Endilix hadn't had a ton of luck getting on his feet in Terrasphere. It didn't help that his playing time was limited to when his brother was at work, but that aside he just wasn't good at finding adventure. Back when he used to play these types of games, he would always follow Emerath around since his brother was always getting into this or that. But here he was, without his brother's guidance. But he had seen a ray of hope in the form of a small cabin that seemed to scream, "HELP WANTED." Literally, if the sign outside was any indication. So Endilix wandered inside, talked to the quest master, and decided he would have some fun squishing slimes. As he stood in front of the Slate Caves, he could feel the chill of the underground seeping its way out into the already cold air. He couldn't help but shiver as he looked into the mouth of the cave, wondering what he had in store for him. He wanted to test his skills against the creatures inside, but the quest master had been very adamant that he wait for some others to be sent his way to assist. He had urged Endilix to not go into the cave without a friend. And as much as Endilix wanted to ignore that advice, he had no certainty in his skills to survive even a simple basic slime. And so he waited. He looked around, hoping that someone else did indeed get the quest master's request and would show up to clean out the cave and take its spoils. Not that Endilix wanted to share. But better to be alive and split the cash than end up dead with nothing, yeah? @Madison Freebird @Joen Panelis
The witch approached the maw of the cave with a quiet, brutish sort of elegance. An air of aloofness surrounded her as she flipped through her palm menu. The neon mini-map showed that this indeed was where she was supposed to, a triangular quest marker hovering over the little green dot that designated her position. It was a day like most others. She told her boss that she had an appointment down in Syracuse, and managed to steal a half-day to herself to slide on the headset and dive into Terrasphere once more. On today's docket: Punching adorable little balls of goo in their stupid, smiling faces. Madison closed her menu and approached the maw of the cave, carved into the rolling hillside. The quest giver, who was unremarkable to the point where she hoped she never toggled off the markers so she'd know who to return to once the deed was done, mentioned the winding tunnels that were beneath her feet. Infested wasn't the correct word to describe them, but she'd have her work cut out for her this afternoon. At least she wasn't the only one there. She pulled up next to the redhead, quickly giving him a judgmental once-over. An inch or so taller than her, decent athletic build underneath his clothes and armor. Nothing terribly different from what she had seen spawn in Brisshal so far. Silently, the witch hoped that he took a little bit more time thinking about his build before committing to the character than she did. As it turns out--starting off with Black Magic and Martial Arts as your main combat masteries? Bad effing idea. "'Sup." Madison offered him a quick tilt of her head. "You here to kill some mascots too?"
The sun was high in the sky indicating that it was at least passed noon who knew how to tell the time by such a means, a gentle breeze blew across the land making the grass sway and dance with it. Leaves rustled slightly and with the added buzzing of the insects it was as if there were a natural symphony being played. Traveling through this scene was a single individual garbed in all black robes with a hood pulled up over his head and hid his face in shadows, this individual was Joen Panelis, a Yladian Sorcerer who had agreed to take a job to exterminated some Slime monster that had taken up residence in a cave. Each step drew him closer to his destination and he began to think about the particulars of the job he had agreed to, it had seemed as if he wasn't the only one to take this job and would be accompanied by two others. While Joen was a relatively new player to the world of Terrasphere Online he wasn't entirely experienced in the ways of this world, as a fantasy book writer he originally dove into this world to get a better understanding of the characters that he wrote about. To experience first hand the thrill of the unknown, the adrenaline when adventuring, what drove the hero to do what he does, but this world had started to become something more to him than just subject material. Joen had come to love his time in this world and marveled at how realistic the mysterious creators had made it. Ripping himself away from his thoughts however he focused them on the task at hand as he could see the cave in question. Making his way to the cave entrance Joen instantly caught view of the other two who had arrived before he had, reaching up Joen pulled the hood upon his head down a little further to hide his features in darkness as he arrived at the cave and stood there saying nothing to the other two adventurers waiting for some signal that they were ready to press on and get their mission underway.
