Zandra

Zandra had been waiting for a reply the mail. Normally, the mails going pretty fast if not instant like back in the real world. But no reply came. Maybe he was busy fighting or something like that. Her mind had started to travel away, back to her house. Maybe she would skip this and just abandon him anyway. It wasn’t like he seemed to have got a good impression off her anyway, and why would she work on repairing that, when no one had it anyway. It was then that she herd approaching footsteps with a familiar voice from behind. She turned around and yes, there stood the blue haired young man. A smirk on Zandras lips when she saw his expression. She raised an eyebrow to his comment. ‘’Lied about my name? Why the heck would I do that?’’. He followed up with wanting her to enlighten him why she did what she did. ‘’To start with, don’t accuse me for lying. I never lied to you. Also I wonder, why was it so important to know my level?’’

Zandra arrived in <<Settlement of the Iron Fist>> and immediately headed into the labyrinth. She was one of the players that find the way thru the labyrinth, so it didn’t took her long now that it was mapped out. She arrived at the preparing area. There was already a bunch of frontliners there. And they seemed to be preparing themselves. Thank god for that. Loooked like at least that there wouldn’t be a déjà vu from the last floor boss fight. She relaxed a bit. Her mind actually traveled away back to that day, where they had been fighting that dragon. It was so embarrassing, she got kicked out, just because she was a bit to slow in a few attacks. But this time should be different. She saw the preparations included a lot of feasts, and it seemed to still be some food left for her to eat as well. To went into the battle even more prepared then before.

Eats all the tastey food(original stats updated):

-Antioxidant (Feast)
-Probiotic 3 (T3/Feast)
-Loot Dice 3 (Feast)
-Tom [2 Protein Feast]
-The Ultimate Peep [180 Overhealth Feast]

Personal preparation before arrival:

Zandra blinked a few times as the first light stroke her and woke her up from her beauty sleep. She sat up in her bed, stretching her arms high in the air as she yawned. She rubbed the sleepiness away from her eyes with her fist. She left the bed and went up to the window. As every morning, she stood there for awhile, watching the waves of the sea rolling in on the beach. The view always gave her calm. She followed up the fresh breeze by taking a shower. The hot water rolled down her skin as her mind travelled up a few floors. Today was the day she would meet him again. Will he rember her? Probably not, after all he is just an NPC. But it was quite an entertaining fight they had been having. It was her favourite kind of fight. Together with four of the players she actually trusted and would rely on in a dangerous situation. Today it would be more people, but that also mean each individual didn’t really mattered as much.

After half an hour she left the shower and putted on some clothes. She went up to her potion shelf. Started with a bottle with red liquid. She felt her teeths get sharper and hartrate increased. Followed by a green potion that hardened her skin in a dragonscale pattern on her elbows and knees. The neon-green salve made her teeths drip with poison, the yellow salve made her blood immune to dot damage. Finished off with another red potion that increased her health a bit, some food as well as a scale to increase her defence. ‘’Well Zita, I guess we are ready now.’’ She equipped her gear, putted some backup gear in her battle-ready inventory. Lastly, she grabbed her banner before leaving the house and going towards the fight of the month.

Stats:

As Zandra left the frontline tank behind, she swiped in the air infront of her and opened up her inventory. She thougth to herself for awhile. ‘’Hmm, Ive been having this one with me for a long time by now. Will this be the last fight I will have it? Shall I really use it now?’’ she said to herself as she walked thru the frontdoor to her estate. She walked thru a corridor, up some stairs and then took the third door on the right. She scratched her neck. ‘’I have always been one of those that thinking I mayt have a better use of it in the future. But then…’’ she looked at the golden egg that also was in the inventory.’’…it would end up as the egg.’’ She shrugged. ‘’Well, it didn’t mattered, this have been a good days work, but now it was time for some well earned rest.

