Baldur

"Ahhhh!" Baldur cried out as he suddenly found himself thrown bodily across the beach as a <<Lesser Tauren Striker>> crashed out of the trees, impaled him on one of its horns, and then flung his body more than a dozen meters away.

Immediately Baldur's HP was in the yellow, and he was disoriented. The world was spinning around him.

Get up!

His mind screamed at him, but his body didn't seem to get the message.

MOVE!!!

He could hear the rocks of the beach crunching under the hooves of the mob as it came at him again.

You can't do this to her, MOVE!

He couldn't tell where it was coming from, but he just rolled. There was a WOOSH and CRASH somewhere near his head. His HP meter didn't drop. Slowly, it seemed like an eternity to him, the stars in his eyes seemed to resolve into the face of the Minotaur. It raised it's axe high again, but Baldur lashed out with his <<Sharp Kindjal>> and took the beasts leg out from under it. The <<Lesser Tauren Striker>> moo'ed out in agony and collapsed onto the ground, giving Baldur the precious time he needed to recover.

Rolled a 9 on the d10 (battle) dice.

Rolled a 10 on the d10 (mob) dice.

Rolled a 6 on the d12 (craft) dice.

Rolled a 1 on the d20 (loot) dice

<<Lesser Tauren Striker #3>> 3/7HP - Hits Baldur for 3 DMG (2 crit + 1 weapon)

<<Baldur>> 8/13HP - Hits <<LTS>> for 4 DMG (1 crit + 2 weapon + 1 skill)

Baldur gave her a playful look, "I know if this were the real world we might have to worry about that, but since this is a game and we're in the Town of Beginnings, I don't think anything like that could happen since all kinds of PvP interactions are prohibited."

He cocked his head and made that little confused face he did, "Although, you probably still want to wear some protective clothing, just in case..."

Baldur's smile returned in a flash and he pulled her close, just taking a moment to hold her in their new home as he took it all in.

"You know... I'm kinda tired... maybe we could try out our new bed?"

There was a twinkle in his eye when he looked down at her.

Baldur smiled at the simple room above when she mentioned she wanted to make it a home. With just the bed and chair, it looked a bit barren, but they were just starting out. It was already nicer than most of the places he had lived. He took her hand and squeezed it firmly.

"It'll be our home. I love it, babe."

His grin broadened out as he turned his eyes towards her.

"I know the situation is trough, but together we can get through this. This... this is our home now."

He swallowed hard. He must have swallowed a bug or something. Could you do that in a game?

Baldur watched Tyger hop the desk with a rueful smile as he merely took the long way around it. He hadn't noticed the stair case before.

"It has an upstairs before?" It made sense from a design point of view. Most medieval shops were both the shop and the home for the people within. He supposed he also didn't realize it was a two story building when he came in. Perhaps he wasn't quite as observant as he had thought.

"This is so cool."

He met Tyger at the stairs and gestured at her to walk up in front of him with a playful smile on his face.

As the massive beetle rounded on Baldur finally he held his sword up in front of him, ready to try and parry its mandibles, but the two front most legs of the beetle shot out, grabbing his legs and pulling them out from under him.

"Ahhh!" Baldur cried out as suddenly he saw the sky before a giant beetle maw appeared over him. The mandibles of the beetle bit Baldur in the left arm as he tried to fight the creature. As the beetle savaged his arm on top of him, Baldur brought his sword up from under the beetle, stabbing into its softer underbelly where the head connected to its thorax. The <<Red Spotted Beetle>> made a wet, coughing sound as it suddenly disappeared into light, freeing Baldur from being pinned beneath it. He thanked the designers that they coded that in or he might have been trapped under that disgusting creature's shell.

"Yuck!" Baldur said as he wiped at his face with his left hand before he realized what he was doing. The beetle had tried to eat that hand, but now that the damage points were allocated, not only was his hand not hurting, but it wasn't impaired in any way.

