Private - Hacking and Whacking

Zelrius closed the message menu with Arctodus as they finished their conversation, now looking all around him as he had completely stopped what he was doing earlier in order to message the man. Surrounding the swordsman in every direct was just woodland and trees, and somewhere to the far left of Zelrius, the man knew there was the city of Dormont there. Afterall, that is the direction he had come, and then wandered it in every direction, this last time having gone west, in search of things to kill in order to grind those masteries up. That had worked well enough, though since Mastering Slash, the golden haired man found it harder and harder to get even singular points in that ability, and he worried that it would only get increasingly harder.

No worries, for now he would put that off until another time, as the man strolled back to the Western Gate of Castle Dormont an Hour or so away to the east, and meet up and help Arctodus, just as he said he would, a sort of idle thing to do while grinding his other masteries. Something that the man had elected to do on his long walks, was Flip a coin, and he noticed that nowadays, more often than not, it'd land on heads.

He would still be flipping the coin by the time Arctodus arrived.

 

Arctodus

Arctodus walked down the winding road and spotted the castle of Dormont peaking over the trees in the distance. Hurrying his pace he made his way through the winding trails to the city of Dormont. He made it through the gate of the city and hustled through the streets to the westgate of the castle. Then he proceeded to close his DM with Zelrius and came up to the blonde man in person. He crossed his arms and stood at his full height, his rippling muscles tightening as he took in the person before him. Then after one tense moment as if a test was passed he smiled and patted Zelrius's shoulder, although a man of his height might not know his strength all too well.

 

Zelrius grinned as the huge man came up to him, eyes meeting for a moment in silent examination of eachother. Than, almost as if in approval, a friendly pat of the shoulder was given, though the one that Arctodus had given Zelrius caused him ti stumble for a moment, caught off guard by the strength of this players. Despite that, he couldn't help but laugh to himself, it was surreal, the way people were in games, especially VR ones. With a nod, the man headed toward the Market district in search of supplies. "We need to keep those meters in our Menu full. So I am going to get us Water and various meats, anything in particular you want?

 

Arctodus

Arctodus fell in line slightly behind the blonde young man, but still beside him. Almost like a bodyguard keeping vigil he eyed the surrounding marketplace they were in cautiously. Then, hearing the question directed at him, he turned to his compatriot and replied "I'd like some pre-seasoned beef, and if its nearby some bread and cheese to make burgers, while you do that I will go search for mustard seed paste and veggies to complete the meal. Now I'll ask you, is there any condiments or veggies YOU want?"

 

Zelrius thought of the question and shrugged. There wasn't anything in particular that he was after, but trusted the man's judgement, though he didn't really know why. "Sounds good," He nodded and headed off his own way to grab the ingredients he had listed himself, searching out the butcher and paying the extra premium for the pre-seasoned portion to already be done. Then with a node, the golden haired man found the other two things within a short bit of time, found a bakery for the bread, and a dairy vendor for rinded cheese. Simple enough, and just like that, the swordsman milled back for the marketplace, searching for his rather tall friend.

 

Arctodus

After watching Zelrius walk off, Arctodus turned on his heel and went shopping for the aforementioned ingredients. He came upon a stall selling veggies and picked up a head of lettuce , glass jar of pickles and a knapsack of tomatoes, onions and potatoes. He got pre-mulched tomatoes to imitate ketchup and was about to get the last jar of mustard seed paste when he saw a fellow customer reaching for it. The thought of his precious mustard getting swiped out from under him sent him into a rage such that it activated his berserk skill. The telltale crimson red aura and pumping of adrenaline quickened his reflexes and speed, so by the time the customer who looked to be an average unassuming tailor in his twenties laid his hand on the jar, Arctodus was already by his side with his giant hand over the mans hand and jar, so big it removed them both from view. Arctodus looked at him with glowing red eyes and murder in his gaze and said "Might wanna rethink what your doing bud." The mans face whitened akin to snow and he bolted off, Content now Arctodus checked out and thanked the stall vendor, walking off to wait in the marketplace for Zelrius to find him, which should be easy considering he stood a good two feet and a half over almost anyone else in the square.

 

Within moment the golden haired man had found his tall friend, holding the stuff and looking around the Marketplace as the occasional glance then 'yeeshface' was given at the size and build of the much taller Arctodus. "Not going around scaring people are ya?" The golden haired man joked, completely oblivious to the events that had taken place at the vendor just down the way a bit. With a slight chuckle, he urged Arctodus to follow as the pair headed down the way and out of the hustle and bustle of the Market. Soon, the streets fizzled away from all the people, and the crowds melted away into a straggler here and there, Zelrius ducking into an alley way and pulling out some of the ingredients, handing the preseasoned beef to his friend. "Make a few of those burgers now. We'll both eat one just so that the meter is full as we leave town, and prep a few more while we have the time. Sound good?"

 

Nodding his assent Arctodus set to work. He kneaded seven hunks of beef into patties, sliced some potatoes into fries and began to cook them in a skillet over a fire. Draining the juices, he slathered the bread in it lightly and then set them on the same skillet as the beef for a little bit, just to toast them and prevent them from getting soggy later on and instead stay nice and crispy. He then began to grill the onions in the skillet with it to reduce the sharpness of the onion so it didn't distract from the meat as much. After searing the meat into a nice medium rare texture, when the meat was just about ready he took out a dagger and began to shred the rinded cheese off the block to coat the patties. After the cheese was gooey and melted he lifted the patties off the skillet and set them on the crisp bread, before grabbing the lettuce, tomatoes, pickles and grilled onions and dressing the burgers. He then poured some mulched tomato and mustard seed paste onto the other slice of bread for each burger, making sure to set aside some mulched tomato paste for the fries. Laying out two plates with a burger on each and a side of fries with the ketchup replacement he stood up and stretched, bellowing "Lunch is served!"

 

Zelrius immediately set to work, lighting the fire quickly for him to cook on, and then cleaning ingredients up as he used them as to save both their quality and both of the men time when it time they needed to pack up and go. In between these small bouts of effort, the man was spellbound by Arctodus's cooking skills, watching his work and fairyfinger the various ingredients into beautiful works of food art. It was actually quite astounding, and the golden haired man's lack of words was all he needed to convey his thoughts of how awesome that was. He took one of the burgers and began to munch on it, storing two others in his inventory, leaving Arctodus to eat his and store the remaining three into his own. With that, the man laid back and slowly began to eat away at the beef and bread beauty, talking to Arctodus about the plan. "Right, so here's what we're going to do. We can head west of here and try to find wild beasts, and if we're lucky, the occasional goblin. They shouldn't be that hard to defeat, so I will let you go in first and do what you need to to train any Mastery you desire. Should they begin to give you a bit of trouble, just say so and I will move in and eliminate them. This way you can grind faster, and there is no risk."

 

After stuffing his mouth full of yummy food he laid back and enjoyed the feeling of contentedness it brought him. Turning his head as Zelrius talked to him, he listened patiently as he spoke, nodding where appropriate. After Zel finished his statement Arctodus opened his mouth and replied " That sounds perfectly alright to me, while I was traveling here I managed to do a bit of grinding, so now I am a novice in martial arts and proficient in heroic might." With that said he reclined back, letting the food settle while he faithfully waited for Zel's lead.

 

As Zelrius finished his own food and soaked in the pleasantness of the situation for but a moment, he decided it was time they went. He stood, dusting off his cloak and pants before drawing his swords and heading out. It didn't take long to one, exit the city, and then even shorter to find an opponent, in this instance, a giant six legged lizard roaming about snapping at the ground for food. The golden haired man gestured for Arctodus to show off, which he knew the man was more than capable of when it came to hand to hand fighting.

 

Arctodus saw the lizard who was to be his opponent and smirked. A beast opponent? Its lack of logical thinking and reasoning would make it easy to simply best this foe with good strategy, but he wanted to test his heroic might and as such he was more partial to the direct approach. He bull-rushed the unaware lizard and slammed into its side, hurtling it a few feet into an adjacent tree. The dazed animal flew into a fury, lashing out at Arctodus and trying to sink its teeth into his jugular and drink of his life nectar. With his prodigious strength it was no hard task to keep it at bay with one hand on its throat while the other slammed into its soft underbelly in a flurry. The animal retracted from its lunge and tried to turn on its heel to make a half circle and slam its thick tail into his head, only for it to land in his waiting palm. Bracing himself, with the tail in his hand he imitated the lizards earlier movement by turning on his heel as fast as he could, picking up the lizard and slamming it into the bordering trees, brutally and repeatedly until the animal stopped thrashing in his hands. After the deed was done he strolled back over to Zelrius's side and took his faithful position.

 

Zelrius watched, eyebrows raised in slight confusion and equal parts horror as Arctodus began to brutally murder the Lizard. That was the only true way to describe what he saw, as the thing was tossed around like a rag doll, all its attacks dodged or thrown off until Arctodus could do his own next attack. That was ridiculous to say the least, and not at all what he had expected. As of this far, the most 'vicious' fighting he had seen from a player was Mizuki, and even then her movements and attacks could be described best as 'Graceful.' Arctodus on the other hand was stone cold, and just made his opponent turn from creature, to a blood pulp. He swallowed in anticipation, pointing to a few more in the area and simple saying; "Go crazy," And with that, Zelrius drew his swords to do the same, hoping to get some amount of Mastery out of this.

 

Arctodus didn't need to hear anymore before his bloodthirsty nature incited him at the prospect of a fight. He bounded off at the ragtag group of three giant lizards that Zelrius pointed out to him, trusting his ally to take care of any stragglers trying to interfere with his targets. Arriving in style due to his penchant for glory fighting he flying kicked a lizards health into pulp, catching them off guard. The next closest lizard leapt for his throat, but caught naught but the bark of a tree that had been directly behind of Arctodus as the giant man rotated to the other side of the tree. Then taking a deep breath he Sparta kicked the tree, which buckled and fell over on top of the poor lizard, squishing him. The final lizard was just about to him before he gathered the superhuman strength in his legs and bounded in an arc, finishing the curve of his jump on the last lizards skull, which about felt like stepping on an egg and looked similar to boot.

 

Zelrius watched for but a moment, the fight breaking out causing a few of the other lizards in the area to come to the aid of their fellow speciesmen. Good enough, Zelrius thought to himself, drawing his two cutlasses and moving with haste to intercept them. Though instead of actually swinging at them, he attempted to intimidate and threaten them. Out of the three that moved to helped their friends as they were being beaten to a blood pulp, two of them submitted to Zelrius' beast taming Skill. One of those just being scared and running off, the other now follow Zelrius as he moved to stab his sword into the head of the other one, jabbing directly downward and twisting it back and forth just to make sure the bugger was dead. This was going well so far, and it seemed the pair were grinding out the Masteries they had intended to.