Itzal

Now this was a new one for Itzal. Seeing weird monsters was one thing, but he had never, in all of his time in Sword Art Online, ever seen a monster try to escape the player. He wasn't sure if this was exclusive to this mob, or if it occurred with every monster from hereon out, but it made looting them quite a nuisance. Either way, Shield reacted quickly enough and blocked off it's exit. Itzal nodded and rushed forward with his sword art activating. When he swung the blade down at it however, the creature slammed the back of it's hand against the ground, and used two of it's fingers to grab both sides of his blade just before it made contact. Itzal's eyes widened with shock when he saw this, and his sword art ended there. Seeing the metaphorical sweat coming off of this thing, he kicked the finger off to free his blade. He swung again at the monster but this time it used the gold glove on it's fingers to parry the blade away from it, never letting the edge touch it. Jumping back Itzal gave a 'tsk' before prepping his next sword art. "D*mn thing got a spine after all. Give me a second to charge up my next sword art. Like hell I'm missing this thing twice in a row..."

ID# 188645  BD: 1  MISS!  -1 EN,  +1 EN

They were still in the topic of damage over time effects, and it seemed that Shield was now aware of one of the key factors in Itzal's choice regarding it, however he wasn't able to finish his thoughts when a weird monster erupted from the chest. The mob was wearing a gold glove and slapped Shield the instant it jumped out, before landing and making a stance to attack him with. Itzal had his sword drawn and his battle pose laid out by the time the mob had landed. "Makes sense." He said in response to his comment on never running into a monster like this. "The update apparently changed almost every aspect of the floors, and made serious overhauls to several of the quests and questlines. It only makes sense that we'd see monsters previously unknown." With that he ran forward before Shield could finish his request. Holding his blade out, he charged up the meteor break skill, and unleashed it's might against this hand mob, dealing over half of it's health in damage. He was worried for a moment that loot minimum mobs would take paragon levels into account, but they apparently did not. That made this a whole lot easier of course. Once he sliced clean through this 'golden hand' he slid to a stop and prepared his next charge at the monster. He kind of felt sorry for the monster. It didn't have much time to react at all. Then again, it didn't show Shield any courtesy either, so he supposed karma was the answer for this.

ID# 188625  BD: 5+3=8  23x16=368 dmg  -1 EN

+1 EN

He couldn't help but let a big bright smile fill his face as he listened to Shield going over the advantages of the 'damage over time' effects should one go down that dps route. In some ways it was like looking into a mirror. Always analyzing every potential outcome, going over every number and the like. But no matter how much you crunched the numbers, experience taught you things that the raw data could never show. "Yes, it very much is. And I'll be using it to the best of my ability. However over my time in this game, I've noted that my luck in applying such effects has been unfortunately low over half of my battles. Especially so in the boss raids. Others however, have been seen to have better luck, and more frequently land critical hits, trigger holy enhancements, as well as applying their DoT effects and paralysis. While this blade will not go to waste, I wish to hand it over to someone who could use it's advantages far better than I once I obtain a blade that is less fickle in my own hands." "Caw!" Aldion added his own voice in agreement, and Itzal looked at him, sensing a hint of mockery in his tone. "You don't have to make fun of my luck my friend." "Caw! Caw!" Itzal was less annoyed with his raven familiar and more so just making light conversation with him in reality. Turning his attention back to Shield he summarized. "The DoT build is powerful if done right. But not everyone is fit for that path either. And I have to be incredibly careful when using these weapons against player killers, as if it triggers too late, it could potentially kill them by accident. Ignoring my lack of good luck in applying them, there are other factors to consider on my end."

@Shield

It took a while, but eventually Shield had turned his attention over to the heavy armor Itzal had brought to trade. This of course meant that he at least trusted Itzal to some sort of extent now. Or rather, he was putting some of his trust into Are. The thought of telling Shield his actual identity had crossed his mind, but he wasn't sure if this was the right time or not. He'd been acting on impulses with his friends for so long, and it was time he pulled the reigns on those impulses, and instead take things into consideration and process them for a while longer. Giving himself time to go over it and decide whether it's worth it or not basically. He listened as Shield went over the four enhancements on the armament before pulling out Orgoth's Legacy. The blade was black which Itzal had been hoping for, with minotaur horns being the guard of the blade. Honestly he was just happy the color scheme fit his armor's. Itzal reached over and tapped the item to check it's enhancements: It was a powerful DoT weapon for certain. One enhancement of blight, which reduced the target's mitigation by five per tier, or in this case twenty, for the duration of the effect in addition to the damage it dealt over time the duration. One enhancement of burn, which dealt the most damage out of all the DoT effects, and the bleed enhancement, which although nothing but an ordinary enhancement, was still yet another DoT to add onto the pile. The only issue with DoTs for Itzal was that over half of the fights he was always in, he had the worst luck and rarely ever triggered it. This was why he planned to obtain different enhancements that would be far more useful for a player of his personal luck and skill.

Before he could reach out and accept the item however, Shield continued, stating that it was an unbalanced trade in Shield's favor. As a result, he offered to help Itzal with anything should he need it. He smiled under the cowl as he let go of the shield for his friend to take. "He may be shrewd, but he's also an honest merchant through and through." He thought to himself. "In that case, all I ask is to keep your doors open to me. I plan on grinding much in order to obtain the unique enhancements I need. This sword can be incredibly useful against bosses, but it isn't the enhancement combination I'm looking for myself."

@Shield

Hearing this much about batman and superman was interesting, especially since Itzal hadn't actually read any of those books. He'd heard of them from other players, and promised himself he'd read them when he returned to the real world, but he had never, ever actually read them. He didn't know who this joker was, he didn't know that superman did everything without a costume or mask, and he wasn't informed on anything of batman except that Are reminded people of him to some degree. However what he was able to comprehend, was the concept that Shield was trying to use with this metaphor. That it didn't matter if you had an alias if you were that alias all the time. On that area, the two of them were in agreement. "I only don my alias when I am in a floor raid or event, and when I'm hunting down player killers to send to the prison. In every other scenario I remove my garment and live life as normally and peacefully as I can." He had hoped Shield would believe this statement as it was the truth. Itzal was very overprotective of his identity, and made sure to keep players from spotting him changing gear, or acting like his alias without his armor. Additionally, he couldn't count the amount of dates and days by the lake he'd spent relaxing and hanging out with Zandra as Itzal, and not as Are. "I do not make my work of putting killers, rapists and kidnappers my life. It's nothing more than a self-invented job of mine. I can't stand by and allow the lower level players to suffer the way they do. Especially when I can use this job and skill to locate the base of operations of the much larger, more dangerous guilds such as laughing coffin. In that regard you do not need to be concerned." After this there was a moment's pause before he added something more. "As your last comment suggests however, there are one or two additional reasons I created this alias in the first place, but player's protection took priority back then as much as it does now."

@Shield

In the end the trip did not take as long as he worried it would. Maybe it was due to him having skill in traversing the forests already, or his sharp senses, but he eventually reached a small clearing with a multitude of berry bushes, flowers, mossy vines and all sorts of other things. The compass led him to the generally center area, but wouldn't point to the dead center. As soon as he entered the area the compass started spinning around, pointing at everything. Activating the searching skill he scanned the area for anything he may be able to use when he spotted something glittering in the grass. Walking over he reached down and picked up the object. Resting in his hands was what he assumed was the demonic shard. It looked like a smokey, black glassy crystal with a reddish/orange pulsing glow coming from within it. Ironically he didn't have to investigate as he received the notification that he had successfully completed the quest's task. "......Well that was easy." He turned to go back but saw another material in addition to the shard he'd found and added it to his material list... Maybe he should keep looking for materials before heading back he thought to himself. It would definitely be worth it. Shrugging, he decided to take his time on the return trip and take the scenic route.

