[PP|F9] <<Bandit Camp>> Easy Work

[ChaseR 0]

Now that he'd just finished questing with NIGHT, the boy held both of his hands behind his head, entering the settlement after a rush all the way back and heading towards the teleporter. It was one of the few times that he felt he were in such a good mood, he could easily just lay back and relax, enjoy some time in his brand new home and get to kick back for a while. Then, he overheard some NPCs talking about horrible, horrible bandits having terrorised miners out of their posts and taking all the ores for themselves.

As far as he knew, nobody spoke of the missions in this floor as too dangerous, and seeing as the Bandits sounded like complete pushovers, he opened up his menu and decided to message NIGHT to come over one more time before she headed back. 

ChaseR: Before you leave, come back to Yogan Village please. ChaseR: I'll be waiting near the exit to the fields.

Nothing more really needed to be said over text when they'd meet up in a few moments, as long as she hadn't exited the floor to head back to her own humble abode already. He found a small spot near the exit of the village, leaning against the wall of the gate and waiting quietly for his friend. At least he felt he could call her that now.

Spoiler

Name: ChaseR
Level: 36
HP: 720/720
EN: 72/72

Stats:
Damage: 14
Mitigation: 12
Evasion: 3
Accuracy: 3
REC:2

Equipped Gear:
Weapon: <<Gust Raiser>> (T2/Perfect/2HSS): DMG II, ACC I
Armor: <<Wind Dweller>> (T2/Perfect/Light Armor): EVA I, REC II
Misc: <<Chained Bracelet>> (T2/Perfect/Trinket): EVA II, ACC I

Skills:
Two-Handed Straight Sword [Rank 5]
Light Armor [Rank 3]
Battle Healing [Rank 1]
Fighting Spirit [Obtained]

Extra Skills:
Familiar Mastery: Fighter
Survival
Disguise

Mods:
2HSS Finesse [R3]
Precision

Battle Ready Inventory:
Starter Healing Potions(heal 50HP)*3
Spyglass (2/3)*1
T1 Rare Health Potions (heal 40HP)*2
Woodland Armor (T2/Perfect) MIT III (2/3)*1
Requires Extended Weight Limit 1
Requires Extended Weight Limit 2
Requires Extended Weight Limit 3
Obtained via Item Stash (Housing)
Obtained via Dimensional Backpack

Housing Buffs:
Filling: Increase the effectiveness of a single food item consumed in a thread by +1 T1 slot.
Relaxed: Increases out of combat HP regen by (5 * Tier HP) and decreases full energy regen to 2 Out of Combat Posts.
Skylight (-): +1 Rank to the - skill.
Advanced Training: +2 SP to a thread. Limit one use per month [0/1]
Multipurpose: Gain +1 to LD, Stealth Rating, Stealth Detection, or Prosperity to one post in a thread. Can be applied after a roll

Guild Hall Buffs:

Scents of the Wild:

Wedding Ring:

 

[NIGHT 0]

NIGHT: ???
NIGHT: was this meant for me

The last message she'd attempted to send to the blue haired player had been intercepted, for some reason or another. One about the funds she'd struck into his wallet, the player wondering if he'd received the money at all. And though her querying messages sent through this time, it was with frustration that her finger hovered over the red text that failed to be delivered, NIGHT wondering if it would do well to use the now-days-old tell in place of a fresher string of words entirely.

Never mind. She decided to just ask about it again. What's a couple of seconds more from stewing over DAY's stupid banter, anyway? The player curled up sideways on her bed, punching in the letters as best she could while remaining as lazy as possible.

