[SP-F17] A Challenge From WHO!?!? <<Challenge of Olympus>>

[Vigilon 0]

Vigilon was not expecting a trip to this floor so early, but hey, at least he had a previous encounter with someone who could keep him from dying while he was taking in some sights. "Nice to know you're willing to keep me safe from all the mobs that just might be able to kill me with little trouble, Kaldui." "Ah, ha, n-no problem..." Vigilon wondered, would he end up doing favors for so many tier one players like he was now when he would be tier two? Either way, he was glad to have some company as well. Little did he know that, he would be separated from his ally in due time. The trip was soon to begin, and the safe zone's edge was on the horizon. Meanwhile, someone was looking for Vigilon. He was a satyr; a man with the lower half and horns of a goat. As he ran about, clopping his hooves in the process as he rushed from area to area, trying to spot Vigilon, for he had a message to give him...

[Vigilon 0]

Vigilon stopped when he heard sounds of startled NPC villagers, and the sound of clopping hooves. "Somebody's animal running loose or something?" Kaldui looked at Vigilon, then looked behind him and saw the satyr. She seemed a bit surprised. "B-but...I thought I already..." She looked back at Vigilon. "O-oh..." Her cheeks colored slightly. "Ah, t-that's no animal, that's a satyr." Vigilon turned around to see the goat man coming his way. "What the-?" The satyr slowed to a stop, and started to catch his breath. "*huff*, *puff*... I've been looking all over for you...trying to look everywhere you've been...did you really have to go all around town? Twice? A satyr can only take so much, you know!" Vigilon blinked. Why would this satyr be looking specifically for him? The satyr finished catching his breath, then straightened himself. "Adventurer, I've come to inform you that you've been invited to the gates of Mt. Olympia."

[Vigilon 0]

"...What?" Vigilon was absolutely confused. "Yes, you heard me, you've been invited to the gates of Mt. Olympia. Hephaestus himself has asked that you come, for he wishes for you to partake in a challenge of crafts." That only made things worse. "...A challenge from WHO?!" Vigilon fell on his knees. "I'm doomed." Kaldui placed a hand on his shoulder. "It's...nothing to be afraid of. Think of it as a test of your crafting skill...because it kind of is." Vigilon had a very precise mind in such a case. "Kaldui...even if what you say is true, it's the freaking Greek God of the forge we're talking about here!!!" Kaldui chuckled a bit. "Oh, no no no, it's...difficult, but not impossible. Granted, I had a bit of a rough time trying to best Aphrodite, but I'm sure a blacksmith of your current caliber might be enough to claim victory in this challenge."

[Vigilon 0]

Vigilon STILL couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Kaldui...that's Aphrodite. What we're talking about here is the Greek god of the forge, the literal king of all blacksmithing! What is in front of me is an impossible task!!!" Kaldui chuckled again. "There's no need to...freak out. You'll see when you get there. I can escort you there and back, in case any mobs show up." Vigilon thought for a minute. "Sure, let's take a trip to a mountain that houses the Greek gods and accept what will be in my night terrors if I do awful, or worse, die. Yeah, let's all go there and expect everything to be A-OK! Like that'll ever happen." Despite his thoughts, he said aloud, "It's on both of you if I end up with night terrors or something worse, got it?" Kaldui chuckled yet again. It seemed to amuse her when he had his little freak outs, probably because this was nothing to Kaldui, but definitely something to Vigilon.

[Vigilon 0]

The trip to Mt. Olympia began. There were some minor issues that awaited them along the way, which was pretty much predictable. The wolves had to only show up, and BOOM, they were in for it. They seriously seemed to think they could have some easy prey come around, but they had another thing coming, oh, yes they did... Kaldui breathed, inhaling and exhaling, her eyes opened up, and the poor wolves would feel the fury of Kaldui's rage. "RRRRAAAAAAARRRGGHHHHH!!!!!" She rushed for the small pack of wolves, and attacked with Leaping Crane, knocking two of the wolves two yards, and the other two were sent flying six yards. Whining and yelping, the wolves realized their situation and tried to flee. "WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING!? I'M NOT DONE WITH YOU YET, YOU WORTHLESS DOGS!!!" And Kaldui ran after them. "And this...is why...I'm glad...that she's on our side..." Vigilon said to Veriost.

