Skeleton

Day 11:

Skeletons were attacking. Skeleton archers on skeleton horses. They just give Skeletons a bad name, running around killing people like that. Skeleton himself, the one on the side of the living, and of the people, hoped that no one would simply see his name and begin swinging at him. He had hoped the actual flesh he has over his bones would be more than enough of an indication that he was here to help.

Skeleton took a quick look around, unable to find any citizens in his immediate area he chose to move to a nearby portal that had begun to open up. The HUD updated with information telling Skeleton that he needed 3 more people. Wait what, I have to hold hands in a circle?

Skeleton had almost decided to turn away, but he was already there, he may as well push through and complete the objective instead of being a coward.

"Hey, is there anyone free to help close this thing?"

Objective: Close Portals

Group: Skeleton

Skeleton attempted to roll over on to his back now that the pile seemed to be breaking apart. From what he understood, he had tripped over Ceres. Who was having a dirt nap. This marks the second time today he's fallen flat on his face. He picked his face out of the dirt, rubbing most of the earth off so he could see and speak without having the earthy flavours invading his orifices.

"I swear I am up to no skulduggery. I'm just trying to help but here I am being beaten up by the ground."

Skeleton's attempt to pick himself up brought him to finding that his back had a new resident. The silver hair of the girl who had most recently joined the pile brought memories to surface that hadn't had very much time to sink. His stomach tightened up in self defence, and his voice betrayed his demeanor as it rose in pitch.

"D-DIVEBOMB GIRL?"

Healing Citizens: Stockpiling Potions

Current Stockpile: 1

Skeleton heard a call from the outside of the mob. Rubble had been moved and trapped citizens were free, but they needed healing. Skeleton had begun to weave between the mob to get through to the newly freed citizens, having gotten elbowed int he face a few times on the way through. As he approached he pulled out the potion from his pocket that had miraculously survived existence with Skeleton the last few minutes and uncapped it. He unceremoniously dumped the contents of the potion on to the citizen.

Skeleton's brain finally caught up to his actions. That's not how it was supposed to go, was it? But thankfully it had counted.

(1 Available Citizen left according to Mari's post. 4/10 Citizens Healed)

As Skeleton began darting off to the mob again his foot once again is caught by something beneath him. Before he could reach out to catch something he was dragged downwards by the sheer force of gravity. On the way down he caught a glimpse of soot and red, and could almost hear the sound of snoring in slow motion. His mind almost came to a full stop but then he remembered.

"Cer-?!"

Thud.

Healing Citizens: Stockpiling Potions

Current Stockpile: 1

Pulling his face out of the dirt, Skeleton scrambled to his feet groggily gaining his bearings. He had looked around stick searching for apothecaries but the fall had wiped his memory of who, what, or where apothecaries are or were. Holding his hands to his head, he noticed a distinct lack of burning in the area.

"The fires are out? Nice!"

Taking another few steps, Skeleton stumble, reaching out to grab on to nearby piles of rubble, almost slipping back down in the progress. He took a second to find a safe seating to regroup. His head was spinning and to top it all off there were just too many people. 

Having caught his breath and managed to stop the woozy feeling he caught from a surprise greeting with the ground, he began to make his way back to the crowd, trying to keep an eye out for apothecaries. The only thing resounding in Skeleton's mind would be that they held trays of potions.

Healing Citizens: Stockpiling Potions

Current Stockpile: 1

Skeleton's efforts were immediately put on hold, the people requiring the healing potion he picked up were still stuck underneath the rubble. The best course of action he could do was to continue seeking out apothecaries who were carrying trays of potions to distribute them manually. The more points of distribution the easier things would be for the relief efforts.

As Skeleton moved through the mob of rushing citizens he began to lose his sense of direction. He thought he had caught sight of another apothecary but when he reached out to the figure, his hand landed flat on a curtain caught in rubble. With a brief moment of panic he spun on his heel to begin moving once more only to catch his step with his own leg, stumbling forward, arms out waving. For a moment he caught his balance, but only horizontally. He still fell forward, his face cushioning the fall.

He had hoped there weren't any onlookers.

Objective: Healing Citizens

Too many people.

