[SP-F1] <<Earning a Living>> The first recipe

[Benjamin Bookworm 0]

Ben had been spending the first few harrowing days since he had been trapped in this game holed up in his room, scared out of his mind to take even a single step out of the Town of Beginnings.  This wasn't a game any more- it was real. 

Still.... there were people out there fighting to make everyone free.  Maybe even dying.  He just couldn't sit around any more not doing anything.  And so, he had spent the last day searching for safe quests- something that didn't involve any fighting, at least until he was sure he was able to handle himself. 

That brought him to the place his mini map had been leading him to- a NPC shop with a sign reading 'Alchemist' above it.  He was going to start learning how to craft, start learning how to actually help everyone else out.  He just had to take a deep breath, push all the fears he had of dying horribly out in the wilderness out of his mind, and open the door. 

And so, reaching out with shaking hands, he pushed the door open to enter...

[Benjamin Bookworm 0]

The alchemy shop was simple affair.  Wooden walls and thatching in the roof, with vials of colored liquids resting on shelves along the walls.  A quick look at his HUD told Benjamin that these were just part of the background, not actual items he could buy.

The NPC in charge of the shop, a smiling man standing behind a plain wooden counter, seemed to be the only interactive object in the shop.  It was also where the quest seemed to be leading him to.

"Well met!" the shop keep greeted.  "Are you here to help me gather ingredients?" 

Not exactly original, but these were the beginner quests, right?  Ben sighed, while a bit disappointed at the lack of anything cool about the quest, at least it would be straightforward.  "Um, yes.  That's me.  So, what do I have to do to help?" Ben quickly blurted out, hoping that he was doing... whatever it was needed to finish quests right.

The NPC shopkeeper, who Ben realized didn't really have a name, laughed. "Great!  Just bring me 2 <<Forest Herbs>> and we can get started."

[Benjamin Bookworm 0]

Great... I suppose this means I finally have to step outside of town.  I suppose it was inevitable...

Ben pulled up his mini-map to see where he was going and found the quest led him down the main road outside of the nearby city gate. He nodded at the NPC, who stood there smiling as if nothing happened, and made his way out of the shop.  The walk down the city streets was uneventful, broken only when he reached the threshold to the fields outside. 

This was it.  His first steps into a dangerous realm.  The first time he would risk his life to help out everyone here.  He could turn back- head to the inn and wait until others finished the battles ahead.  But, the guys on the frontline needed crafters to help out making potions and crystals for him.  And he just couldn't stay here when people were in need. 

So, he made his first step outside the gate.  His HUD showed that he was not in a safe zone any more, which oddly didn't feel much different.  No big fanfare or change of scenery.  Ben felt his own heavy breathing as he walked along, tensing up as another player walked by on the way to town.  This was fine.  There weren't any monsters near where he was going, and plenty of trees and bushes he could grab the herbs from.  This shouldn't be too bad.

[Benjamin Bookworm 0]

Ben stopped by the bushes to start looking for the ingredients he needed.  There should be a few if he looked hard enough...

Yep.  He stared at the bush harder still

Any time now.

As soon as he figured out how to tell a regular bush from one with herbs in it.

"Come on, stupid bush.  Tell me if you have any herbs." Ben mumbled.  The bush seemed unaffected by his troubles. 

After going over this in his head, Ben decided that his HUD would probably tell him if he found an ingredient, and staring at shrubbery was not going to help him on this quest.  So he began his trek a bit deeper into the forest (after stabbing the bush a few times on principle) to see what else there was.  At worst, he would be right back where he started. 

The next couple of bushes and trees were just as uninteresting as the previous few, which meant he might be in the wrong type of area.  At least he was't scared enough that he was breathing hard any more, but it still meant there was more work ahead of him. 

