[SP-F2] Time to be a real cook. (Adhaerere) COMPLETED

[Adhaerere 0]

 It had been a few days since Adhae had achieved her profession as a Cook. She was more than excited to start baking, and had the appropriate tools to do so now. All that she needed was food to actually cook with, and recipes. She had set out to find some of these things on Floor 2, searching for the area called 'High Fields of Crossing,' which she was told had a lot of plants and foods to pick. She assumed it would be a little difficult to find the things she needed, but she would honestly take anything at this point. Her shop was yet to be created, but she wanted to have the best quality items to use in the place she would probably spend a lot of time in. Her main goal was to master her craft and become the best Cook in the whole game. She knew this was a big goal, but why not shoot for the stars, eh? 

Edited August 24, 2016 by Adhaerere

[Adhaerere 0]

Adhae had been walking through the wooded areas of Floor 2 alone, following the main paths and planning to run from any monster that would try to attack her, if any did. Thankfully, she didn't find anything on her way. What she did find was the High Fields of Crossing.  

 She took one step out of the trees, and there it was. She had noticed the incline in her steps as she kept on the path, but her destination was now clear. She was on the top of a mountain, one with a very flat top. Off to her left, she could see over the edge of the mountain, the blue sky clear overhead and the forest stretching for as far as she could see. With the sun crawling down the sky to rest on the horizon, the sight really was beautiful. She took a few moments just looking at the rolling expanses of forests before she looked at the mountain she was currently standing on. 

 It was flat for sure, but it wasn't completely clear. All around, there were patches of green and some spotted trees around. She could spot some benches scattered around the area, and some paths upon closer inspection. She could see movement along those paths, usually in pairs of two. She walked up to one of the benches, and found a lot of things carved into it; "M+L", "H+K", etc, each one encircled with a heart. Oh. It was SAO's very own Makeout Point. 

[Adhaerere 0]

 She groaned inwardly, not looking forward to encountering any couples here. She'd feel like she was intruding on their private time (which she would be). It would be awkward for all parties involved. Moving away from the bench, she resolved to let herself only stay within the patches of greenery, not traversing onto any paths which would hold people. This in mind, she set her shoulders and walked off towards a patch of green, bending down to look through it. 

ID: 62380
LD: 12

 Sadly, she didn't find anything in this patch of greenery. It was all some fern that she'd never seen before, and probably couldn't ever identify. She shrugged inwardly. It was probably something created by the gamemakers, not a real-life plant. And it wasn't something to fret about either. 

[Adhaerere 0]

 It took some effort to stand up, due to the weight of her armour. She groaned as she stood, using her hands on her knees to push her upper body up. That was annoying. She started walking towards another patch of green, making sure to keep an eye out for anyone else who was in the vicinity. She really did not want to encounter one of those couples. She'd probably start fawning over them and making motherly cooing noises. No thank you. 

ID: #62382
LD: 20

 She reached the other spot, and bent down to look through it. From the tops of the plants, she could see... It was carrots! She quickly searched through for the tallest and greenest one, and dug around to pull the plant up. It certainly was a carrot, alright. And a nice one too. 

+1 Material

Edited June 28, 2016 by Adhaerere

[Adhaerere 0]

Alright, there was time for more looking in this area. She crawled around, looking for more carrots and maybe some other plants in the area. 

ID: #62384
LD: 20

Ah-ha! There were a few more, thankfully. This was a lot easier than she had thought. She assumed it would involve some more RNG. Or maybe there was some happening when she harvested the plants that she didn't know about. Hmm. An interesting thought. What really was going on underneath her fingers? 

 She pulled the carrots out of the ground until she'd decided that she'd found a suitable bunch. She had the one big one from before, and a few smaller ones. Now it was time to get up and look for something else. 

+1 Material

[Adhaerere 0]

 She shoved them into her inventory, making sure they were safely stowed away in order to be able to look for some more things. She tried standing up again, but had even more trouble. She had bent over in such a way that her armour had begun to slide down over her head. Her hair was in her face too. She eventually got up again, slightly red in the face with her hair all in tangles everywhere. She grumbled to herself about how that would be annoying to fix, and angrily put it in her inventory. Adhae wins this time, Luster!

 Adhae realized she had just been having a mental conversation with her chestplate. She stood still for a second, thinking over her life choices, before she moved on to a new patch of green. 

ID: #62444
LD: 2

She crouched down on her knees to search through the green stalks springing upwards with so much potential. She found a good-looking one, and gripped it firmly by the base, and then pulled upward. What she revealed was a round thing, white, with... A ton of bugs inside it. She flung it away from her, curling her lip in disgust as the maggots fell onto the ground. Disgusting. 

[Adhaerere 0]

Finding it was much easier to maneuver without the armour weighing her down, she spent another few minutes scanning the crop of what seemed to be onions. She really wanted a fresh one, but hadn't had much luck yet. She remembered onions to give a nice flavour to any food she'd made at home, when she actually got around to cooking for herself. 

