Hirru

Hirru's words seemed to strike upon something within Freyd.  He was much more forward than he had been in the last few days that the hunter had known him, which.. actually didn't surprise the healer.  The cacophony of oddities that came off of Freyd at times, made the healer really consider his sanity.  However, it was times like this that made Hirru understand that these words are for his own good.  He was right, that if everyone was still having issues with the past, then it was their issue; not his own.  Although, it seemed that he was much more of the story teller than he had thought.

"Yeah, I guess I'm just putting too much thought into it.  It's about time I let it go too."

The healer said as he pulled back the rod to find a brown fluff ball with a slight black mark on the far side.  Hirru wondered if he had done it right or not.  He mirrored the actions of Freyd and Koga to take the mallow of the marsh off the stick.  Plopping it into his mouth, the taste was something odd.  Sweet, but with a hint of ash.  Hard, but sticky?  All in a hot package.  The urge to suppress himself was starting to climb, as a new experience was starting to show upon his face.  The surprise was evident.

"Huh, I guess fishing does do something, but I'm not that high ranked, so I can't say."

He would then turn to Koga.

"Don't worry too much.  We've got a large amount of us here, so we should be blazing through this.  I don't quite remember the last time we had four teams worth in a raid.  Usually, it has been only two or three teams.  How many did we have in the twenty fifth?"

@Koga @Freyd @Baldur

"What do the Demonics Shards and Gleaming Scales do?"

The hunter asked inquisitively.  It seemed she was about to head out since she was done with what she needed to do.  The hunter shrugged and looked back towards the water.  Casting his line back out into the water, he gave a slightly exaggerated answer.  Yona would have to get going, if her quest was timed in any way, so he made it brief and simple.

"They're for upgrading your equipment into better versions of themselves.  Shards are for turning perfect quality into demonic quality, while scales can unlock the possibility to gain unique enhancements in equipment, if appraised through an appraiser."

He nods his head towards his rod as the bobber rested upon the water's surface.  Soon, it fell below the water line and the hunter had to pull hard.  Reeling the line in as slowly as he possibly could before a rather unusual sight would be seen, as a small chest could be seen dragged out of the water by the line.  A treasure chest was found, and it would not take long for the hunter to open it to find it's contents.  Two weapons of questionable rare quality and two consumables of rare quality.  He looked at them and thought about something.

"It's why I chose being a Fisher while helping in the Merchant's shop as an Appraiser.  Not only can I find treasure chests with appraisable items, I can find Gleaming Scales later on to find unique enhancements faster."

Hirru then waved to Yona.

"Sorry, I'm sure you're in a hurry.  If you see an NPC in purple robes near a merchant shop, could you tell him his scribe is waiting for him.  He's probably talking to some merchant or appraiser in town again."

"Really think so?"

Hirru was quite intrigued if he was becoming quite the linguistic speaker, but in reality, he was sure it was something that this person was already invested in.  NIGHT had learned something from him, because she was actively seeking it, at least that's what Hirru could see.  However, there were people that would not listen proper.  Those people were those two, Hidden and Macradon.  He could already tell that Hidden would be just like Opal was in the past, but there would be no hidden soft side.  The part that he once knew that gave him a final farewell before their death.  No, Hidden would not have that for Hirru, and would not receive it in turn.  She had shown her hand.

Macradon would be the hardest to convince.  His heart was full of anger and discontent, and for good reason.  They both led and tried to keep the Knights of the Blood Oath alive, even though it was never going to live without more members.  The only two knights could not hold up everything, nor could they hold each other up.  Hirru took over the Vice Commander role, but it was not to be.  His first raid as leader was that dreaded incident.  Mac's trust with his former brother had been shattered and broken past repair.  It was heavily evident from their labyrinth search.  He would have to do more than talk to convince Mac.

"Well, we'll see, I guess."

As Hirru was about to head back, NIGHT gave the hunter a little money, as recompense for the used crystal and a little more for the talk.  She didn't really have to do that, but he wasn't going to have a transfer battle over col.

"Thanks!  It's alright, though.  Personally, I thought that I would be talking to more people tonight.  Though, this wasn't too bad either."

