[SP-F1] <<The First Few Lessons Are Free>>

[Rinne 0]

The first floor had always felt a bit depressing. Before the disappearance of the log-out button, before the VRMMORPG turned into a death game, and before everything else that came after it was a bright and happy place. Smiles everywhere. Players socializing with each other and starting to form parties. A small crowd forming around two players engaged in a duel in the plaza and cheering them on. Some players even approached her, despite her cold demeanor, and asked her to join their guild. Normally, she would have denied their offer and gone off to level up on her own, but almost without thinking, she tapped 'Accept'. Before everything, she felt almost...happy.

Her silvery blue eyes narrowed. But look at it now. People still smiled, but they cried even more often. Duels were bloodier, and rumors of safe-zone PKers killing people in their sleep via Full Loss Duels were widespread. The plaza she was passing through was deserted, aside from a small group of three players who were making up last-minute plans before going on a dangerous quest. The guild she had previously joined dissolved a few days after the death game announcement. Presumably because the guild leader, along with some valuable guild members, died while attempting a field boss that was too high-leveled for them. Not that she cared. They were fools for rushing things.

She stopped, briefly. In front of her was the very bench she had sat on when the friendly players had approached her and invited her to their guild. She closed her eyes. Breathed out. No use in reminiscing. It's over, and there's nothing I can do about it. Unlike them, she would take things slowly. She decided to avoid combat, even though her two-handed assault spear skill dealt a lot of damage. There was always the problem of her low HP and her lack of EVA and MIT stats. She spent the past few weeks gathering information on the various quests found in Floor 1. There were many newb-friendly quests, however most of them involved combat, and unless she would get herself a decent teammate, there was no way she was attempting that with such a low level. Which brings her...here. The young woman stopped in front of a small wooden house with circular windows and checked her map to see if she got the place right. Sure enough, the unaccepted quest marker lied in the house right in front of her. She tucked a few locks of blue hair behind her ear. "So do I just knock...?" But why was she worrying about pleasantries anyway? It was just an NPC. Shaking her head, she raised her hand, gave three sharp knocks to the door, and let herself in. "Hellooooo. Is Zackariah here?"

Spoiler

Current Stats

Level 1
20 HP
2 Energy
4 Damage
2 Accuracy

Equipped

• Starter Assault Spear (+2 ACC)
•  Starter Light Armor (vanity, no enhancements)

Battle Ready Inventory

• 3 Starter Healing Potions (Heals 50 HP)

Skills

• 2H Assault Spear [Rank 1] -- +3 DMG, Access to Rank 1 Sword Arts

Known Sword Arts

Spoiler

2H Assault Spear

Rank 1

• [x1 AoE] Sonic Charge (2 Energy) - A forward thrust which explodes energy at the end of the move.
• [x2 Stun] Twin Thrust (5 Energy) - A pair of quick thrusts aimed at the user's knees to immobilize them.
• [x2] Heft (2 Energy) - Lift the heavy end of the spear diagonally across your opponent from the ground, cutting their torso with the tip.

[Rinne 0]

Upon hearing her previous inquiry, the quest NPC looked up from the green chemical mixture that he was brewing and gave her a benevolent smile. (The stereotypical old white-haired mentor character with a long beard, thought Rinne as she gave the NPC a quick once-over). "Yes, I am Zackariah. Are you here for one of my lessons?" he asked her. All the while, a friendly smile remained on the NPC's face. It was starting to get a bit annoying. How could someone smile for so long, anyway? Don't their cheeks start to hurt or something? She was beginning to think that he was faking it. Oh wait...

A pop-up message appeared in front of the player, prompting her to accept or decline the quest. Rinne tapped accept and looked back up at the NPC impatiently. "Yes, I am. So how do I start?"

Zackariah, now following his scripted dialogue replied: "Start by collecting five <<Red Herbs>> from the fields outside the Town of Beginnings. You can learn more about non-combat gathering through the third section of the manual provided to you in your inventory. Additionally, the suggested spots to find <<Red Herbs>> have been marked on your map. Most of these places do not have any mobs in them, so you can avoid combat if you wish. Once you have all five materials, come back here and I will teach you the basics of crafting."

Rinne nodded, mentally repeating the information to herself a few times in order to remember it, and left the house with a curt "I'll be back later."

