Aereth

Aereth could swear that that wolf knew that Telrenya was somehow afraid of him, and still he always seems to be as clingy as possible every time she visited the shop. "Cheeky b*stard..." the brunette murmured with a faint grin on his face. 

While Tel answered and told him that she needed to get better with her reaction time, the brunette started to un-equip his armor and stored it away into his inventory. "Not necessarily. Sure. Lowering your reaction time will give you slight advantages when having to react to an unexpected move from your opponent, but the goal of our training in the next few days will be how to avoid such scenarios where you have to guess how your opponent will attack. And that's what will really give you an edge in combat, especially mobs and field bosses." After he was done with the adjustment of his equipped items, he was only wearing a very thin layer of armor now, and his katana was strapped to the back of his hip, he gestured for the door so they could get started. "I will show you how to analyze and predict the attack patterns of your opponents. Because if you already know what is coming and how to counter or avoid it, you are at a huge advantage and always in control over the situation." Basically that was the core element of any combat based computer game. Predict, dodge, counter, retreat and repeat. And it was one of the few things players in here had to do on their own, without the cheap way out of using the Cardinal system to help you in combat.

@Telrenya @Jomei

He felt Thea's hands fall into his and he gave them a soft squeeze. But as she told him that she was going to go with him, the first thing that came to his mind was: "Oh hell no! I won't be risking the life of the only person I truly care for in this hell in something like a boss fight." And he was just mere inches away from actually saying this and if she could read him just a bit, she would be able to tell that he wouldn't be ok with her coming along.

He was honest with himself. He could take Telrenya with him no problem, since he didn't care enough about her. If she got hurt? So what? Virtual bodies heal. If she died? Sure he would never let that happen, having ordered a whole sh*tton of teleport crystals for her, but in the end it wouldn't be as bad as loosing Purple... His purple. 

Mentally smacking his face for those thoughts, Max features softened and he spoke up again. "Don't do this to me. I'm your knight. And you're my princess. I need to save you. I need to fight for you. I promised to get you out of here, not pulling you into dangerous fights. You already died once because of me...." he said tightening his grip on her hand a little bit. "I cannot afford to loose you."

@Teion

Aereth opened the door after he heard some short knocks coming from it. Opening it revealed the very same blonde girl he more or less accepted to train. "Ah. Hey girl. You're a little bit early." he said with a tint of surprise in his voice. "But that's no problem. I'm ready in a minute. Come in in the meantime." The brunette added and motioned her to enter his shop. 

"I've already thought of something we will do today." he was quickly moving back behind his counter and continued searching for the item he was looking for. "Ah. Here it is." he exclaimed with an malicious chuckle. "Today we will work on your dodging and I'll go through some basic movements that will make evading and countering much more easy for you, if that's ok?" With a dull thud the item he was looking for hit the table. "It's still imperfect, but for our training it will be enough." It was a simple looking katana, but even though it was still in its sheath it radiated a dark and dangerous aura. The Dimensional Shift. He just recently converted the one handed straight sword into the katana, and it would be first time Aereth would really use it in combination with his katana skill.

@Telrenya

Today Aereth was about to create an enhanced version of the set of armor he had given to his... Apprentice? Yeah. More or less... Anyways. He only used his best tier two materials for the armor so it would hide her identity as well as provide enough protection to survive a hit or two, without reducing freedom of movement for the female. 

Even though he pressed her on dodging every hit that would come her way, there was never any safety to say that she wouldn't get hit from time to time. And with a good set of armor she would be able to take just that.

Quote

LINK to craft
Name: -
Profession: Tailor
Rank: 7
ID: 93470
Roll: 12
Item Type: Light Armor
Tier: 2
Quality:  Perfect
Enhancements: -
Description:

Critical Fail[+1 EXP]: 0
Fail [+1 EXP]: 0
Salvage [+2 EXP]: 1
Uncommon [+3 EXP]: 0
Rare [+5 EXP]: 1
Perfect [+8 EXP]: 1

Losses: 3 Materials

Gains: 5+2+8+3(Bonus) = 18 EXP

Max immediately noticed her reaction to telling her about his plans for Telrenya and himself. "It indeed is, but holding her back won't do anyone of them good. She has potential and determination, so if trained correctly she could easily hold her ground on the frontlines." the brunette replied gently, his brown eyes never leaving Thea's face. After that he took some moments to think over what he was going to say next.

