[PP|F5]<<Butcher of the Sands>>

[Shay 0]

After several days of break, Chase was ready to return to the grinding. Though she knew he was out leveling up without her, she had really just stopped caring at this point. If she didn't get out and do something soon, she was going to lose her mind again. The whole reason she picked Chase up as a partner that day was because she didn't want to work on leveling up on her own. The pace had slowed down for awhile, but she was ready to see through the second tier and make it up to the front lines.

The two traveled to floor five today. Curse this floor and it's stupid existence. It was always way to hot up here for comfort, even with the survival skill helping her fend off the heat of the sands better. Shay turned to Chaser and simply asked: "Are you ready to go?"

Spoiler

Name: Shay
Level: 31
HP: 620/620
EN: 62/62

Stats:
Damage: 14
Mitigation: 12
Evasion: 3
Accuracy: 4
BLD: 24
REC: 2

Equipped Gear:
Weapon: (Katana)Murasame α: ACC 2; BLD 1
Armor: Leather Overcoat: EVA 3
Misc: Deep Red Tie: Recovery 2; ACC 1

Skills:
Curved Sword [Rank 1]
Katana [Rank 5]
Light Armor [Rank 3]

Extra Skills:
Familiar Mastery: Fighter III

Mods:
Precision

Battle Ready Inventory:
Teleportation Crystal*1
Incarceration*2
T1 Mass HP Rec. II*1
T1 HP Rec. I*2
T1 Instant HP Rec. I*2

Housing Buffs:
Rested: -1 energy cost for the first two expenditures of each combat
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.

Guild Hall Buffs:
Lucrative: Reduce LD needed for Salvage by 5 (10+ for Alchemist crystals, 6+ for everything else). +2 EXP per craft. Rank 9 crafters receive +1 crafting attempt per day. Rank 10 crafters receive +2 crafting attempts per day.
Col Deposit: +5% bonus col from last-hit monster kills and +10% bonus col from treasure chests.

 

[ChaseR 0]

He knew that the difference from having trained this much would be massive, between the two. He'd gotten a new armor, an Azure Overcoat, that would provide him with unmatched survivability by any non-tanks in these levels, knowing it would be enough to protect himself from blows even he took each one head on. With a nod, Chase confidently smiled to Shay. "Of course. Let's head out. Let me take the lead, I've been back here for this quest, okay?", he offered her, wanting to make sure he was the first person to attract the boss' attention when they eventually ran right into it.

Their house on the twenty-first should have served them well, too. It was comfortable and definitely much more roomy than the shop that they had practically piled upon each other in. Each had their own floors, they had the yard, living rooms, and the list went on really. As long as they kept getting money, they would keep expanding the house more and more. "We're here for the shark alligator or whatever, right? The one in the arena."

Spoiler

Name: ChaseR
Level: 46
HP: 940/940
EN: 92/92

Stats:
Damage: 15
Mitigation: 43
Evasion: 3
Accuracy: 3
BH:9
VAMP DEF:47
FRZ:24
BLD:24
HLY BLS:16
LD:2

Equipped Gear:
Weapon: <<Zero Degree Icicle>> (T2/Perfect/2HSS): ACC I, FRZ I, BLD 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 5]
Battle Healing [Rank 1]
Searching [Rank 1]

Extra Skills:
Familiar Mastery: Fighter
Survival
Disguise

Mods:
2HSS Finesse [R3]
Precision
Athletics
Sprint & Acrobatics

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 (Searching): +1 Rank to the Searching 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:

 

[Shay 0]

"Yeah, its a pushover." She replied. She knew that it could cut through mitigation with ease. Funny thing about that, if you hardly had any mitigation in the first place, why would you even care? She could easily walk into this arena alone and find herself victorious. Two hits and boom it was all done.

Looking up at the giant arena, she didn't seem to falter one bit. She had been sitting around for days in their new home doing absolutely nothing. It was about time she got to release a little frustration. Even though Chaser seemed to want to take the lead, the girl stepped ahead of him and started to make her way into the arena. Once the battle started, no one was allowed to leave it until the party or the boss was dead. A pretty tragic boss all in all, but not to high leveled players like the two of them.

[ChaseR 0]

A frown took over his face as he saw her walk ahead, furrowing his eyebrows. "I want to protect her, but... It's alright, this is a weak monster... She wants to do something, I... I understand what she's going through. Just this once, I guess I'll let her...", he finished his thoughts and watched the sand shark emerge, standing tall and proud in the middle of the arena. When he entered the death pit too, sand closed entry and exit behind them and he switched his glance over to his significant other.

