100 HP

MAX HP

80 EN

MAX EN

Celly sighed in relief as the voice let them pass, carefully squeezing past the hideously twisted roots. Moving along, if it weren't for the other seven people, this place would've been really creepy. Granted, it still was, but the company was appreciated. When a disconnected voice suddenly called down from the ceiling, Cell froze up for a moment. Totally not scared, just... surprised.

She'd expected - with increased security levels - to come across tons more drones, but instead, they found themselves faced with a buncha scary looking lasers. Concerning. She really wasn't any kind of contortionist or anything, so when Emerath piped up with yet another plan, she let out a quiet little sigh of relief.

After some discussion, they finally agreed on a plan. Muttering a little incantation, Celestine used a simple Aeromancy spell to condense a thick fog over the more problematically placed lasers. "Here is going the nothings." Hoping it had dimmed their power enough in case something went wrong, she stepped forward, trying to evade what lasers she could.

Group Parkour with @Emerath Katou & @Ashnor Ironth
72 + 0 = 72
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100 HP

MAX HP

80 EN

MAX EN

As they continued further into the structure, Alkaid mused on Nora’s brief input on the demon. She had heard little more than rumor about Norforva before now, and so she had no knowledge on the region’s history, however, she could already make a few theories about possible relations between it and the demon. Not that there was much point, since she could do little to make any of them more credible over the other – and even if she tried, she’d be ignoring the similarly interesting Tuatha, whose work surrounded her on all sides. She didn’t rule out the possibility that all these factors were somehow connected, either, a notion Alkaid thought Nora may have come to herself, although she had no plans to push the matter further. Especially not when the structure seemed mostly intact, hinting that the demon’s arrival was perhaps more recent, relatively speaking.

Besides, there were more important questions to ask. The building had ley line-esque channels that functioned akin to wires carrying mana, but how was it getting enough to power its facilities? Where was it getting the mana from? And for what purpose would it continually draw it in?

Further implications symbolically clicked in her mind in as much as they were grasping for straws, but she then shook her head. This was hardly a place to let herself get further distracted in, interesting as it was.

Alkaid once more drew from her deck as they came upon a new security measure. The Hermit. Two of Swords. Again, her mind returned to that focus on possibilities and memory, at first thinking in terms of spells. She considered just continuing to draw as neither were related to Aeromancy, which seemed more helpful, at least until she caught the hint the cards themselves laid out. Relax. She could do this. She just needed to focusing less on making the magic help her and making sure she herself was ready first.

Very well then.

Taking a deep breath, she ran toward the horizontal beams. Concentrating on how she would need to move to pass them and whether her body – or Alkaid's stronger one, rather – could handle it, she moved with a preference to rolls and cat-like bounds to something she couldn't quite handle like running along the wall, taking care in not getting herself hurt in the process.

Parkour
82+15= 97
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100 HP

MAX HP

80 EN

MAX EN

kueripa kurasu sekuta murias ekuripu meruku pa de nogu ekushibu pinsuparu puuru rew re veebe pa ekuzeku pa du'

Hmmmm....

Chelsea had no idea what that meant, and she did not trust Nora to be as much of a expert with these things as she let on. NPC in a video game? They always had little... quirks that would make the players have to do the work. That parrot might not be her only weakness.

Following along and as usual being the quiet one of the party that she tended to be. Chelsea again narrowed her eyes at the words 'Beams'. This was going to hurt. It looked like some of the team had decided to group up with their evasive action while others went for doing it alone. Chelsea of course, whether Lady N or not, would always do it alone.

She did not need to bare the failure of another.... and she did not want any of her failures to be harmful to someone else either. Of course that reasoning was not public.

And that failure...

Would come the moment she tried to bypass them. Her lack of agility without any enhancements was incredibly obvious. Indeed Chelsea had a never ending amount of bad karma. She closed her eyes and made a small barely noticed grimace of shame. As the penalty was about to be brought in force. And it would be....

Parkour
9 + 15= 24
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100% HP

MAX HP

80% EN

MAX EN

Every since he had lobbed the fireball at the mechanical construct Joen had remained quite and followed towards the back of the company, it seemed as if he had been lost in the marvel that was the 'ruins' that they had been exploring. Hearing the voice resonate within his head giving them a riddle Joen sighed slightly and shook his head, he was terrible with anything related to a riddle but was even more confused as to how the damned bird had bound them into a contract in the first place.

Emerath the redheaded engineer had stepped up and taken control of the situation, it seemed as if the man was fastly becoming the unofficial leader of their little band of their little band of misfits. As the man gave forth his answer to the riddle Joen braced himself for any misfortunes that may befall them should the answer have been wrong, but it seemed that the precaution was unnecessary signaled by the voice within his head sounding once more that the answer had been correct.