[Vigilon 0]

The small white frost dragon's maw was open. Veriost couldn't exactly believe that someone as shy and calm as Kaldui could be a raging, ruthless berserker. Of course, that was only within a fight. The weakened wolves tried escaping by running down a hill. Considering how the Sword Art known as Leaping Crane worked, it was a stupid and hopeless escape plan. The attack wiped out three of the wolves, leaving one that Kaldui had missed. The last wolf was now running off at top speed to flee from Kaldui, who was rushing after it at her own top speed, saying, "YOU CAN'T ESCAPE THE FATE THAT AWAITS YOU, COWARD! COME HERE AND FACE YOUR DEATH LIKE A WOLF!!!" Vigilon had to start running after Kaldui, because if he remained standing there any longer, he might accidentally get left behind, which would probably lead to a monster ambush, no doubt.

[Vigilon 0]

Vigilon continued to pick up his speed and keep a good pace as he followed Kaldui, who was chasing the wolf down. Yelping and whining, the wolf was running as fast as it could, although, Kaldui could outmaneuver it's movements, and eventually struck it down with the Sword Art known as Delayed Sword. Vigilon soon caught up to Kaldui. When he came near her, she turned around sharply, ready to throw a punch, since she expected a monster to come from behind like that. "Gah! Hey, hey, it's me!" "A-ah! s-sorry...I thought you were another wolf for a second..." Vigilon chuckled nervously. "Oh, no, I understand, it's fine..." Vigilon exhaled. "Man, I'm so gonna see that menacing glare in my night terrors tonight..." Hoping to get his mind off the subject, and his coming nightmare, he looked around him, and asked, "How much further do you think Mt. Olympia is? I can't even see the settlement from here..."

[Vigilon 0]

Kaldui looked around her, then tapped on Vigilon's shoulder once she set her eyes up to a certain location. "O-over there." Vigilon looked in the direction given, and there it was. A mountain was just half a mile away. As the two players walked towards the mountain, Vigilon had a thought to share. "I guess I've been reading too many fictional books that geeks read. I was actually expecting a decapitated mountaintop hanging over a city like a two billion ton asteroid, hidden, yet in plain sight." Kaldui chuckled at the reference Vigilon had given. "I don't know your history before this game, but it seems like you've read some unusual things..." Veriost decided to go back to sleep, for the small white frost dragon wasn't involved in the conversation, and probably wouldn't be for a while. Most likely, they would reach their destination in time for the challenge, and Vigilon would see if he would be lucky...or doomed.

[Vigilon 0]

Vigilon walked up the steps, and saw someone there waiting for him. "Ah, Adventurer! I've been expecting you!" "Hello....Hephaestus..." To say that Vigilon was as calm internally as he was externally would be a complete, flat out lie. Why? 'Cause on the inside, he felt the exact opposite. He was freaking out so much. Several steps ago, Kaldui had stopped to wait. He would be on his own from here on out. "I'm here to accept your challenge." There would be no turning back, and thus he would probably be doomed. A satyr accompanied Vigilon and the Greek god of the forge to where the battle of crafts would take place, while he explained the rules to Vigilon. "Okay, so something decent gets me minimum possible score, something fairly good gets me a bit more, but something truly worthwhile should nab me some decent score...but in the end, I'm still going to lose...I mean, seriously, WHY!?!??!"

 

Edited March 10, 2018 by Vigilon

[Vigilon 0]

The Satyr led Vigilon to a forge that he would be using for the battle of crafts. "Thanks. Hopefully, I can manage." He was ready to craft, he was ready to forge, he was ready to make some items that would never be used by a player...and he was prepared to fail so badly. However, he did think, "The inevitable is coming...so if I'm gonna fail, I'm gonna fail with style. I'll do the best I can, despite how futile it all is...and as a result, I might just live..." There would be no way Vigilon would die here, but, of course, Vigilon didn't know that. Despite all the sweating he was going through already, he was ready to start. He looked to his left, and just a few yards away was the forge Hephaestus would be using. It was time. "Here goes everything...or nothing..." He didn't have the best start, but when it came to his first four crafts, he'd failed with two items, but he'd managed to get two fairly good items. He looked to his left, his opponent, as expected, was already doing better...

