, she still wasn't used to conversating so casually.

ID: 7139

Shop: Pins and Needles

Item Name: Light Leather Set

Item Type: Light Armor

Item Quality: Perfect

Item Effect: Adds +1 Evasion and +2 Damage Mitigation

ID: 7141

Shop: Pins and Needles

Item Name: Feather Feet

Item Type: Light Armor

Item Quality: Rare

Item Effect: Adds +2 Evasion

Red had been all caught up in the shop, leaving her with plenty of spare time as usual. Of course, she could have spent this time to clean up the shop, but she was a little more interested in working on some more crafts. She opened her menu and went to the shop tab where it turned out that she had a order form pending, "Oh, I can't believe I missed this!" She quickily started gathering her items to craft after responding to the request, [Order Accepted - "This item will cost 1,000 Col upon pickup."] She hopped into the crafting room and after turning out to be highly successful, she'd send a follow-up message, [update! - "Your item is available for pickup!"]

After taking a step out of the room, she'd find another customer was waiting on her. He had heard of her name... or nickname to be exact, which was a surprise to her. She didn't realize how fast word of mouth was in this world, "Yes, that'd be me. We're still working on things, but as of now, I'm charging 1,000 Col for a perfect item, 800 for a rare item, 500 for an uncommon item, and 250 for a common item." She smiled and tilted her head, they were fair prices and better than some of the stores around, "Did you have anything in mind?"

[7139] 1/19 - 7 - 12 (Perfect) - 30

[7140] 1/19 - 8 - 1 (Failure) - 31

[7141] 1/19 - 9 - 11 (Rare) - 36

ID: 7139

Shop: Pins and Needles

Item Name: Light Leather Set

Item Type: Light Armor

Item Quality: Perfect

Item Effect: Adds +1 Evasion and +2 Damage Mitigation

ID: 7141

Shop: Pins and Needles

Item Name: Feather Feet

Item Type: Light Armor

Item Quality: Rare

Item Effect: Adds +2 Evasion

Well, let me start off by stating that you're grossly undercutting yourself. This is some prime stuff and you're taking less money than most shops for actual work (not just a rolled craft). I wouldn't mind paying a few thousand and/or making some items for trade (I'm a tailor). You've got yourself a real talent, if you're willing to do one for me, I'd love to see what we can do. (:

"Aww, thanks." Surely, the name wasn't some sort of comedy gold, but if it brightened up somebody's day, that was good enough for her. There was a bit more reasoning behind the name, but that could only be understood by those that knew her well enough. Unfortunately, there wasn't anyone close enough to her to know such things. Anyways, the customer claimed to be a blacksmith and, much like Red, was new to her chosen profession. Plus unorganized, make that another thing in common. Red noticed the girl's eyes steadily peeking down at the Eye of the Tiger item before she brought it up, "Well, I'm sure you know Col and materials are the two usual forms of payment." She liked sharing the bits of knowledge she learned each day here, but a lot of it was really basic stuff, especially since this was her first MMO, "However, I'm in need of a shield myself and you're a blacksmith..." She raised her eyebrows twice to emphasize the last part.

Well, you could roll for tips (roll of 15+ on the loot die) during your street performance. A more fun and fitting loot gathering option for performers. (:

Equipment: Rapier (+3 Damage) and Red Robe (+2 Damage Mitigation and +1 Accuracy)

HP: 13/13

Base DMG of 5 = 4 (Rapier) + 1 (Weapon Skill)

Base MIT of 3 = 2 (Armor) + 1 (Armor Skill)

Monsters in this thread deal a base damage of 2 (Wind Wasps), 3 (Wind Wasp Knights), 4 (Wind Wasp Queen), and 4 (Wind Wasp Heir). This quest is honestly easier than I was expecting, I bumped up the damage dealt, included some mobs before the boss and added an heir to the end to kick Red out of the nest. Let it be known that the heir would drop normal loot and not the Stinger, figured it'd tie into the respawning field boss part.

Red had heard the rumors about the Wind Wasps recently, though it seems as if everyone had heard about it before her. Some people had claimed that they actually saw the Queen and people were ranting and raving about it in town, but Red wasn't interested in people trying to brag about witnessing it first hand. Half of them were just trying to act cool about it, while the other half were only further altering the rumor to their benefits. It was too much of a mess to worry about, Red just wasn't that socially accepting yet, but she definitely was interested in learning more about the Queen.

The sound of an intruder alerted Red, Who would break into this place? She quickly opened the door of her crafting room and peeked around the frame, only to find a customer instead of someone breaking and entering, Oh, that's right. It's a shop, not a house. She hopped back to the crafting bench and grabbed the Eye of the Tiger item so she could put it on display, then made her way to the counter, but not after making sure to close the door. "Hi there, sorry that things aren't too tidy yet, but Pins and Needles is open for business." She opened the back of the glass counter and placed the Eye of the Tiger inside, "Is there something in particular you need crafted, I..." She rubbed the back of her neck, it wasn't something people wanted to brag about, "I have a bit more free time than I care to admit."

Raeyliff seemed to be pretty similar to the other two members of the party, only introducing himself by his name, weapon, and profession or lack thereof. They all looked like they were fresh starters to the game, hovering within a level of each other, which was certainly a relief to Red. She wouldn't have to rely on them in case something went bad, they were all nearly as capable of each other. Of course, she didn't know their skills or weapon enchantments so maybe it wasn't as balanced as she thought. Not too soon after, the (hopefully) last member of the party showed up. He sent his party request and it turned out he was Brayden as Raeycliff had mentioned, but he had a little... "Um, excuse me. You have a little something right here." She pointed to the right corner of her lip, showing Brayden where to wipe.

I will be taking this quest. ✌