The American Gamer Quest Part 2

Kill it of course! If we see that we can't kill it use some of those to give us some boost

Points* mobile sorry

>You do the obvious thing and fly upwards out of its reach. You make sure to give it a good amount of space, because your attack range is pretty far and you don't want to find out the dead way that this guy can jump.
>And jump he does, much higher than you would have expected given his size, but it's still not nearly enough to get to you
>Until he hurls his axe at you
>You dodge to the side, the axe goes sailing off into the distance.
>The Warchief now has nothing to even potentially hurt you with. You take potshots at him until he dies. Where he stood now stands a pile of loot. You're a little surprised, you've never gotten multiple drops from a single monster before. So this is the power of boss monsters. Neat

>You obtain 5 health potions worth about $10,000 each, $40,000 in cash, and his axe
> Observing the axe, you find it to be enchanted (Axe Mastery +10) and has absurdly high base damage (160) but requires 16 strength to wield. You happen to know a weapon with an enchantment this strong could be sold for $500,000

>What do you do for your remaining 7 hours?

Continue grinding. Then use 1 hour to search the abyss market about information of what we should be aware, what types of magic supernatural abilities ki etc

>You spend 6 more hours grinding, encountering and defeating 6 more bosses, each with the same drops as the first. You have gained a level.
>You spend your last hour before bed on the Abyss site, looking for information on different types of supernatural powers.
>Unfortunately ,as the FAQ tells you, mercenary work is not allowed on the site, so a wide variety of potential powers are outside your potential to learn about
>The services you do find advertised to sale mostly include powers you already knew about, such as summoned servants, the mind-altering power of the Fixers, or the information gathering powers of the Diviners.
>After an hour of searching and finding nothing substantial, you decide to give up and go to bed.

>It is now Tuesday morning. You have 19 days of protection left. Do you go to school and practice your more subtle powers for the next 8 hours, or skip school and spend that time with your Fixer friend Ed, learning his special brand of magic that makes the Abyss interfere with your normal life less?

>>282031
We can use our extra points to increase our stats right? If so lets put some into strength so we'd be able to use the axe if we need to.

>>282031

Let's skip school and learn from Ed. And have him make it so nobody cares that we skipped.

>>282058

We can, but I'm still for holding onto our skill points. We can raise them through related normal actions too, like exercising or studying hard. Four days of working out at most and we'll be able to use our new axes without any point investment.

I just noticed.

>Instant Dungeon Creation
>>Guild Hall Rank E

Let's see what that looks like, and since we'll probably need an ID for training with Ed we can show it off to him and any other guild members at their house.

>>282195
Vote for this one!

>You go to your old neighbor's house. Well, you suppose it's still your neighbor's house, just different neighbors after the last group became a human sacrifice cult and got taken down by the Men in Black.

>"So, Mikey," Ed says, " you want to learn to be a Fixer so you can cut class, huh? Don't worry, that's Fixer 101. There's a lot of stuff in the Abyss that's more important than dissecting poetry or frogs. Usually something involving someone's life. Here take these, gifts from the Fixer's Union"
>Ed hands you two books, "The Idea Worm" and "On Obscurity". "I figure it'll take you a day to get the first one down and probably a weeks worth of study to get the second one. The first one is how we keep the muggles from recognizing anything out of the ordinary, from constantly being on fire to constantly being late for staff meetings. It doesn't really work on people already in the Abyss. The second one's a bit more complicated. It allows you to do what I'm currently doing for you, masking your presence and abilities from other ability users. It's not perfect, though, and you can still be found out by people who are better at getting information than you are at hiding it."
*ping*
>You have gained the skill book "The Idea Worm" Would you like to learn it? Y/N"
*ping*
>You have gained the skill book "On Obscurity" Would you like to learn it? Y/N"
>You select yes for both and soon have a deep understanding of two new spells, Status Quo and Obscurity.
>The theory behind Status Quo is that thought's are like worms, digging into peoples' heads, breeding, and spreading to nearby people. With this spell you follow their trails, and then alter them. Some alterations are more difficult than others. Making the same change to a large group of people is relatively easy, especially if the change itself is small. You cast the spell twice, first seeking out your classmates and teachers and changing "Michael is gone today" to a null state, removing the thought entirely (easier than changing it to "Michael is here today" when you aren't) and targeting your teachers with the added though "Michael did good today". Doing both costs you most of your mana, but you recover quickly and the look on Ed's face as you finish casting would have been worth it on its own.
>"So this is what all the fuss is about. What takes other people decades to master you just pick up like it's nothing, don't you? Do the other spell, come on kid, I wanna see how good you really are.
>You cast Obscurity, making it more difficult for people to obtain information on you
>"Not bad, kid, not bad.But, first of all, I've been doing this for years, my Obscurity is still much more advanced than your own. There's more too it than just how much mana you sink in to it. Second of all, no refunds."

http://pastebin.com/U4A4eYPH

>You now have a free Tuesday Morning, with 19 days of professional protection left. How do you spend it?

>>283162
>Second of all, no refunds.

Perfectly fine, we planned for that.

I want to see what our Guild Hall dungeon is like, let's create that and explore it for a little bit, then see if we can grind up Obscurity while we're exercising in a gravity controlled dungeon to up our physical stats.

>After Ed's "lessons" you decide to try out a new feature you spied on your skill list : Instant Dungeon : Guild Hall E
>You go outside and create the ID. You are suddenly in a large room cramped with furniture. Along the walls of the room are cots. At the end of the room is a roaring fireplace with an empty mantel above it. In the middle of the room is a long table surrounded by chairs and covered in bowls of some unpleasant smelling slop you think is supposed to be food. One of the chairs, the one at the closest to the fireplace at the head of the table, is slightly ornate and even has a cushion. The rest of the chairs are crude looking, much like the rest of the room. You sit down in the nicer looking chair
*ping*
>"Would you like to start today's daily quest with all attendant guild members? Y/N"

>>283468

Open communication with the rest of the guild and see if they're able to come here on their own. If they can and do, hit Yes.

"Teamspeak, all. Hey, can everyone hear me?"
>A hail of affirmations responds
"Good. I'd like you all do to me a favor, if you could. Enter an instant dungeon I made just in front of the house"
>They all enter, appearing one at a time in the ever-more crowded room. When the last stragglers show up, you notice there are just enough chairs for everyone, with a matching number of cots.
"I've got something fun for us to do together. Be prepared for anything, I'm not exactly sure what this is going to do"
"Yes"

>A Timer appears in your field of vision, counting down from an hour
>There's a loud banging on a door at the back of the room you hadn't noticed before, followed by the door opening and a man (<level 3> <villager>) bursts in.
>"Mighty Gaming Gamers, you have to help! A Necromancer has taken up residence in a ruined tower outside and raised an unholy army of undead! You must stop his army from destroying the village and interrupt his dark rituals!"
>Your team is a little stunned, but you keep a level head. You walk outside and see that the instant dungeon you made is a whole lot bigger on the inside than the area it covers on the outside. You are in a small village of thatch roofed cottages. Far in the distance, on a hill, you see a large stone tower. Marching along a road from the tower to the village is a shambling mass of living corpses, some close enough for you to see they are all level 4. The nearest ones are getting close enough to start attacking the houses at the edge of the village.

"You guys handle the zombies, keep the NPCs safe"

>"But-" Bithiah says but is interrupted as you fly off.
>As you fly, you allow yourself a backwards glance to see your team mostly using some variation on mana bolt or mana arrow to help individual villagers. Bithiah doesn't seem to be doing anything. Jared let's out a "King's Slash!" and swings his massive sword, causing a wave of wind that tears apart undead halfway back to the tower.
>When you get to the tower, you see a door guarded by some level 6 zombies in armor. You ignore them and fly to the top of the tower.

>Here you see a robed man (<level 8> <Necromancer>) holding a dark orb.