"Yeah, I indeed am." he then said in an even more gentle voice. "Once I reach tier three I'm going to join the fights. I finally have a reason to fight there. Up until now I only fought for myself. Just to sedate the pain I'm feeling. I didn't care if I ever got out of here again. But now." he once again moved his hand forward and offered it to Thea. "I want to see you outside of this hell. You already saved me. Now I want to save you."

@Teion

Using Essence of Steel (obtained HERE) on Dimensional Shift (obtained HERE)

Quote

Item Name:	Dimensional SHFT + DEL
ID:	82772
Roll:	Craft: 10 + 3 = 13, Battle: 10, Loot: 8 - Phase
Tier:	1
Type:	Straight Sword
Quality:	Uncommon
Enhancements:	1 Phase, 1 Accuracy
Description:	The narrow, slate grey blade, though solid in the middle, fades out in the directions that it tapers, becoming entirely invisible at the cutting edges. The grip is wrapped with tattered black cloth with a highly polished spherical onyx as the pommel. A symbol adorns the center of the cross guard shaped like a traditional flat-topped kite shield.

8 hours ago, Sey said:

Skill(s) Being Dropped: <First Aid (All 5 Ranks)>
Mod(s) Being Dropped: <N/A>
SP Refunded: <50>
Cost: <50,000 Col>

Approved.

Skill(s) Being Dropped: <Material Arts (All 5 Ranks)>
Mod(s) Being Dropped: <N/A>
SP Refunded: <50>
Cost: <50,000 Col>

Even thought he did not show it, Aereth was pleased to see the strength and resolve in the face of the blonde rapier user. She thought about the things he said to her and she acknowledged them. But she didn't back down or got demotivated. Mistakes were a good thing. Wear them as an armor, and they will make you stronger. With every mistake you make, you also have the opportunity to correct them. "Good." he said with a small hint of a smile on his face. "For today it is enough. I have to be somewhere in about... Sh*t. I'll be late." he cursed while glancing at the clock at the top of his HUD. 

"Meet me tomorrow morning at my shop again, so we can start working on your blade work. I'll show you some tricks." The brunette said, while he started to leave. "See ya."

Aereth gets: 1SP, 200Col, Essence of Steel

@Telrenya gets: 2SP, 200Col

After finally seeing how she seemed to calm down, Max also finally managed push aside the lingering feelings of guilt and unease. To be honest, he quite enjoyed the silence between them where they just looked at each other. Once again, it gave him peace. But when Thea finally pulled away her arms to grasp her cup, he also retreated them in order to remove his arm guards and gloves. The menu opened with a swipe of his hand and a couple of moments later the items were gone. He just left his Goldcrest armor on his body. Without it he felt almost naked when he wasn't at home.

"Yeah, more or less..." he said with a sigh, as he instinctively moved his hand inside of the hidden inside pocket of his armor to retrieve his good old silver bottle. "She came to me in her quest on finding some more information about the man her brother was inside of this hell." he said opening the bottle and slowly moved it to his own cup of tea. It hovered over the steaming cup as Max looked up again to meet Thea's stern look.

He gulped. 'Right... I promised her to do that less...' he thought mentally hitting his head on the table.

"She also came with a request to me. She wanted to join the frontlines... Alone. " he said in a reqeust to distract her from his pitiful attempt to get the bottle back into his pocket. "You see her guildmates wouldn't want her to join them and would only be worried for her... So I offered to help her getting stronger and if I see she would be able to survive, promised her to take her with me when the time is right..."

@Teion

"You did good... For now." Aereth said in a calculative voice as Telrenya was done with her final assault. The beast was almost dead and it would only take Aereth one more hit to get the job done. "But don't understand me wrong now... There is still much you need to do in order to be able to go to the frontlines. As you are right now, you wouldn't even survive the first attack wave. You need to hit harder, faster and even be ready to take a hit if you need to." With that Aereth completely removed his coat and flared the flames on his armor. "Just watch." he ordered as he waited for the stun of the monster to fade away. 

