[f01-pp] lxh <<training your friend>>

[Basuke 0]

quest.

okay, to be completely honest, he wasn't sure how or why sometimes after he woke, smiggle crocs v was missing from their bedtime cuddles. 

the first time it happened, he nearly tore apart his tent when camping out on the first floor. but now, he knew better – whatever his little worm creature familiar was doing, basuke knew he could count on finding smiggle out in the dirt, tail pointed to the sky, burrowing through soil. it used to be a handful of small pits, but on days when he found himself sleeping in, basuke was sure to be greeted with an entire campsite filled with a multitude of them. the boy counted himself lucky he didn't have trypophobia, if he even knew the proper word for it.

on this day, however, he'd woken up fairly early in comparison to his previous schedule. and smiggle was missing, as expected, to his dismay. the only difference was that, in leaving his tent, he found out that his tiny pal in aincrad had only dug a single hole in the ground.

in fear of losing his friend, he decided it best to call for help.

Spoiler Lv: 17 | Basuke | HP: 170/170 | EN: 34/34 | ACC: 3 | DMG: 5 | BURN: 12 | BLIGHT: 12 - - - Equipment - - - [T1E3] Tri-Hexagon Metal Pin > Accuracy III | +3 ACC [T1E3] Supreme Yeezyz Pen Ultim8 Shoez > Evasion III | +3 EVA [T1E2] Rhona' s Needle > Bleed I | DoT that deals 12 unmitigated bleed damage on a nat. 9-10. > Blight I | DoT that deals 12 unmitigated blight damage on a nat. 9-10. - - - Skills - - - 1H Straight Sword | RANK: 4/5 | +4 DMG - - - - - - Battle-Ready Inventory - - - x1 | Teleport Crystal | Teleports player to safety x3 | Starter Healing Potions | Heals 50 HP - - - - - - - - - - - - Misc. - - - - - -

Edited June 19, 2023 by Basuke

[NIGHT 0]

basuke: smiggle crocs is gone :(
basuke: do you track???

night: h wh ??
night: wt tht

basuke: MY WORM

night: ???????????
night is typing…
night: 15m

basuke: I DONT HAVE THAT MUCH TIME

night: ????????????????
night: 5

it had to be like 6am or something, a point in time when the sun was still rising, and the sky was still a muted shade of blue. night had to pull herself out from bed, gently patting her companion on the head to release her for the day. once freed, the player reluctantly got dressed and ate a quick bar for some amount of nutrition (fake). she was still rubbing the sleep from her eyes when nyanko padded over, noticing something out of the ordinary with his owner's rise. night didn't think twice to pet him in reassurance, but then started to move once basuke complained her way again.

night didn't notice it, but nyanko sure did – the door was left open, so now the cat was out.

[ lv. 139   ->   l. 32 / p. 107 ] NIGHT | HP: 1060/1060 | EN: 144/144 | DMG: 22 | ACC: 4 | EVA: 1 | MIT: 44 | LD: 9 | VAMP-D: 58 | QTY: 2 | PRSP: 2 | AA | Stealth Rating: 6 Spoiler notes. n/a. Spoiler equipped Cosmic Devourer+1  ABS. ACC, ACC III rider.  LOOT DIE III, VAMP-D locket.  QUALITY II, PROSP II   battle-ready inventory Teleport Crystal (1) | TELEPORT   skills Spoiler mod count: 7/7 2HSS | RANK 5/5 focus, stamina, precision shift: aoe CLOTH ARMOR | RANK 5/5 athletics, nimble COMBAT MASTERY: DMG | RANK 3/3 SEARCHING | RANK 4+1/5 reveal, tracking, detect, night vision BATTLE HEALING | RANK 5/5 ENERGIST QUICK CHANGE CHARGE EXTENDED MOD LIMIT extra SURVIVAL CONCENTRATION HIDING untraceable, vanish, surprise attack-t buffs Spoiler statue KUMATETSU | +1 DMG consumables   paragon Lv. 5 | Gain additional col equivalent to 15% of EXP earned in that thread. Lv. 10 | +1 LD to looting. arts Spoiler en cost matches multiplier unless stated otherwise. shift underlined. ST | x12 -> x15 | x20 AOE | x15 -> x18 TECH-A | x12 | STUN | 13EN TECH-B | x12 | DELAY TECH-D | x12 | SHATTER TECH-F | x8 | AOE STUN  TECH-G | x12 | BURN misc Spoiler housing 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: Searching | +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. gathering Greenhouse | +2 G.EXP, +1 CD&LD to gathering attempts. Familiar: Profession | +2 G.EXP Demeter's Cornucopia | +1 CD to gathering attempts.