Endilix hadn't really heard either of the others approach him, lost in his thoughts as he was. He looked over his shoulders at each one, who seemed to be acting with Endilix as some sort of leader. He wasn't sure if that was a good idea or not. But no matter who lead, the destination was at least clear enough that it didn't matter. To Madison, he smiled. She was easy on the eyes, at least as far as avatars go, and he would have to make it a point to flirt as much as possible to see if he could get lucky with more than just a quest reward. But first, a response to her question, "Honestly, I'm here to kill anything that gets in my way until the quest is done. I didn't even know the slimes were the mascot of this game." A shrug, and then nothing else but silence from the other new arrival, a mage by the looks of it. At least if normal fantasy standards were any indication. "I'm Endilix, by the way," he threw out there, as he pulled very hefty looking hammer from his inventory, and an equally as hefty looking shield. They were basic, and they were flimsy, but they would serve his purposes. "Let's get the job done then, before more people show up to steal our experience and loot, yeah?" he asked, though waited for no confirmation as he walked into the cave. Right from the get go, it appeared that the walls were coated in some sort of goo. The slimes' doing no doubt. He wondered how far they'd have to go to actually encounter the little buggers.
"Isn't it a general rule that the cutest thing in a video game gets to be the mascot," Madison asked as the trio took their first steps into the maw of the cave. "I mean, you have Pikachu for Pokemon, those little cat things for Monster Hunter, the Slimes for Dragon Quest... Moogles and Chocobos for Final Fantasy..." Her voice trailed off the more she realized her companions weren't paying any attention to her. Hell, one of them had yet to even speak and introduce himself. He kept in step with them, but his only means of communication was pulling the hood of his robes up as far as it could go without the back of his head exploding out of it. Sure, whatever. Maybe he didn't want to talk, maybe his headset's microphone was busted. Made no difference to her, so long as he could handle himself once the fighting began. It didn't take long for them to draw closer to what must have been a lair of some sort. The craggy walls were increasingly shiny and goopy, covered with what had to be slime. Green, blue, yellow, red, purple--all sorts of colors coated the wall like some twisted mosaic, blending and swirling around one another, but thankfully not pulsating and dripping onto her clothes and boots. Madison unconsciously pulled her deck of tarot cards out of her inventory and started to play around with them. The ripple of the cards echoed softly through the cave as she performed another dribble flourish. She had to admit that she was pretty excited for whatever awaited further down the passageway. Until now, the witch operated in Assist Mode. But finally having enough confidence to start throwing things around in Free Mode? This was going to be fun.
Upon having arrived at the destination for his job, Joen looked into the mouth of the cave his mind running wild with the thought of what could possibly live inside. An excitement began to build up inside of his at the thought of giant bats and cave trolls, the odd goblin or two. Bringing his focus back into the present Joen looked over the pair of adventurers that were going to accompany him on this job, the first seemed to be a warrior of some kind wearing armor and equipped with a shield and a hammer. The other was a woman who he couldn't exactly get a read on her classification but that didn't really matter, she did however seem to talk a lot about stuff that had no bearing whatsoever on what they were doing. A trait that Joen found incredibly irritating about other people, one that he couldn't do anything about unfortunately. He stood there wondering if perhaps he could make a illusion spell that would force others to only speak when it was relevant to the task at hand, an idea that he would have to play around with at a later date. Remaining silent Joen followed the other two into the cave, his eyes scanning the area for any sign of life. Once he had entered the underground dwelling of their prey he instantly noticed that the air became decidedly more crisp, not enough to make his breathe visible but enough to be noticed. As they made their way deeper into the bowls of the earth Joen kept his guard up and ready to act at a moments notice.
