Aereth

He chuckled when Kooh made the comment about him finding loopholes. "As if I'd let those idiots order me around. Once you grab a tigers tail, make sure to never let go of it again or you might find yourself ripped apart. And that's exactly what they did when they let you escape. Letting go of the tail." Turning around as Kooh called out to him once more, Aereth put on his happy go lucky smile once again and nodded once, before leaving the cave. 

When they finally were deep enough into the forest, Aereth turned to Avi once more. "Here's the plan. I'll show them the item as soon as they show up and when I see an opening, I'll go directly after Kreeyin. I need you to keep your brother out of combat, so that my friend is able to flee without problems. After that you two will make your escapes through the teleport gates of this floor. And until I'm done with the rest of your guilds, you will need to change your appearance and stay low. I will help you. But also know what happens when your brother chooses to fight for Kreeyin..." Aereth said in a low tone, after he broke down his general plan of action. Best case scenario: He would fight Kreeyin and kill him. Worst case scenario: He would find himself in a three on one gangbang... 

@Kooh

Just now Aereth realized how stupid his question just sounded. Of course he would need to GM the weapon if he wanted to generate the maximal damage from using it. Mentally facepalming, Aereth rose his hands in front of him and apologized. "Sorry for being stupid. Seems like my brain decided to shut down for a moment. Yeah, I understand now. You don't get the bonus damage from the five ranks if you don't grand master it. And why would you bother going up here grabbing a new weapon if you didn't intend to use it at some point..." Sighing at his own stupidity, Aereth scanned the area for some more materials.

After once again finding nothing, Aereth turned over to Hik with a more serious face. "I'm sorry about what I'm going to ask you, but I that question was in the back of my mind ever since you entered my shop for your new armor. Do you have any idea what Ariel wants to do? I've heard from some players that she's plotting some not so good things... And I figured since you have to know her better than anyone else...." he paused. "You know what, forget what I just said. I'm sorry, and I didn't want to overstep any boundaries..."

@Hikoru

ID# 86473 results:
Loot: 5+5

Materials: 12

When he heard a casual 'Yo' from his female companion, it felt like a weight was lifted from his mind. Aereth already assumed the worst. Something like an ambush with Kooh already dead, or the likes... After the woman confessed that she had successfully attempted to flee, Aereth let out a low sigh, and playfully put a fist on the head of the blonde, before pulling her up in a quick hug. "Needless to say that this action was stupid and risky, but after all it worked, right. And who am I if I blame you for a successful escape. I was worried girl." he said before letting go of her. "But don't worry I got everything. You just scrambled up my plans. But with you free that puts me in a much better position than before anyways. Here take this." Aereth said, and fetched the emerald pendant from his inventory. "Protect this item as good as you can. You need to give it back to the woman it belongs. I promised it when I took it. These bastards wanted me to kill that woman and bring that pendant to confirm the kill. Scum... I'll tell you the whole story later, but you need to head over to her house and give it back." he then quickly sent the coordinates over to her before writing a message to Avi, saying that he hadn't found her inside of the cave and that he should send his pals another message saying that they should head over to the forest  besides the cave entrance with Kooh. "Oh, and please also take the item I left her as an insurance for my return back. It's very important to me." It was almost perfect. Only Aereth knew where Kooh would be and thus didn't have to rely on Avi keeping his end of the bargain. "You'll wait until I led the boy away from the entrance, and then you'll run. Sh*t.... I just remembered something. You won't be able to enter the house... F*ck... So you need to hide somewhere in the close area of the house until I come back... I don't like that idea, but that's what we have to work with... You think you can do that?"

With that the two parted and Aereth made his way back out of the cave and asked. "Did you send them the message? I wasn't able to find her down there, and I don't like where this is going." when the boy would answer the question they would start heading into the forest next to the cave entrance.

@Kooh

A wicked grin crawled over Aereth's face when he finally agreed to his conditions. If he handled this fight the right way, he would be able to get rid of a member of the Laughing Coffin, as well as get some more information about them. That was, if that player would hold his end of the bargain. When his opponent started showing off all of his uniques, Aereth's grin just widened. Up until now he hadn't fought many that had equipment of similar quality to this players. Oh, how he was going to enjoy this fight. "These are quite some stunning toys you have there." he said with a chuckle, and unsheathed his brand new blade. This was going to be the first combat use of the sword that immediately gave of a black aura. Aereth placed the Dimensional Shift into a backhanded position and got into his battle stance. "Let's see how good that thing really is..." he thought, grin still intact. 

