[F1-PP] The First Few Lessons Are Free [Completed]

[Beat 0]

Spoiler

<<The First Few Lessons Are Free>>

This quest takes place on Floor 1

This quest is not repeatable and is level restricted.

Background Information - An old NPC man, dubbed 'Zackariah, is in the Town of Beginnings. He plans on helping the new players of SAO by helping them understand the basic's of Sword Art Online.

Quest Objective
-Go fetch five(5) Tier one materials for Zakariah.
(Go into the wild an gain materials by rolling the LD, and tagging it to a post.)

-Help Zakariah in his workshop by crafting a Healing Potion.
(Roll the CD by tagging it to a post.)1-3 fail, try again|4-6 (Good Quality)|7-9(Rare Quality)|10-12(Perfect Quality)
[Zackariah will give players materials until they make a passable potion.] [Zackariah is kind hearted, and will not berate the player should they fail, merely try to talk them through to process and help them]

-Deliver a package to Lyle Tealeaf, a local Blacksmith

-The Blacksmith, Lyle Tealeaf, thanks you and pays you for your services. He offers you to one item in his shop.

 

Requirements:

-At least one [1] Pages (21 or more posts)
-Players can find Materials by rolling the LD(15+)
-Must RP traveling to and from Zackariah's place to Lyle's workshop
-Maximum Party size of 2.
-Cannot take if you are higher than level 15

Rewards:

1. Quest Starter will be rewarded the following items
   - 5 Tier One Health Potions of Uncommon Quality (+40HP)
   - 1 Tier One Damage Potion. (+1 Damage)
   -1 Tier One Over-Health Potion (+50 Temp. HP)

2. 2 Additional Skill Points

Parties of players are advised, and always advised. Bring friends! :D

Recommended Level: 1

 

Beat sorted through his menus as he waited for Shield to meet him in front of an apothecary shop titled 'Zackariah's'. It was a fairly average looking shop from the outside, though a variety of odd looking plants off various sizes grew out of a flower bed under the large, front window of the shop. Beat was making considerations as far as future gear builds, deciding what would be the best way to fulfill his role as DPS. He muttered to himself unconsciously as he scrolled through the menu, not really using the information it contained, but rather as something to keep his hands busy while he thought. 

"There are quite a few options, but this seems to be the most effective unless..."

People passed him on the cobblestone street without a second thought, his mutterings not being too far from the norm in a place where the majority were fighting for their lives everyday. The pressure often drove people crazy, though in Beat's case, he just couldn't sit still and think at the same time. 

 

 

Edited January 16, 2017 by Beat

[Shield 0]

"Beat!" Shield called out for the third time. "Stop fiddling with your menus! We're burning daylight."

Between shooting up a few levels and the bright, shiny shield that he had strapped to his arm, the player before Beat looked like a completely new person. His shoulders, while no more broad than they had been at the end of their last quest, were back and relaxed, and his head was perched more erectly above his shoulders. Despite having to shout to get Beat's attention, his features could not have been more at ease.

"So what's the plan from here? You're the one who found the quest. You said we'd mainly be searching for materials, right?"

It was an odd thing, just rummaging around until arbitrary items plopped down into existence in front of you, but it beat having to farm for dozens of different types of plants and roots and berries and ores. It was a simple innovation that perhaps broke the immersion of the game, but it saved players from likely days on end of grinding for just the right items.

[Beat 0]

"AH!" 

Having been startled by Shield's outburst, he took a few steps backwards, straight in the strange assortment of plants at the front of the shop. The plants took offense and quickly began to wrap their tentacles around Beat. 

"What the? Get off me!" 

Beat flailed to wrench himself free, and to his satisfaction, the vines quickly let go, satisfied that he was not someone attempting to attack them. Beat glared at the plants for a moment before looking at Shield, an indignant expression on his face. Before he could scold his partner, however, he stopped to admire the new shield they had recently found on floor five. He smiled and gave a whistle of approval as he forgot his frustration. 

"That shield is looking nice! Anyways, the old man in here wants us to go outside the city and farm materials. You've already got the quest too, so I say we gets this over with." 

Farming mats outside of combat was easily Beats least favorite thing to do. To him, it ruined the immersion factor of the game, but since the game was now real life basically, he saw no reason to not earn an easy skill point or two. When they reached the fields outside of the city, Beat quickly went to work, wanting to spend as little time as possible on this quest. 

"Okay, let's get this over with."

To Beat's dismay, he was not able to find anything in the initial area where they had begun their search. 

"Pfft figures..."

 

ID #74334: LD- 7 = no mats

 

Edited January 15, 2017 by Beat

[Shield 0]

Spoiler

74335 results:

 Loot: 19 = +1 Mat [1/5]

Following closely after his companion, Shield trotted contentedly along. The familiar weight of a real piece of defensive equipment had a visible effect on his gait. His feet almost seemed to have a little more pick-me-up. As they arrived on the outskirts of town, he set to work along-side Beat, using his spear to part the brush that dotted the edges of the clearing.

