[SP-F1] <The First Few are Free> Back to the Basics

[Steel 0]

"...It feels like I've been asleep for a long while." Steel absentmindedly said to himself as he walked through the streets of the Town of Beginnings. He couldn't find anybody he knew and he was sure the level of his skills and his overall level were a little higher than what he was currently. "A bug or system error? Or maybe I'm just imagining things..." He said this with a light groan as if he had a headache and he kinda did from all of the hard thinking about his situation. For the time being, he thought to raise his level by doing some quests, the first series of them being set for beginners to get used to the game. While he didn't like being thought of as a beginner, he needed the experience points and items from these quests. His first stop was Old Man Zackariah's house. It didn't take long to find the house as the directions leading to the house were pretty precise. He knocked on the old man's door. "Zackariah-san, I'm coming in, please pardon the intrusion."

[Steel 0]

The old man turned around as he heard the door open along with a voice politely announcing his arrival. "Ah, you must be Steel, the one who accepted the quest. Don't be shy, come in." At the elderly man's invitation, Steel had walked in, closed the door behind him and then walked over to the NPC who in Steel's mind looked like a sage. If he had a wizard's hat and robes on, perhaps he would look like Gandalf from Lord of the Rings "As you probably read from the quest description, I'd like you to help me gather materials for a potion so you can become more used to this game. Exploring the area will help you have a better idea on how to get around as well."

Though I already know my way around... Steel thought this to himself but kept it in as he had been around long enough to know the first floor like the back of his hand.

Edited January 30, 2018 by Steel

[Steel 0]

Well, this is one of the rare instances where the game breaks the fourth wall... Steel couldn't help but think to himself as he heard the man show himself to be aware that they were in a game. While that wasn't anything new, the NPCs in this game world seemed to be more like they lived some form of life, however systematic it was, in this virtual world without the acting as if they were in a game bit. So this seemed a little out of place in the grand scheme of things. "Your request involved me bringing me back five materials for a potion correct? Please wait for a bit and I shall return with them." With a short bow, Steel walked out of the house and began walking out into the street and towards the entrance to the fields. "Makes me wonder how long this will take. Well, it shouldn't take too long." He said with a small smile.

Edited January 30, 2018 by Steel

[Steel 0]

"And I can't seem to find a single darn thing. You'd think they were everywhere since normal potions are supposed to be really common in rpgs. Well, I didn't expect this to be easy..." Steel said as he had failed to find anything in the last 10 minutes or so. He had stopped keeping track after searching for a while. For all he knew, he could have been out there for hours. He had started relatively early in the morning and he felt that the sun was ever slightly higher in the sky now than it was before. "And this is kinda boring. I guess that's to be expected from a beginner level gathering quest but still. Ah well, this will help me get my level up." Even with all his emotional control training, he was a gamer and he found it odd and tiresome that somebody who wasn't a complete beginner, even able to face some field bosses on his own, had to go gather these random items in a quest for people just starting out.

ID: 95021

LD: 12

Edited January 30, 2018 by Steel

[Steel 0]

"Okay, let's keep this going! One more try!" Steel said, trying to pump himself up. He couldn't let himself be discouraged just because of one failure. With a jump in his step, he started running around the area. Sometimes, items can be found in bushes or in grass right? I'm sure to find some if I look in some bushes. Steel thought to himself as he began thinking about which bush to go for along with questioning his own sanity. He also thought he looked kinda stupid with the way he was doing it. He rushed into the first bush he could see, almost tackling it and and there was one of the required ingredients for the potion smack dab in the middle of the foliage! "Alright! 1 down, 4 to go." He put away the item into his inventory with a smile and went off to see if he could find more.

ID: 95022

LD: 20

Edited January 30, 2018 by Steel

[Steel 0]

"Now I wonder how long this will take..." Steel said to himself as he continued searching for the remaining 4 potion ingredients. He searched in more bushes, trees that he managed to climb up, in the grass, and everywhere in general and he just couldn't find anything for the next couple of minutes to an hour. "Looks like it'll take a while... Here's hoping my luck isn't too bad today." After saying that, his luck didn't seem to improve one bit. At one point, he thought that he was just going in circles and coming back to the same places. "I'm really hoping that this won't take all day. I remember seeing that this was the first quest in a series of quests so I'd have to have enough time to finish them too. Man, this is turning into a pain..." His pessimistic side was starting to beat his samurai honor side.

ID: 95023

LD: 2

Edited January 30, 2018 by Steel

[Steel 0]

"Oh dear, my luck isn't very good right now is it? I definitely have E rank luck..." Steel said with a sigh as he continued to not find any more ingredients for the potions. "Come on Takeshi, you gotta keep your fighting spirit strong! You are a (self proclaimed) samurai aren't you? You gotta stay strong and keep fighting! Though that isn't exactly the easiest thing to do with such a mundane task that I'm somehow still failing at..." He went from positive to negative rather quickly. He was trying so hard to keep his motivation up but the deceptively difficult task was taking a great toll on his patience. How could a beginner level quest be so infuriating to deal with? It was something for players just starting out on their journeys here! This was a question that kept going through his mind as he continued onward through the fields.

