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

[Calypso 0]

"What's on the agenda today, Danesh?" Callie reached up a hand to gently scratch and stroke at the short white fur of the small creature sitting atop her shoulders. Her fingertips passed over the rounded ivory horns that protruded from the ermine sky dragon's skull, lazily circling around the top of his head while Danesh's beady black eyes stared forward into the loose crowds of players populating the Town of Beginnings. Her familiar didn't so much as chitter in response, though she hadn't expected him to. Whether he was just a very quiet, reserved creature, or he simply did not have the capability to produce any sound, she hadn't heard anything out of him since their first meeting on the seventh floor. Considering her own disability until she had begun living in this game some months ago, however, she didn't mind his silence in the slightest. In fact, sometimes she rather preferred the understanding gaze that he sometimes offered her in communication.

[Calypso 0]

Getting no response of any kind out of the sedentary creature perched on her, however, Callie gave a small huff and uncrossed her legs. She picked herself up from the bench she was sitting on at the edge of one of the busier squares in the settlement and half-crossed her arms under her chest, loosely holding her elbows while she tried to come to a decision for the day's activities on her own. She would walk and think, long cerulean hair swaying gently behind her while Callie made her way through the winding streets of the city. She worked her way towards the shopping district that she had become so familiar with over the past months, the path very familiar to her by now. Danesh had lowered his head to lay more comfortably on his player, the feeling of carrying the lightweight creature on her shoulders no longer unusual for Callie.

[Calypso 0]

"Hestia mentioned her familiar was a 'protector' class. What does that make you, Dani?" Her nickname and gentle teasing elicited no response from the wingless dragon that practically appeared to be sleeping. She didn't have much of a reason or interest to do so, but she didn't even know if the creature was capable of participating in combat. Then again, she had hardly any combat experience with the claymore that rested in its sheathe at her hip herself, so who was she to talk? As she wandered the streets of the shopping district, her golden eyes traveled along the buildings and stalls, searching for anything that might catch her interest. "Perhaps just some more material gathering today?" She mumbled aloud, recalling that she hadn't taken the time to replenish her stock since she dropped off a couple of stacks of wildberries to that Cook girl on the north side a few days ago.

[Calypso 0]

Just as she was about to tune out the rest of the noise on the streets and head for the town gates, a voice paired with the wave of an elderly man caught her attention. The stranger stood staring right at her, holding onto the necks of two potion bottles in the opposite hand. Callie stopped, unintentionally disturbing her companion with the sudden rock of her shoulders as they came to a halt. She cocked a brow, clearly aware that the alchemist was trying to flag her down by how he held eye contact with her. Still, it was odd to see such an elderly figure in the shopping districts--or even in the game as a whole, now that she thought about it. 'Hell, I'm probably older than most of the kids running around here...' She thought, a slightly sour expression working its way over her features at how very true the thought might be.

Edited November 28, 2017 by Calypso

[Calypso 0]

It wasn't until she gave in to approaching the stranger that she realized it was not actually a player standing across from her now, but an NPC--and a quest-giver at that. Normally, she would have declined right away and moved on, hardly even stopping to entertain the interaction. Quests didn't interest her and she had no obligation to raise her level, but Zachariah's opening words managed to hold her attention. "Ahh, thank you, Miss. I've been looking for someone to help me out with some of these potions I'm working on." Experience and monster-slaying were far from her forte, but crafted items? She was willing to hear out the rest of these quest details before making her judgement. As she was still considered engaged with the NPC, he continued on. "Yes, I'm short a few herbs, and I could use a hand with finishing off some of these mixtures. What do you say? There will be a few extra potions I can pass your way if you'd help me out."