"Whenever you're ready, I'll follow up next... Sorry for making you feel that way, cooped up home.", he shortly apologised, trying his best not to get another negative mood swing just like that as he tried to pull a smile on his face. Chase just wanted to be able to feel confident even in an overwhelming world like Aincrad. "... Go get 'em, I'll keep my eyes on you.", the boy finally reassured her and gestured her to move on ahead while he dragged his jagged blade out of its sheathe, holding it firmly in both of his hands.

[Shay 0]

Finally, after a week, she would have a chance to let loose; To shake a bit of tension off her shoulders. Approaching the center of the arena, the giant butcher, a massive crocodile awaited her. They would be trapped in this place until someone emerged victorious. Someone being her.

The massive reptilian shrieked a loud growl of terror as she approached. Unmoved from it's attempts to taunt her, she simply summoned her sword to her hand and pulled it free of the saya. The painted holster of the weapon landed in the sand behind her before disappearing to her inventory.

The Sando Satsu charged her recklessly at her - First mistake. She ducked under the best's hand dodging the blade with ease. With a quick motion, her katana sunk into the arm of scales, lifting her up it grew in size and strength. Climbing up to get her footing, she started to run up the beasts arm towards it's head.

---

Shay | HP: 620/620 | EN: 47/62 -(15) | DMG: 14 | MIT: 12 | EVA: 3 | ACC: 4 | BLD: 24 | REC: 2

Sando Satsu | 160/350 -(210-20) | DMG: 100 150 | MIT: 20 30

[ChaseR 0]

Although he told her that he would follow right up and he truly didn't want her to be in danger, he decided against it. He kept his sword in his hands, stabbing it into the ground even, but waited for her to finish the fight herself. She was strong, much stronger than his worries gave her credit for. With a deep sigh, he rested both his hands on the bottom end of his handle which was now facing the sky, standing like a guardian and looking at her go. 

When the monster was about to get a hit on her, she dodged with ease and started climbing up its body to follow up with the finishing strike. Hell, the rest might have done her as much good as it did her harm. She seemed sick and tired of having gotten no adrenaline outlets, but maybe it was better that way. Her body was in pristine shape and it appeared she could even take a field boss like this, that he'd killed with Freyd, all on her own. Not that Freyd's help was needed, but he definitely didn't feel too comfortable facing it down all by himself with his previous armor. "Come on Shay, finish the job!", he cheered for her internally, smiling proudly.

[Shay 0]

Though the ravaging, enraged beast thought it had a handle on things, it was not ready for the tiny girl with a katana to put it to shame. It flailed wildly attempting to shake her off its body to no avail. The rogue kept her grip on its arm, climbing up with a fast enough pace to reach the neck in mere seconds. Her katana mimicked the color of blood, ringing with a sound of dominance and power.

Just barely, ChaseR could hear her say something in her native language. "Homiru!" With several red slashes of light, the beast froze in place. Shay jumped from it's shoulder and landed in the sand, summoning her saya to return the weapon to it's resting place. As she slid the blade back into the holster, the creature's head exploded into data, following it's body. "Nimu Kanyou." The walls of sand disappeared and the quest completion details appeared before them.

---

Translation Notes: Homiru - "You're Finished!"; Nimu Kanyou - "Mission Complete."

Shay | HP: 620/620 | EN: 35/62 -(15)+3 | DMG: 14 | MIT: 12 | EVA: 3 | ACC: 4 | BLD: 24 | REC: 2

Sando Satsu | -20/350 -(210-30) | DMG: 150 | MIT: 30

[ChaseR 0]

That was... an odd occurance, for sure. Although he hadn't seen any other katana users when he was out with NIGHT or Freyd, he'd definitely never heard of a skill that worked with voice activated commands like that- it was probably some other item or a part of her gear that required those... maybe? It'd be best to not overthink about it and just ask away at his partner, there wasn't any reason to keep secrets or not answer his question. "Nice, you took care of it fast and easy~. Where are we off to next?", he asked her curiously.

He'd already finished most of the quests in the lower floors except for the incredibly hard ones, so there was no way for him to pick one and be sure that Shay hadn't already gotten to it before. He'd... kind of forgotten the list of quests they'd gone on their own already, which was a bit sad. Regardless, he put his mind back in line and stopped getting sidetracked as he sheathed his blade once more and cocked an eyebrow. "By the way, your... chant? Not sure what it was. What was that? Skill activation or?"

[Shay 0]

Shay put her hand on her hip after returning her blade to her inventory. He should have heard what she said clearly to the built in translator, though it was funny to think that he hadn't even turned the function on yet. "It's called Japanese." The girl said before starting to make her way out of the arena and back towards the safe zone of the floor. 

"Our next quest is a long quest line. Should be some pretty easy experience to level us up quickly. Plus it's any fantasy gamer's dream: To fight dragons. The first four are so I could probably one shot on my own at this point so that should be an easy few levels. These types of long quest lines are also likely to have nice rewards at the end of them. Maybe we'll get some unique gear without having to leave it up to RNG to drop it for me."

