Aaron breathed out a heavy sigh as he leaned against a tree in Adecus. He was currently awaiting a partner to partake in this "bounty" mission that had been sent out. It seemed an intriguing idea - killing some evil trees in order to make some money and garner reputation with the NPCs? What could possibly go wrong in that idea? He fumbled with his shield a bit, passing it back and forth between his hands. Killing trees... what was the best way to do that? Axes seemed like a decent idea, but Aaron didn't really know anyone who used axes. Fire? Trees were made of wood - or more specifically, wood was made of trees. Who did Aaron know who used fire, though? He smiled as he thought of the answer. He pulled up his friends list and quickly tapped on the name to send a message to Felicitas Hellewege. "Hey there. Found myself on a job that your particular masteries seem pretty suited for. Need to burn some evil trees. You in?" he sent off the message and waited. As far as he knew, there were two potential options for this quest. Either killing about 3 of a weaker type of tree, or one or two of a particularly stronger tree. While Aaron himself might prefer facing down the stronger type, he figured he'd leave that selection to Felicitas. After all, he had a few more points put into his combat skills. Vaguely, Aaron wondered what repercussions this quest might have. Reputation with the people of Falderen. There certainly seemed to be no downside to that. Honestly, the quest overall seemed entirely straight forward. He relaxed. This would perhaps be his most morally sound job of making money yet, not a single human life being threatened. He breathed a silent prayer to the Elysid court and closed his eyes, staying on guard, but not just waiting for Felicitas to arrive to get started on their work. @Felicitas Hellewege
Felicitas started as the message arrived, dropping her hammer. The thing was weirdly difficult to hold onto, she mused, she'd have to sink some more points into that mastery soon. She picked her hammer back up and attached it to her belt for safe keeping, and read the message carefully. "On my way. How big are these evil trees?" She sent back, quickly making her way to where he was. "Hey Aaron!" She called as she approached, "You recovered from that ridiculous spider?" She looked him over quickly, noting tht he looked very at home in this world, and felt just a bit jealous. She had had little time to log on and play, and it showed. She was still beginner or novice in everything she did, and even though she was the only heavy armorsmith, she still didn't have time to man her shop and make any money that way, so she was underequipped as well. She sighed, finally arriving by the paladin's side. "Well? Let's get this going, I suppose."
Aaron opened his menu to reply to the girl's question. "Well, there are two types," he wrote. "One type is.... really fucking huge. Like, full normal sized tree. But alive. The other type is about 5 to 6 feet tall, they vary. If you've had much time to train your skills, I think going after the bigger ones could be fun, but if not, we should stick to the smaller ones for mutual safety." He sent the message with a smile. He was still wearing that smile when she arrived, and he gave her a friendly wave. "Well, I haven't had a chance to cure the death affliction, but overall I've not had too much trouble with it. Mentally and emotionally, yes, I've recovered," he said with a laugh. "How about yourself?" He asked. "If I recall correctly, you also died to the beast. I've not seen you online too much, I hope that experience didn't turn you off from this world." He shrugged as if it didn't matter. "I suppose then it'd be safest for us to go after the Treants, the smaller ones. I can tank out in front, while you dish out fire from a distance. I can heal myself whenever either of us gets too hurt as well." He patted his armor. "This stuff has been working pretty well for me, by the way. Think you'll be able to upgrade it any time in the near future?" He asked. He turned toward the woods. "I'm going to be honest, I'm not completely sure where we are likely to encounter these things, so I think it'd be best if we just stay on guard the entire time." He drew his sword and clenched his shield tightly. "I'll stay out in front. I think fire will be more useful than that hammer of yours, but training plays a part too. Use whichever you're better at, sticking to range if they're pretty close. Not dying is the best way to keep dealing damage," he said with a smile.
Felicitas sighed, thinking about the death affliction. She really hadn't been on since then, had she? "Yeah, I haven't had the chance either, but I'm living with it well enough, I suppose." She cringed just thinking about the battle, "I haven't really logged in since then, so I haven't actually processed it, really. Normally I'd say it's just a game, you die in games, but this one... It's different, you know? It's so real. I did die to that thing, but that wasn't why I haven't logged in. Family business, gotta work, ya'know?" She grinned again, thinking of their task, "I agree, the smaller ones will probably be safer, I'm still not even to trained in my masteries, but I've still got a mean fireball to throw." She nodded as he went over the plan briefly. Straightforward, but more complications meant more possible errors. She checked that she had her hammer securely fastened. Felicitas grinned proudly as he complimented her workmanship, but shook her head, "it won't be too long until I can craft the uncommon armor, the recipes just came out, I think, but I don't have any money to buy the recipes with. It might be a bit, unfortunately." She turned with him, pulling up her spell menu quickly, and prepared to go. On the tree right next to her, however, was a spider, no bigger than a nickel. She shrieked, jumping away and blasting it with a pitiful fireball. The spider was no match this time. She collected herself quickly, and turned into the forest again, her hands shaking, refusing to look very closely at the trees.
Aaron frowned slightly when the woman admired she hadn't had a chance to log in since the spider queen world event. He couln't imagine being gone from this world for so long. Perhaps it was unhealthy of him, but he was certainly starting to prefer this world to the real world. "There is something about dying here," he agreed. "Just like there's something about being here. It doesn't feel like a game. You know?" He smiled at her when she talked about crafting uncommon gear. "Well, as soon as you can, I promise to be your first customer. Hopefully this little expedition here will help you get a portion of the money you need. You may want to start working up your mastery first, though, and just get one recipe at a time." That smile became a frown once again when he saw the girl throw a fireball at a tree for seemingly no reason. "Best not to waste your energy, before we even encounter a threat," he said. The tree she'd fired at wasn't a particularly large tree, just a bit taller than Aaron himself, in fact. Even as Aaron and Felicitas started heading further into the forest, Aaron caught a glimpse from the corner of his eye. The tree Felicitas had thrown the fireball at... moved. Raising his shield, Aaron jumped between Felicitas and the tree, blocking the swinging branch that was it's arm with his shield. The sound echoed through the forest, and birds leapt from their nests in the treetops. Around them, two more trees shifted and began to walk toward the two adventures. "Well, it looks like we found them, ey, Fel?" Aaron asked with a grin. He began to chant, a brief spell he'd used hundreds of times in this world already. As he finished, his sword began to glow with light. Releasing a wordless shout, Aaron swung his sword into the trunk of the attack tree.... Where it prompted got stuck. The tree slammed it's fist into Aaron's face, causing him to let go of his sword and stumble backwards, releasing his sword. Aaron wiped his face - there was no blood, but it was habit. "This bastard wants to br tricky," Aaron muttered. "But I can tell that hit of mine did a decent chunk of damage." He looked at his own health bar. 93% health remaining. Okay, that wasn't bad at all. This would be doable.
Felicitas smiled at his promise, and nodded at the suggestion of buying the recipes slowly. "Yeah, I have two quests to do today, so hopefully I'll at least be able to buy one new recipe. I already have the limited stock gloves recipe that came out a while ago, but I still have a bit to go before trained." She glared in annoyance, grabbing her hammer from her belt. "It wasn't a waste." She snapped, "There was a spider." She jumped back as Aaron stpped in front of her, taking the blow, and immediately raised her hand to the first tree. "Ich werde dir alles verbrennen, was dein schicksal ist!" She shouted, an almost impressive blast of fire impacting on the trunk. Some loose bark singed easily, and Felicitas panted a bit. She'd forgotten the feeling of using magic. It was intoxicating, and infuriating if she was honest. She snarled, turning to face the next nearest tree, and swung furiously, bashing said treant with a satisfying crunch. "Yeah," She shouted as she jumped back a bit, "I'd say we've found them!"
Following Felicitas's blast of fire at the treant, Aaron charged it, gripping his sword and using his moving momentum to wrench it free. He spun, slamming his sword into it yet again. This time, as his sword slashed into the beast, it tell to the ground, lifeless. Aaron spun his sword slowly, satisfied in the kill. "Aye, so lets show these bastards why they shouldn't mess with us," he said. He paused. "You know, since I'm going for the whole fucking, 'holy warrior' vibe, you think maybe I need to start watching my language, not say too many fuck words? Er, curse words?" He asked. His attention was drawn back to the fact that he was in the middle of a fight as the third treant grabbed a large rock - about the size of a small animal - and threw it at him. Aaron raised his shield to block it, and his whole body shook in pain at the impact, but luckily due to the game mechanics, it was counted as a block and therefore did not do a crazy amount of damage to him. "Ow, future reference, avoid those, don't block them," he said, shaking off the pain. "How's your energy doing?" He asked. "Think you can maybe light that hammer of yours on fire, give that one that's focused on you a good thrashing?" He asked. He glared at the third treant, who seemed to be taunting him. "Because I plan on making this bastard suffer with some holy smites."