ID# 188261  LD: 10  CD: 7

Total: 0

It was very easy to say that Itzal, wasn't really that much of a use the last fight they had. That being said, the boss was at least defeated really easily. Thus that wasn't all too much of an issue. Even still, he wanted to find ways to be as useful as he could. When the ship began to toss and turn, Itzal immediately shifted his posture so that he could grab one of the robes and placed his feet against the deck of the ship and the railing to stabilize himself. Once he did he surveyed the area and saw a storm. He just nodded when Zandra called out to everyone to hang on tight. Between his real life parkour skills, his acrobatics mod, evasion enhancements and the survival skill, and the fact that he wore lightweight armor and not heavy set plate armor, this storm didn't really do much against him.

When Zandra charged and struck the woman on the throne, stunning her, Itzal's scout eyes immediately noticed the chained up figures that were around her. Frowning and his eyes narrowed, he rushed to the edge and pushed off, swinging his blade with a flourish over his head before thrusting it down into the leftmost chain, taking out a big chunk of it's durability. He also noticed the LD bonuses flashing on the edge of his vision. He smiled. So then his biggest advantage as a scout was actually of use here? Perfect. Then he would be useful AFTER all.

ID# 188529  LD: 19+5=24 LD

Captive 1 LD total: 24

While it had been a while since he'd actually searched around for materials, he had not lost his skill in it. The only thing he had lost was his ability to look for them regardless, and now that he had taken the quest he'd earned that back. If anything he just lost the clusters of materials he'd harvest with the gathering skill. Therefore it didn't take very long at all for him to scan the area for materials, and spot some immediately. It wasn't something he was used to though. Walking up to a tree where the material flashed for a second, he pulled it off the tree. Moss? He opened up the flavor text and read it. Evidently the moss was called 'emerald dust moss'. It glittered in moonlight, and if left on top of a stone over the full moon, it transformed the stone into a song crystal. Surprised to find such a thing, he added it to his inventory and checked the compass. He was still on the right way, so at least there was that. He wondered where this demonic shard could possibly be though... He was racking his mind through the different locations players could find in this direction but nothing was coming to mind. A clearing in the forest? A cave? Maybe a dungeon?

ID# 188256  LD: 11  CD: 3

Total: 0 MAT, 0 DEM

He listened to the shrewd merchant as he explained the emotions that lay behind his eyes not as aggression, but distrust. Was that all? That was a lot less of an issue than outright aggression. And he had indeed seen it in some of the other frontliners, especially after he spoke up against Hidden and the other woman in the meeting. Nonetheless, that was in the past and he had spoken to Baldur about it, who seemed incredibly upset with him regarding the issue. With that resolved, he felt everything was ready to move forward. Of course Shield rose a good point, but it was due to his lack of understanding of Itzal's position. And that was honestly part of it. "I can understand where you come from. However my identity is hidden not out of lack of trust with any of you. I hide it because the men I track down, fight, and put in chains are many and powerful. I've made a great many enemies, and I cannot allow them to harm those I care about. Therefore I refuse to let any of my personal information leak that could betray that identity." After that the rogue moved to sit down, Aldion steadily balancing himself on the player's shoulder as he moved to a cross-legged position. "I do however agree with you. Actions speak louder than words, but if you have questions I shall answer to the best of my ability."

@Shield

He wasn't used to going in a very specific direction when looking for materials. The act of following a compass was something entirely new to Itzal. As he followed the line of sight, he had the urge to take the hidden trails he knew to places where materials once grew much more bountiful. But he stayed true to the item the quest had given him. The floors had changed as of late, as well as the quests he'd been observing. To the point where he thought of taking a few of them all over again. The truth of the matter was, he'd been doing research into all the floors and quests he could, but until players started taking those quests again there wasn't much info to go around. Even the brokers only had hear say and rumors. All of them baseless. Which meant he'd be going in blind for the most part... But, even if he did go in blind, he wanted to at least be able to find himself some materials to work with. Hence why he was here. He needed to get the gatherer skill not just to gather materials, but the demonic shards in particular. Those were going to be the key to obtaining demonic items. Those and the rainbow scales Zandra could fish would be vital.

ID# 188190  LD: 2

The woman's eyes widened slightly and she pulled her hood down and looked at him curiously. "Most simply expect me to gather their materials for them, but few truly care about the process itself. You surprise me." Itzal shrugged, his hands in his pockets. "I've always been the kind of person to rely on myself, and I have a good eye. Might as well right?" He waited patiently as the woman dug into her dress's pocket and pulled out a compass and handed it to him. To this, Itzal was slightly confused before finally taking the compass. "You may borrow my compass. Dark magic has made it capable of locating an incredibly rare item called a Demonic Shard. Should you find one, and bring it back to me, you will prove yourself worthy of my teachings. Take care, and may good  fortune travel with you." With that the NPC dialogue ended and she continued with her business. Looking at the compass curiously, he began to walk away. As he did so he watched as the compass was pointing in a general direction, however the needle wavered a little bit, making it difficult to find materials precisely... Even still, he had the general direction. As he traveled he found lots of materials, but they were all ungatherable due to them being part of Giovanna's garden. Which meant he still had to press on even further.

ID# 188189  LD: 3  Nothing Found

Remaining unmoving and still while Shield finished working on the chest he was attempting to pick with the help of his familiar, Itzal kept scanning the area with his eyes. There were several monsters roaming through this dungeon, however they were passive. One even watched them as it walked passed, but had no hostility in it's eyes. That meant they had to engage combat with it before it was willing to fight. Aldion glided down from the branches of the trees as Shield stood up and turned around, landing on Itzal's shoulder. "Caw!" Itzal stroked his familiar's head a few times to calm him down. When Shield pointed out that Itzal knew much about him, but that he didn't share that advantage, he couldn't help but give a soft chuckle. "Apologies. It's part of my "job" to know who's a potential enemy, and who is not. And admittedly no one has asked me about myself up till this point. You can call me Are. It is a pleasure to formally meet you Shield." He said as he placed his empty fist on his chest and gave a slight bow to the tank. "May I ask, if you're subtle aggression is towards my appearance, or my actions?"

@Shield

With the big update finally out and in effect, Itzal lost many skills, including the gathering skill. However, this small setback provided two major benefits. The first was that the gatherer skill was in it's own separate quest, which meant he could reap it's experience points as a reward in addition to the skill itself. However the second benefit, was that the skill wasn't a skill anymore. It was a secondary profession skill, which saved him a lot of skill points. After reading up on the profession in the update, and from the broker's information, this profession allowed the player to find materials (in other words one couldn't search for materials without it), have the potential to find more than one (like the gathering skill), but also have the chance to locate a demonic shard. He had to max it out, but it would definitely be worth it in the end. Reaching the NPC's campsite, which tended to move around throughout the floor. As he approached the questgiver, she spoke first prior to his arrival.