As he pulled one aside, a familiar sight met his eyes. A little piece of stone, stained a deep red in places, like a lump of iron ore. It was odd that all of the materials that he found looked this way, and yet Beat's seemed to be more like the supplies of a tailor, which he knew to be one of Beat's potential professions of choice in the game.

It's all just ones and zeros that our brains interpret, I suppose. I could be that the materials take on whatever form you consider most essential to whatever your line of work is, or a player's archetype of a craft material.

He tapped the stone with the tip of his spear, the tip of which rang out sharply. He bent down to retrieve his spoils, adding it to his inventory.

Edited January 15, 2017 by Shield

[Beat 0]

ID # 74336: LD- 15 = mats!

"Okay, well let's keep an eye out for spawns. It's floor one, so if something does spawn, it shouldn't be a problem, but you never know." 

Though combat would be preferable to this chore...

Beat's only way to maintain his patience during tasks like these was to either play music or complain endlessly about it. He had learned how to keep it down to a mutter, at least for a while, so Shield was spared the gripe-fest that was Beat's farming woes rant, for now at least. Beat was managing to amuse himself by mocking the quest in song. 

"Oh this quest is dumb. This quest is dumb. Oh this quest, oh this quest, oh this quest is dumb." 

to his surprise, he found one of the herbs the quest said would qualify and quickly snatched it up, the quest progress counter in his menu indicating that he had indeed made progress. 

"Only four more to go...."

Edited January 15, 2017 by Beat

[Shield 0]

Spoiler

74337 results:

 Loot: 19 = +1 Material [2/5]

Shield's eyebrow twitched.

He's singing about what he's doing again. It's not like I didn't have to endure enough of his 'dividing up our loot' song after that last quest... Seriously, I think he's too used to living his life with headphones on...

The parting motions he had been making with the butt of his spear quickly became short, pointed jabs with the tip, glancing very quickly behind the foliage before letting it flick back into place with a snap.

Seriously... does he not think we can hear him?

With his next jab, before he could pull aside the greenery, there came another sharp clink of metal on stone. Sure enough, just behind the undergrowth was another piece of ore, or at least what his mind perceived as ore.

I would say something to Beat about how maybe this quest isn't as dumb as his song suggests, but...

He glanced over at his companion and sighed.

He just looks like he's having so much fun with it. Besides, I don't want to jinx our luck. If his enthusiasm is any indicator, he's having some good luck as well.

Edited January 15, 2017 by Shield

[Beat 0]

ID # 74338: LD-20= mats!

Beat continued to mock the quest in his own, unique style: butchering songs from the real world and spinning them to tune of "this quest sucks..." A few verses later, Beat could be heard singing actual lyrics from real songs that just happened to suit his purposes of mocking the quest. 

"I tried so hard and got so faaaar, but in the end, it doesn't even maaaaatter!" 

By this point, Beat had lost himself in his singing, though he remembered to stay focused enough to keep his eyes peeled for the herbs that would end his 'suffering'. He turned on his heel at the end of a verse and managed to catch sight of another herb. He swooped down and plucked it from the ground, added to his inventory and went along, through the field. His eye were peeled for his targets as he actually quieted down, the present drop rate satiating him somewhat. 

 

2/5 mats collected

Edited January 15, 2017 by Beat

[Shield 0]

Spoiler

74339 results:

 Loot: 6 = No Mats

...Really?

With the full-on concert raging on behind him, it became much more difficult for Shield to focus on the task at hand, and he found himself having to stop and go back over the same stretches of brush several times because he wasn't really paying attention to what his eyes were doing. With a heavy sigh, he cleared his throat.

"Ahem. Hem! AHEM!"

Beat seemed to be quieting down, but he had a bad feeling that it had nothing to do with his polite attempts to request silence.

As long as it gets me a few minutes of peace...

Despite being able to focus a little easier, Shield was still not turning up any new pieces of material. He straightened up and stretched his neck from one side to the other, taking a few steps to the side and searching in a new section of tall grass.

Maybe this quest IS dumb...

Edited January 15, 2017 by Shield

[Beat 0]

ID # 74340: LD-18=mats!

Beat was now humming to himself, actually beginning to not mind the simple task of plucking up herbs and delivering them for a reward. He had forgotten what low level quests were like and was a little surprised at how much he didn't mind them. To be fair, they were appropriate for his level, so it wasn't like he was max level, cleaning up quests he had missed for lack of better things to do. Shield and Beat had left Crossreign due to lack of interest, but that was after they had done everything there was to do in the game. Beat changed his song again. 

