Aidan Starling
[Castor G]
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Health - 100%
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Experience - 25%
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Level 15
Second Floor:
Urbus Inn
Aidan awoke this December 25th to a rather unexpected message. Aidan's gift this Christmas was the wonderful gift of someone doing your work for you: the boss floor had been found. Surprised and excited, Aidan jumped from his bed and rushed to the table the group had met the previous night. As expected, the majority of the guild was already seated.
"Hey there second in command~" Azrael mocked, as though the whole group had been for a while.
"Did you guys hear? Someone found the boss floor!" Ignoring the dark women, Aidan went straight to his point.
"Yeah we all know Aidan. That's why we're all here." Arella said, continuing Azrael's disapproval tone.
"Well,
sorry. I'm just excited." Aidan said cooling down a bit while moving to take a seat at the table. "So where's Bushi, he's the only missing."
"I believe he's still sleeping." Gale chimed in, handing Aidan a fresh plate of pancake. Aidan had not noticed due to his excitement, but it seemed that Gale had gone through the trouble to prepare the whole guild breakfast for the event.
"Oh man, thanks Gale!"
Aidan promptly began eating. After a few minutes, Bushi made it down to the guild's table. With equal excitement as Aidan, Bushi recreated a familiar scene.
"Hey did you guys hear? They fo-"
"-found the boss floor, year, yeah. Sit down and eat." Aidan bellowed over, stuffing his face with food. Bushi hurried over to the table, graciously accepting the food from Gale.
"Arigatō."
Weeaboo.
The group enjoyed their breakfast and once they were all done, Vulcan took stood from the head of the table.
"Let's begin talking about the floor boss. As everyone knows the boss room has been added to everyone's map. Right now a guild called the 'Dark Knights' are guarding the boss door, preventing anyone from coming in. The idea is that players will gather before the door and there people can plan on how to fight the boss. Now since Aidan has the most experience with the dungeon, he'll be guiding , us being Azrael, Bushi, Gale, and I there. Spector and Arella do not have to go, for hopefully obvious reasons. Anyone have any problems?"
The group remained quiet.
"Then let's prepare. Arella and Spector should have some supplies that will be helpful for the battle, make sure to pick them up from them. If you have anything that you think might help one of your guildmate, be sure to give it to them, be it an item or just a word of advice. This will be a dangerous day, but it's a challenge we have to face if we hope to get anywhere in this game."
The group nodded and began to prepare to leave for the dungeon. Shortly after Vulcan finished his speech, Aidan took note of a young girl leaving the inn. In skimpy red armor and a conflicting large helmet, she was an unusual site to see. There was an odd air about her that made the boy want to question her but he knew preparing with his guild was much more important. He went back to his UI to make sure his items were all in shape. This was going to be an exciting day.
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Health - 100%
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Experience - 65%
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Level 13
Second Floor:
Urbus Inn
During the night, someone had found the Boss Room that her guild was so interested in finding…
at the cost of their lives. The girl turned over on her bed, tears were still streaming from her face. If she went alone into the dungeon, she would probably die…
but what did that matter? She raised herself from her bed and moved over towards a mirror. She was a bit disgusted looking at herself. How could she play along with the guild's stupid cosplay game, buying this stupid armor and these stupid tattoos…who was she even wearing this for anymore. It definitely was not for herself. She pulled up her UI to change her armor, but all she could do is equip a random helmet she had in her inventory.
"Much better."
A sigh left her lips as she left the Inn. There wasn't much else she could do at this point, what was the problem with dying afterall? She walked down the steps of the inn and on her way out., she stopped to see a guild enjoying breakfast together, her heart sank and before she knew it she was walking away. She's learned that happiness like that can only lead to even greater sadness. It wasn't really fair.
It took a little bit of time, but the Ember finally made it to the first dungeon's entrance. Looking at it made her feel worse than she did during her sleepless night.
"This was where they all died…"
She stood her for a while, unsure if she was really able to go ahead with her plan or not. Ember's mind relived her past with Azure Flame and just how much was lost because of her stupid mistake. An unknown amount of time past, but before she knew it, a group of people approached her.
"Hey are you okay?"
She turned slowly. There were five people and a young man with a large orange afro had come near her. She quickly recognized his hair from earlier in the day; he was part of that guild she was envying. His username was Castor G. She felt an urge to laugh at the situation, but her need to feel terrible overrode it. Ember nodded her head unable to bring herself to speak.
"Well are you going to the dungeon boss?"
Ember nodded again.
"Well, why don't we go together?"
The boy continued speaking, after that, mentioning how Ember had a low level and how there was safety in numbers. Ember wasn't listening to any of it, nor was any of that important. All that mattered were the word: "Why don't we go together?" These kind words hurt her heart, because they were the same words used by Azure Flame, the same words that made her feel the way she does now. Ember could not allow herself to repeat the mistake she made in the past.
"No!"
She didn't want to have anything to do with this feeling anymore, anything to do with people, with kind people, with people who will give their lives to protect her, to nurture her, to do everything for her…. She turned away from Castor and ran into the dungeon.
"What's her problem?"
Bushi commented once the girl was out of the group's vision.
"Something traumatic probably happened to her recently." Vulcan responded calmly. The response made Aidan frown, the girl clearly needed it help and it felt like nobody here cared enough to do anything.
"Is that all you have to say? You're not – We're not going to try and help her? Isn't that the whole point of Vigilant Wings? To save people who have become lost?!"
"In a way yes, but our goal isn't to save people. People have to save themselves. We can help them in that process, but we can't force them into acting. She rejected your offer for help, what more can we do? Pester her forever until she says yes? It's not going to happen and it were, then we'll just makes for weak people who are reliant on others."
"That's better than being a dead! She's only saying no because she's scarred from the past! I know she can still be helped!"
"You're probably right Aidan? But then what? She's put into a guild to keep her happy, but she never gets the chance to overcome her problems. Her tackling this boss is her first step to overcoming her issues. You can say you want to help her do that, but all you're doing it making her reliant on you to do everything for her, to make her decisions for her, to lead her into safety. That just brings the question of where will she be when you're gone? The same place she started. That isn't helping someone Aidan, that's playing them like a fool. Now you're free to do what you want, but understand, you can't help everyone."
Aidan stopped. Vulcan was being way too cold for his taste. He couldn't just leave this person to go kill herself that wasn't right anyway you curve it and that wasn't why he helped find this guild… but Vulcan did have a point: she didn't want help, so what right did Aidan have to force it on her. He contemplated his decisions while staring at the dungeon's entrance.
Health - 70% [[COLOR=#green]||||||||||||||[/color]||||||] // Experience - 75% [
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Level 13 //Second Floor: First Dungeon
Ember moved through the daunting dungeon alone. Moving through the familiar corridors reminded her of each of her dead guild mates and the memories they forged together through the halls. The memories only she has now.
"This is a terrible game."
She continued down the corridor, her sword leading her movements. The girl could hear a creature from around the corner and with a croak she instantly knew what it was: a four eyed frog. With a skillful sword art, the frog was split into two. She continued down the corridor unaffected by her achievement.
She continued down her pathway, taking down any monster that crossed her. It seemed being fueled by negative emotions made her much stronger than usual or at the very least, much more focused. She came to a halt as a small group of salamander warriors blocked her path.
"I probably won't be able to win this fight."
She said indifferently. Ember then jumped into the fight.