His opponent came at a very impressing speed at him, and the brunette rose his blade in front of his face to parry the attack. Sparks flew through the air as the two unique weapons clashed against at each other. The two blades fought for dominance over each other, but in this kind of battle Aereth's longer and bulkier sword would give him the edge, so he pushed back at his opponent with all of his might, before lowering his body, grabbing some dirt from the ground and throwing it directly into the face of his opponent. Using the moment, Aereth would activate his <<Leaping Crane>> sword art, and delivered a stun kick to the chest of his opponent. He felt the flames of his armor enhancement slowly burning away at his health points, but he got first blood.

@Daniella

A slow nod came as a response to Dani's question if the LC was one of the groups Aereth was hunting down. His eyes didn't leave the cloaked figure for one moment. Up until now, he hadn't had the opportunity to fight an active member of the Laughing Coffin. And with what the player in front of them just said, it seemed like the rumors of the guild being dormant for now turned out to be true.

Aereth took a couple of moments to process what the player in front of him just said. Their leader wanted to have a word with him? Recruit him? Most definitely a trap, but now he had a name. He just needed more. "A fight to the death, doesn't sound half bad to me, but how about a little wager? We fight and depending on who manages to get the other player into the redzone first wins. If I win you tell me everything about Sensui and your little guild before I kill you. If you win, I'm either coming with you and talk to Sensui, or you can kill me. Your call." A grin came to his face, and the adrenaline started to rush through Aereth's veins. He was actually looking forward to a challenging fight. Ever since his imprisonment he wasn't able to test his abilities to the full extent, and he was eager to go all out on somebody. Dani knew what to do in case of an emergency, and this was his best shot at gathering information about the most dangerous PKing guild of the game. "Oh, and no buffs. Cause if you start to buff, then I have to buff, and in the end it's just a waste of items..."

@Daniella

Letting out a chuckle when Dani mentioned how her fists were stunning, but her bikini top was a mistake, Aereth shook his head. It was always the same with that girl. She would always wear revealing clothes and complain afterwards about them. "Yeah the food really is awesome. Better than that NPC made crap I'm usually eating." he said before he started to eat away at his sea food plate. 

Aereth chocked really hard, when Dani suggessted to have some fun at his place later tonight. And after catching his breath again, grabbed one of the many instant teleport crystals to his house, he had bought recently from his battle ready inventory. Now a smug grin was on his face, he put the crystal into Dani's hand, and he replied. "You know how to use them, right? The'll drop you off just in front of my door." he said before focusing back on his food. "Damn, this woman is a handful..." Aereth thought with a chuckle.

Then a new girl introduced herself as Shadowpixel, or short Pixel, and Dani nearly exploded from excitement about that new team member she had just found. "Hey there, my name's Aereth." turning into Hidden's general direction he also shouted. "Eluciiiiia. You have another team member, isn't that exciting?" he chuckled. "Seems like I too need to find some guys for the team.." he mused before noticing Itzal and Jonathan. "Hey Itzi, Jon. You two have to be on our team. We need to show the ladies who's the boss on the beach."

@Daniella, @Morgenstern, @Itzal, @Hidden, @Shadowpixel

At least a small victory came in Avi finally wanting to cooperate with Aereth. "Good then I trust you." No he didn't. He still needed to keep an eye on the boy, in case he would falter again when meeting his brother and Kreeyin. It could easily turn a two on two situation into a three on one battle, he most definitely didn't want to fight. "She sent me the coordinates of the meeting spot, let's get moving. I plan on trading the necklace for her freedom, but I won't take it out until he leaves her go. This is where you will come into play. I'm assuming that your brother will be the one holding her, so you need to convince him quickly enough for me to attack Kreeyin when he shows some openings. Understood?" he asked, but sounded more like a superior ordering around his minions. "Then let's go."