‘’ZZZzzz…’’

Rewards:

Both:
3SP(2 pages+1 event)

Zandra:
200col

Shield:
Terra Firma scale
3,800col
8 t3 materiasl
Perfect t3 armor/shield
2x Rare t3 consumable

‘’There is something that is different thou between us. But I guess it is quite hard to farm mobs as a tank.’’ Zandra lifted her two handed battle axe, looked at it and shoke her head. ‘’When needing col, materials or items, I usually head out alone. And it is in those battles I don’t hold back. I may be a bit reckless sometimes, but it will only kill me in those situation, no one else will get hurt. And I do like this axe. But, I don’t know if you feel it with armor pieces, but this axe doesn’t quite have the same feel as Teseleths fury. There is days I regret and passed it down to Oscar. But he will get it to better use then me. Specially since Im going for the support road now. And as a support, you don’t need a high damage weapon.’’ She shrugged. ‘’Weeelll, anyway. Thanks for this little quest and talk. I guess I will see you at the floor boss fight?’’

It felt like her and Shield had the past behind them, and it would probably take some time before they being all buddy with eachother, but Zandra was relatively sure that what walked infront of her, was not an enemy. And for the moment, that was good enough. As they walked in silence, Zandra a bit behind Shield, she started to mumble to herself. ‘’This is a great start. I will clean my name, and this is a big step towards that. Just you wait everyone out there, I will make you accept me who I am. One day, you will understand why I didn’t pushed Ariel away, like all of you did. One day, I will be a part of the frontlines, a part of frontlines that will stand strong, and defeat any enemy that will stay in our way.’’

While Zandra was talking to herself, she saw that Shield had been much more productive, and he had found a chest. ‘’Oh fancy. Well, let’s see what is in the chest? Some shinies?’’

As the enemy boss died, Zandra listened to Shield. She nodded in reply to his comment about that they needed every buff they could get. ‘’That is true indeed. This floor boss will probably be our hardest challenge so far. Well, after the challenge to keep everyone to fight together more then against each other.’’ She paused for a few seconds. ‘’Well Shield.’’ She started seriously. ‘’I hope you now know that you can trust me. I will follow you into battle. I know you are a tank, and damn though one as well, but if you ever are in danger, I will help you in any way I can. The past is the past, I cant change that. But I wont let the excitement I feel in battle take control of me in serious battles, like the upcoming one on floor 25.’’ She finished with another nod and a friendly and serious smile.

Zandra wasnt sure she would get an reply or not. After all, she had been almost lying to the boy, and she felt bad for it. She also had enough of players that disliked her for what she had done when it comes to Ariel. Well, that was not something she regretted thou, compared to this. It may be a minor thing, but when your real life can depend on others, it is better to have friends then foes.

She haven’t been sure she expected him to answer or not. But here it came, a mail dropped down into her inbox. She opened it and scanned it thrhu. It was short and straight on point. He wanted to do a quest on the 23^rd floor. She raised an eyebrow. ‘’Okay, guess it is time to head out on another quest then.’’ She grabbed one of her potion and drank it all in one gulp. ‘’Aaaah! That was refreshing! Time to go Zita.’’ She said and crushed a teleport crystal. A few seconds later she was at 23^rd floor. She stood at the warp plaza and looked around. But she couldn’t see the blue haired young man. Her fingers threw together another quick mail.

Hi, I am at the warp plaza now on twenty three. Where are you?

-Zandra

Zandra sat in her tent. She have started to hear voices on the other side of the cloth. The guests have started to arrive. She gulped as she walked back and forth in the small room. Wasn’t Ari going to come and help her? It seemed she would have to do all preparations herself. She walked back infront of the mirror. She looked back at herself. As she fixed a part of her hair she suddenly herd the silence as the voices stopped mumbling and it got replaced by a melody. A calm and beautiful melody. Had Itzal been doing this one himself? For this. She smiled at the mirror and this was enough to give her the courage to go out there. She took a deep breath before opening the tent.

She could see the wooden arch. And the white flowers. And under it, Able the priest. And beside him, clad in a costume, matching her dress with its snowwhite color, was the man she was hear for. The man she had decided to share her life with. The man, she loved. Itzal.

As she walked across the wooden walkway, a faint blush had appeared on her cheeks. It wasn’t many people there, but she valued those that was there very high. And it felt emberrasing with having so many eyes on her while wearing a wedding dress. Her steps started to slow down as she wanted to turn around and run away from the feeling. ‘Damn it Sandra, get it together already!’ she screamed to herself in her mind. A short inhale and she continued the walk, closer and closer to her future husband.

