[ C-Rank Mission: The Portal Guardian’s Challenge ]

”Okkay, yeah this is a weird one. I guess we just pick flowers then?” Rory scratched his head as he followed along, taking the flowers up as Noelle picked them. He didn’t really know the first thing about flower arrangements or how to make bouquets, so he really was just bundling the flowers Noelle handed him.

He recognized a few of the flowers, kind of. There was Hyacinth, though it had a more ethereal look to most he had seen before. The purple color of it seemed to almost move and dance along its petals. Was this what the monk had meant when he said these flowers only bloom here? Shrugging, he tucked it into the little bouquet. Another flower they collected made him chuckle. ”Oh I get it, Cosmos. Y’know, ‘cuz- well…” Rory pointed his finger towards the starry sky. ”I guess they’re being cute with that one.” The cosmos were white, and had a swirly pattern that sort of reminded him of drawings he had seen of galaxies in his past.

As they made their way around the garden, collecting flowers here and there, Rory noticed a tall tree with a man-made hive hanging from it. It was a willow, with many colorful flowers underneath. While he didn’t know much about flowers, he loved bees, and couldn’t help but get up on his tip-toes to peer inside. There were… none. ”Huh, that’s weird. Where’s all the bees?” Glancing around the garden, he realized there didn’t seem to be any sort of bugs on the plants, or birds in the air, or fish in the ponds. It made sense, but was kinda sad, considering how elegant the place was. Following after Noelle, Rory turned and took out the [Bee Bomb], tossing it up into the willow tree. It made a faint pop that rustled the leaves, and shortly after he could see the bees beginning to trickle down and explore the flowers.

Once they had gathered enough flowers to have a pretty big bouquet in his hand, Rory tied it off and headed for the center. ”Here we go, one offering of serenity!” He placed it inside the little box, and took a deep breath. He thought this was a silly little challenge at first, but it was actually a really nice experience. He felt very calm as he shut the door to the shrine, and turned back toward the monk’s simple temple. ”Let’s find out what’s next”

Noelle

SPOILER: Click to show

{STATS ETC}PARTY SYNERGIES:

-----STATS-----
LEVEL: 25

PWR: 13 (E) +2 Rank > (C)
DEF: 21 (D) -2 Rank > (F)
SPD: 11 (E)
MAG: 86 (A)
VIT: 11 (E)
WIL: 51 (B) -10% > (C)
LUK: 0

-----ITEMS-----
Cocoon Coat (3)
False Joker
The Ferryman’s Coin (1)
Bee Bomb (1)
The Novel of Self-Discovery
Petite Cooper

-----CLASS-----
Loaded Dice (1)

-----BUFF/DEBUFF-----
[CHAOS ROLLER CORE]
Noelle: +10% WIL (Active: 4 Post) (B Heal)
—Rory -10% WIL

[Sunny Day]
Rory: +2 Rank PWR, -2 Rank DEF
—Noelle: -1 Rank PWR, +1 Rank DEF (Active: 3 Post)

Collecting resources… This sounded easy enough. ”Weirdo merchant? Aw damn it, of course there's stuff to kill.” He shook his head, remembering the fish people they had to fight off on the boat ride here. If his memory served (it did), Dantalion had been the biggest source of damage and had taken out most of the enemies. That guy was strong from day 1 when he fought off those boss monsters in the tutorial. Every time they’d been together, Rory was only able to provide some defense and niche buffs. Would that be different now?

”You got a point though, let's find those things so we can get back on with the mission.” Collecting resources would be a lot easier once they got rid of whatever enemies were going to be waiting for them, and overall this mission sounded like it was gonna be useful. More resources was great for the economy; the more places that got built, the more people would be around to buy things! More people meant more possibilities to make points. Rory’s wicked grin slid across his face as he threw his fists into the and cheered. ”YEAH! Let’s find the fish people!”

Thanks in part to Noelle’s class ability that showed Rory the sunshine, he was feelin’ pretty good about this mission. The extra PWR buff meant he’d have an easier time beating up stuff, and though his DEF was lowered, it meant Noelle got a bonus, and HER new class made her an even better tank than she was before. All together, surely they were gonna kick ass today!

…Right?

Noelle

”uhhhh Maybe? I mean, let’s just roll with it; SURELY it’ll kick us out if it doesn’t want us to do that. Right? …right?” Rory scratched his head. He didn’t know on a good day how many missions could be tackled at a time–legally–but it was even more confusing considering the so-called “plot relevance” of Ender’s Island.

