Takao

"Knew this would come in handy someday..." Takao said as he rummaged through his inventory list, eventually procuring a lilac coloured liquid housed within a decorate glass encasement. He pulled the top off and downed the drink in a single go, the effects of the consumed fluid resulted in his shoulder wound healing almost instantaneously. His usual rate of health generation returned just as Aria approached him.

"Well... Okay then, I'll admit that was impressive. Wasn't expecting you to make it look that easy, Freckles." She said, managing her usual mysterious mixture of compliment and insult. Had he not been so preoccupied, his amused exhale might have even been a chuckle. But unfortunately, they had bigger problems at hand.

"Here," He said, handing her a blue crystal bound in silver detailing. She took it, although not without a confused and concerned expression growing on her face. "If I tell you to use this, use it. No hestitatin' and no buts, just do it, yeah?" He explained. He gave her a chastising look, as if he knew she would protest it and he intended to stop her before she started. It worked, and she remained quiet and compliant. At least as far as he could tell.

Takao turned, his back to Aria and his front to the woods, and he took a few strides forward. “Alright,” He began, addressing the unknown entity lurking beyond the foliage. “I know you’re there, ‘n I know you know I’m there. So come on out, let’s not make it any more awkward than it already is.”

He set the flat side of his blade upon his shoulder and kept his eyes forward, narrowed on the spot where he had the feeling their observer was located. He was met with silence, and responded in turn with a sigh. Without moving his head, he looked to the right and pressed one of the ocular buttons on his display. The result was his detect skill’s activation.

“Also, I can see your cursor.”

SEARCHING RESULTS

ID: 78708
LD: 18 (8 + 5(S&D) + 3(Detect) + 2(Reveal)

Vryce's Stealth Rating: 18 - FOUND

"Okay, friend," Takao said as he struggled to lift his leg, placing it on the chest of the beast. He pried it off him and pinned it to the ground with his foot, hefting the blade from its form in the same smooth motion. A bite mark patterned wound adorned his left shoulder now, one that he was thankful would go away and never return, although the residual effects of its damage continued. Even as his battle healing ticked, it only proved to mitigate the incoming damage from the lingering wound.

"First off, rude." He continued, lifting the blade above his head to trigger the sword art he expected to end the battle. "Second, thanks for stayin' away from the face. Thas' my bread 'n butter." A bit of mindless, idle banter brought him back to his earliest days of hunting and grinding, and with the memories came a faint and curt smile. He swung the blade down like a guillotine and cleaved the beast's head from its shoulders, leaving it in two pieces. The body exploded into polygons and colourful, shimmering fragments, just as the three Lioness' had done before it.

A second passed and a menu appeared in front of both himself and Aria, the latter taking a moment to skim its contents whilst Takao simply closed it. His eyes were now cast upon the treeline, and his reveal skill was activated. The foliage peeled back and the skill showed to him their secrets, yet the person whose eyes he could feel on him remained unseen. With narrowed eyes and furrowed brows, he made his way back to Aria.

COMBAT RESULTS

ID: 78693
BD: 10 (10 + 3(ACC))
MD: DEAD

Lion BD: DEAD

Takao
HP: 1280/1415 ( 55 (Bleed, 3/5) - 40 (Battle Healing) = -15 HP )
Energy: 63/140 (+1/-13)
Sword Art: «Galaxy Destroyer»
Damage: 15(base) + 6(Damage Crystal) + 6(Vodka) + 2(Critical) = 29 * 13 = 377

Nemean Lioness 1-3: DEAD

Nemean Lion: 0/838 (377 - 82(MIT) = -295HP)

"Are you serious?" His words escaped like a hiss filled to the brim with annoyance whilst his eyes bounced from left and right, carefully scanning his surroundings. "I look away for one second..." His frustrated grumblings continued and he resumed his unhurried pace down the cobbled road. In recent days, moments to himself spent in silence were a rare commodity, but he was beginning to resonate with those father-types that would somehow lose their child during a lapse of attention.

