[F1-SP] <<The First Few Lessons Are Free>> Learning the ropes. [Completed]

[Woe 0]

Shortly following the events of the town square where Kayaba Akihiko showed up and basically crushed a sum of 10,000 players hopes and dreams into the dust, Woe figured it was probably for the best to learn how to play this death game as fast as humanly possible. Or at least as fast as someone who's never played a game in his life can learn it. Luckily for him, he had noticed some of the other players who looked like they knew what they were doing started to quickly move out of town, he knew he probably had no chance trying to keep up with them and would only slow them down and tick them off but he had figured that if he asked one of them about the game and where to start he could at least get a leg up on some of the players who were like him and had no idea where to begin. It wasn't as if he wanted to be better than anyone else, it was just that in a game like this it was paramount to make yourself as strong as possible to survive. Afterall, a game is just a bunch of numbers, get your numbers high enough and you'll be invincible right? The player that he had run to for information had smirked at his request for information as if to say that he had done the right thing. The player gave him directions to a few NPCs that could help him on his journey. The first NPC was a basic shopkeeper that sold a book of compiled information the beta testers had gathered, he didn't guarantee a hundred per cent accurate information, but it would be enough to get him ahead. And the next NPC was called Zakariah. Finding him would start a quest chain that would teach him a few fundamentals of the game. Woe figured he was on the right track to start progressing. 

[Woe 0]

Woe walked through the town of beginnings streets with a focused mind, the sun was out and the birds were singing, almost as if to add insult to injury. Though while he wasn't thrilled to be trapped in this game for however long it would take to complete it, he felt it was the perfect learning experience he needed to get the answers that he was looking for. And perhaps after everything was over he would have a solid direction in life to keep moving on with. Woe leaned back against a wall sandwiched between two buildings and looked through the beta testers journal for information on the quest. From what he could read the NPC he was looking for was an old NPC man, dubbed 'Zackariah', in the Town of Beginnings;  plans on helping the new players of SAO by helping them understand the basics of Sword Art Online. Woe scratched his head and analysed the information carefully "Well this isn't very helpful at all, it doesn't even say where specifically to find him. Do they really expect me to wander around aimlessly until I do?" Woe sighed and rubbed the back of his neck before continuing onward through the town of beginnings. "Well if I remember what that other player said to me before he hinted that the NPC ran an alchemy store... hmm" Woe rubbed his chin and checked the map for store locations. "I suppose I should try the market district." Woe tucked the journal away and changed course. 

[Woe 0]

It wasn't long after he looked specifically for the described building that he found it amongst the other shops in the marketplace. He quietly stepped into the store and his gaze quickly fell upon the modest NPC Zackariah, an old man with a white beard and long white hair. It seemed he was busy mixing up a few potions, but he was sure that an NPC wouldn't mind being interrupted to have a player do some errands for him. He placed his hands calmly on the countertop and spoke with a soft tone "Excuse me Zackeriah but I heard that you were helping us new members of Aincrad out with getting familiar with our new surroundings here?" The NPC turned to look at him and smiled "Why yes youngin I'd be more than happy to help you out. I actually have a few tasks for you. The first one is to go out and collect some materials for me, I'll write down a list for you. The materials will help me craft some potions in my shop. Completing this task for me will help you understand how to gather materials for your own purposes in the future. Do you accept this task?" Woe nodded thoughtfully. "Yes, I shall accept this task from you old man. I will gather the materials for you so that I will gain a better knowledge of how to gather materials for myself. I'm sure having this skill under my belt will be of great use in the future." The old man nodded back at him "Yes very good now go out and get me the materials. I'll be waiting here with another task for you once you return." 

[Woe 0]

Now Woe could start hearing the panicked scrambling of all the players down at the town square, it seemed they were starting to realise just what kind of mess that everyone has now gotten themselves into. Surely enough they'll go looking for answers and a guide on what to do, Woe had to stay a step ahead of them and not let them catch onto what he was doing, he predicted he would have a full days headstart before they got their hands on the beta testers journal down at the vendor and figured out what to do and where to go for questing. He might have been the first to actually accept old man Zackariah's quest, but he couldn't be too sure.

