Duty Session 21: Spinner's End

    Mizuki blinks, looking a bit caught off-guard by Polaris's pointing. "Umm... well if she's an idol, shouldn't she use that to help encourage people to contribute to the rescue effort? Especially since she's from Ezzo... But, she also needs to learn how to play the game..."

    She clears her throat, then hops back and mirrors Polaris's pose. "But, people might be more likely to follow an idol that doesn't ask them to do what she won't do herself! We've explained the THEORY of adventuring... but the only way to really get better is to practice! And, our poor, defenseless Landers HAVE been having a lot of trouble with spiders lately!"

    She briefly returns to a normal voice, "Um, you're not afraid of spiders, are you?"

    She'll lead the group to where the quest board post indicates, though!

Reika is fortunately not afraid of spiders.... just not fond of them. But these are not REAL spiders. At least, for now she still thinks it's a game enough to get over those. No crippling fear at least, fortunately!

She nods at Polaris and Mizuki "Uhm, yeah, I'm still working on that." She had a manager to tell her what to do, in her best interest, in the real world. Here she has to learn to fend for herself. That will take some time likely. First, she definitely should get experience in running the game, and surviving hopefully.

She then looks at Mizuki, and hops off the fountain "That sounds fine to me, learning through experience." Once she understands better what each of the effects do, she might be able to be more useful in a fight. More than just waiving a sword at random.

So the group of three head to the gates, where the summons pointed at for the dungeon delving.

Gwen had done the traditional stand in the town square and call out looking for more to do a SPinner End Run. The Landers were having issues with the mines being overrun. The ships needed supplies and ships needed metal parts for nails and other certain components after all right? Well, so here she is she's gathered a few people she knows directly like Shiruba and gathered the rest as she's at the entrance of the mine now.

She will take point being a tank, and finds her way into the old break room. She takes a moment to look around and she looks at the poor dogs and ponders for a moment as she looks over at some of the food, she'll pause and take some jerky out of her inventory and start to offer it to the dogs.

"It's okay here have this..."

She'll start trying to feed some of the dogs and it takes moment but several them paw over to her and start taking the food from her and seem to be a bit more at ease now. Though she hasn't won them all over.

Thankfully, neither is Ragna, who decided to tag along on this quest to help him level up. But, he keeps his hands at his sides as he adjusts his glasses. "Well, lets just hope that its not a paralyzing fear. Otherwise, we may have to rely on each other more than usual." Ragna comments somewhat coldly, surprisingly, but otherwise he remains quiet for much of the trip.

Shiruba follows Gwen into the room, and lowers her bow with a slight hint of disappointment when there's nothing to fight. There are however some dogs stuck in here. "Aaaw, they got left behind." Other people go to make food for them. Shiruba, being a wolf (cait sith) herself, decides she's going to try and tell them they can leave the mine.

She does this by getting down on all fours, sitting as a dog would, and just barking and yaping for a few moments.

By the looks on their faces, the dogs have no more of an idea of what she's 'saying' than Shiruba herself does.

    Mizuki leads Reika and Polaris to talk to some miner; "Don't worry, Mizuki and her friends will have the spiders cleared out in nyo time!" The lander didn't mention spiders, but Mizuki can see the quest title, after all...

    Once they leave town, she switches to her current armor: A black hat with a feather plume that seems to be somewhere between a cavalier hat and a tricorner hat. A realistic buff coat with a red sash around the waist and a blue cloak for warmth on the cold seas. Two shoulder belts cross over her chest, with pouches and sheathed daggers. Black trousers complete the outfit.

    As they enter the mine she draws her curved daggers... but the first room they come to is 1. ransacked and 2. full of abandoned dogs.

    "Mou, this is actually kindnya sad... Mizuki doesn't want to have to kill the poor doggies..." But they distracted hyenas with food before, didn't they? And she was just out hunting meat drops... she puts away her daggers and rezzes some monster meat from her inventory, tossing it into one corner of the room. "Eat up! How could your masters abandon you like this..."

Somewhere along the line, Mikage had spotted the group heading towards the mine. It's one more opportunity to explore someplace that she hasn't delved into yet. "I hope you've learned something since last time, Rama. I don't want to be chasing you around." The lynx that trots at her side doesn't seem to even acknowledge the comment.

