ChaseR

<<Cleansing the Corruption>>

With his quest list almost completely finished, Chase wanted to mark the next one off the list; and the nearest one, barring the Iron Guardian that he was going to be taking on on his own sometime soon, was Cleansing the Corruption. A quest he had heard little about, and it seemed to refer to some in-game event that took place a while back to boot.

"... The Fallen event? Like that item enhancement?", he began to wonder to himself as he casually began to approach the quest NPC's position, hearing somebody nearby and and turning to look. Boy howdy, he didn't expect it to be the same ginger leprechaun looking fellow that he had done FTK with... and with Freyd too. To hell if he knew what sort of impression he left on him, but he wished that it wasn't anything foul. "... Morning.", he quietly blurted out with a cautious and rather hesitant glance towards @Jomei, sighing and proceeding to move both of his hands into the more welcoming warmth of his jacket's pockets. He usually pulled his hands closer to his chest like that whenever he felt awkward, or wary. And now he was filled with a mix of both.

[ChaseR consumes Liquor of Light! (DMG +3)]
[ChaseR consumes Chocolate Beans! (ACC +2)]
[ChaseR consumes Chase's Meal Special! (EVA +2)]
[ChaseR consumes Roast Chestnuts! (MIT +45)]

[ChaseR uses Filling on Chocolate Beans! (ACC +1)]

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

Chase silently looked at Alkor with an awkward grin as he turned to look to the side and scratched the back of his head silently. "It's okay, don't worry. But you're not useless. Your sword is keeping you back. It has a lower damage output than two handers and the sword arts are weaker to boot. At least that's what I've noticed with my database.", he tried to explain, genuinely finding Alkor to have helped him a fair bit in the past few quests, even if it didn't show all that much.

"As for me, I've... kept doing quests. Yeah.", he blurted out and went back to rubbing his neck awkwardly. While the two had quested before and knew what to expect of one another, it definitely felt somewhat awkward to be talking again after a few days of no contact whatsoever. And he wasn't sure if that was just him or the air around the two was really stiff. It kind of all went away when Alkor mentioned being thought of as... dead? "... Why would they think you're dead? You can message them, can't you? And they can see you're alive,  you're friends, right?", he asked with concern in his voice as his gaze quickly went from the side right to Alkor, confusion and curiosity written all over the boy's face.

The constant throwing of insults back and forth between the two with this fucker of all people was doing Chase no favors whatsoever. Like hell he'd be able to calm down when this clown did the exact same thing that caused the bluehead to react this way and then started to put the blame on him.

 He just quietly turned to Jomei, giving him a small frown and uttering a low "... Sorry." before he faced Freyd, starting to quietly walk towards him with complete disregard for the boss. The look on his face was already filled with burning anger enough, which... wasn't all from this encounter, if only people could get this angry this easily. "Listen here you clown. You keep on your witty banter thinking you're so cunning, you do nothing but anger me when I rely on your skills to make sure you and I both see the light of day-", and then came the boss. Possibly all too annoyed at the player for disregarding him, he tried to stomp on the blue tank who turned around and rammed his sword with enough strength into the boss' sole to make it topple over. Not that it didn't immediately start getting back up.

And as if that was just an interruption and nothing more, Chase turned back at Freyd. "If I have anger issues, you have tunnel vision. If you fuel the fire, why are you complaining it's so hot? Can't you grind your gears together and realise you're pissing me off and then calling me out on it, you blind fuck?! You barely even know me, don't talk as if this is how I act to everyone. You're the only person that is anywhere close to deserving this form of treatment.", he hissed at the rogue with venom in every word, his breathing shaky and unstable and his eyes pinned right into the swordsman's, unmoving. An intense stare Freyd hadn't seen yet, and definitely a bad impression for their tag-along, who the King now seemed to turn his attention to, roaring and beginning to charge right towards him.

The way that Freyd kept on tugging at Chase's patience was starting to get very bothersome, and holding back was slowly becoming less and less of an option when it came to not screeching right in his face. "If you're not worried, then why are you even mentioning the offchance I get stunned?! Speaking of which, you fucking baffon, you gave me an antidote before! I cannot get stunned! How will the thing even stun me?!"