NIGHT: btw did you get the col i sent you
NIGHT: 80k
NIGHT: idk if you needed any new gear in a while so i thought to deliver it
NIGHT: 2hss users need to stick together yknow

	NIGHT   | HP: 1410/1410 | EN: 153/153   | ACC: 4 | DMG: 19 | EVA: 3 | MIT: 72 | BH: 70   | KEEN: 1 | PARALYZE: 1 | ABS. ACC | TAUNT | LD: 4   | Stealth Detection: 4 | Stealth Rating: 7   | Dungeon Search: 2
- - -
[Examine] [Equipment] Dragon's Gaze -- [ Keen | After a successful attack, gain +1 BD until your next successful attack, at which point this bonus is removed. Another successful attack will reactivate this enhancement. ] -- [ Paralyze I | Natural successful attack rolls of 9-10 remove the enemy’s action on their next turn. Paralyzed opponents lose any evasion properties. ] -- [ Absolute Accuracy | +1 ACC. Attack rolls of 1 no longer automatically miss. ] Reinforced Black Tracksuit -- [ Mitigation I | +54 MIT. ] -- [ Evasion I | +1 EVA. ] Silver Crescent Necklace -- [ Accuracy II | +2 ACC ] -- [ Evasion II | +2 EVA ] [Battle-Ready Inventory] [T1E3] Teleport Crystal (1) | Instant | TELEPORT Skills Skills Mod Count: 8/8 Two-Handed Straight Sword | Passive | RANK 5/5 > Ferocity, Precision, Finesse Light Armor | Passive | RANK 4/5  > Athletics Searching | Passive | RANK 4/5 > Reveal Hiding | Passive | RANK 4+1/5 > Blindside, Vanish, Surprise Attack: Trickster Extended Mod Limit | Passive | RANK 3/3  Battle Healing | Passive | RANK 5/5 Energist | Passive [Extra] Survival | Passive  Concentration | Active -- CD: 3 Familiar Mastery: Fighter | Passive | RANK 3/3 Consumed Buffs Spoiler Bialas Statue | +TAUNT - - - - - - Misc. Buffs Spoiler Dimensional Backpack, Item Stash | +2 Battle-Ready Inventory Slots. Well Rested | -1 EN for the first three expenditures of each combat.  Relaxed | +(5 * Tier) HP per out-of-combat post. Full energy restoration occurs after two turns out of combat. Squeaky Clean | -25% DoT damage taken from the first DoT applied to this player in a thread. Skylight: Hiding | +1 Expertise to declared utility skill. Cooldown of 30 days to reassign. Multipurpose | +1 LD/Prosperity/Stealth/Detection to one post per thread. Can be applied after a roll. Filling | +1 T1 slot to a food consumed by this player in a thread. Can exceed Cook enhancement caps. Col Deposit | +5% col from loot-minimum mobs, +10% col from treasure chests.

[ChaseR 0]

Chase waited silently for her arrival, only to hear a blip and see a flashing notification on top right corner of his eyes. "Holy, that looks like a complete bother mid-combat...", he thought to himself before opening up his menu and heading to his messages, seeing how NIGHT had replied. Expecting her to just say she was already back and would be late, or something around those lines, she instead began to question the very thing that the two had discussed about. He silently looked at the message, unsure what to make of it with furrowed eyebrows.

ChaseR: What are yiu on about? We talked about it yesterday? ChaseR: Can you just come over, I can't yse this keyboard too well yet.

The boy replied, somewhat annoyed with how short term her memory seemed to be. The typos he'd made didn't even matter, the annoyance was enough of a bother in the first place. Had she already gone back home within these few hours and gotten completely out of it? She barely seemed tired any throughout the quest, and now she was fully clueless about what just happened. Before closing the menu off again, he decided to ask one last question.

ChaseR: When you get here, tell me whatever you did when we broke off. You just stayed at the Cerberus spawn or what?

 

 

[NIGHT 0]

NIGHT: ???

A player who couldn't use their keyboard well? Yet? What, did they chill out in reality so long, they wrote messages to each other on paper and mailed it off by carrier pigeon or something? She'd been in that state herself, the jotting down of articles, sure. But she never let go of her savviness for technology just because she'd been away from it occasionally during her time in Aincrad.

NIGHT squinted before continuing the conversation, deciding to sit up just to expedite her texts even further.

NIGHT: u chatting with the right person here?
NIGHT: i wasn't at cerb
NIGHT: couldnt txt you for a good while apparently
NIGHT: aincrad msg systems suck

Wait, maybe it was one of those moments where her recipient just hadn't checked who they were delivering messages to. Bistro did that on occasion sometimes with quest information -- then, always, she'd become 'distraught about losing col', but they were always tagged with a smug looking emoji afterwards.

What an awful liar.

