[PP-F9] Bandits and Warriors [Bandit Camp][Teion]

[Aereth 1]

Recently, Aereth was grinding on the ninth floor for some Col and experience, and was approached by a NPC warrior who was telling him that there were a couple of bandits that were occupying the main grinding spots of this particular floor. At first, the thought of some actual players crossed his mind, but after the quest notification popped up in his HUD, he knew that this most probably was just a simple NPC slaughtering quest. The reward looked kind of decent, so he pressed the accept button, and read through the description. When he came to the <<Parties or Groups of low level players are advised.>> part he sighed mentally. His guild mates were very busy at the moment, so he needed to take care of this quest alone. Most probably he would be able to one hit the bandits, but some company surely would be nice. Grinding alone is ok. But not all of the time. 

Right now he just wore his casual clothes and had no weapon equipped and was slowly walking over to the place the NPC told him the bandits were located...

@Teion

[Teion 0]

The soles of Teion's brown boots occasionally scraped against the hard earth underneath them as she walked. The violet-haired blacksmith needed to expand her hunting grounds, and what setting transitioned better from a desert than a volcanic wasteland? The woman pulled up her empty quest log and frowned, giving a quick glance around her for any nearby NPCs issuing tasks for players. It didn't take long for her gaze to fall on an irritated-looking man with a quest marker displayed beside his floating name tag.

A few minutes and a very brief conversation later, Teion scrolled through the details of a quest named <<Bandit Camp>>. All she had to do was take out a few bandit NPCs outside of town--easy experience. She reached behind her to take Lucent Reaver's handle and bring the two-handed battle axe in front of her as she made her way to the area indicated in the quest details. Before she'd spotted any of the mobs she needed to take down, however, she spotted another lone player, though he seemed to be much less equipped for combat. Teion hesitated a moment, but didn't address the other player. She idly wondered if he was taking the same quest, but opted to keep to herself as she scanned the area for the bandits she needed to eliminate.

[Aereth 1]

With a swipe of his hand, Aereth opened his menu and started to search through his inventory for one special item he hadn't used in months. Once he found it his finger hovered over the item a couple of seconds, before he finally equipped it. His left hand shortly got engulfed in light, and a simple starter iron sword started to materialize out of the light. Up until now, Aereth had been using only perfect quality weapons with either status or damage enhancements. But due to his new set of equipment, he would no longer be able to wield weapons with enhancements. He wordlessly strapped the starter weapon on his back and continued to search for the bandits.

It was just then when he noticed that another player was around, maybe grinding material hunting or questing. His eyes flickered for a brief moment, indicating that he had activated his search skill in order to see if another player or mob was around. Unfortunately it was already too late. From seemingly out of nowhere, an <<Advanced Tief>> sped towards Aereth and tried to attack him. In the last second, Aereth managed to dodge the hit with a jump back and immediately unsheathed his sword. As soon as his feet reached the ground again, Aereth started to charge at the mob, trying to retaliate. The thief also swiftly dodged the hit and waited for Aereth to take the next action...

@Teion

ID# 79561 results:
Battle: 2+3 MISS
MOB: 1, Critical MISS

Aereth: 660/660 HP | 65/66 EN | 12 DMG | 3 ACC

Strong Thief: 330/330 HP | 99 DMG

Aereths equipment:

Spoiler

Equipped:
Starter Iron Sword, Dexterous Intent (+3 ACC)

Battle Ready:
Crow (+2 EVA, +1 MIT), Goldcrest MK.2 (+1 Flame Aura, +1 MIT, +1 EVA), Discovery Ring (+3 LD), Sin of Valor (+2 Para, 1 Bleed)

 

[Teion 0]

Teion pulled up the quest details in her menus, frowning at the vagueness of the text as she skimmed it over. It didn't give her an exact location for the group of bandits that needed to be eliminated, only telling her she could choose to use stealth and fight one at a time, or take them all at once. The woman rolled her shoulders as she dismissed the interface. She didn't have any bonuses to stealth, and she'd never even used the skill itself before. Taking them on at the same time would have to be the way to go.