So, invited or not, she tags along with the rest, obviously curious about what the mine has to offer. As they head into the mine, she ducks her head away from some of the spider webs along the corridor. As they head into the break room, Rama immediately spots the dogs and runs to hide behind the Adventurers. "Did the miners just leave them here? Poor dogs."

Mikage opens up her inventory with a hand swipe, causing what looks like some dried meat to appear in her hand. "Come here, guys, have something to eat." She starts ripping off pieces, tossing it to them.

Reika joins up with the group, and it seems their first task is... to ready the picnic, or something. She was told that everything went through the UI menus, so that's what she does. With a few ingredients in hand, she makes some of the early meals that every adventurers have in their cooking list... which means they all taste like soggy crackers, but not much she can do about that. Utility before taste.

She watches as the others ready food for the hyenas... or dogs, whatever those are. "Hm, are these going to be useful in the mines?"

Polaris almost sounds antagonistically contemptuous to Reika as they descend into the mine, but maybe that's just them having a more obnoxious affect. "Come on now! You got _famous_ and you didn't have a _dream?_ You had no grand vision, no great goal to which to aspire? How did you get so far?!" Polaris practically pounds the ground with their clompy boots, hooting and hollering at the mere idea that Reika might not have an aspiration!

The tone becomes slightly more encouraging! "You had better find one fast! Perhaps you can share mine as well! For example, this first chapter of _my_ great legend is an effort to hunt that vile Haseo you met earlier! Their cursed arm has some connection with the corruption we escaped. I ran into you while lying in wait for that boy, in fact! Come on, think now! We have a brand new world, full of brand new _things_. You must have some thoughts about what to do with those things! What LEGEND to write!"

The mood completely changes when it's time for this dog business. Polaris pulls out some old goat-meat jerky from earlier in the week! "Ahhh! We're home! Here, boy! C'mere! Who's a good boy? You've been so good! Yes you have! Yes you have! You've been such good boys, keeping everything safe! Good boyyyy!" Their eager, positive voice booms with bursting positivity as they couple their jerky with lost affection hopefully more reminiscient of old miners.

    "Are what going to be useful in the mines? The dogs?" Mizuki breaks character for a moment. "If they actually end up tamed by this they can take some hits for us, but they're probably not going to come with us."

The dogs overall seem to stand down once they get some food and the four-legged creatures intend to paw out of the mines maybe they are heading home? Who knows but they are not going deeper one of the last dogs whines and growls at something deeper in before it runs off with a final bark of thanks to the party. It looks strangely at Shiruba for a moment before it moves to exit the mines. The dogs seem to have taken well to the food.

"A dream? A world where my sword can cut my path with."

She'll take point again. moving deeper into the mines and there is damage to the mines. There has been a rockslide at some point. It also appears like everything is also covered in massive spider webs too webs.

"Look at those webs, it's worse than the rat dungeon."

Gwen notes as she'll start chanting a spell attempting to use her earth pillar spell to help clear the way.

The She starts to clear and move much of the rock, but she's going to need help with it.

Reika sweatdrops a little at Polaris "Uhm, I was only just recruited... I don't think I had dreams as grand as that... all I wanted was to make people smile and happy. Listening to my songs, looking at my pictures, playing with me in game..." But it still makes her think a bit. Polaris is right on some points. She should think about what she wants to do.

She just didn't think about what she wanted to do... inside of a game. She's an idol of the real world after all, not of this game world.

She looks at Mizuki "Oh, I thought that's why we were feeding them." She never had a dog, even less in a game. Maybe they are simply obstacles right now.

She nods to Gwen, frowning at all of the webs "Yeah, there must be lots of spiders here... or maybe they had lots and lots of time to make these." She hrms, as she follows the path with the others... although she feels a bit disoriented. She needs mroe time for her eyes to adapt to the darkness, maybe.

Well the dogs are saved. It doesn't matter if they understood Shiruba or not. She gets up, dusts herself off, then peers at Reika and Polaris for a moment. "Don't be too harsh on her, she just got back from being dead you know."

