Evander

Evander watched the other ships ram into the turtle. Everything was looking good, really good, in fact. The boss's health bar kept dropping lower and lower, and it looked pretty much dead. One more round should- then, it started glowing. What in the world? The cracked shell split off from the body, and a new, shiny shell gleamed. The health bar of the monster rose back completely to full. This... was not good, to say the least. Then, things got worse. It's head smashed into their ship, and Evander grunted, as it slammed into him. He glanced up at his health bar. That was definitely alarming. More than half his health had been knocked off. He probably couldn't even take another hit of that. This was probably why it was a boss, after all. Evander began to breathe faster and faster. Adrenaline was rushing through his veins. The last time he had been this close to death was when he was a mere level 2 player, fighting against wolves, or that time he was level 5, also fighting against a wolf. Come to think of it, wolves had almost killed him a bunch. It was both exciting, and terrifying, knowing that his life was this close to being snuffed out. Evander pulled out one of his healing crystals. Thank goodness Takao had given these to him. This had reminded him that death was very much a real prospect in the game, and that he needed to prepare more. He nodded at Jonathan, and used his crystal.

<Used 1x T1 HP Recovery Crystal>

+40 HP

Evander waved at Domarus as he came closer, clad in a new armor. His dragon seemed to be staring at him, and he waved at it. Rhozarth was a nice name. Then, a player, Aereth, came up to them and invited them to be put on his ship, since his crew didn't really show up. So, the two of them were to be placed on Aereth's ship, huh? That sounded alright. Safety in numbers and all, especially since Teayre wasn't here. Evander nodded to Domarus. He was lucky that Aereth had been kind enough to let them on his ship, and he needed to repay it somehow. He knew that he wouldn't be able to do much damage at all to the monster, but he would at least try his hardest. The ships set sail, and they approached the center of the lake. Selina's ship crashed into the sluggish turtle-like monster first, and their ship came shortly after. Evander stumbled a bit as the ship came crashing full force into the giant turtle, er, thing, he was pretty sure they didn't have two heads in real life, and held up his sword in preparation for an attack. He stood back, letting his teammates charge up first, before charging in to attack the beast himself. He prayed he wouldn't horribly embarrass himself. Evander gripped his blade a bit tighter. Perhaps it was time to try out a new sword art he'd managed to learn. The name itself already sounded pretty cool, so he was sure <System Assist> would make it really cool as well. "<Lightning Fall>!" His sword began to glow, and he followed through with the system guidance to jump and backflip in the air, before landing and causing a wave of electricity to streak towards the turtle. That had been... honestly, really really cool! It had also probably hurt the thing quite a bit, since electricity and water didn't really go well together. He really felt like a hero now. His hopes were slightly dashed when the health bar barely moved down at all, but he reminded himself that that was to be expected. He was just a low-level player after all.

Evander laid back and relaxed in the flowers on the second floor. He'd been really, really lazy for a while now. It felt like he hadn't even done anything for a month. He'd been living the life off of the money he got from the Nerius event, able to eat dinner every single day. He needed to get moving, and be actually productive for once. Just as that thought passed through his mind, he started, as the system wide notification popped up in front of him. Ah, right, the ship building quest. He remembered constructing The Aria with Domarus and Teayre pretty well. It looked like the old man, Romolo, he was pretty sure, had finished their ship. Heh, he remembered barely turning it in at the nick of time. Well, all he had to do now was to just head back up there. Maybe he'd actually get back into the fight for liberation again.

Evander teleported up to the 18th floor, stumbling out of the plaza. Ah, yes, the lovely smell of swamp. Evander grimaced as he walked towards the dock, and towards more open water, dodging dead planks along the way. He stopped in front of the docks. Wow. Five large ships were docked at the shore. He'd always wondered what it would've been like to sail in a ship. Now he had the opportunity. He looked around, seeing a few other players. Seemed that not many were there yet. Then, he saw the fiery red haired little girl that had started the event, and called them all to arms. "Hey there, @Selina! Nice to see you again. I don't think we spoke before. I'm Evander, soon-to-be captain of The Aria, and I'm fairly certain my crew's the same. What's going to be the plan for attacking this monster?"

