[ C-Rank Mission: Explore the Fire Ant Colony ]

”Loot and points huh? Hell yeah! I’m Argent!” Argent didn’t know who this girl was, but that was alright; she sent her a party invite, activating her own special [Stealth Up!] synergy for the two when the girl accepted. ”I’ma be real though, I dunno what these “Fire Ants “are or what’s down there, but I’m ready to warm up LMAO!” Once the party was formed, Argent stepped ahead, laughing as she pressed to accept the mission. Immediately, she noticed a pop-up that added a new destination to her map.

”Woah, that’s new; never had a quest do that before… Hmm… seems like we just gotta delve down to the center.” Argent crossed her arms and tapped her foot, pondering more before continuing on. She flicked her wrist, summoning her knife to her hand before they entered. ”I guess we should be ready for anything down here, huh? Must be a unique kinda mission.” It didn’t take long for the heat to come. It was a blatant difference from the freezing gales outside (a much welcome change for Argent who STILL needed to buy a coat). The further they traveled, the warmer it got, and unlike other caves THIS ONE actually got brighter inside too.

Argent was curious as to what was causing the orange glow, but chatted with Arcana as they made their way in. ”Soooo, new powers, huh? What’s that about?” She was always eager to learn about other peoples classes and what kinda cool abilities they had. Based on how she worded it, Argent assumed she was someone that got new abilities through fighting, unlike herself who only got them through leveling.

”On my end, I’m DPS. Kinda maybe possibly a lil’ frail but like, pffff it’s fine. I’m a Lunar Assassin, so I got some nice dodge’s on my end. Whenever these ants show up, I’m sure you’ll see what I mean. Speaking of…” As the girls turned a corner in the cave, they finally saw the source of the light. The tunnel opened up into a larger chamber, with springs of lava oozing along the left side of the room. On the right side of the room, a pair of glowing red, hound-sized ants were standing together chittering. As soon as she noted them, Argent darted behind a conveniently placed boulder at the chamber’s entrance, motioning for Arcana to do the same.

”Aw hell, here we go. Whatchu thinkin girlie, wanna take them on or try our luck sneakin’ past?”




Arcana

Annie rubbed the back of her gloves into her eyes as the blindness finally wore off, looking around wildly before settling her eyes on Argent once more. ”What the hell, y’all think a cheap trick like that’ll save ya? Well, yer wrong!” The woman spat on the ground in front of her, finally hopping off her horse. She leveled her revolvers on Argent, though seemed confused when she noticed the woman’s weapon missing ”Where in the goddamn did you put that sword? Finally decide to show yer belly and high tail it outta here?!”

”heheheh, sorry, I just realized I should be using my tiny sword against such a tiny enemy!” Argent held a hand over her mouth and laughed at the woman as she drew her own Lunar Dagger, a weapon that matched both her class AND outfit!

”You goddamn cow! Snakes like you’ll die of their own damned poison, dontcha know it?!”

”HEY!” The woman suddenly drew her Shatterglass Dagger, chucking it right at the cowgirl where it shattered and absorbed into her body. Annie didn’t just let that happen, however, and unloaded her guns at the assassin. Thanks to Argent’s [Partial Invisibility], she was able to dodge two of the shots. One of them collided with her dagger, and the fourth and final shot grazed right through her shoulder.

Damnit! Though Annie was clearly on her last legs, Argent couldn’t risk taking too many hits like that. She was a glass tank, after all; she was made to deal damage, not take it! Annie clutched her side where the dagger had impaled itself, while Argent held her hyperphase moonstone. Time to see just how HYPER this thing could go!

Activating its effects in her hand, Argent could see the [Partial Invisibility] fade away as she shifted into [Half Moon Phase]. Her WIL was momentarily buffed before it too faded away. With [New Moon Phase] kicking in, so too did Argent’s FULL Invisibility. She dashed into the air as Annie fired another shot where she had been standing. ”H-Hotspurs, we gotta…” The cowgirl was cut off by the SMACK of Argent’s Dagger slapping her up top the head, knocking her cowboy hat right down to the ground.

”Y’all ain’t goin’ nowhere!” Argent caught Annie as she fell to the ground, Yelling out to her other three bandits. She activated her [Lunar Madness] skill as she did so, causing a brief illusion of a dreadful moon to appear in each of them as they momentarily wavered in their actions.

Andy seemed to be doing okay for himself for now, and with the bandit leader taken out there was no doubt the rest would try to scamper now, or at the very least not put in so much effort. While they were under the madness of her skill, Argent used Annie’s own lasso against to tie her up.



Andy Larsen


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Now that she had finally made it to Ender Island, Argent wasted no time in getting herself comfortable. With so many people flocking to this Zone (who knows how many actually survived to make it there), the little “town” that lined its shore was chaotic to say the least. Old ruins had been repurposed, next to the occasional log cabin sprung up by [Builder] classes, but the majority of people were still set up in tents.

Argent figured she would probably try to set up more of a permanent base somewhere down the line here considering how much effort she planned to put into this island, but for now she was more mobile. She kept a basic tent in her inventory for when the need to sleep arose, but otherwise didn’t have a particular spot that she kept to.

More than anything, she wanted to move around so that she would have a better chance at finding Auri. Argent could feel that she was hot on his tail, and yet… nothing. At least as she searched the town, she had come across some useful resources. Various [Production] classes had teamed up with [Merchant] classes to spring up a couple of shops in case she needed to resupply, and one of the tents had a shitton of [Healer] classes in case she REALLY got hurt out here. She had listened to stories around campfires from those that had survived their expeditions into the wilderness of Ender Island, and though they were few, they all shared the same thing: it was dangerous.

None of the wares really managed to catch Argent’s eye until she came across one that seemed to have come outta nowhere. A mysterious man with a massive cart quickly gained her interest. At first she had planned just to take a glimpse at what he had and window shop, but some of the items in that cart of his really caught her eye.

”Yo, skill cards? That’s new… and EGGS?! WAIT I COULD HAVE A PET LIKE DEEDEE?! That’s kinda wild. And awww look at the piggie!” Argent tickled her finger at the various pets that the merchant was selling. Potions, crafting ingredients, keys and treasure maps… almost everything this guy was selling seemed useful in some way or another, but there was one thing in particular that stuck out to her the most.

”Wait, what's this one?” One of the items was a box with an illustrious key inside of it, and though it looked pretty at first, reading the tag on the item REALLY exposed its value. ”A forge key?! I didn’t know we had things like this! Hm…” The woman rubbed her chin in thought for a moment before finally coming to a decision. The key was useful, and the pets were cute, but it was the skill cards that really caught her interest. Unlike the others, once she unlocked a skill it was something she could use anytime, anywhere.

”Y’know what, I’ll take these two!” Argent brought a pair of gold cards to the merchant with a wide grin on her face. One of them had an arrow on it, and granted a [Dash] skill. Considering she was an assassin of all things… yeah, she needed a dash. The second card displayed a heart with some plus signs beside it, and its skill granted some self-healing to the user. She wouldn’t always have someone at her back, after all, so it would be great to have some extra heals in her pocket/

—

Buying the [Deep Breather] and [Dash] from the salesman for 500 points!

”Ohoho, so this is the place, huh?” Argent kept her hands in her pockets as she looked up at the horses hooked up various supply carts. She had gotten a notification about a supply convoy heading out soon, and knew that meant there was probably an opportunity there to do a mission. Sure enough, hopping up to one of the carts was enough to grant her the quest.

”So uh, what we carryin’ anyway? Loot? Food stuffs? Oooh, maybe building materials, huh? I know that LA safezone keeps on getting bigger, wouldn’t surprise me too much.” Threw threw her arms up behind her, looking up to the sky before turning to see who all was gonna be traveling with them.

Seeing another person help load up a cart, she figured he was probably also trying to benefit from the mission here. Argent dusted her jacket and hopped over to him. ”Yo! Tryna party up? Sounds like they got bandits patrollin these roads.” Her shiny Lunar Dagger at her hip was about the only thing on Argent that said anything about what kind of class she was, but she couldn’t really tell what this guy was offhand. Whatever the case, she was pretty confident in being able to handle the protection on her own, so whatever his class could do was only gonna be helpful!


Andy Larsen

Argent watched as this level one woman went toe-to-toe with a yeti- literally. Watching them wrestle and the power-struggle that ensued, she kept her distance to see how Izanami handled the situation. Of course, Argent was ready to hop in at a moment's notice if need be… but this didn’t seem like a situation she’d need to. Using her tail to her advantage and SPITTING on the monster (how uncouth!), she was finally able to wreck the yeti. By the time she was done, only its headless body remained.

”Mannnn, I don’t think I’ll ever get over how gruesome that thing is.” Argent sneered at the DRAGON as she walked over to the body, kicking its leg. Yep. Dead. ”Damned if it ain’t effective though.” She turned away as Izanami let her armor further consume the monster, commenting on Argent’s damage as she did so.

”Yeah, DPS go brrr.” Haha, in an ice cave? So funny. ”It’s what I’m built for as an Assassin so naturally my class is more geared toward big hits, but using skills, items, and abilities together effectively is also a big part of it. You’ll get there I’m sure… especially with how many things you keep chomping down on." Argent began walking around the cavern, a finger to her chin in thought as she hollered back to keep chatting with Izanami.

”Woof yeah, cooldowns are a bitch, especially at level one. I can see potential for high DPS in you too, or maybe a tank with that armor too… some kinda hybrid? I dunno, what stat were you gonna invest in? [PWR] and [MAGI] for me. Well, and [SPD], I’m really just a glass cannon.” While she loved her damage potential, Argent really did have to be careful in fights with a shit-ton of mobs or really tanky characters. Healers were bitches too. After all, the longer it took her to kill something, the more opportunities it had to kill her instead. That was why she put so much into her [SPD] stat instead of just the damage stats. Basic build comp, yo!

She finished cycling around the room right around when her ally finished consuming the Yeti. In doing so, she noticed a mark on the wall that she hadn’t before. As curiosity got the better of her, Argent approached it, and as soon as she got close the wall erupted in a brief flash light. ”YOOO SHIT!” She was both excited and worried, hopping back in case this was something dangerous. When the flash faded, she saw…

”A door? Huh, guess we found a secret. Wanna check it out?” Along the wall was a tall, ornate door, chiseled into the ice and crystals that made up the cavern. She hadn’t found anything quite like this before, but could only assume it was some sort of secret mission or area to explore. Either way, she was pretty excited, but didn’t want to drag Izanami somewhere before she was ready for it.

Izanami Ryūzaki