ID: 95024

LD: 2

Edited January 30, 2018 by Steel

[Steel 0]

"Still no good huh?" Steel still couldn't find anything. "Just how bad is my luck..." He continued going around in circles around the same area as he kept trying to avoid the monsters. He was kinda over leveled and his armor was too strong for this starting area so he found no need to fight any of the monsters in this area if he didn't have to. As they say, one's sword will grow rusty if they kept facing weaker opponents. Steel was inclined to agree on that. He also didn't want to waste any more time for his search. With all of the lousy luck he's been having dealing with, he needed as much time as he could and as little distractions as he could encounter. He was in this for the long haul and he was going to give it his all to find these items without dealing with much else.

ID: 95025

LD: 7

Edited January 30, 2018 by Steel

[Steel 0]

"I wonder when this E rank luck will end..." Steel said with a sigh as he took a little break and began to collect his thoughts on where these things could be. After some time, he decided to try not actively search for them and just walked aimlessly for a bit, almost literally walking blind. He had no other good ideas so he just let nature or lady luck pull the strings. Who knows? It may even lead to him finding one by either luck or accident. All of a sudden, he tripped over something. When he looked to see what he tripped over, he was surprised. "Well, I just found one. Um, yay?" He honestly wasn't expecting that working. At best, he thought it'd just destress him a little by being a bit silly. Well, nobody ever said silly didn't work. As he put that material away as well, he looked around, hoping that nobody else saw that idiotic display.

ID: 95026

LD: 19

Edited January 30, 2018 by Steel

[Steel 0]

"Yeah, thought so, that was just a small stroke of luck. Can't seem to find any now." Steel said with a sigh as he went back to the usual not finding a darn thing. Lady Luck definitely wasn't on his side right now. "I'm almost wanting to kill a bunch of boars now just so I can relieve some stress." And if it weren't for his mental fortitude training, he probably would have gone and done that already. Maybe it was the ADD that he was trying to keep locked away. Not that he was keeping said ADD a secret but he had managed to learn how to suppress it and control himself so that he'd be less likely to run into trouble. "For now, I just gotta calm down and think of another place to search." Steel said as he took some deep breaths and began to search once more.

ID: 95027

LD: 6

 

Edited January 30, 2018 by Steel

[Steel 0]

"You'd think it'd be easy to find potion ingredients but apparently it isn't for me. I can take on a field boss by myself but I can't seem to flipping find a few potion ingredients!" Steel said with a sigh as more time passed and he was still three short. It was getting more and more irritating. So far after that little 'awakening' he had, he hasn't had any real luck besides the occasional bit. Like at one battle, he wasn't able to land most of his blows and it ended up in a party member almost getting killed since he couldn't attract enough hate due to lack of a taunt skill and lack of hitting the opponent. And now he was having similar luck with this stupid search for materials. "This is why I won't be doing too much of this after this quest..." Steel growled to himself a little as nothing was going right for him nowadays.

ID: 95028

LD: 9

Edited February 9, 2018 by Steel

[Steel 0]

"I'm not getting anywhere like this. Time to just walk blind and trip again. Maybe it'll work." He then closed his eyes, spun around a little and then ran forward. Due to him blinded and dizzy, he had no idea where he was going but he was trusting his instincts. Eventually, he ended up tripping over a bush and down the hill a little. He didn't mind doing that as it could have been worse. At the very least, when he opened his eyes, he found another piece of what he needed. "Tripping plan works." He said with a small grin. He actually wondered if he needed to have some odd balance in the world where something bad has to happen to him in order for something good to happen. "Am I supposed to be Komaeda or something? Hopefully it doesn't get too bull crap." He said this remembering a character from a video game.

ID: 95029

LD: 18

Edited February 9, 2018 by Steel

[Steel 0]

"Well, since that idea worked, I may as well try doing it again." Steel said with a small grin as he continued this rather silly way of finding the materials for the potions. He once again closed his eyes, spun himself around and then went around around blind and tripping over random things in order to find what he needed. Thank goodness for the pain reduction in this game. If this were the real world, he'd probably be sent to the hospital right about now from the amount of times he's hit his head by know. Eventually, his efforts bore fruit and he found one more, leaving one more material to go. "All right! Just one more! Let's do this!" He shouted out loud getting himself pumped up. This time, he felt much better doing so. This time, he actually felt that he could do it and wasn't feeling pessimism.

ID: 95030

LD: 15

Edited February 9, 2018 by Steel

[Steel 0]

Steel was getting dizzy and tired from this method so he decided to sit down and rest a bit. "Okay, the downside to doing this is getting extremely dizzy after a couple of attempts..." He said as he tried to stop the world from spinning. Unfortunately, it seemed that dizziness was still a thing in this virtual world. It made sense since their senses were still connected so they'd still feel nauseous if they spun around too much. Although in this moment, Steel wished that such a feature could be turned off. Then again, it was because he got dizzy that he started stumbling around and eventually found the materials. Now that he thought about it, this was probably a really inefficient way of doing it but at that point, he stopped caring. But for now, he needed a break from the spinning around and searching for stuff. While he didn't actually feel any physical tiredness, it was more mental fatigue.

