MONSTER REPORT FORM: Character Name: Tanetsu Character Level: Level 1 (Total Exp: 3) Location: Yokai Trail Enemies Defeated: 1 Report: Chapter 2: Where stars align At noon, I arrive at the Yokai Trail. There should be plenty of those that would harm humans here, and there will be an equal amount of chances to defeat them. While it may be noon, I can still feel the distant stars and planets. The course they take, what it represents... I can feel it all. My fortune lies in the north, within the human village! But before that, a challenge awaits me. And here, what else could it be but a Yokai? So I create six shooting stars, aligned around me in a circle and constantly floating around me. With a mocking (it was supposed to be, but actually sounded childish) voice, I call out: "Stop hiding and face me!" And indeed, a bird yokai floats out from behind a nearby tree. "Hehe, I don't know how you found me, but I'll eat you, human!" With that as confirmation, I start attacking the yokai, my six shooting stars constantly firing at her as I start to weave around the trees, placing more shooting stars as I go. Meanwhile, the Yokai has started attacking me as well, her attacks coming in bursts of bullets, snaking around the trees. But such sporadic attacks are far from enough to hit me. Easily dodging those attacks, I start to construct a trap - an array made of shooting stars. Once caught within, you will have to survive until its energy runs out in order to escape. And surviving within is not easy. The foolish Yokai does not even notice anything and falls within my trap. After a matter of a few minutes, she is killed.
MONSTER REPORT FORM: Character Name: Rose Coriette Character Level: Level 2 (Total EXP: 8) Location: Myouren Temple Enemies Defeated: 2 enemies Report: Chapter 5: Amidst the Pools of Blood Listening Music: [東方 Ambient/Symphonic] [fromadistance] The Daffodils Rose shoved her leg against the chest of the lifeless human and simultaneously yanked on her rapier to withdraw the sword that had impaled itself deep into the flesh of the corpse. It slipped out of the thick sinew, fat, and bones like a snake, it's silvery surface coated with a thick smear of blood. The vampire's scarlet eyes were awash, faded, and distant like they weren't even present. Spatters of bright red liquid had sprayed across her face, but now they had dried to a maroon color. Heavy streaks of bloodstains ruined the silvery white dress she had put on this morning. Rose Coriette seemed weary as she planted the point of her sword straight into the soil, and then she shifted her weight to lean on the hilt. Her long silver hair was frayed, disheveled, and feral-looking, the result of a fierce battle. Her muscles burned like they were on fire, and blood continue to drip at her feet. Her enemies -- the exorcists -- were all dead. She had killed them. Albeit, they had injured her dearly. Yet still, she was alive. + + + For the record, she hadn't started this fight. In fact, she had been minding her own business in the forest, when she heard the shrieks of youkai fleeing and the scent of fresh blood staining the grass. Youkai blood, that is. + + + There was a party of human exorcists on the hunt. A dream-eating youkai (Baku) had nearly collided with Rose, so panicked it was by the walking human nightmares that it didn't even see Rose standing there in right in front. For a brief moment, their eyes had met, and that instant of contact was all Rose needed to know exactly what the youkai was feeling. Terror. Sheer terror. Just sheer, pure, unadulterated, indiscriminate terror. Exorcists weren't anything like ordinary weak humans. Rather, they were natural enemy of youkai, much like how a tiger is the natural predator of a deer. This was nearly as absolute as the laws of fate in itself. Exorcists slaughter youkai. That is a fact of life, just as it is natural law of the world. This reality wasn't changing no sooner than the day rabbits start to hunt foxes. And Rose knew what that felt like. She knew what it felt like to be helpless. Which was why she turned around and faced the cloud of terror that was coming. + + + Rose halfway limped through the forest as she left the scene of battle. Even though she won, she would need time to nurse her wounds. It was at that moment though, that she noticed a straw basket that laid hidden underneath the shrubbery of an elder tree. When she walked over and uncovered the lid, she stopped breathing for a moment when she realized what was inside. It was a human baby. The basket was a crib, and from the odor on the infant, Rose could tell that it shared a similar scent as the pair of exorcists that had attacked the youkai. A flash of realization crossed the vampire's eyes. One of the hunters was male, and the other was female. Were they husband and wife? An exorcist pair? And this... Rose Coriette looked down at the sleeping human baby. ...this was their child?
