{{PP-PT-F29}} A Drink That Never Ends {On the House}

[Reytac 0]

Reytac stepped off of the teleport and immediately took in a breath of salt-laden air, and winced. It was clear that something had gone wrong when he'd tried switching floors - he'd been intending to go to the fifth floor, to see if there were any quests there that suited his level. But it was immensely clear that he was not on the fifth floor, not even close. A glance at his tracker had the brunette's jaw drop, and if it could go any lower it might have been hitting his clavicle. Somehow, his mumbled destination had brought him all the way up to the twenty ninth floor. In that moment, staring at that number, Rey knew that if he had even an ounce of sense in him, he would turn around and get right back onto the teleporter and get the hell out of dodge - this place dwarfed him by so much that it wasn't even funny. There weren't even safe zones on this floor! Even now, in this storm-swept city, theoretically something could attack him at any moment. And at best, he'd be an amusing insect for it to swat. 

But - Reytac didn't have an ounce of sense in him. If he did, he'd still grinding out the lowest monsters he could find to make slow progress, or even more appropriately, hiding back in the town of beginning and letting others work on getting out of this place. At the thought of that, he ground his teeth together - that was not something he could abide by. So instead of doing the smart thing, and leaving through the teleporter so quickly that he left an outline in the air, Reytac turned and walked into the storm tossed town.

He pushed rain-soaked hair from his face as he walked along the empty cobbled streets. Everywhere he looked he could see echoes, remnants, of the life that this town once had. Posters that were peeling from the walls that they had once been plastered to, or flickers of light in windows. But whenever he turned to look closer, those flickers were gone, the posters had already flown away. It was unsettling, and made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. 

For some reason, he found himself drawn in a direction, like something he wanted to see was that way. His feet took him in that direction, across stones that had been wet for so long moss had grown on top of what had once been a busy street, and he sneezed at the salty sting in his nose as he turned the corner, his eyes scrunching shut as the sneeze over took him. 

Fwump Rey's eyes snapped open as he ran into someone, or something. He hadn't thought that there was anyone else here - the front liners had beaten this floor, had moved up and on. So he was jumping backwards before he even had his eyes opened all the way, his hammer snapping into his hand as he scrambled away. Only to freeze, confused, when he saw that he had bumped into a young woman, one with purple hair who had been looking the other way. 

"Oh, crap, I'm sorry, are you okay?" He hoped that she was okay - and that this wasn't some trick or trap. It'd be just his luck that there was some kind of mimic creature on this floor, and that it was about to eat his face off.

 

Spoiler

PLAYER TEST ENGAGE: REFUND SKILLS

Temporary Purchase:

Searching 5: LD+5 30SP
Energist: Cost 8SP +10EN

Hammer 5: 30SP Dam+7

Hammer Addon: Ferocity +2 DMG - 4 SP

SHIFT: TECH SPECIALIST 

10SP

+4 to Multipliers, +3 EN.

SP Cost: 82SP

Light Armor 5 - +30 Mit, 30SP
-2Steal Rating,
Meticulous: +1 Dmg - 4 SP

Resolve: +1 Accuracy, +20 HP - 6SP

SPCost: 122SP

Combat Mastery: Evasion GM: - 18SP

EX SKILL:
First Aid - 2 Ranks: 8SP

TOTAL SP COST 148 SP
 

REYTAC STATS:

Reytac | HP: 380/380 | EN: 64/64 | DMG: 14 | MIT:36 | ACC:3 | EVA:7 | REC: 2 | LD:5

 

 

lookit me actually using a Test Build.

@Teion

 

[Teion 0]

This floor stunk of salty mildew.

For a good twenty minutes, Teion’s nose had been wrinkled over the smell assaulting her nostrils, but after that she must have acclimated. That, or the rain sputtering down on her was keeping her sufficiently distracted. ”What an absolute ghost town.” She murmured, nearly scoffing. Not an NPC, player, monster, or so much as a rat in sight. Teion was left to wonder if this floor was so vile that all of the frontliners abandoned it to continue rotting just as soon as the boss fell. She wouldn’t have blamed them.