(It's no trouble at all.)

Evander was glad that whole infighting debacle was over. The Vice-Commander of the Knights put his foot down, and the conflict was put to an end. The whole group stepped out of town, and traveled deep into the forest. The sun barely shone through the leaves above, and only a faint, spotted light made it to the forest floor. The first raid group entered into a clearing, and the fight began, as the Vice-Commander charged straight at the boss. Evander looked up at Nerius. The tree-monster-boss-thing was pretty intimidating. He was glad he was in a good raid group. One by one, the teams charged forward, letting off a flurry of attacks on the boss. It's health was already down to about half, and they hadn't even made a full rotation through the teams yet. Things were going swell! No casualties, so far, and if things kept going at this rate, there would be no casualties at all. Before he knew it, it was already time for his group to go. Evander held his sword at the ready, and charged towards the boss. He prayed he wouldn't miss. His sword glowed, as he activated his sword art. His blade cut deep into the boss, and he had a feeling it was a pretty good hit, even if it were nothing compared to what others had done.

 ID# 75266 results:

 Battle: 9+2(Nerius EVA)+1(ACC)= effective 9 (critical +1)

Sword Art Activated: <Star Quint Prominence>

DMG: 5+1(crit)= 6x6= 36 DMG done

881-36= 845 HP

Bleeding for 2 turns (12 DMG)

@Row

OOC: Agreed. Also, I thought you were just going to post the summary and we would be done, so, heh, sorry for not posting until now. I can do the summary, and lock the thread.

Evander scratched his head. Huh. Jonathan had some important guild duties to get to. That was rather unfortunate. Especially if he were being called in this late at night. "Alright, man, I'll see you later. Hopefully the matter isn't too serious. I'll be sure to train as fast as I can so I can get up the frontlines. Maybe, if we're lucky, I could even get in the same raid party as you. Good luck!" Evander waved back to Jonathan as he left, and walked back to the city on his own. Evander scratched his head as he pondered the new information he had learned that night. Jonathan had been really, really helpful. He would be sure to make good use of all the information he had learned. As Evander passed through the gates to the town, he looked back at the moon. It had been a pretty nice night. As he stepped into the nearest inn, ready to pass out in the cheapest room he would be able to rent, Evander just hoped he would finally become useful in the fight for freeing Aincrad. If he worked hard enough, and fast enough, perhaps he really would.

Summary

Evander: +1 SP, +200 col

Morgenstern: +1 SP, +200 col

Thread Complete!

Team 3, huh? Alright, that was cool. As he walked over to his team, he recognized a very familiar face. "Oh, hey, Jonathan, what's up? I'm glad to hear that you're leading this group, since you're one of the few people I know here." Evander turned, as a ruckus broke out between a few players. Well, that was most definitely not good. As one of them left, he scratched his head. "Hey, dude, do you know what just happened over there? Didn't look good, from what I just saw. They seem like pretty high-leveled players. Wasn't one of those girls supposed to be in our group or something?" Evander turned to look at the rest of his teammates, and found himself faced with two players with blue hair. Huh. He didn't think blue hair was all that common, but he supposed his group was pretty lucky, to be able to have two different people with blue hair.

Then, things got worse. The black-haired guy in their team entered the argument as well, seeming really distraught. He was friends with one of the girls in the fight, apparently, and she was the one that was supposed to be on their team as well. Some pretty heated words were let loose, and Evander couldn't help but be a bit lost. Pretty much all that he could glean from the fight was that some guy named Lowenthal was dead, and that some relationships were just broken off. Man, this event had devolved into chaos pretty quickly. At least it wasn't during when they were fighting the boss, he supposed. One of the girls introduced herself to the group, providing a very welcome distraction from the argument. "Hey, Row. I'm Evander. Nice to meet you." Evander wracked his head for the other names that Mack had said would be in Team 3. "And, uh, Birdie, right? It's a pleasure to meet you as well." Evander glanced at the emotional black-haired man. He supposed that would be Hikoru, and that one of the girls in the fight was Ariel. "Well, uh, I hope we can get to know each other a bit better, and get along with one another, I guess. This, was, uh, a kind of bad start to the event, huh." Shoot, he didn't know what to say. Well, all he could hope for was that no one else in their group got involved in the heated debate.