 

Edited June 19, 2023 by NIGHT

[Basuke 0]

what does one do when they lose track of their worm?!

well, basuke wasn’t sure. in fact, his first instinct was to, similarly, dig out the tunnel that his familiar had made prior, and follow smiggle to wherever his destination would be. unfortunately, he wasn’t exactly equipped to perform such an excavation, and the hole that crocs made was too tiny to perform any followthrough upon it, without risking the chance of having the tunnel obstructed and losing track of the only clue he had in the first place. so the player was stumped – completely.

he considered echo-locating down the small tunnel, but he wasn’t sure how to do so, nor if it was even a possible, viable idea in the first place. the best plan he went with, however, while waiting for night, was to walk around the campsite in search for clues of his familiar. it was only upon the discovery of a second tunnel entrance, alongside a single gemstone material beside it (???) that night had finally showed up, as he requested.

ID212591 | cd11 | 1/3 

Edited June 19, 2023 by Basuke

[NIGHT 0]

night appeared, looking extremely disheveled, ill-equipped to handle the situation, and generally confused about the situation. “sorry,” she started, trying to comb through her hair to be a little more presentable. “basuke, do you mind explaining the problem again, in full detail?”

“ah– yeah!” basuke appeared somewhat embarrassed now, before gesturing to the hole in the ground. “look, smiggle usually digs into the ground and leaves these as traces of where he’s been, right? and they’d always been where i’m camping–”

“–you’ve been camping?”

night was piecing things together in her head, though her processing speed was slow; smiggle was the worm (huh? a pet?) and basuke had been camping, so he wasn’t sleeping in an inn? but why?

“yeah, camping. the rooms in the inns usually suck.”

every time someone verified the opinion that floor one inn rooms were terrible due to deterioration, night won a small sense of vindication against the system. “yeah, okay.”

---

ID212592 | cd5 | 0/3 | cd7 -> cd5 

Edited June 19, 2023 by NIGHT

[Basuke 0]

“so smiggle usually makes these holes around the base of our campsite. like, around where there usually is a small fire or something,” basuke continued. “and i think now he’s making more of them? in a wider area?”

night blinked, humming tiredly, missing a beat before she replied. “okay.” 

“night, do you know anything about worms in this game? why do they keep doing that?”

basuke had to wait for a little more, as the woman hummed again, more aggressively this time. as though the noise would aid her in considering her answer better. the boy watched his friend scratch at her scalp, purse her lips, before saying, “a different type of worm. don’t worms like to dig into the dirt?”

“i mean, maybe.” the boy shrugged. he did consider this long ago, but he never understood why crocs would have left his side so persistently and consistently. besides, even if he could accept his worm’s behaviour, he wasn’t so certain about being able to keep his friend, especially not after its absence today.

Edited June 19, 2023 by Basuke

[NIGHT 0]

“but it’s like, kind of unusual? he never gets this far away from me. and you can track, right; can’t you, night?”

woah, too many things were being asked of her at once. the player pulled out a canister from somewhere and started to take a swig, if only in hopes that the drink would wake her up. “i can,” she said, gesturing to the pit smiggle had apparently made. “but i need to know a little more about it before i’m able to hunt it down. its name is smiggle–”

“smiggle crocs v.”

“smiggle…” what? sorry? was she getting clowned on right now? “... smiggle crocs v.”

basuke nodded with such earnesty that night had to forgo any suspicion of her friend secretly being an influencer, implanted by cardinal as an advertiser for brands in the real world.

“okay, and smiggle looks like a…”

“like a small plump worm,” the boy began, pulling out his sword and stepping back, trying to find some space in the ground.

ID212593 | cd3 | 0/3 | cd5 -> cd3

Edited June 19, 2023 by NIGHT

[Basuke 0]

he’d nearly tripped on a rock and another hole that was hidden behind it, alongside a different shining material, but this one a leaf.

