Zandra

There was this new event that Zandra had herd about. But not only that, the event forced them, the players, to craft a bunch of items, from each and every profession. As one of the top, if not the top alchemist, Zandra felt herself forced to contribute to it. She was pretty sure she would be able to finish the required items in time, but another event had hit her memory. What if they reached the limit before the deadline? Would a second step be availbe? To get to know that, she needed to craft as much as possible, as quick as possible. And Raidou, another alchemist, was offering crafters respite for just this cause. She headed to his store where they was visible for anyone to take. She couldn’t see anyone around, but she left a quick message before she headed back to Exellance Elexirium.

+4 crafters respite

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New information have reached Aincrad Trading Post so there will be a change in availble consumables. We will no longer offer you free field rations +2 since they no longer stacks with Overhealth buff and the overhealth is better.

Tl:dr ATP no longer offer field rations +2.

As Zandra had tried to apologise for her stealing the final kill, it made Mari confused at first, followed by a snort. Now it was Zandras turn to be confused. Mari explained that she wasn’t upset for what Zandra did. ‘’What? You think that was, good?’’ she glanced at the spot where the mobs have been a minute ago. ‘’Well, to be fair. Killing these thingies isn’t really something showing that you are better. There will be plenty of better oportunitys for that during the coming quests am I right?’’

It did felt kinda good that Mari as well thougth many off these quests was frustrating, and she wouldn’t do them unless it would make her stronger. She looked down on her black axe with its pulsating, glowing veins. ‘’Yeah, we all need to get stronger don’t we? If I had just been a little bit stronger back then…’’ she said to herself with kind of a sad tone, gritting her teeths.

‘’No.’’ she said and shoke her head. ‘’Can’t think about that now.’’ She looked back to Mari. ‘’So, what is next on the list?’’ she said with a cheerful smile to hide her feelings that had come out of nowhere. But her eyes still showed traces of it.

 @Mari

Zandra raised an eyebrow as the man beside her started with "Aha, don't you-" she looked at him curiously. ‘’don’t I what?’’ she asked. But he agreed that it could work. After the last two months they had spent together and how he was when they met that day with the player killers, she was pretty sure what he was on way to say. But she also knew that it wouldn’t be a good thing to push him. He would be best to let him work on that on his own. Ofcourse she was there if he ever needed to share it. But right now he would have it better if she pretended she didn’t knew about it.

‘’Yeah, lets go for the largest. We are two of the strongest players in this death game, something middle thingie isn’t good enough for us.’’ She said, answering his smile with one of her own. ‘’And invite, the first one that comes to mind is Macradon. Baldur definitely as well. I do have some other that maybe. But let that be a surprise.’’ She then rembered what it was he did when they met a couple months ago, and what some she had in mind was. ‘’How would you be about inviting orange players? That have an orange cursor but have change path and now is green players in behavior and thinking?’’

Zandra felt happiness in her chest as Itzal agreed about having the wedding on the beach. It was, in fact, the same beach where her house have been back before she bought her estate she was living in today. It was the same place where she had got stabbed over thirty times in the chest. As that memory appeared, her face turned sad. But no, that was the past. He wouldn’t do that again. She shaked her head and went back to smiling mouth and eyes. She thougth for a bit, looking at the prizes for the different sizes. ‘’Let us just pick the biggest size, then you can invite whoever you want and I invite whoever I want. ‘’ she did some quick calculations. ‘’Even if going for that, it will only be 6,750 col for the wedding itself.’’ She threw another glance at the menu. ‘’Because we do need food. And then 4,000 more for the rings. So it is just a bit about 10,000. That is fine. What do you say about that?’’ she said and looked at Itzal, waiting for an opinion and answer.

@Itzal

Zandra’s attention was on Mari as she said she was fine. Thou Zandra wasn’t sure that was the case. But she kept quiet for now and let her continue. As she mentioned she didn’t do anything in both fights, Zandra realized what was embarrassing. A faint blush appeared on her cheeks and she scratched her neck. ‘’Oh. Im ehm…’’ she started carefully. ‘’Sorry about that. It is that thru the time in here Ive got kind of a hate relationship to quests where new mobs just keep spawning like that. Wasn’t meant to… Ehm… I don’t know. Sorry.’’ She answered to Mari’s comments with a nervous tone in her voice.