NIGHT: this is NIGHT ur talking to
NIGHT: the rando w/ the floor
NIGHT: elves or smth i think
NIGHT: idr
NIGHT: did u mean to msg your gf or smth?

[ChaseR 0]

More messages only followed up, to Chase's distraught, getting a growl out of him as he opened up the menu and saw what couldn't be anything but her feigning ignorance even more than before. He could swear a vein was popping right out of his forehead, looking at the confused texts and trying to understand just how dense she could be. "Does she actually have amnesia or something..?! I was about to ask and then thought it'd be too crass even for me, a-and yet..!", he complained internally, taking hold of the keyboard once more.

ChaseR: Are you seriously okay? We took turns watching each other. ChaseR: Sleep shifts and whatnot? ChaseR: I even told you where I spent the money on once you taught me how to open the transcation history thing. ChaseR: Can you stop joking around and please come over? It's some stupid quest we could wipe out together in seconds, again. No different than the one we just did.

There. That would do it. There was no way in hell that she had just forgotten about the two's day long expedition all the way to Inferno Cave and then the time that it took at least Chase to return all the way without a teleportation crystal. The only explanation that came to mind was that she was trying to make some joke in poor taste. "I swear, if she replies with another 'what are you talking about' style reply, I'm just going to start recording every instance I'm with her just to show it to her. There has to be some stupid item for that, right?"

[NIGHT 0]

NIGHT: we didn't do any quest together???

The conversation was starting to get on her nerves; not a good vibe for whatever hour it was of the day. But as she continued to stew over the man's messages, NIGHT sighed, and scowled at the realization of what might be a better solution to their texting mishap issue.

NIGHT: zzz
NIGHT: w/e
NIGHT: gimmie 5 min

She'd rarely given a time frame that short to anyone else before, but the anger was infectious, and whatever ChaseR was up to -- if it really was some 'stupid quest we could wipe out together in seconds, again', then no big deal even if the message hadn't been meant for her. Safety in numbers with more players, and maybe she could just show him up about bothering her with some convoluted, questionable messages.

Not that she was complaining about being asked for help from a novice. Those she could handle just fine.

Just as she'd staggered down the steps of her house, so too did her counterpart finally return home, the door closing shut with a gentle clasp behind them.

"Hey DAY."

"Hey--"

"Bye DAY."

NIGHT brushed them aside as she pulled the entrance wide open, and then shut it with a terrifying slam before darting outside, making her way over to the teleporter.

Without a doubt, whenever ChaseR had finally laid eyes upon the Tier 3 player, she was effectively in shambles from the race to beat her clock. "Okay," she breathed, gunning over towards the player. Narrowed eyes, teeth bared and a look that could almost kill another. "What exactly do you want with me."

[ChaseR 0]

The bluehead felt like he could honestly explode with anger any moment now. He waited for a moment or two, and it wasn't even the five minutes that she'd promised him before she showed up, livid. Much more than Chase could be, too. He backed up to the wall he was already leaning against, gulping dryly and giving her a scared look. "Wh-What do you mean what do I want with you, c-come on! You couldn't have gotten that tired from getting back home and then here again..!", he tried to talk back with furrowed eyebrows, just hoping that he wouldn't end up getting punched around like he had with Shay that one time in the desert.

"Some stupid bandits that are even less more competent than the Cerberus, that's what, calm down now, please..! I'm not joking, you actually look scary...", his voice drowned out more and more as he continued to talk, fearing that he'd just start losing hitpoints any moment now from her intense stare alone. "I-If it's about that joke, you got me, you can stop now..!", Chase continued until his voice completely drowned out with a squeal. She was much scarier than the damn Lich that got the life right outta the poor boy.

[NIGHT 0]

"I didn't leave my house though." Even with the man's intimidated disposition, NIGHT didn't seem to be letting out on her ferocity. In fact, the accusations just caused her to snarl even further, arms folded tightly around her torso. "I wasn't on any damned quests, let alone--"

"-- wait, you're doing Bandit Camp? After Cerberus?"

Her aggression was put on pause by that revelation. Eyes straying to the sky, the player recalled that was the exact line up of her own quests during her progression on the ladder. "Huh."