"I'm bad! I'm bad! You know! ya know!" 

Spotting yet another herb, Beat performed a front flip, grabbing the herb in the middle of his rotation. He opened up the menu once again and placed the item inside for safe keeping. He only hoped his luck would hold out, though he was slightly disappointed that he wasn't getting to sing his tunes of mockery. 

 

3/5 mats

Edited January 15, 2017 by Beat

[Shield 0]

Spoiler

74341 results:

 Loot: 4 = No Mats

Shield's concentration was gone. At this point, he was more or less just making lines in the longer patches of grass with his spear.

This quest is dumb. This quest is definitely, definitely dumb.

As Beat hit shuffle in the playlist of his brain, the spear in Shield's hand continued to butcher the grass in front of him.

Just three more... Just three more materials and I can wander as far away from him as I want... But how am I supposed to concentrate on searching with that racket?

He decided to switch tactics, attempting to distract Beat to keep the constant elevator music in his brain from playing.

"Hey, Beat! Have you ever thought about how our hair and nails are still growing in the real world? Our appearance in game doesn't change because it was all based off of input from our original registration pat-down, but from there, we look less and less like ourselves every day."

Edited January 15, 2017 by Shield

[Beat 0]

Id # 74342: LD-1 = miss

His mood much improved, Beat began to dance a little bit. It was mostly just random movements that he put to whatever song was in his head, but he was making good headway on something he was sure he would hate, so it made this stroke of luck feel even better. As he continued to hum to himself, he circled Shield, his singing stopping as his comrade asked him a bit of a philosophical question. 

"Hmm...that's a good question...I guess we'll be pretty gross if we ever manage to get out of here."

He would hardly have time to wait for a response as he spotted another item. He walked towards it at a leisurely pace and as he got near it, another player walked by and snatched it up right in front of him. Beat's singing stopped and a vein began to rise from his forehead as he went to chase the other player down. He ran after the player at full speed, gaining zero ground, but managing to keep pace well enough.

"Get back here!!!"

Edited January 15, 2017 by Beat

[Shield 0]

Spoiler

74343 results:

 Loot: 15 = +1 Material [3/5]

With a start, Shield's spear clanged against another bit of stone. Pulling aside the blades of grass, he found yet another chunk of ore awaiting his eyes.

"Well, to answer your question, I just found number thr-"

But before he could even get out the words, Beat was off, chasing after someone else. The resounding silence that began to settle in as the footsteps trailed off in the distance was sheer bliss.

Thank. God.

With a heave of his breath, Shield retrieved and stored the new material. He set about slowly sweeping his spear's butt end along the ground, favoring areas where there was more growth on the ground. That seemed to have paid off the best for him so far, so we was going to stick to what worked.

Let's get as much done as we can before the human jukebox returns...

He took slow, purposeful steps as he worked his way along the edge of the clearing, using his spear almost the same way people used metal detectors on the beach, carefully sensing for something valuable and listening for a sound to indicate success.

Edited January 15, 2017 by Shield

[Beat 0]

ID # 74344: LD- 3= no mats

Beat's chest heaved as he chased the player across the first floor, his fists ready to dish out some punishment. He wasn't one to PK when lives were on the line, but he was going to make sure that this guy got what was coming to him. He smiled evilly as he wondered if the player had more than the one he had snatched from Beat. Further and further they ran, his own stamina surprising him as they neared the lake. To Beat's amazement, the player leaped into the lake and began to try to swim away. Stubborn and angry, Beat gave chase and followed suit, leaping in with no regard to the dangers that could lurk within the lake's dark waters. He yelled at the thief as he used the best breast stroke he could muster to try to gain distance on his target. 

"I'll...catch you...eventually. Might as well...give up now!" 

Edited January 15, 2017 by Beat

[Shield 0]

Spoiler

74345 results:

 Loot: 1 = No Mats

Rocking from foot to foot, Shield fell into a rhythm. Unlike Beat, however, this rhythm didn't connect to an internal oldies radio. As he swayed back and forth, he was no longer holding his spear. His first daughter was an infant in his arms again, and he was slowly rocking her to sleep. His heartbeat slowed inside of his chest to that slow resonant pulse that all parents have found while engaging in that same activity.

All parents... all people across all cultures for that matter... have the same instinct. Put a baby in their arms, and they start to sway... it's almost like it's bred into our DNA moreso than taught...

Then, abruptly, there was a hunk of hot metal and plastic crashing into his jaw, searing and cutting his skin. He was not aware of wandering down into those memories, but as they came crashing down onto him, he stumbled, catching himself by holding onto his spear like a crutch. Steadying himself, he slowly regained his feet, staring down at the ground as he tried to tuck those memories back down where they belong.

In all of that, he had completely forgotten his quest. Shield shook his head and returned to his same searching pattern of sweeping his spear along the ground.