[ChaseR 0]

Truth be told, he had at some point and when fiddling with his settings, accidentally turned it back off. That's how he was able to understand a few of what Ariel had been speaking back when he met her. "Ah, right. S-Sorry. What's that mean anyways?", he asked regardless. All he knew was that it was Japanese, and that was about it. Not too insightful. As for her next point... She was right. "Well, if you want unique gear, there is a high level quest that drops an icicle, I could probably fetch you one if you want me to, it's packed with accuracy, freeze and whatever else you want."

Getting back on track though, he nodded. He'd seen the quests around his quest menu somewhere, called 'Dragon Hunter Anthology' or something around those lines. "The ones where you hunt some hatchling every time, those? I've never heard how they end off, but... there should be one per floor until the tenth, right?", he asked her thoughtfully, opening his quest log to find them again. Yup. Still there, as per usual, and the rewards were... underwhelming, for the first. "J-Just 1SP... Wow..."

[Shay 0]

Shay nodded in the comment to the dragon hunter quest. "They wont drop us a whole lot of experience at once, but if we complete all of them, then by the end, I'm sure we'll have jumped up a few levels." She replied quietly, trying not to trip in the shifting sands under feet. Why the hell were there so many damn quests on the floor that was a desert and basically none on the floor that she liked.

Looking over to her boyfriend's menu, she noticed the number of his level being extremely close to the third tier. A grimace formed on her face, but she looked off to the side in hopes that Chase wouldn't notice. She wasn't really mad at him for going to far ahead of her, she mad that she couldn't keep up. Being weak wasn't a problem; staying weak was. With sigh, she tried to get that off her mind and continued making her way back to the fifth floor township.

[ChaseR 0]

As soon as he noticed that she was looking over, he rushed to close the menu and quickly moved his hand to his neck, rubbing its back to comfort himself- as he always did when he felt he'd done something wrong. And judging by the expression she'd taken, she probably didn't appreciate how secretive he was being either. "I-I see... If it's bothering you I can... show you. Just don't feel bad, I didn't want to get ahead because I want to get out. I want to stay together. Just... You know.". It was rather hard to describe his predicament without sounding selfish.

They were to protect one another, but he wanted to protect her more so by turning into a shield while she kept being a sharp sword. "... We can rush the hatchlings. I've leveled enough to have a damage output on par with yours until you get three or four levels still- here, I'll let you judge for yourself.", he sighed out and swiped his menu, letting her look at it all- his level, his stats, his skills. Anything she wanted to look at, all under her fingers. "... If you want anything that's normally out of our league... I toughened myself so you're not in danger anymore. Okay? Because we're partners. So you can ask."

[Shay 0]

Shay had zoned out enough to miss most of the conversation that Chase was trying to give her. She was having flashbacks to meeting the boy back in the town of beginnings. The boy was such a hopeful, but a coward at the same time back then. The ridicule that she had given him was fresh in her mind. This relationship had started so rocky. How the hell did he ever agree to be her girlfriend?

Chase slid his menu her way, showing all of his stats and skills. The raven haired girl looked at it for a second and closed it in front of him. It was just a subtle reminder that she was doing absolutely nothing. She was staying weak, and that wasn't okay at all. If Chase could brave this world and make it to the front lines, then so could she. She just had to buckle down and finish the quests that she needed to.

[ChaseR 0]

When Shay closed it almost immediately, Chase froze. The anxiety was getting to him much more than before as his heart began to beat faster and he swallowed dryly, unable to see what he was doing wrong. "H-Hey, Shay, say something... You didn't want to see my stats..? Weren't you mad because I was being more... secretive?", he asked with furrowed brows and a frown on his face, feeling a numbness start spreading throughout his body and shivering. This was a feeling he was never familiar with, but...

He didn't like it. He didn't want to feel this way, like he'd hurt Shay somehow after getting so strong just to protect her. Uncertain what to do, he leaned in and hugged her tightly, rubbing her back with his right hand while keeping his left arm tightly wrapped around her. "Talk to me... I can't know everything...", he whispered in a rather somber manner, biting down on the inside of his cheek while he nerverackingly waited for his significant other to respond. "The hell did I do... F-Fuck, Shay, please talk to me... I thought everything would be fine if I just toughened up for the both of us...", his thoughts continued as he shut his eyes closed, just hoping for the best.

[Shay 0]

The brooding rogue quietly folded her arms across her chest and tried to ignore her pained inexperience. Chase was about to freak out though, so if she didn't say something, he would lose it. The girl would take a deep breath before answering him.