Endilix was more than a bit surprised that the cave had yielded little besides the odd slime markings on the wall, indicating that something had once been here, but he couldn't be sure that it was still here. A bit further in, the group seemed to come to a small opening in the cave. It was round, and had three pathways. What was most of note was the fact that there were signs, one marking each pathway. One said: BEGINNER, the next: INTERMEDIATE, and the last: ADVANCED. Endilix scoffed a bit at this, and that was all it took to remind him that this was still just a game at its core. How nice it had been for the game designers to explain the different pathways to them. With a chuckle, he turned to face his companions, "Well, what do you say we start with beginner, and if it's too much, we can always..." That was when Endilix noticed a slight jiggle from behind the mage. His brow furrowed as the words died in his throat, and he saw that a little blue slime had been following their mage. Endilix blinked at it, and the slime simply wiggled in return. It didn't seem harmful, but just curious. Then Endilix looked to his other companion, the girl who had yet to introduce herself as well. As she shuffled her deck, he saw a red slime wiggling behind her. Finally, Endilix broke the silence as he said, "Have they followed us all the way here? Or did they just show up?" Almost in response, he felt a tingle on his ankle. A green slime, with rather sharp teeth looking appendages, was beginning to chew on the metal that encased his boot. "Well, that answers if they're friendly or not." Endilix said with a sigh, as he smashed the creature with his hammer. It popped, the green goo splurting all over his leg, before the other two slimes growled, lunging at the respective person that they had been following. Then more started to come out of the ground. Reds, blues, greens, all bubbling out of the cave floor and walls like a grotesque infection. "Well, looks like we found our first challenge!" he shouted to the other two, his hammer and shield at the ready.
Step after step led the trio of adventures deeper into the bowls of the cave, keeping his eyes peeled and his senses sharp looking for the first sign of danger Joen followed his companions. It seemed rather odd to Joen that aside from left over slime that clung to the stone walls of the cave there was no indication of their prey at all. As they came into an opening in the cave Joen noticed that it branched off into three pathways, each one held a sign that seemed to indicate their level of difficulty. It was slightly nice to have these small reminders that at its very core this world was still just a game. It was easy to forget this small fact given the amount of realism and detail that the creators of Terrasphere Online had put into their game. Joen stood there thinking about the three choices and what route they should take but it seemed that the warrior had an idea already, one that he didn't disagree with so there for answered with only a nod. That was when he noticed it, as the warrior was looking at Joen or rather past him his expression changed. His facial features took on a rather curious look causing him to glance behind, in doing so he finally the small blob of sentient slime. So much for keeping his guard up, this creature had managed to either sneak up on him or had been following behind him this entire time, either way it was rather aggravating. Turning his head he looked over at the female in their group, she too had a sentient slime behind her but it possessed a different color. From what he knew about slimes, those of different colors possessed different abilities. He knew that the red one behind the female could cause burns but he was unsure what the blue one behind him could do. Joen watched as the ones near the warrior began to chew upon his armor prompting him to kill the small creature. When the remains of the creature splattered upon the wall countless more of all colors began to pour into the area around them. It was then that Joen finally spoke "Sula idish kini!" when the words of his magical incantation left his lips three small fire balls flared into life around him before soaring through the air and colliding with three separate slimes causing them to explode and spew their remains all over the walls. Turning his back upon his companions Joen readied himself for the battle ahead.
With a couple of words and a whoosh of fire, the guy in the robe splattered slime guts all over the cavern walls. Madison hadn't even bothered to slide her cards out of their tuck case yet. It was nice to have a pyromancer and a guy with a hammer on her side. But with the squishy sounds emanating all around them, it was probably a good idea that she did. Let's see, she nonchalantly mused to herself. Which spell should I use here? The witch would have to pick one soon, as the cute little bastards were closing in on the trio, little blobs of blue and green and red forming a ring of adorable maybe-death around them. Madison didn't know a whole lot about the slimes of Terrasphere, but she could guess enough about their properties. Their bodies are probably water-based, no matter what element they might actually be. So let's go wiiiiith-- The crack of cards echoed down the cavern as she quickly bridge shuffled the deck and ripped one from the top. As she flicked it into the air, it spun around for a moment before igniting in violet wisps of cold fire. The soft glow illuminated the monsters as they inched closer, unaware of the fate that was about to befall them. With a snap of her fingers, the spell was cast. The energy coursing through the card twisted through the darkness towards four of the smaller slimes, stabbing their magical tendrils into their goopy flesh. (Can it even be called flesh? Whatever.) The dehydration curse only took a second to kick into action. Little popping squeals filled her ears as her spell absorbed the water within their bodies. They twisted in agony as their bodies shriveled up into what could be best described as strips of rainbow jerky. With a smile on her face, she recalled the tarot card and shuffled up for the next spell.