God, I hope they're okay...

Edited January 15, 2017 by Shield

[Beat 0]

ID # 74346: LD-19= mats! 4/5

Having traversed the lake, the two players were now circling the lake at top speed, somehow ignoring the fatigue in their legs. If Beat had been able to think of anything of than catching his prey, he might have thought of the fact that virtual muscles did not necessarily have virtual fatigue and anything he felt was likely just a figment of his preconceptions from reality. Beat's eyes opened wide as he finally got his chance. The player running from him stumbled on a sinkhole, giving him the opportunity he needed to kick in the afterburners and pounce. 

"You're miiiiine!!!" 

He landed harshly on the player, straddling him him and glaring into his eyes. The player was a young man who was clearly exhausted after running at top speed for 10 minutes. Beat held his hand out. 

"Give. Me. My. Herb." 

The player gasped for breath as he opened his menu and reluctantly gave Beat the herb he so desired. Beat added it to his inventory and stood up. He turned back to where Shield was and began walking.

"Thank you."

 

 

Edited January 15, 2017 by Beat

[Shield 0]

Spoiler

74347 results:

 Loot: 19 = +1 Material [4/5]

His focus redoubled after his unwitting stroll, or rather crash, down memory lane, Shield pressed more firmly with the end of his weapon, using it as more of a rake than a broom. As he did so, he felt more in touch with the ground as he passed the makeshift searching instrument back and forth. As he passed over one patch of ground, he felt a snag, and he stopped.

It took a few more passes, but he found the snag again, almost as if a small piece of something hard was jutting up from the ground. He got down onto his knees and parted the grass. Sure enough, there was yet another red-stained rock, or the very iceberg-like tip of one at least. Standing back up and turning his weapon around, he dug the tip into the earth just an inch away from his target. With a downward wrench, he prized the little nugget out of the ground, which turned over on the dirt with a soft 'flump.'

I don't know how well Beat is faring, but I'm not doing half bad. I wonder if this region spawns better drops at certain times of day. It certainly seems to be generous at the moment.

He reached down and picked up the stone, tossing it up and catching it midair as he straightened back up. With a few rapid taps, it was safely stowed away with the others.

Edited January 15, 2017 by Shield

[Beat 0]

ID # 74364: LD-9 = no mats [4/5]

Beat slowly made his way back, wondering if he should have extorted the player for more. He shook his head to remove the thought from his mind, not wanting to even traverse that train of thought. It wasn't that he hadn't used his influence in Crossreign to get what he wanted from time to time, but Crossreign was merely a game and only a game. The only consequence for bullying someone in that game was that they might track you down with their friends and try to exact revenge. Making people angry at you wasn't a bad way to find something to do in that game once you hit the top. Seeing who could possibly take you down was the only real challenge left after a certain point. 

Not here...

In Sword Art Online, the consequences were much more dire and Beat knew that even if did reach the top somehow, he would never let the power corrupt him into someone who would willingly toy with people's lives for his personal gain. 

Edited January 15, 2017 by Beat

[Beat 0]

.....I made a new post instead of editing the original I made for the roll....again! I swear I will slow down. I really apologize for this. Post above is the correct post and this post will not count towards the post count. 

Edited January 15, 2017 by Beat

[Shield 0]

Spoiler

74365 results:

 Loot: 6

Beat was still nowhere to be found. While before this had been a pleasant change of pace, after his little ordeal, Shield would have been glad for some company. Even some singing for that matter. He let his spear arm rest by his side, and he made his way over to a nearby tree beyond the edge of the clearing. Slumping against it, he slid down to the ground, contenting himself to search through the grass around the base.

I don't know if this is going to register as a valid portion of the clearing, but I can stand a bit of a breather either way.

His fingers combed through the thick tufts of grass absentmindedly as he tried to avoid more memories. Even this motion was reminiscent of the memories he had of combing through his daughter's hair, helping her get ready for her first day of school.

What is WITH me today?

Edited January 15, 2017 by Shield

[Beat 0]

ID # 74366: LD-13= no mats [4/5]

The walk back was long, but it gave Beat time to reflect, another thing thing he didn't normally too very often. Normally he was busy trying to accomplish something before he absolutely had to go to bed or one of the other various responsibilities he couldn't completely retreat from in the real world. Sword Art Online had slowly begun to make him consider things he hadn't really thought of before. It was probably due to his virtual life still being a false extension of his real life, despite his attempts to escape it as much as possible. Now, this virtual life was as real as his real one with the same sort of consequences for mistakes and failures. They were likely going to be here for a long time and making a bad reputation for yourself would only make your life harder or, worse yet, killed. 

The frontlines are where I'm going, for sure, but I totally get why some people never leave the city...

Edited January 15, 2017 by Beat