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Freyd

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Posts posted by Freyd

  1. Evals:

    Spoiler

    Item #1 - KEEP

    Name: For Katoka (Part 1)
    Your Profession:  Appraiser
    Your Rank: Rank 5
    Roll ID:  [Mystic Essence], 223478, 223479
    Roll Result: 7, 9 (No Unique)
    Item Type:  Weapon (katana)
    Tier: T4
    Quality:  Perfect
    Enhancements: Holy, Para 2 
    Description: A proto-item to be used for item fusion.
    Link: https://www.sao-rpg.com/topic/19871-f13-appraiser-freyd-edges-open/?do=findComment&comment=681025
    Acquisition ID: 215466b

    Item #2 - KEEP

    Name: For Katoka (Part 2)
    Your Profession:  Appraiser
    Your Rank: Rank 5
    Roll ID:  [Mystic Essence], 223480, 223481
    Roll Result: 19, 14 (No Unique)
    Item Type:  Weapon (katana)
    Tier: T4
    Quality:  Perfect
    Enhancements: Fallen, ACC 2
    Description: A proto-item to be used for item fusion.
    Link: https://www.sao-rpg.com/topic/19871-f13-appraiser-freyd-edges-open/?do=findComment&comment=681025
    Acquisition ID: 215466c

    Fusion #1 (Cost 1 gleaming scale)

    Spoiler

    Combine:

    Muramasa's Legacy +4 | T4 Perfect Weapon (Katana) | Taunt | Para | Fallen
    Acquisition ID: 217986b | Roll IDs: 223318, 223319, 223320 | Reroll IDs: 223321, 223322, 223323, 223324
    Description: A weapon forged by the legendary swordsmith, this blade brings death and destruction to all those who meet it's edge. Those who wield it are said to be cursed to wander from battle to battle, look to quench their thirst for blood. It's Tsuka are an alternating white and black, the white added by a priest in an attempt to protect the wielder, the black there to increase their power.

    With:

    For Katoka (Part 2) | T4 Perfect Weapon (Katana) | ACC 2 | Fallen
    Acquisition ID: 215466c | Roll ID:  [Mystic Essence], 223480, 223481
    Description: A proto-item to be used for item fusion.

    To Create:

    Muramasa's Legacy +4 | T4 Perfect Weapon (Katana) | Para | Fallen 2
    Fusion ID: 223482
    Description: A weapon forged by the legendary swordsmith, this blade brings death and destruction to all those who meet it's edge. Those who wield it are said to be cursed to wander from battle to battle, look to quench their thirst for blood. It's Tsuka are an alternating white and black, the white added by a priest in an attempt to protect the wielder, the black there to increase their power.

    Fusion #2 (Cost 1 gleaming scale)

    Spoiler

    Combine:

    Cut of the Pure North Wind +4 | T4 Perfect Weapon (Katana) | Holy | Freeze | ACC
    Acquisition ID 200123b | Roll ID: 202145, 202146, 202147 | Reroll IDs: 202148, 202149, 202150, 202151
    A sliver of frosty northern winds manifest as a silver blade that is frigid to the touch and impervious to any attempts to mar its white blade

    With:

    For Katoka (Part 1) | T4 Perfect Weapon (Katana) | Holy | Para 2
    Acquisition ID: 215466b | Roll ID:  [Mystic Essence], 223478, 223479
    Description: A proto-item to be used for item fusion.

    To Create:

    Cut of the Pure North Wind +4 | T4 Perfect Weapon (Katana) | Holy 2 | Freeze
    Fusion ID: 223483
    A sliver of frosty northern winds manifest as a silver blade that is frigid to the touch and impervious to any attempts to mar its white blade

    Upgrade: Cost 1 demonic shard

    Spoiler

    Muramasa's Legacy +4 | T4 Demonic Weapon (Katana) | Para 2 | Fallen 2 
    Fusion ID: 223482
    Description: A weapon forged by the legendary swordsmith, this blade brings death and destruction to all those who meet it's edge. Those who wield it are said to be cursed to wander from battle to battle, look to quench their thirst for blood. It's Tsuka are an alternating white and black, the white added by a priest in an attempt to protect the wielder, the black there to increase their power.

    Fusion #3: Cost 1 demonic shard, 1 gleaming scale

    Spoiler

    Combine:

    Muramasa's Legacy +4 | T4 Demonic Weapon (Katana) | Para 2 | Fallen 2 
    Fusion ID: 223482
    Description: A weapon forged by the legendary swordsmith, this blade brings death and destruction to all those who meet it's edge. Those who wield it are said to be cursed to wander from battle to battle, look to quench their thirst for blood. It's Tsuka are an alternating white and black, the white added by a priest in an attempt to protect the wielder, the black there to increase their power.

    With:

    Cut of the Pure North Wind +4 | T4 Perfect Weapon (Katana) | Holy 2 | Freeze
    Fusion ID: 223483
    A sliver of frosty northern winds manifest as a silver blade that is frigid to the touch and impervious to any attempts to mar its white blade

    To Create:

    Muramasa's Legacy +4 | T4 Demonic Weapon (Katana) | Holy 2 | Fallen 2 
    Fusion ID: 223484
    Description: A weapon forged by the legendary swordsmith, this blade brings death and destruction to all those who meet it's edge. Those who wield it are said to be cursed to wander from battle to battle, look to quench their thirst for blood. It's Tsuka are an alternating white and black, the white added by a priest in an attempt to protect the wielder, the black there to increase their power.

    Total Cost: 3 gleaming scale, 2 demonic shard

  2. Rank 5 Appraiser (Base: BD 10, CD 8+ for unique, 10 identifications per day)
    +1 to CD from Hermes’ Scale
    +2 EXP: Hard Working (also +1 IDs per day)
    +2 EXP: Lucrative (Firm Anima) (also +2 IDs per day)
    +1 EXP: Custom Ambition Tool (bought from own shop 2020-07-16)

    Identifications:

    2x T4 Perfect Items (@3040 col) = 6,080 col

    Total Cost: 6,080 col

    Net Cost to Banker:  6,080 col 

    Items #1 - #2

    Spoiler

    Item #1 - KEEP

    Using 3x Mystic Essence (219722b, 219203, 219106) to select Holy for first enhancement

    Name: tbd
    Your Profession:  Appraiser
    Your Rank: Rank 5
    Roll ID:  [Mystic Essence], 223478, 223479
    Roll Result: 7, 9 (No Unique)
    Item Type:  Weapon (tbd)
    Tier: T4
    Quality:  Perfect
    Enhancements: Holy, Para 2 
    Description: tbd
    Link: 
    Acquisition ID: 215466b

    Item #2 - KEEP

    Using 3x Mystic Essence (219486, 219442, 219545) to select Fallen for first enhancement

    Name: tbd
    Your Profession:  Appraiser
    Your Rank: Rank 5
    Roll ID:  [Mystic Essence], 223480, 223481
    Roll Result: 19, 14 (No Unique)
    Item Type:  Weapon (tbd)
    Tier: T4
    Quality:  Perfect
    Enhancements: Fallen, ACC 2
    Description: tbd
    Link: 
    Acquisition ID: 215466c

     

  3. Distilling into Mystic Essences: 223303, 223381

    Spoiler

    Item #3 Distilling into Mystic Essence [223303]

    Name: tbd +4
    Your Profession:  Appraiser
    Your Rank: Rank 5
    Roll ID: 223297, 223298, 223299
    Roll Result: 13, 6, 8 (No Unique)
    Item Type:  Weapon (tbd)
    Tier: T4
    Quality:  Perfect
    Enhancements: Bleed 2, Taunt, PVO/Blight
    Description: tbd
    Link: https://www.sao-rpg.com/topic/19871-f13-appraiser-freyd-edges-open/?do=findComment&comment=680961
    Acquisition ID: 217889b

    Re-roll +1: [Taunt] ID #223300 | LD: 2 - becomes [Keen] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +2: [Keen] ID #223301 | LD: 12 - becomes [Para] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +3: [Para] ID #223302 | LD: 15 - becomes [ACC] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +4: [ACC] ID #223303 | LD: 3 - becomes [PVO/Blight] - (BD 10, CD 11+1=12 | Unique)

    Item #15 - Distilling into Mystic Essence [223381]

    Name: tbd +4
    Your Profession:  Appraiser
    Your Rank: Rank 5
    Roll ID: 223381, 223382, 223383
    Roll Result: 13*, 14, 12 (*Unique)
    Item Type:  Weapon (tbd)
    Tier: T4
    Quality:  Perfect
    Enhancements: VO/Env(O), Bleed 2, ACC
    Description: tbd
    Link: https://www.sao-rpg.com/topic/19871-f13-appraiser-freyd-edges-open/?do=findComment&comment=680961
    Acquisition ID: 214980e

    Re-roll +1: [ACC] ID #223384 | LD: 16 - becomes [ACC] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +2: [ACC] ID #223385 | LD: 19 - becomes [ACC] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +3: [ACC] ID #223386 | LD: 17 - becomes [ACC] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +4: [ACC] ID #223387 | LD: 8 - becomes [Bleed] - (No Unique)

    Evals:

    Spoiler

    Item #1 - KEEP 

    Name:  Icingdeath +4
    Your Profession:  Appraiser
    Your Rank: Rank 5
    Roll ID:  223283, 223284, 223285
    Roll Result: 8, 8, 17 (No Unique)
    Item Type:  Weapon (Straight Sword)
    Tier: T4
    Quality:  Perfect
    Enhancements: Bleed 2, Frostbite
    Description: The blade of this longsword is made of silver with a diamond edge. Its blackened metallic hilt is bound with a light blue almost white leather wrapping. Its pommel resembles that of a white dragon’s head crest. Rumor has it that the blade itself was forged from parts of such a dragon, but none can confirm it.
    Link: https://www.sao-rpg.com/topic/19871-f13-appraiser-freyd-edges-open/?do=findComment&comment=680961
    Acquisition ID: 213804a

    Re-roll +1: [ACC] ID #223286| LD: 5 - becomes [Taunt] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +2: [Taunt] ID #223287| LD: 11 - becomes [Para] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +3: [Para] ID #223288| LD: 19 - becomes [ACC] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +4: [ACC] ID #223289| LD: 19 - becomes [Frostbite/Static] - (BD 10, CD 7+1=8 | Unique)

    Item #6 - KEEP

    Name: Muramasa's Legacy +4
    Your Profession:  Appraiser
    Your Rank: Rank 5
    Roll ID: 223318, 223319, 223320
    Roll Result: 14, 2, 8 (No Unique)
    Item Type:  Weapon (katana)
    Tier: T4
    Quality:  Perfect
    Enhancements: Taunt, Para, Fallen
    Description: A weapon forged by the legendary swordsmith, this blade brings death and destruction to all those who meet it's edge. Those who wield it are said to be cursed to wander from battle to battle, look to quench their thirst for blood. It's Tsuka are an alternating white and black, the white added by a priest in an attempt to protect the wielder, the black there to increase their power.
    Link: https://www.sao-rpg.com/topic/19871-f13-appraiser-freyd-edges-open/?do=findComment&comment=680961
    Acquisition ID: 217986b

    Re-roll +1: [ACC] ID #223321 | LD: 9 - becomes [Para] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +2: [Para] ID #223322 | LD: 4 - becomes [Keen] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +3: [Keen] ID #223323 | LD: 11 - becomes [Para] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +4: [Para] ID #223324| LD: 5 - becomes [Holy/Fallen] - (BD 10, CD 7+1=8 | Unique)

    Item #9 - KEEP

    Name: For Wulfrin (Part 2) +4
    Your Profession:  Appraiser
    Your Rank: Rank 5
    Roll ID: 223339 (free unique), 223340, 223341
    Roll Result: 14, 11, 3 (Unique)
    Item Type:  Weapon (Straight Sword)
    Tier: T4
    Quality:  Perfect
    Enhancements: AA, Para, Bleed
    Description: A proto-item to be sacrificed to fusion.
    Link: https://www.sao-rpg.com/topic/19871-f13-appraiser-freyd-edges-open/?do=findComment&comment=680961
    Acquisition ID: 220389a (one guaranteed unique enhancement)

    Re-roll +1: [Keen] ID #223342 | LD: 13 - becomes [Para] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +2: [Para] ID #223343 | LD: 19 - becomes [ACC] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +3: [ACC] ID #223344 | LD: 1 - becomes [Keen] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +4: [Keen] ID #223345 | LD: 11 - becomes [Bleed] - (No Unique)

    Item #17 - KEEP

    Name: For Wulfrin (Part 3) +4
    Your Profession:  Appraiser
    Your Rank: Rank 5
    Roll ID: 223395, 223396, 223397
    Roll Result: 7*, 4, 16  (*Unique)
    Item Type:  Weapon (Straight Sword)
    Tier: T4
    Quality:  Perfect
    Enhancements: Freeze. Taunt, Para
    Description: A proto-item to be sacrificed to fusion.
    Link: https://www.sao-rpg.com/topic/19871-f13-appraiser-freyd-edges-open/?do=findComment&comment=680961
    Acquisition ID: 214981b

    Re-roll +1: [ACC] ID #223398 | LD: 9 - becomes [Para] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +2: [Para] ID #223399 | LD: 4 - becomes [Keen] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +3: [Keen] ID #223400 | LD: 5 - becomes [Keen] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +4: [Keen] ID #223401 | LD: 9 - becomes [Para] - (No Unique)

    Item #19 - KEEP

    Name: For Wulfrin (Part 4) +4
    Your Profession:  Appraiser
    Your Rank: Rank 5
    Roll ID: 223409, 223410, 223411
    Roll Result: 13, 6, 8 (No Unique)
    Item Type:  Weapon (Straight Sword)
    Tier: T4
    Quality:  Perfect
    Enhancements: Para, Bleed, Freeze
    Description: A proto-item to be sacrificed to fusion
    Link: https://www.sao-rpg.com/topic/19871-f13-appraiser-freyd-edges-open/?do=findComment&comment=680961
    Acquisition ID: 214460

    Re-roll +1: [Taunt] ID #223412 | LD: 7 - becomes [Freeze/Burn] - (BD 10, CD 9+1=10 | Unique)
    Re-roll +2: [Bleed] ID #223413 | LD: 14 - becomes [ACC] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +3: [ACC] ID #223414 | LD: 8 - becomes [Bleed] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +4: [Bleed] ID #223415 | LD: 9 - becomes [Bleed] - (No Unique)

    Fusion #1 (cost: 1 gleaming scale): 

    Spoiler

    Combine: 

    Icingdeath +4 | T4 Perfect Weapon (SS) | Frostbite | Bleed 2
    Acquisition ID: 213804a | Roll ID:  223283, 223284, 223285 | Reroll IDs: 223286, 223287, 223288, 223289
    Description: The blade of this longsword is made of silver with a diamond edge. Its blackened metallic hilt is bound with a light blue almost white leather wrapping. Its pommel resembles that of a white dragon’s head crest. Rumor has it that the blade itself was forged from parts of such a dragon, but none can confirm it.

    With:

    For Wulfrin (Part 2) +4 | T4 Perfect Weapon (SS) | AA | Para | Bleed
    Acquisition ID: 220389a | Roll ID: 223339, 223340, 223341 | Reroll IDs: 223342, 223343, 233344, 233345
    Description: A proto-item to be sacrificed to fusion.

    To create:

    Icingdeath +4 | T4 Perfect Weapon (SS) | Frostbite | AA | Bleed
    Fusion ID: 223475
    Description: The blade of this longsword is made of silver with a diamond edge. Its blackened metallic hilt is bound with a light blue almost white leather wrapping. Its pommel resembles that of a white dragon’s head crest. Rumor has it that the blade itself was forged from parts of such a dragon, but none can confirm it.

    Fusion #2 (cost: 1 gleaming scale): 

    Spoiler

    Combine:

    For Wulfrin (Part 3) +4 | T4 Perfect Weapon (SS) | Freeze | Taunt | Para
    Acquisition ID: 214981b| Roll ID: 223395, 223396, 223397 | Reroll IDs: 223398, 223399, 223400, 223401
    Description: A proto-item to be sacrificed to fusion.

    With:

    For Wulfrin (Part 4) +4 | T4 Perfect Weapon (SS) | Freeze | Bleed | Para
    Acquisition ID: 214460 | Roll ID: 223409, 223410, 223411 | Reroll IDs: 223412, 223413, 223414, 223415
    Description: A proto-item to be sacrificed to fusion.

    To Create:

    For Wulfrin (Part 4) +4 | T4 Perfect Weapon (SS) | Freeze 2 | Para
    Fusion ID: 223476
    Description: A proto-item to be sacrificed to fusion.

    Upgrade to Demonic (Cost: 1 Demonic Shard):

    Spoiler

    Icingdeath +4 | T4 Demonic Weapon (SS) | Frostbite | AA | Bleed 2
    Fusion ID: 223475
    Description: The blade of this longsword is made of silver with a diamond edge. Its blackened metallic hilt is bound with a light blue almost white leather wrapping. Its pommel resembles that of a white dragon’s head crest. Rumor has it that the blade itself was forged from parts of such a dragon, but none can confirm it.

    Fusion #3 (Cost 1 demonic shard, 1 gleaming scale):

    Spoiler

    Combine:

    Icingdeath +4 | T4 Demonic Weapon (SS) | Frostbite | AA | Bleed 2
    Fusion ID: 223475
    Description: The blade of this longsword is made of silver with a diamond edge. Its blackened metallic hilt is bound with a light blue almost white leather wrapping. Its pommel resembles that of a white dragon’s head crest. Rumor has it that the blade itself was forged from parts of such a dragon, but none can confirm it.