Pulling her from her thoughts, the blacksmith's fingers twitched and the grip around her weapon tightened as she caught a blur of movement in the distance. Her gaze flickered over to the brunette she had spotted earlier, finding him now in the middle of combat with a masked NPC. As the thief's dagger missed its mark and the player's counterattack was just as unsuccessful, Teion tilted her head slightly. She wasn't able to see either side's health pools or other stats, so there was no way for her to tell what level the thief was. The girl tried shrugging it off despite her gaze lingering a bit; it wasn't her business to get involved with someone else's fight, especially if she wasn't needed.

[Aereth 1]

Since Aereth wasn't able up until now to land a hit on the Thief, he also hadn't gathered any hate from the mob. So Aereth was quite surprised when the mob started to charge at his direction, but passed him with not even attempting to get an attack in. When Aereth tilted his head he noticed that the Thief now was charging at the purple haired player that he saw some moments ago. Aereth cursed inwardly. And immediately started to intercept the mob, in order to keep the unknown female player out of harms way for now. He didn't know how strong the player was and how many hits she would be able to take so he needed to prevent the mob from attacking her. But Aereth wouldn't be able to make it in time. The thief was too fast and so Aereth choose to do something unconventional. He pulled back his sword hand, and with all his might, threw his sword at the thief running in front of him. Of course the blade missed the thief, but at least Aereth managed to get back the attention of the mob.

The thief turned around and charged now at the weaponless Aereth. "Sh*t, and now?" he thought and brought up his arm-guards in order to absorb the hit better. The thief's dagger cut through the air, and Aereth's flesh. Fortunately his armor was able to absorb mos of the hit for Aereth. He jumped forward, where his sword was buried into the ground and put himself between the purple haired woman and the mob. "Sorry but it seems like I wasn't able to get his full attention..." He told the woman who was standing behind him.

ID# 80004 results:
Battle: 1 Critical MISS

MOB: 9 Critical HIT
Damage: 99+1-54=46 DMG

Aereth: 614/660 HP | 65/66 EN | 12 DMG | 3 ACC | 3 EVA | 36 MIT | 1 Flame Aura

Strong Thief: 330/330 HP | 99 DMG

@Teion

[Teion 0]

Whether observing the fight was entertaining or Teion was procrastinating hunting for the quest objectives, the blacksmith found herself watching the exchange between the brunette and the thief. It wasn't long before keeping an eye on the combat was of some benefit to her. The thief suddenly seemed to turn its attention to her, causing the violet-haired warrior to tighten her grip on her weapon. 'Guess I'm getting involved whether I want to or not.' The blacksmith had enough time to ready her stance as the thief swiftly closed the gap between them, but before she felt any kind of impact she was bracing herself for, a flash of steel caused the thief to skid to a stop and turn its attention back to the brunette.

Teion cocked her head to the side as her shoulders relaxed slightly. Her eyes followed the path Aereth's sword had taken before her gaze fell on the weapon halfway sunk into the floor. Before long, the thief had landed a blow on the player before he hurried over to retrieve his sword. He issued her a small apology, but after a moment Teion simply smirked. The woman twisted the ivory handle of her axe so that the blade gave a quick spin before the curved steel started glowing a soft blue. "If it wants some of my axe, I'll gladly share." Teion moved slightly to step out from behind Aereth and quickly got herself within range of the thief. Her sword art fully activated as the system notified her of a critical hit and the woman watched the creature's health bar begin to drop. Once she disengaged from the attack her stance relaxed a bit and she glanced back to Aereth with a touch of uncertainty. Hopefully the player didn't think she was trying to steal loot from him, and he wasn't otherwise annoyed with her for joining the fight. 'Well, no taking it back now.' She thought with a mental shrug.

