Vigilon

Vigilon reached into his inventory and pulled out the blue crystals. He used them and then checked for any other soul crystals...nope, he was out of crystals.

The Meta pushed Vigilon back again, and then prepared something huge. It didn't look like something Vigilon would be able to dodge, and despite being statistically fine, physically, he was not. "This can't...be it...this can't be how it ends...it can't..."

Fatigued, Vigilon fell back down on the ground.

"I'm sorry, everyone...he has...won..."

"....."

It felt hopeless, the attack his enemy was preparing was still charging which kind of made things worse.

Vigilon heard another voice in his head, however. This voice was familiar, and most likely, it was not simply a soul.

"Keep- ....ing..."

Vigilon was confused by the seemingly echoing voice. "Get up... Keep fighting, Alex! Do not forget what you fight for, get back up, and face this horror!"

It was...Krysta's voice?? Vigilon started to get up slowly, but when he looked around, Krysta was not in sight, nor did he feel an extra presence around.

Vigilon: [                    ] [                    ] {11 souls}

<<Crowned Meta>>

     [                     ]

     [                     ]

     [                     ]

        {15 souls}

Vigilon had trouble getting up this time, and his enemy was now more powerful than ever. Guess this boss operated with phases, each HP bar being one phase. He was hurting everywhere, and even the souls with Vigilon were speaking up again, but there was too much mental traffic for him to understand what they were all saying.

"Look at you now, you're already dying. No hope, no future, no lover you can return to alive. You can hardly even stand, the pain and the voices, you're crumbling beneath their weight and effect." The Meta taunted.

Vigilon quickly reached for the soul crystals, using as many as he could before The Meta attacked again. He raised his weapon to block the attack, but it was even more difficult to do this time. "...You're...wrong...as long as...I breathe...I can...fight you..." Vigilon said weakly. This did nothing to stop The Meta, but it could at least serve as a reminder for Vigilon.

Vigilon: [                    ] [                    ] {11 souls}

<<Crowned Meta>>

     [                     ]

     [                     ]

     [                     ]

        {25 souls}

The Meta Suddenly knocked Vigilon back, sending him flying.

When Vigilon tried to get back up. The Meta suddenly grappled Vigilon. "One way or another, I WILL have your soul." It claimed. With that, it thrust its hand into Vigilon. Vigilon felt pain surging throughout his Avatar, maybe his entire being. The Meta began to slowly pull its hand out, but it seemed to be holding something.

The Meta's hand emerged gripping a hilt, and as it pulled back further, more and more of a weapon came into view. The Meta stepped back with its new weapon. "Looks like I'll still have to kill you for your soul...but at least I could make this with it." He remarked.

Now things were worse than he thought. Vigilon got up, feeling disoriented, but he lifted his blade anyway and tried to strike back. The Meta attacked with enough force to send Vigilon flying again, but he ended up being launched a farther distance than last time.

Vigilon: [                    ] [                    ] {11 souls}

<<Crowned Meta>>

     [                     ]

     [                     ]

     [                     ]

        {25 souls}

Vigilon looked to his energy. He was going to need more if he was going to finish this battle. Before he should do that, however, he should make use of what he still had. Less was more, after all.

"You cannot protect them. You could not avenge your own Father, you could not bear to do what was necessary  when this all started because you were afraid. You grew lonesome, didn't you? You were so easily drawn in by the one you loved. If she asked for your soul, would you have given it to her? Is she a special case?" The Meta spoke.

Vigilon unleashed an attack barrage upon his enemy. "If she asked for my soul, then I'd know it wasn't her. We've been together long enough that I can more easily identify a fake." He claimed.

Vigilon once again got the feeling that there was a sinister grin upon The Meta's face. "How could you possibly make such a bold claim and be right? How could you know everything about her, you don't even live with her yet!" The Meta remarked before attacking again. Vigilon did his best to hold out and managed to block the attacks. Vigilon attempted more attacks, and missed.

The Meta began another rain of blades, and Vigilon used one more attack to knock his opponent's HP to the third bar while the attack was preparing itself.

Vigilon was damaged by a blade or two, but while the damage was still fairly weak, the blades were larger than when they were used while The Meta's HP was in the first bar.

Vigilon: [                    ] [                    ] {11 souls}

<<Crowned Meta>>

     [                     ]

     [                     ]

     [                     ]

        {25 souls}

Vigilon didn't know how to get back the souls The Meta had stolen, but he would if he could. "Call me weak all you want...you use these souls for yourself, and the only reason I keep them with me is to protect them from freaks like you!" He declared.

"For once, I think you're right." The Meta remarked. "You'll believe that you are their fortress, even if you're destined to fail...but you're not a fortress, unlike your sister." 

Vigilon growled. "My sister was wounded, so she built up her defenses and guarded herself from even her own family. We just had different ways to cope." He pushed The Meta back. "Now shut up and die!"

He may as well speak all his thoughts aloud this point on. Not only so he could hear himself think, but because The Meta would hear everything he thought anyway, because this was Vigilon's Mindscape.

He let loose against his enemy, knocking its HP down to Yellow at last.

Vigilon: [                    ] [                    ] {11 souls}

<<Crowned Meta>>

     [                     ]

     [                     ]

     [                     ]

        {28 souls}

The Meta attempted to attack Vigilon. Vigilon blocked the attack, but there was enough force in the attack to send him flying. When he landed on the ground, he hastily pulled out two large soul crystals and used them both. Now he was probably out of large soul crystals, but at least he was back in the fight...well, he still needed energy to execute any sword arts. Also, there were six new voices in his head, so there was that, too.

He blocked another attack, and he kept the block on lock with his opponent. He pulled out one blue crystal, and made use of it. Now it was time to get fighting again. "Still alive..." Vigilon said, not trying to brag, but just being thankful that he was able to survive the battle so far.

"You run and you recuperate. Your flesh is soft, your defenses weak." The Meta claimed. "I'll be taking what you won't use..." 

The Meta thrust his arm into Vigilon, and stole three of the souls. "Stop it!" Vigilon yelled. These souls may be just a mechanic in the system for this battle, or maybe they're NPCs being treated like statistical mechanics in the battle, but perhaps for best results and the sake of morality, it was best to behave as he would if this was all real. He could feel pain in this battle, so for it all to feel real was probably the point.

Vigilon: [                    ] [                    ] {11 souls}

<<Crowned Meta>>

     [                     ]

     [                     ]

     [                     ]

        {28 souls}

"So what?" Vigilon replied. "You always run the risk of dying when you leave a safe place, and almost everywhere I've been on Aincrad...one battle after the other. I may as well be used to it by now."

"Impressive words, but do your actions support them? Do they have any real value?" The Meta questioned. Vigilon would be assaulted by all three enemies again. He blocked, he attacked, he took damage, he was having a rough time. Thankfully, the copies were only temporary, and they dissipated.

Vigilon attacked once more, and blocked another attack before actually paying attention to his HP. He needed to heal, fast. He bolted away, hoping to find an opportunity to use a soul crystal, probably one of the larger ones, maybe two. He just knew he was having a bad time. It was kind of hard to make an opportunity when the opponent also knew how to find and take advantage of opportunities.

Vigilon: [                    ] [                    ] {8 souls}

<<Crowned Meta>>

     [                     ]

     [                     ]

     [                     ]

        {25 souls}

Why did it have to be this way? Why did things need to be so gosh darn complicated? He now had three things to worry about. "You're already like, forty two of my problems, why'd you have to give me thirteen more?" Vigilon asked. In response, the enemies all attacked. Trying to block three attackers at once was kind of more than he could handle, it seemed. He had to strike one of them.

Vigilon attempted quite a few attacks, but he found that his weapon passed through two of them, and then dealt damage to the one on his left. Ah, there was the real deal. While Vigilon couldn't deal damage to the copies, the copies could deal little bits of damage to Vigilon. It would be simply annoying, if The Meta's own damage wasn't so dangerously high.

"Death by another's blade...are you aware that you are always at risk of suffering the same fate as your father?" The Meta asked. Why did so many have to bring up his dead father?

Vigilon: [                    ] [                    ] {8 souls}

<<Crowned Meta>>

     [                     ]

     [                     ]

     [                     ]

        {25 souls}

The Meta jumped back and slashed his blade through the air, and some cutting force of energy was headed for Vigilon, who ducked to avoid it.

Vigilon then ran towards The Meta again to attack, and managed two more hits on his foe.

Suddenly The Meta was in the center of the arena again, and it was staring at Vigilon.

"Why's it looking at me like that? What's it about to do?" Vigilon thought.

Next thing he knew, The Meta split into three. Were two of them cheap copies, or illusory copies? It was most likely one of the two...and it would make dealing damage a whole lot harder, not to mention evasive action. Would the copies be able to deal damage, would they act differently from the real deal? Would they speak telepathically like The Meta does, or would they not speak at all? Would the souls that were with Vigilon remain silent or would they speak among themselves again?

"...You have got to be kidding me." Vigilon thought aloud.

Vigilon: [                    ] [                    ] {8 souls}

<<Crowned Meta>>

     [                     ]

     [                     ]

     [                     ]

        {25 souls}

Ok, so this enemy had more fancy tricks than expected. The Meta was proving himself to be a Boss opponent, but due to the amount of damage Vigilon was dealing, maybe it was designed for one on one combat, which was nice on Cardinal's part.

"You could never best your rivals in Aincrad, so you crushed them like weaklings within your mind...how petty." The Meta spoke.

"Nobody's perfect." Vigilon began. "I've come a long way, and I'm not gonna let some 'petty' thoughts drag me down."

He almost drifted into thought, but it was as if the souls within Vigilon stopped speaking and started listening. "First I took a leap of faith, and gained courage to face the day. With the necessity for it, I was ready to learn, and gained wisdom as I was on my journey through Aincrad. A wiser me could make better use of the power I would obtain. I don't care if said power is even more temporary than my mortal life is, I'll make use of it not only to keep living, but to protect others, especially those who cannot protect themselves!" He declared.

And with that, he clashed with The Meta, taking less hits than the amount he dealt.

Vigilon: [                    ] [                    ] {8 souls}

<<Crowned Meta>>

     [                     ]

     [                     ]

     [                     ]

        {26 souls}

"I don't care if I'm all three, I'm doing something other than just standing around being useless, so I'll keep going and have hope for the future." Vigilon responded before bolting again. The Meta chased after Vigilon, but it was a stalemate at this point.

The Meta stopped and raised an arm to the sky. Three lights shot into the air...that can't be good. Vigilon rushed in to attack as soon as the lights came from his foe. He managed to hit twice, but was blocked the third time, and all of a sudden, sharp, small blades of similar material to The Meta's weapon were raining down on the battlefield.

"Aw, crap..." Vigilon thought. He did the best he could to avoid the rain of blades, but at least its duration was shorter than expected. One blade was larger, and it stuck out of the ground. Maybe if Vigilon could interact with it...

Vigilon: [                    ] [                    ] {8 souls}

<<Crowned Meta>>

     [                     ]

     [                     ]

     [                     ]

        {26 souls}

Vigilon needed to heal quickly, but if he used a bunch of soul crystals, his opponent just might spam that soulsteal attack. Was there a way to protect the souls and negate the attack? He didn't know, in all honesty. Maybe for now, he could use one crystal and prioritize evasive action, seeing that his opponent had a lot of HP and he didn't. Bosses like these, it always needs someone running around in circles, trying to find the right opportunity, the moment to let loose.

He used one more small soul crystal and dashed to the right. The Meta was expecting him to run, it seemed, but Vigilon was still able to block the attack. "You ran from Elverond then, and now you run from me. Why are you so intent on repeating what you've done your whole life? You confront and then you run. Are you picking battles you know you can't win, or are you just innately weak or cowardly?" The Meta questioned.

Vigilon: [                    ] [                    ] {8 souls}

<<Crowned Meta>>

     [                     ]

     [                     ]

     [                     ]

        {29 souls}

Vigilon couldn't see a smile, but he felt the presence of a sinister grin for some reason.

"Don't think a sudden burst of courage will give you power." The Meta claimed. "You had one when trying to defend Ayaka, and look what good that did you." 

Vigilon raised his weapon to block The Meta's attack. "Who cares that I got thrown in the dumpster, I saved her life!" He responded. "I saved her life so who gives a damn if I couldn't beat those bullies?"

Vigilon pushed back at his opponent and moved in to strike immediately after. The Meta thrust its hand into Vigilon, and he heard a scream within his mind. "I'll be taking this then, since you won't use it." The Meta decided, as its HP was restored slightly.

Exactly what just happened?

The souls that were with Vigilon seemed to be the same number, but they were all suddenly freaking out again. "You can feel their presence, can't you?" The Meta asked. "The Souls, which you seem to have no proper use for."

Figures, an entity after Vigilon's soul had a "soulsteal" attack. No wonder the new voice suddenly screamed and went silent.

Vigilon: [                    ] [                    ] {7 souls}

<<Crowned Meta>>

     [                     ]

     [                     ]

     [                     ]

        {29 souls}

Oh, how original.
Since this was possibly a genuine fight to the death, it was also a terrifying response.

"And uh, why the heck would you want it? I'll never give it to you, but..." Vigilon asked. The Meta would attack several times, and one attack managed to hit Vigilon. He felt the attack rip through him, and the pain was severe this time. Vigilon fell to the ground, but he wasn't defeated just yet. His HP had seen better days, though...

"Look at you, you had so much potential back in your life, even in Aincrad." The Meta began. "Clearly, however...you yourself? Such a waste...I'll be sure to put your soul to better use, once I have it in my possession."

Yeah, Vigilon wasn't gonna let it happen that easily. He used a small red Crystal to regenerate his HP, and then he got up and tried to strike back.

"Just try it, creep." Vigilon responded. "I'll never give in."

Vigilon: [                    ] [                    ] {8 souls}

<<Crowned Meta>>

     [                     ]

     [                     ]

     [                     ]

        {28 souls}

If he got hit too many times, that was it. He didn't want it all to end this way, he had to fight back somehow...

"Run all you want, you can't escape this." Came a sudden voice.

Vigilon stopped, confused. He quickly turned around to block an attack from his foe. "You couldn't escape the imminent clash with Elverond either, couldn't you?" The voice continued, as The Meta seemed to stare into Vigilon's very being. Was this voice just The Meta talking? The souls that were with Vigilon continued to react, as if they seemed to be figuring out what was going on. Were they seeing through Vigilon's eyes at this point? He couldn't tell, but he was starting to get worried. "Either help or stay quiet, I need to be able to beat this guy." Vigilon thought, despite his assumption that they couldn't hear him.

"Pathetic, you don't know how to use them." The Meta remarked.

Right, Mindscape.

Vigilon managed to push back his foe. "Ok, so you can talk. what do you want from me?" He asked, assuming this had something to do with him or his past.

"Your Soul." The Meta Answered.

Vigilon: [                    ] [                    ] {7 souls}

<<Crowned Meta>>

     [                     ]

     [                     ]

     [                     ]

        {28 souls}

As soon as Vigilon placed the Essence he'd picked out into his inventory, the others were already leaving. Vigilon decided that he might as well leave with them.

The party reached the upper floor just to witness Dazia flee, and then Astralin did what she could to take the lead as to solve the spike tile puzzle in order for the players to cross safely. Once the players managed to reach the other side of the puzzle... wait, was that a skeleton with a casual hoodie? ...Wait, doesn't it look similar to the description given by that unsettling kid...?

The skeleton mentioned someone who may have been guarding the ruins, based on the given description, and Astralin became nervous.

Oh, they killed whoever he was talking about, didn't they...

Vigilon kept trying to find a time to jump in, but instead ended up watching his girlfriend, a friend, and an acquaintance fail to land more than one hit, with Astralin completely missing on everything she tried. "Well I uh, guess it's my turn now...?" Vigilon guessed.

"you know you don't have to." The skeleton noted.

"Well, you kinda hurt a friend of mine...as well as my girlfriend...and now an acquaintance, too... so...well I guess we're doing this." Vigilon replied.

The skeleton sighed. "try it, it'll go just as well as it did for everyone else."

Vigilon had to go about this carefully. The skeleton was just waiting for him to do something at this point, and just about anything would fail first try...or would it? He'd forgotten how at this point, but somehow he'd rushed in, leaped over a small stone wall that rose up all of a sudden, and landed a hit with the flat of his blade.

The rest of this attempt would go downhill from here. Vigilon made another attempt using the same strategy, but after he jumped the first sudden wall, another sudden wall came downward from above and Vigilon collided with it face-first.

And let's not forget that after this, he tried once more and got sent flying over to the tile puzzle, where he landed hard on his back...on the spike tiles.

Maybe this guy was out of his league. "Heh...you've dealt with a ton, haven't you?" Vigilon guessed.

"a skele-ton." Came the reply.

Vigilon couldn't help but chuckle at the pun. 

"i understand you were just standing up for your friends...but sometimes you gotta ask yourself, though...is violence always the answer?" The skeleton said.

Vigilon got up, still getting poked by the spike tiles in the process, but the skeleton was nowhere in sight. Yona was outside, having been knocked away during her attempt, and Krysta was beside Astralin, who was passed out and had a popsicle in her mouth, courtesy of Yona. Vigilon had to do something about it. He may be shorter than her, but he'd at least try to help her out. Hopefully Krysta wouldn't mind this course of action. He slowly picked her up, then looked over to Krysta. "If level was the deciding factor, would I be right to assume you're the party leader, Krysta? If so, um...lead the way." He said with a somewhat awkward smile, seeing that he was still carrying Astralin at the moment...and it would be even more awkward if Astralin woke up in his arms.

ID# 201107 CD: 9(tag.)

ID# 201108 CD: 1

ID# 201109 CD: 1

Tags acquired: 1(10 materials, +5% Exp for the thread)

The Green and Yellow Essences remained in their vials, still within the dark room that was dimly lit by the Essences' glow, waiting for any intrepid players who choose to claim them....

Thread Summary:

Total Word Count: 11553
Exp. value: 1925*Tier
Pumpkin Seeds: 38
[log]

Vigilon(T5):

12993 Exp | 9625 * 1.35
6750 col | [(XP * 0.15) + (2500 + 160)] * 1.3
33 Materials | (12 + 10) * 1.5

<<Unidentified T1 Perfect Curved Sword 200642a>>,
<<Unidentified T1 Perfect Cloth Armor 200642b>>, 
<<Unidentified T1 Perfect Consumable 200642c>>, 
<<Unidentified T1 Perfect Consumable 200642d>>

Tags: 1
Pumpkin Seeds: 38

Dazia(T4):

+10395XP | 1925 * 4 * 1.35
+2235col | [(XP*0.15) + 160] * 1.3
15 materials| 10 * 1.5

<<Unidentified T4 Perfect Straight Sword>> x3[tag]

Tags: 2
Pumpkin Seeds: 38

Astralin(T3):

+7796XP | 1925 * 3 * 1.35
208 col | 160 * 1.3

Pumpkin Seeds: 38

Krysta(T4):

+10395XP | 1925 * 4 * 1.35
+5620col | [(XP*0.15) + 160 + 2604] * 1.3
15 materials| 10 * 1.5

Tags: 1
Pumpkin Seeds: 38

Yona(T1):

+2598XP | 1925 * 1 * 1.35
+208col | 160 * 1.3
15 materials| 10 * 1.5

Tags: 1
Pumpkin Seeds: 38

Dazia tired to grab the vials, but for some reason she could only grab one. After Dazia added the red one to her inventory, the sound of approaching footsteps could be heard.

It was as if Dazia vanished and suddenly everything was darker. Vigilon began waving his arms about, hoping to find something. Instead, he ended up tripping over nothing because it was just too dark for him to watch his footing. When he got up, he saw Astralin coming in from the other room. He could mainly tell because of that glow-in-the-dark amulet she wore these days. She called out to her party that the area was safe, that Vigilon was here. Two players followed Astralin in. One was Krysta(maybe it was good that Dazia vanished, it would have been bad if he was seen with her), and the other was a woman he didn't recognize.

Astralin asked Vigilon which vial he took. "I haven't yet. I do know that someone was here, took the red vial, and vanished." He answered. Astralin then became interested in the vials herself and took the one with purple contents.

Krysta then came over to Vigilon, asking him if he was training. "I came over mainly because of the stuff going on around the floor. Surprisingly, most of the monsters were cleared out by the time I got here, so I got the feeling I wasn't alone." He answered. Krysta then asked what the vials were. "No clue." Vigilon admitted. Krysta then examined and took the vial with the cyan contents.

The woman Vigilon didn't know tried to grab as many as she could, but like Dazia, she only managed to get one, the vial with the blue contents. She then looked to Vigilon and introduced herself as Yona. "Well, nice to meet you, Yona, I'm Vigilon, as you probably know by now."

Time for Vigilon to get himself a vial. There were three left to choose from. Orange, Green, and Yellow. Vigilon took the one with the Orange contents and examined it...

Huh...neat.

ID# 200915 LD: 1(not even a +6 modifier can save this roll)

Sure enough, Dazia entered the room. She explained that she'd found whoever cleaned the place out, and that said person wasn't interested in PKing. Dazia then sliced up the training dummy, proceeding to make a negative remark.

"...You do realize we could have just picked it up and moved it, right? You didn't need to do that." Vigilon countered. It was basically a waste of energy destroying it when there could be something up ahead. Vigilon and Dazia would travel to the other side of the room, and there seemed to be something odd keeping the door sealed. There were symbols that looked detachable. Maybe there was a certain order that would open the door?

"...Ok, if there's anything I can guess about it, we'll need the right combination to get this opened." Vigilon noted.

Heart, Creature, Blade, Arms...those were the symbols on the tokens? Vigilon took one out, and turned it around, there was another symbol. Some kind of spark-like thing.

Vigilon thought for a moment, hopefully this would work.

Upon the door, the holes where the symbols went seemed to be following the pattern of a Pentagon, even though there were no lines connecting the holes. Vigilon Placed the Heart in the top hole, the spark in the upper right hole, the blade in the upper left hole, then he placed the creature in the lower left hole and the arms in the lower right hole. Wait, the larger hole in the center was still empty.

Vigilon looked at the ground and saw a larger symbol, much more complex, too. It had only one symbol on one side, unlike the others, which seemed to be two sided. Vigilon placed the center symbol in its hole, and turned it. Nope, spear-like bars now blocked the way back. Vigilon switched the creature and arms symbols, and tried turning the center symbol again. The spear-bars retracted back under the doorway behind the two players, and the door Vigilon was trying to unlock suddenly started lowering until it stopped when the top of the door was aligned with the floor...what kind of Skyrim-tomb bull was this?

Well, now the next room was ahead...it was dark, but at the end of it seemed to be seven differently colored light sources.

Vigilon walked closer to them, and they seemed to be vials full of glowing...substances...like, what exactly were these? One was Cyan, another was Orange. One was Blue, the other was Purple. Yet another was Green, and one was Yellow. Between the Blue and Purple ones, there was a Red one in the center.

"Ok...what are these?" Vigilon asked.

Vigilon continued on, and the next room wouldn't exactly have much, save for a simple frog hopping around the floor. It was probably looking for cave insects, and it was probably fine to just leave it alone. It stared at Vigilon for a few seconds as he passed by it, but then it returned to its usual business. Had someone cleared this place out already? They must not have been looking for treasure, otherwise that treasure chest would have been opened and looted before Vigilon came across it. He pondered over this for a brief moment, then he continued on. The next room would kind of bottleneck, and in the middle of the narrow walkway was a training dummy. Strange, who would leave it there? Soon, Vigilon heard voices. He turned towards the direction they were coming from and saw another doorway. Was that coming from the path Dazia took?

Okay, now was the time for focus, and deep breaths. He needed to handle this carefully, lest he take too much damage from stepping on spikes. Now, how to tell which tiles were spike tiles and which ones weren't? Talk about minesweeper...or "spikesweeper", in this case.

He shouldn't have been surprised when almost a quarter of his HP was lost from all the spike tiles he'd stepped on...in total, of course, the individual spike tiles didn't deal much on their own. With red dots all over the bottoms of his feet(or boots, whatever), he walked up to the chest he'd spotted. "Alright....this better be worth it..." He muttered before opening the chest.

A bunch of tier one gear, he shouldn't have been surprised. He might have use for the consumables, not to mention the materials and col, but the curved sword and the cloth armor? "...I can't use these...gosh darn it."

Well, at least it was better than nothing, and he could probably find a much noobier player to give the tier one equipment to.

ID# 200642 LD: 17+1=18(2500 Col, 12 Materials, <<Unidentified T1 Perfect Curved Sword>>, <<Unidentified T1 Perfect Cloth Armor>>, and <<Unidentified T1 Perfect Consumable>> x2)

Dazia seemed willing enough to enter the ruins, but when the path split, Dazia was silent. Vigilon walked on the right path, and he soon entered a seemingly empty room. "Well, Dazia, it looks like-" Dazia was nowhere to be seen. "Um...where'd you go? Are you in stealth, or did you take the left path? Don't you know it's bad to split the party?"

Well, the room wasn't exactly empty, but what was around seemed to be mostly junk...and weird tiles. The tiles seemed to have holes in them, so that was enough for suspicion. Vigilon slowly placed his right foot on one, and the tile began to sink. Nothing else seemed to happen, so Vigilon moved his left foot to one of the other tiles. As that other tile sank, spikes emerged from the holes.

Ah, so it was one of those kinds of things...and now his left foot had been damaged by a spike from below. "Well, that's not good." He thought aloud. He would need to be cautious around the tiles from this point on, as there would be no way to avoid the tiles if he was to try and reach the other side. Since some tiles had spikes and others didn't, maybe this was...a puzzle?

He looked to the other side, and saw something in the corner. "Is that...?"

ID# 200542 LD: 15+7=22(found a chest!)

Vigilon thought for a moment. "I'm probably gonna end up separated if I do this, but I can only hope it's not a dungeon..." He considered all the possibilities, then he was confident in his decision. "We wouldn't know what we're getting into or what's up ahead, anyway. This floor is a subterranean maze and we just so happen to be lost." He told Dazia. "In other words, we're going in."

This better not become something he regretted....

The structure was definitely old. While it wasn't crumbling down this very moment, its walls were definitely showing signs of age, and there were mushrooms growing all over, scattered around the structure's flooring and dotted along the walls occasionally. It was fine and all, but there was one problem...

The path split in two again.

"Aw, crap..." He really didn't feel like splitting up, but he couldn't stop Dazia from doing so if she wanted to. "Well, um... you going left or right?" He asked.

"I didn't forget about the maps, I just remember them being 2D and surface-level." Vigilon replied to Dazia's remark on maps. Soon after the two players' HP regenerated to full, Dazia suggested taking the south tunnel to try and find a way out. Vigilon would find himself walking down the south tunnel, until there was a fork in the tunnel. "Well...now what? Are we gonna pick a direction, or are we gonna argue about left and right? Personally, I don't think splitting up would do any good." Upon saying that, the rocks in front of the players crumbled, revealing another option, a third path that went straight ahead...towards an odd structure.

"...Or we could just go straight towards whatever the heck that is." Vigilon added after witnessing this little surprise.

Vigilon thought for a minute. "Well, as long as it's not a dungeon or something, we could be fine. I say we go and see what that structure is supposed to be." He decided.

Vigilon backed away upon hearing Dazia's threat. Both Players got up, and Dazia asked what Vigilon's next move was, although she admitted that she was ready to leave the party this very moment. "Well, before we go anywhere else, we should take a short rest and recover our HP, maybe keep a lookout for anything dangerous while we're at it. Then we should probably head back to the safe zone and figure out our next destination." Vigilon suggested. "I won't stop you from leaving on your own, but, well, do so at your own risk, there's strength in numbers, after all." He added, hoping that this would prevent him or Dazia getting swarmed because one tried to solo the rest of the way.

Vigilon looked to his HP. Not full yet, but it would be soon enough...hopefully. "Guess all that's left is to figure out where we are right now." He thought aloud.

Every story has a beginning, though some stories begin within other stories, which also happen to be part of one greater, grand tale.

Some stories begin with peace, some stories begin with a collapse...

This one...began with a Fall.

Vigilon landed face-first onto the ground. He sure didn't see that drop coming...now that he thought of it, he hardly saw anything at all during that moment. He looked to his HP, and he'd taken some damage...but he was relieved to know that he was alive at all. Still somewhat dazed, he tried to get a grip on his situation. Where was he?

He looked around him, but he saw only the cavernous tunnels of this subterranean floor....and next to him was a familiar face that had been travelling with him for like, ten minutes. She, too, had taken some damage, but thankfully, neither player was dead just yet. "Hey, Dazia, are you alright?" Vigilon asked as he was coming back to his senses.

Stats and Equipment: