Well, her two companions had stopped their hostilities, which was good. Granted Mizuki would have been happier if the hostilities had never started to begin with, but she wasn't so childish as to complain about what had already happened when there was nothing that could be done about it. Instead she'd just be glad that there was some progress. She wasn't sure if they actually needed to act as a team here, but in any group there needed to be cooperation, and from a professional point of view it was better to try and avoid insulting others who were part of the group. Mizuki was aware that amongst friends it could be described as friendly banter, with no real harmful intent, but she wasn't sure how close these two really were, but she thought that from the way that Aalam had reacted to Aselia's suggestion he hadn't enjoyed the jab, as restrained as he had been in his response. That aside, at least they now had a plan and were making progress. It was a stroke of fortune that Aalam already had visited this cave system before and had been thoughtful enough to mark the way so he'd be able to find it again later. Once they arrived at the cave system Mizuki would have to mark it on her map so she'd also be able to find it back later, in case she found another reason to return to the cave system. She wasn't sure what reason that might be, but if she remembered the results of her online research correctly open world games (also called MMORPGs, or in TS's case VRMMORPGs) usually had quests where you had to gather certain objects, or you needed materials for crafting that could only be found in certain places. A bit of a strange idea, from a non-gamer's perspective, but Mizuki had found enough places repeating that idea that she wasn't going to dismiss it. For now she'd just follow Aalam as he guided them towards the caves, on the way there thinking about the actual objective. They'd have to find something which would make an impression. This most likely meant something of at least moderate size, since small things could be very interesting but weren't as effective on display, at least not at a festival. At a festival you wanted something eye-catching, something which would draw the festival goers towards you from the other side of the street. While decoration and showmanship could help with that Mizuki would have bet a fair sum of money that their employer would be happier with something larger. As interesting as a frog with all the colours of the rainbow might be, if it was the size of your thumb you'd still have issues in a place as rowdy as a festival, where people weren't orderly going through an exposition but just headed for whatever seemed the most interesting at the time. She listened attentively when Aalam explained in more depth how you could tame a beast. His explanation made sense, including the fact that befriending an animal was most likely significantly trickier than just forcing it to do what you wanted. However if Mizuki had to wager a guess then using the second method might be trickier, but also yielded bigger rewards. Humans might not exactly the same as most animals, but slaves were generally not considered as effective in the long term if they only ever received threats and punishment (she remembered from her history classes), and Mizuki didn't think it was any different for animals. However since that wasn't her field of expertise she wasn't going to argue with Aalam about it, instead nodding as she looked around. There were few animals nearby, although even if there were it wasn't like she could waste time trying things out in the middle of a job... Once they were at the entrance Mizuki looked in, noting that while it looked like they could walk in without having to crawl or kneel it still got dark pretty quickly. Aselia's idea of gathering some branches to act as impromptu torches in the case that they really needed the light looked sound to Mizuki. "All right. I'll go first, and focus on trying to find something that might suit our needs. Since I'm not sure how far in the light goes you might have to rely on following me by sound rather than sight, so I'll try not to move too fast. If you think you need a light please use those branches Aselia gathered, but try to keep it contained somehow. The more we announce our presence the harder it would be to find anything." With that said Mizuki activated her Investigation Mode, her hetechromatic eyes appearing to light up. The effect was that it looked like she had two moons for eyes, a warm golden moon and an icy blue moon. Heading into the darkness Mizuki casts magic missile moved forward carefully. Her improved Investigation Mode did make it easier for her to see in the darkness, but it still wasn't quite as convenient as if the caves had been lit by one light or another. She moved slowly, her ears sharp and her tail still behind her as her eyes scanned the area in front, trying to find traces of any form of animal as she made her way into the underground world, away from where the casual visitor might normally go in the hopes of increasing her odds of finding anything in a more isolated portion of the cave system. At least finding her way back shouldn't be too difficult: even in the darkness Investigation Mode made it easy to track your own steps back. She looked around to see if Aalam and Aselia were following properly. She wasn't sure how effective their non-enhanced Investigation Mode would be, but hopefully it would be good enough that at least they could keep up with her without being lost. Since Mizuki already had her enhancement from the beginning and hadn't tried finding anything in darkness before she actually genuinely didn't know what Investigation Mode was like without the Hunter mastery enhancing it. "You two doing all right?" She whispered, trying not to make too much sound even though in the silence of the darkness her voice still sounded loud... while simultaneously feeling as if the darkness absorbed the sound. @Aalam Abungu @Aselia
They had returned to the caves well he had returned to the caves it was one of the first areas he had had the pleasure of exploring back in the early day when he had joined Terra. At the time he had only ventured into the first caverns of the cave, and that was with a torch had to provide a steady source of light. Back then he wasn’t looking to capture anything he just needed a place that could be quiet for a bit. He had mostly adjusted to the world back then, but something every just overwhelmed him, the amount of pain that he could play withstand before passing out on the floor. The day that he was terrible with his bow to miss almost every shot and to hurt himself on every other. He was just shameful, but it was at the entrance of this cave that he got better shooting down bats the left the cave at night, or just practicing his archery in the clearing. In all that time, however, he never went deeper into the cave system, fearing why to lie deep in the darkness. Shaking those thoughts from his head and returned to the matter at hand was almost there he could see the entrance. It was about a quarter mile from where they were standing. It would be better to focus on the task at hand if he was to mess this up after making them follow him for so long and after telling Aselia off it would not end well. The girl was too unstable for his liking it was like a pop rock, and coke tip your hand too much, and the entire thing would blow up in your face. They would need something that would be able to gather the attention of a crowd there was the possibility of a type of giant bat. He knew from personal experience that some animal in terra could grow to the size of a human. If there were able to find something that size with an odd coloration it would be a stroke of luck. However, something like that wouldn’t be near the entrance it would be in the cave’s deeper regions. It was a stroke of luck that the group had ended up with Ueno in the team, it seemed that the girl was coming more and more in handy. That hunter vision would be coming in handy he would have been able to them there, but his fall back option was to use some torches to grant a bit of light. Working up one of those torches that Aselia mention attaching it to his belt just in case. As they went deeper into the cave, it got harder and harder to see. However they went with the plan that was agreed upon earlier, Ueno went first leading the way into the darkness. She was right. However, it was almost impossible to see anything in front of him he could barely see his hand in front of his face. Well, hopefully, this wasn’t a trap that they were leading him into or better yet something didn’t sneak up on them in the dark. Reaching down for the torch that was under his belt he was about to light it up when he felt Ueno in front of him. He wasn’t touching her not really, but he could feel her presence just on the edge of his reach, putting on investigation mode helped with that. He might not have had the ability of a hunter, but he had spent enough time with a creature of a different make that he could feel something. He was able to hear her when she spoke she wasn’t loud, but it was clear enough. So nodding his head in response gesturing for her to lead on. @Ueno Mizuki @Aselia
It was dark, alright. Very dark indeed. Aselia considered to take the time and meditate to commune with Kiku. Rather than a spell that would brighten the entire cave maybe something that just improved her vision. Unbeknownst to the white-hair that she'd only get made fun of for not knowing about the night-vision app. Regardless, it wasn't the first time Aselia had to get around complete darkness. Sure, the first time in a game but the fact that this simulation was pretty real only worked in her favor. Of course, that didn't mean the woman's vision suddenly turned nocturnal and ultimately she was glad for the guidance that the other two provided. Having decided to stay silent, heck not even mess with Ueno until they caught their prey, it was the Felis herself who spoke up. She tried to whisper but, considering the quiet around them, she could have just as well spoken up normally. "Maybe we should hold each other's hands?" The white-hair suggested with a shit-eating grin in a whispering voice. Still, her 'suggestion' had actually been serious. "You know what kind of animals are native here anyways, Aalam? I heard some townsfolk speaking about Bearsharks being a thing." A Bearshark seemed awesome enough that one would want to see one regardless of how many times they already did, no? @Aalam Abungu @Ueno Mizuki
If Mizuki had known about the night vision app she would have been embarrassed that she hadn't thought of using it, considering how this was honestly the best situation in which to use it. However since she was focused on what was ahead she wouldn't learn of it until after this little adventure or until one of the other two realized it and pointed it out. Of course Mizuki did have something of an advantage in that she didn't necessarily need it: her enhanced Investigation mode might not be exactly the same as night vision, but it was good enough that she felt confident making her way deeper into the cave system, trying to find any signs of animals worth capturing. Now that they were deep enough for no normal villager or even curious explorer to readily go this deep she was beginning to find signs of animal life, although only in very small amounts: it didn't look like finding anything of impressive size was going to be easy. As she searched she found small bones of eaten prey, faeces which had yet to fully decompose, some tufts of fur. The walls weren't made of solid rock, or at the very least there was enough dirt in here that there were areas in which you could find tiny paw prints, or lines which suggested that some kind of insect had made its way through. There was one spot where Mizuki thought she found signs of there being some kind of mole creature, where the earthen part of the wall was very rough in one spot, and when she inspected it she found that it was looser than most of the earth around it, as if it had been moved around while some creature was digging its way through, filling up the tunnel behind the digger but not as solidly as before, at least not yet. Of course it made sense that there weren't a lot of large creatures underground: one of the main reasons why creatures outside became big was because it made it easier to stay warm, to be able to compete with other big creatures, and simply because there was so much room. Down here in the earth it may not exactly be warm, but on the other hand it wasn't freezing either, and more importantly the temperature was very stagnant. As long as you could stand the temperature at any point in here (which wasn't very difficult) you could stand it pretty much the entire year, because down here the sun didn't matter, the winds didn't matter and the weather didn't matter. Down here warmth didn't easily escape, and more importantly down here there was the consistent heat from the heartbeat of the world itself. It wasn't enough to make the place warm, but it was good enough for all these tiny creatures to be able to live in relative comfort, without having the need of making themselves as big as possible. Which was good for them but not very good for Mizuki and her group. All these small creatures wouldn't actually attract much attention on a faire like the Dark Festival, so the fact that evolution didn't promote heavy growth here underground meant it would be tricky to find something. Of course outside it wouldn't have been any easier but Mizuki was still left relying on the hope that in Terrasphere evolution hadn't worked out in exactly the same way as on Earth, that maybe there was some large magical creature that could be found underground, like some kind of earth creature. At least the other two seemed to have little issue following her as she slowly made her way through the bowels of the earth. That was good, because even with the map provided by the game Mizuki was afraid that if one of them got lost they might have to end up killing themselves just to get out... or die of starvation, since this game did keep in account nourishment, food and rest. Very advanced, but it also made this an actual threat. Well, they'd just have to be careful, and as long as they didn't get separated Mizuki would be able to find the way back thanks to her being able to backtrack their own trail. When Aselia suggested holding hands Mizuki wasn't entirely sure whether the woman was joking or not. So far her female companion had been a mixture of jabs and jokes and yet also useful ideas and suggestions. It made it hard to tell when she was being serious and when she was just making fun of things, so Mizuki had to give the idea some actual thought, before eventually shrugging even though the others most likely wouldn't be able to see it in this darkness. "Given the fact that I'm our tracker and in front I would like to have my hands free in case I need them. However the two of you might have an easier time if you held hands or otherwise had physical contact, while I use my Hunting skill to make sure I know where you are." As long as Mizuki paid attention she shouldn't lose track of the other two, so even if the two of them got lost as long as they stayed together Mizuki would be able to find them swiftly... The Hunting mastery was really proving itself useful. "A bearshark sounds like something worth capturing, although so far I've only found traces of smaller creatures. I doubt we'll find something like that in a cave unless there's water here, but something of similar size might work." Of course a bearshark also sounded like a pain to fight, given that bears were some of the most dangerous land creatures and sharks were definitely some of the most dangerous sea creatures... Although in Terra there was most likely much, much worse on both land and sea, and in the sky as well. Still, if they could find something like that and somehow managed to subdue it they'd definitely have done their job... _____ After having searched for quite some time Mizuki frowned, then clacked her tongue to alert the other two before turning around. "Please hold for a moment, I believe we need to discuss how to advance beyond this point." The issue was quite obvious: still no sign of