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 Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2015 11:19 pm
Job: Archaeological Excavation!
Rank: C
Player Requirements: 1,160 words
Job Requirements: You have to be at least a C rank mage. Find the remains of the ancient creature and bring them to the professor.
Job Description: An archaeological professor has stumbled on a dig site in the Forgotten Desert. Somewhere buried in the sand are the remains of an ancient creature. The professor asked for capable mages who can help him excavate the creature.
WARNING: Archaeologists have experienced "hallucinations" of the ancient creature's shadow. Because the mana of the area is unstable, and they are truly terrified of such a large creature, they've decided that these are hallucinations.
-Boss Fight Required for Completion
Reward: 4,500 Jewels each and 3000 Strive.
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Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2015 10:10 am
 
The driver cracked the whip at the pig like creature that was pulling the caravan, causing a grunting to come from the creatures under his command as they pulled along. The covered wagon rocked and swayed with the winds and the dips in the sand, ahead and behind of them bumping over rocks and hitting divots in the rough dirt road that they were taking. Dust blew up around them with each gust of wind, causing the drivers of the wagons to cover their faces and wear goggles to keep the dirt out of their eyes and nose. In the backs of the wagons, the contents varied, ranging from supplies of food to pick axes to rope to even people. In the back of one, a small red headed female was laying on a sack of grain, curled up on one of the bags laying on its side. She snored softly as the wagon bumped and rocked its way to its destination, and her’s, a dig site deep in the Forgotten Desert.
“Excuse me miss.”
A man, unloading the wagon, stopped and looked at the little girl, sleeping so peacefully on the sack that he was supposed to carry out. At first he didn’t want to mess with her, originally because he had noticed the set of horns that seemed to protrude from her head, but he decided that it was a headband and reached out, his hand coming to rest against her small shoulder and shook her, trying to rouse her from her sleep. At first, she grumbled and growled, swatting at his hand and curling up tighter. He persisted though, and eventually the small girl opened her eyes and yawned, sat up, and stretched. “Hm…?” she asked the man groggily, to which he replied by telling her that they had made it to the dig site and that she had to move so that they could finish unloading the wagon. “Oh! Okay! Thank you!” she exclaimed happily as she hopped down out of the back, waving to the workers as the man that had woke her started to ask about her parents, but she was already off on her way.
It turned out that there were more people here than the small female had expected, with blocked off areas covered in tents, people bent over looking into boxes with brushes and picks and all manner of people walking around, some men without their shirts because they were so hot, and people with towels wrapped around their heads. They all looked half exhausted and most very worried. She stopped, turning in a full circle as she tilted her head back, eyes closing as she sniffed at the air. There had been something she had noticed now that she was awake, something about this area was… different, a bit off from the rest of the places she had been, but what it was, she couldn’t tell exactly. “Hmm…” she growled softly, lowering her head and slowly opening her eyes. Just then, she heard a scream from behind her, and as she turned, was hit in the face with a jug of water. “Bla!” she exclaimed, her head falling backwards and her body arching in the same direction, her feet sliding out from under her as she came to land flat on her back with an expel of air, the water canister busting open and spilling water all over and around her. She lay there, water dripping from her face onto the sand around her to turn to mud as she listened to the commotion. Someone was yelling and calling her a monster and a beast, and other people were apparently yelling at him. She pushed herself up onto her elbows, wet hair handing in her eyes as she watched a group of people swarming a man with a pick ax and disarm him, holding and dragging him off. The man pointed at her, “Monster!! It’s right there! Let me kill it so we can be done with this curse!” he continued to yell and scream like a mad man as they drug him away.