Diving over a patch of rubble, Skeleton narrowly avoided hitting someone as he hit the ground, rolled, and pushed off the ground into a sprint. He needed to find an apothecary as his own potions would be pathetic in comparison. The town was set to be attacked in less than 3 days and Skeleton had already missed too much of the aid process before even getting here. He was able to choose from saving the royal family, rebuilding the walls, putting out fires and such. Protecting the wealthy in a castle was concerning to him, the more unfortunate were. However....

Too many people.

Skeleton found it difficult searching through the constant deluge of bodies fleeing for their life. The corner of his eye, he noticed someone carrying a tray of potions. He sped past, lifting one out as he moved to find someone who may need it.

"Yeah, plenty of bone jokes, thankfully some are quite humerus." Skeleton grinned.

"Evasion's okay, at least for now. The looting is a good bonus though, it might help sway the rng in this game just enough so I actually get something nice."

Skeleton watched as Ceres identified the item. He tilted to the side as if it were making his vision more accurate, or that he would find some kind of secret in the identification. Without much fanfare, the arm brace shows its true colours. As ceres quickly wrapped the arm brace, Skeleton double checked his balance to ensure that the transaction hadn't failed. The last thing he wanted was to be in trouble for not paying appropriately. Thankfully it had indeed gone through successfully. 

"Thank you very much, Ceres. There's nothing else I can think of at the moment, but I'll probably be keeping an eye on your materials in the future." Skeleton replied with a smile.

"Good bye for now." he waved as he left the store.

The cheeriness of the store resident took Skeleton by surprise. He hadn't been in contact with very many people who could get anywhere near that cheery in the last... ever. Regardless he had managed to get the right place as far as he knew so he felt himself relax a little.

"Hello, Ceres. My name is Skeleton." he bowed without thinking.

"I'd like to take the 15 materials you have remaining, please." Pulling out the unidentified armour, Skeleton approached the desk and gently placed it down, trying to not bump any other items on display. "IT's a T1 piece, I got it from floor 2 in the Long Live the Queen field boss quest. If possible, I'd like light armour, please."

Skeleton's eyes looked around to see if he could find a price list, which he thankfully caught. T1 Materials are 50 col each and T1 Identifications were 350 Col.

"So 750 col for the materials, and 350 for the identification, should be 1100 altogether, right?"

Day 10:

Skeleton had been having a tough time crafting lately. The materials simply don't seem to be reacting to the methods appropriately whatsoever. Insisting on sticking to crafting another pheremone salve, he once again began taking out the apparatus he required to craft. The result of his practice seemed to make retrieval of materials from failed crafts more plausible than before now that he knew the signs of impending failure.

Despite his endeavours Skeleton was unable to craft another pheromone salve. Instead he had crafted an abundance of rather basic items which could be used as healing items or antidotes when fixed with the appropriate finishing garnish so to speak. He had stocked them to his inventory for finishing later as he had no idea what would even be required. It didn't seem like low level healing items or antidotes were currently in high demand at the moment.

Letting out a sigh, Skeleton began to clean up his workstation.

Skeleton approached the store, peering in through the window to see if there was anyone at the desk. He had been given the store name and location by a stranger on the streets and had doubted the info. He hoped that the info was good as he was low on supplies and hadn't the patience to go scuffling through grassy fields, and deadly plains again. Although to be fair, Randal would have a ball at the idea...

Shaking his head, he decided to pretend like he knew what he was doing and opened the entrance door, walking in with his back straightened and head held... kinda high. Didn't want to seem too pretentious now would we?

"Excuse me? I'm looking for..." Skeleton pulled out the note he was given, "The Shops Secret Material Order?".

Skeleton folded the paper neatly once more and placed it back into his pocket. Somehow this action brought back his second matter to attend to.

"Oh, I also have a piece of rare unidentified armour I'd like to have identified, please."

Day 9:

Skeleton carried in a new batch of materials for his work through the store entrance, quickly making his way to the back room. Splaying the materials along the work bench, he examined each of them to ensure they'd not been damaged, if that was even possible. Thankfully none had sustained injury in any way. Pulling out apparatus one after the other through sheer muscle memory at this stage, Skeleton began to prepare his work place for the evening. His aim was to create another salve of Pheremones.

Of course like every other day, Skeleton had failed to replicate the salve as he had done before. Was it the apparatus? Who knew? Was it Skeleton himself? Probably. No one knew the true answer to this situation, but perhaps the system knew, and perhaps the system simply laughed at his continued efforts, taking joy in the fact he's unable to follow a step by step instruction or replication of his very own work.