Zandra walked over to where the lich have died and picked up the two statuettes. She investigated one of them as she went back to Mari and gave her the other one. ‘’Yeah, no use letting that get us down. Let us just look forward to the next battle. Here is the statuette.’’ She said with an agreeing tone and handed her the drop.

 @Mari

Zandra was standing infront of the priest that she and Itzal was going to talk to. She gulped as he asked them how he could help them. But before Zandra could say something Itzal answered. She let out a mental sigh of relief. She felt nervous doing this. She had never thought she would get merried. Like, who would merry her? But here she stood, with a man she had started to love and they was going to get merried. As Itzal started, it sounded like he would do the talking, and that was nothing Zandra had anything against. She followed his eyes down to a list with options for the wedding arangments. As she saw the prices, she got surprised. They was very cheap, for a wedding. Even if she bought everything, it would still be cheaper then one of her HP recovery crystals.

She had her eyes still on the menu as she started talking. ‘’It is okay for me to pay for this. It is barely anything. Also, I would like if we could have a beach wedding, rather then in a church. Last summer I held a summer festival on floor 22. It is a beautiful place and you can have the sun set down in the ocean behind us.’’ She looked at Itzal, waiting for his reply.

Zandra had noted down when Itzal mentioned what skill he suggested for her to get. To be honest that was what she had in mind as well. But now she had to focus on something else. Something that was way, way more important then skills and stats. She listened to Itzals reply with her eyes focused on his. She gritted her teeths and Itzal could feel a small tremble in her hands that gripped harder on his shoulders. As he was finished talk she realized she was still holding him. She quikly let go, turned around and took a few steps away from him. He could she her closing and open, closing and open her fists. ‘’That, I agree with. One hundred percent. I have also learned that it is better to follow someone else way if you all follow that way, then you going your own path. That is actually a reason that why I have changed in fights. When it comes to bigger combats, like the labyrinth boss fight, I now only follow. I may think someone elses idea sound stupid, but as long as it at least make a little bit of sense, I will carry out the order. I can’t read their mind so there may be things I haven’t spot.’’ She paused for a bit, looking at the white, fluffy clouds that was travelling across the blue sky. ‘’I wouldn’t follow any order, it depends on the person who say it. Baldur for example, I would do close to anything he says. But if it comes to Anise, even if she is a dear friend, she have so little combat experience, so I wouldn’t follow many of her order’s. Just as an example.’’

 @Itzal

The four warriors that Zandra killed had left the path open for Mari to deal the finishing blow on the boss. If you could call it a boss. In Zandras eyes, it was not more then an annoyance that they needed to get rid of to continue the quest chain. After all, the shadowlings she had slayed was harder to kill then him, and they was there in dozens. Thou she didn’t mentioned it to Mari as the daggerwielder charged the lich. It was in that moment she saw something. Zandra was just going to shout out a warning. But it was to late. A skeleton hadn had grabbed her and made Mari fall. Zandra was just going to advance as tow new warriors appeared infront of her. ‘’For f*** sake. Is this one of these, where they trash will just keep spawning.’’ She in an anooying tone in her voice. ‘’Out of the way!’’ she said and swung her axe, cleaving both of them in a quick swing. Before the attackanimation was finished, she activated her charge skill, bursted forward and dealt a finishing blow to the lich as well. ‘’And stay dead.’’ She said angrily as she spit on the spot where he had exploded. Then she turned back to Mari. ‘’You okay Mari?’’ she asked, still having a tone of annoyance, but not aimed towards her party member.