Stats:

Zandra sat on her bed, looking out thru her bedroom window and let out a deep sigh. The next floor boss fight was approaching and she needed to go out and train. But she had no idea what to do. There was so boring to just kill mobs, thou that is the most rewarding thing to do, since she would get both experience and currencies. She swiped in the air infront of her and a few moments later, her big axe was in her lap. She looked at it for a few seconds before she shoke her head and let out another sigh. ‘’Nope, you are not the same. Why did you do it Zandra? Why did you let him go?’’ a few swipes and the axe was gone and she rose.

Then she suddenly knew what to do. She opened up her screen and threw together a short message.

From ChaseR’s comment Itzal stepped in and gave him a reply about not judging others skills without knowledge. Zandra quickly stepped between. ‘’Nonono Itzal. It’s fine.’’ She said before turning to ChaseR. ‘’Im sorry about that. I was thinking how I would contact you and explain. Didn’t thougth we would meet so soon. But yeah, I am not a tier 2. But I wanted, at least once, to be with someone and being treated like an equal. Also, I didn’t lied. I just avoided to answer your question. Let us meet after this and have a chat, if you can forgive me for that. Sorry.’’ She knew they needed to push forward so the talk would have to wait for later. But he deserved a short explanation.

‘’Thank you Haine. I will…’’ but there she got interrupted by a huge ship approaching them. Coming closer and closer, Zandra equips her axe and prepare for an attack. But no such thing is coming, only a ramp, inviting them to come aboard. Zita lifts from her shoulder and darts forward, making a quick scouting of the deck. She lets out a cry, like saying coast is clear. ‘’Hehe, I guess the dungeon have arrived.’’ She said to Oscar that had called her there. ‘’Im quite excited to see what it is. Do mind if going ladies first?’’ she said with a wink and walked up the ramp. The real reason she wanted to go first was actually if there would be some kind of charge attack, so she could take the hit, keeping the others safe.

As she carefully enters the ship, she see it isn’t made of wood or metal. It consists of a strange, chitinous material she haven’t seen before. But not only that, ghostlike creatures started to harass her. At first she tried to defend herself, but they didn’t seemed to do any mechanical damage or status effect on her. ‘’The ghosts wont hurt you. They just annoying.’’ She shouted back to the rest of the party. When they reached the top of the deck, after a thounderous clap cracks through the air, a massive giant appears. Zandra threw a quick glance to the shore, but there was none. Without realizing it, they have left it behind. So there they was, nowhere to escape.

“Welcome, mortals! To the Naglfar!’’

She got greeted to, was it the name of the ship? Or the sea? Zandra didn’t knew, but it was obvious that the giant was their enemy. ‘’I guess the party have started.’’ She said with a smile to the others. And with that, she activated her charge skill, being infront of the giant after just a moment. ‘’Bo!’’ she said and activated Explode catapult upon their enemy. Her attack dealt quite a lot of damage to his healthbar, but no stun effect appeared. She took a few step back to give plenty of room for next player to attack as she spread her info she just got. ‘’He is immune to stun. So don’t use your stun sword arts!’’ she shouted and prepared for the giants counter attack.

So, four attacks, one hit. What the hell was wrong with her? Well yes, this piece of shit mob had very high evasion, and reduced her own accuracy a lot. But still, she shouldn’t have missed this much. She gritted her teeths and her eyes burned as she looked at the beetle like creature. She felt the feeling that was Shield sharpening her weapon. It felt, wonderful, and it increased her will to damage, wound, destroy and kill this being that was standing in their way to make progress in the death game. She looked at Shield. ‘’Yeah I know. But you know who I am. You know my title? I need to be better than the best of us. Ive lost so many friends because of different reasons. Being a good fighter is all I have left. If I cant fight, I might as well step down.’’ She replied to Shield. Her eyes got shiny for a moment before she blinked it off. ‘’Not now Sandra. Focus. You still have an enemy to kill.’’ She mumbled to herself before her focus turned back to the enemy.