A couple of minutes passed and they finally made it to the coordinates Kooh sent Aereth in her last message. The only thing he saw however was a small hole in the ground. Which most probably lead to some sorts of cave. "Did they tell you anything about that meeting spot? Cause something just doesn't seem right here..." he asked Avi before looking at the map data once more. "God f*cking damn it. Change of plans. You stay here, and I'll inspect this cave real quick. Message me in case we are just the first to arrive and the others are coming later. I'll look inside for them and message you in case they really are inside this cave." With that, he turned and jumped into the hole. 

He landed on the very same spot Kooh came crashing down when she sent him the message. Everything was still wet, and water kept dripping down from the still heavy rain of the hole Aereth entered the cave. He lit up his unique armor and started to follow the path of the underground cave. 'I'm in the cave, where are you guys?' were all he typed before he pressed the send button. Just then he heard the familiar sound of an incoming notification not far away from him. "Kooh? It's me. Where are the others?" he shouted, and started to rush over to the source of the sound.

@Kooh

Pride, honor. F*ck that sh*t. Aereth didn't fight because he wanted to have a fun battle with somebody. When Aereth fought, he fought to kill. Aereth preferred to be a called a living coward, than a honorable dead man. But Aereth simply shook his head. He didn't want to convince the man that his style of fighting was wrong. He got his ass kicked by this honorable fighting style after all. But if Hikoru wanted to fight this way, then so be it. "I understand that way of thinking, and in friendly spars this might work perfectly, but I'm kinda different on that matter." As long as the job gets done, it doesn't matter how it gets done.

"Soooo. Are you planning on grandmastering the Katana? Or are you just using it in combination with your unique skill to get a damage boost?" Aereth asked curiously and tried to find some more materials on the way.

ID# 86467 results:
Loot: 4+5

Materials: 12

@Hikoru

Raising both of his hands in front of him with a small grin on his face Aereth replied. "Hey, I'm not a ninja assassin. It's just, if I fight I want to win, and getting the first strike on my opponent helps me archiving this. After your fist attack you can make noises as much as you like." He then had to chuckle at the 'establish dominance' part of her small speech. "Definitely didn't help you establishing dominance last night." he then mumbled in an almost inaudible voice. 

"Well, you're a tailor, so making new cloths shouldn't be that big of a problem for you. And yeah, that stupid field boss should be showing up right at any moment." raising an eyebrow at the last question, Aereth was just about to answer but unfortunately got interrupted by another player.

With his gaze becoming ice cold and his facial features turning into a frown, Aereth immediately equipped all the items he had at his battle ready slots. Casual clothes got replaced by his sturdy grey-blue and gold armor, his sword materialized on his back and his armor started to flare up in white flames immediately indicating that he was not to be taken lightly. "Laughing Coffin..." Aereth's voice was filled with rage and hatred. Finally after all this time they sowed up again. After all this time he would have his shot at getting some information about them.

As Dani took a step forward, Aereth put a firm grip on her shoulder, pulling her back closer to his front, before whispering.  "They don't spar. The only thing they do is killing your avatar for fun. So you will stay back, and you won't do anything stupid. They are way out of your league. Understood?" Even though he formulated his last statement like a question, he let no room for any arguing. Most definitely that player would by far outlevel the still inexperienced Dani. "And besides that... This is something personal. So just watch your back, since they usually come in pairs... And if sh*t starts hitting the fan, use this."He too a teleport crystal out of one of the many hidden pockets of his armor, and gave it to Dani. Oh how long had he been training, how hard had he been working to get a shot at the laughing coffin. This time he wouldn't just watch somebody die, and then run away. Today he was the hunter and they were his prey... "What do you want?" he spat towards the hooded player.

@Daniella

Besides grinding for experience, today's training was to show Aereth what Dani was capable to do on her own. That was the reason why he didn't let out much help on how to approach the threat at hand. He had given her the amount and the direction. The rest was up to her. And it seemed like Dani understood that. Aereth replied with a short nod, and wa eager to see how she would fair.

While the woman prepared to take out the five wasps, Aereth silently leaped up the trees and rested his body on a bigger branch just so he was able to watch the combat in front of him. Taking out his small notebook once again, Aereth was ready to take some notes about her fighting style once more. In order to work out the optimal direction he needed to go with her he needed every little bit of information about her personal style as he could get. 

