Aetharan

He laughed quietly to himself as he brought that half-pike back for another good thrust.  "You girls really are intent on making me commit familicide, instead of a simple regicide, aren't you?  Fine by me.  I killed your momma, I'll kill you both too...  along with any of your sisters that you call in for help."  Just like mowing the grass back in that other world.  Keep pushing, and eventually the job is done.  At least, for the week.  There'd always be need to do it again later, but that was no reason to give up.  Princess A was aiming her stinger at his chest this time, and he could only assume that the one behind him was going for either his spine or shoulder.

Curiously enough, all that resulted from any of the attacks was a whole pile of fail.

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(ID# 29372 results: Battle: 2 Craft: 7 Loot: 6 MOB: 2) (ID# 29373 results: Battle: 3 Craft: 7 Loot: 17 MOB: 3)

(Exchange Results:  A whole lotta nothing.)

There was no longer any fear that he'd die like this.  There may still be two stingers to worry about, but judging by how much that princess's HP had dropped with his strike, these two each had only about half of what the Queen had.  That meant that he was already more than halfway through the fight, instead of just one third.  Cut 'em down.  Swing, stab, and pierce the way through, just as if you were mining in that wall again.  Keep going through the motions, and the quest would pretty much complete itself, right?  Yeah.  All he had to do was kill these two more mobs, and it was over.  He could go turn in for the spoils.

That weapon of his managed another good gouge at the target in front of him, though this time it was in exchange for a good slash from her stinger along his forearm.  He was still at over half health.  He could take this.  Thankfully, her sister hadn't become any more effective with this swing than she'd been with the last.

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(ID# 29369 results: Battle: 8 Craft: 5 Loot: 5 MOB: 8) (ID# 29371 results: Battle: 6 Craft: 7 Loot: 9 MOB: 5)

(Exchange Results:  Aetharan drops to 15/23 HP.  Normal hit for (2-2=0, min 1) damage.  Miss.  Princess A drops to 7/16 HP.  Normal hit for 4 damage.  Princess B remains at 16/16.  Not targeted.)

One down, two to go, and neither of them as tanky as the first.  Life was good, and so was he.  No fleeing now.  The only way out was to win.  Even if he could run away, there was no way he'd disengage against a couple of bugs when there was a chance he could take them out and, even better, just maybe pull in some extra loot!  Of course, this meant that he no longer had enemies divided by 120º, putting each of the ones behind him in his periphery, but now he'd be swinging at one while the other had his unguarded back to herself.

Spear took an overhead swing at Princess A, even as she and her sister went for his legs.  Luckily, neither of them seemed quite as competent as their mother had been, and his first swing bit deeply into his target, while neither of their stingers even came close to him.

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(ID# 29367 results: Battle: 9 Craft: 6 Loot: 13 MOB: 4) (ID# 29368 results: Battle: 4 Craft: 9 Loot: 11 MOB: 4)

(Exchange Results:  Aetharan's HP remains 16/23.  Miss.  Miss.  Princess A drops to 11/16 HP.  Critical hit for (4+1=5) damage.  Princess B remains at 16/16.  Not targeted.)

He was close to finishing his original target.  She was in the red.  One more good hit, and he could move on to the adds.  As long as he didn't pull any more like an idiot, this might be something he could come out of alive.  He'd hate for his name to show up on that monument in the starting city with a cause of death reading 'fatally stabbed by a trash mob.'  It would be depressing!

Do or die time.  One more thrust with his half-pike, doing his best to sever the point where the Queen's head attached to the rest of her.  There wasn't anything he could do about those stingers except kill their owners quickly.  As the black iron tip of that weapon sliced through his target and the Queen dissolved into light, even though her stinger was in his leg at the time, he began to think that he just might pull this off despite the extras.  Especially when each of their stingers skipped off of a rerebrace, not quite in sync, but within the same heartbeat.

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(ID# 29365 results: Battle: 8 Craft: 10 Loot: 10 MOB: 7) (ID# 29366 results: Battle: 2 Craft: 7 Loot: 10 MOB: 4)

(Battle healing proc.  Aetharan's HP goes up to 17/23.)

(Exchange Results:  Aetharan's HP drops to 16/23.  Normal hit for (2-2=0, min 1) damage.  Miss. Miss.  Queen's HP drops to -2/20.  Normal hit for 4 damage.  Both Princesses remain at 16/16.  Not targeted.)

Now that he was getting used to the idea of being surrounded, he couldn't help but chuckle at the insanity of it all.  "You know, if I was surrounded by humanoid lady-mobs, this would be a lot less disturbing.  Next time I fight a queen and two of her daughters, can I have elves?"  What was that old joke about MMOs?  If you have to stare at a rear end all day, might as well be an attractive one, right?  Yeah.