The axe started to shine as she rushed forward again. ‘’DDIEEEE!!!’’ she screamed as she released her Explode catapult on the Terra Firma. The two bladed weapon cleaved thru its armor, leaving a big, red slice. Followed by another strike from the opposite side. Its health started to drop down as the boss mob bursted out into flames. Blood started to drip from the wound. A few moments later, it exploded and left the two players in a sea of blue and white crystals. Infront of her, the reward screen popped up. A single item, no col and materials. Well, that item was the reason they came here, so not strange. ‘’Heh, downside of being high level I guess.’’ She said with a smile and accepted the scale.

 @Shield

Zandra stood infront of the mirror. Looking at the berserk healer, now completely clad in white. Her cheeks shined a bright red. This was so embarrassing. Having a big and fluffy dress wasn’t her style. It was so impractical to fight with compared to her combat-skirt or armor. Also, after another look, she did look kind of cute. That was a feeling she had never felt before. And was she really worth it? To be allowed to feel that? Also, where is Ariel? She had waited for quite some time and she wasn’t here yet. Well, maybe this meant no one else would come either. And that would mean she didn’t had to embarrass herself infront of several frontliners. She gulped and looked at the time. It was almost time for her to leave. One of the biggest moments of her life in this world of death. The blush had started to tone down as she calmed herself down. Took some deep breaths. ‘’Zandra, this will go fine.’’ She said to herself.

Quick description:

The wedding area is on a beach with the wedding arch facing the sea and a bunch of chairs in the sand towards the forest. A bit closer to the forest is some tables with plates and glasses as well as alot of delicious food and drinks(gives you probiotic 3 food buff for your next thread). There is half dozen tents, four of them with seats so you can cover from the sun, one for extra supplies and in the last one is empty except of Zandra and a mirror.

And it is a big damn fancy place, only the best is good enough for two of the strongest players in Aincrad ;)

Zandras invites:

Just as Zandra was going to take some potions she had bringed out of her inventory, she herd footsteps approach. When she turned around she spotted the rogue that she held so dear. She gave him a quick hug before she went back to her potions. She placed five of them on the wagon that Oscar had bringed with him. ‘’Here, take one each. The rest is if anyone else comes.’’

Not long time later she herd another pair of footsteps getting closer. What she saw made her freeze on the spot and eyes went wider. She quickly gulped and scratched her neck. ‘’Ehm…’’ she started nervously. ‘’Hi ChaseR. I am ready to enter the dungeon that is correct.’’ She glanced at Itzal to see his reaction before she turned and picked up one of the potions. ‘’Here, take one of these. Will increase your damage.’’ She sighed of relief inside. Once again she had dodged his question.

Next a blue haired woman arrived. She recognized her, had even sent her a mail delivery. But when she did, there was other stuff that took her mind away from rembering her name. ‘’Hello, Im sorry but I have lost your name. Was quite much happening last time. My name is Zandra. If you here for the dungeon, please take one of these.’’ She said and reached out another damage potion.

As the six person to arrive to the beach, was a blonde beauty. When she got to the group, she greeted Oscar friendly and then, she went to the food. Zandra glanced at the other three players present. She putted on a smile and turned to the blonde. ‘’Hi there. I remember seeing you at Skalaugh, but Im not sure we greeted properly. My name is Zandra and it is a pleasure to meet you.’’

-Zandra gives 1 Minor potion of vicious dragon-fang(+3 dmg) to each player

*Stats updated in post 1 for dmg potion and food buffs

Zandra kept her face in a shadow under the hood, didn’t wanted to show the blushing on her cheeks for the lower leveld boy. ‘’Baka, what the f*** have you done? Playing around with someone else. He seemed to think level was something important. If he, or rather when he finds out, how will you be met then?’’ she thougth to herself. Then the young man increased his speed and left her behind. Before she could come up with something to say, he was gone. Zandra let out a deep sigh. ‘’Zita, what have I done? This will end terrible, I can bet on that.’’ She said and looked at the feathered familiar that have started smoothly pat her cheek with her beak. ‘’Aaw, Zita. At least you will never leave me right?’’ Zandra asked and got a low cry in return. Then she ebrased the familiar with a warm hug.