anything worth capturing. They'd encountered some bats by this point, and a lot of small insects, but nothing spectacular enough that it'd attract a crowd. Once the other two had stopped moving Mizuki spoke up again, although she still tried to keep her voice from resounding through the cave. "Whether through misfortune or lack of skill I've yet to find any indication of there being a creature worth taming in here. While we could keep going I am beginning to doubt we are going to find anything, and while I am confident that I will be able to lead us back out into the sun there's still the risk that the longer we stay in here the more opportunities there are for us to get separated and lost." She was disappointed and annoyed, although in the darkness her companions wouldn't be able to read her body language very well, even with her tail there to make it more blatant. "While I am loathe to admit it we might have to consider that we are incapable of finding that which we need, in which case we might have to admit our failure to our employer and instead prioritize not spending too much time on this. I want to hear both your opinions on the matter, though: do you believe we should keep going?" For her own part Mizuki was willing to keep trying if she had some reason to believe it'd bear fruit, but honestly she didn't have much hope at this point. It'd be up to her companions whether they'd continue or go back. @Aalam Abungu @Aselia
As Aalam followed her into the dark, he knew that some people were able to see in the dark because of race abilities. It was a bit difficult for him just to trust her it was a bit hard to trust his eyes and that made it difficult to trust her. However she seemed to be able to find her way rather well, the darkness wasn’t impairing her vision, it had to be a skill there was no way that a person could train themselves to see in dark this great. Running through the list of skills in his head it wouldn’t be any of the weaponry skill that would make no sense. It had to be one of the miscellaneous abilities either Rogue or Hunting; he had enough skill in rouge that if it were that it allowed him to see in the dark, he would be seeing. So it had to be hunting well that was an exciting use of the mastery, and a part of it was something that he didn’t know. Well, you learn a new thing every day he would have to correct his protection plans for the Duke after they finish this mission. As they moved through the cave he could see feet as they passed over small bones, they tend to crunch under his feet. Reaching down every few minutes to check the bones he passed there might have been something that he would have been able to use to find a creature. Running his thumb over the counters of the bones trying to get a feel for the type of being, there was few bats and mole but nothing too big or anything that would help them to complete the quest. He knew there was something that in the cave there had to be something in there. The cave was to excellent a place for a creature to set up a den, he had found wolves in her before, so that fact that it was empty was too strange to him. Hell, he had fought wolves in here and now that den was empty could a rival pack have driven them out. That didn’t make sense there were no signs of a fight well for as far as he could tell. Even the bones were old and stale, so they had to have been there longer than at least a week. The cave had been abandoned for at least a week for the remains to be this calcified. This was all very odd to him he knew animals and this was not like animals to give up a den that was this well. It could be that the cave had just been abandoned but well it was still strange. Well, at least he was able to follow Mizuki as they went deeper and deeper into the cave, deeper than he had been alone. He had made a map in his head to help him get back to the entrance if they had the terrible luck of getting separated in the dark. However, when he heard Aselia suggestion of holding hands, he thought she was joking at first. It seemed that she wasn’t though the women actually did want to hold hand just as ways to avoid becoming separated in the dark. It was an honest requested and he had no reason to refuse it even if he didn’t completely trust her. So he reached out towards her a grabbed her hand, making sure that he had a firm grip so that he wouldn’t lose her. The gloves might have been a bit rough but at least he couldn’t lose track of her now. Speaking out into the darkness but making sure to keep his voice down he didn’t want to spook anything. “I have heard about bear sharks before they are listed in a bestiary that, suppose to a very large bear with a tough hide and extremely sharp teeth. It would be difficult to capture however they’re very aggressive” He would have preferred not to run into one in the dark. It would be difficult for him to try and control the beast in the darkness. However they seemed to not have any luck on the hunt, the cave was empty truly empty there was nothing to find there. So when Mizuki suggest stopping the hunt he had to really consider it, it would be a waste of time if they continued. So he would have to relent on this quest, it hurt him that meant there would be a contract that he failed. He couldn’t waste time so he would have to agree. “Yes as much as I would hate to fail a contract, to continue this search would take more time that it would provide a reward. Your thoughts @Aselia ?"
