Fantasy Valkyom In Character (IC) Posting Section

[JustifiedRoles]

Haruki

Haruki had immediately went stiff, face turning a brighter red. He hid his face in his hands, hoping the new guy would leave him alone. Then the archer chick came in and he wanted to die. Thankfully, Jaeger came to his rescue. Immediately nodding in agreement, he turned and walked to the entrance of the forest. Not before shooting Jaeger a grateful glance. He decided to wait for the others by the entrance while he calmed down.

Idiot. You are such an idiot. Now they'll mess with you and then it'll overwhelm you and then they'll have more ammo against you and-

Haru forced himself to breathe. Focus on the weight of his shield. That was a physical thing in this world. Focus on that, not the thoughts and shame that accompanied the teasing words. They had probably not meant harm but.. it was overwhelming..

He pulled out his beta badge, and held it in his hand. He'd heard of the clearing, but had simply kept moving forward. He could level up elsewhere with less chance. As he stood there he watched the sun shimmering on the metallic edges of his shield.
​

Thawne animegirl20 takki

 

[ChoShadow]

Saya had been rather oblivious to what everyone behind her was talking about. She was busy trying to remember exactly which paths to take as she went through her Beta experiences in her mind. She knew they'd have to stay on the main path first for a while, but before long there'd be an animal trail leading off to the right. Follow that for about a mile and a half, and they'd come to a fork in the trail where they'd have to turn left.

Not too bad, but that was just the beginning. There was more to it than that, and she ran over it over and over again in her mind as she led everyone down the main road leading to the forest entrance before heading into its depths.

The monsters of the forest were mainly passive creatures, though a few predators lurked in the shadows. However they had AI smart enough to know better than to attack a full Party of players. It just wouldn't work out for them, and they knew it. So they remained hidden or kept a respectful distance just watching. Waiting. And eventually they lost interest and left the Party alone completely.

True to her word, the clearing was reached in a little over an hour, and at the moment the clearing was empty as they took their first steps into it.

"Okay... Now that we've arrived, the system should kick in and register our presence. Give it about five more minutes and the sprites will begin appearing." She said.

She turned around to the others.

"They're tiny green glowing dots about the size of a grape, and they're hard to hit at these early stages because they're also rather fast. But if you make sure to attack ahead of them instead of where they're at that very moment, you should be able to take them down. Just relax and try to have some fun. And we'll see how many of them we can take down." She said.

"And one more reminder, just in case anyone missed it. The sprites are all isolated AI, so attacking one will not aggro or spook the others. But from the moment you hit the sprite if you don't kill it outright it sets off a five second timer. During those five seconds, the sprite will try everything in its power to get away from you. So relax, lead them when you attack, and we should do fine."

She turned around to face the clearing and drew her sword, ready to get to the gathering as they waited for the sprites to appear.

It didn't take long either.

Five short minutes later and the fifteen promised sprites appeared as Saya had said, and thus their hunt began.

"Here we go!" She called.

Saya singled out a sprite on the far right side of the clearing who was a good distance away from the others. Once she was in position, she lined it up and activated her Butterfly's Wing. The six strikes didn't all make contact due to the sprite moving about, but thanks to the system attack assistance (kind of like aim-assistance in shooter games), four of the six strikes landed which was just enough to take the sprite down.

The tiny green dot exploded into fragments of light, and she received a notification for slaying it about the EXP and Led she'd received for this first kill.

Since she activated a skill, the five second timer hadn't activated by the time it went down so she maximized her yield of 400 Led and 35 EXP, just as they had in the Beta.

Saya then looked to the others to see how they fared.

JustifiedRoles animegirl20 GrieveWriter Thawne takki Blitzkrieg Bob

 

[takki]

Hiroto Matsugi

Hiroto stared at Haruki as he left him, Jager, and the girl named Twilight. Saya, the beta girl, already led the way to where the sprites went. Haruki was the first to follow her. He poked Twilight in her shoulder and said to both her and Jager, "Okay. Let's go." Hiroto's expression quickly turned from cheerful to serious. It meant that he is sticking with his objective until he finishes it. It's actually a habit for him, whether it's in a game or in real life. He followed them to the clearing.