Rewards:

Zandra:

2 SP

ChaseR:
5 SP

What the heck was going on? Why couldn’t she land a hit on this damn thing? She really did missed her Teseleth’s fury right now. The insane amount of damage it dealt when that black smoke filled her whole being and flowed into the enemy, dealing devastating damage. She sighed. But nope, those days were gone. That axe was in better hands with Oscar. Since Zandra was aiming to go the support player path, the fury did better in the hands of someone that went for damage. And except herself, there wasn’t many other two handed axe wielders out there that she knew about.

She awoke from her thoughts from a donk was herd infront of her. It was her axe that had been thrown and landed infront of her. Right, there was a battle infront of her right now. This beast needed to meet its end. So Zandra did a dodgeroll forward and in one consistent movement she grabbed her axe, started charging up the Explode catapult, rushed towards the Terra Firma, and activated the catapult in one smooth move. And…

…missed! The berserk healer’s breathing got heavier and her face started to match colour with her crimson eyes. Again? ‘’Im sorry Shield. I don’t know what is wrong, feels like something is different with this axe.’’ She said in emberresment from all the misses.

She prepared to do another strike at the boss if he by some reason would miss. But he didn’t, the blade cleaved thru the king and splitted him in half. And by that, the quest was completed. Then he added that since she wasn’t dead, they was both happy. She raised an eyebrow. ‘’Wait what? And what is that supposed to mean?’’ she asked him curiosuly. Thou, what he said next made her totally snap. Before she could stop herself or give a second thougth her temperament shot thru the roof. That comment had awoken a memory of another player. A long time ago. When the whip was in the game. Even since Zandra had mastered the whip, and the other player just started, he humiliated her skills with how she used it.

‘’What!? What did you just say to me!? You wanna die or someth…’’ she said as she turned towards him with fire in her eyes and rage in her voice. Luckily thou, thanks to her training in keeping her mind under control, it didtn took to many moments until she got control over her feelings again. She quickly threw those memories deep into her brain in a dark corner out of sight. She quickly turned forward and continued to walk again and put on her red hood, throwing a shadow over her face. ‘’Ne… Nevermind. Sorry for that. Lets keep going.’’ She said in a completely different tone. An apologizing and kind of timid tone.

Zandra pushed herself up as he told her that whe wouldn’t worry. That he would do the heavy lifting. Did he really think she couldn’t handle this? Maybe he didn’t knew she was maxed level, but at least he shouldn’t look down so much on her as he did. She just threw him a glance thou, didn’t said anything. What was he gonna think thou, when he finds out her true identity? She had really putten herself in a bad situation. But, there was no return.

Okay, one or two more hits? She could do that, hopefully. She focused on the king and released her explode catapult on towards him. As she released its power, it cleaved straigth thru him, dropping down his health even more. For a moment she got confused why the damage was relatively low. But then she rembered the debuff they have. ''Come on now, finish him off. If you can.''

Zandra listened to Dustins answer  at the same time as two monkey charged against her. She waited a few moments until just when they was going to run into her. Then she took a quick step to the side, the monkeys passing her, followed up by a quick swing with her axe, shattering the couple. ‘’No need to be nervous talking to me. Im not dangerous. Well, most of the time Im not. But yeah, being in combat helps as well. You cant be nervous or something about the talk, to focused on…’’ another monkey got a slash from her axe as Zita attacked it’s eyes to distract it. ‘’…the combat.’’ She finished off. ‘’Hmm, the ocean you say. I can…’’ was all she could say before she got interrupted by a loud noice. A big thump! And the ground vibrated a bit. ‘’Ehm, Dustin. I think.’’ Another heavy step. ‘’I think something else is on the way.’’

Zandra sat on one of the crates, with her face in her hands. She felt her heart beating rate increase. What was she doing? Was this the right thing to do? Yes, she loved Felix, she really did. But wedding?

She rose and started walking back and forth. What if she screwed everything up? Or just lost in on the way, turned around and ran away? Or just…

‘’No, get yourself together Sandra! This is your big day. Don’t screw it up.’’ She said with a gulpand calmed down. ‘’Well, I guess it is time.’’ She opened the menu and sent a mail to one of her best, if not  the best friends she still had.

Hi Ariel

I am ready now. Can you come and help with the last preparations?