Ram tilted her head, water dripping from her hair, and blinked, “Curse…? But, Ram isn’t a monster… And she didn’t curse nobody…” she muttered softly, a shadow falling over her. She looked up, an older man with a long greying beard was standing over her now looking worriedly. “I must apologize, are you alright little one?” he asked, starting to bend down to help the child up. However, Ram was already moving, laying back and vaulting herself to her feet where she began to dust and brush herself off. “Ram is okay Mister! Don’t worry!” she giggled, shaking her head much in the fashion of a dog or cat trying to shake off water before looking up at him with a large grin. She blinked then, looking back in the direction that the man had been drug off in, “But, what happened to him? Why did he think Ram was a monster?” she looked back at the old man curiously, watching as he sighed and shook his head. “Some of our men have been experiencing hallucinations, claiming to have seen a shadow of a monstrous beast, something inhuman and evil around the dig site. We believe these are caused by the unstable magical energy around the area, but it still doesn’t give us a cure for those that become afflicted.” He sighed, shaking his head and bringing a hand to pinch at the bridge of his nose as if he had a headache. “I sent word for a Mage to come and assist us, we did find some evidence that there are some sort of remains buried in a part of the temple that he uncovered, however, the Mage has yet to show…” he gave another sigh, looking off toward the dig site and the sound of workers. Seeming to realize that he had just spilled his troubles to a little girl, he shook his head, looking to her with a smile, “Ah, but I’m sorry, you don’t need to trouble yourself with this. Are you thirsty? Perhaps lost?”
Ram listened to him, blinking. How weird, so they were hallucinating because of the unstable mana in the area… but she felt fine, maybe a little hyper… but that was probably because she had just woke up from a nap. She nodded at his question, and followed him as he turned and started to a tent. It was cooler under the shade, and he poured her a glass of water and handed it to her as he sat down at a table covered in papers. “So, what is a little girl like you doing out here? Are your parents researchers?” Ram turned the glass up, chugging the water as if she hadn’t had anything to drink in days. She made a satisfied sound and lowered it, grinning and wiping her mouth. “Hm? Oh! No! Ram is here for a mission!” she dug into her sleeve, pulling out a crimpled piece of paper and handing it to the now confused archaeologist. He straightened it and sat it in front of him, putting on a pair of reading spectacles as he skimmed over it, his mouth moving silently as he read to himself. He was utterly shocked when he looked back at Ram in disbelief. “You’re the Mage they sent!?” His eyes widened as he shook his head, “But… there’s no way that a child… Where are the others? Did someone else come with you? This has to be a joke!” Ram sighed, rolling her eyes in exasperation and shook her head, “No Mister. Ram is the only one. Don’t worry, this happens a lot. People don’t think Ram can do stuff on her own, but she will be fine! Just tell her which place to go to!” she said as she sat the cup on the side of his desk. He looked at her slack jawed before pointing out the open tint flap to a large dig area. Nodding, she thanked him and started off to begin her mission!
People looked at her strangely as she walked down the makeshift steps to the entrance to the ruins that they had uncovered. There weren’t as many people as she would have thought working down here, probably because of this ‘curse’ that the one crazy man had yelled about before. She giggled to herself as she practically went skipping into the ruins, only to squeak and turn around, running out and to one of the workers. “It’s dark! No one told Ram it was dark!” she said almost frantically, flailing her arms up and down a little before stopping and pointing to the man’s belt, “Can Ram use your flashlight Mister?” The man nodded dumbly, obviously confused as to why this girl needed his flashlight, or why she was going in there in the first place, but not going to say anything. Flashlight now in hand, Ram turned and once more went into the ruins.
It was musty, and dark, and dry. Not a wet muggy musty like the place with the lizard people, but dry… and dusty. She coughed a bit, following the cleared path that the workers had made. She made her way deep into the ruins, and even took the time to pause and look at the architecture and statues that she passed by. It was really sort of pretty, in an old and falling apart way. She was now fairly far in, she couldn’t even see the light from the main room anymore, and she really hoped that she wasn’t going to get lost. As she turned into one room, she stopped, hearing something from the room. It sounded like scuttling… Something running across the stone, but it might have just been sand shifting. She shone the light around, her face scrunching in seriousness as she looked around. The room was pretty big actually, with crumbling stone statues on either side of a large door that was cracked open on the far side. There were stone slab tables with some glistening vases and such, as well as what looked like intricately designed chairs and pots along the walls. “Ooh… pretty…” she whispered to herself, sweeping the flashlight slowly along the room. As she passed it over a chair, something moved under it, causing her to quickly sweep it back to the object, trying to see what it had been. Scuttling again, that was what she heard, and then a pot breaking from off to her left. She turned quickly, only to hear it again off to the right, then behind her, or was it above her now?! She couldn’t tell, or she wasn’t sure. She spun around, lightly trying to find the source before she heard a hissing screech and spun around, the light barely hitting against something that had an orangish look to it before the thing was on her face.
Ram screamed, dropping the flashlight to the floor as she grabbed at the thing, tiny clawed feet pinching at her skin, and bigger claws grabbing at her hair. She grabbed the creature’s tail, only to yelp as she flung it as spines along the sides of the tail dug into her hand. She heard it hit the floor and slide and she lunged for the light, shining it where she had thrown the thing. “Uh… oh…” she muttered, the thing snapping its tiny claws at her as it backed up, hissing. What it backed up to was a larger group of the same thing, strange scorpion looking things, writhing along the ground. But that wasn’t what she was worried about. It was what they scuttled under that had her face falling and head tilting as she brought the light up to look at it. “Why does this always happen to Ram…” she muttered softly, the light shining on its dark hard carapass, over the large tail that curved to hang over its head, two large pincers that each held an eyeball that stared at her angrily, and finally on the face of this scorpion creature, single large eye blinking as it adjusted to the light. She sighed, and the creature gave a high pitched roar, its tail snapping forward at her. She dove to the side, dropping the flashlight as the large tail broke through the stone floor where she had just been standing, the sound echoing loudly across the room. She rolled and came up, grabbing the sword that she had across her back and swinging it in an arch as the tail snapped at her again. The creature, surprised by the sting of the weapon, roared and screeched, and from under it a half dozen or so little scorpion monsters came leaping out at the girl. She growled, her sword suddenly becoming engulfed in flames as she swung it at the oncoming beasties. “Fire Dragon’s Biting Fang!” She called out, the screams of the burning scorpions echoing through the room, and seeming to infuriate the larger one. Pincers the size of the girl’s body snapped out, causing her to have to jump and roll, sword coming out to parry and slash at them to keep them at bay while she kicked at the remaining smaller ones, their smoldering comrades lighting the room enough for her to see her enemies.
Her back hit against the wall, and the creature’s tail jabbed forward. Ducking and pushing from the wall, she flung herself under the monster and rolled, turning to come up just in time to be met with the side of a large back hand by one of its claws. The air was knocked from her as she was lifted from her feet and flung across the room, slamming into one of the stone statues, her sword getting knocked from her hand to clatter across the floor as she landed, grunting and coughing in pain as the scorpion monster came charging at her, a claw opening and slamming her back into the statue again. She squeaked as she felt it start to close, but then gasped. The statue was preventing it from closing all the way, but she could feel the creature starting to crush the already weakened stone behind her. She couldn’t wiggle her way out of the claw, and so she stared at the eyeball in it and growled, “Roar of the Fire Dragon!” she took a deep breath, then released a medium sized ball of fire directly into the claw eye. The creature screamed and jerked away, the claw snapping closed on the front of Ram’s kimono and ripping it, pulling her slightly off balance as it staggered back, claw still flaming as it flailed about. The glint of her sword caught her attention and she growled, darting over to it as the creature turned, stabbing at her wildly with its tail. She jumped and rolled, ducked and dodged, grabbing her sword and sliding under a stone table as the tail came slamming down onto it, cracking it in half but otherwise protecting her from the deadly tip at the end. She grunted and pushed her way out of the rubble, snapping her sword down at her side as she stood and faced the creature, one claw hanging limp and dragging the ground now. Its large pincer mouth snapping together as it hissed at her. She took a step forward, then broke out into a full on sprint at the thing. Its good claw snapped forward at her, and she leapt up and over it, sword arm thrusting forward as the creature looked up to follow her. As it neared the large eye at the center of its face, she roared, “Fire Dragon’s Biting Fang!” The sword erupting in fire as it slammed into the eye, sliding through the orb and deep into the things head. Its body seemed to tense for a moment before its carapass started to turn red, the flames burning it from the inside out, and it then collapsed in a heap, tail thudding against the door and knocking it open.
