Seriously, how many times was she going to end up getting a herd of monsters angry at her for no apparent reason? She'd just been wandering the forest, working on a simple quest to find some herbs for a healer in town. They told her it was fine for someone on the weak side, and Harveste was used to the forest. This should have been simple! And yet, here she was again. Caught in the middle of a mob, with no real fighting skills to get rid of them. This time, it was goblins- and while they probably weren't that strong, there were quite a lot of them, and only one of her. What was it that nice man taught her, again? Nope. She couldn't remember- but it had to do with being weak and vulnerable, if she could recall. As one of the goblins moved just slightly, she managed to maneuver her way through the mob- but they stayed on her tail as she rushed through the woods. There was no escaping them- and she'd just revived, to boot! @Korraquinn
"Sylvanas" A soft voice called, a smooth and mellow tone, one that didn't quite fit the urgency of the poor girl's predicament. The reason was simply experience as Lucia watched the poor girl dart towards her with Goblins chasing behind, it wasn't an uncommon thing, in truth, Lucia herself had started the game under similar circumstances running from wolves. Now though, things were fortunately much different. With a sharp series of hand gestures that came before the hushed call, a pale fog came from Lucia's palm towards the ground. Almost immediately a hand emerged from the ground, withered and weathered, the hand was worn as it forced it's way up from the soil one grab at a time. The creature was a woman, though it was clear only from the remains of the clothing it wore and the long hair that remained over what was left of her face. An undead, though some might call it a simple Zombie, Sylvanas was Lucia's Thrall of choice, one that when resting rested at her back instead. "Go, take care of it." She urged with a frown. The creature strode forward towards the poor fleeing girl. Though rather then striking at the fleeing girl, the creature continued onward ambling into the goblins biting and taring at whatever it could reach. Though the goblins would no doubt fight back, Lucia's smile softened knowing that Sylvanas wouldn't die so easily. Dragging goblins down with it, Lucia glanced towards the fleeing girl gesturing with a beckoning hand. "Over here, it's okay." She spoke sweetly, her demeanor was warm and gentle, very inviting. Her figure particularly enchanting, she had the poise and atmosphere of a matured beauty despite her youthful appearance. She urged Harveste to join her, knowing it was more dangerous to be farther away. Lucia by nature was a supporter and summoner at this point after all, there were few safer places then the ones she stood at.
At first, Harveste was getting ready to run sideways to escape what she could only assume was a zombie after her- until it wasn't. It passed her as if she were invisible, rushing after the goblins on her tail. Shocked, she stared in silence for a moment, stuck in shock, unable to move. And that's when she heard it- a voice, a gentle voice. It spoke to her as if she were a scared rabbit, which she felt like- but part of her was uneasy, suspicious of the timing. A zombie dragging goblins to their doom after they'd been showing such an interest in doing that to her? And now, a girl calling for her? A girl she didn't know, at that. Hearing more grunts coming her way, she decided to listen anyway. She didn't have much to lose except dying one way or another. Finding herself at the side of the woman who'd seemingly found the place they wouldn't be caught, Harveste panted softly, glad to be done with all the running around. "Thanks for the help, miss. But um, how did you do that? I mean, it's weird for a zombie to just suddenly attack the goblins that happen to be attacking me...And now you're here showing me where to hide. It's like magic.Not magic I can recognize, I mean."
Lucia couldn't help a mellow laugh, shaking her head slowly at the girl's curiosity. It wasn't too unusual, Lucia was one of the few who had a genuinely evolved Mastery after all, one that was particularly advanced and frightening at that. "You mean Sylvanas? She looks a little scary sure, but she's a work in progress. I'll figure out how to rebuild her little by little." Lucia chuckled tenderly while reaching a hand out to pet the smaller girl's head reassuringly. Her gentle gestures a stark contrast to the icy ruthlessness of the creature ripping it's way through goblins. Even if some portions of the zombie were ripped off, the bits would twitch and slowly crawl back towards the main body as if they were wiggling worms. The sight was perhaps off putting, but it was why Lucia had so much faith in her Thrall. "It's Necromancy to keep the corpse moving, Sylvanas is my precious and most favorite thrall; the rest of it is healing magic, Illumancy though. After all, it would be a shame if she was beat up too much like this right?" Lucia explained her skill set a little with a patient and mellow demeanor as if this were a normal thing. Lucia had long since gotten used to the gore and violence associated with combat. Fortunately she didn't have to fight up close, or for herself any more. She had supporters and summons to do that for her now. "It's a hard mastery to acquire-- A unique one, I'm afraid a lot of people probably don't know it since it's not among the basic group." She added thinking Harveste might misunderstand her as some kind of pretender if she didn't explain properly. Her evolved mastery after all wasn't common knowledge. Few outside of her and some of her guild members even knew it existed. Lucia tried her best to set the girl at ease even as the zombie continued fighting. As time passed, even the goblins began to come back to life as monsters and fight their own kind until it turned into a vicious cycle of zombies attacking, being killed but making more zombies. The only one that remained standing from start to finish was the first zombie Lucia called.
