Xin

Xin leaned back to give Snow a little more room to talk to Basuke. "On the fourth floor, huh? I'll be sure to visit sometime when I get the chance! It already looks delicious enough; I'm sure it'd taste that much better straight from the source." Xin took a moment to think about what she'd said. "Game mechanics aside."

She turned her head toward Basuke. "I'll make sure to keep an eye out too!" Xin said as she opened her menu and accepted Basuke's friend request. "They better have frappes. Otherwise, why even bother!" She raised her arms up into the air, her hands condensing into fists as if asking for the gods to smite that Starbucks imposter should they not be accurate enough to the real-life counterpart. "Oh, and I guess while we're at it," Xin sent Snow a request as well, "There we go."

Xin clasped her hands as owner came out with all of their orders. "Thank you very much!" She said with glee. Xin sent a gentle breeze over the top of her tea and took a sip. "Mmm, delicious."

@Snow @Basuke

Xin let out a sigh and with it went any frustrations and tensions that she'd been feeling although it was not as serious as she played it up to be. "Let's go, guys. Let's finish this!" She readied her sword. The boars came at her a pair at a time, the first of which burst into flames as soon as they touched her. The next pair featured the boar that was not one shot away from a fiery death, and it was that boar that prompted her to drink her potion in the first place.

The last two boars charged at her but Xin noticed that the weaker boar was slightly off angle, and with their terrible turning, it would be difficult to correct while it was charging. "Well, this is great." She hit them with a [Blast] and they too were done for. A loot window popped up on her screen:

Acquired

Col x 1760

T1 Materials x 10

Unidentified Perfect Trinket x 2

Unidentified Perfect Weapon x 1

Unidentified Perfect Consumable x 1

Unidentified Rare Trinket x 1

"One pop, two pops, three pops...," Xin waited for a fourth pop that never came. She slammed her puzzle book shut and shot up to her feet, annoyed that her decision had bit her in the butt immediately. "If you want me to drink the damn thing then fine, I will!" Xin went into her menu and pulled out the damage potion without any hesitation. She chugged the bottle in one go and smashed it into the ground; the bottle shattered and disintegrated in the blink of an eye.

"Are you happy now?" Xin shouted at the sky; if there was anyone nearby, they'd surely think she was insane. She eyed the boar who had missed and pointed her sword at it. "And you: how could you miss when you have an ACC buff?" The boar simply stared at her as she continued to speak to things that obviously wouldn't respond back to her.

[Clue 3: Yet another gimme. And if we pair it with Clue 1, we can mark off Meijer for Hoekmolen. Clue 4: Pretty much another gimme. Clue 5: Meijer can't be the oldest which leaves 1706 for them. And Visser can't be 1729 which puts them at 1683. With that, the entire families x years matrix is knocked out!]

Xin was slowing working her way through the puzzle when she heard another four POOF!'s; things seemed to be going perfectly. Once her energy bar was back to max, she stood up to prepare [Blast]-- but she realized that she'd forgotten her +1 DMG sword. She placed a hand on her face and sighed. "I'm not wasting my damage potion of this," Xin mumbled to herself as she opened up her menu and stared at it. She was tempted to use it, but then she remembered why he hadn't in the first place: she could only hit three boars at a time. She plopped herself back on the ground.
 

Xin rounded up a ground of bullseye boars which was more of a struggle than she expected. The boars had a lot of straight-line speed but could barely turn making them difficult to dodge due to their speed but easy to hit due to their predictability, and it were these traits that sent them flying all over the place. Eventually she was able to get them together and she planted herself down. The boars tickled her all the same so they weren't a bother to her. This time, thanks to their ACC boost, they all triggered her immolation.

She got out her puzzle book again and flipped open to her bookmark.

[Alright. First, the surface-level clues. Clue 1: the 1729 house, Meijer family, Van den Berg family, and Doesmolen house are all separate. Clue 2: A gimme, but we can also mark off 1729 for the Zemelmolen house thanks to clue 1.]