As slimes popped around him, it was good to know that his group was at least capable when it came to him being matched up against this quest. Though, these were probably the easiest little things to squish in the game, so Endilix wasn't sure if he should actually be all that impressed. Swinging his hammer around, the man managed to create a wave that blew quite a few of the annoying rainbow buggers against the wall, squishing them into the rainbow jelly medley on the walls. Suddenly, Endilix was starting to understand why the walls were actually covered in the gel. They certainly weren't the first adventurers here. With a smile on his lips, he held his shield up as the blobs bounced off of the metal with goopy thunking sounds. But it seemed like, for every slime they killed, three more popped out of the ground. This prompted Endilix to turn to the others as he batted a few more of them into oblivion. "Guys, they're going to keep coming. It'll probably be a gauntlet of these things, but we should probably get running down one of these pathways. Maybe if we reach a boss or something they'll stop spawning!" he yelled, before taking the lead and running for the Beginner pathway. His metal boots squished a few more of the creatures as they continued to thunk off his shield while he ran, reaching the entrance of the tunnel and urging his companions to join him with a wave.
"Right behind you." Madison broke out in a sprint behind Endilix. She had to admit this was rather exciting--far better than her first jaunt through a cave, that was for sure. At least the monsters in this one were cute, small, and--most importantly--easy to kill. Slime after slime tried to hop and roll into her path as she rushed through the tunnel. Some got stepped on, others were the targets of random spells that the witch drew from her deck of tarot cards. A sickening pop from a slightly bigger specimen filled the air, and Madison suddenly found herself hitting the rocky floor. Stones jabbed at her ribs and thighs, one even cutting into her left cheek. "Ahh--!" She grunted through the spike of pain. "Sonova-- Dammit!" She wasted no time pushing herself up on her hands and knees, scrambling to collect the scattered cards. Madison caught a blur of green out of the corner of her eye, and turned just in time to see one of the monsters leap at her. She hit the dirt again, and the slime sailed harmlessly over her. It made a weird, frustrated splortish noise as it doubled back for another attempt. She already had the deck shuffled and ready to go. Ripping two cards off the top and throwing them into the air, the space around her began to glow with a purple flame. The cards finished spinning and formed a cross reading. Suddenly, the magic coursing through them exploded in a flash of harsh, white light as the slime's dying squelches filled her ears. Her crazed grin only widened. She had come so far in such a short time. How powerful could she truly get after spending more time in the game? Picking herself up off the ground and giving her outfit a quick dusting, she tried to catch up with the others. Breath ragged from a sudden onset of exhaustion and her legs on fire, she held a hand up to grab their attention. "H-hang on a moment," she spat out between wheezing breaths, "new adventurer, sorry, haaa--don't have my stamina built up yet--" Maybe it was the game's mechanics, maybe it was her own health in the real world that was keeping her down. With that steady diet of cheap food and cheaper beer, the only reason she was thin as a rail was the fact that she walked to work every day. (She'd be in better shape if running from her problems burned any calories.) Sucking in a deep breath and shutting out the numb aching of her muscles, Madison noticed that the trio had come to another split in the road. Endilix had mentioned that fighting a boss might end the mob rush, but there was no indication of which way would lead to its lair. The heft of the tarot deck clenched tightly in her right hand gave her an idea. With the blorbbling and splurting of the slime army growing in intensity as they closed in on them, she had to act quick. Shuffling up once more, the rippling of card hitting card calming her nerves somewhat, the black-haired woman addressed her companions. "Can you buy me a minute or two? I think I can divine which path we should take."
Joen stood his ground as fireball after fireball flared in the darkness, each one snuffing out the life from one of the sentient slime masses. The walls of their underground dwelling was littered with the colored remains of the creatures causing them to take on a tie-dye look. However it seemed that no matter what the trio of adventures did the creatures came in a never ending horde, every one slaughtered caused another three to appear. Growling softly in frustration Joen turned his head to look at how his companions were faring, from what he could see the female in their party was making short work of them using her deck of cards. The warrior didn't even seem to be breaking a sweat as the slime broke easily upon his hammer and armor. Turning his attention back to the annoying creatures around him he narrowed his eyes slightly as the warrior took off for the entrance to the tunnel as then did the female, growling softly Joen also made his way there not wishing to fall behind his companions. Upon arriving at another fork in the road caused Joen to groan slightly in annoyance, why couldn't this cave be simple and straight forward, was that to much to ask for? Turning his head Joen nodded slightly to the females request "Qaziem qaziem kyrnawi qaziem!", once the magical invocation had left his lips a wall of fire flared to life before encircling the trio, they could hear the screams of the slimes that entered the flames and were incinerated, turning his head he looked at the female and nodded his head slightly as if to tell her to hurry and do whatever she was going to do.