MONSTER REPORT FORM: Character Name: Rayleigh Character Level: 1 (1) Location: ????? Enemies Defeated: 1 Report: The grove was completely average in all aspect, from the spacing of the bamboos and the grass that grows up until the critters that occasionally skitters across. There's no trail, no large animals, truly a place that's completely unmemorable. It have been like that for a hundred years, and perhaps would stay that way for the next hundred. Would. A small shake at one side preluded the sudden change. Intermittent at first, but grew in strength and intensity, until finally the ground packed by a hundred years of grass cycles gave away to a gloved hand. Then another. The two rapidly weaken the soil up, freeing a helmeted head rapidly gasping for air. The new arrival took a moment to steady his breath, taking a long look of his hands. And shoulders. And chest. Then he attempted to stand, swaying and falling back to the ground immediately. He laid there for a moment, pondering his situation. "I'm Rayleigh." He said plainly, more toward himself than to anyone else. He took off his left glove, admiring the messy criscrossing burn-scar adorning the back of his hand. He traced the lines, recalling each runes branded one atop another. "There are a lot of monsters here." He glanced left, then right. Nothing. "There were a lot of monsters here." He sat up, looking back at the shallow, unmarked grave he rose from. He spent a while digging out a sword and a shield, each buried around the place his hands were. Then he dug further down, uncovering a macabre skull lined with partially melted blood-red candles. That particularly creepy piece was stuffed into a sack and almost jovially slung over his shoulder. "I don't even remember much else. I guess I was obliterated very badly last time, hohoho!" Uncaring of the dirt covering him, he strapped his shield to his left arm and took a few test swings with the blade. He handled the massive weapon with grace and confidence of a thousand repetitions, slicing through a couple of bamboo trees nearby. Still sharp as ever. "Hmm, not good enough. If they still remains, I'll end just the same. Seriously, the monsters roaming this land. Oh well. Let's see, the road to recovery need one thing..." He took a step forward, walking aimlessly forward. There was a light flapping sound at the distance, but the lone man spun with near inhuman agility and bisected the half-bird-person swooping down from the sky. A very faint gleam flowed out of the corpse, and into the branding scars similarly glowing through his thick glove. "...well, a hell lot of one thing. I wonder how many bodies I need to carve out this time. This is ridiculous. I just want to go home, does it even exist after all this time?" He continued his wandering, the blood have completely slid off his blade by then. Just one man in his lonesome, alone in a world of shattered memories. "At least it's rather easy this time. Suspiciously so. Did I just tempted fate? I think I did. Me and my stupid gourd-brain, ha!"
MONSTER REPORT FORM: Character Name: Rayleigh Character Level: 1 (2) Location: ????? Enemies Defeated: 1 Report: "Slice his throat with a rusty cleaver~" A disconcertingly jovial song rang through the forest, as a dirt-covered man travelled in a straight direction despite the uneven terrain and obstacles. He didn't seems to have any particular destination in mind, considering that if seen from far above there would be a number of more habitable places in closer distance. Still, he pressed on for days until the sparse bamboo gradually turned into wide-crowned trees and the air grew thick with spores. "Ah, this feels nostalgic! Almost like home." He looked around and plucked a particular leaf covered with numerous tiny, glowing blue mushroom. Behind the gourd it goes, vanishing followed by chewing sounds. "Doesn't taste the same though. And this is probably poisonous." That said, he swallowed and kept going without so much of a sway in his steps. He sliced down on a tree, seemingly at random, but then the inconspicuous vegetation screeched as it bleed out green ichor. Another slash completely severed it, in which the tree finally return to stillness. "Ambush trees now, that's new! Usually it's some toxic slimes dropping from above..." he stops and took a long look up. "...naah, must be my imagination."
MONSTER REPORT FORM: Character Name: Rayleigh Character Level: 1 (4) Location: Forest of Magic Enemies Defeated: 1 Report: What better place is it to hunt, other than the forest? That's what the gourd-wearing man think, at least. He's not entirely wrong in this particular matter. There was no shortage of murdery vegetations in that specific forest it'll be hard not to find something to cease all sign of life from. Case in point, he just chopped down a tree that tried to bash him to mincemeat. Tried being the keyword, for the rather thinly built man somehow blocked the swinging branch thicker than himself. Then he lay into the tree like a vengeful lumberjack, singing another creepy song with unnatural joyfulness. "He will go down, he will drown, drown, deeper down~"
MONSTER REPORT FORM: Character Name: Rayleigh Character Level: 1 (5) Location: Forest of Magic Enemies Defeated: 1 Report: If you startle someone and got attacked, what is the most sensible way to react? a. Apologize for your carelesness b. Reprimand them for being trigger-happy c. Run away "...owch." The man looked down at shards of ice stuck in his shoulder. Small wound, considering his studded armor. And much of the projectiles are harmlessly deflected by his shield and, surprisingly, the gourd. He planted his blade into the ground, plucked out the offending projectiles off his body, and looked at the young woman staring frozen at her handiwork, the basket of mushroom strewn near her feet. Then he picked his blade up. d. Extreme, excessive violence. ..... "Mama, I just killed a girl..."