When she started her attack, he already noted: 'No war cries.' Giving your opponents an idea from where you are going to strike never was a good idea. But besides that, her execution of the sword arts was flawlessly. Maybe not as fluid in the transitions as it could be, but it was still very passable for the short amount of training the two of them did together up until now.

Dropping down to the floor, Aereth stored his items away once more and returned the thumbs up with a smile on his own. "That was pretty impressing. You're getting better and better with each day. Just try to keep the loud 'moaning' in the bedroom." he chuckled before continuing. "You don't want your opponents to know from where you wanna attack them."

@Daniella

Aereth really enjoyed the forest environment, even though he had lived in the city for the last couple of years, he still grew up in a rural environment, with much nature. So enjoying the little walk through the forest, in order to find more of those wind wasps, Aereth fetched two bottles of water, and handed one over to Dani.

He of course was no stupid man. He knew very well that what the two of them had was nothing like an ordinary relationship. Aereth respected the woman for her mental strength and dedication to her training, enjoyed the time when the training was over and the two of them would be able to cut loose in the bedroom. Ever since that one day, Aereth had forsworn any kind of feelings he would usually develop for a woman. He hadn't told her anything about Alice, or the details of his imprisonment over the course of the last few weeks. She knew that he had lost somebody, and she knew he had been locked away for quit some time. To be honest, he hadn't talked to anybody about anything personal ever since he got free. And she was right, he needed his time just as much as she needed hers. Just their activities differed... Right now she was good for him, and he hoped that he was good for her, and as soon this wasn't the case anymore, they needed to stop.

After some time they started to hear the familiar voice of flying insects again. His eyes flicked shortly as he activated his search skill, and he counted five mobs. Raising his finger in the general direction of the mobs, he stated. "Right there are five of them. Think about what you want to do, and take them out." and with a short nod, he would wait and see how she would solve this problem...

@Daniella

Only nodding, but still keeping his cold gaze on the player in front of him, Aereth handed the item over to the player and waited until he would be done with confirming that the item indeed was the real one. After that he simply kept silent and listened to everything Avi was telling him. "If there is still hope in him I would save him as well, but that depends more on his actions. And if he really just plays the bad guy in order to protect his little brother, he's not a bad person, you are right. But I can't shake off that feeling that deep inside, he is enjoying what he's doing. Power corrupts, boy... If he chooses to attack either me or Kooh or if he tries to hinder our escape, I will also go for his death. Listen, I can understand you and your brother's reasoning, but my top priority is to get my partner out of there alive." he said in a cold tone. Aereth already had a plan in mind how he would be able to get Kooh out of there alive. But he needed Avi's help to pull it off. "So how is your answer? Will you follow my lead into your and your brothers possible freedom, or do you wish to stay with an already dead man?" he said referring to Kreeyin. That guy would find a cruel end. Aereth was going to have some fun with him today...

Just then a message from Kooh with only some coordinates popped up in front of him, and he gestured to Avi that it was time to get moving.

@Kooh

Simply nodding when Dani mentioned how she understood that these things were necessary in order to get stronger in here, they moved through the forest with some small talk, before they finally heard some loud flying insect noises all around them. "That's right. If you kill some dumb workers the queen usually comes out pretty fast afterwards." he said, and nodded at the suggestion of his apprentice. "Yeah, that's how we are going to do that."

Aereth took a step back when Dani began to engage the three wasps in front of them. To be honest, he had no idea if her boxing technique was good or bad. But it seemed like she already started to work her real life experience into her sword art work. And it didn't look forced or anything. She was a fast learner and was quick to adapt her fighting style. After she was done with the area of effect attack, all three wasps burst into pixels and she started to do some victory music with her mouth. Aereth caught a quick look at her awesome belly, before replying. "It really seems that way. Just don't forget that you can only damage a maximum of four enemies at a time. Don't let yourself get swarmed." He then fetched a small notebook and wrote some notes in it before storing it away again.