[Benjamin Bookworm 0]

The forest was bright and sunny as Ben walked through.  A couple of smaller plants showed up on his HUD as he looked at them, which hopefully meant that the herbs for the quest would too.  It would be great if he could just use some of the material he started with, but that isn't how these quests work.  So he was out here looking for herbs in the middle of a forest that could kill him at any moment. 

At least I am making progress Ben thought as he opened his HUD.  The quest marker was pointing him deeper into the woods, but it ended in a big circle rather than a dot, so he would have to look through the area for the herbs.  There wasn't any indicators about what kinds of monsters could be in the area either.  He checked his daggers once again to make sure they were ready, just in case. 

[Benjamin Bookworm 0]

After following the quest marker to the area of the forest he needed to get to, Ben found himself in a clearing with a small lake being fed by a waterfall, and a small river veering off in another direction.  There seemed to be a lot of greenery around here, accompanied by a smell of clean water and flowers.  At least it seemed like this was the right place to go. 

"Huh, this place seems like it's peaceful.  At least I won't have to worry about any monsters jumping out at me."  Ben said to himself.  Although there could be something hiding in the water.  Or behind the waterfall.  Or... he could be working himself up into a panic again.  This was a beginner quest, there wasn't any traps trying to kill him- yet.  He just needed to find some ingredients and get back to town, and he'd be safe.  That's all he had to get done today. 

[Benjamin Bookworm 0]

Ben figured that searching the grassy areas near the pond seemed to be a good place to start, so trotted over that way.  There were lots of green grassy roots in the shallows, and they took time to identify.  Unless he wanted to start wading into the water, which he didn't.  There were plenty of different types of plants that his HUD identified for him as he poked at them, but none were what was needed for the quest.  Still, he kept at it.  If the only thing he got out of this was a list of all the plant in this area, that would at least help in the future.  At least assuming that these plants showed up anywhere outside of this pond. 

Just thinking about that really puts into perspective how big this game is.  So much to learn, so many places to visit, and this was only the first floor.  Hard to imagine where to go from here.

Roll ID 93224

Gathering roll: 10, unsuccessful

[Benjamin Bookworm 0]

After several minutes of fruitless searching, Ben had wandered all the way over to the rocks the waterfall came down on.  It was beautifully rendered, picturesque even if he had time to look.  It would even be a good place to hop in for a swim.  But, with the ever present danger to game provided, that was not to be.  Today, the task was to find what he needed and get a move on.  So the next place he looked was the different mosses that grew around the waterfall. 

Which... was honestly quite boring.  Going for a walk and looking as you went was one thing, but if the only thing that you did was look around at each of the different plants you could find, well, risking your life out in the wilderness out here could be downright tedious.  Next time... next time he would find someone else to come along with him.  This kind of task would go much faster with a friend. 

Roll ID 93227

Gathering roll: 4, unsuccessful

[Benjamin Bookworm 0]

Ben sighed at his bad luck so far.  Maybe there was something up on higher ground.  He knew there was fall damage in this game, so trying to climb up the rocks with his pitifully small health bar was out.  That left just walking up the incline towards the top of the falls.  He kept checking the sides of the path every few feet, hoping to get lucky as he made his way up.

Spoiler

Roll ID93228

Loot Die - 19, success!

 

Still, his mind kept wandering.  The freshness of the air, the sounds of the forest, it was all so real.  Maybe he would... get lucky! 

Ben's HUD gave a blip as he spied the first forest moss he needed.  He quickly grabbed it, smiling ear to ear.  One plant down, one to go.  Now all he had to do was keep going until he found another, and he could start putting his materials to use.  Today was looking up.

[Benjamin Bookworm 0]

Now that Ben knew what he was looking for, it should be easier to find another.  And with that in mind, he decided to circle around the treeline he found the first one at.  Maybe it was the type of trees that the herbs grew by, or maybe it was just randomly tossed about the area.  He didn't know, but he did have to find out. 