"So that's what you meant by rebuild," Harveste noted. She'd waited a while to speak, questioning her instinct to trust the stranger more than the situation for short while. It was easier to listen to the woman than to the shrieking goblins in the background if she didn't think at all, however. So, for a bit, she'd tried not to. Sadly, not thinking was rather hard for someone with such intrinsic curiosity and a wandering mind. "I see! I don't have either of those skills, but it's amazing to think of how you can put them together like that. The only magic I have is naturamancy...I thought I'd be better with forests by now, since I've been trying to at least get a grasp of it but...Even with rogue, these fellas seem to find me far too interesting." She didn't question it existing. There were many things about this game that were unusual or unknown. Heck, this entire game was a mystery- no one was really able to talk about it on the outside, so it was only a matter of meeting people that one could really learn much about the inner workings, if they truly wanted to. "Your creativity of using the skills together is really amazing. Even if it were in the beginning group you can choose from, I don't think I'd have thought of something like that." She avoided looking towards the battle at all, though did peak over her shoulder if only just once. Lucia's attempts at calming her seemed necessary at those moments- so, she opted to stop even trying to pay heed to what was going on around her, outside their conversation. In fact, in all this, she'd forgotten manners as well. A chill in her spine as she tried to think of etiquette, she found herself staring at her feet momentarily, mulling the words over in her head before her eyes darted up to look at the woman face to face. "I'm Harveste. I want to thank you properly for saving me, so may I inquire your name?" It sounded a bit overly cautious even to her, leading her to look down slightly again. Anxiety tended to do that- that, and her writer's brain.
Lucia chuckled a little from the compliments, it was cute but something she thought was to be expected. After all, Lucia took herself for a professional gamer; earning a good living from the game, offering advice and help to people. Though she had a real job, this one was a much larger part of her life by far. "It's not so terribly difficult, even in the beginning when I first started I was combining Masteries." She explained with a warm chuckle. In the very beginning it was Ranged and Malefimancy for cursed arrows, since her respec it had been Illumancy and Malefimancy for healing others and draining energy from enemies. Now it had evolved a step further into healing Zombies.. no doubt it will evolve again when she completes Sylvanas. "You could too I bet-- This is a game that rewards practice and experimentation after all. I keep trying to preach that sort of thing at least." Lucia offered patting the girl's head still since she seemed to be having a panic attack almost. No doubt her own abilities had something to do with it, but there wasn't much Lucia could do to assure her other then continue being as gentle and kind as possible. Lucia was naturally a kind and gentle person but she chose and adored Malefimancy and dark magic because of how mysterious and cool it seemed. When it evolved into Necromancy her only real desire was more power and being more useful, but seeing what she'd become surprised even herself, so she didn't blame others for being overly concerned. The fighting eventually began to die down. While the Thrall was outnumbered, undead were always hard to keep down, they were one of the persistent and resilient types of creatures after all. When the silence finally came to a head though, the sound of her monsterous thrall's footsteps would sound as it began to return. Like a faithful puppet, it approached with slow steady footsteps. Since the fight with the goblin it had a few more scars and injuries. It's armor was a lot more worn and it's weapon had been destroyed in the chaos. Instead it discarded it's older weapon in favor of one of the ones used by the goblins. "Does this sort of thing happen to you often? You seem pretty familiar with running from them, have you never fought back?" Lucia asked looking down at Harveste concerned.