"So, it appears you've found me," she comments, though not unkindly. "I tend to move around quite a lot, but someone always finds me. I suppose you are looking for some herbs?" "More like learning to find them... A second time." She looked at him and raised a brow at that. He just shrugged. "Things change."

It did not take much time at all for the black rogue to see the post his friend made on the board. It took him even less time to get moving towards the meetup point. What surprised Itzal was the coordinates directed him to where the nature's treasure quest used to be. According to what he heard from the brokers, the quest had been reformed into a dungeon so to speak, but that it's monsters weren't a necessity to fight at all. He had yet to see it yet, as he had been far too busy trying to grind back some of his levels and reobtain some of the skills that he'd lost... Or rather, replace his old ones with energist. He needed the additional energy with all the changes that were being implemented, namely the reduction in maximum energy due to level cuts.

He soon arrived at the location the coordinates lead to and after checking around the vicinity for unwanted players who might prey on them, he approached Nemo who then began leading him inward towards the dungeon. Once he lead him inside, he closed the gate and walked back to his own personal garden. Itzal didn't move at first, using the reveal and detect mods of his search skill to scan the area for individuals. There wasn't anyone here save for one individual, and from the way they were postured, it looked like they were sitting beside a large pond for fishing. Walking towards him, he moved through the flora filled gardens without making a sound. Once he was within earshot he had confirmed it was Shield. "Greetings Shield." He said simply, not approaching any further. He wasn't here as Itzal, but as Are. Still garbed in the black cloth armor with black leather chestpiece and pauldrons, black cowl and shadowy mist covering his face. Itzal moved his hand nimbly and opened his inventory, pulled out the heavy armor and closed the menu in the span of two seconds before planting it on the ground in front of him, holding it steady with his hand. "I believe this is better suited in the hands of someone who can not only appreciate it, but use it. It's nothing but decoration in mine."

@Shield

The black garbed player strode through the final street like a wraith, the mist under his hood leaving a thin trail behind him as he walked briskly towards the shop. He had already stopped three attempted thefts, beat down one player who assaulted another and threw them into the prison corridor crystal, and someone who was stalking a woman. This had all occurred within the span of ten minutes, and it didn't take long after that for news to spread quickly through the underside of this town. The rest of his time was spent seeing players of all sorts scatter at the sight of him, fleeing down alleyways and otherwise just trying to avoid him. That was fine. Itzal really didn't have time to play policeman here. Stepping into the shop, he wasted no time taking an order slip and writing down the information. He couldn't see the shop keeper, who according to the broker was Bahr, so he left the slip on the counter for the player when he returned, as well as a note stating where to leave it for pickup. Once he finished, he walked back out and moved onto his next destination.

Giving a light laugh at her enjoyable joke, he couldn't help but relate to the very true statement of hers. "Agreed! I doubt I'd be able to walk, let alone run if it weren't for that particular benefit we possess! Ha ha ha!" As his laughter died down, he caught a glimpse of Zita gliding in gracefully. He watched as Aldion, who was flying back to where his friend was, suddenly stopped right before he ran into the majestic creature and gave a loud "Caw!" in response and surprise. The result was that he dropped the large chunk of bread he grabbed for his friend, though he did catch it again with his talons. He flew up a little bit higher and placed the bread calmly by Zandra's familiar, and then dived down to grab another piece of food for himself to feast upon. Aldion was trained by Itzal to identify players between npcs, and when there were only npcs he didn't act as lookout half of the time. Even the raven familiar needed some down time after all. Itzal just chuckled and shook his head before returning his attention to his wife. He grinned at the cheesy line she gave, but then again. He didn't have anything but cheesy words up his sleeve either. Even with Kasier it was hard for him to come up with genuinely romantic things. But neither of them minded this, as they knew they were cheesy and took humor in it. However hearing that the food wasn't player made surprised him. "Really? Most items made by players, including food, tends to be of far better quality than game generated items. I'm surprised to hear there's amazing food coming from such a source." She then went on to explain how she encountered this place, and how she usually went on a leisurely stroll to find new places with food. Itzal nodded. "I know what you mean. Whenever a new floor is unlocked, I typically dedicate my entire day, sometimes two, to just scouting everything I can from the new floor. From it's incredible views, and places of interests, to it's dungeon locations, ambush sites, and other such locations." His smile faded slightly. "This time however... That's taking a backseat until we get a grip on this update."

Having taken a very long view through the entire update, Itzal had made a lot of decisions regarding his build, how he's handling things, and so forth. For the most part his build had not changed all that much, however he needed to change most of his planned skills to energist first, and he also needed to get the recovery enhancement as well. That, would only be available on a demonic item however, so he'd need to use demonic shards to combine the appropriate items. Overall however, he needed to rely on Zandra, and everyone else more than ever before now that his health and energy was reduced by half.

When she asked of his favorite places he sat there with a nostalgic smile on his face. "I think it's safe to say I don't have favorites regarding food. Best place for ice cream would be floor four for certain. Pancakes floor eleven. But most good foods you'll find on floor one. You tell me what you want, and I'll lead you right there... But..." His smile faded slightly. "While I appreciate this moment. We do need to talk about this update... Do you want to get this out of the way now? Or do you want to wait until after we've eaten?"

Post: 595
Total: 3,219

The wasp had run into the opposite cliffside when Itzal side stepped the monster, and was now disorientated again. However the program chose to attack him despite this fact, resulting in it's attack being way, way off. He didn't even need to dodge this time, it just missed on it's own. Watching this unfold, he couldn't help but wonder how stronger the monsters on the floors above would be. Most monsters would be unable to land a hit on Itzal unless they were able to land a critical hit... But most monsters tended to have a decent chance of landing such a thing against him half of the time. So it came down to how much damage they dealt, and if he could take it for very long. If the monsters had grown far stronger than they normally would be, then he may not be able to risk going on any grinds by himself anymore. Zandra was often busy with her own grinds, so he may need to find a partner to grind alongside with. Either a tank, an AoE player, or a support player preferably. Jonathan was a tank, but Itzal wasn't sure how warm a welcome that conversation was going to be turning out. Hestia had some healing skills if he recalled... Although she wanted to be a jack of all trades build, so with the limitations put on players she may end up deciding to do something a little bit differently. He didn't know who he should approach about this.. But, that was something to worry over another time. Itzal took his sword, gripped it tightly, turned on his heel and thrust the blade into the back of the wasp, piercing through to the other side of it's body. With a small shriek, the creature shattered and fell to nothing. The experience points they provided were hardly anything, but that was perfectly fine with him. He wasn't grinding just yet... Soon, but not yet. He certainly did need to grind for experience points, preferably soon, but overall he wanted to do it with someone else. If he had no choice but to solo he would, but he'd rather avoid working alone anymore...

