Cordelia

Cordelia shuddered as she felt the creature rumble.

Alright, scratch that-- it definitely knew that they were on here. She took a look down and gulped. She was never one to be afraid of heights but when you actually have a significant chance of falling from a high place, you'd be afraid too. Heck, how did she even climb this high up? She wasn't sure if she should feel impressed or scared at the moment. 

She exhaled, gripping the crevices in the rock with her gloved hands. "Ah frick, fall damage is a thing," she muttered, closing her eyes as she refused to look down again. She honestly wondered how much damage she would take from a fall like this-- but of course, was that something she wanted to experiment with right now? No, no it wasn't. 

She peeked over at the other leg-- or least, she tried to. She could barely make out the faint outline of it, unfortunately. . . she wondered if Oscar was doing alright on his half.

ID: 138672
LD: 6

Cordelia ripped out her katana from the mob and looked over to the girls, who thankfully retreated to a safer distance. "Are you two alright?" She called. The last thing she wanted was to be the cause of two deaths. 

She looked back to Ugzeke. The venom hadn't worn off just yet, maybe squeezing in an attack was a good idea before it regained its movement.

In a single flurry rush, Cordelia had managed to proc her burn enhancements, which had seemed to engulf the monster entirely before she had to backed away. "Ah, come on," she whispered, looking down at her katana before looking at her two hovering birds in the sky. "Please, just activate holy already!" She exclaimed under her breath, adjusting her grip around her katana's hilt one last time. I mean, come on. A holy attack would probably chunk away a good fifth or fourth of its health right now!

ID: 138670
BD: 8, Hit [BURN ACTIVATES]

Cordelia: HP: 967/1040 | EN: 92/120 | 21 DMG | 45 MIT | 5 ACC | 3 EVA | 1 PARA VNM [DF]| 6 HLY | 2 [36] BRN +31 -14 

Ugzeke: HP: 904/1500 | 200 DMG | 35 MIT | 2 ACC [PARALYZED] [-36 1/2 BURN] -280

"Ah-- alright," she murmured, watching him run off towards the behemoth like a child to a playground. She wasn't sure if she had anyone ever so excited to climb a giant moving mountain. Cordelia bit her lip to hold in a laugh as she dashed after him. 

Taking the other leg, Cordelia started her journey up the massive rock. Climbing was never. . . really her forte, so to speak. What was she supposed to do with her twig arms? She shook her head. What a pain. Using a burst of energy, Cordelia lifted herself onto a small, flat section of the leg. A labored breath escaped her. 

She had come to a conclusion today;

Climbing kind of sucked. 

She looked up. Good lord, she still had a ways to go. She wondered if this thing was even aware that there were two people on it-- though she honestly doubted it. They were probably what a tick was to a human in terms of size to this thing.

"Galadriel?" She muttered, regaining her composure as she gave the girl an odd look. Cordelia looked over her shoulder. "Something back there?" Cordelia echoed, placing her hand firmly on top of her katana's hilt as she gave the darkness a hardy. "I wouldn't suggest leaving right at this moment. . . you don't know what could get you on your way out," she mumbled, looking back over to the girl with a small smile. She didn't look too awfully high leveled-- heck, she wasn't sure if she was even above tier one. 

"Just stay with me for a quick bit, okay?"

Cordelia looked behind her own shoulder at another newcomer. "I'm fine, thank you," she exclaimed, waving back. Again, she wasn't sure where these people were coming from-- but the Underdark was no place to be messing around with. 

"Hey, what level are you two--"

Cordelia flinched, her eyes quickly narrowing towards the darkness before she jumped in front of Rosary. "Stay behind me!" She barked, quickly unsheathing her katana from its scabbard. 

From the pitch dark, a massive and grotesque mob appeared before the group, making shivers go down the girl's spine. She looked over to the two other players in slight panic. This was something she could handle-- but was it something they could? "Don't-- don't attack it. Leave it to me, okay?" She asked, giving them a wry smile before she charged forward. 