Making his way through the cursed roots that had been blocking their route Joen listened as Nora explained that the sounds that they had heard was the building around them telling them that the security level had been raised. Not that one would have been able to tell by the total lack of anything resembling security, that was until they came across several heat beams. Standing there Joen watched the beams for a second before an idea came to his mind "Estivas vi estivas!" the words served as the magical invocation needed for a spell from his Hydromancy Mastery.

When the magical invocation took effect a rather thick wall of ice being a minimum of four feet thick rose up from the ground breaking the beams and allowing Joen to walk through unharmed. As he got across the beams finally melted through the ice wall and recreated their disruptive barrier, turning the spellcaster who had earlier told him to add more flair to it he chuckled "Better?"

Parkour
82 + 10 = 92
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80 HP

MAX HP

70 EN

MAX EN

Smoke puffed from her mouth. Her face the very definition of annoyed. As if she had just been in a small explosion. Her twin tails stood straight out in a very humorous fashion as electricity jolted off them. Luckily it faded quickly. Sighing as the security increased, or that's what Nora was saying anyway, Chelsea dusted herself off surprisingly ignoring her brush with death and moved right on along. It wasn't like she had not died before. It was pretty terrifying and she could see many were traumatized by it. However, Nexon's were not everybody.

This place would not stop her. It would not beat her. This was her specialty. Her passion. Her father's passion. Game or not. She would drag herself to the end and get whatever reward awaited. The Nexus HQ had all sorts of security measures in place. If she could not beat a silly game design... how would she beat that? ....Yeesh. She was getting ahead of herself.

Nora then used a strange little crystal of some sort to move on. yet another possible thing to examine? Chelsea was not a greedy person but this place just kept tempting her to try and pickpocket these people! Boo... that was petty. There will be a better way eventually.

Within, there were several strange fruits. The smell was... intoxicating. Yet also... really stinky? Chelsea was not sure what was wrong with Nora and some others. They actually found that smell delicious? Waving a hand in front of her face, Chelsea was unsure why something that smelled horrid to her was still on her mind.

This was unnatural.

"W-We should keep moving. Something isn't right about those plants."

She tried to reach for Nora but the woman ignored her.

"Hello?! ...yeesh. I need to keep moving. Nora!"

She said with a startling amount of concern compared to the personality she had shown so far. Their supposed guide had apparently fell to the strange temptation. Chelsea moved past while holding her hand to her mouth. In case there was some sort of pheromone at work here. She had no choice but to leave this to others. She could not risk falling prey here!

Resist Fruit
47
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100 HP

MAX HP

80 EN

MAX EN

Trailing not far behind Nora, Alkaid rose a quizzical brow at their leader and her antics at the door. She was close to genuine surprise when trying to piece together what the woman was about to say when it hit her.

Perhaps it was the trip across the wasteland. Perhaps it was leaving the oasis behind her. All those delicious meals and relaxing waters. Surely she could afford to have something to eat. Especially something that smelled so good.

No wait, one side of her mind said. – So sweet, said the other. Look at it. It’s probably better than anything in the real world.

An exotic treat, only to be experienced here. And there are so many.

Once standing completely still, with every ounce of conscious thought struggling against her mad desire, Alkaid found her feet moving on their own. Somewhere hidden deep within said consciousness she remembered this feeling, a passing memory coming and going in a brief instant. The beckoning temptation. The ravenous hunger. That full, bright moon.

And then her mind could think of nothing but the fruit, in order to escape to a much, much sweeter dream.

Resist Fruit (Failed)
27/30
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90 HP

MAX HP

50 EN

MAX EN

Emerath had managed to make it through the laser grid, he had gotten a few minor burns from getting too close to a few lasers, and missing a couple deflections, but had come out relatively unscathed. But as it always was with these things, there was always another challenge.

Emerath watched as Nora worked her magic, as the one who understood all of this. Emerath wasn’t as surprised as she was when she managed to access the crystal. This was a quest in a game, of course it would work for her. Although it would turn out more surprising if Nora turned out to be a player instead or an NPC. Emerath had always just kinda assumed...

Idly, as the door slid open, Emerath started to ask, “So Nora, this isn’t some game to you right? This is like, the only world you’ve ever known?” If Nora were a player, she’d know what he meant. Otherwise it might just garner him a funny look.

But Nora’s mind was elsewhere it seemed, as the sickeningly sweet smell hit him. He almost gagged, but was oddly enticed. And suddenly very hungry. So too was Nora, and Ashnor messaged that he wanted to eat. Emerath thought he caught Alkaid falling prey to the sweetness. Three people, and only one man. He couldn’t save them all, as he struggled to ignore his rumbling stomach.

Emerath cried out, mostly in anger, as he watched N just pass through, but he was mostly angry at himself. “I’m only one man, I’m sorry, but Nora is our target! Please forgive me!” He shouted to his other companions, before running right for Nora, activating his heroic might strength to bodily lift the girl from the ground and throw her over his shoulder, charging to the end of the room.