And just like one of those attention-lapsing father types, Takao had misplaced his charge. Or perhaps his charge had misplaced Takao, although given the girl's track record of getting lost and finding trouble, he was much more inclined to the former. She was a magnet for conflict.

His eyes were drawn to a crowd of people standing slightly off to the side of the cobblestone path. Although his advanced searching skills aided in the enhancement of his natural senses, namely hearing, what he was able to pick up on was broken and mostly incomprehensible. That natural curiousity of his brought him a little closer, which in turn revealed Aria's form to him. She was standing on the outer edge of the crowd, a clear and defined frown pulling her cheeks down, and her eyes locked on the girl that was speaking.

“There you are.” He said, words spoken amidst a breath of relief. He had put the background noise on hold for a minute, instead focusing his attention on Aria who curtly shushed him and pointed to the speaking girl.

With a raised eyebrow and a borderline insulted face, leaning more toward comical than serious, he turned his head to watch and listen. She spoke at length of Knights, Dragons, and fairy tales, relating them all back to hope and her apparent disinterest in it. His brows furrowed; hope was a sensitive topic for him, namely a potential lack of it. He’d been there himself after all, once upon a time.

Another glance cast down at Aria revealed that the topic seemed to bother her, although that came as no surprise to Takao. She had her own demons plaguing her psyche, and he reasoned that the only reason she moved forward was the fault of whatever remnants of hope she clung onto.

"You're not living without hope, though." said Takao, speaking up above the moderate roar of applause. A few intrigued heads had even turned his way and graced him with their attention. His nose twitched slightly; he didn’t like being the center of attention. But it were a topic he felt inclined to weigh in on, and thus he did.

"Ain't y'ever heard that Pearl Buck quote? Goes some'n like... "Eating bread without hope is still slowly starving to death." Y'ain't livin' without hope, you're just... not dead." His arms folded. “...and the whole endgame is death bit. Don’t y’know it’s about the journey, not the destination?”

Welcome! I'm sure lots of people would be happy to help you get back into the RP groove, so have fun!

Welcome!

There are lots of multi-lingual people here and we're all friendly and helpful, so no worries about english being a second language. Also, feel free to drop by the Discord server if you'd like! That's where most of the community tends to hang out and talk.

The Lioness' lunged as soon as they could, but each was met with a swift stroke of his sword cleaving clean through them before any contact could be made. By sheer luck, or perhaps a thinly veiled attempt at masking clever usage of vague combat sequences, Takao had made it to that point unscathed. But Sword Art Online was a terrible fickle mistress, whose grace or ire was earned as randomly as a roll of the dice. Just like the wind, such success was destined to change, and change it did.

Just as Takao had swung his blade around to strike to Lion, the beast had lunged first. He managed to lodge the blade in its side, but not before it slammed one of its heavy paws down onto his shoulder and slammed its jaws shut around the other. A breath caught in his throat, not from pain but from surprise, and he simply stood motionless for a second.

“Well,” He managed to grunt out with an exhale, his hand trying to free the blade from the monster’s midsection. It was caught, and the angle he was in didn’t provide much leverage. “This is a bit awkward.”

COMBAT RESULTS

ID: 78611 - 78612 (Lion)
BD: 11 (8 + 3(ACC))
MD: DEAD

Lion BD: 9 (8 + 1(Negative Evasion))

Takao
HP: 1295/1415 ( 145 - 30(MIT) = 105 - 40 (Battle Healing) - 55(Bleed, 4/5) = -120 HP )
Energy: 75/140 (+1/-24)
Sword Art: «Calamity Disaster»
Damage: 15(base) + 6(Damage Crystal) + 6(Vodka) = 27 * 12 = 324

Nemean Lioness 1-3: 0/512 (256 - 47(MIT) = -277HP)

Nemean Lion: 180/838 (256 - 82(MIT) = -242HP)

"Finally." Takao grumbled as he shrugged off the paralysis that stemmed from the usage of his last sword art. His four adversaries each laid on the ground, struggling to return to their feet. He had a few seconds of respite before the battle would return to intensity, and he had every intention to spend them wisely. His grip on Ragnarok was switched to favour the blade end, and another sword art was selected with a simple shift of his feet and positioning of the sword.

