ChaseR

As soon as the party emerged, he stretched and approached them. To his surprise, Valentine and Aquan were there too? The elf boy and the bee boy. "Class and sass both here then.", he noted mentally and nodded to Grimm before turning to the other two to give an awkward "Hi." before he started to head on to the colloseum.

He made the necessary arrangements for the four to enter the arena alongside the chief, and in a jiffy, they were all in a huge pit surrounded by tall walls. Normally this should have been scary, but thankfully they had an experienced player by their side. He quietly looked over his shoulder and gave them a somewhat concerned glance. "Don't get its attention on you and it won't attack you.". And with that, he crouched before kicking at the ground, sliding his weapon out of its sheathe and slashing right at the rhino- right before his attack landed, an incredibly bright flash that Valentine might remember appeared from the tip of his broken sword, blinding the three. Four rather, as the monster was also in a daze by the time it disappeared and bluehead was back with the group, having chopped a chunk of its health clean. "See if you can deal any damage to him."

And with the boss felled, stairs seemed to appear out of thin air before the duo to let them ascend over to the higher floors of the castle. This confirmed Grimm's and- obviously enough- ChaseR's suspicions about the place. "I'm sure it does. Let's keep going, there's eight more to kill if that's the case.", he said a bit too battle-thirstily and began to run up the stairs.

The blue boy got to the second floor and the same scene repeated before him and Ozwald who was rushing to catch up from behind. The egg cracked and from its shells appeared the next hatchling's knight form. A form that was quickly assaulted by the rain of blue with slashes, jabs and slams from the flat side of his blade, only to get repelled with a sword; or so it would seem before the wide gashes began to glow. Another near instakill from Chase as he looked back to Ozwald. "Come get your hits in so we can move on to the next floor, c'mon."

Chase's mind raced to the nearest five snarky remarks that he could throw Freyd' way. Then, he remembered that he shouldn't fan the flames especially with others around. The monsters weren't the least of his worry, it was more so the players and his own anger- so he'd keep whacking away at every monster, one by one until they all fell. And then, once done, he would leave quietly as he did back during the Forgotten Time King.

It came out instinctively that he called out the usual to the rest; "Eyes." before cleaving at the group. One of the Diseased Ones almost died on the spot, while the rest were hit much less hard but still hard nonetheless. Hell, half of their health almost down to the exact percentage got deleted right off the bat, which was only good; with four already wiped out, that left twelve more to kill. Then, they would hopefully be off with the boss, although he didn't know the numbers himself. He began to move further away from the rest, for one in order to get everybody else's attention and for two so that he had stuck as far away as possible to the group. Lessa and Jomei were pleasant company- probably. Lessa he'd talked with once, but Jomei... Not really.

They were off to a great start before- And Miraak cut Chase's mental ramblings shorts as a beam of light appeared above him and shone down with plentiful rays over every single one of the group. Another attempt to heal them back up. "I'll keep backing you lot up. Please, continue to take this scourge down with everything you have.". Chase admittedly knew little about the rest, but he wasn't going to let the priest down. "Got it." 

With the first two parties giving healing the boss, or cleansing it of all debuffs a shot, Chase just gave them a confused glance. He was aware that there was a chance a gimmick was behind this boss fight, but... He heavily doubted it. Especially seeing the purification fail, he was certain they were just overthinking everything.

As soon as he began his charge, he was very well aware that it was going to fail. He could see the boss start to flail its arms around, and before he knew it, the debris sent flying from its attack knocked the bluehead off balance and resulted in him having to waste his sword art parrying all of the stones and rubble. He looked behind himself discouraged at the rest of his party, with his teeth gritted as he shouted almost in desperation. Everybody's health was low, and Chase knew damn well he couldn't do much to help the other parties. "Pin, Ma, Jo, cut it down!", he asked with a nervous glance, his body shaking slightly as his breathing became sharper and faster. 

And with all of the monsters downed and nothing else coming into sight, they had finally gotten rid of every single Diseased One. Looking back to make sure Freyd was alive and the other two were untouched while at it, he gave them a small smile before starting to move further on ahead. It didn't take long though, before Miraak called out to Chase to stop him.

"Please, wait.", he simply said, only to get a concerned look from the man. "What is it now?". While he hadn't noticed, the path he was headed to was about to split into two halves- it was the Demon's End. The same town that he had cursed and caused to be the way it is. Both paths led there, but there was a caveat. "Both of the paths will lead to the town. We could go right for the seal or look around for any remains though.". He seemed to leave the choice up to the whole party, but the bluehead wasn't having even more battles than necessary, slicing their way through the town alongside Zoro in the back. "We'll take the path to the seal. Let's get going.". This too, might have been for the better granted their energy would be almost fully depleted, had they decided to go down the long path instead. "Let's not waste any more time then."

Now the four entered an urban jungle, left in complete ruins. If it weren't for the concrete, it would really be just a jungle. Broken down buildings could be seen everywhere, some distant groans from what Chase could only imagine were more diseased ones, and rubble falling every so often as clouds of dust blew right through the group's path, if not through them. "Don't distance yourselves too much. We'll run into more probably.", he finally called out to everyone else, looking over his shoulder with the same mostly blank expression. Hints of frustration were showing but that was about as emotional as he seemed to get with Freyd around.

<<What We Fight For>>

And now into the twenty second, Chase was met with the same sight of the familiar lake ahead of him. He knew it was there as always, same for the settlement and the forest he had to explore ahead of himself. He usually treated the forest as perfect hunting grounds, given all of the good loot he had found thus far in there, but to think he actually had business there, let alone a quest. Wow.

"Let's see what that ??? reward is then.", he nodded to himself and took off the town without really paying any attention to much other than the path, not wanting to stumble into anybody. He knew that a lot of the people he tended not to hang out with all that nicely happened to be using the same floor as him, mostly because Freyd, one of said people, showed him these grounds in the first place. He couldn't really complain though, he was the one copying Freyd, not the other way around. Just not this once, thankfully. Although, killing a monster wouldn't hurt too much if he had time to spare... right?
[ChaseR uses Mega Slime Farm! +2 SP]

While Jomei and Lessa continued to converse, Chase's efforts to stay as far away from Freyd as possible while still questing together continued. Starting to grow tired of the constant reminder to cover their eyes that he had to give out, he groaned and almost glared at his sword. The enemies weren't anything menacing honestly and he appreciated the extra help to dish out damage, but... christ...

"Eyes again.", he reminded the bunch and dove right in as soon as Lessa told him he was good to go, zooming right past her and feeling the increasing weight of his blade. This time, he raised it into the air and began almost maniacally slamming it down onto the ground, raising a big cloud of dust. A hinderance, but at least his next slash sent it all away as the light faded, and so did the full form of his sword once more. Three weakened, of which one completely shattered. And now, all three left began to throw more attacks at him, which he dodged with agile hops left and right. He turned to the priest to see him just nonchalantly glancing his way, raising his hand in the air only for a red hue to start appearing in front of it. And so, the ball that had formed dispersed into four streams of faint light that engulfed all of the four travelers. "I have bolstered your powers greatly. There mustn't be more than a single Diseased One ahead of us, after these. Please, exercise great caution.", Miraak continued, but the only question Chase had was how come his eyes were alright after looking at what was practically the sun from such a distance too..? Was he blind or did he just have no issue with it since holy seemed to be his area of expertise?

"...", the bluehead remained silent with a glance towards Freyd, who seemed to be ripping and tearing as per usual. Finally he was putting in a fair bit of work. He didn't give him the signal to keep going like Lessa had, remaining quiet and turning to the monsters before Jomei and Lessa mostly. The less talk between them, the better.

And like so, the tank began to leave the quest. With his mind taken off of the troubling matter of how long they've been trapped in the game, he finally managed to get himself in a peaceful state of mind and headed straight for the teleporter. He checked his quest log, his mind set right back on track to getting every single quest done. There was one with a mysterious reward. Quite literally '???', or so it was listed.

Less clues aren't what Chase needed by this point, but sure thing. Just because the quest was vague didn't mean a thing; he'd still be able to clear it all the same. But... 'Chamber of Memories'? Whatever was that? He had to head right on over and find out now. Maybe he'd have to retrieve some precious memory, or help some amnesiac. He rushed over the quest's details, getting a poor idea of what it would be like before teleporting right on to the 22nd and getting a move on towards the forest. "Can't stop to look back for a moment. Just like Tythen never did."

"You better not.", he said as the two exchanged greetings, or farewells rather, eventually resulting in them breaking off with some parting words from the spouse. "Thank you for listening to my selfish request. For going out to look for Fonsa, even when I knew she might not be found at all. You are a man worth admiring and looking up to. Thanks, Chase."

Just in case the elf had any self-guilt though... "... I know it's not the best, but... sometimes listening to what your heart says feels better. More right.", he tried to explain and nodded, thinking back to the whole fiasco with Freyd just two floors lower. A complete mess, but it felt like Chase had done the right thing, even with Mari having scolded him. She wouldn't put up a fight for herself, so Chase had to get through somehow. Even if he failed, he began to feel like Freyd had understood something. So in a sense, he knew what Tythen had done was right, even if a 'selfish request'. "Take care, Tythen."

"I'm happy for her though. Even if I wasn't there, she did what she found best to her dying breath. She must have put up a hell of a fight, knowing Fonsa.", Tythen continued, but the sadness was slowly leaving his words, and turning into happiness. Chase wasn't able to tell how, but... his gut feeling made him have a hunch. Somehow, this man just lost his wife but still, he was pressing on.

"She didn't fail anyone. And neither did you, Chase.", the elf continued to try and calm the boy down, and it was working. He did feel less guilty about it, especially with how well received this was. "... I shouldn't fail anyone in the future either then.", he mumbled to himself before averting his gaze to the side to look over at the elf, giving him a determined nod and receiving another smile from Tythen. This one even less sad. He quietly looked at the player's hand, taking it in his own and shaking it with a firm grip and slight grin even.

Almost too soon, at least based on what Chase expected, Tythen raised his head and looked at Chase, having wiped all the tears off of his eyes. "We knew she wouldn't make it out alive. I didn't follow because I thought she would stay. But not everybody will listen. I'm sure she wouldn't want me to be sad... She fought for our happiness. For our land. For everything we cherish."

Chase watched him quietly, wanting to smile but feeling it inappropriate. He let out a deep sigh and nodded, letting Tythen take the ring from his hand as he clutched his fist and looked up at the Underdark's 'sky' too. "... I'm sure she did her best.", he simply said, lowering his head and giving a sympathetic look to the man. "... I'm sorry she passed away. I won't let anybody else die.", he tried to encourage the dark elf, who gave him a look and somewhat saddened smile. "I can tell if you were there, she might have been here now. Or maybe if I had gone there, we'd be together even now. Dead or alive."

Somewhat shocked at how calmly her husband appeared to be taking this situation, Chase quietly nodded and with the same frown, answered his question, wasting as little time as possible to do so. "A-Ah, it's Chase...", he stuttered and looked at him in awe, as he turned to look at the ceiling of the Underdark, silent. 

"Chase... Very well. I wasn't expecting you to find her. She and I both knew the implications of what she was about to do. A part of me was hopeful. Hopeful that she somehow made it out alive and would escape. But...", he stopped and lowered his head into his hand, covering his eyes and holding it silently. Chase knew that the man was crying, but he remained quiet. There was little he could say to make him feel better, nothing he could do to help cheer him up; even if he could, now was not his day. Not the right day, not the right time, and definitely not the right person.

And before long, he was face to face with Tythen. A look of hope was sent right his way, making Chase's heart feel even heavier as he shook his head and approached him quietly, the tension rising between the two. As soon as the boy revealed the wedding ring clutched tightly in his hand, the dark elf man just smiled sadly and looked at him.

"I never got to see what got her... By the time I was there, I only found the wedding ring. It might have been minutes, it might have been hours... I heard some beast looking around the place, but... I'm sorry. If I had found her, I promise it wouldn't be this way.", Chase's apology began as Tythen shook his head, seeming less crushed than he had expected. "It's alright... I believe you, you gave it your all. You returned fast with proof that she... You couldn't be lying. Thank you, traveller. Tell me, your name?"

Looking behind at the small area around the tower that he was looking for Fonsa, Chase gave a final grim look and departed shortly after with a weight on his heart. It felt like so much had happened today when the day just started, only because he wasn't fast enough in all of his shock, which was a whole other can of worms... He definitely had to confirm with others on all of that.

Speaking of confirming, off to let her husband know about her fate... The fact he had to be the bearer of bad news, all on his own too. He knew that NPCs weren't real humans but couldn't stop regarding (the more humane ones) them as such. "... Damn it. I need to talk to NIGHT about this immediately.", he nodded to himself and continued to strut back right towards the settlement, put off by the eerily lonely atmosphere that was starting to take over the entire place. He was all alone, no monsters, no humans, no players, nothing.

And then it sounded again. The same noise that piqued the blue boy's interest; he quickly rushed right to its direction, hearing intangible growling and snarling before something fled the scene. By the time he was there, all he could see was something shining on the ground. "... Please don't do this.", he thought as he quietly approached, only to see it be a wedding ring.

The person he was meant to look for had just been killed, that's why the beastmen fled the scene. He knew not of who did it or how she died, if she was even armed or able to fight back, but... He had to report this back to the woman's husband, who tasked him with finding her after all. It was sad news, but he had to know one way or another. That meant he had little to do out here, so he should better just start to head right back to the settlement. Not the best of circumstances for him to really end the day off on... not that he'd call it early, but... it was more of a bad end to the start of his day than anything.

[Fonsa is found dead, but no Crazed Beastmen are around.]

Continuing to walk around and keeping his mouth shut, his eyes scanned the area for any potential signs of creatures lurking about; be it monsters or the dark elf he was to look for. That's at least what the man reminded him off, an elf because of the pointier ears and height, but with a much darker skin. Was that even what they were called, 'dark elves'?

Telling whether his ears were playing tricks on him or not was becoming harder and harder to tell given the lack of anything around him. It was mostly ruins, rubble, debris and anything else around those lines. And all of those just so happened to be on his 'not worth noting' list, to his surprise. "I could have sworn that I heard something coming from around here...", he continued to grumble mostly mentally to himself and looked behind a ruined house, with both brows furrowed.

[Fonsa not found yet.]

Chase's head perked up as he thought he was hearing noise somewhere around here, frowning and raising his eyes to start looking around. If only he could track down the source of all this noise, then he could definitely get to wherever Fonsa was, right? That was the main idea at least.

Although noise kept sounding left and right, it was either other rubble falling down because of the ones that Chase had pushed out of the way or the wind howling; was it just the wind though? He began to move around and look suspiciously, knowing that something was nearby. Whether it was the person he was looking for or a monster though, only harder searching would be able to tell. For now, he was looking for a needle in a hay stack given how big the area of impact of whatever raid was. "It must have been somewhere around here."

[Fonsa wasn't found yet.]

If that was the case, he just had to give it his best. He had to start working on beating the game and get the frontliners moving; he was sure they all had their own reasons to get going, but to think they had been around much longer than he had and still took just as much time, if not more, to get prepared for the following bosses... They were way too relaxed.

"To hell with relaxing after I'm level 88.", he grunted and commented lowly to himself as he rolled both of his sleeves up and started to lift rocks out of the way and throw them further to the side with gritted teeth, trying to clear out some rubble around where he felt the woman would be, if anywhere. Or at least somewhere close to here, if not her, he could find some footsteps or sign that she had crossed somewhere down this path, right? With burnt down buildings and various objects laying about, this was certainly struck too hard by... whatever had struck down everything else.

[Looking through rubble. 4/4]

There wasn't a need to really say anything to begin with, considering that Alkor wasn't there anymore. Now alone in the party, he had to look for the NPC's wife. Although it had been just a moment or so since getting the quest, he was so stumped from his recent discovery that he genuinely forgot already. To think that something could still shock him that much.

"Lily... If what Alkor said is true, how long has she been waiting for me?", his thoughts continued to swirl around his head as he kicked the rubble around in hopes of finding anything, giving it a half-hearted attempt if anything. He had to do better than that. Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to find the dark elf's wife. A part of him hoped that he wouldn't find her and he'd instead have lost her somewhere that she ran towards in an attempt to flee the monsters. Another part of him genuinely wished she was around here, so he could protect her and escort her right on back to the town. Only time would tell though.

[Looking through rubble. 3/4]

Complete silence was the only answer that Chase got. He wasn't sure what to make of Alkor's expression. Whether he felt bad or sad, or... He couldn't read a single thing. All he knew was that now even he himself was distressed upon hearing just how long it had been since the last time that he had walked in the real world. Two whole years..? That couldn't be, right? Not already.

Too distraught to even say a thing, Alkor quietly looked back to the settlement and began to take off with a mumble; Chase couldn't tell what he said. Right now, blue was lost in a world of his own. He watched the swordsman leave and quietly looked at the rubble left behind alongside him, knowing he still had a quest to finish. He had to confirm with someone else, there was no way that they just stayed in here for two years; he could have sworn it had been barely a few months at most of him living in that wooden inn. Silently kicking down one of the stones left behind, he sighed, unsure what else to say.

[Looking through rubble. 2/4]

But it was around time to go again. He had to keep on moving, and now he could finally scrap this one from his quest list, with a stupid grin on his face as he came closer and closer to his goal. He was slowly getting strong enough to chase down Calrex and finally get a hold of him, question him on unique skills and even see it in practice as he could now carry his own weight when it came to duels. It's not like he was rushing to get his ass handed, but he had this goal at the very back of his mind since the start of his levelling adventure. It was time he started to actively make progress on it, wasn't it? He had practically filled in all of his database, after all. "So then... Where was that teleport crystal back to my home?", he began to wonder as he looked through his inventory, below all the heaps of vanity crystals for the other, slightly more useful vanity crystal.

The story hidden behind this place, the fact that the broker was well aware of where it was and what had been happening all along, and the little traces of said 'army' that existed. Were they NPCs or were they really just part of the terrain all along. That's an interesting question that came along with most events in Aincrad players couldn't attest to. Each player could come to their own conclusion though. "... At least now I know the story, and anybody that does the quest will too... To think the final boss for the quest was the damn broker though, hell if that creates trust issues, right?", he thought to himself with both of his hands quietly resting in his pockets as his eyes continued to take in the environment, or rather lack thereof. The place felt like it should make him sad on one hand, on the other, it was pleasantly serene.

And before the broker could open his mouth and start shouting at Chase once more, a single slash of his blade and punch right to the face. More agile than even he knew himself to be, he had already dealt with the NPC whose health trickled all the way down to zero. And as if the slash wasn't enough, his blade began to form halfway through the attack, effectively cleaving him in half.

"When I give you a chance, take the damn chance!", he shouted at where the broker would normally be, had he still remained alive. He quietly put his sword back in its place looking around the graveyard now that he stood there alone with the crystal in his hand, clutching it tightly and checking its details. "I'm almost through with quests and I definitely am glad I didn't get this joy any earlier... Imagine having to worry about most NPCs being selfish dicks like this one, for crying out loud."

Two seconds and Chase had stopped completely. He managed to break out of it with ease, but he had effectively been paralyzed; thank god that it was a weak form of paralyze, too, otherwise that would be massive trouble for the boy. "You prick, cut it off!", Chase continued to try and reason with the man, who kept on pushing and slashing and dicing the air between the two, closing the gap bit by bit.Every single swing missed the mark, with Chase just glaring the broker down. He was beyond annoyed and while normally he didn't mind killing a quest NPC much, this one was a special case. He thought he might just unintentionally look shady, but no, he just HAD to be a pain in the ass. What a fucking bother.

A failed assault from the broker's dagger that resulted in Chase just giving him an annoyed look. "I'm not going to kill you, the fuck? Leave me be and take the reward.", he defensively told him, just trying to get this over with as soon as possible. Even so though, the broker didn't want to let up. If anything, he shook his head in disbelief and glared at Chase twice as hatefully.

"Liar! You just want the reward from the boss; no other way you would rush right to it!". If only there were NPCs this doubtful all over, christ... "I just want the SP, chill out!", he groaned in annoyance as he tried to dodge the next attacks, not having too much trouble with the flurry of strikes sent his way. One attack landed, and it was only then that Chase noticed the broker's blade was coated with poison. That wasn't good; and before he knew it, he felt himself becoming much more sluggish and slowing down by a lot.