Evander put the back of his hand to his mouth as he yawned. The moon shone down on them, high in the sky, the stars twinkling in the heavens. He was reminded of how late it was. A drink really would be good to clear his mind. Evander smiled. Jonathan really was a nice guy. It was incredibly noble to devote one's time to helping others. He guessed that this, at least in part, was one of the reasons Jonathan was a tank- a tank's role was perhaps the most altruistic one, dedicated towards protecting others. Interesting. Though, those thoughts could wait for another time. Oh yeah, drinks. Huh. What was he in the mood for? "Uh, it's a bit chilly, up here in the mountains, so I guess something nice and warm would be good right now. I think I saw a cafe while I was walking through town. You wanna go there? I'm okay with other stuff, as well. I can pay for the drinks, since I was the one to suggest it in the first place." Evander stretched a bit, in preparation for the walk, and waited for Jonathan's reply. 

Evander jumped, as the large man in charge of this whole shebang pointed at him. That was the, uh, Vice-Commander of the Knights, right? What was his name again? Mack, was it? That sounded about right. Oh yeah, he should've probably been listening. So, some player named Hydra was giving out amulets, that would help defend against the boss's poison attack thing, huh? Well, if the man in charge of this whole thing was ordering him to get one, it was probably best to listen to him, if he didn't want to die. Evander edged through the other players to get to Hydra. "Hey, man. I'm Evander. I guess I'll be taking one of these amulets, then, since I'm one of the lower-leveled players that Mack was mentioning."

<Locusta's Respite> obtained!

"Thanks, Hydra. It's pretty nice of you to make extras of this thing to help out other players." Evander put the amulet around his head, and stepped away. And, now they were going to be gathering around different players according to role. Great. Well, he most definitely was not a healer, with no <First Aid> skill, and only a measly three healing crystals to his name. And, with only 12 mitigation, he could pretty safely say that he wasn't a tank, either. So, DPS it was. Oh, huh, DPS people were supposed to gather around Teayre. He definitely knew her, she were going to be on a boat with Domarus and him. "Oh, hey, Teayre. I'll be standing in your group, I guess."

Updated Stats

Evander nodded as he read the message board in Urbus. Interesting. There was going to be another community boss effort, huh? Well, he may as well join in on the fun. He looked closer at the message. Perfect, it was on this floor! He didn't even have to go anywhere too far away. Let's see, the meeting place was going to be at the north gate, and was being organized by the Knights of the Blood Oath. Though he knew near to nothing about the various guilds trying to clear Aincrad and guild-related things in general, even he had heard about them. They were one of the largest guilds in the game, headed by a man named, er Heathcliff? That name sounded about right. Evander turned away from the board, and began walking towards the north gate. If this boss had popped up on the lower floors, it probably wasn't too horribly difficult. He had good chances of surviving, at least. Ahead, he saw the north gate, and a small crowd of players around it. Evander stood on the fringes of the crowd. This was the group he'd be working with, huh? He noticed several players that looked pretty high-leveled, with their fancy equipment. There was some sort of bear wandering around, likely a familiar, and some lower-leveled players too. Quite an eclectic mix. Well, he supposed he would just wait around here, until the event started.

Evander flumped down onto the grass as well. It was good to know that Itzal and his guild were making headway on their goals. He really did hope they succeeded. Aincrad needed a guild like that to be successful, especially now. As they went up the floors, the number of players would decrease, with irreversible deaths. It was very important to teach people to be able to protect themselves now, while they were still relatively low on Aincrad, so that there would be more survivors to help later. And, of course, more survivors in general. Evander listened to Itzal. Huh, so Itzal had always been more of a scouting type, from since he started out. And this hill of verbena flowers was the first verbena patch he had found in the game. It was interesting how some could tell what kind of flowers were what. Evander himself had never really been, er, informed about flowers. He just knew the basic ones, like what a rose was or something. He wondered what significance verbena flowers had to Itz- oh. His sister had loved them.