Spoiler

Roll ID 93229

Loot die - 9, failure

But, it seemed these trees were out of herbs at least.  But at least there were a lot of healthy looking trees nearby to check out.  At least eventually. 

Ben starred out at the lake for a few moments to collect his thoughts, again plagued by the decision to go at his first quest alone.  It would have been so much easier to find someone else to go with him, or watch his back.  As much as it felt good to succeed out here, it would be better with a group.  That's what he decided. 

[Benjamin Bookworm 0]

Ben passed his way through the treeline again, zigging and zagging around as he looked.  He was going to enjoy this little walk by the lake at least.  Maybe it was the kind of break he needed sometimes.  After learning that everyone was trapped in the game, and that he wouldn't get out again until they beat all 100 floors, he had fallen into a deep depression. He hadn't even left his inn room for a while out of fright.  But, after hearing about how others were fighting and pushing on towards the top floor, risking their own lives for others, he knew he had to do something to help. 

Spoiler

Roll ID 93234

Loot - 3, unsuccessful

And so, he was down in these trees looking around for herbs so he could open his shop up.  Another few minutes of finding nothing, and another few minutes experiencing the outside of the town.  Hopfully, it wouldn't be much longer until he finished his quest. 

[Benjamin Bookworm 0]

Spoiler

Roll ID 93236

Loot die - 20, success!

Finally, rounding another crop of trees, Ben spotted another patch of herbs sticking out of the ground.  Success!  He did it!

Or at least half of it.  Now would come the part where he had to return to town and actually learn how the crafting system works in this game before he could make anything useful out of these parts.  But at least now he could get that NPC to teach him. 

Ben opened up his HUD to check his inventory.  Both of the herbs were in his items, safe and sound.  That meant he didn't need to hang around this area any more.  Although... bringing up his map, Ben looked over the controls.  He could mark this spot for later.  Even if he couldn't get anything outside of a quest here (which it seemed like after all this looking around) it was stil a beautiful place to relax.  Maybe once he was high enough level that being ambushed by one of the boars wouldn't scare him as much, he could come back to relax. 

[Benjamin Bookworm 0]

The forest was quiet, he thought as he looked around.  Without the need to have animals and insects buzzing about the background, there wasn't much activity at all.  And now, as much as he really shouldn't be, Ben felt really tempted to start exploring.  Maybe he was starting to lose that permissive aura of fear that had been seeping into his bones since he first found he couldn't log out. 

After one more look back, Ben started making his way back to the main road that would lead back to the Town of Beginnings.  The walk was much quicker this time, without having to check every shrub and tree for herbs.  Soon, the dirt pathway that would lead back to town was up ahead.  No troubles again, thankfully.  If he ran into any monsters, well, he'd probably just run away.  Once he had someone else to fight beside he'd have an easier time of it.  For now, back home. 

[Benjamin Bookworm 0]

As Ben walked back towards town, he started looking for other players that were coming and going.  None were here though- they had probably moved up to higher floors to fight on long ago. Well, maybe he could coax a few of the other new players who hadn't ventured out like he did to be a bit braver.  Or at least offer them some potions so they would actually be safer if they came out.  He checked the couple of health potions by his side- the one expendable item he had.  Having a backup plan was a big boost to his confidence. 

With the gates of the city approaching, he shook off thoughts of the future.  This was the here and now, and he had to finish up this quest to start on his journey.  Just a few streets over, and there was the finish line.  Or, depending on how you pictured it, the starting line. 

[Benjamin Bookworm 0]

Ben arrived back at the gates of the Town of Beginnings without much fanfare.  The familiar twists and turns of the streets greeted him with the same sounds that they always had, the same familiar shops, and the same NPCs. 

And now, back to the quest given that had started today. 

Ben walked into the shop with the plain 'Alchemist' sign on it, which looked the same as it was before.  Even the NPC shopkeeper was standing there as if no time had passed at all, which was to be expected. 