"I'm still learning to just use the masteries I have...The idea of trying to combine them is a bit much for me right now," Harveste mused with a timid chortle that showed signs of decay quite quickly, her voice ebbing away to listen to the woman's wholehearted preaching pep-talk. Her words rang true, overall. Even Harveste knew that the longer she put effort into the masteries she'd taken on, the more useful they'd be. However, how would hers really manage to evolve, let alone together? "I do like the creativity that's pushed by the game so far. I need to do a little more research about the way masteries grow and transform, but I shouldn't have much to worry about until I've gotten past being a novice." The silence cut her thoughts in half, her mind wandering with her eyes that seemed to seek what had once been a battle ground, which now was clearly used up and fatigued. As the puppet of a creature wandered back to them, she fought to hide her instinctual fear of the undead, moving closer to it thn she had when it was close enough, smiling to it with a word of thanks. She turned back to Lucia not long after. "I don't really have any fighting skills. I did try fighting a hoard that found me on the beach once, but it just made things worse in the end. Even if I am only a novice rogue, it honestly surprises me how much the monsters are drawn to me. I feel like bait more than anything sometimes. I was working hard to learn to fight them, but when large group come at me, there's not much I can do yet."
Lucia chuckled a little shaking her head in understanding, it was naturally a little hard to envision a fusion of masteries, among other things. Even in regards to evolving a mastery, Lucia herself wasn't even prepared for it when she found it was possible let alone planning for it in advance. Instead Lucia only brought a gloved hand to her chin in thought speaking in a soft reassuring tone. "Don't try to stress too much, it's not really as hard as you might think, my abilities look a little flashy and spectacular only because they're strong you know, but when I was a novice they were very plain looking, you might not even notice them." She explained with a soft gesture. "It all starts with musing, for me it was something like; 'i can hit things from far away but my attacks are weak'. So how do I fix that? Make my attacks stronger? it's easy enough with stats and skill masteries, but what if I urgently need them to be stronger? I use dark magic to curse the arrows to make them more painful~" She explained bringing her hands together, it was the first conclusion or idea for fusion she came up with when entering the game. She started as a simple ranger with dark magic, and thought herself clever for cursing her arrows before firing them. "Later on, it became; 'i can drain all of my needs directly but that doesnt help the team', and so I changed to use light magic, to drain needs and then distribute them with blessings. Like that, you think about what you can do, and what tools you have to make it better." She tried to offer what helpful advice she could. However unfortunate, Lucia did have something of an unfair advantage; she came into the game trying to achieve perfection, all of her skills had always been carefully and diligently selected as if they were life or death matters so she put a great deal of thought into things from the start. Regardless, when the zombie returned, it didn't even glance towards Harveste, as if deaf it was incapable of answering, truly only a puppet with the most basic of functions and ideas. While it could be a clever predator, it was far from sentient and conscious. Instead, Lucia only pet the girl's head more with a kind smile. "My only fighting skill is dark magic at this point-- It's all about synergy, how your skills work together, even if they're not fighting skills, why can't they help your abilities to fight?" She offered not wanting to outright ask the girl he rmasteries to try to help her, after all there were a variety of trust issues. While Lucia herself was comfortable enough to reveal her cards it was only because most would be helpless when looking for a weakness regardless. Lucia had no real strength of her own, and because of that didn't have any real weakness to exploit either.
"I have masteries that should help me fight from afar in the long run...I started out with naturamancy because I wanted to be close to nature. To be honest, I've managed to get along with some of the less-violent creatures pretty easily, even though I'm not a beast tamer. I made friends with squirrels and such." It seemed like this woman was rather bright about the game- she explained in such beautiful details how she'd come to decide on growing her abilities and the thoughts that lead her to each decision. Unworried about "I see...Well, I did choose Magic Tools to mix with the Naturamancy- I need some kind of weilding abiity, right?" A soft giggle left her small, gently smiling face. "And because I knew I wouldn't be much of a fighter, I put Rogue for my third option to try to avoid danger. So far, that hasn't worked out as I planned though." Her laughter became slightly more sincere as she found herself being pet on the head once more. She wasn't sure why she'd honestly always liked that sensation- but it did make her kind of happy to have made her character even shorter than she already was. "But why did you choose dark magic to begin with? I'm curious!"
Lucia chuckled a little hearing Harveste's skills, the cogs in her head began to turn one at a time fashioning a play style with those pieces. After all, the amount of research Lucia did before starting was intense and largely encompassed 'known knowledge' at least. Those basic skills were ones she knew well despite not taking them herself since she pondered over whether or not they would work with her abilities. "Magic Tools is useful, you can pick a variety of them to change how you cast spells; A staff for power, wands for free cantrips, trinkets for recovery and focuses for rapid casting. Of course, you could also be like me and chose a Grimoire for a secondary supply." Lucia explained, knowing her style of summoning magics required a bottomless well of mana more then anything else. It was for that reason she picked a Grimoire personally. "You have Rogue for agility and movement, and Naturamancy for combat, they're not bad picks; I would recommend getting a Rod or Focus-- Maybe one for each hand. A one hand rod would let you cast a free low level spell, something to grow grass or roots to tie up your enemies while you run; the focus would let you cast faster to hurt them like wood spears or swinging branches and let you keep running. If there are animals near by you could even try to coax them into joining the brawl while you stay back A very nice Kiting skillset." Lucia offered with a gentle smile as she offered Harveste the best 'technique' she could envision for the girl. Though when Harveste commented on her choice for dark Magic, Lucia's gentle smile cramped briefly. A measure of bitterness coming to her sweet expression as she remembered the reason why. "Well, there are various reasons I have from reality--" She began, not going into detail about her real life. Lucia was an enchanting and mature beauty with modest curves that could make hearts pound while being elegant enough to seem trashy or lewd. Her demeanor was very gentle and kind, a welcoming atmosphere came off of her naturally and made it easy to relax with her without trying very hard. A lot of work was put into not only her skillset but also these seemingly silly and subtle differences. All of this work and effort had been done for the same reason; In reality she was plain, boring, unnoticeable. She lived a life of anonymity even among her close friends and relatives, she would be invited, forgotten and then invited again, left behind and invited again and hang in the background. It would be one thing if it was because of bullying, but those close to her were also nice and kind people, ones who tried to include her but found it hard to think of anything she could shine at. She was a forgettable face in the crowd, and every day she would live accepting apologies and pity for her 'averageness'. In a game though she could be different; she could shine brightly as a beauty, she could pull others in with a comfortable atmosphere, she could be remembered as a powerful Dark Mage who's names and abilities could live on as cautionary tales parents would tell their children for generations, who could do amazing and world changing things. A brief melancholy came to her face as she glanced to her undead thrall with sympathetic eyes, her words came out a little hushed, soft and tender to the ear. "--Why I've kept it though; Undead creatures are scorned and hated though, even if they only want to live their life like the rest of us, no one allows them the chance to grow or learn. I was given this ability by a nice NPC Goddess, the least I can do in return is stay the course and not throw away their efforts and support. Wouldn't it be neat to see what kind of place the undead would build if we let them try?" She asked with a gentle smile once more.
"I've actually made friends with some of the animals in this forest- it's one of the reasons I like coming here. My first day, I met a small group of people and a squirrel decided to join us. It was really ticklish when it decided to use my head as a nesting place." The memory entertained her, a soft giggle leaving her small mouth, a slight redness on her face. It was a bit embarrassing just how much she liked squirrels. "It made me happy that it was willing to be so kind to me." Being told some pointers about ways to best use her skills, Harveste could only let out a bit more of a nervous chuckle if nothing else, the air in her throat slightly bubbling into a block. "I-I actually was planning to get a grimoire for myself. I thought of a rod, but it's harder to get a rod with something to tie it to me than it would be to get a book I can't lose. I've always loved books, too, so it kind of has a bonus there. I wonder what that counts as for a magic user..." The woman was going to tell her how she chose dark magic, but seemed to stop the moment reality set in. Within her mind, Harveste was pondering what might have been part of Lucia's real life. Was she as stunning and wise as she was in this world? Harveste hadn't met many people, especially since moving out on her own for once in her life- but in particular, such gentle wise people were like treasures to the small faerin, who loved the quiet tranquility more than anything in the world. "I feel kind of bad for having a similar bias to everyone else. Just because undead creatures look a little scary to me doesn't mean I should assume they want to hurt me. Sylvanas saved my life after all! As for a world of the undead...It'd be hard to see it unless they let us take a peek, but it would certainly be a great tale if one could find it."
Lucia couldn't help a mellow laugh at the girl's thoughts on getting a Grimoire. It certainly wasn't strange for someone to pick the thing that resonated the most with them, but Lucia felt a little bad for the girl who was choosing a difficult path. "A Grimoire is for very powerful but very lasting spells. I use one because I can burn an entire Grimoire's reserve to summon an army, similarly I can do the same to cast regeneration on a large group of people to last them through a battle-- Or an area drain to drag down a horde of monsters. It won't help me cast faster, or cause more damage, but it gives me the reserves to start with something ridiculous from the start without being useless later on." She explained patiently for the poor girl who seemed uncertain about the values of different magical tools. "It would be hard for a rogue who needs to move around to use one-- you can't run well while you're casting such a big spell." Lucia offered with a sympathetic look. Trying to put some more thought in though the girl's requirements seemed a little bizarre, she couldn't help tilting her head at the thought of a book being harder to lose then a rod. Rods could come with loops to wrap at the wrist, focuses could be almost anything as well, they were probably the easiest to keep close by for their size as well. "Why not just commission a loop for your wrist so if you drop it it'll hang from your arm? I think a holster wouldn't be too unusual either." Lucia tried to give the girl some advice on the one armed tools but looking down at her own grimoire, she gave it's wrapped cover a pat as she spoke. "I keep mine tied to my waist though, it hasn't been very useful since my mastery evolved, but that will change once I get a better one." She posed with a musing tone. Her own grimoire was the one she'd used from the start of the game after all, she hadn't ever upgraded to a better one because she'd thought she'd be using more archery in the beginning. That said, she now needed one but she'd since been preoccupied with her evolution into a Necromancer; and then after with repairing Sylvanas. Though hearing the Faerin girl talk about her own prejudice towards the undead, Lucia could only nod her head feeling assured. Though she didn't want Harveste to get the wrong idea that undead could be approached willy nilly. "They have their own personalities and problems, just like normal people, there will always be bad ones and good ones. It's only unfortunate that most end up bad because of their experiences before death." Lucia explained, undead usually come back for grudges or grievances from life, while that's different from the creatures themselves having hate for the living, it still drives them to be hostile. "Some though are very normal, common people, forgotten and left behind by time. I got to see a bits of what they're like in the raid, but it will be a while before I see what they would build without anyone interfering." Lucia explained with a soft chuckle. Her goal was an undead kingdom after all, whether or not she could become it's queen by becoming undead herself was another story, but she still wanted to help build it. "Sylvanas will be the first I hope. Though she's only a zombified thrall for now, I will keep fixing and repairing her frame until I can find her soul. I know the recipe to make a high tier Undead, but the ingredients are difficult." She admitted with a soft chuckle. She planned to combine two undead to make a stronger more superior one, but that would be some time. The one who would be her general as queen... Or at least take her place as Queen if she couldn't become undead wouldn't be ready for a long time.
She frowned ever so slightly at the realization her love of books could soon be her downfall. A grimoire had been her first choice in weapon that she'd been saving up for- that, and for aid in restoring herself, getting rid of the pesky punishment she'd gotten for a death recently. "I'm just glad you're using an Undead. To be honest, I have religiphobia cast on me from going somewhere I wasn't strong enough to be. A rod might make me nervous because it makes me think of a holy scepter." She paled- just the word holy sent her mind into a mess! Tears taking her eyes, she hugged her arms together tightly against her chest. "Ugh...I-I'm not like this offline...Sure, I'm a scaredy-cat, but...Th-That word has never bothered me this much before!" After a shudder passed through her system, she let out a deep sigh. Returning to the woman's words, she jumped. "I-I already commissioned a book with a tie for myself when I started planning! I didn't know you could get a rod with a wrist loop!" Almost panicked she shook it off. "Well...It might be safer for now anyway. Plus, the book I ordered will be really naturey. I thought of getting a rod, actually. One that was basically a tree branch. It fit my theme, you know? But...A book to press flowers in isn't a bad plan either. Who knows? Maybe they'd work as materials for someone after they're dried." She giggled softly, talking more to herself as she tried to talk herself into accepting her choice. "I still don't know what that means, actually. What IS a thrall? And...Sylvanas was once dead- but is she a player that died and now isn't using the body? How do you know what one's background is? I'd love to know more about them- especially her!"
Lucia giggled a little at the girl's actions and response as if finding it adorable. It wasn't uncommon for people to just go with what they liked, few really put much thought into it like Lucia, but Lucia did intend to be a professional. "I'm just talking optimization, after all focuses don't have to do with religion, they can be anything like a skull or a feather or twig even." Lucia explained knowing that Foci were useful tools for combat mages. Lucia herself though was a summoner/supporter which was why she chose Grimoires. "Though that said, I also have a death affliction, fortunately I didn't get your's, it would be sad if I had to give up the Goddess's faith in me. Synra had been supporting me from my early days when I couldn't afford to buy my own place." Lucia explained with a mellow chuckle. The temple after all had given her shelter in those early days when she was afraid and alone in the world. She had no idea what she would end up doing but in the end she found that the goddess at least supported her now. Hearing Harveste's reservations though, Lucia only chuckled a little, the woman seemed determined to have a Grimoire. "Why not both then? A book and a rod?" She asked with a gentle smile, trying to give the girl's head another pet when it seemed like she'd have a panic attack. It seemed like Harveste was getting far too flustered with talk of faiths. "I might have gone that route myself, but it wouldn't suit my skillset. I would be much better off with battle trinkets and Grimoires for energy restoration." Lucia explained with a soft sigh. Cantrips were nice to be able to throw out after all, but Malefimancy, Necromancy and Illumancy didn't have strong attack powers, instead they were all vicious for different reasons. Though when she asked more about the undead, Lucia couldn't help a mellow laugh. "A Thrall is simply a powerful undead, a simple conjuring, unfortunately in order to make use of higher undead, such as vampires or Wights I'll need to be more clever in my approach." Lucia explained knowing that it was incredibly difficult to summon high Tier undead. They required other magic schools, such as Pyromancy, or Arcanamancy. Lucia herself had Illumancy to call a certain variety of undead, but that would be difficult to maintain until she was a high enough level to not need fresh corpses for her spells. "As for Sylvanas, well, I believe I'm not the best one to tell that tale?" She spoke with a small smile glancing towards the corpse that waited with an icy and unfeeling exterior. For a moment there was nothing, but Lucia looked at the puppet expecting something. It was only after a while that the puppet's remaining eye opened slowly. "I was a Lieutenant... Not like you adventurers..." The corpse spoke, but it was clearly not normal, it's mouth didn't move, it didn't breath, as if speaking directly to the mind, the words simply 'echoed', projected outward from whatever was driving it. "A sword of the last Elven Glade... I was given the task of safeguarding the boarder..." It continued, the ethereal voice was wispy and contained a variety of awkward pauses making it a little difficult to listen deeply. It was clear speaking was difficult for the corpse in this form but it still continued, spurred on by Lucia's magic to continue her tale. "I died proudly in the war with the humans you adventurers started... And now am reduced to this suffering in despair as some--" She started trying to explain her predicament but Lucia made a silencing gesture with a small smile cutting the voice off before it could continue illustrating it's woes. Though Lucia cut it off, it wasn't because it would make her look bad but she was afraid Harveste would have the wrong idea.
A skull or twig wouldn't have been too bad. Maybe not the skull as much- she wasn't really a fan of anything that generally fit under the 'horror' genre- but a twig? That would've fit her just perfectly. A feather would've worked too, in fact. Like a fairy's wings, it would fit a faerin! Still, she'd already made her choice at the start. The worst thing that could happen was she'd have to get a second weapon later on if it turned out not to fit her needs, right? "I'm not sure I could really hold both at once, but it might be fun to try them each anyway as I get used to things." She smiled gently, curious as to what the woman had been originally planning from the beginning. "More power isn't bad, but it seems like Sylvanas is special to you anyway as she is, doesn't it? I think that's rather special all by itself, more than whether you can get a vampire or something else." It was then that she heard a voice unfamiliar to her. It was like it came from nowhere- yet, as it spoke, it felt much more clear in the later of the creature's statements. It was probably the words 'I died' that really gave it away. So Sylvanas had been a warrior. It did make some sense, in a way...But it seemed like it was cut off a bit too soon to make much judgement about the personality underneath the revival. "Ah, is it possible you control when she can be heard? I didn't see her mouth moving, but it seemed like your movements were triggers for my hearing her voice." Maybe it was a part of the skill set? That, or she just imagined it all. Either one was likely possible, at least in her mind.