[Rinne 0]

While making her way towards the gates, Rinne brought up the menu interface and opened her map. Sure enough, the recommended spots Zackariah the NPC was talking about were highlighted in red, a clear contrast against the map's grey background. Her gaze rested on one of the highlighted spots, the one nearest the town gates. "Maybe around four meters northwest," she mumbled to herself. She repeated the information in her mind once again before dismissing the map and quickening her pace.

Now that it was a bit later into the day, more players were outside. They weren't wearing any enhanced armor, instead choosing to stay in casual vanity wear, and the younger players quickly stepped out of the way as she passed by without her even prompting them to do so. Most of them were conversing with each other, exchanging the latest rumors about the frontliners, some casualties and conflicts in the higher floors, and the alleged new PK guild that was going around and eliminating high-level players. Same old news, she thought to herself with a sigh. There was always disorder up in the higher floors, for some reason. But then again, there's disorder in the lower floors too, she thought as she passed two low-leveled players who were arguing over a quest drop. Same old players repeating the same old gossips. Would they ever summon the resolve to go up to the higher floors instead of spending their days in pointless recreation? She quickened her pace even more. People have grown idle, believing that the frontliners would save them all. She wasn't going to be among them.

The player reached the town gates, absentmindedly nodded to the gate guards as they looked at her (probably checking if she was an orange player), and equipped her spear. She wasn't going to willfully engage in combat, no matter how much she wanted to, but she'll be ready if she would accidentally aggro a mob. As she walked, she entertained herself with her own thoughts while taking care to not walk too close to a mob (they wouldn't attack her, but they still made her a bit paranoid), and periodically checked her map to see if she was walking in the right direction.

Before she knew it, she found herself inside one of the recommended areas. She tugged her sleeves partway back up to her elbows and started looking for <<Red Herbs>>.

[Rinne 0]

Rinne considered herself quite lucky. At her first search, she was able to find a small patch of red herbs planted beneath a big tree. It wasn't much, but it was a good start. She knelt down in front of the herbs, taking care that the edges of her black skirt didn't brush against the ground, and hesitated. Right, to gather herbs, I would have to touch the soil, something that many players have probably stepped on lots of times already, and as a result of that, it could have lots of bacteria... she squashed those thoughts before they could proceed any further. She was going to level up today, no matter what it takes. And did things such as germs apply to VRMMOs, anyway?

The blue-haired player gently uprooted the herbs from the soil. Zackariah didn't tell her which part she should get, so she decided to take the whole plant, along with the roots, for extra assurance. Some of the dirt clung to her fingers, and she found herself wishing she brought gloves. Dirty work had never been her thing.

Spoiler

ID: 90566  |  LD: 11 (success!)

1/5 Quest Materials Gathered

 

Edited November 11, 2017 by Rinne

[Rinne 0]

Rinne grimaced as she flicked a worm away and successfully uprooted another herb. She held it up for a few moments, admiring the detail the gamemaker had placed into even the smallest things. She could even see the veins on the herb's red leaves. It shimmered and disappeared as she placed it into her inventory. Hopefully, when she takes it out later, it would be free of dirt and worms.

Normally, she would be asking her classmates to do the dirty work for her, but none of them were present so she had to do it all by herself. But at the same time, she appreciated being completely alone. There were no other players around, no one to bother her, which enabled her to fully appreciate the game's audio and visual effects. Occasionally, the wind would blow through the leaves of the tree she was sitting under, and a few birds would chirp. I wonder how things would've gone if someone went with me, she thought. Most probably, she would be silently cursing them by now.

Spoiler

ID: 90650  |  LD: 14 (success!)

2/5 Quest Materials Gathered

Edited November 11, 2017 by Rinne

[Rinne 0]

For a few seconds, her concentration unintentionally waned and she found herself pulling too hard on the thin-stemmed herb. The stem snapped and the 'material' she was holding shattered into pixels. "Oh, crap," Rinne hissed, snapping out of her thoughts. She quickly opened her inventory and checked the number of materials she was holding. Sure enough, there were only two <<Red Herbs>> inside. "Whyyy?" she groaned, dismissing her inventory. Then she looked around to see if there were any players who witnessed her failure. Failing to find materials wasn't very embarrassing, per se, but she hated making mistakes while being watched by others. Which  brings back a certain memory of--

That was the last of the herbs she had found in the patch. With a sigh of defeat, Rinne stood up and moved away from the comfortable shade of the big tree. Guess it's time to look for another patch...

Spoiler

ID: 90651  |  LD: 1 (fail!)

