{SP F17} Don't Make Me Arachne! (Challenge of Olympus)

[Reytac 0]

Reytac stared at the message icon that had been blipping on his inbox page for a while now, unsure what to make of it. He had glanced at it when it first came in, confused, and put it out of his mind. At the time, he had been in the middle of working on his engineering, and the message had come in at nearly the same time as his first rank up. He'd almost entirely forgotten about it since then, but now that he had slowed down for a moment, he was staring at it. It almost taunted him - his message inbox was mostly empty, sparse messages from Mari when he'd spoken with her, but other than that he was still getting to know people so the message was odd, out of place. 

 

Worse was the fact that the sender was unknown, at least on the surface panel. With one finger he finally reached out and tapped it, opening the message up fully. He read over it, his brow furrowing as saw the name field was filled out here. A ‘Zeus’ was calling on him, to come up and accept a challenge - a challenge to him, as an Engineer. He took a deep breath. This had to be a system based thing, since so far only he, Nisa, and the Walrus knew that he was an Engineer. Or, he supposed, if anyone had seen his little tent as he was working. Still - did he want to go take this challenge on? 

 

 

Stats:

Reytac | HP: 360/360 | EN: 54/54 | DMG: 12 | MIT:24 | ACC:2 | EVA:2 | REC: 2 | BLD: 12  | LD:3

 

Gatherer R1 29/49

 

Quest stage: Olympus Challenge Invite Recieved

Edited 1 hour ago by Reytac

[Reytac 0]

After fully reading the challenge email, Reytac realized that a quest box had appeared next to it, confirming his suspicion that this was a system-event of some sort. He read through it to see the reward, and his eyes widened. The reward was an item that would make his engineering crafting smoother? His fingers twitched and his lips curled up slightly - there was no way he could turn this down. He was trying to stock a shop, and grow and test the bounds of what his profession could do - something that made him better at that was music to his ears, honey to his mouth. 
He took a deep breath, and pressed the ‘accept’ on the quest. Almost immediately, a faint trail appeared before him trying to guide him. It was odd - most quests didn't have something like that. And there was another thing that popped up - a new buff appeared on his panel. Rey was getting in the habit of keeping his buffs/debuffs panel open so he could see when he got status effects on the fly - and now a new one had shown up. 
“Blessing of Olympus”. 

 

[Reytac 0]

Reytac followed the trail through the forest of the floor he was on, back to the safe haven - to the teleport plaza, in fact. Which made sense, as the quest was taking him high up, to the 17th floor. He rolled his shoulders and took a deep breath. He'd been laser focused on his crafting for a bit, and hadn't thought about socializing with people for a few… Days? A week or two, maybe? He wasn't sure. Time was very sketchy in this blasted game. It'd been a while. So being around other people was jarring. He hurried through the teleport plaza as quickly as he could, ascending upwards to the target floor. 

Stepping out was odd - unlike anywhere he had been to so far. It was almost like he was looking at a history book - he'd appeared in Corinthia, and the heavy Greek influence on the architecture, in the people, it was very apparent. To someone who had spent a lot of time in forested areas, it was almost overwhelming. Still - he had a goal. A destination - and then he saw people giving someone, or something, in their midst, a wide berth. A berth, that was approaching him. Rapidly. 

[Reytac 0]

”Well hello there traveler! It's always so wonderful to see another of your ilk answer the challenge! Come, come, follow me, right this way!” Reytac had to stop himself from doing a double-take as he stared at the person that had come up and taken his arm, and was now pulling him through the city streets. It was an NPC, and friendly - and non-human. More nonhuman than elves were - this was a satyr. The figure wore a loincloth to keep himself decent, and had a set of pan pipes hanging from a belt that was wrapped loosely around his torso, and even as he pulled Rey along through the safe city, he was humming a tune under his breath with every step. 

”Even nicer to see one of you finally come along to pay homage to Lord Ares - he's been in a right tiff, seeing all these wonderful warriors come through, but none take his own Crafter's challenge! Now - if you don't mind my asking, why is that, hmm? You all wage war so very, very well, ascending to heights the locals here never could have dreamed of!” Reytac rubbed his arm as he finally managed to disengage it from the satyr's hold, and gave him a helpless shrug. 

”I couldn't really say? I know I am one of the first to get my crafting profession-”  aaaaaand his arm had been recaptured as the Satyr took him through one of the city gates. Reytac pulled his arm free long enough to scoop a twisted length of metal from the ground, and an odd looking shrub that he thought he could twist into fibrous cord to use for his profession before the Satyr recaptured him and dragged him on again. 

Spoiler

ID:255333    CD: 9 LD: 16 Critical Success: +2 Materials! +16  Experience  

 

Gatherer R1 45/49

 

Quest stage: Satyr Guard/Guide Met

 

Edited 49 minutes ago by Reytac

[Reytac 0]

”Oh, enough of this talk of professions. You're here, and hopefully you're the first of many to come. Now, then - this way, traveler, this way.” Now, Reytac knew that something funky was going on with their little jaunt through the floor. The Satyr hadn't given him a chance to try purchasing a horse for travel, instead dragging him along on foot. And yet, the gate that they had left through was already a decent distance behind them in the space of only a minute or so. His erstwhile companion seemed intentionally oblivious as he nattered away to Rey, keeping up an almost running monologue about the floor that they were passing through. Every time that he tried to interject, the Satyr just brushed it off without even acknowledging the questions. 
And there were no monsters attacking him. Reytac had been slightly apprehensive about that on this floor - he thought he could get away if anything truly heinous attacked him, if he couldn't give it a fight, but at the same time this floor was far higher than he traveled normally. But the road around them seemed deserted, nothing coming near the well-trod path that they were moving along. His eyes traveled to his status panel, where that blessing hung, and he figured that was likely the case. Hera, probably. Zeus himself would forget to, and Ares would just see it as another test for me I think. Now, here he was applying real world mythology to the game-variants, but if they were even slightly based on the real world counterparts, Rey thought he was likely right. 

 

Spoiler

255334   LD:  10 Fail EXP + 3

 

Forager R1 48/49

 

Edited 49 minutes ago by Reytac

[Reytac 0]

They reached the base of a large mountain and Rey looked up, and up, to see it stretch out of sight into a cloud-bank. He gave a slow nod as the Satyr stepped in front of him and clapped his hands together sharply. ”We are almost there, traveler! Now you just need to climb Mount Olympia. Final little ‘right of passage’ as it were. Once you're at the top, well, geography isn't going to work like you're used to. You'll be taken straight to Lord Ares’ domain, where he will address you. Mind you to be respectful there - you might be a traveler, but Lord Ares is a deity. Far beyond you.” With that the Satyr gestured to the start of the path that led up the mountain. From where he was, Reytac could see that there were several switchbacks, and stairs carved into the mountain side. He took in a slow breath, and exhaled it before nodding. 
”Still no monsters?” He turned his attention to his guide, who shook his head. 
”No, dear traveler. You are here to answer Lord Ares’ challenge as a craftsman, not a warrior. Another time, perhaps.”

 

Spoiler

ID: 255335    LD: 5 Fail, EXP +3   

Forager R2 51/149

 

Edited 49 minutes ago by Reytac

[Reytac 0]

The brunette man took a deep breath and ran one hand through his hair, his fingers ruffling through the locks as he looked upwards and upwards. A wry smile twisted his lips. The Satyr had helped him get here, crossing much of the floor in the blink of an eye, but apparently wouldn't help here. But - from what he remembered, that was also the case in Greek mythology. There, the gods had lived on a normal mountain, but the number of Grecians who had actually climbed that mountain numbered in the single digits. So he was just following in small, rarefied footsteps. After a quick check to make sure that his canteen were filled and he had some food in his inventory slots, he started up the path. 
As his legs carried him upwards, he had to admit, that there was a reason that people hadn't climbed Mount Olympus. In mythology, many types of monsters had dwelled upon the mountain itself, guarding the approach to the gods. If it wasn't for the blessing he carried, he would probably be facing something similar himself now. Instead, all he had to contend with was the rocky path as he slowly spiraled up the mountain. 

Spoiler

ID: 255336    LD: 10  Fail +3 EXP

 

Forager Profession: 54/149

 

Edited 50 minutes ago by Reytac

[Reytac 0]

This was, Reytac had to admit, the first time that he actually regretted wearing leather armor instead of just plain cloth armor. Even as little as he wore, the leather on his body was trapping heat against him, and he could feel sweat stacking up beneath it, soaking into the clothes he wore. Normally this wasn't a problem, as he could normally just pull his equipment off and cool off some. But even though the Satyr - who Rey noticed was following along behind him at a sedate pace, looking like he was having no issues whatsoever - had said there would be no threats, Rey didn't want to take a chance and wind up getting shish-kebabed by something that was strong enough to fight through the Blessing that was keeping him safe. 
Instead, legs aching as they mechanically pumped, carrying him ever onwards, ever upwards, Rey reached into his inventory and pulled out a canteen of water and took a long drink. The feeling of the cool water helped combat the exhaustion that he was feeling. He didn't dare stop though - Reytac had a feeling that if he did stop for even a moment, he wouldn't be able to  get himself back up and moving. So instead, one foot in front of the other, Reytac kept moving, avoiding rocks that looked unstable. He almost didn't realize that he was reaching one of the switchbacks, and had to stop himself from walking into a sheer rock-face that was in front of him. He patted the stone, then turned around and started moving up the higher path. Behind him, he heard the Satyr clattering along, the demi-humans hooves finding purchase far more easily than Rey's boot-clad feet. 

 

Spoiler

ID: 255337    LD:  5 Fail, +3 EXP

 

Forager R2 57/149

 

Edited 48 minutes ago by Reytac

[Reytac 0]

”You know, no one is going to judge you for taking some time, traveler.” The piping voice of the Satyr came from beside him, and Reytac blinked as he looked over his shoulder. This was the first time that his guide had spoken in  - Rey didn't actually know, how long it had been since they started climbing the mountain. He’d almost forgotten the goat-man was with him. The brunette narrowed his eyes before shaking his head sharply, and putting one foot in front of the other.
”Not a chance.  I’d judge myself. I am not going to stop til I make it to the gates.” The Satyr studied him for a moment, then shrugged once and went back to being silent. Reytac went back to concentrating on his pace, lifting and dropping his legs as he made it to a set of stairs carved into the side of the mountain. There was water cascading down nearby, and the stone steps were slick with water. He didn’t let it stop him, though, but he did slow down, making sure to take each step slowly and deliberately so that he didn’t slide down, or lose his footing altogether and tumble down the mountain.Out of the corner of his eye, half-buried under the water, Rey saw a couple gleaming points, and he knelt down to carefully work the items from the wall. It was a pair of materials, ones that had been tinged by the icy water falling from above. He hummed and tucked them away before pressing onwards, upwards. 

Spoiler

ID: 255338    CD:7    LD: 19 Critical Success, + 2Materials, +16 EXP

 

Forager R2 74/149

 

Edited 48 minutes ago by Reytac

[Reytac 0]

Reytac stared, unseeing at first, as he made it to a set of stark white marble columns. There was no gate between them, so it wasn’t the pearly gates, but he had been concentrating so hard, for so long, on climbing the mountain that he had honestly forgotten why he was doing it. ”Traveler, you’ve arrived. You’ve got some determination about you.” Rey blinked, confused, until the Satyr bounced past him through the columns, then waved over his shoulder. ”Come along, dear traveler.” Reytac stepped past the columns - and then his head hurt for a moment as everything around him blurred him for a moment. When it stopped, he was in a large chamber, decked in vibrant reds and burnished golds. He rubbed his eyes as a figure stood up from a throne in front of him, and spoke in a booming voice.

”Ho, Traveler. Well met and  welcome to my domain. You are one of the first of many Travelers of your generation that will grace these halls with your presence.” The figure was tall - easily topping ten feet. Dressed in burnished, gleaming bronze armor lined in gold, with a helmet with a large red Mohawk atop it, and with skin that was so red it was like he was looking into the heart of a roaring flame. This, then, was Ares - god of War. 

 

Spoiler

Quest stage: Speak With Ares

 

Edited 1 hour ago by Reytac

[Reytac 0]

”Ah.. Thank you for the honor, Lord Ares.” Being respectful to the digital deity who could probably wipe him from the game in seconds seemed like a safe bet for Reytac. He gave a slight bow, which made the giant before him nod once. ”I come in response to a challenge?” Which, to be fair, was something that should worry him. The Greek gods did not have the best track record of being gracious when their challenges were bested - just look to Arachne. Reytac watched as the blood-red tuft of bristles atop Ares’ helmet bobbed as the god nodded once, sharply. 

”Indeed. As one of the architects of War - I lay a challenge before you. Develop a tool of war for me - something to turn the tides of battle in your favor.” Just like that? Just like that? Develop a new tool of war? Reytac's head rocked back as he ran through this challenge. It seemed like the arduous climb to the top of Olympus was not the hardest part of the quest after all. Reytac frowned and rubbed the bridge of his nose as he started thinking. 

[Reytac 0]

”There is a workshop. Messenger, take the Traveler to where he can work undisturbed. Dismissed.” Ares’ booming voice pulled Reytac mostly from his thoughts, and he blinked as a Satyr took him by the arm and led him off down a hall, to an ornate workshop. The walls were lined with tools of various kinds, with tables with saws, clamps, vices, and presses all over the room. It was a beyond fully-furnished workshop, and Reytac's fingers twitched, itching to use it. 

But he wasn't here to just ‘use’ the workshop. He had a challenge before him, a test. He'd been wanting to push and try the limits of what the Engineer class could do, and it was actually to his benefit that he hadn't tried this quest right away when the message first popped up for him. He actually had access to all three tiers of Engineer recipes. But just making one of the existing tools wasn't his goal, here, even if some of them were challenging enough on their own to make. No, he had to make something new. 

Or, he realized. At least new to Ares. He rubbed his chin. 

 

Quest stage: Initatie Challenge of Olympus: Ares

Edited 1 hour ago by Reytac

[Reytac 0]

Something to turn the tides of a battle. That meant, something that could affect many people at once - a deterrent or a force multiplier. Not something that would only affect one person, that wouldn't be good enough here. Reytac took a deep breath and exhaled as he thought about options. Arrows to black out the sun. The thought came to him, unbidden, and he focused on it, chasing the idea. He wouldn't be able to make one of the actual tools that caused the saying he was thinking of - he didn't have access to explosive powder. But - there might be a way to do it with tension and pulleys, especially with the enhanced properties of some of the things that existed in the game? They had spider silk as strong as metal, after all. Reytac sat down at one of the tables, pulling a pad of blueprint paper to him and a charcoal stick. 

The idea he was working from was originally called a hwacha. A rocket cart - meant to launch a rain of hundreds of arrows all at once. He couldn't manage that - but he could create a series of connected crossbows, so that one man could use them. 

[Reytac 0]

What Reytac created was a wooden frame, five slots wide and five slots high. Each row would have a reinforced tension line running through, from about a third of the way from the back end where the operator would be working. Reytac had settled on this because even with the better materials that he was able to test, that was the limit that they could handle. A sight better than their real-world equivalents, thankfully, but still not as grand as he had wanted. 

The front side of the weapon was left open - for one person, or preferably, a team - to load the arrows, quarrels, into the ‘tube.’ Each barrel was a reinforced wooden box, just wide enough to not crush the fetching of the quarrels when they were being fired. That particular caveat had taken him several iterations to realize, as his first test fires had gone wildly off course until he got it corrected.  Once loaded, someone at the back had five levers that could either be pulled individually or all at once. Each pull would launch one of the rows of bolts, for a total of twenty five if everything was triggered at once.  The angle on the weapon could be adjusted by raising or lowering the front end of the cart on its axis, from parallel to the ground to an arc of about sixty degrees. 

Row by row would have the best accuracy, and allow for trajectory adjustments between firing, but it was the fully fire that would help ‘black out the skies’. 

[Reytac 0]

Reytac rubbed his eyes, feeling the strain of staring at the schematics and testing his materials and jury-rigged examples. This was, actually, easier to put together than a full hwacha would have been - he was able to use wood for the main construction material, easily sourced from any of the forests, since without explosives or flames, the tubes didn't have to be made of metal to withstand heat to prevent warping. This did have the downside that, because it was wood, repeated firing would eventually start to cause cracks to form and the weapon would have to be replaced. But that time frame was far longer than normal wood in the real world would have lasted. 
And because it was more easily constructed, more of them could be made. He took a deep breath, and exhaled. 
His muscles burned with fatigue, and his eyes were aching. He didn't know how long he'd been working - time, already a struggle for him in Aincrad, was even worse in this workshop. There was no sight of outside, only flickering torches in sconces that kept the workshop lit in an ever-shifting light. It could have been hours, or days, but he didn't have any of the debuffs for extended lack of food or water. He shook himself and turned to the Satyr - he wasn't sure if it was the same one or not - and gestured at the schematic he had settled on. 
“Would it be possible to get the materials to build five of these? With the full set of ammunition?” The goat-man gave a single nod with an easy smile on his lips, and vanished, as Reytac set to moving some of the tables in the workshop to the side so he would have room to build his crossbow carts. 

 

[Reytac 0]

Reytac finished wheeling the last of the crossbow carts out into the practice yard that he'd been instructed to use, and then looked across it to where target dummies had been set up. The Satyr that had been helping him - solely with setting things up, other than that and providing him materials the demi human had not lifted a finger in aid - had done as Rey asked, and bunched several of the dummies together like a group of soldiers would be, not spread out like normal. There were also some shields, strapped to the dummies rather firmly. It wouldn't be as good a test as it would be if he had someone actually holding those shields, but, he wasn't going to actually put someone in the line of fire for a test like this. 
”Right. Test fire number one on completed model.” Reytac loaded up the bolts into the crossbow cart, twenty five cleaning metal points staring back at him from the tubes. He stepped back behind it and drew back on the levers, drawing the strings to the point of the max tension he'd designed these for, then took a breath and exhaled. As the breath left his body, he released the first lever, sending five quarrels whistling through the air in a moment. 

 

[Reytac 0]

The first set of five bolts were only halfway to their targets when Reytac pulled the second trigger, sending five more on their way. Then he paused - not because the cart was struggling, but to watch the results of the first shots. Five rounds hammered into the shields he'd aimed at - a little lower than he'd intended, he'd have to adjust upwards - then, as the shields faltered, wobbling, the next set of bolts slammed in, skewing them even further.  Pulling the cart up on its axis took a few moments, which would be faster if there was actually a second person working with him, but doable on his own, then once he got it settled he turned back and set the next sets of shots off. 

This time, he went ahead and fired the last three rows off in rapid succession. There was barely a second between each release, and fifteen bolts sliced through the sky before slamming into the target dummies. The shields were torn off, and armor was dented as the dummies were knocked over by the repeated impacts. Not all of them, but - for one person, and in only a few minutes? 

“Most intriguing. An emplacement of some sort."