Blade was given a wild jab toward the Queen, not even really paying as much attention to what part of her he was aiming at as he was to the simple 'hit her, you idiot' aspect of it all.  Sadly, there wasn't much he could do about the incoming trio of stingers other than hope that they missed.  His strike was surprisingly effective, impaling the Queen in the thorax, but she got hers in return, digging into his forearm gut.  It wasn't deep, but she'd managed to get under his armor that time.  One of the Princesses just buzzed about uselessly over his head, but the other managed a glancing strike across the back of his arm.

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(ID# 29363 results: Battle: 10 Craft: 6 Loot: 12 MOB: 9) (ID# 29364 results: Battle: 1 Craft: 7 Loot: 19 MOB: 7)

(Exchange Results:  Aetharan's HP drops to 16/23.  Critical hit for (2+1-2=1) damage.  Critical miss.  Normal hit for (2-2=0, min 1) damage.  Queen's HP drops to 2/30.  Total critical for (4+2=6) damage.  Both Princesses remain at 16/16.  Not targeted.)

He'd been an idiot to think that he could just charge the boss without clearing out her trash first.  Now he was going to pay the price in virtual pain until he could even the odds again.  Aetharan was cursing himself as an idiot for finally having let himself get surrounded by mobs.  "Overconfidence is the biggest player-killer in this death game.  Can't let it take me.  Can't afford to!"  Uppercut with the blade-onna-stick, he had to keep working on the Queen.  The Princesses had the same pathetic damage potential as she did, so the faster he could score a kill, the less he'd be hurting.  Just had to keep those two in his peripheral vision and try to dodge what attacks he could until the Queen was dead!

For the moment, he seemed to be on the losing side.  The twins at his flanks were too much of a distraction, causing him to fumble pathetically.  Thankfully, the Queen herself seemed too distracted by pain to land a hit either.  One of her daughters got in a strike at his shoulder, though.  Nothing for it but to keep fighting!

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(ID# 29361 results: Battle: 1 Craft: 9 Loot: 19 MOB: 1) (ID# 29362 results: Battle: 8 Craft: 6 Loot: 11 MOB: 3)

(Exchange Results:  Aetharan's HP drops to 18/23.  Critical Miss, Normal hit for (2-2=0, min 1) damage.  Miss.  Queen's HP remains 8/30.  Critical Miss.  Both Princesses remain at 16/16.  Not targeted.)

With three mobs now on him, things were suddenly a bit more worrisome than they had been a moment before.  He had to finish off the Queen quickly now, before their numbers alone turned out to be enough to overwhelm him.  Gritting his teeth, he steadied himself and prepared for the next thrust.  "I will not be killed here.  You hear me‽"  There wasn't anything to be done for it except attack, attack, attack!  Pray that his armor and battle healing would be enough to mitigate the problems until he'd gotten rid of his enemies.

Now that they had him surrounded, the three wasps assaulted him in tandem.  He had one stinger coming at his chest from in front, while the others came at either shoulder from behind.  Ultimately, three of those attacks found flesh to bite.  His own weapon was one of them, snipping off another of the Queen's legs and distracting her enough for her stinger to miss, but both of her daughters managed to sting him while he was at it.  He needed to focus and get this done fast!

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(ID# 29358 results: Battle: 7 Craft: 8 Loot: 9 MOB: 2) (ID# 29359 results: Battle: 8 Craft: 8 Loot: 20 MOB: 9)

(Exchange Results: Aetharan's HP drops to 19/23.  Miss.  Normal hit for (2-2=0, min 1) damage.  Critical hit for (3-2=1) damage.  Queen's HP drops to 8/30.  Normal hit for 4 damage.  Both Princesses remain at 16/16.  Not targeted.)

He was surprised that the mob had even tried to go tactical on him like that, instead of just sting, sting, sting!  Not that she was presenting any real threat yet.  A side-step and he reversed his grip, bringing the weapon at her in an overhead thrust with a playful little snarl.  If he'd known that combat could be this much fun, he might have crawled out of that bed sooner than he did!  For her part, the Queen was showing no sign of slowing down.  Stinger was aimed for his right shoulder this time.  Even if she hit, it'd be skidding along his his rerebrace.

More important a problem was that he seemed to have caught the attention of two more large wasps.  They weren't as big as the Queen, but they certainly seemed like they could be an issue-- especially while he was occupied with whittling down her health!