Standing outside what may have once been tavern, Teion’s hands were placed squarely on her hips while she looked the place over with a shrewd expression. Before she could reach some arbitrary conclusion, however, her center of gravity suddenly shifted under the weight of a strange man. ”Hrrk–!” She let out an involuntary grunt, catching herself on a cracked old crate whose planks whined under her touch. She spun around, meeting Reytac’s bewildered gaze with her own just as soon as she’d wrapped her fingers around the handle of the large battle axe that rested on her back.

”Huh? Oh.” It took her a moment to process, but her hand loosened quickly once she did. The initial sight of his face: a player. The quick shift in her eyes to land them on the spinning cursor just above his head, gauging its color. They flicked back to meet his, her surprise melting into a neutral, cautious expression. ”Yeah, I’m fine. No worries.” She replied simply. Besides looking slightly drowned by the unforgiving drizzle, she truly wasn’t any worse for wear after their collision.

She took a slight step back of her own to regard him. ”Have you been around here before? Teion asked. She stole a glance to the side, back towards that old tavern beside them. Something was nagging at her to finish checking it out, but maybe that was just the wishful thought of a roof over her head.

[quest info]

Teion | HP: 780/780 | EN: 92/92 | DMG: 23 | MIT:78 | ACC:5 | BH:43 | REC: 4 | LD:4 | QTY: 2  CHARACTER SHEET   Hide contents Teion's Character Sheet THREAD INFO   Hide contents equipped »Eclipse Edge (+3 ACC) »Amethyst Set (+48 MIT, +4EN Recovery) »Sun Spot (+2 Quality, +1 LD)   battle-ready inventory »Sand Armor Potion (Parry next attack) »Bottled Banshee Scream (Stun all enemies for one turn) »*Potion of Fallen Strength (+3 DMG, -9 MIT) »Banner of Command [3 Charges] (+1 ACC to your party until start of your next turn) »Teleport Crystal (1) skills »Axe R5 (+7 DMG) »Light Armor R5 (+30 MIT, -2 Stealth) »Battle Healing R5 (38 healing per turn) »Searching R3 (+3 LD, +3 Stealth Detection) »Charge (+3 DMG -1 ACC attack | 3 post CD | 8EN) addons »[Axe] Precision (+1 ACC) »[Axe] Ferocity (+2 DMG) »[Axe] Stamina (-2 EN) »[Light Armor] Resolve (+1 ACC, +40 HP) mods »Meticulous (+1 DMG) »Emergency Recovery (Heal 76 when brought below 190 | Once per thread | 10EN) »Night Vision (No penalties from low light/darkness) »Detect (+2 Stealth Detection, +1 LD to dungeons/labyrinths) »Bull Rush (Charge may stun instead) buffs Spoiler »

Edited 13 hours ago by Teion

[Reytac 0]

"Again, I am sorry about that, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going - I didn't expect to see anyone else here." Other than distant shapes in the storm clouds or fog off in the distance, Reytac hadn't seen another person since he arrived on this floor. He was honestly surprised to have run into someone else here - and embarrassed to have literally run into her. He didn't take offense to the way her eyes flicked up when she ran into him - it was a good precaution, and especially this high up was probably a healthy one to take. He did the same, a small bit of tension easing from his shoulders at her cursor showing green. 

His gaze followed hers as she looked back towards the tavern - how did he know it was a tavern? The place, outside, looked just as rundown as everything else around them, but for some reason Reytac felt like heading inside was exactly what he needed to do. If for no other reason, it would let him stop having to push his hair out of his eyes. It took him a moment to process through that odd pull to realize she'd asked him a question, and he blinked against the salty air as he looked at her side-profile. 

"Ah, no. First time on this floor. I had an issue with the teleporter, didn't mean to come here but..." He couldn't pull himself away. "I don't know about you but I'd like to get out of the rain for a moment, and that place at least looks like it isn't about to collapse on me if I step wrong." Rey suppressed a shiver that tried to run down his spine as he could swear he saw something watching them from a doorway down the street, but when he'd tried to look at it again, there was nothing there. Getting inside would at least stop that, he hoped. 

[Teion 0]

His initial response was the opposite of what she was thinking–that she had expected to see someone else around, somewhere, on this floor, but that it was strange that it had taken this long. His admission of a teleportation mishap caused her to cock an eyebrow and take another brief look over him. Her eyes paused at the hammer in his hands. Best she could tell, it looked incredibly basic. She thought about prying over his level, asking why he wouldn’t just head back down to a lower floor. Instead, she just frowned and turned her gaze back to the building. He’d said exactly what she was thinking now, and so she had no rebuttal or retort. She chose not to fuss over the adult man’s safety.

So Teion gave a small nod, straightened up just a little, and headed for the door. ”Yeah, that’s fair.” She planted a hand and gave it a push and it swung open with incredibly little resistance. Crumbs of old, musty wood felt like they clung to her skin and she promptly wiped her palm against her wet clothing as she stepped inside.

A hush fell, the wind and rain and whispers of the dead city suddenly miles away as the door swung shut behind them. The silence was disturbed at first only by the groan of the floorboards that bowed underneath her boots–some more drastically than others. ”I’m not so sure about that last part, though.” Even her soft muttering cut through the dingy atmosphere of the interior. But he wasn’t wrong. A break from the rain was incredibly welcome.

Teion brought her hands up to peel back her bangs and slick them into the rest of the wet hair on her head, then ran them down across her face, flicking her hands at her sides and letting loose water droplets splatter onto the floor off her fingertips. ”I heard the last boss fight was pretty nasty.” She remarked plainly. The stranger seemed innocuous, so she tried not to be rude. ”Figured I’d visit before going to take a peek at floor 30.” She went to pick up an old glass from the far side of the bar, only to pull against it as if it was glued to the surface. She frowned again, shifted her grip, and gave another steady pull, holding the pressure this time until she could dislodge it by force. And by force she did so. The glass let out a sharp, scraping cry as it separated from itself, the base still holding firmly to the bartop and the rest of the dusty cylinder wrenching free in her hand. She stood a bit stunned from the interaction, then a moment later both sections of the glass burst into shards of light blue.

[Reytac 0]

Reytac followed the purple-haired woman into the bar, and let out a soft sigh of relief as he pushed his rain-slick hair back from his face again, and this time it wasn't immediately shoved back down by the constant drizzle. It wasn't like it was a solid downpour, but the storm never let up out there, even for a moment. It was like they were in one of those old noir films about a stormy city, but instead of a neon abyss their environment was ore along the lines of oversized fishing town. He shook his head side to side, scattering water from his hair and face, then gave an irritated scowl when he realized that just whipped some of his damp hair back into his face. 

"So long as it doesn't just give out beneath us..." Reytac jumped forward slightly when one of the boards he stepped on felt like it was doing just that, cutting him off mid sentence. The creaking of the floorboards beneath them felt somehow both unnaturally loud in the empty air of the tavern, bar, but at the same time muffled, like every step was made in a different room. He focused back on the woman, following her towards the bar itself. Every step now though, he tested the floor before he stepped, it would be just his luck to find the one that had fully rotted through. 

The purple haired woman's words felt - right, to him. Not necessarily right for her, but they resonated with him. He wanted to reach the frontlines himself, but he knew he was nowhere near ready for that. "I guess,.. That's why I stayed. Getting to the frontlines, seeing places like this shows me what to aim for. Oh. Handle is Reytac, sorry for not introducing myself earli-what on earth." Rey cut himself off as he stared with the woman at the glass that had refused to come off of the bar top. While he hadn't seen everything the game had to offer, he felt comfortable in saying, "That ain't right." He stepped away from it, towards the lantern that was hanging down from the ceiling, and frowned. Sitting innocuously beneath the lantern - which was lit. Why hadn't either of them questioned the fact that there was an active light here? But even has he tried to bring that up, he forgot what he was about to say, and something else came out. 