Combat Results

Spoiler

• ID#: 80038
  • BD: 10 - Critical Success! Crescent Avalanche Activated!
    • (3 Base) + (2 Critical) + (4 Skill) + (3 Equipment) = (12 Damage) x (7 Sword Art) = 84 DMG
       
• [H:2] Teion:
  • HP: 460/460
  • Energy: 39/46
  • 10 DMG | 2 ACC | 3 EVA
• [H:0] @Aereth:
  • HP: 614/660
  • Energy: 65/66
  • 12 DMG | 3 ACC | 3 EVA | 36 MIT | 1 Flame Aura
• <<Strong Thief>>
  • HP: 246/330
  • 99 DMG

 

[Aereth 1]

Aereth chuckled when the woman mentioned how the thief also could have some of her axe as well. And to be fair, Aereth was pretty impressed when the woman sped forward and hit the mob with her battle axe for some very good damage. He was pleased that the woman seemed to be confident with her skills and wasn't afraid to fight the stupid mob. 

When Teion glanced back to Aereth, the thief choose to use that moment of weakness she showed to start an attack attempt. Simultaneously, Aereth also started to charge up a sword art and also started running towards Teion. "Seems, like he has forgotten me..." he thought while running. Due to him standing closer to Teion, he was able to run past her, tackling the thief which made him stumbling back a little bit, and swiftly followed up with his <<Meteor Break>> sword art. Eleven consecutive slashed later, Aereth retreated back to Teion's left side and quickly opened his menu in order to send her a party invitation. "I don't want to take away your fair share of the loot. And don't worry, I won't harm you. Not all orange players are crazy killers." he told her with a small smirk.

Spoiler

ID# 80106 results:
Battle: 6+3 HIT
Damage: 12*11 = 132 DMG

MOB: 4-3 MISS

• [H:2] @Teion:
  • HP: 460/460
  • Energy: 39/46
  • 10 DMG | 2 ACC | 3 EVA
• [H:1] Aereth
  • HP: 614/660
  • Energy: 55/66
  • 12 DMG | 3 ACC | 3 EVA | 36 MIT | 1 Flame Aura
• <<Strong Thief>>
  • HP: 114/330
  • 99 DMG

 

[Teion 0]

"Hm?" Teion blinked in surprise when the notification window appeared in front of her. It was a prompt for a party request, and the blacksmith gave a mental shrug before pressing the 'Accept' button. 'I guess that means he doesn't care.' She dismissed any negative feelings about her intervention. At the brunette's words, her eyes gave a sideways glance at the crystal floating above his head. Had it always been an orange color? She was surprised that she hadn't noticed it before he went ahead and pointed it out. She'd only properly met one other orange player, and that person gave her no reason to dislike them. Perhaps she was being naive, but she didn't have a reason to be overly-cautious yet. Hopefully she wouldn't have to be given that reason.

The woman readied her weapon as the thief regained his composure. The curved blade glowed a sky blue once again as her sword art whirred to life. Teion let out a chain of attacks as the game took over her movements. The thief's health bar dropped even further until it changed in color from yellow to red and Teion backed off with a satisfied smirk. "All yours." The woman gestured from Aereth to the NPC.

Combat Results

  Hide contents

• ID#: 80038
  • BD: 6 + (2 ACC) = 8 - Success! Crescent Avalanche Activated!
    • (3 Base) + (4 Skill) + (3 Equipment) = (10 Damage) x (7 Sword Art) = 70 DMG
       
• [H:3] Teion:
  • HP: 460/460
  • Energy: 34/46
  • 10 DMG | 2 ACC | 3 EVA
• [H:1] @Aereth:
  • HP: 614/660
  • Energy: 55/66
  • 12 DMG | 3 ACC | 3 EVA | 36 MIT | 1 Flame Aura
• <<Strong Thief>>
  • HP: 44/330
  • 99 DMG

[Aereth 1]

As soon as @Teion finished her attack on the mob, Aereth sped past her, sword in his left and a clenched fist on his right, both shining in a dark blue color indicating that he had a sword art at the ready. He closed the distance between him and the still in post motion delay stuck thief and unleashed a barrage of slashes in combination with his material arts skill. The thief's health dropped to zero in not time and he scattered into tiny little polygons. 