Evander took note of the use of past-tense. Was his sister... dead? Oh boy. That was a fairly depressing thought, though it could have been a mistake, he supposed. Probably not. Many had lost their lives in Aincrad. So, that was Itzal's main motivation for working towards escape, along with generally getting everyone out. Evander reflected on his own motivations. Huh, now that he thought about it, he realized he had never really thought about why he was even doing this. Sure, he had the general 'get everyone out' thing too, but no real personal motivation. His brow furrowed. Why? Well, he could think about that later, he supposed. "Yeah, sure, man, of course! Fighting monsters with you was pretty fun, and I never would have known about this hill, if you hadn't told me about it. We should do this again some time." Evander put his hand on his chin. There was only one issue. How would they even contact each other? Oh, right, friend requests were a thing. Evander opened up his menu and sent Itzal a friend request. "I just sent you a friend request, so that we can message each other and meet up whenever. It'd be pretty hard to meet up again by just chance or something."

Evander took note of Jonathan's words as he spoke. All of this stuff would definitely come in handy later down the line. He composed a sort of checklist in his mind. Alright, a high-damaging weapon, a good piece of armor, or a shield, and some sort of accessory for healing. Well, he could probably get all of those pretty easily at a shop or something. Alright, simple enough. The next words took Evander somewhat by surprise. A loot-finding familiar? Huh. He supposed he had seen people with familiars around them like pets before, but he hadn't given it much thought. He thought it had just been for appearance or something. But, as it turned out, familiars could actually do something! That was very interesting to note. All in all, that was very informative. Jonathan had even given him a schedule, on which to develop his skills. "Wow, man, thanks a lot, seriously. I didn't expect you to give me all of this useful information, considering how late it is at night, and how we pretty much just met." How could he even repay him for this? This information would probably help him survive, and even thrive on the higher floors of Aincrad. It gave him goals to shoot for. "Hey, man, want to go get a drink or something? It's pretty late, but NPC stores should be open. We can keep on talking there, if you'd like."

Celestial Ascendants, huh? Interesting name, and spoke to high aspirations. And, wow, the guild certainly did have high aspirations. It was a tight-knit group that tried to act as a family to all of its members, tried to help train its lower-level players, and sent the higher-leveled players to help with the frontlines, and tackling the bosses. The guild did practically everything a guild could do here in Aincrad. It was altruistic, and its goals were certainly what most guilds aimed for. There was also an interesting power structure in the guild- a council of four, who each represented the four main builds you could follow in SAO. These paladins probably trained the lower-level players they accepted and taught them according to the build they chose. "Huh, that's an interesting guild you have there. I hope you all succeed in your pretty lofty goals." Then, the two of them stepped out of the trees, and found themselves on a hilltop, covered in purple flowers, with a breath-taking view of their surroundings. Evander had a feeling it would be even better at sunset. Itzal's words confirmed his suspicions. "Wow. This seems like something out of a postcard or something. I can definitely see why it'd be your favorite spot. How'd you find it? Were you just exploring around the area or something?"

Evander rolled his neck. He wasn't going to be able to contribute much at all to this fight, so he had best get out of their way. Evander glanced at the time. Oh, shoot! Time for the event was running out. They needed to get up and turn in their supplies quickly. "Yo, Domarus, time's really running out. We need to get away from these mobs as fast as we can and go turn in our stuff for the event. I don't think we can get enough stuff for the special feature thing. Since I'm faster, I'll go turn in our stuff, okay?" Evander sheathed his sword, and looked straight into the mobs' red, beady eyes. The boar had no regard for time, or whether they were late or not. They didn't even care if they impeded them or not. They were just unthinking AI, with only one thing programmed into them- kill. Evander slowly backed away. Alright, on the count of three, he would try to run from the fight, and shoot for the Town of Beginnings. It might be a bit tough with their hate focused on him, but he could probably make it. When he got there, he would rush to the teleport plaza, go up to the eighteenth floor, and turn in their stuff. Alright. He had the whole plan outlined in his head. Now, to put it into action. One... two...

