NIGHT

what did she need... well, everything, to be honest. but she wasn't going to run nari out of stock to make a point, and neither did she see the point in perpetuate crystals over incarcerates. night squinted, holding the item in her hand, and then looked up to make sure she wasn't being watched for her discretion. but she would take them. she wasn't even sure if anyone else was going to find a use for them, in complete honesty. night gathered the lot in two hands, before dropping them off at the counter. "you should make more of these. not like i'm biased, or anything."

last run. night pushed open the door, almost stumbling, a peeved look on her face. it made no difference to the alchemist lounging at the counter, reading a book with a cup of matcha beside her. between them, upon the counter's bend, was everything night needed to get ready for the journey ahead that bistro could provide her. the player stopped, while picking up her items, wondering if she should be making small talk, just in case. but she didn't need to stay stuck, contemplating. "hey." without prompting, her friend was already looking up from her read. "be careful out the

she hated to admit that she needed to pop by for some supplies, especially after the encounter with the chef up on that random mountain, in pursuit of some distant sword art. what was he doing up there, anyway – it wasn't as though she'd seen him pick a fight elsewhere before, and he was always wandering around with his mess of a kitchen! night eyed him warily, as his demeanor shifted in the split second they made eye contact once again. she dropped the col pouch on the table. he scooped it up, wordless, and handed the box of treats over. both of their expressions seemed steeled

thread closing. NIGHT + 10,143xp | (831 * 0.7 * 14) + 2000 + 12,021col | (xp * 0.15) + 10500 Dazia + 4,908xp | (831 * 0.7 * 5) + 2000 + 11,236col | (xp * 0.15) + 10500 + Pirate's Treasure (2)

the cat, originally unimpressed, simply gave the tsuchinoko a sniff before pulling back, just in time for the reptile to snip with its tiny mouth outwards. nyanko seemed to bristle at the attack. “wow, it doesn’t seem as though they get along.” “right…? maybe smiggle is just mad about being caught.” indeed, between its scrunched up face and aggressive wriggling in basuke’s hands, it did seem as though his guess was accurate. but a hop into his hoodie pocket, and the worm was feeling right at home with a tiny screech. “i didn’t even know it could do that,

“ah, nice job, nyanko.” the fight was tough, but it didn’t seem as though smiggle thought the kitten was being malicious – after all, the worm wasn’t exactly protesting much. but at nyanko’s capture, basuke came running over, excited. “oh! did you find him? good kitty!” smiggle’s beady eyes opened from being shut, and its body stopped wriggling around. nyanko decided to let the familiar go, and before it could start another excavation attempt (did it even want to, still?) its owner scooped the tsuchinoko up with two hands, bringing smiggle closer to his face and rubbing it

night was taking the more direct route – instead of rounding the pit towards where she thought basuke was headed for, she slid down its curvature, half-jogging when she reached the bottom. while the amount of destruction smiggle had made was slight, given time, this destination might be rendered unusable to unsuspecting individuals. so perhaps they needed to act fast. well, night would’ve rathered act fast. she couldn’t be bothered to spend all day hunting down a fat worm, she had better things to do. as she looked around in place, she felt the ground next to her

as they continued traveling, night noted that they were getting towards higher-level territory, at least relative to the average player level on the first floor. and so, slowing down behind nyanko, she turned to basuke, walking beside him. “so, what level are you right now?” “somewhere headed towards 20,” he replied, pulling up his interface. night didn’t need the specifics, because all she needed to know was his capability of withstanding the most frequent threats in the area. she gave him a nod, and they continued on their way. eventually nyanko led them to a cl

“ah… um. basuke, this is my familiar. his name is nyanko.” nyanko introduced himself with a peep. night couldn’t remember if he’d met the familiar before. perhaps it had been too long if he did, or the kitten seemed like he changed a lot; either way, basuke nodded and tried to introduce himself to nyanko, too. “hey little guy… ” he reached a hand out over the cat’s head, only for nyanko to shy away from the hand, and drop himself to the floor, leaving a devastated basuke behind. the familiar continued strolling down the way he was looking earlier,

so night set the parameters on her interface in search of the aforementioned tsuchinoko. found a match, though with little accuracy, and looked up in the direction of where her display was trying to tell her to go. night raised a finger and pointed down a path of a dirt road. “we’ll walk this way until we see your worm, i guess.” and basuke nodded, almost excitedly from over her shoulder. he had been watching the player navigate the interface, acknowledging every bit of information, even if he couldn’t read it, as important with murmurs of affirmations. “got it. so we follow the

but of course, when the player was done scribbling out a portrait of smiggle crocs v, night had to admit that it looked like a bee without wings that looked sort of upset. her first thought was, ‘is basuke okay?’ she felt sorry for the drawing, and almost wanted to offer her services of redrawing crocs on his behalf. “he has smooth skin, and is about this small,” the boy mentioned, shaping out an estimated size for his mythical being using his hands. it was roughly the size of a small box, almost equal to an apple, perhaps, which confused night even further into disbelief. she looked

“but it’s like, kind of unusual? he never gets this far away from me. and you can track, right; can’t you, night?” woah, too many things were being asked of her at once. the player pulled out a canister from somewhere and started to take a swig, if only in hopes that the drink would wake her up. “i can,” she said, gesturing to the pit smiggle had apparently made. “but i need to know a little more about it before i’m able to hunt it down. its name is smiggle–” “smiggle crocs v.” “smiggle…” what? sorry? was she getting clowned on right now? “... smiggle crocs v.”

