Noctua

head back to town

Thread Summary:

return the cursed compass to Giovanna

ph

ID: 88540
LD: 19
CD: 9

(1) Demonic Shard Found

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ID: 188539
LD: 1
CD: 2

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ID: 188538
LD: 2
CD: 12

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ID: 188537
LD: 6
CD: 3

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ID: 188536
LD: 7
CD: 4

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ID: 188535
LD: 4
CD: 7

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ID: 188534
LD: 8
CD: 7

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ID: 188533
LD: 3
CD: 5

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ID: 188532
LD: 10
CD: 7

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ID: 188530
LD: 13
CD: 3

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ID: 188528
LD: 12
CD: 11

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ID: 188527
LD: 16
CD: 3

(1) Material Found

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ID: 188526
LD: 13
CD: 9

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ID: 188525
LD: 20
CD: 2

(1) Material Found

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ID: 188499
LD: 20
CD: 2

(1) Material Found

After a long talk between Noctua and Giovanna, Noctua was walking away from her and the campfire. In her hand was a cursed compass, something that Giovanna said would help her find the materials that she needed to help Giovanna. Apparently, but finding this Demonic Shard, Giovanna would tell the secrets to finding more and more materials. That was something that she could use since she had a hard time finding them without any kind of tricks. 

As she walked the fields, she started to notice a faint fire in the distance. This was slightly concerning to her. If someone was building a campfire, then someone was hurt and couldn't make it back to the safe zone, right? She sighed lightly as she walked over to the source of the fire. She didn't know exactly what she was expecting to come from it, but she knew one thing, if it was a player she was going to escort them back to the safe zone. She'd keep them safe, her luck with actually hitting things has been a million times better lately after all. Perhaps she has the new build to thank for that? Eh, either way, it was time for her to go and make sure that a player was safe, or at least, as safe as a player could be in this game of death.

But, as she got closer to the campfire, she noticed that it wasn't a player at all. That was a good thing, she didn't need to protect an NPC after all, they would just respawn, the joys of not being a player. As Noct got closer to the NPC, she looked up at her. "Ah, so you have found me. Some do, and some don't." Well, this was already an interesting thing to factor in. The NPC wanted to be found and didn't want to be found either. That sounded a lot like how Noct used to be in the past. "I wasn't exactly looking for you ma'am, more just coming out to try and find some materials and things to craft with." This caused the NPC, Giovanna if the name tag was to be read right, to smile. "Then I can help you after all. Please sit and let's talk about how you can find more materials than your heart desires." Was this a trap? It surely felt like a trap. Boy, she hoped that it wasn't a trap right now.

"Okay." She took a look around for a moment, before she took a seat next to Giovanna. Might as well hear what the NPC has to say.

She wanted nothing more than to go back to crafting, but that was hard to do when she couldn't manage to find any materials to do that with. Perhaps she needed to head back out into the fields to find some materials. She didn't feel like really fighting anything, so staying on the first floor would be a good idea. Less things that would be dumb enough to try and attack her after all. She wished that she could get Koga to come with, but she didn't know where or what he was doing. She didn't feel like bothering him either, so going alone was going to be her best bet.

She looked at Athena and smiled warmly to the owl, "Are you going to stay like this today so that I have someone to talk to?" There was an excited hoot that came from the owl as she flew to Noctua's should and perched there. "I'll take that as a yes." She chuckled lightly before rubbing the owl's head. She wanted to be able to help others, and the only true way to do that was to make sure that she could craft nearly everything and anything that was in her arsenal of crafting abilities as an artisan.

But that would only work if she had some materials. So, she locked the shop behind her, and headed out to the fields.

The walk back to the town had taken her quite a while. She hadn't actually noticed just how lost she had gotten when she was walking before. This was probably one of those moments when she should have left a trail, like in the fairy tale Hansel and Gretel. That probably would help just a little to try and get back to town easier and quicker. But at the same time, the longer that this walk took, meant that she could make a better battle plan for talking to Koga. She had the words settled, she just needed to find the perfect time to talk to him. The time when it was going to be right.

But then, was there ever a right time for a conversation like this? She didn't know honestly, but she was going to make the time for a talk like this to happen. So, she decided to do something that she had only done twice before. She sent him a message.

Quote

Koga,
We need to have a talk. Please meet me at the shop. I'll be there in maybe an hour.

She didn't bother to sign her name, she knew that it would be easily seen on whom the message was from. Of course, she still had that worry that the message wasn't going to go through, but hey, she'd deal with that later. If she had to hunt him down, then she would at this point. This conversation that they needed to have, couldn't wait. It needed to be had now. He needed to know the true reason why she pushed him away.