Ram panted and roughly jerked her sword free, eyeball ooze and brain goo dripping from it. “Eww…” she muttered, frowning and blanching. A deep rumbling growl caught her ear, and she turned to look at the door that had been knocked open. There was a large shadow behind it, obscuring most of the doorway actually. All she could really make out were glowing purple eyes, and, as its maw curled back, a large mouth filled with rows of very sharp looking teeth. “Uuugh… Why does this always happen to Ram?!” she exclaimed, the creature giving a roar that shook the very ruins and then leaping forward, claws digging gouges into the stone. It broke the other door easily, sending it flying over Ram who squeaked and ducked down to watch it crash and splinter against the wall. The creature roared again, its front feet actually a large set of wings that it used to walk on, its head looked almost like a misshapen lion’s head, and it had a scorpion tail. She gave a groan, getting tired of scorpions. “Ram is never coming to the desert again.” she muttered as its opened its glowing maw, looking rather large enough to fit her into it actually, and spit out a glowing purple liquid. She leapt and rolled away, the liquid splattering against the floor and leaving a stench that lingered in the stale air. “Eww!! Why does this have to be gross!!” She exclaimed, gagging and pinching her nose as she looked back at the lion, scorpion, winged thing. It roared again and leapt at her, winged arms coming out and flapping to give it more of a jump and to take up more room where she couldn’t run. So she went toward it, sword swinging as its tail snapped down and jabbed at her. It landed, and when it did, it let all of its weight fall , its wings bending to where it nearly landed on top of and crushed Ram. As it were, its maw now came clamping down onto her shoulder and upper arm, biting and crushing. She screamed as teeth tore through flesh. She flipped her sword around in her other hand, stabbing at the thing in the shoulder and neck, causing it to roar in pain and let her go. She staggered back and turned, running for the way she had come. Behind her, she heard the monster’s feet as they pounded into the stone floor after her.
As she ran, the thing spit poison at her, crashing through the doorways that were too small for its huge frame, slowing it down some, but not stopping it, the poison splattering everywhere, some of the drops even managing to hit against her, stinging her wounded arm. She knew that wasn’t good, and she needed to get out of there fast to finish this before she was down and out. Huffing and puffing as she rounded a corner and saw the light of the outside, she stumbled over some of the debri in her way, grunting as she forced herself to keep moving and not fully fall. The beast broke through the last doorway, and, as Ram climbed and clambered up the steps to the outside, it leapt, huge maw wide as it roared, clearing the steps and doorway and leaping outside. Ram spun toward it, the creature dropping down on her and clamping its mouth completely around her, swallowing her in one bite. Outside, people screamed and ran, dropping equipment as the beast stood there, eyes adjusting to the light. It roared in triumph, and started to take a step forward when it stopped and staggered, shaking its head as black smoke started to roll from its throat, the smell of flesh burning filling the air. Inside of its stomach, Ram was using her Fire Dragon Magic to burn the thing from the inside out before she was fully overcome by the digestive poisons in its belly. The creature coughed and staggered, giving a pitiful sounding wine as its stomach started to bloat, smoke now starting to roll out of its nose. It gave a helpless cry before falling over, the flesh on the underside of its stomach, where it was softest, starting to blacken and crack. Finally, a foot thrust through the burnt flesh, smoke pouring out of the hole as Ram’s hands came out and clawed at the skin to make it bigger. She finally fell out of it, simply fell out and into the sands, coughing and covered from the smoke, the digestive juices, and its and her own blood. She rolled onto her back, arms flopping out to her sides as she gasped and coughed, taking huge gulping breaths of air. Slowly, people began to come closer now that the creature wasn’t moving, and the one Archaeologist that had sent in the request shoved his way to the front, stopping suddenly when he saw the dead creature, and gasping as he saw Ram. “My word! Get some water quickly!” he started barking out orders, and Ram, laying there, softly started laughing, the sound getting louder until she was laughing hysterically. The Archaeologist paused and looked at her as she grunted and forced herself up to stand, turning to look at him and smile. She gave him a thumbs up, her hair, clothes, face, heck everything about her a mess. The man couldn’t do anything, didn’t know what to do, other than smile back and nod, setting about cleaning up the mess so they could continue with their work in peace now.
•Strength ::27 •Defense ::27 •Endurance ::27 •Speed ::30 •Magic Power::27 •Mana::3,450
Words: 3,612 / 1,160
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Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2015 9:21 pm
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