[Calypso 0]

Callie fixed her gaze onto the quest prompt window that appeared before her, as if examining the simple question written out above the two options to accept or decline on it while she mulled over whether or not she wanted to accept. "An easy gathering and crafting objective, huh?" She mused in a quiet voice, pulling a hand up to her chin to lightly tap the second knuckle of her index finger against it a couple of times. "I can't imagine whatever this gives is worth a whole lot..." A noticeable frown pulled down at the corners of her mouth and her head tilted an inch or so to one side as she continued to mumble to herself. "But, if I was just going to go looking for materials anyway..." Her hand pulled away from her chin and an outstretched finger pressed down on the blue-and-white circle to indicate she would accept the quest.

[Calypso 0]

"Might as well get something extra out of it, I suppose." She reasoned with herself. The NPC dubbed Zachariah that had been standing idly across from her while he waited for a response took on a kind smile of appreciation after the dialogue window disappeared from in front of the woman. "Thank you kindly, Miss." He bowed his head towards her before turning his attention back to the glass vials in his hands. "I'll be right here when you've gathered the right amount of herbs. Just go past the city gates and you can find all the ones you need. Oh, and be mindful of the boars, would you?" He offered a casual but polite warning that marked the end of his scripted dialogue. Callie was quick to turn and continue on her way towards the outskirts of town, turning her head to check on the lazing familiar still resting atop her avatar's shoulders.

Edited November 28, 2017 by Calypso

[Calypso 0]

The walk was as long as always, as the main settlement could hardly be called a 'town'. Even from the shopping district on the eastern side, it took her nearly ten minutes of walking for the city gates to come into view. Once there she pressed on, leaving the city the same as she would any other day that she dedicated to foraging. It was a rather boring practice, but it was one that kept her busy and helped her avoid the scornful brands she sometimes heard tossed around the lower floors where the underleveled players typically resided. 'Lazy', 'slacker', or even more extreme insults like one she recalled hearing in passing a few days prior: 'useless waste of pixels'. Callie couldn't help but let out a sigh as the memory resurfaced. "What would we do if we could just spend the days however we wanted, Danesh?"

ID#: 91322 | LD: 15 - Success (1/5)

Edited November 28, 2017 by Calypso

[Calypso 0]

She passed the question on to her silent familiar, who picked his head up and blinked his onyx eyes a couple of times as the rooftops no longer blocked the virtual sunlight from shining down on them. His small paws pressed against her shoulder and the back of her neck, and he gave a small shake that traveled along his cylindrical body similar to how a dog would shake off. The solid gray 'mane' that traveled along his spine seemed to become even more weightless than it had already looked, swaying gently through the air. After a couple of tiny steps, Danesh hopped from Callie's shoulders and his feet tucked in underneath his long body. The ermine dragon hovered and snaked slowly through the air, matching the pace of the woman beside him now that they were out in the open. Being some kind of dragon hybrid, it wasn't so strange that the creature was capable of flight.

ID#: 91323 | LD: 8 - Fail (1/5)

Edited November 28, 2017 by Calypso

[Calypso 0]

Perhaps it was simply a bit strange to watch as he seemed to be held aloft by nothing more than the game's coding. She cast a sideways glance towards the familiar. It almost felt unfitting to call him 'loyal'; ever since she had tamed the creature to fulfill the quest objective, she felt more like she had replaced the tree that she had originally spotted him napping on. Hestia had mentioned each creature having its own personality, and that it was important to try to understand them in order to form a more successful bond, or something along those lines. Repeating the sentiment in her head, Callie's brows knit together before she pulled her gaze away from Danesh. The small hybrid was either an incredibly simple creature, or more complex than she could currently understand. Despite all of their time together thus far, all she knew about the tiny dragon was that he was independent but obedient, clever, and was quite fond of naps.

ID#: 91324 | LD: 2 - Fail (1/5)

Edited November 28, 2017 by Calypso

[Calypso 0]

Nothing like the dragonling of Hestia's friend that she had described back when she offered her accompaniment on the quest. While Callie continued the repetitive cycle of searching the area for materials that could be gathered from the ground and other foliage that littered the plains of the first floor, a trio of players stood in the distance, outside of earshot from the cerulean-haired woman. "That's her?" One player with very short, unkempt blonde hair held a straight sword in one hand, having just felled a simple boar so as to look preoccupied. His eyes lingered on the woman in the distance only when her attention was not directed towards them, and he gave a roll of his wrist to flourish his blade with a spin before lowering it back to his side. "Yeah." A feminine voice spoke up in reply, the player's medium-length black hair partially concealed by the hood and half-cloak that hung to the middle of her back.

