Complete Eastern Brisshal First Find, Last Keep

[Siondhe]

Kyra couldn't help but wonder at the other girl's odd tick. The constant need to itch her hand, as if there was some rash, or other affliction on the back of it. She assumed that it was some sort of nervous tick - like how Kyra's right ear would fold over slightly, or her tail would twitch in agitation in some cases - but as to why it was occurring, she had no idea.

"Games? Oh, well, I played a lot of online rpgs, things like the original Guild Wars when it was still around. A bit of World of Warcraft...some lesser known ones like the Lord of the Rings Online, or D&D Online...oh and BDO - err, that's Black Desert Online...I played a lot of the more...well, social games. I guess. Oh, and a few virtual reality ones as well, especially once the mainstream games got their own VR components!"

Kyra cocked her head as she realised that she'd said far more than she'd meant to. She had gotten comfortable, far faster than she had expected. An internal shrug, and she decided it wasn't worth mulling over - that sometimes happened in these games.

"Although I've never seen anything like this. This game is on a whole other level, compared to everything else. Even the fact that it has an incorporated pain system. Not to mention you can turn off the game assist, and cast/fight everything using your own knowledge...it's intense, in a way. But I kinda like that, as weird as that may be...it makes the immersion far more engaging. I guess it also makes the game that much more challenging, too, in a way..."

Her ears twitched as she caught the sound of something crunching nearby, off to their left. She fought the urge to turn and face it, instead forcing herself to continue walking forwards. A few seconds later, a similar crunch. Then another. She cocked her head to the left again, trying to keep any sign of her awareness of her face, as she whispered to Katelyn.

"Something in the woods on our left. It's been following us for a moment...but it's trying to stay out of our awareness. Might be best not to immediately confront it, but allow it to come to us..."

 

[Katelyn the Bewildered]

“Oooooo, D&D is something I always wanted to try!” The girl seemed to beam at the aspect, thinking of all the countless ways that she could have fun with building a character with friends and just rolling the dice. She’d always been obsessed with rpg dice, but she never had anyone to play with that would actually make use of the ones she’d collected.

Then, Katelyn grew silent as she heard Kyra’s fallout. “Following us?” she asked in an equally quiet tone, mimicking the fox girl’s unreactive posture. “Hmmm… Do you know if it sounds human, or animaly?”

 

[Siondhe]

Kyra's ears twitched as she tried to hone in on the sound, her eyes half-closing in order to block out any distractions. For a few steps, she could only hear the breathing of herself and Katelyn, loud against the otherwise quiet of the world around them. Then it came.

"Four feet...no paws...something on four legs. Moving slowly, as if stalking. It's coming this way. I think...I think it knows. That we know."

The sound of the paws on ground had quickened, as if the creature had begun to move faster. Kyra twitched her ears again, trying to lock onto the origins of the noise. Another twitch of the ears, her nose and mouth mimicking the twitching, before her eyes sprung open and she lifted her scythe before her, calling out as she turned to her left.

"It's coming."

The words were spoken with a calmness that she didn't feel, her heart racing in her chest. She considered their options. Whatever it was, it was moving quickly, far quicker than they could likely run. Standing and fighting however, wasn't her ideal choice either.

Before she could make her decision, the wolf erupted from the woods before her - leaping to the side as it found its prey ready and waiting for it, before sliding to a stop in the roadway, glaring at them with an intense stare. Kyra tightened her grip on the scythe, waiting to see what it - or Katelyn - would do, and silently hoping they would make it out of here without any issues.

 

[Katelyn the Bewildered]

Katelyn listened closely, becoming more impressed with Kyra’s advanced hearing by the second. Her friend could tell all of that, just from her canine ears? More and more, Katelyn wondered what else the Beastfolk race was capable of.

“I think...I think it knows. That we know. …It’s coming.”

As much as she was preparing herself for the possibility of combat up to this point, hearing those words still sent a chill down Katelyn’s spine. The first combat of a game was always in her mind the biggest trick to learning how to play, and it appeared they were going to achieve a form of crash course right out the gate.

