Baldur

As Baldur was no more than a dozen steps out of the clearing, he realized he had made an incorrect assumption, but he didn't have a chance to go back as a <<Savage Ape>> the size of a Gorilla landed next to him. It looked mean, and steam seemed to come out of its nose as he huffed at Baldur, and its fists pounded the earth of the path, leaving fist marks in the dirt.

"Why can't anything just be easy." Baldur said as he quickly drew his scimitar and with a grim determination he threw himself at the giant mob.

"Aiyah!" Baldur kiai'ed, letting out the frustration and fury he felt inside of him. His sword bit deeply into the Ape, but its backhand also connected and sent Baldur flying. Somehow, he managed to land on his feet, but it was more luck than skill. He said another thanks to Tyger for her armor.

[iD: 7397 BD: 8 MD: 6]

<<Baldur>> Hits Savage Ape for 5 DMG

<<Savage Ape>> Hit's Baldur for 1 DMG

<<Baldur>> 8/15 HP

<<Savage Ape>> 7/12 HP

Baldur raised his eyes from the ground after he accepted the quest rewards and looked around the clearing once again. They had fought all over the area, but now he couldn't tell which way he had come from. The path he had been following split here, so now 3 paths ran out of the sunlit barrow.

"Great, now I'm lost too? I knew I should have gotten a teleport crystal."

He thought he remembered the <<Gemin>> leaning there against that stump, which would mean he came from this path over here. He would go down it and see if it looked familiar.

QUEST <<The GEMINI>> COMPLETE

Reward: Extra Skill: Concentration

"Whaaaa?"

Baldur blinked his eyes and then stood his feet quickly, but almost fell backwards over a moss covered fallen tree backed into.

It.... It was a quest? That wasn't player?! I'm not a killer?!

No. Came another voice in his head.

When you struck that blow, you thought he was a man.

Baldur had to concede to his conscience. It may not technically be PK, he wouldn't be flagged orange, but the truth of his actions was still there. He had struck a finishing blow. He was capable of killing, and that truth chilled him to the bone.

Baldur sat there in the silent circle of green sentinels as the light poured down on him, his shoulders shaking as silent, tear-less sobs wracked his body. He had thought this day might come, but he had never thought it would be like this. He had imagined saving someone, or teaching someone villainous a lesson... not... some petty ruffian on the road. Still, what would have happened if he had fought someone else? Someone who couldn't defend themselves as well? What would they have done? The thought brought Baldur some measure of peace, in spite of now knowing he was fully capable of killing someone for no other reason than self-defense.

"I won't ever duel again." Was it some sort of bug? How had it become a duel to the death? He knew that the invite he had gotten said "First Blood."

Slowly, Baldur opened his eyes and saw a window and his eyes suddenly went wide.

Baldur fell to his knees on the ground, the sword falling to his side and he put his face into his hands.

He had killed someone.

He had really done it.

This wouldn't flag him orange, would it? He wouldn't be able to go into town, he couldn't see Tyger. He would have live out here for days until the status went away.

"Oh god, what am I going to do?" He cried out in English.

Again their swords were a flash of crimson and blue, a flurry of strikes filled the area scaring away any birds and warning any other players to stay away. Steel on steel was dangerous. Player against player was worse. What was it when you fought yourself?

The sickly sinister grin Baldur saw reflected on the face of his opponent made him feel queasy. At least in this world you couldn't vomit. As their blades rang one against the other, Baldur began to remember some of his old fencing days. You never watched the blade, that was impossible, you watched the person, but it was more than that, you learned your opponent, what move did they like, what move did they rely on? The fight was very even, only their gear setting them apart. He would have to thank Tyger, as this gear had probably saved his life.

"You can't have her!" He roared out and the pushed forward, throwing his opponent off balance and closed in closer. Relying on his footwork, Baldur closed in and used a move that was half Akido and half Iaido, whirling their blades together and locked until his ended up on top and with a flicker of motion, Baldur's blade sprang up inside of the Gemini's guard and opened his throat. Or it would have if Baldur's azure trail of light didn't instead shatter the man into millions of polygons. The last thing he heard was cruel laughter filling the air.

