While slightly disappointed, Chris regained his positivity thinking that more knowledge would prove to be of great help right now, so he grabbed onto the journal in Lilith's hand and began inspecting it. The journal was old and leatherbound, but the sheepskin pages still looked as fresh as the day they were bound together. Oddly enough, even though the language inside the journal was one that Chris was unfamiliar with, he was able to comprehend most of its meaning. Chris began re-inspecting his records etched onto his body and pulled up his status window. He was looking for anything that could've explained why he could suddenly comprehend the language that he's never before; even in the noble academy. 'Bingo, looks like it did serve some use after all.' [Language — Lv 16] [Description: Can allow the user to comprehend and put to use words that he has seen or never heard of before. At the current level, it can provide the user with a blurred understanding of some keywords or phrases.] Before dismissing his status page, Lilith was already quite restless after seeing him just stare into space. Read the damn journal already! of course, as he couldn't hear her thoughts, he was going at his own pace. The journal was written in a language very similar to English, but a lot more compact and every word or phrase contained this novel feeling. From what Chris could work out of the text, the text was written in a fluid and coherent manner, quite a jarring difference when compared to the previous state of the room; of course it didn't really mean he could understand what it was saying. Flipping through the journal to the latest logs, he skimmed through the reports of individual ones and finally found something that somewhat resembled something important. [On April 19th, 1039: The King of Dareu has safely entered the castle walls. His rest and comfort were safely promised and his lordship is now resting at the Queens most highly esteemed guest rooms. The Queest is still in ######## after the ##### of her beloved knight, whose ##### occurred just the night before dawn. Her order of guards have already become worried about her behaviour, but her majesty's blood is now boiling in rage. Two of the royal guards were killed by her hands alone, and she is now being carefully watched over by the Vice-captain of the royal guards, Rodrick Helfer. His presence brings great ease to this subject, and my only wish is that her majesty's anger and despair is quenched by the end of the fortnight.] [The skill, Language, has levelled up by 2!] 'So, we're inside a kingdom, one that I have never heard of, nor have I heard of Queen ruling her subjects like this. Then again, this occurred in a time that's already long since passed. This is not a dungeon, but instead an entire kingdom...I wonder where we are? Perhaps...we're already inside the castle walls right now?' After reading the last logged entry in the journal, Chris began contemplating what task the system gave them, and how it could relate to his current situation. 'If it's not a dungeon, then how can we find the last boss-type monster?' Finally, Lilith couldn't take it anymore and asked what the journal said. "Wow, so you're saying we're inside a castle, with a bunch of knights and scholars, and...I wonder where they keep their ancient and forbidden spells,” Lilith pondered. "Probably in a vault or something, and not in a library. The only thing that would be in there, are lower-class spells like [Fireball] or [Magic Orb]. Then again, we'll still profit from finding those spells, if we can get there." [Chris] "Mm, I know. But gosh, doesn't this mean we're gonna have to go through a lot of knights and mages, I mean we can't just go in there right?" She asked. "Of course not, but so far I haven't sensed anything outside that door, and because the windows are frosted up with ice and crystals, I couldn't see anything,” he replied. “Right now, I want you to stick close to me and have some spells ready in case anything happens, we'll finish those processing the mana potions at a later time; right now I wanna guarantee our safety." With a slight nod from Lilith, Chris was the first to walk out through the door and became agape at the scenery that appeared before his eyes.