The adrenaline induced Faerin quickly preempted into a cautious stance, jumping to the side with a spin in the air and almost seemingly falling in slow motion as she landed back behind Kyra, her hands in an odd form of martial position while her magic flared around her hands, up her arms, across her shoulders in blends of illuminated red and lavender.

Both of them were now face to face with a large wolf who had attempted to take them by surprise, and the summoner quickly considered her options.

“Okay, I’ll provide any assistance I can to combo with your hits,” Kate announced, studying Kyra from her peripheral and preparing for her friend’s next move.

 

[Siondhe]

Kyra gave a quick nod, the jerk of her head downwards the only sign that she had heard her companion. Her eyes and ears were focused on the wolf, watching it and waiting for any sign that it was about to move. Her tail, twitching jerkily behind her, sensed the air in a way that she had never expected it to - as if feeling a tension around her.

"I'll try and hold it at bay-"

Her words were interrupted as she sensed the coiled movement, her body flicking fowards to meet the creature as it rushed towards them. Almost as quickly as she could react, the wolf peeled backwards, trying to dodge her scythe's wide swing, caught by surprise as Kyra's actual scythe swung in from below - using the illusion of the weapon to her advantage.

Spinning, she dodged off to the left as the claws of the wolf raked towards her, glancing off her armour and pushing her further to the side. She coughed slightly from the weight against her torso, the impact still causing her to lose her breath.

She could see the gash that her scythe had left in the wolf's side, causing it to limp slightly as it tried to re-orient itself. Kyra's eyes flicked between the wolf and Katelyn, and she called out without thinking.

"Try and keep your distance from it! I'll try and rush it again!"

She lowered her weight, readying herself to move forward's again. The wolf looked hurt, but far from out of the fight yet.

 

[Katelyn the Bewildered]

Hearing Kyra’s reply, Katelyn noticed as her friend was interrupted, and attacked head on with the wolf. Watching as the purple haired girl had used illusion to produce a secondary scythe as a distractive measure, the Faerin smiled in excitement at watching the action, but quickly recovered and began to weave a spell of her own and cast it forth.

As Kyra was knocked back from the impact, an illusionary duplicate of her appeared in the space she previously occupied. Once again, minor flaws depicted the fake, this time especially being a lighter shade of purple adorning her hair, ears, tail and eyes. Upon impact, Katelyn silently commanded the clone to move similarly to how she believed Kyra would, but instead of falling in the same direction, it landed to the right of Kyra, mimicking her actions.

Within view, Kyra could now see that her copycat’s face was also a bit different, sporting freckles and a slightly bigger nose. Under Katelyn’s concentrated command, the fake looked toward her real counterpart, and nodded, as if to convey that it would provide an extra distraction as necessary and act in tandem with Kyra’s attacks.

Meanwhile, the purple summoning energy around Katelyn was now fading into a silvery, almost misty emanation, one hand focused on the fake while the other was aimed at the wolf, preparing to let loose a spell of a different nature.

 

[Siondhe]

[ibanner=rgb(102, 34, 184)]Kyra[/banner]

Kyra's eyes hesitated on the illusion before her just long enough to realise what she was looking at, before her body was in motion again. Flinging herself around the side of the wolf, she called forth her illusion magic again, creating an image of a multitude of Kyra's streaming forth, visible only to it, before ducking under and running her scythe into its flank. The creature gave two howls of pain as it tried - unsuccessfully - to pulled itself free of the hooked weapon that had pierced through its side.

"That...that was intense...I hope these things aren't always this...this difficult. Wow..."

She breathed a sigh of relief, just as she heard another growl, turning to find another wolf standing at the edge of the woods. The beast stared at her, a look that Kyra could have sworn held a look of promised vengeance.

"That can't be good! Katelyn! There's another one! And I don't think it likes me! Uhm...help!"

She felt herself back peddling as she tried desperately to pull away from the creature, swearing that she would somehow make it up to the wolf if it just let her live - promises made in her mind, that she knew the other creature couldn't possibly hear, and wouldn't likely help her anyways.

 

[Katelyn the Bewildered]

With the wolf before them, Kate didn’t have to provide too much assistance, keeping a close eye as Kyra dispatched the canine with the deadly precision of her movements and scythe. Apart from the basic motions that she had added in with her physical illusory clone, which were likely trumped by the duplicates of Kyra that Kate was unable to see, the wolf seemed to practically keel over at Kyra’s attack as if it were simply completely overwhelmed.

However, before they could take a breather, Kyra was targeted by yet another canine, growling at her and appearing ready to strike. Katelyn’s adrenaline kicked up once again, taking the silvered energy of her left hand, and immediately casting it out like a bolt shooting right over Kyra’s shoulder. The bolt latched onto the centre mass of the wolf, and expanded into a radius of transparency, diluting the image similar to if it were an intangible liquid wall.

As the bolt had hit the wolf, it attempted to lunge forward; instead, it seemed to be moving in slow motion, its body already in mid air but only moving at a tenth of its estimated speed.

From the sudden switch and lack of concentration, the Kyra lookalike dispersed back into the magical energy, fading into the ground as Katelyn brought her full attention to slowing the wolf.

 

[Siondhe]

Kyra

The wolf seemed to hover in the air before her, as whatever Katelyn had released slammed into its centre. Pushing aside her confusion, she lunged forward, sliding beneath the wolf as she lashed upwards with her scythe, cutting into the underside of the creature before passing beyond it, and popping to her feet on the other side.

"I have no idea what that was, but if you can do it again...that would be amazing! It definitely helps make this whole thing a bit easier to deal with!"

She ducked underneath another swipe, feeling herself thrown back slightly as the paw landed a glance across her shoulder, forcing her to spin away and around in order to keep herself from falling over entirely. The creature seemed to have recovered from whatever had hit it a moment ago, moving normally for the moment.

"Or, you know, if you have something that can just make it disappear entirely, that would be cool too! I wouldn't mind that..at all! Seriously!"

She found herself side-stepping and dancing around the wolf, doing everything she could in order to avoid its attempts at tearing her down, her scythe parrying as much strikes as she dodged. Whatever the thing was, it moved far faster than any other creature she'd ever faced, at least those she'd faced in other games.

"This thing really doesn't like me! I think I may have upset...it when I took out its...partner! I...think that maybe...we should end this one...and move on as quickly as...we can! Hopefully there...aren't more of them...here!"

@Katelyn the Bewildered

 

[Katelyn the Bewildered]

Doing her best to concentrate, Kate heard her comrade’s suggestions and smiled, happy that she was actually providing decent help. However, her spell had started to fail, from the sudden change of target and spastic cast. As it did, the wolf was once again attacking wildly, Kyra deflecting and dodging its strikes as much as she could.

“Make it disappear?” the girl requestioned, before getting an odd and potentially concerning idea. Luckily, Kyra had already gotten a few hits in on the beast, so this might do enough damage to be a success… Gathering the purple and red energy into her right hand, she called out to her friend. “On my mark, move as far away as you can and don’t freak out!” she said, waiting for the magical pulse to become a deep violet. “…Now!!”

Katelyn took the energy from her hand, and seemingly swallowed it, before walking at a fast pace toward the wolf. As she removed her hand, a dark blast of aura pulsed from her mouth, as five writhing, fifteen foot long tentacles sprung from her mouth orifice, slipping around and securing the wolf in between the lovecraftian appendages.

The wolf clawed, and snarled, and bit at the tendrils of whatever monstrosity Katelyn had summoned directly from her mouth; however, the octopi limbs gave no matter to its attacks and took every slash, constricting around the beast more and more until all that was seen was merely its tail.

Then, with a sickening multitude of cracks from inside the appendaged cage, Katelyn reeled her arms back, and commanded the tentacles to retract back into her mouth, leaving behind what had been the equivalent of a wolf so malnourished and dehydrated that it was practically no more than a skeleton with skin and fur, dead upon the ground.

Panting and clearly exhausted from her improvised use of the spell, Katelyn fell to her knees and caught herself with her hands. She looked up at Kyra, and gave a weak smile, clearly needing a moment to rest. “W..Well , it…didn’t disappear like… like I wanted it to,” she said in a tone of relief.

@Kyra Vashtana

 

[Siondhe]

Kyra

Kyra's ducking and dodging came to an abrupt end as something grabbed onto the wolf. For a moment, she thought it had been captured by some sort of land-based octopus, or perhaps some sort of giant squid that Katelyn had summoned using her different magical abilities.

She let her scythe fall to the side as she realised the threat was gone, for the moment, her head tilting towards the left as she leaned forward in order to figure out exactly what was going on. Her eyes suddenly caught sight of the caster, and she felt her skin tingle in response as she saw the cause of the thing before her.

"Thanks, Katelyn, that thing was definitely pushing me to my...what the hell is that? Why are there tentacles coming from your face?! Are you okay?!"

She stared, dumbfounded as the other seemed to devour the wolf, leaving little more than a carcass behind, and a pleasant smile. Eyes wide, she simply stared for a moment as the other girl calmly declared that the spell hadn't done quite what she had wanted it to do.

"I...I...uh...should we...should we get going...? Before...before another one shows up?"

Almost robotic in movement, Kyra turned and continued walking down the road, her head still tilted to the left, and her eyes wide open as she tried to understand what she had just seen. Walking silently, her tail stuck straight out with fur on-end, she led the pair towards what she hoped would be more civilised areas.

 

[Katelyn the Bewildered]

“G…Going sounds great,” Katelyn said, stumbling back onto her feet and dusting off her robes, before drunkenly following her friend. After a minute or two, she had regained her composure, and sighed happily as she did. Oddly enough, after performing that last spell, she almost felt… satisfyingly full? Almost like she had ate a healthy meal, for once. She pondered about this for a moment, but then remembered that Kyra had asked a question. In response, the girl opened her mouth, and pointed to a peculiar looking pentagram on her tongue. “I wanted to test something out,” she started to explain, “so I used my summoning stuff, to place a point of expulsion for one of my summonings, directly from my mouth! Although, I wasn’t expecting the summoning to be that big, or that exhausting… Then again, that was the first time I’d used that particular summon, and its size also probably contributed to the energy drain? I’m not sure…”

humming to herself, Katelyn then looked over at Kyra again, studying her face a bit more. If she was going to get better at making essentially doubles of her friends, with how leniently the conjuration and illusionary aspects of her magic operated, then she knew needed to be more studious about how they look and act. “Anywho, did you get any good experience from that fight?? I haven’t even checked my own stuff yet; How do experience points even work in this world, anyways??”

 

[Siondhe]

Kyra

She nodded as the other spoke, understanding some of what was being said, but questioning the logic of other things. It was far beyond any sort of magic system she'd seen in other games, and although it had a certain interesting factor to it, she wondered if there were drawbacks in any way to what they were able to do.

"Experience...? Oh, yeah I guess that's worth checking into isn't it..."

She pulled up her display, glancing through the menus quickly before finding what she wanted. To her surprise, there had been some growth. She quickly adjusted her own stats, nodding as she saw the difference they made. A quick hum later and she had closed out the menu once more, glancing back at Katelyn. The shock had warn off, and she felt her composure return - if only slightly.

"A bit of an increase in the scythe and illusion abilities! Definitely worthwhile...although if all the fights are going to be that difficult, maybe taking it easy would be a good idea! I mean, it was awesome and all, but...wow. I don't know if it's because I have everything set to realistic, but it hurt. And remembering how to cast spells, and move the scythe and everything! It was so realistic! I mean, if you forget something in a fight, it can go real bad, real quick! Imagine forgetting the casting sequence when you try and get something like Phatasmal Reflection or something up! That could make things go really bad!"

She hummed again, this time more to herself, as she made a mental note to study her spells and abilities more in-depth. As she'd said, it would be bad to forget something midway through a conflict. This game certainly felt unforgiving in some ways.

 

[Katelyn the Bewildered]

As her friend had checked her experience gain, Katelyn followed suit, humming to herself and looking at her options.

Illusion: E
Chronomancy: E
Summon(Illusion-Link): E
Available Rank-Up! Proceed?

Smiling a bit, Kate hummed and set all of her levels into the Illusion tree. Once she’d gotten Illusion high enough, she already intended to work on her Summoning class, that way her creations would be even more potent; She wasn’t quite sure what to do with her Chronomancy yet, though.

As she finished up, she heard Kyra begin to talk about the struggles of remembering spell patterns and the realism of the combat. “Oh, definitely!!” she responded, “I was surprised at how life-like those wolves were! I luckily haven’t had too many issues with the summoning sequences just yet, but I’d also say that I’m pretty decent at hand signs, for various reasons, ehehe… I wonder if any of them are going to require a verbal component? If they will, then I’m gonna get soooooooo frickin’ tongue tied.”

As they spoke while walking down the path again, Ched the buff bird darted through the leaves, and landed back onto Katelyn’s shoulder. “Alright, dorks, soooo you’ve probably got another teeeeen or fifteen minute skip or whatever. Take the next path on the right. If you miss the town after that, then I’m gonna lose all faith your survival skills,” Ched says, before vanishing into colored mist.

“Thanks a bunch, Ched!!” the silver haired girl replied with her usual beaming smile, looking over at Kyra. “Wellp, not too much longer!”

 

[Siondhe]

Kyra

Her eyes hadn't left the bird as it landed, spoke its report, and then lifted off again into the wild sky. Kyra couldn't help but question...well, everything, in relation to that bird. It just seemed off in many, many ways, and yet somehow she couldn't quite lay her finger on what exactly was with the bird that upset her so much.

"There's just something so weird about that bird..."

She tore her eyes from the spot it had disappeared into, shaking herself slightly before looking ahead. Breaking into another smile, she began skipping forward, turning to call back to Katelyn as she made her way beyond the other.

"We're almost there! I wonder what we'll find? Maybe a small little hovel, or some sort of miniature settlement maybe? Do you think they'll have a bunch of stores, or shops or just a market in general? Oh! Or maybe they'll have something really fun, like...a bathhouse, or something?"

She bounced from foot to foot as she went, considering the things of interest that they might come across once they reached their new destination. She liked the woods, but she was ready to be back with people; a place where things could be done - and where danger didn't lurk around every corner.

 

[Katelyn the Bewildered]

Giggling a bit at her friend’s excitement about town, Katelyn did what she could to keep up. “I’m not sure!” she replied at first. “I’m sure they’ll at least have a couple merchants, if nothing else; Maybe they’ll have a hot spring!! Or even just a shower! I’ve been wanting to see if water feels as real in this world as it does in real life. Plus, I’d really like to see what sorts of staves they might have!”

Humming happily, the girl skipped along and kept up with Kyra. She had to admit; despite getting jumped by wolves, today was insanely fun and productive! They’d managed to find a traveling merchant, tested the combat and magic system, and had learned a bunch about how they wanna proceed! As far as the summoner was concerned, today was the perfect amount of eventful for their first day in TerraSphere.

Plus, Katelyn felt as if she was making actually decent progress with making friends, the thought of which caused her smile to radiate happiness. However, she took her mind off of said things, as she noticed the trees beginning to open up into a new area.

 

[Siondhe]

Kyra

She glanced over at Katelyn as the other mentioned the feel of water. Kyra hadn't considered that - everything else in this world felt just like the real world, so she'd just assumed that the water would feel the same. She took a few more skips, considering the possibility, before confirming her decision on the situation.

"Well, everything else here is realistic enough...I doubt that they'd make a mistake on the feel of the water, right? I mean, consider how everything else here has been - I would assume that it'd be the same...like if they were going to make a mistake, or forget something...I don't think it'd be the water, right?"

She took a few more skips, before stopping and glancing up at the sky above them, her eyes squinting slightly against the sun. She could barely make out a few clouds in the otherwise clear sky; the day almost perfect.

"It's so beautiful here...whomever created all of this, they did a wonderful job. If I'd awoken here, without knowledge of entering the game, I would almost swear this was the real world. It's so...real, isn't it?"

 

[Katelyn the Bewildered]

Taking into consideration what Kyra said, Kate turned to thoughts again. True, the water would likely feel as real as anything else in this world. Who knows, the sensation could be adjusted for specifics, too, like adjusting the pain threshold dampeners for realistic combat. Despite the girl’s usual positivity and almost completely ditsy behavior, at that moment she actually almost seemed serious, and contemplative - as if a switch had been flipped off, even if just for a moment.

Then, Kyra brought the fairy’s attention elsewhere, to the environment around them, and the switch was flipped immediately back on as she focused on the things around her. The individual blades of grass, the heat of the sun on their face, the soft blanket of the trees’ leaves that occasionally flicked shadows between them and the sun’s light, even the birds distantly chirping in the trees nearby had caught Katelyn’s attention. “I wish this were the real world,” she said absently, a warm smile passing across her lips as she did. Strangely, she didn’t elaborate as she normally did, instead just enjoying Kyra’s company and the atmosphere of where they were.

She didn’t say much, but she certainly told the truth: A world like this is a million times better than any life she felt she could have out there.

 

[Siondhe]

Kyra

She nodded as the other spoke the words that Kyra had felt since arriving in this game. Sure, there were dangers here. Sure, the world itself wasn't perfect - but what world was? At least here you had an opportunity, even if it was limited.

"Me too."

The words were whispered, the smile on her face almost distant as Kyra stared off into something not here, as if remembering something. For a while, she walked in silence beside Katelyn, just enjoying the company of the other. No need to speak, no need to bring forth small talk for the sake of making noise; just content to be there.

"I think I see something! Over there, around the corner! It looks like brickwork of some kind...maybe a tower, or a watch point for the gates of a city?"

She began skipping ahead, excited by the prospect of entering a new area - but also the prospect of getting out of the forest for a while. She'd spent enough time in the wilds, and was ready to see what civilisation in this game had to offer. And maybe a nice shower, to go with that.

Turning the corner, she set her eyes upon the first of many small homes; some brick walled, others clearly made of some sort of lumber. But all clearly a sign of some sort of settlement, and safety. She paused, waiting for Katelyn to catch up, before motioning towards the little hovel.

"I think we may have finally found Honeyhome..."

 

[Katelyn the Bewildered]

Humming quietly, Katelyn was almost completely lost to contentment, until Kyra had ran forward and announced her findings. Katelyn beamed with her usual positivity once again, and quickly ran after her friend, anxiously excited to see what the purple kitsune had found.

The air smells heavily of flowers and fresh pastries as they had gotten closer, one of the closest buildings to them of this approaching town appearing to be a small bakery of sorts, with an older woman hard at work setting pies out from an oven with some children.
Only a few houses down, and the appearance of a smithy came into view, a burly tanned man with rolled sleeves hammering what might turn into a fine sword between his tools and anvil. And up the hill, just barely in sights reach, rested a tall shadowing steeple of what might be the town’s temple, with a few figured coming to and fro in robes from the building’s main doors.

Through the town, the folk and villagers and passers through gave a f friendly air about them, greeting each other cheerily as they passed by with tools, lumber, water buckets and etcetera from one location to another, all hard at work and yet still sociable with smiles on their faces.

Honeyhome, the town of their beginning journey.

Stars of excitement radiated from the eyes of the young Faerin as she looked over to Kyra, practically begging to jump for joy. “…nnnnnnnNNNNNNN FINALLY!!!!” she called out, giggling like a child at a playground as she made a small dust trail heading for the town, knowing her friend would likely be following just as fast.