MONSTER REPORT FORM: Character Name: Rayleigh Character Level: 2 (6) Location: Bamboo Forest of the Lost Enemies Defeated: 1 Report: "Ah, I'm back." The man looked around the bamboo grove. The unearthed grave he came from was still there, along with some bamboos he cut off as test. Somehow his near aimless wandering brought him back... or perhaps it wasn't all that aimless after all? A desolate howl eched through the night. The man turned to see the bright full moon up ahead, and like any sensible person walked toward the howling. "Whoa. That's a big dog." More in point, it's a pack of wolf. At their head is one twice larger than normal, snarling at the intruders into their ground. Unfortunately it'll take much more than that to discourage his advance. So the alpha wolf charged. From a glance it'll knock the man with sheer momentum alone, yet he did not even budge. Instead, he glanced down at his left hand and shook it a bit. "If I recall... Hardlight?" A translucent bluish platform materialized in front of him just as the alpha wolf reached, colliding with a gut-wrenching crack. It fell down and didn't get any chance to rise up before the man slashed down and separated its head from the rest of it. "Who's next? No? Too bad, maybe next time." He lightly said at the mournfully retreating wolf pack. Looking down at his left hand, it pulsed brightly once before going dark. A sense of power momentarily coursed through his whole being before dissipating into his flesh and bones. "Neat! Not a bad result for one night."
MONSTER REPORT FORM: Character Name: Rayleigh Character Level: 2 (7) Location: Bamboo Forest of the Lost Enemies Defeated: 2 Report: "Ah? Spirits." The man stopped in his walk, seeing ethereal figures floating at random in the distances. We can probably assume that he's thinking how best to kill what he's looking at. "Let's kill some!" Exactly as predicted, he took out a single piece of paper from the fold of his coat. It's purplish black with some inelligible writings on it, seemingly ripped from an actual book beforehand. He crumpled the paper and rubbed it evenly against the blade. The piece of paper emitted a low guttural sound that may or may not be curses before it disintegrated into dust, leaving a purplish black glow to cover the blade. "Alley-oop!" The man jumped a random spirit from behind, slashing it through without resistance. The incorporeal being shrieked loudly before rapidly blankening from the scar and disappeared. Seems that it alerted the rest, all the lazily floating spirits scattered in all direction immediately after. He only managed to throw his blade through another one before they're all gone. "I totally expected them to swarm at me. Like those Whispermen! Pussies."
MONSTER REPORT FORM: Character Name: Rayleigh Character Level: 2 (8) Location: Youkai Forest Enemies Defeated: 2 Report: Sometimes, traps were built completely hidden until its cruel machinery sprung onto an unfortunate victim. Some of them, however, are in plain sight. "Hmm? Something smells delicious." Exhibit A is a man, walking out of a bamboo forest, just as he caught some sweet scent. "Aaaaand, there it is!" Exhibit B is a bear trap with a wrapped pack of sweet bread at the center, the spiked teeth barely concealed with grasses. Truly something a thinking man wouldn't fall for. "That's obviously a trap." .... Snap! "Yeeeowch!" Like the gourdhead he is, the man attempted to snach out the prize from the iron jaws. Obviously it failed, as he flailed around with the whole thing biting him at the wrist. After he somewhat calmed down he knelt and slip one feet in and wrench the whole thing back open with the remaining free hand, locking the trap back into armed position to free his hand. It barely bled. He waved a couple times and seems to be fine already. "Got the bread!" Snap! "Yeeeeowch!" And in his triumph, he accidentally stepped on the trap again. ***** Several triggered trap later, the man found two people in the middle of placing more of the sweet/painful treats at... he have no idea. He just followed the sweet smells. And seeing the source, well, he sprung forward. Two poisoned throwing daggers and a handful of disembowelment later, a pair of exorcist corpses was left near the Youkai Trail while a happy gourd jovially skip back with a basketful of sweet bread in tow.