Prepared to run!

Evander: HP: 256/260 Energy: 23/26 MIT: 12 Base DMG: 5

4x Boar:  HP: 172/180  MIT: 32  DMG: 10

Total DMG: 7(thorns)

Mob DMG (explaining Domarus' post): 10-12(MIT)=1 DMGx4(boar)= 4 DMG done

Evander panted as he rushed through the small settlement of Eriwald. Time was ticking. They literally had only moments before the event started. Faster, he needed to go faster. He skid to a stop in front of the two event NPCs. He was here, he made it. They had just barely finished gathering their necessary supplies, and he had rushed up here to turn them in. Oh, thank goodness. He took a deep breath to compose himself and walked up to the elderly male NPC, Romolo. "Here you go, sir- all of the necessary supplies are here. I'm really sorry for being so late." Evander smiled wearily at the old man. "Oh, yeah, I forgot to tell you what kind of ship we wanted- my group and I would like a two-seater, please, to fight the turtle thing. I'm pretty sure this is enough, right? I really hope so..." Evander scratched his head. Yeah, that was about it, he was pretty sure. Evander paused before pressing the turn in materials button. Maybe... maybe he should wait before doing this. He didn't know whether Spectrum Coalition had enough supplies for the boat, but he could wait and trust in them for a bit longer. In the end, he handed over the items.

Name: The Aria
Dimension: 2-Seater
Captain: Evander
Animal Fat: [ (32) «Normal» ] 
Wood:[ (5) «Noble» ]
Extra Feature: No
Description: A light, fast, and sleek wooden ship, designed for speed. Plain, and unadorned with any colors. There is a single mast and sail.
Group: Domarus, Evander, and Teayre
Guild: None
Threads: 32 Normal Fat, 5 Noble Wood

Evander scratched his head. Any way they looked at it, they would need more wood. He didn't know how much wood Teayre's family had, but he had doubts that she and her husband could get every single piece of wood they needed for a ship for all of them. And, he didn't know if he would join at all yet- he still had unanswered questions. So, it was best to add to their meager stockpile of wood. It was a win in any situation. Evander nodded to Teayre, and headed off to pick up some more branches. He glanced over to Domarus. It seemed he was off killing more boar. The man really loved killing his boar, didn't he. Well, all of that animal fat would just go to waste if they didn't have enough wood. It would be a horrible shame if they had done all of this, only to miss the event and have accomplished nothing. Evander crouched down and picked up good sized branches. They needed to get moving if they wanted to be done on time. The event would be closing soon. He just hoped he could get these branches fast enough. Then, he heard Domarus calling for him off in the distance. Ah, he wanted his help in fighting the boar. Well, he would try to help out as best he could. He rushed on over, leaving the pile of sticks behind, and activated Rage Spike. A pretty good hit, if he did say so himself. Only, he did the bare minimum damage against these armored mobs. "Shoot, sorry, man, I don't think I'll be of much help here. My damage is too low for these armored mobs."

Evander: HP: 260/260 Energy: 22/26 MIT: 12 Base DMG: 5

4x Boar:  HP: 179/180  MIT: 32  DMG: 10

ID# 71493 results:

 Battle: 8+1=9(effective 8)

Sword Art Activated: Rage Spike (AOE)

DMG: 5x(1x2)=10-32(MIT)=1 DMG done to mobs

@Domarus

Evander picked up a couple more branches, then heard Teayre call out to Domarus and him. Huh, what could this be about? He set his sticks gently down, and walked on over to the two of them. Oh no, bad news, which could be good news. Whatever the case, news implied change. He had a feeling a whole lot was about to change in the next few moments. Wait, wait, what? Teayre was already doing this quest with her "family"? Alright, family could mean two things- either she was literally in Aincrad, with her family, or she was part of a tight-knit guild. Apparently, they were welcome on the ship with her guild/family. They just needed to get as much fat as they could now, and her and her husband would get the wood. Husband, huh? Interesting. He supposed that in a life or death game people were more eager to get married at a younger age. But, back to the main topic at hand. He didn't really know this guild at all, and to be honest, he didn't really know Domarus or Teayre at all. They'd never even had a real conversation before. He needed to find out more about the situation before agreeing. Though, apparently Domarus didn't think so. He just jumped right in. Evander scratched his head. "So, um, before I agree to this, how many people, exactly, are in your "family"? And, uh, how big of a ship would we have to build? We have, right now, altogether, 32 bundles of normal animal fat and 5 bundles of normal wood. Is that enough fat? How many supplies do you have with your family?"

Total ship building materials count:

32 Bundles of Normal Animal Fat, 5 Bundles of Normal Wood

Evander strode quickly to another location. Time was running out. Off in the distance, he heard the sounds of fighting and grunting come to an end. Domarus must've finished up with those boar. Well, that was good- they needed more wood, not more animal fat. It was very easy to get animal fat, but wood, man, wood was horrible in trying to get. Evander stopped, and leaned back against a tree. Let's see here, they needed about, what, say, 9 more bundles of wood? Shoot, this was going to be difficult. Especially for him, without his LD enhancements. He felt like half the time, Domarus' charm thing was just pulling through for him in finding these materials, not even himself. And, to think, normal wood was supposed to be easy to get! He shook his head, and bent down to start picking up more branches. He would get there eventually, he supposed. Maybe it would be easier if he started a pile of the branches, instead of just carrying them under his arm. Evander dumped the branches he was carrying onto the ground, and tossed good sticks onto it. Hopefully the system would still count these as a bundle of wood. The system notification noise rang out. Thank goodness, he wasn't doing this all for nothing.

Obtained one <Bundle of Normal Wood>!

 ID# 71438 results:

 Loot: 10+2(LD enhancement)=12

Total ship building materials count:

32 Bundles of Normal Animal Fat, 4 Bundles of Normal Wood

Why did this game have to be so cruel? He had wasted so much of his time just picking up branches for nothing. And that wasn't all the game had done- it had ripped away families, and taken away lives. Evander sobered up at the last thought. That was right- people had died in this game. And he had the gall, the audacity, to complain about picking up branches in a forest? Lives were being taken away every moment because of this horrid game. He had no right to curse the game for this. Though, it was pretty annoying, he could not deny that. Evander took a deep breath, focusing himself, and went back to picking up branches. Things didn't seem so bad when compared to death. One branch after another, just one branch after another. If he let his mind just become empty, time went by quickly. Before he knew it, he had another load of branches under his arm. Now, all that was left was to wait and see if the game would accept this as a bundle of wood. The notification popped up. Thank goodness. Though, he had best move onto another location- this one was devoid of branches now.

Obtained one <Bundle of Normal Wood>!

 ID# 71292 results:

 Loot: 8+2(LD enhancement)=10

Total ship building materials count:

28 Bundles of Normal Animal Fat, 3 Bundles of Normal Wood

Sounds of fighting rang off in the distance. Domarus must've been already beating up those mobs. It was probably a whole lot more enjoyable and thrilling than gathering up sticks. Evander leaned back against a tree. Alright, he was going to take a break for a bit. He took a deep breath, inhaling the crisp autumn air. There had to be an easier way to collect these bundles of branches. There was no way the game expected them to do all of this in such a short amount of time. Granted, the event had been going on before they started, and it was designed to be for more people to take part, instead of the bare minimum, and the game was trying to be as realistic as it could, but- yeah, he could see the game making them pick up these many branches. With a sigh, Evander knelt back down and got back to work. There was no use complaining, anyway. All he could do was just go with the flow. Eventually, he got a whole armful of branches. He waited expectantly for the system message. Five minutes passed. Nothing happened. Evander threw down the sticks and screamed to the heavens.

 ID# 71290 results:

 Loot: 1+2(LD enhancement)=3 (why)

Total ship building materials count:

28 Bundles of Normal Animal Fat, 2 Bundles of Normal Wood

Evander tramped on heavily to the next patch of ground in the forest, listening to the leaves crackle under his feet. He hoped everything was going alright with his partners. Well, actually, he knew everything was alright with his partners- Domarus was fighting floor one mobs, and Teayre was picking up sticks too, for goodness' sake. The worst thing they could be suffering from was boredom. Evander rolled his shoulder, cracked his back, and stooped back down to start picking up branches again. When would the darn game recognize that he had finally picked up a bundle? Did he need to toss out some bad branches first, then be awarded with the menu popping up saying he had collected a bundle of wood? Or did he have to keep on picking up even more sticks? Who really knew? Evander picked up another branch. Why did they need to pick up twelve darn bundles of wood minimum anyway? He knew that was how it worked in real life and all, but that was a whole lot of sticks. He put another branch under his arm. Finally, the blessed, blessed noise from the menu rang, informing him that he had collected enough sticks for another bundle.

Obtained one <Bundle of Normal Wood>!

ID# 71277 results:

 Loot: 10+2(LD enhancement)=12

Total ship building materials count:

28 Bundles of Normal Animal Fat, 2 Bundles of Normal Wood

Evander picked up a branch. This was quite tedious, wasn't it. It was just picking up one branch after another, after another. He needed something to distract himself from the monotony of the task. He examined another branch, and put it under his arm. Maybe he could find some interesting train of thought to think about? What could he focus on to make this task less arduous? He cocked his head, and listened. He listened to the wind blowing through the trees, to the birds chirping in the distance, to Domarus' heavy footsteps as he approached a group of giant boar-wait what? Evander looked over at the clearing. Domarus was tackling some leveled mobs by himself, probably to loot some premium animal fat. Whoa. Well, if he thought he was able to, he wasn't going to stop him. He was still helping out a whole lot. But, wow, okay. He picked up a hefty piece of wood. He wished Domarus luck in his fight. Well, he had no doubt in his ability to fight the things, but he hoped he was able to finish it quickly. Evander looked at the ground. He had pretty much exhausted this area of loose branches. Time to move on to another location, he supposed.

 ID# 71265 results:

 Loot: 5+2(LD enhancement)=7 (nothing) (why, Lady Luck, why)

Total ship building materials count:

28 Bundles of Normal Animal Fat, 1 Bundle of Normal Wood

Evander looked at the four boar that Domarus was fighting. He was so focused that he almost looked like he was having a staring contest with them. Evander chuckled a bit at this image. Perhaps his thoughts were on the battle, perhaps they were on other things, but one thing was certain- he was thinking heavily. "Alright, man, when you're done, just go on over to the forest and look for some wood with us, okay?" Evander smiled at him, and walked to the edge of the trees. He noticed Teayre nearby, looking around for some branches and the like. "Hey, Teayre. How's it going with the wood? I finished with my portion of the animal fat so far, so I'm going to be helping you out in collecting wood. Domarus should be done soon, so he should be coming over to help shortly. After we collect, say, 5 bundles of wood each and get 3 bundles of noble wood altogether, we should meet back up in that clearing to go look for some tougher monsters for the premium animal fat, alright? I'll be somewhere over there if you need me." Evander walked off and bent over, looking for branches. He sighed. This was going to be the boring part of their item collection.