>"So, Adventurer, you thought you could interrupt my plans, did you? Well, you're too late, I've already absorbed the fell powers of the Orb of Doardeigh and now I shall destroy you!"
>The necromancer begins casting a spell on you. You can't dodge, but don't feel any effects. You check your character screen to see that he's draining life from you more slowly than you heal naturally
"This is too easy. Spinning Mana Arrow!"
>The necromancer pulls a wand from his robes. "Counterspell!" A large circle inscribed with innumerable geometric shapes appears and your mana arrows disappear as they collide with it. Oh, you have GOT to get your hands on that

>If spells aren't going to work, you've got a back-up plan. you fly down low and grab the wizard by an arm, then start flying upward
>"No, no, what are you doing? That's not fair!"
>You drop the wizard, out of the air and off the tower. As he hits the ground you gain a notification
*ping*
>Your guild has defeated the dark Necromancer. Your guild has gained the Darkened Orb of Doardeigh. Your guild has gained Prestige.
>You fly down to pick up and Observe the necromancer's drops
>Necromancer's Robes. Raises Summon Undead by +4

>According to your timer, that took you all of two and a half minutes. What do you do now, the morning still early?

>>283862

Use Observe on the Darkened Orb of Doardeigh, discuss what just happened with our guild, then work on raising our Obscurity skill while working out in a gravity dungeon as planned. But let's also talk to Bithiah and see if she can teach us anything about summoning undead, since we've got robes that help with that now.

>The Orb seems to have despawned, like most enemy equipment when the enemy is defeated. Maybe it's a rare drop or something.
>Your group mostly agrees it was a fun little adventure and , after being informed it was described as being 'daily', agree to help with daily quests in the future.
>Bithiah takes you aside for a moment.
>"Michael, I'd love to help on these adventure things as much as I can, but my specific contract prohibits me from even threatening violence. I just thought you should know. I can still take a hit better than any human I've ever met, and am a skilled diplomat, so if you ever need those, I'm here for you"
"Thanks for letting me know, but that's something you maybe should have mentioned sooner. Regardless, I've got something else I want to talk to you about. I got these robes from the necromancer. They say they help you summon undead. Do you know anything about that?
>"Summon undead? That's really peculiar. I've heard of raising the dead, but summoning is a separate discipline, governed by contracts. I've never heard of someone making a contract with the undead"
"Well then, let's try it out"
>You put on the robes of the necromancer
*ping*
>You have gained the skill "Summon Undead"
>You summon a simple level 1 skeleton. Bithiah is in shock
>"This... this is completely new. This changes everything! Do you have any idea what you've just done?"
"Yes, actually, the robe sort of lets me know what I'm doing. I just gathered local spirits to make an illusory monster like what happens in illusion barriers. Except, with my power, it also takes some mana and makes the creature real"
>"That's exactly it, Michael. You've just turned the whole of Summoning on it's head with this technique. I can see now why everyone says you're so powerful. The things you could do with this... I-I need some time alone. to think"
"You are dismissed"

>You spend a solid 8 hours strength training in a high gravity instant dungeon. While doing so, you also cast Obscurity as often as you can, about twice every 5 seconds. You gain +1 Strength, Vitality, Dexterity, XP, and level Obscurity up to 11.

>It is now Tuesday evening. How do you spend it?

>>284273
Masturbating to Pepper from Shelter 4.
>>>/aco/
It improve Agility

>>284273
Start grinding your summon undead skill. See their capabilities by testing them on slimes.

>>284273
>>284418

This. If slimes are too easy for our summons, let's bump up to goblins. If those get too easy... let's see if we can create a dungeon with other undead like zombies or skeletons... or maybe just dick around with the Necromancer's Tower instead, since it seems we can make that dungeon now too.

>You spend a couple minutes messing around with Summon Undead in a multi-ooze dungeon to see what it does. It seems to create skeletons and zombies at a specified level. You can't find any difference between the two and the result seems to be random. The undead has twice its level in all physical stats, no mental stats and no skills. Because of this, a zombie of a given level can easily take on an equal leveled ooze. Undead kills give you exp as though you had done so yourself.
>After a little testing, you decide to grind the skill hard, casting it twice a second for 8 hours. That brings it up to level 16, for a total of 20 with the robe bonus. Unfortunately you only have enough maximum mana to summon a level 16 minion.

>You rest

>It is now Wednesday morning. You have 18 days of professional protection left. How do you spend your morning?

>>284694
See if were able to enchant stuff to give us Bonuses like the robes do like strength, Intelligence, etc.

>You pull a goblin spear and shield out of your inventory. You knew these things would end up being useful for something. The spear you enchant with +1 Strength and the shield with +1 Vitality. They take about 30 seconds each, so going by how much mana that cost, it should be the same formula for stat bonuses as it is for skill bonuses

Anything else you'd like to try?

>>284735
Have we tried forming weapons and shit from Fire Mana?

Also, making a Spinning Fire Arrow would be cool.

>You spend a bit practicing making mana construct axes, swords, and spears with the business ends made of fire. They seem like they should work well in combat, but you get no new skill notification

>Next you try out making a spinning mana arrow out of fire mana.
*ping*
>you have gained the skill "Spinning Fire Arrow"

http://pastebin.com/U4A4eYPH

The day is still young. what else do you do?

(This will be my last post for the night, but I still like reading your guys's suggestions, so keep them coming)

>>284861
For a spell to learn lets try this, pocket sand! We reach into our pocket and should it hit they get blinded temporarily.

>>284889
>pocket sand

So... Conjure Earth?

We could work with Earth Bolt so it's an easier skill to use. Have the projectile break apart into dust. Or combine Conjure Earth with Air Bolt for some kind of sandstorm gust.

Actually, I wonder if we'd be able to play with Conjure Earth and Conjure Water to create a kind of bog/quagmire underneath our enemies. We can fly, but most of our allies probably lack that particular ability. Might help to slow enemies down for them if the dailies get too hard too fast.

Speaking of...

>>284861

After we finish playing with creating new skills, Instant Dungeon Creation - Guild Hall Rank D to check the differences, then call our guildmates in and do today's daily.

>>285016
This but check what guild commands exist *guild status,guild inventory,guild information etc

>You begin work perfecting a new skill
>At first, you try just gathering earth mana in your closed fist, then throwing it outwards. This let out a plop of soil onto the ground in front of you. Not exactly what you were hoping for. Your try again, with both earth and air mana this time. This creates a spray of soil. Still not exactly what you want, but a jumping off point. You spend the remainder of the first hour of training on Wednesday morning refining the technique, slowly getting better at specifically conjuring sand and small abrasive stones and scattering them with higher force
*ping*
You have gained the new skill "Sand Attack"

http://pastebin.com/U4A4eYPH

>Afterwards, you decide to try out your new rank D Guild Hall. Inside you find yourself in a grimy stone room. It's long, with a roaring fireplace at one end and an empty mant-hey, wait a moment, this mantel isn't empty. Sitting on a cushion on one end of the mantel is the Dark Orb of Doardeigh. Aside from that, there decent chairs (all with cushions) surrounding a table covered in bowls of what appear to be some kind of stew and flatware. It smell palatable. There is a door on the wall opposite the wall with the fireplace, and a set of stairs on the adjacent wall. Going up the stairs you find another long room with another long fireplace, though this room is filled with bunkbeds.
>Back down stairs you Observe the Dark Orb.
>"Whosoever gazes into it's dark depths will gain the fell powers of the lich who created it"
*ping*
>You have gained the skill "Life Drain"

>You try to work out more commands for your guild, but all you can bring up is the initial screen, now stating
>Rank D Prestige
>Rank B Power
>Rank B Influence
>A list of your guild members
>And a new list, containing only the Dark Orb of Doardeigh

>You then gather up your Guild, sit down at the slightly bigger and nicer chair at the head of the table, and agree to start today's daily quest

