Pollux

Oh, she was-- Yue Hua felt some of her embarrassment melt away at Telrenya's smile. Her heart was steady. Her eyes were on her opponent. Calm down. There was, what, one chance left before the effects of her potion faded? And Telrenya hadn't brought out any of her token purchases yet. With the compounded pressure of both, and her earlier mistake, Yue Hua didn't trust herself to rush back in. Instead, she let Telrenya come to her. Their swords clashed; Yue Hua parried with her blade, evaded where her sword hand was not in the position to react, making sure to turn herself around s

Her energy burned away as the Stun set in. Her own attack had also chopped off a quarter of her opponent’s HP and she didn’t appear to be regenerating. Three shots left. She tried to tamp down the sudden upsurge of nerves at having the upper hand. She could do this. Yue Hua maintained her momentum, gracefully transitioning into a stance that called for a system-assisted sword art, and the automatic motion carried her forward close enough to catch a whiff of the perfume on Telrenya’s clothes. Telrenya felt a gust of air -- then nothing. Yue Hua ended up meters behind her tar

The major downside was-- Her accuracy...! Yue Hua thought she could evade another attack, but Telrenya's rapier stabbed through a weak point in her guard, and were she a lesser duelist, she would almost have panicked, seeing a fourth of her HP disappear as her opponent effectively claimed first blow. But it was fine. Getting hit was part of the game. Only, now that she knew what her opponent had opened with (her eyes briefly flicked to the single icon on her own status bar), she had to interrupt this chain before she really regretted it. She met Telrenya's next move blow for blo

Yue Hua almost cracked a smile herself. It wasn't often her opponents mirrored her friendly greetings during the pre-battle talk phase. Most preferred a different flavor of banter or to focus on the match entirely. Unfortunately, the crime of being curt was on her now, as she merely nodded in the seconds before the countdown began. Telrenya was swift. A little out of practice (Kindling said she was returning, right...?). She had misstepped, and Yue Hua twisted her body out of the way of Telrenya's blade. But even if her opponent was flustered now, she didn't think it was going to las

She was staring intensely at her paper, brow furrowed, jotting down her best guesses. It didn't matter in the moment that it was less than perfect; she underlined the parts she was unsure of, leaving them to edit over later when she might have a better idea of the overall structure of the message. It was a decent technique, if only she didn't have almost the entire passage littered with question marks by the end of it. Morningstar's discussion of his food preferences was met with a soft, distracted exhalation of breath. Then the lull of the attention Yue Hua had turned onto him ended

Goodness gracious, what were all of these frontliners doing in her yard? In the shadow of a makeshift awning, Yue Hua double-checked her equipment and drew in a deep breath, imagining that she was pulling on her usual air of unaffected ease like a favorite cloak. She was -- not nervous. She was returning to a familiar scene, only in a reality where she or fourteen current/former frontliners including her admirable Leader tripped into the wrong bracket, and after a week of frantic practice and preparation (and a day of proper rest, of course!) she was as ready as can be. Yue Hua belonged h

--Tossed some coins into a fountain. (Received.) (Trading the following to NIGHT.) 3 Mats.

Mod(s)/Addon(s)/Shift(s) Being Dropped: Hyperactive SP Incurred Towards Limit: 5 SP SP Refunded: 5 SP Cost: 5,000 Col

Purchasing: (3) Experience Boon -3 Guild Tokens +1,800 EXP | = (200 * 3) * 3

[from:] Mountains and Rivers HEAVY ARMOR T3E3, MITIGATION III You are immovable. Your only weakness is time. This ornately crafted suit of fine full plate is wrought from sections of earth drake scales. Each shaped plate is bound by carefully forged links of smelted mithril mined from exposed gorges carved open by waterfalls deep in the Rough Mountains near Taran Village. Modifying with Nametag. [to:] Mountains and Rivers HEAVY ARMOR T3E3, MITIGATION III A bell-shaped spread of yellow-green and dark-blue mithril plates.

Purchasing (1) Nametag [2500 Col].

When Yue Hua next dropped into the Knight Shift, she was brimming with what seemed like a nervous energy. The ordinarily stoic young woman was restless, very fidgety, she had the end of her feathered tail in her hand because it wouldn't stop thrashing like an excited dog's, and her stupor only lifted some when the blacksmith presented her with her new sword. Yue Hua took it off his hands, examining its detailing closely and testing the feel of its grip. "Yes," she replied distractedly. She admired how closely it fit her specifications. Not a Wulfrin original like she would have hoped, but

"Er..." Payment in materials but how much materials? Yue Hua weighed the simple and unassuming appearance of the shop against her confidence in her wallet. Then she strolled in without reaching a conclusion anyway, her ears perked at the sound of a hammer striking an anvil. A blacksmith working away at their daily crafts. Much better than the silence of her fellow tracker's shop. "Helloooo?" Soon as she was noticed, her steps halted, her tail carefully pointed away from the shop's weapon and armor displays. Yue Hua blinked. "Hi. I need heavy armor and a sword, both Tier 3. I have blu

Signing up!

No dice. She continued. Yue Hua trekked for what felt like hours, taking breaks along the way to drink water and rest her strained eyes. Down the mountain. Off the wider trail. Up another. Across a shaky wooden bridge atop a rushing river, which few players dared to cross because one misstep or one unlucky day with the bridge's structure would send one tumbling down the waterfall at the end of the rapids. The steep and forested incline beyond was one of her favorite gathering spots overall because it was almost entirely her domain. Today, it didn't seem as inclined to serve her. Yue

Though the man had by no means attempted to conceal his approach, Yue Hua almost jumped at the addition of his voice. She turned partway to glance at him and her brown eyes briefly met his as Giovanna laid the requested item in her open palm. "Oh," Yue Hua said, "Of course." He looked like a finely honed blade, Yue Hua thought, like if she knocked the back of her hand against him, she would immediately take Thorns damage. But that didn't deter her from turning back to Giovanna and asking if she had another compass to borrow. ...Why did she think Giovanna would have two dark magi

"Hehe. Thank you." The end of Yue Hua's tail flicked upward and she subconsciously brushed her hand through its feathers. "Your ears are lovely, too. I'd considered a similar effect in the past but I couldn't find the clothes to match. Not in my preferred style, at least." She thought the newly reintroduced Freyd similarly inclined to their hobby, even though he had wandered here not by his intention and his words implied some degree of separation from it. Appearances spoke for themselves, didn't they? So, while her gaze was narrowed in scrutiny, she wasn't interested in the 'how.' She th

Urbus was blanketed in a deeper autumnal chill. Warm drinks were offered at every market stall and residents on the road carried firewood on their backs. Yue Hua hiked up her white coat to cover her bare shoulders. She passed the only gate out of the city, distractedly waving to the guards, who nodded at her once then returned their steady gazes to the road and the rest of the people passing along it. Yue Hua rechecked her equipment. She had her old sword at her hip and a basket hanging from her arm. Inside it, she'd laid a folded cloth, a pair of gloves, and a foraging knife. She had als

If by any chance their third participant was just as eccentric in their choice of self-expression, they could, hilariously, convince the lost old man that he’d walked right into a furry cult ritual. Yue Hua arrived dressed in the full effects of her vanity potions, unlike in their trip to the desert where she had gone half without for her comfort, with her yellow-to-blue gradiented hair loosened to its full length and her hands painted, a pair of horns atop her head, and a long feathered tail, the end of which wrapped around the doorknob and swung it shut behind her. Eyes lined with kohl fell

"And I thought I'd graduated from that work _ months ago, Alchemist Evangeline," Yue Hua teased. But she went easily. Outside, she reviewed her task. She instinctively turned back towards the teleport plaza before she even finalized her plan. Floor 1 was the second to the last floor she liked to gather in, second only to the floors that had near to zero alchemy materials, because in line with its reputation as the 'safest' floor, its outer zones were frequented by droves of lower leveled and non combat focused players, what available gathering nodes likely already picked thr

Whichever Yue Hua chose, Evangeline was eager to be the one receiving knowledge this time around. Unfortunately, she was not so eager as to let her new peer dip her hands into her precious stock of ingredients. She ran a business on top of her passion for the craft, and each type of herb and root in her possession was measured and had its purpose charted by the gram. Little wiggle room there was for another person's experiments. Or: quest parameters, but they made sense. Cardinal ran a tight ship with its narrative. "Believe me, I understand," Yue Hua said with an easy shrug. Sh

Less and less players visited these tutorial NPCs the more time passed within the game. Yue Hua once imagined it quite the lonely existence, but Evangeline looked perfectly content crafting every day in the solitude of her little workshop. And she wasn't even alone, per se -- the random alchemy novices were a bonus. Potions of assorted colors, scents, and sizes lined the shelves behind the brewing table, and an open book daringly placed beside a pot containing a mysterious bubbling mixture listed down alchemy orders placed by other NPCs. Yue Hua was briefly put on hold as Evangeline lower

At this point, she had no affect on the affairs of the higher floors. She’d forgotten about the boss battle. Frankly, she was impressed that Freyd and Wulfrin were out on other business this late. Yue Hua would have rather spent the entire day relaxing. “Daily crafts for me,” she answered Xena. “I’d only finished half earlier. Recently, I have been experimenting on condensing multiple vanity effects into a single potion." She swung her arms behind her head, shutting one eye against a gust of wind. The other turned to her senior. “Well, if you need anything today, Wulfrin, the doors to my

thread summary. Scarlet Firefly + 585 exp | 300 + (408 * 1 * 0.7) + 200 col + unlocks: <<familiar>>; <<training your friend>> + 1 guild token Pollux + 285 exp | 408 * 1 * 0.7 + 200 col + 1 material + 1 guild token

Morningstar and Bistro? Yue Hua hummed. She was surprised -- and still not too familiar with either of the mentioned personalities. Not that it was a race, she was just internally scribbling over her miscasting of Firefly as the timid one of the guild. But as she did so, Yue Hua also nodded along confidently at Firefly's assessment, because in her opinion, not even the hardest of hearts could possibly resist a cat. After a short, comfortable lapse in their conversation, they passed the gates leading back into town and Firefly's voice took on the tone of a confession. Yue Hua's steps