    With: 

    For Wulfrin (Part 4) +4 | T4 Perfect Weapon (SS) | Freeze 2 | Para
    Fusion ID: 223476
    Description: A proto-item to be sacrificed to fusion.

    To Create:

    Icingdeath +4 | T4 Demonic Weapon (SS) | Frostbite | AA | Freeze 2
    Fusion ID: 223477
    Description: The blade of this longsword is made of silver with a diamond edge. Its blackened metallic hilt is bound with a light blue almost white leather wrapping. Its pommel resembles that of a white dragon’s head crest. Rumor has it that the blade itself was forged from parts of such a dragon, but none can confirm it.

    Total Cost: 3 gleaming scales, 2 demonic shards

  4. Ambling casually through the gargantuan halls, he'd slowly been regaining subtle stepping lost to the vagaries of system and popular need.  What was a loud Whisper, he would ask, though the question was known to be loaded; apples versus orangutans, etc.  Truth was ever more complex than it was credited.  Perhaps time could actually fix such things?  He should have asked Bob when he'd had the chance, not that he was especially chatty for a 'Forgotten Time King.'  Was he forgotten by time, or had he simply lost track of it?  Who knew?  Bob definitely wouldn't say.  What a jerk.

    "Uh... let's see here."  Long, slender fingers like spider legs danced across the menu.  "What don't we have yet, that might actually be useful someday."  A few potentials jumped to the forefront.  "Yeah.  That one.  Why not?"  Imagine if a boss could actually be disabled by such a thing?  Actually, hadn't that been the case once?  He couldn't recall whether it was Gabrandr or some other foe.  It didn't really matter.  Choice made, the Whisper returned to his shadows, muttering more random nonsense to himself as he went.

    ***

    2024-06-01

    Bring the Thunder | 223474
    Applies PARALYZE I to one's weapon for a single thread.

  5. The towering undead boss stepped forward, blade held high and ready to press its advantage only to feel a hand wrap around it forearm.  From the shadows of its own cloak, black on black turned solid and wrenched, locking the mob's joint and forcing it open.  Echoes rattled loudly off the stark stone walls as the giant knight's greatsword clanged loudly to the ground.  Joint locks were ever so affective against those mostly made of bone.

    The king's cloak snapped crisply, the flew upward to wrap itself around its wearer's crown to deny him his senses.  The Whisper below, in the newly-formed crater, had already faded and lost his third dimension.  Only Montjoy, the shadow, lay cast upon its broken tiles, his invisible smile growing as he waved the king yet another goodbye.

    Foot braced against the larger mob's spine, arm locked and head held taught by clandestine cloth, Freyd had his foe exactly where he'd hoped and wanted.

    "Sorry.  Had to take the long way 'round," he offered to Ciela and Wulfrin, providing no hint of actual explanation. Keening like a chorus of banshees swept across the wasted throne room.  Freyd's hands grew darkly ominous as Samael's Pride unleashed its seals to feed the hungry void within.

    "Pawns in position.  Rook moves to the rear.  Sorry, Bob, but looks like this is checkmate, again."

    An explosion of orange and blue fractal shards burst outward as the Whisper released both holds and spun to deliver his killing blow.  What first looked like a spherical shrapnel closed, slowed about ten feet out, making it look as though time has seized, then reversed, as every single shard collapsed back inward to be devoured by the void wrapped around Freyd's fingers.  A single mote remained to land upon one of its sharpened edges, spinning briefly like a top, or maybe oddly like a playing piece, then fell over to concede and put an end to yet another match.

    "There. Revel in that for a bit, both of you" he added, turning back to face his companions.  "His fall should have given you both a significant boost.  My only ask is that you pay it forward.  Help others.  Help each other.  Grow stronger and help everyone get out of this forsaken hellhole."  Padding his stomach, he first looked like he was checking for injuries, but no.  Freyd was just being Freyd.

    "Anyone feel like doing lunch?"

    ***

    Spoiler

    Correction:  Freyd's custom skill reduces the crit range of enemies by 1, so a 9 is not a crit or automatic hit.  FTK's MD: 9+3-7=5 misses.  Stats adjusted below.

    Freyd regains +4 EN
    Freyd regains 73 HP from BH
    CD 5 (No REC proc) ID #223471
    CD 6 (No VD proc) ID #223472 (void when I realized that FTK actually missed)
    Cooldown: Charge (1/3)

    Post Action | AoE-I (x15, 11 EN, +2 shift, +2/hit): 15 EN - (Stamina) = 13 EN.  
    Free Action: None

    ID #223470 | BD: 8 (Crit+1, Fallen +16).  DMG (15*41=615-100=515) 

    Freyd | HP: 960/1334 (887+73) | EN: 110/154 (119+4-13) | DMG: 24 | MIT: 105 | EVA: 7 (6) | ACC: 5 (+AA) | BH: 73 | LD: 6 | Phase | Frostbite 40 | TXV 32 | REC: 8 | V.O. 146 | V.D.: 146
    Wulfrin | HP: 490/490 | EN: 30/64 | DMG: 20 | MIT: 66 | EVA: 3 | ACC: 5 | BH: 4 | LD: 2 | BLD: 36 | REC: 3 | TXC VNM: 24
    Nymoria | HP [200/200] | EN [36/38] | ACC [3] | DMG [9] | MIT [34] | BH [+6] | +2 EN | -2 EN (Dropped out)
    KnightessCiela | HP: 290/290 | EN: 23/44 | DMG: 8 | MIT: 91 | ACC: 4 | FL. THRN: 4 | THRNS: 36

    (11,4,0,2) The Forgotten Time King | HP: 0/3000 (475-545) | DMG: 275 | MIT: 100 | ACC: 3 

    Forgotten King's Authority | This boss is immune to debuffs and disablements

    Thread Closing:

    LD Bonus Reward | ID 223473 | LD 11 | 

    Wulfrin receives:

    6,404 EXP (Word Count [7807/10*3*0.6] + Quest [5000])
    10,200 col (1 page [200] + Quest [10000])
    Light Betrayer | 223473a | Perfect Light Armor | EVA 2 | REC 1

    KnightessCiela receives:

    5,936 EXP (Word Count [7807/10*2*0.6] + Quest [5000])
    10,200 col (1 page [200] + Quest [10000])
    Envious Betrayal | 223473b | Perfect Heavy Armor | MIT 2 | Thorns 1
    The King's Betrayal | 223473c | Perfect Weapon (SS) | Para 2 | ACC 1

    Freyd receives:

    7,956 EXP (Word Count [7807/10*17*0.6] + Quest [0])
    1,193 col (1 page [0] + Quest [0] + 15% P5 Reward [1193])

    Nymoria left the thread before completing the quest.  No rewards.

  6. Rank 5 Appraiser (Base: BD 10, CD 8+ for unique, 10 identifications per day)
    +1 to CD from Hermes’ Scale
    +2 EXP: Hard Working (also +1 IDs per day)
    +2 EXP: Lucrative (Firm Anima) (also +2 IDs per day)
    +1 EXP: Custom Ambition Tool (bought from own shop 2020-07-16)

    Source:

    https://www.sao-rpg.com/topic/19871-f13-appraiser-freyd-edges-open/?do=findComment&comment=680531

    ...and loot from assorted threads.

    Identifications:

    26x T4 Perfect Items (@3040 col) = 79,040 col
    +390,000 col for re-rolls. (26 * 15,000 for 4 rerolls apiece)

    Total Cost: 469,090 col

    Junking:

    8x T4 Perfect Item (@1900) = 15,200 col

    Total Value of Junking: 15,200 col

    Net Cost to Banker:  453,890 col 

    Items #1-13

    Spoiler

    Item #1 - KEEP

    Name: tbd +4
    Your Profession:  Appraiser
    Your Rank: Rank 5
    Roll ID:  223283, 223284, 223285
    Roll Result: 8, 8, 17 (No Unique)
    Item Type:  Weapon (tbd)
    Tier: T4
    Quality:  Perfect
    Enhancements: Bleed 2, ACC, Frostbite/Static
    Description: tbd
    Link: 
    Acquisition ID: 213804a

    Re-roll +1: [ACC] ID #223286| LD: 5 - becomes [Taunt] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +2: [Taunt] ID #223287| LD: 11 - becomes [Para] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +3: [Para] ID #223288| LD: 19 - becomes [ACC] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +4: [ACC] ID #223289| LD: 19 - becomes [Frostbite/Static] - (BD 10, CD 7+1=8 | Unique)

    Item #2 - SCRAP

    Name: 
    Your Profession:  Appraiser
    Your Rank: Rank 5
    Roll ID: 223290, 223291, 223292
    Roll Result: 8, 6, 5 (No Unique)
    Item Type:  Weapon (tbd)
    Tier: T4
    Quality:  Perfect
    Enhancements: Bleed, Keen, Taunt
    Description: 
    Link: 
    Acquisition ID: 213804b

    Re-roll +1: [X] ID #223293 | LD: 19 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +2: [X] ID #223294 | LD: 4 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +3: [X] ID #223295 | LD: 17 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +4: [X] ID #223296 | LD: 8 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)

    Item #3 - KEEP

    Name: tbd +4
    Your Profession:  Appraiser
    Your Rank: Rank 5
    Roll ID: 223297, 223298, 223299
    Roll Result: 13, 6, 8 (No Unique)
    Item Type:  Weapon (tbd)
    Tier: T4
    Quality:  Perfect
    Enhancements: Bleed 2, Taunt, PVO/Blight
    Description: tbd
    Link: 
    Acquisition ID: 217889b

    Re-roll +1: [Taunt] ID #223300 | LD: 2 - becomes [Keen] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +2: [Keen] ID #223301 | LD: 12 - becomes [Para] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +3: [Para] ID #223302 | LD: 15 - becomes [ACC] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +4: [ACC] ID #223303 | LD: 3 - becomes [PVO/Blight] - (BD 10, CD 11+1=12 | Unique)

    Item #4 -SCRAP

    Name: 
    Your Profession:  Appraiser
    Your Rank: Rank 5
    Roll ID: 223304, 223305, 223306
    Roll Result: 13, 17, 3 (No Unique)
    Item Type:  Weapon (tbd)
    Tier: T4
    Quality:  Perfect
    Enhancements: Bleed, ACC, Keen 
    Description: 
    Link: 
    Acquisition ID: 217889c

    Re-roll +1: [X] ID #223307 | LD: 10 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +2: [X] ID #223308 | LD: 3 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +3: [X] ID #223309 | LD: 13 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +4: [X] ID #223310 | LD: 7 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)

    Item #5 -SCRAP

    Name: 
    Your Profession:  Appraiser
    Your Rank: Rank 5
    Roll ID: 223311, 223312, 223313
    Roll Result: 10, 15, 12 (No Unique)
    Item Type:  Weapon (tbd)
    Tier: T4
    Quality:  Perfect
    Enhancements: Bleed 2, ACC
    Description: 
    Link: 
    Acquisition ID: 217986a

    Re-roll +1: [X] ID #223314 | LD: 7 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +2: [X] ID #223315 | LD: 9 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +3: [X] ID #223316| LD: 11 - becomes [X] - (No Unique) - accidentally labeled rolling for item 317976a (typo)
    Re-roll +4: [X] ID #223317 | LD: 7 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)

    Item #6 - KEEP

    Name: tbd +4
    Your Profession:  Appraiser
    Your Rank: Rank 5
    Roll ID: 223318, 223319, 223320
    Roll Result: 14, 2, 8 (No Unique)
    Item Type:  Weapon (tbd)
    Tier: T4
    Quality:  Perfect
    Enhancements: Taunt, Para, ACC, Holy/Fallen
    Description: tbd
    Link: 
    Acquisition ID: 217986b

    Re-roll +1: [ACC] ID #223321 | LD: 9 - becomes [Para] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +2: [Para] ID #223322 | LD: 4 - becomes [Keen] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +3: [Keen] ID #223323 | LD: 11 - becomes [Para] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +4: [Para] ID #223324| LD: 5 - becomes [Holy/Fallen] - (BD 10, CD 7+1=8 | Unique)

    Item #7 -SCRAP

    Name: 
    Your Profession:  Appraiser
    Your Rank: Rank 5
    Roll ID: 223325, 223326, 223327
    Roll Result: 1, 15, 14 (No Unique)
    Item Type:  Weapon (tbd)
    Tier: T4
    Quality:  Perfect
    Enhancements: Keen, ACC 2
    Description: 
    Link: 
    Acquisition ID: 218395a

    Re-roll +1: [X] ID #223328 | LD: 13 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +2: [X] ID #223329 | LD: 15 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +3: [X] ID #223330 | LD: 14 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +4: [X] ID #223331 | LD: 6 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)

    Item #8 -SCRAP

    Name: 
    Your Profession:  Appraiser
    Your Rank: Rank 5
    Roll ID:  223332, 223333, 223334
    Roll Result: 3, 18, 7 (No Unique)
    Item Type:  Weapon (tbd)
    Tier: T4
    Quality:  Perfect
    Enhancements:  Taunt, ACC, Para
    Description: 
    Link: 
    Acquisition ID: 218395b

    Re-roll +1: [X] ID #223335 | LD: 14 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +2: [X] ID #223336 | LD: 14 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +3: [X] ID #223337 | LD: 8 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +4: [X] ID #223338 | LD: 15 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)

    Item #9 - KEEP

    Name: tbd +4
    Your Profession:  Appraiser
    Your Rank: Rank 5
    Roll ID: 223339 (free unique), 223340, 223341
    Roll Result: 14, 11, 3 (Unique)
    Item Type:  Weapon (tbd)
    Tier: T4
    Quality:  Perfect
    Enhancements: AA/Phase, Para, Keen, Bleed
    Description: tbd
    Link: 
    Acquisition ID: 220389a (one guaranteed unique enhancement)

    Re-roll +1: [Keen] ID #223342 | LD: 13 - becomes [Para] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +2: [Para] ID #223343 | LD: 19 - becomes [ACC] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +3: [ACC] ID #223344 | LD: 1 - becomes [Keen] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +4: [Keen] ID #223345 | LD: 11 - becomes [Bleed] - (No Unique)

    Item #10 -SCRAP

    Name: 
    Your Profession:  Appraiser
    Your Rank: Rank 5
    Roll ID: 223346, 223347, 223348
    Roll Result: 19, 8, 5 (No Unique)
    Item Type:  Weapon (tbd)
    Tier: T4
    Quality:  Perfect
    Enhancements: ACC, Para, Keen
    Description: 
    Link: 
    Acquisition ID: 214979e

    Re-roll +1: [X] ID #223349 | LD: 7 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +2: [X] ID #223350 | LD: 8 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +3: [X] ID #223351 | LD: 20 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +4: [X] ID #223352 | LD: 16 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)

    Item #11 -SCRAP

    Name: 
    Your Profession:  Appraiser
    Your Rank: Rank 5
    Roll ID: 223353, 223354, 223355
    Roll Result: 13, 11, 16 (No Unique)
    Item Type:  Weapon (tbd)
    Tier: T4
    Quality:  Perfect
    Enhancements: Bleed 2, ACC
    Description: 
    Link: 
    Acquisition ID: 214980a

    Re-roll +1: [X] ID #223356 | LD: 16 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +2: [X] ID #223357 | LD: 18 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +3: [X] ID #223358 | LD: 18 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +4: [X] ID #223359 | LD: 9 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)

    Item #12 -SCRAP

    Name: 
    Your Profession:  Appraiser
    Your Rank: Rank 5
    Roll ID: 223360, 223361, 223362
    Roll Result: 14, 10, 14 (No Unique)
    Item Type:  Weapon (tbd)
    Tier: T4
    Quality:  Perfect
    Enhancements: ACC 2, Para
    Description: 
    Link: 
    Acquisition ID: 214980b

    Re-roll +1: [X] ID #223363 | LD: 9 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +2: [X] ID #223364 | LD: 12 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +3: [X] ID #223365 | LD: 6 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +4: [X] ID #223366 | LD: 12 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)

    Item #13 -SCRAP

    Name: 
    Your Profession:  Appraiser
    Your Rank: Rank 5
    Roll ID: 223367, 223368, 223369
    Roll Result: 15, 15, 5 (No Unique)
    Item Type:  Weapon (tbd)
    Tier: T4
    Quality:  Perfect
    Enhancements: ACC 2, Keen
    Description: 
    Link: 
    Acquisition ID: 214980c

    Re-roll +1: [X] ID #223370 | LD:20  - becomes [X] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +2: [X] ID #223371 | LD: 2 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +3: [X] ID #223372 | LD: 19 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +4: [X] ID #223373 | LD: 12 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)

    Items #14-26
    Crafting Respite: Dragon's Breath | 174610

    Spoiler

    Item #14 -SCRAP

    Name: 
    Your Profession:  Appraiser
    Your Rank: Rank 5
    Roll ID: 223374, 223375, 223376
    Roll Result: 9, 10, 19 (No Unique)
    Item Type:  Weapon (tbd)
    Tier: T4
    Quality:  Perfect
    Enhancements: Bleed 2, ACC
    Description: 
    Link: 
    Acquisition ID: 214980d

    Re-roll +1: [X] ID #223377 | LD: 2 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +2: [X] ID #223378 | LD: 18 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +3: [X] ID #223379 | LD: 13 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +4: [X] ID #223380 | LD: 16 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)