After catching his breath again, Aereth sheathed his sword and dismissed the small reward window that popped up in front of him, before turning around and making his way back to Teion. Scratching the back of his head he apologized once again to the woman. "Sorry I dragged you into my battle. My name's Aereth and it's nice to meet you." The woman in front of him had long purple hair, was wielding a two handed battle axe and her petite body was clad in some high quality light armor. His eyes got stuck on the armor of hers, trying to figure out who would have crafted this piece for her.

Spoiler

 

Battle Roll:

ID# 80231 results:
Battle: 3+3 HIT
Damage: 12*5=60 DMG

MOB: 9

 

MOB Loot Roll:

ID# 80232 results:
Craft: 8
Loot: 2+2

Loot: each player gets 3*330/2 Col

 

• [H:3] Teion:
  • HP: 460/460
  • Energy: 34/46
  • 10 DMG | 2 ACC | 3 EVA
• [H:1] Aereth:
  • HP: 614/660
  • Energy: 54/66
  • 12 DMG | 3 ACC | 3 EVA | 36 MIT | 1 Flame Aura
• <<Strong Thief>>
  • HP: 0/330
  • 99 DMG

 

• •  

[Teion 0]

Teion propped the upper handle of her axe up against her shoulder. She shifted her weight to one side, taking a more casual stance as she watched Aereth finish off the thief with another empowered strike. She tilted her head just slightly as he introduced himself and apologized. For some reason she hadn't expected such a polite personality, but maybe she was just being a bit too cynical. "Teion, same to you." She said simply with a small nod of her head as she greeted him in return. The woman gave a wave of her free hand. "No trouble. I felt like I intruded." Teion admitted. She had seen players get into some heated arguments over things as trivial as last hit bonuses and EXP sharing. At least, things like that were non-issues to her. The blacksmith hadn't put nearly as much of a focus on battle stats ever since she opened her shop.

As her words hung in the air and the greetings led to an awkward silence, the woman absently twirled a section of violet hair in between her fingers. "I'm uh, here for a quest." She stated plainly, unsure of where to lead the conversation. They were still listed in a party, and she didn't know what his purpose out here was. She would have suggested parting ways, but no matter which way she thought about it, the idea just seemed a bit rude.

[Aereth 1]

When Teion mentioned how she felt like she intruded, Aereth shook his head and shot the woman a smile. "No way. I've got no problem with some company. Quite the opposite to be honest. You see, most of the times I have to work alone." Aereth admitted still smiling at the woman. He only had problems with people snatching away last hit rewards from others. But that's only the case when it came to boss battles. 

After that small exchange of words some moments of awkward silence followed but fortunately Teion decided to speak again breaking said silence. "Hmmm, I'm also out here for a sizzle bit of grinding as well as Some questing. Maybe I could tag along and accompany you for the rest of the day?" Aereth asked the purple haired woman in a warm voice. She didn't seem to be that troubled with Aereths orange cursor which made Aereth somehow feel more normal. 

@Teion

[Teion 0]

Teion continued to be surprised at the brunette's friendliness. Not to say she hadn't encountered a myriad of outgoing players over time--she could compare her own personality to the man's up until a couple of months ago. Was it the orange-colored cursor that hovered over Aereth's head that caused her confusion? Perhaps, but moments after entertaining the thought she felt a strange mixture of guilt and curiosity. Everyone in Aincrad had their story. She had little fear towards players killers all this time, and Aereth wasn't giving her a reason to start feeling paranoid yet.

The blacksmith gave a small shake of her head to dismiss her wandering thoughts. Quickly realizing the action wasn't self-contained, Teion spoke up again. "Oh, sure, if you want to." Although she wasn't very talkative, the woman didn't necessarily mind company. She gestured with her free hand to pull up her menus and scroll over to the details of the <<Bandit Camp>> quest she had recently accepted. "Here, this is what I'm looking for." Taking a few steps to close the gap between them, Teion turned to allow Aereth to read the quest details from her user interface.