[id: 7358 BD: 6 LD: 1 MD: 2]

<<Gemini> Misses

<<Baldur>> Hits Gemini for 5 DMG

<<Baldur>> 8/15 HP

<<Gemini>> 0/15 HP 

Baldur and Dark Baldur came together in another clash of furious blows. The blades were too quick to follow, but the cyan light trail following Baldur's blade crashed into the orange light of Dark Baldur's. The sound of metal on metal rang through the small clearing. Suddenly his swing went wide, and Dark Baldur drove his blade home, whittling away more of Baldur's HP and putting him solidly into the yellow.

But Baldur found the upper hand, bringing his own blade around to take the head off of this monster, but just as the blade was about to strike, Baldur pulled back and jumped away.

"I could have had you there. Surrender. You don't have to die."

Dark Baldur had a wicked smile which had never been seen on his face before. It sent chills down his spine.

"You don't have what it takes to kill someone!" Dark Baldur retorted and attacked him once more.

[iD: 7374 BD:2 MD:9]

<<Gemini>> Hits Baldur for 2 DMG

<<Baldur>> Misses

<<Baldur>> 9/15HP

<<Gemini>> 4/15HP 

Baldur tried to roll forward and gain some distance from his skilled opponent. He hadn't fought anything in the game with moves like this. Despite the fact that his life was hanging in the balance, Baldur started to gain his focus, to get his head into the game. This was a sword fight, and his practiced competitive mentality started to kick in. He could fight people, this is what he was used to.

The <<Gemini>> darted forward, striking at Baldur with an overhead blow, but Baldur saw an opportunity he couldn't pass up. Raising his heavily armored arm, Baldur took the blow but batted the sword to the side and drove his own scimitar into the side of his opponent, solidly landing the strike and throwing his twin away from him.

"I will not let you get away with this. I'll prevent you from hurting anymore people."

[iD: 7372 BD: 9 MD: 6]

<<Gemini>> Hit's Baldur for 1 DMG

<<Baldur>> Hits Gemini for 6 DMG (1 base + 2 skill + 2 weapon + 1 crit)

<<Baldur>> 11HP

<<Gemini>> 4HP

Now that each of them knew the stakes and had traded blows, their tempo slowed down and they faced off against one another silently, each eyeing the other.

"Why do you have my form? What are you? NPC or PC?" Baldur inquired.

"You'll have to kill me if you want to find out!

The demon in his skin ran forward. Baldur tried to go low, but his twin used one of the fallen logs to leap off and over Baldur, his sword snaking down to strike him in the shoulder as he spun over his form and Baldur's sword hit nothing but the air.

[iD: 7369 BD: 1 MD: 8]

<<Gemini>> Hits Baldur for 1 DMG (1 base + 2 skill - 2 Mitigation)

<<Baldur>> Misses

<<Baldur>> 12/15 HP

<<Gemini>> 10/15 HP

Holy mother of zeus, what?!

Had he done something wrong? Did he miss something? Was it a bug? How was this a fight to the death?!

Suddenly someone was charging at him. Where did the stranger come from? As the cloaked was thrown free, Baldur saw only his own form on the field of battle in front of him.

"censored" Baldur cried out, he reached for his sword, but he had been so surprised that his footing was off and his doppelganger slashed through him with amazing strength, the only thing that saved him was the amazing armor Tyger had made for him.

Staggering back, but drawing his sword, Baldur cried out in rage and threw himself at his double, their blades clashing together, but Baldur was able to land quickly turn the engagement to his favor and landed a heavy slash on his opponent. The demon had dropped his HP some, but he was still in the blue, his blow, on the other hand, had dropped his opponent into the yellow in a single solid strike.

[iD: 7362 BD: 8 MD: 9]

<<Gemini>> Hits Baldur for 2 DMG [1 base + 2 skill + 1 cirt - 2 Mitigation]

<<Baldur>> Hits Gemini for 5 DMG [ 1 base + 2 skill + 2 weapon]

<<Baldur>> 13/15HP

<<Gemini>> 10/15HP

"Hey!" A voice called out to him as he moved into a section of the jungle where a few trees had fallen down, letting more light than usual filter through the trees and into the cluttered clearing.

"Umm... Hi." Baldur greeted the man, walking closer to him but keeping a safe distance.

"It's nice to see someone else up here. You can get lost pretty easily."

Baldur looked around nervously as the strange man spoke to him.