 @Mari

Mari     [H:0/0/0] - HP 1350/1350  | EN: 132/132 | DMG: 16 +3 for 2/2 turns| MIT: 43 | EVA:3 | ACC: 4  | BH: 67 | BRN: 24 |BLEED: 24 | FLAME AURA: 15 |
Zandra [H:0/0/0] - HP 1785/1785  | EN: 152/174 | DMG: 19 | MIT: 99 | BLT: 72 | ACC: 3  | BH: 88 | BRN: 36 |BLEED: 36 | FLAME AURA: 30 |

Leech Lich             HP 0/250  | DMG 50  | MIT: 25 | ACC 2 | EVA: 0 -DEAD-
Stygian Warrior 5  HP 0/100  | DMG 25  | MIT: 5 | ACC 1 | EVA: 0 -DEAD-
Stygian Warrior 6  HP 0/100  | DMG 25  | MIT: 5 | ACC 1 | EVA: 0 -DEAD-

Rewards:

<<Treant armor>>

Zandra: 13 posts, 3+1=4 SP
Raidou: 12 posts. 3+1=4 SP
Mari: 12 posts, 3+1=4 SP
Macradon: 11 posts, 3+1=4 SP
Zajcica: 10 posts, 3+1=4 SP
Mishiro: 10 posts, 3+1=4 SP
Life: 5 posts, 1+1=2 SP

ATP repair cost: 1,200 col

"This is it! One more hit and they're both finished!" Bahr said as he had dealt another strike at the Nemean lion. And he was right, she only need to land one more exploding catapult to make them both vanish. ‘’Well, so this is supposed to be the terrifying beast. Not that dangerous actually. Or what do you say?’’ she said with a smirk as her black battle axe started to glow. ‘’I guess it is time to land that last hit then.’’ The berserk healer finished and took a few steps towards the cats, no hesitation at all. She knew she was way overleveled for this quest. But it was something that had to be done. Her red eyes was focused on the beasts eyes. Without letting out a sounds, her lips shaped three words. ‘’Now. You. Die.’’

And with those three words, she activated the Explode catapult. Like so many times before, the black mist surrounded the blade, and when the sharp edge cleaved thru the furry skin of the Nemean lion, the smoke flowed into him, dealing even more overkill damage to him. And the lioness met the same fate.

She took a few steps back and placed herself beside Bahr. ‘’So, that is it I guess.’’ She said as the two final enemies exploded into a sea of blue and white crystals, surrounding the two players before they disappeared into nothingness.

Zandra nodded in agreement. Yupp, this quest should be like a walk in the park for the two high leveled womens. In her mind, Zandra had often, and today was one of those moments, wished that there was a way to increase difficulty of quest and in that way increase the reward. But that would probably never happen. She looked down on her axe. ''I guess it is time for you to slay undead again.'' she mumbled quietly to it. Just a minute or two later, they reached the quest area. Four skeleton went out of the river. So this was her enemies. With a quick jog she was in the middle of the group where she unleashed hell with her strongest sword art, the explode cataplt. Her two handed weapon cleaved thru each of the undead monsters surronding her. As the attackanimation was complete, she watched as all the skeletons health bars was dropping at the same rate until they reached zero and exploded. ''Yupp, only the lich left now.'' she said with a smile and thumb up to Mari.

Mari     [H:0/0/0] - HP 1350/1350  | EN: 132/132 | DMG: 16 +3 for 2/2 turns| MIT: 43 | EVA:3 | ACC: 4  | BH: 67 | BRN: 24 |BLEED: 24 | FLAME AURA: 15 |
Zandra [H:0/0/0] - HP 1785/1785  | EN: 152/174 | DMG: 19 | MIT: 99 | BLT: 72 | ACC: 3  | BH: 88 | BRN: 36 |BLEED: 36 | FLAME AURA: 30 |
Stygian Warrior 1  HP 0/100  | DMG 25  | MIT: 5 | ACC 1 | EVA: 0 -DEAD-
Stygian Warrior 2  HP 0/100  | DMG 25  | MIT: 5 | ACC 1 | EVA: 0 -DEAD-
Stygian Warrior 3  HP 0/100  | DMG 25  | MIT: 5 | ACC 1 | EVA: 0 -DEAD-
Stygian Warrior 4  HP 0/100  | DMG 25  | MIT: 5 | ACC 1 | EVA: 0 -DEAD-

 @Mari

''Hmm, what skills I have now?'' she said as she scratched her chin. ''2-handed battle axe, first aid, charge, search...'' Zandra started, counting the skills on her fingers.''...heavy armor, battle healing, howl, energize, quick change, extended mods and energist.'' she said and paused a bit. ''Yupp, that is all I think.''