Out of breath and drooling heavily from his own ignored hunger, he set the woman down, and held her by the shoulders. “You can’t! It’s too dangerous...” he told the woman, pangs of regret filling him for being unable to help his new friends, as he wiped the drool from his mouth with his sleeve and waited for Nora to come to her senses.

Resist Fruit & Save Nora @Skyswimsky
89
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90 HP

MAX HP

70 EN

MAX EN

Well, their group of 3 certainly didn't make it through the heat beam field unscathed, but at least they were better off than some people who wouldn't be named. Ashnor was glad he decided to put up that protective spell, or they might of taken more damage than they did.

But, continuing on, the group of adventurers continued on until the next obstacle. It seemed like Nora knew what she was doing though, and she managed to figure out how to get the door open.

The next thing Ashnor smelled was something extremely sweet through the door way. He entered cautiously at first, walking through the door and into the room. It appeared that the smell was coming from some purple fruits hanging from the ceiling. Those fruits looked especially inviting after such a long journey from Brisshal and all of the things they had gone through. And while some part of his mind was a bit skeptical, he quickly dismissed it and began to head towards one of them...

Attempting to resist fruit
20
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80 HP

MAX HP

80 EN

MAX EN

The male spell slinger said nothing as he caught up with the group once more. There were parts of his robe that were a bit singed, but he didn’t look too bad, all things considered. He had all of his fingers, both eyes, and his hair hadn’t been burnt off his head. If he had to give his opinion, he would count it a win…and remind himself to not come through this area without some type of water spell next time. He hadn’t missed the other fire mage’s ease with the trap, he merely decided not to comment on it. Humph~

Emil watched as the door to the next area slid open and fruit baring roots were displayed. They looked…delicious. And the scent wafting from them was mouthwatering. He walked up to one of the roots and leaned in, sniffing the fruit. He was going to lift his hand to grab one when he noticed, from the corner of his eye, one of his compatriots began walking to the roots in a daze.

Sighing, Emil casually walked over to @Ashnor Ironth and placed a hand on his shoulder.

Perhaps we should continue our adventure in this direction, he muttered. He wanted so badly to take one of the fruit, to investigate it further, but keeping the group together was the better plan. They would need all hands on deck if there was something big and nasty at the end of all this. ​

Help Ally (@Ashnor Ironth )
99
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100% HP

MAX HP

80% EN

MAX EN

Joen was full of confidence over how easily he had passed through the heat beam defenses, the majority of the group seemed to have been effected by them in some way or another but he had passed through entirely unharmed. It didn't take long before they came upon yet another challenge, a locked door. Before anyone could try anything to open the door Nora had told them all to wait as she proceeded to try and open the doorway.

When the door slid open Joen was assaulted by the sweetest smell he had ever come across in his life. The aroma caused his mouth to drool and his stomach to growl as his mind went blank, the origins of the scent the only concern on his brain. Stepping forward Joen looked up at the fruit a blank look upon his face without a care in the world proceeded to reach of the nearest fruit so he could devour it.

Resist fruit - Failed
10/30
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90 HP

MAX HP

80 EN

MAX EN

Celestine winced in pain as the heat beams seared her on the way past. If it wasn't for that one guy's stone-skin buff, that might've really hurt, she supposed. Luckily, they made it across without too many injuries. It was only when everyone had made it across to the other side that she realized something important: they'd forgot Nora!

"Umm... I am of the sorries. We will... erm..." she floundered, looking for an 'off switch' of some kind until she realized it was totally unnecessary. She stared, wide-eyed, as the 'parrot' lifted the girl straight off the ground and carried her over. Was Nora just insanely lightweight, or was E.P. secretly a championship weightlifter when no one was watching? Either way, Celly sighed in relief as Nora passed up the field of death even better than they had.

They continued. The more they went on, the more Celly began to realize just how massive this place was. Rushing straight to the end was a plan, sure, but there were so many tantalizing sub-pathways they had to pass up in doing so.

What was that strange looking machine with all the pointy bits?
Where did all these mana veins originate from?
How did such an advanced civilization end up dying o--
WHAT was that SMELL!?

Celly took a deep whiff. Intoxicating. Possibly a bit literally, in this case, it honestly felt like the game was messing with her mind; presenting her with the most perfect, tantalizing food sensation she could imagine. In her case: it reminded her of a rich, peanut butter cheesecake. Just the thought of it made her drool. The best part, of course, was that she could eat it here, in this game, and not even worry about calories...

She rushed through the fancy door Nora had just opened and immediately ran up to the tree, plucking a fruit from the branches. Raising it up to face, her mouth began to water like crazy until she noticed something: everyone else was doing it too! This was the perfect opportunity!

Casually tossing the thing behind her, Celestine walked on past the tree, pulling out a scroll and unfurling it. She wrote a nice, big 'check' next to the "Resist Evil Temptation" goal and, after pondering it a moment, wrote the number '1' beside it.

"I am not doing a liking of this at all," she whined to herself, longingly looking back at the tree, but continuing on nonetheless.

Pass up fruit
67
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