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(ID# 29355 results: Battle: 5 Craft: 5 Loot: 13 MOB: 6)

(Exchange Results: Aetharan's HP drops to 21/23.  Normal hit for (2-2=0, min 1) damage.  Queen's HP unchanged.  Miss.)

New Contestants: Wasp Princess A and Wasp Princess B.  Each has 16 HP and hits for 2 damage.  Their introduction will necessitate a second roll per turn, starting next round.  Princess A will be represented by the Battle result on that roll, while Princess B takes the MOB result.  Aetharan and the Queen will continue to use the first roll per post as they have been.

If he kept having fun like this, people were going to start doubting his sanity.  Not that he exactly minded.  He'd not had any lasting talks with any players since he snapped out of his fugue, and until he could prove to himself that he was worthy of joining the ones on the front lines, he didn't really intend to do so.  "Keep training, you crazy b******.  Keep going until you can introduce yourself to them as a worthy companion...  as a ****ing champion among solo players."  He just had to keep killing and building his skills until there was nothing that could stand in his way.

Then, he'd break Aincrad.

Without a thought for the danger, he stabbed for his victim's thorax, even as she did her best to put that stinger of hers in his gut.  Her stinger managed to strike his weapon's head away, forcing him to miss her horribly, but it also meant that she couldn't do any damage to him in the exchange either.

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(ID# 29353 results: Battle: 1 Craft: 5 Loot: 19 MOB: 4)

(Exchange Results: Swing and miss for both sides.)

Just a little longer, and he'd have her.  He knew it.  This creature didn't stand a chance, and he wouldn't give her one.  Laughing out loud-- after all, he was having quite a bit of fun with this-- Aetharan decided to aim for the root of one of those wings this time.  If he was lucky, he might even be able to maim the mob enough to weaken its flight capabilities, make it even easier to kill her!  That would just be adding insult to injury...  and giant insects deserved that kind of insult, now that he thought about it.  He really hoped that this attack went through!  For her part, the Queen was a single-minded type.  When all you have is a hammer, and all that, right?

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(ID# 29349 results: Battle: 7 Craft: 11 Loot: 12 MOB: 6)

(Battle Healing proc.  Aetharan's HP now 23/23.)

(Exchange Results: Aetharan's HP drops to 22/23.  Normal hit for (2-2=0, min 1) damage.  Queen's HP drops to 12/30.  Normal hit for 4 damage.)

No mercy.  Not for a mob.  Especially not one this ugly!  He had her on the ropes, already missing a third of her health after only two attacks.  If he could keep this pace up, he'd have her dead even faster than he'd taken out Gemini earlier in the day!  Giving the blade a whirl, he grinned sadistically and took an upward stab at her.  It reminded him, for a moment, of those times long, long ago when he'd had Link learn the 'up-thrust' move in the second Zelda game.  Wow, that was an old one, wasn't it?  He was always grateful to his older brother for having made sure that he got to play those NES gems.

Even as his spear came up after her, the Queen was doing her best to drive that stinger into his body.  He didn't sever any limbs this time, though she did get another good gash along her thorax.  For her part, Her Highness managed her first successful strike on him.  Not that it mattered all that much.  The creature's stinger found his armor and hit it hard, only for what would have been a nasty stab wound to instead become a bruise across the forward half of his left shoulder.

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(ID# 29348 results: Battle: 6 Craft: 10 Loot: 1 MOB: 9)

(Exchange Results: Aetharan drops to 22/23 HP.  Critical hit for (2+1-2=1) damage.  Queen drops to 16/30 HP.  Normal hit for 4 damage.)

Note:  Although Battle Healing triggers with the die roll, I'm treating it as having procc'd before he took the damage.  Thus, it does no good this round, but if next turn would also trigger it, he'll heal now that he's actually damaged.

There wasn't any sense in treating this like a fair or noble fight.  It was a quest of eradication, and the creature in front of him wasn't going to be a hard one to kill.  All she had going for her was a health pool larger than his.  She had no mitigation, and would have to score a total critical on him to do more than one damage through his armor.  He had a one-in-four chance any given exchange of restoring a hit point on top of that, while she had no regeneration at all.  Yeah, she was screwed.  It wasn't a question of if he would win, but how long it would take.

Even as the queen lifted herself from the ground after that fumble, he was pulling his weapon back and giving a full-body spin to build up extra momentum for the next thrust.  The little flourish gave her time to ready her next strike as well, but he wasn't even slightly worried.  Although she didn't fumble and fall this time, he was able to drive his blade into her hard enough that she lost one of her six legs, along with the chunk of her thorax to which it was connected.