 ID# 71224 results:

 Loot: 1+2(LD enhancement)=3 (fail)

Total ship building materials count:

24 Bundles of Normal Animal Fat, 1 Bundle of Normal Wood

@Domarus

Wow, Jonathan had never met anyone who had been able to go down that path successfully? That was almost kind of discouraging- and Jonathan likely knew a whole lot of people, considering he probably held quite a prominent position in his guild. But, it was possible. That was all he needed to know. It was possible, and someone else out there was just like him, too. For some reason, he felt really excited at the prospect of facing this looming task. "Alright. Thanks, man. I think I have a more concrete idea of what I want to do, now. I think I'm going to shoot for that jack-of-all-trades build. If I don't make it, well, then, I don't make it. At least I tried, you know?" Evander rolled his shoulders. His breath came up in puffs in the cold autumn air. The clouds, few and far between, moved sluggishly across the sky. "So, I realized I never really asked, but how come you love being a tank so much? What made you love tanks? Did some personal experience happen, or were you inspired by another person, or do you just like the idea of taking on damage for others?"

Evander got to his feet, spitting out grass. He picked up his sword. Man, he was just full of mistakes today, wasn't he. It was quite embarrassing. Perhaps he was just distracted or something. He didn't even have bad weather with which he could foist the blame onto. He took a deep breath, and focused. It was kind of disappointing, really, that he had to do this for floor one boars, but if he had to do it, then he had to do it. Much less embarrassing than continually missing his every attempt at attacking. He looked around at the boars surrounding him. They kept on grazing their grass. Now, that was just adding insult to injury. They didn't even see him as a threat. Time to show them. Evander tightened his grip on his sword. Alright, no distractions. Just himself, and the four boars. And also the bright, shining sun and random birds chirping, but he couldn't think about them right now. He prayed that system assist cooperated, and let loose his sword art. His sword cut through the boar, and they all burst into pixels before they could even raise their heads. Well, that was... anticlimactic, at best. How had he gotten so worked up over floor one boars? Man. Evander walked over to Domarus. "Hey man, if you're done with yours, I think we have enough animal fat for now. We should go over and help out Teayre in collecting wood. I also got some mats from some of the boars, surprisingly, so we can split those amongst us when we're done. Since it looks like we killed the same amount of mobs, lunch is on me."

Combat

Evander: HP: 252/260 Energy: 16/26 MIT: 12 Base DMG: 5

Boar: HP: 0/4 DMG: 10

Boar: HP: 0/4 DMG: 10

Boar: HP: 0/4 DMG: 10

Boar: HP: 0/4 DMG: 10

 ID# 71211 results:

 Battle: 6+1(ACC)=7

 Loot: 9+2(LD enhancement)=11 (no mats)

 MOB: 1 (critical fail)

Sword Art Activated: Rage Spike (AOE)

Total DMG: 5x(1x2)= 10 DMG done

Total ship building materials count:

24 Bundles of Normal Animal Fat, 1 Bundle of Normal Wood

Evander closed his loot window. They were making a lot of progress, which was good. He glanced over at Domarus. The man was already fighting another group of boar. Evander totaled up in his head the amount of supplies they had. If his calculations were correct, they were almost two times the necessary amount in animal fat. If he offed another group of four, and Domarus finished his off, they should be more than done with animal fat, which was swell. He couldn't really see Teayre amongst the trees, but he hoped she was making some progress on the wood. Evander looked around. The two of them had just about cleared this field of boars, which was impressive, but expected, considering these were just floor one mobs. He managed to spot another cluster of four near the trees. Huh, the AI really liked clustering groups of no more than four together, didn't it. Maybe it was programmed to make it so that it wouldn't be too difficult for starting out players to kill these mobs? Perhaps. Evander rolled his neck and charged towards the group of boar. After this, it would be time to go look for some wood. He tripped over a stone, and landed on his face. Agh, he thought he had learned his lesson about focusing on fighting- apparently not. The boars walked on over, and began to graze the grass by him. He sighed. At least the boars didn't notice him.

Combat

Evander: HP: 252/260 Energy: 19/26 MIT: 12 Base DMG: 5

Boar: HP: 4/4 DMG: 10

Boar: HP: 4/4 DMG: 10

Boar: HP: 4/4 DMG: 10

Boar: HP: 4/4 DMG: 10

ID# 71163 results:

 Battle: 2+1(ACC)=3 (fail)

 MOB: 1 (critical fail)

Total ship building materials count:

20 Bundles of Normal Animal Fat, 1 Bundle of Normal Wood