On that moment where Saya stopped, he unsheathed his noob sword. It surprisingly felt balanced, in weight and in blade length and thickness. When Beta Girl finished speaking, fifteen sprites appeared randomly around them. She saw the girl fight a couple of those sprites, and he was amazed. "Wow. That's a beta tester for you!" He exclaimed. After that short demonstration, he targeted the nearest one from him.

And then, he realized one crucial mistake. "Ah, crap. I don't have skills yet."

He was supposed to make skills during the tutorial, but he forgot about it as he was excited to see the in-game world. He decided to make his skills in-game. "Okay, here we go." Hiroto breathed as he charged towards the floating green dot. He activated his skill in which he named, Penta-Revolution. His sword glowed red, and he spun his sword around the target area. In one out of five strikes, his third and fourth strikes hit the green dot. The dot disappeared into light, and comes his loot of 400 Led and 35 EXP. "Whoo. Easy." He boasted to the sprites. He waited for everyone to get their share of loot, so he stood by after that kill.

ChoShadow JustifiedRoles
animegirl20
Thawne

 

[animegirl20]

Once Jager broke up the little tease fest. They continued on their way while Haruki walked ahead of them. Twilight crossed her arms,"Jeez I wasn't even teasing I was serious when asking that." She pouting a little bit. Suddenly someone poked her shoulder she turned to see Hiroto with a suddenly serious face.

"Okay. Let's go."

She watched him walk off following the others. Suddenly she smiled, "Yeah let's do this!" She then ran catching up with the others. Once they had made their destination Twilight went to her inventory taking out her customize bow. She was quite proud of it. Then listen to what Saya had to say.

"They're tiny green glowing dots about the size of a grape, and they're hard to hit at these early stages because they're also rather fast. But if you make sure to attack ahead of them instead of where they're at that very moment, you should be able to take them down. Just relax and try to have some fun. And we'll see how many of them we can take down."

Twilight looked around the place ready start firing. "No problem I'll be able to get these things." She said talking to herself.

"And one more reminder, just in case anyone missed it. The sprites are all isolated AI, so attacking one will not aggro or spook the others. But from the moment you hit the sprite if you don't kill it outright it sets off a five second timer. During those five seconds, the sprite will try everything in its power to get away from you. So relax, lead them when you attack, and we should do fine."

"Here we go!"

Twilight looked around ready to fire. When she spotted one she released her arrow but she missed it unfortunately. "Darn it." Some more popped up but she kept missing them and she was getting more irritated by the min. "Grrr why can't I hit these things." She kept trying but no luck . Then suddenly one appeared right in front of her face then disappeared again and she snapped. "I swear these things are making fun of me!." She then starting shooting arrows at the them like crazy. She then started running around shooting arrows trying to hit them. "Ugh! Why are these things so hard to kill!?" This was probably more funny then anything else.
JustifiedRoles
takki
Thawne
ChoShadow

 

[JustifiedRoles]

Haruki
[The Tank]

Haruki hesitated when the reached the clearing. Instead opting to allow the others to fight the sprites. He could just use the level up purchase if he needed to. As he watched the others, Twilight's struggles caught his eye. Stifling a laugh, he walked over to her. Smiling he offered some advice.

"Try and analyze the sprite's movement pattern until you can predict where it will be next. Then fire a few quick shots at it. By the time it registers it is being attacked, you can have a finishing shot lined up. What you're doing just spooks any sprites you happen to graze."​

​

animegirl20

 

[animegirl20]

Twilight sighed as she watched the others. She then notice someone besides her. "Oh Haruki."

"Try and analyze the sprite's movement pattern until you can predict where it will be next. Then fire a few quick shots at it. By the time it registers it is being attacked, you can have a finishing shot lined up. What you're doing just spooks any sprites you happen to graze

"Oh I see." She smiled brightly. "Alright I'll give it a try!" She tried using Haruki's advice and after a few tries she got it. "Hey Haruki I got it! Thanks for the help!" She then ran off to try and kill more.
JustifiedRoles

 

[Thawne]

Nicholas Sherman/Jäger​

When the group arrived at the area with the sprites, Nick's mind immediately kicked into archery mode as soon as he saw the small targets pop up. He sighted in on one by itself in the corner and drew his bow. It was time to put his new skill to use. Drawing three arrows from his quiver, he nocked them all and drew them back, turning the bow on its side. He heard the shield guy he stuck up for earlier say to watch their movement patterns before attacking first. He kept the tension on the bow as he observed the sprite as it moved around. He got the idea of its movement pattern down, so he positioned the bow so that the arrows would hit it as it moved. If the arrows didn't kill it, the bleed damage definitely would. He released the tension on the bow, sending all three arrows at the sprite. One hit it dead on, the second followed suit, and the third missed cleanly. The two arrows combined left it with a tiny bit of health left, which the bleed damage took care of. The small thing burst into pixels, and he received his loot of 400 Led and 35 XP. He smirked.