She needed to tell him what she just went through, and then, if he wanted to never see her again, she'd leave his life. She wasn't going to force her company on anyone anymore. She would happily step aside, and let those around her have their happiness, even if it meant sacrificing her own. The funny part about her thinking on all of this was the simple factor that she was completely calm. She felt the strength that she had now from fighting her inner demons. She felt the serenity that came from it as well.

Perhaps she should have done this quest a long time ago, it could have helped her during that time that she had just vanished from everything. But then, those fears that she had to fight might not have been there yet. Perhaps waiting and doing it now had been the best idea, even if she didn't know that she had even accepted a quest in the first place. Just that thought made her laughed a little as she crossed into the safe zone for the town on the sixth floor. She didn't stop walking.

Instead, she went right for the teleporter and waited for it to be her turn. Once she was up, she walked in and was immediately engulfed in the blue light as she said 'Town of  Beginnings'. She knew this floor well, it had been her home for years, and now, it might not be anymore. She would have to wait and see. For now though, she just walked to the shop, hoping that Koga got her message.

Thread Summary:

Bahr
 

ID# 187802 results:

 Battle: 7

 Craft: 4

 Loot: 9

 MOB: 7

US Roll Failed.

This time, instead of being taken back to the desert that she had gotten used to meeting after fighting a demon, she walked into a bright white light. It blinded her, but not in a painful way, just in a way that told her that the trial was done, or so she hoped. She heard the calm waters, and even felt the calmness that was now in her heart and mind. She knew what had happened, she had confronted her fears for real, and won. That was a good thing, right? It had to be since she didn't feel like an absolute mess anymore.

Slowly, she opened her eyes and looked around. She was back at the waterfall. The serenity that came after fighting each fear actually came with her back to now. She felt calmer, and stronger. That was when the message popped up. She had completed a quest Calming the Soul? That was something that she hadn't expected, but what she truly didn't expect was the new skill that she had unlocked. She read over its information, and immediately equipped it to her extra skills.

Seeing as how she was now going to be working with purely healing and that took a lot of energy, having this skill on hand at all times was going to be useful to her. With that, all of her extra skill slots seemed to be filled. That was okay, these were skills that she would use to help others. She would keep them alive and help them defeat this game, even if it meant going to the frontlines and chancing her own death in the process. If fighting her fears taught her anything now, it was that she needed to actually be calm and fear nothing at this point.

She just needed to work on helping others. She looked to the sky to see that it was pitch black, which meant that she had been here all day, dealing with the hell. Oh well, she didn't have any missed messages, so it probably didn't matter anyways. She sighed lightly and whispered, 'Thank you, Cardinal, for once, you helped me.' With that, she stood up and looked around, she needed to find her way back to town, so that she could head back to the shop and sleep. She felt like she needed the sleep right now.

That made her smile a little, that just meant that she was feeling a little better and more like her old self, right? She didn't even need to overthink on that, she knew that she was better. She knew that she was calmer and, honestly, probably going to be easier to be around. If people wanted to stay around, she wasn't going to force them, and she was going to state that to the first person who needed to hear it, Koga. But first, she needed to head back to town for that conversation to even happen, and this time, she wasn't going to just take an 'it's fine' as an answer.

Okay, watching this Koga lose that much health hurt more than she actually thought it would. She didn't think that she even had it in her to attack him, but here she was, stabbing the man, or demon. She didn't actually know anymore, and that hurt even more. She looked at her rapier, there was no blood on it, nothing to signify that he actually hurt Koga. That was some kind of relief, even if she couldn't admit it aloud. "I knew you didn't love me Christelle. If you loved me, you would have done that just now." She spun around and looked at the demon. "Oh my god, will you just stop with this charade! You are not him! You are not my Koga! Just go away will you!"

But no, there was no going away with the demon, just a smile that was as unsettling as the entity's was when it was watching her. This was all just some kind of sick game for Cardinal, and she wasn't going for it anymore. She had to put it out of her mind that she was hurting Koga, because she wasn't. She knew that she wasn't. He was probably safely asleep in his damned house. The house that he didn't want to show her? Or couldn't? Was there someone else there with him? Now this demon had her second guessing everything, and it was causing her to feel like she truly had nothing anymore.

There as that laugh, "See, you have nothing because you are nothing to me Christelle. Give up. You don't need to fight for something that there isn't anything to fight for. You pushed me away. I found someone new, and you know it." She shook her head and closed her eyes. If he had found someone new, then he wouldn't have been so worried about her when she had been kidnapped. He wouldn't have wanted to go and slaughter the entire bandit encampment, would he? No, if he had someone new, he wouldn't have even rushed to that floor to find her. The demon was lying, or her self-conscious was. She couldn't even tell anymore.