The fact that he'd just knocked off a fifth of a 'boss' mob's health in one strike was worth some laughter!

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(ID# 29344 results: Battle: 10 Craft: 6 Loot: 11 MOB: 5)

(Exchange Results: Aetharan remains untouched.  Miss.  Queen drops to 20/30.  Total critical for (4+2=6) damage.)

Once he'd reached the supposed spawn area, Aetharan stopped to look around himself and take stock of the situation.  There were a few trash mobs some distance away from him, but he didn't think they'd aggro on him unless he directly attacked them, now that he over-leveled this floor by as much as he did.  In the middle of this clearing, however, was a big 'un.  That had to be her-- the queen that they'd been telling him about.  It was only confirmed when he closed just enough to see over her head the name, 'The Wasp Queen.'  Yep.  This was his target.

Aetharan readied his half-pike with a malicious grin, and dove in for the first strike.  It wasn't anything particularly special, really, just a jab at her abdomen with the vicious-looking weapon that he was already growing very fond of.  She tried to sting him in return, but in her surprised flailing, all she managed to do was drop to the ground for a few moments.  Poor thing.

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Our contestants:

The Wasp Queen:  HP 30/30, damage 2 for a normal hit.

Aetharan:  HP 23/23, damage 4 for a normal hit.  Mitigation 2.

(ID# 29342 results: Battle: 7 Craft: 11 Loot: 20 MOB: 1)

(Exchange Results: Aetharan untouched.  Critical miss.  Wasp Queen drops to 26/30.  Normal hit for 4 damage.)

If he was going to be honest with himself, this walk through a temperate forest was far, far nicer than the jungle had been.  He needed to get his smithing skills up enough to craft a set of armor that provided as much protection without the extra fluff of wolf-fur making him even warmer.  Oh, it was great on his home floor, standing on the back porch and gazing out over the snow, but the warmer places?  Nooot so good.  Nope.  Still, that was a consideration for later, wasn't it?  Yeah.

More important for the moment was the walk.  Peaceful, really, especially since the typical field mobs here were weak enough that he'd one-shot them, and even their best shot could only deal scratch damage.  Heck, aside from harder spawns like the one he was hunting, he might as well be invincible down here.  Thus, it wasn't all that much work to get where he was going unscathed.

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(Aetharan gained a level.  HP improves to 23/23.)

Boss fights.  That's what Aetharan was training himself to get ready for, wasn't it?  This one may be a bit below his level, and was a respawning field boss, but it was still supposed to be a lot stronger than things on its floor typically were.  Far more important, it was a quest that, like any other, would ensure he walked away from it stronger than he'd been before accepting it.  Thus, once the word of it reached him via the rumor mill, he decided that this big*** bee or whatever it was needed to die.  It would be good target practice, right?  Yeah.

It'd been less than an hour since he got back home from slaughtering Gemini when he decided to go for his next kill.  Once again, he closed down the shop for a little while and headed for the warp point, this time going down two floors instead of up.  If he could whistle, he'd be doing so as he walked.  Instead, he was quietly singing Megadeth's 'Kill the King' to himself as he walked out of town and in the direction of where he'd heard the boss spawned.

Quest accepted.  Target locked.

Now was the time to wander around looking at the pretty sights...  which was to say, letting himself be just a little bit of a perv while the perving was worth it.  It wouldn't last long, and he ultimately found himself contemplating what the point was of creating NPCs that were so easy on the eye when, after all was said and done, it wasn't exactly as if the game designers had been intending for this to be an h-game or anything.  Heck, he wasn't even certain that there was any coding to allow for full functionality even if two players did decide they wanted to get it on.  Where NPCs were concerned, he was utterly certain that even if the code did exist, it wouldn't be worth it.  Heck, going farther than looking would just be creepy.

On that note, he shook his head and turned back toward the teleportation monument.  It was time to return to his home on floor 4.

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Summary Post

Kills: Gemini

Thread Complete Rewards:  400 Col, 4 SP (1 from thread, 3 from quest), Concentration extra skill.

Arrival at Amazon came pretty much on schedule.  Geez, this had been such a short adventure, hadn't it?  Hear a rumor, go up a couple of floors and walk into the woods...  One hour out, a few minutes of invoking stabbity death, a breather, then an hour back.  Not that he minded even in the slightest!  The fight had been an easy one, and he felt stronger for having gone through it against that Gemini punk.  More importantly, the skill that he'd picked up from the fight might make the difference between a hit and a miss at a critical moment against a boss some time in the future.  Every little edge he could get was one he needed to get.  That much was for sure!