"See? Told you!" He called out to Aria, who responded with an exaggerated roll of her eyes. He chuckled quietly to himself as he cast a sweeping glance over the treeline, finding that their pursuer remained hidden. With a throaty hum, he turned back to the task at hand.

"Alright fellas," said Takao as he relinquished control of his movements to the system. Thankfully and conveniently for the predetermined motions that his selected sword art intended to guide him through, the four feline adversaries had begun to rise to their feet, which made divvying up the six strikes between them a little easier. The lioness' health gauges were dropped significantly, barely hovering above nothingness by a strand of red pixels. The Lion was a little better off, his own gauge showed him to be sitting comfortably around the halfway point. For now, at least.

COMBAT RESULTS

ID: 78449
BD: 11 (8 + 3(ACC))
MD:

Lion BD:

Takao
HP: 1415/1415 ( +40 (Battle Healing) )
Energy: 98/140 (+1/-24)
Sword Art: «Calamity Disaster»
Damage: 15(base) + 6(Damage Crystal) + 6(Vodka) = 27 * 12 = 324

Nemean Lioness 1-3: 33/512 (256 - 47(MIT) = -277HP)
*STUNNED*

Nemean Lion: 422/838 (256 - 82(MIT) = -242HP)
*STUNNED*

The roar of the Nemean Lion pierced the quiet that had overtaken the seventeenth floor, followed closely by the collective guttural bellows of the Lioness' behind it. Their presence brought a faint smile to Takao's face as he was reminded of his earliest ventures into the Castle Aincrad; danger at every turn, taking on the worst of odds on his lonesome as a self-inflicted challenge. He would be lying if he claimed that having an audience didn't encourage him. Takao really didn't mind showing off, after all.

"Watch and learn!" He called out over his shoulder. His legs tensed and the «Charge» skill was subsequently activated, with the «Tempest» Sword Art stance being assumed in the same motion. The three Lioness' charged first and the Lion wasn't far behind, preparing to meet Takao head on. He met the first of the Lioness' by feigning an overhead blow whilst the Lioness swiped wide. His weight dropped onto his right foot and he ducked under the swipe, the leverage of two hands on the handle of his sword allowing him to swiftly spin it and slam the pommel into the Lioness' lower jaw. The second Lioness closed the distance in an instant and forced him to reposition quickly, shifting his weight to his left foot and spinning the blade to strike the next of his foes in the underbelly with the pommel a second time.

The third Lioness leapt into a pounce and was met halfway by Takao, who intervened and slammed his shoulder into its stomach, allowing the beast to roll over his back before finding the pommel of his sword striking its jaw. Only the Lion was left, and was dealt a swift blow to the top of its skull. All four were left stunned and immobile, whilst Takao also suffered from minor post-motion rigidity.

"Yeesh... S'lil obnoxious that it only strikes with the pommel."

COMBAT RESULTS

ID: 78433 - 78434(Lion)
BD: 7 (6 + 3(ACC) - 2(EVA))
MD: 10 (8 + 2(ACC) + 1(Negative Evasion))

Lion BD: 7 (6 + 1(Negative Evasion))

Takao
HP: 1385/1415 ( +40 (Battle Healing) )
Energy: 121/140 (+1/-19)
Sword Art: «Tempest»
Damage: 15(base) + 6(Damage Crystal) + 6(Vodka) + 5(Charge) = 32 * 8 = 256

Nemean Lioness 1-3: 310/512 (256 - 47(MIT) = -209HP)
*STUNNED*

Nemean Lion: 664/838 (256 - 82(MIT) = -174HP)
*STUNNED*

"Alright, Kiddo. You're gonna wanna keep some distance on this one." said Takao whilst his attention remained on his inventory, who had opened it for a quick gear change. One of countless benefits to his elevated level was a plethora of options available at his disposal; namely his ability to switch the distribution of his damage. The metal equipment that augmented his knuckles disappeared in a brilliant blue light, and was replaced a mere press of a button later by a large sword on his back. He pulled it from its scabbard and examined it briefly. In recent days, he hadn't had such a use for it, but such a harrowing scenario as the one that threatened him required a more brutish approach.

Aria looked at him through slightly narrowed eyes and furrowed her brows in response. "Are you sure this is such a good idea? Doing it alone, I mean." She said, her arms folded. "This is a high level quest, right...? It seems like a stupid risk."

"Well, coincidentally," Takao began his response, taking a short intermission in his reply to twist the cap off a drink and throw it back before finishing. "Stupid risk happens to be my middle name." He couldn't help but chuckle at his own state of being self-aware of the very recklessness that had gotten him as far as it had. Or perhaps it was the simulated alcohol in his system, it was anybody's guess.

The girl rolled her eyes hard. "You're an idiot." She said bluntly.

A faint smirk rolled one side of his cheek upward, and he responded simply in turn. "I know."

Vodka used.
Fang of Corrosion switched with Ragnarok.

"Used t'do it all the time, way back in the day, as it were." Takao commented idly, his gaze momentarily shifted toward Aria. By the tone of his voice, whose cadence was unwavering, he seemed largely unaffected by the climb. By the time he'd reached the summit, which had taken barely a handful of minutes, he spoke again. "But I've had more important things t'worry 'bout." He said, flashing the girl a smile. She returned it with a curt one of her own, but remained silent otherwise.

Takao turned his attention forward and looked on at the sights before him. It was a whole lot of nothing, admittedly. Trees in one direction, more trees in another, a mountain beyond them... Not much to look at. But Takao was rarely interested with what was on the surface, definitely not. His interests laid with the intricacies and details, looking beyond what his eyes could see. As metaphorical as it sounded, he found himself enjoying the more literal application. He closed his eyes for a moment and activated the duo of scouting skills: Detect and Reveal. The foliage of the forests beyond them peeled back and revealed to him what was beyond, and his detect skill aided in that endeavour.

A small smirk crossed his face and he deactivated the skill. "Looks like y'boys got to it first." Takao said, turning his head to peek over his shoulder to Mack. "Are y'proud, disappointed, or a bit of both?"

How It Works

When a player kills a monster, they will roll a second time on the killing post in order to determine what loot the monster drops. The purpose of this roll must be "Loot Roll", otherwise it will be ruled invalid. Players will reference the Loot Dice first to determine which table they will roll on, then use the Crafting Dice to further determine their reward on the secondary table. In the event of multiple players working to kill the same monster, only the player that deals the final hit will roll for loot, however all players that participated in the battle receive the default Col drop. In the event of multiple monsters being killed on the same post, each monster must receive its own individual loot roll, whose purpose field is numbered accordingly. (i.e: Loot Roll 1, Loot Roll 2, etc.)

Bonus multipliers to col drops are added onto the base value of 3 before being multiplied by the monster's HP.
(Base Value(3) + Bonus Multiplier + Prosperity Bonus * Monster HP)

Opinions?

She thought that he hadn't heard that discrete little blip of an incoming message, but he had. Takao was especially good at picking up on small queues like that, it was one of few skills he could boast. His ear had simply twitched in the direction of the distinct sound that stood out amidst the ambient noises of the forest and hills. But he knew if they were that close, they would be watching, so he hadn't moved an inch. Instead, he kept his attention on the general area the sound had come from and continued his conversation.