"You're overthinking is going to be the death of you." There, that was the cue that she had been waiting for. The moment where he was going to let his guard down, because he thought that she had let her own down. The spector charged her, and she just waited. She knew when she was going to move, and the moment that the spector was within the right range, she moved to the left. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched as the demon cursed before spinning around, only to meet the tip of her rapier instantly being thrust into the demon's form.

"Like I said, you aren't him, but if you are, I'm sorry Masato." Soon, the last of the health drained from the demon, and it burst into a cloud of red pixels. She didn't wait, she walked through the open door.

Funny, it takes staring down her ex-fiance for her to realize that she fears love. She still didn't want to believe it though. If this was her biggest fear, then why was it only showing its face now? Why only after she has met Koga? "Because, you let me in. You trusted me, then you ran away because you were scared. Scared that we moved too fast. Scared that I was going to kill you. Look, I am going to kill you now. You just need to stop moving." Wait... that wasn't something Koga would say. He wouldn't admit to wanting to kill her, would he?

No, no he wouldn't. She wanted to believe that, but so many doubts were crossing her mind now as she stared at this perfect image of him. The perfect image of the person whom she told so much too. The image of the person whom she made promises to. This wasn't him. He had never once raised his katana to try and hurt her. This was just her mind playing some trick on her. This was just Cardinal enhancing fears that she didn't want to admit that she had. She thought about it, the first two fears were something that she had told Koga.

But these last two, they were something that she kept to herself. "And that was how you broke my trust Christelle, you didn't tell me about these fears. You just let them sit and stew in your mind. You let them get the better of you instead of just trusting me, like a true future wife would have!" "SHUT UP!" She was done with this now. Done with the lies. Done acting like he was the only one who had been hurt by all of this. "Just shut up! You don't even know the pain that I went through. You didn't bother to ask! You just attacked and yelled and didn't even fully listen to my side of the damn story! You made me out to be the bad guy. The only person who had done wrong."

"But we both know that that isn't true. You did your damage too. It might not have been right away, but it was there when you left me. Left me when I needed someone. Didn't bother to talk to me. Made me think that I had absolutely nothing anymore! You did the final round of damage! That was why I went into that cave to fight things. That was why I went bandit hunting. You are the reason that I was kidnapped, because you broke that promise! You promised to always be there, and you weren't. You were gone. I had nothing!"

She hadn't even noticed that the demon had started to charge for her, trying to use her outburst as a distraction to keep her from being able to dodge him. But she did, at the last second she moved out of the way, but she had her rapier in her hand now, and it was glowing purple. She didn't hesitate as she thrust the rapier into the demon over and over. He didn't die right away, no, but he did lose a large chunk of his health.

Breaking his heart? Yeah, she had done that, but she also broke her own. He broke her heart. But, that wasn't what mattered, what ever mattered. She tried to tell him before that not only was he hurt in that entire thing, but he didn't listen. He just yelled and yelled at her. Then when he found her collapsed in the wild from the lack of sleep, she couldn't even tell then if he actually cared. He had left her alone, didn't even both to stay. He just... vanished as she slept in the inn. The cave brought forth lies that she thought were truths, or perhaps that was just her fear coming out in that cave.

Either way, she had been hurt just as much as him, and he didn't seem to give any cares until he found out that she had been kidnapped. That should be some kind of happiness, right? No, not it wasn't, not when she was staring this spector down who was trying to kill her. Trying to maim her. Trying to tear her heart out and crush it. It was working. She was faltering. "I'm not going to fight you. If I have to live with this fear, then so be it, but I can't fight you." Then came a laugh from the demon. A laugh that made her shiver, and hurt more.

"Oh my dear poor owl. You are going to fight me, or you're going to lose this part of you. You don't want that, do you? Oh wait, you've already lost me, haven't you. You threw me aside like I was some old toy that didn't hold interest anymore. Face it, either you're going to fight me and win, keeping this love that you threw away, or you're going to lose, and lose it." Is... is that how this actually worked? Was this demon not able to kill her? Would it really just beat her, and then she'd lose this part of herself? She didn't want to believe that, she couldn't. This was just another trick. Another thing to try and make her mess something up.

"No. I'm not going to fight you, and I'm not going to lose you either. Not again." Another laugh, something that seemed to hurt just as much as his words before. "If you don't fight me, then you will lose me, forever, and like before, it'll be all your fault." That was when he was on the move. Rushing for her once more, but still using Koga's movements. She didn't bother to move right away, she had time. She was faster with this new gear. She would be able to move. She would be able to dodge. Even as she thought this, she quietly side stepped away from him, making his attack go wide once more.

She didn't think that she could do this. She didn't think that she had the strength for this trial after all. All the fighting before, and she couldn't bring herself to face her biggest fear, love.