Benjamin Bookworm

Beginning of Thread stats:

Benjamin stretched out his limbs as the teleporter flash revealed the city of Urbus in front of him. After the Emerald Hatchling quest had ended, the next quest in the chain popped up in his journal. This one would be up on the second floor of the castle, somewhere in the hilly mountains. Hopefully this quest would come with a location marker this time.

He glanced about to try and find where Shion had teleported in- he wasn't going to get far on the quest without her- before spotting his party member and walking over. He promised her that he would be careful on this quest line and follow her lead and it was nice to have someone higher level to take him on the quest, even if she seemed to think of him as just a kid. "Shion? Looks like we're in the right floor for the quest. It looks like it's gonna be a bit of a walk though. And in the middle of the mountains to boot." he prodded, ready to start the next leg of their journey.

@Azhoda

Letting out a chuckle, Ben nodded knowing that he wasn't going to win this argument. Getting through to her would be like like talking to his parents- a line of thought he quickly squashed- but at least Shion listened to him. "About that age, yea. So I'll follow your lead OK? No big risks or anything fancy." he agreed, shaking off the comment about his level. It wasn't his fault crafting didn't give the same experience points as fighting.

"And, um, thanks for bringing me. When we get to a point where you aren't comfortable with me tagging along any more I'll leave, no argument. Dying's not something I want to risk. Or think about..." he shuddered, remembering the first few weeks after the death game started, curled up in an inn too afraid to step foot outside. He would have been glad to have someone like Shion watching over him back then- and now, even while he had been through so many battles, it was nice to have someone to rely on. He wasn't sure what he thought about her yet, but was glad she brought him along.

Then he jogged over to catch up to his new companion, ready to take on the next dragon. Hopefully one not quite as evasive as this one was!

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[Thread Summary in Spoiler]

Ben gave a bit of a huff at the treatment, somewhat put off at being treated like a helpless kid like this... but still she had a point. He wasn't a very high level compared to her, and on top of that he wasn't specced out for combat either.  Without leveling up his healing and defense skills more it would be harder to keep up in the tougher fights.

"That... ugh. Not what I wanted to hear, but it sounds fair. I can't ask you to do anything more than you're comfortable with." he said, though his face was still conflicted. "At any rate I can make sure to add a few extra mitigation potions to my work queue for the later quests. I'm not taking any chances with the tougher dragons on the quest either, don't worry about that. I'll make sure we both make it through in one piece." he stood relaxed as he talked, not quite measuring up to Shion's muscular frame. Even at his smaller size though, he wasn't one to back down from a challenge. Especially a quest line like this.

@Azhoda

Ben took a look at the disappointing haul from the chest, but wasn't too bothered by it. They had finished up the quest already and were looking at the quest rewards- an extra chest was just the icing on the cake. "Thanks, I'll make sure to whip up some good healing potions with these." he answered, pocketing the materials for later crafting, and checking to make sure they cleaned everything out of the nest.

"It was really nice to have someone to partner up with for this quest. I know healing is welcome in the frontline groups... but on these lower floors it's tough to find a partner." he said while giving Shion a smile. "I'm glad to have someone here as a partner- even if it's pretty obvious you didn't need my help for this small a quest. But if you want to keep going with this quest line I'd love to be there to back you up. Maybe if we finish up the whole quest line, I might level up enough to be part of the front lines... even a boss battle someday."

He saw how Shion had gone back to her usual emotionless state, but didn't mind. Everyone had their own way of dealing with the death game, and as long as he could be there and as long as he could help out he'd go along with it. "Whatever you choose though, you're welcome to stop by my shop to grab some drinks any time."

@Azhoda

Ben glanced up at the mention of a healer and raised his hand up to get the player's attention. "Um, here! I've gotten the healing stuff taken care of. Just be sure to grab the potions before we go- they'll help make sure we don't have to use any of our big items unless it's truly an emergency." he said as he tried to keep track of who had gotten buffed and who hadn't yet as he added "Oh, I'm Benjamin by the way. Just call me Ben if you'd like." A smile came across his face as he kept his eyes on everyone, trying to see what else they would need, and more importantly who would be filling each role.

"Miss... Ara was it? Thanks for helping out with your songs as well! I'll have my hands full with the crystals I brought, but I'm sure everyone else can make use of them. Um... right?" He wasn't sure if he was presuming too much or not, since he definitely wasn't the leader of the group, but it would be a shame to not put the items that had been crafted to use. He knew how hard it was to work on things like that. 

@Arabelle

Seeing his partner's unease, Ben gave her a warm smile before he went ahead, making sure the emerald was where it should have been. Luckily their fight hadn't gotten so out of hand that they couldn't find their way back- and that the dragon's nest was easy to spot among the cliffs and rocky outcroppings it had been using to ward off intruders or would be thieves.

"Looks like this is it!" he cried out when he got there, smiling as he dug his way through the dirty nesting material to pry the item free. But, before he could finish up that job, his gaze glanced over to the back of the nest and brightened his mood even more. "And it looks like we got a bonus too- there's a chest hidden in the back for us to claim. Heh... how about I get the dirty work done here, and you see what bonus loot we're waling home with tonight? Hopefully enough to get some drinks after a quest well done!" he asked with a chuckle. While he had gotten good at spotting items and chest, actually picking the locks were not a skill he'd purchased yet. That was one point he didn't have the advantage on.

@Azhoda

Ben caught his breath, just looking at Shion and the hole that she had made. It was... something else. "Well, that's one way of making sure that it doesn't get up again. And making sure that we don't have to chase it down again." he said with awe in his voice from that kind of hit. It was good to know he teamed up with someone so strong at defeating foes- even if it did scare him a little. The dragon that had been causing them so much trouble was nothing more than a few pixels scattered over a crater in the ground by now.

"I think that should be all for this quest... wait, no. We have to go find the emerald it was guarding afterwards, right?" he asked as he checked his quest log for the information, and finding the quest was indeed not finished. After a fast and intense battle like that, just finding the emerald at the end should be a snap. "Um, you good, or do you need to take a breather? After going that fast with your attacks... I haven't seen something that powerful before."

@Azhoda

Ben charged in with his spear from behind, determined to end this fight for once, and take this annoying foe out. He ran forward, sights set on the enemy's back.... and suddenly stopped in his tracks when it let out another loud screech, causing him to stop in his tracks as Rhaegal snapped forward, his jaws just short of Azhoda's spear before it leapt back again, using it's wings to put distance between them.

"Oh come ON! What does it take to hit this thing!" he vented in frustration, angry that the fight was still going on with no real damage done to either side. "I can't even get this thing to stay still for a second..." He chased after where the monster landed, circling around the side to try and get in a flanking position and keep it from flying off again. Or at least corralling it into a position that it would be easier to hit from- he didn't want to think of what damage it could do if it targeted him.

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Combat Stats:
(Roller ID 175846  BD 5, MOB 3, LD 18, CD 2) 

Ben MISSES with a basic attack! (-2 EN, +1 EN)
Rhaegal MISSES Azhoda!

HATE: 5 | Azhoda HP 797/800 | EN 79/80 | DMG 16 (+16) | MIT 89 | REC 2 | HM 2
HATE: 1 | Benjamin  HP 500/500 | EN 44/50 | DMG 1 | MIT 18 | EVA 3 | REC 2 

Rhaegal HP: 124/125 | MIT: 25 | DMG: 50 

@Azhoda

They were having a lot of trouble hitting this stupid monster- even the one glancing blow that he landed had barely taken a tick off it's health. They needed to get a plan to attack at once. Ben moved forward to where Azhoda was, getting ready for another attack run. "OK, that thing can't keep on dodging forever. Maybe if we..." he started before being suddenly assaulted by a large screech, rooting both of them in place as Rhaegal swept in over their heads, narrowly missing them with another attack. While he made an attempt to thrust his spear upward, but the screech had stunned him too much to get a good attack in.

"OK... so it can do that too. Good to know. Any Ideas on pinning it down?" he asked, watching as the dragon circled back around the rocky slopes they were fighting on, landing with it's wings spread out in a fighting stance again and ready for them. He was really glad Azhoda was as durable as she was now. 

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Combat Stats:
(Roller ID 175610  BD 2, MOB 5, LD 19, CD 5) 

Ben MISSES with a basic attack! (-2 EN)
Rhaegal MISSES Azhoda!

HATE: 4 | Azhoda HP 797/800 | EN 80/80 | DMG 16 (+16) | MIT 89 | REC 2 | HM 2
HATE: 1 | Benjamin  HP 500/500 | EN 45/50 | DMG 1 | MIT 18 | EVA 3 | REC 2 

Rhaegal HP: 124/125 | MIT: 25 | DMG: 50 

@Azhoda

Ben swept in after Shion as the dragon dodged away again, staying low while she leapt high and missed with her spear attack, and darted in with his own spear held level, throwing his weight into the attack and striking the enemy right in the wing.

Unfortunately, even with his weight in the blow, his level was too low compared to the monster's to do any real damage. His blow skipped off the dragon's scales, sending him stumbling to the side as it glanced his way for barely a second before leaping forward again, slamming it's jaws into Shion's spear, the power from each of them thrumming as they clashed.

"OK, I think I got it's attention... for like a second." he called out, hoping that he gave her enough of an opportunity to strike a blow herself. Running around this fast and trying to keep up with an evasive opponent like this was starting to get really old- and really tiring. 

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Combat Stats:
(Roller ID 175420  BD 7, MOB 9, LD 8) 

Ben HITS with a basic attack! (-1 EN) for (1 - 25 (MIT)) = 1 Damage! (Minimum)
Rhaegal HITS Azhoda for (50 +1 (crit) - 89 (MIT)) =  1 Damage!

HATE: 3 | Azhoda HP 797/800 | EN 78/80 (-2 , +1) | DMG 16 | MIT 89 | REC 2 | HM 2
HATE: 1 | Benjamin  HP 500/500 | EN 47/50 | DMG 1 | MIT 18 | EVA 3 | REC 2 

Rhaegal HP: 124/125 | MIT: 25 | DMG: 50 

Ben took the advice without hesitation, charging in once more and swinging at the side of the dragon's flank, looking to land a distracting blow and give Shion an opening. Unfortunately, while Rhaegal didn't dodge this time, he did swing his wing upward and send out a gust of air that sent Ben stumbling forward with his own spear going wide. "Dang it- I don't think it's even paying attention to me at all!" he cried out in frustration, not even able to get close enough to reach the monster once again, and wondering if he should switch to throwing out some healing abilities instead at this point.

The battle wasn't over yet though, and Rhaegal leapt forward to land another blow against Azhoda, locking itself with her spear once more as Ben tried to find an opening, charging for the dragon's tail and swinging wildly as he hoped his partner was still going to hold on. This dragon as ridiculously hard to hit, it seemed. 

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Combat Stats:
(Roller ID 174702 BD 5, MOB 10, LD 13) 

Ben MISSES with a basic attack! (-2 EN)
Rhaegal HITS Azhoda for (50 +2 (crit) - 89 (MIT)) =  1 Damage!

HATE: 2 | Azhoda HP 798/800 | EN 48/80 (-16 rested house buff) | DMG 16 | MIT 89 | REC 2 | HM 2
HATE: 0 | Benjamin  HP 500/500 | EN 47/50 | DMG 1 | MIT 18 | EVA 3 | REC 2 

Rhaegal HP: 125/125 | MIT: 25 | DMG: 50 

@Azhoda

Stats:

Benjamin hurried to try and catch up to everyone at the rally point, his shoulder pack clanking along with the amount of items he had packed into it. He knew he was late to get to the rally point, or at least not early as he planned, and on his first big event too! He saw the other three players already waiting there and ran up, catching his breath as he did.

"I'm here! Sorry about the delay- wanted to finish up a few last minute potions before hand." he said as he opened up one of the bag flaps and pulled out six of two types of potions, setting five of them down on a nearby rock for everyone else to use and downing the last two himself. "Hopefully these will keep you guys safe for the most part, but besides that I'll have plenty of healing and emergency crystals for the bosses. Oh, and if anyone needs a last minute damage buff I have a couple of those too." He saw they had plenty of damage to go around, so he wasn't worried about how that would go- just keeping everyone alive would be his focus.

His face beamed with pride as he checked his items, ready to fight with a full group, and protect them all. Hopefully between the potions he made and the healing, he wouldn't have any problems. Or have to use his expensive healing items.

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Potions Drank - River's Unending Vitality (Mit 3, Tier 2, ID 17255-2), Lesser River's Bounty (Over Health 1, Tier 2, ID 172254-2)
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Setting down the following:
(5) River's Unending Vitality (Mitigation 3, Tier 2) [172255-3, 172261, 172946-1, 172946-2, 172946-3]
(5) Lesser River's Bounty (Over-Health 1, Tier 2) [172254-3, 172947-1, 172947-2, 172947-3, 173317]

10/17/2020 crafting

Crafter rank 8

http://www.sao-rpg.com/topic/15809-f1-bookworm-laboratories-alchemist-rank-8/?do=findComment&comment=626651

*Time to make some potions*

-2 [T2] materials, -5 [T1] materials, +1 [T2] Perfect potions, +1 [T2] Rare potions, +3 [T1] Perfect potions, +4 [T1] Rare potions, +84 xp

[Got PM that I had done the critical fail rolls wrong today and last time, but did not see it until tonight. Removed the potions and xp that I would not have had the materials to work on]

10/15/2020 crafting

Crafter rank 8

*Hums a happy song as he puts on some more items to his crafting table*

-7 [T2] mats, +5 [T2] Uncommon Potions, +3 [T2] Perfect Potions, +90 xp

10/14/2020 crafting

Time to craft some crystals!