He shrugged, not wanting to put much other thought into it. ”Worst case scenario we do it twice, but hey- that just means more loot!” Nodding to himself, Rory snapped his fingers at Noelle, causing his Chaos Roller’s Core to roll a d4 over her head. It landed on a one, which he cringed when he noticed. He changed it to a two, but that was only marginally better. ”Oops. Aw well, free healing!” He was in a light-hearted mood, but ever since he had gotten the update to his primary class, Rory’s was a lot stronger than he had been in the past.

Before, the use of his [Roulette Shield] and his ability to flip buffs around were really the only things he was good at, but thanks to the update AND his glitched-ass new subclass, he had actually gained some pretty decent damage and heals under his belt. All together, he had some really well-rounded abilities for someone who was funneling all their stat-points into a single attribute! [WIL] for the win!

”So uhhh… regardless of if the missions stack or note… what mission were we on, again?”


Noelle

"MY SAVIOURS! WOOOO! Rory was confused when he heard Noelle calling out something about Sharks, but the giant fin in the water beside him caused his face to drain. Oh. Noelle thankfully wasn't alone, with Dantalion walking up beside her in that fancy armor of his.

"Aw you guys came out here for me? But um- PROBLEM!" Rory started tapping the turtle aggressively on its head, hoping it would wake up and get them the hell out of here. Noelle and Tali were still shouting about joining the sharks, making Rory take pause. Was this one of the tribes they could ally with on Ender Island? Well, Rory didn't really want to hang out with Sharks if it meant being around water all the time! Maybe there was like, a monkey tribe he could help, or a squirrel tribe, or a-

Tali's attack rang out so loudly that Rory fell to his feet. The turtle jerked awake, right as Rory realized what the man had meant. "WAIT NONONONO TALI HOW-" Rory had to shut his mouth as the turtle dove below the surface, bringing him along with it. As fast as the turtle was moving, Rory didn't get a chance to hold onto it, meaning that now… he was on his own in the ocean. He flailed about, trying to stay calm and think if his class could somehow save him, but absolutely freaking out nonetheless. He turned in the water, and if he could breathe he would have screamed.

A massive, bulging-muscle sharkman wearing tattered shorts watched Rory flailing about, and gave him a look of confusion.

"WHAT PUNY MAN DO FLAPPING FOR? CANNOT MOVE LIKE FISH?"

Rory was terrified, but shook his head in the water. The shark man laughed, before darting forward in an instant, grabbing him, and leaping onto land. Rory coughed, and shouted afterwards. "TALI!"

He realized the shark was still holding him, however, and shut-up "MORE HUMAN COME HELP MERFOLK?" Rory didn't recognize Marin, but the Sharkman had encountered other players that allied themselves with him already, and stood waiting for a response.

dantalion Noelle

[ C-Rank Mission: The Portal Guardian’s Challenge ]

”Welll yeahhh, obviously; boats are weird. Hey look, a wrinkly old dude!” As they approached the lone building in this valley, Rory pointed out a figure that was sitting inside the temple. It was a single, open-door room, with seemingly nothing inside other than the man, the rug he was sitting on, and a stick of incense burning in front of him.

The man himself had skin so dry and wrinkly that he looked like beef jerky. He wore only a series of beaded necklaces and a pair of simple pants, and sat with his legs crossed and his hands in his lap. Rory couldn’t make out the man’s face until they got up to the brief stairs leading into the temple, but once he could, he gasped.

”Sk-skeleton?” The man wasn’t a skeleton, but a mummy; his eyes were two dark pits and his jaw hung open. Any hair he may have had in life was gone. Though the mummy sat unmoving, a voice called out.

“WELCOME TRAVELERS”

Rory immediately jumped. ”OH SHIT HE TALKS!” The mummy continued not to move, but Rory could’ve sworn he rolled his eyes at him.

“MY BODY MAY HAVE PERISHED, BUT MY SPIRIT LIVES ON.”

A pair of glowing blue flames suddenly ignited within the mummy’s eyes, though still, it didn’t move. ”O-oh, is that what’s happening? Um, sorry for your loss?” Rory got goosebumps on his neck, not from the spirit, but from the strange inclination that Noelle was staring daggers at him. ”AND BY THAT I MEAN- O Great One, why hath thou boat brung us here? Assuming that thou Great Spiritness is what made our boat come here, O Great One. Because it also kinda did its own thing without us–O Great One-having to do anything to it. Err, or something like that, O Great O-”

“ENOUGH! I GET IT YOU CAN STOP NOW!”

The mummy sighed. Even in death, Rory’s crass nature could affect him.