Contemplation ended, Aetharan lifted himself from that makeshift bench he'd been treating the fallen tree as and turned back toward the town of Amazon.  He only had an hour to go, probably somewhere between two and four miles at the pace he'd been traveling before.  There was certainly nothing wrong with the idea of spending a few more minutes admiring some Amazonian-NPC hind ends before returning to his wintery home, right?  Nah.  There'd never be anything wrong with admiring a well-sculpted body.  Especially when it was one that didn't belong to a player who'd be in the mood to slap him for leering like an idiot!

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(Out-of-combat recovery of 1 HP.  Now at 20/21.)

Looking down, Aetharan watched some of the wound indicators shrinking on his body, with the most obvious one being the ever-narrowing circle in his leg where Gemini had stabbed him.  Healing out of combat was a good thing, but he was thinking that he needed to acquire a method of restoring himself more quickly.  Preferably with the side effect of some in-combat regeneration, come to think of it.  Screw the whole idea of shelling out Col for potions and crystals.  Those would be reserved for when he was side-by-side with a dozen or so others facing a floor boss or something.  He just needed to hasten the recovery time after his little solo fights, so that he could take more things on faster in a given day.  Yeah, that would help him get stronger.

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(Out-of-combat recovery of 1 HP.  Now at 19/21.)

The mental image of that memetic bad*** from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms trading in his Sky Piercer for the flag that Aeth's twin sister had twirled back in high school was giggle-worthy, and with nobody here to judge him?  Well, he giggled, d**nit!  There was no reason to feel any kind of shame for having found humor on this quest, was there?  Nah.  If he ever actually stopped to try to make friends here...  he just might have to share that little joke with them.  Lu freakin' Bu trying to land a quad-throw without hitting himself in the head with the flag pole.  Yeah.  He didn't think even the great hero could match that particular feat of his sister's.

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(Out-of-combat recovery of 1 HP.  Now at 18/21.)

Thinking on it, this little mirror match had taught him an important lesson.  Oh, it was one that he'd already known instinctively after years of gaming in general, but this was his first outright proof of it in this world.  When skills were equal, gear would decide the fight every time.  Never get caught unarmored, and always keep working to make your weapon just that little bit better, every time.  There was never such a thing as 'good enough'.  Even a perfect crafting wouldn't be enough.  He needed to make Lu Bu look like a little girl twirling a baton.

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(Out-of-combat recovery of 1 HP.  Now at 17/21.)

He couldn't let himself fall into despair just because there were people he couldn't protect.  Even if he'd been active from the very beginning, and had been the fastest to level right out of the gate, there would have been people whose deaths he couldn't have stopped.  That was just the way of things.  Don't look back in sadness.  Instead, look into the future with hope.  He was getting stronger by the day, and before long he'd be in good enough shape to start helping those on the front lines.  He was sure that the eleventh floor boss was going to be down long before he was ready to help, but with a little luck and a lot of work, he thought he might be able to join in come time for the twelfth or thirteenth.

His spear would break Aincrad yet.

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(Out-of-combat recovery of 1 HP.  Now at 16/21.)

After that sad little display, Aetharan moved to the side of that path where his battle had just ended and settled himself on a fallen tree.  Watching himself die like that had been disappointing.  Sad.  Was that what others would see, if he bit it in this death game, or would it be more impressive if it was a player instead of an NPC, even if their faces were the same?  He wasn't sure which would be more appropriate.  "One thing's for sure," he murmured to himself, "I never want to find out the hard way whether a real player produces a brighter light.  If I do see it, it means that I've failed...  Goddess, how many people have already died, while I was doing nothing?"

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(Out-of-combat recovery of 1 HP.  Now at 15/21.)

Gemini's simple spear dropped to the ground first, vanishing in a blaze of light as if it had broken against Aetharan's armor, although he knew it hadn't.  The victorious player kept his eye on that reflection his own face, however, even as he lifted that half-pike just enough to force Gemini's feet off of the ground.  The NPC was now ever so slightly in the air, supported only by the pole-arm ran through him as his hands moved to grasp the pole, and he stammered out something that Aetharan couldn't hear.

Flesh blazed brightly, then the NPC shattered into a thousand shards of light that faded into nothing.  Only then did Aetharan shift his position again, slipping his weapon into its sheath on his back.  He would then just stand there, staring at the spot where his other self had vanished for a good two or three minutes before he finally spoke, though as usual there was nobody there to hear him.  "So...  that's what it will look like when I die.  How...  sad."

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(Out-of-combat recovery of 1 HP.  Now at 14/21.)