On 12/26/2019 at 6:53 AM, Randal said:

“How about this? I need the materials more for supplying my shop, and you need the equipment, I mean you can choose to sell it for more to buy more equipment or identify it to use for yourself and then we can split the Col amongst ourselves evenly.”

Skeleton pulled up a loot interface to tally up what they got and split it among the two of them.

"1020 col, 6 T1 Materials, a rare trinket and rare armour that need identified." Skeleton tallied.

The field around Skeleton and Randal seemed to grow rather quiet despite all the buzz from earlier. This granted a welcomed respite for Skeleton's ears. Quickly parting the col to 510 each, the materials to 3 each, and one rare item, with Skeleton taking the armour and Randal taking the trinket, the loot split evenly. Randal himself had managed to search for extra materials in his own time, to give himself a rather nice haul.

Packing up and making their way home, Skeleton began to think about making the trip to find the gypsy, it was about time Skeleton geared up a little and made some progress on his stats. He'd been level 1 for two years after all and it was only recently he broke past that. Even with this growth he still felt under powered compared to others. Randal was easily out damaging him by multiple times.

Thread Summary:

57 minutes ago, Randal said:

“Maybe we should just take what we need, we should split the Col evenly, then I’ll take the materials and you can take the equipment, though I can recommend that you custom make what you want in the shops cause you can’t choose what enhancements the equipment would have.”

"Hmm... It may be best to commission the stuff straight up then... I can use the gear as filler for now. Best to have something that nothing at all. How much col did the other wasp drop?" Skeleton asked.

Skeleton had now begun to think about the need to start taking care of his equipment and what he used. He'd be in battles far more often now as compared to before, so he'd best be prepared. Based on how he fights, he wouldn't be the kind to take a shield with him, he'd be more agile and nimble, so perhaps something to grant him defence with unrestricted movement. Hopefully he'd be able to gain something of the sort with the gear from these wasps, or from commissioned gear.

57 minutes ago, Randal said:

“Wasn’t that kind of fun though?”

Randal's voice snapped Skeleton out of his thoughts.

"Oh yeah, I truly enjoyed the portion where I was impaled." Skeleton remarked with an obvious tinge of sarcasm.

"They were rather tough though. They'd have skewered me if I was alone."

Skeleton watched as Randal unleashed the last of his energy on a flurry of kicks to strike the wasp lodged in his chest. The strikes sent Skeleton backwards, freeing the wasp with barely enough HP to withstand a hit. Skeleton's hand clamped down on the dagger as he attempted to pry himself into a forced stance to begin his sword art. His right foot slid into place to keep him from falling, and the sword art kicked in to action.

As the wasp neared Randal, it had exploded into light, leaving Skeleton to be flung forward with the continuing momentum, barreling into the grass face first behind Randal.

"I think I got it." muffled Skeleton with his face being pulled from the dirt.

The wasp had dropped (2) T1 Materials, 540 Col, and a Rare Trinket which contains two enhancements. Skeleton made his way back to Randal and began to pick the loot up.

"Alright then, how do you want to divide the loot?"

Randal's snort was evidence enough that his pun hit the mark. Unfortunately, the wasps weren't having such a grand time as Randal dealt a lethal blow directly to the most pestering of the wasps. The wasp dubbed Wind Wasp number 2. It'd been the one to continuously strike Randal in the back. The poor fella didn't see the strike coming, and now wouldn't see any more. Or rather that's what Skeleton would think if the NPCs did indeed have any sentience.

Quote

“You planning to get a house?” 

"A house would be nice, but I'm nowhere near rich enough." he replied.

The other, surviving wasp seemed to simply lose interest in combating Randal as it turned and made tracks toward Skeleton.

"What the- Are you still mad about earlier?" he asked.

The wasp buzzed straight for Skeleton, stinger first. Skeleton tried to rais his dagger, pointed directly back towards the Wasp, preparing to use Fad Edge. The wasp quickly drove it's stinger into Skeleton's stomach before he realised it was close.