night appeared, looking extremely disheveled, ill-equipped to handle the situation, and generally confused about the situation. “sorry,” she started, trying to comb through her hair to be a little more presentable. “basuke, do you mind explaining the problem again, in full detail?” “ah– yeah!” basuke appeared somewhat embarrassed now, before gesturing to the hole in the ground. “look, smiggle usually digs into the ground and leaves these as traces of where he’s been, right? and they’d always been where i’m camping–” “–you’ve been camping?” night was piecing things

basuke: smiggle crocs is gone :( basuke: do you track??? night: h wh ?? night: wt tht basuke: MY WORM night: ??????????? night is typing… night: 15m basuke: I DONT HAVE THAT MUCH TIME night: ???????????????? night: 5 it had to be like 6am or something, a point in time when the sun was still rising, and the sky was still a muted shade of blue. night had to pull herself out from bed, gently patting her companion on the head to release her for the day. once freed, the player reluctantly got dressed and ate a quick bar for some amount of nutrition (fake). sh

involuntary manslaughter. then the assassin, on the fourth floor; night figured there were definitely a wide variety of individuals who found its environment hospitable, assassins included, but couldn't put a name to anyone who seemed to fit that description. so she listened, still perplexed. the more she heard about freyd, the more it sounded like he was the type to plan for most, if not all contingencies, which was especially troubling if night ever had to deal with him in an aggressive capacity. what was worrying, too, was in the fact that dazia was followed to a safe location...

Skill(s) Being Dropped: Fighting Spirit Mod(s)/Addon(s)/Shift(s) Being Dropped: N/A SP Refunded: 10 Cost: 10,000 edit: sorry do u mind sending 4k back oops my bad

she figured it was worth a shot. if everyone had been so dormant lately, then surely, at least, she figured they weren't dead. the very least was in checking if some people of the guild were still alive. so she went in search of firm anima's smithy, and found it somewhere on the ninth. decent enough. at least the man seemed alive. night nodded to him when she was noticed, pulling up her weapons in need of fixing. "these three. i need them in a precise order," she clarified, holding up two shards and a scale. "thank you very much." offering: adjudicator. | [#2125

night supposed she had nothing left to lose by knocking on the door of a ghost's abode (though it feared her to do so) and not receiving a response. still, she followed procedures as best she remembered: a request and the items dropped off for its convenience. even if she thought a player was present behind the craft, if they'd wanted to be left anonymous about it, she'd let them. so in she went, trying her best to be humble in her announcement, "i need these stitched together. i'll leave you to it, if you need be. i can be back in an hour or two." night gave the cloaks one last look

there was something inherently silly in needing new equipment, night thought. it just didn't seem to add up, how her pieces were constantly being traded, one for another, in pursuit of maximization; it meant wastage in the way she had to set some pieces on reserve, and it meant a lot of effort being spent running around finding items that fit together. so she was thankful that bistro could call in favors for her one shot, her attempt at breaching the stars. iris was in personally that day. and the weapons she sought were wrapped in a bundle, alongside a new set of clothes.

yuki wasn't mad, thank goodness. and it seemed as though her friend was as she always had been; grinning, self-assured, and ready for the fight. night couldn't help but feel comforted by it – things were as usual, of course – until the party request was sent, the window overlapping a disastrous looking map on yuki's interface. oh, so that's how she got lost in the first place. "i-i think this labyrinth kind of shifts around a little," night clarified, to the backdrop of the sounds of the walls shifting, a heavy dull noise that would only be observed upon close attention to

night nodded to yuki's reply. she'd seen the woman cry before, so it should've been something to have gotten used to. still, the player couldn't help but feel a tinge of guilt, as though she should've tried harder to search for her friend... but yuki often ended up in difficult-to-reach places, for one reason or another. she meant what she said – sometimes, alive is the best she could ask of her friends. the distance may be needed. "you look good," night afforded, eyeing her friend up and down. she was used to yuki's pink, but she couldn't deny having a preference to her shield's cur

three days? surely it had been longer than that. night couldn't remember the first time crow came to her for help about finding his wife, so all night could do was nod as though only that amount of time had passed. because night wasn't about to help yuki spiral even further about how long she'd been lost for. the part where things would die on her shield's armor though, was apt. only such things would happen to one of the best tanks in aincrad. if night paced over, it was to place the piece of chalk directly onto yuki's palm, and then she considered if it was worth the pote

"oh, sorry about that." night wasn't expecting to meet another player in the most dangerous of locations in aincrad. so she side-stepped, gave the stranger a brief nod, before continuing on her journey. ... at least, she would have, if the interface hadn't just informed her of a tracked target's completion. one zajcica was found, even though night hadn't spotted anyone, but a brief glimpse on her friends list just as (she thought) the player was leaving made her reconsider otherwise. so she turned, horrified at the prospect that yuki had been missing for ages... in the wors

quest. floor 25 sucked. the difficulty was set way too high for what it was meant to be, an introduction to what a hallmark floor in aincrad would look like. so its difficulty meant that it was a perfect avenue for night as a different kind of warm up – endurance – to see how long she'd last in the labyrinth proper. the target of today was the titanium warden; a formidable boss on its own, and there was the environment to contend with to boot. night didn't need the loot it would drop, but it would make an amazing trophy or bargaining chip, at the very least. she decided it would be b

r10 artisan | x14 daily crafting attempts | cd tool signet. | [#208039] | TIER 1 TRINKET | ACC III, EVA [desc.]: a small stamp, crafted out of silver and steel, etched with the impression of a crescent moon. armilla. | [#208037] | TIER 1 TRINKET | LD III, EVA [desc.]: a small astrolabe ring made of silver and gold, configured to be used as a navigational compass through an accidental crafting mishap. costs: x2 shards | [paid.]