ID: #62468
LD: 4

Again, she had no luck. She'd pulled up another onion with no success; this one was as riddled with worms as the last one. She gave a sigh, assuming this patch was only filled with the bad onions. She gave up and stood, brushing off her dirty knees and calves. 

 

[Adhaerere 0]

She gave up looking for onions.

 As she stood up, she noticed that there was a pair of young people walking down a path that would end up near where she was standing. She had enough time to get a good look at them before feeling awkward enough to move away: One, the girl, was much shorter than the boy. Her hair was orange, something like Adhae's own hair, but it was short, only falling to her shoulders. Her wide blue eyes were cast downwards, a small smile on her face and a redness tinging her cheeks. She looked shy, and the boy looked happy; he umst have said something to make her blush. Now that she was looking at the boy, she could tell he was handsome, and almost as tall as her. Adhae grinned, reminded that her height was far superior to anyone who would dare compare themselves to her. 

 They were closer now, so Adhae scampered off towards another patch of growing foods. These ones huddled together in low clumps, and Adhae caught a flash of red from one of them. Strawberries. Smiling, she leaned down and picked a few, taking a good look at them before storing them away in her inventory. 

ID: #62514
LD: 17

 The ones she grabbed seemed to be in alright condition. This was lucky, based on the onions she had found before. 

+1 Material

[Adhaerere 0]

As she scavenged around for more strawberries, she thought some more about the couple that had passed her a few seconds ago. The boy had black and short hair once she thought about it, and eyes that were almost the same colour. They were a cute couple, and seemed to be around the age of 20. This sobered Adhae's mood; such young people trapped inside this world. 

ID: #62517
LD: 12

 She found some more strawberries, and this lightened her mood a little. But, a little green on the end caught her eye. No, it was yellow. Eugh, and there were bugs in there. She flung the fruit away, in a somber mood once again. 

Edited June 29, 2016 by Adhaerere

[Adhaerere 0]

She gave up looking for strawberries. 

 Honestly, her quest had been pointless. Fruitless. As Adhae realized what she had just thought, she had to cover her mouth to keep from laughing so hard as to disturb everyone in a one mile radius of her. Holy butts that was funny. Her shoulders heaved as she laughed silently, or as silently as she could. Her hand over her mouth helped a little, but she was laughing so hard she barely noticed. 

 She quieted eventually, and wiped the tears of laughter from her eyes. She looked down at the ground, and realized how silly her sullen mood had been. They could handle themselves. She walked over to one of the trees nearby her, and looked up through the branches to find some fruit. 

ID: #62519
LD: 6

 Sadly, on her first look through she didn't find anything. 

Edited June 29, 2016 by Adhaerere

[Adhaerere 0]

 As she continued looking, she saw a flash of orange in the tree. She immediately latched onto it, trying to find the thing. She walked around the base of the tree, and saw it pretty high up. She huffed, and took a look at the tree and the branches on it. Some of them looked sturdy enough to support her, and she had a lot less weight on her without her armour. Taking a deep breath, she grabbed onto the bottom branches and hoisted herself up onto one of them. She balanced precariously for a few seconds before regaining her balance. Her next step up took her close enough to find the orange flash she'd seen and grab it. As she plucked the orange and turned it over, she realized it too was rotten. She flung it to the ground and sighed, resolving to look further in the tree. She wouldn't give up!

ID: #62731
LD: 13

Edited July 1, 2016 by Adhaerere

[Adhaerere 0]

 Adhae climbed higher in the tree, and had the misfortune of looking down. She'd never been good with heights, and being up in this tree was no better. She nearly fell backwards out of it then, but scrabbled to hug one of the branches and recovered from her moment of heart-stopping panic. She must look absolutely ridiculous up here. A really tall girl clinging to a tree branch for dear life, all curled up in an effort to stay in the tree. She wasn't cut out for this.

 She did recover from it eventually, and straightened slowly, keeping both her hands on the branch. 

ID: #62735
LD: 10

 Still nothing. She couldn't find any more oranges in the tree, and furrowed her brow angrily. Mumbling to herself about how the game was unfair, she awkwardly made her way back down to solid ground, grateful for the feeling of her shoes on the dirt again. 

[Adhaerere 0]

 In frustration, she went around scuffing her feet along the dirt. She was reminded of a time when she was younger and her parents had made her go outside. It was a really hot day, and the sun was very bright. She didn't want to be out there, but her parents were "busy" and needed some time alone. So she had done just what she was doing now. She dragged her feet along the dirt, making random shapes in the dry backyard. Eventually it had turned into a game, and when her parents had her come back inside, she was more upset about not being able to be outside than having to go there in the first place. The childhood memories swam around her head as she walked around, giving small glances at the various bushes around her. 

ID: #62738
LD: 3

 She found nothing. She attributed it to her not looking very well. 