>The countdown timer starts
>There's a knocking at the door, which then bursts open
>"The Gaming Gamers!"
>You should really consider changing that sometime to something cooler
>"A cult has holed itself up in the old mansion ans started summoning abominations to attack the town! You must help us!" cries out an NPC.
>Your guild rushes outside to see horrors shambling through the streets, citizens running away in abject terror as the amorphous creatures slowly follow after them, tangles of limbs and mouths. You Observe them.
><Level 8>
><Abomination>
>HP 128 /128
>MP 0/0
>Strength 16
>Vitality 16
>Dexterity 16
>Intelligence 0
>Wisdom 0
>Luck 0
>A creature summoned from the realms furthest from Earth
>You let your team handle the saving the civilians while you sly high up above the village, searching for the mansion. There are several houses you see that fit the description, but on in particular has the abominations fall out through the windows on a regular basis, so you assume it to be your target.
>You knock in the door with a flying kick. Inside are more abominations, which you ignore. Instead you fly around the house, checking for a basement. Evil cults ALWAYS set up in the basement. You eventually find the entrance from the abominations piling out of it, blow past them and find the basement, floor covered in symbols with a 16th level cultist. Chanting towards a mirror. Before he even stops chanting, you hit him with a Sand Attack, followed by a Spinning Mana Arrow. The cultist is down for the count.
*ping*
Your guild has defeated teh dark Cultist. Your guild has gained the Mirror of Mental Dominance. Your Guild has gained Prestige
>The mirror and cultist disappear, but leave behind a silver knife. You Observe the knife to find that it is enchanted to restore MP equal to the damage it deals.

>You've finished today's daily quest, in just under 4 minutes. How would you like to spend the rest of the morning?

>>287062

More exercising, then get our hands on some educational materials to study. Medical stuff maybe, or harder math than we know.

>It occurs to you that if you want to study, the Scholar's Union might be able to help. You visit Sophia to see if she has any material you could use
>When asked about study material, Sophia gets a little excited. " The Scholar's Guild Library is inside a special illusion barrier. Guild members are taught a ritual to create a portal to the library, so we can access it from anywhere. Would you like me to take you to the library? You don't have to be part of the guild to read the books."
>You answer in the affirmative. Sophia then takes you into her room in the house. "Follow me" she says, and steps into what appears to be a blank section of wall that she disappears in to. You follow suit, and soon find yourself in an enormous building.
>Sophia shows you where the reference books, textbooks, and scientific journals are located and you spend the next 8 hours going to town. You gain +1 INT, WIS, and XP

>After that is your regularly scheduled afternoon workout with Emily. She requests that you form a party with her again, saying "It makes the workout easier. I get tired less quickly and recover faster". She's still not making gains anywhere near as fast as you, but you can just make heavier mana constructs to work out with, so you keep the illusion barrier at +10%. You Gain +1 STR, VIT, DEX, LUK, and XP.

http://pastebin.com/U4A4eYPH

>It is now Thursday morning. You have 17 days of professional protection left. What would you like to do

>>287656

More studying in the Scholar's Guild library, followed by our daily quest in our Rank C Guild Hall of course.

>You spend 8 hours in the morning studying in the grand library. You gain +1 INT, WIS, and XP.

>Afterwards, you assemble your guild for another quest. You create a Rank C Guild Hall. The hall is shaped the same as the first one, with the extra addition of some stairs. Everything is made of wood again, but a nicer, finished wood than the crude planks of your class E hall. The table is covered in a fine assortment of fresh fruits and vegetable and cooked meats. Up the stairs is a hall that leads to private bedrooms, one for each member of the guild, each with a nice bed, a nightstand, and a dresser. On the mantel above the fireplace in the main hall now sit both the Dark Orb of Doardeigh and also, on a stand, the Mirror of Mental Dominance. You Observe it.
*ping*
>You have gained the skill Mental Dominance

http://pastebin.com/U4A4eYPH

>As you do so, Noah stares curiously at the Dark Orb. He then gasps.
>"I've learned a life drain spell!"
>Ed muscles his way past Noah and stares into the Orb. "Life drain huh, we'll see about this" Ed continues to stare for just a moment before "Oh! Life drain spell indeed. Gonna be honest with you kid, I thought you were messing with me. Hey, Michael, that mirror do anything useful?"
>You describe the Mental Dominance skill to the group. They all agree that the immunity effect is very powerful and one by one look into the mirror an gain its power
>With that all out of the way, you sit in the now rather ornate chair at the head of the table and agree to your daily quest

>A timer starts counting down from 8 hours.
>An NPC knocks on the door then enters. This time it is a 6th level scout. "Gaming Gamers, About a day's journey from here by foot lays an ancient ruined temple, built by the dark wizard Doardeigh. He filled it with vile monsters and devious traps to keep his secrets hidden away from other wizards. He died of unknown causes centuries ago, but now he has risen again and he has started accumulating an army! You must go to the ruins immediately, or all will be lost."
>Yo go outside to see you are now in the middle of an antiquated city instead of some small village.
"You say the ruin is a day's journey by foot? Which direction?"
>"Just follow this road, sir. And quickly, please, the raiding scouts of his army were just behind me!"
"Looks like I'm going to have to do this one solo, unless you guys can think of a way to keep up with me"
>"Good luck outpacing me" Jared says
>"I can fly just as good as you, if not better" Bithiah says.
"Good, good. Bithiah, grab Ed and Sophia. I'll grab Noah and Earl. Jared, try to keep up"
>You start off in the direction indicated by the scout. Before too long, you start to come across raiding orcs, level 16, a few at first, but gradually more as you continue. Your group makes short work of them. Eventually, you come across what appears to be the ruin, surrounded by orcs. Your group rains death down upon them.
>Inside the ruin, Bithiah and Jared go first, tanking any traps Earl, Noah, Sophia, and Ed don't notice and dismantle first. After several literal hours of wandering around a dank labyrinth in the dark, you finally find the main chamber.
>Inside, the 32nd level lich of Doardeigh awakens and begins casting spells at you. Bithiah protects the weaker members of the group while you and Jared go all out on the lich, which soon falls.
*ping*
>Your guild has defeated the dark Lich Doardeigh. Your guild has gained the Purified Orb of Doardeigh. Your guild has gained Prestige.
>From the lich's remains, you pick up the Lich's Crown. Observing it, it seems to increase maximum mana by 50 at the cost of 50 maximum health.

>You now have 5 hours of thursday afternoon left. how would you like to spend it?

>>288453

Good to know in a worst case scenario we're still able to have a warm bed to sleep in with food on a table for us. Really loving the Guild Hall.

Since it's Thursday, that means it's our workout day with Emily, right? We can skip school no problem, but we shouldn't skip out on our friends.

>>288870
(workouts with Emily are scheduled monday/wednesday/friday. thursday is free)

>>288946

Right then, let's work on grinding Mental Dominance, Sand Attack, and Life Drain. Maybe throw Status Quo in a bit too if we can.

>You set up a multi-ooze dungeon to train some of your lower leveled skills. You constantly keep Life Drain up and use Dual Casting to alternate between Sand Attack and Mental Dominance. In the end, you bring Sand Attack and Mental Dominance to level 13 and Life Drain up to level 15. Throughout the process, you occasionally cast Status Quo, bringing it up to level 6

>You get a good night's rest

>It is now friday. you have 16 days of professional protection left. how do you spend your morning?

(This is going to be my last post for the night. As always, feel free to continue making suggestions for the story)

>>289063
>how do you spend your morning?

Back to the Grand Library's books, with more Status Quo training.

>>289956
Supporting but, let's see if we can find books about the different criminal organizations in the abyss. Just in case.

>You spend the morning studying. You also manage to efficiently train Status Quo, in part thanks to instincts gained from your Dual Casting ability.

http://pastebin.com/U4A4eYPH

>Afterwards, you try and find some information on the criminals organizations in the Abyss. While speaking with a librarian on the matter, you learn that where in most countries such organizations flaunt their power openly, in America Majestic smacks down anyone that gets too loud. Which isn't to say such organizations don't exist in America, they just tend to be more covert. It is suspected that many traditional criminal organizations, such as the mafia, various gangs, and the mexican cartels all have arms in the Abyss that quietly work in America.

How do you spend thursday afternoon?