Time seemed to pause as the stinger remained in Skeleton's abdomen. Skeleton stared into the wasp's eyes, dagger still ready to intercept the wasp that had already impaled him. Skeleton took a deep breathe in. Held it. And finally released it. Staring with a deadpanned expression at the bug, Skeleton spoke up.

"Could you uh... Get this for me...?"

1 hour ago, Randal said:

“Do you think these are the royal guards?”

Randal's outlook was an entertaining contrast to the rather deadly situation at hand. Cracking jokes was thankfully one of Skeleton's greatest crutches to cope with stress, and right now would be a rather stressful situation to any normal person. Skeleton was indeed just that. A normal person.

"Perhaps they were strong beelievers in honouring their queen?" Skeleton quipped.

Moving in a serpentine motion, Skeleton brought his dagger back to his side, ready to once again prepare Fad Edge.

The attack struck the air around the wasp, missing just a few centimeters off target. The wasps continued on with their day, as if Skeleton was not present, still striking towards Randal with full effort. The first wasp seemed to be in a predicament where Randal was more difficult to pin down than a fly with a hula hoop, but the second seemed to strike him as he dodges each time.

Skeleton could only wince as Randal was struck.

Skeleton saw Randal zip by with sudden urgency. Skeleton's eyes followed him until he saw dead ahead the two wasps making a bee line towards them. Skeleton almost stopped and chuckled to himself before realising he needs to follow up on Randal's attacks. Slinging the dagger out of his sheathe and back to his hand, nearing the ready position for his attack.

Skeleton's dagger moved smoothly into the wasp's abdomen, temporarily holding it aloft with the momentum of his strikes. The wasp seemed to his out of anger but kept it's focus on Randal more than anything. Possibly due to the sheer damage he had dealt on an opening blow. The wasps continued, ignoring Skeleton's interruption, their wings fluttering violently.

The wasps continued at an almost leisurely pace, stabbing at Randal with their stingers,. Randal had managed to nimbly slip out of the way, but unfortunately, directly into the second stinger.

Wasp 1: 84:160

Skeleton Hate: 1

Randal: 270/320

Randal's follow up was everything Skeleton had hoped for. Well, it wasn't his initial hope, but a hope nonetheless that he was happy to have at the time. Skeleton had heard the buzzing of the wings, and saw the tip of the stinger approaching him at what he could only describe as an uncomfortable speed.

Randal's grapple, reversal, and consequential beat down put the buzzing to a swift stop. The peace would have been wonderful if there weren't Wind Wasps all around the field. Skeleton took what he could get with the situation. Which thankfully did include a potion named "The Matriarch's Stinger". Looking at it, Skeleton figured with enough resources he could easily make a potion that could outperform it, but knew well to accept the loot as it came.

"Thanks for the follow up. I didn't expect that to work." Skeleton admitted.

Skeleton reached out a clenched fist towards Randal.

ID# 132705

LD: 1

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“Do you think you can get it down?”

Skeleton was still finding the appropriate footing after barely diving out of the way of the Queen Wasp. The only thing that he could think of to bring the bug down low enough was to simply bait it's attack out, and aim for the wings.

"Uh, let me give this a try." he replied as he prepared his dagger.

Skeleton darted forward towards the boulder he was sitting on moments ago. With a quick hop on to the rock, he let gravity pull him down to a crouch so he could vault off and in to the air. As much as Skeleton thought he looked cool, he was merely a lanky dude flailing through the wind, somehow clinging to his dagger. The Wasp Queen seemed to want to take advantage of the new airborne snack, however Skeleton thankfully managed to attack once more with Fad Edge as the queen passed by.

Wasp: 18/50

Skeleton Hate: 2

Skeleton Energy: 12

On 12/24/2019 at 3:12 PM, Randal said:

“ yea, come on, here’s the information i got so far, and I’m not too worried about the whole situation, actually kinda cocky right now.”

Randal did seem to be rather confident in the ability to slay this Wasp Queen. So much that Skeleton was almost tempted to stand back and watch, but he needed to learn to survive so that he hadn't needed to fully rely on others. Time to learn to pull his own weight, so to speak. It didn't take long for Randal to do the very Randal thing he does. Which is rapidly spin on his heels and march onward towards his goal. Being prepared for the event, Skeleton thankfully only needed to move alongside Randal towards the area for the Queen Wasp.