As the ring of fire erupted to life, Madison clutched her cards to her chest. "Careful," she hissed at Joen. "You burn these, I'll burn you." Madison fanned the deck out in her left hand and quickly selected three. The cards floated out of her hand and arranged themselves in the air before her. "C'mon, c'mon, c'mon," she frantically whispered as they floated before her and slowly turned face up. The faces of the cards were irrelevant. The question was in her mind, and there could only be one answer. Right, or left. Which would it be? The cards ignited in purple flame that danced in the air as the fates ruminated over which way to send her. After several long, agonizing seconds, the heat of the hooded man's wall of fire dancing across her face, the divination finished. The trio of flames lifted into the air, leaving the cards to fall to the rocky earth. One after the other, they quickly bolted to the left and dissipated. "Left path! Let's go!" Madison snatched the cards up and shuffled them back into the deck before bolting to her feet.
Surrounded by the flames, Endilix had been understandably uncomfortable in his full metal armor. Sweat beaded on his forehead, with the occasional drop making its way down his temple as the repeated splorch sounds of the slimes popping against the fire wall kept assailing his ears. He watched out of the corner of his eye as the divination took place, and couldn't have wished harder for it to end faster. Once the cards had flown off to the left path, Endilix threw caution to the wind and bolted through the fire wall to the left. He didn't even wait for Joen to dispel it. He was already hot enough as it was, and the longer it went, the hotter he got. It burned lightly, but he was fast enough that the flames caused no lasting damage after he burst through them. Though he did end up having to put out a couple of small embers on the tips of his hair as he ran. Mercifully, the path was short, but what they found at the end of it, as Endilix ran, they probably weren't as prepared for. Endilix had managed to crush any slimes in his path with his heavy metal boots as they ran, but he quickly skidded to a stop as he came upon what could only be described as the boss of this pathway. A giant slime, which was translucent, and had varying degrees of all three colors floating through it. Dangerous, elemental, and just what Endilix was looking for in a challenge. Endilix stared up at it, his mouth hung open. A slime jiggled next to him, and absentmindedly Endilix smashed it with his shield into the wall. This might have otherwise been a mistake, as the giant slime's face jiggled around its body, without any actual movement on the part of the body, mind, to look down on Endilix. And then it began to roll towards the man menacingly.
Joen stood there in the center of this wall of flames, the light of the fire illuminating his facial features under his hood and revealing his Yladian features for only a split second while the female cast her divination spell. Joen kept his eyes locked upon the cards within the air waiting for them to reveal which path they were supposed to take ignoring the sounds of death that the sentient blobs made as they came into contact with his flames. He stood there and watched as the cards revealed the path they were supposed to take, the left one causing him to nod slightly. Before he could even release his spell however the warrior in their group dashed through the flames and down the path causing Joen to roll his eyes slightly. Turning his attention back to his flames Joen grinned slightly "Provoste", it was the only word that left his lips but the flames changed forms and created a wall that allowed its Yladian caster and the female to make their way through before closing the path preventing the horde of Slimes from following them. Turning Joen dashed after the warrior quickly hoping to catch up to him before anything bad happened. And something bad is exactly what happened, after a short distance he came across an enormous Slime that seemed to possess all the colors of the others. The warrior had done something to aggravate it as it was rolling towards him which prompted Joen into action. "Tangus jistrah xaquin sula kyrnawi!", the words of the magical invocation flew from his lips causing a thick wall of ice to form between the warrior and the Slime halting its attack. Joen looked at the warrior and nodded his head slightly letting him know that he had his back.