[Aereth 1]

Teion seemed to be a little bit lost in thoughts while Aereth was talking to her. "Is she suspicious about my cursor? Am I behaving strangely?" He thought, but thankfully Teion then mentioned that she really had no problems with him tagging along for the day. A light sigh escaped Aereth's lips but then they curled up into a faint smile. "Very well then, I'm open for anything." The brunette answered her before she walked over to him, in order to show him the details about the quest she was about to do. Quietly reading through the description, Aereth noted that there were two possible ways in order to complete the quest. Putting his right hand to his chin Aereth asked the purple haired warrior. "There seem to be two ways to do this quest. Attacking directly and thus taking on all the bandits at once, or using stealth in order to take down one after the other. What would you prefer?" He personally didn't really care, but he wanted to know how his questing parter for the day wanted to approach the task. 

@Teion

[Teion 0]

Teion let the head of her axe rest against the ground, leaning against it when Aereth asked her preference on how to take on the quest. "I don't have any stealth bonuses." She admitted flatly with a small frown. "As long as they're not too strong, we can take them at once." The woman suggested with a slight shrug. She had never used the stealth function of the game, and wasn't in a hurry to try it out. The only thing she had been concerned about was the combined strength of the bandits and taking them on by herself. With another player there, it should be easy considering the level of the quest.

She picked up her axe, resting the handle against her shoulder rather than sheathing the weapon or holding it at the ready. She tapped her menus a couple more time to glance over the quest details and get an idea of where the bandits would be. "They should be around here." She said simply, turning and dismissing the interface while she started walking.

[Aereth 1]

"Same here, so let's just see how many there will be and go from there. I don't have any stealth bonuses either but due to the fact that we will be  tackling the quest together, I think we should be fine taking on all the mobs at once if there aren't too many." Aereth should invest some points in order to rise his stealth level, but for now he needed the points on his damage and scouting skills. Shaking his head he started to follow the purple haired girl. A couple of minutes walking later, they found the group of four bandit lingering around a small campfire. Aereth was the first to notice them and gestured Teion to quietly come closer. "There are only four of them, and I'd suggest to attack them all at once. I'm confident we can take them on without problems." He then gripped the hilt of his sword and readied himself. "I'm going in in order to draw some hate from them. After that you can also join the rumble." Aereth said in a low voice.

After that, Aereth sped towards the four mobs, area of effect sword art ready, and tried to gather some hate from them by damaging all of them at once, and got hit a little bit off guard at the result. As soon as Aereth's sword made contact with the mobs they scattered into tiny little polygons... "Maybe there are others hiding somewhere..." he thought, while activating his searching skill. When he wasn't able to find anything, Aereth scratched the back of his head with his free hand and said. "Um... I think we're done here.... Sorry for taking them down..."

@Teion

ID# 81703 results:

 Battle: 4+3 HIT
Damage: 12*9=108 DMG Shadow Explosion

All bandits ded....

[Teion 0]

Despite their lack of stealth buffs, Aereth and Teion had both proceeded carefully while searching for the bandits. Admittedly, it would be preferred to be the ones to find the bandits rather than the other way around. It didn't take long before Aereth motioned her over with a hushed voice. The violet-haired warrior held her axe in front of her chest, spotting their targets through the foliage. She allowed the brunette to approach them first, readying herself for a follow-up attack.

Within seconds, the bandits had vanished in an explosion of light. Teion had already taken a single step forward, but stopped in her tracks as the targets disappeared. Aereth seemed just as surprised as she was, quickly looking sheepish with a small apology. The violet-haired woman suppressed a small scowl--she knew the quest wouldn't be too difficult, but she was hoping for more than a one-hit KO. The woman's arms straightened out as she held her weapon lazily in front of her legs, stepping out from their impromptu hiding place. "It's fine." She responded simply. "Looks like it was an easier quest than I thought."

[Aereth 1]

Aereth gulped. "Awesome Aereth. Seems like you are even able p*ss off girls that aren't even your girlfriend..." From the years of living together with his girlfriend, back in the real world, he knew how dangerous it was when a woman said the words 'Its's fine'. Nine out of ten times, it wasn't, so Aereth approached the violet-haired woman and offered another apology to the woman. "I'm really sorry for stealing all the action, but if you like we could spend the rest of the day together with some mob grinding, or we could go material hunting. I'm confident to say that I'm pretty good in finding materials and at the end of the day we could share the found materials evenly if you like. Or if want to leave now, I will escort you back to safe zone, of course. Your call." Aereth had no problems with sharing stuff with others. Especially if that other person helped him get his fingers on some desperately needed quests.

@Teion 

[Teion 0]

Teion's head gave the slightest tilt to the side as Aereth closed the gap between them with another apology. "No, it's okay. I got credit for the quest, so," Teion started, a little unsure of how to respond. The brunette mentioned mob grinding and material farming, offering her several options that left Teion frowning in thought. "Mm..." She mumbled, mulling over his points. "Well, either one is fine." She thought over her build. It didn't exactly favor combat over gathering, or vice versa at the moment.

Once she noticed how indecisive she was being, Teion shifted her weight and sheathed her axe behind her. "We can look for materials. I need to pick some up from the lower floors anyway." She offered, taking the lead with a few slow steps in the direction opposite from town. She could go ahead and turn the quest in whenever they headed back, and they would probably have much luck finding materials the farther they strayed from the city.

@Aereth

Material Gathering:

Spoiler

• ID#: 81895
  • LD: 2 + (2 Skill) + (2 Equipment) = 6 - Fail!

 

[Aereth 1]

 

Teion seemed to be unsure what option to choose, since she was taking several moments before deciding what to do next, but when she announced that she would like to go for some materials, Aereth simply nodded and changed to his gathering equipment. The accuracy ring vanished and got replaced by a special ring that boosted his searching skill. "Perfect. I too would need some more tier one materials for my shop." Aereth would say before activating his search skill. His eyes glowed for a brief moment, and he started to look around in order to find some materials they could use for their shops. 

Letting out a small sigh, after both Teion and he weren't able to find any materials yet, Aereth decided to ask a question that was going through his mind ever since he met the purple haired girl. "Sorry if I'm being rude, but how does it come that you aren't afraid of me with that orange cursor over my head?"

@Teion

ID# 82180 results:
Loot: 3+5

Materials: 0

[Teion 0]

Despite her pause when Aereth asked her feelings regarding his cursor, Teion couldn't say she was all that surprised that the topic arose. Orange players wore a brand that followed them wherever they were, hovering over their heads as an indicator of their wrong-doing. While there were several actions the game was programmed to recognize that would issue an orange cursor as a punishment, there was one thing in particular that was the most prominent--and most permanent--the players could do to earn an orange cursor.

Maybe Teion was naive. Though not as innocent as when she first started living in Aincrad, she had never witnessed a player's death, whether it was at the hand of another player or the claws of a monster. It was both easy and hard to believe that people in this game killed for fun, the thought of it making her shift uncomfortably. She recalled the only other time she encountered a player with an orange cursor. Though a bit standoffish, the man seemed to have no ill intent, and therefore Teion regarded him with hardly any more caution than she would anyone else. Was that foolish of her?

The blacksmith frowned in thought. After a few seconds of reflection, she simply gave a small shrug. "If you wanted me dead, I'd be pixels along with those bandits by now." Though not the kindest reply, Teion felt it was the most honest. The woman gave a small, wry smile before speaking up again. "Maybe that kind of thinking will get me killed someday," She let out a sigh with her words, "but I'd also rather not patronize everyone I come across, if I can help it."