Anyway, farther into the mines. Until they come to a pile of rocks.

"Looks like a cave-in... wait." Shiruba squints. "No, this is intentional. Something is sticking these cracks together."

Shiruba has a high affinity for Earth, being from the colder mountain regions of the Ninetails kingdom, so she just paces about the pile a few times. Ears perked as she taps one rock with her knuckles, then another boulder, and then a third, seemingly finding what she wants. "Perfect."

She steps back and KICKS the rock, causing it to slide free and out the otherside, giving that portion of the pile more room to move as Gwen forces her earth pillar through the rock head.

    Mizuki watches the dogs run off. Not a surprising result.

    A dream? Mizuki hasn't really thought beyond the Ezzo rescue. "Making people happy is a good dream!" Mizuki chimes in, when Reika says that.

    She honestly hasn't noticed the mine is all that dark. It's not like 'dark' areas in computer games don't usually show up find if you turn up the brightness a little, after all. Of course, in this case it's her were fang senses...

    "Hmm. Collapsed tunnel, huh...?" She walks up to the blockage and repeatedly does a ninja hand sign, causing pillars to jut out of the earth and shove the rock aside before retracting.

Though her familiar seems to remain all but out of sight through the entire encounter with the dogs, Mikage seems content enough to let them share what food she has. Besides, it all tastes like crackers to her, anyways. "I hope it tastes better to you than me." She offers, rising to her feet just in time to watch them depart the mine.

"Maybe the ones from that Shopkeeper's basement escaped and set up shop here." She theorizes as they delve deeper, her hand touching the wall and coming free sticky with webbing. Eww. Shaking it off, she comes to a stop as they reach the rock fall. "Shiruba's right, this looks intentional."

Mikage unsheathes her sword, runs her hand along it, causing some lines along the blade to light up, then stabs it into the ground. The rocks at the base of the pile tremble, some of those atop them rolling out of the way as the tremor moves through them. It's done carefully, though, aimed just at the blockage.

Polaris roars an eager shout, and begins to just absolutely go to town on the boulders. This giant black knight is ripping out, lifting, and hoisting rocks that look silly to carry, and carrying them about. It's time to get RIIIIIIIIPPPPPPPED! When it comes to Reika's situation, there's a quick response to Shiruba. "I KNOW!" The knight laughs! "I was there when she died! And slayed the foul Guardian that did it, to save the world!!" That's an embelishment. But not so much that it doesn't contain a kernel of truth.

While carrying one of the titan rocks over one shoulder, the black knight jabs a finger at Reika's nose. "Imagine your dream made real! Imagine happiness and smiles, spread to people! Now!" SLAM! Polaris drops the boulder hard. "WHOSE FACE WAS IN YOUR MIND JUST NOW!?" Woah! That's a sudden vocal jump, for _drama!_

Gwen's reply may give why she's not taking being stuck here very well.

"Giant spiders right out of the pages of Tolkien."

The combined efforts of Shiruba, Reika, Mizuki, Polaris, Mikage and Ragna. The rogues are removed by magic and other means and soon the way is clear. Are there rampaging hordes of spiders waiting for them? Driders? Nope, it's an empty room, it does seem to have been disturbed recently. Gwen pauses at Polaris.

"You should be on stage...and I don't like this look of this."

There's no obvious exit to the room as Gwen starts to search around to see just what she can find as she notes the odd hole in the stone wall.

"Just ... what is that?"

The Holy Knight has no luck with this and she's going to need some help from the looks of it.

"Oh for a crate of explosives..."

If there's one thing Reika has learned up to now, is that Polaris is very loud and vocal. But he says sensible things, that makes the idol consider. Who is she thinking of when she thinks about smiles? Fans are too numerous to remember them individually. But each of them are important. Her family perhaps, that was proud of her work. Or maybe herself? She... actually didn't smile that much since the apocalypse.

And that's something she realizes as they thread further in "... Myself. I forgot to smile." That's a bit of a revelation in itself. "Instead of moaning about it, I should try to have fun." Putting energy into it, will show the way faster than sitting and waiting, and infinitely better than moaning and crying.