It took the monster just some more moments and it was once again storming towards  Aereth, but unlike the last few attacks, he decided to take a much more active role in the fight. Not waiting any longer for the monster to close the distance between them, Aereth also stormed forward at the highest speed his level 45 body could muster. He then dodged under the furious attack of the mob by stepping to the side, and with one swift turn of his body buried the back of his fist into it. A short whine escaped the monster, as Aereth quickly retreated his fist and immediately followed up with an devastating blow from his other one. It was his strongest sword art, and the field boss got thrown back quite a bit before finally bursting into tiny little polygons.

Slowly walking back to her while scrolling through the reward list for the kill, Aereth talked up again. "What I showed you right now is the least amount of attack power you will need in order to join the frontlines and help your guildmates clearing the game. And even then it isn't guaranteed that you will survive a fight..." He then closed his menu and looked at the girl. "Still ready to go through with your plans?" he asked in an cold tone, wanting to test her determination.

ID# 92846 results:
Battle: 5+3

[H: 5] Aereth 900/900 HP
[H: 4] Telrenya 360/360 HP | 21/36 EN | 7 DMG | 2 ACC | 1 EVA

<<Snow Beast>> 0/250 HP | 160 DMG (24 minimum) | Stunned (1/1)

Marry Christmas peps. :)

Thea was shaking, and Max could clearly see the red color that spread more and more over her face with each passing moment. However, it wasn't the just a the cute blush that sometimes formed on her cheeks which he came to adore so much. It was anger, rage, dissapointment. 

It was only understandable. The more he found out about Beat's passing, the more he started to think that he wasn't really intending to end the man called Death_Adder that day. It more and more seemed that going to fight Death_Adder was just a cheap way out of this hell. Maybe Aincrad broke the blonde frontliner. Maybe it broke him so hard that he couldn't live anymore. Who knows...

All he knew was how it felt to be left behind alone. Nobody to fight for. Nobody to care for. And yes it was hell, so he decided to also end his misery. But then he met her... His brown eyes never left her and his hand slowly moved across the table and took hold of the fingers that rested on the wooden surface. He gave them a soft squeeze and just listened to what the purple haired woman was telling him, only caressing the hand he was holding with his thumb. 

"I really don't know what was going on inside of him. The more I find out about him, the less sense makes all of this. I mean, why would he do this?" he asked more himself than Thea, when suddenly a thought hit him. "Maybe he was forced to give up his life... Maybe someone powerful threatened to end the lives of the ones he cared for..." And with that a new determination formed inside of the brunette. "I need to talk to HIM..." he mumbled in an barely audible voice as he dropped his gaze for the first time since sitting down in the restaurant.

Before Aereth interfered, he watched closely how the blonde girl would deal with the attack attempt of the field boss. She managed to barely dodge the hit and thus didn't take any damage. But now she was on one knee and without his interference she would have gotten hit without a doubt. If she really wanted to become strong enough for the frontlines she would really need to work on her speed. For a fragile DPS, speed was one of the most important things to survive. In case the tank wasn't able to hold the focus of the boss only on him or her, the DPS units had to rely on dodging the hits they would otherwise receive.

Aereth danced and dodged around the raging beast with ease, while thinking about this whole stuff. Fighting simple mobs and field bosses had become natural to him after the long and intense training and grinding sessions. After another swipe of the beast Aereth suddenly crouched and pushed forward again, effectively getting under the face of the beast and retaliating with an strong uppercut stunner. He could swear that he was able to knock the huge beast of its feet for a couple of seconds, but maybe he was just imagining it. 

"Go, Go, Go. Hit it as long as its stunned." Aereth said to the blonde.

@Telrenya

ID# 92297 results:
Battle: 10; Hit
Damage: 16 on Snow Beast
MOB: 7-3; Miss
Damage: 0 on Aereth

[H: 5] Aereth 900/900 HP
[H: 3] Telrenya 360/360 HP | 21/36 EN | 7 DMG | 2 ACC | 1 EVA

<<Snow Beast>> 84/250 HP | 160 DMG (24 minimum) | Stunned (0/1)

"Nope, that's just the special purple discount. And only one person in Aincrad has that currently." The brunette replied still in the same playful tone. He knew that the things he was about to tell her later on wouldn't make her happy, so he would use every opportunity to make her laugh now.