“oh, sorry there,” basuke directed towards the blip on the map, before focusing his attention towards the dirt on the ground. he set the tip of his blade to the earth, and traced out a crude imagery of smiggle from memory. “as i said, a small plump worm. he has stripes like a tiger, or a bee, and he’s in ugly brown and normal brown.”

“what colour is ugly brown again?”

basuke paused, considering for another moment. “like the colour of cooking oil.”

night frowned, scrunched up her face for a second, before relaxing her expression. “okay.”

“and then he also has a diamond-shaped mouth with fangs… and beady black eyes.”

basuke continued his work, and stepped back when he was done. night seemed hypnotized by the image he’d drawn, and the boy took it as a sign of an accurate depiction of his familiar, so he grinned.

ID212594 | cd9 | 2/3

Edited June 19, 2023 by Basuke

[NIGHT 0]

but of course, when the player was done scribbling out a portrait of smiggle crocs v, night had to admit that it looked like a bee without wings that looked sort of upset. her first thought was, ‘is basuke okay?’ she felt sorry for the drawing, and almost wanted to offer her services of redrawing crocs on his behalf.

“he has smooth skin, and is about this small,” the boy mentioned, shaping out an estimated size for his mythical being using his hands. it was roughly the size of a small box, almost equal to an apple, perhaps, which confused night even further into disbelief. she looked back at the image basuke had drawn in the dirt. the being didn’t even have any appendages to dig with! and yeah, she was familiar with snakes, but basuke made the idea clear that it wasn’t long, nor did it have scales to help it navigate deep below the surface. so… what exactly was she trying to look for, anyway?

Edited June 19, 2023 by NIGHT

[Basuke 0]

“... do you know what kind of species it is…?”

that was night’s final attempt at trying to decipher basuke’s explanation. and to her surprise, the boy’s face lit up, almost excited at the answer… if he could find it. he stammered, looking away, and closed his eyes. a poor sign, but so long as he tried hard enough, surely something would come through.

“tsuchi…” he began, exasperated after another bout of silence. “tsuchi-something? the granny said it was something like an earth child, but i don’t really know much about it. i mean…” basuke raised his hands with open palms faced towards night. “i don’t think i’ve seen it ever in real life, if you were to ask me that.”

“we could try working with that.” and night quickly keyed in a query to a bistro who never seemed to be asleep, only to be returned with a single response, and a protest afterwards.

bistro: tsuchinoko
bistro: im crashing. dont text me any more

ID212595 | cd1 | 2/3 | cd3 -> cd1

Edited June 19, 2023 by Basuke

[NIGHT 0]

so night set the parameters on her interface in search of the aforementioned tsuchinoko. found a match, though with little accuracy, and looked up in the direction of where her display was trying to tell her to go. night raised a finger and pointed down a path of a dirt road. “we’ll walk this way until we see your worm, i guess.”

and basuke nodded, almost excitedly from over her shoulder. he had been watching the player navigate the interface, acknowledging every bit of information, even if he couldn’t read it, as important with murmurs of affirmations. “got it. so we follow the black cat you summoned just now, too, in case we get lost headed in that direction.”

“yeah.”

night closed her window before she could register basuke’s words. so sleepy, but did basuke mention the presence of a black cat? night loved black cats. oh, how much she missed nyanko back home–

wait a minute. that black cat ahead of them was nyanko, who was looking over his shoulder as he paced off where they were trying to go.

ID212596 | cd5 | 1/3 

Edited June 19, 2023 by NIGHT

[Basuke 0]

“eh?! nyanko?!”

all of that gathered composure that night had managed to restore from her wake was lost the moment she spotted her summon up ahead of her. now it was basuke’s turn to be confused, as he leaned down and collected the materials he’d seen before, almost without question. his friend darted over to the small kitten, picking it up with two hands, and brushing its fur while it meowed at her, just as lost as he was. all the while, night seemed to be scolding it – or getting anxious herself.

“what are you doing out here…? i didn’t leave the door open, did i? but the home should’ve had an auto-lock function… how did you even find me out here? what if you got lost, nyanko?”

the kitten just stared at her, before tilting its head. it trilled, softly, as basuke approached the pair, and night turned to him with the feline looking his way, too.

