Cyriac nodded before he realized that they had gotten a mistaken assumption of him. "Oh, heh...when I mentioned those Masteries, I was just listing what would be useful to us." He rubbed the back of his neck, feeling quite thoroughly foolish. Hah, if he had those, finding a tunnel would have been a lot easier, between the assistance from anima, flora, and fauna. "My masteries are just Slash, Parry, and Incognito. I'm a simple man, but that's beyond the point, yes. Ahem." He sheepishly moved towards the map. It was no place to talk about his masteries that was contributing absolutely zilch to their initial predicament, and he decided to focus on the task at hand; namely, reading the map. He was staring at it impassively, before nodding. "I do have...a backup plan of sorts. It will be unnecessary, and it would only work during nightfall when visibility is lowest. But I'll talk about that later. For now, Mizuki is right. We split up and search the spots." Truth be told, he had no idea how aristocrats thought, but he had faith in the others to get the assumptions right. As for his backup plan...it was a stupidly direct idea that he got when he heard 'Nature Magic'. "In case we find multiple routes, we should just pick the one closest to the manor. Once that's done, we all get back together and take the route. If we don't find any...we should regroup here." He tapped on the map, a spot right outside the walls of the manor's courtyard and gardens. And then they could try the backup plan. It was perhaps stupid and risky, but it was also direct and unambiguous. He glanced at Mizuki, before looking away. She had the most critical part to play in it. It was quite fortunate that Rumblehide had Spirit Magic and Ueno had both Nature Magic and Tracking. All the group was lacking was Beast Taming. "And yes, as Camus said. Watch out for flying alligators. Try not to look too appetizing." So now it was the forest, the main road, and the mountain road. Three places to search, not four. He nodded at Ueno's request. "I don't think anyone else is qualified, so you go on ahead. I'll take the main road nearby - its the least likely, and besides, I need to check if what I'm thinking is a viable tactic..." That left Camus and Rumblehide to search the mountain road. He looked at the pair, in case they had objections to it.
Had he listened his own masteries? It was a thought that the Yladian wasn't really sure. He wanted to say that he had, yet on the other hand-- what if he hadn't. Here he was trying to play some leader and getting a bit too involved in it. Though none of his teammates would know about the details of his life outside of the game. None of them would even be able to hear his thoughts either. Now that part was a good thing, no one needed to be hearing his thoughts. He was good at coming up with plans and making things flow well. His thoughts was where his downfall was. Not that he would actually admit to having any flaws either. The Faerin had been quiet, something he hadn't truly thought much on. Just because he had a tendency to be loud and speak his thoughts out loud (sometimes) didn't mean he didn't zone out sometimes usually. No she had a reason for her quietness, and that would be able to be deducted when she spoke of what her masteries were. Parry, he should have kept to Parry-- but it wasn't like he couldn't eventually get there. One thing he loathed about the game was that only so much could be applied. Those thoughts wouldn't make it out of his mouth though. Normally when he gave nicknames to others, they would have a fit about them. So when he had called Mizuki by the name Zuzu (even if he had quickly caught himself) he wasn't sure how she might react. It actually got him a small grin before she returned to look at the map. The odd things he noticed, so some people did actually appreciate him for how he was. Perhaps it was all behind how he had said it, that could be likely. No his thoughts needed to not wander too much. Mizuki did actually have a point on the best area for her to explore. Though he had asked, so he didn't take too much control over this mission. He didn't even have the leadership vocation (though he was beginning to think the vocations didn't matter too much compared to the masteries). "No objections at all to splitting up from me. Nor any objections to your route you wish to take. It makes the most sense" he had listened to her masteries before he had spoke up. Was he actually learning to better work as a group from this little quest that he had found himself taking. So Felix was only listing masteries that would be useful to them-- not his own. His mastery list would have been exactly like his, should he have kept Parry rather than taking it out at the last minute. "I actually don't think I listed mine, if I did do pardon me. Mine would be slash, beast taming and incognito." Why had he decided to take out Parry? Simple as he had wanted to do more with the beasties of the land. "It seems like we have a pretty well rounded bunch here." He heard the mention of a backup plans of sorts, one that would use the nightfall as cover. Now that he was interested in, it was always good to have a backup plan. He kept quiet to think over everything that was being said. There was a chance that there were multiple routes, usually there were. Lords had multiple mistresses usually and a lot of the time they all didn't need to know about each other either. "Aye, though might be a hard task with them" he let out a small chuckle. He was actually seeming to be likable so far, that was important. "Sounds like we have a plan then" he had taken to memorizing the spot that had been tapped for the regrouping area. It wouldn't be the end of the world if they didn't find the entrance tonight, but he wanted to find it. "Also I do look forward to hearing the backup plan, even if it isn't needed. We can have more discussions later and should we might fail in finding something tonight-- we can tell tales around a campfire tonight." He didn't mind searching the mountain road at all. "I don't have any objections whatsoever. The mountain road is perfectly fine with me. What about ya, Rumble?" He would look from Rumblehide then back to Felix. "I think the map might be best in your hands. If Rumblehide is with me, she will be fine. It would be sort of pointless for me to have the map when I already have up here" he would using his right index finger to tap upon his temple slightly.
It looked like they had a solid plan, but even as they were talking time kept flowing from the future into the past. While Mizuki would have liked to discuss the situation a bit more or maybe just converse for the sake of getting to know these people better she didn't think it prudent to stick around once they knew what to do, so she nodded and straightened up, no longer bent over the map. If I encounter any flying alligators rest assured I'll do my best to not get eaten by them. Also, having Incognito on two of our party will be useful once we're actually inside, so it's good to know that you two have it. However we're burning daylight, so I'll be off. Giving a casual salute (nothing more than moving her hand to her head and away) she nodded at each of her three fellow adventurers before stepping outside of the pavilion, where she moved towards the edge of the encampment at a light jog before looking around, holding her nose up in the air and sniffing before turning into the direction of the forest. Abandoning her slower pace she quickly began to accelerate, racing towards the forest even as around her the sky was already beginning to darken, the sun sinking below the horizon and shadows covering the land. While they still had enough time to search they had less than an hour left, so the sooner they got around to finding a tunnel the better. She was curious what the backup plan was that Cyriac had thought of. There were of course multiple ways to get into a fort as a small group, given how it was significantly more difficult to guard a location against stealth than an open assault. Cyriac seemed like a helpful kind of person, so she was also curious if his creativity and cunning matched up to his cooperative nature. Of course if they were fortunate and found a secret entrance she wouldn't learn about his plan until after, as it would have be unwise to talk too much while trying to infiltrate a besieged fort. Given her speed and the proximity of the forest it didn't take long for her to reach the outermost trees, Mizuki slowing down as she sniffed the air once more and made her way forward more carefully. They were in between Astorea and Falderen, a place where the land was decently populated and often travelled. There weren't a lot of real monsters in the area, and those animals which made this place their home weren't the most aggressive ones. Still a threat, but they had learned that the humans and their fellow sapients had claimed the area and that if they went overboard in protecting their territory they'd get slaughtered by the dozens. So it was entirely possible that the lord of the fort had felt safe letting a secret entrance lead to this forest, where the animals weren't too strong and had adopted a certain amount of wariness. That said Mizuki still doubted the entrance could be very deep into the forest, so she stuck to the outskirts as she sniffed and looked around, her heterochromatic eyes glowing faintly as the darkness expanded. Her Hunting mastery enhanced her senses, which combined with her lupine traits meant she was picking up on a lot of different scents, strong and faint, even as her eyes worked overtime to provide adequate vision even with such terrible lighting. Most of the forest just looked like you'd expect: trees, undergrowth, lots of dirt, small branches and other refuse. Another thing to be awed by, how accurate and detailed this world was even though it was supposed to be virtual. It wasn't the first time that Mizuki wondered whether the developers had made the entire world or if they'd just developed a self-evolving algorithm and let it construct a world with them only editing and setting restrictions where needed. It was hard to believe that any group which was small enough to remain hidden despite the best attempts of the governments of the world to find them could have coded all of this piece by piece, especially given the maximum possible age of the technology... Well, asking herself the same questions again wouldn't get her any new answers. She came to an abrupt halt as she smelled something new, although she quickly recognized it as the scent of a boar so she tried to keep low to the ground and move silently as she kept searching, hoping she wouldn't run into one of the beasts. While any adventurer in Terrasphere started out dealing with boars (they were everywhere in Brisshal, after all) she didn't want to waste any time fighting them.
And so Mizuki was gone. Even as she left, he felt compelled to call out to her. "Good luck, and good hunting!" And with that, she was gone. He looked at Rumblehide and Camus and nodded. "I got the main road...might even get a few people in the camp to help me. Don't worry, I'll scour the place clean." He was taking the path with the least chance of success, but it was closer to the camp, leaving more time to plan and plot. As for getting help...he could always tough-talk it out with people, that was a handy skill he picked up. He began to leave the group as well with a similar salute - two fingers placed to the forehead in a casual but acknowledged show of respect before he briskly walked over towards the main road. He'd search perhaps two miles in either direction, because any tunnel that was built too long on plain soil had a pretty good chance of collapsing, and so anything further was extremely unlikely. With that plan in mind, he went out. Not truly confident, but determined anyways. He was not truly right in thinking that his skills conferred no abilities to help him with his task: Parry, despite its single-minded focus, gave him greatly sharpened reflexes as well as a keen eye for things. Incognito also gave him both attributes, and together they helped in spotting oddities on the road. He'd be going over the length of the search a few times, so this was going to take a while. He took this time of silence and solitude to think of his three companions. All of them had their own peculiarities. Mizuki was serious, but a bit more relaxed than Rumblehide, whose stature and appearance was countered by her strict and focused demeanor, as well as her direct attitude. Camus was a lot more calculating and calm than he let on. He was so eerily similar to Cyriac it was almost like looking in a mirror. Ah, whatever. Focus on the job, Felix. @Ueno Mizuki @Camus Varic @B.P. Rumblehide
