Mission name: Verdant Vistas, pt II - Rumble in the Jungle
Mission rank: C
Objective: An artist has requested you to be his bodyguard during his search for a muse.
Location: Any non-Village
Reward: 300 Ryo for 1500 wc (+ 25 for 100 wc, up to max of +300 ryo for +1200 wc)

Mission Description:  An artist is in need of a new muse and has requested you to guard him on his journey through the nature's untamed environments. The artist admits to have little knowledge of wildlife or survival, hoping you'll be the guiding hand during this journey.

In part II, the time span is from noon to evening. After a brief meal and having caught his first muse on paper, the artist now wants to catch a moment of glory to remind himself the Arts are a noble cause, indeed. As such, you two venture forth to find a beast worthy of your combat prowess - yes, yours. For this part, you are to slay a powerful animal and pose to claim your sweet victory and glory as the artist captures the imagery on paper.

Don't forget to protect the artist though...

Mission Details:
The animal you'll confront is a fine specimen of the following sort (pick 1): Lynx/Bobcat, Wolf, Jackal, Boar, Snake (strangling kind) or anything in that size range.
The animal's stats are all at C-1.


Name: Machi
Age: Between 27 yrs
General Appearance: Simply dressed, with a splash of creativity in the clothes - style and paint marks alike.
Personality: First and foremost, the person is a creative person with a knack for artistry: sketching, drawing or painting. So absorbed in his desire to find a new muse, the artist is a bit of air-head, lacking most sense of danger and any sort of general knowledge of survival in wildlife. The rest is up to the undertaker's choice.
Goals: Finding a new Muse for artwork
Abilities: "Super Beast Imitating Drawing". The artist is able to bring back to life simple drawings (twice a mission) as assistance. While offering great versatility in utility, any one hit is enough to disperse the technique. The artist offers no offensive power.
Items: Any utensils required to sketch, draw or paint.

The choice of land might not have been the man's smartest move. The Swamp was known for its dangers and its difficulty to navigate. Water everywhere, roots hidden and ready to trip anyone who wasn't paying attention, a particular smell, or rather, stink that persisted throughout the environment, a mixture of dead water and natural decay. The strong humid area attracted all sorts of insect, with mosquitoes being the most obnoxious presence anytime humans were around. Looking up, Haka could see the sun at its zenith, meaning most of the day had yet to pass. The man behind her wanted to sketch a couple of ideas so he could get to working the clay, but at this moment his thoughts seemed mostly occupied by cursing this area and his dumb idea of venturing it rather than to look around and find something of beauty to copy.

The spider wasn't surprised. It was far from the first time she had ran around here, her arachnid nature allowing her to bypass most of the mundane troubles, and so it was far from the first one she had met a person walking about and complaining about the environment of the swamps. It often felt as if these humans had no idea what a swamp was about and thus wandered in unprepared for its tedious plaguing nature. That, or they lacked all sense of reality, their unevolved mind believing they could deal with everything that came their way if they believed their own little lies. Humans were a weird bunch in the eyes of the spider, and they had yet to prove her wrong.

"Are there any dangerous creatures here?"
"Yes. Plenty."
"Like what?"
"Spiders. Giant spiders"
"R-really?"
"Yes."
"What else?"
"Crocodiles, boars, snakes, poisonous man eating plants and giant spiders."
"You already said giant spiders."
"That's because legends have it one of those giant spiders turns into a human to lure and eat the people from the city."
"Haha... That's creepy."
"It is."
"Hm. It gave me an idea though. A triumphant battle over one of those dangerous creatures here would be an interesting sculpture."

Haka stopped in her tracks to turn around and look at the man, confirming her last thoughts that most of Man really had no sense of reality. This artist had no idea of what lurked here, or what was to be considered dangerous. But that, she guessed, was just part of the mission she had been given. What annoyed her more was that he wanted a beast slain for his pleasure. Taking a life without good purpose was not something that set well with the spider as her prey would not get eaten. After all, she was not hungry and the man had partaken in lunch just an hour ago or so.