"So weird." He had some sort of phantom pain, as if his brain wanted the limb to hurt, but when he made and unmade a fist, his brain gave up.

The loot window popped up, and Baldur accepted the 35 Col & 2 Mats from the mob before he headed back along the lake in the direction he came from.

Rolled a 8 on the d10 (battle) dice.

Rolled a 8 on the d10 (mob) dice.

Rolled a 12 on the d12 (craft) dice.

Rolled a 19 on the d20 (loot) dice.

<<Red Spotted Beetle>> 0/7HP - Hit <<Baldur>> for 1 DMG - dropped 35 Col and 2 mats

<<Baldur>>  11/13HP - Hit <<RSB>> for 3 DMG

Baldur ran to the side as the beetle tried to turn its massive form around to bite at him, but it couldn't keep up with him. As he ran, he brought his <<Sharp Kindjal>> down on the <<Red Spotted Beetle>> and he felt the sword connect, and saw its HP move, but his blade bounced back, dealing a smaller amount of damage than before.

Was its carapace giving it damage mitigation?

That frustrated Baldur. He stopped his running to try and face off with the beetle. If it's shell was going to absorb his blows, then he needed to go for its squishy parts, like its eyes.

Rolled a 7 on the d10 (battle) dice.

Rolled a 5 on the d10 (mob) dice.

Rolled a 3 on the d12 (craft) dice.

Rolled a 3 on the d20 (loot) dice.

<<Red Spotted Beetle>> 3/7 HP - Misses

<<Baldur>> 12/13 HP - Hit <<RSB>> for 1 DMG (2 Weapon + 1 skill - 2 Mitigation

As Baldur got closer to the outcropping of rocks, he had assumed that the <<Red Spotted Beetle>> was a passive mob, but when he crossed that imaginary line, suddenly the most menacing face he had seen yet sprung to life. The hard carapace suddenly split open and the creature took to the air, flying at him. Baldur had only a second to decide what to do before the giant bug would crush him with a belly flop. Rushing towards the creature, he dove into a roll, coming up behind the beetle.

Quickly spinning about, Baldur brought his sword crashing down on its back just before its shell could close over its meaty bits. The blue light of his slash dropped the creature a sizable part of its HP, but it wasn't good enough to finish the creature. The mobs out here were certainly much tougher than the first floor. He had to be careful about what this one could do.

Rolled a 7 on the d10 (battle) dice.

Rolled a 3 on the d10 (mob) dice.

Rolled a 10 on the d12 (craft) dice.

Rolled a 16 on the d20 (loot) dice.

<<Red Spotted Beetle>> HP 4/7 - misses

<<Baldur>> HP 12/13 - Hits <<RSB>> for 3 DMG

Baldur kept his wits about him as the mob charged him. The creature had lowered its head so that it could hit him with its horns, but that left it exposed at an awkward angle. Baldur rushed at the creature himself, he needed to cut down its ability to respond, if that was even possible. As the got closer Baldur went into a baseball slide, dropping underneath the horns and bringing his sword up and across the Minotaur's leg as he came back to his feet. The minotaur wailed like a cow being tipped over in the mid-west, and then shattered behind Baldur.

"Time to moo-ve on." Baldur laughed to himself as he proceeded along the beach. Up ahead there was a large outcropping of rocks, and what he thought looked like a giant red beetle.

Rolled a 7 on the d10 (battle) dice.

Rolled a 3 on the d10 (mob) dice.

Rolled a 10 on the d12 (craft) dice.

Rolled a 16 on the d20 (loot) dice.

<<Baldur>> HP 12/13 - hits <<LTS#2>> for 3 DMG

<<Lesser Taurus Striker #2>> HP 0/7 - drops 35 Col & 1 Material

Rolled a 6 on the d10 (battle) dice.

Rolled a 5 on the d10 (mob) dice.

Rolled a 8 on the d12 (craft) dice.

Rolled a 14 on the d20 (loot) dice.

<<Baldur>> HP: 12/13 - Hits <<LTS#2>> for 3 DMG

<<Lesser Taurus Striker #2>> HP: 1/7 - Misses

Baldur, now to the side of the minotaur on its axe hand, struck the creature once more before it could turn its rage on him and then leaped backwards as the creature tried to backhand him with the axe. He wasn't quite going to make it in time, but his was able to bring his sword up and catch it on his blade mid leap. The Striker's strength was so overpowering, however, that it flung Baldur back even further down the shore. He landed on one knee and dug his blade into the ground to try and keep his balance.

The <<Lesser Taurus Striker>> roared loudly and then charged at him.

Once he had dealt with his inventory, Baldur rushed down the rocky beach towards the next <Lesser Taurus Striker>, leaping through the air and slashing at the creature. It turned at the last moment, probably hearing the sound of Baldur's boots on the gravel, but it wasn't fast enough. It tried to counter attack, but he was already inside its guard and and his saber struck the creature as its reach prevented it from landing a good hit on him.

Baldur squared off against the creature in his fencing stance. He wasn't sure if this was the best approach, but he was unused to fighting axe wielders with superhuman strength.

Rolled a 6 on the d10 (battle) dice.

Rolled a 3 on the d10 (mob) dice.

Rolled a 5 on the d12 (craft) dice.

Rolled a 14 on the d20 (loot) dice.

<<Baldur>> HP: 12/13 - Hits <<Lesser Taurus Striker #2>> for 3 DMG

<<Lesser Taurus Striker #2>> HP: 4/7 - Misses

The minotaur snorted and cried out in pain as it brought it's axe down on Baldur in an overhead strike, but he was ready and braced himself, taking the blow on the strong part of his sword and shunting it off to the side where he could follow up with a quick riposte to the Minotaur's upper arm. The creature made a strangely cow-like cry of pain and then shattered. Baldur took a breath, but he saw another one several yards down the banks of the lake. It hadn't quite seen him yet so he quickly glanced down at the loot dropped by this mob and smiled.

35 Col and 2 Mats

Tyger would be happy after this run. Hopefully she'd had enough to keep her busy. She said two attempts a day, and that was a lot of mats over the coarse of a week.

Rolled a 10 on the d10 (battle) dice.

Rolled a 2 on the d10 (mob) dice.

Rolled a 11 on the d12 (craft) dice.

Rolled a 19 on the d20 (loot) dice.

<<Lesser Taurus Striker #1>> HP: 0/7 - drops 35 Col and 2 mats

<<Baldur>> HP: 12/13

Baldur could finally see the lake shimmering in the distance as the trees began to clear apart. It was a glorious sight, not only because it meant he hadn't gotten himself lost, but because it reminded him so much of camping with his family when he was young. The rocky shore of the lake, and the mountainous terrain made him remember all those nights camping up at the high mountain lakes area. Fishing for dinner on the canoe, building camp fires, hiking through mountains with incredible views. This game really was its own world, if only it hadn't turned into this game of death he might have never wanted to leave anyways. This world was so huge, and detailed, perhaps the only way someone could truly experience what this floating castle could offer was if it truly became its own reality by trapping them here. What did the 'real world' have to offer them anyways? Here, in Aincrad, a sword could take you anywhere you needed to go.

He heard a crash off to the side and saw something truly disturbing. A <<Lesser Taurus Striker>> was truly an assault to the eyes. The overly muscular body wore only the minimalist of underwear and some leather straps across its chest. Baldur wanted to look away in disgust, but the creature was coming for him with a heavy axe held in one hand. Baldur's sword was in his hand in an instant, but he was too slow to parry the powerful blow forced him back a step. The creature was powerful, but slow and Baldur was able to bring his saber back around before the creature could bring the one handed axe around to parry.

With a lightning quick flash of the blade, Baldur struck the creature straight through its chest with a lash that would have disemboweled a person in the real world. Here in Aincrad, it just dropped the creature's HP into the red.

Rolled a 10 on the d10 (battle) dice.

Rolled a 7 on the d10 (mob) dice.

Rolled a 12 on the d12 (craft) dice.

Rolled a 7 on the d20 (loot) dice.

<<Lesser Taurus Striker #1>> HP: 2/7 Hits <<Baldur>> for 1 DMG

<<Baldur>> HP: 12/13 Hits <<LTS>> for 5 DMG (2 crit + 1 skill + 2 Weapon)

As Baldur spun away from the <<Wind Wasp>> he lashed out with his sword, continuing the motion so that he ended up behind the bee. His saber sliced through the bees wings and he watched its HP meter drop as the creature fell to the floor and shattered into innumerable rainbow colored polygons. Unfortunately the creature didn't drop him anything other than some materials. He supposed he shouldn't consider that 'nothing' now that Tyger ran a forge. They would be able to take these materials and craft them into something much better than these mobs were likely to drop. There were some quests that had good rewards, and probably some of the mobs in the dungeons themselves, but crafter was the safer bet, plus she could pick and choose which bonus they wanted which would help them have a more synergistic build.

Leaving that spot alone, Baldur proceeded to head down that path that he hoped wasn't imaginary in the direction in which he hoped to find the lake.

Rolled a 10 on the d10 (battle) dice.

Rolled a 7 on the d10 (mob) dice.

Rolled a 12 on the d12 (craft) dice.

Rolled a 7 on the d20 (loot) dice.

<<Baldur>> HP 13/13 - Hits <<Wind Wasp>> for 5 DMG (2 crit + 1 skill + 2 weapon)

<<Wind Wasp #1>> HP 0/7 - Drops 1 Mat

Baldur left the town behind, Ahead of him, he found a curving trail heading down from the large crater the city was situated in. The trail was almost too steep for him to feel comfortable traversing, but he reminded himself this was a game and even if he fell, it would quickly be to the next level of the switch back. After a few turns, it started to widen out and Baldur felt comfortable as the more room he had the less his Acrophobia bothered him. He had never had that sensation in video-games before, though he had heard of people using VR to treat similar phobias.

Eventually the path widened out to the point where Baldur felt comfortable jumping from level to level instead of taking the path. When he discovered that it didn't hurt to land, as long as it wasn't far enough to take damage, then it was actually kind of fun.

Once at the bottom of the mountain, Baldur found himself in a sparse forest. He had seen a lake on his way down and he figured he would try to make his way there as a landmark. It would help him flesh out his map of this floor.

As he jogged happily through the forest, noting that the BGM changed now that he was away from the town, he heard a buzzing sound.

Quickly drawing his sword, he spun on his heel to face his attacker, as <<Wind Wasp>> It was a giant wasp, but was still only perhaps half a meter, which meant it was about the size of his torso.

The buzzing of the wings brought back bad memories of Baldur's encounter on the lower level with a pack of the bees down there, but at the moment, he only heard one set of rapidly buzzing wings.

"Alright bug-brain, you're going down!"

Baldur rushed the creature, slashing his sword diagonally across its center of mass, hoping to knock the wasp down out of the air, but the trail of blue light only slice through the wasp, not knocking it anywhere. The <<Wind Wasp>> seemed to be in the red now, did it have HP that low, or did he hit some kind of weak point? He'd have to figure that out.

The <<Wind Wasp>> straightened its body and opened its mandibles as it tried to take a bite out of him, but Baldur threw up his <<Swordsman's Cape>> and spun away from the wasp.

Rolled a 9 on the d10 (battle) dice.

Rolled a 3 on the d10 (mob) dice.

Rolled a 7 on the d12 (craft) dice.

Rolled a 19 on the d20 (loot) dice.

<<Baldur>> HP: 13/13 - Hits <<Wind Wasp>> for 3DMG (1 skill + 2 Weapon)

<<Wind Wasp #1>> HP: 4/7 - Misses

Baldur smiled proudly at Tyger, his blue eyes dancing in the fire's light until she shut down the forge. She seemed to be finding her stride. She stood straighter, she walked with more purpose Now he needed to find his.