"Gotcha," he boasted.

ChoShadow JustifiedRoles animegirl20 takki GrieveWriter

 

[ChoShadow]

Saya observed the others with a smile.

They were really getting the hang of this.

Kimura was the first to engage the Sprites. He took one down easily enough earning them all 35 EXP and 400 Led which appeared to her as a Party Notification in the upper left corner of her FOV. Twilight engaged next, but she wasn't having much success until Haruki gave her a tip to to watch the movement patterns which was sound advice that would translate well to any and every enemy they'd face in the game.

Good advice Haruki... She cheered mentally.

Twilight then put his advice to work and slayed another Sprite, providing another notification of its defeat and the loot of 400 Led and 35EXP.

So far, so good. The Sprites were going down in good order and they'd already amassed 1,200 Led and 105 EXP.

For Saya, that was all she needed. She saw a flash of yellow light around her body which rose from her feet to her head, and immediately she received a "Level Up!" Notification at the top of her FOV indicating she'd reached Level 2.

"Nice! Let's keep this up everyone! If we get them all we'll reach Level 3 in no time!" She cheered.

Jaeger was next to engage the Sprites, and as expected he took down one of them without much need of any assistance. He watched, waited, and released his Bow Skill hitting the Sprite twice with the bleeding effect taking the rest of its health. Another notification of 400 Led and 35 EXP.

The group was now well on their way, and if they kept up this kind of grinding they'd have a good chunk of change for better gear and a nice allotment of EXP for leveling up!

Saya returned her focus to some of the other Sprites nearby and she prepared to take another one of them down by waiting for her Skill, Butterfly's Wing, to recover which would only need a few more seconds. She waited patiently for five seconds before it had cooled down and was ready for use before running forward to another Sprite and activating it the moment she was close enough.

Like before, thanks to the system assistance, she hit five out of six strikes which was more than enough to kill it now that she'd gotten her first Level Up. The sprite went down and she got another notification of 400 Led and 35 EXP.

So far that was five Sprites down, ten to go.

Thawne JustifiedRoles animegirl20 Blitzkrieg Bob takki GrieveWriter

 

[JustifiedRoles]

Haruki
[The Tank]

With a small smile and nod, Haruki watched as she used this advice. After she cried out in joy, he simply gave her a thumbs up before stepping back to allow the others to work. Their skills were better adapt for this than his. As the others continued their assault on the sprites, he wandered over to a tall oak. Looking it up and down, Haruki soon began to climb up it, sheathing his equipment on his back. A bit heavy, but nothing that could stop him from climbing well enough. For the next five or so minutes, he climbed to the taller parts of the branches, sitting and watching the sky. He'd come back down when they finished. Leaning against the trunk of the tree, he began to hum softly as he observed the clouds.

​

 

[Thawne]

Nicholas Sherman/Jäger​

Nick looked over to find a second sprite, not bothering to rank up his stats just yet. He had one sighted in, but sat and observed its movement pattern for a bit while his skill recharged. It wasn't a particularly long recharge period, about 10 seconds, but it was a window of time that he could've used to take out his target. At last, it finally recharged, and he drew the three arrows and nocked them on the string. He pulled it back, watching his target move along its path. When it reached the optimal position, he exhaled and let his arrows fly. As soon as they did, he drew another arrow in case two of them missed. However, two of them hit their target while the third one missed, the bleed damage finishing off what little health remained like last time. He slowly removed the tension from the bow and slid the arrow back into his quiver, receiving his 400 Led and 35 XP.

ChoShadow JustifiedRoles animegirl20 GrieveWriter takki

 

[takki]

Hiroto Matsugi

Hiroto sliced off two other sprites while some of them were still at it. "Dang." He exclaimed as he realized he successfully executed his first three kills. A yellow screen suddenly appeared in front of him, just like Saya's, and it said that he leveled up. All of his stats might've rose that way. He wiped off the computer-scripted sweat from his forehead. He kept his sword in ready, but he decided to not kill the remaining sprites, so the other persons could get their share of loot. After all, he thought while fighting, "What does it feel when one of these sprites hit you?" He guessed that it would hurt just like in real life, and it would lower his HP. But, he didn't know how painful it is, and he didn't plan to test it.

Hiroto heard someone humming from above. Maybe it's another sprite. He readied his sword at the direction of the sound, and he realized it was only Haruki. Hiroto made a confused face at him. "Oi, Haruki!" He called him. "Give a girl some advice, and you sit there and don't do anything?" He moved closer to the tree he was sitting at. "Don't you wanna get EXP and Led? It could raise your stats up." He suggested.

ChoShadow JustifiedRoles
animegirl20
Thawne

 

[animegirl20]

While Twilight was killing sprites she noticed she had leveled up. "Alright awesome!" And with that she decided she was done for now. She put her bow into her inventory and watch the others. While she was doing that she started to wonder how long she had been online.

 

[ChoShadow]

Saya kept count of the Sprite kills, and so far they were up to eight in total with seven left to go.

The others were seemingly starting to finish up, leaving some of the kills to others who hadn't yet gotten their share or so it seemed. It was a nice gesture, but not necessary since they all would be getting the exact same EXP and Led no matter who did the killing of the Sprites. Every time someone killed a Sprite, Saya's EXP and Led rose. And every time Saya killed a Sprite, everyone else's EXP and Led rose.

That was the beauty of a Party. No matter who did the killing, everyone shared the EXP and Led from it. The only thing not shared was any loot drops, common or otherwise. When you got the kill, you got the drops. But the Sprites almost never dropped anything anyway so it didn't really apply here. As far as Saya knew, she grinded through around 4-500 of them in the Beta for a few hours and never got anything. She didn't even know if they had a drop.

But for now, it was winding down after a fiery start. Seven Sprites left to go, meaning everyone had thus far received 280 EXP and 2,800 Led in total.

That was enough to level them all up to Level 3, which Saya got her notification for a minute or two ago.

Good progress so far. These Sprites were a great way to grind through one or two levels at a time up through Level 4 to level 6, but only if you didn't mind waiting an hour for them to show up again. Grinding other creatures was better for EXP, but the Led they dropped was significantly lower by comparison to these Sprites. So they were making really good headway monetarily despite the 50% reduction in how much they get.

... But that 50% reduction would be announced and the Led cut in half once they were finished with the Sprites. The game system would kick in once all the Sprites in the area were dead or had disappeared, slicing everyone's monetary earnings by half. It wasn't a problem. If they earned the max of 6,000 Led possible, the game would cut that to 3,000 Led which was still a hefty sum of cash to start the game off. A quick hour back to town grinding a few enemies along the way and they'd probably be able to reach Level 5 before getting back to get their gear.

It was a good trade off as far as Saya was concerned, and she hoped the others would feel the same way.

For now, Saya got back to work since her Skill had recharged again. She readied her sword and approached another Sprite, activating her Skill and taking it down in short order now that she was Level 3. Only two shots needed to connect out of six to kill it outright, which they did. So when the Sprite vaporized into particles she got another 35 EXP and the game counted 400 led, but in her mind she was slicing the Led in half each time she saw it.

3,600 Led so far, meaning the real reward when they were done would be 1,800 so far. Just six sprites left now.

So how would everyone help finish them off was the question, and she was eager to see how they'd handle themselves.

GrieveWriter animegirl20 JustifiedRoles Thawne Blitzkrieg Bob takki

 

[GrieveWriter]

Erika had spent most of the travel time poking at her Skill menu and grumbling about some guy named Pax-something or whatever, the grinding of her teeth joining the cacophony of their surroundings. At one point she seemed to be overcome by her own rage and nearly embedded a cleaver into a tree, but for the most part she stayed quiet.

And now before her lay the very clearing she'd been told of.

At first she gave a suspicious glance to Saya as she explained things, alternating between looking at her and the empty clearing. That ended when the sprites finally appeared, and Erika hefted her cleaver and seemed to begin psyching herself up. Muttering words to herself in order to fuel her own ire for the small creatures, when Saya finally started on her own Sprite Erika growled to herself and stood back to watch as the others joined in on attacking. She watched them for a while, observing how they took on the small creatures while casting glances towards her own weapon. Eventually she got the same alert warning her that she'd managed to level up due to her teammates and their efforts. It was at that point she decided to act, and she steeled her expression before charging on a relatively isolated sprite of her own.

Like a raging bull she came at one swinging, her first two strikes missing as the Sprite immediately tried buzzing out of the way of her infuriated swipes. But Erika was nothing if not persistent, and managed to clip a tiny bit of the sprite's wing as it darted by. The moment it was thrown off by the grazing, Erika made sure to make it regret letting itself get hit for the rest of its miserably short life. Immediately grabbing onto the flat edge of her weapon with her other hand, she brought it down upon the creature like a guillotine twice. By the first massive cut it probably wouldn't have gotten the chance to escape, but the second was for good measure.

Unlike the others, killing this one didn't seem to satisfy the Vicious Avenger, who instead of taking a moment to even check the notification about the reward, she immediately set her infuriated gaze upon another sprite. She just kept telling herself that these pathetic things were what would've been giving her cousin money if nobody slaughtered them, and her bloodlust just kept on a rising.

She steadily marched over to yet another one to repeat the process, and initially it seemed that while a bit trickier she would be able to slay it in a similar manner.

She managed to just barely catch the side of it during one of her swings, and moved to bring her cleaver down upon the unfortunate flying creature with a similar result as the last one.

Now finding a rhythm, the Avenger raised her free hand and beat on her upper chest several times as she took a momentary breather. Then she hefted her and charged the next sprite in her field of vision, unwilling to lose her streak.

ChoShadow animegirl20 JustifiedRoles Thawne Blitzkrieg Bob takki

 

[JustifiedRoles]

Haruki
[The Tank]

Haruki jumped as Hiroto spoke. Taking a breath to calm down so he didn't almost jump out of the tree, he replied, eyes still on the sky.
"We all get the same Exp and Led. My skillset is more defensive strength. Slow and efficient. Not really the best for grinding sprite exp. Besides, one hit wouldn't kill it and my stamina would drop. So I'm just up here. I'll keep a lookout for any other groups though. Alright?"
He seemed much more relaxed when he wasn't looking at the person he spoke to.
"Besides...it's just...well it's nice up here.."
The last part was quieter than the first.​

takki

​

 

[takki]

Hiroto "Kimura" Matsugi

Hiroto sheathed his sword because he detected that the sprites were already being taken care of by his other party-mates. As he listened to the Tank's explanation, he realized that he had a point. He replied, "Whatever you say, dude. Don't take your guard down, even when you have higher health than all of us." He sat on the next tree near Haruki's and sat there in the shade. He actually felt relaxed, and he is waiting for his first skill to recharge. He kept his hand on the back of his sword, just in case he senses danger.

Hiroto watched as they took care of the remaining sprites, and he needed to kill one more sprite to level up to 3. Despite being relaxed, he stood up and decided to kill another one. He unsheathed his sword and stared at the sprite in front of him. His skill was still recharging, so he made up another skill. He named the skill Focused Strike, and he unleashed it on the sprite. He barely hit it, but he killed it. It said that he leveled up. Now, he's level 3. He sighed in relief as he was done in what he's supposed to do. "Thanks, lead." Hiroto said to Saya.

ChoShadow JustifiedRoles

 

[ChoShadow]

Saya observed the group as they progressed, and was satisfied for the most part save for one detail...

She looked up into a nearby tree and saw the tank, Haruki, just sitting up there watching the sky. She couldn't hear the conversation between him and Kimora as she was too far away, but Haruki looked far too peaceful up in his tree and it instantly rubbed Saya the wrong way.

She'd have a few choice words for him when he came down.

Even if these Sprites were passive creatures and the rest of the group could handle them, just sitting on his laurels in a tree gazing up at the sky was not acceptable behavior for the Party Leader and hugely important member of the team. As the most experienced player here, she needed to nip this in the bud before it became a habit of his.