"Would it now?"
"Yes. I could sculpt the muscles of the hero, its well-trained physique, the expressions on their face as they stand victorious. The audience loves to see such realism caught within art. In comparison, the beast would depict all that's dirty and dangerous. At the feet of the hero, it would symbolise the greatness of humanity."

Haka tilted her head lightly. Was this how humans thought? Curious. It seemed they shared a similar idea of greatness as the Unmei, but they faltered to uphold the clan's philosophy of strength and evolution. While the man's explanation shed some light on art and humanity, it equally confused the Unmei with even more questions.

---

587

Verd would follow suit. Staying silent most of the time. Not necessarily because she was still grumpy and brooding over the mission set-up but more cause Haka seemed to be unusually chatty. She didn’t speak many words but her reactions seemed less filled with pure distasteful denial. What was going on here? Since when did she feel comfortable to speak with people? Without showing a deeply disgusted or annoyed motion at that. Verd let her friend be in charge. After all, the princess had made it too often a habit to take charge in her own hands in the past. Knowing well Haka didn’t always approve of Dandi’s somewhat cocky attitude. The concept of royalty escaped her anyway. Or well. She did understand the ranks but now what a princess should be good for. After all it was no title obtained by becoming strong but simply implying that one’s predecessor is having a powerful position. Thinking like that Haka could be seen as the spider princess too…

The mental image and the thought of Haka referring to herself as a princess would make Verd chuckle hard and yet she dared not to speak her thoughts aloud, considering Haka would give her another death threat… as so often already. When Machi asked about the dangerous creatures of the swamp. Verd was already thinking about. “Right next to you…” as Haka dropped the bomb about spiders. Once more Dandi had to supress a deep laughter within her. But was also very aware of Haka’s ultimate displeasure towards hunting while there was no need to do so. Especially since he seemed to long for a big one. Which of course sparked an idea in Verdandi’s mind. Slowly she let herself fall back on the party. Machi was so concentrated on his talk with Haka and since Verd didn’t really say much ever since she joined the mission he easily…. Forgot about her every now and then. Haka would of course notice how Verd seemed to remove herself from the picture on purpose and at some point, flicker away as if she abandoned the mission.

After an hour of him throttling along and drawing little swamp creature that seemed to be unworthy to be slain so far. Something would rattle in the distance. And at sudden. A huge, wagon sized spider would stand in front of them. Haka would face… herself. An almost perfect image of her actual spider form. It had taken Verdandi quite some time to use some ice and water in order to gain the additional mass needed for this kind of transformation technique. It was improvised. Obviously not meant to work forever. But it would certainly create the image of the situation that had been asked for. A water clone of Verd would linger somewhere close by and approach the two of them from behind. Scaring the crap out of Machi a second time as he was slowly reminded that they indeed used to have a third person in their party.

The real Verdandi, now turned into a wolf spider, would fletch its front legs and show teeth. Giving Machi the creeps to the point he fell back on his butt and couldn’t help but squeal like a schoolgirl. “A Monster! Kill it!” he exhaled scared. Seemingly falling for Verd’s ruse. Whom was ready for a little show fight with Haka. All depending on how she would deal with the situation.


580

The man was a burden in the eyes of the spider. Unreliable and completely oblivious of the dangers he ran from one fascination to another to sketch at one time, then scream on another. Her patience was running thin, and about to snap as easily as a web weaver's freshly woven strand of silk. The only reason why she had not slain this annoyance of a human already was probably because of Verdandi tagging along and drawing his attention about right on time before the spider moved to kill. How she was able to read Haka's rising killing intent was still beyond the Unmei's comprehension, but she was far from the only one that seemed to be an open book when it came to intentions.