"Well then, I'll see about farming some mats. I think I could do wolves pretty safely now."

He smiled at her and took one more look around the forge.

"This is really impressive. I can't wait to see what you can make."

Baldur watched her start the forge up and nodded his head in thought.

"Are perfect items that much better than what we have?"

He pulled up the menu again and examined the drops they had received so far. The status for the items he currently had equipped was "uncommon." He supposed in typical MMO speak this would be a green quality item, these 'rares' he had heard about were probably blue, and then 'perfect' quality would be a purple. If she could craft purples for them, that would be huge!

"What can I do to help, other than gather you more mats?"

He held his hands out to the forge, impressed that there was a sensation of heat coming off of the forge. This game never seemed to stop impressing him.

With a flash of light, Baldur found himself on the Second Floor town of Urbus.

The town felt very distinct from the first floor. The buildings were all much more uniform and made out of a brownish stone. The NPCs all dressed in a way that didn't necessarily seem different, but none-the-less felt that way. What he did notice, however, was the new BGM. It felt... refreshing. At some point in time he had just blocked out the first floor background music. It had taken months to clear the first floor, but you can only listen to the same couple of songs on repeat for so long before you either blocked it, or went mad.

He didn't realize just how much a new background music track would him feel lighter.

From the teleport gate, Baldur walked North towards where he expected to find the city gates. He wanted to see this floor for himself, to explore it and find out what kind of mobs lived on this floor. He had been bound to the first floor for so long he thought it would drive him mad. A change of scenery, a change in music was like a salve for his soul.

As he passed through the gates, he realized that the town seemed to be situated on the top of a giant mesa in what appeared to be a kind of... crater. It was an interesting design decision. It made no sense in the 'real world' kind of geology, but that's another thing he loved about these games. The fantastic geography and impossible in life setting just set his imagination on fire. So many games in America had been too rooted in making it look like a 'real world' that they lost that sense of artistic freedom and joy. He stood there at the edge of the town, looking out over the rest of the floor, and just smiled.

Baldur walks over to the pile of materials and taps his menu a few times pulling up his inventory. Selecting his materials, he pulled them out and put them down on in the corner with the others she had arranged there.

"Here you go! My contribution to your success." He smiled at her, proud of her and himself as 7 new materials lay in a pile.

"Hopefully they're all something you can use."

He turned back to her and the forge and walked closer to inspect it. He tried tapping the forge, but apparently since he wasn't the owner, he couldn't pull up the menu for it.

"What is crafting like in this game? Is it pretty easy?"

Baldur smirked at her joke about the tiger stripes in his armor, but he wouldn't put it past her.

"Maybe you could etch a magikarp somewhere on all of your armor as your mark?" He rubbed his chin in thought, imagining some burly two-handed axe wielding machismo wearing armor with a little Magikarp on the back of a shoulder plate.

"That, or one of those cute little tiger faces you used to always draw on restaurant receipts." He smiled at the memory.

His blue eyes took in everything about the shop, committing it memory. Many of the shops started out cookie cutter, and so it was up to the player to make it stand out on their own. The Town of Beginnings was huge, and if you didn't make yours unique, it was just one of any other hundreds of shops.

"The forge? Heck yea!"

Baldur smiled broadly at her and then gave her a playful hipcheck.

"Well! Show me around! Tell me your plans! I want to witness your vision."

He put his arm around her but let her steer him through her shop.

"Is your trademark gonna be that all your armor is tiger print? Cause I love you, but I don't do tiger stripes." He smiled at her playfully.

Baldur smiled when he recognized her quote. He bumped her with his shoulders and countered with another.

"We could be heroes!"

He put his arm back around her as she led him into the shop.

"I can tell this is something that's going to be great! You're one of those people that finds something they want to excel at, and then do it!" His grin split his face from ear to ear.

