Itzal

Coming back for another round of crafting, he jumped right into his project and managed to start the day off with a fully blown perfect enhancement. However the rest of them were a hit or a miss. Some were rare, some failed. And the in between he made a few uncommons. And yet, despite those failures and lack of multiple perfects, let alone perfect masterpieces, this was slowly bringing him back into the state of enjoying the process of crafting consumables. Or more accurately, he was starting to have fun playing songs again. When he went to bed, he turned in with a smile.

ID# 190772  CD: 12+1=13  LD: 4   - Perfect
ID# 190773  CD: 6+1=7     LD: 7   - Uncommon
ID# 190774  CD: 4+1=5     LD: 2   - Salvage Fail
ID# 190775  CD: 1+1=2      LD: 11  - Fail
ID# 190776  CD: 10+1=11  LD: 1    - Rare
ID# 190777  CD: 10+1=11  LD: 17  - Rare Masterpiece
ID# 190778  CD: 7+1=8     LD: 13  - Uncommon
ID# 190779  CD: 3+1=4     LD: 12  - Salvage Succeed
ID# 190780  CD: 10+1=11  LD: 1    - Rare
ID# 190781  CD: 5+1=6     LD: 15  - Uncommon Masterpiece

Total EXP: 59
Total MAT Loss: -9
Items Crafted:
     1 Perfect (support)
     1 Rare Masterpiece (support)
     2 Rare (support)
     1 Uncommon Masterpiece (support)
     2 Uncommon (support)

Reaching the shop of his wife after crossing the cavernous stretches of floor ten, he opened the door and stepped inside. Aldion glided inside and flew in circles around the ceiling of the shop before flying back to Itzal and landing on his shoulder. Itzal wasn't wearing his black armor this time around, instead wearing his casual clothes: A red shirt and a black trench-coat with purple accents, navy blue pants and black boots. Smiling he waved to Zandra. "Hey Zan! I know I don't normally come here as often as I should, so I think it's time I fixed that. Can't be too careful out there right?" Walking over to the counter, he put down two order slips. "I'm thinking I'll need overhealth and damage for now. Most of the other buffs I should get I can only really obtain by a cook after all."

Paying with Col: 1,800 col

Most days he never really put much attention in the types of songs he crafted. Unless it was a custom order he would always just use similar songs. Nowadays he just used selected songs for specific enhancements continually. Unfortunately he wasn't having all that much success with it today. He just wasn't feeling up to it all that much, kind of wishing he had some custom orders... However he also knew he couldn't just open up the shop again without a decent stock set up for his customers. And with that being the case... He continued on.

ID# 190430  CD: 3+1=4      LD: 13  - Salvage Succeed
ID# 190431  CD: 10+1=11    LD: 1    - Rare
ID# 190432  CD: 8+1=9      LD: 13  - Rare
ID# 190433  CD: 4+1=5      LD: 16  - Salvage Succeed
ID# 190434  CD: 7+1=8      LD: 10  - Uncommon
ID# 190435  CD: 5+1=6      LD: 19  - Uncommon
ID# 190436  CD: 1+1=2      LD: 17  - Fail
ID# 190437  CD: 1+1=2      LD: 14  - Fail
ID# 190438  CD: 12+1=13  LD: 10  - Perfect
ID# 190439  CD: 9+1=10   LD: 17  - Rare Masterpiece

Total EXP: 65
Total MAT Loss: -8
Items Crafted:
     1 Perfect (support)
     1 Rare Masterpiece (support)
     2 Rare (support)
     2 Uncommon (support)

Far from stopping, Itzal returned once again to his workshop and jumped right into it. For the most part he was doing ok, then Aldion cawed out of nowhere, causing him to jump and the song ended abruptly. He looked to his raven familiar. "Jeez, don't pop out of nowhere like that! You gave me a heartattac- well... Actually I can't but... Never mind." Returning to his job, he continued to play his music, only this time Aldion started bobbing his head to the music. Smiling to see his familiar joining in, he was inspired and ended up making several perfects, though none of them were masterpieces.