He also thought he was going to be stabbed again, but that's another thing.  He waved to the silhouette of NIGHT as she seemed to nearly disappear into the darkness.

"Good night, NIGHT!"

Welcome back!

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As Hirru was tearing into the scather, the other teams had their chance to wreck the bosses house, or at least, his makeshift one.  All these weapons created for mass destruction.  It made the healer feel uneasy, but it was a familiar feeling.  As if he had felt the pressure of this kind of situation before.  Not in the boss battle sense, as he had been through more than a handful.  No, there was something else about the whole situation.  What was it?  He couldn't figure it out.

The thought would turn to intrigue as a certain sound cue would clue Hirru into something.  Several of his companions were set to unleash very powerful attacks, and the boss didn't look like he was going to hit them with anything big anytime soon.  With his weapon raised on high, he would call out to his fellow brother's in arms.

"Now is the time!  Take this strength and blaze forth!  Press the Attack!"

An iridescent aura would fall upon every one of his comrades, giving them ample strength to do with as they saw fit.  However, it would weaken the healer exponentially.  The skill had a massive drawback, as each person that Hirru gave his strength to, he would lose that much more from himself.  Leadership was a double edged sword, just as the blades that he frequented.

He would look back to Eruda, whom was taking care of the scather with him.  He figured that now that the scather was back up, that his pressing of the attack would make Raidou's team required to take out the scather, which was bad sport on him.  Hirru sighed as he made another blunder upon himself.

"Sorry!  Didn't mean to apply the pressure on you guys."

"It's more what I did before, both when tried to protect the Floor Boss, and what I proclaimed before."

Hirru sighed as the boy dealt a decisive blow against the Wicked Wood, but that would mean that his entire attention was on the boy again.  At least, it had not engrained itself in the ground, causing them to fight this thing for much longer, but that didn't seem to happen this time.  With all the damage that was being thrown out at this thing, the hunter was surprised at what Koga could bring to the party.  A burn, blight, and one other that seemed to come from the man's familiar.  Quite a powerful set.  It would do much better with a focus build, but the hunter couldn't really tell what this guy had on him, as no one had that kind of knowledge without asking.

"I got it!"

He called back as Koga sustained the fair amount of damage.  With a quick spin, the hunter sent out his two hit AOE art, which struck hard against the treant's sword and against the last leg that the flaming creature had left.  It creaked heavily, as if it was a proper tree being cut down, before shattering into pieces once more.

"Well, that's another one for the both of us."

Hirru said as the prompt for the boss' rewards came in.  They had two full party shields each, now.  That meant that they could easily defend their entire party against AOE based damage skills.  These things were highly invaluable.  Too bad they were locked behind a T2 boss.

Looking back to Koga, he had to clarify something.

"So before I protected the boy, I proclaimed to the bosses, and everyone really, that I would help herald the future, and bring everyone out into the next world.  I had just become the Vice Commander of my guild, and those words meant something.  They were my oath.. my Blood Oath.  What gets everyone is that I broke that oath by protecting a field boss.  Regardless of me using the crystal or not, the boy was going to be taken out soon anyway.  It was the fact that I opposed the frontlines for something that didn't really need to happen.  Frankly, yes.  I could boast that I defeated a full health boss with single item, but that's stupid and petty.  I'm not going to make the mistake into a joke.  That would piss off more than just myself, at that point."

He sighed before going on.

"So, when we're fighting the good fight on the twenty sixth floor, just keep your head about you.  Don't listen to the bosses too much.  They're just artificially beings.  Hack and slash, until they are no more."

Hirru groaned from overworking himself past what he thought he would stop.  Dealing with NIGHT really put some stress on him.  He packed up his things while sheathing Shelob's Fang.

"Let's head back into town.  I know a great place in Taft that serves some great food."