"I'm mad at myself. I've done nothing while you've done everything. I'm awful." She said, still refusing to look at him in the eyes. She needed to get back into all this and catch up with him. If she didn't, she would only sit here and wait for everyone to save her. She didn't need everyone's pity. The life she had lived up until now was insufferable. This game was her chance to prove that she could do something with this worthless life of hers and she was only making it worse by doing nothing. Once they got back to town, she would be going on more quests, with or without her significant other.

[ChaseR 0]

His brows just furrowed at hearing what she had to say. He wasn't quite sure what to tell her. "I... Sh-Shay...". Chase was at a loss of words. He had the slightest idea how to comfort her, or that she even had such expectations for herself. He couldn't do much but stretch his hands out so she could accept his help and move on with it. They were meant to do this together, even if one was overleveled and the other wasn't. "I don't expect you to do everything... Please, just. Just be here for me. Okay? Please...", he grumbled and felt his lips shaking, rubbing her back still.

It wasn't long before his hand's circular movements stopped on her back though, clenching down on the cloth and tightening his hug with his other arm. "I-I seem like I'm doing it all but I'm wearing myself out... I just want to stop people from dying...", he almost whimpered, burying his face in her shoulder once more with tears in the corners of his eyes. For however much stronger he had become, he was still the same Chase that she had learned to love. Open with himself to her only, and emotional as ever. Overwhelmed by Aincrad, as per usual. Nothing was different other than his stats and level, however much of a relief that could be to her.

[Shay 0]

His response didn't make her feel better at all - In fact, it made her feel even worse about herself. He was out getting as strong as possible to protect people like her. People who were unwilling to become stronger and protect themselves. If Chase wasn't her boyfriend, she would have spit on his hand and teleported out of here. She didn't do that. Instead, she tried her best to calm down and work through this.

"I don't care. There's a difference between you doing everything and me doing nothing. I don't want to be protected. I am strong. I can be strong enough to protect myself. My burdens aren't anyone else's but my own. Dragging others down with me is a sign of weakness." The girl continued on her way back to the safe zone. Why the hell did these walks back to the safe zone always feel so much longer than the walks there?

[ChaseR 0]

Her words hurt. It felt like he'd said something wrong and hurt her, put her below himself... "That's what we're supposed to do, isn't it? Protect one another..? You want to get stronger, don't you?". His question was genuine and he didn't mean to make her hurt more. The way she'd just broken off his embrace was just as hurting to him, but he tried not to throw a fit. He had been far away from her so much, that even if he wanted to love her in full, their relationship was weakening. Every few days they might have had a conversation or two, in between though...

They lived in his estate, and did little more together. They greeted one another, and he left to get down to business before returning tired at night. Neither of them were talkative so that didn't work out too well either. "A-All you have to do is get stronger for me and I get stronger for you. We protect one another and nobody dies. It's not a 'you problem' if we're both affected.", he hoped to make her feel better, but... He knew this mindset she was in. He had been there too, all too soon. The bluehead was very well aware of her internal conflicts and struggles, only because of having been in her shoes before.

[Shay 0]

"I'll continue to get stronger. There's no doubt about that. You're with me on that, so let's keep it up. I'm not trying to sound like a dick, I just continue to hate myself with ever passing day. I can't keep going with doing absolutely nothing." Shay mentioned as they passed into the safe zone. This quest had been an emotional roller coaster. IT started off just fine then they started going at each other. Shay's attitude got the better of her, but even still, she wouldn't let herself stay weak. 

If there's one thing that her parents taught her early in her life, it was that relying on others was a sure fire way to get yourself depressed. If one truly wanted to become a stronger person, they had to first become independent and then ask for other's help when they needed it. None of this had to do with how good or bad Chase had been treating her, or vice versa. It was all about her own struggles with herself.

[ChaseR 0]

Chase was catching on to exactly that. It was something he couldn't help her with no matter how he put it. This was Shay's issue and all he could do was sit by idly and wait for her to solve it- kind of like her, except it wasn't an option to do so. When the two were back in the safezone, Chase simply remained moody and quiet, looking down at the ground with a deep sigh and stepping onto the teleporter the moment that they got to. Now it was up to Shay to take them to whatever quest she wanted to, to finish whatever she desired for more SP. 

"... Choose whatever quest.", he muttered under his breath, feeling rather down. It was as Shay had said. She wasn't trying to be a dick. Then again... "I-It's fine. We suck with words. We're horrible at talking. It's no different even if it's just us two. That's just how it is.", he tried to convince himself and let out another sigh, keeping his eyes closed. He turned his head to Shay's side, holding her hand so that when she gave the voice command, the both of them would be transported to her next destination.

Spoiler

Thread Rewards:

• Shay: 5 SP [3 quest, 1 page, 1 event], T1 'Katana of the Sands' (DMG II, BLD I)
• Chase: 2 SP [1 page, 1 event]
• 200 Col each