-18 [T1] mats, +8 Uncommon [T1] Crystals, +6 Perfect [T1] Crystals, +97 xp

Fed up with the delays, Ben took the next few pieces of crystal (or at least crystal like material. He wasn't looking too hard at the names of it right now) and just stuffed them in his bag, cramming as many in at once as he could. His thoughts were that he could just as many in faster if he just stuffed them down... but that wasn't what happened. What actually happened was he simply had a bunch of materials awkwardly shoved into his bag on top of a few broken pieces.

He let out a sigh and tossed that idea back into his inventory, knowing he would have to stack the rest of these carefully to get them to fit and taking out another cloth bag to start his work. He was usually pretty good at stacking things up in a small space, but he didn't want to lose the time it would take to do all that work. Gathering materials in this game was all about the efficiency- and he intended to be as efficient as he could possibly be.

Ben had to work a bit harder to get these new crystals into his pack as he picked harvested them all up slowly- while they were the same size as most materials he gathered, they were also quite oddly shaped, and had a habit of being pointy enough to cause trouble when poking other materials in his pouch. And occasionally his fingers as he grabbed them and tossed them in. It was taking a lot longer than usual to fill up each of his pouches this way- and even though he could throw the full ones into his pouch at the end, he didn't have infinite bags, and if he just tossed them in half full he wouldn't have as many materials at the end of the day.

He sighed- even though this was faster, he still was poking his fingers enough to regret his decision. Some days like this he wished he just needed rocks and things like blacksmiths- at least you always knew where to find those kinds of materials.

Looking for a new patch of materials among the lush patches of gardens, Ben made his way down the path a bit further than usual- checking each of the different types of flowers and trees to try and find a good patch. He was tired of having to climb things and duck through bushes to try and find new materials. He just wanted something easy and quick so he wouldn't have to work so hard.

After looking at different types of areas, he spotted a rock garden near some of the fruit trees (which he wasn't climbing again. too high) and went in for a closer look, remembering some of the different crystalline rocks he had picked up before that worked so well. Checking his HUD, these ones looked like they would work as well, and Ben began filling up his pack once more. After all, he needed both potions and crystals in order to properly crafting everything that was needed, so he would get use out of all of them.

10/12/2020 crafting

*Hums a happy song as he puts on some more items to his crafting table*

-9 [T2] mats, +9 [T2] Uncommon Potions, +1 [T2] Rare Potions, +4 [T2] Perfect Potions, +100 xp

Ben dashed in after Shino, not wasting any time looking for his opening and in one motion pulling his own spear into position and thrusting forward, aiming at the wing to try and keep the beast grounded. The sudden leap of the dragon threw him off course though, and he ended up getting batted aside and tumbling into the wall, barely keeping his feet as he watched the emerald dragon bite down at Azhoda.

The attack looked for a second like it would take her head off, but the spear she readied earlier was in the way of any critical damage and left his partner with a dragon's jaws wrapped around her spear, attempting to bite through and get close enough to tear her to pieces.  Ben felt a surge of panic well up inside of himself, but knew she was an experienced enough tank to handle a few hits. Probably. He still pushed away from the wall and checked that his healing skill was ready just in case- "Sorry Shino! I- I'll try and give you an opening next time!"

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Combat Stats:
(Roller ID 172249 BD 4, MOB 9, LD 8)

Rhaegal HITS Azhoda for (50 +1 (crit) - 89 (MIT)) =  1 Damage!

HATE: 1 | Azhoda HP 799/800 | EN 64/80 | DMG 16 | MIT 89 | REC 2 | HM 2
HATE: 0 | Benjamin  HP 500/500 | EN 48/50 | DMG 1 | MIT 18 | EVA 3 | REC 2

Rhaegal HP: 125/125 | MIT: 25 | DMG: 50

@Azhoda

Refreshed from taking a few minutes to rest, Ben cleared off the rest of the patch in more or less record time. Or would have been a record if anyone actually kept track of the time taken for gathering quests, which they probably didn't. Or at least he hadn't met anyone who had- maybe he should ask about that?  Except he wasn't really interested and it would take up too much time to be worth it. He had to, like everyone else in this crazy game, keep working on finding a way out of it.

It the few short minutes he was thinking to himself, Ben managed to finish up what he could get out of that plot. There was always a few flowers at the end of it that weren't useful and he didn't bother going through, but most of them were gone and would respawn later in the day. Not soon enough for him to pick them again, but soon enough for next time he came through.