Summary

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Oy8xX99bxSqs-LQ_tRfvoy8EqgGj_9as1WpG7pyBr48/edit?usp=sharing

Word Count
(6133)
Multplier
(204)
400 Col

Looted

T4 Rare Trinket UnID [202805]
4200 Col
4 Mats

2 Field Bosses Cleared

No Bonus Exp
(Players are T4 against T2 boss)

“Blessing of the Wood" (T2/Consumable/Single Use) x2 ea.
The user roots themselves into the ground, providing a party wide shield that will absorb up to 250 DMG before breaking at the cost of the user’s EVA being reset to 0 while the shield is up.

Hirru
8160 EXP
(204x5x8)
 3524 Col
(200+2100+1224[15%])
2 Mats

“Blessing of the Wood" (T2/Consumable/Single Use) x2
T4 Rare Trinket UnID [202805]

Koga
6120 EXP
(204x5x6)
3218 Col
(200+2100+918[15%])
2 Mats

“Blessing of the Wood" (T2/Consumable/Single Use) x2 ea.

She took it without a second thought.  It seems that this was something within their programming, to accept gifts.  The woman would take a drink from the bottle, absolutely downing the thing.  Hirru had seen plenty of people down the single bottles, but none that did so in such a thirst driven way.  She was definitely thirsty, it seemed.  The hunter grinned a little before the lady returned the empty bottle to the hunter.

"My thanks, Challenger."

"It is my pleasure."

He put the bottle away, while they strayed ever closer to their destination.  The ocean could be seen from this elevation, and it was magnificent.  Not as large as the twenty fourth floor's ocean, but it was nearing there.  With all of the architecture, the hunter thought that the two floors seemed slightly similar, but the differences would start to add up slowly.  From the denizen's attire, to the topography of the floors, it was nearly impossible for them to be the same area.  Hirru wondered what this god's challenge would be once he got there.

If he got there.

They had to pass by another large settlement that was centralized upon the floor.  How much farther was the water from here?  They should be able to take a boat upon a river out to sea, if the letter was speaking the truth.  A sea god would obviously want to meet upon the open sea, but they have been walking for a couple hours now.  The woman didn't speak a word as they walked, but it seemed that her skin was starting to dry out as they went along.  Hirru could only guess that she truly was a water being, and that this long walk was rough for the lady.  Hirru would start to look into one of his backpack's pockets for the vials of water he kept for a rainy day.  It was then that the hunter remembered that this woman was just another part of the game.  He looked up to see the yellow crystal marker that indicated an NPC, and sighed.  He was letting his emotions get to him again.  This wasn't his world anymore, he didn't have to be kind to those that don't need it.

..However..

Hirru stepped forward in a slightly fast walk before the guide, and handed her the water flask.

"You're looking a little dry."

..He couldn't help being nice..

She seemed to smile towards Hirru before bowing graciously.  For a second, he swore he could see..  He shook his head.  There was no way that that could be a thing.  He thought he saw gills on the upper part of the woman's neck, right behind the ears.  This was a weird world with many different things about it.  This floor may have fish people that weren't sahagin.  The hunter bowed back before learning that the quest updated.

"Please follow me.  There is a boat awaiting us."

"Okay, I'll stay close behind."

Hirru replied as the woman, whom still had not given the hunter a name yet, lead the way through the streets of Athenaia.  It seemed that this would probably take a while, as the hunter could not see any water close by, but along the horizon from their mountainous perch, they could see the glistening waves.  They would be walking for some time, it would seem.

As the blue light of the teleporter disappeared from his visage, the hunter had found himself on yet another unfamiliar floor, the seventeenth.  He was starting to find this to be a reoccurring instance, as the hunter was trying to gain further knowledge of the new floor schemes, but the floors from the eleventh to the 19th were unexplored territory for the hunter.  He had truly never stepped foot on any of them during any of his questing missions, at least, until now.  He looked back at the letter that he still carried in his hand.  It was addressed to him from someone by the name of Poseidon?  He claims the status of God of the Seas?  Hirru didn't know what the game was trying to do, but he was having some influential sway in several places now.

As soon as he looked away from the letter, his quest window would pop up.  Challenge of Olympus, was it?  Looking upon the description, it described being escorted by someone.  It didn't take quite long to find who that was, as a woman with fair skin and an awkwardly worn dress would approach him.