"Tell you what, fight might in a duel to first blood, and I'll give you some info all the awesome stuff I found on this floor so far."

Baldur thought about it. There was no harm in that, right? People duel this way all the time, that way even an accidental string of crits wouldn't kill someone. He rubbed his chin in thought, he wasn't sure if he trusted this guy, but he had heard that many of the higher level explorers treated map data as more valuable than Col.

"Alright..." Baldur replied hesitantly. The menu for the duel popped up and Baldur hit the accept button. The timer appeared, and a loud tone filled the ear as the numbers counted down from ten. When the number struck one, all the sudden the words "To the death." Flashed about them.

The giant stone columns sticking out of the ground in this jungle gave Baldur the impression that he was out exploring some ancient lost civilization. The trees towering over him with vines hanging down and what appeared to be numerous birds and monkeys flying and leaping about high in the trees. He wondered if with enough throwing skill you could take one out. As far as he knew, no one had tried that yet. The jungle here seemed alive in a way that many of the other floors hadn't. Idly, Baldur wondered about the level design of this place.

It was often the fact that as developers learned and got better with the engine, the stuff they did at the end was much better than what they had done at the start. Considering that this castle had 100 floors, he wondered just how spectacular the upper floors must be. On the package, it showed a giant crimson castle at the top. What would they fight at the castle on the top floor?

The main road out of the settlement quickly degraded to what looked just like a dirt path through a jungle, and a fog that he couldn't see around him began to close up the path at the edge of his vision so that he could no longer see the village. Undeterred, Baldur continued to walk down the path, it seemed easy enough, but the path soon began to snake as it hadn't just a few minutes ago. He thought he saw figured flitting through the trees on his peripheral vision, but he couldn't see anything when he looked closer.

Baldur grinned and made a downward swiping motion with his two fingers to open the menu and then equipped the bracers. As they materialized on his forearms, he smiled and modeled them for Tyger by flexing in the most exaggerated way possible.

"They're great! I guess I'm going to go THAT WAY to look for a quest up on the SIXTH FLOOR, with my new awesome VAMBRACES!"

He really hoped he didn't sound like an American pro-wrestler when he flexed while talking with her, but he hoped it made her smile just the same.

"Someone gave me a tip about some good quests on the sixth floor, so I'm going to go check it out." He half saluted, half waved to Tyger as he stood up and began to head to the door, "I'll bring you back all my mats, and maybe some flowers, too." He then blew her a kiss and pushed the door open as he walked out into the sunlight.

Baldur pushed open the door to the shop and walked in like he owned the place. He didn't, of course, but he did live here, so that had to count for something, right?

"Hey Tyger, are you back in the forge?" He was amazed at how well designed these buildings were. Through a closed door you could only hear the sounds of battle, a knock, or a shout. Granted that was game code and not construction technique, but the effect of it still impressed him as a builder.

"Hey pretty lady, I was just coming by to see if you had been able to make that plus accuracy item for me?" He leaned forward on the counter and tried his best to give her the smolder.

"I also thought maybe you could see these, since I don't really have a use for them anymore." With a two-fingered swipe, Baldur called up his <<Swordsman's Cape>> and his <<Sharp Kindjal>> and selected the <<materialize>> option so he could set them on the desk.

I don't even know where to begin with how wrong and misguided your entire post is, so instead I will treat it with the levity I think was your intention.

The answer is no, if he was meant to be gay, the author would have written him gay.

The Sixth floor.

Baldur stepped up to the teleportation gate in the Town of Beginnings and called out in a nervous voice. "Amazon."

There was a flash of light and then he found himself standing in the central plaza of the main city of the sixth floor.

Amazon.

The village was smaller than he expected, a few small wooden buildings and tents that seemed to double as shops. He could almost see the entire city from the square, since the main road which always seemed to run North to South didn't seem to go very far before it ran between two giant, weather aged stones which seemed to circle the settlement. Beyond that was only jungle. He had heard that parts of this floor were easy to get lost in, but also that it had some great quests. It was for that reason that he came up here.

Also, he had heard that it was populated entirely by women.

But that had nothing to do with it whatsoever. 

Really it didn't.

Baldur shifted in his new armor, and rested his hand on the blade at his hip. It felt natural to him now, having a sword on his hip once again. It felt right. He hated to admit it, but this world felt right to him.

Taking a deep breath, he stared out to the North. "Let us begin."

Baldur just shook his head and laughed. She was working hard for this one. He opened his mouth to continue, but then closed by kissing her shoulder softly. He'd let her have this one.

"As the all-mighty Alpha and <<Orkin Man>>, arbiter of Punic Wars, and lover of Ginger Tygers, I will be benevolent and gracious and let you win this one. Beecause I love you more. And I got a flower to prove it."

He laughed more as he imagined her rolling her eyes.

"I love you so much."

[Thread Complete]

Baldur - 200 Col +1 Skill Point - Gave 15 Mats to <<Tyger>> (post #7)

Tyger - 200 Col +1 Skill Point - Gave Hell Fang and The Golden Night to <<Baldur>> (post #10)

When Tyger riposted with her puns, Baldur couldn't help but admit it was an impressive assault. Thankfully his face was against her back, so she couldn't see his expression.

"Kakakakakaka" He said in order to hold back his laugh. The old school reference of her joke made him smile.

"Bee that as it may, Honey, you would have to comb a hundred pun books if you want to be the Queen of this hive." He let his sentence hang in the air, and then he hugged her again.

He hoped he made her laugh. He loved hearing her laugh. It's how he knew everything would get better. Her laugh was just too pretty for them to die.

Baldur smiled at Tyger as she threw down the glove.

"It's fine baby, that doesn't bugme at all." 

He reached out and grabbed her hand, pulling her over to sit on his lap so he could put his arms around her and leaned his scruffy, dark haired head against her back. It wasn't quite the same as in the real world, but she was warm. Smiling into her back, he squeezed her tight.

"I will admit though, that joke was a real stinger."

"Wellllll....." Baldur said as he moved to sit down in the now vacated chair and put his feet up on the bed, leaning back into the chair and entwining his fingers behind his head. Tyger instantly knew he was about to tell her a whale of a tale.

"The floor has this really weird cow theme going on. Lots of Minotaurs in like... bad 80s BDSM armor. And then bugs. GIANT WASPS. Baby, I had to fight off SO MANY WASPS!" At this point, he began gesticulating wildly with his right hand,vaguely imitating fencing strikes and parries.

"....and then I sliced another one's wings off, and when it fell to the floor it died, and that's how I liberated your flower from the <<Giant Wasp Empress>> and her <<Million Wasp Army>>. It must be a glitch, cause I should be like level 50 after killing so many. And if this game had titles, I'd totally be Baldur, <<The Orkin Man>>."

He smiled self satisfied and returned to relaxing back into the chair now that his whale of a tale had been spun.

I love your style. Once I have enough money to buy Health Potions and a teleport crystal, I'll start saving up for one of your pieces ;)

"Yea we do!" Baldur held out his first to Tyger for her to bump it, and when she did he exploded it. His face was all smiles and twinkling eyes, but just as quickly he put on his serious face.

"Really though, this is amazing!" He thumped his new armor with his fist, satisfied with the metallic ring that followed.

"Have you made your own tiger stripped set yet?" The sparkle was back in his eyes as he reached his hands out and took both of hers and placed them against his chest, pulling her close so he could wrap her in his arms and hold her tight.

He might not have said it, but she could read it plainly on his face. He was grateful to her for this, for giving him the strength not just to protect himself, but both of them. To get out into the world and start making a difference. It was her faith in him, made physical. And his eyes told her how much he loved her for that faith.

Baldur offered Lessa a friendly smile, "It sounds like your friend has a sense of humor. That certainly is one hell of a sword though." He looked up at the light of this world's sun filtering through the leaves of the three she was resting beneath, and the azure sky that absorbed everything else. He wondered how they decided on just what shade of blue to make it. He realized suddenly that he had forgotten to look up at the night sky. Were there stars in this world?

"I suppose, if I was used to the higher floors, that if I wanted somewhere to relax, I would choose somewhere as peaceful as this." Maybe his smile was more compassionate than kind.

He turned his head to Tyger, "Well, I think if you want an orange sword of your own, you're going to have to take up crafting."

Because eventually that would mean there may be as many as 100 forums, and that's crazy, yo

I had this question as well.

I figure the answer must be yes, or else a quest doesn't give you anything that the RP doesn't, so I'm curious as to the official response.