She listened to Itzal and raised an eyebrow as he mentioned the event where the players turned side. ''Does that bother you? I mean is that the reason you avoid the frontlines?'' Zandra asked the man with a confused mind. She wasnt sure what to think. Not only that. He didnt liked the drama as well. She shoke her head. No, that wasnt the way to approach him. She took a few quick steps so she was standing infront of him. She placed her hands on his shoulder, her crimson eyes looking into his.''That wont happen again. ''There is alot of new players that have joined the front. I have only been figthing with once or twice, but I could see that they wont do that.''

Tree of the winter was standing on the frosty field, the field that had been the end of summer, fall and spring. Would this be the end for him as well? His blue eyes saw three of the warriors charge at him, their weapons cleaving him again and again and again. The red stripes visible on his wooden skin now when there was no bark protecting him anymore. He felt the stun effect leave him and he once again got control of his body. Immediatly he slammed his right branch at the swordsman. Or that was what he intended to do, but there was no arm there anymore. Instead it was a cloud of blue and white crystals that shattered in the wind. He tried to pierce the pinkette with his other arm, but that one as well, was no more. He felt the panic growing inside him. He had to take at least one of them with him. He took two steps towards the orange haired girl, but his legs shattered just like his arms before he could reach her. Now the only thing left of the once mighty Tree of the winter, was his head that slowly fell towards the ground now that there was nothing to held it up. It let out one final scream, rumbling across the field where six human players had succeded with defeating the tree's of the seasons. The blue and white crystals flowed like a giant wave over the players as it slowly faded out into nothingness.

As Tree of the winter was defeated, the temprature started to rise. The frosty field turned into a clear, green grass field as the sun broke thru the clouds and chased them away, leaving a clear blue sky above the players. The painful storm was changed to a mild summer breese. The tall grass looking like waves from the wind. At this time, the black haired guild leader felt the stun effect disapear. Like melted away from the warmth of the sun. She walked up to the players that was still standing there. ''Hi, Im Zandra, the guild leader of ATP. It was me that sent the message. Thank you so much for coming. I cant imagine what the damage would have been if you wouldnt have came.'' she looked back at the guild hall. The huge building was battered on several places where the ents have tried to break thru. Luckily the base was still intact, so wouldnt be that hard to repair. But still, Zandra didnt wanted to even imagine the costs it would take. She looked back on the players. If there is anything I can do for you as a thank you, just let me know.''

Just as she had finished her sentence, a big sign appeared in the air. ''Congratulations!''. It seemed this had been an event, not just some mobs attacking. Infront of each player poped up a reward screen, showing them an item Zandra didnt recognized. ''Treant armor?'' she said to herself. ''Do you know what it is?'' she asked as she accepted the rewards, took out the piece of bark to take a closer look.

-----SUCCESS-----

You have succesfully cleared 'The forest's uprising part 1'. You are now rewarded with:

<<Treant armor>>

A consumable that when used, applies a layer of bark on a piece of armor/shield. The treant armor adds one slot
of mitigation to that piece for one thread. This cant bring the mit above its maximum(3 slots)

--------------------------------------------------

The battle is over and the players have 66 hours(wednesday 18;00 GMT+2) to add an ending post if they so want to before the thread closes and the rewards is handed out.

The tree of winter had succefully stopped the orange haired woman as well as the pinkette to stop moving. And landed hard hits on them as well. The white haired bunny man came on the tree, seemed to try he was safe just because they didnt died. But he would show them, on final strike and they all will beg for him to take their lifes. Thou suddenly, he stopped in his movements when he saw one of the females. She appeared her with raised warhammer. As he saw her, the treant took a step back in panic. He looked from side to side, but didnt saw anything useful. ''Stop! Back away! Dont!'' his deep rumbleing voice shouted towards the charging girl. He saw, almost in slow motion, how the hammer was flying thru the air.