While practically screaming at Freyd, the bluehead had already began his stride towards the Forgotten Time King, finding himself dancing with the massive beast once more. Despite the both's frenzies, the only strikes that went through, as per usual, were the boy's. Down to approximately half health, now. He turned to look at the ginger, addressing his concerns rather awkwardly and definitely a lot more friendlier than he had Freyd's. "N-No, it's okay... This slog can't hit me. B-But his name isn't Skeletor, you can read, right..?". The reference completely missed his head as he saw its health before turning to shout at Freyd again. "H-Hey, quit takin' credit when you've barely hit it two times you damn thief! Hit it hard for once and win your spot in the party!"

"... G-Great to meet me..? Ah, that's what it is... She thinks I'm a child, doesn't she.", he concluded inside of his head, knowing that this was the same way Mari, now dubbed as Ma, had been treating him. Well... Whichever the case, he still had questions that wouldn't help his position if that's how she felt about him right now. "Er... Don't people go to bars for the... you know, noise?"

Chase let his head rotate around the room, before realising he still hadn't pulled his hand back; which he quietly did and stuffed in his pocket, sighing. "... I'm horrible with new people, sorry.", he quickly apologised and went back to looking around the bar again. "I thought people went to places like this cause they wanted more crowd, people around them. Why would you go to a crowded place alone?", he continued to ponder on his own, but out loud where Lessa could hear it and give feedback to his questions all the same. While waiting for an answer though, he turned to look at Lessa again with the same confused expression, his eyebrows furrowed and his eyes scanning her form really quickly. Incredibly casual clothing, but she definitely didn't seem to just be a college student. She seemed way, way older, maybe... more like a graduate? The bluehead would have become a college student if they hadn't gotten trapped in Aincrad, but even he seemed way less mature than the blonde. Maybe it was in the way she expressed herself, her clothes or her overall looks. She just didn't seem to be around his age. Not that he'd say that of course, being bad at talking and being blunt isn't the same... necessarily.

It certainly was like Freyd, to do absolutely nothing while continuing to fuel the fire inside of Chase. The fact he could be this laid back even now, leaving it all to himself and Jomei... For crying out loud, did this guy have no shame whatsoever?! "Hey shitass, watch it!", he called to Freyd as he saw the Forgotten Time King raise his hand in the air and start bringing it down way too quickly for him to respond, given all of his pondering.

As quickly as he could, Chase began his sprint right towards Freyd, looking to the side at his broken blade and seeing some white streaks of thunder racing through it. He moved both hands towards the blade and the moment he did, a bright, white flash blinded everybody within range, but the bluehead himself. Once it was over, a large gash could be seen across the King's chest, and the boy was jumping down from him and moving a while back, only to see him charge right towards him completely unaffected. "He's trying to use you as a decoy to leave me compromised, so move it and get to fighting. If you were worried about me, quit trying to get me killed and listen to Jomay!", he almost ordered at the red-eyed menace further by the side, dodging the King's swipes with his massive hands that just seemed to get faster by the minute. "He's immune to paralysis, I don't think statuses will work on him."

And well it all went. Chase dashed right at the Queen one last time and slashed right at her stinger, cutting it off clean before slamming the flat side of his sword on her side, sending her to the side and off the air onto the ground. Before it even had time to get back on its wings, its health dropped to zero and it shattered into blue shards.

"Nice going Kayaba, way to make us feel good about not dying.", the bluehead thought in the back of his mind as the final hit bonus appeared in a small window before him, accepting it into his inventory and turning to look at Valentine and Orvilla with a small frown. "Go rest as much as you want. But never take a mission like that without knowing again, alright?", he scolded the both of them with concern written out in his voice, stuffing his hands in his jackets and just sighing. "I hope the SP at least made this trip worth it. If you need anything, shoot me a message. You know my name."

Thread Rewards:

To even think about how much progress the young man had made throughout this whole time... He started off with Ariel and Shay, met a few people here and there, but the only ones that really mattered or made a difference to him were NIGHT and Mari; of which one he had met most recently and even much too few for her to normally make a difference. It was just her motherly effect. As for NIGHT, she was someone that he could definitely trust with his own life, the same way she had with him. "... I'm glad I've made some powerful allies in the meantime.", he said in the back of his mind and raised his head to look at the cloudy sky, just smiling as these happy thoughts kept swirling about his head. "... I'm much luckier than I give me credit for, aren't I?", he joked with himself and chuckled, throwing both of his hands behind his head. "Heh. I'll keep pushing. No matter what."

And finally wrapping up all of his thoughts, he closed the quest window and started to walk away from the confines of the cliffside that the hideout was built in, noticing a forest further on by his position. He quietly opened up his inventory and took out a vanity trinket he had found around these parts, when he was still a much lower level than he currently was. "... I really made a lot of progress throughout this time, huh?", he asked himself and clutched the trinket just a bit tighter before he finally put it back inside of his inventory and set his eyes straight at the settlement that wasn't too far from here. It was time to head back home and call it a day, or at least take an hour long break before going right back out. That must have marked what, week three of levelling? And he was almost done with it too.

Well, at least he didn't have to waste any more time near this dungeon with all of the stupid guards patrolling without a single idea of who should be in which cage and who's following them, or with a warden that kept cussing his lungs out like a damn sailor and fought as if he was a caveman. An oversized one at that, too. Chase began to go back up the stairs he had started to descend, coming back out fully of the maze again and hoisting his blade by his hip before he snuggly fit both of his hands in his pockets. And with that, came the final notification; the quest reward window. A window he was used to seeing for now, but he knew would quickly vanish. Even in full from his common sightings, seeing how few quests he happened to have left. At least non-repeatable ones, it's not like he was planning to run doubles of any quest right now.

If anything, this nonchalant and completely casual response seemed to trigger the Warden's anger even more than anything else he had happened to say or do so far. "I can't believe you're taking your life so lightly... Do you think you can make fun of me just like that, you brat?! Take this!", he shouted out the top of his lungs and began to run right towards Chase, who looked at him in disappointment.

"Can you not..?", the bluehead asked more annoyed than anything else, sidestepping to dodge the all too barbaric swing of the man's club before unsheathing his blade and slashing as weakly as he could right at the warden. "... Sorry, I guess.", he awkwardly added as his health rapidly began to deplete, quickly reaching zero and causing the 'boss', literally and mechanically, vanish into blue shards. "... For real, why do they never listen to me when I tell them not to attack..."

And of course, this meant there was no better time for the tub of lard to show up; the famed Warden that Bob and Frank had been talking about. A tall and burly man with a round stomach waiting outside of the jail for him, with an club right by his shoulder resting on it quietly. "I knew that you would escape you damn runt. Why else would I wait up here and let the guards look after you- and fail horribly at that?", he began the taunting already, although Chase didn't seem quite as interested.

"The last time I warned a bandit to get out of the way they didn't listen so... should I even bother asking you?", he hesitantly proposed, only to get shouted at by the now livid warden. "How dare you start joking in my presence you pest?! You realise that vermin like you should never leave your cell, ever, cause that's where you trash belong! In cells to rot and die for the rest of your miserable, pathetic lives!". That... wow. "... Sure thing.", the bluehead sighed and turned back around, quietly starting to go down the steps once more.

And after a little bit of walking, some bright light could be seen further in the distance. His eyes widened but he quickly came to realise that- finally, it was the actual exit! Now to trick these two, he had to do little other than raise his hand and knock one of the torches down. They quickly turned and began to ran right towards the source of the sound, freaking out at the sight of the fire spreading down onto the ground.

Chase willingly used that distraction to just walk right past them from behind, humming in the back of his head and stepping out into the bright light as he stretched. Finally, he was out of that damned maze and free to go back home and relax- all of the sneaking around tired him enough to make him not want to kill things anymore. Just get some rest and be off with it.

LD Roll: 9 + 13 = 22 >= 17
[ChaseR has found the exit!]

Holy gee though, the dungeon was definitely starting to get dark. What dim lighting existed just became even dimmer, making it bothersome for Chase to look around with the same ease as before, considering he didn't possess the Night Vision skill that Raidou had. "I think I can feel wind brushing against my skin from somewhere around here... We must be nearing an exit. I just have to let them continue leading me towards it.", he thought to himself and crossed the both of his arms, making sure to keep being as quiet as he had been this entire time.

Bob and Frank had gone completely radio silent, looking at one another and nodding before they began to change directions- instead of turning left again to circle the same cell block, they finally took a turn to the right and started to head elsewhere. That'd probably lead Chase to freedom at long last- not from the bandits, but from the hellhole they tried to put him in. God knew how many would show up if he even revealed himself.

[The guards didn't notice a thing. 3/3]

LD Roll: 14 + 13 = 27 > 9
Stealth Check Success.

The answer was definitely yes, right as ever. Food never spoiled in SAO unless it was made to spoil, in which case, it probably wasn't for eating. No such mechanic existed unless the crafter wanted it to exist, in which case they were of the most vile beings. He could definitely picture Gaius doing something like that, or Sven even, but the foods in his inventory all appeared to be in pristine condition. Same for the mess of vanity items he'd all sorted nicely in a sub-section of his inventory. The very bottom that he never, ever had to check for any reason and under any circumstances whatsoever. That's why he rarely found the need to use them, and of course that's also why he had forgotten that collection was there. At worst, he'd pick one of the other armors or weapons from the very top of his inventory and that'd be that.

[The guards didn't notice a thing. 2/3]

All of the peculiar parts and questions that Chase had about SAO seemed to be coming out right now, too. Even though he knew they couldn't log out, he opened his menu to check the button. It was still the same, the text not even being there. He closed it back up and made sure that he was keeping up to pace with the duo, scratching his chin quietly as he walked through the shadows in hopes of finding more questions he could kill time waiting for the exit to reveal itself, so he could answer them while he was at it too.

The biggest question he had was that vanity item addiction he had a few days ago. Were those items still in his inventory? And the same went for foods he had picked up from Sven, the very same con-artist that tried to steal from him a fair while ago. But... they were days old, yet preserved perfectly. Right?

[The guards didn't notice a thing. 1/3]

And their trip further down the corridor continued silently. One of the two was starting to hum some form of tune, but Chase was completely unfamiliar with it. That begged a question Chase hadn't managed to ask anybody, himself included thus far. In this world, since Aincrad was completely different from the real one, did that mean that the music and culture of the two worlds was different too? There were no tunes that the bluehead had happened to listen to so far, especially ones familiar or unfamiliar to him.

Likewise, there wasn't anybody other than performers who seemed to be playing their own music, vanity songs or crystals packed with them didn't appear to exist. Some buildings had a specific sort of music, but it only appeared to be when it came to performers' shops and houses... Such as Shay's... Shay's... just Shay's. He hadn't visited any other Performer at any given point in time, well. That was definitely a surprise.

[The guards didn't notice a thing. 3/3]

LD Roll: 10 + 13 = 23 > 9
Stealth Check Success.

Despite how confident Chase was about these two being wimps, he knew all of the other guards were the same. And maybe they were menacing opponents for someone else, but definitely not for him. He was less than ten levels below the maximum a player can reach in Aincrad thus far, so it was only natural he could dice up any monster that revealed itself before him. "... I'm actually curious if I can access my inbox down here?", he asked himself and silently began to slide his fingers down, opening his menu and moving on to his friends list.

However, both the Inbox and Friends buttons seemed to be completely striked out. So that meant they weren't accessible during this quest, that was definitely a bit of an issue. There were little things to do but listen in on their idle chitchat like this, and that meant nothing but boredom awaited him ultimately, too. Oh well... he'd eventually get out of here, that much he at least knew.

[The guards didn't notice a thing. 2/3]

"Maybe he trusts me more because you tend to run your mouth like you are right now... But... he said that he had to look out for someone. I'm not sure who the boss could be meeting, but I hope it's some business partner. More money for us means we can eventually go find an actual job or stop stealing and just lay back altogether.", Bob replied somewhat hopefully, to which Frank simply shrugged in response before the two's stride picked right back up.

They were seeming to go just in circles, but Chase wasn't bothered by that. He was most bothered by the fact it took them this long to circle the same four corridors a single time. He was going to lose it at this rate, he would never get out of here and probably be found by some other bandit sleeping on the corridor in his efforts not to die of boredom. There was no other way for him to die given his battle healing and their... 'damage', if it can even be called that, of course.

[The guards didn't notice a thing. 1/3]

Then came an interesting piece of conversation though. Frank decided that after having chitchated enough, they would conveniently enough begin to ponder wherever their warden could be, the one that was supposed to be in charge of bluehead right here. And we already know that blue wasn't doing his job sitting down in his own cell and just waiting for... well, waiting. "Say, where did the warden go? He said he had something urgent to go attend to, but he never clarified. So what was it?".

"You're asking as if I'll know.", Bob dismissed the question almost instantly, getting a deep exhale out of the musclehead who seemed disappointed, rubbing the back of his neck and just looking down at the ground. "Well, he trusts you more than he does me with details... I just wish we knew more to be more involved than the casual goons we are...", he started his own ramblings, getting a slight glare from Chase. 

[The guards didn't notice a thing. 3/3]

LD Roll: 13 + 13 = 26 > 9
Stealth Check Success.

"Just because I'm smarter doesn't mean I'm smart in general...", Bob tried to cut himself some slack and not get on a high horse, but no way Frank was just letting that pass by, shaking his head and making a 'tsk tsk tsk' noise with his mouth. "There you go being humble again, take some credit for your job for once!", he straight out almost ordered his friend, managing to draw a sigh from both Bob and Chase in unison. "For crying out loud, tell me I don't have to sit here and watch this bad sitcom for much longer... I want to go back out there and kill monsters or do something worth my time, damn it...", he nagged to himself, waiting until the single moment they would lead him straight towards the exit. As soon as that happened, he knew damn well he was making a run for it and going right outside where he was no longer surrounded by airheads and idiots.

[The guards didn't notice a thing. 2/3]

And so, the airheaded Frank continued to laugh. He almost shed a tear before he was able to inform Bob of the hilarity that had ensued. "H-How'd you know?! It was a rat, but how, ahahaha!". If they were this smart already, especially the beefier looking one, Chase knew that they would lead to the exit of this underground labyrinth all the same. Bob, on the other hand, seemed to put it bluntly, plain disappointed in his fellow bandit and just shook his head in disapproval. "I wasn't trying to guess... I was telling you what made the noise..."

That looked like it had slipped past Frank, but of course it hadn't. He heard of the humble fellow he had trying to turn down all credit for solving the mystery with such ease using his expert intelligence and gave him a hard pat on the back before he started to patrol the corridors of this maze again. "You're still right, just accept that you're smart!". And here stood Chase, dumbfounded and at a loss of words more than anything else.

[The guards didn't notice a thing. 1/3]

And so, the two continued to talk with one another. Bob and Frank, what a good duo they seemed to be. Already reminiscing about the days that they last took down a carriage which... seemed very unspecific and like generic bandit behavior. Regardless, Chase just followed silently through the shadows behind them, with an eyebrow raised as they continued to talk. "I know you found yourself some goods, but guess what I happened to find, you'd never.", Frank went on to say, only to get a confused look from Bob.

And then, a squeak came from Chase's direction. It wasn't from the blueberry of course, but rather from something further on inside. Bob let out a sigh and began to walk towards it, moving past Chase without noticing and looking around the ground before he turned to Frank. "It was just a rat, no need to worry.", he reassured his friend, who instantly began to clap and nod at him as if he had just gotten something right as an answer.

[The guards didn't notice a thing. 3/3]

LD Roll: 5 + 13 = 18 > 9
Stealth Check Success.

If anybody knew the way out of there though, it had to have been these guards. With a bit of luck and a lot of incompetence from their part, Chase knew fully well that he could make it out of this place without ever getting caught. Not that he couldn't use the teleport crystal in his inventory, but... He decided the best way out of there would be to follow the guards. And that's exactly what he went on to do. They seemed to chat with one another as per usual, maybe even to an uncanny extent where they were laughing and joking to one another.

"The last time that we were out, I remember at some point you went further away to check the carriage for any spare goods, you remember that?", one with a more gruff voice began. He sounded like... a Frank. Let's call him that, for the sake of referring to each of them. And so, the other one with a slightly more high pitched voice nodded. "Of course I remember that, what about it though? I did found some good jewelry, you know...". This was definitely a Bob.

[The guards didn't notice a thing. 2/3]

And before he even knew it, something did in fact happen. The door opened without even making a noise, which surprised him way too much. He expected it would at the very least creak, given how rusty it seemed to be... Not that he had an issue with that whatsoever. The less noise he made, the less people he alerted. Something he was absolutely fine with.

And before him stood a box now, with all of his gear in it. He scratched the back of his head and silently made his way over, picking it all back up and looking all the way back to the cell that was a grand six feet away. "... Was this even necessary, Kayaba..? Is this revenge for letting me talk like an actual friend with Morgiana?", the boy began to wonder, and almost as if he was getting an answer to his question, he could hear a pair of bandits talking to one another and walking around the area. "Right, the residents of this dungeon... I should probably not be seen.", he grumbled to himself quietly and hid behind a column, letting them walk past him and looking at their backs once they'd crossed his cell and... completely ignored the lack of a person inside. Aye, good for him.

[The guards didn't notice a thing. 1/3]