ID# 190308  CD: 10+1=11  LD: 6    -  Rare
ID# 190309  CD: 8+1=9     LD: 19  -  Rare Masterpiece
ID# 190310  CD: 4+1=5     LD: 6    -  Salvage Failed
ID# 190311  CD: 12+1=13  LD: 4    -  Perfect
ID# 190312  CD: 11+1=12  LD: 9     -  Perfect
ID# 190313  CD: 12+1=13  LD: 6    -  Perfect
ID# 190314  CD: 4+1=5     LD: 14   -  Salvage Succeed
ID# 190315  CD: 2+1=3     LD: 2     -  Salvage Failed
ID# 190316  CD: 4+1=5     LD: 13   -  Salvage Succeed
ID# 190317  CD: 7+1=8     LD: 4     -  Uncommon

Total EXP: 77
Total MAT Loss: -8 MAT
Items Crafted:
     3 Perfect (support)
     1 Rare Masterpiece (support)
     1 Rare (support)
     1 Uncommon (support)

So much lore had changed it was too much for Itzal to process all in one day. Hell, the other day he was looking over a list of sword arts and he discovered a new feature of the game's system. Going over them he noticed a drop-menu button and pressed it. Upon doing so, he encountered what were called 'Sword Art Skins'. Essentially, he could take the sword art meteor break, along with any other skill, and customize it's name and how it triggered. By setting the activation conditions for certain skins, writing it's name, and then turning that skin on, should he ever use said activation method, he would trigger that particular custom skin. It wasn't it's own sword art of course, meaning regardless of what skin he used, the sword art 'meteor break' would still go on cooldown, and it's effects would be the same. However, it was a fun cosmetic. He could even specify what the sword art glow would look like, change the name of the skin, and so forth! He wasted hours setting all of the skins to ones he enjoyed. Spotting an edible and rather flavorful mushroom he plucked it and added it to his inventory as he thought about the multitude of skins he chose for just the one sword art..

ID# 190307  LD: 13

Total: 0 MAT, 0 DEM

Returning to his workshop in his house, he stretched his arms and hands before taking his guitar and sitting down. Time to try and craft more consumables, he began his attempts, but quickly found his guitar to be in the need of tuning. After doing so he played a perfect song. His attempts began fluctuating between successful attempts and failures. Whenever he failed however, it wouldn't be as bad as he feared most of the time, and thus he was able to salvage some materials. With him crafting a few debuffs they would need, he figured he should knock some support songs out of the way, as most players liked looting and staying alive over reducing enemy stats.

ID# 190184   CD: 3+1=4      LD: 9   -    Salvage Failed
ID# 190185   CD: 12+1=13   LD: 16   -  Perfect Masterpiece
ID# 190186   CD: 8+1=9      LD: 1   -  Rare
ID# 190187   CD: 1+1=2      LD: 14   -  Fail
ID# 190188   CD: 6+1=7      LD: 19   -  Uncommon Masterpiece
ID# 190189   CD: 11+1=12   LD: 15   -  Perfect Masterpiece
ID# 190190   CD: 3+1=4     LD: 14   -  Salvage Succeed
ID# 190191   CD: 3+1=4      LD: 15   -  Salvage Succeed
ID# 190192   CD: 2+1=3     LD: 9   -  Salvage Fail
ID# 190193   CD: 3+1=4     LD: 18   -  Salvage Succeed

Total EXP:  63
Total MAT Loss:  -7 MAT
Items Crafted: 
     2 Perfect Masterpiece (1 debuff 1 support)
     1 Rare (debuff)
     1 Uncommon Masterpiece (support)

It wasn't going as well as before. Things were rather slow as he tried to shake off the rust. At the rate he was going, he'd only make good songs with the system making them good. He had been so busy with taking down player killers, taking on quests, and so on that he'd slacked off on his talent to play music... Though to be fair he didn't really have that talent outside of SAO, so maybe all of his skill WAS from the game... For today at least, he didn't do well regardless. He completely failed the first two, and barely managed to create the next few. He made one that was alright, and one that legitimately sounded good to his ears. Once he'd finished he looked at his songs and sighed before collecting them and putting them in their appropriate bins. Taking a sigh, he turned and walked to his bedroom to get some rest.