 

 

Edited 1 hour ago by Reytac

[Reytac 0]

Reytac about had a heart attack when Ares’ booming voice rippled out from behind him. He spun around, to see the massive figure of the god a dozen feet behind him, arms folded over his chest as he studied the target yard. He waved one hand, and the dummies were reset - and multiplied, doubling up in an instant. The God of War gestured again, and four Satyrs stepped forward, their expressions placid.  ”Show these Satyrs the operation of your tool, Traveler. They are untrained, and none are the one who observed, so they are, as you would say, fresh recruits for you.” Reytac blinked, and gestured for them to come to him. A fresh stack of the quarrels for his crossbow cart was settled on the ground beside his cart, and he showed them how to load them in without damaging the vanes. 

After being shown once, the Satyrs worked in pairs to load up the other four carts, then joined him in standing behind one each, and Ares studied their group before nodding once - and from the corner of his eye Rey saw the dummies increase again, so there was a group of near fifty dummies together in lines. It was him and four satyrs. And his carts. He took a breath. 

Edited 48 minutes ago by Reytac

[Reytac 0]

”We're going to use a staggered release for the first two sets of bolts. Go ahead and pull back on the levers now,” Rey demonstrated on his, feeling the eyes of the Satyrs on him. The levers clicked into place, and soon after he heard a series of clicks echoing around him. ”Now - staggered release, or staggered fire, means just release two, or three, but wait a few seconds between each one. The carts can handle all five sets of bolts being fired in more rapid succession, but we're trying to see how this works. So pull the lowest lever back to trigger it, then the one above it to trigger the next one up after about five seconds.” Again, Reytac suited action to word. Hand on the lowest of the levers on the side of the cart, he spun it back to release the catch, and the bottom row of bolts shot from his cart. 

... Two.. Three… Four.. Five. He pulled the second batch, and five more shots rang out. Just like the first time, on his test fire, the bolts slammed in, then a scant few seconds later five more rammed home. Several of the dummies fell over, bolts sticking out of them from where the shields had failed.  He nodded to the other operators, and the Satyrs performed.. Mechanically. Lever after lever was pulled and a wave of bolts shot out. 

Across the five of them, in the span of less than a minute after the carts had been loaded, they shot forty bolts at the target dummies. While some had still gone off-course, from damaged fetching, or for one cart the line snapping and none of the bolts firing at all, it was still a significant fire rate. And, especially working in pairs, loading up the cart didn't take long at all. 

 

 

Quest Stage: Challenge of Olympus Overcome

Edited 1 hour ago by Reytac

[Reytac 0]

“Now, we'll do rapid release. For this, we'll go ahead and release the bolts as fast as we can. You should still give the last set time to fully leave the cart before firing, but that's about it.” And then he started firing. And so did the satyrs’ carts. This time, the dummies didn't stand a chance - cut down in a hail of arrows. 

“Impressive. Useful, in fixed battles, where a unit can bring one of these to bear. Rapid reload, and only one or two are needed to operate it. It lacks some.. Precision, but overwhelming force has a precision all its own, doesn't it?” Ares let out a booming laugh before waving one hand, and a set of chains appeared before Reytac, hovering in the air. He hesitantly reached out and touched them, and they wrapped around his arm, settling against his sleeve like they'd always been there. They shifted with his motions, and seemed firmly settled in place though he could see no anchor - they hadn't burnt themselves to him, or burrowed into him, but still seemed immovable. 

“Go forth, Traveler. Wage war, and make more instruments of destruction.” With that, Ares spun around and moved back into his building, a cape that Reytac hadn't seen before billowing behind him as he disappeared into the structure. Reytac blinked. 

”He did the cape thing just to look cool, didn't he?” 

“He did. And he knows it works.” Reytac wasn't expecting the response to his rhetorical question - or the fact that, after the Satyr who took his arm spoke, they were back at the gates of Corinthia. He turned to thank the demi-human, only to see that he was alone. After a moment of confusion, Reytac shrugged, and headed back inside the walls, to head through the teleport plaza and back home.