She puffs her chest a bit "You're right, I should remember what I want to do. But I still need to learn this game better." But maybe enjoy it, rather than take it as a necessity or a chore. Homework is never as fun as a hobby, even if both could be the same task.

She should be on a stage, maybe, but she's here to learn through experience how to be a player. That's also important. Lead by expample, not by ordering. She takes out one of her blades from her back. Funny how she doesn't seem to touch the other one. Maybe she doesn't know what a Twin Blade can do, but it's enough to defend herself right now, until she learns how to better use her skill set properly.

"I love those books."

Ragna replies to Gwen when she speaks of the spiders, though his attention shifts around the place for a moment before he shifts his attention at the creepy crawlers scattering about the room. "Heh....well, we found the spiders." He takes a step and there's a crunching sound, like he stepped on multiple spiders.

He does nod to Reika. "Thats a better attitude." he says in approval before he looks up at the falling spiders. "They always find a way to make it interesting." He calls upon an air spell to help repel the spiders from his location.

"There must be thousands of them in this room."

HELM-GLEAM! Even in the dark, that helm does that classic "SHWING!" of light! "Then you have your legend! You know the joy you must seek! You must aspire to find your own happiness, and to spread it! What will you test then? Will you test the joys of battle? The satisfaction of fulfilled greed? The happiness of power gained? This world is full of opportunity!, Reika!"

Their sensible nature holds for at least one moment. The advice is authentic.

But now it's time to navigate! "FEAR NOT!" Roars Polaris. "A key to my endeavors is the art of navigation and finding the smallest traces!" Their Searching efforts are full of gusto and bravado, but are still quite effective! There's no shortage of actual efficiency in their ability to seek out a target -- in this case, spiders! What traces of their passage are there, that Polaris can find to get hints about the exit for this chamber?

Tugging her sword back out of the grownd, Mikage sheaths the weapon once more. It's only then that she realizes that her pet lynx has fallen behind. "Come on Rama, keep up." Crouching down, she unslings her backpack, opens it, and the little cat rushes over, climbing on inside. Then, the entire pack is slung onto her shoulder. It somewhat eliminates the serious look of the Druid, when she has a cat hanging out of her backpack.

As they come into the empty chamber, she sets to checking out the walls, at least as much as she can without further touching spider webbing. "There has to be some kind of hidden way forward, but... who has been opening and closing it?" The idea of a spider intelligent enough to do so is a little unsettling.

"What are you two even Tolkien about." Shiruba then barks a laugh at her own dumb joke, while she's busy groping rocks and cracks in the room to find either an exit or something that triggers an opening. You never know in these old mines, secret doorways and often a thing.

    "You think the spiders came from the shop? I suppose it could be connected... A dead end? No, that can't be right, there haven't even been any branches yet..."

    She presses against the wall, sniffing up and down it, nose and whiskers searching for the air currents of a tell-tale crack...

Gwen pauses for a moment

"I wonder how many people actually know how to use a blade here."

Gwen looks to Polaiors for a moment as he starts to get to work. Gwen, meanwhile is not having much luck finding a way through.

"Could be, Mizuki and good reading they were."

Plaris action with the helmet gleam? That lights the party's way.

A switch is soon located which once trigged opens the path deeper into the mine, what could be in the depths of this place?

The party soon they make their way deeper into the dungeon. What could be worse it could be giant spiders right? No, it's a giant amount of smaller spiders. Ther's way too many of them so many of the damned things they are falling on them. Gwen lets out a cry from the sensation of so my little thing on her and she doesn't even think twice before she ends up making use of Anchor howl causing a massive burst of bright light and drawing the attention of any hostile spider the light also ends up driving many of the spiders away startled by the massive burs of light.

"Oh for a can of raid right now..."

"Who knows." Mikage replies to Mizuki, a smirk playing on her lips. "It's just the only other place I've seen spider webs like this before." Luckily they manage to find the way forward without too much trouble.

As the webs get thicker, Mikage instinctively pulls her hood up, trying to make sure that nothing falls or gets stuck in her hair. Rama, on the other hand, seems to be enjoying himself, occassionally reaching out from her backpack to paw at a passing web or spider. Leave it to a cat to be entertained rather than grossed out by the sheer amount of spiders that seem to have made this place their home.

"Okay, this is too many spiders." The girl shakes a few off of her legs, the crawling feeling all too uncomfortable. "Enough, enough, enough!" She draws her sword, spins it in her hands, the motion causing air to whip up around them, driving the spiders back against the walls.

"I'm going to need a bath after this, otherwise I'm going to keep feeling them crawling on me." Mikage shivers.

Unfortunately, even pumping herself with more confidence doesn't help with everything. One of those is defending herself against a swarm of spiders.

She didn't see them coming up to her, still not used to the light, but she sure FEELS them, as they start crawling up her legs... and since she's wearing just a short yukata, there's plenty of legs to climb, and then INTO.

The idol screeches and squirms "Ack, THEY ARE INSIDE!" She didn't think that anything could get inside a character's clothes! Should this be a solid block or something!?!

The idol is making a show of wriggling and scratching, trying to bat all of the spiders out of her dress.

How many people know how to use a blade? Well... "HA!" Shouts Polaris! "If these arachnids think they can scare THE UNMOVING POLARIS, they're wrong! THE NORTH STAR IS BURNING BRIIIIIGHT!" The black knight roars, raising a spear! The light pours out of it as they shout, "ENLIGHTENED..." And it just keeps getting brighter as they don't complete the Arte. And brighter, and brighter. So bright that it begins to drive spiders away and force them back. So bright that even the spiders hiding inside Polaris's armor have to skitter out.

They turn to the others. "SEE NOW, THE GUIDANCE OF THE NORTH STAR!" The spiders lift up the front of Polaris's helm and pour out in fear, a fluid wall of arachnid pouring out of the knight's helm. Holy shit.

Let's move on from this and pretend it never happened.

    "The game's been out for a year. Plenty of people have learned how to use blades. ...It's been ages since I read those books."

    And then... Mizuki steps into the next room and there is a disgusting crunch beneath her feet. And spiders dropping on her, crawling on her, getting in her hair. She is not particularly afraid of spiders, but having them crawling all over you is not a pleasant experience for most people!

    "KYAAAAAAAAAA!"

    She's not even roleplaying, the girly scream is legit. She flails, trying to shake the spiders off, then remembers her magic and starts breathing fire around her to drive spiders off, and casting ninja spells to wash/blow spiders off of herself with water and air, before just surrounding herself with a ball of whirling air to try and keep the spiders away.

    She runs hands through her hair trying to make sure no spiders are in there, but there's too much hair to ever really be sure.

    "More like hundreds of thousands... Let's... let's just get to the next room, quick!"

"Someone has a sick sense of humor when it comes to architecture," Shiruba comments as she looks over her shoulder at the various weird rooms they'd just been through after finally finding the means to open the way forward. "I guess this is why most games have dungeoneering as a distinct skill in traversing the--"

She stops mid-step as she turns back forward, only for a spider to be hanging right in front of her. "Augh!" She hops back... and more come spilling into the room. "AUGH! SMALL HAIRY CRAWLY THINGS! TOO MANY OF THE--"

Then stops mid panic. What is she doing? She's the brave adventurer now! There's no need to be scared of spiders. EVen lots of spiders... As long as they're not Black Widows or Daddy Long Legs or Driders.

Shiruba reverses her attitude back into properly 'in-character' after the brief episode. "... Okay, even not being scared they're kind of creepy. Let's just BLOW through this room!"

To which she conjures a blast of cold north air and flings it through the room to hurtle spiders out of the way.

The spiders are crushed in the case who got under Reika's clothes, she may want to get cleaned up later. Taken out by magic, along with the liberal use of force. So well you'd not need a can of a raid to deal with them. Gwen looks rather unhappy as she flicks one of the last ones out of her hair muttering.

"Of all the rotten luck, I'd have... to... Oh for the love of the Holy Mother..."

There's a giant spider of sort. She looks at the horrible looking thing that hits her lizard brain so hard she tries to will fire into existence, she sadly gets nothing at the moment. However, when she does see is all those ey and she will generate a burst of light holding her blad aloft which shouldn't more than enough to blind the spider horror allowing for her comrades to just pile on to it.