Ugzeke let out a roar as it clumsily charged towards her as well. Her sword clashed against his wooden club, chipping away at the word before she broke off. Her birds fluttered above, keeping an eye-- or rather, multiple eyes on the fight.

Like a ragdoll to a baseball bat, Ugzeke swatted her away almost too easily-- which really hit her in the pride. She gritted her teeth, tumbling on the ground for a few seconds before she caught herself on her feet. This guy was tougher than she thought he was-- of course Hynes would do that to her-- Oh, well it didn't matter anymore now, did it? Her smirk played on her lips as she watched the mob slowly start to stiffen up, kudos to her lovely armor! 

Cordelia exhaled heavily, darting back into combat as she activated a San Ge. Taking advantage of his immobilized state, Cordelia quickly maneuvered behind him, all before plunging her katana into his back.

ID: 138645
BD: 3+5=8, Hit | 15x21=315-35=280 

ID: 138646
MD: 8, Hit [PARA VNM ACTIVATES] 200-45=135

Cordelia: HP: 936/1040 | EN: 106/120 | 21 DMG | 45 MIT | 5 ACC | 3 EVA | 1 PARA VNM [DF]| 6 HLY | 2 [36] BRN -135 +31 -14

Ugzeke: HP: 1220/1500 | 200 DMG | 35 MIT | 2 ACC -280 [PARALYZED]

"I felt bad for him," she sighed, laughing nervously as she rubbed the side of her cheek. "I had him carry me back down when I had gotten Hestia's Flame, too." To be fair. You probably didn't want to travel down a mountain when you had just spent two hours cooking a bowl of noodles, too. "That poor Mr. Goat Man. . ."

"I remember that. . ." She mumbled, her voice trailing as she too recalled what had happened that day. It was certainly. . . eventful. Too much information had filled her brain that day. . . probably ninety-percent of the information she knew about Oscar's life before SAO, Pinball, that girl-- Kirbs. She sighed. It was hard to keep track of all of it later. 

"I'm sure we'll find. . . it. . ." She said, turning around. "Oh, there it is," she said dumbfoundedly, pointing to an absolute giant rock-- mountain thing not too far away at all. "Well, hopes to not getting crushed by a living mountain?"

ID: 138644
LD: 18, Success!

Cordelia's eyes darkened. 

"I made Mr. Goat Man carry me up a mountain, and then I forced him to eat my ramen," she whispered almost inaudibly.

She brightened up abruptly with a loud laugh before she clasped her hands together. "Ah, don't worry about it! I've finished that quest a little while ago. No need to worry about it!"

[FLOOR 19:]

Cordelia held her hand above her head as she searched around. "Well, by the looks of it. . ." She paused, looking to her left and right, "it'll be a lot harder than I thought it would be." She sighed, shaking her head. She wasn't really sure how that really worked out but she was never a person with a whole lot of luck, so it wouldn't be totally out of this world if she had somehow missed a giant effing mountain. Or maybe she was just going blind. Maybe that was the answer to this.

LD: 138641

LD: 2, Fail

"You mean there was a time where you weren't only making hot dogs?" She asked, her eyes going wide in amusements before she giggled. "Never thought I would hear that, honestly. From you or me." She supposed it made sense, though. It was kind of hard to imagine Oscar before he was a cook, and she wondered if he had been a cook since day one. Now she wondered if he was ever a cook in real life? Of course, she knew he was a therapist in real life-- but he could be like one of those really, really, really good home cooks! Those people were superstars, seriously. 

Cordelia nodded, stretching her arms above her head with an excited grin. "Of course I am. When am I ever not ready?" She asked. "No one I know has gotten this whole line done yet, so I'm excited to know if we're the first ones to finish it!" She exclaimed, curling her fingers into fists as she looked up at Oscar with wide eyes. "I can finally call first on something!"