[Adhaerere 0]

 As she kept walking, she continued to look around the ground for different types of fruits. Maybe she'd find some root veggies too. Those were her favourite; she loved making rosemary potatoes and vegetable stir-fry and other yummy meals. She knew she couldn't make anything more than Snacks at the moment, but she could make potato chips maybe. Or package chopped carrots with some ranch dressing. How did you make ranch dressing, anyways?

ID: #62945
LD: 6

 As she thought about this, she accidentally walked into a bush. Not paying enough attention, she guessed. As she looked down at what blocked her, she saw a bunch of little black things on the ground. She bent down to look at him, and lo and behold, it was a blackberry bush. She began to pick up the berries, but found out that they were covered in mold with a misplaced finger. She quickly wiped it off on her pants and stood, shaking her head. "No damn fresh fruits in this damn area," she complained softly. 

[Adhaerere 0]

 Deciding to look further into the bush, she knelt down in the dirt and stuck her hand in the bush. What she had forgotten about blackberry bushes is they were spiny and barbed, with thorns dotting their branches. She winced and quickly pulled out her hand as a thorn scratched her, receiving even more tiny injuries as her abrupt movement jostled more thorns. She looked at her arm, which was now dotted and streaked with a pixelated red colour. She sighed, and saw a fraction of her health bar had fallen. Looking at the bush made her realize that the blackberries were on the surface as well as inside. She didn't need to reach inside the spiny ball of death that was the bush. 

ID: #62946
LD: 15

 She found quite a bit of nice and ripe blackberries, all of which she put safely into her inventory.

+1 Material

[Adhaerere 0]

 She stood up, feeling satisfied with the blackberries she'd picked from this side of the bush. Walking around to the other side, she knelt down and began looking through it. She leaned forward, looking at the top too, and eventually got brave enough to try to put her hand deeper into the brambles. As she did, she got a few more scratches, but nothing too horrible. As she did this, she leaned forwards more. 

ID: #62947
LD: 2

 She found nothing that was ripe, again. She groaned, not liking this process of finding some things and getting unlucky with others. As she thought this, she backed up from the bush angrily, but discovered that she was caught. Her long hair had become tangled in the thorny branches, and was now snared around a particularly thorny one. Great. 

[Adhaerere 0]

 Now she had to untangle it. This wouldn't be fun, seeing as her hair was thick enough to trap combs and falling leaves inside its depths. Her hands came up to try to pull at it gently, and she was left in this awkward balancing position on her knees, leaning over the thorny bush and trying to keep her balance enough to not fall into it. She spent a few minutes picking at her hair, and felt like she'd rather fall into the bush than keep trying to sit on her knees when she got it un-done. She quickly sat back, sighing in relief as she rested her legs.

ID: #62948
LD: 7

 She spent the next few minutes looking through the blackberry patch, and cursed when she didn't find anything good. "Literally nothing of value in this place," she grumbled.

[Adhaerere 0]

 It took her a while longer to untangle her hair even more, returning it to its previous state. She grumbled about it the whole way, and didn't notice when another couple walked by her. Only when she felt like eyes were on her did she turn her head and see them staring just for a second before they glanced away quickly. She stuck her tongue out at their backs, and went back to untangling her hair. 

 Sighing, she returned to her search. She went back to the orange tree and tried looking for another orange, and then went back to the carrot patch she had found before. She got on her knees and pushed through the green stalks again, but eventually gave up and sat back, finding nothing. She rubbed one hand over her face, unknowingly smearing some dirt over her chin as she did. 

ID: #62955
LD: 7

[Adhaerere 0]

 Adhae looked up at the sky. She let her head fall backwards onto her shoulders, the sudden strain on her neck causing her to wince just a little. As she rubbed the back of her neck to soothe it, she let herself think.

 Her time in Aincrad had been short. She'd met a few people, who would probably become her best friends during her further adventures in this land. Verus was her closest friend at the moment. He was a juvenile, funny kid who always made her smile by doing something stupid. A small grin pulled at her lips as she just thought of him. He really was like a young child that needed guidance. Adhae had felt her protective shield shift over to him as of late. That she was okay with; gladly would she spend most of her time with him. 

 While she thought, Adhae stood up and went to go search for plants again. 

ID: #66333
LD: 9

 Nothing. Yet again. Nothing. 

Edited August 23, 2016 by Adhaerere

[Adhaerere 0]

 "I wonder what his favourite food is..." she pondered aloud as she walked. He seemed like the kind of person who would like turkey a lot. She could imagine him biting into the giant leg of one, spraying juice all over his face. Smiling at the thought, it took a moment for her to realize where she'd walked to. She was at the edge of the mountain. The flat top of it only stretched so far. Below her, she could just barely see the tops of the trees through the mist that blanketed the ground. The sun was lower on the horizon now and sent an orange shock through the puffy clouds above her. She could pick out some pink as well. Standing there for a few minutes would be okay, right? She had nowhere to be...