"Are you here to challenge the gods?"

Her voice seemed to soothe his worries and make him lower his guard slightly.

"Yes, I am."

Reel In!  Castaway!
<<Challenge of Olympus: Fisher>>

It wasn't very long since the hunter had been fishing, and working around trying to better the craft to sooner or later start catching more of those Rainbow Fish.  Gleaming Scales were quite a large part of his main professions requirements for doing well, and for all that it was worth, he wasn't doing to well in his merchant job.  It could be from the frequent changes that made it more about the appraisal than it did about selling things, or it could be from the constant moving around that he did.  His caravan was never in the same place twice, so it was hard to keep customer service up, when there are no customers.  He figured it would be good to look into something that could help him.

As he was fishing in Baldur's Ornate Pond, the hunter noticed something was odd as he pulled on his line.  There was another piece of trash on today, but this one was different from the pair of pants that washed up on his line.  No, this was a pristine looking letter, which was much more odd than it should be.  The letter was wet, but it did not tear into pieces upon being touched.  Instead, it felt as crisp as any regular paper would, while water still seemed to slip off its edges.  The symbol of a trident over a scallop shell sealing the letter, would denote that this was someone of fair importance.  Interestingly enough, the addressee was none other than Hirru himself.

"What the hell?"

He looked around to find who did this, but there was no one.  How did this letter get in Baldur's pond?  Who wrote this?  He shrugged.  There was only one way of knowing, as he broke the trident seal to read the letter.

Quest Info

Hirru Stats

A slight smirk would grace the now straight face of the hunter before disappearing once more.  NIGHT had answered his question, and he couldn't quite tell, but there was quite a bit going there.  This entire conversation, after her own question seemed quite odd.  She sought the hunter for a reason, and it all seemed to come to this.  There is something in this world that she deems worthy of her protection.  He took a step forward, but he staggered.  Shifting his feet to catch himself, it would look like he was slowly loosing himself to exhaustion, and maybe he was.  He had talked far too much on the matter, and it was far past time for him to retire for the night.  His mind was wandering too much, and he was starting to see faces that.. whose face was that even?  The hunter was not sure anymore.  This was the first time that he had seen anything like that, and it was.. eerily familiar, as if it was someone from his past.

"Huh.. I guess there is quite a bit more to it than I thought, then."

He shook his head as he thought aloud.  Although, it may have sounded like a response to NIGHT's answer, it was more towards his own realizations.  Turning to look towards the woman that had walked with him, he would be met with the black haired NIGHT.  His eyes squint a bit before relaxing once more.  It won't happen again, it seemed.  He sighed.  There wasn't much else to do but to continue, though..

"Well, now that we have some kind of understanding, or what not.  What will you do with that information now?  I'm guessing there is something more for you in this than just that."

He then shook his head.  It wasn't right to do that when they have already said so much with such little words.

"Never mind that question.  I'm not going to pry.  We all have our secrets."

He turned towards the path that he was going to follow and stopped.  Putting his chin in between his fingers once more to think, he decided that it wasn't really worth it anymore.  Hirru was sure that NIGHT had found her answers, or what not.  There was no reason to go through with the rest.  He turned on his heel, with the precision and sharpness of a soldier, and started to walk back the way they came.

"I figured that I'd show you where we fought the labyrinth guardian to end where my memories stopped for that whole event, but I don't think we need to do that anymore.  The main issue was what happened on the 23rd floor.  Everything that happened after until I fell into the dark isn't necessary.  All that I can say, is that I talked it out with my brothers-in-arms.  They understand why I did what I did, and still choose to have me by their side.  That's all I cared about then."

Stepping closer to the dark colored individual, he nodded to her.

"Now, I need everyone else to understand that too, and to let them choose if they want to allow me to fight by them too."

"Thanks for understanding."

With that, the hunter took advantage of being hit to enact a counter attack.  Bursting forward to meet the blade head on so he could absorb all of that damage, and deal back quite a bit of thorns damage against it, he was glad to be in his element.  Where he could rip into his enemy without much fear for his partner.  Although, that may not be partially true, as their health pools were not the most accurate tells of their strengths.  He just didn't want Koga's health to fall any farther than half.  Hirru wasn't a healer support, he was a scouting support.  That meant that he could hold his own in the wild, but required help when things got heavy.

"Well, I'll tell you this much!"

He shouted back was the start of his three hit AOE art would ring out.  Crashing against the sword hand of the Wicked Wood before ending in one of the shins.  With the double Shatter effect still racking its body, Hirru was sure that the effect was quite painful for the thing.  However, there was no envenoming this one.

"We were all surprised when the familiar shine of blue light that teleports us all away surrounded that boy and he was gone.  Although that didn't help my cause.  Being stabbed and yelled at didn't either, but that's.."

He sighed.  None of it was really their fault on it though.  He was the one that did it, and they were just reacting.  It was his fault that the front lines started to shatter just as roughly as the armor of the wicked wood had.

"Damn.."

He watched as the other side of the raid team was dealt a heavily decisive hit.  Nearly every single one of them were caught in the erupting blue flames, and by the way team 3 was looking, they probably wouldn't make it with another.  He had to calm himself a bit before he rushed off someplace he shouldn't.  Zandra and Simmone were there.  They could handle the healing for their teams, he was sure.  Zandra more so would be able to keep their people safe.  However, the attack seemed like it wasn't done, and that they were all next.  Raidou seemed to have stunned the boss, but how well would that work for his team.  He cursed once more, as this would've been the perfect moment to use Barrier, but the skill was not off of cooldown.

"If I can't keep my team from further harm from him.."

He rushed over to the currently sputtering scather in the east, while signaling the armored girl from Firm Anima to move.  Bracing the top of his shield with his other arm, the healer took it upon himself to start ramming and bashing whatever he could off of the scather, with his shield.  What little thorns were on the shield would scrape and tear away at console and the outer carapace.

"I can at least keep this thing from doing anything further.  Come on, I think you were Eruda?  Let's break it!"

Post Action: Disable E. Makeshift Scather -> ID: 202760 LD: 18+4 (Paragon + LD feast) =22 | E. Makeshift Scather 39/30 {Disabled}
Free Action: What the Heck is a Scather?

Recovery?: ID: 202761 CD: 2 | Nope

(0)Hirru | HP: 974/974 | EN: 93/96 (+4)| DMG: 1 | MIT: 182 | ACC: 0 (-2, 2/2 | -1 next atk) | LD: 3 (+1 Loot) | BH: 48 | HLY BLS: 38 | MENDING: 2 | THRNS: 76
   (Rested (2/2), No Shift, REC 8)
   (CD: Barrier 2/2 | Rally 1/3)

"Well, I don't take this too bad, but try not to run in front of the boss when the hate is being set?  Shield should be able to deal with the hate side, but don't go getting a fifth of your health reduced again."

Hirru had to remind the boy about the little thing that happened not to long ago, back when they were taking out the Wicked Wood for his consumable item.  Speaking of, where did he leave that thing?  He looked around in his inventory, however, the bloody things weren't there.  He must have forgotten them in his new room at Baldur's.  He sighed just as Baldur was setting him up for another scouting raid.  With what the healer had now, he was not going to be any good in a scout

"To be fair, as I am now, I won't be too good on the scouting path until I change back, or work on ways to integrate scouting into this build."

The healer nodded to Freyd when he mentioned the little meeting after the meeting.  He groaned at the lack of axes in his back only meant that he would have to go through more story time some time later.  NIGHT and Koga were the most recent ones that got to know it, but they both seemed to somewhat understand.  NIGHT more so than he thought.  How odd..  The healer rubbed the back of his green hair.

"Barely anyone came.  I had to find the only person that wanted to talk about it, and it wasn't even for the thing they stated they wanted to talk about.  I swear, I feel like I'm never going to live down that day."

He sighed while taking one of the sticks and a fluff ball.  What in the ever living world was the Whisper now giving him?  Marshmallows?  He would have to give it a try.  While placing the white fluff on the stick, he held it near the fire.  Was this how one was supposed to do it?  He couldn't say, as he had not done something like this.. at least.. not that he could remember.

"What was that about advice?  Well, I've already told you something not to do.  A more appropriate way of saying that would be:  Do not go off the beaten path.  If you try to work outside of orders given, especially how I did, it's just gonna be rougher on you and for all of us.  Keep together, and we'll be pushing through this boss in no time."

"The difference?  Mostly what you can do with them."

The hunter responded to Yona's question.  There wasn't much to say, as the differences were clear.

"The main branch of professions are all the crafters, those that can take materials and make equipment or consumables out of them.  Blacksmiths and Cooks are basic examples of those.  Merchants, or as it's known now, Appraiser, is kind of an oddball.  Instead of using materials and form something out of those, we use those unidentified items as essential material and a little col.  Secondary branch is for the gatherers.  There are only two secondary professions: foragers and fisherman.  These are more to find materials and other things.  They're basically over glorified gathering methods.  Heh heh."

He would cast the line back in while chuckling to himself.  Although the gathering professions were not that different than their normal gathering methods, they made up for it with a little something that can only be gained through fighting with extreme luck.

"The big thing between the two subs are these.."

Hirru pulls out two different materials.  One looks like a shard of something rather dark looking.  It seemed to emanate a dark demonic aura.  The second one seemed to shimmer and shine.  This one seemed to be a fish scale that glowed a silverish white, until looked at up close, where one can see the prism of different colors speckling the scale.

"These are the Demonic Shard and the Gleaming Scale.  These are high end materials that are needed to produce end game equipment.  The Forager can find shards, while Fishermen can find scales, but only after reaching top rank.  I'm still working on that myself."

He then pocketed his unique materials.  Didn't want a target placed on his back while being on the first floor.  Who knows if any ill could be brought about out here.  When he was finished, he pulled on the line to find that there was nothing there again.  He sighed.

"It's not always rewarding..  I prefer hunting properly than doing all this.  However, you can get some basic treasure out of fishing too, whenever the hook snags it.  Which is why I took it."

Hirru then reeled the line in all the way, and put the rod away.  He wouldn't be needing it any further than here.

"So, you've got all three unidentified items, huh?  What next?"

"Aaah!"

Hirru awoke with a start.  Where was he?  Looking around, it looked like the final festivities were over, but there were some last minute sales coming out from the both of them.  He shook his head.  What was all of that?  He thought that there was someone else here for a few minutes.  How long was he out?  Hirru checked the time, and it seemed he had conked out for a few hours.  There wasn't much that he could do about it now.  At least he could get in on the last minute sales.  Looking upon the selection for the first time, the hunter was reminded of the last event with all of its dubious items.  This was a game, he would think.  Some of these items were quite familiar, but it seemed that he couldn't get another gungnir.  Pity, really.  He decided to work on some things with his work.

141 Seeds

4 Tags

Links:
 

Purchasing:

• Halloween Favour x2 = 100 Seeds
• Candy Corn x2 = 40 Seeds

Tags = 4

• Halloween Candy (x3)
  Tiered Consumables of choice between the following:
  { DMG/MIT/OH/ACC/EVA/LD }
• Reroll Tickets (x3)
  Allows a re-identification attempt on a single enhancement slot from a single piece of gear at a Merchant.

Total used: 140
Total Remaining: 1 (A single seed left behind, to grow anew within the light.)

Hello!  Welcome to our site!

Hirru could hear the sounds of steel against wood, and wondered what the heck was going on upon the hill side.  A quick look back was akin to looking upon ones looming death, as the canopy of the tree that Yona had cut through was falling his way.  There wasn't much time, and he didn't have that much speed for evasion versus some other players.  He tried to get up from the river embankment, but he slipped.  Foot splashed into the water as he fell to the ground.  All he could do was watch as the trees limbs fell...  5 meters in front on him, shattering upon impact of the ground.   What did he think was going to happen?

The girl had found her second item, and Hirru had found nothing else.  He sighed a bit before looking back to Yona.

"Unconventional, but that'll do.  I can't really see anything else in the area.  Why don't you come over here?"

He repositioned himself while casting his line out once more.  There wasn't much time for fish to hit his line this time, and didn't hesitate to pull upon the line.  However, there wasn't anything on the line when he did.  Another one got away.

"Maybe there is something in the water that I could fish up, or you could too.  Well, you can do so if you get the fishing secondary profession, but that's on you."

Hirru looks back to the water while he hooks another piece of bait.

"Right when I'm getting to the good part.."

The hunter sighed roughly as he got up while the crashing and rumbling seemed to cause a few of the rocks to skip away and ruin his diorama.  He would have to redo it some other time, he thought. 

"Well, at least we can look into getting more stuff for the floor raid with this."

Now, he drew Shelob's Fang from it's sheath and attacked the devilish treant, but not before Koga could speed along and get hit.  That was bad, as the hunter saw a fifth of the boys health disappear in an instant.  This guy wanted to go into the front lines?  He would have to look into buffing that HP quite a bit, although he remembered that their stats were reverted.  Was health something that was affected by it?, he thought.  Looking at his own, it looked like it, as his skills health may have been reduced too.

"Hold on, Koga!  I'd rather take the damage here for ya, you don't have the mitigation like I do."

"It's either that, or kill mobs for it."

Hirru shrugged it off.  At least this quest seemed to be going in the right direction for the young woman, although she did seem to talk quite a bit about the oddest of things.  Overpopulation of mobs?  Players being name dropped like crazy, but the hunter couldn't make heads or tails of any of the names.  Must be trying to get up to the front lines.  He knew quite a few people were, but some liked more solitary lives.  He tried both, and could reasonably say that the depression from falling out from the front hit harder.  Although, that was all his fault anyway.  He preferred to stay with the gang, and venture forward.

When the girl seemed to be able to find something the hunter clapped.

"Good.  That's one down.  I think I see another one in the tree, over there."

He said while pointing towards an obscure tree upon a hill, which seemed to hug a small river that flowed through the area.  The hunter would then think of a wonderful idea, while the girl was doing her thing. 

He would go and fish.  Taking his rod and tackle out from the back of the wagon, the hunter walked over to the river and sat down.  The hook was baited, and he whipped the rod a bit to cause the line to go farther out into the water.  With this, he would wait, but not for long.  A sudden snag would pull upon the line, and the hunter would pull hard against it.  With a pull and a tug, something splashed out of the water, wriggling upon the hooked line.

"That's nice and quick."

"Unidentified items?  I mean, I have a few myself, but if you're around here.."

The hunter tried to remember what was around here that would require that kind of quest.  If it needed unidentified items, it must be something to do with appraising.  Was the new appraiser quest on this floor now?  He remembered that he found the Merchant on the fifth floor, but it may just be a coincidence.  In the end, Hirru figured that they had their own agenda, and didn't want to pry any further.

"..Well, normally you can find them off of killing mobs, or finding chests.  Not much you'll find out in the wild, but quests are something different.  If it's telling you to find some out here, I would recommend looking out in the brush.  You never know if someone left something odd behind."

Hirru pointed out behind the wagon to the bushes and trees that Liz was trying to replicate through her skin tone.

"Nice to meet you, Yona.  Personally, I'm trying to find an acquaintance that owns a smithy on the other side of the first floor.  Although, I've found myself stranded until the NPC that controls the Travelling Flame gets back.  I don't properly own the shop itself, nor do I know how to make Elizabeth move.  I just appraise the unidentified items that I farm."

His interest in the situation seemed to peak a bit when some rumors were talked about.

"I'm not too sure on all that.  Been working around some other floors, and killing as many as I could.  Haven't really noticed that there were more of them, though."

"Lizard.. folk?"

The hunter looked from the girl to what she was looking at.  His confusion became understanding as he saw that Elizabeth, a giant chameleon that had been the caravan's mount for as long as the hunter had known the Merchant, was now slightly visible, which only meant one thing.

"Liz!  You ate another ration, didn't you!?  You know you can't be eating the Merchant's stock when he's gone."

Hirru yelled out at the reptile, which scared Elizabeth and caused her to nearly disappear into the background.  A quick eye could easily catch her outline moving, and she was still attached to the wagon.  One could still go over and pat the reptile, if they so choose.

"Great, now I gotta restock AND comfort you too?"

The hunter walked over to the camouflaged reptile, and began patting it's backside.  It didn't take much to get more product, but that was still having to purchase stock from other places, and he forgot how the prices on this floor were.  They should've been fairly low, but that meant they were still low quality items for beginners.  He would then be reminded that he had a guest.    He turned back to the girl while groaning about the situation.

"Huh.. Oh sorry.  I don't know about lizard folk, but she is a big lizard.  At least, as far as I can figure."

He finished patting and comforting the giant chameleon before addressing the girl once more.

"I'm Hirru, appraiser of the Traveling Flame.  Did you need something, or did I distract you from your duties?"

In the absense of anything to do, Hirru had taken the rest of his time from the prepping for the front lines, to getting some long needed rest.  He was still on the move for more preparations, but he didn't have much else to do while traveling.  He could be appraising some weaponry and armor that he, Freyd, and Ariel had procured, but he didn't feel like it.  Everyone was already heavily equipped and had their own builds going.  It was only the hunter that didn't have what he wanted, and even then he had already made up his mind for the current raid.  He would be the support that they all called for.

Hirru had already talked to some people in the Firm Anima guild, about a new piece of armor.  They had sent him four individual pieces to be worked into a new holy / life armor piece, but the issue came to get them fused.  He only knew one specific blacksmith, the apparently legendary Macradon, but Hirru was still in bad place with him.  It would not be feasible to go to Mac.  It was then that he found a very particular individual with a very particular smithy.  He was on his way to said smithy when.

"Rune Scribe, I got something that might interest ya."

Hirru awoke from within the wagon of the Travelling Flame, the merchant shop that was conveniently placed within a moving vehicle.  It had come to an immediate stop, and when the hunter looked out from behind the canopy, he could see that they were on the outskirts of the first floor, just outside one of the towns.

"Merchant?  Why are we out here?  Koga's shop is on the.."

He checked his map to see his location.

"It's on the other side of this floor!?  Why are we here?"

"Some rare people to see, Scribe."

With that, the Mysterious Merchant, garbed in purple robes and belts galore, stepped off the stage coach and walked the rest of the way into town.  Hirru just sat there on the edge of the wagon while Elizabeth, the unknown variable of a reptile that pulled the wagon, was now stealing one of his rations.. again.

"So... now what?"

The hunter would notice someone coming out of the town.  A woman wearing some odd clothing, it seemed.  Well, the hunter had seen many different people in many different attire.  It wasn't much to say that it wouldn't be so strange to see, even on the first floor.  Were they someone that could handle themselves on this floor?  The hunter then realized that he was on the first floor himself, which meant any mobs would likely turn into a T4 variant.  Those were much more powerful than the regular mobs on this floor.

Throwing caution against the wind, Hirru waved over the young lady, hoping that they wouldn't seem to off put by a man with green hair, riding a wagon pulled by a semi-camouflaged chameleon.

@Yona

Hirru's stats
 

It was a good thing that the healer used barrier when he did.  The second scather.. cannon.. thing had exploded all over them, leaving them in a haze of white, while a slight screeching could be heard.  The wave of heat would He could barely tell what was going on, as the battle seemed to get more intense.  What was that about his loved ones? 

As the healer's vision started to gain a bit of headway, his eyes seemed to find that everything was blue for a second.  What was now the boss looked quite different from his other counterpart.  Much more menacing and less forgiving.  What the hell happened to the other one?

"I guess we have a proper fight on our hands now, huh."

He could barely see that Firm Anima had really put the smack down on the newly activated scather.  They didn't have to worry about explosions this round, he hoped.  Hirru pulled out a small red crystal from out of his pockets and raised it on high.  With a secondary calling, he would shout out a rallying cry.

"Do not let your eyes deceive you!  This King does not know the thousands we protect!  Let your blades strike true!"

A low hum would sound out before a violet aura seemed to resonate upon all of the members of Team 1, before the crystal shattered and another red aura covered the lot of them.