With this fight having ended, Itzal made his way through the valley but did not see any additional monsters out. Curious, he activated his search skill, detect skill, and reveal skill. Sure enough, he found multiple holes in the cliffsides hidden by bushes and shrub, and inside past the greenery, hidden by darkness which his eyes penetrated thanks to the night vision skill, were a collection of wind wasps. The same as he'd just fought. They all had the pink cursor of course, and each appeared to be eyeing him warily. Perhaps the monsters sometimes had different personalities written into them then... If that were the case then the two wasps he fought would likely be regarded as brash, arrogant, or possibly just wild and uncontrollable. Unafraid. Whereas the rest of the wasps could detect the strength difference between one another, and made the distinct choice to avoid fighting him. Or maybe he was just overthinking it. He had run into plenty of intelligent non player characters and monsters in the past, so he was used to overthinking their overall intelligence and behavior patterns. For all he knew they could just be programmed this way. A few monsters sent to test the player while the others waited for easy prey. A good ambush spot for low leveled players. He might want to re scout all of the floors and identify where all of the ambush sites were. If he did, he could actually sell copies of his map to other players. Locations of interest, dungeon entrances, ambush sites, with notes on everything. Smiling, he figured he'd get to it at some point soon. Once he'd gotten his energy problem fixed.

Finally coming across the opening of a cave, Itzal walked inside fearlessly, hope that his gathering area of crystals and cave full of so many memories was truly still here and intact. He heard scuttling as he moved through the darkness, watching as a few goblins scurried away, scared of the player who walked into their domain. The goblins brought back memories of his adventures with Jonathan as they searched for rumors and the like of dwarven civilization. Unfortunately they still hadn't found one, but there were plenty of floors to go. Eventually he reached deep enough and took a sharp breath of air. Not only had the crystal cave remained, but it was more magnificent than beforehand... Along with giant clusters of glowing crystals of various sizes, shapes and color schemes, there were HUGE crystals that grew like giant pillars from the floor to the ceiling. Many of them were slanted, creating majestic archways for players to walk underneath. Fond memories flooded back to the front of his mind and he smiled. "Aldion? I'm ready to go meet up with Zandra now... Come on, let's go." "Caw!" As their voices echoed throughout the crystal cave, Itzal turned and walked back towards the entrance. He knew everything he had now. He knew all of the update, it's changes, and it's additions. He knew what it removed. He knew about his new drawbacks. And he had a plan to beat them. He wasn't going to be stopped now. He and Zandra would take down Aincrad with the rest of the players. One way or another.

In the end, they would win.

ID# 187788  BD: 5+3=8  22*7 = 154 DMG  -6 EN
ID# 187789  MD: 5-4=1  Miss

Wind Wasp 1 || 0/100 HP || 30 DMG
Wind Wasp 2 || 0/100 HP || 30 DMG

+1 EN

Itzal: [0/0 H] || 820/820 HP || 62/82 EN || 22-26 DMG || 4 EVA || 2 BLD T4 || 3 ACC || 1 PLZ || 9 BH+S ||
     Vanish: 0 CD || Surprise Attack: 0 CD || Disguise: 0 CD || Meditation: 0 CD || FKA: 0 CD ||
     SA CD: || Vertical Square: 1/1 || Meteor Break: 2/3 CD ||

Post: 915
Total: 21,050

Thread Completed!

Total Word Count: 21,050 (counted via wordcounter.net)
Total Pages: 1
EXP Option: 3*tier per 50 words
EXP Sub-Total: 8,420
Paragon Bonus: +3% (252)
Mega Slime Farm Bonus: +10% (842)
Total EXP: 5,052 EXP!

Col Reward: 400 Col
Other Rewards: None

US ROLL
ID: 188065    
BD: 1 <<Holy Blade>>   
CD: 6    
LD: 20    
MD: 5 <<Darkness Blade>>

Reroll chosen.

ID: 188066    
BD: 3 <<Achilles>> ERROR//: ACHILLES UNAVAILABLE; ROTATE FORWARD <<Dual Blades>>   
CD: 1    
LD: 10    
MD: 7 <<Infinite Spear>>

<<Dual Blades>> selected! Congratulations!

While the wind wasp pulled itself back together and refocused on Itzal yet again, the player was going over every possible option in his head as to what he could use to make his energy loss less of an issue... It finally hit him: He'd forgotten about a singular mod which was provided under the weapons skill list. A mod which he had forgotten about because there was absolutely no need for such a thing due to it's low benefits and the overall size of their energy pools: The stamina mod. The mod worked by reducing the energy costs of every sword art by a total of two points. Thus his strongest sword art in his arsenal now, the one that cost sixteen points of energy, would instead cost fourteen points of energy. While it wasn't much, it was definitely something he'd want and need if energy was going to be a big issue. From what he remembered the mod wasn't an add on, so unfortunately he would have to use up a mod slot, but that was fine. When he was in a raid, he likely wouldn't be using some of his scout mods, and depending on how he decided to set his strategy, probably not even the vanish mod. He'd only use that mod for other instances in the future. No, when on the battlefield alongside other players, his only stealth attempt would be when using his surprise attack mod. That was it. He wasn't going to waste energy on burst attacks when he could deal more through constant means. His meditation skill had a cooldown rank of three, so he would likely need to rely on other items after that. If he could make his armor and trinket a demonic, it was possible to apply the recovery enhancement to them and give himself a stronger energy regeneration without losing his evasion or accuracy.... He smiled now that he had a plan set in motion.

That was how he'd do it. With meditation, energist, stamina and some recovery enhancements. He could actually do this. The recovery enhancement increased one's passive energy regeneration by one times tier for each slot applied. That meant that Itzal's passive energy regeneration would skyrocket from one energy per round to nine points per round. It wasn't as much as meditation or vitality provided, but it was still far greater than his original plan. Instead of having to wait constantly for his energy to finally grow over a long period of time, the combination of these things would speed his recovery up very quickly. He might even be able to use the vanish and surprise attack mods with this plan. He wasn't sure of course, he hand to run practice courses. Maybe try the technique out while grinding mobs or something. Although it might be a bit dangerous to attempt monster grinding while he was still getting a good grip of his abilities and trying out new plans of attack... Perhaps later on when he was with someone else like Zandra, just in case something went south. Without using the meditation skill, his passive energy regeneration would be around nine points per round, which was incredibly useful. Instead of his maximum energy cost being sixteen, it would be fourteen with the stamina mod, though he still needed one more skill point to purchase it. If he possessed energist, then his maximum pool of energy would raise from eighty two points to one one hundred and two instead. That wasn't just a great bonus, that was a necessary one. That allowed him six attacks with his strongest sword art without stamina, and seven with it. Of course that still didn't take into account the cost for vanish and surprise attack together. If Itzal used those, then it would be an additional thirteen points of energy spent every three rounds or so. If he used the technique he'd practiced earlier where he used one sword art after the other with the stamina mod, then he'd be spending about thirty six points of energy every three rounds. If he didn't use vanish and surprise attack, he'd be spending thirty six every three rounds. If he did use them, he'd be spending about forty nine every four rounds. However if he obtained the recovery enhancements, then he'd shave that cost down greatly. Of course... That assumed that it would trigger. The recovery enhancement had about a fifty percent chance of triggering, so it either did or didn't. That being said, it was better than nothing, and it would save him a whole lot of trouble if it did trigger.

With that planning over with, at least for this moment, Itzal refocused on his enemy who was charging at him with a passion. Simply side stepping his foe was plenty. While monsters seemed to have become stronger on some level, these monsters were still from the second floor, and thus far more inferior to him to the point where they didn't really do anything to him. However his own thought process, as very much needed and deep as it was, had gotten him too distracted from the fight he was in. As a result when he tried to use the sword art as the monster passed by, it barely managed to avoid the tip of his blade. Well that was annoying. He didn't want this fight to drag on as some had in the past. He needed to focus on cleaving this monster and seeing the crystal caves. Once he did that and confirmed that his source of materials still existed, he could message Zandra and schedule a place to meet up with her. He didn't have this kind of time to waste after all, and he needed to go ahead and discuss his plans with her. If he could just squash this one last wasp and be done with it... Alas, with it being a wasp and very agile, he was in fact having difficulty hitting it. Or maybe it was him. It could just be that he was out of practice or something, though that didn't make sense. Was he shaken up by the raid boss event still? Or maybe it was readjusting to the new system and it's cloth armor, or the new sword arts... Or something. He wasn't entirely sure to be honest.

ID# 187786  BD: 2+3=5  Miss  -1 EN
ID# 187787  MD: 8-4=4  Miss

Wind Wasp 1 || 0/100 HP || 30 DMG
Wind Wasp 2 || 100/100 HP || 30 DMG

+1 EN

Itzal: [0/0 H] || 820/820 HP || 67/82 EN || 22-26 DMG || 4 EVA || 2 BLD T4 || 3 ACC || 1 PLZ || 9 BH+S ||
     Vanish: 0 CD || Surprise Attack: 0 CD || Disguise: 0 CD || Meditation: 0 CD || FKA: 0 CD ||
     SA CD: || Vertical Square: 1/1 || Meteor Break: 2/3 CD ||

Post: 1,058
Total: 20,135

Even without the charging skill at his disposal, he had closed the distance very swiftly, his black blade reaching for the wasp. The creatures that noticed him moved in to attack as well, and the wasp he had targeted moved with decent speed. In fact, the monster seemed more focused and quicker than it had been the last time he'd fought mobs on this floor. Well he rarely ever saw wasps here outside of the wasp queen quest, but in general most of the monsters on this floor were generally weaker than this, or slower at least. As the creature came in for a strike he recognized that it wasn't playing around, and was trying to sting his neck with it's large piercing blade on the back end of it's abdomen. If Itzal had allowed such a thing, then maybe it would have been a threat but he wasn't going to just sit there and let himself get pierced in the neck by a giant stinger on this overgrown hornet. Activating his strongest sword art just for the sake of practice, his blade glowed with energy as he cleaved the creature in half, severing it's front from it's abdomen in one single, clean strike. What shocked him, was how quickly his energy had dropped from that one hit. And then of course it hit him, not like a truck but like a train. With his sword arts made stronger, so were his energy costs. However on top of this, he also had to worry about the fact that his energy had been cut in half. Thus he would never again have more than enough energy for a long and stretched out battle... He actually had to concern himself about energy from this point forward. And that was going to be a very big issue that was now pinned to the forefront of his mind. For one, he had to calculate how many hits he could land on his opponent before he ran out of energy entirely. Secondly he had to figure out methods of increasing his maximum energy. And the only way he could think of doing that was both leveling up his paragon levels, or getting the energist skill... And he really didn't want to have to spend his skill points into that of all things... But, what else could he do?? If he skipped the four ranks in battle healing for now, he'd at least have one percent of his health per round. It wasn't much at all, but it was something at least. In raids the supporters would likely be working overtime for not just him but the entire group to keep everyone's health up to maximum. There was also the vitality consumable which allowed players to recover a little bit of their energy. However in order to truly utilize that he needed to consume it at least twice, and he also needed the storage capacity for it. In theory it was useful outside of combat, but in a raid... Was it really?

There were too many variables he needed to process, and and he was in the middle of a battle. A non-threatening battle, but a battle nonetheless. Itzal watched as the second wasp dived at him with the strong intent of landing at least some kind of blow. However the nimble rogue backflipped out of the way and swung his sword to parry it's stinger. The result sent the wasp flying through the air spinning until it crashed into the cliffside. That gave him a little bit more time to think at least... In a raid, if his energy reached minimum, then he needed to get the energy back somehow. There were four methods he could use to try and make that happen. The first was consuming the food enhancement vitality, which could provide him... sixteen points of energy for each he consumed. Looking at his sword, he knew that was only enough for one more attack with his maximum damage sword art. It wasn't really good enough in reality. He could try making it work by using the consumable between the vanish mod and surprise attack. However there was yet another problem with that. Both vanish and surprise attack used up a collective total of thirteen points of energy. Which meant that even if he didn't use any sword arts between his surprise attacks, he would still not have enough for his strongest sword art, only his weakest ones. There was the meditation skill, but it too only recovered about sixteen points of energy and that still wasn't enough. If he used both meditation and the consumable together then he could, but at that point he would be spending two to three rounds doing absolutely nothing before launching a surprise attack against his target. If he was doing that, then he would need to focus everything he could into burst damage, and not constant attacks. But in the end it may just be the only way he'd deal any real damage in the long run. For short battles he could give it his all, but it was still risky in case the fight ended up dragging on a bit. And burst damage was predictable when fighting against player killers...

While he appreciated the additional strategy, he was beginning to feel as if he had been backed into a corner... However there was one additional variable he needed to take into account: Zandra's first aid skill. It was possible to give him the energy needed to keep fighting if she chose too, which would be vital for dungeons and events. She may not like the idea of doing so, but that's what the two of them needed to figure out together. They needed to sit down and strategize about how they wished to proceed with combat going forward...... Of course right about now he still had one last wasp he needed to shred before moving on at long last to see the crystal cave and make sure everything was still there.

ID# 187782  BD: 8+3=11  22*16=352 dmg! -16 EN  Wind Wasp 1 Slain
ID# 187784  MD: 9  30-20=10 dmg!
ID# 187785  MD: 8-4=4  Miss!

Wind Wasp 1 || 0/100 HP || 30 DMG
Wind Wasp 2 || 100/100 HP || 30 DMG

+1 EN

Itzal: [0/0 H] || 820/820 HP || 67/82 EN || 22-26 DMG || 4 EVA || 2 BLD T4 || 3 ACC || 1 PLZ || 9 BH+S ||
     Vanish: 0 CD || Surprise Attack: 0 CD || Disguise: 0 CD || Meditation: 0 CD || FKA: 0 CD ||
     SA CD: Meteor Break: 3/3 CD ||

Post: 1,006
Total: 19,077

Rushing across the mega slime farm he owned he jumped as he reached the fencing, placing his hand on it's board and swinging his legs overhead smoothly and flawlessly, before planting them onto the ground once again, running towards the forest. Once he was close enough he switched from a run to a sprint towards a large tree and scaled it very quickly with three dexterous steps before grabbing it's lowest branch and hoisting himself up with the momentum. After that it was a simple matter of climbing the rest of the branches up to the highest point, which he'd done so many times he'd pretty much call this kind of thing easy. Not even inside the game either, as he did practice parkour out in the real world for a while to escape bullies and other daily frustrations. Once he had reached the top of the tree he found Aldion waiting for him, fixing up the feathers on his wing before fluffing them into place, folding his wings, and sitting there with a look that seemed to say: "Oh you're finally here now." "Caw!" "Hey you, I don't have wings. I'm fast but I can't literally fly through the air and land wherever I want to. Gravity is my enemy here." "Caw! Caw!" "Just wait until we end up going through another cave.." Itzal muttered before taking a look at his surroundings. It... Wasn't at all, like before. From what he could tell, he was in one of the very few forested areas on the entire floor. Not only that but the forested area he was in wasn't even all that big. It was secluded on a flat area a little ways from a cliffside, so at least it was still isolated, maybe even more so. He could even see the waters flowing from the lake nearby his house like a steady stream towards the cliff before turning into a miniature waterfall. It was beautiful... The rest of the floor had taken him off guard. The entire place looked like a series of canyons, mountains and cliffs, each of them layered with greenery on the surface of them, making the rough land still seem like a friendly terrain despite it's foundations and jaggedness. In the distance Itzal could see giant mountains where a massive waterfall fell down and continued as a river through most of the floor in it's largest canyon, thought it would be more accurate to call it a valley.

"...Well. This place certainly has changed a lot since the update..." "Caw." While Aldion was in agreement with him, Itzal felt that he didn't care all that much in reality. The primary thing that would change for Aldion was that there were less places to hide with the forest gone, though they had practiced stealth in the past... Although. Since familiars no longer possessed any sort of skill designed to hide from other players, did that mean they could no longer attempt to go into stealth alongside the player? If that were the case, it would spell disaster for any player attempting to use the hiding skill so long as they owned a familiar. Either that or perhaps the familiar could only go into stealth based on what type of animal it was. For example a pink and purple bear would be harder to hide than a small black raven. Or maybe it was something else entirely? Wanting to test this out right now rather than later, Itzal activated his stealth skill as he normally did, and blended in with the branches. He watched as Aldion readjusted his position to keep himself hidden from view, blending in with the branch's shadows. As he did this, not only did Itzal's username, health bar and energy bar become partially translucent, but so did Aldion's name and health. Taking a small sigh of relief he let go of his now pointless fears. From what this test had revealed to him, not only could they hide alongside the player, the familiar likely utilized the stealth points the player was currently generating as their own. Thus if one got caught, so did the other. That was a well thought out mechanic he thought to himself. It was definitely useful if he located a player killer with a familiar. It would allow him and Aldion to keep the familiar from sending a message to one of his or her "friends".

With this new rule established, Itzal scanned the area for somewhere to head to, just to try and get a feel for this new floor. There was someplace on this floor that Itzal had found a long while back. Someplace he actually took Kasier to for a special date of theirs. He wanted to see if it was removed or changed, and from what he could remember it should be relatively nearby. Though that nearby had become a part of the mountains, that just made it more of an adventure. Smiling with anticipation he began to climb down the tree, and once at the lowest branch dropped down and landed on the ground with ease and no loss in health. He made a dash for the other side of the clearing as the path he had laid out for the caves was along the backside of his house. The road was gone now, but the area was still a little bit similar, so he could still locate the cave even without it. Running along the path the forest began to start thinning out until it was nothing more than several sparse trees here and there. It was now more so like a mountain layered with vegetation than it was a forest, though from what he had seen earlier that was the point of it. The forested lands he had built his house in were no longer to be seen. They were gone forever. Replaced now with the mountainous ranges before him. The land wasn't too dangerous to cross though. The mountains were relatively flat, and while rough it wasn't loose or sharp. If this were in the real world running around here would give someone a cramp, aching legs and hips, maybe a bad back. But that didn't really exist in sword art online really. In the end while they were indeed trapped here, it did have one or two perks up it's sleeves.

That's when he heard the buzzing. Pausing for a moment and drawing his sword, he looked ahead with the help of reveal and detect, and located what appeared to be two wasps. Both of them were about two feet in length, and the two were buzzing around the area as if they were wandering around aimlessly. Their cursor colors were pink, meaning they were severely under-leveled against him. That was a good thing at least. Looking at his sword really quick... "Hey Aldion." he whispered to his familiar. The black raven turned it's head to him. "How about we try out my new combat skills on something real?" With that Itzal exited stealth, gaining the attention of the two wasps, and rushed forward.

Post: 1,184
Total: 18,071

"Ok. So I have the one handed straight sword skill, with it's sword arts and ferocity mod, along with the martial arts skill up to rank two in order to unlock the meteor break skill. As well as the cloth armor skill and it's two mods athletics and nimble. With those I'll have the evasion needed for defense, and searching bonuses needed for scouting and looting. For the next two I have the searching skill with all of it's mods: Night vision, tracking, detect and reveal, with reveal being an add on mod alongside the reveal mod, making them active at all times." He leaned in toward the screen as he continued to read and process his skills aloud, placing his partially closed hand against his lower face in thought. "I also have the hiding skill along with its own series of mods: Untraceable, vanish, surprise attack assassin, but not the blindside mod. I don't need that much stealth just yet, and I need the skill points for other things... Which brings me to..." The rest of the skills he needs to file his remaining points into. He didn't have all that much remaining, so he would need to choose very carefully. None of the other extra skills required any skill points be put into them in order to actually activate them, so that at least was a breath of relief. He'd already placed points in the extended mod limit, which was important and a good slot to fill. However for the rest of them, that was a hard decision. It wasn't until he reviewed all of the skills again when he ran across the combat masteries which he had completely forgotten existed. He didn't even hesitate to put his points into the damage mastery, as that was vitally needed for his damage output since Aldion couldn't really do much right now. Later, but not now. After that however, he only had seven skill points remaining. So the question was where to put them... While he certainly wanted access to some of the skills like the familiar mastery, or the extended weight limit, parry, or even another weapon skill that had AoE attacks like the curved sword, and especially the charge skill which increased his damage on the first attack immensely, his thoughts kept flipping back to his health... Survival was vital. If he wanted to move forward, he had to be breathing and standing upright in order to do so. Thus: Itzal selected the first rank of battle healing and unlocked it. With that unlocked, he ran out of skill points to use, and was forced to accept his new build... Though he wasn't really upset with it.

Now that he had done all of this his conversion was now officially o- A message popped up from the cardinal system: [Please convert items to tier four before time elapses] "...I'm sorry, what?" Quickly going to his equipment, he selected his sword and saw that there was the option to upgrade it to a tier four item, and in the process even convert it's type from one to another if he really wanted to. Completely shocked he sat there in disbelief as he knew this wasn't going to really work out well. The only weapon he had that could be tiered was his sword, and it was a bleed weapon. If he had managed to get some unique weapons from before, he could have possibly converted those and obtained a powerful tier four unique sword. As it was, he only had the sword he could use... Well, he could pull one of Zandra's equipment out since they were under the shared inventory system the wedding status provided. However he wasn't going to do that. There wasn't enough time to talk with her about it, and he knew she used all of her weapons. He couldn't take that from her under any circumstances. Thus, he simply hit convert for his primary sword which had two bleed and one paralysis, turning the meager weapon into a tier four. This would have to do until he managed to get himself an upgrade he thought to himself. With that being decided, he stood up, Aldion noticing this and fluffing his feathers. Switching his equipment out from his casual clothing to his black hooded armor, he was glad to see that the leather chest piece and pauldrons didn't turn the item into a light armor piece of gear... Though it was glitching out a little bit until he officially made it cloth armor in the menu. After that he equipped Beauty Incarnate under his right glove, and his wedding ring under his left glove. And finally the skills and mods.. Itzal went ahead and selected ferocity, athletics, nimble, night vision, detect, reveal, untraceable, vanish, and surprise attack assassin as his active mods. With no need to track players right now he didn't need to worry about that, and if he did he could just switch it out really quick. As for extra skills, he selected hiding, survival, disguise and forgotten king's authority.

With his entire setup finally laid to rest, he turned over to Aldion who sat there staring at him expecting a command any moment. "Well? Let's see if the floor itself has made any changes as well. Could be fun." Itzal commented, with a finger gesture for the black raven to join him. "Caw! Caw!" The familiar flapped it's feathers before leaping into the air and getting a head start in front of Itzal. Chuckling, he raced after his friend. He no longer had the charge skill, which was a bummer, but he would grind enough experience points to max out battle healing and get the charge skill afterwards. He just needed to earn four more paragon levels and he'd get another five skill points. That only unlocked one additional rank, but it was a start at least. And who knows? There might be lots of dungeons and quests, events and raids for him to take on which would serve to boost his experience off the charts! It was only a matter of time before he got the skills he needed to help skyrocket the frontlines into the next tiered floors. And with Zandra's help... Yes, especially with Zandra's help. He would get there. Not alone anymore. He would reach that goal side by side his loving wife. She as the AoE and tank. He as the scout and DPS. There to support one another through everything and everything. Through thick and thin... They would escape this world together, and meet in the real world.

Post: 1,102
Total: 16,887

Now then... For the next part...

Itzal opened up his skill menu and looked at all of the broken skills he currently owned. He started by automatically going through each and every one of them and removing them from his list. Every skill, extra skill, mod, and so forth until it was left blank and empty save for the one handed straight sword skill which he needed above all else. If he was going to go for a dps he couldn't fight without a weapon. The only players who could even consider going weaponless were tanks or support players, typically a hybrid of both tank and healer. And with the new increase in strength for the straight sword's damage and abilities in general, he was going to need it. Beyond that there was also the matter of his defenses. He needed evasion as much as he possibly could attain, and now not only did the cloth skill, which had been added in addition to the light armor and heavy armor skills, provide a single bonus to evasion, which brought his total evasion slot up to four instead of three by default, which was his normal before the update, but it also provided him with an additional bonus to his searching, harvesting- well no longer harvesting, but looting chances as well. This was the perfect gear for a dps, rogue and scout built player as himself. He was always an evasion player, so the second he saw the cloth armor he knew it was the one for him. With one handed straight sword and cloth armor as his chosen weapon type and armor type, that was the basics he needed. Alongside those, he'd also need their mods. Ferocity, which provided an additional one point of damage for the straight sword, athletics which provided him another plus one damage to his base for any weapon, and nimble which was a new mod that provided the evasion bonus and search bonus to his person. Those were the only buffs they could provide, but that was perfectly fine by him. He selected these skills and mods and they were added to his list. Thirty skill points for each skill he maxed out were deducted, as well as the sixteen skill points spent for the three mods he purchased. In total he had spent around seventy six skill points thus far, but he wasn't done. Not until every last one of them was spent.

While things became more difficult to decide on now that the basics and necessities were out of the way, he still had yet to reach the actual hard part. After all, he still needed to continue his player hunting job. He wasn't about to just abandon all the players out there who couldn't defend themselves or were being hunted like animals waiting for the slaughter. The searching skill would allow him to spot player killers attempting to hide from him, while the hide skill allowed him to get the jump on said player killers. He doubted most of his targets would have those two same skills as he did, and just opt for the hiding skill, so he should be safe from their detection for the most part. Whereas he would have the skills and mods required to nullify their stealth bonuses. Not to mention he needed the untraceable mod so that players in the same party as him did not detect his identity as Itzal. Even if he was planning to speak with Hestia, Mina and Jonathan about the truth, his identity needed to remain a secret from the public. For their safety. Beyond the untraceable mod and surprising his opponents, Itzal also needed the mod available at rank five: Surprise attack assassin. He had considered the trickster mod for some time, but there were problems with that. For one, it really didn't do much to benefit him. His damage was weak, but he could still apply more through constant attacks than he could with damage over time effects, so if he could just boost his damage on the hit instead of applying those, he'd be all set. It was made even more meaningless to him when this update came out and updated the sword arts for his chosen weapon. The only reason he considered trickster was because his damage output was crappy at best. Now he didn't need to be concerned about that. And if he could get the fallen and holy enhancements...  That would increase his damage output to such an incredible degree he didn't even want to think about how his opponents would feel being struck by such a mighty blow. Running the calculations in his head, if he was hit by something like this, he'd be lower than half his health on the first strike. He'd just gone from desperately trying to paralyze and stun to dangerously powerful. And this was without the charge skill too. With that in mind, he went ahead and purchased the full five ranks of both the searching skill and the hiding skill, as well as every one of their mods, which lead up to a total of sixty three or so skill points.

When he purchased the reveal mod in particular however, he blinked in curiosity at something: The reveal mod had an additional tag on it that he hadn't spotted before: Addon. Curious, he clicked this tag and an information tab popped up: [Add on mods once purchased do not take up a mod slot to use] "Well that's incredibly useful." He thought to himself. Now that he was looking, Nimble was also an add on mod too. So nimble and reveal both could be used without taking up a mod slot. That was significantly better than before the update and made things much, much easier for him. With this ability he could use even more mods than the five max like he had prior to the update.... However, there were a lot of mods that could prove very useful to him. Thinking about it, he believed getting the extended mod skill would be important, and thus spent points in it to unlock it. Now he was able to use a total of nine mods thanks to the two add on mods, and four extra skills at a time. Right now he had disguise, meditation, survival, forgotten king's authority, and brawler as extra skills from quests, with hiding making the latest... Martial arts! He quickly unlocked that one real quick. From what he could tell, the glitchy skill had only allowed Meteor break because it was malfunctioning, but that likely wouldn't be the case for long. The cardinal was handling a huge update and was likely to correct it the second after it allowed such a thing. At any rate, he was well on his way.

Post: 1,137
Total: 15,785

Aldion tilted his head as he watched Itzal cry before flapping up and landing on the player's shoulder, rubbing his feathery head against him. "Caw! Caw!" Itzal turned to look at his familiar and gave a slight chuckle as he wiped the remaining moisture from his face before scratching his raven's head. "Thanks buddy..." Everything was changing in this update. And not just the things the cardinal system was changing up. Because of it his outlook was a little better yes... But he had a new resolve as well. He needed to mend bridges he'd burned, and it wouldn't be an easy path to take. Yet despite the tense moments and painful tears he would very likely have in the coming moments, he would persevere in the end and make things right. With Hestia. With Mina. With Jonathan. When he left the frontlines and returned as Are, he had left things on bad terms with Hestia due to their very bad argument. She would likely be the hardest to speak with because of those conditions. For Mina, it would be hard because, in a way he betrayed her. He kept a secret from her despite being great friends, and he had struck her. While it was true she had attacked first, he knew who she was when she took off that mask, but played it off as if they didn't know one another to keep his identity secret. He owed her a severe apology... For Jonathan... Well he wasn't entirely sure. His friend just dropped off of the radar for a while there, but he hoped everything was ok. Whatever the case, he needed to speak to all three of them, so that there were no more secrets between him and his friends... That time however would arrive within the days to come. Not this moment. Not today. Thus he brought his train of thought, once again, hopefully for the last time, back to three point oh, so that he might finish reading up on it and all it contained, before finding Zandra once again.

Besides the drastic change in the system which allowed players to fuse items to improve their quality, he wasn't seeing any other changes in the professions. He knew that the appraisal profession, or as it once was known before this new update, the merchant profession, was altered. However nothing else was on the summary list cardinal provided him. So he arrived at the conclusion that nothing else had changed, and as such skipped ahead to the appraisal profession to see how exactly it was altered. From what he could tell....... It was nerfed. They could no longer sell items like the tents, the glowing crystal, the toxin, or anything else like that. Instead they were limited to identifying items players gained from monsters they had slain or chests they had looted, capable of detecting normal and unique enhancements. Something Itzal had not seen before however, was this reroll ability, which Itzal realized could make grinding for unique enhancements all that more easier. Realizing how special this profession really was now, he knew he'd be visiting them very frequently. Moving on from them, there were the gathering professions below. The gatherer skill, which increased the amount of materials players could attain, which made Itzal's material harvesting abilities so insanely prosperous, had been merged with the mechanic that allowed players to harvest materials, into a single profession. What was interesting about this one, was that players had to use it over and over again in order to gain experience points in the skill, and that they had to earn it in the "earning a living" quest. That was tedious, but at least it gave him something to do. The fishing skill had likewise been made a profession for harvesting materials and chests, but the threat of pulling mobs up from the waters was no longer a danger the player needed to consider with this update. From what he could read, they were considered a sub profession, or secondary profession. Much like most MMO's which had crafting system, SAO now allowed players a skill to gather materials from certain sources, and a way to use those materials for something meaningful. Smiling to that, he checked to see if there were any other changes to note but... He, could not see anything else. Three point oh's update had ended promptly there.

That being said, now came the next part of the equation. Itzal had to convert all of his skill points and skills to the updated requirements. He had a lot less to work with, and would likely lose a few skills, but he could manage. There were a few skills he'd need above the others and- wait... As he thought of his level and the skill points they awarded him, he realized something vital: He was a tier four player... But, they hadn't reached the fourth tier floors just yet. What did that mean for him? Did he get any tier four gear when he beat the floor boss? No, that was impossible. He hadn't landed the final hit on the floor boss... Had he? He quickly opened his inventory and saw one item that was labeled as new. He opened it's information and... Sure enough. A tier four shield with four unique enhancements on it. A powerful demonic shield with one frost thorns, one flame thorns, one frost aura, and one flame aura. He recalled himself thinking about how strong they could be in the hands of a tank, and they ended up in the hands of a dps player... Well, at least he could get this powerful tool into the hands of someone who could actually use the thing. Though it didn't provide him anything he could use he thought bittersweetly. This did not tell him however if he received the final hit bonus by killing the boss, or if this was just some glitch. Maybe the cardinal system gave them all a little 'gift' as celebration for the update that just came out? He'd need to speak with other players to see what their thoughts on the matter were, but for now he'd have to make do with this.

Post: 1,034
Total: 14,648

Not physically stressed, tired or exhausted, Itzal sheathed his blade with a flourish of the wrist, sliding the blade in with a satisfying 'click' at the end of it. With his test on the sword arts over with, as there really wasn't too much he could do in that area other than strategize he decided to sit down on a bench and open up his menu, navigating to the three point oh update once again. Yes, strategizing how he should utilize these sword arts, in what order, and against which types of enemies, was a very important factor he needed to process and think about. However, that process would be completely useless as of right now, as there could easily be more to the update which alters how the combat system would work. He knew that there was a support mod within the leadership skill that could reset a single sword art's cooldown to zero, so it wouldn't be much of a stretch to say that something else could affect it either. Sure the last item on the list was appraisers and professions in general, but there could easily be a misc. section for out of place concepts and changes. Therefore it would be very premature to go processing and strategizing how he should use his sword arts and in what order when he might have to rethink it all should anything else be added in which affects them... He thought back to the unique skills for a moment and wondered if there were any skills in there that allowed a user to bypass or at least speed up the cooldown process. It was an interesting concept for sure, if not a tiny bit broken. However... Itzal wondered what kind of unique skill would fit him the best, if it ever did actually exist. He wouldn't mind one that made him harder to hit, like a reverse absolute accuracy. He also wouldn't mind something that helped improve his luck a little bit, like something which increased the chances of applying status effects and damage over time effects by one hundred percent. In the end though, as Itzal looked at his black sword and saw his reflection... He thought of the technique that Ulises had come up with. Soul Barrage. It gave off the illusion of using two swords if used with enough speed, as the user swung their blade, but then immediately let go and grabbed with their opposite hand and struck with that, cutting the time of wait in half and effectively doubling his attack speed, or at least nearly. If he could attain any skill, it would probably be one that he already was aware of. It would be Dual wielding. Such a powerful weapon shouldn't be in the hands of someone like Death Adder. No. It should be used for the benefit of everyone by pushing the front lines forward. Protecting the innocent, and never used to take another person's life.

Taking a deep breath to focus himself again, and pull his thoughts from that dark train of thought which he plunged into, he opened the tab for professions. Wondering what he'd be discovering. To his honest and great shock, there was a new mechanic added into them all. This new system allowed the players, with plenty of materials, to take any quality item such as uncommon and rare, and fuse them together in order to make them the next highest quality. To transform a uncommon into a rare, one needed two uncommon items, probably of the same type and tier, and fuse them together with the use of a single material. In order to transform two rares into a perfect, they needed to take two rare items, two materials, and fuse those together. What really got his mind racing was what you could do after that: By taking a perfect item and a demonic item, one could fuse them into a perfect with three materials. What did that mean though?! Surely they wouldn't make such a horrible de- wait... No, if the players used this method, could they potentially fuse unique enhancements that were on a demonic item into the perfect item?! If that were the case, then players could potentially make their own powerful weapons. They wouldn't be dependent on the boss drop anymore... This was astounding news to him, but the second was even more so: players could fuse a perfect and a demonic into a fused demonic with three materials, and one demonic shard. Which meant that since Itzal had one such shard, he could potentially save it for an incredibly powerful weapon... If he could... Possibly... Obtain different uncommons, rares, and perfects which each had at the very least one fallen or holy... Itzal could potentially fuse together the sword he'd already decided would be ideal for him to obtain. This information had caught him so off guard he took a moment to process but...

He smiled. "Kayaba. I don't know if you can hear me but. Whether it was out of pity, or understanding, or even if the thought never even crossed your mind... Thanks... Thank you so very much, for letting me be something other than weak and useless in this game..." For once he didn't have to struggle, and fight, and overwork himself to near death just to provide something for the others. In Boss raids he wasn't even useful with debuffs. Other players had brought them. His luck was horrific, and as such his damage over times would either never trigger against them, or when they did it was at the absolute worst moment possible. Not only that but paralysis had the same bad luck too. His damage multiplier had always been worse than any other sword art other players had. But now... His damage was the highest of the one handed weapons. He had no idea if his luck changed or not, but perhaps the conditions and chances did. With the quality enhancement and his looting buffs, he should be capable of grinding lots of monsters, though it would go far much faster with Zandra's assistance. And now, he could forge his own sword which could help not only himself, but everyone else around him. A massive weight lifted off of his shoulders as a silent tear fell down his face. Zandra had helped him through his depression, self doubt, and his constant berating himself for not being able to do anything useful whatsoever. But now, she didn't have to. Or at least, she didn't need to worry about his sanity in that regard anymore. He could stand on his own two feet, and walk beside her in confidence in himself as much as her. Itzal wiped the tears that came down from his eyes with a smile. "Thank you..."

Post: 1,133
Total: 13,614