She pressed send and the screen shut down. Then she walked up to the mirror. Back on her stared a normal woman with red eyes and long black hair. ‘’Well, here we go.’’ Once again she opened her inventory, went into her menu and equipped her <<Wedding Dress>>. The whole body of Zandra gave away a bright shine for a few seconds until it faded away. Her eyes went wide when she saw, the woman staring back at her, now weared a big white wedding dress.

 @Itzal @Ariel - The Crowned Lion

Zandra raised an eyebrow when the young man said he didn’t liked to figth, unless he gained something from it. But, it was all they had in this world of death. Zandra nodded. She didn’t fully agreed on it, but didn’t argued against it, yet. Also, since fighting was such a big part of their presence, Zandra had made sure to turn her mind set so that she did enjoyed it. It was that way because of that she had came this far. Because of that she have become one of the strongest players among the frontliners.

When they spotted the king, he didn’t hesitated long before engaging. He just took enough time to tell her to back him up. ‘’Roger that!’’ she answered and watched as slashed the king. He was a good fighter. He had a fighting style that was enjoyable to look on as well. She was just gonna do some swipes on her scree, but changing to a demonic dot weapon wasn’t the best thing to do if she didn’t wanted to reveal her level. So her hand went back to the axe and she darted forward, her charge skill carrying her into the battle. She did a quick dodge to get passed the combatants and placed herself behind the king. There she released the Explode catapult. But just in that moment, her foot had landed on a small patch of ice. ''Oh shit!'' she said as she slipped and fell to the ground with a thud. ''Sorry, I didnt backed you up.'' she said to him.

rolling and stuff

As Shield help on to the Terra Firma, making sure it wouldn’t move and make her land another miss, Zandra as quick as she could, took another hard and steady grip of her axe. She focused on the beast and started to charge up Explode catapult. That was when she felt a strange feeling. A feeling she had never felt before. She looked at the edge of the axe and then she understood. Shield had used his sharpness mod on her. A smile on her face. ‘’Thanks mate!’’ she said loud enough for Shield to hear. Then she charged against the boss and activated her sword art. But nope, it didn’t wanted to land on its target. Just when she got close, in some way even thou Shield held it in place, it made a gust of sand striking Zandra in the face. It didn’t damaged her, but it was just enough to distract her and make her axe strike the ground instead of the mob. ‘’F***!!!’’

Stats:

Zandra was laying in her bed, inspecting the different shaped wooden planks that was the roof above her. Since every tree was unique, it also had its own markings where there have been branches and stuff. As she looked at one of them that almost looked like a cat, the message notification was herd. A few swipes later and she had the mail infront of her. It was short and simple. From Oscar with a mention about a dungeon that she wanna see. Questionmark. She raised an eyebrow while trying to understand the meaning. After a few minutes she shrugged and decided to do just that. Checking out this new dungeon. She grabbed a few potions before she left her estate. She scratched her chin as she thougth about what kind of dungeon this would be, as well as sending a mail to Itzal.

As she arrived at the beach of Stygian river, she saw a single person. ‘’Hello Oscar. I got your message. Any info about the dungeon?’’ she greeted the fellow two handed axe wielder with a happy but serious tone in her voice.

As Itzal was fixing with the arch where he and she was going to say ‘’I do’’, Zandra was further up, closer to the forest, and fixing with some refreshment. There was plenty of food and drinks for all the guests. Or well, if there would be any guests. She took a paus as she turned around, leaning towards the table she was decorating. She looked up at the sun and let out a sigh. ‘’Ja du Sandra. Gifta sig i ett spel. Vem kunde trott det.¹’’. She said to herself. Her crimson eyes turned down towards the beach. There she could see a small figure. A small figure that at the end of today, would be her husband. It still felt so unreal. She thougth back on the day where the two of them met for real. That the feelings would be awaken thanks to some player killers. Just the two of them, all alone in the rain.

She shoke her head. No, don’t think about that now. She had task’s to do. She turned back to the table and did an extra check so all food was there, and all drinks prepared to be poured up in glasses. When she was satisfied with how it looked, she made her way to one of the tents. Her cheeks blushed of emberrasment for what she was going to do. She, was going to wear one of those white, big, fancy wedding dresses. She looked at the clock, not much time left now. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

 @Itzal

rolls