Felicitas grinned as the first treant fell. One down, two to go. Hopefully they would be able to leave after these three, and they wouldn't be caught fighting all five. It would probably be good for her points levels to fight more, but she would probably lose more health than she wanted. She didn't want to die and gain a fear of trees or anything. "I'm glad I'm not going paladin, I'll smash these stupid trees to pieces!" She shouted, stepping back as her tree reared back to swing, and stumbled out of the way of the blow. She nodded at his advice, taking a moment while the tree recovered its balance to hold her weapon up, and pull up her spell list. She hadn't really looked at it since she assigned points into her masteries last, and was surpised to find exactly what she needed. "Du Stück Scheiße, schon Feuer!" She chanted excitedly, grinning as her hammer head was engulfed in bright flames. She laughed gleefully, running in and slamming the flame engulfed weapon into what she assumed was the treant's face, "Take that, you inefficient walnut chucker!" As she hit, however, she found herself caught directly in range for its attack, and braced herself for the impact. It hit her solidly in the chestplate, sending her to fall heavily on the ground. She scrambled back to her feet and backed up, not wanting to find herself in range again, and assessed the damage. It had hurt much less than she imagine it should have, and she gladly thanked the pain dampeners. She looked at her health bar, and found it only sightly depleted, at 90%. She sighed in relief, and prepared to attack again.
"Inefficient... walnut... chucker?" Aaron asked, blinking in confusion at the girl's choice of insults. "And what do you have against paladins? I can kill trees, what.... what even kind of stereotype is that? I have literally never heard that one before." None the less, as she engaged her treant, Aaron turned his attention on the one before him. He spun his sword slowly and began to chant. The glow of his sword brightened to the extent that to look directly at the blade would certainly cause a level of pain to anyone's eyes. "I don't know what you want," Aaron said to the tree. "But I will not let any army gather to bring death and destruction upon the people of this world. I swear this, upon my oath as a paladin." With that, he lunged toward, slamming his sword into the bark of the treant. The treant swung at him, and Aaron turned and raised his shield to block the blow. Wood struck steel and the forest echoed with the sound. Aaron couldn't help but feel a slightly twinge at the symbolism of nature striking inefficiently against the steel of human progress. Why were the treants and oakhearts gathering? Was there something he didn't know? The creatures certainly didn't attempt to communicate, which would indicate a potential for a lesser intelligence. Yet the way they fought, and the fact that their did seem to be a hierarchy, though granted based upon the size of trees, worried him. Then again, that was no different from the wolves of this world. He breathed a sigh. There was no point questioning things now. Right now, he had his duty.
"It's not the trees," she sighed, pausing to cast a quick fireball at her tree and back up again, being sure to stay close enough to keep aggro, "It's the high-and-mighty thing. I'm just an armorsmith who's also a pyromaniac, and that really says nothing about me, except that i enjoy and can handle fire." She yelped as the treant moved faster than it seemed it should be able to, and tried to catch her again. She slammed her hammer into the swinging branch, trying to parry it or something. But it still seemd to count as a hit, and she noted she was down to 85%. She snarled in frustration, rearing back as the treant corrected itself, and landed a hard hit on it with her hammer. This stupid piece of wood was really starting to piss her off.
"Armorsmith and pyromaniac says a lot about a person," Aaron said, ducking under his treant's attack. "And the hammer, too. It says you have a personality which prefers to get things done quickly, heavy handedly, that you're not afraid of spending a bit more energy to get the job done. But at the same time, your smithing means you know when to apply precision. Strike a piece of armor wrong, I imagine, and the piece is ruined. Balance." Aaron raised his shield to block a hit, and hacked at the branch with his sword. With a shout, the branch was severed, and Aaron spun, hacking into the tree's trunk. After two hits, the creature fell back, dead. Aaron let out a heavy breath of air. Was that it? He turned toward Felicitas, who seemed to be wrapping up her fight as well. "Need any help?" He offered, though he knew she had it handled. He relaxed a bit, looking around. The forest was growing silent. Other adventurers had swamped to fight these creatures. Surely, there couldn't be many left. "We should do more stuff together," he said. "You and I. I think we make a decent team. You're hot... headedness and fire magic, and my support magic and defensive capabilities." (No, that "you're" is not a typo lol)
Felicitas didn't answer for a moment, thinking about what he said. Was she really that open, or was he just perceptive? Those were some pretty basic things, in all honesty, but really, being that open meant she might make real ties to in game characters, and that couldn't be helpful. She set the matter aside and chanted under her breath, blasting her tree with a decent fireball. She grinned, "I think I'm good over here, actually." She ducked a blow from the tree, and swung hard, knocking the treant solidly. It stumbled, and she laughed. Another small fireball and it keeled over, dead. There, she thought, quest complete. Maybe after this she would stay in game a little more, try and expand her shop some. Felicitas shrugged, turning to Aaron just as he started speaking again. "We really should," she agreed, not noticing his pause, "I think I would enjoy that."