ID#: 91325 | LD: 17 - Success (2/5)

Edited November 28, 2017 by Calypso

[Calypso 0]

"Rhonzo says she she stops by once or twice a week with some decent stuff for a lowbie scavenger. No tycoon, but it seems like she knows a thing or two. Probably keeps the best stuff she gets her hands on for herself." The comment elicited a scoff out of the swordsman. "Well, it don't look like she's using 'em for anything, eh?" A wicked grin spread across his features alongside the words. "C'mon, we'll stick around for a bit." He instructed, taking a few steps forward while looking for another boar to run his blade through in the meantime. Their unaware prey continued to hunt for the materials she needed, not only to complete the quest she had picked up, but also to meet a quota she had set for herself. If Callie was going to bother heading out into the wilderness, she was going to make it a profitable trip.

ID#: 91334 | LD: 13 - Success (3/5)

Edited November 28, 2017 by Calypso

[Calypso 0]

Danesh continued to wind through the air at a leisurely pace beside his player as he matched her distracted pace. Callie occasionally knelt down to pick up a sprig of herbs or unearth a small chunk of half-buried minerals, taking mindful steps so as not to pass up anything she had the ability to spot without any bonuses to her luck or gathering abilities. When she hit lulls in her searches she would take a short break to enjoy the light breeze that ran over the wild grass of the rolling plains. Her long hair would gently carry in the wind, and she would either tuck the locks behind an ear or wrap her hand around the entirety of the cerulean strands to pull them forward over her right shoulder where they would rest for a bit. "I'd never see things like this back home..."

ID#: 91335 | LD: 7 - Fail (3/5)

Edited November 28, 2017 by Calypso

[Calypso 0]

She thought aloud in a soft voice, stopping to look out over the scenery made up of a combination of real-world natural formations and fantasy-themed oddities. Her brows shifted upwards a bit, her expression taking on a bit of longing as she gave a sideways glance to the hybrid familiar whose thin body bobbed gently as he suspended himself in the air nearby. "Really, is it so bad to just stay here...?" The serious tone in her own voice caused her to feel a twinge of sadness before she forced the corners of her mouth up into a slight, bittersweet smile. "I know I can't take you back home, at least." She forced a half-chuckle. "There are a lot of things I can't take." Once again, she couldn't keep the somber tone from carrying into the air. Callie carried herself over to the bark of a heavy tree, turning on the heel of her boot and leaning back against it with just as heavy a sigh.

ID#: 91336 | LD: 15 - Success (4/5)

Edited November 28, 2017 by Calypso

[Calypso 0]

She knew that now wasn't the time to sulk, but she couldn't shake the unsavory feelings just yet. She had developed a small frown while Danesh occupied himself by landing on a low-hanging branch and opening his small mouth wide, baring his tiny, razor-sharp teeth in a silent yawn. She had stopped keeping an accurate track of time, but she knew it had been many months since they first became trapped in the virtual world. An induced coma of sorts, where her real body was likely being injected with fluids day in and day out to keep the shell intact while her mind was lost to this place. Her chin tilted down and her hands lifted up to hover in front of her stomach. She looked at her palms for a few seconds before turning them over, carefully inspecting the limbs as they moved. Her skin was just as pale as she remembered.