For the moment though, the group had three Sprites left to kill and Saya turned her attention to two of them which were nearby. She watched as her Skill recharged, and moved about to line them up for a double kill from her Butterfly's Wing Skill. It took a few tries to get them lined up properly, but once she had she let loose and managed to take them both down.

One Sprite left, so now it was up to whomever reached it first to end this little grind so they could move on to bigger and better things.

animegirl20 Thawne JustifiedRoles GrieveWriter Blitzkrieg Bob takki

 

[JustifiedRoles]

Haruki
[The Tank]

After a few more minutes of peace, he pulled himself from his thoughts. Deciding to actually be a bit useful, Haruki tore his gaze from the sky, scanning the surroundings. His ears strained for any sounds outside of their party's. Like Saya had mentioned earlier, other parties could attack them. From this height he couldn't see too much. Maybe a bit higher....
"Maybe if I go up a few feet..."

Haruki began to slowly climb higher in the tree, being sure to keep a tight hold on the trunk. As he gained more height, he continued his observations. Peering through the trees around them, he couldn't identify much. However, given that sound travelled upwards, he found his position to be a good one. Tuning out his own party, he listened closely as he stood on the branch.

( ChoShadow you can decide whether he hears anyone if you want.)​

 

[GrieveWriter]

Only one sprite left, and the Avenger had no inclination of giving the universe the chance of taking its loot for her. The moment she'd singled it out amongst the backdrop of the forest, she was already sprinting towards it ready to end it in the same way she'd ended the last few.

Gritting her teeth and raising her cleaver, Erika dove weapon first towards the flying creature...

Only for a crossbow bolt to come out of nowhere and end it before her blade could touch it. She still brought down her cleaver of course, but by the time it connected the creature was already splitting into Fragments. By the time her weapon cleaved into the ground, she was already glaring up into the trees, eyes scanning for the origin of the arrow. She didn't get the usual prompt, and quickly turned on the rest of her party.

"Who did that? Was it one of you?" She asked with narrowed eyes as she glanced between the team members, simultaneously waiting for the Message just in case it really had been one of them and it had just been late on informing them about it.


ChoShadow animegirl20 JustifiedRoles Thawne Blitzkrieg Bob takki

 

[takki]

Hiroto "Kimura" Matsugi

Hiroto startled when a bolt dashing to the speed of light hit the last sprite. Avenger decided to finished off, though. He readily put his hand on the handle of his sheathed sword, just in case someone pops out. As the Avenger scanned her eyes around the members, he defensively said "N-not me! I don't have that kind of skill." He continued. "Maybe it's a mage or a gun user." He scanned his surroundings to look for the source of that attack. Somebody stole their kill, and he'd restrain the person who did that. Well, he's exaggerating. He's a good person.

"Haruki!" He shouted at the trees. "You see anyone?" As Hiroto said that, he tensed. He unsheathed sword, just in case a couple thugs or sprites come out of nowhere. He hates dying, in-game or in real life.

ChoShadow animegirl20 JustifiedRoles Thawne Blitzkrieg Bob takki

 

[ChoShadow]

Saya kept her eyes on the final sprite and watched as the Avenger began a rapid assault on it only for it to be struck by a single bolt of something and disappear in a burst of particles.

It took Saya a moment to recognize what the flash was that killed the Sprite, but once she recognized it she closed her eyes slowly and turned her head in the direction she saw it come from.

Sure enough from out of the forest came a solitary figure dressed in clothing which more or less matched their surrounding environment. Natural colors from top to bottom and, something she knew was going on behind the scenes, a high Stealth bonus from his gear. She didn't recognize the gear he was currently wearing, but it was rather advanced which made her furrow her brows a bit.

None of the gear he was wearing was part of the Beta bonus, nor was it the kind of gear you could acquire within the first few hours of play. This was advanced gear like you'd get after playing for several weeks, not hours.

He had pleasant features and his facial expression didn't seem at all threatening. His posture was relaxed as well meaning he didn't find them to be a threat which could have been either good or bad. But what struck Saya the most was his Level.

... Level 35.

How in the hell is he Level 35 already? She thought to herself.

He approached the group and Saya caught a glimpse of the crossbow he had attached to his back which must have been the source of the bolt they saw. A quick analysis of it proved to be another high level weapon which you couldn't acquire this early unless...