Edited June 19, 2023 by Basuke

[NIGHT 0]

“ah… um. basuke, this is my familiar. his name is nyanko.”

nyanko introduced himself with a peep. night couldn’t remember if he’d met the familiar before. perhaps it had been too long if he did, or the kitten seemed like he changed a lot; either way, basuke nodded and tried to introduce himself to nyanko, too. 

“hey little guy… ”

he reached a hand out over the cat’s head, only for nyanko to shy away from the hand, and drop himself to the floor, leaving a devastated basuke behind. the familiar continued strolling down the way he was looking earlier, taking a few steps forward, during which basuke recovered, before looking over his shoulder towards the players.

“nyanko, what are you doing?”

“haha, is he trying to find smiggle too?”

huh. the prospect hadn’t even crossed night’s mind. and not because of her sleepiness, but because she hadn’t even told nyanko of what they were up to in the first place – the cat seemed to have decided for himself. 

ID212597 | cd2 | 2/3 

Edited June 19, 2023 by NIGHT

[Basuke 0]

night turned to basuke just as nyanko started walking off again. she raised a palm. “after you, then.”

“oh, okay!”

and night carried a hesitance with her that basuke wasn’t exactly picking up. still, she followed, as basuke tailed nyanko; the cat started to move in hops and bounds as basuke got closer, and he made sure to keep up the pace. only once did he stumble, halting the search party as they stopped, concerned – basuke’s foot had been caught by another hole in the ground. a good sign in the search for smiggle crocs v, and an even better find for the pursuer, for there was another material, a piece of gold ore, beside it!

“it’s my lucky day,” basuke declared, only for night to pat him on the shoulder.

“you still have your worm (?) to find.”

“oh, right.” but he shrugged and held up the loot for examination. “i can still appreciate this though. hey, wait, how did you say that?”

“what?”

“the parentheses…”

ID212598 | cd7 | 3/3 

Edited June 19, 2023 by Basuke

[NIGHT 0]

as they continued traveling, night noted that they were getting towards higher-level territory, at least relative to the average player level on the first floor. and so, slowing down behind nyanko, she turned to basuke, walking beside him. “so, what level are you right now?”

“somewhere headed towards 20,” he replied, pulling up his interface. night didn’t need the specifics, because all she needed to know was his capability of withstanding the most frequent threats in the area. she gave him a nod, and they continued on their way.

eventually nyanko led them to a clearing, somewhere right before the mountains at the edge of the forest. it was more of a huge pit, really – not the kind that smiggle would dig out, night would think, unless it grew really quickly in the short amount of time it had been gone for. rather, she was liken to believe it was a designated mining area for low leveled players once upon a time.

Edited June 19, 2023 by NIGHT

[Basuke 0]

different resource nodes were scattered across the edge of the depression, with some lining the center. and, between each of them was dirt, now covered with tiny black spots. something in the far distance started to catch basuke’s attention, however, the dirt shifting upon the ground in an odd manner.

he thought it was smiggle, and started to bolt towards it. it made sense, after all – the worm’s head was about the color of light soil (which, was still ugly, to him), and if he couldn’t make out what it was from that distance, the invasive creature had a strong likelihood to be his tiny friend.

“smiggle crocs v!”

tiny steps followed him, taking off in a gallop that almost matched his pace. meanwhile, he couldn’t hear night following him – but neither was he paying attention to that, after all. basuke got close enough to be able to identify the familiar round head and beady eyes of his companion, looking around in confusion, before it sank back into the hole it came from.

Edited June 19, 2023 by Basuke

[NIGHT 0]

night was taking the more direct route – instead of rounding the pit towards where she thought basuke was headed for, she slid down its curvature, half-jogging when she reached the bottom. while the amount of destruction smiggle had made was slight, given time, this destination might be rendered unusable to unsuspecting individuals. so perhaps they needed to act fast.

well, night would’ve rathered act fast. she couldn’t be bothered to spend all day hunting down a fat worm, she had better things to do.

as she looked around in place, she felt the ground next to her start to open up, slightly. so she watched the burgeoning lump of dirt be excavated from underneath, and a tsuchinoko peer out of its tunnel.

the creature… was exactly as basuke had described it. and now she felt incredibly guilty about doubting her friend. having a proper target to lock onto now, nyanko swerve from his height and darted towards her location, where smiggle crocs was located.