Cordelia stretched her arms in front of her.

First combat quest since she had tiered up? Hell yeah! She was prepared. Before she had teleported to floor twenty-three, she was pretty sure she downed three servings of ramen. Buffed ramen. 

Maybe her cooking skills were finally becoming useful? Fun, fun, fun. 

She looked to each of her shoulders before sighing in relief. Thank God she had managed to get Pacco out of that katana. She wouldn't know what to do if her familiar was stuck in her sword forever. Heh, that would not be very fun. She would much rather have two birds than a pitch black sword, which sounded incredibly weird now that she thought more about it. 

"Alright, Pacco!" She exclaimed, balling her fists in excitement. "We're going to slay something today! With my new sword-- and with your other hand puppet!" She said, still convinced that her two birds were actually hand puppets of some kind of invisible demonic entity.

@Rosary @Zajcica

SUMMARY: 

-200 Col
-2 SP

Cordelia gets fighter familiar skill

Cordelia chuckled. "I suppose that is a moral."

She nodded along. "Yeah, I get that." She gave Mari a silly grin. "I suppose that's fair. I'll be sure to direct people to you if they ever want that kind of information," she beamed, giving the girl a thumbs-up.

"Alright, that makes sense," Cordelia agreed, looking over to the Paccos before she gave him a pointed look. "What? I can't be the only one putting work into this," Cordelia argued before rolling her eyes. "Just-- just try to make this work, Pacco," she mumbled, holding out her katana.

"Fingers crossed," she whispered before slowly rotating the katana at an angle. "Alright, Pacco. Try it out, please?" She asked, turning her head to her familiars. Almost sighing, the two birds' chests heaved before they spread their wings and took flight. What a baby--

Cordelia rolled her eyes slightly before she slightly increased the speed. "Okay, now!" She exclaimed. Just like Mari had visualized, the two birds followed the rotation of her. After a few seconds, she essentially had a tiny tornado-- filled with small black feathers and specs of dust. "I think it's working?" She said quizzically.

And then it happened. The wind suddenly disappeared and her familiars were not longer in the air. In fact, they weren't anywhere. "I'm pretty sure it worked?" She asked, looking down at her blade, which was now a pitch black color. "I-it worked!" She exclaimed, looking over to Mari excitedly. "Thank you! You have no idea how much this means to me," she said excitedly, going over to hug Mari before she held her katana in front of her. "Now I got to find out how to get them out of there," she whispered, her eyes widening before she looked over to her companion. "I can do that on my own, though. Maybe at home? Thank you, though. I mean it."

ID: 138447
CD: 10, Success

3/3

"Oh my. That certainly. . . sounds interesting, I guess." Cordelia pondered at the story for a second before she laughed to herself. "It sounds like there would be some kind of hidden moral or theme around it but I'm not sure if I can think of one about. . . a man eating fish."

Cordelia nodded her head. "You must have really put a lot of thought into it," she exclaimed thoughtfully. "I've never actually heard of people researching familiars before. It sounds like some kind of study now that I think of it," she mumbled, scratching her chin. "You could really sell that information. I'm sure it could be helpful to people who are looking for some kind of familiar that would fit their builds and weapons," she suggested.

Cordelia nodded along with Mari's explanation. "Right. . . that would make sense," she notered, opening her menu for a second before she equipped her katana. "I'm not sure if Onimaru would have the right kind of blade for Pacco to jump into," Cordelia muttered, slightly drawing out her blade from its sheath before she paused.

"I'm sure we can try. The visualization helps. . . I just hope that he doesn't accidentally cut himself or something," she said jokingly before drawing out her whole katana from its hold. 

Cordelia let out a small laugh, shaking her head. "I think I will."

She nodded, rising to her feet as she clipped on her capelet. Cordelia followed her to the tree. "I don't know about you but I'd be pretty afraid if a koi fish came charging after me in the air," she said jokingly, watching as Mari held out her dagger. 