ID# 189919  CD: 2+1=3      LD: 18    - Salvage Succeed
ID# 189920  CD: 3+1=4     LD: 12    - Salvage Succeed
ID# 189921  CD: 5+1=6      LD: 15    - Uncommon Masterpiece
ID# 189922  CD: 5+1=6      LD: 3     - Uncommon
ID# 189923  CD: 7+1=8      LD: 10    - Uncommon
ID# 189924  CD: 12+1=13  LD: 2      - Perfect
ID# 189925  CD: 10+1=11   LD: 17    - Rare Masterpiece
ID# 189926  CD: 8+1=9     LD: 14    - Uncommon Masterpiece
ID# 189927  CD: 7+1=8     LD: 10    - Uncommon
ID# 189928  CD: 2+1=3     LD: 4     - Salvage Failed

Total EXP: 64
Total MAT Loss: -8 MAT
Items Crafted:
     1 Perfect (1 debuff)
     1 Rare Masterpiece (1 debuff)
     3 Unncommon (1 debuff)
     2 Uncommon Masterpiece (2 debuff)

It had been.... Too long, since Itzal had come back to his shop and crafted some items to use for not only the front lines, but also personal use. Such as going on quests, events, or just monster grinding. Not only that, but he wanted to try and open up his shop again as Itzal, and get himself back into the world with that name. His name. Not as Are, his alias. But before he did so, he needed to stock up a LOT of items... And given the fact that it took a long while to craft any good items, he had the feeling that this would be taking a long while. When he managed to craft three perfects however, he wondered if this wasn't going to be as hard as he thought...

ID# 189797  CD: 10+1=11      LD: 3      -  Rare
ID# 189798  CD: 3+1=4        LD: 8       -  Salvage Fail
ID# 189799  CD: 8+1=9         LD: 18     -  Rare Masterpiece
ID# 189800  CD: 12+1=13     LD: 5       -  Perfect
ID# 189801  CD: 4+1=5         LD: 4       - Salvage Fail
ID# 189802  CD: 7+1=8         LD: 14     -  Uncommon Masterpiece
ID# 189803  CD: 11+1=12      LD: 7       - Perfect
ID# 189804  CD: 4+1=5        LD: 17      -  Salvage Succeed
ID# 189805  CD: 12+1=13     LD: 7        - Perfect
ID# 189806  CD: 9+1=10       LD: 4       -  Rare

Total EXP:  81
Total MAT LOSS:  -9
Items Crafted:
      3 Perfect
      3 Rare (1 masterpiece)
      1 Uncommon (1 Masterpiece)

Ordering:
Crème Brûlée  -  2 ACC  -  Cost: 300 col
Smores  - 2 EVA  -  Cost: 300 col
Breakfast Fry  -  2 Protein  -  Cost 400 col
Chocolate Trufflesx2  -  +16 EN  -  Cost: 750x2=1,500 col

Total: 2,100 col

The tenth floor was a massive underground cavern system filled with many strange things. No actual life existed here save for the players that traversed it. He wasn't sure why someone would place a food shop here, but it was the only one remaining after the update had hit. Itzal was assuming this was due to players needing to get the gathering or fishing proficiency before they could continue making goods. Couldn't craft without items after all. Stepping inside, his face clouded by a black mist, the rogue walked over to the counter and found many goods already on sale. Two of which he needed provided the enhancements he required: Accuracy buff and an evasion buff. Another provided additional damage. And the last two were consumables for regaining energy.  Placing the appropriate col on the counter, he slid the order slip. "I require these five items." With the exchange made, Itzal walked out of the shop. One more stop, and he'd return home to make his own preparations...