"Greetings everyone." He said.

Saya gave him an empty stare.

"Apologies for stealing that kill from you miss," he said to Avenger with a half bow.

"However I couldn't help but notice the activity while I was out here hunting for animals to kill for loot to trade and sell back in town. I saw your sprites and the notifications you were getting about the Led and EXP, and I had to partake." He said with a smile.

Saya's eyebrows lowered slightly.

"... Cheater." She said flatly.

He looked at her and gave an innocent expression.

"Cheater? That's a bit strong, isn't it?" He asked.

Saya shook her head.

"I recognize your kind anywhere," she snapped.

"An exploit in the game's early coding allows Players to instantly level to 35 if they follow a convoluted movement and action scheme originally discovered by a Player known as LordKnight. You can accomplish it in less than fifteen minutes if you follow it to the letter, and it was supposed to be patched by the end of the Beta. But evidently you lot have found a way around the patch... Likely LordKnight's doing again." She growled.

"Players like you disgust me." She said harshly.

He chuckled and shook his head.

"So harsh. Don't you know games are meant to be played for fun? What's wrong with taking advantage of a weakness in the game's code and having fun with the rewards you can enjoy because of it? As long as I don't mess anyone else's experience up, it's not so bad."

He turned to the others.

"Don't you all agree? All I did was steal one kill and introduce myself. Not so bad. Sure I got the exploit to reach Level 35, but come on. It's a game, right? This game isn't meant to be taken so seriously like little miss sunshine here seems to think." He said, glancing back to her with a smirk.

JustifiedRoles Thawne Blitzkrieg Bob takki GrieveWriter animegirl20

 

[GrieveWriter]

The Avenger just stopped and stared... Level 35 already?

"Hold up... hold the fucking fuck up...." she began before growling and glaring at her feet "He did what? They can.... that's a goddamn thing that can happen?!?"

Was all the work she'd been doing so far for nothing?!? If they could just pull something out of their asses then does that mean that she'd been wasting her time with this group and levelling thing the entire time?!? How many were running around with level 35 bullshit already?!? If this was something that was known then did that mean that there was no way she could hope to catch up to her damnable cousin!?!

While growling like a provoked dog, the Avenger shook her head and dug her foot into the ground from agitation.

He probably didn't even need to try grinding or anything!?! Perhaps they'd already evolved to screwing people over using a hack from out of nowhere that some asshole Lord found.

"Damn it... damn it! Damn it damn it damn it!!!" She seethed before throwing her arms up into the air "He had an option like this all along?!? Jesus shit sucking Christ! Are there any other bouts of bullshit I need to worry about for fuck's sakes?!?"

ChoShadow animegirl20 JustifiedRoles Thawne Blitzkrieg Bob takki

 

[JustifiedRoles]

Haruki
[The Tank]

Hearing the commotion along with Hiroto's calling, Haruki quickly descended from the tree. When he was at the height to jump without more than a few points of damage loss, he jumped down. Landing on his feet, he pulled his shield, moving to stand as a buffer, standing in front of the cheater. His hand twitched slightly as he weighed the option of using the level up package. It was likely that this guy was just trolling though.... However if things did happen to get physical, he could give the others a chance to back up.

"I don't know how you find cheating fun, considering you cut in half the amount of effort and satisfaction reached that level takes, but we obviously have different definitions. Sorry, my webster dictionary must be out of date. Now, seeing as your slimy ass doesn't really need the shit here, why don't you catch up with your daddy and see if he can give you something that isn't a hand me down."

The last part was said in a mocking tone, as Haruki held his ground with a smirk. Outside he seemed like he was in total control of the situation, dealing with the troll through some of his own snark. However inside he was a bit panicked. It was like he had stopped thinking and just started to do things. Of course, Haruki had experience with trolls. He was a beta tester after all. Not to mention someone who thrives online instead of through reality. Online it was easier to just talk shit back to someone until they gave up. They couldn't physically hurt you. Sure he could die here, but it wouldn't be painful. And the level gap would mean it'd be quick. He had no doubts that after this encounter ended he'd probably have a bit of a break. Hell, his knuckles were white from where they held his equipment. In moments like these, he detached from himself. Like how he dealt with his dad's guests. He just pulled a facade long enough to escape the situation to where he could let himself break. Hostile situations could easily shake Haruki. But he would instinctively become a buffer, using what he knew to stave off his panic for a safer time. The only reason he'd sort of panicked before was due to the realism of the deep-dive, and the social situation. Hostile situations were something he could understand. Hell he'd watched his father dine with an asshole rival company's ceo. Passive-aggressively boring the man until he'd left. And any time he'd been asked a question by the ceo, he would reply in a snark that was matched by the teenager's aloof expressions. Oh afterwards, he'd panicked a bit, fearing the man would do something underhanded enough to get him injured. But in the moment, he'd relied on action. Not thought.

Just irritate him enough to make him aloof... get him to be bored and leave...but don't be too weak. He'll stay if you are. you can panic afterwards....for now just keep your mask in place.
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ChoShadow takki GrieveWriter animegirl20

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[Thawne]

Nicholas Wilson/Jäger​

Nick had been sighting up the last sprite while it was moving about in its little clearing of the woods. He hadn't even nocked an arrow before a smaller arrow had flown in out of nowhere and taken it out. The man who supplied said arrow seemed to have stepped out holding a crossbow with natural colors of the environment they were in. Nick's eyes narrowed as he slowly reached for another arrow, holding his bow up. Cheaters were a disease in any game, circumventing the usual way to get levels and gear for a shorter method that uses exploits in the design of the game. He didn't necessarily seem to be hostile at this moment, but he kept his guard up. He nocked the arrow he pulled and kept it pointing down, not yet pulling it back.

"No, you're wrong. By circumventing the usual ways of getting gear and levels, you've gone and put yourself far ahead of everyone else to save yourself some time. Honestly, cheaters are nothing more than a disease to the gaming community, sucking the fun out of it for everyone else just to save time because it's 'just a game,'" Nick berrated, spitting into the ground next to him to further show his disgust.

ChoShadow GrieveWriter takki JustifiedRoles animegirl20

 

[ChoShadow]

The new arrival shook his head and sighed as he looked at Haruki and Jager before folding his arms.

"You guys say that my methods of having fun are a disease and it sucks the fun out of it for everyone else. But aside from ruffling your feathers here by showing off a bit and taking that one little Sprite thingie down, can you prove I've harmed anyone or ruined their experience?" He asked, giving Jaeger a smirk.

"Because I doubt it." He finished.

He chuckled a bit and then looked to Haruki.

"And you... I see... You're one of those people who tries to be "the bigger man" online whenever you find someone like me, aren't you? Someone who plays it cool and tries to use carefully worded rhetoric to make it sound like I'm some kind of scumbag while putting yourself on some kind of moral high ground despite the fact that you've never met me." He said.

He walked a bit closer to Haruki while giving him a confident smile.

"Perhaps you'd like to take me one on one, eh big man?" He asked, giving Haruki a chuckle.

But before Haruki could answer, he stood up a bit more and turned his back to Haruki.

"Nah. Even you aren't dumb enough to try that. The level difference alone makes this a totally one-sided fight. I'd end you in a single attack." He said over his shoulder before moving back towards Saya.

"You know Princess, I think I recognize you from the Beta. And if I'm remembering you correctly you're using your real-life body scan for your Player avatar aren't you?" He asked.

Saya didn't answer.

"You sure are hot... I bet you'd look even better if you took your gear off and used the base undergarments instead." He said with a smile.

Again Saya didn't answer, but she did frown a bit more.

"C'mon. Just for a moment take your gear off and go nude for a bit. You at least get the little wrap around bra and panties to hide the good parts since the game doesn't have real nudity, which is a shame in your case. I'd love to see all of you."

Saya was about to say something, but before she could say anything another light which looked similar to a Sprite from earlier appeared and floated towards them. And what was even weirder was that it spoke...

"Player ID 004656-N. You have violated the terms and conditions of Valkyom, and your account is hereby terminated. Your personal IP has been black marked and will no longer be accepted by our registration software. Begone."

The little white Sprite then launched itself at the cheater and caused him to disappear in an instant leaving the rest of them standing there watching a now empty space.

Saya blinked.

"Looks like the admins are on the prowl for players like him... Good to know." She said as she heaved a sigh of exasperation.

JustifiedRoles Thawne animegirl20 GrieveWriter takki Blitzkrieg Bob