Things drastically changed when Verdandi decided to play a little game. Out of the blue, just briefly after Haka had explained about the spider turning human to hunt, which was a reference to a couple of Unmei that lived in the swamps, one decided to appear before them. Instantly terror-struck, the artist fell on his behind and crawled away stammering and screaming from the arachnid terror before he jumped up once more when he saw Verdandi behind them. But Haka simply tilted her head at the apparition. Eight-legged, a look as if she hated the whole world, misty grey hairs. The spider looked too similar to her own form to even be considered realistically possible. Someone was playing tricks here, but whether it was Verdandi or an actual Unmei was difficult to say. Running a hand through her hair Haka closed her eyes a brief moment, seemingly contemplating something, before she spit out her signature webbing technique at the spider.

"Better close your eyes.", she said to the artist as she took out her kunai menacingly. Glancing back to see him hold his eyes closed firmly, she then jumped onto the spider, chittering a "Play dead", to the caught spider before driving her kunai in a non-deadly spot of its body. Though the stab might be painful, a modicum of reality was to be created if they wanted to keep the artist under the illusion of having slain a terrible monster. But whether the spider was Verdandi or an actual Unmei, that was yet to be seen. She expected to know the answer to that depending if they would have come to understand her spider speech, but the truth would be different than that - Verdandi would be nuanced enough to understand this was an act, while an Unmei would have understood the words and played along recognising Haka's monstrous nature.

"There. It's dead. You can sketch it now."

---

451
Total: 1038

When Haka’s kunai pushed forth Verd, could barely shift her body just in time to make sure the blade would go where she wanted it to. Onto the ice part that physically extended Verdandi’s body size to be able to take this huge apparition anyhow. The ice would break and shatter a little. But keeping itself together to remain the transformed illusion. The spot where Haka pushed her weapon inside would slowly leak water though. Considering spider blood had no colour that was somehow unintendingly immersive. While Haka triumphantly towered the slain super spider, Verd had to concentrate herself hard on keeping the clone working while also keeping her fake appearance in check.

Machi was fascinated, amazed, uncontrollably overjoyed by the fact of such a lucky accident of chance. He was totally consumed by the quick way Haka had dealt with that creature. It seemed like she had done something so very easy despite the fact that it could not be easy. He came to the conclusion that ninjas just had to be incredibly strong in general. Setting up an improvised chair he’d seat himself on a tree stump and start to quickly sketch first Haka and then the creature. Mostly Haka first cause the ninja couldn’t be bothered to actually stand still for too long without getting severely annoyed at the cause. Playing dead was something that Verd could do well. She’d eventually, as her chakra concentration seemed to last fine on its own. Take a nap. The clone actually had to kick her back awake as she threatened to start snoring. Which would have kind of blown their cover and ruse.

After Machi was certain that he had created a masterpiece of art. He would pack his drawing utensils back into his bag and mention to Haka that he was ready for their next adventure. Once moving on the clone would eventually disperse into a puddle of water after staying at enough distance that Machi wouldn’t realize it. The real Verdandi would slowly catch up. Seemingly a bit exhausted from having spent quite some chakra on this little stunt. Moving up to Haka. “You know that stab could have actually hit me.” She said a little condescending. But with voice lowered while Machi was busy hunting down some swamp frog to sketch it up for a drawing. Verd wasn’t necessarily angry but was still a bit worried over the brute attitude Haka had shown during their ‘battle’. “I’m sure you just wanted to make it look real now…. Huh?” Verd added a bit teasingly but couldn’t help but giggle. It all went pretty well after all. Time to move on.


450 / 1030

Seeing the spider slain, Machi instantly started sketching this glorious display of shinobi power. He had always known they were strong, but this... this blew his mind. Satisfaction apparent, his hand avidly danced over his sketchbook, the pencil drawing the outlines of what he would eventually mold from clay. As he finished the sketch, he turned around the notebook for them to see it, so Haka hopped off the 'spider' and took a look. She had no clue what he just drew or how this was supposed to be art, but she nodded nonetheless which caused the man to start a rant about how he envisioned his sculpture already. Completely drawn into his own world and with Haka blocking of his frontal view, she expected the spider to escape as she released the effects of her web.