"Whaaaat?" Cordelia exclaimed, jumping backwards as she stared at the dagger in awe. "That's awesome!" She said excitedly, "do you think Pacco can do that? I've never seen him do it before. I hope I don't accidentally slice them in two if I do try it out," she muttered, looking over to her familiar. "That's such an efficient way of keeping your familiar around too," she noted, staring at the dagger. "That's super cool, though. How did you figure out that Kohaku could do that?" She asked, scratching her chin. 

ID: 138338
CD: 10, Success

2/3

Cordelia scoffed. "That doesn't count," she exclaimed.

"Actually, that would be great. Yeah, I used two of the etchings to remove the damage enhancements on my katana from that quest-- so I deal a bit of DoT now. . . it was never really my intention to deal DoT damage, but I really just needed to remove those enhancements," Cordelia sighed, scratching the side of her cheek. Really, her whole build kind of just took a sudden turn during the middle of being a tier two. First, she had acquired the holy katana, and then she somehow got a phase voucher for it? She really considered herself to be a lucky one.

"I'd be happy for you to demonstrate for me, though! I've never really dealt with a damage familiar before, so it'd be good to see someone else do it before I do something I shouldn't be doing," Cordelia chuckled, scratching the back of her neck.

"That's one way to put it, I guess," Cordelia chuckled, smiling softly as she ran her hand through the grass. "Does that mean you keep people up at night too?" She joked, scratching the side of her head as she let out a laugh. 

"I can imagine," Cordelia sniffed, "I isolated myself for a few months after the game had started, I only back up and running about a year and a half ago. It was nice talking to people again." She shrugged, learning back as she pressed her palms against the ground. "You'll be fine."

"Well, back when I only had one bird, it was for accuracy. I decided to switch over to damage before the boss raid since my weapon no longer has any damage enhancements on it," Cordelia explained, "I suppose they are. Frankly, I don't know how they're going to help me in battle. Maybe they can just peck out the eyes of me enemies or something," Cordelia mused jokingly.

Day 16:

+53 EXP

"Worst case scenario would probably mobs coming out to attack us at our weakest," Cordelia murmured thoughtfully in response to Lessa. "I'm sure we'll be fine."

She looked over to the blue-haired player and cracked a small smile. "You can call me Cordelia," she said, shortly after Lessa had introduced herself. She was sure that she somewhat knew this player. Perhaps she had seen him at an event, or just passed by him a couple times in town? She mentally shrugged. Maybe the pieces of the puzzle would fit together once he had introduced himself. 

Cordelia nodded her head at Lessa's suggestion. "Best bet would probably be looking around the ground floor first. See if there are any other exits that way," she sniffed. "I have no idea how big the floor actually is, but I'm assuming there will be a lot of spaces we have to check out." She looked over back to the firmly shut door. "I just hope that no one comes while we're gone and thinks that they're the only ones in here. Is there any way we could leave some kind of note to direct any other people who found themselves in this. . . unfortunate situation?"

"I would certainly see why people would distrust you. . ." Cordelia murmured, her voice trailing off. 

All thoughts seemed to have gone to Pinball. That bastard. Perhaps it was foolish of her to immediately trust someone with an orange crystal right away. She glanced over to Mari. Not all of them were bad, though. . . but she wasn't sure if she could ever look at someone with that same orange cursor above their head the same again. 

"Those ideas don't sound too far off," Cordelia mused, tilting her head. "Matilda and Xavier are very specific names," she joked before tilting her chin upward to the sky. "But that would make sense."

"No, no, of course, I get it." She looked over to Pacco. "Frankly, I have no idea how he works. Sometimes I just think that he's some kind of invisible force that's playing with hand puppets that just so happen to be crows," Cordelia deadpanned. "How I got the second crow is still a mystery to me."

