Ratatosk

Man, things really do change a lot. I would love to rejoin, but over the years I started to hate things that I used to love, like roleplaying, playing video games, writing. My life is a [censored] mess, and I shouldn't have even tried to be the figurehead for any guild, much less try having any responsibility. But I'm happy that you really want to revive Crescent Moon. Damn, I can't think of what to say next.

@Hydra, maybe if I can get my life sorted out in a few years, I can start roleplaying here again. Sorry for letting everyone down, I just cant stop apologizing to you guys in my mind.

Ratatosk stood on top of the barrier gate preventing players from falling off the flying castle of Aincrad, but that didn't stop him from climbing on top of it. He was always a daredevil, but this wasn't any risk taking behavior, this was pure emotional issues that run deeper than the roots of a tree. Onlookers stared at him as he set his gaze at the slowly moving clouds in the sky. "What the hell are you doing, get off of there!" A few decided to take matters into their own hand and make an effort stop the boy from doing whatever they thought he was about to do, but taking his own life was not the blonde's best interest. "Hey, I'm not going to jump." He said with tears building up in his eyes, "I'm just thinking about things, that's all." They still weren't convinced, and they obviously wouldn't leave him alone unless he got off of there, so he got off the barrier fence and told them that he was fine, then he walked around the Town of Beginnings remembering everything he did while he was in Aincrad. "I forgot how long it's been already since this started, I lost track of time." A gust of wind blew a tuft of his hair upwards, giving him an extra ahoge. "I remember when it all started, when I decided to get off my lazy ass and actually do something to make a difference. Kranzer, Niko, Aster, Khyrsaor, Allania, Lycan, Takao, Seul, Hydra, and... [censored], I'm forgetting the names of my own friends." Ratatosk chuckled, but then his eyes couldn't endure any longer as the tears started to pour. "Damn it! Damn it all to hell... Why am I the only one left, why did everyone have to disappear?" The dwindling Aincrad population became clear to him now, this death game is the reason for all of it. "If I never worked with the Yakuza, if I never bought this shitty game, I'd still be living my life in the real world instead of here." He took in a deep breathe and closed his eyes, embracing the gust of wind coming from the North. "The road to freedom is going to take a long time, maybe even a decade, but if I keep sulking around and shouting my regrets to the world to hear, then I won't get anything done. Buying this game seems like a mistake, but if I didn't, I wouldn't have met any of you. Can't have any regrets now, that ain't the way to live. I'll come home alive. Alice, dad, everyone, just you wait."

Over the past year or so, I joined this site, and although my experience wasn't the best, I have to say that I enjoyed it. After leaving for quite a while, I checked on the site from time to time to see the changes, it made me want to come back but then I realized I lost my drive to roleplay here. Not only did I lose the will to roleplay here, but on other sites too. I guess I just quit roleplaying completely. I remember no lifing this forum just to get to level 25, and I also remember the good times I've had with @Kranzer, @Nikodemus_Blackwood, @Takao, @Seul, @Aster and all my mates in Crescent Moon. Now I know that 90% of you reading this don't really give two f**** about me, but I didn't come back to make any of you feel sorry, I came here to tie my loose ends. I want closure, I want closure with every single roleplaying community that I've entered and then mysteriously left without a trace.

I'd like to say thanks and goodbye to this community, even though I wasn't the most liked member on these forums, or even an important one.

(Just going to put some of my best memories here so that I can come back sometimes and look at them and remember)

I remember when Kranzer and I made threads to do super fast mat hunts, we bonded over hunting mats and killing mobs, I won't forget that.

I remember when Kranzer, Seul, and I killed a really big bee together, they helped me level up, I won't forget that.

I remember when Takao helped me power level on that one quest on Floor 4, I told him I'd be the strongest hitting swordsman in SAO, I won't forget that.

I remember when I met Aster and helped a new player out, we bonded over the course of multiple threads (Probably not, but at least I think we did), I won't forget that.