ID212599 | cd5 | 3/3

Edited June 19, 2023 by NIGHT

[Basuke 0]

except that in his pursuit, the worm began to tunnel under, sensing the feline threat. nyanko, after stopping by night’s foot, crouched, eyes darting around to locate the worm as necessary. and the player really hadn’t expected nyanko to be this enthusiastic about the familiar she was brought over to track down – so she kneeled to give him a few comforting pets, after which the kitten shook his head.

basuke, on the other hand, was on the opposite side of the pit playing whack-a-mole with the few times his familiar stuck his head out to examine the damage, to no avail.

“oh, look. he’s coming here soon,” she assumed, watching his friend jump around a couple of times before collapsing on the ground in frustration. at smiggle’s latest disappearance, he reappeared closer to the cat, his eyes upon the player in confusion, instead. it gave nyanko enough time to pounce on smiggle, blunt teeth pulling at its skin lightly, while it wriggled in protest, attempting to be freed.

Edited June 19, 2023 by Basuke

[NIGHT 0]

“ah, nice job, nyanko.”

the fight was tough, but it didn’t seem as though smiggle thought the kitten was being malicious – after all, the worm wasn’t exactly protesting much. but at nyanko’s capture, basuke came running over, excited. “oh! did you find him? good kitty!”

smiggle’s beady eyes opened from being shut, and its body stopped wriggling around. nyanko decided to let the familiar go, and before it could start another excavation attempt (did it even want to, still?) its owner scooped the tsuchinoko up with two hands, bringing smiggle closer to his face and rubbing it into his cheek. “smi-ggle! there you are! i missed you so much – where did you even go?! how’d you make it all the way out here, little guy?”

basuke couldn’t feel it, but both night and her familiar’s eyes were upon him, concerned. wasn’t the worm just in the ground a few seconds ago? surely that closeness shown by basuke was going to get him dirty.

Edited June 19, 2023 by NIGHT

[Basuke 0]

“everyone, meet smiggle crocs v!”

when basuke finally decided to stop fawning over his pet, he turned around and showed the fake serpent to them. smiggle flexed its body with a writhe, and night looked over it more carefully, now that it was completely out of the ground. here, she thought the creature’s interpretation was completely inaccurate when basuke had drawn its shape into the ground, but it really did seem as though smiggle… was a bee without wings. the only difference was that it could look upwards at a semi 90 degree angle, so it had a bend part way through its body.

perhaps bistro shouldn’t get a look at that thing; she might want to consider what kind of loot such a species would drop if she got a chance to operate on it… or something.

basuke lowered the tsuchinoko in his hands closer to the ground, so that nyanko could get a better look at him.

Edited June 19, 2023 by Basuke

[NIGHT 0]

the cat, originally unimpressed, simply gave the tsuchinoko a sniff before pulling back, just in time for the reptile to snip with its tiny mouth outwards. nyanko seemed to bristle at the attack.

“wow, it doesn’t seem as though they get along.”

“right…? maybe smiggle is just mad about being caught.”

indeed, between its scrunched up face and aggressive wriggling in basuke’s hands, it did seem as though his guess was accurate. but a hop into his hoodie pocket, and the worm was feeling right at home with a tiny screech.

“i didn’t even know it could do that,” night commented, as the boy patted the writhing bulge in his top. “well, if that’s all you needed from us, then i suppose we’ll be on our way back home now.”

“yeah, that was it.” though basuke couldn’t figure out who it was he was supposed to thank – was it nyanko, or was it night? before he could decide upon whom, however, the two already started to head off. maybe it made enough sense to thank them both as a pair… even if the familiar seemed to be doing 90% of the work in that adventure.

behind them, the boy could be seen laughing, almost at the similarity of their dispositions, before waving towards their backs. “thank you; night, nyanko! i’ll make sure to train smiggle properly so it doesn’t happen again!”

night simply turned around and gave him a thumbs up, long enough to walk backwards into a tree.

Edited June 19, 2023 by NIGHT