"They call themselves The Horsemen," Aria finally spoke up. "I heard my sister talking to somebody about them a long time ago... I think... she was doing some kind of business with them," She continued, the frustrated expression that twisted her features making clear indication that she was trying hard to remember. Takao appreciated it, for he hadn't even the slightest inkling about their pursuers.

"Trading, maybe... Or crafting..? I don't remember... All I remember is a name. Death Adder." She finished with a hard swallow. It wasn't a pleasant name to speak, it rolled off the tongue like poison.

"Death Adder." He parroted, much easier than she had originally spoken the name, and repressed the urge to snort. He hadn't heard such a villainous sounding name in a while... but it didn't sound familiar in the slightest. None of the frontliners had a username like that, and he'd been partied with plenty to draw such a conclusion. Typically that meant the name in question belonged to somebody whose level wasn't quite up to par with the frontlines, but it wasn't the time to go underestimating.

"...I'll see if I can figure out who that is. I know some people, mostly brokers. Shouldn't be too hard." He said. He climbed to his feet and turned to her. "I've heard rumours of criminal guilds becoming the new fad, kinda... ridin' the coattails of Azure's edginess. Either weirdos roleplayin' some bandits and thieves, or some real piece'a works tryna' get a quick buck. Either way, they all end up bein' losers and halfwits. We got nothin' to worry about." He reassured her with a practiced smile, one that he had once boasted to be genuine but as of recent had felt more like a fabrication. She returned the gesture with a curt smile of her own, perhaps either not entirely convinced or not quite in the mindset to be smiling.

Death Adder... He repeated in his head, mulling over the name for a moment. Why does that name give me such a bad feeling?

@Shark

Also, you don't need to make a new account. You can use your old one and just get the name changed again, plenty of people have done it already.

As per usual, Takao bode his time while the others struck the boss. The first team did good with their strikes, each of those before him managing a successful hit that whittled down the humanoid monster. The first strike had even managed to stun it, sparing their tank the usual damage they might've sustained. All in all, a good first round. Their assault ended and Mack made way for the second team, which Takao decided to spearhead by his own eagerness. Pounding one clenched fist into the open palm of his other, his digital knuckles cracked. In doing so, his right hand adopted a bright yellow glow and shine-- the telltale display of an impending sword art.

"Makin' good time so far," Takao said aloud, more to himself than the others, and took off in a charge after the monster. Still dazed from the quintuple attack launched upon itself person and aided by his own timing, Takao's foot slammed into the ground and rooted himself as his fist connected with the jaw of the monster. The force sent it stumbling backward toward Macradon, who Takao subsequently called out to with a simple "Heads up!"

@Macradon

ID: 77213
BD: 6 (2 + 4(ACC) - 1(EVA) + 1(Concentration, 5/5))
Energy: 140/140 (+1/-17)
Sword Art: «All Might»
Damage: 15(base) + 6(Damage Crystal) + 6(Alcoholic) + 5(Charge) + 1(BoC) + 8(Fallen) = 41 * 15 = 615

[6]Morgenstern ---------- 820/820 HP / 82/82 EN
[1] Beatbox --------------- 1035/1035 HP / 91/102 EN
[0] Hikoru------------------ 1115/1115 HP / 99/110 EN
[1] Sey ------------------------- 720/720 HP / 59/72 EN
[1] Itzal ------------------------- 1020/1020 HP / 85/102 EN 
[2] Mack------------------------ 1050/1050 HP / 90/102 EN

Aitu' Nvih, the Ancient Shaman (Rolled by Mack) - 551 / 2000 HP  (615 - 60 = -555 HP)

[1] Takao ------------------ 1515/1515 HP / ??? EN
Macradon ------------- ???? HP / ??? EN
Ariel -------------------- ???? HP / ??? EN
Zandra ---------------- ???? HP / ??? EN
Hirru ------------------- ??? HP / ?? EN

Aitu' Nvih, the Ancient Shaman (Rolled by Hirru) - 551 / 2000 HP