Was it more common than she'd realized to take these proceeding elements one after the other? Perhaps ChaseR was progressing at a rate much faster than she'd first realized; after all, he did proclaim his expedited ascension, NIGHT's key take away of the man's potential from their first meeting. The player lowered her head, eyes closed, still ruminating on the strange disconnection of memory either of them had of some recent events.

"Yeah, sure. Let's go deck them out." Her brows were still furrowed as she started to walk, out the exit of the village headed straight towards the brigands' spawn site. "You're taking point on those enemies, though. I'll just play clean up this time."

[ChaseR 0]

After a sigh of relief, seeing her at least no longer snarling right in his face, he nodded and began to walk right behind her. "Are you serious you don't remember anything..? You said the same thing about the Cerberus... Something like 'The spotlight's yours, I'll clean up if I need to' or... Th-That." , he stubbornly insisted, certain that he didn't just dream earning experience like that. "I could have sworn we were together earlier... I-I know! Here, you told me some stuff before..!", Chase slowly regained his composure, remembering back on his trip with DAY what she'd said.

"Your house is on the first floor because you don't want to be too far away from your workshop. And... Er... You taught me how to open up my transaction history because I was farming and you'd sent me some money because you said us novices need to get help every here and there. And... Some hellhounds were scouting the area, saw us and turned back. You recalled that not happening and started to wonder if the quest had changed or if it was different per person. Remember anything?", the boy said after rambling on for a hot minute, hoping that it wasn't her physical state in the real world deteriorating and leading to her being this forgetful of what just happened.

[NIGHT 0]

It felt like a hallucination to be hearing everything ChaseR believed was true. Sure, some of the key points sounded like something she'd say -- her values were on point, though she hadn't dispensed any of the information about herself anywhere. What, was Bistro psycho-analyzing her now and selling those bits as meal tickets? She shouldn't need to. NIGHT felt her teeth clench as they made their way through the wasteland, her index and thumb rubbing into her temples in an attempt to soothe her soul.

The move didn't go well.

"I did none of that," the woman spat back, another objection to the jury, before growling to herself, impatient for an answer. "I don't know when you did this, and I don't remember having any discussion with you about this made-up outing. Here -- I'll prove my point."

In the blink of an eye, she'd called upon her menus, navigating through the icons with ease and speed. Her conversation with her companion was soon presented to the man, alongside the embarrassing and undeleted ages-old message:

NIGHT: its not like i have anything better to do with my col, so here, take it; buy yourself some gear or something. don't expect it from me in the future

[ChaseR 0]

He looked at the message in utter confusion. This was definitely not what she'd told him a while back, and now he himself was beginning to get all the more confused. He didn't know of any ability that allowed you to shift your appearance in game, so this came off as a complete surprise. "H-Hey, hey, hey, hey!", he growled at her, starting to grow even angrier himself. She was stubborn, and he was even more so. "You just got home, how the hell did you forget everything..?! I'm serious, did you have any memory conditions before getting trapped?"

Although genuinely worried about her, his words probably sounded harsher than ever, as if he was telling her off. "How the hell could that not be you?! The eyes, the tracksuit, the sword..! You were just as strong as last time, you did Cerberus at a tier one player on your own... The trip we just went through the past two days, how much stronger I've grown... Did you forget it all? Your handle was the exact s-", he then froze for a moment, realising that they never really partied up in the first place. He thought he'd shot her an invite, but he only asked her to tag along. They never actually paired up like they should have to keep an eye on one another's health like that. "... I messaged you before now, didn't I? I asked you to come here to talk."

[NIGHT 0]

There were no messages of the sort in her inbox.

"And you're sure," she gulped, reviewing the notes he'd presented, "that your text did send."

The evidence was getting scarier by the minute. Only Bistro knew of her journey to Cerberus' lair when she was starting out -- and there was very little reason for her to give away this sort of useless information, even if it were the sort of thing that the woman might've done.

-- Or what about the fact that they weren't levelled at all? That was to the best of her knowledge a certainty, even if she didn't know much about her in the first place--

"-- ... This is driving me nuts."