"Hello again, brave adventurer.  Have you brought the good that I asked?" the NPC said. 
Ben fiddled around with his inventory a bit, still trying to figure out exactly how to give the items over.  "Um, Yes, I have them.  I guess you can just automatically grab them?  And you did it right after I said yes..." he said as the quest seemed to move forward. 

[Benjamin Bookworm 0]

The herbs moved out of Benjamin's inventory to the NPC, who, for the first time since Ben laid eyes on him, began to move to the shelves around the shop.  He started picking a few items off the shelves, probably some actions programmed to make it look like he was preparing to craft things.  Then, he moved back to the table at the center of the store and pulled a few beakers out and set them on top of the table.  Then, he followed by pulling a large, worn hardcover book with a few dogeared pages in in. 

"All right, time to put these herbs to use.  Let's start by setting the two of them into of of these mixing beakers." he said cheerily, gesturing down at the supplies that he laid out "Why don't you try it?"

Ben chuckled a bit- it was corny, but what he needed.  He approached the table and looked down at what he had to do. 

[Benjamin Bookworm 0]

Ben took a look at the book in front of him, and was surprised to find that it was actually a recipe book that popped up on his HUD. 

He decided to take a quick glance through let him start to browse the different recipes that he could make- at least eventually.  It looked like there wasn't much to choose from once he starts until he got the hang of things.  Salves were the only starting item to make, and they didn't have too much variety.  Antidotes would be good if he ran into things that did DOTs, and were cheap to make.  It'd probably be good to have a few for situational problems.  Still the healing salves would be his main choice of craft until he got to the higher level crafts.  Usually he would prefer to make things that gave mitigation and the ability to avoid damage, but the world of SAO had enough baddies who could get lucky or simply bypass defenses that being able to just toss about health potions like crazy wasn't a bad strategy. 

Still, future would be then, and crafting for this quest is now. 

[Benjamin Bookworm 0]

Ben checked the book again to see what the next step in the quest.  It looked like it was just mixing some materials into the flask and letting them boil for a while.  He wondered how he would actually get it to boil for a second before realizing there was actually a burner under the table to use.  It seemed easy enough, adding the liquid to the herbs he collected.  Getting the burner up from under the table and properly set up was a bit more of a challenge, especially since Ben had never used something like this before.  And of course the NPC was standing there, smiling and unhelpful as a bump on a log the whole time. 

Finally, or at least what felt like it with the several attempts it took, he got the concoction to start brewing.  Now all he had to do was wait and see what would come out. 

[Benjamin Bookworm 0]

He stared at the potion for a while.  It... was coming along.  The HUD said that he had at least a few more minutes to wait.  Because of course when you see the end to your quest in sight, there had to be just a few more delays to get put in front of him.  Well, Ben supposed that gave him some more time to wonder.  He had a pretty large stash of materials from his starting pack, but if he kept on crafting every day he would use them all in less than half a month.  Which meant he had to get more pretty soon.  He flipped through the recipe book a while, looking to see if they had anything in it about the best places to get more material for.  Even if he didn't have the skills yet, it would be something he had to start learning how to do pretty soon. 

Or would have to if the stupid potion ever finished up.

[Benjamin Bookworm 0]

Ben smiled as the counter for the brewing ticked down it's last few seconds.  It was finally done. 

The NPC shop keepers came over as the last few bubbles finished coming up, nodding approvingly at the results.  "It looks like you did a good job.  the potion has come out exactly how it should."  Then, he began rummaging around under the table again, pulling out a pair of tall brown glasses.  He then grabbed the liquid that had just finished brewing, and started pouring an equal amount into each of the cups that were in front of him.  It steamed up for a little while, before the NPC picked up the cup nearest to him and blew on it, before taking a large sip.  "Ahhh"

Ben took a few seconds to process what happened. He spent all that effort and got himself all worked up to go get the ingredients to make a few cups of tea.  Probably because someone thought it would be a funny ending to the quest.