The sounds of panic began to die down and fade away into the distance as Woe left the town of beginnings and headed out southeast towards the grassy fields where there seemed to be a plentiful amount of boars, some already being killed by the players that knew what they were doing. He figured he could probably level up quicker by copying them and killing some boars too, but he needed to learn the fundamentals of the game first. Plus getting some extra exp from completing quests to get stronger before attempting combat might help him down the line not die when actually engaging in combat. 

[Woe 0]

The grassy fields of Aincrad were unlike anything he had ever experienced before. The blades of grass gently licked at his ankles as the wind blew over the meadow. There were plenty of flowers around but now he had to find the right ones. Hidden amongst the grass and dandelions it seemed that he was searching for 'Orange Tiger Lilys', quite pretty flowers when he thought about it but he had never seen one up close. They weren't too hard to spot but he supposed that things wouldn't be so simple as just picking them off the ground once he found them. Would it? He heard from his uncle sometimes they came up with random events and monsters when out on fetch quests. With that in mind, he thought about a giant snapping plant swallowing him whole after tugging it out of its little hiding spot in the soil. "Err I really hope that doesn't happen.." He mumbled to himself.
 

Dice Information:

Spoiler

ID# 101796 
Loot: 4
No Materials Found.

 

 

Edited June 19, 2018 by Woe

[Woe 0]

It had already been a few minutes of walking around and he still hadn't managed to find anything, now he understood why the old man wanted him to go out and look for the flowers for him, he probably couldn't be bothered searching through the tall blades of grass that hid them for himself. Though that wasn't necessarily true was it? Afterall he was just an NPC, tasked with helping him learn, it wouldn't really have anything to do with the NPC"s personal desires would it? Woe didn't want to waste too much time doing a fetch quest but it wasn't like he had another choice now that he had started it. He would have to complete it and so he would keep searching for the orange tiger lilies no matter how many attempts it took. He thought to himself what he would do after he was done here. "Perhaps after I'm done with this quest chain I'll go look for some good gear, maybe it'd help me get through these quests faster."

Dice Information:

Spoiler

 ID# 101797
Loot: 10
No Materials found

 

Edited June 19, 2018 by Woe

[Woe 0]

It was another few minutes of searching and Woe sat his butt down in the grass scratching his head, beginning to get annoyed. "Come on now... don't tell me I'm actually going to be stuck here all night, I've already been here for a good ten minutes and I haven't seen smelt or even if its possible heard about these stupid flowers." Woe grumbled to himself and thought maybe some other players might show up and help him look. Though that thought didn't sit well with him, he didn't want the others to start catching up to him, he had to finish this quick and keep searching. He would just have to cover more ground more quickly, after all the wall that surrounded the town of beggings was rather huge, so there was a large amount of grass to search through before he could call it hopeless. "Alright, let's continue this."

Dice Information

Spoiler

 ID# 101798
Loot: 8
No materials found

 

Edited June 19, 2018 by Woe

[Woe 0]

Woe began to cover more ground at a much faster pace, carefully looking through all the tall patches of grass that he could before moving on the next general area. As he was searching through one of the patches he could smell the faint fragrance of the orange tiger lily, a strong sweet aromatic smell. He determined that the source of the smell had to be the orange tiger lily that he was searching for and followed his nose through the patch of grass until he finally found the beautifully spotted orange tiger lily that he was looking for. He wasn't exactly sure how to harvest it though and just carefully plucked it from the ground. The stem that he plucked it from quickly vanished and a window popped up saying "Acquired 1 Orange Tiger Lily". 

"Well, I suppose that answers that question. Now I know what these things look and smell like the rest of these should be easy to find. I hope..."

+1 Orange Tiger Lily
Objective: 1/5

Dice Information:

Spoiler

ID# 101799
Loot: 16
Material found!

 

 

[Woe 0]

The Orange Tiger Lily then vanished as he placed it into his inventory in the game menu. "I'm still not used to this damn thing, why is it so complicated." He grumbled to himself as he continued ploughing through the grass. The reward of that single tiger lily had boosted his confidence in finding the rest of them and reminded him to keep pushing. Hopefully, he could keep up the momentum and find one after the other until it was over and he had all five required tiger lilies. There wasn't much else to do but keep searching until he found one anyway, as it was either do this quest chain or start killing boars, and he wasn't very confident killing boars quite just yet. After a few more minutes of searching, Woe plucked another fine orange tiger lily from the ground. "Ahah! I got you. Another one down for the count."  

+1 Orange Tiger Lily
Objective: 2/5

Dice Information:

Spoiler

ID# 101800
Loot: 17
Material Found!

 

Edited June 19, 2018 by Woe

[Woe 0]

Woe kept up the pace looking through the tall blades of grass out in the meadow surrounding the town of beginnings. He was so focused on finding the damned things that he didn't notice some other players start leaving the front gate and head towards his direction. If he realised it may have dampened his spirits, but as someone short-sighted, as he was he was simply too focused on the task at hand to notice. His focus, however, was still paying off for him, as he plucked yet another orange tiger lily from the ground after following the scent from his nose. "Ahah, success again! Three down, two to go!" Now that he had built up some momentum he was sure that he would be finished in no time. He didn't want to jinx his luck but he felt that he may be done much sooner than he had first anticipated. 
 
+1 Tiger Lily
Objective: 3/5

Dice Information:

Spoiler

ID# 101801
Loot: 17
Material Found!

 

Edited June 19, 2018 by Woe

[Woe 0]

The search for the orange tiger lilies was still on. He had covered about three miles worth of ground surrounding the town of beginnings and was starting to get tired. "I thought this was a game, how come I feel so tired and weak?" Woe decided to take a breather for a few minutes and read through the beta testers journal, hoping that maybe it had some answers in regard to his inquiry. After reading for a few minutes it had appeared that he had found his answer. Though the nerve gear blocked the typical five sense and override, the features of the game were to still allow for hunger and tiredness to be felt, in order to simulate real life. Not only that but the mind was still active and putting in a lot of work when playing the game, and so sleeping in the game allowed for the brain to recover. "Huh, interesting." He didn't feel sleepy just yet, but more so the physical tiredness. "I wonder then, do we also feel pain?" 

Objective: 3/5

Dice Information:

Spoiler

ID# 101802
Loot: 12
No material found.

 

Edited June 19, 2018 by Woe

[Woe 0]

"Alright, that should be enough rest to continue ploughing through this quest." Woe stood up and dusted himself off and looked around a bit, finally noticing that there were more players out and about. He was a little disappointed that he hadn't got too much of a lead just yet, but he was sure that the other players didn't know about the beta journals and the quest that he was on. As long as he kept his head down and kept working on looking for the last two lilies, he would be done without too much interference in no time. Just as he started looking for the next orange tiger lily he saw one just a few inches away from him. "Man my field of view must have gotten really narrow if I didn't notice this one." He swiftly plucked it from the ground and added it to his inventory. "Alright, just one more and I'll be done here."

+1 Orange Tiger Lily
Objective: 4/5

Dice Information:

Spoiler

 ID# 101803
Loot: 18
Material Found!

 

[Woe 0]

Woe was so close to finishing the quest objective that he just knew something would have to go wrong. And to his non-surprise it did. Another player headed towards his direction and started waving at him, he sighed deeply before smiling and waving back. "How can I help you?" Woe said to the tall blue haired male. It seemed that he was a lost sheep in the mix of things just like everyone else. "Hi, the names Gaku, I was just wondering what you were doing out here. I don't really have much of a clue what to do right now." Woe turned away from his gaze and grimaced before turning back with a smile. "Yes well, I'm just completing this quest I picked up in town. This is my first time playing any game so I'm kind of just as lost as you are." The player seemed to know he was holding out information from him. "I don't think you are, you were reading a book before weren't you. If it has helpful information I want to know where to get one." It seemed as though there was no escaping this one, Woe gave in. "Alright, alright. It's a journal complied with information from the beta testers. The item is called 'game guide' you can pick it up from a hooded vendor northwest of the market district. It's free and has some helpful information. Do what you will with the information but I would suggest keeping quiet about it for as long as you can so you don't get one-upped by the other players. Sure it's nice to help people out, but you never know what kind of people we are trapped in here with. I think it's safe to say not all of them are as kind as you may think." The player nodded at him in agreement. "Yes good idea, thanks for the information." Woe sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah no worries, now if you'll excuse me I have work to do."

Objective: 4/5

Dice Information:

Spoiler

ID# 101804
Loot: 12
No materials found.

 

[Woe 0]

Now that the distraction was out of the way he could go back to searching for the orange tiger lilies. We looked around and felt a little stumped. "Uhh, where exactly was I... I have no idea where I left off." Woe looked around trying to find out which areas he had already searched and which ones he hadn't. "Hmm, I think I hadn't searched that patch of grass before". Woe headed towards it and began searching but after a few more minutes of looking he collapsed realising that area was one he indeed had already looked over. "Ahh, man I'm wasting so much time here." Woe was feeling a little discouraged but quickly reminded himself that he was nearly done. "Just one more damn flower and ill be done." He was finally getting close to finishing, though the tasks were rather tedious. "Alright time to move onto the next area."

Objective: 4/5

Dice Information:

Spoiler

ID# 101805 
Loot: 6
No materials found.

 

 

Edited June 19, 2018 by Woe

[Woe 0]

Woe could start to feel a chill in the air as time went past, it seemed like it had already been an hour or so since he started his search and still was having no luck. Little did he know that he was still searching through patches of grass that he had already gone through half an hour ago. It wasn't long before he figured it out though, he grabbed his bearings quickly before changing course. "I'm so stupid, ugh... well at least I'm on the right track now." Woe started to head toward a new section of grass that he hadn't searched yet. He could feel his fingers start to grow tender too from all the weed picking and scruffling through the tall blades of grass. Soon enough though he knew he'd be done and dusted with this gathering and he'd be able to move onto new and better things.

Objective: 4/5

Dice Information:

Spoiler

ID# 101806
Loot: 10
No materials found.

 

Edited June 19, 2018 by Woe

[Woe 0]

Woe kept up the search and started humming some tunes to make things go along quicker. He had assumed that in this game there were finite resources, so how could it be that this flower was so damn hard to come by if he was the only one who was taking the quest? Maybe not all the resources had spawned yet? Or maybe it could be that he was looking in the wrong places? Yes, it was tried and true that he did get some results from searching through the meadows covered with tall blades of grass, but perhaps he would have more luck searching the forest area northwest of the town of beginnings. If he still wasn't getting any results he thought to himself that he might just head over that direction and start looking there. It could just be that he was looking in the sub-optimal area for orange tiger lilies and he had wasted a whole heap of time in the wrong area.

Objective: 4/5

Dice Information:

Spoiler

 ID# 101807
Loot: 7
No materials found.

 

Edited June 19, 2018 by Woe

[Woe 0]

On his way northwest of the town of beginnings, he still kept his eyes open for and potential orange tiger lilies that he could find along the way. Luckily enough for him, this tactic seemed to work out in his favour as he came across a field filled with orange tiger lilies. "Are you serious. You have to be kidding me. I searched that hard to find these damn things and there's a giant field of them out northwest of the town? No wonder I didn't see any other players out here doing the quest. It was because they would have just walked out here instead! Argh!" Woe angrily plucked the last flower he needed and shoved it into his inventory by forcefully pressing the accept button on his drop down menu.

A very frustrated Woe stamped his way back into town to give the old man his stupid flowers.

+1 Orange Tiger Lily
Objective: 5/5 Completed.

Dice Information:

Spoiler

ID# 101808
Loot: 16
Material Found!

 

 

[Woe 0]

Upon returning to the old man's shop he slammed his hands down on the desk. As he came in the old man smiled and with a smirk quipped "What took you so long?" Woe crossed his forehead  "Why didn't you tell me the flowers you were looking for grown outside in a large field northwest of the city? I was looking in the southeast fields for hours!" Zackariah put his hands out as if to say calm down. "It doesn't matter now, minor details. I'm glad you managed to find them all so let's just move on shall we? The next objective is to craft a potion." Woe bit his lip and calmed himself, there was no point getting angry at an NPC, it was what it was. This just meant that there is more information that hasn't been known to most players or even the beta testers that you'll just have to find for yourself. "Ok, so where do I begin old man?" Zackariah grabbed the materials from Woe and began grinding the flowers into a paste before adding a previously mixed liquid solution. The two materials fused together automatically via the games system and created a healing potion. "Now you try, I'll provide you with all the materials you need to make one. When you successfully craft one we'll call it day." 

Woe took the materials and did as he was shown. Crushing the orange tiger lilies into a paste and adding the liquid solution. The materials started to fuse together just as demonstrated, then there was a sizzle... POOF the materials blew up in a puff of smoke which covered his face in a soot-like substance. "Agh what the hell was that!" Woe exclaimed as he wiped his face. Zackariah chuckled and placed a gentle hand on Woe's shoulders. "You were beating at the flower and crushing it. You're meant to grind it into a paste." Woe looked and him and blinked. "Well wasn't that stupid of me."

Objective: 0/1

Dice Results:

Spoiler

 ID# 101809
Craft: 2
Craft Failed.

 

Edited June 19, 2018 by Woe

[Woe 0]

Woe tried again, this time following the old man's instructions and grinding the orange tiger lily into a paste instead of crushing it and mashing it. Once the flower had been ground into a fine paste he added the liquid solution and before long a screen popped up saying "Perfect Quality Success: +1 Perfect Quality Healing Potion." The old man patted him on the back rather proud of Woe's creation. "That is literally quite perfect young man. Excellent work indeed!" The old man took the potion from Woe and added to his personal storage. Woe smirked, also rather proud of himself, but rather salty that he didn't get to keep the potion in the end. No matter he already had his starting five which should prove to be more than enough for his future endeavours. "Well now that I've finished everything what else is there to do? What's my reward apart from the knowledge?" The old man returned to his counter before speaking. "Well son, there is one more thing I need you to do before we call it a day." Woe rolled his eyes. "Of course, what else is there to do?" Zackariah reached under his counter and pulled out a small parcel. "I need you to deliver this package to Lyle Tealeaf, the blacksmith here in the town of beginnings. Once you've delivered the package you can call your work done." Woe nodded "Yes I suppose we will." He had already guessed that delivering this package would prompt the start of the next one so he prepared himself for being told that there was more work to be done.

+1 Healing Potion
Objective: 1/1

Dice Information:

Spoiler

ID# 101810
Craft: 12
Perfect Quality Success!

 

 

[Woe 0]

Woe walked out of the store and began walking towards the blacksmith, this one seemed to be much easier to find. All he had to do was follow the giant plume of smoke coming out of the blacksmiths forge. Woe tucked the package away into his quest inventory and began heading over towards the blacksmith. He looked around the streets of the town of beginnings to still find chaos raging over the town. Woe shook his head and kept his gaze focused as he walked onward. He couldn't allow the suffering of others to deter him from his own path. He didn't wish anything ill of the people around him, but he wasn't going to go out of his way to spend all day trying to talk them into focusing on completing the game, he'd let that be someone else's problem... right? "Jessica..." Woe stopped in his tracks, an immense feeling of guilt and dread washing over him as he remembered his lost friend. She was going through a tough time herself with no one to help her, Woe had wished that someone did help her, he wished he could save her. So how could he say he'd let it be someone else's problem? He sighed and swallowed his pride. "Alright, Jessica. I'll do it for you." Woe spent the rest of his day helping other players who were struggling with coping with the fact that they were now stuck in the game.

Later that night he arrived at the blacksmith, tossing the package over to Lyle. "Alright, I've had a tiring day. Let's get this over with." Lyle looked at the boy confused. "The package is from Zackariah." Woe continued. Lyle picked up the package and nodded. "Then let's begin your next lesson..."

A message popped up in front of him as he completed the last quest objective.

Quote

All Quest Objectives Fulfilled.
<<The First Few Lessons Are Free>>  .
Completed.

Rewards:
+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)
+2 Skill Points

 

Other Rewards:
+1 Skill Point
+400 Col