Her suggestion didn't fall completely on deaf ears even with the wolf girl declining. In fact, Aselia wasn't quite sure if she was supposed to be surprised or not that Aalam took her up on her offer considering what happened earlier. Nonetheless, even with holding hands, her vision obviously didn't improve all too much, making her miss most of the smaller details on their blind adventure save the rattling bones on the ground. Inspecting them just like Aalam the white-hair could at least conclude that these left-overs weren't from eons ago. Maybe they'd actually meat a Bearshark! Though with how things currently were they most likely would need to end up killing it anyway. Nonetheless, as the group continued and continued without any sign of an actual fresh track it became more and more apparent that this would lead nowhere. Not like that Aselia particularly cared. But... "Well, well. Look at the time. As much as I'd like to just keep going, even just for the sake of exploration, I wasn't thinking we'd need that long. I have other appointments to take care of, soon." Yeah, Aselia was clearly one of these dirty players that joined some online-game just to quit 20 minutes later! "Oh man, how I'd wish to have the luxury of just saying 'Sorry man, I was busy capturing the Great White.'" The red-eye added, more talking to herself than actually meaning the others. "The way back then, it is?" Maybe now was a good chance to actually go ahead and give Mizuki a similar treatment to Aalam but ultimately, Aselia decided against it, her usually care-free behavior was ruined as she inevitably reminded herself of her own real-life duties. @Aalam Abungu @Ueno Mizuki
It was quite annoying, to have to admit that there was no reasonable choice but to go back and admit that they had failed to achieve the objective. Mizuki most certainly hadn't planned for that possibility, because she had thought it quite likely that they would have been able to find what they were looking for even in the limited amount of time that was available to them. To find something exotic shouldn't be too difficult in a world of fantasy: the villagers didn't usually move too far away from their homes, so finding something which would attract their attention would be as simple as finding an impressive looking creature that originated from a location where villagers seldom went. Something like a deep cave system was perfect for that, since there wasn't much reason for a villager to explore a place like this, especially since it was usually a dangerous place to be. Even if the creatures living in caves weren't a direct issue there was the threat of getting lost or getting injured, which usually wasn't worth it. But this time around it seemed like they really were just out of luck. This place seemed abandoned by anything bigger than the bats and the moles, and while those might not be a common sight for the average villager Mizuki was pretty sure they weren't the kind of thing their client would want them to deliver. The wolflike Felis looked around one last time in case there were any other signs of something more interesting present, just in case she had overlooked something. A last ditch attempt at holding out hope that as long as she just tried she'd be able to find something which would satisfy their client. However it seemed that last hope would also be disappointed, as even that last thorough inspection of their surroundings yielded nothing. Either Mizuki was actually quite the poor tracker, or the cave system just wasn't currently being used by anything big. Which wasn't exactly unnatural, but it was both unexpected and strongly unwanted. The other two both agreed that beyond this point there was little profit to be gained from continuing the search. They had been following Mizuki around, taking great care not to get lost as the Felis was the only one who could find her way around here thanks to her Hunting mastery. They had been with her the entire time as all that time spent searching yielded nothing, so they also understood that there was little reason to believe that searching any further would actually be any more fruitful than it had been so far. If Mizuki had been finding tracks worth pursuing she would have mentioned it, so the complete lack of commentary was enough to make it clear that their attempts at searching this place had been met with the world that the cave system was a part of bluntly stating that there was nothing here for them to find. Frustrating, but not a lot that could be done about it beyond this point. "With both of you agreeing I'll lead us back to the surface. I really thought that this place would be a good spot to find something worth showcasing, but it seems that we're unlucky today." Without saying much more Mizuki began to lead the way back to the surface, which mostly consisted of very carefully retracing their own steps as her Hunting mastery in combination with the Investigation Mode allowed her to see the footsteps as if they had been covered by a layer of neon. On the way back up Mizuki thought about how to deal with the failure... They'd have to report, and while it wasn't like their client was completely dependent on their success she doubted he'd be very pleased at the failure either. Most likely there'd be chewing out and more importantly they wouldn't get paid. Of course since they were adventurers and PCs the money wasn't quite as important, as it was easy for them to hunt some weak monsters for food and for materials to sell to shopkeepers, but in the principle of the thing Mizuki was unhappy. She didn't like failure. It didn't take much longer for them to return to the surface, since this time rather than carefully searching every nook and cranny Mizuki just made sure she was still following their own footsteps as she traced them back to the point where the three of them had started out. In a significantly shorter amount of time they were all basking in the sunlight once more, although the sun wasn't quite as high in the sky as it had been when they had entered the cave. MIzuki looked up,then sighed and looked around at her two companions. "With us having failed to acquire an exotic animal or creature to put on display our employer will not be pleased. So as to not waste too much of your time I will take care of that by reporting to him. We hardly need all three of us to be present for that, unless you feel an obligation to be present as we declare failure on the job." Since Aselia had already mentioned that she had other things to take care of as well Mizuki looked at Aalam. "I won't hold any grudges if you leave it to me to report to the employer, so don't feel obliged to come to share the burden unless you honestly believe that is what you should do." With that Mizuki would, if necessary, listen to the arguments of the others of who should come with her to the employer. She wouldn't actually stop them from coming along, but she would bid farewell to any of the two who decided to go do their own thing before heading towards the city, where a businessman would have to attract customers without his exotic animal. Mizuki just hoped he wouldn't go overboard, because if she got angry that'd just make matters worse. @Aalam Abungu @Aselia