ID#: 91338 | LD: 11 - Success (5/5)

Edited November 29, 2017 by Calypso

[Calypso 0]

Her fingers curled inward to form loose fists before they unraveled again. Her joints functioned just the same as they always did. And yet nothing was really 'real'. Not just her, but everything around her; everything she had encountered up to this point was simply a projection in her mind. Every feeling, from the cool breeze against her cheeks to the rough bark that pressed back against her shoulderblades was simply a simulated response--data that told her brain that something felt a certain way, and so she believed that it did. She felt herself swallow, dropping one hand back to her side while the other reached up to the base of her throat. Her tips gently pressed against the bare skin of her décolletage. In all the time she had been in Aincrad, her hands hadn't formed a single sign. She had her voice back, and she made sure to use it every day.

ID#: 91409 | LD: 5 - No materials

Edited November 30, 2017 by Calypso

[Calypso 0]

As the conflict in her heart continued to linger and fester, Callie's mouth turned down to form a small frown. "Come on, Caroline." She mumbled, the use of her full first name only a trend when she really needed to get ahold of herself. "No sense in moping. You dealt with losing it once, you can deal with it again. If you get that far." She added on, not completely successful in quelling all of her negative thoughts. She lingered in the shade for several minutes, lost to her own thoughts for a while. With another small sigh, she eventually pushed herself off from the wide tree trunk. "Let's go, Danesh." She called to the sky dragon as she began the walk back to the Town of Beginnings. Boring, uneventful, and still a bit somber, Callie only half-heartedly scanned the areas in front of her for stray materials.

ID#: 91408 | LD: 9 - No materials

Edited November 30, 2017 by Calypso

[Calypso 0]

Danesh's body winded through the air alongside his companion, rather indifferent to her now sullen mood. She didn't expect an artificial pet to be capable of empathy, and besides that she was used to dealing with her trivial struggles alone. Perhaps even if they did escape the game someday, she could hope that full-dive technology would stick around, and maybe even make a comeback after the outrage she predicted this incident would have on the perception of virtual reality had died down. Once the woman with cerulean hair and her dragon familiar reached the safety of town, Danesh snaked over to Callie's shoulders and took up his usual perch, draping his long body across the back of her neck. He kept his head up, still awake for now as he simply enjoyed the ride and took in their surroundings. They would make their way back to Zachariah, where Callie would go through the last objective to complete the quest and get that out of the way.

ID#: 91410 | CD: 2 - Fail

Edited November 30, 2017 by Calypso

[Calypso 0]

"Nothing to fret over, Miss." Zachariah chuckled as Callie's first attempt at crafting a potion was nothing short of an abysmal result. The woman's expression only soured further as the dialogue window that hovered in front of her avatar displayed her failure and the material she had used in the process was lost just as quickly as she had picked it up from the ground. The NPC's kind words did little to soothe her, and so she wordlessly repeated process, assuming it was just a matter of luck until she got the result that she needed. Surely enough, going through the crafting steps a second time gave her the same dialogue window, this time with a different set of text, that cheerfully congratulated her on crafting a rare variation of the required potion. When the item materialized into being in her hand, Zachariah beamed at the woman. "Fantastic!" He offered a scripted response.

ID#: 91412 | CD: 9 - Success (Rare)

Edited November 30, 2017 by Calypso

[Calypso 0]

"Thank you for all of your help. Here, as promised, I have some extras laying around that are just going to waste. Take them in exchange for the herbs and that one you've made." Callie received another notification, this one informing her that she'd completed the quest. 'A standard fetch quest and introduction to the crafting system, then.' She summarized in her head, a frown still worked into her features despite the sense of completion the notification had given her. She was happy that she hadn't let the simple task weigh down on her quest log, but she hardly found it enjoyable. If anything, her troubled mind was too distracted now to find much joy in what was otherwise a proper part of the game. At the very least, she decided that she wasn't fond of the crafting system, but that was no surprise to her. She had never been much for the crafting side of games, despite how closely she worked alongside so many crafters lately in SAO. She could wrap her head around the different types of materials, quality of items, and all of that important information, but when it came to actually sitting down and bringing the items to life, she didn't plan on picking up a profession of her own.

Thread Summary:

Calypso: +3 SP (1 page, 2 quest), +400 col (1 page)
- 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)