"Hey, miss, there's something over here. Let's see... Shipping Manifest - Whoa!" Rey had picked up the page and glanced over it, getting ready to hand it over to her - only to have a screen pop up in front of his face, lighting him up in the electric blue of the menu. 

[Teion 0]

She listened to his explanation with mild indifference. A frontline-hopeful. She could hardly rebuff his aspirations, given how proudly Ryo stood among those ranks. Teion could only acknowledge her own decision to stay away from it. ”Hmm.” She gave a short hum in response, followed by a blunt comment, ”It’s certainly not boring up there.”

His shift in tone caused her to look back at the man–at least after she was done tackling that stubborn glass–when he introduced himself. ”Oh.” She echoed, realizing that they’d briefly missed that step of exchanging names. ”I’m Teion. Mostly just a blacksmith on the fifth floor.” She didn’t exactly fit into any other roles when it came to her presence in the game. Outside of her crafting work, she largely just explored at her leisure or sought out the occasional rare material drops. So that introduction would suffice, she thought.

She followed Reytac’s attention to the paper sitting on the opposite end of the bar that looked just slightly, inexplicably out of place. Yet when he reached for it she, too, was met with a dialogue box springing to life in front of her, causing her to give the smallest start.

”Shipping Delivery…” She read aloud. Her eyes ran over the rest of the minimal text displayed when her brows narrowed, squinting at something strange. Was that a typo? The name of the bar was left blank. She had little choice but to shrug it off as a harmless oddity, and so shifted her focus to the task laid out before them. Or the idea of the task, anyway. Teion looked back up to Reytac where he stood at the other end of the bar, as if trying to gauge his intentions. ”Do you…wanna do it?” Her words were slow, but not dismissive. Given her experience thus far, she was a bit apprehensive at the thought of taking it on her own, even if it was just a fetch quest. Something about the entire floor, let alone this room, just felt…off. It only made sense to stick together at this point, whether that was on a quest or hoofing it back to the teleport gate.

[Reytac 0]

Reytac blinked a couple times, the words on the quest screen dancing in front of him. Something was bothering him about the quest, but for the life of him he couldn't quite put his finger on it. Like a cut on the inside of his mouth that he couldn't stop worrying on, it was sitting there, just below active thought and pestering. He shoved that vague concern away, since all it was doing right now was slowing him down and distracting him. The brunette turned to look at Teion, only for his head to swim slightly as it felt like he went through a pressure drop, making him woozy for a moment. It passed swiftly though, and he focused his attention back on Teion. 

 

“Yes.” The agreement sounded flat to his ears, almost like he hadn't intended to say it. Had he? Something about this whole town was off, and he really should be getting out of here, not, “With as empty as this place has been knocking this out shouldn't be too much trouble. Go somewhere, grab a case of alcohol and run back?” He didn't even process that he'd accepted the quest, nor that he'd sent Teion an invite, until his finger was leaving the menu screen. Reytac frowned down at his hand, looking at it confused. Still - no matter. What he'd said wasn't wrong, the town had been abandoned except for the two of them. Even now, in one of the dry places in the rain-soaked, salt-ridden, town, they hadn't seen anyone else. 

 

Reytac just had to ignore the fact that he felt he was being watched, that if he looked at a window too fast he could have sworn he saw an eye peering back at him that was gone in less time than it took to blink. He coughed into his hand. They needed to knock this quest out, and get back to somewhere that was dry. Going to a desert floor sounded like a brilliant idea the longer he was here. But first, they just had to go down to the dock and find some alcohol to bring back. No big issue. 

 

Edited 28 minutes ago by Reytac