Xin heard a satisfying pop and turned around to find that the rabbit was no longer there. A window popped up on her interface:

Acquired

Col x 600

T1 Material x 1

Unidentified Perfect Armor/Shield x1

Unidentified Perfect Weapon x2

She stood up, used her pencil as a bookmark, and stashed her puzzle book for the time being. The opened her inventory and examined her haul. "Not bad, not bad at all!" Xin said. She looked around and saw that she'd eaten up all the mobs in her area. "Well, I better go look for some more, preferably with better accuracy." She placed a hand on her chin. "And I think I know just where to go." She clasped her hands together and left the area.

Xin soon came upon a nearby area known as the Greedy Garden which was home to Bullseye Boars, mobs with increased accuracy in exchange for their evasion. "This should be a much better farming spot!"

Nothing in particular seemed to be happened with the bunny. No POOF!, no BOOM!, no BAM!. The damn things wasn't triggering the immolation, or maybe it doing it on purpose. She didn't want to think about it to much so she returned to her puzzle.

[Alright, now to try to read between the lines. Dr. Garza: 250. L. dyson: 500. Obviously can't be together. And...]

Xin immediately got stuck. She scratched her head with the eraser-end of the pencil. She felt like she was missing something obvious.

[This is literally supposed to be the easiest puzzle in this damn book. HOW AM I STUCK ON IT?]

She sighed loudly, wondering if any of the intelligence that she thought she had was a lie.

[Alright, maybe if I assign the 750 to B. mangeris and work my way from there...and nope. Ugh!]

Xin erased all her marking and restarted again, this time taking the 1000 fork. This time, everything aligned perfectly. She smiled, satisfied with her small accomplishment.

Boom! Bam!

Two more rabbits triggered Xin's immolation and they too went out in a cloud of smoke. "And now there was one," she said, a crooked smile appearing on her face. She really want to start poking at it with her sword, but it was best to be patient and let the immolation do its work. "C'mon," she poked at it with a finger, "Join your buddies little guy."

She turned her back to the rabbit so she didn't have to deal with it and she resumed looking at the puzzle book. She started with easiest one available.

Credit: Puzzle Baron's Logic Puzzles

[Alright, so we're matching up doctors, genes, and bacteria. Clue 1: That's a gimme. Clue 2: The 750 and Dr. Ingram aren't the same. Clue 3: E. carolinus can't be the largest and Dr. Ortiz can't be the lowest. Clue 4: Another gimme. Clue 5: Dr. Acosta can't be the highest and B. mangeris can't be the lowest.]

When all was surface clues were taken care of, this is what she had:

Three rapid rabbits triggered her immolation again and finally one of them went down, poofing up into nothing more than a cloud of smoke. A window popped up on her interface:

Acquired:

Col x 520

T1 Materials x 5

Perfect Consumable x 1

"Damn, that's a pretty nice haul for just one of 'em. I'll be getting over 2k for each pull and some unidentified items to boot. Now just to do this ten or twenty more times." Xin glanced at her health. "Damage isn't too bad either. Probably won't have to sit around regening my health for too long."

Xin turned her attention back to the rabbits and took note of their health bars as well. They were well within one shot range of immolation. She debated on whether or not it would be worth it to try to get a swing in just in case the rabbits started missing.
 

The rabbits starting picking at Xin armor with their teeth, eventually proc'ing her immolation and sending fireballs into three of their tiny faces. "C'mon, attack faster. I need your cash. I need your loot. This is a robbery." She sat silently for a second before suddenly shouting out, "Oh my goodness! I forgot to buy something with thorns! AH!". All the rabbits jumped back for a moment. They quickly realized that Xin wasn't doing much besides being weird so they returned to their gnawing.

"This could have been so much faster, ugh!" Xin complained even though she had literally just started her farming. She sighed. "Oh well. I can't leave now since I have all these buffs on me. And...I wouldn't be able to buy anything else anyway." She pulled out a pencil and a small booklet titled Logic Riddles! and split it open. "Hopefully my brain can handle these puzzle."

Xin looked over the vast array of flowers before her, mulling over which one to choose. Did she want something bold, something vibrant? Or perhaps something more melancholic that fit her current mood. Or something that looked nice but otherwise didn't stand out too much. She eventually settled on a deep blue gentian. Xin snapped it at the base and it immediately respawned.

Acquired

Blue Gentian x 1

[Now I know why it was so easy to get permission for this.]

She stood up and plopped herself down on one of the benches for a minute. Xin figured that if she really wanted to, she could take as many flowers as she'd like, but she decided to stick with what she was told. "If this world is going to try to RP check me, I might as well oblige. No matter how terrible it may be." Xin made her way back to Delilah.

roll

Xin: 20/20 HP | 1/2 (+1) EN | 4 DMG | 0 ACC | 0 MIT | 3 LD

• Failed Attack vs Boulder

Boulder: 37/50 HP | -2 EVA

Xin: 20/20 HP | 0/2 (-1) EN | 4 DMG | 0 ACC | 0 MIT | 3 LD

Xin almost felt bad as she sat still in the grass getting poked by these rabbits which were immediately hit with a fire attack thanks to her immolation potion. This was certainly going to be boring, likely to be almost as bad as punching down the damn boulder from floor two. Still, she needed the cash so if this is what she had to do then she'd put up with it for as long as she could.

Xin started poking at the rabbits with her finger. Someone took it in strip, accepting the constant finger jabs as a natural part of life while the others quickly got annoying and started dodging and hopping about whenever she targeted them. "Hey, take it like a man...or something else that doesn't give a damn! Get back here and start attacking me!" The rabbits, of course, refused to listen to her. Xin continued to order them around despite her clear lack of results

The rabbits were tickling with their attacks thanks to Xin's mitigation armor. Heck, it seemed like that some of their hits were even registering considering that two of them didn't do any damage at all despite the fact that she was just sitting still letting them do it, and that was after removing all her evasion enhancing equips. After a few moments, she finally decided to attack. "Alright, right. Enough's enough, little ones." Xin made sure that they were as huddled together as possible lest she miss an attack on targets that weren't even moving.

"Here goes nothing!" Xin started charging up [Blast] and an intense glow engulfed her sword. She took a deep breath and let it rip, her sword tearing through three of the rabbits.

"Well that was fun. Suck that I couldn't get all four. Now all that's left to do is sit around getting tickled by rabbits and recovering my energy."

Rolls shifted from opening post to this post because I'm big dumb

Items Received!

Xin found herself in the garden of the first floor and pretty calm. Well, as calm as a place could be with people farming small woodland creatures. There were several flower plots littered around the area, each unique, and she took the time to stop by each one and gave each of them a thorough examination.

[Not bad.]

When Xin was doing exploring the garden, she looked around for a location that was nice and empty, eventually securing a spot slightly tucked into the nearby woods. She opened her menu and used a bunch of consumables in quick succession, one of which was supplied by Firm Anima in exchange for a small cut of the profits.

"Thanks Firm Anima for the sweet deal! It'll make this grind a lot more bearable!"

She found a nice, empty location and did a few stretches before getting to work. She walked around and captured the aggro of a bunch of angry rabbits.

[Hmm, where does this path lead?]

Xin made her way up a hill nearby Firm Anima's guild hall and happened upon Fox's shack.

[What do we have here?]

She entered it and the interior was what the exterior suggested: not much going on. Not that that was a bad thing; not everyone could have an extravagant shop like Snow and people had different tastes. Xin walked up to the counter where Fox was standing and looked around at the wares she had for sale. "Hey, how's it going? Can I get...that immo pot?" Xin pointed to the item. "Please and thank you!"

Floor 4 was a beautiful place--Xin loved the snow--but she wished that Snowfrost was at least a little more developed. The snow crunched satisfyingly with each passing step and quieted as she entered Snow's Rotating Sushi Bar.

Xin was met with a blanket of warmth. Snow's bar had a healthy amount of decor throughout. Xin made sure to examine each and ever illustration as she walked toward the bar. She plopped herself down at the counter right in front of Snow. Xin leaned in toward Snow. "This place looks amazing!" She kept her voice down, not wanting to repeat what she'd done at the cafe.

A fortune cookie started to pass by on the conveyor belt. "Ooo, that looks good! And so does that, and that, and th..." Along with the fortune cookie, she ended getting a variety of normal pieces of sushi and made sure to enjoy every single one of them. "These are delicious!"

Xin's arms slithered back to her sides.

She scratched her head. "Yeah, that may have been my fault. Hopefully I didn't ruin the atmosphere!" she chuckled in response to Snow. "As for me, I was just out for a stroll. The weather's beautiful after all," she entering a thinking pose, "though I guess the weather's kinda always like that on this floor."

Xin's ears again perked up, this time at the utterance of 'Starbucks'. She turned toward Basuke and laid her forearms on the counter. "Someone made a Starbucks in here? I can't believe I haven't seen it yet! Though now that I think about it, I'm surprised I haven't seen more copies and homages to stuff. I guess people have enough on their plate. Can't blame 'em." It dawned on her that she might be messing with the atmosphere again. "Anyway! If you find it before me, let me know; I'd like to check the place out!"

Keeping her distance from other players and mobs, Xin elongated her route to the Town of Flora but she didn't mind; she kept herself busy singing to herself. From looking at a distance, Xin might've believed that the town was abandoned with the amount of overgrowth laying atop the it, but as she approached the town's gates, there was a certain amount of order to it all.

Elves milled about the streets with no care in the world, and for each one that Xin passed by, she was given a smile which she gladly returned. Her hand glided across the vine-laden walls and she occasionally stopped to smell a flower. Eventually, she came across a small plaza at the center of which was a bed of assorted flowers and a few benches. She knelt along the edge and glazed over them. "Can I pick one of these?" Xin asked a passing local who gave her the go ahead.

"I know that this is just a game--well, more than just a game now with what's going on--but how deep does mob intelligence run? Could it have been set up purposely to guilt her into feeling this way, or were mobs truly sentient beings in this world?" Xin spoke to herself as she watched the clouds slowly roll by. "In the end, does it even matter?" She laid in the grass for a long while.

Eventually, she had enough of sitting around and doing nothing. Xin stood back up. She wiped herself down, knocking away any loose vegetation, dirt, and bugs that managed to stick to her clothing. She opened the map from her menu and looked around for a point of interest, ultimately deciding on the Town of Flora. "This place sounds nice enough. I wonder how true it is to its name." She closed up her menu and started making her way to the town.

After a few minutes, the clanging once again ceased and Griswold returned to the front-end of the store. He placed a leather coat atop the counter which was odd considering all the clanging that she'd just heard. "Here you are, missy. An armor piece for your troubles."

Xin reached out a hand toward her reward. It disintegrated and a popup appeared on her screen saying that she'd obtained the item. "Thanks. Is there anything else you need me to do?"

"No, you're all set! Though if you want me to make you some more armor pieces, feel free to stop by again!"

"Will do!" Xin smiled and left the shop and once again she found herself alone on the village streets. Xin made her way to the village gate, looked around, and plopped herself flat on a nice, comfy patch of grass. She looked up into the sky and pondered what she should do next.

"Hello! I have returned!" Xin said with as much delight as she was able to muster. Hanna was again manning the counter and a familiar clanging was resounding throughout the shop.

"Welcome back, hon. I hope that this wasn't too much for you!" Hanna clasped her hands together and smiled. Xin chuckled nervously.

"Oh, no. Everything went as smooth as butter." Xin flexed one arm and put the other upon her waist. She held a pose for a moment before laughed and returned her pose to normal.

"I'm glad to hear it." Hanna turned toward the backroom entrance. "Gris, Xin is back!" she bellowed out. The clanging stop immediately and Griswold marched his way up to the front of the shop.

"Xin, welcome back! What did you manage to get your hands on?" Xin handed over the quest materials to the blacksmith. "Hmm, looks good. I'll be right back." Griswold left for the backroom and the clanging returned.

Item received!

Xin safely navigated her way out of the forest. She had to shield her eyes while they readjusting to the perfectly clear air. The breeze that was blowing when she'd entered the forest was still going strong and the vast field before her were still dotting with parties of various sizes. The vista that was once calming and beautiful was now full of melancholy. She swiped at the grass beside her as she made her way back to Delilah, leaving behind her a trail of trimmed grass and their clippings, and she felt the way that it absorbed her weight with each step.

Xin re-entered the village. There were some NPCs going about their day, but aside from them, there wasn't much going on. She felt as if she were just wandering the streets aimlessly, but she was clearly making her way towards Griswold's smithy. She stood in front of the door for a moment before entering.