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Valentine found a nearby tree, climbing up it was relatively easy thanks to his strength but he made the mental note that climbing down it should take great care as his defense stat was rather subpar. That said, Valentine placed himself atop the sturdiest branch he could find, and took a moment to catch his breath. Spear in hand he laid it across his lap as he wrapped his legs around the tree's limb. Take a moment to survey the area, Valentine didn't see too many monsters, granted he didn't venture too deeply into the forest, he figured he'd take the time to scout out the area and any of the houses to see if there was anything useful.[break][break]

Letting his astral body float free Valentine found himself, plummeting below, or rather he found his astral body doing such. Landing just above the ground thankfully unharmed, Valentine found that he rather enjoyed how his astral body could float safely just a few inches above the ground. Though with the mental jar he felt go through his body, like that of having his head shaken too fast he found that standing upright took more time than he would've liked. Readjusting himself, Valentine took a deep breath. "Well, good to know what happens when I fall from high up, shit. Better not ever let myself fall further than that again," Valentine said, the thought of what would happen if his astral body fell from a cliff flooding his mind.[break][break]

Valentine's astral body moved around the countryside for quite some time until he came upon a lesser dire wolf, he smiled wanting to do some hunting, and decided to follow it, he could see the beast was sniffing around some of the abandoned houses. With a smirk, Valentine willed his astral body back to his physical. Took his sweet time climbing down from the tree and then jogged over toward the general direction of the wolf, only to see that it was gone. Some of the doors of the rundown houses had been broken in so Valentine decided to look through them quickly. Finding nothing until he came to a middle home he could hear signs of commotion, and rushed inside. [break][break]

"Here puppy, puppy, puppy," he said to taunt the creature into coming out of wherever it was, before bringing two of his fingers up to his mouth to let loose a sharp whistle. Perhaps it was the experience or his high willpower but Valentine held no fear within himself as he did such. After all, his level was leagues hire than the creatures from what he had seen. [break][break]

[attr="class","landtag2"]Raina[TAGGED]

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Valentine was simply walking around the hub when he saw a group of people communicating next to a waygate, word on the streets was an event was happening, something for the holidays. Though something pricked in the back of his mind that any events thrown by Earth-Chan would be hell to go through, or had some kind of twist he couldn't help but be intrigued. Thus Valentine made his way over toward the gate once he did a prompt came up. It spoke something about a ghost mine opening up for a limited amount of time and that they could explore it. He saw the [High-Risk] alert prompt appear in front of his face once he moved toward the waygate. However, it was a diffrent appearance than usual, the word "High-Risk" had a special asterisk near it.[break][break]

"Odd," he muttered as he moved closer to the gate. Checking his inventory he saw that his escape rope was still in there, safe where it always was. Ever since his time in Neo-Tokyo he had starred at the item when making risky decisions. He hoped the time never came when he'd have to use it but as things stood, he didn't feel that much time would come now. Perhaps it would never come if he was to continue getting stronger, but in this crazy world, one could never be too sure. [break][break]

Stepping through the waygate, Valentine appeared on the other side, only to see he was in some form of house. He got bad creepy vibes from this place but as he looked to the side of the worn-down house he could see what looked like a mix between a castle wall and miners' entrance. Shrugging his high willpower keeping him from getting startled or even feeling a tinge of fear, at least not any that was crippling. Valentine summoned his spear from his inventory, his special glove, and made his way through. [break][break]

"Well, here goes nothing," he said walking forward into the depths of the creepy entrance.

[attr="class","landtag2"]xxx[TAGGED]

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Valentine walked the creepy hallways of the school wondering just what the hell had snatched up Adam, it was so fast, so much so that they could barely see it. They couldn't even react, but unless the party info didn't update if someone died then it was safe to say at least Adam was still alive. Valentine just didn't know for how long, regardless as the scout of the party, Valentine felt it was his job to find out.[break][break]

If he was going to play a role he was going to do it well, and well, that's what he had to keep telling himself as the hallway felt a strange pull, like something was trying to drag him down to the depths of hell. It was eerie, and honestly, he knew for a fact that if he hadn't invested his stats in willpower he'd be shit out of luck when it came to staying sane. [break][break]

Though as it stood Valentine simply gritted his teeth and continued floating forward slightly off the ground. That was until the walls and area around him made him feel like he was literally suffocating.[break][break]

He dropped to his knees, his lungs heaving as he did, he wondered if his astral body even needed to breathe, right now it damn sure felt like it. Fear ran up his spine as he pried his gaze from the floor. As he looked down the seemingly never-ending hallway his eyes locked on a creature with a Cheshire cat smile. He felt as if the world had stopped, and then the creature sunk back into the darkness, and he could breathe again. [break][break]

"What the hell was that? Was that some kind of warning?" Valentine thought frantically before he mentally forced himself to calm down. He had faced creatures already, but this was no different, it was just a different type of creature. He began to wonder if this tutorial's purpose was to induce fear because he found himself otherwise wondering why didn't the creature attack him. [break][break]

To invoke such a powerful sense of fear in him had to mean the creature was strong, was he still immune to this creature in astral form? Valentine knew some creatures could hurt him if they were strong enough, but perhaps this wasn't one of them. Regardless, he hefted his astral spear syringe and was ready to move forward, when suddenly he was dragged to hell...[break][break]

Or so he thought, Valentine, resisted yelling for all his might in case that's with this place wanted of him, to scream so it could take him like it took Adam, was that its goal? He didn't know but he found that pondering on such was much better than thinking about the reality of the situation at hand. Said reality was that he was utterly fucked, at least he thought so, as after images blurred past his vision. [break][break]