[Vigilon 0]

"Not good," Vigilon thought. "Not good at all..." The crafting continued, Vigilon making some, failing at others, and within half an hour, Vigilon had made about eight fairly good items. He looked to his opponent, and saw that he had made fourteen already. Vigilon was six successful crafts behind. "This can't be happening....wait a minute, this was expected! I'm not dealing with some run of the mill blacksmith here. My opponent is Hephaestus, Greek god of the forge! I can't win! ...However, I guess coming close is still an option... So I'm not done yet!" He grabbed the next ore, and continued smithing. Vigilon would take this opportunity to utilize everything he'd learned into his endeavor, for, as futile as it was, he saw no reason to admit defeat too easily. Most likely, this guy wanted a challenge. So Vigilon would do the best he could to make this challenge a challenge.

[Vigilon 0]

Vigilon wasn't going to go down so easily, but he still told himself he would definitely be going down. Ore after ore, fail after fail, success after success... soon the scores were tallied by the satyr. "So far, it's 52 to 20!" The satyr approached Vigilon who was sweating from all the heat, as well as his worrying and fears. "I bet that was just a warm up for you. You've already done better than the last guy!" "...What? Better than the last guy? What do you mean by that?" It seemed that the satyr had something to tell Vigilon, sooner or later. "You see, Hephaestus has been trying to find someone who could potentially come close to rivaling his skill, as his usual work, although he was good at it, he began to have a problem." "And what would that be?" "Ennui, boredom. It became all too simple. He needed something to challenge him, something to drive him. Thus, he began sending me to look for blacksmiths he would speak of, in hopes that one might reignite his fire and passion for his craftsmanship."

[Vigilon 0]

"The last guy who received the challenge...he began with a score of 13, and eventually, he kind of freaked out and fled at a total score of 29. Poor fellow, I don't know what came over the guy, and it did nothing good for Hephaestus's mood." "Yikes, that guy must have been terrified..." Vigilon was actually surprised that he'd been able to keep himself from outwardly freaking out so far. Vigilon wiped the sweat off his forehead, and grabbed the hammer he was using in this battle of crafts. Now knowing he still had a chance to come close, he was determined to come close, for now it seemed to Vigilon that he had to come close if he was to survive. "I'm still gonna fail, but if I come close, I'll live...so that's what must be going on here..." He found the strength to continue on, and he started smithing again as soon as the satyr announced for the battle of crafts to continue.

[Vigilon 0]

Vigilon began making items in the fastest rate he'd ever seen. When his opponent looked over to see how he was doing, he smiled and commented, "Well now, seems you've lit a spark in yourself, have you? Well, if you want any chance against me, you might want to keep that fire ablaze!" "Trust me, I'll keep this fire ablaze, I will... It is the will to survive, and with most of us humans, that doesn't burn out easily." He took the comment as even further reason to keep going. "Alright, that's...thirty-five items, just plenty to go, and I'll be homeward bound!" He looked over to his opponent, who seemed to be putting all he had into this. "You're starting to catch up a little...so even if I was before, I won't be going easy on you." "That's the spirit, don't let me score more than you, but I won't go easy on you either..." Win or lose, as long as Vigilon managed to score enough to have made the challenge challenging, he'd live.

[Vigilon 0]

Vigilon began to pour his heart into his crafting. He began to imagine himself forging weapons and armor for an army, and the fate of said army would depend on the total quality of his work. He grabbed ore after ore, and crafted item after item, coming across the occasional yet inevitable failure here and there. "I'm...not...done...yet...I will not stop now. I don't even know how many items I've made now, and I'd lost count when the only thing that began to matter was getting close enough to survive..." He was deep in his thoughts now, as he continued to forge like never before. "I will survive this game, I will survive this challenge, I will survive the problems that developed while this game was active, I will survive the quests this game has to throw at me...I won't fail what I need to do here. I. Won't. Let. Myself. Fail."