ID: 95031

LD: 1

Edited February 22, 2018 by Steel

[Steel 0]

It seemed that mental fatigue from spending a long time without finding the materials was greater than he anticipated and Steel was even starting to fall asleep out in the field, something he shouldn't be doing outside the safe zone. He wasn't in too deep a sleep so he'd be able to react to an approaching enemy but part of his mind had already slipped off into dream land where he started to remember thing from the past. His family, his friends and other such people he cared about. These were the reasons he wanted to get stronger faster and level up so that he could escape quicker. Thankfully, he had snapped out of it before anything bad happened but he lost a considerable amount of time in his search. "Ah well, what's done is done I suppose. Time to get back to it." He said as he stretched a little.

ID: 95032

LD: 1

Edited February 22, 2018 by Steel

[Steel 0]

"Yeah, I'm back to that E rank luck..." Steel said, having had his hopes dashed in being able to finish soon. He once again couldn't find anything. "Makes me wish I had some gathering skill or something like a search skill..." He had focused more on killing monsters rather than getting materials before this quest. Actually, he couldn't remember doing gathering at all. Maybe that's why he sucked so bad at finding this stuff. He had no real experience besides this. "Maybe I should have selected such a skill to make things easier here..." All of his current skill points were directed towards his armor and offensive choices and he hadn't taken on any non combat related ones. Because of his current situation, he began to debate how much should he prioritize on offensive/defensive capabilities while also thinking of raising other non combat related skills. Who knows? It might make life easier on him.

 

ID: 95033

LD: 2

Edited February 22, 2018 by Steel

[Steel 0]

"I've got a good feeling about this one. One last trip!" He rushed in blind once more, and for once not spinning around beforehand, crashing into a tree before falling into another bush. When he opened his eyes, he saw the last material in front of him. "Alright, falling around for the win! Time to get back to Zackariah-san to finish up the quest." With that, Steel rushed off back to the town with all five materials in hand. "Man, this took way too long! It was so annoying!" He couldn't help but shout from the top of his lungs. He was all battle and wasn't used to this. On top of that, he didn't have much luck with gathering. It had taken him the whole day to get all five of the materials he needed and the sun was almost at sunset. He had only expected this to take an hour or two at most. Looks like I'm not doing the second quest today... He thought to himself.

ID: 95034

LD: 18

Edited February 22, 2018 by Steel

[Steel 0]

"Zackariah-san, I've returned." Steel said after having knocked first out of common courtesy and reentered the old man's work place. "I've brought all of the materials you have requested." He held back any sarcastic comments he would have normally made about how long it took as he'd rather finish this as fast as possible.

"Splendid my boy! Now come over here and I shall show you how to make a potion." Zackariah said with a grand smile on his face. Steel knew that this was scripted but the smile still gave him a sense of accomplishment.

"Yes sir, I thank you in advance for the lesson." Steel said politely with a bow as he listened to Zackariah's lecture on potions. Steel got the basic idea the first time around and thought that it would be relatively easy. He then stopped that line of thought as his inner self reminded him of his E rank luck.

Edited February 22, 2018 by Steel

[Steel 0]

I fricken knew it.. 

Steel couldn't help but have that thought as he started to make the potion. It wasn't as easy as they made it out to be in normal rpgs. In a normal video game, you just put two things together and then poof. Sometimes, potions were just things you could buy easily without needing to make a single one. While the process was not extremely complicated, Steel still managed to screw up on the first try. "Darn, it looks like I'm not gonna get it on the first try..." Steel said with a sigh as he failed his first attempt at making a potion after listening to the lecture.

"Don't worry, everyone moves at their own pace. Let's just try again." The kindly old man said with a smile. He went into the back room and brought back multiple sets of potion materials. Looks like this will take a while as well... Steel thought to himself with a sigh.

 

ID 95036

CD: 3

Edited February 22, 2018 by Steel

[Steel 0]

Steel tried to get himself fired up again as he started the process once more, keeping in mind what Zackarias had told him during the lecture. It should have been such a simple procedure but for some reason, he ended up screwing up again. "Looks like my luck in potion making is the same as my luck in finding potion ingredients. It's all E rank luck." Steel said as he failed once again to his dismay. But once more, Zackariah provided the materials for another try as he offered advice. "Let's try again!" He shouted, trying to raise his battle spirit, regardless of whether or not doing such a thing would be useful to him in the first place. He was just doing what came naturally due to martial arts. A part of him was still the idiot who thought battle spirit could get you through anything. What he really needed was some luck.

ID 95037

CD: 3

Edited February 22, 2018 by Steel