2/5 Quest Materials Gathered

 

Edited November 12, 2017 by Rinne

[Rinne 0]

Thankfully, she found another patch of <<Red Herbs>> not too far from where she previously gathered materials. It was significantly bigger than the previous patch, so she expected to get more materials out of it. The only disadvantage was that the patch wasn't located under the comfortable shade of the big tree. It was in the middle of a field with no other trees nearby, to be exact. She would be spending a long time underneath the heat of the morning sun. Well, I guess you can't have your cake and eat it too. 

Kneeling down in front of a small clump of herbs, she went straight to work, gently pulling the small plants from their grip on the soil and laying the plants down on the ground beside her. Once she had gotten enough, the materials shimmered as they disappeared into her inventory. Three down, two more to go.

Spoiler

ID: 90693  |  LD: 13 (success!)

3/5 Quest Materials Gathered

 

Edited November 13, 2017 by Rinne

[Rinne 0]

Gathering herbs in the middle of an open meadow with no cover in sight made her feel vulnerable. Like some dangerous mob would emerge from behind a group of trees, notice her because she was standing out amidst the fields of green grass, and start chasing her down. Her anxiety was justified, since she was always the type who would stay in the shadows and blend into a crowd (it was difficult because of her obnoxious hair color, but she managed somehow. People were always looking for other people who weren't her, and their eyes would simply rest on her for a bit before they resumed their search). And it definitely didn't help that the meadow reminded her of a certain scene in a children's film featuring a fawn who lost his mother to a hunter.

Seeing the rest of the herbs brought Rinne out of her thoughts. Most, if not all, had big holes on their leaves, and were basically unusable. She closely examined another patch of herbs, and finding that they all had the same problem, she stood up. So much for a big patch... 

Spoiler

ID: 90736  |  LD: 6 (fail)

3/5 Quest Materials Gathered

 

Edited November 13, 2017 by Rinne

[Rinne 0]

Since there was nothing else to salvage from the last herb patch she had found, Rinne wandered around the area aimlessly, keeping an eye out for splashes of red against the green grass. It should be easy to find some, since the two colors contrasted naturally, but a minute of circling the area with no successful results proved otherwise. She paused in her search and rubbed her eyes. Then she went around the area again carefully scrutinizing every spot of grass. She can't possibly fail two times in a row, right?

Wrong. After another unsuccessful round of searching, the player finally decided to give up. She rested underneath the shade of the big tree for a few moments and checked her quest objective. 3 out of 5, and she'd already exhausted all the materials in the area. She had to move to another one of those recommended spots with the hope that they would be much more abundant in berries than this one. The blue-haired player closed her menu interface with a sigh. Who knew searching for materials would be so hard?

Spoiler

ID: 90780  |  LD: 9 (fail)

3/5 Quest Materials Gathered

 

Edited November 14, 2017 by Rinne

[Rinne 0]

It took Rinne only a few minutes to reach the next area, and the short walk was fairly uneventful. She passed by a few players (some of them were friendly and waved to the lone player as she walked past them, most were too absorbed in their quest to even notice her), and a small group of three medium-sized boars. As she walked past, all three looked up at her and watched her with their small boar eyes, and she was sure they were all about to attack her, when one of them snorted and continued chewing on grass. The other two followed, ultimately deciding to ignore her. Smart decision.

She arrived at her destination, and set to work. After a moment of searching, she found a familiar patch of herbs and grinning victoriously to herself, she walked up to it and started gathering materials. Third time's the charm, as they say.

Spoiler

ID: 90785  |  LD: 12 (success)

4/5 Quest Materials Gathered

 

Edited November 14, 2017 by Rinne

[Rinne 0]

One more quest material, and she was getting out of here. Just one more, and she'll be able to finish this boring quest. She blew a few locks of blue hair out of her face with a puff and reached towards the herbs. With immense concentration, she went through the delicate process of uprooting the <<Red Herbs>> for what would hopefully be her last time. Please don't fail, please don't fail, please don't fail... After a few tense moments, she managed to uproot the herb. Yes! Rinne quickly deposited it into her inventory, then opened her quest objective, finally seeing the check mark after what had seemed like ages. (Well, actually, she just spent about half an hour gathering materials, but it felt way longer than that). 

She stood up and stretched, relishing in her small victory. Maybe after this, she could proceed to one of the more exciting quests. Like something that involved combat.

Spoiler

ID: 90787  |  LD: 18 (success)

5/5 Quest Materials Gathered

 

Edited November 15, 2017 by Rinne