@Daniella

Feeling cold metal at his throat, made Aereth tense up for a moment. His eyes turned ice cold, and he readied himself to lash out at anybody that would dare to sneak up on him. Not many player were able to sneak up on him this easily, but when he heard the voice so close to his ear, he immediately knew who it was. Nobody less than the Master of Shadows himself. "And I was just wondering who the hell would be able to sneak up on me." he said, his eyes slowly getting a warmer touch with every passing second. "It's also good to see you healthy again. I think we didn't see each other since that short adventure on the twenty-first floor. Hope you are doing alright?" he asked, before focusing back on Aoda.

"Half loss duel, half of your health, of course. And don't worry. Can't go around, killing potential apprentices all around town." he said and sent the duel request over to the black haired male. He was eager to see what the boy was able to do. "You get the first strike, so show me what you got." with that he unsheathed his blade and waited for Aoda to attack him.

Aereth: 600/820 HP | 82/82 EN | 14/12 DMG | 3 ACC

@Aoda, @Hikoru

Aaah. That small yelp was all Aereth wanted to get out of her. Chuckling he gave an answer. "I remember you quite liking it 'the other night'... So better get used to it." It all started in a very slow pace, due to her not having much or any sexual experience, but after she got used to having sex in the virtual world, the woman turned out to be quite a beast in the bedroom. A beast that needed to be tamed...

"But yeah, back to business. Look, I know it feels strange, fighting some over sized insects, but it will help you getting used to using sword arts in battle, and not just at unmovable objects like trees or myself. Additionally to that, they drop a sh*tton of experience as well." It was clearly visible that the woman still wasn't able to fully adapt to this virtual world but that was ok. Up until now she was probably the most 'down to earth' woman he had met in whole Aincrad. 

"Oh yeah, we did that Earning a Living quest the other day. I think I can give you some days off if you need some time to set up your own shop. Can't be sleeping at my place all the tim... Wait, scratch that." he joked, and chuckled a bit, before they started to head into the forest. "Soooo... Are you having all the basic stances of your new rank two sword arts down?" he asked, since they hand't that much time to work on her rank two sword arts the other day.

@Daniella

It was questing time once again. Since they recently had been working on Dani's sword-, or punch arts, however you wanna call it, it was time to get some big fat amounts of experience. And one of the best quests to do so was the Long Live the Queen quest. Not much work for massive experience. Even if Dani didn't like going into the wood, slaying some mobs, this was the fastest way to climb through the levels. 

Upon reaching the destined meeting spot, Aereth just managed to hear the busty pugilist saying that he better not sneaked up on her like last time and let out a low chuckle. Emerging from the dense bushes, Aereth playfully slapped the butt of his apprentice before greeting her. "Hey babe. Seems like you were first here this time." Last time they agreed to keep the flirting to a minimum while training, but technically the training hadn't started yet, sooooo. 

Chuckling he shook his head and asked Dani in a more serious but still very casual tone. "You already talked to the quest NPC in town? Today we'll take on your first field boss. I'll give you tips on the fly, and watch over you so your avatar doesn't take too much damage. But you'll have to do the bulk of the fighting on your own." 

@Daniella

"That's what I'm talking about. Getting used to using sword arts in actual combat needs quite some time to get into. First you only need to practice the basic stances until you are able to do them even while sleeping. After that we can start working on incorporating them into your personal fighting style. And once you mastered that, you can throw almost any attack from any given movement, position, really anything. I myself prefer a quick and hard strike offense. I jump a lot and even start attacks from mid air. To be honest, this is just some bullsh*t this game allows me to do. I know perfectly well that these kind of things would never work in real life. But in here the possibilities are endless. You are a boxer. So we will use the skill and experience you gathered in real life also in here. And due to the fact that you already knew what you were doing back then, you will be a force to be reckoned with." Aereth replied with a grin on his face. Their training just started, and it would get only harder with each day, but he was sure that this woman would be worth his time.

@Daniella

His heart would have broken the moment when the woman started to cry, but unfortunately it had already scattered may days ago. He didn't even turn around anymore before he left the house and closed the door. He was feeling like a piece of sh*t. He tricked an innocent player into letting him into her house, attacked her mercilessly and robbed her of the most precious thing she owned. And telling her and himself that he would bring that item back as soon as he would be done with killing those assholes, didn't do anything to calm him down. He was furious. Furious on that idiot that ordered him to kill Leyna. Furious at himself that he didn't take enough care when exiting the inn. Furious at what he had to do to Leyna. Somebody would have to pay at the end of that day, it just wasn't decided yet who....

Reaching the hiding spot of Avi, Aereth simply opened his menu, showed the item to the player and shot an angry look, filled with rage and disappointment at the boy, before typing a small message to Kooh that he was done with getting hold of the desired item. "And... What do you say? Are you willing to put your trust into me, so that I can get you and your brother out of that mess, or are you just going to continue to watch how innocent players meet their end in here?" he asked the boy, referring to a killed Leyna. He didn't have to know that she survived. "She didn't deserve to die... Her blood is on your and your guildmates hands as much as it is on my own..." Now he was just plainly manipulating the boy as hard as he could. Lies and deception were tools Aereth choose to use many many days ago. And if they got him what he needed...

@Kooh

"After what you and Dom did for me back then I'd never see you as anything less than an equal partner and comrade, Hidden. But I really enjoyed our small spar. You are getting better and better with that dagger of yours. And don't think I didn't notice that neat little enhancements on it. I'm going for a phase weapon as well, so this might become interesting once we are both finished with our builds." Aereth mentioned in a challenging tone but then extended his hand for a handshake to show his respect to the dagger wielding assassin.

Turning back to Aoda with a smirk on his face Aereth replied. "Well, that's good to hear that you'd be interested. Just know that my training won't be anything you could take lightly. I'm going to push you as hard as you are able to go, and the things we will be doing are more dangerous than any mob or even some bosses. But if you push through my training, you will have no problems with the tasks I'll assign to any of you." 

"And yeah that Demon King stuff came to me some time ago. I don't want to put my actual username on town gates, you know." Aereth said and chuckled. "We can handle this either way you like. If you want you can come at me right now and I'll see how strong you are at the moment. Ooooor, we could do that the boring way and you just tell me what level and which skill you already have."

@Hidden, @Aoda

"Jon is right. Of course this idea could work flawlessly, but your cousin might als just not notice the hints. Maybe you could add both things." Aereth said, still trying to come up with a better plan, but failed horribly. "And of course you'd need to check if they are really your relative and not just some posers. But with you real life knowledge about her, this shouldn't pose much of a difficulty. And as a meeting spot, I'd suggest a crowded area in a safe zone. Easy to find, but also easy to leave. Additionally to that, you should always let at least one or two persons you are trusting know where you are, and what you are doing. Maybe that's just be being paranoid but better prepare for the worst, so you can only be pleasantly surprised. And I'll see what I am able to hear from outside of the safe zones. I've got a few birds flying around on the first floor that I can talk to if you like. And maybe Jon, could keep his eyes and ears out inside of the safe zones."

@Winik

"Like I said. That's a very nice thing of you guys to organize something like that for other players. So keep going." Aereth told the hosts of the event with a thumbs up, and then caught a glare from Hidden which would have killed him for sure if a skill like this would exist in this game. Shaking off that feeling Aereth simply waved back at her with a smile before a message popped up in front of him. 

Just replying with a short 'Understood' Aereth dismissed his menu again, before grabbing something to eat. Finding Dani at the buffet, in a much too small bikini top, stuffing food into her mouth. A small chuckle escaped him as he made his way over to her. "Hey there, I see you are having a blast on our free days." he said while grabbing a plate and loading it with some sea food. God, how he loved to eat fish. "And you look... Stunning." Aereth said with a grin on his face.

They would talk to each other until he would get interrupted by his brother in arms, Domarus. "Oh, hey Dom, Keres. You were really faster than I expected. It's nice to see you again after such a long time Keres. You look good." he said with a wink, trying to cheer the maid up as good as he could. "And yeah, I'm still trying to get my sh*t together, but I'm doing fine, thanks to you and Hidden. And this stunning girl here, is my newest 'kind of' apprentice. I show her how to get stronger and how to use the material arts skill."

As soon as he said the name of the female assassin, he felt a presence behind him, and a death threat got whispered into his ear. He turned around to see her fake persona life up again and he cracked a big smile, before whispering something into her ear himself. "Don't forget. This is just another job. We need to find more players willing to join us if we want to archive anything in here..." Putting some distance again between them he spoke in normal volume again. "Oh, it's good to see you here, Elucia." After mustering her form head to toe, Aereth gave out a small giggle, and replied. "Oh, gosh you look stunning, dear. But you look somehow different from how I remember you, I just can't pinpoint what it is..." A small wink and loud inner laughing followed his comment before he focused back on the conversation he was having with the other three players.

@Daniella, @Domarus, @Hidden

"Yes and that boy doesn't agree with what his guild mates are doing. So there might be a chance in talking him to stay out of the trouble. He doesn't deserve to die." Aereth replied, and noticed how furious the woman reacted once he mentioned that this pendant just was some kind of in game item. Aereth still kept his cool, and tried to listen to everything the woman gave out, nodding when she mentioned how he was strong enough to take care of Tallas and giving a short. "At least I think I can. Like I said, he's a good boy on the wrong path." to answer the question if he really thought that he could talk some sense into that boy. 

When she still refused to help him, or even just to borrow him the pendant, a frown worked itself over Aereth's face. He didn't want to let it come to this, but if there really was nothing he could say to convince the female to help him, he would have to proceed with his other plan. "If this is really your last answer, then I'm very sorry for what I'm about to do now." he said, pushing himself away from the wall he was leaning against. Flames white flames ignited on his armor and the distance between the two of them was closed in the blink of an eye, with Aereth's fist buried deep inside the stomach of Leyna. Even if nobody would believe him, the attack did hurt him even more than her. How deep had he sunken... He was attacking an innocent player with all of his might just for a chance to rescue his comrade. It hurt. It hurt so much he was barely able to focus on what he was doing, but he needed to proceed.

He pushed forward and slammed the woman into a nearby wall, before speaking up once more. "I told you that I need this pendant. And I will get it one way or the other... I will give it back as soon as I'm done with those idiots." he said and waited for the woman to take defensive stance. After that he lowered his center of gravity and placed his body into the bastardized Muay Tai stance a fellow material artist had shown him. 

Both of them charged at each other, with Aereth in an aggressive offense and Leyna trying to dodge or bock each punch or kick Aereth was throwing at her. The female even started to get in furious counter attacks when she noticed an opening in Aereth's offense, as well as throwing occasional insults, in what Aereth thought was Spanish or something similar, at his head.

Unfortunately for her, the difference in skill and level was too big, and she quickly found herself first in the yellow, then in the red zone, while she only managed to chip away at Aereth's health enough to also put him back into the red zone. 

It was then when Aereth noticed a slight opening in her offense. No not an opening. But something his second weapon skill could easily penetrate. With his material arts skill he wouldn't get though her guard this time but... The sound of unsheathing a blade was heard and Aereth quickly activated a stun sword art. The short blade found an easy way through the defense Leyna had put up, and connected swiftly with her body. 

Using the short moment where Leyna would be stunned, Aereth fetched a rope he always carried on one of his battle ready slots, before grabbing the woman by her left hand with his other free hand, and pushed her hard to the ground, where he restricted her movements with the help of his knee.

There they were. Aereth was still holding an iron grip at the left arm of Leyna while his knee was buried into her spine. Quickly beginning to tie up her hands, Aereth let out a small "This is over..." At this point the pain inside of him was almost impossible to bear anymore, he still continued. 

When he then was finished with tying up the woman, he picked her up and sat her down on a chair, where he continued to tie her up until she was completely unable to move anymore. "You can't even imagine how much it pained me to do this, but some things need to be done. I need to rescue her, I just cannot fail." he said and slowly started to remove the pendant from her neck. Noticing how the woman got angrier and angrier with every second while he removed her pendant, he looked at her one more time with a pained and sorry expression. After storing away the item, Aereth's hand went under his armor where he slowly pulled an out an item as well. It was nothing as fancy as that emerald pendant. It was a pendant as well, but something very different. It was a necklace with two silver ballet shoes on it. "I know you won't forgive me for what I just did to you, but I beg you to put your trust in me." With that he put the necklace with the two ballet shoes around her neck and explained. "For taking something important from you, I will give you something important from me." Aereth sighed deeply. "You know, this is the last piece that reminds me of the woman I loved more than everything else in the world, but lost inside of this hell. See this as your insurance that I'll come back and bring your pendant back to you in once piece.." He locked eyes one more time with the woman, the pained expression of guilt and shame still visible in his facial features. "I promise you to bring it back..." With that he left the house and closed the door again, so that nobody else could enter. Thankfully she wouldn't be able to change the security settings of her house while being tied to a chair, so he could just enter again when he would bring the pendant back... 