“I SHALL GIVE YOU A CHALLENGE-”

Rory couldn’t say for sure, but he felt like the blue fireballs this spirit had for eyes had narrowed to glare at him.

“I SHALL GIVE YOU TWO CHALLENGES. COMPLETE THEM, AND I SHALL GRANT YOU KNOWLEDGE OF THIS REALM.”

”What?! Oh, come on!”

”I CAN MAKE IT THREE.”

Sweat dripped from Rory’s face. ”Oop, okay okay, two it is!” He didn’t know what to expect when that astral boat had started taking Noelle and him somewhere, but it certainly wasn’t this. Just what exactly did this mummy want them to do? What kind of knowledge was it going to give them? As odd as a situation this was, he felt like he had to comply and find out.


Noelle

”THAT’S NOT FAIR I DIDN’T SUMMON HIM!” Rory watched with his own two eyes as the tank and its squadron burst onto the scene. While the mini coopers were a little problematic to fight against, this newcomer was gonna be SO MUCH WORSE. As it burst onto the scene, it had already taken out two of the other coopers, making Rory sob on the inside for the loss of another good car.

As Rory noticed the man in the lawnchair, he also saw the megaphone. So that was the guy in charge here, huh? He glanced toward Noelle, thankful that she was able to give him a bit of a buff even with her current displeasement with him. With her in the drivers seat, it didn’t matter that his SPD was lowered, and the added DEF might help considering this new dude had a literal TANK.

It wasn’t just for show either; Rory braced himself as the tank shot at them–likely since they were in first place now. Thankfully, Noelle’s shield stopped it, but Rory didn’t like that they had managed to draw aggro so soon. ”Oh, c’mon! Why us!” Peering through the back window, he rolled the side window down and held his hand outside of it. With a flick of his wrist, four cards tumbled through the wind to slice into the tank. This ability, [Draw Four], was pretty weak when he had first gotten it, but after a few upgrades it was super useful! It had good damage, nice status effects, AND a couple of debuffs to top it all off. Exactly what he wanted in an ability!

Two of the cards threatened to slice through the tank’s [Turret Barrel] and [Tank Treads], and those were the ones that did B-Rank damage and had a chance to Blind (in the case of the barrel) or Stun (in the case of the treads). The other two cards, with the debuffs, hit the tank’s [Hot Hatch] and [Radar Jammer], but… Strangely enough, Rory didn’t see a debuff appear at all. ”Really? My [PASSIVE] tells me when someone has a debuff, and I just used a debuff on him, but nothing is showing up, so ugh… you know what that means…” Whether he was immune to debuffs entirely or simple had a way of shrugging certain ones off, it meant problem for a couple of players who focused on debuffs and support.

”Hmm… I think I have an idea here actually. If I can’t beat him with my debuffs, why don’t we beat him with money?! Mwahaha!” Rory flipped a coin in his hand as he reached over and lowered the roof once more. ”Hey, get us a little closer…” Using his Joker card in his hand, the man sighed from relief as it lowered the cooldown of his Core.

Once the car was within earshot, Rory stood in his seat to face the Tankman. ”HEY WOW, WAIT A SECOND, IS THAT REALLY THE TANKMAN?!” Rory waggled a finger towards the man, causing a d4 to roll over his head. It landed on a 3, but he flipped it to a 4. ”You’re so cool man, can we join up with you?! There’s a free buff for ya! I totally didn’t realize who you were earlier, oh my god I’m so excited!”

Pretending to reach under his seat and open a chest, Rory rose his hand back to where TANKMAN would be able to see it, holding a golden coin in his hand. ”YO, YOU WANNA SPLIT SOME LOOT?! I KNOW A SHORTCUT ON THIS TRACK, I CAN SHOW YOU ON YOUR MAP! I know I put it somewhere…” TWaving his hand so that the gold coin glittered in the light before turning back to the front, Rory whispered to Noelle. ”If I can get up there and, I dunno, sabotage his car somehow, I think we can get out of here in one piece…”

As he ducked down, Rory activated his new, updated class’ ability, allowing him to deal B-Rank Magic damage to someone that was afflicted with one of his buffs or debuffs… someone like Tankman. Only Noelle could see the wicked grin covering his face.

Noelle

CAR STATS WHEN DRIVEN: Petite Cooper

[PWR: E (D Collision)] [DEF: C] [SPD: C] [MAG: A] [VIT: E] [WIL: B] [LUK: 0]
[Size: Medium][Damage Taken: None] [Refuel TImer: 1 Post]