Once he had finished his explanation, they continued their trek through the swamps. The spider had escaped, something Haka had noticed but Machi hadn't, and still later the clone would be replaced by a somewhat tired Verdandi that felt the need to scold the spider-nin for reasons unknown to her. What did she mean with 'that stab could have actually hit me'? Or with 'you just wanted to make it look real now'? Haka turned her head to give Verdandi a three second pointed stare, as if to ask what she was ranting about, but her mind figured out the puzzle.

"Of course.", she replied with her usual apathetic voice. If anything, making it look real was exactly what would have been needed for the man to believe it, and if that meant wounding the Verdandi-spider she would have done so without the slightest of remorse. Not only because Verdandi was a rival, but also because she shouldn't have taken on the form of a giant spider without so much as a word. It was as if Verdandi still didn't know the Spider Clan had no remorse for each other, or for anything else for that matter. Perhaps that was actually the case since Haka had never spoken about the Unmei or the Spider Clan in detail. Strangely, despite the scolding, the ice princess would giggle, making Haka wonder once more what exactly she was missing about human communication. Was this funny? She really had no idea...

Continuing their path, the trio would need to halt on a regular occasion as the artist continued taking sketches of passing wildlife. Oblivious of any danger, it was necessary to pull him back from the hungry snap of a crocodile that had been resting on the land, the creature rather obvious for everyone but the artist.Another time, he would almost have been bitten by a venomous snake, the critter caught just in time before it injected its lethal dose. More of such almost-accidents happened throughout the day, until the sun was slowly setting.

---

[EXIT]

484
Total: 1522
Reward: C Rank - Great Fireball Jutsu

Soon the terrain would shift and the artist would be forced to head on into the darker and meaner places of the swamp. So, while they were still in the nicer part Verd would catch her breath from exhausting her chakra for that stunt earlier. It was going fine and Haka was actively protecting the odd man from the worst attackers that threatened him. Verd was counting. Including him falling and stumbling, he would have died over 50 times since the day started. Alone he certainly would have no chances of survival in this messy place.

Verd contemplated over why Haka was so brooding and perplexed towards her questions. Did she not know it was Verdandi? Wasn’t it that obvious? Then again, she certainly didn’t bite the joke or the irony within. Too bad she was still trying to learn sarcasm or read funny situations. Verd still chuckled cause the whole Haka-clone part had been a hilarious scene she would not easily forget in a few. All while Machi was busy trying to get himself killed by any creature, as harmless or not as they could possibly be. Pretty sure he would have licked the back of a poisonous frog or tickled a toxin filled slug. He also activated quite a few bear traps and hunter traps that had been set up for the meat giving animals. He eventually would almost drown in the dirt of a mud hole that reacted like quicksand. He’d get his finger trapped in a flesh-eating plant. Smell on a flower that had clear hypnotic properties. Munched on non-poisonous but certainly drug inducing mushrooms. Went off to hunt down invisible naked ladies until his drug rush worn off and even started to search for the reason behind life, existence and everything. Verd casually answered with “42” towards which the artist could only react with utter confusion.

Despite him being an insane amount of annoying men-flesh. He could yet draw like a king. Heck he was even drawing stuff that happened to him while he was clumsy. His memory towards stuff he had seen once seemed limitless. Verd was almost proud while he drew the picture of himself getting bitten by the man-eating plant. It certainly was a gorgeous artwork indeed. As yet the day was about to reach its end soon. They would pace up their steps. Verd would slowly hoard different materials that would be useful for a camp later. She was greedy and needy for a good nap and obviously bored of Mr. crocodile hunter. They would camp for some food but not rest yet. The fire was comfy and warm though. Wind would pick up soon but if they wanted to reach their desired location they would have to climb soon. A steep passage that would lead towards the hills he had requested to be lead towards.

Verd sighed. This would be a drag.

[Exit]

490 / Total wc: 1520

WC Usage: