F1 - Taking Action <<The First Few Lessons Are Free>>

[Minick 0]

Minick shrugged his shoulders. Frustrated, he ran his fingers through his black hair. His brown eyes squinted as he walked through the archway into the Town of Beginnings and into the sunlight.  

"I guess that's it." After searching all the floors, talking to every info broker he could find, begging guilds to do recon missions... He was convinced the friends he camped out with to get the nerve gear were most likely dead. Months had passed since the game began, but all he had done was look for his friends. It had so far proved a worthless endeavor. The longer he looked for his friends, the more guilty he felt for not helping out. Clearing the game is the only thing that would provide the answers he needed.

I guess it's finally time to start leveling, he thought to himself. He apprehensively approached the quest board. Besides just tagging along with some other players, Minick hadn't ever actually accepted a quest. He quickly sorted through the stuff too high level for him until he came upon something simple. "Alchemist in need of materials, stop by shop if interested". 

Sounds easy enough. He collected the quest and set the beacon for the shop. 

Edited February 8, 2018 by Minick

[Monizo 0]

Monizo stared intently at the beacon in front of him. His internal turmoil was clearly written across his wrinkled fore-head and pale blue eyes. The quest was simple enough, just an alchemist that needed some supplies collected. It probably wouldn’t even take very long, a few hours, maybe. The only problem was, it had been 3 days since he had collected the thing, and he had been ignoring the beacon ever since.

Monizo had spent the first couple of months in Aincrad refusing to face the truth of his situation. At first, he was desperate to cling to the hope that they weren’t truly trapped in the game. When he finally was forced to admit that there were no tricks being played, he had spiraled into a depression of sorts. Very rarely did he do much more than what he needed to survive. It took a while, but, finally growing exhausted of caring deeply about nothing, Monizo had decided to dedicate himself to clearing the game.

Which is how he found himself here, in the Town of Beginnings, terrified of starting a task that he might not be capable of finishing. Clearing the game, of course…..He was positive that whatever the Alchemist needed would be extremely simple.

His brown hair fluttered in the wind as he kicked the rock wall of the building next to him. It’s time to get serious, quit being a wimp. After closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, he took a few steps across the street towards the door of the Alchemy shop. A black haired man made it to the doorway before him and he had to stutter step to let the man enter first.

“Oop, excuse me! I’m sorry.”

[Minick 0]

"No you're fine, go right ahead..." Minick began to reply. His brow furrowed a bit in confusion. 

"Wait a second. 'Oop'? Your midwestern sensibilities can't be mistaken. Where are you from anyway? And how haven't we met? 

All of the other players in Aincrad that he had met had been Japanese. Lincoln wasn't the kind to believe in coincidences, either. 

Lincoln examined the player in front of him. Pretty unmistakably American. and that Spear! We should party up if he's cool and all. Minick thought to himself. 

As he opened the door to the shop to wave the stranger past, the kind voice of an older man was clearly heard. "You boys aren't here to answer my request are you? Come here, let me show you what I need!" the gentleman responded. Minick couldn't see him yet, but was pretty sure he was in the right place. He didn't answer the alchemist, however. He wanted some answers, first. He looked expectantly towards the brown haired player across from him. 

[Monizo 0]

Monizo half-stepped backwards in surprise, it was extremely obvious that he was American, but not many people that he had ever met in Japan had been able to immediately recognize his dialect. Meeting the mans gaze, Monizo immediately realized why this person had such an easy time noticing the accent, it’s because he was very clearly American as well. Although Americans weren’t absent in Aincrad, Monizo was positive that a remarkable majority of the players that received a hard copy of SAO were either Japanese, or at the very least from Asia.

The man had black hair and brown eyes, he was slightly shorter than Monizo, but something about his presence made him seem almost bigger. It probably didn’t hurt that the man was sporting a Warhammer and some heavy armor.

“Actually South Carolina, but my parents and the rest of my sibling were from Oklahoma. I guess the accent just stuck on me, even after living in Japan for so long. Funny how some things never go away. Where are you from?”

You boys aren’t here to answer my request are you? Come here, let me show you what I need! The voice came from somewhere in the back of the shop that Monizo couldn’t yet see. The black haired man was holding the door Open so Monizo slipped passed him into the shop.

“My name is Monizo by the way, and yours?” He turned around and extended a hand to the man hoping he would appreciate the American custom of shaking hands.

[Minick 0]

"It's Minick. nice to meet you." He let the door close behind them and began to search for the quest giver. "I'm actually from Nebraska, but yeah. Cool stuff." Minick looked towards the back of the shop, still talking to Monizo. "say... if you're here for the alchemist's gathering quest, you wouldn't want to party up would you?" He was slowly pulling up the HUD to access the party invites. "I know its just floor 1, but it sure would suck to run into a mob out there on your own..." he trailed off for a bit, and then, "There!" He sent the invite over, hoping for a response. 

As if triggered by proximity, the man Minick presumed to be the shop owner spun around and fed them the same line of dialogue they had heard earlier. Looking around the shop, it didn't seem like he needed the help of the two lowest level PC's out there. There were bubbling alchemical glass bottles and tubes in a few work stations, bottles of all shapes and sizes holding all manner of material components, many of which Minick assumed didn't come from floor one. Bad for immersion! he chuckled to himself. Oh well. it is what it is. Minick was about to reply to the shopkeeper but decided to wait on Monizo's response. 

[Monizo 0]

“Nebraska is…. interesting, lots of nature reserves and beef cows!” Monizo exclaimed, that was the totality of his knowledge on the subject. As the door pulled shut behind them Minick mentioned the gathering quest and asked if Monizo would be interested in partying up. He looked as if he would make a formidable ally, based solely on their equipment it seemed as if their fighting styles might compliment one another. It wouldn’t hurt to have someone watching his back while out of the safe zone, Monizo was painfully aware of the fact that he hadn’t exactly spent his time in the game so far leveling up.

The invitation popped up in the air in front of Monizo, I guess I’m going to have to rely on some other people to succeed around here. Nodding his head, he accepted the invitation right as the shop keeper appeared and repeated his question again.

“Yes sir, we sure are! What can we do for you?” It was a fairly rhetorical question since the quest notice had given most of the information, but from past experiences with NPC’s Monizo knew they had a tendency to tell you things you already knew.

“Well first things first, I need you to go out into the wild and gather five Tier one materials for me! Now that’s five from each of you, don’t try pulling any fast ones on old Zackariah. After doing that you can bring the materials back here and I’ll teach you how to craft a healing potion.” The man pointed up to the shelf behind him that had an assortment of potions, before turning his attention to a package on the counter that appeared to be only half packed. “After we are done doing that, I will be able to finish up this package that I need you to deliver to Lyle Tealeaf, a local Blacksmith.”

Monizo glanced around the shop while the man spoke and finally noticed how many things there were on the shelves. An assortment of leaves, roots, stems, some unknown liquids…. saps maybe? The place was truly a testament to the depth of design put into SAO, and the materials found here probably only stemmed from the first couple of floors, the countless more that probably existed on the higher floors was astounding.

“Do you have any questions for me?” Monizo shook his head no and glanced at Minick waiting to see if he had any questions.

Edited February 9, 2018 by Monizo

[Minick 0]

"Well...let's do this," said Minick. "1st quest chain...feels good, man."

Back into the sunlight and into the busy streets of the Town of Beginnings they went. After a few minutes navigating the streets, they were out the gates and headed into the surrounding fields. 

"I'm pretty sure these bushes and shrubs should contain the roots and berries Zekariah needs for the potions. Shouldn't be too hard." Minick was sure to avoid any of the boar mobs as he approached the first bush. Piece of cake, right? He thought to himself.

 ID# 95607 results:

 Battle: 6

 Craft: 11

 Loot: 10

 MOB: 8

"well. Nothing in this bush," said Minick as he watched it fade away. "Shouldn't be a problem though, plenty of others around.

[Monizo 0]

Monizo followed Minick through the streets of the Town of Beginnings until they eventually made it out of the safe zone and into the surrounding fields. As usual, it was mostly sunny with just a few clouds in the sky. As Minick made his way over to a patch of bushes, Monizo scouted out for a close by area in which he could search as well.

Very quickly he found a small group of bushes that he could search in. This seems easy enough. Probably wont take too long!

ID number: 95608

Battle: 10

Craft: 5

Loot: 17

MOD: 3

Delighted, Monizo heard the familiar sound of something being added to his inventory as a small notification appeared in front of him, letting him know that he had found a tier 1 material. He glanced over and noticed that Minick’s first attempt at finding something had failed. Oh well, the system is based off RNG anyway, no one can feel bad just because they didn’t get the right number.

[Minick 0]

 ID# 96250 results:

 Battle: 5

 Craft: 2

 Loot: 4

 MOB: 3

"Well."

Minick sighed, exasperated, at his continued failure. "RNG is not helping me out too much. I hope you are having better luck than I am!" he said to Monizo, frustrated. He looked out at the fields beyond him, wondering if the loot from creatures would be a better way to get things quicker. The thought of dematerializing, however, quickly changed his mind. He'd love to get to the point to where he'd never have to worry about dying to low level mobs. But for now, grinding mats from bushes. 

[Monizo 0]

ID#96256

LD:19

Monizo frowned when he saw Minick not having any luck yet again. Dang man, I guess we just have to keep looking. I’ll stay out here with you until we both find everything we need. He figured they could make some small talk while they were searching. They didn’t really know anything about each other. Is this one of your first quests too? I wasted the majority of my time in the game so far not really doing anything. I think I was trying to avoid facing the reality that we’re stuck here. Now I just feel pretty useless though. He glanced over at the boy as he looked through some short bushes and found some more materials. He placed the items in his inventory and grinned. It was painfully obvious that this was a quest he should have done within the first couple hours of being trapped in this world, and yet here he was, over a year into his stay in this prison of a world, and he was just now doing it.

Edited February 19, 2018 by Monizo

[Minick 0]

ID# 96667 results:

 Battle: 2

 Craft: 10

 Loot: 3

 MOB: 4

Nothing. again.

Minick sighed, a little more frustrated this time. 

"Yup, one of my firsts. I've been to other floors though, just never taken any quests or anything." Minick took a few deep breaths and scanned the horizon for other gathering points. This sure was easier than i gave myself credit for, but i'm just not finding anything!

"Hey, Monizo, you come into the game with anybody? Like, do you have any friends IRL that are also in the game?"

Maybe Minick would meet somebody that could empathize with his situation.

[Monizo 0]

Roll ID:96722

LD: 8

Monizo nodded at Minick explained to him that he had been around, but hadn’t really done any quests. “Yeah, I’m the same way.” He had only ever traveled a few floors up, and he never left the safe zones unless he found a group of players that were traveling to other towns. He had been terrified of getting attacked. Looking through a small patch of plants that were growing he couldn’t seem to find anything of values. I hope I’m not out here all day finding nothing.

@Minick asked him about his friends. “I know a few of my buddies where trying to get the game, but we were all pretty intense gamers, so we were gonna go it alone for a little while before meeting up. I never heard from any of them so I can only hope that they didn’t make it into the game.” He tried to show a hopeful smile, but it was obviously forced and insincere. It was hard to be hopeful about very many things anymore.

[Minick 0]

"Right. Same here," Minick acknowledged. "I hoping none of mine made it here either." Hoping to empathize with Monizo a bit because of their similar situations, Minick reached out and put his hand on Monizo's shoulder for a second. "I'm sure they're fine." 

The pair walked over the next hill and found a new set of spawn points for the materials needed to craft the potions. Minick bent to the ground and went to work, hoping for the best.

ID# 97170 results: Battle:9 Craft:9 Loot:5 MOB:1

"WELL." Minick slammed his fist to the ground, expecting better luck but knowing that the mats would come eventually. 

"You're up!" 

[Monizo 0]

Roll ID# 97237

LD:9

Monizo smiled at Minick, giving him a knowing glance. They both had friends that they cared about, and it could be frightening to think about those friends being dead in this game. Even more reason to get serious about getting stronger and making an impact on the frontlines. It was their turn to give other players hope for a change. Even if that process started with this stupid quest, that involved zero fighting.

Monizo followed Minick over to a hill and began looking under some more shrubs. “I’m gonna murder someone.” He groaned, and then laughed at their general frustration. It was humorous that they were getting so frustrated at such a simple quest, especially one that was solely based on chance. “Everybody had to do this right? I’m sure even the frontline fighters had to struggle through this stupidity.”  He sighed, and looked over at @Minick, who was searching once again for some more materials.