31 Claudia Ashtaroth

Claudia Ashtaroth, more commonly known by her gaming tag, Blaze. Her brother, Claudius, is a pro player signed with Team Ambros, while Claudia is a streamer partnered with the same team. The two of them were given access to the Closed Beta of Eternal Universe Online. There are many Esport teams on the island of Atlantis, but unfortunately, Team Ambros isn't a very well known or popular one. Most of the popularity that Team Ambros garners isn't even from their professional players, but their partnered streamers, such as Claudia. For team Ambros, receiving two invitations to the Eternal Universe Online Closed Beta is a dream come true for a low tier team. Thus, they've decided to give their most popular professional player and streamer, the Ashtaroth siblings, the two beta invitations. Claudius was happy to receive the offer since he was going to ask to be transferred to the EUO department and Claudia, as a streamer, was going to make the move to Eternal Universe Online anyways so she was happy to accept.

When making his character, Claudius made sure every minor aspect of his character was geared towards his preferred playstyle as a melee fighter from his race to his starting stat allocation, but Claudia was different. Unlike her brother, Claudia doesn't care much for min-maxing and is more concerned about her appearance and she had been streaming the entire character creation process. Continually dissatisfied with how her avatar looked, one of the people in her chat said she should try the randomise option. Since she was already dissatisfied with the avatar she just made, Claudia didn't think there was anything to lose, so she decided to select the randomise option. And just a few moments later, Claudia was pleasantly surprised by what she saw.

Although the stat allocation isn't the greatest, Claudia didn't actually care much since she didn't think it would make a difference. She paid the most attention to the avatar's appearance, both the figure and face of her character closely resembled her own in real life. Standing approximately 164cm tall, her character has the same light skin tone and slender body figure Claudia tries hard to maintain in reality. Her hair is similar in length to her hair in real life, extending down to her waist, but unlike the bright red hair she has in reality, her character has almost pure white hair with a few streaks of black. But there are three things that stand out the most more than anything. She has horizontal slit-like eyes, a pair of small rounded ears on the top sides of her head, and a long and thin tail extending from her rear with fur that matches her hair colour. When Claudia looked at her character's details, she found that her race was something she had never heard of before, an Ichneumon. According to her streams chat, an Ichneumon is known as the enemy of Dragons, courtesy of the first search result online. Since she was given an avatar that closely resembles her real life self, Claudia decided to move forward with the randomised option.

But upon getting into gain, Claudia almost regrets picking the randomised start.

"Maybe I shouldn't have randomised my start…" Claudia says. "Actually, this isn't too bad. I get to explore a region before any of the other players do. The only worry right now is encountering a mob. Which direction do you guys think I should go?"

<Go left, it's the first rule of adventuring> says a member of Claudia's stream.

<@Blaze, is there a map?>

"A map? I'll check… here it is," Claudia says, bringing up the holographic map interface of the System. "It's a pretty shoddy map. If I'm not wrong, it's the kind the automatically gets filled in as I explore. So this place is called the Sea of Trees, a fitting name for such a dense forest. Looking around, I wouldn't be surprised if I tripped over all these roots. But I think I see what looks like the footprints of another person in the soil, so I think I'll follow those for now."

As Claudia follows the footprints, paying close attention to the ground so as to not trip over anything, she ends up walking into a thick green vine, causing her to stumble and trip despite her attempts not to.

<lol>

<@Blaze, how does it feel to get slapped in the face by a vine?>

<@xXpotato420Xx, you watch too much hentai. Actually, what's with that name?>

<@xXpotato420Xx, the 21st century just called, they want their name back>

"Don't flame each other or I'm going to kick all of you," Claudia says, picking herself up from the ground.

<@Blaze, have you checked your racial abilities yet? I saw on another stream that someone else with a strange race like yours had some unique abilities>

"I haven't actually," Claudia says, bringing up her character's status for her stream to see.

Scrolling down a bit, Claudia quickly finds three skills.

[Dragon's Reckoning (Passive)]: Grants a 50% damage bonus towards any Dragons, Serpents, Crocodilians, and other related species.Grants an aura that wards off weaker Dragons, Serpents, Crocodilians, and other related species. When Ichneumon Transformation is active, the damage bonus is increased to 100%.

[Mud Armour (Active)]: Causes a layer of hard mud to form around the body, this grants 15% damage reduction from all types of damage and is further increased to 30% against attacks from Dragons, Serpents, Crocodilians, and other related species. Mud Armour last until either the armour is broken or is deactivated by the user, and its durability is equal to 100+(highest base stat/5). When Ichneumon Transformation is active, shield durability is increased to 200+(highest base stat/3). Cost: 70 Mana. Duration: Until deactivated or durability reaches 0.