ID: 138327
CD: 10, Success

1/3

Cordelia shook her head. "It's not your fault. The same goes for me too."

"I feel like this is what I'm going to experience the same thing when I go back to the real world," she said dryly. Right, the real world didn't have menus that can be accessed with the swipe of a hand, or limitless inventory, or maps. 

She looked over to Lessa and inhaled sharply. "I don't know-- but I'm sure that we aren't going to be the only players who stumble into. . . whatever the hell this place is," she sniffed, rubbing her eyes tiredly. This was exactly the last thing she needed today. Why her? Why now?

"I agree. I have no idea how this whole place is laid out, though. It didn't look too incredibly big from the outside but heck, we're in a video game. This place is probably like that infinite Ikea store or something," she muttered, shaking her head. Her idea wasn't too far off, but she could never be sure. "But if we do go, we're sticking as a group. No argument. We're rendered useless in a place like this, we can't afford to lose the few things we have."

@Calrex @Lessa

Cordelia peeked her head into the shop. "Oh, hi there," she said in surprise, meeting the faces of two little girls she had never seen before. She was pretty sure they didn't own the shop. . .? She looked over to the center of the shop, where a black-haired lady stood-- or sat. 

"Hey, I'm just here to drop off a few things that have been piling up in my inventory. It's not much. I don't usually go hunting for this kind of stuff, so I just figured that I'd have them identified," she said, her fingers dancing on the buttons of her HUD menu before a few sets of unidentified trinkets and armors piled on the counter. "It'd be a shame to let these sit in my inventory forever. I leave them in your care madame!" She exclaimed, giving the girl a short bow.

☆ T1 Unidentified Perfect Armor/Shield: [123234A] 
☆ T1 Unidentified Perfect Trinket: [123234B] 
☆ T1 Perfect Armor/Shield [125231A]
☆ T1 Perfect Trinket [125231B]
☆ T3 Rare Weapon [134228A]

-4,000 Col

Cordelia jumped. "O-oh, hello, Lessa. You gave me a scare for a second," she stuttered, rubbing the back of her head with a sweat-drop. She briefly glanced at her familiar before she tilted her head. "Open what--"

Before she could ask any further questions, another player seemed to have found themselves in the room. She blinked. He looked familiar from somewhere but she couldn't put a pin on it. . .

"Wait, it's locked?" She asked, bewildered. Putting it to the test, Cordelia tugged on the handle, to no avail. "Oh, I guess we are." She looked over to Lessa and shook her head. "I don't think it is. We would've already gotten some kind of notification saying that we've accepted the quest or something like that." She looked back at the door. "Though, I'm sure we'll be perfectly fine," she sniffed, her grip growing a tiny bit stronger on her bundled familiars. 

"I'll just see if I can message Oscar or someone. He can come and open the door for us or something," she suggested, her hand extending out in front of her before swiping down.

Nothing.

She swiped down again.

Nothing.

"It's. . . it's not working. I can't access my menu."

@Lessa @Calrex

"This is what happens when you don't listen to me."

Like any sensible living thing, you'd expect Pacco to not nose dive into a frozen lake. You would expect, but Pacco never dealt with expectations, did he? No, he went beyond them. Cordelia unclipped her red capelet from her shoulder and wrapped the two birds in it. "What did you even see in there that sparked both of you to go in there at the same time?" She muttered to basically nobody but herself. Her familiar was probably too frozen to hear her rant.

"Now look at us," she muttered angrily, "I don't even know if you can freeze to death but shame on me for letting you roam free, right? I swear to God, don't make me buy leashes for you."

"We're too far away to even go back to a safe zone, so. . ." she trailed off, suddenly becoming aware of the massive structure in front of her. "Oh, nevermind, then," she sniffed, clutching her bundled up familiars even closer to her body. 

"Oh, I'm sure we're welcome," she mumbled, and without hesitation, pulled open the doors and stumbled in.

Victim number two has joined the party!