POLARIS THE UNYIELDING moves on in short order. Every so often, a spider skitters out of their armor. They don't even give a shit!! They clomp clomp clomp their way to the final chamber, swatting aside webs, and soon encounter the great dire spider within!

Oh hell! "FACE THIS HORROR OF THE MINE AND LET'S TAKE BACK ITS LEGS FOR TROPHIES!" Their spear flips around their hands as they take a stylish offensive pose. "EN GARDE!!" And they launch at high speed, rushing the arahnid, their helm gleaming with light! The spear makes a heavy, dramatic noise like an artillery gun loading a round! KA-CHUNK!! A new tip is on the spear. "HALTING STRIIIIIKE!" A splash of acid slams into the black knight, giving them a smoking sizzle and covering their body in shining red damage markers as they roar in pain, but it's not enough to keep them from thrusting a huge strike with their hunting spear, intent on cutting the move-speed of this spider down hard to limit more of its acid-spit!

They get through the little spiders... and now are confronted with one huge spider. "Tarantula! That's the other spider I was trying to rememb--err. Oh that is a big'un isn't it?"

Shiruba pulls an arrow and quickly notchs it in her bow, then kippups aside some acid spittle. "Aim for the face! Or the legs! Spiders detect their surroundings through their legs touching their webs!" This is the sort of monster know-how the wolfish hunter is known for coming up with.

Shiruba takes her own advice, skillfully firing her arrow right into one of the spider's larger eyes, with all the disgusting gibs that certainly follows.

Ragna looks upon the giant spider, though his eyes lock onto the giant spider, moving with his blade to try and strike at the spider's legs to lob some off....or at least just attempt to do enough damage for it to be noticeable. "Take down the legs first!" he calls out, agreeing with Shiruba. "If it can't move, it can't fight. If it can't sense, it can't see. Cripple it, then finish it!"

    Mizuki brushes spiders off her hat as they reach the next room, then sees... "FINALLY! A proper fight!" She circles around it, trying to wait for a vulnerable time to strike... And with a couple of ninja handsigns, conjures a disc of magically-solid icy vapor which she uses to block those acid attacks.

    "This better be a pretty cool boss to make up for the dungeon so far..." Who knows how long she'll be finding spiders in her hair after this.

Reika was still made to dance to the tune of tiny spiders that she was shaking off, although a good part of them were blasted off indirectly by the other's air blasts. Fortunately for her. "I can still feel them crittering around, I'm not okay with going in this amount of details!"

They get to the giant spider, and she sweatdrops at that "I'm not okay with big ones either!" The blast of poison or acid, whatever it is, she wants nothing to do with that either, and she quickly ducks behind a rock to avoiud it, or rather absorb it for her. Once the danger is passed, she quickly gets out of hiding, still holding her sword, following the other's lead to slash at the legs with her short blade. Even without knowing how to use her abilities yet, she still moves pretty fast at least.

Mikage is quick to leave the room filled with spiders behind, only to find a single, very large one in it's place. "Oh for fucks sake." She curses under her breath. The Druid pulls out her sword again, knowing that this won't be an easy fight.

Rather than being one of those to directly fight the tarantula, she instead focuses on trying to draw it's attention. Flashes of magic to have it focus on her, then utilizing her sword and magic to shield off the acid spitting that comes her way. "That's it. Look, tasty Druid snack."

Near the end of the fight, though, she summons up that same magic used earlier, managing to catch one of the globs of acid and send it right back at the giant spider in one swoop. She doesn't exactly get up close and personal at any point, but seems to use that sword of hers as a tool to channel magic. It's an odd build.

Gwen keeps the Tarantula confused and in her pace as it batters against her? Her friends hack slash, magic and otherwise crush the spider down and finally, it drops exploding into shards of light as it does so. There's a decent bit of loot too for the entire party as well. However, there's a strange magic circle as Gwen approaches it to see what it triggers and she gets an error.

"Level locked? Could be worse we could blunder into content we didn't know and end up against something that cons purple to us."

She takes a moment to look around.

"Is everyone okay? Looks like we can't do more for now but some of this might be useful."

Gwen will likely have a dream about spiders tonight.

YAY THE HORRIBLE GIANT SPIDER THING IS DEAD.

"A what?" Shiruba wanders over to see what Gwen found after picking up her part of the loot. "Oh, that's ominous." She squints a little. Then notices the 'Must Be Level 10' message.

"Well, we know where to come when we do level up more." She eyes it another moment, then opens her menu and tries to use her Crytography... but then shrugs. "That just says the same warning. But we've still got other stuff to worry about now, anyways."

As the massive spider goes down under the skills of the party, Mikage hangs back slightly, catching her breath. "You know? Not what I was expecting." Then again, as Gwen approaches the arcane circle and informs them of level-locked content, she gives a nod, "Ah. So it's like, a multi-level dungeon. I wonder what's further down there." There doesn't seem to be any way of knowing for now.

Miki steps forward to claim her piece of treasure, plucking up one of the spider's armored plates and giving it a look over. "I wonder if these are acid resistant." Then, she starts pressing menu options, stowing it into inventory.

Glancing towards Gwen, she inclines her head, "Only lost a little HP. Keeping Rama in the bag for most of the dungeon seemed to help, though I need to work on his training again so he can actually be useful." The lynx just continues to dangle from her backpack.

Reika phews as the spider goes down easily enough, no real harm... except she might still dream of spiders crawling on her tonight... Why are mental scars the hardest one to heal?

She sheaths back her blade in the small of her back quietly. "As long as noone is seriously hurt, a little rest will undo the damage." The good part of games? Probably. Heals almost anything short of missing limbs because almost everything is a number, rather than a status.

"Then I guess mission accomplished for today?" She smiles, remembering what she learned today at least. She has to keep the upbeat, everything is better from it. She walks toward the exit, hmming her song merrily, and a little bounce in her step.

    "That's more like it." Mizuki comments after the battle, brushing a stray spider from her shoulder. "Level locked? Does it say how high?"

    She collects her spider armor plates, and wonders what kind of armor could be made for her from them... but then, maybe she should be contributing more to the Ezzo effort...

    "Yeah! Mission accomplished!" She pumps a fist and jumps for an energetic victory pose, and some spiders shake loose from her hair.

    The catgirl walks alongside Mikage. "So um. Where exactly is the best place around here for an anti-spider bath?"

"HAHA! HURT? ABSOLUTELY NOT!" Polaris roars, sizzling with gratuitous acid damage on their armor. "The burning of that foul monster's acid is nothing compared to the BURNING FIRES OF THE NORTH STAR!" That HP bar says something different, but nobody else can see that, right?

Wait. First thing's first. "OH NO YOU DON'T!" Shouts Polaris, leaping through the open air of the cave and landing in front of... REIKA!? "YOU!" The Black Knight roars eagerly. "We have UNFINISHED BUSINESS!" They do? "Do not think I've settled this business about finding your legend without a proper test for it! We may be busy with the ships to Ezzo for now, but that won't last forever!"

A heavy sabaton slams into the ground as Polaris takes a wide, dramatic stance. "When the effort is complete, I shall challenge you again... to a DUEL!! PLAYER VERSUS PLAYER, in your own arena!" A gauntlet's finger presses towards Reika's face. "You shall be challenged in a way that tests the mettle of the legend you might choose to build! This dream of a happiness you can craft for yourself!" The gauntlet goes up, the finger pointing to the heavens. "When the ships to Ezzo have returned, you and I will square off in a duel the likes of which this Land has NEVER SEEEEEEN!!"

"WE WILL DUEL IN THE ARENA OF BATTLE KARAOKE!!!"

That's right, Reika. The Black Knight intends to duel you to bring your skills and willpower over here in this new world at full force, and it doesn't look like they're about to take no for an answer...

"... I don't know who this guy is, but he's got a lot of passion for this sort of thing apparently."

That's Shiruba's observation of the matter.

Even though it seems like the spiders are mostly gone, Mikage can't help but keep feeling that crawly feeling. Now and again, she shakes out a bit of her leather armor, only to find nothing. The lynx, on the other hand, seems enthralled at passing spider webs, enough so that he ends up with a bit plastered on his nose and strewn across one fluffy ear.

"There's a bathhouse in the town of beginnings that I'm fond of, if you have the coin." Miki answers, looking over to the Cat-girl with a small smile. "Otherwise, the lake near Alne isn't terrible, but I'd much rather have warm water than cold."

Anything else she might have said gets cut off by the loud proclaimations of Polaris. The normally quiet Druid just stares in their direction for a long time. "Someone needs to cut down on the sugar, or caffeine, or both." She ducks under some more webbing, "I don't know about you guys, but I'm getting out of here. I just hope it's the last time for spiders for a while." Why are they so common in low level dungeons?

"DON'T KNOW?" Polaris jams a gauntlet's thumb to their breastplate. It clacks loudly! "I am the legendary POLARIS THE UNYIELDING! THE BRILLIANT NORTH STAR!" That seems to be the answer to that question, Shiruba. Sort of.

Reika just stares for a moment at Polaris as she is stopped. He's a big man in armor after all, she's a small looking girl (although not tiny like some others). "... You want to challenge me to singing?" She crosses her arms over her chest. He did say meeting her on her turf, and he certainly chose accordingly. She can do many things, but singing is what transposes best in this world right now, at least considering real world skills.

Reika uncrosses her arms and flicks her long hair back machinally, but proud looking "You're on, don't think I'll go easy on you." Either she's just playing along, or trying to find what will stick in this world, it doesn't matter. Might as well try everything that comes her way. "What are we playing for?"

Gwen says "level Ten, I dunno I'd try one of the inns or find a quite little body of water and go for a dip."

Gwen just gets this goofy old grin on her face. "That's another thing I should get into making, swim wear." She just looks at Mizuki, Shir and Reika as the grin gets wider.

    The town of Beginnings? "Ugh, that's so far away!"

    Polaris sure is... a thing. "Wow." Mizuki asides to Mikage. "I wish I could keep up that level of energy..."

    She approached Polaris. "Please, do tell Mizuki. How does one perform battle karaoke??"

Shiruba just gives Gwen an absolute flat look when she mentions swim wear. "Don't. Even. Suggest it."

Stakes? Well, Polaris didn't even think that far ahead, but you wouldn't know it from how instantly they get into this. CLACK! A thumb on the chest. "If the crowd declares me the winner, you will use your lyrical prowess to write and distribute a song, teaching the People of the Land of my great victory in Ezzo!" Polaris crosses their arms dramatically. "DEMAND WHAT PRIZE YOU WILL! For you WILL NOT HAVE VICTORY!" What would Reika want from Polaris?

How do you do battle karaoke, Mizuki? "When we celebrate the rescue of Ezzo refugees, we amass those skilled in the use of instruments, and sing the songs of _our_ Land! The Adventurers here are in pain! Their hearts cry out for a lost world! We will give them a fragment of it, and let their cheers decide our victory! And if the People of the Land should take interest, we will let their voices be heard as well!" NPCs reacting to this sort of thing is pretty bare-bones, after all, but "if the voice is melodic->then cheer" isn't exactly rocket science here.

Reika doesn't really have anything she needs from Polaris... but she's willing to give it some thought "I will think about it. I'm not sure what we really need in this place after all." She says a little teasingly "I will let you know when I find a proper stake to balance demands." It's not like his stakes are that high after all, some people could demand much more out of an idol.

Gwen says "Too late I'm already figuring on accountinf for your tail!" Gwen grins even larger somehow at this. "Also there are some more modern things I should try to get to the market."

She looks to Plaris for a moment and laughs.

"Not a bad idea Polaris." It's clear to Shir though Gwen has started plotting.

"Hmmhmhm!" That little chuckle under the helmet. "THEN IT IS DECIDED! Once the boats have returned, expect the challenge for this duel, and _expect your defeat!_" HELM-GLEAM! _Now_ Polaris no longer blocks Reika's path. They turn dramatically and begin to stride energetically out of the caves and towards the surface! "THE NORTH STAR IS BURNING BRIGHT!"

Despite her dour look Shiruba does turn partially to look back at her tail. "That would be awkward for some designs, wouldn't it?.. Wait, why am I agreeing with you?"

The wolfgirl throws her hands in the air as she stalks off. "Let's just get back to town. Maybe there's word on how the ships are doing."