And just as he predicted she looked very troubled as he told her about his encounter with Estelle. "Yes... Well no... To be honest, she found me. Back in the day I spread messages all around the message boards in the big settlements with Beat's real name as well as contact information to my now destroyed info broker network. Somehow she managed to find a way to me..." he said as the NPC brought all the stuff they had ordered. 

Thea's question then broke the silence again. "Yes. Beat gave me her real name, date of birth as well as a general description on how she looked IRL. Estelle Cardona, blonde around 5 and a half feet tall." he paused for a few moments before he realized something "Wait. You knew about her?" After another moment he mentally face palmed. "Of course you would have known... I should have told you earlier about that. Sorry..." he added with a sad look on his face, but was surprised by the demanding tone in which she asked him since when she knew about her. "H-he sent me a message just before he passed away. Maybe one but not more than two days before..." Slowly panic was rising inside of the brunette. He was praying to god, the devil, really anybody who would listen that he wouldn't loose his girl because of that. Back when they had talked about Beat and his death he should have told her that he also knew about Estelle.

@Teion

When Thea mentioned how she didn't have much vanity clothing, Max realized that she had indeed never visited his shop before. Hell, he didn't even tell her about his profession yet. "Maybe you won't even have to go far for a new wardrobe." Max said with an awkward smile on his face. "I think I never told you but I'm a tailor. And I'm not even half bad at it, so you can come to me and I'll make you everything you want. We would just need to talk about the price, since my clothes all have top quality." he said with a smirk. "Depending on how hard they are to make I may charge you about 4 to 9 kisses per piece?" 

It was still the same as always. If Thea wanted to go somewhere with him she would just grab his hand and pull him along. The only difference between now and the first time she did it, was that now she gently moved her fingers in the spaces between his own gloved ones before gently pulling him inside. It was a nice feeling, he felt... Safe.

The pair walked inside and quickly found a pretty separated place to sit down, and after ordering their drinks, Max let out a small sigh, thinking about how he should start to explain everything that happend to him today. He wasn't really sure if it was a good idea to bring the Beatbox topic up again in the public, since the last time they were talking about the matter, both of them had still struggled with their feelings for each other... 

"Did you know that Beat had a sister in here?" Max asked in a soft voice, really taking care of Thea's reactions on that matter. "Well, today a girl showed up in my shop telling me that she was his sister. She asked me about her brother, how he lived and what he did in here. Beat told me about her before he..." he paused, not being able to speak it out loud. "And ever since he died I tried to find her for him..." Another pause followed he wasn't sure if he should continue or not. Telling her that she met Beat's killer... He was wearing a troubled expression, waiting on how Thea would react to that kind of information.

@Teion

Again, Aereth simply nodded at the response of the blonde girl but rose an eyebrow when she told him that he talked with Jomei before she entered. "Jomei? To be honest, I saw that guy for the first time today in my shop. You know him?" Aereth asked in a curious tone.

After the conversation was over, the battle was going pretty good. Telrenya landed some good hits on the field boss, but unfortunately attracted too much attention while doing so. Due to Aereth not really being a tank, he had no chances on increasing the amount of hate he could generate per hit, so he had to improvise. 

The beast sped towards Tel, in an attempt to strike at her. While Telrenya would have to dodge the hit, Aereth simply followed the beast close by. He would not help the blonde dodging the hit, but he at least would make sure that the beast wouldn't go for an follow up attack on her.

After the really good dodge from Tel, she was now stuck in her post motion delay, as the creature prepared the follow up. She would have to have really good reflexes if she would want to dodge that hit as well. Aereth pushed forwards and jumped directly into the beast, tackling it so it wouldn't be able to perform the attack, which resulted in him finally getting the attention of the field boss. 

"I'll distract again and you try and strike from the dead angle again." he commanded as he took a defensive position in front of her.

@Telrenya

ID# 92246 results:
Battle: 10; Hit
Damage: 16 on Snow Beast
MOB: 5-1; Miss
Damage: 0 on Telrenya

[H: 3] Aereth 900/900 HP
[H: 2] Telrenya 360/360 HP | 28/36 EN | 7 DMG | 2 ACC | 1 EVA

<<Snow Beast>> 156/250 HP | 160 DMG (24 minimum)

Aereth simply nodded at the blonde girl as she got up and thanked him again. "You should thank me AFTER I made you stronger." he added as he started to go down the stairs, equipping his own battle gear as well. His body got engulfed in light and his casual clothes got replaced by his unique armor, and shortly afterwards he sent Tel a party invitation. 

As soon as he set a foot outside of his shop the flames of his Flame Aura enhancement ignited and they started to head towards the location where the  Snow Beast would be. "Question: Were you never even the slightest concerned about my cursor? I don't know what exactly you know about me or what the persons you got your information about me told you, but usually players tend to get very uneasy around me because of it..." he asked bluntly as they walked.

When they then finally reached the Snow Beast and the conversation was over, Aereth turned to explain to Tel how this was going to be done. "Even thought it isn't an extremely powerful field boss, I will try and keep the hate of the beast as good as I can, since it can deal some nasty damage to unprepared players. You will do the damage for us. So in this scenario I am the tank and you will be the damage dealer, ok?" Aereth asked and waited for her approval, before storming off towards the beast and striking it with a weak blow to the face. The boss roared in pain and immediately began to chase after Aereth who was quickly retreating, and dodging the attacks.

ID# 92192 results:
Battle: 4+3, HIT
Damage: 14

[H: 1] Aereth 900/900 HP

Snow Beast Information:
<Snow Beast> is a Field Boss and has the following statistics:
HP: 236/250
Damage per Attack: 160
Special Ability: Partial Phase- Snow Beast will always deal a minimum of 24 damage, even through Armor and Armor Abilities.

After they were done with the quest of defeating the field boss for the rare Essence of Steel, the blonde and the brunette made their way to the main settlement of the fourth floor. Their conversations mainly consisted of Aereth telling her when they would meet again for starting her training. At the city gates however, they separated due to Aereth needing to sneak into the safe zone in order to get to the teleport plaza. 

When Max finally arrived, he still wore his battle gear and his cloak that would help him hiding from the guards and to get into the safe zone. He spotted Thea and immediately walked over to her. "Hey purple. There you are." he said with a smile as he walked over to her pressing a quick kiss at her cheek. "I'm sorry that I couldn't make it earlier." he then took a couple of moments to look at the woman. He immediately noticed the different set of clothing she wore. She usually wore her battle gear, just like him, and he had already seen her in her sleeping attire obviously.

"You look truly amazing." he said with a big smile on his face, before realizing that he still wore his out of place looking battle attire. "S-sorry. Gimme a second. I'll change into something more appropriate..."

Aereth didn't care about anything. Not the winds outside of the smithy, not the potential killers that were after them. He just wanted to enjoy every moment of the time they had together. Though he knew that he would have those moments more often now, he still wanted that none of them would ever pass. 

Once again he felt the beautiful blacksmith moving on top of him, readying herself for yet another intense kiss. It felt like the lips of Max' avatar were on fire when Thea rose her head once more, serious expression on her face, asking him the all important question if he would like cats. 

Max chuckled first, then started to laugh. "Yeah. I've got no problems with cats. But I also have one more question. I mean it sounds kinda stupid with the fact that we already spent a night in the same bed, but...." he paused and focused only on the cobalt colored of Thea's Avatar. "Thea, do you want to be my girlfriend?"

@Teion

"Yeah, really. I have a small group of players that I trust and we are always fighting together. With my cursor situation it's pretty hard to find such guys... But when I think you are ready you can join with our group so your guild mates won't notice a thing. Boss raids are usually fairly crowded and so you can use that to stay hidden." Aereth said, dismissing the low voice inside of his head that was telling him to stop taking such a big responsibility. "I'll just write a quick message and then we're ready to go." he added and opened his menu.