Not only that, but from what he heard most of the quests had changed as well. Not all of them from what he heard, but most of them. In fact, many of the quests which were nothing more than go in, kill this sucker, then get the item and go, were taken out entirely. What's more, those same bosses had actually been appearing outside of quests as field bosses. Places where there was no quest before had quests now, and any floor that still had no quests now at least had a field boss that players could mess around with for a little while. Some of the quests he heard that changed drastically were dragon hunter anthology, the treant and elf wars, and a couple of others, while most of them were minor changes or just fleshed out a little bit. And then a few, such as betrayal of the king, didn't seem to change whatsoever. There were so many changes and Itzal wanted to experience them all. However, that would have to take a back seat until he got the vitals out of the way... He needed the gathering skill so he could maximize it's experience points. Once he maxed it out he could grind for demonic shards. Maybe he could grind the nature's quest with someone...

ID# 189548  LD: 6  No MAT

Total: 0 MAT, 0 DEM

It wasn't just this floor of course. Many floors had changed. He personally hadn't been exploring many of them, he didn't have the time right now. However the fact remained. In addition to putting two and two together, or the fact that if his floor (floor two) and floor one had been changed to such a drastic manner, that the rest of the floors would likely be similarly affected (especially since the higher floors had far less within them than the lower floors), there were also all of the stories and rumors exploding everywhere. There was so much gossip that Itzal didn't even have to contact the information brokers to get info on the other floors. From what he could tell, not only was the landscape drastically better, more efficient and cleaned up, but the lore in the many floors and backstories had exploded. Everywhere you went, you could find potential lore for the floors. And many of the... Very odd locations that didn't make that much sense, such as floor one's temple, had been removed entirely. Only lasting in the memories of players, and otherwise faded from existence. A nice smell of mint suddenly reached Itzal's senses and he tracked it to a fern that could be used for spices. Adding it to his inventory, he moved on.

ID# 189538  LD: 12

Total: 0 MAT, 0 DEM

With the rushing part over with, all he had to do now was have a leisurely walk. As he did so he paid very close attention to the floor he was traversing... On his way towards this quest, he actually saw what appeared to be a monument which hadn't been there before. Upon checking it's flavor text, it was evidently placed there in honor of the floor's labyrinth boss, a reminder to low leveled players never to underestimate low leveled monsters. It was an interesting concept if anything. Something else he hadn't seen before were horse drawn carriages and lone ridable horses available to players. Not only that but some of the locations within the floor had seemed to become more clear, fresh, almost clean. As if someone took a messy piece of art, and fixed it up a bit to take something chaotic and making something beautiful out of it. Maybe the game development was rushed, and now that Kayaba was in this situation he could fine tune everything to his exact liking... While he was thinking of this he of course multitasked by looking for any materials, but wasn't seeing anything. While disappointed, he couldn't say he was surprised exactly. So he continued to move on and search for more.

ID# 189536  LD: 6  Nothing

Itzal nodded in agreement with her statement. The first floor was certainly very popular due to the dense population, and because most players were scared of being assaulted in the higher floors... Although from what Itzal heard, the latest floor boss fight may have spilled into the lower floors, so players may be rethinking that. At any rate players had to actively look for shops within the other floors more often than not. Half of the reason players chose higher floors for their shop was for the atmosphere and feel of it, and the other was often for the sake of privacy. Regardless of the reason, that was the case. When Zandra suggested they wait until after their desert to talk about the hard stuff, he nodded. Normally he liked to get the serious business out of the way so he could enjoy life without worrying about it. However with Zandra he'd slowly learned to switch back and forth sometimes depending on the subject. "Alright then. In that case." he said as he pulled something out of his inventory and handed it to Zandra: It was a box wrapped in wrapping and a bow. "It's supposed to be for a special occasion, but since I'd call surviving a massive boss fight, clearing a quarter of the game and surviving a huge update an occasion. Here."

Inside the box was a special trinket of gold and silver connected to a golden cord making it a necklace. The trinket was a very special type of locket, which when triggered would shift between the front of it: A silver shield with golden accents and tiny rubies, to a picture of the two of them together.

Aaaah, so that was how it worked Itzal thought. No wonder Shield was concerned. It was less about whether he was always wearing the mask, and more so about whether he was the mask. "To be honest, that kind of sounds like Goku from an animation called Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z. Only, minus the sun." He chuckled a bit before continuing. "Now that I know what you mean, I can once again alleviate your fears. No. I would not be superman. Are is nothing more than an alias. I never wanted to go around beating up players. However after the things that I've witnessed, and how poorly people have handled player killers thus far, I felt something had to be done. Their activity has been dying down, but I'm worried this update is going to get them riled up again..." The two of them finally reached the entrance slash exit of the garden... Slash dungeon. As they reached it he turned to say farewell. "I'm pleased we were able to meet in person outside of meetings and raids where everyone is on edge. It was a pleasure to formally meet you Shield." With that he ran to the forest, scaled a tree and activated stealth before jumping from branch to branch, no longer visible to players or monsters.

They were in firm agreement that not everyone was able to be made happy, or at least content. Itzal had learned that harsh lesson when Hirru chose to betray every player in Aincrad by defending the floor boss which blocked their way to freedom. And he came to the conclusion that he was likely to anger other players. But honestly, he really didn't mind that anymore. Players could hate Itzal for speaking, but he only spoke the truth when he did. Hestia tried to make the frontlines look like immortal Gods, and Itzal quickly crushed that concept to the newcomers, and warned them to take every precaution, and to only join if they were willing to risk their lives, telling them what happened at the fallen event. When players encouraged a newcomer who barely qualified for the frontlines to tank a boss that was reported to be far more powerful than anything they'd fought before, he stood firmly against them stating that she shouldn't tank this session, and instead focus on getting stronger and acting as support or dps for the time being. He was right on that area too, as she nearly died, having lost nearly all her health from a single attack. Yet everyone was enranged that he spoke up, only calmed down slightly by his suggestion that the topic moved forward. When Shield continued he couldn't help but give a slight laugh. "I have a confession to make. I have no idea who Superman is. I know of batman vaguely, but not enough to take valuable information from that." He turned and smiled to his friend, though he couldn't see it. "But don't worry. I enjoy a normal life as well. I have my hobbies, my special places I like to visit. My relaxation spots. I used to know everything about each floor, though I'll need to do another scouting mission to update my maps."

Walking over to Orgoth's Legacy which was still sitting in the ground, he pulled it out and with a flourish, sent it into his inventory storage for later.  "Indeed. From what I've seen thus far of the update, it doesn't seem like quests or floors will lack unique lore or content anymore. And from what we can tell from the monsters and bosses of this quest, it seems the challenges we face will be diverse in their own right as well." The black raven familiar of Itzal's flew down from the branches and landed onto his shoulders. "Caw! Caw!" The raven seemed to be congratulating their victory, which was nice of him Itzal thought. However the battle lasted a lot shorter than the one against the guilded hand. Maybe he should be focusing on his burst attacks more often than he thought originally... As Shield suggested they begin returning to where the entrance was, Itzal nodded in agreement and took the lead, using his searching skill to look out for wandering monsters, and leading them around said mobs. He didn't really come here for materials anyways. He didn't have the gathering proficiency... Yet. But that would change soon after this meeting. "It was a pleasure to fight alongside you outside of a floor raid. I'm usually too occupied to meet up with any of the other frontliners." He then chuckled. "Then again, I'm fairly certain half of them dislike me for my appearance, and the other half for how I handle matters."

Itzal was still trying to find the right angle and eventually he believed he spotted it. When Shield's mod had activated, his vision enhanced and he smiled. He was going to make the attack regardless, but the bonus to his accuracy had only confirmed his suspicions. He ducked behind a tree just in time to avoid Gaia's face before it was distracted by Aldion and forced to focus on the battle once again. Taking a moment to prep his blade, he began to rush out from the shadows. He made no sound as he made low leaps across the ground, almost seeming to glide over the dead leaves, placing his feet down only on the soil, before making one long jump up above Gaia. Grasping his sword with two hands, it burst with dark red energy before he buried it deep into Gaia's back. The same, exact spot which he had stabbed earlier. Gaia let out a howl of pain, not expecting this attack, let alone the pain of a blade digging deeper than before into his back, probably his spine. The creature quickly abandoned it's attack and crashed into the ground. Recovering surprisingly quickly, it slithered off into the forest and paused to look at them. "Curse you... Trespassers... Desecrators... You would destroy such a realm of peace and balance.... Curse you both!" With that the boss slithered off into the darkness. Itzal picked the sword off the ground and sheathed it. "That strike would have brought the boss to negative eight points of health. Guess it can't ever be killed. An eternal guardian of a garden destined to be plundered for all of time... Sounds like a tragic, albeit cheesy folk tale or poem."

Stealth Check:  ID#  189195  LD: 6+5=11
Itzal Attacks with Surprise Attack!  -8 EN, -16 EN  ID# 189193  BD: 7+3-2=8  27*16-100=332 Damage
Gaia Attacks!  ID#  189194  MD: 2

+10 HP, +1 EN

Hearing the quick speech from his partner, he looked at him confused, and was even more confused when he felt an emotional tug that wasn't his own whatsoever. However that confusion washed away the moment he saw his cooldowns skip a segment. Aaah, so this was what the leadership mods felt like when they were activated on you. While he hadn't needed this immediately, it was nice to know he had it. "Let's see if my luck agrees with you on that one." The rogue said before leaping backwards into the shadows of the forest, vanishing from view. While he could make exits and entrances look cool and mysterious, he felt a little silly doing so. He just landed like normal and snuck his way around the battlefield looking for an opening really. It wasn't all that impressive. Dodging sunrays as he maneuvered through the shade of the forest's canopy, he watched the fight continue. Gaia was still trying to penetrate Shield's armor but paused for a moment when it noticed that Itzal was gone again. It looked around, but even when looking in his direction it didn't spot him. While normally Itzal would believe this to be too easy, he knew his luck wouldn't have that. All he had to do was hope for the best at this point...

Itzal uses Vanish!  -5 EN  ID#  189191  LD: 11+5=16

Gaia's Attack:  ID#  189192  MD:  5  Miss

+1 EN,  +10 HP

With the howl skill activated, the massive green feathered dragon turned it's attention to Shield and snaked through the air to strike him. However, it's attacks seemed light and quick, not a good idea against a tank. "You can't blame him for it," Itzal chuckled with a grin, joining in on Shield's fun little taunt. "He can't help that big daddy Kayaba didn't pay him enough attention. He just wants mister senpai to notice him" He was only made to be more amused when it flicked it's tail at him which he easily managed to dodge as a "stay out of this" kind of answer. Taking his black blade and lighting it up with his sword art, he rushed at the boss. However the creature was faster than he gave it credit for, and it weaved through the air around him trying to confuse him. And it kind of worked. The way it twisted through the air caused reflections in the light that gave off minor illusions. The only way he was able to identify the real one was with the help of the search skill. Without it, he was a poor mortal with no chance of seeing it. That, and Aldion also flew in and plucked one of it's feathers, which halted it's movements temporarily, growling in annoyance.

Itzal's Attack:  ID# 189187  BD: 3+3-2=4  Miss..  -1 EN

Gaia's Attack:  ID# 189189  MD: 4  Miss

+1 En, +10 HP

Watching from above as the human npc transformed himself into a massive green dragon with three wings, he didn't really note any legs, so it was probably styled moreso after Chinese culture dragons than European. At any rate, the creature didn't notice him when it transformed and it was about to launch an attack on Shield when Itzal let go and plummeted down to the boss below. His blade turned crimson again as he emerged from stealth and sunk his blade deep, deep into the zone between it's wing joints and the base of it's neck. He heard the creature scream before it twisted it's body to get to him. With his blade stuck in there he was subject to it's fury, struck by it's powerful talons as it raked at him in the hopes of getting him off. He hoped to get off too, and with the attack's help he was able to dislodge his blade and was flung off. Luckily he had the acrobatics mod, and it's aid allowed him to adjust the angle of his body to slow his descent, and land on the side of a tree, bent his knees, and pushed the rest of the way towards the ground where he rolled to prevent more damage. He watched as his rank one battle healing recovered a sliver of his health. "You're up guardian." He called out. Both as a title for his class, but also as his own personal throwback to old times.

Stealth ID: 189121  LD: 12+5=17
Attack ID: 189122  BD: 7-2+3=8  27+4*16-100=396 DMG  -8 EN Surprise Attack, -16 EN SA

+1 EN,  +10 HP

Gaia's Attack:  ID# 189186  MD: 9  CD: 8  226-20+140=346 damage
 

The merchant was ever shrewd and calculating he thought with a smile. "I appreciate that." He said as he closed the menu, forgoing the option of sending any of the weapons now that the offer had been turned down. Truth be told, he didn't think he'd get anything worthwhile out of these swords either. He still hadn't found a way to increase the tier of an item through the crafting system, and there weren't anymore stickers left to use. The bosses seemed to have stopped dropping those as well. Perhaps this was in preparation of when players could get powerful items on their own like with this update. Did Kayaba think that far ahead? (Meta comment: No... No he did not lol)  Regardless, if he did happen to gain some unique enhancements off of these, he would prefer them to be something that didn't require the strength of a tier. Absolute accuracy was the first that came to his mind. The second was phase. Neither required tier for strength, just slots. And both he could technically use. If he could get a sword with two accuracy, one absolute accuracy, and one phase, it would definitely help him more than a DoT weapon. For one it helped him hit stuff. For another, he could cut through their mitigation on critical hits. That was already a way better concept to him than- His searching skill went off. As Shield went to pick up the armor for the trade, Itzal immediately activated his stealth skill. In an instant he vanished into the shadows, unable to be detected by whatever approached. When Shield turned to look at Itzal, he'd see the rogue was already gone. In fact, the player was already scaling the trees so that he could land a surprise attack from above. This reeked of a boss battle. They try to leave and the npc comes rushing in finding excuses as to why they can't? His sword was drawn and ready...

ID# 189119  LD: 17+5=22 Stealth Rating.

Meditation: 4/5
     Rank 4: Nova Ascension 0/1
     Rank 5: Meteor Break 0/2 | Shadow Explosion 1/3

Sheathing his blade, the rogue walked off to the side so that his old friend could open up the lock of the chest in piece. Aldion, who had lost all of his fighting capabilities with the update, simply sat there in the branches watching everything. In particular the raven kept it's eyes on the multicolored snake. It had never seen such a creature before and was incredibly baffled by it. Especially since it's scales did the opposite of concealing it, and instead with it's bright visage told other predators that it was poisonous, and to stay away. Even more so with how many crazy colors were on it's scales. Itzal in the meantime, sat down cross legged among the herbs, grass and the rest. Placing his hands down on his legs, he activated the meditation skill to help boost the out of combat recovery. He wanted to be ready for any sort of monster they might encounter next, and the sooner he did this, the sooner the skill's cooldown would actually reset. It was the perfect method. While the meditation skill worked, he opened his menu and began transferring the col and materials Shield deserved over to him. "I've received three perfect weapons. Did you wish to keep any of them?" Itzal asked, thinking about the swords he himself needed to obtain. "They're only tier one, but they could be useful to an appraiser."

Meditation activated: +16 EN
+1/3 energy out of combat

Meditation: 5/5
     Rank 4: Nova Ascension 0/1
     Rank 5: Meteor Break 0/2 | Shadow Explosion 2/3

Sick and tired of leaving everything to chance, Itzal's mind went to overtime as he scanned the area, even to the extent of using his searching skill, to look for anything he could use to trap this thing. Finally, reaching the end of his ropes, Itzal took his sword and made two huge swings at some small trees hear him, cleaving them off. Taking the two in his hands like spears, he noted Shield's current position and estimated where the guilded hand would end up. Running with all his might over, he scaled a tree real quick and just as the hand tripped and fell, Itzal jumped overhead, throwing both spear-like trees down at it, piercing two of it's fingers and preventing it from escaping. With that in play, he jumped down, his blade engulfed in dark red energy as he activated Shadow Explosion. He made no battle cry. He made no roar of fury or victory. This was what he did every day. Pin players down, apply the stun and chain them up, then throw them through a corridor crystal. This was a job at this point. His blade pierced the monster and it shattered very quickly, the two trees following suit. "Done." He said as he pulled his blade out of the dirt, swinging it to the side to throw the loose dirt off.

ID# 189020  BD: 7+3-2=8  HIT
ID# 189022  LD: 20+5  CD: 6
     12,680 col, 12 MAT, 3 T1 Perfect Weapons (unidentified)
6,340 Col each, 6 MAT each
Itzal gains 3 Perfect weapons

Itzal slammed his sword at the gilded hand, attempting to force it backwards and away from it's escape. It was moving more frantically now, but still was agile as ever. What made things worse was given it's position Itzal couldn't risk making a decisive blow yet, as he could easily miss and the creature would scurry off. While he did attempt to land a sword art on it, the creature nearly used the opening to escape, forcing Itzal to abandon it halfway through, triggering the cooldown and bringing them back to ground zero. "It isn't worth it," Itzal said simply. "Not to us at least. Anyone from tier four won't be getting any loot equal to our tier by any normal loot monster." He slammed his weapon against the monster with the flat end of his blade, forcing the mob back into the center of the field, and began to find a better position to attack it in while Shield kept it from escaping. "Monsters can only drop gear that matches the tier of the floor they reside on. It's impossible to get tier loot from this guy. Materials will be bountiful, possibly more gold bonus too. But tier loot not so much. I did discover the location of a dungeon on the first floor that's the exception to this rule though. However it's incredible difficulty compensates that."

At this point he felt like he was facing Karma that he didn't deserve. The update had fixed his number one problem as a player, which was his complete and utter lack of damage dealing. Yet now he couldn't seem to hit a singe... Giant hand in a golden glove. Once again activating his sword art, his blade glowing before rushing the monster, he tried to swing from below at a diagonal angle, then curve his swing at just the right moment so that he'd slash at it's lower... Fingers instead, hoping that the programming wouldn't be able to keep up with him nor see it coming. What was truly humiliating was that not only did the monster not get hit or damaged by this attack, but it did a little hop over his blades to avoid the attack. He didn't lose his balance, his days of that were far and done. However his blade lost the energy it had gathered, reducing to a normal weapon all over again. At this point he was starting to get just a little bit frustrated. He was about to launch his next attack when the creature tried to run away, making sure to put Shield between the two of them so that Itzal wouldn't attack. This time however, Itzal ran up to a large tree to their right, ran up it a bit before jumping with all his might like an acrobatic, and landing in front of the hand as it tried to run. "I can track you. But I'd rather end this here thank you very much."

ID# 188705  BD: 3+3-2=4   Miss