"Whatever I can do to help you, just let me know!"

He let her lead him through her shop, his eyes absorbing everything with pride.

THREAD REWARDS

20 Posts - 400 Col

Wolf #1 - 1 Mat

Wolf #2 - 1 Mat

Wolf #3 - 30 Col & 1 Mat

Wolf #4 - 30 Col & 1 Mat

Wolf #5 - 30 Col & 2 Mats

Giant Boar - 30 Col & 1 Mat

Total: 

7 Materials

520 Col 

1 Skill Point

Shopping. That's one way to get things off your mind, right?

Baldur walked around the market district. Many of the shops were closed due to it now being evening, but at least he was getting an idea of where the shops they needed to go were. Health Potions. He would definitely start there in the morning.

"I really need to bring here these materials so she can make me some good armor. Good armor sounds really important to me right now."

He smirked at his own joke until he saw an inn. Only this one had something he hadn't heard in all their time so far.

Music.

Tyger would love this. He wanted to go and get her, to share this moment with her. She was musician to her soul, and he was certain she missed it. Were there musical skills in this game? He didn't know. He walked into the inn's common room, the muddy yellow light washing over him as he pulled up an empty seat at a table and listened to the musician. When he sat down, his fatigue overcame him more than he realized. He leaned his head on his hands as he closed his eyes and listened to the music. He didn't sleep, he just... let all the stress wash off of him to the sound of song, music, and the babble of conversation.

As the Town of Beginnings resolved into view around him, Baldur felt a sudden surge of relief. He was safe here, there was nothing that could kill him save jumping off the edge. No one could even throw him off the edge, as the conduct system would intervene for anything more than a gentle playful nudge.

There were still emotions there, welling up within him.

Baldur quickly rushed out of the main square where everyone gathered to use the teleportation gate and found an abandoned alleyway somewhere. He rushed down it until it dead ended and he could lean his back against the wall. It was night time so this deep into the alley no one should be able to see him.

There was more dust. Who knew this game could be so dusty.

Taking several deep breaths, Baldur tried to calm himself, to calm his nerves and find that steel within. He wasn't close to dying, he told himself. It was only the yellow. They had been closer than that the first day.

But he had had Tyger with him, and between the two of them, they seemed invincible. By himself he was mortal, able to be killed, and that was a scary though. He had always been so confident his ability with a sword, and he had been doing so well against those wolves... but one wrong turn could get you so close to death. That threat was so much more real to him now.

He looked up into the corner of his vision at his health bar.

"Well, I can't go home and see her like this, she'll freak out and get emotional... I gotta let my health regen first." Straightening himself out by standing upright, he walked out of the alley and into the Town of Beginnings.

Several minutes later Baldur found himself sitting beside the horse corral again. It was an NPC that owned the horses. Baldur realized he didn't know if there were mounts in this game or not. It would be pretty awesome if there were.

"So I think I did it." The horse gave him a long-suffering look.

"I think I got back on the horse..."

The horse whinnied in protest.

"Okay, so that was a poor choice of words, I'm sorry. My point is, that I found my confidence again. We just have to find someone who can cook."

The horse nickered and stomped one of its hooves onto a stone in what Baldur could almost believe was a clapping sound.

"Thank you! I know, it was an impressive feat. Hey, so can horses eat bacon?"

The horse just looked at him without replying.

"Well, you know, bacon is pretty awesome. I'm sorry you've never had any before, but you're gonna have to ask the farmer about that."

Baldur stood up and reached over the railing to pet the horse on the nose. It amazed him how accurate that feeling was to the real thing. He could have done with a less realistic rendition of the smell of manure though.

"I'll talk to you later, Big H."

Baldur walked back over toward the giant teleportation gateway near the center of town which would take him back to the Town of Beginnings, or out to any other floor he wanted. For now, he wanted to go back somewhere safe.

"Town of Beginnings." He called out, and felt the world flash away in a bight light.