As the hammer made contact with his hardened bark skin, a high wooden crack was herd. It echoed over the field and some snow fell down from tree branches on the forest. The ground even started to vibrate. Then the players could see the reason behind the effects. All bark on tree of the winter exploded off from, him and a rain of wooden sticks fell down over them. A moment later, three huge icicles bursted out from the ground and pierced the beast they was figtihing. The mouth was frozen in a painful scream. The only think that moved was the blue lights that was his eyes that darted from player to player, trying to prepare for what would come next.

rolling and stuff

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Players have 72 hours to reply from now

The three kings was flexing, the players was flexing, everyone on the big field was flexing. What was going on he...

Suddenly Zandra inhalled as she woke up with a bang. She sat up in her big doublebed and breathed heavily. The pillow and quilt was soaked. She felt her body trembling and her skin was shiny by the layer of sweat that covered her. Her head went back and forth as she tried to orientate where she was. Wasnt she on a field just seconds ago? Wherever she was, she wasnt on a field now. But, what had she done on that field? She tried to remeber but suddenly everything was blurry. Except one thing. She had been wearing that schoolgirl uniform. She quickly left the bed. As she rushed to the mirror, the quilt fell down on the floor with a deep thud. When she got to the fullbody mirror her breath started to relax. She recognized the mirror as her own. She was back in her own bedroom. And in the mirror, Zandra was staring back at her. Those deep red eyes, the long, black hair. And the moonlight was reflecting in her smooth sweaty and [-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------censoured------------------------------------------------------------------------------------].

As Zandra sits on her bed, she picks out a teleport crystal, crushes it, and a few moments later exits the warp gate on floor 24. There she heads to the coordinates Baldur had sent. She enters a ferry that takes her across the water. When on the other side she did herd alot of voices. She followed the path to the source of the sound. There was already almost a dozen players present. ''Hi @Baldur'' she said and gave the samuraj a wave. Except those two words she had been totally silent all the way, and she didnt made any try to start a cinverastion now either and her red hood still up, throwing a shadow on her face. 

Zandra nodded as Itzal said capping level at eitghty eight. She put her finger on her lower lip and looked forward as she thougth. ''Yeah, you are right there. Thou I think they should have capped it at eigthy nine or niety nie. Since at every ten even levels we getting a new skill slot. And that would make the gap between just varely maxing and maxing out quite big actually. But yes, why capping it at eigthy eight, most logic thing would be to go up to at least eigthy nine when they passed the eithy line.'' She gave a smile when he asked if she still got skill points after maxing out. She nodded and looked at Itzal. ''Yes I do. I still have one free skill slot left. And there is alot of mods I can get. Thou since I wont get any more slots, I dont know what skill to fill that last slot with.''
So, there was no rewards in hunting player killers. At least not if just sending them directly to prison. ''Well, shouldnt Are get paid for doing it from the prison? That would just be logical.'' She moved on with Itzal thru the forest. ''Level eigthy two? If you work hard you maybe will reach max before floor boss fight.'' she glanced to the side. ''Because you are coming to the boss figth right?''

Sends:

+3 DMG Potion
+3 Antidote Salve
Field Rations +2
Immolation Potion +2

To @Pinball

Zandra listened to as Itzal told her what he had been up to. It sound like he had been busy, clearing the world of Aincrad from player killers and player killer guilds. Zita lowered her head and let him pat it a bit before she went back to scouting, her sharp eyes beeing ready to spot any kind of threat. ''Oh my, you seemed to have been busy.'' Zandra said when Itzal had told her about the player killer hunting. ''Myself I have been kinda busy myself. My greatest achivement thou is a few days ago, I actually hit the roof. I am one of the max leveled players on the frontlines at the moment.'' she said with a proud smile. There have been many years of hard effort and grinding put in to finally reach level 88. ''How is that when it comes to player killer hunting? Do they reward you with any XP or any kind of loot?'' she asks him curiously.

As a guild leader of the growing Aincrad trading post, it came to Zandra to be able to go thru with the requests that rolled in from the pinboard. One recent order have came in asking for some salves and stuff. She herself needeed some merchant buffs as well. So it was time to visit Anise again. That she havent done in a long time. ''Hi Anise!'' she said when she spotted the short red headed merchant. ''Im here to pick up some items for the coming boss raid. Hope you dont mind.'' she said, went up to her and choosed all stuff she needed. Then she bowed and left.

-2x Field ration +2
-2x Immolation potion +2
-Double tent

-4,200col

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