    Item #15 - KEEP

    Name: tbd +4
    Your Profession:  Appraiser
    Your Rank: Rank 5
    Roll ID: 223381, 223382, 223383
    Roll Result: 13*, 14, 12 (*Unique)
    Item Type:  Weapon (tbd)
    Tier: T4
    Quality:  Perfect
    Enhancements: VO/Env(O), Bleed 2, ACC
    Description: tbd
    Link: 
    Acquisition ID: 214980e

    Re-roll +1: [ACC] ID #223384 | LD: 16 - becomes [ACC] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +2: [ACC] ID #223385 | LD: 19 - becomes [ACC] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +3: [ACC] ID #223386 | LD: 17 - becomes [ACC] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +4: [ACC] ID #223387 | LD: 8 - becomes [Bleed] - (No Unique)

    Item #16 - KEEP

    Name: tbd +4
    Your Profession:  Appraiser
    Your Rank: Rank 5
    Roll ID: 223388, 223389, 223390
    Roll Result: 17, 11, 16 (No Unique)
    Item Type:  Weapon (tbd)
    Tier: T4
    Quality:  Perfect
    Enhancements: ACC 2, Para, AA/Phase, Taunt
    Description: tbd
    Link: 
    Acquisition ID: 214981a

    Re-roll +1: [Para] ID #223391 | LD: 10 - becomes [Para] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +2: [Para] ID #223392 | LD: 11 - becomes [Para] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +3: [Para] ID #223393 | LD: 15 - becomes [AA/Phase] - (BD 10, CD 10+1=11 | Unique)
    Re-roll +4: [ACC] ID #223394 | LD: 3  - becomes [Taunt] - (No Unique)

    Item #17 - KEEP

    Name: tbd +4
    Your Profession:  Appraiser
    Your Rank: Rank 5
    Roll ID: 223395, 223396, 223397
    Roll Result: 7*, 4, 16  (*Unique)
    Item Type:  Weapon (tbd)
    Tier: T4
    Quality:  Perfect
    Enhancements: Freeze/Burn. Taunt, ACC, Para
    Description: tbd
    Link: 
    Acquisition ID: 214981b

    Re-roll +1: [ACC] ID #223398 | LD: 9 - becomes [Para] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +2: [Para] ID #223399 | LD: 4 - becomes [Keen] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +3: [Keen] ID #223400 | LD: 5 - becomes [Keen] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +4: [Keen] ID #223401 | LD: 9 - becomes [Para] - (No Unique)

    Item #18 -SCRAP

    Name: 
    Your Profession:  Appraiser
    Your Rank: Rank 5
    Roll ID: 223402, 223403, 223404
    Roll Result: 4, 3, 8 (No Unique)
    Item Type:  Weapon (tbd)
    Tier: T4
    Quality:  Perfect
    Enhancements: Keen 2, Para
    Description: 
    Link: 
    Acquisition ID: 214981c

    Re-roll +1: [X] ID #223405 | LD: 2 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +2: [X] ID #223406 | LD: 7 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +3: [X] ID #223407 | LD: 15 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +4: [X] ID #223408 | LD: 8 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)

    Item #19 - KEEP

    Name: tbd +4
    Your Profession:  Appraiser
    Your Rank: Rank 5
    Roll ID: 223409, 223410, 223411
    Roll Result: 13, 6, 8 (No Unique)
    Item Type:  Weapon (tbd)
    Tier: T4
    Quality:  Perfect
    Enhancements: Para, Bleed, Taunt, Freeze/Burn
    Description: tbd
    Link: 
    Acquisition ID: 214460

    Re-roll +1: [Taunt] ID #223412 | LD: 7 - becomes [Freeze/Burn] - (BD 10, CD 9+1=10 | Unique)
    Re-roll +2: [Bleed] ID #223413 | LD: 14 - becomes [ACC] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +3: [ACC] ID #223414 | LD: 8 - becomes [Bleed] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +4: [Bleed] ID #223415 | LD: 9 - becomes [Bleed] - (No Unique)

    Item #20 -SCRAP

    Name: 
    Your Profession:  Appraiser
    Your Rank: Rank 5
    Roll ID: 223416, 223417, 223418
    Roll Result: 7, 9, 19 (No Unique)
    Item Type:  Weapon (tbd)
    Tier: T4
    Quality:  Perfect
    Enhancements: Bleed 2, ACC
    Description: 
    Link: 
    Acquisition ID: 215133a

    Re-roll +1: [X] ID #223419 | LD: 19 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +2: [X] ID #223420 | LD: 11 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +3: [X] ID #223421 | LD: 15 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +4: [X] ID #223422 | LD: 7 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)

    Item #21 -SCRAP

    Name: 
    Your Profession:  Appraiser
    Your Rank: Rank 5
    Roll ID: 223423, 223424, 223425
    Roll Result: 3, 8, 6 (No Unique)
    Item Type:  Weapon (tbd)
    Tier: T4
    Quality:  Perfect
    Enhancements: Taunt, Bleed 2
    Description: 
    Link: 
    Acquisition ID: 215133b

    Re-roll +1: [X] ID #223426 | LD: 11 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +2: [X] ID #223427 | LD: 10 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +3: [X] ID #223428 | LD: 9 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +4: [X] ID #223429 | LD: 20 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)

    Item #22 -SCRAP

    Name: 
    Your Profession:  Appraiser
    Your Rank: Rank 5
    Roll ID: 223430, 223431, 223432
    Roll Result: 17, 18, 20 (No Unique)
    Item Type:  Weapon (tbd)
    Tier: T4
    Quality:  Perfect
    Enhancements: ACC 3
    Description: 
    Link: 
    Acquisition ID: 215133c

    Re-roll +1: [X] ID #223433 | LD: 6 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +2: [X] ID #223434 | LD: 16 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +3: [X] ID #223435 | LD: 2 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +4: [X] ID #223436 | LD: 20 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)

    Item #23 -SCRAP

    Name: 
    Your Profession:  Appraiser
    Your Rank: Rank 5
    Roll ID: 223437, 223438, 223439
    Roll Result: 14, 6, 11 (No Unique)
    Item Type:  Weapon (tbd)
    Tier: T4
    Quality:  Perfect
    Enhancements: ACC, Keen, Para
    Description: 
    Link: 
    Acquisition ID: 215653a

    Re-roll +1: [X] ID #223440 | LD:  - becomes [X] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +2: [X] ID #223441 | LD:  - becomes [X] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +3: [X] ID #223442 | LD:  - becomes [X] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +4: [X] ID #223443 | LD:  - becomes [X] - (No Unique)

    Item #24 -SCRAP

    Name: 
    Your Profession:  Appraiser
    Your Rank: Rank 5
    Roll ID: 223444, 223445, 223446
    Roll Result: 9, 9, 2 (No Unique)
    Item Type:  Weapon (tbd)
    Tier: T4
    Quality:  Perfect
    Enhancements: Bleed 2, Keen
    Description: 
    Link: 
    Acquisition ID: 215653b

    Re-roll +1: [X] ID #223447 | LD: 15 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +2: [X] ID #223448 | LD: 18 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +3: [X] ID #223449 | LD: 5 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +4: [X] ID #223450 | LD: 9 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)

    Item #25 -SCRAP

    Name: 
    Your Profession:  Appraiser
    Your Rank: Rank 5
    Roll ID: 223451, 223452, 223453
    Roll Result: 11, 4, 20 (No Unique)
    Item Type:  Weapon (tbd)
    Tier: T4
    Quality:  Perfect
    Enhancements: Taunt, Para, ACC
    Description: 
    Link: 
    Acquisition ID: 215463b

    Re-roll +1: [X] ID #223454 | LD: 13 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +2: [X] ID #223455 | LD: 6 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +3: [X] ID #223456 | LD: 9 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +4: [X] ID #223457 | LD: 10 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)

    Item #26 -SCRAP

    Name: 
    Your Profession:  Appraiser
    Your Rank: Rank 5
    Roll ID: 223458, 223459, 223460
    Roll Result: 19, 3, 20 (No Unique)
    Item Type:  Weapon (tbd)
    Tier: T4
    Quality:  Perfect
    Enhancements: ACC 2, Keen
    Description: 
    Link: 
    Acquisition ID: 215466a

    Re-roll +1: [X] ID #223461 | LD: 18 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +2: [X] ID #223462 | LD: 3 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +3: [X] ID #223463 | LD: 1 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)
    Re-roll +4: [X] ID #223464 | LD: 16 - becomes [X] - (No Unique)

     

  7. ♪ ♫ ♪ ♫

    Slender fingers wove themselves between his, providing an anchor he desperately needed and had previously been lacking.  So many times, he had tried to get this out and couldn’t.  He’d once offered to be her anchor, yet here she was being his, and he loved her dearly for it.  It also made the revelations that much harder, panicked warnings of betrayal stabbing furiously at his heart, never to let that thing be given voice.

    "You're hurting... you're hurting bad, and you can barely comprehend it.. can you?"

    No response could do justice to such a question.  Looking upon Violet’s marred visage, and the deeper trauma laying just below its scarred surface.  What right did he have to pretend his pain was any worse than another’s? Likewise, Elora’s debilitating struggles with her own self-doubt and insecurities proved both their spirits were girded by unparalleled courage and resilience.  Freyd’s features softened even as the sound of glass grinding on glass threatened to shatter his form irreparably from within.  Fine lines spread like webbing across all of him, as Elora had once witnessed.  He was close to breaking.  So very close and on the verge of becoming frayed.

    You fought the Gemini first... how could I have been so blind..!" she squeezed her eyes shut. "No wonder you interact with them so often, how you know so much about them... how you could have thought that Montjoy was one..! You must have been so scared back then, fighting them.. afraid of what it would mean for you if something that wore your face wanted you dead. But at the same time, if that was your first fight..!" her voice broke as a single tear spilt down her cheek. "Even the strongest person couldn't fathom the idea that some part of them, or even a facsimile of themselves would ever be capable of wishing them dead. If that's even halfway right, I can't even fathom how you can handle that..!"

    Shame and elation formed the strangest of admixtures. She had seen!  So much effort expended and combed through with preternatural insights only Violet could achieve.  Even if only the tip of an iceberg made from a congealed black morass of pure nothing, she had glimpsed an inkling of him to make the very first connection.  So opens the rabbit hole…

    “Takeshi’s was a broken soul long before it came to this place.” Freyd’s voice sounded as if he were speaking about some lost relative. “In the gemini quest, I remember blades and fire, the battle fiercely contested and close. Takeshi’s demons had always been stronger than he could bear. He’d spent a lifetime forming a shell around his spirit, like armor crafted from pure logic, devoid of any and all passion.”

    Eyes wincing at the memory, their vantage uncertain, both women watched as fissures broke and spread across his failing image, orange light flaring from within as the mesh of his avatar sundered under incredible strain. So blatant was the conflict within him that its crescendo manifested for all to see. Breathing in deeply, his free hand rose to beg for a moment even as he gulped down bilious internal devastation.

    “The Gemini quest foresees two outcomes: slaying the creature, or sparing it.  It never discusses the third possibility: that the player might face defeat at the hands of their own reflection.”  Closing his eyes, cinematic scenarios and a thousand different objections rose and fell silent in the back of his mind.  How many times had he considered each of them in turn?  All rang false.

    “I know how it sounds, and I’ve done everything I can think of to shake off the idea, but it resonates on a level that I can’t deny. Has anyone ever seen the true form of a gemini?  Does it even have one, or it is as a shadow without an object to serve as its caster?”  The room darkened as innumerable silhouettes pressed themselves unbeckoned through the walls and into the chamber’s confines, gathering like shadow moths to some manner of inverse flame, holding their collectively absent breath to see whether their secret could even be spilled aloud.

    “A shadow is never truly gone, so long as memory of it remains.  And I should know, shouldn’t I? Who else carries such mastery over them? Why do I so easily mimic their tricks, often to even greater effect than the gemini themselves?  What are we to each other, and why?  It seems a complicated, smothering question."

    Spoiler

    "Not in here Freyd.  Never, in your memories.  I will always be with you, ready to make you pay for your past sins."

    - False Mari Gemini, in the Forest of Memories
    (Source)

    ***

    "You're right.  This never should have happened, but it did, and you did well."  His form lengthened by a few inches and morphed in colour back to his previous monochromatic fashion, most of his features still shrouded beneath his cowl, which he unexpectedly drew back.  Exposed, his face was plain, if slightly angular.  His brow arched and sat in a natural furrow, giving him an permanent intensity that mimicked his demeanor.  A predatory air coiled around his him, though she could sense that it wasn't directed at her in any way.  Twin azure orbs that seemed starkly bright set themselves in her direction, partially hidden beneath strands of mousy brown hair still somewhat laced with flour.  It made him seem older, though she'd have guessed he was already by his bearing and appearance, at least compared to most players in the game.  The way he changed made one think he might be a gemini himself, save for the emerald crystal slowly spinning over his head.

    (Source)

    Freyd’s eyes dimmed and darkened, pupils swelling to devour constraining blue irises until nothing else remained but a pair of windows into the void.  Over his head, the green cursor dimmed and faded until no symbol remained.  

    “Why have I always felt such kinship with Marvin and so many other mobs?  Why was I drawn to the earliest traces of the infectious Sundered Spire? Why do I keep stumbling endlessly into glitches?!  You’ve both seen it first hand, especially you, Violet, and must admit that it’s uncanny.”

    Teeth clenching, his face contorting in a pained grimace, Elora felt his hand clench tightly around hers as if drawing upon that connection for strength. It felt as if his chest was try to implode. At the room’s periphery, the gathered host of shadows watched with the utter silence and stillness of oblivion, Freyd desperately resisting their intangible call.

    ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪

    “Takeshi logged into this game as a corporate spy.” Practically spitting out the words, Freyd cared little about their revelation save for the sake of open admission. “He was always paranoid that Cardinal was out for him because of it, and hid in the Town of Beginnings for years thinking it would keep him safe” Pain easing, momentarily, he drew another deep breath. Whatever episode had beset him faltering briefly. With empty eyes, he gazed out at the gathered throng, seeing sightless eyes behind each, but uncertain of which way they were facing.  It occurred that these shades might actually have gathered to conceal them and safeguard him from his oldest nemesis.

    “Paranoia?"  A fair question, he long ago admitted to himself.  "Perhaps.  But the system itself is supposed to help regulate such things.  I’ve had too many run-ins with Cardinal and his unique manifestations to dismiss them out of turn.  It's more than mere coincidence.”

    Spoiler

    Nisa called you her messenger.  Did Raidou convince you to label yourself in the same vein, but a more focused purpose?

    Freyd's hand found his brow and pressed against his temples to keep his head from peeling open like an overripe banana.
    You wanted this, Freyd; to be able to choose to be human.  This is where that choice leads.  So, fucking choose, already.

    A mental glare at his own shadow came out as clearing his throat.

    - Montjoy, speaking in Freyd's mind.
    (Source)

    “And whenever I turn within, I see the same thing I drew that day with you by the lake, Elora.  Do you remember our visit with Hannah?”  A shiver ran down his spine, visibly shaking his shoulder and arms, setting off clinking and grinding glass like a chandelier tosses about like a chime in the wind.

    Spoiler

    fba875332a2ede595a4f5e32a9c093c9--abstract-charcoal-drawing-charcoal-drawing-ideas.jpg.08f2da1340244b6350770bfe199342ee.jpgFreyd suddenly and violently thrust the canvas away from himself.  His hands shook, and the edges of his eyes twitched as he gazed angrily at the frame, now laying face down ten feet away.  Elora had never seen him so affected by anything.  That it was triggered by something as benign as a sketch was more than bizarre.  He closed his eyes, breathing heavily until he could steady himself again and calmly turning to her. 

    "We should move on."   His voice was devoid of emotion, like he had turned them off for fear of something abhorrent.  Grabbing his things, he stood and headed off in the direction of the cave.

    (Source)

     

     

     

    "Then there was Shadow himself."  Pausing to collect his thoughts, even recalling the battle often proved exhausting.  "The raid on the twenty-sixth floor was a tragic affair across Aincrad, but the battle itself was precarious beyond compare.  At one point, I drove my sword into the possessed minotaur, Orgoth, and in doing so made direct contact with the essence of Shadow the Malevolent himself.”  Freyd visibly flinched at the memory.  “It was like touching a single unifying emptiness behind the shell of all reality - awe inspiring and terrifying all at once. I cannot deny that it changed me.”  Looking upon both companions with sadness in the frame of absent eyes, he pressed on with his confessions.

    “You’ve seen me flit between pockets of darkness in combat.  When I use the Tracking skill, I can likewise see and hear my targets by linking near and distant shadows like windows. Another glitch affinity, perhaps?  Who knows, but the effects and abilities have only grown stronger since.”

    Spoiler

    "Shadow, the Malevolent."  The name sounded slightly clownish when he said it out loud, but the boss had proven himself to be a real and mortal threat.  "I never found out much of his backstory.  Everyone on the front lines was too focused on psyching themselves up for the fight to spare time for explanations."  A flick of his wrist sent a flat, polished, black stone skipping over the pond's surface.  The ripples reminded him of faces surfacing on roiling black water, only to be swallowed by liquid despair.

    "He'd possessed a minotaur champion named Orgoth, who was an absolute titan of a thing.  Through force of arms and a certain clever gambit, we helped to free him."  Freyd's hand twitched, unbidden, as if the fling another stone, but realizing that its charge was already spent.  "I... connected myself to the darkness within him.  It bought us time and gave him the respite he needed to shake off Shadow's influence, but... at a cost."  

    (Source)

    “Everyone saw visions of the flood outside.  Shadow sought to break the front liners’ spirits by showing them every imaginable scene of despair playing out across the floating castle.  But…” he gasped again, hoarseness returning to his voice and gaze locking upon Elora’s face.  “I swear that I could actually feel as each and every person fell, swallowed by that terrible tide.”  Anguish wrenched his features as he clearly recalled Elora's final moment, along with those of so many others. Even as cold as he was, especially back then, the sensation had been overwhelming.

    Spoiler

    He didn't mention how the flood had taken them too, in the wake of Shadow's defeat, or of the price he worried might still be due for the gambit he'd played during the fight with Orgoth.  The taint he'd endured, and shared with the mighty minotaur champion still haunted his dreams.  

    There may yet be a reckoning for that.

    I know, Montjoy.  I know.  But she doesn't need that burden, especially now.

    - Freyd and Montjoy conversing in his mind, as Elora recounts her fall to the flood.
    (Source)

    ***

    Takeshi.jpeg.b23a3641b9da0f8d75262c9cde2323f4.jpegSomething flashed across Freyd's face, akin to the ripples they'd been watching on the water.  His eyes winced and brow dipped in either pain or anger.  It was difficult to be sure which. Features frozen in place, the sound of a mirror breaking somewhere in the distance distracted, giving his shadow time to rise.  Like the malevolent dark that swallowed Aincrad whole during a not so distant raid, a veil of black spread from Freyd's shadow to engulf the rest of his form.  There was a kinship to watching a gemini transform, for those rare few who had ever witnessed the act.  Yet here was something more.  Whatever spark connects a player to their digital avatar in the game, his touched something vile while in contact with a possessed Orgoth during that raid.  Some might say his soul had splintered.  Others who knew him would argue that Freyd was already like that beforehand. Whatever the case, as the ink receded, their positions were reversed.  Sitting on the stump at Mina's side was a young man, wearing simple slacks and a blue-grey Henley, sleeves rolled up to his elbows.  Stark, angular features with a slightly predatory mien framed eyes coloured to match his shirt, or perhaps it was vice versa.  Thin, metallic wire-frame glasses hinted at something familiar and intelligent behind the face, all of it set below a mop of unruly black hair that matched Freyd's in style.

    - Mina meets Montjoy/Takeshi
    (Source

    Clearing his throat and thumping on the turned notebook to refocus himself.  Determination restored by will alone mandated that he set every piece to the record before whatever window this respite offered was closed, or his willingness to share finally faltered.

    “Consider my profession, also,” he added, changing tack, but adding to his confessional's growing list of evidence.  “Appraisers assess items, as you know well, but they can go far beyond that.  I’m honestly surprised that you didn’t take up the trade yourself, Violet.  It can be just as useful when assessing people, or even one's self. I’ve spent more time on that last count than most could ever fathom.”

    “Even my names offer clues: Freyd, frayed, ‘fraid? A broken thing, if ever there was one. Have you ever wondered why I call myself the Whisper in Shadows?  It’s a convenient moniker for sounding all stealthy and ominous, but the truth is far simpler and more personal: Montjoy is the whisper in my shadow - the constant reminder that some inkling of humanity remained possible within this drawn and weather shell."  Freyd’s absent eyes only reinforced the solemn imagery.

    Spoiler

    "It's just not in him to give you what you seek as plainly as you would like.  He's tried, and keeps trying, but only one person has managed to connect with him on that level, and it took more than you can fathom to build that trust.  Plainly put: he just doesn't know how.  Rebuilding himself in here trapped him within the confines of a system that now defines everything that he is.  If I am his conscience and humanity, his lived experience constructed another, stronger and more dominant influence - one that enabled him to survive at any cost.  It kept him alive through Kayaba's decree and aftermath, but it also nearly broke him to later pull away from its control and restore some semblance of balance in himself, and its more fragile than anyone realizes.  That cold and calculating machine is always there; his own inner Cardinal, waiting to resume its position at his helm.  It's the thing that you are truly fighting against, Mina - that we all are.  It's also the reason why you will never crack the Whisper open overnight.  Even that name is a revelation.  People think it's some sort of cryptic edgelord persona.  Sadly not.  All that remains of him is that Whisper in Shadows, terrified to call out into darkness lest its own defenses turn it into the monster they were meant to prevent - the one that nearly throttled another boy to death.  He can't let you in without risking unravelling the cobbled Frankenstein personality that now makes Freyd who he is, and he's terrified of how easily that other self would hurt anyone who got in its way."

    - Montjoy to Mina
    (Source)

    Freyd’s form shifted once more, roiling with uncertainty and evoking the same undefined nature as the sketch he’d drawn by Hannah’s shores so very long ago.  Turning, he seemed to gaze upon the nearby still-standing form of Montjoy who’d been watching intently from his post. His silhouette matching Takeshi’s trademark guise precisely, as both Mina and Elora had both seen it.

    “Montjoy is the voice of what Takeshi could have been,” Freyd added with unrestrained remorse, “but he was never such a decent, fulsome human being in actual life.  It’s like he’s an echo of a person’s potential?”  The shadow turned away, revealing itself more clearly in profile, and nodding in regretful agreement.  Of course, he had always known.

    Spoiler

    “He calls me Montjoy," the man interjected, "after the arrogant French herald from Shakespeare’s Henry V.  I’m to be taught humility, apparently, though I suspect my purpose is actually to teach him the same, with a hefty dose of conscience."  Turning, he sent her a sympathetic smile, far more compelling than Freyd's faltering earlier attempt.  "Congratulations, Elora.  You’ve made quite the breakthrough yourself, it seems.  He's immensely happy for you. If only we could show him how to express it in a less shrapnel-laden manner.”

    Stepping lightly and casually onto the earthy soil and bracing a polished shoe against one of the thicker protruding roots, Montjoy plucked a shard of static breaking Freyd from the air and spun in on a fingertip.

    “Oh, Takeshi.  For such a stuffy sourpuss, you sure have a flair for the dramatic.  He’s actually head over heels for you, you know, but he’s completely hopeless when it comes to expressing such things.”  A sad, gentle smile affixed itself to his lips, eerily familiar to Freyd’s more mischievous grins but far more genuine and disarming.  Montjoy's eyes were far purer and more honest in their intentions, not layered with an onion-worthy combination of interwoven schemes  like Freyd's always seemed to be.

    “Well, maybe not completely, but don't tell him I said so.”

    - Montjoy to Elora, as Freyd sits fractured and breaking apart
    (Source)

    ***

    "You haven't answered my question. Who the hell are you -- or -- what are you? Are you a Gemini?"

    “I answered honestly: he calls me Montjoy, though I am as much Freyd as we are both Takeshi.”   The man spoke simple truth wrapped in such a tangled, convoluted weave of context and fate that made it sound more like an unintended riddle.

    A strange serenity came over him.  She recognized it instantly: that same focused intensity as Freyd, but where his was the harsh and singular precision of a laser, Montjoy’s was a deeper, all-pervasive wisdom and calm.  And, it was familiar.  She’d felt it when she fell asleep against Freyd’s shoulder while hiding from Valentina, and every time Freyd talked her down from an avalanche of  raging passions.  Every time he lifted her up.  Every time he did what she had just declared in anger that she would do herself.  It felt exactly the same.

    “I’ve been helping both of you for a very long time,” Montjoy replied softly.  “Just as you’ve been helping him to learn to hear me.”  Raising his hand, he dropped the shard back into place.  It rippled across the rest of the fractured field, causing a cacophony of clicks and clinks as they fused back together into a single whole.  Restored, Freyd’s image reflected Montjoy’s stance, like two figures watching each other in a mirror.  They were two sides of the same person, split as if through a prism and staring back at one another.

    “I’m no gemini, Elora.  I’m him - only just the tiny part of him few might recognize as a decent human being.  You have a talent for seeing that in him.  You always have.  And it’s very likely to have saved his life.”

    (Source)

    With a heavy sigh and concerted effort, Freyd restored himself to his original appearance, barring the still-present fractures and splintering fractal elements. Eyes slowly returning to their familiar blue selves, and yet not.  He'd never felt so awkward and exposed, even ashamed.  Not for believing any of what he'd just spoken aloud, but for having kept it from those closest to him.  Swallowing, hard, he struggled at finding his words.

    “Elora… this… I know this is too much… and sounds crazy, but… well... uh... do you remember when we spoke about whether we would ever leave this world, given the chance?”  Memories of scented tea drifted through his consciousness, recalling the tenderest of moments.

    “I answered as Takeshi would, but..." he sighed, continuing, "I honestly don’t even know whether he exists anymore, or ever did, in every or any sense."  He felt absurd, even trying to explain it. "Please, understand that I would go anywhere, brave anything, forge across unknown or forbidden worlds, if it meant that I could be with you.”  Shutting his eyes at the ridiculousness of the declaration, he knew his only option was to press on.

    Spoiler

    "I don't know that I'd want to go back."

    Images flooded Freyd's mind of a scene from his deepest nightmares: a guild hall devastated by unimaginable flaming carnage and destruction; a friends' list of names stricken and transferred to some cold marble monument; his heart broken in despair.  The same recurring dream, for weeks now, and in vividly sharp details like no dream should or could ever be.  Everything he cared for devastated in an instant.  Sights, smells, sounds, and pain that no algorithm could properly or possibly suppress.  Focus on the now.  Kneeling down, her helped her collect the scattered bits from off the floor, luring Borris away with a flick of shadow from his wrist.

    "I feel like that's something I really needed, and if I'm being honest. I don't know that I'd want to go back."

    "I'm glad you've found that, though I can't help wonder why you needed it so much in the first place.  As to leaving here..."  He closed his eyes, those same memories threatening to overwhelm his weakening control.  "I resigned myself to staying here a long, long time ago.  There was nothing for me out there when I left.  Only one thing I've since found could ever convince me otherwise, and she's in here. Unable to find more words, Freyd's eyes oddly avoided hers instead, the admission forcing his heart hold its next beat. This sort of honesty was hard.  She'd never seen him look so uncertain and... vulnerable.

    (Source)

    “I once declared myself a liar to you, Mina, and all of this is why. I’ve often called it the Thing Behind All Lies: the mystery, doubts and absurd potential truth of being whoever or whatever I actually am, and the simple revelation that I do not honestly know the answer anymore.”

    He’d been trying to give voice to all of this for a very long time, but could never truly manage it.  Some would simply think he’d gone mad, while he personally feared those closest to him might also feel betrayed, especially if his suspicions were ever proven to be true. Hurting any of them because of it had become increasingly unbearable, and dismissal at his attempts to share it had only led to vicious and growing cycles of repression that had finally reached their tipping point.  

    It was time to make a choice.

    Spoiler

    "Everything I am is a lie, Mina.  You're right, but far more than you realize.  I don't just gird myself behind walls of ice.  I play every part I am expected or required to play, and at every turn, for the sake of keeping everyone else alive.”

    - Freyd, responding to Mina's interrogation
    (Source)

    ***

    "I'm... conflicted.  I have been for some time, which isn't like me at all, but something unexpected happened before the raid."  Pressing his face into both hands, he swept back his crop of unruly hair.  It tumbled back into his eyes, ignoring such a paltry effort to interfere with its favoured state of dishevelment.  Turning to catch her gaze, he found it odd to have to struggle to meet it.  Here was a man whose glare could wilt flowers at thirty paces on the clear and shining summer's day, and yet he couldn't bring himself to say the words.  The notion of such a weakness was enough to stir fires of determination within, and he lifted his eyes to meet hers.  They were black.  Not merely the irises, but black in their entirety, like staring into the depths of the abyss, or into the darkest recesses of an infinite void.

    "I've survived this world by emptying myself of everything: all connections and cares, and every feeling I have ever known.  I did it because I feared the darkest impulses within were unbalanced.  There was nothing noble to temper them, and I've lived what happens when they come out.  Not just here, but in the real world.  I didn't care about anything or anyone.  Even worse, I denied myself the possibility of caring, save in pretense and to the extent that it served whatever goals I'd set for myself."

    Freyd's gut churned as he spoke his confession.  It made him sound horrible, but it was the truth, and he wouldn't hide from it.  

    "It was the only way to be sure that I could do whatever was required - pay any price, or suffer any cost, to achieve whatever end.  Raidou bade me promise to carry on if he ever fell, and take Firm Anima forward to the top of this damnable castle.  I think I agreed because I knew had the will to do whatever it would take."  Pursing his lips, Freyd eyes darted over hers, seeing his visage reflected in those light blue eyes, hating yet desperate to work through the conflict he saw upon it.  Shame welled within.

    "I'm not okay.  I can't possibly be okay if this is how I define my existence.  And I learned that by spending time with someone whose sheer joy of life was matched only with her uncertainty in herself."  A smile mustered, displaying his pride in her growth.  Elora had come so far.  

    "You've shown me how to find meaning in life itself, not just progressing through a system towards an abstract goal.   I've learned to feel again."  The words fell like boulders crashing into water.  He'd never admitted it to himself out loud before.

    "I could be a person again, instead of whatever thing I'd let myself become out of fear and loathing for the dark potential I knew lay within.  But, doing so means exposing a weakness in the armor I built around myself - that soulless machine that could plow through anything to achieve its purpose.  For all its power, the one thing that it cannot do is care."  

    Pangs of something rang through his chest, compelling his eyes to close and teeth to clench.  Dozens of shadowy silhouettes suddenly manifest in the pond all around them, Freyd in shape and size, but fully black as pitch.  They stood, silently watching whatever this was, as if waiting for some sort of command.  Above Freyd's head, the green crystal icon darkened, first to orange, then red, and finally to light-consuming black.  Freyd's eyes opened wide as he gasped for breath and it all vanished as suddenly as it had appeared.  Gone were the copies, cast back into the void, and the crystal over his head was restored to its former emerald sheen.  Freyd's form rippled, for a moment, in the manner of a gemini changing its shape.  Confusion swept over his features as the forces within him threatened to rip him asunder.

    "I don't know who or what I am anymore!"

    - Freyd, in the aftermath of the raid against Shadow the Malevolent, trying to explain to Elora
    (Source)

    ***

    "So you know what, Freyd? I don't care if you don't care, because you've already showed more kindness to me than most people have -- And you've taught me...how to care about other people...or at least, to realize that I can become the kind of person for them that you have been to me..."

    Confusion.  He had?  How?  Sensations flooding through him overwhelmed the machine.  Memories meshed together, pulling back in his utterly blown mind to reveal a pattern of being that had been there since the start, subtly weaving their lives into a map that could lead to something more.  Rarely are any so fortunate as to fathom the constellations of fate, and never without consequence.  Finally easing his guard, he gazed at her, an avatar of magnificently fierce fragility surrounded by a halo of fog and light.  Angels could never compete with such a vision.

    "I..."

    His voice trailed and warbled.  Lips pursed and looked ready to burst, suddenly interrupted by the sound of shattering glass.  Freyd's entire form seemed to shimmer for an instant, then shattered in its entirety, like a mob at the moment of death revealed to be nothing more than a two-dimensional pane of digital glass.  Like the rest of him, the slowly swirling crystal of polished obsidian over his head exploded.  Before Elora could react, the entire scene slowed to a crawl, Freyd's fragmented form frozen in the middle of its own destruction.  Blossoms still swayed on the nearby cherry trees.  Rippled still radiated in the water as small insects sacrificed themselves as snacks to whatever lay beneath the surface.  Reality gave way to the surreal.

    - Elora's words nearly fracture Freyd into a thousand pieces, causing Montjoy/Takeshi to appear
    (Source)

    ***

    "But..." he hesitated, wondering whether the subjects of his disturbingly recurring dreams would be appropriate fodder for fish therapy, as this seemed to be the emerging purpose of their time together.  "What if you are a robot?"  There was no jest behind the question.  It was a serious ask.  Freyd almost felt a palpable effort required to keep the icon over his head from changing to another colour.  The consequences would be unfathomable.  And yet?  He had long felt detachment from the world around him, and the people in it.  Friends he'd made during his tenure in SAO had changed his perspective considerably.  In some ways, he was feeling 'human' for the first time, at least by how others seemed to define the standards.

    - Freyd, speaking with Mina
    (Source)

    ***

    "Freyd, you're human.  Stop trying to convince yourself otherwise."

    Freyd's silence was his only response, his face remaining blank though his jaw was visibly set and locked.  She isn't hearing me, and doesn't seem able to.  Eyes drifting to Montjoy's blurry outline rippling on the water's surface, the sun had drifted with time to sit at their backs.  His disappointment was buried and left for dead beneath the waves.  Mina needed to be right in this.  Therapists always needed to be right and convince their patients of their version of the truth.  It was a battle he'd fought so many times, and learned to overcome by allowing the other side to believe that they had won. 

    'She wants to help you, and in so doing help herself.'  Montjoy's words resonated with wisdom.  He spoke seldomly these days, but no less poignantly.  An audible sigh and voice tinted with a hint of that very same trauma Mina had only just mentioned.

    "Please don't presume to tell me what I am.  I should know it better than you, shouldn't I?  But I will give you this: I want to be more human, for her, and also for the rest of you.  The other path only leads to..."  Blue eyes gazed upon eternal hunger and nothingness wrapped around his hands.

    - Freyd tries to tell Mina the Thing Behind All Lies
    (Source)

    Sitting in silence for a long time, Freyd finally managed to draw a single deep, centering breath.

    “After all this, I’ve finally come to a simple realization.”  Voice muted, but clearing and gaining strength as he spoke, they would see vigor and brightness returning to his features. Laden with the same clarity and serenity previously reserved only for Montjoy, Freyd's confidence returned, but seemed tempered by a sense of inner peace he always struggled to achieve.

    “I wanted you both to hear my doubts and struggles, and understand the road I’ve traveled. It’s a convoluted wreck of unverifiable half-truths, assumptions and consequences, to say the least. But, that's just how my story goes.  It's also what has led me to an undeniable conclusion: that I’ve been asking the wrong question all along.”

    His face eased into a gentle smile, light returning to the chamber as the surrounding shadows withdrew like clouds parting to reveal the shining sun behind them.

    “Mina was right.” A plainly put declaration, wrapped in humility and a deeply cast shade of blush. ”It doesn’t really matter what I am. All that matters is who I choose to be and that I live my life to the fullest, whatever that might mean.  And I feel like an absolute moron that it's taken me this long to realize it.”

    Whispers are also, it turns out, apparently terrible at dealing with their own pride.

    Spoiler

    "But at our core, the essence of what makes us human... its the capacity for empathy, our mostly-caring nature. That wish to nurture, to love..."

    It hadn't always been so.  Had Mina truly known his state of mind in the not-so-distant past, she might have recoiled in terror at the depths of darkness in the recesses of his cowl.  What lay within was alien to the human mind, abhorrent even to its very concept of reality, yet also somehow tethered to it by a soul.  How can I explain?

    - Freyd and Mina on the nature of humanity
    (Source)

    “What matters is who I choose to be, right here, right now.  And that means being someone who lives and cares for those around him.”  Water rimmed his eyes as he looked to Mina, offering unspoken thanks for her ceaseless efforts, and hoping with every fiber of himself to convey his appreciation. As each word was spoken, the fragmentation of his form reversed itself, restoring him to whole, and perhaps even slightly better off for having survived his self-made crucible.

    Spoiler

    Be human Freyd.

    - Montjoy, giving advice.
    (Source)

    ***

    A stick of something smokey and scented stuck in his mouth, the Whisper sat with a small bucket of bait at his side, legs dangling off the edge of a small abandoned dock along the edge of the Lake of Reflections.  He'd found it in the late hours of the Tanabata festival while searching for Yori, a boy who'd gone missing from the village.  Though tragic, the event had been among the earliest kindlings of humanity in an otherwise withered soul.  He'd always had a soft spot for kids without knowing why.  There were no siblings in his life, and none that could justifiably be called friends through the gauntlet of his youth.  Colleagues seemed the closest he could manage.  'How much that has changed,' he admitted to himself with sublime serenity.  Even love had become possible.

    - Freyd fishing with Mina
    (Source)

    Pulling up a hidden flap on his torso, Freyd revealed the green-tinged ghostly pin of the Shadowed Rose, forever kept over his heart.  

    “You are my salvation, Elora.”  Sincere admiration beaming her way as their azure eyes locked. “You’ve always been my reminder to be a better person than my nature would otherwise allow. I love you for that, now and forever. You set me free from the prison of my own soul, then badgered me rightfully into believing that I ever had one.”

    Spoiler

    There are... complicated reasons why I was... the way I was, and am the way I am.  It's taken time and the efforts of many good people to make me realize the price of my former path and even consider other options."

    ... 

    "The Shadowed Rose.  I had it commissioned to commemorate a precious memory, and the person whom I shared that moment with.  She has had a profound impact on me, in a way you would appreciate.  I've come to know her gradually, through multiple shared trials and tribulations.  My mind and soul were saved because of her efforts; because she believed in a cold, calculating murder-hobo and saw something human inside, beneath the prerequisite facade." 

    - Freyd fishing with Mina
    (Source)

    ***

    You have no idea how very right you are, Mina.  And how thankful I am for it.  Love is the glue holding a thousand thousand gemini together - a vessel made and claimed for nobler purposes then left to choose what to make of itself.  Do we even know if we are human?  What if we're just digital imprints of human minds surreptitiously stripped from their true hosts and set loose in here to satisfy Kayaba's cravings for the illusion of control?"  The little smile was back, looking far less innocent than it had a moment ago. 

    "Treasure the person who encouraged you to have that made. "

    "I accepted long ago that we are both who and what we choose to make ourselves, especially in here.  Thanks to her, I've chosen to find that lost human being inside and nurture him back to the surface: to make a better Freyd."  So much remained unsaid beyond that, but it was too soon, and might always be.  He wasn't sure he could ever voice those Things Behind All Lies.  

    "You're just as able to feel pain as the rest of us."

    He nodded, still smiling, yet knowing that it too was a lie.  Looking down at the bobber in the water, Freyd caught the shadow of his own reflection looking back through him, knowing the unfathomable truth and triggering the next phase of its endlessly intertwining schemes.  It will be nice to be human for awhile.  Impossible words spoken from the void without a mouth, or breath, or even being.

    - Freyd fishing with Mina
    (Source)

    ***

    Holding her close and tenderly, Freyd let her feel every emotion surging inside, but had never been willing to let out.  His heartbeat could serve as her anchor, soaking in everything she let out whether spoken, squeezed or even carved into his digital flesh.  He let his eyes do the talking, looking down into hers and reading through them to the soul within.  She needed to know that he was here for her in whatever way she ever needed. 

    "I mean what I said: I would stay in here forever if it meant that we could stay together.  And I would fight my way through flame and every hellish landscape if all you ever wanted was to be held outside this world."  Three  more words hovered on his lips, hesitating to be spoken for fear that he wasn't worthy of knowing their meaning.  Yet, here she was. The same words he had shared with @Freya in the Forest of Memories came flooding back: Survival, alone, is just not enough.  Facing a thousand field bosses seemed easy by comparison, yet he barely managed to get the words out.

    - Freyd and Elora
    (Source)

    ***

    "I chose who I want to be.  I... err... how do I even explain this?"  It was odd that he would even try.  Freyd was know for deflection when it came to his thoughts and intentions, not for laying them bare.  Closing his eyes, he gently pulled her closer, touching his forehead to hers, as if physical contact might beam his thoughts and intentions through where his words would fail.  It gave him the courage to try.

    "I want to be the person you see in me.  The one you said you want to be yourself.  If we can each see it in the other, maybe, together, we can help each other see it in ourselves?"

    Re-opening his eyes, he peered deeply into hers, seeing his own blue irises reflected in her own, and realizing the change for the first time.  His lips twisted and eyes watered, registering the significance.  His heart had finally won, thanks to her.  A genuine smile spread wide, from ear to ear and he laughed a tearful laugh of earnest happiness.

    "Thank you, Elora.  Just for being you."

    - Freyd and Elora
    (Source)

    “I don’t care whatever fate or truth thinks it can govern me, who I am or what I am allowed to become.”  Blazing passion kindled behind his words, fueled by warmth and longing for a better life, overruling his cold, calculating, customary reason.  He wanted this, and was committing to it for himself and everyone he cared about.  Like an inferno flaring in his very core, Freyd looked more alive than either had ever seen him.  

    “We can all be who we want, wherever we want - in here or out there - if we choose to do it together.”

  8. "Wait?  What?  Morning?  How the heck did your end up - WHOA!"

    The mutant Bullwinkle nearly gored him while he gawked, glad that his companion had made it safely out of Glyndebourne after their ambush, but curious as to how he'd ended up so far in the woods.  Taking a moment to dodge, refocus and reposition himself to better control the field, it was Hirru's words which brought him fully back into the fold.

    "Freyd, are you seeing this?  The fucked up antelope is pulling the chilled air around it to chill the wounds it gains.  The wounds become icy armor that encase the wound and allow it to heal them!"

    He was right.  This thing was playing by a different set of rules than those allotted to common mobs.  Try as he might, Freyd simply couldn't get close enough to land a proper blow without frost beginning to form on his extremities.

    "Alright.  New plan.  Hirru, keep back and call it as you see it.  You'll have a better vantage.  Mina and Morning keep doing your thing.  We just need to get out footing and pacing, and then we'll own this thing."

    Freyd, how about you just stop fucking up for a change, and then maybe that will all actually be true.

    ***

    Freyd's Action:

    Spoiler

    Correction: Shatter still at 1/3 until Owij'be acts again.

    Freyd regains +4 EN
    CD 4 (No REC proc) ID #223265

    Post Action | TECH-D (x12, 12 EN): 12 EN  - (Rested 1/2; Stamina) = 9 EN.  Charge (+8 EN, CD 0/3) (missed, 0 EN)
    Free Action | None

    ID #223266 | BD: 1 (miss). Yay.

    Freyd | HP: 1311/1311 | EN: 143/152 (147+4-0) | DMG: 24 | MIT: 123 | EVA: 5 | ACC: 5 | BH: 72 | LD: 12 | PROSP: 3 | FLN: 16 | HLY: 16 | TXV: 32 | TRLBLD | PARA IMMUNE | REC: 8 | V.D.: 144 | Dote: 3/3 | Prob: 36
    Tricolor_Mina HP: 760/760 | EN: 91/110 | DMG: 21 | MIT: 138 | ACC: 7 | LD: 4 | BLGT: 32 | BRN: 56 | FRSTB: 40 | V.D.: 76 (Charge CD: 0/3)
    Hirru HP: 1113/1113 | EN: 98/108 | DMG: 1 | MIT: 182 | LD: 8~11 | BH: 55 | HLY BLS: 44 | MENDING: 2 | REC: 8 | THRNS: 36 | HYPE 1/3 //CD: 1/3

    Morningstar | HP: 851/851 | EN: 90/112 | DMG: 28 | MIT: 60 | EVA: 4 | ACC: 6 | BH: 39 | LD: 5 (6) | REC: 4 | FLN: 16 | AA | PAR VEN 

    (3,1,0,2) Owij’be The Indomitable | HP: 3,109/4000 (3496-386) | DMG: 200 | MIT: 125 110  | ACC: 2 | Battle Healing: 220 165 | Shatter: -40 MIT (1/3) | BURN 54 (1/2) | Bloodied but Unbowed (1): +25 MIT

    • Bloodied but Unbowed: For each source of damage dealt to Owij’be (Including DoT Effects), its mitigation is increased by 25. This fades at the start of Owij’be’s turn.
    • Unstoppable Force [AoE]: Every 3 turns, Owij’be will begin to rush through the arena. The blistering winds of The Cave will follow in its wake. Owij’be gains +2 accuracy and makes an attack against all targets, Dealing 300 damage on a success and inflicting [Bitter Chill] unless the target has [Antifreeze].
    • Titanic Bulwark [Equip]: Every 5th turn, Owij’be will gather nearby trees into its antlers and brandish them as a weapon. For as long as Owij’be has a branch in its antlers, it gains +50 Base Damage, +1 Accuracy on all of its attacks. This debris can be attacked like a normal creature to end this effect.
      • Titanic Bulwark | HP: 500/500
    • [Bitter Chill]: Target loses -2 evasion until removed, any further refreshes of this effect instead deal 100 unmitigated damage to the target. Purify will remove this debuff.
    • Demolish [AoE]: At any point a Titanic Bulwark loses more than half of its HP and is not destroyed or 4 turns have passed since its creation, Owij’be will use Demolish. This attack is an autohit dealing 300 unmitigated damage on all targets and inflicts [Bitter Chill].
    • Burned Hide | Owij’be loses -55 of its battle healing while burned.
    • Immovable Object | If Owji’be strikes a target who is under the effects of Rampart, it concusses itself and cannot act the following turn.
    • Dizzied | Delay pushes all of its turn based effects back a single turn.
    • Shocking | Stun (Familiar/Player) & Paralyze do not disable the boss, but instead remove/negate a single stack of Bloodied but Unbowed.
    • Frost Resistant | Cold Effects (Freeze & Frostbite) will not disable the boss, but will reduce its damage by 25 until the start of its next turn.

    Enemy's Action:

    Spoiler

    Owij'be turn 2

    Bloodied but Unbowed fades.
    Owij'be regains 165 hp from BH.
    Owij'be suffers 54 burn.  Burn fades.

    ID #223266 | MD: 2+2-5=-1 (miss)

    Freyd | HP: 1311/1311 | EN: 147/152 | DMG: 24 | MIT: 123 | EVA: 5 | ACC: 5 | BH: 72 | LD: 12 | PROSP: 3 | FLN: 16 | HLY: 16 | TXV: 32 | TRLBLD | PARA IMMUNE | REC: 8 | V.D.: 144 | Dote: 3/3 | Prob: 36
    Tricolor_Mina HP: 760/760 | EN: 91/110 | DMG: 21 | MIT: 138 | ACC: 7 | LD: 4 | BLGT: 32 | BRN: 56 | FRSTB: 40 | V.D.: 76 (Charge CD: 0/3)
    Hirru HP: 1113/1113 | EN: 98/108 | DMG: 1 | MIT: 182 | LD: 8~11 | BH: 55 | HLY BLS: 44 | MENDING: 2 | REC: 8 | THRNS: 36 | HYPE 1/3 //CD: 1/3

    Morningstar | HP: 851/851 | EN: 90/112 | DMG: 28 | MIT: 60 | EVA: 4 | ACC: 6 | BH: 39 | LD: 5 (6) | REC: 4 | FLN: 16 | AA | PAR VEN 

    (3,1,0,2) Owij’be The Indomitable | HP: 3,220/4000 (3109+165-54) | DMG: 200 | MIT: 125 65  | ACC: 2 | Battle Healing: 220 165 | Shatter: -40 MIT (2/3) | BURN 54 (2/2) 

    • Bloodied but Unbowed: For each source of damage dealt to Owij’be (Including DoT Effects), its mitigation is increased by 25. This fades at the start of Owij’be’s turn.
    • Unstoppable Force [AoE]: Every 3 turns, Owij’be will begin to rush through the arena. The blistering winds of The Cave will follow in its wake. Owij’be gains +2 accuracy and makes an attack against all targets, Dealing 300 damage on a success and inflicting [Bitter Chill] unless the target has [Antifreeze].
    • Titanic Bulwark [Equip]: Every 5th turn, Owij’be will gather nearby trees into its antlers and brandish them as a weapon. For as long as Owij’be has a branch in its antlers, it gains +50 Base Damage, +1 Accuracy on all of its attacks. This debris can be attacked like a normal creature to end this effect.
      • Titanic Bulwark | HP: 500/500
    • [Bitter Chill]: Target loses -2 evasion until removed, any further refreshes of this effect instead deal 100 unmitigated damage to the target. Purify will remove this debuff.
    • Demolish [AoE]: At any point a Titanic Bulwark loses more than half of its HP and is not destroyed or 4 turns have passed since its creation, Owij’be will use Demolish. This attack is an autohit dealing 300 unmitigated damage on all targets and inflicts [Bitter Chill].
    • Burned Hide | Owij’be loses -55 of its battle healing while burned.
    • Immovable Object | If Owji’be strikes a target who is under the effects of Rampart, it concusses itself and cannot act the following turn.
    • Dizzied | Delay pushes all of its turn based effects back a single turn.
    • Shocking | Stun (Familiar/Player) & Paralyze do not disable the boss, but instead remove/negate a single stack of Bloodied but Unbowed.
    • Frost Resistant | Cold Effects (Freeze & Frostbite) will not disable the boss, but will reduce its damage by 25 until the start of its next turn.

     

  9. Hirru seemed distant and sluggish in his movements, even as Freyd spun and whirled like a madman trying to keep the vile snake-like thing at bay.  Parrying where the couldn't dodge outright, its sheer size and speed made it more than a handful.

    "Holy crap... new eyes?!  This bloody thing is mutating even as we fight it."  Poking out a few bought him and opening to deliver several swift strikes, and even momentarily turn the tide in their favour, but the fight was far from over.  "Gah!  This thing is just... wrong." A familiar buzz of energy from the vice-commander's direction told him Hirru was busy doing his thing and keeping him topped up.

    "Persi!"

    A streak of black lightning shot out from the darkness, catching the massive serpent from behind.  A song of shattering shards signaled damage dealt, supplemented by the abundant bobbling of eyes that simply shouldn't be.  

    "Thanks, girl," he breathed behind clenched teeth, his familiar having granted them a momentary reprieve.

    "Hirru?" Freyd called out, noticing the glossy look in his companion's eyes and worried that he'd been bitten or otherwise afflicted by something. "You still with me, pal?"

    Please say yes.  Pretty please?

    "Now's really not the time to go goofy on me.  You okay?"

    ***

    Spoiler

    Freyd regains +4 EN
    CD 6 (No REC proc) ID #223263
    Cooldown: Quick Change (1/3)

    Post Action | AoE-II (x18, 14 EN +2 shift, +2/hit): 18 EN - (Rested 1/2, Stamina) = 15 EN
    Free Action [skill] | Grappling Familiar (CD 0/5)

    ID #223264 | BD:4+7-3=8 (hit).  DMG (18*26=468-160=308) to Cursed Serpent Malediction.  Stun applied. (CD 9 | ST-B unlocked)

    Cursed Serpent Malediction is stunned.  Stun fades.

    Freyd | HP: 1357/1357 | EN: 121/152 (132+4-15) | DMG: 26 | MIT: 163 | ACC: 7 | EVA: 3 | BH: 73 | LD: 8 | FLN: 16 | HLY: 16 | PARA IMMUNE | REC: 8 | DOTE: 2/3 | TRLBLD
    Hirru | HP: 1113/1113 | EN: 98/108  | DMG: 1 | MIT: 110 | LD: 11~14 | BH: 55 | HLY BLS: 45 | MENDING: 2 | REC: 8 | THRNS: 76

    (4,0) Cursed Serpent, Malediction | HP: 1222/2000 | DMG: 360 | MIT: 160 | ACC: 3 | EVA: 3 (1530-308)

    • Critical (MD 9): Deals (400) DMG to the target with the highest hate. Also deals (240) DMG to every other player.
    • Critical (MD 10): Deals (440) DMG to the target with the highest hate. Also deals (340) DMG to every other player.

     

  10. Apologetic doom.  How fitting.  As the bucket wobbled precariously overhead, Freyd knew this moment would not end well.  He lacked the kind of luck you need to avoid these situations.  In fact, he seemed a magnet for them.  The thump of a spear's butt accompanies creaking hinge that sang in tune with Elora's lilting charm.

    "Freeeyd?  "Are you ok -- I didn't mean to --"

    Fate can be set off for a time, but never truly escaped.  Those moments when you can see it hurtling towards you - especially from above - are just the worst.  No avoidance will suffice, and justice had it out for him this round.  And so it was that he laid watching the murky flour-baited vessel he'd set high as his trap topple and spin.  As if in slow motion, its eccentric wobble turned, inevitably spilling its contents all over his startled face.  Even his cowl was in on it.  Traitor.  Coif as captor to its master's mischief, it served as the perfect supple bowl to catch and contain the sticky mass that fell. The bucket itself thunked onto Freyd's face like a giant suction cup before he could even lift a finger to protect himself.

    "AH - HAH!"

    Elora's exclamation muted by his improvised helm, he couldn't quite tell what his counterpart was up to, nor did he really have the luxury of asking.  Swiping the vat from his head with force, Freyd gasped for breath denied him by the paste seeking to infiltrate his nostrils.  Rolling underfoot, it caught Elora mid-skid and eyes bulging with surprise.  One lard-laden step later, she was airborne, if only momentarily.  Crashing down hard, he unexpectedly cushioned her fall with his midriff, gasp instantly reversing to tumultuous and forceful exhale as the same wind he'd sought to capture fled amidst surprise.  Freyd bucked, folding in half and then falling back hard, rapping his head on the stone floor with a solid crack that added unbaked dough-like tweety-birds clogging up the haze of stars swimming between him and the ceiling.

    "Ooof" he barely muttered, lacking breath for anything more, wheezing to recover.  She felt his chest convulsing beneath her, instilling a moment's panic before revealing truth: Freyd was laughing, or desperately trying to, at least.

  11. Thread Closure:

    Morningstar receives:

    5,822 EXP (Word Count [6452/10*6*0.6] + Quest [3500])
    11,823 col (1 page [200] + Loot [3250] + Quest [7500] + 15% P5 Reward [873])
    2 Materials (Loot [2])
    1x Cerberus Etching (Unique Material) Removes one enhancement on a weapon and replaces it with Burn. (This effect cannot override the Burn enhancement cap. Consumed on use.)
    Perfect Consumable 223155a
    Perfect Consumable 223155b
    Perfect Armor/Shield 223155c
    Perfect Armor/Shield 223155d
    Unlock <<TECH-G>> collected sword art.

    Freyd receives:

    6,579 EXP (Word Count [6452/10*17*0.6] + Quest [n/a])
    9,436 col (1 page [0] + Loot [8450] + Quest [n/a] + 15% P5 Reward [986])
    1x Cerberus Etching (Unique Material) Removes one enhancement on a weapon and replaces it with Burn. (This effect cannot override the Burn enhancement cap. Consumed on use.)
    T4 Perfect Consumable 223254

    Zandra receives:

    7,370 EXP (Word Count [6452/10*10*0.6] + Quest [3500])
    8,805 col (1 page [200] + Loot [X] + Quest [7500] + 15% P5 Reward [1,105])
    X Materials (Loot [X])
    1x Cerberus Etching (Unique Material) Removes one enhancement on a weapon and replaces it with Burn. (This effect cannot override the Burn enhancement cap. Consumed on use.)
    Unlock <<TECH-G>> collected sword art.

  12. "Eww.  Seriously.  Who comes up with this stuff?!"  Grimacing even as he advanced, Freyd proceeded to devastate the serpent's menacing form, rendering unto it the blessing of doomly Swiss cheese.  In other words, by the time he was finished with his kata, it had a bunch of fist-size holes all over it exposing the damaged orange avatar mesh beneath.  Dashing with supernatural speed, the serpent sought to recover, but found only shadow and the ear-splitting keening of a Whisper's riposte as he'd already moved to its flank.

    "Keep that shield up!  This one's got a bad case of grabby hands."  When its fangs failed to find purchase, the monstrous boss lashed out with its many limbs and tongues instead.  Fortunately, all failed to find purchase, but it wasn't for lack of effort. 

    "We really need to find a nice quiet beach somewhere, with no mobs, and nothing but suds and lady friends to keep us company.  It would certainly beat dancing with these things, and be a welcome change of pace, don'tcha think?"

    Having successfully turned the mob away from Hirru, Freyd made to kite it towards the exit where they might more easily make their escape, if necessary.  No dungeon boss could be treated casually, despite his flippant comments and behaviour, and they'd both already had a tough enough slog for one day.

    ***

    Spoiler

    Freyd regains +4 EN
    CD 6 (No REC proc) ID #223218

    Post Action | AoE-I (x15, 11 EN +2 shift, +2/hit): 15 EN - (Rested 2/2, Stamina) = 12 EN
    Free Action [skill] | Quick Change (CD 0/3) - replace The Thing Behind All Lies with Samael's Pride

    ID #223219 | BD: 8+7-3=12 (hit, Fallen +16).  DMG (15*42=630-160=470) vs Cursed Serpent Malediction (CD 1 | ST-B locked)

    ID #223220 | MD: 2+3-3=2 (miss)

    Freyd | HP: 1357/1357 | EN: 124/152 (132+4-12) | DMG: 26 | MIT: 163 | ACC: 7 | EVA: 3 | BH: 73 | LD: 8 | FLN: 16 | HLY: 16 | PARA IMMUNE | REC: 8 | DOTE: 2/3 | TRLBLD
    Hirru | HP: 1113/1113 | EN: 108/108  | DMG: 1 | MIT: 110 | LD: 11~14 | BH: 55 | HLY BLS: 45 | MENDING: 2 | REC: 8 | THRNS: 76

    (2,0) Cursed Serpent, Malediction | HP: 1530/2000 | DMG: 360 | MIT: 160 | ACC: 3 | EVA: 3 (2000-470)

    • Critical (MD 9): Deals (400) DMG to the target with the highest hate. Also deals (240) DMG to every other player.
    • Critical (MD 10): Deals (440) DMG to the target with the highest hate. Also deals (340) DMG to every other player.

     

  13. "Yeah, yeah," Freyd grumbled, having messed up his own plan, though probably still saving their asses in the process.  "You're already a studly, stronk Shonen protagonist, m'kay?  Firm Anima doesn't hand out captain's titles to wet naps. So stop thinking you have something to prove." 

    He'd have gone on longer, but the pressing throng of angry pirate-folk didn't look overly keen on continuing to parley.  A look was enough to get the point across.  Both players nodded and immediately scurried to the skiff, Freyd muzzling Ryland with his right hand and pointing at another, less hostile, dock nearby.  Stepping on the gas, or whatever it was these contraptions used for fuel, Ryland hurtled them away from the span and press of hostile raiders.  Freyd didn't release him until they were safe from pursuit and any potential cannon fire.  

    "You're lucky to be alive, you damnable oaf!  Why can't you ever just keep your mouth shut?  Next time, I'm going to leave your sorry ass... so show me how to fly one of these stupid things."  

    For once, sensing the frustration behind the Whisper's words, the Dockmaster complied and did what he was told.

    ***

    Thread Closing:

    Note: Dockmaster Ryland survived.

    Note: Col and Mat loot rewards pooled and split into equal shares.

    Katoka receives:

    4,450 EXP (Word Count [5835/10*6*0.7] + Quest [2000])
    33,307 col (1 page [400] + Loot [28240] + Quest [4000] + 15% P5 Reward [667])
    14 Materials (Loot [14])
    Skyrat Surcoat (T4 Perfect Light Armor | MIT I | REC II) - A tired looking marine captain’s surcoat replete with faded decoration
    Unlock <<Bitter Winds: Mid Air Madness>> Quest

    Freyd receives:

    8,535 EXP (Word Count [5835/10*16*0.7] + Quest [2000])
    33,519 col (1 page [0] +  Loot [28240] + Quest [4000] + 15% P5 Reward [1,279])
    14 Materials (Loot [14])
    Skyrat Surcoat (T4 Perfect Cloth Armor | MIT I | REC II) - A tired looking marine captain’s surcoat replete with faded decoration
    Unlock <<Bitter Winds: Mid Air Madness>> Quest

    2 Gleaming Scale

    T4 Perfect Armor/Shield 221328a
    T4 Perfect Trinket 221328b
    T4 Rare Weapon 221498a
    T4 Uncommon Consumable 221498b
    T4 Perfect Consumable 221499a
    T4 Perfect Consumable 221499b
    T4 Perfect Armor/Shield 221499c
    T4 Perfect Armor/Shield 221499d
    T4 Rare Consumable 221500a
    T4 Rare Armor/Shield 221500b
    Random Dungeon Map 221501
    T4 Rare Armor/Shield 222701
    T4 Perfect Consumable 222888
    T4 Perfect Consumable 222889a
    T4 Perfect Consumable 222889b
    T4 Perfect Armor/Shield 222889c
    T4 Perfect Armor/Shield 222889d
    T4 Perfect Armor/Shield 222890a
    T4 Perfect Trinket 222890b
    T4 Rare Trinket 223035
    T4 Rare Weapon 223036a
    T4 Uncommon Consumable 223036b
    Random Dungeon Map 223037

  14. Well played, Elora.  Well played...

    Freyd was still trying to squeegee egg yolk out of his already perpetually messy mop of hair, now stylized with extra body that was tangibly hardening in the open air.  Her response had been more subtle and effective than he'd expected.  Not that she wasn't capable of guile.  He'd seen the play of her lips hinting at the secret monologue within, the sly glances out of corners of her eyes. Elora was no slouch.  And, while not exactly an open book, he'd come to know better than anyone in Aincrad could likely claim.  Time to use that... for the most fun-filled of food-faced revenges.  It. Was. On.

    Slinking away while she stalled in the aftermath of her oosporic riposte, the hardest part was not giggling like a madman while he did so.  Intending to circle back around and catch her from behind, his plans were almost instantly dashed by the rumbling thunder cascading his way from around the far corner of the corridor.  It took him a minute.  Borris?!

    Spilling and spreading across the floor, finding the rambunctious little golem had been among their first adventures together, as painstaking as it eventually turned out to be pleasant.  They'd spent forever searching the forest for something that Elora just couldn't quite manage to define.  'Because they didn't have a clue what she actually wanted,' he reminded himself, chuckling even while shaking his head. As mental as it might have seemed, it was a good time - probably one of the first few he'd ever experienced.  It also provided them an unexpected chance to just spend time together that might never have occurred if either had actually been required to instigate it.

    Grabbing a nearby unattended mop left in the hallway for earlier unfulfilled work, Freyd flung it hard across the hardwood like a loose hockey stick spinning across a rink.  Borris was already making too much racket for the act to give his position away.  Their impact sounded like a herd of bowling balls crashing into a field of migrating marbles, scattering the poor little guy in a dozen different directions.  I'll make it up to him later... uh... somehow.  

    Quickly sending Persi back the way he'd come to serve as an added lure, Freyd grabbed the now-lonely mop bucket, still half-full with unused water.  Smearing the stick of butter he'd nabbed across the threshold of the kitchen door, he also dumped his bag of flour into the bucket and deftly propped it atop the slightly open door.  There it would wait, leaning just enough against the frame to come crashing down when jarred by even the slightest motion. 

    "GAH!  Borris!  What the...?!" 

    Whispers were good at feigning, and current circumstances were highly motivating.  She would have let the little stone terror loose to help find him, so why not give her exactly what she was expecting?  Grinning madly, Freyd turned to hide... and promptly slipped on a wayward bit of golem. Feet skidding out from below and sprawling him out on his back.  High above, the bucket teetered ominously.

  15. "He's already in a church," Freyd called back to Wulfrin, drawing attention to the scattered sculptural remains and iconography embossed into the surrounding worn and faded stone.  "Well... kinda.  I don't really know what any of it means, but Bob here got uppity and tried to steal the show from his former boss.  Looks like some agreed with him while others disapproved of his behaviour."  Quickly jerking a thumb over his shoulder to the similarly dressed and intermingled skeletons strewn all over the chamber and outer courtyard, the likelihood of some sort of coup seemed high.  

    The monstrous armored figure of The Forgotten Time King had used its momentary reprieve to good effect, pulling itself out of the walls and reassembling the few bits and pieces that Freyd had managed to detach on his last pass.

    "Nothing wrong with looking pretty, ladies."  The compliment intended for Nymeria and Ciela was equally meant to let them know that he was keenly watching their role in the melee.  Despite having run these types of escorts dozens of time, Freyd never presumed that Cardinal couldn't change its own rules on a whim - nor its master.  Wulfrin swept in to do his part, the novice in red valiantly demonstrating how he was well on his way to becoming a veteran.

    "Nicely done!  Now, if I can't actually shatter him, then I guess we only have one option left: break him outright."

    Dipping the tip of this cowl downward, Freyd receded deeper into its depths and closer to the void behind the veils of shadow that wrapped and roiled around his ephemeral presence.  To the rest of his party, the activation of his sword art was akin to the donning of a spectral mantle, the man's form slipping in an out of visibility.  Flitting from shadow to shadow across the battlefield, Freyd reappeared on the King's left to be greeted by a heavy steel guard.  Vanishing just as swiftly, only an inky vestige remained to receive the mob's massive strike.  Out of position and overreaching left it exposed as the Whisper rematerialized on the opposite flank and drove a screeching fist straight into the thing's ribs.  Hands like vortices devoured digital undead flesh, disintegrating a large swath of 'Forgotten' torso and spraying fractal shrapnel across the throne - those few being the few fragments not wholly swallowed by the void guided by the Whisper's fearsome touch.

    "This may sound familiar, Bob."  A second strike spun the king's helm like a top, eating away half the face guard and sending the rest skittering away along with half the thing's jaw. "But I think it might be time this place again considered the potential for new management."

    ***

    Spoiler

    Freyd regains +4 EN
    CD 4 (No REC proc) ID #223175

    Post Action | ST-B (x20, 20 EN): 20 EN - (Stamina) = 18 EN.  Charge (CD 0/3, +8 EN)
    Free Action | Activate Crystal of Divine Light

    ID #223174 | BD:7+5-1=11 (hit, Fallen +24, Charge +3).  DMG (20*51=1020-100=920)

    Freyd takes double damage until his next turn.

    FTK takes 32 damage from TXV.

    ID #223175 | MD: 4+3-7=0 (miss)

    Freyd | HP: 1334/1334 | EN: 119/154 (133+4-18-8) | DMG: 24 | MIT: 105 | EVA: 7 | ACC: 5 | BH: 73 | LD: 6 | FLN: 16 | HLY: 16 | TXV 32 | REC: 8 | V.D.: 146
    Wulfrin | HP: 490/490 | EN: 44/64 | DMG: 20 | MIT: 66 | EVA: 3 | ACC: 5 | BH: 4 | LD: 2 | BLD: 36 | REC: 3 | TXC VNM: 24
    Nymoria | HP [200/200] | EN [36/38] | ACC [3] | DMG [9] | MIT [34] | BH [+6] | +2 EN | -2 EN
    KnightessCiela | HP: 290/290 | EN: 40/44 | DMG: 8 | MIT: 91 | ACC: 4 | FL. THRN: 4 | THRNS: 36

    (8,3,0,2) The Forgotten Time King | HP: 728/3000 | DMG: 275 | MIT: 100 | ACC: 3 | TXV 32 (2/3) | (1680-920-32)

    • Forgotten King's Authority | This boss is immune to debuffs and disablements

     

  16. "You hit plenty hard, Kat," he replied, scolding her from beneath the rim of his cowl and slender eyebrows combined.  "Don't you be selling yourself short like that.  We just need to teach you a few wumbo combos and you'll be outpacing me in no time."

    Ryland was too busy trying to operate the skiff controls one handed to do much blabbering, and his gut was still seething from the cut inflicted by Drell's poison blade.  In fact, the Dockmaster was starting to look worse for wear; enough so that Freyd truly wondered whether he'd be in any shape to navigate them safely to ground, even if they managed to clear the span.  The pirate, meanwhile, recovered his footing and was already charging back towards the rest of them, shaking off even Katoka's vicious blows.

    In a blink, Freyd stepped between shadows to appear by the man's side, as if emerging from beneath the captain's very own surcoat.  A telltale pulse flared where fist met abdomen, flaring brilliantly white and launching the mob backwards with meteoric thrust, bowling over a dozen of his own minions in the process.

    "And YOU," the Whisper snarled in the newly trenched ranks of Skyrats, "stay the fuck down for your own good."

    Realizing that he may have just undermined his own efforts to bolster Katoka's confidence, Freyd just hung his cowl, facepalmed and groaned.

    ***

    Freyd's Turn:

    Spoiler

    Freyd regains +4 EN
    CD 1 (No REC proc) ID #223166

    Post Action | ST-B (x20, 20 EN): 20 EN - (Rested 1/2; Stamina) = 17 EN.  
    Free Action | Activate Crystal of Divine Light

    ID #223167 | BD:10 (Crit +3, Holy +24).  DMG (20*51=1020-75=945).  TXV applied.

    Freyd takes double damage until his next turn.

    Katoka | HP: 561/780  | EN: 52/112 | DMG: 28 | MIT: 38 | EVA: 1 | ACC: 7 | BH: 42 | AA | BLGT: 32 | P.V.O | REC: 8 | STK: 40
    Freyd | HP: 1334/1334 | EN: 103/154 (103+4-17)  | DMG: 24 | MIT: 105 | EVA: 6 | ACC: 6 | BH: 73 | LD: 9 | FLN: 16 | HLY: 16 | TXV: 32/3 | REC: 8 | V.D.: 146
    Dockmaster Ryland | HP: 699/1000  | DMG: 0 | MIT: 20 | EVA: 2 | TXV 30 (0/3) (979-280)

    (2,5,3) Ulric Drell | HP: 96/2000 | DMG: 300 | MIT: 75 | ACC: 3 | EVA: 3 | TXV (0/3) (1041-945) 

    • Poisoned Blade |  On MD 9-10, apply Toxic Venom 30 to the target for 3 turns.  If already active, the effect refreshes.  
    • Whirling Dervish | On CD 11-12, Ulric Drell’s attack becomes an AoE effect that includes Dockmaster Ryland and all players in the party.
    • Oddly Resilient | Ulric Drell heals 100 damage at the start of each of his turns, and reduces the duration of Bleed, Blighted, Toxic Venom and Envenomed effects by 1 turn.
    • Captain’s Nerve | Ulric Drell cannot be disabled.  But, each disabling effect instead reduces his ACC and EVA by 1 until the start of his next turn.  This debuff can stack.

    Enemy's Turn:

    Spoiler

    Ryland's Big Mouth | ID 223168 | BD 3 | Ryland generates 2 hate.

    Dockmaster Ryland takes 30 damage from TXV.

    Oddly Resilient | Ulric Drell heals 100 damage at the start of each of his turns, and reduces the duration of Bleed, Blighted, Toxic Venom and Envenomed effects by 1 turn.

    Ulric Drell takes 32 damage from TXV.

    ID #223169 | MD: 6+3-2=7 (hit). DMG (300-20=280) vs Dockmaster Ryland  | CD 10 (no proc)

    Katoka | HP: 561/780  | EN: 52/112 | DMG: 28 | MIT: 38 | EVA: 1 | ACC: 7 | BH: 42 | AA | BLGT: 32 | P.V.O | REC: 8 | STK: 40
    Freyd | HP: 1334/1334 | EN: 103/154  | DMG: 24 | MIT: 105 | EVA: 6 | ACC: 6 | BH: 73 | LD: 9 | FLN: 16 | HLY: 16 | TXV: 32/3 | REC: 8 | V.D.: 146
    Dockmaster Ryland | HP: 389/1000  | DMG: 0 | MIT: 20 | EVA: 2 | TXV 30 (1/3) (699-30-280)

    (2,5,5) Ulric Drell | HP: 164/2000 (96+100-32) | DMG: 300 | MIT: 75 | ACC: 3 | EVA: 3 | TXV 32 (1/2)

    • Poisoned Blade |  On MD 9-10, apply Toxic Venom 30 to the target for 3 turns.  If already active, the effect refreshes.  
    • Whirling Dervish | On CD 11-12, Ulric Drell’s attack becomes an AoE effect that includes Dockmaster Ryland and all players in the party.
    • Oddly Resilient | Ulric Drell heals 100 damage at the start of each of his turns, and reduces the duration of Bleed, Blighted, Toxic Venom and Envenomed effects by 1 turn.
    • Captain’s Nerve | Ulric Drell cannot be disabled.  But, each disabling effect instead reduces his ACC and EVA by 1 until the start of his next turn.  This debuff can stack.

     

  17. "I only know as much as they tell me. I trust that that's enough."

    Odd that such a throwaway line would make such an impact, simultaneously heartwarming and soulcrushing at the same time. His heart felt like it flinched at the statement, even while Elora meant to dodge further engagement in speculation.  The wave metaphor for emotions seemed both apt and poignant, matching his own limited experiences.  

    “Nice architectural reference, with the concrete,” he added, smiling meekly.  “My father would have approved.”

    Crows’ feet clawed at the edges of his eyes as Mina clinically laid out her summary and analysis, Freyd’s features seeming to age and draw taut with every added word.  Both would catch lips pursing shut against the distraction of the spoon half-deposited and half-crashing into the bowl before him.  He looked like he had see a ghost, or possibly become one, given his extra pallor.  Scanning the words on the turned the tablet, a long pause followed while he struggled with both demons and nature alike, within himself.  Shadows, bidden by protective instincts, silently gathered to close off the alcove where Akana reclined in his overwhelming boredom, none of them wiser to the secretive segregation. What followed was not for strangers. The pause that followed was as long as it was awkward.

    "It's your call."

    Several times he tried to speak the words log jammed at the tip of his tongue, something fiercely denying them being spoken aloud.  They deserve to know!  Wincing like from physical pain, Freyd’s jaw set in its struggle of will versus nature.  Truly, he knew not which would triumph, nor even which he wanted to win.  This was a longstanding conflict, but never had The Thing Behind All Lies been so close to potential release.

    “I’ve always appreciated your insights, Mina, and your candour.”  Throat hoarse, it sounded like he’d swallowed every ounce of saliva from his body before struggling to speak.  Plain sincerity spoke volumes through the mirror of his steel blue eyes gazing upon both halves of her face with equal and unbridled respect. Thinking back, it would occur to them that Freyd was never phased by anything or anyone’s appearance. His measure of others always followed wholly different metrics.

    Lips and jaw wobbled with startling uncertainty in a face cultivated for confidence and resolve.  Something was desperately trying to get out.

    “Tell me, Mina…”  still croaking, nearly pleading, “you’re a very good judge of character.  Given what you know of… Freyd and Takeshi, even Montjoy, what quest would you imagine they all faced together first in this world?  If you’re as sharp as I think you are, it shouldn’t surprise you in the least.  And what might have come out of it… if they had failed.”

    Montjoy’s silhouette stood attentively in profile, off caster and projected high against a nearby wall, his head hung in shame or inexplicable regret.  He too, it seemed, wanted to see if she could piece it together.

  18. “We’re deep in this floor’s labyrinth,” Freyd began, by way of explanation to Mina’s query.  “And hip deep in a nest of spooky shit. This place is definitely hinky, in the darkest-side-of-Scooby-Doo kind of way.”  Hirru and Ariel showed up before their conversation could progress much farther, the latter mocking Mina for sneaking off with him for special nooky time.  A snorting grunt was all he could manage before Mina shot down the regal woman’s innuendo, hard.  He, meanwhile, looked forward to mentioning it to Elora, with certain dubious embellishments about the turnip-shade of red Mina’s face might have  fielded in response.  It would make great fodder for their next dinner date.  Hirru, by comparison, first and understandably seemed rather plainly confused.

    “Bahr?  Uh… I think we were in a raid and event quest together ages ago, but I can’t say that I’ve seen him.  We can go searching for him, but this really isn’t the place to be wander-”  Some big, honking monstrous relative of Bulkwinkle’s came crashing through their clearing before he could finish his warning, making moot the attempt.  Ariel vanished amidst the explosion of fiery leaves, leaving Morningstar also suddenly among them and Mina buckling swash like a wild woman.

    “Morning!?  Glad to see you made it, man, but also… what the f-”  Hardly an opportune moment for further introductions, The Lightbringer had already joined the fray and sundered some chunk off the beast’s shaggy hide.

    “Awww… fuck it,” Freyd muttered to himself, rolling back to his feet from his initial dodge and resolved to sorting out details once the mob was actually down.  This one was looking especially nasty, and he’d only just recovered from his recent injuries in a narrow escape from Magistrate Aldenbrook’s lair.  Call it another item added to his ‘to-do’ list.  This was instantly more pressing and bumped up to the very top.

    Keenly analyzing the mob with his appraiser’s ways, instincts dictated that this thing really needed crispifying.  Snaring a handful of drifting crimson leaves still drifting through the air, Freyd’s fists alighted in a blaze as his sword art empowered a quick series of blows swiftly transferring their essence onto the mob in the form of true flame.  

    “Eyes on me, big guy,” he called out, the mob’s shadow angling oddly towards the Whisper as he spoke, like some unnatural draw was calling it to him and pulling its caster in for the ride.  A few quick finger flicks signalled the others to attack while he repositioned to place himself in a way to call off interest in their healer.  Here we go again…

    ***

    Freyd's action:

    Spoiler

    Post Action | TECH-G (x12, 12 EN): 12 EN - (Rested 2/2; Stamina) = 9 EN.  
    Free Action | None

    ID #223151 | BD:2+5=7 (hit).  DMG (12*24=288-155=133) vs Owij'be.  BURN applied. (CD 3 | ST-B locked)

    Freyd | HP: 1311/1311 | EN: 143/152 (152-9) | DMG: 24 | MIT: 123 | EVA: 5 | ACC: 5 | BH: 72 | LD: 12 | PROSP: 3 | FLN: 16 | HLY: 16 | TXV: 32 | TRLBLD | PARA IMMUNE | REC: 8 | V.D.: 144 | Dote: 3/3 | Prob: 36
    Tricolor_Mina HP: 760/760 | EN: 97/110 | DMG: 21 | MIT: 138 | ACC: 7 | LD: 4 | BLGT: 32 | BRN: 56 | FRSTB: 40 | V.D.: 76
    Hirru HP: 1113/1113 | EN: 103/108 | DMG: 1 | MIT: 182 | LD: 8~11 | BH: 55 | HLY BLS: 44 | MENDING: 2 | REC: 8 | THRNS: 36 | HYPE 0/3 //CD: 0/3

    Morningstar | HP: 851/851 | EN: 99/112 | DMG: 28 | MIT: 60 | EVA: 4 | ACC: 6 | BH: 39 | LD: 5 (6) | REC: 4 | FLN: 16 | AA | PAR VEN

    (2,1,0,1) Owij’be The Indomitable | HP: 3384/4000 (3517-133) | DMG: 200 | MIT: 125 155| ACC: 2 | Battle Healing: 220 | Shatter: -20 MIT (1/3) | BURN 54 (0/2) | [Bloodied But Unbowed Stacks: 2]

    • Bloodied but Unbowed: For each source of damage dealt to Owij’be (Including DoT Effects), its mitigation is increased by 25. This fades at the start of Owij’be’s turn.
    • Unstoppable Force [AoE]: Every 3 turns, Owij’be will begin to rush through the arena. The blistering winds of The Cave will follow in its wake. Owij’be gains +2 accuracy and makes an attack against all targets, Dealing 300 damage on a success and inflicting [Bitter Chill] unless the target has [Antifreeze].
    • Titanic Bulwark [Equip]: Every 5th turn, Owij’be will gather nearby trees into its antlers and brandish them as a weapon. For as long as Owij’be has a branch in its antlers, it gains +50 Base Damage, +1 Accuracy on all of its attacks. This debris can be attacked like a normal creature to end this effect.
      • Titanic Bulwark | HP: 500/500
    • [Bitter Chill]: Target loses -2 evasion until removed, any further refreshes of this effect instead deal 100 unmitigated damage to the target. Purify will remove this debuff.
    • Demolish [AoE]: At any point a Titanic Bulwark loses more than half of its HP and is not destroyed or 4 turns have passed since its creation, Owij’be will use Demolish. This attack is an autohit dealing 300 unmitigated damage on all targets and inflicts [Bitter Chill].
    • Burned Hide | Owij’be loses -55 of its battle healing while burned.
    • Immovable Object | If Owji’be strikes a target who is under the effects of Rampart, it concusses itself and cannot act the following turn.
    • Dizzied | Delay pushes all of its turn based effects back a single turn.
    • Shocking | Stun (Familiar/Player) & Paralyze do not disable the boss, but instead remove/negate a single stack of Bloodied but Unbowed.
    • Frost Resistant | Cold Effects (Freeze & Frostbite) will not disable the boss, but will reduce its damage by 25 until the start of its next turn.

    Enemy's action:

    Spoiler

    Owij'be Turn 1.

    Bloodied bu Unbound effect fades.
    Owij'be takes 54 damage from Burn.
    Burned Hide reduces Battle Healing by 55.
    Owij'be recovers 165hp from Battle Healing.

    ID #223152 | MD: 4+2-5=1 (miss) vs Freyd

    Freyd | HP: 1311/1311 | EN: 143/152 | DMG: 24 | MIT: 123 | EVA: 5 | ACC: 5 | BH: 72 | LD: 12 | PROSP: 3 | FLN: 16 | HLY: 16 | TXV: 32 | TRLBLD | PARA IMMUNE | REC: 8 | V.D.: 144 | Dote: 3/3 | Prob: 36
    Tricolor_Mina HP: 760/760 | EN: 97/110 | DMG: 21 | MIT: 138 | ACC: 7 | LD: 4 | BLGT: 32 | BRN: 56 | FRSTB: 40 | V.D.: 76
    Hirru HP: 1113/1113 | EN: 103/108 | DMG: 1 | MIT: 182 | LD: 8~11 | BH: 55 | HLY BLS: 44 | MENDING: 2 | REC: 8 | THRNS: 36 | HYPE 0/3 //CD: 0/3

    Morningstar | HP: 851/851 | EN: 99/112 | DMG: 28 | MIT: 60 | EVA: 4 | ACC: 6 | BH: 39 | LD: 5 (6) | REC: 4 | FLN: 16 | AA | PAR VEN

    (2,1,0,1) Owij’be The Indomitable | HP: 3495/4000 (3384-54+165) | DMG: 200 | MIT: 125 | ACC: 2 | Battle Healing: 220 165 | Shatter: -20 MIT (1/3) | BURN 54 (1/2) 

    • Bloodied but Unbowed: For each source of damage dealt to Owij’be (Including DoT Effects), its mitigation is increased by 25. This fades at the start of Owij’be’s turn.
    • Unstoppable Force [AoE]: Every 3 turns, Owij’be will begin to rush through the arena. The blistering winds of The Cave will follow in its wake. Owij’be gains +2 accuracy and makes an attack against all targets, Dealing 300 damage on a success and inflicting [Bitter Chill] unless the target has [Antifreeze].
    • Titanic Bulwark [Equip]: Every 5th turn, Owij’be will gather nearby trees into its antlers and brandish them as a weapon. For as long as Owij’be has a branch in its antlers, it gains +50 Base Damage, +1 Accuracy on all of its attacks. This debris can be attacked like a normal creature to end this effect.
      • Titanic Bulwark | HP: 500/500
    • [Bitter Chill]: Target loses -2 evasion until removed, any further refreshes of this effect instead deal 100 unmitigated damage to the target. Purify will remove this debuff.
    • Demolish [AoE]: At any point a Titanic Bulwark loses more than half of its HP and is not destroyed or 4 turns have passed since its creation, Owij’be will use Demolish. This attack is an autohit dealing 300 unmitigated damage on all targets and inflicts [Bitter Chill].
    • Burned Hide | Owij’be loses -55 of its battle healing while burned.
    • Immovable Object | If Owji’be strikes a target who is under the effects of Rampart, it concusses itself and cannot act the following turn.
    • Dizzied | Delay pushes all of its turn based effects back a single turn.
    • Shocking | Stun (Familiar/Player) & Paralyze do not disable the boss, but instead remove/negate a single stack of Bloodied but Unbowed.
    • Frost Resistant | Cold Effects (Freeze & Frostbite) will not disable the boss, but will reduce its damage by 25 until the start of its next turn.

     

  19. "It's not a talent Freyd, it's using the right tool for the job --",

    "...and a tool is only so good as its wielder's skill and devotion," he added, finishing the thought while gratefully accepting her assistance.  Listening as she dissembled and downplayed her own way of living, Freyd simply shook his head dismissively.  "My life has too much structure. Even though I go to lengths to keep it changing, my constant focus on business lends to its predictability.  You would never normally find me doing... this.  Which is precisely why I need to do so."  A strange sense of serenity pervaded Freyd's words as he spoke them, laden with an equal measure of yearning for the unknown.  The spark behind his eyes mirrored her features as they gazed upon Elora with joy.  She'd given him the same thing he had promised to give to others: hope.

    "So... boxty is... potato pancakes?"  He had no idea what flapjacks were supposed to be, and so gave it his best guess instead. A handful of spuds were thrust into his arms before any further clarification could be obtained.

    "While you're doing that, I'll get all the other shit together."  An eyebrow raised. I really hope she doesn't mean that literally.

    A quick tactical analysis determined the optimal angle of attack.  Freyd was about to devastate his first tater when Elora gave him one of those 'you're kidding right' kind of look.  "Oh, right... gotta skin the things first."  A grimace mixed with consternation wrinkled and twisted his features with confusion.  "Don't they have a self-peeling variety?  Seems like a design flaw, at least in this world."  A mental note was already made to scour Aincrad for potential potato monsters that might better fit the bill.

    As the last grated traces fell into the bowl provided to him, Freyd eyed the sole remaining spud with a festering sense of mischief.  "Mashed, eh? Seems you might have missed one."  Denying any time for protest, his art had been building since the previous spud met its maker, turning in tiny narrow strips. 

    "Here.  Let me help a little." Cupping his hand around the tuber, Freyd focused the energy inward at his palm, momentarily wondering whether microwaves worked on a similar principle.  The results were definitely kin, spraying baked mash in a cone aligned directly with a pair of startled and widening blue eyes.

  20. Laughter filled the room as Freyd nearly busted a gut at her suggestion.  It took a while before he could even mouth any words.

    "Haine tried to teach me to cook once," he finally eked out between gasps.  "I used a sword art on a bunch of veggies and nearly destroyed half her kitchen."  A cautionary wave of his hand dismissed any notion that he knew the first thing about the valued trade, or that he was making any fun over her suggestions.  "Pre-packaged meals have been the norm for me, for as long as I can recall.  If you say you know how to make these things, then please teach me.  I'll do my best not to nuke our new home while peeling the potatoes."  It was a pure guess, regarding the ingredients, hoping that playing to Irish stereotypes might actually net him a win.  

    "Come on," he requested with the gentlest of tugs.  "Show me all these special talents you have hidden away.  I can't wait to learn."  Barely taking a simple step towards the door, Freyd paused and looked Elora in the eyes, his eagerness still bubbling, but shelved for a moment's consideration.  "And, hey, there's never meant to be any pressure here between us. I just really want to spend time doing things like this with you, especially those that matter most to you. I've spent too long being laser-focused on game-related goals since we've been in here.  This is a chance to learn to live a little along the way.  You've taught me how important that can be, but I need your guidance along the way.  I hope that's okay?"

    An earnest smile spread over his simple features, their sharp angles slightly dulled by uncharacteristic warmth and exposure to deep reservoirs of sincerity normally kept concealed and off limits to the world.  Don't be afraid, Elora.  I just want to see you shine by being yourself.

  21. *SNAP*

    The entire crowd focused in Freyd's fingers, as fully anticipated and desired.  It gave Persi precisely the opening she required.  Having snuck into the crowd while the pirates were busy cornering their elusive prey, Freyd placed her as a trump card immediately after Katoka shish-kebabbed his tawny coat with her katana.  Racing between a forest of hairy legs and pantaloons, the little shadow mongoose wormed her way up Ulric's leg to a combination of great surprise and consternation.

    "What the... GAH!"

    Most mobs panicked at the feel of inky shadows darting up their underpants.  Drell jumped, but almost instantly recovered, reaching below his belt with lightning speed and snaring the unwelcome guest with disturbing ease.  By the twitch in his eyes, he was ready to toss her over the edge and be done with her forever, but Freyd had likewise made his move.  Plans within plans.  Persi was just part of the distraction.  Even as the pirate captain pivoted for the throw, the Whisper's leg swept low to knock his legs out from under him.  Landing hard released his grip, allowing the agile mongoose to wring herself free and escape onto the skiff.

    "Bahahaha!  Shaking your booty for the crowd, Drell?  I never knew you had it in you.  Is that what keeps the whores in line, or is it that you've just lost the least number of.. AARRGH"

    Freyd just facepalmed.  Ryland's forearm had just attempted to swallow Drell'ls flung cutlass.  

    "We need to get this done fast, Kat.  Or loudmouth over there will get himself killed."

    A palpable, irate glower emanated from beneath the cowl, aimed the foolhardy Dockmaster's way.

    ***

    Spoiler

    Freyd regains +4 EN
    CD 10 (+8 REC proc) ID #223109

    Post Action | AoE-I (x15, 11 EN, +2 Shift, +2/hit): 15 EN - (Rested 2/2; Stamina) = 12 EN.  
    Free Action | Grappling Familiar (CD 0/5)

    ID #223110 | BD: 3+6-3=6 (hit).  DMG (15*24=360-75=285) vs Ulric Drell. (CD 11 | ST-B unlocked)

    Ryland's Big Mouth | ID 223111 | BD 5 | Ryland generates 3 hate.

    Ulric Drell regains 100hp from Oddly Resilient.

    ID #223112 | MD: 10 (hit).  DMG (300-20=280) vs Dockmaster Ryland

    Katoka | HP: 561/780  | EN: 62/112 | DMG: 28 | MIT: 38 | EVA: 1 | ACC: 7 | BH: 42 | AA | BLGT: 32 | P.V.O | REC: 8 | STK: 40
    Freyd | HP: 1334/1334 | EN: 103/154 (103+4+8-12)  | DMG: 24 | MIT: 105 | EVA: 6 | ACC: 6 | BH: 73 | LD: 9 | FLN: 16 | HLY: 16 | TXV: 32/3 | REC: 8 | V.D.: 146
    Dockmaster Ryland | HP: 699/1000  | DMG: 0 | MIT: 20 | EVA: 2 | TXV 30 (0/3) (979-280)

    (1,2,3) Ulric Drell | HP: 1470/2000 | DMG: 300 | MIT: 75 | ACC: 3 | EVA: 3 (1655-285+100)

    • Poisoned Blade |  On MD 9-10, apply Toxic Venom 30 to the target for 3 turns.  If already active, the effect refreshes.  
    • Whirling Dervish | On CD 11-12, Ulric Drell’s attack becomes an AoE effect that includes Dockmaster Ryland and all players in the party.
    • Oddly Resilient | Ulric Drell heals 100 damage at the start of each of his turns, and reduces the duration of Bleed, Blighted, Toxic Venom and Envenomed effects by 1 turn.
    • Captain’s Nerve | Ulric Drell cannot be disabled.  But, each disabling effect instead reduces his ACC and EVA by 1 until the start of his next turn.  This debuff can stack.

     

  22. Watching as dizzying motion whirled around the lumbering undead mob, Freyd's HUD spawned its own secondary layer, as if the machine mind within himself could further deconstruct each element and action.  Vectors and trajectories played out a projected potential, each analyzed and countered a dozen times over even as his limbs and torso took corresponding action.  He'd always been good with numbers, coolly calculating even under the most dire circumstances and blithely setting aside any emotional influence.  The Whisper's fury was dire by the utter cold and ruthlessness of its nature, and the precision of its application.

    There.

    A gentle tap on the wrist from an open palm skewed the mob's angle of attack by the merest fraction of degree.  It was enough to foster an opening just wide enough to sidestep under the monster's guard, brace his lower body and deliver a cutthroat strike with full force straight into the King's centre mass.  Samael's Pride obliged, both handwraps flaring blinding white as a pulse of purest force and energy was forcefully expelled and launched his enemy across the room with the concussive force of a miniature supernova.  It was the King's turn to leave his imprint on the wall, several bits of his dilapidated armor having been strewn and scattered all over the surround floor along the way.

    "Better," Freyd mumbled to himself, content to have rediscovered his mojo and finally turned the tide.  "Might have been better yet if I'd actually remembered that you can't shatter his dumb ass."

    No sooner spoken than the scattered armor floated back to the FTK-shaped impact crater to reform the boss' defenses.  Widening his stance and extending a hand in his best Morpheus guise, Freyd leaned into the borrowed imagery, hard.

    "Bring it, Bob."  His fingertips beckoned the enemy to right itself and give him its best shot.

    ***

    Spoiler

    Freyd regains +4 EN
    CD 1 (No REC proc) ID #223097

    Post Action | TECH-D (x12, 12 EN): 12 EN - (Stamina) = 10 EN. 
    Free Action | None

    ID #223098 | BD: 9 (Crit +2, Holy +16).  DMG (12*42=504-100=404) vs FTK. TXV applied.  Immune to Shatter (Doh!) (CD 11 | ST-B unlocked)

    Freyd | HP: 1334/1334 | EN: 133/154 (139+4-10) | DMG: 24 | MIT: 105 | EVA: 7 | ACC: 5 | BH: 73 | LD: 6 | FLN: 16 | HLY: 16 | TXV 32 | REC: 8 | V.D.: 146
    Wulfrin HP: 490/490 | EN: 55/64 | DMG: 20 | MIT: 66 | EVA: 3 | ACC: 5 | BH: 4 | LD: 2 | BLD: 36 | REC: 3 | TXC VNM: 24
    Nymoria | HP [200/200] | EN [36/38] | ACC [3] | DMG [9] | MIT [34] | BH [+6] | -2 EN
    KnightessCiela | HP: 290/290 | EN: 38/44 | DMG: 8 | MIT: 91 | ACC: 4 | FL. THRN: 4 | THRNS: 36

    (6,1,0,1The Forgotten Time King | HP: 2054/3000 | DMG: 275 | MIT: 100  | ACC: 3 | REND 21 (1/2) | TXV 32 (0/3) (2458-404)
    Forgotten King's Authority | This boss is immune to debuffs and disablements

     

  23. pixai-1740059010066635845-2.thumb.png.30177cfeba6a810ecff4626ecb83d1dd.pngSmiling and listening attentively as she recounted her day's activities, something glimmered silently at her from behind the blueness in his eyes.  His cowl sat loosely resting upon his shoulders, the shield it represented equally lowered in a rare and deliberate moment of vulnerable exposure.  Only with her.  No one else had ever  truly reached so deep into his core, nor convinced him that there was someone in there worth finding... and rescuing.  Could that be the magic that had led them here, together?  Reflections glanced his way in the nearby window.  She is my opposite, staring back at me from the far side of the looking glass.

    "I don't know where to start. How do you return to something you've haven't even started?"

    There it was again, always present just below the surface.  Where he clung to the slightest semblance of fleeting feelings, hers ebbed and flowed like a tide, ever threatening to overwhelm.  

    "I have no idea."  A plain admission and also honest truth delivered with mild chuckling.  "This is just as new to me, too. Think of how sparse and sterile my old place was. I haven't the slightest clue how to live a life I've never allowed myself."  Chasing off her doubts with smiling eyes and nod to the negative, he chuckled softly at their shared absurdity.  "Don't worry about it.  Just let it be."  Soothing her anxieties as best he could, it thawed his natural chill the moment she took his hand and reminded him of a recent impulse.

    "Oh," he added with a growing nervous grin, "I might have scrounged a little something to help get you started.  Call it... inspiration."  Cheeks burning like they'd be lit by Cerberus' breath, a conjured bunch of ruby roses manifested in his hand.  "I found these at the base of the cliffs on my way back, clinging to an outcrop and misted by the spray of the falls.  I... Róisín..."  Words croaked and failed him as a lump caught in his throat, having no idea what he was doing, but hoping it was right.  Is this how it works?  Ugh... I'm probably doing this all wrong.  She'll prick herself on the thorns or something. This is so fucking...

    "I'm completely lost," he blurted out, deepening his blush to nearly purple.  It wasn't like Freyd to be so far beyond his calm and calculating self.   Nyahhh... so embarrassing. 

    "I feel... exactly like I probably should?"  Blinking realization as the words stuttered out in slow staccato.  "Maybe that's the whole point?  Right?  Maybe that's what we both need?  To let whatever happens happen, and accept that neither of us knows what we're doing? We're both going to mess things up - and that's okay.  Let's just promise that we will both try and keep trying, always."

    Swallowing the lump as best he could and depositing the flowers in a nearby vase with his spare hand, only then did it become obvious how clammy his palms had become.

    "Maybe... maybe starting with something small, and simple would be best?  Have you... uh... eaten?"

  24. Peering through the shadowed bowels of a nearby potted fern, the notion that he was somehow invading the thing’s privacy, or hers, never even occurred to him.  Neither did the fact that ferns had no bowels, but they did have shadows, and that was all he really required.  It should have felt odd, he knew, gazing beyond sight in such ways; like standing on the far side of the looking glass to catch glimpses of this world from another. Yet, it never had. Like Takeshi in Simmone’s famed mirror, life felt more natural when viewed from such perspectives.

    Hrm.   

    Pondering why was never fruitful, save to disturb brief peaceful moments within an ever over-agitated mind.  The truth was 'Shadow', that irksome floor boss whose essence he’d touched during his very first  floor raid. Plunging his life-drinking blade into the flesh of a possessed minotaur legend had seemed a good idea at the time, and it had worked.  Freyd had never fully realized the price he would pay for that gambit, and was still discovering the truth of it. Beyond the marking of arrival to the front lines, the moment had been personally formative, along with many others, including those spent with the elfin-eared woman with whom he now shared a home.  

    Our home.

    A pang of something from inside set everything intangible tumbling with a warmth and gooey sense of uncertainty.  This was a new frontier for which Freyd had minimal experience. Elora was the expert on these grounds, but he desperately wanted to learn.  In this, she was his teacher, and he had finally come to realize how much that meant to him; how much she meant to him. Feelings don't come with manuals to be decrypted with codes or algorithms. Emotional epiphany had taken a while to process.

    “Maybe I need to lay off having only Freya’s honey buns and black, vanilla-scented coffee for breakfast.”  Sure. Only he could possibly confuse the stirring feelings of an ever growing bond between them for indigestion. So naive.  Stray wisps of hair tinged like verdigris, a flit of pointed ear drooped with odd admixtures of self-doubt and resolve, the intoxicating scent of fragile uncertainty molding itself around a core of unfathomable passion. Beautiful.  All were familiar traits amidst a roiling, distorted blur.  Shadows were not precise, nor was any sight granted through their umbral underlayment.  But he knew her instantly in the dark, the memory of a head leaning against his shoulder beneath the boughs, and threats of Valentina's murderous threats, never having been forgotten.  Good times.

    “Ah, there your are!”  Slipping with ease through the same viewport of nothingness, making it effortlessly serve as both window and door, it never even occurred to him that she might be enjoying a private moment.  Whispers were just bad with that sort of thing.

    “Hey you.” he started chipperly and without warning, probably scaring the pants off her by appearing at her side with only the wafting of vanilla to announce his arrival.  “Are you settling in okay?”

  25. "You're asking me!?"  Freyd managed, half-joking and half-incredulous, too busy dodging an assortment of pilfered blades to pick either one in whole.  "What the heck would I know about skyships?"

    "Ryland," he snapped, interrupting the Dockmaster's next idiotic retort before it could even leave his lips.  "Get your ass in that raft and make it ready to save all of our collective cheeks.  I can keep them off you for another few seconds."

    When dust and fractals alike finally settled, Freyd reset his stance in readiness for the next wave... which didn't come.  Crowding around them like a solid wall of eye patches, molting parakeet and salty peg-legs, the throng of threatening pirates held back while on the precipice.  Freyd stared them down, fists and kata at the ready, waiting to take on the horde, if necessary.  Instead, the field of second-hand clothing desperately in need of a laundromat finally parted, making way for their grand poohbah.  

    "Drell?  You're looking a lot less dead than I would have expected.  Respawn timer treating you well?"

    Shifting his stance, Freyd was signaling madly for Ryland to put a rush on starting the skiff.

    ***

    Part 2 requirements have been met.  Part 3 triggers on the next post.

    Spoiler

    Note: Added Katoka's hate gains from last post.

    Freyd regains +4 EN
    CD 9 (+8 REC proc) ID #223030

    Post Action | AoE-I (x15, 11 EN, +2 shift, +2/hit): 21 EN -(Stamina) = 19 EN (-2 for 1 miss)
    Free Action | None

    ID #223031 | BD: 8 (Crit +1, Fallen +16).  DMG (15*41=615-70=545) vs Skyrat Pirate 7. Dead. (CD 7 | ST-B Locked)
    ID #223032 | BD: 1 (miss) vs Skyrat Pirate 8
    ID #223033 | BD: 8 (Crit +1, Fallen +16).  DMG (15*41=615-70=545) vs Skyrat Pirate 9. Dead.
    ID #223034 | BD: 10 (Crit +3, Holy +16).  DMG (15*43=645-70=575) vs Skyrat Pirate 10 . Dead.

    Katoka | HP: 519/780  | EN: 62/112 | DMG: 28 | MIT: 38 | EVA: 1 | ACC: 7 | BH: 42 | AA | BLGT: 32 | P.V.O | REC: 8 | STK: 40
    Freyd | HP: 1334/1334 | EN: 103/154 (108+4+8-17)  | DMG: 24 | MIT: 105 | EVA: 6 | ACC: 6 | BH: 73 | LD: 9 | FLN: 16 | HLY: 16 | TXV: 32/3 | REC: 8 | V.D.: 146
    Dockmaster Ryland | HP: 979/1000  | DMG: 0 | MIT: 20 | EVA: 2

    (1,4,3) Skyrat Pirate 7 | HP: 0/600 | DMG: 250 | MIT: 70 | ACC: 2 | EVA: 1 [Paralyzed] (254-545)
    (2,1,3) Skyrat Pirate 8 | HP: 0/600 | DMG: 250 | MIT: 70 50 | ACC: 2 3 | EVA: 1 2 [BLGT: 32/2] [Paralyzed] [STK: 40/2] (250-40)
    (1,3,3) Skyrat Pirate 9 | HP: 254/600 | DMG: 250 | MIT: 70 | ACC: 2 | EVA: 1 (254-545)

    (1,3,3) Skyrat Pirate 10 | HP: 0/600 | DMG: 250 | MIT: 70 | ACC: 2 | EVA: 1 (254-575)

    • Poisoned Blade | On MD 9-10, apply Toxic Venom 30 to the target for 3 turns.  If already active, the effect refreshes.
    • Blood Frenzy | While subject to any DoT effects, a Skyrat Pirate gains +2 ACC, +1 EVA and -20 MIT.

    Loot:

    Spoiler

    Loot Skyrat Pirate 7: ID #223035 | LD: 4+10=14 | CD: 3
    +2 materials (+2 CD odd)
    3000 col (HP[600]*5 - incl. +2 LD even)
    T4 Rare Trinket 223035

    Loot Skyrat Pirate 9: ID #223036 | LD: 2+10=12 | CD: 8
    4200 col (HP[600]*7 - incl. +4 CD/LD even)
    T4 Rare Weapon 223036a
    T4 Uncommon Consumable 223036b

    Loot Skyrat Pirate 10: ID #223037 | LD: 17+10=27 | CD: 10
    +2 materials (+X LD odd)
    3000 col (HP[600]*5 - incl. +2 CD even)
    +1 Gleaming Scale
    Random Dungeon Map 223037

     

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