ChaseR

"Exactly; they were humans that lost all of their humanity amidst the fight; look at all the armors, the swords laying about. Doesn't it make sense they acted like monsters after all of the slaughter was finished?", the broker continued, eager on captivating Chase and getting the crystal from his hands. And back to ordering the boy he went. 

"I see.", the bluenette spoke quietly only to get interrupted by a harsh shout from the cloaked man. "The crystal! Hand it over already!". It was clear how this was going to end if he didn't, so stepping forwards, the tank quietly left the crystal in the broker's hands and bid him farewell. Or so he thought at least. To the NPC, this seemed like an all too sudden mood swing. "Y-You... I know what you were doing. You used these pointless questions to stall time; to bring some friends and ambush me. Is that it?!", the paranoid broker started to look at him nervously, dashing right at him and starting to try attacking him. 

With the same momentum he had been driving the conversation thus far, he quietly looked at the broker before gesturing all around them with his hand. "So, what happened here?", he proceeded to ask with an eyebrow still up, only to get an annoyed hiss from the broker who had no option but to keep spilling the beans.

"Tch! These Iron Guardians and Knights had an army. An army that began to fight against one another. One after the other, they fell in battle until only two were left; why they all got in such a crazed frenzy, I know not. But they were all vile, filled with bloodlust. Trying to kill one another in the name of honor and pride, to see who's the mightiest of them all. The only ones left behind were the commander of the strongest squad, the boss you killed, and one of their subordinates...". That was a fairly interesting story, wasn't it? "You mean they were humans then. How did they become monsters, and why did they say nothing?"

Chase was somewhat dumbfounded. On one hand, it made sense that everybody was able to cooperate this well; they were all at the very least level 50. About himself and Freyd, he knew they were in the eighties. Jomei's and Lessa's levels remained a mystery though as they more than competently kept cutting down the diseased ones.

Blue wasn't going to let up anytime soon though. With a strong grip on his blade, he led the charge once more and got in front of Lessa to get everybody's attention, only to feel his sword starting to grow weightier as he looked over his shoulder. "Eyes.", he warned and the inevitably blinding white flash followed right up. By the time it was gone, most of the diseased ones were crippled and one had completely crumbled to ashes. Not that it mattered, as another one emerged. Their attacks in return were slow enough for Chase to dodge with relative ease, before he noticed a green light surrounding everyone and dispersing with faint sparks. "I've cured you of any ailments they may have afflicted us with. You never know with the Diseased Ones.", Miraak said emotionlessly, putting Chase's lack of pride in his words to shame. "... It really sounds like routine to this guy..."

His question was met with an almost maniacal cackle. If anything, he was starting to realise he must have felt suspicious of the NPC for a reason- no broker would just freely give away information, after all. Bistro was the exception, not the norm, judging from everybody else he had seen... excluding himself, of course. If he could even be called a broker at that...

"What's so funny?", he asked with an eyebrow raised in suspicion as the broker lowered their hood and revealed their almost slimy black hair, gesturing them to hand over the crystal once more. "Cause I put them there. That's why I didn't tell you a thing. I wanted to see if you were devoted enough to take the long route, but it seems you're way too strong to be stopped by something like that. You proved that with the two monsters, after all.", the broker answered to him although in a suspicious way, starting to make Chase distrust him even more with his insistence with getting the item. "I'm giving this to you when I have all my answers. And right now I don't."

That was the plan at least, all the way until he realised that someone was around; coming closer and closer with a clacking noise at every step. No, it wasn't clacking- it was clapping. As soon as he turned around, he could see the very broker he'd told to stay at the settlement's safe confines approaching him, having witnessed the fight thus far.

"... You didn't wait back at the town like I told you to.", he grumbled only to receive a shake of the man's head, who held his hand out almost hurriedly asking for the crystal. He was way too quick on not beating around the bush, jeez. "To think you even made it here this fast, past the canyon even with the boulders in place to slow you down, and slayed both of the monsters that you had to within a single hit each... I am impressed, I really am.". So it appeared the NPC did know about the avalanche. "Why didn't you warn me about the boulders?", Chase asked and possessively held onto the crystal, knowing fully well that this was his key to getting the answers he wanted right now.

With a quick dash, Chase ran right towards the boss. This time, it didn't try to dash at him as well. It instead firmly held its ground and raised its sword in the air, attempting to cleave the man as soon as it got its chance. Sadly though, he wasn't planning on letting that happen; now or ever, from anyone and for anyone.

Within no more than a moment, his sword cut right through the boss' thick, steel and tough armor, stopping at the very end as the boy composed himself and quietly rested his blade by his hip once more. And as soon as the boss shattered, a loot window appeared for the item he was looking for. Now he had the Crystal of Support he wanted to give to the broker, holding it firmly in his hands and getting ready to head right on back. For this though, he'd cheat; he'd use a teleport crystal to save himself the effort and time.

Even so though, Chase was curious to see all that he could gather from the boss. Obviously there wasn't that much mechanical depth, hell, the previous one was shredded like paper so it probably had no mitigation worthy of note, if any at all. He wanted to see if he could find out more about the monster's purpose here. Why the graveyard was here and if it were responsible.

No matter how many times the two circled one another in the same motions, nothing changed. They kept staring blankly towards one another, the guardian through its helmet and Chase with his own two eyes. Silence. Nothing else could be heard anywhere but the clacking of the guardian's metal boots and Chase's shoes as they prepared to engage. They were both patient, almost like the boss was mimicking his movements. Just being mimes wouldn't cut it though. He realised the boss wouldn't speak, and its actions weren't loud enough either. It was time to cut to the chase and just write this off as another chapter, then.

A minute or so later and he was set to dash off once more. He pulled his leg back and with a strong kick, he began to get to work; chasing own whatever the field boss was and wherever it could have been. He knew little of its form after all. "If a minion was around here, that means there's either a lot of them leading to it or it was somewhere around here."

It really didn't take all that long to ultimately find what had happened to the boss though. Right ahead of him was a knight just like the previous one, except standing much taller and with a more menacing physique. At least, in terms of size. And Chase had long learned his lesson about how loud size spoke in a world all about numbers- like the one he was trapped in. And the truth was, his numbers were all around bigger. Scarier. Even behind his fragile and slim form. That made him an enemy worth thinking twice about engaging. But monsters, like the field boss, only knew how to fight. Little else aside from that. It whipped its long sword to the side, as if challenging Chase to a fight.

And with that declaration, the both of them took off. Surprisingly agile given how heavy all of his armor seemed, the knight was just as eager as the bluehead to get into the battle, slashing forwards with all of his might using his claymore to bring the younger one down- it was clear from the knight's size and selection he was much, much more experienced.

Much faster than Chase expected it, a simple slash from his blade felled the opposing warrior and made him crumble, as he shattered into pieces and the shards left behind flew up into the air. More armor to add to the graveyard that they had been standing on. Honestly, the lore of this place definitely existed if that many armors and weapons had been lost around here. "... Did he have something to do with this part of the map turning out like this?", he began to wonder as he kept his blade in his hand and waited for his energy to gather once more before he got back on track with running from place to place for this wild treasure hunt; only the boss was left now though. Probably?

The path continued and from here on out, the scenery changed very little. It became sort of like a graveyard, with some rusted weapons buried into the grounds or lodged in between rocks and armors ready to crumble scattered all over. It was almost like a war had happened out here, and... there stood a single knight, proud as ever, over the plentiful of armors scattered about.

He said nothing, standing tall in his iron armor and looking at the boy. He was in the way, but most importantly, he didn't seem to be wanting to move any time now. That meant he'd have to be one of the 'minions', as he was accustomed to calling them, that he would have to take care in order to fight the field boss. Like the quest with the bee, he had to take some small fries out first. "... Got nothing to say?", the boy tried but nothing. The silence stood absolute, speaking the loudest of the two as he quietly pulled his blade out once more and pointed it towards the hunk of metal ready to fight him. "Let's."

Because he didn't want to waste much time though, the bluenette gave it little thought and picked up his pace once more with the rocks out of the way. "I should check the map.", Chase thought to himself, bringing up his menu and giving it a quick look. He had already covered a considerable distance from his destination. To hell with energy systems in games when high levels overrode the rules in full, right?

"It shouldn't be more than maybe half an hour and I'll be there by then.", he proceeded to whisper to himself out loud, grinning and continuing his merry path, making sure not to trip on any rock and to keep his breathing steady. He was starting to wonder what the area would look like when he would have to fight the 'strong boss', which he doubted was even that strong. If the broker knew his level, he most definitely would have been a ton more careful on the wording. A 'strong boss' for Chase was a boss that would kill most others by this point, given how many quests he'd dished out since starting his progress.

It didn't take too long until despite even his momentum, he was forced to come to a stop. That's because just around the middle of the canyon, boulders had fallen large enough to stop anybody dead in their tracks. Climbing over them was possible but too much of a pain in the ass, and they seemed nigh immovable.

Chase saw no monsters and he didn't know of any naturally occurring avalanches either, so this was already suspicious enough. But he hadn't felt like he was being watched or seen anybody around either, so it must have just happened during some other poor sap's trip. Taking his sword out of its scabbard he quietly walked towards the boulders and waited; it took a good five minutes or so before it suddenly lit up, its form appearing in full. With a loud wack, all of the boulders were sent almost flying out of the way, clearing the path for the bluehead to take who quietly put his sword back in its respectful sheathe. "... I wonder if the NPC knew that the road was blocked."

And with a 'woosh', almost too quickly, he kicked the ground and took off as fast as he could towards the west. He asked for two days because it'd take one at most for him to get there. His energy was high enough to sustain combat even after all this travelling, and the prolonged running time he had because of all the excess levels compared to the quest's target audience would help make up for it too. "Two days my ass, look at this, heh.", he snarkily commented in the back of his mind and continued his way, moving much faster than he was used to when partied up with others; the landscape, as rough as it was, wasn't all that hard to run through and the heat barely even mattered because of his extra skill. Like so, he kept moving on and on, entering a canyon with small geysers of steam after not too long; a place he was particularly familiar with, considering this had been where he slayed his first and only phoenix for the name tag's materials he had to provide the crafters with, in order to rename his icicle into the much more familiar name he was used to now.

The questionable vocabulary just kept discouraging Chase who gave another nod and a thumbs up to the broker, asking for them to wait over there and in two days at most, he would have returned. He was confident in his strength as a high level and even more so a good runner that he'd be able to trudge through the landscape much faster than normal.

"Alright. I won't take long; two days and I'll be back. Wait for me around here, this time the day after.", he finished off only to get more enticed by the broker, who revealed their face under the hood just slightly; the grin Chase suspected they were wearing. "The item the boss drops is said to heal up to four people at once... Be careful, young one.". If the face wasn't anything to go by, the warning and choice of words didn't do the apparent man any favors. Regardless, the bluehead set off to get right towards where the Iron Guardian was said to be, doing some stretches on his first few minutes out of the settlement and towards its general direction.

It didn't seem as though Chase had to go looking for anybody though; instead, the broker that was to assign him this quest approached him out of the shadows of some building around the settlement. Looking rather shady, he opened his mouth and began to lay out the details without cutting Chase some slack; not even questioning if he was the right person to talk to about this...

Such is the way of being a quest giver NPC, apparently. "Swordsman, there is... something, that might interest you. There's a strong field boss I would like you to take on and return the item to me; there's to be a Col reward, too. I believe you would be interested in being rewarded for your efforts, no?", they mischeviously spoke, only to get a slightly discouraged nod from Chase. "... You believe right. Not that the Col will make a big enough difference to me, but... Where is it at?", Chase asked as the NPC opened their map and pointed west of the settlement. "Around here, kind soul. You see, it's two days from here, from what I've heard. There's few shortcuts and the terrain is rather rough, too."

<<The Iron Guardian>>

With the evershrinking list of quests for Chase to take on and fully wrap up, this one had been on his eye for quite a while. Plenty of those he knew just felt like they would turn him down on his offer to run it with them, so he hadn't bothered asking; he could go alone after all. It was admittedly the fastest and most clean way to go about a quest like this.

Now arriving into the floor of heat and little else, he quietly let Survival adjust his body to the temperature and felt little difference from what he would have under the sun back in the real world. Nothing more but an annoyance; a big upgrade from standing next to a river of lava and almost dying of heatstroke. He wouldn't even want to imagine such a scenario outside of Aincrad where temperature really mattered beyond exhaustion. Regardless, the quest's details were what bothered him the most. He knew he had to be here, but little else apart from that. There were no pointers were to go or what to do.

The group, meaning Grimm and whoever else was with him were surely taking their sweet time coming over. Regardless, they'd be here so long as he exercised some patience. It wasn't like there was much better to do, so he might as well spend his time helping these desperate souls get a few levels. He knows he would have definitely appreciated the help even if he weren't that early on too after all.

Chase wasn't exactly certain who he would be coming with and how many, hopefully just a single person. Actually, he judged these people Grimm was bringing along on the basis that they'd also be around his level. So adding two and two together, that meant that he must be inviting... firm... anima members... With a scroll of his inventory and complete utter avoidance of his inbox, in case anything new just came in, he reached into his inventory and began pulling out various vanity foods, biting down on them quietly as he tried to desperately cope with the fact he kept being surrounded by the guild. Maybe that's why he felt like they were omnipresent. "... That guild will be my damn downfall one of these days."

A nod was all that was necessary from Chase. The duo quickly made their way over to the tenth floor and Chase seemed to know exactly where to go- the only place that he hadn't gone on this floor, there was no other area for the castle to be hidden at. After all, he had seen it sealed (albeit from a distance) so he knew where to direct all of his attention.

When the two of them got closer and closer, the bluenette's pace just picked up more and more until eventually, they were standing before a gate with nine slots, all of which they had the keys, or rather gems, to put in. Approaching each indentation alerted Chase with a confirmation window, and as soon as he pressed his finger on the blue circle that stood for 'yes', the gemstone left both of the party members' inventory and appeared inside of each appropriate socket. Before long, all of the gemstones were fit in perfectly and the heavy doors started to drag against the ground, opening up to reveal a massive room before them and stairs leading higher up further to the back. Judging by the castle's size from outside, it was big. Ten floors or so, but you could only see so much from outside.

At the very middle of the room was an egg though, on top of an altar. It seemed just like the first hatchling's, but a bit different- larger? He couldn't quite tell. When the two entered the castle, the doors shut behind them as cracks started to form on the egg. Chase excitedly pulled his blade out only to see a human emerge from the broken shells; one with a spear, knight armor and colors matching to the first hatchling's. "... It's a boss.", he said with a grin and ran right towards it, beginning combat as soon as he could.

With the two starting to get a move on, Chase quickly managed to get a word in with Tythen to pick up the quest for the both of them. Apparently, they had to find his wife among some wreckage further out of the town. Needless to say, that would need lots of exploration, and that was going to be a bit of a time waste. Whichever the case, Chase promised to do the one thing that Tythen asked of them. "Please, I don't know if she's alive or not, but... Look through the tower, and if by a miracle she's still alive, please bring her back safe."

Not too high hopes when talking about his own wife, but regardless, the two moved on and began to quietly look through the wreckage while Alkor started to describe his story. Chase had just picked up some rubble which he dropped as soon as he heard that Alkor was presumed dead. There was one thing about his story that shook him even more than hearing that he 'died', that was how long he was in a coma for. There was no way it had been that long... right? "T-Two years? You mean we're in here for over two years?", he asked with furrowed brows, his mouth slowly starting to form a frown. "There's no way it's been that long. We don't even have a way to know; a calendar or anything."

[Looking through rubble. 1/4]

And so, the party trudged forwards until they came across a group of diseased ones, followed by the priest, they all came to a halt and Lessa took the first swing. With a jump forwards and a cleave of her blade, all of the monsters were damaged plenty; not that they seemed to be too rough in the first place. With the excuse to get as far away from Freyd as possible being given, Chase quickly nodded to her proposal and followed suit.

Before he even began his attack though, he could already see a streak of white lightning coursing right through his blade, knowing fully well what was about to happen. "Cover your eyes, please.", he tried to warn his group ahead of time, so as to not flashbang them. And so, the bright white light began to form at the edge of his broken blade, slowly amounting to the missing half's form. And with a swing, one of the diseased ones instantly went down, only to leave the other three behind as the light dissipated. A few more swipes and stabs, and by the time the rest had opened their eyes, he had everybody's attention; the monsters being everybody, in this case. They kept charging right at him one by one, getting dodged with a few sidesteps and just jumps further back. "You good Lessa?", he looked over his shoulder to ask, only to be somewhat surprised. Of all the people to step forward, the one to do so was the... priest..?

Hold up, why was his name in the party?! "Allow me to assist you, travellers.", he proclaimed before holding his hand out, a golden circle appearing before a gentle light showed over Lessa. In an attempt to heal the tank that was already at full health, Chase could feel his eyebrow twitching. "M-Miraak, she's at full health...", he tried to tell the priest, but alas, he quietly pulled his hand back and kept behind the lot. "These vile creatures can be crafty. We have to be careful moving forwards."

With the questions going by unanswered for the most part, Chase just let out a deep sigh and gave an understanding nod. Before he could even open his mouth though, he heard familiar footprints and reached down to keep a hand on his sword's hilt, seeing the same dislikeable face he thought would be there; Freyd. For crying out loud, did Jomei have a tracker on him or... ah... his... his shop... right...

"... C-Come along.", he awkwardly blurted out and nabbed the antidote from Freyd's hands, applying it on himself and looking between the two awkwardly. And it was then that Jomei began to message somebody else... for god's sakes, how many more people could this party have..?! The silence went by... well, quietly, as Chase refused to engage in any form of conversation with Freyd around. And it was then that he noticed, a few minutes later, who said fourth party member would be. He quickly waved at Lessa and moved over to her side, starting to fiddle with his own thumbs in each pocket as he waited for them to get the show on the road already. They were sure wasting plenty of time so far doing nothing, but... with Lessa, Freyd might as well be bearable. Finally, a responsible adult. "Nice to see you too, blonde lady.", he quickly told her and stood by her side as she greeted the rogue, turning to Jomei and giving him a small smile that spelled out something like 'Thank you so much'. A desperate smile, that is. 

[ChaseR uses Antidote! (ANTIDOTE +3)]

ChaseR: HP: 1630/1630 | EN: 160/160 | DMG: 22 | MIT: 88 | ACC: 6 | EVA: 5 | HOLY: 12 | PARA: 9-10 | BH: 81 | V.(DEF): 81 | HBS: 16 | LD: 5 | ANTIDOTE [3/3]

Thread Rewards:

> 10,133 Col [Everyone]

> 7 SP (5 quest, 1 page, 1 event) [Everyone]

> LD Drop: 7 (Nothing)

He didn't seem to have ill intent whatsoever, the friendly greeting wasn't pretentious or forced, so it was probably all in good faith. Sucking it up and turning down the possibility of having screwed his own self image for the rapier user, Chase approached him and shot him a party invite. 

"Trying to do a quest. Headed over to it right now, it's somewhere around these ruins. It's called 'Cleansing the Corruption'. I have to find some priest for it. Do you know where he is..?", the short, sharp sentences flew towards him one after the other as the bluenette looked to the side, trying to see if anything was apparent in the destroyed urban jungle. Well... ex-urban, current-jungle, rather. He didn't have a single clue of what had happened around these parts, or even the 'Fallen Event' the quest was referring to. "... Do you know anything about the Fallen Event?", he added to the list of questions he'd be asking, blurting it out right away as he turned his gaze back towards Jomei.

And even with Jomei missing, the mob was almost dead. The relative silence that took over, putting aside the clashing of blades on the thick bones and the low music that came from his pocket. He was certain the ginger had heard it, so he knew all too well that there was no point in asking again. He didn't want to ruin his image for the new guy because of the other jackass.

"It's about to hi... hit..?", Chase faltered once he had delivered his own blow at the monster, seeing himself completely ignored even by the boss who began to stride right towards the ginger. And with a raise of its hand, it swept down at Jomei, only to thankfully fail to hit him. If anything, Chase wanted to avoid getting unnecessary damage on his allies; yes, even him. "Jomay, it... wants to attack you. Try not to get hit, please.", he awkwardly asked of the new companion, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand. It probably wouldn't even get another shot at attacking them at this rate.

The response from Freyd was enough. Chase more than understood the downplaying attitude that Freyd was going to maintain with him, and that didn't help any. Like anything he did helped in any way, shape or form. Although he didn't want to put any burden on Jomei, right now he was his only grip to not breaking loose. He was there as a reminder they weren't alone, and obviously plenty of help for all the effort that Freyd wasn't putting in alongside the other two.

"Louder.", Chase almost barked at Jomei as he approached him, slashing at the King once more and looking at his pocket, where the music seemed to be coming from. "Put it louder, turn the volume up. If you can.", he asked of him although rather demandingly, but it was clear he didn't mean any ill intent to Jomei. He still didn't, even when the Forgotten Time King rammed an arm right into him, for Chase to block it with his shoulder and get pushed a few feet back. The antidote stopped it from paralyzing him, but the monster's attention instantly diverted from Chase to the ginger he was next to. "..?! Was it because I got too close to Jomei?!"