[Ichneumon Transformation (Active)]: Transform into the true form of an Ichneumon. All base stats increase by 50%. The strength of all racial skills is increased. No cost. Duration: Minimum 1 minute, Maximum 12 hours. Cooldown: Equal to the duration of the transformation multiplied by 2.

"Just like chat said earlier, the Ichneumon is the enemy of Dragons," Claudia says as she closes the status window and resumes her exploration.

After a couple of minutes of walking, Claudia says, "This is definitely the greatest technological breakthrough of the 22nd century. I've never thought I'd be able to feel the air against my skin in a video game. Even if someone isn't a gamer, I really would recommend buying this game once it comes out just for the realistic feel alone. I can use all my senses as if it were real life."

<bold claim, sponsored much> someone in the stream chat says.

"Actually, I'm not sponsored by the studio behind this game. I'm actually only able to play because Team Ambros was given a couple of beta invitations and I was lucky enough to receive it from the org. In case any of you were wondering, the other one went to my brother. I should probably--"

"You there, trespasser! Halt! This is a restricted area! How did you breach our patrols!?"

Claudia is about to send a friend request to her brother, but she gets startled by someone shouting from behind her. Turning around she finds a brown beaver that's three times the size of a normal one from Earth. She tries to inspect the beaver but finds her effort to be somewhat unfruitful as both its stats and name are shown as question marks on the System, indicating the big beaver to be a significantly higher level than her. This doesn't come as a surprise to her since she is currently a level 1 civilian, the Class given to all player before obtaining a different Main Class. But what she is surprised at is the title the beaver bears.

[??? of the Five Blessed Forest Guardians, Level ???]

"Stranger, because you haven't made any aggressive moves, I will ask again rather than engaging in combat. You have trespassed on the territory of the Holy Oulvgar State, how did you get here?"

With her current situation, Claudia ignores the various remarks from her stream and says, "I'm sorry sir, I suddenly woke up in the forest didn't know where to go. I saw footprints and thought I might find someone if I followed them. I had no idea that this was a restricted area."

"Hmm… very well. Your explanation is dubious, but you don't seem like a threat. I will escort you out from the forest."

As the beaver beckons her to follow, Claudia sighs knowing her exploration is going to come to an end. But before they can take more than a couple of steps, someone calls out "Wait!"

Turning around, Claudia sees a tall woman with an unusual transparent tail that appears to have stars in it. Though it's hard to see what kind of clothing the woman is wearing underneath the white coat and mantle, Claudia can see that the general colour scheme is similar to her hair, black and white. However, Claudia's stream chat is focusing on something else.

<DAMN! Look at those jugs!>

<physics.exe has stopped responding>

<BONK, go to horny jail>

<@Blaze, I think you need to purge your chat, it's filled with pervs>

Seeing the reaction of her chat, Claudia can't help but facepalm at the way her chat is acting. This causes some confusion for the beaver, but he ignores her as he lowers his head to the woman who just appeared.

"Lady Astur, I am honoured to be in your presence. What can my humble self do for you?"

"I'll take care of her. Woody, you can return to patrolling the area." Having sent the beaver off, she turns her head to Claudia, "so what's with the facepalm?"

"It's nothing, I just remembered something stupid, that's all."

"Is that so, well I didn't care anyway. So, name?"

Claudia's eye twitches as she thinks, "then why did you ask?" then saying, "I'm Blaze, it's nice to meet you."

"Astur Kojuuin."

As Claudia extends her hand for a handshake she also uses the player's inspection skill to try and glimpse so extra information, although she doesn't have high hopes.

[Astur Kojuuin, Forest Goddess, Level ???]

Ignoring Claudia's hand, Astur turns around, saying, "follow me."

Although she's a little upset with Astur's attitude, Claudia doesn't make much of a fuss upon seeing a new quest pop up.

[Quest: Follow Me (Rank F)]

[Description]: You have piqued the interest of the Holy Oulvgar State's leader, the Forest Goddess Astur. Follow her and see what she wants.

[Rewards]: +1,000 EXP, +10 Intimacy Points with Astur Kojuuin, 1 random reward.

[Failure Penalty]: -20 Intimacy Points with Astur Kojuuin. (Applied upon quest rejection as well).

"So much exp for such a simple quest. I'd be a fool to pass up such an easy quest. Moreover, I might be able to learn more about the game's story if I follow her."

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