Pinball

There was a sound like thunder outside his home. Green Garden was a quiet little place in the woods of the Eighth Floor, and Pinball had gotten lucky and chosen it because of that. It was quiet, and it was hidden. The downside of that was that the stone halls echoed sound like you wouldn't believe. Pinball peeked out the window. It wasn't raining. Then what was all that noise-? He moved to another window to check. Outside was an ocean of stamping, panting, huge brown bodies. Pinball frowned. What the actual fuck. Milling about without space between them was the largest gathering of bears

Pinball exhaled. There was a moment where he hesitated, his brain working overtime trying to find the easiest solution out of this situation. Then Mishiro attacked, and that certainly narrowed down his options. He didn't hesitate this time. Pinball's knives went flying, nailing both archers in the head. They fell backwards from the impact, exploding into fractals before they hit the ground. Pinball replenished his blades. Ahsan blew his horn once more, calling for reinforcements. Zamek cowered in fear. Bandits charged across the dunes, weapons raised, shouting obscenities in a lang

Skill(s) Being Dropped: Battle Healing - R5 Mod(s)/Addon(s)/Shift(s) Being Dropped: NONE SP Incurred Towards Limit: 36 SP Refunded: 30 Cost: 30,000

She'd already stunned it -- good. That'd let Pinball focus on chopping down its defenses. With a flash, Pinball appeared, vaulting over Kumatetsu's back and raining throwing knives down on the bear's prone form. Many landed -- those that didn't scattered in the dirt, disappearing shortly after. Kumatetsu, brought low by Acanthus' stun, was now bombarded by a colorful array of status effects that absolutely tore through its health. Pinball landed, hopped backwards for distance, and watched as the bear struggled to its feet, it's HP bar dropping in big, dramatic chunks. The bear's form bul

The Endless Maze was a sprawling labyrinth. It was a horrible trap in and of itself; it was filled with powerful monsters, traps, and more dead ends than you could count. Oh, and from what he understood, its layout was also constantly changing. What a fucking headache, right? He'd not been in the maze for long before he saw it. A giant spider, mean and hungry, bearing down on its prey. Normally, Pinball would have slipped away then and there. Where mobs were, players were. And he didn't like being around other players if he could help it. But between its many scuttling legs, and beneath

It was almost closing time when he slipped into the shop. It was raining outside, and the streets were quiet. He pulled down his hood when he entered. He was quiet, but he was always quiet. Pinball inspected the shop for a moment before his eyes settled on a particular crystal lining the shelves. He lifted it to the light, inspecting it. Then he'd turn to Acanthus. "I'll take this." He'd set it on the counter as he opened up his menu for the transfer. Pinball would load up the purchase with way more materials... and a custom order form for fifteen of the same item. A little outrageous? M

Rank 7 Cook | Daily Crafting Attempts: 8 Crafting T4 Meals ID: 227656 | CD: 11 | LD: 3 | Rare ID: 227655 | CD: 5 | LD: 4 | Uncommon ID: 227654 | CD: 4 | LD: 6 | Salvage Fail ID: 227653 | CD: 9 | LD: 8 | Rare ID: 227652 | CD: 10 | LD: 15 | x2 Rare ID: 227651 | CD: 7 | LD: 13 | x2 Uncommon ID: 227650 | CD: 1 | LD: 8 | Critical Fail ID: 227649 | CD: 2 | LD: 4 | Fail Result: +33 EXP | EXP: [1,140/1,279]

When people were alone, they did strange things. Pinball knew this for a fact. He'd been hiding for as long as he could remember. He'd watched countless people from afar, and many from up close, too. It was both interesting and strange to see a person for who they were when they thought nobody else was around. But Acanthus did know this. Pinball frowned. Her reaction was alarming. He almost broke stealth to rejoin her, if not just to put her mind at ease -- but he didn't. A crueler part of him wanted to see how she handled it, it being whatever invisible battle she was fighting. He had a

Other than Mishiro, there were two other players in the building seeking audience with Abdullah. One was Morningstar. The third was a sleazy looking guy in a stupid hat. Well, they had a group assembled, and negotiations (if you could call them that) with Abdullah were underway. Pinball decided it was probably for the best if he slipped out the building before they were finished. He was up and out of the building just as the guards began to (rather aggressively) usher the group of players out onto the streets again. They were given their task, warned of its difficulty, and given a locati

Somebody else was on the path. He wasn't sure how he could tell -- which of his senses it was that alerted him to this fact -- but he just knew. Without thinking, almost reflexively, he'd entered stealth. His body would vanish without a trace, and Pinball would seek cover in the treeline and wait for them to pass. But their approach had been slow. The benefit in that was that Pinball knew that they probably hadn't had time to see him. The problem was that he wouldn't know when it'd be safe to keep moving. A little irritated by this thought, Pinball threw away any thoughts of moving on and inst

Their little journey was quiet, and unimpeded. Pinball wasn't paying much attention to the scenery, however. Not because its beauty was lost on him, or the fact that he'd seen it a million times before; but because nothing was jumping out at him. He hadn't been assaulted by a single mob since they'd gone deeper into the forest. No wolves, no ents, no forest spirits... in fact, he hadn't even seen a single one. It was enough to confirm his suspicions. The mobs in the area probably weren't spawning because they'd been scared off by something bigger. "Alright," Pinball suddenly said, slowin

As they exited Ellesmera, Pinball's pace would finally slow. He'd stop and allow Acanthus to catch up and nod as she did. She thanked him for bringing her along. She was wearing new armor. She must have leveled up a bit. "It's no problem," he replied. He left it at that and began to walk again. They'd have quite a bit of walking ahead of them, if his information was correct. It was at that moment Acanthus mentioned the Forest of the Great Tree, and how it shouldn't be hard to find a bear the size of an elephant. "Right. No. Shouldn't be hard at all." He didn't tell her that he also had the sea

Pinball watched from the bottom of the dune as Mishiro finished mopping up the mess he'd made. He was impressed. He didn't get to fight with her often. Certainly not with a rapier. Pinball opened his mouth to speak, but before he could make a sound, the deep, reverberating hum of a horn gave him pause. Figures on all sides emerged from the sands. They were humans, dressed in light browns and tans, wielding an assortment of weaponry: spears, bows, curved blades, and knives. They were a ragtag group of bandits, for sure. But each and every one of them had a cruel look in their eyes. T

<<THREAD SUMMARY>> Pinball Receives: Pinball | [Word Count: 4284/10 = 428.4] * [True Tier: 8] * [Group Factor: 1] = 3427 EXP + 240+240+240 (T2 Field Boss Bonus EXP) +1,600 EXP (Yui's Grace) = 5,747 EXP Laurel Wreath: 514 col x3 Hellstorm: (T2/Consumable/Single Use); Apply an additional (20*Player's Tier) unmitigated damage to every attack for a single thread.

It was finally time to leave. The burn damage subsided, and his health began to heal slowly but surely. Pinball let out a breath of relief. He finally had them. The three Hellstorms that the Phoenix had dropped would help him a lot in the future, he was sure of it. He was gearing up for a massive hunt. He was low on col, and had a desire to gather as many Demonic Shards and Gleaming Scales as he could - but he wanted to make sure that he did it as efficiently as possible. The Hellstorm would help make sure he could take out a mob in a single hit. Pinball nodded, let his health heal up a bit mo

He hadn't told her how difficult it was for him to navigate safezones. Maybe it was because she was new, and this was only really the start of their interactions, and he hadn't wanted to make her worry about something other than the quests. But the unfortunate reality was that orange cursors and safezones mixed like oil and water. There came the flash of a player teleporting into the safezone, but Pinball was not there. He was used to this song and dance. Use the teleporter, flash onto the floor, and the very instant his body rematerialized, he'd vanish. He had to make it quick. He

Pinball accepts

Well, he wouldn't have to worry about it. Pinball put a safe amount of distance between them again, and like every time before, waited patiently for the phoenix to respawn. That perfect window of opportunity was there, and he wouldn't mess up... there was a split second where Pinball worried that something unplanned would happen a second time. Maybe the ground beneath him would just open up and douse him in flame, or multiple copies of the phoenix would descend from the heavens to burn his unfortunate form to a crisp. But that wasn't the case. Just as the last two times he'd fought him, he let

Pinball stayed his distance. The phoenix attempted more fly by attacks, but Pinball dodged and weaved, until he realized that the phoenix was almost exclusively going for those attacks. Pinball had an idea. He waited patiently for the phoenix to approach, standing his ground. He only needed one more attack anyhow -- and when the phoenix was practically right in his face, Pinball let his attack fly. And then the unthinkable happened. Instead of turning into a clowd of ash, the phoenix exploded. At point blank range. The blast took Pinball completely off his feet and sent him sprawli

The Field Boss had begun to recover, and Pinball needed to seize this opportunity attack as soon as possible. He stayed his distance this time, now somewhat worried he'd mess up and flub in melee, throwing his knives at the bird while it was recovering and getting back to its feet. The knives glowed a brilliant gold as they streaked through the air, and Pinball knew that the Holy effect had been triggered. It dealt massive damage, putting the boss insanely low -- but it didn't quite finish the job. So far, Pinball realized that Hellfire and his Astral Blades were about neck in neck in terms of

He decided to open up with a stun again, given the success of his last time trying the same. Pinball charged forward. Fire flew through the air, humming past his ears and exploding in miniature blasts of flame behind him. He closed the distance quickly, despite the danger. He leapt through the air, this time daring a melee attack. With knives in both hands, he'd dig deep and cut across the phoenix's body, causing him to spin through the air and eventually land unbalanced on his feet behind the phoenix. If he had failed his attack, he could have very easily been punished for such a clumsily exe

He was going to test his theory about Astral Blade just being better than using Hellfire at this level, without consumables. So to that point, he didn't bother hiding, and he certainly didn't bother lining up a shot. As the distance between him and the Field Boss began to close, he was all too aware that he was getting dangerously close to its detection range. Being in Stealth so often did that to you -- it was like little alarm bells ringing in the back of your head, warning you that you were getting too close, and you were going to be discovered if you messed up. Or if the person or mob you

He could see the bird in the distance now. It was flying this time, soaring through the air and scattering embers in the wind with every flap of its illustrious wings. Pinball kept walking. His pace didn't quicken, nor did it slow. He took his time. He wanted to see if the phoenix was just idling within an area, or if it was going somewhere. After following along for some time, he decided that it was likely heading somewhere. And Pinball followed, only hurrying when he fell too far behind or lost sight of it behind spires of rock, or within noxious clouds of volcanic smoke. Pinball's boots car

He once again found himself walking through the hellscape that was the 9th floor. And once again, he found himself thinking about what a horribly and overall sucky place it was. He couldn't imagine hanging out here. He wondered what kind of psychopaths would want to live on a floor like this. He knew they existed out there, somewhere. He didn't want to interact with anyone of the sort. They were undoubtedly not right in the head -- which, to be fair, was kind of rich coming from him. Pinball let out a humorless snort as he walked. There wasn't much else to say about it. Or think about it, for

Descending had been a whole lot easier than ascending. As a general rule, Pinball thought that would hold true for most situations like that. After a brief few minutes of struggle, Pinball had climbed to the top. He stood there for a moment and caught his breath. The floor above ground was completely unchangeed. Fiery lava lakes and volcanoes, check. Eerie dark clouds stained a crimson hue? Check. Pinball's hands vanished beneath his cloak as he activated the Tracking skill once again (it had been disabled as he'd climbed, for some reason or another). The Field Boss would spawn again somewher