Bhairyuu

After straining his ears in an attempt to do a preliminary recon on the room before him, Bhairyuu did not detect anything too out of the ordinary, so he opened the door slowly and cautiously, wondering what he would see inside. The sight that greeted him was one that was entirely unexpected...namely that of yet another overly well-endowed female, albeit this one seemed to be around his age. Sadly for him, he had somehow managed to catch her in the midst of changing her clothes, causing him to stand stock-still once more in shock as he had when he saw Blaire not too much earlier. He was fortunate, however, since the young woman had not noticed his presence yet, so he decided to capitalize on the boon granted to him by his lucky stars and stepped backward. This proved to be his undoing for when he did, his boots clanged against the doorframe, finally alerting the young woman to his presence.

Bhairyuu watched in ever-increasing horror as her countenance went through an expected transition from surprise to embarrassment and finally to anger, with her heart shaped face adorned now by a brilliant crimson flush. However, his body just would not obey his command to turn tail and run for his life since he was still spellbound by her exquisite voluptuousness. As a result, when the young woman rushed at him and commenced slapping him repeatedly while screaming insults like "Pervert!" and "Lecher!" at him time and again, he was unable to defend himself and so, ended up with his usually gaunt cheeks now swollen with a clearly visible angry red handprint on each of them. After she had calmed down, he hastily spoke up while rubbing his smarting cheeks gingerly

"W-Wait, miss...I-I...I am n-not a pervert...I am sorry for my trangression..."

His snarky response elicited yet another tinkling laugh from Blaire who then replied with another one of her teasing smirk

"Really? You are willing to do anything to convince me of the veracity of your qualification as a student of alchemy?"

She paused, leaned closer to Bhairyuu and whispered, letting her warm, sweet-scented breath waft over the shell of Bhairyuu's ears while she traced imaginary circles upon his herculean chest

"Well then, catch me at my alchemy lab if you can, boy...this is your first test."

With that, she stepped away from him nimbly and darted off, soon vanishing into the distance, leaving Bhairyuu to himself. Bhairyuu smirked and muttered

"Hehe, what an interesting woman...she will regret doubting my worth."

With that, he set off in pursuit, sprinting down the stairs next to his current location with renewed vigor at the thought of proving her wrong. Within the next few minutes, he reached the first room and put his ear against the door in an attempt to discern who or what was in the room beyond the door.

Bhairyuu had not been expecting a warm welcome in the slightest, but when he heard the patronizing tone in which Blaire had spoken to him and saw how she was clearly trying to discourage him from pursuing alchemy as a profession, the corners of his mouth turned down just a smidge, causing a barely visible frown to play upon his thin lips for a brief few seconds before he spoke up, even more determined now to convince her to teach him alchemy.

"Oh? So the famous Ms. Blaire thinks that I am not good enough to enter the ranks of your distinguished line of pupils, does she?"

He paused for a few seconds as he collected his thoughts and then continued in a semi-sarcastic, and semi-serious tone

"I prithee, do tell me what I would require in order to gain your approval, won't you, Ms. Blaire? I would be remiss if I did not seize this opportunity to learn from you...I will go to any lengths, make any sacrifice, irrespective of the degree...if it means I can earn your acceptance. Of that, you can rest assured."

He waited to see if that would convince her of the strength of his convictions towards the pursuit of alchemy.

Several minutes had passed during the time that Bhairyuu and the woman whom he now knew to be Blaire the Master Alchemist had introduced themselves to each other, and so, he had managed to revert back to his usual calm, cool, collected self. Once he had regained his composure, he replied

"Ms. Blaire, eh? A beautiful name for a beautiful woman, I suppose...now let's get down to business, shall we? I would like to bessech you once again to consider taking me under your wing and teaching me all there is to know about the ancient art of alchemy...What do you say?"

To that Blaire replied with a lyrical laugh after which she spoke, her tone clearly meant to dissuade him

"Hmm...well, I do have an opening for my third and last apprentice...and I suppose I could take you on...but are you sure about this? Alchemy is NOT something to be trifled with, boy...you don't seem strong enough at present to undergo the trigorous training that one would require to become an alchemist..."

She spoke and gave him a once-over with her gaze intense and piercing, as though she was trying to gaze into the depth of his mind. After that, she fell slent as she waited to see what Bhairyuu would do in response to her little test.

Anyone else may have balked at the sight of the woman appearing so suddenly, but Bhairyuu was completely taken in by her curvaceous figure and had been staring, open-mouthed, at her while his eyes roamed up and down her form despite the reasonable part of him screaming for them to not do so. So for the first few seconds after she had posed her question, Bhairyuu did not answer, but rather stood stock-still. Seeing this made the ghost of a smirk play upon the woman's full, ruby-red lips, and so she leaned even closer and whispered into his ears

"Well...I am waiting, boy...tell me, what is it you seek from this place?"

Upon hearing those words, Bhairyuu managed to snap out of his stupor and cleared his throat while moving backwards away from the woman. Once he was a safe distance away, he replied

"I-I..I am Bhairyuu and I seek a teacher to impart unto me the secrets of alchemy from the most basic...to the most arcane and well-guarded...and I was told you were the best teacher around, so i decided to come here and see if I could win your favor in this regard, miss..."

He paused, hoping the woman would take the hint and come forth with her name in turn. His hope was realized when the woman smirked even more widely and replied

"My my bold aren't we? To ask my name when we have only just met...but still, I shall give it...my name is Blaire, little boy..."

A few uneventful seconds passed as he continued to drink the contents of the flask in his right hand and Bhairyuu was starting to get disappointed when he felt another tap on his shoulder and so, he spun around on his heel swiftly, fully expecting to see the owner of the castle or one of his/her subordinates...but again, he saw absolutely nothing, save for his creepy surroundings, illuminated as they were by the firelight. Muttering to himself, he turned back and took a particularly long draught from the flask, polishing this one off as well. Then he waited for anything noticeable to happen, and his wait was not in vain this time as his arms changed shape to look like the tentacles of an octopus...or perhaps a squid. Bhairyuu examined his new appendages with great amusement and interest, musing

"Well well...this could come in handy...let's see how long it lasts..."

He waited to see what would happen with one eye on the timepiece outside in the dining hall and the other on his new appendages. After a few minutes of waiting, he felt another tap on his shoulders, so he whipped his body about and lo and behold, he came face to face with an exceptionally well-endowed woman clad in standard witch's attire and with curious pieces of jewelry adorning her statuesque, seemingly 30 year old figure. The woman leaned close to him and spoke, her voice having a enchanting tone to it

"Well well, what have we here? It seems like my security has become lax...if even such a greenhorn such as yourself can sneak in to my sanctuary...but...you intrigue me, so I will spare you...but tell me boy...why have you come here? And what is it you hope to gain?"

Awesome, I will let you know when I am good and ready.

Heya, Anemone, I would love a chance to RP when I get around to being free again. I'll let you know soon. Hopefully, we do get the chance to do so sometime. Your character seems pretty chill and interesting too.

[OOC: I hope you all dont mind me dropping in to play through this thread with you.]

Bhairyuu had been wandering around that same forest where he had gone earlier to gather wood for the Rovian Wars event quest when he heard a muffled crashing noise as though someone had tripped on something and fell to the ground. So he hastened in the direction of the noise and came upon Hydra who was apparently the source of the noise he had heard earlier. As he came closer, he saw Hydra was being helped up by Dominion, a player whom he had met recently, so he called out

"Hey Hydra! Are you okay, bud? That fall looked rather nasty..."

Upon reaching them, Bhairyuu noticed two other players there as well whom he had not encountered before, so he nodded to them in greeting and flashed them a cordial smile before extending a hand to @Hydra to see if he would take it to pull himself up. While waiting he nodded to @Dominion as well in the same friendly manner as he did with the other two players.

Bhairyuu chuckled as he watched Row stumble while trying to answer him honestly and that chuckle only grew as he watched her hastily beat a retreat away from him and out of the general area where they had been hanging out till then. Figuring it was time that he too made his way out, Bhairyuu turned on his heel and headed off as well in the direction of the safezone, looking forward to having a nice meal and a drink before indulging in some training in order to improve his skills.

Upon reaching the center of the town, he went to one of the inns and bought himself a small meal and a beer, sat down at one of the stone structures near the outskirts of the town and watched the setting sun with his keen piercing green eyes filled with wonder, muttering

"Kayaba...you are something else...madman though you may be for trapping us all here..."

While wolfing down his meal and washing it down with a beer, Bhairyuu wondered if he should visit his good buddy Khrysaor and hang out since he essentially had nothng better to do at the moment.

- Bhairyuu left -

Bhairyuu noticed @Rowlooking dejected and hastened to assuage her worries

"Oh, Row please don't worry so much. i don't mind your late greeting one bit, I know how distractng the thought of an interesting quest can consume a person. I am the same way, so I can completely understand your sentiments."

He said in his rich baritone but melodious voice, trying to make it sound as comforting as he could and hoped that Row would pick up on that and relax around him. Then, while he was waiting for Row to reply, he nodded to Dominion to signal that he had heard him. It was then that he noticed the friend request that Dominion sent and immediately approved it, adding him to his friends list. He then sent a friend request to Row in turn, hoping she would accept it. Then he waited to see what Row would do in response.

Bhairyuu smiled as he listened to all the other players all around him as they conversed and so he could engage in one of his favorite hobbies, people-watching. After a while, he decided to speak up with his two cents on @Dominion's choice of possible masteries

"Hmm, you may be the one of the only players I know who is going to be focusing on unarmed combat. It's an interesting choice to be sure, but what sort of build are you going for, Dominion? tank? DPS? or maybe a hybrid of both?"

He asked curiously and paused to collect his thoughts for a second or two and then continued

"I am going for a balanced build for the most part, with the focus being on DPS if any at all...with a more minor focus on the Martial Arts skill..."

He then fell silent and went back to observing the other players and tryng to absorb all the knowledge he could about them while he waited for Dominion to respond to his comments and wondered what he was planning to do in addition to the Martial Arts extra skill.

Bhairyuu was walking around the <<Town of Beginnings>> when he caught a glimpse of the notice board having a new note on it, which of course got his mental gears moving under the influence of the spirit of curiosity that had overtaken him once more. So, he headed up to the board and checked out the note only to find that it was some sort of small quest arranged by Mack, one of his distant acquaintances. As he read over the note, he muttered to himself

"Hmm...obviously this note is from Mack as can be seen from that little paw print at the bottom...if memory serves Mack is the only player I know with a bear familiar so far...and the note mentions Christmas festivities...that means fun in the snow and other related things...let's see, the only floor that has something like that going on now is...Floor 4...it's not much to go on, but hey...atleast it will cure my boredom..."

With that, he walked over to the teleport gate at a languid pace and once there, he declared with a long, drawn out yawn

"Teleport...Floor...4..."

As soon as he had said that, he disappeared in a swirl of bluish-white light and reappeared on Floor 4 and stumbled out of it, and to his great dismay, he did a fantastic face-plant into the thick layer of snow that covered the streets of the Floor 4 safezone. He lay there for a few minutes groaning and shivering because of the sudden sensation of intense cold on his gaunt cheeks, not knowing that @Khrysaor was also there a few feet away from him.

Bhairyuu nodded to Khrys indicating that he would call on him then waved goodbye to Khrys and then after spending some more time studying the various people still lingering at the fest, he decided it was time that he excused himself

"Okay, that's enough fun for one day...I need to get back and get some rest so that I can be ready for whatever that group will be doing in the way of crimes in this world too..."

With that in mind, he got up, dusted himself off and after downing the last of the "Sherry" he had in his goblet, he set it at the counter and headed up to @Zandra. Once there, he bowed to her slightly and then excused himself

"Thank you very much for the invite, Ms. Zandra. I enjoyed myself here quite a lot. If you ever decided to do something lke this again, then please feel free to send me an invite too. Well then, I really must be heading out now. Have a nice rest of the day, mademoiselle Zandra."

After that, he waved a short goodbye to her and then headed off in the direction of the teleport gate as well and then vanished off to Floor 1 once more.

Since the spirit of Christmas was in the air, and also since he had recently been to Frostbite Lake to kick things off with a bang, Bhairyuu had decided on a whim that he would travel to Snowfrost Town since he had overheard some players earlier talking about how <<Cardinal>> had seen fit to decorate the whole place to suit Christmas. So after getting ready for the day, he put on a woolen version of his usual outfit, gathered his inventory in his utility belt around his waist and after strapping on his new sword <<Embodiment of Apophis>>, he headed out tot he teleport gate in the <<Town of Beginnings>>. Once there, he spoke in a loud, clear voice

"Teleport! Floor 4! Snowfrost Town!"