Her other guess was one NIGHT might've put forth to the forefront of her mind had it not been for the yellow cursor that centered their being most of the time. That identifier couldn't be kept hidden away by the system, could it? Not like the player could toy with the Disguise skill herself -- she didn't have access to it, and she doubted ChaseR had it either.

They were getting close to the campsite by now, most of their distance covered filled with bristling nerves and a growing anxiety. Though NIGHT had decided to hold back on her strikes earlier on their trip, her fingers were itching to slice into something, anything that would flinch at this point.

[ChaseR 0]

Hearing her question only confused him further. "How the hell did you show up if it didn't..?", he asked her and bit down on his lips, looking her up and down. There was no doubt about it, this was definitely the very same NIGHT he was adventuring with before. The cursor he never paid much mind, but he could have sworn everything seemed to be the exact same. "There's no way somebody has the same name as you, and looks and acts the same-", he stopped himself once more, freezing as if he'd seen a ghost before squinting his eyes at her.

"... You don't talk much, do you?", he asked her, ironically enough, only realising that back during the other quest she'd been just as quiet. She seemed to be in a greater mood before, but... "You don't talk more when you're in higher spirits, right? But there's no way that wasn't you, f-fuck... How the hell does this happen..?!", he growled out and slammed his foot into the ground in a stomp, holding the sides of his head. "I swear on my life it really, really was you..! Fuck!"

[NIGHT 0]

"There's no way somebody has the same name as you, and looks and acts the same-"

"I don't believe they would do such a thing."

It hurt to put her doppel under suspect once again.

Because they'd promised not to. Because things were just getting better with them around.

Why would they even have a reason to do something like this, anyway?

"... You don't talk much, do you?"

"Funny." She'd forced the words out, pulling them from within her chest in as best of a light-hearted manner as she could. "This is the most you've actually seen me talk."

She'd paused her steps, moments before her companion threw a fit. His foot charged into the ground in absolute distress -- and she felt for the man; NIGHT really did, watching him writhe around on the spot. With a pained face she looked on, soaking in the reality of her situation, that either her most trusted broker had decided to pull one of the worst pranks she'd ever seen, or she could blame the system.

Who'd lied to her about one of the things she was worried most about.

[ChaseR 0]

Given everything he'd seen and her responses, he growled and tried to figure out what exactly was at play. Then, it all clicked together in his head. The vanity potions he'd dabbled in, having bought them from NPCs or gotten them as monster drops... "It must have been some potion..! Alchemists know about potions, vanity ones too, right?! Do you know any I can ask? Or your friend, Blister, can I ask him about some unique skill that lets you do that? There has to be one, no other way if that wasn't you. You talked way, way more.", he continued trying to make sense out of this, feeling closer and closer to losing his head over it.

And it was then that he realised the camp was right up ahead. The bandits already came into sight, taking notice of the duo. The bluehead quickly removed his blade from his back, holding it in both hands and rushing forwards- off to vent some of his anger right onto the poor AIs that stood to oppose him. A quick slash was all it took, wide and with the same stance as when he fought in front of DAY. This time though, there was no opening and all bandits got blown right out of the way as soon as he arrived in front of them, sending them all flying back. As soon as they hit the ground, they shattered, and Chase gave the same troubled look as before to NIGHT. "... Whoever the hell did I talk to, NIGHT?", he asked her as he could feel his heart beating faster, gulping dryly.

ChaseR: HP: 720/720 | EN: 55/72 (-17) | DMG: 14 | EVA: 3 | ACC: 3 | REC: 2 | MIT: 12 | BH: 6

Bandit 1: HP: 0/100 (-168) | DMG: 90
Bandit 2: HP: 0/100 (-168) | DMG: 90
Bandit 3: HP: 0/100 (-182) | DMG: 90
Bandit 4: HP: 0/100 (-168) | DMG: 90

Edited August 25, 2020 by ChaseR

[NIGHT 0]

"Vanity potions?" NIGHT entertained the thought briefly, though she hadn't heard about such items, if at all. Talk about going the extra mile just to make a fool out of someone; she'd glanced over at her menus with a flick of her wrist just to pull up the chat log between her and her broker -- sure enough, she was the least likely out of her contacts to come up with something to say, each bit of intel being fed to her in somewhat regular intervals. "Bistro, you mean. I could ask her when if I ever got the chance."

The sour taste of someone messing with her operations still lingered, though. And although her eyes were liken to head towards her Gemini's listing on her messages...

She bit her bottom lip. Distracted as NIGHT was, when she forged her weapon of light idly in her hands, it was a distinct great sword with a reptile's eye lodged near its guard, acting as a jewel to the blade's enhancement. Not that she'd needed to use it, even as their marks were rushing them with the initiative on their side; behind her interface, ChaseR had already taken care of each oncoming bandit. They never stood a chance against his blade.

"... Whoever the hell did I talk to, NIGHT?"

"..."

NIGHT keyed in a word to her broker. Her hopes were not high.

"...Beats me."

[ChaseR 0]

He wasn't sure what left him to agonise further into despair even more. Her response or the fact that she still didn't know what he was talking about. "The same potions you can use to temporarily change your gender- but... The hell do you mean beats you? Did you pick up anything of what I just said?!", he growled and sheathed his sword again, approaching her with an angered expression. "They knew that much about you and now they do about me too. If it's someone that can steal identities just like that, you realise how compromised we both are?!"

Chase pushed just a little bit further, barely able to hold himself from grabbing her by the collar. He was fuming with anger more than ever before alright. "They know the name of my girlfriend and where my house is, too..! Do you understand now?!". He was still very, very doubtful about it not being NIGHT, but her own anger when faced with this issue didn't seem to be faked either. Both of them were saying the truth, yet one of them was wrong. How in the world could this be though..? That was what bothered him the most. 

[NIGHT 0]

"--Wait, they can what?"

The player hadn't expected that amount of potency from an item to be in Aincrad at all. Temporarily change one's gender? Did such an item exist in the game? As much as that detail had caught her off-guard, the more possibilities she'd drummed up to curry favour with reality, the more her head started to hurt. The woman was desperately trying to draw loops around the idea that whoever had duped either of them hadn't been anyone close to her at all.

Because who could she trust if it had been? It already hurt to be on her own most of the time.

This sucked. ChaseR had a point to be afraid. As she felt the collar of her tracksuit being picked up, she could see the fear lodged in his heart as she tried to meet his gaze with her own--

--though what he saw back was one filled with distraught, just as much as his own concerns had grown.

"...Sorry." The player's voice was deflated, mild and shambled from what extra energy she could muster out to him. "I don't know if I'm going to be of much help with this after all."

[ChaseR 0]

He quickly let her go with a frown upon seeing how upset she were too, tears forming at the corners of his eyes. He was on the verge of having a mental breakdown before he realised that he should try to keep calm and think of this logically. Normal logic didn't apply here, they were in a game now. "S-Sorry, I just... There's no way you can interact with a player whose name you know except for messaging. And others can't break into your house, r-right?", his voice was shaky and wavering, and he himself didn't appear to be in any better of a condition either.

Knowing that he'd messed her mood up just as much as the revelation had his own, was... even worse, really. "I just don't know if I can fight a player... I don't want to..! Especially one as strong as you...", he ended up crying after all, clenching his fists tightly as he anxiously waited for a response, hopeful that he was right in what little knowledge of Aincrad he possessed. 

[NIGHT 0]

"... As far as I know, you're correct."

When she found her footing on the floor again, her hands had retreated to her pockets, the woman wincing out of embarrassment more so than a nudge of pain. NIGHT couldn't find the strength to look back at her companion in the eyes again, and so her gaze was strewn to the floor, dusty and ragged red sand and stone.

"No one else can get in. No one."

There was no need to tell him about the Gemini's intrusion. A house had upgraded security, didn't it? All she stayed in at the time was a dingy workshop.

"You don't have to fight them. -- Safe zones don't allow for player killings, if that's where you've put your house in." Her sights darted over to his form, still lost and tattered in her guessing. "As for when you encounter someone of that extreme strength and repute..."

NIGHT's trimmed nails dug into the back of her head. "I guess that's where I come in, huh?" A click of her tongue, in irritance and in guilt. "I owe you one for whatever this is, I suppose. And-- here."

She'd sent him a text, one that managed to go through; her home address, down on the first floor..

"Just in case messages don't work anymore. ...You'll know where to find me."