Then he saw Adam, in the same chamber as him! He was alive! Valentine was ecstatic but then remembered, Adam couldn't see him. Valentine wondered if he could access the menu in his astral form and so he tried, with a thought the menu popped up and he found himself typing away. As it was easier to report his findings than to stare at the corpses along the ground. [break][break]

"I've found Adam, he's alive, and from what I can tell far below where we were before, there's a lot of dead bodies down here," Valentine sent the message through the party menu before glancing at Adam and then ahead.[break][break]

Valentine sent another follow-up message, "Adam you can't see me but I can see you, I'm going to scout ahead while I can before my skill goes on cooldown," Valentine said, sparing now time to explain what it was that his skill actually was.[break][break]

Valentine began to move around the chamber Adam was in hoping he could find and report back any information he could find to Adam. In the back of his mind worry began to creep in as he was fully aware of what was happening around his physical body, and the fact that his brother had hoisted him on his back to move him. Thankfully his spear was still clutched in his hands. [break][break]

In order to try and assist Adam and gain more information had entrusted his safety to Pori and his brother. [break][break]

[attr="class","landtag2"]wicker , Pori , St. Claire , adam fujiwara [TAGGED]

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Valentine made his way out of the store, everything had been placed in his inventory now, and everything was going fine, now as he found himself astral projecting searching for Pori, and thankfully he did. He was happy to see her, though she couldn't see his astral body nor hear him Valentine still let the words "hang on, Pori, I'm coming," [break][break]

Though, just as he was about to let his body fly back into his physical his eyes went wide at the sight of over a dozen slimes merging into something, when it was over and done Valentine stepped back instinctively, though he quickly remembered that what he was seeing couldn't hurt him. At least he hoped not.[break][break]

It began taking the form of something strange, some creature humanoid with tentacles. Pori was in danger, they both were but her more so being closer to the creature, Valentine wouldn't stand by why she was getting attacked. He let his astral body get snatched back into his physical like a yo-yo being pulled back. His head raised and his eyes fluttered open, he grabbed his syringe spear and quickly made way toward Pori's destination, deciding to go the long way around cutting through an alleyway in an effort to appear on the side of the creature and Pori. [break][break]

Valentine found himself coming out by the side of the building the glass was broken toward the front from what he could see. He could see Pori fighting in front of the creature, whip-like tendrils lashing out, he could hear its roar, the crack of Pori's whip as she tried to fight it off. [break][break]

He charged forward, he had half a mind to scream as he did, but this wasn't a movie. Doing such a thing would be silly, and would most likely get him killed. Valentine rushed forward, thankful that his scouting ability was so proficient, as it allowed him to find the most optimal path toward her. [break][break]

He continued to rush at the creature, hefting his syringe spear as he did, staying in what he presumed was the creature's blindness, Valentine dodged the flailing tendrils that weren't focused on him, nearly avoiding them. His hit rang true as he stabbed into the creature's back with his syringe. Though as he did the creature hissed and roared, the tendril closest to him lashed out, grabbing a hold of his arm. [break][break]

Valentine injected the liquid of his spear into the creature, and in doing so one of the slimes that composed its form seemed to fall from it, sizzling to the ground, the creature's head turned around 180 degrees, and it let out a hiss as another tendril lashed out smacking across Valentine's face. It begin to turn purple nearly immediately and his vision went blurry, but the grip on his spear only tightened as he tried to plunge it deeper. "Fuck, fuck you!" He yelled at the creature, unsure if it could even understand him, and as he did he found himself wincing from the pain in his face, and the bruising around his trapped arm beginning to form. [break][break]

[attr="class","landtag2"]Pori[TAGGED]

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Having walked through the hub Valentine found some interesting information, apparently, people could take something like missions. A certain task that would allow them to gain extra experience points, satisfied with his quickly progressing growth Valentine wasn't one to let such an opportunity go to waste. Which meant, it was time to take some his damn self. The only downside is that unless the mission was given to you by another, an NPC, or you found it in a certain area, you couldn't take it. [break][break]

However, he did find that he had a lead on one, some people saying they found some type of former Russian scientist in an inn near the Forgotten Mist waygate. Making his way over, asking many questions, and after about half a day of searching, Valentine had finally found the damn scientist, rambling and crazed in the inn's basement. He didn't even know Inn's had basements. Making his way through general dialogue with the lady was... Interesting, to say the least, she seemed obsessed with her work, almost crazily so. Nonetheless, he had gotten what he needed. [break][break]

He stepped through the waygate of the forgotten mist and was about to start the mission on his own when his mind flashed to a friend of his who also rather enjoyed a steady influx of EXP. Opening up his menu, Valentine plugged in a message asking Sami if he wanted to join him and then would await his arrival near the waygate if he did.[break][break]

[attr="class","landtag2"]Sami [TAGGED]

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Valentine raised a simple eyebrow, as Elisande stated she had an idea, "oh," he said making sure to keep an ear out for her words. He was curious about what she was going to say, he even felt himself growing excited at the potential prospect of finding out more about his sister if her idea held merit.[break][break]


Valentine watched as Elisande spoke glee visible in his eyes as he mulled over her words, a place to train your abilities sounded like a smart choice, and it was in the form of an arcade game or something like that, it sounded right up her ally, especially in a safe environment like this. Not to mention it would give Valentine himself a chance to learn more about his new abilities and adjust to them.[break][break]


Valentine smiled, and with enthusiasm, he stated, "That sounds like a great idea, and though it's probably a shitty thing to say if we don't find any leads we can at least test out and train these classes. It's embarrassing to say but I still don't know how to use mine as effectively as possible, and I have a feeling I'm going to need to be able to if I'm to have any hope of finding her and protecting her." Valentine said, ready to get moving to their new destination within The Hub.[break][break]

[attr="class","landtag2"]Elisande Kiaris [TAGGED]