Just like always, almost instantly, he disappeared in a flash and swirl of bluish-white light and then reappeared in the middle of Snowfrost Town, amidst all the festivities. He stepped off the platform and as he waded his way through the snow-laden streets, he took in the sights and sounds one after another. However, he could not bring himself to enjoy it at the moment because it reminded him of the many Christmastimes that he had spent with his family before they were all killed by the band of rogues he had entered into SAO to hunt down and bring to justice. He remained dejected like that for several minutes, but slowly and steadily, he managed to regain his spirit. Coincidentally, his meandering had brought him to the doorstep of a shop selling Christmas trees so he cheered himself up

"No point in feeling sad much longer about the past...might as well focus on the present...and that means getting a Christmas tree for the room that I have been renting in that inn located in the <<Town of Beginnings>>..."

It was then that he spotted Khrys among the crowd and so he waved to him, calling out

"Yo! Khrys! Over here, bud!"

[OOC: @Hydra]

Bhairyuu nodded to Khrys as he too looked out at the now more or less deserted beach and commented

"Yea, it really is a shame, but hey at least I got to see some interesting characters here...some of them seem to be frontliners too, so all in all not a bad turnout...though I do agree it could have been more..."

He then watched as Khrys went to get his drink and while waiting for his buddy to come back, he continued to observe the various figures on the beach, idly wondering where Zandra was and whether she would want to hold something like this beach fest again. As he observed the passersby, he took a few more sips of his "Sherry" and decided to get more after Khrys was done ordering his drink, musing over the various members of the secret organization he was on the hunt for and wondered what they were up to and how exactly he would go about tracking them down and punishing them for their crimes in the real world.

Bhairyuu watched with great interest as Hydra fnally took down the behemoth molten rock monster and tried to commit the movements and such to memory so that he could possibly use that data later on sometime. Then he called out to Hydra and the rest of the players engaging that monster

"Congrats, guys. Good job taking down that monster. So  what are we going to do now? Search for another one...or perhaps explore the town a bit, take in the sights and such?"

He looked around trying to see if he could spot any interesting or atleast amusing places to visit and then started waiting for a response from the group in general, all the while wonderng if they had anything else planned and how he could fit into the overall scheme. While he waited, he pulled out a loaf of bread and a bottle of water from his inventroy and started munching on it because he had not had anything else in the way of refreshments since breakfast, so needless to say he was more than a little bit hungry. As he ate, he studied the new faces in the group in an attempt to glean some info about them without actually asking them about it outright.

Bhairyuu let out a brief, deep, rumbling chuckle as he heard @Khrysaor reference some characters from his most favorite anime of all time and turned about in his seat since his drink had just now arrived, this one being something akin to a drink called "Sherry" in the real world. So he turned his head slightly towards Khrys and with a smirk, he replied while gently swirling the drink in the goblet with his index finger

"Hmm, I haven't been able to locate any of those three you mentioned, but I HAVE located "Sherry"...so it's a start at the very least...and in case you're wondering if I will let you in on the fun, the answer is yes, bud."

After that brief reply, he too turned around towards the ocean and started to watch the passersby with a nonchalant expression in his eyes and a slightly amused ghost of a grin on his thin lips as he waited to see if Khrys would understand what he meant by his cryptic reply.

Bhairyuu nearly leapt out of his skin when he heard Khrysaor's voice so close to him, but luckily he was able to calm himself down just in time to notice that Hydra and the rest had engaged some sort of monstrosity in a battle just outside the safezone. He cast a sidelong, exasperated glance at Khrys and spoke

"Wow, Khrys...you sure do have an interesting way of bursting in on the scene...you nearly gave me an MI just now, you know that..."

After that, he too unsheathed his sword, the <<Embodiment of Apophis>> and asked Hydra, hoping his voice could reach hm over the din of the battle

"I would like to join the fight as well, @Hydra, if you and the others don't mind, that is. It would help me garner some much needed battle experience."

He then fell silent as he waited for Hydra to reply back with some sort of answer, either in the positive or the negative, but he hoped it would be the positive kind since he really did need battle experience before trying to fight mobs on his own later on down the line.