[Vigilon 0]

Now the sparks were really flying at this point. Vigilon's mind was deep into both his thoughts and his work. He was definitely getting the items made, but he had to work his hardest and pour his heart into it for this whole thing to actually go well. "I will pour all that I know, all that I can do, into this work, and for the sake of getting this done so I can survive and live to fight another day, I will keep in mind what I fight for... My girlfriend, Jewel... My family, Mom, Alyssa...I bet Dad would be proud of me doing my best to escape, as well as defend others... My friends, both from this game, and from the real world...they are the reason I can move forward. I could never move forward like this entirely on my own..." He'd stopped paying attention to his opponent, and he would soon reach the end of the challenge. The satyr called out that time was up. Vigilon waited for the inevitable...and then the strangest thing happened.

[Vigilon 0]

"When we paused the first time, the score was 52 to 20. Now the challenge has come to an end. The total score... is 250, to 251! Adventurer, you have triumphed over Hephaestus, god of the forge!" Vigilon's face was overcome with surprise, maybe shock. "...WHAT!?!?!?!" He couldn't believe this at all. "That's right. You've done it, boy. You've bested Hephaestus himself!" "I...I never thought...that I could ever..." Hephaestus walked over to Vigilon. "You did extraordinary. I truly was hoping for a real good challenge to reignite my passion...but to be bested at my own talent, such a thing has never been seen before! I shall remember this day, for all of eternity. Your victory here shall fuel my passion. Whether you truly are better than me at my own game, or if we are equals in this talent, I will keep this day in mind. Besting your talents will fuel my passion for forging!"

[Vigilon 0]

For a Greek god who'd just been beaten at his own game, Hephaestus seemed pretty happy. This confirmed to Vigilon just how much a good challenge was to Hephaestus. "Now then, I believe you should have something for all the effort you put into what became your victory." He walked over to his forge, and picked up his hammer. He handed it to Vigilon. Originally, Vigilon had been thinking, since he could forge one handed war hammers, that he could try using one of those in place of his typical one. Not anymore. A gift like this completely trumps that. "T-thanks..." Hephaestus spoke with Vigilon for a bit longer, revealing some different types of rarer materials that could be used by a blacksmith. Even now, Vigilon was still surprised he'd actually won. Eventually, Vigilon was walking back down, and Kaldui was there, waiting for him, ready to escort him back to the settlement.

[Vigilon 0]

"Y-you look surprised...H-how did it..go?" "...I beat Hephaestus....at his own game....I still can't believe it..." Kaldui smiled shyly. "I...I knew you could...L-like I said before...it's difficult, but not impossible..." Thus the trip back to the safe zone began. Vigilon decided to keep his eyes peeled for anything he may have missed along the way. After all, they kind of rushed all the way here, since Kaldui was chasing a wolf all the way here...and Vigilon had to follow at a speed close to hers in order to keep himself from being accidentally left behind. He spotted something gleaming in the dirt. With some difficulty, he pulled the metal out. "Hey...this is..." He'd read about this in a certain book series. It was celestial bronze, said to be one of the metals used for fighting monsters and such. Seeing that it was a material, he could forge it into a weapon, or a set of armor, that players above tier one may take interest in.

ID# 98694 LD: 20+1=21(+1 T2 Mat)

Edited March 14, 2018 by Vigilon

[Vigilon 0]

Kaldui noticed what Vigilon had found. "That's...an interesting metal. I've never come across it, but then again, I get most of my materials from forests...and from the skins of monsters..." That last part was still understandable. She was always nervous and a bit shy when it came to social interactions and situations, but she was fearless and ruthless when in combat. Vigilon stashed the uncommon metal into his inventory, then continued his search for potentially missed loot while they were walking towards the safe zone. Vigilon spotted a chest near some marble ruin. He walked up to it, wondering what could be inside. He suddenly heard a thumping sound. He slowly raised his head up to see a large creature carrying a stone club made from marble. The monster also had a single eye. "...Crap." Kaldui Jumped between Vigilon and the cyclops. "Go ahead and open the chest! I'll keep this thing at bay!" And with her battle cry, Kaldui rushed to attack the cyclops.

ID# 98695 LD: 20+1=21(Found a chest)

Edited March 14, 2018 by Vigilon