The moment Chris opened the door, a rushing gale of cold air wafted into the room, and Lilith felt extremely cold due to it; even with a coat draped over her. When Chris finally moved forward, Lilith could finally take a good look outside the door. Even though the cold air gave one the feeling of being refreshed, the scenery outside of the door was anything but refreshing. "What...is this," babbled Lilith, even though she already knew what the answer was. Seriously, coming from a noble household, how could she not understand what she was seeing; it's just that it was too amazing to believe. The ground was covered in layers of snow, but that wasn't what caught her attention. 'A castle huh, even though I was already expecting it, to think that it would be of this scale.' Even though Chris already half-expected this, still, it was larger than anything he's ever seen before. The chilling blizzard was also making raising his impressions of the palace in real-time, and because he was standing in the main plaza, he was pretty much surrounded by the multiple shops that stood upright before the castle. "Wow! It's so...beautiful!" exclaimed Lilith, while silently contemplating about its large scale, 'It feels larger than a mountain, and the air around it seems so rich, yet so...putrid?' While thinking of strange thoughts, she suddenly caught sight of something protruding out the snow and exclaimed out in a loud shout after realizing what it was! "Oh my god, Chris, I think I see a person over there!" Lilith pointed out towards a small lump in the snow, that appeared very contrasting in colour when compared to the environment that surrounded it. "Stop shouting! I knew about that already, and he's dead so don't even bother going over there!" Chris quickly shushed Lilith before she could cause any more trouble, however, it was a little—well no, it was actually way too late for that. {Pssh~~ KUKAUHA!!!} From the multiple layers of snowfall on the ground, came the sudden upheaval of their surroundings. First off, the man that Lilith was pointing at before, seemed to have suddenly sprung itself to life, and it actually heaved itself off the ground. It wasn't the only one that stood up however, as the others hidden beneath the deep snow began to follow soon after. Dozens of armoured soldiers began spurring up from the ground, with their plated armour covered in frost. Technically speaking, however, they weren't actually people, or more precisely, they were humans who transformed into monsters after succumbing to their wounds, as clearly seen by the crystals and exposed holes that were riddled throughout their bodies!
OOC: Ah crap, I put the letter "p" too close to the colon. Either way, @leegood, maybe I will, I'm not sure yet.
Soon after the undead soldiers awakened, a larger one - akin to giants from ancient myths - appeared upon the battlements of the castle wall and displayed its powerful aura as an elite monster. Whilst clad in beautiful armour, it emitted a horrid screech, one that resembled that of a dying horse. As the other undead heard this, they assembled into groups; with the larger one having hopped down to personally engage the two. As Chris confirmed the number of foes surrounding himself and Lilith, he tightly grasped his spear once his count surpassed thirty. Preparing himself for the fight to come, he activated the special trait of his armour: converting a portion of his mana into dozens of searing spears, and without any flare, shot all of them towards the monster. {Kuhah? Ha, AHAHAHA!!} The result was worse than he expected, although the knight seemed to stagger a bit, it simply ignored the attacks and began charging towards Chris. Whilst conjuring another set of spears, Chris began running with Lilith on his back towards the other side of the battlefield, before quickly dropping her to the ground. "Lilith, I want you to go further away from here, while I go deal with the men surrounding the leader. After you’re done, all I need you to do is to support my rear!” With his plea, Chris quickly ran towards the first group of soldiers and began picking them off, in an effort to reduce their numbers before having to go toe-to-toe with the steel-clad knight at the front of the pack. Due to the monsters being undead, Chris opted for incapacitating and hindering their movements over striking at the ‘would-be’ vital points, and because their armour was further enhanced due to the circulation of mana, he conjured up a rope below their feet, before quickly tugging one towards him. After reaching his side, he pulled out one of the knifes that hung on his waist, before swiftly digging into its skull from the neck, whilst at the same time channeling his mana through it’s entire body to boil its insides and cause a delayed explosion. When all said was done, he quickly threw it back to the group it came from, before hurriedly chugging onto a low efficient mana potion to recover his lost mana. [You have earned 4,400 experience.] [You have earned the record of, Lv 27 Izroth Soldier!] [You have earned 4,000 experience.] [You have earned the recor...] [You have ear...] [You hav...] With swift movement, he appeared before another group of enemies and slammed his spear into the ground. As soon as the sharp-spear point embedded deeply into the ground, he activated the spear's once-a-day ability: Quake! "That's how they git you!" As he shouted nonsense that nobody would understand, marvellously the ground beneath him began to twist and turn, before a wave of pulsating earth formed around him. The waves grew and grew, draining Chris of his mana until he finally had almost none to spare; surprisingly the ground beneath him did not crack. The result was a resounding success, as almost all the soldiers that were close to him and Lilith were now sprawled on the ground. Aiming to pick off the prone enemies, he efficiently broke their skulls before injecting the last of his mana inside them - which led to internal combustion. While Chris was having his fun, Lilith did not idle around as she began to amass numerous dark orbs, that were as small as pebbles, above her head. As each shot went through a monster's head, they more or less resembled bullets than a bunch of pebbles! As more undead began to fall, the large knight shouted an order in rage; the soldiers then all aimed at Lilith. Unfortunately, he severely underestimated Lilith's control with dark magic, which resulted in her escape from the assault through Chris' through shadow unscathed. Astonishingly, though, the knight detected the disturbance of mana through the air and threw his oversized axe at her destination a split-second before she appeared: behind Chris' back! "Kuh! YOU FUCKER!!" However, the event in which Lilith's body turned into a pile of mashed pieces of flesh did not occur, as the lone figure of Chris blocking the giant axe with his spear appeared in before her view! By injecting mana into his entire body to improve his stability, he was barely able to block the attack head-on with his spear after including his reserved flame spears into the mix, reducing the initial force of the axe. Only then was he was able to move his spear in time to block it. Even whilst in constant pain from his torn muscles, that were also being regenerated because of his skill, Chris was constantly passing through one thought to the next on how to defeat the remaining soldiers. However it was only after seeing the axe fall onto the ground that he gained insight on what to do next. [The skill, Regeneration, has become Level 10!] From the moment the axe began its short descent onto the ground, a moment where all hope would normally be lost, did he suddenly remember one of the useful tools at his disposal. He quickly thought back to one of the traits he saw on the bag he stole from his father, and quickly used it! "TASTE MY REMOTE COLLECTION!" Even though he looked extremely unsightly while saying that, something amazing actually did occur due to his actions, the axe… disappeared. Yes, it was neither moved nor destroyed, but rather was 'stored' inside his bag. He thought back to when he read the stories about his ancestors as a kid, and how they would use the traits on the bag to avoid ballista and ranged combat; as it allowed them to perform strategies that would’ve otherwise been impossible. Of course, there's no way they would entrust something as important and valuable as that to someone like Chris, who came from another household. So Chris stole it right before he left on his journey, so nobody from the family would know it was him, because he concealed himself using his skill! However, he wouldn't have been able to store the axe if it wasn't for the fact that the knight already threw it at him, as he couldn't take away items that are constantly being imbued with mana from a person, nor could he take living things. Either way, he just discovered another trick to save his precious life! The armoured knight was further enraged at its failed attack, and began throwing a bunch of the leftover soldiers at them, and Chris couldn't do a thing about it as his bag could only store non-living things! While circulating his remaining bit of mana into his body, Lilith regained her bearings and formed a dome of dark matter around them. It worked extremely well, before suddenly cracking at the enraged knight's aggressive attacks that came from its fists! However… that was even better for Chris, as he finally found an opportunity to activate his concealment! While swiftly moving outside the dome before circling back to the knights open back, Chris used his puffed up muscles before leaping into the air above the Knight. How was all of this possible? Its because his concealment was not the type that turns one into a cloud of smoke or a flickering shadow, but rather was the type that caused him to outright disappear from everyones’ view! [The skill, Concealment, has become level 20!] [The skill, Concealment, has beco...] [The skill, Concealment, h...] [The skill, Concealment, has become level 23!] Perhaps since he was fighting a really tough enemy, all of his skills were growing at an incredible rate. While ignoring the pop-up windows, Chris quickly adjusted his strength and weight in mid-air, before quickly pushing it all onto the tip of his spear that pierced straight through the knight's armour, before igniting its blood from the inside! [You have earned 13,000 experience!] [You have earned the record of, Lv 39 Izroth Elite-Knight!] [You have become level 28, increase in stats: 2 Strength, 1 Agility, 1 Health, 1 Magic!] [The skill, Spear Mastery, has become Lv 40!] With the undead knight's brain destroyed, its knees buckled in the sudden loss of strength, before sprawling onto the ground dead! And so with this, Chris and Lilith's first battle in the unknown world has ended, with many more arduous battles to come in the near future!
Or not, I mean who knows if Hax-*cough* I mean what if the lord God decides to destroy all the worlds before their jouneys even began!?
After being indecisive for far too long about what to do next, I finally decided to do it. I let my curiosity get the better of me and decided to see what lies beneath the elevator. Psyching myself up, I started walking towards the elevator, but not before telling the receptionist where I was heading. Oh, and to tell anyone who might be looking for me as to where I'm heading. With that, I pressed the button and waited for the elevator to show up. With a ding, the doors sprung open to show the familiar insides of the elevator. Only this time it seemed a tad more...ominous. Shaking my head to rid myself of fears, I walked in and let the doors close. OOC: @Haxagen (Since I'll need to know what's down there.) Also, anyone can join. Just ask the receptionist and go into the elevator!