Bhairyuu had ordered his drink and was waiting for it to come while he leaned back against the counter and in a leisurely manner, he was checking out the goings on across the beach as far as his eyes could see them. It was then that he noticed his friend @Khrysaor among the newcomers to the beach fest and lifted his right hand in a lazy wave to him and then watched with a smirk as Khrys went up to Zandra and greeted her. A few seconds later, while he waited for Khrys to come to get his drink, he swept his penetrating jade green gaze filled with a mildly curious expresson across the beach, observing each individual and trying to see if he could apply the Holmesian observational method to try to glean whatever information he could about the people without actually going up to them and engaging them in conversation.

oh okay then, so basically the best way to handle that is to do all those high risk quests and then go for the redemption to change the cursor back to green from the orange it would become by doing those quests?

Btw, this isn't so much a suggestion as a question, but is the banking system introduced in the beta a few weeks back going to be part of the permanent 3.0 update too? I like how the system worked, so if you guys could include that in the updates, that would be great.

[OOC: I hope you all don't mind me posting here, it looked interesting so I thought I would join in on the scene]

Bhairyuu had gotten bored of exploring Floor 1 and its safezone, the <<Town of Beginnings>>, so he had decided to go to Floor 7 that day after finishing his morning ablutions. So he dressed for the occasion, using a variant of his usual outfit that sported blazing red, orange, and black hues since he had heard that Floor 7's safezone was <<Vulcan Village>>, a place that apparently was constructed over an active volcano of sorts. After equipping his special sword and the rest of his items, he set off for the teleport gate at the plaza of the <<Town of Beginnings>> and had declared in a clear voice

"Teleport! Floor 7!"

Almost instantly, he vanished in a mesmerizing flash and swirl of bluish-white light and reappeared on Floor 7 and in <<Vulcan Village>>. Now, he began walking through and exploring it and soon enough, he had to stop and adjust himself to the strong smell of sulfur that seemed to pervade the air in the village. He did not stop for long, though, since he figured that would only make things worse for him in the long run. Instead he set off again at a brisk pace and soon came upon a group of players, one of who he recognized from the recent event. So he went up to them and once within range, he took off his firey-red colored medium-size Chinese hat and greeted them

"Hey guys, how's it going?! Fancy meeting you here, @Hydra."

This might just be wishful thinking on my part and not possible, but I am going to put it out there anyways. I noticed that there's only one way to turn a player's cursor from danger orange to safe green and that being the "Redemption" quest which as you guys all know can only be done once. I would very much like for there to be some more means to change the cursors back to green or perhaps make the Redemption quest repeatable with some restrictions to balance it out. Otherwise the sheer number of quests that would turn a cursor orange would just be disadvantageous, but that's just my opinion...

Bhairyuu had expected the duel to continue with @Morgenstern making his move next, followed by @Opal, but to his surprise...and great confusion that was not what had happened. Instead, a group of new faces came into the mix and started interacting, so not knowing how to respond, Bhairyuu simply chose to observe the goings on all around him for a good long while. After that, he turned to @Opal and tried to speak over the roar of the crowd so she could hear him

"Uh, so...about that duel...I am guessing we'll be post-poning it till a later date? It seems a little too hectic right now to continue, and I can see that I won't be able to inflict much damage on you anyways...so what do you say, Opal?"

He fell silent as he waited for her response and while he waited, he kept his eye on all the new players who had joined them and was wary of them since pretty much all of them looked to be stronger than he was by several leagues, at least. He also tried to dodge some stray <<Snow Balls>> that were hurtling through the air at some of the other people present since he really did not fancy getting any colder than he already was thanks to the snowball fight he took part in earlier.

While Bhairyuu was waiting to see if the other male in the group would address him, he noticed another male player coming towards them and gave him a polite nod and a smile in response to his query and then replied

"I was just roaming about when I saw this group and since they looked fairly intriguing, I thought I would come over and introduce myself to them. My name is Bhairyuu, by the way. You can call me Ryuu if you prefer the short version. Now, who might you be, sir?"

Bhairyuu spoke in this polite manner because he could not yet say whether the newcomer was a hostile or not, and so did not want to cause any unnecessary headaches for himself by being rude to the man. After that, Bhairyuu fell silent, waiting for the man to reply back if he chose to do so. While he waited, he chose to quickly scan the rest of the players gathered in the group to see if he could glean anything intriguing about them as well, but tried to make it as surreptitious as he could so as to not evoke their ire.