Skeleton was skimming through his inventory, assuring himself of what he had in stock. Thankfully in the trip to the field, he'd not dropped anything, not that he thought he could.

As Randal was searching around for the Queen Wasp, Skeleton was looking around the open field. It was easy to see the Wind Wasps which were killed to summon her, but there were no other bee-like creatures that looked any differently. That was until a rather subtle buzzing sound began to manifest. It grew louder, but Skeleton couldn't locate the source, as it sounded as if it were already beside him. Buzzing.

Skeleton had looked upwards. the Queen Wasp was making a dash downwards, making it's entrance upon them. Skeleton quickly attempted to reach for his dagger.

A smooth draw from the hilt, directly into the starting position for Fad Edge, Skeleton's body began to move on it's own, thanks to the system's guide. 4 quick slashes among the Queen's abdomen, Skeleton was sure he'd drawn her ire.

Wasp Queen: 34/50 HP

Skeleton's Hate: 1

"There's a field boss! A field boss! We need someone to slay it! It's killing adventurer after adventurer!"

Skeleton was standing off to the side, watching the NPC wave a flyer. The NPC was wild, trying to catch people's attention, but it seemed that very few cared about a second floor field boss. Well, that's what Skeleton was thinking until he saw Randal making a dash towards the information broker and for a short period of time, the silence washed over the town square. The sight of Randal was odd. Immediately after speaking to the broker, he withdrew a meal from his inventory and began devouring the contents of the plate before Skeleton could even make out what it was.

Skeleton decided he'd bite the bait and see what his busy ol' pal was up to.

"Oi, Randal." Skeleton voiced as he approached with a wave.

"You taking on the field boss? If so, mind if I tag along?"

The enigma that was Basuke had broken english, but it was enough to be understandable. The only thing that caught him off guard was Basuke pointing at him and calling him a familiar. Or that's how Skeleton understood it. It was either that or it was simply Basuke felt the same as Skeleton in finding a familiar but Skeleton's initial instinct was his first understanding.

Skeleton froze for a second, looking between @Basuke and @Randal. Am I... The Pet Familiar here...?

It seemed like more than a few seconds had passed but Skeleton finally stopped with his mental blue screen and rebooted whatever dumb OS his brain ran on to begin getting through the situation without seeming like a puppy.

"In that case, I'll go look for a familiar then. I've got the Pheremone Salve that I managed to craft the other day. I can use that. If either of you want to come along for the ride, feel free. I'll help you in return after." Skeleton reasoned while giving a hopefully not out of character thumbs up.

Basuke's hand shake went about as well as hand shakes could go. Or that's what Skeleton thought. No one missed grabbing the other's hand. It wasn't too long. There was no over enthusiastic shaking. And no one accidentally knocked a drink out of his hand. Skeleton felt a little more at ease with the situation, despite Basuke's sharp grin. By now the grin was being tabbed as his kind of style.

"Moving fast? I feel like I'm moving slow, but to be fair I heard you spent two years fighting a rock..." Skeleton mused with a slight smirk that slowly became distracted by the lady who was passing out hot chocolate.

Skeleton was in the process of claiming a cup of Sharp Hot Cocoa from the lady passing them out. It was warm, and a nice contrast to the cold in the area. Skeleton wished he had brought more adequate clothing for weather such as this. Then again he did spend all his time on the sunny first floor until recently.

"Training together? Have you got something in mind? I know I keep delaying it but I was thinking of starting my familiar search soon since I've done all my prep work for it." Skeleton reasoned.

@Randal @Basuke

The sight of An gave Skeleton an almost overwhelming need of a helmet. He resisted and attempted to put on what he thought was a friendly face. the divebomb incident was behind him, he had hoped, and so he opted to move back into the shadows behind Randal. Alas he was brought back into the open by Randal.

53 minutes ago, Randal said:

“ @Andromeda and @Skeleton, please meet my friend @Basuke, he’s the only one I know who has crazy amounts of patience.”

He was being introduced to a guy in what looked like a tracksuit and cap.Skeleton simply couldn't understand the guys fashion, but a friend of Randal's a friend of his, and fashion's never been an indicator to Skeleton about a person's personality. He didn't care for fashion much, but that was probably evident by the fact he was wearing the same equipment for the last two years.

Skeleton reached out a hand to Basuke, hoping that a handshake was more universal than words that might not be understood.