@Kooh

Noticing a small message on the message boards of the fourth floor Aereth immediately stopped his daily training and made his way back to his shop, in order to get himself a teleport crystal to the sixteenth floor. With his new position, and with his sexy ass out of imprisonment, Aereth needed to get some good reputation, and thus social events were a must.

Quote

To: @Domarus, @Hidden

Subject: Socializing on F16

Text: There's a beach party currently running at floor 16. We should be using this to socialize with other players, maybe we can even find some player that are interested in joining. No weapons. No drama. No hooded cloaks. (Yeah I'm talking to you Hidden.) @Domarus I don't know if you should bring Keres, but if you want to grow, this event is a must.

Kind Regards,
Sexy ass prison boy

Attached: Coordinates of Beach Party

With that message sent, Aereth quickly got all the stuff he would need, some neat looking swimming shorts, a tank top and some fancy sunglasses. He then grabbed a F16 teleport crystal and vanished in pixels.

When he reappeared on the 16th floor, Aereth immediately made his way over to the west of oceanus, and noticed that he indeed was the first player to arrive at the party. Greeting the hosts with a wave he spoke out. "Hey guys, I heard you made a beach party for everyone. Great idea."

@Gladiolus Alliance

Chuckling when Dani mentioned how there was an option to unpixelate yourself, Aereth gave a dry and teasing answer. "Maybe I can help you with that as well~" He really as having a blast with that female. Mentioning that she was done investing the skill points, Aereth shot a thumbs up at the female and sent her a half loss duel request. "That awesome. And yeah, probably going to be a better idea if we stay here for the rest of the day while we are going to train." Aereth chuckled before continuing. "Let's begin, the interesting thing about the material arts skill is, that you have all the three types of attacks available right from the start. You have a single target attack, a stun attack and even an area of effect attack at your disposal. Single target attacks are self explanatory, stun attacks are able to make your opponent unable to defend themselves for a limited amount of time, and area of effect attacks are able to damage multiple targets at once." With that, Aereth brought back his right fist and charged up the single target sword art, which looked quite similar to the All Might sword art he used earlier to destroy the boulder. "Now to using the sword arts. You have to get your body into the starting stance of the sword art you are using. After that your weapon, or in this case fist, will start to glow while you are charging it up... It kinda feels like when you are starting to tense your muscles before you strike." With that Aereth released the sword art, missing Dani by mere inches. "After that you just release the sword art and the system takes over and helps you hitting your target. Just try it on me."

@Daniella

Aereth didn't have the time for this bullsh*t. How could a single item be more worth than a innocent human's life. To say Aereth was boiling on the inside was an understatement. He would get the pendant one way or the other. "Calm down Aereth. Calm down." he thought while his target was speaking. And while replying he opened up his inventory to equip his armor and weapons again. Thankfully his survival skill steadily healed him, so he at least was making it out of the red zone with every minute that passed. "Yes, and I intend to follow up with that Kreeyin and Jay as well. I already gave them a warning back when I killed Tallas, but these stupid f*cks didn't listen." Aereth sighed. "Listen, I don't have much time to do that, and I don't even want to start thinking about what they could be doing with my 'female' friend right now. Additionally to that, a jitterbug of a boy is waiting outside for me to return with your pendant. So please help me. Either lend me that item, or come with me for yourself and help me taking out those idiots. I think I can even talk that boy into helping us. The madness of those guys needs to stop. Or do you really think that a in-game item is more valuable than the life of an innocent girl?" This was Aereth's last attempt at trying to talk Leyna into helping him with rescuing Kooh, and if she still didn't want to cooperate... He would have to use force.

@Kooh