>>291089
Let's hit up Emily and, spend the rest of the day enjoying ourselves maybe go bowling with her. Let's ask if she can teach us a little divination or clairvoyance.

(sorry guys, I fucked up and said thursday when it's friday, which we have normally scheduled for working out with Emily. Considering you wanted to hang out with her anyway, I guess it all works out, I just wanted to apologize for my mistake)

>You call up Emily and say your ready to start your workout. While exercising, you inquire about divination.
>"To actually see the future is something you're just born with. It'd be like teaching you to flex a muscle you don't have. I guess if anyone could learn how without being born with it, it would be you, but I wouldn't know where to start. But there is more to divination than just seeing the future. There's a lesser form, called remote viewing, that's seeing things at a distance. I even have an old manual on it you could probably use as a skill book if you'd like. I used it when I was very young to practice my powers, but I haven't needed it in years."
>You take her up on her offer and, after you finish exercising, you end up back at your house, plus 1 Strength, Vitality, Dexterity, Luck, XP, and a skill book which you use

http://pastebin.com/U4A4eYPH

>You rest

>It is now Saturday. You have 15 days of professional protection left. How do you spend your morning?

>>291265

More exercise, and Obscurity training this time. After that's done, we've got an axe to grind. Specifically, an axe mastery skill to grind up using one (or two) of our Legendary Goblin War Axes.

>The morning you spend exercising, grinding all your physical stats up to 16, finally to the point where you can wield that goblin war axe. You simultaneously train your Obscurity skill up to level 15
>The evening you spend in a goblin instant dungeon, training with your axe. With the incredible speed afforded to you by flight and the axe being able to one-shot entire groups of goblins at a time, the only thing slowing you down is the loot and the occasional boss. You average a goblin every second and a half for 8 hours. You gain enough exp to level up to 19 and enough Axe Mastery to get up to a natural 15, 25 with the axe's bonus.

>In loot, you gain $329,600, 1,632 goblin staves, and 816 pairs of goblin spears and shields, 40 more health potions, and 8 more legendary axes.

http://pastebin.com/U4A4eYPH

>It is now Sunday. You have 14 days of professional protection left. How do you spend your morning?

>>291510

Hit the library again for a bit, with more Obscurity training along the way. But while we're there, let's ask Sophia if there's anything in particular she recommend we study, based on what she knows about us, our current situation, or even just things that might be useful doing the daily quests (that we've admittedly not been doing everyday) and study whatever she recommends.

After that, talk to Jared and see if he has any advice, since the last time we went to do our daily the mobs were around our level. It won't be too much longer before they're stronger than we are, surely he has some tricks for dealing with enemies that have an advantage in strength, speed, stamina, or adaptability.

>You ask Sophia what you should study, but she doesn't have any recommendations. You study whatever books you come across, which today happen to be microbiology. You gain 1 INT, WIS, and XP.

http://pastebin.com/U4A4eYPH

>After this, you go to Jared for advice on taking down powerful mobs
>"Mobility is key. If you can fly and use long range attacks and your opponent can't, they're fucked. Even just moving faster than them is a major advantage. Because of this, wizards often use conjured magical nets and chains to bind their opponents. Disabling your opponent in other ways can be helpful too. Some wizards use confusion or blinding spells. Again, an enemy under these effects is as good as dead, especially if you have longer range attacks than them. Personally, I've just become a really good judge of what I can handle and what I can't. If something is too big, I run away. Most things big enough to take me on in a straight fight have trouble finding me if I just run away and hide. That skill's saved my hide more than once."

>What do you do on sunday evening?

>>291922

Let's try to make a magical net and some binding chains, then try to play with freezing a target or covering the area in ice. After we play around with those for a bit, hop on the Abyss site and buy a book for confusion, blinding, and anything else that really stands out. Let's sell about 1,000 Goblin Staves while we're at it.

>>292055
Supporting

>With your mastery of mana manipulation, in no time you've figured out how to create a large weighted net made of mana. You don't get a skill notification, but you'd rather like one, so you try opening up an ooze dungeon to practice creating and throwing the nets on the fly. Before long
*ping*
>You have gained the new skill "Mana Net"
>You practice your new spell for a while, making a game out of how many oozes you can catch in a single net. You hit 7 before getting bored and moving on to something else
>Next, you go into a summon a level 19 Undead to practice a different technique on. You create chains made of mana binding the creature to the ground.
*ping*
>You have gained the new skill "Mana Chains"
>Rather liking your new skills, you grind them out up to level 9 on your summoned zombie, which doesn't seem to mind.
>You spend a couple hours trying to make ice magic, but just can't figure out how it works.

>You then get set up on the Abyss site and put up 1000 goblin staves for sale. It seems your prices are really good, because it only takes you 2 hours to sell out. While waiting, you browse through the list of spellbooks. There are SO MANY SPELLS. There spells for raising your stats, spells for lowering your opponents stats, spells for making ice, spells for warding areas, spells for locking things, spells for unlocking things, spells for finding traps, spells for making traps, the list just seems to go on forever. In the end you buy the spell books Confusion and Ice Slick for a total to $500,000.

http://pastebin.com/U4A4eYPH

>It's Sunday night and you still have 4 hours before you need to head to bed. What do you do?

>>292944
Let's see if we can see "Abyss news network" or something equivalent to that lets see the current events of the world.

>>292944
>There spells for raising your stats, spells for lowering your opponents stats, spells for making ice, spells for warding areas, spells for locking things, spells for unlocking things, spells for finding traps, spells for making traps, the list just seems to go on forever.

More spells. We need more spells. One of each, they're all too good.

>>293058

Also this. And finally a little bit of Remote Viewing practice, because nothing awkward can possibly happen by trying to use that in the evening and it needs some levels anyway.

>You briefly consider buying ALL the spells. But there are a so many of them, hundreds of variations each on thousands of spells, you couldn't even begin to afford it. Besides, your skill list is already cluttered with a dozen abilities you never use. Better to not buy a spell unless you already have a specific use for it in mind.

>You try searching for some form of Abyss news network, but come up dry. You decide to contact Bithiah using teamspeak over the matter. She explains that most news in the Abyss travels by word of mouth, and any BIG news is likely to trickle down into the group before too long, and so you probably shouldn't worry about it, unless you're interested in the movements and politics of hundreds of different factions outside the US. Speaking of big news, it seems she spoke to some of her associates about your new form of summoning and the news is really making the rounds. Most people discount it as only rumor, with all experiments along the lines of what you do ending in failure. Because the only way such a thing that would make such a feet possible would be the direct intervention of Gaia, the name some people use for the will that governs ability users and their powers, people have started referring to it Gaian Summoning.

>You then decide to try out your Remote Viewing power. For a target, you specify 'an ability user' . Before you appears an image of Earl in his shop. You spend most of an hour watching him shape metal and wood to his whims. It's very relaxing. Remote Viewing levels to 12 and you have 3 free hours left if you want a full night's sleep

(this is my last post for the night)

>>293188
Good night OP

>>293188

If watching Earl inspired us any, let's see about planning out something we want to make ourselves. Some kind of simple jewelry probably wouldn't hurt, or other equipment we might want that could help us out. Better shoes, a belt, a pair of gloves, some glasses of some kind, a hat maybe. We should glance through our skill list and think about our fighting style when making designs so nothing we end up using gets in the way. Using a notebook, let's scrawl out a few designs, stuff we can work on making this week, then more we could make down the line, when we're stronger. The later stuff might not ever go beyond lead on paper, but if we come back to it when we're ready to make it into a reality we might gain some inspiration from old ideas based on our new needs.

If it didn't... well, let's still make plans to talk to Earl later about getting some upgrades that might make it easier to fly or cast. Then pop in a dungeon to grind up our new skills and get used to using them, along with Spinning Fire Arrow which we haven't touched since its creation.

There's your chance to start drawing, OP, if you can think anything up. I'd recommend simplistic stuff that fits well so it won't blow off or get caught in anything when we fly around or fight stuff and can't be grabbed or dropped easily.

>Watching Earl work, you realize over half of your item slots are empty. Head slot, neck slot, two ring slots, cloak slot, and your gloves slots are all empty. Even the remaining torso/legs/feet slots are unenchanted items. You decide you'll talk to Earl later about magical items

>Your last 3 hours, you grind out Ice Slick, Confusion, and Spinning Fire Arrow on goblins, raising Ice Slick and Spinning Fire Arrow to level 11 and Confusion to level 13

>You rest

>It is now monday. This afternoon you're scheduled to work out with Emily, but how do you spend your morning?

>>294726

Might as well talk to Earl and get that out of the way, then off to the library until time to meet up with Emily. Let's focus our studies on combat related materials.

>You go and have a talk with Earl about magic items. He's surprised you've made it this far without any kind of enchanted item. In the Abyss, items are power. He says as an artificer, he would gladly sell you any base item you want to enchant, or even enchant items for you if that's what you'd prefer. He's not the greatest enchanter, however, having spent more time honing his various crafting skills. You say you'll consider it and move on to the Great Library to study
>Today you focus on combat spells. You spend 8 hours going through different variations of different combat spells. You don't gain any new skills, but you gain valuable insight into how a lot of the spells you use work, and feel this will help if you ever decide to experiment and make your own custom spells again in the future.
>After you finish studying, you do your regular workout with Emily. She's gotten noticeably better since you started working out.

>It is now Tuesday. You have 12 days of professional protection left. How do you spend your morning?

>>295351

Since we can trust Earl to supply the base materials for enchanting, let's work on improving our own abilities to take care of that ourselves. We've got plenty of goblin shields and spears to play around with, so let's do a bit of experimenting to see what gives the best gains here for our time. Either pumping out a bunch of low level enchanted items at once, or doing a few of the highest level stuff we can manage.

>You know from previous training that you gain 1 xp in Basic Alchemy for every item you enchant. You go into mass production, enchanting goblin spears with mana bolt and shields with mana shield, both single use. It takes you a little over two hours to go through the stack, bringing your Basic Alchemy skill up to 12 before you run out of materials to enchant.

>You still have 6 hours this tuesday morning. how would you like to spend them?

>>295557

Research into Enchanting/Alchemy. We know people pull mana from the staves and stuff we sell, but we haven't really figured out how to do that yet. Maybe we'll find something to make our enchanting even better. See if Earl will fill in any gaps in our knowledge too.

>You decide to talk to Earl to get some more stuff on alchemy and enchanting figured out
"Hey, Earl, how do you disenchant an item? I've never done it before"
>"Have you ever tried? Just do like you normally would, only instead of shoving mana into an object you pull it out. Just be sure and have a mana receptacle nearby, it would be a shame to lose any mana"
"Why is mana so valuable in the Abyss? Enchanting powerful items seems to have diminishing returns, so I don't see what the big deal about the whole thing is"
"Well, there are a few reasons. First of all, it's easy to abuse abilities for money, so prices in the Abyss naturally tend to be inflated. Besides that, there's what you said about diminishing returns, except everyone always wants the very best, so every scrap of mana is valuable because so much is sunk in to large magic items. Finally, there's gold. If you know alchemy, you know how to transmute lead, or most any mineral, into gold. The catch is, doing so is very mana expensive. This is especially useful because many rituals and contracts in the Abyss consume gold, so there's always a market for gold, so there's always a market for mana. Understand?"

>>295813

"Makes sense, but what's a mana receptacle? Can you teach me to make my own? ...Wait, does that mean the price of gold is inflated in the Abyss too? I guess I'd never really need to, but doesn't that mean someone could just buy a bunch of gold jewelry or ingots or something and then make a profit off of them in the Abyss?"

>"By 'mana receptacle' I just meant any item that you're in the middle of enchanting or piece of mineral your transmuting. And no, most raw materials that are readily available in large amounts outside of the Abyss have about the same going rate inside the Abyss, I as just explaining why the gold market has been stable despite alchemists making it in their basements for centuries"

>>295989

"Ah, too bad. It sounded like I could make something to stockpile mana until I'm ready to enchant something really powerful... Well, since you said most people use enchanted gear, do you recommend anything special for me to enchant mine with?"

>"Normally the first thing I'd suggest for any wizard would be gear that increases mana regeneration, but from how I've seen you'd fight you seem to have mana spilling out your ears, so I'd only go for that if you intend to enchant some really powerful items. Other than that, gear that increases the power of any specific spells you use often, like your Spinning Mana Arrow. I'd also suggest anything that increases your base attributes, things like your reflexes and how well you take a hit."

>>296097

Let's take him up on his suggestions. We're not really able to do enchants to increase our base attributes, right? So let's buy spellbooks for skills that let us do that. But for now we can also buy regular gear from him and enchant some things with defensive and offensive bonuses. How about... A necklace that improves Mana Shield, one ring improving Troll's Regeneration, another that improves Copper Skin, a cloak for Obscurity, one pair of gloves for Spinning Mana Arrow, and a shirt for Mana Manipulation Mastery. We'll worry about pants and shoes later. But first, before we enchant anything we should probably get an alchemist's gear set made. So, a pair of gloves to improve our alchemy skills, a ring to increase our INT, a ring to increase our WIS, and a necklace to increase our mana regen.

>You order 4 rings, two sets of gloves, two necklaces, and a cloak. Earl mentions some special materials take hold of enchantments easier and use less mana, then asks if we'd like to use those materials. Doing so would make the order cost $50,000 all told and the enchantments would take 25% less mana. You agree to the deal and give Earl his money. He says your order will be ready in 2 days.

>You still have about 6 hours to spend this morning

>>296558

Alright, back to level grinding for a bit then, with a bit of focus on our CC skills. Once the morning's over, back to the better Guild Hall for another daily.

>By ignoring the cash drops (you really don't need them), keeping your inventory open all the time, putting staves, spears, and shields into your inventory while waiting for a launched attack to hit, and flying constantly, you manage to average killing a goblin every second. You could probably quadruple that if you had someone or something gathering your drops for you. But for now, it suffices, and after 3 hours of grinding broken up only by 3 bosses
*ping*
>You have reached level 20
*DUN DUNDUNDUUUUUUN*
>You have reached a milestone. You have gained 21 bonus points. In addition, skills will now level much faster and can be leveled by special actions

>You test it out by practicing Sand Attack, Ice Slick, Confusion on each goblin, Mana Net, and Mana Chains, in that order, then move on to the next group. The set takes about 4 seconds to do, and it takes about 1 second to fly within range of another group. You practice this way for 3 hours.
>During your practice, you find your exp gains have increased enormously. You now get experience per point of mana spent on a skill instead of 1 point per skill usage. You're still not sure how non-mana based skills have changed.

>You gather the troops and make a Rank B Guild Hall Instant Dungeon. It is again made of stone, but a white, clean stone that fits together much better than the dingy stones that made up the Rank D hall. Your fireplace mantel now paradoxically contains both the Dark and Purified Orbs of Doardeigh. You Observe it to see what kind of skill you get
*DUN DUNDUNDUUUUUUUUN*
>You have reached a milestone. Your skill 'Heal' has reached level 20 and transformed into 'Superior Heal'
>You gather the group around and have them all learn the new skill. They seem very excited ; it seems healing techniques this powerful are really rare in the Abyss.
>You then check around the guild hall. The variety of food is wider, now including various sweets and pastries, and the bedrooms are bigger and nicer
>You sit down at the head chair, which you would now probably describe as a throne, and get the screen asking if you'd like to start today's daily quest? Y/N?
(maybe allocate some of those stat points first. They aren't doing any good just sitting around. Also, this is going to be my last post for the night)

>>297082
>maybe allocate some of those stat points first. They aren't doing any good just sitting around.

Well, I've liked the idea of saving them until we encounter a situation that demands we invest them, something we can't really overcome without more than a week of dedicated work on those stats. But if it's strongly recommended... 10 points in Vit, 15 in INT and 15 in WIS is my vote. Should give us a decent bit of survivability with fair increases to most of our damage and mana regen.

REALLY tempted to go a 20/20 split INT/WIS but the 10 points in VIT will make us go from 340HP to 540HP, with 146 HP regen/sec instead of 58. That's way too great of a safety net to pass on, especially if things are going to get harder to deal with. Full points in INT would also be insane for making us into a powerhouse, but I've never been a huge fan of glass-cannon mode, and this way actually gives us more mana to play with after a given amount of time thanks to better MP regen than the higher mana pool would.

After the points are distributed, Yes to the quest.

>>297143
Seconding this, we would have a massive boost to everything we need.

>>297143
Supporting, but we should also be prepared for close combat in the event we get "silenced" or have our mana shut down. We should train a bit in melee.

>You put 3 points into Vitality when
*DUN DUNDUNDUUUUUUUUN*
>You have reached a milestone. The equation for maximum health is now VitalityXlevelX2
>You put 3 points into Intelligence
*DUN DUNDUNDUUUUUUUUN*
>You have reached a milestone. The equation for maximum mana is now IntelligenceXlevelX2
>You put 3 points into Wisdom
*DUN DUNDUNDUUUUUUUUN*
>You have reached a milestone. The equation for mana recovery is now (Wisdom X 2)% maximum mana (rounded up)

>You've only spent 9 points, 31 points remain, and thanks to the milestones you're further ahead than you thought you'd be spending all of them. Do you want to continue with your original allocation, spread the points out for more milestones, or dump most of them into 1 stat hoping for a second milestone?

>>298628
3 Into STR and DEX, 2 into Luck. That leaves 23, right? 10 more into INT, 10 into WIS, last 3 into VIT

>>298628
>Do you want to continue with your original allocation, spread the points out for more milestones, or dump most of them into 1 stat hoping for a second milestone?

Very tempting, but keeping with the original plans just makes everything turn out even better for us. 1080 HP, 292 HP/sec, 1280 MP, 820 MP/sec... We're really edging into broken territory. Besides, extra strength would give us a benefit when it comes to creating weapons through mana manipulation and from using Shoryuken, but that's about it. Dex and Luck don't have any obvious bonuses, though I do believe they're useful. We're still close enough to the milestone to hit them this week when working out normally with Emily.

(>>298713 I normally try incorporate what I can from as many posts as feasible, giving priority to those that posted first. However, here, I interupted someone else's choice, so I'm going to give >>298732 priority here)

>You finish distributing your points between VIT, INT, and WIS, then begin your daily quest.
>A countdown timer starts at 8 hours. An NPC, a 16th level guard, knocks on the door in the back of the room and then enters. "Gaming Gamers, the molten dragon Evanwrath has stolen the princess from the castle! You must rescue her immediately!"
"Which way is the dragon's lair"
>"The mountain to the northeast"
>You step outside to find yourself inside a castle grounds. You fly above the walls to see a very prominent mountain in the north east
>You and Bithiah fly the rest of the group towards the mountain. As you near, you spot a trail leading to a set of large stone doors on the side of the mountain, guarded by some reptilian humanoid. You Observe it to find it's depressingly powerful. With your new stats, you could probably tank it, but you're going to need something more powerful per hit htan spinning mana arrow to affect this 32nd level Drakling creature. For now, you set the squishier party members down a ways away from the entrance.
>While looking through your skills for something that might be effective, you spot Mana Bullet. With the increase in skill leveling, you spend 10 minutes bringing Mana Bullet up to level 14. You then approach the Drakling and hit it with Mana Chains, then, remembering the 'headshot' graphic that would sometimes pop up when training on goblins, hit the Drakling twice n the head, killing it. Jared then breaks open the door.
>Your group spends several hours searching through the dark tunnels, occasionally hitting traps which you tank or Draklings which you chain then double headshot. You eventually make it to a large, open chamber. What takaes up most of the room is a 64th level dragon, covered in black,platelike scales, the areas between them glowing with heat. The dragon sits atop a massive pile of melted gold, coins and jewelry well defined on the outside, shapes becoming more and more indistinct as they near the dragon until it hits the dragon itself, where the gold seems completely molten. You spy the princess nearby, chained to a wall. The dragon appears to be asleep.
>Quieter than you thought possible, Jared sneaks over to the princess and breaks her bonds with his bare hands. As you are about to leave with the princess, Evanwrath stirs
>"Who would take my pretty prize from me?"
>You are about to respond with something you hope sounds heroic when Bithiah interjects
>"We seek not to rob you, great Evanwrath, simply come to some form of mutual understanding. It would appear that you like gold?"
>"If you've come to trade, you'd better have a lot of gold"
>"No, I was thinking of a different kind of deal..."

>Bithiah goes on to explain the economics behind a scenario in which Evanwarth's Drakling servants protect the local kingdom from invasion and bandits and how, with this protection and being allowed to keep thier managers and enough of their goods to live on, the excess could be traded away for more gold to pay in tribute to Evanwrath indefinitely. You don't quite follow everything she says, but Evanwrath seems moved by her words and agrees to her terms.
>You leave with the princess and manuever your way out of the maze of tunnels in the mountain, no longer encountering any hostile Draklings. You then awkwardly fly the princess and the rest of your team back to the castle, where you get your congratulations message
*ping*
>Your guild has saved the princess. Your guild has aquired the molten dragons scale. Your guild has gained Prestige

>It's Tuesday evening and you have 2 free hours left. how do you spend them?

>>298954
>level 32 trash mobs
>level 64 dragon

Yep, things got harder as expected. Glad we solved that with diplomacy, but we'll really need to power up to stand any kind of chance at this rate. Bithiah did great solving that with diplomacy, and we haven't learned much of anything from her yet. Two hours isn't much time to pick things up though, so let's just grind up general exp before bed, using our mana rifle and bullets more since they really helped with the Draklings.

> You create a goblin dungeon and summon the biggest fastest zombie you can. You then order it to gather all your loot into a pile as you start flying and gunning down goblins. You spend two hours training and gain a more advanced version of your Fly spell and bring both it and mana bullet up to level 17.

>You rest

>It is now Wednesday morning. You have 11 days of professional protection left. You are scheduled to exercise with Emily this evening. Your items from Earl should be ready tomorrow. How do you spend your morning?

>>299189

Talk to Bithiah about learning to summon something besides the undead. She's seen us in action enough, she should have an idea of something that can help cover our weaknesses. I'd like to talk to Noah about golems too, but I want to believe the spirits she'd teach us to summon would be a bit more intelligent than any golem could be. Golems are probably great tanks, but eventually we'll run into something that could outsmart them, and if we've got an adaptable partner that's grown strong by then we'll have far less to fear. Learning from both Bithiah and Noah would be ideal, but if we've only got time for one before it's time to meet up with Emily then let's go with Bithiah.

>You decide to have a chat with Bithiah concerning summoning. She thinks that your ability to tank combined with your inability to use your mana as fast as you regenerate it lends you towards a fire elemental. She even thinks you're powerful enough to skip over the lowest level of fire elemental and make a contract with a higher level elemental, so as not to waste your time grinding with a weak one. She also says she can get the materials for the ritual for the stronger elemental through her contacts with the summoner's union and have them here immediately, but it'll cost you $10,000. You agree.
>You soon find yourself standing in front of a symbol made of smouldering charcoal, with lit candles at the ends. You chant the incantation as instructed and the fire rises up out of the charcoal, swarming around and taking the form of a small girl.
>'Why have you called me here, human?' she says directly in to your head.
>You ignore her question for the moment. "My name is Michael Smith. You have heard my true name, what is yours?"
>Something flits through your mind and is gone in an instant. Pain and desire and peace, all in a fraction of a second.
>'I am Ember, Michael Smith. Would you like to form a contract?'
"Yes, I would"
>The two of you say your parts of the ancient incantation to bind Ember to your service. As you do so, her body glows, brimming with energy, and she becomes much bigger. She looks to be about as old of Noah now, maybe a bit older.
*ping*
>You have gained the skill "Summon elemental"
>You summon her just to see what it's like
>'Need me so soon? You just couldn't wait to see me again, could you?'
>Rather than reply, you dismiss her
>You thank Bithiah for the lessons and materials and go off to see Noah to learn about golems

>What Noah tells you you probably could have guessed. They are generally made of stone, although wood and metal golems do exist, they can take a hit but aren't very smart and can't follow complex orders. They also follow the law of diminishing returns all magic items do, and so Noah suggests you use your Undead summoning skill instead, as it's likely more efficient.

>All in all, you've spent an hour going around and still have 7 hours of morning left

>>299866
>>Rather than reply, you dismiss her

Poor Ember. Let's summon her back out anyway and level the skill up so she's better and better.

Poor Noah too, we don't seem to need him for potions and he doesn't even think golems are worth it for us to learn. I expected they'd tank a hit better than our undead minions, but oh well.

Time to hop into our Guild Hall that's still rank B for some basic management and strengthening our relations a bit, and I want to be a little generous since our liaisons are helping us with these daily quests whenever we want to do them. We've got $56Mil in cash on us, and can literally make millions more in a couple hours worth of grinding if we don't want to sell what we've already got. We've also got six people in our guild, aside from ourselves. So I vote we put $1Mil in front of each member's seat, along with a couple of staves they can use or sell as they wish. Then let's call the guild together and talk to them for a bit.

Don't forget to check out the Molten Dragon's Scale.

Let's ask our guildmates what they think about the arrangement so far, anything they'd like changed with how we've been doing things, and what they think about the daily quests. Specifically the sudden serious jump in difficulty and if they think we should get stronger before trying the next one, or keep going as we are.

Basically, a generic staff and strategy meeting combined, with gifts to show our appreciation.

>You call to order a meeting of the Gaming Gamers. The first thing you do is Observe the Molten Dragon's Scale.
*ping*
>You have gained a level of Observe
*ping*
>You have gained the new skill "Fire Immunity"
>Your guildmates gather around and all gain the skill. To test it, Jared asks you to hit him with a fire attack. You summon Ember and tell her to target Jared. No matter how high up you turn the heat, Jared says he and his equipment are all fine. The skill seems to work exactly as it says it does.

>After this is finished, you tell everyone to settle in at the table. As they peck at the many various food items, you pull out $1 million for each of them and two goblin shaman staves each. Sophia and Noah are floored. Earl, Jared, and Bathiah all respectfully thank you. Ed doesn't seem all that impressed, but thanks you nonetheless.
>You then ask about how they all feel about the guild. They mostly agree it's nice to have friends and connections outside their unions, the guild hall itself is wonderful, and the adventures have been a fun distraction from their own daily grinds.
>When asked about the spike in difficulty in the latest quest and whether they'd like to try another, they agree they would give another a try but be ready to break the illusion barrier at the first sign of serious trouble.

>>300187

Since they'd like to give it another go without training up, then let's go ahead and do that.

>With a little trepidation, you sit at the head seat and begin today's daily quest.
>The timer appears in your vision and starts counting down. There's a knock on the door, followed by a 16h level guard coming in and informing you that the princess has been kidnapped by the mighty and terrible dragon Evanwrath. Slightly confused, you go outside and then, with Bithiah's help, fly the party to Evanwarth's mountain. The front door is guarded by a level 32 Drakling that your Observe skill tells you in unremarkable for its type. You quickly chain it then shoot it down, allowing access to the large stone doors Jared once again opens. The layout of the tunnels inside seems to be the same and your group learned them pretty well going in and out the first time you did this quest. You quickly find your way to Evanwrath's chamber, where the dragon appears to be sleeping and the princess is chained to a wall. Bithiah carefully awakens the dragon and starts a conversation. They strike up a deal where Evanwrath and his minions protect the locals in exchange for a tithe of gold, as though nothing of the sort had ever happened before. Jared then frees the princess and the party leaves. You are greeted with a notification screen upon your arrival back at the castle
*ping*
>Your guild has saved the princess. Your Guild has completed this B ranked daily quest 2 times. Your Guild Hall can now be expanded. What extra room do you want?
>Rank B Alchemist's Lab
>Rank B Enchanter's Workshop
>Rank B Summoner's Chamber
>Rank B Labyrinth
>Rank B Fixer's Lounge
>Rank B Library
>Rank B Greenhouse
>Rank B Tavern

(forgot this, should be on the list)

>Diviner's Chamber

>>304286

Most of these sound really useful, but I'm leaning towards the Diviner's Chamber the most, despite how tempting it is to grab the Enchanter's Workshop.

See if our guildmates have any issue with that, or if they're in agreement over grabbing a different room instead.

>You discuss your options with the group, who all have their own biases, and in the end they agree that if this is a regular thing, they don't mind putting off their own area's of expertise. Bithiah in particular doesn't mind, as she is only an agent of an actual summoner, and so would have no personal use for a 'Summoner's Chamber' (whatever that might be). You decide on the Rank B Diviner's Chamber
>You call Emily over to check it out. When you all arrive back at the main hall of the guild, you see nothing different. However, following the stairs you see they go up to another floor now, above the bedrooms. This new room is filled with mirrors of all shapes and sizes on the walls. There is a large circular skylight in the center of the ceiling with a circular pool of water beneath it, reflecting clouds that you notice don't match up with the clouds you can see through the skylight above it. Emily is amazed at the room and asks if she can spend some time alone in. As you agree, you gain a notification
*ping*
>Your Diviner's Chamber now meets the minimum staff allocation for operation.
>You bring up the guild window and are greeted with a new interface. Now, in addition to a list of names, you have a small interface showing the main hall, the bedrooms, the diviner's chamber, and how they're all connected by stairs. The diviner's chamber shows extra information
>Minimum staff required for operation : 1 specialist
>Maximum efficient staff : 3 specialists
>Current staff : 1 specialist

>All of this has taken only 1 more hour. You have 6 hours of morning time left. How do you spend them?

(this will be my last post for the night. Sorry about the update schedule today guys, weekends are problematic)

>>304637
>(this will be my last post for the night. Sorry about the update schedule today guys, weekends are problematic)

It's all good man, life comes for us all.

Let's invite Emily to the guild, then do a bit of grinding up with Ember and our undead minions until it's time for our workout with Emily.

>You invite Emily into the guild and get an acceptance notification almost immediately. The Main hall gains another chair and you assume a new bedroom pops in upstairs, but before you can check Emily asks you to stay in the main hall while practicing.
>You spend your time alternating between summoning the strongest undead you can and summoning Ember, who expresses delight at being so frequently summoned. It seems to be pleasurable for her.
>Shortly after you begin practicing, several low level NPCs walk in through the door in the back of the hall and ask if they can see your diviner. You tell them she's at the top of the stairs and give Emily a warning that they're coming, but she says she already knew that. That Diviner's Chamber must be something else.
>The summoning practice goes great. You upgrade Summon Undead to Superior Summon Undeadm which you then level up to level 24 (for some reason, it doesn't upgrade again at level 20). As you practice, NPCs regularly walk into and out of the Divination Chamber.

>Before you begin your workout, you ask Emily what all the NPCs were doing. It seems they were asking normal villager questions ; what would be good to plant this year, when will the last frost be, how will so-and-so's baby turn out, ect. She could see the answer in the mirror pool despite these people and the events they were describing not being real. The people then paid her for her answers in gold coins, at a rate of 100 gold coins per hour over 6 hours.

>You and Emily begin your workout. You find that you can lift the heaviest object you can indefinitely, do weighted shuttle runs at top speed without ever getting tired. You suspect this has something to do with your dexterity and strength being significantly lower than your vitality now.
>You also practice your Mana Manipulation Mastering, pouring all of your mana into mana constructs while you exercise. You quickly upgrade the skill and continue leveling it all the way up to level 24. At the end of your workout, you gain 3 Strength and Dexterity and 1 Luck, but no Vitality.
*DUN DUNDUNDUUUUUUUUN*
>You have reached a milestone. Physical attacks now ignore all forms of damage mitigation
*DUN DUNDUNDUUUUUUUUN*
>You have reached a milestone. You can now teleport Dexterity feet

>You practice your Dexterity teleport. It's extremely quick and easy to use. You could probably use it 4 times a second if you had to. If you would teleport into a solid, you teleport next to it instead.