I remember when I met Niko (Nikodemus Blackwood), we bonded over a simple <<Making a living>> quest and became friends, I won't forget that.

I remember when Allania, Khrysaor, Niko, Hydra, orhalimi, and Lycan  and I formed Crescent Moon, I won't forget that.

I remember making threads with Dom, but never really finishing them, I regret that.

I remember when Mack made a thread to give out free weapons, and Ratatosk was scared of all the grills there (He was too afraid to talk about propane and propane accessories), I won't forget that.

I remember the hot spring party Mack held, it was awkward. Because it was so awkward, I won't forget that.

I remember jumping into a thread to save the lives of two newbies, Haruko and Gorou, I won't forget that.

Most of all, I won't forget the first day I joined.

If any of you want to contact me, send me a PM, I'll be on for the next few days to check my message box (And I'm expecting to get 0 messages)

"It's best to do the quest when you're at a low level, and make sure you have s-some armor that will protect you really well from the gemini. When I did it I was around level ten, all it t-takes is a good weapon and taking a few hits." Ratatosk then realized his own stuttering, that's weird, Ventus should be the one doing that not him. So it really did happen, the two of them started to become more like each other, and eventually they'd be a single entity in the same body. "O-Oh yeah, sorry! My name is Ratatosk, nice to meet you Adhae." The blonde skittishly walked in front wondering why he was so much like the other him. When she asked him if he was lucky, he paused for a moment thinking of his past experiences. He spoke in a much more confident tone now, "Well, if you consider being stabbed nearly to death lucky then yes, I am."

The wait time for something good to spawn was a lot shorter than he expected, good. What spawned in was surprising, he didn't expect minibosses on these low level floors to spawn right outside the town, but that meant he finally had something to do. "Looks like it's going to be a tough fight, but no big deal for me." The miniboss that spawned in was a gigantic tree that reeked of danger, it naturally attracted risk-takers like Ratatosk to it. "Alder the ancient, haven't seen you in the guide books. Must be a first time for everyone huh?" Alder the ancient was a miniboss that had two moving branches capable of killing low level players, at the very top of Alder The Ancient was an owl that hooted furiously. The owl was the first to attack him, but he easily dispatched it with a single swing of his blade. "Here comes the real challenge."

Ratatosk: 100/100 HP, 25/25 Energy, 3 Acc, 2 Eva, 39 MIT

Alder The Ancient: 300/300 HP, -3 Eva, 50 MIT, 0 DMG

Hoot The Wise Owl: 1/1 HP, 3 Eva, 1 DMG

Ancient Branch: 75/75 HP, 2 Acc, 25 MIT, 50 DMG

Ancient Branch: 75/75 HP, 2 Acc, 25 MIT, 50 DMG

Rules on the miniboss: I just felt like giving myself (And anyone else who wants to join) a challenge by making this miniboss at the top of my head. So I listed it below in case anyone wants to fight it.

Ancient Branch: Not capable of dealing a critical hit, instead, deals 10 damage that is not affected by mitigation upon a MD roll of 9-10. Ancient Branch takes 3x damage when attacked with any axe type weapon.

Hoot The Wise Owl: For every full rotation that passes by while Hoot is still alive, Alder The Ancient restores 1/3 of his maximum HP. Hoot will always target the player with the highest hate and attack them, if he successfully lands a hit, the person he attacked will not be able to heal for two turns. He may not target the same person twice.

Alder The Ancient: Can not be killed until both Ancient Branches are killed. Alder the Ancient takes 3x damage when attacked with any axe type weapon. As long as Alder The Ancient is alive he can revive both Ancient Branches two turns after they are killed.

Battle:

ID# 66598

BD 9 (Natural)

Normal Attack Used: 12 Damage

Ancient Branch MD: 6 (6+2=8, 8-2 =6)

Ancient Branch Attack: 50 - 39 = 11

Ancient Branch Attack: 50 - 39 = 11

Overall Damage: 22

Ratatosk: 88/100 HP, 24/25 Energy, 3 Acc, 2 Eva, 39 MIT

H:1

Alder The Ancient: 300/300 HP, -3 Eva, 50 MIT, 0 DMG

Hoot The Wise Owl: -11/1 HP, 3 Eva, 1 DMG, Dead

Ancient Branch: 75/75 HP, 2 Acc, 25 MIT, 50 DMG

Ancient Branch: 75/75 HP, 2 Acc, 25 MIT, 50 DMG

The display of sword fighting was surprisingly entertaining, they used what looked like traditional rapiers to fight each other, it was a first hit duel just like actual fencing. His eyes couldn't keep up with their swords, they were so fast that he wasn't even sure it was humanly possible. While he was focused on the movement of the clashing rapiers, the female audience was focused on the movements of their abs. "That's amazing, I should definitely see a dagger fight next." That came out wrong, way wrong actually.

Ratatosk had no idea why he was on the third floor, but he remembered a while ago he made a promise to the other him, a promise to go wherever the wind would take him, literally. For the entire day he'd follow the direction the wind was blowing, and it just so happened to bring him to a teleport pad leading to the third floor. "This is nice, better than the ninth, fifth, and sixth." He instinctively searched the area with his eyes, spotting Macradon but not really giving a [censored]. "Fighting a few monsters should be fun, I think I'll do that." The blonde made his way over to the outskirts of Delilah where it was no longer a safezone and monsters could spawn, there he'd wait for something interesting to happen.

ID# 66594

LD 14

Macradon discovered, stalker confirmed.

The most unspeakable thing happened in the arena, fanservice. When the two opponent's decided 'Hey, let's do some fanservice instead of fighting', they took off their shirts and immediately almost all the females watching the fight screamed in awe. "Holy fu-, what has arena fighting turned into?" Ratatosk was beginning to regret coming here, but then something worse happened that would surely make him regret he was ever born. "Well my opponent, draw your sword!" Watching two six packed men draw their swords was a little... Too much for him, but more so for everyone else in the arena.

He nodded and forced a smile, was this woman an amazoness? "R-Right... Let's get to it." Ratatosk followed the leader like an elementary school student, Adhaerere reminded him of one of his friend's mothers, damn was he a lucky bastard. While his friend grew up with a loving family, he had the remnants of one. A son and his troubled father, but they were always troubled and that fact wouldn't change. "My memory tells me that on this floor there is a quest called 'The Gemini', it gives you a really good skill that helps you in battle. There's two different versions of it though, I got lucky and got the improved one." Again, he opened up his HUD and showed her the <<Disguise>> skill, "Most people get the Concentration skill from 'The Gemini', it is the same as Disguise but doesn't lower your opponent's evasion and has a shorter cooldown."

His hype for watching the sky turn a different color was comparable to watchdogs watching paint dry. "I remember the arena fights I used to watch, I wonder if they still have free entry, or was it the other way around?" The boy's feet took him to the place of interest, the arena on the first floor, well, it wasn't really an arena, more like an oversized dueling area. Turns out, entry to watch is still free, that's good on his wallet. "Oh hell yeah! Who's fighting this time?" Everyone in the arena looked forward to seeing the two fighters walk out, and when they did there were wild cheers. "Oh [censored] no, not these damn assholes who look like KPOP stars..."

Ratatosk connected to the beginner's, he too was like that at the start. He checked his energy to make sure he had enough to help them level, but unfortunately he didn't. Still, he had to help in some way, the blonde walked towards them but then another player offered help to them. "Well, at least they have some help now." The beginners rushed off with their newly found leeching target leveling buddy, they'd probably get to level ten by the time they return. His perception of his surroundings seemed to slow down, it'd been a long time since he felt the calming sensation of watching day turn into night.

He quickly decided to go back to the first floor because who the hell would want to stay on the 'Mad Max' floor? "Teleport! Town of beginnings!" Eventually the blonde would need to start spending more time on the higher floors, but he heard that there were spiders there so that was probably what influenced him to say on the first. Now what would be his next move? A group of beginners came into his sight asking around for help on leveling up. They were begging a player who appeared to be of a higher level to help them out, his response was a cold and insincere "No."

OOC - Same here, going to school gives me less time to post because of homework and all of that

Ratatosk looked up and saw the giant in front of him, then one of his primal instincts kicked in. "Agghh!! Girl!" He turned around with a look of fear in his eyes, how could he forget he was afraid of girls? Wait, girls, so that's why he didn't like to go to this floor. The blonde was mumbling inaudibly to himself until he took a deep breath and faced his fears. "S-Sorry, I'm a-afraid of girls..." His legs were partially shaking from fear but he mustered up the courage to respond to most of her questions. "U-Uhh... On this floor there are b-big centipedes, big snakes, and big everything! I-I'm okay with giving you a tour of the place, j-just don't fight any spiders." The blonde opened up his HUD to show her his stats. On the screen you could see that he was a fresh level twenty five, but still not frontliner material.

Stats:

Level: 25

HP: 100

Energy: 25

Eva: 2

Acc: 3

DMG: 12

Mit: 39

One last swing with his blade was enough to end the sand shark, now that's one more quest off the board that he had to do. Just a few dozen more and he'll be frontliner material, or not. "Yes! Quest complete, let's see how much experience this gives me." A quest completed notification popped up in front of him as he viewed the rewards, "Nice, now I'm twenty six. That's ten more levels to go before I start fighting floor bosses." But he knew his reputation around Aincrad, if he were to fight in a floor boss battle he'd most likely die due to people refusing to heal him. "It's a disgusting world out there, who would've known that if you put everyone in a death game... They'd so willingly throw each others lives away just because of a personal vendetta."

ID# 66592

9 (6+3, No Crit)

Mob 2 (4-2)

Ratatosk: 99/100 HP, 5/25 Energy, 39 Mit, 2 Eva, 3 Acc

SA Used (Shadow Explosion, 9x1): 12 x 9 = 108

17 - 108 = DEAD (-91)

Sand Shark: -91/125 HP, 30 DMG, Dead

Remember how everyone in SAO would trip or fall for some reason when they're fighting? No matter how graceful you are, it will strike you. "What the [censored]! Why the hell do I keep tripping like this, it's almost like it's a game mechanic." His loss of balance gave the Sand Shark an opening, allowing it to attack him with whatever the hell it's using, teeth, tail, although it would most likely use it's teeth cause it's a bloody shark. "Speaking of blood, I wonder if this shark can sense it from two miles away."

ID# 66458

Battle 5

Mob 10

Ratatosk: 99/100 HP, 14/25 Energy, 39 Mit, 2 Eva, 3 Acc

SA Used (Shadow Explosion, 9x1): MISS!

Sand Shark Attack: 30 - 39 = 1

100 - 1 = 99

Sand Shark: 17/125 HP, 30 DMG

He mustered up all the courage left in him to walk outside the door and finally begin his quest. As soon as his skin touched the sunlight, he felt like a vampire about to turn to ashes from sun exposure. Ratatosk unsheathed his blade and mindlessly walked around the desert until he found the sandshark. "Huh? What was that." The blonde walked over to a certain spot and what do you know? A shark. "I wonder how dirty his gills are, but I can ask that after I kill the damn thing." It went by pretty quickly, before he knew it he had the field boss down to the red zone of its health bar.

ID# 66457

Battle 8

Mob 4

Ratatosk: 100/100 HP, 16/25 Energy, 39 Mit, 2 Eva, 3 Acc

SA Used (Shadow Explosion, 9x1): 12 x 9 = 108

125 - 108 = 17

Sand Shark: 17/125 HP, 30 DMG

There's nothing better than a good old gallon of water pouring down your throat on a hot eternal summer day. "Even in the night this floor is hot, but not as hot as that one person I met in highschool..." He was remembering things again, but the blonde forced himself to stop. Eventually he'd have to get off his couch potato arse and actually do that quest he took, "God damn sand shark, why couldn't you have gone to the first floor? There it's much cooler and not [censored] boiling hot enough for you to cook eggs on a rock." Ratatosk wanted to test that out some time in the future.

"Damn it, it's too hot..." He wasn't in the mood to do his quest yet, between him sitting there doing nothing and killing a shark in the heat, he'd rather just be a couch potato in the coldest building in the 'Mad Max' town. "The boss fight on this floor must've sucked, maybe I should ask a frontliner about that some day." His mind was beginning to work out how it would feel like, and it wasn't good. If only he knew that it was just two people fighting that boss, but that reminded him of something else. A while ago he wanted to be a frontliner to fight bosses, but now that they're getting stronger and more players are dying... Well, he isn't going to chicken out, of course not. Ratatosk was going to train his ass off to fight in the frontlines (And now that you can't get PK'ed in boss fights he's definitely signing up).

Ratatosk had no idea he'd find himself on the fifth floor again, the heat was unbearable, slightly better than the ninth. "Jesus christ, wonder how hot it'd be if I wore my fourth floor winter gear here." The thought of it made him cringe. He was at the 'Mad Max' floor to do a quest, the good old bulletin board never failed him when it came to things like this. "If only I had a dime for every paper on the board, I'd have less than ten dollars." For a board meant to give quests to people, it didn't have that much in store. There were low levels here and there just trying to make their way up, but perhaps things have changed for the better since then.

Kirito-ing this

Kirito-ing this

The wind blowing on his face gave him a sense of nostalgia, how long had it been since he actually got off his ass and went out exploring? "Yeah, it's certainly been a while..." He exited the inn located somewhere in the Town of Beginnings and walked towards the teleportation pad. "Haven't seen you for some time good old pal, it's time I start using you again. Teleport, Amazon!" One voice command was all it took to travel five floors up, if only this technology could be used in the real world, if it could be used for the better. The heavily vegetated area around him made the boy remember all his adventures on the floor. "This was when I met the other me, the Gemini and... [censored], what was his name again? I think it was Ventus." Ratatosk's memory was going bad, almost like an old man, but he stall had it in him. "I wonder what adventures are in store for me today, 'bout time I start fighting again." The blonde placed his sword on his back and scouted the area around him with his eyes, he spotted a player (Adhaerere) and observed closely.

@Erroneous

A FREE COOKIE AT QUIZNOS! FORGET MY CHARACTER, GIVE ME THAT VOUCHER!

@Shark

The differences in levels discouraged me to continue roleplaying on this site, I do believe that speeding up the leveling process would greatly help us gain more players. Maybe we could give new players a +1 SP bonus to all their threads until they reach a certain threshold? I know the monthly bosses won't help cause those take forever to finish, so how about adding some new quests for everyone to take? Ones that are relatively easy, ones for the newbies to finish.

I side with @Takneil on this one.

The amount of logic that is seemingly not present in the combat system is real, remember tha incident when  this one guy's AoE hit not only two boars, but two players? One of which wasn't even in range? How the [censored] does that happen?

No, how the [censored] did the staff let that happen?

But as @Baldur said, we should get back on topic.

All SP should be retained excluding quest and event xp (As he said). And Takneil brought out a lot of good points, a lot of dedicated players seemingly vanish once their characters die. It's ridiculous to think about it, one day you're off strolling about, then the next second you die. What are you gonna do after that? Make a new character? At level 0, absolutely not.

Now let me explain all the various causes of death in a nutshell, and why we need death reimbursement.

Okay, now that's probably not very related to this subject. But anyways, back to topic, when a character dies they go away permanently and they lose all their gear, col, storyline, and every single valuable thing they own. Remember who we're trying to punish here, the characters, not the writers. We lose good members of the community because of things like that (And frontliners), like Zelrius, Ssendom, etc.

I do have a little disagreement about Baldur's idea of death reimbursements, I believe that the new character should not receive col or mats (And gear) as that seems to be stretching it too far. Like quests, you can get mats (And col!) pretty easily.