Quote

To: @Teion

Subject: Essence of Steel

Text: Hey Purple,

I will just quickly head out for the Essence of Steel quest. An interesting person just dropped by my shop and I'm taking her with me to get it. I'll tell you the whole story when I'm back in about 2 or 3 hours. Do you want to come to my place, or should I come to you? I could make us something to eat, or we could also get some dinner in a restaurant. Either way, I'm already looking forward to see you again.

Yours,
Max

He quickly pressed the send button and turned to Tel once again. "You ready to go?" he asked her, mentally debating if he should tell her about Teion. Most probably she wouldn't know her anyways so he dismissed the thought for now. A short whistle was all it took for Fenrir to get up from the position beneath Tel and after some yawns he was at Aereth side, ready to leave.

@Telrenya

Aereth felt the fingers of the hooded woman slowly digging into his ribs when he finally answered. "Ok, ok. Would you now mind to remove those fingers from my..." he shortly looked down to where her hand was. "...or I might get turned on by it. You're the first woman touching me in weeks, Hidden..." he said in a smooth voice and was even surprised himself about how easily he had said this.

After the group of three finally reached a room with only one man standing in it. Aereth immediately recognized him. He was the brain behind the whole group. And he had come to visit and interrogate him a couple of times. And he was the man who had taken his phase weapon with him. "Oi, sh*thead. Stop talking so much crap. If you want to die so badly, give back my sword so can shove it up your a**hole in order to help you with your death wish." That's what Aereth would have wanted to say, but a quick glance over to Domarus remembered him to better keep his mouth shut. He would just need to wait for some instructions. 

@Domarus

"Yessss." Max answered with a victorious smile on his face that quickly morphed into a softer, more geniue one as she rewarded him with something like an affectionate nuzzle.

"Perfect." he hummed as she told him where she lived. "Now I know where I have to go in order to grab you and take you with me, so we can go and visit Italy together." he said with a chuckle as he continued to caress her back with his left hand. 

"You will never guess where I am from." After saying that he pressed a soft and gentle kiss on the top of her head and continued. "I'm living, or better, I lived in Austria. But I have British roots from my mothers side of the family."

Some silent moments later Max spoke up again. "I meant what I said. I will get you out of here. I promise it. And after that I will come to you and find you no matter what..." His words were filled with sadness, passion and desire. But they had power behind them. He would make sure at all costs that he would be able to see this Thea in the real world.

Aereth was glad to hear that Tel wasn't wanting to become stronger just because of vengance. She had different motivations. The brunette just listened to her in silence as she expained how and why she wanted to get to the frontlines while crossing his arms and closing his eyes, seemingly thinking about something. "So her friends and guild mates don't want her to risk her life..."

"So you really want to become stronger to help your friends and everybody else in here in getting out, right?" Aereth asked, eyes still closed. "And you are determined to do everything you can in order to become stronger? Then show me." he said opening his eyes. "The problem here is that nobody is able to survive at the frontlines alone, or even get strong enough to join a boss raid for that matter... Anyways, there is an item I need from a quest on this floor, so if you want you can tag along and help me with it, and who knows maybe I'll help you with your goal..." A small smirk was forming on his face while saying this. Aereth was sure that he would be able to show Tel some tricks and that he would be able to help her getting strong enough for the frontlines. "And if you really get strong enough... I will take you to the frontlines with me."

@Telrenya

Aereth gently continued caressing the purple haired beauty on top of him. The warmth of her body, the touch of her hand on his chest, everything was just so perfect. He could stay like this forever. "Damn it. And here I was thinking that I finally found the first naturally purple haired woman on the planet.... Seems like I'm out." Aereth said and added a dramatic tone to the last part. "Just kidding. I don't care what your actual haircolor is. Even without hair I would still think you are one of the most beautiful women I have ever met." the brunette said and started caressing the back of Thea.

"Aaaah. That's mean." he whined, but quickly followed up with a chuckle. "But the wild guess would be: Purple." he said with another chuckle. "Suits you pretty well. And the second question is an easy one. Italy. The landscape, the food, the wine. Have you ever been to Italy before?" he asked curiously when another thought hit him. "Now that you know my favorite color and my favorite vacation place, I would like to know where you come from. So I can go and find you once we are finally out of here."