>You also gain enough Athletics exp to get to level 15 and enough Instant Dungeon Creation XP to get to level 17

>You say goodbye to Emily and rest

>It is now Thursday. You have 10 days of professional protection left. You are free all day today. What do you do?

>>306453

Skill grinding time. Obscurity, Status Quo, Superior Summon Elemental, Superior Heal and Spinning Mana Arrow training mainly, but let's also work in Mana Shield, Copper Skin and Troll's Regeneration.

But before that, I want to use Observe on the gold coins to see if there's anything particularly special about them, and see if we're able to use our Dex Teleport to go through walls, or if it's line of sight only, and see if we can teleport vertically or just horizontally.

>You Observe a gold coin to find it it is nothing more special than an ounce of gold

>You play around with your Dexterity teleport a little more. You can teleport through solid objects if they're thin enough, though 20 feet and counting means it takes a pretty hefty barrier to keep you out. You also find you can teleport in any direction, and change your position to any orientation, though doing so rapidly makes you a little dizzy.

>You've got 16 hours of time to work with today, and you decide skill grinding is the way to go. You start by grinding Obscurity and Status Quo up to level 20 to upgrade them, then a little more back up to level 14. This takes about 3 hours. You spend 4 hours each on Superior Summon Elemental, Superior Healing, and Spinning Mana Arrow, bringing the first two skills both to level 21 and Spinning Mana Arrow up to 18. Your last hour you spend grinding Mana Shield, Copper Skin, and Troll's Regeneration all up to level 15.

>You spend some time trying to rest, but you can't find any sleep. Lacking anything better to do, you summon a guild hall and start up the daily quest. You want to see if you can do it on your own.
>The timer starts to count down and you're out the door before the NPC finishes knocking. You fly to Evanwrath's mountain as fast as you can, but the wind in your eyes is really holding you back. You're going to need some goggles if you want to use your flight to its fullest potential in the future.
>You make it to the mountain in record time and teleport past the guard. You go straight to the heart of the mountain fortress. Here you meet the great dragon Evanwrath, supposedly sleeping on his pile of gold. You address the dragon, but he doesn't acknowledge you. You address him again, much louder this time. He makes a big show of getting up and finally acknowledges you.
>"Human! What do you want of me?"
"I've come for the princess and I'd like to make a deal"
>"A deal you say? Fine, I'll hear you out, but if I don't like your deal, then I'll just have to eat you AND the princess."
>You lay out the deal almost from memory. Evanwrath seems sated at the idea of his hoard growing forever, and accepts the deal as usual
>"And what of the princess?"
>SHIT! You forgot to include her in the deal.
>You fly over to her, grab her, and teleport-dash out of the room. It would seem, thankfully, that you can teleport other people.While working your way out of the maze, you notice she gets left behind as soon at you let her down. You can teleport with people, but only while carrying them. Great thing to know.

>You work out way out from under the mountain and fly back to the castle. On your way back, the princess begins to scream. Lava is pouring out the the door to the mountain. By the time you're getting close to the castle, you see the lava forming into the shape of a dragon. You set the princess down inside the castle, hoping the action would finish the quest, but no dice. You can now see Evanwrath in the distance, flying towards the castle.

>You manifest a Mana Cannon and start charging an Earth Bomb. You charge it for a full minute, then release it through the canon. Evanwrath doesn't even seem to try to dodge the projectile and is blown clean out of the sky.
*ping*
>Your guild has saved the princess. Your Guild has completed this B ranked daily quest 3 times.Would you like to expand your Guild Hall or Recruit a Follower?

>>307672
>Recruit a Follower

Well that's pretty unexpected. Consider my curiosity piqued, let's give it a go.

>You select Recruit a Follower.
*ping*
>Right next to you spawns a 15th level Follower.
>"Do you have any duties for me at this time, sir?
"No"
>"Alright then, I'll be off to bed until morning, sir"
>You open up your guild interface and see you have a new window showing your lone follower, currently assigned to the bedrooms

>Restlessness now sated, you go off to bed yourself

>It is now Friday. You have 9 days of professional protection left. You have 8 free hours in the morning and are scheduled for 8 hours of exercise with Emily in the evening

>>308109

Call our guildmates and explain what happened last night, then introduce our new follower before doing today's daily, assuming we didn't stay up late enough last night to make it unavailable today.

>When morning comes, you explain the new recruit to your guildmates. You don't really have anything for him to do right now, so he just hangs out in the main hall eating.

>Before you start your daily quest, you ask Earl about the gear he was making for you. He says it's ready to be picked up at any time

>You do the daily, this time remembering to add in the princess to the deal with Evanwrath and pull it off without a hitch.
*ping*
>Your guild has saved the princess. Your Guild has completed this B ranked daily quest 4 times.Would you like to expand your Guild Hall, Recruit a Follower, or Upgrade a Follower?

(Hey guys, this has been a fun two weeks, but also pretty draining, so I'm putting the American Gamer Quest on indefinite hold. At some point I hope to start the quest back up, with a link to a pastebin where I've been collecting the story and also with a summary for people who don't want to read the whole thing but still participate, but I don't know when that'll be. Thanks for all the choices you guys have made over the past two weeks and I hope you all have a great time with the many other active quests going)

>>309366

>Upgrade the Guild Hall, and get that Enchanting room.

Voting just in case you plan on using it for when you bring the quest back, which I assume you're taking votes since you ended with options to work with. You can feel free to disregard this vote completely whenever you return.

Thanks for running up until now, I enjoyed it and I hope it helped you grow as a writer.

A little bit of advice, if you care to take it. Might be a little rough to read, but I hope it'll help you write something you're far more pleased with in the future, so it's actually fun for you instead of a draining experience.

You might want to flesh out the world a bit more next time... sure, it was a quest based on a manhwa but in another continent entirely, so there's plenty of wiggle room to sort out major groups that could be antagonists for Michael as the American Gamer. Things kind of felt like you started off thinking what an awesome concept The Gamer is (and I agree) without having much more in mind beyond how cool it would be to run a quest in the setting. Some rails are necessary, and I think you tried using the daily quests as a means to work a farther reaching purpose into it, but halfway through you decided it wasn't quite good enough to suit your purposes. If you come up with a few individuals and actual groups that might bump heads with Michael, you'll probably find more success. But they've got to have a good reason to do so, "everybody's people" as an acquaintance eloquently put it. Anyone making an appearance in the story should feel very natural and interactions should have a kind of flow to them, no matter if they're friendly or hostile towards any of the other characters. Personalities might naturally clash, making two people into enemies, but rarely ever does such a thing realistically happen to the degree of flipping a switch. Buildup or tear down relationships over time, even if just in the background noise that you never write down to us. Admittedly that can be a tall order, but as long as hints of those interactions are dropped where we as readers are aware then it can make the world feel much more alive and draw people in. Early on I voted with paranoia in mind, and I'm afraid that may have brushed you wrong, but the different organizations all had people elbowing their ways into Michael's life rather suddenly considering he was completely new to the world of the Abyss. I honestly expected at least one or two of the ones approaching with smiles to be concealing daggers, and wasn't quite sure if I should be grateful or disappointed when it was revealed they all truly were wishing to be in Michael's good graces, making each organization's introduction feel more like rushing through a checklist instead of being naturally encountered.

Ended up hitting the character limit.

>>309413

One last little thought that couldn't fit completely. The introduction for the cultist, and even the majestic agent group wasn't bad at all, we basically just tripped our way in the middle of a confrontation between the two that had good reasons to be opposed towards one another. One even attacked us under the assumption that we were just a normal person, or weak enough to help them get more power. You could easily do more with one or both groups in the future. Sure, the cultist that was Michael's neighbor is dead, but he had to learn from someone.

Thanks again for running, and I really do hope you'll pick it up again in the future.